San Doonego

I may need to move to San Diego.  I am here for the first time on business, and this city is incredible.  Thanks to post scheduling, I've been able to keep the blog updated daily with my Brycemas silliness, but I've generally been absent from the blog world over the past few days. 
We were in Salt Lake City Saturday and Sunday, Phoenix Sunday and today, and came in to San Diego this afternoon.  I was getting used to the furnace blasts every time I went outside in Phoenix, so when I got off the airplane today, the mild temperatures in San Diego put me in an instant great mood.  My mood really skyrocketed when I saw that our hotel was walking distance to Petco Park.  One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life:

I am so bummed the Padres weren't home tonight!  I love the walk up seats out in center field.  Apparently, they are free to the public. 

Awesome.  Simply awesome.

Of course, I almost wept when I saw this beautiful statue of one of my baseball idols, Tony Gwynn.  I don't care how bad the Padres are. If I lived here, I would be at this work of art of a stadium every stinking game.   The Lovely Wife and I are going to need to dump the kids off with babysitters and spend a few days here! 

On The 8th Day of Brycemas

My Harper gave to me:

8 Cards of Big Shots

Here is a conversation I can see happening down the road with my son:

Son:  Dad, who was the greatest athlete of all while you were growing up?

Me:  That’s easy.  Michael Jordan.  He might be the greatest athlete of all time.

Son:  How many cards of him do you have?

Me:  Um, none actually. 

Son (Looks over my paltry basketball card collection):  Was Todd Day better than Michael Jordan?  And who’s Oliver Miller?

Me:  Well, they were Razorbacks,  son, and that’s why I have them.   But no, no they were not better. 

Son:  You have about 30 cards of those guys.  But you don’t have one Michael Jordan?

Me:  Uhhhh

Son:  Who was the best football player?

Me:  I don’t’ know.  Tom Brady was pretty amazing.  And he married Giselle.

Son:  Who?

Me:  Never mind.

Son:  How many of his cards do you have?

Me:  Uhhhh

Well, now I at least have a few of both of these guys, although in my defense, their cards can get pricy.  However, there are always good deals to be found on the internet, and I finally have some cards of His Airness and Brady.    Yes, these are pretty standard cards, but I’m proud of them all the same (and I did get multiples of many of these).

On The 7th Day of Brycemas

My Harper gave to me:

(7)  Random, Yet Important, Cards:

My freaking scanner!!!

1999 Flair Warren Morris- This was one of the first cards I bought when I cashed in on the Harper Auto.  I’ve had no luck finding this card cheap for years now, and couldn’t bring myself to pay over a buck for it, plus shipping.  But since I had nice card fund, I decided to put this set out of its misery and add the last remaining card.  For the first time since my blog started, this card is off the Most Wanted list. 

Along the same lines, I was able to knock out my final 2 Diamond King Base Cards from 2003.  Hard to believe I didn’t have the Tony Gwynn already, but I didn’t.

With these two Reel Time Cards, my 2002 Stadium Club Set is now 100% complete.  There are some relic card inserts for this set, but I’m going to pretend they don’t exist and call this set done.  Also shown is a Topps HD Game Defined Mark McGwire.  I was actually a little miffed that this was an aluminum parallel card, even though it is a rarer card than the standard Game Defined Card.  I bought it on Sportlots and the listing did not have an image.  I probably would have got it anyway had I seen it was a parallel.  This is not my first loose interpretation of a complete set with HD.  Man, HD was nice.  I wish it would be re-issued.

Another SPX 2003 beauty.  This. Card. Is. Awesome.  Greg Maddux is a guy who I appreciate more and more with time.    Craig Biggio is the other one.  I really should have more good cards of them both.

On the 6th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave to Me:

6 Darren McFaddens (x3)

I got about 18 cards of D-Mac, and this was the best way to cram it into the song. 

 That Topps Magic Mini Card is beyond awesome!

I was actually at the game when McFadden tied the SEC single game rushing record.  I acted a total fool when he did this:

Drooooolll........

My pal Sam over at the Daily Dimwit and I completed a small but awesome trade recently.  He was gracious enough to offer up this super awesome Michael Young dual relic card.  He also sent some other good base Ranger cards, but I will leave them off so as not to distract from this bad mother.... numbered to #200 no less.

