2015 trade package #23: Cool original Maddux card from GSNHoF

Another month, another Great Sports Name Hall of Fame trade package from Tim, one that almost blew up my mailbox because it was bursting at the seams with greatness!  I only have one card to show off to you over here, but please stop by Too Many Manninghams tonight to see why I continue to laud SpastikMooss as one of the hardest-working and most generous traders out there.  Here's what I have to feature for you baseball fans this evening:

Greg Maddux 2003 Sweet Spot Patches manupatch

It's about time I did more to beef up my Maddux PC (which still requires a ton of scanning, of course), so I asked Tim if he would grab this for me with the copious amounts of credit he piles up as an effective COMC flipper, and then send it to me in a future deal.  Trust me when I say that I owe him plenty to justify all the great stuff he's sent me, including this excellent Maddux manupatch from 2003 Sweet Spot.  

It's actually my second from that specific set (Zito) and one of quite a few patches of this type that I've accumulated.  They make fun PC additions, especially for collectors like me that don't acquire things just to try to re-sell them, and that allows me to throw the "value" complaints out the window.  They look nice and I get them knowing full well that they aren't "real" relics, whatever those even are nowadays.

Anyway, Maddux is a guy I still love to collect after having been a kid for a good part of the 90s, a.k.a. his heyday, so stuff like this is always on my radar.

Thanks again, Tim, and hopefully I won't have to make you wait too much longer for an appropriate response of a package!

3/8/15 card show report: Taylor trade bait

Two card shows in one week?!  Yep, after heading to the small show in Brighton last Sunday I went back to my new usual haunt in Taylor.  And this time almost all my money went towards trade bait so I can hopefully get more packages out in the next few weeks.

Besides the usual haul that can be viewed tonight on TMM, I did pick up one card for myself to show off here:

Greg Maddux 2008 Topps Chrome Refractor

Doesn't matter how many times you see it, it's still weird that Mad Dog was a Padre for parts of 2007 and 2008!  Anyway, I found this '08 Chrome Refractor for $0.50 and decided that the timing was right to add it to my Maddux collection.  I've still got something like 100 cards of his from complete sets to scan not to mention a bunch more singles, but at least this is a quick and easy one to show off today.

As I said, everything else is trade bait that's destined for new addresses soon, though I did find one hit that didn't have an obvious home but was worth landing for just $1:

It's a Jamaal Anderson 2007 SP Rookie Threads Rookie Lettermen Silver manupatch auto, #191/199.  If anyone would like to claim it in trade it's theirs, otherwise I'm fine sending it to COMC eventually.

Otherwise, some of you should keep a close watch on your mailboxes this month!  For now, though, if your neck of the woods is finally warming up like mine is, why not get outside for a bit.

2013 trade package #31: GCRL sends Great Cards, Ripken, laudably

So some of you might remember that about a month ago I solicited trade requests by offering to add stuff to my latest COMC package.  One of the brave traders to step up was Jim of punctuation-challenged blog Garvey Cey Russell Lopes.  That post accomplished exactly what I was hoping it would as not only did I kick off a couple trades with people I'd dealt with before, I also added a brand new trade partner, albeit one many of you know very well.

I'm happy to report that this deal went down very smoothly; Jim let me know what he was looking for and was very clear about what he was offering, which seemed perfectly fair.  Here's what I ended up with:

Jim promised me some Verlander inserts from this year and a Tony Gwynn disc from 2013 Panini Cooperstown, which is actually a pretty cool insert.  Along with that, he added an '88 Topps sticker featuring Kirk Gibson and Mike Aldrete up front, along with

Alan Trammell on the back!  Tram's '87 stats are on display for the world to see there, and that's the year he was jobbed out of the AL MVP because George Bell hit 47 HR.  Anyway, that's a pretty cool group of pickups, but as usual I saved the best for last:

Cal Ripken Jr. 2013 Topps Update Rookie Commemorative Patches manupatch

Hey, it's a new "hit" for my Ripken PC!  Topps (and others) have manufactured all kinds of stuff, so why not make a rookie card reprint "patch"?  It's not the kind of thing I'd pay money for, but certainly it was fun to add it via a trade.  This, of course, is a reprint of Cal's 1982 Topps Traded issue, which isn't strictly speaking a RC, but who cares?  The fact is, I love adding fun and different stuff of the HOF SS/3B anytime I can, and I really appreciate Jim making this the highlight of my end of the deal.

