Monday Mailday - A Time Warp From Where It All Began

The post office tends to "save up" trade mail and packages for Mondays.  The Monday after the second show weekend in a row was especially fruitful.  I had all this waiting in the box or by the door.

Most of it is trades from the Database, but one was an eBay purchase.

The late 80's are to finish a few sets I have for sale that ran short.  It's nice to be able to just trade extra stuff for them.  I'm probably going to end up with extras of the last few I need for '89 at least.  The '09 black Topps are for my Update set build.  Still annoyed that they didn't make whole blasters of these at the time.

This is the second half of that trade from BigOinPA.  Some Capitals and Sabres.  The latter are not the regular base set, but special team sets numbered out of 20.

TCDB trader RangerFreak94 contributed all this to set builds.  Anyone need a Pete Rose?  I'm ending up with four or five extras.  The basketball card was a nice try, but not going to make that set.  All the other football is for set builds, except Sam and Richie.  Anderson is a PC, and that one is the blue back retail flavor.

He also chimed in with hockey.  A couple Fedorovs and a Manon Rheaume for my PCs, more Finests for the Premier set, one OPC base hit, and more recent Caps.

The other large package contains two parts of an epic trade with SirNailhead.  The guy has been on quite a life journey, and has set me on one to gather another Heritage set.  We swapped almost 300 cards one-for-one.  My side was all 2023 Heritage - the '74 design.  I figured why not?  The first cards I ever owned were '74s.  So even though I only recognize about 20% of the fellows pictured, I went for it.  (I might do another post to see what the actual percentage is like I did before.)

 
Glad I don't have to find the Ohtani.  And there was at least one of the "other Aaron" Specials included too.

The flat rate box is the eBay purchase.  I'm going to save that reveal for the next post.  But I'll give you a hint ~ One of my other pages has been revived.  Go there and check out the last two entries.  (They're the only ones linked to full images.)  More on both of those in the next one.

Thanks to all three traders, and to you for tuning in....
 

Trading With Myself (Or The World)

Business is good.

Those sets are flying out of here, almost a couple every day or two.  I'm still in disbelief about how 1988-1990 sets are selling so well.  And if you don't know ~ eBay is a lot of work.  This is why I'm only posting a couple times a month.

But anyway, that's not what this post is about.  I finally photographed my last COMC order that I submitted in November 2024, and took delivery of in January.  I was trying to come up with a better way to show over 200 cards, but I ended up just laying them out and taking pictures with minimal glare.  I was only mildly successful at even that.  All the little bar-coded slips are still in each card's sleeve, though I did try to overlap them and crop them out.  But since they're all in penny sleeves, they catch all the reflections they possibly can, sorry.

Since my inventory on COMC is down below 100 cards, my credit balance is way up.  The last batch I submitted was 90% from the storage hoard (the upstairs batch in my house).  They've done well, and I've paid the owner his part, though I haven't cashed out the credit on the site.  I figure since I've paid out the money, I might as well get the cards from the site for myself.  My last order was over 200 cards like I said.  And most of them were around a dollar or less, so there are many more coming back than have gone out.  

  

The Trout above is one of several set hits that I knocked off with this purchase.  Set hits were not the majority of this order, though.

Stupid reflections...

The four 2006 Ginters are set killers.  The Trout is the penultimate 2012, but I still need Harper's rookie too.  Cal is the last one I've been searching for to finish that SP insert - and he's been elusive!  As you can see, the Pacifics are promos, and the first half of that group that I decided to dive into while picking out this order.  Jeffries is the proper Prism version - not the circular type.  And the Dominators and black GQ minis are both rather lifelong quests it seems...

Brett & Brady are the entirety of my football set hits this time.  They are also two of the more elusive finds and set killers.  Favre is a throwback promo from 2005 and Brady kills my 2015 Field Access set.  There have been many attempts at a Stadium-Club-like, unusual photo themed product in recent times, but they never seem to last more than a year or so.  They just keep getting different names.  

