Loot

Forgetful.   As I've gotten older, I struggle at times to remember things.  From the small to the very important, I've resorted to many methods of ensuring that I don't forget important dates or events (like my wife's birthday for example). 

One example of my forgetfulness is a PWE that I received while I was away on vacation from Gavin at the Baseball Card Breakdown blog.  I had won a prize in a contest he held a while back, but had totally forgotten about it.  As in what in the world am I getting from Gavin?

When I saw the first half dozen cards, the memory bank flashed back to a few weeks (I think it's weeks) ago.

The Tom Seaver lot was not right in my alley, but I did need the '83 Topps card for the set I'm putting together, and figured that I could put the others up for trade.   The Donruss Elite card of Aaron Sanchez is already obsolete to Jays fans as he was recently traded to the Astros.  The Zack Cozart card is a glossy parallel so that added a little oomph to the lot.

But wait, there's more!

I know from the scan it's hard to see, but this is an autograph of Daniel Corcino from 2013 Bowman.  He is long since gone from the Reds system, and is now property of the Dodgers.  He's had a few good seasons in the Dominican Winter League, and has had a couple of brief stints in the majors, last with the Dodgers in 2018.  

Last up is 4 cards from my 1974 Topps want list, a very pleasant surprise indeed!  These cards bring my list down to just 101 cards to finish off the set.  While I don't believe that 2019 is in the cards for finishing this set, I'm sure that sometime in 2020 I'll be scanning and showing off the entire set for     everyone. 

Thank you very much Gavin for the cards, they are appreciated! 

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Nines

Got my package of winnings from Daniel at the It's like having my own card shop blog yesterday.  A fine envelope of goodies indeed.  The scan above features all kinds of colors, and one card that if you asked if it had any color you'd say negative.

All the 2010 Opening Day blue parallels are numbered, very nice.  For me, if the negative parallels were numbered there might be more excitement around them.   It's definitely a different idea for sure, but for me it's nothing to get excited about.

Daniel even sent me my own Paul Goldschmidt starter pack of nine cards.  OK, if you're looking closely it's 8 plus a double, but it's a nice thought so we're not going to split hairs here.   Love the Topps Finest card at the bottom center BTW.

Daniel spotted on one of my posts recently that I had started a John Olerud collection but I really didn't have anything aside from the Blue Jays cards I pulled out of my collection.  So 11 cards featuring John as a Mariner are now mine.   Diamond Kings cards are always great so I immediately gravitated to that card in the bottom center.

You may have noticed the improvement in quality of my scans today.  I've figured out the software for my new scanner, and the scans are turning out great.  3 sets of nine card scans have made me quite happy.

Sometimes though, just scanning one card is enough.  Love being able to add another hit to the Jays hits page.  I don't recall seeing any Home Run Derby jersey cards before, so this is a nice add as well.

Daniel, thank you for the package, it really is appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #43: Baseball Card Breakdown

It's funny how things happen sometimes.  The other day I received an envelope from Oscar after going through a period where I hadn't received anything in my mailbox card related.

Then, I received an email from everyone's famous custom creator, Gavin from the Baseball Card Breakdown blog asking me if I'd received a PWE that he had sent a week previous.  The answer I had was no, I hadn't received anything yet.

The email actually reminded me that I had won a contest at his blog a while back.   My memory isn't tested as much as it used to be, so it doesn't work quite as well.  But that's another story...

The PWE came on Saturday, and it was full of cards that hit home.

Perfect.  Not only is it a Joe Sakic card, but it's one of the top 10 most wanted cards for my player collections, listed on the top of my other blog which can be seen here.   The list is down to 9 cards now, and the number of followers on that blog is slowly creeping up (it's at 19 now).  Maybe if hits 30 by the end of July I'll do some kind of COMC giveaway here...

Everyone knows that serial #'d cards are a true weakness of mine, and Gavin didn't disappoint in this department.

2006 Topps Co-Signers silver/bronze Vernon Wells/Lyle Overbay, 7/125

Aaron Hill 2007 Bowman Chrome blue #120/150 and Alex Rios 2008 Bowman Chrome X-fractor #202/250.   Love em....

2015 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Green Jon Harris #28/99.  And to show how far behind the times I am with current card releases (more on this in my next post), a Jose Bautista 2017 Topps Gold Label (one of my all time favorite sets) blue parallel Class 1 #27/150.   I was very pleased to see the great response that Jose received in his return to Toronto last week.  I saw a few people on Twitter calling for him to be entered into the level of excellence and having his number 19 retired.  Not sure if I would go that far, but I certainly admit that he was a big part of the Blue Jays over the past decade.

Last, and certainly not least, Gavin sent me a couple of his specialties, customs!!!

Doesn't hurt that you learn a little something from custom cards, now does it?  I knew the name Nate Colbert but had absolutely no idea that he attended spring training with the Jays in 1977 before being forced to retire due to back problems.  Love the homage to him on a '77 design.

