Trade Post - A Cracked Bat

Before Christmas Julie, who writes the great blog A Cracked Bat,  emailed me for my new address because she wanted to send me some cards.  It was great timing because I had finally gotten to the point were I could find my boxes were all my cards for trade are stored.  I had been picking up Tigers cards specifically for her for a while, but squirreling them away as I worked on moving into our new house.  Now that I have my own space to spread out I was ready to jump into the world of trading again.  Fast forward to late last week and in my mailbox was a nice bubble mailer packed full of cards.  The thing I love about trading is that I can give cards I don't want or collect to someone who will appreciate them and if all goes according to plan they do the same.  Let's have a look at the goodness Julie sent.

First up is a vintage Brewers double rookie card from 1971.  I have the complete 71 Brewer's team set, but my Smith/Kopacz rookie card is at least 2 grades lower than the one Julie sent me.  The scan got cut off and I didn't feel like rescanning it.  I don't find 71's that nice around here.  An easy upgrade for my team set!

I didn't scan everything Julie sent, but I did want to show off some of the highlights from the package. 

The Jenkins is the gold parallel from 2003 Bowman, a pair of 2001 Gallery cards, Braun's Then and Now Bowman insert deceptively from the 2017 Topps Chrome set not Bowman, Braun's Gold Label base card and a nice emerald parallel Lucroy Triple Threads card.

Also included was Braun's 2017 Triple Threads base card, which represents the whole Brewers team set.  His 2017 Topps Fire Golden Grabs base insert, which are harder to find as they are only inserted in the full boxes available at Target.  The 2015 Diamond Kings is the Silver parallel numbered to 99 and a Taylor Jungman 2016 Topps Chrome Prism refractor parallel.

A couple more nicer high end product base cards.  Love'em.

I'm pretty sure I don't have that Braun Spring Fever card and while looking at that cool 2003 Fleer E-X Sexson card I still lament about the lose of competition that created cards like that.  So clear, so neat.

Julie also included a small stack of 2017 HBP cards.  If you don't know the HBP set you're not alone.  I had never seen or heard about these cards.  To the internet and TCDB.  HBP stands for Honus Bonus Partners Fantasy Baseball. So it looks like there were another oddball offering trying to cash in on the fantasy sports craze.  The website featured on the back of the card is already shut down, so I guess there's no plans for a follow up season.  Put out by Rittenhouse Archives or at least somewhat associated with them.  500 cards in the set and the Brewers have a nice team set featured.  There is also a foil parallel, which Julie sent me one of, the Junior Guerra.  I guess each hobby box came with two Career Milestone 1 of 1 cards. But there are literally hundreds of 1/1 cards for each player as each hit, stolen base, strikeout if featured.  Think Topps Milestone and Moments or those Barry Bonds or Mickey Mantle Home Run inserts from the mid 2000's.  Those cards actually look pretty good and are printed on quality card stock. 

Here's what the backs look like.

In the package were also 20 Frank Thomas cards.  And I know Julie took the time to look at my Frank Thomas checklist, because I didn't have a single one she sent.  My scanner also only holds 16 cards so here are my favorite 16.

But the cherry on top of the package was this sweet Carlos Gomez BCA Die-Cut Prism Autograph numbered 25/25.

A very sweet trade indeed.  Thanks Julie!!

What I did on Black Friday

Well we are a week removed from the biggest shopping day of the year.  What did I do?  I took off work and stayed home with my son.  Oh and I did my annual COMC Black Friday order.  I ended up getting my card yesterday.  I was surprised how fast COMC was able to process, complete, and ship my order on what is their biggest promotion of the year.  I also didn't spend a dime of my own money.  I have been completing challanges on the website for months and saving my money up especially for this event.  Well mostly.  All in all I think I amassed about $45 dollars in store credit.

That netted me 26 new cards.  It breaks down to 20 new Robin Yount cards from my collection.  Which I will showcase on the Yount Collector. I also picked up 4 new Rollie Fingers cards, 2 of which helped fill holes in my 70's cards.  Those will be showcased on the Rollie Fingers Collector.

I know what your saying, but CB what the hell are you going to show us then?  Well if your keeping count I still have 2 cards yet unaccounted for.

After I opened my 1996 Leaf Preferred pack I got from Collector Crate I looked to see who else was on the Steel card inserts checklist.

I couldn't resist picking up the two players on the checklist I collect.

