2013 trade package #29: SCFtDS Scores again

Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store seems to send me a new trade package almost every week (which is about 1.5 weeks Canadian), while I tend to pile up things into one large envelope at a time.  In the end we're both happy and end up with tons of great stuff, and that's probably why this is already my SIXTH package from him on this blog alone!

As usual the highlights are over on TMM, but Doug was nice enough to send along some set help as well,

specifically these six cards from 2013 Score Football.  It's been a fun set to put together, and the cards consistently including interesting and exciting photos, like the ones you see above.

These six put another dent in my wantlist and finally get my needs under 50, all the way down to just 45 left.  That's not bad considering this is a fairly large set.

Thanks again, Doug.  I'm betting you're already enjoying the latest package I sent your way, and if I'm smart I'll start working on another one soon!

2013 trade package #28: the JV Dimwit

A week or two ago Sam over at the Daily Dimwit posted some box break results that included a card that really intrigued me.  Because Sam's such a great guy we quickly worked out a fair deal, in which I sent him a trio of Astros wants (they still put those guys on cards?!) from eBay, among other things.  And on my end I scored the card I really wanted, which can be seen over on TMM tonight, plus this "throw-in," which wasn't a throw-in at all, but another box break pull I was happy to see join my collection!:

Justin Verlander 2013 Allen & Ginter jersey

Sweet, another Verlander relic!  It's my sixth such card of JV, and 10th hit overall (one manu-relic, two autos and a plate).  Considering what his cards (rightfully) go for, I'm always happy to pick up something like this in a trade from someone who can pull it or otherwise acquire it for much less than I can.

Thanks again, Sam, for this new Tigers addition, and especially the one that spurred the trade in the first place!  I look forward to trading again soon with one of the easiest-going guys the South has to offer.  People, if you're not already one of the Daily Dimwit's 200+ followers, get over there right now!

2013 trade package #26: a Canadian dollar's worth of Red Wings

Doug from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store just doesn't know when to quit, and I sure as hell won't be the one to tell him to.  I've received so many packages from him recently that if I don't get another within 10 days I may head north of the border to make sure he's still alive.

My post over on TMM this evening details the meat of the latest package he sent, but I certainly couldn't leave out another group of hockey cards that belongs right here:  a pile of Red Wings!

I'll have to check, but considering how much of 2013-14 Score hockey Doug busted, this group (and the first two from the next scan) may very well be a Wings team set, which would be very cool.  Oddly enough, out of this group a decent number definitely won't be or may not be returning.  That's ok, it's a good reminder of a team that overachieved in the playoffs and pushed the eventual champs to the brink.

Lashoff was indeed a rookie last year, and the defenseman potted a goal and added four assists in 31 regular season games, then participated in three playoff contests (with no offensive output).  Jordin Tootoo makes a fun appearance on the leaders card as he ran away with the team penalty minutes crown, with his 78 destroying second place Niklas Kronwall's 44.  Meanwhile, Elite proves to be an apt description for Motown Star Henrik Zetterberg.  And finally, the Heritage Cup champs card is my favorite of the bunch as it gives me warm fuzzy memories of the '02-'03 team that made sure Detroit's Cup drought wouldn't last nearly as long as the last one.

Thanks again for including these, Doug, and I look forward to our next trade!  I heartily recommend my readers to head over to Sports Cards From the Dollar Store for hockey hilarity right away.

2013 trade package #22: Score cards from the Dollar Store!

June was a new month, so I think I was long overdue for a new package from hoser Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store.  Fortunately, one arrived late last week, and as always--for the fourth time now--I was NOT disappointed!

Again, per usual the best stuff can be seen over on TMM tonight, but Doug didn't neglect some of my other collections:

He included 10 Red Wings cards, but that's not scanner-friendly, so here's nine of them (you miss out on a base of Mike Commodore, who played in a handful of games two seasons ago).  Doug really hit on some outstanding Wings, including pairs of stars Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and Zetterberg, not to mention a pair of pretty good goalies.  The Certified Lidstrom is my favorite here.

Moving on to football, he included one 2008 Score football base from my wantlist, as well as 20 new 2013 Score base, which I tried to highlight with a few more examples of fun/cool photography.  The Franklin is the biggest pickup since he's one of the set's 110 rookies.  In related news, today I picked up a huge lot of 99 different rookies from this set on eBay, which will hopefully knock most if not all of the rest out in a fell swoop.  That makes Doug's contribution to the rest of the set even more timely as I strive to put this one to bed for good!

