Can you get something good for $1.49?

All the big box stores seem to have discounts on sports cards these days. Mostly blasters.Everyone has been talking about them.On my way home work I pass them all.Target,Walmart,Toys 'R Us, K-Mart and one other called Miejers (pronounced Meyers).I don't know just how widespread this chain is, but we have several in my area. I decided to stop there last night because my wife likes their bagels.Of course, I had to check out the card aisle! They had a lot of different baseball, football , basketball, American Heritage and Wrestling blasters on sale. But there was more.2007 Bowman Heritage bubble packs on sale 50% off. Today was payday, so I didn't have much cash, but I had to try at least one. Was it worth the buck and a half ? You be the judge!

They had at least 30-40 of these hanging on the rack.

I simply took the first one.

First card, checklist #2 of 3.

All right !! A Triber prospect along with a National.

Next up, an ex Triber, Willy Taveras.

Ok Yankee fans, Kei Igawa rookie card.

Roy Oswalt, pretty good Astro numbers.

J.J. Hardy, highly respected prospect was coming around in 2007 after a couple of injury plagued years.

Ryan Zimmerman,another highly touted rookie, got stuck in a bad situation!

The last card made the pack.

Batting champion Joe Mauer!

I like the game-used bat in the cutout design of the Heritage logo.

This was probably the only hit in the whole rack of packs so I don't know if I will buy anymore,but I may check out the blasters again. I have to work 1/2 a day tomorrow (every other Saturday) so I'll be right there again anyway!

I also had an ebay package waiting for me when I got home tonight. It turns, out the seller is only about 10 miles away from me, and right on my way to work! Of course,he didn't tell me that! I could have saved $3.00 shipping.

Anyway, this is what I received.

Yeah, I Actually bought a Yankee card! But it was only 99 cents!

It's a 2003 Fleer Splendid Splinters, "Splendid Splinters" insert # 1 of 10. Not serial #'d, just 10 different players in the set.As you can see from the next photo, this is actually a wooden veneer card attached to a card stock back.

Now, the Tribe Cards !!!

1997 Leaf Fractal Matrix David Justice.

I really liked these cards, but there were a lot of variations!

$1.80

1997 Pinnacle Certified Mirror Red Brian Giles

$2.09

But this is the one I was really after!

Jim Thome 1997 Pinnacle Certified Mirror Red.

$2.92

I need this to go with my other Pinnacle Thome cards.

Well, that's about enough for tonight!

If I build it, will you come?

A Brand of Cards I've never Seen Before!

Phungo'd !

Obviously, these are some rare specimens.

I wasn't able to identify these in any catalog !

These are really cool and at least one will be added to my Sample Card Collection.

I also received a couple Masterpieces to add to my sets.

Then he threw in a nice sampling of Tribe cards

including a very nice 1960 Topps Ed Fitzgerald.

Along with some old, newer and shiny!!

Plus a great mixture of years, brands and players.

Thank you very much for the cool cards!!

On another note, it seems that all my posts of late have been concerning trades.

Now, trades ARE a good thing, especially for building up my collection at a minimal expense and hopefully helping others do the same.

But that is not the only intention I had when I started this blog.

In the next 30 days or so I'm planning some major changes which ,hopefully, will allow me to get some other points across while still continuing to make lots of trades.

Stay tuned and watch for the rebirth of Baseball Dad and All Tribe Baseball !!

If I build it, will you come ?

Christmas in October !

It may be a little early, but one blogger is trying to jump start the Christmas spirit.If you're interested in a little fun check out the Secret Santa!

Triple trades Matt F.,Big D and Fan of Reds

What a week this has been! I've been sick, my wife has been sick and our youngest son Andy came home from BGSU this week-end, for fall break and to celebrate his birthday ,which was 10/2/09.Having Andy home made us both feel better, but receiving three packages in the mail helped me a lot too!

A couple weeks ago, Matt F. at Heart Breaking Cards was showing some 2009 Goodwin Champions.One card that caught my eye was a poker player. My sons are always playing and I thought Josh, our oldest, would like it. Matt said he would send it to me along with a few Tribe cards. Great, now I just wait for the mail to arrive!

One day this past week when I came home from work,I saw a package from Matt. I thought it was a little overkill on the packaging, but better too much protection than not enough. This was a pretty good sized box for one card and few Indians so I tore off the brown paper wrapping.

