Stadium Club For The Win

I miss blogging. 

There are things I would like to discuss: Vogelbach is now playing his home games in Buffalo?

There are cards I should be posting: the Vogelbach collection is still growing with Topps Chrome parallels.

Blogging, if even a quick post, wasn't in my plans this evening.

But, then I saw this 2020 Stadium Club offering on Ebay:

Holy smokes.  

The framing, the camera angle, the bat weight, the seating in the background. 

The VOGELMONSTER. 

This card, for most collectors, would be considered an auto checklist "filler." 

Fine. Whatever. Send them all to me. 

All. Of. Them. 

Cardboard Emotions

 I'm not sure about you, but when I reach into the mailbox I can have any number of emotions wash over me. For instance, my inner child is very much Oscar Azocar when an expected trade package arrives.

I had a PWE land in the mailbox the other day which left me more like Bret Saberhagen:

It was the unexpected variety of PWE, which often gives me pause. 

Then when I ripped it open I found a note.

The note left me all like John Wettleland:

Actually, I'm pretty sure I made that same face after reading Jeff's note.

Shortly after I was down in the card room flipping through the contents and I felt like a big fan boy, or Mickey Hatcher in this case. Gosh, I love fun cardboard!

The cards Jeff, from Wax Pack Wonders, sent me where very much en fuego 🔥🔥🔥, much like the Mickey's "hot foot" on the back of the very same card above. 

Sometimes the contents of a PWE or bubble mailer leaves me feeling like I'm a pretty big deal, like Mark Portugal.

Then I remember all those breakers with their fancy YouTube videos and BIG HITS and that puts me back in my proper place. 

I doubt very much I'll every need a camera like Doug Jones' or Bully Ripken's in my little corner of the hobby world. My trusty iPhone seems to do just fine for the blog.

My little corner is full of cards with guys wearing two gloves and players snuggling up to their bats.

And, I wouldn't change a thing.

Thanks for the much appreciated PWE, Jeff!

Going Back for Thirds (More Pancakes)

 I'm wondering if Wes is playing the slow game here.  I had my first helping of pancakes nearly a month ago and then a second helping came about ten days later. 

I've never been shy about seconds or thirds at the dinner table and my family often pointed out that I must have had a hollow leg to consume so much food during my high school years. 

This time Wes offered up a serial numbered Corey Patterson as the main course. Most Excellent!

I'll gladly take a third helping. Thanks, Wes!

The Beauty of Turkey Red

 Seriously, aren't this year's Turkey Red cards just down right gorgeous? The nameplate and the framing of the card is nothing new, but the backgrounds this year have me doing double and triple takes. 

Peter, of Baseball Every Night lore, just sent me eleven new Ryne Sandberg cards the other day, but I guess this pair showed up right after he sent out the initial package. Nothing like a PWE chaser!

Thanks again, Peter!

Set Building within the Blogs & another Utz

 Rod, from Padrographs, decided to build his first set since 1989 and he chose my favorite of the year. I suppose that means I have exceptional taste! 

If you'd like to help Rod with his quest here is his want list.  I did my best to knock a chunk of cards from his list and he turned the favor with these gems to help with my set build.

I'm not sure I understand the Roll Call insert set, but I do like how the players are all pumped up on them. This Arenado is a good illustration of the energy I'm talking about. 

This is the last Flipping Out insert I need for my master set build. 

Rod was also kind enough to send along this gold parallel of Willson Contreras. Most excellent!

Thanks for the set help, Rod!

A fellow Illinoisan lucked into a 2020 Utz Vogelbach. I blogged about the addition of this card to my collection a little while back, but I'll never turn away a food issue oddball of the VOGELMONSTER. 

Richard has access to a Jewel (grocery store), which carries Utz, and I'm pretty jealous. I'm tickled he thought of me and send this one my way. Thanks, Richard!

Topping the 1K Ryno Mark

Just when I was contemplating making another Sportlots purchase to push my Ryne Sandberg count over the thousand card threshold a mailer arrived at my doorstep. 

Peter, the proprietor of Baseball Every Night, rounded up a dozen cards and forwarded them my way. Lots of Sandberg cards coming... you've been warned!

Topps Marquee starts things off with a nice double dip. 

Topps Museum is fancy and I appreciate a good base running photo. 

Marquee, Museum and now Topps Tribute? Peter went all high class on me here.

A mustachioed Sandberg in front of the ivy. This artwork must be based off the Ryno's flavor saver from early in 1987. 

Greats of the Game, from Fleer, was a great set idea. I would totally buy a box of this or two if there was a modern day iteration. 

In a similar vein as Greats of the Game, Donruss had Team Heroes, which I believe only lasted one year. 

I had one of these Baseball Heroes cards in my collection, but I had no idea there were two more. Nice!

2002 Topps Tribute sure does photograph well!

This is the 2001 Topps Through the Years insert, which just shows Topps has been paying homage to its own designs for at least two decades now. 

Here it is, this is card number 1,000 in my Ryne Sandberg collection. 

I suppose I could have chosen any of the above cards to be the milestone card, but I gave this one preferential treatment because it glows in the dark. Behold:

Here's the lone non-Ryno card in the package, but I think it sums up how I feel about reaching the 1,000 mark. 

For what it's worth, my first pass through the hobby was from 1988 through 1994 and the first card in my collection was the 1988 Topps Glossy All-Star card of Ryne Sandberg, which came one per every rack pack. I added another 750-ish unique Sandberg cards before school, sports and girls put my cardboard hobby on the back burner. I returned to the hobby in 2009 and I've slowly finished the countdown to 1,000 over the last 11 years with help from fifty-one different bloggers. In fact, Peter has contributed thirty-two Sandberg cards to my binders just by himself.  Very cool.

