HTTR: 2012 Prestige Fake Series 2 Redskins Team Set

In honor of the Redskins winning the NFC East for the first time since 1999 (yes it seriously has been that long) here are a few customs I have been meaning to post featuring players that get little cardboard love but have had big parts of the playoff push.

Rob Jackson - Took over for an injured Brian Orakpo and played well with 4 interception and 4.5 sacks, his pick last night helped seal the win.

COMC Black Friday Order Part I: Gypsy Queen

A Christmas present to myself, my big COMC order finally arrived giving me enough to post about until the new 2013s hit the shelves. The first batch of scans is pile of short prints including a few of the more expensive ones checked off the list and a Ty Wigginton SP to complete my Rockies team set. Freddie Freeman 2011 Rookie for 1.50, Babe Ruth short print for under $2 and a Hank Aaron SP for $1.85 all good deals in my eyes. A small pile of 2012 Photo variants bring me to within 14 of the set.

I still have lists for 2011 (here) and 2012 (here) if anyone is interested in a trade.

Custom Card: 1974 Topps Art Monk

A "Card the Never Was" style custom with Hall of Famer Art Monk who spent the last 3 games of 1995 with the Eagles before retiring. This seemed fairly appropriate with the Redskins playing in Philadelphia this weekend with Washington having a chance to take the NFC East with two more wins.

Monk was my favorite player as a kid and seeing him in an Eagles jersey is still hard and even weirder with him wearing #85. Over his 3 games with the Eagles, Monk caught 6 passes bringing his career totals to 940 receptions with 12,721 yards and 68 touchdowns. He was finally elected to the Hall of Fame in 2008 along with team mate Darrell Green in 2008.

Bret Saberhagen: One of Every Rockie

Bret Saberhagen only pitched in 9 regular season games for the Colorado Rockies, but he is still the answer to a franchise trivia question as he is the only pitcher to wear a Rockies jersey that has won a Cy Young award. Saberhagen was named the best pitcher in the American League in 1985 and 1989 with the Royals and led the league in value with 9.2 WAR according to baseball-reference.com. In 1991 he was traded to the Mets and pitched for New York until being traded to the Rockies in July of 1995. When the trade was made the Rockies were leading the NL West with a 2.5 game lead on the Dodgers and looking to make their first playoff appearance. Saberhagen would make 9 starts for Colorado going 2-1 with a 6.28 ERA and while the Rockies would finish one game back of the Dodgers in the division they would make the playoffs as the Wild Card team, but would lose to the Braves in the NLDS with Saberhagen getting the loss in the final game giving up 6 runs over 4 innings. He would miss all of 1996 with an injury and would return in 1997 with the Red Sox.

Custom Card: 1982 Topps NFL Rick Walker

My first custom football card, Rick "Doc" Walker played in 119 career NFL games, 88 of those with the Redskins and never received a card in any official NFL product. A member of the 1982 Super Bowl XVII Championship team, set career highs with 17 catches, 168 yards and 2 touchdowns in 1983. Made his mark along with Don Warren as blocking Tight Ends in Joe Gibbs power running game and is an member of the Hogs.  Probably better known to Redskins fans for his broadcast career working as the Redskins radio sideline reporter among other Redskins related broadcasts.

A Heroic 2 x 3 Trade

A trade with 2 x 3 heros with some really nice stuff coming by way. First off a 1994 O-Pee-Chee Walt Weiss, I have never seen a '94 OPC before and this one of the new Rockies manager is a pretty nice addition. The floating heads card is the only Rockies card of Giovanni Carrara and was one of my most needed cards. The Rafael Betancourt is my first and checks off another Rockies from the list along with some always appreciated Rockies catchers and an old favorite in Darren Holmes. Finished off by some Rockies mini's, some catchers from 2012 Topps and a couple of the 1971 style Archives from this year. Thanks for the great trade!

Colorado Rockies and the Hall of Fame

The names on the 2013 Hall of Fame ballot are out and the big story is going to be the "steroid era" superstars like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens on their first ballots and guys like Mike Piazza who were thought to be "clean" but who really knows. Though for this Rockies fan, the story is if this will be the year a Colorado Rockie gets into the Hall of Fame. Colorado remains the only active franchise to never have a Hall of Famer suit up for them, the expansion cousin Marlins had Andre Dawson in 1995 and 1996 and the younger Diamondbacks had Roberto Alomar for 38 games in 2004 and Tampa Bay had Wade Boggs in 1998 and 1999. The Nationals have only had manager Frank Robinson as Hall of Famer, but I am counting the Expos with Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Tony Perez. There are eight former Rockies on the ballot this year with 6 new players and Larry Walker probably having the best chance, but only getting 22.9% of the vote last year.