Thanks Dimwit!

On The 5th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave to Me:

5 Gol-den Kiiiiiings:

I hope and think Bryce Harper will do well.  I don’t think he’ll be as good as this guy:

Or Him:

Or Him:

Or Him:

Or Him:

My first vintage Koufax card ever!  Yes, there is a push pin hole at the top of his hat, but I love the 1965 set and this was the best shape of the card I was going to get if I wanted to be able to buy anything else with my Harper funds.  It’s good enough for me.

On The 4th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave to Me

4 Awesome Rangers:

Yes, the 12 Days of Brycemas is back on track after a painstaking wait for an order of cards from a seller on Sportlots.com.  But everything is in now, so I can finish this convoluted string. 

My Brycemas sale helped beef up my Rangers collection for sure:

I didn't have any Nelson Cruz autographs.  Now I have 2.

I can't find a 2009 Sterling Base of Josh Hamilton to save my life.  I had no trouble finding the white and burgundy parallels though.

My Elvis Andrus collection was pretty small.  This doubled it:

And I didn't have as much Cliff Lee as I would like.  Yes, I know he was only a half season rental last year, but he is officially a Razorback/Ranger double whopper, so he will forever be in my top 5 favorite players of all time.

I Want My Spiegel!!

I used to work in a bookstore, and we sold a German newspaper called "Der Spiegel."  This was before the internet, and so imported papers like this were in demand with a small segment of customers.   We would receive this paper on a limited basis from our newspaper supplier for various reasons.  The point is, we wouldn't always receive Der Spiegel with our weekly shipments.  This was not a big deal to 99.99% of our customers.  There was one exception.  We had one customer that was very put out when he didn't get his Der Spiegel.  I never actually saw this guy, but for some reason, I seemed to always be the poor bastard that answered the phone when he called to complain.  I won't bore you with the whole rant, but every time he called he gave the same speech about us letting him down and not understanding the laws of supply and demand.  What I distinctly remember is that he would always end is phone call by yelling "I want my Der Spiegel!" and slamming the phone down.
I always think about this when I see anything from the blog "Nomo's Sushi Platter" by a dude named Spiegel.
I also think about cool trades.  I recently completed my second trade with Spiegel, and received my end of the trade yesterday.  I sent about 20 cards to him, and he sent a lot more than that to me, with a note saying he hoped what he sent was enough.  I wonder what he thought I was sending?  Speigel, it was more than enough, and I will send you some cards to make up the difference.  Here is what my man Spiegel sent:

 Lots of great Rangers cards!  Love the Andrus Gypsy Queen, and the Cruz Topps Chrome is really cool!

 I don't know why my scanner sometimes chooses to auto crop, and some times not.  But this Ichiro Wall Climber card is really sweet!

 D-Mac!  All time great Razorback!

Speigel also sent a very nice assortment of stars I collect, including some cool cards of the newest 3,000 hit club member, Derek Jeter.

Check out Spiegel's blog if you haven't already.  He's a different kind of cat, and I am amused with his take on things.

Thanks Spiegel, I will catch up with you on the trade soon!

2004 Sweet Spot Classic Patch

At the recent auction at Cleve’s, I mentioned one of my best wins was a box of screw down/magnet card holders.  I always need these in general, but I had a specific purpose in mind for buying these.  I have a handful of very lovely Sweet Spot Patch cards from 2004 that are too thick for pages. 

I understand manufactured patches aren’t universally loved.  I know one exception.  Make it two, because I really, really like these cards.  There are about 90 in the set, but I have no business trying to build it.  But I do periodically look for one to slip through cheaply on eBay, and there are a few players that I definitely still want to get.   Here is what I have now:

Here are two of my favorites, front and back.  The scratch on the Robinson is the case, not the card.

Exquisite

UD had a high end set in called Exquisite.  With a name like that, the cards have to be good. At some point names that denote a luxury product will be hard to come up with.  We've had Finest, Sterling, Exquisite, Pristine, Platinum, etc.   I wish one of the card companies would name a higher end set, “Delicious.”   Or “Fabulous.”  Topps Fabulous.  It would bring in a whole new customer segment to the hobby.   

