2020 World Series Tale Of The Tape

The World Series starts tomorrow, and I think it will be a good one. It's fairly uncommon for the best teams in both leagues to make it to the final series, and honestly with this expanded playoff format I wasn't expecting it to happen. Now, for most baseball fans like me, chances are your team isn't one of the two left standing. Who do you vote for when your team isn't playing? Personally, I base it on a few different factors. Let's see how the two teams stack up:

Former Red Sox Players

 

Rays: Jalen Beeks

Dodgers: Mookie Betts, Joe Kelly

2020 Topps #420 Mookie Betts

 

What can I say, if I can't root for my team, I can root for guys who used to be on my team. The Dodgers feature two Red Sox legends in Mookie Betts and Joe Kelly (three if you included their manager Dave "The Steal" Roberts). Ironically the Rays' manager, Kevin Cash, is also a former Red Sox player, but the only actual players with connections to the Tampa Bay team are injured pitcher Jalen Beeks and former prospect Manuel Margot.

Advantage: Dodgers
 

Shenandoah Valley Baseball League Alumni

 

Rays: Ryan Yarbrough, Mike Brosseau 

Dodgers: none

 

2020 Stadium Club
#80 Mike Brosseau (RC)

 

Having two players on one team that have played in my area's collegiate summer league is quite impressive. Yankee killer Mike Brosseau played for my hometown team, the Waynesboro Generals!

Advantage: Rays
 

University of Virginia Cavaliers Alumni

 

Dodgers: Chris Taylor, Josh Sborz

 

2019 Topps Heritage #304 Chris Taylor

Go Wa-hoos! Living a short drive from Charlottesville, I've gone to a few UVa baseball games. The Dodgers actually employed two former Cavaliers this year. 2017 NLCS hero Chris Taylor is on the World Series roster, but pitcher Josh Sborz isn't.

Advantage: Dodgers
 

Championship Drought

 

Dodgers - 31 years (1988)

Rays - 22 years (never)

The Rays have never won a World Series in their entire existence. Yet the Dodgers have gone even longer since their last title.

Advantage: Dodgers

 

Personal Connection

Does sympathy count as a personal connection? This will be the third time in the past 4 years the Dodgers have reached the World Series, and so far have no rings to show for it. Even the 90's Braves dynasty won at least one. The only connection I have to the Rays is that they're pesky divisional opponents for the Red Sox.

Advantage: Dodgers

 

Spring Training Adventures

 

2018 Topps #297 Kevin Kiermaier

 

I've seen the Rays play a lot in my annual trips down to Florida, due mainly because the ticket prices tend to be cheaper when they are the opponent. The only current player I know for sure I've seen is Kevin Kiermaier. The Dodgers play in Arizona, so no memories there.

Advantage: Rays

AL East Divisional Opponent Bias

Yes, I admit I have one. 

Advantage: Dodgers

Final Talley: Dodgers 5, Rays 2

I have a gut feeling the Rays are going to win, but I'll be rooting for the Los Angeles. As much as it'll hurt watching Mookie lead another team to victory, they're due.

 

Go Dodgers!

Top 5 Tribute: Whitey Ford

Baseball lost yet another Hall of Fame player when "The Chairman Of The Board" Whitey Ford passed away October 8th at the age of 91. Picking my Top 5 cards was easy in this case - I only have 5 Whitey Ford cards in my collection (not counting the latest addition to the Time Travel Trading  Project of course). Here are 5 cards I own, in chronological order:

1985 Topps Woolworth All-Time Record Holders #5

When people talk about baseball's unbreakable records, they usually talk about career achievements like Rose's hits or Henderson's steals. The all-time records listed on this card refer to Ford's World Series performances - 10 wins, 94 strikeouts, and an amazing 33 consecutive scoreless innings. With modern philosophies regarding bullpen usage, as well as expanded playoffs and a larger number of teams, Ford's records on the grandest stage are pretty safe from being challenged.

