ALL TRIBE BASEBALL

Cheryl arrived !!

2012-01-19T19:34:00.004-05:00

I was amazed to find Cheryl Burke on our kitchen island tonight !

Well, not literally. That would have been amazing, but my wife would never let that happen !

This is the second time in my collecting career that I have received a redemption card. The last one was in 2001. I received a 2001 Donruss All-Time Diamond King Hank Aaron. It seemed like it took forever for it to arrive. I know it was several months.

That's why I was amazed when Cheryl arrived in only 19 days !

I'm still not sure what I am going to do with her. I don't have any real desire to keep the card, so I will listen to offers if anyone is interested . I know Wicked Ortega, or "The Cardboard Don" as he is now known, was interested.

Anyone else ?

The streak across her chest is just a reflection.

Rookie cards ... at Goodwill ?? Guess who !

2012-01-14T17:39:00.011-05:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love Goodwill Stores.

But what is Goodwill?
The following two paragraphs came from the Goodwill website.

For nearly 110 years, Goodwill® has been an entrepreneurial leader, environmental pioneer and social innovator of the “reduce, reuse, repurpose” practice.
Goodwill diverts more than two billion pounds of clothing and household goods every year from landfills by recovering the value in people’s unwanted material goods. In the process, we create job-training opportunities as well as entry-level and skilled green-collar jobs for people in need of work.

Founded by Dr. Edgar J. Helms, 1941."Goodwill is simply too powerful an idea to stay within the borders of one country." As a result, there are currently 165 Goodwill organizations in the U.S. and Canada with 14 Goodwill affiliated organizations in other countries around the world.

About three months ago they opened a "second chance" store in downtown Sandusky. Items that don't sell in the regular area stores go there for one last chance at $1.00 each. I asked the store manager what happens then, and he said that any metal or other items that can be, are recycled. Cloth items and clothing are donated to those who need them.

So we donate all we can to to Goodwill and also buy many items that we can use in our daily lives. For me, especially any baseball related items !

Which brings me to my story today.

A week or so ago, I wandered into one of my favorite Goodwill stores. There are three of them right on my way home from work. The book shelves are right on the left as you walk in the door. While I was perusing the titles on the shelves, it seemed like one gentleman was following me. He was, sort of. But as it turned out, he was just looking at the books too. He wandered away and I kept on searching for baseball titles. I did find a book about Clemente and then headed toward housewares.

As I walked past the glass cases near the checkout, there was this same guy, standing there looking through two boxes of baseball cards ! I thought " Oh, crap !" I missed out on that !

I headed on back to look for white, three-ring binders. I need to revamp my Indian cards and spread them out a little. I can usually find some here. Not today though. A quick pass through the toys and games, still looking for baseball puzzles, bobbleheads or what ever I can find. Nothing else today !

I head toward the front of the store to pay and spotted the guy again , now in electronics. He wasn't carrying the boxes of cards though. As we got closer to each other I said something like " No good cards today?". He said he only collects Topps card sets and the boxes were just old Fleer. I had visions of blinding, canary yellow auras lurking inside the boxes. He had no interest. We talked cards for a couple minutes, I told him how to find my blog if he was interested and we parted.

So Rick (I think that was his name, I'm getting really bad that way !) if you are reading this, I'm sorry but you had first dibs !! I left the store that day without even looking at the cards.

A couple days later I wandered in again. You have to go back on a regular basis because it is always changing. I checked out the books again. Nothing. Went past the glass cases and the cards were still there. Now they are in my little baseball cave !

The first box was mostly 1981 Fleer. No yellow !

There were 29 rookie cards in that box. These were the most significant.

The second box was more of mixture of years. There were these from 1982.

And these from 1985.

1989. I never knew Joe was Cubbie !

After sorting the first box, it was a complete 1981 set !

Aside from the rookies, there were a lot of stars and HOF 'ers in these two boxes.

Which, by the way, after a Buckeye card discount (special discount card you receive in Ohio when you turn 60. Discounts at Goodwill, motels, some restaurants and other places.) I only paid $9.00 for both boxes. I felt that was pretty good deal !

Oh, there was one more I almost forgot.

I don't who donated these, but thank you very much !!!!

The tradin' box is back from Potch

2012-01-08T14:36:00.017-05:00

The Tradin' Box

Here's how it works :

All you have to do is have a favorite team and request a trade. I will fill the the box with 50-75 cards from the team of your choice, and send it to you. Once you have it in your hot little hands, you review the contents, and hopefully, refill it with Tribe cards (whatever you feel is equal to what I sent) and send it back. It's that easy !

If you would like a game-used or auto included let me know and if I have anything available it's yours!

Potch, over at Potch Wheeler and the Cardboard Heroes ,
saw my last Tradin' Box post and made the request.

He must have liked what I sent him as the box came home filled with a plethora of Tribe cardness!

First some shiny minis from 1987 Fleer.

These cards measure 1-3/16 x 2-9/16" and have a very high gloss finish.They were available only through hobby dealers and came boxed in a complete set of 120 cards with 18 team logo stickers.

Topps, not to be out done by Fleer, also had mini cards for 1987. Topps elected to sell them by the pack. 7 cards to a pack with 36 packs to a box.These also have a high gloss or "Tiffany" finish and are slighty larger at 2-1/8 x 3".

There was a very wide variety of card brands and years in Potch's box,

from the mid 1070's right up to 2011.

Some greats lke Thome and Lofton.

And a really cool Tribe logo sticker.

Some stars are here now, some are gone and some are on their way.

The base and charcoal 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes set.

Future Hall of Fame ?

I also got some sparkly from Potch !

Diamond Anniversary Lou Marson.

Cognac version of Travis Buck.

I need a lot of these two versions.

Once I get through all my trade packages, I will make a want list.

This was just a sampling of the cards in the box.

Thank you very much for the trade !!

Happy New Year ! Secret Santa loot and who's Cheryl Burke?

2012-01-01T16:14:00.064-05:00

Happy New Year !!

I'll forewarn you, this is a long post, but there are a lot of pictures so bear with me!

First of all, this was a Christmas present from my oldest son Josh.

Yep ! This is the patch that all the Tribe players wore, this past season, in honor of Bob Feller !!

I received NO baseball cards from anyone in my family for Christmas.
However, I did receive some very nice baseball related items.

Santa on cards - Merry Christmas !

2011-12-24T09:05:00.008-05:00

Jolly old Santa Claus is not the main focus of this holiday, but he has been a major player during the season for many, many years. There have been many renditions of him through the years, and here are a few.

What ever you are celebrating this time of year, may you and your family be safe and enjoy the time together.

As for me,

Jesus is the reason for the season !

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all !!

Secret Santa came !

2011-12-21T21:34:00.006-05:00

At least I think it's my Secret Santa !
The return address says " Sanity Clause", from Acworth, Ga.
That must be Santa's summer home, 'cause everyone knows he lives at the North Pole.
The little kid in me ripped open the box and right on top was a note saying "don't open your stocking until Christmas". Oh man !! I can't wait, I have to see what's inside.

But I handed the box to my wife and she peeked inside.

Mrs. BB Dad : Plastic bags.
Baseball Dad : I got plastic bags !!??

She continued to dig through the bags and suddenly said,

Mrs. BB Dad : "I think the stocking is part of the gift !"
Baseball Dad : Cool, let me see it !
Mrs. BB Dad : No, you have to wait !!

Sigh !! Ok, under the tree it goes.
( living room is under construction, bare drywall and lack of door frame trim )

So here it sits until Sunday morning. Santa's little helper is keeping a close eye on it, pointing and saying " Don't open 'till Christmas !"

I'm dying here, but I'll wait !

Here's a better shot of the base of my Baseball Christmas tree. There's a lot of Christmassy baseball stuff available, when you really look around !

Getting ready for next week-end !

2011-12-17T21:26:00.002-05:00

I haven't had much time for posting lately. We've been preparing for the upcoming holidays.

This is my new baseball Christmas tree. I have always had a small one on top of computer desk in the past, but this year I upgraded to 3' one. I added a few more Pacific ornaments to my collection via ebay. I could probably get them all but I refuse to pay the $5.00 to $15.00 some sellers want !

I have my "Secret Santa" gift ready to send out. I don't think the recipient is a regular reader of this blog, but maybe he will be !!

I have a whole box full of trades to be posted and I will get to them. I'm also working on my New Year blog resolutions. Hopefully 2012 will be an exciting year for everyone.

Gotta' keep ahead of dayf or, Was it worth breaking my Topps set?

2011-11-20T17:52:00.010-05:00

A couple days ago dayf was showing off the Chief Wahoo sketch card he sent me. He did a great job on it and I appreciate it very much ! He was also comparing the two of us as having a desk full of trade packages, and he was right. At least about me ! So I'm about to lay it all out on the table, literally !

So take note dayf, my desk is clear !!!

