Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Cards from Dime Boxes

No this isn't a post about what I dug out of a Dime Box this is a post about the cards I got in the mail from Baseball Dime Box.  Nick has the very best new blog out there.  Give him a read because if you are not checking out Dime Boxes you are rally missing out. Not only is it the best new blog it is one of the best blogs period.  My daily blog reading goes Night Owl, Dime boxes then everybody else.

First off it a Target parallel of Josh Beckett.  As I'm writing this there is speculation that he might get traded.  I'm going to guess he doesn't go anywhere and throws a bunch of great games this year.  I think the media just doesn't like him cause he doesn't give interviews after games so they make sure only negative reports come out.  Very unfair but that's the world we live in.


Speaking of unfair if Nick found this is a dime box that isn't fair.  This isn't the normal base Pedroia from this year's Gypsy Queen this is the alternate SP version.  This almost finishes of the team set for me.  I'm going to have to do a COMC search unless this post gets me a trade partner for the other SPs.


This is one really cool card that didn't scan well.  It is one crazy colorful card of baseball great Nomar Garciaparra.  It seems weird typing baseball great instead of Red Sox great since for years he was the face of the team.  (Just so you know it says Soul of the Game)


 Nick has a better eye than me and he mist know it because he wrote a note on the penny sleeve of this card.  It is a good thing he put the Glossy not on it too because I would have banished it to the doubles box for all time if he didn't.  It makes me wonder if I already have some Glossy cards in the double box.  Not wonder enough to actually check but wonder just the same.


Lastly is an Opening Day Blue Papi.  There were a couple of these Blue cards in here and when I went to mark them off my wantlist they were not there.  When I saw them I automatically thought they were Series 1 Wal Mart cards but the numbers didn't match up.  It wasn't till I was trying to figure out why the numbers didn't match up when I noticed the serial numbers on the back.  Now I knew that Wal Mart cards didn't have serial numbers so I knew something was up.  That is when I realized that they were Opening Day Blue cards.  Oddly enough I have as many Blue Parallels as I have regular base cards.


Thanks for the great trade Nick.

Monday, July 30, 2012

If I owe you a package and I didn't ship it yet...

Sorry, I've had a busy weekend.



I'll get your stuff shipped as soon as we are home.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

The Perfect Binder Page


This is the newest page in my Virdon Binder.  I know what your thinking, 4 card in one page, what the heck.  Well that is how I keep my Virdon cards.  Card plus, soft sleeve, plus top loader, plus team bag, all in a 4 card page.  Overkill I know...


Here is closer scan of Bill hanging out with Bill, Bill, and Bill.


 The 2012 Heritage Buyback is the first one I picked it up this year.  As a matter of fact two were listed on ebay right after Heritage was released and I accidentally won them both.  Only one makes the binder though. I'll mail the other to some unsuspecting blogger, unless I get the hankering to do a TTM; that might be pretty cool.
 

 When I saw the Heritage sell sheets I was happy to see Topps finally put out some Virdon cards.  I was concerned because they were autos though because of my budget but in the end it worked out.


I was pretty picky when getting my autos.  I watched lots of them go buy before I pulled the trigger.  The Red Auto is numbered to 63.  Eighteen of them have been on ebay.  They have sold everywhere between $83 and $17.  Guess which one I bought?


This card is a different animal though.  I was shocked when I saw it.  I still don't know exactly what it is.  I can see it is a Player Sample but I didn't/don't know the print run.  I figured it was a 1/1 especially when it was on ebay with a $100 BIN.   Eventually it was relisted as an auction though and I bought it for $26.  I have since heard that Topps gave 1000 sample cards to every player that signed for Archives, whether they did the same with Heritage though I don't know. 


 If there are 1000 of these than I way overpaid for it but I hadn't heard that when I bought it and I didn't want to take the chance to never see it again so $26 didn't seem out of the question.  It does look good next to all it's twins in it's new home even if it ends up that I paid too much.


2012 Player Collection complete, bring on 2013!!

Monday, July 16, 2012

My Fourth Face To Face With A Card Blogger

Long ago I had my first face to face meeting with a card blogger.  I met up with David aka Rhubarb Runner at a card show.  I documented it here.
I met up with my second blogger earlier this year when I wasn't doing any blogging.  I met with Mark (and his wife) of Collector's Crack at a spring training game.  He gave me some great stuff including a complete team set of old Topps Stickers.
I March I met Shawn aka Corky of Pack War, who after recently I moved, lives only a few miles from me.  He knocked almost all the series 1 Topps cards off my list along with a few Wal Mart parallels and a kick ass 76 SSPC card. 

I feel kinda bad that I didn't document either of the packages I received from them I just didn't feel like blogging.  (sorry guys)  This time though I am getting my head out of my ass and documenting my latest meetup with a card blogger.  

Friday I met Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop.  Like me he lives in the Phoenix area like me but he lives on the west side and I live on the east so we are like an hour apart.  We have tried to meet up a time or two but things never fell into place.  We rectified that though and met at Friday's Front Row at Chase Field for lunch.  We had a nice lunch and conversation.  He also gave me a nice box of cards.  This was the highlight of it though.  An awesome addition to my Player Collection.

