Another Too Many Manninghams Trade - Part 3

How about some Delgado on this Friday?

Let's open with a first for my Delgado collection - my first Manupatch. As best I can tell via COMC, Delgado's only earned himself a pair of such patches throughout his career, this one and a USA Cap patch from his Mets days.

The second of the two hits and it is the best of both worlds. 2 of my collections in one card. A Delgado and a drawn card. Perfection, especially when it is mixed with a nice blue swatch.

And one nice sketch of Delgado deserves a second. So, here's a second Delgado, with a nice red frame as well.

If you like shiny, refractor-y cards, I got a nice trio of those as well.

And a trio of cards numbered to two and something.

All on their way into my Delgado binder. Thanks for this portion, and there is still two or three more posts left to go.

The Bradshaw turnaround

For those unfamiliar with my turnaround posts, it is simple. Should I pull a really nice card from a pack, I give it a few days in the blogosphere to see if someone can amaze me with a trade offer, and then I ebay it. In this case, it was a /10 manufactured film cell of Terry Bradshaw. And it came at 1:3600 odds from a repacked rack pack. The cards I purchase off the sale count as the turnaround, and I get post material.

I ebayed it, hoping to get at least enough for 1 box of '14 Heritage out of the 2 I plan to pick up. I got enough for one of those, and also enough for a pair of cards.

Number 1 is one that I've wanted one of for a bit. I'm not crazy enough to chase down a mint version of this, when an off-center card with a sketchy corner or two will suffice. Can Neely is probably my favourite hockey guy with no ties to either the Senators or the Kitchener Rangers, so this one has been on my wantlist for a long time, but I never had the desire to put a rookie card of a Hall of Famer in my top 10 sidebar. being able to jump on this auction for less than the cheapest cards I could find on COMC or sportlots. This past Saturday, I pulled a Barry Pederson card from a repack, and it reminded me of my desire to get a Neely rookie. With a nice sum in my Paypal account, it was finally time.

Second up was a simple, plain white relic. But, it is my first relic from my favourite CFL team. As an extra bonus, it is from a position that rarely sees any love from collectors. But, Paul holds pretty much every kicking record in the history of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and kicked the Ticats to a pair of Grey Cup wins.

Not bad at all as a repack turnaround, and I've still got a set-bulding box to go.

Another Too Many Manninghams Trade - Part 2

This trade was huge. Fortunately, most of the cards fall into nice little portions of my PC, thus making it easy to split them up for posting. Most of the cards added are going into the 2/14 binder. Namely, 36 of them. My spreadsheet now puts the total at 676 different cards either in the binder right now, or waiting to be added.

Of the 36 that arrived yesterday, 21 of them were of the baseball variety. That's too many to post all at once, so here are the highlights.

Let's lead with my favourites. The only person in the 2/14 club who spent some time with my beloved Mets is Kelly Stinnett. He's shown here in the Sportflics card. I think this is the first Sportflics card in the binder. Although there could be a hockey one with a similar design. The second one is from Fleer tradition, and I immediately added a second one of it to my sportlots cart so I can put a second one in the mask binder.

There were 6 new cards of 2/14 perfect match Damaso Marte. That's enough to move Damaso will into the baseball lead with 19 different cards.

Dave Dravecky is one of 3 guys tied for second place with 14 cards apiece. This package included his 1983 rookie card, and his 1994 All-Time Heroes card. That's a perfect sandwich, although I'm still surprised he hasn't shown up in any Fan Favorites type sets, or anything at all, since that ATH card.

Derek Norris is the second guy tied with 14 cards apiece. (Takashi Saito is the other) Although I'm sure if I chased a Derek Norris rainbow or two, he'd vault into the lead. But I can't see myself putting an insane effort, financial or otherwise, into getting a bunch of 1/1s.

Daniel Garibay only has a handful of cards from his big league career. As best I can tell, his solo base cards total 5. This is my second, and both are from Fleer Tradition.

This is my first international-themed baseball card in the 2/14 collection. I've got some Team Canada cards for hockey, though.

And finally, here's Scott Scudder. While it is a nice horizontal full-bleed photo, I'm more interested in the cap. It looks like a melding of the the classic 'C' and the contemporary logo. I looked through other cards from this year at COMC and couldn't find any other appearances of this hat, so I'm guessing it was a 1 time off deal. Is there an Indians fan with a good memory that wants to share some more information?

