Sampler Album Week: 1993 Topps

Whoever is ready for Sampler Album week to be over, raise your hand!  Whatever, I've been at the beach all week and was oblivious to any yawns and/or complaints.

The 1990's section of my Sampler Album is pretty week.  Meaning, I don't have several of the years complete.  1993 was done pretty easily though, and it's a pretty nice page.

The Jr. Griffey card is really sharp, and I've got a good handful of HOFers here.  The 1993 design is pretty basic and understated, but I like that.

Sampler Album Week: 1986 Topps

As much as I talk about by Sampler Album, I don't do a whole lot of posts showing the pages that I've completed.  I'll remedy that this week and see if I can alienate a few readers with boring, one-note posts.

Today, I'll show my 1986 page.  This, and 1987are the two years I feel the most nostalgia for when I see them.  I think I have heard a lot of negative opinions on 1986 Topps, but I love it.  I guess because it was the first complete set I ever purchased, after I finally learned that there were dealers out in the world that sold baseball cards as complete sets.  All I knew up until that point was that you had to buy a ton of packs to get even close to building a set.

I think 1986 Topps is very smart:

I know the Will Clark is part of the traded set, but my Sampler Album rules are not hard and fast.  Overall, I love this page.  The Mattingly card is a work of art.  I've got Kirby Puckett on my 1985 page too, and prefer not to have players on back to back pages, so I'll eventually change him out for someone else.  But for now, this page is great and one of my favorites in the album.

Checklist Chipaway: 1996 SPX Hologram

I’m travelling all week, and I guess I’ll need to bury myself in work for a few days.  What a great opportunity to cue up a bunch of COMC.com posts to keep the blog churning!

I took advantage of the free shipping promotion last month and picked up all sorts of good stuff.  I was able to hit on several sets I’m chasing.  Granted they were small bits of progress, but progress all the same.

Today I’m showing the cards I got for a set that’s not even on my main checklist page, but one that I’m sort of building in the shadows- 1996 SPX Holograms. 

 

These are very cool cards, and the checklist is short but solid.  I was able to get good deals on some of the superstar cards I was lacking, and now mostly what I need will be affordable off of sportlots.com.   

I’ve collected a little over half the set, and need these remaining 25 cards:

#           Player
3              McGriff, Fred
8              Canseco, Jose
11           Edmonds, Jim
12           Salmon, Tim
14           Sandberg, Ryne
15           Grace, Mark
22           Bichette, Dante
23           Walker, Larry
26           Fielder, Cecil
29           Bagwell, Jeff
33           Piazza, Mike
34           Mondesi, Raul
35           Nomo, Hideo
37           Molitor, Paul
38           Cordova, Marty
39           White, Rondell
40           Isringhausen, Jason
41           Wilson, Paul
43           Jeter, Derek
44           Boggs, Wade
48           Smith, Ozzie
50           Caminiti, Ken
53           Fernandez, Osvaldo
54           Buhner, Jay
59           Carter, Joe

 Jeter won't be cheap, so I may save him for last unless someone has it to trade? 

Checklist Chipaway: Two Big Sterling Adds

I'm on a total roll toward finishing my 2009 Topps Sterling set.  I had absolutely no progress over the past 6 months, but picked up 4 cards on the COMC Black Friday sale, and just before that had won the Stan Musial card from this set at a great price on eBay.   For the most part, the cards I needed were likely to be affordable, with two exceptions: Cal Ripken Jr. and Nolan Ryan (Rangers uni).   The auctions I'd seen these cards up to now had ended with prices higher than I wanted to go.

However, there is a seller on eBay, peterm3968 who previously listed 09 Sterling cards at great BIN prices.  I keep him on my favorite seller search and periodically check his listings.  It had been a while since he'd sold any 09 Sterling, but just last week he listed some new Sterling cards- and they happened to be Ripken and Ryan.  And he had them at super low prices.   You would have thought I was trying to deactivate a nuclear reactor when I saw them and started scrambling to log in and buy them before someone else did.  Thankfully my cat like reflexes came through and I got them in time:

These were only $5 and $6 respectively, which is WAY below what I've been finding them for previously.  I know there are a few minor flaws with these cards, but I don't care.

Speaking of noting flaws, that brings me to another thing I appreciate about this seller.  Not only are his BIN prices great, his shipping prices are beyond fair, and every card he has ever shipped to me has come in a snap case, and usually the magnetic-type ones, and wrapped neatly in packing paper.  But I also appreciate how detailed his item descriptions are for every card he lists.   Take the description of the above Ryan card for example:

2009 Topps Sterling Nolan Ryan (Rangers) card. Card number 58. Print 95 of 250. From lot 3401.
Condition: Excellent-
Reason for Grade: The card is off-centered to the top and left. The left edge has spots of wear. There is a line on the top right of the picture that one can see when holding the card at an angle. The back reveals slight rounding on the top right corner and a slight bend on the bottom left corner.

