4 out of the Next 10

I would have written this one as the 3rd set completed earlier had my record keeping been accurate.  I'd been in single digits to complete the 2017 Allen & Ginter set for a while, having been on 6 to go since November.

With the Sportlots order came these 2 cards...

The Aaron Judge RC alone costing me $6, which I wound up considering reasonable considering the madness that is going on in the card world currently.  

I had 4 other cards on my TCDB "in transit" list, which I wondered whether I'd received them already but had neglected to remove them.   A quick check of the 2017 box for this set revealed that I had them, so the '17 set becomes the 5th Allen & Ginter set I've completed to go along with 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2018.

I've now finished the first 4 sets I had listed in the Next 10 post a few months ago; the remaining 6 sets are down to a combined 191 cards left on the want lists.  A lot less daunting task than I had previously imagined.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Want List Wednesday: 2017 Allen & Ginter

Thanks to some generous trades and envelopes sent my way over the past few weeks, the 2017 A&G want list took a nice hit recently.

Haven't posted a card featuring a female in quite a long time on the blog, so card #30 featuring Brooke Hogan came along and I decided it was time to change that.

I need just 22 more cards to finish off the set, 8 of them are SPs:

58, 172 (Judge RC), 175, 198, 201, 209, 232, 241, 244, 268, 272, 276, 286, 288, 301, 305, 308, 314,
315, 325, 333, 344

For those of you on TCDB, hit me up with a trade.  For those that aren't, here's a link to my cards for trade.  I just reloaded on stamps on the weekend, so let me know!!


Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Sometimes a gentle reminder is all it takes

Much to my delight and surprise, I received a bubble mailer yesterday from the one and only....

Love this card.  Need to get me an autographed copy one day

Totally unexpected was this fine package of cards, and it provided me a reminder of my first National back in 2012.  I'll get to that shortly.

First off, the meat of the package.   A bunch of 2017 A&G which is quickly getting close to completion.

7 base cards, including an Ichiro which I also believe is needed for the Ichiro PC.  Seeing Nick Jonas reminds me of driving to South Carolina last summer and "Sucker" was being played on hit radio constantly.   I really like that song, and taking a quick look at the back also let me know that Nick collects baseball cards.  Cool!

To go with those were 7 Short Prints, very nice!!  I still look at these cards and remember 3 years ago my disdain for them when they were first released.  Boy that changed, as I can honestly say that my tastes have shifted and I've become more of an A&G fan overall.  My only beef?  Well of course it's the price, as I'd love to see it be a little lower.   You can't have everything though, right?

22 cards left for the set, 14 base and 8 SPs.   This set will be part of the "next 10" that is completed when I finish the '74 Topps set, hopefully some time soon.

The lone Jim Thome card in the package is from the 2005 Fleer National Pastimes set.  It's either #601 or 602 in the Thome PC.  Nice card, you can't see it in the scan but the photo of Jim has a kind of 3D look, almost raised off the card a bit.

Both this package and the last one that Greg sent my way each contained a lone 1969 Topps card.  Not a set that is on everyone's radar, but it's one that I love. 

I can actually tell you when I fell in love with it.   Let's go back a little over 8 years ago to the 2012 NSCC show which was in Baltimore.  It was my first, and I can still remember my awe when I walked through the hall.  The enormity of it just astounded me.

I went for two days, and I remember on the 2nd day I sat at a table in the back of the hall, and if I remember correctly, I was the only one at the table at the time.  It was a woman running the table, very pleasant and easy to chat with.  But it was one card that jumped out of the box and into my pile that I think was the highlight of the show for me, and started my love of the '69 set.

Lefty was just $12 (yes I still remember the price), I loved the look of the card and the pink back had me hooked.  I was pretty sure that one day I would start putting together this set.  Roberto Pena up above brings my total up to 207 cards, still not even a third of the way through. 

Pena was a reminder of my love for this set, and it's got me wanting to give this set a little push before too long. 

