Cards from Motherscratcher

As soon as I saw this card on Achiever Card Blog I wanted it.  It isn't a normal Pedroia mini or even one of those god-awful back parallels.  This is an extended mini #360 of "The Laser Show".  You could only get one of these in a Rip card.  A quick e-mail to Motherscratcher reserved the card while I scrambled to find some sort of Tribe card for him.  I was bare of Tribe hits so I made another trade to get something to send him.  Pedrioa soon arrived in my mailbox with some other stuff.

He also sent a shiny Papelbon rookie.  I'm not sure if this is a parallel or not but either way it is nice, shiny, and I didn't have it.

He also sent along some junk wax.  I'm only posting one of them here.

These are 1989 Topps Mini Leaders (I think).  Out of the 3 packs he sent I didn't get any Red Sox but check out this pack.  In 89 I would have loved to bust this one.

McGwire, Jackson, and Gwynn are definatly superstars and Buhner had a ton of fans and would have been easily traded off 20 years ago. 

Need a few more Fantasy Football Players

Well it looks like part of the baseball league doens't want to do football so there are a few more openings in the Card Bloggers Unite football league. If you want a spot please comment here.  So far the winning prize is a batch of cards from Cardboard Junke and some craptasticfootball autos from me.  Anyone else can donate to the winner also.  Originally I had the draft as tomorrow but I'm moving it out till we get this thing filled up.

Please comment now.

From his Card Shop to my mailbox

I got a great package from It's like having my own Card Shop a few weeks ago.  I sent him a big box of Diamondbacks and he sent me some great stuff.

First we have an auto of Matt Cooper.  Honestly I don't remember anything about Scott Cooper.  But it is a Sox auto that I didn't have so it has happily found a new home.

Future Red Sox SS Jose Iglesias.  This guy is supposed to be absolutely amazing in the field and should be a mainstay in the clubhouse within a few years.  We haven't had a good track record with shortstops since Nomar so hopefully Jose works out.  (actually Scotaro has done good this year, will have to see if he keeps it up the rest of this year and next)

I only had one other Wakefield relic before this.  I'm surprised that there not more of them out there.  He has been in the league for years and although he is not popular outside Boston everyone still knows exactly who he is.  For the first time I am doubting that Wake is resigned in the offseason.  I'm gonna miss him.  (but not his performance this year, I won't miss that)

This is my favorite card of the package.  It is a auto Night Owl Bad Ass Club member George Scott.   This and a Greats of the Game Tiant base card is what instigated our trade to begin with.  I like getting autos of former Red Sox star players. 

Selling off some boxing autos

I have decided to sell of some of my boxing memorabilia.  Right now I have listed Hagler and Leonard autographs and some cards. I have a bunch more that I can sell but I'm kind of on the fence about getting rid of some of it.  One thing I'm leaning towards selling is a Foreman auto.  It is an 8x10 picture from the early part of his career.  The reason I can probably part with it is the picture is from before my time.  When I think of Foreman I think bald headed smiling Foreman not 70s Foreman.  I have a Spinks that I plan to sell because I only bought it cause I thought the picture looked cool not cause I liked Spinks.  The one I am not so sure about selling is Ali.  I figure any of the autos are easily replaced, if I change my mind, but Ali is not in good health and I may not be able to afford to replace it in the future.  But it than again it has spent at least the last 5 years in a box rather than on the wall so maybe I just need to sell it. 

I'm also on the fence about some football autos.  Actually I wouldn't mind parting with any of the ones I have except for maybe a Unitas auto.  But again like Ali it has lived in a box for about 5 years so it may be time to sell.

Just don't know what to do with them yet.

If your a boxing fan and you think you might want some autos check here.