And, was it worth breaking up my anniversary set ?

Yeah,Baby !!

Actually, some of these packages came by way of other trades and group breaks, but most are from trading team sets from my Topps anniversary gift set. You can see dayf's work, middle row, second from the bottom.

Right above dayf's sketch card is a Bob Feller manu patch from Kyle at Juuust a bit outside.
He got a rookie refractor. More on that later.

The two big heads came from a group break via David at Tribe Cards.

The upper right corner lot came from A Cardboard Problem. Marie is always sending me great stuff ! She sent mini boxes from Topps Triple Threads and Topps Marquee ! Of course they were empty ! They're really neat and will go well with my wrapper collection.

The bottom right corner was my take in Thorzul Will Rule's november group break.

The rest is from my team break.

I still have five team sets left for trade :

Arizona

Florida

Kansas City

Oakland

Seattle

Don't worry folks, all thirteen trades here will get their own trade post and thanks.

I also have six more trade packages going into the mail tomorrow. So if I owe you something, watch your mailbox next week !

So, keep writing, keep trading and keep having fun !!!

The Ultimate Super Jumbo Pack ! Baseball Edition

2011-11-17T21:54:00.021-05:00

Could you pass this up ?

How could anyone pass this up ?

With words like "Ultimate Super Jumbo" ?

Well, this is one of the latest repack options. Dollar Store style. 30 cards, in a clear plastic pack, so you can at least see the top card you're getting.
That's what caught my eye. The sepia toned, old timey looking card peeking through the wrapper. I didn't recognize the set that it came from, so I tried to move the cards around inside the pack. Yes, I admit it. I'm a pack searcher ! But all I could see was a small logo in the corner that said something about "Baseball Immortals". Well, now I was hooked. I had to find some more. I found another with Honus Wagner on the top. His head was cut off !! I had to see what that was all about. All in all, I found five packs with these sepia colored cards on top. Were they worth the five bucks ? Well, let's see !

According to the back of the pack, I can send in four wrappers and $3.99 to receive a bonus autographed trading card. Woo hoo! Note, it doesn't specifically say baseball card. I'll have to think about that one.

Here's what got me excited. George Edward "Rube" Waddell. He was a very peculiar character.If you are not familiar with Rube and his antics, you may want to research him a little.

The card is from a Sporting News set produced in 1986. This one is #'d 35/60, of 12,000 Limited Edition sets. The set was issued in conjunction with the exhibition " The immortals ", the photography of Charles Colon 1903 - 1935, at the National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institute.

And now, "the rest of the pack".
Mostly what you would expect in a repack.

Quite a variety of sets and years with a few names thrown in that I had heard of before.

I do like the shot of Howard Johnson on his All-Star card.

The " Bagman " ! Not a bad card.

And here's one for my sample collection. A 1995 Donruss Press Proof.

I think the oldest card in the pack, a slightly used 1977 Topps Chet Lemon.

Not really too bad for a buck. I don't know about the packs without a Sporting News card on top though.

These are some of the "highlights" of the rest of the packs.

The other four Sporting News cards.The one of "Headless Honus" was showing and explaining his unusual grip. I would have cropped it just a little more !

Four Tribe cards, including a 1994 Topps Jim Thome ! That was a surprise.

Even some shiny chrome and Orel with a stick ! How about that one Night Owl ?

Arthur Rhodes still in the minors.

Leaf 50th anniversary and Metal Universe.

Finally, Goose with his mustache and Oil Can Boyd, nice shot there.

Well, there you have it. If you could see all the cards, would you have paid $5.00 for all these cards in a stack (150 total) at a card show? I may have, for the Sporting News cards. I can always use more trade fillers too. BTW, anything here is available, with the exception of the Sporting News cards and the Donruss Press Proof.

Three years ago today ....

2011-11-16T21:05:00.007-05:00

.... there was this post.

I owe my start to my youngest son Andy. I was reading his blog and thought "This seems like fun!" And it was.

I didn't have a clue as to what I was getting into !

I looked back at some of my first posts and thought " Did I really write this?".

I have learned to handle pictures much better. My early posts were really a mangled mess.

But I feel I'm learning and improving and hope to continue as long as my mind will let me. My Mother, rest her soul, was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. I'll be 61 in a couple weeks and I sometimes wonder about myself. My memory seems to be slipping away. I'll be 61 in a couple weeks and I sometimes wonder about myself.

Seriously, I have really enjoyed the blogging scene and making all the friends. Even though I have only actually met a couple of you in person, everyone seems like old friends and family. And it seems like new ones pop up almost every day.

My goal for this winter is to get my cards more organized so I can find cards that you need and hopefully trade them for ones I need. I also need to get better want lists written up and I would like to post a little more often. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to make my blog better or more appealing, please feel free to comment ! You won't hurt my feelings.

So I want thank all of you who may read this, and hope that you will continue to do so. I also hope to win over some new ones in the coming years.

Keep collecting, posting and spreading the word that this hobby is NOT just for kids but we do need to get back the interest of the younger set. We need to show them how much fun it can be, so the hobby will continue to prosper and grow.

Enough of this rambling for tonight, us old folks need our rest!

Good night and God Bless .

Hell on Wheels

2011-11-10T21:49:00.008-05:00

Basic training, Fort Campbell, Ky.

As a squad leader during artillary training at Fort Sill, Ok., I knew I would be joining the 2 nd Armored Division - "Hell on Wheels ".

My new uniform of the day !

Loading the 105. The large projectile could travel as far as 7 miles with a full charge.

Quad 50's. 50 caliber machine gun fire at night.

Adding on to our quarters.

We had a kitchen

We had a laundry room.

The limits of my world for a year.Fire Support Base 4 - 11.

http://www.hill4-11.org/indexframes-1.html

Airial shot from a supply chopper.

The roads leading to our base were so heavily mined, all of our food, supplies, mail and other nessesities had to come by helicopter.

Other equipment arrived via the " flying crane ".

Another view of " home".

A rare, quiet break.

Attack on a near by fire base in the middle of the night.

Good morning Vietnam

Fire Support Base 4-11

Duc Pho, Vietnam 1970

My home for a year.

Every morning, for a year, I woke to see the outline of a 105 mm howitzer as the sun rose behind it, and prayed I'd wake up to see it the next day

I know it's basketball but .....

2011-11-06T17:46:00.006-05:00

I've mentioned this before.
I love going to thrift stores.
You never know what you might find.
It could be Goodwill.
It could be Salvation Army.
Yesterday, it was Volunteers of America.
This is my wife's favorite thrift store.

This is a 5x7 picture frame I picked up.
I wasn't looking for picture frame.
I didn't need a picture frame.
But they always have plenty of them and I usually look them over.
I did find some nice baseball prints once at Goodwill.
Whoever priced this frame must have been busy talking with a co-worker, daydreaming about the night before or just not paying attention.

Maybe they didn't look to closely at this label on the back.
2004 auction.
Red Cross.
Charity auction ? Probably.
What do they get at charity auctions ?
Donations from celebrities and sports stars ? Sometimes.

This is a very nice little frame. Looks like oak, glass front.
At the front of this store they have a glass case, in a corner with shelving behind it.
That's where they have all the neat things that they think are collectible and people will pay more $$$ for them.

Why this frame wasn't there I'll never know, but I'm glad it wasn't !

Now, I realize Jason Kapono is not a huge NBA star. He is, apparently very good at 3-pointers, but has played for several teams and is currently a free agent.
But this is a FOX Sports Net, Cavalier's Autograph note page with his signature on it. And his rookie card to boot !

I didn't clean the glass yet so you could see the little blue 90, written in crayon or grease pencil or something, on the glass front.

That's what I paid, 90 cents !! For less than a buck I got a framed Cavs auto with his rookie card!

Yeah, it's basketball, I collect baseball, but I couldn't pass this up !

They're baaaack. Oh CRAP !!

2011-11-03T21:35:00.013-04:00

These things are my downfall.

They have one code card showing and five chances at getting another.

Oh, how I want that Mantle ring !!

It would look so nice mixed in with my 59 other rings.

Are there even any left out there ?

Topps knows I will buy these, even when I shouldn't.

The box is the same color as the devil himself.

Buy me, buy me !!

Well, I had to get at least one.

5 packs of Topps Update, 1 hobby pack of Bowman Chrome, 1 code card and 1 0f 3 Bryce Harper Chrome Refractors.

At least I got a couple Tribe cards !

We were at a game in Kansas City a couple years ago. Seated right above the Indians bullpen.

Lou Marson threw two balls up to us. Earlier in the game, the coach threw two up. So my wife, both sons and I all got a ball that day.

Two Bowman base cards for the Red Sox and Rays.

Two prospects, both for the Phillies. So much for collation.

The Wagner mini is nice.

A Cy Young or Tris Speaker as an Indian would be nicer !

