Live auction treasures

I love going to auctions. Especially when there are sports cards in the listing !

The problem is, some people don't really have a clue as to what the items they are bidding on, are really worth. This auction was an exception. The sport cards were mostly commons from the late 80's to the early/mid 90's, but there were a lot of up scale brand names from the era such as Pinnacle, Pacific, SP and Metal Universe. It wasn't all Topps, Donruss and Fleer.


These were actually the last items I purchased. Mostly because they were the last of the baseball items sold.

First, Andy (the auctioneer) tried to sell just the two Thome batting helmets, to no avail. No takers, not even for a buck. Then he added the t-shirts. I had seen them and they were my size and brand new. Appeared to have never been worn. There was one other bidder now but I won the lot for $2 or $3. Now you can't buy two shirts for that! Especially a 1995 World Series one.

The books came in the very last box lot. The " Who's Who in Baseball " is from 1972.



Now, here's the real deal stuff I came home with.

Yes, Viginia, that is a 1966 Topps Carl Yastrzemski on the front row. I didn't even know it was there until I got home. Actually, my son found it as he was leafing through one of the bnders. Appearently no one else saw it either. I think I paid $12.50 for the whole binder. High book for the Yaz card is $30, which is about half of what I paid for everything in both photos. The Yaz is a little off-center but it's not too bad.

As you can see there is a wide assortment of items. Two Mickey Mantle baseballs, Cal Ripken and Jackie Robinson also.

Two 1996 Pacific Nolan Ryan Advil "Career Retrospective" sets. One still sealed.

There are a lot of inserts and subsets along with a lot of 1990 Donruss and 1991 Fleer !

The two albums have a total of about 80 Ultra Pro pages, many with cards doubled up. I haven't gone through them real close yet. Don't know what else I might find!

Three 1997 Pinnacle Cans, still sealed. Nomo, Bagwell and Cal Ripken Jr !

There are a couple Barry Larkins in case anyone is interested. Ahem, Fan of Reds ??

The bobble head is Cincinnati Reds, Joe Nuxhall .

Also, somewhere down in front is our old friend, Bip Roberts !!



You can click on the pictures to get a better look and if you see anything you might be interested in, let me know. I'll tell you if it is available.
Mantle balls..... no !
Ripken ball ... no !
Robinson ball ...no !

As I get it sorted I'll have some future posts.

Good night for now !

We've all seen this before,so I guess it was inevitable....

In 1981, Topps 30th anniversary,

it happened to to Dave Rozema.

In 1995, it happened to Randy Meyers.

In 2001, Topps 50th anniversary,

it happened to Bobby Estalella.



In 2011, Topps 60th anniversary,

it happened to Lance Berkman.

Now it has spread to the 2011 Topps Stickers.

But why did it have to happen to two stickers I needed ??!!

Will they ever find a cure for "Crinkle cut" disease ?

Yellow in - Yellow out, almost like Christmas !

I love Christmas !

And it's right around the corner.

But the stores are all getting way too carried away and it seems to get worse every year. Pretty soon it really will be "Christmas in July" !

I'm still like a little kid when it comes to presents. I love to open them and see what treasures are hidden inside. Will the big ones or the little ones be better ? However, I really like to give presents more than receive them.

Breaking up my 60th Anniversary Topps set has been a lot of work but a lot of fun also ! I've been getting packages in the mail almost every day. When this is all over I'm going to have a horrendous amount of trade posts ! It may take until Christmas to finish.

There have also been some unrelated trade packages from Matt F. , dayf, David, Angels in Order and a terrific package from Marie ! Plus, my son and I went to a card show last week-end and I have a lot of things to post about like 50's Tribe cards and real baseball stickers.

Right now my desk and baseball card room are a disaster from packing cards, searching through boxes to complete trades and just general card collecting and sorting stuff ! But I will get through it and get everyone's cards in the mail as soon as possible. The first round will be shipped tomorrow along with a package for dayf .

Thanks to all who participated and I still have a few teams left !

Possible 12 box break at Community Gum ! Wow !!

Community Gum is holding a terrific box break. There will be at least 11 boxes possibly 12. All Topps but not your ordinary Topps. Check it out here. Many teams left,but going fast ! Not that expensive for what's available.

Official word from Topps - No All-Star team break

I will not be buying the 2011 Topps All-Star boxed set to break into team sets.
This is the answer I received from Topps today.


Jack,

The base cards are the same as the normal set. The only difference is the packaging and the exclusive 5 all-star card pack you receive.

Regards,Topps CST


So, the 60th Anniversary team sets will be packaged up and I will start mailing them as soon as possible. There are still several teams available.

If you have some Tribe cards I will accept them in lieu of any payment and will treat the transaction as a trade.

