Merry Christmas to Me!

In early December I joined Crackin' Wax's Holiday Gift Exchange.  You put your name into the Elfster website and indicated a few want list items.  Each person was assigned a secret Santa and got to go shopping with a limit of $50.  I pulled the name of a Brewer fan and picked up a sweet Triple Threads auto/relic of Cecil Cooper and added a few autos/relics/parallels from my card stash.  I got a note and I think he liked the cards.

You never know what you are going to get and I was surprised when I opened up my package last week and pulled out this amazing card:

This card is great.  Many times Triple Threads has odd or stupid saying spelled out in the relic portion of these auto/relics but I can think of nothing more perfect than a Reggie Jackson card spelling out Mister October.  The auto looks nice and this card is limited to 18 copies.  I only have a couple Reggie autos in my collection and this card now is one of my centerpieces to the Reggie collection along with his rookie card and a 2003 Donruss Signature Series Auto /20.

I was lucky enough to score Sooz of A Cardboard Problem as my secret Santa and she dropped me a nice note as well.

Sooz, you did help my Christmas be quite Merry, thanks for the awesome card!

Trade Post 2 by 3 Heroes

This trade post is probably a combination of 4-5 different PWEs or bubble mailers that Jeff from 2 by 3 Heroes fame. I am lucky enough to be part of his Club PWE and I can't keep up with his generosity with trade posts or return packages but I am going to make an effort here today to share all the cardboard goodness he has sent my way.

These first 3 scans come from a larger package set back around the middle of last year (dang I am behind on trade posts, sorry!).

These were 3 of my favorites, loving the pop up Will Clark, one of these days I need to pick up some dups of these and set up a full defense and play some sort of game with these.  The photo on the Rickey cards is a good one of him going from second to third.  The Buster Bowman was a need at the time, loving the in action start to the swing photo and the Friday Orange jersey.

 These 3 are some great parallels.  The Mays is one of the retail holofoil parallels and I think the design of these insert cards work quite well.  Some of the events that get celebrated are questionable but you can't deny Willie's 600 HRs were historical.  The Zito is a Gold Medallion parallel, this year of Ultra didn't make the parallels stand out too much.  Finally a great Gypsy Queen mini parallel of the Freak.  Looks like the Giants will be counting on him to fill a rotation spot this year, I hope he can bounce back and at least be solid.

Finally this package gifted me 2 Gypsy Queen hits.  I am optimistic Matt Cain will bounce back after a couple of surgeries and have a great year.  I am hoping the rest and rehab will make his stronger that the last couple years.  Kickham was waived by the Giants in December and claimed by the Cubs.  The Cubs then recently designated him for assignment.  Should be interesting to see where he lands, if I recall he had a decent fastball and he is lefthanded.

Now onto some PWE goodies.

This PWE was impressive not only with the nice looking cards but also the quantity.  The Fan Favorites were a great comeback from Topps, I wish they would have done more than just a retail insert.  Mitchell and Panda was a good match.  The McCovey Greats of the Game was already in the Willie Mac binder but I now have one for the Giants binder.  This design is one of the best ever in my opinion. The autos are just amazing.

Believe it or not, Jeff was able to get these cards and the little sticker in the PWE with the 9 cards above.  This was a great group as well, the McCovey is a dup but again fills a spot in the Giants binder.  The minis were all needs as well and I love me some stickers.

 These cards came in a separate PWE a little while later adn what the cards were great, my favorite was the Post-It Note that came with it:

If the pattern holds true, this year will not be a year of winning but watch out in 2016!

The final PWE for this post included these 7 cards. I have very few of those 2009 Topps black border cards like the Lincecum leaders card.  I believe they were Walmart parallels, kind of cool looking cards.  The Bonds Bowman Chrome was one I thought I had but when I checked the want list I realized I had the refractor but not the base card - excellent in the year of the base card!

Jeff thank you for your generosity and all the great cards you have sent my way.  Good luck on your Sox collection!

Combined Shipping Strikes Again

The biggest downside to me when it comes to buying cards online is the cost of the shipping. Most single cards cost $2-$3 to ship (for reasonable sellers) and as someone who ships trade packages and sells the occasional card I understand the need for the shipping. However, I am always on the lookout for a good combined shipping deal where the seller either ships additional cards for free or at a heavily discounted rate.

I hadn't found a new Vida Blue card in a few weeks and went search eBay a couple weeks back and found this card I needed in my collection for a fairly reasonable price.

There are two different Vida cards in 2013 Tier One, the one as an Oakland A and one I already have as a Giant.  This is considered the base version with a few colored and lower numbered parallels.  I love the photo on this card and the on-card autograph is great.  I was ready to buy the card but the shipping was a little more that I really wanted to play.

A quick search of the sellers other items for sale and I found these items to add to my shopping card.

