2018 Trading Card Database Trade #17 - parsley24

This was my fourth trade with my now former co-worker.  I'm certainly going to miss talking cards and the ease of making trades with him.  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I traded him a couple of 2018 Heritage SPs and one base that he needed for his set.  In return, I got some buyback goodness! 

2017 Topps - Rediscover Topps Stamped Buybacks Bronze #500 Jim Rice

The combination of this being a Red Sox player and a double-zero card number had me thinking that it would be headed to Shoebox Legends' Shane sometime down the road.  Then I saw the card he has in spot #500.  This one ain't replacing that, so it will likely be mine for awhile.  Hopefully I'll get it to him down the road and he can place it somewhere other than his binder. 

2017 Topps - Rediscover Topps Stamped Buybacks Gold #64 Mike Scioscia

I didn't start collecting until 1987, but the "old" 1984 card design was one of the favorites of my youth.  I still really dig it.  I'd love to see Topps use a design that has both the "action" photo and a portrait.  Make it happen, Topps! 

It never hurts to get another Jedd Gyorko Heritage card as a throw-in. 

2017 Topps - 1987 Topps Baseball #87-103 Corey Seager

The last card is one for the set that I don't think I'm working on anymore.  At least I'm not going out of my way to acquire them.  I guess I'll keep taking them as they come along in trade offers, since I have so many cards in my TCDB traders. 

I've decided to try selling on Sports Card Direct again.  Hopefully you'll take a look at my page and see if there's anything you're interested in.  I can always sell off the site and ship in a PWE if you're only looking for a card or two and don't want to pay $3 shipping.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!  I have another $40+ going into my Paypal account in the next couple weeks.

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

A Surprise From Dennis

Some of you may know (if you follow me on Twitter and saw) that I lost my job last week.  Not that I NEED to, but since I did, I've not bought anything since.  So, it was really nice to see an envelope from Dennis of Too Many Verlanders and Too Many Manninghams in my mailbox the other day. 

2016 Panini Prestige #233 Wendell Smallwood

This is a great way to start!  I've slacked off on picking up Mountaineer cards the last couple of years and I can't even recall if I have a Wendell Smallwood card.  I might, but I might not.  He's pictured in his Mountaineer uniform, so I can handle the Eagles logo. 

2005 Topps Draft Picks & Prospects - Chrome Gold Refractors #158 Kay-Jay Harris 

I love these cards and this set.  It could be because there were three Mountaineers, I dunno.  These refractors are also more shiny than many, at least to my old eyes.  I dig them!  I'm also looking for the black refractors /25 if anyone has them hidden away in a closet!

2008 Playoff Prestige - NFL Draft #NFL-34 Steve Slaton

This one isn't just new to me, it's one that I don't recall ever seeing before.  You'd think that wouldn't happen, but with the amount of cards being produced these days...

2000 Quantum Leaf #342 Marc Bulger

There were some fantastic football card designs among the 2000 releases but this may have been my favorite one.  There were also red, green and purple numbered parallels, but this base is my favorite because it's blue.  It's not navy like the uniforms, but I can't nitpick. 

2007 Topps Draft Picks & Prospects - Senior Standout Jersey Combos #SSCR-MCM Rhema McKnight / Brandon Myles

Raise your hand if you've even heard of either of these guys. I didn't think so.  However, Hail, West Virginia! 

2012 Bowman Platinum - Prospects Purple Refractors #BPP15 Jedd Gyorko

This was certainly a pleasant surprise!  I don't actively go after Gyorko cards because there are just too many of them out there.  I will pick up any that I can at shows and through trades, though.  I had the base, refractor and red refractor, but this is one that I didn't have.  Thanks, Dennis!

2013-14 O-Pee-Chee - Rainbow #545 Cameron Schilling

This card shows how deeply into my "things I collect" list that Dennis dove.  I lived in Indianapolis for almost a decade and Schilling is one of the few NHLers that originate from there.  Hence, he became a PC.

1998-99 SP Authentic - Power Shift #93 Mike Maneluk

This is from my hockey "lost years" where I wasn't paying much attention or collecting.  It will go nicely into my Blackhawks binder and be the lone card of a guy that I'd never heard of.  I like it! 