Thanks again for furthering diplomatic relations between our countries, Doug!  I promise to have a return package out to you this month pending another COMC run, and I already have plenty of other cool stuff set aside for you.  Readers, please put an extra cup of maple syrup on your Canadian Bacon and head over to Sports Cards From the Dollar Store for some quaulity caurd coullecting wruiting!

2013 trade package #21: Cardboard Connections adds to my Verlander collection

The other day I was treated to a surprise trade package from Colbey of Cardboard Collections.  The bulk of it can be seen over at TMM, but he did manage to include a few baseball items as well.  Check it out!:

Cardboard Collections!  F$%k yeah!

I'm not sure why he included this 2012 Panini Cooperstown card of Buck Ewing but I'll take it, though I'll happily offer it in trade to anyone who can use it.

There we go, a brand new JV insert, and a mini at that!  This one's from 2012 A&G and it's actually the A&G back.  This reminds me that I really need to work on scanning my Verlander PC.  I'll get around to that...eventually!

Speaking of brand new inserts, here's Verlander's 2013 Opening Day Superstar Celebrations card, celebrating his 2012 ALDS game 5 triumph over Oakland in which he struck out 11 hitters (just like he did in game 1) while allowing just a walk and four hits in a complete game.  I see my former Detroit nemesis Gerald Larid behind him, but he's no longer around to cripple the Tigers at the plate, which is cause enough for celebration for ME.  That's a pretty cool insert!

Thanks again, Colby, for making these appear out of the blue.  I'll make sure to get you back soon when my piles of your teams call for a package of their own!

Meanwhile, I hope y'all head over to Cardboard Connections for some excellent blogging/breaking action.

2013 trade package #19: I'll buy that for a dollar! Another trade with SCFtDS

Another trade package that graced my mailbox last week came from a familiar location in Canada:  more cards from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!  These cards represent my third trade with Doug over on this blog, and fifth over on TMM.  For the bulk of the package, check out this evening's post at Too Many Manninghams.  But while you're here, take a quick gander at a small but useful number of cards relevant to this here blog:

I don't know how many copies of that Fleer sticker I have, but I'm always happy to take on more of them.  More importantly, Doug threw in a quartet of 2012 Topps Archives needs from my wantlist.  As is one of my favorite customs here, first take a look at the list before:

and after:

Woohoo!  Down to just a literal handful of cards to get that set completed.  Once again, this one will be very satisfying since I'll have completed it almost entirely thanks to the generosity of people I've traded with.  This one will get done soon, you can count on that!

Thanks again for yet another exciting trade package, Doug!  I'm actually very close to being able to send you a nice response, and I'll make sure to let you know when it ships.

Readers, as always, please get yourselves over to Doug's blog and get to trading with a guy who knows his way around a Loonie, eh?

2013 SportLots purchase #1: 2002 called, it wants its cards back

Hi all, sorry for my more-than-usual extended absence.  Life's been pretty busy lately (in a good way!) and blogging has taken a back seat to that.  Fortunately I have some cool stuff to show off now that I'm back.

Last week I made my first SportLots purchase of the year.  This one came about mainly because I owed a fellow trader some cards (which should be going out today or tomorrow!) and had some great luck finding them.  While I was at it I decided to try to get out of the rut some of my older sets were in and attack those as well.  Finally, I picked up a trio Michigan player collection cards, which you can see over on TMM.  Did I mention that these all came from the same seller?  Well, they did, which is the way to play the game when it comes to SportLots.

I spent around $30 this time, but considering what I ended up with, I think I did just fine, especially when it comes to sets from 2002:

Here's the three main stacks, details of which you can see below.

Card #1 is this 2002 Bowman base of Chin-Feng Chen.  Why did I start off with this one?  It officially closes the book on that set for me.  At some point during my previous SportLots pickups, I failed to realize that I needed this one, and then I think a seller sent me the wrong card, so I was still left needing the Chen.  This particular seller had it, and I jumped all over it.  Make that another set done and another box that'll get a big old check mark on it when I get around to putting these away (I'm terrible about that).