1989 Kahn's Cooperstown #NNO

The two things that stand out most about this card are the beautiful artwork and the signature depicting his real name Edward.

1992 St. Vincent HOF Heroes Stamps #4

The latest addition to my collection came over the summer when I won this set as a prize from Chavez Ravining. Now that look at it, it seems they tried to give Whitey an old-timey hat for some reason. It looks off, especially without the logo.

2015 Topps - Eclipsing History #EH-6

Coincidentally, like Gibson's 1971 card, I showed this card off a long time ago when this blog was in its infancy. The focus that day was on Rivera, but today we come full circle and honor Ford.

2016 Topps Archives #189

This is probably my favorite of all the Ford cards. The picture almost has a 3-D quality to it, like Whitey is just about to step out of the card's frame. 

I'll end things with a personal Whitey story. I may have missed an opportunity to get his autograph. Ages ago, I went to a card show in Niagara Falls. The headline attraction was Mickey Mantle. Right before I needed to get in line to get his autograph, my dad directed my attention to another older gentleman standing around talking with some people. My dad was 90% sure it was Ford, but because my mind was on Mantle, and I wasn't as familiar with Ford, I never sought to find out for sure. I'll never know...

RIP Whitey Ford, you will be missed!

TCDB Trade: Cards From Florence, AZ

With the playoffs in full swing, as well as numerous tributes to passed on legends, I've started to fall behind on my trade recaps. As it stands now, I've got posts planned into next month already, and the only way I'll catch up is if I start posting 4 times a week instead of my normal 3. Until content otherwise dictates, I'll be doing these little trade recaps on Thursdays. This weeks TCDB Trade comes from a collector named Aaron. I proposed a trade last month that netted me a few Red Sox needs.

 

OK, so Rickey isn't a Red Sox need, but he and Boggs gets me two cards closer to completing this K-Mart set. The 8 remaining cards can be found on my So Close page, if anyone is curious.

 

Favorite Card: Jim Rice's bat on shoulder glossy. I know a lot of people don't like these mail-in offerings for the eighties, but I always enjoyed them. This would be my first card from the 1985 set.

Thanks for the trade, Aaron!

 

Repack Haiku #174 (Dansby Swanson)

A pink ribbon card

Appropriate for this month

Help save second base!

2018 Topps - Salute
#TS-69 Dansby Swanson

Some things are just meant to be! I was looking to pick up a repack box to keep these haiku going, and Mr. Swanson here was the top card being displayed. I couldn't think of a better way to help promote Brian's Save Second Base fundraiser over at Collecting Cutch. Every comment on this post helps raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness!

Time Travel Trading Update #46

Marty: What about all that talk about screwing up future events? The spacetime continuum?

Doc: Well, I figured, what the hell?

- "Back To The Future"

On the TCDB, I have two collections - my main one and one for the Time Travel Trading Project cards. All of Time Travel cards are marked as "For Trade". For those unfamiliar with the Database, members can mark cards for their want list as well as for sale/trade. This make it easy for other members to search for cards you may have available, and offer cards you may want. 

The big problem  I run into (and I'm sure I've mentioned this before) is that the searches don't differentiate between collections. Therefore I get a lot of trade offers where someone wants a vintage card from my Time Travel collection, but offers something modern off of my want lists in return. This happened 4 times since my last update. When these trade offers come in, I have a few options:

Option #1

The first thing I'll do is check the other person's collection and see what else they have available for trade. If they have older cards that would satisfy my project's parameters, I'll offer a counter-proposal and explain what my project is about. This is the case with Timothy, who had his eye on a few 1960 Topps cards I had. Fortunately, he had a few 50's card on his trade list, and we were able to work out a deal: 

 

Option #2

If the other trader doesn't have older cards on his trade list, I'll look at my personal collection and see if I have any doubles that I could use in their place. I'll essentially make a trade with myself for the Time Travel cards, add them to my collection, then make the trade. Two of the trade offers I received were of this variety, and so now I pulled these cards from my collection and added them to the stack:

