Sad Sosa

Sammy Sosa!  I found this card of the Steroid Superstar the other day.  It got me thinking a little.  He looks so happy!  And a little fruity.  At any rate, he looks young and slender...

Ahh, here's a pic of Sammy at the peak of his powers.  Still happy!  A lot more muscular...

And a recent (ish) pic of Sammy.  Not so young.  Not so slender.  He still has a smile, but I don't really think he looks happy.

I guess getting older is tough on all of us.  But with Sammy, it just seems a little sadder.

A Trade, Contest Winnings and Ebay

Got some cool cards from Jeff at Cardboard Catastrophes.  These cards don't seem much like catastrophes to me!  Jeff, I'm waiting on a card to show up here before I send out your side of this trade.

I won this Eck from Brian at 30 Year Old Cardboard. Great contest Brian!

And I won these on Ebay!

What a nice card of Winfield!  The jersey swatch has a hint of a pinstripe and it's numbered 10/15!

These bad boys are nice additions to my ever growing McGwire collection.  The Finest card is a refractor, but it doesn't seem to refractory to me.  The Big Mac collection is one of the most impressive parts of my collection.  I have over 500 different Big Macs including a few of the bigger money late 90's refractors.  Now I'm just looking for the harder to find inserts and Jersey/Autos.  And of course any refractor parallels!

Featured Diamond Kings set of the month - March

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

OK, I know its not even close to March (see title if that confuses you).  Consider this catch up(with more to come)!  In February, I went with a small but sweet insert set from 2003.  This month I am going back to full sets.  Real full sets!  Originally, Diamond Kings lived in the base set as a loved subset.  But once Donruss made their comeback in the early 2000's, they decided to make Diamond Kings a complete, stand alone set.  The 2004 set is the third in that new tradition and my favorite of the stand alone Diamond Kings sets!

The base set from 2004 Diamond Kings is numbered 1-150.  There are also 25 SP's numbered 151-175. Here is a page of the base set:

The player pics are somewhat small, but are well done.  The borders are pretty unique for baseball cards and are one of the main reasons I like this set so much.  They is beautiful!

Here is a page of the SP's.  These 9 are titled 'Legends', but there are also some titled 'Flashbacks'.

Notice the Brett, Maris and Snider are not in color.  As an added twist, Donruss issued the SP's in both color and 'Sepia' versions.  The color are the main release, while the sepia are the parallel.

My set is complete 1-175, but I didn't know about the sepia variations when I built it.  So I have both color and sepia in my set.  I'd really like to get bot versions of each card.  Here is what I still need:

151 Clemens Sepia
152 Grace Sepia
154 Arod Sepia
155 Palmeiro
156 Maddux Sepia
157 Piazza Sepia
158 Mussina
160 Ripken Sepia
162 Marion Sepia
163 Mattingly Sepia
164 Yount Sepia
165 Dawson Sepia
167 Brett
168 Ford Sepia
169 Campanella Sepia
170 Maris
171 Snider
173 Musial Sepia
174 Ryan Sepia
175 Sanders

If you have any of those, let me know and we can trade!

Previous months:
January
February

Oh, Archives, you beast!

2012 Topps Archives.  The world is abuzz!  I usually don’t get strong feelings, (GOOD or BAD) about new sets.  I don’t buy packs or boxes because the letdown of several dud packs doesn’t balance out the high of a good pack.  That, and that I only want to spend my meager card dollars on cards I actually want, not 15 cards I don’t and only 1 that I do.  This keeps me from getting the big hits though, so what do I know.

However, this year’s Archives has caught my attention.

 Image stolen from Cardboard Connection

As I looked over the many, many quality reviews and quick peeks, at first I found myself getting excited.  Great players and mostly good photography.  Using classic great looking sets as the base is a can’t miss way to go.  The 54 and 71 sets with both vintage and modern players awakens the ‘I gotta have that’ monster lurking inside me.  The 80 and 84 sets were right at the beginning of my childhood collecting period and resonate with me too.

  Image stolen from Cardboard Connection

The Autograph checklist is AWESOME!!!  Here are all of the Auto's, and if anyone has any they want to get rid, I’d love to trade for them!  Especially the ones I highlighted!

