7 Day Trading Card Challenge #1

Tim over at Cardpocalypse has laid down a 7 Day Trading Card Challenge and while I certainly won't cover it over 7 consecutive days, I think I am going to give it a go and hopefully get through all the steps.

Here are the 7 different challenges:

 

Today I have been challenged to share my favorite card acquired during the quarantine.

When I saw this topic, the first card that came to mind was this:

This is my first Topps Project 2020 art card.  When I saw the first few cards come out I wasn't sure they were going to be my cup of tea.  I wouldn't call myself an art connoisseur and the first one I saw that possibly would fit into my collection was an artistic rendering of a 1952 Willie Mays.  The card didn't excite or inspire me.  A few days later I saw this Rickey Henderson rookie rendition come up on Topps.com and instantly liked it.  I am a Rickey collector and think his rookie card is one of the best in the history of the hobby and this one was close enough to the original (not all of these are) for me but different enough where I wanted a copy. 

However with all the craziness about these Project 2020 cards and the crazy prices they are going for won't allow me in good conscious to pick a card from this set as my favorite.  If you aren't familiar, this card that I got for under $20 delivered when it was released, is now for sale of $300+.  I also picked up the second one when it was released but I am done with these.

Let's look at my real favorite card pickup during quarantine:

This is a 1972 Topps Joe Morgan high number and it finished off my 1972 Topps set and therefore finished off my lifetime Topps run.  It was actually one of a lot of cards I got to finish off my set but this was the last card in the package and will ever be remembered as the card that finished my set.

I am still on cloud nine about finishing the set and suspect it will be my favorite hobby accomplishment of the year.

Time to dig into the few 2020 cards I have so far to find a card for Challenge #2.

An Epic Milestone

My collecting roots were founded in set collecting and even as I have expanded into player collections and team collections the mentality of a set collector followed.  I look to finish up team sets of different products and all the cards from particular sets for some of the players.  If I had to give a generalized summary of my collecting approach it would be "I collect card sets".

One of the goals I made quite a number of years ago was to collect all the Topps sets in my lifetime.  I started collecting in 1979 and had the sets from that point forward.  I had also completed the 1978 set when I was younger after buying a vending box of 500 cards for $40 to start it off.  My task was to complete the sets from 1971-1977 to finish my lifetime Topps run.

I bought the 1974 set in its entirety and got an almost full set of 1977.  I bought a big lot of 1976 and built the rest.  I had picked up a bunch of the star cards from 1975 as it was one of my favorite sets so it didn't take me too long to piece that one together.  When I was building the 1973 set my LCS broke up a nice set of 1970 Topps and offered me a great deal to pick up a ton of the high number and was nice enough to allow me to make payments over a few months to stay within my collecting budget.  While the 1970 set was prior to my birth, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to pick up the cards I did at the  price.

After finishing the 1973 set, I just needed 1971 and 1972 sets to finish my quest.  The 71 set didn't take all that long, especially since I wasn't too worried about the black edges and corners being pristine.  Some of the high numbers were a bit difficult and pricey but overall not too bad.

Then came the 1972 set.  If you aren't familiar, it is a beast.  There are 787 cards that were released in 6 different series.  The 5th series is somewhat tough but the last 131 cards form the last series and they are rare and pretty expensive.  While I have a pretty solid budget each month to spend on cards I do feel I am very cheap and seek out low prices on cards. 

With the 72 high numbers there are rarely low prices and at one point I actually gave up trying to complete the set.  For a couple years I set goals to knock of large portions of the set and I got down to only needing cards from the last series.  I wasn't willing to spend the time to seek out low priced cards and wasn't willing to spend the budget to pay higher prices so I threw my hands up and ended the quest.

I so enjoy set building and was so disenfranchised by the 1972 set that I built the entire 1969 Topps set and started the 1957 Topps set instead of going after those dreaded high numbers.

After a pretty long gap one day I just decided to put on my big boy pants and focus on completing the set.  I have slowly been picking up cards, some on COMC, some on eBay, a few at my LCS and a few at card shops when I traveled for work.  I started spending more time on Facebook and found some there as well.

