Trade Roundup: 2x3 Dimeboxes

Some nice cardboard surprises showed up earlier this week in a couple envelopes.

First up is Jedi Jeff from 2x3 Heroes, kindly dropping dupes from his 1964 Topps setbuild on me.

I think the highlight has to be the Jesus Alou RC, though there's some other good stuff in there too and it's all much appreciated. Thanks to this lot, I've now passed the ¼ complete point in the set. Always nice to hit a milestone like that. Thanks, Jeff!


The other PWE I got was courtesy of Nick from the Dimeboxes blog. You know you're in for a treat when Nick drops some cards on you!

Some old-timer favorites of mine.

I love Rod Beck. Even in a Giants uniform.

A nice selection of Padres. Don't think I've seen that Caminiti before. I've been after that "zero year" Mike Scioscia for a while. He was with the Padres for spring training of 1993, but injured himself and never made it into an official game with the club. Then we've got a swell Marcus Giles, cardsphere favorite Oscar Azócar, and bright spot on this season's team, Yangervis Solarte. That's my first card from this year's Heritage High Numbers.

Lastly, Nick gave me a couple liquorfractors to put toward my frankenset of 2011 Topps parallels. Cone-cup enthusiast Sam Deduno pitched in just 2 games total with the Padres. This season he got into 9 games with the Astros, so he's got a chance to be part of a championship team with a little luck, though he's not on the playoff roster but instead on the DL.

Big thanks for the cards, Nick! And thanks again to Jeff. And thanks to you for reading. Have a great weekend, everybody.

I've accessed the mainframe! (eTopps)

The whole eTopps thing happened while I was out of the hobby, but it's my understanding it was sort of like a precursor to digital card apps like Bunt in that Topps let you buy cards from them that you could keep in online portfolios and treat like stocks. They weren't cheap, but at least they were real cards that you could cash out and have sent to you (though the shipping fee also wasn't cheap). Basically Topps' first attempt at making money off the idea of cards, without emphasis on physical distribution.

eTopps cards all seem to be encased, and most if not all are refractors. Many are serial numbered, and the unnumbered cards usually have an announced print run topping out at around 3000 or 4000. Because of the high shipping cost, a lot of people didn't bother to be mailed their cards, and I assume the majority of eTopps cards are stored in a Topps warehouse somewhere, mostly forgotten about. People still have access to the cards they bought, though the eTopps program is no longer actively putting out new cards or anything like that.

I recently picked up a few from an eBay seller (eTopps from eBay? eGad!), so let's take a look at them.

I think this is the same Griffey card that Junior Junkie teased last year but hasn't gotten around to properly featuring on his blog yet. Junior on a 1985 Topps design, a refractor no less, just seemed really cool so I eventually had to track down one for myself.

Here's a less rainbow-drenched picture of it.

Numbered 713/999. With this card, I almost feel like I'm about ready to stick a fork in my Griffey PC and call it good. A glaring hole for me is his 89 UD rookie, but once I snag one of those, I'll file him away in my Hundred Card Club, thereby giving me an excuse to stop accumulating his cards.

Next up is Paul Goldschmidt on a minor league card. I love how his Mobile Baybears uniform could pass for a Padres uniform if I squint my eyes. ...[wistful sigh].. Goldy on the Pads.. that'd be sweet.

Numbered 123/743. Oh look, it's an error card (The Diamondbacks aren't in the AL, dummy!) I miss the days when card companies would actually fix errors. When was the last time a "corrected" card was actually put out?

Next is Andrew McCutchen. This is a pretty sweet RC and easily the top card of my modest McCutchen McCollection now.

The design seems to be somewhat of a "modern reimagining" of 1966 Topps.

Numbered 263/999. Bittersweet to see the Pirates fall to the Cubs in the NL Wild Card game. I like both teams. The postseason for me this year isn't really rooting for a certain team.. only rooting against the fucking Cardinals. As long as St. Louis doesn't win I'll be happy. I realize I'm jinxing it saying this. You're welcome, Cardinals fans.

The final card in my recent eBay buy was this Ichiro. Like with the Griffey, there's something about a 1985 Topps refractor that really appeals to me, so I had to throw this one in my cart too.

I was happy to hear he recently re-signed for 2016. Ichiro is a guy I never really collected much. (Can't collect everybody! Plus I always hated the reluctance to use his last name. Seems like such a diva move for an otherwise humble guy.) But now that he's approaching 3000 MLB hits, I feel myself relenting and may have to start a little PC for him. (Yes, feel free to send me your unwanted Ichiro cards!) This card is a pretty good start.

Numbered 742/749.

Warning for epileptics out there, here's a strobing picture of this card in action for the heck of it:

So there are some new additions for me.

