Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!

As with most popularity contests... the nerd came up short in his mission to become the Face of the MLB.  But people around the country stood up for the spectacle wearin', platoon playin' hipster.  And it's safe to say he's an Oakland Athletics fan favorite.  And I'm one of those fans standing in his corner.

The fact is... I have always considered myself a "nerd" at heart.  It was around middle school when I realized I wasn't exactly like some of my friends.  While many of them were acquiring girlfriends, I was picking up Jose Canseco rookies.  And when everyone was attending dances and pool parties, I was going to my local card shop. 

Luckily, I grew up with a bunch of kids who ended up being popular, so I had a nice "get out of jail for free" card in my back pocket.  I wasn't beaten up, picked on, or teased and never had problems with finding friends.  But I wasn't exactly Joe Cool either. I guess you could call me a "closet nerd".  On the outside, I was the quiet guy who had cool friends, but inside I was the guy who regularly watched Star Wars, collected baseball cards, and read comic books.

That's why I was happy to see Eric Sogard reach the finals in the silly Face of the MLB Twitter competition.  Last night before I went to bed, I checked and he was beating David Wright by four percent (52% to 48%).  A few hours later, Sogard had widened the lead to 10% with only two hours to go.  But when the dust settled... Wright won 51% to the nerd's 49%.

Oh well.  It would have been weird and pretty crazy to have a guy who has a career .241 batting average be the Face of the MLB (whatever that actually means).

Congratulations David Wright and all of the fans who voted for you... but watch your backs for the Revenge of the Nerds:

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Reddickulous Wall Climbin'

Wow.  What a way to kick things off in 2014 for the Oakland Athletics.  I'm sure I'll flip back to this highlight video about as often as I take out and admire his 2013 Topps card:

Here we go Oakland... here we go!

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Do Yourself a Favor... and Walk the Plank.

There's a new blog on the block and its name is Bob Walk the Plank.  I know that a lot of you guys are into baseball cards... and that's exactly what Matt covers on his blog.  In a few days he'll be celebrating his one month anniversary and I'm really enjoying all of his Pittsburgh Pirates posts.

Like many of us, he started a blog in hopes of interacting with collectors as well as finding trade partners.  If you're looking for baseball and football autographs or memorabilia cards, then I encourage you to check out his trade bait.  Even if you're not interested in trading, I highly recommend you heading over there to check out his blog.

Two weeks ago, he told me he wanted to send me a "goodie bag", so we exchanged addresses and "wow" did he deliver.  See for yourself:

Usually I'd save the best for last.  But I was so stoked to receive this Yoenis Cespedes autograph, I wanted it to be the image everyone saw first.  The Oakland A's aren't really known for their superstars.  But if I had to pick a guy on their roster with the potential to be one, it would be him.

In addition to the autograph, Matt also threw in these Yoenis cards:

I absolutely love the 71T and Tall Boys minis.  Next up, the boys on 'roids... The Bash Brothers:

And here's another one of those awesome 2013 Topps Archives Mini Tall Boys inserts.  I present to you The Bash Brothers' teammate and the 1989 World Series MVP:

And wrapping up the awesome Oakland A's "goodie bag", here are pair of inserts of another World Series MVP... Mr. October, himself:

Oh wait... I almost forgot.  He also sent me my first Hisashi Iwakuma relic card for my Japanese PC:

Thanks Matt!  That's one of the most generous "goodie bags" I've ever received.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Fill My Eyes With That Triple Vision!

In the late 70's, Foreigner released their second album Double Vision:

A decade later, Upper Deck arrived on the cardboard scene and introduced Triple Vision.  At the time, I had never seen multiple exposure photos used on trading cards.  And I absolutely fell in love with them.

Over the years, these cards were pushed further and further into the dark corners of my head and eventually forgotten.  Thankfully a few of you have written about them on your blogs, which has motivated me to start collecting these cool cards again.  As of right now, I have four cards.

