Trade roundup featuring a Whole Lotta Molly

Three trades arrived in the past week or so. Let's take a look.

First up is from Jeffery a.k.a. The Turrdog. He was the only contestant in my Big Fun Game I wasn't familiar with. Turns out he's a pretty cool guy and sent me a nice "thank you" package even before his prize arrived!

Kicking off with some tasty vintage, here's a Rusty Staub I needed for my '64 Topps setbuild. And the Jim Katt (sic) is a nice upgrade over the "tape stains on the corners" copy I previously had in my '65 Topps setbuild. The rest are sharp upgrades for PCs.

Jeff also hit some more modern needs of mine, including a couple for my Marquis Mania project, and my first real card of the Vogelmoster in his new Mariners duds.

Thanks a lot, man! Very appreciated. Glad to hear you're happy with your prize and the bonus cards I sent. (Turns out he's a big Mattingly collector, so I gave him a bunch of Mattingly customs in addition to the Andre Dawson auto he came away with in the game.)

- - -- ---o

Next up is another package from a happy Big Fun Game player. (I definitely don't want anyone who won a prize to feel obligated to send me anything in return, though I'm obviously not going to turn down cards! haha) This time Brian from Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary hooked me up with some good stuff.

Awesome trio of Dave Winfield cards, including a couple oddballs featuring photos from his amateur days as a two-way player, plus a sweet bat chip with him in his Padres uniform.

Speaking of oddballs and Padres, these are cool. Brian, could you shed some light on that Bip? It seems to be a thin piece of metal, similar to a printing plate, but it's a bit oversized and blank on the back. Well, whatever it is, it's a welcomed addition to my Bip PC. (Update: apparently a backdoored black printing plate from 1994 Leaf. NICE!) The Nate Colbert scratch off is aces, as well!

Now onto the Paul Molitor portion of the post. Nonchalantly snuck into my Molitor PC post was the announcement for the Big Fun Game, but the other take away from that post was I was just a handful of cards away from my goal of having 100 different Paul Molitor cards. Brian answered the call and dug up several dupes from his collection he could share with me. Some great stuff here!

And more! Thanks so much, Brian! Hopefully by the time you read this, you'll have received the Tony Oliva auto you snagged in the game, plus the healthy dose of bonus Twins I threw in. And hopefully there are a few needs in there for ya.

- - - ---o

But credit where's it's due, the trader who gets the props for getting Molly into my Hundred Card Club is ol' Johnny Miller who quickly shot me over a couple PWEs.

John helped fill some glaring "overproduction era" cards I was missing.

John and Brian only overlapped on one card, the Pinnacle with the gold pyramid bottom. No coincidence it's the only Twins-era card from John, I'm sure. So yeah, the PC is now comfortably over 100 cards, giving me some sense of accomplishment there.

Big thanks, John! I feel bad because he's sent me like 4 or 5 card mailings since the last one I sent him. But rest assured, I'm almost done with that project I've been working on for him, and will be sure to go big with a return package to balance the scales soon.

And speaking of mailings, I mailed out BFG prize packages today for Matt Prigge and Corky. That means I'm still just working on the packages for Nick, Bo, Wes, and John. Soon!

Well, thanks for reading and have a great near-holiday weekend!

Cody Bellinger custom and my shameful past

Cody Bellinger is the hot NL rookie of 2017, right up there with the AL's Aaron Judge. But while Judge has plenty of cardboard out there and has been included in most 2017 sets, Bellinger has relatively slim pickins to chase on the market right now. The situation is reminiscent of Puig-mania a few years ago. And like with Puig, I'm sure card companies are going to flood the market with Bellinger cards in late-season sets such as Topps Update and hit us over the head with him in 2018. But I got impatient, so I made my own card of him...

I'm pretty happy with how this faux 1989 Upper Deck card turned out. Using the template I first whipped up for a Vin Scully custom, it didn't take me too long. Even with me being a Padre fan compelled to hate the Dodgers, as a baseball fan, I still love to see a rookie come out of nowhere to take the game by storm. So it's nice to have a card of his now, even if it's not quite real.

