Trade with Night Owl Cards

I appear to have a Dodgers magnet in me somewhere and cards are attracted to it. I pull a fair amount of Dodgers from packs and recently when a bought a blind auction on e-bay looking for Red Sox, it seems as if the collector was a closet Dodgers fan, there were more Dodgers than any other team. That's OK though, because I know that Greg at Night Owl will appreciate them. We may be forming a mutual admiration society but I look forward to receiving these packages from Greg.

Recently Greg posted this selection I sent to him on his Blog Night Owl Cards. It is fast becoming one of the most followed baseball card blogs and it is easy to see why, professional, well written, interesting and funny. A gauntlet has been thrown.

Here is the return selection from Night Owl.

1980 Topps #160 Eddie Murray Orioles 'WOW'

1982 Donruss #134 Bob Stanley

1984 Fleer #389 Luis Aponte

1986 Donruss #616 Bruce Kison

1988 Fleer #347 Dennis Boyd

1989 Baseball Card Magazine #34 Ellis Burke

1989 Bowman #19 Lee Smith

1989 Bowman #20 Tom Fischer

1989 Bowman #21 Mike Boddicker

1989 Bowman #22 Rob Murphy

1989 Bowman #23 Wes Gardner

1989 Bowman #24 John Dopson

1989 Bowman #25 Bob Stanley

1989 Bowman #27 Rich Gedman

1989 Bowman #29 Luis Rivera

1989 Bowman #31 Nick Esasky

1989 Bowman #34 Mike Greenwell

1989 Bowman #25 Dwight Evans

1989 Bowman #36 Ellis Burke

1989 Donruss #37 Carlos Quintana

1989 Fleer #79 Todd Benzinger

1989 Fleer #86 Steve Curry

1989 Fleer #87 Dwight Evans

1989 Fleer #93 Spike Owen

1989 Score #508 Dennis Lamp

1990 Fleer #269 Ellis Burke

1990 Fleer #272 John Dopson

1990 Fleer #280 Dennis Lamp

1990 Score #15 Marty Barrett

1990 Score #49 Carlos Quintana

1990 Topps K-Mart #19 Wade Boggs

1990 Upper Deck #441 Kevin Romine

1991 Donruss #9 Roger Clemens

1991 Donruss #41Phil Plantier

1991 Donruss 250 Rob Murphy

1991 Donruss #369 Jeff Reardon

1991 Donruss #531 Tom Brunansky

1991 Fleer #91 Scott Cooper

1991 Fleer #95 Jeff Gray

1991 Line Drive Pre-Rookie #360 Mark Meleski

1991 Line Drive Pre-Rookie #371 David Walters

1991 Score #356 Time Naehring

1991 Score #586 Jeff Gray

1992 Donruss #758 Stephen Lyons

1992 Fleer #42 Dennis Lamp

1992 Fleer #43 Tony Pena

1992 Score #58 Jeff Reardon

1992 Score #138 Danny Darwin

1992 Score #156 Greg Harris

1992 Score #420 Kevin Morton

1992 Triple Play #252 Mike Greenwell

1992 Upper Deck #252 Tony Pena

1992 Upper Deck #664 Wayne Housie

1993 Donruss #GS6 Frank Viola

1993 Donruss #459 Matt Young

1993 Fleer #558 Mike Gardiner

1993 Fleer #564 Phil Plantier

1993 Score #100 Mo Vaughn

1993 Score Select #344 John Valentin

1993 Sports Card Magazine #73 Andre Dawson

1993 Topps #103 Jody Reed

1994 Donruss #449 Scott Fletcher

1995 Score #580 Gar Finnvold

1996 Topps #332 Aaron Sele

1996 Topps #359 Lee Tinsley

1997 Fleer #31 John Valentin

1998 Pacific #39 Nomar Garciaparra

1998 Pacific #49 Mo Vaughn

2000 Topps #332 Darren Lewis

2000 Topps #356 Troy O'Leary

2005 Topps #731 World Series '04

2005 Upper Deck #319 Abe Alvarez

2006 Upper Deck #390 J.T.Snow

2006 Upper Deck #535 Alex Cora

2008 Baseball Heroes #22 Manny Ramirez

2008 Topps #YR106 Manny Ramirez

2008 Topps Chrome #180 Hideki Okajima

2008 Topps Chrome #ARC16 Hideki Okajima

2008 Topps Chrome # ARC23 Dustin Pedroia

Great stuff Greg. An awesome 1980 Topps card, 'It's Eddie Murray'. I was missing so many of the Red Sox from 1980 -1995 it was unbelievable and I think I am becoming a little like Mario, I am being drawn to all things shiny! Oh Dear.

Thank you my friend I really enjoy trading cards with you.

Trade with Ryan from Trader Crack's

A while a ago Ryan and I completed another trade. Here is the selection sent to Canada.

While the computer was down there was a return package from Ryan. True to his regular form a real variety of Red Sox cards awash with all things shiny. My favourite was the card shown above - Invincible Steve Lomasney. Its plastic, see through and has a pensive Steve looking through a brick fence, neatly parted by two bats. To top that he is referred to as the Red Sox 'Receptor'. Is this the Canadian version of the Pacific set or was this a Canadian exclusive ? Either way it is a beauty.

