A sweet contest win: 2016 Allen and Ginter complete base set including SPs!

The cardsphere is a generous place, with usually a couple contests for free cards running at any given time. I'm happy to throw my name in the hat with most easy contests that I come across ("just leave a comment to enter" type), and sometimes I'll put in a little effort for the ones where you need to guess a number or something.

Anyways, Matt over at Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits recently ran a string of Ginter related contests. There was one where you had to come up with some words for a mad lib. I remember having fun with stuff like that when I was a kid, so I spent a couple minutes picking words that might make for a silly mad lib. Lucky me, I was selected as the winner!

Matt had a nice list of available prizes culled from the case he cracked of '16 A&G. I just had to make my first choice the big boy: a complete base set including SPs. The 350 cards arrived today and I'm pretty stoked!

My collecting is mainly focused on player collections and minicollections, with set-bulding usually reserved for my favorite vintage sets. I've yet to take the plunge of attempting to complete a current/modern set. Before today, my most recent complete full-sized set (>100 cards) was 1992 Stadium Club that I bought off eBay a few years back. So this is pretty sweet and adds some diversity to my collection.

He even threw in a nice bonus lot of 2016 Heritage to fill up the box

Huge thanks again to Matt for the awesome prize! Everybody should definitely check out his blog, especially if you're a Ginter fan.

Alex Rodriguez PC

Back in the news due to his retirement ceremonious release from the Yankees, Alex Rodriguez is a polarizing figure in baseball, that's for sure. I hated him for most of his career, but after he eventually accepted that year-long suspension, I started to root for him to come back strong. I guess it's human nature to build up our brash heroes, knock them down, then build back them up again.

Even without cheating, you gotta figure he'd still be one of the greats. Check out where he ranks on the all-time lists as of the other day:

HR: 4th (696)
RBI: 2nd (2,084)
Runs: 8th (2,021)
Hits: 19th (3,114)
Grand Slams: 1st (25)

Pretty incredible.

(I kinda hope he latches on with the Marlins or somebody to pinch hit those 4 more home runs. They should also sign Fred McGriff and Al Kaline while they're at it.)

I never really collected his cards at all, but then a year or two ago, I bought an entire big nickelbox at a card show. Among its contents happened to be dozens of Arod cards, so I figured I'd start up a little PC of the guy and see if I could push him over the top and into my Hundred Card Club without too much effort. I broke down and actually spent decent money on an Arod card a couple weeks ago...

2005 Bowman Chrome on-card certified autograph #'d /99

As I mentioned yesterday, it's hard for me to feel satisfied about my player collections unless I've got at least one auto to crown the lot. And so I settled on grabbing this one. The signature is a bit faded, but hey, it's an apt metaphor for Alex's career: Big and extravagant, but the glory since diminished over the years. I'll just pretend is a rare "gray ink" parallel or something, haha. Maybe another Arod auto will fall into my lap someday, usurping the "best card of the PC" crown, but for now, I'm fully content with this one.

Now let's take a look at my PC and see if I've hit the magic #100 yet. As I draft this up, I'm not sure, but I think it'll be close.

A few other hits: 2 bat chips and a piece of fielding glove.

I'm not going to go through the trouble of sorting all the cards by year like I sometimes do when I post my player collections (it's not like this post is gonna get any views anyways.. everybody hates the guy!), but instead I'll group them by team era.

Mariners

Rangers

Yankees 

Here's one more hit I forgot about initially because it's stored with my 2004 Chrome Black setbuild, not the PC

By my count, that's well over a hundred cards (I think about 120), so yep, mission accomplished.

Congrats on the impressive numbers, Mr. Rodriguez, and best of luck in the future, whatever it holds.

Shaking up the wantlist a little

I started my Hundred Card Club idea a year or two ago to help give me some focus with my collection. I like collecting a lot of different players, but it's a bit overwhelming to go after cards of a bunch of guys forever, never getting any closure. So now if I decide to collect a guy, my goal is to acquire 100 cards of him, then I'm off the hook and don't "have to" keep on going after his cards. A hundred different cards will generally give you a nice overview of a player's career. When financially possible, I try to make sure each "completed" PC contains at least one autograph, relic card, and rookie.

Boasting 9 autos, my Goldschmidtload is among my most impressive PCs.

A couple favorite active players for me to collect over the past couple years have been Paul Goldschmidt and Giancarlo Stanton. It's been a fun ride, but these two sluggers have now officially been knocked off my wantlist and into the Hundred Card Club. While I'm sure I'll continue to add to these PCs from time to time, they are no longer priorities for me. You trader buddies of mine can feel free to keep on sending me their cards, though, especially hits and other less-common cards.

Other active (for now) guys who've similarly joined the HCC and been removed from my wantlist in the recent past include Adrian Gonzalez, Jake Peavy, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, and Matt Kemp.
Big thanks to you generous traders who've help me reach the magic number with all these guys.

