Craving some pack ripping

In addition to the singles you saw last night on the blog, the weekly budget was also spent on a couple rack packs of 2013 Topps.  The pack ripping junkie in me hadn't opened anything in a few weeks, so on a trip to Wal Mart last weekend, a couple of the big packs came home with me.

As you might well expect, inserts were the story. 

Let's start with what are perennially my favorites, the colored parallels:

No golds, camos or pinks to show off, but at least there's a half dozen blues and a couple of emerald parallels that are up for trade bait.  I would have been really happy to add a couple of the emeralds to the SNI set had they been numbered, alas I am not so lucky this time around.  I will say this, I like how the colors of the "sea turtle" mix with the Wal Mart blue, especially the gold of the Kevin Correia card.  If I was more inclined, I might have chased the blues a bit more this year, but I have too much going on to try and partake of collecting a parallel set right now.   These 8 are up for trade...

These next 3 cards are easily my favorites of the 2 rack packs:

Two more sets that I will not choose to collect, but I still think they look cool none the less.  The Willie Mays die cut was a nice pickup out of the packs, along with the '72 mini of Ted Williams.   I'm sure that there's someone out there that would be interested in these for their collections...

The chasing history inserts are OK, nice and shiny looking.  But they are not my cup of tea...

But I'm sure someone out there may be interested in any or all of these.  Speak now, or forever hold your tongue.

I even got my usual assortment of current and former Blue Jays from the 2 packs as well...

Dickey won his 2nd game for the Jays on Thursday, and seems to be picking up some momentum.  I would like to see if Drabek makes a strong comeback from his 2nd Tommy John surgery and rejoin the rotation sometime this season.

I'm sure you're probably wondering why I bothered with the flagship when buying packs this week.  2 reasons:

1.  Heritage---GONE!!  Empty box of looseys is the only remnant of Heritage on the Wal Mart shelves in town.
2.  Gypsy Queen---I'm cheap!  I just didn't feel like shelling out the $10 for a rack pack of GQ.  I'm just not feeling it for the vintage wanna be this year.  I haven't even had the urge to splurge for one pack of it, and I have a feeling that will stay the same way for the rest of the year.

So for the week, $28 spent on 2 rack packs that netted me some trade bait, and 53 cards to complete the 2001 Fleer Tradition set. 

See anything you want here?  Drop me a line.  I bought a box of 100 PWE's a couple of weeks ago, and still have 97 to use...hint hint

Thanks for reading, Robert

53 cards later, another of the Fab Five goes by the wayside

Torture.  That is what you're going to endure over the next several scans.

Sorry if it helps.

There they are, the final 53 cards of the 2001 Fleer Tradition set.  Why I waited this long to go on Sportlots and purchase them, I'll never know.  It's funny after all these years to look at the "prospects' subset and see which ones they got right and the ones, well....   Rollins, Pierre, Patterson and Eaton all have had varying degrees of success in the majors, while the others not so much.

It was nice to get this set off of the Fab Five list, it had been on there way too long!!  This is also the 24th set I've completed since I started the blog.  I've already added another set to the list, and yes it is another hockey set, this time the 2008-09 OPC set, which is 68 cards (59 of them being SPs) away from completion. 

Hopefully by the time you've read this, I'll have found out that I don't have to serve on a jury. 

Fingers crossed.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Out of touch

29 years ago, for those you that are at or near my age, you may remember a duo that was very popular at the time.  Daryl Hall and John Oates were nearing the end of a decade long run that saw the duo at the top of the pop charts with several hits, including the title of this post Out of Touch.

A brief conversation I had on twitter today with Greg over at the Plaschke, thy Sweater is Argyle blog made me think of the song.  I hadn't taken the time to post the last couple of days, let alone sit in front of a computer at all. 

Greg had inquired about a card that he had sent me, just wanting to make sure it had arrived safely.  I replied that the card did indeed arrive at the old homestead, and this is my apology for not letting him know timely.  My last tweet was of course my usual self-deprecating humor, which contained the following...

"I tend to forget that twitter is a means of communication..LOL"

I use twitter for so much information gathering (sports, sports cards, etc.), that I forget sometimes that I can actually use it to communicate directly with someone, even if it is for something as simple as confirming that I received a package.  Out of touch would be appropriate here as well.

In case you were wondering what Greg graciously sent my way, wait no further.

2012 Blue Jays 1st round draft pick Marcus Stroman is featured on this card from the Leaf Valiant set.  A very nice card, and naturally it made me do a little research.  What popped at me right away?  The fact that there are no 2013 stats.  Why you ask?  Marcus is serving a 50 game suspension for taking a banned substance. 

I have kind of felt out of touch with the blog lately, trying to figure out what I want to do, and how I want to do it.  Missing all of last week, and then the past two evenings, didn't bother me as much as it would have in the past, and that has me a bit worried.  I would say that it's not collecting that has me puzzled (tomorrow's post is evidence of that), it's writing about collecting that hasn't excited me over the past couple of weeks (or maybe months). 

It may be that I'm in an extended funk, which I'm sure one or two people out there may know something about.  Maybe the life span of the blog is winding down, which would coincide with the life span of other interests that I've had over the past 10-15 years.  I'm hoping that the former is true rather than the latter.

Whatever it is, Out of Touch is a very appropriate sentiment for how I've felt lately, and hopefully I'll be able to snap out of it and return to my self-deprecating hobby loving ways.  Believe me, I'm going to try...

Greg, thank you for the card, it is very much appreciated. I hope you're enjoying the Getzlaf!!

