My Mystery Frank Thomas Card

I was going through my trade bait box the other night and I ran across this card that I bought at a card show either late last year or earlier this spring.  I meant to post about it but I think that I just stashed it away before it got scanned.

Anyways, you can see it's a Frank Thomas card from 1993 Leaf.  Since THE BIG HURT was the bees knees 20 years ago he got his own insert set.  I even believe that he was the coverboy for the packaging of the product too.  I'm a fan of 1993 Leaf and Frank Thomas but those are posts for another day.

As you can see, there is some writing on the card.  As a matter of fact, it looks to be Frank's signature.  I did some research on 1993 Leaf and while Frank did officially sign some cards for the set, I don't believe that this is one of them according to my crack research team.  I can tell by looking at the writing at an angle that it s definitely not printed on the card so that's definitely not the case.

So, I like to dream that this card was signed in person by Frank Thomas himself and not some s-head dealer or kid scribbling on some baseball cards.  It looks pretty close to his signature from the examples I've seen.   I distinctly remember paying only a dime for this card, so you can imagine that  I have some doubts about the authenticity.

So what do you think, is it real or not?  Weigh in blogosphere.

Trade with Scott Crawford

I recently completed a large scale trade with Scott Crawford.  I thought that I had a pretty large wantlist but they pale in comparison to his spreadsheet of set needs.  He's a set builder much like myself and I was happy  to be able to fill so many of his needs.  I probably sent him close to 2500 cards and I can honestly say that I had fun searching for each and every card!

I am in the early stages of collecting the "semi-vintage" Topps sets and that was about 95% of the cards that Scott sent me in return.  What do I mean by "semi-vintage" you ask?  Semi-vintage is a term I use to describe the Topps sets from 1974 to 1980. Topps was the only licensed card manufacturer and it was the first time that the entire set was released in one series instead of 6 or 7 during the summer.  Cards from this era aren't terribly tough to track down, but they are still not as plentiful as say '87 Topps or '91 Donruss.

Scott probably sent the most of 1975 Topps cards and they are all in excellent shape.  I don't quite have enough to start a wantlist just yet but hopefully by the end of the year I'll be able to accumulate enough of them to warrant typing one up.

I also got a good chunk of 1978 Topps too.  Again I'm in the beginning stages of building these sets so I don't have a list yet.  I'm just trying to acquire as many as I can at this point in time.

1980 is on of my favorite Topps flagship sets of all time.  I love the "ribbon" as it shows the team name on the bottom right and the player's position on the upper left.  I can't wait to complete this set so that I can see the whole thing in it's entirety!

Not all the cards that Scott sent me were of the semi-vintage variety.  We also exchanged some relic cards.  He had 2 Miguel Tejada relic cards that I liked along with some trade bait cards that I think I'll be able to trade going forward.  The other Tejada is his All Star workout jersey from 2004.  That's the year he went toe to toe with Lance Berkman in Houston's Enron Field Minute Maid Park during the Home Run Derby.  I think that might be the last time I've watched the HRD because I can't stand Chris Berman and his stupid nickname and home run calls. I can't really stand ESPN anymore.  I couldn't tell you the last time I actually watched sportscenter or baseball tonight.

I also got this one lone card from 2010 Bowman Chrome.  Yes, I'm still working on the set and yes I still need just a few cards to finish it up.  I might have exhausted the blogosphere's supply of Chromes from that year and I might be heading to Sportlots soon just so I can put this baby to bed.

Thanks Scott for the trade.  I'm glad I could help you out on so many of your wants and ecstatic that you sent me a bunch of cards for my semi-vintage set building adventure.

Trade with Robert of $30 A Week Habit

I posted the results of my 2012 Topps series 2 hobby box one day last week and within a few hours my "crazy", old trading buddy Robert from $30 a Week Habit contacted me with some cards I needed to complete the set.  I'm only down to just a few cards left for series 2 and I can put this set to rest until Update comes out in about a month.

Here's the numbers I still need for series 2: 360, 438, 475, 574, 581, 584, 585, 603, 644, 647.  Can you help me out?  Also do me a favor and check out my other wantlists above to see if you can help me out with any of my other needs.

Robert also put 2 Orioles minis from Gyspy Queen in the package.  Both JJ Hardy and Mark Reynolds have been crushing the ball lately after both were in nearly season long slumps.  I'm glad their bats are waking up at the right time of year!  The Hardy is a normal mini and the Reynolds is one of the exclusive minis that only come in hobby boxes (I think).

