Monday's Mailbag #5

Greeting all.  I swear guys, eventually I am going to get one of these Monday Mailbags actually posted on a Monday.  It's almost comical at this point that I keep missing the day it named for.  Perhaps I should just steer into the skid and never post Monday's Mailbag on a Monday.  It would be the perfect metaphor for my lack of time management and scheduling.  But I think I will continue trying to aim for a Monday post with these.  

This post is actually 8 days late, not 1 day late, but I have talked about how busy life is WAY too much recently, so let's just dive in and check out some new cards in my home.

 

First up we have an eBay gamble lot.  This was a lot of 14 2020 Bowman/Platinum Chartreuse parallels.  Of the 14, I could only see 5 of them in the photo.  Usually when this happens sellers tend to not show the less marketable players and since my team is full of less marketable players, I thought I would give it a shot.  It didn't work, but I did get some Sportlots (or trade) inventory for a relatively cheap cost.  I got 7 vets and 7 prospects.  Of the vets, I got some fairly big names including the Acuna above along former MVPs Bellinger and Bryant.  With the prospects, I let you know in 3 years whether I got any good ones.

Next up we have another eBay lot.  This was for a lot of 1986 inserts that I am collecting.  I go a lot of 8 for a really cheap price, so it didn't really even bother me that I only needed 5 of the 8 for my set.  The first card is of the late great Hank Aaron.  For my money, he is the greatest player of all time, so I was happy to get this card in a cheap lot.  Usually the cheap lots are filled with Twins or Marlins or A's or some other teams that just don't sell well.  Except Rockies for some reason.  Oh well.  Andrew McCutchen has been on several teams in his career, especially recently, but he really looks strange in anything but a Pirates uniform.  That being said, that card looks like it would seamlessly fit in the real 1986 set.

Next up we have a visit from everyone's favorite nocturnal bird of prey, the Night Owl.  Greg sent me a PWE in exchange for a pair of Dodgers and a pair of Braves he needed for a separate deal.  I highly encourage any of you to use my Sunday PWE trade posts as sort of a middle man like Greg did.  I like getting cards to where they belong, even if I am not the last stop on the way.  The Christian Yelich is a good addition to my set.  I hadn't seen it before Greg pack pulled it and showed it off.  I think it is one of the better 86 cards I have seen thus far.  The Todd Helton is a red foil parallel from 2019 Stadium Club that I was sure I needed, but I didn't.  It was the Trevor Story red foil and the Todd Helton black foil that I was missing.  But no problem, because now I can be the middle man to move that Helton to where it needs to go.  In fact, the next man up might even need it for his "Tatooine" collection.

That man of course is Jim (aka gcrl) from Cards as I See Them.  Jim has quickly become one of my regular trade partners on my Sunday PWE trade bait posts.  I know we traded a little, but I don't think we traded that much in my first go around the blogosphere.  But luckily we are making up for it now.  Up first is the 2005 Topps/Rookie Cup Red Reggie Sanders.  Both in hand and online the red /499 and orange /399 parallels are difficult to tell apart unless you see them side by side.  It doesn't help that they are the two most common parallels either.  Seller have made that mistake before.  In this case though, Jim got it right and now I am 1 card closer to my goal.  The card on the right is a different kind of red parallel.  It is one of the Target retail exclusives from 2020 Topps/Update.  2020 Update is a conundrum with me.  It is one my least favorite modern sets, bit also has several Rockies that don't get put on cardboard often, like Drew Butera.  I guess it is just going to end up being a set that I love to hate from now on.

Jim also sent a couple of additional Rockies needs.  Both of them could also fall into the cards I love to hate category for different reasons.  Up first is the 2018 Topps Independence Day manupatch relic Charlie Blackmon.  It hits two categories of things I love to hate, manurelics and jingoism.  Don't get me wrong, I love my country, but I cannot stand the jingoism that tries to sell patriotism for a profit.  But it is a Rockies card, so I am happy with it.  It seems, my love for my Rockies collection is stronger than my core beliefs apparently.  The other card is from 2008 Topps/Moments and Milestones.  That particular Matt Holliday has 216 different versions each representing one of his 216 hits in the 2007 season.  Each of those cards is #'d out of 150 which makes it incredibly difficult to track them down.  This card is actually a black parallel which has the same 216 versions except they are #'d to just 25.  25 is my cut off number to add cards to my Rockies checklists. so in order to be happy I need to track down a total of 432 copies of basically the same card.  Thank you Jim for knocking 1 off that list. 

