The Blackest of Fridays - 2018

It's been my tradition now for almost a decade to take the day after Thanksgiving off from work and do my only Black Friday shopping over at COMC.com.  As is also my tradition I've been slowly stockpiling cards over at the site and take advantage of the free shipping during COMC's event.

First a shout out to the guys and gals over at COMC they did a great job packaging my order. It's the first time I've ever warranted a box for my goodies.

I did get a couple great oddballs this year.  My most expensive item was by and far the 2013 Panini Cooperstown Robin Yount Red Pennant.  I've been looking for one of these since the product came out and while not numbered they seem to be pretty rare and hard to find.  I can probably count on one hand the number I've actually seen for sale and while it was my most expensive item in the lot it still didn't break the bank.  I also finally picked up Robin's 1991 Topps Stand up candy dispenser.

I didn't pick this rainbow of Yelichs this Black Friday.  I preemptively bought the lot of them well before he was named the NL MVP this year. But it's nice to get their shiny goodness in hand. 

I also picked up a bunch of great auto and relic brewers cards. I had a Lyle Overbay auto featuring him as a Diamondback it's nice to have one featuring him as a Brewer.  It's also nice to be able to cross off that Braun Marketside off the need list.

Probably my favorite non-Yount pick up was this 2005 Sheets quad relic auto.  Man I really miss the variety they use to put into some of the products.

Only added a couple new Packers cards to the mix.  I was really bummed with Jonathan Franklin had to retire after his rookie season.  I saw lots of promise in the young running back.  And his cards even his sweet auto patch cards will set you back a little over a dollar.  

Of course I added 26 new Younts to the collection.  I'm always surprised when I don't have a card you'd think I'd have picked up already.  I picked up the 1989 Fleer Glossy and 1984 Topps Nestle to fill those holes.  And finally got my hands on Robin's 2018 Topps Archives Rookie History card.

I also finished my 1984 7-11 Slurpee coin set.  This one is the central region coin denoted on the back with an E.  I also picked up Robin 1993 Panini Sticker I didn't have, his base card from 2002 Topps Archives Reserve, his Ballpark Classics insert from 2002 Fleer Authenix, and 2006 SP Legendary Cuts - Baseball Chronology platinum parallel.

I also picked up the last 3 Topps Tiffany cards I need featuring Robin.

It was nice to get such a big amount of new Younts. Some of these I've been picking up advantageously as they pop up on the site, others I had been watching for quite awhile waiting to see if I could get them at a Black Friday discount.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my Black Friday pick ups.  All the Younts will eventually be featured over at the Yount Collector. 

Anyone else pick up some goodies?

Collecting with laser beam accuracy

I figure I'd do my monthly post to make sure I let everyone know I'm not dead.  Especially since I'm on the edge of leaving for 2 weeks to see family.  I'd call it a vacation, but visiting family is never really a vacation.  Ahem.

If you follow me on Twitter, @cynicalbuddha, you know I've been knee deep in a massive Brewers team set organization and documentation this winter.  I've been a member over at the Trading Card Database for almost 10 years, but just recently started using their collector's tools to inventory my collection.  I've had a couple thousand Brewers cards sitting in boxes from trades and acquisitions that I hadn't organized.  My winter project was to start to sort through all that and figure out what I had, what I had dupes of, and rework my team sets needs list.  And I'm happy to say I'm still not even nearly done.

Although  I have made a little progress.

I also got tired of trying to remember what sets were which in my binders so I got a little anal about my organization and started making pocket checklists for each set.

I started doing this because trying to tell sets apart like the Turkey Red, Topps 206, or the thousands of set from the mid-2000's was hurting my eyes squinting on the backs of the cards.

The Night Owl put out a blog bat around a couple weeks ago and while I had thought about participating in it, I didn't, but it did get me thinking about my own current state of collecting.  To save myself a ton of money and space I decided that I wasn't going to do any more set building, at least for the foreseeable future.  I actually stopped last year before the 2017 Update set.  I still potentially plan to pick up factory sets, but building sets from packs and boxes has just become too expensive and I'm running out of space for all my dupes.

I've decided to focus on two main areas of my collection.  My Brewer's team sets and my Robin Yount player collection.   My other player collections have taken a back burner as well, but I still try to add to them opportunistically.

That being said I'm still looking to finish what I started and my set needs are up-to-date.  My Brewer's team set needs are still a work in progress.

