Trade with Blog Reader Patrick

Patrick, a blog reader, contacted me about some of my 2012 Topps Archives that I have listed for trade and we hammered out a deal.  For a handful of Archives stickers and cloth cards I received the following haul:

Six base cards of 2012 Topps Opening Day or B.J. Upton, Justin Morneau, Cameron Maybin, Drew Pomeranz, Hanly ramirez, and Brandon Phillips.  

Two more mascot cards to cross off my list for Opening Day as well!

I made a trip to my local card shop today and picked up a good chunk of the rest of Opening Day that I need for my set.  Check out my want list and see if you can help!

Patrick also sent a couple of Short Prints from 2012 Topps Archives.  This set is also slowly coming together as well.  I don't know much about Ed Kranepool, but Jose Oquendo once played all nine positions for the Cardinals in the sames season.   

 Thanks for the trade, Patrick!

Trade with Play at the Plate

Brian, from Play at the Plate, and I struck up a deal where I would send him 200 or so of my Texas Rangers for "whatever they were worth to him."  At the time I was trying to thin my collection and I was glad that the cards would go to a good home.

Yesterday in the mailbox I found a package from Texas.  Let's take a look inside!

All the cards in the package were from the 2012 Topps Archives set.  I'm still working on the short-prints and the reprints.  Six short-prints and two more reprints to cross of the list!

Two great power hitters: 1991 Cecil Fielder and 1988 Jack Clark. 

 A pair of lefties, one sweet swingin' and the other wild throwin': 1992 Sid Bream and 1992 Mitch Williams.

I wish these guys were still playing to help the Orioles reach the playoffs in 2012: 1972 Brooks Robinson and 1980 Ken Singleton.

This 1990 Shawon Dunston was my favorite card in the package.  Hey, I'm a Cubs fan.  Like you didn't see that coming.  But then . . .

. . . there was a 1955 rookie card reprint of Roberto Clemente staring back at me.  Good gracious, that's a pretty cool card.  I, like many collectors out there, love everything Clemente.  The actual 1955 card, in good shape, runs around $5,000, but this five dollar version is quite spectacular and it's going in my keeper album for sure.  I'll have to track down another for my Archives set!

Thanks for a great trade, Brian!  I couldn't be happier!

Topps Archives 2012 Box #2

I was able to pick up a retail box for much cheaper than the hobby box I first ripped open.  There were no guarantees of autographs in this one, and I was okay with that after my haul on the first box.  I did pull a Jimmy Rollins jersey card in the mold of 1956 Topps.  Pretty nice looking card overall.

I'm attempting to complete two base sets (1-200), one short print set (201-240), and the Archives reprints set.  All of my remaining inserts and base cards will become trade fodder to help reach my set collecting goals.

Matt, over at Once A Cub, taught me how to how to use the "tabs" underneath the blog's header.  Thanks for the help, Matt!  Within the tabs you'll find many of my set collecting needs, as well as my Archives trade bait.  I'm hoping  to find good homes for many of the cards before I resort to eBay.  Please take a look and shoot me an e-mail!

Topps Archives 2012 Box #1

I admit I'm a slow box breaker.  I know it's summer and I'm on vacation, but one's hobby shouldn't always take priority over family, friends, and adult responsibilities.  Not a big fan of the last one, thus my hobby of choice:  baseball cards!

I bought my first box of 2012 Topps Archives on the day of the product's release from my local card shop.  I told Randy, the owner who I have known for years, to pick me out a good box.  I happily paid, sat the box in the man room, and didn't touch it for nearly a week.  Yikes!  I started ripping yesterday and I finished early this morning. I would have posted earlier, but I had to take a drive back to my LCS to show off my haul to Randy and thank him for selecting the THAT particular box for me.  Randy asked me the following: "So what are you going to do with it?"

It?  Yeah, I'm one of the lucky ones.  Scroll on down to see what "it" is.

First the weird floating head stickers of Ian Kennedy, Jose Bautista, and Adrian Gonzalez:

Next, 3D cards of Babe, Matt Kemp, and Willie Mays:

Cloth stickers of Mr. October, George Brett, and recent injured Roy Halladay:

These are my first deckle edge cards.  I didn't even know what a deckle edge was until literally two weeks ago when I was asked to help pick out graduation announcements for the class of 2013.  I guess deckle edge is popular amongst graduates.  I give you Yaz and Ichiro:

Here are the reprints, which I think I'm going to chase:

Rainbow gold foil of Johnny Cueto and Lucas Duda:

Mickey Lolich and Frank Howard, my two Fan Favorites Autographs:

And lastly, the card that was foreshadowed at the beginning of the post.  The odds of pulling it are one out of 1,685 packs opened.  The card has sold on eBay for as little as $285 and as much as $455.  Yes, in case you were wondering, I did a victory lap around the house this morning after opening the pack.  Yu Darvish, on card autograph.  Nice.

This card will more than likely go up on eBay in the upcoming days unless someone has a different suggestion that seems logical and lucrative.  I've only sold one thing on eBay and I did okay the first time, so why not again?

Mail Day Tuesday

Kyle from Just a Bit Outside sponsored a two-box break of 2012 Topps Archives.  I was too late to jump in and claim my Cubs, so I ponied up the very modest fee and snagged the Rockies.

The Rockies?  Yep.  The Rockies.

I'm currently in the process of planning my summer baseball trip, which just so happens to be centered around a few free nights of lodging in Golden, Colorado courtesy of my sister-in-law and her husband.  I'm still working on my 1978 Topps set and I've posted recently (and will again) about my Archives set.  Hopefully, I can track down a couple of local Colorado card shops that would be willing to trade to help me out on my sets.  Another item to add to my travel itinerary!

Here's the Rockies from the two-box break.  He also sent a couple of Cubs, which were greatly appreciated as always!

Topps Archives 2012

I try to hold myself to collecting only one baseball card set each year.  This year I'm going to complete the 2012 Topps Archives set.  I'm not sure if I'll chase all of the insert sets, but definitely the base and all of the Cubs.

I already have one 24 pack box in my possession and another is on it's way.  To kick things off I picked up a blaster the other day and just ripped open the eight packs in front of the Cubs game.  They were losing by two runs by the time I finished opening the packs, but have since tied the score now that I've left the room to download pictures and write this post.  Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned here?   Heck, I won't return to the television for the rest of the game if it helps them break this ridiculous 10 game losing streak!

From the eight packs, of eight cards each, I pulled 9 Yankee and NOT ONE Cub.  Yuck.
Here's the haul.

Roy Halladay sticker and 3D Mickey Mantle:

Robin Yount and Andrew McCutchen cloth stickers:

Gold Marco Scutaro and Trow Tulowitzki "in action":

 Reprints of an '84 Tony Gwynn and '83 Wade Boggs:

Two short-printed cards of an '82 Bill Madlock and '92 Jim Abbott:

Lastly, a couple of base cards that took the sting out of not pulling one Cub.  Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente are two of the all-time greats I wish I could have seen play in person.  These would be two cards that I wouldn't mind pulling duplicates of down the road.  Kudos to whoever in the Topps design department worked on that sweet looking Robinson.

Stay tuned as I try to build the set!  At some point I'll get a "want list" and a "for trade" list up on the blog as well, but I'm waiting on my second box to arrive first.