Domo Arigato: schwood @ CCW

Last week I was contacted by a trader on CCW about a few Tony Gwynn cards. He mentioned that he had a Sweet Spot autograph, which is one of my favorite products, so of course I was interested.

The transaction went really smoothly and in the end, I told him I'd throw in a few surprises because I didn't feel my cards added up to the the two cards he was sending, which were these:

2003 Sweet Spot Classic Autograph

2001 Fleer Game Time "Uniformity" GU Uniform

It's the third Sweet Spot autograph of Gwynn that I've added to my Gwynn PC and it's in pristine condition. I'm glad Gwynn signed it with a ball point pen with ink that hasn't faded.

He also mentioned that he might throw in a few extras himself. I figured maybe a couple of base cards or lower-end inserts/parallels. Well... he gave me a nice insert all right. Check out this sweet card:

2004 Leaf Exhibits 1939-46 Very Best Wishes Left #48 (#'d 45/46)

I've never seen this insert before, but I love the simple retro design and the black & white photo.

What I didn't expect is that he'd throw in the following two memorabilia cards:

2005 Timeless Treasures "Game Day Materials" #7 (#'d 056/100)

2005 Absolute Memorabilia "Heroes Swatch Double" #67 (#'d 086/150)

I'm a huge fan of manufacturers that actually state on their cards that "this piece of jersey was cut from an authentic jersey personally worn by Tony Gwynn in an official Major League Baseball game". Both of these cards feature COA's like the one stated above. So kudos to Donruss & Playoff.

Anyways... back to this great trader. His CCW username is schwood and he's one of the most generous collector's I've had the pleasure to deal with. Oh... I forgot to mention that he collects Tony Gwynn himself and he dug into his own PC to help build mine. I'm honestly still in awe of his generosity.

In addition to Gwynn, he also collects Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, and Bruins cards (base, insert, GU, and autos). So... if you're a member of CCW and you have any of these items on his wantlist laying around... what are you waiting for? Go PM him and work out a trade. I promise you won't have any regrets.

Thanks schwood! You're a class act and I definitely owe you one. I have one Celtics card on the way that already has your name on it. I look forward to making some more trades with you in the future.

Have a great day everyone... Sayonara!

Setoguchi strikes again!

Fifteen days ago, I wrote about the Sharks amazing game 3 comeback against the Los Angeles Kings. It was so amazing that the NHL has used it in their History Will Be Made ads this postseason:

And the hero of that game 3 victory was none other than my favorite player... on my favorite team... Devin Setoguchi.

Well tonight he struck again. In an amazing series in which every game could have gone either way... Setoguchi scored 9 minutes into overtime to record his first career NHL playoff hat trick, which has the Red Wings on the brink of elimination.

This series is turning out to be very similar to last year's series between these two teams... both times the Sharks grabbed a three to nothing lead... and both times game three was won in overtime.

Hopefully history doesn't repeat itself, because last year the Red Wings took game four by a score of 7 to 1. I guess we'll have to wait until Friday night to find out.

Until then... it's going to be hard to wipe this silly, little grin off of my face.

Domo arigato Devin Setoguchi! You've given your number one fan an opportunity to breathe a little sigh of relief. This season had been nothing short of interesting... and this post season has been no different. I mean... 9 games so far... and 5 of them have gone into overtime? I think I'm starting to get an ulcer. Thankfully, you guys have won all 5 of those games. So let's keep the puck moving eliminate the damn Red Wings! Go Sharks!

Good night everyone... and sayonara!

I love the 80's #6: Jonathan Ke Quan, a.k.a. Data on The Goonies

One of my favorite movies from the 80's is Goonies and honestly... the best thing about that classic film is Jonathan Ke Quan, a.k.a. Data. Okay... so maybe Chunk's "truffle shuffle" is the best thing about the movie... but Data is definitely a close second.

Today some students were hanging out after school and they asked me what were my favorite movies when I was younger. Well... of course Star Wars and several John Hughes films popped up immediately. Then students started shouting out movies their parents liked to see if I had seen them and The Goonies entered the conversation.

