Sunday, August 30, 2015

You've Got Mail #2: Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary - Part 2


As I mentioned in my previous post, Brian from Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary send me a trade package. The main part of the trade package was 1984 Topps and this provided me quite a healthy start to getting this set together. After taking part of the afternoon today to sort these and update my checklist, I thought I'd share some of the cards that were included in the package.


First off ... THIS~! A sealed pack of cards! Unfortunately the Mattingly rookie card wasn't part of the pack but it definitely helped out getting more cards knocked off the list. No, I did not try the gum that was in the pack either.






A number of Hall of Famers here in Yount, Morgan, Henderson, and Murray.



Two former Big Red Machine stars, Pete Rose and George Foster.







And closing out with a random assortment of more Hall of Famers. Happy to see the Eckersley included and he's one of my favorite players to collect.

There were a bunch more good cards included but this post would be incredibly long if I took pictures of everything.


Here's a look at the final stack of everything.

Brian, thanks again for the trade. Hope my return package suits your needs.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

You've Got Mail #1: Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary - Part 1

Having been doing this blog for just over a month, I'm pleasantly surprised at how many people have a genuine interest in reading my ramblings about sports cards. Recently, Brian from Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary contacted me about some 1984 Topps cards he wanted to send my way. Not being one to turn down a trade offer, I gladly obliged.

The package arrived yesterday and was something nice to come home to after working from 8 in the morning to 11 at night. There were six bags of 1984 Topps cards (more to come on that in Part 2 later this week) and as a bonus, he threw in some random Reds cards! It's amazing to me to know that someone 700 miles away who I've never met wanted to send cards to me for a trade. It honestly blows my mind.


Starting things off with two Gypsy Queen framed cards. Haven't decided yet whether these will go in the Frankenset or find homes in penny sleeves and top loaders.


THIS! I've never heard of Corky Valentine but its a 1955 Topps!


An unexpected Billy Hamilton memorabilia card from this years Topps Heritage.


Two fun O-Pee-Chee cards that will definitely find their way into the frankenset. Krenchicki looks a bit grumpy don't you think?


A silver parallel of Johnny Bench from 2015 Archives (my favorite brand of Topps by the way) and a good looking Ryan Wagner card.


Two really neat cards here, the Gus Bell is a reprint but is very cool and I'm always a sucker for 1981 Donruss and this Tom Seaver is tremendous. Come to think of it, this might be the first Tom Seaver card in my collection.


A few Barry Larkin cards. Even though the Diamond Kings card is a duplicate, it'll still go in with my "Random Reds" binder that has nothing to do with the frankenset.


Finally, a Pokey Reese prospect card closes the Reds portion out. His best year was 1999 when he played second base for surprising team that won 96 games and lost to the Mets in a one-game wild card playoff.

Brian, a sincere thank you for the awesome Reds cards and for the 1984 Topps cards which I'll be posting about later this week. Hopefully my return package will have some good stuff in there for you as well.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

1974 Washington Error Cards and a Missing McCovey

One of my collecting goals is to put together the complete set of all the 1974 Topps error cards that feature "Washington Nat'l League" on them in place of the San Diego Padres team name.

But wait, there was no Washington team in the National League in 1974, right? Right, however the Padres were extremely close to moving there after only five seasons in San Diego, as two Washington D.C. business men nearly bought the Padres and moved them to D.C. only a few years after version two of the Senators moved to Texas, but that's another story. This article does a much better job explaining the situation than I could.

So far I have the three cards below and somewhere I also have the Willie McCovey card but as of right now it has unfortunately disappeared.




If anyone has more of these cards that they have up for trade, let me know by emailing me at the address on the contact page and we can work something out. For now though, the search continues for my missing Willie McCovey card.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Fantasy SummerSlam Card with Cards!

As one of WWE's biggest shows of the year, SummerSlam, approaches this weekend, I though it would be fun to go through my wrestling cards and put together an eight match card of both past and present stars. Here's what I came up with ...

Match #1 - Hideo Itami vs. Rob Van Dam
Hideo Itami
Rob Van Dam

These two just happen to be two of my current favorites. I've been watching Itami since his time in Japan as KENTA and he is one guy who can match kicks with RVD. I think this would be a great match to open the show with.