 A really nice numbered base card of Roger Craig, former 49ers star running back.  This card looks great with his eyes being clearly visible as he rushes through the enemy defense.  This is a nice thick base card and a great addition to a player collection I haven't put much focus on in the last 4-5 years.

 These cards are all smaller than normal with 3 Bowman Chrome minis and a nice group of Colgan's Chip inserts from the 2013 Panini Cooperstown release.  I now have all the Bowman Chrome minis and only need a Jesse Burkett Chip to complete the Giants team set.

Finally I picked up 4 hits with two relics and two autos.  I have considered a JT Snow player collection in the past but at this point I have just decided to focus on his Giants cards for the Giants binders.  This jersey car was a nice pickup and it is numbered 215/250.  I like the mini relics that Topps does with Allen & Ginter and here is a pre-Ginter example out of Topps 206 of short time Giant Tsuyoshi Shinjo.  Shinjo didn't do much as a Giant but this is a good looking card.  The Ramon Martinez is a minor league release but he did play with the major league Giants for a while and this is a nice card for the minor league binder.  Finally a duplicate of one of my favorite former Giants Glenallen Hill.  He was one of the strongest players and hit the ball as hard as anyone I have seen when he connected.  I had this card already but for a buck or so it was a good pickup.

I am pretty happy with the other cards I was able to add and thank that Vida Blue auto for leading me to these other great cards.

McCovey Monday #67 - 2014 Topps Tribute to the Throne Sepia Parallel Relic 23/35

My favorite player of all time is Hall of Famer Willie McCovey.  I have amassed a collection of over 1200 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.

Last week I popped into the LCS to pick up my bid board winnings and check out the new bid board.  The new bid board wasn't too exciting, I maybe threw a minimum bid down on 2 or 3 items.  My winnings from the week before were also underwhelming, 4 2014 Topps Update 1989 minis (all of which I had picked up on Sportlots so they are now dups) and a basketball insert of a former USC Trojan who I very casually collect.

The prizes for the $10 mystery packs were picked over and only the basketball packs were active.  Overall it was a disappointing visit.. until I looked in the cabinet and saw this card for sale:

The relic is out of 2014 Topps Tribute and is the Sepia parallel serial numbered 23/35.  It is the 3rd version of the now in my collection as I had previously purchased the base card numbered 31/99 and the Blue parallel numbered 25/50.  There are still versions left /25, /15, /10 and /1 but I suspect this will be my last one unless one of the others drops into my lap.

Needless to say this turned around a so-so visit to the LCS and made it into a very solid trip.  There was a Buster Posey relic in the cabinet too that I may go after next time if it still happens to be available.  I have been lucky to pick up some nice Giants cards in LA LA land lately.

Trade Post - Angels In Order

I have a lot of catching up to do with trade posts and I am going to try and make some inroads over the next couple weeks.  I have gotten some great cards from some great bloggers that I need to share and show my appreciation.  Today I thought I would share a package that was sent from Tom of The Angels, In Order. He sent me a monster stack of Giants and quite a few Barry Bonds Pirates cards after I sent him a big stack of 2009 UD cards to help on his set quest.

I will share some of my favorites.

First up were some great Giants minor league cards, a couple familiar names of Giants prospects of the past an a couple I hadn't heard of before.  I have a nice stack of minor league cards with a project in mind to make a binder of just minor league issued cards.  These will go nicely in that binder.

Next are a few oddball cards.  This trade package had quite a few Classic cards and playing cards and I was able to fill a few needs.  I have seen that French's card a bunch of times and was fairly certain I had it but in reality I needed it for the Giants collection.  With his personality, I think it is fitting that Will Clark was the wild card in a playing card set.

These are some inserts, base cards and parallels I needed.  In the top row, the Lincecum ruby is my first Bowman Platinum Ruby parallel and it is a great looking card.  I didn't have any cards for the Upper Deck set across the middle.  It looks as if they uses Conlon photo, I am a huge fan and need to see about getting some more cards from that set.  The package was Barry Bonds heavy and these are some of my favorites.

Here is the last batch of cards to share.  I am a sucker for the Collector's Choice silver signature cards, I really need to track down the rest of the team set and this will help.  The Fleer mini cards are great and remind me of a little frustration.  I bought tons of 2007 Fleer cards in building the set and have a big stack of these minis.  When I started my Giants collection, I went through the big stack and found only 1 Giant.  I am always happy to knock a couple off the want list.

Tom sent me a nice little note and the Giants dump is greatly appreciated.  Thanks for a great trade!

The Voice of the Giants

Last season for the first time I subscribed the MLB package so I could watch as many Giants games as possible. Obviously that worked out well with them winning but one of the huge benefits was being able to listen to the Giants broadcasters, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow.  The are homers and cheer for the Giants and their players but they are also fair.  If a Giant makes a bad play, they call it out.  If a call goes for the Giants that shouldn't have, the don't have blinders on and call it correctly.  I think I have heard they are a well respected team, I definitely know that I like them.

