30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Care Packages to Blind Trades

When it comes to care packages, I'll try my best to return the favor and at the end of the day... a blind trade has been made.

I actually prefer blind trades these days, because I send out stuff that fits the other collector's PC's and hopefully they'll be able to use at least some of the stuff.  If not, they're free to pass it on to their friends or other collectors who share their interests.

Daniel Wilson over at It's like having my own Card Shop recently requested my address and told me he wanted to send over some stuff for my collection.  So we exchanged addresses and within a few days I received a package from him.  If he was an eBay seller, I'd give him a five star rating for shipping.

Unfortunately I've been under the weather the past two weeks and didn't get around to opening it until today.  I wanted to kick things off with this rookie card of Manny Trillo:


I remember Manny being an all-star for the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, but I had no idea that he played for my beloved Athletics.  In fact, he was part of the trade that brought Billy Williams to Oakland from Chicago in 1974.

You gotta love cards that motivate you to research and learn new things.  Stay tuned... there's more to come later in this post.

However... let's get to some nice memorabilia cards for my Oakland A's PC:




I know that memorabilia cards have taken a beating in terms of authenticity and value the past few years.  But I still enjoy collecting them and I still consider them a "hit".  Daniel went four for four on these, because I didn't have any of these.

He also sent a ton of cool inserts... but this 1999 Topps Gallery Gallery of Heroes insert of Ben Grieve takes the cake:


If you've never owned one of these inserts, I encourage you to look into them.  These die-cut pieces of acetate are nothing short of beautiful.

And the last two cards I'll share with you are these 2008 Stadium Club rookie cards of Daric Barton:



Daniel actually sent a handful of inserts and parallels I didn't have, but these two cards stood out.  First they reminded me that Topps actually produced Stadium Club back in 2008.  For some reason, whenever I think of this product line... I think of the early 90's and the past two years.  It also brought back fond memories of their First Day Issue parallels.  Throw in that they're borderless and show off crisp photography and we have another pair of winners.

However one thing left me scratching my head.  Why are there two cards of Daric Barton?  And why are they both numbered 102?

According to Beckett, players on cards numbered 101 to 150 were each given two cards: a regular and a photo variation.  The Barton on the left is the regular version, while the one on the right is the variation.

Thank you Daniel for the great cards and inspiring me to get off of my butt and do a little cardboard investigating.  I'll try to ship your package sometime this week... if not next weekend at the latest.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

8 comments:

JayP said...

Nice stuff!! I got a stack of A's cards I can send your way. Shoot me an email!

RAZ said...

Those Gallery of Heroes cards are pretty cool.

Ryan G said...

Collecting all of the Stadium Club RC variations has been a challenge, partly from an identification standpoint. Some variations are minor and described differently on different sites, so buying online becomes a hassle.

It's easy to forget 2003 and 2008 Stadium Club. They were gimmicky and lost focus on the original SC demographic. Too much focus on hits and short prints messed up the set collectors. I'm happy to say I have almost completed both sets!

And yes, the Gallery of Heroes sets are pretty cool. Studio's Stained Glass Stars are awesome too!

Daniel Wilson said...

Glad you liked the package! Hope you are feeling better!

The Lost Collector said...

Ben Grieve! He was a big deal. I remember him, Travis Lee, and Jose Cruz Jr were very sought after. Great looking card.

Matt said...

Love that Gallery Of Heroes!!

Adam Kaningher said...

2008 Stadium Club was weird!

Fuji said...

jayp - thanks. i packaged most of my dbacks to ship off to daniel, but i'm sure i can find a few for your collection. email headed your way.

raz & sport card collectors - agree 100%

ryan - that's pretty cool. best of luck on completing them. and yeah, those stained glass stars are awesome. have one or two in my insert binders

daniel - thanks again. i should have the package out tomorrow. as for my cold... feeling 100x better, but the cough continues to linger.

the lost collector - i think i still own at least 10 ben grieve autographs... possibly more. paid top dollar for them :(

adam - guess i'll have to pick up a few more to see what you're talking about. as it stands, i know very little about them. but i did enjoy that action shot of barton.