Trade with blog reader Steve D.

Here's yet another trade post stemming from my tradebait clearance blowout.  This one comes to me from Steve D., who I've traded with before way back when this blog came online in 2009.  Steve sent me some really neat cards this time.  Lets have a look:

Here's an Adam Jones Sepia parallel from this years Triple Threads.  In my opinion, you don't go to Triple Threads for the base card and parallel designs as they are just a side show for the BIG MOJO HITS that you can find.  Triple Threads, Sterling, Tribute, Museum Collection, Tears One (yes I said tears) and now Five Star are all huge rip offs in my opinion.  I'll pick up any of the cards at a small fraction of the price of wax and let the "big boys" waste their money ripping the packs open.  It makes me cheap but at least I can afford to take my wife out to a nice dinner every now and then!

Here's a card from my Top 10 Most Wanted list.  Its been a while since I've knocked any cards off of it and it kind of just sat on my sidebar for months lonely and neglected.  Not anymore!  I've added a few new cards of interest to see if I can knock a few more off of there!

Here's Roberto's double play partner for a period of time in Baltimore.  Me thinks Circa is the epitome of cards in the late 90's.  Loud and gaudy!

My Allen & Ginter set collection has come quite far over the last 6 months.  Considering I started June with just a handful of base cards and I have 2 complete sets, its a big improvement.  I'm still working on 2006, 2008, 2009 (my biggest need), 2011 and 2012 so please check to see if you can help me out right  here.

I'm also putting together the 174 thru 1980 Topps sets together ever so slowly.  Just an observation about this card: I think Pat Zachry looks a lot like R.A. Dickey!

Thanks Steve for the trade!

Box Break: 2009 Allen & Ginter

As many of you may or may not know, I'm working on building all of the Allen and Ginter sets from 2006 thru 2012 and beyond.  I didn't used to be a fan of A&G but somehow I turned the corner this spring/summer and did a 180.  Since I purchased the 07 set complete and an 06 and 08 partial set this summer in my now infamous buy from craigslist, I'm now working on 09 thru the present.

I actually bought this box about a month ago and set it on my desk where it collected dust until a few days ago.  I had probably searched ebay for a month prior to finally being able to get the hobby box at a comfortable price for me and my wallet.  I actually missed the auction the first time around and it had ended with no bids.  I contacted the seller and we were able to work out a deal.  Without further ado, the highlights:

These code cards are pretty useless to everyone now but I guess they were the must have cards when the code had yet to be broken.  I'm pretty good at trivia games like Jeopardy but the Ginter code is not my cup of tea.  How anybody figures it out is beyond my comprehension.

I'm not sure if it really qualifies as a hit or not but this is a shortprinted mini of Kelly Shoppach.  I think these are like a 1:24 pack pull.  Even though this particular card is a mini, I do like the design of the base set.  I didn't bother to scan any of the regular sized cards because I'm sure in 2009 each one was probably scanned and shown plenty of times.  We all know what they look like.

These are pretty cool little minis.  They are the national heroes minis.  I had never heard of Al-Qadir but  I have heard of William Wallace.  Yes, that William Wallace, the guy that the movie Braveheart is based on.  I don't think the picture on the card looks much like Mel Gibson!

Here's my other 2 insert minis.  These don't do that much for me but like most A&G mini inserts they are hit and miss with me. 

And now the moment we've all been waiting for!  Here's the hits (aka the ripped up shreds of kitchen towels that are inserted into cards posing to be authentic pieces of jerseys)

Captain Cheeseburger, not a player I care for or collect.

Jimmy Rollins, a player that could be called captain since he's been with the Phillies so long.

And Adam LaRoche AKA the traveling man.  I wonder if he sticks around in Washington next season?

So there you have it, 1 whole hobby box of 2009 Allen & Ginter.  I enjoyed this box even though my hits were somewhat lacking. I would have loved to pull an autograph out of the box but you can't win them all!  Everything shown in the pictures above and the list below is for trade.  Let me know if you see anything you'd like!  Not all of these are from my box, some are from some lots I've picked up over the last few months.

SPs: 306 Cliff Lee, 307 Pence, 318 Delmon Young, 320 BJ Ryan
National Pride: NP2 Upton, 3 Bay, 9 C. Guillen, 61 Teahen, 62 Braun, 63 Beltran, 64 Liriano, 65 Delgado, 67 A. Gonzalez, 70 C. Pena, 72 E Gonzalez, 74 Y. Molina
Baseball Highlight Sketches: 2 Griffey Jr., 9 Thomas, 10 Thome, 11 K-Rod, 12 Yankees, 24 Mariano
Crack the Code Cards: 141 Zambrano, 189 Kotchman
Regular Back Minis: 7 Smoltz, 23 Armstrong, 24 Wiebe, 74 Tuiasosopo, 75 D. Wright, 135 Suppan, 166 Meche, 181 Rowand, 271 Jurrjens, 274 J. Hamilton, 321 Shoppach
Ad Back Minis: 34 Dempster, 78 Byrnes, 79 Electron, 101 Bailey, 208 M. Young, 298 Haren
Black Border Minis: 208 M. Young, 334 Burrell
National Heroes: NH22 William Wallace, NH37 Al-Qadir
Worlds Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks and Bamboozles: HHB2 Pi, 13 War of the Worlds

Here's the cards I'm still looking for to complete the base set and the National Pride insert set:


2009 Allen & Ginter: 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 36, 38, 41, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 81, 83, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 117, 121, 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 131, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 150, 153, 157, 159, 161, 163, 164, 170, 171, 173, 175, 178, 179, 181, 183, 184, 187, 190, 191, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 203, 205, 206, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 215, 219, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225, 229,232, 233, 235, 239, 240, 244, 245, 246, 248, 250, 252, 255, 257, 261, 262, 265, 267, 271, 272, 276, 277, 280, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 290, 293, 294, 296, 297, 302, 312, 314, 316, 321, 323, 326, 328, 334, 335, 339, 340, 341, 343, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349

National Pride: NP10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 40, 58