2 parts of the trade envelope down, several more to go!

The Joy of 1...2..3 complete sets

Or part 1 of a lengthy trade with Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams. One that will take at least 2, likely 3, possibly 4 more posts to completely recap.

But, to open, something simple. 8 cards to make 3 complete sets. And nothing beats sliding the final card(s) into their permanent home.

I'll do these in order of when I started building these recent sets.

This SP of Davey Lopes completes my base set of 2013 Archives. I love that the colour scheme on this one is the same as on his '76 card.

This Kobe wraps up the 2013-14 Hoops base set, although I am going to look for a couple more inserts, since I kinda want to complete the HOF Heroes subset.

And to wrap things up, here are the final 6 cards to complete the non SP base set from Cooperstown. I really doubt I'm going to complete the SPs, even though I only need 6 of the 10. Seeing the Ripken Jr going for $10 over on COMC is kinda discouraging.

These were the easy ones to decide how to post. The rest, not so much.

Trade w/ Shoebox Legends Part 2

Let's wrap up part 2 of this trade.

The local Targets still don't have any retail packs of Flagship S1, so I haven't had any chance to pull any of their red border parallels. Fortunately, this trade package contained a pair of Jays from S1. They're on their way to the Jays binder.

As are this three pack of 1979 Toronto Blue Jays. Even better, they're the O-Pee-Chee versions, in all their miscut and frayed edge glory.

A boy's first mustache! New! From Mattel!

Leaving baseball behind, there were two packs of 1987-88 O-Pee-Chee leaders in there. Opening the packs resulted in a disintegration of them, but the cards were still sharp. Plus, you can play the game of wondering what some of these folks were among the leaders in. At least I didn't pull the card where Glen Hanlon is, shall I say, stickhandling.

And to wrap things up, there were a pile of 07-08 BTP cards on their way to the mask binder. I opted to highlight these ones since the first features a Senators mask (although Glass never played in the NHL) and the other features Goaltending Gallimaufry (TM: Cardboarded), where Michal is playing for the Windsor Spitfires, but wearing a Plymouth Whalers mask. Both also appear to be alternate jerseys as well, since I don't remember the V on the Sens jersey, and the Spitfires jersey generally features a plane.

Thanks for the trade, and there's another PWE on the way as I type.

Just one pack...of 1993 Pinnacle Series 1

OK. This wasn't something from my LCS. I actually acquired this pack as part of a trade with Shane @ Shoebox Legends. I figured that since I enjoyed busting this pack of 2-decade-plus old cards, it deserved a post of its own.

I just as easily could have done this with the two packs of 1987 O-Pee-Chee leaders, but I wanted to keep the one pack theme going, and I the packs pretty much disintegrated upon opening, thus meaning I wouldn't have a very good scan of it. (The cards were fine, though)

27 cards for $3.99. How things have changed.

Ken Griffey Jr. - Ken Jr. is always a great way to start a pack, whether in 1993 or 2014.
Cal Eldred

Eddie Murray - The only Mets card among the 27.
Barry Larkin

Dennis Martinez - And 1 of 2 Expos cards.
Andy Benes

Mark McGwire - Actually, Mr.Ms. Pinnacle Card Writer Person, I can think of another reason why McGwire's power numbers went up.

Tom Pagnozzi - Not the most flattering play at the plate shot for Pagnozzi.
Shane Mack
Matt Nokes

Eric Karros: Team 2001 - Hey, an insert! It's 1993, so there are no odds on the pack.

Robin Yount: Now & Then - It's a shame that a small portion of this card was stuck to the back of the Karros.
Bret Boone

Rafael Bournigal - In this picture, Rafael Bournigal looks like every high school shop teacher in any 50s or 60s teen movie. And the actor playing the shop teacher is probably the same age as the actors playing the high school students.
Bob Wickman
Delino DeShields: Idols
Tim Pugh
Melvin Nieves
Kevin Seitzer

Glenallen Hill - And wrapping up the scans this pack with a nice moment of impact shot.
Lance Johnson
John Smoltz
Randy Milligan
Scott Erickson
Kevin Gross
Tim Teufel
John Orton

Not bad at all. Thanks for the random pack, and I'll get to the rest of the trade tomorrow.

