Short Time At The LCS

Stopped in at my local shop and perused a box of 1974 Topps, 1976 Topps, and four 25-cent random boxes. The Topps boxes turned out to be 25-cent boxes as well, much to my favor. I could have easily hoarded, but I’m well past that point in my collecting. I just pull stuff I actually need now, and a card here and there that just strikes my interest.

1976 Topps #438

This Doug DeCinces card just struck my interest. Doug looks plain old cool, like a dude one of my older brothers would have played high school ball with in So Cal. I’ve also toyed with the idea of picking up all of DeCinces Topps career cards, because he played for the Angels, so this one kinda starts me in that direction.

1976 Topps John Balaz #539 and Rookie Pitchers Sid Monge #595

I’ve been trying to get John Balaz autograph on this card for a while, (I have him on an IC) but I only had the one that’s a part of the team set and didn’t want to risk losing it. This one though has already gone out in the mail. Same idea for the Sid Monge, but when I found out he now charges for his autograph this card goes in the dupes box until I can justify spending cash the cash on the signature.

1974 Topps Team Checklists

I scored on the remaining cards I needed to complete this checklist set.

I’m typically more of a traditional checklist card collector, like those below, but these team checklists from 1974, and those from 1973 Topps, are just too cool to pass up.

Stay tuned for a post on the completed ‘74 set.

Random Checklists

Also picked up several others, you can see the traditional 1974 Topps checklists there.

1999 Fleer Baseball Greats #50 Troy Glaus and #21 John Olerud

Great retro design on these. I knew when I pulled it that I already had one of the Angels cards in this set, thinking it’s not the Glaus (my Angels wantlist only goes to 1993). I haven’t checked yet. The Olerud goes in his PC binder.

1986 Sportflics #1 Stu Cliburn, 1987 Sportflics #127 Kirk McCaskill and #59 Mike Witt.

I was able to check these cards immediately against my Want list, via my phone, so I knew for sure I needed them. I remember many times coming home from the card shop with a stack of cards only to find out that I already had at least half of them already.

1994 Ted Williams #14 Dean Chance and #15 Doug DeCinces

These two should complete the Angels team set. 

Very pleased with what I was able to pull in just a little over an hour at the card shop.

Baseball Card #444 - 1987 Topps

Adding to the Baseball Cards Numbered 444 Collection, Jeff Russell on the Texas Rangers gets the distinction of holding the #444 spot in the 1987 Topps Baseball set.

What would really have been cool is if that clock in the background read 4:44 instead if 12:44.

Upper left #444.

Got this card as part of the trade package from Baseball Every Night.

ThanK's again, and good night.

Trade Mail From Baseball Every Night

It was only recently that I had contact for the first time with Peter from Baseball Every Night and we worked out a trade. I just can't recall how it all started. I think I may have left a comment on one of his posts about his going through some binders of cards he had come into and letting us all know that many of the cards were for trade. I made a claim on a few cards, and here we are.

1991 Fleer Team Logo Sticker

It's interesting that I received this card. Not because I don't have it already, I do, but because the very next trade package that came in after this one included the variation of this card.

I'll talk more about that when I do the post for that package.

Nonetheless (one word?) I love these Fleer logo cards.

1990 Donruss Diamond Kings #10a Brian Downing Reverse Negative (left)

I was stoked when Peter asked if I'd be interested in this card.

Shoot yeah!

I included the card on the right from my collection to show the difference.

This card reminded me that Brian Downing had another error card, his 1991 Upper Deck that had his "DH" position missing from the little base in the lower left.

Great to now have the two Downing errors I know of. 

2016 Topps Gold #681, 0016/2016

This sweet card and the Downing were accidently left out of the original package Peter sent, so he graciously popped them in a PWE and dropped them in the mail as well.

I like this style of the gold parallel much better than those in the past.

1992 Fleer #701 Tiger Tandems

1989 Classic Purple #157

These are two of the cards I had asked for on Peters posts.