Next up we have yet another eBay gamble lot.  This was a lot of 115 cards from various sets that I picked up for less than a dime per card including shipping.  In a normal case, you really couldn't have a really bad buy at that cost.  But in this case, it was a very good buy.  Not a home run, but a solid double...maybe even a triple . The only thing really bad about it is that I didn't get any new Rockies.  But what I did get was some nice cards.  The top row was some of the many good rookies that will pay for this lot and then some.  I actually got 4 Gavin Lux cards, 2 Fire and 2 flagships.  When he inevitably gets hot this season, those cards will probably sell for $10 each.  But it's not all about profit here.  

Strangely, I got a nice group of 1998 Bowman International cards included with all the 2020 cards.  I say strangely just because the 10 cards I got were the only card not from the 2018-2020 range.  Maybe, not strange, but definitely random.  The group I got were decent names too including the Pudge Rodriguez above.  The card that made me buy this lot in the first place was the Eddie Rosario Baby Shark parallel above.  I am slowly building the baby shark set, but I am only about 20% of the way there.  The final card though got me to 100% complete for one of my 9 sets for my 2020 Donruss rainbow project.  The Aaron Judge regular base card was the last of the 300 (including variations) that I needed to complete my base set.  The reason it took so long to get the complete set is that when I was purchasing lots, I wasn't buying lots of base cards, I was buying lots of blues or yellows or whatever.  Or on Sportlots purchases I was getting the parallels first.  When attempting a project like this, you don't want to focus on the easily acquired cards first because you can always find them later.  It applies to vintage sets too.  If you are trying to build a 1960s set, it is usually better to find the Mickey Mantle before you start picking up the bench players from the Indians and Pirates.  It usually helps the wallet and really helps motivate you to complete your project.  Just my handy dandy little tip of the day.

Thanx for reading.

Monday's Mailbag #4

No need to check your calendar, I know today is not Monday.  I was planning on posting this yesterday, but the Donruss checklist was released and I wanted to write about the fresh new thing.  The fresh, new thing is pretty much what this hobby has evolved (or devolved) into, isn't it?  The hot rookies are great today and forgotten tomorrow.  The newest set release is extremely popular until the next week's set comes out that is.  Like it or not, that is just the state of the hobby for most people.  Luckily for me, the blogger community not so much in that vein.  I am a bit of a man without a country, because part of me is thrilled to be in the more laid back side of the hobby, but another part of me is still entrenched in the "let's make some money" part of the hobby.  The big difference with me is that I didn't start selling cards to make money, I started selling cards I didn't want in order to get money to buy card I did want.  In effect I was trading with a middleman.  So I do have a little of the downside of both worlds, but I also believe I have the best of both worlds as well.  With that little nugget of my life out of the way, let's look at some cards for me that might not qualify as the newest thing.

 

 

 

First up, we have another PWE from The Lost Collector.  AJ has been one of my welcome regulars on Sunday PWE Trade Bait posts.  The Kyle Lewis will take his place in the Rookie Cup binder and leave me needing 3 more to complete Series 1 this year.  The 2011 Topps/Update Target Red is especially welcome because the retail exclusives for that set have dried up completely.  Any remaining unopened product will likely remain unopened just so anyone holding an unopened pack can pretend there is a red parallel of the Mike Trout rookie within.  Since red works best with the Angels, the Target parallels are especially hard to find. I am thrilled to get another version of what I believe is the lone Mark Ellis Rockies card.  