Thanks Robert for the quick and easy trade.  The help on my set and the minis are much appreciated.

Allen & Ginter Minis for Trade

I don't know if anybody was paying attention earlier this summer when I made a Craigslist purchase of a complete 2007 Allen and Ginter set and '06 and '08 A&G near complete sets.  All 3 of these sets came in binders and they also included a ton of minis from the '06 and '07 sets.  There's regular back, A&G Ad backs and even some black bordered minis in there.  I'm not going to try to complete them so I've been debating on what to do with them for about a month or two now.  I've decided to try and trade what I can and sell the rest thru ebay, COMC, Listia, etc.  Of course my friends in the blogging community gets first crack at them.  Without further ado:


2007 Allen & Ginter:
Regular Back Mini: 2 M. Gonzalez, 3 Kearns, 5 Drew, 6 Murton, 8 Kendrick, 9 Bell, 11 Blalock, 15 Francoeur, 16 Crawford, 21 Wainwright, 22 Street, 23 Sanderson, 25 Payton, 27 Podsednik, 28 W. Randolph, 29 Casey, 30 Eiffel Tower, 33 Dukes, 34 Grudzielanek, 36 Kouzmanoff, 38 Crosby, 39 Brooklyn Bridge, 40 Dunn, 41 Overbay, 43 Rolen, 44 Lindstrom, 45 C. Zambrano, 46 Hamels, 49 Putz, 51 Haren, 52 Harang, 53 Ferris Wheel, 54 J. Rivera, 56 Wang, 59 Snell, 64 Myers, 66 B. Hall, 67 Shealy, 68 Scott, 69 Rabelo, 74 E. Santana, 78 Guillen, 80 Utley, 81 Sweeney, 83 Lidge, 87 Iwamura, 88 F. Rodriguez, 89 Lackey, 90 M. Cabrera, 91 Mench, 93 Tracy, 94 Manuel, 95 H. Ramirez, 96 D. Willis, 97 Slaten, 98 Lowry, 103 Gandhi, 104 Kent, 105 Berkman, 108 Twain, 111 Hatteberg, 113 Sitting Bull, 114 Bailey, 117 Miles, 118 Crisp, 120 Young, 121 A. Ramirez, 122 M. Ordonez, 126 Schilling, 127 Phillips, 128 Bradley, 129 Monroe, 132 Konerko, 134 Atkins, 135 Weaver, 136 Renteria, 137 Isringhausen, 142 Hudson, 143 Bannister, 144 Acta, 146 Quentin, 148 Rogers, 149 T. Gordon, 151 Wickman, 153 Taveras, 154 Loduca, 158 Kendall, 159 Barrett, 161 M. Ramirez, 165 Mauer, 166 D. Lee, 169 Pasteur, 170 Sheffield, 171 L. Castillo, 172 Torre, 176 Arroyo, 179 Cain, 180 A. Soriano, 184 Burrell, 185 Glaus, 189 Zumaya, 193 R. Hill, 194 F. Cordero, 196 Ausmus, 197 Louganis, 202 Hillenbrand, 205 Rollins, 206 Napoli, 207 Burke, 209 R. Johnson, 212 Upton, 213 Piniella, 214 Cameron, 215 Gonzalez, 216 Weeks, 208 Estrada, 220 Zimmerman, 221 Gwynn Jr. 223 Baldelli, 223 Nady, 225 Ibanez, 226 Carpenter, 229 Chavez, 232 Zaun, 234 Crede, 237 K. Johnson, 238 C. Young, 238 Dostoevsky, 241 Mientkiewicz, 242 Jenks, 243 Hawpe, 244 J. Marshall, 246 Damon, 247 D. Roberts, 248 Washington, 250 Webb, 251 Pettitte, 252 Black, 253 Cuddyer, 255 Teixeira, 257 Granderson, 256 Pierzynski, 259 LaRussa, 260 Andruw Jones, 261 T. Hunter, 262 Loretta, 263 Edmonds, 264 Rowand, 265 Halladay, 266 F. Garcia, 267 R. Sanders, 268 Washington Monument, 269 FDR, 273 Posada, 275 Abreu, 276 Duke, 277 C. Delgado, 278 Juarez, 279 Inge, 280 Helton, 281 M. Giles, 282 J. Johnson, 285 N. Johnson, 286 K. Greene, 288 Lilly, 289 Leyland, 290 Fielder, 292 B. Giles, 294 Lugo, 295 Peavy, 297 Beckett, 299 Buehrle 305 Bonderman, 306 Ensberg, 307 Hardy, 308 Zupan, 311 D. Ross, 313 M. Alou, 314 Y. Molina, 318 Gomes, 319 Jennings, 322 Walsh, 232 Biggio, 326 Rios, 328 J. Jennings, 329 Wells, 239 Geren, 332 Glavine, 336 Treanor, 338 Byrnes, 341 Gonzalez, 342 C. Cordero, 343 Francis, 346 Jones, 347 A. Sanchez, 350 Adam LaRoche

