Quicky

Just a quick post and I'll be caught up. Up until tomorrow when I log in my sorting and pickups from last weeks shows. At least I can say I was caught up for a day.

Fred (the guy I work with) has started sorting for my LCS so he gave me a stack of cards for me to check. These are what I kept.

Starting with the White Sox Collection, I like the Crochet as he's one of the guys I like to pick up because he could be good if the White Sox don't ruin him. The 4 on the right are all 2011 Bowman which I knew I had a bunch but these were Chrome and Gold. A few more older Bowman and a Minor League card round it up.

I also got 2 PC cards. An Andrew Vaughn Chrome Update rookie and a trippy Luis Robert. Hoping for big things from these 2, I'll probably get them from Robert, not so sure about Vaughn.

I'll have some more posts after I catch up on things tomorrow. We're doing the Fort Wayne show on Saturday so we'll see if I don't pick up a few things there as well.

Lots of Shiny Autos

I finally got some cards after some issues. 4 cards in 2 envelopes. We'll start with the single card first as it was the envelope without issues.

This Topps Finest of Mike Hart was kind of a shock to win. I won it at $.25/shipped which considering it is a black refractor serial numbered to /99, is a great price. This is my 43rd card of the former Wolverine.

I picked up all 3 of these from the same seller. He shipped them via UPS with tracking and they were supposed to be here on January 18th and they never showed up. Late last week, I sent an email to the seller, I wasn't asking for a refund of any kind, I told him that I saw that they shipped but they seemed to be stuck in Illinois so he may want to look into it. No response but after a few days, I received a refund, but only for the Morel as that was the card I selected to send him a message. So I sent another message with the other 2 cards to let him know that if he's going to refund my money, then he needs to refund these as well. No response but when I came home today, they had finally shown up. So I sent him another email telling him they showed up and not to issue the refund on the other 2 cards. I checked the tracking and at that point, it still said they were in Illinois. A few hours later, I checked Ebay again and the cards were listed with a case closed because they were delivered. I ended up going on Paypal and sending the payment that he refunded me, back to him. Long story short, I finally got them. I paid $3/shipped for the Santos, $1.25/shipped for the Walker and $2.47/shipped for the Morel.

On The 8th Day, Ebay Gave To Me, 2 Free Cards

8th day in a row. I'm thinking that I purchase way more cards than I thought I did. Although, technically, 1 of those days was a package from someone else and not a purchase.

Today, I actually had to walk to the mailbox to get my cards because my daughter, who normally grabs the mail after school, had a field trip to Chicago so she wasn't getting home until later. I thought the change of routine might stop the streak. I was happy to see 4 envelopes, each containing 1 card I purchased but 1 envelope had 3 other cards as filler and 2 of those I could use as well.

2015 Topps Baseball History

 I picked up this modern day Carlton for $.37/shipped. I love the powder blue uniforms of the 80's, I really don't know why. This is my 67th card in the Steve Carlton collection.

1992 Score

I grabbed a couple more of Cal off of Ebay. I continue to grab his cards cheap, mainly because there are so many during the junk wax era. I paid a quarter shipped for this big headed Ripken.

1988 Fleer

A double Ripken. I grabbed this one for $.44/shipped so $.22 a Ripken. These 2 cards bring the Cal Ripken Jr Collection to 229 cards. What was nice about this pick up is the seller wrapped it in 3 other cards. 1 card was a NBA card which is going to my cousin in my next card dump but the other 2 fit in another collection.

1980 Topps

I assume since I purchased a Ripken card that he assumed that I was an Orioles fan. We all know that I'm not but I can certainly use this in the Vintage Collection.

1980 Topps

He sent me 2 cards from the 1980 Topps and I needed both of them. Those 2 cards put the 1980 Topps set at 112 cards which is just over 15% completed. I still can't believe he sent 3 vintage cards.

2011 Topps Finest Orange Refractor Autograph

Just like Josh Fields (Sunday's post) Brent Morel was supposed to be our 3rd baseman of the future and he's no longer with the Sox. I picked up this autograph that's numbered to /99 for $2.99/shipped. It's a pretty slick looking card, very shiny.

Completed Team Sets–2011 Bowman

I needed 2 cards for this set, ended up picking them up twice, go figure.

Another nice set from Bowman, although they don’t change a whole lot year to year for a bit.  Black borders always look good with Chicago White Sox cards.

It does have a Chris Sale rookie though so the set is not all bad.  Although it looks like his arm is broke.  Topps decided to include the team captain, Paul Konerko this year, unlike the last one.