Among dudes I've kinda stopped collecting prematurely are Andrew Cashner and James Shields.. a couple former Padre pitchers who've seen their careers take downturns and get traded out of San Diego. I just ain't feeling these guys anymore, so they got deleted from the wantlist too.

I've started up new PCs for a few guys to fill the void. Names I'll now be sorting out into my player collection boxes include Josh Donaldson, Manny Machado, Adrian Beltre, and Billy Hamilton.

The initial stages of a couple new PCs.

Some new retired guys have been added to my wantlist, too. I already got Rickey Henderson in the HCC, but now I'm turning my attention on a lesser-celebrated Henderson: Dave. I collected him a bit when I was a kid, but up to this point, haven't restarted since rejoining the hobby. He always seemed to be having a good time, with his infectious smile gracing several of his baseball cards. Sadly, he was taken from us too soon, passing last December at age 57. He doesn't have much available out there as far as certified auto cards, but I was able to score this 2007 Topps Co-Signers stickergraph for just $5 shipped. I think the only card of his I kept from my childhood collection is his 1982 Topps RC that I pulled from a pack circa 1991. Other than that, I have very few of his cards, so you guys with big overproduction-era stockpiles, feel free to dump your spare Dave Henderson cards on me.

As always, my updated wantlist can be found here and linked on the right sidebar. It's nearing 3000 hits (Eat your heart out, Ichiro! lol) Check it out and feel free to get in touch about a possible trade if you like. Thanks!

2017 Topps design revealed

Topps unveiled their 2017 flagship design this morning via this Clayton Kershaw mock up. Figured I'd jump and get a quick post out of it (I know not everybody is on Twitter).

What do you think?

I was kinda hoping they'd go back to borders next year. At least the "fog" is limited to the bottom. I wonder how they're gonna handle parallels with this.. or horizontal cards, for that matter. Looks more like an insert than a base card, but could be worse I guess. Makes me think of Legos. I wonder if that red stripe is going to be on every card, or will it be different colors for different teams.. because here it looks kinda like a trail of blood on a blade.

Here it is - the 2017 #Topps Baseball Series 1 card design! pic.twitter.com/3b5PCzG4k5

— Topps Company (@toppscards) August 9, 2016

If They Were Full Bleed: 1979 Topps Edition

Time again for this fun little series where we use our imaginations (and photoshop) to picture what classic baseball card designs would look like if they were full-bleed. The borderless concept had been around for decades, but didn't really gain mainstream traction until the early 90s with the rise of Stadium Club.

But what if Topps had been ahead of the times and put out a full-bleed flagship set in 1979? Well, it might have looked a little something like this!

Here we have the top-dollar card of the 1979 set, the Ozzie Smith rookie. Looks pretty good without the white space, and would have cut down on the notorious off-centeredness this card is known for.

Side by side comparison with the real version:

Let's do another one for good measure.

Joe Morgan brings an All-Star banner into the mix.

And the side by side:

The color is a little off, but I do the best I can when I come across the original raw photos, usually thanks to Topps Vault auctions.

That's it for this time. If you missed them, check out the first and second installments of this series as well.

So what do you think of the full-bleed 1979 mock-ups? Love 'em or prefer the originals?

Ballgame recap (my best seats ever) + big trade round-up

A friend of ours has season tickets to the Portland Pickles, and kindly gave us his tickets for a game last weekend. (Shout-out to DJ Short Change.. Thanks, man!) We previously caught a game a month before and had a fun time, so we were happy to go back for more, especially with comped tix. And whereas last time we were sitting out on the lawn, this time we got a much better view, right up front. Easily the best vantage point I've watched a pro ballgame from. There were a couple plays at the plate, and it was awesome to see the runner chugging home, racing the throw.

The only downside is it was pretty darn hot in the sun. But with some sunblock and booze, we were doing ok. It started out rough for the Pickles with the Chico Heat's starter pitching a gem. But the bats eventually woke up and the home team ended up pulling off an exciting win.

As with last time, we didn't show up early enough or stay late enough-- we caught the entire game, but after baking in the sun for that long, we just wanted to hop the Max train back home-- to get any player autographs, though I didn't walk away empty handed...

Dillon The Pickle the mascot signed a card for me! Nicest pickle I've ever met!

Got a quick pic with him too. If I was super hot, I can only imagine how sweltering it must be in that suit! Poor guy. Well, if he was suffering, you couldn't tell. Class act all the way.

But anyways, yeah, that was a lot of fun.
Then I got real sick that night and slept a few hours on the bathroom floor. Man, it was rough.


Now let's recap some trade packages I've gotten in the past week or two.

