I’m back with another round of trade bait. This is the first week’s worth since announcing my Charity Trade policy. In short, I’m not giving away cards, but I am donating money to charity for every card that I receive in trade. If you want to indirectly help the charity of my choosing, take a look below and hopefully we can work something out.
What can you send my way? Take a look at this page right HERE. I’m willing to trade in your favor if it means getting stuff out of my house faster. Also, if you’re not sure if you have anything from my player specific lists, you probably do, but I’m also accepting any cards of just about all current Cubs players as an alternative (please no Russells), but odds are you’ll have plenty to work with!
Base Set (Just listing card numbers – please inquire about specific players or teams – I’m happy to check and list that out if you need it)
4, 5, 9, 10, 13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 35, 39, 40, 46, 47, 51, 55, 58, 59, 62, 63, 67, 68, 70, 73, 75, 77, 78, 82, 83, 88, 93, 96, 97, 100
Make sure you check out the link above for the other trade bait and I’ll post more soon!
I’m back with another round of trade bait. This is the first week’s worth since announcing my Charity Trade policy. In short, I’m not giving away cards, but I am donating money to charity for every card that I receive in trade. If you want to indirectly help the charity of my choosing, take a look below and hopefully we can work something out.
What can you send my way? Take a look at this page right HERE. I’m willing to trade in your favor if it means getting stuff out of my house faster. Also, if you’re not sure if you have anything from my player specific lists, you probably do, but I’m also accepting any cards of just about all current Cubs players as an alternative (please no Russells), but odds are you’ll have plenty to work with!
Refractor Parallel
Chris Archer
Dustin Fowler
Bryce Harper
Andrew McCutchen
Purple Parallel – #/250
David Robertson
Finest Firsts Shohei Ohtani
inserts and hits
Sitting Red
Josh Donaldson
Mike Trout
Corner Stones
Noah Syndergaard
Matt Olson
Salvador Perez Josh Donaldson – SOLD
On-Card Auto
Ryan McMahon
Greg Allen (Green Refractor #28/99)
Base Set (Just listing card numbers – please inquire about specific players or teams – I’m happy to check and list that out if you need it)
2, 6, 9, 10, 13, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 39, 42, 43, 49, 51, 53, 56, 58, 60, 61, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 79, 81, 82, 84, 87, 88, 92, 100
Make sure you check out the link above for the other trade bait and I’ll post more soon!
I’m back with another round of trade bait. This is the first week’s worth since announcing my Charity Trade policy. In short, I’m not giving away cards, but I am donating money to charity for every card that I receive in trade. If you want to indirectly help the charity of my choosing, take a look below and hopefully we can work something out.
What can you send my way? Take a look at this page right HERE. I’m willing to trade in your favor if it means getting stuff out of my house faster. Also, if you’re not sure if you have anything from my player specific lists, you probably do, but I’m also accepting any cards of just about all current Cubs players as an alternative (please no Russells), but odds are you’ll have plenty to work with!
I’ve been thinking for a while about a good way to put the “Community” back into “Community Gum.” Back when this blog started, there were grandiose ideas about what this venture would eventually become, and maybe some of that will still come true, but the farthest we ever really got was to hold some group breaks here and there and do random contests.
In the spirit of sharing, all of these players are sharing the card
Group breaks are fun, but a bit time consuming, but I might do that again here and there. The contests are less likely just because those can get weirdly messy out of nowhere. That hasn’t happened to me personally, but I’ve heard enough stories to make me not want to press my luck. No whammies for me.
Well, I think I found the right thing to do. In the past, I’ve wanted to do some sort of monthly charity thing where I pick a charity, make a donation and invite others to do the same if they’re so inclined. That’s morphed into today’s announcement.
I don’t like showing this guy, but since his actions are driving other charity, I thought it was appropriate
I want to make things a little more interactive, so allow me to introduce Charity Trades! Now, this does not mean that I’m giving my cards away to you for free. No, instead each month I’m going to pick a different charity, and of course everyone is invited to also give themselves, but the trades will do that work for them. In an effort to facilitate more trades, and encourage me to be more proactive in initiating trades, I am going to donate money to that month’s charity based on the number of cards I get that month.
Zo seems like a good community type guy
The amount I give per card may change over time, but for now I’m thinking that each new card that I get is worth $3 to that charity. Now, I’m not going to add $3 to the total for each and every card, just ones that are brand new to my collection that I need. So, if you send me five copies of the same card, it’s still $3. But if you send me five cards I need for my player collections, GPK sets, or Big League master set quests, or whatever else is on my want lists, then that’s $15. Whether you send a base card, insert, relic, auto, parallel, whatever, they each add the same $3 to the total if I didn’t have them before. Another condition I’m going to add is that I’ll ask that if I haven’t traded with you before, that you send your side first.
