Autographs? Why yes, I would love some autographs.
These three come from two recent packages I received. The Lance and the Fasano come from the ever awesome Jaybarkerfan. He recently ran a "claim it" post with cards that just require a return card or so. Even though Lance has been a bust, the guy knows how to sign his name. And Sal? Well, you know Sal attends my church, right? You would know if you viewed the Billy Pierce Project page. This is auto #2 I have of Sal. Check out the number - 5750/5750. Not just an eBay 1/1 but a SICK 1/1!!!!
Really? You are going there?
The Roenick comes from Kyle, who I do not believe runs a blog. But Kyle grabbed a card off my trade bait page and offered up a hand signed JR card. Heck yeah I'll take that. The auto compares very well to certified autos on eBay, so I have no doubt it is genuine. Thanks Kyle.
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.
So I knocked off a great chunk of letters and envelopes that have found their way into my mailbox, and then my house. Followed closely by a binder or a box. Luckily, and I only say that in regard to this post, I didn't receive anything today. Unfortunately, I also didn't receive anything today. But I am digressing. I talked about the bulk of the smaller envelopes yesterday, and I have just two final trades to talk about today, but the packages certainly had far more meat to them.
Strap yourself in, cuz when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you are going see some serious sh*t.
Wanna see my jiggawatt?
First is Kerry from Cards on Cards. Not to be confused with Pat. At all. Kerry took the time to just drop some cards on me. I don't think there was any rhyme or reason. Maybe I sent Kerry something. Maybe I am delirious. What do you think, my wonderful, loving wife?
I vacuumed the pool, snuggie wumpkins.
While the quantity was small, Kerry nailed it when it came to quality. Check out these four from the dozen or so he sent.
Relics! Josh was a lot of hype and then a lot of nothing. Jose helped us to a division title in 2003.
Now there are two sweet rookie cards. Ozzie is from the Traded set of that year. And I am slowly pulling in every rookie card of Sale. I should just make him a player collection and be done with it. Thanks a bunch, Kerry. I am sure I'll have something for you soon.
The other package to highlight came from Dustin at Cool Veal & the Vealtones. Dustin made an ask about something from my trade bait page, and well....you all know how that spirals. Next it's a couple set fillers. Then you are scoring foil inserts in a dark alley behind the 7/11. Before you know it, you are face down in the gutter free-basing red bordered parallels.
Your urine contains trace amounts of Bip Roberts' rookie cards.
Dustin sent a ton of gorgeous cardboard.
Vintage!!! I completely remember that sticker from many years ago. I also remember it from about 24 hours prior to getting it from Dustin, as Kerry sent the exact same sticker in his package. Different backs, though. Plus, I never knew of a small round version of the UD hologram stickers.
Great additions to my slowly growing player collections of Buerhle, Iguchi and Crede. And no Nick - you cannot have the Buerhle at bat card either. Get your own!!! Yeeeeeeesh.
Podzilla bat. Wonder if he used that bat to smack the walk off in game 2 of the 2005 World Series? Sorry about the video, Dimwit. What do you think, my other wonderful, loving wife?
He walked off, and I walked into your arms, pumpkin!
Great trade, Dustin. Your cards have been mailed, so keep your eyes open.
Alright, all my trades have been posted. Let's celebrate with another edition of Repack Wars in the coming days. I think it's a good idea, too. Until then....
The past week or so has been quite the torrent of mail here at 2x3Heroes headquarters. Over that time I have received a dozen envelopes/packages with cards.
Now, 3 of them were eBay or Listia pickups. Nothing too exciting, though I will probably revisit what I received in the near future. Maybe on a day I am dying to write but out of ideas. However, it is important I focus on the awesome trades and PWEs that have made the postal worker turn her truck around and come back to my mailbox because of a package or two that were forgotten.
There are 9 total mailings from bloggers/readers and I want to be certain that each gets recognition for what they sent. I won't beat you all down in one post, so I'll spread this out over a couple. Enough of my jib-jab. Here they are in no particular order.
First off, I have two separate mailings from Chris over at Nacho Grande. Chris is one of the easiest to trade with. He always has something great, though myself (and Night Owl) are starting to find his want lists harder and harder to fill. The two mailings from Chris all contained minis. The first were a couple of minis he offered that filled holes in my 2012 A&G binders.
