TTM Success: Ken Singleton

Another TTM Success from 2014.  Ken Singleton was a great player for the Orioles in the late 70's and early 80's.  He makes his off season home in Maryland and was at an Orioles FanFest a few years back and signed an 8x10 photo for me.  I sent these out and they came back beautifully signed. 

I sent these out on December 17th 2014 and got them back December 26th 2014 for a 9 day T-A-T

2023 Topps Update Hanger box breaks

I busted some 2023 Topps Update Series and I wanted to show off the highlights of each pack with a couple of thoughts and comments.

 Pack 1

I always seem to have good luck pulling Mike Trout insert cards.  I like Trout and will pick up cards when they're available.  Here's to hoping he can stay healthy all next season.

I was happy to get this Rainbow foil parallel of Dillon Tate as well as an advanced stats #d/300 of Patrick Corbin.  I tend to run into shortprints of the Nationals quite frequently.

Pack 2

A couple of parallels in the next pack.  Ragans is a promising rookie that was traded to KC in the Aroldis Chapman deal and Heyward had a bounceback season in LA.  I also seem to run into good Dodgers cards from time to time. 

Pack 3

Not a great pack but the Chrome Contreras Stars of MLB was a nice pull.

Pack 4

More Dodgers gold and another Chrome Stars of the game.  

Here's all the Stars of the Game inserts from the box.  I took 2 of Seager out and gave them to the neighbor kids since they're Rangers fans in that house. I'm kinda sick of seeing these stars of the game inserts at this point.  I don't think they need to come 1 per regular pack and 4 per hanger box.  They just don't seem special at all when they are so common.

Virginia Beach November 2023 Card Show

This past Saturday, I made the ~2 hour road trip to Virginia Beach to a card show.  I learned about the show during the Chantilly show a few weeks back and what peaked my interest was that 2 former Orioles were going to be signing autographs.  Mickey Tettleton has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid and I was able to learn more about Rudy May in my preparation to going. My good friend William made the trip up from NC with his Wood Ducks graphing buddy, Josh.

I have a soft spot for 1991 Topps and I remember getting packs of them after t-ball games that my dad handed out to the kids on the team.  I also have a memory of my cousins and I riding in the back of my grandfather's truck down to the corner store where he let us each pick a pack.  Our choice was '91 Topps or '91 Fleer.  Which would you pick?  I don't hate '91 Fleer like most people do.  I actually got the factory set later that year as a birthday gift (I turned 8!), that I purged from my collection a long time ago.  I've always loved this card of Tettleton and instead of getting the regular version signed, I decided on the Desert Shield copy instead.  I'm slowly working on the Orioles Team Set so even though my decision sets me back one from the goal, I decided it was worth it.  The card is just a "Baseball Card baseball card".  Mickey looks like he's sharing a light moment during a spring training game with a boyish grin on his face.  Mickey was very personable when William and I met him and we talked a few minutes about the current Orioles and their season.

I don't have the same memories of '78 Topps because I hadn't been born yet.  I do like the '78 design better than most of the '70s and early '82 offerings so my choice for this part of the signing was easy for me.  I also tend to enjoy getting cards signed that have an action photos shot rather than posed or portrait shots. As I say that, I do enjoy getting the '91 Crown Orioles cards signed (more to come on these in the future) event though most of the shots are posed headshots.  I also got one of those done (not pictured) by Rudy.  He was nice enough when he signed for me but I decided to not get a picture with him.

So, out on the show floor I was looking for deals.  Long time readers of the blog know I tend to stick to the dime and quarter boxes and rarely go showcase shopping.  I ran across a seller with a 5000 count box that was labeled "Refractors $.25".  Obviously, I did not find any red, gold, or any low numbered refractors but I was able to grab about 4 dollars worth of shiny goodness for myself, and a couple of friends.  The 4 pictured above is just a sample of what I snagged on discount.

I only grabbed one Cal Ripken this show and its one from this year's Pro Debut.  

A quarter box yielded a handful of this year's Topps Chrome Cosmic.  I think most of the stars might have been pulled out already but that's ok.  As a fan of the discontinued Fire brand, I think the Chrome Cosmic is an interesting product from a design standpoint.

Some more dimebox speculation/never too early/wishful thinking.  I've also stocked up on Corbin Burnes the last few years.  Just sayin'

My big splurge of the show was this Prism Refractor if Gunnar Henderson.  He's as good as advertised as I saw him play in Spring of '22 when he was with the AA Bowie Baysox when they came through town. This card wasn't a huge splurge in respect to some of the money I see change hands at card shows but I wanted to make a little investment in Gunnar since he's the odds on favorite for AL Rookie of the year.  I think I've accomplished that task over the last week or so.

Quick Pack Rip

Just proof it only takes one pack sometimes.  I stopped into Walmart on the way home to pick up a couple groceries and in a effort to scratch the pack ripping itch, of course went to the card aisle. Among all of the disarray were a couple of series 1 packs so I grabbed one...  I picked the right one.  Don't get too excited, this is the retail exclusive blue border even though the phone pic makes it look like a black border.  Trust me, I did a double and triple take when I flipped to it.

Here's the rest of the pack spoils.  I'd say the Harris RC will hold the title of second best card in the pack. 

This was the second impulse purchase of the trip.

If you know, you know.  If you haven't then you definitely should.  You just won't find any more at my local Wal-Mart....