Three more players on the back, hopefully all doing their part
I’ll post the charity of the month at the top of my want list and trade bait pages. The more you trade, the more I give. For the most part, that is. I do have my own financial limitations, and so I’m going to cap this at a $500 maximum per month. I’m also thinking that I’ll give $100 minimum if it’s a light incoming month. After the donation is made, I’ll be sure to post some sort of screen grab of the donation receipt whenever possible.
So, hold me to this the best you can and if you have favorite charities, I’m certainly open to suggestions. Let’s see what kind of benchmark we can set by the end of 2019!
Last year, I didn’t get around to posting my February ebay wins until June of that year. I’m a couple months ahead of that schedule now, but I’ve been slacking a bit as I work to get some trade bait stuff going again, which is just about done.
This month is a light one. I was holding off on buying a lot until I saw what bills might come through for my gall bladder surgery, but I really didn’t have to restrain myself very much as there weren’t too many cards that came up in my price range that month anyway.
Howdy
Yes, there are still Bunt cards I need. In fact, I keep seeing a vastly overpriced Arrieta galaxy orange insert come up. I bet that when comes up as a .99 auction, I’ll have a good shot at it.
Not a terrible shot to have to see a dozen times over
The hunt for 2019 parallels begins. The vintage stock aren’t the most exciting, but they exist and Topps doesn’t seem too keen on removing a parallel set when they can just add more on top of what’s there, so here we are.
Much better
First look at the black parallels and I can already tell that the parallels are going to look a lot better than the base cards. Of course, I’m in the minority in that I don’t like the design.
I love the subtle refraction on these
Here’s the most expensive purchase of the month and one that I wasn’t really actively seeking. I have my alerts set up for Maddux and Thomas Transcendent and I happened to check the seller’s other listings (as I do from time to time) and saw the Rizzo. I bid on this and a Maddux hoping to combine shipping, but since this is the last card of the month, you know how that turned out. Still, it’s nice to knock another card from a car-priced product off the list for under $10.
Yep, only 4 this month. I’ll let you decide how strong it was, but I’m happy to get what I can and happy I’m able to manage getting as much as I do. April will be even lighter than this, but we’ll get there. First will be a slightly different March.
Baseball cards are wonderful things with a ton of variety. Some of that variety is from different manufacturers that employ techniques intended to set themselves apart from their competition. Some of that variety is from the same company attempting different product lines with themes intended to catch unique sub-sections of the collectors out there. Some, really most, is from forced diversity in the form of parallels. An array of colors and/or printing techniques with assigned rarities designed to entice collectors (I hope).
Each year, it seems like more and more variations are added to the production line, which is odd, because just about every color of the rainbow has been covered. Not all of them work on cardboard, but that doesn’t stop companies from trying.
In “honor” of these attempts, I wanted to create a short series going through that rainbow. A lot of focus in my past blog posts have been on the rarer parallels, or ones that compliment the uniforms, but I have a bunch of cards with all kinds of colors and so why not celebrate the ROYGBIV aspect of collecting, right?
The first part of this series was back in August. Now we’re on to part two after a lengthy delay, because I finally found the song I wanted to show off. I didn’t spend a lot of time actually physically looking for the song. Most of the time was spent searching my memories and trying to avoid going with the more obvious “Orange Crush” from R.E.M.
For red, I picked a song that was a little personal to me and wanted to try to continue that here. Here’s the crazy part, though. I don’t know if I can keep it up past this post and I might abandon the song thing altogether.
Anyway, transporting myself back to college again. One summer, a friend of mine made a mix-CD that he passed around to his friends as a little end-of-summer thing. I don’t remember all the songs from it anymore, but I do remember that there was quite a bit that I didn’t already know, including this one. So, why did it take me so long to find the song? Why not go back to the CD? Well, I might have the case with the liner back at my parents house, but the CD itself was stolen along with my car many years ago.
Still, memories of the song have remained and I finally tracked it down. Eggtooth by the band Oranger has such an infectious opening synth keyboard and goes into what I would describe as a mix between 90’s alt and 60’s rock, but you might disagree. Anyway, it’s the kind of song that would have me playing some air piano while walking to class while people walking past me stared at me in disgust. Or admiration. Take your pick.
