I miss competition in the marketplace

When I have a little free time I've been working on cleaning up, verifying, and adding teams to baseball set checklists over at the Trading Card Database.  Part of that involves verifying that cards have the right card designations.  Meaning that if the card has a prefix or suffix it gets added.  So a few  month back while working through a bunch of the 2004 sets, and there were a lot of products released in 2004 with lots of inserts and parallels, I came across this Genuine Insider auto set.  One of my go to places to verify card numbering is COMC and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the autograph was for these cards where.  I figured that maybe these were book cards.  I also found that the Brewers had a card in the set featuring former Brewer Scott Podsednik.  And what's more COMC had one for cheap.  I figure I'd pick one up just to see what these cards were all about.  

Much to my surprise the card was not a book card, but had a slide out autograph.  The mid-2000's were awash in trading card products, especially baseball and football.  Companies were trying everything and anything to get you to buy their products.  Of course after seen the card and playing with it a little bit it dawned on me why the set is called the Genuine Autograph Insider!  For a guy who didn't collect much between 2001 and 2004 rediscovering these great gimmick cards if a lot of fun and even more fun when you can add one for cheap to your collection.

TTM Success - Paul Mirabella

It's been a while since I've done any TTMs.  I sat down a few weeks ago and sent Paul Mirabella a nice letter and a few cards and I found these in my mailbox this afternoon.

Paul played 13 seasons in the MLB.  Playing for the Rangers, the Yankees, the Orioles, the Mariners, and ended his career with the Brewers.  This is a great success for a couple reasons but most of all that I don't have any TTM success for the three sets I sent.  

TTM Stats

Address used
Paul Mirabella
15 Jenks Rd
Morristown, NJ 07960

Date Sent: 11/22/15
Date Received 12/5/15

Thanks Paul.

TTM Spring Training Success - Brandon Kintzler

I have a pretty full mail box Monday. I had two huge trade packages, the David Goforth TTM return and this guy.

Brandon has been on the team since 2010, seeing his first Bigs action September 10th.  Since then he's been up and down, but had a break out season in 2013 becoming the set up man for Jim Henderson.  Brandon's rookie card is in the 2011 Topps Series 2 set.  I wish I'd have been able to dig out one of his rookie cards, but I'll settle for a nice auto on his 2014.  I might have to try him again in Milwaukee to get his rookie card signed and I can take that crappy Nyjer Morgan auto out of the spot.

Brandon's a great TTM signer.

TTM Stats:

Date Sent: 3/2/15

Date Recieved: 3/16/15

Address used:

Maryvale Park

3600 E 51st Ave

Phoenix AZ 85031

It's interesting both Brandon and David's envelopes were postmarked the 9th which means that they probably signed them almost right away.  I can't believe it's taking letters a week to get to me.

TTM Spring Training Success - David Goforth

Holy moley it's been a long time since I had any TTM successes.  It's also be a while since I sent any out.  But I managed 8 TTM's to the Brewers Spring Training park down in Arizona and got my first one back today.

David has been in the Milwaukee minor league system since 2011.  Last year he was a minor league all-star and at the end of the season was added to the Brewers 40 man roster.  We'll have to see if he starts the season there or not. David hasn't seen any Major League time and doesn't have a Topps card yet, but maybe he'll get one this year.

I sent him a couple of his minor league cards and he sent them back in about 2 weeks.

TTM Stats
Date Sent 3/2/15
Date Recieved 3/16/15
Address used
Maryvale Park
3600 E 51st Ave
Phoenix AZ 85031

A one sided trade with Tony L.

You all know Tony L by now. He writes the Brewercentric blog Off Hiatus Baseball Cards.  He came screaming onto the scene earlier this year, with his blog all shiny and new, with passion and excitement and posts.  Man that guys posts.  Go check it out HERE.  He started in February and already has posted over 240 times!! My god I wish I still had that drive.  I look at my sideboard and I'll be lucky if I put out 100 posts on this blog this year.

But it's nice to see another like minded collector, lover of the Brewers and their players, especially Robin Yount.  It's been lonely since Brian over at Thorzul Will Rule went almost exclusively to Twitter. And it seems like all the other Wisconsin team themed blogs have all pretty much died out.

Anyway, chances are if you read my blog, you probably read his, and if you read his, chances are you've traded with him.  Seriously seems like every other trade post is one with a trade with Tony.  That guy is everywhere.  Well now I get to do one too.

Tony is a regular commentator on my Yount blog.  Which is great because it's nice to have someone comment.  He asked if I had a 1982 Brewers Police set.  I did not and now I do. I still have to reciprocate.

Now Brewers Police sets are an interesting thing. This 1982 set is the first in what would be come a tradition in Wisconsin.  As a kid growing up I didn't spend a lot of time in Wisconsin as my father was in the military, but almost every summer he would take his 30 days leave and we'd head back to northern Wisconsin for vacation. That also usually meant we were in town for the 4th of July parade and it was during the parade that the local police officers would pass out these cards.  Each town had there own imprint on the card.   This set was given out by the Milwaukee Police department, but you can find 100's of town variations.

A couple things about the police issues.  They are oversized. Which sadly makes them hard to display and store.  It's a big set, 30 players this year.  The cards are unnumbered, but depending on where you look them up they are either listed by player number, which is how they are checklisted on the team card below or are listed alphabetically.

And just about everyone is in the set. But t most of the value comes from just 3 players. Robin, Rollie, and Mollie.

All the backs feature something that player "says".

Thanks Tony. Great cards and I hope to get you back soon.