A&G Back Mini: 10 Bay, 12 J. Santana, 14 Igawa, 24 Susan B. Anthony, 35 JD Drew, 42 B Fuentes, 57 Henn, 61 Mourneau, 62 Eisenhower, 73 Punto, 77 Freel, 99 S. Green, 102 P. Wilson, 133 C. Gomez, 139 Baffert, 140 Swisher, 141 McCann, 155 B. Sheets, 175 Beltran, 188 Willingham, 191 Hermida, 211 O. Cabrera, 230 Reyes, 236 Y. Hernandez, 240 Tejada, 249 Aponte, 283 Capuano, 284 BJ Ryan, 291 Hoffman, 296 A. Beltre, 298 Truman, 312 Duffy

2006 Allen & Ginter:
Regular Back Minis:  2 Huff, 3 Teixeira, 4 Wells, 8 D. Wright, 9 V. Guerrero, 10 Andruw Jones, 17 Barmes, 18 Berroa, 20 Nathan, 21 Webb, 26 Estrada, 28 J. Vasquez, 30 S. Green, 31 Buehrle, 32 Pena, 36 Jacobs, 37 Oswalt, 38 Greinke, 39 JD Drew, 42 L. Castillo, 44 Floyd, 45 Haren, 48 K. Greene, 49 Alou, 52 Colon, 56 Dye, 58 W. Taveras, 59 B. Clark, 65 Lieber, 81 Casey, 82 Hermida, 83 Cameron, 84 Hoffman, 87 Everett, 88 Isringhausen, 92 E. Chavez, 94 Street, 95 Posada, 97 Erstad, 101 Soriano, 105 Pettitte, 106 N. Johnson, 107 T. Gordon, 110 O. Cabrera, 111 Renteria, 113 Crisp, 124 Ford, 130 Lieberthal, 134 Betancourt, 127 T. Hall, 142 J. Patterson, 143 B. Molina, 144 B. Wilkerson, 145 Cantu, 146 Mulder, 149 Loduca, 151 Langerhans, 156 D. Lee, 157 Pierzynski, 161 Francis, 162 D. Willis, 168 T. Hunter, 176 Lugo, 177 F. Cordero, 179 Burnett, 180 J. Guillen, 181 Bigbie, 182 Ibanez, 184 Burrell, 186 Hardy, 187 E. Brown, 189 M Giles, 191 Figgins, 195 Wang, 198 Fuentes, 209 Vizquel, 211 Carpenter, 212 Kazmir, 216 Barajas, 218 Overbay, 219 Glaus, 220 C. Cordero, 221 Vidro, 223 C. Crawford, 224 Baldelli, 226 K. Escobar, 230 A. Ramirez, 232 Ensberg, 233 Grudzielanek, 234 Sweeney, 235 Chacon, 238 C. Lee, 246 Beckett, 251 Barfield, 252 Johjima, 254 B. Anderson, 256 Willingham, 260 H. Ramirez, 261 Kuo, 271 Waner, 293 D. Baker, 294 Guillen, 296 Randolph, 300 F. Robinson, 302 Kahanamoku, 304 Chastain, 306 Guey, 315 Bailey, 318 Kelly, 321 Turnbow, 323 Hawpe, 325 Lackey, 326 Arthur, 332 Hayes, 338 Wright, 339 Wright, 340 Hawthorne, 341 Melville, 343 R. E. Lee

