A couple of penny sleeves worth of Blue Jays

A couple of mailers came in today with varying degrees of greatness.  The best part about both of them is they came from new trading partners.  It's always great to get some cards from some new people from the blogosphere.

Jon from a Penny Sleeve for your thoughts asked last week (maybe longer ago than that..) about the pair of buyback cards I pulled from the series 1 box from this year.  I was all too happy to send those to him, and in return he sent me a PWE with a nice helping of Blue Jays.

How about knocking off one entire set from my Blue Jays want list!  The 1983 Topps stickers set is suddenly gone thanks to Jon; these 8 stickers are in the books.  The one that made me look twice is in the lower right; the Jesse Barfield sticker photo almost doesn't look like him.  I was also very shocked a while ago when Jesse followed me on twitter (@JesseBarfield29).  I don't make it a habit of following a lot of pro athletes, so when Jesse followed me out of the blue, I quickly followed back.

The other penny sleeve in the envelope contained this '99 Black Diamond double diamond Roger Clemens card.  I had to look at the Blue Jays have list, because I didn't remember seeing any of these before today.  Sure enough, this is the first black diamond card I have.  Makes sense since there are only 2 Blue Jays featured in the set (Jose Cruz Jr. is the other).

For just a few pennies, some great cards made their way here.  Who says a penny can't get you anything anymore?

Thank you Jon!  The cards were greatly appreciated.

thanks for reading, Robert

Keep your eyes on your eyes

My days are spent in front of computers.  8 hours a day at work, and on days I'm blogging probably another 2-3 at home.  That's a lot of strain on the eyes.

The last two to three months, I've really had the desire to blog, but once I've sat down in front of the monitor in the evenings, I could feel the tiredness in my eyes.  The right one especially (which I can feel right now while I'm typing this), just hasn't been the same over the past few months.

One of the challenges of moving has been finding doctors that I like.  Today, I hit the eye doctor (who looks a lot like Bob Saget) and he told me flat out "I don't know how you've been managing lately".

My eyesight has really deteriorated, and my right eye is developing a cataract.  That diagnosis really explained a lot for me.  It's time to take better care of my eyes.

No more waiting 2 years for eye exams.  If I feel I'm tired in the evening, I'm not going to force myself in front of the computer to type. 

I can't afford to miss items like this when they come along. 

I'm also hoping that the cataract doesn't develop further to the point where I require surgery.  Maybe managing my time in front of the computer and protecting my eyes better while I'm in the sun will help that as well.

Yep, a little bit of a scare for my Saturday morning, but I'm better off now that I know what's going on.

Maybe it will help improve my blogging.....

thanks for reading, Robert

By the page: R.A. Dickey

Lost in all the pitching talk surrounding the Blue Jays in the off-season was R.A. Dickey.  With Buehrle retiring, Price moving to Boston, the J.A. Happ signing and all the talk about the younger pitchers, R.A. Dickey and his knuckleball come to spring training totally under the radar.

I'm hoping that he has one more good season left in his arm to help get the Jays to another post season this year.

I managed to find a page worth of cards to hopefully entertain you for a few minutes.

Top row:  Regular shiny

I thought about putting the Topps Tribute card in between the 2 Prizm cards, but in the end I believe the row looks better with the non-licensed cards together.

Hard to believe that 2016 is already going to be Dickey's 4th as a Blue Jay. 

Middle row:  Shiny with some color

Aligned the blue Tribute (#'d 8/99) with its mate above it, just because I thought it was best.  The Orange 2013 Chrome is the only horizontal card on the page, so I figured why not in the center?  I also just noticed that the Chrome photo of R.A. is different than the base.   A good thing!

Yes, I know that the Topps gold on the right isn't shiny...

Bottom row: The base cards

It's funny that I seem to notice things on cards more after I've scanned them and started writing.  The majority of cards featuring knuckleballers show them with the knuckleball grip.  Check out the Gypsy Queen on the right, that's definitely not a knuckleball grip. 

No jokes about Dickey being old enough to have actually been a part of the '57 set....

I thought after 3 seasons in Toronto I might have more R.A. Dickey cards, but I struggled to find 9 cards to fill a page. 

No doubt next week when I'm looking for someone else, I'll find a whole cache of R.A.'s cards.  That's just the way it is, right?

Thanks for reading, Robert

Two swoops

Not one, but two PWE's arrived last week from one of the more frequent trade partners of mine over my blogging time, Brian from the Play at the Plate blog.  Brian decided he was going to knock out a bunch of my '16 Topps want list, and he came close to knocking them all off.

I thought that Brock Holt was going to be a player for the Pirates for a long time when they brought him up a couple of seasons ago.   It was disappointing to see him go to Boston, where he's become a solid utility player.  That shot of him has a good shot of going into my top 10 countdown when I finish the set (hopefully in the next week or two).

Nothing much to write home about on these cards, not a photo that stands out.  Scherzer getting coated in chocolate after his no-hitter could have been a great base or variation photo.  Now that I reside in south Florida it will be interesting to see how much I hear about Christian Yelich (bottom center) as part of what appears to be a great outfield for the Marlins.

I made two swoops, or passes if you will, through the cards I have for the '16 series 1 set to make sure that my want list was correct.  I've made so many mistakes in the past trying to complete sets that I kind of make this a rite of passage when the want list gets small.   It is correct now in case you were wondering.

Two swoops through the entire set I'll also make to pull out my top 10 cards in a week or 2, that Carlos Gomez horizontal card just might be one of the best. 

Thank you for the cards Brian, much appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

OK OK I'll do it

A fat envelope of cards arrived the other day courtesy of Nick of the Dime Box Heroes blog.  He dug deep for a lot of the cards that came out of this envelope for sure!  High number '15 Heritage on the bottom row featuring Pillar and Osuna.  Wal Mart Blue Steve Tolleson turning a double play.  There's even Jose Bautista and his upcoming $30 million a year contract in the middle row on the right.

I'm going to miss Jose in Toronto....

Love, love, love the Pastime's Pastimes A&G inserts.  It must be something about the 100 card inserts from A&G each year, because they seem to be the only inserts that I'll even consider putting together as a "set".  The Dave McKay buyback from the '79 Topps set was definitely an interesting add to the envelope. 

OK team set collectors, ? for you.  Write the Dave McKay in your spreadsheet as a 2016 or a 1979 card?  What would you do?

Chromey goodness is never lost on me, and the bottom row helped that even more.  I think the Martin is the first 2015 Topps Chrome Blue Jay I have.

A trio of '84 Topps Traded leaves that want list at just 1 card, not unlike a whole lot of other want lists on the Blue Jays page.  Speaking of #1, the Gold parallel of Scott Copeland is the first gold parallel from 2015 Topps that I own.  Man, am I behind...

Maybe that was a hint to make sure that my Blue Jays want list was up to date.  Get the 2016 team list on there, and decide what I'm going to chase after this year.

One Jays card that I don't have in my possession yet, and I'm going to need 2 of them, is the Jose Bautista bat flip.  Card #96 is going to be on two lists, hopefully I won't have to fork out a whole lot of $$ for them.  (NOTE: while writing this post, I found an auction for a lot of 5 of them for 3 bucks.  Problem solved)

So there you have it folks, a real lot of dime box cards from the master himself.

Thank you Nick, the cards were really appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert