Cheap Ebay

Just a quick post to show a few cheap Ebay pickups made last month.

Harold Baines – 1987 KayBee (paid $.30/shipped)

Just ran across this card and at only $.30, I couldn’t pass it up.  It goes to my White Sox Collection.

Tom Seaver/Johnny Bench – 1982 Donruss (paid $.26/shipped)

I actually think I picked this up for my Vintage Collection not realizing that it was Tom Seaver on it.  So it goes over to my Tom Seaver Collection.  Not sure if I’ve even seen this card before.

Ed Herrmann – 1975 Topps Mini (paid $.32/shipped)

I knew I didn’t have this since I only had a few mini’s from the 1975 set.  This goes to the White Sox Collection.

These posts will be kind of falling by the wayside because I don’t really use Ebay anymore.  I have been using COMC lately and I’ve just scanned my recent package of singles to complete a bunch of team sets.  I’ve already purchased more that are sitting in my cart or whatever it’s called until I ship them.  I like the $3 unlimited shipping they provide now.

Trade with Crinkly Wrappers

Yeah, I probably made this trade 2 or 3 months ago.  I suck.  The bad part is I even scanned them awhile back and they’ve been sitting in my folder on my computer just waiting for me to type something out.  I suck.  But Ted doesn’t.  If I remember correctly, this wasn’t actually a trade.  I purchased a bunch of 1973’s at a great cost from Ted because he had just completed his set and he threw these additional cards in.

2010 Upper Deck’s that I needed.  I thought I had a bunch of these, but all 5 above were new to the Sox collection.  A post is an oddball which are always great as well as team cards are great.  I wish they would have used these team cards more throughout the years.

He also sent me these Peyton Manning’s for that player collection.  I don’t ever buy any of his cards since I don’t really collect much football so I always appreciate getting them in trades.

And of course, the purchased cards.

I fill my team collection first so these 7 cards went to those before the 1973 set. 

A big thanks to Ted from “Crinkly Wrappers” for throwing in these cards and for giving me a big boost on my 1973 set.  You’ll see more of those if I ever finish posting my set pages.

Have you seen the 2012’s yet?

I got my 2012 cards from Kyle over at “JABO’s” who held a box break.  I also had the Cubs and Tigers but I set those aside for trades so I won’t bother showing those.  You might have seen some 2012’s, I think there has been a post or 2 out there in blog-o-land.  But I will show the White Sox portion of the break because it’s my blog and I want too.  And yes, I’m going to show every Sox card (minus duplicates).

These are the base cards.  I do believe it’s a whole team set.  Last time I looked, www.teamsets4u.com didn’t have them listed yet, but I’ve seen team sets listed on ebay at 11 cards, so there is my brilliant detective work.

Here’s the inserts and parallel’s.  Love the Aparicio, I’m really close to pulling the trigger on starting a player collection of him.  After researching him for my Today’s 9 series, I’ve really gotten into him as a player and his cards.

And 2 cards for my current player collections.  Luckily I got 2 Konerko’s so I was able to fill both.  Only 1 of the Seaver so I need another one for my team collection as I always fill my player collections first.  I’ve been watching some of the relic cards on ebay, they aren’t real high dollar but higher than I’m willing to pay.  I can wait them out till they drop.  I’d really like the Aparicio with the ring, and I know there is another Gold Standard Seaver in his Reds uniform and a Frank Thomas in that same set that I need to get.  I haven’t investigated enough to know what all Sox cards are out there from this set.

Thanks for the break Kyle, I look forward to the next one, which I’m already signed up for.

Keeping Busy

It’s been a long winter waiting for spring training.  I always get excited when spring training approaches, I watch a few games but then lose interest until the end of spring training when the starters start playing more.  I’m keeping myself busy getting organized, posting to other blogs, watching Michigan basketball, and even a little bit of the NFL playoffs.  I sent off a few trades last Saturday, and am still getting some cards together for others.  Been doing other real life stuff to like Girl and Boy Scouts, homework and work.

I’ve enjoyed blogging, but I don’t always have a whole lot to say so I started a Tumblr account, basically a blog with photographs.  I went through my computer and posted some pics and reblogged a few I’ve found.  I plan on posting cards from here on there as well.  I got the idea from checking out Jonathan’s Tumblr “RGB cards”, you may know Jonathan from this blog though “RGB Cards”.  I like what he’s doing with his and thought this would be a good output for myself as well.  The bad news is I won’t be doing the photo cleansing posts here anymore because I will just post the photo’s I find there. 

So to run down all my blogs

• Laws Reviews – I review mostly movies, but I plan on doing some other things.  Books, software, ect.  No storylines, just my opinions.  Just started that this year.
• My Personal Collection – The plan is to scan every card in my PC’s and post it here.  I’ve gotten some up but nowhere near done.
• My Sports Obsession – You might have heard of this one.
• My Sports Obsession Tumblr – This is the new one mentioned above.
• Random Thoughts from a Random Guy – This is just a random kind of blog.  For the most part I post humerous stuff I come across when I come across it.  Once in awhile, I’ll post happenings in my real life but being as I don’t really do much, those posts are far and few between.
• Too Many Manninghams – Technically it’s not my blog, but Dennis lets me guest posts my Michigan material over there.

I’m not asking asking you to follow them all, just throwing them out there since I added the Tumblr blog as kind of as a sister blog to this one.

Remember to support your Wolverines for the next few weekends.  I’m rooting for this guy, he is one of my favorite alumni of Michigan.

Sports Illustrated meanest players

This came across my Google reader and while I’m shocked, I’m also not.  215 players voted that AJ Pierzynski was the meanest player in majors.

Now obviously, I don’t know him personally but from what I’ve seen, he’s a very likable guy and teammate.

I understand why opponents don’t like him with what happened in the ALCS with the Angels.  The Angels fan at work hates him with a passion.  But all he really does is play hard.  He does everything he can to win the game.  Chicago fans love him and he’s one of my favorite players on the team.  I know he had a falling out with Minnesota and I’m not entirely sure what happened there with teammates but I know everyone in the White Sox clubhouse says he’s a great guy.  Now I’m not stupid enough to think there aren’t secrets out there that they keep quiet.  But I know, everything I hear out of the Chicago media, is nothing but nice.

I love that when he strikes out, he slams his bat down.  He’s pissed, at himself.  Today he made the final out with 2 men on in a 1 run game and he slammed his helmet down.  He wasn’t mad at the umpire, he wasn’t mad at the pitcher or the other players, he was mad at himself.  That tells me he cares, he wants to win.  Why would you not want that on your team.  I see video footage of him all the time goofing off with teammates and the media.  When he’s on the field, he’s business.  But you see him before games or in video footage outside the game, he’s all smiles.

The SI article doesn’t say anything about the criteria for the vote or even if it was just a write down the meanest player.  Technically, it’s not an article but a photo gallery.  AJ is the kind of guy you love to have on your team and hate to play against him.  That doesn’t make him mean, that makes him a competitor.  I for one, am an AJ fan.  And I hope he retires as a White Sox because I don’t want to see him on another team.

Here’s a link to the gallery – Sports Illustrated

Cheap Ebay purchase 3

Won another Michigan lot, I’m sure a couple of you are happy to see Wolverines instead of White Sox, Dennis & Dustin I’m sure.  I said earlier in the year and it says up there at the top that the post would determine what I post about.  Well, it’s that time of the year.  About the time this publishes, we should be a little over a week away from Michigan football.  Had a chance at tickets for the season opener, but I had just bought some White Sox tickets for the week after and couldn’t afford to do both.  If I hadn’t already purchased the Sox tickets, I probably would have taken the Michigan tickets.  Oh well, such as my life.

