Birthday/Christmas Cards

Birthday post! I've got a few 12/24 and 12/25 cards to show off that I've added to my collection over the past few months.

Here's a nice one to kick off with. 2014 Topps Tribute Xander Bogaerts auto. There's no "RC" logo, but it is in fact a rookie-year auto, for what that's worth. Wish the signature was on-card, but beggars for 12/24 cards can't be choosers. Got a good deal on this from eBay a while back. Bogey's a fun player to watch and collect.

I don't know anything about Dakoda Armstrong, but this 12/24 autograph popped up with a low opening bid and I ended up winning it for a few bucks.

Serial-numbered on the back.

I also don't know anything about Mac Guscette, but again, ended up scoring this 12/24 auto for a good price. Looks like he graduates high school in 2020 and has committed to become a Florida Gator. I'll store this one away with my other 12/24 cards and check on him in a few years, hoping he's eventually the next Mike Trout. LOL

Newman! He had a solid 2019, one of the few bright spots for the Pirates last season. Kevin attended Poway High School, same as Tony Gwynn. (Update: Whoops, I mean Tony Gwynn Jr!) The Archives sticker label got a little messed up on this encased card, but I don't mind too much. It was a good price, likely kept down by the wrinkled label.

Topps Archives Signature are good products for finding 12/24 cards since their buybacks are typically numbered out of random quantities, depending on how many Topps has bought back and gotten signed. Sandy Alomar had a very respectable career; happy to add an autograph of his to my collection.

A closer look at the Xmas Eve numbering.

Now we're moving on to the 12/25 cards. I forgot to show off this Gavin Lux when I posted my Lux PC a few months back because it was stored with my Christmas Cards, not my Gavins. That's the problem with "double bullseye" cards like this for me.. sometimes I can't decide which subcollection to store them in, and I'm not consistent about it. But anyways, in addition to the festive numbering, this seems to feature a "g" from "Dodgers" ("g" as in Gavin! eBay 1/1!) and an on-card autograph of baseball's #2 prospect.. Sweet.

Another Gavin Christmas Card. I already had this orange ice parallel in my Gavin LaValley 2014 Bowman Draft rainbow (only missing some 1/1s), but didn't have the 12/25 orange ice parallel. But now I do!

I believe it was a COMC find.

Michael Conforto 12/25 patch card (if this piping counts as a patch). Another card from my latest COMC order.

We're coming to the end now, and here's a girlie card auto that Zippy pointed me too. Honestly I don't really hunt down Benchwarmer Christmas Cards too often because that could get out of hand quickly. There are a lot of /25 parallels, and so, a lot of 12/25 cards out there. I've got a few, but I don't need them all. But I put in a bid on this one and won it. I don't know much about Andrea Lowell. Looks like she's been in Playboy and on VH1's The Surreal Life. Cool.

Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman takes us home. I was very happy to score this framed 2019 Ginter X mini auto. I've got a couple Hoffman autos from his playing days, but this is my first post-career autograph of his. As a Padres fan, I really love this card. I think it ran me about the price of a blaster on eBay. Not too bad.

That'll do it. Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Patience

Here's a quick 2-card Guns N' Randoms post with a couple shiny autos.

First, I need to admit that I hate whistling. Like, if a co-worker is whistling in the breakroom or something, he's instantly added to my shitlist. (And I can say "he" because women are never obnoxious enough to whistle in public, only entitled white men.) Drives me nuts! And it's not because I hate the happiness of others or anything. Hell, walk around with a constant huge-ass smile on your face, I'm cool with that. Gayly skip down the fucking halls, I might even join you. I just hate to hear people whistle.

And yes, it's probably partially due to jealousy seeing that I've never been able to whistle myself. Try as I might, I've never been able to do more than fruitlessly spit air out from my pursed lips.

But among the rare instances where I like whistling is in the Guns N' Roses song "Patience".

You know who are finding themselves in need of a little patience this season? Mets fans.

I recently won a card on eBay and took a look at other cards from the seller ending soon and ended up scoring myself a couple slabbed rookie autos, one of which is this Michael Conforto here. He's had a rough year, struggling to hit his weight in the first half. But he's only 25 and I still believe in him and expect him to have a solid career in the long run. Plus he's a Pacific Northwest kid out of Oregon State. So I'm ok taking a flyer on this /199 RC auto 2016 Topps Tribute for probably less than a quarter of what it was going for at the peak of his hype a while back.

