The Diamond King !

If you like contests head on over to The Diamond King !

There are some sweet relics and auto's up for grabs !

Memorial Day - Much more than just a day to host a family barbecue.

Everyday, and this day especially,

I think of the friends I have

and the ones I lost.

Another Cardinal Diamond = Choo !

Topps and St. Louis Cardinals





They have both been very good to me lately !





I unlocked my second die-cut Diamond Anniversary card.








Another Cardinal and promptly put it up for trade as I did this one.

This morning it paid off with Shin-Soo Choo !

Now I need to get a couple more for Santana and Carmona.

I also now have 48 unique rings and won this complete Topps set !

I'm almost a little worried about my rash of good luck.

Trade with Marie Bay - Might be worse than bipping !

I received a small bubble mailer this week.

I saw the VC NY and immediately knew who who it was from !

Marie from A Cardboard Problem.

Marie and I have done a number of trades over the years.

Most of the time it's not trading, per say, we just send each other random stuff we know the other one will enjoy.

Enjoy ?!

I opened the package to find this !!!


MARIE !! Why...what the... wait a minute.... I mean....Go Yankees !!
I gotta' admit you got me there !! LOL

The rest of the contents, though, really made up for the Bronx cheer.




2011 Topps Attax and Bowman Grady Sizemore.
2011 GQ Tris Speaker (I actually had two of these but gave them to my two sons ) so I need that.
And a very nice Bowman gold Carlos Santana !


Next, a 2009 OPC Kelly Shoppach highlights card I didn't have.
Another Grady,2010 Topps Opening Day
2010 Topps Heritage Fausto Carmona. Absolutely devastating pitcher if he can just get more consistent !


Marie opens a lot of hobby material and always saves some wrappers for me.
After all, she used to be "Covered in Wrappers" !

Well, thank you very much Marie ! On the fourth of July I'll be up behind home plate, with my Bob Feller bronze statue giveaway, watching the Tribe kick butt !! Let's see, who do we play that day !!??

Oh, and eat your heart out young lady !!

Below are my two latest hit pulls. The first from a Walmart Topps Value box and the second from, believe it or not, a K-Mart half price blaster I bought in Detroit !!

Diamond Giveaway Success

I've been playing the Diamond Giveaway game right from the start. I have 46 cards and 45 unique rings. I have acquired 20 Indian cards, through trades, that I need for my collection.

A couple days ago

I finally dug up a hit !

A Chris Carpenter die-cut.

But, as thrilled as I was with this card, it really didn't fit into my collection.

TRADE TIME !!

I hit the trade lists to see who was available for the Tribe.

Let's see, there's Santana, Carmona, Choo, all die-cuts.

But I settled on Grady !!

It only took a couple hours for someone to take me up on my offer !

My final trade post - Rhubarb_ Runner

Alas, all things, good and bad, have to come to an end !

These cards came from Rhubarb_ Runner over at e rayhahn rayhahn .

It starts with 2011 Topps Shin-Soo Choo Topps 60 insert. Choo got off to a slow start but is now starting to heat up ! Fortunately, others on the team pick up whoever happens to to be down and they keep on winning !

Now we step back to 2009 with an Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Trevor Crowe rookie and on back even farther to a 1992 Pannini sticker Carlos Baerga.

2008 Upper Deck Documentary. You either loved or hated these cards.I would still like to have all the Cleveland cards. I need to get a want list together.

Next we have an assortment of 2011 Topps base cards. When Cleveland wins the World Series this year, maybe these will be more valuable !!

2011 Carlos Santana Opening Day and

2011 Topps "60 years of Topps" Lost Cards, Bob Feller.

Not original back.

Would like original back.

Wait, there is no "original" back !

They could fake it though.

The Cleveland battery option of Lou Marson and closer Chris Perez, Heritage style.

The 1989 Topps coin set. Another one of my oddball favorites. This one of Greg Swindell.

Now, the real purpose behind this trade !!

Drum roll

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat....

2003 Playoff Prestige Dual bat card !

Victor Martinez and Omar Veeskel ! 035/400

I really love the design of this card !

Thanks David, very much for the great trade !!

RIP Harmon "Killer" Killebrew

There will much written in the next few days, my youngest son, Andy, alerted me to this one.

Spectacular trades can be BIG or SMALL !

They say size doesn't matter. Well it may, depending on the subject of the conversation, but when it comes to baseball card trades, it doesn't. At least as far as I'm concerned.

Awhile back I received an email from Howard over at Wanted Baseball Cards . Howard doesn't have a lot to say on his blog, but he has want lists you may want to check out.


He read my blog and and found I needed some 2007 Masterpiece cards he had.


( I had an accident on my desk and some piles of cards

tumbled over so I hope I have these right !)

After a couple emails he sent these out.

These nearly completed my base set (I thought ) but when I checked again I'm still 3 short.
But this was huge help !!

But that wasn't all, it got better.

2001 Royal Rookies Ryan Drese on card auto !
Plus...




2005 Bowman's Best Ryan Garko auto 007/199




Plus...

2008 Topps Asdrubal Cabrera jersey

Plus...

2011 Topps Heritage Carlos Santana jersey !!!

Thank you very much Howard !

Now that I'm getting caught up, I'll be looking to find some just as worthy to send back to you !!

The next trade is from ny_hitman_23 over at Sports-n-more.

One day this very large box (large as card trades go) was on my doorstep.

I've completed trades with the "Hitman" before but not like this one !

I couldn't believe he would send this many cards.

As it turned out, he didn't !

Upon opening the box I saw a 2002 Cleveland Indians media guide.

These books are really great reference sources.I have several but not this one !

Then, under the book, there were several large packs of Tribe cards and a few wrappers !

I can't begin to show all the cards but here a few select ones.

I had never seen this Lofton card before.

1998 Pacific Omega Online.

He also included a few Jim Abbott cards.

Mr. Abbott has always been an inspiration to me.

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes

Travis Hafner charcoal parallel.

2004 Topps Gallery

Jody Gerut

These were nice cards. Sometimes I miss not having so many choices in the card aisles.

Card says Jody has a degree from Stanford in Russian History !

2003 Fleer Patchworks

Jhonny Peralta 0786/1500 - not a rookie card but all prospects were serial #'d

2001 Fleer E-X

HOF 'er Roberto Alomar

I like this set also with the sparkly background and slightly raised player figure.

2010 Topps Chrome

Grady Sizemore - If only he could stay healthy !!

1993 Bowman

Manny Ramirez - If only he could have kept his head on straight !\

2006 Topps Triple Threads

Travis Hafner Sepia 053/150 !

Nice card !!

1996 Topps Chrome

Carlos Baerga Star Power insert.

1993 Donruss Diamond Kings

Carlos Baerga again. One of our great 2nd basemen from the past.

1996 Pacific Collection

1996 Upper Deck SP

Eddie Murray - A class act.

I love the broken bat handle and the " Peace " two outs sign !

201o Topps Legendary Lineage insert

Victor Martinez / Carlos Santana. Two great switch hitting catchers.

2005 Upper Deck SP

Jason Dubois. Wasn't here long and don't really know what happened to him !

1995 Ultra

Albert Belle Hitting Machine insert. Don't think there were any steroids,just cork !

But what a menacing player for a pitcher to face. !

Thanks to Steve for the great cards!! Now I have to dig out some good return items !

So, big or small, these were both great trades and I'm very happy with both

Oklahoma is OK for trades !

Two packages from Oklahoma ended up in my mailbox. To be more exact, two packages from Norman, Oklahoma ended up in my mailbox !

Jeff Carlson from Cardboard Catastrophes and
Jeremy Scott from Nobody's going to read this blog both hail from Norman and both sent me some great cards. They even come one right after the other in my address book as Yahoo alphabetizes by first name.

I've dealt with with Jeremy several times and am always pleased with the results.
This was my first encounter with Jeff, and hopefully not the last, as it was a very good trade experience also.



Jeff sent these 2011 Kimball Champion mini Tribe cards of Santana and Choo, two of the major building blocks of our young Indian team. Just last night Choo sent a ball soaring over the 400 ft. sign on the fence in dead center field in his first at bat.

Jeff also filled ten slots in my 60 Years of Topps set for 2011.
Some of these bring back a lot of memories !

Aiming at my love for the history of baseball and baseball cards, Jeff also sent four cards from the 2011 Topps Vintage Reproduction set.

I really enjoy these. Anything to take my mind off the hustle and bustle of today's fast paced world and dream my way back in time when baseball was just a game.

Thanks Jeff for the great cards !!







Jeremy sent some Tribe cards he'd been saving up for a while.

A very nice variety stack.

Jeremy sent the Choo and Santana minis also which is good as both of my sons are Indian fans and collect cards as well. Also, a 1995 Fleer Tribe logo sticker, Big League Chew Sizemore, Martinez and Westbrook. The 1987 Topps mini card version was in the form of these Major League Leaders cards including this Tom Candiotti.

In 1989, the Bowman cards were slightly taller than most of the other cards.

Here we have a Kevin Wickander rookie and Andy Allanson.

Below is a 2010 Topps 206 Shin-Soo Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera putting the final tag on an unassisted triple play on May 5, 2008.

More history ! In high school I hated it, but we never learned about baseball history.

The Negro Leagues is a very interesting part of the story. I especially like the Jim Zapp card on top as he is wearing a Cleveland Buckeyes uniform.

Next we have some 2008, 2009 and 2010 Topps A&G.

Mickey Mantle from the 2010 World Series History set and another 2011 Cliff Lee 60 Years of Topps. Now I have a Cliff Lee for my Topps set and one for my Tribe album !

A couple of Tribe southpaws.

1977 Rick Waits and 2009 Jeremy Sowers.

Jeremy wasn't too proud of this last card but I thought it was an excellent sketch.

My own 1/1 Grady Sizemore sketch card !

Thank you Jeremy for the Tribe cards !

Thanks to both of you for great trades !