De Lux

As I close in on the 250 transactions completed milestone on the TCDB website, I still lament about not getting started sooner.  No worries though, as I seem to be making up for lost time quickly.  The latest trade that I'm highlighting tonight is from another repeat trade partner, Brandon (TCDB ID: stoob).  Knocked off 11 cards from various want lists on this deal, starting with a few from the monster that is 2007 Upper Deck.

Roughly a month ago I decided to add a boat load of base cards and minor parallels to my Ichiro want list, and boy have people come knocking with them!  This trade made my Ichiro collection grow past the 250 card mark with the two above, and the '09 Upper Deck Icons below...

I don't know what it is about the '07 UD card that features him in his All Star jersey, but I really like the card and it has become a instant favorite in my Ichiro collection.  The Thome collection is slowly closing in on the 600 card mark, making me start to wonder if a 2nd binder is in the works.

I'm now just about ready for Series 2 to come out as these 6 cards knock me down to just one left on the Series 1 want list.  I found out that it helps to get a want list up for a current product quickly, as there's a lot of collectors out there looking to move doubles as fast as they can.

The only card I need to finish Series 1?  Number 292.   Gavin Lux.

Thank you for the trade Brandon, the cards are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

Lightning strike

Had 3 PWE's roll in today, made me feel pretty good I must admit.  It's good to see that there are folks out there that are still willing to trade and ship cards on a moment's notice.

One of the three envelopes that arrived was from Justin (TCDB ID: Lightningfan7609), a repeat trade partner.  It's actually one that I initiated, as I saw that he had quite a few 2020 Heritage needs come across my trade list, and I looked at his trade list and spotted a page worth of cards that I needed.

Two days in a row Marcus Stroman is featured on the blog, I didn't put him in the #1 card slot on purpose though.  Had no idea who Tom Anderson was, so I read the card.  Makes sense now, I have never used Myspace, and probably never will.  A&G teaches me something today.

Was also happy to see a card featuring the Big Cat, Andres Galarraga (I always have to stop and check when typing his last name).  I'd forgotten that Andres extended his career until his age 43 season, getting 10 AB's in 2004 with the Angels.  I'd also forgotten that he played in Texas in '01, and for the Giants in both '01 and '03.

Nine more cards in gets me to 201 in hand, just over 57% done.  I didn't care much for the look of this set when it first came out, but much like other A&G sets, it's grown on me over time.  

Thank you for the trade Justin, the cards are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

Thick as a brick

I really haven't bothered much over the past year and a half trying to add to my Blue Jays hits collection.   I've been so focused with trying to complete sets that anything else has been set aside.

So a couple of weeks ago when I saw my favorite twitter card seller Joe (@cheapcardsales) offer up this card for $3.50, I took the bait.

2019 Topps Tier One Marcus Stroman jersey card.   Great blue swatch!  Needless to say I grabbed a bunch of other cards with this one, most of those will be posted on Saturday's serial numbered post.

This is the first card I've added to the Blue Jays hits page since last August, and it is pretty thick.  I don't know what it is about the thicker jersey cards that I like, it shouldn't make a difference thin or thick, right?

I follow a lot of card sellers on twitter, but Joe is the only one that I buy from regularly.  The communication is great, he ships fast and is patient with me when I ask to verify what I have purchased.  I generally write down what I claim from Joe, but this last stack I'd forgotten about this card and another in my total.  He was kind enough to type out all the cards I bought, and showed appreciation that I actually keep track to make sure we're on the same page.

I guess there's a few others out there who don't keep track.

Thank you Joe for the cards, they are appreciated!!  More to come...

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Serial Saturday #34: SNI revisited

So my wife and I are on the back porch just chatting earlier today when she brings up that I could revisit the Serial Numbered Insanity set in a post or two if needed.  Today is Saturday after all, so I figured why not?

So I brought up the Random.Org number generator and had it pick a number between 1 and 1500.  Up came 434.

Miguel Flores, 2009 Bowman Chrome refractor.

One of the pitfalls of putting the set together was getting cards like this and not knowing anything about the player.  I decided to hit up baseball reference dot com and it took a couple of minutes, but there's a story worth telling.

Miguel didn't make it past Rookie ball in the Cardinals organization, and spent the final 3 years of his career playing Independent ball in the North East.  In 2009, he played for a team called the American Defenders of New Hampshire, who were formerly known as the Nashua Pride.  They were part of a league known as the Canadian-American Association, which is still running with half a dozen teams.

The Defenders squad lasted just one season, and couldn't even finish that.  Their uniforms were designed in the style of military camouflage, and the team's mascot was a soldier doll named "9-11".  Well, it didn't seem to take very well in the town of Nashua, as crowds were sparse and debts piled up.  The town finally had had enough and parked a tractor on home plate so they couldn't finish their remaining scheduled home games.  Miguel started 19 games for the club and had the 2nd most wins on the team with 6.  Miguel moved with the team to Pittsfield for the next 2 seasons, and by the time the 2012 season rolled around he was out of baseball, at least as far as I could see.

Funny how finding random cards can expand one's baseball knowledge, even if it is about an obscure independent baseball league.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert