You've Got Mail #32: The Chronicles of Fuji

Moving along in the great trade package catch-up game from the Super Trader group! To show you exactly how far behind I am, this package from Fuji arrived on Opening Day and tomorrow is Memorial Day.

Before diving it, it can't be a package from Fuji either without hit custom card! My wife thought this was really cool, mainly because it's in the style of a South Park character. 

I'm not sure how many Reds are in the Hometown Heroes set but I've got to be approaching the team set. Between this, the mailer from Douglas (which I'll post about soon) and a couple others, I think I've got it covered. That being said, dupes are not a bad thing and and I revamp my player collections, they will be included.

Edinson Volquez, what could have been. I think most Reds fans are still sore about the trade that shipped him and three others off to San Diego for Mat Latos. While we got a few solid years out of Latos, Volquez has turned his career around after bouncing around for a few years and won a ring last year with Kansas City, ironically teaming up in the rotation with Johnny Cueto. That could have been the Reds with Cueto and Volquez as a deadly 1-2 punch!  

I could be wrong but I believe this is my first Topps Gallery card and it appears to be some sort of shiny parallel (ooh, shiny objects!) Regardless, this is a really neat card and a fantastic piece of artwork. I need to decide, does it go with my box of "good stuff" or get placed with the growing mountain of cards that needs to be loaded into a binder.

Panini Cooperstown! These are so cool, especially old Edd Roush on the bottom there. Any old vintage guys on newer products is a-ok in my book.

I'll close this out with a nice variety of stuff. I've really, really tried to forget the horrible experiment that was the reclamation of Jason Marquis last year. However, judging by this years pitching staff, it would probably somewhat welcome. There's also a green parallel of one of my favorite Todd Frazier cards, next to that a simple base card to add to my Bronson Arroyo PC, and finally a something I had no clue that existed, that being a Reds card of wacky relieved extraordinare Kent Tekulve!

Thanks for the great stuff Fuji! I see more cards coming your way this summer.

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

You've Got Mail #31: Waiting 'Til Next Year

I'm nearly caught up on Super Trader trade packages at this point, just a few more to go, like this box of awesome from Tom at Waiting 'Til Next Year!

This is going to be long so just bear with me ...

This was my favorite card of the package and just goes to show that you don't need an autograph or a relic to get enjoyment out of cards. The beauty of this is its simplicity, where just a simple shift left or right makes everything move. Simple, yet effective. Also, very reminiscent of the old 3D Kellogg's cards.

Next up a whole giant mess of K-Mart cards. The number of K-Mart stores seems to diminish by the day. The nearest one to me is in Springboro, Ohio (about 30 minutes up the freeway) and is closing down later this summer. You can bet that I'll be there trying to score some cards for next to nothing. Cards from retail chains are always a guilty pleasure of mine and these definitely fit the bill.

Some Griffey Jr. Reds cards! I like the one from Topps 2000 as it's probably his first card as a Red and Topps made sure to get an actual photo of him in a Reds uniform instead of doing some airbrushing. Also, Topps Total next to it. The world needs more bargain sets like that.

Josh Hamilton as a Red. Oh, what could have been if they hadn't traded him away. That Opening Day card looks like a night card as well.

Some nice 1993 Topps cards that I think I was missing, although the Sabo might be a duplicate. Not sure though. I really need to catalog the Reds binder.

More Topps 2000. The more I think about it, the more I like that set.

Some cards of Eric Davis. Check out the one on the right. I'm not exactly sure what's happening with him in that picture but it looks like he's asleep.

Some Swell oddballs that are well ... pretty swell featuring three pretty well known players in Cincinnati circles. Milt Pappas was acquired by the Reds in the Frank Robinson trade, George Foster mashed 52 homers in 1977, and Johnny Vander Meer, the only person to throw back-to-back no hitters.

