PWE from 2x3 Heroes

I feel like I type that post heading often enough that it should start auto-filling. Later this week, I'll be driving out to Minnesota and back. I was debating on whether or not I should take a break from posts for a few days while I prep for the trip and just post my team set on Saturday and Pro Debut on Sunday.

But thanks to Jenerous JediJeff's most recent PWE, I'm going to squeeze three posts out of it to help bridge that gap. Three posts from six cards in a PWE? Challenge accepted!

1981 Donruss #483 Ivan DeJesus

This Ivan DeJesus card was a collection upgrade. The one I already had was rectangular, but was cropped all cockeyed like. I may have to send that one to Jeff for his mis-cut collection.

1992 Fleer Ultra #477 Hector Villanueva

Hecor Villanueva was one of five Cubs catchers in 1991 and logged more time behind the plate than both Damon Berryhill and Joe Girardi. He had careers highs in batting average (.276), home runs (13) and RBIs (32) that season. Sadly, Cubs fans would probably take those numbers this year from that position.

1992 Topps Gold Winner #509 Doug Dascenzo

I had the base card. And I had the regular Gold card. And now, I have the Winner variation as well. Nice! I'd be surprised if there were many other Cubs Dascenzo cards I didn't have. If he had played in this era, he would probably be a guy I'd chase parallels of on the cheap.

1993 Leaf #224 Ryne Sandberg

This sweet Ryne Sandberg card must have been a duplicate for Jeff's double play collection but I will gladly add it to mine. As of now, my Ryne Sandberg collection has not been integrated as part of my Cubs collection so a lot of my team sets are missing Ryno. I have the cards and I don't know that I need second copies of Sandberg base cards but...is this how hoarders start?

2014 Bowman 1989 Bowman is Back
Silver Diamond Refractor
#89BIB-KB Kris Bryant

Is that really what this card is called? What a mouthful! This is a card I didn't think I would own for quite a while and marks Kris Bryant's entry into my collection. I passed on one at the card show last month because it was in one of those protective cases that cost more than what I was willing to shell out for the card itself, under a glass case surrounded by relics and autographs. It was unmarked but what's the old saying? If you have to ask, you can't afford it. I may have been able to but if I don't see prices, I keep on walking.

One of these cards will show up later week in a Backside Appreciation post. The sixth and final card belongs in the Ivy Collection and will get its own post Friday.

Thanks for the collection injection, Jeff!

Sandberg Sunday

It's been a loooooong time since I did a Sandberg Sunday post. But to be honest, its been a looooooong time since I added anything new for my Ryne Sandberg collection. Eventually I'm going to start adding my Sandberg PC to Zistle but that'll be a serious undertaking.

I did pick up two new (pretty sure they're new) cards at the card show last weekend but I already showed them off in one of my recaps this week.

So instead of showing off a new Cubs Ryno card, I have the newest card in my collection, a Phillies Ryno card.

2014 Topps Heritage #57 Ryne Sandberg

Sandberg doesn't look too thrilled about it either if I do say so myself, haha. He started the season as the third base coach but took over as interim manager on August 16, 2013 after the Phillies fired Charlie Manuel.

According to the Getty Images caption for the photo used on the card, it's from that first game as the Phillies skipper.

Photo by Drew Hallowell (courtesy of Getty Images)

PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 16: Manager Ryne Sandberg #23 of the Philadelphia Phillies stands in the dugout before the game against at Los Angeles Dodgers Citizens Bank Park on August 16, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

The blurb on the back sounds good....as long as you trust Topps' fact checkers. Sandberg, in fact, lost his first two games as manager of the Phillies before reeling off two wins, five of his next six and seven of nine. As much as I wish Sandberg continued success, I also like facts on my baseball cards.

Phillies first 15 games under Ryne Sandberg

And if you've missed my 2014 Topps breakdowns on my other blog, don't worry, I'll be back to those this week. I've had some stuff going on and since that one is the more research intensive of the two blogs, that's the one that has suffered over the last 10 days or so.

Paying It Forward

The message boards over on Sportscollectors.net are an interesting place. Like any community, there are some bad apples, but for the most part the cream rises to the top. I'm over there several times a week (if not more) trying to improve my Cubs autograph collection which is a 1000x better because of it.

Last year, and maybe the year before, a thread was started with the intention of Paying it Forward. Go through the want lists of fellow members and send something with no expectation of a personal return. I don't think this is any big revelation for the blogosphere as this seems to be the norm around here. Jeff from 2 by 3 Heroes may be single handedly keeping the Post Office in business with his PWEs.