If you don't have any Tribe cards you want to part with, please send $3.00 to cover shipping and packaging. Paypal payments can be made to randj531@yahoo.com as a gift or goods. If you don't do paypal, just email me and we will work out the details !

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks to all for participating!

Group break news - never listen to an old man !!

You know the kind of things they say about old people ? Trust me, they are all true.
Forgetfulness, confusion, check . Gottem' both ! And more.

But before you hear about that, you have to see the results of my trade with Brian, over at PATP and my winnings from his contest.


Hey, you in the back !! No scrolling down to the bottom, stay with the rest of us.


This card was the main point of our trade.

My first orange refractor Indian ! At least I think it is. That memory thing, you know.

Brian also included this beautiful 2002 Ex blue Omar Vizquel #d 088/116.

I definitely needed this one !

Also included was a couple of past and present catchers. Maybe I should say present and past with the way they are lined up. Or they could both be ex-catchers. They are talking more and more about using Carlos more as a primary 1st baseman.We'll see what the winter brings.

Then there was nice auto of Brett Brach. Although I believe he is now with the Padres.

He's an Indian on the card though, that's what matters to me !


And now the Contest winnings !!

Yeah, count 'em, 3 packs of 2011 Topps Shiny Chrome !

Brian, if you're reading this, I don't know if you want to see what you gave away or not,

but here we go !

Pack #1

A Royal RC refractor !! #170 Eric Hosmer

#1 of 2 checklist

# 46 Royal Billy Butler

#207 Ray's Alex Cobb RC (and I just now realized as I'm looking at it, it's the sparkle variation !) My first and only one !

#216 Oriole Zach Britton RC

Pack #2

#14 Adam Dunn x-fractor

#111 Cubbie Marlon Byrd
#185 Braves RC Matt Young

#189 Mets RC Mike Nickeas

Pack # 3

# 175 Twins RC Ben Revere Purple Refractor 349/499

#49 Red Sox Jonathon Papelbon

#57 Rays John Jaso

#208 Angels RC Michel Kohn

You can breathe now Brian, no Rangers !


And now, everything you hear about old people may be true !!

This would be your normal 2011 Topps base card.
Note the Topps logo in the upper left hand corner.

This would be your normal 2011 Topps series 1and 2 Diamond Anniversary parallel.

Note the Diamond Anniversary logo in the upper left corner.

This would be the 2011 Topps 6oth Anniversary give-a-way set parallel.

Note the Diamond Annversary logo in the upper left corner.

Note the "FACTORY SET LIMITED EDITION" silver imprint above the player's name.

This is an example of the team set cards you will be receiving if you signed up for my set break.

Actually, this is an example of a card I'm keeping. Yours will be from the team you requested !!

I'm still waiting for word on the All-Star set as to whether or not all of the base cards have any special logo.

Which brings me to another point.

There are 10 league leader cards in the set, which have 3 players on each card.

I am leaning toward giving those to the team that had the actual leader.

I hope everyone is OK with that.

A question and a possible group break.

My understanding is, that the base cards in the 2011 Topps All-Star set are just like the retail versions and have no special logo on each card. Is that correct ?

The reason I'm wondering, is because I just received my Limited Edition 60th anniversary set from Topps which has a logo on each card. Actually they are imprinted " FACTORY SET LIMITED EDITION". I want the Indian cards from it but I have no desire to have this set taking up shelf space so I want to offer up team sets to anyone interested. The Indians, Astros and possibly the Angels have already been spoken for. If any one is interested in their favorite team let me know with a comment on this post and I will work out the details. The sets will be FREE, I would only ask for enough money to cover the s&h. I would also consider other Tribe cards in trade, in lieu of the cash. Make me an offer !!

If the All-Star set has a logo on each card, I was going to buy one and break it into team sets also, and include them, at a small amount to cover the cost of the set, about $2.00 per team.

I know some of you hard core team collectors, like myself, have to have every variation (thank you very much Topps for making collecting so difficult) available in the cardosphere.

Let me know what you think and I will get this rolling !


Revision 1

WoW ! I didn't know so many people still read my work !

I'm still researching and waiting for an answer on the All-Star set.

NOTE : I'm sorry I should have clarified this at the begining. This was posted on another blog at one time, but some of you may not know that these cards are not imprinted with 60th Anniversary like I, and you may have thought. At the bottom of the card, right above the curved ribbon with the player's name inside, they are imprinted in silver foil "FACTORY SET LIMITED EDITION". They still have the Diamond Anniversary stamp at the top. If this changes anyone's mind, no problem, just let me know. I was a little disappointed but it is still a variation. I apologize if this is a problem for anyone.

