Sunday, January 31, 2010

Thorzulized and a new goal

I recently received a trade package from Thorzul that I am not going to post because he has an aversion to it.  Instead you guys/gals get a picture less post.  (blame him not me)  I was kind of nervous opening the package because the last one I sent him wasn't filled with only stuff he wanted.  But in the end I got a couple great Sox cards that once again I am not going to post.

Now they say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery.  That being said I'm going to do a little experiment of my own.  I'm done buying 08 stuff.  No more at all. Not wax, bargain blasters, singles; nothing.  (ok I am buying some documentary for team trading purposes see my last post but that is it)  I'm going to see just how many of the 08 team sets I can finish with just trades.  Now I know I won't ever get them all but to be honest even if I bought a ton of singles I wouldn't get them all.  I know there are a whole bunch of them out there that shouldn't be to hard too come by though.  Here are some examples from my wantlist:

2008 Bowman

221 Clay Buchholz

2008 Bowman Chrome

5 Daisuke Matsuzaka
85 Curt Schilling

2008 Cosigners

1 Jacoby Ellsbury
97 Clay Buchholz

2008 Goudey

303 Wade Boggs

2008 Topps Chrome

235 Clay Buchholz

2008 Upper Deck Heroes Charcoal (No#)

28 Daisuke Matsuzaka
177 Yastrzemski/Fisk

2008 Upper Deck Piece of History

16 Dustin Pedroia
106 Clay Buchholtz

2008 Upper Deck Spectrum

14 Manny Ramirez
15 Jonathan Papelbon

That is just a tiny portion of my 08 wantlist but these ones are totally doable.  Heck with a little luck I could have those ones finished off by opening day.  Shoot, I am going to shoot for finishing these by opening day.  After that I'll focus on one or two more a month and hopefully fill my 08 binder to its capacity.  So please take a look and see what you have that I may need.
 
Oh, and thanks once again Thorzul, the 08 Gold Topps cards and the X-Fractor rocked.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

On card auto cards

I learned something new in a package I received from On Card Autos in return fo some Cubs I sent him.  I learned that over 250 cards can fit into one of those small USPS flatrate boxes because he sent me over 250 Red Sox.  (I then found out that eventhough they say flat rate for international shipping  it is a different rate alltogether)  I'm only posting a couple because 250 scans would take me a year and Thorzul wuld have to be commited before I was done.

First up is my new fetish, Upper deck Documentary.  I know the set makes no sense because the guy in the picture usually had nothing to do with the game being focued on but how can I not like a set that has 162 Red Sox in it.  Eventually I think boxes of this will become real cheap and I'll buy a couple.  Not just for pulling  a few Red Sox.  I think it would make some great cards for team trading.  I doubt many team collectors can say they have thier whole team already.
I just saw somewhere that Trott is still laboring in the minors.  That is to bad because he was a really good team player.  He gave 100 every day and just plain played baseball the way it should be played.

Lastly I am showing off this Greenwell.  You might not recognize it because I scanned the back.  It is a 94 Sportflic and I scanned the back because the fronts scan horribly.  I had to post it though becasuse I love Sportflics.

Thanks for all the great cards Chris.  I hope you liked the ones I sent you as much as I like these.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bass Cards

I came across a want list while reading e rayhahn rayhahn.  Not The Rubarb Runners own want list David Bass's wantlist.  So I shot David an e-mial sent him some cards and low and behold I received a package custom tailored to my own wantlist.  Although some hate these kins of posts they are essential to trading online. 


08 Topps Opening Day - Curt Schilling:  Why am I scanning a card from a set made for little kids?  Because I love the red background and I never bought any for myself so I have to rely on trades to get them.


09 Upper Deck Icons - Kevin Youkilis:  Every new Youkilis card is a good card.  David sent me almost he entire Icons team set.  I went from having no 09 Icons to only needing 3 more for the team set.
62 Jonathan Papelbon, 106 George Kottaras, 145 George Kottaras

93 Toppd Gold - Mo Vaughn:  I got it in my head somehow that I was going ot put together gold parallel team sets of every year of Topps.  Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.  Wouldn't be so bad if I had already finished of the base team sets.  This one happens to be my second 93 Topps Gold card.


09 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee - AL Avg Leaders (Pedrioa):  I really, REALLY liked O-Pee-Chee this/last year.  I'm still way short on the team set even though I bout about 3 blasters and have made a bunch of trades.  David also sent me the  Black Bordered parallel of this same card.  (yeah, I'm trying to get all of them also)


03 Upper Deck Standing O - Nomar amd Manny:  These are realy cool cards/disks/coins/pogs, whatever you want to call them.  I have a Pedro from this same set that isn't round so I have to ask are part of them round and part of them regular or are these some kind of parallel?

