Semi-Grey Saturday Blowout Deals

Could have made it really click-bait if I'd have written this yesterday - Black Friday - but this is how it works out.

Anyway, I do have some more basically free stuff to offer.  It's a mixture of oddball items from the National that might have value to someone out there. The majority are marketing items from companies who cater to a different type of collector than me.  Links are to the company sites.

I should never take tall, slim pictures for the blog.  They don't fit well.

Anyway, these are the items up for grabs.  I guess I'm taking the first comment to claim an item.

First up, a (Gary) VeeFriends Super Sticker of Bullish Bull.  Um...I got nothin'...

Also a stack of the annual Heritage Auctions cards - still sealed.  

You can have either or both.

A Piece Of The Game commemorative coin with red felt pouch.  This version limited to 5000 copies.  My fellow convention-goer Stuart got one of a smaller production number (gold version?).  The back is just their contact info and a QR code.  They're a memorabilia company.

BCW card frame with the National 2023 label.  Insert your favorite card from the show or scratch off the lettering(?) and enjoy a nice blue frame to show off your favorite cardboard.  There are four big screws in the back to split the frame into front and back halves.

Voucher and sticker, plus information about the TAG grading company.  Voucher is contained in a black framed top loader.  Oh shoot, it says the offer for the free additional grading is only until the end of the show (July '23).  Sorry about that.  But if you're into them, you can have the sticker....

 

Finkelmeier Insurance ad card disguised as a Michael Jordan Fleer rookie. 
I could keep this next to my fake Wayne Gretzky rookie and bogus Jackie Robinson card, but if you're a Jordan hoops collector, this is more for you.

And finally...

Oh never mind.  This $10 discount coupon for the eBay Vault expired in October.  My bad.

And I guess I didn't take a separate pic of the Pristine Auctions can cozy, but that's available too.

If I get a few requests (or even comments at this point) for this stuff, I'll put up some other actual cards to give away before Christmas.

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!

Blog Bat Around: No Words.

 

Yes, 'Em Are Nice Cards

In what should be a much larger effort to purge stuff from Hivemind Headquarters, here's a stack of stuff that might be useful for someone.  I get these at the National Convention, but since I'm not into grading or the high end of the market, these are slated for the Recycle Bin unless someone wants them.  Trade me a few cards or some equivalent for the postage if possible.  I'll probably send them even if you don't.

I'll start with the oldest.  The orange book is Heritage Auctions' catalog, but is also a convention program.  Interspersed with the staff biographies and upcoming auction news and items, there is a map of the National floor and lists of the autograph signers and vendors present for the show.

The SMR (hence the title of this post) is the Sports Market Report.  I suppose this might be the precursor to the YouTube influencer videos that report the going rates of various graded star cards.  It's like a Beckett guide for slabs.  Like I said, I have no interest in this information, but a trendier collector might.

This pair is from the oldest show I went to - 2010.

The next year's SMR guide with Ernie Banks.  These generally feature stars from the cities that hosted the show.  A lot of them are Chicago as a result.

2012 brings Barry Larkin (Nachos....?) and two Heritage catalogs.  I'll ship out any combination of the two types of books.  You're not limited to the corresponding pairs.

2013 was the year they brought all those Cracker Jacks from that big find.  No, that's not a real slabbed card - it's just a photo on the cover.  Though they did pass out replica slabs of those things...

2014 was in Cleveland, so Bob Feller is the cover model.  The Heritage book is still about the same size, but they get a bit larger as we go.

Skipped a year, so here's 2016...

Jump to 2019, and Baker Mayfield, plus two Heritage programs.  Chicago again.

The 41st National was in 2021, since they skipped 2020.  Didn't put this together until I was writing this and had already taken the pics.

Didn't go last year, so here's the most recent program.  Not sure if the SMR's are obsolete at this point...

Hit me up if you'd like any of these.  They'll join the water bottles and junk mail if you don't.