2006 Rockies Topps #COL13: Jose Mesa

A one card mail-day of a card that I have not seen until it arrived in my mail box. I had written off Jose Mesa from the "One of Every Rockie" collection as the only "Rockies" cards I had seen of him had him in a Pirates uniform, the 2006 Topps, 2006 Upper Deck and the 2006 Konami from Japan all show him as a Pirate. On a whim I ordered this card from the Rockies team issued set on the off chance it was a photoshop, and to my surprise, it actually was. I usually don't get to excited by a questionable photoshop job, but this counts as a new Rockies card that I never knew existed, and for collector of obscure players from not heavily collected team, this is pretty cool.

Remembering Sean Taylor

Not going to go to far into this as I did a post last year,  today marks five years since Sean Taylor passed on, he would be 29 in his 9th season of what I believe would have been a first ballot Hall of Fame career.

Canada Post, Why You Do This?

 The minute I opened the Post Office box I knew that something was wrong. I saw a plastic bag with a stack of cards in it much bigger than anything I was expecting. Upon returning to work I was quite shocked to see that what was inside the package was surprisingly intact, but was not at all what I had ordered. Instead of the single Jeff Francis 2008 Topps Finest Black card I ordered from the seller, I had received a pack of playing cards with people I have never seen before on it. It looks like some custom made thing for a gift of some sort.

I am sort of lost at what to do here, it is obvious by the size of the envelope that the seller/shipper did not sent me what arrived and that it was damaged and switched at some sorting facility along the way. The envelope even has "FRAGILE - DO NOT BEND" stamped on it. It's not really the sellers fault so starting a dispute on ebay seems a little pointless. I have received many cards shipped in an top loader inside an envelope and never had any problems and with a letter rate package there is no way to know where this happened and were my card ended up, so do I just eat it (it was only $5.59) and count it is crappy lucky or should I contact the seller and see what he says. After years of mailorder I have been lucky as my only other issue was a broken Sort Vokter record, but that was largely due to terrible packaging so maybe I was just due for something to happen.

Zistle / Reader Trade

A recently completed trade with blog reader and Zistle user Steve turning some Yankees into Rockies and Catchers. My biggest quest as a kid was to get a card of every Rockie from the 1995 playoff roster, Trenidad Hubbard was the last one I needed and proved to be pretty hard in an age before COMC, Sportlots, Beckett and eBay so to this day I still get excited about new Trenidad Hubbard cards. Also coming my way was another Rockie with few cards in John Vander Wal and my first 1995 Upper Deck Minors based off one of my favorite sets. Finished off by some additions to the "Tools of Ignorance" collection with two nice looking cards of guys I have never heard of in Toby Hall and Max Ramirez and a wonderfully terrible 1995 Fleer Joe Girardi. Thanks for the great trade!

Sportlots Mailday 11/20/2012

Another mailday from sportlots.com, more of the standard package for me. Six Rockies cards I needed bringing the "One of every Rockies" collection up to 92% complete with some harder to find 2002 Upper Deck 40-man. 13 cards from 1992 Pinnacle series 1 bringing me to withing 15 cards of the set. This seller only had three 2011 Gypsy Queens I needed so I snatched those up along with the two Redskins safeties I collect in Brad Edwards and Sean Taylor. We don't get many card shows around these parts so Sportlots is kind of like going through a dime box for me and it never fails to add something to my collection that I have been searching for.

Condition Sensitive's One Year Birthday

The 16th of this month marked one year of doing this blog, for something that started out as basically me trying to keep track of 1971 Topps Variations, it turned into something much more. I was worried I would get sick of doing this and eventually stop completely, but I still look forward to finding new things to post and write about. So I am just taking a minute to thank everyone that reads this. A big thanks to everyone who comments and a huge thanks to everyone that has traded with me, 13 trades in a year is not much, but every single one has been great and problem free.

Top 30 Colorado Rockies Cards (7-1)

Here are the final cards with 6 of the 7 being from Upper Deck, in fact cards 2-9 are all Upper Deck releases. I expected UD to have a strong showing, but am a little surprised there was not more Score. 13 of the 30 are Horizontal cards, which I have to agree give better photos, but look like crap in binders. Feel free to leave comments on cards that I might have missed or cards that are to high or low, I would like to come back to this at some point so I will be keeping track and adding to the list and any help or feedback is greatly appreciated.