A Kershaw for Night Owl, if he needs it and another Hosmer for Kyle. (he sent me a very nice Feller manupatch I'll show off at a later date !)

A pair of Dustin Ackleys. A base hit in his first MLB at bat and hit safely in 17 of his first 20 games. Not a bad start.

The sweet swing of Maris, without any enhancements.

Three sparkly sparkle cards of three sparkling players.

The top one being the booze card.

And #BCE 1, Bryce Harper refractor.

I did get one other code card, but neither gave a Mantle ring or a die-cut Carlos Santana!

Maybe the next box .. or the next... or the next....

Gypsy Gueen anyone ?

2011-11-03T21:00:00.003-04:00

The Daily Dimwit is working on a GQ 2 - box break. You can sign up here !

Some good spots left !

Live auction treasures

2011-10-31T22:20:00.008-04:00

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....

2011-10-30T20:43:00.009-04:00

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 !

2011-10-26T21:48:00.005-04:00

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 !!

2011-10-20T15:09:00.005-04:00

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

2011-10-18T19:45:00.004-04:00

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 !!

2011-10-16T16:23:00.027-04:00

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.

2011-10-15T09:52:00.020-04:00

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 !!!!!!

2011-10-12T20:46:00.004-04:00

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

2011-10-10T20:38:00.016-04:00

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 !

2011-10-01T07:14:00.008-04:00

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 .

Stealin' home - New kid on the block likes to trade !

2011-09-29T20:59:00.011-04:00

There's a new blog floating around in the 'sphere. It's called All Trade Bait, All the Time.
Known as Stealing Home, Oscar is a Dodger fan and likes to trade cards.

I recently made a trade with him and received some really nice additions to my Tribe collection.

Here are a few of them.

From 1995 Score, a Gold Rush Kenny Lofton. I like the way they made the featured player stand out from the subdued background.

Again from '95 Score, another Lofton. Kenny won a gold glove in 1993, AL stolen base leader 1992-94 and AL hit leader in 1994.

Eddie Murray. What a hitter. During his brief stay in Cleveland Eddie cranked out his 3000th hit on June 30th 1995.

1995 Pacific Manny Ramirez. I love the old Pacific cards. There were a lot of very cool inserts but were way overpriced back in the day. Now, thanks to many of you bloggers, I can fill in a lot of holes in my collection.

Kenny seems to be dominating this trade ! This 1994 Pinnacle Select has a great shot of what Kenny did best.

Wow ! Talk about busy. Every time I look at this card I see something I missed. 1995 Topps Stadium Club Ring Leader.

And last but not least....

1996 Leaf Signature Series Dennis Martinez. At 40 years old he beat Randy Johnson in the final game of the 1995 ALCS.

Thanks for the great trade ! I'll be watching for more Tribe cards.

Last Tribe home game and card show goodies

2011-09-25T09:10:00.006-04:00

Today will be the last home game for the Indians this year. Shortly, our oldest son Josh and I will be leaving to attend. It's been a very good year, especially considering all the injuries. I feel bad for the Twins, but I sure hope we end the season with a victory. I would like to see Thome one more time so I hope he's the DH or at least shares it with Pronk. I'd really like to see them both.

After the 425' shot yesterday, I'd like to see Thome back next year. One final complete season in Cleveland, a World Series Championship and then he can retire !!!

I also went to a small card show at Sandusky Mall yesterday on my way home from work. Only about 10 tables, but I did find some interesting items. And cheap ! Most all of these cards were $.25 or less. A little more for a couple of the Manny inserts.

I think I already have some of the Tribe cards but I couldn't pass them up. Plus my memory isn't what it used to be !

I have this entire set, with the tin they came in, but I have never seen any singles before.

Just some cards that caught my eye and a few oddballs for my sample collection

The Boggs 3000th hit was a HR in Cleveland.

This was an interesting set from Hillshire Farms/Kahn's meats, released as a mail-in offer in 1989.

It's missing the Cool Papa Bell and Bob Gibson cards. Anyone happen to have them ??!

Vintage goodness from the Troll

2011-09-19T19:42:00.007-04:00

Just about everyone reading this should be familiar with the Troll over at Collective Troll.

I've dealt with him before, as many of you have, and I've never had any regrets.

He was itchin' to complete his 2011 Allen and Ginter set and I had a few cards he needed, so we worked out a small trade.

He had one extra Allen and Ginter Triber, Chris Perez. He has a done a decent job for Cleveland this year.

A little shaky at times, but overall very good.

Then came the vintage ! A half dozen sweet 1963 Topps Indians. These are some of the guys I grew up with. I was 12 during the '63 baseball season and I remember all of these Tribers on the field.

Next, another very nice '63, Bob Allen.

I only have one 1965 Indian and that is Max Alvis, so The Troll really helped me here. The '65's are really nice cards too.

Like I said, it was a small trade but none the less a very good one.

Thank you very much Mr. Troll !!

You half of the trade went in the mail today.

2011 Obak and Topps Stickers Want List

2011-09-13T19:03:00.006-04:00

There hasn't been a whole lot of discussion on either of these products but I like them both and here's what I need !

2011 Obak Base

1,2,4,5,6,7,10,12,15,16,18,19,20,23,24,27,28,29,31,33,36,38,39,

40,43,44,47,48,49,51,54,57,59,60,63,64,65,66,69,71,72,74,75,79,

80,81,86,89,91,94,95,98,100,103,104,107,108,109,110,111,112,

113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120

Minis

2,7,8,11,12,13,15,16,17,19,21,25,26,27,28,29,30

2011 Topps Stickers

9,11,14,15,16,20,22,32,33,35,43,45,46,48,

53,55,56,60,63,70,71,73,74,76,79,81,97,98,

101,103,106,110,114,115,117,124,126,127,

131,134,139,141,146,148,149,156,

160,161,162,170,172,175,181,183,188,

191,197,200,206,207,209,210,211,214,

224,227,228,235,236,237,238,241,245,247,248,

251,257,258,259,264,268,269,274,275,277,279,

286,289,293,294,296,297,304,306

Shiny Chrome for trade.

2011-09-12T21:39:00.007-04:00

Earlier today, in a comment, I said I would post the 2011 Topps Chrome I have to trade.

Here they are !

# 118
#77

#69

#38 Refractor

#116 X-Fractor

From left to right, top to bottom

#5, 13, 70

#81, 91, 131

#142, 152,154

I would really like to trade these for Indian equivalents.

But I may consider others.

Any chrome for any chrome.

Any refractor for any refractor.

Don't be afraid to ask !!

No apples for oranges though !

Remember 911

2011-09-10T22:27:00.003-04:00

We may stumble but we will never fall.

I won !! Cheap Card Collecting contest

2011-09-08T19:51:00.007-04:00

I never knew the number 8 was lucky for me. I may have to include that in a lottery drawing.

There seems to be a lot of contests over at Cheap Card Collecting. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time a few weeks ago.I rarely win anything but since 8 is apparently my lucky number, this time I did !

There weren't any Tribe cards involved, but I can hardly complain about all the shininess I received in the mail today. Starting with these two X-Fractors.

A couple regular Topps Chrome Refractors.

My first two 2010 Bowman Refractors, including the blue Drew Butera below.

And not 1. Not 2. Not 3. Not 4. But 5 Topps refractors from the 2010 value packs.

I had had a rather bad day today, but finding this on the counter when I got home made it much better !! Thank you very much !!

Baseball and Tribe Memorabilia - Thank you Good Will and Half-Priced Books

2011-09-05T14:39:00.017-04:00

My wife and I both know we should never go there. Aisle after aisle lined with items we want to take home with us. Most are such a bargain it's hard to pass up anything. But it's so darn easy to get carried away ! If you've never been there, BEWARE ! At least, if you like books.

Half-Price Books !

We walk in and the big sign hits us.

Labor Day sale - 20% off everything.

Well, that can be good or bad.We'll either save 20% or buy 20% more than we would have.

Now I stand, drooling, in front of the baseball book section. Looking up and down at all the titles I'd like to have in my bookcase at home. Then reality sets in and this is what I ended up buying.

Mint Condition

This is a relatively new book. Copyright 2010 by Dave Jamieson. Dave is an award winning author, Livingston Award for Young Journalists and Sidney Hillman Foundation's Sidney Award. He has written for the Washington Post and other papers. He was also a baseball card collector as a young boy in the late 80's. He rediscovered his cards in 2006 and couldn't wait to cash them in. After all, they should be worth a fortune by now, right ?

We all know the answer to that. So he went on to try and figure out what happened to the hobby while he was gone. This was all in the introduction. The first chapter starts with tobacco cards. That's where I will resume reading later tonight.

Indians on the Game

This 140 page paperback is chock full of questions about all aspects of baseball. Hitting, pitching, running, being on the road, families and about 35 other categories. The answers come mostly from Cleveland Indian ball players, past and present. At least up to 2001 when it was published.It should be very interesting.

