A Go between

One of the most satisfying things about blogging lately have been the compliments I've received.  I don't fish for them, writing as often as I can has been it's own reward over the years.  I've had people write me emails that don't blog with cards from my want lists, wanting very little in return.  

As many of you have said over the years, card collectors are the best. 

I've posted a couple times within the past month about trades with Bill (TCDB ID minibbcards) and his appreciation for A&G minis.  I received an email recently regarding those posts from Jim, aka Mr. Haverkamp, asking for Bill's email address so he could initiate a swap.  (Hopefully that trade went well)

Once I provided the email address (with permission of course), Jim let me know that he had a few cards to send my way as well.

Right away, I was pretty sure that when I opened the envelope that all 6 cards were on want lists.  The 3 '05 Cracker Jack cards finished off that portion of the Blue Jays want list.  The Eduardo Escobar was needed, and is the first card I've marked off the 2017 Heritage want list in quite a while.  The Henderson and Brett from the '85 Topps list drop that down to 6, all of which are on their way from COMC as I write this.

Jim, thank you for the cards, they really are appreciated!!  Not too shabby for being a go between.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #40: ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession

There's a couple of things I really like about the 47 Topps Heritage cards I received in the mail today.  First, they knocked 47 numbers off of the giant want list.  Second, they came from a fellow blogger that I didn't have to send cards to!!

Many of you know Adam from the ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession blog.  Whilst hunting to knock off a portion of my 2017 Heritage want list on Sportlots on the weekend, I came across a seller whose name I recognized.  Turns out Adam sells a fair bit on Sportlots ( or so it seems as his feedback score is over 600) and had a bunch of cards I needed.

Easy enough.  I won't show you all of the cards as you've seen most of them in the past.  But I did scan 18 of them just for show and tell...

'68 Topps is one of my favorite sets from the 60's, and one day I'll get around to picking up some more cards from that set.   I might have a better shot of finishing '68 Topps faster than I will 2017 Heritage (OK, that's a long shot since the Nolan Ryan RC costs about a mortgage payment yada yada...)

When you click on the link to Adam's blog that I posted above, it will direct to his post from April the 17th documenting his completion of the 1969 Topps set, a feat that I am hoping to duplicate some day.  Congrats on that Adam, and thank you for the very quick shipment on these cards!  (Ordered Sunday, in the mailbox today.  Can't beat that!!)

Thanks for reading, Robert

Kirby for 80 cents

You just never know what you'll find at a card show.  I decided to head up to the West Palm Beach card show this morning to try and knock down some more of my want lists. 

I walked into the hall, hoping to see the same dealer I saw there last month; I had scored quite a few '90 Leaf and '89 UD cards, and was hoping to get another good deal this month.

Disappointment.  I walked in and his tables were empty.

There are 20 other tables at the show, so I figured I'd take a look around.  The 2nd table inside the door looked intriguing, as it had dime boxes.  So I sat down and started digging.

20 Heritage singles from '17:

A couple of '80 Topps cards

My 1981 want list saw 7 cards removed

Finally, I pulled 23 1982 Topps cards, with a few decent names mixed in.

So, there's $5.20 so far.  I didn't find anything else I wanted in the dime boxes, so I looked at the rest of his table.  Looking for something to maybe get me closer to $10.

I found this card.

Kirby Puckett RC.  I'm putting the 1985 Topps set together, I needed this card, so I figured it would round out my purchase nicely.

I handed the dealer the cards, he asked me what I had and I rang it off for him.  32 dime box cards, 20 Heritage singles and the Puckett RC.

I pulled a $20 bill out of my wallet expecting maybe 5 or 6 bucks in change.

The dealer says to me, "Six bucks".   Two months in a row, I find a great deal at the WPB show.   I did a lap of the other tables, but just couldn't bring myself to take a good look.  I joked to my wife when I got home that I probably spent more on gas getting there and back than I did at the show itself.

Eighty cents for a Kirby Puckett '85 Topps RC.  

Damn.

Thanks for reading, 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

Inbound and Down #20: This Way to the Clubhouse

He may not have been around and blogging on his blog since last October, but Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse and I have been in contact on Twitter during that time.

Mark was kind enough to ask me if I wanted the Andrew McCutchen card he pulled on National Baseball card day.  Absolutely!  Needless to say, the card wasn't alone in the envelope he sent.

Along with the Cutch, he found a 1997 Topps Stars card of Jim Thome that I needed for that PC as well.  Nice to mark that one off the list also.

To go along with those two PC cards, he threw in a few cards to knock down the '17 Heritage want list some. 

Not bad how one card turns into 13!! 

Mark, thank you for the cards, they are appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

1553: Heritage

Finally getting around to posting the 5 packs of Heritage I bought while on weekend errands a week and a half ago.

