Value Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

My father has offered me plenty of good advice over the years, but one statement seems to hold more truth than the rest when it comes to my hobby: "Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it."

I got in touch with Corky, one of the blogging Ken Griffey, Jr. fans, through e-mail about a trade. Contained within the cards I purchased at an estate this spring I had about fifty cards of junior, which is way more than what I would know what to do with. I checked Corky's Zistle lists and found a nice stack I could send to him, which you can see on his blog, Pack War.

I didn't think the cards would net much on the open market, but I thought they might make a Griffey collector happy. All I asked was that he only send back what he thought was fair. I obviously have undervalued the prices of Griffey's cards all of this time, because the return was phenomenal!

Let's start off with Hall of Famer Hack Wilson!

 This card is from the 1961 Fleer Greats set and is ticketed for my Cubs FrankenSet. I love those stirrups/socks!

1961 not old enough for you?  How about 1933 Goudey? How did I not know that Goudey cards were printed in Canada AND had French on the back? I'll have to check, but I think this might be my first 1933 Goudey!

Mark Koenig played the role of utility infielder for the Cubs in 1932 and he batted a lofty 0.353 in 102 at-bats. Very nice!

 These two will go in my Cubs Hall of Fame Binder and boost the collection totals of Wilson and Ron Santo.

Kyuji Fujikawa was a favorite at WTNY headquarters and The Hawk always will be.

Speaking of favorites...

 RIZZZZZZZZO!  Too many of his cards have a photo similar to the one the GQ card. I really like Donruss picture selection.

A purple Bowman Platinum Javier Baez?  Yes, please!

Corky also sent a few Rynos my way. I had both of these two already, but I love-love-love the sketch card and will find something cool to do with it. Shiny diecuts?  Heck yeah!  Maybe I can make a coaster out of that card? I've already done it once, but gave the last one away to a friend.

Here's a new Ryno for my player collection!  Weren't 90's inserts the best?  That's the 811th different Sandberg in my collection.

Here comes the really thoughtful part of the package. My Kosuke Fukudome collection really stalled in 2015 and 2016 as I was stuck at just over 130 unique cards in the collection.  Now I'm at 150, on the nose thanks to this trade!

 Fukudome never really performed at the level I thought he would, but I would gladly take his production during any one of his first three seasons in Chicago over what Jason Heyward has provided to this point.

 Actually, Fukudome's patience and left-handed stick would fit really well in this year's Cubs lineup.

 HELLO! A 2001 Baseball Magazine card of Fukodome!  He had just finished his second season with the Chunichi and was the Dragons starting shortstop.  Yes, you read that correctly! He was a shortstop!

Here are a couple more cards from 2002.  I now have thirty-four cards of Fukudome produced by either Baseball Magazine, Calbee or Konami.

This next card is from the 2006 Flair Showcase World Baseball Classic set. It was completely off my radar and I'm so happy Corky included this card in the package.

 Here are Fukudome's first Bowman cards from 2008.

This one is from the 2008 A&G set, which is shown above, but I found an error on the back.

 If you take his career hits and divide by his career at-bats total, then Fukudome should be have a career batting average of 1.648.  Obviously, the at-bat total must be wrong.

 Lastly, a serial numbered card (64/99) with a sweet three colored "game patch" was included in the trade package. I'm assuming this piece of jersey is from a letter on the front?  Maybe the bottom left of the letter C?

 I'm a bigger fan of relics than most, but I'm of the belief that plain white or gray really don't have a place in anyone's collection. Multi-colored is where it's at!

See what I mean about the return? Who would have thought a stack of Griffey cards would net such a generous return?  Eye of the Beholder...  my dad is a wise man.

There's one more card I have yet to show, but that will be coming in a post later this week.

Thanks for the great batch of cards, Corky.  You really went above and beyond!

Chipmunk Contest Update #4

Our three cats have been on the look out for critters, but things have really slowed down in the backyard.

 

I haven't caught a chipmunk in a week, but I do have a ninja-like cardinal sneaking peanuts from the trap just about every day. Also, I've caught four sparrows now, which obviously need to take lessons from the cautious cardinal.



There are at least two raccoons left in my neighborhood, but they haven't been back in the last few nights. They must have found a better feeding area.  I hope they stay away for the time being, because there's been a new development . . .

Holy Cow! 

 My in-laws had their backyard ravaged by something one night and I'm taking the coon trap up north to try to help them out. What in the world could have done that to their lawn? 

I'm not done trapping the masked marauders, but things are on hold at least for a month or so.

Raccoon #8

  
Here are your links to what has been trapped since my last post. 

Bird #4

Chipmunk #34

Raccoon #5

Raccoon #6

Raccoon #7

Raccoon #8


Here are your updated standings:

List of ALL 33 Entries:    (chipmunks, others, Cubs Wins, blogger)
5             3             69           irondequoit36
8             13           74           Tony L.
10           5             77           Stealing Home

12           7             79           JediJeff

13           3             81           Adam Kaningher

13           8             82           The Angels in Order

18           6             75           Mark Hoyle

22           2             79           Matthew Scott

26           6             76           Play at the Plate

27           4             75           Al Kawamoto

28           5             76           Nick

31           1             69           The Lost Collector

34           13           61          CURRENT NUMBERS (70 win pace)

34           7             81           Daniel Wilson (currently sitting in the winning spot!)

