vernon on the left coast

So. It seems that Vernon has been traded. The only active player I currently collect. The guy I thought to myself, just two weeks ago, would be the perpetual Blue Jay. Who would probably retire as a Jay. Nope. No longer. He got traded to these guys:

Oh sure, its a logo they no longer use from the 70's but it gets the point across. Now, upon hearing this news, I immediately thought of my collection. What would I do with it now? I can't possibly collect him any longer because he doesn't play for Toronto. Then I thought about things logically. Would folk who collect Ken Griffey Jr. no collect him because he got traded from the Mariners to the Reds? Maybe a few but I'm willing to bet the majority would stick by him and collect him as a player they enjoy watching and following. I decided to continue collecting him no matter where he ends up.

Logically it also makes sense for the team itself. By not having to pay his hefty contract, they are free to buy up some younger talent and build a young, competitive team. A team that can hopefully contend with the likes of the ultra tough AL East. The Yankees and Sox are always on top. Baltimore had a really horrible start to the 2010 season but really picked up steam towards the end and I feel they will be a major competitor this coming season. Tampa Bay seems to be in shambles but they did pick up two aging sluggers in Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez but we'll see if that does anything for them. All in all, while I am not fully a fan of this trade, I do know and understand why Toronto did what they did. Its just good business. I wish Mr. Wells the best in LA (or California or Anaheim or what ever they want to be called this year) and I'll poke my head around to see how he fares over there.

card shop pick-ups

I went to the local card shop today to pick up some more card boxes and he showed me a sweet box full of stuff he had just bought from a customer. This box held many great autos and jersey cards (one of the best being a numbered to 10 Cal Ripken auto from 2007 Fleer Ultra), and included the cards below:

He gave me a great deal on these (along with the two other cards I got, just a Mel Ott Tribute and a numbered Wells card) and he said he immediately thought of me when he saw them. Pretty cool! Well...it isn't hidden that I'm a Jays seeker and he knows this of course. The cards though: this makes Lind auto number three for me. I only collect him part time. When I see good stuff, I grab it, but I don't go seeking it like Wells. The black swatch on the Icons card is good though, not boring old white like on Vernon's. The plate is really great though, namely due to it being the black. It also brings me to plate number 8 for Vernon Wells. I also picked up a couple of random packs too (2009 Topps Heritage, love the 1960 design, 2010 Topps 206, still don't care for it, and 2010 Topps Chrome, ended up with a USA Baseball auto of Brian Johnson) but nothing really worth noting besides the auto. Overall a good trip to the shop!

four pieces

Busy today so here is an automated post (hopefully). the bottom right relic is really a deeper red than it scanned.

four of a kind

I don't usually purchase cards if I already have them. In some cases though I'll make an exception. Here is an exception:

The top two I purchased from eBay, and the bottom two I received in trades. The most recent being today (the gray) from The Troll. The two gray swatches are identical but the two whites are a different material, which is why I wanted them. If I happen to find any different colors of this card I'll be sure to get those too. Maybe a black perhaps? looks like I'll be hitting up eBay soon...

just one vernon

The Troll sent over another trade package that he said that he owed me. Inside were some assorted packs and Blue Jays cards. There was also this:

He had won it on eBay and sent it on over. Its great, 1 of 1s are always cool, and for my favorite player its a sure thing. It also presents me with the question I've had about printing plates since I saw the 2010 Topps ones on eBay. If a plate is printing a card, it prints it in a mirrored version of the card, so when it prints 'backward', its really printing right, like the card above. If I held it in a mirror, I could read the signature. Unlike this card, however, are the 2010 Topps plates, which aren't mirrored, and seem like they are just a metal version of the card itself, but only using one color. I have found this to be very odd. Maybe Topps switched up their printing process to allow non-mirrored plated to print non-mirrored cards. Doubtful, what magic do you possess, Topps? Seems like the old 'bait and switch' to me... I may not have explained this properly, and I do apologize for the wording. I just have some trouble putting all the right words down here to describe what I'm thinking sometimes. Anywho, a big thanks to the Troll again for the great addition to my Vernon collection!

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.

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.

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