straight to your....mailbox!

Yesterdays post led to a flurry...a frenzy even, of responses. I got more comments on that post than I have total on all my postings (see? I give stuff away and then people read ;) ). I did get them all, and if I did not write back to some of you, I will still get some cards out to you. I will need mailing addresses from each of you in order for this to happen (with the exception of the few I have a trade going on with, they will be thrown into your package). I think what it all boils down to is I just like to help people finish sets. I know as a completionist, I hate the holes left by missing cards. Sets should be finished, thats why they have numbers! I am here to help!

take them...please??

Dear readers, do you need 2010 Topps series 1, 2 or Opening Day base cards? If so, I have many Many MANY duplicates that some of you may need. Need a full 330 card series 1 set? I have a few of those too. I also have some 2010 Chicles as well if anyone needs any of those. Please send along your wantlist if you have one. Or if you just need some extra cards to give to the kids or something. Don't hesitate, let me know!!

it came from....the mailbox!

MAIL DAY!! So I sent some White Sox over to Steve at White Sox Cards and he sent back a nice little package of Jays stuff for me:

The two relics are great, anything Vernon Wells is good, even though I already have this card. I don't have any Joe Carter's so this is a first. The Heritage foils are just awesome from that year and I only have one other one so far (need more). I'm also a big fan of anything mini like the 1987 Leaders card here. Spectrums are good and shiny. Shiny shiny. Also in there were some Topps golds (1993 Jays and 2010 randoms) and a bunch of other things I definitely didn't have. Thanks again to Steve for the great deal, I'll be on watch for more Sox stuff.

bobo

I picked up a couple of 2010 Bowmans at Target today while making a milk and cat food run. Three packs, nothing special...except the best card in the set! Never have I gotten a more appropriate card out of a pack of baseball cards.


Thats right. None other than Colorado Rockies prospect Bo Bowman. The chrome doesn't scan well but it doesn't stop the awesomeness from shining through. A friend of mine from work and I try to recollect some of the best baseball names (you know, Wade Boggs, Boog Powell, Catfish Hunter, etc.) while we're working, I'll be sure to let him know about this one tomorrow.

its a hot one...

Its too hot today, so I think I'll leave it short and post my favorite part of the Opening Day set this year:



Mascot Mania!!!!!!!!

oh topps...

Does anyone else besides myself think that Topps short prints base cards to force us to buy more product? Or is it just my dumb luck? Example; I have purchased 2 hobby boxes and 1 retail box so far for 2010 series 2. I still do not have one complete set. I did get the last 10 cards I needed out of the most recent box, but they were all damaged in some way. I'm guessing they all came from the same sheet and that sheet should not have left the factory. Mistakes happen, I get it. I just find it odd after all the product I've bought so far (and there have been packs, a couple jumbos and 2 cereal boxes thus far too) and I still cannot complete a set. Second example; I bought a box of 2010 Opening Day and pretty much completed a set besides 3 cards. Now as with series 2, I bought more besides the box (about 3 blasters and some random packs, maybe 10-13). How can I still be missing base cards? Inserts I get, they are supposed to be "short printed". It even says right on the product description for OD that its 'easy to collect'. Not if I have to buy and buy and buy it isn't! I'm sure this is nothing new for Topps or any company for that matter but seriously, no short printed cards please unless otherwise noted. I know the higher end sets have short prints right in the set, like National Chicle (which is why I stopped collecting it), Allen & Ginters and Heritage, but not for the flagship set, or a supposed 'easy to collect' set like Opening Day. So what is it? Is it Me or is it on Topps?

part one

Since there is little activity around here, I thought I would go through some of my favorite Vernon Wells special cards. Relics, Autos, etc. Lets begin, shall we?