So thanks once again, Jim, for an excellent first trade, and I hope it's not long before we're dealing again!  Readers, please venture over to GCRL for another great Dodgers blog with a unique twist. 

COMC haul #4: AJax and Detroit's World Series Odyssey

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

Please feel free to skip down to the picture, but the impending Game 1 has me waxing lyrical tonight.

Ajax was one of those mythical mighty Greek warriors you hear about sometimes.  He was apparently extremely strong (though I don't know what the Greek equivalent of Rod Allen's "country strong" is) and also very intelligent, especially when it came to battle.

Fast forward some number of centuries and you'll find another AJax--Austin Jackson--as a top New York Yankees OF prospect.  A couple years after he bursts onto the scene, he's part of a deal that sends former blog favorite and face of the Tigers Curtis Granderson to the Evil Empire in a three-way deal that also includes the Diamondbacks.  Joining Jackson in the deal are fellow Yankee Phil Coke, a pitcher, and Max Scherzer, a fireballing starter for Arizona.  The deal is universally panned by the writers of this blog, and many Detroit fans are equally angry, while some take a "wait and see" approach.

Jackson's 2010 debut performance earns him second place in the Rookie of the Year voting, and it looks like he may after all live up to his potential and swing the deal back to the Tigers' favor.  Then 2011 occurs, and while his power increases slightly, his batting average and OBP take a nosedive, partially thanks to and even larger number of strikeouts.  His performance in the postseason isn't much better, and although Scherzer shows some flashes, Granderson puts up numbers that make this look like a steal for the Bombers.

But then something interesting happens:  2012 rolls around and Jackson begins to do more than just show progress:  he has a breakout season in which he improves all of his key stats, including cutting down on strikeouts, and plays a key role on a team that for a while was eking out a playoff spot.  Meanwhile, despite Phil Coke's meltdown, Max Scherzer becomes a crucial part of an outstanding rotation.  And although the Yankees surely appreciate Granderson's power surge, they apparently don't realize that he's become their team's Rob Deer.

This story continues with a nice postseason so far for all three Tigers that were part of that deal, not the least of whom is Jackson, who put up big numbers as the Tigs swept his former team back to the nursing home they came from (with some nice performances from a newly-confident Phil Coke as well).

What I'm trying to say here is that it's taken me this long, but I finally appreciate that that deal that cost my favorite player has been a bigger boon to my team than I could have realized.  Thus, Jackson is a guy whom I've slowly been collecting in the last few months.  However, back in June when I first began piling up cards for this epic haul, Jackson's excellent regular and postseason were still a ways down the road, so it's just dumb luck that I picked up a couple nice things of him when I did.  And now that the Tigers are set to face off with the Giants tonight in Game 1, here's one of those pickups to get myself and fellow Tigers fans in the mood:

Austin Jackson 2010 Topps Update Manufactured Rookie logo patch (#378/500)

Insert comments about how awesome/terrible manu-relics are here.  For my part, I don't pretend that they have anything to do with actual relics, and my only criteria for picking them up (besides player and price, of course) is design.  In this case, I think we've got a fun manupatch design commemorating Jackon's rookie year, which, again, went quite well numbers-wise for the Tigers.  As for whether or not the card meets my other criteria, obviously I like the player, and the price was surprising, even for a manu-relic:  a measly $4.

Win or lose, I'll be showing off a few other Tigers pickups during the Series, (good luck to you, Giants fans, I hope for a great Series for both of our teams!) and I'll tease you guys a bit by mentioning that I picked up one other Jackson that's way better than this one, so stay tuned!  As for tonight, GO TIGERS!

