Shining It Up With Brad's Blog

My Rangers Album just got a little brighter, thanks to a nice lot of shiny cards from Brad's Blog.   I had some old Phillies cards that I didn't need and he gladly took them off my hands and sent back these beauties:

These two numbered refractors were the cards I knew I was getting, and they are fantastic.   I definitely need to build a team set of the sepia cards.

However, that wasn't all that was in the padded mailer from Brad, much to my surprise.  He also sent a big stack of other cool Rangers:

I love these "ice" cards from Bowman, and am really stoked to get the card of Luis Sardinas.  He's a SS in the lower levels of the farm system and the Rangers are pretty high on him I hear. 

 Brad also sent a few great base chrome cards.  I don't have many cards of Leonys Martin, but he's quietly turning into a star, so I'm very excited to get this one.

I'm hearing lots of noise about Mike Olt being part of a trade package for Matt Garza of the Cubs.  I like Olt a lot, but I'd be all for that trade, considering the volume of the Rangers starting pitchers that are on the DL. 

There were several other cards in the package, but this by far was my favorite "bonus" card.  I love getting Darvish rookies!

Thanks for the great trade Brad, and I hope you enjoy the vintage Phillies!

Ranger Hits... And No Misses

Someone put together a Napkin Doon dream lot on eBay a few weeks ago, and thank god for us all, I won it.

It included a nice big handful of Ranger hits, including my first ever Yu Darvish relic:

Yeah, it's an all star game jersey, but so what?  My first Darvish relic!

The lot also included a pair of Heritage relics, including my main man Adrian Beltre.  I look at these and can't decide if they are boring or not. 

Two more of my favorites- Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler.  The Kinsler card is really sharp, and I love the blue swatch.

The lot also included one auto- David Murphy.

Finally, there were a few nice regular cards in the lot, including a gold parallel Elvis Andrus rookie, and some minor league cards of Jurickson Profar and Ian Kinsler.

My kind of lot!

LOST Collector

I wrote LOST in all caps so your mind would associate the Lost Collector Blog with the greatest TV show of all time, or at least tied with the Andy Griffith Show.

Now that I've got you in a LOST mindset, you will perhaps discover hidden clues in this post that lead to a greater level of truth and understanding than you have ever known possible.  I've never embedded my posts with clues before (or have I?) so they may not be there. 

First, let's "look" at the card that AJ initially told me he was sending:

No matter what happens with Cruz this year, this will be one of my favorite cards from 2013.  Absolutely beautiful card!  But anything in Rangers colors is not only handsome, but downright American.

This was unexpected, but just as exciting to get as the Cruz di-cut.  Yu is the man!  I got to see him pitch once in person last year, and hope to repeat that feat again.  Darvish, or DHARMA?

AJ also sent a pair of 2013 Topps base cards.  These guys are pretty critical to the Rangers success this year.  Moreland needs to mash at 1st and Lewis needs to come back strong from injury and bolster what could be a formidable rotation.

4 8 15 16 23 42

Checklist Chipaway: 2011 Gypsy Queen Green Paper

Who has two thumbs and was the first blogger to post about 2013 Topps? 


.....this guy….(I’m pointing at myself with my thumbs right now).   I even had my post retweeted by Nightowl and Cardboard Junkie.  That’s like getting retweets from Magic and Bird.  Oh, the life I live.  I wish I could explain how it feels, but words don't suffice.

I see a lot of other folks are on the bandwagon now that I’ve single-handedly launched 2013 Topps.  I would talk about the set more, but that would be sooooo January.  January is done dudes.   Let’s talk about something more relevant, like 2011 Gypsy Queen green paper framed parallels:

  
WIth these two I now only need 11 more to wrap up this beautiful set.

 

A Card Show In My Mailbox

Jeff, from Cardboard Catastrophes, was up to his old tricks again last week and sent me an unexpected lot of cards.  What was great about these is they included stuff from issues I've never had before:

All three of these are awesome.  The Nelson Cruz card, as it turns out, is  "color swap" SP from Heritage and not that easy to come by.    The Frank Howard is the first vintage Deckle card in my collection.  In fact when I first saw it, I thought it was part of the 2012 Archives Deckle insert set, which shows how illiterate on this stuff I often am.  But it's a true 1969 Topps card, and it's going straight to my vintage album.   Finally  I’m always glad to get cards of Fergie Jenkins, especially in a Rangers uniform.

He also sent a few Obak cards, which are very cool.  I'd never paid much attention to Obak, but dagnabbit (as Jeff and his fellow Okies say)  if these aren't some pretty cards!  The David Clyde card would be fantastic autographed.  These are likewise firsts for my collection.

I could have gone to a card show and just come home with this group of cards and been happy.    That's some solid stuff!

Thanks again Jeff, and let me know when you get together a 1970 Topps wantlist.  I might be able to help a little!

