Opening 2018 with a trade post

OK, so I don’t really blog any more.  The biggest factor is having two young mobile kids.  That, and different interests.  But I hope to pick it back up at least partially in 2018.  Maybe blog once a week or so.  We’ll see!  The 2-year old is down and (hopefully) sleeping, so that’s promising.  Anyways, an easy way to start back up is with a trade post.  For a couple of trades, actually.

First up, Brian from Highly Subjective reached out to me in the Fall and we both agreed to send some cards from the “junk wax era”.  Specifically 1994-1995 which was the second era of my childhood collecting phase.  He posted a bunch of them here.  I remember it took me some time to filter through a ton of doubles from back in the day, but it was fun – companies used to have so much better photos on the cards!

Brian sent over some cards from my wantlist.  Here’s the two that I didn’t file away yet.

But he also sent over two really cool Reds cards, the John Franco is especially neat.  To me, he’ll always be the Reds closer.  And I mean that in two ways.  First, he’s our guy not the Mets closer.  Second, he’s the first guy I think of when you say “Reds closer”, not Danny Graves or Aroldis Chapman.  Even the Nasty Boys come in second because they were more of a committee.  A quick check on Baseball-Reference shows that he’s third behind Graves and Francisco Cordero.  And he did have quite a bit more saves with the Mets.  So maybe my logic is flawed, but the 8-year old me isn’t convinced.

I also sent some cards to Greg from Night Owl Cards, who I think is the only card blog that started before mine and has continually posted the entire life of my blog.

I sent the cards to Greg because I had been going through some older cards and knew I’d have some for him.  I wasn’t expecting anything back, but Greg did sent me some cards.  First, he sent me quite a few mascot cards.  I think I have posted somewhere on my blog that I like and/or sort of collect mascot cards.  This is true, but it’s actually a become a pursuit of my 5-year old, who is a growing baseball enthusiast.  And, with the nudge of his dad, a growing baseball card enthusiast.  We’ve bought boxes of 2017 and 2016 Topps Opening Day recently, and the mascot cards are easily his favorite.

He also sent me some legit cards from my wantlist.  Which means I have some checking to do!

That’s for another night though.  Alas, the 2-year old is complaining that his blanket isn’t covering him.

Five years later – a trade (ARPSmith)

I obviously haven’t posted much on this blog.  It’s been 2 months, but at least the last post was something that brought about a trade.  Adam from ARPSmith’s Sportscard Obsession saw my last post and realized I’d completed a set that he hadn’t seen.  This is kind of crazy, because he has about the most detailed checklist of Giants cards I’ve ever seen.  Luckily, I ended up buying the whole set of the 2000 MVP Redemption set.  There are 2 Giants – Shawn Estes

Adam reached out right away, and sent me the cards below, but it took me nearly two months to send him his cards.  In part because I just don’t have the baseball card interest, but also because I wanted to find some other Giants cards.  I dug through the depths of my collection and found some cards like Upper Deck Collector’s Choice Silver Signatures, and a few others from that era.

Adam sent me a bunch of base Topps cards I needed.  A couple each from 2001 and 2002.

And about 35 or so from 2003.

I last traded with Adam in 2012, so it’s pretty cool to rekindle the trade fire.  I’m not sure when I’ll post again after this – hopefully less than two months from now!

Updating the Elusive Eight for an 8th time

This is the 8th time I’ve crossed something off this elusive card list.  I got a new card from COMC, amongst some other purchases:

1996 Topps Master of the Game #15 – Kirby Puckett

This was a legitimately elusive card.  I got the first card toward this set in 2012.  I got the 2nd-to-last card of this set 2 years ago.  I’ve been on the lookout for this Puckett card ever since and didn’t find it until a COMC search a few weeks ago.  It finishes the set, which is always a great thing!

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Here’s the updated Elusive Eight, just in case anyone has these cards available!  Remember – the pictures are the photos I have of other cards in the set.  Since I don’t have them, I don’t have actual photos yet!

