Pack War Trade

At the end of 2014 I sent out close to 1.5 lbs of cards to Pack War.  I’d been desperate to move some of that stuff for ages, and fortunately it seemed to have found its mark quite well.  So now, I present the return.

Valor & Triple Threads..

Valor looks great.  I dunno about Marshall & courage going together, but that parallel is #’ed /399.  I like the way the Triple Threads kind of pop out of an actual background.

Chrome RCs, crazy shiny TD, ’98 StarQuest..

For real though, even with the protector, you can see your own reflection in the silver parts of that wonderful Terrell Davis insert.  Unless you’re a vampire, in which case… *runs away*

…

…

…

*cautiously returns* Is… Is the vampire dude gone?  Okay… *deep breath*  Where was I?  Oh yeah.

I’m happy to have some of the year’s best rookies in Watkins, Bortles, & Beckham Jr.  I don’t chase RCs from any other sport near as hard as baseball, but I do like getting them when I can. 😉

Then we have these StarQuest.  But they are no ordinary StarQuest, oh no!  For when you flip them over, you reveal…

Tadaaaaahhhh!

…They are also RookQuest!  Two of the finest to ever lace ’em up at that.  Such connections they have.  Can you imagine if they had put Ryan Leaf and Yatil Green on the back of Elway & Rice?  That would’ve been embarrassing.  And now Peyton and his giant forehead of doom is playing for ol’ horseface.  Even better.  I’m not high I swear.  MOVING ON.

‘Nique Jamfest Artist Proof..

Here’s the lone basketball card in the package, and the obligatory “doesn’t scan well/looks way better in person” card, a Pinnacle Jamfest Artist Proof of Dominique Wilkins.

Baseball Rookies!

Like I said, I’m always down for RCs of baseball stars, even when I have more than one, ala Mr. Posey here.  I have three of him now: Flagship Topps, Bowman Platinum, and this here A&G.  Or, and speaking of being high, in Ricky Williams’ case, baseball RCs of football stars.  Alleged egotistical weirdo Alex Rodriguez and 2005 World Series MVP Jermaine Dye round out the rookie card scan.

Ichiros, Big Hurts, & Rynos (oh my)..

Coming down the home stretch, starting with a pair of low numbered (but not really) black parallels of Ichiro Suzuki from the infamous disaster that was Topps Moments & Milestones.  I like to think of it as the Showgirls of card sets, because I imagine its existence had to have ruined a few careers.  Next up a pair each of north and south side’s most recently retired Hall of Famers, including a nifty Jiffy Pop disk that’s just sliiiightly too big for its own good.

You’d think his lack of depth perception would cause problems playing baseball, and you’d be right!

And that’s all for this trade.  Thanks, Shawn!  Hope we can do it again sometime.  And *points at screen and winks cheekily* thank YOU for stopping by.

It was fun.  Oh my…

A Trade Post?!

Ryno!

Yes indeed… Having successfully fished for artistic complements, now we’re going to do an actual, honest-to-goodness trade post.  I’m no good at getting these up even when I trade regularly, but here goes.

These come to us from Brad’s Blog.  Let’s have a look!

Old timey-ish Cubby baseball mans..

Mostly…new…timier…Cubby…baseball…mans?

The big fellas..

Love dat Ichiro, although I’m unsure where exactly they pulled the black swatch from (the undershirt?).  But anyway, this is only my second relic of him even though I’ve collected him basically since I started blogging in back in the long long ago of 2008.  The manupatch is one Topps’ better efforts since they started doing them, in my never humble opinion.  The ® being on the patch itself also greatly amuses me for some reason.  And the Chris Sale is #’ed /50 and is a fantastic addition to my newly reinstated Single Page dedicated to him.

