One Last Etopps Delivery

I've been meaning to take one last delivery of eTopps cards from my portfolio- at least some select cards- before I'm done here.  Delivery is damn expensive ($12 first card, $1.75 each additional), but I'm getting worried that soon Topps is just going to pull the plug on the site (they stopped making new cards back in 2011, and recently took down the message boards) and my cards will be lost forever.  So I figured I'd bite the bullet and get the cards I really wanted and hope for the best on the rest.  I have a couple of complete sets that would be painful to ship, but I'm hopeful that someday there will be a special offer to clear out one's portfolio.

Anyway, my cards arrived the other day:

Four bubble wrapped blocks of shiny eTopps cards.  Aren't you excited to see them all?

Here they are out of the bubble wrap:

Sorry, I know that's a strange angle.  All the cards come in their own little zip-loc baggie.  So we'll take the next step and look at them all lined up out of the wrap and out of the baggies:

These are the T-206 cards.  They are every bit as beautiful as you think they are.  I still need about 8 cards to finish the set, but they are getting really hard to trade for on the site.

I didn't take an individual shot of the Matt Weiters card in the bottom left of the photo above.  But I managed to trade for one and took it in hand.  Why?  It's Weiter's only Topps card.  I learned that from a comment by a guy named Stubby on a previous eTopps post I wrote.  Thanks for the tip Stubby!

So the challenge of taking pictures of eTopps cards is that not only are they in hard plastic cases, the cards are shiny too.  So my picture styles aren't consistent.  Because I just kept snapping away until I got images that didn't have ridiculous glare.

As much as it ticked me off to pay that much for shipping, I absolutely love these cards.  Especially the T206s.  Here are a few up close for ye:

At some point, I plan to have this Willie Keeler card in it's original T206 form too.  For now, this will work.

I took a bunch of standard eTopps cards too:

 It's neat to have a couple of cards of Christian Colon, who has been mentioned on my blog many times before.

 I got this Mauer just because I thought it would be a nice looking card in hand.  I was right!

 See what I mean by shiny?  Isn't that Maddux gorgeous? 

I took all my Derek Jeters for delivery.  No way I'm leaving those at risk with the website.

These two are from the 2004 set.  As far as eTopps sets go, 2004 is considered one of weaker offerings, and the cards are very cheap to obtain up front before delivery.  But I have to say they are very striking in hand, and a great value in comparison to the other sets.  If I decide to take more cards in the future, I'm loading up on stars from the 2004 set.

I could probably get 2 or 3 more posts out of this haul, but you get the idea.  I will say that I'm not especially interested in trading these just because I wouldn't know what would be fair for them.  On the one hand, the degree of difficulty getting these in a portfolio, coupled with expense of shipping means I'd want something good for them, but on the other hand the initial "cost" per card doesn't warrant getting something good for them.  Mostly, I don't want to go to the effort to replace anything I trade out.

Cleve's Auction Night: Trade Bait Galore!

Tonight (Tuesday) was the first live auction at Cleve's I've attended in months.  I had a blast and picked up a lot more than I had been recently, living on write-in bids.  Looking over my haul, I have to say I doubt I keep most of it though.  It's basically all up for trade, so keep that in mind as you look at the pictures.  Some of this is already earmarked for others, but I'll note that where applicable.

We'll start with a lot of 30 vintage cards, mostly 1958 and 1962:

 The 1958s all turned out to be Phillies, which I didn't realize until I brought them home.  I bought the lot mostly for Richie Ashburn, who is not represented in my Sampler Album.  The Ashburn card also fills my 1958 page.  The Ashburn is not in the greatest shape, but is fine for now.
 

The 1962s are not in great shape, but I was able to use a couple for the sampler album.  There were 30 cards in the lot in all.

I bought one other vintage card at the auction- this Jim Rice rookie:

 

My 1975 page is already pretty strong, but this is still nice to have.