Some hockey list hits from a few different decades.  Guy & Mark leave only the big rookies for those two sets (Yzerman & Roy respectively), and Gretzky for the former.  Pretty sure the three '89-90s should kill that set.  The Flames team card is from one of my favorite hockey sets - 2005 Parkhurst.  Still looking for the Leafs and some of the higher number cards which aren't short prints, but are still hard to come by.  The remaining inserts are from Parkhurst of '16-17.  I have more trouble finishing the huge sets of recent years than I do the older ones.  

While I'm working on hockey sets, I always have to get a second batch of the Capitals too.  Many of these complete the team sets either outright or by upgrading the last ones.

  

And finishing out the hockey theme, I updated my list of Manon Rheaume cards that I have and want and looked at a whole lot of her stuff on the site.  Ended up with these that didn't exceed the cost threshold - a couple bucks or less.  Her older stuff is still surprisingly costly.  I suppose she's the only reason that people still look at early 90's off-brand hockey.  She's officially on my player collection list now.  Like Edwin Jackson, and Jordan Addison, it's only on the Database for the moment. 

Let's keep going with the player collections, and I'll save the coolest stuff for the end.  (Sorry about the mammoth image count if you're on a phone or something).  Found a few missing entries from my smaller football PCs.  The Upper Deck on the lower left is Dan LeFevour in the CFL. 

Of course, my biggest football PC is still Priest Holmes.  I found tons of his and had to filter out my take just to the cheap ones.  Had to draw the line at these so I didn't spend all my credit.  Between him and Jordan Addison, I could go all night.  Except for a half dozen "easy" base cards, I've been down to mostly serial numbered and scarce parallels - and mojo hits - for Priest for years.

Now, here's where I really went nuts.  I said I narrowed down my choices for Jordan Addison.  And I really did cut out any regular base cards that I figured I'd get in trade on TCDB.  But I still ended up with all these.  I'm out of control.  Here's a look at some of them close up....

A couple jerseys among them.  Only a few bucks apiece. 

Got these "Keepsake" base and parallels.  Don't even know what they are, except low numbered.  

And there was this silly thing.  

And these are the epitome of the parallel glut that is happening these days.  These are, in fact, different parallels.  The left one is the "Mini Diamond Refractor" version, as opposed to the "Speckle Refractor" on the right.  Come on people, you're really running this stuff into the ground.

Rounding out the player collection theme, here's all the baseball PCs from this order.  Lou Piniella isn't really one of my major guys, but there are so many of his managerial cards out there for less than a buck or so, that I can't help but try to fill them in.  The Pookie Bernstine in the very top left is the eighth one out of his ten total cards.  The only ones left are the gold version of that one and a TCMA.  The MCI Sparky Lyle isn't normally autographed, but at only $3, I couldn't grab it fast enough.  Got a pair each of minor league coach cards and Chrome Anniversary parallels for Gene Tenace at the same time.  The bottom corner Edwin Jackson is a 2010 Printing Plate that was only $8.50 - one of about a dozen cards over $2 on the whole order.

Moving on to fictional beings, Deathlok is my favorite comic character.   The Specialist card finally ends that Marvel set.  The first two cards are the same Captain America cover shot, but vastly different interpretations as far as color.

More sci-fi, but this time the classic stuff.  The last card to finish all the color series of the entire Star Wars set.  I'm also whittling away the 1977 Star Wars stickers - the cheap ones of course - these were all less than a dollar.  I'll be finishing the 1980 Empire Strikes Back set soon too.

And now the bonus for reading all the way to the end.  A few lovely ladies to complete the package.  A strange playing card Sheena Easton - my first musical love, before I heard the sound of metal guitars years later.  A Farrah mini from Golden Age to knock another of the five backs off the list.  A recent Saraya wrestling card - AKA Paige from WWE.   And some colorful images of golf influencer and total smokeshow Paige Spiranac.

Thanks for plowing through all my mediocre images of some cool cards.  As if I needed to add more cards to my overflowing desks, I have yet another order kinda like this one (though not as large) being picked right now and shipment is set for early March.  Stay tuned for that one!

My theory is that I'm basically swapping the cards I sell for all this, so it's really a bargain. It's kinda like trading with myself - or several hundred COMC users all at once!

