Trade post : Waiting 'til next year

"I'll send you some cards first, and you can send whatever you think is fair. I don't have anything high-end, so I always feel like I've short-changed my trading partner"

This is an approximate quote of what Tom, from Waiting til next year, wrote in his email, saying he's definitely up for some international trading (yay !). He adds that he went to Versailles in 2013, which is about 20 miles from where I live (hi !). A few days later, I received a box filled with amazing goodies, encompassing all of my hobby wants. 250 cards. Short changed...yeah right.

Those oversized cards are 1985 Topps 3ds. What they are, is downright creepy. You can't really tell from the scan, but there's a 3d like embossed effect. Which makes them as hard to store and stack as they are creepy (hence, amazing)

A Kirby oversized floating head ! Including a suction cup (had to look it up, never used that word before) in case I want to put it on my car window.

Big Hurt ! Including a Duracell 93 card I had no idea existed. Apparently, it's the only year they issued cards. Then again, who didn't issue cards in 93 ?

More Pcs, including a nice Al Kaline glossy send in (seems fitting to write about Al Kaline after Duracell)

The Wizzard, with a nice Starting Lineup oddball

The good thing about those gold glove PCs is that I hardly have any cards of these players.

More Gold Glovers (and Deion)

Love that Ticket Studs insert. Even though I'm skeptical about the name..

A couple of Griffey oddballs I needed.

Tom collects Cubs cards. So of course, he has a bunch of Maddux doubles from his Cubs days. I kinda like that 89 Donruss box set (with the orange border)


It's not often that people (you) send me football cards. I remember really liking the early 90s Upper Deck ones, and maybe I should look more into that, but my hands are already full enough as it is. Nevertheless, those are really great.

LT !

Warren Moon & one Bo.

4 less 93 Upper Decks to chase, including this sweet Sandberg ! And the team checklists from the early 90s (in basketball as well) have always been a favorite of mine.

Now, for my main collection : Blue Jays

8 (yes, 8) autos, straight from the man who claims he sends nothing high end. Ok, those are prospects I've never heard of, BUT STILL.

Speaking of prospects...

Oddballs ! I love those Toys r Us cards.

An entire 82 team set was included, and I needed a dozen of those mustaches.

3 beauties ! Ok, the Bowman design is blah, but I'm pretty sure I'm not missing very many Carter base cards from his Toroton playing days, so I'm always happy to catch one new.

One of those useless "Home team advantage" parallel sets. Tom sent the complete 21 card Blue Jays one.

The early 2000s no mans land. The Halladay Opening Day is actually a numbered parallel.

And finally, the modern portion ! And yes, the Heritage card is an SP, and the Bowmans are....*sigh*...parallels.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to put together this very thoughtful package (there were even Knicks cards, not shown here) ! The return package is on its way, and it was very tough for me to even things out !

Another Ebay (grumpy) tale

Even though I'd promised myself not to buy anything off ebay this month (I spent way too much on wax boxes), this seller I knew had some nice cards I wanted for some of you people. While I was at it, I added some for my own collection (they were all .99 cts each). But the most interesting part is the story behind the ebay purchase itself. Which I'll tell right after showing them off.

One of the incredible amount of autos and relics I'm missing from the mid-2000s, and a logoless piece of bat. Nice clouds.

I just liked the cards. More than the players, that I don't know that well. I'm pretty sure Sergio Mitre isn't around anymore, and I briefly remember seeing him pitch for the Yankees some time ago. Cliff Floyd is on a SC card with an Expos jersey, and I have a bunch of his cards from the 90s, so that's enough for me to snatch it for 99 cts.

Ok, so here I cheated a little. This card was intended for Matt, but when I received it, I thought it really looked great (it didn't scan well because it's encased). So I asked Matt if he already had a copy. Of course he did (he has everything that's pretty), so yay, I get to keep it ! This one was a little under $5.

And finally, a few Knicks relics (the Ward is pretty nice).

