THE PURSUIT OF 80's(ness)

Getting excited about a bag of dirt.

2012-01-07T10:10:00.000Z

Oh dear, to get excited about a little bag of dirt is bordering on sad.

It reminded me of an incident many years ago when a friend of mine, who supported Charlton Athletic, carefully planted a small 1 foot square of turf in his back garden that he had removed (one would think illegally) from the playing surface of Charlton's home ground 'The Valley'.
Charlton, who had been struck by a monetary crisis, had decided to stop playing at the ground they had played at for over 70 years and ground share with a close rival Crystal Palace. The rivalry between these two clubs may not be as fierce as it is at Liverpool, Glasgow or Chicago but it comes close. There was understandably a level of animosity towards the current owners of the club, so when the final whistle blew at the final game at The Valley, supporters flooded onto the pitch to say farewell to the team and the beloved ground. Suddenly people began to dig up the pitch and take various other souvenirs; corner flags, seats, fencing, roughly anything that had stopped moving. My friend and his dad carried the section of turf home and lovingly planted it in the backyard. So proud of this small piece of grass that he placed a white picket fence around its border and tendered it more carefully than any other part of the garden. He showed the turf to anyone who visited, like a person who owned a original artwork would delight in informing visitors 'It's an original Picasso, you know!' There was, I think, a hope that it would eventually spread to the rest of the lawn and he could inform visitors -'It's the original Valley turf, you know!'

The Fenway dirt was part of a very interesting package that arrived from Jason at The Writers Journey.It contained a bonanza of ephemia relating to the Red Sox.
Red Sox schedules.

Stickers

An oddball collection of baseball cards. Including this amazing 3D 'card' that, when placed on a stand, can be set on a rocking motion so that Nomar hits a ball and make an incredible catch.

And of course the Fenway Park dirt.

What did I do when I received this package. I opened the dirt to smell it, hoping that in some way it would give me a feel of the ballpark. I poured a small pile into my hand examining it closely. No bat fragments or Red Sox DNA, just a nice pile of red grit, coarser than I thought it would be. I was expecting a more sandy feel, must really hurt to slide on.

Thank you Jason for this amazing treasure trove of Red Sox items.

2012 Topps Premier League stickers- apologies to Waxaholic

2011-12-23T22:11:00.003Z

I only seems like yesterday that I was apologising for starting him towards the 2011 Premier league Album.
A Premier league album and stickers will be winging their way to him in Canada again in 2012.This year I intend to collect the whole album as well, so we will be collecting alongside each other.
There are no fancy 3D cards this year, just 462 stickers with the odd shiny club emblem and Star Player shiny plus Special 20th anniversary 'History of ' superstar stickers.

There are 5 stickers per packet at a reasonably priced 50p per packet.

There are 23 stickers per team, which includes 18 players, a club emblem shiny, two home and away kit stickers, a first team squad sticker and a star player shiny.

Let the adventure begin. Follow my progress at Pursuit of Red Sox.

2011 Topps baseball stickers

2011-11-17T22:07:00.001Z

It has only taken about 3 months and I am behind most other collectors of this set. But I can now hold my head up in pride, as I have finally obtained the 2011 Topps baseball sticker album and some stickers(7 packets to be exact).
My first perusal of the album threw me a little. For a split second I thought that the stickers were not in numerical order, slight little panic and then realised the numbers shown were shirt numbers...phew.
The stickers are in numerical order, a page devoted to each MLB team and there are 309 stickers in total to collect. This includes 30 team logos and 9 legends. The centre pages are dedicated to the 30 team logos and the back inside page the 9 legends.

The sticker packets are not what I have come to expect of stickers. In the UK most stickers come in a paper packets sealed along all four edges. Often in haste to retrieve the contents, opening the packets can cause the stickers to be ripped. Which can be annoying if it is the one sticker you are after. These packets are more like baseball card packs.
The stickers themselves are incredibly strudy and very unlike football (soccer) stickers which come backed on flimsy paper. I can only guess that this is to cater to the collectors who will choose the 'no stick' option and store them similar to cards.
Then a slight conundrum dawns- to stick or not to stick.
Before you waste your answer, I have taken the advice of Topps themselves and 'started peeling those stickers.'
I will also chronicle the steps towards completing the whole album here at 2011 Topps Baseball Sticker Album.

Pack 1:

Pack 2:

Pack 3:

Pack 4:

Pack 5:

Pack 6:

Pack 7:

Looking forward to collecting the whole lot.

Gift from Mark, the Mayor of Porthleven

2011-11-07T21:55:00.000Z

Mark has been dropping in on this blog since I started back in 2008. He was draw to a post about TTM autographs when I was about to embark on a ambitious task of getting Jacoby Ellsbury to sign some Allen+Ginter cards. He offered advise from his years of experience in collecting autographs. The cards have never returned but thus begun a friendship of story swapping about his autograph hunting and general baseball.

Mark has also embarked on a number of trips across the Atlantic to see actual baseball games. I'm sure that is not the objective of his family holiday, but he has seen alot of baseball. After every trip he gifts me a number of items including books and cards. Mark knows that I like the details and photographs of where he has been, the autographs he has collected and who he saw. His son is paid-up member of Pawsox Kid's club and I am always amazed how well the baseball clubs look after the younger and future baseball fans.

Mark recently returned from a transatlantic holiday and a package arrived with some Red Sox cards. He carefully detailed exactly where he had obtained the cards. He also added that the cards might make me feel better. What could he possibly mean?

From Don's Sportscards in Portland he purchased these vintage Red Sox:

1962 Topps #368 Bob Tillman

1962 Topps #512 Mike Fornieles

1962 Topps#542 Dave Philley

1963 Topps #28 Mike Fornieles

1964 Topps #305 Jack Lamabe

1964 Topps #352 Ed Bressoud

1966 Topps #502 Lenny Green

Don also threw in a set of these 2011 Topps Prime 9 Redemption cards which were only available through hobby stores.

The third and final item from Mark was a pack of 2010 Allen and Ginter, although I am trying to collect the 2010 set of A+G, that is not what makes this pack interesting. It was in fact purchased from the Yawkey Way Store, which is directly opposite Fenway Pack. This may not seem exciting to regular attendees but for a guy sitting in Westgate-on-Sea in the UK it most definitely is.

Thank you Mark for thinking of a Red Sox fan during your holidays.

Another pile of baseball cards

2011-11-06T21:56:00.000Z

The head of my school returned from another short break holiday to the USA. It would appear that this will be the last trip, as they have sold their house in Florida. My first thought was for them ... obviously. The occasional baseball packet haul was nice while it lasted.
I have been the lucky recipient over the last few years of numerous blasters and loose packs. Their recent trip was interrupted by a freak snow storm which grounded planes across the East Coast. Once again their delay is my windfall. Nothing will ever compare to the Icelandic Volcano delay of a few weeks, however the three day delay meant more cards for me.
This trip I received:

1 blaster of 2011 Topps Series 2

1 blaster of 2011 Allen+Ginter

1 blaster of 2011 Topps Update

and a rack pack of Topps Chrome

The one thing I actually asked for was the 2011 Topps baseball sticker album and some stickers. Unfortunately they searched high and low and were unable to find any. Are they that rare or have I missed the boat on this?

I will be opening these packs on Pursuit of Red Sox over the coming weeks.

Trade with The Cardboard Junkie

2011-11-03T05:15:00.011Z

One of the many quirks I have developed in collecting baseball cards is keeping the wrappers. Not just the wrappers but the boxes also. Before blogging came about I wrote the players pulled from packs and kept the wrappers along with the scrawling in a notebook.

Fast forward a few years and I still do this but in the guise of Pursuit of Red Sox. An attempt to keep an accurate record of the cards pulled from packs and an easier way of keeping track of the Red Sox pulled from packs.

To further the cause Dayf recently proposed a intriguing hostage relocation program. English football (soccer) packs for American baseball packs. Serious transatlantic negotiations began and finally winging their way to Georgia were some packs of 2010 Adrenalyn XL World Cup cards. Luckily my local newsagents still carried some stock. So I bought what was left and the hostages were released from English tyranny.

Relocating to England these former abductees were sent by Dayf:

2 packs of 2011 Gypsy Queen,

1 pack 2011 Allen & Ginter's,

1 pack 2011 Topps Opening Day,

1 pack 2011 Topps Attax,

1 pack 2011 Topps baseball Series 2,

1 pack 2008 Donruss Playoff Extra edition.

All of which I intend to open at Pursuit of Red Sox.
Wait a minute. I call foul. Two of the packs have been tampered with. Get Ban Ki-Moon on the phone quickly. Relax......Unclench.......Slow down. The hostages have been treated in accordance with United Nations guidelines.
On further inspection both packs were chock full of Gypsy Queen Red Sox and Topps Red Sox.
Please forgive my accusations. The packs were brilliant.

Thank you Dayf. Hopefully we can negotiate additional transactions.

Trade with Section 36

2011-11-02T19:41:00.001Z

There is plenty of misery in the Red Sox camp, but the ever positive Section 36 has dissected, sew back together and then dissected again to recent failings in the Red Sox franchise. It's no choke (see what I did there), he is a real fan sitting week in, week out, in what he calls the best seats in the Fenway house-Section 36.
Who better to make a Red Sox trade with than a diehard fan and New Hampshire resident. My package of Red Sox made its way to Concord in New Hampshire and before long a Red Sox heavy package arrived in Westgate.

Ron wrote a short message on the back of a baseball score sheet. It is either of his own making or do they give these out at games? I remember seeing Kevin Coster recording the score in Field of Dreams, at the game where Archibald Graham's statistics flash up onto the screen. I am presuming that it is quite common. Is this correct?.
Thanks to Ron at Section 36. Always nice to trade Red Sox for Red Sox.

Doctor Who Monster Invasion Extreme

2011-10-27T20:29:00.000+01:00

If you didn't already know, we are big Doctor Who fans in this household. My boys in particular watch the TV series repeatedly, collect the cards and the Lego like figures.
The second series of Monster Invasion was released in September to coincide with the second half of the new series. It finished a few weeks back and I was disappointed with the ending. The writers had excelled themselves with some terrific episodes all series. The Silence were particularly creepy. In the end though it failed to deliver a satisfying ending with his plot hole ridden climax.

There are 180 cards in total. 150 base cards, 18 rare cards (1in every pack), 6 Super Rare cards (3 in every 10 packs), 5 Ultra rare (1 in every 10 packs) and the Infinite card, which is 1 in every 1000packs so is limited to 1000 cards world wide. The Infinite card is a great looking 3D/hologram of the Silence creature and I have actually held this rare card in my hand. An interesting(ish) story with an unfortunate ending.

Knowing how rare these cards, a child at school announced that he had pulled one from a pack. I didn't know whether to believe him or not, you know what children are like trying to impress their friends. He went on about the card for a few days and I decided to call his bluff. He said his mother wouldn't let him. I left it at that.

A few days later the child in question informed my friend Dion and I that he bought the card and produced it from his coat pocket. A sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as to the condition of the Infinite card, but on first inspection it was in surprisingly good condition and the 3D/hologram was excellent. We looked with some awe and Dion informs the child that a similar card was selling for £170 on e-bay, so I decided to place the card in a sleeve and top loader for extra protection. (I keep a little stock of these at school-you never know.)Now here comes the unfortunate part. While I am placing the card in the sleeve for extra protection I turn it over and there written across the back, I say written more like gouged, in black biro is the child's name rendering the card virtually worthless to serious collectors. 'Why did you write your name on it?' I ask. My mum thought someone might take it.

I had to wonder if he would have done this anyway or only because I had asked to see it. Was I the cause of the card disfigurement?

The cards continue in a similar vein to the last series divided into Doctors, Allies, Villians, Monsters, Gadgets and Adventures. Roll on Christmas for the Doctor special.

Trade with Waxaholic

2011-10-26T23:03:00.000+01:00

That reminds me, I need to send Waxaholic some football stickers, Premier League stickers. It is a top of my list of things to do. That and finding ways to watch Canadian Women's Soccer. Where does he find these images?

On a completely unrelated topic he sent me a bunch of Red Sox cards, including the Josh Beckett shown above. I have obtained a number of red swatches recently and it makes a change from the usual white swatches. He also sent some unopened packs of cards. A rack pack of 2008 Upper Deck and 1989 Topps BIG. Sweet. I will be cracking them open on Pursuit of Red Sox, to further my ongoing mission to locate Red Sox in packs.

Thank you Sir Waxaholic.

Trade with Play at the Plate

2011-10-25T17:59:00.003+01:00

A super trade with Brian at Play at the Plate. A while back he was eager to complete the Topps Diamond giveaway, which he eventually did way back in September. It was very easy on my part to e-mail the diamond codes. In exchange he sent a pile of the Kimball Champions cards, which for some explicable reason I decided to collect. My progress has been slow, but these are such lovely cards I'm not giving up just yet.

Thanks to Brian for bringing me a few steps closer.

2011/2012 Topps Match Attax Football

2011-10-24T20:38:00.003+01:00

The recent 6-1 drubbing of Manchester United by their close rivals Manchester City put a huge smile on the face of most football supporters (except the Manchester United faithful-naturally). It would have been nice if it had been Norwich, or West Bromwich Albion, or even Fulham handing out the humility lessons. However we are not fussy. It's not bitterness or jealousy that makes us feel this way. Manchester United is, and has been, a great team for many years. It is more the cocky, swaggery arrogance that the manager and some of the players have adopted in recent times. There lies within the joy of an unbiased supporter.

Unfortunately Topps has developed a somewhat similar attitude towards the Match Attax Brand. Build it and they will come. It's Match Attax, they will buy it no matter what. Let's not forget this is a product directed towards children, the Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh generation. But I cannot feel anything except disappointment as an adult and as a swap club organiser at school.

Let me talk about the positives, or more fitting 'the' positive is an insert called Golden Moments.

Yes they are golden cards, but the 40 card insert focuses on the last 20 years of Premier League football. The set looks at some of the iconic moments of Premier League football such as Jurgen Klinsmann's goal celebration from 1994, David Beckham's goal from the half-way line in 1996, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer netting four goals after coming on as a sub in 1999 and the remarkable Blackburn Premier League winners in 1995. This is a great idea for an insert, even in gold. Dissapointingly missing is Eric Cantona's flying kick on a spectator in 1995, Roy Keane's leg breaking tackle in 2001, Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer's same team fight in 2005 and any one of the many Patrick Viera moments- Roy Keane tunnel bust up perhaps. However, for me, the positives stop there.

My main beef is the 'Limited Edition' cards, of which there are 6. These limited cards are not inserted in packs randomly except for one, which is inserted randomly into packs only available from one particular chain of bookshops. The other five limited cards can only be 'collected' through purchasing a football magazine (£2.99), the Match Attax collectors tin (£9.99), the Match Attax collectors box (£7.50), the Match Attax multi-pack (£5.00) and the Match Attax starter pack (£4.99). So a very clever marketing ploy to make you purchase more Match Attax in unique disguises, at a rough cost of £30.00, which would give you the five limited cards and roughly 150 Match Attax cards. There are 360 base cards to collect and a further 65 Man of the Match,100 club and a referee. Is the picture becoming clearer. Some collectors may feel that this is fair and that you purchase all these different products and obtain the limited card, rather than trawling through packs. Fair enough.

My other complaint is that it still much the same as the last years set, and the years before, and the year before that, with just the colour of the backs changed. Topps has the ability to produce design changes elsewhere. Why not here? The starter pack book to keep your cards in is crap as well.

All that said, I will however be collecting the entire set again as part of the swap club I run at school. The lucky winner of our club competition gets to own the completed set and as many of the 'inserts' I can collect.

I think though that this will be my last time doing it. My fifth and final completed set.

An uncomfortable silence

2011-10-22T10:03:00.004+01:00

So sorry for the uncomfortable silence of the last month or so. Real life, once again, took over. Many things took place during this forced interval- a few trade packages arrived, a number of blog posts floated into the ether, my computer reset itself to the factory settings, the Red Sox collapsed, (which is well documented and probably doesn't need to be mentioned again), Match Attax 2011/2012 was released (pretty much the same as what has gone before), this years Doctor Who season finished with a flourish (some excellent episodes but the ending was a disappointment), Australia were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup by New Zealand (England didn't fare much better) and my head sold her house in Florida, so I can no longer expect surprise baseball cards (nor Icelandic, volcanic, delayed treasures).
But now a short holiday and a chance to catch -up.

Confessions of a Collector Part 2

2011-09-01T21:45:00.016+01:00

I recently completed this fascinating book by Hunter Davies, a well known journalist/novelist in the UK. He talks about being an accumulating collector. He hypothesises that there are two distinct species of collector, accumulators and serious collectors.

