Trade with Kyle of Nolan's Dugout

Here's another one of my recent trades that I was able to work out in spite of my busy schedule.  This one is from Kyle of Nolan's Dugout.  He posted some wantlists about some mid 90's parallels and I happened to have a bunch from his list.  Here's some of the highlights of the package:

Not many people remember that Ozzie Guillen played for the Orioles.  This card comes off of my Top 10 most wanted list as well as my 1998 Upper Deck O's team set list.

Kyle did a full on assault of my Top Ten Wanted list and knocked off Jeff Manto

and the 1997 Upper Deck Chris Hoiles cards that didn't scan worth a crap.  I'm too busy to re-scan them so they will be publicly shown like this for eternity.

In addition to knocking some cards off the Top 10 Wanted list He also sent a bunch of cards from my One Card of Every Oriole list.  I have reasons for each card that is on the list whether it be the only  card the player appeared on, or for the cool action shot, or just a pleasing looking card over all.  This John Pacella card makes me wonder why the heck his hat is on the ground.  Was it windy or did the hat fly off through extreme effort in delivering a pitch?

I picked this Mike Torrez because I believe that it's the only card that shows him as an Oriole.

Kyle also sent this new to me Cal Ripken card. I used to despise Pacific when I was younger, now I really like the cards they put out. Each set was different and they always seemed to have some really cool inserts.

Thanks Kyle for the awesome trade!

Trade with Matt of Once a Cub

I've been slacking on getting any posts up lately.  It's not that I've been lazy, it's just that I've been very very busy.  I've been working a lot of over time lately and on top of that I've been working outside in the yard when I get home from work.  I've had limited hobby time but I've made a few deals.  This trade is from Matt of Once a Cub.  He busted a few Opening Day blasters with his buddy Ty in a winner takes all pack wars.  He pulled this nice looking Nick Markakis shiny and I had to have it:

It scanned really well I think!

Moving along, he also included this surprise IP autograph that he got from Orioles Fanfest some years back:

Jay was my de facto favorite player right after Cal retired and then his career sort of fell off the map.  I'll always have a soft spot for the guy even though he was implicated on the Mitchell Report.

Here's the other autograph that he added in the package.  Mark Williamson was a good player for the O's for a number of years in the late 80's /early 90's.  1991 Fleer might not win many awards for design but it sure looks good autographed!

The final card I want to show off is another blue sparkle from Opening Day.  Manny is an exciting young player that I've enjoyed watching play during his short career.  He's holding his own against major league pitching as well as playing stellar defense.  Once he gets over his learning curve offensively, the rest of the league better watch out!

Thanks Matt for the awesome trade!

Trade with Bryan of Golden Rainbow Cards

I've been pretty busy lately and haven't had too much time to spend on my hobbies but I was able to complete a quick trade with Bryan of Golden Rainbow Cards.  He's working on collecting the entire Braves "rainbow" for 2013 Topps among other things.  He saw a few cards he needed from my trade list and sent these in return:

A Frank Robinson shiny insert from series 1

A Luis Ayala that my scanner didn't scan correctly.  I'm leaning toward user error though.  Also, Note to Buck Showalter:  Please do not allow Luis to enter the game with runners on base!

Last but certainly not least, this slick manu-patch of Cal!  While I'm not the biggest fan of manufactured "relics" I do appreciate a new card of Cal that will have a permanent home in my collection.

Thanks a bunch for the trade Bryan.  Good luck on your project!

Buy Some Stuff

I just recently sent a ton of cards to COMC and today they finally were finally done processing and I could add prices to them.  A lot of them are priced to sell with very reasonable prices.  I added a Gadget in my sidebar with links to my portfolio.  Check them out, even though most of them you might recognize from my Trade Bait Blowout from last fall.

I also have started selling off some of my complete sets on Ebay.  The link is also in the same box as the COMC.   There will be many more in the coming weeks so please check back if you think you might be interested in some complete sets.   I will be listing the rest of my Upper Deck Sets thru 2009 and my entire run of Bowman and Bowman Draft Picks from 1989 thru 2012.  I'm still undecided on what to do with my Allen and Ginter sets.  I know I need to complete them if I intend to sell them so I might just keep them for now. I've decided to keep my Topps sets that date back all the way from 1981 up to the present.  I'll be using some of the cash that I make to work on the Topps sets from 1974 thru 1980 that I temporarily abandoned along as well as finishing off those Ginter sets.

