I promise I didn't disappear...

When I started this blog, I knew it would be a time crunch (not unlike the current roster crunch for the Cubs), but I didn't know that it would be this difficult to find time to blog.

As the stacks of cards came in, I planned on not booking them until I got a post up about them, to thank the traders that welcomed me to the community.  I feel terrible that it has taken this long for me to properly thank all the great collectors around here, and have finally found the time to do so.

Over the next several days, I plan catch up on trade posts.  They won't be terribly long write ups, but where notes were made, I'll be sure to include what cards helped with my all time Cubs collection, as well as favorites from each package.  In the future I hope to do longer, more involved posts.  In the meantime, this is what I've been up to:

• Attending school full time, looks like I have 3 semesters to go before I finally, at age 34, get my bachelors.
• Both of the kids (he's 6, she's 3) are into collecting.  The boy's favorite players are Rizzo and Russell (to the point that he roots for anyone named Russell, even in golf), and he's nuts about blue parallels.  The little girl doesn't have a favorite player yet, but of course loves purple and pink parallels, along with anything shiny (such a girl).

His reaction upon seeing this today: "OH NO, Addison Russell is playing for a different team?"
(Image credit: P-Town Tom)

• The boy also started baseball this summer, his first shot at little league, and we both had an absolute blast.  I got a pitch trainer that I throw into for him to field grounders and line drives.  Worked out a deal with Gavin for some customs from his first year that I'll have posted once I receive them.
• I've also been building up quite the trade box, so once I'm caught up, I'll be looking to start trading again, and finding new bloggers to trade with!
• Especially looking for Royals and Indians collectors

That's all for now, look for trade posts over the next several days!

Cards [His] Mom Didn't Throw Out

Finally finding time to post, I have a few trade roundups to get to, starting with a trade from JayP, the proprietor of CMMDTO.

Digging through packs a few weeks ago I came across some nice D-Backs cards, so I went hunting for a home for them, and came across JayP's site, made contact, and it took off from there.  He dug through my wantlists, got the package out pretty quick, and I'm sure our packages crossed paths at some point in their respective journeys.

First card I saw was my favorite card in the pack, but I'll wait til the end to post it ;)

 Starting off with a couple of minor leaguers, Preston Morrison started off in Low A Eugene, and carries a .81 ERA in 22 IP, with 30 strikeouts, appearing as both a starter and reliever.  Jen-Ho Tseng (P) fits in two categories for my collection:  Cubs (ish), and is from Southeast Asia.  He hasn't moved passed High A yet, but has put up decent numbers at Kane County and Myrtle Beach over the last two years.  Also, Bowman Chrome, as a whole, looks amazing.

Next up is Darwin Barney (MIF), who is becoming one of my favorite guys to see on cards, since they're all fairly animated, and the dude was a stud... fielding anyway, not much there with the bat.  Kinda reminds me of a guy we have on a minor league deal right now, who happens to be in the next batch of cards.

Then we have an awesome Sammy hologram, Maddux [probably] throwing another 1 hitter, Fergie being a hero, Jake shutting down, well, everyone, a shiny Soriano and an "Extreme Corps" Sammy Stadium Club Insert.

This group we start off with another Barney, playing excellent D, even without his glasses (because he was that good!), Almora (CF who is the aforementioned defensive stud whose bat needs work, so will be stashed at AAA-Iowa, and Stephen Bruno (IF), who is stuck in AA with a lifetime minor league slash line of .298/.372/.405, with a .97 Fielding %.  He should probably move up, but I'm still new at this!

Tony Campana (OF) was with the Cubs for a couple of seasons that are entirely forgettable, 2011/2012.  He hit 262/306/300 with the Cubs, then moved on to the DBacks.  New to the All-Time binder.

Kosuke Fukudome (OF) was with the Cubs from 2008-2011 before he was traded to Cleveleand.  Also fits in the All-Time Cubs and Southeast Asia collection.  This bumps a non-Cubs Fukudome from the binder.  Also, Upper Deck had a pretty cool series here with the X series, the die-cuts are something! (Mariners, Twins, Mets collectors, I have one of each for trade bait)

Roosevelt Brown (LF) spent all of his major league time with the Cubs, from 1999-2002, had a mediocre bat, but superb fielding (except when playing RF).  Also the owner of an awesome name.

The wave of Cubs ends with an awesome Kerry Wood to add to the PC, a great looking Dunston to bump some wax out of the all-time collection, and a flippin' sweet Bruce Sutter that feels like a couch (has a rough, fabric like texture).

Rounding out the package, JayP hit one of my favorites, and hit it hard!

You can't really tell from the scan, but it is a chrome parallel.  I know a lot of people don't like chrome parallels for Heritage, since the originals didn't have Chromes (or parallels), but I think it looks great.

Thanks again JayP for the awesome trade, I'm very glad your mom didn't throw these out!

Thanks for reading!