Breakdown of the top 30 by brand:

Upper Deck: 15

Topps: 9

Fleer: 4

Pinnacle / Score: 2

7. Walt Weiss - 1995 Upper Deck #413

The Rockies new manager and the second 1995 Upper Deck on the list. Just a great photo with a set that focuses on the photo. Bonus points for an Expo sighting.

Top 30 Colorado Rockies Cards (14-8)

After taking a day to express my disgust with the Topps Heritage High Number checklist we are back to the list with part 3 of 4.

 

14. Vinny Castilla - 1998 Score #97

Denver weather isn't always baseball friendly, especially in April, this card reflects that. Either that or Vinny is about to pull a gun out of his jersey and rob a bank, in that case hiding your face is a good start, but a jersey with your name on the back might be a mistake.

2012 Topps Heritage High Number Rockies Team Set

You see that card of the old guy to the right, yup, that's the Rockies team set. Jamie Moyer, who was designated for assignment by Colorado on May 30th, was then signed, pitched in AAA and was released by the Blue Jays and Orioles and has been without a MLB contract since July 6th is the lone Rockies player in a product released in November. Moyer got two cards in Topps Update, which is fine, a 49 year old winning an MLB game was a good story and worthy of being recognized on cardboard, but that should have been it. Then Moyer got a card in Bowman Chrome for no good reason and now he is the only Rockies in the Heritage update set. Of the 49 players to play for the Rockies this season, Moyer was the first player to be let go by the team making him the the least current player possible for an "update" set.

Top 30 Colorado Rockies Cards (21-15)

Part two of what will be a four part series, over the long weekend there were a few autograph cards that I though of that could make the list, but I am sticking with base cards to keep things simple.

21. Ben Petrick - 2002 Fleer Ultra #109

Ben Petrick making his second appearance on the list, a shot of a catcher from the pitchers point of view, with Petrick focused in on the ball, nothing groundbreaking just a good photo of a catcher with a photo friendly card design.

Top 30 Colorado Rockies Cards (30-22)

Posts have been getting farther and farther apart on this blog so I borrowed an idea from Night Owl's "The Best Dodger Cards Ever Made" Countdown and the "The Dime Boxes Top 100" lists. Here I present my "Top 30 Rockies Cards That I Could Think Of Over This Past Week" Countdown. My only rule was to not take into account value of the card, just judge the card on it's own merits. 30 seems like a weird number, but with a team that only goes back to 1993, that is were I started to run out of cards that I thought were worthy of a list. Broken up into 3 or 4 posts, here is what I came up with for cards 30-21. 

30. Preston Wilson - 2005 Topps #53

Nothing overly special here, just a nice action photo with the ball in flight and Wilson about to make a sliding catch. Not a big fan of the 2005 design, but it's not bad enough to detract from card. Wilson set career highs in his first with Colorado in 2003 with 36 home runs and 141 RBI, but had fallen out of favor with the organization by 2005 and would be traded to the Nationals in July of 2005.

Daniel Paille: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

The "certified" auto's left in this project are almost done, and so far this has been the hardest to find, a 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee Signatures Daniel Paille courtesy of eBay. Listed as a short print, this is the first copy of this card I have seen and I was pretty nervous about getting it. Due to a move I was without internet access at home and this auction ended on a Sunday. So before leaving work on the Friday I put a max bid of $82.00 on it and hoped for the best. Come Monday morning at work I was happy to find I had won the auction for $24.50 shipped, a reasonable price in my books.

Paille was acquired by Boston from Buffalo two games into the 2009-10 season, the first trade of a player between the two clubs in franchise history. After playing in 74 games, scoring 10 goals with 9 assists in his first season in Boston, Paille only played in 43 regular season games due to injury and healthy scratches in 2010-11. Come playoff time Paille proved to be a valuable piece of a championship team, playing in all 25 playoff games with 3 goals, 3 assists while killing penalties and playing well in his own end. In game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Paille would have one of his best games, scoring a short handed goal and adding an assist in a 8-1 Boston victory.

Happy Halloween!

Carved this Redskins pumpkin up a few years ago, Thought I would share it for Halloween.

