WANTED: 2013 Ginter Minis!

I know there are some bloggers that still collect these tiny pieces of cardboard, whiles others could care less for them. Some like to build team sets of the minis, some like to build Franken Sets (1–30 from all different years), but me, I can't enough and am still in the process of building all the mini sets. As you can see from my wants pages, I love those Ginter minis.

Please check my past trade-bait posts and hopefully I can find something to trade for your minis. I do have a bunch of extra minis from previous years to trade as well.

Ginter not your deal ... have other cards to trade from the 60's on to present. Please drop me an email—it'll be worth it as I tend to over trade (see past trades).

Thank you again and I look forward to trading with you.

The end of set chase as well as a dynasty

 How appropriate that the last card I needed for my 1975 Topps set was this Oakland A's team card.

1975 would the last taste of playoff baseball Oakland would see for the next six years. The won 98 games while finishing first in the American League West but wound up getting swept by the Boston Red Sox in the 1975 American League Championship, 3-0.

One thing I love about this card is the alternating green and yellow jerseys, and then throwing the coaches in their white tops and white hats that they wore. Makes for a nice team shot of this colorful gang of the early 1970's.

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More on that 65 Topps set I will be chasing ....

Dug through some of my 60's Topps last night and low and behold I found another two high numbers along with another five cards I will need for my new 1965 Topps set. I certainly will have my work cut out for me as whoever had collected this set, they must have go away to summer cap or went on vacation during the summer of 1965.

Missing are:
Series IV: 284-370
Series V: 371-446
Series VI: 447-522

Does anyone know when these series' would have been release during the course of 1965? It would be willing to bet in was during the summer months.

I am guessing that this set was started by a kid and when we came back home for the start of the school year in September of 1965, got back to collecting this set and bought packs from the last series (Series VII: 523-598) as I am only missing 5 of these cards.

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Oh before I forget, I know there are a number of Dodger collectors on these boards ... if you happen to have a 1965 Koufax and would like to trade for a 1963 Topps Koufax, drop me a line. Maybe of you would rather swap for a different year? Of if you have a 1965 Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, or Carl Yastrzemski, I would be willing to part with that 1963 Koufax and/or 1964 Topps Koufax World Series card. Check my archives too for those and other cards I would be willing to trade.

Again, if you have any information on when Topps would release certain series', I would love to hear about it. Thank you for reading.

Chasing my favorite 60's set: 1965 Topps

Been a while since I have posted on the this blog. I have updated some of my want lists as I continue to plug away at some of my Topps Sets and All-Time Red Sox collection.

I managed to hit up a card show in Stratford, CT on Sunday while visiting the inlaws. Ended up really at one table for about 90% of the time I was there. I had cleaned up almost all his 1971 Topps short prints some months back. No new cards there, but did pick up eleven 1968 Topps high numbers for a buck a piece. Also had a number of late 1950's and 1960's Red Sox available in the $1–3 range as well. Knocked off eighteen Sox needs there. At another table I did manage to find one 1971 Topps SP to cross off.

Which brings me to my next set chase and my favorite set of the 1960's ... the 1965 flagship set.

I have always loved the bold colors, the seldom used pennants, and I find the photography to be pretty top notch for this decade. Also, the high numbers aren't out of reach like other sets from this era. And no variations either to chase down.

So I manged to win this ebay auction over the weekend. Like the couple of other sets I have been chasing, this partial (half the set) set has a number of stars, rookies, and high numbers already. Not too picky about the overall condition as this fits my budget just fine.

If any of you have some 65 Topps to trade, I would love to hear from you. I have a number of stars and commons from 1960–1979 that I would gladly trade to inch closer to completing this beauty.

Drop me an email or comment below. I will be uploading a wantlist later today. Hope to trade soon!

Are you Man enough?

Ok, so not a baseball card post today, but I'll let this Stan "The Man" Musial help me lead into this post. I am sure many on this blogroll play fantasy baseball and I know a couple of you readers are in this same league that I am referring to.

It's a 30-team, franchise, dynasty league that is starting up. I am not the commisioner but did say I would try to help him fill in the last three spots.

The league charter is linked under my want lists for you to look at. I have played with a number of the guys in the league and it's a great group. There's a good amount of trading and people are from all over the country and a couple outside the U.S.. It is a daily league and you need to be active in that you have full active rosters.

If you want to see if you're ready for a Man's league, please email Bryan at    bluhrs   at  gmail.com

2013 Topps Retail Loose Packs

Without further ado, some of the cards from the first couple of retail packs ....

The emeralds are not numbered. Not collecting these, nor the pinks or camos. So any I get, they'll be available for trade.

And first Red Sox of 2013, is Salty. Too bad he may be traded come Spring Training.

I know I have another Red Sox on top of one of the two rack packs I got but not sure who it is. Will wait till tonight to open those.

Some more, these from my second and third packs.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS SHOT!!! And nice that's not a short print. 

Target Reds are back, not serial numbered. Also not in every pack.

All in all I limited myself to 15 loosies (from a retail box and gravity feeder) and two rack packs. The had the deck boxes (72 cards) and the blasters. All the prices are the same as previous years for the entire line of retail product.

Ok time to get back to work but just wanted to share with you that 2013 Topps retail is live!  It's a great looking product from the few packs I have opened and will definitely be putting this set together.

2013 Topps Retail and in my hands!

So just popped over to the Target around the corner from work (North Shore, Mass.) and behold ... UNTOUCHED single packs, drop box box packs, rack packs!  Normally this Target doesn't put product out early but it did today!

So with that, the first card in my first 2013 Topps pack.

#101 Bryan Shaw.

Will post a couple more cards shortly.

Housecleaning and Collecting Goals

With spring training just around the corner, I needed to get around to some posting and cleaning up of lists. Spent about and hour yesterday on ebay and Beckett's marketplace filling in some holes. Finally finished off my 1975 Topps set. Needed the Joe Morgan, Brooks Robinson card and two team cards. Nice to finally cross that off my needs.

Also finished off my 2012 Topps Debut set in the process. I really like having this set bookend the regular Topps flagship set. I hope Topps continues to do these sets in the future. Maybe they can add an end of the year draft pick set and make it an online exclusive ala the Heritage High Series Set.

Along the way, cleaned up on some missing Red Sox cards and some 1971 Topps high numbers and short prints.

Also, I know I need to reach back out to a couple of traders on some trades. I would love to get rid of the piles I have been accumulating on these fronts. So please bear with me.

So onto my 2013 Collecting Goals

1. To finally land a 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan rookie card. Doesn't have to be perfect, can even have some creasing, pinhole, or paper loss.
2. Finish off my 1971 Topps Set. Easily doable as I am not missing any overly expensive cards. I think the Ernie Banks is the highest priced of the bunch.
3. Try to reduce my needs list in half on both the 1968 and 1973 Topps set. I have a fair number of commons to obtain, just need to find outlets (online, shows, other card stores) to make happen.
4. Land another large lot/partial 1960s Topps set. I know some of the high numbers in these years can be the killers for those trying to complete these sets. I do like the designs of the 1960, 1962, and 1964 sets, but then again I already have a 1966 Rose and Koufax in my hands. I need to look at how many cards I have for each year and see what lines up best.
5. Make more trades. Granted, I really only purchase the Topps flagship as far as boxes/packs go and some other packs here and there. But I do have a number of oddball issues and variety of different cards from across the spectrum (70s-00s). I also have a number of Red Sox to trade as well and would even part with Red Sox relics in order to finish off some of my sets.

So, if anyone can lend a hand in helping me with these goals, drop me a line. I'd love to start chipping away.