FINALLY! I return....

I have only been trying to get back to a card show for the last 3 months. One thing after another would get in my way, from real life to illness to a host of other crap. But today, I would not be deterred, even if I had to detour because of a 5k run going on. Pulled in, dropped my admission and scanned the tables. The last real show I attended was during the Clinton administration. Yes - that long ago. It was fun to be back, gazing at the tables and finding what I have been jonezing for since I got back to blogging - dime boxes. Well, no dime boxes to be found, but there were quarter boxes and vintage 3 for a buck. Let's see what was to be found from my searches....

That Nomo was a thought for a certain midnight bird, but I see it on his "has" list, so I'm keeping it. Nice early Konerko card. The Petricks are a side collection. I'll talk more later about that. Thome rookie (well, Fleer Ultra rookie). The Chicago Greats of Wally Moses is a local set from 1976. Twenty cents - couldn't pass it up. And that Mathews is an 86 Big League Chew. While the image is all washed out, you get a great look at the killer sleeve patches from the Braves of Milwaukee. Total cost on screen: $1.80

More quarter box (5 for a buck) pulls. I like me the old timers. These are just cards that I saw and wanted - no real reason for them, except the Pafko. That was a thought for a certain Pat Benatar-ish collector, but I see it on his "has" list as well. Mine! I have another 9 of the lower right All-Time Classics; I won't scan them all. Total cost on screen (plus the extra 9): $3.20

Top left and bottom row were also two dimes each. That top left is a 53 Bowman Fred Hutchinson. Problem? It's cut. There should be a white edge around it. But for twenty cents? Why not! Weird to see, lower right, Jackie referred to as "Jack Roosevelt Robinson". The rest on this scan were 33 cents each, except the Pierce. Whammy Douglas. Tell me you would pass on a card with the name Whammy Douglas when it's just 33 pennies??? I have no idea who he even is. Here - let's check out Wikipedia. How about that? Never pitched for the Reds and believed to be blind in one eye. Thirty three cents for the win! A 64 Pierce for my project. Been seeing these for $2 on ebay. This one isn't perfect with a couple dings, but technically I got it for $0 (had $6.50 worth to buy from the seller - he said we'll call it $6). It was priced two quarters and I got it for free. Two team cards in the middle - 60 Braves checklist (with a bonus "M" written in crayon on the face) and a 64 K.C. A's. I'm a fan of teams that no longer exist. Total cost on screen: $1.60

Last of the 33 cent vintage. I picked up a lot of White Sox (there are 4 more cards I did not scan). Managers row in the middle. Again - you are looking at a Schoendienst, a Martin and a Hodges that cost a total of $1. Score! Total cost on screen (with the 4 not scanned): $4.

I also knocked 5 cards off my 2001 Upper Deck HOF set. Before leaving, I picked up some GQ and Lineage to open - nothing good. Guess they can't all be hits.

NOT Trade #1: coding and trading

Always nice to get a padded envelope in the mail. The really cool thing about this one is how the trade went down. See, I was at TC's website and was able to score a lot of really cool cards, vintage to newer. Then, all I had to do was pay for the shipping, and bam - cards in hand. Just that easy.

And by "that easy", I mean it cost me more than shipping. Cuz TC is Topps, and the website was the Diamond Giveway. All those packs yielded all the codes that I redeemed. A couple weeks back, I finally gave up on trades, and since there was only a month left to have your cards sent, now was a good time as any to bring them home. All total, I received 13 cards. Technically, there is one I could care less about (86 Orel Herchiser), but I am pretty pleased with my trading. In fact, only the Orel and a 73 Jorge Orta were cards I unlocked. The other 11 came through via trades. I won't post them all right now, but let's look at a few, shall we?

Love the blood clot uniform on LaRoche, so I couldn't pass it up when someone made me an offer. The 70s were a messed up time uniform-wise. The Bobby Winkles manager card is great not just cuz of a name like Winkles, but you also have a coach names Salty Parker. Just don't nickname them like that anymore. I had a CRAPLOAD of offers for the Mike Andrews. Only a rookie Mantle would have pried that away. 73 Topps had some amazing pictures.

Love the McNertney for it being a Pilots card. How great is that helmet on his head? Their caps rank up there as one of the more unique in the history of the game. The 63 Cunningham had an interesting path to my hands. The very first code I entered when the site went live unlocked an Ian Desmond diamond die cut. I must have rejected a dozen trade offers daily for that. Nothing was decent or made me sit up and take notice. A few White Sox cards were offered, but they were always late 70's or newer - pass. One day, I got a trade offer of a 63 Tommie Aaron for my Desmond. I sat on it a few days and finally decided I would more enjoy that then the Desmond, so I pulled the trigger. Be shocked all you want - if it was worth more it didn't matter. I liked the 63 better. Well, offers came in for the Aaron, but more crap until that Joe Cunningham was offered straight up. A 63 White Sox?? No brainer! It may be a bit off center but this baby is crisp. Just a little wear on the bottom and a barely noticeable ding in the top left. So it became an Ian Desmond for a Joe Cunningham. I am very happy for that trade.

I got 11 cards delivered with the 2010 Million Card giveaway, and so far I have two cards in the 2012. I unlocked a Steve Carlton, which I traded for a Duke Snider. I also unlocked a Robin Yount I traded for a Carlton Fisk (as a ChiSox). I have stopped buying series one Topps as I only need 7 to complete the set (please help me out), so no more codes until series two drops.

