Trip to the card store

In my search for some vintage cards I made my way over to the LCS to see what he had in stock. He seems to have a lot more 1973 cards these days and that's exactly up my alley! I picked up quite a few cards for that set as well as a couple of more cool vintage cards.


Vintage has been giving me a much better feeling with my collection than just ripping open random packs. I'm not much into current sets, so I'm going to focus more on the older stuff.

I first started liking the 73 set because of the action shots I saw on the blogs. Like most sets there is a plethora of posed shots, but first I want to start off with a rare candid shot.



What a happy looking card. Smiling player spending time in the sun. With a name like May to boot! Looks like he's having a genuine good time in this photo. According to the back his nickname is "Daisy". No wonder then. Seems like a happy fellow.

It's kind of cool when you grab a bunch of cards that seem to have some connection.

This was a dup I picked because I was too stupid to pick up the smart phone and check my want list as I was picking out cards. Oh well, it was an upgrade to the card I already had.

A more prominent shot of Chaney is this one of Game 3 of the World Series between the Reds and A's.


Kind of an obvious with Chaney featured so prominently in the foreground. He's still not the actual subject of the action though. It's the dude sliding to home.



Another example would be this one of "Odom Out at Plate". To me, the main subject of the card is Oklahoma's own Johnny Bench. I guess that's the whole point of the "out at plate" thing. My first Bench card during his playing years. Pretty cool.



I picked up this nice Jim Fregosi card for two reasons: it's a nice action shot and it's a 71. I'm slowly picking up 71's and 72's when I see them. Those might be the next two sets I work on later. I have a tendency to jump around from set to set.

I recalled the name Fregosi, but it wasn't until I pulled this out of the box that I remembered he was a Met.

Uggh. A big contrast to the epic horizontal swing action shot in the 71 card. A couple of guys looking up for the ball. Somewhat interesting looking fans in the background, but bored looking teammates in the dugout all conspire to make this a pretty lame "action" shot.



This Lindy McDaniel card was an anomaly in the 25 cent box. Normally any former OU players or players who were born or reside in Oklahoma go in the more expensive OKLAHOMA PLAYERS box. I haven't been over to that box in a while. I guess Lindy was TRADED to the cheap 25 cent box. I can't think of a more humiliating card to have your face on. This was one of a few 1974 cards that I'm interested in because I knew he was in the Traded set. They editors really did a number on the hat. I think they may have even deleted some of the clouds in the background.

It's good that I'm not a real writer, if I were headlines like this would be the norm.

I guess that explains Lou as a Royal. I never really think of Lou as anything but a Yankee.
Alright, that's all I got for this installment of cheap guy goes to the card store. I have some vintage planned for later on this week.

Trade with Dan's other World

I don't know why I think of this comic book every time I try to start this blog post about my trade with Dan at dans other world.

I don't know if it's because I was organizing my comics at the same I received the package from Dan or what. The comic does have an other worldly feel to it though. Might be a cool idea for a blog header.

Don't get the wrong idea, I don't normally think of bloggers or any dudes in their underwear. Something just struck my about this old Eightball comic. I have a feeling this doesn't accurately depict Dan. I'm pretty sure he's not able to float in space and time. He's probably also past the braces phase of his life.

And now for one of the most awkward segues ever:

Let's look at some cards that he sent over.

As most of you know Topps as gone a little insert crazy over the past couple of years. Allen and Ginter was one that hadn't been over run with inserts until 2011 A&G was released. In addition to the mini sets we were treated (tortured?) with a bunch of inserts. Coupled with some other financial stuff I needed the help of trades to help me collect the set.


Since 2006 A&G has included a small sketch card subset. As an aspiring sketch card artist I always look forward to this set. It never seems to disappoint. This years sketches seem a little more digitally altered than the last 5 offerings.



Horizontal cards in A&G look a little strange, but I still like them. Horizontal = action shots so that's why I like them a little better than the posed shots.




Stan the Man Lee. Without guys like Stan Lee we might not have had comics like the Eightball comic shown above. If Daniel Clowes came across this post he might have a different opinion. He's the writer/artist for that comic and has done a few parodies of super hero comics as well as a somewhat scathing depiction of a Stan Lee-esque character in one of his comics.



Thanks to Dan I didn't have to wait long to get my hands on this card of Hope Solo. This was one of the cards I was looking forward to pulling in 2011. I really liked watching those girls play. I was hoping they could pull it out in the end.

A nice Manny card.

A few Mets cards were in the package. This one of Beltran was nice and fit in my team set binder with the other 1960's themed Heritage cards.



