2020 trade package #37: $30 a Week Habit

I've made numerous references to not having spent nearly as much as I usually do on cards this year, largely for pandemic-related reasons. There's still a bit more than a week left, of course, but as things stand I'm a bit over $800. My calculator tells me that I'm averaging $15 per week.

That makes me half as cool as Robert of $30 a Week Habit, who was the second nice person who got into the holiday spirit and sent me Christmas cards--verified this time, see?:

Robert is another PWE veteran so he did a textbook job of getting these to me safely while adding a nice note for the holiday. As for what was inside,

HO HO HO, MERRY VERLANDERMAS! It's not Silver and Gold (halfway there!) but it's definitely two many Verlanders and therefore the perfect Christmas gift for your truly.

On the left is a 2019 Prizm parallel that I definitely needed to look up, but fortunately it's one that's serial numbered (/399) so looking it up on TCDB is way easier. In this case it's called "Blue Mojo", and half of that title makes sense to me, but we live in a world of crazy parallel names so Mojo it is. Somehow this is my first of JV's base/variations from the 2019 product, though I do have a couple other inserts. It's new, it's blue, and it's shiny, so I like it!

Speaking of numbered parallels, one that's a lot easier to identify is the Gold one found in Topps flagship packs for almost two decades now (and by the way, I remember busting a lot of '01 Topps and thinking those golds were sweet!). Topps going mostly border-less makes some of them tougher to discern but the Golds still stand out plenty, plus it helps that they're numbered to the year they were made. On the right here is Justin's only entry in the series 1 set, a league leaders card. The co-ace of the Cheatstros totaled 21 wins, hitting that big pitching milestone for the second time after notching 24 in his Cy Young 2011 campaign (another feat he repeated in 2019, actually). In doing so he proved that Detroit didn't know what they were doing in terms of his health, since all he did after being shipped to Houston in 2017 was go 42-15 in those two-plus seasons (before losing 2020 to injury) with the aforementioned Cy Young, a second place finish the previous year, and a World Series ring just months after the trade. Gold indeed.

Just two cards to scan so here's some backs, which let you clearly see the numbering I mentioned, and other interesting stuff.

At some point I might try to figure out how many cards of Mr. Kate Upton I added to my collection this year, but regardless I'm very happy to enjoy the gift of two more.

Thanks for thinking of me, Robert! I'm looking forward to doing more dealing with you next year, especially if shows become possible again and I can get back to acquiring cards and spending money on them at your usual rate. Until then, I hope you have a Merry Christmas, possibly one that includes the gift of cards of your own!

Next up is what stands for now as the final Christmas cards I have in my possession, though if the USPS ever solves its mail constipation issues that could change. Merry Cardmas to all!

2020 trade package #15: $30 a Week Habit

Today's trade is kind of a funny one because most of my deals with my fellow bloggers are blind trades, occasionally involving a card or two I've picked out. Not so today as I show off a bunch of great stuff I chose from the TCDB trade list of cool Floridian Robert of $30 a Week Habit.

I was browsing the site looking for a single card to finish up a set for Doug when I noticed that Robert (TCDB ID rmitchell6700) had one available. I happened to have an envelope for him that was just about ready so I asked him if I could get it from him, and of course he said sure, and suggested seeing if he had anything else that I wanted.

He had anything else I wanted, some 67 cards in total, all of which he generously sent my way:

(Mostly former) Tigers part 1: Boyd and Demeritte are still around, and we may actually get to see them play this year! Evans' third Topps appearance, from 1973, is my 60th of the '84 champ, and a great vintage addition to boot. And I didn't realize this until now, but there's a whole lot of Topps Heritage going on in this scan! Inge is bookended by two of my favorite Tigers OF--who were traded for each other--in Granderson and AJax. The latter even appears in three of his seven career uniforms.

More former Tigers. Kell's face is always a nice one to see in a trade envelope. I double-dipped on Nokes' 1990 Leaf cards, the second of which reflects a June trade to the Yankees that brought Lance McCullers (the elder) to Detroit in his sunset season. UD's OPC version included an interesting angle showing of Magglio's batting stance. And Parrish, who recently celebrated his birthday, also reps '90 Leaf and a new team himself as '89 was his first year with the Angels after a couple with the Phils.