Well, hit play if you’re so inclined and join me in checking out the range of oranges at our collecting disposal.
Like a traffic cone
Fair warning: A lot of these are going to be Bowman. This is the most neon of those, more than what shows in the scan, and I kind of dig it.
Like a dirty traffic cone
It’s better than these burnt orange that come off as brown or gold in the scans.
Like a mis-produced traffic cone
Up until more recently, there really haven’t been many sets that have tried using orange as a parallel color, and honestly that’s a good thing.
Like the same set of traffic cones because it is the same set
Even though I like the neon from above, it’s still an abrasive color and doesn’t mesh well with a lot of teams.
Like another orange thing
Here’s the last of the Bowman’s I’m showing and you can see that it switched to a different shade, one that’s a little brighter and more obvious. I mean, if you “have to” go for it, then go for it.
#/199
Of course, chrome cards changed the game a bit. They are breeding grounds for new and ever expanding arrays of colors. This particular card goes through a few different shades all on its own.
#/99 found at NSCC
Orange works best when it’s shiny. It matters less that the colors don’t match your favorite team (and trust me it doesn’t match your favorite team). The tire treads are a different story. I don’t need a monster truck rally in the background.
Almost matches that Reds jersey
So, this is what orange looks like with a pronounced curl. It’s bending the light even more so it comes off as red, but I promise this is one of those terrible retail rack pack exclusive things that are still a thing, except they’re pink now.
Not so curly
Here’s a better look at an orange refractor. Also the best shade of the three. It shouldn’t work with the purple, but again, the shiny makes things better.
It doesn’t even fit the gem motif very well
I’m not as keen about seeing orange in the higher end products. These shouldn’t have endless parallels, and I’d much prefer they stick to the basics if only so I did’t have such large rainbows to collect.
This thing is very thick
This last card is badass, but that’s because it’s thick acetate with an on-card auto. The orange ring is the worst part of it, because it’s like someone left a can of orange crush sitting on it.
Damn, maybe I should have used that song after all.
I’m happy with the progress I’ve been making with the blog lately. It’s surprising how frequently I’ve been able to write (haven’t been able to read all that much). I don’t know how long that will keep up, but I’m enjoying it while it lasts. It’s hard to balance my hobbies, sometimes. It’s not a perfect balance right now by any means, but things could be worse.
How anyone like Jim manages more than one active blog at any given time is far beyond me. He’s originally known for his blog GCRL (hence the title) and creator of several side blogs. He is now writing for cards as i see them. As you know already, I completed a nice big trade with him late last year and you can catch the first part of the trade here, if you’d like. Second part here.
From what I can tell, there should be two more parts after this, but this will be the only one to feature non-2016 Cubs players. There was a random assortment of my previous player collections and I don’t have a great way to lump them together. I mean, I rarely do when talking about trades. But, let’s see what kind of stuff I got for those retired players.
Ha-Lo-Fa-Me
Cooperstown is probably one of the better sets that Panini put out, and I especially liked seeing a lot of HOFers that normally don’t get cards. I understand why it shouldn’t be a yearly set, though. For this one, I’m missing any of the color parallels.
Such a great perspective
Crazy that I didn’t have this card as of yet, but I didn’t. A couple of the chromes, yes. The black border parallel, yes.
Not bad, just unnecessary
Sometimes the First Editions looked better than the regular cards. I go back and forth for 2009.
Same-sies
I remember a couple years back that UD teased they were going to make baseball cards again with their MLBPA license, but then it got scrapped. I wonder if they’re going to give it a shot again, or will be given a shot again.
Gotta be getting kind of close
I wonder how far away I am from getting all of Kerry’s Indians cards. Maybe I’ll do a count after the National.
Momentous
I discovered that I have a few different versions of this 2001 Topps card, but I don’t have any of Kerry’s normal base card/chrome/opening day. Weird how that works out sometimes.
Not a great photo effect
I will never open a pack of 2001 Heritage. It’s so weird to even own one. At this point with the cycle of reprints and reboots from Topps, it’s much easier to assume that this ’52 design would be from a different product altogether.
I’m not great at telling, but looks like Wrigley
I’ll end with a couple of newer cards. This one is not from Heritage as they have not quite reached this year. Instead it’s from baby heritage Archives.
Run from the…flames?
Lastly is a retail exclusive Topps Fire card from last year. I bought a couple boxes from 2017 (and have one sealed still), but didn’t buy any for 2018 since I got into a break. Here’s another non-Cub I no longer need thanks to Jim.
