Showing posts with label Marquis Mania. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marquis Mania. Show all posts

Friday, July 19, 2019

Scenes from P-town

Plenty of solid dudes on the ol' cardsphere, but none more solid than P-town Tom. He's the type of guy where if he found a 1/1 card in a dimebox, he'd bring it to the dealer's attention. Me? Ain't gonna lie, I'd swiftly and without fanfare add it to my stack.

Anyways, it had been a year or so since we last swapped cards, but we recently made up for that and struck a big trade.


Love this custom Tom whipped up on the Rookies App.


Great to see the Vogelmoster having a breakout season.


To drive the point home that it's been a long time since I traded with Tom, he had a bunch of '90 UD Marquis Grissoms set aside for me... and he apologized for being a bit late, as I announced the conclusion of this project back in January. Oh well, I can probably squeeze in a couple more pages to the binder!


A few needs from my '88 Fleer wantlist, plus a nice little lot of '87 Fleer, which I haven't made a wantlist for yet-- still rounding up whatever I can, but I almost have enough now to sort out what I've got and put up a list. If anyone has any surplus '87 Fleer to dump, maybe we can swing a trade.


And a big lot of 50 Ron Gant cards! Looks like Tom had a PC of him going but decided to cut bait. I'll happily take them. I'm likely past the magic 100-card milestone for my Gant PC now thanks to this lot.

But the bulk of Tom's big box was FIVE complete (or near-complete) sets from the overproduction era that I had been wanting to add to my collection. I'm thinking I'll do a post on each of these to give them proper love-- highlighting favorite cards and whatnot. So look for those in the not too distant future.

Great stuff, Tom!! I'll get cracking on your return very soon.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, everybody!

Sunday, January 27, 2019

The Triumphant Conclusion of Marquis Mania

Way back on March 21, 2014, I unveiled a new collecting project where I set out to fill a binder with nothing but 1990 Upper Deck #9 Marquis Grissom, a favorite card from my childhood. I later settled on 1000 as the goal number for this project I dubbed Marquis Mania. After a while I modified it to where I was thinking 500 cards in the binder (or maybe 504, to make it divisible by 9), and the rest in a box. (1000 in the binder started to feel like overkill.)

I don't think I've done an update post for this project since March 2015, so I'm overdue. I guess I've just been lazy about counting up all the cards I have (and paging those that haven't been paged yet). There was a time when I'd keep an eye out for cheap bulk lots of the card via eBay or SportLots, though the project has been pushed to the backburner the past couple years, with really the only recent additions being an occasional copy thrown in by a trade partner. I bought a big lot of 400 on eBay in early 2017 and then kinda got burnt out after that.


When I did a rough count the other day, I thought I might be like 20-something cards short of the 1000 goal, but then I counted up the four lots of 100, just to check, and turns out each case had more like 107 cards in it, and it was those bonus cards that put me over the top. I took out any cards over 100 and paged them, so these 4 cases are each 100-cards now.


The original 1990 Upper Deck Marquis Grissom from my childhood collection gets the outer spine spot on the binder, so I can keep that one a little special.


And on the binder's inside cover is an autographed copy of the card, plus a post-it recording my progress on this quest. As you can see, my grand total comes to 1005. That's 67 full pages, the spine card, the auto, and the four plastic cases of 100 cards each.


I did not double-fill the pockets, so the backs get their appreciation as well.


SO MANY '90 UPPER DECK MARQUIS GRISSOM CARDS!!!



There were literally millions of this card produced, so don't think my hoarding will have any effect on the card's value or scarcity. But the project was never about that; I just wanted to hit a quantity of 4-figures on one card, and chose this one because I've always liked it a bunch. Feels very satisfying to successfully complete this crazy undertaking, nearly 5 years in the making.

