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 Kevin from Orioles Card "O" the Day

I traded with Kevin once before I threw my hat into the ring and became a blogger myself. Kevin's blog was one of the reasons I was drawn back to the hobby late last year. I read every single one of his posts last December and started really getting a good idea about where my collection was headed. I can say that my Orioles collection has increased by leaps and bounds and I see no end to my fascination with guys wearing Orange and Black on little cardboard rectangles in the near future.

This trade started with me finding a few of his Top 11 coveted cluster cards and the trade just grew to a full blown team trade! He sent me a great package of new Orioles cards to sink my teeth into.

This Sam Bowens card was the first card staring me in the face when I ripped open the bubble mailer. I admittedly don't know much about Sam but I have a sneaking suspicion that some other blogger sent this card to Kevin for his other blog about 1965 Topps. I have learned a lot more about the Orioles and 1965 Topps over the past year just by reading Kevin's blogs.

What are you swinging at Jeffrey?

I just wanted to feature a card of Charles Johnson. My memories of him is that he was a defensive wizard but had trouble standing a few feet away in the batters box holding a bat.

This Rodrigo Lopez card is just awkward. In one of Kevin's latest blog posts he talks about how Rodrigo brought a gas can to work every 5th day this past summer to Chase Field in Phoenix. He wasn't fooling anybody this past summer and I guess he is trying to fool batters with his invisible pitch in this photo.

There is some confusion to which card is Billy Ripken's real rookie card is. This is his XRC (Extended Rookie Card) from 1987 Donruss Rookies. His real rookie cards are from 1988 products. I think many people think that his famous F**K Face card from 1989 is his rookie card. Now that I have this cleared up....

Jay Gibbons with a big head. Some bloggers talk about how awkward the 90's were in terms of goofiness in cards. Get a load of this Upper Deck Offering from 2004.

It was fairly difficult to figure out which cards to post from this package. I could seriously ramble on and on about nearly all of them.

Thanks Kevin for an AWESOME trade. Keep up the great work on your blogs, I'm always learning something new from you!