But earlier last week, I was contacted by SCN member littleking83 about my quest to complete the 1991 Topps Desert Shield Cubs team set. I've seen him around the boards as he is attempting to not only own a complete set of all 792 Desert Shield cards, but to get them all signed as well! Talk about ambition!

I guess in the process of meeting his goal, he's picked up a few extra unsigned cards because he asked if my want list was up to date. When I said it was, these two beauties showed up in the mail yesterday. Just in time for Veteran's Day! 

I've been meaning to pick up a nicely centered Shawn Boskie for a while. According to SCN, he is pretty good about signing his TTM, so this one might go right back out in the mail, along with an ATCRCS card.

Ryne Sandberg has three cards in this set, the base, a record breaker and this All-Star card. I've been putting off picking up any of them since they tend to go for double digits when available for sale. The RB and AS cards aren't completely unreasonable (compared to the base card and the Maddux tends to be) but it would still eat up my card budget pretty quickly.

I've been inspired so I will be spending my Sunday looking through some want lists both here on the blogosphere and on SCN. And my card budget for the next little while will be going towards postage instead.

This brings my total from this set up to 21 cards out of the 32 (not including the Keith Comstock error).

Thanks Larry (AKA littleking83)!!!

Sandberg Sunday - Cut to the Chase Coaster

Early on in the blog when I wasn't entirely sure what to write about, Sandberg Sundays were used as a crutch to help start off my week. It has been a while since I whipped one out but thanks to P-Town Tom from Waiting 'Til Next Year, it was time to dust the concept off. And not just as a crutch, but to show off a really neat piece of Sandberg memorabilia. I can't be entirely sure, but it might even be a 1/1!

A while back Tom posted a crafty project that turned a regular baseball card into a functional part of the mancave, a coaster. I don't consider myself a crafty person so even if this is easy, I would probably go through a packs worth of cards to make something a tenth as good as the one Tom sent me. And he used a die cut insert card of my all time favorite player to boot!
 

Ryne Sandberg Coaster

It even has a felt backing so my fancy schmancy Ikea mancave furniture doesn't get scratched. And even though I'm not a glitter guy, it does give it a nice touch and comes up all sparkly like. I wouldn't mind pulling one of these as an insert!

Now the only decision is do I actually use it as a coaster? Or display it Han Solo-in-carbonite style ala Jabba the Hut? Hmmm...

Thanks again, Tom!

PWE from 2x3 Heroes

I dropped the ball this week for showcasing a One Game Wonder, but I think I'm out of photos to use for the remaining guys. Somehow, some way I'll find one to use for an ATCRCS card but until I might have to post without showing a card.

Luckily, Jeff from 2x3 Heroes saved the day by dropping an unexpected PWE on me this week.

With my handy new scanning and tagging system, I was able to determine I needed one of the cards he sent but another couple were definite upgrades! Score! Speaking of which, one of the upgrades was a 1992 Score Ryne Sandberg:

I think Score kind of gets a bum rap and was overshadowed by Upper Deck but in hindsight, they were a pretty good brand. Full color photos on both sides, bright colors, clean lines, no foil. My original card was a little rough along one edge so this one is a keeper. It is one of those cards that you see a million times and keep meaning to upgrade but never get around to it.

Another upgrade was this Play Hard insert from 2013 Opening Day. The one I pulled from a pack was miscut along the back. I thought it might have been my scan/crop job but after going to rescan it, I determined the card itself was bad.

I didn't do a breakdown of this card but the play featured was during a Cubs-White Sox game on June 18, 2012. As you can probably see, Castro was safe on the pickoff attempt. The back of the card is a testament to the fact that Starlin Castro plays hard. Topps says so, so it must be true. 

The final upgrade was this 1987 Topps Glossy All-Star card. The one I have is yellowing but this one looks as good as I'm sure it did 25 years ago.

A new addition to the collection is this 2007 Bowman Heritage Prospects card of Ryan Norwood. This came out during a hiatus from the hobby so I don't have many others from this set. The Cubs drafted Norwood in the 9th round of the 2004 draft but he topped out at High Single-A in 2007.



Thanks Jeff, you'll have some White Sox coming your way soon.

Howard Johnson

On Monday I showed off one of my newer ATCRCS cards, Mick Kelleher and noted that I liked how he added #20, his jersey number that he only wore while with the Cubs.