 

 

Here we have a group of cards that arrived from a trio of Sportlots sellers.  I ordered from each of them because they had one cheap 86 insert that I was missing and I ended up ordering what I consider a small order from each.  The way Sportlots is set up, there are different ranges where shipping remains a fixed cost.  There is the single card, the 2-4 range (small), the 5-10 range (medium), 11-16 (large), and 17-25 (X-large duh).  With a lot of sellers, there is a bump in shipping costs once you go from the small to the medium presumably because they want to use bubble mailers to mitigate damage and have tracking.  Me, I am a gambler.  Most of the time, I like getting the small lots shipped directly instead of doing the box shipments, which I save for single cards or larger orders.  I have to say that I am having far more difficulty tracking down Series 1 parallels for a price I am willing to pay than other years.  The Gray is only my 3rd of 9 rainbow foils and I have only one other parallel (a royal blue).  It's either hoarding, overpricing, or overproducing or more likely a combination of the three.

 

Up next is an eBay gamble lot.  This one is a lot of 2020 Topps Fire colored parallels and insert parallels.  Topps Fire is usually a set that I don't see a lot of since it is a Target exclusive and the nearest Target to me is about 50-60 miles away.  Needless to say, I rarely go to Target.  In fact I don't believe I ever opened a single pack of Fire ever.  But that's okay because I still usually end up with my Rockies through the usual outlets.  This particular lot ended up being nice for me.  I scored three different needed parallels including the serial numbered green Kyle Freeland and the two different unnumbered parallel from Arms Ablaze, which showcases infielders with strong arms, a good idea.  It's always weird to get parallels before you get the base version of a card, but that is the case for both inserts. 

The next eBay gamble lot is another of my Colorado Rockies lots.  These can be both really good and really frustrating.  This particular lot had 20 cards, but the only ones I needed were the two teal wave Charlie Blackmon parallels from 2020 Panini Prizm.  The card on the right is his base which fell in the much easier to obtain first 100 numbers of Prizm.  In case you didn't know, both Panini Prizm and Panini Select employ the three tiered base set where cards 1-100 are easy to get, 101-200 are slightly more difficult, and 201-300 are very hard to get (especially Select).  Personally I hate this practice especially when there are two practically identical sets doing the same thing.  Prizm and Select not only had the exact same 8 card team checklist for the Rockies in 2020, but every card was in the same tier in both sets.  Quick someone get me the Department of Redundancy Dept. 

The final eBay gamble lot of the week worked out really well for me, but not necessarily in the way you might think.  This lot was what I thought was a 25 card lot mix of rainbow foil and gold foil parallels.  I popped at $15 and change shipped and thought I really hoped to hit several Rockies to be worth the price.  I did end up hitting the Daza and Dahl shown above, which was great, since I mentioned above how difficult it has been finding Rockie parallels this year.  What was even better is that the lot that I purchased was not for a mix of 25 rainbow and gold foils, it was for 25 of EACH of them.  This made the price per card much more palatable for me at around a quarter per card. 

So I got twice the cards I was expecting.  The only downside is that there were no Rockies in the 25 hobby-exclusive gold foil cards.  I did get a nice mix of veteran names and a good mix of teams, so it wasn't all just some unknown Rays rookie or A's reliever that I will be stuck with forever.  So if you happen upon a Rockies parallel from 2021 Topps, hit me up because I now likely have at least one from your team to swap for it.

But wait, that's not all.  In addition to the 25 card bonus that I received from a combination of not reading closely enough and the seller having a confusing title, the seller threw in seven cards from the 2021 Topps insert set Stars in Service.  It showcase the various charities that baseball players and their wives have created.  It's a fine humanitarian effort and I applaud each of the players for the work.  That being said, it's not exactly what I am looking for in an insert set.  Of the seven cards I got, only one showed a player in uniform (although Verlander was wearing a team hoodie on the field, so I'll give them two).  The rest were a combination of guys in suits and the weird photo choice that makes it look like Yadier Molina is wiping his nose with the Puerto Rico flag.  I'm sure that isn't the case, but someone actually approved that photo.  Unbelievable. 

I appreciate every package that comes my way, but let's be honest some are more appreciated than others.  That is the case with this trade with fellow blog All Cardinals All the Time.  A trade which began with Ray claiming a single 2020 Bowman Platinum Cardinals prospect on a Sunday PWE post turned into one of my favorite card packages of all time.  And for sure one of my favorites that included only 10 cards.  But what a 10 cards they were.