The serious collector goes out of their way to collect, and actively searches for items. You don't have to spend much money, or acquire masses, but you do have to be serious enough to go forth and collect. Then there is the accumulator, a much more passive animal. A collector who doesn't really throw anything away and amasses 'stuff'.

He suggests that he started as an accumulator and then moved onto serious collecting. As he became older he had more time on his hands, more money, his children had grown older and then there was the dawning realisation that he had accumulated some interesting items along the way. Although he says he has about 100 collections on the go, for the sake of writing this book he condenses them into 16 specific categories, although he adds that there is overlapping of his collections.

I tried to think back to all the collections that I have started, because like Hunter I never went out and actively collected. For instance- my primary collecting area for many years has been baseball. If baseball items became available for sale on e-bayUK I would bid. In the earlier days of e-bayUK, I'm talking 2000ish, I won many of the baseball cards items listed, usually unchallenged. At this time there didn't appear to be any active baseball collectors in the UK. Primarily it was cards that people had bought back from holidays, or been given by someone who had been on holidays. Occasionally vintage cards came up for sale. I'm talking about pre-1980, hoping not to offend with the vintage tag. These attracted some attention but considering what they were, it was minimal. Gradually more collectors appeared and more baseball cards, I then became more discerning and only went for the interesting and unusual or cards that I had never seen before. I accumulated 1000's of cards. Thankfully I was able to trade most of them away and become a serious collector of Jacoby Ellsbury, Red Sox and vintage. I'm still not that serious, don't get me wrong I enjoy baseball cards, but if I was a serious collector I would own the black parallel 2005 Bowman rookie. But I don't.

So thinking back to other collections I have had such as stamps. My dad worked for a company that dealt with Japanese companies, so I had many Japanese stamps and coins. I also accumulated matchbox cars, I didn't think to keep the boxes because I wanted to play with the cars not the boxes. For a while I collected train tickets. I had masses of train tickets. There was in the 1970's a radio station called 2SM which produced, on a piece of paper, a top 40 singles list. It came out every week and we had a record shop very close so I was able to get those and some posters advertising records. Later I accumulated a large stack of 'singles' records.

I have already mentioned the aluminium milk bottle tops. For a while I collected money boxes. The local banks produced different money boxes sans money. My biggest collection was football cards - rugby league and Aussie Rules. When I was collecting, Scanlens was the biggest producer of cards in Australia. The designs I realise now are similar to the baseball and football cards in the USA. I collected, traded, ticket off my checklists every year. I even save the labels from Ardmona peaches to send for complete sets of cards.
Even back then I collected stickers; my bedroom door was adorned with overlapping stickers. Two I remember specifically- A large Fußball macht spaß German sticker which roughly translated is Football is fun and a bright orange sticker that said I'm mad about muffins. Where these came from is anybody's guess.
Another ongoing accumulation was Ephemera, all manner of magazines, Asterix and Tin Tin books, clippings from newspapers, postcards, computer punch cards (again from my father's work), cards from Weetbix and Sanitarium cereal boxes. Boy did I collect some crap. But reading Confessions of a Collector, it appears that I wasn't alone.
Think back...what were the most obscure items you collected?

Confessions of a Collector Part 1

2011-08-27T23:19:00.000+01:00

I have just finished reading this book by a pretty well known newspaper columnist in the UK, Hunter Davies. Not a hack rag tabloid phone hacker either, he is a proper journalist. If you're a Beatles fan you may recognise Hunter as the only person to write an authorised biography of the Beatles. He describes himself as a compulsive collector and goes into great details about his numerous collections. He also talks about why he chose particular areas of collecting.

Hunter started with stamps. I am sure there are many of us, of a certain age, who collected stamps. Unfortunately the glory days of stamps and stamp collecting are behind them. I still carefully remove stamps from envelopes and packages, mainly because it is so unusual to have stamps now. It is all pre-printed and computer generated labels, which is disappointing because stamps can be very interesting.

Whenever we receive a parcel or letter from my parents in Australia, it always has stamps. I not sure if the Australian postal system doesn't have printed labels or whether my parents, being 80plus, use stamps out of habit. They are a minority. Recently the Royal Mail issued Thunderbirds stamps and this bought the stamp collector within me back again.

Hunter talks about swapping stamps, laying awake scrutinising his stamps and learning a great deal about other countries from stamps like: kings and queens, plants and animals, holiday celebrations, science and space, that sort of educational stuff. But he also talks about them being therapeutic. He was ill with asthma in his childhood and all the allergy testing and prescribed medicines didn't work. However he found that the distraction of immersing himself in his collection would offer relief. He also collected cuttings from newspaper about his favourite football team, postcards from interesting places, marbles and comics. Then he went off the university and forgot about his various collections. This all sounds very familiar.

In my pre-secondary school childhood I collected football cards (I even kept the wrappers), football programmes and a weekly magazine called Big League. For a short time I collected milk bottle tops, the aluminium foil type that came in many different colours.To this day I'm not sure why. Maybe I was just attracted to shiny things. Then other interests took over: playing sports, school work and I became interested in statistics and gathered information from the newsapaper about cricket and football, keeping my own league tables, man of the match awards and other useless pieces of information.

Hunter then goes onto describing becoming a 'born again' collector. It all came flooding back to him- the joys and delights of collecting. It was a gradual thing, over many years, he just took a while to realize it.

I know exactly when I became a collector again and it wasn't over many years. It was in October 1980- a warm spring evening. No not really. I don't remember in that much detail. But it was October 1980 when I was given a stack of 1980 Topps baseball cards, 84 to be exact. The rest, I had to wait a little longer to collect.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen-trade me your cards

2011-08-18T23:23:00.005+01:00

The pursuit of 2009 Goodwin Champions wants list
The pursuit of 2010 Topps Allen and Ginter wants list.

The pursuit of 2011 Kimball Champion inserts wants list

Trade with Waxaholic

2011-07-29T11:54:00.000+01:00

Look here baseball stickers.
I am one of the many fans of baseball stickers, wouldn't it be nice if they reintroduced baseball stickers.
I looks as if our prayers have been answered.. Now to get a hold of some.
Thanks again to Big B for the Red Sox.

Trade with 'O' No not another Orioles Blog

2011-07-28T17:54:00.001+01:00

Another of the boxes of cards that arrived recently. This time from a new trader Ryan from 'O' Not another Orioles Blog. 'O' it was brilliant (see what I did there) to find a home for the Orioles cards and a new state as well - Virginia. I don't think I have traded with anyone from Virginia before, but I could be wrong. A great assortment of cards from the wants list, including these very nice Carl Yastrzemski cards.
Thanks Ryan.

Trade with Martyn from Abitary Crap

2011-07-26T22:20:00.003+01:00

I love the 1940 and 1941 PLAY BALL sets. If not just for the fact that it reminds me of 'The Natural', but also for the names of the players on the cards. Names like Blimp, Duke, Buck, Indian Bob, Gunboat Harry, Hot Potato, Vandy, Happy, Bronk, The Horse, Moe, Soupy and my favourite Stormy Weatherly. These are the names on the cards, not the back, right there on the front. One has to wonder how a player gets the nickname 'Hot Potato'. Hmmm.
The reprint above of 'Joe' Cronin, who spent a semi-glorious 11years with the Red Sox from 1935 to 1945, came in a nice stack of cards from Martyn at the brilliantly named blog Arbitary Crap.
Martyn is a fellow UK dweller adds to the growing band of UK baseball bloggers.
What a terrific selection of cards he sent my way. I scanned just a few. The Upper Deck Masterpiece relics are superb.

Big Papi looking rather pleased with himself on a 2005 Diamond Kings short print (34/40) . Don't let the smile fool you.

There was such a great variety from Martyn.
1955 Topps Hal Brown
1966 Topps Chuck Schilling
2010 Bowman blue border Dustin Pedroia 194/500
2011 Topps gold border Jed Lowrie 1175/2011
2011 Topps 60 memorabilia Daniel Bard
Just to hame a few and I could go on and on.
Thanks Martyn.

London Buses and trading with Dan

2011-07-25T21:16:00.004+01:00

There is a interesting saying, that probably has a number of variations around the world, which explains the frustrating occurrence of waiting for something to arrive and then multiple come at the same time.
In the case of the UK, in particular London, it is the appearance of London buses. For example,

'I waited for a hour for a number 53 and then three came at the same time'.

My dad use to say something about 'chorus girls', but I'm sure it wasn't related to this particular anomaly. He also bestowed on us the saying 'Beware of people who drive in hats', which I know is totally unrelated.
So I am waiting for a trade package to arrive and six arrive at the same time. In actual fact they didn't arrive at the same but over the course of a few weeks. My eldest, my very organised and helpful son arrives home first. He took the mail and sorted it carefully including the packages, which he knew where for me and placed it in the cupboard where I keep my baseball cards. Very helpful, except for one thing- he didn't tell me.
So I have a number of packages to share, the first being this beauty from Dan in Auburn, Maine. This package was interesting for two reasons it was choc full of Red Sox cards- Dan went above and beyond in this respect. And secondly it came from Maine. I had never received a package from Maine before.
It will take me a while to sift through the amazing number of cards Dan sent. He tells me they are all from the wants list, which is also incredibly impressive.
Thanks Dan.

My part of the $1 box break

2011-07-12T16:26:00.001+01:00

The idea of busting baseball packs and sharing the contents with others is not a new concept. Sharing with strangers over the Internet may have its pitfalls, as many unsuspecting participants find to their peril. Caveat emptor. Having a regular, trusted and experienced blogger such as Tribecards bust some boxes and share the contents is a completely different story. When the idea of Indians Cards Always buck a box was mentioned I joined, a little surprised because there are so many other Red Sox collectors around.

Five boxes- $1 a box
1988 Sportflics
1990 Topps Heads -up
2009 Allen+Ginter
2011 Bowman x2

A rather diverse selection of boxes should make it very interesting.
Box 1 -Sportflics
Jim Rice, Ellis Burks, Marty Barrett, Wade Boggs, Bruce Hurst, Boston Logo
Call me stupid (hang on...) but I didn't realise that these cards contained 3 images , not 2 (now call me stupid)

Box 2- Topps Heads-up
No Red Sox from this box.
Box 3- 2009 Allen and Ginter
J.D.Drew, John Lester, John Smoltz, Jed Lowrie
Box 4&5 2011 Bowman
John Lester, Carl Crawford, David Ortiz gold, Garin Cecchini, Garin Cecchini chrome,

Not to left out Tribecards added a large number of other Red Sox cards including the Red Sox Rippers at the top of the post #57/62 and lovely sparkly Jon Lester Topps Diamond Anniversary.

I enjoyed it and will be looking out for more box breaks.

Here's what Tribecards thought of his first ever buck-a-box break-After thoughts.

Trade with Play at the Plate

2011-07-11T14:40:00.008+01:00

A real easy trade with Brian at Play at the Plate. He was after the Diamond Giveaway codes which unlock unique codes. I unsuccessfully tried to participate in last years giveaway but only US residents (and members of the armed forces stationed overseas) could have the cards delivered. Always remember to read the fine print.
So Brian was collecting these to unlock special diamond digs. From this post it appears he is well on his way to achieving his goal.
I received some super Red Sox cards in my part of the deal.
Thanks Brian.

Trade with Dayf at Cardboard Junkie

2011-07-10T22:48:00.001+01:00

One of the best things about writing this blog besides getting in touch with other card collectors, has been trading cards. It has been the staple of this blog since I stretched out the arm of collecting friendship. I sent a few cards to a well known card collector and blogger Dayf a little while ago but nothing in comparison to what he sent back. A whole raft of Jacoby Ellsbury cards including the highly allusive 2007 Topps Update Jacoby Ellsbury rookie card, numbered as 100, which is a super duper short print.
The 2007 Topps Update and Highlights checklist designates card number 100 as belonging to Phillies third base Abraham Nunez. Then Topps decided that, they needed something special and chose Jacoby Ellsbury although he was included, as a rookie, in the 2005 Bowman Heritage set, a card that Dayf included as well.
All the cards Dayf sent are great additions to my growing Jacoby Ellsbury collection. Not be outdone Dayf included some brilliant 'Vintage' Red Sox cards. How can I possibly match this?
Thank you.

2011 Walmart Value Box part 2

2011-06-25T18:28:00.000+01:00

This is my secong helping of the Value Box collected by ny head techer while travelling in the USA. The Topps Value Box contains 2 packs of 2011 Topps Heritage, 5 packs of 2011 Topps Series 1, 2 Diamond Giveaway (which I have given away), an exclusive Chrome Refractor card and an interesting collectors guide.
I mentioned in a previous post that if these were available at my local supermarket at $14.98, I would buying these faster than they could stock them, however I may have to change my position on this...
The first Value Box contained a Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers, chrome refractor number 2 in the 3 card series. The second box contained a Jackie Robinson Dodgers refractor as well. The five 2011 Series 1 packs contained these cards;

47 base,
1 gold parallel (Jeff Keppinger Astros 0603/2011),
1 platinum diamond parallel (Alex Rios White Sox)
5 ToppsTown,
2 Diamond Duos,
2Lost cards insert, (1953 Stan Musial Cardinals, 1958 Pee Wee Reese Dodgers),
1 Topps 60 insert (Adam Ethier Dodgers)
1 Kimball Champions (Andrew McCuther Pirates)
1 Topps reproduction (1934 Goudey Jimmie Foxx)

The two packs 2011 Heritage contained;

17 base cards and
1 News Flashback (Mona Lisa visits US)

So my original assumption of supermarket leftovers may be correct.

Trade with Hairylemon from 7 Hours from Tampa Bay

2011-06-24T20:59:00.000+01:00

It has been very quiet on the trading front recently, but things have been looking up more recently. I say quiet, however a stack of very nice Red Sox came my way a few weeks ago from a fellow collector in the UK. Simon also know as Hairylemon sent some Red Sox my way in exchange for James Shields and Tampa Bay Rays cards. A great selection of Red Sox old and new including my favourite Red Sox from days gone by Nomar Garciaparra.

If you haven't already been there, check out Simon's blog 7 Hours from Tampa Bay.

A simple request

2011-06-02T16:15:00.002+01:00

It's a short holiday, (half term break), before the end of school year madness. Time once again to sort the growing piles and piles of baseball cards that are around the house.
I have a bunch of regular traders who I can rely on to accept, with arms open wide, baseball cards for a particular team or player, with the occasional odd-ball request such as 'cup cards'. However there are a number of traders that I have lost contact with, either through laziness on my part or lack of contact on their part so,
The simple request is...
I need to find traders/ collectors willing to take piles of cards from these teams;

Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels

Oakland Athletics

Seattle Mariners

Florida Marlins

New York Mets

Baltimore Orioles

Pittsburgh Pirates (have never found a trader for this team-so there is quite a few)

Cincinnati Reds

Detroit Tigers

Minnesota Twins

All I ask in return is that when you receive the cards, you acknowledge receipt and send back what you feel is fair trade. Nothing could be simpler.

Trade with Tony 'Collector from Across the Pond'

2011-05-21T20:56:00.002+01:00

A while ago this would have been 'Trade with Tony from Wales' but that has changed now that Tony joined the growing band of bloggers, a while ago. To see what other collectors from the UK are up to see 'Collector From Across the Pond'. He collects San Francisco Giants and Adam Lind cards. Tony is also regular contributor to different forums and has made some great trades with fellow collectors. I have been on the receiving end too. A little while ago a big stack of Topps Heritage from various years arrived on the doorstep, although there was no clue who had sent them, I didn't need to be Inspector Morse to work it out. He loves Heritage as much as I do and the stack of Red Sox were greatly received.

Thanks Tony. Giants are on their way.

2011 Walmart Value Box Part 1

2011-05-20T20:12:00.001+01:00

The Topps Value Box contains 2 packs of 2011 Topps Heritage, 5 packs of 2011 Topps Series 1, 2 Diamond Giveaway (which I have given away), an exclusive Chrome Refractor card and an interesting collectors guide. If these were available at my local ASDA or TESCO at $14.98, they would be disappearing off the shelves faster than they could stock them.

The first Value Box contained a Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers, chrome refractor number 2 in the 3 card series. The five 2011 Series 1 packs contained these cards;

46 base,
1 gold parallel (Alex Gonzalez 1740/2011),
1 platinum diamond parallel (Russell Martin)
5 ToppsTown,
2 Diamond Duos,
1 Lost cards insert, (1954 Mickey Mantle),
1 60 years of Topps (1955 Ernie Banks),
1 Diamond giveaway,
1 Topps 60 insert (Josh Hamilton)
1 Kimball Champions (Chris Carpenter)

The two packs 2011 Heritage contained;

17 base cards and
1 New Age performer insert (Miguel Cabrera)

I seem to remember buying a tin from e-bay a number of years ago, with a variety of Topps packs (or was that Upper Deck)and a collectors guide. Is this a way to sell supermarket leftovers?