I'm sure it's weird, but I enjoy going to his eBay store and reading the item descriptions of his cards. 

So, I'm now 86% done with this set and only need 17 more cards to finish.  And the expensive cards are all in my rear view mirror.

Black Friday COMC Spoils Part 2: Stadium Club Diamond Pearls

When I come across these Diamond Pearls insert cards from 2001 Stadium Club, I think of the song “Diamonds and Pearls” by Prince.   Let me ask you:  If that song is playing in my head while I’m looking at these pictures of dudes, that doesn’t say anything about me psychologically does it?  It just happens because of the connection between the words "diamonds and pearls" in the song and on the cards, right?  Right?  Right?????

This is a set I lost steam on a year ago, but found great deals on Black Friday for all but two (Manny Ramirez, Shawn Green) of the remaining cards I needed and will soon put this set to bed.   

I don’t mean that I want to go to bed with these cards. 

 It’s a figure of speech, I don’t mean it literally.  Why is that Prince song so loud in my head right now?    I do like touching these cards though.  I mean, I don’t like it!  I put them in the pages right away, ok?

In all seriousness, I love the pearl finish of these cards.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Card Show Recap Part 1: The Cheapies

We actually had a really nice card show here this weekend, much larger in scope than the typical 3 dealer monthly shows in this area.  I only went because the show was in a location that was different than the usual haunts, and didn't go in with much in the way of expectations.

Turned out to be a good show for me, and I walked away with a nice variety of high-end-ish cards, and a budget friendly purchases.

Today I'll show the cheap cards.  I found a dealer from Tulsa that I'd never bought from before, and had a blast going through his 5,000 count boxes.  At 8 for $1 they weren't technically dime box cards, but close enough:

These were all purchased for my ever growing sampler album.  I started the sampler album this year when I realized I'd never complete every set Topps made.  However, I thought it would be cool to have an album with one page dedicated to each year.  Once a page is full, I'll swap out blah cards for mediocre cards, then mediocre cards for good cards, then good cards for great cards until I have a page of 9 awesome cards from each flagship set from 1952 to the present. 

I'm not collecting Topps Tribute, but these cards are really pretty and I had to have them for $.125 cents each.

These cards are pretty too, in an over the top holographic way.

Finally, some assorted cards of other players I like, or cards that I couldn't pass up at 8 for $1.

These cards, plus some others that I didn't bother to scan only set me back $5.  Tomorrow I'll show the more expensive cards, at least, compared to these.

Etopps Football Tracker 11/13

There have been major problems with the "Pigskin Challenge" over the past several weeks at Etopps.  The Pigskin Challenge is a weekly fantasy game where you use cards from your portfolio to set a 4 player lineup.  Cards can only be used once per season, which encourages trades and purchase of new cards, and was a smart move by Etopps.  Historically, the popularity of the game has helped inflate prices on players who put up big stats, which I think is great, since it helps give value to cards based on how good the players actually are.  I'm thinking the recent technical problems with the game have to have something to do with the ever declining values on these cards.  Again, there is almost always a drop off on the value of the cards, but it usually happens after the season is over.  Here are the values of the cards based on what I could get right now if I sold them on www.cardtarget.com:

Note the Cal Ripken T206 card on the list.  I purchased a Demarco Murray card last week, and based on the odds of this card peaking immediately and dropping later, I traded it for an Etopps T206 Cal Ripken card:

Someone offered this for the Murray, and it was too hard to turn down.  I'm not sure I'm satisfied how I'm reflecting the performance of the trade with the above chart. I'll show the value of the Ripken card against what I paid for the Murray card, but also show the value of the Murray card in the group of cards I didn't purchase.
Being a Cowboys fan, I hope Murray keeps it up, but I think the odds are he falls back, either because that's just usually what happens with Cowboy running backs (see Julius Jones, Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice etc.), or the return of Felix Jones will take away some of his carries.  The Ripken T206 was a safe play, and I might try to trade some of these other Football 2011 cards for other T206 cards before they fall off too far in value.  Or I may just sell them all on Cardtarget.com and buy some donuts.

Goodwill Finds

I really wanted to name this post Goodwill Hunting, but even I think that is a little hacky. 

About a month ago, my sister called from the Goodwill store in her city.  Before I could ask her what the hell she was doing in a Goodwill store, she told me she found a bunch of bobbleheads for $2 each.  Long story short, I told her to get one of everything, and get every Piazza, Ichiro and Ripken they had.  I picked them up from her recenty:

I do not know why Blogger rotates this picture.  I don't have time to mess with it, so just turn your head to view.