Thank you for the envelope Greg, the cards are really appreciated!!  And yes, you did beat the Trading Card Database guys.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

I only sent him 6 cards, I swear

Another of the long time bloggers, Chris from the Nachos Grande blog posted a couple weeks back about the 6th set he's completed in 2020 (sounds familiar....I've heard that somewhere...hmmm), which is one that I completed previously and is one of my favorite insert sets from Allen & Ginter, the baseball equipment of the ages set.

At the bottom of the post Chris mentioned that he was looking for a bunch of inserts from 2018 A&G.  I knew I had a few of them so I started digging and found him 6 cards.  Chris asked me what I would like in return, and knowing that he enjoyed A&G I took a shot and sent him my 2017 want list.  I remember saying in the email "Whatever you want to send from that list I'm sure will be fair." 

Chris' generous past hasn't changed; he's been good to me before, and he was more than good to me this time.

My cards multiplied by 4!!  24 more off the want list, knocking it down to just 36 cards, 15 of which are SPs.   I'll go one further and type out the want list for those who don't partake of the TCDB website.

58,83,172,175,184,198,201,209,214,216,219,230,232,241,242,244,268,272,276,286,288

301,304,305,308,311,313,314,315,320,325,331,333,339,341,344

This set is (maybe was) slated to be one of the next 10 that I finsh once '74 Topps finishes up.  The way it's going, it may not make it that long, as I've made a major dent in this set from trades this year.

Chris, thank you very much for your generosity, it really is appreciated!!   For those of you not reading Nachos Grande.....shame on you....

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

No Gum stains on these cards

So I'm hunting around on Sportlots about 10 days ago for some cards to fill some set holes, and I decide I want to see if I can knock down the 2017 A&G want list that I have.

I'm looking at the list of sellers for the first card I pull up on the list, and I see a name I recognize but hadn't thought about in quite some time. 

Many will be familiar with Jon from the Community Gum blog, long one of the staples in the card blogging community.  Sadly, Jon hasn't posted for almost a year now (he's 11 days shy of that mark), but still is a recognizable name for me. 

Once, I saw his name, I knew I was going to pick up a few cards off of him.  It turned out to be 24 in total; there were no worries when it came to shipping because like the rest of us, Jon's a collector and knows what it's like to receive an envelope, let alone send one. 

Great care was taken in shipping the cards, each one of them individually sleeved, top loaders at both ends of 2 bricks of 12 cards, and both bricks inside team bags.  Fantastic!!  I can only remember one opportunity to trade with Jon previously, but I remember him to be a great trader and very friendly in emails.

These 24 cards dropped the list down to an even 60 cards, 18 of them SPs.  This set will be one of my "next 10" sets to fall under the completed category.   Not bad for a set that a couple of years ago had no thoughts or desires to finish...

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

The post office was just Josh-ing me

Panic. Anxiety.  I felt them both on Monday waiting for some envelopes to arrive in the mail, both PWE and bubble mailers.

One of them was from long time trade buddy Josh from the very quiet Royals and Randoms blog.  I've always enjoyed trading with Josh, as he's quite friendly, and very generous as well.

A couple of dozen Royals of varying years, colors and varieties made their way to the west coast, and Josh knocked down a bunch of A&G wants from 2017.

But while I'm showing off the 44 cards in scan form, I'm going to relay my latest post office story for your amusement.

Along with Josh's 44 A&G cards, I was waiting on 2 other envelopes.  What I love about trading now is the tracking IDs, so I can keep an eye on (OCD like) the packages as they make their way to S. Florida.

I'm on the early shift this month, working 715-1615, and I don't see any texts from the P.O. stating that my packages were delivered.  This was not a major deal as I'm so close to the office that we're on the end of the carrier's route.  Not uncommon for the mail to arrive around 6 PM.

The wife and I have a beer, chat for a bit and have our dinner.  As is our custom lately, once dinner is complete we sit down and watch the Great British Baking Show on Netflix.  I don't do reality shows much, and I'm by no means a baker, but I am really enjoying watching this, as we're on our 5th season already after just under a month of watching.