Collection Chronicles: All-Time Cubs

Last month I completed my first online card trade with Tony Burbs, the proprietor of Wrigley Roster Jenga.  Since then I have been adding to my Cubs collection, and have decided to start my own Cubs All-Time collection, inspired by Tony.

I have spoken to him about this and he is cool with me copying his idea.

What I ask is this:  If you plan to contribute to my collection, please check his FIRST.  If he needs it, send it his way, if not, I'll gladly accept.  I don't want to take away from his progress, and would hate to receive something that he needs, so please take this into consideration.

You can find my list here (Onedrive XLSX file).  Blue means Cubs, Orange means I have them for another team.  Again, kinda like Tony's, as there aren't many ways to make it different without making it confusing.  Numbers in the far right column are solely for conditional formatting rules to work, and are no indication of the number of cards I have for each player.

Bringing friends back to collecting

When I started digging through all my cards from my childhood, I was trying to figure out what to do with them.  Cubs dupes I sent to my buddy in Chicago that got me into the team.  I decided to set aside the Red Sox and Mariners cards (virtually all of them) for a buddy of mine who is from Boston and his wife who is from Spokane.  I knew he was a Red Sox fan, but didn't know if he collected cards.  After presenting the cards to him, his face lit up as he started rifling through the stack, grinning or chuckling as he read off names that I didn't recognize, but that he remembered from his childhood.

He went on to tell me that he has a rather decent sized collection back home, but didn't have a reason to have them sent out since he didn't know anyone here would share in the hobby.  He has since had his cards sent out, rifled through a couple boxes real quick, and presented me with a few cards.  He said he has a long way to go, and I'm very happy so far.

Starting off is a Greg Maddux right on top.  I have a small PC of him so far, 11-12 before this one, so was happy to add another to the set.  The Andre Dawson is number 8.  Add in a few guys from 80's/90's that I didn't have, plus a couple upgrades, and I'm pretty happy.

The 2002 Hundley had a special story behind it, as 2002 is a year that sticks out to him for sitting around the TV with family to watch baseball with an aging relative.  He mentioned he had a whole bunch of cards from that time and is excited to continue digging.

Next we have some guys that will be added as the second card for that player, with the exception of the Gumpert, that's a dupe, so it's either going back to the Sox fan or to my buddy in Chitown.

Lastly, I was surprised by what I was thinking was a set of 1988 Topps Cubs... I was close.

Not only did my Goose Gossage and Mark Grace PCs get added to, but had 9 cards to add from the same set.  Once I flipped them over, I noticed something... different about them compared to the other 1988 Topps and OPCs...

First thought was "wow, did my '88 Topps really fade from the original orange?" [Remember, I'm just getting back into collecting, and I was 5-6 when these were new].  Part of my thinking there was because these were freshly unwrapped from their waxy bindings.  I then saw the 42T, so was thinking they were from a team set.  Nope, still wrong.  After some research, I found out that they are from the 135 card set of 1988 Topps Traded (precurser to Topps Update?).  Even better?  There are 9 Cubs cards in the set, and he gave me each of them!

As I was digging through these, he was telling me how much he was enjoying digging through the cards, and how he thanks me/curses me for getting him back into it.

Sorry, not sorry!

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And if you missed it, I received a sweet PWE from The Card Chop, check it out!

Surprise PWE: The Card Chop!

I have a few trade packages to post about, not going in any kind of order.

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Last week while looking for new trade partners, I found that The Card Chop needed a bunch of cards that I have had, and contacted him to work out a trade.  After sending his needs to him, I figured he would wait until I completed my 2016 Topps Set checklist before sending out the return trade.

Welp, I was wrong!  Received my first surprise PWE from any of the traders and couldn't be more excited about it!  So many Cubs and non-Cubs PCs, oddballs and cutouts!

Let's dig in!

Right off the bat we get a Heritage Nolan Ryan, and a couple oddballs of Mark Grace and Jody Davis.  Grace came from Sports Illustrated Kids, and Davis came from...

Red Lobster?  Apparently they gave them out as a promo back in the day.  Either way, all are awesome.

Moving on...

Andre Dawson oddball disc from 1989, Dunston that I don't have, and a Greg Maddux cutout from 1991 Baseball Cards Magazine in 1966 styling.  Way cool.

Needed the Rizzo to go with KB from the same set (think this my 12th or 13th Rizzo now), Posey T206 looks frightening yet awesome.  Gonna have to find a way to store the Kershaw A&G mini, both will find their way into my PC binder.

Getting to the last sleeve (cards were sent in the bottom third of a binder page), we have a couple more from Mad Dog when he was taking home hardware.

And a couple Ryno's, both of which are oddballs!

The first, with the appearance of 1971 Topps, is a cutout from Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly, and the second was from McDonald's.  Did a little research on the McDonald's edition and found this at BaseballCardPedia.com:

1992 Topps McDonald's is a 44-card set, distributed exclusively at McDonald's restaurants in the Greater New York City and Philadelphia areas. Officially known as "McDonald's Baseball's Best," a collector could purchase a five-card pack for $0.99 with the purchase of an Extra Value Meal or $1.79 with any other food purchase.

