Send Me These Cards, You Don't Want Them, Get A Prize

2012 Topps Pennant and Topps Bunt.

These were inserted into 2012 Topps issues.  You know you have these lying around.  Probably used them to protect the good cards in a team bag you were mailing for a trade.

These are the one I have, but I want to amass the complete sets

Topps Pennant.

I'm assuming there is one card per team.

Topps Bunt.

I have no idea how many different ones were issued.

If you send me at least one card, I'll put your name in a hat for a drawing for this card:

I know, its not a big draw but that's all I got.

Also, whoever sends me the most cards will get a special bonus, but not sure what that will be.

Red Cardboard

Here's just a few of the cards received recently from a trade with Red Cardboard.
I like Red's blog format...team collector, and posts completed team sets like myself.  he titles those team sets "Completely Red", genius in my opinion.  Add him to your blog roll if you haven't already.

1994 Signatures Rookie Authentic Signature Paul Failla #443 of 7750

Drafted in 1994 in the 3rd round out of Notre Dame into the Angels farm system where he played from 94-97 as a SS/INF.

He made a career change in 1998 and decided he had best go back to school.

He then spent a year in arena football, and a year with the Carolina Panthers but failed to record a single stat for either team.  He then played in the XFL the season it folded.

Not sure what Paul does these days.

The last 2013 Heritage I needed for the team set.

Thank you very much.

Look for the Completed Angels Team Set post coming up.

Double-down on 1993 Steve Frey Topps Gold and a solo Scott Lewis.

Like I said, just a sampling of the stack of Angels cards I received.

All good stuff.

Lets Play The 1993 Donruss Triple Play Game Shall We?

Within the box and bags I've gotten recently from the junk mall were a handful of these Triple Play game cards.

I collect game cards when I come across them, as well as sweepstakes, and some promotional cards.

It's a cool little gimmick that were usually randomly inserted into packs, therefore you don't see many of them too often.  I've saved a couple of these for myself, never to be scratched off, at least not in my lifetime.

So basically I'm going to put myself back into 1993 and I'll rub off a base one at a time and we'll see if I would have won a prize.  I had better not!

Here's the official rules for you sticklers out there.

And this is the coin I will be using to scratch off the bases.

Its not illegal to scan a coin is it?

If I was really smart I would have used a 1993 penny instead.

Too late I already scanned this one.

All I have to do is match 2, 3, or 4 areas, 4 being for the Grand Prize!

Here we go.

Starting at first base I uncover a Home Run!

That's got to be a good start.

Wouldn't you think that the card with all 4 matching bases would have Home Run as the label?

I guess Grand Slam would top that though.

But if you read the rules, I should be looking for "Triple Play".

Lame, but that is the name of the card set, so.....

I'm out of the running for the Grand Prize, no trip to the 1993 All-Star Game for me and 3 of my favorite people.

Let's see if I can win the Cap!

On to second base.

Not a match but I still have a chance.

I just need one or two more matches for either the Ground Out or the Home Run to win a prize.

Should I temp fate and jump directly to home plate, skipping third base entirely?

No, I like structure and routine.

So much for structure and routine.

Third base gave me nothing.

Down to my last chance to match just 2 for the prize of 3 packages of 1993 Triple Play (a set I hated by the way).

I think third place prize is much better than the Cap for second place.

Whats funner, ripping 3 packs of cards or wearing a dorky Triple Play Baseball Cap?

I'm hoping I only match two.

Grrrrr!

No prizes for me.

Although I did score two runs and left a man on second.

Thanks for playing along.

Angels Returns From Spring Training

I've sent out maybe a dozen, a few more cards to Spring Training this year.  I usually just send to the Angels or to a random player on an outside chance of getting him to sign a set card for me.  A few have come trickling in so far.  All relatively newbies to the Angels.

Buddy Boshers 2014 Topps Walmart Blue.

19 days from Tempe, AZ.

I recently won Boshers on a certified autograph card on Listia,

but it's always fun getting my own card back signed in the mail.

Boshers is a reliever.

Hector Santiago 2012 Topps.

9 days from Tempe.

Obtained as part of a 3-team trade with the White Sox and Diamondbacks.

Vying for a starting spot this Spring.

Matt Shoemaker 2014 Topps.

16 days from Tempe.

Another pitcher vying for an opening starter position.

There's a bunch this Spring.

1980 Topps Set Need List

1980 Topps Set Needs also posted under OTHER BASEBALL SET tab above.
Trades welcome.

1,2,3,4,5,8,9,13,14,17,22,23,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,36,43,50,52,55,56,60,61,62,65,
67,74,78,82,83,85,87,90,91,94,96,99,
100,101,102,104,106,107,119,120,121,125,130,133,134,135,136,138,144,145,149,
150,154,155,159,162,163,166,170,173,177,179,180,181,187,190,191,192,
201,202,204,205,207,208,209,213,214,215,220,223,224,227,229,233,234,236,241,
242,248,249,252,257,260,264,268,269,273,275,276,278,283,284,288,290,294,295,
297,
301,304,308,309,310,311,313,315,322,323,324,326,332,336,341,344,348,349,350,
351,356,359,361,364,369,370,372,377,378,379,385,386,387A,389,
404,412,413,414,415,416,417,418,421,424,425,426,427,431,433,435,436,437,439,
441,442,444,445,448,450,452,455,457,458,459,463,466,468,470,472,473,474,475,
478,479,481,482,484,490,491,494,495,498,499,
504,508,509,514,515,517,518,519,521,522,523,525,526,530,531,532,533,537,538,
541,543,548,549,550,559,560,562,564,565,567,568,571,574,577,579,582,583,584,
586,591,592,593,594,597,598,
609,611,612,617,620,626,627,630,631,634,637,641,643,646,649,652,654,656,659,
661,662,664,665,666,667,668,669,670,671,672,673,674,675,676,677,678,680,681,
682,683,684,685,691,699,
701,702,705,706,711,716,718,719,720,721,723,724,726.

Okay, A 1979 Topps Need List

Decided I might as well try to collect the set now.  Still need quite a few to get there.
This is posted under the OTHER BASEBALL SET tab above as well.

2,4,5,7,8,17,21,23,24,25,26,27,30,32,33,34,35,39,40,41,47,50,51,55,57,61,62,63,65,
69,72,75,82,88,92,96,98,
101,103,105,106,110,111,112,114,116 Smith RC,118,123,129,136,138,139,141,144,
145,148,149,151,162,164,165,167,168,170,171,172,174,175,176,177,178,188,190,
193,195,197,
200,201,202,203,204,205,208,210,214,215,218,219,220,221,225,226,229,243,244,
246,247,248,249,250,253,254,257,259,260,265,274,275,277,280,281,282,285,286,
288,289,290,292,293,294,297,298,
302,304,310,314,318,319,321,323,328,330,331,332,336,337,341,348,349,350,353,
354,357,361,364,365,366,369A,369B,370,372,376,381,383,387,389,390,391,392,
394,396,398,
400,401,404,407,409,410,411,412,413,414,415,416,418,419,422,424,425,426,428,
430,431,433,434,435,439,440,441,442,444,446,447,448,450,451,452,457,458,463,
465,469,471,473,476,478,479,480,481,482,484,485,490,492,497,498,
500,501,502,504,509,510,511,513,515,517,518,519,521,525,526,527,528,531,532,
534,536,539,540,543,544,545,546,550,551,555,562,564,566,570,571,576,577,578,
582,583,584,585,586,588,589,593,595,597,598,599,
602,603,606,608,609,610,611,614,616,620,621,625,626,629,630,632,634,636,640,
641,643,650,655,657,659,661,662,664,665,666,669,670,672,674,675,676,679,680,
689,691,692,695,698,
700,701,702,704,705,706,707,708,709,712,714,715,716,717,719,722,723,724,725.