AJMcCarron'sgirlfriend's Junk

I assume that Wes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk will be changing his blog name soon to take advantage of the name recognition of the current Alabama quarterback's best asset.    If you do, Wes, and your viewership explodes, just remember who gave you the idea.

I imagine there is general agreement that Wes is one of the most generous members of this little fraternity of card bloggers.   Last week I came home to another unexpected envelope from him containing some nice Ranger cards:

I was happy to get all of them, but especially the 3 1997 Topps cards on the bottom because my sampler album page for that year is pretty sparse.

Not only do I want to publicly thank Wes for these nice cards, I also think he deserves some kudos for yet again holding a Blogger of the Year award.  It's a pretty cool thing to be able to have an outlet to give recognition to the guys out there with exceptional blogs.  The only thing I didn't like about the contest was that he would not allow himself to be nominated.   

Thanks for being such a positive part of this community Wes!

Stained Glass Rangers- And A Lovely Birthday Wish

I picked these up off eBay the other day:

They look like stained glass, and I feel very spiritual when I look at them.

Or maybe I feel this way because today is a great day?  You know why?  It’s the lovely wife’s birthday!  We’ve been married for… not really sure how long, but it’s been a long, long, long time.  At least it seems that way, er, I mean it has gone by so fast!  It seems like just yesterday that I met her.  I’ll never forget it either.

It was a perfect fall evening, just like tonight, and I was dining at Red Lobster with a friend of mine.  At the time Red Lobster was running an “All You Can Eat” Crab Legs special.  My friend and I had a few plates and were stuffed.  We were about to leave when I noticed a beautiful girl sitting across the restaurant.  She was partaking in the crab leg special and just would not stop eating them.  She kept shoveling them in, plate after plate.  Good thing she was wearing a bib, because she was getting food everywhere.  You would have thought she was in a speed eating contest with those things.  She wouldn’t let the waiter take the shells away either, and had them stacked in a huge mound on her table.  I heard her say something about sending a message to her enemies or something.   Anyway, she must have had at least 15 plates of crab legs and didn’t appear to be slowing down.  Finally, the manager came out and tried to tell her enough was enough.   I could see the rage in her eyes.  With cat-like reflexes, she broke her beer bottle on the table edge and swiftly moved behind the manager and put the broken bottle to his neck.  “You better check my record.  'All you can eat' means 'all you can eat', bub” she whispered in his ear.  “Are we clear?”

The manager nodded and she let him go.  She probably had another 10 plates or so before she finally let out a blood curdling howl and stood up from her table.  She sort of stumbled, but steadied herself and prissed out of the restaurant.  I was smitten.   I chased her out of the restaurant and asked her for her number.  She vomited on my shoes and looked me in the eyes.   She was about to say something, but didn't.  I didn't say anything either.  Finally, ignoring the vomit remnants on her chin and the inexplicable pieces of crab meat in her hair, I grabbed her and kissed her.  We fell in love right there in the Red Lobster parking lot and it’s been bliss ever since.

Ok, so maybe some of the above isn’t true (she does like to tell people to  “check her record”), but in fact I did fall in love with her quickly, and it has been bliss ever since.

 Happy birthday my darling!

Listia Win: Bowman Platinum Di Cut Lot

When I started piddling around on Listia, I figured a might get a few cool cards here and there, and since it's all free, I was fine with a low expectation.  But, I've been picking up some pretty good stuff and have been getting some good winning bids for the stuff I've been "selling."

One recent win was this lot of 5 die cut cards from 2012 Bowman Platinum:

This not only gave me a couple of good Ranger cards (Cruz and Kinsler), it's a pretty decent start if I ever decide to chase this cool insert set.

Vacation Auto Post- 2012 Topps Finest

I picked up another handful of 2012 Finest base cards of www.sportlots.com last week and just had to show you:

I guess the "cool" cards to have with Finest are the colored parallels, but these base cards do it just fine for me.  Man, I wish that Cliff Lee card had him wearing a Rangers uni though....

Karma and Purple Bryce Harpers

I have to say I’m pretty proud of myself for sort of holding true to August-erity, at least in spirit.  Just yesterday, I had a ton of2012 Topps Finest cards loaded up in my cart on sportlots.com and was oh so close to making a purchase, when I stopped, got control of myself and emptied my cart.  Those cards will still be there a month from now, and I’m a supremely disciplined individual.   Ok, so I’m not, but I was still very impressed with myself for holding off.   I was also proud of myself for not laying out $20 Wednesday when I saw brand spanking new blasters of Topps Chrome on the shelf at Walmart.    I really wanted one too.  I mean really wanted one.  The way a crack addict wants… well, crack.  But I refrained again.  And instead of working on some urgent projects Wednesday afternoon, I shut the door to my office and whispered sweet utterances of congratulations to myself for being such a good boy.

