Featured Diamond Kings set of the month - January

Welcome to yet another series inspired by my blog goals for the year!  Every month, I will feature a Diamond Kings set in depth.  Gotta stay true to my roots!

I have to start somewhere, so for January, I'll 'begin at the beginning'.  That's right, the originals, the 1982 Donruss Diamond Kings!

Me being THE Diamond King, I have tons of inside information to share on this set!  Never before revealed trivia and minutia!  For example, Dick Perez of Perez/Steele galleries was the man who created the art for the 1982 Diamond Kings set.  See?  Your learning already!  OK, that was lame.  But I bet most of you didn't know that Donruss didn't even pick the players for the set, but Perez and Frank Steele chose, based on the previous years performance?  Awesome!  I want to do that!  THEY were the ones that determined to have exactly one player from each team too.

That brings us to the players featured on the 1982 series.  Keep in mind that they were chosen by Perez/Steele...

1 Pete Rose - First DK ever!

2 Gary Carter - Nice looking card, one of my faves in this set.  Gary's having a tough time with brain cancer right now...

3 Steve Garvey - more on him later

4 Vida Blue

5 Alan Trammell - Another of my faves from this set

6 Len Barker

7 Dwight Evans

8 Rod Carew - awesome!  I miss his weird batting stance.

9 George Hendrick - sorry for the cut off scans

10 Phil Niekro

11 Richie Zisk - Him and Alvin Davis were the only Mariners worth knowing for a while

12 Dave Parker

13 Nolan Ryan

14 Ivan DeJesus - He looks like a strongman.  Nice drawing.

15 George Brett

16 Tom Seaver

17 Dave Kingman - I love this one, plus it's the only one that is so off center that his head covers the banner

18 Dave Winfield - I always thought this drawing made him look kinda wussy

19 Mike Norris

20 Carlton Fisk

21 Ozzie Smith

22 Roy Smalley - I don't know why I like this one so much, but I do.  Smalley could have been in Alvin and the Chipmunks

23 Buddy Bell

24 Ken Singleton

25 John Mayberry

26 Gorman Thomas - Classic Gorman!  The name Gorman Thomas makes me think 'drunk and happy'.  Oh, and strikeouts.
NNO Checklist

One selection that is questioned all the time is Garvey for the Dodgers.  1981, if you weren't around, was the year of Fernando-mania!  He was totally the man!  Maybe Perez and Steele didn't put much stock into rookies?  Fernando made it into the next year's DK's, but I bet he loses sleep to this day over not being in the originals!

The layout and design of the cards is EXTREMELY close to that of the 1983 Diamond Kings.  So close, in fact, that the 2 sets are often mistaken for each other.  Also, all of the backgrounds are horizontal stripey patterns except for the Mayberry and Thomas plus 1/2 of the Carew and Smith.  I wonder if that was a deliberate decision or what?

The 82 set also features the 1st Diamond kings error - No surprise there, Donruss had errors coming out their noses in those days!  This time it was a simple misspelling.  Allen Trammel was spelled with one too few L's.  Allen Trammel.  Like all errors, this one is still worth hundreds of dollars today!  Or not?

I'll try to get next months Diamond Kings post before the very end of the month!

Super Scores at a Trade Only show!

If you only want to see the loot, it's at the bottom, but I think the read is worth it!

I was perusing craigslist last week in the collectibles section as I am known to do.  Actually, this was the first time ever.  There was a lot of stuff for sale, but absolutely nothing that looked worth my time.  I was about to abandon my craigslist experiment to the dark depths of the sea, when an ad for a 'Trading Only Get Together' caught my eye.

Wow!!

Now I love trading with other bloggers and over the internet.  You can find stuff not available in your area and the people are GREAT.  That's right, give yourselves a hand.  Bloggers are awesome people!  But the one thing I have missed more than anything since I came back to the hobby is in-person trading.  I just can't find anyone around here to trade with.

So I made the 30 minute drive to the basement of a church in order to scratch my trading itch!  I had no idea what to expect.  The ad said 'absolutely no selling allowed', but I was still worried that the stereotypical stuffy card show guy would be the norm and that nobody would want my junky stuff.  Spoiler alert, I was pleasantly surprised.

There ended up being six tables set up including me.  They set it up like a card show where everyone had a table and you wandered around trying to make deals.  The guys there ranged all over the map as far as trading personalities.  

The organizer had his teenage son there.  They were easy to deal with.  He got some good stuff from me, but I got plenty back.  Nice guy.

