Hawaii Five-Seven

One of the sets that I've had some really good luck acquiring during 2019 is the '83 Topps set.  I've pulled in a lot of this set from trades, along with some generous starter sets as well from the blogosphere.   Most recently, I received 57 cards from regular trade partner Al (TCDB ID:alh) from the great state of Hawaii.

1983 Topps is the 4th set that Al's sent me a large packet of cards of, as want lists are no match for his trade box...

I didn't take the time to scan everything (cough, lazy), but I did manage 3 pages worth of cards to show off, including Aurelio Rodriguez in his old school White Sox jersey which is a stark contrast to their 70's style black and white unis.  I loved Cliff Johnson when he was with the Jays as he was the right handed portion of the DH platoon that featured names such as Willie Aikens, Al Oliver and Jorge Orta.  Numbers note for Cliff, he hit more HRs and had more RBI's as a Blue Jay than he did with any of the other franchises he played for.

Love the wad of chaw/gum featured in the cheek of Rick Manning's inset photo.  Rusty Staub doesn't look like he aged much during his 20 years in the bigs, huh?  Would love to see the Brewers bring back the gold on the front panel of their caps for a retro night some time in the future. 

The FuManchu mustache that Rich Gossage grew made a big difference in how he looked.  Did Alan Trammell ever go above 170 lbs. during his career?  Every photo I can remember of him he looks so thin.  I think the only player that I don't remember on this page is Don Werner, so I decided to look up his career stats.  Turns out '82 was his last season in MLB, and the most games he ever played in a season was 50.  Both his career homers were off of lefties named Bob; Owchinko was on the Padres and Knepper was on the Giants.  They were hit 2 days apart in 1977...

The '83 Topps want list is now below 30 cards, and this weekend's card show may be a hunt for the two big name RC's I need from the set, Sandberg and Gwynn.  Finishing this up early in the new year shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

One almost done and one almost half done

So I decided to grab a couple of cards on ebay from the Battersbox, and for some reason I only bought one card from 2 different sets.   Don't really know what my thought process was that day, but I added a HOF hitter from the '76 Topps baseball set and a HOF defenseman from the '71-72 OPC hockey set.

For just over $3, this Mike Schmidt card found its way here.  After my COMC order arrives, my want list for the '76 Topps set is down to just 20 cards.  That along with the 79T and 82T sets will likely be finished early in the new year (hopefully).  I'm quite excited about this, because I've kind of overwhelmed myself with catching up on all these older sets, and knocking a few of them off my want list will probably let me breathe just a bit.

For a little over $5, I grabbed this Serge Savard card, which is in great shape.  I'm starting to run low on commons that I need for the '71-72 OPC set, so I've resigned myself to grabbing star and semi-star cards when I can find them at a decent price.  My biggest concern about this set is condition, especially paper loss on the back and creasing on the front, and this card has no problems at all which means that I'm quite happy!  The 71-72 OPC set is just 9 cards short of the halfway point, and while I don't expect it to be finished anytime soon, I'm pleased with how I've progressed so far.

I may just hit ebay really quick this evening and see if I can take advantage of the 8% bucks available and find a couple of more cards for these sets...

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Want list Wednesday: 1982 Topps

So a couple of days ago, I receive a couple of plain white envelopes in the mail.  No big deal right?  We get them all the time.   Funny thing is, I only expected one of them.  The other one came from Colorado.

It was sent August the 14th.

Yes, it took 110 days for a PWE to get from CO to FL.  No damage to the envelope.   It was addressed correctly as well.  The thought is that either the envelope wound up in a big bag that never got completely emptied, or it fell between a dock door and a trailer to the ground and never got picked up.

It happens.

The Carlton Fisk you see here was one of 5 1982 Topps cards in the envelope that I never did try to replace (the 7 '89 Upper Deck cards I eventually did pick up).  So these 5 cards bring down the want list to just 25 cards, as you'll see below...

50 Buddy Bell

191 Tim Wallach RC

300 Reggie Jackson

328 Ed Farmer

341 Andre Dawson AS

355 Dwight Evans

433 Alan Ashby

446 Wayne Garland

475 Alan Trammell

493 Chet Lemon

500 Rod Carew

501 Rod Carew IA

502 Braves Future Stars - Steve Bedrosian / Brett Butler / Larry Owen RC

545 Reggie Smith

553 Dave Winfield AS

582 Luis Pujols

600 Dave Winfield

608 Jerry Royster

624 Fergie Jenkins

651 Carl Yastrzemski IA

750 Jim Rice

755 Joe Morgan IA

766 Twins Future Stars - Lenny Faedo / Kent Hrbek / Tim Laudner RC

770 Rich Gossage

781 Pete Rose IA

Just the Tim Wallach and Braves Future Stars RC's left, along with about a dozen star cards to find.  Probably will not see any of these at next weekend's card show, so I might just wait to the new year to finish this off.  {EDIT:  4 cards already removed via trade offer on TCDB}

Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will see this list and find some (or all) of these and let me know.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

This trade made me a little Chipper

Now before you get in a panic and ask me why I'm starting a Chipper Jones collection, I'm not.  I happened to complete a small trade recently on the Trading Card Database that netted me 3 cards that feature Chipper Jones, but fit into 3 different collections.