Thanks for help, Peter!    

Adding a Case Hit to the Collection

In this year's edition of Donruss a foil-board insert, titled Divisions, was inserted into the Panini product at a rate of one per case. 

My guy, Dan Vogelbach, was the Seattle representative for the AL West. How 'bout that! 

Let's do a little math!  A case of 2020 Donruss contains 16 boxes, and box holds 24 packs. Adding to the rareness of this card is the fact the AL West is one of six divisions, which means the card shows up in every sixth case of cards. So, 16 x 24 x 6 = 2,304.  What does that number mean exactly?  Well, if you walk into a hobby store and purchase one pack of Donruss, then there is a one out of 2,304 chance this card will fall out of it. Not great odds. 

Yes, on top of how rare it is, I've also been in competition for securing this card with team and player collectors. Other hobby enthusiasts have been chasing the card because it also has features Mike Trout, Jose Altuve, Joey Gallo and Khris Davis.

The "Buy It Now" options on Ebay are not cheap, but I was the final bidder on a recent auction and I got a heck of a deal!

This beauty set me back the cost of two hobby packs, which is much cheaper than buying 2,304 packs. 

Patience for the win!

The Joy of a Complete Page

Normally, parallels aren't really my thing, but when there are multiple colored versions of a Vogelbach card all bets are off. 

2020 Bowman has been out for a few months now, but I didn't like the prices on the gold version on Ebay. Eventually, as you can see below, I found one to my liking and I struck. 

I think this page really pops with all of the color. And if I'm honest I think I prefer "paper" Bowman parallels to the Bowman Chrome parallels. The shininess makes it difficult to take in the colors!

Are you are parallel chaser? And if so, what do you chase?

The Cards Before The Storm

I realize the old saying is, "The calm before the storm," but this is a blog about cats baseball and cardboard with uniformed men playing the game they love.

So, yeah, you get the title above. 

The storm? Well, that would be the upcoming school year. I'm just going to leave it at that. We all have outr own takes on Covid-19, masks, social distancing, quarantining, politics, and the pandemic in general. I'm not here to get into that. If you would, just wish me luck when we start up on August 13th.  

The package Hugo chose to use as his napping grounds contains the cards in this post. Needless to say, I didn't rip into this yellow mailer sent from Dimebox Nick right away. I'm sure you've heard of this old saying as well, "Let sleeping dogs cats lie."

Nick, who is one of my favorite bloggers, always sends great trade packages. 

Shame on me for thinking he would only send the Big League cards. Not sure where my head has been lately.

The Defensive Wizards Javy Baez card is otherworldly, but I think a photo of him applying one of his famous tags would have been so much cooler.

Insert help. That deserves a big Woo-Hoo!

This is my favorite Big League card from the trade package. A catcher in full gear adjusting his shin guards. What a unique photo.

Alright, we're going picture heavy here on the rest of the package. Remember, Nick wrote that he hoped at least a handful would be useful. Ha! There was only three duplicates out of three jam-packed team bags, and one of them was a Vogelmonster. (So, let's just say there were only two cards that'll go in the duplicate stack.) Quite impressive!

I actually have a saved Ebay search for the 1999 Old Style Cubs set. I will take singles any day of the week!

Bruce Sutter!  The photos are quire similar even if the uniforms are different. 

Fergie! The Sport King Gum is a winner for sure!

Randy Hundley deserves more cardboard. I would love for him to be included in Topps' Archives Signature Series. That product is always full of good, but not great, names from the past. 

I think every Ken Holtzman card in my collection has him making the face on the right. So glad to get a smiling Holtzman finally!

Here's the back of the playing card if you were curious.

Vintage Santo! You know you love to see it!

Here's some other great Cubs names from yesteryear. 

Bill Buckner on a Topps rub-off!  So much facial hair!

Ah, 1985 Topps designs. Now I have the regular edition, the O-Pee-Chee and the Tiffany.

Here's proof it's Topps Tiffany. I really enjoyed the bright colors Tiffany and the boxed Topps Traded sets used on the card backs. 

Ryno! This one gets me one closer to 1,000 unique Rynos. I'm now just ten away. 

The Hawk! 

This Shawon Dunston (and Junior) card was just added to my Folder of Fun.

Shooter in a Cubs uniform. Yes!

Shooter in a minor league Giants uniform? Weird, but a winner! For the record, I do have a Rod Beck Player collection.

Nomar and Dontrelle... they were exciting players in their primes (not with the Cubs so much).

Kid K! I'm debating if I should shoot for 1,000 Kerry Wood cards. I'm thinking no, but the cost of his singles aren't prohibitive if I change my mind.

This is my third D-Lee hit in less that three weeks time. I can't argue with that!

I think this is my first Nicholas Castellanos card in a Cubs uniform. Definitely a keeper for my collection.

Wasn't this an online only release? Nick treats me so good.

Here's a couple more cards for my Wrigley Field Folder. I have three pages of Wrigley cards in the folder so far and somehow Nick managed to send ones I don't already have copies of. 

I've heard a couple of bloggers mention how this could be their favorite insert set of the year. I'll admit, Spring has Sprung is pretty good. 

Caratini has become an integral part of the Cubs roster in 2020. 

Schwarber!  Yes!

KB!

Lots of Rizzo!

The Kellogg's card of Billy Williams is a sweet looking lenticular card. 

Ernie and more Kellogg's!

You can never have too much Mr. Cub!

Nick, I'm not sure where you find some much great Cubs cardboard, but this package was truly a treat!  I'll start making a new pile to send your way, because I certainly owe you after receiving this haul! Thank so much!