I also came up with five many Verlanders, another former Tiger, and two of them are even Detroit cards. There's plenty of shiny to go around but my favorite is the '19 Donruss Career Stat Line parallel, numbered /204 for his win total through 2018. In case you're interested, Verlander won 183 as a Tiger, good for seventh in the franchise's history. Stat Line has always been a cool insert and I'm glad to see it continue in the latest releases.

The vertical cards repping Griffey, Gwynn, and Maddux added up to a perfect nine, so why not show them off together? There's a couple more examples of '90 Leaf--I'm up to 21 on the strength of guys I collect--and Mr. Padre and Mad Dog each get a Topps reprint of some kind. That second Griffey card interests me the most, though, as it's from '98 Collector's Choice, which is a set I know plenty about, but I'd never seen it!

Here's some horizontal cards of a couple guys we've already seen and a few we haven't. Two more inserts up the total to four many Grandersons, including a Gold /2012, and Junior adds a pair of his own giving me five new cards of him today. Earlier we had the late Mr. Padre and now we have Mr. Tiger thanks to a pair of Kaline inserts. Jack Morris gets one appearance courtesy of a five-player '82 Topps base--he was part of a four-player tie for wins in the AL in the shortened '81 season with 14. And a Sisler/Ichiro pairing makes sense since the latter topped the former's single-season hits record.

If you thought something was missing you were right: the highlight of this envelope was a crazy TEN new cards of the Iron Man. It's mostly a nice bunch of inserts, led by another one of those '07 Ultra Iron Man cards I needed, and a pair of Topps cards from an insert highlighting his streak. But the biggest get for me here is the 2015 Topps First Home Run medallion, a fun manurelic Robert was generous enough to include after reasoning that I would enjoy it (I will!). Cal hit the first of 431 bombs on April 5, 1982, opening day of his first full season, which would end with him winning the league's ROY award. A 1,000-card milestone post won't be long now!

A Mo Hurst insert was a fun find to rep the football collection, and then it was on to hockey. I'm not remotely surprised that I found so many of the guys I collect in Robert's trade bait since he's such a big collector of the sport. Hockey Mikes Cammalleri, Comrie, and Knuble all cameo, plus there's a rare appearance by Danny Felsner, and even a new Dylan Larkin insert, which I just realized scanned way darker than it should have.

And we'll finish this post with the rest of the hockey. I think I've said this a few times but Moss is one of a number of Wolverine icers born in my hometown of Livonia, and his college career from 2001-05 coincided with my time at the school. Muckalt doesn't pop up too often here so I was glad to find a shiny new insert of his. And I even added another Marty Turco jersey relic for good measure, this one from 2002-03 Pacific Quest for the Cup. That's the 39th hit in his collection, and he continues to lap the rest.

Many thanks again to Robert, a good guy of the blogging and trading communities, who exemplifies one of my favorite words, generosity, in deals like this. I'm exited to add all these great cards to my collections while advertising both his trading acumen and TCDB account, which you should totally hit up to make a deal of your own!

2015 trade package #6: 50 years of Tigers from $30 a Week Habit

Thanks to Robert of $30 a Week Habit I now have my first trade of February to show off!  In return for a nice stack of cards for his unique SNI project I'll send eastward to Pennsylvania once COMC gets them to me, I got the following bounty:

Rick Porcello 2015 Topps Black (#58/64)

From his 12 hobby pack break of 2015 Topps, Robert sent me this nice Black parallel of former Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello.  I have to say it's nice to get one last card of Rick in a Tigers uniform.  I wish him luck for a great 2015 season that's sure to lead to a nice big payday in his first run at free agency!

I'll save my 2015 Topps ranting for a different post so I can focus on the positives here.  The main one is that I continue to like collecting Topps' Gold and Black parallels; anything beyond that starts to turn into overkill, but those two are the standard for me, and they give you both ends of the scarcity spectrum.  That and they look good to boot.  Cards numbered to something as low as 64 would have blown collectors' minds in the past but now they're fun and reasonable challenges to collect.

By the way, I think this is my first 2015 baseball card of any type, though I could easily be forgetting something.

Jim Delsing 1956 Topps

Billy Hoeft 1956 Topps

Well these certainly came out of nowhere!  I knew he was setting aside the Porcello for me but this pair of '56 Topps cards was a fun surprise to say the least.  I've never really been the type to chase vintage stuff, especially cards from the 50s, since it's often out of my price range if not my wheelhouse.  In that case, I really appreciate it when people send me older stuff, especially Tigers.  As far as the 1956 set goes, the only other card I can claim in my vintage collection is an Elston Howard I picked up at a show.  But I've always considered it to be a cool set whose design lives up to its legacy.