Recently I received this last batch of cards and I can now say that I have completed the set!

Someone saw me respond to a Facebook post and sent me a message saying he thought he could finish off my set for me.  We worked out a price and he realized that one of the cards he had pulled had some hidden damage.  He was nice enough to seek out another copy and send me the cards.  It made it take a while longer but what would this set quest be without another twist.

I thought about holding off on posting this for a while because I technically don't possess all the cards.  I have 14 cards sitting in my COMC account.  Right as the pandemic was heating up I requested shipment of my cards but they have really been delayed on getting orders out.  COMC has been reliable for me and I decided to call this one complete.  I am so excited to have this full set!!!

So what is next for this set builder?  I am still working on 1957 Topps and have decided to go after the 1968 set.  I had quite a few 68s and picked up a couple lots so as of right now I only need 221 of the 598 cards in the set.  It doesn't have the same huge issues with high numbers so I hope to complete it sometime next year.  I don't know if I have it in me to go after the 1967 set with the high number issues there so we will have to see what is in store.

For now I will just celebrate my Lifetime Run of Topps Cards!

Finally Some 1972 Topps Progress

I took more than a year off on working on my 1972 Topps set.  It is the only set I need to complete my lifetime run of Topps flagship.  The high number cards are hard to track down and even harder to get at a reasonable price.  Whenever I pop into a card store, usually when I am traveling for work I get a chuckle from the owner when I ask if they have any.

Just a couple months back I decided to bit the bullet and reignite my set quest.  I started by putting the cards I did have into binder pages in hopes it would help inspire me and it worked.  My buddy at work, when we face a big challenge, always states that the way to eat an elephant is one bit at a time.  I decided to try and pick up 3 cards a month towards the set build and have pretty much stayed on track.  I have picked up some on eBay and I also search COMC from time to time and I decided to share the dozen that arrived in my recent COMC shipment.

These first two cards are of Hall of Famers and are not high numbers.  I only needed a few non-high numbers when I stopped my pursuit and with these additions, I am down to needing 5 non-high numbers including some heavy hitters like Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose and Hank Aaron IA.

Here are the first 5 high numbers.  I read a great book about the A's of the 70s and wasn't really aware of how good Ken Holtzman was for the A's.  I remember him late in his career with the Cubs.  Funny how a book read connects me to certain players.  This is my second copy of the Alan Gallagher card, I have one in my Giants binder.   I recently read an article about Jose LaBoy.  I get a weekly email from the Baseball Hall of Fame that usually has an article that shows a baseball card and gives some info on a player.  LaBoy's 1970 Topps card was the featured card here.  If you don't subscribe to the newsletter, I would highly recommend it.

And here are the last 5 cards.  A nice card of HOFer Walter Alston and it looks like a candid shot as he manages a game.  The Simpson card looks like a pre-game photo before fans were let in and the Doyle and Steward appear to be Spring Training shots.

This addition of a dozen cards leaves me with a want list of 72.  72 bits of the elephant left.

Rekindling a Quest

One of my collection focuses has always been around building Topps flagship sets.  I started collection in 1979 but the first set I collected was the 1981 Topps set.  I vividly recall trading way to much to my buddy for the last card I needed, #221 Bob Davis.  The feeling of completing a set was incomparable and I still get a little burst of dopamine when I mark the final card off a want list.

Years ago I set a goal to complete all the Topps flagship sets back to my year of birth, 1971.  For at least the last 2-3 years the one set I couldn't complete was the 1972 Topps set.  I was able to finish much of the set with the exception of the high number series.  I am usually a fairly persistent collector but the scarcity of the the high series and the cost of the cards I saw available made me do something I just don't do - I quit.  I made a firm decision to give up on the set with a thought that maybe I would stumble onto a large lot of them some day or find a seller at a National Card Show that I didn't have planned to attend but otherwise my goal to get all the sets from my birth year forward was no longer a goal.