Trade with Pat of Hot Corner Cards

I've recently been finding a couple new blogs to read and Hot Corner Cards is one of them. Pat and I swapped some cards recently.  I sent him a gaggle of 84 Topps and he sent me a ton of Orioles cards.

This What's in a Name goes in the Brooks binder.  It's hard to believe that with as many Ginter fanatics as there are on the blogs, that I'm still missing a few of these for my set.

My scanner gave this card a gangsta lean for some reason.  Relax though, the card is in good shape.  With all of the great arms in Orioles camp right now(about 10 candidates for the starting rotation), Liz would probably be relegated to the minor league camp as aweful as he was when he pitched for the O's.

From a crummy pitcher to a Golden Great pitcher, we have a nice insert of Jim Palmer from last years Update series.  Topps can really screw up some insert set numbers and create some headaches for set completionists.  Golden Greats is a good example of that.  Also check out the Dynamic Duos too.  Your head might start spinning around, Exorcist style.

I always appreciate Brady Anderson cards.  Topps Stars was an underrated set in the late 90's I think.  Some interesting designs I think.

The crown Jewel of the trade is probably this 1954 Bob Turley.  Sure it's a little worn but it looks perfect in my One Card of Every Oriole binder.

Thanks Pat for the nice stack of cards, I hope to trade again one day.

Trade with Adam of My Cardboard Mistress

I haven't had much in the way of trade chatter recently.  Nor have I had a whole lot of energy or ambition to put up a decent post (not that I do anyways).  But I did finish a PWE trade with Adam of My Cardboard Mistress the other day.  He posted his break of 2013 Topps Series 1 packs and came up with this Chris Davis Gold border.

I had to have it so I sent him a blue refractor of Kate Justin Upton from last year's Bowman Chrome for it.

It seems like Series 1 was a long time ago.

Trade with Brian of 30 Year Old Cardboard

I haven't had a bunch of trades coming in like I normally do but the ones I have had were pretty epic.  This particular trade comes from Brian over at 30-year-old Cardboard.  We exchanged several emails and a trade was born.  I was able to help him out with several cards he needed and I was able to rake in a few nice Oriole HOFers.  Behold:

I will assume that Brian grabbed this card on the cheap at the monthly card show he attends.  I love the look of high end cards (usually) but have only once ever spent more than 5 dollars for a single pack of cards.  Tier One is not a set I indulged in but now I don't have to since I have this Brooks Robinson.  The "cloud" that he's hovering in reminds me of a Looney Tunes daydream or thought bubble.

From modern to vintage!  Another nice Brooks card for the PC Binder!  Can't beat the condition on this card either!

Brian didn't send me all Brooks cards but it is another Robinson.  This Frank goes into my PC binder of him since I already had it for my team set.

Thanks Brian for the awesome cards!

Swing the F'ing bats USA

All of the All-Stars on that team and they can't score more than 1 freakin' run!  What a waste of the last 3 and a half hours of my life watching offensive ineptitude.

Fun with 2013 Topps Heritage: Something Smells Bad

Today is a new day and I'm still not a fan of Topps Heritage of any year.  I know there are some people who probably won't even look at this post because the first Fun with 2013 Topps Heritage post got my blog unfollowed!  Anyways, if you like Heritage, good for you, collect what you like, just save your Orioles for me!  I just wish that Topps would put out one reprint design set a year. Archives would be my choice because they do several different designs.  That would open up a "spot" to bring back Stadium Club with the full bleed photo cards.  Topps doesn't have a non-premium, non-bordered set that I know of.  If I'm wrong, please correct me!
Anyways, while searching for 2013 Topps Heritage Nick Markakis cards, I noticed in both his Relic and Base cards, it looks like he got a good whiff of JJ Hardy's cleats.  Take a look:

At first look, I thought it was the same pose used for both cards but he doesn't have a bat on his shoulder on the base card!  Put your damn shoes back on James Jerry!