Fantasy Football League Participants Needed

I sent out invitations to all the members of the Card Bloggers Unite Fantasy Baseball League to join a football league.  So far I have only got a response from:

Plain Gray Swatch
Balk Four
GSNHOF
Dayf
Beardy

So I am giving everyone else that was already in the baseball league until Tuesday to say they are going to do football also.  At that point I will open up the league to anyone else.  Red Sox collecting Dan from Maine already has dibs on the first opening.

There is going to be a prize for this league.  I'm not sure what it consists of but Cardboard Junkie has offered up a bunch of football cards to the winner.  I am also going to throw in the most craptastic football autos you have ever seen as a prize.

So please comment here if you are interested.  If there is enough interest I would be willing to have two leagues.

Trip to the game Part 1

I went to a Red Sox game in Arlington last weekend.  This is the odyssey

The plan was for me to go to work Friday, come home, sleep all evening, and then leave at 1 AM.  That might sound rough but I have a basement with a bedroom that has no windows.  I was also taking two kids with me and kids travel best when they are sleeping.  My plan started out well I got to bed by 4:30 and pretty much fell right asleep. The only problem is it was my wife's birthday and she had lots of visitors.  Visitors are loud. That coupled with my son deciding to play with his marbles on the upstairs tile floor really cut into my planned sleeping time. 

When I got out of bed at midnight I loaded the car with luggage and carried out sleeping kids.  I had taken out the back seat of the van and laid blankets on the floor for them to sleep on.  When I was a kid I spent many car trips in the trunk of the family station wagon.  It was acceptable then and to me it is now also.  I stopped at the nearest gas station to fill the cooler with ice and energy drinks.  Not Red Bull though.  I'm on a diet and sugar free Red Bull tastes like piss.  The only way to drink Diet Red Bull is with Jagermeister.  Isn't it strange how a concoction of piss and liquorish flavoring is palatable. 

I made my second stop of the trip two miles farther down the road.  I live in a town of 11,000 people that it less than ten miles across and I didn't even make it out of town before I got pulled over.  58 in a 50 guy must have been bored.  He didn't give me a ticket but he did tell me the kids had to get in their seats.  I wanted to tell him I would rather have the ticket but bit my tongue instead.  I got to listen to the kids cry cause they had to wake up and get in their seats for the next 3 miles until I left city limits and the cop wasn't behind me anymore.  At that point I sent them to the back to sleep again.  Defiantly an ominous start to a trip.

My luck continued when about two hours into my drive the air conditioner quit working.  Nothing I could do about it at 3 AM so I rolled the windows down and kept going cursing my luck and the 106 degree Texas forecast. 

When I got to Texarcana I had to stop knowing that as soon as I did the kids would wake up.  The gas gauge, not to mention the 2 Diet Rockstars and 2 Diet Mt Dews, didn't give me any choice.  Surprisingly it turned out to be a good thing.  First of the driver of the car at the pump next to me dang near made my "Top 10 HGIHSIP List".  Secondly when I got back on the road the air started working again.  My luck seemed to be improving. 

I was in autopilot mode by this time so the rest of the drive wasn't worth mentioning, except that I made it in 7 hours and 15 minutes.  That included stopping for ice, cop, and gas.  Not really sure how I did that since I only set the cruise at 10 miles an hour over the speed limit.  We had planned on going to hurricane Harbor water park when we got to Arlington but we were now hours early.  So we slept in the car in a Denny's restaurant parking lot before we got up and ate.  Big mistake.  I didn't even get out of the building before I was sick.  Thank you Denny.

So we got to Hurricane Harbor and waited and waited and waited to get in.  When they finally let us in everyone was happy to get out of the sun and into the water.  We mostly stuck to the pools because the lines were crazy ass long.  I don't know why there were so many people there but it had to be unusual for them because I noticed on our way out they were parking cars in the grass all over around the outside of the park because all the parking lots were full.  All the waiting in line served a good purpose though.  We realized that our kids were to small for the Disney trip we were planning for next year.  Better to find that out now than after we were in Orlando for a weekend. 