Option #3

Well, Option #3 has never come into play before now. It's not something I thought would ever happen, honestly. Here's the story: A TCDB member messaged me and stated he was very interested in the '55 Bowman cards I had. The problem was he didn't have anything older and wanted to know if there was any way I'd part with them for cards that were newer than 1955. The whole premise of the project is to trade for older cards, but I broke my own rule and made the trade anyway. I have a few reasons why:

• The trader who contacted me, Jason, has participated in my Time Travel Trading twice before. In fact, he's the generous collector who gave me the two oldest cards currently in the trade stack. This was an opportunity to repay some of that generosity.
• I've found with this project that it's hard to trade cards from the fifties. There really aren't many potential traders who have even older cards they are willing to give up. As a result, I have a bit of a bottleneck with cards from this decade. I've often wondered how I can encourage more trading involving these older cards.
• As I was looking through Jason's trade list, an idea came to me. Yes, the cards I'm getting back are newer, but I saw an opportunity to potentially get some legendary names from an oddball set that doesn't seem get a lot of "screen time" in the online community.

After some back and forth negotiating (which was incredibly fun because we kept injecting "Back To The Future" references in our correspondence), we finally pulled the trigger. This is what I ended up with: 

 

Yep, I actually sought out Yankees! These were released by Jay Publishing in 1963, and although the Database list them among the card sets, these are more like 5x7 photographs. Hey, if the TCDB counts them, then so do I! Still, it's not often you have a Yogi Berra from his playing days for trade (Ford and Howard are no slouches either - RIP Whitey!) and I'm very interested in seeing what kind of offers these three will generate.

There was one trade I made that was just a straight-up classic trade. Thanks to a collector named Sky, I turned a 1966 football card into a team card from a long since gone team: 

 

Thanks to all my trade partners! If you see something you're interested in, let me know!

The Time Travel Trade Stack:

2018 Topps
#502 Xander Bogaerts

2017-1018 Pocket Schedule
Carolina Hurricanes

2017 Bowman
#12 Trea Turner

2008-09 O-Pee-Chee (hockey)
#128 Tim Thomas

1998 Score
#68 Scott Rolen
#74 Mark McLemore

1994 Sportflics
#113 Pete Harnisch

1993 Classic Draft Picks (basketball)
#33 Will Flemons
#67 Bennie Seltzer

1992 Fleer Ultra
#594 Dave Righetti

1991 Upper Deck
#778 Dave Righetti

1990 Fleer
#629 Jose Canseco (POD)

1990 Upper Deck
#626 Frank Viola

1990 Pro Set - Theme Art (football)
#10 Super Bowl X Pittsburgh Steelers / Dallas Cowboys 

1989 Fleer
#29 Bob Welch

1989 Score
#495 Larry Parrish

 

1987 Donruss

#34 Terry Steinbach (RC, RR)

1986 Topps
#5 Rose Special '75-'78
#6 Rose Special '79-'82
#401 Fernando Valenzuela (Turn Back The Clock)
#510 Wade Boggs

1985 Donruss
#305 Steve Carlton
#421 Andre Dawson
#557 Mark Langston (RC)
#616 Joe Carter 

1985 Topps
#694 Joe Carter

1983 Topps
#70 Steve Carlton

1982 Donruss
#74 Carl Yastrzemski
#76 Alan Trammell
#214 Tim Raines
#252 Lee Smith (RC)
#NNO Checklist 545-653

1982 O-Pee-Chee E.T. The Extraterrestrial (non-sport)
#15 Among Elliott's Toys

1982 Topps
#3 Tim Raines (HL)
#34 Joe Sambito
#70 Tim Raines
#74 Bob Clark
#190 J.R. Richard
#303 Bill Caudill
#399 Pat Zachry
#401 Johnny Bench (IA)
#462 Dave Chalk
#480 Steve Carlton
#651 Carl Yastrzemski (IA)
#754 Joe Morgan 