Match #2 - Tag Team Falls Count Anywhere Match: Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper vs. Terry Funk & Vader

Bray Wyatt
Luke Harper

Terry Funk
Vader

Two of the wildest brawlers today against two of the craziest no-nonsense guys from the past. I could imagine this being and all out fight through the stands with all kinds of plunder being used.

Match #3: Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins

Rey Mysterio
Seth Rollins

These two would match up well and would be a fun bout with some high-flying moves thrown in. Rollins could also use his heel tactics to his advantage with the smaller Mysterio.

Match #4: Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes

Ric Flair
Dusty Rhodes
These two have had classic battles dating back to Jim Crockett Promotions in the mid-1980s. I can't see why this would be any different. I mean, really, it's Flair vs. Dusty, need I say more?

Match #5: Daniel Bryan vs. Arn Anderson

Daniel Bryan
Arn Anderson
Two master mat tacticians who would match each other hold for hold. Bryan can also thrown in high-risk offense to add an extra dimension.

Match #6: Chris Jericho vs. Roddy Piper

Chris Jericho
Roddy Piper

I can just imagine the promos between these two leading into the match, especially if Jericho is in full heel mode. The lead up would have to have the obvious, Piper as a guest on Jericho's "Highlight Reel" interview show and Jericho as a guest on "Piper's Pit".

Match #7: Casket Match - The Undertaker vs. Andre the Giant

Undertaker
Andre the Giant
This would be a spectacle just in and of itself. Two of the biggest stars in terms of both name recognition and height, Andre would just dwarf Undertaker. However, a casket match is the Undertaker's specialty. Sure, the actual work in the ring wouldn't be good but it would most certainly be entertaining.

Match #8: Shawn Michaels vs. The Rock

Shawn Michaels
The Rock

Looking through the cards I scanned in, I couldn't think of a bigger, better match to cap of this fantasy card than this. Rock vs. Michaels is a match that's never been done in real life but is a match I played numerous times on WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64.

So, that's my fantasy SummerSlam card using some of the best cards from my wrestling collection. If you're planning on tuning in this weekend, hope you enjoy the show!


Thursday, August 13, 2015

Frankensets and Broken Phones

I've finally decided to jump on the frankenset train.

Before I started reading baseball card blogs, I had no idea what a frankenset was, nor had I even heard of one. However, after reading about the Dime Box Frankenset from Nick at the Dime Box blog, my interest was peaked. Then, I saw that Brian over at Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary was working on a Twins one and that just set me over the edge. I knew then I had to do one.

What should I do though? I wasn't sure. After much deliberation (well, maybe not that much ... a few minutes at most), it came down to two ideas ... a Reds frankenset and a vintage frankenset (pre-1980 since I'm going to attempt to build the 1980 set). I couldn't decide on which one to do so I just threw my hands up and said "why not do them both!" I've got a decent sized binder of Reds cards that will get me started with the Reds one and about two dozen old vintage cards just hanging out on my bookcase, mingling awkwardly with my relic and autograph cards.

I had some spare time tonight and started organizing my Reds cards. I had them all pulled out of the binder and was sorting them in stacks by numbers (100s, 200s, etc) with my two year old son watching intently and then I heard a loud thud on the floor. I though maybe that my son had dropped his little toy tow truck that he carries with him everywhere. Nope ... it was my phone. I picked it up and looked and the screen broken and cracked so much that it reminded me of what happens when a baseball meets a window. Luckily, the screen still functions and its probably just the glass portion that needs to be replaced. So much for sorting my cards then. 

Since I have a three-day weekend this weekend, I hoping I can make some progress on the frankenset front and share my progress thus far. Gotta find someplace to fix my phone first though, and that's easier said than done.



Sunday, August 9, 2015

Set Building and Want List Updates

Another weekend has come and gone, and unfortunately since I was so busy, I didn't have time to scan in the cards I was wanting to write about. Instead, I updated my want list, as you can clearly see here. I've decided along with some of the individual players and other stuff I have listed, that I'm going to start getting back into set building.

