Not Just a Win. I made out like Marquez over Pacquiao!!

Listia has been good to me and sometimes it is better than others.  I've won lots of auctions for a way better value than should be possible.  Every now and then though I get a deal that is more then good. More than great. Amazing, Astounding!!!  Check out what 3000 credits won me on Listia.

Not One 

Not Two

But Three,

 cards from one of the greatest sets ever, 1961 Fleer Ted Wiliams.  

I already owned a couple Ted's from this set but this is the first one of The Splendid Splinter in his Red Sox uniform I have owned.

If you haven't tried out Listia yet you should.  There are lots of cards on there and some amazing deals.    It is a really good way to get good value out of your 70s and 80s cards too.  I approach it as trading.  Those three Ted Williams cards cost me one Kevin Garnett Game Used card and a stamp.  I still had 2000 credits left over from the Garnett to get other stuff too.  

I'll trade game used basketball for vintage Ted Williams all day long.  

Like I said check it out if you haven't already.  Follow this link to get 100 free credits just for signing up.  I have won plenty of cards for less than 100 credits so basically you are signing up for free cards.

Contest Winnings

It isn't very often I write a post but one good way to get a post out of me is to have a contest and let me win and that is exactly what Brad did.  Brad is the proprietor of the appropriately named Brad's Blog and I am getting used to thanking him because he is the very same guy who helped me out with the Virdon 1/1 card not long ago.  Here was my contest winnings.

First up is a Marlins auto.  I have no idea who Matt Dominguez is. A quick Wicki search says he was traded to Houston in the Carlos Lee deal.   Not so long ago I would have shot Wicked an email and asked him if he needed this.  Now I don't know what to do with it.  Maybe Dimwit will want it, I owe him anyway.

Bad scan, bad, bad, scan.  Other than that, what you need to know about this card is that it is a refractor and it is numbered to 75.  I have a destination in mind for this card already.  I have some boxing cards that need to be sent north, this will make a good addition to that package.  (By the way, Dennis if you are reading this your not going to get your package until mid January or so.  I'm not fighting the lines at the PO before Christmas and I'm out of town afterwards. Sorry about that)

Not long ago I wrote many many posts about how nobody ever sends me Nomar cards. It was nothing to get 100 early 2000s Red Sox in the mail and not a single one of them be Nomar.  I guess he has been retired long enough now that people are no longer hording his cards because I have got quite a few this year. I didn't scan them but Daniel sent me a bunch with the micro cards I posted yesterday.  Brad sent me this cool insert from one of the many years of Ultra.

The very first Bowman Chrome card I received this year happens to be an insert.  Big Papi with the SS heir apparent Xander Bogarts.   It is supposed to commemorate Ortiz as a major league all star and Bogarts as a miner league all star but that isn't what I see.  I see card with a guy with Z and a guy with a X in his name on the same card.  I don't know every card ever made but I kind of doubt there are many Z/X combo cards out there.

Lastly Brad sent a bunch of Archive Red Sox stuff.  I thought that Archives was just Ehhh but the inserts are great.  The 77 Cloth Design, 67 Sticker Design, and the 69 Deckle Edge are all solid inserts that I like alot.  The Boggs reprint is pretty lazy but I don't expect to like everything Topps makes.I'm pretty close to having all the different Archives Red Sox inserts now.  I only need the following to have them all:

2012 Archives 1977 Cloth
77C-JE Jacoby Ellsbury

2012 Topps Archives 1967 Topps Stickers
67S-CY Carl Yastrzemski

2012 Topps Archives 1958 Combos
58-YE Carl Yastrzemski
58-JE Jacoby Ellsbury



There are not many sets out there that I have the whole team set and every single team insert too.  With a little help I may be able to knock them all off.

Once again, Thanks Brad.

Oddball Size Storage Solution

Recently I got a package from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop.  In it was a whole bunch of 1992 Topps Micro cards.  Once I got them I didn't know how to store the things.  They were too small for pages and they don't store right in a monster box.  Luckily he included an A&G Mini with them and I noticed the Micro cards were as long as an A&G mini is wide.  So here is what I came up with.  

That is a 15 card mini page with 3 micro cards in each slot.  They fit perfect.  So now I can put them in my binder with my other 1992 cards.  If anyone has #3 Jeff Reardon Record Breaker or #734 Scott Hatteberg please let me know, they are the last two I need for the 1992 Team Set.

Thanks for all the great cards you sent Daniel.  I love going through a package of cards where I finish off multiple team sets and not get a single double.