Two 2011 Walmart Baseball Value Boxes

2011-05-12T19:08:00.002+01:00

I may have mentioned once or twice that the head of my school visits the USA periodically. My wants list for this recent trip was simple- Allen and Ginter. A bit of a stretch, however failing that anything baseball related would do just fine. Generous as always, she returned laden with gifts for a variety of sources. Oh how I would love to visit and have these pickings;
1) Two of the boxes of the above from Walmart,
2) a complete set of 2010 Topps baseball from a sports collectables shop in Florida,
3) a 2011 Topps Opening Day blaster from Target,
4) eight packs of 2008 UD Timelines from 'The Dollar Tree',
5) two packs of 2010 Topps Updates from 'The Dollar Tree'.

Not a bad little haul. The Dollar Tree sounds like an interesting place. In her words there was 'plenty of cards to choose from!' As for the diamond giveaway cards from the value packs, they are up for grabs. I am presuming this is a similar thing to last years 'Million Card Giveaway', I asked if the cards would be sent overseas however this was not possible. So they are looking for a good home. Any takers?

Could this be the worst blaster ever?

2011-05-09T20:17:00.004+01:00

When you're a beggar, you cannot be a chooser. So I bid when this blaster of baseball cards was listed on e-bayUK, there was a moment of absolute clarity or was that stupidity. Either. They can be very close sometimes. The warning signs were there, a fellow collector selling an unopened box of cards, no other bids, the large advertisement for 'possible' Dice-K autographs and the 'hottest rookies' tag line.
'A Pack a Day' was about the search for the ultimate pack, this blaster would be the polar opposite of ultimate. Saying worst just doesn't feel strong enough.
Maybe I am being a little harsh.
I am a fairly positive sort of person, I'm not one of those collectors looking for the big 'HIT' from packs, or even the little ones. A Red Sox or two wouldn't go unwanted, a Jacoby Ellsbury would be the cause for some minor celebrations, even an unique insert would bring a little joy.
I will let this blaster speak for itself. I have a feeling these will be a bit like indoor fireworks, sound like an interesting idea but don't quite live up to the expectation.
Please prove me wrong, which of these is a 'future star'.

Pack 1:
#33 Magglio Ordonez Tigers
#72 Chase Utley Phillies
#73 Ryan Howard Phillies
#88 Chris Carpenter Cardinals

Pack 2:
#20 Paul Konerko White Sox
#56 Joe Mauer Twins
#85 Richie Sexson Mariners
#90 Carl Crawford Bay Rays

Pack 3:
#2 Andrew Jones Braves
#22 Ken Griffey Jr. Reds (seriously?)
#45 Vladimir Guerrero Angels
#62 Carlos Beltran Mets

Pack 4:
#7 John Smoltz Braves
#11 David Ortiz Red Sox
#92 Scott Kazmir Bay Rays
#99 Ryan Zimmerman Nationals
Pack 5:
#24 Aaron Harang Reds
#41 Carlos Lee Astros
#79 Jake Peavy Padres
#96 Troy Glaus Blue Jays

Pack 6:
#58 Johan Santana Twins
#65 Johnny Damon Yankees
#75 Freddy Sanchez Pirates
#82 Matt Cain Giants

Pack 7:
#6 Jeff Francoeur Braves
#31 Garrett Atkins Rockies
#48 Juan Pierre Dodgers
#91 Rocco Baldelli Bay Rays

Pack 8:
#14 Curt Schilling Red Sox (come on-really!)
#28 C.C.Sabathia Indians
#39 Lance Berkman Astros
#73 Jimmy Rollins Phillies
So tell me is there a hot rookie or a future star amongst this lot.
And I ask again- Is this indeed the Worst Blaster Ever?

The Royal Wedding Sticker Album

2011-05-08T20:05:00.001+01:00

I thought that with any luck, being in Australia, I may have missed all the pomp and circumstance of not just 'A' Royal wedding, but 'THE' Royal wedding. However the Australian media was more obsessed with the Royal Family than the Brits. The daytime television shows were awash with stories, reports and interviews with anyone; sandwich makers, pizza delivery guys, people who happened to pass either of the lovely couple in the street.

I didn't see this sticker collection before I left, but those lovely people at Panini produced a commemorative souvenir sticker collection to compliment the forthcoming nuptials of Prince William of Wales and the commoner Catherine Middleton. 50 pages of gold embossed photographs of Royals past and present, 248 to be exact. All manner of pictures, unfortunately the one picture that is missing is of the lovely Miss Middleton in a white bikini on a yacht somewhere in the Caribbean. That would have been worth the price of the complete collection alone.

Alas it was not to be, although why that didn't stop me purchasing the album and some sticker packets is anyones guess.

Instead we are graced with pictures of the young couple looking longingly into each others eyes, of happy family groups and extended Royal hangers-on. The wedding has now come and gone, the papers are filled with more worthy items of news and the world continues to slowly turn.

Surely there must be someone out there who would appreciate this fine album and stickers. (six packets). I will even throw in some extra bits of Royal Wedding 'stuff'. Go on make me an offer...

Australian 'football' cards

2011-05-03T20:48:00.005+01:00

I have returned tired but happy from my Australian adventure with my two daughters.
Australian's are sport mad. My dad explains that if two flies are moving along a window, a group of Australians would gather and cheer one of the flies on to beat the other, and probably lay a few bets on the outcome.
We travelled in Autumn, so the two main sports played at this time of year are Rugby League (NRL)and Australian Rules Football(AFL). Although both these sports are played Australia wide, (and in New Zealand) League is predominately played in New South Wales and Aussie Rules in Victoria. Similar to the USA the teams are owned by a consortium or individuals. Russell Crowe, the actor best known for Gladiator, owns one of the Sydney League clubs called South Sydney Rabbitohs. It has been hinted on many occasions that his 'mate' Tom Cruise owns a share in the club as well.
Card collecting is not as prevalent as it is in the US, however I was able to find cards from both sports. I purchased two packs of each. Each pack contains 8 cards and there are signed cards, inserts and parallels available. There are 196 cards in the base set and 97 chase/parallel/inserts. The cards are on good card stock, bright and colourful with shiny cards aplenty throughout.
If you recognise any names, you're a better person than myself.

The first pack contained:#SP130 Luke Walsh Penrith Panthers
#R20 Jamie Buhrer Manly Sea Eagles (RC)
#15 Peter Wallace Brisbane Broncos
#35 Daniel Vidot Canberra Raiders
#58 Kevin Gordon Gold Coast Titans
#78 Adam Blair Melbourne Storm
#98 Mark Taufua Newcastle Knights
#186 Beau Ryan Wests Tigers

The second pack:
#SP152 Michael Crocker South Sydney Rabbitohs
#8 Sam Thaiday Brisbane Broncos
#46 Nathan Gardner Cronulla Sharks
#66 Tony Williams Manly Sea Eagles
#86 Gareth Widdop Melbourne Storm
#139 Mark Gasnier St George Illawarrah Dragons
#159 John Sutton South Sydney Rabbitohs
#189 Ben Matuling New Zealand Warriors

I may have lost a few of you a while back...so a little trival note...The Rugby League competition expanded about 20 years ago from the original 20 or so clubs to include clubs from other parts of Australia. The original clubs are named after animals; dragons, sharks, tigers, eagles, rabbits, roosters, panthers, eels, magpies, bulldogs, whereas the expansions clubs adopted names such as titans, steelers, broncos, knights, storm, raiders, warriors. I'm not sure of the reason, maybe these names sounded more scary and threatening. Considering that two original teams dropped from the competition were called Canterbury Berries and Newtown Bluebags.

A super trade with Adam from Thoughts and Sox

2011-04-13T22:34:00.000+01:00

Nothing like a trade to boost the collection and wipe off cards from the wants list. This stack of cards came from Adam E at Thought and Sox in two heavily laden packages last week. Unexpected and greatly received. Thank you Adam.

2009 Goodwin Champions Box Break

2011-04-12T13:02:00.000+01:00

My favourite set from 2009 was Upper Deck's Goodwin Champions. I intend to collect a complete base set of 150 base cards, which doesn't include trying to collect all the short prints. My reason for choosing Goodwins was simple- I liked the design- and I was intrigued by the inclusion of non-baseball related cards, in particular the entomology series. Although the limit of one per case put these firmly out of my reach. There are also a number of 'English' cards available too, in the Citizen of the Day, Citizen of the Century series; Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill, Princess Diana and unbelievably Tony Blair! Bram Stoker too, if I am opting for British cards. Deemed a Major League Baseball set by Upper Deck, however the inclusion of:

'Champions from every realm of the Sporting World'.

put it directly in the 'other' category and not baseball. Most of the inserts were non-sports related- (Landmarks, Entomology, Thoroughbreds, Citizens of the Day, Animal Series, Citizens of the Century), far too many of the 210(including 60 short prints) base cards were from the other realm(46 if my maths is correct), there were too many short printed cards and super short prints, the card stock was poor (made to look like the original set) and therefore many baseball collectors stuck two fingers up at Upper Deck and avoided this set. Add the fact that there were only 4 cards per pack, meaning that a pack could contain; a 2oth Anniversary crap card, a surfer and/or a poker player, an animal and maybe 1 baseball card. This put many baseball collectors off and in these difficult financial times, most plumed for the superior Allen and Ginter outing from Topps. Although many collectors were disappointed with this set, Upper Deck has decided to release another Goodwin Champions in the summer of 2011. Goodwin Champions 2011 preview. I purchased a box with the specific intention of undertaking a video box break. I did record it on a digital camera. It was poor to say the least, but good practice for when I gain the courage to project my voice to the Internet masses. Here is what the video box break would have told you if it was half-way decent. The box should contain 96 cards. The first pack I opened revealed the memorabilia card above, which means only 3 cards in this pack and therefore 95 cards in the box. The breakdown of the rest of the box; 52 base cards (11 non-baseball), 1 memorabilia, 5 short prints, 1 super short print, 2 Citizens of the Day, 7 20th Anniversary rubbish, 5 mini-exclusives, 22 parallel minis (2 Gypsy Queen black borders, 6 non-baseball) I was able to wipe a fair few off the wants list, leaving 26 left to collect to the complete 150 base set. I would have traded these 7 20th Anniversary cards for 7 more base cards any day. I mean who wants an iceberg card really...anyone?

A quick glance at my Jacoby Ellsbury collection.

2011-04-11T21:47:00.001+01:00

I am taking my 8 year old twin girls on a trip to Australia for a few weeks to spend some time with my parents and the rest of the Arnold clan. The last time they saw them was when they were six months old. It is very exciting and a little nerve racking. That not only means no DIY for three weeks(and our house needs it) but my wife asked me very politely to 'straighten up' all the baseball cards laying around the house. In other words 'you won't be here so put them all away'. One of the many stacks of cards that are 'laying around' is my Jacoby Ellsbury collection. I have been trying to collect all the Ellsbury cards, that have no print run, for about three-four years now and have amassed around 170 cards. So before they disappear into my collecting cupboard, I thought I would sort and Topload them all. Here they are in all their glory.

A 'Yes I am still here post!'

2011-03-29T21:43:00.006+01:00

I was recently contacted by a new blogger, who enquired whether I was still trading cards, as my wants list haven't been updated since 2008! I swiftly replied in the affirmative and went quickly to check my wants list. He was correct, although I only updated my wants list a few days ago, the date was 2008. Let me say loud and clear....I AM STILL HERE AND STILL COLLECT BASEBALL CARDS! My wants lists are up to date and I love to trade.

A delayed multiple Mail day

2011-02-25T15:06:00.007Z

This is very lax of me and unforgivable. It's holiday time and I haven't posted .
In the last few weeks a number of trade packages have arrived, two regular traders and two NEW.
The first trade is from my good friend Brian at Waxaholic. Packages have bounced back and forward between the UK and Canada for over two years, the first being in August 2008. I have watched his blog Waxaholic go from strength to strength, currently 193 stalkers. I'm sure it is to do with the quality, incisive, witty banter he produces and nothing to do with the Cheerleader of Week pictures.
He sent a volley back this way, including the lovely Youk card above, after I had (unsuccessfully) tried to complete the numerous sticker collections he has on the go - not my fault. My favourite set in recent years is the Masterpieces baseball sets of 2007 and 2008, although I had collected the whole base set, this Captured on Canvas from the 2008 set is an awesome addition. Not to be outdone he sent a 2008 A+G Jason Varitek bat card and some unopened packs. He also included my favourite past player Nomar.
Thanks Big B. The second trade is from another regular trader, Greg at Night Owl cards. Packages have been winging their way from New York since October 2008. Back then I seemed to pull Dodgers with ease. An interesting and prolific writer, Greg's blog has always been one of my first points of call, even with the baseball blog explosion, he still remains among the best in the business. That's enough of the back slapping now - forgive me, it is Oscar time after all ,the season of congratulatory exaltation!
Greg sent me a fair few cards from my wants list, including a bunch of cards modelled on the 1966 Topps set. They appear to be cut? from a magazine...I enjoy the cartoons on the back of the custom cards. One of these cards informs me that Roger (Clemens) enjoys water sports and that Mike (Greenwell) has popularized high top spikes. I'm not sure how I have come so far in life without knowing this.
Thanks again to Greg for the great Red Sox cards. The next lot of cards came from a new tader, Tim aka SpastikMooss and his blog The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame. As he mentions in this post , we set the trade wheels in motion many months ago. He has two unusual collecting pursuit which I admire in a collector. Great names, Randy Ready is a personal favourite of mine and cards depicting cups, either in the background or prominent. I dug threw various boxes of cards and couldn't find any cards depicting cups, not a single one. So I spent the next few months trying to find one. Luckily Tim widened his collecting demographic, so I was able to find an assortment of cards, unfortunately not a cup card. I have become determined to find one.
Tim sent in return a huge stack of cards (and he sent packs too!) that were all from my wants list. He personally cleared a number of loose ends and helped complete many Red Sox team sets. Far too many to mention, except for this card -an Aaron Sele 1995 Topps card but this one is 'SHINY'. We like shiny things almost as much as stickers. The cards have statistics on the back from the strike shortened 1994 season that have been computer simulated-golly!, hence the set being called cyberstats. Thank you Tim for what I hope will be the first in long line of trades, particularly if I can find a damn cup card

And finally I'm not sure how I came into contact with Ted, a Blue Jays collector, but I was grateful. The Blue Jays cards had been building for a while and I had tried to get in touch with Roy from 'A Paper Chase' (or plain Grey Swatch as it is now known) to no avail. But this post is not about him. Ted sent a large box of Red Sox goodness. He included the entire Red Sox run of 1993 and 1994 Topps plus an assortment of 1990's up to the present day. All the cards were in immaculate condition.
The cards from Ted I chose to showcase are these two 2008 Topps Opening Day card, but not just any old run of the mill Opening Day cards, both these cards are numbered to 2199. I must have opened a few packs of these cards in 2008 and I wasn't aware that these existed as an insert. The lettering(logo, players name and team name) is in gold plus next to the Opening Day logo is the date March 31, 2008(also in gold)

Thank you Ted. Hope we will stay in contact, so the future Blue Jays I pull have a friendly home to go to.

1982 Topps Sticker Album

2011-02-12T22:03:00.002Z

Sticker Albums. What a lovely invention.
I'm not alone in my fondness of sticker albums and have collected football (soccer) sticker albums for years.

Recently an incredibly nice looking 1982 Topps Baseball sticker album, two unopened packs and a batch of roughly 200 stickers ( a few short of the 260 required for a completed album) came up for auction on a popular selling site. At £2.99 including postage I just couldn't pass this opportunity away.

Although the 1982 set is one of Topps earlier sticker albums. A name that is all too familiar now Panini, an Italian company, have produced sports sticker albums since the 1960's. Back then the stickers were called figurines, meaning literally 'little figures' and were not actually self adhesive stickers. From 1961 until 1970 the 'figurines' were attached to the album using glue and were sold per 'sachet.'
Panini had produced Calciatori (player) albums and figurines for 10 years and it wasn't until the 1970 World Cup in Mexico that Panini produced an album for the international market. For a really good look at this album the 1970 completed album pages, has a page by page completed album. Some of the players depicted have faces only a mother could love.This album semi-completed was selling for around £450.

