Collection Transactions, Part Whatever of Infinity

Finist Prodigies Yu Darvish..

Since I don’t really have anything interesting or useful to add at the moment (haven’t scanned anything since 2/15), but still feel like I should put something on here, I’ll toss up a few scans from January’s COMC shipment that have don’t really have anything to do with anything, and make note of a few updates to the ol’ collection.

First up, now that Robinson Cano has proven playing 82 games a year in a ballpark not designed around his particular set of skills isn’t a hindrance in the slightest, thus strongly negating the Yankee taint of one of the few Yanks I’ve ever really liked, I have added him to the Single Page Sensations page.

The only card relevant to the post.  This is staying on the 2014 Canvas Collection Single Page though..

I’m also adding Kenny Lofton, because he had a stint with the Cubs and is on the all-time underrated team.  He is yet another Hallworthy player that got knocked off after his first shot on the ballot.  Not surprising, since it’s going to be a monumental struggle to get an even better player in Tim Raines in, but still total BS.  Nearly 70 career WAR?  Piss off, jabroni.  Screw the Hall of Fame.

Forget scanned, I don’t even own any pageworthy Loftons yet.  So here, have an Archives Frank Thomas Triumvirate..

I made quintet of new set additions to my Single Page Sensations wantlist: 1996 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallions, 2014 Topps Upper Class, as well as 2015 Topps Spring Fever, purple Toys ‘R Us parallels, and Gallery of Greats.  I’m also making my need of a page apiece of base for every year of Panini Golden Age (non-baseball subjects preferred) a priority, so if you got a pack of any of them laying around, hit me up, I might be able to use some of them.

After getting my hands on a couple, my lone full set addition I’d like to get my hands on is the 40-card, Walmart Exclusive Sting insert set from 2015 Topps WWE.

Gallery of Heroes Vladdy..

Finally, the big one.  Taking a page out of Gavin’s playbook, I want cards of any and all players named Caleb, as well as any variations on the name (Kaleb, Onterio McCalebb, etc).  There are a surprising number of players and a couple non-sport cards bearing the name, but none who have really done anything of note at the pro level, so this shouldn’t be a hard collection to do.  The reason I’m finally breaking down and doing this, without going into details, is a neurotic, therapeutic one.

The only players I know I have a card or two of are Gindl, Clay, and the aforementioned Onterio.  I have no set limitations or expectations on this collection yet.  I’m just going to wait and see where it goes for now.

Ending on a sexier note, with two very talented NXT gals on very different trajectories..

And that’s all I got for now.  Will try to be less half-assed in the future.  Thanks for stopping by!

Gonna fly now…

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…

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~::.

Trade at the Plate

I think this is the last trade I have all scanned up and ready for the postin’.  It comes from Brian @ Play at the Plate.  It’s a little different than the standard trade.  He touched upon some collections that rarely see any trade action.  When I first went through things, my first thought was that the selection of cards I received was “inspired”.  Behold!

Football! And random hot chick.

B hit on almost all my non-Bears collections with Moon, Moss, Cunningham, and Dunn.  Greg Olsen, I think is more athletic than skilled, but I like him.  And a Beautiful Person.  I covered the formation of the Beautiful People when I used to recap the show for a wrestling satire site back in the day.  Let’s just say they didn’t have the most amazing of starts, but they got better.  Only ever got three feedback, two right after I announced I was quitting.  I thought I’d try to get a gig at 411mania afterward, but I never did.  Was so totally burnt out after I quit and eventually got sidetracked with this whole blogging thing.  Maybe  More wrestling to come.

Cubs, Rhynos, Wrestlers, and Aki!

Aki for the now defunct Asian player collection.  Aside from the certain ones I collect, I just save them for Dinged Corners and Shot Not Taken now.

I think I had the Rhynos already, but they are always welcome, and if they are dupes, I will see that they find a good home.

More cards from the wrestling blaster, of which I received the entirety.  AJ, Booker, and Sting are keepers all, though only AJ and Booker do I actively collect.  What an antiquated sentence.

