McGwires from Fuji

I have a tough time with my McGwire collection. I have about 700 unique McGwires.  That's a drop in the bucket, but when I go to shows, nobody has any for cheap.  When I trade, nobody seems to have McGwires I need, especially inserts.  There are probably 1000 different McGwire inserts from 1999 alone.  So why are they (semi) tough for me to find?  I don't know. 

But...

I recently made a trade with the Great Fuji!  He wanted a Steve Garvey Padres jersey card, and surprise!  On his trade bait page were McGwires!  Ones I actually need!  Here they are:

This is card 220 in 1999 Topps.  There are 70 different versions of this card, each with the number of one of McGwires home runs.  I have a whopping 3 of them...

My first Sport Kings card of any kind.

And this is one of 15 'ReMarkable' cards.  It's an insert set.  This is #10 out of the 15 for me.

Thanks a ton Fuji!!  And if anyone has tough to find McGwires, let me know!

Delayed mail day

I have not had internet access at home for about 10 days.  Actually, it has come up for an hour a couple of times, but cuts right back out.  Time to switch providers?  I think so.

Anyway, that is the reason for the lack of posts.  I have responded to a few emails at work, but that's it.  And not I'm writing this at work!  Don't tell my boss.

In the past 10 days, I have received two packages in the mail!!  They were from Steve D. and Brandon L., and both had cards for the Latin Project!  A ton of them!  I only got a few scanned before the net went down.  Here they are:

I received 48 from Brandon and 63 from Steve for a total of 103 new Latins!  For those of you who do math in your head and noticed that 48 + 63 does not equal 103, there were a few players that they both sent. 

I now have 284 total players in the project!  That's 19.0%!  Thanks a ton guys!

Mini's anyone? - Taken!

Well that was quick!!  The post below was only up for a few minutes before the mini's were claimed!  Thanks, sorry, whatever!


I'm sending a few packages out Tuesday and, well...

I have some mini cards.  I don't really want them.  I don't really love the A&G and Gypsy Queen minis.  Not that there's anything wrong with them.

And I keep hearing, out in the bloggoramasphere, that there are a lot of people who like them.  Weirdos!!!

So here are 15 various mini's.  I'm hoping someone will take them off my hands.  I'm not asking anything in return really, but if someone wants to send me something back that would be fine.  It'd be nice to package these all off to one mini-loving collector to save on postage.

They are not all in perfect condition, but you can click on any card for a closer view.  Any takers??

New stuff

For a long time, my Trade Bait - Hits page has remained sadly empty.  Devoid of meaning if you will.

But that has finally changed!  I have a few GU and Auto's up there now.  Nothing fancy.  In fact, almost all of these came from a friend that I used to go to the local card show with.  he has decided to stop collecting and sold me a stack of GU and Auto's for dirt cheap.  Most of them I didn't want and they have ended up on the Trade Bait page.

If you see anything you like, let me know!  I'll be adding a few things over the next few days, not all GU or Auto, but decent things hopefully.

High speed mail day

Wow, that was fast!!  Monday I put up my list of needed Latin Players and 2 days later, Bam! my first package in the mail!

It was from reader Steven, and he was able to add 24 new players to the project, almost all 2011 Bowman cards.  Here are a few...

It's really difficult to look over the list, considering it's sheer size, so I am trying to find ways to make it smaller and more user friendly.  Suggestions welcome! One thing I have done is remove all players who retired before 1951.  The odds of them having cards is super low, and the odds of me finding one (if they did have one) are even lower. So that's 49 players off the list, bringing the total down to 1491.  Still a ton, but it's a start.

Thanks Steven!!

Current total: 169 / 1491, 11.3%

Latin Launch!

I have determined how I want to do this year's project, the Latin Project. And I'm ready to start collecting!

Originally, I considered collecting only a small number of select players from select countries.  Say 20 from Venezuela and Peurto Rico, 5 from Cuba and 10 from Dominican republic.  Determining who to include and who to exclude got thorny on a few fronts.  Would I include those who came to the states as children?  What about when they were in High School?  Which 20 from Puerto Rico deserved a spot?  And on and on.

In the end, I decided to go another route.  One that will make the project more straightforward, and considerably larger.

I will use the birthplace data from Baseball Almanac.  I will keep it simple.  I will try to collect one card from every MLB player that was born in Aruba, Bahamas, Brazil, British Honduras, Colombia, Cuba, Curaco, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.  Whew!  According to Baseball Almanac, that is a total of 1540 players!!  I am sure that a decent number of them do not have cards made, but I will do my best!

Here is a Google Docs page with all of the players I need.  I will mark them off as I get them in, along with the year of the card I have of them.  The year is so that if there is an earlier card of that player, I can go for that one.  I'd kind of like to get as close to a rookie card  as I can for each player.  But I'll take anything if it gets me closer to completion!  Year is not a huge consideration in most cases, so long as the card is from the players active playing days.

I made a sweep through the cards I have on hand at home and out of the 1540 players, I have 145 so far! Almost 10%!

If you've got anything I need, shoot me a line and I'll see if I have anything you want.

Rock Stars, 18/20

I recently picked up this Juwan Howard 97-98 Topps Rock Stars insert!  I now only need 2 cards to complete this set, #3 Chris Webber and #6 Anfernee Hardaway.

If you have either of those, let me know!