How I Spent My Group Break Money

I've been in two group breaks for the last few months.  This I decided that my money was better spent on singles.  That isn't saying that I didn't get anything good from my group breaks but I feel I can better meet my collecting goals by just buying singles.  You see in the group breaks i end up with a bunch of inserts that I don't really have anything to do with.  I like them because they are Red Sox but they dont' fit into my collection of every base Red Sox card ever.     So I took the $42 I would have spent on my group breaks and spent it on the Beckett marketplace.  (actually spent just over $50 so I could take advantage of free shipping)  I choose Burbank Cards to be the vendor that I bought from because they have so many cards to choose from.  Here is my haul.  I'm listing all the Red Sox first and then the rest.

Up first is some Red Sox Kellogg's goodness.  Now I don't know anyone that doesn't like Kellogg's cards.  If they still made these things I would be a cereal eating fool.  The Rice and Jenkins cards each finished off team sets for me so I was extra happy with them.  (that is a 77 Hostess Yaz in there with all the Kellogg's stuff)

1956 was the team set I was going to collect first out of all the team sets in existence.  Now I have completed nearly 100 team sets and 56 isn't done yet.  At least I am one card closer.  Also pictured is and oddly sized 1979 Topps Comic of Yaz

Now for the older stuff.   Night Owl probably already has a very thoughtful  name for the 63 set on the top right but me I call it the dot set.  I've always thought the 64 set that the Malzone above came from was kind of boring but every new card I get of it makes me like it more.  1965 Topps is one of my favorite Topps sets of all time.  I knocked a good chunk off of my want list this one.

I call this the pink set.  I don't know if the borders for all the cards were pink but I do know all the Red Sox had pink borders.  This is one of my very least favorite sets and only bought it because the price was right.  I like the 67s though.  Why I don't know they are kind of plain actually but it works well.

I hope you were ready for lots of vintage cards because I got a ton of them in the package.  Yaz is easily me favorite here.

1971 is easily my least favorite Topps set.  I know it is a highly collected set but I hate the black borders.  I refused to collect it but eventually they started coming to me in trade packages.  I bought this one because this card has me down to only needing 2 more cards for the team set. Sweet Team set completion with both the 74s and 76s pictured.  I missed the Siebert card when I scanned all the Kellogg's so I snuck him in here instead.

The great thing about singles is that you can knock specific cards off of your want list.  I can now also count 75 complete also. 

I bought a little bit of new stuff also.  Not much but a little.  Little in volume and size.  Pictured are four 2006 A&G Mini cards. 

Now for something besides Red Sox.  Yes I am about commit Red Sox blasphemy by posting not only one but two Yankee cards.

They are not normal Yankee card though they are Bill Virdon Yankee cards.  As far as I know I am the only Bill Virdon super collector in existence.  Burbank had a bunch of oddball Virdon stuff for me to choose from.  1964 Topps, 2003 Yankee Signature Series, 1994 Topps Archives, 1979 TCMA, 1981 Topps and 1975 Topps Mini.

You are not seeing double.  That is a 76 Topps and a 76 O-Pee-Chee.

Here is the difference.  Not much, card stock color and a little bit of wording.

Again not doubles.  1973 Topps (A) and 1973 O-Pee-Chee.  Nothing different about the fronts but...

There is some Canadian French on the O-Pee-Chee.

Even more variations.  For the record 83 Topps, 83 O-Pee-Chee, 84 O-Pee-Chee, 84 Nestle, and 84 Tiffany.  At least they put O-Pee-Chee on the front these years.

There are a couple Swell cards here.  By Swell I not only mean they are really good, they are made by some long forgotten company called Swell.  The Pacific Legends and the Fleer checklist cards are actually both upgrades.  I got both of them years ago and had them signed but I wasn't to careful with them as a kid.  In the middle are an 86 Astros TCMA and 2002 Topps Super Teams cards.  The middle one is classified as a refractor but in reality it is a foil card.  No Refracting to it.  Bottom middle is another oddball 80s set.  It is an 83 Stuart card.  I don't know anything about them other than there is also 2 Virdons (that I don't yet have) in a 84 Stuart set.