All of them were pulled from those grab bags I picked up two weekends ago:

1989 Upper Deck #145

1991 Upper Deck #175

1992 Upper Deck #424

1993 Upper Deck #308

I know that Upper Deck produced a bunch of these cards in a variety of products and sports.  So far, I targeted these:

1989 Upper Deck #755 Jim Abbott

1990 Upper Deck #527 Bert Blylevin

1990 Upper Deck #555 Wade Boggs

1991 Upper Deck #444 Rickey Henderson

1991 Upper Deck #777 Joe Slusarski

1992 Upper Deck #333 Jose Canseco

1992 Upper Deck #SP3 Deion Sanders

1993 Upper Deck #222 Gary Sheffield
1993 Upper Deck #645 Phil Hiatt
1994 Topps #300 Ryne Sandberg
1995 Upper Deck #210 Don Mattingly (Fielding)

1996 Collector's Choice #180 Hideo Nomo

1996 Upper Deck #154 Don Mattingly (Hitting)
1996 Upper Deck #350 Bip Roberts
1997 Upper Deck #352 Kirt Manwaring
1998 Upper Deck #196 Tony Womack
2010 Upper Deck "Season Biography" #70 Randy Johnson

1991 Upper Deck #54 Joe Montana
1991/92 Upper Deck #464 Brett Hull

1992/93 Upper Deck #28 Jaromir Jagr

Most of these have been blogged about in the past.  If you're interested in reading more about these cool cards, I encourage you to check out these posts:

http://baseballdimebox.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-gems-of-junk-wax-pt-72-1993-upper.html

http://playattheplatedude.blogspot.com/2010/06/double-vision-night-card-for-you-know.html

http://startingnine.blogspot.com/2012/09/laborious.html

http://hobbycardseurope.blogspot.com/2014/01/slow-motion.html

And if you guys know of any additional cards that need to be added to my list, please comment below.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #55: Vintage Wax

There are things in our world that simply defy logic.  The Capitol Flea Market on Thursdays is one of those things.  I just don't understand how they can attract so many vendors and customers during the middle of the week.

Aren't people suppose to be at work?

This past Thursday I went and spent ten minutes looking for parking and ended up at the furthest end of the parking lot.  Inside... the place was packed.  There were more people walking around than your typical Saturday and just about on par with Sundays.  Best of all... there were only a handful of empty spots, so the reduced price of admission gave you more bang for your buck.

And since there were more vendors, that meant there were more opportunities to find hidden treasures.  Right?  Wrong.

There were a few guys with sports memorabilia, but nothing spectacular.  In fact, I only made one purchase.

When:  Thursday, February 20th

Where:  Capitol Flea Market

What:  Two Packs of Baseball Cards

How Much?: $1

Purchase #1:  1983 Fleer Wax Packs $1

A guy had a box with a bunch of wax packs from the 80's and 90's.  Buried under mounds of 1988 Topps and 1991 Fleer were a pair of 1983 Fleer packs.  I asked him how much he wanted for the packs and he said a dollar each.  Considering the fact that any of the key rookie cards in this set can be purchased these days for a few bucks, I set them back down in the box.

As I began to walk away, he asked me... how much you want to pay?

I offered him a dollar for the pair and he accepted.  Each pack contains 15 baseball cards and one team sticker.

Here's a look at what I pulled:

Pack #1

Two Bobs, two Jeffs, two Mikes, two Johns, and one hall of famer.

Pack #2

Two Braves, two Cubs, two Jays, and the All-Time Hit King.

Outside of adding the Eddie Murray and Pete Rose to my binders, there wasn't anything too special in either of the packs.  However the experience of busting thirty year old wax was well worth the money.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Blog Trade #39: The Diamond King

When it comes to trading with fellow bloggers, I must confess... I'm super lazy.

A.  I never update my tradebait, even though I probably have close to 200 autographs and memorabilia cards that are sitting in a box that I need to add to my lists.

B.  I rarely seek out trades.  It's safe to say that 90% of my trades were initiated by the other person.

But hopefully my most recent blogger trade is a sign that things are about to change for me.

Last week, I read The Diamond King's post that he updated his trade bait, so I checked it out.  That's when I saw this Steve Garvey memorabilia card:

2003 Sweet Spot Classics Game Jersey #SG

I left a comment on his post and he responded with an email.  Within a few days we hammered out a trade involving some Mark McGwire inserts I had laying around.  I figured it was a pretty straight up trade, until I opened the package and saw these cards:

Three new memorabilia cards for my Seattle Seahawks PC, including a very cool Triple Threads card.  Looks like I fell a little short on my end of the deal.

Thanks for the trade Kevin.  I'll definitely get a few more McGwires out to you in the near future to even things up between us.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!