Thursday, August 29, 2013

Throwback Thursdays - 08.29.2013

Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. I'll try not to duplicate a uniform. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Trevor Cahill - 2011 Topps - Oakland Athletics

Monday, August 26, 2013

And it takes three wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle...

This post is brought to you by the number three.


Here are the three hits I scored from my LCS' pack wars this month. I really have no clue who any of them are. If anyone reading is interested, shoot me an email. These are very tradeable.


These three cards came as a return from Club PWE member John at Johnny's Trading Spot. He's new around here, and was very generous in sending back these needs for my 2001 Upper Deck Cooperstown set. Thank you so much, John. I am working on some Elway's for you.


Finally we have three simply amazing cards from Dustin at Coot Veal and the Vealtones. Dustin saw the nice Vic Wertz I picked up at the National and asked if it was available. For Dustin, heck yeah! Especially with the offer. He said "pick two". I couldn't. So I offered up a blue border Chrome Cabrera I pulled from a repack box. Deal. I just had to have that well loved Chicle. Dustin, I have your entire needs list on my phone so you better get more Chicle! :)

Alright. Three images of three cards from three different places.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Throwback Thursdays - 08.22.2013

Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. I'll try not to duplicate a uniform. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Scott Hairston - 2011 Topps - San Diego Padres

Monday, August 19, 2013

One. Little. Job.

Back again with another installment of "Really, Topps? Com'on!" It's seems appropriate that I would post this card at this time. In fact, I would have talked about this yesterday, for reasons soon to be clear, but I had a post scheduled. It was a catch up post. Get the punch line: "because he couldn't  ketchup"? And the song referenced was in Heinz commercials? Anybody....

Sure. Ok. I'm gonna go wash my hair now.

Anyhow, yesterday, my wife allowed me a blaster of A&G. I even had her choose the winning box.

I'm certain this bat is a game used Pelè relic.

Well.....let's say it's good set filler. However, this card stood out.


Nothing wrong with the front, which is usually NOT where Topps screws up. So let's turn it over...


I told you it was appropriate for yesterday. But it shouldn't take long to find the problem. Need a little help? Ok, for the sake of eyesight, here it is.


Holy crap, Topps. IT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!! You didn't need math, like all the 2013 flagship backs that show you can't do simple subtraction. You simply had to proof read seven words prior. For the record, the referenced event is dated correctly - the first soap box derby was on the 19th. So, who out there has the "Across the Years" for August 19th? What does the back read? If the 8/19 card is correct, then Topps needs to stop messing up. It's not there isn't a selection of events for the 18th they could pick from. Personal 10 year old boy giggle fav: 1992.

Lastly, they screwed up one of the birthdays. They really should have listed my daughter on this card instead of say Felipe Calderon. Yeah - she turned 18 yesterday. Show me mercy.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Why did the baby tomato get lost on the hike?

Before the cards hit the binders, let's get a scan and post of a few. Starting with your favorite evening blogger, and mine, the Night Owl.


I did not know there were unlicensed Thomas cards that are so... bland. What is not bland are those '75 Topps, one regular and one MINI! Third mini in my collection, all 3 because of the Owl. Thanks!


Jeff Pederson, a non-blogger, and I have this regular flow of PWEs back and forth. Jeff NAILED it this round with a nice ex-Sox Peavy from this years Archives, and an awesome high number Pierce for my Pierce Project. Two cards left to complete the set - who has a 53 or 54 Red Man lying around? Thanks Jeff. Vintage Cubs coming your direction very, very soon. I need to hit my card show with the vintage dealer. 

JD from Buckstore Cards has been ripping a lot of the new Panini Score jumbos (as have I) and pulled a nice card from the pack. One comment, a couple emails and we had knocked out a quick trade. I'll get to that card, but here's some of the rest in the envelope.


Well mustache'd Hawks. Graham was a great, gritty player for the Hawks. He was the epitome of the basic Blackhawk. Cam Russell - not so much, but that is a Canadian UD card. HOF-er Michel Goulet gave the Hawks a few good seasons after leaving Quebec.


For the joy of 2 Cups in 4 year, I had to endure stuff like these guys. Ugh.


Gold-ish goodness. Nice to get a Toews from the National Hockey Card day giveaway in Canada. Dig the card to the left. No "C" on Captain Serious' sweater. Rookie season for Tazer. The captain that year was Adrian Aucoin (and Martin LaPointe when Aucoin was injured).

I say - I don't quite recognize those name.

But the deal starter was this lovely card.


Bickell being all Bickell-y against the D.....wait.....that is the wrong side.


Ahhhh. There it is. Red backed parallel. Not sure what the distribution is of these, but in the half dozen jumbos I have bought, I have pulled a grand total of... (math)... none. Thanks for the trade, JD.

