Back in black with a box of 2016 Ginter X

Other than pulling an Aaron Judge fishfractor out of a 2017 Chrome blaster, my recent ripping experiences have been underwhelming. But this one left me feeling good about it.

I'm not usually a big Ginter guy, but Topps was blowing out boxes of 2016 Allen & Ginter X at a deep discount the other day. I couldn't help myself and grabbed 3 before they sold out later that day. I figured I'd open one immediately, and throw the other 2 into the stockpile for my once-a-month box breaks.

If you're not familiar with this product, it's an online-exclusive parallel to Ginter with black cards instead of the standard white (despite what the images on the box would suggest). I've already got a complete base set (+ SPs) of regular 2016 Ginter thanks to winning it in a contest last year at Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits. And I've got a few various 2016 Ginter X cards via trades. With 3 boxes to go through, perhaps I'll work on putting the X set together. It probably wouldn't be too hard since it seems like there are no inserts or parallels clogging up packs besides one-per-pack minis and one-per-box autos. The autographs are the big draw here. The silver ink on framed black mini just looks really cool, and there are some nice names on the autograph checklist to chase.

So let's crack open a box and check it out.

Here's a nice Roberto Clemente to lead off with. I believe it's an SP, as the card number is over 300.

Here are a couple other good base cards to pull.

BTW, I apologize for the white specks on these cards. My state is currently on fire and Portland is being coated in ash. It's really terrible. These cards were left by an open window in the evening and ended up with some flakes on them in the photos. I hadn't realized it at the time or I would have tried blowing them off first.

Anyways, above are a few more active players I collect.

HOFers. At #350, Steve Carlton is the last card in the set and an SP, hence the pennysleeve treatment.

Some minis of guys I collect. A handful of cards had less-than-perfect corners directly out of the pack, such as the lower left of Trea Turner here, but I suppose that comes with the territory of black-bordered cards.

I gotta say I like this set, especially at the price I got the boxes for. Anybody working on this set? Again, I'm undecided if I'll work on completing it. I guess it depends on how good the collation is with my other 2 boxes. Hopefully I'll be able to end up with nearly the complete base set and about half the SPs, but we'll see.

Oh, and can't forget the auto...

Robinson Cano! While not a player I collect, definitely a solid name to pull.. especially considering Ginter includes a lot of D-list celebrities cluttering the auto checklists. Pulling an auto of an established Major Leaguer is something to be happy about. Cano's put together a career of consistent All-Star caliber seasons, though you don't hear about him quite as much since he left the limelight of the Yankees for the solitude of Seattle. Assuming he can stay productive through the end of his mega-contract (he's signed thru 2023), he'll have a solid chance at the Hall.

Very happy with the card and it looks awesome in-hand even though the pic is not great, partially due to the smokey orange sky lighting it. (Sure hope they get those wildfires under control soon!) I'll probably hang onto the card and add it to my other miscellaneous autos, though if any Cano collectors wanted to make me a trade offer, feel free to get in touch. Looking on COMC and eBay, I was only able to find one available for sale, with an asking price of $50, which is considerably more than I paid for the box.

Hopefully the other 2 boxes are as nice as this one, but chances are this box will end up being the best of the lot.

Thanks for stopping by!

Great trades to soothe a mailless day

Man, I love three-day weekends!

But the worst thing about them is having a couple consecutive days without mail service. I need the prospect of potential cards in my mailbox to help get me out of bed in the morning.

But luckily for me, I got a few nice trade packages in the mail late this past week, so that helps take the sting out.

I purposefully held off going through the box I received from Julie until today to give myself some celebratory cards for Labor Day.

Let's crack it open!

The cards are alive with color!

Gavins! The Goof-Off without text on the front is from the 70s (that I had been meaning to track down), while the other is a reprint from 1988.

Been a long time since I got a new Matt Ginter for the PC! And I love the Miguel Tejada Christmas Card.

Great lot of the Giles Bros.

Just call Julie the Bringer of Donaldsons.

Oh, I'm bein' followed by a Machado. Machado, Machado!

I've been desperately pleading with traders to stop sending me Wil Myers cards, but I'll admit I was happy to see many of these. That early Tri-Star card in particular is a nice addition to the PC.

Nice pile of teammates Correa and Altuve!

And the cards just keep on comin'! This is one of those packages that could easily have an entire week's worth of posts dedicated to it, but let's just wrap it up here. So many awesome cards.. Huge thanks, Julie!

- - - ---o

Tough to follow that, but here's an excellent surprise mailer from Kerry.

Some big stars of today on fancy inserts.

A pair of Arenado DKs (one is a refractor), and a pair of World's Fair inserts from 2017 Ginter. I wanted the Monorail card because it makes me think of that one Simpsons episode. The Ferris Wheel card makes me think of a Neutral Milk Hotel song.