The top card is part of a set that I can't find much info on. I know the set exists, and I know the set had many parallels but I cannot find much info regarding this parallel. On with the card itself. Its super shiny, numbered 1/5 and has a great piece of relic embedded on there. A great multi-color patch card, and probably my favorite. The middle card is from Topps Finest. It is not numbered but is shiny and has a nice blue piece of jersey on there. I like it because its not white like most all the relics you find out there. The final card is from the 2004 Playoff set. As you can see it is a dual relic. I'm a big fan of bat cards, and dual relics are always cool. Yes, it has the dreaded white jersey, but the bat makes up for it. It is numbered 106/250 and is not shiny at all. So that about does it for todays post. Maybe something exciting will drop in the mail tomorrow, we will see.

the final countdown

MAIL DAY!! I received the Troll's trade package today in the mail. He was more than generous with the Blue Jays cards that I didn't have. Many O-Pee-Chee's, a bunch of various years Topps Heritages, some 2010 golds. Good stuff. One card excited me more than anything though:

Yeah, I know what you are thinking, its a used Million Card Giveaway code, so what? Well here is the story. I purchased the 25 card Topps Town Gold set for 3 bucks on ebay (plus $2 for shipping) that I got in the mail today. Upon obtaining that set, the final FINAL card I needed to complete my 2010 Topps series 1 set was that silly card above. I opened up the Troll's package and was glad to see that, in the sea of Jays cards, that very card, thus finishing off my set for me to never worry about again. A big thanks to the Troll again, and I'll be on the lookout for Ray's stuff to send your way!

hot for teacher

I had planned on writing something about grading a little while back, I just never got around to writing it. This article from Sports Cards Uncensored sums it all up perfectly and is way more on point than I would ever be. I can see some benefit to grading but overall I feel it detracts from the hobby as a whole. If you read this regularly, you'll notice that I buy some pretty beat up vintage cards. I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't need a "perfect" 10 graded 1954 Jackie Robinson, my old ratty one suits me just fine. Sure if it were graded 10 and slabbed up, theoretically no one could make it less than a 10 by damaging it, hence keeping the value up seemingly forever. It never sees another hand or greasy fingerprint. It won't get thrown at a wall or put in bike spokes to make a cool noise (kids don't do this anymore to their cards...I don't think anyway). Nope. It will remain in its little plastic tomb forever, never to be touched again. How fun. No binder. No penny sleeve. Just a 'here's my big hunk of plastic with a card inside, wanna look?', when shown to all your collecting buddies. Fooey I say! Let your cards breathe and interact with the others the way they were supposed too!

back in time

Alright, who doesn't know this set?

EVERYone knows this set....one of the kings of the over-production era. Alos one of the first sets I collected in my youth. The first set I remember having an excessive amount of (along with 1988 and 1989 Topps also). I picked up two boxes on eBay when I jumped back into collecting to try and complete a set. I didn't. The collation is horrible in these years (its still not perfect, I have my gripes with 2010 also) and I ended up with most of a set and a bunch of duplicates. No Bonds rookie. No Canseco (I picked one up later though). I don't think they were tampered with, I mean its 1987 for crying out loud. The highest booking card is 6 bucks (if you care about book value, I don't). So which leads me to this: I need your 1987 Topps. I want this set finished and on the shelf for me to never have to look at again. Sounds weird, but it has to be finished, it'll nag at me like it has been until now. Look at those four guys above, aren't they great? Who doesn't love good old Bip? And Tippy? His name is TIPPY! Kevin Mitchell has one of the few action shots in the set, and Ken Griffey is always good. I am kinda picky about the condition though. Yeah its 23 years old but its junk wax, and there are presumably billions of these floating around. So no gum or wax stains. Just a good shape card. If you have some you'd like to shove off let me know and I'll send you the list of numbers I need. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

happy fathers day to all the dads!

Most everyone has a local baseball team. Be it a Major League team, AAA team or even a college team. I am fortunate enough to have a AA team, the New Britain Rock Cats, the Minnesota Twins affiliate. I say fortunate because professional sports are almost non-existent in Connecticut. We were at a game a few weeks back and we checked out the team shop. They had a bunch of 'Cats related material, shirts mini bats, balls pennants, etc. They also had some baseball cards too, Topps Attax packs, some MLB cards repacked in a 100 card lot, displaying two good cards on the front and what looked to be about 98 other junk wax cards. They also had the 2010 Rock Cats team set, put out by a company called Grandstand Cards (I know, I've never heard of them either). So for a couple bucks I picked it up, a few are scanned below.