Curses !

Foiled again ! Especially after today's loss to Detroit. This book is pretty self explanatory. It may be pretty painful to read.

Autumn Glory

History of the game. That's what I really like ! Published in 2003, Autumn Glory tells the story of the first World Series games between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Americans in 1903. Can't wait to get started on this.

$14.00 so far, before the 20% off.

Now to Good Will !

Indians Illustrated

My wife actually found this book on one of the carts full of items waiting to be put out on the shelves. I saved one worker the time of putting this on the shelf in the book section. $6.00. Half Price Books had two copies @ $14.95. Thank you very much wifey dear !

This is a large format book. Approximately 11" x 10" and just over 200 pages with 240 BW photos in chronological order from a 1904 team photo to the Alomar brothers. This book has some incredible photos and I may have to do a separate post on it alone.

Ya Gotta' Believe

I know, I know, this isn't Tribe related. When it comes to books I read anything related to baseball. This should be a good read also. There is a pretty good story here. The cost : 4 bits ! This was in a marked down area for just 50 cents !

Next I picked up a couple of Norman Rockwell prints. There again, not Tribe related, but very rich in history. I love all of his work. Who couldn't?

But I can't see if I put that mask on !!

The old guy was a sucker for a slider on the outside corner !

The last two items were stadium give-a-ways but I was too old. My wife tried to tell them I was really just a big kid but they wouldn't buy it !

This was just a generic fielders mitt.

This was the one I really wanted !

A Victor Martinez catcher's mitt !

Well, that pretty much sums it up for this time.

I make weekly stops at three local Good Will stores searching more treasures !

The trading box is back from Things are Funnier Here

2011-09-04T20:39:00.018-04:00

The trading box is back again. Actually it's been back since July. Sorry Julie for such a long delay. There's been a lot going on in my life lately (all good !) and I'm very far behind in the blogging world.

The trading box is a concept I have used on a couple of occasions. I sometimes have access to these small boxes at work. They are perfect for shipping out about 50 or so cards. I send it out full of cards of your favorite team/player or cards from your want list. You look over what I send, refill the box with with cards you think I will like and we're all happy !

Julie, over at Things are Funnier Here, and I were discussing a single card trade. We decided to make it a bigger trade so I suggested my trading box. She liked the idea and here is some of the great stuff she sent back.

I'm always happy to receive any Indian cards. Julie sent a wide variety. I love this top card with Sizemore and Hafner.

Some of the good ole' days here, with Thome,Visquel, Nagy and Brook.

If you look close at Hershiser's face, you'll see why they called him " Bulldog ". A very intense competitor. I also love the multiple image cards. I have a small collection of them from all different teams.

A little old and new here. I like Santana's expression too.

Mike Jeffcoat, rated rookie. My age is showing now. I remember when he came up.

Shiny is always good. Two hard playing guys here. Jason is really playing well this time up.

A lot of heritage. I like these cards as they remind me of my childhood days of collecting. Simple cards, simple photos. Just the facts, Jack !

C.C. has gone green ! And the X- Men are coming ! ( sorry, I'm gettin' tired here )

Talk about Sweet Spots ! The Rock and Bob Lemon. They don't come much better.

And now, the card that actually started this trade.

Josh Tomlin, Gypsy Queen auto. What a cool, crafty pitcher he had been this year. We are really missing him now.

Well Julie, thanks for the trade and all the cool cards ! As your note said, I'd be happy to trade again also.

If anyone else is interested in a Trading Box deal just let me know. I have 1,000's of cards to trade !

RPOK from Tribecards

2011-09-01T20:31:00.015-04:00

Anyone who is reading this probably knows of David, from the blog Indian Baseball Cards .

I didn't request a RPOK but he sent one anyway ! He's just that kind of guy!

There are about 40-45,000 Cleveland Indian cards out there that I know of.

David and I each have about 25% of those, so we're bound to have some duplicates that each other need. Of the cards David sent, these are the ones I needed.

I love team logo stickers ! This one I had never seen before. I also like the oddball items like these Fantasic Sam's and King B discs.

Some new players.

Some old players.

And a mixture of both ! I had the Baerga Red Hot Bazooka but not the Belle.

This was my first 1998 Indian Donruss die-cut.

Then there was this really great V Mart AS jersey card !

Thank you very much David !

THOME He's baaaaaack !

2011-08-25T21:47:00.005-04:00

Reports say Jim Thome is back with the Tribe !!

Traded from Minnesota for the proverbial
"a player to be named later "

2011 Topps Sticker Album and 2011 Obak

2011-08-21T10:06:00.016-04:00

Good old stickers !

I've only seen one post on these, although there are probably more.

Here's my take.

I love the idea of bringing back stickers and albums. They're inexpensive, $2.00 for the album and $1.00 for a pack of 8 stickers, and younger, little kids like me should really enjoy them.

I picked up 8 packs of stickers and the album. The amazing part ... absolutely no duplicates ! Let's see what we have here.

Three out of nine total Indians. That was pretty good considering that Tribe players don't seem to show up a lot. Of course, if there bats would show up more often, they might get better card collation !

Here are some of the more prominent player stickers I pulled. Altogether there are 309 different 1 13/16 x 2 5/8 " stickers.

The inside of the back cover of the album is reserved for nine chrome HOF'ers. They add a nice touch to the collection.

There were four team logo sticker cards. They are also chrome and have two logos per sticker.

Each team logo sticker has it's own number.

This is the album cover. Heavy, shiny stock similar to the old albums of the '80's.

Opening it up you'll find instructions for using the album and sticking up in the center are two of the four free stickers included. The other four, of course, are on the back page. No real big stars here but I didn't check other albums to see if they are the same stickers in all.

Each team has nine stickers and it's own page.

The center of the album is very nice. There are spaces for each of the 30 team logo stickers and a section in the middle to follow along with 2011 post season play.

I really like this ! I'm debating on whether to remove the free stickers or keep them intact. I am also going to need an extra set of Indian stickers to keep in my binder of 2011 Tribe cards.

Now to 2011 Obak.

I really like these cards also.

Someone is trying to make me a set collector !

I can't explain the attraction to this set. It's so simple and to the point. Maybe the unusual backgrounds? I just want as many of these as possible !

These are the minis that came in the two packs I bought. May I'll go for the mini set. It would take up less space and I'd get basically the same cards. I will how ever, need the regular and mini versions of any Cleveland players such as the Addie Joss above.

Well, that's my story on these two products, and I'm " sticken' " to it !

10 hours behind the wheel of a 17' u-haul , can we keep the hobby going?

2011-08-20T21:51:00.010-04:00

Confused? Here's the rest of the story.

Hopefully the title got someone's attention! The u-haul was loaded with my son's, and new daughter-in-law's, worldly possession's and heading to Illinois where they now reside. My wife and other son, Josh, were following in a mini van (also fully loaded). Oh, they also had Liz's sheltie, Colors. This explains my absence of posts lately. We had been working on this move for about a month.

And this has what to do with the hobby? Well, part of the load on the the truck was much of Andy's sports card collection. Many, many boxes full. Liz couldn't believe it when she saw how many there were. These cards represent a lot of memories over the last twenty years. As do Josh's cards and my collection. The three of us have had a lot of fun together searching card shows and flea markets for that elusive insert or cards to finish a set.

A while back, I had made a random comment, on one of the blogs, about our years of collecting together and AJ Mazza over at The Lost Collector saw it. Later on this year he will become a first time Dad and wondered how we got into collecting and if I had any advice for him. Well, giving advice is a little out of the realm of my PMOS (from my Army days - Primary Military Occupational Specialty). But here is our story !

It was a warm spring afternoon. The birds were chirping and tree branches rustled in the cool breeze. In 1960, a nine year old boy had baseball on his mind. That's what most young boys thought about back then. Baseball season coming up means the corner store should have new baseball cards soon. But at a nickel a pack I could only afford so many. Oh, I wanted that Mickey Mantle card so bad ! I also wanted cards of my favorite team, the Cleveland Indians. If I'm lucky, they might even be on Wide World of Sports this week. If only they would show every game on on tv. Like that will ever happen. My cards are all kept in an old shoe box, sorted by team and held together by rubber bands. Sometimes I sort them by number or player position. I also have All-Star games by laying out the cards by position in a playing field and compare batter and pitcher stats to determine the play of the game. Or I get out my phonograph and put on my Mel Allen's Baseball Game record, and he calls the plays for me !

That is a true story and was probably pretty much a common scenario for the late '50's and early '60's when I grew up. But 1960 was also a year that redirected my future. We went to Florida that summer to visit my aunt and uncle. They had a son the same age as me and lived in Holly Hill, a suburb of Daytona Beach. You could hear the race cars from their house. We even went and actually stood on the track ! That memory got me hooked on cars later on in my teens. My bicycle was the closest thing to a car at that age and who needed baseball cards anyway ! I found out I could make the bike sound like a motorcycle. Another typical story of the time. I still loved baseball, but as I approached 14-15 and the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean came out with the hot rod songs I was eating, sleeping and loving cars and speed more than ever. Then came girls.