Seeing as this will basically be the first time I have managed to get out during daylight hours since it dipped below zero for three days straight a couple weeks ago, my end of this deal finally going to go out today.  It was supposed be out immediately before that stretch of frozen hellscapedness, but I didn’t make it out until like 8pm that Sunday, and my sleep cycle has been super broken ever since.  I am still a wreck of a human being, in case you were wondering.  But I did throw something extra I remembered I had that will hopefully make the wait a little more worthwhile.

That’s all I got for now.  A few other trades are being prepped for February, & I might be able slip one more small one into this month.  Who knows what happens next?

The Shadow knows…

2014

I’m not much for resolutions and I know anything I put here is going to fail miserably.  But what the hey.  These are my goals for 2014, in no particular order.

Collecting

1.) Mostly Finish Fergie Jenkins playing career run- Pending COMC shipment, I will have gotten all of Fergie’s solo, non-league leaders Topps cards from the 1970s.  So, barring oddballs and OPC, which are not major priorities. I’ll just need his ’68, some league leaders from the ’70s, any SSPCs, and most of his ’80s cards, none of which should cost too much.

2.) Get Ryne Sandberg’s other two RCs- I have a Fleer and two Topps Ryno RCs, so I need his OPC and Donruss.

3.) Complete 12 trades- Averaging one a month shouldn’t be too hard… right?  We already have one pending, two if you count Shot Not Taken being always pending.

4.) Complete any three sets- Propaganda Posters, Diamond Stars, and some year of A&G Highlight Sketches look like the easiest options, but we’ll see.

5.) Complete the following Single Page Sensations-

2011 Topps Legend Variation SPs

2011 Topps Diamond Legend Variation SPs

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cuts- Sale and Winfield Single Pages have been reinstated, so I need two to replace them.

2012 Bowman Chrome Legends in the Making Die-Cuts

2012 Finest Faces of the Franchise Die-Cuts- I was very on the fence about these until I actually got them in my hands.  I like them.  I will keep them (I  may still be willing to part with certain ones for the time being though).

2013 Topps Museum Collection Canvas Collection

Victoria/Tara

Luol Deng

Carlos Santana

Any combination of five others.

Any two from the Sketch Card Page.

The sketch cards might prove difficult, but none of the rest should require a great deal of expense or challenge.

6.) At least 30 new 1960 Topps Cards- This has really trailed off.  Out of the 30, I want a minimum of 5 superstar/Hall of Famer/common high numbers.

7.) Land at least 10 more key rookies- Andre Dawson, Ichiro Suzuki, Vlad Guerrero, Nomar Garciaparra, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, and Don Mattingly are the highest on my list.  I’d be very happy to land any one of them in the coming year.

8.) Complete 5 more trifectas- Almost everything I’m close on trifecta-wise is attainable, except Kosuke, because he has no autograph cards that I know of.  Peanut Tillman lacks severely in the relic department, but he does have one.  Even lesser Ladainian Tomlinson autos can be had for around $25 on occasion, so finishing these enough of these is just a matter of making them a priority.

9.) Break the 100 card mark of another player- I’ve been over 100 with Aramis Ramirez for a little while now.  Ichiro and Vlad are my next closest, and I feel like I might be able to get there on one of them, especially if trades pick up.

10.) Pay off my old debts- There are a couple trades from 2013 I still need to send out, and I found someone on twitter awhile back that I flaked out on like three years ago.  Those will go out soon, one possibly as early as today.

Blog

1.) At least 75 posts this year.

2.) At least 25 non-baseball card related- Art, crappy poetry, short stories, life in general, reviews, recipes, I’m up for any whim really.

Life

1.) Finally start hitting the gym-  This won’t start until I think the resolutioners have mostly cleared out though.

2.) Rededicate myself to running- I hit a wall last summer and never really recovered, even though I still walked a ton.  I’m starting to get it back though.  I’ve jogged the full, 2+ mile trip over to the parents twice recently.

3.) Rededicate myself to eating healthier- I don’t look hideous and haven’t gained a lot of weight, but I feel like I really fell off the wagon the last couple months of 2013.

