Card of the Day: 2005 Donruss Elite Passing the Torch #PT-20 Mark Prior 0341/1000

I know Mark Prior probably isn't in a lot of people's player collection anymore, but when it comes to blue shininess at this magnitude, I probably still would have bought it if there was cloned sheep or even Obama on it! Is it blue because it's a Cubs card? Are there shiny yellow A's cards and shiny teal Marlins cards too?! I must find out..


Last I heard was that he's a free agent after he played minor league ball for the Padres all last year without getting called up. Is he done for?

2009 Topps 206 Retail Pack Rip HIT!

I love it when there's a reason, any reason, to stop at the supermarket to pick up bread, milk or whatever. This particular time, my wife ran in and grabbed me a pack along with the groceries. She seems to have some kind of intuition with picking packs and she bought my last retail pack that had a hit in it. These are scans of my first 206 pack, and I was thrilled with this nice little hit which I've put on the bottom here.


This Johnny Mize is sweet but it makes me think, is this my first and only Johnny Mize card?





This is the standard Piedmont back mini. All of the different mini back's variations and rarities make ripping this set a ton of fun! My lucky charm wife bought my third and latest pack of this stuff for me yesterday and inside was a Cycle back mini of Cliff Lee #'d to 99! I'll get a pic up here soon.


And here's the big hit! Mat Gamel. Don't know who this guy is yet but I'll be watching for him now.

Trade Bait Scans #1 and 2

This is the first of hopefully many trade bait scans that I'll be putting up. Be sure and click the scans for a closer look. Hopefully someone will see something that they like. If you do, send me an email at danielchairet@gmail.com with an offer. If you like, I can even set something aside for a future trade, or even start a stack for you since I plan on posting lots more bait. Anyways, here's my set needs list. I also collect any Darryl Strawberry, Ichiro and Portland Trail Blazer cards. If you have none of that and really want to trade, try me with an offer, I'm pretty open. My email is danielchairet@gmail.com.



1. 2009 Topps American Heritage American Heroes Edition Chrome #C55 Women's Suffrage
2. 2008 Donruss Americana II Proof #112 S/N 245/250 Robert Wagner
3. 2008 Donruss Threads Retail Green #129 S/N 053/200 Derek Anderson
4. 2008-09 Upper Deck First Edition UD Legends #206 Michael Jordan
5. 1970 Topps #330 Lou Brock
6. 1970 Topps #1 World Champions
7. 2008 Topps #7 Mickey Mantle
8. 1984 Fleer #447 Rickey Henderson
9. 1970 Topps #10 Carl Yastrzemski


10. 2008 Topps Gold #27 S/N 0951/2008 Bob Melvin
11. 2009 Topps Gold #384 S/N 0115/2009 Bob Melvin
12. 1969 Topps #3 1968 AL RBI Leaders Ken Harrelson, Frank Howard, Jim Northrup
13-16. 1969 Topps #4 1968 NL RBI Leaders Willie McCovey, Ron Santo, Billy Williams
17. 1969 Topps #12 1968 NL Strikeout Leaders Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins, Bill Singer
18. 1969 Topps #10 1968 NL Pitching Leaders Juan Marichal, Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins

Card of the Day: 1985 Drake's #30 Darryl Strawberry

It had been awhile since I had added any cards to my Darryl Strawberry collection, so while browsing on eBay I decided on this oddball. I was the only bidder and won it for only 1¢ + 99¢ shipping. 4 days later, it arrived from the seller in a Christmas card! Merry Christmas to me! I've seen a Strawberry card from a 1983 set but didn't know there were others. Turns out they released sets annually from 1980 to 1988, plus one in the 50's, I think. The back of this one is the same as the Topps base set from the same year, except for the Drake's logo.

Sportlots Success Part 2 - The Ichiros

Here's the Ichiros I picked up through Sportlots.com last week. Nothing spectacular. He's only the second athlete I've chosen for a player collection after Darryl Strawberry, and I'm thinking Ichiro should be more fun because he's a current player. Opening packs will have even more of a thrill hoping to pull an Ichiro.


This one is the Target exclusive retro logo grey-back. Are all the Target retros grey-backed or is this a parallel?


And here's the Walmart dark version.


Grey-back means exactly that. They're printed on the old fashioned card stock that Topps stopped using for their flagship sets after 1991.


I pulled a Roy Oswalt of one of these a while back and I really liked it. I think its the rainbow foil that gets me.