Also, Sarge! 😀

There we go!

Some excellent additions to the Hawk, Vladdy, Carew, and Billy Williams collections.  The Finest card in the center is #ed out of /1999 I believe.  I think Billy Williams is my favorite from this bunch though.  One of my greatest cards is a Billy Williams one, but other than that, I’m pretty lacking in his cards.  He and Fergie Jenkins don’t get nearly enough love amongst Hall of Famers.

More Wrestling, a lil' WBC, Angel and Kaz Ishii

Mmmhmm… Sarita.  Yes plz.

I said I’m just saving the Asian players for Ray and P&L, but I hope Night Owl can use this Kaz, because I sent it to him along with a couple cards he was wanting yesterday.

Angel Guzman is pretty good.  I have faith in the late innings if he’s pitching.

Still need a BUNCH of the chromey WBCs.  I guess this means I will have to update my wantlist… *sigh*

I dunno what Rob Terry’s been up to, since I haven’t watch iMPACT! in awhile or read any recaps.  He was pretty much just a big scary lookin’ dude that was too green to do that much last time I checked.  It matters little though, the hits were just icing on the cake, in this instance.

Finally, I definitely wasn’t expecting the Debra-worn swatch!  I had no idea there were any bloggers that collected wrestling cards in any sort of meaningful way, except for maybe Offy, and I definitely wasn’t expecting to see a card from as far back as when Debra was around.  That is really cool.

Thanks Brian, this was a great trade!

Stay tuned for a little trade bait late tonight/early tomorrow.

Fly me to the moon…

A Late Trade and a Call for Assistance

Hey everyone, I finally got a halfway decent night of sleep, so I’m feeling fairly sane & coherent at the moment.  Also my Fantastic Four Archives box arrived, though I won’t be letting myself open it before Sunday night, as my reward for the cleaning I have to do.  Right now I have yet another overdue trade to post, this one coming from Ryan’s Memorabilia Blog.  Here’s what I got:

WBC cards! I'm one of the proud few who actively collects them, so you're looking to get rid of yours, look no further.

That is the back of the Masterpieces framed parallel I received that was numbered.  Now let’s see the front!

Glorious Masterpieces Framed Parallels!

Three Griffeys!  I can do without many parallels, because often they don’t add anything worthwhile, or waste everyone’s time.  But these parallels… these parallels I lurrrrrrrrve.  I’ve said before that the slightly raised frames are the closest parallel that artsy/retro-type sets have to the refractor (of which that Yadier Molina is).  And they come in as just as many colors!

But seriously, while the base cards themselves look very nice, they aren’t that exciting.  Throw a variously pretentiously named colored border on there, and bam!… Whole ‘nother level.  Bruce Sutter deserves a frame.  And I didn’t even get to the Vlad Guerrero jersey, my first Masterpieces hit.  They are as nice as advertised, if anyone hasn’t gotten one yet.  Is there actually anyone that hasn’t gotten one yet?  If not, I highly recommend.

Now then, I have a request.  I’m beginning work on a post, a guide of sorts, to help beginner collectors.  It’s a sort of complicated hobby, and we can all use a little help sometimes.  And there doesn’t seem to be a lot of help coming from official channels.  I can say what I have to say, but I’d also like to get the opinions of other card bloggers, as well as any other collectors, people who do or have worked at the card companies if possible, anyone who might be able to give some perspective on the Hobby to as it is today.

I will use as much as I can that’s applicable.  Your experiences, collecting mindset, how you got into it, what you like, what you think of the current state of things, and your advice to new and/or long-absent collectors.  And hopefully I can make sense of everything and turn it into something useful to new collectors.

So spread the news please, because I want as much feedback from as many different perspectives as possible.  You can leave your thoughts in the comments, email me, or respond via twitter, whatever works for you.  Thanks.

Over and out!

OH… MY… GOD!!!!!!!!!!

I had a post ready to go in preparation for the completion of my second trade with Shane from Shoebox Legends.  All I had to do was fill in what he sent and add the links and it’d be ready to go.  But now that I have the package he sent, just… whoa!!!!

