RIP Harmon "Killer" Killebrew

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

Spectacular trades can be BIG or SMALL !

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

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


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


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

tumbled over so I hope I have these right !)

After a couple emails he sent these out.

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

But that wasn't all, it got better.

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




2005 Bowman's Best Ryan Garko auto 007/199




Plus...

2008 Topps Asdrubal Cabrera jersey

Plus...

2011 Topps Heritage Carlos Santana jersey !!!

Thank you very much Howard !

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

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

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

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

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

As it turned out, he didn't !

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

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

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

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

I had never seen this Lofton card before.

1998 Pacific Omega Online.

He also included a few Jim Abbott cards.

Mr. Abbott has always been an inspiration to me.

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes

Travis Hafner charcoal parallel.

2004 Topps Gallery

Jody Gerut

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

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

2003 Fleer Patchworks

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

2001 Fleer E-X

HOF 'er Roberto Alomar

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

2010 Topps Chrome

Grady Sizemore - If only he could stay healthy !!

1993 Bowman

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

2006 Topps Triple Threads

Travis Hafner Sepia 053/150 !

Nice card !!

1996 Topps Chrome

Carlos Baerga Star Power insert.

1993 Donruss Diamond Kings

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

1996 Pacific Collection

1996 Upper Deck SP

Eddie Murray - A class act.

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

201o Topps Legendary Lineage insert

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

2005 Upper Deck SP

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

1995 Ultra

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

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

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

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

Oklahoma is OK for trades !

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

Thanks Jeff for the great cards !!







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

A very nice variety stack.

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

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

Here we have a Kevin Wickander rookie and Andy Allanson.

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

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

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

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

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

A couple of Tribe southpaws.

1977 Rick Waits and 2009 Jeremy Sowers.

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

My own 1/1 Grady Sizemore sketch card !

Thank you Jeremy for the Tribe cards !

Thanks to both of you for great trades !

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

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....

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 !