1981 Fleer
#268 Rod Carew

1981 Topps

#82 Astros Future Stars (RC)
#98 Clint Hurdle
#121 Larry Harlow

#194 Rod Scurry
#250 Ron Guidry
#259 Mets Future Stars
#363 Geoff Zahn

#365 Graig Nettles

#374 Tom Hutton
#414 John Pacella

#415 Ben Oglivie

#465 Bill Russell

#477 Luis Gomez 
#494 Bob Walk
#530 Steve Garvey
#560 Joe Morgan

#569 Al Williams

#632 Alan Bannister

1980 Topps
#29 Mark Wagner
#88 Ken Landreaux

#90 Manny Trillo 
#143 Bruce Bochte

#145 Darrell Evans
#157 Willie Wilson
#325 Dan Driessen
#362 Danny Goodwin
#406 Paul Molitor
#572 Jerry Morales
#642 Ken Forsch
#655 Tug McGraw 
#671 A's Future Stars

1979 Topps
#25 Steve Carlton
#130 Bob Watson
#214 Boston Red Sox (TC) 
#465 Reggie Smith

1978 Topps
#148 Andre Thorton

#295 Bill Lee
#373 Jim Willoughby
#385 Tito Fuentes
#424 Boston Red Sox (TC)
#482 Rick Miller
#706 Rookie 1st Baseman (Cage/Cox/Putnam/Revering) 

1976 Funky Sales Corp Funky Facts Baseball
#2 In A Trance
#3 Fans Vs Players
#5 Baseballeese

1976 Topps
#70 Roy Smalley/Roy Smalley Jr. (FS)
#196 1975 AL RBI Leaders (Scott/Mayberry/Lynn)

1976 Wonder Bread (football)  
#17 Bill Bergey

1975 Topps
#310 '74 Victory Leaders
#378 Derrel Thomas
#402 Bob Tolan

1974 Topps
#38 Don Kessinger
#67 Tommy Helms
#107 Alex Johnson
#141 Pat Bourque
#158 Jack Billingham
#158 Jack Billingham
#227 Mike Lum 
#349 John Vukovich
#534 Eddie Watt
#572 Enzo Hernandez
#638 Ken Sanders
#660 Larry Dierker

1974 Topps - Team Checklists
#NNO Montreal Expos

1974 Topps - Traded
#270T Ron Santo

#458T Jim Ray
#496T Tom Murphy

1974 Wonder Bread (football)
#8 Bob Griese 

1973-74 O-Pee-Chee (hockey)
#53 Richard Lemieux

1973 Topps
#29 Tony Taylor 
#30 Tug McGraw
#68 1972 Leading Firemen (Carroll/Lyle)
#75 Vada Pinson
#79 Jim Willoughby (RC)
#80 Tony Oliva
#102 Rudy May
#116 Ralph Houk (MGR)
#145 Bobby Bonds
#215 Dusty Baker
#225 Albert Oliver
#230 Joe Morgan
#232 Ken Singleton
#240 Bobby Murcer
#258 Tommy John
#325 Boog Powell
#329 Ed Kranepool
#365 Rico Petrocelli
#368 Bill Buckner

1972 Topps
#33 Billy Martin (MGR)
#43 Rick Wise
#163 Tug McGraw
#197 Johnny Briggs
#225 World Series Game 3 - Manny Sanguillen
#231 Casey Cox
#239 Tom Timmermann
#266 Bobby Bolin
#363 Ron Klimkowski
#373 John Mayberry
#438 Maury Wills (IA)
#451 Tony LaRussa

1972 Topps (football)
#111 Jim Tyrer
#114 Bob James (RC)

1971 Topps
#16 Ken Singleton (RC)
#63 AL 1970 RBI Leaders (Howard/Conigliaro/Powell)

#63 AL 1970 RBI Leaders (Howard/Conigliaro/Powell)

