2010 Allen and Ginter baseball

I seriously contemplated using these gifted packs as my first 'video break'. Made an introduction with background music, etc and waited until my friend Dion returned from the US with packs he e-mailed to say he had obtained. He searched the San Francisco area and eventually found some in a comic shop, overpriced and undoubtedly searched- but Packs of A+G none the less.
I sat down to record the pack opening, in what started as a very quiet house. As soon as I began to talk, the interruptions followed.
'Dad who are you talking to?',
'What are you doing?'
'Can I help read the names...?'
'Would you like a cup of tea?'
I could edit the interruptions but the chuckles of my wife in the background became too unbearable. I tried to involve her in the process, I had seen this done to great success with another pack break, but she was having none of it.
What began as a carefully thought video break descended into farce, so I thought Sod it!
So the nine packs obtained from Cards and Comics Central 5425 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco will be opened the old fashioned way...
My friend Tony, who writes the blog 'Collector from Across the Pond' and I endeavouring to collect the whole 2010 Allen and Ginter base set of 350 cards. He is also going for the mini parallel version as well, while I have opted for the 'Monster of the Mesozoic' mini parallel. Just love the dinosaurs.

Pack 1:

#119 Dan Uggla Marlins

#167 Dan Harden D-backs

#244 Aaron Cook Rockies

#272 David Blaine Magician

#295 Josh Thole Mets

#337 Joe Nathan Twins

#TDH28 Jose Reyes Mets

#121 Francisco Rodriguez Mets black border mini Pack 2:
#22 Lucy skeleton
#65 Andre Ethier Dodgers
#138 Javier Vazquez Yankees
#182 Chris carpenter Cardinals
#198 A.J.Pierzynski White Sox
#312 Carlos Ruiz Phillies
#TDH52 Justin Upton D-backs
#337 Joe Nathan Twins miniPack 3:
#179 Jorge Posada Yankees
#179 Ben Zorbist Bay Rays
#223 Jason Kubel Twins
#240 Aaron Hill Blue Jays
#242 Jules Verne Author
#292 Chris Pettit Angels
#TDH65 Zack Greinke Royals
#SSS4 Vasco Nunez De Balboa mini
Pack 4:
#90 Kevin Kouzmanoff Athletics
#186 Jose Reyes Mets
#196 Scott Baker Twins
#231 Travis Snider Blue Jays
#262 Zack Greinke Royals
#322 Gary Matthews Mets
#TDH4 Lance Berkman Astros
#274 Nick Markakis Orioles mini A+G back
Pack 5:
#3 Ryan Braun Brewers
#184 Jake Peavy White Sox
#185 X-Rays more bones
#234 Nick Johnson Yankees
#249 Alfonso Soriano Cubs
#261 Adam Jones Orioles
#TDH38 Jim Thome Twins
#298 Jorge Cantu Marlins mini
Pack 6:
#63 Matt Carson Athletics
#73 Avery Jenkins Disk Golf
#157 Kevin Youkilis Red Sox (finally)
#175 Tim Lincecum Giants
#178 Josh Hamilton Rangers
#326 Aaron Rowand Giants
#TDH18 Felix Hernandez Mariners
#NA1 Cougar Argentina mini
Pack 7:
#30 Rafael Furcal Dodgers
#100 Matt LaPorta Indians
#107 Adam Dunn Nationals
#144 Stuart Scott Sportscaster
#149 Ichiro Mariners
#301 Gaby Sanchez Marlins
#TDH14 Justin Verlander Tigers
#NA26 Gray Wolf Turkey mini
Pack 8:
#8 Miguel Tejada Orioles
#14 Shane Victorino Phillies
#85 Yunel Escobar Braves
#131 Tyler Flowers White Sox
#226 Brian McCann Braves
#AGHS5 Ichiro Mariners
#TDH22 Grady Sizemore Indians
#LO16 Persephone mini
Pack 9:
#87 Alexei Ramirez White Sox
#132 David Price Bay Rays
#176 Preston Pittman Turkey Caller
#210 Chris Johnson Astros
#217 James Shields Bay Rays
#350 Alcides Escobar Brewers
#TDH68 Brian McCann Braves
#38 Tiago Della Vega Guitar Player mini black border

A nice start to a very interesting set. Who cannot like a card set that includes a Turkey Caller!

I know I called the Monsters mini set but I really liked the 'Sailors of the Seven Seas' parallel set too. Plenty of mini's Tony, they will be on their way shortly.

Topps Baseball Talk Collection

Its funny what you find searching ebayUK when there is very little of note, that is unless you need to complete the 1991 Fleer set or 1987 Topps . If you willing to take your time and wade your way through the sea of yellow and brown, a couple of oddball gems appear.