We all know what that leads to ! Love, marriage and little collectors. I never tried to push our sons toward or away from anything in particular. We just let them discover things and take interest in what they wanted. To a point. I mean, we tried to teach them right from wrong, to stay away from smoking and drugs and things of that nature. I've worked on cars all my life but didn't try to get them interested. If they showed interest and wanted to learn auto mechanics I would have helped.

My interest in baseball and the Indians was always there, but I never picked up on card collecting again. As near as we all can remember, it happened something like this :

When they were old enough, we did start the boys on t-ball. Josh,being three years older started first. One day in second grade Josh saw some baseball cards for sale during the annual book fair.He wasn't sure if we would let him him get them or not, although I don't know why. It was a book fair, I guess he thought we would want him to buy a book! Needless to say, he got the cards. Shortly after that we were visiting my aunt and uncle in Tennessee. My wife and I had to go to the store to pick up a couple things and left the boys with them since we were staying at their house anyway. We wanted to take something back to them and debated on hot wheels or some baseball cards we saw. Since Andy didn't have any baseball cards yet, we opted for them. Today, my wife says " If I had only known, I would have gotten the hot wheels !".

A few cards leads to a few more and then we discovered that Rachel's (my wife) best friend's husband collected baseball cards. He subscribed to Beckett and gave the boys his old ones. Discovering the multitude of cards that were available just added fuel to the fire and the three of us were hooked for good. Of course, when they looked through the Beckett, they realized that some cards could be worth a lot of money, but we always tried to teach them that it was a hobby meant for fun and money was not the most important aspect. Then came card shows, yard sales and flea markets. We never tried to sell at a real card show but we did set up at flea markets and yard sales at our house.

One of the high points of our collecting careers was meeting Jim Thome. I was working for a Chrysler dealer in Shelby, Oh. The owner was from the Cleveland area and and had some contacts there. Apparently Mr. Thome was looking for a Jeep. The last I knew of, he was an outdoors man and enjoyed hunting and fishing. The Jeep would be great for him. Long story short, Jim ended up coming to our dealership to purchase a new Jeep Cherokee. This was around 1993. The boys would have been about 5 and 8 years old. When Jim came to pick up his Jeep, he signed baseball cards for us.

Andy was always a little more aggressive (in a good way) than Josh and I when it came to selling. He joined several online trading sites and did very well. Then he started a blog. I read his work and some of the others blogs and decided it sounded like fun.

So twenty years later here we are ! Andy has slowed down a little on collecting due to college and his resulting job as sports editor/writer/photographer for the Leader -Union in Vandalia, Ill. Plus he has a new home and a beautiful wife to think about. He's at that stage of life that most of us went through and may come back to full time collecting later in life. Who knows !

Josh has acquired other interests as well but still maintains a current collection. He and I are planning a yard sale here in a couple weeks to sell cards and other items. We also frequent the surrounding card shows together and make a few trips to Progressive Field to watch the Tribe play.

Over the years we have had a lot of fun collecting cards together. I always tried to surprise them at Christmas. I would buy cards all year long and save them until the holidays. One year I had about fifty packs of all different kinds of baseball cards for each them. I placed them end to end and taped them together in one very long strip. After wrapping the strip with Christmas paper, it would bend slightly between the packs, so I placed them around the tree like garland. At first the boys didn't realize that it was part of their presents until they found very few card under the tree ! That was fun.

So I guess, if I have any advice for anyone concerning collecting cards and their children, I would say present it to them, but don't force it. If our boys hadn't shown interest in continuing to collect cards I definitely would not have pushed them. I wouldn't be writing this now and our house would have a lot more space ! But the times we spent together were well worth it to me and hopefully to them as well.

Football collectors- What the H--- is this?

2011-08-20T09:39:00.007-04:00

I purchased several boxes of mixed cards from an individual and found this.

Please tell me it's worth $1,000,000 !

Human Rain Delay, Bobble #20 plus Topps Lineage

2011-08-14T09:36:00.013-04:00

Another Tribe victory !

The Tribe got by Minnesota again last night on Asdrubal Cabrera's 3rd inning, 3 run HR to the Home Run Porch.

It was also Mike Hargrove's night as he was honored with a

Human Rain Delay bobblehead.

Today's umpires would never let him get away the antics he performed at the plate.

He used to take forever to get ready to hit !

Mike would :

Tap his cleats with the bat head.

Adjust the back of his pants.

Adjust his batting gloves.

Flex his shoulders.

Touch his helmet.

Readjust his glove.

Rub his nose.

Readjust his helmet.

Step into the box.

Take a pitch.

And maybe do it all over again !

This makes my 20th Indian bobblehead.We had three tickets for the game. One for me, my wife and oldest son Josh. My wife's bobblehead was to be saved for our other son Andy, who now resides in Illinois. Rachel had a long day at work and opted not to go.I turned in two tickets at the gate and received two bobbleheads. Our bag of bobbleheads occupied the empty seat between Josh and I !

They also sell baseball cards at the stadium.Last night they Topps, Allen & Ginter and Lineage.

This was the first place I had seen Topps Lineage available so I picked up 3 packs.(one for me and one for each son). I don't know if these are special packs for Cleveland, but Josh pulled a Carlos Santana and I pulled this ...

.... Shin-Soo Choo !

These base cards.

Kyle Drabek

Paul O'Neill

Chipper Jones

Not bad, but it gets better.

Three great legends !

Whitey Ford

Ty Cobb

Walter Johnson

Plus a 1975 style mini of Adam Dunn.

I thought that was pretty good for my first pack !

The free program honored the newest HOF members, and former Indians, Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven.

All in all in was a great night as right around the corner the Browns were taking down the World Champion Green Bay Packers 24-17 !

Fortunately, when the Tribe game ended, the Browns game was still in the fourth quarter so not all of the 87,ooo people (53,ooo at Browns and 30,000 at Indians) were leaving at the same time !

Contest !!

2011-08-10T12:33:00.003-04:00

Cheap Card Collecting is having a contest. Many great prizes awaits those who enter here

Sunday Morning Funnies - How to remember your anniversary

2011-07-24T09:59:00.007-04:00

My wife thought of me immediately when she read this !

Our wedding day.
May 31st, 1980

Cleveland beat Seattle 5-2

Dan Spillner pitched an 8 hit complete game with 9 K's and no BB.

Cliff Johnson and Ron Hassey both homered.

Yankees vs Indians - There's always fireworks !

2011-07-05T08:47:00.034-04:00

The 4th of July in Cleveland !

The Yankees are in town.

They're going to wish they had stayed home !

The wind was blowing the big flag in from right center field.
This could be a pitcher's game.
We were sitting in the upper deck behind home plate and the wind was really swirling by us.Even the hungry birds were having trouble navigating.

The big flag comes out and we are getting ready to to rumble !

The Independence Day crowd was ready for a "W".

Josh Tomlin takes his warm-ups. This could be win #10.

Derek Jeter steps up to the plate with 2994 hits. He left the game with 2994 hits.

Tomlin no-hit the Bronx Bombers for 6 innings. Of course, we only had 1 hit. Then the wind died down. The 7th inning ended the no-no bid and gave the Yanks a 2-0 lead. The Tribe stormed back though, with some early fireworks, as Austin Kearns came to life with a 2 run blast to right. Carlos Santana added an insurance HR for a final score of 6-3 !!

The victory march, as the Tribe defeats the Yankees in the first game of this series.

As the bleachers were cleared, the crew started setting up for the fireworks display.

The was a 1/2 hour delay as they waited for the sun to go down ! I don't really know why the game was started at 6:30. Here we watched a post game interview with Kearns. He and Tomlin were the heroes today.

Next was a video review of Bob Feller's career with Cleveland.

There were many more scenes but they faded in and out and I couldn't really gets pictures of them all.

In the same fashion, there was a short history of Cleveland baseball. This was old League Park.

Then it got dark !

And the fireworks display began.

As usual, the display was much more impressive in person.

Thanks to Key Bank for the show and for this.....

..... Bob Feller "bronze" statue.

He stands almost 8" high and makes a very nice addition to my Tribe collection.

Hopefully the Tribe will continue with their winning ways tonight!

More 10 cent box goodies ! Odd balls and magical cards

2011-07-03T20:17:00.036-04:00

I think just about everyone likes the 10 or 25 cent boxes at card shows.

I know I do !

It's a perfect time to acquire more cards for trading and for my sample card collection.

I did a post on it almost 3 years ago. It's sort of like Mathew's cards over at No. 5 Type Collection. I don't search for a certain card number and I also include inserts and parallels.

So that's where most of these cards will find a home.

