Some more Jays goodness from Wes

I took a closer look at the cards that I received from Wes as a prize for correctly guessing the winner of the blog of the year contest.  There were a dozen cards in the group I wanted to show off today, some great Jays goodness from yesterday and today.

How about a couple of Topps' finest?

Just for fun last week, I tried peeling off the sticker of an older Topps Finest hockey card.   I wound up tearing the card (the front came apart from the back), teaching me that I shouldn't be messing around with the protective coating.  One of these days I'm going to have to sit down and figure out how many Carlos Delgado cards I have in the Jays collection.  It must be closing in on 150.

A little more modern you want?  Sure...

Ice blue and chrome Bowman versions of Joey Bats, you betcha.  The Eric Thames is only the 3rd gold sparkle (if that's what that version of gold is called) from 2012 that I own.   I thought I had more of those.  The Bowmans Best card of Delgado is from 1999, and is another set that I own very little of.   One day I'll have to try and rectify that.

Here's a half dozen cards that you don't see everyday on the blogs.

Hard to say which of these is my favorite, although the John Olerud Toys R Us rookies card is right up there.   The Alomar is a food issue, from Hostess back in 1993.   I can still remember all the press that Cliff Johnson received when he broke the all time record for career pinch hit home runs (Cliff finished his career with 20).  That record has since been eclipsed by Canadian Matt Stairs, who has 23. 

The Blue Jays total now stands at a little over 4300, with some cards still to be sorted out from recent acquisitions.  I think I'm going to need a bigger storage box to hold everything I need to get into binders.  The 3 row shoe box is starting to burst!

Thank you for the cards Wes!!  Very much appreciated.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Just because it's not gold, doesn't mean it's not gold

About a month ago I was fortunate to land quite a few gold parallels that I had won on eBay.  I had a few members of the blogosphere contact me looking for some of them for their own collections.

One of the trades I completed was with Jim who writes the great GCRL blog.  The link documents what I sent his way, and today I received his end of the trade.

Before you ask, yes there were gold cards in there.  Those 4 have already been removed from the Serial #'d Insanity want list and will be featured in a SNI marathon coming soon (you read that right...).

Of course, there was a nice bit of blue and white in the envelope also, both baseball and hockey!!  Let's start with the Jays.

A couple of sets that I really haven't devoted a whole lot of time chasing this year, Bowman base and Topps Archives were right on top.  I probably should have put together a want list for these sets, but I really never even thought about doing that to be honest.   Don't know why.

The placement of the Jays logo on the Reyes card is rather unfortunate

With all the different parallels in Bowman this year (blue, gold, orange, silver ice, hometown) it's almost as if I'd be chasing another Topps product.  Wait a minute...

I like the 2000 Topps card of Homer Bush.  How can you not like the guy whose name is a baseball play?  You don't see too many kids named ground rule double (OK, now I know I'm stretching it).

What I wasn't expecting in the envelope, but were most warmly welcomed in the house when I saw them, were these two Leafs beauties.

71-72 OPCs!!!!  That was a holy shit moment right there.  One of the best vintage hockey sets produced in my opinion.  I love the vintage style Leafs logo on the lower right, not as classic as the one on the Doug Gilmour card from a few days back, but still great.  One day, I will own this set, but for now I'll be very happy with two more cards to add to my Leafs collection. 

The backs are great as well, let's look at McKenny's...

Now I don't recall if McKenny ever did any acting, but I do know that he was the sports anchor on Toronto station CITY for decades.  Jim was very well spoken and was great in front of the camera. 

Like I said, just because there's no gold border, doesn't mean that these cards weren't golden for me.

Thank you Jim!!  Very much appreciated...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Happy 4th of Paul Konerko

Sometimes, simple says it better...

I'm sorry, but I really like this card.   Especially on a day like today.

Happy 4th everyone!!  A real post later...

Thanks for celebrating, Robert

Ryan's pitch was a good one

It was nice to come home and see a manila envelope amongst the mail on my dining room table.  It had been a while since I'd seen one, and what was even better was that it was unexpected.   Ryan from the Ryan's Pitch blog was kind enough to send a surprise pack of cards my way.   I wondered if I would remember how to open a bubble mailer when I first saw it.   Thank goodness I was able to.


What was in the envelope you ask?  If you had to ask, you having been paying attention...

Blue Jays of course!!

How about some 2013 Gypsy Queen??

These are the first GQ cards to come in this year, I believe my choice not to purchase any is justified.  Don't get me wrong, the Blue Jays are very welcome here, but the look of Gypsy Queen just doesn't do it for me this year.

Ryan was able to knock off a couple of Jays from the 2013 Heritage want list.

I'm hoping that Buehrle can pickup the pace.  The last 12 years, his lowest win total was 10.  One other season was 12, every other year was 13 or higher.  Mark's going to have to get on a run to get back to those totals again.

I've got to check, but I think Ryan sent me an entire Blue Jay team set from this year's Bowman...no Cabrera, I was wrong.

He also sent a few parallels as well, including a gold Bautista, and my first Jays international parallel.

A great mix of old and new cards in the envelope, many thanks to Ryan, the cards were very much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

BBB

I'm sure that at least one or two of you have seen those initials in the past.  In the past, I had several ways that I could interpret the acronym "BBB"

Better Business Bureau--probably the most commonly known usage of the 3 B's

Bed Bath and Beyond--not until I started working in the transportation industry was I aware that BBB could have stood for the housewares giant.  Every December, I end up seeing these initials in nightmares...nuff said.