When Topps entered the sticker market, Fleer had produced stickers for a number of years. For a far greater knowledge than I will ever have, read The Fleer Sticker Project.
The 1982 Topps Baseball Sticker Album is 32 pages. There are 260 stickers to collect to complete the album. Stickers came 5 per pack. No surprise that the album and stickers were made in Italy. The stickers are all the same size, roughly 2 1/2 inches by 2 inches and come in a variety of backgrounds. American League All-stars have a gold background, National league All-Stars have a silver background, read into that what you will. The NL and AL batting and pitching leaders have a red/white/blue background.
The 1981 World Series have yellow/red and yellow/blue backgrounds.
The rest of the base stickers have just solid red or blue backgrounds.
There are 8 stickers that I definitely do not have, which come under the heading of 1981 highlights #113 to #120.
The album and stickers are in lovely condition and I will refrain from the temptation of placing the stickers within the album

I am 2 for 2!

2011-02-06T21:20:00.003Z

I struck baseball gold again in 'Poundland'.
My son asked if he could spend some of his birthday money on Yu-gi-oh cards. My initial reaction of 'Don't you have enough cards already?' never leaves my mouth as I realise that the boys have seen the cupboard where I keep my card collection. This does mean a trip to the closest comic book store in Canterbury about 15 miles away, but there are shops in Canterbury that I wouldn't find elsewhere.
You may remember the 'I have dream' post about a certain shop in Canterbury. Like the sirens in Homer's Odyssey, Poundland lured me towards its jagged rocks once again.
I wasn't the one to discover the 'Obsessed with Baseball' quiz book, it was my eagle eyed son.
2500 questions and a module that will randomly select questions to test your knowledge of America's (favourite) pastime.
Its copious volume is broken down into 10 chapters of 250 questions.

A random selection of question from the book:

1. Who is the career leader with 4, 256 hits?
a. Ty Cobb
B. Stan Musial
C. Pete Rose
D. Wade Boggs

556. Who is the only player to steal home in an All-Star Game?
A. Nap Lajoie
B. Pie Traynor
C. Roberto Alomar
D. Rod Carew

1126. Which pitcher won the Cy Young Award with four different teams?
A. Randy Johnson
B. Pedro Martinez
C. Roger Clemens
D. Catfish Hunter

1967. Who was the first batter to get five hits in a playoff game?
A. Paul Blair
B. Rennie Stennett
C. Rico Carty
D. Sal Bando

2284. Which baseball owner once experimented with using orange baseballs in exhibition games?
A. Bill Veeck
B. Connie Mack
C. Walter O'Malley
D. Charles Finley
All this for just 1 pound. Possibly the best pound I have spent all year.
(There are no prizes for answering the questions correctly, just the satisfaction of knowing you are obsessed with baseball.)

Trade with Shellie from the middle child

2011-01-29T14:06:00.001Z

I heard on the radio that last week was meant to be the most depressing week of the year. A comforting thought. They reasoned that Christmas was a distant memory, the overspend and indulgence of the period was hitting hard, we were all back to the grindstone, it was a while till the next payday, the Christmas chocolates were all eaten and the days were still dark.
Last week was a miserable, cold wet week.
Most depressing week-HA! A bounty of trade packages dropped through my letter box.
The second package, a stack of Red Sox comes from Shellie, a Colorado Rockies fan and writer of the blog The Middle Child arrived early in the week.
I haven't traded with Shellie before and it was great to find a destination for the Rockies cards mounting. Shellie sent a great selection of Red Sox old, new, needed and unknown. It will keep me busy for a few days.
Thank you 'The Middle Child'.

Trade with Ross from Sports Card Info

2011-01-26T19:35:00.001Z

How sweet it is...
This Autograph Letter Rookie Patch #165 from the 2010 Topps Finest release is a beauty.
1 per mini-box and 'R' for Richardson. It is numbered 114/217.
Just one of the peaches that Ross at Sports Card Info sent me this week.
Knowing very little about the Topps Finest set or these manufactured patches and did a quick checklist search.
It has left me none the wiser and a little confused.
The checklist has Luis Dutango listed as card #165 on the autographed letter patch rookie cards and states the letter is for the players last name. Another quick surf on e-bay reveals 'S', 'O' and an 'E' of the same card. If I'm not mistaken there is no 'e' in Richardson. So is the checklist incorrect? Fully utilising my keen deductive skills I suspect the the 'R' is for Red Sox not Richardson. Fine by me it works both ways and doesn't diminish the card in my eyes.
Ross always sends cards from sets that never really see the light of day in the UK -Bowman Chrome, Topps Finest, Bowman Sterling, Topps Tribute.
All this shiny goodness.

Thanks as always to Ross, my first trade with anyone for a while and what a super trade it was.

1951 Topps Red Back

2011-01-25T14:40:00.002Z

There are some cards that you just need to have in your collection. For me, the 1951 Topps, is a must have.
It is the first national baseball card set issued by the Topps Chewing Gum Co. of Brooklyn, New York and is overshadowed by the 1952 Topps set, which is regarded by most collectors as the first 'true' Topps baseball set.
I like the underdog sets such as these and 1950's Bowmans.
It was issued in two series, 'A' series known as Red Backs and 'B' series known as Blue Backs. The cards were designed to be used a baseball card game and came as two joined (but perforated) cards per penny pack, unfortunately they were packaged with a stick of caramel candy which often melted or was squashed to the cards. The Blue Backs are scarcer than the Red Backs and are considered more valuable.
Bowman and Topps were at logger heads when this set was first issued. Bowman claimed exclusive rights to players images and sued Topps and promptly lost. This paved the way for the now historic Topps 1952 set.
Although I have cards of the same design, which were an insert in the 2003 Topps set, I haven't been fortunate enough to obtain a real '51 Topps until now.
Just the one #2 Sid Gordon. Maybe I could find some unopened packs or a box to bust and bolster this fledgling collection.
Here's an Unopened box of 1951 Topps and another.
Oh well. It looks as if I will just stick with the one card then and hope for another affordable single or two to raise their heads on e-bay.

Topps 2011 Premier League Football Stickers

2011-01-15T20:46:00.001Z

Firstly an apology directed towards Mr Waxaholic. Stickers are like a catnip to this poor man and I have started him on many a journey towards a completed album and desperately tried to help complete one before starting another.

I have noted the completed World Cup post, so its time to start another. What better way to tempt than to show a sticker I pulled from the first pack. None other than young Edwin...

There are 449 stickers to collect including 3D stickers.
In past sticker sets, Topps tried to include a variation on the sticker theme such as autographs and chase stickers, so this year it is a 3D sticker. The sticker albums include a pair of 3D glasses, the cardboard variety with one red lens and one blue lens. Not really breakthrough technology for a HD TV generation. There is a possibility that Topps has more of an understanding of the demographics for this product than I realised - men like myself, who love a sticker book and think that 3D glasses (and digital watches), although amazingly primitive are a pretty neat idea.
I purchased 6 packets from my local shop and here they are:

Pack 1:
#13 Manchester City Kit
#66 Scott Dann Birmingham
#93 Morten Gamst Pedersen Blackburn
#219 Alex Chelsea 3D
#251 Adam Johnson Manchester City
#262 EdwinVan Der Sar Manchester United

Pack 2:
#20 West Ham Kit
#99 Blackpool Logo
#230 Freddie Piquionne West Ham 3D
#252 Nigel de Long Machester City
#263 Jonny Evans Machester United
#386 Kieron Dyer West Ham
Pack 3:
#10 Everton Kit
#15 Newcastle Kit
#115 Brett Ormerod Blackpool
#223 Adam Johnson Machester City 3D
#381 Luis Boa Morte Westham
#388 Freddie Piquionne West Ham
Pack 4:
#40 Robin Van Persie Arsenal
#65 Stephen Carr Birmingham
#152 Didier Drogba Chelsea
#260 Manchester United Team
#261 Wayne Rooney Manchester United 3D
#302 Andy Wilkinson Stoke
Pack 5:
#12 Liverpool Kit
#129 Chung-Young Lee Bolton
#146 Florent Malouda Chelsea
#192 Bobby Zamora Fulham
#299 Matthew Etherington Stoke 3D
#382 Radoslav Kovac West Ham
#432 Enric Valles Birmingham
Pack 6:
#81 Blackburn Team
#100 Blackpool Team
#102 Matt Giles Blackpool
#150 Michael Essien Chelsea
#408 Mauro Boselli Wigan
#417 Stephen Ward Wolves
#444 David Meyler Sunderland

So Big B interested?

It's baseball, just not cards.

2010-12-30T22:55:00.004Z

Not a popular pastime in the UK, baseball or baseball cards. Without e-bay, COMC and trading the pickings are very slim.

I do however have a dream.

There are shops dotted around the UK called 'Poundland', where everything for sale, is not surprisingly a pound. There is always one joker who asks 'How much are these?'

There is an odd mix of items contained within these shops and I have this glorious dream that by some freak of ordering, a collection of baseball cards find their way into the storeroom. Not really knowing what to do with said items and not at the desperate stage of throwing anything on the shelves, they are kept deep within the stockroom.

I need to know and always ask 'Do you have any cards?'

I cannot walk past one of these shops without diving in, its drive my wife mad. I do the same with TKMaxx, imagining a bored shop assistant distracted, careless....bemused, taking delivery of a box or two of Topps or Bowman thinking it is a new brand of stomach medicine. As I said a dream but you never know.

On a recent shopping trip to Canterbury, a large Poundland beckoned me inside. A quick stroll down a few aisles, past hygiene items, gardening products and rows and rows of batteries my heart sinking as nothing remotely resembling baseball cards leaps from the shelves. Then I come across a selection of books - Wayne Rooney's autobiography, Unsolved Mysteries, The Worst Album Covers in the World...EVER, enough cookery books to cook for the rest of your life...

Hang on.

What's this? Tucked behind 'Being Jordan' ( the frank and open story of topless model , sorry glamour model, Katie Price's rise to fame and fortune) Is that a baseball bat? Why yes it is. A sole hardback copy of Stephen King's Faithful. A chronicle of the Boston Red Sox's historic 2004 season for a pound. I had to ask.

Yes...sir...it's a pound sir, everything in the store is a pound...sir. I pass over my pound.

The nearest I have been so far.

I will never doubt the dream.

Never will I walk past a 'Poundland' or similar discount shop again.

Soon I will walk away laden with a selection of baseball cards.

Very soon...

Jacoby Ellsbury Wishlist

2010-12-08T21:58:00.002Z

For a number of years I have been a Jacoby Ellsbury player collector. I don't mean attempting to collect every possible card ever produced that has his moniker on it, just the non-print run cards. If a few serial numbered cards come my way or a relic, I will not looked that gift horse in the mouth.
By my calculations (or Beckett actually) there are 164 cards since 2005 that fit into this collecting remit.
So far I have collected;

5 of a possible 10 cards from 2005,

1 of 5 cards from 2006

7 of 17 cards from 2007,

38 of 41 cards from 2008,

49 of 52 cards from 2009,

24 of 39 cards from 2010

making that 124/164 collected so far.

To view my progress see Pursuit of Jacoby.

My current top tens Jacoby Ellsbury pursuits are:

2005 Lowell Spinners Choice #5

2006 Wilmington Blue Rocks Choice #1
2007 Tristar Autothentics #67
2007 Tristar Autothentics Blue #67
2007 Tristar Elegance #46
2008 Topps Red Sox Gift Set #20
2008 Topps Chrome Blue Refractors #124
2009 Topps Target #660
2009 Topps 206 Old Mill #195
2009 Topps 206 Polar Bear #195

I am essentially a trading whore but realise that winning these when(and if ) they arrive on e-bay may be my only option.

'Tash'tastic baseball cards

2010-12-03T19:54:00.001Z

Real life takes over and the little 'luxury' things like writing a blog post fall by the way-side. Fortunately the recent snow falls have closed my school so I am able to spend the spare time doing what I enjoy.
While I have been unable to write, a few packages fell on my doorstep. A tidy little pile of Red Sox from Mr Ross at Boxbusters, some boxes of 2010 Topps Series 2 courtesy of the Alley family in North Carolina and a second selection of Red Sox from fellow Red Sox collector Chris at The Call of Cardboard.
Chris sent along an assortment of '81 Topps and '82 Donruss and I noticed that so many of the players sported lip fungus in this era. In fact it was unusual to be photographed sans facial hair.

A popular charity in recent years has been a prostate cancer awareness group who have hijacked the month of November and proclaimed it 'Mo'vember. Many TV celebrities, sports stars (including a touring Australian Rugby Team) and the rest of us common people grew 'tashes' to raise awareness. Premier League footballers have yet to join as they are far to image conscious and poncy. Regrettably while sporting a moustache, all I need is a cowboy outfit and I could be quite easily (although not comfortably ) qualify as a member of the village people.

So here to help raise the awareness just at the end of 'Mo' vember, a few macho tashes found in the selection of Red Sox from Chris. Mr Dennis Eckersley sporting a Magnum PI tashe, stare and healthy growth of hair.

Mr Jerry Remy opting also for a Tom Selleck but failing miserably with the hair.

and finally Mr Dwight Evans favouring a Burt Reynolds (in the Sally Field era) tashe.

No Pogonophobes in the 1980's.

1999 Skybox Molten Metal Xplosion inserts

2010-10-14T21:54:00.000+01:00

I was watching a number of items from one seller, who was off loading a few cards mainly from brands such as Pinnacle, Skybox, Score and Fleer. I was intrigued by the of number of more 'interesting' cards advertised as inserts, however the seller was asking ridiculous prices and not surprising very few, if any, were snapped up by collectors in the UK.
Patience however is a virtue.

I'm not sure what to make of these baseball cards, if you can call them that. They are more like a printing plate.

They come from the 1999 SkyBox Molten Metal set.

The 1999 SkyBox Molten Metal set was issued in one series and distributed in six-card packs with a suggested retail price of $4.99. The set features 100 of the game's top veterans in the Metal Smiths (cards 1-100) subset with an insertion rate of 4:1 pack; 30 of today's power hitters in the Heavy Metal subset (101-130) inserted one per pack; and 20 of 1999's hottest rookies in the Supernatural subset(131-150) with an insertion rate of 1:2 packs. The cards are silver-foil on 24-point stock and enhanced with additional holofoil and wet laminate.

These cards are from the SkyBox Molten Metal Xplosion parallel set
Randomly inserted in packs at the rate of one in two, this 150-card set is
parallel to the base set printed on metal stock with added etching, rounded
corners and foil stamping. A promotional card featuring Kerry Wood was
distributed to dealers and hobby media several weeks prior to the product's
national release. This unnumbered card can be readily identified by the text
"PROMOTIONAL SAMPLE" running diagonally across the back.
Although it wasn't the sample card that I was able to pick up, instead 7 'metal ' cards:

#15 Ruben Rivera Padres

#24 Sean Casey Reds

#32 Ray Durham White Sox

#34 Richie Sexson Indians

#75 Eric Karros Dodgers

#145 Sammy Sosa Cubs

#146 Kerry Wood Cubs

Not sure which genre of collecting to place these. Oddball, gimmick, parallel, inserts, alongside printing plates? At first I thought that Skybox must have had a hell of a time disguising these to ward off would be pack searchers. But the weight of these cards is not dissimilar to some of the blanks inserted in more recent Upper Deck products, roughly 3-4 regular cards.

2010/2011 Match Attax Football

2010-10-10T10:10:00.000+01:00

They're back. Slightly different but still collectable.
This year there are 465 cards to collect. Thankfully for those of us who like cards in a nice tidy order, Topps chose to number the cards - in the top right hand corner.
Of the 465 there are 360 team base cards, that is 16 base cards and 2 foil cards for each of the 20 Premiership teams. Plus 20 manager cards and 1 referee card!
Topps introduced a further 'chase' card set called Showboat foils. There are 20 Showboat to add to the 60 Man of the Match rainbow foils and 4 100 club rainbow foils.
There are 5 limited edition cards scattered around 1 per in collectors tin, collectors magazine, starter packs , 'Lucky Packs?' and an edition of Match magazine.
Some retailers have Club Crest foil cards in special 7 card packs.
There is also a 100 signed silver foil Rio Ferdinand cards and 1 signed gold card. Good Luck finding those!
I purchased 6 of the retail card packs, which contain 6 cards and a foil team crest.

