You never know what you'll run across on Twitter

So on the weekend I was on twitter when I came across a thread that advertised cards for $5 or less.   A pretty good idea I thought, so I started scrolling down all the tweets.  I figured that I was going to find mostly newer cards on the thread, but I put on the "you never know" hat and kept on scrolling.

Then remarkably, I found this card.

 I like a good deal like everyone else, but seeing this come across at just $4(!) was astounding.  I had to do 2 things first.

1. Check and see if I needed the card for the set.  I did
2. Take a closer look, at least as close as I could online.

I thought it was decent enough even with the tape marks top and bottom on the front, so I sat there for a few minutes deciding whether I wanted the card.   

Then I thought to myself, when am I going to find another Billy Martin '59 Topps for $4.  I told the seller Joe (@joewilk) that I'd take it.  Today it arrived.   One closer to the set, and I'm quite happy.  68 to go.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Serial Saturday #42: 90 99's

No, that doesn't mean I own 90 Wayne Gretzky cards.   It means that with my recent stack purchase from Joe who runs Cheap Cards on Twitter, my serial #'d out of 99 PC is now up to 90 cards.

I've stuck with the goal.  No purchases over $2.50.  Trades have also been a part of some of the PC as well and I have had a couple of folks send me cards for this just because.

Had no idea who Buddy Hield is.  Love the Crown Royale cards though and the blue parallel (looks purple doesn't it?) fits the serial #'d to 99 mantra.  

I'm sure that most everyone out there knows who Boomer Esiason is and this Panini Spectra base card serial #'d out of 99 cost me a couple bucks.  It's also thick as a brick, so I can burn some calories by picking it up and putting it down a few times.

Confusion reigned supreme for me with this card featuring Mitch Haniger.  Hunted for 2017 Panini Absolute, there is no such animal.  After a few minutes hunting around, I found this card as an insert to the 2017 Panini Chronicles set.  It was a buck, so the price was right though!

Where better than the Sunshine state for a bunch of orange Donruss Optic parallels to end up?  Couple were $2.50, the rest were $2 apiece and they were easy enough to enter on the TCDB.  

At least I can say that I've heard of 8 of the 9 guys on this post.  And....I keep on finding more '99s both on twitter and on ebay.  As long as they fit the bill, I'm happy....

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

 

The missing 1

Today I get to tell another story of postal woes.  I'm not complaining, it's not all their fault, but a little bit of effort could have saved these cards from my buddy Joe (@cheapcardsales on twitter) having to resend this package.

Just to let you know, these cards you're about to see traveled approximately 3900 miles to get to my mailbox.  Let's have a chuckle while I explain...

I believe that this is the fourth time I've purchased a stack of cards from Joe from his weekly sales, and never an issue.  Prices are good, Joe takes care when it comes to shipping, and you always get prompt shipping and the tracking ID so you can follow the package.

gotta get them serial #'d cards on the cheap!

I believe that these were shipped Columbus Day week, and I was due to receive them on the Friday after.  I checked the email Friday afternoon, and no package.  I looked at the tracking online and it had an alert.  Package due to be sent back because of an incorrect address.

I sent a quick message to Joe for follow up.  Joe replied that he used the same address as in the past.  Turns out the package was missing a 1 (my address starts with 2 1's.)

I know that my mail carrier gets back to the post office late, as our mail usually comes later in the afternoon.   The next day I head over to the post office, worked out well because I had something to ship anyhow.

These multi colored Prizm's are evil

While at the post office, I talk to the manager, provide her with my tracking ID and inquire about the package.  She comes back a couple minutes later and says that the fellow who does the returns is at lunch, but she would let him know what the correct address is (which I provided her, along with my phone #) and they would call me and let me know.

Needless to say, I never did get a phone call, and the package got returned back to New York state that evening.  Took a week to get back to Joe, then he had to reship back to me (including the T.Y. card above as a kind gesture) which I'm positive he paid out of pocket for.

Choo and CP3 add to the serial #'d/99 PC

Had the USPS bothered to take less than 2 minutes to add a single "1" to the package, these cards wouldn't be so tired after travelling 3900 miles.

I'm sure the USPS wonders why people rip them as they do.   It was a simple process.  They just didn't bother following through.  