Last year, I probably would have tried to sell a few of these to make a few bucks to spend on supplies and cards. But after some hot water last year, I'm done with selling customs. Now I'll just make one copy for myself, and perhaps a couple extras to give to friends. I gotta say it was fun trying to be an entrepreneur. There was even a brief moment back then where I got excited thinking maybe I could make a living off customs if I cranked out enough. How great would it be to quit my dayjob and just work from home creating and mailing cards?! But no, I'll keep on the straight and narrow and stick to making money at my real job.

Howabout a bonus custom for today's post. This next one wasn't made by me, though I did suggest it at The Shlabotnik Report and he executed perfectly...

Baseball card quiz: one of these is a fake 1982 Rod Carew card. Can you spot the impostor?

Oh hey, by the way, ketchupman36 has put up a recap of the big prize he won from my 1000th Post contest, so check that out if you missed it.

I know I said I'm no Dodgers fan, but I was going through some old photos last night (my aunt just passed away and I wanted to find a nice picture of us) and found this incriminating shot of me from 1981. (Yes, I kinda look like a little girl in that pic.) I remember that little suitcase thing. It eventually ripped apart and I cut out the Dodgers logo to tape on my wall along with other typical crap kids have on their walls. At the time of this photo, I probably couldn't name any baseball player beside Babe Ruth and maybe Mickey Mantle, so I think I can be forgiven for naively betraying my local San Diego Padres. But still.

Anywho.. Thanks for stopping by!

card show 3

In the past couple posts, we've taken a look at some of my quarterbox pickups from the latest card show. Now we're getting into the dollar bins (7 for $5 deal.. I managed to round up 14 for a ten-spot).

While I kinda collect Darvish, and like the look of these Beam Team inserts, a main reason for grabbing this one was the nice one-touch that came with it. (First thing I do when I step up to the bins is take an overview looking for special cases.. one-touches, graded cards, etc.. as that will often clue me into a good bargain.. though often it's just like an old screw-down case with a 1990 Upper Deck Mark McGwire or someshit.)

The George Brett 2016 Topps Chrome Update "3,000 Hits Club" is nice n' sparkly.

These 2 were actually from the quarterboxes but I didn't get around to including them in previous posts. A nice couple of framed cards, including a needed Lefty from the Gallery of Greats insert set I'm trying to complete, plus a similar looking Pudge, numbered to 500 on the back, I believe.

Trio of retro inserts of young dudes I collect.

2014 Bowman. Pretty sure I've already got that Conforto. Poor Mets fans have been having a rough season. Conforto has been playing ok, but not quite the force they need to string together more wins.
Billy Hamilton is leading the NL in stolen bases and is on pace to improve his season best total, though his batting average could use improvement. This blue shimmer mini is #/150, if I recall.

Ha, I only own like 4 or 5 Topps Now cards, one of which is this one, Trevor Story's first Topps-branded RC. I spent a lot more than 71 cents for my first copy back when he was on fire last year, but oh well, grab another one and increase my percentage of the print-run, why not. Hopefully he bounces back sometime.

As for the Brian Hunter, I've kinda got a long-term, back-burner collecting goal of going after the entire 1996 Leaf Signature autos.. at least the ones with the metallic ovals in the middle (ie, not including the Update Series). But there's a super expensive Jeter in there, so that's one goal I might not ever accomplish. But still, if I can pick up needs for under a buck, I probably will.

A pair of non-standard sized cards. The Giancarlo is #/199.

It's hard to pass up graded cards for under a buck when you consider it costs a few bucks just to get them graded. I've got a Browns collector in my trading circle (Angus, right?), so picked up the Kevin Johnson with him in mind. As for the Donté Stallworth, well his was a name that vaguely rang a bell so I grabbed it as trade bait. Anybody want to trade me for it?