Another thing that happened at Hurricane Harbor is that 1st place on my Top 10 Hottest Girls I Have Seen In Person List got bumped.  All I can say is WOW!  FYI....  the number one from this post got displaced to number two by a girl at a soccer game.  At some point I may move her down the  list out of fairness to the others because she had on way less clothes than anyone else on the list. 

After about 3 hours of water we broke for lunch.  We planned on a picnic lunch and then more swimming but decided that the kids were to grumpy and went to the motel instead.  I wanted to take naps at the motel but I got out voted and we swam in the pool instead.  (which makes a lot of sense since we just left a water park....Sigh...)

From there we went to the ballpark which you will have to read about in part number two.

Assorted Mini Cards for Trade

I just acquired a big stack of assorted mini cards to trade.  I'm looking for Red Sox Mini cards of any kind.  (06-10 A&G, T206, T205, Goodwin, Goudey, etc)  You can check my want list here.    I'm really hoping to at least wrap up a few of my mini sets with some trades.  I have many to offer from a bunch of different years/sets.  I'm posting pictures and listing the numbers whichever way you want to look at it...

Also, don't forget my contest. Just leave a comment on my last post to enter.


 

2010 A&G

Regular Mini: 219, 329

A&G Back: 9, 94, 170, 288, 324

Black Border: 109 Kinsler

National Animals:  NA30, NA37

Sailors of the Seven Seas: SSS3

Lords of Olympus: LO4, LO14, LO15, LO22

Monsters of the Mesozoic: MM2, MM5

World's Biggest: WB5

Worlds Worldsmiths: WGWS11,

2007 A&G

Regular Mini: 10, 62, 99, 102, 123, 157, 188

Flags: Kenya (No Number)

A$G Back 13 (Roosevelt)

2009 Goodwin


Regular Mini: 10, 12, 13, 17, 21, 30, 31, 36, 48, 55, 61, 64, 71, 75, 93, 99, 103, 117, 125,144, 214, 215, 220, 223,236, 238, 239

Black Border (Gypsy Queen): 9, 68, 112, 120, 217, 241

1999 Pacific Private Stock: 62 150

2009 T206

Regular Back: 60, 63, 67, 68, 85, 88, 99, 161, 201, 257, 267, 276, 288

Old Mill: 95 Garza

Polar Bear: 132 Carlos Lee, 175 Manny Ramirez

2008 A&G

Regular Mini: 4, 10, 14, 21, 30, 35, 67, 70, 80, 112, 123, 125, 126, 127, 129, 135, 140, 145, 170, 196, 199, 200, 206, 237, 240, 243, 244, 277, 322, 326, 328, 331

A&G Back: 27, 28, 36, 44, 57, 87, 94, 126, 130, 137, 139, 169, 237, 249, 267, 294

Black Border: 15, 54, 58, 86, 154, 168

Team Orange: T01, T09

World Icons: A13

Pioneers of Aviation: PA5

Worlds Leaders: WL19, WL22,WL34,WL49

Historical Landmark: Grand Canyon (no number)

BI12 Jimmie Fox (not sure what it is)

2009 A&G


Regular Mini: 148,259

Black Border: 84, 123

National Heroes: NH30

I also pulled this Cardinal auto.  I'll trade for a Red Sox auto.

Contest Winner!!

The winner of the contest is mmosley.  He guessed the most things correct from the game I attended Saturday.  He is now the proud new owner of a 1940 Playball Bobby Doerr. 

additional picture in honor of Mark's blog

I will have a complete recap of my trip in the coming days.  For the record I sat in the bleacher section 54 (and darn near melted in the Texas heat)

Congratulations Mark.

I Love Vintage In The Mail

I'm always up for a package from Night Owl.  Great things are always inside.  This may be the best thing he has ever sent though.  It isn't very often someone sends you a 50+ year old card.  A dealer told me a  story about Jensen once when I bought a 61 Topps Jensen off of him.  I don't know how true it is but I was told he retired because he was afraid to fly so when road games became so far away they had to take planes he retired.  It is funny the kind of discussions you can have at a card show.

