Stealing Home, Stealing Hearts

At the beginning of April, I was trying to wrap up some other trades, when Oscar -- Mr. "Stealing Home" -- from All Trade Bait contacted me out of the blue for another trade.  A few emails later, and boom - a little yellow envelope was showing up at my door.

Now, before I go any farther...my wife is cool.  She's not a card collector, but she likes looking at what comes through the mail before I put it in the boxes/pages.  She also likes the Royals, which means she knows quite a few of the players. 

However, when she saw this come out of the package...she was ELATED.

2010 Upper Deck - UDGJ-ZG - Zack Greinke

The blue in the jersey pops a lot more than it does in the scan.  We all thought this card was very "pretty" and liked that it had our (former) player and Cy Young winner.  Greinke, how we miss thee.

But Oscar wasn't done.  He included this auto:

1996 Leaf Signature Series - #171 - Jon Nunnally

This card is not serial-numbered...but COMC tells me that this was limited to 3500, while there was also a silver version limited to 1000, and a gold version limited to 500.  That means ol' Jon Nunnally had to sit around and sign 5000 of these.  Poor guy's hand is probably still cramping.  Although that's nothing like what Marshall Faulk endured when he autographed 125k cards for the Madden games.

I also have the Keith Lockhart signature from this set.

1987 Donruss Opening Day - Bo Jackson - #205

There were a bunch of cool base cards, and the best one was this Donruss Opening Day Bo Jackson.  I had never seen one of these before, so had to do a little research to figure out what it was.

Here's all the goodies I sent him. 

Thanks again for the trade!

Berroa, Thy Pants Aren't Argyle

Angel Berroa - Hot Materials Relic - Future Swatch

Back in January (yikes!), I made a trade with Greg Z. from Plaschke Thy Sweater Is Argyle.  He was the prompt-posting half of this trade...posting what I sent him in February.  I sent him a Poker auto + Dodgers + Phoenix Suns.  Here's what I got in return.  The Berroa card above Greg was HAPPY to part with, and I was happy to get it.  I figured it was a jersey/shirt relic...until I looked a little closer - "Spring Training Pants."  I like to think that the card company had him changing in and out of pants all morning so they could make more of these.

Run your sprints...change your pants.

Take some BP...change your pants.

Hustle down the line....


...Change your pants.

The other relic I got out of this trade was a nice blue Brandon Marshall relic from the Broncos.  Yeah, that was 2 teams ago for him, but it's still a nice card.  

Leaf Rookies and Stars Relic - Brandon Marshall

 I like the weird stuff, too.  One of my fun collections is "Grumpy Coaches."  Greg was more than happy to oblige me with some NBA guys, a Zen-free Phil Jackson, and old Tommy Lasorda. 

 We also got an example of some fine NBA fashion.  Rec Specs + KJ's Bow-Tie.  SWEEEEEEET.

So which of these is your favorite??

Thanks, Greg!

My Late Obsession

I'm only 3 months late on this one....so sue me!

Back in February, I made a trade with Jeff over at My Sports Obsession.  You can see lots of the stuff I traded him here.  It was mostly a good-sized stack of 1973 Topps and 1981 Topps.  He sent me a smaller envelope back, but it was a GREAT envelope.  He clearly looked through my want-lists and picked out some good stuff.  Here's a few of the highlights...

He started it off with 4 different Kurt Warners.

Football Heroes - Kurt Warner

 Then a Diamond King with a diecut Topps Laser card.

Brian McRae DK, and Johnny Damon Topps Laser

 As I neared the end of the stack, the cards started feeling THICKER.  Here was the first one.

2008 Upper Deck Jersey card - Gil Meche

 Considering how I didn't send him any hits.  That was awesome.

Then I flipped to the last card and found this one. 

2005 Absolute Memorabilia - Ken Harvey

WHAT!  That is a relic auto of Ken Harvey.  It's #/25.  It's sweet.  There is an embossing in the lower left over the auto.  This is my first relic auto, and it is cool.

Thanks so much, Jeff.

Last Call for Basketball

Howdy all,

This is the last call for basketball cards.  If you are a team or player collector, please head over here to see what is still for trade:
http://royalsandrandoms.blogspot.com/2012/05/does-anybody-collect-basketball-cards.html

I have finished sorting all the commons into teams, so anyone who wants to trade for a team will get a pretty nice-sized stack. If you already commented on the previous post or emailed me, your stuff is in the packing process.

Lots of guys still available:  Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Yao Ming, Patrick Ewing, Tracy McGrady, etc.
Most teams' commons are still available, too.

Respond by the end of this week (Saturday 5/19), or else it will be gone to Craigslist.

Does Anybody Collect Basketball Cards?

UPDATE:  (6/20/2012) All of the base cards were given away free on craigslist. Two 11-year-old boys came with their Dad to pick them up.  They were very excited.  :-)  I think all those cards found a good home.


Dwight Howard - SPXcitement



I need to get rid of my basketball cards.

As I've mentioned before, I love buying card lots on Craigslist and at Garage Sales.  You get a lot of variety that way, and it's fun to sort through them and see what you got.  However, with that variety, you find that there will be stuff that does not suit your collecting goals, and it just ends up taking up valuable space.  That is where I am with basketball cards.  I have not paid attention to the NBA in years (since the early 90s), so the whole thing doesn't do much for me anymore.  My focus is narrowing to certain players (as seen on the sidebar to the right--->), so anything I have bought in these lots that is basketball needs to go. 



