Am I crazy for giving these cards away? Probably!

Hey there everyone! Just wanted to let everyone here know of a contest I am doing right now through my YouTube channel. @case.loaded (Cases Loaded with Dan Wilson) I'm giving away some pretty awesome prizes, so I wanted to make sure you were all aware and hopefully you'll participate and you might even win one of these great cards!

Check out the video for all the details, but here are the 5 cards I am giving away as prizes. Yes, a Ken Griffey Jr auto! Yes, a Babe Ruth bat card!

https://youtu.be/hBPUaVqO1hc?si=bBzU5SaANMbFnjwt

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!

Offer Up Purchase

Last week I saw an OfferUp post that had a bunch of boxes of cards for a reasonable price. I reached out right away, but I didn't hear back. A few days later I reached out again to see if they were available. He responded that he had a bunch of people inquire, but they never followed up. I didn't see the message until the next day, but made arrangements for an early Saturday morning pickup. 

As you can see, the seller mentioned that they are mostly commons. The part that is missing says "great for completing or starting sets". So I wasn't expecting any hidden gems, but I was certainly intrigued. The newer looking boxes are what caught my eye. I've been organizing my collection recently and thought they could come in handy. Now, unless they are empty, they don't exactly do me any good, but that's okay.

I did negotiate a lower price just because the seller lived a ways away. I ended up getting everything for $30. I was comfortable at that price even with the expectation that they are mostly commons. 

There was a little more than was pictured. Not much, but the was a couple of things. I don't believe the USPS box and the 1991 Score set and one other tin with a Collector's Choice Update set were in the pictures. This is what the collection looks like in my trunk. Not a bad haul. I went through everything briefly. Basically just opened up each box to get an idea of what was inside. There were a few boxes of football cards. There was a bunch of 1979 and 1980 Topps football cards and some other junk wax football cards. There was also a bunch of 1993-94 Fleer basketball cards. These will go to my football/basketball guy that I met through OfferUp. At this point, I think of him as a friend. 

The rest was baseball. There is a bunch of 1980 Topps baseball. Enough that I will probably start that set. Right now, I am just doing 1981 - present as well as a few other vintage sets (1970, 1971, and 1973). There are several boxes of 1985 - 87 Topps, Donruss, and Fleer. The other boxes are by brand. So one box with Bowman cards from various Bowman brands and years. Another with Upper Deck. Another with Pacific cards. These are going to be perfect for my goal of having a 9 pocket page of each card se. I know that might seem like a crazy idea, because it is, but it's fun to look at each brand and how they progress year over year. This collection has a lot of brands that I know I don't have already, so that is a huge plus.

It's going to take some time to go through everything and complete organizing my collection, but it will also be a ton of fun.

2017 Topps Opening Day - Let's Trade!

I bought a box of 2017 Topps Opening day a week or two ago.

I had hopes of pulling something nice even though deep down I know the odds were not in my favor.

There are relics, autos, variation short prints, tough inserts, numbered parallels, and printing plates in Opening Day, so it could happen, right?

Wrong.

I didn't pull anything out of the ordinary, but I did get the entire 200 card base set and there are a couple of insert sets that I'd like to try to complete, so it wasn't that bad.

I'm going to save my Mascots and the Incredible Eats cards. Let me know if you have any that I need that you'd be willing to trade.

Mascots

M-1 Paws, Detroit Tigers
M-2 Billy the Marlin, Miami Marlins
M-3 Rally Monkey, Los Angeles Angels
M-4 Mr. Red, Cincinnati Reds
M-5 Mr. Met, New York Mets
M-6 TC Bear, Minnesota Twins
M-7 Braves Mascot, Atlanta Braves
M-8 Slider, Cleveland Indians
M-9 Dinger, Colorado Rockies
M-10 Royals Mascot, Kansas City Royals
M-11 Phillie Phanatic, Philadelphia Phillies
M-12 Pirate Parrot, Pittsburgh Pirates
M-13 Swinging Friar, San Diego Padres
M-14 Mariner Moose, Seattle Mariners
M-15 Fredbird, St. Louis Cardinals
M-16 White Sox Mascot, Chicago White Sox
M-17 Athletics Mascot, Oakland Athletics
M-18 Raymond, Tampa Bay Rays
M-19 Rangers Captain, Texas Rangers
M-20 Blue Jays Mascot, Toronto Blue Jays
M-21 Hank the Ballpark Pup, Milwaukee Brewers
M-22 Orbit, Houston Astros
M-23 Clark, Chicago Cubs
M-24 Wally the Green Monster, Boston Red Sox
M-25 Brewers Mascot, Milwaukee Brewers

Incredible Eats

IE-1 Italian Sausage, Boston Red Sox
IE-2 Peanuts, Milwaukee Brewers
IE-3 Fresh Popcorn, Atlanta Braves
IE-4 South Philly Dog, Philadelphia Phillies
IE-5 Cheesy Corn Brisket-acho, Kansas City Royals
IE-6 Chicken and Waffle Cone, Houston Astros
IE-7 Classic Pastrami, New York Mets
IE-8 Foot-Long Hot Dog, Colorado Rockies
IE-9 Nacho Bowl, Milwaukee Brewers
IE-10 Soft Pretzels, New York Yankees
IE-11 Cotton Candy, Boston Red Sox
IE-12 Corn on a Stick, Washington Nationals
IE-13 Hot Dogs & Onions, Chicago Cubs
IE-14 Broomstick Hot Dog, Texas Rangers
IE-15 Bacon Mac & Cheese, Texas Rangers
IE-16 Kayem Fenway Frank, Boston Red Sox
IE-17 Cracker Jack & Mac Dog, Pittsburgh Pirates
IE-18 Buffalo Cauliflower Poutine, Toronto Blue Jays


Pretty much everything else is up for grabs. Hoping to trade for any D-Backs inserts (I did pull the Diamondbacks Opening Day insert) from the set as well as any of the Mascot and Incredible Eats cards I still need.