So my goals this year is to focus my collecting with laser like precision and minimize and reduce my stacks of unwanted cards.  Will see how I do.

See you all next month.

The Blackest of Fridays

I don't go out on Black Friday.  I do however open up my laptop and hit COMC.  It's been an annual tradition since pretty much COMC started doing their big Black Friday events.  To be fair not all the cards shown were bought on Black Friday.  As a matter of fact some of them where bought almost a year ago.  I've been slowly picking up a card here and there as they pop up and deals present themselves.  The deals seem to be fewer and farther between nowadays on COMC, but every now and then I find some gold.  I did manage to find a few deals on Black Friday as I needed to hit the minimum card threshold for the free shipping.  

This past Monday I finally got my cards in the mail.  I was able to finally add about 20 new Younts to my main PC and a nice smattering of cheap relics and autos for my team collections.  And I didn't even have to get out of my pajamas.

Day 7: A card you bought in person and the story behind it.

It's a rare sight finding a card show here in Anchorage anymore.  It's even rarer when I get to go and find a card that not only I need, but fits so perfectly into my collection.  But that happened a few year's ago.  It wasn't a big show, but there were enough guys set up to make it worth my while and I was thumbing through some miscellaneous boxes of random cards and found the card below.  I'd been looking for the Gold parallel of Robin's card from the 2011 Tribute set for awhile and hadn't pulled the trigger to any online as most were going for way more than I wanted to spend.  I pulled the card out and asked the dealer what he wanted for it.  He didn't even seem to know who Robin was and asked was it really even worth anything.  I smiled and said I'd give him $5 for it, which he jumped at and I had wished maybe I'd found a few more cards to bundle with it.  But the price I offered I thought was fair to both of us and I figured I'd be paying at least half that to have it shipped to me if I won it online.  Either way I think we were both happy that day and I picked up a low numbered Yount card for my collection.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 6

Day 6 A card you spent more than $10 to get.

I make no bones about it, I'm cheap.  Especially when collecting.  It helps I'm a Brewers collector too since most Brewers cards can be had on the cheap, usually.  That being said I have splurged from time to time.  And what I usually splurge on are Robin Yount autographs.  Back when I had a lot more pocket change to waste on cards I picked up a few of my favorite high end Yount cards.  While more expensive products have come out and nicer on card autos can be had, the 2008 Topps Sterling set is still one of the gold standards in high end sets for me.  Plus the 2008 set featured player-centric boxes with some pretty kick ass cards, even if most of the autos were stickers.  Plus this card features a great selection within the quad relics.  And while I didn't break the bank with any of the cards I bought they were well over $10.

The Blackest of Fridays

I was delighted to see a package from COMC in my mailbox when I got home yesterday.  The only shopping I do on Black Friday is at COMC.  I ended up taking the day after Thanksgiving off because my daycare lady also takes that day off. 

  I've had a few cards sitting in my portfolio at COMC for a while.  I've still be doing a challenge here and there and picking up some free credit, but this year I splurged and added $40 bucks to my account to go crazy.

First up I was able to add all sorts of Scooter Gennett parallels to my growing PC of him.  Scooter isn't the best player on the team, well maybe now he is with all the players getting traded away, but I got to meet him at spring training in 2012 and really like him and his play.  If the Brewers end up keeping him I'm really hoping he can have a break out season.

I picked up his 2015 foilboard, Chrome sepia, pink and purple cards as well as his 2015 limited card, which was one of those stupid Topps Online sets.  It looks just like his regular card only twice as thick.  I also picked up his 2016 Sapphire card from that $1500 online set and a pre-rookie card.

The nice thing about collecting Brewers in general is how cheap their cards are.  I also picked up one of Scooters 2013 Bowman rookie cards. This one a nice green parallel numbered to 75.  Another player I'm excited about on the team is Orlando Arcia. I pick up this purple prospects card number to 250 for about buck.

I also added my first auto for him too.  Sure it's a sticker auto and sure its a non licensed product, but it was cheap.

I also picked up a sextet of former Brewers autos on the cheap.

Kevin Barker here was the Brewers third round pick in the 1996 draft.  He ended up making his debut in August of 1999.  He played for the Brewers till 2000 when Richie Sexson replaced him and Kevin was sent down to the minor and then traded to the Padres in 2002.  Kevin is currently a radio talk show host in Toronto.  First off I love the old Pacific design.  These cards were so cool and in 2000 auto cards were just starting to get plentiful in the hobby.  If the design looks familiar it's because Panini has recycled it many times.  But who can blame them?  It's a great design and the auto is on card.  One of my collecting goals is to get a certified auto and/or relic of as many current and former Brewers and prospects as possible.  