I also picked up a couple of nice autographs.  These aren't guys I collect, but the prices were good and I'm hoping they will make good trade bait:

 

The Bautista is an on card auto from 2013 Heritage and the Ethier is a sticker with a relic patch from 2012 Bowman Platinum.

On the relic front, I also picked up this lot of cards, again, hoping they can be traded:

 

Not an exceedingly exciting bunch, but this Nomo card that was also in the group is pretty cool:

It's numbered to 250, and a pretty unique card.  I'm assuming my favorite Nomo collector is interested so I'm giving him first right of refusal.

Rounding out my purchases are a couple of Yankees:

 This Museum Derek Jeter may be difficult to part with.

I don't know anything about Mark Montgomery, but here he is anyway.  The two Yankees above have a hold on them for the Lost Collector, unless he angers me.

Grades:

Vintage 30 Cart Lot:  $10   B+:  The cards are a little on the dingy side, but that's still a great price for that many, including a Richie Ashburn.

1975 Jim Rice Rookie:  $2  A:  $2 bucks for that.  Really.

Tony Bautista Auto:  $5  A:  It's a beautiful card, even if I don't care anything about Bautista.

Andre Ethier Auto/Relic:  $3   A:  See above

Relic Lot:  $4   A+  The Nomo card alone is worth it, and at a minimum I'm bulking up my relic collection.

Jeter Musuem:  $2  B+:  I could probably get it for the same price on eBay or sportlots.com, but still.

Mark Montgomery Auto:  $3  B- :  Don't know who he is, but that doesn't mean he won't be good someday.

Again, practically everything is for trade, so don't hesitate to ask!

Sampler Album Week: 2002 Topps

I'm not a big fan of this set.  This looks like it is more of a parallel set than the base flagship set.  I don't get the orange border.  The banners and logos are fine I guess. 

I'm happy with the players on this page though fer sure.  Jeter and Pujols carry the weight, but I've got some of my other favorites as well as some other notable players.

But I don't get the set.  I guess it's the orange.

Spiegel Takes Home The Lifetime Acheivement Award..

For trades with me.

I know I've traded with him more than anyone, in fact I've lost count on how many we've done.  However many it's been, I hope they keep coming because they are always top shelf.

Spiegel's been a little AWOL from his blog though lately, so I hope once summer gets here life gives him a little breathing room and we can get back some of that laid back California-Spiegel vibe that is lacking amongst the card blogs right now.  We need you Spiegel, more than ever.


This was the card that started the trade:

I've written about Christian Colon several times.  He's at AAA now, but he made a lasting impression on the Doon family when he was here with the AA Naturals last year.  Anyway, I was glad to get this on card auto.  I'm hoping he gets a shot at the Royals soon.   I'm hoping Rob Neyer is wrong:

Having seen Christian Colon play about seven innings at shortstop, I think one CAN use the eye test. You know, when it's this obvious.
— robneyer (@robneyer) March 16, 2013

I didn't have warm and fuzzies about Neyer's implication, but since I'm dense I decided to ask him to clarify, a small part of me hoping that he would say something like, "Obvious that he belongs in the Show and he's going to be a star!"

@napkindoon Not good enough to play shortstop unless there's an emergency.
— robneyer (@robneyer) March 16, 2013

Yikes.  Well, nobody knows everything, so I'm still hoping Colon finds success in the bigs someday soon, and at a minimum at least be the next Derek Jeter.

Speaking of Jeter, Spiegel included a few Jeter's in our trade if I may be so bold as to awkwardly shift back to our trade:

 And last but not least, two of my All Time Favorite Hogs:

 That Prizm McFadden is perhaps the greatest football card of all time.

Thanks again for the great trade Spiegel!  Look forward to another one soon!

Cleve's Christmas Auction Preview Part 6: High End Rookie Cards

I'm likely going to be focused on winning vintage cards at Cleve's Christmas auction, but that doesn't mean I won't make a run at one of these if they go cheap enough:

Actually, unless they go under $10 I won't bother with any except the Jeter.  That is a great card.