1995 Topps Pre-Production Spectralite #PP5 – Travis Fryman

This was one of 4 cards on the original Elusive Eight that has stayed on the whole time and I’m still yet to obtain, and to me is the one that might prove the toughest.  I’m guessing that whenever I turn over the full original list – it will be this card that gets me there.

1996 Topps Masters of the Game #15 – Kirby Puckett

Another EE original – I am surprised I haven’t found this guy yet.  The hunt continues…

2012 Topps Archives In Action #82IA-JE – Jacoby Ellsbury

This is another original list card that I just can’t seem to find.  As a retail-only set, these aren’t common by any means, but I’ve seen the other cards in this set so much more frequently.

2013 Gypsy Queen #218 – Adam Wainwright

This was on the original list, but unlike the others this is a card I could go out and buy now if I wanted to.  I just haven’t had the burning need to complete the Gypsy Queen set from 2013.  It’s not something I need to pounce on, but hopefully I get this by end of 2016.

2012 Topps Archives Combos – #58-YE – Yaz/Ellsbury

So this card was on the 2nd list, and has been on there ever since.  I had 2 needs for this set, so couldn’t fit it into the original, so once I got one of the originals, this card and its counterpart replaced…

2012 Allen & Ginter Giants of the Deep #14 – Bottlenose Whale

So technically this was on the original list, but not continuously on.  I think I’ve bumped it off two times.

1998 Hall Bound #1 – Paul Molitor

Ugh, I actually thought I bought this card on COMC in the same purchase as the Puckett Master of the Game.  It showed up and I realized it was the Chrome version.  D’0h!

2002 Topps Traded #1 – Jeff Weaver

This is the card I’m adding to replace the Cabrera/Kaline card above.  I’m going to do this going forward – keep 1 of these 2002 Topps Traded cards on my list.  See, it’s going to be the hardest base set of this Lifetime Topps Project for me to complete.  Topps short printed the first 110 cards and they now go for $3-$5 a pop.  I’m hoping this helps me focus on these.

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Here are some other cards that would be knocking on the door to make the list.

1998 Milestones  cards #3 (Dennis Eckersley) & #4 (Juan Gonzalez)

2001 Topps MVP redemption set – a very expensive set, I have about 10 of the 25 cards

2003 Topps Nolan Ryan Record Breaker – 3 very difficult cards to go

2003 Topps Traded – 5 cards to go

2004 Topps – 5 cards to go

2012 Topps – the Bryce Harper 661 card

Trade with Baseball Every Night

Peter from Baseball Every Night reached out to me last month to send some cards my way.  I don’t trade anywhere near as much as I used to, but it’s always a good thing when I knock off some wantlist cards without spending some coin.  Peter collects John Kruk and Darryl Strawberry – so, Peter, look for some Kruk/Strawberry cards coming your way!

He sent me a few cards.  The best is this one.  I’m going after one card with as many parallels each Topps year, and in 2016 that was Addison Russell.  I have a ton of rarer Addison Russell 2016 Topps cards, but I didn’t have the Topps Gold card yet and this is a good pick up.

Peter also sent me some other cards from 2016 Topps.

Anyways, thanks for the trade Peter – your end is in the mail today!

S’more cards from Addiction as Therapy!

I think the way this thing will work out – I’ll do a bunch of posts in January, then go back to posting 2-3 times a week.  And those posts in January will reflect cards I got in 2016.  So for me, I’m blogging about a month behind real-time.  That actually isn’t too bad, and it works for me!

Adam from Addiction as Therapy sent me some cards toward the end of December.  I opened his package on January 7th and got around to posting it today, January 14th.  During the time I was opening these cards, Connor Cook looked really bad as the Raiders QB and then Detroit and Seattle were at something of a standstill.

Anyways, here’s some of the cards!

First up, he sent me a Fan Favorite Auto of Vern Law – that’s the biggest card of this haul.  What a cool signature for a guy who is 86 years old and one year shy of playing in the 1940’s.  Thanks Adam!

Also, here’s a Bull Durham card I need.  I re-watched this movie, pretty much because of this card set.  And this gets me a bit closer to finishing!

