Catching Up on Pack Wars Part 1 - Hits Galore~!

I've been to two Pack Wars events at my local card store in the past few months, but never got the chance to post all the goodies I pulled.  There aren't too many big names, but lots of cool cards nonetheless. 

As an aside, I must say I'm very lucky that my other half is also into card collecting, because she has luck like I've never seen when it comes to pulling the hits.  I'm lucky to get one or two when I'm cracking packs, but when she's the one choosing the packs we seem to get stuff left and right!  We seem to have developed a good system for Pack Wars - she picks the packs, and I pay.  ;)

Anyway, on to the pics!

2011 Topps Lineage Michael Morse Auto

Morse is coming off a breakout season with the Nationals.  The 1952 Topps-style box is nice.

2011 TNA Signature Impact Sting/Rob Van Dam Dual Auto

This TNA product is one of the best around for hits - they promise something like 7 hits per box, and they're not stingy with the autos!  If you're a wrestling fan, it's a lot of fun to crack packs of this set.  This was a particularly nice pull, with 2 bigger stars.  I love RVD's autograph!

2011 TNA Signature Impact Samoa Joe Auto

It's really a shame that TNA has booked Joe so horribly.  He could be such a fun guy to watch if they used him right...

2011 TNA Signature Impact Orlando Jordan Auto

Well, they can't all be good....

2011 Topps Marquee Andre Ethier Auto/Patch

For the first time ever I decided to splurge on an expensive pack.  The Marquee packs were going for $40, and this was my hit.  Not a bad pull, though not one that got me terribly excited either.  I wish the jersey swatches weren't so plain, but then I suppose the Dodger uniforms are pretty basic.

I did pull a couple other interesting cards from my Marquee pack - a Brewer base card (Grienke) and also this serial numbered Babe Ruth:

2011 Topps Heritage Minor League Blake Tekotte Auto

Tekotte was drafted in the 3rd round by the Padres in the 2008 draft.  He spent the year at AA San Antonio and had a pretty solid season, batting .285 with 19 HRs, 67 RBIs, 77 runs and 36 stolen bases.

Robert Parish Rookie Card

I got this card by winning a price challenge.  It figures - I miss so many chances at baseball cards that I would love to have, but of course I get this one since I have no interest in basketball cards.  Definitely available for trade!

2011 UD Goodwin Brittany Lincicome Auto

I was just thinking about how I didn't have enough female golfers in my collection.

2011 Topps 60 Robinson Cano Patch

The last one for today is this nice jersey patch of Cano.  I like the Topps 60 patch cards a lot more than the Peak Performance cards from last year.

There's still a lot more to come, so tune in for the next post!

Previous Trivia Question:

Who owns the record for most Gold Glove awards?

A: Greg Maddux holds the all-time Gold Glove record with 18.

Today's Trivia Question:

Staying on the topic of Gold Gloves, Rafael Palmiero won the award at first base in 1999 in a controversial selection. How many games did he play at first base that season?

Trade with Lifetime Topps Project

Why doesn't anybody tell me these things?!?

That was my reaction when I found out about the Animal Kingdom patches in this year's UD Goodwin set.  Obviously I wasn't paying much attention to that one since I wasn't planning on collecting it.  But as soon as I saw one of the cards I was hooked.  There was one particular animal on the checklist that stood out - the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog.  My fiance and I are members at the Milwaukee County Zoo, and the prairie dogs are her favorite ones to visit.

I went straight to eBay to try and find one, but came up empty.  I decided to do a Google image search just so I could see what it looked like.  In an amazing coincidence, I clicked on the first image that popped up and it took me straight to the Lifetime Topps Project blog.  Of all the possible image sources out there, I came up with one from a blog that I had already done a couple of trades with!  It turns out that Charlie had pulled the exact animal patch I wanted and posted about it back in July.  A few quick e-mails, and we had a deal!

He also had acquired a few more platinum diamonds since our last trade, which he was kind enough to throw in on this deal:

Thanks a bunch Charlie!