And finally, the Goodwin. There must be a nighttime version because the listing specified "day".

Stay tuned for the third and final part of my Sportlots finds featuring Clyde "The Glide" Drexler!

Sportlots Success! Part 1

First off, can anyone tell me if these images are sized ok on this page? I'm trying to blog from my phone and I'm not sure how they really look.

Last week I finally placed my first order on Sportlots.com and I was able to complete 3 sets, 2008 Upper Deck X, 2000 Skybox Metal and 1995 Pinnacle Series 1. These 3 were just a few of the 10 or so I needed to complete the set. It took 3 half-price blasters and a handful of 99¢ packs from the supermarket. The last blaster I bought only gave me two base cards I needed, I was pissed.



A few months ago, I busted a cheap hobby box of these I found on eBay and only needed two more to finish the base set.



Oh wow. Almost two years ago, when I just got back into collecting, I was checking Craigslist daily for listings of free cards, and found this guy 15 miles away with a huge stack of 5000 count boxes to give away and I came away with 3! They were full of cards from the mid 90's like Pinnacle, Score and Upper Deck. This was the only one missing from this set.

Soon, I'll post the Ichiro and Drexler cards I picked up along with these.

My Glorious Return?

Well I think I've found a way to start sharing my collecting addiction with the blogging world once again! I still don't have web access on my computer, but today I upgraded from my Blackberry Pearl to this new MyTouch thing from Android. Very nice so far. Finally I have something that can work the internet pretty decently, even though the browser won't open the stupid keyboard on Blogger's "New Post" screen, but there's an app for that! Along with Photobucket's app, I think I can get by without too much toil. We shall see.
A lot has happened since I last posted. The damned won the World Series, and.. other stuff. I've been buying a lot of Updates and Highlights, or is it Highlights and Updates? Also American Heritage Heroes Edition and (crap, this app just crashed) '08 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes. I also just placed my first order on Sportlots.com to complete my first hand collated sets since I decided I was a set collector back in January! Yeah, that's sad but I'm poor. Those sets are '08 Upper Deck X (poor people LIKE X!) and 2000 Skybox Metal. I'd like to become more involved in trading, so I'll be posting better trade bait from now on. I still have my haves and wants posted down there on the right, but the for trade list is pretty much just a list of my doubles, few hits, if any. Well, let's see if this thing crashes again.

Hiatus

Once again I'm forced to place my blog on hiatus until further notice. I'm posting this from my blackberry which, nice as they are, are not the ideal blogging tools, but right now is my only access to the interwebs. With as much as I love sharing my collecting experience on this blog, I can definitely tell you I'll be back as soon as I get the chance. That goes for this and my 1969 Topps blog. And once again, I will be updating my want and trade lists regularly, just send me a line if you're looking to swap '09 Topps, '09 Allen & Ginter, American Heritage, '08 UD X or '09 Score football.

Barter: Care of Night Owl Cards

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about my first packs of Goodwin and pulled a nice Cory Wade auto. It quickly caught the eye of Night Owl at Night Owl Cards and we worked out a quick trade. I ended up sending him a few more Dodgers on his needs list, and he knocked off a bunch of cards off my '09 Topps and '69 Topps needs lists. Thanks night owl! I'll just highlight a few of my favorites or cards of recent playoff significance. The first one here shows Brian Fuentes in his Rockies uni. He played for the Angels this year and did a pretty good job, racking up a career high 48 saves. He's got a pretty important role for the halos right about now.

Lincecum put on another outstanding show this year. This guy maintained a 2.48 ERA and struck out 261. About the same as last year with a 2.62 ERA and 265 K's. One stat that stuck out were the walks.. only 68 this year as opposed to 84 in '08. That's experience and even more control starting to show. It's just too bad he couldn't get some post season experience under his belt this year. Maybe his Giants can pull it together next year.

We'll probably be seeing a lot of this guy in the next few weeks. Let's see if he's got what it takes to be a Yankee in the post season.

Lou's Cubbies finished 7.5 games behind the Cardinals this year. Tough competition.

Adam had an incredible year posting a 19-8 record with only a 2.63 ERA. Adam, Chris and Albert might just be unstoppable this year.

Ryan only had a .241 AVG this year, pushing him down the Rockies depth chart to the bench.

Juan had a better year this time, staying healthy and consistent.

No playoffs for Rios again, but did you know he was acquired by the White Sox a couple of months ago?

No post season for these guys either. I honestly thought they were a sure thing before their slide into disappointment.