March 9th - Name Tag Day

Today is Name Tag Day.

Check out this 1993 SP card of Colorado Rockie catcher Joe Girardi wearing a name dag during the Rockies inaugural spring training.

If you turn the card over you will discover that "Bryn Smith jokingly distributed badges such as the one Girardi is wearing to all the Rockies in spring training."

Crap! It's a "badge", not a name tag. Not sure this counts for Name Tag Day. 

Any other cards out there featuring name tags or badges?

TTM Tuesday: (Doerr and Virdon)

I got two returns back this past week.

This 2013 Allen & Ginter card of Boston Red Sox and Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr came back in about a month and a half.

Doerr was born April 7, 1918. He will turn 99 years old next month and is currently the oldest living Major League baseball player.

I also got a two card return from Bill Virdon. Virdon was the 1955 Rookie of the Year winner with the St. Louis Cardinals and won a World Series as a member of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates. He also managed 4 different clubs over a 13 year period (1972 - 1984), twice winning Manager of the Year.

I didn't realize it until writing this post, but the two cards I sent are from his first year as a manager and his last. 

1st Bowman Card vs. RC

I bought a binder at an auction several months back and I've been going through it recently. I came across this 2010 1st Bowman Card of Aroldis Chapman.

I like this card and Chapman is a guy that is a must watch for me when he's in the game. I was glad it was in the binder. 

I don't have a ton of Chapman cards, but I try to pick up his cards when I find them in dime boxes. 

Aroldis Chapman is from Cuba and made his MLB debut in 2011 with the Cincinnati Reds. He pitched for the Reds from 2011 - 2015. Chapman had some off season trouble in 2015 that negated a trade to the Dodgers. Instead a few weeks later he was traded to the Yankees. He was traded to the Cubs in July of 2016 and was a part of the Chicago Cubs championship run. A few months later, Chapman signed a five year deal back with the Yankees.

The purpose of this post though is to discuss the 1st Bowman Card and the RC.

Here's Chapman's 2011 Topps RC. 

What do you think about the guidelines currently in place regarding the Rookie Card distinction? Are you a fan of the 1st Bowman Cards? How does it impact collect-ability and value? Do you even care? Do you like the RC logo being on cards?

Only one this time.

I picked up another Goldschmidt lot on ebay recently. Out of the 16 cards in the lot I only needed one, but that's okay because the one card, is a nice one.

It also included this one, but like I said, I already have it, so it'll go to one of my boys.

The other 14 cards are all just base cards, but they'll get a good home as well.

3 out of 43 is not a good percentage.

3 out of 43 is 6.9%. It could be worse.

I purchased a 43 card lot on ebay recently and of the 43 Paul Goldschmidt cards I only needed 3 of them.

These put my at 14 new Goldschmidt cards for 2017 and a total of 231 different Goldschmidt cards.

Here they are.

Did everyone get two different 2016 Bowman Chrome cards?

Do you think cards will ever come in cereal again?

Yesterday I went to a card show and a card shop. I bought 936 cards. 792 of them came in the form of a 1991 Topps factory set.

Here are 26 more.

I know you can't see all 26, but there are 13 packs of 2002 Topps Post cards and each pack has two cards. Any idea why they have the round sticker on them?

I got the 13 packs for $2. After busting the packs and sorting them I have 17/30 with 9 doubles.

If anyone has any of the following for trade, please let me know.

#3 - Bernie Williams
#8 - Sean Casey
#11 Todd Helton
#12 - Chipper Jones
#13 - Frank Thomas
#23 - Jeremy Burnitz
#24 - Bobby Higginson
#27 - Greg Vaughn
#28 - Brad Radke
#29 - Mike Sweeney
#30 = Jeff Conine

If you happen to need any of the following just let me know.

#1 - Alex Rodriguez
#10 Jason Giambi
#15 - Carlos Delgado
#16 - Jeff Bagwell
#21 - Troy Glaus x2
#22 - Ryan Klesko

I got doubles of Luis Gonzalez and Mike Piazza, but I'm going to keep those for my player collections.

Trade with Thoughts and Sox

On May 17th I met up briefly with Adam, from the blog Thoughts and Sox, at a Diamondbacks game. I had a card for him and he had some D-Backs cards for me.

Curt Schilling only played for the Diamondbacks for 2.5 seasons but he sure has a lot of D-Backs cards. I guess it's just because of the sheer number of products in the early 2000's.

Adam was able to add a few new Brandon Webb cards to my collection and I'm always happy to add an extra Webb RC to my collection. 

Here are a few other cards from Adam.