For those of you interested in these, or any of the other cards from the Christmas auction (or any auction for that matter) Cleve does take write in bids.  You can reach him at:   479-927-0067 

Cleve’s Christmas Auction Preview Part 1: My Top 5 Wants

I’m going to bombard you people with yet another series of related posts, now that my COMC Haul posts have mercifully ended.

Here’s the difference though: I’m going to show you some ridiculously cool stuff!  And you will like it!

Cleve is holding his annual Christmas auction next Tuesday.  Last year I got blanked and came home with nothing, but it was still fun.  This year, I’m coming home with something, so help me, that is if I’m able to attend and not screwed over by work travel (fingers crossed).

I guess I should take a step back and re-introduce Cleve’sauctions.  The LCS “Cleve’s Collectibles” holds a card auction every Tuesday night.   There is ALWAYS a nice offering of cards, and I almost always come home with something, much to the Lovely Wife’s chagrin.  Every year, in mid December, he holds a Christmas auction, and the auction materials are top of the line stuff, with tons of vintage, memorabilia and autographs.

Part of what makes these auctions so much fun is the owner, Cleve, is one of the nicest, most generous people you could ever hope to meet.     So I’m happy to dedicate a week of posts to this auction, and if I can steer a few people to give his shop some business, I’d be ecstatic.

That is, unless those people get in the way of me getting any of the cards below.  Then we’re going to have a problem. 

There are going to be well over 100 auction items next Tuesday, but I will share the ones I found the most interesting over the next seven days.  Today, why not start out with the best ones, at least from my perspective.  These are the 5 cards I want the most.  There is no way that I will get all,  or even multiple wins, but if I can get one of these, I will be tap dancing all the way home:

1954 Hank Aaron:  I would love to be able to say to people, “Sure, I have a Hank Aaron rookie card.”  I love the sound of that. “I have a Hank Aaron rookie card.”   Will I be saying that next Wednesday?  Not likely, but I’m going to try.

T206 Johnny Evers:  I have a Joe Tinker T206.  My goal is to complete the Tinker-Evers-Chance trio at some point.  If I can get this under $60-$70 or so, I’m going for it.

Derek Jeter Sweet Spot Signature:  Obviously, Jeter is one of the iconic athletes of this era.  An autographed card of him would be a seriously awesome addition to my collection.

1961 Mickey Mantle:  I don’t have any legit vintage Mantles.  There will be about 10 or so at the auction, and I’ll see if I can swing at least one.  If I could have any of them, this is the one I’d like the most.  My guess is that this goes way out of my range quickly.

1955 Jackie Robinson:  I have a 1954 Jackie Robinson and it’s one of the top 5 jewels of my collection.  I’d love to get another one.

For those interested in these, or any of the other cards I’ll show this week, Cleve does take write in bids. 
Give him a call and he will set you up with a bidder number.    You can reach him at:   479-927-0067 

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.

Contest Winnings From Play at the Plate

Not only does Brian from the HOF level blog "Play at the Plate" have exquisite tastes in favorite teams, he is a very generous contest generator.  I was the lucky winner of a recent contest, (1 in 72 odds of winning- how about that!) and my prize came in the mail this week.  I had no idea what I won, and I was thrilled when I opened the padded envelope:

First was this very cool Ian Kinsler relic card that I did not yet have:

 I've seen this card before online and have been tempted to get it, but now I don't have to.  He also sent a very cool T205 mini of Ichiro that I thought I scanned but I guess I didn't.

As if that wasn't enough, he also sent a rack pack of 2012 Heritage!  Here were my favorite cards in the pack:

I'm most excited about the Perez card, simply because I saw him play a lot last year here in NW Arkansas.  This is my first card of him.  The Wash card is awesome and I'm tempted to try to get it auto'd TTM.

Thanks for the generous prize Brian, enjoy your time off, and go Rangers!