Trade Report: The Cardboard Don

The Cardboard Don and I swung a sweet trade recently.  In addition to sending one of the pieces of my trif-ECK-ta, I also received these Fave Five hits.

FIVE:  Shiny

FOUR:  Signed Turkey

THREE: Jeffrey

TWO:  25/25

ONE:  A&G Piece of History Slices

Thanks for a great trade Wicked!

Double Hope Diamond

As skiing season winds down (check local listings), I thought I'd show off my second Hochevar 2011 Hope Diamond parallel that I recently added to the collection.

 I grabbed my first version back in October, so if I keep up this pace, I could theoretically have all 60 of these cards by 2072.

Trif-ECK-ta

Thursday was a good day.  It brought an end to the third quarter of my school year.  It brought me to within one week of the return of Community.  And it brought all three pieces of a Dennis Eckersley trifecta into my life.  Two of the pieces were eBay purchases and one was included in the trade package* I received from the Wicked One The Cardboard Don. 

*The trade package was jam packed with Royals and Rockies goodness.  I'll probably be able to get a bakers dozen posts out of that one trade alone, which I'm sure my wife will love.  :)

In one fell swoop, I knocked off my number one collecting goal for 2012.  I guess I can now focus one a few of the goals that I've yet to address this year (I'm looking at you Goal #2 -- Denver Bronco Super Bowl Rookie Cards).

Without further ado, I present my first Hall of Famer Trifecta.

THE RELIC

 Nothing fancy about the piece of fabric, but I love the photograph that UD choose.  Classic.

THE ROOKIE

Sure he's sans-mustache, but the awkward face and pose and the fantastic jersey font and wind-breaker under-shirt make this card a definite icon.  It was never important to me to have the rookie be graded, but when I saw this one bundled with two other graded 1970s-era cards of star players and it was in my price range, I wasn't going to let it slip through my fingers.

And, the piece de resistance.

THE AUTOGRAPH

On-card.  Great photo.  Dual autographed.  On-card.  By two Cy Young Winners.  Both mustachioed.  Serial numbered.  Epic and stylish signatures.  ON CARD!!!!  Fifteen bucks shipped.  

This card is 100% in my top three favorite autograph cards that I own. 

Thus completes my trif-ECK-ta.  I love these cards and I am excited to continue to build up my Eckersley collection.  I think I may need to pick up one of those 1000-card lots that I occasionally see listed.  Or maybe someone wants to trade a huge pile of them to me?

Neat Feats

Yeah, I'd call being the all-time steals AND assists leader a "neat feat".

Also, I hate everything about the design of this card, from the weird font on the front, to the odd colors, to the creepy double photo on the front, to the fact that John's head covers up a few letters on the back of the card.  Good concept, poor delivery. 

Put another way, this is the first card that I've posted that I would categorize with the Adam Carolla phrase, "good lenses, bad frames". 

Trade Bait: Slabbed '73s

I stumbled into a lot of three 1970s-era graded cards.  I'm keeping one of them for my first HOFer trifecta.  I would like to trade the other two to someone(s) who will cherish them more than I will.

They're not pristine in any way, as both were graded a "4" by PSA.  But they are slabbed and they are recognizable names.

Hit me up with an offer or two.  (cough, cough, Manupatches, cough).

A Little Comic Relief

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

March roars in like a lion
So fierce,
The wind so cold,
It seems to pierce.

The month rolls on
And Spring draws near,
And March goes out
Like a lamb so dear.

~ by Lorie Hill

Sure, I'm over a week late with this poem, but I stumbled into this scan of one of my favorite tobacco cards today and thought I'd throw a little culture onto this here weblog.

Oh, and to make all the non-teachers reading this (all three of you) a little jealous, my ten-day Spring Break begins in a week.

2012 Topps Hochevar Rainbow: Black Jack

I'm finally ready to show off my the most ambitious portion of my 2012 Topps Hochevar rainbow, the black parallel.

As most of you know, the black parallels are limited to a 61-card run.  As more and more of them started showing up on eBay, I decided to buy all of them that I could (which ended up being all that were listed).

Which means that I own nine of the sixty-one black parallels (14% for you stat junkies).

A sweet looking page of cards, if I do say so myself.

Proof Positive

I grabbed a couple of 2008 Stadium Club Luke Hochevar rookie printer's proof cards for my collection.

Also, both of the bottom cards are serial numbered editions of the cards.

These cards look great with the base versions of the cards, which I already had in my library card cabinet.

Colorado Collection: Tippy Martinez

The latest addition to the Colorado Collection was inspired after driving past Tippy Martinez Park in La Junta, Colorado, a few weekends ago.  My wife asked me what made Tippy Martinez so important to get a park named after him.  Apparently, even though she'd lived in the Arkansas Valley for 25+ years, she was unaware that he was a successful major leaguer.

So I bought this card to add to my collection.

Sorry for the lousy scans, but my scanner doesn't do well with the case in which Topps encased the card.

While doing some research on Tippy's career, I came across this tid-bit: Tippy once picked off three base runners in one inning.