Kerry must have caught when I said that, while I don't really follow the NBA much, I might go ahead and call the Spurs my favorite team in the league. And that's largely because of Tim Duncan, featured with a sweet lot here.

And fellow Spurs, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.

Thanks, Kerry! I'll round up a return for you soon.

- - - ---o

One more trade to post about today, this one from Stealing Home.

Always happy to take his dupes of Dodgers I collect.

Solarte auto! If I recall, OM pulled this in a repack and was kind enough to set it aside for me. On the day I received this trade package, Solarte hit a walkoff homer for my Padres against the Dodgers. Looks like this auto escaped enemy territory just in time!

Awesome surprise, right here. I'm a sucker for glow-in-the-dark cards, and these weren't even on my radar. Seems they came with Kid Cuisine frozen meals in 1997. Love it! I'll have to try to track down the rest of the set someday.

Here they are in action. Very cool concept of having the skeletons glow.

A book! I've been wanting to read Mint Condition for a while now. It's supposed to be a great telling of the history of the hobby. I'm still working through Ball Four, but this one will be next on my reading list. Or who knows, maybe I'll read them concurrently. (Ball Four is an ebook I've been reading on my phone, not a physical copy.)

And last item of the post, an elegant bronze Roberto Alomar 1988 Topps Traded RC mint-card. Mr. Stealing Home ended up with this card-like-thing in Johnny's Big Fun Game, and seeing how he bleeds Dodger blue, didn't necessarily have a lasting place in his collection for a Padre, so we were able to work out a trade and bring it to a home where it'll be more appreciated. I won't show a bunch of pics of it, but if you're interested, a recent ARPS post featuring the Will Clark version of these things does a great job giving you a clear idea of what they're all about. Part of me wants to trash the big plastic case since it's crumbling somewhat and takes a lot of room, but the collector in me doesn't want to lose the case that's "part" of the item. Still debating.

Thanks a lot, OM! I'll put your return package in the mail soon.


Happy Labor Day, everybody. And thanks again to Julie, Kerry, and OM for the excellent cards! I hardly even noticed there was no mail today. :)

Willie Stargell PC

Pops is easily one of my favorite old-timers to collect. Great combination of both a bad-ass and a teddy bear.. Gotta love him.

Recently picked up this nice autograph. I already owned a couple different Stargell autos, but they're both unlicensed plus one is sort of faded. So it was nice to "upgrade" to a card with logos and a sharp, bold signature.

Well, they're not that bad.

While I'm showing these off, might as well turn this into a Player Collection Post and show off the other Stargell cards I've got.

1960s. I need to pony up for a '63 floating-heads RC one of these days.

1970s.

Early 80s, the end of his playing days. Among my needs are his two "sunset" cards: 1983 Donruss and 1983 Fleer.

Some 80s miscellany.

Front Row 5-card set, plus 2 promos. Seems that unlicensed cards could get away with more back then. Wish Panini could at least sneak in some partial jersey lettering these days.

Some stuff from the 90s. I'd like to complete that '91 Donruss puzzle someday. Maybe even two of them so I could have one to punch-out and put together.

2000s represented here.

2010s Part 1: Topps retro designs (mostly Archives).

And the rest of the 2010s.

Raided from my vintage sets/setbuilds. Depending on how strict your personal collecting rules are, these cards might not technically be "in my Willie Stargell PC" but the bottom line is they're Willie Stargell cards that I own. But yeah, wouldn't mind getting doubles of these three someday so I could keep one with the set and one with the PC.

And from out of my Archives Reserve Master Setbuild, twin blasts from 2001 and 2002 Topps Archives Reserve, base card plus jersey relic.

Here's the only "1/1" type item I've got in the Stargell PC, an original color negative from the Topps Vault. From his stint as a coach with the Braves. Maybe you remember it from the time I tried to make it into a meme...

And here are my dupes.. available for trade. Want any?

I'm definitely interested in any Willie Stargell cards I need, so hit me up for a trade if you've got any available.

Thanks!

a box of 2008 Bowman Chrome

I haven't heard that "Despacito" song yet. If you're also over 35, maybe you haven't heard it either. It's supposedly the big Song of Summer, 2017. I guess I'm "with it" enough to be aware of the song, but not with it enough to have heard it. And I'm kinda proud of that, so I'll resist heading over to YouTube and checking it out. And along those lines, I wasn't collecting from mid-1993 through 2012, so I missed out on the early days of Chrome.

