Christmas Post - Aaron, Schmidt, Munson

So I have been very negligent to 26 Cent Summer.  However, now that we have reached the first day of Spring Training I am in the need to post something.  Here are a few cards that I was able to get with some Christmas cash.  My collection of the Legendary Jersey subset from the 2000 Upper Deck Legends set is now up to 40 of the 52 cards.  Here is my complete collection.  My latest edition includes 2 Hall of Famers and 1 that might have been there if not for his sudden death.  I give you Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, and Thurman Munson.

Trade with All the Way to the Backstop

Marcus at All the Way to the Backstop and I just completed a trade in which I was able to cross off a number of cards off my wantlists.  He was able to take off a bunch of 2012 Heritage and Update cards.  The prize of the lot though were the extra Royals that he added to the trade.

He put together a 1992 Fleer Ultra Series 1 team set along with some random cards that I scanned below.

As you can see there are many current and one recent Royal including a few prospects that are high up in the farm system.  You may recognize Gregor Blanco who most recently appeared in the World Series with the Giants.  I just hope that I get to see the Royals in the playoffs soon.  I think I can speak for most Royals fans in saying that we are tired of hearing about our great farm system that, unfortunately, has not translated into a winning major league team yet.  There are hopes that current players like Gordon, Butler, Moustakas will be able to see prospects like Odorizzi and Montgomery put together solid seasons on the mound to help with our continual pitching woes.  I guess I will get to see if it happens since we just renewed our season tickets for next year.  I hope it pays off!

COMC Pickups - Long Live the Mitchell Report

On my recent purchase from COMC, I was able to pick up a couple of the 2000 Upper Deck Legends Legendary Jersey cards that I needed.  The first is one of my least liked players that I ever saw, albeit a very colorful one.  The Jose Canseco card is pretty blah with a plain white jersey swatch which, I guess, accurately describes how I feel about him now.  Although his 462 home runs should be impressive in most books, the fact that it was aided by performance-enhancing drugs tarnishes his record.

There was an interesting conversation on MLB Network Radio this morning in which Billy Beane basically dismissed the suspension of Bartolo Colon in deciding to bring him back for the 2013 season.  When you look at that, plus the fact that other users are currently still in the game in playing and coaching positions, you wonder if the "user" label really means anything anymore.  Do we too easily dismiss the transgressions of these players because they are athletes, or are we really being forgiving in doing so???

My second pickup is of another PED user, Matt Williams.  Williams, a current coach for the Diamondbacks, hit 378 home runs during his career.  He claimed to use HGH to recover from an ankle injury.  However, with his name on the "list" there will always be people who will want to put the "asterisk" next to his name also.  At least, I sort of like this card.  At least he wasn't as much of an *#$%@ as Canseco still is.

I picked up 2 cards that I needed.  Both were very cheap.  They will go into their place of helping me complete this insert set.  As Forest Gump would say, "That is all I have to say about that."

1973 Topps Mike Schmidt

One of the things that many of you bloggers got me to think about was starting some big project.  I decided that I would try to put together my birth year set, 1973 Topps.  This was a good choice for a number of reasons.  To many collectors/dealers, 1972 is the last of the "vintage" sets so the 1973 set is very reasonable in price.  While there are a number of stars in the set, they are either at the end of their career or on special all-time leaders cards, so they are reasonable in price.  At the $350-$700 range for a complete set, this is the oldest Topps set that is still under $1500, so again the price is to my advantage.

I have been able to put together almost the whole set without spending more than $8 on any one card.  I have bought commons and some stars in pretty cheap lots.  I have found some stars cards at what I consider bargain prices.  I have picked up some of the harder to find high number series through COMC for reasonable prices.

My only concern was the big card of the set, a Rookie Third Basemen card of Ron Cey, John Hilton, and MIKE SCHMIDT.  With this card holding up the value of the set, I knew that this would be where I would have to spend the bulk of my money if I were to complete the set.  I have probably looked at a hundred Schmidt rookies since deciding to put this set together.  All of which were either way overpriced, or in poor condition (and still overpriced).

I almost pulled the trigger at a card show last fall, but the dealer would not budge off of his $75 price for a decent but not great card.  I was willing to go $60, but he wouldn't come down.  I almost decided to settle for a miscut and off-center card as I haven't been too worried about the condition of some of the cards.  However, I decided that I really wanted to have a decent Schmidt Rookie to cap off this set.  I decided that if I could find a card that was in decent shape with no creases or major corner damage for less than $50 then I would do it.