Then there was the slightly greasy twenty-something.  He definitely wanted to get the most out of every trade.  He told you what he wanted to trade you instead of letting you decide what you wanted.  He wasn't as abrasive as it sounds though, and we made a couple of trades.

There was the 2 man team that had some interesting stuff, but didn't want much of mine.  They were very nice though, and fun to talk to.

There was another guy who spent the whole time looking stuff up on Beckett Online.  He was very concerned about price.  I made a trade with him, but it wasn't super fun.  At one point, he said, "It's all about having fun", and the guy next to me snickered and whispered that he was the only guy in the place who didn't look like he was having fun.  The Beckett guy had his 10 year old son with him though, and I made a few trades with him, stressing the fun aspect.  Good kid.

The last guy was great.  We both grabbed stacks from each others tables and made easy trades.  Great guy, seemed like a blogger almost!  He mentioned that his girlfriend was totally into the card thing with him.  That'd be sweet.

Anyway, I totally scored some sweet cards!  Check out the stuff I'm keeping:

The Gossage is cool because of the red stripe, but even more because he's pitching in shorts.  I love it!  Also, the McGwire in the upper right with the $5 price tag, I traded thinking it would be in the $5 range.  But I was curious, so I looked it up in my year old Beckett and it looks like it is the Artists Proof version of a $2 card.  However, the multiplier for artists proofs is x25!  So it's a $50 card!?!?!?  Maybe there was supposed to be a decimal in x25.  Like it should have been x2.5?  Anyone got a new price guide that can check that?

Freaking sweet retired guys!  The Mays/Musial is two of my all time favorites on one card.  It's beat up, but I don't care.  The Dawson is right up my alley with its design.  Very nice looking card, just the kind of Expos stuff I like.  The only thing that would have made it better is if the jersey piece was baby blue to match the jersey the Hawk is wearing.  And the Robinson was just too cool to pass up.  I wonder if he curses the standard sized stickers they send him for autographs.  Loong signature.

Dodgers??  I'm not a Dodgers fan!  But I am definitely a fan of these Dodger cards!  Again, the design of the Parker jersey is perfect.

Rick face!!  I have several of the 'black square' version of this card, but now I have the version that started it all!  Shield your eyes if you are under 18.  Ha ha!

Woah!  1911 T205 Gold Border Ty Cobb!  Books for $4000!  Best find ever!  OK, I know its gotta be a reprint, so there goes the biggest hit of my life, but it still looks cool.  If anyone can help me find out when it was reprinted, that'd be awesome.  It is very obviously old and even has the 'old card smell'.  Anyone??

 

OK, this one I know is real because Beckett says so.  They're God right?  But it IS a cool old card.  1912 Hassan Triple Folders if you can't read the sticker.  It's only 1/3 of the original triple card, but its 100 years old and while Chief Meyers isn't a HOF'er, he was a pretty good player!  Here's his wikipedia entry.

The great thing is that this Trade Only show will be every month!  I traded away all my good stuff, but I still welcome the chance for face to face trading.

My 1 card challenge - Masterpieces

By now you have all heard of Night Owl's latest contribution to the community, the One Card Challenge!  Click on his graphic below to go check it out.

Well, since this site get's tons of traffic from Night Owl, I figured I should return the favor.

And of course, I need 1 card!  The card I need to finish my 2008 Masterpieces set is #110, Yogi Berra.

Help a blogger out if you can!

Philly - The City of Refractorly Love!

Brad from Brad's Blog (no blog to be found... yet?) is a Philly fan.  He expressed interest in helping me with my massive refractor project in return for some sports cards with heroes from the City of Brotherly Love on them.  So we did the usual trade thingy, I sent him some Phillies and he sent me...

Four Refractors!!  Aint they nice?  Purples, a nice numbered Chromie and an Auto!  Very nice stuff indeed, but Brad didn't stop there.

Oh no, he didn't stop there!





Check this out!!!  All told, 89 refractors.  Brad's the man!

How many refractors would $30 buy?

Sorry for all the trade posts, but I been busy on the swapping front!  This one comes courtesy of Robert at $30 a Week Habit.

More fractors for the chase!!  I'll have an update on the numbers Feb 1, but I'll tell you, its going awesome!!!  In fact, stay tuned for the next trade post, it's a doozy.

Also, if you haven't been reading Robert, get over there, he's great!

Benny (AKA Benito) from the Quarry

Hiflew over at Cards from the Quarry and I have made several trades over the last few months.  This time I sent some random Todd Heltons his way and he sent me 7 refractors for my refractor chase!

They're some nice ones too!  Gold's, serial #'d's and Heritage!  VERY nice!

But that's not all, he also sent a Benito Santiago relic card!  Straight off my wantlists!!

 

I love how it references Barry Bonds, it will be a history lesson for when my kids get interested.  Great card!  It will be going into my PC, the 28th card this year to do so!  Thanks again Hiflew!

PC Add 27, Paul Bunyan Edition

I would have never thought I'd have added 27 cards to my PC only 24 days into the year!  That puts me on pace for 412 adds this year!!!

No way I'll keep that pace, which is good, because I don't know if I have the storage for that!

Anyway, here's the card, another awesome Mark McGwire.  This one's a refractor, so that's even better.  The weird thing about this is that it just showed up in my mailbox in a PWE, no return address.  I have absolutely no idea who sent it!  If you are the culprit, drop me a line, I'd love to reciprocate.

Here he is, the Paul Bunyan of baseball!

Here are the previous PC Adds for this year:

Add 1

Adds 2-24

Add 25

Add 26

Spoiling Someone's Day Stinks

So the other day I got a phone call.  Some of you might have received a similar call.  It was my brother in law.  He had just found out that I was a card collector and... he had a bunch of cards from when he collected as a kid!  Now he's a nice guy, so he wasn't pushy, but he wanted to know if I wanted to 'take a look' at them, with the clear implication being that he'd like to sell them.

Oh man, if only!

I had a few clues as to what he might have.  He isn't from a rich family.  He's 33 years old.  And he's a great guy, but he's never really put himself into anything fully.  Not fully committed to anything if you see what I mean.  All of that added up to junk wax.  I had hope though.  Maybe some cool insert or rookie???

Nope

The poor guy had about 1500 cards, some in a binder, the rest in a box.  Some were still in the wrappers.  All from 92 and 93.  Wait, you say, there's a possibility of a few good cards in there, Piazza and Rivera RC's, Jeter etc!  No, the best card (and by a loooong way) was this:

Not bad really, but as for buying his cards, well, I see the Chippah in quarter boxes every show I go to, so I sure aint paying 'book value' for this collection!

I felt bad, because he is a nice guy, and could probably use some extra money.  I had to tell him the facts of life. If he craigslisted them, he could get laughed at by anyone who wanted to buy cards.  If he e-bayed them, he couldn't get enough to cover shipping.  And if he wanted to sell them to me, well, I couldn't see paying more than $5, and that's with the binder and plastic sheets.  He took it well, but I still felt vaguely gross.  I hate giving bad news.

Anyone else have a similar story?

PC Add 26 - Biggie!

PC ADD series chronicles all the cards I add to my PC this year

If you missed PC Add #25, it came courtesy of a trade with The Card Hobbyist the other day.

Add #26 is a biggie for me!  I have wanted a Mark McGwire relic ever since I came back to collecting and found out that such a thing existed.  I have long hoped that the steroids issue would lower prices, and maybe it has, but the prices on Big Mac relics are still among the highest of any recent player around.

That said, I finally found myself with a few extra bucks courtesy of selling off a bunch of stuff that was cluttering my closet at last weeks card show.  Then I found a steal of a deal on this:

It's a beauty!  Beautiful surface, edges are awesome and the corners are razors!  I'm loving it!

I still have McGwire relics on my wantlists (I'll take any of them!) but at least now I have one!

Bring on the fractors!

The Card Hobbyist has a great blog, if you aren't reading him get on over there!  Obviously, I'm not giving him props for no reason (though he deserves them), but because we recently finished up my first trade of 2012.  I send him a few Ascent of Man inserts and a couple Antrel Rolle relic cards.  He sent me these three refractors for my refractor search!

 

The Gwynn is going in my personal collection, so doesn't count toward my goal of 1000 refractors this year, but the other 2 count and are awesome!  The Jackson is my first Heritage Chrome refractor.  Thanks a ton Patrick!

Refractor Math

Since I just made a post yesterday that was in keeping with my goals for this year, I thought I'd do another one.  One of my goals for the year it to accumulate 1000 refractors that are not in my personal collection.  So if I get this refractor...

It would not go in my PC, so I could count it toward the 1000.

But if I got this refractor...

Yeah, that's going in the PC, so it don't count!

So I started the year, January 1st, with 23 refractors.  I'm counting them toward the 1000.  Now, 16 days and 1 card show later, I have 65!!  What kind of stinks is that only 35 of them are baseball.  I had kind of envisioned them all being baseball, but if I want to reach lofty goals, I might have to compromise.  So 35 baseball, 24 basketball and 6 football.