Lastly the next to last card to finish off the first 50 of the Kimball Champions subset. I only need one more card! This was, and still is a nice looking set. When I get the whole thing together I can scan all the pages to show off how cool they look in the binder.

Thanks for the nice cards Dan, I'm sorry it took me so long to get to the trade post. Hope I didn't offend you by comparing you to a cartoon man in his underwear!

Sorry it took me so long to get the trade post out.

vintage weekend

I haven't done one of these in a while so it's about time for another installment. I used to do these types of posts on Saturday, but I had a friend come into town, so I didn't have enough time to play with my cards yesterday. Hence, the Vintage Sunday rather than Vintage Saturday post.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the local flea market in search of the holy trinity of junk: old cameras, baseball cards and comic books. I didn't find any cameras at all which was pretty disappointing, the comics I found were over priced, but I did find some random cards to pick up.

One of the booths that I visited had the best stuff. He was selling a bunch of relics and autos that were a little too pricey for me. He also had a complete set of 1962 Post cereal box "cards" for the bargain price of 300 smackers. Nice set, but a little too much for me. I settled for a pack of 89 Fleer, a shrink wrapped box of a 1992 Heisman set and some random assortment of Stadium Club. I've had some good luck finding packs of Stadium Club, but not this time.

The cards in the "packs" weren't so good, but I did get a few cards of some nice players.

This card is a little odd: Wade is basically congratulating somebody else's home run. It's an odd choice, but he's definitely the subject of the card.

Will Clark is somebody I recognize. I know that it's one of Brian's fav's. Still, it's kind of pedestrian shot. I don't know much about the Member's Choice parallels.


Nobody that I particularly collect, and the saddest part is that their weren't any cool action shots. Stadium club is known for cool action shots, I wasn't really feeling any of these cards. They just didn't do it for me. At least the John Russel card will go into the Oklahoma binder which is still under construction.

The Heisman Collection box yielded some nice cards. They are all reproductions of the paintings that hang on the walls of the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan.

I know a lot of people don't like what the Heisman ceremony has become. I could count myself as one of those people. I don't think it really goes to the most outstanding player in college football anymore. It really helps that you play in a major conference. I think they over look a lot of nice players. I'm glad Robert Griffin III won it this past year though. He's an outstanding player and should have won it. He brought a lot of attention to Baylor a doormat in the Big XII these past 14 + years and gave them something to be excited about. A lot of people count the game against Oklahoma as the game that won him the Heisman. I'm not so sure about that, but it certainly didn't hurt to beat a top ten team decisively. There I go again, always trying to bring the focus on OU.


Oh look! A cool card of former Oklahoma running back Steve Owens. I did it again. Sorry, but it's my only card of his at this point. I know there are some nice ones of his and I have waited too long to grab some of his cards. He's a pretty nice guy in person too. He signed a book and a football for my mom.

No vintage card post could be complete without an afro. Billy is also a great guy in person. He was nice enough to sign a photo and talk to me for a while a few years ago when I was trying to get an autograph for my mom's Christmas present. She now has two out of five OU Heisman autos. It's going to be tough to find one of Billy Vessels. (He passed away in 2001).


Johnny Rodgers also makes an appearance. He is famous to OU fans as being that guy that ran the punt back for a touchdown in the Game of the Century. Apparently the Heisman people took note; it mentions this fact on the back of the card. Shades of Robert Griffin III? Okay, I'm doing it again. I won't be that guy that thinks the world revolves around his team, but there seems to be some evidence to the contrary. I think maybe Oklahoma is the center of the college football world.

Here's a video of the punt return:




Alright then. I don't have much else in the tank. I didn't show off the pack of 89 Fleer, mainly because there wasn't much to show. The flea market guy had a whole box and I only bought one pack. If I had remembered the Billy Ripken card was in that set I would have probably bought the whole box. I wouldn't mind pulling one of the variations of those cards, especially the one with the curse word on it.

Hopefully I can get around to showing off some cool vintage stuff from the card store this week.

Another package from Crinkly Wrappers

Feb. 26th 2011. Almost a year ago today. A young blogger in Oklahoma was celebrating the recent Super bowl Game when he started this blog post.


The Packers win over the Steelers was still fresh in our minds and the world was abuzz with the newest craze: blow up bras.

Nobody seemed to notice that everything was in black and white though. Odd.

It was around that time that I received this package from Ted of Crinkly Wrappers fame. He and I had set up a trade. My memory is foggy on what I sent him. Probably not nearly as good as what I received.


