A long awaited thank you to My Mistress ...

My Cardboard Mistress that is.

So looking back in my scans folder, I realized I had a number of trade posts that I never got to. So somehow, even though it's barely 8:00 AM on the east coast, and my son has had his first sleep over, I think I may actually be able to post.

First up is a trade made with My Cardboard Mistress back in mid August. Going his way were a bunch of Allen & Ginters from 2006–2011 in exchange for the minis below. Adam made a nice dent into my Ginter mini needs ...

First in the batch was a couple of 2008's along with an assortment of inserts. D.B. Cooper makes a couple of appearances in the Ginter sets, the first being this card in 2009 (and also made A&G's World's Most Mysterious People in 2011). If you don't know the story behind "Mr. Cooper" it's rather fascinating!

Next, a nice batch of 2010 minis, including the 2011 National League MVP, Ryan Braun. Adam was also nice enough to include former Sox stiff Erik Bedard. We shoulda stayed with Rich Harden trade at this year's deadline. Harden certainly would have pitched with more Heeeeeaaaaarrrrrrhhhhhhhhttttt!

Next is a number of 2011 minis, including a NO NUMBER of Omar Infante. I'm still kicking myself for passing on a 2009 no number of Justin Verlander at a show earlier this year. I dealer went from $6 bucks to $3, but I had just got there and wanted to see what else was available. Dummy!! Nice to see Alex Gordon finally put everything together this year. I really hope the talent come along for Kansas City. I remember as a kid, I hated when the BoSox played in KC as they always seemed to have trouble with Brett, White, Wilson, and the rest.

Next, some 2011 black minis and again, some of the horizontal cards (Phillips) don't work well in the format. The Weeks is ok, but I think Topps should rid the landscape route for this product.

Some more mini '11's including, possible 2012 Red Sox closer, Daniel Bard. I have always loved Jim Thome but too bad he's going back to Philly, as I don't see how he'll get much playing time.

And rounding out the trade a number of 2011 insert minis. I like the Step Right Up set as it fits perfectly with the quirkiness that is Allen & Ginter.

Thanks again Adam for the great trade, sorry it took about four months to post. Hope to do it up again as I see you've landed some more minis!!!

LCS visit brings in vintage and retro vintage (PART ONE)

So finally, finally I made it a point to visit the LCS one town over from me. About the only day I can get over there is on a Friday, but lately my Fridays (off days) have been the sort that has me running all over creation doing errands and what not.

I had already made about two passes on the LCS's Allen & Ginter minis but that was when I was only planning to doing a "Frankenstein" set. Now that I am boldly, err ... insane attempt to complete all the mini sets from 2006 to present I have been wanting to get back and make one last pass. So 100 minis later for 10 bucks or a dime a piece, I ransacked what he had left.

And with that, I scanned in some of my favorites from each year ...

Out of all the A&G sets, I think the 2006 set might be my favorite. The artwork is just awesome. I actually already had the Tim Hudson and Chipper Jones but I wanted the black borders just to break up the look on what ever page they happen to fall on.

Next up, 2007s ... gotta love the Ferris Wheel card too. One problem with these mini being popular around these parts, Red Sox minis are few and far between. I know I haven't been able to land any of them at my LCS in the last two years. Nice to see Corey Patterson having a resurgence north of the border. I remember when his card was the one to own in the 1999 Topps Traded set. The guy has always had talent, just couldn't take a walk to save his life.

Some 2008s here and I think the weakest of the Ginter designs. They're not bad but not as classy as the '06s and '07s. I also think a number of cards were over Photoshoped with whatever filter Topps was using.

The Ginter looked rebounded for sure with their 2009 version and I think these black border beauties might be the best of the lot. When I saw this Florence Nightengale card, all I could think about was that scene in Meet the Parents when Greg Focker is playing water vollyball and was called out for his shoddy play ...

If Florence Nightingale would play some defense.
I missed one shot!
It was a big shot!

And finally, some 2010 Ginters and the only insert cards I was able to acquire.

The Russian Bear and the Bald Eagle, side-by-side, who ya got???!! How would you like your national animal to be a cow? Ugh!

So that wraps up Part One of my visit to the LCS. I thought I'd put the vintage together in the same post as the retro, but decided against it since Part Two will be a launching point of a new collecting project I am in the middle of putting together. So until then ....

Two trades and one generous reader

So maybe about a month plus ago I finally had tracked down a blaster of 2011 Gypsy Queen. While the product look better than I thought it would, I really was only interested the mini parallels and so was open to trading the rest of the contents.

Enter The Daily Dimwit. Sam had posted a bunch of GQ minis that were available for trade and I had a number of cards he needed, especially some of those bronze bordered cards. I will say, too bad the entire GQ set wasn't treated that way in base form.

Right off the bat, I was lucky enough to land a SP, hobby box variation in Walter Johnson. These special hobby box toppers (special box of minis) carry a lighter border and different photos. I think the "grittiness" of the Gypsy Queen carries it self quite well in the older star cards. I absolutely love the shots of Reggie and the Duke. I gotta say, with a number of these retro sets, the photo selection on a lot of the older, retired players are better than the original cards they were depicted. I mean, I'd rather see this shot of Reggie than what was shown on his 1977 or 1979 Topps cards.

