Dollar Tree 5-Card Trout Pack

Dollar Tree always carries these 4 or 5-card packs for $1 every year.

Bummer is you have zero chance to pull an insert.

Hey! Pulled an Angel!

One Page of Dick Egan

This series will highlight "one page" at a time from my binder of correspondence and autographs from former Angels and Patriots  players.

  Dick Egan LHP California Angels 1966

Correspondence received in March, 2010.

Retail 7-Card Opening Day Pack

2018 Opening Day Mike Trout wrapper for the 7-card retail pack from Target.

Will the Walmart pack look any different?

1:2 Before Opening Day BOD-AB

Well, at least I get a new wrapper out of it.

Mike Trout On The Cover Of GQ

GQ for Gypsy Queen.

"Are you kidding me!" were my exact words when I found this in Target today.

A little frustrated, but a little excited too.

Topps is killing me using Trout on (so far) all their packs this year. I've already spent more on baseball cards this year than I have in the last several years combined. 

Maybe I'm using my Mike Trout Wrapper Collection as an excuse to get caught up with my previous lack of interest in unopened Topps products, due to rarely ever pulling any Angels, and the mind numbing amount of fake errors/variations.

Let's see how many Angels I don't pull

and how many fake errors/variations I do pull.

Green Parallels

PACK 1

1:48 Base Short Print #317

PACK 2

1:8 Fortune Teller Mini #FTM-12

PACK 3

1:21 Missing Nameplate #167

What'd I tell you, NO Angels.
I should be pleased to pull an SP, a mini, and a fake shouldn't I?

I'm more pleased with the Trout wrapper.

Oh Man, Not Another One On Opening Day

Oh Man, I really need Topps to be over Mike Trout as a spokesperson. He keeps showing up on wrappers, and I keep having to buy those packs of cards because I collect Trout wrappers (I guess that’s not really such a bad thing after all, huh?).

Mike shows up with other star players of the day, on the 2018 Opening Day issue, similar to the 2013 design he was on.

I had entertained the idea of ruling out these multi-player wrappers as not really being true Trout wrappers, since he’s not alone. But the completist in me couldn’t do it. So here I go, chasing down all the different versions of 2018 Opening Day wrappers that can be found.

1:3 Blue Foil

1:2 Team Traditions TTC-PR

Love this. Would have loved it so much more if ALL the Presidents were visible.

1:2 Before Opening Day BOD-DK

1:2 Opening Day ODB-CC

2018 Topps Series One Target Version

The Target version of this years Trout wrapper has the yellow Derek Jeter banner at the top, spoiling an otherwise perfect wrapper.

Here's the contents of my single pack purchase:

Top six includes two youngsters and mostly the rookie class of 2012-13.

1:4 pull Topps Salute TS-23

Hey I actually pulled a yellow banner 1:4 Derek Jeter Highlights card!

Not that I want to keep it or anything, but notice Mo Vaughn in the background?

Nothing to see here folks, move along.

Another Trout wrapper down.

Toys R Us Trout Pack

When I recently heard that Toys R Us were going bankrupt and would be closing down stores, I figured I would hit up my local store to see if they had any discounted cards. My TRU never really had a great selection to begin with, so my hopes were not high to find blasters for a couple bucks. Besides that, TRU items are typically a few dollars more than Target or Walmart, so any discount would probably just bring me down to those prices. Big deal.

I was a bit pleased to find that they had a few older items, slightly marked down, that I was interested in, one being this bubble pack containing another Trout wrapper I needed, and a purple TRU exclusive card.

I had to check my phone, where I keep a photo file of all my wrappers, to verify that this indeed was a new wrapper. The difference is in the blue text on the lower right.

The small variations will kill you.

With the wrapper now under heavy books to flatten it out, here’s what I pulled from the pack:

Top 8 cards, nothing fancy.

1:4 Bergers Best BB2-1972

The horizontal cards come up next, again nothing interesting.

SCORE on the TRU exclusive purple parallel included in the bubbler!

Napoli is a PC.

Very happy to get the Trout wrapper, and the Napoli saved the contents from being a total waste.

#8 Want Taken Care Of

Trade Post From Night Owl

Greg sent some cards as a return for those I sent him for my Year For Team Traders I advertised a couple months ago. It's been a slow trickle getting those in the mail: like I mentioned, it'll probably take all year for those who commented on a team to finally get them.

Anyhow, Greg sent some nice stuff in return, and the first is the last card I needed for my 1977 Topps Patriots team set, and a card that was #8 on my Top Ten Wants.