I guess this was a short lived program from UD.  Obviously I didn't help keep the series going in 2001, since this was the first I ever saw of them.  That's too bad, because these are pretty nice. I actually have a pretty sizeable Startting Lineup/McFarlane collection, so these go quite nicely with them.

Checklist Chipaway- Hammer Time + Some Cliff Lee

For anyone who checks my blog Monday for the eTopps alert, I apologize for missing it today.   I have been slammed at work lately and the morning passed by before I even had a chance to look up.  I was happy to see a Mike Moustakas offering today, but it was $8 with a pretty high print run so I passed and will get it later when it comes down in price.  I did order a Mark Teixeira at $5 with a 499 print run. 

I am currently on hold with the 12 days of Brycemas project as I patiently wait for key cards for "Day 4" to come in.  These have been on order almost 4 weeks now and I'm getting pretty frustrated.  The seller on sportsbuy.com sent me a delivery confirmation number last Tuesday and said they were on the way.   Nothing is showing up yet for this number on USPS.com.    I still don't have the cards and am getting annoyed.  It was a big order of about 80 cards and my little song is in limbo until they come in. 

A couple of things did come in today though.  First, I sent a card of Cardinals prospect Matt Carpenter to Justin at Justin's World.  He was going to have an opportunity to get the card signed, so I gladly sent it over to help out.  For one card, I was just happy to help a fellow blogger,   However, Justin graciously sent me a handful of cards of one of my all time favorite Razorbacks and current MLB ace, Cliff Lee:

I'm always happy to build my Lee collection, so a big thanks to Justin!

I also wrapped up a small insert set off the Super Duper Checklist:

This completes my Hammer Team insert set from 95 Sportflix. 

I don't care if it looks or sounds like a silly insert set, I love the looks of it.  I also love how Sportflix built this set (as well as the Detonators insert set) in multiples of 9, making it conducive to pages. 

Mail Time- Paper or Plastic?

This week it’s plastic, as I received a good chunk of needed cards to complete one of my top 5 important sets to build, 1999 E-X Century.  Last summer when I was starting to get back into the hobby and see what all I had that I had forgotten about, I came across a Vlad Guerrero 1999 EX Century card that I do not ever remember buying.  It was a clear plastic card with some designs tinted inside the card, and some opaque designs and the photo layered on top.  I loved the look and the craft of the card, so I bought a few commons on sportsbuy.com and sportlots.com, and really became hooked on the set.  I recently found some of the bigger stars cheap on COMC and grabbed a bunch, which arrive last week. 

The Griffey card is beyond cool.  I wish the Piazza had been a better pose, but it's cool as well.  This pushes the completion % for this awesome set to 75% with 30 cards to go.  Most of the ones I still need are commons, so I think I’ll be able to finish the set this summer.  Buckle up for that adventure readers!  I have listed the cards that I still need at the top of my blog, I have several extras that I will post as trade bait. 

Denny’s 1996

I am total sucker for gimmick cards.  I love motion and hologram cards, and anything that looks like some effort went into it.   That’s why I’m a fan of the Denny’s card sets from the 90’s.  I just bought the 1996 set on eBay, and I think it’s a nice little set.  You have to angle the cards just right to get the full effect though, and I’m sure my lovely wife thought there was something wrong with me as I contorted my arms and head trying to watch the action unfold on the cards. 

The scan won’t show it obviously, but every hologram is actually a little “video” of a significant play or moment for each of the 28 players.  There is a write up on the back notating the event.  I especially like the Ozzie Smith opening day back flip, and the home run from Cal Ripken’s 2,131st consecutive game.  By my count, there are a dozen current or future Hall of Famers in this set.

From a Historical/Americana standpoint, I even like the Denny’s logo being on the cards.  The 1997 set is even nicer, as Baseball Cards Come To Life points out in this post.    Denny’s put out sets almost every year in the 90s.  A collector could put together a pretty interesting master set of Denny’s cards without spending too much money. 

Wax Wednesday- Confession Time

To no suprise to anyone who knows me, I caved on my vow to give up buying cards for lent. It didn't take much temptation either I have to say:

I didn't purchase any wax, which I suppose is something, but these cards out of the local dealers bargain box were too tough for me to refuse.   I am a sucker for hologram and motion cards, so I am digging the Denny's Jackie Robinson and the 2 Holoview cards of Ripken and Gwynn.  I don't collect Tulowitzki, but this refractor was begging me to buy it.  I guess I could get back on the wagon, but I don't really want to.