I wanted them for my unofficial Bo Jackson collection. Unofficial because I have a hard time passing up a Bo Jackson card, but I don't really need another "collection". 

You know what I mean?

Sweepstakes and Game Cards

For my collections of course.

Glad for the Jackson, not because it's Reggie Jackson but because...

(on the right) its a special card. Not sure how to classify these, is it an "information" card?

Regardless, it's a NNO card, not a part of any real set.

And that's what I like.

1991 Pacific Nolan Ryan

Believe it or not, I'm collecting this series which typically end up in most collectors or dealers junk boxes. I've seen them everywhere, and they're easy to come by, I just never put a checklist together, until recently.

Obviously these were three that I needed.

Checklist Cards

Another of my varied collecting interests.

I'm sure there's at least a few in here that will help complete their sets.

What was also great about this trade is that all Peter wanted in return was Darryl Strawberry and John Kruk cards. I was glad to have a nice stack, and many he could use.

Thanks again for the trade Peter, I like all the stuff.

Trade Mail From Reader Tim

Reader Tim and I hooked up for an Indians/Angels trade recently. Nothing fancy, like I said, Indians for Angels. Nice straight forward  trade. I like that. Only there were Patriots in the mix as well.

1989 Fleer Baseball Exciting Stars #28

Ah yes, another of the many wonderful box sets from the 80's.

And awesome stuff for a team collector.

Pretty sure this one is new to me.

The back is really nice.

I love the color choices and the ghosting and overlays.

2015 Topps Highlight of the Year #H-17

These retro uniformed veteran card inserts, if you want to call them that, are the new Fleer/Topps Box sets of the 80's.

They keep coming out of nowhere and you just cant keep track of them, there are so many of them.

A cool card though.

Misc Angels Inserts and Parallels.

I recently traded a guy several Matsui cards for a 1984 Nestle Tommy John.

Didn't even think to look in my Angels dupes box for the Matsui's.

2008 Topps #3

Like I said there were Patriots involved in the deal.

On my side at least.

Oh boy were there Patriots involved.

Thanks for always reading, and thanks for trading again Tim.

Contest Winnings For The Wrong Guess!

Earlier this month there was a contest at Johnny's Trading Spot to guess the per-card cost of a massive haul of about 2500 cards John purchased at a card show. Five people guessed, all between .03 and .08 cents, but no one guessed .04. Can you believe it? John decided to declare us ALL winners. Now THAT'S generous!

John taylored the prize packages to the winners likes.
I got Angels of course.

1966 Topps Rub-Offs

Unfortunaltely some rodent had a tasty snack on this, but it's still a really cool piece for the team collection. Topps baseball products from the 60's are some of my favorites.

Weaver Brothers

Jeff was on the Angels in 2006 hence the 2006 Upper Deck #658 Special FX Green 95/99.

Brother came up also in 2006, so the two got to play together for a season.

I already completed the 2007 Topps Generation Now set for Mike Napoli, still working Jered Weavers cards in the set.

Triple throw-down on 2010 Upper Deck All World #AW-12 cards.

I believe that this card may be my most abundant duplicate Angels insert card.

I'll have to check on that.

Bunch of chrome and refractors, some numbered /299, some /561, some /150.

These are really helpful towards the team sets. Refractors, let alone numbered refractors, make team sets difficult to complete.

A nice grouping of rookies and parallels.

And my first 2017 Heritage.

Very happy to be a winner even though I guessed wrong!

Thanks John.

Trade Mail From Baseball Card Breakdown

Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown sent a few Angels over.
Lets dig in.

Woohoo! Big score on two REDISCOVER TOPPS cards!

Oh, wait a minute....

Now to the more serious cards:

2004 Donruss Elite Turn of the Century #4, 432/750

This one really is a big score!

The four dashes on the left immediately gave it a football card feel though.

1995 Pacific Collection Prizms #19

I still swear that Pacific has bad intentions towards collectors with these cards.