Some Swag Among The Slabs

I made a trade last week on the TCDB with a guy named Eric.  Turns out he lives near Hagerstown, MD which is just about 20 minutes from me.  So we met up about halfway in between to swap packages.  He primarily collects Paul Molitor, Robin Yount and Travis Hafner. We had a good conversation about our collecting habits, etc. before he had to get back.

He texted me later and asked if I knew about the show going on in the Silver Spring Civic Center, which is about an hour to our south.  I knew there were shows that rotated through there, but wasn't planning to go.  I have so much to put away around Hivemind Headquarters, plus the two piles of stuff for sale, I probably didn't need to add to any of it.  But I decided to go anyway. 😀 

So we made plans to meet along the route and made our way down there.  Upon arrival, I realized that I had been there once before.  It's a smaller venue, with a main room in the middle, and two other rooms at each end, plus a hallway between with a few more tables. 

A previous year's show

There was a LOT of slabs.  And several tables - especially in the outer rooms - of Pokèmon.  But I did manage to find some treasures among them.

I should have put this at the end, so as to not give away everything I got, but here you go.  The first thing I found (that I could get into - it was wall to wall people in the narrow aisles) was some vintage singles.  I found four of my '65 commons for a buck a shot (center above).  They're nice, though I left a couple sketchier ones there. 

At the same table, I picked up this set killer / upgrade to finish my '73-74 set.  The top corners are a bit weathered, but it's half the price of similar ones on COMC right now.  I think it's much better than the one I started with.

There were a few hockey-centric tables, though I wasn't looking for much in that realm.  I came across these fancy shiny SP Authentic inserts.  For this price and the presence of a parallel Ovie, I said what the heck.

Lots of tables had rows of toploadered singles sorted by team.  This one corner dealer had some that he hadn't priced, but instead was asking customers to make him an offer.  And he was taking pretty much all of them it seemed.  I figured I'd get these Jordan Addisons for about a buck a shot or slightly less, but it worked out even better - after I also picked out these:

Jayden Daniels was very present in a lot of showcases at this show.  I saw these initially and did a quick bit of market research to see how other dealers compared - or at least one other.  I asked the guy at the table across the room what his prices on the same Mosaics and a different insert were, and he said $10 each.  I immediately went back and pulled these out.  They totaled $20 with another Terry McLaurin card.  I handed them to the dealer and he replied "Just make it an even twenty".  I had to check later to verify that I basically got the Addisons for free.  I should have gotten that guy's business card or contact....  That brings my JD5 total to ten cards so far.

And the grande finale was this, the second set killer of the day.  Mantle/Mays "Managers' Dream" is the last card I need to finish my 1962 Topps set.  I don't usually buy graded cards, but lately they have bucked the trend that I always assumed they cost three crooked numbers just for being graded.  This one was nicer than any of the same grade on COMC and fits my set very well.  For a "4", it's well centered and has nice corners and no major flaws that I can see.  

Eric had a family deadline (that we didn't quite meet), so we left the show after a little over two hours.  That was enough.  We got lucky that the winter weather forecast was wrong, so it was clear sailing all the way there and back.  My thanks to Eric for the invite and ride.

State Of The Collective Part 2: Assimilations

My last post pointed out so many things that I'm not doing in the hobby.  This one is about all that I actually am doing.  And regardless of what it felt like in the previous read, it's a lot.

Vintage Sets

1957 Topps

My main man Marv in Michigan steadily supplied me with most of the remainder of my 1957 list.  I still lack a few, including Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Brooks Robinson's RC, and several of the scarcer mid-series.  (273 JDavis  276 Pyburn  313 Parnell 339 Speake).  I'm looking for the right prices on the big ones, and just to find decent copies of the others.  They are elusive.

1962 Topps

When I finished my 1964 set, I officially started '62.  Marv provided so many nice cards, and did so basically on a monthly schedule, that '62 passed the '57 set and now stands with only the Mays/Mantle combo card left to finish it!  I think that's the fastest I've completed a vintage set, like ever.

