Lopsided Diamond Card Giveaway Trade in My Favor

I had a great time with last year's Million Card Giveaway, and I was excited that they decided to continue the program this year. I am still waiting on those MCG cards, but that's what I get for waiting until the last day possible before requesting delivery.

One of my favorite features was the ability to trade cards with others. That way, it meant I wasn't stuck with my 1988 Brewers Team Leaders Card and could possibly turn it into something I would appreciate more. The same goes for this year. I have only made one trade so far, but it was a big one. This trade was initiated by someone else, but it gave me 25 cards in exchange for one. Here's the deal:

My 1973 Claude Osteen was requested.

In return, here's what I received:

1977 Roy White

1978 Blue Jays Team Card

1986 Blue Jays Team Leaders
1987 Mike Easler
1988 Leon Durham
1988 Allen Andersen
1988 Rafael Palmeiro

1988 Glenn Hoffman
1989 Bob Boone
1989 Orel Hershiser All Star

1990 John Candelaria
1990 Roberto Alomar

1991 Juan Gonzalez

1991 Dennis Eckersley

1993 Mike Gardiner
1993 Chris Sabo
1994 Lou Frazier
1996 Kevin Brown
1997 Cal Eldred
1997 Jeff Reed
2006 Richie Sexson
2007 Mark Buehrle
2007 Ryan Shealy
2007 Jorge Posada

2008 Ryan Braun (Rookie Cup Variation)

Now, I am not planning on keeping any of these, except maybe the Braun, but it gives me great ammunition for future trades. In an instant, I went from having 16 cards to 40. With last year's MCG, that's exactly what I did. I loaded up on what I could and then toward the end, when everyone is making those last-second moves, you can turn a bunch of worthless cards into something good.

So long, and happy trading!

Trip to WalMart (part 2)

Along with the Topps Variety Box purchased at Wal-Mart this morning, I decided to pick up a couple of Topps rack packs. What got me wxcited first of all, was pulling three of the big rookies from this year: Jeremy Hellickson, Freddie Freeman and Aroldis Chapman.

I also pulled my second "legend variation" card of this year. The first was Rogers Horsby, and today, I found me a Johnny Bench. Any Reds fans out there, let me know if you're interested.

I also got me a few of the diamond parallels and some lackluster 60 Years of Topps. I love the insert set just as much as last years "Cards Your Mom Through Out," but after putting so many of the classic cards in last year's set, we're left with cards like the 1986 Dave Winfield and the 1991 Roberto Alomar. They are both hall of famers, but these just seem to be random card from their playing years. Still love the concept though.

There was also two Diamond Giveaway cards, which gave me the following:

1996 Carl Everett and 1986 Expos Leaders

Theses were not quite as good as the redemptions from the variety box, but the Expos leaders has Andre Dawson on the front, so it wasn't a total loss. If anyone needs and Topps base cards or inserts, hit me up. I know there are some guys out there who are collecting the diamond parallels.

Happy trading, everyone!

Trip to WalMart (part 1)

I stopped by my neighborhood WalMart this morning to see if they had any good discount blasters. I found a box of 2009 Upper Deck SP which frustrated me. Nearly every card in the box was dinged on the bottom right corner and two thirds of the cards are duplicates. I'm not even going to bother scanning them in. Nothing too special here.

However, there was an interesting new Topps variety box. For $14.99, there was a box containing five packs of Topps 2011 retail, two packs of Heritage, two Diamond Giveaway cards and a special chrome refractor card. The Topps packs will be helpful for my set building and I got a few inserts I didn't already have, but I didn't find any spectacular. None of the big rookies, except for the Strasburg cup card, which isn't really a rookie. But still, there's plenty of cards that can be traded for the ones I need.

 

 The two Heritage packs made gave me a few stars and an SP, but as I go through these, I really don't care too much. Regardless of what the packs contain, this is just a fun set to open up, organize, and trade. Still, I was happy with what I opened. I found cards of Joe Mauer and Ichiro, along with a Mike Stanton rookie cup card and a Carlos Marmol SP. I also like Heritage because it gives collectors some of the first on-card looks at players in their new uniforms, like Bobby Jenks with the Red Sox and Jayson Werth with the Nats.