Still loving to work on sets, I have completed the 1970 and 1969 Topps sets in the last couple years.  I even started working on a 1957 Topps set.  I had visions of having every Topps set since 1957 done with the exception of that dreaded high series of 1972.  I doubt I will ever get all the 1960s set completed but that's where my head was at.

One day I was looking at my want list and doing some math and asked myself if I had prematurely accepted defeat.  I figured that at just over 100 cards needed, if I were to pick up 3 cards per month I would be able to finish the set in around 3 years.  That spoke to me in the moment so I went onto COMC and found 3 cards that didn't bust my budget and picked them up.  The quest was back on.

I haven't been scanning to share on my blog or keeping great track of my progress.  I do think there was a month where I didn't get any but there were a couple times I picked up more that 3 from a seller doing a set break on eBay.   I did pick up one of the few non-high number cards I needed off a Facebook seller and I will share the entire haul soon, didn't want 2 Facebook posts in a row.

I have always loved this card and am so happy to have one in my collection.  I always thought the floating ball looked super cool then add in an iconic player in one of my favorite uniforms with an interesting background, you have cardboard perfection.

So I am sure everyone (everyone seems to be a pretty small number these days, 4 months of no posting can sure have an impact on the number of page views) is on pins and needles wondering what my status is on the set.  Well let me share that with you.

As of today, I need:

• 1 Series 3 card (#300 Hank Aaron In Action)
• 1 Series 4 card (#491 Lou Pinella Kid Pix)
• 3 Series 5 cards (including #559 Pete Rose & #595 Nolan Ryan)
• 70 Series 6 cards (including 2 Carews, Carlton Traded, Robinson Traded, Morgan Traded, and the Cey RC)

The Series 3 & 4 card, along with a couple other cards I have already picked up, were knocked off my want list but when I bindered the set they were missing.  I have 2 Series 5 and 7 Series 6 cards sitting in my COMC account.  I obviously have a lot of work to do but I have knocked more than 20 cards off the list in the last few months so I feel good about my progress.

I am going to have to lay out some series cash for the Rose, Ryan and probably half the remaining high numbers but as they say, the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.  This will definitely be my most difficult set build, do any of you have any stories of difficult card collecting quests?

Missing My Old LCS

In July, my family and I took a trip back to Southern California to visit some family and friends and beach time.  Being in the center of the country is pretty nice but having never been more than 2 hours from the beach my entire life, the sand and surf was a definite need.

Another need was a visit to my South Orange County former LCS, MVP Sports Cards.  In my decade plus in South OC, I built up a strong friendship with the husband and wife owner team and was looking forward to the visit and hoped I might be lucky enough to find a few cards to add to my collection.  I was able to accomplish both.

They had helped me immensely on my 1970 set build and the first thing I asked to see was the 1972 Topps box.  I am down to needing cards from mostly the final 2 series and I was able to knock off 24 cards from my want list at a pretty reasonable price.  This is the biggest chunk of the higher series I have been able to knock off at one time.

Not a ton of star power but a few well known names to go with this Expos team card.  Sorry for the upside down In Action card, I am usually not that sloppy.

Some cool photography in this grouping, with a nice bat barrel on the Reese card, a great posed shot with awesome A's uniform on the Bando card and quite a few cool spring training backgrounds.

I nice final grouping of high numbers with some good backgrounds, nice A's unis and a pair of rookie (non) stars.

Next up they pulled up their eBay page and I did a quick search for Giants.  I was able to pick up this nice looking 1951 Bowman Bill Rigney card that I needed for my team set.  Not a grading expert but this looks better than a 5 to me.

I am not a massive collector of graded cards but a few years back a guy brought in 2 big boxes of Reggie Bush graded rookie cards he had invested in during 2006.  Most were PSA 10s with a couple 9s mixed in.  I decided to pick out 4 cards and built a nice Reggie PSA 10 rookie collection for $15.  The owner said he picked them up for $3-7 each, imagine the loss the original guy took on these.

The final two purchases came from a large box of Star and HOF autos they pulled out.  I had never seen this Orlando Cepeda card and really like the design, photo and inscription so I pulled the trigger.