4.) Finish most of the old sketch cards I’ve never gotten around to completing- I did a few awhile back, now for the other bajillion.

5.) Complete at least 30 new portraity sketches of real people- Well, I’ve started one so far.  Sketch cards count, but I’d like them to not account for more than half.

6.) Complete at least 50 new sketch cards- These could play into #5, but I’d like to get back to comic & such ones in a big way as well.

7.) Finish the first draft of a novel- I have a chapter or two written of several things and lots more character sheets to work from.  I really should have finished this already.

8.) Take at least one trip well outside of my town on my own- All I want to do is travel, so I just gotta start doing it.  No one is willing or able to help me with this.

9.) Watch more anime- I watched Trigun: Badlands Rumble over the holidays, and while I never got that into the series itself, the movie was pretty outstanding and reignited my love of anime.  I have a promising series called Fairy Tail queued up to watch in the coming days, so this is off to a good start.

10.) Play more video games- I want to finish my Gen IV Pokemon games, pick up and complete both games in Gen V, and maybe beat one or two of the oldern non-Polkamenz RPGs I have laying around by the end of the year.

That’s all I got right now.  Come back at the end of the year to see what an utter disaster this turned out to be!

Your reward for slogging through my self-indulgent post..

#KeepMoving…

Diamond Gallery #2: The Diamond Die-Cuts

As mentioned last time, my first Diamond Giveaway order (of four full 25-card orders total) arrived last Friday.  It was the free one, and contained most of my Diamond Die-Cuts. So here they are now.  Enjoy.

Shin-Soo Choo..

They are nice & shiny all over.  The only thing that could make them better is if they were in the much prettier blue or purple Walmart or Toys B Fun versions. They are great as is, but red doesn’t do it for me.  Give me the darker, cooler colors any day.

Andrew McCutchen..

The  diamond in the background glows almost as much as it shines.  This is especially true of the black diamond.  But we’ll get to that in due time.

Big Papi..

I ended up with most of what I was after, but I never was able to land Ernie Banks, and I’m still a little tweaked by that.

Dave Winfield..

There were way too damn many Yankees in this set, but it’s hard to argue with most of them.  Only Swisher and Teixeira are really debatable, and the latter only because he’s sucked in 2012.  Still, I’d have taken out both of them and either Maris or Munson and a few of the lesser Braves and added Johnny Bench, Joey Votto, and Matt Kemp, amongst others.

CarGo..

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with CarGo and the others that aren’t players I specifically collect or are otherwise spoken for.  Ya better bring it if you want one though.

Longo..

I’d like one of the few of these I still want or need in return (Ernie Banks, Carlos Marmol, Tyler Colvin, Jackie Robinson, and Reggie Jackson, amongst others I potentially accept).  In lieu of that, make a specific offer of something pretty darn nice.  I sunk way too much time into this and I’m not just going to accept any ol’ thang for these bad mamma-jammas.

Chris Sale..

Alexei..

These are the two White Sox I picked up for my dad’s little collection of things I pull or pick up cheap.  I miiiiiiiight be able to let one go if you have the ammo to deal, but I’m not moving both.

Adrian Beltre..

2012 All-Star starter, future Hall of Famer?  After the unspectacular-yet-steady early years and lone monster contract season with the Dodgers and somewhat awful stretch with the Marinerds, he’s really turned it on since leaving the M’s and seems to be getting better with age.  The numbers are starting to look Hall of Fame quality for 3B.

Aramis..

Speaking of guys closing in on Hall of Fame numbers at the hot corner.  Aramis maybe isn’t aging quite as gracefully (or perhaps it’s just the Brewers relative irrelevance when not in the playoff hunt), but he’s still playing fairly decent up there in Milwaukee.  And if the Brew Crew completely fall out of playoff picture, look for Aramis to catch fire and look and make people take notice of his offensive prowess again.  It’s what he does, kinda.

Ichiro Suzuki..

To hell with that one name BS.  It doesn’t matter if how amazing someone is, this ain’t soccer!  And “Fred” ruined it for soccer anyway.