1965 Topps

So then I found a binder at Chantilly that started me on 1965 Topps.  I got a big head start on the set, including many stars and almost all the team cards.  I only needed 12 of the 40+ high number short prints (they're not all SP's), and promptly got them from you know who.  I picked up a handful of the HOF'ers at the same show, and then got two more installments from Marv.  So now I'm down to Clemente, Spahn, Mays, Gibson, Oliva, Carlton RC, Banks, and Bob Uecker, plus a bunch of commons.

1961 Golden Press

I got a handful of these from a trade on the Database.  They were nice and that guy had amassed a pile of them.  Then I started finding them at the Chantilly show.  This is one set I'm only tracking on the TCDB, so you won't see it on this site.  I have 18 of the 33 cards.  Haven't tried to pay more than $5 each for them and still get nice looking specimens.  At some point I'll have to track down the book they go into, but for now, they're a stack of Card Savers.

Vintage football

I haven't added much of anything significant to my football setbuilds lately.  But I've got a few sets still plodding along.  A couple of them fall into the "wait until prices come back down to 2019 levels" category ~ namely 1958 Topps (Jim Brown), and maybe 1971 Topps (Bradshaw).  But I'm down to just a few on all four sets: 1958 - 4, 1968 - 5, 1970 - 1 variation, and 1971 - 2.

Vintage Hockey

Picked up a few big stars here and there this year, including the Mario above.  Still need a Parent for the '74-'75 set.  Also down to one on '73-'74 (Orr AS upgrade), '75-'76 (Orr again), '86-'87 (Roy RC), and '79-'80 (that Gretzky guy).  I actually haven't finished all the '80s hockey yet.  And I'm still working on tons of newer sets too, and Capitals.

More Modern Sets

The bulk of my wants are, of course, newer products.  Every trade, COMC order, shop visit, and show add to the tallys.  

These are some of the sets I have going that I don't even have boxes or shelf space for any more.  Most of these have stacked up via trades.  A couple of them are Database only....

...As are most of these.  I have built the bulk of the 1985 inserts from 2020 Series 2 and Update, as well as a damaged block of 1988 Score, plus the 2008 Update baseball and full set of football.  Recently I threw on the 2015 A&G set since I have almost none of it.  Did the same for 2005 Upper Deck too.  They have all been wildly successful and haven't cost me a dime.  All I give is my extras that I want to move out anyway.

One of the little set-ish collections I started this year was all the parallels from 2019 Topps that show the World Series champion Nationals.  I'll start a binder with all these down the line.  I've traded for a few, and got a bunch on a COMC order. 

Player Collections

My favorite hunt at shows and shops is for my player collections.  Almost every time, I get a few more odd things for them. 

This is why I wish there were more sets with retired players in them.  But then I might complain about having too much new stuff to chase.

There are a few guys that I try for EVERYTHING.  But usually they have short checklists, or I got lucky and got a head start.

Two of my most thorough PCs are football players.  I added several new ones to my Priest Holmes collection on the last COMC order - which I'll post after the conclusion to this series.  I started another one for local guy Jordan Addison this year.  I've been getting his stuff in chunks too.  Buys, trades and show purchases have built up my total to nearly 75 initially, but then in that same recent COMC order, I just about doubled it to 141.  He's only tracked on the Database too.  There are WAY too many to keep straight any other way.

The latest addition was also originated on that order.  Rashad Ross has played for three teams that I follow in his career - Washington Redskins, the AAF's Arizona Hotshots, and the 2020 XFL's DC Defenders.  He was drafted by the Bears, so that's what most of his cards depict.  He's only got 144 total cards, and a lot of those are rookie autos and 1/1's etc. with Chicago - most of which I'll ignore unless cheap.

I also dabbled into the comic realm.  I have a co-worker who loves Captain America, so I search out his cards for her when I can.  And in the course of that search, I have found a few of my favorite cyborg soldier along the way.  He's only got about 16 cards that I want, so it's a very finite PC.

That's not the complete list of collections I'm working on, but it's all the major highlights.  Most collectors would probably specialize in certain parts, but I'm just crazy this way....