Completed Team Sets–2012 Topps Heritage

I completed the pseudo-63’s as well.  I don’t know if I have all of the rookie stars cards or not but technically they aren’t part of the actual team set anyways.

You see a 2nd Addison Reed floating head on another Rookie Stars card which is why I said I don’t know if I have them all.  On top of that he got a solo card as well.  Topps must have really liked him.  I do like having a team card with the set.  I like that Topps are bringing them back.  It doesn’t have to be a team shot but any kind of card to represent the whole team is cool with me.

Completed Team Set–2012 Topps

This is the first of 3 2012 Completed Team Sets that Jeff at “2 by 3 Heroes” finished for me.  This one, the base set, being the biggest of the 3.

I remember the Brent Lillibridge catch and it’s great to see it on cardboard.  As a matter of fact, if you click his name, I’m pretty sure I posted the picture after he made it.

And we finish off the Surfboard set, which I believe “Night Owl” dubbed it.  Any 2012 set is great for me to complete because I never bought a pack of cards in 2012

And in case you forgot, I don’t include the update set since they use a different number system.  I count that as a set on it’s own.

Completed Team Sets–2011 Topps Allen & Ginter’s

I am definitely not a fan of the Allen & Ginter’s sets because I hate all the non-baseball cards.  But that isn’t going to stop me from collecting the team set.

I do like the design for the set.  I think these are nice looking cards.  I got all these from trades as I have never bought a pack from any year of Allen & Ginter’s.

Completed Team Sets-2011 Topps

Here’s another flagship set (without the update)

This was probably my first flagship set I completed because 2011 was when I started this blog and therefore really started to collect again.

I completed this set the old school way.  Got the cards in packs and trading.  So I have a lot of you guys and gals to thank for it.

It’s not a horrible design, I always like the logo to be on the front along with the players name and they used action photo’s over head shots.  That’s probably the biggest plus but the newer cards generally use action shots over the head shots anymore.

I even have the Update set for the whole complete 2011 Topps set.  Like I said above, it was first year back and I bought a lot of cards.

Completed Team Set–2011 Bowman Platinum

Another nice small team set, but I don’t understand their choice of players.  How can you have a 4 card team set and not have Paul Konerko.

I do like the looks of these cards though, I think they scan well too.

Trade from Sluggo

My cousin came up for the 4th of July and brought me a small stack of Sox cards.  He sets up at shows and is always on the lookout for me.  He tends to grab odd ball stuff in hopes of picking up cards I don’t have.  He did a pretty good job here, if I remember right, I only had 1 of the cards he gave me.

All of the above are Frank Thomas.  I don’t think I recognized any of these sets except the Fleer on the top right but it’s actually a Tiffany parallel.  He definitely knows how to pick up things I don’t have.

Didn’t have any of these 3.  I thought I had the Jared Mitchell but I actually had the Purple parallel, so I now have a mini rainbow with the base set and the refractor version.

A couple more refractor versions of base cards.  I do love the shiny cards.

The 82 Donruss reprint of Fisk’s diamond king card.  And my first Topps American Pie, couldn’t have been of a better player.

And finally, he managed to hit my Paul Konerko collection with this shiny refractor of his 2011 Topps.  Thanks sluggo!

AL Central

Opening Day is coming around the corner.  The real opening day that is, not the one that took place in Japan.  I’ve seen a lot in print about how bad the White Sox are going to be this year.  I heard today that Sports Illustrated predicted us with 99 losses and a last place finish in the central.

I disagree.  As someone who watches a lot of games and reads a lot of print from Chicago, and reads a lot of insiders blogs on the White Sox, I feel like I know more than SI or ESPN because they are focusing on everybody (except ESPN, they only focus on the Red Sox and Yankees) where as I only focus on my team.  That makes me smarter in my book, and my blog, so those “experts” can bite me.

I agree it’s certainly the Tigers division to lose.  But last time it was the Tigers division to lose, they bombed.  Sort of like in ‘06 when we were supposed to mow down the central, and we sucked.  And let’s face it, after the Tigers, nobody is all that great.  I hear how much better Cleveland and Kansas City are and I’m sure they are better, but I don’t see them any better than the Sox.  I never count out the Twins because they always seem to be in the thick of it.  I’m sure they might have been there last year if it wasn’t for injuries to the M&M boys.

Do I think the Sox are going to be lights out and play awesome?  No.  But I don’t see where anybody is heads above us either.  And while I do think the Tigers will take the division, I don’t see it by double digit wins like everybody else.

