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!!

Opportunity calls - who will answer?

OK, I'm making a post office run tomorrow and I have a few packages ready to go out.  The problem is that I don't have anyone to send them to!  So here is the 'Opportunity'!

First come, first served!

If you want to claim one of the packages, just comment here, on this post, saying which package you want to claim.  Then send me an e-mail at kmattson2002@yahoo.com with the name you commented under and your mailing address.  I won't have time to look up addresses tomorrow, so even if we have traded or something in the past, please e-mail your address.

If you are a weirdo who can't accept free cards, do what you have to, but there are absolutely no strings attached here!

Here are the available packages.  First comment on each get's them!

1. About 25 Rod Carew's - Mostly early to mid 80's Topps, Fleer and Donruss.
2. About 25 Atlanta Braves - nice mix with about 1/2 being inserts
3. About 25 Frank Thomas - nice mix with about 1/2 being inserts

Comment away!

Local Mall Demolition = BAD!

Well I got good news and bad news.

Good news:  I got to go to a card show Saturday!  The monthly card show is the peak of my collecting cycle.  After that, I organize a little, blog a little, trade a little.  Basically do the card collector equivalent of an old man puttering around in the garden.  But this show is what ramps me back up for another month.  When I miss it, I usually get far less involved in collecting (and blogging).  It's a real battery recharger, mostly because I get super awesome deals every time!

Bad news:  It looks like the show is going on a semi-permanent hiatus.  The mall that it is at is being torn down and rebuilt in some undetermined fashion.  That is going to take a while.  The website that has the upcoming shows is blank for the foreseeable future.  Crap!  I'm bummed, because even though I get cool stuff from all y'all out in bloggy land and sometimes even off e-bay, the sheer quantity/quality for the buck has proven hard to beat at the old card show.  Lemme prove it!

Here are about half of the haul of old 3D cards from the 70's I picked up.  These were part of a stack of 50 or so cards I got from one dealer for $10.  I had never seen the set that the Gehrig was from before.

I think most of these basketball cards were from the same lot.  I know the Rose RC's Love and LeBron Radiance were for sure.  That Radiance is a cool looking card!

An original 1935 National Chicle for $4?  Yeehaw!

As you all know, I love me some Die Cuts!!  This one is especially die-cutty!

The relic cards below were $1 each.  Yeah, $1 each.  I'm gonna miss the show.  The Sheffield is #'d /25 and is listed as 'no pricing due to scarcity'.  I'm going to be rich!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next 2 were also $1 each, but I only picked them up as trade bait.  The Blalock is BEAUTIFUL, autographed and #'d /299.  And how could I pass up a HOFer relic with a stripe for $1?

There was a good bit more I got this time, I only showed what I figured people would be interested in.  Do you think I got as good of deals as I obviously think I did???

March Fractor Report

If you read this blog at all the last 3 months, you know I'm collecting refractors this year.  Any refractors!!  This month was my worst month so far, but the numbers went up, so that's better than nothing!

Here is the monthly progress report for March!

As of March 31st, I have the following:
423 - Baseball Refractors
21 - Football Refractors
40 - Basketball Refractors

484 total Refractors!  That's 44 this month.

More math...

I have 48.4% of my goal of 1000 Refractors
I have been accumulating refractors at a pace of  5.32/day (down from 7.33/day for the 1st 2 months of the year)
I am on pace for 1946(!?!?) Refractors

OK, so rough month, but I'm still on pace for a HUUUUGE year, so no biggie.

Huge thanks to all who have helped me along so far, especially Jason from Hobb's Knights, Ted at Crinkly Wrappers and the great Night Owl who each sent between 8 and 12 fractors in March.  Thanks guys! 

And as always, let me know if you have refractors to trade!

Two Trades - Ripken Related

As much as trade posts seem to be on the outs on the bloggy-world-o-sphere, I still gotta give a shout out, soooooo.....

I recently completed a trade with Jason from Hobb's Knights (at least I think I did, Jason, if you read this, did you ever get the Ripken's?)  As with most of my recent trades, I got vintage and refractors!

Great stuff, thanks Jason!

The next trade came when Dustin at Coot Veal and the Vealtones sent me a large bundle of stuff in return for Ripken's and a couple other things off his wantlists.  I decided to post these sideways since I am feeling way too lazy to open a file.  Sorry Dustin!