Since I don't know a ton about either guy--though I've at least heard of Hoeft!--it's off to baseball-reference for a history lesson:

Delsing was an outfielder that suited up for the White Sox, Yanks, Browns, Tigers, and K.C. A's over his 10-year career, and he spent five of those in Detroit.  His transactions list is fairly typical of the era's Wild West situation, and he spent time in a few other leagues before debuting with the White Sox, then traveled quite a bit in the bigs as well.  He doesn't look to have had a very potent bat, but I like that the majority of his games were with the Tigers.

Hoeft, a pitcher, also spent more of his career in Detroit than in any other city.  In fact, his first seven-plus seasons took place in Motown, and they would be the best of his career, including an All-Star appearance in 1955 and a 20-win season the following year.  Overall he'd finish with a win percentage south of .500, which is not surprising since he earned double-digit wins just three times over his 15-year career.  After Detroit he would play for Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco, the Milwaukee Braves, the Cubs, and the Giants again, before hanging 'em up.  One interesting note:  Hoeft was buried in a cemetery in my hometown of Livonia, MI, and it's apparently the same one in which 1919 Black Sox pitcher Ed Cicotte is interred.

Thanks again for the terrific Tigers trio, Robert, and I promise I'll get those cards out to you as soon as I have them!  Readers, check on his SNI progress and other collecting news over at $30 a Week Habit.

2014 trade package #33: $30 a Wings Habit

(Yes I still exist, I've just been busy with lots of stuff, which is normal this time of year, but one project in particular will benefit many of you, so stay tuned for that!)

Robert of $30 a Week Habit recently told me he was sending me an "envelope" that would hopefully boost my small Red Wings collection a bit.  Robert understated things a bit:

First up is a pair of inserts from 2008-09 OPC, and it just so happens both of these guys are among the greatest to play defense for the Wings.  '07-'08 was Cheli's penultimate season in Detroit, and his last "full" campaign (28 games the following year, then just seven with Atlanta the next to close out his career), which he completed at the ripe old age of 46!  He celebrated by joining the Wings in winning their most recent Cup.  Lidstrom, meanwhile, was indeed an All-Star yet again that year, and won his fourth and final Cup.

Hey, how about some hits?

Kyle Calder 2007-08 Upper Deck Game Jersey jersey

I do remember Calder, who last played in 2010, though I had to look him up to remember when he was actually with Detroit.  As it turns out he was flipped to the Wings in February of 2007 and was reasonably effective for them in 17 games, then he signed with the Kings over the offseason, hence the pair of teams represented on the card!

Chris Chelios 2006-07 Flair Showcase Showcase Stitches jersey

Hey, it's that Chelios guy again!  This is my first hit of the HOF D-man, and appropriately enough it comes in the form of a beautiful red jersey.

Henrik Zetterberg 2005-06 Upper Deck Ice Fresh Ice jersey

Hank is another member of the 2007-08 Cup-winning squad (his only one so far), keeping that connection going for today's post, and better yet he actually scored the winner that year.  He currently appears on two other cards in my Wings PC: this six-way relic and a dual with Johan Franzen.  His first solo entry is this great UD jersey from their Ice product, which was actually still in existence as of last year.

Oh yeah, and to add to the fun, he threw this in as well:

Ivan Rodriguez 2006 Ultra Ultra Fine Fabrics jersey

Keeping up the current-or-future-HOF-Detroit-athletes theme, it's a Tigers jersey relic of Ivan Rodriguez!  It's my third Pudge relic--a base and another jersey--in my Tigers PC, and it was certainly a fun addition to an otherwise hockey-centric package.

Thanks, Robert, for another fantastic package, which, by the way, wasn't an "envelope" but a bubble mailer filled with Detroit goodness!  Readers, head on over to $30 a Week Habit for some excellent blogging (and trading) tonight!

Beckett, as in wreck-it

I had hoped to regale you all with some trade post goodness today, but instead I feel obligated to tackle a different topic:  Beckett.  I have two primary motivations for doing so, one being that I had already intended to add my two cents to what a couple other bloggers already discussed in their excellent posts, and the other being how one of the biggest detriments to the hobby has treated one of our own.

In case you didn't see all of this, Play at the Plate featured a great response to a $30 a Week Habit post that was written in response to another PATP article.

Still with me?