 

First up is a 2020 Stadium Club/Chrome Gold Refractor Sam Hilliard #'d to 50.  2020 Stadium Club/Chrome was one of those sets that were released too close together due to the pandemic.  Although it is currently the last retail pack of cards that I have opened.  Hilliard was the UTROY (ubiquitous team rookie of the year) for the Rockies in 2020 and hopefully he can get some solid outfield time now that David Dahl is gone and Ian Desmond has become a crusader for social justice.  The Clint Barmes auto is from 2004 Donruss/Playoff Honors.  I don't mind the silver sticker as much as most people, although I will readily admit that I am happy that the stickers used now are clear.  I especially like the inscription, which if you can't see says "Indiana State."  Until now, the only things I knew about Indiana State was that Larry Bird went there and they had cool nickname, the Sycamores.  Now I have a third fun fact at my disposal.

But let's get back to the cards because this package deserves full attention.  Ray explained to me through email that he used to be a big Clint Barmes collector because before Barmes went to Indiana State he had attended a junior college in Ray's hometown.  He doesn't collect Barmes anymore, but still had a pretty healthy number of Barmes cards for me to choose from.  The first card is the 2004 Donruss Press Proofs Gold #'d out of just 25.  That card is great but would have been much better with the classic blue Rated Rookie logo.  The middle card  is a Spectrum parallel from 2004 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia #'d to 100.  Not my favorite design ever, but that is another low serial number I can check off.  The third card is a 2005 Studio Proofs Silver also #'d to 100.  Studio has always been a hit or miss set for me.  I either loved it or hated it.  2005 was one of the few that kind of fell in the middle.  It has good points and bad points.

But the PIECE DE RESISTANCE is next.

Here we have a complete rainbow of Barmes' 2006 Topps/Turkey Red Autograph.  Look at that.  It is just a joy to behold.  The gray is the base and is not numbered.  The red is numbered to 475.  The white is numbered to 200.  The black is numbered to 99.  The gold is numbered to 25.  And now I have them all.  I had not been able to track down any of these five for a reasonable price before, although I do have the red, white, and gold versions of the other Rockie in the set, Garrett Atkins.  Now I am on a quest for the base and black Atkins autos so I can have a full team rainbow.  How cool is that?  I sent Ray a BIG package of Cardinals relics, inserts, and parallels for this lot and I still feel like I made out great.  Thank you Ray for our first trade together, but you do realize that my expectations for the second trade package are now through the roof.  😁

As an aside, I absolutely love my new scanner.  It does a great job scanning, but it did an even better job of picking up the "texture bumps" on those Turkey Red autos.  

Thanx for reading.

Monday's Mailbag #3

 

Boy it really seems like a week goes by way too fast.  It seems like just yesterday I was writing up last week's Mailbag.  Although it was a two part post that ended on Tuesday, so maybe that is why it seems so short.  Who knows?  Anyway, today between Sportlots orders and blogger trades, I mailed out 11 PWEs.  If you are expecting something from me, chances are it went out today and you should get it by the end of the week.  I had another busy week here at the Quarry with regards to the mailbag, so let's dive right in and check out my new goodies.

 

 

We'll start with blogger extraordinaire Night Owl.  I pretty much assume that if you are reading this blog, then you already know who he is, but just in case you can check him out here.   Greg and used to be regular trading partners and since I have returned to the blogging community we have picked up right where we left off.  The Michael Toglia is from the 2020 Bowman/Chrome retail mega box.  I have no hope of ever finding one of those in a store, and I am not paying jacked up eBay prices for them, so I appreciate any Rockies sent my way.  The star of the PWE is the Todd Helton 2019 Topps Franchise Feats Gold insert #'d to just 50.  I'm not a fan of parallel inserts, but since they aren't going away I'm still collecting them.

Next up we have a visit from the Lost Collector.  I reached out to AJ when he made this post showcasing his first 2021 Topps finds.  I asked about the Bieber and a quick trade was born.  The only this missing from this card looking like it should be in the 1986 Topps set is the absence of Chief Wahoo on the cap.  But I guess that's a lost cause now.  I'm just glad the Indians name lasted long enough to be on these 86 inserts.  I still don't know why there isn't much of an uproar over the Minnesota Vikings logo or the Notre Dame Fighting Irish name and logo.  Well I do know, but I really don't want drama here.  Moving on.

