TMV presents Too Many Christmas Cards!

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!

I may be slacking big-time on getting other things posted, but I'm happy that I can finally make this announcement today so I'm bumping everything else for now.

What am I announcing?  Nothing major, just free Christmas cards for a whole bunch of you is all.

I know, right?

Back in November I thought about coming up with a contest where the winner would end up getting $20 worth of their wish list cards off of COMC because promotions were right around the corner.  In the end I didn't like how it looked, so instead I decided to do something that would benefit way more of you.  As a matter of fact, I made it my mission to send at least something small to every single person who sent me cards that I showed off on this blog and/or TMM.  I've loved trading with all of you and this seems like a perfect time to give back.  That evolved slightly into a list of lucky recipients that includes all of the above plus a few other favorite bloggers.

Wow.  Such MSPaint.  Very quality.

In the last few weeks I've landed cards from shows, COMC, eBay, Sportlots, and other sources with many of you in mind.  Some of you might just get a PWE with a few things, many of you will get a bubble mailer, and at least one of you has at least a smallish box to look forward to.  The common denominator is that each person will get something(s) tailored to their PC(s), and in most cases that will include at least one hit.  I won't go into details, so if you're getting something you'll just have to wait and see what it is!  I thought about surprising people but I think it'll be more fun for people to get to anticipate something besides coal in their stockings this year, so if your name is on this list, congrats!:

$30 a Week Habit
2x3 Heroes
Angels in Order
Baseball Card Breakdown
Bob Walk the Plank
Brad's Blog
Cardboard Collections
Cards on Cards
Chronicles of Fuji
DocHoloday
Enough Already
Garvey Cey Russell Lopes
Great Sports Name Hall of Fame
Home Run Apple
My Cardboard Mistress
My Sports Obsession
Nachos Grande
Nomo's Sushi Platter
Off Hiatus Baseball Cards
Play at the Plate
Raz Card Blog
Sports Cards Ate My Brain (I need your address, Scott!)
Sports Cards From the Dollar Store
Reader Eric Eckstein
Reader Mark H.

The COMC package was the last piece of the puzzle and since that arrived today I expect to start sending cards out by tomorrow.  Probably not all at once--have you seen that list?!--but I'd like to have them all out by Friday at the latest.  I hope everyone enjoys the free swag from their not-so-secret Santa!

Merry Christmas from TMV!

Topps Tiger Fan-Favorites!

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!
Well, Tigers collectors, anyway.  As I usually do several times a week, I was on the always-awesome Cardboard Connection yesterday and the title of an article caught my eye:  "2013 Topps Archives Baseball Fan Favorites Autographs Spotlight 1980s and 90s."  "Cool!" I thought, "A lot of my favorite players, even the guys that weren't stars, are from the 80s and 90s."  I proceeded to check out the checklist for names that would interest me, and two caught my eye.

One was former Tigers SS Travis Fryman.  I think Travis is a great fit in a set devoted to "fan-favorite" players--guys who weren't really sought after nationally, but certainly appreciated by their own fans.  I have managed to pick up one of his few certified autos, this 1996 Leaf Signature Bronze version,

which is an excellent on-card issue from his second-to-last season in Detroit, his fourth of five All-Star campaigns.  I'm especially glad to see Fryman get a new certified auto because his current run is 10 different cards:  the above card, plus Silver and Gold versions from '96 Leaf Signature; a 2005 Topps Retired Signature issue (which I totally need to find), a Refractor version of that, plus four autographed plates; and a cut auto from 2012 Leaf History of Baseball.  What I'm getting at here is that it's a fairly big deal for Tigers/Fryman collectors that he's got a new autograph coming out!

Well that's all well and good for Tigers collectors, but one's never enough.  That's why I was so excited to see this in the checklist:  "FFA-MT Mickey Tettleton, Detroit Tigers."  Sweet!  One of my all-time favorites, he of this batting stance,

has had VERY few certified autos.  In fact, as I was verifying the current total, which I knew included this one from my PC,

I hadn't even realized that he actually does have a second issue from 2012 Leaf History of Baseball.  Unfortunately, like Fryman's, that's numbered to just 10 copies.  So getting another shot at a Tettleton graph is pretty exciting!

I know this year's Archives are incorporating another four past designs, from 1972, 1982, 1985, and 1990, so I'm curious which design each player will get.  Regardless, I'll be pretty with whatever they get.  Since this is a Topps product, I won't play the lottery and try to pull these, and I know as usual I'll have to wait until the initial hype dies down, but I'm sure I'll be able to buy or trade for each.

