Fantasy package

I got an email from Matt over at “Once a Cub” telling me he had some cards to send me for participating in his fantasy baseball.  I had forgotten all about it, probably because I quit about half way through the year.  I didn’t just quit Matt’s, I quit the once that I run and didn’t sign up for any fantasy football either.  I just got burned out on playing fantasy sports.  Maybe I’ll get back into again next year, I thought I might miss playing football this year but I haven’t.  I told Matt he didn’t need to send anything since I bailed on his league, but being a Chicago Cubs fan, he was happy to get rid of his Sox cards.  He sent a good stack but I’m only going to show some highlights.  Let’s check them out.

The 1968 Gary Peters I needed for the team set.  I’m always happy to receive vintage.  The Paul Konerko Upper Deck Starquest went towards the Paul Konerko collection and the Mark Buehrle goes to the new Mark Buehrle collection.

The vintage surprised me, I figured I’d get a stack of White Sox cards but I wasn’t expecting anything like that.  Or anything like this.

A 2012 Topps Chris Sale autograph that will go to the new Chris Sale collection.  And an autographed 2011 Bowman of Spencer Arroyo.  I don’t think it’s a card company autograph as it says nothing on the back about it so I’m guessing it was a TTM or signed somewhere else.  Either way, it’s an autograph and it’s going into the White Sox collection.

Thanks Matt for going above and beyond, it was certainly a better package than I expected.  Then again, maybe I don’t have high expectations of Cubs fans (sorry, couldn’t resist).  Be sure to go check out his site at “Once a Cub”.

Vacation Pick-Ups #3–1969-1964

Let’s just jump right into it.

3, that’s right, 3 cards from the 1969 Topps set.  I had so much fun picking up all these vintage.

3 more 1968 Topps, including the rookie stars card.

A 1967 Topps Gary Peters who was a pretty good pitcher for us.  I already have a handful of 1967’s that I picked up at a card show awhile back so I liked adding this one as well.

3 1965 Topps cards including a Hoyt Wilhelm and a team card (I like the team cards).

I’ll even throw up a couple of this years Topps Heritage set, the 1964’s.  One of them even has an All-Star Rookie trophy, you know Topps hit the nail on the head with all those predictions.

Come back tomorrow for the 1963 thru 1960 post.

Card Show Awesomeness

Our quarterly card show was here this weekend.  Yeah, once, every 3 months, that’s pathetic, but that’s the way it is around here anymore.  It’s never much to brag about.  And that’s the way it started here.  It was advertised as 40 tables.  Now to me, that means 40 dealers.  But I’m wondering if they actually counted the tables.  Most dealers had 3 or 4 tables, some had more.  That’s give you an idea how many people are there.  Why they spread it all out in this mall is ridiculous since they could probably squeeze them all into one end.

I remember the days of hitting up shows with my written out lists of what I had or wanted depending on the year.  Those days are over.  I got a Kindle Fire on Wednesday so after playing around for a few days, I figured out how to send my Google Docs (have/want lists) to my Kindle so I wouldn’t need an internet connection to view my documents, grabbed my daughter, I did say it was at the mall, and left.

My plan going into the show was to grab some White Sox vintage or pick up some 1973 or 1981 for my set collection.  I hit a few tables, managed to stay away from anything new.  Picked up a few cards.

Nothing too exciting.  Neither were on my have list (haven’t finished my want lists, been slacking lately), so I grabbed them and headed on.  Last time I was there, a dealer had a box of 1973’s and I was hoping he would be there again.  If he was, he didn’t have the box.

I headed to the other side of the mall.  The first couple of tables didn’t have much.  Lots of $1 base cards that I could buy on ebay for half that shipped.  I was disappointed, but I figure I’d hit the last couple of table.  As I walked up to the last bunch of tables, I saw a light shining on a table.  I heard harp’s playing over the intercom.  A whole table of vintage.  And I’m not talking 70’s vintage, I’m talking 50’s and 60’s vintage.  Let me put it this way, I grabbed everything I wanted and then had to put a bunch back because I just couldn’t afford to spend that much.  But I came away with lots of goodies regardless.  Lots of pictures from here on out.

I know, more 70’s, but at .50 a piece, I couldn’t resist.

He had a whole book of 67’s marked at $1/each.  They were in numerical order so I started at the back because I know a lot of the vintage sets have short printed the last series.  I don’t know which years they did it, and which they didn’t.  But it didn’t matter, the book only went to 300 and something so I figured he probably took the high numbers out.  But I grabbed all the Sox cards in it that I didn’t have, which wasn’t hard since I think I only had the Hoyt Wilhelm. I grabbed the above 9 as well as the following 3.

But wait, there’s more.

