Trade Post - all the way to the backstop

Recently fellow blogger Marcus from all the way to the backstop reached out to me for an NL West trade.  Marcus is a Padres fan and ponied up some Giants for trade.

The trade was a great mix of recent base cards and 90s base cards, here are some of my favorites:

Up top we have 3 players just playing lights out for the surging Giants.  Vogelsong and Bumgarner are pitching at all-star levels along with Matt Cain and Barry Zito. Obviously all 4 can't make the All Star team but it will be quite the battle.  The Melk man is leading the league in batting average and hits and was in the running for NL Player of the Month with 51 hits but lost out to a deserving Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins.

Next up are a variety of 90s releases. Jay Canizaro and Francisco Oliveras had short stints with the Giants after coming up through their far system.  Jeff Brantley was a solid reliever for the Giants prior to moving over to the Reds and even started 12 games in his final season in the Orange and Black.  Billy Swift has a couple amazing years with the Giants, in 1992 he lead the league in ERA and in 1993 he won 21 games for a team that fell just short of the playoffs and helped lead to the advent of the wild card team.  Robby Thompson played his entire 11 year career with the Giants, made 2 All Star teams and solidified the right side of the Giants infield for years partnered with Will Clark.  I also received a 2012 Bowman Chrome card of Giants 25th round draft choice Brett Krill - they can't all be exiting but hey it knocked a card off the want list.

I also got some needed parallels from this year's release. Here are black bordered versions of Melky and Vogelsong along with my favorite current Giant Matt Cain.  I also got a blue bordered Freddy Sanchez (will he ever get healthy!) and a purple border prospect card of Tommy Joseph.

Overall it was a great trade. I helped Marcus out with some 2011 Topps cards, some 2012 Heritage cards and some Padres cards for his collection. Thanks for the great trade Marcus!

Mail Day #6 - Two Completed Sets and an Awesome Pick Up

I thought I would share a variety of pick ups from the last few days off Sportlots and eBay. I am pretty excited to have finished a couple sets and to have made progress with some big names on a couple of others.

Before we get to the sets, first up are some Giants I picked up.

These 3 Bowman cards completed my team set. I had already picked up the big cards (Posey and Bumgarner RCs) so it was nice to knock this set off the want list.  I really like the action shots of Lincecum and Kung Fu Panda although they might have been a little better if the picture was zoomed out a little.

 Next is a cloth sticker from 1977 of John "The Count" Montefusco.  These cloth stickers are pretty cool and I have wanted to add one to my collection for quite some time.  Of course, 2012 Archives is doing an insert set of them this year but I am glad to have an original.  Just Bobby Murcer to go to finish off the team set.

I picked up 2 more 1973 Topps cards to my set.  These aren't just any cards, I scored 4 HOFers on two cards.  Both are in pretty nice shape and came in Sportlots auctions.  I am 58.33% of the way done with this set.  I am still trying to decide if I want to focus on finishing this one up or the 1970 set I have started next.  I will share a big pickup a little later in this post towards the next 1970s set I will be completing.

This card has eluded me for quite some time.  I now have the entire 2009 Upper Deck set including all the insert sets.  I wasn't fortunate enough to pull this card in a pack and with Strasburg-mania this card was going for crazy prices in 2009 and 2010. After he got hurt I figured prices would come down put the supply dried up.  I was lucky enough to find this one in an auction and pick it up within my price range. It was nice getting this set off my want list after 3 years.

This set didn't take quite as long to complete.  For the last several years I have been putting together a complete base set of Topps and all the insert sets.  My formula has been fairly simple.  I buy a Jumbo box from my LCS (all but once the Jumbo box produced a full base set), a few hobby and retail packs in hopes of picking up some Giants and additional inserts then go to work finishing off the insert sets.  I typically look onto eBay to see if I can score some pretty cheap full or partial insert sets from some of the case breakers then on to the trades.  When I get down to the last few, I look for a seller who has quite a few of my needs on Sportlots to keep shipping down and I was lucky enough to find one seller with these last 4 cards I needed.  Just in time for Series 2!

