BBA: Big Pieces Of Trade Bait

Zippy Zappy from Torren' Up Cards stole the idea from Gavin at BBCBreakdown about posting up higher value cards that you have available for trade.  I can definitely jump about that bandwagon!  This is also a good way to kick off my future series of trade bait posts from the hoard of stuff I got, though those will be much more about quantity than high quality.

I don't really have too much to compare to the dollar figures these guys have been showing off, but I've got a few that are listed for some decent money.

For all these, I would much rather make an epic trade for one or a few valuable items.  I have been known to make trades for bulk singles, but I'd prefer some level of similar values for these.

First off, the oldest extra I have.

T205 Fletcher from my New York Giants team set.  I bought another one from someone on the Net54 forum for a good price, figuring it would give me one to trade for a different one later.  Hasn't happened so far.  (And I haven't actually been back on that site for months.)  It's the Polar Bear back (factory 6, dist. 0).  I generally buy the ones I have for about $40-60 each.  They're grade 4/10 or so for the most part.  This one is somewhere in that ballpark.

Bought a second one of these by mistake from a dealer that basically still goes "by the book".  So I'm in this one for $50.  Would rather trade for one or more of the star cards I still need for the set.   (Update April 2022 - sold for $70 on eBay)

Lesser condition sample of the more desirable No "Optioned...." line on back 1959 Topps #362.  Listing for $40 to $50+ on COMC right now.

1940 Play Ball Charlie Keller.  This might be a triplicate, since I got two of most of his vintage cards when I first started collecting him for me and his nephew.  Either that, or I only got myself one and this is number two.  COMC has one for $28 and change.

Duplicate 1963 Post Elston Howard.  Bought this blind during my Maryland to Michigan and back tour this year.  Guessed wrong.  My mistake is your fortune.  Listed at $18 to 23, but I got mine for much less.

Magnified view of a wacky little item that showed up with a batch of cards I got for a bargain price.  This 1983 Topps bronze "medal" lists for $10 to 20 on eBay and Amazon.  It's got a fully detailed back too.  It's only about 7/8 of an inch tall.

Here it is beside a regular top loader of the next item.

2010 Topps Silk Collection Livan Hernandez.  Another dupe that I bought thinking there's no way I already have one of these.  And of course I did.  Numbered out of 50.  Lists for about eleven dollars on COMC, and 15 on eBay.

And finally, to jump on the "Regular Base Card Rookie" hype machine - 2011 JD Martinez base rookie.  This is the closest thing I have to a big name current player RC.  Goes for just under ten bucks that I've seen.

I will do another couple posts with all my GU and autos just to get them out there.  Then I'll start on the set-by-set stuff.  Have a big batch of low numbered 2005 Studio Portraits and inserts that will be a highlight of that series.  Stay Tuned.

Fairly Decent Player Collection

Ron Fairly passed away on October 30.  He played for the LA Dodgers, Montreal Expos, St. Louis Cardinals, and a few other teams in his 21 year career.  He spent even longer in the broadcast booth for the Angels, Giants, and then Mariners.  Fairly had a total of 48 years involved in major league games.

He was also one of my player collections.  Mostly because he was on the Dodger teams of the 60's and early 70's.  When I first started collecting his cards, I didn't know a lot about him.  I discovered that he showed up in several oddball inserts along the way with guys like Joe Torre, Jim Fregosi, and Ron Santo.  That put him in good company, as Torre and Fregosi are also PC's.

His tenure with the Expos also generated appearances on oddball cards like this Nabisco (that I don't actually have, but want).

Here is my Fairly collection as it stands....

The '60 Rookie Cup is not his RC, but looks a little nicer than the '59.  The '63 is a classic stereotypical baseball card.  Can't remember where I found the autographed '64 or the Post, but they fit nicely.

Some cool oddballs here.  '66 Topps Rub-Off in the wrong slot (should be after the Topps), '67 Bazooka, and '69 Milton Bradley (with the non-serif 1's on the back).  Ya gotta love the windbreaker on the '67 Topps.  Also noticed the 3-out-of-4 helmet poses instead of a hat.

Into the 70's and the Montreal years here.  No, that's not a duplicate '71 Topps, it's...

Yellow O-Pee-Chee glory!

Also scanned the back of the '76 SSPC in the center of the bottom row.

The team-hopping years of the late 70's.  Love the '78 OPC with the updated team.

... and the bright stock of the back.

And the back side of that oddball USC card.

Some other oddballs....

1970 Topps poster,

1964 Topps Coin,

1971 Coin,

...and the backs.

Still lacking a few oddball items, but a pretty decently complete collection of his stuff.

You will be remembered, Ron.

Weekend Update

Not this exactly, but this never gets old:

Decided to dive into 2019 Topps Update series with a jumbo box ($139 from Charm City Cards).  Since they are about an hour away, I got it in two days.

Haven't sorted my base cards yet, but I'm hopeful yet not optimistic that I've got a complete base set.  I did get a "hit" in one of the silver pack '84s, which was a nice bonus (even though it's probably going to go to a new home soon.) But I'll get around to all that in a bit.

A couple of keepers in the new World Champion Washington Nationals.  (Man, it's cool to be able to say that!)  The 150th Anniversary parallel of the 150th Anniversary insert Greatest Players Stephen Strasburg, and the 1984 tribute of Victor Robles.

This was on top of the box with the silver pack '84s.  It's earmarked for a new home already, sorry.