I think I spent a whole dollar for both cards and while I prefer my Molitor cards with him in a Brewers uniform, I'll take it. I really like these cards.  That's what I love about a lot of the stuff that came out of the late 90's so much innovation and imagination.  These cards also come with a couple parallels, a gold version and a numbered Power version.

Anybody else have fun on Black Friday?

Sometimes they get it right...

I realize I bitch a lot on this blog.  It's human nature I suppose to express discourse over things you don't like.  But sometimes I need to celebrate the good things. Especially good things in this hobby.  I remember a few years back when CheckOutMyCards.com just started up.   It was a novel idea in the sports card market place.  We already had places like ebay, justcommons.com and sportlots.com, to pick up and sell cards on, but COMC, as we all like to call it, offered something a little different.  Now CheckOutMyCards.com is becoming COMC.com and starting to venture into comic books, non-sports cards, gaming, and magazines.  The biggest complaint I  and many others had was the shipping and handling costs from buying from COMC.  It was pretty ridiculous at the start.  And it favored buying fewer, higher end cards.  If you were looking to fill a set or even get some cheap player cards COMC was a nice starting point, but buying in bulk on the site ended up getting you a higher shipping cost than you paid for all your cards. Now they've dialed it in, streamlined their operation and you can get your whole order shipped for a flat $3.00 with delivery confirmation. You can always upgrade to faster service, but for me allowing a week to have my order packaged and sent is no big deal.  And to be honest I've never waited a full week until I got my shipping confirmation email from them.  They also have great customer service. The one time I had a problem with an order, I was missing a card from my shipment, I emailed the company and they sent the card out the next day with an apology.

The last couple of years COMC has had some great Black Friday promotions.  This year was by far the best and to be honest a great deal.  If you didn't at least look at the site on Black Friday you missed out.  Not only did you get free shipping if you bought and shipped over 10 cards on BF, they credited your account 10 cents for every card you bought.  (They actually offered friee shipping all weekend through Cyber Monday) And a vast majority of the sellers had discounts.  I think I ended up with over 5 dollars in credit when all was said and done.  I picked up a lot of cheap cards for various base and insert sets I'm working on and a nice stack of new Frank Thomas cards for that PC, and some affordable 1963 Topps cards for the that project as well.

And while I've never tried to sell on COMC, not my cup of tea, but that's another blog post, I will say as a buyer it's gotten so much better.  And that's a great news for card collectors.

cb out.

Some new Big Hurt love

It's been a while since I added any cards to the Frank Thomas collection.  To be honest Frank is one of my lowest priority Player Collections.  That' doesn't mean I don't love the guy.  The first major league game I ever got to attend was at New Comiskey Park and got to see the big guy play.  And I also got to see the White Sox come back from a 5 run deficit in the 8th inning to win.  That's a story for another time though.

I recently was trying out COMC's new shipping policy.  It's getting better.  I had picked up some beautiful 1963 cards for cheap, the last two 1971 Topps Brewers coins I needed for my team set, a whole slew of 2012 87 mini's for my set, and I decided to peruse the offerings for Mr. Thomas to see if I could pick up anything cool for cheap.  And I did.

First up I snagged a 1996 Leaf Frank Thomas' Greatest Hit's #2.  There we 8 cards in this insert set.  All die-cut and made to look like a piece of CD.  All serial numbered to 5000.  Which back in 1996 was a pretty big deal.  Back in 1996 this card was probably worth over $100 bucks, now it books for about 12 and I got this one for under 2.

This card commemorates his sophomore season.

Next up is a dual relic card from 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings.  If you remember the set there were so many parallels and inserts it was a little overwhelming.  I think it could be use as the extreme for parallels in a set.  Not only were base cards paralleled, but just about every insert had multiple parallel variations. This card is pretty much a dual relic parallel of the base card.  

Offiicially called Materials Bronze, we have a slice of bat and pants with the card being numbered to just 200.  I got this bad boy for under 4 bucks.  There was a slight touching on bottom left corner, hardly noticable, but I'm assuming that's why it was so cheap.

Welcome to the collection.

And if you read all the way down here, I went out and bought a hobby box of Gypsy Queen last night.  I'll have the write up tomorrow.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #39

The Big Hurt.  One of my favorite players who never was a  Brewer.   I only own a few Thomas relics and no autos from him.  Pretty much all the relics and what not I pulled over the years.  I've also slowly been acquiring older inserts and base cards through some great group breaks.  Colbey's upcoming one in particular could net me a few more, seeing as all the boxes he's opening have multiple inserts and almost all of them have Frank Thomas in them.  

