25K comes today

Just want to say thank you to all those who take the time to read my little slice of craziness.

I should hit the 25,000 page view mark sometime this morning, and your support is greatly appreciated.

Who knows, I may have to do a little something to celebrate...

Thank you all for reading!!  Robert

Now I know where all the serial #'d cards went

As promised, more to show you from my first day at the National.  Tonight's post will feature more modern stuff, purchased on the cheap (did you expect anything else?)

I found a table that was offering up relics/autos for 60-70% off.  I could have sat there and loaded up on a bunch of stuff, but I didn't really want to blow a good portion of my budget on these types of cards.  I wound up purchasing 4 cards for $15, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

This first one is headed to a certain Texas Rangers fan....

Brian, I have 2 cards coming at ya!

The next 2 are welcome, and cheap additions to my Blue Jays auto/relic collection.  I'm hoping that both of these guys turn it around soon, or the wild card in 2012 will become just another memory...

The Lind is a pretty nice looking auto if I do say so...

This next card is another sad obsession that is plaguing me.  The letter manupatches are becoming a quirky little side bar in my collecting habit.  This one not only has the first letter of my last name, but the team colors are the same as my high school colors....green, white and gold.

 

Danny Putnam.   You remember him, don't you?  Come on....think!!!

OK, I'll end your misery.  Danny spent a grand total of 17 days in the majors during the 2007 season.  Come on, you don't remember his HR off Neal Musser of the Royals?  The A's were ahead 12-3 at the time....

LOL...OK, enough, I get it.  The card actually looks better than what it scans....and like I said, the letters are a bit of a weakness.

Now, as the title of the post leads you to believe, a little bit of insanity took place at the show.   I printed out the entire want list, all 900+ numbers needed, and wandered the floor.  Sure enough, I came upon a table that had boxes of nothing but serial numbered cards for 50 cents apiece.

Not just little two row shoe boxes.  Monster boxes.  2 full 3000 count boxes of nothing but serial numbered baseball cards.

Now only if they had a chair I could have used, I would have spent more money at their booth.  But, the lack of seating caused me to stick to my predetermined limit of $20 per table (I am a cheap son of a gun...).

$20 is worth 40 cards....sure enough I found 40 numbers that I needed that were of Topps/Bowman products, and went on my merry way.

See if you can spot the error in the first scan...

There should have been one more lefty hitter in this scan

Here's some more serial #'d goodness for you:

I even did reasonably well in picking out teams where I needed cards, such as the Rockies, Royals and Brewers. 

I still haven't gone through my entire Friday at the show, but suffice it to say that these 2 purchases were the only modern cards I picked up on day 1.  Not what I had expected to do, but hey you never know what's going to fall in your lap until you get there, right??

Thanks for reading, Robert

Time to start showing off some of what I picked up at the National

Believe it or not, I did get to the National with a bit of a plan in mind.  I had printed out my want lists for everything but this year's cards (they're all over the place, so no sense rushing into the 2012 set finishing just yet) and made my way into the show on Friday. 

My standard M.O. when walking into a large card show is always the same.   Walk the floor for the first 30-60 minutes and get the "lay of the land".  I've been to big shows before (250+ tables) and this method of attacking the show has always worked for me. 

I had seen layouts online of the floor plan for the Baltimore Convention Center, and thought nothing of it.  Boy, what a mistake that was.  I had vastly underestimated the size of the hall, and by the end of the first 45 minutes I had probably walked 2/3 of the hall...and was tired.

I truly learned then what I had read many times before, that you cannot hope to see everything at the National in 1 day. I also wound up collecting a lot more vintage than I expected, largely because after hunting around, the deals on cards from the '64 and '75 Topps sets were just too good to pass up.

The '64 set is my weakness, and this show helped me get some cards that were in pretty decent shape.  The first table I hit had commons/semistars for 50% off that were in great condition, mostly in EX-MT.  Even the checklist that I found at that table was unmarked and in beautiful shape.

That same table also had some '62s as well, but they weren't in as good condition as the '64s, so I only picked up a handful.

Easily the highlight of day 1 for me at the show was the final table that I hit, where I hunkered down in front of a 2 row "shoebox" that had vintage for 3/$1.

Hot damn.  In hindsight, I probably should have bought more from him, but the hour was getting late, and I was getting a little tired after a few hours of walking and digging, so I only bought $10 worth of cards from him. 

Here's a handful of '65s that I picked up from that table.  The '65 set is something that I've never considered collecting, but it is growing on me....

Here's a sampling of some of the '64 cards that I picked up, the scan is actually a mixed bag of the two different tables that I picked the cards up from:

It's tough to see, but the Grover Powell card in the center is in really good shape, indicative of the first table that I hit.  Most of the others were from the 3/$1 table, but still were in OK enough shape to be worth purchasing. 