I previously had one eTopps card in my collection, and I posted about it back during the early days of this blog...

It's the Kirk Gibson card in this neat shadow box display. I still have this thing, though it hasn't been displayed since I moved nearly two years ago, instead just buried under some packaging supplies. Anybody want to make me an offer for it (trade or sell)? If the Dodgers advance in the playoffs, maybe I should pop it on eBay. The thought of mailing glass scares me, though. I'd have to package the hell out of it to be reasonably confident it wouldn't break in shipping.

It's a pretty cool piece. If I can't find anybody to take it off my hands, I really should get around to hanging it up. I don't hate the Dodgers as much as most Padres fans seem to. Honestly I'd be fine with them winning it all this year, though they wouldn't be my first choice. At this point, I guess my top pick would be the Cubs. It'd be cool if the Back to the Future Part 2 prophecy came true (though that is not a good movie, apart from the hoverboard stuff. I rewatched the trilogy recently. The first one holds up, and the third one is worth watching, but that middle one.. blah.) Plus my mom's side of the family is from Chicago, so I've got some roots there.

But again, as long as the fucking Cardinals don't win the World Series I'll be happy.

Thanks for reading!

Dissecting a 2015 Topps Galley of Greats (Literally!)

Let's keep up the investigative curiosity of yesterday's post (playing cd-rom cards) and today get under the hood of a framed card.

I've been kinda working on collecting the 2015 Topps Gallery of Greats inserts from Series 1. It's a really nicely done little set featuring a matte black frame around a shiny picture of a prominent player. After buying a couple small eBay lots, I found myself with 3 copies of the Hanley Ramirez card, which I think is safe to say is easily the least valuable card in the set. It was a Friday night after a couple drinks and I was curious, so I decided to sacrifice one of them to find out what these guys look like with the frame stripped away.

There's the "before" picture.

The frame didn't exactly "pop right off" so the card got beat up as I worked to get it off.

This is like modern art.

Downright postapocalyptic!

Hanley got some bad acid, man. '95 Fleer ain't got nothing on this.

I should try selling it as an "eBay 1/1!"

As you can see, more of the bat is revealed, notably the full knob (insert penis joke here). There's also some squiggles around the top and bottom, as if the Gallery of Greats design from the border was partially imposed on this layer. So that's kinda interesting, but mostly it's just blank refractory silver under the frame.

Here are some of the other cards from this insert set I added recently:

I was happy to see an incarnation of these things pop up in 2015 Topps Chrome. I'd like to eventually work on that set too, but for now I've still got several of these Series I cards left to track down. Please check my wantlist if you can help.

Oh, and I also ended up with a dupe Kershaw.. but don't worry, I won't destroy this one! (I bet you can see more of his hand/glove without the frame.) It's available for trade.

Playing a couple old CD-ROM ''cards''

A couple shows back, I picked up Cal Ripken and Roger Clemens "PowerDeck" inserts that Upper Deck put out in 1999. These are mini cd-roms that are shaped so they can fit in a standard-sized pack of cards. I get a kick out of quirky stuff like this, and was just kinda curious about these "cards" and wanted one or two for myself.

I've got a backup old laptop with the "snap on the center" style cd drive to allow me to safely play them without fear of their odd size/shape potentially causing trouble.

So if you're like me and were curious as to what digital delights are on these, here ya go!

Yep, each card basically contains a lo-fi minute-long highlight reel. (Uploading the .mov file to Blogger makes them even lower-fi.) That's about what I expected. Kinda cool, I guess!

Sentimental Sundays: a Flan card, Mr. Bubble, and my high school locker decor

Let's do another Sentimental Sundays post!

I'm sure most you guys have various Tim Flannery cards floating around your collection, be it in complete sets or cobwebbed corners of your trade box. But here's one Tim Flannery card I'll bet you haven't seen before-- A "Flan Club" membership card! Circa 1991, it was probably put out by KUSI, the local channel that played Padres games on Sunday. I believe Flan worked on the pre-game show at the time and as a back-up color commentator, joining Jerry Coleman when Rick Monday was out. At this point, I don't recall how I came to be a member of the Flan Club, and I don't recall any benefits besides getting the nifty membership card. Glad I hung onto it, though.

Now here's something I'm not sure why I hung onto..

This is a comb with a captain on it. One might assume it was a freebie from Cap'n Crunch cereal, but I believe it was a McDonald's Happy Meal toy. Or maybe a different fast food chain? I can't recall. But I think McDonald's used to have a captain character. [...] Googling it reveals that, yes, it's Captain Crook. "The character is comparable to the Hamburglar, the difference being that this villain does not attempt to steal hamburgers but instead tries to take as many Filet-O-Fish sandwiches as possible."
LOL.