7 PM rolls around, still no texts.  Not unusual either, as sometimes transmission of the delivery scan lags well behind the actual delivery.  I go to check the mailbox, empty.  I look to the east on our street, and see the mailman on the other side, 4 houses down.  I know from experience when seeing this that it's another 45-60 minutes before he hits our house.

Watch another baking show episode, takes us to 8PM.  No texts.  Now I have to know what's going on.  Look at the postal website, and both the tracking IDs I have an eye on have been returned to the post office with "incomplete address" scans on them.

What a load of crap!!  The driver couldn't finish his route, so he scanned them like that to save his arse.  I got a kick out of it though and told my wife as it happened.

So while I'm working Tuesday morning, at precisely 818, my phone starts blowing up with texts.

The previous day's mail was delivered, 3 bubble mailers and 2 PWE's.  The cards you see above are in one, along with a welcome Blue Jays relic.

I saw the X on the back and thought it might be a die cut that I needed from the 2008 set.  This definitely works too!!  I've kind of stayed away from the Jays a lot, as storage problems will become an issue if I keep going after all the base cards.  Getting relics and autos are much easier to store, as there aren't many coming my way.

Josh sent 3 other cards, which I'll feature on Saturday as they fit that that day's theme quite well.

Great stuff Josh, thank you very much!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Royals for Royals (and a Yankee and a Mariner)

Knocked off a few more wants with a recent trade with Matthew (TCDB ID: jmswyo), and outside of a pair of player collection cards, nothing but KC Royals went in the mail.  I'm sure if John Olerud or Andrew McCutchen had played for the Royals, I'm sure those cards would have went in my direction as well!

This trade was so easy, I decided to limit it to just one scan.

Right in the middle of the scan, a bit of 2017 A&G help   The Cain is a SP, and I now have 26 out of the 50 short prints from the set, and that's with 145 total cards left on that want list.

Bat rack card aficionados I'm sure have the Bob Oliver card from 1970 Topps in their collections. If they don't, or worse if they weren't aware of it, it may have become part of an updated want list.  The Steve Busby card for '78 Topps drops that want list to 50 cards, as I received a couple of star cards from that set today from a recent eBay purchase, which you'll see in the next few days.

Any cards that help out player collections are always welcome, and I believe that the McCutchen card you see above is the first one that I own that features him in pinstripes.  I don't know what to make of the Olerud in the Topps 205 design from 2003; I think the design is OK but it doesn't really wow me.  I actually like it better looking at it in hand than on the scan.

Still, it's a half dozen cards from a great trade partner, thank you very much Matthew they are appreciated!  Look forward to our next trade.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

A trio of trades

I decided to combine three trades into one quick post.   A grand total of 11 cards came my way courtesy of 3 repeat trade partners, which is becoming a common theme now that my trade numbers have grown over the past 16 months.

Mike (ID: 49ants) sent me just one card, but it adds to my Felix Potvin collection.

I will never tire of getting cards of Felix and his cat mask into my collection.  This is the hobby predictor gold winner card from the 94-95 Upper Deck Set.   Felix didn't get a Vezina vote that season, the Sabres Dominik Hasek won the 2nd of his 6 Vezina awards in the strike shortened 94-95 campaign.

Some more player collection cards arrived care of Jenny (ID:  JennyMiller521), and I especially like the '83 Topps look on the upper left hand corner card.  The inset photo looks as if it was taken when someone pissed off McCutchen, which seems so out of the norm as I'm used to seeing a smiling Cutch, similar to the '18 Topps Chrome card.

Not only is the McCutchen collection growing lately, so too is the Ichiro collection, partially thanks to the 3 cards in this envelope from Edward (ID: Detfan6897).  The first thing that came to mind when I received this trade offer was 6 cards from 6 different sets, and even more pleasing was the '74 Bert Campaneris card.  Still 84 cards to go on that want list, with 4 of them in my COMC cart currently.

What's been cool over the past 3 weeks is that virtually every trade offer that's come my way has been of the PWE variety.  I'm sure that people are doing that purposefully (at least I hope so) so that minimal contact with others is maintained.  I know that the bakers dozen trades that I've completed, and the 6 others in progress have all gone out in a PWE, which means a walk to the P.O. for me and drop into the snorkel box.  Keep 'em coming!