I was a fan of the 2013 release of Panini Hometown Heroes.  I bought a few retail packs and was on the verge of going after the set when I discovered they had a bunch of short prints (Note to card companies: There are collectors and consumers who buy less of your products when you include short prints - this goes for Topps Heritage some years for me as well).  The player selection was interesting as they went for more of the fan favorites versus just the superstars which was cool to see.  Mike Krukow even had an autograph in the set:

The lack of licensing with the hat and jersey being photoshopped out kind of stinks but I am happy to have an autographed card of this former Giant player and current broadcaster in my collection.

Kruk, as he is affectionately known, is battling a disease that is robbing him of the use of his quads which is severely limiting his mobility.  There have been quite a few stories and I have seen a couple interviews with him and his family.  At first he tried to hide it but he has really opened up.  Recently I have been seeing quite a few quotes from him about some of the Giants off season moves and potential moves which reminded me of this card and spurred on this post.  I am glad to have him as my team's broadcaster and his attitude when dealing with his health issues is inspiring.

2015 Collection Goals - The Year of the Base Cards

I thought about posting about my perfect predictions with regards to the Baseball HOF voting but don't want to come across as someone who gloats.  I was going to share my wallet cards first excursion but I haven't uploaded the photos yet.  Then I looked at the calendar and decided I needed to share my goals for 2015.

A few days back I shared my successes and failures with my 2014 goals.  I was going to post these 2015 goals the next day but decided to take some time to reflect and make sure I was focusing on the right areas of my collection to maximize my fun and enjoyment of this hobby.

In 2014, I was able to pick up just about all the Giants base cards that were released and got a high degree of satisfaction out of that.  I am a list person and really like marking a card or a set off my want list.  While I will have a couple of goals that may not completely pertain to my theme, I have decided that 2015 will be The Year of the Base Card.

Here are the goals I am setting for my collection in 2015:

1. Obtain all 2015 Giants base cards from all releases.

2. Acquire at least 800 Giants base cards from years past.  My want list has about 2800 going back to 1948.  I have no idea if this is a realistic target, I will try and knock as many off this list as I can but want to set some sort of goal.

Recent Giants Base Card Additions from 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes - why haven't I gone after this set yet, it is great!

3.Concentrate my player collections on obtaining all the base cards of these players.  Certain player like McCovey, Vida and Lott will still get the focus of all cards including base.

• Willie McCovey
• Rickey Henderson
• Vida Blue
• Reggie Jackson
• Dave Winfield
• Ben Petrick
• Dave Parker (as a Pirate)
• Chili Davis
• Ronnie Lott
• Roger Craig
• Dwight Clark
• Chris Webber
• Charles Barkley
• Patrick Ewing

I have started making a few base card only want lists and added them to the bottom of my posted want lists.  I am using Beckett.com so I doubt it will be 100% accurate but should help in my shopping excursions.

3 new Chris Webber Base Cards - It has been a while since I added any new Webbers to my collection

 4. Finish my 1970 Topps set which will include:

• Paying off lay-away balance at old LCS for all but 17 off my want list
• Tracking down the final 17 cards that include: Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson RC, Hank Aaron AS, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Al Kaline, Johnny Bench and Nolan Ryan

5. Knock 150 cards off 1971 Topps want list (currently at 340/752)

6. Knock 100 cards off 1972 Topps want list (currently at 481/787)

7. Complete 1956 Topps Presidents set (currently at 29/36 with 2 on the way)

8. Get all my base cards and inserts that aren’t part of sets or my player and team collections uploaded into Sportlots.  I just finished sorting and inputting about 5000 baseball cards that I have acquired since my move about 18 months ago and have a total of over 48,000 cards in the database.  I have tons of base cards from the early 80s to mid 2000s in a closest that I want to get input as well.  In addition to selling $20-$80/month in cards that I can turn around and use to buy new ones (almost like trading), Sportlots gives me a great database to locate the cards I have.  If you have needs by player or set, let me know and I can do a quick search.

9. Obtain at least 1 Giants card that will be the oldest in my collection.  I currently have 4 1933 Goudeys that are tied for my oldest card.

10. Make significant progress on my 49ers Vintage set collection and have at least 100 different cards by year end.

11. Update USC Football checklist with releases from the past 3-5 years (they are hit and miss) and obtain 50% of all base cards from 2014 and 2015.

12. My first non-base focused goal will be to add 6 certified autographs of players new to my Baseball HOF collection.

13. Maintain set building discipline, try not to collect every set that comes out

14. Have fun with the blog, post 200-250 times during the year, hold a couple contests, comment more on the posts of fellow bloggers, continue to trade and send some “just because” packages.

There you have it, I am pretty excited about these goals and will plan on keeping tabs on my progress through my blog posts.  As a former guy that chased all the big hits and didn't think my player collections were complete without every insert, parallel, relic and auto this is a big change.  It has actually energized me and I look forward to some collecting success in 2015.