TTM Returns and a MEGA TRADE

TTM Returns!

I knew I had a boat load of PWE's waiting for me at my return address. I also knew 90% of them were donation requests from the Tig's. I will post about that another time. Within these Tiger let downs were a few really great returns! Check it out:

Spencer Turnbull was the first Tiger player I ever pulled from a pack of draft pick cards. I have high hopes for him and hope to see him dominate next spring and make a run at a spot on the team.

The bow-tied bandit Ken Rosenthal hooked me up. There are a lot of TV personalities I change the channel on but Rosenthal knows his stuff and is a delight to watch. Have you ever seen MLB Whiparound?! Nick Swisher and Dontrelle Willis make me wanna throw my TV out the window. I don't have regular cable so this is the only sports show I can watch specific to baseball. Sometimes I'm watching it and it seems like an SNL skit its so bad.

BOOM! Lance Parrish threw some sharpie down on his '78 rookie card for me through the mail. I wish I could have gotten it in person but at least I am one more away from my '78 Rookie Project. With Trammell signing publicly and locally later this month I should be able to put this baby to bed. I can always pick up another Parrish RC and hold on to it for an in person signature and replace this one. I sent him some details about the display I was making. He probably could care less. So great of him to sign for me.

SUPER-ULTRA-MEGA TRADE!

I don't have a lot of high dollar cards and if I did I would probably keep them if they were PC or sell them safely on ebay to buy something I liked. I usually only trade low dollar and junk wax so that I don't get taken (which happens when I trade with non-bloggers). But, I had a Justin Verlander MLB authenticated sweet spot signed ball I bought back in 2007 for $40 at Comerica Park and a lot of guys on a local facebook group were looking for one. Apparently they are relatively rare. So I decided I have a JV ball I got signed at a game that means more to me than the one I bought so I would put it out there. I found a buyer quickly but he was unable to come up with the funds. I stuck with him as he was in the midst of buying a house and moving. I watched him try to sell many items on the facebook group to get the funds to buy my ball. Finally, he offered a trade for this Verlander book. I have a ton of signed baseballs. They all sit in a rubbermade tub stacked in their cubes because I have a toddler and a dog that would love to play with them and they take up way more room to display than cards. At one point I actually thought about quitting cards and only going after balls. But balls don't age well. The ball itself can get age marks or the signature can fade. There are too many variables. Anyway, I decided to trade the guy my ball for this book. I am still glad I did. This book is gorgeous and represents JV for me more than that ball did. It is probably the most valuable card I own now. I love it.

Accidental collection: Sweet Lou by the hundreds! & 1978 Tigers Rookie Project Update, Plus: My Hungry Mailbox

Sweet Lou

About 10 years ago I got addicted to Ebay...bad. I was away at college with financial aid refund checks burning holes in my pockets every semester. Back then my "financial advisor" at the school said, and I quote; "always take the most aid offered." Aid mind you for me was loans NOT aid in anyway since I am an average white male. So, every semester I pocketed a couple grand extra when I took out student loans. It royally effed me for life financially but at the time I built a nice little baseball card collection. One of the purchases I forgot I even made until recently was a lot of Lou Whitaker cards. By "lot" I mean both definitions; one large LOT of LOTS of them. I received literally hundreds of his cards. I now own over 100 different Lou Whitaker cards. Much like many of the Detroit faithful (those who aren't bandwagon fans cursing the current team because we remember when it really was bad) I love Sweet Lou. I remember being at my first Tiger game as a kid and hearing the crowd yell "Loooooouuuuuuu" when he came to bat and asking my dad why everyone was booing him. Anyway, if anybody has some Whitaker holes in their collection I have upwards of 50 doubles for some of his cards. He's not one of my PC guys but I always end up picking up more of his cards. I always think "well if you're going to have so many you may as well have all of them." There are a lot of players who's cards find me for some reason. For example; Kevin Youkilis. I once pulled two memorabilia cards of his from one pack. His cards just find me. Lou was a different start but seems to have become the new Youk for me.