* UPDATE – I am now going to the opener on Sep 3rd against Western Michigan (found out today) and also Sep. 24th against San Diego State (also found out today) along with the 1 game a year I get which is Nov. 19th against Nebraska.  Looking forward to seeing the Nebraska game, not looking forward to the fact that I’ll probably freeze my ass off.

This was just a small sampling of the football cards in the lot.  Some great players up there.  Lots of a little older cards in this lot.  But how can you pass them up either.  I was going to try to get Desmond Howard’s autograph about a month ago when he was here for his college football HOF induction.  But I wasn’t about ready to drop $75 for it.

This is all the basketball and baseball that was included.  I collect any sport in Michigan Uniforms so these were welcomed to the collection as well.  Really liked the Fab 5 cards, that was when I really started to follow Michigan athletics.  I was huge into basketball back then, much more than baseball or football.  Now, baseball and football are back on top.  With basketball a distant 3rd.  I can’t get into basketball anymore, at least NBA.  I can still watch college basketball.  NBA has just way too many selfish players anymore.  It’s all about the players, not the team.  It sucks.

Also like the Jim Abbott.  I followed him back before I knew he went to Michigan because my father had his arm amputated just above the elbow in his fight with cancer.  He loved baseball (Die hard Cubs fan) and he loved to bowl.  He taught himself to bowl left handed after having his arm amputated and got to be pretty good at it before he got too sick to do it anymore.  So I followed Abbott’s professional career back in the early 90’s.

After watching the White Sox last night, I think I’m officially out of hope for this team.  I’m tired of this rollercoaster, win 5 straight, lose 5 straight.  It’s no wonder we’ve been sitting around .500 all season and can’t seem to get over it.  Apparently that’s the kind of team it is.  Konerko is the only player who has performed day in and day out all year round.  Other players have had their hot streaks but other than Konerko, nothing.  I was so excited about this year, not anymore.  I will still cheer for the Sox and I’m still a huge fan, and I still plan on going to the game in a couple of weeks, but I’m tired of getting my hopes up and then crushed.  It’s been that way all year.  Up and Down.  If I had cash on me, I would have paid the Tigers fan at work my bet money on who would have the best record at the end of the year.  The players seem like they’ve quit so I might as well too.  Good thing college football is right around the corner.

Down goes Frasor!!!

That's what was going through my head when Ozzie brought out Jason Frasor in the 9th last night.  The Sox deserved to lose that game.  Errors, bad baserunning, bad execution in the field, they definitely deserved to lose.  But in the 8th, Paul Konerko gets his 2000th career hit and ties the game at 4.  That was the Angels mistake.  Pitching to Konerko with a runner in scoring position, 1st base open, and the struggling Rios on deck.  Ask the Angels fan here at work, he was pissed.

Frasor comes in the 8th, can't throw an offspeed pitch for a strike.  Barely gets out of the inning, stranding a man on 1st and 3rd.  Now I don't know much about Jason Frasor, and I understand how a pitcher can have a bad outing.  He did good to get out of the 8th.  But why does Ozzie bring him out to pitch the 9th.  All the Angels had to do was sit on his fastball.  And I wouldn't be upset as much when he came in to start the 9th, but how the hell is he still in there after they load the bases, with 1 out.  Matt Thornton was warmed up in the 8th and 9th.  Why wasn't he brought in at any point of this inning.  This isn't the same Matt Thornton that was supposed to be our closer and sucked.  He has been great the last couple of months.  Last I heard, and it may be over now, but he had a consecutive scoreless innings pitched at 20+ innings.  Why? Why? Why?

So yes, we sucked.  Yes, we deserved to lose.  But I blame Ozzie, because after all that, we were still in it and had a chance.  But Ozzie didn't give us the best chance to win and that is his job.  The Angel fan here at work thanks you Ozzie.  But I sure as hell don't.

Ebay bucks and more

I received my ebay bucks at the beginning of July and I decided to head on over and spend my big money.  I picked up 4 cards for my PC.  3 White Sox cards and a Tom Seaver card.  Here they are.