First up is Tony L. He's always happy to take my Brewers and sent me back some nice cards. His post showing the other side of our latest deal is a great one. Well, I liked it a lot, at least!

My Bryce Harper PC got a boost of the Panini variety.

With all the Cubs and Red Sox collectors on the cardsphere, it's extra special when I'm graced with hot players from those teams in trades.

More dudes I collect.

Big thanks, Tony! Always a pleasure.

- - -- ---o

Moving now from an old trading partner of mine to a brand new one, here's a package from Dayton. He's a new guy on the scene, and recently started the blog Retro Cub.. yep, another Cubs collector! We hammered out a little initial trade and he sent me some appreciated cards.

Some sweet McCutchens for the PC. Bummer he's having a down year, but hopefully he bounces back next season if not earlier.

Xanders and Sales, with the pretty rainbow foil likely being the highlight here.

More dudes I collect. Thanks, Dayton! Hope you like the cards I sent, and we'll have to trade again one of these days!

- - ----o

Now it's a package from John Hazen. He doesn't have a blog, but he's been around for a while, occasionally commenting and whatnot. Checking my old email, turns out we had traded once back in spring of 2014, so I suppose we were due for a follow-up swap! He had eyes on the off-condition '71 Brooks and '73 Reggie I brought home as trade bait from my latest card show haul. I threw in a few bonus customs for him I thought he might get a kick out of. Since he doesn't have a blog, I'll quote him here. "Thanks for trade and the extras!" No problem, John!

Kemps and a Cutch.

Brett & the Rocket. That yellow Super Star really blends into the background. No, it's not a die-cut.. lol. (I do the backgrounds different colors in trade roundups to help me keep straight which cards are from whom.)

Some more dudes I collect. Thanks again, John!

-  -   -- - ----o

Finally for today, Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life! sent me some cool cards.

Griffey Fleer RC! That was the last one I was missing of his mainstream rookie cards. Nice to "complete the set" as it were.
I'm happy for them, but gotta say I'm confused about the 2 different 2011 Opening Day cards of Mike Stanton. One is card #38 and the other #65. Did they really do a separate "rookie cup" card?

Missouri favorites, George Brett and Ozzie Smith.

More Kemps, Kershaws, and Cutches. I just recently posted my Kemp PC, but between the cards from these trades and the few I've found while doing a long-overdue sort, I'm sure I've passed my 100 card goal, officially knocking him off my wantlist. Welcome to the Hundred Card Club, Kemp!

Seaver and Ryan.

McCovey and some other old-timers.

Some more dudes I collect, plus a card for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset. Love the Teke OPC!

Big thanks, Bo! I just dumped a bunch of cards your way today using some found postage (fingers crossed). A lot of them I was just looking to get rid of, ain't gonna lie, but I think you'll be able to whittle them down to some cards you're happy to get! Throw away any you don't want.. again, the postage was free so whatever.


Thanks again to Tony, Dayton, John, and Bo for the cards.. and Change for the tickets.. and the dude in the pickle suit for the autograph. And to you for reading! See you next time.

a beat-up Joe Morgan RC for my 65 Topps set

Snagged a big card for my 1965 Topps setbuild with this Joe Morgan / Sonny Jackson RC for a few bucks on eBay. I almost chased a better condition specimen for a little more money, but this well-loved beauty kept calling to me. The fact that it came in a thick screw-down case was enticing to me as well, with trying to keep the card mint definitely a lost cause at this point, so it's kinda funny, but looks impressive.

I love vintage cards, but at this point with counterfeiting being what it is, you either gotta go graded or off-condition, and the budget minded option is obviously the later. Not that a counterfeiter couldn't fake something close to this if they really wanted (I've made my share of "artificially aged" customs, you may recall), but to really pull it off convincingly would not be worth anyone's effort for the minor payday unless we're talking about a very high dollar card.

Such a beauty!

So I think I'm at peace with relaxing condition standards for my vintage setbuilds. As I intend it to be a lifelong hobby for me, I won't rule out upgrading someday down the line. But for the moment, I welcome cards with character such as this into my collection.

Joe Morgan is one of the few Hall of Famers from that era I don't really have a designated PC going for. Hey, can't collect everybody, right? But I admire his career, and while he said dumb stuff occasionally, I really enjoyed listening to him and Jon Miller broadcast games on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball for years.

At 3/5 complete, I think I might make working on the '65 set more of a priority (i.e. allotting funds to make progress). It's fun, and my enthusiasm for modern cards has been waning a bit lately. This card is another HOFer checked off the list, joining Mantle and Clemente as big names I've got. Some A-listers I'm needing include Mays, Aaron, Banks, Koufax, plus RCs of Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro.. so I've got some work to do.

I haven't been in a very bloggy mood the past few days, but I've got some incoming trades and stuff to post about soon. Thanks for stopping by.