I bid on three packs of 'Topps baseball Talk collection cards', the details in the auction were very thin except to say they were rare. Unfortunately the actual sports talk player wasn't included and a further search put it way out of my league.
You can be forgiven for thinking that the cards are regular 1989 Topps however there are some significant differences. Look at the comparison between a regular Topps and the Talk collection card.
Size obviously and smaller tweaks such as the Topps logo and each of the player cards in the set have a facsimile autograph. Turn the card over and you'll notice something completely different.

On the back of each of the Talk cards is glued a small transparent disk. This disk or mini record, when inserted into the LIN SportsTalk player, would play 2-3 minutes of audio. The player cards included interviews by Don Drysdale and Joe Torre. There were also specially narrated historic games and cards of former players. The Talk cards were sold in packs of 4 and according to the checklist included, there were 41 different sets of 4 cards to collect.

Unfortunately the cards were not as successful as hoped. The Talk players broke easily and the cards had poor audio, so NFL and NBA versions were shelved indefinitely.

The three sets I purchased included:

Set 4:
1956 World Series Game 5 Yankees vs Dodgers
Ozzie Smith Cardinals
Ron Darling Mets
Pete Incaviglia Rangers

Set 5:
1986 National League Championship Series game 6 Astros vs Mets
Kirby Puckett Twins
Dennis Eckersley Athletics
Gregg Jefferies Mets

Set 7:
1984 World Series Game 5 Tigers vs Padres
Keith Hernandez Mets
John Franco Reds
Eddie Murray Orioles

If you after more information look up these:
Sports Talk Wikipedia
Internet Museum of Oddity Records

Trade with Shane from Massachusetts

Thank goodness there was a Red Sox fan reading when I posted this,

Anyone want some Red Sox?.

The package Shane sent just grew and grew. What started as a few from my wants list developed into a monster. There are at least 600 Red Sox here, all off my wants list, but Shane didn't stop there. He felt that that wasn't quite enough, so he included some in person autographs, not 1, but 8 in-person autographs.

The autos included were;
1986 Topps Jim Rice
1987 Topps Rob Woodward
1996 Donruss Mike Stanton
1997 Best Wilton Veras
1997 Bowman Chris Reitsma (who include the personal Phil 4:13 with the auto)
1998 Score Brian Rose
1998 Team Best Dernell Stensen
1999 Fleer Ultra Darren Lewis

A very humble Thank you to Shane for the excellent trade.

Trade with Chris from Stale Gum

All the blogging comes down to just one moment, the day you receive an official 1/1 Stale Gum autograph isn't doesn't get better than this.

Chris of Stale Gum, the home of the acclaimed 'On location box-break', whether it be in a cemetery, a stadium, an industrial site, a windy corner or even in his car, they are well worth a watch.

But for me this is what blogging about collecting is about - making contact with other collectors and trading. The exchange of 'I have something that you would like and I am willing to part with it'. I tried trading on forums and didn't have a great deal of success, a made a few trades but none to the extend I have made while blogging. Bloggers are generous, consistent and you end up trading again and again.

I sent Chris some Panini World Cup sticker packets and an assortment of any football related product that my local store carried.

Chris sent back a large stack of Red Sox cards and,

A relic and an autograph,

A sampling of Upper Deck 'soccer' cards, including a relative unknown named David Beckham,

and something that you don't see very often in this country- a girl on a football card.

Thanks for the cards Chris, a much appreciated and enjoyable selection. Rest assured the Thierry Henry card you returned inscribed 'cheating bastard' has gone to a landfill somewhere.

Trade with Steve from Brooklyn

Steve, a New York fan collecting both Yankees and Mets, contacted to say he had some cards from my wants list, including some Goodwin Champions, I jumped. Both the Mets and Yankees hadn't been traded for a while and a nice pile had built up for both. When Steve sent his address it was in Brooklyn and I thought that was pretty cool. Here I was trading cards with a collector who lived in Brooklyn.
So good to his word Steve sent some Goodwin Champions cards and this pile of Red Sox cards from my wants list.

Thank you Steve for bringing me closer to goal.

Topps Million card giveaway

I had completely forgotten about some packs of Topps 2010 Series 1 and opened them at Pursuit of Red Sox. Two of the packs contained Million card giveaways. This appeared like a pretty good idea at the time, but when I obtained a giveaway card way back in April the results was pretty poor, to say he least. So I wasn't filled with optimism.

Here's one I opened earlier- 1987 Topps Don Sutton.

I wasn't hopeful that these cards would lead to anything of any note but the

#TMC-4 Ichiro became...

1972 Topps #110 Ron Hunt Expos.

The #TMC-6 Mickey Mantle became...

1969 Topps #176 Joe Azcue Indians

Wow that was a big surprise and improvement. What are my chances of getting these sent to the UK?