And the final card is a big one for me, a brand new Willie McCovey auto numbered 17/25.  I had the other version /45 already in my collection but this one was new. I am very glad to have want lists on my blog page as I wasn't quite sure if this was a card I had or not.  Now it resides nicely in my Volume 3 (of 4) McCovey binder with the other cards from around 2007.

I spied a couple other cards I really wanted to get but wasn't ready to spend that much as my vacation wasn't cheap.  I plan on reaching out in the next month or two to see if the cards I had my eye on are still around.  MVP Sportscards has been my favorite LCS by far and I was glad to get back for a visit.

Finally a Little Progress on My 1972 Topps Set

I have struggled with making much progress on the high number series of 1972 Topps.  I have whined quite a bit about it in a few different posts and gotten a little advice.  I think the best advice seems to be going to the National and looking for someone selling these - word on the street is that some have been found for as little as a dollar a piece. 

I was hoping to get to the National this year as it is in Chicago which is only about 8 hours from my new home in Kansas.  Unfortunately, a family trip to CA to visit family coincides with the National this year.  With the National next year being a 12 hour trip to Cleveland, I am probably going to have to wait until 2019 to attend back in Chicago.

Mentally I have had to resign myself to the fact that I will probably not come close to finishing the 1972 set until a trip like that takes place.  In the meantime I plan on finishing up everything but Series 6 and trying to get lucky and find some reasonably priced high numbers on the off chance they turn up.  I still need some pretty big cards like Roberto Clemente, Nolan Ryan and Pete Rose so I have a few challenges ahead.

I was lucky enough to run across an eBay auction for 12 high number cards and since I only have a small number, they were all needs.  I made a couple bids and were able to bring them home for under $2 each.  Here are the cards I scored:

With 130 cards in the number series this barely put a dent in my want list but it was nice to finally make a little progress on the final series.  If you happen to run across a cheap source for 1972 high numbers, please let me know!

A Failed 1972 Topps Experiment

I am closing in on finishing up my 1971 Topps set which has me pretty excited.  I am also working on the 1969 and 1972 Topps sets.  The 1969 set needs include mostly higher dollar cards that I am slowing looking to see if I can find some deals on.  The 1972 set needs are almost all from the last 2 series and I have very few from a very tough high series.

In all honesty, I struggle to see how I am going to finish the 1972 set with my miserly ways - I find it hard to pay double digits for a base card of a non-star, particularly when the last series contains 131 cards.  A few weeks back I ran across someone who does vintage set breaks.  You buy a slot in the break and he does some randomizing and matches the purchased spots with different cards in the set.  I saw a 1972 Topps set break and thought it would be worth jumping on.  I thought it would be great to land on a star like Ryan or Clemente or Mays or Aaron but my primary thought was knocking a card or two off my high number want list.

I ran some quick math in my head, 787 cards in the set 131 high number cards, so the odds show I should get a high number card on out of every 6 slots.  I really wanted to get at least one but didn't want to break the bank so I jumped in on 10 slots for a total of $30.  Here were my results:

Well, you can see I didn't pull any stars and I will save you the effort of looking up any card numbers and share that I didn't pull even one high number.  The small saving grace is that I did need the checklist card and a couple of these were slight condition upgrades.

I don't blame the seller, he did everything on the up and up and everything was live streamed and recorded.  It was just my dumb bad luck and more evidence that leads me to the conclusion that my 1972 Topps set may never get completed.

Happy New Year! and a Look Back on My 2016 Collecting Goals

I hope everyone had a safe New Years Eve last night.  At the ARPSmith household it was a family night at home playing eating a king crab legs feast, playing some games and watching Ant Man.  Mrs. ARPSmith and I partied it up with one adult beverage each.  Times have sure changed for me as I get older.

I thought I would take a look back and reflect on my goals for 2016.  Many have said 2016 was a bad year, for me it was a year of change with my move to KS from CA but overall it was a pretty good year.  From about February through July I was pretty inactive on my blog and with the hobby so I suspect my goals suffered as a result.  However, I am generally an optimist and as I look back many more good personal things come to mind about 2016 than bad.