Here's my "Black Friday monthly box break experience" for September. If I'm being honest with you, I actually ripped through these packs back on 8/30. Yes, I'm a sinner; jumping the gun a couple days. But the thing is I was having a bad day and needed a pick me up (still in a stretch of bads days, tbh), plus I had just ordered 3 other discounted boxes that were due to arrive, and I figured I could do some substitution. So if we're being technical about it, maybe this is just a random box break, and my "Black Friday monthly box break experience" for September is actually forthcoming in a future post.

But the bottom line is here's a hobby box of 2008 Bowman Chrome. For the retail price of a blaster, I thought it was a solid deal. But there aren't really any huge rookie cards to chase in this set or anything, hence the reasonable price. But I'm just hoping for a few cards to add to my collection and something decent to cards replenish my trade coffers a little. And hopefully something shiny.. since Chrome is at its best when it's refracting, after all.

Guys I collect! I don't think I've got any of these already. Base veterans plus a Jim Edmonds refractor in unfamiliar Cubbie blue.

Hey, I pulled a Beltre autograph! Unfortunately, it's Engel not Adrian. But hey, my promised auto could have been worse. At least Engel briefly cracked the majors, which is better than many on the autograph checklist can say. He's still playing down in Mexico. I like the "Uncle Sam" pose.
As for Jhoulys Chacin, he's been one of the Padres' better starters this season, so it was nice to land his 1st Bowman Chrome Card. I'm still not sure how to pronounce his name. I'll just call him "Julie's Chachi."

A few other semi-notable cards. I know I've seen these cards before, but until now, didn't realize they were all from the same set. Three different designs mashing into one set. Rookies (green), prospects (blue), and veterans (red). Whatever happened to Luke Hochevar? Put up a respectable 3.86 ERA in 2016, but no one signed him for 2017? Jed Lowrie is having a solid 2017 with the A's (I had no idea until I looked him up). Pedro Baez converted to pitcher, and according to the ERA+ statistic, he's been the Dodgers' 2nd best pitcher during their incredible run this year, below Jansen and above Kershaw. (Kershaw may have since passed him after a dominating comeback performance against my Padres last night.)

Some shiny refractors. Don't think the rookies (top row) ever amounted to much, but veterans Troy Glaus and Scott Rolen had fine careers.

Finally, here are the numbered cards I pulled. The Snyder is /500, while the 2 Xfractors are /250. No big names here unfortunately, but at least I have trade buddies for all 3 of these teams, so they're decent trade fodder. Feel free to call dibs on anything that catches your eye. Besides the guys I collect (1st photo of the post) and the Chacin, all these cards are available for trade. And plenty of base, not pictured, if anyone is working on team sets or anything. Just let me know.

Thanks for reading.

A cardsphere PSA and a shiny Goose

It's a common thing on the cardsphere to say something along the lines of, "Wow, I haven't seen one of these cards before!" Folks will say this in a post or a comment and not give it a second thought.

But the thing is, if you've been an active blog reader for a few years now, you likely have seen one of those cards before, just forgotten about it. And it can be disheartening to the blogger(s) who had earlier posted about said card. Not to sound over-sensitive about it, but it's a kick in the crotch if it happens to you and can make you feel like your blog has been ignored. (And I'm not just talking for myself here, as I've heard this sentiment from other bloggers, too.)

I remember one time, I think it was on P-Town Tom's blog he had linked to an older post from a couple years prior, and I read it and thought to myself, "Wow, I haven't seen one of these cards before!" And then scrolled down and there in the comments was an old comment I had left complimenting the card. That was eye opening to me showing that just because a card doesn't look familiar to you doesn't mean you haven't seen it before.

A similar thing happened on a recent Sport Card Collectors post where he posted a new Griffey he got and said, "It's not something I have seen before." I knew I had posted one myself a while back. Sure enough, I looked up my old post, and in the comments SCC had complimented the card. (Of course I was a stinker and pointed this out to him. haha. He's a bud, it's cool.)

These are just a couple examples, but I know a lot of us are guilty of this.

So let's all try to be mindful about what we say, and consider other ways to compliment a cool card besides suggesting it's the first time you've seen it. You might be inadvertently hurting someone's feelings.

Not a huge deal, but figured I'd mention it.

Changing gears.. One guy who doesn't give a fuck about hurting anyone's feelings is the outspoken Goose Gossage. Here's a 2004 Topps Retired Refractor /25 that I picked up a couple months ago. I think I tweeted about it, but hadn't gotten around to showing it on the blog yet. Nice hit for me, as I collect all Retired Refractors, plus it's a Padre. This completes the San Diego team set for me since I already had the Gwynn. (Winfield and Garvey are also in the base set as Padres, but neither got an auto in this year, unfortunately.)

(Who's gonna be the smart-ass to leave a comment saying, "Wow, I haven't seen one of these cards before!"?)

Have a great weekend, everybody!