Next up I grabbed a total of 42 2002 Topps Total base cards.  This set was a bit of a catch-22 for me--I didn't feel motivated to work on it because I still needed so many, and I needed so many because I don't make the effort to pick them up.  Well, I grabbed every card I needed that this seller had, and now I'm down to a slightly more manageable 44 cards needed.  These will be fun for me to put away because I store them in a binder, just one of two sets ('03 Topps Total) I do that with because otherwise I'd be up to my eyeballs in binders.

I highlighted a few interesting players here, including the retiring Mo, a trio of former Tigers, and a few throwbacks.  Remember former 20-game winner Pat Hentgen?  Remember his ridiculous mustache as a member of the Orioles too?  How about Kaz Sasaki, proof that closers are often a dime a dozen?  As always, this set is a lot of fun, and shame on Topps for killing it and replacing it with more and more of their shitty, overpriced products.  How many guys do you think made this set that wouldn't have otherwise appeared on a baseball card?  BRING IT BACK, TOPPS!

These next two sets were part of a 2002 Upper Deck Update product, which included updated runs of a few of their 2002 products.  Unlike Topps Total, I'd really done VERY little with these since I'd opened them, so I needed quite a few.  Fortunately, this guy had a pretty good number of them for me.  We'll start with 2002 Honor Roll Update, of which I grabbed 14 cards (leaving me needing just four!).  This set included some more season highlights and prospects, finishing off the job of the main set.  In my scan I included some more fun highlights, including former legend-in-the-making Mark Prior, Chicago White Sox megabust Joe Borchard ("2001 Top-Rated White Sox Prospect," LOL Jeff), a pair of Tigers (including Tim Kalita #2) and one of a pair of Jason Simontacchis (remember HIM?).  Hopefully I'll get this one completed before much longer.

Finally, I nabbed 23 cards from 2002 UD Victory Update.  Victory was sort of like UD's answer to Topps' lower-priced entries, and therefore a large set, but UD added to it just like their other products that year.  I'm now 16 cards away from finishing this update set, which is fantastic news.

I highlighted a few traded players, plus most of the rookies I picked up.  Phillips and Colon, of course, were both involved in that ill-fated deal for Montreal that brought Cleveland many of its better young players for a few years.  I included Durham because how can you hate a guy like Ray-Ray?  Hey Eckenstahler, what happened to the logo on your hat?  And there's Simontacchi #2.

As I often like to do, I'll show off the damage to my wantlist this purchase did, before:

and after:

Sweet!  As I find money in my monthly budget the rest of the year, I'll see if I can't make even more headway on my baseball set wantlists, which are getting ridiculously small considering where I was at just a couple years ago.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have some cards to put away!

2013 trade package #12: Buckstorecards knows Detroit is Hockeytown

As he's done a few times recently, Doug from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store let me know he was going to be sending me a nice trade package.  He's already generous enough to set aside hockey Wolverines for me from whatever he pulls, the LCS, etc.  And he carried on that tradition once again, the fruits of which you can see over on TMM at your leisure.

But this time he was nice enough to once again throw in some cards of the boys of Hockeytown--the Detroit Red Wings!

I figure a page's worth of cards deserves its own trade post, especially in this case thanks to the player selection.  Konstantinov is one of my favorite all-time Wings and he always seemed under-appreciated in the NHL as far as I was concerned, but I also know that many in the game have a bias towards the Europeans (not to mention American college players).  Not that I ever cared--he was a force on the blue line and one of the best hitters in the old EA NHL games in the heyday of Sega.

The Yzerman card is especially great because it pairs one of the franchise's greatest ever players with possibly its greatest ever coach:  Scotty Bowman.  I think when you pile up as many Cups as Bowman did, you can dish out analysis all you want.

Holmstrom is one of the team's all-time great grinders, willing to sacrifice his body in front of the net to annoy opposing goalies and net a few garbage goals of his own.  He was a key cog on the team for a long, long time and finished with a very successful career.

Hasek just missed out on a Cup win with Buffalo, then came to Detroit for the 2001-2004 and 2006-2008 seasons.  He won titles with the 01-02 and 07-08 teams, adding to an already impressive career that also included Olympic gold, backstopping the Czechs to the 1998 Nagano hockey crown.

Cleary was notable as the first-ever Newfoundlander to get his name on the Cup.  After being a first-round selection by the Blackhawks, he's experienced a nice amount of success in Detroit, including winning it all in 2008.