Here are the 9 goals I set out and the grades I give myself. 


1. Obtain all 2016 Giants base cards from all releases.
This is an area where my absence has made my collection suffer.  I am usually quick to jump in on a group break or quickly fill out my base card collection as each set is released.  Here are the base cards I am still in need of:

 2016 Bowman Chrome #58 Madison Bumgarner

2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC33 Matt Krook
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC44 Heath Quinn
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC51 Jacob Heyward
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC71 Justin Alleman
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC72 Ryan Howard
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC77 Bryan Reynolds
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC126 Christian Arroyo
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC182 Tyler Beede
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC196 Chris Shaw

2016 Bowman Draft #BDC33 Matt Krook
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC44 Heath Quinn
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC51 Jacob Heyward
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC71 Justin Alleman
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC72 Ryan Howard
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC77 Bryan Reynolds
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC126 Christian Arroyo
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC182 Tyler Beede
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC196 Chris Shaw

2016 Elite Extra Edition #59 Bryan Reynolds
2016 Elite Extra Edition #103 Heath Quinn
2016 Elite Extra Edition #108 Matt Krook
2016 Elite Extra Edition #118 Clayton Blackburn
2016 Elite Extra Edition #141 Hunter Cole
2016 Elite Extra Edition #158 Matt Gage
2016 Elite Extra Edition #184 Steven Duggar

2016 Immaculate Collection #6 George Kelly
2016 Immaculate Collection #13 Mel Ott
2016 Immaculate Collection #41 Buster Posey
2016 Immaculate Collection #56 Brandon Crawford
2016 Immaculate Collection #65 Madison Bumgarner
2016 Immaculate Collection #97 Hunter Pence
2016 Immaculate Collection #98 Joe Panik

2016 Panini Flawless #5 Buster Posey
2016 Panini Flawless #33 Mel Ott

2016 Stadium Club #54 Matt Duffy
2016 Stadium Club #187 Johnny Cueto

2016 Topps #397 Mac Williamson RC
2016 Topps #433 Trevor Brown RC
2016 Topps #596 Sergio Romo
2016 Topps #600A Madison Bumgarner
2016 Topps #605 Santiago Casilla
2016 Topps #648 San Francisco Giants

2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #28 Buster Posey
2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #50 Hunter Pence
2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #53 Johnny Cueto
2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #94 Madison Bumgarner
2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #100 Willie Mays

2016 Topps Heritage #460A Buster Posey SP

2016 Topps Legacies of Baseball Lasting Imprints #LIBP Buster Posey
2016 Topps Legacies of Baseball Lasting Imprints #LIJM Juan Marichal
2016 Topps Legacies of Baseball Lasting Imprints #LIWM Willie Mays

2016 Topps Stickers #151 Oakland Athletics/159 San Francisco Giants
2016 Topps Stickers #222 Madison Bumgarner
2016 Topps Stickers #224 Matt Duffy
2016 Topps Stickers #226 Joe Panik
2016 Topps Stickers #227 Norichika Aoki
2016 Topps Stickers #229 Chris Heston

2016 Topps Triple Threads #34 Willie Mays
2016 Topps Triple Threads #51 Buster Posey
2016 Topps Triple Threads #73 Hunter Pence
2016 Topps Triple Threads #77 Johnny Cueto
2016 Topps Triple Threads #89 Madison Bumgarner

2016 Topps Tribute #8 Willie Mays
2016 Topps Tribute #11 Buster Posey
2016 Topps Tribute #65 Hoyt Wilhelm

2016 Topps Update #US72 Derek Law RC
2016 Topps Update #US128 Denard Span
2016 Topps Update #US141 Buster Posey AS
2016 Topps Update #US148 Matt Moore
2016 Topps Update #US252 Johnny Cueto AS

Wow, I slacked off more than I thought.  Time to hit Sportlots and fill in some of these gaps.  I was fully prepared to give myself a mid-level grade or an incomplete due to life upheaval but seeing the length of this list I am forced to face the truth and give myself a failing grade, however there is time to recover.

