Penguin autos

My card-spending has been in-check lately (except for those 5 boxes I bought, ok, but those were a birthday present so they don't count. Ok, so maybe I got myself a bunch of other presents, but hey, I like being happy), but I did pick up a few things on ebay, mainly because I need trade-bait (which you won't see, of course, as they're headed directly to my usual trading partners).

If you followed baseball closely during the 94 strike, you know who Matt Williams is...such a waste. I would've preferred an auto in his Giants uniform, but hey, for $3, I'll take it. The Kennys Vargas was of course meant for Brian, but he already has a copy, so I'll gladly keep it in my collection !

 I think I'm only missing the Jose Cruz Jr from this year's Archives auto set. Glad they included Tony Fernandez ! And that Barfield auto looks sweet too

Completely random purchase. In high school, though, I did mention to my then girlfriend that I loved the word penguin. She then took it upon herself to start a penguin collection for me (women...). So I suppose that 20 years later, if I got that card, it's because (thanks to) of her.

I have no idea who Kendall Graveman is. But he's sporting a Blue Jays uniform.

Him I know ! I don't know why I keep adding cards of players who eliminated the Knicks in 94. I must be a masochist. It's a good looking card, though, numbered to 30.

One of those inserts that I was curious to see in person, after seeing so many at the time in Beckett. I would've preferred the Griffey, but I don't feel like paying more than a dollar for a 90s insert from a pretty common set. That's some heavy 90s stuff right here for you.

The main course were those 2015 Stadium Club. They've been shown to death, but I'll just say that those are the gold parallels and that I got 15 for $1, so yay.

And finally, I got a bunch of 89 Bowman is back. I don't know why. Those are half cheesy, half shiny. But it's not everyday that I can get about 50 cards for $7 shipped to my place in France. Woohooo !

Marky Mark and the Vintage bunch

Mark is a mysterious man. He doesn't blog, but he reads and trades a lot. He's also known as the Vintage Guy (I'm known as the French guy. Not a bad moniker, but come on, I should be able to do better than that). And since I love vintage (who doesn't ?) and don't add as many to my collection as I'd like to, I'm always very excited to receive one of his trade packages.

Yeah. I know. You can't be less vintage than 2015 Stadium Club. But Mark is full of surprises ! This is actually my first taste of the set everybody's been raving about, and I have to admit it lives up to the hype (ok, I've only seen two, but I've seen countless photos of the others, and now I know what the card stock and general feel are). $70 for 100 cards is still too much for me (especially since I have to add $15 S&H) so I won't pick up a box right away, but maybe we'll bust one open for our monthly box break with Matt.

I already had the Reyes, and those cards look very nice, especially for a Donruss product. (and it's still not vintage, I know)

 This could be vintage, but it isn't. Still, it's a very nice framed GQ !


And here comes the vintage part, and the bulk of the trade. Mark had promised me he'd try to find as many Knicks vintage as he could, and he sure did !

Including a nice Phil Jackson. Let's hope he manages to rebuild this summer. So far, I haven't been impressed. At all.

This just may be the greatest name ever.

And finally, Mark noticed how in love I was with those oversized 1976-1977 (which incidentally is the year I was born) Topps cards, so he included a bunch of superstars from that set. Beautiful, beautiful cards !

Thanks a lot Mark, I already have some Red Sox and Celtics put aside for you !

Not one, not two, not three...but 5 box breaks ! (woohooo)

For my birthday, I decided to treat myself to several boxes of cards. I knew I'd pay $100 in S&H + customs for a $170 total value in boxes, but it's ok. I'm 38 now. I'm a big boy. I deserve some nice things in my life. Even if they're made of cardboard.

One of the boxes I got was for our monthly box break with Matt, of Bob walk the plank fame. It took me a long time to choose, but I finally put aside a box of 2005 Bowman Heritage and chose a box of 2009 Signature Stars. I don't know if I made the right choice, as we didn't hit anything major, but at least there were 4 hits in the box, and we each got 2.

So those are the base cards. Nothing spectacular, but I still like them.

 No idea who he is (I checked baseball-reference, and I still don't). But he's only 22, so who knows, maybe one day I'll see him on the mound and it'll ring a bell.

Ok, him I know. A nice card (too bad it's a sticker auto) of a player who's having a very solid season so far.

With every D&A order over $75, you get free packs of cards. As a joke, I chose 5 packs of Prizm (I absolutely hate Prizm), figuring I'd send them out to Matt, as a prank and private joke (bob walk the prank would've been the title of the post). But I can never resist unopened packs of cards.

Inserts/parallels, including a certain very hot guy (well...hot....you know what I mean)

And at least I got the Griffey and Molina for my PC. So that wasn't a complete waste of time and free money.

Next up, a box of 2005 Upper deck pros & prospects.

At least, there was an auto in there, along with that Tejada relic. An auto of an absolute nobody, but an Australian nobody, so that makes it half interesting.

I really like the base set. The box yielded a complete one (well, minus numbered SPs that is), with few duplicates. Too bad there aren't any action shots, as pitchers are always shown pitching, and hitters hitting (except Jeter who got a special treatment), but it does give some kind of unity to the 100 card set. And I need to decide whether I consider the Delgado a Blue Jays card or not...

Next : 2002 Rookie Update.
I didn't really pay attention as to what I was buying (I just knew it was cheap), and I didn't realize there were three different sets in there until I started sorting them out. Yeah, I'm not very bright....

 Diamond Connections

Sp authentic.

And finally, Spx.

Along with associated hits, including a nice Glavine and a good looking auto of someone I've never heard of.

Oh, and by the way, Mr Upper Deck (yeah, it's a mister, a miss would've never gone with such an easy scheme), those are not cards. Never. So when you write that there are 5 cards per pack, and include 4 + 1 like those, I feel cheated. Don't do it again. Thank you.

2013 Heritage hanger packs x2 (16 in all)
You all know what the base cards look like, so I'll get right down to business and show the hits.

 Not every day that you see a hand numbered parallel (because yes, this is the gold parallel of the normal relic version). I got a lot of Orioles cards out of my various boxes.

SPs ! Including the sought after Bryce Harper. I wonder why that is, btw ? It sells for about $20, even though it's only seeded 1:4 with 75 total SPs. Doesn't look like a really tough pull to me. I must be missing something.

 Blue bordered parallels (yeah I know, Captain obvious)

 And finally, I got one numbered chrome in each hanger, including the refractor on the right, and both are Tigers. It's a conspiracy !

Ad finally, I also picked up a hanger box of 2012 Archives (hoping for a fan favorites auto, but no luck there)

Inserts and SPs !

More inserts, including a nice Rod Carew Topps cloth.

So there you go for my box break recap.
I realize that I prefer largely boxes with at least 200 cards in them. Much more fun to open and sort. The problem being that shipping costs are way more important on those (for obvious reasons), despite junk wax and 90s boxes being dirt cheap. There's no perfect world...I still had a ton of fun opening those up, and I plan on going for more really soon !

Oh, and while I'm at it, here are a couple of Ebay pickups :

A nice use of the Hot gloves design, with a cool game used baseball embedded. Plus, you can see the stitches, so that's a plus.

And finally, I picked this one up when I saw, thanks to the Fire Safety cards sent by Richard, that Gary Matthews had coached a couple of seasons for the Blue Jays. Plus, it's an Archives auto, so you can't go wrong with those !

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 !