Also included were:

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier #1 Wade Bloggs

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier #105 Roger Clemens

1993 O-Pee-Chee Premier #18 Andre Dawson

1999 Bowman Best #103 Dernell Stenson

1999 Bowman Chrome #218 Dernell Stenson

1999 Fleer Tradition #U61 Wilton Veras

1999 Topps Finest #207 Jose Offerman

2000 Bowman #324 Cesar Saba

2000 Bowman Chrome #299 Sun Woo Kim

2000 Fleer Focus #179 Jose Offerman

2000 Fleer Tradition #73 Mike Stanley

2000 Fleer Tradition #121 checklist

2000 Fleer Tradition #338 John Valentin

2000 Fleer Tradition #437 Pedro Martinez

2000 Topps #398 Pedro Martinez

2000 Topps #399 Pedro Martinez

2000 UD Black Diamond #26 Carl Everett

2000 UD Vintage #100 Derek Lowe

2001 Topps American Pie #141 Cecil Cooper

2001 Upper Deck #65 Stefan Bailie

2002 Topps #157 Carl Everett

2002 Topps #288 Joe Kerrigan

2002 Topps #313 Freddy Sanchez

2002 Topps #322 Eric Glaser

2002 Topps #T263 Justin Sherrod

2002 Upper Deck #37 Frank Castillo

2003 Fleer#291 Cliff Floyd

2003 Topps 206 #320 Shea Hillenbrand

2003 Topps 206 #341 Pedro Martinez

2003 Topps 206 #391 Cliff Floyd

2004 Topps Chrome #T8 Doug Mientkiewicz

2008 Bowman Chrome #BDP12 Chris Carter

Great cards Ryan. Thank you.

Back to Trading

Many apologises. My computer decided to have a late Christmas holiday and wouldn't stay on for longer than 1 to 2 minutes.
The technician said it was dust. It was worse than a hoover. Poor bloody computer.
Anyway....
A number of packages arrived while this was occuring, The $5 group break from Thorzul, a beauty of a selection from Night Owl, a cracking selection from Trader Cracks, a bunch of 1977's from Dan and the last scrappings from a retired collector.

Wants Lists

It has been quiet over Christmas in the trade department. I sent out a few packages, which I hope will be arriving soon.
I have taken about 10 days to look through the wants lists on different Blogs to try and start some more trades. It is very time consuming and I realised that I had neglected my own blog.
I was contacted by a couple of collectors interested in Football (soccer) cards, which has been interesting. These are easier to obtain than baseball so I sent off a selection of packs and I am hoping that some baseball cards will arrive in Westgate in return.
A fellow collector here in the UK decided it was time to pack up the card collecting hobby, sighting money and time as the factors. He put his entire collection up on e-bay. A little drastic but assured us that he kept some of his better cards. He was primarily a Hockey collector, in particular Jeff Carter, but had amassed cards in football, basketball and baseball. Luckily for me I bid and won his baseball collection which include some fine game used and auto cards. He was not very detailed in his description, but knowing him they will be great cards in excellent condition. As I have said before quality baseball cards do not come up very often on e-bayUK and I always bid.
I cannot wait for them to come. It is like being a child at Christmas again.

2008 TOPPS Heritage High Number Series Blaster

After receiving some of these packs from Texas Rangers Cards. I bought a blaster for myself. It arrived in the week (the Pound is very weak at the moment, so this will be the last blaster from the USA for a while).

Read this for details of the 2008 Topps Heritage High Numbers.

Pack 1:

#501 John Danks White Sox

#511 Jair Jurrjens Braves

#549 Jeremy Sowers Indians

#641 Omar Infante Braves

#650 Evan Longoria RS Bay Rays

#702 Gabe Gross Bay Rats

#UH57 Ramon Castro Mets

#UH203 Joe Crede White Sox

Pack 2:

#524 Hiroki Kuroda RS Dodgers

#543 Greg Smith RS Athletics

#557 Dallas Braden (black back) Athetics

#620 Cristian Guzman Nationals

#639 Mike Redmond (black back) Twins

#710 Eric Hurley RS Rangers

#UH189 Micah Hoffpauir Cubs

#UH317 Brian Buscher Twins

Pack 3:

#506 Takashi Saito Dodgers

#596 Cliff Floyd Bay Rays

#637 Tim Redding Nationals

#664 John Buck Royals

#674 Paul Maholm Pirates

#703 Matt Stairs Phillies

#UH20 Justin Masterson Red Sox

#UH123 Matt Joyce Tigers

Pack 4:

#RP12 Hiroki Kuroda Dodgers

#537 Checklist Toronto Blue Jays

#549 Jeremy Sowers (black back) Indians

#593 Nick Blackburn RS Twins

#634 Manny Parra Brewers

#655 Angel Berroa (black back) Dodgers

#UH194 Gary Bennett Dodgers

#UH215 Josh Hamilton Rangers

Pack 5:

