Cody Bellinger PC

Cody Bellinger has been on fire here in the early going of the 2019 season. I figured it'd be a good excuse to take a look at my little PC of the guy.

I don't have any "sick mojo hits" to brag about here, but this Heritage Chrome RC /999 is nifty enough to get top billing. Plus I got it in a trade with my oldest cardsphere trading buddy, Marcus, which is always a nice way to acquire a card.

More cards on recycled Topps designs.

Plenty more Topps.

The manurelic is the closest thing to a hit. Jackie Robinson tribute cards like this always seem to make more sense when it's a Dodgers player.

Some cards from one of Topps' online offerings of 2017.

Here's Bowman. The Bowman Platinum is my earliest card of the guy, 2016. Probably his best card is an auto in 2015 Bowman (didn't have a base card, just the 1st Bowman Chrome auto). I should have snagged one of those when I could. If he keeps his career going like this, that card could possibly end up being in the same boat as the 2011 Update Trout as a modern iconic, highly sought-after card.

Here are my Cody Bellinger cards that were not put out by the Topps Company. The /99 is my lowest-numbered card of his. The UD and Fleer customs were whipped up by yours truly back in 2017.

Figured I'd show off my handiwork on the backs, too.

Dupes I've got. Funny how I've ended up with 3 of his Heritage High Number rookies (4 if you count the Chrome parallel up top). I'm pretty sure I pulled one from a pack, snagged another cheap at a card show last year, and think I received another in a trade package somewhere along the line. From looking on COMC, they ain't cheap these days.. so I'm not complaining! But my extras are on the table for trade offers.

So there you have my little Cody Bellinger PC as it stands heading into May 2019.
Thanks for reading.

Kerry on my Cardboard Blog

Met up with Kerry downtown Friday afternoon for a quick swap of cards. He metaphorically dunked on me and the team bag of cards I handed off to him by giving me a very impressive box of cards.

The Vlad Jr. hype is intense! On mlb.com the other day, the top 7 or so news stories were about him and his debut. A bit over the top, but like most baseball fans, I'm interested to see how he turns out as a big leaguer.

The gold standard, Mike Trout!

More Trouty.

Reining NL MVP Christian Yelich. Good stuff here! The mini is /99.

Reigning AL MVP Mookie Betts. Sure, sometimes I feel like a "basic bitch" of a card collector, turning my head for any hot rookies and MVPs. But hey, I also collect guys like Travis Taijeron and Matt Ginter, so I feel I've got well-rounded wants.

Mookie's teammates Rafael Devers and Andrew Benintendi.

Rhys!

Alex Bregman!

More Astros. Love that Correa Heritage refractor.

I've lived in Portland for over a decade now, but have yet to really jump on the Blazers bandwagon. But after that epic playoff-advancing buzzerbeater the other night that had all of Portland bumping, I was like, "Damn! I need to collect Damian Lillard cards!" And Kerry, a big Blazers fan/collector, was kind enough to get that PC started with this lot of dupes he had.

As I add one new name to the short list of active b-ball guys I collect, I lose another, as Dirk retired after the regular season.

Most of the guys I collect in basketball are greats of the past, like Wilt and Dr. J.

...And Dikembe, Kareem, and Manute.

Back to baseball, with plenty of shine here.

And some old-timer favorites. Dave Henderson cards always make me smile. And I hope Bartolo gets an opportunity to pitch this year, but it's not looking likely at this point.

I just sorted out my George Brett PC the other day, seeing if I had hit the 100-card mark yet.. but fell short, around 90 cards. Keep creepin' up, though.

Current Padres representing. Almost May and we're still in contention!! LOL

JOY OF A COMPLETED SET!!!

I got a factory set of '90 Score for Xmas back when it was current-- that and a cheap '89 Topps from the Sears catalog were my first ever complete sets-- but never had a Rookie & Traded set to complement it. Some great cards in here!

Some nice Nats.

And a hit to take us home! Sweet!

Big thanks, Kerry! Great stuff. I'm in your debt and will try to balance the scales soon.

Vintage Influx

I need to apologize to GCA for forgetting to include a PWE from him in my last trade-roundup post. But it included a few vintage needs, so it goes well with some other incoming cards from Bo that I can combine into this post.