Last is a very small but unexpected envelope from Corey at Tim Wallach Cards. If you have never visited, he just wants all your Wallachs. It's that simple. You have them, he wants them. I have dropped Corey a couple PWEs of the Wallachs I have pulled when organizing. Never expected, nor asked for anything in return. It's fun and SOOOO simple to fill his want lists. Well, I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday.


More Blackhawks. Sweet, lovely, Cup defending Blackhawks. If he had only sent those 5 cards, I would have been more than content. Heck - I didn't even care about getting those. Then he dropped it.


That, my friends, is a cross off from my most wanted list. Wow!!!! I cannot thank you enough, Corey, for that card, besides just pulling and mailing you more Wallachs. Something tells me that will make you happy.

Alright, into the binders and boxes these cards go. Oh - I am not revealing the punch line to the post topic question. If you cannot figure out the answer, find a 5 year old to help.

Friday, August 16, 2013

これは素晴らしい取引である

I hope to goodness Google Translate is correct. It should read "this is an awesome trade". If not, may I offer my humble apologies to any Japanese readers if I called your mother a warthog.

We cut you slack this time, Yankee!

Anyway, say you have a Mark Texixiera relic just collecting dust and someone emails you with an offer of some Japanese Sega Card Gen White Sox for it. That is known in the business as "SWEET".

Blogging dot YEAH!

An email from a non-blogger (to my knowledge) came in - Hayashi, or as his signature stated - Zippy Zappy. ZZ didn't just stop with the Card Gen - oh no. That would have made this a very fair trade. Nope - Zippy piled on the cards, and man do I owe the guy big time. He says no. Yeah Zippy, you just wait, buddy. Zippy Zappy filled the envelope with wonderful goodies. The best part was all the Bowman. I don't buy a lot of the prospect cards - not what I purchase. To each their own. Except you Red Wings collectors. Something is seriously wrong with you guys. I have scientific proof of that. 

 Read that? "Hockey card experiment guy". In 14 point Helvetica so you know it's truthful. 

 Now, I will have to do some research, but Zippy Zappy gave me beauts like these.


All purple-y and chrome-y. And he didn't stop with the standard sized prospects.


MIIIIIINNNNNNIIIIIIIISSSS! (Royalty check in the mail, Night Owl). And the best of the envelope?


I know, not quite Far East, are they? Let me flip the cards....


Oishī!!! Too bad I missed the Japanese class at the community center over the summer. Oh wait...


BAM!!! Zippy Zappy did his best to translate the Japanese to English. For the record, ZZ - you nailed the language. Your grasp is better than you think. Why can't other traders go the extra mile on trades and help me with my 4th grade reading level? I'm looking at you, Kerry (whom I randomly selected from my trade address Excel file). 

Thanks a bunch, Zippy Zappy. And now, for your listening and viewing pleasure, I spent 40 minutes or so searching You Tube for some J pop. I have no idea what they are singing about. And I don't care.

Oh, we are so having a talk when you got home from work.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

Throwback Thursdays - 08.15.2013

Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. I'll try not to duplicate a uniform. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Cole Hamels - 2012 Bowman - Philadelphia Phillies

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Getting lost

The best part about blogging and then getting caught up in the trading from the blogging is all the cards that come into the house. The worst part about blogging and then getting caught up in the trading from the blogging is all the cards that come into the house. BTW - I copy and pasted that last line so they would match. I figured I owed you, the reader, the honest truth when I cut corners because of sheer laziness.

I leave the shells on and call it "Angel food crunch cake".

This temp position downtown at the Mart is killing my blogging, which means the cards pile up, and then I forget who they are from. That wouldn't be so bad, if I didn't already scan some cards and then put said cards of in the general direction they would go in my continued pathetically lame attempt to be organized.  

Looooooo-king good there, Jeff.

Case in point. I have these scanned and I cannot remember who to thank.


Bowman Sox. I remember intentionally scanning them short because I thought up some witty remark about the extended size of these cards. I should write stuff down.


Then I fixed the scanner setting for batch 2. Now, I may or may not have had a humorous remark to go along with this scan. I will say you see a beardless Black Jack on the right. But I only say that in observation, and because I need to pad out this post in some fashion. Raise your hand if I am putting you to sleep. 


The package did have this rainbow. Now, I know I choose these because I am working on the Beckham rainbow, and I would make that reference by showing these three. However, I notice a bigger issue. See, the setting of my blog has a black border around each image. You can see that. When I enter my text and images, though, it's got the Blogger white background. And in that, I can tell I never reduced the size of this image because there is a slight bit of black on the far right. You can't see it, but I can. So not only did I forget who sent me these cards, and forget my witty banter, but I forgot to correctly crop and reduce the size of these scans. Let me fix the other three scans....