So you all don't have to go running off to find the Out of Touch video, I included it for you here, just in case.  Sorry about the leopard suit and cowboy boots....hey, it was the 80's!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Ten

I've done pretty well with picking up cards here and there towards my '64 Topps set.  At the card show last weekend, outside of the Frank Robinson card I showed you last weekend, I was able to purchase 10 other '64s, including some decent cards of names you'll know as well.

Let's start with the 4 commons

The only name of the 4 that I knew was Chuck Hiller, and that's only because I pulled a '62 buyback card of his from Heritage two years ago.  The others?  Well I needed them...

Next up, a checklist and a short printed high number card.

It's kind of fascinating to see which numbers people actually color in when they did use the checklists for their intended purpose.  After looking at that, I saw some of the names on the front of the card that I still need to acquire.   Roberto Clemente.   Bob Gibson.  Yikes.

Cap Peterson wound up having a very short career, and unfortunately a very short life, dying at the age of 37 in 1980.  Phil Gagliano was the definition of utility player, his 12 seasons in the majors were spent appearing at a minimum of 3 positions each year, with a lot of the seasons showing him playing 4 or 5 positions.  These gents probably should not have been classified as "stars", at least in the baseball sense of the word, in my opinion.  

OK, now let's move on to the names most of you should know....

Both of these cards have some flaws, which is the reason I got them on the cheap.  Don't care though, they are both in the collection now, and are great additions to my set.  Billy Williams only faced 2 pitchers more than he faced Juan Marichal during his HOF career (Gibson, Drysdale), and his numbers vs Marichal were OK.  A .266 average in 124 career ABs with 6 HR and 20 RBI's isn't too shabby, although Marichal has the distinction of being the pitcher that struck out Williams more than any other (22 times)

Finally, we have two more star players, one with a French nickname, and another who has become an announcer that people seem to love to hate.

Rusty Staub (Le Grand Orange) still ranks 13th on the all time games played list with 2951.  Rusty was the model of consistency over his career, never having a really amazing season offensively, but his stats were very steady, finishing his career with 499 doubles and a .279 average with 2716 hits. 

Tim McCarver also had a long career, actually making his major league debut at the age of 17(!) in 1959.  Tim's 21 seasons were spent mostly in the NL (2 very brief seasons in Boston during the mid 70's  being the only break), and his one interesting statistic is that in 1966 as a catcher, he led the senior circuit in triples with 13. 

I'm currently at 48% completion of the 1964 set, and need another 70 cards to reach my goal of 60% complete by the end of the year.  If I can keep finding commons 10 at a time on the cheap, I'm sure I'll be able to accomplish that.

Thanks for reading, Robert

eBay flipped me a bird today

It finally came in, and now I'm down to 5 cards left to complete the 1977 Topps set.

The bird in question?  Mark "the bird" Fidrych:

 

Great card in great condition, a nice addition to the set.  Here are the 5 cards remaining that I need to finish the set:

53     Paul Mitchell

120   Rod Carew

285   Brooks Robinson

478   Rookie Pitchers quad card

656   Ron Guidry

I can smell the set completion post already...

thanks for reading, Robert

Keeping up with the Joneses was not the right idea

You may have noticed that I haven't posted all week.   You may not have noticed.  To be honest, my mood this week wasn't the greatest, and posting on the blog was the last thing that was on my mind.

I've decided to make a few changes on the blog, moving a bit more back to my roots.

Set collecting will be the prime focus of this blog.  I've let myself be too influenced by what I see on other blogs, and have tried to emulate them as best as possible.  "Keeping up with the Joneses" you might call it.

For me, that was not a smart idea.  Trying to be a team collector, for me, is just way too difficult.  I have Blue Jays everywhere, with no hope of ever catching up.  It's not that I don't appreciate what people have sent me, it's just that I've received so much of it (a lot of doubles as well) that the cards are out of control. The time I need to keep up with them all, well it's just not there.

Trying to catch up with a 35 year span of cards all at once was not the brightest idea.  Therefore, the Blue Jays want list has been taken down.  Life will be easier (for me) that way.  Still have Blue Jays you want to send my way?  Let me know what you have before you send them.  I don't want FEMA coming into my house and declaring it a disaster area (although I'm sure that my wife has declared our computer room as such...).

At least there is one thing that I've noticed with all the cards people have sent me over the past while is that there are a lot of great sets out there that I would like to build.   Modern sets, vintage sets, you name it, there is a whole lot of great stuff to collect that will occupy my time. 

Of course, serial numbered insanity will remain a staple of the blog, I still love the idea, and have had cards trickle in constantly, which is always great to see.  However, time has become kind of scarce to keep two blogs going, so I'm toying with the idea of moving everything to this blog and shutting the other down.  I'll let you know how I decide on that one.

Also, the player collections of Joe Sakic and Jim Thome will continue.  I like the fact that I don't have any pressure to add to these parts of my collection, and when I do add pieces like the Sakic below, I enjoy them that much more.

I'm pretty sure that this is the first Sakic card that I own that features him in a Team Canada uniform.  What I didn't know about the serial numbered cards (if not all of them from this set), is that they are as thick as the Cup cards.  A very nice surprise indeed when it arrived at my house this week. 

The set builder in me, however, appreciates cards like this when they arrive in the mail:

thank you Greg!

My '75 Topps set is less than 40 cards from completion, with some big names like Ryan, Aaron (x2) and Rose still to go.  I also have the RCs of Rice and Carter to pick up as well, so I'm sure that the next few card shows I'm able to attend will be spent searching for these. 

Yes, this post kind of rambles and many of you probably tuned out after the 2nd paragraph, but for me it was something that needed to be written. 

I'm still here, but things are going to change in this one horse town.   Hopefully for the better.

Thanks for reading, Robert