February Zistle arrivals - Part 2

Wrapping up the shortest month with another pile of zistle goodies. This time, I sent off a box full of early 90s Score/Donruss and Topps in exchange for some more cards from my wantlist for my personal collections. It was more of a "I'm cleaning this stuff out" trade, so I was happy to unload piles (as in over 300 cards) to a set builder in return for a little more than 20 cards.

This was the closest thing to a hit that I got in return, although I would have wanted this one even if there weren't a number on the top. My favourite player ever, on my favourite team, putting up a record day against my least favourite team. What more could one ask for from a piece of cardboard?

How about my favourite player, on my second favourite team, rocking the Canada Day red jersey? The red border is really strong on this card, although it really doesn't work for the rest of the team cards.

Some more Blue Jays for my project of acquiring one card of each Blue Jay, in a Jays uniform who had at least one card from a major company. Of these 4, Orta is the only one I had any memories of.

And here's a dozen more for that box. I remember a few guys from this grouping, such as Inglett, Ray, Clark and Jackson. Randy Wells, however, had only one Jay game to his credit. That's one more than Beam, Perry or Chiaravalloti picked up. The latter never made it above AA level, but he might have the most Italian name imaginable. While I'm not actively pursuing players who never officially suited up officially for my collection, I'm still going to keep them in the box and soon to be binder. Why? Why not?

And to wrap this one up, 5 more cards for the 2-14 binder.

 I've really wanted the '81 Milbourne for a bit. I love the design from that year, as well as classic Mariners look.

February Zistle arrivals - Part 1

With the arrival of both blog trades, zistle trades, ebay stuff, listia stuff and group break stuff over the past week or so, the poor mailman is getting hunchbacked again. And I've got a bunch of posting to do. I'm going to start with the smallest zistle of the two. I sent off some mid 90s Griffey cards, and some Pujols stuff from group breaks, in return, this came my way:

It's really hard for me to turn down Miracle Mets anything, especially a Masterpieces card. This is another card that I was certain I had - guess not until yesterday.

Heritage Mike Piazza cards are another thing I  really have a hard time turning down. Plus, there's a bonus of having a slightly different position for a Piazza card - 1b-catcher.

Another two cards for the 2-14 binder.

Why this one? It really doesn't fit into any of my collections. On the surface. But you need to flip it over and look at the stats to see why I picked up this one.

Take a look at the ERA for the 1989 season. The old ∞ symbol. 5 batters faced with none retired. That was his first game. Second game = no hitter. A wee bit of an improvement, but I just needed this card for the oddness. It only seems to be his Donruss/Leaf cards that had that feature. The other releases had stuff like "---" or "0.00".

Wrapping things up, I'm currently on a mission to acquire an alphabetical collection of Blue Jays cards. From Accardo to Zosky. Here were 9 new additions to that mission:

There are a couple guys who had a few years in Toronto that I completely forget about - namely Huff and Castillo. Castillo was the guy who got the win in the 15-14 debacle back in the '93 World Series. Why is it that I can remember Willie Canate from that team, but not Castillo? Go figure.

Where's this card from?

I picked this one up at a show, since it fits into one of my collections, and it is a bit of an oddball. On the face, it sure looks like a 1986 Diamond Kings card of Kirk Gibson. But there's two things that puzzle me on it. Firstly, it is a mini. It is shorter and wider than a mini you'd find in an A&G release today. Here's the two side by side:

Plus, I can't turn the Gibson over to find out anything else about it, because:

How helpful.

Googling stuff that might help like "diamond kings", 1986, "blank back" brings me no closer to a solution. I was thinking this was some sort of "it came with the bag of potato chips" issue, but I figured I'd throw this one out there to the blogging populace to see what comes up.

The Hamilton turnaround

Back when I busted my box of 2013 Topps, I came across a /99 Josh Hamilton coin. I offered it on the blog, and then put it on ebay, and recovered the taxes and part of my shipping on the box. Or the shipping and part of my taxes, depending on how you look at things.

So, like any sane person would do, I turned right around and hit ebay to get some more cards. For the most part, I was interested in chasing down some of the more interesting autographs in the ITG Enforcers set. I had my eyes set on 4, and of those I got 3, only missing out on a Tony Twist.

So, what did I get?

One of hockey's legendary madmen! Since he never played a regular season game in the NHL, there's no way you could get something as great as this from a licensed product. Plus we have a killer white guy afro to go alongside a clear, unique signature. I'm really happy to welcome this one into my collection.

Not nearly as legible a signature. But when I was able to combine this one with the Goldthorpe for only $2.25 more, it was an easy decision. How can I turn down an auto of Cementhead himself?

This was the third auto I picked up. This will join the Terry O'Reilly I picked up in a group break as a logical pairing of Big, Bad, Bruins. I would have considered adding a John Wensick to the mix for a row of chaos in my binders, but he's obviously not pictured in a B's uniform on the card. But these two go good together.

At this point, I was looking to get a few more cards in order to combine shipping. The following cards total up to a whopping $3.70.