Ok - that's better. Smaller, so I don't blow out the Blogger image bucket too fast. Lot of nice cards in this package. Check out the Negro League cap Ozzie is sporting. Before they went full throw back.


All horizontal. I was going somewhere with these cards as well. But it probably would have been a crappy joke. 


Since this is the final scan, it would be my standard "best of the pack" scan. Pretty awesome best too - Reed rookie (one of the few ChiSox highlights this season), a gold Jackson and a Turkey Red Alexi. Oh wait - I should have dug more on my desk - Junior Junkie sent these to me. While I filed the cards away, the note he included is still messing up my desk. It's all coming back to me now. It was this one winter evening....

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Rainbow update

I really wish the rainbow was the only update I had (as evident by the stacks of cards on my desk). I have a lot of scanning, a lot of posting, and a lot of honoring sitting around me in stacks from great and small. However, the union says it's too late for a bunch of scans and I am only permitted one, so here it is.


The emerald and the blue came courtesy of Chris over at Old Foul Cardboard, who better get his tail back to his blog or else. Yeah - I know you're reading. Just do it. The orange, which I had no idea existed when I first started the quest, came from eBay. I guess the boxed sets have special orange parallels. Ok - whatever. (cough)Toppsmoneygrab(cough). Just glad I saw it in my searches and could nab is for a couple bucks.

So that fills three slots on the binder page. I updated the rainbow needs on the WANTS page up above. I am hoping one of you have the purple Toys R Us parallel as I can't seem to see any of those on eBay or COMC. And to those that view the videos I post, I apologize in advance for sticking this song in your head. In my defense, I never held a gun to your skull and made you click the play button, so it's all your fault.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Throwback Thursdays - 08.08.2013

Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. I'll try not to duplicate a uniform. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Mike Olt - 2013 Topps Opening Day - Texas Rangers

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

National recap: the sights

Ok - here is my third and final post about the National over the weekend. Feel free to go back and read about the vintage and the hits. Today, let's just talk about what I saw.

As I mentioned in the first post, the sheer size of the card show was a lot to take in. I have been to the Rosemont convention hall in the past so I know the rough size. I guess when you are used to the small LCS or a 70 table show, getting that many in one room takes your breath away. I remembered a couple times to pull out my phone and snap a pic or two, but unfortunately, I didn't do it enough. I'm digging on the net for pictures from other people/sites, and I will give credit where credit is due.

No credit - cash only! 

Along with being a card show, the National is a bit of a Hall of Fame, from what you see in the numerous vendors. I have yet to get to Cooperstown, but a bit of that came to me.


One auction house, SCP Auctions, is putting this on the block. It's billed as Jackie Robinson's team jacket. You can see an autographed ball just to the right. 


Not the best of shots with the lighting, but what you see is one of Jesse Owen's gold medals from the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. To have history that close to your face takes your breath away.



I snagged this image from SCP Auctions website, but I did see this ball, along with a whole ton of others signed by the Babe in one case.


For you Dodgers, you can pick up Bill Russel's '88 World Series trophy.

Mears Auctions was also there. I really regret only snapping this one picture, because their website is not showing was I got to see, like a game used Seattle Pilots uniform, Washington Senators from the mid 20's and a host of others. But I think you will appreciate this night time Spahn satin jersey.


Oh dear....just lovely. People were other sights at the show. People like Nick from Dime Boxes and Julie from Funner Here. I was able to find them and we had a chit chat about our finds. Julie was old hat at the Nationals, so I think she had inner joy at the looks of shock and awe from Nick and I.

 I know that feel, bro.

Luckily, Julie was able to snap at least one great image of cards available at the National.


I walked by that case. And stared. And was too blown away to pull out my phone. PSA was at the show and there was a TON of Cracker Jack cards there, like this one (that I grabbed from their website).


I had never seen so many Cracker Jack cards in one place.

The only other picture I took was this one.


If you are counting, that's 4. Yup - an exhibition hall that filled with vintage, relics, jerseys and the like, and dopey me took all of four pictures. BTW - this is Murray Bannerman. Or do you say...


Julie had a few extra auto tickets she wasn't going to use, so she was kind enough to give me Murray's. To the far right of that image you can see the Cubs Jerome Walton signing. While waiting in line, they also had the Goose, "No Mas" Roberto Duran, Chippah, Lou Holtz, Hit Man Hearns and others at the tables. Murray was all I needed.

I am finally recovering from all the standing and walking. And I am gearing up for next year's National. Cleveland - I should be there.