Found At The Local Junk Mall (Conclusion) - The Other Ziploc Bag

If you're thinking I found another 2-buck bag, and this time it was filled with 1956 Topps, you'd be wrong.
Partially correct, but wrong.
So read on....

So I went back to the local junk mall the next day after a couple of really great finds.  Call it a hunch, call it a "no regrets" moment, I dunno.  But I went back with another pocket full of quarters, seriously, I paid for all of these cards with quarters I had gathered up and put in my pocket.  I went straight back to the booth with the Ziploc bags.  Didn't bother with the endcap that had the boxes of mixed cards.

I found the two 90's junk bags in a slightly different spot than I had left them the day before.  Instead of on the floor where I had left them they were now on a low shelf.  Had someone else looked them over?  Or better yet, had the owner come back with more, because then I saw a third bag.  Remember I had bought the third bag in the booth yesterday, the 1979 Topps bag.

Here was the new third bag:

1980 LANDSLIDE!!!

Now 1980 Topps is no 1979 Topps, but it's close.  And neither of them are 1974 Topps which I was close to the verge of starting as my new collection, since I recently finished 1983 and just completed 1984.  But 1974 Topps would set me back a bit financially because I only have maybe 25 cards, so although a nice 

goal to have I knew 1974 probably wasn't gonna happen.

Oh yeah, 2-bucks!!

(How many of you are heading to the Antique Mall of Mansfield tomorrow!?)

Here's the count:

A whopping 462 1980 Topps!

1979 Topps - 2

1981 Topps - 1

1981 Donruss - 1

1982 Topps - 7

I'm sure some of these may be dupes, but even so, since I already have about 50-75 1980's already that puts completing this set even closer in reach than the 1979.

Should I undertake both sets at once?

I kinda did the '83 and '84 sets that way so why not.

The two most abused cards both had their left eye sockets destroyed, Carew rather viciously, you can see the creases all leading from the puncture wound.

What was in that child's mind when they did this?

Oh, this piece of work was in there too:

Cut by a righty with a left-handed pair of scissors no doubt.

I'm glad the prior owner of the Ziploc bag decided to include it and not throw it in the trash.

This one will stay with the set.

Most of the cards, like the 1979 bag, were in pretty good shape.

Isn't this card a Biff Pocoroba a beauty?

Will I go back tomorrow?

We'll see.

I might not have enough quarters left!

Found At The Local Junk Mall (Continued) - The Ziploc Bag

After scoring on the 800 count box for 3 bucks, I walked around the junk mall some more and found another dealer that usually has an odd assortment of toys...bags of dirty, sticky action figures, dinged up Hot Wheels, and dusty beat-up Starting Lineups.

This time however, I spotted a couple gallon size Ziploc bags of baseball cards.  I grabbed a bag and immediately knew it was genuinely 90's junk...1990-92 Topps, Donruss, Fleer and Score mostly.  The price tag was 2 bucks.  I floated the cards inside to see if anything cool like a give-away, a scratchoff, or a game card was in there.  No luck.  Not even worth the two bucks...for me at least.

I grabbed another bag with the same type stuff, but this bag was like 6 bucks, so looked a little closer for something special...nope.  Then I grabbed the third bag and saw it was marked 2 bucks as well....

1979 GOLD MINE!!!

I immediately clutched it close to make sure no one walking by would see and therefore make a dive at it or any other like bags that might still be inside the booth.  I floated the cards around inside the bag again and saw a ton of '79 and '80 Topps.

I had to do a double and triple take on the price sticker...surely this is a mistake.

Was it supposed to be $20 and not $2?

Nope, it was definitely a $2 and again here is the receipt to prove it:

Struck by luck twice, I did a quick scan around the booth for any other bags and saw none, so I figured I had better exit with my goods before someone realized what was happening and called it all a big mistake and claimed the bags had all been mis-marked.