Previous Trivia Question:

Who did the Chicago Cubs play in the first official night game at Wrigley Field?

 

A: The first night game at Wrigley was supposed to take place on August 8, 1988 against the Phillies.  However, that game was rained out after three and a half innings, before the game could become official.  The next night the Cubs played the Mets in the first official night game, and Chicago came out on top 6-4.

 

Today's Trivia Question:

 

Who owns the record for most Gold Glove awards?



2012 Topps Baseball Preview - They Buried the Lead!!!

It's a dismal day here in Milwaukee.  The Brewers played BAR NONE their 2 worst games all frickin' season at the worst possible time, and just like that our one big chance went up in smoke....

....but we always try to find some kind of ray of sunshine here at The Common Card Man, and a rather big one appeared in the form of the 2012 Topps Baseball preview.  The website I went to had the usual stuff - a few base card images, descriptions of the parallel sets, talking about the big hits (evidently the theme for 2012 is "gold"), etc. - but hidden in the middle of all of it was this absolute gem of good news:

"...1987 Topps Minis..."

CAN. NOT. WAIT!!!  There's 50 of them in Series One, and I can only hope another 50 in the Series Two and Update sets as well!

I'll have more comments about the rest of the 2012 set in a future post.  Hey, at least one good thing happened today.  :)

Trade With The Lifetime Topps Project

Charlie at Lifetime Topps Project is a previous trade partner of mine, and we recently finished another deal.

I sent him a little of this and a little of that - some Kimballs, a couple 2011 Topps inserts, a Heritage SP, one of the Heritage Jackie Robinsons, and a few cards from Lineage.

For me, he sent over a handful of Heritage:

A nice lot of 2011 Topps Inserts:



He also included a few 2011 Topps base cards from Series 2.  I'm missing just a few for the set now.

Finally, and most importantly, he checked 7 more off my Platinum Diamond list!

Thanks Charlie!

Previous Trivia Question:

Who are the 4 members of baseball's 40/40 club? (Hint: all four 40/40 seasons occured within the last 25 years)

Answer: Jose Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998), Alfonso Soriano (2006)

Today's Trivia Question:

Who did the Chicago Cubs play in the first official night game at Wrigley Field?

Trade With Collector's Crack

It's been a crazy couple weeks, but finally I'm back here at the blog.  I need something to take my mind off the 4-run first inning the Cardinals just hung on Gallardo, so let's talk about a recent trade.  I'll probably put some live commentary on the game in here as well (Hey, the Brewers got 2 runs back! Progress~!)

I've done a few trades now with Mark over at Collector's Crack.  Once again this time I was sending him some of the Kimball minis he so loves, along with some other assorted cards, and in return he sent me a nice chunk of cards.

(6 straight hits for Pujols. Here's an idea -BRUSH HIM THE FUCK BACK!!!)

First up, a nice stack of Topps Heritage:

I'm almost done with the non-SP base set, I'm missing about 15 or so.  Mark was also kind enough to include several of the Flashback inserts and a couple New Age Performers, which was much appreciated.

(The Cardinals didn't score for one inning.  More progress~!)

Next up, a handful of last year's Score Hockey.

I've never collected a hockey set before, but this one sucked me in with the cheap price and those cool Snow Globe inserts.  Come to think of it, I still need to go back and look for those on eBay....

(Kotsay redeems himself!!!  We'll try to pretend that faceplant in the 1st inning didn't happen.)

Finally, Mark included a pair of Griffeys.

I like this one a lot.  The picture of Griffey and his name are embossed on the card, and the background is cool.  I'd love to see this card done Chrome-style.

This one is a bit of a mystery, I'm not exactly sure where it came from.  It has the "Sunoco" and "Atlantic" logos on the back, so maybe they were handed out at gas stations?

Thanks for another great trade Mark!.  And I feel better now, the Brewers are right back in this game at 4-3.  We may win this thing yet!!