35           4             85           John Hazen

36           8             77           Jupiterhill

36           9             74           Swing And a Pop-up

37           3             77           Jane

37           8             107         B Man

38           3             71           jaybarkerfan

39           6             70           gcrl

42           5             78           Nachos Grande

42           6             83           CaptKirk42

44           4             74           KO Rob

47           3             76           Captain Canuck

49           4             80           Sport Card Collectors

49           9             78           Once A Cub

50           4             70           Fuji

52           4             79           RAZ

52           5             75           Adam Sanders

53           4             75           Wilson

55           3             81           Corky

61           12           79           defgav

74           3             74           Jeff

The contest will continue until August 15, which allows for about two more weeks of trapping, but this will probably be the last update unless things pick up again.

Thanks for reading!

Mark Grace Over Will Clark? Hmmm...

Five days of softball tryouts in the heat and humidity have really sapped my energy this week. So, here's another trade wrap-up, with minimal commentary.  This one comes from Daniel, the author of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop, who lives in the great state of Arizona. I could use some of that dry heat right about now.  There wasn't any to be found in the trade package though. 

Enjoy the pictures!

 Thank you, Daniel!

 Hey, look at that! I'm not the only one who pens notes on the back of old team calendars.  Cool.

I miss Luis Valbuena, but that Kris Bryant character was a decent upgrade.

  Die-cut alert!  Love me some Matt Clement!

I don't love me some Michael Barrett, but this is when I realized nearly the entire package was chocked full of parallels and serial numbered cards.

 Almost a Christmas card!

"Splendid Splinters" is a very appropriate title for this card, which is super thick and has a wood finish on the front.

 Mark Prior.  What could have been.  Sigh.

More serial numbered cards!

 Matt Bruback and Jon Leicester on the right, because I know you NEEDED to know.

Sammy, numbered out of 46?  Um, okay.  That's a random number.

 Gracey!  I took two pictures, one with the flash and one without so you could see the beauty of this card.

 The back of the card had this little entry:

 

 Grace was drafted in the 24th round. Hmmm... I'd take Randy Johnson's career over Grace's... maybe Will Clark...  but, that would probably be it.  How about you?
(For the record, Barry Bonds and Barry Larkin were also drafted in the first round. Why would Topps leave them off?)

Ramy!  He actually looks older in the Pittsburgh picture, but this card is dated 2006.

 So, that's not a picture of ARam from his swan song with the Pirates in 2015.

We'll finish this one with a nice Addy mini from last year's Allen and Ginter set.

Nice looking card of a good player who will hopefully only keep getting better.

Thanks for the return package, Daniel!

Wait. I won something?

Isn't it great when you win a contest but forget about it?  I know I enter a bunch, because the cardsphere is pretty flush with giveaways at times, but I'm usually on the outside looking in.  So, I guess I just assume that I lose every time.

 This time was different though, because I won AND I commented in that post.

 But I still forgot.  My mind is obviously slipping.

  The above cards were are contest winnings from BWTP. Matt has to be one of the most generous bloggers out there, right? I mean, hey, he once took on the great JBF and lived to tell about it! That alone should put him in the Top 5 of all time. #BOAT

The Prior is numbered to 25. (No Gavin, it's not a Christmas card.) The Lester is my first Topps acetate card and is numbered 09/10. I actually think the back looks cooler than the front, but I like my Jon Lester to be lefthanded.

The Addison Russell, from his Oakland days, is numbered to 199 and is my favorite from this prize package. I have long been watching Addy's autos on Ebay and just have never pulled he trigger. Of the Cubs regular starters, Addison was the last guy I needed an autograph from. Now I can check that one off my list!

 Thanks for the contest and the great cards, BWTP!

P.S. - Happy Bday to my sis!

I Thought Jedi Only Used Light Sabers?

I don't know the story behind JediJeff's handle, but knowing his blog personality I'm sure it's a fun one. Maybe he is strong with the force?
Anyway, this Jedi bought a blaster and found a Willie inside. (That was a weird sentence.)

So I have a nice start to a Panini Golden Age set... which I may or may not purse...

 Some nice miiiiiinnnnnniiiis!

 And a Willie Nelson relic!  Willie was my grandmother's favorite music artist, so this card will go in a special box with the other big hits.

I think I've overlooked Golden Age.  I like these little bits of history they have thrown in.

 Josh Gibson was a beast and I'm happy to add this one to my collection.

 More Panini, but this time it's in the form of Hometown Heroes. I've completed this set, but I didn't have the Moreland state parallel card.

 VOGELMONSTER! Man, is someone chopping up onions in here?

Seriously, stop with the onions already.

Here's a couple of nice cards for my Sandberg, Kieschnick and Wood player collections.

 And we finish off the yellow padded mailer with a horizontal Brian McRae, a Bowman insert of Jerome Walton, and a nice piece of vintage in the form of Merritt Ranew.

 McRae and Merritt have a better than good chance at making it into my Cubs FrankenSet. McRae was a favorite and vintage cards are severely underrepresented in my FrankenSet. I don't believe the Walton card has a number, so it'll find a home in a Cubs box somewhere.

Thanks for the Willie, the Golden Age and the sweet assortment of Cubs, JediJeff!  Good luck to your Sox in the rest of the Crosstown Classic!