King Felix..

And now the pitching half of what was a two man team for most of the last few years, King Felix.

Vlad..

Why is this guy not in the majors right now?!  He had his worst season last and still hit .290!

David Wright..

One of two die-cuts likely bound for Long Fly Ball.  Don’t worry though Wright fans, because I have another on the way.  For the same reason I couldn’t get Ernie, I’m a little tweaked to still have the second David Wright.  I tried EVERYTHING to deal the second Wright for Ernie, but no matter how ridiculously lopsided in whoever the offers were going to’s favor, I got jack and diddly to show for it.

RickyRo Black Diamond #’ed 48/60

Check the black diamond’s dark, ominous glow.  This is what made this order free, and the other die-cut most likely bound for Long Fly Ball.

Starlin Castro..

Goin’ bigtime with the last two.  2011’s NL Hit (and error) King, Starlin Castro!

Ryno!

Finally, one of the only two die-cuts I actually hit myself (though I guess I only unlocked 34-ish cards total), Ryne Sandberg!  Although, come to think of it, I hit this and the Black Diamond Gaby Sanchez that eventually became RickyRo in just 30-some shots, so I actually did incredibly well, I guess.

That’s it for this one, sports fans.  The Diamond Giveaway (which I keep wanting to hash tag and not space…) is over, so please make your final selections and proceed to checkout.  Thank you for shopping your local Diamond Giveaway.

Until our next…

Back to the COMC Order

Heyo.  More keeper goodness for the pleasure of visual stimulation today on the show while I continue making trade offers on the Diamond Giveaway site in the background.  Still about 180 cards to move to get me down to 40 that I want, but that’s another post.  We were on baseball, yes?  Well then, to the scans!

YOU try scanning warp-assed chrome cards straight. EX-ARod sample, and an early American Ichiro, from Cardboard Icons' COMC, no less..

I require a sample..

$1 well spent. 🙂

Big Dave. I dunno why, but it amuses me greatly how much he absolutely dwarfs everyone else whenever he's playing analyst..

My inner-WBC wonk got the best of me. That's my first ever quad jersey though. It's niiiice..

Classic SPx, scanned spectacularly..

A crazypants Vlad insert, an early '80s oddball, and a Nomah #'ed /173..

Ol' Rock is plastic like a credit card. This is the back..

And here's the Vlad & Nomah backs. Vlad was also from Cardboard Icons..

Always hate on manu-relics until you have one in-hand. This is freakin' suh-weet..

GQ Papi jerseys..

Starting to think breaking the scans down before I posted was a really dumb and definitively time-consuming idea.  I mean, it probably makes for better viewing and reading this way, and it’s easier if you need to download or link to a particular card, but man does it take forever.  So let’s just get to the end of the (not Cubs) baseball keepers already.  I’ll give my Cubs and Bears a post of their own next.  Moving on down the line, we veer off course and take a side trip to funky(card)town.

The On-Deck Circle swatch featuring borderline Hall of Famer Carlos Delgado..

The swatch feels plastic and rubbery at the same time.  If the crazypants of the swatch isn’t enough for you though, it gets a little weirder still when we turn it over.

Foilboard shine on the back, but not the front... Cuz why not?

Foilboard doesn’t exactly work in scans, but you can tell it’s different than the front.  I dunno, it’s hella strange, but I likes it.  It’s unique, that’s for sure.  And it has rhyme and/or reason to it at least.  Who doesn’t love All-Star-related cards and swatches (besides roughly half of you)?  Can’t say the same for this next (and mercifully final) one though.

I... What? What is this, I don't even..

But... but why?

I don’t understand the point of this card at all.  Not complaining though, I must admit I enjoy the quirky weirdness of it all.  I’d be delighted if some could explain what the meaning of this is.  Blue archer needs background info badly.

