Any fan of The Office will remember an episode titled "Double Date" in which Dwight Schrute does things for people so they would "owe him one." One Andrew Bernard though would not be out-polited. Well, P-Town Tom just Nard-dogged me. In the same way someone would send a thank you card to someone for a thank you card, Tom dropped a JJ bomb on me. Big Time.
For anyone looking for a Cub collecting trade partner; I would avoid him all together. He sends too much and follows up packages with crazy bonuses. Avoid the headaches. I will keep trading with Tom to keep everyone else out of the monotonous mess of amazing cards he sends. All of this is in sarcastic fun of course. P-Town Tom is top notch and his blog ain't bad either!
I have to say I am very gracious to be a part of and thankful for all the friends I have found through blogging.
Gavin of the blog Baseball Card Breakdown is one of those friends. He and I completed our first trade and it was a doozy. In my eyes at least. I bothered him about 3 cards he had posted and we set up a deal. Here is what now calls my house home:
This sucker is numbered!
Deivi Cruz wasn't a bad player by any means but his bat just couldn't compete with others at his position at the time.
I don't want to promote rape or whatever the hell Chad Curtis's hobbies include nowadays but this card might be my favorite in the stack.
FINALLY! I have sent TTM requests to Wily Mo for years and got nothing. I always wondered why his auto says W-I-L-L-Y but he doesn't actually spell it that way.
Hudson /99. Heck yes!
Raining JJ's
On top of Tom's JJ care package, I scooped up this sweet auto card on ebay for cheap. I also recently flipped the Eloy auto card I pulled a while back on ebay in order to join some breaks. I will have some sweet pulls to post when they arrive.
Another cheap ebay pickup.
Darrell Evans and a Card Show Fail
So, I had this Darrell Evans fella scribble on one of Papa Jack's old cards this past weekend. Mr. Evans was great and told some really awesome stories while I waited my turn. When I got up to him he sat and stared at this card for a long time without talking. Then he said "You know this card is almost 50 years old?" I told him I inherited it from Papa Jack and he said he hadn't seen one in this good of shape in decades. That was pretty awesome. Back in the book it goes.
I walked into the card show for 3 things...#1 Darrell Evans Auto #2 Grab some stuff for my secret santa recipient and #3 Buy as many penny sleeves and top loaders as I could. Well, one and two went on without a hitch. Number three however did not happen. Not even a little bit. FAIL. The dimeboxes called me like the lure of a siren mermaid to a sailor. I fell elbow deep into a few dimeboxes and barely made it out of there with my tigers fanny pack intact. Here is a little bit of what I found.
I'm not a fan of chrome finishes but somehow this Canseco doesn't seem to have a scratch on it.
I don't know what the deal was with the chrome retro cards but this Richie Sexson chrome reprint had to come home and hey, El Duque!
I thought the pose on the Hudson card was cool.
Oldies but goodies.
I thought the DeRosa photo was funny; American past time, American Football, kind of an all American picture with a huge maple leaf right in the middle, eh?
I found a ton of these variations. This Pinnacle Charlie Hayes is one of the coolest I have ever seen. In Little League I broke my nose one season and my parents made me wear that helmet.
More
and More Shiny Stuff!
Tiger fans should remember this young lefty from the 'pen.
This Max is #'ed /150! I got it and the card below and above it for $1 each.
I don't pick up a lot of hockey but sometimes certain cards catch my eye.
Ooooooh.
I don't know why but I thought this Glaus card looked cool.
Even with the big booger stuck to the top, this Mo Vaughn GOLD is awesome.
Pat Burrell looking thrilled to be here, Clemens not so much.
More PC guys.
Some other frozen randoms.
Billy Koch was a beast for a short time. Billy Ripken's go to pose for 75% of his cards. He stayed out of trouble with this one.
Some grocery store cardboard.
I rooted for Shelley Duncan no matter where he played. He never really could find it, but he flashed it. Whatever "it" is.
Theres a name you say "Oh Yeah...I remember him" to. I recently read on someone else's blog in an older post that he has since passed. Too bad.
Holograms.
Wainwright RC for 10 cents. Cha!
I forget what these cards are called. They have the raw texture on the back. I've never had one, now I have two.
Randall Simon could put a hurting on a ball. I would have loved to see him in a homerun derby.
What's in Papa Jack's Box
I posted a while back about a huge box of factory sealed junk wax I received from my wife's Papa Jack. I thought about one long post to share everything inside but that still wouldn't do it justice. Instead, I think this will be a reoccurring section of this blog.