FFA-AO Al Oliver
FFA-AOT Amos Otis
FFA-AVS Andy Van Slyke
FFA-BB Bob Boone
FFA-BBE Buddy Bell
FFA-BBU Bill Buckner
FFA-BG Bobby Grich
FFA-BH Bud Harrelson
FFA-BHA Bryce Harper
FFA-BL Bill Lee
FFA-BM Bake McBride
FFA-BMA Bill Madlock
FFA-BOG Ben Oglivie
FFA-BP Boog Powell
FFA-BR Bobby Richardson
FFA-BRB Brett Butler
FFA-BT Bobby Thigpen
FFA-CC Cecil Cooper
FFA-CD Chili Davis
FFA-CF Cecil Fielder
FFA-CJ Cleon Jones
FFA-CL Carney Lansford
FFA-DD Doug DeCinces
FFA-DDR Doug Drabek
FFA-DG Dick Groat
FFA-DK Dave Kingman
FFA-DM Don Mattingly
FFA-DMA Dennis Martinez
FFA-DR Dave Righetti
FFA-EK Ed Kranepool
FFA-FH Frank Howard
FFA-GB George Bell
FFA-GF George Foster
FFA-GL Greg Luzinski
FFA-HA Hank Aaron
FFA-JA Jim Abbott
FFA-JB Jay Buhner

FFA-JC Joe Charboneau
FFA-JCL Jack Clark
FFA-JKE Jimmy Key
FFA-JKR John Kruk
FFA-JMC Jack McDowell
FFA-JO John Olerud
FFA-JOQ Jose Oquendo (9 different versions - 1 per position)
FFA-JW Jim Wynn
FFA-KG Ken Griffey
FFA-KGJ Ken Griffey Jr.
FFA-KS Ken Singleton
FFA-LP Lance Parrish
FFA-LT Luis Tiant
FFA-ML Mickey Lolich
FFA-MSC Mike Scott
FFA-MW Maury Wills
FFA-MWI Mitch Williams
FFA-OG Oscar Gamble
FFA-RG Ron Gant
FFA-RK Ron Kittle
FFA-RL Ray Lankford
FFA-RM Roger McDowell
FFA-RV Robin Ventura
FFA-SB Steve Balboni
FFA-SBR Sid Bream
FFA-SD Shawon Dunston
FFA-SK Sandy Koufax
FFA-SR Steve Rogers
FFA-TH Tom Herr
FFA-TP Terry Pendleton
FFA-VB Vida Blue
FFA-VH Von Hayes
FFA-WB Wally Backman
FFA-WC Will Clark
FFA-WJ Wally Joyner
FFA-WM Willie Mays
FFA-WW Willie Wilson

But here is the problem.  I buy most of my cards at shows from dime and quarter boxes.  I find quite a few gems in there too.  Nothing like pulling a 1971 Dave Concepcion or Willie Stargell for .25!  So naturally, as I am flying through the boxes, certain designs catch my eye.  The 64, 68, 71, 72, 75 sets and more.  When I see one of the, my pulse speeds up a bit.  Now 6 or 7 years ago, it wasn’t so bad, but lately it seems like almost half of the boxes are full of not just Archives (which wouldn’t be so bad) but Cards Your Mom Threw Out, 60 Years of Topps, Cards That Never Were and a ton of sets just like them.

For me, the thrill of the 71 set (just an example, any classic design would do here) isn’t that it is sooooooo beautiful.  It’s that it takes me back.  They are nostalgic.  They were once hard to find, but now there are a million copycats out there.  The card population is being diluted with these reprints and re-imaginings.  Many of them are nice and very collectible, but I’m feeling like there are just too many.  Really, how many different printings of the 75 Topps George Brett do we need?

I know for Topps, they have the right to capitalize on their history.  They do it pretty well.  I just wish they wouldn’t do it so much.

On the other hand, isn’t this sweet?

 Image stolen from 30 Year Old Cardboard

Show Showoff 2

OK, here are the 'hits' I grabbed  at last weeks show.  Keep in mind that these are just the hits I'm NOT keeping!  If anything catches your eye, let me know.  There are one or two guys I'm completing trades with that will get first dibs, but other than that, it's 1st come, 1st served!

1st is Basketball:

Now some Football:

These 2 are the front and back of the same card.  2 nice patches!!

Stokely #d /100
Jackson #d /350
Galloway #d /350
Cody #d /100
Williams #d /100

And finally, Baseball:

OK, the Mondesi isn't a 'hit' by most standards, but it is pretty cool!