Anyway, he sent some great stuff including Diamond Kings parallels.  I especially like the silver bordered as they are #'d /400!

Loads of refractors!!  This will help my April totals for sure!

Some REALLY cool junk here!  Boog's (I love the Booger), Big Mac's (you should know how I feel about him by now) and a very cool Topps Archives Bobby Bonds refractor.  This card looks awesome!

Thanks for both the trades and I recommend both these guys ad trading partners.  If you have cool Ripken's send them a line!

I been lowballed!

Yeah, so I've been on one of my famous posting dry spells.  That should change now.  I have several posts lined up and a card show Saturday, which if the past is any indication, should be good for at least a couple of posts.

But as the title says, I've been lowballed!  Ripped off, screwed!  Beckett's bitch if you'll pardon the language.

Only 3 people sent offers for my recent 'Lowball Me' experiment.  They were all great offers and I appreciate each and every one.  However, the winner was Oscar from All Trade Bait, All The Time!  He sent a nice little stack of stuff.  Here area few of the highlights!

I love me some Johnny Roseboro, I'll try to remember to post about the reason why soon.  Shiny always has a spot at my place as well as the Big Mac.  I'm not sure why I scanned the back side of that one, but it's still a good look.

Look for more lowball's in the future!  Thanks again Oscar.

Crinkly trade and last call!

Last chance to lowball me, lowball offers only accepted until 8PM PST tonight!

Ted at Crinkly Wrappers recently claimed some trade bait from one of my posts and in return, sent me REFRACTORS!!!  Yes, the quest is still alive!

Here are a few...

In addition, he also threw in 5 Wes Welkers!

This one caught my eye.  It be beautiful!  Its also numbered /25.  Wow!  Thanks Ted!.

randcard

I reached in to my big box of cards and pulled out a random dude.  It's Pete!  He obviously comes from refined ancestors, huh?

Don't forget to make your lowball offer for the SPx insert set!  Tomorrow is the last day.

Highest lowball wins!

Behold, the 1999 SPx Star Focus insert complete set!!!  30 cards of 1999's hottest stars.  The scans dont show off the cards in their true look.  They are lighter than the scans show and feature the color photo on the left with a greyscale photo on the right.

The cards are in good shape!!  My scanner is doing a number on me.

So here is the deal.  These cards are 'worth' somewhere around $120 according to my year old Beckett.  I want less than that for them.  I want you to lowball me!  Anyone interested in trading for this set, make me an offer at kmattson2002@yahoo.com.  Comments are nice, but offers on this go to the e-mail address please.

I'll take offers until 8PM PST on Wednesday March 21st.  After that, I'll take whatever offer I consider the best.  Offer me a vintage common, a nice insert card, some refractors or even a WNBA card.  Anything goes!

Oooohhhh!  Big money!  LOL.  I'm off to clean my scanner!

I got two old farts in a draft

Plaschke (AKA Greg) who's sweater happens to be Argyle recently held a card draft that I was happy to take part in.  We each got to draft 30 cards, and I got mucho 'mojo' and other 'sick' cards.  (for the reason I use those lame collecting terms, see this post over at Community Gum)

Even though I got a lot, I decided to only show my 2 favorites from the draft...

A jersey of a HOFer?  Yes please!!

OK, this guy isn't quite a HOFer.  But he is vintage!  He is named Howie!  He is a rookie!  He looks like he is 55 years old!

Actually, Howie was only 24 in this pic.  Strange huh?

Thanks to Greg for a fun draft!

Featured Diamond Kings set of the month - February

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!

OK, I know its not February anymore, but I had a rough end to last month.  Consider this catch up!  In January, I went old skool and featured the Original 1982 Diamond Kings set.  This time I decided to go the new skool route (relatively) and look at one of the subsets from 2003 Diamond Kings.  The 2003 Diamond Kings set was very different from the original inserts.  First off, it was a complete release, not a subset of the Donruss set.  200 beautiful cards!  Take a look at an example...

Aint it purdy? (oops, this is a framed parallel, but you get the idea)

But this is not the set I'm highlighting.  For that, let's look at the 2003 Diamond Kings Team Timelines insert set.