Congrats to some former Rockies

As a Giants hater this World Series was pretty painful to watch, but there were two things that make me feel a little better about the Tigers losing. The first is my general dislike of Prince Fielder, I'm just not a fan of the guy, and second being Marco Scutaro winning a ring. Scutaro only played in 95 games for the Rockies and was a below average hitter over that time, but he always had professional at bats and played solid defense and converted me into a Scutaro fan. I am still a little disappointed that the Rockies traded Scutaro for next to nothing, basically giving him to a division rival to make a championship run, but that is not Scutaro's fault and he should not be blamed for ineptitude of the Rockies front office. A couple other former Rockies picked up their second World Series rings with the Giants, Javier Lopez pitched for Colorado from 2003 to April of 2005, going 4-1 with a 3.70 ERA and one save over 75 games as a rookie in 2003. Jeremy Affeldt spent the last half of 2006 and all of 2007 with the Rockies, going 4-3 with a 3.51 ERA over 75 games in 2007, helping Colorado to the 2007 World Series.

Custom Card: 1969-70 Topps Hockey Ivan Boldirev

A custom in style of "Cards that Never Were" we have a 1969-70 Topps Ivan Boldirev. A name that I had not heard of until recently looking back on the 1970's Bruins Cup winning teams, a player than not only has his name on the Stanley Cup, but went on to have a fairly impressive NHL career.

Born in Yugoslavia in 1949, Ivan Boldirev's family emigrated to Canada in 1951. Like any other kid in this country he found hockey and would be drafted by the Boston Bruins, 11th overall, in 1969. The NHL was a 14 team league at that time and the Bruins were a strong and deep team making it hard to crack the roster. After spending all of 1969-70 with the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central League, Boldirev was called up as a spare body for the 1970 playoffs, and despite never playing in an NHL regular season  or playoff game, his name was engraved on the Stanley Cup, as far as I can tell becoming the only non-goalie to appear on the Cup before playing in an NHL game. He would eventually make his NHL debut in 1970-71 playing in 2 games for the Bruins, then in 11 more in 1971-72 before being traded to the California Golden Seals mid-season. In 1974-75 he would play in his first playoffs, with the Blackhawks, 6 seasons after being immortalized on hockey's Holy Grail. For his career he would play in 1,052 games, scoring 361 goals with 866 points playing for the Bruins, Golden Seals, Blackhawks, Flames, Canucks, and Red Wings. He scored at least 20 goals for 9 straight seasons and reached a career high 35 three times.

Tim Thomas: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

2011-12 Panini Dominion Stanley Cup Championship Signatures

 NHL Hockey is currently on hold, but this project is not. I paid more for this that I wanted to and blew most of my October card budget on this card, but on receiving it, I am very happy with it. A super thick high end card with an on card auto picturing a bearded Tim Thomas holding the cup above his head. Thomas recently flaked out and is taking a year off, a decision that has been kind of a moot point with the lockout, but he will forever remembered for leading the Bruins to a Championship and becoming the second American to win the Conn Smythe, and for this save
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVY0qixzie8

2012 Bowman Chrome Rockies Prospects

Another Bowman release, another wave of prospect cards that most people have never heard of. I follow the Rockies farm system fairly closely, but some of these guys are new to me, or never stuck in my mind. I am usually excited for obscure Rockies, but these airbrushed prospect cards don't do much for me personally, at least until a few years from now if any of these guys make it to Denver.  I largely find Bowman Chrome to be a waste of time and will wait for Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects to get excited about a Bowman product. Five of the six Rockies players played for the Asheville Tourists who won the Class A South Atlantic League title this season, with one player from the High A Modesto Nuts. The following is a small profile on each in case anyone cares and to give myself a little info on some potential future Rockies. All links go to Baseball Reference.

Ben Alsup - Drafted by the Rockies in the 18th round of the 2011 amateur draft. The second year pro finished his first season with the Ashville Tourists (Class A) with an impressive 14-5 record with a 3.63 ERA. Low walk totals (2.7/9 innings) with mediocre strikeout numbers (5.2/9 innings). Alsup threw a complete game one-hitter against the Charleston RiverDogs with August, carrying a no-hitter into the 7th inning. Looks to be a solid innings eater (6.5 innings per start average) who pitches to contact and doesn't walk many.