A few big names from GCA for my '79 Topps setbuild.

Thanks, Greg!

 -  - --o

Next up is a box from Bo.

Nice chunk of '79 Topps. Many of these are off-condition (which Bo gave me a heads-up on beforehand) that I'd eventually like to upgrade, but still welcomed placeholders. This lot plus the above from GCA gets me over 90% complete! Shouldn't be too long now.

On the topic of my 70s setbuilds, I should mention I've recently been pulling my vintage wantlists that I had on TCDB off there and into my own Google docs. I gave the TCDB thing a shot, but ultimately it wasn't working for me, at least not with vintage setbuilds. I like the flexibility of doing my own thing (for instance, I like being able to mark a card "upgrade would be nice" or "dupe wanted for PC"). I thought maybe getting some lively trade action would be a benefit of TCDB, but it's been fairly quiet for me on there, though I know I'm largely to blame for not adding more "for trade" cards to my account. I'll definitely consider giving TCDB another go in the future, but for now, it just doesn't jive with my collecting/cataloging habits.

While I completed my 1980 Topps set a year or so ago, there's still some unfinished business there.. with a few cards marked the aforementioned status of "upgrade would be nice" or "dupe wanted for PC". After these, I'm now down to a even dozen cards I'd like to upgrade and five guys-I-collect I'd like a dupe of for their respective PCs.

But the bulk of Bo's box was 175 needs for my 1978 Topps set. These are mostly in great shape, too. I'm in the middle of revamping my '78 wantlist, so I'm not exactly sure where I'm at with the set right now, but I'm probably down to needing about 100 or so cards.

Thanks a lot, Bo! I dropped a return package in the mail for you today.

If anybody else would like to help in my quest to complete a run of 70s Topps flagship, my needs can be found linked on my main wantlist. Thanks!

Have a great weekend.

Javier Baez PC

Times when I find myself in the blogging doldrums, I often fall back on player-collection posts. And here's another one.

Javier Baez has become one of the most exciting players in the game. Fun to watch at the plate, in the field, and on the basepaths. I added his name to my wantlist a little while ago. Let's take a look at what I've got so far.

This 2017 Topps Tier One silver auto #'d 3/10 is by far my best card of Javy. I pulled it myself from a box I received as a Xmas gift in 2017.

Rookie cards. I gotta admit that for some years there, I always confused Javier Baez and Jorge Soler... Cubs prospects coming up around the same time whose names both started with J. But then Soler got shipped to the Royals and Javy had his breakout season in 2018, and it's easy to tell them apart now.

This card from 2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects is my earliest Baez card, though his first Bowman card was way back in 2010 (if you count Aflac All-American).

And the rest. Nice sampling so far, though I'd like to add more.


-  - ---o


Hey, speaking of Cubs familiar with making a big play, here's a new gif card I whipped up:

April 25, 1976: Cubs outfielder Rick Monday thwarts protesters from burning the American Flag at Dodger Stadium.

That's it for today.

Vogelmoster PC

Everybody knows that I'm the top Dan Vogelbach collector on the cardsphere.

Ok, no, I'm just messing around. That's P-Town Tom, of course. But hey, I've got a respectable Vogelmoster player collection too.

Looks like the big fella is finally putting it together in the Bigs, putting up some huge numbers here in the first few weeks of the young season-- .836 SLG, 1.309 OPS, 251 OPS+ --making him the early favorite for AL ROY. So I figured I'd celebrate his success by revisiting the cards I've got of him.

This 2011 Bowman Chrome blue refractor auto #/150 is my best Vogelbach card. I bought it for $26 three years ago, and these days it usually goes for around $80.

Nice variety of 2013 Bowman cards.

I love 2015 Bowman Chrome-- pretty much the only modern Bowman set that moves the needle for me. Got a partial rainbow going here.

More Bowman stuff, including a Christmas Card in the middle.

Early unlicensed cards. Love the silver ink auto.

The "Changing Places" card is a custom I whipped up for Tom shortly after Dan got shipped to Seattle. It's based on a design of 2002 Fleer cards for traded players.