'78 Detroit Tigers Rookie Project

That brings me to my 1978 Tiger Rookie Project. I am still in need of Tram and Parrish autos to complete the quad. I made a rustic looking wall piece to display the cards when I complete the project. I still need to reshape the plaque a little to look more like a bat, find decent card holders to attach, and put '78 Rookies in a cool retro script in white on it. Here is where I'm at on it:

My Mailbox is Hungry

It has been a few weeks since I have received anything good in the mail. I'm getting kind of depressed coming back from the mailbox with bills everyday. I have a lot of prospective trades in the works and am trying to build more. If anybody is bored and wants to swap some crap let me know! I have some goodies going out Friday and hopefully I can double this stack before then.

THE JACK MORRIS - '78 Tiger RC Project

WARNING: This may be the longest blog post I've ever done. Things got crazy today in the ghetto. A few days ago while checking my Crave the Auto app on my phone I saw Jack Morris listed as doing a meet and greet at a Walmart kind of near me. I poked around on the internet like crazy to verify the posting but could find nothing. I needed my '78 Morris RC signed for my goal of completing my Whitaker/Trammell/Parrish/Morris '78 Tiger Rookie Card signatures set that I am hoping to finish this year. I now need Trammell and Parrish and I am done. I had been planning on heading to the West side of the state for a minor league game that he was supposed to be signing at in May. When this popped up I started freaking out over the excitement of getting the card signed and locally at that. I also had my reservations as the ad said nothing about what he was signing and I couldn't verify if it was just a April Fool's prank too. Long story kind of short, I got a bunch of Morris stuff together and decided to commit to going to this event no matter what. When I showed up at the Walmart there was about 40 people in front of me in line. The Walmart employees couldn't answer any questions about what he was signing or how many items or anything. The event was publicized poorly and the information given to the people involved was worse it seemed.
Jack showed up 30 minutes before he was even supposed to and started signing right away. I have heard many negative things about the man and his personality toward anybody, especially autograph seekers but I have to say today my experience was different. He was very pleasant, funny, and tried to entertain everyone. The line moved way too fast and I looped around a number of times and got countless items signed. He was amazing the whole time I cannot and will not listen to negative stories about the guy. He kicked butt today! I had a few short, humorous exchanges with him including some fishing pictures and an April Fool's story about his son that was great. This day totally made up for Tigerfest sucking. (Tigerfest UPDATE: Neither of the 2 guys I got signatures from are on the opening day roster and only one is barely on the 40 man now and the other, though a great guy, is unemployed.) While I was in line I met a guy who told me about a card show about a mile away that I headed to after getting too many signatures.

Now, I do feel bad making the guy sign a ton of cards for me BUT I do not sell TTM or in person autos and I have a great uncle, a nephew, a brother, and a son who would totally love to have some Morris ink and the dude got paid and there was no line or people who didn't get anything. So, I think I am alright this time. At the show I was looking for any unique Jack Morris stuff in case I could find something in time to have him sign it. I found another of the '78 rookie cards in better condition than mine for $3. I bought it and went back to Walmart just in time to be the last signature of the day for him. I returned to the card show and overheard a guy frustrated that he didn't know about the signing. I proceeded to trade him the card I had bought for $3 for a handful of Tigers cards. I spent the rest of my day wheeling and dealing and had a great time at the first card show I have been to in years. I will do a separate post on Trade Bait I picked up, the personal collection stuff I found, and what I pulled from a few packs I opened. Here (above) is the rest of my Morris pull minus the other Rookie I traded away. I also got one of the Donruss Jumbo 8X10 free pictures from the event signed.

Sweet Lou!

I finally got one of my '78 Detroit Tiger rookie cards signed. Lou Whitaker was signing at a mall and my finacee was awesome enough to go while I was at work. Now I need to track down Morris, Parrish and Tram.