After that, he sent me a few more Archives inserts.  These might be my 2 favorite Father-Son insert cards.  Griffey because, yeah, Junior is my favorite player, and the Gordon’s are pretty cool since you’ve got a pitcher and a speedster.

Adam also sent me a few cards from the retro inserts of the ’69 Super cards.  Glad to get these 3, and Edwin Encarnacion, out of the way!

OK, so there’s some more Archives cards!  Here are some base cards.

Anyways, thanks for sending, Adam – I’ll try to go through your wantlists this month and see what I car return.

More cards from reader Bill #3 – cards for the actual purpose of this website!

Wrapping up my 3-part post from reader Bill – he sent a bunch of cards that qualify as “the purpose of this blog”.  Back in 2010, I started on a journey to get every Topps card from 1980 to 2009.  Along the way, I’ve decided to go after insert cards, I’ve taken a number of detours and pauses, and I have been going after cards post-2009.  But any time I get cards for that 1980 to 2009 time frame, it’s exciting!

First up – 2002 Topps.  Bill sent me 20+ cards from the 2002 Topps set, which gets me down to about 15 cards until I finish that set!

Bill also sent me a bunch of cards from the 2002 Topps Update set – a few of which are the hard-to-find SP cards in the first 110 cards of the set!

That’s 2002, on to 2003.  More base cards from the flagship set.  Getting there on these years!

There were a few cards from 2003 Traded as well, and he also sent a few 2004 Topps cards.  I forgot to scan them before sending them to their final resting place.  Oops!  I’m now just a few cards away from finishing both sets.

Finally, I’m on to some insert cards that Bill sent.  Here’s all of them.

Again, thanks for sending all those cards, Bill!  I wish I had half the cards from your wantlist to send your way – so if you ever expand said wantlist, let me know and I’ll contribute as best I can.

More cards from reader Bill #2 – 2015 & 2016

Continuing my post from a few days ago…

Bill also sent me a bunch of cards from the past two years.  Some were base cards.  He finished off my 2015 Topps set with this card:

And he finished off my 2016 set with the 15 cards I needed – here’s 3 highlights from that set.

He sent a number of card from the First Pitch set that was in both years of cards.

He sent me some 40 other insert cards from 2015 as well.  Here is just a small highlight of those other cards.

That finished off the Eclipsing History set for me – and got a bunch of others much closer.

Lastly, he sent me about 25 more 2016 insert cards for me.

That’s it for tonight!  Thanks again, Bill – one more post tomorrow.

More cards from reader Bill #1 – 2013 & 2014

Bill from a few posts ago (but the post was nearly a month ago – sorry 🙂 – busy) sent me more cards.

OK, that’s an understatement of the highest degree.  He sent me a boatload of cards!  Enough that I spent a decent portion of last night going through baseball cards for the first time in quite a while.  It would have been more, but the 1.75-year-old decided he didn’t want to go to bed and that complicated things.

Back to cards.

It sounds like Bill went to the National in Atlantic City – I got the chance to go a year ago when it was here in (suburban) Chicago.  He bought a large lot of cards and there were a bunch that I have listed on my wants.  It’s so many cards, that I’ll never be able to post it all in one post.  So here’s post #1 – cards from the early part of the decade.

This is the very recent portion.  First, he sent me a ton of the 2013 update mini cards (1971 version).  23 cards total – which is almost half the set.  I’ve only got about 13 cards left for this 50-card set.

After that – this individual card is worth posting, because this is a pretty rare pull.  I’m a long way from finishing this set.

Next up – here are some other highlights 2013 Topps insert cards.  Worth noting: Bill finished off a set for me.  Making their Mark may be my next post, hopefully in the next day or two.

Next up are some highlights of the 12 or so 2014 cards Bill sent.  The Power Players insert was my favorite set of that year.

Oh, and Bill sent me a few cards from 2011 and 2012 so I’ll add those here.

Again – I can’t get this all into one post, so this is just the first of (I think) 3.  More to come in a day or two.  Thanks Bill!

