Check out some cards: Finally

The order wasn't big, just 55 cards (4 of which have been shown in a previous post), but waiting over 3 months to get them was a bit tortuous.  But finally receiving them has shown me one thing that I've known for a while but is more evident now...

I've got way too much going on.   Nobody's fault but my own.  

Let's see what we have now in the house...

 

All 20 cards here from the 2012 and 2019 Allen & Ginter sets are short prints.  Both sets are nearing completion; 2019 needs just 5 more SPs, and 2012 has a list of 46 with a dozen SPs.  More sets that are nearing completion to come here in this post.

Nice cheap pickup on the Saquon Barkley RC here, just $2.50.  The Prestige set is down to 12 cards, and I'm hoping to get that done soon.   The '86 Topps set has come together quite nicely and quickly, with the set only needing 3 cards to complete.   Two of them are RCs featuring great players Steve Young and Reggie White.  

The hockey contingent above are all sets on The next 10 list.  Top scan is the 02-03 Vintage Set which has nothing but SP stars and checklists left to go.  22 cards might cost me a bit.  

2018-19 OPC is next.  14 to go.  Short printed rookie cards (9), 4 season highlight cards and the Pittsburgh Penguin team checklist is all that's left.  A few of the RC's are overpriced.  Might have to bite the bullet and get it done.

2013-14 Panini Prizm has 27 to go.   A few bigger name RC's are on the list, finishing this set will be a bit pricey but it is doable.  It's time to focus on these 3 in the coming weeks and get them out of the way.

Poor Dave Balon.  Might that be the ugliest card ever, photoshop wise?  74 cards left in this set, it's been fun picking up reasonably priced commons/semistars recently, but it's time to put this aside and focus on a lot of other sets that are closer to completion finished.

I keep saying that, but it's too tempting to keep grabbing cards from other pursuits.  

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

'86 Topps Football has never stood a chance

It really wasn't that long ago I announced my intentions to start putting together the '86 Topps football set.  I didn't think originally that it would take me a long time to put it together, what with the only real big $$ card in the set being the Jerry Rice rookie.  But I certainly didn't think that I would be on the verge of completing the set this quickly.  

The want list is down to 57 cards after receiving 4 more today from fellow blogger Chris who sent me a quick trade offer last week and the PWE arrived quickly at the house today.

This was the original group of 5 cards offered up in the trade, the key pair being the Bruce Smith and Al Toon RC's.  All 4 footballers I do remember from the 80's, which is another reason I've enjoyed collecting this set.  A lot of recognizable names makes it more fun, especially when you start taking trips down memory lane.  

What was very cool is Chris added these 4 cards along with the others to fill up the PWE a bit more.  The Goligoski is from the 16-17 OPC set, something I've barely started on so far with just 27 cards in hand.  I'll never sneer at any Maple Leafs base cards from current sets as I slowly build that collection as well.  

I have another TCDB trade en route which will knock off a quarter of what I have left on the list, meaning my want list will be in the 40's.  A lot of trades with both bloggers and TCDB members have really made this set easy to put together, much easier than I originally thought it would be.

The want list really never did stand a chance...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

A little faith in humanity restored

 First and foremost, happy Thanksgiving to all the ladies and gentlemen out there that are reading this today.

Wanted to recount a recent trade with fellow blogger Marc that could have gone awry, but didn't.  Marc and I completed what I think is our 3rd TCDB trade (TCDB ID: marcbrubaker) and being the generous guy that he is, sent me a boat load of Allen & Ginter cards, 78 of them to be exact.

2019 A&G Want list has shrunk quickly

Marc sent off the tracking ID, I set it up on the USPS site to give me the text updates and that was that.

A few days later, I get the message on my phone, package delivered.  Hoorah!!

Go to the mailbox.  Nope.  Nothing there but ads.  HMMMM

I should have clued in when I didn't get anything in my informed delivery email from USPS, but I didn't think of it then.

I sent a message off to Marc to let him know that package was delivered, but I didn't get it.  This morning I look at my messages (after 3 days of not doing ANYTHING card related) and Marc advised that the package was sent to Street and not Place.  Slight difference, but makes a big one in my neighborhood!

I had to drop off a couple of PWE's at the USPS today, so I decided on the way back home I'd go to my address a block behind me and see if that person still had the package.

As you can see by the scans, he still had it.   The guy had opened it; I would have done the same thing as you can't be too careful as to what people send through the mail sometimes.  

Not one card was missing, the gentleman was friendly and handed me the envelope pretty quickly, and all is well with the world again.

A bit of faith in humanity restored...

Thank you for the trade Marc, the cards are great and really appreciated!!

Have a great holiday all and enjoy the hobby.