And if you're wondering, I am making a hard stop here. While I briefly thought, "hey, maybe keep the project open-ended.. see how many I can collect.. perhaps I'll even hit two thousand someday!" But no, I decided against that. I'm happy with 1005. It would be less satisfying if I kept it going. So this card is officially off my wantlist. Well, I suppose I could use one more copy to put in my Marquis Grissom PC, but after that, any further copies of the card I receive are going straight to the "for trade" box.

Big thanks to the many traders who've sent me this card over the past 5 years helping me to the goaline! It was admittedly a silly project, but a fun one for me. I'll have to remember to flip through the binder once in a blue moon when I just want to "zen out" for a while.


Tuesday, August 7, 2018

A Tale of Two P-towns

Got a great bunch of cards from Peoria shipped over to me in Portland courtesy of Tom at Waiting 'til Next Year.


Woah, sharp looking Wil Myers relic!


And this one isn't too shabby as far as manufactured relics go.


Another Myers, plus a big name for the future in Gore and a big name from the past in Colbert.


Francisco Mejía is another big prospect for the Padres, having given up our best reliever to get him from the Indians. He seems to be tearing it up in AAA since the trade. I hope he pans out.


Tom ripped a good amount of 2018 Big League and had neat extras of some guys I collect.


A tiny Gant, a shiny Minnie, and another card for my Marquis Mania project.. very nice.


While all the cards in the package were cool, this 4-pack of Buccos I needed for my '57 set was what lit up my eyes the most. Solid names here, too. Hank Foiles was an all-star that year. Bill Virdon was ROY in 1955. Vernon Law won the Cy Young in 1960. Bob Skinner was an all-star in '58 and '60. Very cool to check 'em off this ambitions setbuild of mine.

Since Blue Tape And Pull Tab Awareness Week is over, I won't be featuring the packaging, but Tom would have earned himself an A. Blue tape, pull-tabs, the whole 9 yards.

Great stuff.. Thanks a lot for the trade, Tom!

Thursday, November 23, 2017

bountiful trades for which to be thankful

Here's a Thanksgiving Day trade roundup with some cards friendly folks on the cardsphere have sent my way over the past week or so— and one that was actually sent several months ago but just finally made its way to me recently.

First up is a nice package from Paul from Scribbled Ink, a brand new trade partner for me. My latest trade bait post lured him into getting in touch, and we quickly had our first trade completed. The package took a detour to Honolulu for some reason, but it eventually arrived safely.


Those shiny Topps Fire cards look great, even if overall the product doesn't do much for me. The Hercules mini gets me to halfway complete with the glow-in-the-dark Constellations insert set from 2017 Ginter; 5 down, 5 to go.


Nice Donaldson lot here. As the writing on the penny sleeve indicates, the Bowman card is #'d /499, though you'd never suspect it was a parallel by the looks of it. Guess they ran out of colors for the border, so they just greyed it down a bit. Silly Bowman!


A couple Pucketts, a couple 1980 Topps (wantlist coming soon), plus a footballer and a hockeyer. (huh, apparently "hockeyer" is a real word according to my spellcheck! Gretzky is hockeyer than thou.)


It's a Vladvalanche! I'll bet this lot finally gets me over the 100-card hump with this PC.


Shiny Lindor highlights this trio of hot, young infielders.


Marquis! I've been saying, "I should probably do an update post for my Marquis Mania project one of these days" for the past few years now, but hey, good news! I actually started drafting up such a post the other day. Expect that soon.


And the highlights of Paul's generous package wrap up with a random auto (P-town Tim?!?) and a stack of 2017 Update. I'm not going after that set, but was able to pull out a bunch of keepers.

Big thanks, Paul! Hopefully that was the first of many trades for us. I feel like my return didn't quite measure up to your end, so I'll do my best to balance the scales next time.

-   - - ----o

Next up is my prize from the BFG: Basement Fun Game, run by Matt at Summer of '74.


