Trade With Night Owl

I have today off, so I'm spending the day sorting cards and trying to catch up on trade posts. This is my first trade with Greg from Night Owl Cards, and it only cost me some Dodgers and '75 Topps minis.

Twenty-two from 1989 Upper Deck. I never bought any of these in 1989 becuase there was no way I was going to pay .99 cents (or whatever they cost at the time) for a pack of these baseball cards.

And I kept my word. I pay $4 a pack instead.

2012 Topps Norichika Aoki...and one off of my "Discourgaing Dozen".

Eleven from 2010 Topps. I've bought a lot of this, but you would think it was a five thousand card set with the number of times I've shown cards that I needed.

Four from 1985 Topps. I wasn't collecting at this time, and it's nice to finally be close to completing this set.

Two from 1975 Topps. This set was also released when I wasn't collecting, althought in this case, I'm nowhere near close to finishing it.

One from 1994 Collector's Choice...

...eight from 2007 Upper Deck round out the trade package.

Thank you Greg!

Trade With Baseball Cards Come To Life!

I haven't been posting very much lately because due to the holiday season I've been getting more hours at my night job. Since my night job is in retail, we have extended hours...and I have very little time to blog. My workday starts at about quarter of nine in the morning and ends at 12:30 am (the next day). Ouch.

But it's only for a few weeks, which is good because that's about as much as my getting up there in age body can take.

So welcome to the largest trade post that I've featured on this blog. Bo from Baseball Cards Come To Life and I traded a gargantuan amount of cards. He specifically hit my wants lists, and I did a combo of his want lists, minor league cards and Yankees. His post about our trade is here. You'll note it was about a month ago. That's how far behind I am in giving props to generous bloggers.

Here's my end of the trade:

Five cards from 1985 Donruss.

Eighty-eight from 1985 Topps. This brought me all the way down to only needing thirteen cards, including the McGwire rookie.

Thirteen from 1986 Donruss.

Five from 1988 Score. I really like this set and now I only need nine cards to finish it.

Twelve from 1988 Topps Traded. This is a set that I've gotten so many from repacks that I'm actually twelve cards away from finishing it. Not bad.

Eight from 1989 Donruss. This brings me to only needing 1 card to go! It is card #154 Nolan Ryan. If you have it, please let me know and we can work out a trade.

 

Ten from 1989 Score. I only need a handful from that set now.

Seven from 1990 Donruss.

 

 

Three from 1991 Line Drive AAA.

 

 

One lonely 1991 Fleer Ultra card.

 

 

Here's where the majority of the cards came from. 1992 Donruss. Two-hundred-and-thirty cards removed from my want list!

Twenty-one from 1992 Leaf.

Fifty-two from 1993 Donruss.

Three from 1992 - '93 Fleer Excel.

One-hundred-and-one from 1993 Leaf!

Twenty-nine from 1994 Collector's Choice.

Nine from 1994 Fleer Ultra.

One card from 1995 Pinnacle.

Five from 1995 Topps.

Twenty-six from 1996 Collector's Choice.

One from 2004 Fleer Tradition.

Seventy-four from 1989 Upper Deck.

One from 1996 Collector's Choice...

...and four from 2007 Upper Deck.

Whew! That's quite the trade package!

Thanks for the trade Bo, and looking forward to the next one!

Cards From The Binder (Chapter 8)

Highly anticipated, never duplicated.

Cards from the binder.

I must have gotten this Phil Esposito card at the NHL All-Star Weekend, which was held in Boston during the 1995-96 season. It may have come in the packs that were handed out, but I can't really remember.

I briefly tried to find out what the other four cards were, but alas, I was thwarted.

This was from the Pinnacle Fantasy set that was given out during the All Star weekend I mentioned previously. I remember they were handing out three card packs for free, and I kept going back in line until I completed the whole set. It was pretty cool, because people were trading as well.

This was the hardest card to get.

Travis Roy was a Boston University hockey player who just three months earlier suffered an injury so severe, it rendered him a quadriplegic.

Eleven seconds into his very first shift for BU, he slid head first into the boards and cracked his fourth and fifth vertebrae.

COMC lists it on Amazon for $18.65.

William Floyd was the first rookie to score three touchdowns in a playoff game, so he was a perfect candidate for this Skybox card, which I think I got in a Tuff Stuff or some other type of sportscard magazine.

He finished his career in 2000 while playing for the Carolina Panthers.

This Coca-Cola Christy Mathewson card I'm positive I got in a Tuff Stuff magazine.

This was a promo card that was a preview of the 1994 Coca Cola Series 1 Collectors Cards. With a quick search of Ebay, I was able to find the promo card listed for $1, and the one hundred card Series 1 set for $14.99.

199 Down, 1 To Go!

A few posts ago, I mentioned I was three cards away from completing 2013 Topps Archives. (I don't consider SP's as part of the set, so I'm only concerned with cards 1 - 200.)

Chris from Nachos Grande sent me two of the cards I needed.