I can now say that I have found it and am now the proud owner of a 1973 Mike Schmidt Rookie PSA 4 graded card.  I found it at my local card shop who had it originally listed on ebay.  He came down on the price that it was listed for and brought it into my price range.  This brings me down to 8 cards needed to complete my set.  I hope to have this completed by Thanksgiving.

Card Shop Finds - 2011 Year of Topps Inserts

Most of my collection consists of just base sets.  I use any inserts that I get as trade bait to finish up my base set needs.  However, in 2011 I decided to try to put together the Year of Topps insert set and the Year of Topps Lost Cards insert set.  I completed the Lost Card Set last spring through trading, but I have yet to really get close to the Year of Topps insert set until today.  I went to my local card shop which happens to be about an hour away in Shawnee, KS.  The Baseball Card Store has always been good with a nice selection of new products, set building needs, and hobby supplies.  It also includes a number of vintage cards, including graded cards.  I was able to come away with the major card of a set that I am currently close to completing.  That will need its own post in a few days

Today I came away with most of the cards that I needed to complete the Year of Topps insert set including these good looking cards.

I have always appreciated the look of vintage cards and I guess that is why this insert set appealed to me.  Even though there is a good number of recent designs in the set, it is the older styles that I have enjoyed the most.  With these additions, I am down to 5 cards needed to finish off the 118 card set.  The cards that I need include numbers 3, 48, 53, 54, and 70.  If you have any of these, please let me know and we can work out a trade.

What to do now???

It is sad to see the baseball season come to an end.  I really expected to see a 6 or 7 game series with the Tigers coming out on top.  Hats off to the Giants for taking the wind out of the Tigers from the beginning by knocking off Verlander.  

This baseball season was one that I will always remember.  Not for the continued struggle of my beloved Royals despite expectations that they would be better.  But for a season in which I had season tickets for the first time.  A season in which I was able to attend my first major professional sporting event, the All Star Game and all of the festivities that surrounded that.  A season in which I was able to get to two other parks (Baltimore and Washington) besides Kansas City.  A season that was somewhat interrupted with a major move and job change for my wife and I.

So where to we go from here???  I am reminded of one of my favorite baseball quotes from the great Rogers Hornsby.

“People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

Good thing I have MLB Network!

Card Show Pickups

On Sunday, a friend of mine, my wife, and I travelled up the road to the Olathe, KS Hampton Inn for the local card show.  It looks like this is a recurring show on the 2nd weekend of every other month.  This was the first time that any of us had been to this particular show.  There were 11-12 different dealers there and I must say that I was somewhat disappointed.  I had taken my list of cards I needed for a couple of sets, but found nothing from them.  I was especially looking to try to finish up the last 17 cards of my 1973 Topps set, but I came up empty.  There was only 1 dealer that was selling any wax boxes but none of those were from the last 2 years, and most were just selling a ton of patch and auto cards that I don't really care about.

I was able to make a couple of purchases.  Being close to KC, there were a couple of dealers with some George Brett cards.  After leaving my wife to browse through the box (and she has a pretty good eye for what I need) we walked away with 4 Brett cards.  One was a 1989 Topps Wax Box bottom, a 1993 Kraft Singles Superstar, a 1991 Sports Educational, and my favorite, 1 1993 Cardtoons.

According to cardtoons, "True" Brett is one of the legendary Old West figures to have played professional baseball.  Some of the others include...Bat Masterson, Wild Ball Hickock, Billy the Say Hey Kid, and Buffa-Low Ball Bill.  There were others listed, but I will stop there.  You have to love unlicensed cards......

My steal for the show came from what I was told a 10 cent box.  When I showed the dealer the 20 cards that I got, he asked if I got them out of box he pointed at.  I guess he wasn't wanting to get rid of them for 10 cents each, but based on the condition, he honored his original offer.  I pulled $2.00 worth of cards and came away with some pretty rough cards from 1958, 1959, 1963, and 1964.  Nothing I needed, but just pretty cool to add to my collection.  At only $2.00, I considered it a bargain and at least I had heard of some of the names!!!

I probably impressed my wife by only spending $5.00 although I had to trouble her for the money as none of the dealers had enough change to break a $20.00 bill.