And the other card I ended up snagging was this Billy Hamilton 2014 Bowman Chrome blue refractor auto. Like the Mets, Reds fans are needing a little patience this season (and before and beyond), but at least they've been respectable since a managerial change.

Billy is known for his speed on the bases and great catches in center, though his hitting is always the big question mark with him. "You can't steal first base," as they say.

Still though, I've always been a fan of speedsters since my youthful days running track, so I've got a decent little PC of the guy. And this beautiful card is a terrific addition. I think I only had one auto of his prior to this, a logoless Christmas Card from Panini. And this slabbed /250 blue refractor might overtake that one as best card of the PC.

Hopefully with a little patience Conforto and Hamilton will blossom into greats of the game for the next several years and these "price of a blaster" pickups will end up looking like incredible deals pretty soon. Or maybe they won't, but whatever.. I think they're cool cards regardless.

I've had this song stuck in my head for the past couple days now. It's not GNR and doesn't really fit here, but I'm throwing it into the post anyway, hoping to get it stuck in your head too.

Enjoy your weekend, everybody! Card show weekend for me, though it might be an arduous task for me to make it due to 90 degree temperatures and the fact my wife has dibs on the car, so I'd have to use public transit again. If I'm not feeling it in the morning, I might sit this one out.

Anything Goes (nickelboxing)

Most of the time at the card show, you gotta be discerning with what you put on your stack, but when it comes to nickelboxing, anything goes! Plucked out a nice score this past weekend, which technically came to 4¢ per card with the dealer's 25-for-a-buck deal, scooping up 50 cards for $2. I thought that deal was pretty...

...Cool, indeed. I don't have many of these kooky Emotion cards, but this is a welcome addition to the Crime Dog PC.

I only really started collecting Jim Thome like a year ago, so I don't have that many of his cards. Great to bulk up the PC a bit with 6 cards that ran me under a quarter combined.

Grouping this pair of Auburn standouts together. A trio of Big Hurts and a couple Bo oddballs ("Boddballs?").

A couple Conforto cards from 2017 Update.

Klesko gold parallel, Julio Franco LL, and former community college classmate of mine, Mike Jacobs.

I've been thinkin' 'bout
Thinkin' 'bout sets
Always hungry for somethin'
That I haven't completed yet

Being right on the cusp of completing '80 Topps and '83 Topps (and '84 Fleer), I'm thinking about future setbuilds, and while '74 Topps isn't at the top of my list, it's scratching at my "maybe someday" list (with a broad '73 thru '85 Topps run in the back of my mind). So I couldn't resist nabbing a nice little lot for the cost of a pack of gum, as I'm quietly building a little starter stack in anticipation of one day going after the set.

Flipping through a nickelbox, a couple types of cards I'll blindly throw on my stack regardless of team/player: refractors and serial-numbered cards. Even if it's just some Bowman prospect from years ago who never got out of A-ball, they're nice to add some shine to a trade package. The Denard Span rookie might be the best one in this lot.

Well, that pretty much wraps up the nickelbox dig, with a few additional cards not pictured because they're already set aside for trader buds.

Thanks for reading.

late nite pack rip of 2018 Heritage

Grabbed a couple packs of 2018 Heritage at the grocery store this afternoon while out shopping with the fam (Probably would have gotten a blaster, but all they had was an open retail box). It's my first 2018-stuff rip. My grocery store (Fred Meyer) recently did a little remodel and now the card section is right by the Customer Service desk, which I gotta assume is good for keeping pack-searching pricks at bay since there's a worker at the desk at all times.

A couple guys I collect here in Conforto and Devers.

Pulled the Beltran sunset card, plus a Beatles insert and Yankees rookie stars.

More base cards.. available for trade.

And a "hit" of sorts with this Josh Donaldson /999 chrome parallel. He's a guy I collect, so I'm happy with this. Maybe not exactly justifying the $6 purchase price of 2 packs, but hey, a Donaldson parallel plus Devers, Conforto, and a bit of trade fodder.. I'll call the rip a modest success.