But my best former Brewer pick up was this gem below.

I also got to meet Jonathan at spring training in 2012 and he signed a baseball for me.  Right on the sweetspot.  It's still a centerpiece for my very small signed baseball collection, and it sits, or it would sit if I still had a man cave, next to my Robin Yount ball.  This is the first auto I've been able to pick up for Lucroy.

Speaking of Robin Yount.  If you didn't know from reading this blog or from the fact that I also write another blog completely devoted to my Yount collection.  Robin Yount is far and away, not only my favorite Brewer of all time, but also my favorite baseball player of all time and a huge focus on my collecting effort.  So no Black Friday shopping spree would be complete without added a few new Younts to the collection.  

 I was able to add three parallels from the 2016 Donruss set.  I also picked up his Diamond Kings Heritage card, his 2016 Topps Series 2 Berger's Best and a classic 1991 Police card from the Oak Creek Police Department. I can't resist finding a cheap police card addition.

 While I bitch that sometimes it can be hard to find deals on COMC now-a-days, I was able to pick up a great selection of cards.  While I might have paid a tad more than I could have won off of ebay, not paying for shipping more than made up for that.  The next batch of pick ups included a blue bordered parallel from this years Topps Archives, Red Cyrstal Shard parallel from 2013 Panini Cooperstown, Robin's 2016 Allen and Ginter X card, both his purple and retail foil mini parallels from this year's Gypsy Queen and I was really lucky to snag his 3000 Hits Club chrome inserts from the retail holiday mega boxes.  Just happened to be added while I was shopping.

And finally... Robin's 2015 Gypsy Queen Brown Framed parallel numbered to 499, his 2014 Archives Gold parallel numbered to 199, his 2016 Series 2 MLB Debut retail insert and surprisingly enough a relic card!  I find people tend to want way too much for HOF relics on COMC, but every once and a while I find someone who actually wants to sell a card.  A great 2015 Tribute Jersey Green parallel relic numbered to 150, with the hint of a pinstripe peeking out.

Not a bad haul for myself.  Anyone else pick up some goodies on Black Friday?

2014 Panini National Treasures

Panini has been posting all sorts of sneek peaks of the new National Treasures baseball.  You can see their full post here with a ton of photos.

Overall the cards look great even without the logos.  All the autos are on card and some of the relics are pretty awesome.  Still does that justify a $400+ price tag?  

It's nice to see that at least one Brewers rookie in the mix.  I'm hoping I can do what I did when Immaculate came out and pick some of these up for super cheap.  

All photos borrowed for the Knights Lance.

The set is loaded with stars, prospects and Hall of Famers.  I'm hoping Robin Yount makes it into the set as well.  Not that I have hopes of picking up one of his cards, but I do like to see him included.

 My favorite cards from the set are the these die-cut sweet spot signature cards.  They also feature a nice butt shot for the ladies.

And for those of you craving a Charlie Hustle fix, Pete Rose if featured in the set as well.

As much as I bitch about the cards companies putting out too much high end stuff, I do love it when the big stuff comes out.  I love watching the breaks on YouTube.  The awesome hits and the terrible boxes.  Even if I had the means, I doubt I'd ever open a high end product like this.  I'd much rather pick up the cards I wanted on the secondary market.  Still haven't seen a checklist for the set, but you can rest assured there's probably a little something for everybody.  Anybody think they'll actually spring for a box of this?

A trade with A Cracked Bat

I love finding new blogs. I also love finding new blogs because of trades. I also like that there's a new female voice in the collecting blogosphere.  Recently Julie who writes the blog A Cracked Bat, emailed me that she had a card I had had on my Yount want list for quite a while and it was mine for my address.  How could I pass that up.

What we have here is one of Mr. Yount's cards out of the 2012 Panini Cooperstown Collection set.  This was a retail blaster exclusive and was one of the last inserts, other than Robin's auto from the set, that I needed. This is his Hall of Fame Classes Team card.  This is one of at two cards in the set that doesn't actually show an image of the Robin.  I suppose that makes them easy to produce since you don't have to send an image to the airbrusher.  And believe it or not, but these cards are kind of hard to find, hence the reason it's been sitting on my want list for over 2 years.

Thanks Julie, I'll have to dig some Tigers out for you.

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.