Yesterday, I put up some cards of miscellaneous Mariners that I obtained with a little help from justgreg over on SCN.

Today, I am tying those both together (completely randomly) with a post about the Tacoma Rainiers hitting coach, Howard Johnson. He is currently the Assistant Hitting Coach for the Seattle Mariners which I think is just temporary since the Triple-A season is over.

To tie Ho-Jo to Kelleher, you'll note that Johnson also added his jersey number 20 to his autograph. The difference though is that Johnson wore #20, at least part of the time, with all four of the teams from his playing days (Tigers, Mets, Rockies & Cubs). He even wears #20 with the Rainiers. Unfortunately for him, Nick Franklin wears the number for the Mariners so he is currently sporting #10.

And the cards above and below were both obtained with help from justgreg. I even sent in a few extras of the ATCRCS card after Greg mentioned that Ho-Jo really liked them.



As a big Ryne Sandberg fan, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to get this card signed as well by co-super star, Johnson. The signature is a little more abbreviated on this one which is understandable due to getting only half the card. This goes into a ridiculously sized pile of stuff that I eventually would like to get signed by Ryno.

For a little more cheesy fun that I noticed while writing this post, what's 20x20? 400, you say? Well, this also happens to be my 400th post. Not exactly a milestone number, but everybody likes a nice round number, right?

Also, since it is Sandberg's birthday today, I thought it appropriate he makes a cameo in today's post!

The Official SignaChip Sportstar Jigsaw Puzzles

Sometime in the early 1990's, a company put out puzzles of several All-Star baseball players. The puzzles were 250 pieces and measured 15 1/2" wide by 18" tall. They featured a large player photo with a smaller inset photo in one of the corners.

One of the pieces was roughly the size of a standard baseball card and served as the exclusive "SignaChip" piece and was meant to be autographed by the player featured. Kind of a neat collectible. I had the Ryne Sandberg puzzle as a kid and last year, when Ryno was still with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, I sent the piece to someone from SCN who offered some help.

I put together and took apart this puzzle probably a couple dozen times when it was new to me so when I came across it again, it looked a little dog-eared. You can see some wear around the edges in the photo above and the line in the middle top prong is actually a bend.

Despite its condition, I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I was curious to see if I could find an upgrade at a reasonable price. It seems to me, this is the kind of item you could find at a flea market for a quarter and/or could be the kind of oddball that rarely shows up on eBay thereby going for double digits plus crazy shipping.

Searching for "Sandberg puzzle" didn't necessarily help because apparently there is a wooden toy company called Sandberg that made puzzle. So after typing in varitions of "SignaChip" and" Sportstar" I found a decent selection. Anybody who was anybody 20-25 years ago had one. Ryne Sandberg. Bo Jackson. Brett. Canseco. Strawberry. Gooden. Ozzie Smith. Clemens. Griffey Jr. I believe I also saw some hockey and wrestling puzzles too.

I watched a few for a while, never pulling the trigger because with shipping they always ended being around $20-30. Unsold. Then one day a seller showed up with a Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace and Andre Dawson all listed separately. Starting bid was, I think, $5.99 for each of them plus $7-8 shipping. Reasonable, but still a little too pricey. All were unopened but the Grace had puncture holes in the box and the Dawson had a side that was shredded.

After they didn't sell, I sent a note to the seller asking if he'd do $20 shipped for all three. Depending on his combined shipping rate, he was probably looking at $30-35 if they all sold originally. I expected a counter offer of maybe $25-30 but he accepted, said he'd list a $20 Buy It Now with free shipping on just the Sandberg (so nobody else would bid on it) but throw in the Grace and Sandberg. Nice!

As I mentioned, the Grace and Dawson were damaged but I intend to open them up and try to get the pieces signed anyway. The hole is small enough on the Grace that no pieces should have fallen out. And the Dawson is pretty worn on the right side but no holes.

But the Sandberg was darn near perfect! Now I have to decide whether to open it or keep this one intact to sit on the shelf display and frame up the older one.

Either way, I think these three will look pretty snazzy/cheesy signed and all framed up in the man-cave. Dawson and Grace have pretty nice signatures but Sandberg's has deteriorated over the years. Might have to pay for a nice sit-down, public signing signature rather than settle for a rushed in-person hustle and bustle autograph. 

Pseudo-Surprise from 2 by 3 Heroes

Jeff from 2 by 3 Heroes sent me an email about a month ago dangling a fantastic bit of trade bait in front of me. Unfortunately, I had nothing in return at the time but was going to look at that card show that I never made it to earlier this month. I have something cooking but nothing just yet.

Fast forward to this past weekend and I pulled out a yellow padded envelope that I assumed was an eBay pickup I had forgotten about. Nope, it was even better. While I was expecting it to come eventually, I didn't know it was already on the way, hence the pseudo-surprise.

 I'll start oldest to newest, since the newest card in the package was the original piece of bait offered. The rest is all bonus!



1989 Cap'n Crunch Andre Dawson



If you had asked me if I had this, I would have said yes. But I couldn't find it and this one is in incredible shape. Not even for its age. Incredible shape. Period.

 

1994 Collector's Choice Ryne Sandberg (Team Checklist)

I had this card in my Ryne Sandberg PC but it's nice to have one for my Cubs team sets I'm putting together too. Great horizontal card.

A pair of young aces in the form of 2002 Donruss Originals. Oh what could have been. I didn't have either of these, nice!

2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects Green X-Fractors Justin Bour

Jeff probably didn't think twice about this "throw in" card but I'm pretty excited to have it. Justin Bour is a local guy (along with current Cub Shawn Camp) so it has a little bit of sentimental value to it. Justin is currently in Double-A with the Tennessee Smokies.

2012 Opening Day Geovany Soto (Walmart Blue Parallel)

This Geovany Soto card is serial numbered out of 2012. I've got to get a master list of all these parallels together so I can figure out which ones I still need/want.

2012 Topps Archives Keystone Connection Ryne Sandberg & Starlin Castro

To be honest, when I saw this card I thought it was a bit of a stretch. Ryno would have been better paired with Darwin Barney (although to be fair, nobody could have predicted Barney's Gold Glove season) and Castro probably would have been better paired with another Shortstop like Ernie Banks. But after reading the back, I guess I can kind of, sort of, see the "connection" that Topps made:

And last, but definitely not least:

2013 Heritage Clubhouse Collection Starlin Castro

The prices on Castro items have cooled a little now that Anthony Rizzo is the hot commodity but are still not always quite to where I'd be comfortable picking them up. So to be able to trade for one is a no-brainer. I believe Matt Garza is the only other Cub in this set so aside from that and maybe picking up some of the autographs, 201 Heritage is pretty much in the books for me!

Thanks for the cards, Jeff!

Trade with Plain Gray Swatch

A few weeks ago, Roy-Z from plain gray swatch left a comment offering up a 2013 Topps base Darwin Barney and its Target Red counterpart. In my quest for Cubs rainbows, I gladly accepted. 

Some of my regular readers will note that my older son is falling prey to the hype machine that is the Washington Nationals bandwagon. All I can say is that not even the Cubs have played so bad that they get back to back #1 overall draft picks.

I kid, I kid. The W-Nats' Single A affiliate Potomac Nationals are my local minor league team. I've written previously how I've taken my kids to games and gotten autographs. So I am kind of partial to some of the guys I've seen come up through the system. With that said, I have no problem keeping my son involved in the hobby by picking up some parallels of players we've seen make it to the show.

Roy-Z's blog was new to me so while checking out previous posts, I stumbled across some Washington Nationals TRU Purple parallels which he graciously included. 

Along with those requests, Roy also filled the rest of the package with various Cubs cards and I've scanned a few to showcase. The Ryne Sandberg card below was one I already had in my Sandberg player collection, but is nice to have an extra for the Cubs collection in addition to two other Cubs from the same set that I definitely did not have. These Pinnacle Zenith cards were from 1996, a hole in my hobby life.

Two serial numbered card also made their way into the package. The first, a dual Sammy Sosa/Corey Patterson card from Fleer in 2001 projects Patterson to be a "superstar in waiting." Huh. Also from a time where I didn't collect/follow the game as closely, I don't think that panned out but I am still happy to add this to my collection. The card is numbered on the back 1714/2000.

The other, a dual Alfonso Soriano/Hanley Ramirez card from 2009 Upper Deck, claims they are Cut from the Same Cloth. According to the back blurb, the assertion is based on a rare combination of speed and power and that both had put up most of their numbers from the leadoff spot. Fast forward to 2012, who would have thought that Soriano would be the one still among the league leaders in offensive production while Ramirez was subject to a team's salary dump first? This card is numbered 881/999.

Thanks Roy!

Sandberg Sunday - 2013 Rookie Card Patch

Earlier last week I posted about a trade that netted me the Ryne Sandberg Cut to the Chase die-cut card. And just a few days ago I wrote about a couple of the HOF Cubs inserts I had picked up. And here is my latest Sandberg card for the player collection, a 2013 Manufactured Rookie Card Patch.