I scanned these a week ago when I got the package from Greg and had something I was going to say about them.  Sadly I forget what it was.  Nothing at all sticks out about these at the moment so...

I know why I scanned this one.  It is a finisher card.  One of those cards that finishes off a team set.  Right now I am hearing that people are calling for Wade's number to be retired.  I know he is in the hall with a Boston hat and he was a great player for us over the years but there is that going to the Yankees thing that makes me not want his jersey retired.

I hardly ever see 06 A&G so this SP Schilling is really appreciated.  I still need about have of the regular 06s and almost all the minis.  Plus there were a few boxers in the set that I would like to track down at some point. In this scan along wth Schilling is a T206 mini of Kottaras.  I wish I had somewhere to go to find more mini cards.  The few card shops I have been to never have any the last show I went to had some but they were to salty.  I guy there had some Obak minis for 2.50 each and $5 for the Ted Williams.  No Thank You.  I will just wait 5 years for them to slowly trickle in.  Actually my card shop friend had a whole box of minis that he gave me a good deal on so I have a bunch to trade if anyone is interested.  I have multiple years of A&G along with T206 and a few oddballs.

Thanks for the cards Greg.  I almost have something to give you in return for them it just isn't here yet.  Even when it does get here I will probably still owe you so you might just have to expect two packages.

From NatsTown To My Town

I'm scheduling this post for while I am at the Red Sox game.  Hopefully while you are reading this we are laying it to the Rangers...

I'm glad I found NatsTown.  I had a large stack of National/Expos cards that needed a good home.  Except for a few Zimmermans I never could find a person to unload my Nats cards on.  Now that stack is way smaller and the pile of Red Sox is larger.

This Leaf Oil Can Boyd came from NatsTown but is originally from the land of hockey.  Those Canadians are some card hoarding fools because things like O-Pee-Chee and Leaf hardly ever make it to Missouri.  Boyd is sporting some big damn shades on this card.  I remember big giant sunglasses like this from my youth.  It is funny how some people think big sunglasses are the newest greatest thing.  Right after big sunglasses came sunglasses with side shields (ie Top Gun) I wonder how long till my kids start asking for them...

When I received this card I thought, "crap, I don't have that card.  I have a complete 1983 team set but I don't have that card.  How can I have a complete team set and not have that card?  Oh no, how many many more complete team sets do I have that need one more card?"  After my panic attack I pulled out the early 80s binder and it turns out I did already have the card.  This is a good thing because it keeps that can of worms closed for now.  I really need to take a look through my 80s cards again sometime...

If you want to make sure I scan cards I receive in trades send me Nomars.  I always scan them all.  Not because I'm a huge Nomar nut, because I need so many of them.

He really did some damage to my 2003 want list.  He sent a ton of 03s including these great Bowman Heritage.  Oddly the Dusty Brown at the bottom is twice as think as the rest.  Looking at the edge you can actually see where Topps fused two cards together to make it extra thick.  I'm guessing it is an odd parallel having to do with the fake signature on it.

This Pedro is way cooler than the scan.  It is actually clear everywhere except Pedro's body.  I love EX cards.

This is the only 2003 Bazooka card I have so I don't know if they are all minis or I this is a parallel.  I scanned it with a Bowman's Best (of which I received a complete team set from NatsTown) so show if its mininess.

This Ortiz is on here for one reason; I saw someone scan one of these Starquest cards and the scan just looked awesome.  My scan not so much.

Only 100+ more of these to go to finish my team set.  Sadly I am tempted to buy some boxes an finish it even though virtually all the pictures look the same.

This Manny produced another panic moment.  This time justified.  He wasn't on my checklist but I didn't have him.  I'm hoping that it is one of those stealth variations and not actually a base card so I can keep Pandorah in the box...