Here are the rest of my two silver packs.  Not a bad lineup, with Mays, Yelich, Verlander (sorry dude), and the requisite unknown rookies.  All are trade bait.  

The regular '84s and some of the 150th inserts and a shiny parallel that scans as blue.  These are probably going with Clemente.  I am not collecting either set except for a few of my PC guys that have already been listed on my site.

The remaining '84 regulars and the two (yes, only two) of the annual 60 Years of Cards your Mom Threw Out only to Buyback and Rediscover Berger's Best Future Stars in a Rookie Cup.

New York hot box!  Between Thor's blue parallel and Alonso & deGrom, I can make a Met fan a good deal.  Plus the pair of shiny (not really blue) parallels should go together to a Realmuto or Philly fan.  And nobody probably wants Selig unless they're going for the set.  Again, all trade bait except Cessa, who will likely go with Britton above.

The Golds - always nice to pull Trout, and I have been doing it with a couple of the last products I bought.  Good trade bait - as these all are.

The 150ths besides Stras were all horizontals.  And all in a sequence that will be familiar later.   These too are trade bait.

Dan's nephew is also available.  He's numbered 19/67, which is my birth year, so if I was into that sort of thing, I might keep him.

Here are the inserts I was waiting for - the two sets that I'd like to complete.  With Topps current philosophy of reducing the number of included inserts (instead of reducing the number of produced inserts), this is all I got.  One of each.  Pbbbth.

Here's what most of you have been waiting for.  The sick mojo hits.  Looking for a D'back collector.  I have already notified P-Town Tom about the Cubbies.  At least Kelly has a decent signature.

You'll notice the Wood auto falls outside the referenced "1 autograph and 2 relic cards."  It came from the bonus silver packs of '84s.  So what do they count as the other "relic"?

*Sigh*.  Yes, these appartently still count as "relics".  The only thing that this is a relic of is #1, the machine that produced it, and #2, the original idea that has run it's course.  Now, I won't complain about getting Doc, and it's not a bad looking thing.  Just don't call it a relic.  Philly fans, y'all can work out who wants it and let me know.  It would also go well with the "hat patch" relic of his I think I still have from a few years back.

Now the rest of this is going to look a lot worse than it is.  I started finding runs of the same base cards in the jumbo packs and got worried that there was a whole lot of excessive duplication or really bad collation.  But when you count it out, I should still get real close to a base set in spite of the visual results.

One jumbo box contains roughly 380 base cards.  When I picked up one stack of all the runs you see here, I was left with just under 80 duplicates and triplicates.  Since the base set is 300, I should be good.

Here's how it looks when you're done ripping packs.

One nice perk of all this is these:

 Which means they aren't worth a damn now....

The Biggest Curly W

Jackie Is Topps Now

Recently decided to sign onto Instagram, pretty much just for the gorgeous women glam posts (see Collecting Cutch's Save Second Base series) 

Got a special bonus the other day when this post showed up.

The stunning Jackie Redmond from NHL network was hawking the Topps Now! cards from the World Series.  It's a beautiful thing when two of your favorite things come together.  I commented that she has now vaulted to the top of my list of favorite sportscaster sweethearts.

Today I saw that she did it again!  Sorry, I don't see how to post the actual video from Instagram on here.

Giving away the Astros set (grr!) before Game 4. 

Is it possible she's actually a collector?  Instant Mind-Blowing Dream Girl status for sure.

Nationals Ride The S-Train To Victory Again

Haven't been posting much lately, mostly because of the unbelievable World Series games 1 and 2.  (The other thing was that my Mom had the other knee replaced Monday - everything went great and she was home the next day and is recovering just fine.)

I didn't really have any special cards for Scherzer, Soto, or Invader Zim to commemorate Game 1, but I do have a few nicer ones for last nights 12-3 domination.

Every now and then I'll pull or come across a nice Steven Strasburg parallel or fancy card.  Nothing high end, but a few that are worth more than a George.

2010 Rookies, both #661.  These are .3 and .4 versions - version 661.1 (on COMC anyway) is the autographed first pitch photo which shows more of this throwing arm behind him like the left one here.  661.2 is the Million Card Giveaway of the same photo.

No, I dont' own this one

Next up is a gold parallel of the 2011 Rookie Cup.  Serial numbering to 2011 boosts the value.  At the time I was just glad to pull a parallel of his.

This one might look familiar in a sense to my regular readers.  It's the inspiration for the Leading Ladies design.  The red and white work well with the Nats uniform.

Another nice red accented theme, this Target parallel from 2013 has a very clean look.  Wouldn't be bad to seek out the whole team set of these.

Cool shiny stat line 2014 Donruss numbered out of 296.  I like the take on the '87 design too.

Slightly crop-scanned shot of the green Bunt parallel from 2017 (/99).  Not the best color for a red and grey uniform, but rarer parallel at least.

Really sparkly 2017 Bowman Platinum.  One of these days I'll find a starter lot of a recent BPlat set and finish it, except for the outrageous rookies or whatever Bowmanesque trouble it contains.  Scan doesn't do this one justice, so I snapped a photo with my phone...

And finally, the pièce de résistance.  The 2010 Heritage card given away at the National.  The only worthwhile item to stand in that big of a line for.  They're still going for triple-blaster prices on COMC.

The way the Nationals are going, I don't expect them to even have to go back to the "Juice Box" to complete the Series.  But we'll see.