Trade With Lifetime Topps Project

I recently completed another trade with chuckneo over at the Lifetime Topps Project.  His blog is one of my favorites, and he has quite the ambitious project - collecting every Topps set since 1980.  My recent digging through my old cards led me to a handful he was looking for, so I was glad to do my part to bring him a tiny bit closer to his goal!

He was kind enough to send me a nice envelope of cards in return, including some Platinum Diamonds:

A few Topps inserts on my want list:

And best of all, a pair of Griffeys!:

That Golden Moments card is actually a mini - I didn't even know they made minis of those cards that year!  And I really like that Goudey style card from last year's Goodwin set.  Something about that painting-esque picture and the card design really clicks for me.

Thanks again for the trade chuckneo!

Definitely Not Junk From The Junior Junkie

I recently reached out to The Junior Junkie to initiate what I thought would be a simple Griffey swap.  I don't have many Griffey doubles, and his collection is just slightly larger than mine, but I still managed to find two Griffey dupes in my binder that he didn't have.

Pictured, left to right: my Griffey collection, Junior Junkie's collection

What I didn't expect is that he would send me an entire STACK in return!!  Check out all this awesomeness:

Lots of great stuff here.  My favorites:

-That photo on the 1997 Topps base card is SWEET.  Classic Griffey pose, and love the bat dropping out of the frame.  I'll have to pick up another copy of that one for my "great photos" binder.
-Gotta love a matching set of base card and silver signature parallel for Collector's Choice
-The 1994 Fleer Ultra Award Winners insert is one I remember wishing I could nab back in the day, I loved that design, so very happy to finally add that one to the list
-The Upper Deck Fun Pack card actually has a heat-activated background - hold your thumb on it and you can see a cartoon of Griffey about to get the ol' pie in the face from a teammate!
-That very first Topps card in the upper left is from 2012 and is my favorite of the bunch in terms of design (not sure what the card number prefix "MBC" is just yet).  It's almost like a cross between a regular card and a Chrome refractor.  I loves me some shiny!
-Vintage-style minis.  'Nuff said.
-And finally, the one with Buhner may not technically be a Griffey, but in my book a shot of these slugging teammates definitely counts!

As a bonus, this trade pushes my Griffey collection past the 700 mark~!

Thanks for the great trade Junior Junkie!

Catching Up On Some Old, Old Trades

Today I've got a couple of looooooooooooooong overdue thank yous for a couple of my fellow bloggers.

First up, a package from Jeff at Cardboard Catastrophes.  For reasons that even he didn't understand, he picked up this oddball Griffey at a card show:

I loves me a good oddball card, so when he offered it to me I was happy to give it a good home.

He also sent along a few 2011 Topps Heritage to check off my list:

Thanks Jeff!  I'm sure I'll find something good to send you back.

The second round of thanks goes to Kyle at Juuust A Bit Outside.  A while back I sent him a stack of 2011 Topps Stickers for his son's collection, and he ended up sending me back a nice stack of Brewers for my team collection:

Thanks Kyle!

Trade with Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle

The moment I hinted that I had pulled a Dodger hit in my box of Series 1 Topps, Greg from Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle was ready to do a deal.  He happily took my Clayton Kershaw auto, and in return he sent me a couple sweet hits for my collection.

First, a nice bat card of The Kid:

Greg had also offered me a card of a former Milwaukee Admiral that is now skating for their parent club, the Nashville Predators.  I told him that I don't really collect hockey much, but I would take a card of former Admirals-turned-Predators goalie Pekka Rinne if he had one, not that I actually expected he would.  To my surprise he quickly replied back that he did indeed have a Pekka auto!:

Thanks for a great trade Greg!

One more thing - as a teaser for my next post, I reached a big milestone in my collection this week.  Tune in next time to find out what it is!

Trade with Justin's World

I recently worked out a trade with Justin of Justin's World.  He is toying with the idea of going after the whole 2011 Topps Gold set, so I sent him pretty much all of the Gold cards I pulled from packs last year.  In return he sent me a bunch of Platinum Diamonds to help me on my quest:

And also a handful of Topps Inserts I needed:

Thanks Justin!