Lebron James - Phenomenal Beginning - 2003-04

I WANT TO TRADE THESE TO YOU.  I have pulled out all the "stars" (or at least those I considered to be stars) and serial-numbered cards and listed them below.  If you are a player-collector, LET ME KNOW.  I also have several boxes of mid-level players/commons.  If you are a team collector, HIT ME UP.  I'd be happy to sort through and pull out all the Denver Nuggets or Philadelphia 76ers (for example).  If you collect guys from a certain college....give me a list of names and I'll take a gander for you.  These mostly range from the early 90s through about 2007.  It is primarily base cards, but there are some inserts and serial numbered ones, too.  No relics/autos here. 

Allan Houston - Topps Chrome Black Refractor

Here's the list of stars along with the # of cards I have for each one.  If you want more information on what I have for a particular player, let me know.  None of these are high-dollar cards, but there are some with  COMC prices of $2-$5, so it's not all junk.  I would love to get KC Royals back in trade.  If that's not possible, I would take football or any of the basketball players shown in my want-lists.  If you wanted to do Paypal to cover shipping/supplies instead of a trade, we could probably work that out, too. Anything not spoken for will be disposed of in some as-yet-undetermined fashion. 

First Name	Last Name	# of Cards	Notes
Kareem	Abdul-Jabbar	1
Shareef	Abdur-Rahim	12
Ray	Allen	15
Tony	Allen	1	incl.1 SN#
Carmelo	Anthony	7
Gilbert	Arenas	8
Ron	Artest	10
William	Avery	1	incl.1 SN#
Charles	Barkley	8
Shane	Battier	9
Mike	Bibby	16
Chauncey	Billups	8
Larry	Bird	1
Andrew	Bogut	2
Carlos	Boozer	1
Chris	Bosh	7
Elton	Brand	12
Kobe	Bryant	5
Marcus	Camby	1
Vince	Carter	13
Sam	Cassell	3
Derrick	Coleman	3
Sasha	Danilovic	1	Sticker
Baron	Davis	14
Vlade	Divac	2
Clyde	Drexler	7
Joe	Dumars	5
Tim	Duncan	9
Mike	Dunleavy, Jr.	7
Patrick	Ewing	13
Michael	Finley	4	incl.1 SN#
Derek	Fisher	5
Steve	Francis	10
Walt	Frazier	1	incl.1 SN#
Kevin	Garnett	16
Pau	Gasol	15
Manu	Ginobili	14
Drew	Gooden	3
Anfernee / "Penny"	Hardaway	10
Tim	Hardaway	9
Grant	Hill	19
Kirk	Hinrich	2
Allan	Houston	12	incl.1 SN#
Dwight	Howard	5	incl.1 SN#
Juwan	Howard	3
Kris	Humphries	1
Zydrunas	Ilgauskas	2	incl.1 SN#
Allen	Iverson	10
Jim	Jackson	5
Lebron	James	6	+ Opened "Phenomenal Beginning" Box Set
Antawn	Jamison	4
Marko	Jaric	2	incl.1 SN#
Richard	Jefferson	13
Joe	Johnson	13
Larry	Johnson	15
Kevin	Johnson	14
Magic	Johnson	2
Michael	Jordan	13
Shawn	Kemp	16
Jason	Kidd	15
Andrei	Kirilenko	12
Toni	Kukoc	18
Christian	Laettner	3
Dan	Majerle	3
Karl	Malone	10
Moses	Malone	2
Stephon	Marbury	15
Shawn	Marion	4
Kenyon	Martin	15
Jamal	Mashburn	5
Tracy	McGrady	11
Darius	Miles	3	incl.2 SN#
Reggie	Miller	10
Andre	Miller	1
Yao	Ming	12
Eric	Montross	3
Alonzo	Mourning	25
Chris	Mullin	11
Dikembe	Mutombo	13
Steve	Nash	2
Dirk	Nowitzki	8
Lamar	Odom	9
Hakeem	Olajuwon	12
Shaquille	O'Neal	15
Jermaine	O'Neil	14
Robert	Parish	3
Tony	Parker	18
Chris	Paul	3
Gary	Payton	20
Paul	Pierce	13
Scottie	Pippen	17
Michael	Redd	16
Mitch	Richmond	9
Glenn	Robinson	3
Dennis	Rodman	5
Detlef	Schrempf	3
Steve	Smith	3
Latrell	Sprewell	3
John	Stockton	15
Peja	Stojakovic	18
Isiah	Thomas	2
Nick	Van Exel	3
Keith	Van Horn	5
Dwyane	Wade	9
Antoine	Walker	3
Rasheed	Wallace	4
Ben	Wallace	1	incl.1 SN#
Chris	Webber	25
Delonte	West	2	incl.1 SN#
Dominique	Wilkins	7
Deron	Williams	2
James	Worthy	2

Teams Claimed
Chicago Bulls
Charlotte Hornets/Bobcats
Miami Heat

Teams Available
Everybody Else

Shameless Begging and the Generosity of Bloggers

Last month, Brian from Play at the Plate was running a contest -- it was a Pack Wars that I ALMOST WON.    1 point too little = No prize for me. I tried to make a little joke at my expense inquiring about when I would be getting my (non-existent) 2nd place prize.

Fast forward a week, and a little yellow envelope appears in my box.  Opening it, I found the attached note.

What's this????  By whining (or begging) I can get sweet free things given to me?!?!  How can I incorporate this into my everyday life?  Brian, you realize this just reinforces bad behaviors, right?  :-)  I should go whine to someone else...maybe I will start by annoying my wife.

 

Here's what he sent....Brian sent some packs of 2012 Topps Stickers my way.  Let's crack them open...maybe there's ROYALS (I know that's what you all want to see).

None there.

None there, either!  I guess these packs cannot be saved.   Wait....what's this in the bottom...inside a toploader?  

2012 Topps Stickers Mike Moustakas and Luke Hochevar

ROYALS!!!!  People like tossing in Moustakas Stickers for me (and I like getting them). 

Thanks again, Brian.  I know who to bother next time I want to win something.  :-)