Pack 1:

#68 Brett Emerton Blackburn Rovers

#102 Ricardo Gardner Bolton Wanderers

#321 Frederic Piquionne West Ham

#324 Carlton Cole West Ham

#369 Damien Duff Fulham Showboat

#447 Alex McLeish Birmingham City manager

#R9 Fulham Crest

Pack 2:

#19 Brad Friedel Aston Villa

#66 Keith Andrews Blackburn Rovers

#207 Ji-Sung Park Manchester United

#213 Javier Hernandez Manchester United foil

#295 Pablo Ibanez West Bromwich Albion
#352 Greg Halford Wolverhampton Wanderers

#R1 Arsenal crest

Pack 3:

#20 Carlos Cuellar Aston Villa

#49 Keith Fahey Birmingham City

#58 Gael Givet Blackburn Rovers

#81 Stephen Husband Blackpool

#194 Yaya Toure Manchester City

#457 Chirs Houghton Newcastle manager
#R11 Manchester City crest

Pack 4:

#10 Jack Wilshere Arsenal

#271 Heurelho Gomes Tottenham Hotspur

#269 Frazier Campbell Sunderland

#312 Daniel Gabbidon West Ham
#360 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Wolverhampton Wanderers
#365 Charlie Adam Blackpool showboat

#R17 West Bromwich Albion crest

Pack 5:

#65 David Dunn Blackburn Rovers

#164 Paul Konchesky Liverpool
#177 Ryan Babel Liverpool

#199 Edwin Van Der Sar Manchester United

#335 Hendry Thomas Wigan

#355 Matthew Jarvis Wolverhampton

#R8 Everton crest

Pack 6:

#134 Jack Rodwell Everton

#145 Mark Schwarzer Fulham

#246 Rory Delap Stoke

#332 Ben Watson Wigan

#410 Fernando Torrez Liverpool Man of the Match foil

#454 Roy Hodgson Liverpool manager

#R13 Newcastle crest

I have no affiliation to any premiership team, so for the fourth year running I will collect the whole base set.

Through the contacts I have made in the USA, Fulham appears to be the most popular team amongst American collectors followed by Everton. Wondering whether Liverpool will rise in popularity if the Boston Red Sox owners planned purchase of the club goes through.

Topps Attax STAR WARS Edition

2010-09-25T19:29:00.003+01:00

Police Academy was a fine product of the 1980's. The first was the best, the second pretty funny but they should have stopped there. Three was stupid, four even worse. Then Steve Guttenburg decided enough was enough and jumped ship after the fourth instalment. They continued to squeeze that winning franchise until it bled...5th, 6th, Mission to Moscow (7th), TV series, Dog Academy and there is talk of an 8th with Steve Guttenburg safely rescued and back at the helm. Topps, I fear, is squeezing as much as possible from the Attax brand:

Premiership Match Attax (4 series)

Bundesliga Match Attax (2 series)

Slam Attax (2 series)

Match Attax Extra (4 series)

Match Attax World Cup edition (1 series)

Baseball Attax (2 series)

NFL Attax (?)

Basketball Attax(?)

and now Force Attax.

When I saw these I thought why, but that little Star Wars nerd that resides inside me bought four packs. My boys, who pay no attention whatsoever to any of my other collecting pursuits, saw them and without hesitation 'awwed' and 'arred' over them. So in this respect a success for Topps and the continuing Attax brand. Unfortunately they are not the original Star Wars (I mean episode 4, 5 and 6) but the more recent animated series 'Clone Wars'.

If you are familiar with the Topps Attax cards, you will know they are used as a game. Each card has a defence and attack number. There are 190 cards in the Force Attax set to collect, the usual special insert foils are available -Star foils and Force Master rainbow foils and an album with pocket pages, game mat and checklist also available.

I retrieved the four packs from my sons to give you a taste and share the Star Wars goodness enclosed within.

Pack 1:

Y-wing Starfighter

General Grevious Starfighter

Clone Trooper

Clone Trooper Denal

Count Dooku Star FoilPack 2:

Mace Windu Rianbow Foil

Bail Organa

Luminara Unduli & Barriss Offee

Yoda & Clone Trooper

Bounty Hunter

Pack 3:

Ahsoka Tano & Barriss Offee

General Grievous & Magnaguard

Clone Trooper Waxer

Asajj Ventress & Super Battle Droid

Asajj Ventress Force Master rainbow foil

Pack 4:

Obi-Wan Kenobi & Commander Cody

Embo

Anakin Skywalker & Obi-Wan Kenobi

Commander Wolffe

Padme Amidala & C-3PO

Some great looking cards that we have come to expect from the Attax brand. The Obi-Wan / Anakin card my personal favourite.

Where will the Topps Attax brand go next?
What Attax cards would you like to see Topps produce?

1961 Fleer Baseball Greats

2010-09-23T18:22:00.002+01:00

The 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats is an unappreciated set of cards. I love them for their simple design and their underdog status. I would like to think that I will be at a stage in my collecting habits, when I have completed some of my other baseball pursuits, attempt to collect a unique set such as '61 Fleer. Considering the set includes such names as Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Cy Young and Honus Wagner, presumably because Topps had the current players under contract, it is possible.
The complete set is 154 cards and are numbered in 'alphabetical ' order. The set was issued in 2 series; cards #1 to #88 in the first series and #89 to #154 in the second. The first series packs contained team and pennant stickers showing past World Series winners. The Fleer Sticker Project shows both these superb stickers in their glory.
I already have 9 of the '61 Fleer set and this card #52 John Kling is a great addition.

1955 Red Man Tobacco Card

2010-09-22T21:24:00.002+01:00

Chewing Tobacco conjures images of the Wild West, spittoons and Back to the Future. I believed that 'smokeless tobacco' was a thing of the past. How wrong I was. In seeking some information on the Red Man brand I discovered that chewing (and spitting!) is still widely practiced.
Baseball cards had not been included in Tobacco products since 1920, until 1952 when Red Man issued a set of cards, attractive big cards measuring 9cm (3.5 in) by 9cm with a 1cm (0.5in) stub at the bottom. The stub could be removed from the card and 50 stubs exchanged for a Big League Baseball cap in the team of your choosing.
Red Man chose to keep all the baseball information on the front of the card and use the back to advertise their product. For four years, 1952 to 1955, Red Man included baseball cards in their chewing tobacco. If you want to drool a little bit at a amazing collection of the entire 4 year run take a look at this blog.
The 1955 set included 25 players from the American League and 25 from the National League.
I was able to purchase this card #20 Pete Runnels Washington Senators with the stub. Unfortunately the cap offer expired on June 15th 1956.
Red Man tobacco products are still available( in only the top quality stores naturally ) but baseball cards have been replaced by fishing lures.

2009 Tristar Obak

2010-09-21T19:54:00.004+01:00

I was fortunate recently to get hold of a 'blaster' of 2010 Obak. Blaster may be stretching it a little, as most of the box contained a large L-shaped block of foam. There are 4 packs within the blaster, each pack containing 6 cards.
The base set consists of 119 cards, 5 of which can only be collected through Tristar Prospect Plus packs. I don't really know enough about Minor League ball to speak confidently about the cards but I like the modern/vintage sets.

Pack 1:

#15 Neftali Feliz Oklahoma City Redhawks

#29 Angel Villalona San Jose Giants

#48 Robert Forrest Jacobs Asheville Tourists

#53 Ike Boone Mission Reds

#60 Joe Wilhoit Salt Lake City Bees

#38 Ron Necciai Bristol Twins T-212 Pack 2:

#64 Gregg Jefferies Jackson Mets

#73 Bud Hillerich and Pete Browning Louisville Slugger

#76 Mike Coolbaugh Columbus Clippers

#89 George H. Rawlings

O-EX3 Barack Obama

#29 Steve Dalkowski Rochester Red Wings T-212

Pack 3:

#36 Al Rosen Oklahoma City Indians

#44 Steve Dalkowski Rochester Red Wings

#59 Gary Redus Waterbury Reds

#74 Alexander Cartwright 'alleged' inventor of baseball

#84 Francis Scott Key

#37 Grover Lowdermilk Mattoon Giants T-212

Pack 4:

#2 Robbie Grossman West Virginia Power

#3 BJ Hermsen GCL Twins

#8 Junichi Tazawa Portland Seadogs

#13 Tim Beckham Bowling Green Hot Rods

#43 Oscar Eckhardt Mission Reds

#5 Michael Ynoa AZL Athletics T-212

Hooked ! Mainly by the names of the players and teams. I have to get some more 'Loudermilk' cards as well as Bristol Twins. Pity the team isn't called Bristol City Twins.
As usual all the cards are up for trade.

What will 99p buy you in baseball cards?

2010-09-19T19:22:00.004+01:00

A load of crap possibly.
Readers from the UK might have seen this lot on e-bay recently. A 1000 cards with a starting price of 99p. Who wouldn't bid? Well everyone obviously because I won with a bid of 99p.

So what exactly did I get for my 99p?

A complete set of 1995 Topps,

A box of 1993 Donruss Series 1,

A box of 1993 Donruss Series 2,

5 Topps 1974 ,

8 Topps 1975,

19 Topps 1978,

1 Topps 1979,

1 Donruss 1983,

1 Sportsflick 1986,

1 Upper Deck 1989,

97 Donruss 1990,

1 Topps 1990,

30 Donruss 1991,

36 Fleer 1991,

1 Fleer Sticker 1991,

15 Score 1991,

4 Topps 1991,

74 Donruss 1992,

2 Fleer 1992,

27 Leaf 1992,

19 Score 1992,

104 Topps 1992,

7 Upper Deck 1992,

108 Donruss 1993,

89 Hostess baseball 1993,

13 Topps 1993,

4 Upper Deck 1993,

2 Fleer 1994,

1 Topps 1994,

12 Stadium Club 1994,

20 UD Collectors Choice 1995,

10 Fleer 1996,

12 Fleer Ultra 1996

28 Score 1996,

11 UD Collector Choice 1996,

200+ Topps Total 2004,

8 National Card Day 2006,

That is the bulk of the cards. An unusual mix considering there is two complete sets, possibly three, and the ever popular early 1990's cards, that appear to be common all over the world! There was also about 20 top loaders, a packet of card protectors and roughly 20 hard cases too.

There was a number of unusual items enclosed, hidden deep within the box.
A set of Civil War Leaders complete set of 32 cards in a plastic case,
A limited edition #to 240,000 1991 Front Row Draft Picks complete set in a plastic case,
A Mickey Lolich Detroit Tigers Gold embossed card?
A 1996 Fleer promotional card,
A 1996 Upper Deck Promotional card,
A slabbed 1994 Upper Deck Fold outs Cal Ripken ,
a Number of Frank Thomas cards from various years -all encased in hard covers.

Is there method to the madness of this collector? There are very few Red Sox, Pirates or Dodgers cards but plenty of White Sox pretty much together in a pile and Yankees cards again together. There are a number of cards badly beaten but in top loaders, a few more cards covered in sticky back plastic (for protection?) and a number of others that look as though they have been used to soak up low grade oil.

So a load of crap then?

Trade with Chris from the Call of Cardboard

2010-09-09T21:42:00.000+01:00

Trading has been the backbone of my blog ever since I trying to secure the last few cards of the 1980's Topps set. Things have changed, there are well over three to four times as many blogs and I have been losing out on trades to some bigger (and closer) Red Sox collectors. So it was a welcome relief to be contacted by a few collectors recently interested in a Red Sox trade. This trade with Chris from The Call of Cardboard was completed a few weeks ago.

We originally made contact in regard to 2009 Goodwin Champions, as we are both attempting to collect the base set and it grew from there. Chris received my selection of cards and sent back a big selection of Red Sox from the 1970's and a large pile of Goodwins to check off the wants list.
To my surprise tucked away amongst the cards were the three 1951 Bowman cards shown above. Unexpected and greatly appreciated.
The '51 and '52 Bowman sets are rapidly pushing out the 1980 Topps as my favourite set of baseball cards. As I have said before I prefer the 50's Bowmans to 50's Topps.
Thanks to Chris for the 'awesome' trade.

2010 Allen and Ginter baseball

2010-08-31T21:56:00.003+01:00

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

2010-08-07T10:16:00.000+01:00

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

2010-08-06T14:12:00.001+01:00

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

2010-08-05T11:05:00.002+01:00

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

2010-08-03T11:06:00.005+01:00

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

2010-08-02T17:47:00.003+01:00

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?

1951 Bowman baseball cards

2010-07-31T20:46:00.005+01:00

In 1950 the Bowman Gum Company of Philadelphia were the only company to release a national baseball card set. The 1950 Bowman set included 252 cards and the cards measured 5.2cm x 6.4cm (2-1/16in by 2-1/2in). The front of the cards featured hand-painted color reproductions of actual black and white photographs.
In 1951 a similar style was used, hand-painted colour reproductions of black and white photographs, some of the 1950 images were reused on the 1951 card set. But Bowman increased the size of the cards to 5.2cm x 7.9cm ( 2-1/16in by 3-1/8in) and increased the number of cards to 324. This was the biggest set of baseball cards at the time.
In 1950 Bowman had a monopoly, but in 1951 Topps entered the baseball card market with their 52 card blue back, 52 card red back playing card game.
The two most desired cards from the 1951 Bowman set are the rookie cards of Mickey Mantle #253 and Willie Mays #305, both of which are horizontal cards. Mantle wasn't included in the 1951 Topps set, he had to wait until the following year for his Topps debut. Some notable omissions from the 1951 set were Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial and Jackie Robinson.
I really like the Bowman sets from the 1950's. With some fear of being shunned by the baseball collecting fraternity, I prefer the Bowman cards over the Topps from this era. That is until 1955 when Bowman ceased to produced baseball cards.

The three cards I obtained from e-bayUK were:

#20 Del Crandell (Crandall) Boston Braves

#27 Jim Konstanty Phillies

#125 Bill Rigney New York Giants

As an added bonus the seller added these two 1957 Topps 'football' cards, not in any great condition but the design is lovely. I am not a collector of football, so if someone can give them a good home it would be appreciated.

What baseball cards are these?

2010-07-30T20:39:00.003+01:00

Although I haven't written for a few weeks, I have still been purchasing baseball cards and the draft posts are now starting to pile up.

I bid on what I thought was Dover Reprints of Goudey, Playball and Diamond Stars. Included in this eclectic mix were three cards that I presumed were European origin but searching has left me a little more confused.

This little card comes from a Dutch company, no not a card company, but a foodstore Hema, which started in the 1920's in the Netherlands. I know that the Lucifer Brand was matches and these little labels (as it measures 2cm x 3cm) were include in a matchbox. I have been able to find an odd assortment of flowers, cards, trains, picturesque scenes and discovered that this particular label was from a sports series. The other sports included soccer, boxing and athletics but not any 'American' sports. But that is about it. No date of issue or collectablity.

Next is this card from series called 'This Modern World' produced by a German company called Milkana. It's still around and a search reveals more cheeses than I am comfortably able to comprehend. What is confusing is the London address and the suggestion that an album is obtainable from your grocer. The Houston Astrodome must have been an engineering marvel when it was finished in 1964, so I am guessing a date around then but what other cards were in the set remains another mystery.

The third and fourth cards are my favourite. At first I thought of the European market because of the dual French/English. Big B might be able to help with these, as they are actually Canadian and were released in 1945. I found this picture while searching, which shows that the cards came in strips of 4, in the Kellogg's cereal.

This particular strip shows an interesting combination of aircraft, fencing, yachting and baseball. The two cards I have, come from the 2nd Series of 30 cards both have a perforated edge on the left side, so that fits with this set above.

Any information or pointing in the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

Swapping cards with Waxaholic

2010-07-30T14:31:00.004+01:00

Firstly, very impressed with the 'calling card'. I feel as if I'm dealing with a real professional. Waxaholic has now become my most prolific trading partner. We have been trading packages across the Atlanic for almost 2 years. Sorry it has taken so long to get this posted as well.

Brian sent along some, dare I say 'vintage' 1974 Topps

and some equally sweet 1976 Topps.

Thanks again Big B. I search in earnest to clear you 'soccer' wants list.