The first set I've decided to start is this year's Stadium Club. Since I recently wrote about the box I bought, I figured that'd be a good place to start for a current set, as I'd say at least half the set came in the box. Now, I will have to get duplicates of the Reds cards that I already have as those are safely tucked away in my Reds binder. That shouldn't really be a problem though as singles should be able to be had for relatively cheap. I've already got the Bryant and the Pederson rookie cards, so I think that the only other major challenges will be finding the Ken Griffey Jr. and Dennis Eckersley cards.

I picked out five 80's sets to work on as well.

I saw an article recently about set collecting and it recommended a good place to start would be the set from the year you were born (in this case 1984). So I'll be working on 1984 Topps and 1984 Donruss since those were the two big sets that year. These will be pretty much from scratch as I know I don't have any 84 Donruss cards and I have less than ten 84 Topps cards. To add to that, I decided to build the sets from the year my wife was born (1982). Again, Topps and Donruss were the big two and again I know I don't have any 82 Donruss cards and only a handful of 82 Topps.

Finally, after reading an article on Sports Collectors Daily about 1980 Topps and how that was the last set before everyone and their brother started producing cards, I've decided to take that on as well. I've already got a decent start on it with about 25 or so random singles.

The next few weeks will be spent building my checklists for each set so look for individual pages for each to start popping up on the blog. If anyone has any spare singles for these you'd like to throw my way (especially the Donruss) let me know and I can probably find some stuff to send back via trade.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Card Stories #1

Here are a few cards from my "good stuff" as I call them and the brief story behind them. Let me know if you like these random card profiles and I'll do more of them ....

This card came from a blaster box of Topps Archives that I picked up at Wal-Mart just for the heck of it while I was buying some groceries. My experiences with blaster boxes are pretty dull and boring, as was the case with a Gypsy Queen blaster I bought earlier this year but I have to say, I was pretty pleased with this. Not only did I get this cool John Franco card, I also got some nice commons, some Reds for my Reds binder, and a Will Ferrell card. Not bad for 20 bucks!
 


 I picked this up while I was visiting family in the Akron area over the July 4th weekend. My uncle and I ventured over to Medina, about 20 minutes away from their house, and we stopped in the card shop up there. Of the cards in the case, this was by far the best one he had in my price range. After getting the guy to knock two bucks off the price (really?) I got this and three packs of Panini Prizm. My elation after my purchase was short lived, only to realize the dude had sold me packs of 2012 Prizm he had in with the 2015 Prizm for the same price as the 2015 product! Anyway, the Manziel card is nice and #'d out of 115. This fits pretty well next to the Cris Collinsworth card I mentioned a few posts back as I start to build up my football collection.



Over the easter weekend I was visiting my in-laws in North Carolina and I decided to check out the card shop down there. While there, I was still on a kick of buying 2015 Heritage packs. I picked up probably five or six packs and when I got home and opened them I was pretty excited to pull this out of the last pack. Along with a Mike Trout action variation SP and an Albert Pujols SP, these were some pretty good packs.


Finally, we have this Jorge Soler card. Not a big Cubs fan, especially since they are in the same division as my Reds, but I do respect what they've done this year and Soler is one of their best young players. This came out of the last batch of Donruss packs I bought at the card shop earlier this summer and it displays pretty nice along side the Marichal card shown above.

Hope you enjoyed reading these "Card Stories" posts as I call them. If you like them, let me know and I'll do more of them.

Monday, August 3, 2015

3 Packs of 1992 Stadium Club Football


Last spring I bought a giant box of some early to mid-90s baseball cards. As I was sorting through them searching for some stuff to keep, I found these, three packs of 1992 Stadium Club football that were still sealed. Football never really has been my thing but I thought it'd be fun to crack these open and share some of the cards that I found in these packs. Hopefully these scans present well. I was using new scanning software and haven't quite mastered it yet.


The three best from the first pack. Of these, Beurlein is really the only one I'm familiar with.



Three Hall of Famers. The Reggie White is a special "Members Choice" card.



Morten Andersen watches a kick and Bill Fralic shows more ferocity here than when he tried to bodyslam Yokozuna on the deck of the USS Intrepid.


Only pulled two Bengals, the above Jim Breech card and a Harold Jones. I think this may have been one of Breech's last cards while he was active.

These and a few select others will join my football binder. I may wind up adding the remaining cards to my growing Commons 4 Kids donation.