Berroa #d /224 and signed on wood!
Manny #d /250

Let's trade!

Show Showoff 1

Card show, card show.  My Christmas, except that it comes around monthly instead of yearly.  For those of you who read regularly, you may remember that last month I thought the show was going away, but thankfully, I was wrong.  It just moved!  It's a little further for me to drive, but well worth it!

Check out some of my finds!

'Soupy' here was a buck.  Yeah, $1!  He has tape stains, but a 1941 Play Ball card for a dollar will always get my cash.

The Goose autograph!  No guarantee it's real, but for .25, I went for it.  In a weird coincidence, Rod from Padrographs was standing next to me chatting when I found this.  But he didn't need it, so I kept it!  I compared the sig to a bunch online and it looks real.  Who knows though!

Now this one, I know is real!  Very nice, only set me back another buck (I know the sticker says $6, but it was in a dollar box)  Mickey was born in Portland OR, which is where the card show was held.

Here is a smattering of fun, miscellaneous stuff.  All of these were from the quarter box except the Aaron I think.  I have a small collection of funky color, shiny and die cuts and several of these fit right in.  The Pascual Perez is an error, it says he's on the twins.  I remember wanting that card when I was a little guy.  Errors were big stuff back then!

The Nolan Ryan/Roger Clemens is cool and shiny, but I have no idea what set it is from.

Here is a sampling of the Diamond Kings parallels and inserts I picked up.  Quarter boxes.

And here are some cards I picked up more for trading than anything.  Fun stuff!
The Maddux is a 2006 Topps '52 Debut Flashbacks
The Williams is a 2004 Fleer reprint #d /406
The Howard is #d /10.  I'm sure Beckett would say it's too scarce for pricing!!!  :)
The Aparicio is #d /25 and looks sweet
The Reggie is #d /1000
The Fielder is a 2008 Topps insert
The Martinez is a 2002 Bowman Chrome Draft refractor #d /300

Let me know if you want any of that and stay tuned for the next post where I'll be showing off a ton of hits I grabbed - all for trade!!

Retraction!!!

You know how when a newspaper has to print a retraction of something they misreported, someone usually gets fired?

Well, since there is nobody on the payroll here except me, I guess I'm fired!

I made the rookie mistake of not giving credit where it is due in yesterdays post about Rod from Padrographs.  It turns out his really cool blog header graphic was made by none other than Travis from Punk Rock Paint.  Sorry for the error and be sure to check out both Padrographs and PRP!!

I could be.... center field

Center Fielders!!

OK, so Bo Jackson only played 88 games in center field, while Willie played a whopping 2832 there, but that's OK, I needed a post title.

The real thing they have in common is that I have these cards of them.

The Bo is a recent e-bay pickup, from a fellow blogger no less!  I think it is beautiful.  Plus it's a Diamond King, so that's awesome.  Another thing I love about this card is the back.  It is from the 'old days' where they put a picture of the actual jersey the swatch was cut from.  That's so cool.

The Mays is one of those unsolicited gifts from one of you out there in bloggerville.  Thanks sooooooo much!

Blogger surprise

Surprise!  I was at a card show last Saturday!  Surprised yet?  Yeah, no, probably not.  I have a bunch of stuff to post about from the show but I'll save that for later.

It's what happened before the show even really started that was the real highlight, and that's saying something as you'll see in future posts (hint, hint, tease, tease!)

OK, enough hints about future posts, how about a hint about what this post is about:

 For those of you who don't know, this here graphic is the custom work of one Rod, proprietor of the always entertaining Padrographs!  Isn't that a great graphic?  Cool!  **Correction, actually, the graphic was made for Rod by Travis from Punk Rock Paint!  My bad, and definitely check out PRP as well!**

Anyway, not to put too fine a point on it, Rod is what happened last Saturday before the show.  Now Rod and I have never met before, though we have probably seen each other at shows without knowing it. But Rod found out I'd be at this show and decided to come and meet me!  Turns out he's a great guy, very nice and has a business that I can't wait to check out the next time I'm his neck of the woods.

Plus, he brought Tony Gwynns!!!

These are just a few of the huge stack of Gwynn's he dropped off for me.  I didn't have anything for him, he's just a very generous guy.  Anyway, if you ever get the chance to meet another blogger live, I'd take the chance.

Thanks Rod!!