Happy Halloween!

I found a few cards that remind me of Halloween.

Orange and Black

 

A spider

Random Card: 2002 Topps Paul O'Neil Ring Masters

I came accross this card today and thought it looked pretty cool. It's a 2002 Topps Ring Master insert card of Paul O'Neil. I checked my most recent Beckett (February 2010 issue) for the odds on this bad boy. It was from Series 1 and was inserted 1:25 Hobby, 1:5 HTA, and 1:16 Retail, so as you can see it was a fairly tough pull back in the day.

Trade with Home of the Toddfather

Tim, of the blog Home of the Toddfather, contacted me a while back about a card for my Cards Featuring Awards collection. He also offered a Jamie D'Antona jersey card. I found a few Todd Helton cards he needed and we arranged a small trade. I noticed that he had a 2010 Topps Opening Day Gerardo Parra Autograph listed on his Trade page and I mentioned it. He told me he would hold onto it for me, so I was surprised to see it in the package I got from him today. I owe you Tim! Here are the 3 cards that Tim sent me.

2011 Topps Brian McCann All-Star card featuring his 2010 All-Star MVP award!

2008 Bowman Futures Game Jersey Card of Jamie D'Antona

2010 Topps Opening Day Gerardo Parra Autograph - This card is AWESOME! When I saw it listed on his trade page I did a double take because I didn't even know this card existed!

My First and Only Weekly Recap Post

Last Sunday I forgot to post on my blog. After almost 300 days of consecutive days of posting, I got busy and forgot to post. So on Monday I posted a State of the Blog address and discussed how I would try to blog once a week going forward hoping that I would be able to provide more substantial posts if I just did a recap of the week. It's been 5 days since that post and I haven't posted during that time and I've come to the conclusion that I don't need to post once a week or once a day. I should post whenever I have the time and have material to post about. So this will be my first and only Weekly Recap Post.

Monday, October 22nd

TTM Success - Ron Cey

One of the best TTM signers out there, Ron signed this 1983 Donruss jumbo card for me in just 7 days.

 

Tuesday, October 23rd

I saw the trailor for the upcoming Iron Man 3 movie. I think the trailor looks good, but I wonder about the movie. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://video.disney.com/watch/iron-man-3-trailer-4cc733e57b658de229040997?cmp=NLC-CDE|irm|NewTrailer|Main|Primary|watchnewtrailer|102312|||synMovInTheatM|

Wednesday, October 24th

2012 World Series Game 1

I'm not surprised that the Giants won, but I am surprised at how it happened. I didn't think Verlander would struggle like he did and I would never have thought that Pablo Sandoval would hit 3 home runs or that Barry Zito would have pitched so well.

Thursday, October 25th

2012 World Series Game 2

Who would have thought that the high powered offense of the Detroit Tigers would be shutout? Even with a 2-0 score I still thought it was a good game to watch, with the play at the plate between Fielder and Posey in the second inning being the highlight for me.

 

Friday, October 26th

 

I was going through some boxes and came accross some pictures from Spring Traingings past. The pictures of the Mariners are probably from 2004 and the pictures of the Rangers are from 2002.

 

Here's the back of Jay Buhner's bald head. I was able to get him to sign a ball for me.

 

 

Paul Molitor was a great signer. I had him sign two balls for me. One with a 3000 hit inscription.

 

I'm in the grey sweatshirt (with my eyes closed) posing with John Olerud. I think that is Raul Ibanez sitting next to him.

 

Rafael Palmiero wasn't nice, but I did get him to sign a ball for me.

 

Here is the back of two great pitchers, Nolan Ryan and Orel Hershiser. I got Nolan to sign a ball for me and I had Orel sign a few things for me that year.

 

Here's a picture of A-Rod in his big black SUV. He stopped on his way out and I got him to sign a ball.

 

Saturday, October 27th

 

World Series Game 3

 

Hard to believe that the Giants are up 3-0 in the Series. I can't imagine that they'll sweep tonight, but I also wouldn't have thought that they would be up 3 games to 0, so I'll have to wait and see. I think the pitching matchup favors the Giants, with Cain going against Sherzer, but again I don't think the Giants will sweep especially since they are playing in Detroit.