Filppula is a Finnish Forward who's brought some decent scoring to the Wings since joining them full-time in 2006-07, meaning he has one Cup under his belt already.  Hudler is Czech but just about everything else I just said applies to him, except for his 2009-10 layover playing in the KHL, plus the fact he now plays for Calgary.  And Zombo, one of the great hockey names, came to the Wings from hockey factory University of North Dakota, and was a defenseman with the team for parts of eight seasons.

Thanks again for a great deal, Doug, and once again I owe you, but will even us up soon!

2013 trade package #11: muchos Archives from Nachos Grande

Ok, guys, pop quiz:

Who can tell me what this is?  Want a hint?  Take a look at the title.  Read on to get your answer.

So up until recently I had never traded with Chris over at Nachos Grande.  I'm not really sure why--we're both big Barry Larkin collectors, and I'd set aside a pretty nice pile of Larkins and other Reds to send his way at some point, but for whatever reason, we hadn't worked out a deal.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago when we hammered out a trade I think we were both happy with.  Chris split his haul into three posts, which can be found here, here, and here.  I'm dumb and took much longer to show off the fantastic box he sent back to me, mainly because I was catching up on some other great trades. But today I'm finally getting around to showing just how great of a trader Chris is.

A couple things spurred this trade, and those were a pile of Larkin doubles Chris knew could help my Barry PC, plus a new J.J. Putz for his collection.  You can check those out over on TMM at your leisure.

But the other trade bait that piqued my interest was a fat stack of dupes Chris had available from a certain set--namely 104 cards from 2012 Topps Archives.  That's exactly what you see at the top of this here post. The stack represents every card he had that I hadn't acquired from a rack pack or two plus several trades, and that shows just how generous he is.

Here's some highlights of those 104 new cards:

Former Tiger and blog namesake Granderson; ZACK GREINKE WILL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!  (seriously, has this guy EVER taken a good picture?  He looks like he Angry Video Game Nerd!); Tim Hudson because I like him; a trio of Tigers; and a trio of blog favorites:  Kershaw (Plaschke), Upton (MCM), and Hudson (My 2008 Topps Set Blog)

And here's nine legends/retired (suck it, Straw), including a favorite of yours truly, Cal Ripken Jr., with a photo likely taken before the NES became a thing.

When I combine these with the other few I had lying around, I now own 127 of the 200-card base set, which is awesome.  I'd considered purchasing a complete set at one point, but as usual, trading is much more fun, and I hope some of you reading this can chip in some cards from my wantlist as well--you know I'll make it worth it for you!

Thanks for a fantastic first trade, Chris!  I look forward to more deals in the future, especially if we can continue swapping extra Larkins so we can both grow a nice PC of his stuff.  Readers, please head on over to Nachos Grande to enjoy a blog that excels at both quantity AND quality!

2013 trade package #7: Chipp 'n' Dale? More like Champ 'n' Dave!

A few weeks ago, James of Braves-centric blog Chipp 'n' Dale let me know he had a nice card for my Michigan football PC up for grabs.  As with a few other deals I was working on, this was completed once I scored a card he wanted on COMC.  We each threw in some extras of the other's favorite teams, and just like that, a new trade was born!

You'll have to head over to TMM to see the real highlight of the deal for me, but James sent some nice stuff as well for my other PCs:

Tigers:  old, new and everything in-between, including Verlander (but not Granderson!):

A five-spot of Griffeys, including a few very recent inserts:

James, thanks again for a great deal, and I hope we can make another trade in the future!  Readers, please direct yourselves to Chipp 'n' Dale for a blog that features quality content by an excellent trader, not to mention a very clever name!

2013 card show report #1: 1/27

Sorry for the extended absence--I didn't really have anything worth writing about until today.  Despite the fact that a couple fellow bloggers couldn't tag along (for very legitimate financial reasons!) I decided to make the trip since, at worst, I could grab some supplies I needed.

Since it was Sunday and I got there towards the middle of the afternoon, a lot of dealers were in pack-up mode so I didn't fare as well as I usually do, but then again, I didn't spend as much either!  $39 and two purchases latter, I came away with 12 cards:  two which will be trade bait, six which you'll see below, and four that can be found over on TMM in just a bit.

Here's what I picked up that's relevant to readers of this blog:

Before

After!