I had to make the cocker stand on his head. But these two sets are close to done. Then, after my monster mini purchase, I had a few 2011 A&G insert sets that were short a few cards. Luckily, Chris had all the cards I needed to complete 4 of the 5 sets, and traded them for some Lego mini figures. How awesome that minifig packages are equal to A&G minis??? Anyway, here are the 4 sets that Chris helped me finish.
I didn't think much about completing these sets, and have traded away a few of the cards in the past year. But I was so close that I needed to fill the pages, and Chris came through. BTW - the bottom "Uninvited Guests" location? I lived not too far from there, & it's still maybe 30 min from my house. So thanks a bunch Chris - your minifigs are mailing tomorrow.
Next is Nick from the awesome Dime Boxes. Nick is great cuz he is a fun read, and also since he lived maybe 45-50 min from me, I can drop PWEs on him at will. Nick returned the favor with these beauties last week.
Can you believe that is the first Pacific card in my collection? I have none before. The Danks I must have pulled the base version at least 8 times, but never the sparkle. And Youk....well, it's Youk. Thanks again Nick. And yes, I have another bunch of cards for you soon. Deal with it!
Pat at Hot Corner Cards is still maybe a bit of a noob with his blog, but a guy you should contact and trade with. We have had a couple great trades, and I think I dropped a PWE on him a while back of a couple cards he needed. Pat returned the favor by knocking a few cards off my 2013 Topps needs list. A couple of the gems?
Double play and high cuffs!!! That is a great DP card. I don't need to tell you (or GCRL) that. Thanks again, Pat.
Next up is Brian. Brian runs......well, that's just it. Brian doesn't blog. Brian is a frequent reader of a lot of our blogs, but hasn't stepped in the innerweb of self promotion. Dude, that has to change. Brian took part in my Christmas giveaway and then asked about a few cards on the PWE trade page. I gave him a few extra, cuz that's how a roll.
To the contrary!
So Brian dropped a PWE on me with a few ChiSox tucked within.
Nice vintage Baines. And no, Nick - you cannot have the Navarro auto card. Find your own! So thanks, Brian. Now, get blogging or else.
A first time trade happened with Roy at Plain Gray Swatch. Roy contacted me about something on my trade bait page. This was another of those "I read your blog - how have we never traded before" kind of things. Roy's package was loaded with fun.
HAWKS!!! Yeah, I know they have a two game losing streak right now. Still best record in the NHL so suck it, Plaschke. Roy had 9 total Blackhawks card in the envelope.
Oh all the shiny, chrome-y goodness!! I will take all the Sale I can find, and I had yet to find that Topps Chrome rookie. Ditto on the Reed Bowman. And a rare ChiSox gold. And the highlights?
A Fisk Blockbuster I needed for '12 Update and a nice Buerhle relic. Gorgeous. Thanks a ton, Roy!
Boy I like that UD First Pitch. Never seen that set before, but I like the style. And a Zenith Big Hurt that is no longer missing from my collection. Might have some more Twins for you, RR. And thanks!
Let's finish part one with a real noob, Bryan at Golden Rainbow Cards. Matt from Once a Cub turned me on to his new blog, and conveniently, the first post I read talks of a gold Konerko he pulled from a 2013 pack of Topps. It was a hard driven deal to get Bryan to trade me that card for some '13 Topps color borders. Something said like "hey, wanna trade?" And Bryan goes "Sure."
Yummy Konerko gold. And I now have the gold foil of the Dunn Chasing History. Two versions down. Like what - 17 or 18 to go? #realniceTopps
Anyway, sorry for the length, but be sure to check out the blogs ('cept one) of these trades. I am sure you can work out deals with them. And if you see Brian lurking in your comments, pressure that guy to start blogging. Offer him Skittles or something.
So if you were watching/reading my blog over the weekend, you heard about a large purchase of minis from my LCS. It was work to sort and arrange the cards, but all the work in complete. How did it all end up? I was getting to that.
There were a grand total of 920 minis in the box. The two Upper Deck Goodwins were nothing wonderful, so I won't even discuss them. There were 18 T206 from a couple years. Lots of different backs - Piedmont, Polar Bear, Baseball Caramels and Old Mill. Here's my choice of the best.
Not too shabby. I like those Historical Events on the bottom. I have 6 of them - I think the set is 10.
