A trade 11 years in the making!

This week I got a surprise package from Dennis over at, Too Many Verlanders. Dennis and I have been sending cards back and forth to each other for a long time. I checked and it's been over 10 years. The earliest documented trade between us I could find was in December of 2012. That's pretty incredible. 

I consider Dennis a friend and we've never met in person. We've known each other for more than a decade.   I've sent him Tigers cards and he's sent me some awesome D-Backs cards. We also share a love of collecting Ken Griffey Jr. and it was Dennis that sent me the Great Griffey Giving Box back in 2017. That was such a cool project the the Junior Junkie initiated.

Here are the D-Backs cards that Dennis sent me this time. Some older and some newer.

Also included were some of the Pinnacle photos of the Diamondbacks. These come in packs of 8 and there are 16 here, so two packs worth. But what I found interesting is that there are 18 photos per team. Not sure why they wouldn't have done it evenly. 9 photos per pack and it would have been 2 packs for the set. Or expand it to 24 and have it be three packs of 8. just seems weird. But these photos are really cool! I have some of the Mariners, but didn't have any of the D-Backs before this.

Dennis is also on TCDB. I only have a small portion of my collection on TCDB, but he was able to send me some Heritage cards I need to complete a couple of sets. 

Thank you Dennis! Thank you for the cards and thank you for your friendship these past 11+ years!

Junk Wax 2.0 or the greatest thing ever!

I did something recently that I hadn't done in 30 years! I bought cards at Costco. As a kid, I remember going with my parents to the big warehouse stores like Price Club and PACE, which were I think bought out by Costco and Sam's Club, and buying boxes of cards. It's been a long time though. We have a Sam's Club membership, but when I found out Costco was selling baseball cards I had to get myself a membership.

Check out the video and make sure you are subscribed to my YouTube channel. I'm going to be doing a BIG contest on YouTube that you will want to be part of. I'm going to offer up some BIG cards as prizes. I've given away a 1955 Topps Hank Aaron and a 1968 Topps Johnny Bench rookie card on the blog before and these prizes might exceed those, so you definitely want to be subscribed.

Some postcards...wait, no...some Post cards!

I went to my LCS this weekend and they had a couple of stacks of Post cards from 1961 and 1962. No huge names, but I picked out a few to add to my collection.

Here are the 1961 cards. These cards are in pretty rough shape. These cards are all hand cut, but some are certainly better than others, but the Boyer looks like it was cut out by a 4 year old.

Here are the 1962 cards.

The Maury Wills is still a few years before he would get his first official Topps card and 1 year before his 1963 Fleer rookie card, but it's his second Post card.

The Groat and Davis cards are cut pretty decent. I actually don't mind these cards being mis-cut. It reminds me of where they came from. 

Growing up I remember getting cards from cereal boxes, but they were inside the boxes and were in cellophane wrappers. These cards were printing on the outside of the actual coral box. They had to survive the packaging process, then get shipped to stores, then get loaded onto shelves, get thrown into shopping carts, make there way through the checkout process, get bagged and carried to the car and then from the car into the house. A week or more worth of breakfasts and then a child would get the opportunity to cut them out and then do what kids did with cards back in 1961 and 1962. It's a wonder that there are any of these cards in decent condition at all!

Before Pacific there was a 1975 Phoenix Giants Team Set

When I think about Pacific cards I typically think about the Ken Griffey Jr. candy bar from 1989, Nolan Ryan sets from the early 1990's, or a variety of innovative, yet under appreciated brands from the mid to late 1990's. 

Mike Cramer was responsible for the Pacific brand and he just wrote a book about his life and his company, Pacific. The book is called Cramer's Choice. It's available on Amazon. You can buy it by clicking here. (This is an affiliate link, so if you click and buy it, I will get a small commission)

I've listened to several podcasts where they have interviewed Cramer and have been fascinated by his story. One of the things that he shared and it is discussed in the book is the first set of cards he ever produced.