Another custom, going for a Griffey rookie look. I know I made a 3rd custom too, but I don't seem to have kept a copy for myself. Tried a couple TTM attempts that didn't return (yet?).

A couple more autographs to close out the post, with the Stadium Club card being the clear highlight thanks in large part to the on-card signature.

There you go. Wishing continued success to the Vogelmoster!

Thanksgiving on Easter

I got a bunch of cards over the past week from generous trader buddies.

First up are some cards Padrographs Rod kindly handed off to me at the card show last weekend.

Sharp looking Yelich insert and/or parallel from 2019 Donruss! He's been crushing it again this year. Of course every time I hear about him hitting a homerun, it just bums me out because he went homerless on the day I entered in a "Topps Home Run Challenge" code for him earlier in the season. LOL

More 2019 Donruss.

GQ in the house.

Cool to see the tarot cards back for another year.

740 home runs between these two legends of the game. Ok, maybe Joe Pepitone isn't quite a legend, but still a neat name from back in the day. Before getting this custom from Rod, I wasn't aware Pepitone was ever in the Padres organization. Turns out his MLB career ended in 1973, but he attempted a comeback in 1976 with San Diego, but wrapped up his career after 13 games in AAA.

Padrographs! Especially cool to get that iconic Tim Flannery surfboard card with a signature. I know Rod was on a quest to get a few of those signed for a binder project, so he must have ended up with an extra.

Rod's stack of cards concludes with this imported Brian Giles. Very cool addition to my PC of the best baseball player to come out of my hometown. 2006 Konami cards are tough to find these days-- only one card from this set is currently available on COMC (Mark Teixeira).

Awesome stuff.. thanks, Rod!

-   -  - ---o

Speaking of additions to my Brian Giles collection, gcrl surprised me with a one-card PWE featuring this cool Cracker Jack auto.

Much appreciated.. thanks, Jim!

-   -  - ---o

Another one-card PWE, Mike at Wax Pack Hero got in touch letting me know he had a card on my Double Dozen and would be happy to send it over in exchange for checking out his blog and adding it to my blogroll. Sounds like a good deal to me!

This is a card I wanted because it's a perfect upgrade for my We Didn't Start The Fire binder for the "Moon Shot" entry. (I still need a good Woodstock card and unfortunately the Woodstock card in this same insert set doesn't say "Woodstock" on the front, so it's not ideal.)

Thanks again, Mike!

-  - - ---o

Last up today is a mailer from cardsphere treasure Dimebox Nick. Nick's note mentioned he hadn't sent me anything in a while, but by my records, he sent me a nice package just back in January that I still haven't hit him back for, so I'll have to dig up a decent return for him soon.

The Brian Giles theme continues with a pair of cards here, plus little bro, Marcus. Kevin Maas minor league cards always make my heart sing.

Gwynn and some oddballs. Very nice.

2019 cards on good cardstock.

More '19 Donruss and some older stuff. The '70 cards of a couple top guys-I-collect are Canadian imports.. Ya down wit' OPC? Yeah, you know me!

Today's top sluggers. Bummer to see Judge back on the DL (or "IL" as it's been changed to this year, which I'm not happy about because I keep getting confused thinking players are going to Illinois.)

Sweet '19 parallels/inserts.

I've still yet to rip any 2019 cards-- fighting the urge to buy retail (or hobby, for that matter)-- so I appreciate the PC needs I get from guys like Nick and Rod. Young stud Juan Soto shown here in both original and Opening Day flavor.

Springer and Snell.

Fan favorites gone too soon, Kirby Puckett and Rod Beck.

Been a while since I've gotten new cards to add to my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset. All 3 of these were needs. The trio has gotten me past the 600-card threshold, though I'm still not to 50% complete yet. Geez!

BTW, did you see where recently the Mike Trout 1/1 canary parallel (yellow diamond) was just recently pulled from an old pack of 2011 Update? Wow, that's a modern card that's right up there with the T206 Honus, if you ask me.

Last card from Nick is a Nomar. The real story here is on the back..

12/25!

This Christmas Card wraps up my Thanksgiving on Easter.
Very cool. Thanks again, Nick!


Thanks for reading, everybody, and Happy Easter! 🐣