I lucked out by ending up with a prize of a guy I actually collect, Junior Seau. Sweet! It's an extravagant promo thing that was originally sent by the card manufacturer to a card shop, with an acetate President's Reserve Seau card as the focal point.


Matt threw in a bunch of bonus cards of guys I collect, too. Thanks a lot, man! I should send you a little thank-you soon.

-  - - ---o

And now here's a nice little "just because" PWE from Sport Card Collectors. I was crushed when I lost his big season-long pick-em contest last month after surprisingly making it into the finals. It'll take me a while to recover from that, if I ever truly do. I think it's better to do a few smaller contests rather than one big-ass one— you know, to help spread around the goodies—but I get that that means more money on postage, which sucks.


Lots of shiny here, with 3 Hunter Renfroe cards. Very nice. Thanks, man! I sent you a return PWE; hopefully you need some of them. Do you still have that Clearly Authentic Renfroe? If so, I might have to scrape up something together to swap with you for that.

-  - - ---o

Next up is The Lost Collector hitting me back for a Ty Hensley refractor I ended up with that he needed for his supercollection a while ago.


It'd be great if these 2 guys could return to San Diego someday (Strasburg an SDSU alum, and Trea a Padres draftee). But hey, best of luck to them over in the undrained swamp that is Washington DC.


Some more dudes I collect.


Nothing wrong with a little overproduction-era stuff to bulk up a package. I think I needed some of these, too. The Hojo is a "Rediscover Topps" buyback. While I'm happy to get this, I'm really hoping Topps lays off the buybacks in 2018. Wouldn't that be refreshing?


TLC's package wraps up with a couple autos. Andy Benes seems to be a great TTM signer, though I haven't tried him. This Collector's Choice card looks great. Slap hands!

And of course look at that, a Ty Hensley auto! Fingers crossed that Ty gets healthy and back on his career path to the bigs soon. If/when he does, having this auto will easy the regret of trading that parallel to the Lost Collector. Big thanks!

-     -   - - ---o

Last one. Strap in for this! This one is a wayward PWE that was originally sent way back on April 7th, 2017... but to the wrong person. See Matt from Summer of '74 posted about an item and offered it up for grabs in trade. I was lucky enough to be the first one to comment on the post, calling dibs. But then a couple days later, Matt posted saying he would be soon sending it out to Dayf of Cardboard Junkie fame. I didn't think much of it, just assuming Dave offered a specific/better trade offer to best my vague offer. But it turns out, no, it was just a mixup. Matt can be forgiven, since he was a relatively new cardblogger at the time, and Dayf and Defgav are somewhat similar usernames. Matt eventually realized his mistake after a couple months and made it known. I then contacted Dayf over the summer about it, explaining the situation, and he graciously offered to forward the cards my way. A few months went by with nothing, then I nudged him about it again, and it seems he was under the impression he sent them out, but alas they had hidden themselves in a laptop bag or something. So like 7 months later, the PWE finally made it to its intended recipient!


Another '90 UD Marquis! Always appreciated. Also a Gavin, Stewart Gavin.
But the real highlight...


Prepare to have your mind blow. What you see above is an authentic Warren Spahn autograph. And yes, that's a 2015 Topps Archives card. And yes, Spahn passed away November 24, 2003.


Buuut... h'howww?

Did you figured it out?

Young Matt sent a TTM request to Warren back in the day. Warren went ahead and signed the penny sleeve instead of the card within it. And so, an autographed Warren Spahn penny sleeve was created. And all you have to do to have an "autographed" Warren Spahn card is slip any card into the penny sleeve, as I've done here with the 2015 Archives card. Perhaps one of these days I'll whip up a special custom to reside in the sleeve. But for now, this'll do.

Huge thanks to Matt (and also to Dayf [@CardJunk] for the kind assist). I'll round up some good Brewers or whatnot soon to finally complete this extended trade.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading, everybody. Hope you have/had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Mega Mailday


Nothing like coming home from a trip to find several mailings of cards waiting for you! And I missed the monthly card show while I was gone, so this windfall helps take the sting out of that.