A Royaly Random Trade

Another Zistle based trade, this time with fellow blogger Royals and Randoms. He wanted my Billy Butler 2012 Gypsy Queen Relic card and while I am hesitant to trade away GQ cards, this is my second trade with Josh and I know he will appreciate it much more than I will, so into the post it went along with assorted Royals and randoms. Coming my way was the usual Rockies including catcher Charles Johnson, some obscures from Topps Total and a couple 2003 Fleer Authentix that I really like, along with and few randoms, how sweet is that 1987 Franco card and Dante Bichette looking weird in a Reds jersey. I always liked Glavine as a kid, and something I recently realized I was missing was a Tom Glavine rookie card, this trade remedied that with a 1988 Donruss Glavine. For set needs, one more card knocked off the 2011 Gypsy Queen want list, and 15 cards from 1992 Pinnacle bringing me to within 26 cards of the series 1 set and finishing off the first page in the binder with card #7 Willie McGee. As an extra he threw in a Rockies program, I have a few of these from pilgrimages to Coors Field, but nothing from this season so it's greatly appreciated. As always, thanks for the great trade.

---

The Jim Tracy Era Ends

Possibly lost in the excitement of playoff baseball this weekend, the fifth manger in Rockies history, Jim Tracy, resigned after Colorado put up the most losses in franchise history. Being a regular guy with a regular job, I never feel good about someone losing their job, but it was time for Tracy to move on, and I am glad he realized this on his own.

The Jim Tracy era started on a high, taking over for Clint Hurdle after 46 games in 2009, Tracy led the Rockies to a 74-42 record, reaching the playoff via the Wildcard. I personally started to sour on Tracy in 2010, after dropping to 11 games back in August, Colorado rallied and were only 1 game back on September 18th. The Rockies would then lose 13 of 14 games and finish 9 games back. Tracy rode staff ace Ubaldo Jimenez hard that season with 221 2/3 innings and while Jimenez responded with third place finish in the Cy Young voting and a 19-8 record, Jimenez has never been the same after going 19-30 with a 5.03 ERA after that season.

Custom Card: 1971 Topps Bryce Harper (All Aboard the Nat's Bandwagon)

The Rockies are mercifully done the abyss that was 2012 today, so no more watching the Tulsa Drillers and Colorado Springs Sky Sox rosters playing in Rockies uniforms. As an old Expos fan I am officially jumping on the Nationals playoff bandwagon. It's not much of a stretch as at work I listen to Washington radio for Redskins updates so I have followed the Nats for a few seasons now. So now it is officially time to take the Larry Walker powder blue Expos uni out of the closet and hope my presence on the bandwagon does not jinx the Natspos.

All credit for the photo used in this custom goes to www.photoshopsports.com

2012 Update Rockies Team Set

I might be a little weird, but I am alright with that. As a team collector and fan of obscure players on Rockies cards the Topps Update set is the highlight of card collecting calender for me. I am the kind of collector that get more excited about Matt Belisle getting a base card than collecting stars like Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez or Todd Helton. My breakdown of the 2012 Update Rockies team set is as follows:

eBay Mailday: 2011 GQ SP's

Nothing overly exciting, but I am posting it anyway in the interest of keeping this blog updated. More cards in my quest for the 2011 Gypsy Queen set, this time it's 17 short prints, 13 of which I needed giving me 27 of the 50 in the set. I ended up paying 50 cents a piece for these shipped, which is a good deal with two of the #316 Lou Gehrig cards which are currently $6.00 on COMC and a Rockie I didn't have yet in Dexter Fowler.

 My full 2011 Gypsy Queen wants and tradelist here.

Zistle Trade #4

More Zistle trades to post, more cards off the want list. Jeff Frye and Rolando Arrojo add two more to the one of every Rockies collection putting me over 90% complete. As always more Rockies, this time with Chris Iannetta and Brent Mayne catcher cards and Roberto's nephew Edgard Clemente.  Also more random catchers, my highlight being the 1992 Score Jeff Reed either just after getting steamrolled at home plate, or just before a baby alien pops out of this guts.

Tyler Seguin: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

Tyler Seguin 2011-12 Ultimate Collection Ultimate Signatures

This is one that has eluded me for a while due to Seguin autos going for high prices, but this one was reasonable (30 bucks shipped) so I jumped on it. The Bruins drafted Tyler Seguin 2nd overall in the 2010 entry draft with a pick acquired in the Phil Kessel trade. He spent his rookie season with the Bruins and finished with 11 goals and 11 assists. After being a healthy scratch in the first two round of the 2011 playoffs, he earned his place in Boston Bruins lore by scoring a goal in his playoff debut, game one of the Eastern Conference finals, then scoring 2 goals and finishing with 4 points in his second game. Seguin would only pick one more point in the playoffs, an assist in Boston's game 4 win against Vancouver, but would end his rookie season by raising the Cup above his head. In 2012 Seguin would lead the Bruins in goals with 29 and points with 67 and looks to be a star for Boston when the NHL eventually resumes.