First, a card from 1997 Pinnacle:

I'm guessing that this is the contestants from that years Home Run Derby, and it's quite the star studded group here.   The main reason this came my way?  Top row, 3rd from left is Jim Thome.

I finally got around to adding my entire Jim Thome collection to the TCDB, and put up a want list as well.  Heckuva cool card to be the first one to come my way since adding the Jim Thome list.

2008 Upper Deck X die cut is up next.  I'm slowly making my way through this set after restarting the chase a few months ago.  Chipper is the 75th card in hand, just 25 to go. 

I started picking up the Captured on Canvas jersey cards several years ago, and then backed off of them for a few years.  I never traded them or sold them, just suspended the chase.  Now I've got the want list on the TCDB, and now I have 28 out of the 90 card set.  I believe I added 1 or 2 of these to my last COMB purchase; I'm sure I'll show it/them off when they arrive in a week or 2. 

I'm now up to 146 completed trades for the year on the TCDB, which includes one that I had written off until yesterday.  I'll write more about that in a few days as it's another interesting story from the USPS.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

When last we met...

It's been a while, almost two months since I've posted anything on the blog.   Haven't had the urge to write to be honest.  Extra time to sit down and come up with something has also been at a premium.

But since it's thanksgiving morning (Happy Thanksgiving to all in the US!) and I've nothing to do until football starts in about 4 hours, I figured I'd sit down and update a post from the beginning of July.

I'd posted 8 sets on the blog that I thought I had a chance of finishing (at various levels of confidence).  Here's how I'm doing in that regard...

1.  95-96 Collector's Choice Players Club hockey.  This was finished about 2 weeks after the original post.   The final cards can be seen in this post.

2.  1976-77 OPC hockey.  Original post stated I had 9 cards remaining.

I found the Bobby Orr you see above for cheap, and a few weeks later I snagged the Ken Dryden on ebay during a 10% ebay bucks promotion.  The final 4 cards, including the Tiger Williams RC, are in my COMC cart, so this one is done.

3.  1989 Upper Deck baseball.  Original post stated I had 25 cards left to obtain.

I traded for this Randy Johnson RC recently on the TCDB website, and that left me with just 2 cards on the want list.   Ken Griffey Jr. and Omar Vizquel.  I'll see if I can find something cheap this weekend and put this one to bed as well.



4.  2012-13 OPC hockey.  Original post stated I had 18 cards left to go.

This Pelle Lindbergh SP was part of a recent Sportlots order that brought my want list down to 8, with 2 of those in my current COMC cart.   Black Friday weekend is here, hopefully I can get the last 6 bought and have this one done also.

5. 1976 Topps Baseball.  Original post boasted a want list of 47 cards.

Found this Willie Randolph RC in a box of cards I was about to add onto the TCDB trade list, and I've been whittling away at this want list here and there on COMC.

The want list is down to 21 cards, but with Hank Aaron and Nolan Ryan on the list, I don't think this will get done in 2019.  2020 for sure...

6.  2013-14 OPC hockey.   The original post had this at 36 cards left...

This Calvin Pickard RC was one of 2 cards I bought on the same Sportlots order as the Pelle Lindbergh above.  My absolute stubbornness (read cheapness) sees the ridiculous prices on some of the SPs, and the want list is still at 28 cards to go.   This isn't happening in 2019 unless a minor miracle happens.

7.  1981 Topps baseball.   185 cards left on this want list back in July

I'm as happy as Hector Cruz to say that the 185 card want list has all but vanished.   2 of the 3 cards I need are in my COMC cart, the only one on the want list left is #358 Mark Wagner.  

Done.

8.  1973 Topps baseball.   2 cards on the want list back in July.   Mike Schmidt RC and the high series checklist.

Status quo.


With those out of the way, I've made some strides on some other sets over the past few months, such as '79 Topps  (29 left to go and 3 in the COMC cart);

1983 Topps has just 93 cards to go (I believe the list was over 300 to go in July)

And I've added another want list page for a couple of parallel sets I've been chipping away at, one of them being 2008 Upper Deck X die cut

And the 2019 Gypsy Queen green parallel set is also there; I've passed the 50% mark on that quest.

So, even though I haven't been writing, there's still lots going on with my collection. 

If you're on TCDB, my trade list and want list are under my ID rmitchell6700.  I hit the 140 trade mark for 2019 this week, got a shot at 150 by year's end...

Thanks for reading!

Robert