Grade - F

2. Add 100 cards towards my 1971 Topps Set including all of Series 1 & 2
My lack of planning and tracking hurts me here as I didn't document how many cards I needed at the start of the year.  I am fairly confident that I knocked over 100 off this list and I am certain Series 1 & 2 are complete.  I am down to needing 34 cards to complete the set, 20 of them are high numbers.  I also have 8 cards sitting in my COMC account.  Great success with this set.

Grade - A



3. Add 100 cards towards my 1972 Topps Set including all of Series 1-4
I need to get some cards into this post so I will share the latest 5 cards from 1972 Topps to enter my collection - lots of star power here.  The Munson was a 25 cent win off Sportlots Auctions and the other 4 came from my LCS for a total of $30:

 Picking up those stars is the good news, set progress wasn't so good.  I did not add 100 new cards.  While I didn't track exactly I would have to guess the number is about half of the goal.  I also didn't finish off the first 4 series, I still need Roberto Clemente from Series 3 and 5 cards from Series 4 including Steve Carlton.  These wouldn't be that hard to finish off but the lack of cheap high number cards has really caused me to lose momentum and passion around this set.  I really need to find a cheap source of high number cards to get me jump started again.

Grade - C+


4. Finish several of these sets: 1974 Topps Traded, 1976 Topps Traded Sets, 1992 Studio, 1998 Sports Illustrated, 2000 Fleer Focus, 2000 UD Hitter’s Club, 2005 Topps Cracker Jack, 2009 Finest Set, 2012 Panini Americana
I think I did pretty well here, I finished off 1974 Topps Traded, 1976 Topps Traded Sets, 1992 Studio, 1998 Sports Illustrated, 2000 Fleer Focus and 2000 UD Hitter’s Club and made some progress on 2005 Topps Cracker Jack and 2009 Finest.  I am in the process of better organizing my collection and recently added tons of other sets (many with way too long want lists) and I hope to continue to add more complete sets to my collection.




5. Obtain 6 new HOF Baseball Player Autos
I didn't track these but I am confident I well surpassed this goal of 6.  I have two new ones that I will show with my COMC Black Friday purchases and one I am real excited about from a recent box break.  Add in the Travis Jackson, Lefty Gomez, Rick Ferrell and Cool Papa Bell and that gets me to 7.  I also think there are some I am missing.  I also launched my HOF Blog Page to show off my collection.

Grade - A+


6. Obtain 12 Giants T206 cards
I started off the year strong but faded down the stretch.  I am looking for good deals and unwilling to pay super high amounts.  My Giants collection of T206 cards has grown to 12 total cards.  I don't remember the exact place I started but I think it was around 5-6.  I am still going to call 6-7 new T206s in a calendar year a success.

Grade - B

7. Update Giants Checklist on blog to list cards by year
I spent a ton of time updating my Giants Want Lists and I am very happy with out it turned out.  If you have explored my want lists recently I hope you agree that it is pretty clear and easy to follow.  I had them set up with want lists categorized as Base, Inserts and Parallels and have switched it up to years but still having those sub categories.  It helps make my card pursuits easier so it is a huge win in my book.

Grade - A+


8. Create Checklist and make significant progress on Topps inserts from 2000-2005
I went a little farther here than I even set out to.  Starting in 2006 I have collected all the insert sets along with the base sets.  I decided I wanted to start trying to fill in some of the older gaps.  I have now may checklists back to 1994 and even posted a Topps Insert Want List on the blog.  I have purchased quite a few cards and now have an 800 count box about full of these inserts.

Grade - A 

9. Add another 100 cards to my 49ers vintage collection
I didn't do too well here.  I picked up a card here and there but never made this a collecting focus.  Some of the cards I picked up were from back in the 50s and 60s which is great but the volume didn't happen.

Grade - D

There you have it, some definite highs and lows from a goal perspective.  Regardless of how I grade these goals though, I consider 2016 to be a very successful collecting year.  I picked up lots of great cards, changed up my new set collecting approach (more to come) and have my collection more organized than ever before.  I have some things in mind to focus on in 2017 and will share those once I get to them finalized and down in print.

