Mailday #5

I am trying to get caught up on my mail days so I am lumping a few days worth of cards from the past week or two together.  All of these were picked up on Sportlots or eBay.  I did a little work on some set building, the McCovey collection and my Giants collection.  Here are the goods.

First up we have an Ichiro SP from this year's Heritage.  I still need 13 regular print and 34 SPs to complete this set.  Action on this set has dried up, if you have any for trade, check my want list and let's make a deal.  I also picked up 2 SPs from 2010 Topps 206.  This has been a slow moving set and I am still 20 cards short. Luckily there are no big names left - just Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Tim Lincecum, Albert Pujols and Matt Kemp among others.  I never say never but this one will probably take quite a while based on what I am willing to spend on the cards.

Here is a great lot of 1973 Topps cards, I picked these up on Sportlots auctions from the same seller.  This includes 11 HOFers and Don Baylor.  My favorites here are the action shots of Juan Marichal, Harmon Killebrew and Don Baylor.  I also like the high leg kick by Jim Palmer.  This set is doing okay, I now have 385/660.  This is a long term project and obviously the higher numbers will be a challenge.

Now to the McCovey phase of the mail days.  I picked up two parallels from this year's Tribute (the Black one looks pretty sweet), a 2012 Gypsy Queen Blue Bordered parallel and a mini relic from last year's Lineage based on the 1975 design.  This relic had eluded me for a while and I paid more than I thought I should have but I am really glad to have it.  I have the other relic in the set and I believe this one is more rare due to appearances on eBay.  I have seen this card with a jersey instead of the bat, not sure if I am going after that version or not.

I just love this Hoyt Wilhelm card from 1955 Bowman.  Quite a few 1955 Bowmans have come up for auction on Sportlots.  I have picked up almost the entire team set there (I bought the Mays on SCF).  I currently need only 3 cards to complete the team set after picking up this Hoyt and I just won one of the cards a day or two ago.  I also really enjoy the 1953 Bowman Color card of Monte Irvin, nice casual pose and I am very happy this is in color.  The mini card is a 1950 Bowman of Alvin Dark, another great, reasonably priced pick up.  Finally a booklet from 1970 highlighting The Say Hey Kid.

This is a group of Barry Bonds and Matt Cain cards.  I think I picked these up on the cheap from a seller on SCF but cannot recall.  I am a huge fan of the Metal cards like the Bonds on the top center.  Cain is probably my favorite current Giant. He is a great pitcher despite the poor run support, is one of my key players on my fantasy team and is locked up for a number of future years on the Giants.

Here is a Manupatch of the Dominican Dandy.  I have heard a lot of complaints about these cards.  I actually like them but there is no way they should count as a relic "hit" as Topps likes to do with these in their Jumbo boxes.

Finally a few 2012 Gypsy Queen cards, 2 minis including the alternate photo Bumgarner and a full sized card of the greatest catch in World Series history.

This post demonstrates a wide variety of what I collect.  My want lists are almost complete (a few years of mid-2000s plus the 1950s and earlier for the Giants are left to finish) and I am looking forward to making some deals.  When my want lists are complete, I will celebrate with a post sharing my collecting preferences in order and hopefully generate some trade action.