Thank you to all for the trades, they are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe,

Robert

Lightning strike

Had 3 PWE's roll in today, made me feel pretty good I must admit.  It's good to see that there are folks out there that are still willing to trade and ship cards on a moment's notice.

One of the three envelopes that arrived was from Justin (TCDB ID: Lightningfan7609), a repeat trade partner.  It's actually one that I initiated, as I saw that he had quite a few 2020 Heritage needs come across my trade list, and I looked at his trade list and spotted a page worth of cards that I needed.

Two days in a row Marcus Stroman is featured on the blog, I didn't put him in the #1 card slot on purpose though.  Had no idea who Tom Anderson was, so I read the card.  Makes sense now, I have never used Myspace, and probably never will.  A&G teaches me something today.

Was also happy to see a card featuring the Big Cat, Andres Galarraga (I always have to stop and check when typing his last name).  I'd forgotten that Andres extended his career until his age 43 season, getting 10 AB's in 2004 with the Angels.  I'd also forgotten that he played in Texas in '01, and for the Giants in both '01 and '03.

Nine more cards in gets me to 201 in hand, just over 57% done.  I didn't care much for the look of this set when it first came out, but much like other A&G sets, it's grown on me over time.  

Thank you for the trade Justin, the cards are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

Strike while the iron is hot

Haven't posted for a few days, but it's time to get a couple of posts in before I head out for a week (hopefully) of relaxation with some family.

First, have to say it's a crying shame what's going on with this corona virus and how it has affected the sports world over the past couple of days.  I get what's going on and that people want to protect themselves, but we've survived Zika, Ebola and a whole host of other viruses that have come our way in the past couple of decades, so I have no doubt that the brilliant minds out there that handle medicine will come up with a way to control/cure this current strain.  For me, patience is key, and if you know me at all, that's one virtue that I usually lack....

Now back to what everyone comes by for, I just finished a trade with TCDB compatriot Paul (TCDB ID: pjdionne) who was very generous with me, and sent a page worth of cards from sets from the past 3 years.

The Green GQ set build from last year is still going, and these 3 cards bring me just past the 75% mark.  13 of the remaining cards are RC's (surprised there are that many), so it might take me a bit of time to hunt them down, but I believe that the Green set will not take me forever like some other parallel sets I've worked on it the past.

I've tried to strike while the iron is hot and go after the '85 inserts from this years Topps set.  I've made a few trades already for them, most of the 1-4 card variety, but that's OK because it's always about the thrill of the chase, right?  5 more A&G's from 2017 round out the package, including the Warren Spahn SP.  '17 A&G is just over 50% done but that's not a big deal since I'm already 3 years late to the party.

Thank you for the cards Paul, they are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

These aren't exactly on the radar but...

Lots of pairs happening here as I have 2 trades to show off (for lack of a better phrase) today, and another pair for the next post, hopefully tomorrow.  First up is someone that a lot of you know from Twitter, Jenny (TCDB ID:  JennyMiller521).  We completed a relatively small trade for our first go on the TCDB site, sending 5 cards her way for a half dozen A&G wants from 2017.

No really huge stars here, but for me it was good to get Joey Bats as he was a favorite of mine during his time with the Jays.  I'm making slow progress on this set, with these 6 bringing the total to 185 out of the 350 needed for the set.   That means there's a lot of base cards to go before the remainder of the SPs get tackled.

Next up I grabbed a few cards from a set I've barely started, 2015-16 OPC hockey.

This represents just over 1/4 of what I have so far for this set, with just 54 cards in hand so far.  This trade came from repeat trade partner Nick (TCDB ID: tenlbpain) and cost me a bunch of dupes that I'm sure that Nick can make better use of.  I have a lot of want lists for the modern OPC sets, and at 600 cards for each set, it'll take me a while to get them all together, but the challenge is what all set builders enjoy, isn't it?

I've already hit the 25 trade mark for 2020 with 4 still in the pipeline, and 2 active offers.  I wasn't sure what this year would bring after a big trade year in 2019, but if the first 6 weeks is indicative on how this year will be, I could surpass last year's total.