Here's where it gets geeky.  If you hate math, leave now!  (it's not hard math though)  So in 16 days, I have accumulated 42 refractors.  65 total - 23 started with = 42.  That works out to 2.625 per day!  I have 340 days left in the year thanks to it being a leap year, so 340 x 2.625 = 892.5.  Let's round up to 893.  893 + the 65 I have currently = 958!

958 is a great total, but as you can see, I am NOT on pace to reach my goal.  Dang, I thought I was doing awesome too! Oh well, I guess this means I need help!  Trades are welcome, duh.

PC Adds 2-24

This is my ongoing series detailing every card I add to my personal collection this year...
Previous entries:
#1

So I hit the monthly card show today.  I actually got a table and sold off a bunch of stuff I didn't want.  I sold it for dirt cheap, so I sold a lot!  With the money, I got the following for my PC!  Most of the posts in this series will be a single card, but this is a monster.  Sorry, and/or your welcome!

1. Roger Clemens 97 Totally Certified Red.  Why is this a keeper???  Because I love roid users!!!  At least it looks like it from the keepers in this post!  Actually, I have few cards I like of Roger, but I like Totally Certified.  It is so wild and woolly.  It's numbered /3999 and looks good.  So I'm keeping it!
2. Jack Clark RC.  Why is this a keeper???  I love rookies of the guys I grew up watching, but was too late to collecting to get their RC's.  Clark falls right into this slot.
3. Barry Bonds 2006 Turkey Red SP.  Why is this a keeper??? See, roids.  But anyway, nice looking card, and a hardish to find SP.  Keeper.
4. 97 Score Ken Griffey Jr. 'Complete' insert.  Why is this a keeper??? Pretty card of a solid player and guy.  You will find that pretty shiny cards feature prominently in my keeper additions.
5. 99 Topps Ken Griffey Jr. Lords of the Diamond insert refractor.  Why is this a keeper??? See above. Plus its a refractor!
6. 91 Elite Dwight Gooden.  Why is this a keeper??? These were the 1st sooper rare inserts, numbered /10000!!!!!  Great card, plus cool inserts of Doc are always welcome.
7. 2000 Fleer Gamers Tony Gwynn 'Determined' insert.  Why is this a keeper??? I just don't have many cool Gwynns.  This is borderline, but it's really pretty, better than the scan, so...
8. 99 Topps Gold Vladimir Guerrero 'Race to Aaron' insert.  Why is this a keeper??? Like Gwynn, I don't have many nice Vlads.  This is nice because it has Hank Aaron on it.  I actually have several of this insert series in my collection.
9. 98 Score Vladimir Guerrero Artists Proof.  Why is this a keeper???Artists proofs became kind of common and overdone for a while, but this is a well done, rare one.  The multiplier on Artists Proofs for this set is x20 making this 'worth' a whopping $10!  Well, I like it.

10. 87 Donruss Leaf Greg Maddux RC.  Why is this a keeper??? I already had the regular Donruss version, but I like the old leaf sets.  Nuff said.
11. 06 Turkey Red Matt Kemp 'Red' version.  Why is this a keeper??? Nice looking parallel of the should be reigning MVP.  Yeah, cool.
12. 87 Donruss The Rookies Bo Jackson.  Why is this a keeper??? If you were alive and sentient in the late 80's you probably like Bo Jackson.
13. 2010 Topps Buster Posey RC.  Why is this a keeper??? A fellow blogger was looking for this very card a while back (he found it) and it tuned my eye to look for it.  Well, today I found it.  Nice card, I hope he recovers well from his injuries.
14. 98 Pacific Revolution Mike Piazza 'Prime Time Performers' insert.  Why is this a keeper??? You can't tell from the scan, but the Mets logo is die cut. That is cool!  Plus it looks like this is a fairly rare insert.  Keeper!
15. 74 Topps Thurman Munson.  Why is this a keeper??? I didn't have it.  That's really all.  I have most of his cards from his playing career (except his RC).  This filled a hole.
16. 2010 Topps Chrome Mike Stanton RC refractor.  Why is this a keeper??? Stanton's a stud and this is a great RC of his.
17. 97 Fleer Sammy Sosa Lumber Company.  Why is this a keeper??? Roids!!  I love the die cut!
18. 65 Topps Boog Powell.  Like the Munson, I have a lot of Boog's (not his RC!) and this filled a hole.  Who doesn't love Boog?  The Booger?