That Damn Night Owl

**Note to all - I wrote this post in March.  It was originally going to be a smart ass post from a note I got in a package from Night Owl.  I thought it was a funny idea at first but abandoned it midpost because I thought I sounded kinda dickish. Seven months later I left a 350+ word comment on Greg's blog and he said I should be writing my own blog.  So dickish or not here is my unfinished post from March.

***You will notice some of the stuff is pretty dated

So Night Owl thinks that get me to end my month long sojern from blogging with a note attached to some cards?

Surely he must know that writing doesn't come as easy to us all as it does to the Blogger of The Year.  Not all of us can knock out a string of epic posts day after day for months on end. 

Greg thought he could get a trade post out of me by sending some cards but instead of a trade post with all the great stuff he sent me you are getting an Anti-Night Owl Trade Post.  You will not see any of the stuff from Greg.  It is already marked off the checklist and filed away in binders and boxes.


So here are a bunch of trades from not Night Owl.

 Greg can knock out a post when is sickly and this guy can just "mail it in" and come up with one of the most epic posts ever.  He has kind of went to the horses lately though.  Greg, do you want to see a note that gets your cards posted.


HERE'S SOME SAWK GOT NO PONIES FOR YOU!   Y U MO LIYK HOARSES?  enjoy!

Dayf offered to make me a pony sketch card and I declined.  I get enough ponies from my 5 year old daughter.  Umm... not that only 5 year old girls should like ponies... but... well back to cards!

Dayf sent a buch of stuff. 

 I hate to admit I still need 94 Leaf cards but I do.  I need one less now.

Greenwell is one of the players that made me start liking the Red Sox back in the late 80s.  Greenwell, Burks, and Benzinger.  I didn't even know why I liked them only that I had lots and lots of cards of them.  I guess you have to start somewhere.

 A short printed 2011 A&G. he has left me only needing one more.  (Lars Anderson....hint...hint...)

 Speaking of 2011 A&G Lars Anderson Dayf sent me the mini.  Always strange to get the mini before the regular one.

I snagged the new Phillies closer from him with a comment.  He was trading Paps off with a bunch of other cards buut was nice enough to set him aside for me and give the option of another player to go with the rest of the trade stack.  Good for me.

I love getting WIlliams cards.  I have wanted this one for a while and was happily surprised to get it in the package.  Dayf has sent me Williams cards multiple times now.  Let me check that Night Owl package... nope no Williams there.

I'm going to miss Wake if he doesn't come back this year.  (and it looks like he won't)  I think they should sign him to ne the guy that makes a start when a regular gets hurt or comes in to mop up.  I know everyone bashes him for how long it took him to get that 200th win.  How soon they forget that twice while he was at 199 he had the lead only to have Bard drop it for him.

***See what I mean by dated

Will anyone sign Manny for half the season?  To bad we can't take him for the first 50 games while CC sits on his but and collects big fat paychecks and then let Manny sit the back half of the season.

***We all know how this turned out...

The first Wal-Mart blaster I ever bought was Fleer Tradition.  I only pulled one Red Sox and it was a League Leader card.  I had never heard of SPs in the base set before and this set was full of them. 

I have never bought a pack of Opening Day.  You would think I would have all the 2005 ones since they had just won the World Series and this was one of the first sets out in 2005 but I never bought any and still need most of them.

This Nolan Ryan came from Royals and Randoms.  It was thrown in as an extra with all the cards I got in his giveaway "thingy".  I don't know what kind of give-away to call it but it was pretty cool.  (even though some non-Red Sox collectors scooped up most of the Red Sox at the start)  Why post a card from Royals and Randoms and not Night Owl? Because Nolan cards are great Trade Bait so if you want him let me know. 

**Already gone.  I didn't trade it I got almost 2000 Credits for it on Listia.

It was great to see a few posts from The Collective Troll a awhile back.  I was even happier to see a package from him in the mail.  Why post Troll cards and not Owl cards?  Vintage, Minis, and Shininess!!!

The best packages are filled with Vintage.  Marck is working on the 63 set and must have had some doubles.  One mans doubles are another mans binder fillers.

Monbouquette is almost as long as Saltalamacchi.  I never saw him play but I'll always remember him because he is the last card I need for my 1960 team set.  He has been the last one I needed for well over a year.  At some point I need to break down and just buy it online.

**Found that last 60 Topps card at a show in July for $4.

I tried to trade for this card on the Diamond Site like 90 times with no luck. 

This one I did have luck trading for on the Diamond Site.  He will now be trade fodder for something else I need. 

At one point I wasn't going to chase Bordered A&G Minis.  I even traded one or two off.  But then I got enough of them that I had to add them to the list and start chasing them. 

I read somewhere that Pesky is in bad health.  Get well soon Johnny!!