Cal Ripken Jr. 1995 Leaf Slide Show #4A

I don't normally chase inserts, especially 90s inserts, at shows anymore, but a pair of cool Ripkens caught my eye, and I decided it was about time that I added to that PC.  These two scans show one of Cal's two '95 Leaf Slideshow inserts, unpeeled, then peeled.  I didn't have any qualms about peeling that stupid "protective film" off, especially when I got the result you see above--the scanner really was able to make the colors pop on the slides!  This is just a great example of those creative sets we were fortunate enough to be privy to in the 1990s before Topps came and ruined everyone's fun.

Cal Ripken Jr. 1998 Topps Hallbound

Here's another set that takes me back to my younger collecting days.  I remember busting a couple boxes of the 1998 flagship set and really enjoying some of the inserts that year.  The Hallbound set was no exception thanks to a very cool die-cut design that featured baseball's most revered building in the background--one I'm very familiar with thanks to my four pilgrimages to MLB's version of Mecca.  Topps didn't exactly have to go out on a limb to place Ripken in this set, but I give them credit for the text on the back, which states that while his consecutive games played streak by itself would likely be enough, he was also statistically one of the game's great at his position.

Jim Rice 1975 Topps Mini RC

Next we move on to Cal's fellow Hall-of-Famer, Jim Rice.  I had already picked up Rice's regular RC from the famed '75 set, where it can be revered along with the rest of my baseball RCs, but up until today I didn't have the Mini.  Well, I can scratch that one off my list!  This one's a bit off-center, but I nabbed it for a great price and don't tend to care very much about condition on my vintage cards anyway.  Also, this is one of my favorite designs: the multi-player RC!  That's a winner for my PC all day.

Al Kaline 1969 Topps

And now we transition right into Detroit Tigers vintage mode!  My usual vintage guy unfortunately was without his 90% off boxes due to unforeseen circumstances, but I still got some value out of his 30% off box, which still had plenty of gems.  One was this '69 Kaline, my seventh vintage pickup of Mr. Tiger, and my fourth of him from that decade alone, as you can see in my baseball vintage PC.  I'm trying to make a concerted effort to pick up more of Kaline's regular issues from his career, and I may ultimately make a project out of it, keeping in mind that his RC will be a bit of a doozy.  I can certainly appreciate his more recent issues, though, like this one, which features a great posed shot of a slugger with arms that DON'T look like tree trunks.

Chet Lemon 1976 Topps RC

For a buck, my next pickup was a RC of '84 World Series champ Chet Lemon.  "Chester," as manager Sparky Anderson would often call him, was an Oakland first-rounder in 1972, but was sent to the White Sox in 1975, in plenty of time to be featured on this awesome multi-player RC while wearing Chicago's shitty red uniform.  He then made his way to the Tigers in 1981, and he spent the majority of his career (nine of 16 seasons) in Detroit as a starting OF.  One of his best seasons, 1984, coincided with the Tigers' most recent World Series title.  Lemon hit .287 with 20 HR and 76 RBI, earning an All-Star nod for his efforts.  He also hit .294 with a run knocked in and a pair of steals in the Fall Classic.  Chet's tenure in Detroit earned him a well-loved place in team history and he'll always be remembered fondly in the Motor City.

Mark Fidrych 1977 Topps RC

And today we'll close things out with one of the more iconic cards of the 1970s.  Mark "The Bird" Fidrych's exploits on the mound during his legendary 1976 season are common knowledge at this point, but his continuing popularity despite only one amazing season his brief career still makes him someone worth mentioning once in a while.  His 19-9 record and A.L. leading 2.34 ERA earned him the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award, second place in the Cy Young voting, and a start in the All-Star game in what would be a whirlwind season for the eccentric pitcher, though sadly, his only effective one.  Fidrych was the subject of further tragedy later in his life as he died in a farm accident in 2009 at age 54.  But THE story of baseball in 1976 lives on in the memories of fans who still laugh at his antics while breathlessly recounting his pitching prowess that year.  And it's about damned time I added his RC--especially one in such great shape!--to my collection!

Please check out TMM for a few Michigan-related pickups if that interests you at all.

2012-->2013, part 1: resolutions

Happy 2013, everybody!

I've been planning to write this post for a few days and now I finally have time to do so, so I'm no longer feeling left out as most of you have already done so!