I got home and counted out the goods:

1979 Topps - 299

1980 Topps - 57

1981 Topps - 52

1981 Donruss - 36

1981 Fleer - 14

1978 Topps - 7

465 late vintage cards for 2 bucks!

These two cards were by far the worst in the lot.

Some kids baby chewed the Replogle, and someone else just plain doesn't like El Tiante, folding him vertically in half.

A lot of the cards looked like this:

Most of them had minor corner dings and wear, and centering issues but still in great shape.

Now I'm at a crossroads.

Add these 79's to what I already had and I probably have at least half a set.

Do I try to collect the whole set now?

Hmmm.

Well, I went back the next day just to do a discount double check at the above dealers booth.

You won't believe what I found....

Stay tuned.

Found At The Local Junk Mall - The Box

The sign outside says "Antique Mall" but I don't think there actually are any antiques inside. I suppose though it depends on your definition of "antique".  To me it's just a bunch of stuff, or junk really.  Occasionally though I can find a treasure, hence the old saying "Ones Mans Junk..."

I came across a small endcap booth that had some sportscards.  Well, I didn't actually come across it, I knew it was there as it's been there for a while, and it is most often my main mission whenever I visit this junk mall.  Rarely is there anything of value at this endcap but you never know.  Today the dealer had several boxes of miscellaneous mixed sports cards, yellow tagged.

This the box I ended up with.

I think this is like an 800-1000 count box and man it was stuffed.

It's about 16 inches long.

You can see that there are even cards crammed in on the side.

Fortunately I was able to peek inside to see which boxes contained mostly baseball, and the biggest box turned out as such.

Normal asking price was $14.77 but it was marked down to....get this...

3 bucks!

Heck there's probably a lot of crap in there I can't use, like 99% of of it, but it's worth the 3 bucks just to dig through it.  The anticipation of scoring one good card is worth the 3 bucks in pocket change I had on me.

Here is my sales receipt for you nay-sayers out there.

See the "Sale 3-" crazy huh?

Later this week I'll tell you about the "Bag Cards" for 2 bucks...even better!

After sorting the sports together these are the non-baseball ones.  

Maybe about a fifth of the cards in the box were other sports, most of those being basketball.

The vintage of the contents ranged from the mid-to-late 90's till early 2000's and included a nice stack of 1991 Leaf Baseball and 91-92 Upper Deck Basketball.

I was surprised to pull this really good sized stack of Angels out of the box.

Seems there were more Angels than any other team, although there are a bunch of dupes in here.

But even so, I think this box was meant to be, as far as the Angels cards are concerned.

Here's just a few of other cards that interested me:

2002 Upper Deck Authentics John Olerud.

1995 Upper Deck SP #142 and 1995 Topps Cyber Stats #042 Jim Abbott.

1995 Upper Deck SP #159 for the Wally Joyner Collection.

And this interesting odd-ball.

Tony Gwynn on the front and Pudge on the back.

It's got perforated edges on two sides and no date.

There were 3 in the box so I figured a Gwynn or Pudge fan might be interested.

I'll keep whatever Angels I need, and those above except for the Gwynn/Pudge but everything else goes back in the box for giveaway.

I had my 3 bucks worth of excitement, someone else's turn.

The box is available for shipping costs if anyone wants it.

Bob Brower Signed My Cards In Blood

Not really, but he works for Scott Boras as his VP, so I'm sure somewhere along the way a client had to sign in blood.

Brower goes a long way back with Boras, and was one of Boras' first hires when he started his corporation.

Bob used a nice blue sharpie, the sharpie of choice for autograph collectors, in 341 days from his home in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Completed Angels Team Set - 1989 Fleer

Typical to Fleer the Angels cards are both alphabetical  and sequential running from 467-490.

The sole Prospects card is #651 and then the

team checklist #658 completes the base set.

The Angels in the Fleer Update set run from U-11 thru U-17, or Jim Abbott thru Claudell Washington.