I can live with that...

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

A couple of regular trade partners and a new computer get the blog rolling again

I didn't mean to take 9 days off from writing, but the way my old computer had been acting the past couple of weeks, I didn't feel like taking the time to sit and wait for scans to load and having to worry about the computer crashing, so I waited until this weekend when I had an entire day planned with my buddy who builds computers.  I had been buying pieces and parts of a new computer for several weeks now, and yesterday was the day he put it together for me....after the monthly card show and a trip to Skyline Chili!!

Now I'm sitting in front of a TV screen instead of a computer monitor, and a machine that's faster than anything I've ever used.   Spoiled :)

Now onto the business at hand.  Business is picking up again on the trade front.  Lots of little trades coming in, but they're pecking away at several different want lists.

First up is Jimmy from the west coast (TCDB ID:torcato) who sent me a follow up trade offer to the one we made just a couple of weeks back.

1983 Topps football for my computer building buddy to start.  We actually knocked a few cards off of that want list at the monthly card show yesterday, grabbing such goodies as the Marcus Allen RC, Mike Singletary RC, and a Walter Payton.  His list is slowly disappearing as it is down to 68 cards.

Trying different scans out on the scanner editor; it's the same scanner, but now that I'm using Windows 10, the editor looks different.  But so far so good, as the scan for these 2 pair of cards looks pretty good!

Last up is 3 more cards that I decided to scan all in one row, instead of having the horizontal card below the 2 verticals.  Doesn't look too bad.  These 7 cards are the second largest inbound envelope I've received in the past few days.

Next up is 4 cards from another multiple time trade partner Bill (TCDB ID: minibbcards).  Bill always takes the A&G or GQ minis off my hands, and sends something great my way.

My end of the trade was this trio of 2017 A&G cards.  Still a long way to go to finish off this set, as I'm barely past the halfway mark at 179 cards, but there's no hurry (my want list for this is on the TCDB website if you have any extras lying around).   But in true Bill fashion, he slips in an extra vintage card for me to bring a smile to my face.   This time, I'm able to knock one more card off the '69 Topps want list.

Bill Stoneman brings me to just 2 cards shy of the 200 mark for my '69 set, which isn't a priority at the present time, but I won't scoff at any that happen to come my way!

Thank you both to Jimmy and Bill for the trades, the cards are really appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Inbound and Down #23: Night Owl Cards

We've been doing this a long time.  One of us sends an envelope, the other sends one back in kind.  There's no real trading between myself and the Night Owl, we just send each other envelopes with cards that are on the other's want list. 

This time I received cards from 4 different want set want lists...

Greg actually sent me more Series 1 Topps cards than this, but while this package was in transit I had already placed an order from Sportlots and knocked my want list down to 6.  So these 2 drop the needs to just 4.

I should be able to finish this years Heritage set sometime in 2022, based on the length of previous Heritage set completions. 

I still don't have 10% of the 1980 Topps set in hand, but these 5 cards surely provide a bit of room in the Night Owl's Dodgers duplicates box.  Sometime soon I'm going to try and find a starter set of these on ebay to get this set going.

I didn't bother to scan all the 1989 Upper Deck cards that Greg sent; there were 48 in total putting a nice dent into the want list.  I still need almost 600 more, a long way to go for sure, but it's been great seeing these come in. 

Check out the first scan.  I scanned these cards in numerical order, but the first scan wound up with 6 left handed pitchers on it.  Not intentional for sure, just a happy coincidence. 

The second scan also reminded me that Willie Upshaw wound up in Cleveland after being replaced at 1st base in Toronto by Fred McGriff.

5 out of 6 base cards from the Opening Day set, plus the Jays mascot Ace also found their way to this Jays fan.

Some other miscellaneous Jays needs came my way.  The two Allen & Ginter cards I need for my set build, so I'm going to put them in there.  I need the Bautista Bunt Blue parallel, and the Tulo Programs card from this year's Bunt also.  The Tony Fernandez card is an interesting one; it has a 1985 front, and the back is in the 1975 style. 