Thank you very much for the cards and we’ll see some more of that trademark variety in the next parts very soon!
Well, this journey was shorter than I imagined it would be. It look slightly less than a month and only 14 posts to show off 222 new cards on the blog (including this one), allowing me to take delivery on my sportlots order and even things out again.
Of course, a big reason as to why it was this short is that I purposefully found multi-card scans I could exploit. Not that anyone would care. The overall goal is still the same from here on out, try to show off more than I take in, with the exception of trades and the National. I doubt I’ll be buying anything more from any card sites for a while, with or without credit, just so I can stay on track with that. I have so many more cards that have yet to be shown.
For instance, I have shown 978 different Greg Maddux cards on the blog, including what’s below. I have 1612 different ones, and a few more coming from that SL delivery. That’s 634 for Maddux cards alone that have yet to see the spotlight (currently split up between over 130 “master” scans). If I plan to show everything, I need to scale back my non-trade acquisitions. Those cards will be waiting for me. This whole thing is a marathon.
Not unlike a certain marathon set we all know and only some of us love. Let’s celebrate this small moment with…you know.
I’ve only shown one of the 1993 Cy Youngs so far
Strikeout #17
April 20, 1993 – Atlanta Braves at Florida Marlins
Maddux singled in a run earlier in the game to give the Braves the lead and he was still protecting that in the 6th inning when he struck out Chuck Carr for the second out.
I currently have 43 of them
Strikeout #22
April 25, 1993 – Atlanta Braves at St. Louis Cardinals
This third strikeout of the game showed that Maddux was settling down a little too late. The Braves were already down 4-0 when Ray Lankford went down looking with a runner on first.
Out of 197
Strikeout #23 April 25, 1993 – Atlanta Braves at St. Louis Cardinals
From the same game, his next K was Greg’s last. He was pulled after this fourth inning but still managed to get Bernard Gilkey swinging.
That’s almost 22% for that card number
Strikeout #24
April 30, 1993 – St. Louis Cardinals vs. Atlanta Braves
His next start was also against the Cardinals, but it went a lot better. Maddux lasted 10 of 11 innings and struck out twice as many. This card is for the first of those eight, which came in the first inning, but after the Cardinals scored their first run. Mark Whiten couldn’t keep the singles train going and left two runners on.
I had been showing the 1992 Cy Youngs
Strikeout #90
June 21, 1993 – Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies
Skipping ahead a few months and this game gives Maddux his seventh win of the season. Only 4 Ks in the match, but the Braves were winning handily when Ruben Amaro swung and missed to start the bottom of the sixth.
Of those, I have 76 of 199
Strikeout #99
July 7, 1993 – Atlanta Braves at St. Louis Cardinals
Back to the Cardinals. Can’t escape them in this run, and they handed Greg his 8th loss today. Maddux still managed 7 strikeouts and this second one happened against the second batter of the second inning, Brian Jordan.
And I’ve shown 51 of those..Not bad
Strikeout #114
July 16, 1993 – Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Atlanta Braves
In the top of the 1st inning, Maddux had allowed three straight singles to open the ball game, but no one had scored yet. The bases weren’t loaded, however as lead-off man Tom Foley was out at third on one of those singles. That means there were runners on first and second for Orlando Merced, who whiffed on that third strike. The pirates would score later that inning.
There are also smaller “Wins” cards
Strikeout #120
July 16, 1993 – Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Atlanta Braves
Surprisingly, we’re in the same game. This card is for the last of seven strikeouts, which happened in the top of the 7th inning. With the Braves leading 3-2 Jay Bell watched the pitch fly by him to end the inning, stranding a runner on second.
I have 8 and 1 of those, respectively – all in good time
Strikeout #197
October 2, 1993 – Colorado Rockies vs. Atlanta Braves
The last strikeout on one of the last games of the season. The Braves needed this win (which they got easily off of the expansion Rockies) as they were in a heated battle at the top of the standings with the Giants, both tied at 103 wins after today. This last strikeout came in the sixth inning as Daryl Boston swung and missed to end the frame. Not much you can do against a Cy Young winner (and eventual repeat winner).
My group break buying has slowed a little bit. I bought into a Series 1 break for the Cubs, but that’s been it in 2019. No packs of baseball cards this year, either. Only Garbage Pail Kids. Knowing I’m going to the National means I kinda want to wait to buy any boxes at the show, if I’m going to buy them at all. I’m patient. Besides, maybe this will make it easier to trade with me if I don’t have hardly any new stuff?