Baseball card advertisments 90's style

2010-07-29T15:30:00.005+01:00

It falls upon us every year, when we realise that we have just too much 'stuff'. The 'stuff' is usually mine and when I talk about 'we', I mean my wife she thinks that I have too much stuff. I'm not sure it is actually possible to have too much, maybe the wrong sort, but not too much.
The upshot is that some of it has to go. While clearing out the loft, I stumbled across a cardboard box full of comic books. I thought I had cleared them all out quite a way back but it looks as if I had squirreled away some for a rainy afternoon (or several looking at the size of the box). I must have been picky as I only kept the Batmans, some Dark Horse, a few John Byrnes and the complete set of a series that I loved called 'The Nam'(all 87 issues). Clearing stuff had to wait while I carefully removed each comic from its Mylar sleeping bag and read through in the peace and relative darkness of my loft. Buy issue 10 of 'The Nam', the realisation had dawned that I was AWOL, by issue 20 I decided to bring the whole box down and read them all again.
I started to become a little fascinated by the changing face of advertising. Issue #1 of 'The Nam' series was published in December 1986, the advertisements consisted of M&M's, Laser Tag, chocolate bars and Dungeons and Dragons. Issue #10 in late 1987, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was being advertised and what a sweet thing it was too. By Issue 20 (July 1988) game technology was the staple of comic advertising, Konami games in particular.
By Issue 30(April 1989) technology was still the big advertiser; Quickshot joysticks, Pacman and F.I.S.T fantasy role play via a touchtone telephone. By Issue 40 (January 1990)there was nothing other than Konami hand held games and Nintendo games such as Double Dragon II. However Gameboy made an appearance in July 1990 and in September 1990, the Sega Genesis!. By Issue 50 (November 1990) technology had made way for cardboard, NBA Hoops and Collect-a-Books NFL cards were advertised regularly.
Then in April 1991 (issue #55) -Fleer 1990
"hard hitting, non-stop action packed photographs. The most radical cards
ever! Logo stickers in every pack. Awesome. Bam, Zoom ,Pow. These cards will
blow you away!"
You cannot fault Fleer's optimistic approach.
Score advertised in the same comic, but they were not as eager to sell their product as Fleer was. Hoping that 'Being the best in baseball' and 'Mickey Mantle' would do the talking for them. They also claimed to be the official card of the 1990's. Not to be outdone, in the next issue, Upper Deck went for a full double page spread. Extolling the virtues of 2500 Nolan Ryan signed cards inserted randomly into tamper proof packs. "Just buy one pack and you'll discover why Upper Deck is called 'The Collectors Choice'."

By Issue #60 (September 1991) baseball cards were no longer being advertised leaving space for Super Heroes, Star Trek and Terminator cards all produced by the Impel brand. Football and Hockey cards produced by Fleer and Score continued to feature however.
Topps didn't advertise once in these Marvel publications presumably they saw little threat in these young upstarts with their fancy gimmicks and never ending supply of inserts.
Years of experience and patience were Topps virtue, as all these brands will have gone the way of the Do-do in another 10 years or so. Ahh Topps you wonderful monopoly.
Just the Dark Horse Presents to plough through now.

Third instalment of Dr Who almost finished

2010-07-09T22:12:00.002+01:00

Every year my friend, and fellow teacher, Dion and I make a Dr Who movie with the children at school. We make our own props (the Tardis is in need of some repairs-tumbling through time and space takes its toll).
This year K-9 makes a very important appearance, hence the inclusion in the picture. We have a regeneration sequence included, as our Doctor of the last two years moved onto secondary school.
The children enjoy making it (and so do Dion and I)but it does take most of the waking and some sleeping hours.
It's well worth it...in the end.

BLASTER 2010 Heritage Loose Packs vs Blaster

2010-06-17T11:19:00.004+01:00

A quick recap:
I was gifted a blaster and 9 loose packs of 2010 Topps Heritage and saw that the packs appeared different which made me think...
So yesterday I decided to test the hypothesis-

The loose packs, being retail and possibly searched, will be inferior to the blaster packs.

The loose packs were my control group so I move onto the second half of this not too scientific experiment. Eight packs from a sealed 2010 Topps Heritage Blaster purchased from Walmart in Florida. The loose packs I assure you were purchased by my friend in 'a' Cracker Barrel in Orlando (not 'the' Cracker Barrel as I previously thought), a restaurant which they apparently frequent.

Blaster Pack 1:

#7 Chicago White Sox 2009

#114 Buster Posey Giants

#146 Josh Willingham Nationals

#206 Lance Berkman Astros

#274 Stephen Drew D-backs

#340 Magglio Ordonez Tigers

#351 Bobby Crosby Pirates

#436 Miguel Tejada Astros SP

Blaster pack 2:

#17 Checklist 1st Series

#90 Gavin Floyd White Sox

#160 Andy Pettitte Yankees

#200 Javier Vazquez Yankees

#262 Andrew McCutchen Pirates

#280 Tobi Stoner Mets

#325 Brett Gardner Yankees

#460 Bobby Abreu Angels SP

Blaster Pack 3:

#6 Ronald Belisario Dodgers

#15 Grady Sizemore Indians

#205 Edwin Jackson D-backs

#279 Erick Aybar Angels

#322 Michael Dunn Braves

#378 Francisco Liriano Twins

#361 Checklist 5th Series

#BF5 Whitey Ford Yankees

Blaster Pack 4:

#13 Ramon Santiago Tigers

#19 Alex Rodriguez Yankees

#50 AL Strikeout leaders

#270 Vin Mazzaro Athletics

#338 Ryan Zimmerman Nationals

#376 Marco Scutaro Red Sox

#C62 Derek Jeter Yankees #60/61

#NT4 Venera 1

Blaster Pack 5:

#89 Martin Prado Braves

#168 Chris Coghlan Marlins

#169 Ted Lilly Cubs

#180 Robinson Cano Yankees

#201 Beasts of the East

#246 Johnny Damon Yankees

#381 Mike Lowell Red Sox

#308 Game 3 - 2009 World Series

Blaster Pack 6:

#9 Aaron Harang Reds

#59 Neil Walker Pirates

#102 Nolan Reimold Orioles

#111 Brett Myers Astros

#159 Baltimore Orioles 2009

#353 Brett Cecil Blue Jays

#380 Jeff Francoeur Mets

#399 Jason Bartlett Bay Rays

Blaster Pack 7:

#1 Albert Pujols Cardinals

#12 Geovany Soto Cubs

#65 Paul Konerko White Sox

#140 Jarrod Saltalamacchia Rangers

#316 Kevin Youkilis Red Sox

#347 St.Louis Cardinals 2009

#364 Todd Helton Rockies

#488 Raul Ibanez Phillies

Blaster Packs 8:

#86 Los Angeles Dodgers 2009

#215 Derek Jeter Yankees

#309 Game 4 -2009 World Series

#334 Wandy Rodriguez Astros

#379 Randy Wells Cubs

#404 Hornsby Tops NL

#405 Gehrig Benched after 2,130

#424 Chien-Ming Wang Yankees

From the 8 Blaster packs:
58 base cards (13.6% of 425 base)
3 Short prints 436, 460, 488
2 Inserts NT4, BF5
1 Heritage Chrome C62 (#60/61)
0 Relics
It's absolutely the same. As far as experiments go I think that we can call that inconclusive...I need more packs.

10 Yankees from 64 cards. 16% of this blaster were Yankees!

LOOSE PACKS 2010 Heritage Blaster vs Loose Packs

2010-06-16T19:52:00.007+01:00

I was fortunate to have been gifted some 2010 Topps Heritage packs. Although they were from the same friend who recently gifted a large selection of cards, this time it wasn't through volcanic delayed guilt.
The packs came in the form of a blaster of 8 packs from Walmart and 9 loose packs from Crackerbarrel. (Whatever that might be!) The packs look obviously different, the blaster packs contain gum for a start. But is this the only difference? In the name of baseball science and card collecting curiosity, I will conduct an experiment to see if there is a difference in the number of short prints, inserts and hits.
I will open the loose packs first, and throw out this hypothesis -
The loose packs, being retail and possibly searched, will be inferior to the blaster packs.
To keep it above board and in the true sense a scientific endeavour, I will open each pack, list and scan.As an aside there are still about 14 Red Sox I need to complete the team set, but that is for another blog.

Loose Pack 1:

#15 Grady Sizemore Indians

#22 Ross Ohlendorf Pirates

#34 Fausto Carmona Indians

#88 Alfonso Soriano Cubs

#105 Tim Hudson Braves

#320 Pittsburgh Pirates 2009

#378 Francisco Liriano Twins

#NF1 Peace Corps

Loose Pack 2:

#45 National League ERA leaders

#113 Jonathan Papelbon Red Sox

#200 Javier Vazquez Yankees

#216 Carlos Pena Bay Rays

#248 Kevin Millwood Orioles

#310 Game 5 2009 World Series

#354 Minnesota Twins 2009

#475 Justin Morneau Twins SP

Loose Pack 3:

#70 Lastings Milledge Pirates

#137 Bobby Cox Braves
#198 Chris Iannetta Rockies
#214 Tyler Colvin Cubs
#265 Dexter Fowler Rockies
#321 Aramis Ramirez Cubs
#379 Randy Wells Cubs
#424 Chien-Ming Wang Yankees

Loose Pack 4:

#71 Robert Andino Orioles

#185 John Danks White Sox

#260 Manny Ramirez Dodgers

#276 Tyler Flowers White Sox

#297 Oakland Athletics 2009

#353 Brett Cecil Blue Jays

#403 Robinson Breaks Color Barrier

#426 David Price Bay Rays SP

Loose Pack 5:

#43 NL Home Run Leaders
#61 Ryan Church Pirates
#90 Gavin Floyd White Sox
#122 Chicago Cubs 2009
#249 Cincinnati Reds 2009
#267 Michael Young Rangers
#272 Roy Oswalt Astros
#327 Henry Rodriguez Athletics

Loose Pack 6:
#41 NL Batting Average Leaders

#89 Martin Prado Braves

#101 Jhonny Peralta Indians

#169 Ted Lilly Cubs

#186 Denard Span Twins

#212 Omir Santos Mets

#268 Chris Young Padres

#318 Aubrey Huff Giants

Loose Pack 7:

#107 Rich Harden Rangers

#124 Daniel Hudson White Sox

#173 Boston Speed Party

#322 Michael Dunn Braves

#348 Julio Borbon Rangers

#399 Jason Bartlett Bay Rays
#402 Sisler Collects 257 Hits

#BF8 Luis Aparicio White Sox

Loose Pack 8:

#24 Andrew Bailey Athletics

#190 Chad Billingsley Dodgers

#215 Derek Jeter Yankees

#294 Josh Hamilton Rangers

#323 Shin-Soo Choo Indians

#423 Checklist 6th Series

#489 Josh Hamilton Rangers SP

#NAP8 Derek Jeter Yankees

Loose Pack 9:

(since there are 8 packs in the blaster this will not be included in the experiment, whatever it reveals)

#59 Neil Walker Pirates

#111 Brett Myers Astros

#187 Nyjer Morgan Nationals

#204 Brandon Phillips Reds

#240 Elvis Andrus Rangers

#262 Andrew McCutchen Pirates

#366 CC. Sabathia Yankees

#405 Gehrig Benched after 2,130

So from the 8 loose packs there was:

58 base cards (13.6% of 425 base)
3 Short Prints 426, 475, 489
3 Inserts BF8, NAP8, NT1
0 Heritage Chrome
0 Relics

Tomorrow the blaster...

Sky Sports Fantasy Football – South Africa

2010-06-11T22:15:00.004+01:00

If your interested, log in and take control of your very own World XI. Go on Big B you know you want to...

You can join our private league as well. 'The League of Awesome'. Add code 52461.

Jacoby Ellsbury card Number 100

2010-06-10T21:22:00.002+01:00

In a pursuit to capture all the Jacoby Ellsbury cards that have no specific print run, today I achieved a milestone of 100 cards. Although some are not from the designated 'No Print Run' category. It is just really hard not to pass-up those numbered or relic cards when they appear at a price that wouldn't lead to divorce.
So when this particular card, that I had seen before, came up for sale on e-bay I leapt on the very reasonable $1.50 price. I knew only of the National Sports Card Convention through the posts that Ross does over at one of my regular haunts Sports Card Info. There is a whole slew of celebrity signers, so I am unsure whether this card was produced to commemorate or perhaps advertise the convention.
Either way I am the proud owner of a 2008 Topps Chrome #124 Jacoby Ellsbury National Card convention card which brings me to 108 Jacoby Ellsbury cards.

2010 Topps Attax Starter Box

2010-05-15T21:35:00.001+01:00

Match Attax -The card game that puts you in charge of the action!

Aimed at children? Obviously. Collected by grown-ups? Possibly. Nice looking cards? Definitely.

There should be two code cards plus 4 foil cards including an exclusive 'Legends' sepia foil card.

There are 21 cards in the starter box.

15 base cards

Francisco Rodriguez Mets

Cliff Lee Mariners

Scott Feldman Rangers

Brad Lidge Phillies

Nelson Cruz Rangers

Howie Kendick Angels

Carlos Lee Astros

Eric Byrnes D-backs

Adam Kennedy Athletics

B.J.Upton Bay Rays

Andrew McCutchen Pirates

David DeJesus Royals

Curtis Grandson Yankees

Jermaine Dye White Sox

Evan Longoria Bay Rays

2 code cards and 4 foils

Manny Ramirez Dodgers

Alex Rodriguez Yankees

Nolan Reimold Orioles Hot Streak
Aramis Ramirez Cubs Hot Streak

Justin Verlander Tigers Superstar

Mike Schmidt Phillies Legend

I know there isn't a great deal of love for the Match Attax cards amongst 'serious' collectors. They have no numbers or statistical information, no relic/auto 'hits' but it is helping to draw in the next generation of collectors. That cannot be a bad thing.

Topps have tried hard to make this collectable and achievable. The foil cards, although not to every collectors taste, are nice and shiny.

I also know a Mike Schmidt collector who would appreciate the sepia legend.

Awesome trade with Skoormit

2010-05-11T21:32:00.003+01:00

A few months back I was pretty pleased to find a collector of the Arizona Diamondbacks. I had built a large stack of D-backs cards and seriously considered adopting another team, as there were some really nice cards disappearing into the D-backs pile.
Fortunately Tim AKA skoormit got in contact and a D-backs/Red Sox trade was forged. I like to send out cards first and feel that the receiver decide what is fair in trade. This usually works well as collectors of baseball cards, in my experience, are a very generous cohort. In some cases I never hear again but that is rare.
Tim was honest and said he didn't have any Red Sox at the moment and would attempt to gather a few. Move swiftly forward to two weeks ago ...
A desperate e-mail from Tim saying he had good news and bad news.

The good news was that he acquired some Red Sox in other trades he had made. The bad news, regrettably, was that in posting the cards the Post Office had mistakenly taken the UK for United Kingdom to mean the Ukraine. He was told that there was little he could do about it, once the bar code was printed that was that. The post stopped for no-one. A lucky collector in Eastern Europe would recieve an unexpected windfall.

Shortly after the package from Tim AKA skoormit arrived at my door and not via the Ukrainian sorting office. My faith in the snail mail system rekindled, someone had realised there was no Westgate-on-Sea in the former Soviet Union. A great result and what an awe inspiring selection of cards it turned out to be.

A 2005 UD Ultimate Signature Series Bobby Doerr on card autograph,

A 2005 Leaf Jason Varitek game used relic (#012/250),

A 2004 Legendary Cuts Wade Boggs Ultimate Swatch,

A 2008 Sweet Spot Daisuke Matsuzaka Swatch,

A 2008 Jason Varitek Allen and Ginter 'Red' Swatch,

A 2009 Goodwin Champions David Ortiz game used relic,

A 2009 Goodwin Champions Daisuke Matsuzaka game used relic,

A 2008 UD X David Ortiz Exponential and

2009 Goodwin Champions Jon Lester mini
Some trades really are worth the wait.

A massive Thank you to Tim.

1994 Leaf SLIDESHOW insert

2010-05-06T22:40:00.000+01:00

I was reminded of the many hours spent in the dark during geography lessons at college when I saw this 1994 Leaf insert.
My geography teacher was a widely travelled gent and delighted in showing us his collection of snapshots. My dad had a slide projector. It was mind numbing process of 1 slide in, 1 slide out the other side. My geography teacher, at the forefront of technology, had a remote controlled carousel that held, what felt like, a thousand slides. How many pictures can you enjoy of Ayres Rock in different hues at sunrise, sunset or when it rains. It's lovely, highly significant to the Aboriginal people but after hundreds of slides it's still a rock. Is it me or do slides take the magic away.
He even tried a few times with mild success, of playing music while the slides rotated and clicked past. Sometimes it would come grinding to a halt with the occasional slide refusing to 'drop'.
So in 1994 Leaf produced a set of 10 Slide show inserts which tried to capture the real look and feel of a slide.The picture is printed on sheet of plastic film. I presume this is an attempt at nostalgia as slide projectors had been replaced by computers and video. More recently by DVDs, interactive whiteboards and PowerPoint presentations.
Perhaps in 10 years, maybe 20 there will be an insert that looks like an iPod. You can drag your finger across the card to reveal not one but many pictures of the player, perhaps it will play a video of the player in action. Within the realms of possibility?