I think that's all I have to show today. I also got some cd-rom "cards" that I'd like to rip and post the contents of in a future post. Other than that, that pretty much covers the haul from this show apart from plenty of trade fodder for my usual trader buddies.. some of which has made it into Big Fun Game prize packages., speaking of which:

I was glad when Rod bumped into me at the show so I could hand him his BFG prize, saving myself a little postage. Today I dropped off packages in the mail to the following zip codes: 06457, 14610, 02919, 95119, 55406. Additionally, PWEs were mailed to Billy and gcrl. Julie has asked me to hang onto her cards until the Supreme Court rules on if her trading ban is unconstitutional. If you were among those celebrating my 4 year bloggoversary in the Big Fun Game and I haven't mentioned you by name or zip, that means I'm still working on your package and hope to drop it in the mail no later than this coming weekend. A couple packages that might take a few days longer are Wes (I plan to include the WCOT stuff) and John Miller (nearing the end with that project that's taken me so long!)
Thanks again.. see ya.

More card show quarterboxing

These 2016 Stadium Club "Members Only" parallels aren't serial numbered, but rumored to have a print run of like only 7 or something like that. So even a "who?" player like J.T. Realmuto here was a no-brainer to add to the stack for a quarter. Apparently he's the Marlins' starting catcher, so that's cool.

I usually stay away from Diamond Kings, but these two are numbered out of 400, I think, so I caved. That middle one is Craig Biggio, not Clint Howard, FYI.

Some young dudes. Surprised to find that Austin Hedges RC I didn't recognize.

I recently (re)started a little Kirby Puckett PC. He's got tons of cards out there, so shouldn't take me long to get him into my Hundred Card Club. I really want a certified auto, but they're obviously expensive.

A little vintage. I've already got the Bill Madlock rookie, but this copy was so damn pack-fresh I couldn't pass it up, figuring it'd probably be an upgrade for me. The '64 Bobby Wine is more off-center than I prefer (like to at least have a sliver of a complete border), but was a need for my setbuild, so figured I could spend a quarter on it. And the Pitching Leaders card has been forever marked as Sheryl's (?), but hey, adding a vintage Warren Spahn to my collection for cheap, works for me!

Here are some pitchers. I suspect I already have the '88 Score Rookie/Traded Goose, but it's a terrific looking card.

Rickey and Reggie, Friends Forever, paired up on a 1983 Fleer 2-card subset puzzle, plus an oddball of each. I knew Rickey played for a lot of teams during his incredible career, but had forgotten about his stint on the Pepsi team when he broke the stolen base record. lol

Sox content. A couple Mookies, and looks like I'm a Rafael Devers prospector, Boston's third baseman of the future.

Nats content. Love those Chrome Commencements inserts, so grabbed it even though I don't collect this guy.

Some old-timers. 1984 Donruss could have done with less awkward headshots like that Perez.

Let's wrap up today's post with this group of miscellaneous cards. Anyone need that Piazza Pizzazz card? I already have it, but it's so great that it's hard for me to pass up. The Marc Newfield seems to be an IP auto to somebody whose name I can't quite make out.. Christian or Christina maybe?

Thanks for reading. Still a few more pickups to show off soon.

[Original] Back to the card show

I whined about missing last month's card show and how being a one-vehicle household now means attending the monthly show won't be a given for me anymore. But I'm happy to say I was able to make it to this month's show on Saturday. Believe it or not, I hadn't bought any cards this whole month up to Friday night when a 2004 Retired Gossage refractor auto popped up on eBay for a good BIN price. But yeah, all the pickups and boxes I've shown on the blog this month were actually paid for prior to 6/1. So anyways, I had the itch to pour through thousands of cards and create a big stack to bring home, and that's just what I did. Let's check out some highlights.

I will pretty much always pick up a NNOF 1990 Frank Thomas "Cards Your Mother Threw Out" 2010 reprint when I find it in Bill's discount bins. Last year I picked up 3 at one show and flipped them on eBay for a tidy profit (not that I do that type of thing very often). I figured this was another one of those, then just about vomited with excitement when I turned it over...

Original Back version! These are super rare. You can find the regular "corrected" reprint original back, and you can find the NNOF reprint with the "Cards Your Mom Threw Out" write-up back, but the combination of the NNOF with original back seems to be a SSP which is damn near as scarce as the original 1990 error. So this is an excellent pickup for my Big Hurt PC.

And that Frank was found in a fertile cache of original back CYMTO reprints! While these ones aren't as rare as the NNOF Frank, they're still not that easy to find.