I think I did pretty well with my $50.  I got a whole bunch of vintage Red Sox and I almost doubled my Virdon collection.  I was very happy with Burbank.  I bought lower grade cards and in almost every case the cards I received were actually in better shape than advertised.  They also took good care of me.  They couldn't find a card that they had listed and offered a replacement.  So instead of a 1980 TCMA Virdon that was listed at 50 cents I got that 77 Yazstremski Hostess that was listed at $2 straight up trade.  I was happy with that.  I know Beckett's site can be pretty slow at times but I would positively recommend using Burbank.

Aren't they great??

I'm enjoying the hell out of the Marlins/Mets rain delay. Don and the Rem-Dog kick all ESPN announcers asses.  Plus the Yankees are down by three...

A Night Owl scavenger hunt

This is a one scan post of cards I got from Night Owl.  I jumped the gun and filed away the cards before I scanned them.  I'm lazy on top of that so I only drug one card back out to scan and post. 

It is a Mo Vaughn Hologram card from Denny's.  To bad there is no Denny's around me or I may have got some of these years ago when they came out. 

Only having one scan gave me a good reason to go back over old Night Owl posts looking for cards I received.  It is just like a scavenger hunt.

I found the first one here.  This is a 1986 TCMA card, my first one.

Post #2 with a card I received is here.  This is a 2002 Topps Gallery.

And Finally I found this post on A Pack to Be Named Later.  Greg busted a pack of 1999 Topps Stars and pulled this cool short printed Nomar.  At least I think it is short printed because it is a 4 Star card.

Thanks for the cards Greg.

Good Stuff From Beardy

Long long ago I made a trade with Beardy.  He posted it about a month ago.  I am just now getting to it because I am a horrible blogger.  I sent him the Sweet Spot auto I won from the Collective Troll.  Originally I wanted a Red Sox Sweet Spot card for it but there were no takers and he sent me enough stuff that I was happy.

First is some Topps Gallery.  It had an abundance of variation cards.  Small subtle variations like the coloring of the lettering on Yaz's jersey.  Beardy knocked a bunch of them off of my wantlist. 

Beardy was lucky enough to bust some Topps Archives and some Topps All Time Fan Favorites.  This is about half of the ones he sent.  Good Stuff.

Finally we have the autos.  I think the Papelbon is one good looking card even with his chicken scratch of a signature and the sticker.  The sticker is obvious but still hidden.  I like it.  And what can I say about the on card Piersall.  Beardy also has another Piersall Archives auto I need to come up with something to send him for. 

Thanks Beardy

I've been a soccer referee a long time and in my opinion...

I became a soccer referee in 1988.  So you could say that I've been around the game a little bit. 

There was no foul or offside against the US, it was a goal.  (notice offside is singular?  You cannot be offsides in soccer, you can only be offside.)

Sorry US fans the Findley play was a handball.  Yes, it hit his head first and only glanced off his hand but he still got an advantage from it because it went right to his teammate.  Should it have been a card though?  No.  

The yellow that was issued against Suler, of Slovenia, right outside the box; should have been a Red Card because it denies an obvious goal scoring opportunity. 

I don't know the referee's name from that match but I bet he is demoted to 4th official for the rest of the Cup.

Ebay advice

I need a little advice.  I bought a lot of 9 card pages on ebay.  Here is the description.  I paid for the items on May 25th.  After I badgered them about not receiving my pages they shipped it out on the June 11th.  Upon receiving the box the contents were not as described.  The auction states that the primary brand was Ultra Pro but when I opened the box exactly 200 of the 1000 were Ultra Pro.  I contacted the seller and he has offered to give me $40 back and me keep the pages I got or refund the total amount and me ship it back.  The problem is they weigh a bunch and it will cost about $30 to ship back.  So my choices are:
Keep them which means 200 Ultra Pro pages for $70

or

Send them back and be out $30.

I'm leaning on sending back and getting screwed out of the $30.

Another Contest

No not here.  Are you serious I don't have the gumption to even write a post, I can't be having a contest. 

You have three days to get over to Enough Already and enter the the contest over there for a bunch of cool stuff.  Here is the link.

One of these days I will get back to posting.  I have a ton of trades that I need to post, just haven't got to it yet.  One of these days I'll do them. (maybe)  It won't be this weekend though because I have a busy schedule that includes fishing Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. 

So early Happy Memorial to you all.

Oh and it is about dam time Blogger added the spellchecker back.  (actually it may have been there for a week or so.  Been that long since I posted)