That being said #39 on the Top 100

2005 Donruss Timber and Threads Frank Thomas Bat relic #TT-11

2 Packs of Topps Lineage and I'm done with it.

Probably not the greatest post to come back with but what can you do?

I'm back from my last trip out in the field.  Five days above the arctic circle and another 3 running around in Fairbanks.  I'll just say I'm glad to be home, although the weather was amazing for late August and the mosquitoes weren't too bad. 

But I realized I had two Prime 9 cards I had to redeem so Friday after work I took a trip down to Don's Sportscards, since I haven't been in his shop in a while.  I only brought my week 6 Prime 9 card with me seeing as this is the week to redeem it, but Don had all of them set out and was redeeming them all, so I'll have to be back to get my Koufax card.  But I did pick up my Hank Aaron card, and I have to say these cards are sharp and shiny. 

I also picked up a few 2011 Topps Football singles for my set I was missing and all the Bowman mini's he had laying around.  And two packs of Panini Threads, cuz I'm a glutton for punishment and two packs of Lineage since I haven't ripped any yet. 

Threads was pretty disappointing.  The base design isn't bad, but I'll actually post about that later. 

But my 2 packs of Lineage were pretty sweet.

First if you haven't seen what the base cards look like here they are.

I've heard lots of people bashing this design, even Don didn't like it, but I don't  think it's all that terrible.  It looks like a eTopps design though.  The backs are very boring.

Each pack you get a mini 75 insert.  Which I like.  I like it even more that both my mini's are keepers.  One for a PC and one for a team collection.

But I couldn't believe what I actually hit in my two pack purchase.  I guess the ultimate hit would be a Robin Yount Jumbo patch card from this set, but this card is a close second.

Yowza!  I love it when I hit great cards of players I collect. 

Well it's good to be back and I do plan on updating all my other sports blogs and this one a little more regularly now that I'm not leaving town again anytime soon. 

CB out.

State of the Collection 2011

2010 in review and an outlook to 2011

Well it's been an interesting year.  I've gotten a new job, moved, proposed to my fiance, bought a house, slayed a dragon, popped my trading cherry, officially started a new player collection (the Big Hurt), added to my current PC's, bought way too many cards, and participated in my first group box break.

So it's time to reflect on my collection and my collecting goals for the new year. Sorry for the lack of pictures.

The teams. 

After the big move which is still only a few weeks old.  I've come across things and cards I hadn't seen for months and sometimes years.  Always fun to find that stuff.  That being said I came across a large collection of Brewer and Packer Team sets, some I didn't even know I had.  One of the goals I had set for myself mid-year and one that will hopefully dominate is my Brewers super set.  I'm inspired by some of the great super setters around the Blogoteria, I decided to start putting together as many Brewers and Packers Team sets as possible.  The first step is to complete all Topps base team sets from the flagship.  This is fairly attainable since  Brewers cards have only been around since 1971 and the most expensive cards from the 1975 set, (Yount Rookie and Hank Aaron) and 1978 (Molitor Rookie), I already own making this fairly cheap.  Of course I'm going to be posting a complete  need list eventually and trust me I have tons to trade. 

The Player Collections.

As you can see I'm a big Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers fan.  I wouldn't have taken the time to make there own blog space if I wasn't.  This year was a slow year for Yount.  Mainly because there just wasn't that much out there and the stuff that was was fairly pricey.  Near the end of the year I finally decided to pick up some of the higher priced cards I needed before they disappeared totally.

Mainly his Topps Update bat barrels, Triple Thread Logoman, and Series 1 and 2 Hat Patch Cards.

He also had a card in the National Chicle which I picked up 3 of the backs, just missing the numbered Topps Umbella back.  I also have his Turkey Red from Update and the 1975 Yo momma cards, original back and regular, still need to find the 1985 cards without breaking the bank.  I also picked up his base #d to 250 Sterling card, a couple Tribute relic cards and his Series 2 variation.  Actually not a bad haul this year after all for a retired guy. 