As you can guess, I don’t purchase much on ebay by the 4 cards I purchased with all my earnings.  I was going to make this a contest and have you guess what I spent but you could have gone to ebay and checked the completed listings and figured it out.  So I guess I’ll just tell you.

$1.07/shipped.  It took me awhile to finish this as the Seaver, Thomas and Lemon/Lamp card took $1.06.  So it took me awhile to purchase something for a $.01.  That’s where the Fisk playing card came in.  I got it for $.01 shipped.  I haven’t had any problems with the “free shipping” PWE shipping yet.  Some protect it with a top loader, some don’t.  I figure for the price I’m paying, I’ll take the chance.  I’ve been bidding on anything vintage Sox that I don’t have up to $.50.  So I’ve been making big purchases to work up to my next periods ebay bucks purchase.  Not really, I get outbid quite a bit.

I’ve been scanning today, I have decided to scan all my PC cards and store them here on blogger.  Why not, it’s cheap and easy.  Just all the scanning sucks.  I figure I label each card then you have a way to search.  Maybe some of you do this already, but I thought it was pretty smart.  I’ve scanned the Sox cards that I have gotten in the last few weeks in trades and such, plus scans I found I still had on my computer, so there are already cards on the site.  THE SITE IS LIVE!!!!  Sounds more exciting that way.  I have a lot of cards to go through yet and it will be a constant work in progress I think.  But if you want to check it out, here’s the link - http://mysoxcards.blogspot.com/.  I’m certainly not expecting anyone to follow it or even check it out, but it’s there if you get bored.

Also I sent out some trade packages yesterday, or rather, my wife went to the post office for me and sent them.  So if your expecting a package from me, you should receive it probably on Monday.  And if your not expecting anything from me, you might get a package anyways.  I traded with my cousin and got a few cards for trade purposes.  So a couple of you will be surprised.  I sent out 5 packages, 3 of you are expecting them.  I was hoping to surprise the another person but I had to ask for her address because I apparently didn’t copy it down.

Also, a big shout out to AJ over at “The Lost Collector” who surprised me with this card for my PC.  It’s pretty sweet.  I hadn’t seen the green refractors yet, or at least live.  And to have it be a Konerko just makes it even better.  Thanks again AJ, much appreciated.

Photo Cleansing #7

Got a bunch today so we’ll get right to it.  We’ll start with the home team – the Chicago White Sox.

The 1904 Chicago White Sox

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson

The 1983 All-Star patch in Chicago.

And some others.

Gatorade ad for Derek Jeter and his 3000 hits.

Oops.  BJ Upton got beat by a girl.

Could have been worse though.  He could have been this Gatorade cooler getting a beat down by Brian Wilson.  Speaking of Brian Wilson, WTF is this?

Brian Wilson at the ESPY’s.

OK, let’s get to some vintage to get that last image out of our head.

Ty Cobb – 1907

Babe Ruth – 1929

JR Richards & Nolan Ryan – not quite as vintage, but wow, I forgot how hideous those uniforms were.

And on to some NBA

Remember the original “Dream Team” and Christian Laettner.  And of course we can’t have a Photo Cleansing without the following.

Contest winner

I got my winnings from Matthew over at “Number 5 Type Collection” for a contest he had in honor of Father’s day.  All you had to do was comment on the post of what your and your father’s favorite baseball team was.  For those that don’t know, my father was a die hard Cubs fan.  It was a great idea for a contest and I really enjoyed reading other comments, some with stories of their fathers.  Here was my comment.

My father was a die hard Cubs fan but he past away when I was 8 and so did his influence on me.

My whole neighborhood used to play sports in accordance to the season outside. During the summer's, we'd be playing baseball and everything would stop so the Cubs fan's could go watch the game on WGN. I never wanted to stop playing so I grew to hate the Cubs.