2010 Topps Attax Baseball

2010-05-04T21:18:00.004+01:00

I watched two guys open a starter box of Topps Attax each on some obscure website called Beckett. They tried really hard to get excited about the cards but failed. One even said something like '... well you play a game. I don't think I will be playing it but I might collect the cards. They look pretty good.'
It was a little understated as the Attax brand is a huge money spinner for Topps, accounting for about a quarter (according to the Wall Street Journal) of their turn-over. The Match Attax football version has been huge in the UK and Europe. According to the experts the reason was that Topps combined the card collecting habit of old with the new fantasy role-play competitive game of trying to build a winning combination of cards to defeat an opponent.
I will throw my idea in too.
Being a primary school teacher I saw how popular the Attax were on the playground. Firstly they were affordable (8 good quality cards for 50p), secondly they looked good (bright colours, nice pictures) and thirdly there were special 'chase' cards. The children desired them and they traded like anything to get them, even purchasing the tin, book, folder and magazine to obtain the limited cards. They really only wanted to collect the base cards of the team they supported- Manchester United, Chelsea, West Ham United, etc. A few wanted the entire set, but all of them wanted to own some of the Shiny, Glittery Rainbow Foil cards. Very few, if any of the children I saw trading cards actually played the game.
However I'm not sure of the longevity of the product. Topps milked the product for what it worth this year with Match Attax Extra, Match Attax World Cup Edition, a supermarket Attax special pack and Slam Attax. Plus Panini leap on the band wagon with Adrenalyn XL , spreading the demand very thin while keeping supply super high. There are half full boxes in all stores around my way. So whether it is as popular next year we have to wait and see.
But the guys on Beckett were right.
They look pretty good.

I was gifted 9 packs of Topps Attax baseball which I will open in my ongoing search for Red Sox at 'Pursuit of Red Sox'

The Joy of Completion Part 2

2010-05-02T14:48:00.001+01:00

It is delight to see.
Full 9 pocket pages.
Here is the complete base set of 2007 UD Masterpieces. I was 15 cards shy of the 90 card complete base set. I recently discovered the set collectors dream 'Check out my Cards'. They cost a little more to send than usual but they were delivered quickly and very securely. If you haven't already tried this site, I highly recommend it. Those last 15 cards were easily checked off and I can breathe a little easier now. That is until until 2010 Allen and Ginter hit the shelves June sometime.

A big pile of baseball cards

2010-04-30T20:55:00.005+01:00

I have mentioned on a number of occasions that I keep my ears open for people travelling to the USA. A polite enquiry as to whether they would mind obtaining some baseball cards is never turned down. When my friend, who happens to be the head of the school I work in, ventured another holiday to Florida I didn't even need to ask. 'Would you like me to get some baseball cards?' she questioned.

Let me think...

Yes please.

Unfortunately mid-way through the two week holiday, an Icelandic volcano erupted. What followed was airport closures and no air traffic in or out of Europe. Major disruption all over, with no foreseeable end. My friend and her family were 'stranded' by the turmoil, somewhere in Florida. The family's two week holiday grew to four. She returned to school today after landing late last night.

I'm pretty sure I know what I would be doing if I found myself on an extended holiday, far from home. My friend, however finding she had more time on her hands than normal, was called daily by the fiendish siren, that is Walmart. Her weakness was to my benefit. On every trip some baseball cards were purchased. My haul, and I do not use that term loosely, was ;

4 Jumbo packs of 2010 'Unauthorised' Upper Deck series 1,

9 Jumbo packs of 2010 Topps Heritage,

1 Topps Match Attax starter set,

9 packs of 2010 Topps Attax.

She is meant to return in June for a short break. Anyone know the chances of Volcanic eruptions around June 20th?

Panini Adrenalyn XL World Cup trading cards

2010-04-29T17:08:00.000+01:00

The Football World Cup moves ever closer and its time to look at the second set of cards available. Panini have two sets celebrating the World Cup, the first offering from Panini is Adrenalyn XL World Cup edition. This is in direct competition to Match Attax however Panini have also produced two European football editions called 'Foot 2010-Adrenalyn XL', 'Calciatori -Adrenalyn XL' and there is a basketball version of Adrenalyn XL too. As it is with all the trading card sets produced of late, you can purchase as a starter set ; a book to hold your cards, a playing mat, instructions, 3 packs and a limited edition card. I bought 7 packs (because that was all the money I had in my pocket at the time) plus I was given a free pack as part of a promotion. There are 6 cards per pack and these are a 'special UK Edition'.

There are 350 cards to collect;

250 in the base set.

25 Star Players - 1in 4 packs

25 Goal Stoppers -1 in 4 packs

25 Fan favourites -1in 8 packs

25 Champions - 1 in 25 packs

Although I haven't seen any, there are meant to be special material cards. The odds of finding one of these relics is not stated.

The free pack:

Mario Gomez Germany

Diego Forlan Uruguay

Vincent Enyeama Nigeria Goal Stopper

Bosingwa Portugal

Arjen Robben Netherlands

Gilberto Silva Brazil

Pack 1:

Yaya Toure Ivory Coast Star Player

Didier Zokora Ivory Coast

Julio Cesar Brazil

Christian Poulsen Denmark

Andrea Pirlo Italy

Michael Essien GhanaPack 2:
Harry Kewell Australia
Sergio Romero Argentina
Milos Krasic Serbia
Aleksandar Kolarov Serbia
Arjen Robben Netherlands
Lukas Podolski Germany

Pack 3:

John Obi Mikel Nigeria Fan Favourite

Hugo Lloris France

Jermain Defoe England

Dennis Rommedahl Denmark

Joseph Yobo Nigeria

Carlos Bocanegra USA

Pack 4:

David Beckham England

Fabio Cannavaro Italy

Steve Cherundolo USA

Angel Di Maria Argentina

Diego Lugano Uruguay

Julio Cesar Brazil Goal Stopper

Pack 5:

Tim Howard USA Goal Stopper

Michael Ballack Germany

Daniel Jensen Denmark

Frank Lampard England

Peter Pekarik Slovakia

Lucio Brazil

Pack 6:
Didier Drogba Ivory Coast

Simon Kjaer Denmark

Lucas Neill Australia

Jozy Altidore USA

Salvator Cabanas Paraguay Star Player

Raul Albiol Spain

Pack 7:
Clint Dempsey USA
Florent Malouda France
Javier Zanetti Argentina
Andre Ooijer Netherlands
Nicklas Bendtner Denmark
Milivoje Novakovic Serbia

I like these. A varied selection of international (and premiership) players. Quite a few unknowns and they couldn't have found a worse picture of David Beckham if they tried.

2005 Topps Draft Pick #UH317

2010-04-20T21:29:00.004+01:00

So a little birthday money came my way and what better way to spend it than on baseball cards. While packs of baseball cards would have been nice, I have neglected my player collection Pursuit of Jacoby, to conclude some of the various other sets in my repertoire. So I decided to use this unforseen windfall on some earlier Jacoby's that have escaped me. This 2005 Topps Update #UH317 is the first card to arrive.
I am surprised that it arrived from the USA so soon. If you haven't heard an Icelandic Volcano called Eyjafjallajökull, (my son commented 'It looks like someone just typed random letters on the keyboard) erupted bringing all European air travel to a halt. No outbound or inbound air traffic for 6 days now. The Easter school holidays were just finishing, so millions of people (by estimate) trying to get home were left stranded all over the world, and until today I presumed there would be no airmail.

The idea of an unexpected holiday extension sounds brilliant but I think the reality of sleeping on the floor of an airport departure lounge is harrowing. As fresh eruptions continue spewing a towering wall of ash, dust and steam high into the air it is thought that chaos it has caused will continue for many months.

Trade with Roy from Paper Chase

2010-04-17T16:37:00.004+01:00

A little while ago I sent out a call for 2009 Goodwin Champions, as this was the set I had chosen to complete in 2009. I am fully aware that a little poetic licence has been taken to call this a baseball set, roughly a quarter of the base set of 150 cards are non-baseball. I think they did a damn fine job and the inserts are unique. A personal favourite is the Entomology series of 30 cards, who would think of putting butterflies and baseball together.
Roy from A Paper Chase answered the call and sent 21 cards from the wants list. As an extra bonus he also included the Big Papi jersey. Thank you Roy for the generous trade.

I need 91 to complete the base set;

1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 29, 31, 32, 33, 35, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46, 47, 52, 53, 54, 56, 59, 60, 61, 63, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 83, 87, 89, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104, 106, 107, 108, 109, 113, 115, 116, 117, 120, 121, 124, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 143, 145, 147 ,148 ,150

Match Attax World Cup Edition

2010-04-16T16:18:00.001+01:00

There are only 60 days until the start of the Football World Cup in South Africa. The World Cup fever that descends across England has already started; predictions of raising the FIFA trophy as winning finalists, concerns that England have some great players just not a great squad, player infidelity/injuries, will the girlfriends/wives be allowed to attend and so on. However all English football fans look towards the first game of Group C on the 12th June, that just happens to be England verses the USA.
At present there are 3 different 'World Cup' card/sticker sets available to collect. Topps foray into the football market continues with Match Attax World Cup Edition.
A unique feature for this set, which is not unusual to US collectors, but almost unheard of this side of the pond, is a supermarket special edition pack. The supermarket that has secured this exclusive is TESCO's, who appear to have their fingers in almost every single pie - mobile phones, Internet, insurance, clothing, food! and now collectable trading cards. No extra publicity however, these packs will be referred to as 'International Legend packs'.
I purchased 5 packs on a recent shopping trip. They weren't hard to miss, a massive display as you entered the store. Each of the International Legend packs has 7 cards, the regular packs contain 6 cards. What did the five 'Legend' packs reveal...

Pack 1:

Sir Geoff Hurst England International Legend

Rafael Van Der Vaart Holland

William Gallas France

Nikola Zigic Serbia

Vincente Del Bosque Spanish Manager

Carlos Pavon Honduras

Aaron Lennon England

Pack 2:

Marco Van Basten Holland Star Legend

Fabio Capello England manager

Theofanis Gekas Greece

Waldo Ponce Chile

Carlton Cole England

Wes Brown England

Wayne Rooney England MOM

Pack 3:

Marcel Desailly France International Legend

Jong Tae-Se Korea DPR

Karim Ziani Algeria

Mark Schwarzer Australia

Arthur Boka Ivory Coast

Marcus Tulio Tanaka Japan

Clint Dempsey USA Star Player

Pack 4:

Zico Brazil International Legend

Micheal Ballack Germany

Eduardo Portugal

Fabio Grosso Italy

Iker Casillas Spain

Bakary Sagna France

Park Si-Jung Korea Republic Star Player

Pack 5:

Franz Beckenbauer Germany International Master

Gilberto Silva Brazil

Jean Makoun II Cameroon

Dunga Brazilian Manager

Wayne Bridge England

MacBeth Sibaya South Africa

Stephen Appiah Ghana Star Player

I must admit to liking these special inserts, some brilliant names from the World of football past. I did purchase 1 additional (non-special insert) pack containing 6 cards.

Park Ji-Sung Korea Rebublic Star Player

Robert Koren Slovenia

Marek Hamsik Slovakia

Ramon Nunez Honduras

Serdar Tasci Germany

Arien Robben Holland

If I do decide to purchase any further packs, they will be the International Legend packs. For some reason, I'm sure it is psychological, the packs appear to be lacking without the legend insert. As always if your interested in any packs or packs just e-mail.

Trade with Ed from Roll out the Barrel

2010-04-14T15:30:00.001+01:00

Arriving home from work a few weeks ago the postman had kindly left a package by the front door. He is well aware of the contents of these little packages arriving from the US and doesn't attempt to squeeze them through the letter box. I eagerly opened the said package from Harland Wisconsin while I awaited the arrival of a member of my family who had a key. I surveyed the contents with great satisfaction and had almost worked my way through the backs of the entire collection when up strolled my son, who didn't bat an eye at the fact that I was very early and let me in. That was the last that I saw of the package from Wisconsin until two days ago.
Where had it been? Somehow it had grown legs and walked its way into a pile of papers where it promptly buried itself hoping for peace and quiet. While filing important papers (in the rubbish bin) I stumbled across the missing package. A short heart felt reunion took place, a few tears, some reminiscing and now its time to thank Ed from Roll out the Barrel for the excellent selection of Red Sox, including superb Dice-K cards.
Sorry for the delay in posting (and thanking). Red Sox cards are always a welcome addition to this household.

Trade with Greg from Night Owl

2010-04-04T20:09:00.005+01:00

This is what I love about trading cards. The package that Greg sent along included almost all the cards I needed to complete the 1984 Donruss Red Sox set. Cards from this era, in particular Donruss have been elusive. To receive these 12 cards in one throw is brilliant. Not to stop there Greg also included a mixture of cards from 1974 up to 2010.
Thanks Greg. As always its great to trade.

Trade with Big B from Waxaholic

2010-04-01T21:50:00.000+01:00

Waxaholic does it again. He has blown me away with these three relic cards that arrived in the post last week. I do not have a quad swatch in my collection so this is a very welcome addition, nor did I have a 'red swatch'. Practice jersey perhaps?
Nice to see the Man Ram alongside his former team-mates, although listed as a Dodger.
Thanks Big B.

Brian also included some lovely Junk Wax, which is always welcome and busted at 'Pursuit of Red Sox,

All quiet on the trading front and a rare find.

2010-03-19T21:24:00.007Z

Originally I intended to title this 'Trade with Tony'. But it has been an unusually quiet couple of months in regard to trading. The rare find?.... not the Okajima relic....a trade partner in the UK.
There is a small but growing band of baseball cards collectors in the UK. I was fortunate enough to make contact with Tony from Newport, not Rhode Island but in Wales. He has been reading the blog and decide that was time we made contact.
It appears as if Tony and I have fiercely competed for some of the more desirable baseball cards on ebayUK. Mind you there is plenty of undesirable rubbish too. Such as a seller who listed the entire 1991 Fleer set, 'the yellow one,' not as a single lot but as individual cards at 99p per card not including the 70p postage per card. Browsing through the baseball card selection on ebayUK is like wading your way through a pool of custard.
Tony is a set collector foremost, he is pursuing the 2010 Topps Heritage at present. Fortunately he also collects the San Fransisco Giants. He managed to trim about 60 cards off my wants list and included the Okajima Career Best relic. We also arranged to purchase a box (or two)of 2010 Allen and Ginter and see how we fair collecting the base set.
Thanks Tony for the trade and looking forward to the 22nd of June.

1966 and 1967 Topps with a dash of '56

2010-03-11T22:20:00.000Z

Following on from the 1955 Bowman, the same seller had a small stack of cards from 1966 and 1967 Topps cards for sale. I actively search out 1964 Topps and have a few '66 and '67, so this was a lucky find. What came as a surprise was the added bonus of the 1956 Topps #280 Jim Gilliam. I had noticed on the auction picture, a solitary '56 Topps but it was partially hidden so I concluded that it was either in poor condition or so badly aligned that it was a waste of the sellers time to list it separately.

When it comes to vintage, I apologies to those offended by referring to 1956 as vintage, they appear rarely so I am not concerned by condition. One day maybe, but today I am happy to add to my collection. The card arrived and is in good condition, a little high on the card but still great. So the bonus was the '66 and '67 Topps.

1955 Bowman

2010-02-28T20:38:00.000Z

I have asked it before and I don't mind repeating myself. What is the matter with '55 Bowman cards? Why is there no love for '55 Bowman - 'the TV set'?

I won an auction on e-bay UK for 49 cards from this set, without challenge. They may not be in the best condition, ranging from poor to fair, but they are from the 1955...and Bowman...and I love this set. The last set produced under the Bowman name until it resurfaced in 1989.

The previous owner (owners)has made some of these cards unique. A number are cut down by a fraction possibly to make them fit in some sort of holder, wallet or pocket? A few more have names added; C.C owned a couple, then one or two have been used a playing cards with 2 and 4 added to the four corners of the back.

The best individualisation by far is #96 Ray Narleski. At first glance I thought of Superbad but then realised that the previous owner had drawn daggers across his arms and face. The back was subjected to a similar fate. What is that about?