My final pick up is by far my favorite of this batch. I was finally able to secure a 1975 Topps George Brett RC!  This is the most costly and iconic card of the set and by getting it I am down to needing only 31 cards to complete my set.  My summer project will be to track these down and finish this off.  If you happen to have any extra's lying around, here is my want list:

1975 Topps
1975 Topps #3 Bob Gibson HL#{3000th Strikeout
1975 Topps #4 Al Kaline HL#{3000 Hit Club
1975 Topps #21 Rollie Fingers
1975 Topps #29 Dave Parker
1975 Topps #30 Bert Blyleven
1975 Topps #35 Ron Santo
1975 Topps #80 Carlton Fisk
1975 Topps #117 Baltimore Orioles CL#{Earl Weaver MG
1975 Topps #140 Steve Garvey
1975 Topps #190 Bobby Shantz#{Hank Sauer MVP
1975 Topps #195 Mickey Mantle#{Hank Aaron MVP
1975 Topps #206 Denny McLain UER#{Bob Gibson MVP#{On the back McLain is spelled McClain
1975 Topps #209 Vida Blue#{Joe Torre MVP
1975 Topps #212 Jeff Burroughs#{Steve Garvey MVP
1975 Topps #220 Don Sutton
1975 Topps #246 St. Louis Cardinals CL#{Red Schoendienst MG
1975 Topps #276 Chicago White Sox CL#{Chuck Tanner MG
1975 Topps #361 Los Angeles Dodgers CL#{Walter Alston MG
1975 Topps #386 Checklist: 265-396 UER#{Dick Sharon's name is misspelled
1975 Topps #421 New York Mets CL#{Yogi Berra MG
1975 Topps #531 Cincinnati Reds CL#{Sparky Anderson MG
1975 Topps #540 Lou Brock
1975 Topps #554 Goose Gossage
1975 Topps #561 Oakland Athletics CL#{Alvin Dark MG
1975 Topps #589 Atlanta Braves CL#{Clyde King MG
1975 Topps #611 New York Yankees CL#{Bill Virdon MG
1975 Topps #617 Rookie Infielders#{Mike Cubbage RC#{Doug DeCinces RC#{Reggie Sanders#{Manny Trillo
1975 Topps #623 Rookie Infielders#{Phil Garner RC#{Keith Hernandez RC#{(UER Sic, bats right)#{Bob Sheldon RC#{Tom Veryzer RC
1975 Topps #640 Harmon Killebrew
1975 Topps #646 Checklist: 529-660

A few stars and HOFers in there but nothing too major from a cost perspective.  Let me know if you can help me out to finish off one more set.
  

Trade Post - Condition Sensitive

I was trolling the blogs a couple weeks back and saw a box break on Condition Sensitive and one card caught my eye.  I dropped a comment in the post and the foundation for a trade was set.  As trades often do, this one blossomed from me just desiring one card, to a trade involving a larger group of cards - I love it when that happens.

Curtis replied back that he had some junk wax Giants from my want list and directed me to his want list. I shot him a list of Rockies GU I have and noticed he was working on the 1992 Pinnacle set.  I was recently going through some boxes and found an 800 count box over half filled with 92 Pinnacle so I got his want list and was able to knock over 80 cards off the list.  Those Pinnacle cards plus a numbered Larry Walker relic I got out of a box of 2003 UD Vintage back in 03 netted me this:

 I was able to score some sweet Giants cards of some of my favorite players to ever don the Orange and black.I got cards of All-Star 2B Robby Thompson hanging in the dugout and turning two.  I got Will the Thrill Clark sporting the eye black on a Canadian Post card and sliding into 2B. I got a Silver Signature parallel of Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner Matt Williams along with a sweet HR swing card.  I got HOF catcher Gary Carter who had a short stop over in SF and Steve Decker who had a fairly short career (7 years but only 263 games).  Finally an awesome slide by Silver Signature Darren Lewis.  D Lew had some great defensive years and even won a Gold Glove.

 When I first saw these cards, I thought they were jumping into the doubles pile but upon closer inspection I realized they were OPC and Fleer Canadian cards!  I was very excited to mark these cards off the want list.  Again some of my favorite players including Caveman (Don Robinson) and Big Daddy (Rick Reuschel).