Robert

No you don't Jeff

I never hesitate to poke fun at myself.  My forgetfulness comes to mind, I've forgotten so many things over the years only to be reminded of them by my wife, my friends, or even while writing posts.  It'll be similar to the light bulb shining on you in the cartoons.  

But there comes a time when someone pokes fun at themselves during an email exchange that I can't resist using it for a post.   Long time blogger Jeff at the 2x3 heroes blog is the person I'm speaking of in this instance. 

Jeff was one of a couple of people who reached out to me when I wrote about getting started on completing the run of Ginter sets.  His email was something that I shared instantly with my wife and we both had a great laugh.  But let's look at some cards first, shall we?

There was just over 100 cards in the envelope, but the highlight for me was my first look at 2020 A&G in hand.  There was never any at the stores locally, plus I procrastinated about buying myself a box of packs from an online seller, well just because I was being cheap.  

Jeff took care of getting my set started by sending just under 60 cards my way and as you can see by the scan above, he sent some big names to me.

I did a mish-mash scan, 4 GQ Greens as that set starts to really close in on completion.  3 cards from the 2012 A&G sets, just 3 legends of the game is all.  Tyler Johnson Artifacts red for the serial numbered hockey set, and a David Broll autograph card to the Leafs collection.   4 for 4 on this page!!

39 more cards off of the 2019 A&G want list round out the great envelope that Jeff sent my way.  Instead of taking the first 9 baseball players off the pile, I decided to dig into the middle and show a few non-baseball subjects just to change things up.  

Now, onto the email story.

The exchange was so quick, I think that's what made it so funny for me.

Jeff starts by asking if I'm still at my old address in PA.  I replied back "nope, been in Florida for 5 years now" and provided him with the current address.

Here's his response:

WOW!!!  Have I really not sent you anything in 5 years??????  I totally suck.

You know, just from reading his blog all these years, I could easily see him saying that!!

Jeff, thank you very much for the cards they are really appreciated.   No, you don't suck.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

TCDB Trade Week #3: rl16

Fellow blogger Ray (TCDB ID:rl16) approached one day under the guise that we share a common birthday.  We do, so it really wasn't a guise, but he decided that we had enough on each other's want list that a trade was in order.  

I can honestly say that this trade was more than well worth it on my end.

 Continuing on with yesterday's theme of Allen & Ginter, this trade starts off with a trio more cards from the '19 A&G set, all household names for sure.

2 player collection cards, both of which taught me something.  The Andrew McCutchen is a red bordered card, so I know now that brown is the new red.  The Jim Thome isn't the old Pinnacle, it's a new Pinnacle card.  Even though I'm a year older as of last week, I learned something new.

Ray also included a trio of Serial #'d/99 cards.  He asked if they needed to be stars; no is the quick and easy answer to that.  Just looking to add cards that are serial #'d to 99, and the more names I can add, the better.  These are all new names to the list and the PC is at 78 cards.  

Finally, Ray asked if I'm still collecting T.Y. Hilton.  Even though I really haven't got a whole lot of cards in lately, I said that I'm definitely interested in anything Hilton related (not the hotel).  Boy was I floored when I received this...

Ray said he had received this autograph of T.Y. Hilton before a minor league baseball game last year (assuming it was the Indianapolis Indians), and had it sitting in his room.  He believed it belonged in the hands of a fan, and I can say that I'm very grateful that he sent it my way.  I will have this framed and hanging in my office in the near future.

Thank you Ray for the cards and the autograph, they really are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby.

Robert

TCDB Trade Week #3: NachosGrande

 I don't consider myself the voice when it comes to the TCDB website, even though I promote it frequently here on the blog thanks to all the trading I've done since the beginning of 2019.  But every time I see a blogger start on the website and start enjoying it, I take a little bit of pride, hoping that my voice was one of many to encourage them to join.

The most recent blogger that I've seen "join the ranks" is Chris from the Nachos Grande blog.  I've known and traded with Chris since early in my blogging days back in 2011 and our trades have always been beneficial to both sides.

Chris offered me up a few cards for my 2019 A&G want list and I snapped up the offer right after I made sure that I had the cards that were going in his direction.

I've recently decided that my one modern set per year that I'm going to build is going to be the A&G set.  I've come to enjoy it more than all the other sets that Topps releases, including the flagship.  Because of this, I've undertaken the project of putting together each of the A&G sets from 2006 to now, similar to the modern O-Pee-Chee hockey release as far as timeline.  I have 4 of them done so far, I'm close to completing 2017 and 2008/2012 both have a good start so I'm looking forward to having these done sooner rather than later.

Thank you for the trade Chris, looking forward to more on TCDB in the future.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert