A Goody Package from P-Town Tom!

I've said it before. It's a little more difficult to work out a trade with someone who likes the same team as you. But P-Town Tom of Waiting 'Til Next Year makes it look easy.

I think the Cubs had more players on their roster this year than I had unique 2013 Cubs cards. And Tom's been paying attention to the blog because he seemed to know that with the selection of cards he sent.

Right after the Heritage set came out is about when I more or less tapped out on 2013 cards for the year. Yep, that early. Flagship Series 1, Opening Day, Heritage, tap out. I had picked up a Cubs team set and that was good enough for me. But after busting the blaster from my Fantasy League winnings and looking over what I had already had from when it was released, these extra Cubs are the tipping point for me pushing through to finish the set.

One set that I didn't touch this year was Archives. I take that back. I did pick up some of the Wrigley Field giveaways that were also branded Archives, and I did pick up some inserts at a card show, but no packs or any of the base cards. So these four are new to me!

A set that I really liked from last year was the mini version of the Topps flagship. This year's set has flown under my radar as I have just caught a few mentions here and there. So these three are definitely new to me as well.

Another set that I probably would have picked up eventually was Bowman Platinum. I'm so out of the loop on this set I don't even know how complete of a team set this is. But four prospects is a nice pickup!

And last (for the cards) is a nice 2012 Peoria Chiefs team set. These might be fun to do a "Where Are They Now?" type feature like I did for Pro Debut in a year or two. I recognized a couple of names from Pro Debut, Bowman Prospects and Heritage Minors releases but I pulled two names of note for the top.

Javier Baez is a top prospect, not just for the Cubs but all of baseball. and Chiefs Manager, Casey Kopitzke is actually a former Major League Cubbie as well.

There was one other nice surprise in the package but I'm going to give it its own post tomorrow. As a tease/hint, let's just say I'll be bringing back an old theme in Sandberg Sunday...

Thanks Tom!

Trade with Night Owl

I'm pretty sure that Night Owl is prolific enough within the blogosphere to have quite possibly traded away more cards than I can hope to own so I'm not even going to attempt a witty/punny headline that has probably  already been done anyway.

I seemed to get a disproportionate amount of Dodgers in my boxes of Opening Day a few weeks ago and N.O. was kind enough to take them off my hands.

In return, I received some cards from my Opening Day Want List and some cards I didn't even know I wanted! This dozen brings my Want List down to just 22 base cards.

A pair of Cubs minis helped fill out the package. The Starlin Castro was part of my Series 1 Want List. I missed Topps Lineage completely so any addition from that set is more than welcome. 

As for the cards I didn't know I wanted, N.O. threw in some actual 1975 Minis (not just the Lineage lookalike). I don't know what the average age for baseball card bloggers is but I was born in the late '70s. With the amount of mass production I have seen in my lifetime, anything that pre-dates me (even by just a couple of years) is as good as gold. While I have quite a few Cubs cards that fit this bill, these are the first minis that do.

Thanks for the trade Night Owl!!

Trade with unclemoe

After dangling the Opening Day trade bait a little bit ago, I got a bite from unclemoe over at My 2008 Topps Set Blog. I sent him over the mascots I pulled along with a few Diamondbacks, and I received his end of the trade over the weekend.

First off, he sent over a handful of Opening Day base cards I still needed. Nice!

I like how Saltalamacchia is pretty much facing forward but his name is so long it is creeping into view.

Kendrys Morales gets the short end of the stick here but when you're scanned with three horizontal cards, you're gonna lose every time.

Also in the stuffed team bag was a smattering of miscellaneous Cubs! Lot of brands and different players, good stuff!

Without Ryne Sandberg and Shawon Dunston, the Cubs middle infield of the late '90s was Jeff Blauser and yesterday's Mickey Morandini.

A trio of Corey patterson cards. I really like the Lugnuts card and the look Patterson is giving in the second card to the photographer, who was presumably taking pictures during the National Anthem.

Another trio of cards, this time Sam Fuld. Always liked him.

A sweet swingin' Billy Williams although this particular photograph shows anything but a sweet swing. 

I missed the Matt Murton experience for the most part before coming back full steam to the hobby, but I hear he has/had a cult following. 

How many non-Cubs fans would know that Jon Lieber was our last 20 game winner. Heck, how many Cubs fans would know?

And a really nice throw in that I wasn't expecting at all, a Kosuke Fukudome jersey card. This is the epitome of a card that belongs in the collection, but I wouldn't necessarily buy it for myself. 

For those who can't read the category at the top, in 2010, Fukudome led the MLB in batting average from the number 2 spot in the batting order. Really digging deep there, Topps...

There were a bunch more cards that I didn't get around to scanning including a 1986 Fleer mini Shawon Dunston and a couple of cards from the mammoth 2008 Upper Deck documentary set. When I started making the customs for the entire team last year, I hadn't heard of this set. I was considering making a 162 card set, one for every game, but as the season got worse and worse, I opted not to...

Thanks for the trade unclemoe!! 

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!

Darwin Barney Gold Glove Replica Stadium Giveaway

I'll probably watch 100+ Cubs game this years between WGN,a friend with an MLB.TV account and hopefully catching the three game series in Washington in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, this will mark about twenty years in a row without stepping foot into Wrigley Field. As a Cubs fan, that's sad in and of itself but it seems like they are really kicking it up a notch in the giveaways department too.

After hearing about the Darwin Barney Gold Glove Replica, I headed over to eBay. I wasn't in a big rush to get one because I know they usually are pretty pricey right out of the gate. Sometimes you can catch things for a good deal when the're listed to end at an odd time or there's some kind of spelling error, but while there were plenty of them available, I didn't see any obvious steals.

Later that day, I read Wrigley Wax's post that he was actually at the game and came away with three(!) of them with help from his family. I'm sure a lot of you team collectors know how tough it is to trade with other collectors of your team. I've been reading WW for two plus years, writing my own blog now for a year but this was the first opportunity I saw to maybe work out a trade. But what could I possibly have of value that WW wouldn't already have?

My usual reaction to a Wrigley Wax post.

When I jumped back into the hobby I came across the Topps Vault on eBay with blank back 1/1's. I picked up a couple of Cubs including Darwin Barney, Ryne Sandberg, and Starlin Castro but quickly reined in the spending. Eventually I picked up the Tony Campanas when I could but no more of these since then. While Darwin Barney is my favorite current Cub (almost by default though), I knew the card would have much more meaning to someone with a Barney PC.

Long story short, the deal worked out! He got his card and wrote about it here and I received my replica trophy:

It looks much better in person, trust me. It's about half the size of a bobble head but just as heavy/sturdy.

I repurposed the hard plastic cardholder that came with my repack box from last week, printed out a small photo of Barney holding the actual award and trimmed it to fit (sort of). You can't see much of the photo once the award is placed inside but the award itself is a perfect fit for the case. It works for me just fine!

Thanks for the trade Paul!

And here are a couple of other fun relevant pictures:

A photo from Twitter of Barney holding the replica, most likely for promotional purposes.

And a little tongue in cheek humor I found.

"Prowling" for some Cubs cards

This trade with Zenus from The Prowling Cat came about when I posted my loot from the Opening Day blaster I opened. There is still some good stuff in there so check out the post.

I hopped on the Cubs bandwagon back in 1984 as a first grader. I remember getting packs of cards then but didn't really start "having a collection" for another couple of years. While I'll never part with the cards that survived move after move, this selection of cards is a definite upgrade in condition, many from that infamous 1984 season.

Some mid-late 80's...

A couple of more modern ones...

He also threw in some much recent 2013 cards to help me out with my flagship set and Opening Day. I believe I have worked out a deal to finish out my flagship but I'm still looking for Cubs parallels and could use a little help putting Opening Day to bed. Check it out if you think you can help.

Thanks for the trade Zenus!