You Can't Teach A Dog New Tricks

The past month or so... work and personal life has sort of trumped hobby and blogger life.  With birthday dinners and back to school stuff out of the way, I should be able to start writing and reading blog posts in the near future.

With that being said... I have been picking up a few nice items for my PC that I'll share in the near future.  A while back, I made the decision to focus on quality over quantity... and pick up a few nice things that I'll cherish rather than a bunch of lower end items that end up taking up space which I'm slowly running out of.

On Saturday, I brought that strategy with me to the Serramonte Mall Sports Card, Toys, & Collectibles Show in hopes of tracking down a 1979 Topps baseball set or maybe a 1956 Topps Willie Mays.

The last thing I wanted to do was add a bunch of low end stuff that would require me to sort, scan, and utilize the limited free time I currently have.  Unfortunately I have way too much bargain blood in me to pass up some of the deals I found.

Overall... I dropped $198 at the show, but since I'm not trying to write a novel today... I'll share half of my purchases today and show off the rest on Thursday.


Purchase #1:  25 Relics and Autos $40

I kicked off the card show with a nice haul of relic cards... that ended up costing me a $1.60 per card.

A few of them were solid hidden treasures like the 2007 Tristar Elegance jersey card of Clayton Kershaw (top row... 4th card from the left).  Another solid find was the 2007 Ultimate Collection patch card of Pudge in the bottom right corner.  The Jonathan Franklin and the Cleveland Indians Winning Trios cards were additions to my Prime #'s PC... which is slowly starting to take off.  But my favorite card of the lot was the 2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection card of Hank Bauer (bottom left corner).  I think this might be my first Kansas City Athletics relic card.  I think.


Purchase #2:  6 Cards $20

I normally don't bother flipping through $4 relics, but the 2001 Donruss Classic Combos card of Brooks Robinson caught my eye.  The only bulk discount the vendor offered was a 6 for $20 deal.

I found these three baseball cards for me.  The other three were basketball cards that will eventually be headed over to Mr. Kingsley who won my Pay It Forward Contest.


Purchase #3:  Nickel Box $40

Ninety minutes.  Eight hundred cards.  And one really sore back.

I'm not complaining though.  This was one helluva nickel box haul.  Hundreds of colored refractors.  A few almost complete Diamond King insert sets.  And tons of other inserts and parallels for my binders.

Sadly... there weren't any NASCAR for Billy... and the basketball was pretty much picked through by the guy standing next to me.  I did manage to find a few singles that I'll throw into his prize package though.


Purchase #4:  Ted Simmons Signed Baseball $15

Technically this purchase is part of the nickel box deal.  While going through the guy's boxes, I noticed the ball in one of the boxes and asked him what he wanted for it.

He started at thirty... but we ended up settling for $20 with $5 worth of nickel cards for free.  Since I wouldn't really pay $20 for this ball... I choose to think that I paid $15 for the ball and I paid $5 for 100 more cards in my stack.


Purchase #5:  Basketball Card Lot $10

I'll refrain from sharing this purchase, because it's the other half of Billy's prize package.  However it includes a few shiny cards and a couple of "hits".  Don't worry Billy... I'll dig into my PC and see if I have some NASCAR for you too.

Well that's it for today.  On Thursday I'll share my remaining four purchases... which include a huge addition to my Oakland Athletics PC and a Negro League relic card.

Have a great week... happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Life Isn't Fair

I've been racking my brains trying to write this post for the past hour or so... while thinking about Jose Fernandez and his family ever since my friend told me the tragic news earlier this morning.

People die every day... but I don't really take the time to think about it too much unless it hits close to home or in the case of Jose Fernandez it makes local or national news.

Today... I couldn't stop thinking that when I was twenty-four... I was entering my final semester at San Jose State University and preparing to make the transition into the next stage of my life.

Recently Jose Fernandez was starting to prepare with his girlfriend to enter the next stage of their life with the announcement of their first child.

The thought of this is totally heartbreaking.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, teammates, and fans.

Rest in peace Mr. Fernandez.

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my Monday afternoon contest post.  Twenty-nine of you entered... and only one of you came out on top of the list randomizer.

So without further adieu...

Congratulations Mr. Kingsley!  I haven't shopped for basketball or NASCAR cards in awhile... so this should be fun.  I'll try to get the most out of the twenty dollars I've set aside for you.  However... if I find one or two cards that are really cool in that price range, I might go with quality over quantity.

By the way... I checked my address book and didn't see your address, so shoot me an email with your mailing address so I can ship out your prize package next week.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

It Pays to Comment

If you're a blogger and you're like me, then you love it when someone leaves a comment on a post.  It's like being in 5th grade all over again and finding a note from the girl you like in your Pee Chee folder.  Okay... maybe I'm getting a little carried away... but all joking aside... it's nice to see that someone has taken the time to read your post and reply.

Johnny over at Johnny's Trading Spot must feel the same way.  Earlier in the year he held a contest and apparently I was one of the winners, because I took the time to leave a comment on one of his posts.

That's not really a chore, because I really enjoy his Shadow Shots series and of course reading all of the posts involving the Big Deal he acquired back in May.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and head over there.  I have never seen so many cool oddball issues before.  He's been slowly sifting through his epic haul and he's taking his readers along for the ride.

Here's a quick snapshot at the goodies he has so generously shared with me:

He sent me a medium sized flat rate box filled to the brim with stuff.  There were hundreds of Oakland Athletics cards in these newspaper wrapped packs.  