And finally, the card that started it all.  A 2012 Tim Lincecum mini relic card.  I love this picture with him showing such determination on his face and his long locks flowing in the background. I now only need the Bumgarner mini relic to have all 3 Giants.

Curtis, thanks for the great trade!

I am finally finished!!!

I have spent countless hours over the past couple months building a Giants wantlist into my blog.  As of Sunday, it was finally finished.  You can link into the different types of cards on my tool bar above.

I thought I would share the origin and evolution of my want list and go a little into my collecting preferences.

Origin
For several years I have subscribed to Beckett's online price guide.  Originally it was primarily to get book values for cards.  Most of my trading was on Forum sites and everything there is based on BV.  I realized after a little while, it was also a great tool for building checklists.  When I decided in 2010 to expand my Giants collection to seeking out pretty much every card ever made, I started doing Beckett searches to get a list of all the Giants cards.  It seemed to me doing it by year would be the best way to keep my list.

I created a spreadsheet with each year getting its own Sheet.  I copied over the card description which includes the year, set, card number and player; the print run and the book value.  Each of the 3 get their own column.  I also allowed for a column at the beginning and decided to play an "X" one I had the card.  I sort it alphabetically by column "B".  Here is a screen shot of what my list looks like:

This shows the "X", serial numbering, the layout, book values, etc.  As you can see on the left, each year has its own worksheet.  This is pretty easy to create, I just do a copy and paste from Beckett online into Numbers, do a tiny bit of formatting and bingo, I have a checklist.  I have decided to have a separate spreadsheet for the current year and just do 1 sheet per card release then merge it at year end.  Seems easier that inserting rows each time a new set is released.

Evolution
So I was armed with this checklist when I started the blog but struggled trying to figure out how it could translate onto the blog.  I quickly found out how generous fellow bloggers are and was getting tons of Giants in trades but quickly I had accumulated 3 or 4 800 count boxes of extras and with no other Giants bloggers knocking down my door to trade, I was looking for a way to add the right Giants cards to my collection.

I started copying my needed cards onto a Pages document and organizing them by brand.  That ended up stalling as I had too many lists and it was taking way too long to sort and organize.  I realized I need to add some page links to the blog with lists of needs and ultimately settled on the version you see today:

1. Set Want List - these are the cards I need for the base and insert sets I am working on
2. Giants 2012 Want List - I thought this year's releases deserved their own page, this is most of what is getting cracked right now
3. Giants Base Want List - This is all the base cards from all the standard card releases since Bowman started in 1948
4. Giants Parallel Want List - This is all the colored, glossy, mini, Canadian, refractor, etc. parallels to base sets and insert sets.  By my tabulation this started with the Venezuelan cards in the late 50s (although the numbering wasn't always the same).  I made the executive decision that OPC cards would fall under my Base Want List - don't know the logic but don't care, it is my want list :-)
5. Giants Inserts and Small Sets Want List - This is where things get a little squirrely, I did my best to pick out the inserts from each set.  When you look at sets like Bowman this can get a little difficult to decide between a base set, insert set and parallel set.  The Small Sets are typically those Fleer Exciting Stars or Topps Glossy Send In sets.
6. Giants Oddball Want List - These are cards from what I deemed the non-major card companies.  We get everything from Post to Kellogg's to Pespi to Jay's Publishing here. 

I decided to remove all relic cards, auto cards and tried to remove any 1/1 card.  I have noticed that relics aren't changing hands too often in my recent trades plus I wanted to get my list down in size someone.  I do collect relic and autos, I have over 100 Giants Autos and approaching 200 Giants Relics in my collection not counting my McCovey collection, but since they aren't as common in trades as the rest, I decided to limit my list.  With regards to the 1/1 cards, I figure if you have one, you obviously know I don't and it would fit into my collection.  Odds are, unless it is a McCovey card, I won't be willing and/or able to part with enough to trade for it.

Collecting Preference
I love adding any new Giants card to my collection.  I thought it would be fun to try and rank the order of my enjoyment based on card type.