As a sidenote, former '68 champ Denny McLain also appears on the checklist, but he's a jackass and I won't be pursuing him.  Still, a few other former Tigers will be available as well, albeit in different uniforms.  Those players include:  Darrell Evans (Braves), Dan Gladden (Twins), Eric Davis (Reds), Fred Lynn (Red Sox), Greg Jefferies (Mets), Howard Johnson (Mets), Hal Morris (Reds), Juan Samuel (Phillies), Lloyd Moseby (Blue Jays), Ray Knight (Reds), and Ruben Sierra (Rangers).  Not a terrible group!

So hopefully you'll be seeing Fryman's and Tettleton's 2013 Archives autographs over here within a few months.  And I also hope that you collectors end up with your fan-favorites as well!

Check out Prof. Farnsworth's announcement

So guess what I found on my porch when I got home from work today?

It's one of those wonderful boxes from Washington stuffed with cards!  And as I previously mentioned, many (and some of the best) of those cards will be heading to people like you!  I'm planning on trying to get most of my shipping done on Saturday if possible, pending a couple other deliveries, but many of you should expect to see packages from me by next week, except those of you hosers in Canada, who might have to wait a bit longer.  I'm excited to be able to send those out finally, plus have a bunch more cards to show off, though all but maybe one will be featured on TMM.

Anyway, I'm too tired from work to write up a real post today, so instead, I give you the gifts of optimism and anticipation!

Just Checkin' Out My package

Sorry not to have posted for a while, everyone, but I had a hell of a week of feeling like crap (and I'm STILL not 100% yet!).  I'm finally ready to get back on the wagon, though, and with this post comes some GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE:

My COMC package is HERE.  Behold, some teasers of what's to come for the next few weeks of posts (though mostly over on TMM!):

That second image includes my 19-page packing list.  19 pages?

19 pages.  It's gonna be a fun few weeks of posting, and that's without mentioning that I have some various trade packages to attend to, plus maybe some hope for the Tigers in the playoffs as well.  Hooray for enormous packages!  Wait--that doesn't sound right...

Check out my Cool News

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE

Nearly four months after the first pickup of this latest haul (June 4), I'm finally getting my COMC shipped.  The main holdup was trying to determine what would happen to the shipping costs once the new site went live today.  Unfortunately I learned a couple weeks ago that prices would be going UP, not down, but in the end it didn't make that much of a difference, and I spent the time wisely with a few more pickups, to the point that after shipping I have exactly $0.16 in credit left over.

This most recent endeavor started around the time I started pulling in a bit of play money thanks to selling quite a few unwanted cards on the site, including, ultimately, my whole port!  I decided to take advantage of that and pick up stuff on my singles/players wantlists.  Besides that (though mostly that!) I found a few cheap cards to fill a few baseball and football sets, then I even had some success finding some stuff I know a few of you lucky traders will enjoy!  To top it all off, I then went whole hog into shoring up the PCs of players you can find over at TMM.

So, starting with the five cards I picked up on June 4, up until the last two I snagged Sept. 28, how many did I end up with in total?  Well, it would appear that this latest package outpaced every other COMC shipment (six of them) I've ordered COMBINED.  The damage?  356 cards for a total of almost $61 in shipping costs.  Do you think that's insane?  I initially balked at it before realizing that the site does an excellent job of cataloging, pulling, packing and shipping these cards and that costs money.  Plus, if I had ordered even a fraction of these elsewhere--say eBay or SportLots--I'd probably looking at 2-4x the cost, at least.  Other than that, I don't feel I ever need to justify what I spend--besides, I've had a solid year of selling stuff and I know what I can and can't budget towards cards.  Also, I'm planning on this being the last large purchase of the year, and since it'll presumably take a while to get everything posted, I won't really feel the need to go nuts again like this for the rest of 2012.

So while it'll probably take a week or two for everything to show up, keep an eye out over here and on TMM for some really exciting stuff, and maybe be even more watchful of your mailbox because I have some sweet stuff that might just get sent your way!

For now, if you haven't done it recently (or at all), take another gander at COMC, and while you're at it, see what you think of the new site design.

Short on memory, long on trade packages

Sorry about the relative lack of posting this week--I've been busy, unmotivated to post anything, and there's a dearth of interesting stuff to collect right now thanks to the Topps monotonopoly in baseball (which is sorta changing soon, yay!).  Add to that the fact that I can't find good deals on PC stuff like I used to on Blowout and you get a lack of content, though I admittedly should be trying harder to find stuff to blog about anyway.  Howeva, a couple fellow traders bailed me out today thanks to stuff they sent my way.