Thanks again for all the great cards.

That's a Wrap

Tiger Sportscards volonteered to wrap a few team sets off for me when I begged for cards last month.  These were the last two 93 Ultra cards I needed for the binder.

Not two days after I got this Clemens to finish of my 92 Ultra team set I got the same card from NatsTown.  (But that is for another post)  I can't tell you how many times that has happened in the past.

A complete surprise was this Hostess Bill Campbell.  I never have expressed how much I like Hostess cards.  (or post for that matter)  I don't know what it is about them but I usually buy them over regular issue cards when I see them.

This 1962 Topps Pagliaroni card was completly unexpected too.  Nobody ever gives up vintage stuff so it is always a surprise when one lands in my mailbox. 

Thank you Don

Vintage HOF Giveaway Final

I'm going to the Red Sox game Saturday in Arlington.  Hopefully Mr Ryan has something figured out by then.  So the contest final will be about the game Saturday.  The four finalists need only to answer the following questions.  The person who answers the most correct wins the 1940 Playball Bobby Doerr.

1. Winning Team?

2. How many home runs hit?
3. How many autos will I get before/during the game?
2. Winning Pitcher?
3. What section am I going to sit in?

Tie Breaker = Total runs

For bonus points....  What time do they open the gates for BP?

Good Luck

Cards from Stats...

I got surprized by some great cards from Stats on the Back.

Any Ted Williams card is a good card so what more can I say about a Ted Williams, Ted Williams card.

I watched Manny for years and I don't remember that tattoo.  Looking at other cards I can't even find it poking out from under his shirt sleeve.  To be fair though you can't see his right arm in 90% of his cards because he is batting in them all.

I remember having this card as a kid.  I gave it and all my other baseball cards to a friend of mine when his house burned down and I started collecting only football cards.  (for awhile anyway)

I don't know why it didnt' occur to me to scan the back of a card from Stats.  That would make the most sense.  But I didn't do it and already sorted them into my collection so even though there is no stats this scan of the back of Nomar's odd card will have to do.  I have a question though.  Anyone know what this set was called?  I have a few card from it that I got at Dollar Tree years ago but I don't recal what they are called.

Thanks for the cards Mark.

I Now Own The Most Awesome Card Ever

I now own the most awesome card ever!!!

I have wanted it ever since Dayf posted a picture of it looooonnnngggg ago.  It has even been on my long forgotten 10 most wanted list.  I finnaly came to me in a trade this week along with a whole bunch of Red Sox minor league cards.  On problem though.  I don't know who it came from.  I kow that sounds bad but I can explain.  The person that sent it to me contacted me via Yahoo IM while I was updating my checklist.  He showed up as an anonomous user.  I figured I would use the return address off the package to ship cards back but no return address was on it.  So if you sent me this card please let me know. I would like to even up. 

Cards from Bud of First Day Issue: Baseball Cards & The Neverending Pursuit of....

I'm pretty sure that Bud has the longest named blog on the internet.  He makes great trades though.  I got these about two weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting them.

Kind of an odd picture to put on a card since you can't see Shil's eyes.  But I like the old time look with the game used swatch.  Much better design than most game used.

If you send me Williams cards in a trade you can be sure I am going to post them.  I now only need about 25 more of the Ted Williams Heroes cards.  I don't know how I never picked more of them up by now.

I miss Pedro. 

Once again someone comes through by sending me some Nomars.  Maybe now that he is retired people will start parting with Nomars in trades since I have got more Nomars in the mail this last month than the whole other time I have been blogging out together.

I was shocked to get this card in the mail.  A Hanley Chrome Rookie.

I really like the Black Bordered minis this year.  I'm going to chase them harder this year.  This card is actually the one that started the whole trade and probably my favorite of the package. 

Lastly here is a cool Mo Vaughn die cut card.  Thanks for the cards Bud.