Monday Mega Mail Day

The post office tends to save up packages for Monday deliveries around here.  Which works out for me because I don't tend to plan much for Monday evenings otherwise, (#old guy, #mondayssuck) so it's nice to come home and have some new cards to check off.

Last week on the 6th of November, I got the mother lode.  My constant trade friend in Michigan sent me the latest batch, and it came with several TCDB friends.

Addresses blurred for internet protection.

First up, Stuart's offerings....

About half player collection and half set needs, starting with the Heritage box topper of Vida Blue.  The '72 is a regular Topps for Manny Sanguillen.  I have trouble keeping track of those extra cameo appearances, so I end up searching for extra copies of '70s subset cards years after completing the set and filling in my PC guys' regular issue.  The '75s are all O-Pee-Chee for PCs, but I had most of them already.   The Hernandez is such a cool shot, and I've been able to snag the regular, red foil, and now shiny version of that Heritage card.  The rest are set hits - 2013 Cooperstown, 2006 Heritage, 2005 UD All-Star Classics, 2003 XL Football, and a complete set of the round-corner glossies from 1977-78 Topps hockey.

And now, in no particular order, are the Database trades.  First up, from GoldenEagles555, a few non-uniformed Redskin players, and a couple '97 Stadium Club hits.  That SClub set is one of several that have been pounded by TCDB traders.  I'm so happy to move extra stuff to build sets like that, even though they would be cheap to buy, sending (in as many cases as possible) more cards than I'm getting is just awesome.

And the diversity of some of these trades (and traders) is great too.  Check out that red foil Spider-Man!  And continuing the theme of strong guys in red outfits, Tony Gonzalez Upper Deck rookie, and three Ultras of more Washington players.  Thanks to Hector, aka HDZLV.

Another nice mix from BCMeeker.  I'm down to about a half dozen on this 1990-91 Skybox basketball set.  Stuart started me off with a lot of about 1000 cards that I dug my set out of and then entered the extras for trade, and then I put my remaining wants on the database and two out of every three trades have had some of them in it.

And these two might look familiar.  This happens sometimes when two trades hit at the same time.  But I've killed off so many Washington needs that they've probably surpassed set hits in my trades on the site.  Which is just incredible, because digging out two to ten singles from each product in shops and at shows would take forever, and I know there are tons of collectors who have them and don't need them.  It's a win-win.

More stuff from the sports spectrum from CraigB56.  Late 90's hockey, and one of those Donruss game cards that are pretty easy to come by on TCDB.  The Dotson Score is for the Washington collection, but the Addison is my latest player collection.  The Vikings WR went through the school system that I work for.  I've got a co-worker that coached him in middle school.

The other bubble mailer was from JFCard.  I didn't spread these out too far.  There's the Jordan from the Skybox set, along with an '84 Fleer Update Darling for that set, and a SportFlics Keith Hernandez for his PC.  The stack is mostly 1997-98 Score hockey, a few other newer set hits, pretty much all of the first year Capital O-Pee-Chees for that team binder, and some other odd PC needs.

I got one more package the next day from sfurukawa, which was bigger than any of these.  I just didn't take a picture of it.  It was a 300 count box full of mostly Washington football, but also a complete set of 1988 Sportflics Gamewinners, and a handful of baseball PC cards.  That was an unusual trade where I actually got more volume than I sent - but his end was all 1975 Topps baseball minis.

I combined that shipment into the stacks of all the above inventory and sorted by sport.

Here's a lower angle so you can see the quantities.  Not bad for a week of trading...

I've completed 11 trades and have that many still in progress (in transit) for the month of November so far.  And we're not even halfway through!

I also did 11 last month - starting with one on the 11th and the others on the 18th and beyond - after turning them off for August and September to try to recover from the National and Michigan hauls.  (Which I really haven't.)

In October, those trades added 185 baseball, 20 hoops, 73 football, and 5 hockey.  283 total.

And this month has brought 50 baseball, 54 hoops, 416(!) football, and 121 hockey.  641 total.

I bet I've moved a lot more than that to good homes too.  Gotta love Database trading!