Thursday 28 May 2009
Postage USA and TTM autographs
Wednesday 27 May 2009
Trade with Ross from Sports Cards Info.
My good friend Ross from Sports Card Info and I have completed another trade. I have to take my hat off to Ross because he always, without fail, sends great cards. A few off the wants list, an odd ball here and there, a Jacoby, a Nomar or two and a variety of Red Sox cards.
This time Ross sent these Red Sox along :
1982 Fleer #288 Tom Burgmeier
1989 Topps #269 Tom Bolton
1990 Bowman #279 Dwight Evans
1990 Upper Deck #463 Nick Esasky
1991 Bowman #109 Ellsi Burks
1991 Bowman #130 Kevin Morton
1992 Topps #324 Danny Darwin
1993 Topps #798 Greg Blosser
1994 Topps #321 John Dopson
1996 Pinnacle #303 Mike Greenwell
1996 Upper Deck #23 Mike Greenwell
1996 Upper Deck CC #1 Nomar Garciaparra
1996 Upper Deck CC #473 Dwayne Hosey
1996 Upper Deck CC #477 Stan Belinda
1997 Fleer #21 Jeff Frye
1997 Fleer#603 Shane Mack
1997 Score #110 Reggie Jefferson
1997 Topps #293 Nomar Garciaparra
1997 Topps #370 Roger Clemens
1997 Upper Deck #234 Nomar Garciaparra
1997 Upper Deck CC #48 Tom Gordon
1997 Upper Deck CC #51 Darren Bragg
1998 Fleer Ultra #263 Michael Coleman
1998 Fleer Ultra #336G Jim Leyritz
1998 Leaf #7 Reggie Jefferson
1998 Leaf #63 Nomar Garciaparra
1998 Leaf #255 Michael Coleman
1998 Pacific #45 Nomar Garciaparra
1998 SP Authentic #61 Pedro Martinez
1998 Topps #64 Tom Gordon
1998 Topps #193 Jeff Frye
1998 Topps #427 Reggie Jefferson
1998 Topps #438 Jim Leyritz
1998 Topps Stadium Club #223 Jose Canseco
1998 Upper Deck #320 Nomar Garciaparra
1998 Upper Deck #452 Nomar Garciaparra
1998 Upper Deck CC #47 Darren Bragg
1999 Fleer #69 Nomar Garciaparra
1999 Upper Deck #53 Scott Hatteberg
2007 Bowman Best #8 David Ortiz 173/249
2009 Topps Finest #46 Jacoby Ellsbury
2009 Topps Finset #115 Kevin Youkilis
2009 Upper Deck #40 Mark Kotsay
2009 Upper Deck #42 Jacoby Ellsbury
2009 Upper Deck SPX #67 Dustin Pedroia
Fantastic. Once again Ross you have blown me away with your generosity. Thanks.
Tuesday 26 May 2009
2000 Topps Tek
Recently Chris Harris of Stale Gum busted, what he called Junk Wax, of 2000 Topps TEK. It must the plastic fantastic nature of these cards but after watching the video, I felt a real need for Topps TEK. Luckily a stumbled across a auction for 21 off these little beauties, in France of all places. The seller was practically begging to have these taken of their hands. The French hey, no understanding of culture or art or things of beauty.
It looks as if I wasn't the only collector who was hypnotised by the allure of Topps TEK.
Cardboard Junkie,
The Hamiltonian,
Dinged Corners,
are all confessing to the irresistible nature of Topps TEK.
Hello my name is John and I am a Topps TEK addict (and possibly a big girl according to Dinged Corners?)
Saturday 23 May 2009
Meeting a Chicago White Sox Fan in Kent
This is roughly where the deck will be just outside my shed.
So today I went to to lumber yard with the sizes all written down. I sat down and was asked by the sales lady, Ruth, how she could help me? There was the unmissable American Twang. Before I had even ordered a nail, we were discussing baseball. Ruth was from Missouri.
I must stop here and thank all those who have sent baseball cards. My knowledge of where American states are and which team is in each state is pretty good. So I asked to her surprise if she was a Cardinals fan. She answered no, but said she could have also been a Royals fan. Damn I missed that one. In fact before coming to the UK with her English husband they lived in Maryland, so she informed me the Orioles could also be her team. However she didn't support any particular team but her husband was a Yankees fan. When you talk to English people about baseball, if they don't run away, most will say they like the Yankees.
We talked for a while about why she was here, while I ordered the wood I needed. In walks another guy who works in the yard and hears our conversation about baseball and pipes in that he really likes baseball and supports the Chicago White Sox. I shall call him Rupert because that is his name, is in fact not joking or taking the piss. He is in fact very knowledgeable.
I spend the next three quarters of an hour discussing Dice-K's gyroball, the recent doping scandal, Manny's suspension, the misconception of Abner Doubleday's invention of baseball, our favourite players, etc, etc. I left pretty happy, arrived home and realised I hadn't ordered the decking boards so I went back. This time armed with some White Sox and Yankees cards. I ordered the boards and discussed card collecting and the whole baseball card blog phenomenon. I told him to check out Steve's White Sox blog and a number of others, including my own. This may not be an unusual occurrence in the States but here in Kent its a first.
Who knows I may have a convert closer to home.