First up is a 1987 Hostess of Canada Mike Krukow sticker. These were inserted into bags of potato chips. I usually try to get star or HOF players but I take whatever I can find. I try to update them later on if possible.

This one, obviously, is still in the original cellophane wrapper. It is also bi-lingual as is with most Canadian cards.

Disc shaped cards were very popular in the late 80's and early 90's. At least with consumer product manufacturers, maybe not so much with collectors.

This is a 1990 Holsom Bakeries Super Stars Mark Davis. Mark was a Cy Young winner in 1989.
Holsum included discs in various bread products for 3 years from 1989 through 1991.

Jiffy Pop popcorn was a new and exciting product when I was a kid but they didn't start including baseball discs until 1986 and quit after 1988.

This is a 1987 Mike Scott #18/20.

One last disc for today. 1992 King B Terry Pendleton.

King B enclosed baseball card discs in tubs of shredded beef jerky for 15 years from 1988 through 2002 ! I need the 2002 Jim Thome if anyone has it !

Upper Deck issued Fun Packs in 1993 and 1994. The 1993 set included 10 of these heat sensitive cards and added 8 more in 1994. I love these cards !

I'm sure Capt. C and Night owl are familiar with these, but in case anyone else who might be reading isn't, it works like this.

When you press your hot little hands on the black background it magically changes color !

If you rub the entire card, try not to get too excited, a cartoonish background will appear.

The little kid in me just loves these. I have three different ones now. Still diligently searching for the other 15.

Now we have something a little more conventional.

2006 Upper Deck Amazing Greats Ivan Rodriguez insert.

Next up, 1994 Stadium Club Kansas City Super Team Card. These were inserted as a contest in 1994 but had to be carried over to 1995 because the winners were based on the teams that won their division, league and world series. Due to the shortened season in 1994, the 1995 season determined the winners. Some very nice card sets were given away. I want the Cleveland Indians card badly, but it's scarce since they were one of the winners!

Twenty years ago Topps was celebrating their 40th anniversary. The cards carried a special logo but are very common today so why would I spend even a dime on this card ?

Because it is actually a 1 1/4" x 1 3/4" Cracker Jack prize card !

Jim Abbott was a very talented and very determined athlete.

I always admired him and was amazed at the way he could play ball.

Most pitchers with two good hands never throw a no-hitter.
I also collect his cards and these are two new ones for my collection.

Pinnacle Inside. Cards in a can ! I was always a sucker for odd ball stuff.

I opened a bunch of these and even used one of those (at the time) new fangled can openers that cut the can on the side so there were no sharp edges ! Plus the lid would sit back down on the can and it would appear to be unopened !

This is a Todd Hundley 40 Something insert from 1997.

He hit 41 HR's in 1996. Previous high total was 16. Hmmmm.... mid to late 90's and he nearly tripled his HR output.

One thing I didn't understand from the 90's was pogs. Of course, the kids collecting pogs probably didn't understand baseball cards either. So I guess it evened out.

In 1993 The Ted Williams Card Company had someone in marketing who understood pogs.

They issued a 26 card insert set with 2 pogs per card.

This is a very shiny, refractory looking card from 2000 Fleer Gamers.

Sean Casey, Determined, #15/15.

Another sharp insert from 2002 Donruss Elite.

Paul Lo duca Back to the Future #'d 0846/1000.

Michael Young doing his thing on second base.

2003 Ultra Gold Medallion.

While we're on the subject of gold,

here is a 2006Upper Deck Ovation Mike Sweeney 354/499.

And more gold !

Just a few more of the 1965 Topps Embossed inserts.

The backs were very plain, simple and to the point.

The American League cards had a blue background.....

while the National League had red.

The last card for today goes back to 1936 !

Well, actually this is a TCMA reprint. Otherwise it wouldn't have been in the ten cent box .

1936 Goudey Wide Pen type II

Designated "Wide Pen" because of the wide script on the autograph.

Type II because it doesn't say "LITHO IN USA" on the bottom.

There was also a Type III that was borderless.

I actually have more but I don't want to bore you guys and gals too much !

New Contest, Hurry !

2011-07-03T12:22:00.003-04:00

There is contest going on over at Plaschke Thy Sweater is Argile. Some great vintage prizes are up for grabs. Check it out here :

http://plaschkethysweaterisargyle.blogspot.com/2011/07/contest-contest.html

10 cent box card show finds and unopened football

2011-06-30T21:10:00.022-04:00

You don't see or hear about football very much on this blog but I couldn't "pass" these up !

These unopened packs were selling at 3/$1 so I bought a sampling. Now what do I do with them? I may put one of each on "A Pack to be Named Later". I haven't posted on there for ever.

Should I open all of them? Should I trade them? Is anyone interested in them ?

I didn't realize this pic turned out so bad. This was one of my favorite finds.

Ok, so these were not in the 10 cent boxes. (everything after this, was )

1965 Topps Embossed. These were inserted in regular packs although I don't know at what rate.

I got about 32 of these with some duplicates. Mostly commons but a few noteworthy names were in the mix. Joe Torre, Ed Kranepool ('69 Amazing Mets), Jim Bouton, Boog Powell, Leon Wagner( the only Indian), Tommy Davis, Lee Maye and Dick Ellsworth. Most were marked at $1 a piece, $2 for some. I paid $12 for all of them.

1980 Topps Burger King Bruce Sutter

1983 Kellogg's 3-D Super Stars Bill Buckner

1985 Topps Collector's Series Jim Gentile

1988 Nestle Chocolate John Franco

2005 Donruss Throwback Threads Polo Grounds insert 30/35 Todd Helton.

1994 Ted Williams Card Co. Dan Gardiner art work #'d 38938 Brian Hunter

1998 Donruss Collections

Donruss # 64 Fred McGriff

Donruss #36 Albert Belle

Donruss Preferred #2 (Collection # 552 ) Executive Suite Frank Thomas

( For those few who may be interested, this card had a production run of less than 1400 and books for $7.50 )

1988 Fleer Baseball's Hottest Stars #41 Darryl Strawberry

1993Upper Deck On Deck #D 17 Eric Karros

1992 Cartwrights Players Choice #18 Jim Thome

2000 Pacific Paramount Emerald #61 Sean Casey

2000 Pacific Paramount Gold #61 Sean Casey

2000 Pacific Paramount Emerald #3 Darin Erstad

1994 Post #29 Jeff Bagwell

1986 Quaker Chewy Granola Bars #6 Steve Garvey

1987 Fleer Baseball All Stars #3 Wade Boggs

1981-88 Renata Galasso/TCMA Baseball Immortals #15 Alexander Cartwright

2003 Topps 205 #149 John McGraw

1981-88 Renata Galasso/TCMA Baseball Immortals #7 Ban Johnson

1960 Fleer Baseball Greats #53 Jimmy Foxx

Even though it's badly miss cut,this is probably the best card I found.

Not bad for a 10 cent box !

1979 Topps #170 Don Sutton

1990 Classic #116 Carlton Fisk

1989 Pacific Legends #147 Jim O'Toole

1989 Pacific Legends #127 Paul Waner

1988 Pacific Legends #89 Roger Maris

1994 Upper Deck All Time Heroes #104 Christy Mathewson

1994 Upper Deck All Time Heroes #102 King Kelly

2009 Topps Walmart Black #40 Carl Crawford

2009 Topps Walmart Black #61 Berkman and Lee

I picked up 18 2008 Topps Gold versions. These are some of the most prominent players.

I also always search for unopened baseball wax.

I got Fred Lynn in the 1990 Topps Traded and Jamie Moyer and Joe Carter in the 1989 Fleer.

Kenny Rogers, Chipper Jones and Wade Boggs in Series 1.

John Franco Museum Collection and Rickey Henderson in Series 2.

This was just a sample of the cards I picked up at this show. I hope the same seller is at the next show with the same boxes, as I had to leave behind a lot of nice cards !

Topps redemption auto and trading with Ike's Cards

2011-06-29T20:25:00.018-04:00

Sometimes when you lose you win.

I was one of the "losers" in Fan of Reds Gypsy Queen break. I only got 4 Tribe cards with 2 duplicates ! I became the recipient of one of the upc symbols to get a free auto. I finally sent it in about three weeks ago and received my card today. This Daniel Hudson was my prize. My youngest son, Andy, is into D-Backs a little so he will probably end up with it.

I also completed a trade with Ike's Cards and, speaking of Gypsy Queen.....

This was to be the main subject of the trade.I sent him a Scott Rolen jersey card, along with a mixture of other Cardinals for this Josh Tomlin auto. He is really looking good for the Tribe this year. We'll probably trade him to the Phillies !!

Jim Thome was another one of my heroes traded to Philadelphia. This is a nice card, 093/150, from Topps M & M.

These cards, from 2001 Gallery, are really sharp. This is one of my favorite sets.