Zistle Trade #3

Another Zistle trade completed, this time a small one bringing me my first 2012 Allen and Ginter card as well as finishing off my 1995 Upper Deck Rockies team set. I really like the Ginter design from this year, but wish they would dump the gimmicky crap. The Nolan Ryan brings me one card closer to finishing 1992 Pinnacle and the John Buck with the painted goalie style mask is for the catcher collection.

2013 Gypsy Queen First Look

Topps has now unveiled the design for next year Gypsy Queen set. I again love the base cards, the sharp corners at the top of the design give the brand a more modern look than the first two years, but the design on the bottom with the Norse/Celtic style knotwork still give a bit of a retro look. The painted photoshop filter is back on the photos as expected. My biggest problem with Gypsy Queen is the inserts tend to be ugly and the playing card look of the "Dealing Aces" inserts look a little over the top. I for one am excited that GQ is returns and look forward to the product release in the spring.

More info at the Beckett article.

A Quick Study of Batting Helmet Facemasks

1981 Topps #445 Ellis Valentine

Inspired by yesterdays Charlie Hayes card featuring a football style mask on his batting helmet, further research led to finding a few more cards with a similar theme. The first instance is probably the most famous, but was never captured on cardbaord, Dave Parker in the middle of his 1978 MVP season fractured his jaw and cheekbone in a collision at the plate. That lead him experiment with a Jason Voorhes style goalie mask before switching to mounting a football face-mask onto his helmet. This is already covered at Uni-Watch and Dick Allen Hall of Fame including a sweet custom card.

The first actual cards I have found with batting helmet masks is 1981 Topps with Ellis Valentine and Ron Roenicke using football masks cut in half and bolted on the batting helmet.

Charlie Hayes: One of Every Rockie

Not so much a tribute to Charlie Hayes, but more of an excuse to feature one of my favorite cards from my youth, a 1995 Upper Deck #172 Charlie Hayes. I love the 1995 Upper Deck set, great photography, full bleed photos and a nice simple design allowing the photo to be the star of the card. The unique thing about this card is the mask that Hayes wore in 1994 after being hit with a pitch and breaking his jaw. The Football style model shown on this card is also pictured on his 1995 Pinnacle and 1995 Sportflix cards. The other model he wore is pictured on the back of this Upper Deck card as well as on his 1995 Collector's Choice SE #207 card. He is also pictured with the more conventional cheek guard with the Yankees later in his career.

Hayes came to the Rockies with the 3rd pick of the 1992 Expansion draft and held down the starting 3B job for the teams first two seasons. In 1993 he lead the National League with 45 doubles as well as leading the Rockies with 25 home runs and tying for the club lead with 98 RBI, all career highs. He probably would have been the first Colorado All-Star if it wasn't for Andres Galarraga who would go on to win the batting title with a .370 average. Hayes would leave Colorado as a free agent after the 1994 season, signing with the Phillies. He would end up playing for 7 MLB teams (BR link), including two stops with the Phillies, Giants and Yankees and would win a World Series Title with the 1996 Yankees.

Zistle Trade #2

Another Zistle trade completed with a fellow blogger at LV's TTM autographs and Baseball Cards. In exchange for player collection needs I got to cross off some cards from the wantlist. First off some 2012 archives, I was not sold on this set even though I am a huge fan of the 1971 design. I think it losses something with the modern day players. Also some Rockies, comparing the Opening Day Pomeranz with the base card further instills my dislike of foil printed names on cards. A couple 2011 Gypsy Queens to cross off the list and a 1992 Pinnacle Damon Berryhill for the catchers collection.

Trade with BA Benny

In response to my 2011 Gypsy Queen want list going up the fine fellow behind BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet contacted me about a trade, going his way was some set needs and assorted teams he collects. Coming back was around 50 Gypsy Queens I needed including some much needed short prints. He also threw in some Rockies I didn't have with two Chris Nelson's I needed for the "One of every Rockies" Collection and Seattle Seahawks starting QB Russell Wilson from when he was in the Rockies farm system. Finished out by a pile of Redskins cards, none of which I already had, which is impressive because I have around 1,500 different 'Skins cards. A small sampling of cards below. As always thanks for the great trade.

