Trade with Tom of Waiting 'til Next Year

As I'm slowly getting back into the swing of blogging, I'm remembering all of the good people/bloggers that I've met over the last couple of years.  Trading is something I miss the most about blogging as it's a great way to network with other collectors.

Tom from Waiting 'til Next Year is one of the aforementioned good people/bloggers that I've traded with a couple times over the last few years.  He sent out a cry for help to complete the 1987 Topps set over the blogosphere and I was happy to help out.  I was able to help him with a couple of his other set projects too.

He always seems to find some good cards for me.  He knocked off a few cards from my 2013 Topps set as well as a few Cubs extras that will fit nicely into my 1979 Topps set.  But that's not all he sent.

For my One Card of Every Oriole binder he sent me this 1956 Chuck Diering.  If you aren't familiar with my OCoEO binder, I'm working on getting a card of every Oriole to ever play a game for the Orioles.  I'm probably about 75% (rough estimate) of the way there but I still need (mostly vintage) help!

I do have a small Boog Powell PC.  This 1970 Topps All-star will fit nicely into that collection.  Boog doesn't get that many cards these days so most were from when he was an active player.

Finally, We have a Matt Wieters card from panini.  I'm going to let Tom off the hook here since he is correct that Matty Ice doesn't have a lot of cards.  Maybe panini will grow on me in time like the late 80's/early 90's oddball unlicensed food issues but I doubt it.  I just think overall panini is a waste of paper.  I was at Target the other day in the card aisle and there were several boxes of panini packs sitting there on the shelf.  Out of 5 boxes (Hometown Heroes, Pinnacle, USA Baseball Legends, Prism, and Cooperstown) not a single pack was missing.  I think that says something about how the general public feels about unlicensed product.

Thanks Tom for the trade!

Trade with blog reader Paul

I was contacted by one of my readers recently with a trade offer.  Well, Of course I accepted because I love trading!  Paul apparently caught my blog from the webbernet and offered up some cards.  I don't believe that Paul has a blog but forgive me if I just overlooked it.  After some emails were exchanged and cards were mailed, I ended up with some awesome new cards for my collection.

I don't have many Matt Wieters cards since Topps can't get their act together and sign him to a card contract.  I do have this card from the much-maligned 2010 Upper Deck set though.  I've seen the base card version tons of times but this is the first time I've seen the Supreme Green insert.  Awesome card!

Here's a new Cal for my collection.  It hails from 2004 SP Authentic.  I still remember this exact All-Star moment when he jacked that memorable homerun.  It's one of my favorite Cal moments!

I was surprised by Paul with this card.  I'm really glad he did.  While its well documented I'm not a huge manu-relic-patch fan, I do love this card.  I guess since it was actually touched by Nick himself makes the difference.

This is one of the 2 really wacky cards that were in the package.  It looks like Raffy is pitching!

And this one is Moose Mussina hitting.  Definitely unique cards to say the least!

Thanks Paul for checking out my blog and offering up some awesome cards!

Card Show Report: My 5 Favorite Things

So I went to the card show in Raleigh this past weekend and was able to pick up a lot of great cards that fit the needs of my collection.  I picked up a bunch of vintage Orioles cards to fill out my team sets, a bunch of Chrome cards from the last 2 years to fill the sets I'm working on, and I was able to visit with one of my fellow Orioles bloggers, William from foul bunt.  I'm just going to post 5 of my favorite things from the show.

I was able to purchase this fine looking Brooks card for 20 bucks.  The centering is pretty good, there are no creases or really beat up corners so I think I really got a great deal on this vintage beauty!

This card I actually purchased from William.  Its an Oriole, its an autograph, and it's on card.  In my collection, that's a win on all 3 fronts!  Doyne didn't really work out in Baltimore but I like the card nonetheless!

Here's one of the other vintage cards that I picked up to finish my 1960 Topps Orioles team set.  This is Steve's rookie card and I'm very glad to have it.  He stuck with the birds for about 6 or 7 years and had his greatest success there.  He was a local product hailing from Takoma Park Maryland.  I think he is probably one of the most underrated Orioles players in their history since he won over 100 games for them.