Not quite dime-box goodies - Part 7

Let's wrap up the hockey portion box with some miscellany.

A card of Mario for less than a dime? Sounds like a good plan.

Ditto for Mr. Hockey himself.

And also ditto for any card that features the hoisting of the Cup. Even if the Ducks one was against my beloved Sens.

Picking up a Leafs card voluntarily for non-set building reasons? When it features Lupul signing autographs wearing an alternate uniform, it's an easy pick-up. Even though I don't think the Leafs ever wore those during an actual game, but at least if they show up on a card as a swatch, we'll know where the "event worn" comes from.

Throwback uniforms. A ceremonial puck drop from the winter classic. A beautiful card.

But you'd think that, even they were promoting the Boston/Philly game, that they'd put the Chicago and Detroit logos on the card. How'd you like to handle this one in a group break?

I can't get enough appearances of the Colorado Rockies jerseys on cards. I'd love it if Parkhurst made a return alongside UD's exclusive deal, if for nothing else that some of the oddball players that show up in these.

And to wrap this up, here's a pair of Rangers alumni.I'd completely forgotten about Bellows' time with the Ducks.

All about the penmanship

I'm still toying with idea of getting a binder together just for my favourite autographs in terms of penmanship or unique signatures. That way, I can keep my Doron Lambs, Jose Bautistas, Terry O'Reillys, Gio Gonzalezes and their ilk safe from the guys who just add their initials, or turn it into a mess of undecipherable hieroglyphics.

Yup. I'm still looking in your direction, with that hieroglyphics comment Jonas.

But the purpose is not to bury the Lithuanian Raptor, my purpose is to compliment the two newest guys in my non-official penmanship team.

Brandon Meredith is a prospect in the Astros system. Brandon has a lengthy name, but you can still make out every letter in his signature. As someone whose handwriting is somewhat smaller than average, it is really nice to see some else with a rather compact signature. My only complaint is that the slight slant to the left had me thinking Brandon was a southpaw, but the card back reads he throws and hits from the right side of the plate.

And here's the second one. After Doron Lamb last year turned up with some gorgeous cursive in his auto, I'm starting to think that 2nd round picks that end up playing for Milwaukee (Nate was picked by Washington, then moved to Philly, and finally the Bucks on draft day). It's another nice one with each letter being legible. What more can you ask for?

I'm still not 100 percent sure about the penmanship binders, but if it goes ahead, these two will be certain entries.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 13

Back to the regular Dollarama, with repacks, and surprise boxes and other card related goodies.

Superstar Pack:

2010 UD Tim Gleason
1995 Topps Todd Gill

1994 Score Bernie Nichols 1000 Pts - Congratulations on 1000 points, Bernie. At least you're getting it saluted on a card that isn't too hideous (at least by mid 90s standards).

1999 Black Diamond Johan Davidsson - I always enjoy adding cards to my binders of guys who I'd never heard of before. 82 games over 3 seasons.

2011 Certified John Tavares - Not too bad for a guaranteed superstar.

Rookie Pack:

2010 UD Steve Reinprecht

2005 Rookie Class Ryan Miller - When this came out, I thought that this surely couldn't be guaranteed rookie card. It may say rookie class, but Miller's first cards were several years earlier.

2011 Pinnacle Josh Bailey - Not a rookie, but still a great photo.

2010 Pinnacle Justin Braun - I guess this is it. At least he's still in the league.

Goalie Pack

2011 SP Authentic Bill Ranford

1997 Pacific Tommy Salo - One card for the mask binder.
1991 Pro Set Kirk McLean

2011 BTP Adam Morrison - Two cards for the mask binder. That's all I ask from these goalie repack packs.

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier Pack

Steve Kaspar
Brent Sutter
Brian Leetch

Pavel Bure (RC) - Well if you find a pack of 1992 Premier, there's really only one card you want to pull. And this is the one, the Pavel Bure rookie card is the chase card from this junk wax era set. A shame the centering is way off.
Adam Graves
Steve Duchesne

Barry Pederson - I had completely forgotten about his stint in Hartford. 5 games total. Amazingly, this wasn't his only Whalers card. He was also in Score as a Whaler.

Jimmy Carson - At least you get some great 75th anniversary uniforms out of this set.

Nice to bust an old repack favourite, and there was actually some pretty nice cards in it.