Pie Face Funded: Gypsy Queen Greens

I picked up 3 of the green paper framed parallels I needed from 2011 Gypsy Queen- all big stars.

I only need 4 more:

Carl Crawford
Albert Pujols
Stan Musial
Ozzie Smith

Nothing more to say today- let's all focus on another Razorback victory!!!

Sampler Album Week: 1981 Topps

I think I like the hat on these cards.  Or maybe I don't.  I need to learn how to get in touch with my feelings so I know what's what.

While I debate my opinion on the hat, I won't debate that I'm happy with the players I've got on the 1981 page of my Sampler Album.  Several HOFers, and recognizable names.  I wish that Henderson was a 1980 version, but maybe someday!

Sampler Album Week: 1987 Topps

I mentioned yesterday that 1987 Topps is a set I get nostalgic for, along with 1986 Topps.  1987 was the first year I started anticipating the design of a set.  Previously, I didn't care at all.   Of course, back then we didn't (or I didn't at least) have means of previewing the look of the cards before they came out. 

So I didn't have a sense of the wood-grained magic of 1987 Topps until I actually saw them in the store and bought a pack.  1987 was a fun year for baseball cards in my opinion.  Fleer and Donruss also had some neat designs, and there were several exciting players to chase.

See if you can detect the loose theme in my 1987 Sampler Album Page:

I haven't been trying to "theme" my sampler album pages, but this one turned out pretty cool, with all of the players having a career in baseball outside their playing days.  All of these guys are or were executives or managers/coaches at some point.  Of course I'm partial to the current Ranger trio of CEO/Owner Nolan Ryan, Manager Ron Washington and hitting coach Dave Magadan.  Magadan needs to get on the stick though 'cause the Rangers aren't hitting squat these days.

Cleve's Quarter Machine Goodies

I didn't win anything from last week's auction, but didn't leave the shop empty handed this week.  I guess I should say my kids didn't leave empty handed.  I've mentioned the $.25 vending machine at Cleve's before, and my kids are hooked on it.  They beg to come with me to Cleve's on the weekends now and scramble to find a few quarters for the trip.   They each got a handful on Saturday.

They graciously allowed me to scan their cards before scurrying off and doing god knows what with them:

Crap, I wish I could pull one of these from a vending machine.  I can probably trade a shiny refractor card to my son for this Fleer Nolan Ryan.  Both my kids love shiny refractor cards.    My son's pull on the the baseball slot of the machine not only gave him this Ryan, but a couple of other Hall of Famers:

Not a bad trio for $.25.  My daughter had some good luck with baseball too:

She got 4 cards with her pull, instead of the usual 3, which sent my son into hysterics.  Her pull was impressive too, with 3 HOFers and Barry Bonds. 

They also got a few football and basketball:

Actually, these are the only three I could find Sunday evening.  Not sure what has happened to the rest. The kids may have tossed some out the window on the ride home, or hell they may have eaten a few.  My money's on them being flushed down the toilet if you want the truth.

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!

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.

Breaking Jaybarker Fan’s Junk Jinx Part 6: The Big Boss

It’s time to pull out the big guns and make sure we get this jinx wiped away for good.  Here are the cards that Wes of Jaybarker Fan’s Junk sent of Hall of Fame Pitcher and Rangers Owner Nolan Ryan:

 

Cardboard Catastrophes Keeps Making My Day

I can't seem to catch up to Jeff at Cardboard Catastrophes.  It seems like he always has something up his sleeve that I want and he sends it before I can even put together my side of the trade.  He was nice enough to do some finagling on the Diamond Topps giveaway site and came up with the only other Texas Ranger di cut card I needed (I'm passing on Vlad Guerrero and don't want to spend what I'd have to for the Nolan Ryan) for a close-enough-complete Rangers set.   His cards arrived in the mail yesterday.  I haven't even put his in the mail yet.  This same scenario plays out on all of our trades, which makes me wonder how he tolerates me. 

Here is the Beltre.  I love these cards, and I've become a huge fan of Beltre this year.  I'm very excited to get this.

He also sent a few extra cards.  The Ryan Fleer Greats card is a handsome card that looks like it belongs in a leather bound album in a luxurious home office that smells of pipe tobacco. 

Thanks for being a great trading partner Jeff, and I'll get some good stuff out to you soon!

Lineage Rangers

I don't know what happened, but I very quickly changed my mind on Lineage.  I still love the mini relic cards, and some of the other inserts, but I have no interest in the base other than the Rangers cards.  Luckily,  neighboring state (OK) blog Cardboard Catastrophes (BTS, the more I read his blog and correspond with him, the more I realize we have in common- except I LOVE Star Wars) cares even less for Lineage and sent me the Rangers cards he had from his purchase:

This about covers my needs for Lineage base.  The Cruz card is super cool, and now I think I have all of the mini relics of the Rangers since I also received this Kinsler relic off eBay:

While the base doesn't do much for me, I still am enamored with the mini relics.  Once they come down in price, I will probably fish for a few more online.  I also really want the Josh Hamilton 3D card.

Thanks for the trade Jeff! 

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.