Joe, thank you for the cards.  Much appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby

Robert

Monochro-o-ome

 For those of you that are of the 50ish age era, you might be able to guess what the inspiration for the title was.  I'll put the video in at the end of the post just in case you didn't know...

Recently, Nicole (@nic_andersen) on twitter offered up a bunch of Dallas Stars cards for sale.  Not that I'm a Stars fan by any stretch, but there was one card in the group that caught my eye immediately.

I had bought a few of these a while back from Kin and immediately took a shine to the look of the card.  I'm not a big jersey card collector, but if the set looks good (in my opinion) I'll give it a look.  Nicole gave me a good price on the card, and asked if there was anything else she could send to fill out the envelope.

Leafs all day!  Figured I would get some commons from recent sets, which wouldn't have been bad as I've started chasing those as well.   Nope...

Calle Rosen and Rasmuis Sandin rookies!!  I even enjoyed the Alex Kerfoot rookie even though he's pictured in an Avalanche jersey,  I was happy the Leafs were able get Kerfoot in the trade with the Avs last year, and I think now that Manny Malhotra is an assistant coach with the club, he'll help develop Kerfoot into the 3rd line center that the Leafs really need.

I really haven't seen many of the Allure cards in hand, so getting ahold of one, a Sandin RC no less, was a great pleasure, and I've not given up on Calle Rosen yet either.  

Kodachrome is one of the older songs from Paul Simon that I still remember, and it reminds me of camping in Northern Ontario back in the 70's, which we did every summer.  

Thank you to Nicole for the great package, I highly recommend to all of you out there whenever she tosses out a pic or 2 of cards for sale.  

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Serial Saturday #37: More cheap cards

Somehow in the midst of all the craziness that's going on with the post office now, I was able to receive my latest bubble mailer of cards from Joe, whom I know as @cheapcardsales on Twitter.  The moniker is perfect for my type of buying, as Joe usually has some very good deals on cards, and his shipping rates are also very reasonable.

The 4 cards in this envelope that fit the Saturday theme are all #'d out of 99, bringing that mini collection up to 57 cards.

All 4 cards this week are color themed, starting with this bright purple Prizm from 2014 that features Derek Holland of the Texas Rangers.  Serial #'d 47/99 on the back and like anything Prizm related, the purple really scans well and looks good in hand.

Big Mac!  Haven't seen many parallels featuring Mark McGwire for cheap, and grabbing this green one from 2019 Topps Tribute was a no brainer for me.  Yes, I'm still keeping to the $2.50 max price for these cards.

This is the orange parallel from the 2019 Panini Rookies & Stars set featuring the Chargers Keenan Allen.  The scan really looks more red than orange but it still fits the bill, serial #'d 70/99.   I like the photo, as it appears that there's a couple of Ravens well behind Keenan.  Couldn't happen to a better team!

Another orange parallel, and what I believe is the first insert as part of the #'d/99 collection, Julio Jones is a star that I couldn't resist having in hand.  2nd straight card from the 2019 Panini Rookies and Stars set, the Rookies & Stars logo is the only part that is orange, and again scanned red.

I think I'm going to try and see if I can collect all the serial #'s 1 through 99 in this collection, a small homage to the Serial Numbered Insanity set I finished a few years back.  Why not?  What's another project added to all the others I have going.

Thank you for the cards Joe, I appreciate what you're doing in offering these up for cheap.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

A bit of Sakic RAK

The card community on Twitter is a very strong one, and once in a while it reminds me that it's a generous one as well.

I received a message from Mike a couple weeks back (@ugxtall88 is his twitter handle) saying that he had some Joe Sakic cards I may need for the PC.   Didn't want to be too greedy, but said that his 2nd scan of 5 cards were ones that I needed, and I asked him what was he looking for in return.

All he asked for was my address so he could send them to me.   Nice!!

1996-97 Donruss Canadian Ice O Canada die cut insert, #'d out of 2000!  I've wanted this card for a long time, but thought it overpriced on a lot of sites, even though it's serial #'d.   I decided to look today on COMC, and it's a lot cheaper than I remember it being, so maybe prices are starting to come down a bit on these.