Next up we come to a Sportlots purchase.  I got this one on budget shipping instead of my usual box purchase.  I use budget shipping if the costs are the same or a little more just for the time convenience.  This buy was all about the 86s.  I was searching for cheap 86s and this seller has 4 of them (including the sweet Gwynn above) along with the Joey Gallo chrome for a good price.  With Sportlots shipping, the costs are exactly the same to ship 10 cards as it is to ship 5, so I went fishing for bonus cards.  I couldn't find any Rockies or 2020 Donruss needs, so I went to vintage and scooped up 5 cheap 70s cards from this seller including the 76 Topps Ron LeFlore above.  The colors of that card just screams 70s to me.  When I think 70s, the colors brown, orange, and yellow always come to mind.  

 

 

This next group was from a second Sportlots seller.  This particular seller had a significant jump in shipping prices after 4 cards, so I stuck with just 4 here.  The two cards above were the main purchases, but I still wanted to get to the max of 4 cards.  So I picked up a couple of serial numbered cards that will show up on a future Sunday PWE Trade Bait posting.  As far the two 86s go, the Barry Larkin is my favorite card from the 86 insert set that I have seen thus far.  I haven't seem them all yet, but it will take a lot to better this one.  I don't care that the uniform is not from the era.  It looks great for a guy who just missed out on being in the original set.  Larkin's rookie was in 1987 Topps and he was not included in the 86 Topps Traded set.  Unlike Canseco, who made his Topps debut in the 86 Traded set.  I prefer his original 86 to this one, but the new one is not bad.  

 

Next up, we have an eBay gamble lot.  The past few should have shown you how much I have started to enjoy these lots.  They have replaced my retail buying and to be honest in most case I have gotten more bang for my buck.  This lot is actually a different kind of gamble lot.  This is the "combined shipping" lot.  I bid on a lot of 12 2019 Panini Prizm parallels solely for the Carolina Blue Larry Walker shown above.  I won the auction as the sole bidder, but I was on eBay when the auction completed, so I had time to look at the seller's other auctions that were ending very soon.  I ended up finding a lot of mixed 2019 and 2020 Donruss parallels in the hope of getting a needed one.  The auction was ending quickly, so I didn't have time to check my lists, I just gambled.  It turned out I didn't need any of them, but I got them cheap enough that I don't regret the purchase.  Plus, that 2019 Pujols Independence Day is pretty nice and if Brock Burke happens to have a hot streak this season, his Rated Rookies will climb in sellability as well.  But for now I just have to play the waiting game.

The final eBay gamble lot really was a gamble because it was completely unknown.  The reason for this purchase is actually because I am currently working on my comprehensive 2019 Rockies want list, which should be done in a few more days.  When I was going through Beckett checking my 2019 checklist draft, it turned out that I had no clue about the 2019 Topps of the Class set existing.  I believe the packs were given away in schools for good grades.  So I went to eBay looking to buy the 3 card Rockies team set.  Instead of finding that, I found a lot of 20 unopened 5 card packs for about the price of a blaster.  I knew I could find the Rockies team set cheaper, but instead I made the impulse buy.  I haven't opened packs in a long time and this was a cheap way to scratch the itch.

The reason this lot was so cheap is because the 2 big rookies from 2019, Pete Alonso and Tater Tot, were not included on the checklist.  So hoarders had no real reason to buy.  That makes me as a collector happy.  The design of the set is virtually identical to 2019 Topps/Big League, but with different photos.  I ended up getting the above Charlie Blackmon along with Nolan Arenado, but I missed out on the Trevor Story to complete the team set.  The complete set is 100 cards and I got 100 cards in my packs, but collation was not perfect which is understandable for a group of loose packs.  I ended up getting 71 unique cards with 28 dupes.  That only adds up to 99.  The final card was this.

This Bryce Harper is from the only insert set simple called Greats.  Each card in this set is serially numbered to only 299.  The Harper is nice, but I would have preferred getting Nolan Arenado, the only Rockie in the set.  But I guess Harper is still a big name, even if his production will likely never match his hype.  Very doubtful I make back the money I spent on this one, but it was still a fun rip.  And who knows, I may try to track down the missing 31 cards and build this little set. 

 

 Thanx for reading.