There are 10 cards in the set and each is serialed out of 1000.  They also came in dual jersey versions serialed out of 100.  The cards themselves are all differently colored, but share the basic design with swirly decoration near each player depiction in an attempt to create a classy look.  The players themselves are in the upper left and lower right of the card, drawn in standard Diamond Kings style.  Here are a few examples.

Most of the cards look great.  Mike Sweeney(below) and a few others might seem odd picks now, but at the time, they made sense.    The one I really don't like is the George Brett.  His head looks too long and his nose looks crunched.  Not a big deal, but every time I look at the card, I notice it.  It's just not George to me.

Here are the rest of the cards in the set!

I got this complete set on Ebay for a steal a couple of years ago.  Its one of my favorite little Diamond Kings sets!

I buy because...

Yesterday I posted a 'Why do I buy?' post where I put up some stuff that I purchased at Saturday's card show that I didn't feel the need to keep.  Well, here is the stuff that I will be keeping!  It's not really different from the non-keeper stuff, at least qualitatively.  But I like it!

Funky Jeter die-cut
Carew Kellogs (my 4th different Carew kellogs!)
Funky (again) Biggio die-cut #d /1000
Eddie Murray oddball - on the back in the small print, it says that the bearer of this card is a 'True Fan'.  I'm a true fan!!!!!
Ozzie Kellogs
1984 Star Yaz - I'd never seen these before.  cool.

Pickup of the day, Sandy Amoros 56 Topps!  Like most everyone, I love this set.  This card is in very nice shape for a 56.  Beautiful!

Why do I buy????

Card show yesterday!!!  In another post, I'll show what I am keeping, but here is a bunch of stuff I bought... that I don't want!  Why, you ask?  Mostly because it was too cheap to pass up, but partly for trading.  So if you see anything you like...

I have no idea what the 'Red Foley' Nolan Ryan is.

Lots of Piazzas in this bunch.

Told ya!

The Gwynn and Hendersons are 2001 Heritage SP's.

Let me know if you want anything!

The Ultimate Carew?

What is the Ultimate Rod Carew?

I've always liked Carew, with his wacky batting stance and preternatural ability to put bat to ball.  His .388 average in 1977 was HUUUUUGE... until George Brett did him one better in 1980.  But it was a foregone conclusion that when I returned to the hobby, I'd chase me some Carew's!

So is this the Ultimate Carew?????

Well, yeah.  It's a 2004 Upper Deck Ultimate Rod Carew #d/675!  And its in MY personal collection!

The Ultimate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, enough hyperbole, while I like the Ultimate line, that can't be the Ultimate Carew can it?

How about this one, also in my personal collection?????

This just happens to be my only 1/1 too.  Pretty nice!?!?  Now I only need the Gold version (/50) and the Platinum (/10).  That's be a sweet little 4 card stack!

But for the Ultimate Carew, I probably need to go outside my collection.  How about something like this:

I'd take that in a heart beat!  It's a sticker auto, but still sweet as Rod's swing.

Naw, none of these are the Ultimate.  The ultimate is the one Topps Carew from his playing days that I don't have.  It might be one of the ugliest Carew cards too, but it is still my Ultimate Carew!

Oh, and if anyone's got one laying around... you know what to do!

feb fractor report

If you read this blog at all the last 2 months, you know I'm collecting refractors this year.  Any refractors!!  This month was brutal for the last 1/2 of it.  I got 0 new refractors in that time.  But the 1st half was awesome!!

Here is the monthly progress report for February!

As of February 29th, I have the following:
389 - Baseball Refractors
17 - Football Refractors
34 - Basketball Refractors

440 total Refractors!  That's 165 this month.

More math...

I have 44% of my goal of 1000 Refractors
I have been accumulating refractors at a pace of  7.33/day (down from 8.87/day in January)
I am on pace for 2677(!?!?) Refractors

As I said last month, "Holy *bleep*fractor*bleep*"!   I am very tempted to go back to my original plan of 2000 refractors this year, but things have got to slow down.  Right?

I hope not!

Huge thanks to all who have helped me along so far, with a special shout-out to Dennis of Too Many Verlanders and Too Many Manninghams fame, who sent this months largest fractor pack, 69 total refractors! Thanks again Dennis!