And that is hopefully it for this one.  If I missed anything, I’ll throw it in with the Cubs and Bears next time, unless I decide to post up something else tomorrow.  I do have a couple other directions I could go if I feel like it.

Till then, mi amigos…

Flea Market Finds #7: Singles to Mingle

So, I finally got the singles I picked up at the flea market edited down into bite-sized chunks recently, and after the power going out at some point while I slept the other day, when I started things back up, my keyboard was working again.  So, I’m back in business.

First though, a quick note.  I spent all day (seriously, from around 8am till after 5pm) pouring over a few wantlists, digging through my endless stacks of cards, and firing off emails.  And heads up to Nomo’s Sushi Platter and Fuji, you’re next on the list, though I don’t need to dig as hard for stuff for you guys.

Now then, the loot!  All but the last card were $1 apiece (two were priced at $1.50, but he gave ’em to me for a buck).

Lou Whitaker Rookie!

Let’s check the stats! (via Baseball-Reference)

Garth Iorg: 1978; 1980-1987- 20/238/.258/.292/.347/.639 OPS+ 72  Just your average below average 2B.

Dave Oliver: 1977- 0/3/.318/.444/.409/.854 OPS+ 140  Only 29 career plate appearances, but that was a good start!  Sad he never got much of a chance, especially with how long and mediocre Iorg’s career was.  He never even struck out in short time in the bigs (4 walks).

Sam Perlozzo: 1977; 1979- 0/0/.269/.345/.423/.768 OPS+ 110  Only 30 career plate appearances, but also a pretty promising glimpse of what maybe could have been.  He hit two triples in his short career, and later went on to manage terrible Orioles teams for parts of three seasons earlier this decade.

Lou Whitaker: 1977-1995- 244/1084/.276/.363/.426/.789 OPS+ 116 Career WAR 69.7  Other stats of note: 420 double, more walks than strikeouts (1197-1099).  Awards: 1978 Rookie of the Year, 5x All-Star, 3x Gold Glove, 3x Silver Slugger

Okay, how the hell is Lou Whitaker not in the Hall of Fame?!  Those are STILL elite offensive numbers for 2nd baseman!  He was still playing well and producing even at the very end of his career.  Bah, total BS.  I’m angry now, next card!

Merrick Mint Ichiro Suzuki Laser Line Gold Card

It’s really hard to see.  I dunno how such an insanely shiny card can scan this badly, but trust me, it looks awesome.

'68 Strikeout Leaders

This was one of the $1.50 ones, obviously perhaps.  It’s in surprisingly not bad shape.  653 combined wins, 7824 career combined strikeouts, and 755 total in ’68 (268 Gibson, 260 Fergie, 227 Singer).  ’68 was also Gibson’s impossible 1.12 ERA season, in which he even more impossibly lost 9 games (22 wins)!

1980-81 Bird RC!

Now, each of the three pieces of the legendary Bird RC/Dr. J/Magic RC appears on at least one other trio with a different combination, which are valuable in their own right.  Still though, I hope this came from one of the other combinations, not that it will stop me from trying to track down the legendary trio in this form.  I’ll put ’em up on a list of specific, hard to track down, cards when I get around to it.

The Back

Here’s the back.  That cartoon doesn’t look like Larry at all.

Finally, since I guess I actually only got just over half of the nine singles edited into bite-sized chunks, here is the big one I picked up!

Ryne Sandberg Rookie!

I’ve wanted to get this card for a very, very long time.  And there it was, for $6.  The most perfect card, from the most perfectly designed set ever made.  I’m so happy to have rookies of two of the biggest Chicago sports icons of all time.  Ryno looks good next to Walter Payton. 🙂

The guy actually had all three of the big rookies from 1983 for a similar price, and I’ll be picking up at least Gwynn next time, if it’s still there.

I guess that’s all for this one.  Needless to say, only Sweet Lou is even remotely up for trade.  Now, I’ll just let y’all bask in the glow of a rookie Ryno & go get some more work done, updating this & that.  Seeya later.