Friday 22 May 2009
2003 Topps Insert 1951 Blue Backs
Any item listed with a starting bid below 99p can be listed for free. E-bay just isn't as popular as it once was because I remember having to pay for the listing picture and that has been free for a while. Now this.
Naturally free listing is good for the seller. We have sold a few items and all our items start at below 99p so we list more, mainly because its FREE.
Free lsting is also good for the buyer. I only ever buy one thing from e-bay and that is baseball cards. OK, I admit I buy the occasional random item, but even they tend to be baseball linked. However... there are more baseball cards listed individually now. Pre the free selling incentive, most cards were listed in bulk lots and you didn't really know what you were getting. Now sellers are listing the entire 1988 Donruss set or the 1991 Score set individually, for 99p a card. That is just ludicrous. The entire set may be worth 99p, but each card? That makes the 660 card set of 1988 Donruss worth £654 and the 893 run of 1991 Score worth £885. That is over cooking it a little I know, but you see the problem.
There is a positive side to all this though and that is I purchased this 2003 Topps Ken Griffey Junior insert fashioned after the 1951 Topps Blue Back cards for 99p. There is often negative comments about the inserts placed in packs. I think they got it right with this 40 card insert set in 2003, there was also the Red Back 40 card set as well.
I like inserts, I don't like parallels. That seems like laziness to me. 'Let's just make the same card but write the name in gold or change the colour of the border'. 'Great idea and lets only make 2008 of them!'
My favourite inserts have been the Topps Allen and Ginter Minis and the 1996 Studio Stained Glass Stars, not to everybody's taste but it smacks of effort.
Maybe its because I live in England, but I don't understand the political campaign set inserted into baseball card sets. Famous people, movie stars but politicians. Can someone explain why? I don't want to collect a card of Tony Blair or Margaret Thatcher. It just doesn't seem right!
Tuesday 19 May 2009
1994 UD All-Time Heroes
I have gone from a collector who; 'collects all the baseball cards he can lay his hands on' through to 'picking a specific team such as the Red Sox, a specific set, 1980 Topps and a specific player, Jacoby Ellsbury' to now 'collecting cards that are oddball, eye-catching cards or that look vaguely interesting'.
These cards were inserts from the 2008 Upper Deck Timeline set based on the 1994 UD All-Time Heroes Card Design. Flipping through my 1994 folder I stumbled across one card #189 Bill Buckner from the UD All-time Heroes set. A very quick search of the internet produced some of these cards for sale and surprisingly a 100 cards from the 225 card set on e-bay UK! Check out the auction here.
The set is very impressive not just for the names available in the set but also for the iconic images on the cards.
These four cards of Mickey Mantle and Willlie Mays, Jimmy Piersall's backward home run, Bill Mazeroski running through a mob of spectators and Lou Gehrig at Yankees Stadium on 'Lou Gehrig Day' are perfect examples of the quality and content.
I never thought it was likely that I would own a Babe Ruth card, but now I do.
Ted Williams is just one of the names available on the completely black and white set of baseball cards. Nice photography and not a shiny, refractors, game used in sight.
Sorry for the break in transmission
Well that was a little more long winded than I had imagined it in my head, quick something baseball related.....
The last trade to arrive from the US came from Matt on the 4th May, however a few interesting baseball items have appeared on e-bayUK. (plus a great deal of rubbish too.) I have pursued some more 1980 Topps and Jacoby cards on e-bayUS without much luck. The postage is a killer, varying from $5.00 to $11.00 for 1 card. Although I was outbid, at the last moment, on a lot of Jacoby Ellsbury cards that would have been real cheap to post.
Looking forward to posting about baseball cards regularly again.
Friday 8 May 2009
2008 Topps Series One
The last time I opened some 2008 Topps sent by James this happened. Lets see if history repeats itself.
Red Sox count - 4 cards from 4 packs.
Thursday 7 May 2009
2009 Upper Deck First Pitch baseball
Wednesday 6 May 2009
1995 Score Series 2 Baseball
Another couple of pack purchases that seemed like a good idea at the time.
The base set contains 605 cards.This was broken into series 1 and series 2.
There are inserts in Series 2: 18 Airmail, 12 Double gold champs, 110 Hall of Gold and 12 Rookie Dream Team.
There is a parallel set: Gold Rush.
There are 12 cards per pack.
Wow this was a real weird one. Firstly a poor selection of Red Sox 4 cards(inc 1 double). Secondly a pack full of doubles and thirdly, count the number of cards in the last pack ...16! That's right 16. I kid you not.
Monday 4 May 2009
2006 Fleer Tradition Baseball
I picked up some Fleer Tradition in trades and thought that this would be a decent set to collect. Recently I was able to get a blaster box from e-bayUS containing 11 packs.
There are 200 cards in the base set.
There are inserts: 100 Goudey Greats, 25 Blue Chip Prospects, 25 Diamond Tributes, 25 Grass Roots, 15 Triple Crown Contenders, a number of autographs and threads.
There are parallels: A Black+White set and a Sepia set.
There are 10 cards per pack
I count only 4 packs out of 11 that contained an insert of any kind. I'm not complaining as it means more base cards, but doesn't this seem like a mistake? Or bad quality control ? These are retail packs so there must be a different ratio, but why put it on the packs -every pack!"..themed card, a Sepia Tone or Black and White in every
pack!"