Dutch Treat !

I have seen many of your trade posts with The Dutch Card Guy but had never had the opportunity to deal with him myself. Well, now I have and it was a very good experience !

I received a very fat mailer full of all sorts of Tribe goodness !

 



He sent a very wide variety of cards from many different sets and years.

 First a 2011 Topps Opening Day blue Santana.

Sorry about this photo, I'm going to be making some changes in my presentation.
This is a very nice 2008 Topps Co-Signers  Travis Hafner / Ryan Garko. #'d 31/300

2009 Tristar Alex White. #'d 14/50.

2006 Topps '52 Rookie Card chrome Rafael Perez #'d 1213 / 1952

The "Bulldog" ! 1996 Upper Deck Post Season Checklist. He was one of the mainstays of our last "Glory Years" !

More gold !  2009 Luis Valbuena. Great shot just before contact.

Some older gold in the form of  a 1995 Score Gold Rush version of Albie Lopez.

2002 Upper Deck World Series Heroes  Man Ram. What career numbers he could have had if only he could keep his head on the straight and narrow !

Going way back to 1986, we have Julio Franco on Fleer's Baseball Best.

I always liked this card. I don't know if this a staged photo or not, but the look on Albert's face is priceless !

The great HOF'er Eddie Murray. He got his 3000th hit while with the Tribe.

 
What a great card !
This was definitely the high point of the package !
2007 SPx Winning Materials jersey card. Victor Martinez #'d 118 / 175.

 

Plus a terrific auto of Martin Vargas. 2002 Donruss Best of Fan Club. #'d 0077 / 1350.

 

 

To the Dutch Card Guy, thank you so very much for the great cards !  Many of which will be added to my collection. I hope you enjoy my return package  just as much !!

Want to get in on some 2013 Topps ?

I realize this is a ways off, late January actually, but Crackin Wax is preparing for a case break, with an added twist for charity, that could land you a real nice prize.  Check it out here !


I know I haven't been very "verbal" as of late. I've been trying to catch up on some trades and preparing trade posts.

When I first started this blog I was very strict on myself about keeping up but the number of blogs seems to have increased dramatically and I try to read as many as possible. I now find myself putting some things off, when I really shouldn't, and now I have to scramble to get back on track. I have a box full of trade packages I have received and I will get them posted !! I don't put them into my albums until then. I also have some recent ebay purchases I would like to share.

Now that my Indians are done for the season I will have more time to devote to the blog and to all of you great bloggers out there!  I have been sending out at least two packages a week and hope to get caught up soon. The problem is, I'm addicted to trading ! 

So keep watching and I'll do my best to get better  !  Kind of a New Year's Resolution starting early.

             Here's a few samples !

 

 

 

                                   

And now Sandy gets a chance.

It was bound to happen. Manny Acta is done as manager of the Cleveland Indians.

Sandy Alomar has been named interim manager.

Antonetti and Shapiro will stay on.

I think there should have been more changes a step higher.

The manager is always the first to go and we fans sometimes usually feel that was a mistake. But we don't anything about what went on behind the scenes. A manager isn't normally fired for removing a pitcher too early or too late, for not calling for a sacrifice bunt or not intentionally walking a power hitter.

Do you like your manager at work?
Does every one on your "team" like him (her)?
Does he (she) keep everyone motivated?
Does he (she) see and solve differences between team members before they become problems?

The list can go on and on and, I'm not saying any of these apply to Manny Acta, I'm saying we don't know. But there probably was more to it than just losing games.

When things are going badly, the fans want to see a change, and the manager always seems to be the scapegoat whether he really is the problem or not. Maybe the upper management figures the team manager is the easiest to replace. After enough new managers don't get the job done, then they start to look higher. I think it's time to look higher.

I realize when you make a trade or pick up a free agent you never know what's going to happen. Sometimes you look like a genius and sometimes you look like a fool. Just sayin'.

We are on a two game winning streak, let's see if Sandy and the team can keep it going !

Winnings from a hidden contest

Sometimes you have to do more than read between the lines.

Sometimes you have to sit back watch and listen.

That was the case in The Daily Dimwits contest.

Sam had some new products, TeenyMates, to show off and even had some to give away.

I was one of three lucky recipients and received my package in the mail yesterday.

