Odd mustaches

So, a couple of weeks ago, Richard from Collecting Blue Jays sent me this massive box filled with want list needs and tough to find regional issues. All out of the kindness of his heart. And because he's trying to make room for his growing Joe Carter collection. I suppose the word in the blogosphere right now is 'focus'. Here's a tiny sample of the almost 600 cards that were sent my way !

This is a mustache fest !

Batting cage galore ! (how Fleer stayed in business is really a mystery, when you look at their first sets)

As someone who started by collecting basketball cards, I'm very happy to add those two gems to my collection.

The usual GQ & A&G (though that 2011 GQ design and 2008 A&G were new to me)

Hard to let go of a winning concept...

My favorite Bowman design. Which doesn't say much, I agree, but this one is really great.

Man I love those !

More oddballs from Toronto's best years

There're oddballs...and then there're oddballs. And you can't beat the set put out each year by the Fire association of Toronto. I'm saying this with all the love I have for them (the cards, not the firemen, as I don't know them personally. But I'm sure they're great people), but those have to be some of the worst cards ever produced. Terrible photography, lackluster design, hardly any stat whatsoever and thin cardboard stock. But hey, there's something about them that makes them lovable. I just hope they don't spend too much time putting those together...

1984 :

 the focus of this set was to make everything possible so we wouldn't see the faces.

 One of the worst use of horizontal photography

1985 :

They realized that outside shots wasn't the way to go, so they hired a photographer to take studio shots. Why not. They do look larger than life (especially Dennis Lamp's mustache) that way. Maybe this is what inspired the whole Studio line.

1986 :

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the franchise, they decided to be bold and put out the exact same set as the year before.

1987 :

White borders ! Crazy kids

1989 :

Back to the great outdoors, and game photos. Curious to see that the best one is actually of a coach.

1991 :

1994 :

World series back to back ! the card stock is decent and so are the photos (kind of). I don't know how you call that caption where the names appear, but that's some straight up 90s stuff for you. Horrible.

1998 :

Fast forward to 98. The avent of high end cards, shiny stuff everywhere, super thick card stock...and then there's this. At least, there's the official catch phrase.

1999 :

 They almost got this one right. Except for the fact it's a pain trying to read the names and that I don't really understand what they mean by 'Get in the game'.

2 000

In 2 000, they simply gave up. Too much pressure, I suppose. So back to terrible blurry photography (or maybe it's just the impression that's bad) and thin cardboard stock. Ah well. They had a good run. And at least, there're mascot cards in there.

So there you go. I made a lot of fun of some of those, but I do appreciate having them in my collection, that wouldn't be complete without them ! Thanks a lot, Richard, for taking the time to look at my wantlist and for thinking of me when you cleaned out your shelves. I need to try to find some very special Joe Carters for you !

Card Tourette syndrome

Today, I'm just going to show some cards. Yeah I know, it's a shocker.

There is one bit of news that I found interesting, though. Two, actually. The first one is that the first female baseball player eligible for the international draft is a French one. Now that's something, considering only 10 000 people play the sport. And of course, no media wrote or spoke about it here. I just did a google news search, and there's just one newspaper that published the information. Just one. The second piece of information about baseball was A-Rod's infamous 3 000 th hit ball. A newspaper wrote about it here, only to mention that the fan didn't want to give the ball back. But the beginning of the article was : "you probably don't care about baseball (we can't blame you as we don't either' but....". This, my friends, shows what the state of baseball is in France.

But hey, maybe she'll do a Yao Ming and bring baseball (basketball is already here and we have Tony Parker) to France !

Anyway, back to cards. Here are three, sent by Wes, who was kind enough to send them to Matt so he'd forward them to me (sounds a little bit like High-School, but you get it). So yay, surprise cards !

 Edwin really needs to work on his penmanship.

Next up, some ebay cards.

I buy a lot of cards from Asian sellers, as they always offer great shipping prices. Those here were filler cards. I have no idea what they are, but I'll still take them !

Shiny serial numbered Blue Jays ! (/250 and /50)

All of those are some kind of refractors, all numbered out of 250. I stopped trying to keep track with the degree of shininess of various refractors.

This one I got because I liked the card. I can't say I'm a big Chris Davis fan and I don't know any Orioles collectors. But it was (very) cheap (maybe 2 or $3 I think) and it's quite good looking. At some point, like everybody, I'll try to concentrate on just one aspect of my collection, and I'll wonder why the hell I added this one. But for now, I'm happy.

He changed names, participated in the slam dunk contest, wore that incredible Nuggets jersey, was a free-throw machine and had mild Tourette syndrome. Why would I NOT want his autograph? Albeit on a horrible Select card. But still.

Devoto

Remember how I was writing yesterday that I loved Fan Favorites autos ?

Well, I wasn't lying (I hardly ever do. Especially here).
This year's checklist includes Devon White, Tony Fernandez and Jose Cruz Jr (and Jose Cruz, for the matter). And considering everybody's all crazy about copies that are numbered to 199, I can only imagine how many of the regular cards have been signed. Which is fine by me, because it only means one thing : easy to find, and cheap.

Woohoo !
Right my alley.

This one wasn't that cheap, as it cost me $8, but it's my very first Devon White auto, and I'm not sure I'd have been able to get it for much less than that, even by waiting for the whole 'ooooh it's a new product, let's jump on it' (which is exactly what I did) to go away.