I really, really wanted the Manson two-colour swatch. This was the most expensive of the bunch, going for $1.70. Kocur is a nice pairing as well. Another pair of infamous tough guys.

Lambert is a Sen here. That's why shelling out $1.00 for this double swatch was an easy decision.

Finally, I also grabbed 10 base cards for a dollar. The only one I really wanted was the Nilan, but the rest look pretty nice grouped together on a page. Total outlay for the past 4 entries, including shipping, didn't reach the $10.00 mark. No complaints here.

Finally, one more. This didn't isn't part of the Hamilton turnaround, but it is one I had to have for the obscurity page in my 2/14 binder.

I had to order this one from Latvia. That's a first for me. Yet another one of a guy I collect that I'm sure nobody else does. Interesting to see that he's now playing for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Masked Mondays - Week #7

Today, three cards that weren't in my binder as of yesterday. Two were found in a search through poorly organized boxes. The other was sticking out front in a repack. They'll be added in once I have enough to fill a sheet.

And away we go!

Leading off with an OHL card from 1990? Sure thing! Roch's mask isn't the most spectacular, but anything beyond basic masks at the time was considered impressive. It's just a simple logo on the forehead with the team name on the chin. But it is something different. Plus, the guy's named Roch Belley. Sounds like the name of an opening match wrestler in Memphis circa 1992. Roch was a late round pick of the Blackhawks, but never played a game in the NHL.

Yes. It's a Leafs mask. But it is hard to hate a mask with a nod to history on it. In this case, a view of the Carlton Street cashbox on it. Andrew Raycroft would go for an MLG themed mask over a decade later. I'd still choose Beaupre, though, since he's a local guy.

Both these two showed up in a box I'd searched through many times before. I have no idea how I didn't notice and pull them into binder status until the weekend. Better late than never.

This was the one that I saw in the front of a Dollarama re-pack:

As I showed last week, I love mask cards of guys with brief NHL careers. Mikko Koskinen played 4 games with Islanders, and has since returned back to Finland to play. A nice wraparound usage of the Islanders logo in this mask.

And since it was a repack, I'll share some more interesting cards with you. A retro jersey. The Tasmanian Devil (this card was visible on the other side of the repack and a card that shows that the interesting Fleer 95 design wasn't limited to just baseball cards.

Surprise Box War!

Something interesting happened with my latest pick up of 2 boxes at the Dollarama. They both contained the exact same type of packs within. An 80s pack, an investment pack, a Hall of Fame pack, and a pack of 2000s cards.

So, I guess that means a pack war. Same # of cards, so everything should balance. A maximum of 5 points added or 5 subtracted for each card.

Box #1:

I'll start with the Hall of Fame pack with at least one HoFer. It's probably cheating to give one of the Parkhurst Champions cards in these. But that's a nice card of Mikita. +3 for that one. +2 for the minor league card, and +1 for the Babych. -1 for yet another dull 1990 Boman card.

The investment pack features 4 cards that supposedly book for $5.00. COMC had the 4 at about $7.00 for the cheapest, and sportlots came in at just under $4.00. In both cases, the costliest was the Segal card, at $3.50 and $3.00 respectively. I'm guessing it was SP'd more than I imagined. Overall though, -1 for Lindros being a Leaf, +2 for the nice card of McClement, and +2 for surprising me with the cost of the Segal.

Unfortunately, I already had the Hejduk card for my 2/14 binder. That's a bummer, but it is made up for with the killer photo on the Giordano card. There's a scary stare. It's nice to add that one into my misc binder with that. +3 for that one. Nothing else there positive or negative.

Wrapping it up with the 80s pack. 2 Hall of Famers in this one, 1 more than the specified pack. The unscratched card is a Rob Ramage rookie card. Middleton's also a nice addition. I've already got the MacInnis, so nothing there. +2 for the 84-85 card on basic design with a +1 for it being a very good player. +3 for the Rockiesness of the Ramage rookie, but -1 for the worst idea in cards ever. +2 for Middleton.

+19 for this one. The final pack really upped the enjoyment level of this one.

Off to Box 2.

Again, starting with the Hall of Fame pack. The HOF card isn't the best, but in this one the others make up for it. That's a great shot of Linden - a certain keeper. +3 there. The real star is on the top though. Totally obscure, and therefore awesome. It's from a Swedish Leaf set, although I barely remember Andreas Salomonsson from his time with the Devils.  +5.

This was the 2000s pack. A Parent card without his iconic mask? Bah. But, we did get a Senator and an obscure player in Kelleher. +1 for each of them.

This was the investment pack. $5.00 worth? The Abdelkader wasn't on COMC, but it was for a $10.00 on sportlots. $5.00 value already. $5.00 was also what the Brodeur went for there, but it was $2.74 at COMC. Mario was only on sportlots, selling for a dollar, and the Gomez went for 50 cents at COMC and 18 cents at sportlots. Either way, I got the $5.00 value. Ranking them, the Mario's a nice insert for +1, +3 for the Brodeur also being a masks binder candidate. If I were a Wings fan, I'd rank that card higher, but instead, I'll just put it in the binders and giver it a +2.