This card actually came to me in trade.  I brought about 20 cards with me and had them set out on William's table to see if I could sell or trade them.  I got this Matty Ice card for the Brett Lawrie Blue Refractor and the redemption card for the team USA set that I had pulled recently.  In my opinion I got a great deal but objectively it was probably a pretty even trade.

And that brings me to my favorite thing of the whole show.  It's not something I bought, traded, or bargained for.  William was nice enough to bring his batting gloves for me to see.  These aren't just any batting gloves though.  These are Nolan Reimold's batting gloves from the last game of the season.  These batting gloves had a major role in crushing the Red Sox playoff hopes and sending them home for the winter.  You can read he whole story about how William came into possession of the gloves right here.  You can see in the picture that both of the gloves are autographed on the thumbs so these are true collectables and I'm glad I actually had a chance to put them on.  I mean look at me, I'm grinning like a little kid!

I really had a blast at the show picking up some new cards for my collection and most of all just hanging out talking with William and his son.  So I guess that really wraps up the show.  Thanks for reading!

The "New" Orioles jerseys and hats

Earlier today, the Orioles finally revealed their new look for 2012 and beyond.  Take a look:

Here's a picture of the new cartoon bird:

And a comparison of Cartoon Orioles past with the new one:

I know a lot of people around the Orioles blogs, forums, and websites were really excited in anticipation of a new Cartoon Bird being unveiled.  It will sell a lot of new merchandise but I hope fans don't get the wrong idea and think it makes the team any better.

The new logo is a good mix of both of the old ones but wearing the "O's" hat. The updated feel is nice but I actually hate the "O's" hat and the black alternate jerseys that they only wear on Fridays.  I actually hope this doesn't become the "Official" logo and is only worn on the hats.

I personally don't care for the new Home hats with the white panel.  I think it looks too much like a trucker hat. Leave that crap in the 80's!   I prefer the new Road hats with the all black crown but am still not completely sold.

There is one thing I do like is the official return of the orange jersey.  I'd rather see them wear these on Fridays instead of the goth/emo/hipster black jersey.

I think I don't like the idea of wearing an Orioles hat with an cartoon wearing a hat that I detest.  I'm not in a hurry to upgrade my wardrobe anytime soon.

7-3-11: Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves

Sunday July 3rd was the final day of the Braves series and the final day of my roadtrip down Interstate 85 to Hotlanta. I woke up around 7:30 and got all my stuff packed up and ready to go. My Friend and I went down for breakfast early and soon found ourselves at our respective players entrances.

I was determined not to miss Baseball Jesus (Matt Wieters) today. He was the first to show up that day as his wife dropped him off. He was dressed to the nines and was in a good mood. (Maybe he knew that he was going to be named an All-Star later in the day!) He signed my 8x10! I wish I would have gone with a medium tip pen but the autograph still looks great!
Matt would turn out to be the only autograph I got all day but it didn't matter because I was still on cloud nine. I had a couple of opportunities to get more 'graphs but since I had gotten most of them in the last 2 days I didn't want to be a pain and seem greedy. One player I didn't have and wanted was Derrek Lee. He was very "elusive" to say the least. It didn't seem like he really wanted to sign the autographs that he did give. He did one on Saturday and 2 on Sunday morning. I was not lucky enough to get one. Oh well, maybe TTM will lead to better results. I also was unable to get JJ Hardy who was a target of mine going into the weekend. He didn't sign either day but at least he was nice about it, politely declining.

I was excited to see Zach Britton get the start for the Orioles this day and he cruised through the Braves order for the first couple of innings. He even hit a homerun to help himself out but it would not hold up. He ran into some trouble in the 5th or 6th inning and in came the bullpen. Being down by one run Mark Reynolds stepped up to the plate with a man on and hit a bomb deep into the seats in left field. It was his 3rd in 2 days! The bullpen came in and shut the door on the Braves and the Orioles salvaged one game of the 3 game set.

I would say my time in Atlanta was a positive experience. There wasn't a single negative thing to put a negative spin on the weekend other than having to leave to come home.