Here are a few of the ones that made it into the binders:

There was even one of those Topps Oakland A's Surf Detergent books from the 80's:

If you're not familiar with these books, they're really cool.  It includes a photo of every regular issue Athletics card produced by Topps from 1952 to 1987.  But one of my favorite things about this book is the list of every single player who ever wore an Athletics jersey.  I never realized that guys like Jay Johnstone, Lenn Sakata, and Johnnie LeMaster donned the green and gold.

Johnny also added some cool oddballs for my Japanese PC:

Here are two 1993 Takara team sets.  These were part of a baseball game, which according to Cardboard Connection is similar to Strat-O-Matic.

Another cool item he included was this Yomiuri Giants postcard set.  I think it's from the 90's based on some of the other stuff that Johnny sent, but I could be wrong.

He also included some unopened packs of 1995 Godzilla trading cards that seem to be from Japan:

Maybe one of these days, I'll finally get around to posting something over on A Pack to Be Named Later. When I do... I'll probably choose one of these packs, because I'm dying to see what the cards look like.

Rounding out the contest winnings are these three Zatch Bell spell books:

I have no idea what these are, but I'll probably open one and check out the special card that's included inside... then hand the other two out to my students as prizes.

Thank you Johnny for this generous prize package.  I had a lot of fun looking through everything two weekends ago.

Okay... time for me to pay it forward.  Next weekend, I'll be going to a card show at the Serramonte Mall.  It's actually more of a collectibles show with ten to twenty card dealers.  Anyways anyone who leaves a comment down below will be entered into this Pay It Forward/It Pays to Comment Contest.

What do you win?  Well... I'll spend at least $20 on stuff for your PC, so do me a favor and include a list of teams (or players) you collect in the comment section.

When does the contest end?  Let's wrap things up by Friday at 9am PST.   I'll reveal the winner in my Friday (or Saturday morning) post.

That's it.  Happy Monday and sayonara!

In Memoriam

The end of life is such a melancholy and somber topic (for me)... that I usually don't talk or think about it unless I have to.  I'm not saying that I won't talk about it... I just prefer to talk and write about happier things like bacon, Game of Thrones, and baseball cards.

However last weekend I was surrounded by it.  My parents were in town to attend the memorial services for a family friend.  And with it being the 15th Anniversary of the September 11th attacks, I couldn't help but think about the thousands of lives lost on that tragic day.

Plus there's the stress of me destroying my work laptop and quite possibly losing nine years worth of lesson plans, presentations, activities, and handouts with the understanding that all of this could have been prevented had I just backed up my computer.

In short... the weekend was pretty depressing and frustrating.

Thankfully I made time to sit down and catch up on a week's worth of card blog reading... which helped take my mind off of things.  I wrapped up the weekend by opening two care packages on Sunday evening.  One of them inspired today's post.  The other I'll share another day.

There's the saying "good things come in small packages" and that's exactly what I received from Angus over at Dawg Day Cards.  He built me a super generous birthday care package that included a card from my Top 10 Most Wanted List... but before we look at that, let's check out the other items he sent:

1993 Humpty Dumpty #14 Rickey Henderson

Always excited to add a new Rickey Henderson oddball issue to the collection.  Food issues rule... especially when they're miniature.

2016 Topps National Trading Card Day #34 and #43

Another oddball issue!  Angus is on a roll!  I saw these over on Beckett last month and thought they looked pretty cool.  They kind of remind me of a Upper Deck set from a few years ago.

1983 Post Cereal Team Card

Okay... it's time to show off my favorite card of the package:

1985/86 O-Pee-Chee #110

As a teacher, I feel bad choosing favorites... especially since I appreciate all of the cards Angus sent.

But I've wanted this card for as long as I can remember.  I've seen plenty of copies over the years, but I held out hoping that one day I'd find one sitting in a dime box or something.

If you're not familiar with Pelle Lindbergh... he was a star goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers and Team Sweden in the mid 80's who tragically passed away at the age of twenty-five after crashing his Porsche into a school late one evening while intoxicated.  To be honest... I didn't follow hockey until the Sharks arrived in the early 90's... but I remember guys talking about the card when I worked at a card shop back in college.

I always thought it was cool that O-Pee-Chee took the time to add the tiny black strip at the bottom of the card to honor him.  I'm not sure how many times card companies have taken the time to do this, but I remember Topps honored Bart Giamatti back in 1990:

1990 Topps #396

Donruss and Score also produced tribute cards for Giamatti... but I'm not exactly sure if I own them or not.  However... thanks to COMC... here's what they look like:

COMC Images

I do own a Larry Fritsch "In Memoriam" trading card:

There are two other Fritsch tribute cards, which I think I have laying around somewhere.

COMC Image

His family obviously tried to mimic the 1964 Topps Ken Hubbs card, which has replaced the Lindbergh on my Top 10 Wantlist.

COMC Image

A quick Google search led me to this Jim Umbrict card from the same set.  At the bottom of the card it mentions his passing earlier in the year.

There's also a subset of "In Memoriam" cards in the 1994 Conlon baseball card set, but since they honored the players decades after their playing years, I left them out of this post.

In 2008... Topps honored Sean Taylor with a card posthumously in their Topps Progression set:

COMC Image

Finally there's the 1970-71 O-Pee-Chee hockey card of Terry Sawchuk:

COMC Image

I'm sure there are other "In Memoriam" trading cards floating around out there.  If you happen to know of any, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

Thank you Angus for this awesome birthday care package!

Happy Friday and sayonara!