1. McCovey card - any time I can add a new McCovey card, it puts a smile on my face.  Check out this die cut Topps Giveaway I recently picked up on the cheap on eBay.

2. Vintage - I love adding Vintage cards to my collection.  Here is a recent 1963 Topps card I added of Jack Fisher from a Sportlots auction.  For some reason 1963 cards have been some of the toughest for me to track down.

3. Relics/Auto - I lump these two together as "hits".  They typically cost more that other more recent cards and I enjoy adding them to my collection.  Here is a Lincecum relic card I recently picked up in a trade with Curtis over at Condition Sensitive.  He sent this awesome mini GU along with some other Giants needs in a trade.  The trade will get its own post soon but thought this would be a great forum to show off this card. 

4. Recent Base cards - Next on my list is base cards.  To me there is little better than completing a team set of cards.  These came to me from Marcus over at all the way to the backstop and shows off a few 2012 release and some 1990s awesomeness.  Again, this trade will get its own post but a perfect group of cards to demonstrate my excitement for base cards. 

5. Oddball cards - I really enjoy picking up oddball cards, sets that aren't mainstream. I recently picked up these Post cards from 1962 and 1963 from the same seller on a Sportlots auction. They came pretty cheap and are great oddballs to add to the collection.

6. Inserts and Small set cards - I also enjoy picking up insert cards of my favorite team. Here are some recent inserts I picked up, from a seller on Sportlots bundled together with the last 4 Golden Greats inserts I need to complete my 2012 Topps Series 1 set.  Although they are all recent releases I got a nice mix of a Cy Young Winner, perhaps the best player to ever play the game and the worst contract ever given to a player (although so far so good this year!).

7. Parallels - Finally, bringing up the rear are parallel cards.  Don't get me wrong, any new Giants cards are welcome into the collection.  Some parallels like the McCovey Gypsy Queen minis or Topps Chrome Refractors do generate quite a bit of excitement but overall the parallel thing is just getting overdone.  Here is a Walmart blue bordered Buster Posey, a nice pickup from a Sportlots auction.

Well there you have it. My celebration post for completing my blog want list.  If you made it this far you have to have some Giants for trade to knock items off the want list.  Let's trade!

Next up, I need to figure out a method to posting trade bait, I have tons of cards to exchange for Giants.

McCovey Monday #8

 My favorite player of all time is Hall of Famer Willie McCovey.  I have amassed a collection of over 1100 different  McCovey cards since I started collecting him in the late 1980s.  I will show off one of my favorite cards every Monday.  Stretch was one of the most feared hitters of all time and I am excited to show off my collection.

Today I thought I would switch back to a recent McCovey release and share my "Rainbow" of 2012 Gypsy Queen minis.  I recently completed the set by picking up the 3 final minis in an eBay auction.

The top 3 mini cards show off the various backs - we have the regular back, the Red Gypsy Queen back and the Straight Cut back.  I believe the Gypsy Queen and Straight Cut backs are relatively similar in their production run, I recall getting about the same amount of each in my box break.  The next row shows the Sepia border, Black border and Green border.  The Black and Green are more rare that the top row but still relatively common.  The Sepia border card is the least common and is serial numbered 71/99. The final row show McCovey's other mini, a miniature version of his Moonshots insert card.  I really like this insert set and am happy my favorite player earned a spot on it - very deserving based on his lifetime 521 HRs and the power he displayed in hitting them.


The final card in the scan is a Cyan Printing Plate of the McCovey mini.  It of course is numbered 1/1.  I don't mind adding Printing Plates to my McCovey collection but the price has to be right.  I actually semi-overpaid for this card but I am okay with it as it fits nicely into my McCovey rainbow.  I know I won't be able to collect all 4 as the Black one has already passed me by on eBay but I would like to pick one more up if possible.  For some reason McCovey is gaining a little more life and his values are picking up. It is nice that my favorite player is respected but I like it better when I can pick up a plate for under $20.