1974 Topps #221

1996 Stadium Club #49

2000 Topps Golden Anniversary Going For Gold #GA48

2018 Topps Now Promotional Discount Card

2017 Bowman Then & Now #1

2008 and 2009 A&G Mini

The Ervin Santana is a A&G back.

Good stuff Greg, much appreciated.

Blog Bat Around: Card Collecting Projects

Here are my Angels In Order Card Collecting Projects.

1. Los Angeles/California/Anaheim/Los Angeles of Anaheim/L.A. Angels

I grew up near Anaheim Stadium, and my siblings still live in the area (I’ve been in Texas the last 18 years). The Angels are a part of our family’s history. I haven’t counted up how many team sets I’ve completed, but I do know that the collection is up to 16 full card binders, 4 full dupes boxes.

I also collect any flats related to the Angels: pocket schedules, ticket stubs, ticket information, Mike Trout wrappers, etc. All of that stuff fills another 4 binders.

2. Boston/New England Patriots 1960-1995

How do I explain West Coast Angels and East Coast Patriots you ask? My parents were born and raised in Rhode Island, where they had my three oldest siblings. They all then moved west to Southern California where the rest of us were born. So, in our house it was always Red Sox/Angels and Patriots/Rams. I went with the Angels (because I got to go see them play) and I chose the Patriots because I liked their uniforms at first (Steve Grogan later cemented it for me). I like the Rams a little too, but NOT the Red Sox!

I put the “1960-1995” restriction on the Patriots collection because I couldn’t handle another massive, endless team collection like my Angels collection. Oh I’ll accept post-1995 Patriots for sure, but they go into a team box to be organized and catalogued at some point in the distant future.

3. Fleer Baseball Logo Stickers

Probably my favorite collection outside of the Angels. I love logos. I love Fleer logos. Because I’m a “completist” though, these sets are a bear to collect as there are so many variations and some of the older sets (like 1979) are just plain hard to find. I use Fleer Sticker Project extensively to identify all the differences in these.

4. Baseball Checklists

I got hooked on baseball checklists a couple years ago, another overlooked, often thrown out card that I have sympathy for. The older Topps checklist cards have errors on just about every card, so in reality I’ll need to collect two sets of each, the A and B (and sometimes C) versions.

5. Sweepstakes/Game Cards/Scratchers/Special Offer/Redemption/Info/etc.

I always thought they were interesting, especially when I first noticed them in 1983 and 1984 Topps, but I was not interested enough to keep any of them as a collection. I decided to start collecting them a few years ago, (and kicking myself for all that I threw away) and Man how the collection has grown. You’d be surprised how many different there are and how far back they go. I have so many now they have their own binder.

6. Baseball Cards #444

Just started this collection last year. Number 444 stems from goofing around with a buddy of mine when we were kids. We both looked at his bedroom clock radio at the same time and exclaimed “It’s 4:44!” Weird how stuff like that sticks with you. Anyhow in honor of my buddy I decided to make it an odd collection. Baseball Cards Come To Life got the collection well on its way last year when he dropped 36 different #444 cards on me in a trade package.

7. Player Collections

My PCs consist of a handful of former Angels (the exception being John Olerud) in their non-Angels uniforms. I do not include a duplicate of their Angels uniformed cards in the PC binder because those cards are already a part of the Angels team sets. I’ve toyed with adding Dale Murphy to the collection, but I’m not ready to commit to that just yet.

8. Signed Testimony Cards/Signed Sets

I’m a Christian so I’m drawn to Christian athletes. I don’t actively pursue just any autographed testimony card, I really only collect this particular design which I find simple and not overstated.
I'm also working on autograph sets for all the Toy's R Us rookie box sets, 1994 Ted Williams, 1991 Topps Archives 1953 Topps Reprints, and 1992 Action Packed Baseball.

9. Animated Batman Sets

Got turned onto these, and to the cartoons, when they first came out in the early 90's. Watched every episode when my son was young. Of all the comic Batmen, Animated Batman is my favorite.

10. All-Star Game Ballots

What can I say, I like paper.

11. Master Baseball Sets

Master sets have moved way down on my priority list, I’m not really a master set guy anymore.  The first sets targeted and completed were 1983 Topps and Fleer, 1984 Topps, and 1991 Upper Deck, all of which I still have. I finished 1979 and 1980 Topps, and came close on 1982 Topps as well, but those have all moved on to other collectors. Recently I’ve added a few more to the short list that I would like to complete, like 1992 Upper Deck Minors and 1993 Triple Play.

Most of my collections/wants are up under the tabs at the top.

It's been interesting reading what you all collect, I hope you find mine interesting as well.