Trade with Ryan L.:


This one started after Ryan saw my 2010 Topps Update jumbo break and plea for wantlist help.  Things got a little sidetracked after Tenets of Wilson said NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND and filled my set again.


Fortunately, he still had some stuff he wanted and that allowed me to spin off some of my dupes for some Tigers goodness:

This is just a small handful of what he sent, but it's the stuff I liked the best.  The Porcello was the biggest get for me here, and I'm excited to have a nice numbered RC of him, especially if he grows into his potential.  A couple cards of V-Mart were a nice addition, especially the numbered Icons version, even if these, as well as the Peralta, are of him in a Cleveland uni.  Both guys have been key contributors to the Tigers' success this season so these are great.  Finally we have a couple minis, one of the most consistently inconsistent starter in the A.L. and one of Will "Busta" Rhymes.


All in all I think I got a pretty good return for a bunch of 2010 Topps Update doubles I didn't need.  A big thanks to Ryan, and I hope more of you get to trade with him soon!


Players to be named later from Jeff:


A few weeks ago Jeff of My Sports Obsession headed out this way with his family for the Michigan Fan Day/stand in the heat and get nothing event.  He and I did a bit of in-person trading, and I think I surprised him a bit with how much stuff I brought.  He was more than up to the task of evening things out, as the following evidence will prove:

Maurice Taylor 2005 SP Game-Used Edition Authentic Fabrics jersey:  Wait, a basketball card?  On MY blog?  Yeah, it happens.  This allows my Michigan basketball PC to explode to three cards, the other two of which are of Wolverine pariah Chris Webber.  Oddly enough, Taylor caused some Webber-like damage himself after he came to the Wolverines out of Detroit--he was part of a booster scandal (sorry Michigan, only the SEC is allowed to pay its players) and Michigan had to forfeit a ton of wins.  Taylor got rewarded by being picked #14 overall by the Clippers, lasting in the NBA until 2007.  He now plays in Italy, which is even better, but the joke's on him--basketball is still a stupid sport and I'm glad the status of this season is shaky.  Anyway, this is still a cool addition to the trade package and not a bad looking card either.

Alan Branch 2007 Bowman Sterling auto RC:  Moving onto sports that don't suck, here's a sweet auto/RC of Alan Branch.  Because this post involves Alan Branch, I get to post this again:

That's as much as I need to say about Branch.  This is a sweet autograph and it's my eighth of the QB-killer, keeping my streak of only autographs alive!

Anthony Thomas 2001 Bowman's Best jersey RC:  Michigan's ground game could use a beast like A-Train right about now, but we'll see how the RBs continue to develop.  I tend to really like Bowman's Best stuff (really, Topps, would it kill you to bring that back instead of 2011 Topps Old Timey-Style Photos Of Two Baseball Players and 80 "Celebrities" Plus Two Scrub Relics?) so this one works for me.  My only dig is the crappy non-stamped serial numbering on the back (720/999 if you were wondering).  This is an excellent jersey RC of one of my favorite recent Michigan backs and is #12 in my PC.

Braylon Edwards 2005 Donruss Threads Rookie Throwback Materials jersey RC:  What would a Michigan PC post be without at least one Bray-Bray?  I don't even want to think about it!  I actually kind of love how Edwards is phoning in the pose here, and the look on his face seals the deal.  Not a bad brown Browns swatch from a Rookie Premiere event that took place right around my birthday that year.  I was fairly surprised this wasn't numbered considering Panini's affinity for doing so, but that doesn't really take away from a cool, if goofy, Edwards card.  This puts him at 30 in my PC, by the way, tying him with his former QB, Chad Henne.

Chris Perry 2004 Leaf Certified Materials Freshman Fabrics jersey:  Here we have a nice shiny jersey of another back Michigan fans would love to see back in a winged helmet.  Did I mention it was shiny?  Because it's shiny, as only Leaf Certified can make it.  This is one of those cards where Panini puts on the back a picture of the jersey from which the swatch was cut (which I suppose makes it funnier for patch fakers when they ply their trade).  The back also includes the serial number, 0842/1250.  Very nice.

Chris Perry 2004 Upper Deck Rookie Foundations jersey RC:  Jeff included a nice variety of players here, and Perry is one of only two for whom he included multiple cards.  Here we have another serial-numbered rookie jersey of the star RB (the numbering here being barely visible around his left shoulder area).  #d 1156/1299, this combines with the above gem to put me at a solid 15 Chris Perrys.

