I made my first trade to the state of Utah with a dozen cards sent to a TCDB member named Jim. I picked up some more recent Red Sox, including my first taste of last year's Topps Fire:
Favorite Card: It may not follow current social distancing protocols, but how could anyone not love the sight of Big Papi giving a young child Dustin Pedroia a hug?
A Happy Independence Day weekend to all! It's going to be weird without all the big fireworks displays, but hopefully you'll spend it with good food and good friends!
I'm slowly working my way back into trading. I'm still trying to limit my trips to the post office to no more than twice a month. One of my latest trades was with a TCDB member named Alan, who took a small stack of my 2019 Topps Holiday doubles in exchange for some Red Sox needs:
He even threw in a few bonus cards - the Tazawa and Betts.
Favorite Card: I like the jump/throw action on Lowell's card!
Barrett won a Silver Slugger for the Cubs in 2005. Although he didn't play, Fick made the 2002 All-Star team as a reserve. Davis, despite the lack of hardware, was still good enough to carve out a 7 year MLB career.
If you're a regular reader of my blog, then you know that I've been routinely showing off winnings from Johnny's Trading Spot. Johnny has become a game master of sorts. Every week he hosts a Big Fun Game, he's been sending raffle tickets along with the prizes, and recently has even added BINGO to the mix.
I've been having a lot of fun, and was more than eager to participate in June's offerings. Unfortunately, when my BFG was held, I completely forgot about it!
I knew it was coming, was ready for it, and even had an idea what number I'd pick. But that Friday turned into one of those work days where you're nonstop busy, yet feel like you got nothing accomplished. I was gassed when I got home, and my evening was spent eating dinner and enjoying a family movie night. It wasn't until the next day that I realized I forgot to play in the BFG!
Oh, it gets better too! That Saturday was Johnny's first BINGO round. Guess who forgot to play? Yep, me again! Back-to-back opportunities completely missed!
Johnny's a generous game master, though, and still sent a few consolation cards, along with another raffle ticket!
I've seen these Honus Bonus cards on the internet before, but this is my first look at them up close. For a non-licensed product, it's not bad. I kind of like the juxtaposition of the black and white player against a color background.
Thanks for the cards, Johnny! I'll have to set an alarm so I don't miss out next time! (Speaking of which...sign ups for July are out now! As of this writing, Johnny needs 15 more players for the last 3 Fridays of July. Sign up now!)
Have you ever played the game Taboo? If you haven't, the essential premise is to try to describe an object without using a list of words.
I thought it would be fun to try this using baseball cards. For example, if I said "Naughty word on bat knob" , chances are you would know I'm talking about the 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken card. Easy, right?
Now, ideally I think this would make a fun Bat-A-Round, but I'll let my fellow bloggers decide if this is worthy. If anyone wishes to do this, let me establish a list of "Taboo" words and phrases:
Player names or positions
Team city/state/moniker
Card manufacturers or product names
The year the card came out
The following words: "rookie" "All-Star" or "Hall of Fame/Famer"
Got it? Fantastic! Let's see if you can figure outs these cards:
1. Integration pioneer slides into base
2. He's wearing a snake!
3. Milhouse just wanted the one with the big sideburns
4. Home run king's wood-grained debut
5. Knuckleball legend's great yellow sunset card
Go ahead and take your guesses in the comments! If any of my fellow bloggers choose to do their own version of the game, let me know too!
1998 Score Rookies and Traded #RT261 Jim Thome (ST)
Such
a weird set for one supposedly dedicated to rookies and traded players.
The first 50 cards are short printed veterans, and the back end
contains more veteran players during Spring Training. There really
aren't many rookies or traded players in the set at all.
This is Thome's second appearance on Repack Haiku. Here's the first.
Maybe Yordan Alvarez will become a superstar. Maybe he'll rack up awards and All-Star appearances. Perhaps he'll become an all-time great and earn induction to the hallowed Hall of Fame.
Maybe, just maybe, his rookie card reaches the financial stratosphere of a Mike Trout.
Maybe then I'll look back at this trade and wonder if it was the right call. For now, I had an extra of his 2020 Topps base card, and was glad to send it to a TCDB member named Billy. In return, he crossed off a lot of current Red Sox needs:
Just look at all that! Stat Leaders (including the famous Hanley Ramirez error), the amazing acrobatics of JBJ, a couple of Boston legends, and hedges as far as the eye can see. Billy hooked me up!
Favorite Card: You have to be Pedro-level cool to have your jacket collar turned up like that.
One of the great rookie blogs that has started up this year is Wax Pack Wonders. If you haven't popped over and added Jeff to your reading list yet, you really should! He's posted some fun and entertaining stuff!