 

You can read all the details about these little guys on Sam's post. He had a very good review of the product. I got three packages and two of them were exact duplicates. Same players and same puzzle pieces !

 

 

 

I'm not a real big football fan but I would like to have the Little Browns guy. I'd be more than happy to trade any of these  away.

 

When I first saw the package I wasn't sure what to think. It was from The Party Animal Store on Crocker Road in Westlake , Ohio !  That's only about 30 miles from where I live. In fact, my wife and I were just at Crocker Park a week ago.

 

I'll have to go back up that way and check it out !!

 

Thanks for the contest Sam !!





Loot from JABO - a mis cut like I've never seen before!

I recently participated in a break over at JABO'S and and got some great Tribe cards along  with a stack of Angels that came as my random team.

But before I get to those, I want to talk about mis-cut cards. We've all seen them before, in one form or another. I even have a small collection of them.

 

 

This '89 Donruss Junior Ortiz is interesting in that it has no square corners.

 

Some are only slightly off while some,'85 Topps Nolan Ryan, are way off.

High end cards don't always escape either. 1994 Bowman's Best Kevin Mitchell is is out of shape in both directions!

 

 



 

Even some of the best loved sets, 1975 Topps Greg Luzinski, slip through the inspectors.

And another Hi Tech Topps Finest. If only Neifi Perez was a refractor.

 

 

Vicente Palacios, 1988 Donruss, has square corners but the the whole image is on an angle.

 

That brings me to Jabo's cards.

I don't know if he noticed this or not....

 

 

 

 

...but Carlos is Juuuussst a bit short !

About 1/16 on top and 1/8 on the bottom.

This was perfect though ,as I already have that Baerga card !

 

 

OK, here's the rest of the cards !

 

One stack of Tribe cards, one stack of Angels. Angels seemed to have  had better representation.

 

 Shiny Bowman's Best, All cut pretty well.

The Leaf Metal Manny Ramirez had a protective film over it but I always remove them if the card is going to stay in my collection.

I love the Topp Embossed. One of those quirky things from the 1990's.

A future hopeful and a couple blasts from the past. We need a couple like those two for next year.

 

This was a sampling of the Tribe cards.

 

Next, a sample of Angels.

 

Brian and Chuck are the gold Embossed versions.

As you can see, the film is still intact on these Metal Angels.

 

 

A big thanks to JABO for hosting this break !



Yardsellr Tribe auto

I first became aware of  Yardsellr through Facebook. I checked it out and saw a lot of Indian cards I would like to have, so I signed up. I still don't know or understand all of the ins and outs of the whole system, but you can get a very sweet deal if you have enough points  and are patient in buying.

You receive points when you sign up, sometimes other members just give you points and there are other venues for obtaining even more points. The trouble is, your point total is constantly decreasing, so you have to use them quickly or lose them all.The points give you discounts on the items that the members are selling. Many items are sold with free shipping.

This is what I bought :

 

2010 Topps Finest Michael Brantley rookie auto letter patch.

 

 

 

The seller was asking $15.00 with free shipping. I had a humongous amount of points at the time so I clicked on the "Buy it now" button, which doesn't commit you to buy, but it shows the price you have to pay, and it said I owed $3.19 !!

 

I thought what ? You have to be kidding. This was my first attempt at buying so I really didn't know exactly what I was doing and I thought I had made some kind of mistake. I looked over the whole transaction and everything seemed to be in order so I hit the second "buy" button and it sent me to a transaction page where I sent the payment via Paypal.

 

Then I thought again, I sure hope it comes ! But I figured I'd only be out three bucks if it was a scam of some sort, and would consider a lesson learned. A week later it showed up in the mail !

 

I discovered you have to have a LOT of points to get a good deal. Most of the time I have around 2-300,000 points, which are worth about $3.00 and I can't even buy inexpensive items and get a good deal. It ends up costing more than what the seller was asking to begin with when Yardsellr adds in their fee. So I just "x" out of that item and forget it.

 

I did pick this item up a couple days later for another $3.00.

 

 

 

 

A 1993 Topps Stadium Club Series III  Member's Only boxed set.

 

There must be a lot of people who are too anxious to buy or don't understand the system at all, or Yardsellr wouldn't be making any money !

 

Check it out yourself but,

 

Caveat emptor !!