Grabbed both these 62’s on accident.  Could have saved myself a few bucks for other cards.  I think it was the bright light shining over the table.  It was in my eyes.  Or I was just too excited and didn’t notice the dupe.  It was probably the second one.

Also grabbed these 2 Post cards from ‘61 and ‘62.  I’ve come across of a number of these in $1 boxes around here so I don’t think they are real hard to find, but I would assume the number of them wouldn’t be as high as a regular ‘61 or ‘62.  But that’s just a guess but what would I know.  Anybody have a clue about any kind of print run?

Lots of 1960’s, also at $1 each.  Except the Aparicio, it was a few bucks.  But well worth the money.

The 2 on the left are ‘60’s also.  I scanned it with the ‘59 because I had scanned them before I looked up the years and thought they were all ‘59’s.  Oops.  Big circles, headshots, Topps did it to me on purpose.  I don’t know my vintage as well being as I wasn’t around back then.

1958’s.  That’s right.  I’m still not done.  What turned into a crappy day at the card show, turned out pretty awesome.

Yup, even a couple of 57’s.  I’m getting as excited typing these out as I was when I came across the table.  I’m sure you all can admit how awesome the above cards are.

All in all, I paid $45 at that final table, so I spent less than $50 at the show.  Considering I was ready to walk away after $2, I think that one table turned my day around.

Diamond Giveaway

Ordered a bunch of my cards from the Diamond Giveaway site a few weeks ago and they arrived last week.  I mainly ordered them because all the cards I was keeping were Sox cards and I got tired of denying all the trade requests.

First the player collection cards.  Of course, after I ordered these, the Dravecky’s came in trades.  Oh well.

I mainly got these because they were vintage Sox, but I selected Bill Melton because he does the pre and post game before Sox games so I actually knew who he was.

Lots more vintage.  I basically tried to flip whatever vintage I pulled for the same year except a Sox card.  I also got quite a few 90’s and 2000’s cards but figured you all didn’t need to see all those.  Vintage is always better.

These cards are pretty awesome.  I peeled the plastic off them because I’m keeping them for myself anyways, I want them to look their best.  I’ve read where a lot of you said they look even better in person and you all were right.  I really like these cards.  I was trying to get the other players, Rios, Sale and Quentin (how Konerko didn’t get a card is beyond me) but nobody would flip them for me and out of all the cards I pulled on the site, I only got 1 of these Diamond cut cards so nobody would flip me regular base cards for those.  Justin from “Justin’s World” and I were working on a trade and mentioned he had the Chris Sale card, so he took whatever cards I had left, which I think was 9 and sent me the Sale card.  I’ll scan it and show it when I get it shipped.  I appreciated that Justin.  I appreciate all my fellow trading partners.  My team and player collections have really taken off because of all of you.

Trade from AJ

I sent some Yankees cards over to AJ of “The Lost Collector” awhile back and he had told me he didn’t have any cards for me and I told him it was fine, hit me up when you do.  That is one thing I really love about trading with fellow bloggers, they always get you back.  I don’t even make a list of my trades I send out because I know I’ll get a return package when they can get to it.  And I’ve done it in the reverse order as well, Dennis of “Too Many Grandersons” gave me a huge box of cards for my PC’s and all I had were about 20-25 cards for him.  He said it was cool, hit him back when I do.  But he hasn’t said anything about me owing him, he hasn’t hounded me or even mentioned them, in fact, he even hinted he had some more cards for me.  And that’s what I did with AJ, we had traded before so I knew he’d hit me back.  I had forgotten all about it until he e-mailed a few weeks back to let me know he hadn’t forgotten about me.  I told him it was cool, I look forward to not knowing and all of the sudden, there’s a bubble mailer in my mailbox.  Or rather, my wife hands it to me while rolling her eyes.
Here are the awesome cards he sent.

A Magglio Ordonez rookie, I liked Mags until he left demanding more money.  That always leaves a sour taste in my mouth.  But I still need his Sox cards so he’s still welcome in my team collection.  A Mike Hart numbered to /49 which would be a Colts and a former Michigan player.  More on him later.  If you look at my Photo Cleansing posts, you know I like Michael Jordan, what do I like better, Michael Jordan in a Sox uniform.  And check out the Paul Konerko rookie, he looks so young and was still a catcher.  And another Dodger Konerko.  I remember having him on some Reds cards as well when I collected before but I haven’t come across any yet for my PC.  And the first card pictures, a Chris Webber, but wait, is that a Sox player on there as well.  Let’s take a look.