Trade / Cards sent from reader Bill

I haven’t done too many trades this year.  In fact, I think the last one was in March or April of this year.  But a blog reader contacted me a little bit ago saying he had some cards to send my way.  He sure wasn’t lying – he sent a bunch of 2001 Topps cards from my want list.  I fully intend on completing this Lifetime Topps project, and getting base cards is the best way to do that!

Here are highlights from the base 2001 set (15 cards off the list in total):

And here are the best cards from the 2001 Topps Traded set (22 more cards off the old wantlist):

Finally, Bill sent me a card from the All-Star Stitches set.  This is Todd Frazier.  It’s the chrome version, which is cool because I want all the Frazier cards from this set!  HR Derby champ was the best sporting event I’ve been to!

Bill – thanks for the trade!  I’ll go through the wantlist you sent and see what I can find!

Updating the Elusive Eight for a 6th & 7th time

This is the sixth time I’ve had the chance to cross off something on this elusive card list.  And this time, I got two cards through a purchase, which isn’t quite as exciting as a trade, but I’ve been stalking COMC, Beckett and eBay for this card and it finally popped up:

2012 Topps Archives Combos – #58-CK – Cabrera/Kaline

I still have one more card in this set, which has definitely proved to be “elusive”.

1998 Topps Focal Points #11 – Chuck Knoblauch

Same thing with this card – I’ve been looking for it for quite a while.  It’s not as expensive or rare as the card above, but it’s just been so long that I’ve been trying to get it – I’m glad it’s off the list.  Also, this one completes the set.

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Here’s the updated Elusive Eight, just in case anyone has these cards available!  Remember – the pictures are the photos I have of other cards in the set.  Since I don’t have them, I don’t have actual photos yet!

1995 Topps Pre-Production Spectralite #PP5 – Travis Fryman

This was one of 4 cards on the original Elusive Eight that has stayed on the whole time and I’m still yet to obtain, and to me is the one that might prove the toughest.  I’m guessing that whenever I turn over the full original list – it will be this card that gets me there.

1996 Topps Masters of the Game #15 – Kirby Puckett

Another EE original – I am surprised I haven’t found this guy yet.  The hunt continues…

2012 Topps Archives In Action #82IA-JE – Jacoby Ellsbury

This is another original list card that I just can’t seem to find.  As a retail-only set, these aren’t common by any means, but I’ve seen the other cards in this set so much more frequently.

2013 Gypsy Queen #218 – Adam Wainwright

This was on the original list, but unlike the others this is a card I could go out and buy now if I wanted to.  I just haven’t had the burning need to complete the Gypsy Queen set from 2013.  It’s not something I need to pounce on, but hopefully I get this by end of 2016.

2012 Topps Archives Combos – #58-YE – Yaz/Ellsbury

So this card was on the 2nd list, and has been on there ever since.  I had 2 needs for this set, so couldn’t fit it into the original, so once I got one of the originals, this card and its counterpart replaced…

2012 Allen & Ginter Giants of the Deep #14 – Bottlenose Whale

So technically this was on the original list, but not continuously on.  I think I’ve bumped it off two times.

1998 Hall Bound #1 – Paul Molitor

I had been at 2 cards in this set for quite a while – and I found one of the cards on COMC, so I’m down to just the Molitor to complete this set.

2002 Topps Traded #5 – Tyler Houston

This is the card I’m adding to replace the Cabrera/Kaline card above.  I’m going to do this going forward – keep 1 of these 2002 Topps Traded cards on my list.  See, it’s going to be the hardest base set of this Lifetime Topps Project for me to complete.  Topps short printed the first 110 cards and they now go for $3-$5 a pop.  I’m hoping this helps me focus on these.

 

Here are some other cards that would be knocking on the door to make the list.

1998 Clemente Finest Reprints #13

1998 Milestones  cards #3 (Dennis Eckersley) & #4 (Juan Gonzalez)

2001 Topps MVP redemption set – a very expensive set, I have about 10 of the 25 cards

2003 Topps Nolan Ryan Record Breaker – 5 very difficult cards to go

2003 Topps Traded – 5 cards to go

2004 Topps – 5 cards to go

2012 Topps – the Bryce Harper 661 card