Also included was a sparkly Fausto Carmona and a sepia Travis Hafner.

1955. I was four years old when the '55 Bowman set came out. Six or seven years later when I started collecting, one of my older friends had some " TV set " Bowmans. I was so jealous !

I was excited all over again in 2004 when these Bowman Heritage cards came out. I really like the Kiner.

Next up is a gold Tomlin, a Bowman Michael Brantley rookie and a chrome Drew Pomeranz.

2009 Upper Deck Icons. Another good looking set. I really miss the choices we had before the greed set in and sent us back to 1956.

The black Walmart parallels. I liked the concept but the way they presented it just didn't work out real well for me.

This card could make me forget all my troubles ! If only I could find an original one, I could retire a very rich man ! 2011 Sixty Years of Topps, "The Lost Cards".

Speaking of lost. What a blow to the Tribe. Choo was finally starting to claw his way back to his form of last year (and Spring Training).

There were also many base cards from these three sets in Ike's package.

I was feeling pretty good about this trade up to now. I felt what I received was more than adequate for what I had sent out.

Then I pulled this out of the mailer !

A 5/10 Manny Ramirez Moments and Milestones.

And then all of these !!

2006 Upper Deck Artifacts MLB Game Used Apparel Ben Broussard jersey.

2009 Goodwin Champions Travis Hafner jersey.

2006 Upper Deck Artifacts AL Artifacts Ben Broussard jersey.

Now I'm feeling bad !

I will be looking for some more Cardinal game used items for you Issac !

Thank you very much for the great trade !

Cliff Lee makes a return to Ohio !

2011-06-27T20:28:00.006-04:00

Where in the world is Traveling

Cliff Lee !!

Many months ago, April 1, 2010 to be exact, I posted about this card.

http://baseballdad-mytribeblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/tribal-snack-from-marks-ephemera.html

I received this card from Mark's Ephemera. MJ in Dublin, Ca. had sent it to him. I wondered how far it would get if I passed it on, never dreaming it would find it's way back to me again !

Well, I made a trade with Ike's Cards and to my surprise there was Cliff ! If you look on the right side of the card, my initials and home town are right beside Ike's. I also received some very nice Tribe cards along with Cliff. I will post them at a later date.

The card has done some serious traveling. Michigan, United Kingdom, Missouri, Wales, Canada, two trips to Illinois, North Dakota and New York.

I'll be sending him off again, although I don't know when or where.

So if you do any trading with me, Cliff just may end up in your mailbox!

Or you may just randomly receive this card someday.

In search of the elusive Mantle !

2011-06-13T22:22:00.009-04:00

BASEBALL DAD 59

LEBRON 0

That's rings, of course.

All I can do is hope for some more "digs" and maybe uncover the Holy Grail

of the Topps Diamond Giveaway rings.

One lonely corner.

Will it ever be filled ?
Odds are, no.

But just as I have unyielding faith in the Tribe,

I will be hoping for Mantle until the last hole is dug !

Stay tuned for some really great card show finds from yesterday.

There was GOLD in the discount box !!

$1.00 2011 Topps packs and Series II

2011-06-09T20:50:00.016-04:00

Trips to the Dollar Store and to Walmart provided a few surprises today.

This is what I picked up.

You'll notice the pack on the left says 5 cards.

The Dollar Store had a box of these opened up and packs were only $1.00 each !

20 cents a card is a little more than the 16 1/2 cents per card in a regular pack, but I was hoping for some cheap code cards. I should have known better......

.... nothing but 5 packs of base cards !

However , they also had 2008 Timeline packs.

I bought two of those.It's kind of an interesting set to me anyway.

Today it was very interesting....

....Yea !! An auto in a $1.00 pack !

Granted, he's not a superstar, but you never know .

OK, let's see what series II has to offer !
I bought one regular pack and two rack packs.

Joe Mauer code card # TDG-19.

I did get a 1966 card but the "dig" function wasn't working tonight so I'll have to wait for my 54th ring.

A couple Diamond Anniversary sparkly parallels.

I have almost 50 of these. I'm looking to trade them for Cleveland Indians.

Anybody have some ??

I have one, Chris Perez.

I got both versions of the Cardinals.

Issac, I just sent you a box of Cardinal cards. I'll drop these in the mail too !

This is the Puhols 60 Years of Topps regular back # 60YOT-111.
I'm trying to complete this set from series I, but I don't know why they didn't stop at 60 cards.
Marie, if you don't have it, you may find this in your mailbox.

This trio has Night Owl written all over it !!
I've got some other cards for him anyway, might as well add these.

Four random cards.
My youngest son Andy collects Howard, so that goes in his pile.
Actually he collects Angels too, so Winfield may end up there as well.
The bottom two I just like !
I love the throwback uniforms.

And even two Tribe cards for me !!

Then there was this.

To me, this is just an amazingly beautiful card.

2011 Series II at Walmart now and Ohio contest

2011-06-09T19:47:00.006-04:00

Just a quick note. There is a contest at a relatively new blog, Buckeye State Cards . Great prizes so check it out !

I picked up some 2011 Topps Series II at Walmart today! I hope to have a post later tonight.

The Diamond King !

2011-05-31T23:11:00.002-04:00

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.

2011-05-29T20:36:00.007-04:00

Everyday, and this day especially,

I think of the friends I have

and the ones I lost.

Another Cardinal Diamond = Choo !

2011-05-29T10:30:00.008-04:00

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 !

2011-05-28T15:16:00.011-04:00

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

2011-05-25T20:02:00.006-04:00

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

2011-05-22T21:29:00.013-04:00

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

2011-05-17T20:21:00.017-04:00

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 !

2011-05-15T14:55:00.023-04:00

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 !

2011-05-14T18:22:00.019-04:00

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 !

Trade Time : Cynicalbudda and The Lost Collector with Rosen auto !

2011-05-08T13:54:00.018-04:00

I finally got my desk mostly cleared off and can get down to some long overdue trade posts!

First up is Cynicalbuddha over at Collector's Crack .

He had requested some trading action and I responded. He quickly sent me a very nice assortment of Tribe cards while I, not so quickly, have a package ready to send to him.

His package starts with a six pack of mini cards from Topps 205, 206 and Allen & Ginter.
I love the minis but I have to get some of the album pages specifically designed for them.
The tiny cards really get lost in the regular pages.

Next we have some 206 bronze parallels and a Heritage, Jordan Brown, rookie!

Sticking with the wide variety theme, we have a Tris Speaker Legends card, an Upper Deck X die-cut, 2011 Lou Marson Heritage and a Gold Justin Masterson.

Still more variety with

Victor Martinez Bowman Gold, Shin-Soo Choo Topps 60 and Cliff Lee First Year.

And finally a batch of 2011 Topps Opening Day.

Thank you very much Mark for the great Tribe cards ! I hope you enjoy your package as well.

Another fat package of Indian cards came from AJ, The Lost Collector.

He also sent a couple of wrappers including this 2011 Topps Heritage hobby version.

A J sent a large variety of cards also, from a 2011 Gold Topps "Pronk" clear back to a '58 Topps Larry Raines ! With a couple of chrome cards in between.

More gold with a 2007 Bowman Josh Barfield. A Bob Feller Million Dollar Moments, purple Starquest Grady Sizemore and A&G Jhonny Peralta.

Established veteran Grady Sizemore and newbie Josh Tomlin.

Sizemore seems to be back to his old self and Tomlin is a very crafty pitcher who doesn't have to be overpowering.

Gone but not forgotten are Manny and Kenny.

2007 Heritage Jeremy Sowers and 1996 Topps Eddie Murray.

Brian Giles on a 1997 Circa card. They were very bright and colorful.

Robby Alomar was a future HOF'er on this Fleer "Futures" card in 2001.

Robby again with David Justice and Manny Ramirez.

One of my lesser known collections is Pinnacle Inside. I was always a sucker for gimmicks and oddball cards. The Pinnacle cans were a unique product which passed over to a couple other manufacturers as well.

Here is a base Richie Sexon and a Club Edition Gary Sheffield.

That was AJ's initial package.

Then a few days ago I received another envelope from him.

Inside I found a personalized auto from Al Rosen !!

AJ had sent a TTM request to Mr. Rosen for himself, me and another collector !

What a gracious act! I don't know how to thank you for this !!

Thank you, thank you, thank you !!

Thanks very much AJ, for all the cards!

Just got home from Illinois....

2011-05-02T21:51:00.004-04:00

Lock the front door oh boy,

Got to sit down and take care of this mess ....

How did I get so far behind !??

So many things going on right now, Andy's getting married in about 7 ? weeks, he's looking at houses to buy ( that's why we were in Illinois ).

Maybe I can get started on some of this stuff now. The two boxes in the front of the photo are all trades I have to post. Some of the cards laying on the desk are trades I have to send out.Some just have to be sorted and put away.

