Pack Wars: Zippy Zappy Style

I haven't been in the mood to post much as of late.  But, in the mail today I found a PWE from everybody's favorite Zipster. 

 What was inside?  Hah!  A full pack of cards!

Nothing like another edition of "Pack Wars" to get the blogging juices flowing again!

On the left, weighing in at a purported 4 cards, we have a repack of 2013 Panini Prizm Draft Picks from Zippy Zappy. 

On the right, we have my second AND last pack of 2014 Topps flagship that I have purchased.

Zippy Zappy's repacks always pack a punch, so we'll pit three Topps cards against 1 Zipster card.  The last Topps card, the insert in this case, will face the final Zippy Zappy card in the last round.

Here we go!  Round 1:

The Pack War is off to a rough start.  Not much star power from either side, unless you count Matt Holliday.  Holliday's a Cardinal though and if anything he brings negative value to Topps' effort.

Zippy Zappy's repack takes the early lead because of Cardinal card. 
Zipster: 1
Topps: 0

On to Round 2!

Wait, there's been a change of plans.  The insert is a little thick and there's only 8 cards in the pack.  The Zippy Zappy pack catches a break and now it only has to face two cards in each of the next two rounds, but Round 4 could be a doozy!

 Charlie Morton?  Nope, no value added to the pack.  But we do have an awesome shot of Jeter and Pettitte taking out Mariano Rivera to a standing ovation in front of the Yankee Stadium faithful.  What a great card.  I have about 10 to 15 cards from each team that make me smile.  This one joins them.

 The Zippy Zappy card?  An Upper Deck card commemorating the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. This card will definitely find a home in my binders as I have a whole page of Wrigley Field cards.  Yet, being binder worthy isn't enough to steal a victory this time.  I like the Rivera card that much.

Topps retaliates. 
Zipster: 1
Topps:1
 Round 3!

Two men wearing the tools of ignorance versus the 304th different addition to my Kerry Wood collection:

If I were PATP this one might be scored differently.  The judges had already made their decision when they discovered the back of the card was serial numbered!  Bonus!

Zippy Zappy is back on top! 
Zipster: 2
Topps: 1
 The final round pits the thick Topps insert versus vintage!

Career wise, I don't think there's much of a comparison here.  But this 1957 card of Jackie Collum is only the third '57 in my collection.  Tom Seaver?  Yeah, he was on the 1969 Miracle Mets that stole the pennant away from my Cubs, a negative for sure.  But, man, he was a darn good pitcher, and Collum spent most of his career as a Cardinal.  On the other hand, the vintage has rounded corners and nice crease through it (visible to the left of Collum's elbow).  Both are pluses in my book, especially on a card that will soon be 60 years old.
Why is the "Before They Were Great" cards on really thick card stock?  This doesn't make sense to me.  Now I have to go track down a larger top loader.  Sigh.  That one has tipped the scales...

The Zappy Zappy pack scores the last tally, because of the cardstock conundrum.
Final Score:
Zipster: 3
Topps: 1

Thank you, Zippy Zappy!  A Pack War was just what I needed!

My First Three-way

Hey, whoa now!  This is a family blog!

One of my New Year's resolutions from 2013 was to add a 1-of-1 card to my collection.  Thorzul offered up a printing plate for trade and I was all a flutter.  I figured I would pull some cool Brewers mojo and it would be an easy swap.  Three hundred sixty-five days later and the printing plate still calls Illinois' hat its home.  Sigh...  I suppose it serves me right for calling Wisconsin a hat. 

Wes, of PWE fame, chimed in and the beginnings of a three-way trade was born!  I dropped a small brick of '13 Topps flagship and another brick of '89 Pro Set set needs on Thorzul and presto!

Look what appeared in my mailbox the other day! A 1-of-1 printing plate!

Alfonso Soriano's stay in Chicago was a bit tumultuous at times, but I feel like the front office did a great spin job during the last 18 months of his tenure.  Most Cubs fans, I hope, will remember Soriano as a veteran leader who worked hard to improve his value (especially defensively) to the team, rather than a guy with an albatross of a contract.

For some reason I thought all printing plates were blank on the back.  Not only is this one not blank, but it's in color!  Craziness is afoot.

I'm not sure what Wes sent Thorzul as part of the three-way deal, but I have a feeling I have some work ahead to make things square.