Now, I had to look twice at this card.  Originally, I thought it was a card of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who as most of you know is a big time prospect in the Jays minor league system.

Looking again I realized it was VG Sr.!  2012 design had me thinking "did VG ever play with the Jays?"  On the back Gavin noted that Guerrero hit .358 in the Jays minor league system (A/AAA) in 2012 before hanging up the spikes at the age of 36. 

These are great and will never not be a part of my Jays collection. 

Gavin, thank you very much for the cards, serial #'d and 1 of 1 customs.  They are very much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

1500 Post contest results

Thanks to all who entered and commented on the set, I wound up with 31 total entries.  I decided to give 2 prizes away, the winners of those you will see in the video.   I will be contacting them both this evening.

One card rule:

I know that there are a couple of Vlad Guerrero collectors out there.  My question to you, or anyone else out there is this "if your player appears on one of these rediscover Topps stamped cards, do you consider it a unique card in your collection?"  Why or why not?

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

Nice guys finish last and win stuff

I am back.  I've taken pretty much most of the past week off as my wife and I have my brother-in-law and his wife in town visiting.  So we've been fixing up stuff around the house and shopping for new things to add to the house.

But enough about that.   For those that are in the 100 word contest, the cards shipped yesterday and should be on my doorstep on Tuesday!  I hope to have all the envelopes out within a day or two after that.

I entered a contest on the Eamus Catuli blog a couple of months ago in which Tom asked what our card of the year was.  The randomizer put me dead last (!) after all was said and done, but Tom was gracious enough to send this lovable loser a prize none the less.

A hangar box of 2017 Topps showed up on my door step last week (see how much of a slacker I've been?) and I opened it a few days ago. 

Two of the best cards in the box were actually for Tom!  The '87 Future Stars Addison Russell and the rainbow foil Jorge Soler will probably end up in a envelope headed Tom's way in the future.  The Rediscover Topps cards certainly don't do anything for me what so ever.  Maybe it's because I pulled a 2011 Chase Utley.  Any Blue Jay would have been better for me, but you can't always get what you want.

Inserts:  OK, don't mind the blue and red striped award winner cards.  The Ken Griffey Jr. legend card is kind of bland design wise.  Over the years Topps Heritage has used the Then & Now theme for one of their insert sets, so it was surprising to see it in the flagship set.  Interesting the difference you see in Bryce Harper in just a few short years.  Doesn't have the baby-face anymore, and his upper body has filled out noticeably.  

I did pull a few Blue Jays from the hanger box (Grilli, Stroman, Happ and Sanchez), but this Gregory Polanco card is my early vote for card of the year in 2017.  How serendipitous was it that Topps features a card of him stretching for a catch in left field in PNC park, which is where he will be playing this year instead of his regular right field. 

About the set?  It's OK, for me it's nothing special.  The one thing I noticed when opening the box was the amount of horizontal cards there are in the set.  I pulled 15 of them in my hangar box alone.  Seems like a lot, doesn't it?

Tom, thank you for the hangar box you sent me, the cards are really appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Mail day for somebody

OK, let's random off the '54 Topps Duke Snider card.   Here's the final list:

Al Kawamoto (Early Bird)

Al Kawamoto

Marcus (Early Bird)

Jedi Jeff (Early Bird)
Jedi Jeff

Dime Box Nick (Early Bird)

Night Owl (Early Bird)

Adam K.

P-town Tom

Red Cardboard

Matt Scott

Hackenbush

Tony L.

Roger

Roger (Promo)

GCRL

RAZ

Mark Hoyle

The Lost Collector

The Lost Collector (Promo)

Nachos Grande

Daniel Wilson

Daniel Wilson (Promo)

Dan

Alex Markle

Dutch Card Guy

Kevin Papoy

Shane Kroeker

Greg Zakwin

Greg Zakwin (Promo)

Max

Max (Promo)

Unclemoe

ARPSmith

Jeff Laws

Wilson

Wilson (Promo)

Play at the Plate

Play at the Plate (Promo)

Hiflew

Deal

Chris Mays

Chris Mays (Promo)

Julie Owens

Julie Owens (Promo)

Captain Canuck

Defgav

GoGoSox60

Spiff

Nick

Need More Cardboard

CynicalBuddha

Tony

Junior Junkie

Praline

Jeff Y.

Aus

Ryan’s Pitch

Ryan’s Pitch (Promo)

Caitlin Jennings

Caitlin Jennings (Promo)

Stealing Home

Jeff S

Jeff S (Promo)

The Angels in Order

Richard

Duane

MMosley

Kyle Brown

Cardman99

Eric Eckstein

Paul Hadsall

Jim Saksa

Bru

Bru (Promo)

Kyle

Kyle (Promo)

Robert W. Tompkins

Commishbob

Randomizing 3 times and we get....

Jeff Laws is the winner!  Jeff, please send me an email with your address so I can send the card to you ASAP!  

Thank you all for entering.