It was a 1975 minor league team set for the Phoenix Giants. Cramer lived in Phoenix at the time and he approached the team and created a set sponsored by Circle K; the gas station and convince store. It's a 26 cards set that is pretty basic by today's standards, but it got Cramer's foot in the door and it also allowed him to advertise a collectors club here in Arizona that he started as he produced a card of himself with information about the Arizona Sports Collectors Association (ASCA).

After hearing about the set, I went on eBay and picked up a set for under $10 shipped.

Here's a look at the set, including the one and only card ever made of Michael Cramer.

Here is the back of the Manager card, former All-Star, Rocky Bridges.

This is the back of one of the player cards. I picked Greg Minton because he had a lengthy MLB career.

Here is the back of the Cramer card.

I need to look into the ASCA and see if it still exists in any form or fashion. Have you ever been a part of a collecting club?

Let's giveaway some baseball cards!

***Contest is closed! Thank you to everyone that participated and congrats to the winners!***

As part of coming back to the blog-o-sphere, I want to do a giveaway. I recently picked up some 1995 Score Platinum Team Set cards from a card show and I want to share them with you all! Truth be told, these are commons, but they are beautiful cards and aren't super common. 

To get the Platinum Team Set you had to collect all of the Gold Rush parallel cards from a particular team and then send them all in with a Platinum Redemption Card that was seeded 1:36 packs. Score would then send you a Platinum Team set back along with you Gold Rush cards.

So let's giveaway some cards. I have 48 cards split between 7 different teams. The first three people that comment below with one of the teams will get up to 6 cards from that team via a PWE. U.S. only. 

Good luck!

Truly, One in a Million

I've had a YouTube channel for years. My channel name was Daniel Wilson. Pretty clever...I know. I recently started talking with my good friend Derek about changing some things up and taking my YouTube channel up a notch. 

I started with a name change. I am now Cases Loaded with Dan Wilson. @cases.loaded Now that one is actually somewhat clever. My friend took some pictures and created the artwork for my channel page.

We then went to work on a video. We started with a YouTube Short about Ron LeFlore. His story was on my mind when I was talking to my friend about ideas and this is what we came up with. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

TTM Fuel - 1973 Topps

Back in late September I purchased a two card lot off of X (formerly Twitter) during a weekly vintage baseball card thread. 

I spent $4 shipped on these two 1973 cards. I already have them both, but I have big plans for one of them.

First up is this Steve Garvey card. Wait it says Steve Garvey on the card, but we can plainly see the back of the jersey says Parker. Oh, the player that Parker (Wes Parker) is in front of is indeed Steve Garvey. Between Parker and the shadow, you can't really make out much of Garvey's face at all.

This card is a prime example of the "unique" photography that Topps used in the 1973 set.

I actually love this card though. It's a different shot that you don't see all that often and certainly didn't see if much before this card was produced in 1973. 

We also get to see Garvey approaching home plate after a home run and him being congratulated by his teammate Wes Parker. 

I am a big Wes Parker fan. He has a tremendous story and was an excellent fielder. I won't give away too much on this post because I know I have blogged about him before. 

You can also notice that this card lists Steve Garvey's position as 3rd Base. When you think of Garvey you probably think of him as a 1st baseman. Wes Parker played 1st base and as I mentioned, he was quite the defensive first baseman, so Garvey didn't take over first base until Parker retired, which was actually after the 1972 season. So by the time this card was making its way into the hands of baseball card collectors in 1973, Garvey had actually taken over for Parker at first base.

But the Garvey card was not the reason I bought the lot. I bought it for this card. A 1973 Topps Rich "Goose" Gossage rookie card. 

The front of the card is not in great shape, but it's not too bad. The back of the card has some staining, like it may have been glued, but there isn't any paper loss, so it's not too bad either. A couple bucks for a vintage Hall of Fame rookie card is going to get my attention 7 days a week!

I already have the card, but at this price, again just $4 shipped for the two cards, I pulled the trigger so I can send this card to Goose to get signed TTM (Through The Mail). I try not to send cards TTM that I would be devastated if it didn't come back or came back damaged. This card is perfect because it's already damaged and it only cost me a couple bucks.