I hope you met most of your 2016 goals and wish you a happy and prosperous 2017!

National Baseball Card Day 2016

Yesterday was National Baseball Card Day and I thought it would be a good day to take my boys to the only LCS in my new area.  It is a pretty nice shop aptly named The Baseball Card Shop and has a pretty solid inventory of baseball, football and basketball cards and some oddball stuff as well.  As part of NBBCD, they were giving out a free back of cards and an extra special card if you spent $10 or more on Topps products.  The guys in the shop were nice enough to give each of us a pack and a copy of the special card so I figured I would start by sharing those cards.  Each pack has 6 cards and I was hoping to pull the Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner.  The card guy let me look through the packs as the top card was visible but unluckily no Giants on the top.

The first pack I picked had Bryce Harper on top.  While Bryce isn't having a very good season, he is pretty hot in card circles still.

Some decent star power in pack #1.  Altuve is hitting around 0.360 this year and Trout is having his typical monster year despite his team stinking up the joint.

For my second pack, I picked up one topped by Kyle Schwarber.  I am not really sure why but he is a fairly big name rookie despite being hurt for most of this season.

I was super happy to hit the Posey in this pack, it has a great picture as well in his full catchers gear and mask in hand.

My final pack I picked the super rookie from the hated Dodgers Corey Seager.  While I can't stand the guy based on his team affiliation, I do know he is a really good player.

No luck in pulling a MadBum but getting 1 of my 2 most wanted players in 3 packs of a 50 card set is pretty solid hobby luck.

Oh yeah, the free give away was a Kris Bryant card so we got 3:

I picked up some other stuff at the shop. I got each of my boys 2 packs of the 2016 Topps Series 2 flagship set.  Nothing notable in those packs.

I got myself 2 packs of Chrome...

 I was happy to pull the Samardzija but really nothing else for my collection.  I do have to say that the perspectives set looks amazing in Chrome.  My 9 year old screamed out a "Wow!" when I opened the pack.

I also picked up 2 packs of Ginter...

A couple of Giants in the 2 packs but I had already picked up the team set.

I also got 1 SP in Gomes, an insert of The Numbers Game (an insert set I really like), an insert of the Natural Wonders (an insert set I already bought), a couple minis and a hit!  A Missy Franklin relic.  At first I thought the relic was missing, upon touching it, it looks like it is a piece of her swim cap, pretty cool!

I dug through a couple boxes of 1972 Topps cards and picked up some cards for my set:

 I thought $10 for 25 cards was a solid deal and it inches me closer to the set.  For those of you that have completed this set or are close, any tips on the high numbers?  They are fairly scarce and super costly everywhere I have looked.

Finally I bought a box of 2016 Donruss Optic.  For some reason I was drawn to the product.  Here are the highlights of my box:

I believe there a couple hot boxes in each case where each pack has a numbered parallel in each of the 20 packs and I was lucky enough to get one of those boxes:

The Cueto was my Giants highlight in this group of inserts that are all numbered /299.  It was also cool to score an Ichiro card in this group.

These cards are a little more rare with the top row being /199 and the 6 with the dark blue border being numbered /149.

My two lowest numbered cards were this Jankowski /99 and the Burns /50.  No huge scores on the serial numbered parallels but it was cool to open each pack with some shine and color.

In addition to the numbered parallels, each box promised 2 autos and I was extremely happy with my pulls:

It isn't every day you pull an auto of a Hall of Famer, at least not in the ARPSmith household. This Kaline auto is a great addition to my HOF collection and while a already have one auto of Mr. Tiger in my collection, there is always room for another.  My other auto is a nice blue bordered Rated Rookie auto of Giants outfielder Mac Williamson.  The card is numbered 62/75.  Over all I have to rate this box extremely high and it made my National Baseball Card Day a success.

Trade Post - mrhaverkamp

I feel like I have made quite a few friends since I started up this blog a little over 2 years ago but I have only had the pleasure of meeting on person who I have met through the blog.  He doesn't have a blog of his own but is familiar to quite a few bloggers - Jim aka mrhaverkamp.  Jim is a great guy and a fellow Giants fan.  We have now met up 3 times, two down on my turf and one up his way.  I share my white whale acquisition in this post and it is time to share the spoils from our other two get togethers.

