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

Page by page

Trying harder lately to avoid not posting on the blog for 4 or 5 days straight.  In the past, I would chastise myself if I went a day without posting.  Now, it's become easier to go a few days without posting and not think twice.  With there being plenty of pages to post for the SNI set, this is a good enough reason to get the lead out and write a quick post about the next page.

This page has one of the best cards from the 2010's on it (in my opinion).  Hard to believe that it's been 11 years since Kirby Puckett passed away at a very young 46 years of age....


Here's page 37 for your perusal:

Card 325:  Tsuyoshi Nishioka, 2011 Topps Chrome Purple refractor #325/499.  Minnesota card #9
Card 326:  Ozzie Guillen, 2006 Topps gold #326/2006.  Chicago White Sox card #9
Card 327:  Jason Bay, 2013 Topps Gold #327/2013.  Seattle card #6

Card 328:  Freddie Freeman, 2010 Topps Minors #328/369.  Atlanta card #16
Card 329:  Torii Hunter, 2009 Topps Unique #329/1199.  LA Angels card #18
Card 330:  Minnesota Twins, 2010 Topps Gold #330/2010.  Minnesota card #10

Card 331:  Ricky Ledee, 1998 Bowmans Best #331/400.  NY Yankees card #12
Card 332:  Brandon Webb, 2007 Topps Triple Threads #332/559.  Arizona card #10
Card 333:  Koji Uehara, 2009 Topps Unique card #333/2699.  Baltimore card #10

Best card:  Yep, the Minnesota Twins team card by a long shot.
Easiest pull:  Don't recall having a card with as many copies as the 2699 that Uehara has of his card from '09 Unique
Oldie but a goodie:  Ricky Ledee from '98 Bowmans Best is one of only 15 pre 2000 cards that I own for the set. 
It also appears as if Ozzie Guillen is signing for the fans, a type of card that I always enjoy seeing.

I have well over 100 more pages to show.  I somehow have to convince myself that this post wasn't so difficult and start to get more of these done.

Shouldn't be too difficult...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Contest results--100 word post contest

As I said in the video, a thank you to all who participated in the contest.  There were some great entries.  I will be in contact with the winners shortly to discuss what they might like for their prize.

One card rule:

This is one of the cards from Max's envelope from last week that I didn't show on the post.   Appropriate to show tonight as William scored the Leafs 3rd goal in a big 4-2 win over the Bruins.  11 games to go in the season, and Toronto still is in the driver's seat for a playoff spot.  Here's hoping they can hold on...

Thanks for watching/reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #7: Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits

Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew.  I pronounced at the beginning of the year that I was going to finish the 2016 A&G set without buying another pack.  If you remember from the video, I had about, what, 30 cards in hand?  Maybe a few more?

First, the Night Owl divests himself of his spare A&G parts, and knocks off about 30 cards off my want list.   Glimmer of hope starts to develop.

Then Dime Box Nick hits me for another 40+.  I have over 100 cards now, and I'm thinking

But it's been about 2 or 3 weeks since that post, and nary a thought was brought to the A&G want list, which I certainly would be more than I can handle.

Then Matt comes along and asks if my A&G want list is up to date.  I tell him it is.

He must secretly say to himself then "wait til you see what's next".

A little tough to read, but look at the top.   Guaranteed Blue Jays HOT BOX! 

What Matt did, to me anyways, was most incredible.  He put together a box of 20 packs that a pack searcher would be proud to call his own.  In addition, I didn't get the standard A&G minis and inserts that come with any normal pack.  My inserts were all Blue Jays.

Into the darkness came 9 rays of light....

Who needs more A&G when you can send all kind of Topps Blue Jays?  Green Batista, Bowman RC flashback of John Olerud.  Love it!

Bautista X-fractor!  More darkness.  Rasmus Gold.

Sean Nolin autograph!  Another addition to the Just the Hits page.

I always loved the A&G framed relics.  Even though this isn't a relic card, this instantly became my favorite "insert" from the box.  It is an A&G back to boot. 

Now, the base cards in the packs numbered 7 in each, so there were 140 base cards.

Matt painstakingly took the time to find 140 base cards that I needed, inserted them into packs in numerical order no less, and knocked off 40% of my want list with one priority box.

Yes, that feat definitely deserves a HOLY SHIT!

I've been the recipient of blogger generosity many times, but this takes the cake.  Way above and beyond generous. 

Matt, thank you very much for the package.  Very much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Saturday #12: Overdue

Haven't written a post about the SNI baseball set in a few weeks, so it's time to get going and write up some pages (yes, you've heard this before...).

This is also a reminder to the 20 people that I sent PWE's to that tomorrow is the last day for your 100 words post submission.  At my last count, there were 7 that hadn't written posts yet.

On to page 35 and 36 of the SNI set:

Card 307:  Didi Gregorius, 2013 Topps Update Gold #307/2013.  Arizona card #9
Card 308:  Todd Helton, 2008 Topps Triple Threads #308/1350.  Colorado card #10
Card 309:  Alfredo Aceves, 2011 Topps Gold #309/2011.  Boston card #10

Card 310:  James Russell, 2011 Topps Gold #310/2011.  Chicago Cubs card #9
Card 311:  Matt Garza, 2009 Topps Gold #311/2009.  Tampa Bay card #13
Card 312:  Dontrelle Willis, 2005 Bowmans Best #312/899.  Miami card #11

Card 313:  Casey Lawrence, 2012 Bowman Blue #313/500.  Toronto card #18
Card 314:  Dale Murphy, 2011 Gypsy Queen brown frame #314/999.  Atlanta card #13
Card 315:  Sam LeCure, 2011 Topps Gold #315/2011. Cincinnati card #10

Favorite card on this page would have to be the Dale Murphy GQ card.  Love that Topps started including some stars from the 70's and 80's in sets, and Murph in the powder blue Braves uniform is a great looking card for me.  I was responsible for 6 of the 9 cards on this page, the first two coming from two separate National Conventions.

Card 316:  Dexter Fowler, 2009 Topps Unique #316/1199.  Colorado card #11
Card 317:  Jason Marquis, 2003 Topps Chrome gold #317/449.  Atlanta card #14
Card 318:  Edgar Renteria, 2011 Topps Update Gold #318/2011.  Cincinnati card #11

Card 319:  Brian Fuentes, 2008 Topps Triple Threads #319/1350.  Colorado card #12
Card 320:  Joe Mauer, 2011 Topps Chrome Heritage #320/1962.  Minnesota card #8
Card 321:  Adrian Gonzalez, 2008 Topps Co-Signers #321/400.  San Diego card #13

Card 322:  Tim Hudson, 2013 Topps gold #322/2013.  Atlanta card #15
Card 323:  Will Venable, 2012 Topps gold #323/2012.  San Diego card #14
Card 324:  Jordan Walden, 2012 Bowman blue #324/500.  LA Angels card #17

Not a great group of cards to choose a favorite from, but if I had to, it would be the Renteria card.  I like how the throwing from the knees looks, even though it's hard to see because of the border.

This page only has 2 cards (Fowler and Walden) that came from purchases I made.  The other 7 cards came from 6 different bloggers, with the only person accounting for 2 is Dennis from Too Many Verlanders.

Detroit and Pittsburgh still lagging far behind the pack so far with only 3 & 4 cards shown respectively.  Hopefully soon we'll start seeing cards from those 2 teams.

Thanks for reading, Robert