Did you become a follower? Good! Anyway, last month he had a little giveaway. The first 6 people to respond got to pick 3 players, one from each of a tiered list Jeff provided. I managed to be the 6th and final participant! Here's what I was gifted:
Group 1 (HOF) - Pedro Martinez
There was quite a lot of names in each group, and Group 1 was stacked, but my boy Pedro was an easy choice!
Group 2 (Former All-Stars and Such) - Ellis Burks
I like Burks. He was exciting as a young Red Sox outfielder, and carved out a great MLB career. I completely forgot he played for the Giants though!
Group 3 (Current/Recent All-Stars and Such) - Mookie Betts
The more the MLB negotiations drag on, the more I want to convince myself that the season will not be played, and Mookie will resign with Boston.
Favorite Card: Tough choice here, but I'm giving the title to Pedro's Pacific Revolution card - the scan truly does not do it justice!
Now, Jeff explicitly said he doesn't want any cards in return as a thank you, but that doesn't mean I can't thank him by promoting his blog! Seriously, add him to your blog roll! Leave him comments! Nurture this young blog and help it thrive!
Sanders is joined in the 300-300 Club by Hall Of Famers Andre Dawson and Willie Mays, the father-son duo of Bobby and Barry Bonds, as well as Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran, and Steve Finley.
Last month, Kerry (Cards On Cards) had a mini-group break for some loose packs of 2019 Topps Of The Class, a promotional set designed to be given out to students. The design is based off of last year's Big League set, with a graduation motorboard logo in the corner.
I was not aware of this set, and was fortunate enough to claim the Red Sox cards from the break:
The Mookie Betts card was a promotional for last year's National Baseball Card Day, and shares the same design as the Stickers from last year. Each pack contained one of these cards, and if I was a Betts hoarder I could have had about 20 of these. I only took a few, a some others were given to other pack break participants. It wouldn't surprise me if Kerry still had a few extra if anyone wanted to offer him a trade for one.
Kerry also included a couple bonus cards: some from this year's Donruss product as well as a few on demand minis from last year. My Raffy Devers collection gets a nice boost, and another Jim Rice card is always welcome!
Favorite Card: I really like the lightning effect on those Mookie Betts promo cards!
With all the free cards being given away in the blogging community, I don't think anyone has given away more cards than Brian at Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary. He's been consistently hosting Free Card Fridays every week since February.
I took advantage of his generosity once before. When he offered up a lot of Red Sox cards, I once again snatched up a few nice cards:
Favorite Card: Jon Lester in the style of 1980 Topps. Letting him go was one of the biggest mistakes the current Red Sox ownership has ever made.
Thanks for the cards, Brian! I hope the community of Minneapolis continues to heal and grow stronger from all that's happened.
*****Contest Plug!*****
Alex from Chavez Raving is taking a trip down memory lane, and if you join him you could win some pretty cool stuff! Head on over to his post, give him a follow if you haven't already, and comment with the card(s) that really gave that push towards collecting!
It's been awhile, hasn't it? Just about two months in fact. This pandemic has slowed trading down a lot it seems. For my part, I've been trying to keep my trips to post office down to once or twice a month. So it took a little while for me and Bo (Baseball Cards Come To Life) to complete yet another Time Travel Trade. Like all good things, it was worth the wait, as Bo sent some nice vintage:
So, here's a funny story about that checklist - Bo actually sent a copy of that card once before. It was traded to Tom at The Angels In Order, who sent me a sweet Vida Pinson. That Pinson was the card Bo wanted. So essentially, that checklist was involved in both the incoming and outgoing trades involving the Vida Pinson card!
Of course, Bo didn't stop there! He also included these fantastic trivia cards from 1976!
This is my first time seeing this fun set from the Funk Sale Corp. I love the cartoons!
Thanks for the Trade Bo!
I've still got one more trade pending at the moment, so hopefully it won't be another 2 months before the next update. In the meantime, I sure could use some more trade partners! All of the cards are available for trade, and all it takes is just one card older than the card I'm sending you. Help me keep this project moving along and make me an offer!
1922 Church & Dwight Useful Birds Of America Third Series (J7) (non-sport) #7 Prothonotary Warbler
1915 Church & Dwight Useful Birds Of America First Series (J5) (non-sport) #1 Quail
The Time Travel Trading Project is simple in concept. I started out with a random pack of 2018 Topps Series 1 baseball cards. My aim was to trade every card in that pack for something older. Each card I receive in turn is then made available for trade, with the goal to get the oldest card I can get. Number of trades completed: 55 (1 pending) Unique trading partners: 32 Number of cards mailed out: 188 Year of oldest card mailed out: 1956 Number of cards received: 398 Year of oldest card received: 1915
That doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's true. I like Stephen King, and have read dozens of his books, but I really haven't had much interest in the recent string of film adaptations that have been based off those books.
