Oren Sends A Variety

My latest mail day from Oren arrived a while ago, but I am just getting to posting it. That's how far buried I am in posts on here as we creep towards February where I am hoping to finally get caught up.

But first, let's tackle my latest Oren mail day that features a variety from a variety of PC's.

Playbook die cut Title Quest of Drew Bledsoe

Pacific Saved By The Bell Tiffani-Amber Thiessen. Great card, may need to chase down more.

Time Capsule CD from Powerdeck

Ultra relic of Corey Dillion, who is a side PC.

Ulf Samuelsson Crunch Crew, recently these early 90's subsets have really grown on me

Mickey Mantle...reprint insert from something.

And finally, some Masters Of The Universes cards. These are quite unique and nothing I have seen before. I used to love watching the show but don't remember anything about it other than He-Man and Skeletor. Which I will also toss out there if any of you have the Battle Damage He-Man or Skeletor, I would trade cards for those.

Thoughts on my mail day are welcomed in comments.

Thanks again to Oren for another awesome mail day and I am looking forward to our next trade!

Mantle and Jeter Breakdown

It's been a long, too long, time since I had a bigger trade with Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown blog. About 3 years to be exact.

We have done a couple in the past but normally just do PWE ones which I have been really lacking on the last couple of years. Once again I need to lay this out there, I really need to start trading again with bloggers but I always question if they have anything in return for me since my collecting preferences have changed so much since I have traded with most.

My PC is deep, but it's actually much easier than most think. 

1. NY Giants cards I don't have
2. Non Sport cards (mainly celebrities and Batman but don't mind going off course to) and I do enjoy the Allen and Ginter non baseball cards 
3. 90's inserts from any team or sport. 

These are the Top 3 PC's for me. Yes, I do have side player collections I add to occasionally, but if you are looking to hit the sweet spot, these are the three things you want to take aim for.

In this most recent trade with Gavin, he absolutely nailed down one card I definitely needed (saved for a later date) and then were a couple I didn't really need but wanted.

As most know, I am probably one of the lone bloggers who doesn't do a lot of baseball card collecting anymore. I have shifted gears completely and have found myself unloading my baseball player and Yankee collections-with the exception of any 90's inserts- in exchange for stuff I needed and wanted more.

There are also two players to this exception as well. Ken Griffey Jr who I have collected since the 90's and Derek Jeter who is my favorite Yankee player of all-time.

 

Well, here is the latest Jeter add thanks to Gavin. I think this is my 6th or 7th DJ relic. I like this one because of the stitching on it.

So with two cards down in the trade with Gavin, we needed one more to finish it. He showed me some Yankees cards, and even noted he knew I wasn't collecting baseball that much, to see if something caught my eye to finish up our trade.

And there was one....

I can't say no to a Mickey Mantle. This marks my second vintage Mantle and my first graded one, not that I am a grading card guy.

Gavin also tossed in a few extras I will show off another time along with the key piece in the trade.

Thanks again to Gavin for the trade and hope we can do this again soon!

Summer Of Wes Card #23

Summer Of Wes Card #24

Malone and Mantle

A new thread popped up on Twitter recently that was a lot of fun. It's sort of trading, but not.

It's simply offer up a card you don't need for your collection via PWE, if someone claims it, you mail it to them and they must offer up a freebie themselves for others to claim including yourself. Same goes if you find a card you want, you can claim it but must also throw up a freebie yourself.

The first week I joined in I claimed two and gave away six. That's just because I hate shipping one card PWE. The other card hasn't arrived yet that I claimed but this one did just two days later.

Karl Malone was a must need once I saw it and was my first claim from the thread. Mainly because I showed up late and a lot of other stuff had already been claimed. But, you combine 90's insert and the mail man, it was an obvious connection.

Thanks to @ThomasLeeGreen for the mail day.

My next mail day came from The Diamond King who sent me a big surprise with some Shiny Mantles after seeing my post about the Chrome Mantle reprints I recently added.

Except mine weren't cool refractors like these.

 

2007 Topps Chrome /500

 

2008 Topps Chrome


2007 Topps Chrome /500

 

These are the coolest Mantles I own yet! I will have to update my PC numbers for him at some point but most, if not all of my Mantle collection is all new stuff. Only one vintage card I own of him.

Thanks to The Diamond King for the nice surprise!

Too Many Cardboard Mysteries

Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders blog posted a stack of bubblers on Twitter he mailed out to the blogosphere and possibly beyond for upcoming mail days. My name was in the stack as well and arrived on Friday.

I never know what to expect when I get a mail day from Dennis. Sometimes its Starting Lineups. Sometimes it's magazines. Sometimes he hunts down Rodney Hamptons I need. Sometimes he helps me fill sets from the many 90's ones I have. And other times he will hit me up with NY Giants hits and Griffey cards. The one thing I am only certain of, it was going to be worth ripping this envelope open.

So I let it rip,

Some Juniors.

I thought these postcards were super cool. I liked these a lot and will most likely display them in the man cave (whenever I get the chance to expand it some)

David Wilson rookie relic from Rookies and Stars. It's the True Blue parallel. How perfect.

Another David Wilson relic this time from Prestige.

Andre Williams in probably the best Panini product I have ever opened. The 2014 Absolute was a great looking product and the hits were amazing. Not sure why they didn't keep products going like it.