On thanksgiving I took a sealed box of 1990 Donruss Baseball and half a box of 1990 NFL Pro Set from Papa Jack's box to bust with my brother. As most people my age, 1990 Donruss is the epitome of Junk Wax and everyone has opened it at some time. There are however cards I have always wanted from the set and just never pulled.
The NFL box was a mystery to me but after a little research I found the gem of the box is card #204 Fred Marion. There is an early version of the card that shows an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction for one of the players pictured but it actually looks like a much worse malfunction than it actually is. Knowing 1990's card collectors to be pervy little nerds, the card was airbrushed to fix the issue in later releases. I was hoping of landing that card.
So first we did pull the hot card! Just not the earlier dangly photo one. We pulled the airbrushed one. Dang, so close. The Donruss however relieved me of a few wants:
I have always been chasing the Juan Gonzalez reverse error card. I know its not uncommon and I could have bought it anytime really but pulling not one but two was outstanding fun! The Tom Glavine/John Smoltz card was another I never had as a kid. It was so fun finding those too. It was a great holiday and a lot of fun to be kids again with my brother break old junk wax. There are at least 4 more sealed boxes of 1990 Donruss in the box. Nolan will have fun with those someday.
Aly Akers (right), Host of Major League Fishing returned my TTM request in 4 days!
As I've posted about before I love Professional Fishing and collecting autos and stuff from those guys! Two differences stick out in my mind between Pro Fishing and Pro Baseball; size of fan base and circulation of money. Both of which are much smaller for Fishing than Baseball, but I would have to argue that Fishing might be the national pastime; historically. If you didn't know, these guys can, and do become millionaires through the sport. If you visit the Bassmaster website you can see each angler's career earnings in just tournaments alone. Some of the numbers are staggering.
I had a very interesting interaction with an up-and-comer fisherman last week that I had some thoughts on I'd like to share. If you recall I attended the Bassmaster weigh in when it was here at Lake St. Clair and got autographs and took pictures. I printed some of my favorite pictures and have been trying to contact the guys in them to see if they will do TTM autographs for me.
The first guy I contacted was Jacob Wheeler. My favorite fisherman hands down. I sent him an email via his website and received a response the next day saying he would love to sign my picture. He is awesome. The dude literally just tied the knot and might not even be back from his honeymoon yet. I have always been blown away with how interactive he is with fans in the community.
With that success under my belt, I sent to 3 other fishermen. Two are pretty successful, award winning guys and the third is like I mentioned earlier an "up-and-comer" in the sport but quickly becoming more popular. I haven't heard back from the 2 more successful guys yet.
I messaged the rookie via social media because his website is broken. I asked him if he had a fan mail accepting address that I could send him a photo and a SASE to for a signature. He is the one guy I expected to say "Heck yes" because of him just coming off his rookie year. He messaged back 2 days later and said he had no address and could not sign. Here are my self-righteous, deserving, disgusting uber-millenial disappointed thoughts on this:
First, this speaks volumes to how great Jacob Wheeler is with his fans. Wheeler has career winnings of $1.37 million and this other guy has made $159,454. To put into Detroit Tiger terms it would be Michael Fulmer compared to Buck Farmer where Fulmer signed for you and was instantly your best friend and Farmer denied you. I know these guys have free will and don't have to do anything I want them to but my next thought explores a little more of that.
Pro Fishermen rely on sponsors. They are walking, talking billboard ambassadors. Their jerseys look like Nascar vehicles with logos plastered everywhere. Their boats are no different. Now, do I drive a certain brand car because some Nascar dude does? No, but I am not a racing fan. DoI now throw Gene Larew plastic baits while fishing in a pond pretending to be Jacob Wheeler on Major League Fishing? Yes. I would think a guy who is sponsored and depends on those sponsors would go a little farther for the fans.
Lastly, this is where racking my brain over this gets into the (for the lack of a better term) shitty side of society. The gentleman that denied me is not Caucasian. He competes in a very white dominated sport that has the majority of its fans in the southern states. I hate to think this way but maybe he was afraid of his address getting out. I don't know. I expected a reply like "Yeah send it to my sponsor with my name on it." I didn't need the guy's home address. The funny thing is I sent an email to Aly Akers the host of Major League Fishing who is a former Miss Oklahoma, I believe. She replied instantly "Yes, send it here." The current state of the country would lead you to believe Miss Akers would have more to fear giving out an address than the other man, but who knows. This world is crazy. I could be wrong about all of it and the guy is homeless and lives off his boat.