This is the card I was expecting....

but I found a 2009 Upper Deck blaster!! Matt, did you get me mixed up with someone else?
I'm not going to complain about a blaster, but I really wanted the poker card!

Oh, I see !!! A little bait 'n switch!

The bait worked and the switch was just awesome!

The Ng card was there along with way more than a FEW Indians.

Brad Snyder.

This was one of my favorites .

Brad was born in Sandusky where I work.

Well , not at the Chrysler dealer where I work, but at the hospital (I guess!)
He grew up in Bellvue,Ohio which is about 30 miles west of my home.My wife's sister and her husband also live there.I'm going to have to look Brad up sometime and see if I can get this card signed! I have one other Bowman rookie card of him. Does anyone out there have anymore of his cards? I would be very interested in them.Even duplicates of the ones I have.

Also included were these M&M's of Manny and C.C.

Plus some shiny!!

I know, some people would call me "Joe the Collector" ( no offence Jeff !! ) for getting so excited over these shiny ,chromium cards , but the C.C. IS AWESOME . The photo does not do it justice!

Some more nice Tribers. I like the little square Sportflics hologram thingy.

Also, the Joe Borowski mini is an A&G back.

Bad Boy Belle on top.

Manny being Manny on the bottom,and this might be my first card of Nic Weglarz.

Could this be the next Tribe manager?

John says no,but sometimes that means maybe ,but I don't want to admit it yet.

There were many, many more cards in the box.Some old some new but all great Indians !!

Thank you very much Matt !! I working on a return package!

Next up is a package from Big D over at "Hey That's Mine"

He had some of the first Topps "Tickets to Stardom" cards I'd had seen.

He wanted to trade them so I asked for a couple for my sample collection and a wrapper.

Luckily,for me, the pack was a hobby version which I don't get a chance to pick up very often.

Then he threw in a couple more wrappers for good measure!

He also found a cople 2007 Masterpieces I needed.

I know, more Yankees !! But there just going into my sample card box where it's always dark (but at least there are no bugs!)

I had also asked for the Kerry Wood,but he through in some other Indians as well!

Thank you Big D for the great cards !!

I'm also working on a package for you three guys!

Last, but certainly not least, is the package from Fan of Reds over at "Nachos Grande"

He, like a lot of you out there, was overwhelmed with Allen & Ginter cards and wanted to share with others.

While I was not interested in collecting the whole set, there were a few cards that were interesting to me for noe reason or another. You don't see female ball players on cards too often so I wanted the Cat Osterman. Mickey Mantle was one of childhood heroes and. of course, I had to have the Martinez card!
The other three are just interesting to me for one reason or another.

Of course, he had a few extra Tribe cards too, which he included.

Thank you too!! You should have a return package by now !

Thanks to all the bloggers for their generosity!

I read this blog !

Jeremy, over at, No one's going to read this blog found out that he was wrong and someone WAS going to read his blog !

They say good things come in small packages. In this case they were very right.

Jeremy sent me a small package, with a couple small cards but they are very big in my book.
Especially the A&G mini,Sizemore jersey.Thanks for the great cards!!

Trade with First Day Issue

Yeah, I know these are football cards. There's a story here!

The yellow bubble envelopes keep coming in and I keep sending more out.Sometimes it seems like a vicious circle,but the end results are worth it!

This package came from MadHandle11 over at First Day Issue .

The last time he sent me cards, there were 2-3 Browns football cards included. One was a Mayo Cut Plug and I mentioned that my youngest son was working on that set.I am guessing that's why the cards above were in this package! That's just a sampling of the ones he sent and the timing couldn't have been better.Friday was Andy's 22nd birthday! He will be home next week-end and these cards will be waiting for him.

Not nearly as many cards as we traded the first time,but still some great quality Tribers.

I didn't have this Bazooka comic,and it is absolutely priceless!

The Lofton chrome didn't photograph too well,

but the Manny hologram turned out nice.

I guess I should ask Santa for a scanner this year!

This Sizemore jersey card was really nice !

As was this Hafner A&G.

You don't see too many of these 1999 Skybox Metal Explosion cards.

I have a Thome, Manny Ramirez and now David Justice.

Anybody got any more !!!

This was only a few of the Indians MadHandler11 sent this way,but some of my favorites!

Thank you very much. I'm working on some Mariners to head out west!