Trade with It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

It was a busy day Saturday, I mailed out no less than FOUR trade packages!  One was headed out to Arizona for Dan of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop.  I sent him a Chris Young diamond die cut and some other assorted D-Backs, and in return he sent me a few Platinum Diamonds:

He also sent a number of 2011 Topps Inserts I needed:

Finally, he added 4 more Griffeys to my collection:

The Looney Tunes one is probably more accurately called a Jim Abbott card, but Griffey is on it so hey, that counts!

Thanks a lot Dan!

Previous Trivia Question:

 

Which two American League teams list their Spring Training home as Surprise, Arizona?

 

Answer:  The Royals and Rangers each have their Spring home in Surprise.

 

Today's Trivia Question:

 

Who holds the record for most instances of homering from both sides of the plate in the same game with 12?

Found Cards From The Lost Collector

Things have been a little slow here at the blog the last couple weeks - too much of that darn "real life" getting in the way of baseball cards - but I hope to get back in the swing of things over the next week.  For today I have a short post of a few cards I got as a surprise from AJ at The Lost Collector.  First, he sent a nice refractor-y Griffey for my collection:

And second, he was kind enough to contribute a couple more Diamonds to my set (now over 400 cards!):

Thanks a lot AJ!

Trade with Play at the Plate

This morning I finally got to do some long overdue card scanning, several posts worth in fact.  For starters, the cards I got from Brian at Play at the Plate.  I sent him an assortment of Texas Rangers a while back, and a couple weeks later I received a nice package in return - a group of Platinum Diamonds!

This lot pushes my total Platinum Diamond collection over 400!  Thanks a lot Brian!

Previous  Trivia Question:

What is the record for most home wins in a single season by one team?

 

A: The 1961 New York Yankees won 65 out of 81 home games.  The 1975 Cincinnati Reds own the National League record with 64 home wins.

 

Today's Trivia Question:

 

Through the 2011 season there have been 107 World Series - how many were won by the National League?

Trade with Juust a Bit Outside

Kyle from Juust a Bit Outside contacted me out of the blue about a possible trade a few weeks back.  I just realized today that I never finalized my post about our trade, so here it is!  He sent over a handful of cards I needed off of my want lists.

First, some assorted 2011 Topps Series 2:

Second, he included a few Heritage cards, including a Babe Ruth Special:

I'm nearly done with the non-SP base set for Heritage.  I'd still like to get all the SPs as well, but that's going to take a while longer.

Thanks Kyle!

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?



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!!

Trade with Potch Wheeler and the Cardboard Heroes

Darren at Potch Wheeler and the Cardboard Heroes was nice enough to respond to my recent call for trades to finish off some 2010 sets.  He sent me several cards from 2011 Heritage and a couple 2011 Topps inserts, but most importantly he sent me this:



That was the last one I needed for the Update Series.  Thanks Darren!

Previous Trivia Question:

Who was the first player to reach the 3,000-hit plateau?

A: Cap Anson was the first to get 3,000 hits, reaching that milestone on July 18, 1897.

Today's Trivia Question:

What Hall of Famer's real first and middle name was "Denton True"?

Big Trade With Crinkly Wrappers

A few weeks back Ted over at Crinkly Wrappers posted that he was looking for the Short Print parallels from the last couple Topps sets.  He said he was willing to trade big for them.

He wasn't kidding.

In return for my 2010 Topps Jim Palmer and Tris Speaker SPs he sent back a card bonanza!  It started with 2 of my missing cards from Topps Chrome, but went on to include a handful of 2011 Heritage...

...a few 2010 Topps Magic Football and 2010 Topps Baseball Inserts...

...a whole slew of 2011 Topps Inserts....

...some nice Brewer cards, including several of Braun and Fielder...

...5 more cards for my Platinum Diamond collection...

...and last, but certainly not least, a couple more Griffeys for my collection:

Thanks Ted!  Awesome trade!!

Previous  Trivia Question:

What player is famous for recording a hit while playing for two different teams in two different cities on the same day?

 

Answer: On August 4, 1982, Joel Youngblood hit a 2-run single as a member of the New York Mets during a day game at Wrigley Field.  He then left the game and was traded to the Montreal Expos, and he rushed over to join the team in Philadelphia.  Just hours later he entered the game as a pinch hitter and smacked another single.  Both hits came against future Hall of Fame pitchers (Ferguson Jenkins and Steve Carlton).

 

Today's Trivia Question:

 

Who was the first player to reach the 3,000-hit plateau?