I like Stranger Things, and was a regular viewer of The Walking Dead right up until my local cable provider ditched AMC (which was probably a good thing, as Glen's dumpster death was a "jump the shark" moment for me.) In both those instances, the story kept me watching more than the horror aspect of it.
When it comes to movies, it's basically the same thing. I need more than just gore. I'm not interested in being grossed out, and think jump scares are weak. I'm more likely to watch a horror movie for it's comedic elements (Army Of Darkness is a particular favorite.) or if it's more along the lines of a sci-fi movie (The Thing, Aliens, etc.)
Despite my feelings on the genre, I can still appreciate the satire that went into my latest winnings from Johnny's Trading Spot. No sports cards this time around, I picked a unclaimed number and came back with this 10-card run of horror cards from 2018 Wacky Packages Goes To The Movies:
I even got one of Johnny's coveted raffle tickets!
To be honest, these don't really fit into my collection, so I'm more than willing to trade these away if someone would like them. Feel free to make an offer!
Favorite Card: The board game fan in me was tempted to pick the Splattergories card, but the semi-cuteness of the Freddy Grahams wins the day!
Sign-ups for June are available now! Head over and let Johnny know if you're interested in playing!
Head on over to Nachos Grande and fill out your bracket for the 2020 Ultimate Allen & Ginter Mini Set Bracket Contest! Which Mini Set will ultimately be deemed the greatest! You can help decide and win some prizes along the way!
In order to truly understand what I am doing here, I must get a song stuck in your head. This post simply will not work without the proper ear-worm soundtrack playing in the background.
One of the first ever viral videos came about in 2002. It featured animated badgers dancing, snakes slithering across the desert, and...mushrooms. And the longer you listened to it the worse it got. Again, I apologize, but have a listen:
So why am I subjecting you to this? What madness has come over me? Well, truth is, it's because I dared to claim more cards from Rod at Padrographs during his free card extravaganza. I selected two last cards - a nice Nomar Garciaparra and one more Roger Clemens . Coincedentally, just days after revealing my love/hate relationship with The Rocket, I received Rod's PWE packed with Nomars and Clemens. How packed was it? Well, Let's just say the above tune played in my head as I was leafing through the cards:
Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger
Nomar, Nomar!
Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger
Nomar, Nomar!
Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger
Jay! Blue Jay! He's a Blue Jay!
It's Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger...
See, wasn't that totally worth getting that song stuck in your head for the next few hours?
Favorite Card: Despite so many Rogers, the easy choice is Nomar sporting a early 1900's Red Sox jersey!
Thanks for all the cards, Rod! It was quite generous!
Slim pickings at the local Wally World. I did scratch my pack-opening itch by picking up some of last year's Diamond King set.
3rd Place
2019 Panini Diamond Kings #6 Mel Ott
Without a proper MLB license, old-timers like Ott here should be Panini's bread and butter. Seriously, Panini should just do an entire set to guys that played in the time before there were baseball cards. No one would mind.
2nd Place
2019 Panini Diamond Kings #17 Yogi Berra
Catchers also fare well with the lack of logos. This is a great looking photo of Yogi with his chest plate and shin protectors on.
1st Place
2019 Panini Diamond Kings
- Masters Of The Game #MG1 Mookie Betts
Reasons why this card is awesome: (1) It's Mookie Betts. (2) Mookie is doing that Elvis-lip-snarl thing that he does. (3) The discoloration of the background looks like fumes behind him. (4) Put it all together and you basically have Betts getting a whiff of something unpleasant! Ha! Fart jokes!
Other Contestants Not Appearing On Stage:
#59 Andrew Benintendi
#74 Al Kaline
#31 Enyel De Los Santos (RC)
#88 Justin Verlander
#46 Khris Davis
#4 Roger Maris
#S7 Jack Flaherty (Squires insert)
#TH-23 Adrian Beltre (Team Heroes insert)
#JJ4 Joe Jackson (Joe Jackson Collection insert)
#TH-8 Jose Ramirez (Team Heroes insert)
#115 Albert Pujols (Framed Red SP parallel)
#60 Alex Bregman (SP)
#64 Ryan O'Hearn (RC)
#22 Ted WIlliams
#79 Jacob Nix (RC)
#36 Chipper Jones
#93 Freddie Freeman
In 2007, Silva was a member of the Mexican team at the Pan-American Games. The third place game between Mexico and Nicaragua was rained out, so both teams were awarded the bronze medal.
I haven't been trading on the TCDB as often as I had been. With all the social distancing fun I've been trying to limit my post office stops to once a month. However, when a TCDB member named Ron offered up a 5-for-1 trade, I couldn't accept fast enough! (Especially when two of those cards are short printed!)
Favorite Card: Players busting through a newspaper is one of the best All-Star card designs Topps has ever done, so the Heritage Mookie All-Star gets the title this go-around.