He sent me what appears to be almost a complete Packers team set from 2010 Topps Foot, plus inserts. Really nice stuff.


This is my one and only Green Bay sticker card. I didn't jump on the sticker bandwagon this past summer/fall like everyone else. Money was a little hard to come by. Hobby stuff took a back seat to car stuff. You know how that goes. I'm trying to decide to stick this on my green colored Green Bay binder or just leave it be. I'm thinking sticking it would be a nice little bit of flair to the front of the binder. What do you guys do with your stickers? Stick'em or leave them in the pages?



I believe this is my one and only stadium Club chrome. I didn't know they existed.

I think it's from the Trading Card History insert from 2008 something. I'm assuming the flagship product, but I'm not that sure because I wasn't really collecting in 2008.



I pulled a really cool Albert Pujols Bazooka Joe card. Actually I pulled a few of them, but no David Wright so this is really cool. Mostly I like it when cartoons and real photos meet. This card brings out the kid in me.


Likewise, mascot cards are also fun cards to collect.

My 2010 Turkey Red pulls were almost non-existent mainly because I didn't rip much of 2010 Baseball. I like the design better than 2009 Turkey Red, but by the time 2010 came out I was a little tired of trying to get all 150 cards in the set. I was happy with the two or three that I pulled from packs, and of course this one too. This would be a nice subset to go after one of these days.



Next up is a couple of refractors.


A cool action shot of Mr. Bay.



....and one of the nicest action shots in last years baseball set. Also one of the more former photogenic players on the team.


Lastly, but not least is a Kimball Champions David Wright. Nice looking card. I'm sort of procrastinating on this set right now, but it's going to get finished one of these days. I'm pretty close on the first 50. I just need one more card.

Thanks again for the cards Ted. Sorry it took me a year to get around to thanking you.

My little 2012 baseball experience

See a few reviews of flagship online hasn't really moved me much. I'm not going after this years set, but after buying a few packs at Walmart the other day I think the design isn't really that bad in person. The photos are nice, but the photos have been pretty nice for the past couple of years though. Cool photos aren't really enough to draw me in this year, especially with all the inserts. It's taken me a couple of years, but I'm finally disgusted with all the inserts. It came to a head with last summers A&G release.

One of the reasons why I'm not going after this set is that I'm saving up for Allen and Ginter this summer. I'm going to have to save up; it looks like this years A&G also has a bunch of inserts. I think I'm going to like the inserts a little better, but still it's a lot of product to buy to finish off any of the subsets, not to mention the regular set.

Also, I'm going to focus on the other sets I'm working on. I'm going to do a lot more vintage this year. It's one area of my collection that I've neglected. There is some really nice stuff on COMC and I want to see what I can do to fill out some player collections.

At first I wasn't even going to buy one pack. I resisted Lineage and a few other products this year, but I knew I would eventually buy a few packs to see what the new cards look like. It's hard not to when you see so many bloggers online ripping open packs.

Also, a couple of cards stand out to me. The Mickey Mantle and the Antonio Bastardo cards would be nice to own. I'll probably just go online to find those singles and the Mets team set.


First card up is of Mariano. This is a guy I like so we're off to a good start. I like the design a lot better in person too.

Okay, the second card is David Wright. Uh oh, Now I'm getting a little more into this set. They're dragging me in.

Okay, now we're back down to earth. A nice looking insert, but of a player that I don't really like much.


Recently I bought a bunch of 87 minis at a flea market. I think I would rather finish that set rather than this one. It still would be cool to have the David Wright mini though if there is one.
A nice looking mini. I was wondering how these would look in person. The rough,old school back is nice.


This is how they compare the 87 League Leaders mini and A&G in size.




Second pack yielded a gold Josh Reddick. Cool photo, but I'm so tired of the parallels now.


I also pulled a golden giveaway card. The site isn't up yet. I'm not as stoked to redeem it as I have in years past.


Yep, that's about what I thought. I didn't even pull any cool action shots out of these two packs to scan. I now there is some cool Gatorade shots and I know there are going to be some really nice action shots in the set, but I'm a little burned out on flagship. I was hoping to pull some cards as trade filler and I came up a little short on that end.

Although I won't be collecting this years set it will still be tough to resist buying a few more packs here and there.

In my totally and biased 2 pack review I give 2012 Topps Baseball 1 and a half Reytings:


If I buy a few more packs and pull some awesome action shots like the Update Dee Gordon card or a Bastardo then I'll bump up that Reyting a little.