19. 84 Donruss Cal Ripken.  Why is this a keeper??? I'm shocked this card wasn't already in my collection.  Shocked.
20. 99 Topps Frank Thomas Lords of the Diamond insert.  Why is this a keeper???  Pretty, pretty.  No other reason.
21. 73 Topps Willie Stargell.  Why is this a keeper???  Didn't have it, mostly.  I really like the photo too.  You don't see that kind of shots on cards anymore.
22. 2000 Topps Traded Michael (Mike) Young RC.  Why is this a keeper??? I didn't have any Young RC's.  I've always liked him.  That seems like a real problem!  Problem solved.
23. 08 Masterpieces Cal Ripken SP.  Why is this a keeper???  I love the set and already had this card in my (almost complete) set.  It's too good a card to leave off my keepers list.


OK, that's it!  Or is it?  Actually, the cards below are 'in consideration' for my keepers, but I was hoping to get a little info from y'all on them.  I've seen the Heyward and Robinson on the interwebs, but don't really know what they are, how rare/cool they are.  Any input?  The Mattingly is kind of awesome.  It is authentic looking and says it is copyright 1986 by BBC Magazine (Baseball Card Magazine?).  Any opinions?  By the way, I have 2 of the Jackie's if anyone wants the other.  The last card is from 2010, but I don't know what Topps set.  Is it so valuable that someone will offer me a bjillion dollars for it?  I'm sure not, but if you have a bjillion, let me know.  Also, if you know much about the card, please let me know.

Thanks guys!!

PC Add 1

In my 2012 Goals post, I stated that I would post every card that makes it into my PC this year.  Well, only a week into the year and I receive a beautiful package from a blogger you all probably know.  It had great stuff in it and a lot of it!  Serial #'d, game used and plenty more.

The card that makes my PC today comes from that package and is also directly off my wantlists!  Check it out!!!

Woohoo!  Eric the Red was a beast back in my formative years.  Speed, power and attitude, he had it all.  This card is better looking in person, and has a nice gloss that the base cards from this release didn't have.

Running Total: 1

2012 - The 1 year plan

Dang!!  I wrote most of this a couple of weeks ago, thinking it might be fun, then come back from my hiatus to see EVERY other blogger out there has done it and most WAAAAYY better than me!  I'm such a noob.  Oh well, here goes...

The King!!

My first year (not complete, but I'm calling it a year!) of blogging was a mixed bag for me.  It was a lot of fun, but I realized that I don't have the juice needed to make this a great blog and have already settled for being one of the masses.  And I'm OK with that, at least I'm not ready to hang em up yet!

But I DO need to get better, so with the new year, I decided to create some features and projects that will keep me interested and hopefully interest you the reader as well.  So here they are!!!

1. Personal Collection updates - every time I add a card to my personal collection, I will post about that card and why I like it enough to add to my PC.  Then at the end of the year, I will have a record of my 'PC Year in Collecting'.  I think it would be valuable for me to see what a year brings me.  I'd also have to justify each addition to the blogging world!  Talk about pressure!

Edit: also define my Personal Collection(s) precisely

2. Diamond King Monthly Feature - C'mon, I AM the Diamond King!  In this feature, I will take one Diamond Kings set or subset and explore it in detail.  Y'all don't appreciate Diamond Kings enough!!  Learn and Love!!

3. Trade Tributes area - I want to make a sidebar list (or something similar) with all the bloggers I have traded with this year.  Not very original, I know, but it would help me keep track of all the trades, similar to #1 above.  Plus, linking to bloggers who help me out is only right.

4. Constantly upgrade my wantlists - I am not easy enough to trade with.  Check out my wantlists and see why.  I don't really care much for the brand new releases (other than a bit of curiosity), which makes things even harder.  And my wantlists are a mess, too vague and general, but at the same time, picky and messy.  I hate my wantlists.  Bad wantlists!!!  Look for improvements soon including...

5. Refractor Chase - I have decided to chase refractors this year!  But not any refractors.  I DON'T want Bowman Draft unless it is a 'known' player.  I also ONLY want refractors from 2008 and before (again, unless it's a 'known' player).  Why?  Because I said so, that's why!  Other than that, I am going to see how many refractors I can accumulate this year.  Obviously, the older the better, but any will do.  Baseball and Basketball for now, base and inserts.  Bring it on!!!  Think I can get 1000???  I have 23 at the moment...

Edit: the refractor chase will be exempt from the Personal Collection updates above.  If I hope to get 1000 refractors, that would be more posting than I am willing to take on!


6. 150 Posts - for most of you, this would be a lazy man's goal, but this year I did 135 posts and really ran out of steam at the end.  So I'm doing the baby steps thing.  More posts, hopefully higher quality.


So that's the plan.  Hold me to it guys!