#69 AL 1970 Pitching Leaders  (Cuellar/McNally/Perry)
#71 AL 1970 Strikeout Leaders (McDowell/Lolich/Johnson)
#90 Joe Pepitone
#95 Luis Tiant
#105 Tony Conigliaro
#146 Ralph Houk (MGR)
#195 AL Playoffs Game 1 - Powell Muscles Twins!
#208 Billy Martin (MGR)
#270 Rico Carty
#328 World Series Game 2 - Bufird Goes 2-4 (WS)
#374 Clete Boyer
#374 Clete Boyer
#388 Al Oliver

1971 Topps (football)
#22 Ken Avery (RC)
#110 Floyd Little (AS)
#176 Mac Percival

1971 Topps - Games Insert (football)
#38 Matt Snell
 
1970 Brooke Bond North American Wildlife In Danger (non-sport)
#32 Polar Bear

1970 Topps
#18 Carlos May

#37 Dick Drago 

#47 Bob Miller

#200 1969 AL Playoffs Game 2 
#390 Willie Davis
#457 Rico Petrocelli (AS)

1969 Topps
#66 Orioles Rookies
#80 Norm Cash
#131 Chris Cannizarro 
#139 Andy Kosco
#182 Bill Rigney (MGR)
#484 Joe Gordon (MGR) 

1969 Topps - Deckle Edge
#13 Mel Stottlemyer

1969 Topps (football)
#73 Bennie McRae
#115 Randy Johnson 
#154 Sam Baker
#175 Joe Morrison

1968 Topps
#4 1967 AL RBI Leaders (Yastrzemski/Killebrew/Robinson)
#7 1967 NL ERA Leaders (Niekro/Bunning/Short)
#44 Frank Kostro
#181 Jerry Zimmerman
#260 Jim Wynn 
#309 Ken Henderson
#348 Larry Colton/Dick Thoenen
#449 Gene Oliver
#519 Jerry Stephenson 

1967 Philadelphia (football)
#109 New York Giants (TC)

1967 Topps
#1 The Champs (F. Robinson/Bauer/B. Robinson)
#348 Tug McGraw
#366 Andy Kosco

1966 Topps
#46 Howie Koplitz

#154 Chuck Hiller

#575 Earl Wilson

1965 Topps
#17 Johnny Romano
#27 Dick Bertell
#86 Les Narum
#87 Nelson Mathews
#108 Don Mincher
#111 Lee Thomas
#178 Dalton Jones

#267 Washington Senators (TC)
#307 Barry Latman
#352 Alex Johnson (RC)

1965 Philadelphia (football)
#193 John Paluck

1964 Philadelphia (football)
#172 Ken Gray (RC)

1964 Topps
#18 Billy O'Dell
#45 Milt Pappas
#92 Steve Ridzik
#341 Jim Roland 

1964 Topps - Coins 
#7 Frank Malzone

 

1963 Jay Publishing New York Yankees

#NNO Yogi Berra

#NNO Whitey Ford

#NNO Elston Howard

1963 Topps
#155 Bill Stafford

1961 Topps
#32 Ray Sadecki
#38 Bob Lillis
#96 Billy O'Dell
#98 2nd Series Checklist 89-176 (CL, VAR)
#258 Jack Sanford
#267 Norm Siebern
#399 Cliff Cook (RC) 

1960 Topps
#289 Willie Jones

1959 Topps
#298 Tex Clevenger
#424 Ken Aspromonte
#424 Ken Aspromonte  

#521 Gary Geiger

1959 Topps (football)
#80 Joe Perry

 

1958 Topps

#289 Series Hurling Rivals (CPC)

