Trade with blog reader Zach

I feel like I've been a pretty lame-ass blogger lately because of my lack of posting.  With Spring training in full swing, new cards being released, and the weather warming up outside, you would think I'd be bursting with great ideas for posts.  First off, my spring training TTMs are trickling in a little slower than I expected.  I sent to some safe bets and have seen returns that were even sent after mine. Maybe mine just got shuffled to the bottom of the stack. Secondly, there are new cards being released but neither of the 3 sets that have come out (Opening Day, Tribute, and Heritage) really grab my attention the way series 1 did.  I'm choosing to spend my card budget differently this year (read: more responsibly!), due to being a newlywed, searching for a new house, and just not wanting piles and piles of cards creating clutter on my desk.  

Anyways, I'm always up for trading and one of my anonymous blog readers and fellow O's fan Zach recently swapped some cards. He is just getting back into the hobby after a long layoff so I happily was able to reduce card clutter and send him a gaggle of Orioles cards that he was interested in.  He sent me a bunch of the blue Wal-Mart parallels from series 1.  kevin gregg was also included in this lot. Zach sent 2 blue parallels and a gold parallel along with the ones below. He was left out of the scan because he sucks at his job and whines about it to the media. He blew a ton of saves last season and doesn't understand why Showalter is going with Jim Johnson as the closer this season. Get a clue! Any mention of gregg on this blog will be in lower case until he learns how to do his job better.

Sorry to get on my soapbox about the Orioles entitled ex-closer but I had to get it off my chest.  I feel much better now.

Thanks Zach for the trade.  I hope we can do it again sometime!

2012 Spring Training TTM #2

I finally got another one of my Spring Training TTMs back yesterday.  Check it out:

This is likely going to be Kyle Hudson's only Orioles card since he's now with Texas.  I really like that Kyle took the time to sign the card in blue sharpie and return it to me.  Thanks a bunch Mr. Hudson!

2012 Spring Training TTM #1

I've been impatiently waiting for my first TTM to come back from Spring Training for about a week now and I finally got it.  Ironically this was the last one I sent on the 27th of February.  1 week turnaround!  Thanks Zach!

The only thing that would make this card a little better would be if he signed it in blue and a little lower on his legs so the auto doesn't blend with the black jersey.

Trade with Charlie of Lifetime Topps Project

I got a nice package of cards from Charlie over at the Lifetime Topps Project.  I was able to send him a good chunk of card he needed for his various sets.  I was happy to do so since I have already completed my Lifetime Topps sets.  His project is a little bit more ambitious than mine but I applaud him for that.  He's collecting the inserts he likes and the traded sets whereas I only have the plain jane base set from 1982 to the present.  So let's take look at what he sent me in return:

 These 2 Upper Deck SP cards complete the team sets I'm building.  It always feels good to complete one of them and 2 at the same time is doubly satisfying!

 Here's a nice candid of Brady stretching and sharing a laugh with a mystery player of camera.  Brady has not taken his retirement laying down though.  I remarked a few weeks ago that he looked in great shape at FanFest and that he could probably still play.  Well, I read on Roch Kobatko's blog yesterday (Orioles beat writer) that he has an unusual training routine for the O's players he worked with this winter.  It included handstands.  Brian Matusz who's more than 20 years younger than Brady can only handstand for only 10 seconds.  Brady is walking around on his hands doing pushups!

 Another Goldie off the list.  Fare the well in Colorado, Jeremy!

 This is a pretty interesting shot of Mike Devereaux. It looks like he's giving the cameraman a lens full of fist or showing him where his World Series ring would go the next year with Atlanta!

I'll close this post out with a classy looking SP Legendary Cuts card for Brooksie. The Marble frame paired with the red background really make the card stand out.

Thanks for the cards Charlie, and good luck on the rest of your project!

There's Gold in Them There Packs...

...But no autographs.  I got my redemption pack of Gold Rush redemption cards yesterday.  I think the cards look great.  Nice thick card stock and pretty decent design. (I apologize for the bad scans but somehow dog hair gets on the scanner bed even though its closed 99.999999999 percent of the time.)  But I'm a little puzzled at the player selection.  

Why does Salvador Perez get a card for playing 39 major league games?

 Chapman throws really hard but he has no idea where it's going.  Look out in the on-deck circle!

 I understand why Edgar got a card.  One of the greatest DH's of our time.

 Yeah, Ian Kinsler.  I get it, he's one of the better young players right now.

Miggy Cabrera. Yeah another great player.  He deserves to be here.

I did a quick search of ebay and there are no Orioles in the set.  No Ripken, Murray, Palmer, Robinson, Markakis, Jones, or Hudson.  Hudson, yes, Kyle Hudson.  He deserves to be in the set because he scored the tying run in the Orioles last game of the 2011 season.  If Salvador Perez can get in the set, why no Orioles?  WTF TOPPS?

Trade with Kevin of Bonus Cantos

I was looking over some other bloggers blogrolls fairly recently and found a blog I hadn't heard of before.  It's a blog called Bonus Cantos and its run by a gentleman by the name of Kevin.  I looked over his 2012 Topps pack and box breaks and found a couple cards I was interested in.  I sent him and email and a trade was born.

He (read: I) was lucky enough to pull 2 gold parallels of Orioles from his packs.  I enjoy this parallel set every year.  It's pretty easy to build the regular base team set but the golds seem to add a little more challenge. 

I have several more pending arrival at my residence but I am still in need of these Golden Sparkly Parallels: 22 Alfredo Simon, 121 Josh Bell, 125 Adam Jones, 176 Nolan Reimold, 218 Kyle Hudson, 326 Kevin Gregg.  Anybody have any of these they'd like to trade me?

Kevin also sent along this Gold Standard of Frank Robinson.  Yep, I still like the Gold Standards.  Frank Robinson: response hazy, ask again later.

Thanks for the trade Kevin!

Trade with Jack of All Tribe Baseball

Jack (better known as Baseball Dad) saw my plea for help  few weeks ago for some help on my '09 O-Pee-Chee set and contacted me with a list of some cards that would help fill out my set.  I was very happy to get such a huge stack of cards this late in the game.  I sit only 28 cards away from completion.  I think there are some really cool photography in the set that gets over looked for some reason.  There are also a lot of the standard baseball pose shots too.  Not a knock on Jack or his cards, but there were a ton of the lame-ass baseball pose shots in the stack he sent.  I think that might be why I'm not into Topps Heritage that much other than buying a few sample packs.  Too many posed, hat-less cards.  Baseball players wear hats.  Anyways, Baseball Dad did send 2 other Orioles cards I wasn't expecting.

I'm really digging this card.  While the purple borders don't match anybody's uniforms but the Rockies, this is still a sweet card.  The scan makes it look black but I assure you its purple By looking at the uniforms the O's are wearing, they look like throwbacks.  Ask me what day or game they wore them last year, and you get a big "I don't know"!

B.D. also was able to find a Cal Ripken card I didn't have, which I keep saying is a rarity these days.  Anyways, I think this card is the black un-numbered retail parallel from '08 Baseball Heroes.  With Cal appearing on 3 different cards in the base set, that means he quite possibly have eleventy billion parallels to chase down.


Thanks for the great cards Jack!

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!