I knew that Daniel had this card for a long time.  He got it from Bill Virdon himself as a throw in when he sent in a TTM.  I saw the post from him but just figured it was some kind of photo.  It turns out though that it was on my Bill Virdon Want List all along.  What Daniel had was an Outback card of Bill Virdon.  Evidently PNC Park has an Outback (kinda like we ate at a Friday's in Chase Field) and this was a giveaway card there in 2002.


Here is the back.  It is kinda plan but I really like the Pirate logo.  I think they should use this more, it's better than the P they use.  I think they do use it in spring training.
Daniel
asked where my Player Collection standed but I didn't have an answer for him cause I hadn't looked in a while.  So I'm doing it now.  This puts me at 75% of the way to all the Virdon stuff out there counting cards, team issues, and postcards.  If I'm just counting baseball cards though I'm 94% of the way to completion.  94% is close but still really far.

Of the ten more cards that I need, two of them are out of my price range for a single card:

2003 Upper Deck Yankees Signature Yankees Forever Autographs #PTV Piniella/ Torre/ Virdon
2008 Topps Heritage 1959 Buybacks #543 Corsair Trio/ Bob Skinner/ Bill Virdon/ Roberto Clemente


Five of them I nave never seen, and just may never see:

2009 Topps Heritage 1960 Buybacks #496 Bill Virdon  (three years and I still haven't seen)
2010 Topps Heritage Framed Buyback Stamps #72 Bill Virdon (the 2011 Buyback Stamp was a 1/1 but I don't know about the 2010)

1984 Expos Stuart #38 Coaching Staff/ Bill Virdon MG/ Felipe Alou CO  (don't know why I can't find this one)
1974 Syracuse Chiefs Team Issue #28 Bill Virdon (Minor League Card)
1959 Topps Venezuelan #190 Bill Virdon (no explination needed)

The other three I just need to pull the trigger on: 


1956 Topps #170A Bill Virdon (White Back)
1959 Topps #543 Corsair Trio/ Bob Skinner/ Bill Virdon/ Roberto Clemente
1975 O-Pee-Chee #611 Yankees: Team/ MG/ Bill Virdon

Thanks again for meeting me for lunch David and for all the great cards.  Maybe I'll see you again at a game.

Friday, July 13, 2012

How a Big Fat Guy Helped Me Out.

I don't consider myself a lucky person but every once in a while I do get lucky.

Marcus at All The Way to the Backstop had a Home Run Derby Contest and I won so he sent me a bunch of cards.  For the record I'm not calling Marcus fat.  Prince Fielder, the world's biggest vegetarian, won the Derby and I guessed it so I got cards.  Part of my winnings was some Joey Votto inserts but since this is really a team blog that is what I am showing you, just the Red Sox. 


Oh no, junk wax you say!!  If so, you would be wrong. See it is not too often I get a card from 91 that I need.  (unless it is one of those damn Canadian cards...)  Yes it is ugly as sin but this wasn't only a card I needed but the last of the Score Rising Star cards I needed.   In other words, not junk wax, Cardboard Gold.


I know some of the Red Sox prospects but not this guy.  He looks 12 but the back of the card says he is really 20.  This was another excellent card to get since it knocked off yet another team set for me.  At least I think so; all the BP, BCP, BCCPP, BBCCPPP, and whatever else, stuff really confuses me.  Right or wrong I have another set marked complete on the old wantlist.


Another prospect I heard of, and this one is supposed to be something special.  (that's all I got to say, it's like 4 in the morning...)


I think I have more colored parallel cards from this year than any other since Topps started the Wal-Mart vs Target vs ToysRUs/K-Mart thing.  This one I think is a Target version.  Or hell maybe Bowman just has purple versions of cards. Fact is I got a bunch of Topps Series one Wal-Mart and Target cards this year and it makes me want more.  


If you didn't already know, this is the guy that the Red Sox ruined this year.  See he used to be one of the most effective bullpen guys in baseball and someone in the FO figured that he would be a great starter.  Once they finally gave up on him as a starter they had him so screwed up he can't pitch out of the pen anymore either.  Papelbon said the other day that Bard was going to figure things out and be okay.  I hope is right cause Daniel sure was a bad ass in the 8th last year.


My first two cards from Series 2 are inserts.  I don't have a single base card yet but I now have all the Gold Standards.  That would seem funny but there was only one Gold Standard Red Sox.  


This would be my other Series 2 card.  Another Hall of Famer.  Anybody want some chicken?


Speaking of chicken... I think that they were too hard on old Beckett about the chicken in the clubhouse thing.  I don't think it had anything to do with the crappy performance of the team last year.  Think about it ballgames start at dinnertime.  If it was your off day don't you think you would get hungry during a game?  I know I would.  Here is to a better second half for Beckett.


My first 2012 A&G card is a mini.  I'm still chasing a bunch of 2011 minis.  I did real good getting the A&G minis other years but 2011s eluded me.  This is a good start for the 2012 mini team set.  I wonder if Nachos needs any of the Votto's I won and will part with some of the minis he is hoarding up there?  I would say something about bailey but the dude hasn't played yet this year. 



This was actually my favorite card in the package.  I guess technically it isn't even a card it is a sticker but it is still fantastic.  Floating head, mini 60s look, yes, yes, yes!!  Not only all that good stuff but Jacoby is back in the lineup today for the first time since his freak injury. 

Thanks for the cards Marcus.  There will definitely be some Padres headed to Texas soon.  (not super soon cause I have some plans this weekend but soon like end of next week soon)