As you can see, they kind of resemble 2010 Topps, and I'm sure its intentional. Not that its a bad thing, I like both designs. These four fellows are some of the better action shots of the set. Now, if any of these guys make it the majors is beyond me, but Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau both passed through here so I suppose anything is possible. Games are a load of fun though. Which brings me to my point. Today is fathers day and I wanted to wish all the dads out there who read this a happy one. I will be seeing my dad today and while we aren't going to a game this afternoon (they don't play at home today), we will be in the coming weeks. They will take on New Hampshire (the Blue Jays AA affiliate) and we will be attending. I'm real excited to because its something we have never done together but I know that we will both have a blast and be totally looking forward to it in the coming weeks.

where have all the good times gone

CARD SHOW SATURDAY!! Ok, so this morning was the other card show (there are two a month around here), and usually they aren't a week apart, but hey I'll take it as it comes. Really not too much I needed today. I was looking for 2010 Series 2 to finish my sets, and inserts too. Only one guy had them and all he had was the base cards. I did manage to get a few cards I needed but there are still cards missing. Next month they all should have the Series 2 stuff so maybe then. I did manage some great Jays stuff and a few vintage cards on the cheap. The old stuff is below, there were a couple more, but it was just more '55s and a '56. About it for now, until next time.

keep hope alive

Not too happy with Topps today. I finally got my two retail boxes in the mail today (nothing outstanding, Colby Rasmus and Aaron Hill Relic cards, Eddie Murray short print, two original backs) and I only needed twelve cards to finish off my first set. Well wouldn't you know, I did manage to get all twelve (only one of each mind you) and only two of them were undamaged. The other ten had corner damage in one corner of each card. Pretty crappy if you ask me, quality control-wise and collation-wise. How can I open up four boxes and only get these cards once, and have them all damaged?? Only my luck sheesh...

train kept a rollin'

Mail Day!! I received another trade package in the mail today, this time from Sean over at Condition: Poor. I sent him over some Mets stuff and this is what he sent back:

...and I couldn't be happier. It started with his post of opening up some Topps Series 2 packs and pulling the Aaron Hill jersey. The trade just went on from there. I've shown some of the favorites from this trade above, i'll explain why. The Aaron Hill was the main focus, as I like relics of Jays players. The two vintage cards are great due to the Callison only being my third 1960 Topps card, and the 1964 Altman is great simply due to the fact is has some "updated" facts about him on the front (or whatever the kid wrote). There were more vintage cards in the pile as well, like the smaller card on the bottom right (I forget what these are called, but it is cool). The other Aaron Hill (Bowman Heritage) is there just because I'm a big fan of this set. Jesse Carlson on the other hand is there due to where he is from. He hails from a small town called Kensington Connecticut. This town is a mere 3 miles from where I live, and I thought it was pretty cool that he grew up so close to here and made it all the way to The Show. There are three more fellows that made it from my area that I will go into in a future post. Thats all for now, and another big thanks to Sean.

open all night

2010 Topps Opening Day.

What is it really? Is it a low end value set geared towards younger collectors? Is it kind of a 'greatest hits' compilation of the 2010 issue? Or is it just another set to make them some more cash while we wait for the next set to drop? I'd like to think its all three. While Topps does recycle many of the images from the main flagship set, Opening Day does have its quirks. As you can see above, our friend Hanley Ramirez is in the post hitting pose, while his Series 2 card looks like this:

So there are a few differences in some of the players pictures. Many airbrushings are abound in this set, but its nice to see a player in their current uniform. I wasn't sure that I wanted to collect this set at first but then decided that I would like to collect each set that has this format. I really like the 2010 layout and to have every set (Series 1, Series 2, Update, Opening Day and Chrome) with this layout would be totally rad in my eyes (I think I'll skip Pro Debut though). I love the blue border parallels of this set. I picked up a blaster the other night and tore through the 10 packs and when opening the 8th pack I discovered this (not the blue border):

Now Daniel McCutchen isn't even listed on the checklist as an auto, but here he is. What a glaring oversight. the checklist lists ten autos in the set, he is not one of them. The stated odds on the back of the pack for an auto is a ridiculous 1:746 (I'm not kidding), making this the rarest pull I've ever pulled from a pack, even beating out the 1 of 1 (of 4) Chicle printing plate (1:300 odds). Very odd. Maybe because its so over-produced that pulling an auto is impossibly hard. I haven't even seen many on eBay, but maybe because they aren't that desirable. I'm all for it though, any auto is a good auto in my book.