1995-96 Donruss Elite Die Cut insert, another cart I've been hunting for a while but hadn't found any copies cheap enough to warrant grabbing.   I already have the base card that matches this, so the only card I need from this set is the Uncut Die Cut (oxymoron??) that's going for around $20.

1995-96 Select Certified Gold Team card.  Another card I've been wanting for a long time but too unwilling to pull the trigger on.  Now it's here to stay.

1997-98 Select Certified Cornerstone.  This card I don't ever recall seeing while hunting for Sakic cards, so this was a very nice add to the collection.   I didn't even have it on my TCDB want list so I'm sure I've probably passed by it many times but never really took notice.

2002-03 Pacific Atomic is a set I've always liked and I now just need the red and blue parallels for the rainbow for this set.  This card is a lot more sturdy than I remember that set being, so I'm wondering if it's a parallel that I'm not aware of.

Closing in on the 800 card plateau, just 6 more to hit the mark.  I probably have jersey cards lying around somewhere that I haven't bothered to put on the TCDB site, maybe that's a project I should get around to doing sometime this week.

Thank you for the Sakic's Mike!!  They are really appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Serial Saturday #35: 50 in the rearview mirror

Never did I think that I would hit the 50 card mark for my #'d/99 project so quickly, but here I am!  I hit the mother load with 8 cards on my last twitter purchase for this set; I was actually going to post these last Saturday, but I never got around to writing anything that day.  There's a nice mix among the 8 cards I'm about to show, football, basketball and baseball.

Love the powder blue uniform on Melvin Gordon of the Chargers, I certainly wouldn't be upset if they went to these full time instead of the darker blues.  This is from the 2018 Panini Classics set, #'d 78/99

I don't know much about today's basketball players, so I'm kind of learning on the fly when picking up cards to fill this set.  Andre Drummond is nicknamed "the Big Penguin", maybe not the greatest moniker if you're a basketball player (assuming that it's for his running style), but his numbers on the court seem pretty solid.  Andre's averaging 17 pts and 15 rebounds per game so far this year.

Tony Allen is another player that I couldn't have said anything knowledgable about before writing this post, but it appears that his career finished up a couple of seasons ago.  13 years in the league as what appears to me as a starter for about half of the games he appeared in, averaging just over 8 points a game for his career.

Next up we have J.J. Hickson whose NBA career ended in the 2015-16 season,  He started just under 60% of the games he appeared in, and averaged 9.5 pts per game for the 5 teams he played for.

Both of these cards were from the 15-16 Hoops set, Artist Proof parallels.  Both scanned really well, the shine really pops on the scan, just as if you're tilting it in your hands.

The last four cards are all baseball, and I'm saving the best player for last...

All 3 of these cards are from the 2016 Diamond Kings baseball set, more Artist Proof parallels.  They're all recognizable names as well, which is great, and all of them were just a buck apiece.  I've been kind of a semi fan of Matt Carpenter, mostly for his hitting.  I like that he doesn't use batting gloves, and he reminds me of how Albert Pujols was for the Cardinals in the early stages of his career, playing multiple positions.  Carpenter's average has been sliding for the past couple of seasons, but has had some good power numbers to make up for it.

Last up is a hall of famer, and a card that hit the budget ceiling of $2.50.  Loved when I saw this Rod Carew card up for sale, and I especially like the '58 design front and back.

#'d 55/99, and I believe that each card in this order had their own unique serial #.  Has me thinking that I might just see if eventually I can fill all the #'s from 1-99 for this little collection.

These 8 cards bring the collection up to 52 cards, almost 6 pages worth.  I do have a couple of more in my COMC cart, so in a few weeks when they start shipping again, we'll be in the mid 50's.   No rush right now though, as the world is on a bit of a pause....

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

Week in review: Progress made on a couple of fronts

I've wanted for quite a while to start up the weekly review posts that I used to write on Friday's a long time ago.  Seeing as I'm dedicating to doing things this year such as finishing off 10 sets, I'm going to try and dedicate some of my energy to these Friday posts.

So, let's begin.

I went a few bucks over the mythical $30 spending limit, but unlike in the past where I spent it willy-nilly on crazy stuff, I'm working towards finishing a few sets.

$20 deposited in the COMC account helped me finish up the '82 Topps set, grab a few cards for the '83 Topps set, and have them shipped my way with just under $5 left in the account.