That being said I have amassed  a lot of Yount cards over the years I'm still working on a finally count of unique cards but it's over 700 for sure.  That being said cards I need or want for the collection are slowing and that allowed me to focus my attention and collection dollars on my other player collections.  I have added a lot of sweet cards to the Fingers collection.  It's amazing how cheap I've gotten some of these great relic and auto cards for.  Some of the highlights this year was my completion of the 2009 Topps Tribute Rainbow for Rollie.  Snagging the Red 1/1 was a highlight, as well as, 2 printing plates.  I also finally added a Goodwin Champions Magician back mini #d to 8 to the collection.

My Reggie Jackson collection is coming along nicely.  While I'm pretty fanatical about the Yount and Fingers collections, going after cards sometimes with careless abandon, I'm much more opportunistic when it comes to Reggie and the rest of my PC's.  The one major goal I'm setting for myself this year is to acquire a 1969 rookie card for Reggie in excellent or better.  I have lots of base and oddballs from the 70's but have not gotten around to picking up his rookie.  I also haven't tried very hard.  I could always break down and buy the one at Don's Sportscards but I do love the chase and possible bargain of buying online.  I do however have his  Milton Bradley rookie card so that eases the pain somewhat.

Switching gears a minute to football.  My Brett Favre collection has slowed down.  I've still been adding new stuff regardless of uniform over the last few years but mainly just from packs I've busted.  I have a feeling after he retires prices will plummet until he's elected to the HOF and this will be a great time to pick up new stuff.  One of my continuing goals for this collection is to complete his Flight to 420 set from Topps.  Probably just the base set not the Chrome but maybe I might get crazy who knows.

I'm going to lump Bo Jackson and Frank Thomas together.  Both of which are fairly passive PC's, meaning mostly pack pulls and the like and I've been collecting their cards since their rookie years both I'm hoping to add a few more cards to over the next year but like Reggie it'll probably very opportunistic in nature and possibly through trades.

The Sets.

Since I started collecting card in 1987 I've tried to put a Topps Baseball set together from packs.  There are a few years missing in that timeline but I've done pretty well and am on the way to filling the holes. 

This year I ended up buying so much Baseball that I put 2 sets together, Series 1, 2 and Update, and still have a shit load of extras, I also put together a football set.

I'm looking forward to the 2011 set of baseball that'll be Topps' 60th.  Seem like lots of cool cards to be put into wrappers.

This year out of boredom to my chagrin I tried to put a Heritage set together, which I still haven't finished.  I put together a Score football, which would have been 200 dollars cheaper if I'd just bought a factory set, but I did pull 2 autos.  I also put a Panini Rookies and Stars base set together and Prestige base set, still working on the rookies.  I'm working on a Score hockey set for the first time ever and I like it.  I also finished my 2010 Allen and Ginter set, with the help of my favorite LCS, Don's Sportcards. And tried to put together a T 206 and National Chicle set both of which are unfinished but I'll probably post a needs list sooner or later.

I've been trying to finish the Turkey Red inserts from 2009 and this year and I'm close.

whew.

Next year since I just bought a house and will be a little cash strapped, I'm planning on holding to my guns but still plan on putting together at least one set of Topps Baseball and Football, because for all the shit I give Topps I still like a lot of there products.  This is going to be hard after having opened a few packs of Topps Magic, that set is beautiful.

Looking into 2011....

My goals are pretty simple this year. After moving into my new house, I realize how much shit I have. 
One of my goals is to consolidate and reduce my inventory of cards I don't want, through trades and selling.

I also put up my Yount collection at the Yount Collector and I'm slowly uploading scans of each card to photobucket and linking them to each card. I also plan to do the same thing with my Rollie Fingers collection and I hope that I can have that completed by the end of this year, taking my time so as not to get too overwhelmed.

Organize my Brewers and Packers Team sets.  One of my long term goals is to put together a Topps team set from 1971 to present.  I do believe I have 1971 complete so on to 1972!!! You can check out all the action once I set it up at Miles from Miller, my Brewers blog. I guess as a completist I would love to get a team set from every set but I'm just being reasonable.

I spent way too much money on cards in 2010 so I'll be scaling back a bit on boxes but I love to bust open a few packs of new stuff, so I won't deny myself that pleasure,  I think I'm probably going to try and complete the Kimball insert set in 2011 Baseball, I love mini's and inserts and retro so this is a no brainer, they'll go nice with my turkey red sets from 2009 and 2010.

ONTO 2011.......hiddy ho.

cb out

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