Here are a couple more. The Steve Carlton, like the '90 Frank Thomas, is an error reproduction, with no black ink. I picked up a second Randy Johnson RC reprint from that silly insert set where Topps reimagined notable Topps rookie cards if they were marked with "Future Star" designation.

Here are the backs so you can see I'm not yanking your chain. Normally I'm not too crazy about reprints, but these are pretty cool, plus they were cheap. (All the cards in this post are from the quarter bins.)

Shiny cards of guys I collect.

Some additions for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset. The Josh Hamilton is the first sepia refractor (#/99) to the Chrome portion of the setbuild.

Some All-Star cards, including #'d Kershaw and Altuve cards. As for the faux Padres uniforms, it's nice for me to fantasize about the likes of Harper and Arenado playing for San Diego.

A couple more shimmering cards. There's always so much Griffeys.. I never know what's worth big money and what's not.. but hey, from time to time one jumps out at me, like this 2000 Prism here. And I may make a run at that psychedelic 1999 Bowman "Late-Bloomers" insert set, assuming I can find them all for around a quarter each.

Similar to Griffey, Bill's bins have many (too many) cards from the likes of Bonds, McGwire, and Boggs (and Mattingly, Jeter, Ripken, Arod). Usually I flip through them without hesitation, but every once in a while, something grabs my attention. The Bonds dufex looked kinda neat. As for the '89 Bowman McGwire, what caught my eye is it's the tiffany version, something you don't see too often. And the pic of Boggs pitching is pretty cool.

Well, it's super hot today. I think I'm gonna end the post here, though I've still got more pickups from the show to probably post about this week. See ya!

A box of Star Wars 40

It's my half-birthday today. Just 6 more months till the big 4-O.

[This was originally a rambling post, somewhat drunkily written.. Sort of a "state of the life address" bitching about various shit. But it was a little, um, too much for a card blog post, so I deleted those paragraphs. Not that my Star Wars-centric posts get much traffic anyways.]

When I heard about Topps coming out with a Star Wars 40 set, I thought that would be perfect. I'd buy a hobby box of that stuff, and desensitize myself to the number forty. If Star Wars can be cool at 40, then there's hope for me. And however old I am, at least I'll always be a few month younger than Star Wars. haha

So yeah, when I pre-ordered my 2 boxes of 2017 Topps Archives a few months ago, I also threw in a hobby box of Star Wars 40th Anniversary to help get me passed the free-shipping threshold for my order. While I love Star Wars, I don't recall ever buying/ripping any SW cards before.

It's a celebration of 40! Let's rip 'er open and see what we got!

Looks like it's a 200 card base set. The first 100 cards have various color parallels, with green and blue apparently being the most common. This first half of the set seems to be focused on film release dates and notable scenes.

The second half of the base set is really cool. It focuses on old school artwork, such as from promotional posters and production illustrations.

The box netted me 82.5% of the base set, 165/200. I think I'd like to go ahead and complete the set, so if you can help, here are the cards I'm needing (I don't care if they're parallels or not):
8, 15, 23, 29, 37, 42, 46, 49, 53, 57, 58, 61, 67, 69, 80, 84, 90, 97, 108, 115, 129, 142, 148, 153, 157, 158, 161, 167, 169, 180, 182, 184, 190, 191, 197

I got one serial numbered parallel. Not too exciting.

Each box contains a stamped buyback. I landed a pretty solid one featuring Luke in action.

The box promises 2 hits. As I ripped through the box, I got down to the last 2 packs without pulling either hit up to that point, so I started getting worried. But thankfully those two packs did indeed have the hits.

My promised auto was a dud. Some fucking extra.. I don't even know what movie this character is from. Force Awakens, probably? I don't think you could do worse than this. Maybe a key grip auto. Craft services auto?

Thankfully my second hit was solid and helped ease the pain of the weak auto pull...

It's a really nice looking sketchcard of Obi-Wan Kenobi. I know the artists don't get paid a whole lot per card, so a lot of times they rush through resulting in some lackluster sketches. But this one is pretty impressive.

I checked with the cardsphere's resident sketchcard aficionado, Raz, and he was able to identify the artist for me as Ashleigh Popplewell. Cool. She does nice work.

So anyways, there was that box. Wish the auto was better, but otherwise a fun box.
Thanks for stopping by!