Trade with Carl Crawford cards

I've been knee deep in work, water and card trades these past few weeks and with all the work and dodging puddles I haven't had a chance to post about the cool trades going on in my life.

Paul from Carl Crawford Cards was cool enough to send some stuff over in trade for a Tampa Bay Price card I pulled from Goodwin Champions.

He sent me a few Mets for my collection. These are from around the time that I stopped collecting, so that's nice to have a bunch of "new" stuff.




It's funny that these older cards seem so thin compared to the newer cards. It's true, some of the newer cards are kind of thin, but that's only in comparison to some of the thicker card sets. Makes you wonder if we've just become too spoiled. Maybe it's the fact that they've aged, I'm not sure if cardboard becomes weaker with age.





He sent me my first Heritage Chrome card.
It's interesting that the front is all new and shiny and the backs are rough like an older card.



I didn't realize that they were serial numbered. I don't know much about Heritage. The few I have are from trades and the occasional repack. The repacks were from '07 or '08 I think and they don't look as good as these 2009s' do. I might have to pick up a blaster or two of these if I can find any.

He sent me a couple of Yankees cards specifically Derek Jeter. He and Mariano are my two favorite current Yankees.

These cards didn't really come out so good in the scans.

This is a 2002 Bowman Chrome. I like that the ball is captured on the card. Jeter looks pretty young on this one.

Here's another Jeter 2000 Bowman Chrome.
The player window is pretty nice. I like the curved top and the drop shadow on the right of the window. Bowman cards all seem to have many little horizontal stripes on the front.

2001 Topps Finest.


Crazy design behind a pretty nice action shot of Jeter batting. I like the stylized baseball diamond directly behind him with the Yankees logo at home plate.

I mentioned before about how young he looks in these cards. Look at this back.


The photos on all these card backs are different than the ones on the front. That's cool. The stat window on this appears to be a gold plate on a rough rock-like background. It's kind of nice. It makes the text stand out.

Thanks again for the cards, I'll keep an eye out for any Carl Crawford cards to send out.

Gift from Collective Troll

I love it when I get mail. So nice to get a trade package from a fellow blogger. Marck from Collective Troll sent over some cards for my collection.



Something I didn't notice before is that there are also vertical lines in the brown part of the card. I'm guessing to look like a wood picket fence? Sort of like we are viewing DiMaggio through a knot hole. Kind of cool.






The photos for all these cards are the same, but look better than the Mickey Mantle Home Run insert from the 2006 topps cards.





These Home Run cards from 08 Heritage are a lot better looking. This was also from Collective Troll.


Here is the back.

He sent over a couple of Jeter Goudey cards.

A posed shot in 2008 Goudey.




....and an action shot in 2009 Goudey.



An opening day card of Jeter. He just tied Gehrig for hits last night.


A couple of my favorite pitcher who isn't named Johan.

Nice Action Shot!!! Cool follow through card.

A nice Dick Perez sketch card from 2008 Heritage. He seems a little "sleepy" here.



My favorite 3rd baseman. Sounds like title for a TV show. I love the dejection of the Nationals player.


Cool diving shot!



My eye immediately found this card in the huge stack of cards that the Troll sent me. I love this design. It's a 1965 Topps design and I think it's an insert from '07 Heritage? I'm not really sure. I really like the pennant with the logo inside and the bright colors around the border.



My big chase is the black bordered minis from 09 Allen and Ginter. I'm still collecting the base set too. I've got a hobby box coming soon though. Hopefully that will get me a lot closer to finishing that set.



This is one of those cards where I can't tell if it's an actual game shot or just a pre-game warm up shot.



Another creepy little kid expression from A-rod. This time in mini format. Everytime I think of A-rod it's from the 2000 national championship game when OU played Florida State. He was on the sideline and he kept saying "Championchips" instead of championships. Like the world champion potato chip exhibition was being held in Pro Player stadium. The only reason why he was being interviewed was because as a Miami grad he thought that if FSU won that Miami U would get a piece of the national championship or in his case a bag of champion chips. Didn't happen. That was one of the few bowl games that we actually won.

Thanks again to the Collective Troll for his generosity in sending so many nice cards over.

mail day! ( or why I think Night Owl might be The Shadow)

disclaimer: everything you read in this post is true, I might have exaggerated a little at the end, but everything that happened, happened EXACTLY the way I've described it.


I found a few packages waiting for me today in the old mailbox. One was from an ebay purchase and the other was from another blogger that we all know by the name of Night Owl.

First the ebay thing. I recently have gotten in the (bad) habit of checking ebay for an easy, quick way to finish off some sets and inserts that are giving me trouble.

Actually I'd rather trade than buy simply because I'd like to help other people with their collections and of course it's fun to get stuff in the mail. Buying it outright just seems a little too easy sometimes. I guess it's necessary though. I'm trying to collect the entire A&G black border minis and I think ebay is going to account for finishing a majority of that set.