I stopped watching baseball all together after the strike in 1994. A few years later, when I started watching again, I grew to love the White Sox. And have ever since.

My mom tells me that one day I'm going to wake up and my dad is going to be standing at the foot of my bed, in full Cubs gear with a disappointing look on his face.

That’s pretty much the long and short of it.  I don’t, however, hate the Cubs anymore.  To me, they are just another team.  Most White Sox fans hate the Cubs, and I’ve gotten into this argument with Sox fans before, but if you don’t live in Chicago, you don’t really have the hatred for the Cubs.  I love to beat them, because as I’m not real far from Chicago (100 miles) so there are a crap load of Cubs fans here (including the majority of my family.)  I hate their stadium and I hate a lot of their obnoxious fans, but I don’t hold that against the team.  Personally, I feel sorry for their fans but that’s another story.

Sorry, I got sidetracked there.  Here’s the loot sent over from Matthew.  The prize was some cards from the teams in your comments.

All the Sox are cards are new to my collection and the Cubs cards are available for trade.  I really loved the prize, nice touch with all the vintage especially the 1955, which became my oldest White Sox card.  So, my question to you Matthew is, the 1972 Topps (NL Pitching Leaders) has Fergie Jenkins, so therefore is a Cubs card, but did you notice that Tom Seaver is on that card as well and did you know that he is a player I collect?  Whether you did or not, I loved the card.  As well as all the other vintage.  Everybody check out his blog over at “Number 5 Type Collection”

I like this card, and others

Wife and kids were gone, no one was home. So on my way home from work I decided to stop at a pawn shop that says they buy coins just to look in and see if they had any cards. I walked in and rather than waste my time browsing, I asked the guy behind the counter if they sell sports cards, he started to go on about how the prices had dropped, ect, ect. so they don’t buy them anymore. I looked at him and asked “so that’s a no?” He seemed kind of mad but I know about cards, and all I asked was whether they sell them or not. I don’t need a rundown on why he doesn’t buy them. It’s not like I walked in with a huge box of cards asking him to buy.

Anyway, I left and headed up the road to a place that buys and sells DVDs/games/CD’s. You know the kind of place. He has some cards there as well as comics and previously I’ve bought a 600 count box of 1970’s cards for $8 back when I sold on Ebay, made that money back easy. He was advertising a sale on comic books and when I asked about the boxes of cards he said they were on sale. They are normally $1 boxes but with the sell and nobody waiting on me at home, I figured I’d go through and see if there was anything. And there was.

First I’ll show the trade bait, all are available.

I picked up all these just because who can resist these vintage oddball(?) cards at the price. Stan Musial (1975 TCMA), Carl Yastrzemski and Joe Morgan (1977, not sure what they were cut off of), Hank Greenberg (1974, TCMA), Bob Feller (1975, TCMA (1954 Cleveland)), Tris Speaker (1977, TCMA (1920 Cleveland)), Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio (1977, TCMA), and Ty Cobb (1980, TCMA). Most are in really good condition which makes me wonder whether or not they are fake or something else, but I’m not sure why someone would fake these. Either way, they were cheap.

A couple more vintage, Thurman Munson (1976 Topps & 1978 ?), and the 1972 Dodgers rookies (Charlie Hough, Bob O’Brien, Mike Strahler) All 3 are available for trade.

And some more trade bait. I realize that these aren’t high dollar but I was surprised to see them in a $1 box, just because he’s not really a card dealer, I figured his prices would be higher than normal. Cory Aldridge, Adam Pettyjohn, Travis Hughes, David Espinosa (2002 Select Rookies & Prospects autograph’s), Chris Seddon (2007 Bowman Signs of the Future), Danny Peoples (1997 UD SP prospects autograph), William Bergolla (2004 Playoff Honors autograph #’d /1000) and a Carl Yastrzemski (2005 Upper Deck Classic Season game-used jersey)

But of course, they main reason I stopped was to boost my PC’s. So here they are.