Fun with 2013 Topps Heritage: Let's Play Look Alike

I'm not a big fan of Topps Heritage of any year but when I saw this cranium posted all over the interwebs, I couldn't resist:



The card of Kevin Youkilis reminds me of:

Trade with David the Rhubarb Runner

I'm dipping my toes back into the trading pool again.  This trade comes to me from David, the Twins fan who runs the "e rayhahn, rayhahn" blog.  He's better known as the Rhubarb Runner and also as the guy who always sends in the correct answer to the Twins Trivia question of the game.  David actually solicited this trade asking me if I had accumulated any new Twins stuff since our last trade.  Does an addict buy new packs of cards?

He sent me a giant stack of 38 2008 UD Documentary cards.  I don't consider cards from the Documentary set as player cards as much as I do team cards.  They never put the players names on the front with the picture and the write up on the back doesn't even mention the pictured player most times. I still like the idea of the set though as it lets you relive the entire season one game at a time once the team set is completed.  Speaking of the team set I'm a lot closer now but I've still got a ways to go.  Can anybody else out there help me?

Ripped from the Headlines #3

I'm on my lunchbreak at work right now.  I opened up Yahoo's home page and there was a story on there that caught my eye:

Ken Griffey Jr. calls fan in Kansas who had items stolen from extensive baseball card collection

I've always been a fan of The Kid and I sort of grew up with him like the collector featured in the story that had his collection stolen.  He's always been a class act and it's cool to see that he took some time out to make a fan's day.

Also major props to Roberto Clemente Jr. and also Wichita State's basketball coach Gregg Marshall for their parts in the story.

One final point about the article that I took away is the motto that Roberto Clemente lived by:

"If you have the opportunity to make things better, and you don't, then you're wasting your time on Earth."

If you don't know anything else about Roberto Clemente other than how he died, you would understand this quote. That doesn't even say anything about how awesome of a baseball player he was!  If more people lived by this motto, the world would be such a better place!

More Recent Auction Wins

Alrighty, jumping back into the pool with something easy to post about.  This is becoming a pretty regular feature here on the blog.  Recent auction wins!  I'm a bit of a bargain hunter when it comes to ebay auctions but I also don't usually buy super popular cards either.  I also have the good fortune of working at a place where I have internet access all day so bidding on an auction at 10am on a Tuesday morning isn't really a problem.  I can peruse ebay all day long but can not read my personal email (stupid firewalls).  Looks like I'm rambling again.  Here's the cards:

Here's my first Nolan Reimold card that I won.  It's a Blue Refractor '05 Bowman Chrome Draft picks numbered 140/150.  Man I hope this guy stays healthy this year.  I know he could hit 25 to 30 homers if he did.  He'd be able to replace Mark Reynolds' power and strike out a lot less.

This black beauty is from 2010 Topps Heritage.  The Black Refractors are pretty awesome I think.  I really hope Nick stays healthy this year too.  Injuries haven't really been a concern for Nick the Stick during his career so I think last year was a fluke.  Let's just keep Captain Cheesburger's fastballs away from the wrists. BTW, this one is lucky-numbered 7/61.

The next Nick that won was this 2011 Topps Chrome Red Refractor numbered 2/25.  I own about eleventy billion different versions of this card through flagship, Chrome, and Opening Day.  I think the only version I'm missing is the rack pack exclusive un-numbered Orange Refractor.  How does that happen?

The final card that I'm showing off today is a 2009 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor of Nolan #d 42/50.  Not a whole lot left to say about Nolan in this post.  Just stay healthy. *fingers crossed*

Here's my winnings from Listia over the last few weeks:




Oh right, I didn't win anything because I refuse to pay 1000 credits (approx $10-12) for a stack of late 80's commons.  The credits required to win a couple of Cal Ripken cards got way out of hand in my opinion so I refused to bid.  There seems to be more and more sellers starting to charge for shipping too.  No way am I handing over 2000 credits and 2 dollars shipping for a relatively plentiful mid-90's insert of Cal, no sir!  My patience with Listia is running thin, so when I finally spend the rest of my credits I'm closing my account.