Unlike other manu-patch cards, this one I kind of like. It's not just a team logo, but a version of the player's rookie card. They are similar to the silk cards issued the past couple of years for current players if you've seen those. This is probably close to my tenth or so version of the 1983 Topps Ryne Sandberg rookie, so I may have to do a post on all of them soon.

The only other Cubs featured in this set is Ernie Banks. I have a line one of those and will update accordingly. Check out my 2013 Topps Want List page if you have any Cubs parallels or inserts I'm looking for, thanks!

First trade of 2013!

(*Editor’s note: Yesterday’s post with the crazy “shocked” .gif seemed to draw a lot of attention because my hit count was about double what it normally was. I can only guess it was the .gif because nobody mentioned it but I also know you’re probably really tired of me talking about Tony Campana!)

It's been a while since I have worked out a trade here on the blog. I'm in the midst of organizing my non-Cubs cards to make it easier to do my end of deals but its a long slow process. More trades was on my beginning of the year goals list so here we go!

A couple of weeks ago when I caved and picked up a box of 2013 Topps, broke it and posted the spoils, I got a couple of trade offers to help me finish my set and/or help with Cubs parallels and inserts. Within the next couple of days, my almost-5-year-old-laptop started going wonky, as far as internet connection goes. It’s tough to work out trades when your collection and your ability to communicate (via email) aren’t in the same place at the same time. So a couple of trades have stalled out but now that it’s fixed, I plan on going through my emails to catch back up. If you claimed something, or I claimed something of yours and don’t get an email from me by the Friday, please let me know!

One trade that didn’t die out was with Doug from over at Sportscards from the Dollar Store. His blog is new to me but by the timeline on his blog, he popped up on the blogosphere last summer, right around the time I went on a small hiatus. And who knows how long he was lurking before he started posting? Looks like he posts daily and sometimes multiple times as his post count is more than 30 each month he’s been around, so check him out! Now that I’m fully back online, I look forward to going back and reading previous posts.

Are all stereotypes bad? Because Doug is one friendly Canadian! His first contact with me was offering up these Cubs inserts. Sweet! 

(*Editor’s note part 2: I was going to post the Dude, Where’s My Car .gif where they are reading each other’s back tattoos and yelling DUDE! And SWEET! But then I realized they were both shirtless and didn’t want this post to get creepy. But the sentiment is still there, dude these are sweet!)

Also included were a nice even 10 base cards to get me closer to the complete set! Nice!

Not to be greedy but before finalizing the deal, I also checked out his blog and asked for the emerald parallel of Sean Burnett he pulled. Those who have followed me for a while know that I am slowly losing my older son to the hometown Washington Nationals. He stills likes the Cubs, but there’s a lot of bandwagon peer pressure around here. So this one goes into his collection. I probably won’t be adding parallels the likes of Harper or Strasburg but a few other guys won’t hurt.

And on top of all this goodness, Doug threw in a first day cover of Fergie Jenkins! I don’t know much about stamps or first day covers, but I do enjoy Cubs memorabilia of all kinds so adding this to the collection is a plus.

 

This would be a pretty awesome item to get autographed is there wasn’t already a facsimile signature on both sides. The back features a short biography in both English and French. Bonus points for 2 Cubs cards, a Cubs photo on each side and a Cubs uniform on the stamp!

Thanks for the trade Doug! By the time this posts/you read this, your end of the deal should be on its way! For the rest of you, check out Doug's blog if you don't already!

Sandberg Sunday - Stand-Up Guys

A few weeks ago, I did a post on a bulk Cubs card package I picked up. The next day when I posted scans, I included some of the only Ryne Sandberg card in the package that I didn't already have. It was a 1998 Pinnacle Inside card from the Stand-Up Guys insert series. The card I received was card 14-A on one side (Sandberg and Craig Biggio) and 14-B on the other (Roberto Alomar and Chuck Knoblauch).

While doing a little organizing, I came across a stack of cards I had scanned but not yet put away and that card was in it. A quick search and price comparison on ebay and Sportlots yielded the other half. Card 14-C (Sandberg and Alomar) on one side, 14-D (Knoblauch and Biggio on the other) showed up last week.

And the two cards together, in action:

This set of cards will go into my Sandberg PC but I like the way these look so I have decided to pick up another pair to display on a shelf somewhere.