The only problem with trading is that I don't really have enough cards to really help people out that much. I also hate that I don't have enough extra cards to send along with the trade. That still doesn't stop me from pestering people to trade with me though. Sorry in advance everyone!!

Anyway I really wanted this Mickey Mantle card after seeing it on a blog.
It's because of the stadium seating in the background and the upper deck shadows over the spectators gives it a lot of depth.

I know that the blogger was a big Yankees fan and wouldn't part with it anyway, so I thought I'd check out ebay.

I "won" it for a very low price, which is cool. I also bid on a few other items from the same seller hoping to get a bunch of different UD Masterpiece cards. Their was this really nice Sandy Koufax card and a great Jackie Robinson card with Jackie sliding into home. I didn't get those, but I still got a few nice cards.


JFK throwing out the first pitch at the new D.C. Stadium. I like the way he looks, but the background not so much. It's a little too cartoony or something for my tastes. When I first saw it, it looked a little like he's in a board of directors meeting or something. Was he throwing out the first pitch in the stands? Maybe they used to do that, I don't know. It seems like he should have been shown with some out of focus ballplayers in the background with the stadium walls in the background or something. Plus I don't believe that dude holding the hat is even looking at the ball. He staring straight into the sun. Idiot.

Anyway I also purchased this one of Derek Jeter.

This is a nice action shot I guess.

I'm really thinking about getting back into painting and I think the Mantle card might make a good candidate for a slim horizontal style painting. I don't know about any sort of copyright problems, but hopefully it will be okay.

Anyway after the ebay stuff I decided to see what Night Owl had in store for me.

I had asked for a couple of Topps cards to fill out my series one needs and I immediately noticed those packed together with what seemed to be another card inside.


Oh! A really nice Juan Pierre card. I like the framing of Pierre between an anonymous player's legs. First thing that comes to mind is the strip club scene in Beverly Hills Cop.


Of course I noticed the bright yellow card of Duke Snider. It was the top card in another package of three.


There was Pee Wee Reese card on the back. An UD '06 All-Time Legends insert I guess.

Really cool start to the package. Inside was a Jackie Robinson card.

I think it's some sort of Topps Stadium club or something. If you look closely enough, he's looking over his shoulder at us. I know Night Owl likes Jackie Robinson a lot. So do I, that's why it's nice that he was kind enough to send me one of his cards.

Really nice surprises so far in addition to the regular cards.

Another 3 pack of cards. On the front is another Pee Wee. This time a Goudey '08. My first Goudey '08. I still don't know the differences between the red and green backs. Pee Wee looks a lot older in this card than he did in the Upper Deck card.


Inside this sleeve on the back was a Russell Martin card. Very nice.

I was really curious to see what would be in the middle of this "pack".

The same Jackie Robinson card I didn't win on Ebay. That's a funny coincidence. I know that we have some of the same tastes in players and teams, but still. I mean, c'mon. That's a little eerie dontcha' think?

Remember when I mentioned earlier wanting to complete the A&G black border set? Yeah I didn't think so. Most of you are probably sleeping through this. Well, it gets a lot more exciting now. I noticed he had another sleeve with some black border minis and another card underneath.

Keep in mind when I saw the minis I was stoked. That's a real nice gesture to send those cards. I still need them too, by the way. I wasn't really expecting people to send those out. They're kind of hard to come by.

Okay this is what was in the sleeve with them.

OH MY GOODNESS!!! Are you kidding me! I couldn't believe it. I'm still looking at it now. Now I'm starting to get a little freaked out.

This is the other card that I didn't get on Ebay. I know what you guys are thinking, those cards can be found relatively easy moron. Just look around. That's actually not the point, it's the fact that he's got super powers or something. Maybe he's Santa Claus. Maybe he's the Shadow. hmm. Yes! Except instead of clouding men's minds HE HAS THE POWER TO READ MEN'S MINDS!

Maybe he has operatives all over the world checking on people's want lists. Or maybe he's just clairavoyant. Hmmm, come to think of it, I remember an owl hanging out in the tree in my front yard. Yeah that's it, he has computerized owls tracking peoples card buying habits.

Just to take a step further, If Night Owl was the character Jerry Thompson in the movie Citizen Kane, there would be no 3 1/2 hour Citizen Kane movie. There would be a 3 1/2 trailer of Citizen Kane. It would go like this:

Newsreel Producer: "find out all you can about Charles Foster Kane. Get to the bottom of "rosebud".

Night Owl: "It's his childhood sleigh named rosebud. Hello! Duh. It's a symbol of something he could never buy, his innocence."

END CREDITS


But seriously though, thanks for the cards. I really, really liked them.

The Masterpieces are nice. I never noticed before that the painting extends beyond the gold frame. You can see it on Sandy Koufax's feet. Especially his right leg. I don't have a lot of these so I don't have much to compare with, but they all look pretty nice.

Thanks again!