1990-91 Pro Set #598 Ed Belfour

A Hall-of-Famer rookie that wasn't in my Blackhawks binder?  Yes, please!

2017 Topps - Rediscover Topps Stamped Buybacks Bronze #503 Al Newman 

Topps buybacks always make me happy!

2017 Bowman - Bowman Buybacks Gold #47 Henry Rodriguez 

2017 Bowman - Bowman Buybacks Bronze #122 Junior Felix 

I'd never given the Bowman buybacks any thought outside of any player collections that I might need them for.  Now that I have these, I'm thinking about considering them for my frankenset.  I love both of these Bowman designs and an inaugural year Marlins card would be a toughie to beat out to get into my set.  I think Dennis did more for me with these than he may have thought! 

Thanks, Dennis.  I'm sure I will find some things again for you soon! 

I've decided to try selling on Sports Card Direct again.  Hopefully you'll take a look at my page and see if there's anything you're interested in.  I can always sell off the site and ship in a PWE if you're only looking for a card or two and don't want to pay $3 shipping. 

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!  I have another $40+ going into my Paypal account in the next couple weeks. 

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots - Gyorkos from @onemillioncubs

When chatting with @onemillioncubs on the Preserve the Hobby podcast, he mentioned selling on Sportlots and listing a lot of 2018 Heritage.  I needed some Jedd Gyorkos from the set, and who better to buy them from than a fellow blogger?

If you haven't checked out his blog, you should.  If you have excess Cubs that you'd like to trade for your team, you should get in touch with him.  I've seen nothing but good things about his trades.

Anyway, I picked up 11 2018 Heritage and some other cards (since I was already into a particular shipping cost window).  I will send one of these out at some point, as I want to have a run of Gyorko signed Heritage cards.  It's a weird project, but fun.  Even if I'm only batting .250 on it so far.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

TTM Success #43 - Hometown Hero

A couple of weeks ago there was a PWE on the table that I knew was a TTM autograph return.  It has been awhile since I sent anything out, leaving me a little more excited than normal.  I looked at the postmark and couldn't think of who it would be from. 

It turns out that it was not being returned to me from where it was sent.  In the summer I sent a request to Jedd Gyorko, at the St. Louis Cardinals' address.  His offseason residence is still in Morgantown, WV.  I wasn't sure what to expect inside.  Was it one card, or three?

It was one card, a 2017 Topps Heritage card.  The reason I wasn't sure what to expect is that last summer, I sent three Heritage cards (from 2011, 2013 and 2014) to get signed.  My goal is to get the Heritage card from each season signed.  It looks like I will have to send the other years again.  Ah well, it happens with TTM requests. 

I really hope that Gyorko has Heritage cards in 2019 and 2020.  The 1970 and 1971 Topps sets are a couple of my favorties! 

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in less than a year.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year (including $15 back on one Black Friday purchase last week).  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Collegiate Patches Autographs #JG Jedd Gyorko

This card popped up in my saved searches a few weeks ago.  I didn't immediately bid on it, but I watched it.  I bid later and was fortunate to win it for the opening bid.  It's my third copy of this card and the least I've paid for one of them.  If you have a copy, I'm certainly interested!  

2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Collegiate Patches Autographs #JG Jedd Gyorko

Hail, West Virginia!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots Mail - #3 of 11

I've posted two packages from one Sportlots purchase so far.  On to number three.  This one is a little different in that it's not just cards for the Russ Davis collection.  It's a little bit of a mixed bag. 

1998 Topps Minted In Cooperstown #202 Russ Davis

1998 Pacific Online Red #682 Russ Davis

1999 Upper Deck Victory #379 Russ Davis

These three cards now have me at 200 unique Russ Davis cards that are listed in the Sports Card Forum database.  The line now sits at 200/309/64.7%.

2015 Topps Heritage #344 Jedd Gyorko

2014 Allen and Ginter #12 Jedd Gyorko

While I don't believe I had the Allen & Ginter, I believe I have ten or so copies of the Heritage card.  Last time I tried to find them I couldn't, so for $.0.18 I picked this up "just in case." These two were the last two in the cart that I grabbed.  They weren't going to cost me any extra shipping, so why not?