1958 Topps Zorro (non-sport)
#83 Rude Awakening

1957 Topps
#212 Rocky Colavito (RC)
#249 Dave Pope
#406 Bob Hale

1956 Topps 
#103 Willie Miranda (white back)
#156 Johnny Antonelli

1956 Topps Flags of the World (non-sport)
#70 Jordan

1955 Topps
#45 Hank Sauer

1954 Bowman
#16 Jim Wilson
#73 Don Mueller

1954 Bowman Power For Peace (non-sport)
#91 USS Coral Sea (CVB43)

 

1953 Topps

#35 Irv Noren

1952 Bowman
#57 Clyde Vollmer

1938 Church & Dwight Useful Birds Of America Tenth Series (J9-6) (non-sport)
#2 Black-throated Green Warbler

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: 64
Unique trading partners: 37

Number of cards mailed out: 207
Year of oldest card mailed out: 1955

Number of cards received: 429
Year of oldest card received: 1915

Top 5 Tribute: Bob Gibson

2020 sure is hitting us baseball fans hard, isn't it? Seaver, Brock, and now Bob Gibson - this just sucks. Gibson hits a little close to home only because he was my uncle's favorite player. Once again, I present the Top 5 cards in my collection (plus a bonus) in chronological order.

 

1971 Topps #450

 

This card was one of the first I ever showed off on my blog. As I have said, my uncle is a big Cardinals fan, and Gibson was his favorite player. I got this card from him, and it's the one card I'll always associate with him.

 

1988 Topps #664

Like a lot of people my age, my first experience with legends from our past came from these Turn Back The Clock cards. To be honest, this was probably my first Gibson card.

 

1989 Topps Kahn's Cooperstown #NNO

Two things I love about this card: The windup pose, which is phenomenal, and the fact on the back that his nickname was "Hoot" - before this card, I never knew he had a nickname other than "Gibby".

 

1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes #130

This card almost has a Conlon Collection/Sporting News feel to it. I always like the black and white photos, although that yellow diamond behind his head is a little distracting.

 

2019 Stadium Club #266 

 We'll finish off the tribute with this red foil parallel from last year's Stadium Club set. Everyone remembers how incredible of a pitcher he was, but Gibson was a great fielder too. He won 9 straight Gold Gloves from 1965-1973. Whatever he's chasing here you can bet turned into an out.

Bonus card

1959 Topps #514

 

Gibson died after a long fight with pancreatic cancer. In this past week since he's died, I've had Facebook memories remind me of a college friend who also died of pancreatic cancer 3 years ago plus a former coworker/friend who passed from breast cancer 16 years ago. Brian at Collecting Cutch has been holding another contest during his annual Save Second Base series for Breast Cancer Awareness month. This contest involves showing off pink cards and Brian will make a donation for each comment on that post towards the cause. I've been trying not to just shoehorn a pink card into my posts for a cheap contest entry, but with all these reminders how cancer sucks, I figured showing off Gibson's pink rookie card seemed appropriate, even if I don't own it. 

RIP Bob Gibson, you will be missed!

Repack Haiku #173 (Jim Wohlford)

Yogi's famous quote:

"Baseball is ninety percent..." 

First coined by Wohlford!

 

1987 Topps #527 Jim Wohlford

 

It's one of baseball's greatest Yogi-isms: “Baseball is ninety percent mental, and the other half is physical”. The truth of the matter is, that phrase is not a Yogi original! Jim Wohford is actually credited with the first recorded instance of the phrase "Ninety per cent of this game is half mental." in 1974. Yogi may have put his own unique spin on it, but Wohlford is the one that got paid $50 by Reader's Digest for its Notable Quotables!

First Impressions: 2020 Stadium Club

I found Stadium Club! Granted, well after everyone else, but who cares! There were actually cards...at Wal-Mart...that I wanted to buy! Good grief I feel like I found a twenty on the sidewalk or something.

Anyway, now that I can actually hold these cards in hand, I can sift through and give my impressions.

#211 Lance McCullers Jr.