A couple more exhibits from a recent TCDB trade

Oh, and by the way, COMC raised their shipping rate for the economy shipping level to $4.99 at the beginning of the year.  Adjust accordingly...

Woke up this morning and turned on twitter, and lo and behold Beau (@onemillioncubs on twitter) had a link to his eBay auctions.  I've enjoyed reading his exploits as he heads towards his 1M card goal, so I clicked on the link.  To my surprise, the first card on his auction list was the Tony Gwynn '83 Topps RC.   Big Brother is definitely watching.

So along with a cheap Ryne Sandberg RC I had in my cart, and using the $4.25 eBay bucks I had accumulated, the 2 key pieces I had remaining for the '83 set are on their way for just over $12. 

Finally, off to the post office I went this morning to send off one trade envelope for $4, which will net me a couple of key cards in the '19 GQ Green parallel set that I needed, along with a nice boost to my T.Y. Hilton collection.  Hopefully I'll be able to show them off sometime toward the end of next week.

So, spent just over $36 this week, not too bad considering I have a nice bunch of cards headed my way. 

Fingers crossed that I can keep up these Friday posts...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Inbound and Down #39: Torren' Up Cards

A few weeks ago Kenny from the Torren' Up Cards blog sent me a tweet, asking if I still had a JT Miller card to finish off his New York Rangers team set from this year's Upper Deck release.

I told him that indeed I did, and had a couple of other cards to send his way, the nicest being a Henrik Lundqvist stick/jersey combo that was just waiting to get into the hands of a Ranger collector.  With Kenny still being rather new to collecting hockey, I thought that card would get him well on his way.

Kenny mentioned he was worried about what he was going to send back.  He's actually been quite generous to me in the past, so I tweeted him that all I wanted was a couple of Ichiro cards.

Bingo!!  I would have been happy if that was all that was in the envelope for the reasons I mentioned above.  

Nope.  There's more...

A lot of Blue Jays youth here, including Bo Bichette whom Jays fans are drooling over (along with Vlad Guerrero Jr.).  Maybe in another year or 2 the Jays will have the best young hitting tandem to come along at the same time in who knows how long!!

I still need a lot of Blue Jays cardboard, especially in OPC form, so this '92 copy of Greg Myers hits the spot.   Frederik Andersen has been the toast of Toronto since Saturday, pretty much standing on his head while the Leafs won games 5&6 against the Bruins.  I cannot wait until game 7 tomorrow night, it should be a barn burner.

With all those in there, Kenny was still not done.  Now the autograph card he sent me isn't a player that I routinely collect, but the card itself really impressed me.

You know what, I don't want to take it out of the toploader.  I don't want to break the seal.  This is a really sweet Edgar Martinez autograph!

I also thought of three letters when I saw this.  N  F  S

They don't mean not for sale (although that is true), for me they mean Nice F@#$ing Signature!!

With all the lousy efforts you see on cards by athletes these days, this Edgar Martinez autograph is the opposite.  It is a great effort by a classy player.  I don't usually make a fuss over autos, but this card might change my opinion...

Thank you for the cards Kenny, they are appreciated!!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #34: @NHLCardSale

I actually follow quite a few card sellers on twitter.  Most of them end up finding me, either because of the blog, or because one of you follow me on twitter and the seller follows me through your want list.   You get it...

I finally decided to take a splash when I spotted Kenny who runs the @NHLCardSale handle. He posted that he had a few Felix Potvin cards for $8, and since I hadn't added anything to my Felix PC in quite a while, I told him that they were sold.

A pair of jersey cards and a serial #'d card from Pacific Atomic in all their purple and black splendor.  I love how well the Purple on Felix's mask shows on the cards.

A couple of base cards round out the 5 cards for the Potvin PC.  I especially love the vintage style Leafs jersey that is on the 2013-14 Fleer Showcase card on the right.

I spent just over $20 in total with Kenny, so he threw in free shipping and a bunch of Leafs base cards.  The scary thing is, it's as if he could see a want list that I haven't even finished yet, because all the cards that he sent were ones that I needed.  Love the Retro OPC's on the bottom of Polak and Devereaux. 