That's a nice rack! (More 2012 Topps retail)

Despite the fact that my mailbox has experienced a deluge of new cardboard, I'm going to delay getting to that stuff one more day to cover a bit more of my latest obsession:  2012 Topps football.  You saw how I did the other day, so the last two days I've gone back for more:  eight more racks on Thursday and a blaster and one more hanger this afternoon.  My relative despair over my progress towards the set, especially the bigger stuff, led to the addition purchases.

While the eight racks didn't yield much (besides a very much-needed RGIII RC, seen below), they did at least put me a bit closer to a base set and a couple of the inserts I'm working on.

Today's hanger didn't do much for me, either, besides giving me even MORE doubles (and up through SEXTUPLES) to trade.

The blaster, however, was another story.  While I initially didn't consider it the greatest investment, it certainly paid off, in the form of the Andrew Luck RC below,

...which, oddly enough, was the very last card I pulled from the blaster.  Except for this guy, my guaranteed Captain's manupatch:

W00t!  Now there's something I can try to sell to get some of the insane amount of money I spent back!  For those of you who were planning on asking, the number of filled-in stars (four in this case) shows how long that player has been a captain.

I'm finally under 100 cards needed for the base set, so hopefully I'm done buying packs.  Next up should be a sweet trade with Colbey once he receives and busts his box (and a bunch of retail too!).

Also, hopefully I'll soon get back to the usual content.  For now I have a trade post, eBay pickup and some other stuff in the pipeline, plus a few pending trades, so keep an eye out for good stuff soon!

Sunday fun: patch me if you can

Ahhhhh, another Sunday, another trip to Meijer for stuff I needed, another jaunt down the card aisle looking for deals.  Blasters of 2009 Topps baseball I and II were $15, which seemed reasonable, so today you're getting a blog post twofer.  I won't bore you with most of the contents, but each included one guaranteed manupatch, and both were worth it:

Steve Carlton 1969 All-Star Game

Nolan Ryan 1989 All-Star Game

Before any of you says a thing, the Carlton (my second manupatch of him, this time with the Cards instead of the Phils) is available for trade while the Ryan isn't, because it's awesome.  Apologies in advance to those of you who I know are Ryan/Rangers fans, not the least of which is Mr. Play at the Plate himself, who seems to win every contest he enters anyway, so I don't feel so bad!

On a related note, I still need a ton of cards from both series for the base set because I never bought more than these blasters and some rack packs.  So many, in fact, that I don't have a wantlist yet.  On a related related note, my Series I blaster contained only the retail-exclusive black cards, which wouldn't go well with my regular base cards (all racist jokes aside, so please refrain) in terms of consistency.  Does anyone have a bunch of 2009 dupes for trade, and if you do, would you be interested in around 60 of the black Series I base cards in return?  I'll put together a list one of these days but may attack the problem with rack packs or something first.

Anyway, no formal review, but for $15 each these blasters came out great because I got a few inserts, a few Series II cards I needed, and best of all, I got two great manupatches, one for trade and one to keep.

A Blowout trade bait twofer

Not that Toofer

Another small lot makes for a good quick post on this fine Thursday, nine days before the start of Michigan's football season:

These 2011 Topps patches of McCutchen and Reyes were a ridiculous $5 delivered, so I jumped all over them knowing I could trade them to a couple people who'll be thrilled to have them:  McCutchen's heading to Dustin of No Relics Pulled and Reyes will be part of my trade to end all trades (until the next time we trade) with Mike of BA Benny's Yada Yada Yada (since it's one of like 80 teams that he collects).  I know not everybody likes manupatches (I'm not in that group unless they're very poorly done) but I think $2.50 a pop for these was a steal, especially when I know a couple collectors who'll want them.


Not much content today, so thanks to the Reyes patch I'll again post one of my favorite Simpsons moments:

"The Nye Mets are my favorite squad-ron"

More Blowout loot to come shortly, including an exciting new addition to my baseball PC!