It’s a Sox player, but wait, that’s Alex Rodriguez.  What is he doing in a Sox uniform?  Even the back of the card says he’s a prospect for the Seattle Mariners.  I went to baseball-reference.com and looked up his minor league record, even though he was drafted by Seattle I thought maybe he played for the Sox organization and went back to Seattle.  So after further review, I have no clue why he’s wearing the Sox uniform.  I’m telling myself that’s because he has always wanted to play for the White Sox, yeah, that sounds good.  If you know why he’s depicted in a Sox uniform, please let me know.




A Robert “Tractor” Traylor autograph from Sage.  This is a great card, I remember watching him play at Michigan and for those who hadn’t heard, he past away just a few months ago.  I had looked at picking up an autograph on ebay after his death but I figured I’d wait a bit, mainly because I’m a cheap ass.  Now I’m glad I did,  Great card for the Michigan collection.


A Mike Hart auto numbered to /99.  I really love this card, I pulled this one out and immediately showed it to my wife.  Although it doesn’t technically fit in my PC because I decided not to collect Colts cards and I only collect Michigan players in their Wolverine uniforms, I’m still keeping it.  Mike Hart was one of my favorite players when he was with the Wolverines.  Did you know he only had 3 fumbles his entire college career.  That alone is pretty impressive.  But he always seemed like a good guy and he played with everything he had.  I’ll always love guys that leave it on the field, who play their asses off, no matter what.  Mike Hart was one of those players.  And I think after receiving the 2 Mike Hart cards in the mail, that I must add a player collection of him.  How could I not, all his cards should be Colts or Michigan cards.  And he was huge at Michigan.  Lord knows, we could use another RB like him right now.

And finally, if you know AJ, he’s trying to collect this set.  I seen this card when he posted about the lots of these he had won but I never thought he’d send me one.  I really hope it was a dupe and he doesn’t have to still get one for his set collection.  As you know, I do love the vintage.  This is a 1968 Topps game card of Gary Peters.  I don’t blame AJ for going for this set, they are great looking cards.  I had run across a few searching boxes but never came across any Sox.  So this one was a definite welcome to the White Sox Collection.
So thanks again AJ, for the great trade.  And if you haven’t checked out his blog “The Lost Collector” then please do so.  He has been a great trade partner and a great blogger.

Sox for Sox, the way it should be

Steve over at “White Sox Cards” contacted me about swapping some duplicates since we both collect the White Sox.  I like Steve’s blog for obvious reasons, most posts are about the White Sox.  And he creates a card for every game the Sox play throughout the year.  Sad to say, he probably hasn’t had much joy this year in making those cards as we are under .500.  I really like the couple of card blogs out there that make their own unique cards like Steve’s or there are a few that put modern players in a vintage card, I think those are cool too.  But back to the post, I sent him about 20 or so cards off his need list, a couple even completed sets so I was happy for that because I didn’t feel like I was sending anything special.

Here’s the highlights of what he sent me.

Can never go wrong sending me vintage, especially when I don’t have them.  Which is a big list because I just started collecting again.  Really like the 2 60’s cards, the more vintage, the better.  I don’t know if I’ve seen this other set before or not but I like it.  They are labeled 1994 The Sporting News, I don’t know the premise of the set, but I like what I see.  I’m guessing the set is broke off into subsets since these 4 are labeled First Card, Spitballers and Black Sox Scandal.

Steve also sent a bunch more off my want list.  Definitely a great trader, and a great White Sox fan.  Thanks for the trade Steve, check out his blog at “White Sox Cards”.

Diamond Giveaway Trades

I currently have 27 cards on the Diamond Giveaway site.  I have traded and have gotten 16 cards for my PC’s  I’ll post what I have for my PC’s and what I still have left to trade.  If you see something in the trade section that you want from the site.  Make an offer, you know what I like.  I’m going to make you look at my PC cards first though.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

The following are for trade,  Most trades I offer are for the same year as I’m getting rid of.  But I have accepted trades for other years as long as I’m getting some White Sox cards in return.

  

  

  

  

Make me an offer on the site if you see anything you like.

The only complaints I have about the site are, as I stated before, I wish you could actually get a card for the rings you get, something physical that you could order.  I wouldn’t complain even it was a generic looking card.  And also, I wish there was a box you could check to decline all trades for a certain card.  So I could just check off all the PC cards so I didn’t have to go in and decline the offers on them all the time.  And really?  1986 Topps for a Diamond Cut card?  I’ve gotten a few of those offers.  But the complaints aren’t enough to keep me away.  I’m kicking myself for throwing away some of the Diamond Giveaway cards earlier in the year.  I’m never very impressed when the companies have an online thing, usually they are just a waste of time.  I guess I should have checked this one out before I dismissed it.  Lesson learned.  Although I was surprised I didn’t keep the code cards at least, because I usually do if they have a player on them, but if I did, I don’t know where I put them.