Acetate Appreciation: 2003 E-X

E-X was a brand released by Fleer that dabbled in clear plastic cards. The 2003 offering of E-X was made up of 102 base cards with cards 1-72 being veterans, 73-82 being short printed veterans and cards 83-102 being rookies designated by a small letter "R" in the bottom left corner, while only cards from 87-102 being actual rookie cards. The base set was paralleled with "Essential Credentials Now" with the cards tinted blue and serial numbered to the card number meaning card number 1 in set was limited to 1 and card number 102 was limited to 102. The "Essential Credentials Future" was tinted yellow with the serial number reversed meaning card number 1 was limited to 102 and card number 102 was limited to 1.

Zistle Trade #1

I don't think I really profess my love for www.zistle.com enough on this blog, but I do love the site for organizing collections and want-lists. I recently completed my first trade on Zistle, and really love how easy it is to start a trade with the want-list/trade-list capabilities on the site. Coming my way was the usual trade package, some 1992 Pinnacle needs including the Dibble to the right and some random catchers for the "Tools of Ignorance" collection. What could me more awesome than an Expo catcher with a goalie style mask. The 2009 John Baker is a personal favorite card of mine and some additions to the Ron Hassey collection.

Milan Lucic: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

2008-09 Upper Deck Trilogy Young Star Scripts Milan Lucic

While 2010-11 was a breakout regular season for Lucic with 30 goals and 62 points, his playoff stats are a little underwhelming. Playing in all 25 playoff games he only scored 5 times with 12 points, but did finish second in the playoffs with 63 penalty minutes including 4 misconduct penalties. While with the Vancouver Giants, Lucic helped the Giants to win the 2007 Memorial Cup winning the tournaments MVP award.

Custom Card: 1991 Pinnacle Jordan Pacheco

My love for Pinnacle brands is no secret on this blog and while 1992 marked the first year for Pinnacle baseball, the debut of Pinnacle came in 1991 with sets for NHL and NFL. The same design was us for the 1991 NHL and NFL, just as the same design was used for MLB, NFL and NHL in 1992 and 1993 so we can imagine that if Pinnacle made a baseball set in 1991 they would have stayed with a common design. 1991 did not feature as great a design as 1992 or as simple as 1993, but it's something that grows on you. I love the team color gradient which would be re-used in 1992. The biggest drawback of the 1991 design is the amount of unused space on the card, leaving the action photo fairly small.

Acetate Appreciation: 1998 Topps Tek

The first in a series highlighting acetate, the clear plastic cards that I for some strange reason have loved since opening packs of 1993 Classic Hockey as a kid. The first set I am profiling is the bizarre 1998 Topps Tek set. At first look you have a 90 card base set with all kinds of wacky patterns, but those patterns are actually a parallel of sorts. I am not a fan of parallels and get annoyed by brands like Bowman that seem to suffer from parallel overload, but Topps Tek took this to new heights. Each card in the set of 90 had 90 different patterns with a Diffractor, a refractor style card seeded at one per 6 packs, paralleling each pattern making a grand total of 180 different cards of each player. That makes a total of 8,100 cards in the set, with each of these having a Diffractor for a master set of 16,200 different cards. This is not including the Pre-Production Promo cards of Mark McGwire, Raul Mondesi and Roger Clemens of which I do not know how many patterns are available. I would love to sit down and have a few beers with whoever came up with this idea and just ask them "What the hell?".

2011 Gypsy Queen Wantlist

2011 Gypsy Queen Wants

Updated May, 2016

Base and Short Prints: Complete!

Framed Paper: 8, 45
Framed Green: 45, 96
Mini: 45, 276, 320
Mini Photo Variation: 45, 96
Mini Red GQ Back: 45, 276
Mini Black: 8, 45, 96, 237, 276

Tuukka Rask: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

Of all the cards I have acquired in my Bruins Stanley Cup Auto, this is by far my favorite, a 2008-09 Upper Deck Trilogy Ice Scripts Tuukka Rask. I love acetate cards and have never seen one this thick before. The graphics are on the front and back of the clear card giving a slight 3D effect. Hockey seems to have embraced the clear cards while baseball has sampled in it but I haven't seen anything new for a while as it doesn't seem like it's something Topps is interested in.

After playing all 13 games in the 2010 playoffs, Rask has sat for the last two playoff years, including not seeing a minute of time in the 2011 Cup run, but being the second string goalie gets your name on the Cup. Rask has performed well when called upon over the past four seasons and will get a chance to prove he's a number one Goalie with Tim Thomas taking 2012-13 off.