Thanks for the cards David.  Hopefully someone reads this and sends you a bunch more cards off of your list.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A Quandary Courtesy of The Troll




No not the Grumpy Old Troll From under the bridge.** 


Here is where the quandary comes in. Marck sent me a few cards and in the package was this Damon card. I am really appreciative of the cards but this one causes a problem for me.




See this is a 08 Upper Deck Timeline card.  By the time this card came out Damon was with the Yankees for years. Heck even Upper Deck designates it as a Yankee card. The problem with that is he is obviously in a red Sox uniform in the picture. Not only that unless the Yanks have a red alternate jersey I have never seen that is obviously Red Sox material. So now I have to decide if this thing fits in my Red Sox collection or not. For right now I am going to leave it in my Red Sox collection. But man, it is hard to do because it isn’t just a different team it is the freaking Yankees.

Everyone go check out the Trolls blog and while you are there sign up for his group break.  It isn't your normal group break, this one costs no money only trade cards.  Right now he has 11 teams left so hurry and go fill them up. 


**I know I watch to much Dora but I have a 2 and 5 year old, so what am I supposed to do.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Fantasy Baseball Approaching Anyone Need A League?

Last Year I had three fantasy baseball teams.  I was in Punkrock Paint's Cardblog League, Old School Breaks Major League Beanball III League and a work league.  I haven't heard if either of them are going to have the same league again or not.  If they do I would be happy to be part of their league again.  I do see that A Cardboard Problem already has a waiting list for teams so it must not be to early to start getting people together. 

That being said I'm willing to host a league of my own. My league will be Yahoo with Head-to-Head scoring.  I do plan on using a couple oddball stats though because some of the normal ones tick me off. (wins for one doesn't say enough about a pitcher)  I'm not sure what all stats I will use until I get in there and see what I have to choose from and Yahoo isn't taking leagues yet.  If they are options I am going with Era against for pitchers and OPS for batting.

So if anyone is interested in a fantasy league please let me know.

Also I am going to be in a new keeper league starting up.  It has head-to-head AL, NL, and Minor League scoring all separately with two amateure drafts per year.  It is $150 ($50 each league yearly) with the money being split between the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place team in each league, minus the league fee (rotowire).  The initial draft is live.  Not live as in go online and take your turn; live as in show up at designated place and draft you team or call in on speakerphone.  One guy we have lined up to play is kind of iffy on the whole thing, so we may have an open team.  If someone is interested in this team let me know and if the iffy guy drops out I'll put you in his place.

Itching for baseball!!!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Another trip to the shop

I took another trip to my new card shop and made a trade.  How do you guys think I made out.  I gave a 91 Pro Set Brett Farve RC for this Red Sox auto.  It is my first cloth auto card.  I think I made out ok even though my 4 year old has a better signature.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Contest Winnings from Cards on Cards

Kerry over at Cards on Cards held a college bowl game conteset.  All you had to do was pick the most games correctly (Yahoo format) and you won.  He gave away some junk wax and also a bunch of other cards.  I got lucky and picked the most games correct and had teh highest score.  (Lots of luck here.  This is the first year I watched any college games that were not Penn State.  I actually watched 1-2 games every week this year.  Any other year I would have done horrible)

I got O-Pee-Chee Premere, 91 Ultra Update, 89 Donruss.  I only opened the O-Pee-Chee because I have all the 89 Donruss already and am real close to the Ultra.  I'm going to save the packs for bribes.  Yes I said bribes.  My 4 year old doesn't know the difference between junk wax and new cards. 

Nineteen years ago this would have been a great pack.  Here is what I got:

McGriff - Fringe HOFer.  I don't think he will make it but some will plead a good case.  The veterans may let him in eventually


Fernandez - The dud of the pack


Alamor - Future HOFer.  Some say he got robbed but one way or another he goes in eventually


Brett - HOFer.  Already enshrined, enough said.


Canseco - Like I said good 19 years ago.  Now, not so much.


Gibson - World Series hero.  Pictured in a Royals with would really mess with my head if it wasn't blue like the jersey he is supposed to be wearing. 


Murray - HOFer.  Another guy in the wrog uniform.  Sorry Night Owl but he is an Oriole in my head.


Somewhere in here the contest cards end and  trade starts.  Not sure where the line is so gonna call them all trade cards.

08 Timeline Stamped Gold Thingy - I don't know what this is.  I don't have any other Timelines with this Foil stamp.  Heck I even have this card without the stamp.  Anyone know what gives??



09 Icons Wade Boggs Relic- The chicken eater himself.  Some think he is to smart for baseball but I don't care.  This is my first relic card of Boggs.