The next morning we had a meeting at work, and long story short, something I did the company liked netted me an unexpected prepaid Visa card for $50.  When they handed me the card, two thoughts immediately sprang to mind:  1)  I needed to get out of there as fast as possible and use this on a blaster of Topps Chrome,  and 2)this gift card was obviously the result  cosmic forces of the world rewarding me for my earlier discipline.  Don’t believe me?  Look what was in the pack of special purple refractors:

This is probably about a $20 card which is what I had refrained from spending earlier in the week.   My belief now is that next week  I should prepare to spend $50 on cards but hold off at the last minute.  If my theory holds water, I will then be given the means to buy another blaster, but this time it will contain a $50 card.  Perhaps a printing plate or nice autograph.

Here are the other cards I cared about in the blaster:

A nice assortment of a Razorback, some Rangers and a former Natural.
I also got one of those nifty di-cut cards:

Omahogs- Or, Victory Eludes Me Yet Again

They say it is better to love and lost than to never loved at all, or something like that.  That sentiment sure applies to me lately, at least in terms of my favorite sports  teams.  Allow me to recap :

1)      The Rangers:  Once again, they were fantastic in 2011, and like they did in 2010, reached the World Series.  Like 2010, they lost the World Series, but this time they HAD it.  They HAD it.  A guy can’t complain too much about consecutive WS appearances, but to get one strike away TWICE and come up empty handed was a very bitter pill to swallow.

2)      Razorback Football:  Despite losing handily to Alabama earlier in the year, the Hogs still had a shot at a BCS bowl for the second straight year (In 2010, they had the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State all but handed to them on a block punt at the end of the game.   

      The Razorback who recovered the block punt inexplicably fell on the ball instead of picking it up and trotting untouched into the end zone as he could easily have done.)  In 2011, a victory at LSU at the end of the season would have put them back in a BCS game.  Even though the Hogs had an early lead, LSU was pretty clearly the better team and went on to win easily.   The Hogs went on to get a nice Cotton Bowl win over a good Kansas State team and finished in the top 5.  I can’t really complain about that either, since they never really had a shot at a National Title and finished the year on a win.

 3)      Razorback Baseball:  The Razorback baseball team finished the season barely making the top 25 but got hot in the post season and made it all the way to the College World Series in Omaha (Omahogs is what we call the baseball Razorbacks in these here parts).  I said at the time that I was happy with them just getting there and would not be get stressed about the CWS, no matter how they fared.  Then they won 3 in a row and were in the drivers seat for a chance to play Arizona for the National Championship.  All they had to do was beat South Carolina one time out of two games.  They didn’t, and finished the year ranked anywhere from #3-6 depending on the poll. Again, I'd pretty much take that every year, so no complaining from me.

The good news for all of us is that the Rangers are every bit as good this year as last year, and may actually be better, especially if they can get Michael Young to take his bat out of his butt and get Derek Holland back to being the stud he should be.

Razorback football should be elite again, despite losing the incredible coach but scumbag person Bobby Petrino to his own stupidity.

Who knows with the baseball team.  Dave Van Horn is an elite coach, and I would suspect Arkansas will be a playoff contender again despite losing a few key players, such as Matt Reynolds:

Ahhhh finally some pictures of cards!  Reynolds was the best position player for the Hogs this year, both offensively and defensively.  The Mets drafted him in the 2^nd round and scouts are pretty high on him.  I picked up all of these cards pretty cheaply recently.  The Sterling relic is a very sharp card.

Here’s hoping to a productive MLB career for Reynolds, and to just one of my teams finishing the job and getting me a championship!

Trade With The Dime Box Master

Nick from the prolific blog “Dime Boxes- the Low End Baseball Card Collector’s Journey” will heretofore have his blog referred to as the “Dime Box Master” for short on this post.  Or I guess I could just say "Nick's Blog" for shorter.  Or "Nick's" for shortest.

Anyway, I completed my first trade with him recently, and was able to help knock out some of his Heritage needs.  I was certainly happy with what he sent in return.  The best card wasn’t even one that I was expecting.  I was expecting this Nelson Cruz sticker:

Poor Nelson Cruz.  He will have that misplay of what should have been the final out in the World Series follow him the rest of his career.   If life were fair, people would also remember the walk off grand slam he hit against the Tigers in the LCS.  But life isn’t fair I guess.  I’m still a fan though, and I still remember the LCS grand slam, and my guess is that he will be just fine this year.

Nick also sent a nice group of other players I collect.

 

But the best part was this:

A 1984 Fleer Darryl Strawberry rookie.  I would ask if he found this in a dime box, but I probably don't want to know the answer.  About 20 years ago, I would have gone to great lengths to get this card.  I still love it, and as an unexpected add-in to the trade, it’s an incredible bonus!  That would have been worth the trade on its own.  Very excited about this, and I’m very appreciative of the Dime Box Master.    Keep up the great work on your blog Nick. 

But, I still can’t believe you passed on that 1971 rookie Concepcion for a dime.  That pains me every time I think about it.