For those who are interested the auction included;

#4 Eddie Waitkins Orioles

#67 Don Larson Yankees

#83 Max Surkont Pirates

#96 Ray Narleski Indians

#106 Del Rice Cardinals

#107 Solly Hemus Cardinals

#120 Ed Burtschy Athletics

#127 Hank Majeski Indians

#131 Willard Marshall White Sox

#137 Bob Talbot Cubs

#140 Bobby Shantz Athletics

#141 Wes Westrum Giants

#144 Art Houtteman Indians

#145 Bob Nieman White Sox

#146 Don Liddle Giants

#150 Bill Klaus Red Sox

#153 Eddie Robinson Yankees

#155 Gerry Staley Redlegs

#157 Ernie Johnson Braves

#162 Charlie Maxwell Orioles

#163 Sid Gordon Pirates

#165 Maurice McDermott Senators

#169 Carl Furillo Dodgers

#176 Joe De Maestri Athletics

#177 Willard Nixon Red Sox

#180 Johnny Logan Braves

#182 Bob Rush Cubs

#190 Fred Baezewski Redlegs

#192 George Strickland Indians

#193 Howie Judson Redlegs

#197 Ralph Kiner Indians

#203 Steve Gromek Tigers

#211 Sonny Dixon Athletics

#212 Jack Dittmer Braves

#217 Del Crandall Braves

#218 Joe Adcock Braves

#219 Whitey Lockman Giants

#221 Skinny Brown Red Sox

#223 Hal Jeffcoat Cubs

#226 W.J.McKinley Umpire

#237 Johnny Wyrostek Phillies

#249 Billy Gardner Giants

#257 Tom Alston Cardinals

#261 Walt Moryn Dodgers

#271 Bob Hopper Indians

#299 Lonnie Warneke Umpire

#300 Tommy Byrne Yankees

#307 R.A. Pinelli Umpire

#310 Ken Lehman Dodgers

They are rough, pre-loved, but what an addition to the collection.

2009 Goodwin Champions

2010-02-24T14:52:00.000Z

For the past few years, because I have so much time on my hands... I like to choose a particular set to complete. There is no rhyme or reason to the set except I like them and as they are placed in their nine little beds they look pretty good.
The sets I have attempted to collect are:

1980 Topps -completed

1994 UD All Time Heroes 107/225 needed

2000 Fleer Showcase 9/100 needed

2005 Topps Heritage 175/385 needed

2006 Fleer Tradition -completed

2007 Masterpieces 15/90 needed

2008 Goudey-completed

Now in 2009 Goodwin Champions.

My excitement grew when Upper Deck gave us a Product Review and then the Checklist. Fortunately I was gifted a Blaster and my pursuit was firmly set. But there is still a long way to go before completion. I require 112 from the 150 base set. I need:

1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46, 47, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 83, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 112, 113, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 124, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147 ,148 ,149 ,150

There are short prints(#151-190), super short prints (#190- 210) and mini exclusives (#211-252) in this as well.

Trade with Adam from Thoughts and Sox

2010-02-21T14:26:00.001Z

I feel grateful to be included in the popular trend that swept across the baseball blogs- Bipping, that now has a cease and desist order pending. I am always behind when it comes to baseball related items, so here is to the first and possibly only overseas bip to take place...thankfully. Say hello to 9x 2008 Donruss Threads #62 Jon Still courtesy of Adam at Thoughts and Sox.

I have often wondered what happened to multiple doubles that are collected. I remember a while back that a blogger suggested making boxes, but the cards had to be folded, hence destroyed, to make them. Didn't someone give away cards as Halloween trinkets? What about wallpapering a bedroom? Tasteful decoration of items around the home or pencil holders, and maybe with a little tinkering- fridge magnets. Surely we can come up with something.

Adam also sent along a large pile of Red Sox cards from my wants list, too numerous to mention all of them except my favourite from the bunch.

2007 UD Elements #89 David Ortiz 'plastic fantastic' card.

Thanks Adam. Red Sox are on their way.

Trading with Mark from Cornwall.

2010-02-06T22:04:00.003Z

Last May I joined the ranks of Through the Mail autograph collection. There was only one signature I was after -Jacoby Ellsbury. Before you ask, the cards I sent have not come back.... yet.
At the time a few collectors commented that patience is key when it comes to TTM and unfortunately hinted that Jacoby isn't the most prolific of signers.
This post lead to a number of e-mails with useful advice about collecting autographs in general. One of the people to make contact was Mark from Cornwall, who shared some of his secrets for successful autograph collecting. He is a veteran collector and just hearing about some of in-person autographs he has collected such as Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, yes all of the fab four and a number of major political names, is interesting reading. He regularly attends sporting events with specific people in mind. He was just starting to get into baseball autographs. If our recent correspondence are any thing to go by, he is beyond the 'dipping my toe in' stage to a full on English Channel swim, purchasing autograph cards aplenty.
Mark took his family to the US in the summer and collected some more autographs when he attended a Lowell Spinners game. As a bonus his son was chosen to run the bases and be the official game mascot. Unfortunately for Mark, who is Athletics fan, his son became a instant Red Sox fan. While on holiday Mark was kind enough to purchase some packs for me, Allen +Ginter, OPC and Bowman, which I will bust over at Pursuit of Red Sox. He intends to return to the US again this summer and sign his son up as an Red Sox Nation member. That must really hurt.
Thanks for the packs Mark, maybe I will pull an autograph.

Trade with Steve at White Sox Cards

2010-02-05T21:40:00.001Z

As another year moves swiftly on, (where did January go?) and as Christmas becomes a distant memory, it was great to get back to trading baseball cards. I received a package of cards from my friend Steve at White Sox cards filled with all manner of Red Sox goodness. I have lost count of the trans-Atlantic White Sox/ Red Sox parcels but it was no surprise that this particular package didn't disappoint.
Steve managed to include some cards that never saw the light of day over here such as; Topps 206, ticket to stardom and the 2009 edition of Upper Deck X. Included also were some more cards from 2009 Goodwin Champions, which is the set I chose to complete 2009.
Thanks again Steve, much appreciated additions to the ever expanding Red Sox collection.

Top Gear Turbo Challenge Trading Cards

2010-01-29T21:44:00.004Z

In an attempt to find a baseball card substitute, I went into my local newsagents and bought a few packs of whatever they had on offer. The second selection comes from the TV series 'Top Gear'. This is what you may refer to as a 'blokes' show. It is crammed full of anything that moves and can be tinkered with; cars, trucks, bikes, rockets, pushbikes, supermarket trolleys. There is some fast racing, dangerous stunts, celebrity racing and the occasional scantly clad woman. I'm not sure whether it has made its way across to the US, no doubt you probably have your own version. It is, however, very popular with certain age groups of a particular gender.
So a card set? A glorified Top Trumps, at £1.50 a packet for 9 cards is asking a little too much.

The cards are exactly as you would expect, pictures of cars, dangerous stunts and not a scantly clad lady to be found. Which is fortunate, as this is a set aimed at children. A collectors album to hold your cards is available. This appears to be the norm these days.

My favourite moment of the series was a few years back when two of the presenters tried to modify a K-reg Reliant Robin, a three wheeled car, into a reusable space shuttle. They achieved a successful launch but the car failed to separate from the fuel tank, crashed to the ground and exploded shortly after. They now have the dubious record of having the largest rocket launched by a non-government organisation in Europe.

Brilliant TV.

Dr Who Alien Armies Trading Cards

2010-01-24T21:14:00.006Z

A little off the track from the baseball cards that I try to show here, but my local newsagents has been accumulating a rather large selection of trading cards recently. I am not blessed with a Target or Walmart to ease my baseball card collecting desires, so I try to supplement it with 'other' types of cards. The first to catch my eye was these Dr Who cards.

I have always been a fan of Dr Who. I was raised on a diet of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, the Doctors that followed were poor substitutes. David Tennant helped the show get back to its winning formula and the new Doctor Matt Smith looks, if the trailers are anything to go by, like he will be a great Doctor.

In the last few years there has been a variety of Dr Who trading card games. The Alien Armies is the latest. They are produced by Panini and there is a book to house the set.There are some chase cards and a little variety of parallels such as foil, embossed and glitter cards. There are 180 standard cards to collect, as well as 20 Super embossed, 20 super foil and 40 glitter foil cards. At 50p a packet and £4.99 for the collector album they are very popular.

These are my picks from the 4 packets I purchased.

In my opinion the scariest aliens of the series were the Weeping Angels or the people in gas masks. The episodes with the Weeping Angels made me jump .
The weirdest looking aliens-The Ood.

I liked Billie Piper but preferred Martha Jones as the assistant. I wasn't too fussed about Donna Noble.

Finally the man himself David Tennant. Who quite possibly made Dr Who as popular as it was in the 70's and 80's.

On a final note. My friend and fellow teacher, Dion and I make a Dr Who movie with our school Movie and Animation club. The first movie was 13 minutes long and last years came in at 26 minutes. I was introduced to Red Bull for the last few days of editing as the dealine approached. Although Dion writes the movie, the children do all the acting and some of the filming and editing using movie maker. The caretaker at school is a genius when it comes to making props, so we a lucky enough to have a life size Tardis and impressive Dalek to use in our films. We have just auditoned for a new Doctor, as our last one moved onto secondary school and he regenerated at the end of our last movie. We hope to have a K-9 for this years movie.

Vending machine Junk Wax

2010-01-07T21:35:00.005Z

Many, many months ago, I was desperately searching for trading partners and was unable to find a good home for some teams. The pile of cards continued to build, my plea for collectors wasn't working so I ventured on a different route. Message boards. There were two teams in particular that were growing faster than others, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Colorado Rockies. There were some very nice cards and a number of game used/memorabilia cards that screamed to be housed in a friendly environment. Very little response, except to send a list of the cards and they would think about it. After roughly 10 requests there was a positive response from Jonathan in Toronto, of all places, that put the wheels of trading into motion. Jonathan explained that there was a vending machine in his local bowling alley that was well stocked of Junk Wax. He and his friends would buy packs of 1999 Upper Deck from the said vending machine and then go home and run simulations all night on how teams made from one pack of cards would fare against another.

Sounded like a pretty good Friday night; bowling, packs of cards, baseball simulations, throw in a pizza and some beer and it's the perfect night.

So in February 2009 the 200+ Blue Jays made their merry way to Toronto and I was happy. For those of you who participate in these types of blind trades, sometimes nothing is returned and receipt isn't acknowledged. That is the way it goes. There is a happy ending to this tale, out of the blue in November, Jonathan e-mails to say sorry, he was clearing out and remembered that he had agreed to send some cards. Last week some Junk Wax arrived from Toronto. Five packs from 1990 that I will bust in Pursuit of Red Sox. He also enclosed two Topps sticker packs that I hope were bought from the vending machine he mentioned. A vending machine full of baseball cards that is something that I would like to see.

The Rockies are still building too, they remain homeless.

Trade with Ross from Sports Card Info

2010-01-02T22:50:00.001Z

A surprise package from Ross at Sports Card Info arrived through my letter box just before Christmas. I always found Ross's site to be hugely informative and his sleuthing ability to uncover fake cards and scams is second to none. I must admit to being a tad jealous of the product that he busts.
So what did the surprise package contain?
2009 Allen + Ginter #139 Daisuke Matsuzaka

2009 Sweet Spot #SS-WB Sweet Swatch Memorabilia of Wade Boggs. How sweet is that?
2009 Sweet Spot #29 Dustin Pedroia
2009 Sweet Spot #59 Jon Lester
2009 Topps Unique #40 Daisuke Matsuzaka

2009 Topps Unique #60 Victor Martinez
2009 Topps Unique #60 Victor Martinez red border #0549/1199
2009 Topps Unique #87 Jason Bay
2009 Topps Unique #108 Dustin Pedroia
2009 Topps Unique #108 Dustin Pedroia gold border#53/99
2009 Topps Unique #138 Jacoby Ellsbury
2009 Topps Unique #131 Josh Beckett
2009 Topps Unique #144 Mike Lowell

2009 Topps Unique #191 Josh Reddick black border #2482/2699

2009 Topps Unique #199 Aaron Bates red border #1199/1199
2009 Topps Unique #199 Aaron Bates black border #2343/2699

2009 Topps Unique #UU19 Kevin Youkilis

Now that is what I call a surprise package! Thanks Ross. The Phillies are accumulating.

Trade with Chuck from Chuck's Used Cards

2009-12-31T22:50:00.000Z

Chuck, of Chuck's Used Cards, and I have sent trade packages back and forth a number of times now. He has collecting itch that I am able to scratch- soccer. The two major card releases in the UK are Topps Match Attax and Panini Champions League, there are a number of sticker variations on the football theme but Topps and Panini have the card market securely tied up with these two sets. Chuck is a fan of both the English Premier League and European teams, so these two releases fit nicely into his collecting remit. A padded envelope containing each made its way to Florida.
Chuck sent this selection of Red Sox in return:

1961 Topps #99 Don Buddin
1990 Swell #29 Rick Ferrell
1992 Fleer Ultra #17 Joe Hesketh
1993 Fleer Ultra #150 Danny Darwin
1993 Fleer Ultra #158 Bob Zupcic
1994 Studio #161 Andre Dawson
2001 Topps Archives #47 Ellis Kinder
2001 Topps Archives #66 Ted Lepcio
2001 Topps Archives #80 Jackie Jensen
2001 Topps Archives #93 Sid Hudson
2001 Topps Archives #195 Bill Consolo
2001 Topps Archives #217 Paul Schreiber
2001 Topps Archives #221 Dick Brodowski

The Topps Archives sets has sidled past relatively unnoticed, so thanks for including these Chuck.

This year I will be collecting !

2009-12-23T22:19:00.001Z

Since getting back into collecting I decided to collect just one complete set every year. My choice is determined by four factors;
1. Availability. There is no point in choosing a set that is too difficult to obtain in the UK. The postage costs from the US are alright for a few cards and trades but complete boxes are just ridiculous.
2. Aesthetics. I choose sets that may not be everyone's cup of tea but they look good to me.
3. Price. (See point 1.) There is no point in trying to obtain the base set of Sweet Spot or Topps Finest. There is a small matter of food, utility bills, children and a wife to consider. And finally,
4. The Chase. There has to an effort to collect, which may involve trading or searching e-bay or picking up the odd pack.
I re-entered collecting in 2006 so the sets I have chosen so far are;

2006 Fleer Tradition

2007 UD Masterpieces

2008 Goudey (completed)

2009 Goodwin Champions

2010 ?

There is one other set which is 1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes for the simple reason that I was able to pick up half the set on e-bayUK. However being who I am I cannot leave it that way.
The wants list for these sets are;
2006 Fleer Tradition
To complete the 200 card base set, 28 still needed:
5, 6, 9, 11, 17, 22, 23, 28, 33, 34, 45, 47, 48, 51, 59, 60, 64, 65, 70, 76, 78, 84, 87, 89, 90, 93, 95, 115.
2007 UD Masterpieces
To complete the 90 card base set, 15 still needed:
1, 6, 8, 14, 19, 21, 28, 32, 34, 45, 47, 60, 66, 73, 79.
2009 Goodwin Champions
To complete the 150 card base set, still needed too many (34 cards obtained so far)
1994 UD All-time Heroes
To complete the 225 base card set,107 cards needed:
1, 9, 12, 20, 21, 22, 25, 30, 34, 35, 40, 44, 47, 57, 62, 66, 68, 73, 79, 88, 93, 95, 96, 98, 101-125, 135, 140, 143, 147, 150-178, 182, 186, 187, 188, 195, 199, 200, 202, 204, 206, 208-225.

So if you can help me out. It would be greatly appreciated.

Trade with Matt from Heartbreaking cards

2009-12-22T22:46:00.000Z

Let's get back to trading. A short while ago this package arrived from Matt at Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius. This was in response to a pile of Mariners and Royals I sent his way. Matt and Travis at Punk Rock Paint have inspired me to attempt making my own cards. They are complete crap but the attempt has been made. Makes you realise the effort they put in. The beauty of this trade was the mixture of cards sent, late 1970's, some early 80's and a few lovely shiny cards, which I know we all appreciate.
These are some of the Red Sox cards Matt sent from Lawrence, Kansas;
1975 Topps#645 Danny Carter
1976 Topps #396 Bill Lee
1978 Topps #12 Don Aase
1978 Topps #524 Bernie Carbo
1978 Topps #597 Steve Dillard
1981 Fleer #218 Fred Lynn
1981 Topps #123 Gary Allenson
1981 Topps #184 Jim Dwyer
1981 Topps #349 Glenn Hoffman
1982 Topps #91 Carney Lansford
1982 Topps #619 Bill Campbell
1983 Fleer #391 Doug Bird
1983 Fleer #395 Mark Clear
2002 Upper Deck Holographix #LL10 Manny Ramirez
2004 Topps Finest #14 Bill Mueller
2007 Bowman Best #22 Manny Ramirez
2007 UD Masterpieces #27 Daisuke Matsuzaka
2007 UD Masterpieces #86 Red Sox 2007 World Series Champions
2008 Topps Finest #45 Manny Ramirez
2008 Upper Deck X #X2-MA Manny Ramirez
to name but a few of the 50plus cards he sent.
The Red Sox are always appreciated. Thanks Matt.