Trade with blog reader Steve D.

Here's yet another trade post stemming from my tradebait clearance blowout.  This one comes to me from Steve D., who I've traded with before way back when this blog came online in 2009.  Steve sent me some really neat cards this time.  Lets have a look:

Here's an Adam Jones Sepia parallel from this years Triple Threads.  In my opinion, you don't go to Triple Threads for the base card and parallel designs as they are just a side show for the BIG MOJO HITS that you can find.  Triple Threads, Sterling, Tribute, Museum Collection, Tears One (yes I said tears) and now Five Star are all huge rip offs in my opinion.  I'll pick up any of the cards at a small fraction of the price of wax and let the "big boys" waste their money ripping the packs open.  It makes me cheap but at least I can afford to take my wife out to a nice dinner every now and then!

Here's a card from my Top 10 Most Wanted list.  Its been a while since I've knocked any cards off of it and it kind of just sat on my sidebar for months lonely and neglected.  Not anymore!  I've added a few new cards of interest to see if I can knock a few more off of there!

Here's Roberto's double play partner for a period of time in Baltimore.  Me thinks Circa is the epitome of cards in the late 90's.  Loud and gaudy!

My Allen & Ginter set collection has come quite far over the last 6 months.  Considering I started June with just a handful of base cards and I have 2 complete sets, its a big improvement.  I'm still working on 2006, 2008, 2009 (my biggest need), 2011 and 2012 so please check to see if you can help me out right  here.

I'm also putting together the 174 thru 1980 Topps sets together ever so slowly.  Just an observation about this card: I think Pat Zachry looks a lot like R.A. Dickey!

Thanks Steve for the trade!

Trade with Night Owl

This is my first return package of cards I received from my Allen and Ginter mini trade bait post I put up 2 Sundays ago.  The Night Owl and I have traded several times in the last couple of years each one being mutually beneficial (aren't all trades supposed to be that way?) to each other's collection.  He claimed several of the Dodger minis from the stack of A&G's among other cards.  Here's the cards I got in return:

First off when I saw this card peeking out from the behind the note he sent in the package, I thought it was an actual 1966 Topps card.  Then I saw the name at the bottom and Orioles fans everywhere began to shudder.  I do like the card though. This one is actually one of the cards that came in Baseball Card Magazine from 1991.  Expertly cut unlike some Post, Kelloggs, and Hostess cards I have seen.  Glenn has been laying low (out of the way of Jeffrey Hammonds foul liners) since his playing time in Baltimore.  Though he still takes it on the chin (not unlike the bar fight he got into in May 1993) from O's fans for being a crappy player during his time in Charm City.

Here's another O's card of a team set I'm half-heartedly collecting.  I might actually have most of the cards so don't go sending me emails just yet with trade offers!

The 2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee set has been a lot harder to complete than I thought it would originally be.  I never bought a hobby box.  I've built the set mostly from blasters, lots from ebay, and trades.  Here's the last couple of cards I need to complete the set:

2, 26, 36, 39, 72, 93, 141, 148, 165, 210, 211, 237, 249, 251, 278, 349, 364, 370, 414, 416, 426, 427, 479,  486, 501

I've also been slowly working on the 2012 Bowman Chrome Prospects set too.  I'll be building the regular set once its released but for now I'm focused on "series 1" of the chrome Prospects.  Here's what I still need of those:

BCP4, 13, 16, 22, 26, 27, 39, 40, 73, 76, 84, 92, 97, 101, 103, 110

Most of the cards in the package were from 2012 Allen and Ginter.  I'm not complaining though, I still need plenty of help to finish off this set.  Though Night Owl took a big chunk out of it, here's the rest of the wantlist:

1, 4, 6, 26, 30, 33, 35, 36, 44, 45, 47, 54, 58, 61, 67, 69, 75, 79, 87, 88, 97, 105, 112, 117, 121, 126, 127, 131, 132, 145, 147, 150, 153, 154, 157, 159, 164, 166, 167, 172, 173, 174, 178, 184, 190, 191, 192, 195, 198, 199, 200, 201, 206, 207, 209, 211, 216, 222, 223, 228, 230, 233, 238, 240, 241, 242, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 255, 257, 263, 267, 271, 273, 275, 276, 280, 282, 283, 285, 298, 304, 305, 307, 308, 341, 349

I only need 5 more shortprints and the rest are base cards, not too bad I don't think.  Sorry for the shameless plugging of my wantlists throughout this trade post but I'd love to finish off some of these sets before the end of time (December 21st for those of you counting down the days in your fallout shelters).  Now, go ahead and flood my inbox with sacrifices, trade offers!