There are others that involve portions of the female anatomy. I'll just let your imagination do the rest of the work.

During the last couple of weeks, BBB has kind of taken on a new meaning here for me.

Bored Bowman Buying.

Yep, I've been kind of bored, and when perusing the card aisle at Wal-Mart, I've ended up with packs/blasters of Bowman in my cart.  For some reason, they've piqued my curiosity this year more than in years past. 

I've noticed a couple of different things in the packs I've opened so far that I thought I would share.  First, I am certainly behind in the alternate jersey department, because I can't say that I've ever seen the Reds wear the uniforms shown on the Shin-Soo Choo card below...

Spring training duds? 

Another interesting aspect of the Bowman cards was something I didn't notice until P-Town Tom commented on the Yovani Gallardo post from last week.  In case you need a refresher, see here..  The logos for the current major league players all appear at the bottom of the picture (some of them in spots that are, well unflattering to say the least), while the prospects cards don't have the team logo at all.

I like how this Silver Ice card scanned

Licensing issue for prospects?  Seems weird, because team logos appear on the uniform that they wear, but not on the bottom of the card similar to the major league players.  Would love to know why that is...

Another thing I've noticed is that there hasn't been a whole lot written about the cards.  I've seen a smattering of posts here and there, but the malaise in general is interesting. 

I guess everyone is waiting for A&G?  Sure looks that way to me....

Thanks for reading, Robert

If you were Yovani Gallardo?

If you were Yovani Gallardo, would you be?

A) mad because Bowman included this card without showing your face
B) mad because your secret on how to achieve the perfect spitball is out
C) mad because everyone thinks you're imitating John Cena's "you can't see me" routine
D) happy knowing that your picture was still better than the rally squirrel on Skip Schumaker's card from 2012.

A little humor for your Thursday morning (I know, very little...)

thanks for reading, Robert

Mixed feelings about 2013 Bowman

This time, there was no catchy title that came my way.  The truth is, I really do have mixed feelings about the 2013 Bowman release.

I've seen scattered posts here and there about the product, and being the pack ripping junkie that I am, I decided that I had to look for myself. 

First, let me say that I've never completed a Bowman set.   Ever.  I'm not the prospecting type.  I don't need pre rookie cards of guys like Bryce Harper to justify my collection, or how I collect.  Now that being said, there are things that I do like about the set from the 2 blasters (yes 2....don't hate on me, I'll explain shortly) that I opened today. 

Now, would I rate this set a 5-star, 10 out of 10 release?

No. 

For starters, Bowman copied one aspect from the flagship that I really could do without. 

More codes to enter.  I didn't bother entering the codes I had for the Million Dollar Challenge, but these two I entered, only for the fact that there supposedly is a chance to win something.

Nope, didn't win....

The base set is all right, the usual Bowman design, not too cluttered.  I found it interesting that the majority of the photos cut the player off at the knees.  Some like Melky Cabrera, only went to the waist.

I did fairly well with the one a pack Gold parallels, including the freshly signed Anthony Rizzo, who has a new 7 year contract that keeps him in Chi-Town (or a suitable suburb) until 2020.

Each blaster also came with one a box parallels of purple (refractors), silver ice and chrome minis.

I guess Julio & Mark were lucky, nearly their entire body was included

The purples are #'d to 199, and the two I pulled are serial numbers I already have, so they'll be offered up as trade bait.  I really do like the look of the silver ice cards, and I was fortunate to pull the Anthony Gose for my Jays collection.  Anyone looking for Asdrubal Cabrera, please note I pulled a gold and a silver ice parallel of him, and I'm sure we can work out a trade for those.

There were two other types of cards that I pulled that I found interesting.  First, I pulled a few of the state and hometown parallels, imagine my luck that two of them were a couple of starters from the Dodgers.  A couple of real stiffs, you know?

Note the Brooklyn cap that Kershaw is wearing...

To be honest, I really do like these parallels.  Like I said earlier, I haven't collected Bowman in earnest in the past, so I'm not sure if this is a newer insert, or a rehash of an old one.  Either way, the Blue Jay parallels of these would be welcome.

Finally, these inserts of the top 100 prospects look really sharp, and a numbers guy like me is going to have a difficult time not going after them.

I didn't pull anything fancy out of these two blasters, which was OK by me.  I'm not much of an auto or jersey card chaser of prospects that I've never really heard of to begin with. 

For a parallel junkie like myself, Bowman does OK.   The minis, just like GQ or A&G, I most certainly can do without.  Something about receiving only 2/3 of a card just doesn't sit well with me.  Also, the code cards are something that I don't care for, and if they disappeared for something else that was collectible, I would most certainly be appreciative.

I'm glad I bought the 2 blasters instead of just one.  I was curious about the collation, and saw that it was about the normal for Topps, and I was lucky and beat the pack odds on a couple of the parallels. I doubt that I'll be chasing after a master set of 2013 Bowman, but maybe I'll get bored this summer and make the effort to put the set together.   I'm sure that I can find some team collectors to take the gold and purple parallels off my hands.


Thanks for reading, Robert