First of all, here is the background of this trade: He pulled a beautiful Spectrum Carlos Zambrano jersey #’d to /15 over on A Pack A Day awhile back, but had no use for it himself, so he said make an offer if you want it.  So I did, and he accepted.  What it basically ended up being was two ’05 Heritage Jed Lowries (regular & mohagany), and an Allen & Ginter Jason Varitek jersey for the Big Z.

I also threw in most of the Red Sox that had built back up after our last trade, as well as most of the two packs of Goudey I had bought between the trade being accepted and actually sending it out.  Finally, I sent out the only two worthwhile packs remaining in Target’s bargain bin along too.

Anyway, this is just incredible.  I can’t even wait to try and get some scans to put up before I post this.  Here is what my dawg, my boy, my man Shane hooked me up with.

Packs- If I am accepted, I will post these on A Pack A Day.

1992 Stadium Club Hockey- Man I do loves me some Stadium Club, and I do enjoy the occasional Hockey pack.

1986 Major League Leaders Baseball

2005 Upper Deck All-Star Classics Baseball

Cubs Singles-

Top Case (Top To Bottom)-

1993 Fleer Ultra- This here is on of my all-time favorite sets.  It just oozes class.

Candy Maldonado, Greg Hibbard, Mike Harkey (a personal fave from my youth), Jose Guzman, Randy Myers, Dan Plesac (showing *hopefully* proper bunting technique on the back of the card), Rey Sanchez (ah, there’s a name from my younger dayz *le sigh*), Tommy Shields (your guess is quite possibly better than mine), Jose Viscaino (bittersweet memories of lost youth), Matt Walbeck Rookie, Willie Wilson

And the rest (still in order)

2008 SP Legendary Cuts Alfonso Soriano (I approve this design), 1986 Major League Leaders Ryne Sandberg (oh my yes), 1991 Upper Deck (The first cards I ever received) “MVP Lineup” Ryno, Hawk, and Taco Bell, 1992 Score Bob Scanlon, 2007 Topps Heritage Rich Hill

Second Case (Top to Bottom)-

2008 Topps Alfonso Soriano, 2008 Upper Deck Ted Lilly, 1987 Topps Rafael Palmiero (w/ sweet nonsensically rainbow-hued Future Stars insignia), 2001 Topps Stars Eric Young (not this guy), 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars Fred McGriff (I liked him long before he came to the Cubs), 2001 Fleer Premium Kerry Wood, 2001 Upper Deck MVP Bill Mueller (this design is straight up swank), 1994 Topps (another of my all-time favorite set designs) Shawn Boskie and Dan Plesac, 1994 Score Steve Buechele (picture is indescribable, something for the ladies of dinged corners to dissect I think), Jose Viscaino (another fascinating pic), and Eddie Zambrano Rookie Prospect

Sandwiched Between the Cases

1977 Topps Larry Biitner and 2006 Bowman Heritage Derrek Lee mini

I’m pretty sure I have none of these cards, and I know for a fact the only two that I could even possibly have already are the Topps Soriano and UD Lilly.

The Crown Jewel–

2008 Upper Deck Spectrum Carlos Zambrano Game-Used Jersey (w/ Pinstripe) SS-CZ #’d/15

…

And now for the holy s*** moment.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this…

The Reason I Almost Fainted-

2005 Upper Deck Vladimir Guerrero UD Game Patch GP-VG

OH… MY… GOD.  This is just incredible.  Above and beyond anything I could have ever hoped for.  Was there a nice hit in one of those packs of Hockey?  I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but thank you thank you thank you 745,121 times THANK YOU!  Shane Diaz you are an awesome man.

PS: After a “buggy” start to today, things just keeps getting better & better.  I got down to the office this morning to pick up this package of improbable greatness.  And while I was writing this post (and the reason I still haven’t finished it until now going on 7pm), Jacky Muffin came back!!!!  Eleventy billion hearts. ❤

Until our next,

Me