They mess with my brain man.

1995 Pacific Collection Team Logo #3

Much more pleasing to the eye and brain.

I love team logo cards so much I'm considering collecting this set.

2008 Upper Deck X Xponential  X-HU

I'm collecting this master set, and it's a beast.

When you get into the X3 and X4 cards it seems near impossible.

Its in my wantlist if you have any for trade.

The Two Faces of Fish.

Sounds like that would make a great movie or book title.

The Fish on the right is a 2000 Bowman Retro/Future card?

Thats the first I think I've seen of these, and I'm not impressed with the design.

I could use the excuse that its a bad scan, but in reality its just a bad card.

Glad to have it though!

Thanks for the trade Gavin.

Trade Mail From Zippy Zappy

Seems I get Zapped a couple, if not several, times a year. This would be my first for this year, but it was such a big Zapping that Zippy might not have any Angels left for the rest of the year.

But first I want to talk about the package.

This is how it came. All beat to crap thanks to the post office.

(I scratched out my address, because, well, isn't what we're supposed to do?)

I looked at the return address and thought, "I don't remember sending an SASPE (Self Addressed Stamped Padded Envelope) to myself."

What?

So I flipped it over:

Oh My Goodness!

I thought someone just gifted me their Animated Batman card collection!

(See Animated Batman Want List tab at the top of the page)

When I got to the contents I immediately knew what it was and who it was from.

Only one person I know re-packages cards in used wrappers.

I've been Zippy Zapped!

Out of all those cards I'll just hit the highlights of the two-inch stack.

2016 Topps Changing Of The Guard #CTG-1

2016 Topps Bunt #1

So, how many of Mike Trouts cards are #1?

Wasn't there a superstar like Mickey Mantle or someone who always got the same numbered card in several Topps sets in the 50's and 60's?

I know they reserved #100, 200, 300... for stars back then.

Someone needs to do a post on that.

2004 Topps #697

I like this card because it's a really stupid crop job.

I also like this card because I want to think that it's Rickey Henderson getting denied at the plate by Bengie Molina.

Believe it or not, Rickey was still playing in 2003.

But Rickey was on the Dodgers then, Rickey hadn't played with the A's since 1998.

1976 Topps #512

Great card of Ellie Rodriguez minding the plate.

Fun Fact: Rodriguez caught Nolan Ryan's fourth no-hitter.

The back of this card is what I found most interesting:

Love the backs of 1976 Topps.

But what's that oversized bullet there:

Did the Topps editor use the wrong font?

Regardless, it just seems weird to me.

Is this a misprint? Do other 1976 Topps have wrong font-sized single bullets?

 A quick look at my 1976 Topps Angels Team set binder solved the mystery:

You got a bullet and fun fact if there wasn't enough room for a cartoon, but too much blank space.

You got nothing extra on the back if you had played too long and your stats took up all the space.

And ideally you got the well known cartoon on the back if all was right in the world.

Zippy also threw in a generous amount of Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects.

This is great because I'm way behind on sending out for prospects autographs and this should cover those cards that I never see again.

Thanks Zippy, always a pleasure getting stuff from you.

Certified For The All-Time List

There was a recent post over on Dion's Autograph Collection looking for traders (or purchasers for a couple bucks each) for a bunch of Certified Autograph Cards he wanted to part with as they were dupes to him. I took him up on it and purchased three 1996 Leaf Certified Autographs for my All-Time Angels Autograph Collection.

Mike Fetters was an Angels regular from 1989-1991.

Ken Edenfield played both of his major league seasons with the Angels in 1995 and 1996.

Craig Grebeck was with the Angels for only one season, 1997.

 I have "other" cards signed by these guys, even Angels cards I think, but these are the first certified autographs I have of them.

Dion also threw in a few Angels extras.

I love seeing Bo Jackson as an Angel!

I'm sure Dion has plenty more certified autographs left, go check him out via the link above.