 

 

The honorary first card goes to the son of Lance McCullers. Stadium Club dares to show a hint of color design-wise with their little rainbow of litmus strips. I'm not a huge fan of the abbreviated team names and all lowercase player names, but with Stadium Club you expect beautiful full photography with minimal design elements. You still get that here so it's all good.

#118 Jacob deGrom

 

*squints* Oh, there he is! I found deGrom! I'm pretty sure Waldo is in the stands there somewhere too. Are we sure this isn't just a advertisement for Chick-Fil-A and Coca Cola?
 

#186 Austin Nola (RC)

#236 Alex Bregman

#85 Kyle Hendricks

 

This looks like a good spot to look at the back. Once again, a fairly typical Stadium Club back - head shot, short write-up, brief stats - all nicely displayed against a soft but decorative background.
 

#6 Abraham Toro (RC)

#168 Ryne Sandberg

 

Once again, Stadium Club includes retired greats from years past. Here we have Sandberg floating in the air, much to the terror of some poor soul beneath him.
 

#PZ-19 Kris Bryant (Power Zone insert)

 

 

We come across the first insert of the pack, Power Zone featuring Kris Bryant. If there's a criticism to Stadium Club's wonderful photography, it's that it makes the set's graphically heavy insert sets really look like they don't belong. It's a nice looking card, don't get me wrong, it just doesn't fit that Stadium Club "brand".

#165 Stephen Strasburg (Members Only parallel)

My other non-base card of the pack is from the Member's Only parallel set. As far as stamped parallel sets go, this isn't all that exciting. Yawn.

#262 Zac Gallen (RC)

#210 Eduardo Escobar

#174 Gio Urshela

 

All in all, this pack was kind of a let down. I didn't seem to get any of the "Wow" cards that Stadium Club is famous for. I know they're there. I've seen them! I just didn't pull any this go-around. Still, Stadium Club remains one of the best sets of the year, and maybe, just maybe, I'll be lucky enough to grab a few more next time I'm in Wal-Mart.

How I Spent My $25 From Ebay

 

To be honest, I didn't think it would happen.

In my twenties, I used eBay a lot. I was one of those people that supplemented their income by going to yard sales and then flipping what I found online. It wasn't a bad side hustle. I still remember my biggest score - a stack of vintage Sports Illustrated magazines from the 60's and 70's that I had little trouble selling for well over what I paid. 

That was a long time ago, and I haven't sold anything since them. My purchases were rare as well. So much so that when I logged in last year, my account was gone. Despite my email still being on file, I had to create a new eBay ID. My sale/purchase history, all of my positive feedback - gone. So, when I started reading about people getting $25 credit on eBay, I figured I wouldn't be one of them.

Then I got the email. Sure enough, I got eBay's golden ticket - a code for $25 off my next purchase. I wasn't going to let that slip away, so I logged onto eBay and started searching.

I figured this would be a good opportunity to add an autographed Red Sox card to my collection, so that's what I searched for, keeping my price range in that golden $25.01-$30.00 range. Lots of great Red Sox players popped up - a signed Mo Vaughn, a Dwight Evans relic/auto, Wade Boggs - the possibilities were endless!

Then I saw it. A card that just was too beautiful to pass up. The price was right too - $25.56, free shipping. After applying my $25 gift, I spent (with tax) a grand total of $1.91 for this:

I couldn't go wrong with a Red Sox Hall of Famer like Jim Rice! The card itself, a 2013 Topps Five-Star, is amazing, and Rice has one of the cleanest signatures in baseball. The card is incredibly thick - not exactly sure but I want to say about 1/4 inch, and is serial numbered to 386 copies. It looks great in hand and I'm so excited to add it to my collection!

Thanks eBay!

Repack Haiku #172 (Eric Chavez)

Never an All-Star

Played thirteen years in Oakland

One less than Rickey

1999 Pacific #308 Eric Chavez (RC)

Henderson's 14 years as an Athletic were non-consecutive, while Chavez played for the team from 1998 - 2010.