Some backs. I used to be a bigger fan of '69 Topps a few years ago until I took a closer look and got turned off by all the outdated & hatless photos. But the simple design is fine and I like the backs. But I probably won't buy much more of this. Maybe if there are discounted blasters at the next card show I'll grab one.

Thanks for reading!

late night trade recap

Wrapping up another successful awareness week. Thanks to all of you who helped support the use of blue tape and pull tabs. Ours is a noble and just cause.

Let's crank out a trade recap post. First up is Night Owl. We've been trading back and forth for a while, and honestly I've forgotten when I get cards from him if he's getting me back for the last batch of cards I sent him, or starting a new cycle. But no matter, I'm happy to keep things going.

A couple sweet relics of Padres I collect. I assume that red Klesko warm-up jersey swatch must be from his time on the Braves, right? (edit: whoops, I missed the All-Star stuff. It's most likely from his All-Star Game warm-up jersey, as Night Owl pointed out in the comments.) That Khalil Greene might feature the tiniest bat chip I've ever seen in a card, but I'm still happy to add it to the PC.

Some Padre cards with foil stamps. I remember posting a comment on Greg's terrific blog offering to give the Gwynn a good home a while back, and here he is!

A few days ago, I posted a plea for traders to please stop sending me Wil Myers cards, but this package was already in the capable hands of the USPS by then, so he gets a pass.

"Knoxville! Knoxville! Knoxville!" I wanted that Sunsphere card because of the classic Simpsons episode where Bart and his buds take a road trip to visit it, years after the World's Fair. Also here are a couple Confortos I needed, plus a 2011 parallel.

A bunch more current guys I collect, mostly from 2017 Opening Day.

Beltre! I saw that faux Wheaties box card on Oscar's blog a few days ago and thought it was pretty cool, so I was very happy to find it among the stack.

1984 Fleer! I've got this set on my "maybe someday" list, and this is a nice starter lot for if/when I get serious about it. I believe Greg is also working on the set, so these must be some dupes he had available.

And finally a couple glowing cards.
See?....

Thanks, Greg! Very appreciated. I'll round up some cards for you soon.

Oh, since we're closing up Blue Tape & Pull-Tab Awareness Week, I guess we should take a look at his packaging:

The ol' team bag with a piece of blue tape over it. Billy from Cardboard History mentioned in the comments that folks taping a team bag is a big pet peeve of his (specifically when it's a new team bag with the adhesive strip that still has the covering over it). But I get it; sometimes, especially with a team bag that's already been used a few times, it's hard to trust that the sticky part will hold. So yeah, I give N.O. a thumbs-up here.

-  - -- - ---o

Next up is a trade with a new Twitter bud, @DJSeneseiNJ. I tweeted out my needs from Star Wars 40 and while I got some likes and retweets, he was the only person to answer the call and knock some numbers off my list.

He found a nice baker's dozen of needs for me, taking me to 17 left to complete the 200-card set.

[My current 2017 Topps Star Wars 40th Anniversary needs: 8, 15, 23, 29, 37, 42, 46, 49, 57, 58, 69, 80, 90, 108, 157, 180, 190]

Thanks, man!

He sent the cards in a little ziplock bag (from 100-count penny sleeve pack, perhaps?) with a blank card for protection and a piece of tape to keep it tight. No pull-tab, but I'll still give him an A- here.

- - - ----o

Finally, here's a surprise PWE from Kin of I Feel Like A Collector Again.

Card Saver in a PWE. Fine choice when you're just sending a card or two. Score; uncanceled 1¢ stamp! A "please don't bend" plea might not actually do a whole lot, but I guess it doesn't hurt. What kind of creeps me out is how did he know the extra 4 digits of my zip. Hell, *I* don't even know those extra 4 digits! LOL

It's a cool Chris Sale parallel and a blank little card that I didn't even notice at first.. Pleasantly surprised to discover it's another 2017 A&G Constellation mini!

Very nice!

And a glowing pic. I've now got 3 of the 10 of these things. Not bad. My 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter "Constellations" glow-in-the-dark mini inserts needs: C-1, C-2, C-3, C-6, C-7, C-8, C-10

Thanks, Kin! I'll find something to return the favor soon.

Thanks again to these kind traders, and to you for reading, and everyone who does their best to package cards is a courteous way!

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.