I'm trying to get a good chunk of the base set done before I go into an extended Heritage hibernation, meaning hunting down the SPs for the set which total 100 this year (sigh).

Let's have a look at each pack and see if there's anything interesting.

Pack 1:

The first of 2 1/2 and 1/2 packs...

1/2 of the pack is horizontal, 1/2 is vertical.  Not a bad pack, the Jameson Taillon is a SP card.   Best of luck to Jameson btw, here's hoping he recovers successfully from his testicular cancer diagnosis.  The Darwin Barney card will go into the Jays collection.

Pack 2:

 
Melvin Upton Jr. goes into the Jays collection as well.  The unknown Padres RC Home Run card is available to anyone out there who might want it (it's actually Hunter Renfroe).  No SPs in this pack. 

Pack 3:

Pulled the New Age Performers Kyle Hendricks card, available to anyone who may want it.  The 9th card was a horizontal one, the Royals team card.  No SPs in this pack as well. 

Pack 4:

The missing 9th card is Craig Kimbrel of the Red Sox.  The Then and Now Marichal/Porcello card is available if wanted by anyone out there...

Pack 5:

I'll probably end up sending the Topps Game card of Tyler Glasnow to Matt of Bob Walk the Plank fame.  Wonder how Topps gets away with placing RC designations on insert cards.  The missing 9th card is the Reds team card.

I showed off a "bonus card" in yesterdays post, a 2010 Topps Vladimir Guerrero card which was stamped with the Rediscover Topps brand.  I'll have to find a Vlady collector out there and see if he wants it...

Just one SP, so I still have 92 more of those to go.  It took me 6 years to collect 75 SPs from the '11 Heritage set, so simple math says that at that pace I should finish this set in 2025.

Looking forward to it already...

$1569-$16=$1553 left to spend.  That is going to drop below 1500 real quick with the contest giveaways from this past week.  Stay tuned for those...


thanks for reading, Robert

30-Day Baseball card challenge Day 1: Yes, I'm behind

I've been meaning to try and get my version of the 30 day baseball card challenge started for weeks now, but I've always found something else to post, or do, that kept me from it.  I remembered Tony's challenge again this evening, and scrambling to get a post out there, I decided to finally get this started.

Day 1 was an easy one for me, "A card from the current year with a photo you like."  It's the card that got me hooked on '17 Heritage.

This Addison Russell World Series card, #156 in the set, makes me think of what TV sets would have looked like in the 60's.  I don't have any memories of TV's from the 60's as I was born in 1967, and my first TV memory would have been the color TV we had when I was 5, which didn't look anything like the big boxes that were in living rooms back in the day...

Looking at Tony's list, I don't think that I'll have enough material to fill all 30 days (I know I won't), but it'll be good for me to do some digging to come up with cards to cover the different days.

Great idea Tony!  Sorry I'm nearly a month late, but that's the norm for me lately...

Thanks for reading, Robert

1592: A trio of products

I decided this past weekend to just buy some packs from Target.  I wanted to add a few cards to the Heritage and flagship piles, along with trying out some Gypsy Queen to see what it was like.

First up, the GQ.  For me, this is a resounding no this year.  For lack of a better word, the design is just too damn busy for me.  Even the green parallels don't do anything for me.  I'll find some folks to send those cards to.  At least I pulled a Josh Donaldson for my Jays collection.  If you have any Jays, including the green parallels, I'll be glad to add them.   Otherwise, this is probably the last money I'll spend on this set this year.

I bought a blaster of the flagship, and of course the "extra" pack is the one I opened first.  It appears that the definition of the term "patch" has become a little loose, as this was the patch that I pulled.  I would say that it looks more like a button than a patch of anything.  Someone out there may want it for their Tigers/Cabrera collection(s).  Let me know.

Pulled a couple of the '87 inserts, the Tulo goes right into the Jays collection, while the Sonny Gray is up for grabs.  I also pulled a boat load of the various inserts from Series 1, I'll start hunting for want lists that they may be on and get them on their way. 

Rant for the night.  Please, for all that is good in the world, could someone from Topps please tell me why "rediscover topps" cards are in Heritage? 

If I'm buying Heritage, I'm certainly in the know when it comes to Topps cards.  I sure as shit do not need to rediscover them.  It's going to be expensive enough as it is to build the set without having to throw out garbage such as this. 

Yes, I'm pissed.  Sorry, if it helps....

The Elvis Andrus is something else I don't get.  Were there mini parallels in the '68 set?  I don't believe that there were.   So why did this come out of a pack? 

I don't believe in bitching a lot when it comes to the blog.  I'd rather spin a positive message on the hobby we all love.

But sometimes, I just have to say something.   Because it's the right thing to do.