Anyway, here's what happened :
I have two addresses, on Ebay. One for my Comc mailbox, for all the sellers who don't ship international, or who ask $20 for one card to send it to France, and my address in France. Usually my default address is the one in France, but for some reason, I'd forgotten to change it. I won about 20 cards from that seller, and he directly sent an invoice, using my default address, ie the Comc one. Since the seller offers very fair international shipping quotes, I always have him send them directly to me. Especially since, with 20 cards, it'd have cost me $10 in Comc fees + postage + having to wait 4 to 6 weeks to receive them.
In that case, all I have to do is send a new request for the total, using the right address (it happens from time to time, I'm used to it. Sellers can be very impatient and don't wait for you to ask for the invoice).

Which I did.
And seeing that I wasn't receiving the invoice, I asked again (I'm very polite).
Still nothing.

24 hours later, I receive 20 messages from Ebay telling me a claim has been filed by the seller and that I have 3 days to pay.
Needless to say, I was not very happy.

I sent an email to the seller, telling him I'd love to pay him, but that he hasn't been answering my requests, and that I don't think it's really fair for him to open a case with ebay without even referring to me, or seeing that I had bought from him numerous times before.

They didn't apologize or anything, just answered that they couldn't change the address, so I sent yet another request, and that was that.

My job is to sell books, in real life. I know what customer service is supposed to look like, and how vital it is. Theirs is lackluster to say the least. I got the cards in good condition and quickly, so I don't think I'll be leaving negative feedback, but I'm really on the verge of doing so.

And that's how you lose a very cool French customer who just wanted his cards sent home.

It's my 1 year anniversary today. Let's all dance !

Well, today is a day of celebration. Exactly one year ago, the Papoy came to life.

yay !

I named my blog with the first word that came to my mind (don't ask) and that I found funny. A year later, I'm known as the guy who send Biebers and has a last name's that's a bitch to write on an envelope.

In one year, I've added 20 000 cards to my collection, including 4 000 Blue Jays, and opened 1 500 packs. And spent way too much money. I've also sent 60 trade packages internationally, and I'm now on a first name basis with the post office clerk (she loves me).

And I'm not planning on stopping there.
As a matter of fact, I received a ton of cards today, including 400-something different Blue Jays sent by a collector from Beckett who reached out to me asking if I was interested. You bet I am. Especially since all he wanted in return was for me to pay for postage.

And I also have a bunch of stacks to scan (P-Town Tom also sent a hell of a trade package) and cards to show off.
So you'll be seeing a lot of me still !

thanks for sticking around

Box Break : 2002 Topps

See how I kept the blog post title simple ?
That's because I knew people would come flocking together, spreading wings and feathers at the mere name of 2002 Topps.

And just as the title suggests : prepare to be bored.

This box is part of the 7 box-package I received a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of Steel City collectibles. I usually shop at Dave & Adams, but SC had some 90s boxes I was interested in, and the shipping prices were the same as D&A. Difference is that they only use UPS (and not USPS) which means that custom fees will automatically be high and customs never cleared without paying anything. Ah well. Basically, this means that there were $130 worth of products, and I paid $80 shipping (those 90s boxes are heavy) plus $50 customs ($30 VAT + $20 processing fee for UPS).

And yes, thank you, I'm aware that 2002 wasn't, technically, part of the 90s...

I didn't exactly strike gold (haha I'm so funny sometimes) with my couple of gold parallels, to say the least. Though an Expos manager is pretty cool. Because of the base design, they don't differ that much, though, which kind of makes the whole parallel thing pointless.


Ok, let's have a look at the inserts :

 Card stock is thicker on those. But the design....God, the design...at least, it's a couple of players I like.

More inserts ugliness. It's unfair in that if they were from the 90s, I'd look at them smiling, saying ok, they're ugly, but they're typical of the 90's and lovable because of that. Except this is 2002. Yeah, unfair, I know.

Those are actually nice.

Subsets :

Wow, with all that foil, it definitely belongs in the 90s.

Yup, 2002 is the set that follows 9/11. I actually was in Seattle when it happened, and I'm not going to make any jokes about it, of course. More foil, though. Lots and lots of foil.