I told them that I was their age when I saw it... right around middle school... and was a huge fan of Data. I mean... what's not to like? The kid was hilarious with the heavy accent and all of those gadgets. MacGyver had nothing on Data.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about... here's one of my favorite clips from the movie:

Then... I remembered that I picked this bad boy up a while back:

Sorry... it's not Data. But it is Short Round from Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, which was his first major film.

I'm not finished hunting down Data. One of these days... I'll get my hands on this cool action figure:

I've seen these on eBay for a little over $20... but I'm not ready to dig that deep into my wallet. If I'm lucky... maybe you'll see this in one of my flea market finds.

Until then...

Who's your favorite Goonie?

Happy Tuesday everyone... time to eat and watch The Goonies. Sayonara!

Domo Arigato: key2win @ Card Collectors World

If you're on Card Collectors World, then you probably know key2win. I've know him for awhile now, since he's a fellow Lakers fan and a reliable trade. He's also one of the general managers over there and it seems like he's always giving away free stuff over there.

Last week he was running a hockey contest sponsored by Panini. There were five winners in all and I was lucky enough to be one of them. Today the following items arrived in the mail:

My first prize was a Rick Nash 3D die-cut magnet. I've never seen any of these before, but I would definitely be interested in any Sharks players they produced. According to the packaging, they were produced by a company called WinCraft Sports in 2005.

The second item he sent me was a window decal of Penguin's goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. This item was also produced by WinCraft Sports. Once again... if they have any Sharks players, I'd definitely be interested.

I'm not a huge fan of the Blue Jackets or the Penguins, so I'll pass on the winnings to other collectors who will put them to better use.

My buddy G_Moses over at the blog, The Retro-Set Addict is a Penguins fan... so the decal will be added to the slowly growing stack of cards I have been saving for him.

The Rick Nash magnet will be headed to the next person who trades for one of my Blue Jackets cards.

Anyways... if you're like me and enjoy winning free stuff... please head over to Card Collectors World. They're always giving away stuff and have some amazing traders on there too.

Thanks key2win... I appreciate the prizes and promise I'll find them a good home.

Happy Monday everyone... Sayonara!

Blog Trade #13: The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame

Spastikmooss has been inquiring about this Duce Staley autograph that's been in my collection since 1999, when I pulled it:

We've gone back and forth for nearly a year. Last week, we finally were able to hammer out a trade.

Up first is my first and probably last Phil Nevin "memorabilia card" from 2001 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects.

This is a nice addition to my Padres PC, but I'll admit the thing that makes this card stand out is the striped swatch from his Team USA jersey. Phil had some pretty strong seasons with the Padres in the early 2000's and even made the all-star team once.

Spastikmooss also threw in this nice 2004 SPx SuperScripts Young Stars autograph of Rich Harden:

It's my fourth autograph of Mr. Harden and probably my last. Harden often got lost in the shuffle during the Zito, Mulder, and Hudson years. But he was always solid as an Athletic, until injuries caught up to him. This card is really nice and is my favorite Harden autograph in the collection.

But the key card to the trade was definitely this 2003 Finest Moments "Refractor Auto" of hall of fame pitcher Gaylord Perry.

It's my first Perry autograph and it's amazing. He's sporting those awesome brown and yellow jerseys from the late seventies, plus it's a refractor and features an on-card autograph. Honestly... he had me at this card.

But of course... Spastikmooss didn't stop there. He threw in a bunch of freebies:

That 1993 Hostess card of Rickey is amazing... and who doesn't like the dufex technology of this 1995 Pinnacle "Museum Collection" Ruben Sierra card. He also threw in a bunch of oddballs, like this Ichiro Suzuki sticker. Now, I'm debating on whereI should stick this bad boy.

Thanks Spastikmooss for the great trade. I'm hoping that we'll be able to pull of some more trades in the future... although you finally have picked up the once card you wanted off of me.

If you're not familiar with Spastikmooss, I encourage you to head over to his blog: The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame.

He has a few cool PC's that are unique and interesting. It's well worth the time to check it out. If you're anything like me, you'll bust up laughing at some of the players he collects.

Have a great day everyone... Sayonara!