 Finally, we come across on of my favorite cards from the 2016 Topps, Kris Bryant's Perspectives insert.  Very cool card, great angle.  Even the "wordart" doesn't take away from this one.  Perspectives is probably my favorite of the insert sets.

Thank you again, Steve, looking forward to future trades!!

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Yes, I know my scans are horrible and cut off.  First time using it for something like this, will practice more next time!

Greetings and Salutations

First and foremost, thanks to Tony Burbs, Tim B., The Lost Collector, Dimebox Nick and defgav for getting me hooked on online card trading through blogs, trades and contests.  Without those welcoming gents, you wouldn't be reading this.

A little background:  I'm a husband, father of two, working a full-time job and [finally] working on my bachelors.  (This means I won't have anywhere near the time allowed to post more than a couple times a week, if even that).  I served in the Marines for 8 years, traveling around southeast Asia and the west Pacific.

Last year, a friend of mine took me to a couple Cubs games at Wrigley.  The first was against the Reds/Johnny Cueto, with the rock solid Jason Hammel starting, on June 12th (before his injury).  This was the only game dropped in the series (Starlin Castro however walked-off the next two).  It was a very chilly, misty day, we sat in the newly opened RF bleachers, and got this as the promotion that day:

They should've given blankets.  Didn't matter.  It was cold, rainy, Cubs lost 5-4 thanks to a couple errors, but I was hooked.  Hearing stories about Rizzo and Lester overcoming Cancer, among countless other stories, how could you not root for this team?  Oh, and hearing about some guy with dreamy eyes that rocked Spring Training, and didn't stop when called up to replace an injured Mike Olt at third base... I'm sure you've heard of him.

*Sparkle*

I couldn't wait for my next Cubs game, which came a month later.  My buddy kept telling me how great it is to see the Cubs & White Sox play each other, so we secured tickets for one of the games at Wrigley.  By the time we got the ticket though, all that was left was the VERY top row of the second deck, along the first base side.  Couldn't see LF at all, let alone the video boards.  Was irrelevant, because there weren't very many highlights for the Cubs since, oh yeah, these guys were pitching:

This one didn't end well for the Cubs either, as the Sox took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st that they would not relinquish, finishing with a score of 5-1.  Sale was, well, Sale, and it was the odd numbered month version of Lester.

Didn't matter, I was still hooked on the team, but should've gotten tickets for the following game when Big Jake was starting.  Oh well.

In the past I have been to a couple other baseball games, one at New Comisky when I was 12, I think, can't remember for the life of me who the Sox were playing, but didn't think anything of it at the time.

Same goes for a Padres game I caught back in 2001, during Boot Camp, of all things.  Didn't really pay attention to the game, was more concerned with getting a break from the craziness of boot camp, and stuffing my face with "Pogie Bait", ie. nachos and soda.  Background on this, a millionaire that as in the same battalion back in the day pays to send companies in that battalion to either Padres or Chargers games, when possible.

But now, thanks to the boys in blue from the north side, and my buddy Sean, I have Cubs fever.  Good part is I don't feel I came on as a bandwagoner, because of the timing.  Yes, I became a fan during the 97 win season that led them to the NLCS, but A) they lost both games I attended, and 2) iirc, they weren't in wildcard position yet, and had dropped 10 of the past 19 games.

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I grew up a Husker fan, played some little league, and collected [mostly baseball] cards from roughly 1988-1992, right in the heart of the "junk wax" era.  I finally took all that old wax out of storage to dig around looking for Cubs cards, which were fairly plentiful.  I didn't remember this, but I must've been a Blue Jays fan as a kid, as that was definitely the biggest stack out of all the teams.  I was happy to find a handful of Greg Maddux, Ryne Sandberg, Darryl Strawberry and Nolan Ryan cards, along with a few other HOF players, including this guy:

HOLY CRAP!! A Randy Johnson Rated Rookie!!  Mind you, I hadn't touched my cards in roughly 20 years, had heard a few names after getting back into baseball, and figured this might be worth something.

Well then.  From here, I started my research and learned of the "Junk Wax" era, and that these are virtually all worth piddly poo.  All good, unless I managed to dig up something that was worth thousands, I wasn't planning on selling anything.

I was in this originally just to collate the cards I had, then hook up some friends (again, not really knowing that they were commonly referred to as "junk").  Then I picked up a few flagship packs, some Fairfield packs, and really started having fun.  Then I found the trade blogs, saw that Tony Burbs needed 1 card that I had (Donn Roach minor league card), and it took off from there.

There will be a few posts regarding completed trades, a contest I won, and of course, some trade bait.

Otherwise, I'll post whenever I have time, share them on twitter @stetsonaw, and on Google+.