A&G Back Mini: 7 J. Reyes, 27 Gonzalez, 60 Morneau, 62 Harden, 67 Wagner, 72 I. Rodriguez, 73 Bonderman, 75 R. Johnson, 75 M. Ordonez, 89 Gomes, 91 Crosby, 109 F. Rodriguez, 114 Clement, 116 Konerko, 113 O. Perez, 136 Orvella, 138 Blalock, 139 BJ Ryan, 141 Hernandez, 169 Utley, 172 A. Beltre, 183 Peavy, 193 Loretta, 199 G. Anderson, 204 Rollins, 217 Chacin, 236 Punto, 250 Sheffield, 312 Kobayashi, 320 A. Hill, 329 Cleveland, 337 Edison, 347 Billy the Kid, 348 Buffalo Bill

Black Border Mini: 18 A. Berroa, 28 J. Vazquez, 37 Oswalt, 66 D. Johnson, 114 Clement, 137 T. Hall, 151 Langerhans, 187 E. Brown, 210 Reed, 219 Glaus, 230 A. Ramirez, 244 Arroyo, 278 Pesky,  320 A. Hill, 341 Melville

No Number Back Mini: Tim Hudson

I know there's a lot of text in there but you can probably use the Find option in Internet Explorer or Chrome or whatever browser you might use to find your favorite players.

The binder pages that these came in are also for trade.  They don't do me any good once the cards are gone.

Trade with Chris of Nachos Grande

This trade will be known as the body bag trade.  I sent Chris some '12 Allen and Ginter minis among other cards about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  He sent me a return package at the same time and I waited... and waited... and waited.  I know that Chris is an awesome trader so I started to think that something happened at the post office.  My suspicions were confirmed when I got the dreaded "USPS Body Bag" in my mailbox about a week ago.  I've seen some people luck out when their mail has been mishandled and all the cards were still inside the package.  Unfortunately for me, somewhere between western PA and Central VA, the entire bottom of the package was torn completely off.  The only thing left inside was his bumper sticker.  I contacted Chris about the issue and being the great trader/collector/blogger/human being he is, another package was sent my way.  He absolutely didn't have to send anything else but he did, and I thank him for his kindness.  Here's a couple of the cards that he sent:

The original package that got destroyed by the PO was supposed to have a bunch of these What's in a Name inserts from '12 A&G so he sent me six more to help me with the completion of my set.  These inserts are kinda interesting especially the middle names of some of the players!

Chris also threw in a few 2011 Topps Attax Orioles cards into the mix.  I've never really taken a liking to the "gaming" baseball cards.  I mean, come on they have rounded edges though its hard to see in this scan.  Attax was an attempt by Topps to try and get the pokemon and yu-gi-yo kids to buy baseball cards.  I guess that plan didn't really work out since I haven't seen a 2012 version of Attax.  Us bloggers have tons of ways to get kids interested in cards again, just Topps isn't listening with their ears open!

Why am I showing two cards from 1991 Donruss?  2 answers here:

1. It's my blog
2. It's because Devereaux and Milligan are wearing the orange jerseys.  It seems almost too perfect that the Orioles become a winning team the same year they bring the Orange jersey back!

Thanks Chris for sending the replacement package and the awesome cards that were inside!

Group Break Loot from Nachos Grande

I've seen everybody else posting their hauls from Nachos Grande's group break of 2 boxes of 2012 Topps Mini and 1 box of 2000 Fleer Impact, so I figured I mind as well post mine too.  These cards have been sitting on my desk for over a week now and I never put these cards away until they are scanned and posted.

The highlight of my chosen team, the Orioles was this gold border of Adam Jones. I got a nice pile of Orioles base minis that helped fill in my team set. Jones has seemingly cooled off from his torrid first half of the season but is still in the middle of most of the O's rallies lately.  He's also been keeping the shaving cream manufacturers in business because every time the Orioles Hero du Jour does a live interview on postgame, he's the one responsible for the pie in the face sneak attacks.

My random team was the Brewers.  I was pretty surprised that they weren't taken and I got 'em.  I was even more surprised to see that I snagged a relic card.  I love the Gold swatch!  For anybody that knows, what's the deal with the gold jerseys?  Are they only worn on certain days or occasions?

I also ended up with a Prince Fielder golden Moments insert.  I don't have that much to say about Prince other than his name is annoying, though I wouldn't say that to his face.  All of the Brewers I obtained in this group break are for trade including all of the base cards, the Fleer Impact cards, and the Axford relic.