I really liked the Hoyt Wilhelm (1967), and the Al Lopez (1960), both are 1st’s for those years. Both the 1975’s are mini and I’m not sure what the Luis Aparicio is. All it says on the back is his name, No. 6 of 33 photos, and T.C.G. So I have no idea of the year or make of the card. Just that it’s an Aparicio and it’s from Topps. So any help there would be appreciated.

A Sox rookie auto #’d /500 (Ryan Meaux) who I want to say isn’t even in the organization anymore but I’m not positive about that. I seem to remember him getting traded. A Shingo Takatsu jersey, who? Unless you’re a Sox fan, you probably don’t remember him. But he was a very effective closer, for a year anyways. I want to say he closed for us in 2004 and was our starter at closer in 2005 but was replaced, because he sucked. Eventually, we ended up with Bobby Jenks who took us to our World Championship that year. Sergio Santos autograph. Can never go wrong with a Michael Jordan card, even if it is a baseball one. A Tadahito Iguchi refractor. Who was a huge part of our 2005 World Series run at 2nd base. But was our #2 hitter, Scott Podsednik got on, a lot. And Iguchi moved him around the bases, a lot. We don’t win the WS that year without his bat. Jim Thome jersey, who is an all around nice guy. I always wish him well where ever he plays, even in Minnesota, except when they play us. And I can also use your help on the last card. Michael Jordan & Frank Thomas. I’m guessing it’s a 1991 as it has Thomas’ stats from 1990. And under Career Highlights for Jordan, it’s all basketball, and says led the Bulls to a 90/91 Championship, no mention of the other 5. I think it looks a lot like the 1986 fleer but it has no mention of a year or manufacturer on the back. So again, any help would be appreciated.

My favorite card, and if you didn’t notice, I didn’t say anything about it up there is this one.

Sergio Santos. If you’ll notice on this minor league card, he’s listed as a shortstop. He couldn’t make at short so he converted to a pitcher a few years back. And the White Sox are glad he did. He is currently our closer after Matt Thornton’s struggles earlier this season. In only his 2nd year in the big leagues, he has become our closer. I couldn’t believe when I saw this autograph in the $1 box. Love this card.

And I was able to pick up a few for my player collections.

A 1981 Donruss and a 1977 Topps of Tom Seaver. If I remember from back when I used to collect. Seaver has another 1981 Donruss card. Never could figure out why some player got 2 cards but I know I used to have both, as well as the 1977.

And a couple of Konerko’s to finish off this very long post. A HR Kings insert and a rookie card.

These were most of the cards purchased, but I actually purchased other Sox cards (Thomas, Mags, a couple of Fisk’s and a Baines) I also purchased all 5 of the Sammy Sosa rookies (I really didn’t want to, but they were Sox cards) and a couple of his 2nd/3rd year cards. So not pictured, I had another 13 cards. And what did I pay for all this card goodness? Got a guess? Anybody? Answer – Just over $20, $20 and some change to be exact.

So if you want some of the trade bait cards up there or you have some help for me on the couple of cards I was lost on, leave me a comment or email me (jccsst1022 at gmail dot com). Hopefully you stayed with my post long enough to read it all.

Photo Cleansing #5

Sox and Cubs played this week, first time in a long time that they played during the week that I remember.  Cubs took the 1st game after the Sox took an early 3-0 lead.  They came back and scored 6.  Sox took the next 2, both by 1 run.  Both big outings by the bullpen.  They keep pitching like that and this team can definitely contend for the division.

At the Sox game last night, AJ and Peavy got into something on the field and dugout.  It looked like Peavy pointed to AJ as he was coming off the field and said something, then at the end of the inning, they are seen having a “discussion” in the dugout but before it became more, AJ pulled Peavy back into the tunnel away from cameras and finished.  After the game, during interviews, they both answered questions about it.

AJ’s answer -

“Well, we were talking about Alabama vs. Florida,” Pierzynski said. “He has bragging rights because Alabama beat them the last couple times. That’s about it.”