See, I told you that I can put pictures on a post!  Hope you enjoyed the cards as much as I do.  Thanks for reading!

State of the Blog and a Return to Semi-Regular Posting

          It's amazing how time flies.  I took a look at my blog today and realized it's been over a month since I wrote anything meaningful.  Well, at least something that pertained to my collection.
     I ran into a plethora of computer issues including (but not limited to) a full hard drive meltdown, a battery failure (its a laptop) and hardware and software updates.  I finally got that back up and running with all of my music ripped and backed up on 7 CD-R data discs.  Sometimes there's just not enough hours in the day to get everything done!
     I've also been hard at work outside in the yard cutting down trees in preparation for my sister-in-law's boyfriend to bring over his backhoe to rip the stumps out of the ground.  I'm nearing the homestretch and I haven't cut my leg off with the chainsaw or damaged anything with falling trees!  There's about 50 trees left (nothing too big but big enough to need a backhoe to pull the stumps out of the ground) that need to hit the ground before I can call this project done.  Then the next project will be finding somebody to come and haul away the firewood.  Anybody know somebody in Richmond that needs some?
     So what does all of this have to do with baseball cards?  Not much, unfortunately!  Just because I've been busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest doesn't mean that my collection has suffered.  Only my blog has been neglected!
     Since Christmas break I've reorganized just about every aspect of my collection.
     I've given about 10,000 cards I don't need to kids I know.  A bunch of doubles that I had no use for and I'm sure the youngins would like them.
     I sent a bunch of stuff to COMC.  Hopefully the processing doesn't take too long.  I'll let everybody know when they go up for sale.
     I also backed off of my complete set complete sell out.  I've decided to keep all of my regular Topps sets  from 1981 thru the present.  I will be selling off all of my Bowman ('89-present) and Upper Deck ('89-'09) complete sets as well as some of the other random sets I have around ('09 Topps 206 regular and mini, '07-'09 Goudey).  I'm still on the fence about whether or not to get rid of my Allen and Ginter near sets, and the UD Masterpieces though.  The are all great sets but I just don't look at them once I complete them.  I guess it's just the thrill of the chase but once I get them all, the thrill is gone.
     I have decided to collect just the regular Topps sets from here on out.  I'm working on 2013 right now.  I didn't buy a hobby box and decided to try and build it just from retail purchases.  It's going to cost me more in the long run, so experiment failed.  I'm not going to write up a pack break or review because I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing series 1 by now.  Just check out my trade list to see what I pulled and have available to trade.
     I haven't totally given up on building the 1974 thru 1980 Topps sets even though I've traded some of those cards over the last month.  They just aren't a priority right now.
     I've revamped all of my trade lists to include the inserts that I have from 2011 and 2012 I've also added a section for the hits and notable cards for each team that are for trade.  I figured it would be easier to find cards from your favorite team than just looking at a long list.
     I even took a little time to change the design of the blog too!  I think it look a little more dignified, even though I did like the little birdies on the old design.
     I should have some trade packages and Ebay auction wins coming in over the next few days so I will have some good material to write about.  Plus, baseball spring training has started so that will probably inspire me to write a little bit more.  I don't try to post on a daily basis but hopefully from now on, I'll be able to get some decent content posted!  I promise, next time there will be pictures of cards!  So let me declare:

I'm Open for Business, Who Want's to Trade!?!?!?

Ripped from the Headlines #2

I just saw this article on Yahoo! while I was at work:

Postal Service to Cut Saturday Mail to Trim Costs

I'm actually OK with this.  This has been rumored for years but now it seems like its actually going to happen.  Sure I won't get any mail delivered on Saturdays but if it means I can still be able to send and receive trade packages during the week, I'm all for it.

Reading further into the article, you will be able to get your mail on Saturday if you get your mail in a P.O. Box.  Also, all of the service windows that are presently open on Saturday will not be affected.  You will still be able to go to the counter and send out packages, buy postage and stamps.

What do you think about the change?