Trade with All the Way to the Backstop

Marcus at All the Way to the Backstop and I just completed a trade in which I was able to cross off a number of cards off my wantlists.  He was able to take off a bunch of 2012 Heritage and Update cards.  The prize of the lot though were the extra Royals that he added to the trade.

He put together a 1992 Fleer Ultra Series 1 team set along with some random cards that I scanned below.

As you can see there are many current and one recent Royal including a few prospects that are high up in the farm system.  You may recognize Gregor Blanco who most recently appeared in the World Series with the Giants.  I just hope that I get to see the Royals in the playoffs soon.  I think I can speak for most Royals fans in saying that we are tired of hearing about our great farm system that, unfortunately, has not translated into a winning major league team yet.  There are hopes that current players like Gordon, Butler, Moustakas will be able to see prospects like Odorizzi and Montgomery put together solid seasons on the mound to help with our continual pitching woes.  I guess I will get to see if it happens since we just renewed our season tickets for next year.  I hope it pays off!

COMC Pickups - Long Live the Mitchell Report

On my recent purchase from COMC, I was able to pick up a couple of the 2000 Upper Deck Legends Legendary Jersey cards that I needed.  The first is one of my least liked players that I ever saw, albeit a very colorful one.  The Jose Canseco card is pretty blah with a plain white jersey swatch which, I guess, accurately describes how I feel about him now.  Although his 462 home runs should be impressive in most books, the fact that it was aided by performance-enhancing drugs tarnishes his record.

There was an interesting conversation on MLB Network Radio this morning in which Billy Beane basically dismissed the suspension of Bartolo Colon in deciding to bring him back for the 2013 season.  When you look at that, plus the fact that other users are currently still in the game in playing and coaching positions, you wonder if the "user" label really means anything anymore.  Do we too easily dismiss the transgressions of these players because they are athletes, or are we really being forgiving in doing so???

My second pickup is of another PED user, Matt Williams.  Williams, a current coach for the Diamondbacks, hit 378 home runs during his career.  He claimed to use HGH to recover from an ankle injury.  However, with his name on the "list" there will always be people who will want to put the "asterisk" next to his name also.  At least, I sort of like this card.  At least he wasn't as much of an *#$%@ as Canseco still is.

I picked up 2 cards that I needed.  Both were very cheap.  They will go into their place of helping me complete this insert set.  As Forest Gump would say, "That is all I have to say about that."

1973 Topps Mike Schmidt

One of the things that many of you bloggers got me to think about was starting some big project.  I decided that I would try to put together my birth year set, 1973 Topps.  This was a good choice for a number of reasons.  To many collectors/dealers, 1972 is the last of the "vintage" sets so the 1973 set is very reasonable in price.  While there are a number of stars in the set, they are either at the end of their career or on special all-time leaders cards, so they are reasonable in price.  At the $350-$700 range for a complete set, this is the oldest Topps set that is still under $1500, so again the price is to my advantage.

I have been able to put together almost the whole set without spending more than $8 on any one card.  I have bought commons and some stars in pretty cheap lots.  I have found some stars cards at what I consider bargain prices.  I have picked up some of the harder to find high number series through COMC for reasonable prices.

My only concern was the big card of the set, a Rookie Third Basemen card of Ron Cey, John Hilton, and MIKE SCHMIDT.  With this card holding up the value of the set, I knew that this would be where I would have to spend the bulk of my money if I were to complete the set.  I have probably looked at a hundred Schmidt rookies since deciding to put this set together.  All of which were either way overpriced, or in poor condition (and still overpriced).

I almost pulled the trigger at a card show last fall, but the dealer would not budge off of his $75 price for a decent but not great card.  I was willing to go $60, but he wouldn't come down.  I almost decided to settle for a miscut and off-center card as I haven't been too worried about the condition of some of the cards.  However, I decided that I really wanted to have a decent Schmidt Rookie to cap off this set.  I decided that if I could find a card that was in decent shape with no creases or major corner damage for less than $50 then I would do it.

I can now say that I have found it and am now the proud owner of a 1973 Mike Schmidt Rookie PSA 4 graded card.  I found it at my local card shop who had it originally listed on ebay.  He came down on the price that it was listed for and brought it into my price range.  This brings me down to 8 cards needed to complete my set.  I hope to have this completed by Thanksgiving.

Card Shop Finds - 2011 Year of Topps Inserts

Most of my collection consists of just base sets.  I use any inserts that I get as trade bait to finish up my base set needs.  However, in 2011 I decided to try to put together the Year of Topps insert set and the Year of Topps Lost Cards insert set.  I completed the Lost Card Set last spring through trading, but I have yet to really get close to the Year of Topps insert set until today.  I went to my local card shop which happens to be about an hour away in Shawnee, KS.  The Baseball Card Store has always been good with a nice selection of new products, set building needs, and hobby supplies.  It also includes a number of vintage cards, including graded cards.  I was able to come away with the major card of a set that I am currently close to completing.  That will need its own post in a few days

Today I came away with most of the cards that I needed to complete the Year of Topps insert set including these good looking cards.

I have always appreciated the look of vintage cards and I guess that is why this insert set appealed to me.  Even though there is a good number of recent designs in the set, it is the older styles that I have enjoyed the most.  With these additions, I am down to 5 cards needed to finish off the 118 card set.  The cards that I need include numbers 3, 48, 53, 54, and 70.  If you have any of these, please let me know and we can work out a trade.