09 UD Starquest Blue Pedrioa -  I like 09s numbering system so much better than 08.  I can't figure out what color all of my 08s are but this one verifies on the back that it is blue.  It could be partially because I am colorblind but I think that 08 is just confusing because I can't even make heads or tails from the checklist on UDs site.



08 UDX Papelbon Relic - I think this may also be my first Papelbon relic.  I haven't drug out all of my relics to make sure but off the top of my head I don't remember having one.



91 All World Boxing Salvador Sanchez - Yea, I don't know him either bt it is a boxing card I didn't have so it is a good one.  Also I think I just set a blogging record by writing 4 posts within a month featuring a boxing card.  Someone send me more boxing cards, I don't alrady have, so I can expand my record.



I know these are junk wax cards but they are awesome.  That Greenwell Green Monster card is one of my all time favorites.  The Clemens looks good to but just not as cool as Greenwell.


Lastly, Kerry foud some Marino cards I didn't have, sort of.  He sent stickers that I didn't have.  This is the first addition to my Marino collection in 11 years.  I have had lots of people say they were going to send me some new ones but they never have followed through.  I was pretty shocked that he found any Marino I didn't have prior to 97 that wasn't a high dollar card.



Thanks a ton man.  It made watching the bowl games at least a little meaningful.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Not just cards from the shop, FREE cards from the shop!!

Just like the title said I went to the card shop today and left with Red Sox cards and didn't spend a dime. 



See we have this deal worked out.  Any Red Sox he gets I get first pick of. 


Not only that but if someone opens packs, takes the inserts and leaves the rest, the Red Sox are mine free of charge.


That is how I got these.  They are beautiful but there is no way I'm droping over $200 for a box of them.  I'll stick with handouts.

The Yaz is numbered to 99 and is ugly compared to the base cards.  The base cards are the best looking cards I have seen in almost 15 years.  These look alot like 96 Select Certified which I loved.  I'm hoping somemor box breakers come in this week...

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Sox for Yankees can’t get better than this

Mr. Scott sent me a big box of Sox and all he wanted in retrun was some Yahkee cards. (Goodbye Thorzul) You can’t make a trade any better than that. The box he sent contained about 150 Red Sox that I needed. I saw his blog mentioned on The Trolls site and decided to contact him. I sure am glad I did. Not only did he send me about 150 cards they were all on my want list. That means no doubles. (My Red Sox doubles box is already overflowing. If you are a Red Sox collector and we haven’t traded yet please contact me I may have some cards you need.)


Now that I am done begging for trades we can get back to the post.



2009 Unique Jon Lester – All I heard were complaints about these but I really like them. The scan doesn’t do the card justice. The black edge with the black glossy names looks really unique good.



2009 Xponrntial Kevin Youkilis - By now you should know I like Xponential and I like Kevin Youkilis. Together it makes this one great card.



2008 Documentary Jon Lester - Mr. Scott sent about 30 of these but this one is my favorite even though Lester didn’t pitch in the game. Why is this one my favorite, because I was at this game? Wakefield started, Masterson came in relief and Papelbon pitched an inning because he hadn’t been used in a few games. For the last few years I had been saying I wanted to see Wakefield pitch but until this game I never got a chance to. That is kind of odd since I try to go to at least one series every year. In 07 I went to two entire series and didn’t’ see him pitch a game. This year I’m planning to go to either Texas or Seattle to watch them. Not only did I get to see Wakefield pitch but we won and Ellsbury made an awesome running diving rolling shoestring catch.



I do have a bitter memory from this game also. My son had a baseball we had got from a different game he was holding to get signed. Even though I warned him over and over again to hold onto it he dropped it onto the field.



You can see the ball on the warning track in the picture. Little sister is giving him a hug to make him feel better. It didn’t work because when a ball boy came by and pitched it up to someone else in the stands he cried.

Thank you for the cards Mr. Scott. I have some Yankees rounded up for you but I only have about 80 of them. I’m going to try to remedy that then get them in the mail for you.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I'll take some cards with my rhubarbs

I received an e-mail telling me to expect a few cards in the mail from “e rayhahn, rayhahn” aka Rhubarb Runner but I didn’t at all expect what I got. This is the first card that I saw when I opened the package.




This is a 92 Tuff Stuff Evander Holyfield. I didn’t even know this card existed nor did I realize that Tuff Stuff put out cards. He is pictured here during his fiht with Big George Foreman.  I’m glad I got it but now I have to figure out what other cards they made so I can add them to my Red Sox checklist.

He also included some 1970 and 1971 cards.




I am actually really close to the complete 1970 set now.