Here's the list so far :

Team List

Baltimore Orioles - 20 cards - Ryan

Boston Red Sox - 25 cards Offy

Chicago White Sox - 24 cards - Jeff Laws

Cleveland Indians - Baseball Dad - 21 cards

Detroit Tigers - 21 cards - Roof God

Kansas City Royals - 24 cards

Los Angeles Angels - 23 cards - on hold

Minnesota Twins - 24 cards - PATP

New York Yankees - 19 cards - Lost Collector

Oakland A's - 16 cards

Seattle Mariners - 24 cards

Tampa Bay Rays - 23 cards - Carl Crawford Cards

Texasa Rangers - 25 cards - PATP

Toronto Blue Jays - 22 cards - Dante

Arizona Diamondbacks - 19 cards

Atlanta Braves - 24 cards - Capt C

Chicago Cubs -23 cards - bluebattinghelmet

Cincinnati Reds -25 cards - Fan O' Reds

Colorado Rockies - 21 cards

Florida Marlins - 21 cards

Houston Astros - Baseball Son

Los Angeles Dodgers -18 cards - Night Owl

Milwaukee Brewers - 19 cards

New York Mets - 22 cards - Joe

Philadelphia Phillies - 23 cards - Dan

Pittsburgh Pirates - 21 cards - NY Hitman

San Diego Padres -23 cards - Rod (Padrographs)

San Francisco Giants - 25 cards - Ike's Cards

St Louis Cardinals - 22 cards - Ike's Cards

Washington Nationals - 15 cards - Julie

100 !!!!!!

After nearly three years, I have hit 100 followers !

I don't know how many are still active, but still, it says " 100 " .

This is not a real big deal to some of you really great bloggers, but to an old man like me, who don't have a lot of natchural or hilee trained 'ritin' skills, I'm EXCITED !

Over the winter I hope to make some improvements in my blog's content and to post a little more often. I also want to improve my want lists and add some trade lists of cards I have available.

My # 100 follower is Dante.

It seems that he doesn't have a blog of his own, but follows several.

Dante, if you reading this, shoot me an email at randj531@yahoo.com

Let me know what you are interested in, players or teams, include your address and I will send you a gift of cards.

Thanks to everyone who does read once on a while !

Update and help from Fan of Reds

Target finally had some 2011 Topps Update so I picked up three packs. I also grabbed one pack of Topps Lineage.

But before I show you what I got in the packs, I also received a package from Fan of Reds.


He sent this great Albert Belle mini from Topps Lineage.
I really wanted this one for my Tribe collection !


I like the Update wrapper. Three of the big stars of the game today, showing the hustle that got them where they are.

Kimball Champions Ozzie Smith. Not just a mini but a HOF 'er mini.

I have a ton of Toppstown but I just can't seem get into them as much as when they first came out. I do like this McCann though.

Topps 60. Another HOF 'er, Pee Ree Reese. All time Dodger leader and one of only six Dodgers to accumulate over 1000 runs scored.

One red bordered insert out of the three packs. Pretty much on target as they are seeded 1 in 4.

Now if I can just find all the red bordered Indians !

I assume this is the Platinum Anniversary version as I got two of them in three packs.

Definitely a platinum caliber player. Jimmie struck out a lot, but most players with over 500 HR's do.

Hopefully after this year, and the 60th anniversary party is over, there won't be quite so many parallels. Yeah, don't count on that ! As a team collector, I want to have each variation of each player, but it's getting way too overwhelming.

And speaking on Indians.... here's Chris Perez. Our fearless closer, in the All-Star version.

Next up, Lonnie Chisenhall. Our third baseman of the future.

And, speaking of platinum, Carlos Santana. I'm looking for all the rest of the Update Indians. If you have any, let me know and we can work out a trade !





As I said,I also picked up one pack of Lineage. Here's a couple of them.

# TCS 48, Ryne Sandberg cloth sticker.

And a devastating pair from the '60's, McCovey and Aaron.

McCann can triple and trade !

McCann Can Triple, over at A Rookie (baseball) card collector, posted some cards she didn't need and I offered her a trade.

Here's what I received.



2011 Topps Chrome purple refractor

We got to see Strasburg pitch in Cleveland and watched as Pronk made a souvenir out of one his fastballs. Hopefully his surgery will put him back to old form. Definitely exciting to watch.

2011 Topps Lineage

Mel Ott. The first to reach the 500 HR level. I love the history of the great game of baseball and Mel was most certainly a big part of it.

2011 Allen and Ginter "Pronk"

2011 Topps Chrome Carlos Santana

The Tribe is done for this year, but it's looking good for 2012. We surprised a lot of people this year ( not me of course, I expect the Tribe to go to the World Series every year !!)

Thanks for the trade ! I will give these cards a good home .