One down, two to go !

Bob & Papoy : the love affair continues (awesome auto inside)

As I said yesterday, showing off my 89 Griffey (still can't believe I own one. I know you can find some for $15 shipped and that there are millions (litterally) out there, but getting one in a trade makes things even sweeter, for some reason), Matt from the universally known Bob Walk the plank blog, sent me yet another great package filled with a ton of awesome cards. I've been swamped with such packages all of this month, and I'll never be thankful enough.

Here are the contents :

I don't know if it was sent on purpose, but even though it looks like a Blue Jays uniform on a former Blue Jays player, this is a Brewers card. Still a great looking card, but I'll probably pass it along to Tony if he needs it !

This one I know was sent on purpose. Ok, it's a current Toronto player, but somehow, the colors don't scream out Blue Jays. This is one absolutely gorgeous card, though, no way does it leave my collection any time soon.

You all know by now that I love Fan favorites autos. I already have a copy of this one, but I frankly don't mind. Matter of fact, you can send me any non-Blue Jay player, it's fine with me too !

Great looking Museum collection double relic + auto combo

I saw those two on Robert's blog. And instead of being jealous (I've been receiving my fair share of cool high end cards), I made a mental note of trying to track them down. Matt saved me the trouble.

One less 2015 auto to find ! (and proof that not all DONRUSS PANINI is horrible)

Nice low-numbered Bautista !

A couple of relics, including the mighty confusing Donruss Champions set.

A&G framed relic !

A little bit of everything, including an almost Christmas card.

 You can't really tell from the scan, but this is a box topper. It came with our previous box break. Brian, I'll probably send it to you at some point, I just wanted to enjoy my first ever such item !

And those are cards from our latest box break. Nothing incredibly exciting, but I gotta say that the cards look and feel really nice, I'm glad Matt chose that PANINI product.

And then there was this...turns out it's the last item I looked at. I had put it aside, thinking it was just a nice oversized card of one of my PC and great first basemen. No World Series, no HOF, no 300 hits, but still one heck of a ballplayer.

And of course, Matt being Matt...

Here's an 8x10 signed by Mattingly.
Just like that.
As a Birthday gift.
And it's a great one.

Thanks a lot Matt....when we sent each other our very first cards, you said at the time that it would be the first of many more. Never did I imagine I'd be receiving those types of cards and items. And I know they're far from the last we'll be sending back and forth !

Another French victory by proxy

I won't lie to you : today is a big day at Papoy headquarters.

We've all seen that card, we know how iconic it is, and there's even somebody out there (I won't name names or point any fingers) that has every graded copy possible, from 1 to 10.

The semi-serious and fully-broke at the time Griffey collector that I was 22 years ago could only dream of having it in his collection one day. But two things have changed since :

- Now I have way more money (well, way more than 0, that is)
- Now I have the blogosphere (much better than money (well ok, maybe not, but you know what I mean))

That card was sent to Matt during the infamous war with JBF (known as World Blog War I), and I suppose I played the role of vulture (or just the role of France, come to think of it) and just grabbed what I wanted and called myself a winner.

And now, it's mine.
Because you see, Matt sent me an absolutely amazing trade package today. I'll be showing the contents as soon as I have a moment, but right now, I wanted to share my happiness.

Yeah, I'm dancing and doing cartwheels in the grass. I'm that happy.

Now, I just need for someone to send Matt a 52 Mantle, and I'll be all set.

We are all random Dutch guys

I hardly ever do it (ok, usually because someone always beats me to it), but I asked Jeroen (Dutch card guy) to put a card aside for me, that he got in one of his box breaks :

Dalton Pompey seems to be in every possible set this year (with Stroman and Sanchez), and this is a very good looking one, SN99. So ok, he's back down in AA, but he's got talent, he just needs to start hitting...

Of course, Jeroen didn't just send me this card. He added a whole bunch of PC and completely random ones (and I always love random). There were soccer stickers, Indiana Jones (yup, absolutely) and basketball cards. Along with those :

And finally, a very nice looking 2015 Gypsy Queen relic, the first one I've seen in person !

Thanks a lot for the trade Jeroen, I hope you liked what I sent in exchange !

While I'm at it, I might as well show a few cards I received the other day, straight from Ebay

I love that card. The design and die-cut are simply but effective. I should try and find others from that set, they're quite affordable.

 A SN Vladdy (91/175)

I really like how they feel like wood, just like the Picture perfect Leaf insert.

I was curious to see what those inserts looked like. I thought the Flair Spotlight would be some kind of acetate see-through, but it's not. It's ok, I still like it !

There's a set that was really popular back in 1997 (the fact that it was limited *cough* to 10 000 copies helped). That card was worth $40 back then. I got it for forty times less.

I always like to add autos of players I was familiar 20 years ago. Rondell White was quite the prospect at the time, so it's a name that stuck with me. Plus, it's a nice looking on-card auto. I think I got it for about $2.

I normally never show a card that is intended for a fellow blogger, but I'm sure my good friend Matt won't hold it against me. Because yes, it's a Jason Kendall minor league auto. Let's see what the other side looks like...

Yeah, we've gone a long way on terms of autos...This looks more like an in-person auto at the ballpark, with someone who didn't have the right Sharpie for it. But you can still see the auto if you look real close !