old brown shoe

Nothing new today so I figured I would go retro (or super-retro, really). When I came back into collecting earlier this year, I thought it would be cool to collect Topps vintage stuff and the current 2010 set. Then I ran across some of the T206 cards on eBay and I noticed they were going for great prices (ie; cheap). So I bid on some, and to my surprise, won (those are the Owens and Dooin). From then on, I was hooked even further on vintage cards. The next card I bought was the Merritt from my local card shop. He bought a collection from a guy and this was the lone tobacco card in that lot. I asked him what he wanted for it, went home and thought about it. Went back the next day to buy it at the quoted price ($20). I only questioned it because I knew once I bought it I would want more and being expensive to get sometimes, it seemed like I would be spending much more money soon. The final two, O'Leary and Anderson were bought on eBay also for good prices as well. The Anderson invoked a small bidding war, pushing the bids to almost $35. I was willing to go to $40. These prices may seem insignificant to some collectors who drop hundreds on a single card, but to someone who rarely buys singles, and singles for more than a couple of bucks, its a large amount. Especially on a budget. I have my five now, I may go for more later on but I think five is a good mark to stop at for just a little while (or until some cheap ones pop up on eBay). Condition is a slight factor too, as I didn't want anything frayed or torn in half or just demolished, but what can I expect for a little piece of cardboard thats lasted the past 100 years?

eight days a week

Mail day! I received my first trade package today from Ryan over at "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog. It was filled with various Blue Jays and some series 2 2010 golds (all the golds were numbered anywhere from 806 to 854...weird, and even two 833s). Many Blue Jays I didn't have from sets I have no cards of at all, so it was really great. Only one duplicate! Thanks a ton, if I get more Orioles I'll send them on over. Below is some of my favorites.



I'm digging the Fleer Vernon, its a rookie and a great kinda candid pic. The Bowman Chrome Vernon is also a great addition to my vastly growing collection. The Bowman Best Halladay is a rookie too, plus I'm a big fan of shiny. Roy Halladay a "ones to watch" according to Sports Illustrated and Fleer? You're damn right he's a 'ones to watch'. The Felipe Lopez is cool because its a 'retrofractor', something I've never seen or heard of, shiny on the front, old cardstock on the back. I may need more of these. Finally, this rookie fellow, Jason Perry. What is going on in this picture? why is he in an old uniform but wearing a "newer" hat? Must have run out or something. Again, a big thanks to Ryan for all this great Jays stuff.

give it away

The Million Card Giveaway seems to be a popular device within the hobby here. I'm still not sure how I feel about it as a whole. I will admit there is a nice little moment of giddiness after you punch in your code, and right before the feeling of disappointment sets in when you see the card you 'unlocked' is something you either already have, or just plain don't want and can't trade away. Sometimes though you do pull out a decent card and its not all bad. Heres what I got from my six codes from the box I opened on Friday:


I like the 2007 set, I have a bunch of this year in my collection already.

Here is a year I missed completely...I'm not a fan of this design.

1986...what can I say? To me this set defines what an 1980s baseball card looks like.

I don't have much to say about 82...its got that weird stripe thingy.

Hey a 60s card. I like the 1969 set with its bright orangey backs.

If I pull anything out of this MCG thats in the 70s or earlier, I'm usually pretty content.

Well that about does it, these six bring my total up to 50. Trading is usually impossible, and people offer me nothing but junk wax for my 60s stuff. Humbug. While I griped in my box break post the other day about the inserts in the 2010 series 2 set, I must admit I am more than pleased with the overall collation of the box. I didn't get one duplicate of a base card in the box at all. I hear you at least get a full set out of a jumbo (usually) and to have no doubles in a hobby box are both great things. This box (coupled with the first one I did weeks ago) put me about 12 cards away from finishing my first set. Two more (retail) boxes should be coming this week, if I get anything good, I'll post it on up. I got two for a good price on eBay, and I just want more base and inserts, I'm not a stickler for hits (although they are nice). One last note, I still have trouble with commenting for whatever reason, I've seemingly tried everything, so if someone leaves a comment asking a question I will get back to you but it will be just in email form.

mailman, bring me no more blues

CARD SHOW SATURDAY!! Today was the monthly card show in Meriden. I went right after work and browsed the tables, talked to some of the guys selling stuff. It was a pretty good time. Below is a couple of the cards I picked up, in addition to those there were many Blue Jays aquired. Some refractors, numbered stuff, shiny stuff, and alot of regular stuff. I also picked up the last 3 Turkey Reds I needed for 2010 Series 1, a couple of the Target retro backs and a Halladay mini blue back. Good stuff. I also picked up three packs of Topps; 1984, 1986 and 2010. Nothing really special in any of them, it was just cool to open them up. I never opened a pack of anything earlier than 1987 Topps.