TTM Success: Gil Coan

This is one of the TTM's that has been sitting in my draft folder for about 9 years.  I had this "extra" 1955 Bowman of Gil Coan sitting in my box of duplicate Orioles cards so I decided to send it out and see if he would sign it. At the time I sent, he was 92 years young.  He passed away in 2020 at the age of 97.  

Gil Coan played for the Senators, Orioles, White Sox, and Giants during his career.  He was the starting center fielder in the first Orioles game on April 13, 1954, batting 3rd.  

Sent December 17th, 2014, and  Received December 24th, 2014 for a 7 day turn around time.

Blog Bat Around: No Words Needed

 

TTM Success: Ron Hansen

This post might hold several records that are worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records.  First off, This TTM has been in my Draft folder since December 23, 2014.  Official record keeping at Guinness headquarters show that this is officially the longest time between the time that a TTM has been received by the purveyor of this blog,  from the signer, and when it is actually posted for the world to see.  There seem to be a lot of frivolous records that go into the yearly publication but this is one that I will hold near and dear to my heart.  I knew this blogging gig would eventually bear fruit.  I had no idea that this record would mean so much more than the the friendships and contacts I've made through the years.

Obviously, this is a joke.  I have been on a long hiatus from writing in this space for about 9 years.  I've been busy (aren't we all!)  I've been an avid reader and lurker in the blogosphere since then.  I've never really taken a break from collecting either.  In fact, I'm probably more engaged in the hobby as I've ever been.

Anyways, from what I remember, I had a handful of duplicate vintage Orioles cards and had a little free time back in late 2014 so I decided to send them out and see what happened.  I picked some guys that were virtually locks to sign.  Ron Hansen was a great signer back then and continues to be as this is posted.  I sent to him on December 17th, 2014 and it showed up 5 days later on the 22nd.  Thank You Mr, Hansen!

October 2023 Chantilly Card Show

So, according to my immaculate record keeping, this post looks like the first real baseball card post I've done in this space in the past 8 or 9 years so here goes nothing.

I recently had the pleasure of heading up to the October Chantilly card show with my nephew Blayke, my good buddy William (he writes foul bunt), and William's friend  Jesse.  My nephew is somewhat new to the world of collecting.  He's mostly into football cards and specifically the Bears.  Justin Fields is the player he's taken a liking to collecting.  I know next to nothing about football cards and football in general.  I grew up playing baseball and in the fall during football season, I was on a travel team.  The Chantilly show was the first big show he'd ever been to and my sister probably hates my guts even more now that he was able to spend all but 10 bucks of the budget she gave him. We'll see if I get a Christmas gift this year....

William had Steve Carlton and Cal and Billy Ripken autograph tickets and Jesse was going to meet Wille Roaf.

I've gotten everything I wanted signed by Cal so I didn't set aside budget to do so.  I was on the search for bargains this particular show.  The Chantilly show is a bit weird these days.  Bargains are still available to those who seek them out (me) but most vendors have their tables chock full 'o showcases, chock full o' graded cards that I choose to not spend my money on.  I get it, the vendors need to make money because the cost to set up is sky high and they need to make that money back.  They aren't making that money back by having a bunch of dime and quarter boxes.  That's what my local hotel and moose lodge shows are for. Plus, those shows don't require me to wake up at the crack of dawn to drive 2 and a half hours to get there.  I digress, minor rant over.

I spent a lot of time walking the floor searching for deals and I found a few.  

Early at a table where I talked to a gentleman about minor league ball I found this camo parallel of Jordan Westburg from 2021 Bowman ( I think).  Westburg made his debut this past season acquitted himself well enough.  I don't think the Orioles brass trust him enough because he never played any shortstop (that I know of) but he's been sharp with the glove at third and second.  He hit well enough so hopefully next season he has a break out.  I met him at a Baysox game last year and he seems like a good person so he's easy to root for.

At the same table, I picked up this autograph of Silas Ardoin from this year's Pro Debut.  I actually like the design of Pro Debut better than I like the design of this year's flagship.  There isn't an awkward headshot of the player taking up space down on the left of the card.  Anyways, I saw Ardoin play last season while with Delmarva and again this season while he was with the Baysox.  He's gunning for a back up job in Baltimore with eyes on taking the starting job when the O's inevitably trade Adley to the Yankees for a bag of baseballs and a scorebook.

Trevor Bauer may not be everyone's favorite player but I find him interesting in how he prepares for games and his youtube channel that gives us a look into the behind the scenes of Japanese baseball.  William was able to buy this one for me for 5 bucks.

I found a couple of Topps Chrome Cosmic Mike Trout cards in a 12 for $10 box so I was happy to grab 'em, I grabbed a bunch of other Orioles from this years Bowman Chrome to round out that purchase. I didn't snap a picture of 'em

These 5 Orioles card will go into my "One Card of Every Oriole" Collection, they came out of a bulk purchase I made for 15 bucks.  

Included in this purchase was these 3 Cal Ripken Cards.  As we were leaving the show, I lamented to William that I didn't buy a single new Cal Ripken.  I was wrong when I got home and started digging thru my spoils.  I'm closing in on 2100 unique Ripken cards.  There's still plenty I don't have but it doesn't stop me from tryin' to collect 'em all!  

I didn't even spend half of my budget at the show.  I couldn't find some of the stuff I was specifically looking for and printing out my set wantlist was pretty much a waste of paper.  I realized while reflecting on the days events that driving to the show, being at the show and dinner afterward with Blayke, William, and Jesse was more fulfilling than filling my binders with pieces of cardboard.