$1632 - $40 = $1592 left in 2017.  At this pace I'll spend about $1379 on cards this year, so I'm still in good shape.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #11: The Lost Collector

Have to say that AJ from The Lost Collector blog is becoming one of my biggest suppliers.  A few weeks back he sent me a PWE with 3 high number SPs from this year's Heritage set, and on Saturday I received my 2nd PWE from him in 2017 full of more Blue Jays goodness.

I see this card on the top of the pile and think "great, must be the last card I need for Fleer '91!  will be great to get that off the want list."   Turns out, I already have it.  Then I look and see the hair cut on Glenallen Hill.  So that's why he saw spiders in his sleep....

People can rip Donruss all they want.  I really like this design.  Not enough to collect the entire set, mind you, but for sure I'll chase the Jays from '17 Donruss. 

The Retro Variations are cool, featuring the '83 Donruss design.  Who says Heritage is the only release that can feature old sets?  I always thought the Career Stat Line parallels were numbered to the stat on the front.  In this case, the J.A. Happ card should have been #'d out of 1022.  Maybe it's hockey I'm thinking of where Panini numbers the stat line cards like that.

It's still going to take me a while to get over EE leaving town.  I don't think Kendrys Morales is going to have the same effect in the line up that Edwin did.  Or is it the parrot leaving on Edwin's arm that has me upset?

The JD heritage card goes right into the set I'm putting together.  Just another reminder that I have to get that want list up on the blog.

AJ, awesome as always and totally unexpected!!  Thank you very much, they are appreciated.

Thanks for reading, Robert

1743: Adding 2 more sets to the want list

I completed a few errands yesterday morning and while doing so I decided to stop into Target a pick up a few packs of cards to see if I could pull something worthwhile for myself.

No such luck.

I grabbed two packs of '17 Heritage and these three cards were the "highlights":

I guess I don't remember seeing anybody pull any of the Rediscover Topps cards from Heritage, so I was quite disappointed (to say the least) that this '91 Jody Reed came out of a pack.   Why Topps, why?   The Anthony Rizzo HBP card looks pretty cool, but I'll have to find a Cubs fan who would enjoy it more than I.  The Trea Turner is a SP card, so now I have 6 of the SPs, and only need countless more.

4 packs purchased so far, just 3 doubles.  Not bad, but there's a long way to go.  

Despite my grumbling, I will pursue the '17 Heritage set.  Seeing as I finally picked up the final 3 cards for the '11 Heritage set I need to replace it with something....

I also picked up a couple of rack packs of '17 Topps flagship.  Did as well as could be expected.  Couple of first pitch and a couple of award winner cards here.  Available to whoever wants them.
The Scherzer is already a double...

I've pulled a few of the '87 inserts, Dansby Swanson being the latest.  The Shin-Soo Choo card in the middle is a rainbow foil parallel.  The George Springer card tells us that he wears #4 in honor of his parents and 2 siblings.   These 3 cards are also up for grabs. 

As far as duplicates go, my luck has been horrible.  I've bought 5 rack packs so far (36 cards in each), and have the equivalent of one of those packs as duplicates.  From where I sit, that's not too good.  But I'll still give this set a go anyhow, because I like the look of the design more this year than last. 

I'll have want lists up sometime this week, as long as the Leafs chase for the playoffs doesn't distract me horribly from my card pursuits.

What am I saying?  I didn't post last week.   I'm terribly distracted!!

The 4 packs cost me $23 total, so $1766-$23= $1743 left for 2017.   At this pace, I'll spend just $1019 on cards this year.  Maybe I should have given myself a raise a long time ago!

thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #8: The Lost Collector

I've been lucky a few times on twitter.  Following enough collectors on the site has led to me acquiring some great cards for my collection.  This post represents a quick tweet from A.J. at the Lost Collector blog, offering up a trio of cards from the '17 Heritage set.   I was lucky enough to be the first one to raise my hand and snap them up.

Needless to say, A.J. added a few other Blue Jays goodies to the envelope for me.

These 3 were the only ones that were already part of my collection; I had to check on the top two to make sure, but the Rocket name plate on the bottom I instantly recognized as a past pickup.

Yes, I needed this card for my Jays collection.  No, I didn't need to see "Blue Jays" written in the 80's Padre style (my apologies to Padre fans, especially Marcus who is a long suffering friar follower).

This was a welcome sight though!  Jesse Barfield was one of my favorite Jays from the 80's and this '84 OPC was nice to cross off the want list.

I've become used to Kevin Pillar cards featuring him diving full out.  Those usually demonstrate his outfield skills.  This one showing him diving into home is something new, and a great shot.  The Big 4 on the Jays card is a great shot, although EE will be missed (a regular theme here the last few weeks).  Hopefully Kendrys Morales can pick up some of the slack.