It's like stamp collecting, only different

Had to swing my Target for my wife, and of course, I am magnetically drawn to the cards. I see that the new Bowman are out - what the heck. Couple packs, right? I didn't get any big hits, but I did pull the die cut card you see to the right. What - you didn't know Bowman had rare, non-numbered die cut cards inserted in packs this year?

Yeah, cuz they don't. If you take a close look at the bottom of the John Axford there, you can see the cuts as well as the impressions in the card. Does the pattern look familiar?

It's from sealing the pack. The card appears to have slipped a bit and was sitting too close to the edge of the pack as the end was heat sealed and stamp cut. And now, I have a 1/1 die cut 2012 Bowman. BOOM!!!!

Double trouble

About a month back, I talked about a heck of a great few days for me purchase wise. From relics to autographs, short prints and other great pulls, I had a some great luck card purchase wise. Looking back on that post, I forgot one card I pulled out of a 2012 Topps rack pack.

Why bring it up now? Well, I sort of bought a 2012 Topps rack pack yesterday, and danged if I didn't pull a 2nd of the same freaking card. Anybody want a couple Latos jersey cards? You'd be surprised what I would trade these for.

Sunday SIL: Hanging on the wall

Welcome to another Sunday edition of Stuff I Like, a little browse through the items I have that I find interesting, so into my collection they go. While I have a TON of cards that I enjoy, today, we will pull something off the wall of my computer room to showcase.

I like quirky. I like unique and different. And I like eBay (at times). Every so often a nice collection of vintage AP (that's Associated Press) images will hit the auction site. And these are not reprints. These are the actual photos that were taken and offered over the wire for newspapers to print in whatever edition was on the presses. Some can go for a high amount, but you can find deals if you look around enough. A couple years back, a large collection hit and I picked out a few to bid on. Most went well out of my range, but one stayed pretty cheap. A few pictures, however, had zero bids. Since you get a nice bundled shipping price, I bid on another photo and snagged it. I pulled two AP wire photos for under $10 with shipping. Maybe a lot to some people, but pretty cool if you ask me. It's later when this revelation came to me: I have three B&W AP wire photo baseball pictures on my wall, and two of them are pictures of players being injured. What's that mean about me?

 

How long have you hated your mother?

As baseball pics go, I think this is awesome. And with the recent passing of Moose Skowron, now's a good time as any to enjoy a photo 56 years old of the man in action - so to speak.

Click on the image to get the full effect - I left the scan quality high. You have Moose on the lower right, attended to by the Yankee trainer while Cleveland first baseman Vic Wertz is checked out by their respective trainer following a collision at first base. You can read more about this collision from this Google archive of the Florida Sunday News Journal. The great part about this photo is the attached write up in on the back. You can view it here, and underneath the write up you can view the Associated Press's copyright information here. Moose, being Moose, knocked Wertz out of the game. Look close and to the right of the catcher (#18 - Hal Naragon) you see future HOF Bob Lemon. And to the far right, seeing how Moose is holding up, is HOF catcher/manager Bill Dickey. And if the name Vic Wertz sort of rings a bell, he was the man that hit the ball you see in this famous play.

And they are all on my wall.

Star Wars day!

May the 4th be with you, always. Another year, another Star Wars day - a great day for a major geek like me. Thinking back as a child, while I did do some baseball cards, my real entry into trading cards were the Topps blue bordered SW cards. And I still have them. As well as the red border, yellow border and green border. though I think the red is really the only one I may have completed. I bought some of the newer offerings over the years, Widevision, Galaxies and the like. I have a two row box STUFFED with cards on the floor behind me as I type. I usually give these cards to my wife for her to give to the kids at school (after I pull what I like first, of course). She says she is overloaded at school at this point. Maybe I am keeping all these cards after all!


Well, here's a few rare cards from my collection that are Star Wars related (along with TK .05 here).

The two outside cards are 501st issued. Unless you went to a convention the 501st were at, you no get these. Unless you happen to have an in with the Midwest Garrison, as I have. And they are autographed on card too. Suck on that, Topps!!!! The middle card is the only 1/1 sketch card I have ever pulled. Pretty sweet. For a while, I thought this card got sent with my wife for the kids. That was not a fun 2 weeks. :)

Ok - go have a big glass of blue milk and fly casual!

Recent openings = eye candy

Got a small package from eBay today, as well as picked up some rack packs, blasters, and my first 2 packs of hobby Gypsy Queen. Yeah - most of the GQ up to this point has been retail packs, rack packs or blaster boxes. But I needed a storage box, so I hit my LCS and well, you are pretty much forced to purchase a pack (or more) before you can leave, right? I mean - it helps out the US economy. Last few packs I got at my LCS were nothing great to open. Not horrible, but the hits were pretty.....average. Let's see how we did with these packs, as well as other recent opening.

Starting with eBay, I picked up this card for a nickel. Maybe I overpaid? I did have to pay $1.95 to ship it, so all total - $2. But I like it, so the money is okay with me.

I am a sucker for a great throw back uniform. And this baby is die cut as well. One nickel. I'll take it. Next are a couple pulls from the last two blasters of GQ I got from Walmart. I think I have bought 4, and the first two were....unimpressive. Luckily, things are improving.

A McCann mini relic (trade bait alert!) and a blue bordered Kid frame, #239/599. I was wondering when I would see one of the blue borders. Now I have, so time to look for something else. How about an autograph?

BAM!!!! From the two hobby packs, I pulled this baby. About. Frigging. Time. Pedroia really spent the time to put a nice, clean sig on that card. Ok - so he scribbled. But it is on card and not a sticker. I likey. So all in all, 4 decent cards over the past couple weeks. Good eye candy and eye openers.