If you compare our lineup with anybody else’s, I don’t see major differences.  I think the Tigers have the best team, on paper.  And I think that the Sox, Royals, Twins and Indians are pretty comparable.  I see the White Sox and Twins fighting it out for 2nd and the Indians and Royals trying to stay out of last.  The Indians and Royals haven’t shown me anything but young talent, but haven’t been able to put it together yet.

I’m expecting a huge year from Dunn.  He’s been to good for too long and I think last year was a fluke.  My only questions offensively are Rios (always seems like he doesn’t care), Viciedo and Morel because they are young.  I also think that Beckham will be back to his old self, I hope anyways.  Konerko and AJ will be who they always are, and that’s a good thing. 

My questions in the pitching staff are all in the bullpen.  I think we have some great starters in Danks, Peavy, Floyd, Humber and Sale.  If Humber and Sale can duplicate their success from last year, the starters will be fine.  The bullpen consists of some rookies which is where the question marks lie.  But the anchors are Crain and Thornton, who either one could be closing come opening day.  Addison Reed has looked really well and has been mentioned as a closer as well.

Obviously, my opinions, and I’m White Sox biased.  But I’m not expecting the Tigers to run away with it.  And I am certainly expecting more than 63 wins from my Sox.  Has SI ever gotten much right when it comes to predicting anyways.

Box Break from Kyle

Kyle over at “JABO’s” held a box break.  My main reason for joining was for the 2012 Heritage, but I didn’t have much of the other boxes he was breaking either which made it even better.  First, I’ll show off the few extra cards Kyle was nice enough to throw in.

This is my 3rd die cut from the Upper Deck X, when I pulled it out I thought it was a dupe, but I didn’t have the Dye one.  I knew I didn’t have the Shoe Box Collection because I have never seen or heard of that set.  So it was really cool that Kyle threw in the next one.

A Little Luis for the Aparicio collection.  I love vintage and vintage reprints so I love this card.

But you’re here for the box break so I’ll get to those.  First up, the 2007 Upper Deck SP.

Thome and Konerko.  I already had the Konerko in the player collection so this one goes into the White Sox Collection.

Next up, the 2004 Fleer Platinum.

Didn’t get too much out that box, just these 3 and lots of dupes.  I think I got 3 Crede’s and a second Loaiza.

Next up, 2011 Bowman Platinum.  I got these 4, Beckham and Sale base, Beckham red and Morel green.  I like this set, maybe just because it’s shiny.  I like the parallels too, except for the fact that I have more to collect.  I also got an Adam Dunn base but I already had one of those.

And the main reason I got in the break, 2012 Heritage.

I love these cards.  Obviously because they look vintage.  But I like the card stock it’s on.  A little thicker than usual.  I also like the team cards.  I didn’t get any inserts but then again, I don’t know if the Sox even have any.  I know there is a Luis Aparicio Then and Now that I need for the player collection but he’s with the Orioles on it.

Last but not least, one for the player collection.

Thanks Kyle, love your breaks.  Be sure to check his blog out.  He’s constantly doing breaks and drafts and all kinds of goodness.  “Juuust a Bit Outside”

Trade with the Sandlot

Joe of “the Sandlot” fame contacted me about a trade.  He had some Sox cards to get rid of and wanted to know if I had anything to trade.  After about a month or so, I finally collected enough cards to send to him.  Here’s the highlights of what he sent me in our first trade.

I have some of the Topps Unique cards, but I had never seen the red ones.  Are these a parallel from Target?  I liked the photo of the Morel the first time I saw it, now I have 3 different ones with this Walmart parallel.  And you can’t go wrong with a 75’ mini from Lineage.  I only have a few of these, definitely need to get more.  Metal Universe of our new head coach, a Joe Crede rookie and a numbered Buehrle.  Joe knows how to do a trade right.

I don’t think I’ve see these Topps Gallery cards and I really like them.  I’m familiar with the Gallery brand, just hadn’t seen this set before.  I like these about as much as I do the Upper Deck Masterpieces.

A couple of refractor’s

A few vintage, including a ‘71.

Even a full team set.  Well it was, I didn’t have the Konerko so now I’m short that card for this set.  Joe is an awesome trader.  He sent a lot of different things.  But wait, there’s more.

All of these cards go to my Paul Konerko collection   I thought I had the Unique but apparently not.

And finally, Joe even sent these beauties.  Brandon McCarthy was supposed to be the next big thing and I was upset when they traded him but apparently KW knew what he was doing because Brandon hasn’t been the same since, lots of injuries hasn’t helped.  And you can never go wrong with a Frank Thomas relic.

Thanks Joe, amazing trade.  Check out “the Sandlot” and make a swap with the man, he knows what he’s doing.