All of the Blackhawks cards below had been in my cart on Sportlots for months and I'd just never completed the transaction.  Picking up the Davis and Gyroko cards from the seller was just an added bonus for me.

2013-14 Score Alternate Back #108 Brandon Bollig

I both love and hate that Score put these cards into their product.  They look like any other card, but it's the backs that make them different.  The card below is the back scan.  However, the normal base card backs were printed in black.

What I dislike about them isn't their scarcity, it's that likely people don't know about them.  I was never able to acquire a copy of this for my Andrew Shaw PC.  I never even saw one.  There are probably a handful sitting in some kids' box of cards and he has no idea how much I'd give to snag the Shaw copy.  UGH!

2013-14 Score Alternate Back #108 Brandon Bollig

2013-14 Score Red #102 Dave Bolland

2013-14 Score Red #101 Niklas Hjalmarsson

2013-14 Score Red #100 Viktor Stalberg

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #122 Jonathan Toews

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #126 Corey Crawford

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #127 Patrick Sharp

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #128 Brent Seabrook

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Pulsar Prizms #124 Duncan Keith

I planned to get away from modern, but I've gravitated back on a few things.  Something I really enjoy are Blackhawks cards with black or red borders.  I know I'm not alone and that many collectors enjoy parallels with their teams' colors.  I'm not sure how active I will be in searching for them but at some point I will try and get some of them up on my want lists.  

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Saturday Show Spoils

It was card show day again today!  I didn't plan on picking up much and walked out with more than I planned to.  I walked away very happy though.

Before I went to the show, I stopped by Triple Cards in Plano.  They are one of the Topps Baseball Card Day participating stores so I wanted to stop in and claim my pack.  You can check out what I walked out with here.

When I first got to the show, Stephan was already there (with Angela) and he was digging through Rich's boxes of cards.  I'm not even sure he looked at other tables the entire show.  After chatting for awhile, I made my rounds.

I chatted up the gentleman that's promoting the new Fort Worth card show.  He will be moving the shows to Saturdays on some future dates.  I guess that means I won't be attending many since college football is just TWO WEEKS AWAY!

I talked with Nate momentarily.  He submits to BGS frequently and I need to get my Auston Matthews Canvas Young Guns submitted.  He looked at it for me a couple of months ago and believes it's easily a 9.5,  WINNING!

My purchase was from a seller that I've bought from before.  He always has an impressive 3-for-$1 box and I raided it again today.

The next two scans are cards I picked up off one of the regular sellers at local card shows.  I don't dig through his stuff often (he has SO much), but went through a few boxes today and picked these five cards up for $30.

It's been probably a year since I've picked up any cards for my 1955 All-American set.  It's fallen off the radar as I've learned more about other cards.  I believe another thing that keeps me from finishing it off is that there's just so many of the cards out there.  Dave puts "book" value on his cards and then everything is half that or less.  The Germany Schulz has a book value of $30 and this one is in great shape.  I was happy to pay $15 for it in that condition but his son told me $10.  YES, PLEASE!  Hindsight is 20/20, but I should have seen what he wanted for the other ones he has.  They would be doubles, but all would be set upgrades for me.

I actually bought the cards in the second scan at a different time and got them for $20.  The Will Clark has a canvas finish.  I picked this card up solely to send to Clark and have him sign for me.  I'm not striving to collect all cards of hometown hero Jedd Gyorko.  There's just too much and it's like pissing into the wind.  However, I do want to pick up any cards from the baseball sets I like (Heritage, Gypsy Queen and Allen & Ginter) and I didn't have this autograph yet.

I will likely never put together the 2000 Fleer Club 3000 Memorabilia set and this is the first one that I have acquired.  If anyone has any of them that they don't want, please let me know.  I don't have many Tony Gwynn cards, but I pick up some if I come across them at the right price.  Memorabilia cards are "meh" to me anymore but this one is from back when they were a much bigger deal.  I do still need a Tony Gwynn autograph.

I picked up the two cards below from Rich.  I probably overpaid for them (considering the Stautner condition), but I've gotten some good deals in the past and it takes the sting off it.