I'll keep you all posted when I get it back signed (fingers crossed).

Come to think of it, Garvey also signs TTM. I just might send his card out as well. 

Do you collect autographs TTM? Have you ever gotten back Gossage or Garvey? Let me know!

Butylated Hydroxytoluene

It's been a while, but I am still here and still going strong in the hobby. I have been more active on YouTube than on my blog, but want to get back into blogging because this is such an awesome community and I have known many of you for a decade or more.

I am also active on Twitter and participate regularly in a Sunday giveaway thread. I give away cards there and claim cards and other items. I have seen a few books being offered up lately and I recently claimed a couple of Topps wax wrappers.

The first one is from 1979. How cool is that? Love the yellow with the blue. Love the old school Topps logo. 

There are a couple different variations of the 1979 wrapper in regards to the offer on the back. Let's turn this sideways and get a better look.

Initially the 1978 copyright date through me off a little because this is a 1979 Topps wrapper. Maybe they produced this particular wrapper in 1978 in preparation for the 1979 Topps being sold early that year. Good for Topps on being working ahead back in the late 1970's.

We also get the ingredient list for the gum.

The offer is for all 26 Team Checklist Cards. 50 cents and 1 wrapper would get you all 26 cards, which seams like a pretty good deal. Too bad the offer expired on 12/31/79.

In the same Twitter, or I guess I should say, X, giveaway I got a 1980 Topps wrapper as well. Similar to the 1974 and 1976 designs, this 1980 wrapper would be the start of 11 years of very similar wrapper designs at least for the front of a regular wax pack. The major difference each year would just be the colors (typically they were blue, green or red) with wrappers after 1982 having the actual year on the front of the pack as well.

 I love the 25 cent price tag on the pack. I'm old and both of these packs are from before I was born, so they are super old. I was born in 1981, so just a year later, but still. I didn't start buying packs until 1988 I think and I want to say they were probably 40 cents each. I think by 1990 they were 50 cents each. I could be wrong. Let me know.

Okay. Let's rotate the wrapper and take a look at the information that would have been on the back.

By 1980 Topps was no longer working ahead as they have a 1980 copyright date as opposed to the 1979 pack that had a 1978 copyright date. Again, we get the ingredients for the gum, which includes "BHT (TO MAINTAIN FRESHNESS). So I had to look it up and BHT stands for Butylated Hydroxytoluene, which is an antioxidant so it does help foods stay fresher longer.

The offer on the back is again for the Team Checklist Cards. Still 50 cents and 1 wrapper. I am perplexed by the picture. Were the 26 Team Checklist Cards sent in sheets and you had to cut them out? If you were collecting at this time and know, please comment below to let me know. 

I have a nice Topps wrapper collection. I currently have 1974 - 1977, 1979 - 1983, and 1985 - 1991 so I am just missing 1978 and 1984. I'm just collecting one wrapper from each year and not focusing on getting all of the different variations. 

Do you collect wrappers?

If you happen to have an extra 1978 or 1984 Topps wax wrapper, let me know. 

Topps Player Runs

I made it to two different card shops this past Saturday. Here is a look at my haul.

Some good variety here. Early to mid 1960's through present day. I got some cards (Walt Alston, Vern Law and Wally Moon)for a few Topps Player Runs that I am working on. There are some newere Paul Goldschmidt cards that I'll be able to add to my Goldschmidt PC. The bulk of the cards you see here are from dime boxes. There was also a pack of 1994 Score Series 2 that I got for free. I made a YouTube video about the cards for the Topps Player Runs and the 1994 Score pack.

If you're interested in the duplicate Walt Alston cards and have something to trade, preferably any of the Alston cards I'm missing, let me know. Thanks!