I am still a fan of his and hope he stays successful and maybe if the Bassmasters come back to Lake St. Clair I can get him to sign the picture for me. In the meantime; Aly Akers signed for me adding to my huge stack of fishing autos I need to create a display for.
I have so so much I want to post about. Each subject deserves its own post and I can't choose who gets to be highlighted first so this is going to be a LONG post. Everything from crazy gifts from Papa Jack, a contest prize too good to be true, TTM return(s), and breaking into some of the new crap Topps is forcing down our throats...
Ouch, My Back!
Papa Jack has struck again. I have posted before of huge pieces of his collection that he has handed down to me. Well, he made his way over to deer camp and told me to "leave some room" in the car. He pulled in with a rubber tote weighing at least 80 lbs. of unopened wax boxes. It was all I could do to transfer it from his vehicle to mine. I can't hold the excited in so I had to post about this gift. I will be posting a much more in-depth look into this bucket of wonders soon. It definitely deserves its own post.
Open to trades on the dog and dinosaurs. Monster truck is PC.
Winner, Winner, Montreal Chicken Dinner
I enter a lot of contests. I win probably more than the average person but I was born on St. Patricks Day so I have a lucky edge. I follow an Instagram profile called @mlbgameusedbats that posts about game used bats in a much deeper way than just pics of a bat collection. This profile caught my eye with the bats but kept my eye when I read the posts. It dives into the pine tar patterns through player careers, lengths, weights, shapes, colors, materials, all kinds of different aspects of the game used bats and the signatures on them a lot of times. It is way more interesting than pics of bats.
I won a contest posted there for a GAME USED DELINO DESHIELDS BAT and was ecstatic and didn't believe it at first. I am a big fan of Delino Deshields Jr. Then the bat shows up and to my joyous surprise it is Delino Deshields Sr.'s bat! It says EXPOS right on it! An unbelievable piece of baseball history is now mine. Please give @mlbgameusedbats a follow, it will be worth your while in many ways!
Love me some Canadian anything! Don't watch the shaky cell phone video, just close your eyes and listen to the two most talented Canadians (husband and wife by the way) perform together.
TTM RETURN(S)
I have been investing in JaCoby Jones for a while now. Who knows if it will pay off but he has given us some memorable moments as Tiger Fans nonetheless. I sent to him 3 separate times during spring training for a signature and this week got all three back!
Great additions to my Jones PC!
New Topps Crap
I was so excited to see Topps Gallery make a comeback but am kind of disappointed I don't have a RC to chase in it. They left out a lot of players in the set and I don't want to buy a box of cards simply for trade bait so I bought one pack of Gallery and a blaster box of Topps Holiday. I didn't get into Holiday at all previously and have only received last years snowflake cards in trades. I could probably do the same this year but I opted for a box since it boasted one auto/relic per. Every card here is available if anyone needs them. I have a ton of Holidays that aren't shown sitting around now too if anyone needs a certain player's common. Here is what I pulled:
Definitely a pack of Gallery made for a Houston fan, not a Tiger fan. Bregman is the man though so the variation RC is pretty sweet. Who didn't root for Biggio? The box of frost cards shown below was probably meant for a Rockies fan as its two better cards are chilled out players who can handle the cold Rocky Mountain air.
My schparklees. All available!
RC's
RC's
Schparklee RC!
The "hit". At least its not just a white patch. Available.
RC's
?MYSTERIES IN COLLECTING? Oooooooooh
I have two mysteries to present this post. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the hell happened in both situations. See if you can help:
FIRST:
The bottom card is signed on both sides. Both look to be JaCoby Jones-ish signatures. What the hell happened? I sent the card unsigned on both sides. I have seen this card on ebay signed by both dudes so he should be familiar with this card at this point. Does he have a ghost signer who doesn't know what Jones actually looks like and caught the error only after signing over poor Dustin "never heard from again" Molleken? Hmmmmmm very strange. Its now a 1/1 up on ebay for $3094.74 with 33 bids, 17 watchers and 13 hours left if you want in. JK.
SECOND:
This snowflakeless card came out of the holiday box. I thought maybe it is a Series 1 or 2 that was snuck in much like the Update boxes. It, however, is numbered like a holiday card. The code on the bottom is consistent with Holiday common cards. What the hell happened? Was this card on the top of the top pack too close to the lamps in the store and the snow melted? It can also be found on ebay under 1/1's too hot to snow down. Happy bidding. JK.