To think, during the first two years of my blog I didn't have one 1-of-1 card in my collection, and now I've added a second during the first few months of the new year.

Thanks again, fellas!

Cards from the Skybox

Hey, I finally found a Royals fan to trade with!  Man, now if only a Marlins fan would step out of the shadows.

Chris, from View from the Skybox, sent me a return trade package that arrived last week.  I sent him some Royals goodness a little while back and he more than returned the favor.

Let's dive in!

Woo-Hoo!  A new Hawk for my mini player collection!

 A shiny red parallel of Ryan Sweeney.  This one's going to Arizona with me later this month.  Sweeney's signature across the front of this would look pretty sweet.

 Matt Stairs and Bobby Scales were two guys I cheered hard for while they were with the Cubs.  Stairs seemed like a fun loving baseball guy and Scales was a substitute teacher in the off season. 

 I love this shot of Mark Grace.  Gracie always had tremendous strike zone judgement and bat control.  He never hit for much power, but he was a great hitter.

 A die-cut card of D-Lee!  Derrek was another one of the super good guys in baseball.

 Ohhhhh!  Autograph mojo of Tayler Scott.  If Tayler makes it to the Majors, then he will be the first Cub to be born in South Africa. 

Side note: I like the way he signs his "T".  It looks like an upside down check mark.  I may have to consider working that into my signature.

A blurry blue Darwin Barney relic!  I don't have much in the way of Darwin's cards, but this is a fine blue jersey swatch which definitely has a place in my collection.

 The package also included a vintage-esque Cub, a Cub who took steroids, a Cub who left Chicago to play in Japan, the best Cub thirdbaseman since Ron Santo...  alight, I could go on, but this is getting kind of ridiculous.  Let's just sum it up by saying that Chris didn't disappoint! 

Thanks for the trade, Chris!

A PWE from the Serial Insanity Collector

A good while back I sent Robert, author of the fun $30 a Week Habit blog, some cards for his Serial Insanity set.  I don't remember which cards I sent exactly or how many, but it must have been something nice, because I received the following in the mail this week:

 2014 Topps Inserts!  The Maddux is new to me and I'm pretty happy to have it, although I'm not his biggest fan.  I really do like the look of the "Upper Class" inserts.  Topps did a nice job there.

The Ernie Banks is a duplicate, even though Topps Series 1 came out less than a month ago.  Hehe, I don't waste any time when new product is out!  No problem though, because I've been patiently waiting to snag a second copy so that I can encase one in epoxy resin as a homemade coaster.  I had an order of four coasters placed last fall which I'm still trying to fill, and now I only need one more mini and I'll be ready to get started.

Thanks for the cards, Robert!  Good luck on your Serial Insanity set this year!

Baseball Gifts from Friends

I received a couple of nice gifts last week and I'd like to show them off. 

Pat, another math teacher across the hall from me, dropped in early one morning and said, "All the calendars of the good teams were gone, but this one was discounted so I picked it up for you."

Yes, there's a bit of a Cub vs. Cardinal rivalry at work, but that's to be expected here in P-Town.

I had last year's desk calendar and now I can flip through the last ten months of the 2014 version.  Thanks, Pat!

Also, last Friday I stopped by my buddy Jim's house and we played some Strat-o-matic.  He told me all about his week long trip to Arizona, back in January, where he participated in the Randy Hundley's Fantasy Camp.

Jim's a great story-teller and painted some beautiful scenes. From what it sounds like, his team was the first to play on the new spring training field in Mesa!  How awesome is that?

At the end of the evening he gave me three baseballs:

 

Bobby Howry, #62, was a last minute replacement as one of the team's managers.  From what Jim said it sounds as though Bobby, who was a rookie this year at the camp, may be hooked!  I always enjoyed Howry when he was with Cubs, which was during the last two winning seasons the franchise has had (2007 & 2008).

Rick Reuschel!  I feel like Reuschel would be more well known if he didn't play for all of those really poor Cubs teams of the 70s. Heck, Reuschel was even a 20 game winner on a 0.500 Cub team in 1977.

Last, but not least, Fergie Jenkins!  Fergie even wrote down what year he was enshrined at Cooperstown.  Pretty sweet!  That's some serious HOF mojo!

What a great gift!  Thanks Jim!