You may recall when I began my “12 Days of Brycemas” posts, the first card I wrote about was a 2007 Exquisite Michael Young.  I am totally enamored with this card.  I’ve got other thick cards, but this thing feels like a brick.   I chanced upon a lot of 12 of these on eBay the other day, and couldn’t help myself.  They came in the other day:

Now, these are fabulous. 

Speaking of the 12 Days of Brycemas string, no, I have not forgotten about it.  Unbelievably I am STILL waiting on a very large order of cards from a certain seller on sportsbuy.com.   I can’t do Day 4 and a few other days until this order comes in.  I finally got confirmation that it shipped, but will not be here until the 11^th.  Well over a month after I ordered it.  I am very tempted to blast this seller on my blog, but one of my tenets for this blog (and life for that matter) is to avoid negativity and causing ill toward others.    The seller apparently added some free cards for the hassle, so that’s something.  Long story short, it will be a few days before I resume the 12 Days of Brycemas posts.

Trade at the Plate

I’ve been a fan of the blog Play at the Plate for a while now.  Brian, who runs the blog, has an entertaining blog, and is a fellow Rangers fan to boot!  We never had traded before, but I recently was fortunate enough to get (2) Michael Young autos from a fun UD Ovation case break from the Daily Dimwit.    That was the seed of our trade.  I sent the Young auto and another low numbered Michael Young card to Brian.  He was going to send back several Gypsy Queen inserts that I needed.  I received his shipment today, and found the Gypsy Queens, plus a whole lot more:

I like the Gypsy Queen set okay, but I LOVE the inserts.  This nice group really put a dent in my Gypsy Queen checklist.

The Sticky Fingers set is my favorite from GQ, so I was happy to get this card.  Brian also sent some cards of my favorite players.  The Hunter Chrome card is #d to 599.

Finally, he included some very nice Barry Bonds cards.  The 02 Diamond King is really sweet, with the paper border.

Thank you so much Brian, I owe you! 

Cleve's Auction Night: Part Two- "Are You Serious, Napkin?"

I am serious.  And don’t call me Shirley.  Airplane.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that instead of goody boxes, I got goody binders.  These were $2-$3 each, so even though I admittedly didn’t know what they had, I bought them anyway.    I also got 3 Topps Traded sets for $2.  Two 1990, with nobody significant, and one 1989.  The 89 set has a Griffey Rookie, so that covered my cost.  I looked in the boxes and these cards are pristine.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t have either of these sets, and for about 65 cents a pop, I thought, “Why not?”  We’ll say I paid a buck for the 1989 and $.50 each for the 1990s.  That doesn’t seem so bad.

Here was the gist of binder #1:

1993 Stadium Club

 Nolan Ryan Pacific

I guess Stadium Club did team sets in 93.  I’ve never seen these before, but complete team sets are great for trading.  Teams included in this binder are : Cubs, Rangers, Rockies, White Sox, Marlins.  Each set is 30 cards.  There was also a whole bunch of Nolan Ryan cards that I’ve seen before but don’t know much about.  This binder was $3, which equates to about $.50 per team set/Ryan lot.  Eh, not great.  However,  I can box these and make better use of the pages and binders.   Hell, the pages and binder would have cost around $5 alone.

Binder #2:

Again, this was $3, and again, the real value is the 50 pages in this binder and the binder itself.  The pages consisted of 1990 Sportflics, and base 86-88 Topps.  Nothing special.  But I like Sportflics, so I’m ok with these junk cards.  And there were some decent stars inside that can go in my star player binders and boxes. 

Binder #3:

This was also $3 and the best of the 3 binders.  There are about 20 pages of various Bowman chrome, and some good players (Ripken, Gwynn, Piazza and former Razorback David Walling for my Hogs album).  I love the Bowman Heritage Chrome TV cards, but these shown were the only 2 in the binder.

The best part was this complete SP set from 2000.  90 cards, with no cards missing.  I love complete sets as you may know.

Grades:

Traded Sets:  B+  Super cheap, and I needed both years. 

Binder 1:  B-  : Team sets will be good to trade, and Nolan Ryan is Nolan Ryan.

Binder 2:  B- :   I can’t give myself a grade below B when the cost was only 3 bucks, and at a minimum I can use the pages and binder.  But these cards are totally unnecessary to my collection.  I basically bought the pages. 

Binder 3:  A :  Shiny cards and a complete SP set make this the best binder of the 3.  