1971 isn’t far behind as far as team set completion goes. I bet if I focused on it I could get it done fairly easily because I have noticed a few bloggers working on the set and I am sure they have to have some doubles.

Thanks for the great cards David. You should see some Twins pretty soon.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

On the bandwagon

Over the Christmas break I won a contest on Grand Cards. I had to guess how may Tiger Cards he would pull out of a bunch of old boxes. I guessed closest so I got all of the Red Sox from said boxes, it came up to about 200 cards. Even though almost all of it was what most would consider” junk wax” I ended up with about 40 cards I didn’t have yet. He helped me put the wraps on about 3 different early 90s team sets. I always find it amazing how many early 90 cards I still need.




Jumping on the bandwagon Collective Troll started and others jumped on, I’m going to show off an oddball card that I received in my box. It is a Carl Yastrzemski card from Hillshire Farms. Since this is the first time I have ever seen one of these I know nothing about it. Can anyone answer some of these questions?
What year is this from? I need to know where to file it.


In what product did Hillshire Farms give these cards away? Just because.

Where there more Red Sox in the set? I need to know if I need to add them to my want list

Does anyone have any of these Red Sox? Because I need them all…

Why don’t they make cards anymore? I don’t expect anyone to answer this one.

I miss getting cards in with food products. I don’t eat cereal but I would start if Kellogg’s started putting cards in there again. Ditto Wheaties. Snack Cakes? I’m on a diet but when I cheat I can guarantee I would choose a brand with cards in them. I’m partial to a few brands but I would jump ship in a heartbeat for baseball cards. My dog eats Pedigree but if Purina started inserting cards again the dog gets a new diet.

Surely some marketing guru out there will think of using cards to sell products again but until he/she does I will have to live in the past and hope I get some oddballs in trade.

Oh, and thanks for the cards…

Monday, January 18, 2010

I got a Fort Knox Box

I received a box in the mail Saturday from TheSewingMachineGuy .  Not a padded envelope or a card box, an actual box.  The box was filled with peanuts (not the kind you eat).  In the middle of all the peanuts was a padded envelope and inside of that bubble mailer was this. 



What you are looking at is two pieces of cardboard** held together by four rubber bands.  What was he trying to protect??

**I used to wonder why he was TheSewingMachineGuy.  When I saw that the pieces of cardboard he used spelled out Singer when put together I decided he either sell sewing machines, reairs them, or both.

1990 MLB Playing Cards Wade Boggs

Does anyone know if these came in wax pack form or was it just a deck of cards with players on them?




2009 T206 Mini Jacoby Ellsbury 03/99
I'm eagerly awaiting what other T206 cards I ended up with from I Am Joe Collectors group break.  This is the first month I was able to get a spot.  Hopfully there were lots of Red Sox and hopefully one of them wasn't this card.
2008 Goudey Bobby Doerr Autographed
An autograph of a Hall of Famer.  Heck, he even personalized it as HOF 86.  This is easily the coolest card in the package.  I have heard that he is a great TTM signer but I have never sent him anything.  I actually haven't sent any TTMs since I was a kid.  The last one I sent was an 88 Topps Reggie White in 1988.



Thank you SewingMachineGuy, these were great cards.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Being a Night Owl Myself to Post This

A little while back I saw a Red Sox auto posted on Night Owls blog.  I really wanted it so I e-mailed him and weworked out a trade.  He got his cards a few days ago and mine came yesterday.

First up is a M101 Babe Ruth (in a Red Sox uniform) reprint.  The other day JDs Wild Cards asked what everyones whote wales were.  This is mine.  Well not exactly, the real one of my white whales.




Topps Heitage Hideo Nomo:  I think this is an 04 but I have sofew of them I forget.  I would look at the card and see if I hadn't already put it away.  Soeey feeling lazy tonight.  Heck you are lucky I am writing at all.  Or are you...



Upper Deck Ovation Pedro Martinez (same proble with the year here)  I miss Pedro and his antics not to mention his pitching.  I so didn't appreciate im enough whenhe was on the team.


09 Goodwin Justin Masterson Autograph.  Now to the good stuff.  The Goodwin autos look awesome.  Everybody that didn't vote them the best autos in the Gummi Awards, boo on you.


1993 O-Pee Chee Scott Fletcher: Canadian must be stingy people because they get thier own bseball card set and for some reason theyhardly ever make it to Missouri.  For this reason I hardly have any so anytim I get one in trade it is great..




2009 Bowman Chrome Michael Bowden Autograph:  I know everyone buys Chrome for the autos and rookies but seriously compare it to the Goodwin.  Enough said..



This is the end, there is Nomo(re)



Thanks for the trade Greg.  And I hope there is no hard feelings from the Bonds'.