This is one of the larger "why the frick do I still have this?" items I got-- a vintage 80s Mr. Bubble bottle. I'm pretty sure Mr. Bubble is still on shelves, but the design has since been updated. I love this classic look from my childhood.

Copyright 1987. I should take more baths. These days the only times I take baths is occasionally when I'm staying in a hotel. Mmmm.. loves me a nice hotel bath...

Here's something cool from my high school days..

The base for this was originally a cover of an old binder, and I put this college up in my locker. Gotta be 1994/1995. I cut out pictures of artists I liked from Rolling Stone, Spin, etc. How many can you name?

I guess I'm stuck in my youth, as not only do I still collect baseball cards, but I still listen to these bands, though maybe not as much as I did in high school.

Here's an exception.. I never really liked Veruca Salt much, to be honest.. I just thought Louise Post was super cute. Tony Burbs recently revealed in his "Better Know a Blogger" interview that his cousin plays bass for Veruca Salt! That's pretty cool.

Speaking of pretty girls hiding out in this collage, eagle-eyed readers may have spotted a tiny NSFW b&w pic of the lovely Samantha Fox up in the corner. Boy, oh boy, she was something!
Here's who all's featured: Nirvana (several), Sonic Youth, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Alice in Chains, Veruca Salt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kurt Cobain, Rage Against The Machine, Social Distortion, and more Nine Inch Nails.
Thanks for taking this trip back in time with me. That's all for today!

Checking in with 1964 and 1965 (feat. Mays, Clemente, and Aaron)

Creeping along in my progress to complete these vintage sets.

Reader Nick K. emailed me a couple weeks ago saying he's working on '64 as well and had plenty of doubles to trade. I ended up with a nice lot from him.
Some highlights!

Here's one of the biggest cards of the set, the legendary Willie Mays! The card is a bit miscut, but I think it works in this instance. It's hilarious! Willie seems to be yelling at the left border for screwing up his card. "What da hell you think you doing making this card all 'bout you?! You get back in your place dis minute, ya hear?!"

A few other big names.

And some more.

Those were just some of the bigger names from the lot of 80+ cards Nick sent. With his help, I'm now at 23% complete with '64 Topps. Pretty good considering I only really decided to go after this set a month or two ago!

Thanks again, Nick. Best of luck with your setbuild.

These were a couple separate Listia wins. Gotta love Wally Moon. Turns out I would get a Johnny Callison in Nick's lot, so it was pretty much a waste of credits. Oh well.

Now onto 1965.

My bro P-town Tom surprised me with a PWE with this beauty earlier this week. Very appreciated! I'm now at 47% complete with 1965 Topps.

Tom also included a pocket schedule from the Padres' magical season of 1998. Very cool. Thanks for the PWE, Tom! Hopefully my return has shown up safely by now.

And lets close out with another vintage set I'm kinda-sorta working on.

These 2 were overpriced Listia wins. I haven't even rounded up my 1957 Topps cards yet, but I probably only have a dozen or so. That's something for down the road. But picking up a new Dick Williams (a PC / Pads in the Hall guy) is always good.

So that's the recap of the vintage sets I'm currently working on. And yes, 1971 Topps is conspicuously absent in this post.. I seem to have stalled at around 3/4 complete with it. I haven't been motivated to go out of my way picking up needs for it, and they haven't been falling in my lap lately. But I'm sure it'll progress along eventually. No rush. I'm still basking in the afterglow of polishing off 1973 Topps last weekend.

Take care, everybody.

Seaver and Mattingly added to my 2004 Retired $etbuild

My self-imposed "innings limit" of not posting back-to-back days in September was a success! It wasn't easy. I'm definitely not at a loss for post ideas, even if most of them are essentially just "look at these cool cards I got recently!" posts, which while the backbone of the cardsphere, aren't super interesting to casual readers. There were some times last month where I had a post drafted up and was itching to post it, but had to sit on it for a day. I'll now go back to posting whenever I want, but I'll try not to get sucked into thinking I need to post everyday. Sometimes time is tight and it can be stressful trying to get a post done by the "deadline," you know?

While my posting may have been a little less frequent over the past month, I was still active picking up new cards. --a bit too active perhaps. These 2 cards I'm showing off today, in particular, really dented my wallet, so I'll be doing my best to cool it on big purchases for a while.

I had never seen a 2004 Retired refractor auto from either of these kings of New York before, and they coincidentally popped up on eBay within a couple days of each other from different sellers. This is the "main set" I've been working on nearly since I re-entered the hobby a few years back, so I had to be aggressive if I wanted to finally check them off the list.

