Trying to Get Back in the Saddle - Jaybarker's Junk Tradebait Draft Results

I have been struggling to find the time to do much of anything I enjoy that doesn't involve my family.  Don't get me wrong, life has been great through the holidays, my two boys are at a great age for Christmas, 8 & 5, we have our beautiful baby girl home, we have had tons of visitors for the holidays and to meet the baby, etc.  I have not been able to make the time to do some of the hobby related things I enjoy.  I haven't done a blog post since 12/20 (and to be honest it was one of a few I did several days before it was posted).  It took me over 3 weeks to read a book (I track books I read and it was my 50th of the year so you can see that is well beyond the norm).  I have stacks of cards on my desk that need to be organized, stacks of cards in our guest room that need to be filed away and a few cards that I need to send out to fellow bloggers and Sportlots buyers.  Between being super busy and super tired I just haven't found the time to partake in this hobby I love.

I am going to try to get back in the saddle tonight starting with this blog post.  I thought the best way to go about picking a topic would be to look back at the cards I have had scanned the longest and build a post around them.  So let's take a look at a trade bait draft I participated in quite a ways back on Jaybarkerfan's Junk.  Wes is actually holding another trade bait draft right now that I am going to pass on but I encourage you to check it out.

Here are the goods:

 As a bonus I was able to score a couple of unopened packs that I had fun cracking.  Didn't pick up anything too great but they were fun.  Here are the cards from the Pro Set Football pack:

 This is actually a pretty nice looking set.  I like the muted players in the background with the featured player being in full color.  Really makes for a nice looking card.  I actually pulled a card of Tim McDonald who I collect.  Tim went to USC and also played for the Cardinals and 49ers.  He also has a sports bar in Fresno that I usually frequent when work takes me in that direction.  Unfortunately, I have the card already and as a matter of fact I have 171/218 of all of his cards.   I want to work my USC Football players back into my 2013 collecting goals and still trying to figure out the best way to make that happen.  It was also pretty cool to pull a card of current 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.  I am hoping the Niners can win tomorrow to win the division, going the wild card route will not help them reach the Superbowl.

Here are the cards from the Power Up set.  I have opened a couple of these from repacks.  No Giants pulled but I did get a few pretty good players including Godzilla (who just retired), Nomar, Oswalt and Sammy Sosa.  At one point I dabbled in collecting Mike Sweeney but it never fully took.  I was a little bummed the sticker was damaged but this was a fun pack to open.

 I was able to get 3 cards that fit into my collections with an insert of Christy Mathewson, an insert of Matt Leinart and a sticker of Brett Butler. I had the Leinart but needed the other two.   Very nice pick ups.

 Here is a vintage basketball card featuring 2 All-Stars.  These cards have always intrigued me with the perforations, I have a couple with some star players on them somewhere around here.  This was a great pick up as Gus Williams played at USC.  While I am not as aggressive at going after USC basketball players, I do set them aside when I get them and this was a need for the Trojan collection.

 I was able to score this nick Sweet Spot Auto of Mark Mulder.  I do like the design of these cards and am happy to have a ballpoint pen signature which should help on the fading issue - still looks strong to me.  I like Mulder and while I don't collect him, I may hold on to this one unless a big fan of his or the A's knocks me over with an offer.

And finally one of the main reasons I entered the trade bait draft - Vintage!  Here are the vintage cards I picked up - all from the 1960s.  I was happy with the Senators cards, I don't have too many Senators in my collection. 

As I mentioned at the top, I am kind of behind. I actually entered and received the goods from a second Jaybakerfan's Junk trade bait draft.  I might as well share those cards as well.

In this second draft I actually picked up 3 Autos:

 Not the biggest names but I was still happy to score them.  I picked up Morel in my fantasy league at the beginning of last year thinking he was due for a breakout but that didn't happen.  If it does, I will be the proud owner of one of his autographs.  I love the classic 1952 design on the Anderson auto, any Sox collectors out there who want to pick up a couple autos from their team?  Finally a Bowman Heritage auto.  I hadn't seen this auto design and I am kind of fond of it.  The No Pepper Games backdrop for the auto is a nice touch.

Next up are a couple modern parallels that are serial numbered.  The Green Grady (alliteration!) is /450 while the Till man is out of /309.  309 is a very odd print run???

 Again my main target was vintage cards and this draft has quite a few 1969 cards so I plucked up 6 of them.  In addition to the Giants Rookie Card, I got two manager card with Giants connections in Leo the Lip and Alvin Dark.  I didn't have too many 69 cards in my collection so these are nice additions.

 Here are 4 other vintage goodies including a 1959 Indians card.  I actually love the politically incorrect logo from back then.  I haven't hear much noise about the 1968 design but I think I am a fan. Not my favorite but I think it is solid.

Here is my final pick up from the draft and I saved my favorite for last:

A 1968 card of HOFer Hoyt Wilhelm. Yeah it is a little miscut but it is a very cool card.  I have a few Hoyt's in my collection in his Giants uniform but was happy to pick this one up in the trade bait draft.

Speaking of trade bait, all except the few I referenced were part of my various collection are for trade.  Some may be a little more challenging than others to part with but if it doesn't have a spot in one of my permanent collections, it can be had.

Thanks Wes for the trade bait drafts!

But I can't let this post end without thanking Wes for his generosity, in addition to these great trade bait drafts I have gotten a couple recent envelopes of cards from Wes and here are some of the goodies he has sent my way.  This one came within the last week or so and was a PWE with 4 cards in it:

Very cool to score some Giants.  The Feliz Chrome card is new to me and I was very happy to score it.  The Lowry is definitely going to my younger son who shares his first name.  The other two are up for grabs to my kids as I had them already but I was very happy for this just because envelop.

Even more generous was a package I got a few weeks back, here are the highlights:

First up are some shiny Giants parallels. Brandon Crawford had a very solid second half and looks to be the answer at SS for the foreseeable future.  Lopez is still a solid lefty out of the bullpen but had very little impact on the World Series which surprised me.  I am very glad the Aubrey Huff tenure is over, he was huge in 2010 but fell off after that.  Fontenot and Burrell are long gone but respected contributors.  I am hoping Timmy can bounce back this year but if he does it will probably be his last year as a Giants, just don't see how we can afford another $20M pitcher.

 I also got these 3 nice parallels  I had the Cavan but needed the other 2.  For some reason the Gold parallels from the mid-2000s are tough to track down despite the fairly high print runs.

 I also got a few minis including an Astro.  Hard to blame Wes with the Stros sporting the orange unis.  Obviously the other 3 are pretty huge pieces to the current Giants team.

 Next are a trio of Lincecums and a trio of Willies.  Some super cool cards in this grouping, they all border on being masterpieces.  I scored a Hallmark Christmas ornament of Willie Mays making the catch for Christmas - one of my favorite gifts of the year.

 Finally, I also scored this nice auto of former Giants OFer and Manager Felipe Alou.  Like I said, Wes is a very generous guy. Thank you Wes for the trade bait drafts and your generosity.  While I am missing this current draft, I am hoping to jump back in on a future one.  Thanks!!!