2000 Upper Deck Legends Legendary Jersey Update

Over the course of the last few months, I have been able to pick up a few more pieces to my goal of collecting the 2000 Upper Deck Legends Legendary Jersey subset.  I have added a couple of players from my youth including Randy Johnson, Tony Gwynn, Ozzie Smith, and Willie Stargell.  Although Stargell was at the end of his career, I still remember the 70s run of the Pirate "family".
.

I have also added a few players from before my time including Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, and Roger Maris.  The Maris is my first "graded" card in my collection.  I never did get to see any of these players play the game, but growing up I definitely remember hearing about each of their achievements.  I was very pleased to be able to add these to my collection.  This brings my total collection up to 35 cards in the subset.

What is better than entering a blogger's contest and winning....

NOT entering a blogger's contest and STILL winning.  Thanks to Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders for having a contest in which: 1) I won and got some great prizes; 2) I didn't have to enter; and 3) I ended up with new followers on my blog.  Based upon the name of his blog and how Verlander has pitched this year, I would like to predict that one of them will win either a Blogger of the Year Award and/or the Cy Young Award.   Maybe both will come true.

I must say that the main contest prize was a pretty cool Jayson Werth manufactured bat barrel card from 2010 Topps Update.  This is my first barrel card and while I don't think I would pursue any more of these cards unless it were someone in my PC it is still cool to have in my collection.  It is, by far, the thickest card in my collection.

The rest of the loot will fit nicely in my Royals collection as Dennis included a large number of random Royals covering many years.  Some of my favorites in his stash included this 1983 Fleer two card set of Bud Black and Vida Blue.  I remember loving how they would make two cards form one picture.  I am not so much of a fan of this anymore, but as a 10 year old kid, it was supercool!

A few of the cards were of the Chrome variety including this 2006 Bowman Chrome Futures Game Alex Gordon and the 2001 Topps Chrome Golden Anniversary Bo Jackson.

But the really big surprise was the card I actually didn't see until the end. A card from a Royal.  A card from my favorite player.  A rookie card.  A 1975 Topps card.  A piece of cardboard that has definitely been appreciated....I love it!  Thanks Dennis for the contest and letting me win even though I didn't even enter.  Definitely, the best contest ever, and the reason I love blogging!

Back in the game....with a new job, a new house, and a new set completion!

Well, it has been quite some time since my last post, but when I left you I was in the midst of finishing up another school year, taking on a new job, and trying to sell a house.  I would like to say that all of those things got accomplished, but not that easily.

The house, even in today's market, sold very quickly.  Of course, I decided the phrase "priced to sell" should mean just that.  We bought a new house.  Although I will say that I feel sorry for anybody that tries to buy a house with today's banking regulations in place.  Thanks to the Wall Street banking fiasco for making that process a living hell.  In a quick recap, closing on new house delayed 3 times for a total of 6 weeks, moved out of old house on Thursday night with no place to move to, was approved to move into our new house without closing on it Friday morning, started new job 3 days later, had to miss 2nd day of work to close on new house. There was much *)@#*$& going on!

My wife and I have been in our new jobs for almost 3 months now and are enjoying them a great deal.  I made the move into educational administration while my wife was able to get another teaching job doing what she loves...teaching band!

Moving and starting work in such a short time frame meant not much time to unpack the important stuff....my cards!  Finally, that is slowly getting done.  I have made a few trips to the LCS which is only about an hour from my house, instead of the 3  hours that it used to be.  I have been able to track down some cards for my 1973 set, but finally found the last remaining card of my 2000 Topps HD Set that has eluded me for quite some time.  I have had a few opportunities to buy it through eBay auctions but I wouldn't justify spending $20+ dollars for a lot of 30 cards (29 of which I didn't need)!  Finally, I came across an auction that only required me to buy 4 extra cards for a lot less money.

I give you the elusive 2000 Topps HD #76 Sean Casey.  It's been a long time coming but I'm glad it found its new home.  I think its beautiful!!!

The other four cards included the only two Royals in the set that will find their way into my Royals Team Set notebook, and two sluggers that will probably find their way into someone's trade pile in the future.

It good to be back in the blogosphere again.  I hope the posts keep coming, the trades will once again pick back up, and I will continue working on completing some more sets that I was working on before my hiatus.  Thanks to all of you fellow bloggers for keeping me connected as I continued to read your blogs on a regular basis.