Thanks for holding the group break Chris!

Box Break: 2012 Topps Series 2

I doubt anybody really cares about 2012 Topps Series 2 at this point in the year.  Updates is right around the corner, and A&G, Finest, and Chrome is already out.  I actually bought this box at the National at the bargain basement price of 38 bucks.  I've noticed over the last few years that series 2 goes down in price over the summer so I didn't preorder like I used to.  I was thinking I'd find the box for about 45 bucks and was shocked to find a vendor selling the hobby boxes for 38 clams.  Hobby box for less than the cost of 2 blasters?  Yes Please!
I'm not going to bore you with base cards because I'm almost 100% certain that all 330 cards have been scanned and posted across the blogosphere.  Only the hit and new inserts from series 2:

Here's my one hit of the box and it came in the first pack.  Talk about taking the drama out of the rest of the packs!  Porcello seems to be a middlin' kinda hit but it is Flagship, not Triple Threads!  I'm sure Dhoff might be interested in this one.

Mound Dominance makes its debut in series 2 and I guess these are just OK.  Good to see Topps is still making inserts out of relic cards. I guess they are just keeping up with the continuity of series 1.  I was happy to get Jim Palmer's card from the set so I have one less card to chase!

Topps has brought back the Diecut cards this year and I'm pretty happy about it.  They just add an extra angle (pun intended) and level of interest in the card for me.  I chose to show Stan the Man because he was such an awesome player that doesn't seem to get the hype of some of the other players of his era.  Why is that?

I like the idea of the insert set but the execution is damn near awful.  "Career Day" doesn't even fit on the card bottom and there is    tooo      much       empty      space       on      the     right    side       of     the    card.  Braun looks worried that he is going to be swallowed up by the blue fade.

I did get several damaged cards in my box but I think that is a self inflicted wound.  I carried the box in my back pack for about half the day at the National.  They may have gotten damaged just by me picking up and putting down my bag all afternoon.  Even so, base cards of Joakim Soria, Juan Uribe, Jacob Turner,  and a Golden Futures insert of Chris Sale shouldn't be too hard to replace.

So, I'm glad I was able to get this box on the cheap and to fill out a lot of my set.  Including the couple of retail packs I bought, I only need a handful of cards to complete it.  Flagship is always a fun break so I'm now looking forward to Updates to release in a couple weeks.

Here's my wantlist of cards I need to complete the set:

333, 358, 360, 374, 387, 432, 438, 445, 475, 499, 571, 574, 581, 584, 585, 603, 629, 642, 644, 647

Here's the list of Trade Bait I have available for cards from my extensive wantlists:

Gold Sparkle Parallel: 347 Gentry, 357 Harang, 394 LaHair, 469 Pestano, 494 Barney, 511 E. Santana, 516 Morton, 544 Collmenter, 569 Hafner, 591 Huff,
Target Red Parallel: 434 Motte, 341 E. Encarnacion
Gold Standard: GS-33 Gibson, 37 McCovey, 43 Seaver, 44 A-Rod, 45 Jeter, 49 Clemente
Gold Futures: GF-32 Storen, 34 Beachy, 42 N. Feliz, 43 Strasburg, 46 J. Weeks (2)
Mound Dominance: MD-1 Seaver, 3 Koufax, 8 Ryan, 10 Galaraga
Golden Moments: GM-7 Sandoval, 16 C. Gonzalez, 18 Hamels, 24 Brett, 32 O. Smith, 33 R. Jackson, 45 M. Cabrera, 41 A. Dawson, 50 Griffey Jr.,
Career Day: CD-1 Pujols, 3 Kaline, 6 DiMaggio, 10 Braun, 11 M. Cabrera, 17 Votto, 20 Hamilton, 21 Kemp
A Cut Above: ACA-1 Fielder, 2 Pujols, 8 H. Ramirez, 12 Musial, 15 J. Bautista, 19 Cano, 23 Kemp
1987 Minis: TM-52 M. Cabrera, 54 J. Upton, 62 Lincecum, 65 Teixeira, 73 Gordon, 79 Wilson, 83 Mauer, 87 Musial, 92 Koufax, 96 Mantle, 99 Clemente

A Winner is (possibly) You!

The Big Kahuna is running a contest.  Check it out here.  That is all, now back into blog hibernation!