As I was about to leave and looked down at my watch, it was 20 after the hour.  It was just ten minutes until the hourly drawing for a $15 voucher to spend with any dealer.  I figured it was worth the wait, so I stayed.  Yup, my ticket number was drawn.  There was nothing I'd seen and REALLY wanted but passed on.

I had looked through Leon's T206 cards earlier and recalled that he had a few cheapies.  The Hobe Ferris card is a pretty common card in the set and it's not overly impressive.  However, I didn't have it and it was free.  Hard to beat that combination!  This is the 15th T206 in my collection.

1909-11 T206 #171 Hobe Ferris

It was a good day!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Too Many Davises? Negative, Ghost Rider.

I thought my title was witty when I came up with it yesterday.  It obviously isn't, as I've seen two similar titles on mail days from Too Many Verlanders/Too Many Manninghams.  Ah, well.  I'm worn down today and I'm just going to stick with it.

When I send cards out to others, I don't do so in anticipation that I will receive something in return.  Don't get me wrong, it's nice, though.  Dennis said that I've sent him two things and I won't argue, I can't remember off the top of my head.  He definitely read through my want lists and what I collect pages when he found some cards to send me.

There had to be 50 or more Russ Davis cards in the envelope!  A few months ago, I was making progress on cataloging my Davis cards.  I've spent a bit less time on my collection lately and with the time I've had, some other projects have taken priority.  I do know there are more than a few of these that I need.  My baseball collecting tapered off toward the end of the 1990s and some of the later cards are ones that I know I need.

I love the Collect-A-Book Will Clark!  I had a bunch of these as a kid and I loved them.  At some point they left my possession and I'm thrilled (see what I did there?) to have one of them again.  The Clark Orioles card is definitely one that I don't have.  I don't understand why so many people hate on Pacific.

My other favorite from this group is definitely the Steve Slaton/Runaway Beer Truck card.  Owen Schmitt will always hold a special place in my heart.  On a related note, I was saddened to learn of Bob Stoops' retirement this week.  The 2008 Fiesta Bowl will always be one of my favorite football games ever.

A few months ago I picked up a few of these "Club 3000" cards and added the rest to my want list.  Dennis certainly came though by adding these nine cards to my collection.  I would like to do the memorabilia set as well, but I do believe that will likely never happen.

Last but not least, Dennis helped finish off two sets.  I actually finished the 1986 Topps set recently, but it's entirely possible that these could go into the set.  There are so many poorly centered cards and also ones with print defects that these might be in.  The two Stadium Club cards are the only two that I didn't get in the one box that I bought.  I'm happy to finish off the set.  I guess now I can open that Series 2 box that I have and work on that set!

Thank you so much, Dennis!  You're certainly added a lot to my collection.  There's also another package of goodies coming for you at some point.  I just need to get them mailed!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

A '90s Explosion

Jason and I send cards back and forth all the time.  I've known him for 15 or so years so there have been a lot of trades, a lot of blogging and even some podcasting.  He sent me some of the goodies from a recent pickup of his.

These cards took me back to my teens.  I probably had all of these 20 years ago but got rid of them at some point.  I keep putting all of my Will Clark cards together and sometime down the road, will actually organize them.

The things that I said about Will Clark above, can also be said about Mickey Tettleton.  He was another of my favorites.  I even tried using that batting stance.  I didn't try it for long.

Blackhawks!

I have a good amount of Bray Wyatt cards, but I don't believe that I had any of these!  My favorite is undoubtedly the card from his "Husky Harris" days.

Two Jedd Gyorkos that I didn't have and a Dale Murphy that I may not either.  I'm accumulating Murphy cards just like Clark and Tettleton.  I don't own a single Michael Jordan basketball cards but I do own some baseball ones.  I didn't have either of these.  I normally wouldn't care much, but I was at the game in Birmingham the night that Jordan hit his first home run.  It's all nostalgia.  Even though I'm not a Steelers fan at all, "Slash" will always bring back good memories of my teenage years.  Not sure on the Tom Nevers...I'm wondering if there's something I don't know, or if it was dropped in my mistake.

This was the highlight!  A 1988 Dale Murphy Starting Lineup!  Thanks, Jason!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!