He also sent me 10 1969 Topps cards I needed for my set. Only 9 would fit on my scanner.

2009 Topps American Heritage American Heroes Edition - 2 Pack Break

I'm so glad Topps made a sequel to American Heritage! I love history in trading cards and the use of old Topps designs really adds to my love of these sets!

Pack 1. This one made me think as soon as I saw it. The sixth president in a "photograph"? Yes, it was what was called a "dagguereotype" which was taken in 1843. It has obviously had the color added to it since then. Very cool!

This floored me as soon as I saw it! I was super excited at the possibility of pulling a space relic from this set, but didn't have my hopes up, especially from only my second pack which was retail! Thanks to my lucky charm wife who pulled this pack out of a gravity feeder for me at the grocery store!

I love this insert set! Definitely a step up from the American Presidents inserts from the first set which are nice, but overdone and unnecessary. Also pulled #17 Charles Weltner, #99 Ralph Ellison and #111 Seneca Falls Convention. End pack 1.

While 1989 Topps wasn't the greatest looking set, it was one of the bigger sets of my childhood collection. So, these really hit home with me.

Another great insert set. I've seen this picture before though.. and it had the Yankees logo on the cap! Here it is. Now this photo is property of the Library of Congress and has no restrictions on it. Did Topps get this airbrushed photo from scanning some Post Cereal card from 1990 or something, or does Topps have to buy a licence for every set they put out and they just didn't feel like it for this set?

Another Medal of Honor insert. Also pulled #14 Claiborne Pell, #100 Carl Sagan and #120 Battle of the Bulge. End pack 2.

Looking forward to putting together the whole set with the insert sets too! Space cards rock!

2010 Topps Baseball Revealed

I like the team brand script on the bottom.. should look real nice.

My First Custom Card, Darryl Strawberry

This is my first try at making my own custom card and I'm pretty happy with it. It took me 2 long nights with my limited knowledge of the GIMP application, but I'm getting faster with it. Any suggestions on the next player and also suggestions on the best way to print these out? I don't have a working printer right now so either a 1 hour photo place or a web lab would be best I think.

What do you think?

2009 Baseball Card of the Year: 5th Nomination

I would have nominated this one already had I owned it. I picked it up, along with the entire Rangers set off of eBay for a cheap way to knock some cards off of my checklist and also to feed the need to acquire my first Topps Wal-Mart Dark parallels, which I'm glad I got out of my system.

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington really looks like a great ballpark. It's hard to believe it's already 15 years old! The stadium in the background plus Murphy and Hamilton celebrating what looks to be a Rangers run.. all put together, this card just might be the best of the year.

Noms thus far:

1. Topps #559 Esteban German
2. Topps # 124 Reed Johnson
3. Topps # 7 Mickey Mantle
4. Topps Allen & Ginter # 18 Clyde Parris
5. Topps #614 David Murphy
   

My Rules:

1. Base cards only.
2. I will only pick from cards I own. Any cards I do not own are automatically DISqualified!
3. Focus will mostly be on photography. Design only plays a small part since this is base cards only.
4. I'll pick as many noms as I want.
5. You can suggest noms, but, see rule 2.
6. I don't know yet how the best card will be selected. (contest?)
7. The card subject must be about baseball and not the Milky Way or something like that.

Action Packed Braille Cards

I just spotted these on eBay and just had to share them here. Apparently, Action Packed released a few braille-backed parallel sets in their early 90's football releases. I am soooo tempted to pick one up for the oddball lover in me!

Here's a link to the Jim Plunkett. The seller also has several more ranging from 6 to 9 dollars each or sets of 6 for $25.

Card of the Day: 1993 Donruss Long Ball Leaders #LL11 Darryl Strawberry

I dug this out of one of my 5,000 count boxes the other day while I was scanning a few more Strawberry cards from my collection. I think I got this from the freebies Stats on the Back was giving away.

I'd never heard of this little 18 card set until I looked it up today. Beckett.com says the cards were "randomly inserted in 26-card magazine distributor packs". I don't even know what that means, really.

The back shows us a nice aerial shot of Dodger Stadium, which oddly is not the park where he hit the 460 ft. home run on which this card is based. Yeah, it would look funny to have Candlestick park on the back of a Dodger's Darryl Strawberry card, but the Dodger Stadium shot doesn't really make sense to me on this one. Hmm.. and why does it show him singling to right instead of long-balling?