Until our next…

Blaster Stuffs Part 1

Awhile back (mid-November I think) I picked up some blasters at Shopko.  All $20 ones were on sale for $14.99, and I had a thing for $10 off a $40 or more purchase, so that knocked an extra $2.50 off each of the four I picked up, making them $12.50 apiece.  They were all 2010, topps206, topps Heritage, topps Chrome (all baseball), and Bowman Platinum (football).  So here’s a look at what I pulled from 206 and Heritage.  We’ll do the Chrome and Platinum another day.

My only two probable keepers from the 206 blaster..

A few of the better bronze parallels. Might keep Cueto due to the epic hair on display.

A mini penny and a history card that’s actually baseball related.

The backs of the Historical Events cards for those that care..

The regular backed minis.

See? Regular backs.

Finally, the mini parallels.

The Baseball Caramels (Pettitte/Feliz) backs are 1:4 packs I guess. The Old Mill (Volquez) is something like 1:20 or 1:22.

Not a great blaster, but the the price being 37.5%-off helped.  Oh yeah, there was a King Felix base card that I’m too lazy to finish editing down to size that I’m keeping.  Also not pictured, Mike Leake RC, and hat SPs of Ryan Braun and Mantle.

Now then, onto the topps Heritage.

First up, some Baseball Thrills. Might keep a couple of these (Hornsby is going to Cards on Cards) unless someone else wants them.

Lots of star power on this one, and a keeper on account of the Ichiro-ness.

My other keeper. Then & Now Whitey & The King.

The shortprints..

Finally, the big hit of the blaster, a Jeets Chrome #’ed to /1961.

Not the greatest blaster, but much better than the 206, for the better keepers from more important personal collections and a better best pull at least.

Seeya next time, when I either get back to the Check Out My Cards stuff, do a trade post, or the second part this with the shinier blasters.  Maybe I’ll even do my best pulls of 2010 list, but probably not.

UPDATE: Can someone please tell me why the borders have gone all wonky in some of my recent posts.  It’s really annoying me. 😡

The new year begins…

Trading Day Pt. 2: The Search for Curly’s Gold

Here is the other package I received (last) Monday.  These are from Too Many Grandersons hisself.  Behold!

Suh-weet Walter Payton reprints, Gold Hester, base blue Manning parallel /500, Urlacher (foil and thus poorly scanned) insert from rookie year, and more Urlachers (have at that code)! How much better does that blue parallel look than the boring black borders that they've trotted out most of the last 10 or so years?? A set that looks that good I might actually consider collecting, as I once did the the '02 Gridiron Kings (even picked up about half the Legend SPs in a lot once upon a midnight's dreary).

More Bears! Greg Olsen, Bernard Barrien black parallel from one of the single greatest set designs in the history of cards, Cutler, some rookies, and my personal favorite, my first and Julius Peppers as a Bear.

Last of the Bears... The more I think about, the more I think Rex' dad was right about the Bears mismanagement of QBs, especially in the Super Bowl. Fortunately, in getting Martz, they seemed to have wised up to some degree. Not sure I like the total abandonment of the running game though. Somehow Bronko was the only card I already had amongst the Bears.

Moving on to baseball now…

Vladdy! I may have the Own the Game & one of ToppsTownies, but the rest are new to me, three I've never even seen before. The Diamond King is the gold parallel version #'ed to /2500.

Ichiro! Don't get a lot of him in trades. The '04 Own the Game in the middle just insane. And a rookie of the BEST catcher in baseball. Well, he's in that elite group with Mauer, McCann, and Victor Martinez (and maybe Posey in a year or two) at the very top anyway.

And a few of my favorite Cubs to finish it off. I really hope Big Z sticks around if it's between keeping him or Dempster. In fact, I think I'd just rather Dempster leave regardless. Something bothers me about him.

Thanks for the great cards!  I’ll get together something worthwhile to send in return… eventually. *sigh*

.::~Outtro~::.