I'll get to some cards in a minute, but first I'd like to recap my trip a little more (see also my previous handwritten post from the road [which I've had to update a couple times due to Blogger not uploading some of the images the first time. That's what I get for trying to do a blog post with just my phone, I guess.]).


I didn't get a chance to see Wrigley, but I definitely felt like I was in Cubs territory at O'Hare on my looong, delay-riddled layover. (FWIW, I did see a couple crew workers on the tarmac in White Sox hats). I flew through O'Hare on my way home, too, but thankfully it was much smoother the 2nd time 'round, and I was in and out in under an hour. (Didn't have time to find/bug Nick again.)


Rest in peace, Uncle Joe! While I was in town, I stayed at the house of Joe and Jinny (on an air-mattress in the exercise room) along with a few other family members. That's kind of a weird (in a mostly-good way) experience, to stay at the residence of deceased people while you're in town to memorialize them. I took a bunch of pictures to help me remember the place.


Joe was a talented woodworker. Here's a piece that is destined to go unfinished. I think this was his "warm up" piece of wood to mess around with. Check out the little man maxing in the upper right. I probably should have photographed some of his finished pieces that are featured around the house (and are in demand with the family as far as splitting up the estate), but when I stumbled upon this down in the basement, I thought it was really cool.


Thankfully it wasn't strictly a somber affair of sobbing over their passing, but rather mostly a celebration of their lives and coming together as a family and joyfully reminiscing, as I'm sure they would have wanted it.


Raise a glass.


Whenever I'd visit them, I always loved strumming Joe's acoustic guitar for a bit. Was happy to get to play it for one probable last time. He was a big fan of the likes of John Prine and Cat Stevens. We exchanged mix cdrs a few times. I should dig those out and give another listen in his honor.


My little 5-year-old cousin (actually my cousin's kid's kid.. "first cousin thrice removed"?) found me playing and then did some rocking out of her own. We had a nice little jam session. I hope she goes on to become a rock star. She's got the moves down, just needs to learn a couple chords.


But yeah, my incoming trade packages have been piling up a bit, so let's get to showing off some cards! I'm going to start small (quantity) because that's easier.

First up is a one-card blast from GCA.


This iconic '74 Hammer has been a card I'd like to find (CILF) for a long time. Love it! Big thanks, GCA! Much appreciated. I'll try to return the favor sometime, though I often have a tough time digging up much from your wantlist.

- - ---o


Here we have a 2-card (well, 2 copies of one card) PWE from jacobmrley at Starting Nine. Always appreciate any 90UD Marquis cards that come my way as I approach 1000 copies.

Thanks, Max!

- - - --o

Next is a PWE with 3 cards from 2017 Archives sent my way by the Tim Wallach Collector.


A couple Bazooka tallboy minis of guys I collect, plus a peach Stretch. (I feel I should make a Fruit by the Foot joke here or something.)

Thanks a lot, Stack22! I've got some 2017 Series 2 needs of yours packed up and ready to be mailed out within the next few minutes.

-  - - --o

This post is pretty long, so let's wrap things up for today with a stuffed PWE from P-town Tom.


Gavin Cecchini has mostly been playing in AAA, but has gotten into 5 games with the big league club this season.


A couple glorious follow-through shots from 2017 Stadium Club.


I definitely don't have much (any?) from this Topps Finest set. Happy to land this pair of hot young shortstops (both currently injured, unfortunately).


And 3 needs for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset.

Thanks a lot, Tom! Great stuff. Glad I could help you break the 500 mark with your Kerry Wood PC.


So yeah, as I said, let's call the post good here for now with the PWEs, but I've got a few larger card packages I need to show off too, so expect those on the blog soon. (though it may be a couple days or more since I'm busy playing catch-up at work due to missing those few days.)
Thanks for reading.