J.A. Happ should be donating some of his salary to Ray Searage.  Ray helped turn his career around, and quickly while he was with the Pirates.  Never noticed the tattoo on Pillar's arm.  Neat.

Here's the original reason for this post.  A.J. offered up these three SPs from this year's Heritage set.  Just 95 to go (ugh, why Topps why!!!).

A.J. thank you for the envelope, it is really appreciated!   Hope you're feeling better!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #5: The Commish

I was pleasantly surprised to come home today and find a bubble mailer in the mailbox from Commish Bob, curator of the Five Tool Collector blog. 

As always, Bob didn't disappoint.   He was one of the 20 bloggers that I sent cards to a few weeks back, and he had recently mentioned that he had a '17 Heritage Jose Abreu SP for me.

1 SP down, 74 to go.  No hurry for those, because hey, I'm still working on '11 Heritage you know!

Bob is more known for his vintage collecting, and his envelopes never disappoint when it comes to  beautiful old cards.

Like an old shirt that is comfortable, and has a few holes for natural air conditioning, the '62 Topps set is just that for me.  I hadn't thought about it, or bought cards for it, in quite a while.   Lo and behold, a sextet of great wood grain bordered cards show up.  Ozzie Virgil's dad is there on the lower left, and while I know his son as a long time MLB catcher, I was unaware of the utilityman that the elder Virgil was.  His career lasted parts of 9 seasons over 13 years between 1956-1969.

One thing you see on the older cards as well are players wearing helmets in their photo.  The card that caught my attention is the Larry Burright in the lower center, wearing his helmet while in the field.  The background of the picture reminds me of an oil field for some reason.

These 6 cards bring me to 187 total for the set.   A loooooong way to go....

It just wouldn't be an envelope from Bob without 59's in it (at least for me).  The cartoon on the back of Russ Heman's card is entertaining, it states that he's trouble with wildness at times, and it pictures a catcher standing up taking a ball off of the face mask.

I don't know why, but the team checklists from the '59 set are by far my favorite.  Don't ask me why that is, but for some reason the photos just appeal to me more than any of the checklists from the 60's.

6 more 59's bring my total up to 339 cards out of the 572 for the set.  Almost 60% complete.

As usual Bob, a great envelope!  Thank you for the cards, they really are appreciated! 

Thank you for reading, Robert

1766: 100 words posts

There have already been a few bloggers that have written their 100 word challenge posts.   Such as here, here, here, here and here.  I'm sure that most of the envelopes have arrived (save for Canada, which might take up to another week).  So, if you're down with writing the 100 words post for the cards I sent your way, I'll go to the 19th (2 weeks today) for submissions.

Those who write will get entered into a draw and I'll send a couple of lucky writers something more...

And to those who have written already, well done!!  I especially liked the haiku from Jon, I never would have thought to do that!

Onward.

I haven't bought any packs recently, and had the itch yesterday while I was out running errands with my better half.   With '17 Heritage recently released, I decided to grab a trio of rack packs to see what is up with the set this year.

Flashbacks have returned, and though a fair amount of people enjoy these and collect them, they're not for me, so if you need this, just let me know.

While Kennedy was the pack #1 insert, the Posey is a much more pleasing bonus card that I pulled in pack #2.  I'm sure that there is a Giant fan or 2 that may want this much more than I do.  It is serial #356/999.

I believe that there may be one or two people out there that would consider this card blasphemous, mixing Giants and Dodgers pitchers just shouldn't happen, right?  There may be someone out there though that isn't worried about that and will want this anyway.   Let me know if you're that someone.

I was kind of on the fence about collecting this set until I pulled this card.

I guess it was the black and white photo and the TV set kind of feel that hooked me.   Plus I'm a fan of the '68 set, so I've decided to give '17 Heritage a go this year.  I was fortunate to see a tweet from AJ who had 3 SPs that he didn't need, so those will be my first 3 this year since I wasn't lucky enough to pull any from my 3 packs.

I also grabbed a couple of the Topps fat packs as well, and did about as well as could be expected.

Almost didn't spot the gold Cameron Maybin parallel when I opened the pack. (side note, I just looked at the hangar box that I won from Tom, and found a Daniel Descalso gold card.)   They really are hard to spot for me.  None the less, these 4 cards are available to those who may want them.

A tribute/memorial card to Jose Fernandez might have been more appropriate a pull rather than the comeback player of the year card shown above.  But then again, I'm not the one with the license to print money either.

All 3 of those inserts are available as well.

I'm going to give both sets a go this year, as it seems that I have quite a bit of spending left to do for 2017.

These 5 packs cost me $26 (including tax) so

$1792 - $26 = $1766 left for the year.

Thanks for reading, Robert