The white paper with pink highlights is my list of of Topps Diamond Giveaway Rings. I'm over halfway there now ! 32 different rings.

I apologize to all for not not keeping up with posting as of late. I promise to do better !

Received an Al Rosen autograph today ! Thank you very much, will get it posted asap !

Topps Million Card Indians and Diamond Card Trades

2011-04-14T20:28:00.016-04:00

I had a lot of fun with Topps Million Card Giveaway. I managed to turn all of my cards into Indians through trades. I didn't pay to have every card shipped as some were very new and I already had them in my collection. The ten cards below are the ones I did receive and I was very pleased with the condition ! I really thought some would be kind of rough but only a couple showed slightly excessive wear or damage.

The 1958 George Strickland was the oldest card. It has one slightly dinged corner and a small spot on the bottom edge.

1966 Max Alvis. Corner wear and a couple very slight creases in the upper left corner.

1967 Tom Kelly. Slight creases on the right hand side and what looks like some gum residue on the left.

1969 Richie Sheinblum. This card is literally mint condition physically. If not for being so far off center it would be perfect.

1970 Barry Moore. Overall, very good condition. Very small raised water? spots and a very slight crease half way down on the right side edge.

1970 Chuck Hinton. Another almost perfect card. Again, a little off center, and a couple lightly dinged corners on the bottom.

1977 John Lowenstein.Nearly mint card but with poor centering. We're used to that in vintage cards though !

1979 Bernie Carbo. As with several others, nearly perfect, but cut way too close at the bottom.

1979 Dan Briggs. This was the only card I already had in my collection. Condition wise, about the best card I received.

1979 All-Time Record Holders Wins. This was the worst card, as far as condition, of the whole group. Several creases and damaged corners.

That's my share of the Million Card Giveaway. I was very impressed. I just wish I could have gotten some older cards but I'm more than happy with my haul.

Below are the cards I currently have in the new Topps Diamond Giveaway program.They are all available for trade except for the 1973 Rusty Torres. If anyone is interested in trading, send me an email or leave a comment with what you can offer. Again, I would like to trade for Indian cards but I may consider others.

I have no duplicate rings to trade at this time !

Trades Stacked Up,Going to the Dogs, Marie helps !

2011-04-07T21:56:00.017-04:00

I'm really behind here.

There have been so many things going on I just can't find enough time for everything.

I always used to be very good at posting trades so now I have to get caught up !

Just an example of how far behind I am, these cards are from Nachos Grande's 10th trade stack !

This Mantle is the one I was really interested in as he was childhood hero. It was the first card he posted in the stack and I didn't expect it to last so long. But it did so I claimed it !

Thank you Fan Of Reds !!

One day I received a package with a return address that read " Joe's Dog Training " !

The address was familiar and the package felt like cards but I was a little confused at first. That happens a lot at my age. At least for me !

Then I realized it was from Joe at The Sandlot.

Joe and I have done several trades but it had been a while.

Here's what he sent.

A good start on the 2011 Cleveland Indians team set.

Then there was a good mixture...

of Tribe cards past and present.....

including a mini....

and some of my old friends !

This was just a sampling of the cards he sent.

I need to dig up a few more to send back to him as I

think I got the better end of this trade !

Thank you very Joe !

It's always good trading with you .

The next package also came from New York.

All I have to do is send Marie Bay, over at A Cardboard Problem, something pertaining to that Albert guy and she always helps me out with some Indian cards.

As with Joe, she sent some 2011 Topps. There are a couple similarities but duplicate Indian cards are always OK ! I have two sons who collect them and I also carry some with me, most of the time, and hand them out to any youngsters I run into on the street that might be interested.

Marie also had some 2010's left over which I can use including ...

this Jeanmar Gomez Bowman rookie and an '08 Grady charcoal parallel.

She usually has some some wrappers too. Someday I AM going to do some more posts on my wrapper collection !

Marie had one last really great card.

It didn't photograph too well.

My scanner doesn't seem to work,

so I tried a photo copy !

It is actually a very nice purple refractor #'d 276/599.

Thank you very, very much !!

I still have 4-5 trades to go but the Tribe game is about to start so I'll get back to this later !!

Thanks everyone !!

Opening Day Bob Feller Festivities

2011-04-02T22:19:00.028-04:00

Spring is here !!

Last Thursday afternoon there was 4" of snow on Jacobs Field.

(I'm sorry, I have Progressive insurance, but it's still the "The Jake" to me.

My son Josh and I were planning on going to the opening day game. It's usually very cold and sometimes very nasty on opening day so we had never been to one before but this one was different.There was to be a special ceremony in honor of Bob Feller. One of , if not the, greatest pitcher in Cleveland baseball history. My only regret is that our youngest son, Andy, could not be here with us because of his new job.But I am very proud of him for his accomplishments so far. Of course, I'm also proud of Josh who was with me!

Opening Day always sells out in Cleveland. I went to order tickets about 1 1/2 weeks before the game, thought I would be safe, wrong. The day before I got paid the "sold out" announcement was made. D___ ( Darn ) it !! Well, I've never bought tickets from a scalper before but I was determined to go this game.

We left New London about 11:00 Friday morning and headed for the train station.We take the rapid transit into Tower City where you can walk to the stadium.Much easier than fighting traffic downtown. There are two parking lots at the train station. The first one, that we usually park in, was full and blocked off by the local law enforcement. So we had to go to the next lot, which makes a little longer walk, but it was a nice day so that was no problem. As we approached the ramp to the station we could see the lines of fans waiting. We just laughed, we knew there was going to be a wait. First surprise of the day. We only waited about five minutes and were able to board the next train. About 20-30 minutes later we were there !

Tower City is one of the tall buildings you can see behind the scoreboard in my photos. It's has an indoor mall with a nice food court. We had plenty of time so we stopped and had some pizza for lunch and then headed to the field. First disappointment of the day.

The walkway from Tower City ends up in the Cavs complex which is right next door to the stadium. You walk out onto the sidewalk and the scalpers are always there on the street trying to hawk tickets. We looked down the street.... no scalpers !! Oh crap !

We get closer to the gates and see a group of people with signs. Tickets !! No, some people with some sort of racial protest against the Tribe. Didn't even want to know that was all about.

I told Josh "Maybe we can get some standing room only tickets and at least get inside." He agreed, so I went to ticket window. A very nice young lady asked if she could help. "I don't suppose you have any tickets do you !?" Her answer, to our amazement, was yes, I have some upper deck available. I also a few box seats at $75.00. No thanks, I'll take two upper deck. I gave a her twenty, she gave me two tickets and $4.00 change !! Now we're excited !! The tickets were in section 550 which is right behind and just to the right of home plate! We were looking right down the third base line and into the Indians dugout.

So a sell out isn't always a sell out !

As you approach the gate there is always a stand selling year books and scorecards. We had to have those for this game. The year book is only $5.00 and very high quality with nice articles and photos of all the players. All on 96 pages of heavy, glossy stock. Passing through the gates you have the opportunity to pick a " Batter Up " program. It's smaller, about 5x8" but has 40+ pages and it's free ! The first give-a-way of the year is usually this magnetic schedule. It's one piece, but is scored for separation between the schedule and the big letter "C". It's also scored around the "C" so you can punch it out if you so desire.

It's good to see the old scoreboard again !

We have about 1 1/2 hrs. before the game.

We finally wander up to our seats.

Really not a bad view at all even though it's a little high up.

Here the grounds crew is getting to field ready.

The batter's boxes are being painted in along with Bob Feller's #19 on the back side of the pitcher's mound.

A huge jersey and Mr.Feller's military photo are hung on the left field wall.

Here we go !!

A long, double file row of people march out onto the field along with a caterpillar looking thing on the warning track !

More caterpillars emerge and the rows of people separate to display a huge flag in the shape of our great country !

The color guards are in place and the teams have now been announced.

The Indians' jerseys are #19 for the pre game ceremony.

A Naval officer escorts Mrs. Feller to the pitcher's mound where she places a ceremonial baseball on the rubber.

This was a very emotional part of the day.

Now the caterpillars open up and red white and blue balloons rise up,up and away out of the stadium.

Now we're getting down to the nitty gritty with the meeting of the minds at home plate.

Then, to a standing "O" , the Indians take the field for the first time in 2011 !

At least I was standing. And as always, I'm thinking World Series !

I always have faith in my Tribe until we're mathematically eliminated.

The first warm up pitch !

THE first pitch ! A strike to Juan Pierre !

Well, the out come wasn't so good, but I was impressed by how they came back fro 14-0 to lose only by 5, at 15-10.

GO TRIBE !!!!

When is a sell-out, NOT a sell-out ? ! Tribe Opening Day

2011-04-01T22:32:00.003-04:00

Just got home from the Tribe's Opening Day festivities.

Now I'm going to burn every White Sox card I own.

Full report and more photos tomorrow !