Thanks Greg for the cards you sent, they were much appreciated and the only thing that was collecting in the mid-90's was the dust on mine and your collections.

Box Break: 2012 Topps Series 2

I doubt anybody really cares about 2012 Topps Series 2 at this point in the year.  Updates is right around the corner, and A&G, Finest, and Chrome is already out.  I actually bought this box at the National at the bargain basement price of 38 bucks.  I've noticed over the last few years that series 2 goes down in price over the summer so I didn't preorder like I used to.  I was thinking I'd find the box for about 45 bucks and was shocked to find a vendor selling the hobby boxes for 38 clams.  Hobby box for less than the cost of 2 blasters?  Yes Please!
I'm not going to bore you with base cards because I'm almost 100% certain that all 330 cards have been scanned and posted across the blogosphere.  Only the hit and new inserts from series 2:

Here's my one hit of the box and it came in the first pack.  Talk about taking the drama out of the rest of the packs!  Porcello seems to be a middlin' kinda hit but it is Flagship, not Triple Threads!  I'm sure Dhoff might be interested in this one.

Mound Dominance makes its debut in series 2 and I guess these are just OK.  Good to see Topps is still making inserts out of relic cards. I guess they are just keeping up with the continuity of series 1.  I was happy to get Jim Palmer's card from the set so I have one less card to chase!

Topps has brought back the Diecut cards this year and I'm pretty happy about it.  They just add an extra angle (pun intended) and level of interest in the card for me.  I chose to show Stan the Man because he was such an awesome player that doesn't seem to get the hype of some of the other players of his era.  Why is that?

I like the idea of the insert set but the execution is damn near awful.  "Career Day" doesn't even fit on the card bottom and there is    tooo      much       empty      space       on      the     right    side       of     the    card.  Braun looks worried that he is going to be swallowed up by the blue fade.

I did get several damaged cards in my box but I think that is a self inflicted wound.  I carried the box in my back pack for about half the day at the National.  They may have gotten damaged just by me picking up and putting down my bag all afternoon.  Even so, base cards of Joakim Soria, Juan Uribe, Jacob Turner,  and a Golden Futures insert of Chris Sale shouldn't be too hard to replace.

So, I'm glad I was able to get this box on the cheap and to fill out a lot of my set.  Including the couple of retail packs I bought, I only need a handful of cards to complete it.  Flagship is always a fun break so I'm now looking forward to Updates to release in a couple weeks.

Here's my wantlist of cards I need to complete the set:

333, 358, 360, 374, 387, 432, 438, 445, 475, 499, 571, 574, 581, 584, 585, 603, 629, 642, 644, 647

Here's the list of Trade Bait I have available for cards from my extensive wantlists:

Gold Sparkle Parallel: 347 Gentry, 357 Harang, 394 LaHair, 469 Pestano, 494 Barney, 511 E. Santana, 516 Morton, 544 Collmenter, 569 Hafner, 591 Huff,
Target Red Parallel: 434 Motte, 341 E. Encarnacion
Gold Standard: GS-33 Gibson, 37 McCovey, 43 Seaver, 44 A-Rod, 45 Jeter, 49 Clemente
Gold Futures: GF-32 Storen, 34 Beachy, 42 N. Feliz, 43 Strasburg, 46 J. Weeks (2)
Mound Dominance: MD-1 Seaver, 3 Koufax, 8 Ryan, 10 Galaraga
Golden Moments: GM-7 Sandoval, 16 C. Gonzalez, 18 Hamels, 24 Brett, 32 O. Smith, 33 R. Jackson, 45 M. Cabrera, 41 A. Dawson, 50 Griffey Jr.,
Career Day: CD-1 Pujols, 3 Kaline, 6 DiMaggio, 10 Braun, 11 M. Cabrera, 17 Votto, 20 Hamilton, 21 Kemp
A Cut Above: ACA-1 Fielder, 2 Pujols, 8 H. Ramirez, 12 Musial, 15 J. Bautista, 19 Cano, 23 Kemp
1987 Minis: TM-52 M. Cabrera, 54 J. Upton, 62 Lincecum, 65 Teixeira, 73 Gordon, 79 Wilson, 83 Mauer, 87 Musial, 92 Koufax, 96 Mantle, 99 Clemente