In this next batch, we have a bunch of current day stars such as Longo, Lincecum, Votto, and more. I am in the middle of putting together a needs list for the GQ minis and hope to have that up this weekend. Thanks again Sam for the trade and good luck on that bronze border set!

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And while we're on the subject of Gypsy Queen minis, Colbey over at Cardboard Collections emailed me saying he had some GQ minis for trade. This was the second time trading with CC (Colbey, your package is on it's way!) and going his way is quite a few GQ base cards and insert set cards.

Enter ten more Gypsy Queen minis, four Kimball Champions minis from the '11 Topps Series 1, and three Allen & Ginter minis from the 2009 set.  Thanks again Colbey and good luck on this GQ set.

* * * * * * *

And to close this post, I'd like to thank reader Trey who is/was just getting into the baseball card blogsphere but the the link I had isn't working. He had come across a comment I had posted, checked my blog and sent me this 2009 Topps T206 Yogi Berra as a way to getting his name and blog out there.

Trey, if you're out there, thank you again and I hope you get your blog up and running again. Don't worry about updating it every single day, but it's good vehicle to let other collectors know what your interests are and what you have available for trade.  If you see this, and have a new blog site, drop me a line and I'll link this post to your site.

***Update*** Trey's blog can now be found here.

Another Ginter Mini Heist

So while looking for some Allen & Ginter mini cards, I decided to look for some of those lots that list "U-Pick 10, 15, 20, etc," so I was quite surprised when I came across a lot of 2006 minis in which you pick 30 cards and decent "Buy It Right Now" offer.

Now part of the problem with these lots is that they might list 100 or so cards, if that, with maybe a couple of images, so unless one of the images grabs you, or you have the time to go back and forth looking at their numbers and yours, it's easy to pass over these auctions and look elsewhere.

One thing I love about the 2006 edition of Ginter, is the retired player selection. HOFs like Banks, Yaz, Clemente, Brooks and Frank Robinson, etc. and the images that Topps used look great in the mini format. Now the image that lured me was the Nolan Ryan depicted as a California Angel. I have been looking for this mini for a while so right off the bat I knew I had to look and see if I could find thirty cards of my liking. So what did I find?

How about some Hall of Famers (minus the Moose) and original A&G original reprints!!!!! Score!! I love the Frankie Frisch, Yaz, and Frank, but c'mon Topps, why are you showing an end-of-the-line Brooks??? I'd like to know why they went with this shot.

Next up so "RC" designated minis ...

I like the Hanley mini because it's not an action shot taken from a mile away like a couple of his other Ginter cards. The McCann is petty cool, that Braves uniform was made for the A&G product line.

Next up are a whole bunch of current players ...

King Felix, Vladi, Chase, can't go wrong with those guys. Piazza and Nomar in jerseys no one thought they would end up in. As a BoSox, I know I never imagined Nomah in anything but a Red Sox jersey. Too bad nagging injuries and his ego got the best of him. Cubs, Dodgers, A's ... a shame he could be there for both World Series teams. We got some future HOFs here too with Biggio, Chipper, Piazza, and maybe Bonds, but that's a whole different story.

And finally some miscellaneous sports/non-sports ...

The best college basketball coach ever and a Hall of Famer as a player and coach! "Holy s@#t, that was Mike Tyson!" "I mean he's still got it!" ... Mike is back for a cameo again in The Hangover 2 due out this Memorial Day. And lastly, Lady Liberty. A classic indeed. I need more of these type of Ginters, ones like the St. Louis Arch, the Grand Canyon, Eifel Tower.

The average cost of these minis for the lot ... $0.38. This was one of the lots that reminded me of those dime/quarter boxes at card shows, and that with a little time and patience (and flipping between lists), good finds are often right before our eyes — we just have to open them.

Adding more minis to the collection

Relic minis that is.  This was part of my eBay buying binge over the last two weeks. Put a bid on this lot and kinda forgot about it until I was notified that I was the winner.

 We have some white swatches ...

Some gray swatches ...

And some colors and a bat chip. This lot broke down to be about a buck per relic—I thought might as well and if I didn't win, no big deal.

These all came from the 2008 Allen & Ginter set and eventually would like to have a page of relics from each of the A&G years. So, if you have an extra 2006, 07, 09, or 2010 Ginter relic, I would be open to trading a couple of these to pick up another year. About the only one I would not trade is Tulo. Mauer would be available as I already have a 2009 gray w/pinstripe jersey swatch.

In two other separate auctions, I completed my World's Deadliest Sharks insert set with the Great White Shark from the 2008 A&G set. And on top of that, I picked up my first World's Deadliest Snakes card from the 2007 edition in the King Cobra. These Snakes seem to run about $20 or so each so I was pretty happy when I got this guy for half that.

I have a couple more Ginter auction wins to showcase that were part of this spree as well as some vintage HOF'ers joining my No-Hitters collection. Hopefully I'll get all that up by the weekend as well as find a creative way to get some trade bait posts up as well for next week. So stay tuned and Go Sox!