To sum up, PATP looked at what collecting was like when MLB wasn't killing the hobby with the Toppsopoly and we were on the opposite extreme--too many choices--and wonders if we're better off.  $30aWH then puts his own spin on things with an alternate universe in which "the magazine" doesn't exist.  PATP plays off this and decides that Beckett is obsolete, not to mention inaccurate.  (While I'm discussing what these two excellent bloggers did, I'd like to point out just how much I appreciate what they and all you other guys do:  provide a great community that can foster discussion like this in a coherent manner that literally doesn't exist anywhere else, ESPECIALLY on beckett.com.)

Pissed Off Card Collector FTW

Though I haven't exactly timely with my posts, I thought I'd briefly discuss my experiences as a collector who grew up during Beckett's heyday.

When I was very young my parents apparently bought some cards for me and my brother, which I know because we played with them until we got a bit older and understood the concept of collecting.  I'm pretty sure they were factory sets of '89 Donruss and Topps because I had a bunch of those, though not necessarily the better cards in either set.  We then picked up the occasional packs, and eventually--though I can't remember how--came into knowledge of the yearly Beckett price guide books, which were available at our library.  That segued into our discovery of Beckett, which introduced to us the idea of "value" as it pertained to sports cards.  I definitely enjoyed collecting the magazine and still have all my issues from when I subscribed, plus a bunch of older ones I picked up through various means.  And for quite a while, I did what many others did and swore by the "book" prices when it came to buying, selling and trading online and at shows.

That made for good and bad moments.  There were plenty of times we'd pull something rare from a wax box or dig something out of a closet, look it up and discover it was "worth" way more than we thought.  Then again, reality would come crashing down on us when we found out a $20 card didn't ever sell for $20.  But more importantly it could impact trading (again, most of which we did online, especially initially through Beckett's Buy/Sell area) when you or your partner didn't feel you were getting "equal value" according to the price guide.  It didn't matter if you were giving up better overall cards or if you were just a few bucks apart--usually at that point the deal died.

In the last couple years I definitely got away from trading (and selling, really) while continuing to acquire stuff, mainly through boxes, many of which proved disappointing, as they can at times.  The few times I did, though, along with the occasions where I'd open a box or acquire something, I would still swear by the card Bible.  What saved me from that limited collecting life was following collecting blogs.  As I started to notice people throwing around trade packages without a care for value, I gained a new-found energy for collecting myself because I thought "THIS is exactly what trading should be."  Really, it's about as pure as it gets aside from most of it taking place online these days, but then again, it opens up so many more trade possibilities, especially when you can easily work with a Dodgers fan all the way across the country.

What I'm getting at is that during my collecting years when I held fast to the magazine, I enjoyed a relatively OK collecting experience, but since then, I've finally grown up and realized just how obsolete it really is, both in terms of the price guide and its various features.  These days you'll hear sellers on forums swear by eBay prices (which is at least slightly more accurate, if not completely) which are a million times more "real-time" than Beckett's false claims.  That, and, as Brian pointed out, you're no longer stuck with Beckett as the only game in town for box breaks; instead of reading about their suspiciously good fortune with one outstanding box, you can get a ridiculous sample size including scans and video.  And don't get me started about pimping the next big thing.  It's a shame that magazines like Beckett can't sometimes discuss the more negative aspects of the hobby--constructively, with a dialogue about how things can improve--and instead choose to be blissfully unaware of monopolies, fakes, and other real problems.

All of that led me to ditch Beckett as a price guide once and for all a couple years ago.  I continue to use the site as a checklist resource but otherwise studiously ignore it, since that's the best thing to do in this case.  That's worked out just fine for me, especially since I'd quickly grown sick of the shenanigans of major players like Chris Olds, et al.  However, recently, something happened to one of my favorite bloggers that I couldn't let stand.