TCDB Trade with Too Many Verlanders

I've been way more active on youTube lately, but I still browse the blogosphere often. For some reason, my laptop won't allow me to comment though, which is super annoying. Anyways, Dennis, over at Too Many Verlanders, sent me a package recently. I have started using TCDB this year to track my collection and I believe Dennis is the first person to look at my TCDB page before sending me cards. I love all cards, but it was nice that pretty much all of the D-Backs cards Dennis sent were needs for my D-Backs collection. Let's take a look at what Dennis sent. First up are some 2022 Topps Heritage D-Backs cards I needed.

Next up are a few Rnady Johnson cards, including a sweet 2001 Studio jersey card. I needed the Leaf card as well. I have the Upper Deck card, but I have a seperate binder for Randy Johnson, so I probably need this one for the team set. I will have to double check.

Up next are a random assortment of D-Backs cards, but they are all cards I needed. No dups!

Finally, there was a stack of 25 different 2020 Topps Heritage cards. Now I am collecting this set, but I don't have my needs updated on TCDB and I don't believe I have posted them anywhere. So Dennis, if these were sent to me by accident, let me know. If not, I do need some of them and I will put the others to good use.

Thank you so much Dennis for the awesome cards! Super glad to finally be on the TCDB bandwagon. I still have a long ways to go. I know a few other bloggers have recently posted about getting on TCDB. How about you? Are you on TCDB. If so, let me know your username and I will add you as a friend. I am dkwilson2430 on TCDB.

Funerals can get you thinking.

The entire month of January came and went without a single blog post from me. I have been more active on YouTube recently, but I don't want to let any more time go by without posting here. 

Life is crazy busy right now. My youngest is playing flag football through a local rec league right now and is still on a club baseball team. My middle son is playing basketball through a local rec league and has been going to open gym for volleyball at his high school. Tryouts are this week. My oldest finally got cleared to return to baseball after about 11 months (he tore his ACL). He has been practicing with the team since returning to school in January after the winter break and has been staying after practice to hit in the cages or will go to an indoor batting cage if he has free time. Tryouts for baseball are next week. He missed his entire Sophomore season due to his ACL and has been working hard to get back into baseball shape and is hoping to make Varsity, but will be happy on JV. 

Two weeks ago I went to northern California for my great uncle's funeral. My sister and I drove up and back. With stops, it was 14-15 hours each way, so we drove up on Tuesday, Wednesday was the funeral, and then we drove home on Thursday. Overall, it was a really nice trip. I enjoyed the time with my sister. We stayed with an aunt and uncle, which was really nice. Got to see a couple of cousins and another uncle at the funeral that I don't see very often. The actual service was nice. There was a brief program at the cemetery and then we went to a church for a service and luncheon. My grandparents and my great uncle and his wife were best friends and so whenever we would go to my grandparents each summer, they would be there as well, but he was 94 and I'm 41, so by the time I was born he was already 53 years old and by the time I was 10, he would have been 63 or 64 years old, so it was interesting to learn a bit about him as a child and younger adult through a video of pictures of him throughout his life. 

My first cousin once removed (pretty sure I got that right) is the one that planned the service. She is my great uncle's daughter. She did something that I thought was fantastic. My great uncle loved putting together model airplanes. He had tons of them that he had put together over the years. So at the luncheon, they had a bunch of his model airplanes out on the tables as centerpieces and everyone was encouraged to take one home with them as a memento. I absolutely love this idea! What a great way for each person to remember him.

This got me thinking and at my funeral I want there to be baseball cards on display and I want everyone to be able to take one home to remember me by. Now I don't plan on giving away my Hank Aaron or Nolan Ryan rookie cards this way, but there are plenty of awesome cards that are meaningful to me that could be given away in this manner. For example, how about the 1999 Topps reprint of the Nolan Ryan rookie card symbolic of my run of Nolan Ryan playing day Topps cards or this 2001 Fleer Platinum Postseason Glory card featuring Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling holding up the 2001 World Series trophy for my Arizona Diamondbacks.

These are the perfect types of cards that I think would be perfect to give away at my funeral and then best part is I have another 50+ years to pick them all out. I might even write something up about each card and why it's meaningful to me to be included. It should be fun!

Let me know what you think about my idea!