2023 Ginter - Box 3: Not A Rainstorm, But It Is A Little Muddy

And now the third and final box of 2023 Allen & Ginter.  If I said I was disappointed in this one, it would make it sound like it was a bad box - it really wasn't.  Though the hits aren't nearly as exciting as the other two rips, I'm never just about the hits.  I ended up with a complete base set (except for Bo Jackson who went to my PC as I mentioned.) and I recognized a lot of them came from this box.  And I got a minimal but beneficial amount of duplicate inserts to trade.

Vladimir Junior leads us off.  Wouldn't have minded an Only In... or an N43 just to mix things up.

This guy's decent, right?  Silver bordered Fiddle-Dee-Dee, or whatever they're called.  (Crappy crop job ~ sorry.)

More cool minis.  I really wish those Rarest of the Diamond ones weren't so rare.  Those are the best insert in the set this year.  I'm not doing the World of Wonders because that concept has been used several times already, but Yosemite is one of the coolest places I've ever been so that one will stay here somewhere.  The food ones are educational since I've never heard of most of the dishes, but unless they were scratch-and-sniff, I'm not really into them.

Here's the rest.  I got three of the nice black minis, including Strasburg.  And like I said, I filled out some more of the inserts.  The hits, however...

Not white swatches at least. 
Craig's kid is neat. 
The auto is apparently the guy who supplies Major League Baseball teams with the mud that the equipment guys rub down the new baseballs with.  I mean, that's a cool thing and would make a great Ginter insert,....but a hit?  *shrug*

So once I sorted out my base set, I stacked 'em up to see how the collation is.  I'd say pretty darn good!  The right hand pile is dupes from all three boxes.

And this is the comparison of short prints to base cards.  

The difference this year is that the SP's start at 301 like they always do, but for 2023, they go all the way to #400.  And there are many players that are duplicated between the base and SP's.  They are different poses/colors, etc. but the same player depicted.  Not sure I mind that, but it'll cause a little confustion for some if they're looking for the SP of a guy and haven't seen the base card.  Now you have to pay close attention to the numbers.

This last box didn't end my Ginter rip with a thud, but it brought it in with a safe, smooth landing.  Looking forward to trading and filling in my insert wants.

Ginter Gap Cards #3: Had To Do It

I was hoping to whip this up in a couple hours tonight just so I could break up the last two A&G box posts.  But image editing with a program from 1992 just takes a lot of time.  Plus I was starting from scratch since this subject has to be in the 2023 Ginter design instead of last year's, which I already had the templates made up for.

From what I've (briefly) read, the most popular couple nickname for Travis Kelce & Taylor Swift is "Traylor".  But that was just one article.  I kinda like mine - pronounced "tray kay and tay tay".  

Now I'm a metal head from the 80's so I'll never consider myself a Swiftie at any point.  I don't know a lot of her songs, but she's geniunely and extremely adorable.  Kelce seems like a bit of a frat boy, but he's goofy too, so I wish them well.  There are hardly any good shots of the two of them together yet, so I had to fake it with these two images.  Does it look legit?

This 2023 design is tough to piece together.  I took Max Scherzer's card (since he had the nice light colors) and eliminated his picture.  Then I extended the upper background all the way across to make it easy to paste on top of it.  But then I realized I had to separate the bottom half and make that so it would paste on top of the photo.  Took some liberties with the edges, so they differ from the original.  The name section is a bit narrow, but I'm rolling with it.

One of these days I'll learn PhotoShop for real and be able to manipulate layers much better and also make the photos look more like drawings so they blend better.

2023 Ginter - Box 2: Judgement And Freedom

Box number two of three in my foray into 2023 Allen & Ginter.  Another decent outcome.  Let's jump in...

The Tawpa is Da Hawpa!

I really like these Only In... minis.  Hopefully they're not scarce at shows.

Another Filigree parallel.  No idea who this dude is.  I assure you the bottom edge of this card is in fact straight.