Uh huh!  AJ, sure it was.  Here was Peavy’s answer -

“Me and A.J. were actually arguing over who is the better hunter,” Peavy said. “AJ went on a safari this winter. I claimed to be a real hunter, although I can’t say I’ve been out of the states. We got in a pretty heated discussion. He’s harvested kudu and a lion. I like to harvest white tail deer. We were kind of going over that. You know how that stuff goes.

“But listen, we are just competing and it’s going to happen from time to time. We are both very passionate people. A.J. won us a ballgame tonight. There was no ill-will, nothing. It’s part of playing the game and being a part of a team.”

Now both these guys are gamers, so I don’t think this was a big deal and this will be the last of it, other than all the questions from the media who probably won’t leave it alone.  I think I read that Ozzie said it had something to do with a pitch call.  Either way, I love that they are keeping it hush, hush just so it doesn’t get all blown out of proportion.  I believe it was just a quick argument and nothing will come of it.  Both these guys go at 100% and play harder than anyone so things like this are going to happen.  But they are both good clubhouse guys and will continue to be that.

Saw this photo on another blog.  This is a really cool sky around a really nice ballpark.  St. Louis’ new Busch Stadium is surrounded with brick and iron fence.  The diamond is below ground level so you walk out close to the top of the stadium.  It has a very traditional feel to it while still being a modern stadium.  I’ve been to the old Busch Stadium a bunch of times, but only the new one once, so far.  My grandparents lived outside St. Louis for awhile, I would call down and have them get my tickets (before the internet was so handy.)  Even went to a Cubs/Cardinals game which is supposed to be one of the huge rivalries of MLB.  I always had a good time there.

This is just hilarious.  If you don’t know what it’s about than you haven’t been following college football at all.

The following commercial is also hilarious.

Coming this fall to DirectTV the Manning brothers star in Football Cops: “Nobody Escapes The Long Arms of The Law.”

….Mike Tahoe (Peyton Manning) was living the dream as a big league quarterback, until a personal tragedy brought him back to the mean streets of his childhood. Vowing to bring those who wronged him to swift justice, he enlists the help of his best friend, and biggest rival, C.J. Hunter (Eli Manning). Both grew up together as orphans in a home for wayward boys. Both overcame the odds to become huge sports stars. Now both are the only hope for the rugged streets they once again call home.

And this wouldn’t be a photo cleansing post without the usual vintage Jordan pic.

For those of you still reading this, and haven’t been following me on Twitter.  I have been on Zistle trying to get all my cards posted.  All my collections are posted and I’m working on all my cards available for trade.  I have my duplicate White Sox up as well as the Angels, Astros, A’s, Blue Jays, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals and Cubs listed.  As you can tell, they are going in alphabetically.  I might get one or two more teams up tonight before bed.  Maybe.  To go to it, click the zistle photo at the top right of the page.

Trade with Thoughts and Sox

Even though we both think the other roots for the wrong colored Sox, we still traded.  I received his trade package in the mail at the end of last week, luckily before we lost our mailbox key but that’s a whole other story.  Adam sent me a whole bunch of White Sox cards in exchange for the Red Sox cards I had sent him.  I can chalk this up to another great trade, I have yet to have a bad one.  Hopefully I never will.  Here are the highlights.

I only had 1 2008 Bowman so to get some more of those is always nice.  I really like the looks of the Fleer Showcase and the O-Pee-Chee.  I also didn’t have any of the 2008 UD Piece of History’s.  I like the background/border on those cards, not to mention 3 of the 4 he sent were rookie cards.  These were just the highlights as he had sent a decent sized stack.  Thanks again Adam for the trade, as always, much appreciated.  Be sure to check out his blog at “Thoughts and Sox”

Card show #3

I saved the best for last.  My player collections and the vintage.  I didn’t get much for the player collections, I thought I’d be able to pick up some Paul Konerko’s cheap but I assume since I’m fairly close to Chicago, they jack the prices up so people pay for them.  I’ve heard other bloggers complain about this in their LCS.

