Love Me Some Listia

I was able to build up almost 30,00 credits on Listia by the beginning of the calendar year and I am now just about halfway though them.  My most recent purchase was a wax box of 1992 Stadium Club baseball cards that hasn't arrived yet.  I figured, "Why not?"  I love ripping wax and all the better, it's free!

As I wait for the box to arrive, here's a few singles that I was able secure from Listia in the past week.

Vintage!  Hall-of-Famer laden vintage!

Sweet curly cardboard, Batman!  That's some water-damaged vintage.  I'm happy though.  I had a copy of the '69 Topps RBI leaders in my Santo collection and this second copy is earmarked for my Billy Williams collection.  The Fergie is new to me and is also another solid addition to my collection, no matter the condition.




Jim Abbott.  1989 Upper Deck.  Fantastic.

I loved those multi-exposure shots back in the day.  Most non-Cubs cards I pick up with the intent of using as trade bait, but not this beauty.  It's mine, all mine! <insert maniacal laughter>

Thanks for stopping by to check out my most recent editions.

My first 1/1 card, or is it?

I've been checking eBay on a somewhat regular basis with the hopes of snagging by first one-of-one card to add to my collection.  At the beginning of the year I decided this was going to be one of my main collecting goals.

 At the beginning of the month I picked up on eBay what was advertised as, "2013 Panini NSCC Yellow Printing Plate" of Starlin Castro.   Naturally, I assumed it was a 1/1, you know, because it's a printing plate.  They don't make more than one printing plate of each color, right? 

Or do they?

A quick eBay search found me this listing:

Bummer.  I thought I had my first 1/1 card.  Nope, it's a 1 of 5 instead.  At least I didn't pay $19.99 for mine.

Hmph.  We all know what happens when one assumes.  Oh, eBay... you win this round!

Cardboard Catastophes

No, no.  Everything is just fine.  I actually found a new-to-me blogger through Nachos Grande and contacted Jeff about some 2009 Tri-Star Obak I had to help complete his set.  Jeff's blog is name "Cardboard Catastrophes", but his return trade package was anything but.

We'll show of the cards in a second, but first I want to thank Jeff for his overwhelming dedication to this trade.  He wasn't satisfied with what he could offer me in return for the set help, so he asked if I wouldn't mind waiting a little until he could collect a few cards for me.  I was okay with waiting, but I expressed how I would have been happy to just send the cards to him anyway.  He insisted.  Man, the blogosphere community is pretty terrific.

Here's what showed up in my mailbox last week:

A half-dozen Kosuke Fukudome cards from Topps and Upper Deck that date back to 2009. 

But wait, there's one more and it's pretty sweet!

Yep, a 2008 eTopps card!  This one is numbered 841/1199 and is really slick looking.  I so want to crack it out of the case, and I totally would if I didn't already know where to store it.  Yet, it just so happens that I have a Mark Prior eTopps card, which is still in its case, that this Fukudome can keep company.  Oh, and for those of you counting at home, I'm up to seventy-eight different Fukudome cards.  Nice!

Next up, a couple of additions to my Sandberg personal collection.  First, we have a 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game card.  It's a nice horizontal card and it's only my second card of Ryno from 2006.

Last, but certainly not least, Jeff sent me a 2013 Leaf Ryne Sandberg promo card that was only available at this year's National Collectors Convertion.  Yes, I live within 125 miles of this past summer's show.  No, I did not go.   Why?  I'm still not sure why I didn't make more of an effort.

 No matter, this is one sweet looking card.  Leaf did a nice job of avoiding its lack of a MLB license and even a better job of capturing the Chicago skyline that is seen here in the background of the card itself.  It's just gorgeous and an absolute catch for my Sandberg collection, which is now at 686 cards.

Thanks for a great trade, Jeff!  Good luck on completing the rest of the Oback set from '09!

Cubs Magic Number to Avoid 100 Losses Is 0

Last year my Cubs lost 101 games and finished in 5th place for the third consecutive year.  It was a rough year.

This year, with the Astros moving to the American League, we're in 5th place, but now 5th place is known as LAST place.  Yuck.

After last night's win against the oh-so-loveable Pirates the Cubs secured win #63, which means if they don't win the rest of the season the most losses they can suffer would be 99.   Theo Epstein has been quote many times as saying "Progress isn't linear", but I'm hoping we are set to see a steady improvement during the next couple of seasons. 

Perhaps, the Cubs will be knocking on the door of the second Wild Card in 2015?  Hey, anything's possible!

For now, I need to decide what to cheer for next:
A. Make up the 1.5 game difference in the standings behind the Brewers to avoid a 4th consecutive 5th place finish and our first last place finish since 2006.
B. Stay behind the Brewers and hope for a top 5 draft pick in next June's draft.

I guess I wouldn't mind a season in the cellar if we can pick up another player like Javier Baez or Kris Bryant.  Hmmm... that's something to think about...

Well, I've decided. 

For the betterment of the farm system and the hopeful impact at the major league level I'm hoping to see this flag fly atop the Wrigley Field scoreboard for the duration of the 2013 season.

I hope Theo's right.  Hopefully progress isn't linear... maybe it's EXPONENTIAL!

My Angels were In Order, but now they're gone.

I have all my trade bait sorted by team in a 3000 count box... nicely labeled and orderly.  My Angels stack was pretty large and then Tom, from The Angels, In Order, contacted me and now my stash of Angels is quite depleted!

I'm okay with that though, because Tom sent lots of set help my way and some other fun Cubs.  Let's take a look, shall we?

Set help!  I still need just over one hundred cards in my Topps Total set from 2002, but I can cross Mr. Palmeiro off the list.  

I found it pretty cool that Tom was able to knock of the last piece of the Holliday and Halladay puzzles in the 2012 Triple Set.  Only seventeen more cards to go in that one!

Eleven more cards to cross off from the 1994 Fleer set; only about eighty to go!

My seventy-first different Kosuke Fukudome card: 2010 Topps Turkey Red.

 I like that these appear to be painted/sketched.  The cards are pretty sweet looking and it's a set that I'm a little bummed about not completing initially back in 2010.

I'm a big fan of random Cub cards.  Especially those cards that are from sets that I'm not familiar with.   Here we have examples of Fleer Ultra sets from three different years.  Nice!

I also love my Cubs prospects.  Yes, I'm a bit of a prospector, but these days I think most Cubs fans are.  Let's face, there hasn't been much to cheer about in the last five years.

 Above we have some 2012 Bowman Platinum of Trey McNutt, who was the 2010 Cubs minor league pitcher of the year, and Javier Baez, who is a virtual lock for the 2013 Cubs minor league hitter of the year.    I love me some purple parallel platinum (and alliteration)!   The 2013 Bowman Chrome of Gioskar Amaya is certainly welcome in my collection as most of Cubs cards from that set are in my FrankenSet.

Thanks for the trade, Tom.  When I've replenished my stock of Angels I'll be in touch!