The Keys is special because he was my favorite Jay as a kid. I'm not sure why the McGowan is in a special Topps case, but it is, it is numbered to 99, and was only a buck. The Cruz mirror red was $3, and the Jays dual relic was $5. Not too shabby.

It was also a mail day! Three small packages arrived, all from eBay auctions. One had 10 2010 gold cards, and the other two are below:


My first 1951 Topps and my second 1953 Topps.

My second hat relic! I love the Canadian flag in the logo, real sweet. Thats about it, I'll post up the Million Card Giveaways from my box tomorrow, nothing special, just kinda fun.

something must break

I busted that Series 2 box this afternoon. Decent box (it was a hobby box), although I may have to call shenanigans on Topps. Every single Vintage Legend card I got was the same lot I got from my previous hobby box two weeks ago. They better not be shuffling some into hobby and some into retail because that seems quite deceitful of them to do so. Anyway, below is what I got that isn't the same things as everyone else. the Brooks Robinson is an original back, and three of the golds are super low numbers (20s to 60s range). I got the Mom cards, Legendary Lineages (two of which were nicely miscut, not horrible, but noticeable), 2020s, and all the other insert sets. Six Million card giveaways, 2 sketch it cards, etc. I'll post which Million cards I get in another (later) post. Junk wax? Vintage? Blue Jays? Strasburg??? Stay tuned...



PS- Does anyone know why I can't seem to comment on either someone elses or my own blogs? It just strikes me as odd that I can't comment on my own posts. Not sure what the issue is.

leaders of men

Nothing much to report today, I am hopefully getting a 2010 Topps series 2 box tomorrow (if they come in that is). This is box two, I purchased one the week they came out (hobby), and ordered two from my local store (hobby boxes), and two from eBay (two retail boxes, very cheap). I would have liked to get a jumbo box, but the prices on those are still overinflated. More on that tomorrow though. For now I'll leave you with a couple of recent eBay purchases.




Two new favorites.

too much monkey business

Alright, yesterdays post was poorly planned, poorly written, and not fully thought out. I don't hate parallels, they have their places I suppose. I also know that Topps has cut back the sheer number of them. I know other companies used to be far worse (Upper Deck I'm looking at you...you too Donruss), I think my issue lies with parallels of inserts or relic cards. It also seems like base cards are just a vehicle for chase cards much like gum was originally. Back in the 50's, Topps issued gum with the cards in an effort to sell gum, and the cards were a bonus, almost a throw-away. Now, you see collectors racing through these base cards in their boxes just to find the triple auto quad relic refractors, and the regular cards go totally ignored. Base cards are there to sell hits. Find your box hit, ignore the rest. Personally I love the 2010 set. Great design, Awesome photography, and some good insert sets (I like the History of the Game and World series cards the most). I also liked Chicle, but stopped collecting it due to the number of short prints that lie within the actual set. I don't mind short prints when they are not part of the base set. The regular Topps issue has it right with short prints being a second card but the same number. If you want to short us on cards, don't make it part of the set, make it a subset if it has to be a 1 in 4 pack odds. So all in all I had random thoughts and put them up here but it wasn't thought out properly. Or maybe it was just me ranting off about nothing again. I tend to do that. Anyway, this came in the mail today:


beat? check. miscut? check. baseball legend who should be in the hall of fame? check. worth the 5 bucks I paid for it? check. awesome? I certainly think so. One of my new favorites.