 

State of the Blog

I didn't post yesterday. I had posted on my blog at least once a day since January 1st of this year. I didn't start the year off with a goal of posting every day, but it just happened and then a few months in, I didn't want to break the streak. It's not that I didn't have something to post about yesterday, because I did. It's because I got busy and forgot. But maybe it was for the best. I had already been thinking about only posting once a week. I think a weekly recap would be nice. I'm at a point now where I have a limited amount of time and funds to pursue hobbies, and so I felt like some of my posts were not up to my standards. I want to make sure that their is substance to my posts and that people enjoy them. I'm not sure that my post a day strategy was accomplishing those goals. So I'm going to try a weekly recap for the rest of the year and see how it goes. I will still read and comment on others blogs as often as possible, but I want to try a weekly recap post for my blog in an effort to stay relevant and interesting.

Oh, by the way, here is what I was going to post about yesterday. I got this in last week. I got it for $13.15 shipped. If you recall I picked up the version numbered to 99 a week or so ago. I got this one for my son for Christmas, but I don't really like the green. I think I might put it up on eBay and try to get another one numbered out of 99, because I like the colors better.

1992 Topps Micro Team Sets For Sale

I have a 1992 Topps Micro Factory Set that I am going to break up and sell by team. I've got the teams listed below. The price includes shipping. If the card is of more than one player, like the top prospects cards below, I'm going to include it with the team of the most prominent player, so the card below would go to the Braves. I will include the Record Breaker subset cards and the All-Star cards. The Mariners will not be for sale because I'm keeping them as a Griffey collector. There were 12 Gold parallels that came with the set. Again, I'm keeping the Griffey. The others will be included with the team sets. I took a look on eBay and the team sets there are priced between $5 - $9 each shipped without the Gold parallel cards, so hopefully these are a good deal.If you want more than 1 team then you can take off $0.50 for each additional team. Let me know if you're interested.

 

In case you're not familiar with Topps "micro" cards, I scanned 4 of them next to 2012 Topps Heritage card so you could see the difference.

American League
Baltimore Orioles - $3.50
Boston Red Sox - $5 - inludes Wade Boggs gold parallel card
Cleveland Indians - $3
Detroit Tigers - $4 - includes Cecil Fielder gold parallel card
Milwaukee Brewers - $3
New York Yankees - $5 - includes Don Mattingly gold parallel card
Toronto Blue Jays - $3
California Angels - $3
Chicago White Sox - $3.50
Kansas City Royals - $3
Minnesota Twins - $3.50
Oakland A's - $5.50 - includes Jose Canseco and Rickey henderson gold parallel cards
Texas Rangers - $5.50 - includes Nolan Ryan and Ruben Sierra gold parallel cards

National League
Chicago Cubs - $4.50 - includes Andre Dawson gold parallel card
Montreal Expos - $2.50
New York Mets - $4.50 - includes Doc Gooden gold parallel card
Philidelphia Phillies - $3
Pittsburgh Pirates - $5 - includes Barry Bonds gold parallel card
St. Louis Cardinals - $3.50
Atlanta Braves - $4
Cinncinatti Reds - $3
Houston Astros - $3
Los Angeles Dodgers - $3.50
San Diego Padres - $5 - includes Tony Gwynn gold parallel card
San Fransisco Giants - $3.50

eBay Pick-Up: See what I got for $0.46 shipped

I picked up this 2010 Bowman Jason Kubel Gold Parallel numbered 10/50 for $0.46 with Free Shipping.

eBay Pick-Up: Laundry Tag

I picked up this 2005 Prime Patches Steve Finley Major League Materials Authentic Game-Worn Jersey Laundry Tag card off eBay recently. It's numbered 01/10. I got it for $15.50 shipped.

eBay Pick-Up: Jay Bell Auto

I picked up this 1998 Donruss Signature Series Jay Bell Autograph off recently. I got it for $2.99 with Free Shipping. Not bad considering that more and more eBay seller are charging more than that just for shipping (I'll save my eBay rants for another post). It's a nice looking autographed card of an original D-Back and member of the 2001 World Series team.