***RIP Johnny Pesky

I always want to call these sparkle cards but then I remember those dumb ass cards with a single spot of them that is airbrushed as a sparkle.  These are called something else but they are way better than the shiny spot cards.

I'm going to guess that Night Owl has a thing for these with his affection to all things color.  Even a color blind guy like me appreciates them.

Do you like Serial Numbered cards?  Well Robert of Serial Numbered Insanity does.  I sent him a bunch of numbered cards, mostly Red Sox doubles, and he sent me some stuff I needed. 

 I love the black bordered O-Pee-Chee.  I don't know why because I hate all the black bordered Bowman cards.

Not your run of the mill Heritage. Chrome Heritage.

Robert sacrificed this from his serial numbered set in trade for other serial numbered cards.

**At this point I said Greg isn't going to think this is funny and quit writing.  I have no idea what is was Greg sent me in that package so long ago.  I'm sure it was some great stuff because he always checks my wantlist before sending anything.  

So Greg, thanks for the cards and sorry for being a dick.

Cards for Bobbleheads (found in my draft folder from July)

My kids collect D-Back bobbleheads so I take them to bobblehead games.  This means I get one too.  I traded my Kirk Gibson bobblehead to Dodgerbobble for some cards.

I was excited to get these 90 Bowman cards.  Yes 90 Bowman is one of the ugliest sets of all time but I was happy cause these two cards finished off the team set for me.  I am always incredibly excited to knock off a team set.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill Finest card.  This is actually a refractor.  I love shiny even though my scanner doesn't.

Speaking of shiny and Finest here are some X/Atomic/Whateever they call them Refractors.  This isn't something that I would normally seek out but I like getting them in packages just the same.  Ironically I received these about the same time Jacoby and Crawford returned from the DL.

I'm not sure exactly what is going on in the Archives In Action Jacoby card.  He is sliding into home but is the ball already in the catchers glove?  Why is the catchers mask all askew?  Was he safe or out?

This card is cooler than the scan.  I had the scanner set to 2.5x3.5 but this card was a little smaller than that so it got scanner garbage all around it.  It is a realy nice card out of the Archices set.  I really like all the inserts out of Archives and I am going to chase all the Red Sox.  These two made a good dent in my list.

Thanks for the cards Joshua!!

A Little Help From My Friends

This year has been a hectic one for my Bill Virdon player collection.  After years of no cards of him being produced except Heritage Buyback cards, 2012 has become the year of Virdon autos.  Heritage released two of them and Tri Star has released 4 that I know of.

Blue Auto #/10
Red Auto #/5
Bronx Edition #/5
Purple Auto #/1

(There could be other serial numbered ones in Bronx Edition.  I submitted an email to TriStar but I haven't got a response from them yet to verify)  **see below

The TriStar cards are ugly frankencuts but I still need them because...  because... Well, just because Dammit!!

When the TriStar 1/1 showed up on eBay I was too broke to buy it.  I though that this is where my player collection would fall apart.  After a plee to the blogging community three bloggers offered to help me out by purchasing it for me and letting me pay them back in trade.  Brad of Brad's Blog won the eBay auction for my newest Virdon 1/1.

It isn't the prettiest card in the world and I have no idea why they cut the round edges on the left and squared off the right but I still love that it didn't get away thanks to Brad.  He pretty much saved my Virdon collection.


**I have now received the following response from TriStar:

Status: New

Department: Customer Service
Subject: 2012 Signa-Cuts Bronx Edition
Adam, Yes there are various levels of Bill Virdon in our BRONX SignaCuts product. The complete checklist can be found at www.signacuts.com. Thank you for your support and business. Sincerely, TRISTAR Team

Sincerely,

TRISTAR Productions.com


***I still don't know what other Bronx Edition seral numbers there are besides the /5.  The Signacuts.com stie the say to look at only shows 2010 and 2011 no 2012.  I guess I'll just keep my eyes open.

A Plea to my blogging brethren

As most of you know I am a Bill Virdon Super Collector.  Right now there is a Virdon 1/1 on eBay and I am totally out of money.  If someone will bid on it and win I will trade them some combination of the following:

89 Score Barry Sanders RC
89 Score Barry Sanders RC (yes I have 2)
71 Johnny Unitas
84 Dan Marino RC
360 different Marino cards from all years.
84 John Elway RC
78 Eddie Murry RC
62 Topps Hank Aaron
62 Topps Babe Ruth
lots of Red Sox relic cards 
I still have all these 71 Topps also
I'm sure I can come up with some other stuff that you may like also.

If anyone can help me out please let me know.

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.

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.

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!!