I guess the gap in products also has something to do with it. After all, these 2018 Update cards were from October-ish? and Series 1 is in late January or early February, I think? Tough to buy new things if there’s nothing new for a budget conscious collector to buy.
Anyway, when I do buy new stuff, it’s still mostly coming from group breaks these days and so in those rare occasions, I also mostly go to Crackin’ Wax. Sometimes, it’s a race to get the Cubs, but I managed to win out for the 2018 Update case break. Let’s take a quick look at what I got.
Odds of having three all-starts in 2019 is low
Several copies of each of these cards. I’m only showing the players I collect, but the team set is a bit larger than this. Having a decent Cubs presence through the All-Star game and HR derby certainly helped. 2019 Update may not be all that great for my collections unless we trade a bunch to other teams.
Dude in the front row needs to watch the game
You can’t avoid inserts in the Topps flagship set, of course and I did reasonably well. I’m not wild about these ’83 style cards, or the large insert set that takes a historic design, but they’re common enough that I shouldn’t have tons of trouble tracking them down.
Needs to be lenticular
I remember this look from 2016 Finest. Not any better here, either. I would expect this insert would focus on the fastest people in the game, but here’s Kris Bryant because star players are more important than thematically correct ones.
Here he is again
The home country thing has been done a bunch as well, and I have to say I’m disappointed that there are so many US players represented in this set.
This player choice works
I also don’t understand the design choice. What do these hexagons and circles have to do with anything? And the colors don’t change to match the country.
Topps saluted just about every player
He’s changed a few individual games. I haven’t been following very closely this year, but I think he’s been one of the best offense players for the Cubs so far.
And did so in multiple forms
I didn’t get any player collection parallels like gold or rainbow foil or anything, but I did the the blue version of this insert. It looks like 2019 Topps stopped that nonsense with their inserts, thankfully.
Reserved fist pump
There were also plenty of cards for people I don’t collect and these are probably the heaviest hitters for that. If anyone is interested in trading, I have more than just this, of course, but you’re looking at the Vintage stock Morrow and a couple Banks cards from those silver pack box loaders. That blue is nice.
Thanks a lot to Crackin’ Wax for holding his group break, a portion of the proceeds going to charity each and every time. I’m always happy to take part when possible!
I think I’m just about ready to start soliciting new trades again. The surgery sidelined me for a bit, and then other personal stuff kept me off the sidelines even further, but very soon I think I’ll be able to make something happen, and I have an exciting idea to announce with that to possibly bolster my trades in one way or another. I’m thinking later this month that will happen.
In the meantime, I still have some older packages that haven’t been completely shown off here. There were a couple that came in before my surgery that are still waiting for their turn, and that will come soon – just have to scan some stuff still. For now, I’m going to stick with trying to close off some multi-post trades.
One of those is from John, known on the Trading Card Database as herkojerko (here’s his profile, should you be so inclined, and you should). You can see the first part of our exchange right here, and the second part here and the third part here. As I mentioned in previous posts, many of the cards he sent were from the so called junk wax era, which is not a problem at all. I still need a lot of that stuff. Often times, it’s so prevalent that people may forget to even check those years, including myself.
Thankfully, John didn’t forget and so I have a few gaps filled. Today, we’re looking at the last of the Frank Thomas stuff he sent as well as some Fowlers that may not be junk wax, but too many people treat them that way.
ankle biter
Honestly, this is the only card for today that would typically be considered part of the junk wax era. It’s from my baseball dead zone. I was already slowing down my basketball collecting in 1996 thanks to being a teenager with a part time job and a car payment.
not from the same game
In fact, here’s a card from just last year. I did end up buying some 2018 Diamond Kings of my own, so I probably have a duplicate of this now. I am still missing the “Big Hurt” variation, though.
I don’t think the Rockies need him back
When looking this up to tag the set, I guess wrong on the year twice. That’s how much I pay attention to Bowman, I guess.
The Astros certainly don’t need him back
I still tend to forget his stint with Houston, even though that’s where the Cubs got him from.
I was sad to see him leave the Cubs
The smoke effect really comes alive in a shot like this. In just about every other shot, not so much.
But, he’s doing well for the Cubs as a Cardinal
I have yet to get any of the 2019 Donruss, but hope to buy a box at the National this year. The design is a far cry and vast improvement from this. It’s a little surprising it lasted as long as it did, when Pinnacle and Select died after a year.
Anyway, thank you very much again to John for the great trade! I appreciate you reaching out and hopefully we can do it again soon as I get more trade bait all sorted and ready.
Recent Comments