I also hadn't seen any of Upper Deck Portfolio before this envelope came as well, and I really like the look of the set with the dark brown borders.  I may have to try and pick some more of that up in the future.

I like the look of the Monochromatic jersey cards from SPx. I decided to add a few of these to my trade bait.  There's a Nazem Kadri version for the Leaf lover in me that I'm going to have to find.  I'm sure that the blue will look great in my collection.

Thank you Kenny for the great cards, they are appreciated!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #33: Torren Up Cards

I recently completed a twitter trade with Kenny (better known as Zippy Zappy) of Torren' Up Cards fame.  I had some cards he needed for his Series 1 UD Hockey build he's working on, and in return he sent me a couple of "packs" of cards (a great idea BTW, thank you Kenny).

Both of the packs had hits, which never happens to me, so I may have to buy some more product from Kenny in the future...

Let's look at the packs, shall we?

Pack 1:

Keeping true to form with real life packs, these are doubles.  Nothing wrong with Blue Jays doubles though, especially when one of them features John Buck's cool Jays mask.

Some early 90's hockey featuring a couple of Leafs defensemen.  I know that I have the Ellett, but I'm not sure about the Pro Set Iafrate AS card.  Will have to hunt to see if I had it already ( I really don't think I do).

One of my favorite hockey sets to rip, MVP is always welcome here.  The Tyler Bozak is the silver signature version, and I'm pretty sure I needed all 3 of these.  Nice!

Some more Jays to round out the pack, including an auto of Jays 2014 draft pick Sean Reid-Foley!  Love getting autos, especially when it's a player that I need to research.   Foley pitched in AA New Hampshire for the Jays last year, winning 10 games with an ERA just above 5.   He's still only 22, so there's still time for him to develop.

What I also loved, and purposely scanned, is the penny sleeve with the price of the card in Japanese Yen (I'm assuming that was the price).  I did the conversion, 150 Japanese Yen is $1.35.  Give it a few years, that may be a steal!!

Pack 2:

More true to life form....doubles

More Leaf needs, including 3 cards from this year's Series 1 UD.  Blue and white never gets old....

I had not seen this card until I pulled it out of the pack.   Love it, one of Bill Barilko's classic photos from the early 50's.  Sadly, a life taken way too young....

Finally, a couple of Auston Matthews cards rounded out pack #2

The UD series 1 Shining Stars insert, and its red parallel brother!!!   I am sadly lacking in Matthews cards, so seeing these brought an instant smile to my face.  I don't plan on moving these anytime soon.

Fantastic envelope Kenny, thank you very much!!  Love the packs idea as well, it was fun getting to open a couple of "packs" while I'm on my 90 day hiatus.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and down #16: Twitter ID @MyNamePickle

This is the first time I have received an envelope from anyone off of twitter, let alone someone who I hadn't even come across on twitter until a couple of weeks ago.

@MyNamePickle, whose name is Eddy by the way, is the ID of a gentleman who also PC's Joe Sakic.   He tweeted about a set of 1990-91 Kraft cards, of which one of the photos just happened to be Joe.

I mentioned that I needed the Sakic, mostly because I wanted to look for it down the road, and by replying to him I hoped that I would remember.  Eddy replied back that he only had the one copy and that he had it in his PC.  No worries here I told him, I just replied so that I would remember the card for the future.

Lo and behold, Eddy retweeted me back and said that he had an extra copy, and if I would provide him my address, he'd send the card post haste.

This showed up in my mailbox yesterday, just under two weeks after the initial encounter:

The Kraft and Panini cards have long been a sore spot when it comes to my Sakic PC.  Until recently, I didn't have any of the food or sticker issues of Joe.   I've purchased a few Panini's over the past several weeks, and now I have one of the 2 second year Kraft cards of Sakic.

It's surprising to see that the back has only stats from his playoff appearances with his junior team in Swift Current.  No NHL stats at all, even though the card was licensed by both the NHL and NHLPA.  I thought that there might be at least his rookie stats on the card, but no luck there.

I've actually added 30 cards of Sakic on my own the past couple of weeks, but none of them compare to this card. 

It's amazing what collectors will do for each other.  It's random acts of kindness like this that reaffirm my faith in the hobby.

Thank you Eddy!  This card is truly appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert