Trade with Cardboard Hogs: OMAHA!

I completed my first trade with Kenneth of Cardboard Hogs. He saw a card I posted on Twitter awhile back and we went from there. I received my end of the trade yesterday, while my package to him is sitting on my card desk (along with a few others). I never wanted to be that person that took forever to get something out to my fellow collectors/bloggers, but sometimes working and going to school full time eats awa at my time. That and the nearest post office is 15 miles away...

Before I continue into the trade I'd like you all to know how generous a trader Kenneth is. He went above and beyond and I appreciate his generosity.

Now I usually save my favorite card for last, but my excitement is still pouring out even though I opened his package a few hours ago.

A freaking Peyton Manning dual relic, including one from his days with Tennessee. (I somehow spelled that right the first time :o)

Manning has long been my favorite football player and he is the reason I am a Colts fan. In fact this commercial convinced me to root for the Colts. 

MOOOooooOOO-VERRRS. Still gets me.

The fun didn't stop there. I was lucky enough to grab my first HOF'er relic card. I'm not too knowledgeable about the Colts history, but I have heard Morre's name thrown around enough that I know who he is. This bad boy is #'d 26/99.

As if the two previous cards weren't enough for what i'm sending him, Kenneth even threw in an auto from Anthony Castonzo. I don't know 100% of the Colts roster these days, but back in the pre-Luck era, I knew pretty much every dude on the field. Castonzo was one of the names I knew and he is a pretty effective OT. 

I love blue refractors of my Dodgers, but it works just as well with the blue and white of the Colts. This Fleener refractor is #'d 70/199.

Getting into baseball now, this Emerald is a new addition to my Ryu PC. 

In addition to the Ryu, I received a few misc Dodgers from over the past few years, including an awesome Pedro Martinez insert from 2014 Topps S1. 

I also received a decent size stack of Colts cards that should keep me busy for awhile. A trip down to Target for some more binders is in the works. I'll have more info on binders in the next few days.

Thanks for the Kenneth. You have no idea how excited I was for that Manning. It wasn't on my Most Wanted, but I am handing over 50 CC points to you anyways. Expect something from me next week. 

Another Trip Down to my LCS

I made another trip to my LCS after work yesterday and was able to walk away with some awesome new PC additions. 

Matt, the owner, has been trying to convince me to buy a spot in a baseball box break this weekend at a card show type event at one of the mall's in town. I am always interested in new cards, but $40 for a spot is a price I wasn't willing to spend. He said he is opening up a few boxes of 2013 Triple Threads, as well as 10 other boxes. $40 bucks is probably more than worth it, but as a full-time college student money is hard to come by. 

He told me he was looking to beef up his cards for the show this weekend and asked if I could bring in commons/relics/autos for him. I don't buy that many cards, but I did have some stuff for him. I took him a 3 inch stack of Yankees, as well as a 3 inch stack of base cards from 2014 S1. I threw in about 15 NBA/NFL autos/relics, and about 150 basketball cards. I don't really have an interest in basketball cards, but they always end up in my hands after Dikran keeps the cards he is interested in after opening a box. Needless to say, I cleared out some space and helped my LCS owner for the show.

He told me over the phone that he would give me some store credit for anything I brought in but my expectations were low. I figured I would be lucky if I got $10 bucks. He took a look through the stuff when I got there last night and ended up giving me $35 bucks in store credit. He put me down for a spot in the break this weekend and told me to bring him some more base cards and Yankees and we'll call it even for the other $5 bucks. So, If you have Yankees from the past 2-3 years you don't want, I'll gladly take them off your hands. 

Anyways, I took a stroll around the shop and ended up digging through some dimeboxes and eventually walked out with a nice little stack of cards. 

Eight new cards for my A-Gon PC. He looks 100% in a Dodgers uni IMO. The card that stands out the most is the brand new 2014 Donruss card on the bottom left. It actually came out yesterday and I was already able to pick up a couple of Dodgers. 

Six new cards for my Big Papi PC. The diamond sparkle cards are pretty snazzy and the UD Masterpieces is wonderful as well.

I also snagged this 2012 Topps Chrome Refractor of Matt Kemp after realizing I did not have any of his 2012 TC cards.

Two new cards for my Andre Ethier PC. The more I look at these diamond sparkle cards, the more I want to chase them all down. They look pretty damn awesome.

I also picked up a new Beltre card to add to the binder. Am I the only one who thinks the card looks cutoff on the right? 

I will never pass up a Ryu card, as the Korean is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. This is the other 2014 Donruss I picked up BTW. 

Kind of a weird pairing for Topps to make here. That is until I realized they are both Jewish. It took me a minute to notice that on the back of the card. I guess I should take a closer look at the back sometimes. I should also get a move on uploading my Koufax PC to the blog. Maybe this weekend.....

I also grabbed these even though they don't really fit into any of my collections. The Piazza on the left doesn't actually come from 1994, it is a reprint from 2011 Topps. The Sellers card was calling my name for some reason. He isn't anything special on or off the field, but it is an aweome card nonetheless. 

In addition to the cards above I was able to grab nine new cards for my Topps TeamSet project. 

The best thing about the entire trip to my LCS is that I didn't spend a dime (except on gas). Matt was gracious enough to let me walk away with these fantabulous cards for nothing. I was also able to secure a spot in his box break this weekend, and I cleared up space in my room by doing so. I won't be able to make it to the break, but hopefully I will have some goodies to show off this weekend. 

Contest Winnings From Foul Bunt

I recently won a contest hosted by William of Foul Bunt fame.....on Instagram. That's right, the card game has moved to Instagram. William is the only card guy I follow on there, and it is refreshing to see some cool cardboard amongst endless pictures of food or cars posted by my friends. 

I'll get to the prize in a minute, but before I do I'd like to show off five new Shawn Green cards William sent along.

Man, those sketch cards truly are something else. Hopefully I'm not the only one who thinks the sketch looks reminiscent of Wil Myers. 

Carl Pavano

This was the grand prize and I actually didn't win it. Like I said, William held the contest on Instagram and posted a picture of this ball. To gain an entry into the contest you had to simply guess who signed the ball. He randomized the few names that correctly guessed Carl Pavano and I came in 2nd. The true winner declined the ball and William offered it to me. The auto is slightly faded, but overall the ball is in good shape. I'm not the biggest Pavano fan, but adding a signed ball to my collection is cool no matter the player. 

Thanks for the awesome prize William. I will be shipping cards your way this week. 

Trade Bait Tuesday

I've been going through my cards and need to get more organized. I have a ton of cards I'd love to trade, but keeping track of them is difficult sometimes. So, I have decided to create Trade Bait Tuesday. I will post a scan with a page full of cards for trade. If you are interested in any of the cards just let me know in the comment section. Expect this every Tuesday and some Thursdays. 

Greens on the Cheap

It seems like every week I am able to add a new Shawn Green card to my PC. Over the weekend I got my Shawn Green fix via eBay, as four cards from four different sellers all showed up in my mailbox.

This bad boy was shipped to my door for less than a dollar shipped. That is a price you cannot beat anywhere. The scan came out kind of dark, but I'm sure most of you are familiar with the 2000 Topps Chrome design. This is actually my first Topps Chrome card of Green.

And this is my second. This puppy was had for just over than two bucks shipped, and is one of my favorite Green cards out there. I absolutely love the black refractors on Topps Chrome and I will probably end up putting the team sets together with black refractors. 

We now move on to the "higher priced" cards, as this jumbo relic cost me $2.95 shipped. It feature Green as both a Dodger and a Diamondback, but the relic is most likely from his time with the Dodgers. 

Finally we have my third Shawn Green autograph. This was the most expensive, costing me $4.50 to have it shipped to my house. It is a sticker auto, although it is not as noticeable in person as it is in the scan. The back also mentions Vin Scully, so this card is a win-win for me. 

Andrew Lambo Auto Winner

I decided to hold all of my future contest without Twitter this week, and the number of entries I received were still close to last week's record of 137. There were 108 total entries this week, split between 12 people. Thanks again for entering!

After 11 randomizations, the winner is Caitlin Jennings! The other winners are down below. 

These are the Top 36, which is all I could fit into one picture. 

Caitlin Jennings - Andrew Lambo auto and 5 CC Points
Dodger Penguin - 4 CC Points
Nate Bell- 3 CC Points
cpuJesse - 2 CC Points
Nathan Tuttle - 1 CC Point

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On a side note, I will not be running a contest this week. School has picked up and I simply won't have the time. I should be good to go for next Monday though. 

Trade with Dime Boxes: An Appearance From The Penguin

I completed my first trade with Nick from Dime Boxes fame last week. After a few emails back and forth last month, I was able to walk away with some much needed cards for my Topps Team Set Project, as well as a few more awesome pieces of cardboard. 

Because I received this package earlier in the week, I don't remember exactly what was going through my head as I was going through the stack of cards Nick sent me. I do remember that this card stood out above the rest.

Being born in '93 means I only know so much about the Dodgers. Reading about the earlier teams and players is enjoyable, but at the end of the day I can only retain some of the information. Experience really helps the brain, but I never did get to experience the Penguin first hand. (Not you Matthew) When the name Ron Cey comes up in conversation, I instantly think of the all-star third baseman for the Dodgers, but after that my knowledge is shallow. 

The front of this card shows just about everything I know about Ron Cey. What he looks like, what position he played, and his all star appearance as a Dodger. But, the back of the card is a completely different story. I learned Cey had 8 RBI's in one game against the Padres in 1974, while establishing the team record for Dodgers third baseman in homers and RBI's. Those records now belong to Adrian Beltre, but baseball cards contain a lot of knowledge I may have never known. 

Although I didn't know much about Ron Cey, I did know about Kirk Gibson before receiving this awesome card. I'm fairly positive this card doesn't need to be explained, but for those of you that have been in a box for the past 25 years; Kirk Gibson hit the infamous homer off of Dennis Eckersley to lead the Dodgers to a walk-off win over the A's in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. 

Another great card courtesy of Nick is the Paul Konerko RC from 1998 Score. Too bad Konerko didn't spend too much time in the organization. 

2005 is my favorite Topps set from the past 15 years. This is only my second card from the 38 card team set, so I guess I have a little work to do. Chad Billinglsey turned out to be a great arm for the Dodgers, though after having Tommy John surgery last year, he has been out of limelight lately. Joel Guzman, if my memory serves me correct, was once a "can't miss" prospect for the Dodgers. Like so many prospects do, Guzman did not end up having any kind of success at the major league level. Even though Guzman did not pan out, I enjoy seeing these doubled up player cards, especially of my boys in blue.

Thanks again Nick. Hopefully we can do this again soon. 

Reminiscing About 2011 Matt Kemp

I ran across this card a few weeks ago and picked it up off the bay. It didn't cost too much, and it is pretty cool in person. I'm not normally a fan of the manufactured patches/pins, but this is a nice looking card.

I got a new laptop yesterday and splurged a bit on the purchase. I went in to Best Buy with a price I was planning on spending, and ended up leaving after spending a few hundred more than I planned. My new laptop is superior to the ones I was looking at, and I am in love with it already. 

My new screen has PHENOMENAL resolution. Therefore, this scan looks crystal clear to me. Scans used to show up a little foggy, but I can chalk that up to a 6 year old laptop. 

Anyways, back to the card. This card commemorates Kemp's 2011 season, something that will be nearly impossible to reproduce. He hit 39 homers and stole 40 bases. This card specifically mentions his RBI total, which was a league leading 126 in 2011. It is a shame Matt lost the MVP to Ryan Braun. Braun also had an excellent year, but Kemp was the rightful winner. Too bad we can't change the past.

Trade with S.Mack Talk: 2013 Set Needs & PC Awesomeness

EDIT: I mistakenly credited this trade to Ethan of Playing With My Cards. I have edited the posting, and now credited Jimmy for the awesome trade. I apologize for the mix-up guys. 


I completed my first trade with Jimmy of the new S.mack Talk card blog. 

Jimmy almost wiped out my 2013 Bowman Platinum needs. Below are the only cards I am missing.

19 Justin Upton
52 Kris Medlen
78 Robinson Cano
90 Jedd Gyorko RC
99 Dylan Bundy RC

This is probably my favorite card come from the trade, but not because it is a great looking card. It's because it puts me one step closer to finishing off the refractors for my Topps Chome Rainbow quest. In fact, I now have 9/10 of the refractors needed, leaving me with just the Ethier refractor to finish them off. Of course, I still have a ton I need to before I'm anywhere close to finishing, but taking one parallel out of the equation will simplify a few things. 

I was also to get my hands on these two great looking my cards. These cards are my favorite thing about 2014 so far, and I sincerely hope they carry it over to S2. 

This was one of the cooler cards that Jimmy included. I actually didn't even realize that this was floating out there so I'm happy to add it. It features ex-Dodgers OF Jerry Sands, who unfortunately wasn't able to make anything out of his career after a big season in AAA a few years back. That's what Albuquerque does to you I guess. 

I love receiving cards of my favorite two ex-Dodgers, Green and Beltre. Green is actually my favorite player of all-time, so anytime I add something new to my Green binder I am happy. The Beltre card also proves my theory that Beltre is featured in nothing but road Seattle grays on cardboard. I have yet to add a Mariner card of Beltre featuring him in the home whites. I'm sure there are some out there, but my collection stays gray for now. 

Thanks for the wonderful trade Jimmy! And I apologize again for making an error in the initial posting. 

Trade with Cards on Cards: Helping Out With Set Needs

I completed my first trade with Kerry of the blog Cards on Cards. We agreed on a deal last week, and my cards came in a few days ago.

Kerry helped me out with set needs from 2013 and 2014. Included was this great looking Harper. Harper is primed to have a big year in for his fantasy owners, myself included, in fact Harper may help me win big over at FanDuel this season.

I was also able to get a little closer to completing my 2013 Topps Heritage set, and this card grabbed my attention. 

This would be a great addition to my Pimping Dingers binder, but it is going into the set instead. 

Thanks for the trade Kerry! I hope we can do it again sometime. 

Trade Bait Thursday

I missed my weekly Trade Bait Tuesday post, but luckily for me there are two days that start with 'T' during the week. If you are interested in anything below, leave a comment or shoot me an email. 

Expanding on my Mini Collections: Dodgers in the Background

Most of my mini collections are self explanatory from here on out. You can check out my previous posts in this series here, here, and here. 

I'm definitely excited for this mini collection because it means I get to do some research. As you can see, number 15 is sliding into home at Wrigley, but who is the man behind the number. This card was produced in 1991, so I checked out the history of Dodgers uniform numbers and found out that the mystery player is Chris Gwynn. Gwynn played for the Dodgers from 1987-1991, but switched his number from 45 to 15 during the '89 season. 

Fun Fact: Chris is the brother of HOF'er Tony Gwynn and uncle of Tony Gwynn Jr. 

Ucckkk, a Giants card! As much as I dislike the Giants, I do dig this card. Theriot is an ex-Dodger (thank god), and Dee Gordon night not have a spot in LA with the recent infield acquisitions Dodger management has made. Dee Gordon does look to be out at 2nd by the way. 

Another horizontal card, this time featuring Dodgers backstop A.J Ellis. It looks like the D-Backs were winners on this play, but I cannot find any info on this game. Players don't normally run onto the field in celebration if it is a close play at the plate, so I'm chalking this up as a D-Backs win. It's pretty cool to see two A.J's on one card as well. 

A.J Ellis also makes an appearance on this card from 2013 Flagship. Even though we can't see A.J's number, it is fairly obvious who it is. Props to Topps on this card showing Hanigan diving for the ball just before it drops. 

As you can see, this is a fairly simple mini collection. I will show of these cards in groups of 18, one full binder page. These are the only 4 I have now, but I haven't searched for these much yet. If you have some you'd like to donate to the cause I'd love to hear from you. 

Contest Winnings From My Cardboard Habit

I won a contest run by Judson over at My Cardboard Habit last week. 

My prize? This fantastic Bryce Harper card from 2013 Panini Black Friday. 

Thanks for the contest Judson!

I Glove You

I picked this sweet A&G relic of Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez awhile back, but figured it was time to finally take it out of the drafts folder.

It's been so long that I've forgotten the story behind how I acquired this card. I am pretty sure I sniped it on eBay for a couple of bucks, but who knows for sure. This is the second relic I have of Hanleys but I have a few more in the works. Now if the Dodgers could just lock him up for another 5 years......

Expanding on my Mini Collections: Blue Bordered Dodgers

Well this mini collection is rather self explanatory. I love me some Dodger cards, but they generally look even better with blue borders. Most every card these days come with the standard white border, and blue parallels either come from Walmart or they are numbered. 

Here are some great examples of blue bordered Dodgers from back in the day. I suppose I will need to complete the team sets for 1990 Score and 1991 Donruss. I am pretty sure the Karros UD Collectors Choice is normally blue bordered, and I am assuming that is why it is special edition. I really enjoy the look of that card though. 

I still have a few more mini collections to discuss, including one that I forgot to mention in my initial post. That may come tomorrow if I have enough time to get some scans done and write about it. For now, I'll be writing an essay for my English class. 

2014 Topps Series One Andrew Lambo Auto Contest

This contest is for an Andrew Lambo Trajectory Auto from 2014 Topps Series One. The winner will receive the card pictured below. The contest ends 2/24/14 at 9:00pm PST. The rules will be explained below. Good luck!

To enter this contest just leave a comment below. You can comment once a day, and each comment is worth 1 entry. You can also email me the answer or DM me on Twitter to the question below for 5 entries:

What is my only Bryce Harper Autograph numbered to?

You may also earn one additional entry for the contest by posting about the contest on your blog. Only one entry per contest per this method though. No need to post about the contest all week. 

The winner will be selected using Random.org, and will be notified via email and/or twitter. The winner will have one week to send me their mailing address. I will ship the card to the winner for free!

Ben Zobrist Relic Winner

I had a record 137 entries in this week's contest, yet familiar names came out on top. Matthew Wilson is the winner of his second straight contest. Congrats to him. 

There is your Top 5, shown as a Top 7 because Matthew will only get credit for first place. Because I had so many entries, I will not be showing the remainder of the list. 

Matthew Wilson - Ben Zobrist Relic and 5 CC Points
Mr. Dodger Blue - 4 CC Points
Greg (ArgyledPlaschke) - 3 CC Points
cpuJesse - 2 CC Points
APetrelak - 1 CC Point

A new contest will be up tonight, though the rules will be slightly different. Twitter has been an effective tool for contests so far, but I am phasing that out for future contests. It is becoming harder to keep track of the entries through that avenue, so make sure you double check how to get entries in the next contest. 

Trade with Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle: PC Madness Pt. 2

If you missed Part 1 of this wonderful trade, check it out here. Today I will continue to show of the goodies Greg sent me. 

First up is this Andre Ethier base card from 2013 Topps Chrome. This leaves me with two base cards to acquire to complete the team set, Ryu and Paco. I am slowly moving along on my Topps Chrome Rainbow quest, but lower number cards are becoming harder to find.  I'll get there eventually. 

Vintage! I have been addicted to adding vintage cardboard recently. I have picked up a few cards from eBay, for minimal cost of course. I have had a lot of fun with my Topps Team Set Project so far, and hope to get some more deals done soon. I will try to take out a majority of each team set, then go for the bigger and more expensive cards. This whole ordeal will probably take a lifetime. 

Oh! I ranted about vintage Dodger cards and forgot to mention this 1978 Topps Tommy John. I'm not big on the design, but it is a much need piece for my team set.

This was completely unexpected. Delonte Carter was drafted out of Syracuse in 2011 by the Colts, though he is no longer with the organization. I will add this to my small box of Colts. 

Topps has been pushing these silk patch cards for a couple years now. I'm not the biggest fan of these things, but I am a fan of adding new cards to my PC. I do like the whole rookie card in silk idea though, and adding an Gonzo "rookie" has been on my want list for a bit. 

When you are done laughing at this sketch card you may notice that it is autographed by Ethier himself. Greg told me that DodgerBobble, a former blogger that I haven't had the pleasure of meeting, had this autographed in person. This marks the first autograph I have of the Dodger outfielder, so expect a few extra CC points Greg.

This was actually the first card I saw when opening up the bubble mailer full of cards. I did not have this one yet, though I've almost pulled the trigger on it a few times at my LCS. He wants 10 bucks for it though, so good luck to him. I love the A&G relics, so this is a much appreciated piece of cardboard...er.....plastic? 

Last but least is this beauty. This is undoubtedly my favorite card to come from the trade, and my first vintage Koufax. The fact that Don Drysdale is on there too makes it all the better. I don't know what else to say about this card, so just enjoy the scan of this vintage greatness.

Greg also sent a ton of cards for my mini collections, but those will be shared at a later time. Thanks again Greg! This was an awesome trade, and I hope we can do it again soon.