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!

Trade with Michael of Nomo's Sushi Platter

Michael of Nomo's Sushi Platter and I have become pretty good trade partners over the past few years.  I think out of everyone here on the blogs, I have traded with him the most times.  Every trade seems to get better too.  Here's just a few of the cards he sent me this time:

 Since Mark could become a free agent if his option isn't picked up, I think the Orioles should keep him one way or another.  I'd rather have another year of Mark playing 1st base than say James Loney or Carlos Pena.

 I'm not sure what the Orioles plans at second base are at the moment.  Ryan Adams is definitely not one of the top options right now.  He was outrighted to the minors late in the season after battling injuries and somewhat disappointing play.  Maybe he can play his way back into the future of the O's but he has Robert Andino and Ryan Flaherty blocking his return to the majors.

Mike also sent over a bunch of late 70's Topps cards of Dodgers for my growing set building project.  I'm still just gathering any and all so if you have any you'd like to send my way, don't hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for the cards Michael,  I really enjoyed them all!

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 blog reader Brendan

As I am officially back on the blogging train, that also means I am back, open for business in regards to trading.  Brendan, a reader of mine who doesn't have a blog (that I know of), contacted me again and offered up some cards that I could not resist.  This is my second trade with Brendan:

This card was actually not in our original trade agreement.  He put this card in as a surprise and it was a good one.  I've had my eye on this particular card on COMC and Ebay for a while and never pulled the trigger on it.  I guess the cardboard gods had planned for Brendan to send it to me in a trade.

This card was one of the original cards that he sent me a scan of.  Poor Brian Roberts.  This guy can't catch break.  He's had a myriad of injuries the last couple of years including a bad back, concussion issues and now a torn hip ligament or something.  Hopefully he'll be back at full strength for Spring Training 2013 and he can contribute like he used to.  I'm sure as frustrated as the O's fans are with his body breaking down, he's probably more disappointed that anybody on the planet.

Brendan also sent me a pile of semi-vintage cards for the sets I am slowly working on.  A couple 74's, 76's and 80's Topps commons.  I had a hard time trying to figure out which card to scan because there were several Pirates, Yankees, Phillies and Blue Jays cards in the lot.  Pirates from the 70's are the devil (for O's fans, think '71 and '79 World series), Yankees are always the devil, and the Blue Jays and Phillies just bug me for some reason.  I guess the Brewers are the least hated of the quintet of teams even though they did knock the O's out of the playoffs the last day of the '82 season.  I'm not sure if Bob McClure had anything to do with that days loss or not.

Thanks Brendan for the great cards and conversation pieces that you sent over!

Trade with blog reader Brendan

This is my second trade with Brendan.  This time he needed a bunch of 2011 Topps inserts and promised to send me a ton of semi-vintage cards from his Diamond Giveaway portfolio.  I'm slowly acquiring cards from 74 thru 80 in hopes of building these sets in the near future.

This card of Joe Kerrigan will not be making it into the 1979 set that I will build.  This card is going in my new "One Card for Every Oriole" binder.  I've been working with fellow Orioles collector Ryan from the Great Orioles Autograph Project with getting the debut dates straight.  I'm now using that list to try and collect a card of every one of the 910 players to wear the O's uniform in a regular season game.  I haven't gotten the wantlist up yet, but look for it soon!

I don't know why I like this card so much but I just do.  Maybe its the batting cage.  Maybe its Sal squinting from the bright sun in his eyes reminding me of summer.  I don't know.

I like this shot of Fred because of the Padres vintage uni.  Why the heck is he sitting out in the middle of a pasture?  Why the heck aren't there any cows in the background?

1980 Topps is one of my all-time favorite designs.  Something about the simple design I guess.  I had never heard of Ted Martinez before this card showed up in my mailbox.  I wonder how he kept his hat on during windy days?

Thanks Brendan for the cards and raising my curiosities about them!

Ambush Trade with Scott of Smed's Baseball Card Blog

Scott sent me an email about a week or two ago stating that he was going to be sending packages out and he had some cards that I might be interested in.  Of course I accepted the trade and waited.  Fast forward a bit and a package shows up at my doorstep.  Here's a few that I liked:

Obviously, this is a Dylan Bundy card from this years Draft Picks set.  Not so obviously, its a refractor.  I'm very pleased to get a surprise trade package with the Orioles top prospect refractor card in it.  I was looking at the back and it has his stats from his senior year in high school.  He pitched 71 innings, went 11-0, struck out 158 batters and had an ERA of 0.30.  Nintendo numbers.  It also states he hasn't eaten a hamburger in over 2 years.

Switching gears from a really good pitcher to a slightly worse than awful pitcher.  Readers of my blog know how much I despise kevin gregg.  Regardless, I still needed this card for the team set.  He was a no-show at FanFest because his house was flooded out.  It's too bad he wasn't able to sign autographs for all of the O's fans that "hadn't developed a taste for his style of pitching".  Ass Clown...

Scott also sent along some '74, '77, and '78 Topps cards for my long term collecting goal of completing all of the semi-vintage Topps sets.  That's 1974 through 1980 for those of you not familiar with the semi-vintage that I just made up 15 seconds ago.  Semi-vintage, hmmm...  kind of has a nice ring to it.  I see if I can get it to stick.

Thanks Scott for the nice package of cards!