Remember when baseball was saved by PED ? Good times...

And finally, some base cards. There's something inherently wrong about that set, and I just don't know why. Maybe it's the simple fact that it's really not attractive. There isn't enough room for interesting photos (and I wasn't able to find a single one) and the gold/yellowish borders are a very bad idea. The one huge quality of the box, though, is that there wasn't a single duplicate in there. Not one. 350 different cards, just like that. Proof that this isn't the 90s...

93 Til Infinity

A little while ago, I expressed my strong desire (yes, sometimes I express strong desires) to complete the 93 UD set. Tom, from Angels in order, was (very) nice enough to look at my wantlist and single handedly knock off 2/3rds of my needs. Just like that. Blam.
Here are the highlights of the 90 cards he sent my way.

Some superstars I was missing, for some strange reason. Including a PC.

One of my favorite cards of all time. I know for a fact that I own a copy (considering it's been one of my favorite cards for 20 years), so it's strange that it's ended up on my want list. It must mean I've misplaced it...

Yes, absolutely, Albert Belle is smiling on that card. It's an extra special card to me, because it's the one that appears on the back of the Beckett issue on which I have several Indians in person autos. Yay.

This is very strange. The minute I scanned that Walt Weiss card just for Matt, my scanner started acting up. All my scans are miscut from then on. There must be a Weiss curse of sorts. It's still a pretty cool card though, with the blurry dust and all.

I wonder what that buckett used to hold, and whether the UD logo was added digitally.

 Now THAT's a soaked field if I ever saw one !

 Yeah...you want to be careful with that stance, Chris.

And finally, some nice horizontal shots, including a game of tag.

Thanks a lot Tom, you really made my day ! For those of you who have nothing better to do with your precious time, my 93 UD want list is right here !

While I'm at it, I'll show a couple of basketball ebay wins I received today :

I used to really like Terry Porter, for some reason. And this is a very nice die-cut on card auto !

This here is a Panini Preferred booklet. Boxes go for about $200. For that price, you get 4 cards. Why anyone would want to pay that much money to open just one pack of 4 cards is beyond me but hey, I spent $120 in shipping and taxes to break 6 boxes of 90s wax, so who am I to judge ?

Anyway, since absolutely nobody cares about neither Parsons nor former Knick Hardaway Jr, I was able to snatch it for about $5. It's safe to assume the seller didn't really make a profit. It's a great looking booklet, so more power to me !

Total Trading With Tony (a Tardy Tale)

A few weeks ago, Tony sent me one of his great trade packages. It took me forever to post about it, and for that I apologize, but you know how it is with vacation...you get lazy and keep procrastinating ! Now that I'm back at work (sigh), it's time for me to do some catching up.

Anyway, Tony was kind enough to spend some time looking at my wantlist and knocking off a bunch of 80s and 90s needs. And of course, on top of that, he added some of his famous oddball finds !

ANd to think I'm still missing some Alomar base cards...The Select is a little strange, though, as you can see that there clearly isn't enough space on that right side for a multi-exposure shot. But hey, it's still quite nice, and it reminds me of the Donruss Spirit of the game one :

A&G !

Some Update needs

Tony has a healthy collection of in-person autographs, and I'm the lucky recipient of a couple of Dave Stiebs !

Oddballs ! I love that George Bell pop-up.

Those are from the 86 Topps All Stars set. Simple, efficient design. Dave Stieb looks kinda creepy, though. Or maybe it's just his evil twin.

Always happy to add a Danny Ainge card. Regardless of the photo they choose, you always know he'll look like he's about to complain or whine about something.

 That Olerud from the Topps Debut box set has been on my wantlist for awhile now. I had almost completely forgotten about it ! The Derek Bell is also from a Traded box set, and Tony sent a bunch of those.

Set needs, O Pee Chee and Diamond Kings round all this out !

There were many more, but this is the Readers Digest edition.

Thanks a lot, Tony, for once again putting so much thought in your package and including a ton of set needs and tough to find (for me anyway) oddballs !