The Mattingly was a Buy It Now with Best Offer that I was able to broker a deal for, but still was a lot of money. The Seaver was auction style. I was comfortably the only bidder at the reasonable opening bid down until about an hour and a half to go before another jagoff or two had to crap on my parade and push it to within striking distance of my ridiculous max bid. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a little bit of buyer's remorse laying in bed that night, melancholily thinking about my life and my choices.

So yeah, I'll need to try keeping my distance from eBay for a while. I'm thinking about liquidating a lot of my non-baseball collection. While I like having a well-rounded collection, I've just never been that into basketball or hockey, and my interest in football is at an all-time low thanks to the unforgivable finish to last year's Super Bowl and the fact that my hometown Chargers are very likely skipping town soon. Might as well clean house a little and focus on my one true love, baseball.

That moaning aside, I sure am happy to check off these 2 big cards from my #1 goal of finishing this set. In fact, including non-refractors, I've now completed all the scarcity groups besides A and B (the big boys). Only 4 cards left, though they will all be very expensive: Ripken, Aaron, Banks, and Musial. My ultimate collecting goal is to complete the set with refractors, so that mission still has many cards left. But that's more of an "icing on the cake" thing.

2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition autograph checklist

Red = Need it

Green = Got it
Blue = Refractor acquired (/25)

Group A: Cal Ripken, Jr; Nolan Ryan; Carl Yastrzemski; Robin Yount

Group B: Hank Aaron; Ernie Banks; Stan Musial; Duke Snider

Group C: Johnny Bench; Yogi Berra; Whitey Ford; Bob Gibson; Dwight Gooden; Tony Gwynn; Don Mattingly; Brooks Robinson; Mike Schmidt; Tom Seaver; Ozzie Smith

Group D: Wade Boggs; John Candelaria; Jose Canseco; Gary Carter; Carlton Fisk; Ralph Kiner; Paul Molitor; Paul O'Neill; Frank Robinson; Ryne Sandberg; Darryl Strawberry; Don Zimmer

Group E: Buddy Bell; Rod Carew; Bucky Dent; Rob Dibble; Dennis Eckersley; Tony Fernandez; Rollie Fingers; George Foster; César Gerónimo; Kirk Gibson; Goose Gossage; Orel Hershiser; Al Hrabosky; Greg Luzinski; Tony Oliva; Dave Parker; Jimmy Piersall; Alan Trammell;

Group F: Davey Lopes

Group G: Tony Armas; Vida Blue; Tom Brunansky; Bill Buckner; Orlando Cepeda; Darren Daulton; Darrell Evans; Bobby Grich; Ferguson Jenkins; Wally Joyner; Jimmy Key; Ron Kittle; Bill Madlock; Jack McDowell; Dale Murphy; Graig Nettles; Al Oliver; Bobby Richardson; Ron Santo; Dave Stieb; Bruce Sutter; Ron Swoboda; Luis Tiant; Earl Weaver; Maury Wills

Group H: Elroy Face

Anyways, how did Tom Terrific and Donnie Baseball fare against each other?

Mattingly was 6 for 14 (.429) with a couple doubles. Looks like Don had Tom's number, which isn't all that surprising considering their overlapping time in the majors. Mattingly was a hot, young player in his prime, while Seaver's best days were behind him, just padding out his HOF resumé with brief stops in Chicago and Boston.

Hardware-wise, Seaver of course got a ring with the 1969 Mets. Mattingly came up dry in his playing career, but now as manager of the Dodgers he's got another shot at glory. Looks like all 3 of those teams are in the playoffs this year. I gotta say I'm pretty excited for the postseason. With the exception of the Cardinals (boo!) and I guess the Yankees (hiss!) there are a lot of long championship droughts there. If my Padres can't be in it, then I basically root for whichever team has gone the longest since winning. Sigh.. The pains of eternally rooting for the underdog.

Oh, here's another Tom Seaver certified auto I just got for less than 0.6% of the price of the other one. Thanks to combined shipping, it was cheaper than the shipping alone on the other one.

Ok, the real signature looks like just a faded shadow of the pre-printed facsimile auto.. (Don't display your cards in a sunny spot, guys!) ..not to mention it's a buyback of probably his worst card ever (well, not counting the airbrushing fail of his 1986 Topps Traded).. but still, a genuine Tom Seaver auto #'d /25 for the price of a jumbo-size candy bar!

Anyways, thanks for reading. See you back here next time.

Oh, and if you'd like to do me a solid, please check out my cards for sale page. I've cut prices on several items, as well as added new stuff. I'd love to unload some of those and raise a few bucks to ease the pain of an expensive month for me hobby-wise!