Next lowest number in the box were 2011 Gypsy Queen. I more than tripled what I had with the 31 in the box. Again, here's the best in my book.
I had none of the insert minis. I now have this Great One of Rogers and a Future Star of Matusz. I have two of the black minis with this Thome and Ian Desmond. That Yaz is just a great picture.
More great 2011 minis. Look REALLY close at the Kershaw in the middle. This is one of the color variation minis that came from a hobby box of 2011 GQ. These are guesstimated to be a run of 135 for each card. All you Dodger fans salivating? I am going to make it real easy - if you want that Kershaw, I need a replacement color variation mini. These were only from the first 100 in the set. There are a few players out of the first 100 that would spark me to trade for Clayton.
There were 44 minis from the 2012 Gypsy Queen. Out of those cards I pulled 8 SP variations.
And also got my 2nd hit in the box (I call that Clayton #1).
Larry Body sepia mini 82/99. Great card.
2011 Allen and Ginter next. Here is where the first dupes showed up. From the base and inserts, I had 85 cards. However, while sorting them, I realized that I am not going for the set, so I just pulled the couple I wanted for the group. What I did end up with was a lot of cards for the mini subsets. While I was not able to complete any of the subsets, I did get a great start on all of them.
I never got to appreciate the 2011 mini subsets, so it was nice to get a good run at them all. That Shawn Michaels I featured on a SIL many months ago. Now I have the black bordered version.
2011 Topps Kimballs came in with a whopping 245 cards. Prior to this purchase, I had about 40 Kimballs in my binder. Now, I have a complete set above 101 and half the set below that. The previous owner of these minis must have went bonkers buying 2011 Update, considering the number of duplicates I have over 101. Forgive me, but I'm not scanning for this section.
Lastly comes 2010 Allen and Ginter. At a jaw dropping 513 cards, this just floored me. I wish none were duplicate, but I ran about 28% dupe in the base and about 21% with the insert sets. However, I am just over halfway to a complete 2011 minis set, and completed so many of the insert sets. Lord of Olympus - 1 short. Sailors of the Seven Seas - complete. National Animals - 10 short. World's Wordsmiths - 1 short. Monsters of the Mesozoic - complete. The owner also was going after ad backs as more than half were just that.
The xray card is what makes A&G fun. I hope we get more like that in 2013. There is my third hit in the cards with a 4/25 Bazooka back of Lanekoa Texeira. And 10 year old me just wanted to post that Lord of Olympus card.
Boobies!
So that's how I did. It was fun and I certainly got a lot for my money. Not counting the box of 100 pages I got in the deal, the minis came out to 6 and a half pennies per card. Factor in that $20 box and the minis drop to just over 4 cents per card.
So - who needs minis??? Head on over to the new mini trade bait page and pick out what you want. Then, get over to my A&G wants page and decide what you have that will help me. Then, we trade. Baby steps, folks. I'll get there with baby steps.
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.
For those that care, I have finished the organization of my mini purchase - come back on Friday for my post about the treasures within. Until that day, though, I want to highlight a couple recent envelopes received at 2x3Heroes headquarters.
Check out the new cubicle walls!
First is an envelope from Kyle (and Chris) with the awesomeOld Foul Cardboard. We've turned into PWE pals it appears as a few cards trickle back and forth between us. Kyle's latest envelope had these two beauties within.
I never pull these borders for my own team, so I am so thankful when others pull and mail them to me. Just need the greens for these two and I will finish the easy rainbow for the players. The camo, pink, black..... that will take work (and money). Kyle - watch your mailbox. And for those that are looking for an easy place to send your Yankee and Bruin cards, you need to get with Chris.
New trading partner for the other envelope to highlight. Matt from Card Anathema sent me an email with an offer of some Ginter cards I have on my want list. Off of his want lists I was able to send him a few Olympic cards and a few others. Matt helped me knock eight cards from my 2011 set, including these two.
Those code cards are funky, but I am just putting anything to complete the set. With the pseudo right wing uproar about Michele at the Oscars, funny how there was no uproar about Dubya in Ginter. I'll leave my liberal bias for another blog. Thanks Matt. I am sure this will be the first of many trades.
Ok. Come back Friday for the mini closure. If you notice the mini trade bait I added in the bar, feel free to browse and email about cards. Took a week, but check out the spoils.