First, I'd like to take a look back at the year of collecting that was 2012.  Let's see how I did with my resolutions:

1.  MOAR TRADING:  Between the two blogs I had 48 trade package posts.  Even taking some overlap into account, I'm quite happy with that.  Better yet, I know I can improve upon that this year!  Success

2.  Post more trade bait:  I definitely achieved this, at least for a little while.  I don't think it resulted in me making all that many trades, but the page was there when I needed it.  Ultimately I dumped most of my useful stuff to COMC, which ended up paying off big-time.  Success

3.  Comment more on blogs I read:  I know there's always room for improvement, but nary a day went by where I didn't comment on at least one post.  I realize how important it is to get that feeling people are reading your work, plus these can often lead to trades, so this is something that remains high on my list for this year as well.  Success

4.  Respond to comments I receive:  I can honestly say that I responded to nearly every comment I received, both in the Comments section and via email when possible (I still definitely prefer when people leave comments while signed in to an account linked to their email so the latter is possible).  I appreciate every single one I get, even if it's just someone making a funny remark about what I posted.  Success

5.  Manage two blogs:  This got a little tricky at times because twice the work can often lead to burnout, and there were definitely some weeks where I slacked on posting on one or both of the blogs.  Still, I managed to get up 120 posts on this one and more than 150 over on TMM, which meant I increased my total posting from 2011 by around 50.  More importantly, I think, I managed to separate out my Michigan-centric stuff from the rest of my collecting so the two blogs would be more enjoyable to their target audiences.  That's something I'm going to continue as long as it makes sense.  Success

6.  Post quality content:  Sure, anybody can throw up some trade package features and show off their other purchases and PC items, but that's only part of what a collecting blog should entail.  What I should try to focus on more is why I collect what I do, my likes and dislikes, and other such original content.  One feature I do like to do from time to time, though, which seems to be somewhat successful, is showing off and discussing my completed sets.  I don't do so often because they get scan-intensive, and that can take a lot of time and effort.  Still, it's something I'll try to do more of this year, along with hopefully some other interesting, original stuff.  That and I'll have to see if I can come up with some sort of feature unique to this blog so I can stand apart like some of you do.  Failure

7.  Group breaks:  For one thing, I had hoped to run at least one more group break myself, but in my opinion there literally hasn't been anything worthwhile that would have made sense for such a project.  The products from my three previous breaks--2010 EEE and 2008 Razor Letterman--have shot up in price and out of the realm of what would make sense value-wise.
I had also intended on participating in more group breaks run by others last year, but after joining one run by the Dimwit, I just realized that there wasn't much value or fun in it for me, because I'm not nearly the team collector most of you are, and I rarely end up with anything good out of them anyway.  I'm just very picky about what I want out of such a venture and understand now that for the most part, group breaks aren't for me, so this is one resolution that definitely won't be on this year's list.  Failure

8.  Spend less on useless crap:  This here is one goal that will now be a permanent part of my collecting strategy.  My two biggest sources of waste in the past were hobby and retail boxes and packs.  Well for starters, I'm pretty sure I didn't pick up any hobby boxes this year at the few shows I attended, and definitely not online.  Retail was a slightly different story, but I still made major strides.  I did pick up a bunch of 2010 Press Pass PE blisters (on sale!) for about $80, and I soon regretted that decision considering how I did.  Later in the year I went a bit overboard with 2012 Topps Football retail racks and blasters, totaling around $150, which is definitely more than I needed to spend there.  That's more than $200 I could have used elsewhere, but that's still a huge improvement over my past junk spending habits.  Success

9.  Complete some more sets:  My baseball and football set wantlists have shrunk so much I barely even recognize them anymore.  I combined purchases from COMC, SportLots, Blowout and eBay to knock out a large chunk of my wants in 2012.  But better yet, I got an amazing amount of help from many bloggers and readers last year, and I can't stress enough how much of a difference this made.  That'll be a bit more difficult this year due to the fact I won't need as many cards, plus I've drastically cut down on my set-collecting, but it's wonderful to know I have such a great source for getting help with one of the most enjoyable and pure pursuits of the hobby.  Thanks again, everyone!  Success