My special refractor of the box was of the Topps golden boy, Mickey Mantle. The three-card set is Mantle, Ruth and Robinson, so no matter which one you get, you can't lose. I like the design. Simple, but flashy, and it kind of reminds me of 1994 Topps Finest.

And finally, the two Diamond Giveaway cards gave me the following:

1985 Julio Franco and 1976 Bill Buckner. Not bad. Two decent players from their eras and I might be able to flip these for some decent Cubs cards.

This turned out to be a good break. Nothing revolutionary, but it was fun and at the end of the day, that's what this hobby SHOULD be about.

Happy trading, everyone!

Quick Trip to the LCS

I made a trip to my LCS yesterday and made out pretty good. I finally picked up a card I had been eyeing the past couple of trips, an Alfonso Soriano base relic from 2003 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia. It is from the Total Bases insert set and references Soriano's 117 singles in 2002. What is cool about this card is on the right side, it identifies the base as being from a game 7/8/01 between the Yankees and Mets. What it shows me is that it must not be too difficult to tell the consumer where the relic is from. The card is also serial numbered 12/117.

I also decided to grab a couple packs of this year's Heritage. I love the '62 throwbacks, and although it's too big of a set with too many SPs, I still like to add a few to the collection. I haven't gotten much from the retail I've picked up so far, but I was pleasantly surprised to see this card in one of those two packs:

I hadn't ever heard of him before, but I was absolutely thrilled to pull a vintage auto. Upon further research, Yost's claim to fame was that he never played a single game of minor league baseball in his career. He was signed by the Senators in 1944 at the age of 17 and made his major league debut August 16 of that year. He played in 2,109 games over his career with the Senators, Tigers and Angels. He was nicknamed "The Walking Man" for the numerous walks he drew and was considered to be one of the best lead-off men of his era. He also holds the distinction of being the first Angels player to appear in a major league game, leading off in the team's first game 4/11/61 against the Orioles.

So there ya go. One of the more successful trips to the LCS that didn't involve the purchase of a hobby box. 

Discount Blaster: '08 Masterpieces

As I desperately try to complete the 90-card base of 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces, I found a discounted blaster at Wal-Mart to see if I could knock a couple of cards off of my want list. Unfortunately, I did not get a single one of those cards, but I did get a Warren Spahn SP, as well as a Kosuke Fukudome rookie. I also pulled a jersey card of Jonathan Papelbon. Like what Topps does with its Allen & Ginter relics, I love how Upper Deck went a little extra with these. Instead of cutting a hole in a base issue card (like Panini tends to do) they added a frame around it to give it that extra special look. Even though relics are no longer that big of a deal in the hobby, I like that Upper Deck, at least for this release, treated them like one.

Anyway, I now have a few extra cards from this set, so if anyone is looking for any, let me know.

Trip to the LCS and Potential Trade Bait for Orioles Fans

Wanted to get a post in while I was still awake, but at 12:30 in the AM, I'm not sure how longwinded I will be, not that I really ever am anyway. I made a trip to my LCS the other day and found four fantastic cards at four fantastic prices.

My favorite out of the bunch is this Matching numbers relic from 2004 Leaf Limited featuring "Mr. Cub" and Ken Boyer. A cool concept, this insert set used jersey numbers as a reason to tie two players together. Not only is this my first Banks relic, but my first vintage relic of any Cub. The card is also serial numbered 3/100.

I also picked up my first Ryno jersey from the 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes set. The red-paralleled card in serial numbered 34/99 and if you look closely at the swatches, you can really see how different the material was in Sandberg's and Banks's playing days.

My third Cub relic is another addition to my Kerry Wood PC. I found this blue relic from 2005 Upper Deck Origins and jumped at the chance to grab this card at a great price.

The final card I got may appeal to a few other blog readers. I recently did a couple of trades with a couple different Orioles fans, and I figured one of them would enjoy this card. From the same set as the Sandberg, this Brooks Robinson card features and old-style swatch similar to the Banks and is serial numbered 16/99. If anyone is interested in this card, make me an offer. (Note: The card has already been claimed.)

I also got a few blasters and Wal-Mart repacks to review over the next few days. Unfortunately, I have a major lazy streak in me, so we'll see what happens. Anyway, good night and happy trading!