Card Show Pick-Up: Baseball Cards of a Basketball Player

I picked up these two Danny Ainge baseball cards from a 3 for $1 box at the card show this past Saturday. The 3rd card was a 2012 Bowman Platinum Ian Kennedy card for one of my sons. I'd like to get all of Ainge's baseball cards. If you have his 1981 or 1982 Topps cards or his 1981 Donruss card let me know and we can work out a trade. Thanks!

Card Show Pick-Up: 20 for $1

There was one guy at the card show this past Saturday that had several 5000 count boxes of cards priced at 20 for $1. I only went through the 2012 Allen & Ginter (1000 plus cards). I picked out 42 cards, which he charged me $2 for, so 2 of the cards were free. I'm not going to show everything, but I did pick up the World's Tallest Buildings 10 card set.

 

I got 19 out of the 20 cards in the Historical Turning Points set. If you happen to have #HTP2, I'd love to trade with you to complete that set. I did end up with 2 HTP11 cards so if you need that one let me know.

 

 

I picked up this Tom Seaver Baseball Highlights Sketches card. I couldn't pass it up for a nickle.

 

 

I picked out a few D-Backs cards including a few doubles for my boys.

 

 

And then I got this Rulon Gardner card with the hopes of sending it out ttm for an autograph. I can't find an address for him though so if you happen to have his address please let me know. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

Card Show Pick-Up: Vintage Trade Bait

I went to a card show this past Saturday. I didn't spend much, but I got a few cards which I'll show over my next couple posts. I picked up this 1960 Topps CINCY CLOUTERS card featuring Reds sluggers Gus Bell, Frank Robinson, and Jerry Lynch. Not sure exactly why I bought this. If it were in better condition I would consider it for my vintage goal, but this card is trashed. I only paid a dollar, but I think that even that was too much. If you happen to be interested in this card let me know and we can work out a quick and easy trade.

Listia Pick-Up: 2012 Topps Triple Threads Justin upton

I picked this card up off of listia.com recently and got it in the mail this past week. It's a great listia pick-up because I would never be able to afford a pack/box of Triple Threads and for me to buy the individual card would cost me at least a dollar at a card shop or show and more than that with shipping on eBay, so I was really excited to win it for free on listia.

eBay Pick-Up: 2012 Topps Triple Threads Paul Goldschmidt Jersey Auto /99

I picked this up off eBay recently. I made an offer for $15 shipped and it was accepted. Not a bad price, but upon further inspection I'm sure I could have done better. It's a great looking card though and I love the on card autograph!

 

 

Salmon from ALL TRIBE BASEBALL

Jack, aka Baseball Dad, of the blog ALL TRIBE BASEBALL sent me a package today. It contained 1 Dan Wilson card and 68 Tim Salmon cards. That's right, 68 Tim Salmon cards and as far as I can tell there is only one double!

Back in May, my wife spilled a glass of water on our computer desk and some of my cards got ruined. One of the stacks of cards that I lost were some Tim Salmon cards. I have always been a fan of Salmon since we went to the same high school, but I had never really had a Tim Salmon collection. Well, now I do. Thanks Jack!

I had a blast going through the cards. I thought about showing off all the cards, but I decided to post my 10 favorite.  So here we go, in no particular order. Thanks again Jack!

Arizona Fall League

A co-worker had given me 4 tickets to an AFL game last night. My wife wasn't able to come, so my two oldest boys and I watched the Phoenix Desert Dogs take on the Scottsdale Scorpions. It was a night game and there was a pretty good crowd on hand. There are no assigned seats for AFL games so you can sit anywhere that is open. We sat in the second row behind the Scorpions dugout. We had a great time!

Vintage

I haven't gotten much in recently, but I do have a few vintage cards in my collection that I can share. I bought these three cards years ago (I'm guessing late 1990's) at an antique show at the fair grounds in Phoenix. I'm not sure what I paid for them, but given their condition, I'm sure it was too much. But at the time, I was happy to pick these up regardless of condition. They all came in these really thick screwdown holders. Even the screws are plastic. They remained in these cases until just a few minutes ago when I took them out to scan them. Despite their condition I still love them!

1956 Topps Sandy Koufax

 

1963 Topps Sandy Koufax

 

1966 Topps Hank Aaron