10.  Get more organized and get rid of unwanted stuff:  I've gone on quite a bit already so I'll make this brief.  First, I got a lot more stuff scanned, and in some cases with player PCs, checklisted.  I also made major headway in getting things into storage in a way that makes sense.  Finally, besides the usual purging I've done with unwanted stuff in trades, I recovered a ton of space thanks to the success of my fall cleaning lots, a project I plan to continue as space becomes necessary.  Who doesn't like free stuff?  Success

11.  400/100/50 and beyond:  In short, I wanted to surpass 400 unique Michigan sports hits (I was just under at that point), 100 baseball hits, and to reach the 50-hit mark for at least one player.  Those of you who follow TMM probably already know, but I recently went over 800 total Michigan sports PC hits, including 600 in football.  Baseball stands at 152, so that definitely happened.  And Jake Long (57, with more left to post) and Rich Hill (61, ditto) gave me double the fun of the 50+ club, with more pending my COMC haul posts!  Success

Nine out of 11 seems like a pretty successful year to me, and this gives me a great start on exactly what I should be doing in 2013, namely:

1.  Post quality content, dammit!:  Like I discussed above, I have major room for improvement here.  I'll work on that starting this week and see what I can come up with to make this blog more interesting, so it's not just purchase/trade/PC show and tell.  If you have any requests, please throw them in the comments as I'd love to have them!

2.  Set a budget this time:  Thus far, I've never given myself an exact budget, but I hadn't kept track of my spending until last year.  The proved extremely useful, and I'll get to that later.  For now, I'll just say that my plan is not to exceed an average of $200/month, or $2400 for the year, and no single month should go higher than $300.  I don't anticipate bringing in nearly the same amount of money thanks to selling as I did last year, so being a bit more restrained should be a goal of mine.

3.  350 posts between the two blogs:  It's about time I tried to increase my output, though I want it to still meet my standards from #1 in terms of quality.  This doesn't exactly have to be an even split, but I want to see both quantity and quality this year!

4.  Keep on keeping on with the set wantlists:  I have nine baseball sets (three others are complete sets) on my baseball list and 11 on the football list.  My goal this year will be to complete more than half of those.

5.  Don't forget your non-Michigan PCs!:  While I might not go as far as I did with my Michigan baseball player collections last year, I'd like to scan albums for several other players I like to collect, starting with Tigers Justin Verlander, Curtis Granderson (again, Tigers only), and Kirk Gibson, and then maybe moving on to Ripken, Griffey, Gwynn and Maddux, and even other Tigers as well, depending on how things go.  Because I'm not supercollecting them, I don't plan on creating Google Drive spreadsheets listing everything I have, but scanned albums will make it easier to get an idea of what I have while also showing them off.

6.  MOAR TRADING:  I'm going to set an arbitrary goal of 100 trades between the two blogs because that's something I'll seek to do more as I try to spend less.  That would be more than double what I did last year, but I think I'm up to it.  Any improvement over last year's activity would be a plus.

7.  Michigan sports PCs goals:  I'd like to surpass the following totals:

• Baseball:  200
• Football:  750
• Unique football PC subjects:  100
• Hockey:  75
• Overall:  1100

Since I had a good amount of success improving things last year, this year I'm gonna attempt fewer goals, but put more effort into doing so.

Tune in tomorrow when I look back on my spending and consider changes I want to make to my buying habits in 2013!

Merry TradePostMas!

Hi everybody!

Work and life have been plenty busy in the last week or so, especially with what's sure to be a kick-ass Christmas quickly arriving next week.  Because of all that, I've been lax in posting over here, but I owe y'all a trade post featuring a couple awesome trade packages I received last week.  You can also see two MORE over at Too Many Manninghams while you're at it.  It doesn't matter what time of year it is--bloggers and readers are always generous.

I do want to point out a quick programming note before I proceed, though:  this will likely be my last post over here until the new year.  If I get up the energy, I'll try to post a year-end look at my spending and resolutions for 2012, but this seems like a good time to focus on family and friends.  I will, however, be keeping up with the blogs in my Google Reader every day.