In Northern California we met up at McCovey's Restaurant for dinner and to gawk at all the awesome memorabilia.  I took a few pictures of all the great stuff but have somehow lost those picks - a good reason to go back during my next Nor Cal visit.  I did however scan some pictures of the cards Jim brought:

 This quartet helped out on some vintage sets I am building.  Nice to score both 1972 cards of HOFer Luis Aparicio, a rookie of Jose Cruz (who I only remember as only an Astro) and a 1970 All Star of Juan Marichal for my 1970 set.

I also picked up the last 4 League Leader cards I needed for my 1972 set.  There is a nice mix of HOFers and stars on these cards, my favorite aspect of leader cards.

Finally Jim set me up with 3 cards towards my now completed 1969 Topps Game set including a great card of Rod Carew.  I only remember Carew playing as an Angel and have always had a fascination of his cards from his Twins days.

My latest meeting with Jim netted me these cards in trade from a big stack of 2014 Heritage base cards:

24 more 1972 cards towards my set!  These cards have helped get me to the 379/787 (48.16%) mark of the set.  My goal for the year is to get to 450 cards (I started with 346 so I have made virtually no progress outside of the cards from Jim) so I have some serious work to do.  One cool thing is that these cards got me down to needing only 5 of the first 135 cards in the set.

It is great to have such a great friend to swap cards and share stories with. Additionally, Jim called me from a card show recently with a couple of items he was sure I would want to add to my collection.  I gave him the green light to buy them for me and can't wait to show them off when he sends them my way.

Jim, thanks for your generosity and friendship!

Great Vintage Sportlots Pickups & 2013 Collecting Goal - 1972 Set Quest

I have shared quite a few great, cheap pickups from the Sportlots auction site.  I haven't seen too many, if any, bloggers bidding against me over there and I am quite fine with that. I would have to believe that this new great deal I recently received on a quartet of vintage HOF cards would have been less of a deal or nonexistent if some of you were over there.

First check out the 4 cards and then I will share the price.

I picked up this card for my 1970 set quest but ended up getting another copy in a trade.  This is a great card headlined by HOFer Rod Carew.  Reggie Smith was a Giant late in his career and from what I have read and heard, Tony Oliva is someone who is somewhat underrated - he was one of the best for a number of years.

Speaking of former Giants, here is the Baby Bull, Orlando Cepeda.  I nice 1972 Topps card to go towards my set.

It keeps getting better, another HOF star from 1972 Topps - Lou Brock. I don't believe I had ever seen this card in person prior to receiving it.  I love the brightness of the red in his uniform and wonder what is going on off camera when this picture is being snapped.

And the highlight of this package - a 1969 Topps Bob Gibson!  Great looking card and a wonderful addition to my collection.  I have noticed that I have accumulated quite a few 1969 Topps cards.  Maybe someday that will be a set quest.  For now I am going aggressively after the 1970 and 1973 sets and trying to accumulate a nice stack of 1972s.  I have very few 1971s and that will probably need to be next, especially since that is the year I was born.

All right, anyone want to guess the price for the above 4 cards?  4 vintage cards all 40+ years old and all featuring HOFers. No major creases or paper loss or writing.  Can you believe that I got all 4 of these for $4.50 delivered?  I am super excited about this purchase if you are unable to tell :-)

As mentioned, I am trying to get a start on a 1972 set, the two cards above helped as well as these 3 other recent 1972 Topps pickups.

Three addition HOFers picked up a couple LCSs.  I believe the Brock and Robinson were $1 each and Pops set me back $4.  I have picked up a bunch of lots of 1972 cards over the past few months.  My goal starting the year was to accumulate at least 250 different cards from this set.

Total Cards added in this post - 5
Goal for 2013 - 250 different cards
Updated status towards 2013 goal -233/250 = 93.2%

Looks like this will be a pretty easy goal to attain.