I’ll give myself some bonus credit for the 90 blank pages that will come of this after I take all the cards out.  That would be about $15 in a store.  And they are the nice pages, too. 

Everything but the traded sets are up for trade for anyone interested.  Sadly, this will be my last auction for a few weeks.  I will be on business trips each of the next two weeks.  I could probably go into Cleve’s and do some write in bids for anything that looks good, but I should probably knock it off for a while.   I’m sure the lovely wife would agree with this.  However, she should know that Allen and Ginter is coming soon.  And Topps Marquee has my attention.  And truly, if Topps Lineage is as cool as I think it is going to be, there may be some trouble in the Doon Household.

Cleve's Auction Night- "Are you serious Napkin?"

Yes, the lovely wife was in for yet another shock tonight on my return from the weekly sports card auction at Cleve's Sports Cards.  I came home with quite a haul, for a small time collector.   Instead of goody boxes, this time I brought home goody binders.  Let's see how I did:

Let's start with one of the main reasons I went tonight.  I had my eye on this box of screw down cases, and hoped to get it under $10.  I did.  $7 got me this box of 34 holders, and I was very happy to see that 6 of them were the magnet types.  Full disclosure-  I spent $38 total tonight.  This particular purchase paid for the evening for me in my estimation.
Purchase grade: A+  I'll take $.18 per screw down/magnet holder any day of the week.  And they are in great shape.   I'm just ticked that I didn't jump on the box of 50 brand new 9 pocket pages that went for $3.

On to the cards:

I didn't scout this card out before hand, and didn't need it at all, but when no one else was biting for $2, I grabbed it.
Purchase Grade:  B  It is a Topps Certified auto, but I just didn't need it.  Although, if I can get something good in trade for it, I will give myself a better grade.

1956 Sandy Amoros and a 1969 Micky Mantle Checklist Card.  These were separate purchases, but in the interest in keeping the post a reasonable length, I combined these cards.  I always try to pick up some vintage of players I don't have at these auctions, thus the Amoros.  I'll take any Brooklyn Dodger I can find, and this beauty was only $3.  The Mantle was $3 as well, and it's now the only vintage Mantle I have.  Purchase Grade:  A- For the Amoros.   I'll take Brooklyn Dodgers for $3 in great condition every time.
C For the Mantle.  I didn't get a good look at this card.  It has been checkmarked.  I also would like an earlier Mantle than 1969.  I was too impulsive on this one.

1958 Roberto Clemente- $5.  This is actually the second 1958 Clemente I've got from one of Cleve's auctions.  Again, I did not scout this one out ahead of time and didn't see the big creases in it from my perch in the back of the store.  Still, I think I would have bought it for $5 anyway had I known.  It's Roberto Clemete for crying out loud.
Purchase Grade B-  It's creased, but it's Clemente and it was $5.  Hint:  I can definately see this as a potential prize should I decide to do another Big Fun Game in the near future...

1960 Ernie Banks- $7.  This was my card of the night.  I do not have a vintage Banks, and this one was in fantastic shape!  There is a little ink on the bottom of the card and some dings along the edges, but I'm very happy with it. Purchase Grade- A+  I would have had to pay twice this amount for a card in this condition online.  It was a HOF player that I wanted but didn't have yet.  Best buy of the night IMO. 

Tomorrow, I'll cover the goody binders that my wife rolled her eyes at.   She's lucky I didn't really go crazy.  I held off on a lot.  There were several pages of (9) 1956 Commons that I could have had for $3 each.  I'm starting to kick myself over that miss.  There was a Gayle Sayers autographed football that went for $17.    There was a cool ticket from a Yankee game at Yankee Stadium from the 50s that went for $10.  There were several unopened wax boxes from the junk wax years that went for $3 each.  See baby, it could have been worse.  Much worse. 

But, so far, what do you think?  Can you please explain to the lovely wife what a great job I did?  And yes, most all of this (and what I show tomorrow) is up for trade, except the Banks.

Happy 4th!!! Reminder...

Today at 12 pm est is the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.

This is one of the greatest spectacles in all of sport, and if you have not seen this yet, and have a strong stomach, you should definately watch.  I laugh hysterically the whole way through.  The lovely wife can't stomach it. 

Joey Chestnut- American Hero