All right, onto today's trade post fun.  As I mentioned before, many of you jumped all over my fall cleaning lots, which I still really, really appreciate.  What was even cooler is that some of you who did so were also generous enough to shoot me something back.  Here are two examples of that:

Reader Shano (a.k.a. Shannon), who took the city of Cleveland off my hands, mentioned he had some football wantlist help for me, which is always welcome.  He wasn't kidding:

2008 UD First Edition

2010 Score

2008 Topps

As you can see, that may have been a touch of an understatement.  These 19 cards put a nice dent in those three sets, especially the 2008 Topps.  As an added bonus, those featured cards I didn't have of a pair of Wolverines in Tom Brady and Jamar Adams.  Sweet!  Because these weren't sets where I was within a small handful of cards, I'd been neglecting them for a while, but Shannon's got me motivated again to finish these very soon.  Thanks, buddy!  I'll be sending more stuff out your way pretty soon--hopefully this week.

Another fall cleaning lot participant who was nice enough to send something back was the guy who runs Brad's Blog--Steve something.  Oh, no, that's right, his name is Brad.  How the hell are you supposed to remember that?

Brad actually showed off the card he sent me in an overview of some recent show pickups, but you can also now see it here:

Yes, this is how it arrived.  THANKS, USPS!  'Tis the season to continue to be habitual fuckups.  Just to be clear, this is less than 0% the fault of Brad, whose care in packaging the card literally saved it from any damage--that's right, the item in that envelope arrived unscathed due to Brad's TLC ("tender love of cards"). So what did he send me?

An absolutely ridiculous dual auto of a couple Tiger greats! (and I do mean that, especially in Tettleton's case)  I actually already nabbed this one earlier this year, but I know I can find use for it, even if it's trade bait for a fellow Detroit collector.  In any case, it was an extremely generous return for a bunch of Phillies I didn't particularly want.  Thanks again, Brad!  I'm now following his blog, and all of you should too.

Well, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas/awesome holiday season filled with food, football and 'Fractors.  Merry Christmas from TMV!

COMC haul #14: IHAS Freehan

(Note:  all COMC haul posts can be accessed here)

I'm getting pretty near the end of any COMC haul cards relevant to this blog, so I'm not sure how many more posts I'll have.  In any event, here's the last of my IHAS (in-hand and scanned) Bill Freehan cards (along with those I also posted over at TMM this evening):

Bill Freehan 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats #49 (with Torre and Howard)

I'm very happy with how this one scanned since you never know what you're gonna get with Sportflics.  As luck would have it, I got a pretty clear shot of Freehan's portion of the trio, which features a sweet play-at-the-plate (not that I know anybody that enjoys those) with Frank Robinson.  Also, at this angle it kind of looks like Shredder is looking over Bill's right shoulder, which is pretty cool.  Nice choice of catchers including Joe Torre and Elston Howard, too.

Bill Freehan 2005 SP Legendary Cuts Classic Careers (#032/399)

Bill Freehan 2005 SP Legendary Cuts Glory Days Gold (#68/75)

Bill Freehan 2005 SP Legendary Cuts Legendary Lineage Gold (#22/75)

Bill Freehan 2005 SP Legendary Cuts Legendary Lineage (#397/399)

Here's four more '05 Legendary Cuts inserts I needed.  The Glory Days design is still my favorite, and maybe that's because I really like the red border.  Including autos and relics (but not 1/1s) Bill has 32 different cards in that year's set; I now own eight of them.  Yep, I've got a ways to go, but someday I'll get there!

Bill Freehan 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Refractors (#145/299)

For someone that complains about Topps so much, I sure do like sets like All-Time Fan Favorites.  This is my fourth version of that card--besides this one I have the base, autograph, and a plate.  In terms of stuff other than the plates, I still need his Rainbow autograph and Gold Refractor.  Those are gonna be pretty tricky to come by, but I'll keep an eye out for those as well.  Anyway, 2005 Topps ATFF + Refractors = So Much Win.

Bill Freehan 2005 Topps Retired Signature Gold (#137/500)

Here's another set I thoroughly enjoy, despite most of its cards being way out of my price range.  I already had the regular ("Gold") autograph, and there's three more signed versions I'll need at some point.  I can certainly appreciate what I have here right now, though--this was a nice design from the days where Topps actually stamped serial numbers.

Add those to the two I showed off over on TMM and my new Freehan PC total stands at 55, plus a plate and an IP autograph.  The 55 count puts me nearly halfway to the total of non-1/1s I came up with.  As a reminder, here's my current checklist/have list and the album that contains his PC.

It may be time again soon for me to try to come up with original stuff, which is a scary thought.  In the meantime, please head over to Too Many Manninghams for a couple other fun pickups.