For now, this post is just the start of day 1....still quite a few good cards to show you...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Nachos Grande: Round 1 post vs. GCRL

1998 Collectors Choice # 235

I can only imagine the potential that Giants fans thought this guy had after the 1997 season.  Estes made the All Star game, and won 19 with a 3.18 ERA, despite leading all pitchers with 100 BBs.  Sadly for the Giants and 6 other clubs afterward, 1997 would be Estes' career best season, as he wound up with a career 4.71 ERA with 101 wins total in 13 big league seasons.

Estes was actually a decent hitting pitching during his career, getting double digit hits during a season 4 times over his career, including a career best 17 hits in Colorado (gee, imagine that) in the 2004 season.  Shawn also holds the distinction of being the only pitcher in Giants history to have ever hit a grand slam.  Shawn is shown above on his '98 Collectors Choice card showing off his bunting skills. 

What I didn't know is that he signed contracts with the Dodgers in 2009, and the Nationals in 2010, but didn't throw a pitch in the majors during those two seasons.  Shawn left the Dodgers organization after 13 starts in 2009 because he didn't want to pitch in AAA.  In 2010, the Nats actually released him at the end of spring training, and shortly thereafter Shawn retired from baseball.

Even better are the nicknames of some of the minor league teams he played for during his career. Let's see, there's the Foxes, Captains, Timber Rattlers, Bees, Firebirds, Grizzlies, Sidewinders, Storm, Beavers and the Isotopes. 

Oh, to be in Portland and get to play with the beavers.....

Thanks for reading, Robert

I'm sure that the Jays could use this guy right about now

A.J. Burnett spent three years in Toronto, the latter of which was 2008, the year he set his career high in wins with 18.

Well, the way the guy is pitching right now, 18 looks like it's going to be equaled sometime during the month of August.

A.J.'s last two starts have been incredible.  A no-hit bid in Chicago broken up with 2 outs in the 8th inning, and today a 3 hit masterpiece in which he retired 18 straight until walking 2 batters after 2 outs in the 9th.

Currently, he's 14-3 with a 3.19 ERA.  Yes, that's a 3.19 ERA which includes the May 2nd start in which he gave up 12 earned runs in 2.2 innings.  Forget that start, and his ERA is 2.42.

I was fortunate enough to find this card at the National...$4.  2007 SPx Winning Materials.  I found this among many boxes of relics/autos at the Dave & Adam's booth.  They had everything marked down in those boxes to $4, and I was fortunate enough to find 7 cards that fit my collection(s) quite well.

This is one that I jumped at, one because it features A.J. as a Blue Jay, and 2nd because he has really helped change the culture in the Pirates clubhouse.  The interview he did with the local TV crew after the Chicago start really made me a believer.  The first question to him was "what did you think of your performance tonight?"  The answer started with "We won the ballgame".  Professional.  A.J. gets it, and I think that attitude is rubbing off on the entire clubhouse, which is why the Pirates are sitting in the thick of the wild card race right now.

There's still 8 weeks left in the season, and if Clint Hurdle can keep pushing the right buttons the way he has for the Pirates over the first 107 games, the Pirates may be playing something they haven't played in 20 years.

A meaningful game in October...

I'm sure A.J. would be happy with that...

thanks for reading, Robert

My thoughts on the National

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to peruse the Baltimore Convention Center for two days, and experience the sensory overload (at least for me) that is the National.  Before I get into all of that, I must say two things about the people of the state of Maryland.

1. They probably are the friendliest group of people I've encountered in any state that I've visited so far.
2. They do not know how to drive on Interstates.  (come on people...5 MPH below the speed limit in the left hand lane....)

Aside from all the great fun I had wandering from table to table and looking at some great memorabilia, I had plenty of great conversations with both dealers and collectors alike about the show, how well organized and laid out the convention center was, and the amount of money that was changing hands.

It's also sad when you see one transaction that involved more money than I spent in the two days there.  Yep, the last table I visited today I watched a gentleman purchase two cards for $350.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that the amount of money that was exchanged was a lot, it's just sad that I wasn't part of it (lol).

Of course, there were some things that were a little tough to swallow as well.  Two days admission and parking had me in for $80 combined before I even looked at a single card.  Not much I can do about either of those factors though.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure that would bore most of you to tears, since you've probably read many other posts on other blogs about their experiences.  I will say that I picked up quite a few cards at some really great prices, and dug through a lot of boxes during my time there (a couple that were even priced better than a dime box).

I saw quite a few cards that reminded me of other bloggers as well, especially this one:

Come on, for 33 cents you didn't expect me to leave it there....did you??

I have lots more to show you over the next few days...hopefully you don't fall asleep.

Thanks for reading, Robert