Goin' Fishing

I recently bought a 22-card lot of T51 Murads for $12 and thirteen of the cards are new additions to my collection.  Here are those cards, one at a time, so that I can milk as many posts out of this purchase as possible.

Might as well keep the fishing theme going with this Loyola College Murad T51 card.

The fisherman's pipe is a great touch.

With 41/150 cards, the set is now 27.3% complete.

Cult Following

I have asked for three autographs in person as an adult.

The first was when I asked two Denver Bronco cheerleaders to sign my ticket on game day on September 10, 2001 (and I only did that because my cousin broke the ice by asking them to sign his ticket first).  While I know I kept the ticket all these years, at this moment I have no idea where it is being stored.

My second in-person autograph came when I asked Luke Hochevar to sign a baseball for me before a Royals game.  I keep that baseball proudly displayed on my library card file.

The third in-person autograph was one that I had forgotten that I had until I stumbled into it just the other day.  I got it at the Omaha Funny Bone from one of my favorite comics, Auggie Smith.

The funny thing is that when I tried to listen to the CD in the car on the way home from the show, it wouldn't play.

If you've never heard Auggie's material, here are a couple of short clips from his appearances on the Bob and Tom Show.







While I can't enjoy the comedic material on the CD, finding this autograph was a fun reminder of a great night of comedy in Omaha.

Cotner U.

I recently bought a 22-card lot of T51 Murads for $12 and thirteen of the cards are new additions to my collection.  Here are those cards, one at a time, so that I can milk as many posts out of this purchase as possible.

They say you learn something new every day.  Today, I learned that my latest Murad T51 card's college was located in Lincoln, NE, before closing its doors in 1933.

Which means that the above fisherman was probably casting his line in the Platte River.

This card brings the set to 40/150 (26.7%) completion.

Fifty Pieces of Gold and I've Got One

Sure, this isn't the Topps Gold card that is all the rage these days.  In fact, it's from way back in 2007 and it was produced by Bowman Chrome.

But it is numbered to fifty.  And it is mine.

Ignore the "20-" in the upper left hand corner of the card.  It's written on the penny sleeve and I didn't notice it while I was scanning the card.

My 2007 Bowman Chrome collection is coming along quite well thanks to this addition.

A Black Tie Affair

The 2012 Hochevar Rainbow interlude continues as I continue to wait for a few key pieces to arrive.  In the mean while, here is a nice little black beauty I picked up off the bay.  After discovering a 2009 Heritage black parallel for Dexter Fowler, it got me wondering if I had any such cards for Hoch. 

And I didn't!  I know, I was surprised too!

So I grabbed this fella BIN for a 10-spot shipped (which was essentially what I paid for the Fowler).  It's numbered 42/59 and, as with all Heritage Hochevar cards, has my favorite town in the Union listed on the back.

Sure, it's horribly miscut (is a pattern starting to emerge?), but it was the only one available, and a gap in the collection has been filled.  So I'm pleased.

It looks nice with the other three versions of the card that I already had.

Look Ma, No Logo!

I'm going to take a quick intermission on my 2012 Topps Hochevar rainbow while I wait for a handful of cards to show up in the mailbox.  In the meantime, this card should quench the Hochevar thirst to which you've become addicted accustomed.

I'm 99.99% certain that this is my first Hochevar card with no logos.  It comes to me from the 2011 Panini Playoff Contenders release (which is a moniker that I definitely hope the Royals fall under this season).

As with most of the Panini cards in my collection, I don't love it and I don't hate it, I just have it.  The uniform appears to have been pulled directly off a Ma&Pa Sporting Goods store rack.  Very odd.  But, as with any good player collector, I can't not buy this card.

*I'm not sure I can legally file this post under the "Royals" tab on my sidebar.  I'd best not risk it.

2012 Topps Hochevar Rainbow: Foiled Again

When I said I enjoy collecting a relative "no-name" player because I don't have the budget to chase a super-star, Topps must have thought I wanted more "nameless" player cards.  While I appreciate their trying to meet my particular collection needs, there is a difference between "no-name" and "nameless".

What parallel rainbow can be considered complete without a printing-error card?  Not this one.  Which is why I took a chance and grabbed this foil-less card this week.

Vanderbiltae Universitatis

I recently bought a 22-card lot of T51 Murads for $12 and thirteen of the cards are new additions to my collection.  Here are those cards, one at a time, so that I can milk as many posts out of this purchase as possible.

Sprinting toward spring at Vandy U.

Now that we've passed the 25% complete point, this card brings the set to 39/150 (26%) completion.

2012 Topps Hochevar Rainbow: Purple Pride

I was super pumped to see that Toys 'R Us had a purple parallel of the 2012 Topps Series 1 as my high school's colors are Purple and Gold.

OWU Squared

I recently bought a 22-card lot of T51 Murads for $12 and thirteen of the cards are new additions to my collection.  Here are those cards, one at a time, so that I can milk as many posts out of this purchase as possible.

The 22-card lot did contain a few doubles, but when they are as fantastic as these two are, I'm not going to complain.

Ohio Wesleyan University Track&Field competator

The set sits at 40/150 (26.6%) complete thanks to this addition.