There's above & beyond, then there's Greg

One of my 2015 resolutions should have been to get better at keeping up with trade partners.   There are times when I just fail to follow through, and when people are polite enough to give me a swift kick in the ass, I feel sheepish.

Greg A. is a great example of this.   I mentioned on the blog a while back about the Blue Jay minis I have that are taking up space, and Greg fired off a quick comment/email asking me if I needed any 15 pocket  pages.  I responded with a non-committal answer, and quickly forgot about it.

Greg followed up with me last week asking me how many minis pages I needed, so I quickly thumbed through what I have and asked for a dozen pages.   Greg gave me a price including shipping, and said he would throw in a few extra cards as a bonus.   I figured since he was sending a few cards (I figured Blue Jays and maybe some modern set wants, nothing firm was discussed), I'd add a couple of extra bucks (literally) towards shipping.

I got the pages today.   And yes, there were some cards in there....2014 Topps to start us off.

That want list is down to 16, and is long overdue to be wiped off the face of the earth.

But when I looked at the next page of cards Greg included, well let's just say my jaw still hurts from hitting the floor.

Wow.

Wow.

Totally unexpected.  I think I inherited someone else's guilt by only adding a couple of dollars to Greg's coffers.  If the '59s were only commons, it would have been great, but seeing names like Schoendienst, Newcombe and Virgil only intensified my joy.

This is, indeed, blogger generosity at its finest.  Yes, Greg doesn't run a blog (that I'm aware of), but for me, this counts.  How can you not enjoy the blogosphere when guys help you build vintage sets purely out of the goodness of their hearts. 

Greg, thank you very much!!  This envelope was really appreciated!

thanks for reading, Robert

Whittling away

If there's one thing that I feel pretty confident about, it's that I'm going to finish the Serial Numbered Insanity project sometime in 2015.  With so many people sending me anywhere from a single card to multiple dozens over time, this is one project that I can proudly say has been a community effort.

One of the many community members has been Doug from the Sportscards from the Dollar Store blog, who was gracious enough to send me 4 more cards that I was able to put into the set (Venable was numbered 928 Doug, a number I already had and don't know how I missed it...).

A pair of 2009 Triple Threads, along with a pair of Ohio based 2014 Topps gold cards knock 4 numbers off of the list, bringing the set down to 152 needed to complete the set of 1500. 

• Peavy brings the Padres up to 48 cards
• Carlos Lee sees the Astros rise up to 41 out of 50
• Chris Perez and his flowing locks get the Indians to 45
• Jay Bruuuuuuce's card has the Reds sitting at 46

Not only did Doug knock those 4 off of the SNI want list, he became the first to knock off a Brett Lawrie card from the top 30 list as well.

I think I'm going to enjoy pursuing Lawrie's cards, since I didn't wait as long to start his PC (not like Sakic and Thome).  I don't have a whole lot of Lawrie so far, but I think that will change quickly.

I have a feeling that I'm going to be busy with a lot of trades this summer.   Not sure why I feel that way, but I really hope I'm right!

Doug, another awesome envelope, thank you very much!   The cards are really appreciated.

thanks for reading, Robert

A parallel kind of post

Tony knows how to knock down a want list.  Yea, you know Tony from Off Hiatus Baseball Cards.  I sent him a few cards a couple of weeks ago, nothing serious, just some stuff I thought he might like.

In return, Tony did his best to put a hurting on my Jays want list.  What I noticed quickly were the parallels Tony sent my way.  Some of the larger lists of cards on the Blue Jay want lists are the multitude of colored parallels that Topps is responsible for.

Yes, I know that Opening Day is a set unto itself.  For the past few years I've known it as the poor mans cousin to the flagship.  In 2008, Topps put a little color into the border, which is something that is fantastic to me.  I love the red border, and would be OK if Topps incorporated something similar to that in a future release.

4 cards, 4 colors.  I really don't see a whole lot of the yellow parallels from the '14 set out there, and the Janssen is just the 2nd one that I own (DeRosa is the other).  The blue opening day parallels from the past couple of years are some of my favorite parallels, and the EE knocks that list down to just 2 to complete the blue parallel set.

I have mixed feelings about how the chrome parallels turned out in the 2008 Heritage set.  I don't think that the chrome did anything to help the pink cards, such as the Alex Rios.   The emerald green from the '13 Topps set on the other hand is something that I really liked.  What I didn't like is Melky heading to the south side of Chicago, but I can't blame him for the $$ they offered.   Both of these parallel sets still have quite a large want list remaining, even with these two now removed.

I guess I don't get the attraction of Topps Tek.  Multiple photos on the same design, serial numbered to 2000.  I do like how the cards look, it reminds me of the Upper Deck Ice hockey cards from back in the day.  Wanna have some fun?  When I typed John Sneed into the baseball reference website, I pulled up this player.

Hey Tony, did you know that there was a Milwaukee Brewers baseball team in the late 1800's?  They finished 21-15 in the American Association in 1891.  I could get lost for hours looking at those old standings....

Needless to say the highlight were the gold parallels.  All the gold parallels over the past half dozen years have a larger space on my Jays want list, which is a little lighter thanks to these 5. 

Maybe the flyer that the Dodgers took on Sergio Santos might pay off for them in the short term, with Kenley Jansen sidelined for 8-12 weeks. The Dodgers will want the 2013 version, pictured above, rather than what the Jays suffered with last year. 

There were dozens of other cards in the package, including some Turkey Reds that I hadn't seen in the past.

Yes, I know that they aren't parallels, but I thought they were great enough to show off here.

Tony, thank you for the great cards, they really are appreciated!!  Congrats on the Bip Award for blog ROY, it was well deserved!

thanks for reading, Robert

A new trade partner hits quite a few want lists

I received an email from a blog reader about 10 days ago, requesting a trade.  Charles wished to have all the Cleveland Indians cards off of my trade list (a devoted fan, no doubt), and in return he had a specific list of cards to send my way.

I took one look at the list and quickly agreed, and a new trade partner emerged.

Charles became the first person to knock a card off my 30 most wanted list , and it was a great card for my Jim Thome PC.

It's good to finally get the Thome Bowman RC into my collection.  That was number one on the list.

Most of the cards that are on the 30 most wanted lists are just base cards, so I'm hoping that I can get through them rather swiftly and grow the PC's a little.

2014 Topps series 2 still sadly has a want list, but 4 more cards were removed via this trade.

Still 26 more to go.  Ugh.

Charles also put a dent in a few of the Blue Jays want lists.  He completed a couple team sets:

Pushed a trio of sets to the brink of completion:

How have I not finished Donruss 91 yet?

And knocked on the door of a few others...

The piece de resistance in this trade for me was 3 more '59 Topps cards

Great cards to add to the collection!  I'm already up to 155 so far, and even though I really didn't set a goal as to how much I wanted to have by the end of the year, the halfway point of 286 cards is a thought right now. 

This was definitely a great first trade Charles, thank you very much!   I hope to carry out some more trades in the future with you.

thanks for reading, Robert