Trip to Walmart = Me Spending Money = Me Getting More Cards

After spending THREE AND A  HALF HOURS at my county's only DMV today to get a replacement copy of my driver's license, I decided that I deserve to spoil myself, even just a little bit. I stopped by a nearby WalMart and picked up a discounted blaster box of 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin champions and a rack pack of 2011 Topps Heritage.

For those who have not seen my want list, I am trying to put together the ENTIRE Goodwin set, so I jumped at the chance to get those cards at that price. They only had one blaster, and out of 40 base set card (I also got 7 minis and 1 20th Anniversary card) 34 were cards I was missing. Needless to day, this was a FANTASTIC blaster to help me build this set.

The minis yielded me one Gypsy Queen blackborder of the player Dennis Leary refers to as "Bucky F***ing Dent" and a few others, including Ryan Dempster (for my Cubs collection), Scott Kazmir (for my player collection) and Ichiro (not for any collection, but a REALLY cool looking card).

I also spotted some 2011 Topps Heritage and figured, what the heck. I wasn't expecting much from it, but curiosity got the best of me and I got myself a rack pack. I REALLY like what Topps has done with their Heritage line. I know some people aren't that into this year's set, they have really remained faithful to the look and feel of the original set. They even went so far as to put a different style of card number of 1-110 from the rest (just like in '62). Plus, they made the photos look just the same as the 1962 quality without making them look retouched.

Needless to say, a good day at Wal-Mart. Happy trading, everyone.

Trade with Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle

I just wanted to do a quick post here about a FANTASTIC trade I completed with Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle. This is the second trade I have completed with Greg and while the first one revolved around helping each other complete a few sets, this one mostly revolved around swapping some hits.

Since Greg is a Dodgers fan, I was incredibly fortunate to pry the Pee Wee Reese bat relic from his hands. Luckily, he had another of Reese's bat cards and didn't really like the logo embossed on the wood. In my opinion, any time you can get that fantastic looking Brooklyn logo on a card, go for it. I also got an auto of Mike Bacsik, who famously gave up Barry Bonds' career record-breaking home run. It'll go great with my Tracy Stallard autograph (he gave up Maris's 61st).

I also managed to get a few hockey hits from Greg. There aren't a ton of hockey collectors out there, so when I find one, I jump at the chance for a good trade. He sent me a Patrick Marleau (48/100) from SP Game Used, a Grant Fuhr from Champ's and a Lanny McDonald from World of Sports. Two hall-of-famers and a low SN. Not bad at all.

To top it all off, we also swapped some vintage cards from our favorite teams. I sent him two Dodgers from the early '60s and he sent me two Cubs from '59.

Thanks for the trade, Greg. I look forward to many more in the future.

A Couple of Cards From a Blog Reader

I received a couple of cards in the mail from Steve, a self-described "reader of many baseball blogs, writer of none." With no expectations of anything in return, he sent me two cards to knock off of my 2008 Masterpieces want list. Thanks, Steve!!!

A Couple of Trades and a Couple of Contests

Hey everybody. Don't have a ton of time here, but I wanted to post about a couple of trades while I have a few minutes. The first is from Ryan at "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog. In exchange for a few Orioles cards from my collection, he sent me quite a few cards from my Want List, including 2010 Topps Update, 2008 Masterpieces and 2009 Goodwin Champions. He also sent me the LAST card I needed to finish of my 2010 Allen & Ginter regular-sized card set (Regular, SP, This Day in History and Baseball Sketches). Thanks for the trade.

The next trade wasn't really a trade at all, but rather, free cards from Ted at Crinkly Wrappers. He came to the realization that he had way too many cards from 2010 Update, so was generously giving them out to whoever could use them more than he could. I didn't even request these at first. I simply put in a response to a completely unrelated blog post and he went that extra mile to check out my want list and sent them on their way. Not only that, but there were a few REALLY cool Chicago Cubs cards included. Thanks Ted!!!

Packages went out today for Ryan, Sam at The Daily Dimwit, and Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle.

Speaking of Sam, head over to his blog for a really cool contest that could get you a $35 credit toward any purchase at CSN Stores. They sell everythin g from appliances to baseball cards, so give it a shot. Five prizes will be given out in total, so there's a big chance you'll walk away with something.

The Lost Collector is holding a contest relating to the NCAA Big East Tournament. Just name the winner, and you have a shot at some relic cards.