My McCovey Gypsy Queen collection is about complete.  Currently I am only missing the Gold Framed retail and the Indian Head Penny card (that may be out of range for me, they are popular and serial numbered /10) in addition to all the Printing Plates that are out there.  He has 16 different plates , I have 3, I know at least one sold to someone else on eBay and there is another with a minimum bid I am unwilling to pay unless I come into some cash in the next couple days.

Do you have a rainbow that you have completed of you favorite player?  Which set?

Trade Post - Night Owl

It is always nice to purge my collection of unwanted Dodger cards and Greg over at Night Owl is always a willing trade partner.  My dislike (okay maybe it is hatred) for the Dodgers may only be surpassed by his hatred for the Giants. This is obvious from his blog posts and the note he included with my cards stating "These somehow avoided the incinerator. Enjoy!".  Is it only me, or could see him sitting by the fire with a big smile on his face slowly tossing Giants cards one at a time into the flames.

Anyway, on to the cards.

This first group is are all from the mid-2000s issues of Topps All-Time Fan Favorites.  I have the complete base sets from all 3 years this set was issued but needed all of these for my Giants collection. The Jack Clark is the Chrome version and the 2003 cards completed my team set (I only had the Willie Mays prior to this trade).  I really enjoy these cards and need to pull out those base sets and give them another look - maybe there is a blog feature hiding someone in those sets.

These bring back lots of memories, Jack Clark was the star of the first Giants teams I followed.  Right after that came Will Clark then Barry Bonds.  With the exception of 1985, one of these sluggers was on every Giants team (Will and Barry overlapped in 1993 - can you imagine how they got along!) and totalled 925 HRs and 2744 RBI in Giants uniforms.  These cards also bring back memories of Vida Blue pitching for the Giants after a great run with the A's, for the longest time he was the answer to two trivia questions - he started the All-Star game in both the NL and AL and was the last switch hitter to win the MVP (1971) until I believe Willie McGee won it in 1985.  Also a not so fond memory comes to mind of Fred Lynn blasting a grand slam off Atlee Hammaker in the 1983 All Star game.  I belive it is still the only grand slam in the history of the All Star game.

Here are a few more cards I got in the package.  All these filled needs in my collection.  I like the two minis from 35 years apart, I still have a lot of work to do on my 1975 mini team set.  The two Score cards were the only Giants from the 1990 Score Young Superstars set.  I bought one jumbo box of Bowman and was able to finish off all 3 sets (Base, Prospects and Chrome Prospects) in one $25 purchase from a Facebook friend so I won't be buying any more and need a bunch of Giants.  I love getting Giants stickers.  I have a big stack on my desk and I am trying to figure out what to do with them.

Thanks again for the great Giants cards Greg, hope you enjoyed the Bums I sent back in return.

Group Break Goods - JABO 2012 Topps Archive Break

I was able to pick up the Giants in Kyle's recent 2012 Topps Archive 2 box break over at Juuust A Bit Outside (JABOs) recently.  I wasn't lucky enough to get one of the hits but I was still pretty happy with my haul.

First up are the inserts and the SP I received.

The Marichal is a reprint of his 1966 Topps card.  I have this card from its original release and the only real differences are the card stock and the gold embossed Topps Archive logo on the front of the card.  Topps has done tons of reprints over the past few years and to me they have kind of run their course. To me, they actually belong more in a set like this than the standard Topps base set.  The Willie Mays is also the 1966 design but it is an SP of the main set and has a different photo from the original 66 release.  I am still looking to acquire the original Mays card, it is #1 in the set and hard to track down in decent condition at a reasonable price.  I was also lucky enough to get the 3D insert and the sticker insert of The Say Hey Kid.

Next is a batch of Giants base cards from the set.  I have already reviewed this product and given my thoughts on the design but thought I would show all 9 base cards from the Giants minus the two SPs.  I actually think the 1971 design is my favorite so I am a little bummed that there is only one Giant on that design.  The Mays shown above is actually my second copy of the SP card which is perfect as I need one for my set and my Giants collection. I am still seeking out 2 copies of the Will Clark team.

I have some duplicate Giants from this break plus a nice stack of duplicates from my second box if you are in need of some cards to finish a base set or fill in gaps of team sets.  Drop me a note and lets make a trade.

Thanks for another great break Kyle!