Now I'm one card away! I've already had another blogger offer the last card to me, but until I have it in my hands, it's not complete yet. It would be nice to finish the 2013 Archives set in 2013.

Thanks Chris! I'll find something to send you in return as a thank you for your generosity.

The 5 Most Influential Cards Of All Time (To Me) Number 1 - ?????

A few days ago, I posted a contest with a hanging box of 2013 Topps Update as the prize. All you had to do was guess the card that was the most influential card of my collecting career.

The five cards that are on this countdown are the ones that have done the most to influence my life and my collection. I could have just as easily used the word "important" as well.

The previous four were:

5.) 1977 Topps Pete Broberg
4.) 1978 Topps Lyman Bostock
3.) 1978 Topps Len Randle
2.) 1979 Topps Thad Bosley

To enter, you had to guess the year, brand, player and why it was number one on my list. So that it wasn't completely impossible I gave the following clues:

Year - It's from one of my first four years of collecting (1977, 1978, 1979 or 1980)
Brand - I'll give you this one. It's Topps.
Player's Name - He is from one the most recent expansion teams at the time (Blue Jays or Mariners)
Why It's Influential - This is going to be the hardest. If you look at the previous four, most of them are "firsts". This is actually a "last" but a "first" as well.

Even after all the clues, I still thought it might be pretty hard to guess the answer. So my plan was that if no one was close I was either going to give more clues or put everybody's name in the randomizer for a winner.

But I was pretty amazed when one of the guesses was almost dead on.

Many of you picked the right team, but not the right player.

So here is the card that holds the top spot!









1980.....














Topps.....

Rico Carty.

So why is Rico Carty at number 1?

After collecting in 1977, '78 and '79, and not finishing any of those sets (and I still haven't), I was determined. I bought a lot of 1980 Topps. I remember the first pack I bought that year. I bought it at a convenience store called Gerry's Variety in my hometown (it's still there...both the store and my hometown), and I opened it up at the bowling alley. (Yes I used to bowl...it was candlepins...and I was pretty damn good).

But anyways, that first pack had this card in it:

 

I knew it was going to be a good year.

 

So all summer, armed with money that I earned from a paper route I was doing each week, I bought as much 1980 Topps as I could afford.  I didn't have anybody to trade with that year (everybody that I knew that collected cards only did hockey), so I had to keep buying until finally I was down to one card.

 

 

This one.

 

No relic, autograph, SP, or insert has ever matched the excitement I felt when I finally pulled this card out of a pack. Not only was I excited about finishing the set, but since it was 1980, I was also done was baseball cards for the year. There weren't any card shops in my area , so I couldn't get any cards from previous years, and I don't think I realized baseball card magazines existed yet, so there was no bugging Mom and Dad to order some cards for me.

 

So congrats to Jim from GCRL, who correctly identified the year, brand and why it was number 1 on my list. A hanging box of 2013 Topps Update will be headed your way! 

 

 

Contest Reminder

If you haven't entered my contest yet (and judging by the amount of entries you haven't), I'm giving away a hanging box of 2013 Topps Update.

Click here to find out how to enter.

Contest ends Thursday night at 11:59 EST. Good luck!

The 5 Most Influential Cards Of All Time (To Me) Number 2 - 1979 Topps Thad Bosley

There's a very simple story behind this card. It is the card I got from my very first trade.

You always remember your first.

It was the summer of 1979, and I was on the porch of my parent's house with another kid from my neighborhood. I had found out recently that he had some cards and he brought them over for me to look at. I don't remember why I only traded for one card, it probably was that I didn't have very many at that point to trade.

I do remember that he wanted the 1978 Butch Hobson that I had a duplicate of. So we traded.

Butch Hobson for Thad Bosley.

Why Thad Bosley?

It looked so cool to my ten year old eyes.



So who's up for a contest?

If anybody is interested in a hanging box of 2013 Topps Update, all you have to do is guess what card has been the most influential card in my life. These aren't my favorite cards, but the cards that bring back the most memories and keep me coming back to this crazy hobby.

So let's recap the previous four and why they are so important to me:

5.) 1977 Topps Pete Broberg - First experience with airbrusing.
4.) 1978 Topps Lyman Bostock - First deceased active player I had a card of.
3.) 1978 Topps Len Randle - Thought he was missing his right hand.
2.) 1979 Topps Thad Bosley - First experience with trading.

In order to enter the contest, you have to be subscribed to my blog.

To enter please comment on this post with the year, brand, player's name and why you think it is so influential to me.

I'm also going to give you a clue about each part of the answer.

Year - It's from one of my first four years of collecting (1977, 1978, 1979 or 1980)
Brand - I'll give you this one. It's Topps.
Player's Name - He is from one the most recent expansion teams at the time (Blue Jays or Mariners)
Why It's Influential - This is going to be the hardest. If you look at the previous four, most of them are "firsts". This is actually a "last" but a "first" as well.

I'm going to run this for a few days, so whoever gets the closest to the actual card will win. If there is a tie, I'll defer to random.org to choose a winner.

Good luck, but don't spend too much time on this. It's only Topps Update, but it is free cards if you win.