# 563 Doug Mientkiewicz (black back) Pirates

#600 Miguel Tejada Astros

#617 Gregorio Petit RS Athletics

#624 Scott Olsen Marlins

#670 Joakim Soria Royals

#680 George Sherrill Orioles
#UH190 Manny Ramirez Red Sox

#UH284 Curtis Thigpen Blue Jays

Pack 6:

#C262 Adam Kennedy Cardinals 0935/1959

#566 Bryan LaHair Mariners

#621 Jeff Samardzija Cubs

#630 Ryan Ludwick Cardinals

#640 Joe Crede White Sox

#660 Dioner Navarro Bay Rays

#UH56 Roy Halladay Blue Jays

#UH296 Gabe Gross Bay Rays

Pack 7:

#541 Jon Rauch (black back) D-backs

#578 Carlos Gonzalez RS Athletics

#553 Brandon Lyon D-backs

#580 Kosuke Fukudome RS Cubs

#590 Brian Wilson Giants

#610 Kerry Wood Cubs

#UH98 Denny Bautista Pirates

#UH Robert Andino Marlins

Pack 8:

#C254 Brett Gardner RS Yankees

#512 Ryan Sweeney Athletics

#544 Sean Gallagher Athletics

#565 Dana Eveland RS Athletics

#574 Mike Pelfrey Mets

#605 Greg Reynolds RS Rockies

#UH39 Jose Molina Yankees

#UH104 Omar Infante Braves

Only two Red Sox from the 8 packs. Plenty of Athletics and Dodgers. I always wonder whether I try to collect the wrong team.

1993 Studio

You can see that they are trying really hard with set of cards. Big colourful glossy pictures, heavy card stock, border less pictures superimposed over the team name or logo, silver signature. Really nice looking cards.

There are 220 cards in the base set.

There are inserts: 12 Studio Heritage, 10 Studio Silhouettes, 10 Superstars on Canvas, 5 Studio Thomas.

The pack:

#134 Mo Vaughn Red Sox

#98 Tony Fernandez Mets

#102 Jeff King Pirates

#116 Ed Sprague Blue Jays

#169 Kevin Seitzer Athletics

#158 Dave Hollins Phillies

#190 Harold Baines Orioles

#206 Todd Hundley Mets

#8 Steve Buechele Cubs

#75 Kevin McReynolds Royals

#87 Joe Carter Blue Jays

#149 Ramon Martinez Dodgers

Nice looking cards. Very glossy which would have made collectors pretty happy in 1993. The use of the logo in the background impressive too. This set is missing two important things action shots (hence the name 'studio') and statistics, there is some up close and personal information, but no in depth RBI, SO, AB that I for one love to read.
One Red Sox, Big MO looking mean and brooding. Not bad.

Christmas Hiatus

There hasn't been a great deal posted over the Christmas/New Year period and the reason why is because of a Christmas present.

I bought my boys a interesting little devise called a 'UBFunkeys' and it was possibly the worst mistake I have made in a while.

They really enjoyed playing the games on Christmas day, the boys had a great time discovering new worlds, solving some simple puzzles, playing some games. I should have looked into this a little more before buying though.

My eldest boy,who is 13, was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome when he was 6. He can become a 'little obsessive' to say the least.

If you already know about these creatures, then you may understand. They are about 5inches tall, very cute, odd shaped and come in a variety of colours. Some are common, others rare, super rare, ultra rare and it wouldn't surprise if they come with computer used memorabilia. They sit into a bigger version called a UB which plugs into the USB port.

Upon discovering the many varieties available my boys asked if they could use some money given to them by my parent-in-law to buy some more. This is when it all started to go downhill.

Problem one -I bought the original from the interweb and didn't know where to find them. We searched and eventually found some but they were a little different.

Problem two - Upon loading these funkeys into the UB, they didn't register and we were prompted to upgrade the software via the interweb.

Problem three - The 'upgrade' caused the computer to freeze. A reboot and a retry made the computer crash, nothing. The helpline for Mattel, who make these creatures, is in America. The helpline for my PC, were helpful enough to get my computer into safe-mode and therefore able to get a restore point and remove the Funky programme.

I then spent the next day and a night on the telephone and then via e-mail following directions, uploading, rebooting, restoring. That didn't work. Wait for e-mail reply. Uploading, removing, downloading, rebooting. Still not working. Wait... Remove, reboot. Yes its working, upgrade. Now its not. Some more reboot, remove. (You get the picture just keep repeating amongst yourselves.) Finally after this repeated pattern, children breathing down my neck..Is it working yet? I decided to just buy a new UB thing. That shouldn't make any difference. I had tried everything else so...

If you work with computers, God love you for your patience, they are useful and useless. I know a bad workman blames his tools, there are no bad cars just faulty nuts attached to the steering wheel, I know. For some reason, which my helpful consumer response representative thought wouldn't work. The new UB did the trick, we were back !

The computer worked. The game worked. It recognised the new funkeys. My boys were happy. I was happy. All was good in the world.

But I hated the computer. I shouldn't, but I did. It should be the little creatures that my boys enjoyed so much. I just couldn't look at it for a while...