whole lotta love

Parallels are a funny thing. Back in '92 the only parallel that was available was Topps Gold, and that was just a silly foil stamped name. Now, as you can see below, you can get many MANY parallels of pretty much every card. Including inserts. I find this to be rather excessive and tedious to compulsive collectors (like myself), that feel they need to collect everything out there for a particular year. Topps has made it easy on us by practically eliminating the competition, so we can focus on collecting only so much. On the flip side, they have made it pretty much impossible due to all the parallels they offer in their products. Chicle had 4 different backs, the flagship set has 5 different variations. Bowman has 15732 different variations (seemingly). There comes a point when too much is too much. Not to mention the sheer impossibility to collect such a set. 2010 Topps Gold is achievable, hell, I'd even say that the black set is possible. But what about platinum? No single person would ever be able to collect the entire thing due to rarity. What a collector has to do is find a player (or team) they like and just go for that very few. Who knows how many from series 1 are still lurking in packs. I've checked eBay for them and it seems if someone bought all the platinums that have been up for sale so far they would have about 1/317th of the set (if that). Its very exciting to get 1/1s (and REAL 1/1s, don't get me started on printing plates, even though I do enjoy them too), but it all just seems excessive. So on top of gold, black and platinum there are the Wally-Mart blacks, and the Target retro backs. How many sets do we need? I mean, I completed 5 base series 1 sets (anyone need a series 1 set?), but I admittedly bought way too much, and have scaled back what I buy for series 2. But thats just base cards, cards I can go to a show and buy for ten whole cents. Thats why I have 5 sets, lots of doubles, may as well make a set. I'm not going to go out of my way to complete a Target or black set, I'll collect who I like (like Mr. Wells below) and leave it at that. While it may be excessive, I guess it is nice of Topps to give us variety. On a different note, silk cards are sweet, I won't soon tire of those.


top row: base, gold, black
middle row: Target, silk, Wally
bottom: Opening Day, OD blue, Jays team set

i just wasn't made for these times

Baseball cards are....well...just great. I enjoy the history of the game I think, more than anything else. Sure I like to know how Toronto is doing, or how it almost seems fair to call this year "the year of the pitcher". Theres just something special about old time baseball (or base ball), that I am particularly fond of. That is probably why I like collecting older cards no matter the condition. I'll search out pre-1960s stuff but anything before 1980 will no doubt find a way into my collection. Maybe thats why I like T206s. I'm up to five so far in varying conditions, be it round corners, bends and one even has a nice tear (but no missing card). Each card has its stories and tales, and I always thought it was cool to think 'wow this has been around for 100 years, I wonder who has had it before it reached my collection'. Around here there is a league that gets together and plays old time base ball purely for the enjoyment of being part of the game's roots. www.friendsofvintagebaseball.org is that organization and it looks like a lot of fun. I plan on attending one (or more) of these games really soon to partake in old timey goodness. Once I do I'll post up some pics. Check around, you may have a similar league in your area so you too, can enjoy the fun of the roots of the game we all know and love.

p.s.- I would have included a hotlink but it wouldn't seem to work properly, so you'll have to copy and paste. Pardon the inconvenience.

it takes a nation of millions to hold us back

So how do you feel about the Topps Million Card Giveaway? I think it is definitely an interesting idea but is not without its shortcomings. I think I've hit it decently so far, right now I have 39 cards unlocked. Here's some of my top few:


1956 Bill Renna

1968 Mr. "walk-off home run in the World Series" Bill Mazeroski

1977 Dwight Evans

1982 Ozzie Smith

...and some junk wax. Although it has been few for me, I have a few friends who say thats mostly what they got so far. Also unlocked: 1 of each 1960, 1963, 1966, I have 3 1971s and a couple more from later 70s years. What about you guys, are you on this? If so, what have you unlocked so far?

First Post

Greetings. My name is Ted. I collect baseball cards, and this is the blog on which I will write about them. This is a first post (and a first time thing) so bear with me here. I am a Toronto Blue Jays fan from Connecticut, we're hard to find around here as the state is very divided between all those Yankees and the Red Sox fans. I collected cards as a kid and have recently begun to collect once again, after not having collected for about 17 or so years. The hobby landscape has changed quite a bit. I'll share my thoughts and views on that as we go along. Or maybe I'll just mention stuff I pulled in packs, or what happened in last nights game. In any case, I hope you'll read along and have some points or counter-points, or whatever you want to write about drop me a line. I'll start up a wantlist at some point in the near future, along with some other fancy bloggy stuff.

P.S.- the fellow above has little to nothing to do with what I'm talking about but he is my latest T206 card addition...namely because we share a last name....and T206 cards are cool.