Wrapping it up with the 80s stuff. +2 for each of the 84-85 cards. But, I must subtract 1 for there being a Leaf card in this one.

And this one comes in at +19 as well. It's a draw!

Not your Average group break

Way back when in January, I participated in a group break over at Joe Average Card Collector. The cards rolled in about a week and a half back, and I'm finally getting around to putting the cards up here. Punctuality is for the weak!

As usual, I grabbed the Mets and Blue Jays. I had a third team coming, and elected to grab the Twins to round out the 3 teams. The boxes included were 2003 Topps Total, 2002 Stadium Club/Topps Series 2/UD Rookie Update and 2000 Stars.

Let's look through some of the goodies.

My favourite photo in the bunch, surprisingly comes from the Topps Total box. A nice defensive photo from O-Dog.

With an honourable mention to Super Joe, also from Total.  In a break that included Stadium Club, that's a surprise. 

Staying with Topps Total, the best thing about the cards is getting cards of people that only had a cup of coffee with the Mets, if that. If I was more of a "get every Met" type, I'd be interested in that. Otherwise, just some more neat cards for the Mets binder.

OK. One last Topps Total. This time, a Jay. One that made stops on both my favourite teams, and is now the pitching coach in Toronto. And it is a parallel too! WOO-HOO!

Staying with Blue Jays, I also got three new additions to my Delgado binder. The Reel Time one is a really nice, thick insert card.

Getting back to players I didn't remember, I actually did recall most of the Jays cards, except for a Jason Dubois. This guy stumped me and as best as I could google my way to, he never pitched an inning in the bigs.

I should probably post at least one of the 2002 Topps cards. And since I am doing so, why not post a Twin, and the biggest base card I got from the break, a nice rookie card of Joe Mauer.

Definitely not a bad card for taking a flyer on the Twins. But there was a hit that awaited me in the boxes:

Tyler Yates only spent one year with the Mets, but he does have a nice, interpretable signature, and I believe this was the only autograph pulled in the break. I'm still quite happy with it for the obscurity of it all.

To top it all off, there were some random Jays and Mets added to the pack. Usually, I'd have a hard time voting against a Sportflics card as my favourite, but the oddball factor pushes this one over the top.

A great way to wrap up this break. Thanks for the fun!

The Lighter Side of Baseball Cards

I didn't recognize him without his pipe.

Trading with an Underdog

The Underdog Card Collector was another one to jump on some of my unwanted 2013 inserts. I also threw in a few random Padres to sweeten the deal. What would head my way in return?

This will seem like a bizarre choice, but this card here was the highlight for me in this package. Back at the Expo in November, I picked up one just like this one, except that it was Frosted Flakes instead of Corn Flakes as the cereal in question at the top. The two cards look great right beside each other on the Seaver page of my Mets binder, in perfect sync with each other as the page moves.

Speaking of Mets:

Two members of the Miracle Mets of '69! YES! Sure, it isn't one of the big cards in the Mets set, but I don't care, and both will be happily inducted over to the vintage portion of my Mets binder.

But that wasn't it for cards from 1969, a pair of Senators wer there as well, and they'll also find themselves at home in one of my misc. binders.

Random, unexpected and awesome. But there were Senators of the Ottawa variety as well, and most notably, yet another Marvin the Martian mask for that binder. I can't get enough of it or its St. Louis, Chicago or Buffalo variants.

Thanks for the great cards, UCC!

Goodies from Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams Day 2

Nothin' but the hits!

A quartet of hits were included in the envelope. All welcome entries in my various binders.

Yeah. It's a manufactured/replica/whateveryouwannacallit patch. But it's Gary Carter. Therefore it is a perfect addition to my collection. The best thing is that despite how great it is, it's probably not something that I'd immediately consider adding in my binders, even if I saw it on a table at a show. It stands out quite nicely, and will be a perfect candidate for the front page when I eventually get the Carter binder going.

I was surprised to see a hit of a Michigan alum as part of the trade package. But, it does appear to be a duplicate of one already on his hit page. Much as I love Shields' Boston mask, his San Jose mask is also a prominent favourite in my masks binder. I don't have a lot of autographed cards in there, so this is another nice addition to that binder.

This one will end up in my Jays collection. A great quad bat relic card with two of my favourite recent Jays in Hudson and Delgado. On the back, Josh Phelps and Raul Mondesi. Those two didn't have the most memorable runs in Toronto, but I didn't have any relics of either of them. Considering I'm currently zistling my way to some obscure Jays, so adding relics of them is nice.

Finally, this addition to the Vlad Guerrero binder. A while back, I added the jersey relic version of this card. This one will go right alongside that one in the binder. The replica ticket isn't the best seat available in the stadium. They should have got one from the 101 section - the primo seats behind home plate that I'd get whenever I'd go see the Mets play in Montreal. And more than often, Vlad would break my heart. Section 131 would be killer seats for the Alouettes playoff game in the stadium.

Beautiful cards! I must continue to scour the bins for more Michigan alumni hockey cards! Thanks for these!