A nice box overall.  Two black minis this time.  And the majority of the inserts were different.  That's always a big deal.  Charm City Cards picks their boxes the right way out of the case.  I haven't had problems with the same stuff out of two boxes from them ever.

I see you spying the hits!  Pretty good names even though I had no clue about Olson until someone told me he led the majors in home runs.  (I just don't watch...)

The biggest name comes on the smallest card.  (Though I might say Pedro is more significant to me).

These mini relics are just classic this year.  If it didn't involve Ohtani, Trout, A-Rod (twice), Jeter, Ichiro, KG Jr., and a few others I'd never find under three digits, I might try for these. 

The Rip card face design is intricate enough that I missed the 16/99 serial number above "Keep It" until after I opened it.  Here's the initial stages of the edge cut.  I slipped a couple times and came through the front.  Still better than shredding the front or back face of the card.

Peek-a-boo!  Tip #2 ~ don't push the blade in so far that you hit the edge of the mini inside.  No damage done, but it was close.  The (slightly fuzzy) photo gives you an idea of the depth of the middle layers. 

And inside....?

 

Teddy Ballgame!

Nothing earth-shattering, but nicer than a lot of what I could have pulled.  Regular higher-than-high number exclusive.  An appropriate prize inside a Pedro card.

The Judge relic isn't going to last long enough to take offers here, and Olson is likely spoken for too.  I'll have all my player minis available and some extra inserts.

Last box will bring us full circle or my name is Mudd....

Jumping Into '62

With the completion of 1964 Topps, my next set build is 1962 Topps.  Both sets (and some '63's) started with the same bargain lot I got at a shop in western Maryland a few years ago.  I got over 300 cards for a net price of about 7¢ each that day.  No big stars, but a nice starter lot for all three sets. 

Earlier, I mentioned my official start in on the classic wood bordered cards.  I sure ended up with a lot of them by the end of my vacation.  

After that, the bulk of these were obtained at the National.  As before, these are grouped by vendor, but not in great detail in most cases.

Curious that the bright red price tags scan just off white.  Anyway, these are typical of my starter lot.  Not pristine, but not too bad.  The Win Leaders is a little more crooked than I like, but for $2 instead of two or three times that...sure.

Some good names here.  The first checklist is the error flavor, with numbers starting at 121 on the back instead of 34.  Santo is a little rounded, but $8 isn't bad in Chicago.  Sometimes I buy certain ones a little too fast.  I think the Musial and World Series are good discounts.

Even better discounts on these.  They're from the "Half Price Wooden Box" I mentioned in the previous vintage post.  $3 Team cards and World Series?  All day....

Also from there, a Billy Martin for seven and a half.  Again, fits right in with my set.

And inevitably, between those two batches, I ended up with two of the same checklist.  This time the 3rd Series variety, which has some variants too.

Both of these are the "with comma" version, denoting itself at card 192.  There is another version without the comma.  But there's more...

On yet another copy I got elsewhere, the black shadow appears to overlap the white panel (error on left), and behind it properly (on right). 

Moving on, some more stars at nice prices.  All of which are about half of what you'll typically find these in this condition on sale for.

A few heavy hitters from my pal Marv.  He just sent me a huge lot of '62's from his stock that I hadn't found, including some massive stars.  You'll have to wait for those.  They'll be the nicest ones yet.  I do like that Mathews a lot, though.

Big Bad Bambino.  From the big holder with the marker price, it feels like this one was on the 80% off table I hit at the National, but I might be wrong.  Could have just been half price.  There are several on COMC right now at about $10-15 in slightly worse condition.

For the flourish at the end - these are all from the same dealer on the last day we were at the National.  All of them were a dollar a shot.  Mostly commons, but a lot of rookies.  I pulled out some of the more well known names.  Not bad for team cards and minor All-Stars, eh?  I got both the regular and green tint samples of Mr. Drake up in the corner.  I won't be persuing all the green tints, they're too hard to distinguish most of the time.

All these got me down to 276 cards needed out of 598.  Marv is about to cut that down another 30-40%.  Stay tuned!