The two versions of stickers for 1989 are included as well.

AUTOGRAPHS: Terry Clark, Sherman Corbett, Chuck Finley, Mark McLemore, Johnny Ray.

The backs are nice. 

The "Did You Know?" information is only included on the card if there was enough room on the back.  

If the player had stats longer than about 12 lines the box wouldn't fit.

All the cards however have the Before/After The All Star Break statistics.

And here is the Box bottom card of Wally Joyner.

A little mis-cut but acceptable.

FAVORITE CARD: Card #484 Mark McLemore.

Got this signed in person at The Ballpark a year or so ago.

Mac does some Rangers broadcasting for FSSW.

I Can't Believe He's Gone

Heartbreaking.

Jim Fregosi passed away yesterday.

Oh Man.

Great player, great manager, great guy.

Royals Fan Fest Haul - Even Though I Didn't Go

Zach from Autographed Cards reached out to me a couple weeks ago with an offer I couldn't refuse. He said he would be going to the Royals Fan Fest and wanted to know if I had any cards I needed signed for my autographed sets.  He supplied me with a list of players signing at the Fan Fest, all I had to do was send him the cards.  He didn't ask for anything in return and was just glad to help a fellow blogger out.

WOW!  was my first response to a guy I've never met offering to give up hours of his life to stand in lines to get autographs not for himself but for me. Wow.  So I sent Zach some cards with no expectations but hoping maybe he'd be able to get at least one of them signed for me.

More than at least one came back signed.

Mike MacFarlane for the 1989 Score Rising Stars set.

According to SCN MacFarlane is a spotty signer with a 42% success rate through the mail,

most of those coming by way of Mac-N-Seitz his baseball business with Kevin Seitzer.

I've never even tried him through the mail.

Bill Pecota for the 1992 Topps Stadium Club set.

Pecota has a 0% success rate, which explains the fact that only 18 requests have been logged on SCN.

No sense even trying.

So this is a good one to get, and the only way it could have been got is in person.

Brain McRae twice!

1991 Toys'R"Us and 1991 Upper Deck.

Brian McRae is another that does not sign much TTM, as indicated by a 36% success rate, 

the last success recorded coming in 2012.

Very pleased to get him on 2 sets I'm working.

Another for the 1991 set, Jeff Montgomery.

Ah, a reliable TTMer.  

Montgomery is a prolific TTM signer with a 94% rate, and 421 successes logged.

Jeff also has 1992 Stadium Club card so I may need to send that card to him TTM.

1983 Topps John Wathan.

Wathan has been good at signing through the mail as well.

I sent him an '84 Topps to sign in 2008.  I had traded to get his regular 1983 Topps signed but I still needed this Record Breaker card for the '83 set, a card I didn't have for a long time.  I recently got the card in a trade for a final push to complete the whole '83 (unsigned) set so Zach's timing was perfect in getting it autographed for me.

1983 Topps Ned Yost.

Another card for the '83 set, Yost is also a good TTM signer with a 96% success rate.

1984 Topps Willie Mays Aikens.

The last time I got Aikens, I had to send the card to the penitentiary where he was being held.

That was probably about 8-10 years ago.

I sent him a 1980 Topps, he's in an Angels uniform, and he signed the card in ballpoint, ON THE BACK!

I was shocked and couldn't figure out why he would do that.

Here's that card:

I dunno.  Maybe the facsimile autograph on the front threw him.

Anyhow, Willie is a good signer, but asks for $5 a card now.

Zach mentioned beforehand that a couple of these cards he had gotten signed in person in the past 

and were available to swap out.  Fine by me.

Although I still send TTM, I'm tired of losing cards that I need to complete a set, so I'm hesitant to send even to good TTMers, especially if I only have 1 card of the individual, cuz if it don't come back I no longer have a complete set.  That's why I'm so thankful to get these cards signed through Zach.

I genuinely appreciate the offer and the effort for these cards Zach, Thank you.