Gabe Watson 2006 Absolute Memorabilia Spectrum auto RC:  I'm not sure anybody involved with Michigan football has ever referred to this guy as anything but "Big Gabe Watson."  This is a very nice autographed RC that I'm proud to have, and it's numbered 031/100.  I now have as many BGWs as I do Michigan basketball hits, and all three in this case are Panini-branded autographs.

Jake Long 2008 Bowman Sterling jersey RC:  Put this one in the "Wait, I didn't already have that?" pile.  I'm always nervous about picking up Jake Longs because I have so many of him that I figure everything's a double.  That and I confused it with the one I DO have, this autographed version.  I like what Topps did here, shooting him in a fairly typical OL-type pose.  I also, of course, like that this one's numbered, 167/569.

Jake Long 2009 Upper Deck Game Day Gear jersey: We'll close things out with another "Seriously, I could have SWORN I had that!"  Fortunately, I didn't, so now I do.  Long is starting to pull away from my PC pack as I now have 33 of him, three more than runners-up Braylon Edwards and Chad Henne.

More importantly, in one fell swoop Jeff propelled me to my next big PC milestone:  350 hits!  That's right, I almost have enough to look at a different card every day of the year, which is just crazy.  This is a group that includes 54 different players/coaches and 231 autographs.  I'm very proud to have reached this number after starting with a handful just last year.  Thanks again to everyone who's been involved in bolstering my PC, and a big thanks again to Jeff for a great trade that allowed me to hit this magic number!  I hope to do more trading with the obsessed White Sox but hopefully-no-longer-Colts fan soon.

Good news (again), everyone!

Mr. Play At the Plate may have some interest in the following...

So, yeah, about that good news:

To summarize this news in one picture:

Aw hell, why not one more?

YANKEES SUCK! YANKEES SUCK! YANKEES SUCK!

Congrats, Texas, on your first World Series berth!

Contest update, GA Mindset group break, trade package

Contest reminder

EDIT:  I guess those hints did it as reader "Steven" nailed all eight:  
Rocco Baldelli
Hank Blalock
Alex Cintron
Brent Clevlen
Todd Helton
Andy Pettitte
CC Sabathia
Daryle Ward


Steven, contact me with your address and I'll get those to you posthaste


---------------------

If you hadn't noticed, I'm doing a giveaway contest type deal.   I still don't have the requisite 10+ entries where I'll throw in extra stuff, but you can still get the packs.  So far I've seen just two different guesses that had one correct player, so here's some helpful hints:

-The teams:  White Sox, Yankees, Cubs, Indians, Tigers, Rangers, Rays, Rockies
-The letters:  2 B's, 2 C's, H, P, S, W (last names)
-B and B:  Have shared a team (just not at the same time)
-C and C:  Both hail from the AL Central in this set, though they're not very well-known players
-H and P:  Are with their pictured teams in 2010
-S and W:  Don't share any common teams, but one's a star and one's retired

Combined with that and the series 1 checklist I'm hoping to see a few more correct answers soon.  Put on those thinking caps!

 

GA Mindset's doing a group break

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!

 

TMG's homeboy GA Mindset is doing a group break:  six boxes of 2010 Topps Chrome and two of 2010 Topps Triple Threads.  Details on his blog, but basically it's $30/team (and $25 for additional teams), plus you get dibs on your team when he does a Bowman Chrome break.  I yoinked the Tigers and Orioles (I'll be damned if I'm gonna miss out on a Ripken bat knob/book/jsy/jsy/auto/pants/sunflower seed because I'm cheap) but it would appear that everything else is currently up for grabs, so get in now!  This is your first reminder, but I'll be pimping this for a few days as I'd like to see it get filled up.

Holy frijoles, that's a nice trade package

Baseball fan of unknown team allegiance Reds and More got some people, including me, to send him some Reds and more Reds for their favorite teams.  I took the Tigers, natch, and I'm pretty happy with my return (sorry the scanner cut everything off today; too lazy to fix):

ARRRRRRGH TIGERS BIP

Now THAT's more like it--Porcello jersey

A few nice Kalines, of which I didn't have many, so I got that going for me

Nice Minis of excellent young Detroit pitchers

"Wahoo Sam" Crawford, named after his hometown in Nebraska, named after the guy who was called that because he actually thought living in Nebraska sounded swell

Gator!  Detroit's resident pinch-hitting hero (and a pretty nice guy when I snagged his autograph a few years back)

And lots and lots of other Tigers from the 1970s(!)-2010.  This trade package easily earns an A from me, thanks, Reds and more...!