Also, included were these Team USA cards, both regular and the foil versions seen here. If Jesse Winker (on the left) is going to be ready for the majors next year, the Reds will probably have a nice logjam in the outfield, especially the Adam Duvall has been knocking the cover off the ball this season.

Some more oddballs, this time of the Starting Lineup variety. These cards are always the next best thing if the figures themselves are too pricey for me (and believe me, from the prices I've seen on Starting Lineup figures at some places around here, they definitely are).

Panini Classics is quickly becoming one of my favorite brands to collect. I really like the Tony Perez card and it's him in the old school, sleeveless Reds jersey, the one they had right before the uniform Pete Rose is sporting on the left.

A good collection of Larkin cards were included, these were the best of the batch. I forgot how cool those Upper Deck Ovation cards were with the raised stitching of the baseball.

A couple of youngsters in Tyler Stephenson and Nick Howard. Stephenson's cards are going for a pretty penny on COMC and I refuse to pay a rather large sum for a base card. Getting it in a trade is much better and fits my budge perfectly.

I'll close this out with a dash of Expos cards to add to my ever growing collection of them. 

Tom, I'm not sure what card show bin or card shop you raided but these cards were awesome and definitely filled in some holes for me! Hopefully you don't have to wait until next year (see what I did there?) for a return package from me!

A Vintage Yard Sale Haul!

One of my favorite things about spring is that it marks the official beginning of yard sale and flea market season. I don't have a lot of time on weekends to hit a lot of yard sales but a long standing tradition in the town I live in is what everyone refers to as "yard sale weekend". The third weekend in May every year is when people come from far and wide and descend upon the town like locusts seeking deals on rusty tools, clothes that are 20 years out of style, and hoards of other things. Much like last year, I went in search of cards, with my wife and son in tow.

Saturday was cool and damp as it had rained hard overnight and into the morning and didn't let up until about 10:30. After the rain finished, out we went.

Cars lined up on Clara Drive

Downtown traffic

More craziness in a newer part of town

Corner of Miami Street and Roger Drive

Unfortunately, after walking about nine miles around different subdivisions and neighborhoods, my search for cards came up empty. However, I did pick up Oz the Great and Powerful and Ides of March on Blu-Ray so it wasn't a complete bust. When I got home, I turned to the community Facebook page and asked if anyone would have cards on Sunday and got three leads.

Sunday was bright and sunny and near 80 degrees. So after a breakfast with friends at a nearby Cracker Barrel, we headed out in the car to track down the three leads from Facebook. The first stop had a decent amount of cards but they wanted 25 cents per card for early 90s junk, or five dollars for a 100-count box of the same. No thanks. Stop #2 on the other end of town was a dud, there was nothing resembling cards but there was plenty of general crap to be had. It was all down to the third and final stop.

Pulling up to a run down, brick house in a shady part of town, I had little hope and pretty much resigned myself that my search would be in vain. Oh well, at least the prospect of an M&M Master Blast from Sonic after this stop kept me motivated.

As I approached the sale, I saw nothing but odds and ends strewn about on tables but towards the back, there was a lady sitting behind a table that had cards on it! And vintage cards at that! Woo hoo! She called her husband/boyfriend/whoever over as she didn't have the slightest clue about any of the cards. I asked the fellow where he came up with the prices for the singles. He said "the vintage Beckett" and "online" to which I shuddered. He mentioned he had boxes he was wanting to get rid of too and pulled out a shoebox, a cigar box, and a random cardboard box filled with cards from the 70s and early 80s.

I asked how much for all three boxes, thinking he would come up with some ridiculously high number to which I would scoff and walk away. However he said "make me an offer", as he spit out tobacco juice into his flower bed. So, after some though I said "how about $25?" to which he accepted, much to my surprise. I asked about the random singles, he said it'd be an additional thirty for those, which I passed on. So, I forked over the $25 and proudly became the new owner of the boxes full of cards below.

What was in the boxes you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait to find out as there were more cards in there than I imagined and its going to take some time to do some sorting. Stay tuned.