Haven't seen one of these, great addition for my Andre Williams PC

Akeem Ayers auto. He has a unique signature

One of the many failed Giants TE draft picks over the years, at least I think they paid off with the drafting of Evan Engram

Sweet two color patch of Ryan Nassib. Nassib was a highly touted guy and at one point was projected to be a top draft pick. But, he fell to the Giants in the later rounds and never made a name for himself. I guess the great part is I can keep adding his cards for next to nothing!

Jerrel Jernigan showed a lot of promise and played a few great games in blue. Not sure why the Giants ever let him go.

This is also a great card as it's a letterman. Have been thinking about doing Parts Of The Past by letterman like I did with Sport Card Collectors. Not sure how far I have left to go.

And the finale was this Rueben Randle auto relic from another Panini brand favorite, Panini Black. The gold ink and black background making for a sparking card.

A big thanks goes out to Dennis for another great mail day. I always enjoy unwrapping your cardboard mysteries and never knowing what I may find. I have more cards coming your way soon as well!

Hard Hitters

Every few months I get a hard hitter in my mail box from Sport Card Collector reader Grady M sends me a box of goodies and it's always overwhelming with fun. We have been exchanging for years now after we met on the Sport Card Collectors Facebook page. He is a great caring guy as well who also donates tons of cards and other items to his local children's hospital.

About a couple of weeks ago I received my recent hard hitter full of more hard hitters. The box said Merry Christmas on the inside and I knew it was going to be a good one. I won't be able to show off every card in the box in a post as there were SO many. But, I will touch base in it time to time. For now, there will be three posts highlighting the main cards in the box.

Today we tackle the Yankee finds. I get a lot of my base card and insert Yankee needs from Grady so I don't need anymore from anyone else because of this. So when I trade with others, including you guys reading, all I want for Yankees is hits, numbered, 90's inserts, Derek Jeter, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, and any Yankee rookie cards within the last five years. I don't like having doubles of any cards except rookies. It's so hard to find new homes as I have stacks of base Yankees kicking around from being sent dupes.

Let's kick off this Grady M mailing with a Mickey Mantle base card from Chronicles. I didn't have this one yet. Mantle is another Yankee

Nice Clint Frazier I didn't have. Really like the throwback Coming Attraction,

This Rizzuto's on FIIIIRE!

It took awhile for Stanton to get going in NY, but he got going after awhile. I was starting to think the Yankees made a bad move and now I am pretty happy he is with the team. These are two great looking adds.

Some more shiny Yanks,

Another Mantle I didn't have. Diamond Kings is one of Panini's better baseball products,

DJ! He also leads into the Storybook ending to this post,

Judge! Lots of new great adds here,

Including this amazing Crusade insert. It's the parallel /99 as well. Such a beautiful add. I should update my Judge PC numbers on here sometime.

Well, that does it for Part 1 of this goodies box. More to come before the New Year!

Binders Reorganization Strikes Back!

It is back. Well, for short time only like the McRib or Taco Bell's Nacho Fries. Binder Reorganization has returned like with a vengeance. Similar to when Jason came back to life in Friday The 13th part 6.

My poor NY Yankees collection has been in need of the same love I gave my Giants collection and since I don't have any new cards incoming, I needed a new project to keep my mind busy so I am going to give them the love they deserve.

There are 4 binders in all to tear apart and sort by player. Right now the current pages look like this,

 

There is no sort to this madness. It was me being lazy and sticking all of my Yankees-minus rookies, Jeter and Judge-all into a binder just to have them out of the way.

I regret neglecting it for so long but it was finally time to tackle it. The fact that I waited so long will make this an even longer project than it should have been.

This is how it currently looks after one binder. So many players that two sorting trays couldn't handle. I had to actually make a section on my desk as well.

 

I am hoping this project will straighten out my Yankees PC, show me who I have the most of for a player-which at this point is Gary Sanchez-and eliminate any doubles I may have. I don't collect doubles of anything unless its rookie cards or autographs or memorabilia or a numbered card.

In one binder alone I have found at least 10 doubles so far. Those cards will go into a pile for my Yankee trading friends. Which I don't have many, well, one so far. I will stick pictures of those doubles into my Trade Bait tab when I finally get that all set up.

More updates to come from my Yankee sorting along with a possible top player breakdown. Hopefully I can showcase off my very small Yankees hits PC at some point as well.

Full House

As another year kicks off, my mother in law is on the hunt for cards for me from yard sales and antique stores. Well, yard sales haven't started yet here but hopefully soon.

Antique stores are open however and that's where she found today's finds.

Here first find was this unopened pack of Topps Archives from 1991.

 

Up to this point I haven't opened it. I kind of wanna keep it sealed since there really isn't anything to chase inside, but on the other hand, I wanna open it because it's an unopened pack waiting to be busted. We will see.

The other cool find was this metal tin box of what I thought was cards but turned out to be.....

Playing cards. But, an All-Century Team playing cards. These were created back in 2000 and were something I haven't seen before.

I opened them up and pulled out some of the cards and was impressed. Vintage black and white photos with a colorful playing ball and card shapes making for a nice blend. I would buy an actual trading card set like this if there was one!

I didn't show off all 52 names in the set, but all of the big ones are in there. For now, I am just showing off a few of my favorites,

Pretty cool don't you think? I will most likely keep them in the box but I have considered paging these as a set as well. Right now I am out of pages so they would be forced in the box either way but I am one who likes to keep things as is like this. That's a big part of my hobby OCD.

As always, when my mother in law finds more items this year or if I do, I will post them as they are picked up.