What a great envelope of cards, thank you very much Greg, they are very much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

1249: A mixed bag

Decided to hit Target on the weekend, largely because I hadn't bought myself any packs of cards in what seemed to be quite a while.  Part of the purchase was a couple of packs of Topps stickers, something I hadn't bought any of since I posted about starting the sticker set back in July.  No doubles!  I didn't bother scanning of them however, I just went ahead and put them right in the album.

I also bought a couple of packs of cards that I'm going to show off in a pair of "Try a Pack" posts over the next few days.  One hockey, one baseball.

I did buy one 3-pack of Allen & Ginter, hitting a couple of doubles (including the SP of Adam Wainwright), but knocking 9 cards off the 2017 needs list...

I also made a small purchase on Sportlots a week or so back, but had to wait until today to get them, as we had no mailbox last week due to the hurricane.  I spent my Saturday taking a sledge hammer to the old concrete post we had (it was hideous, so I was glad to do it believe me) and myself along with the missus put up a new mailbox.

The post office caught up today and brought a nice stack of Series 1 Topps for my troubles...

Here are the 6 horizontal cards out of the block.  It's almost not going to be a Kevin Pillar card unless it's showing him diving in some form.  Usually it's for an amazing catch in the outfield, this time it's trying to beat a tag at the plate.  The entire group that I bought leaves me needing just 6 cards to finish series 1.   These numbers are the last that I need...7,20,238,283,319,341.  Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a want list up for series 2.

I also bought a couple of Andrew McCutchen cards for that PC, I'll show those off sometime this week on my player collection blog.

I spent $35 total between the Sportlots purchase and the packs from Target, leaving me with $1249 for this year's budget.

It's going to be tough to get 1/2 way through that budget this year.  

Thanks for reading, Robert

1284: A couple of A&G packs, and an interesting realization

OK, maybe this realization will be more interesting to me than to everyone out there.  First off, I bought a couple of A&G 14 card packs on the weekend while at Wal Mart. 

While going through the packs, I did a little math in my head and did a comparison with Stadium Club.   More on that later, let's look at what I pulled first.

Pack 1:

I'm pretty sure I've seen this mentioned either on the blogs or on twitter; the fact that I pulled SPs that look off center is very off putting.  I really do like this set, and am looking to build it, but if the SPs are off the mark, then that's a little upsetting to say the least.

Reggie Jackson in an A's uniform might be the card of the set for me so far.  Kendrys Morales of the Jays does not look happy, maybe it's because his barber didn't shave his beard correctly.

For me, these are the "unusable" cards.  Not part of the set, and I don't chase the minis.  Although the "Dude" cards are interesting, they are of no value to me unless someone would like to trade for them.  I now have 3 (fisherman and conductor are the other dudes I have).   If anyone is looking for them, or the Denny Crane card (those who watched Boston Legal will know who Denny Crane is), let me know.

Pack 2:

Lance McCullers.  SP.  Off center.

Another legend in this pack, Nolan Ryan.  Would love to see him in one of the other uniforms he wore during his career.  Does anyone remember him in an Angels uniform on a card that was released after he retired?  Josh Bell seems destined to be the runner up in the NL ROY Voting this year.  He's had a bit of an up and down season, but 70+ RBI's is nothing to sneeze at in a line up that has at times struggled to score runs.

The "unusables".  Kimbrel is an A&G back.  Moustakas in the top 5 for AL home runs isn't something I would have predicted at the beginning of the year.  Neither would Justin Smoak of the Jays being in that group either.

Well, on to the realization, and the math I did.  When I looked at the cost of the cards, and the price per card of the cards that I can use, it works out to almost 50 cents per card.  That's similar to what I determined a few weeks ago was the price per card of the Stadium Club.  It made me wonder what the difference was in wanting/justifying the collection of either set.

Same price (in essence), both great sets.  I know you can't collect them all, but I may have to rethink what I collect when it comes to price....

Anyone that needs/wants the inserts, comment or emails are welcome.

Thanks for reading, Robert