Loot from Jaybarkerfan's Card Draft

After participating in my first card draft over at Jaybarkerfan's Junk here is what I ended up with. The card that really interested my was the 2003 Donruss Champions Garrett Atkins Autograph numbered to 400. Atkins had a few good years with the Rockies and was a part of the 2007 team that made it to the World Series. I also ended up with a new Helton and a Gold Sparkle Eric Young, Jr. for Rockies. Added some Hall of Famers to my collection as well with a Josh Gibson, Walter Johnson and Cy Young. I have never seen those UD HOF placards before and really like the set, might have to add a few more someday. My keepers are rounded out my some 2012 Topps '87 mini's, the McCutchen is in the running for my "Best Card of 2012". I ended up getting the only 1971 Topps, but sadly the Hoyt Wilhelm  was not an upgrade over the one in my set. The rest are scanned below and up for trade.

Oddball Mailday: Sandy Alomar, Jr. Danbury Mint

A weird impulse buy from eBay. A 2003 Danbury mint 22K gold Sandy Alomar, Jr. card. This is my first Alomar with Colorado and my first gold card. There looks to be this card issued in 2003 and the original from 2000 with the Indians as the team. The Rockies card is a little different in that the jersey is changed with the shoulder patch and pinstripes, and the should pad on his chest protector has been removed although both cards are number 95 in the set. This is about all I can find on this card, no idea on print run or anything else, just something different to add to the collection.

Custom Cards: 2013 Topps Josh Rutledge & Carlos Gonzalez

First impressions of 2013 Topps get a big thumbs up for me, after not really digging the 2012 "surfboard" set, this is a huge improvement. I love the infield opening up to show the player photo, and using team colors in the design is great. I'm usually not a fan of using white as the main color, but I do like this, nice and clean, not to busy. Team logos on the front are a must and I really hope they stick with the hat logo instead of the primary logo, specifiably being a Rockies fan I love the interlocking CR logo over the mountain logo used on 2012 Topps. The player name looks fine as a grey gradient, but I fear the actual card will have the name in foil which I am not a fan of, but we will see. Early images show the parallels in pink and camo, the same as Topps did with the 2012 NFL set, I like the camo, pink not so much.

Eutaw Street Cardboard Mailday

Just a quick post showing of some finds from the Eutaw Street Cardboard "Selling out for the National" sale he did.It's not a secret that I love Gypsy Queen so I jumped on the chance to add a new black and green mini, the black minis are my favorite cards from 2012 so far by a long ways. Also got a couple Rockies catchers, who doesn't love Jayhawk Owens,  and a former Rockies catcher in Blanco, one of my favorite cards of 2011 looking really good as a red bordered D-Backs card, and a couple young Rockies pitching prospects in Tago and Matzek. The Cal Ripken leaves me 45 cards short of the 1992 Pinnacle Series 1 set.

Needed Nine (Want List Rev 2)

Another want-list update after some recent purchases if you have any of these cards for trade and want to work out a deal let me know, previous want lists can be found below
Original
Want-list Rev 1

Frank Wycheck 1994 Playoff Football #190
Not a lot of football cards left on my want list, but this one has been on it for a while. This is the only card of Wychek with the Redskins and his only rookie card. He played in 18 games over two seasons with Washington as a FB/TE. He was suspended by the NFL for a failed drug test and released by Washington. He would then play in 9 seasons for the Houston Oilers / Tennessee Titans and is best remembered as the guy who started the "Music City Miracle"

Acquired October 2012
Juan Nicasio 2012 Gypsy Queen Black Mini #134
The last card I need for the Black Mini Rockies team set.










Acquired July 2013
Justin Speier 2003 Upper Deck 40-Man #759
40-Man and Topps Total were great sets for team collectors giving us cards of players that might not get cards today. Speier has two Rockies card, both in the 40-man set. He pitched for three seasons in Colorado appearing in 177 games with a career high 9 saves in 2003.







Aquired November 2012
Giovanni Carrara 2001 Upper Deck Vintage #370
A shared card between Carrara, Josh Kalinowski and Craig House. This is the only card that Carrara appears with the Rockies and it a shared floating head card, of of my biggest dislikes from vintage that has resurfaced in the hobby with the retro/heritage style sets. Kalinowski has a few solo cards, but never made the majors not qualifying him for the One of Every Rockie project, and I already have a few Craig House cards.