I was surprised to find some of the vintage in the cheap boxes so I scooped up anything I didn’t have.  Which was a pretty good haul.  I didn’t take anything that was completely destroyed but none of these are mint either.

I added 2 more Tom Seaver’s (1 was pictured in the oddball pics) and 3 more Konerko’s.  I already have the National Baseball Card day card but I picked this one up to add to the other collection.  White Sox & Konerko collections both have one now.

These weren’t all the cards I picked up, actually there were 15 more cards but these were the ones I really wanted.  As far as the show, I was disappointed by the volume of tables but all I wanted to look for was cheap boxes and I got those.  I also just enjoyed talking to the dealers and just talking with people in general about cards.  Much like I do with the blogs, but face to face is always nice to.  I definitely wasn’t disappointed in the volume of cards I got for $18 either.  Next show is in August.

Card Show #2

At the before mentioned Card show, I also stacked up on a bunch of Frank Thomas.  I actually put some Thomas cards back because there were stacks and stacks of them in the cheap boxes.  Here are the ones I did pick up though.

Some new, some old.  the 1992 topps is the insert of 60 years of Topps.  A few of these I haven’t had before but most I had.  Here’s some more Thomas cards.

“The Big Hurt” used to be one of my favorite Sox players until the latter of his career when he started wanting more money and he was spending half his seasons on the DL, then trashed talked after he left.  He has since apologized and is working with the Sox here and there.  I have no ill feelings towards him for the most part but when your idol leaves like that, you don’t ever forget.

I also picked up whatever oddball cards I could just because I figured they would be harder to come by.  Not to mention one is a Tom Seaver to add to that collection as well.

One more post to come.  Vintage and player collections left.

Card Show #1

Went to our local card show this past weekend.  This was my first show in probably 20+ years so I was excited to go.  I didn’t have much money to spend so I planned on hitting the cheap boxes and boosting my White Sox collection.   I would love if my LCS actually had boxes like this but it sucks.  It’s actually located in this same mall and I still didn’t bother to stop in there.  Back when I was a kid, I used to go to this mall and it was packed solid with tables.  This time I walked in at the center of the mall and didn’t see a card table.  I went right and at the very end of the aisle/hall there was 1 table.  Now mind you, this mall is huge, not just a little run of the mill mall.  I stopped at the table and really was just shocked that there was only 1 table in the whole mall.  I went through his .50 box and pulled a bunch of vintage cards for myself.  Then walked around the other side of the table and found a .25 or 5/$1 box and went through it.  After pulling some more vintage, I realized some of the stuff I grabbed out of the .50 box was also in this box so I took them from the cheaper box and put back the dupes in the .50 box.  I ended up spending $10 there.

By then I had gotten a text from my wife who told me there were a lot more tables on the other side of the mall.  So I headed that way and there was definitely more tables.  Certainly not as many as back in the day but maybe another 10 or so more.  I started hitting their cheap boxes and ended up spending another $8.  So I left only spending $18 total which is around what I was going to purchase.  I did go through some of the jersey/auto cards hoping to find some Sox cards but didn’t really come across anything that jumped out at me.  I’m only an hour and a half from Chicago so I imagine the Sox and Cubs get picked through pretty quickly.  So I left with a bunch more Sox cards and quite a few vintage as well.  Here are some of the highlights.

Picked up some Buehrle (although now that I’m checking before I post, I don’t think that middle card is a Buehrle, oops) who is another one of my favorite Sox players as well as some Rockin’ Robin Ventura.

Carlton Fisk and Jack McDowell are also some favorites.  The McDowell is a rookie.  I realize none of these are worth big bucks, but since I’m just starting off my collection again, it’s great to see the cards I used to have in my hands again.

Stay tuned for post #2, I know you can’t contain yourself.