Here are some facts about Greg Z. of Plaschke Thy Sweater is Argyle:

• Greg is an excellent, very well-respected blogger
• Greg loves his Dodgers and collects the hell out of them (key word here:  "collects")
• Greg made it into a Beckett-run contest as one of three finalists, one of which would win a Sandy Koufax autograph
• Many people, especially his fellow bloggers and collectors would like to see him win this contest because he'd, you know, KEEP the thing and enjoy it as a Dodgers collector

But THEN,

one of the three finalists, a total asshat who sang a Justin Beiber song and should have been automatically disqualified except he was such an asshat even Chris Olds was like, "Whoa, this guy is REALLY an asshat.  I'm not mad, that's amazing!" decided to literally buy votes.  In a respectful manner, Greg pointed this out.  Olds' response, which took a while because he had to manually remove him from Topps' nuts and sit him in front of the only keyboard in the world that's large enough for his fat fingers, was this:

That's right:  when Greg came forward with evidence that one of his competitors was cheating and--once again--literally BUYING VOTES, then others piled on by reasonably pointing out how ridiculously unfair that was, Chris referred to these people as "complainers" making "mud-slinging allegations" and made them all sound ungrateful.  Luckily for everyone, next time he'll save us "the hassles" (didn't know it was possible to have more than one) and pick someone himself, which is simply what he should have done in the first place, except Mr. Olds is apparently unaware that they have the Internet on computers now, and said computers can be used to break any poll or contest.  When I tried to point that out, my comment was, to my utter shock, not approved by their moderator.

Because of all of that, Beckett is officially dead to me.  If anyone ever comes to me in a deal and quotes the "Beckett" price I'll just give them this look,

and go on my merry way.  As for the people behind "the magazine" that embody everything that's wrong with the hobby,

You stay classy, Beckett, and go fuck yourselves. 

Good luck all the same to a great blogger everyone knows and loves.  VOTE FOR GREG Z!

Update:  this one's for Eric L!:

Continuing the NBC Thursday Night Lineup Theme...

Annie's Boobs:

As promised to Greg, I present to you Annie's Boobs:

Trade with 30 Rock Dollar a Week Habit:

File this under yet ANOTHER trade I completed and promptly forgot about, to my amazement when I popped my mailbox open today.  Robert from $30 a Week Habit let me know that he had a cool hit for my PC, and all he really wanted in return was some Blue Jays stuff and some fodder for his pretty sweet Serial-Numbered Insanity project.  No problem for me--I had a bunch of those to offload for something I wanted.  Here's what he sent my way:

Brian Griese number five for me, a 2002 Playoff Piece of the Game ball.  This is my first game ball relic of Griese, which kind of makes sense since those aren't as prolific as jerseys these days.  This is a sweet hit of the championship-winning QB and becomes Michigan football PC hit number 379 for me.  I can't wait to see if I can get to 400 by January.

A Lion and a Tiger, but after Sunday's performance, fortunately there wasn't a bear in sight. (unless you count Griese, I guess)  Best is, of course, a RC, and Jackson is super sparkly.  Robert also threw in a few more Tigers for that PC.

And a couple trade bait cards to round out the package--Aaron Rodgers 2005 Topps Heritage SP #344 and Adrian Peterson 2007 Bowman RC.  Both are up for grabs so please feel free to make an offer.

Thanks for a great deal, Robert, and if I come across more serial-numbered stuff for you, rest assured it'll be headed your way directly.

YOU CAN'T DISAPPOINT A PICTURE!:

While I was digging around the youtubes for the Reading Rainbow theme for this post, I found this gem from one of the best ever episodes of Community:




That really doesn't have anything to do with anything other than I have another addition to the Rich Hill rainbow, possible the last for a little while as things get harder to find:

Here we have Hill's 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Autographs Charcoal version, #d 003/100.  For a measly $4 delivered via Blowout--cheaper than anywhere I could find when you take shipping into account--I picked up my 17th card out of the 30 that comprise the rainbow.  Only 13 more to go!  Then again, the average print run of those is a harrowing 43, and only 30 when you take out the relatively abundant Jersey Light Blue, numbered to 200.  But I won't give up, and I hope some of you will selflessly offer some help finding these down the line!

Manager of the Year, but not Assistant Manager of the Year or even Assistant TO the Manager of the Year:
I had to get an Office reference in here too.  Today's a day to celebrate if you're a Tigers fan, and I guess if you root for the Diamondbacks you can join in too:  Kirk Gibson was named the NL Manager of the Year.  Every article boils the achievement down to one main factor in the form of a cliched phrase:  "worst-to-first."  Gibby impressively turned around a bad team from last year which in 2011 went on to win its division handily and push the Brewers to the brink in the NLDS.  The fiercely competitive former Tiger has always found a way to succeed at whatever he pursues so this was another case of one of our state's own doing us proud.  Way to be, Gibby!  And may he replace the Ron Zook of the American League sooner rather than later.

Did I have you going, Greg?:

To increase page hits and reward all of you who read this far, I give you Annie's boobs fo' reals: