More Than One Penny Sleeve

Longtime blogger (and new Twitter Buddy) Jon from A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts went on a generosity streak after finding a ton of Topps Buybacks for sale.  He asked me if I wanted some.  Of course I do!

His mailer arrived with these six "REDISCOVER TOPPS" stamped buybacks.  I love the 1987 Topps set anyway, so getting new versions for these are great!  Especially Willie Wilson.  The cards on the top are all silver-stamped, while the three on the bottom are bronze-stamped.  

However, that was not all that was in the package - Jon included two unexpected manu-relics, also!

The Jackie Robinson buyback is beautiful, contrasting the blue in the Royals uniform to the blue in the medallion.  Moose's 1st Home Run is my second one of these relics -- the first was Alex Gordon.

Thank you, Jon!  These are much appreciated and will find a great home!

  

Bountiful Bonus Booty Bestowed by Benevolent Blogger

Who is the Benevolent Blogger?  Why, Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits, of course!

Matt ran a contest last summer to see who could identify a player that he had selected, based on a series of clues that were increasingly specific.  When all was said and done, I narrowed down the answer to just a few players, then finally down to one - Wilson Ramos!  That qualified me for a prize, and when the randomizer was done spinning, I came out of it with a whole lot of 2017 Ginter cards!  Knowing his affinity for Ginter cards, I figured it would be something good.  It was.  :-)

Here you can see the box that hit my mailbox.

 

To be specific, that box had a full base set of 2017 Ginter (Cards 1-300), and then half of the short-prints (301-350).  1987 Topps (favorite set!) were used as filler.  No respect for the classics!  :-)

Here's the full team set of 2017 Royals (non-SP). 

 

He also included one SP (LoCain), and a mini of Hosmer and black mini of LoCain.  

It didn't seem like the Ginter base set had as many interesting non-baseball cards in it as it has in past years, but there were still a few good ones.  All of the cards in the next two pictures are other cards from the base set that I wanted to keep. 4 Ex-Royals (Kendrys, Manaea, Zobrist, Cueto), guys from my earlier days (Canseco, Smith, Banks, Johnson, Dawson), Random current guys I like (Ichiro, Werth, Wilson Ramos(!), then the miscellaneous ones.  Vashti Cunningham and Laurie Hernandez were Olympians.  I watched a Crossfit documentary on Netflix and Ben Smith was the winner of that (Spoiler!).  There was no "Revolving Door" or "X-Ray" card in this set, so a Panda and a Waterfall will have to fill that gap. 

As I mentioned, there were also half of the Short-Prints from this set.  Those are shown below and are all available (except for Lorenzo) since they don't fit my PC.  If anyone still is working on this set and needs one of these, let me know and I can get that to you.  I have a lot of base to trade/give, too.

I really only need one more full-size base card from this set -
Base SP #313 - Matt Strahm. 

Do any of you have that one for me?

Thanks so much, Matt!  You might be wondering why it took me 3 months to post this.  Well....this package hit my mailbox the same week my wife gave birth to our daughter.  Between her and my two older boys, I've had limited card-blogging time since then.  But these were all much appreciated and will be given a good home!  

Night Owl Confuses Me

Well, it's more like Topps confuses me.

All of these cards came from the one, the only, Mr. Night Owl in two packages -- one last summer, and one recent one.  He included the above monstrosity.  This flips the traditional traded-player display of "new logo/old uniform" on its head, by showing James Shields in his new uniform (KC), but with his old logo (TB).  Chalk this one up to a mistake -- whoever was maintaining the player database at Topps never updated it with the correct logo.

Night Owl sent a bunch of other good stuff, too.

And he finished it out with a #/99 double-jersey card of Raul (Adalberto) Mondesi.  This will definitely be Mondesi's year to show what he can do in the big leagues.  He's got to start hitting better if he is going to stick around.

Thank you, Night Owl -- all of these were needed and are very much appreciated!

-Josh D.

I'm Not a Super-Trader...

...but that doesn't stop me from benefitting from the concept.

2013 Topps Heritage - Mike Moustakas

P-Town Tom shot me an email in the Fall to say that he would not be "Waiting 'Til Next Year" to divest himself of all his Royals cards.  You see, there is no Royals representative in the "Super Traders" group and these pesky blue and white cards were piling up in his possession.  As a favor to him, I said I was willing to take them off his hands.  :-)  It was very generous of him to reach out to me on these and send them out, asking for nothing in return.

Shortly thereafter, a BRICK of cards show up on my doorstep.  After much sorting and cataloging, I have 90+ new cards that were not in my collection before.  Here's some pictures of my faves:

2016 Stadium Club - Alex Gordon

Is it raining or snowing on you this weekend?  You are in good company with ol' Gordo.

2013 Topps Minor League - Yordano Ventura

Are we in the maternity ward?  Because I see a baby-face.

Looking for legends?  Here's two cards I did not know existed.  Willie Wilson is so under-rated.  That guy was a BURNER.

Speaking of Royals legends...

1975 SSPC Royals

A whole page of SSPC cards?  Dang, Tom....you just have these things sitting around your house?  That's called an embarassment of riches.  :-)   These were my favorite things in the whole package, as I only had one KC SSPC card before this package arrived.

1996 Topps Chrome - Wally Joyner

Chromed-out Wally with the STREEEEEEEEETCH.......

1998 Fleer Metal Universe - Dean Palmer

Hey Guys -- It's me, Dean Palmer.  Since coming over to Kansas City, I spend most of my free time out here on a rural highway fielding grounders.  It was rough for awhile, but it's a lot better being out here now since that plane is grounded...

So THANK YOU, TOM!  Watch out for gunfire...

I've Been Framed!!

Guys, you've got to help me -- I've been framed!

No, not like that.

And no, not like that, either.

Like THIS.

Robert from $30 a Week Habit offered these to me on Twitter and I jumped at the chance.  They are the blue framed parallels from this year's Gypsy Queen...showing off the majesty of the WORLD CHAMPIONS OF BASEBALL (for now.....).  They arrived at my casa this week and will be inducted into their permanent home.  Thank you so much, Robert!

Royals Sweep the Angels

I just back from watching the Royals sweep the Angels in Anaheim this weekend to go to 6-0 on the year.  I think my thoughts on the matter are adequately summarized thusly:

Where are we going?

Yes.  Yes we are.

Alive and Kicking

1999 Omega - Jason Hanson

Very occasionally, a baseball player will spend 20 years with one team.  Less-than-never does a football player do so.  Except that's what we have with Mr. Jason Hanson.  When this 1999 Omega card was printed, he already had 6 years with the Lions.  He is STILL their kicker.  All those years haven't helped his hairline.

Cards of kickers are fun fun fun.  Punters, too.

I pulled off another great Zistle trade with Steve D. (user SDre31 - go trade with him if you can).  In exchange for a whole mess of Yankees (who wants those anyway?) I got the Hanson card and all the following sent back to me.

2005 SPx Signature - David DeJesus - #29 - #'d/225

Beautiful!  It's a sticker autograph, but the card is great.  And one of my favorite players, too. 

It would have been a great trade with just one relic card, but Steve included this one, too!

2011 Bowman Sterling Rookie Relics - #MM - Mike Moustakas

That's some good stuff.  Here's a #'ed Guillen parallel, too.

And here is an example of how Zistle rocks.  When you are a collector of lesser-known players, it is pretty rare that someone will send them to you in a regular trade.  However, when they are on your Zistle wantlist, EVERYONE there will know that you want them.  So it's easy to make a match with their automatic system.  And that is how I received a card of Iowa State alum Loren Meyer (from Ruthven, IA, FYI). 

1995-1996 Topps Loren Meyer - #213

Mutual Coincidence of Wants -- Platter Style

When I was taking economics in college, I remember the professor saying that money is important because it does not require you to trade items directly with another person, but allows you to sell something to one person and buy something from another.  Bartering or Trading, however, required a "mutual coincidence of wants."  That is, trading only works when you have something I would prefer to what I have, and I have something you would prefer to what you have. 

Luckily in the card community, the pseudo-random distribution in packs and boxes makes this scenario very likely.  When collectors prefer certain players, this becomes even easier.  Case in point, my recent trade with Spiegel at Nomo's Sushi Platter.  Obviously, his favorite player is Hideo Nomo.  My favorite player is David DeJesus.  When I have a stack of Nomos and he has a DDJ relic -- THAT is a mutual coincidence of wants! :-)

Here's what he sent me as the "meat" of this trade:

2012 Golden Moments Relic - David DeJesus - GMR-DDE

He also looked through my want-lists to see what else I was looking for.  I haven't bought much of anything from 2012, but have been cutting into those  Royals team sets piece-by-piece through trading.  Here's a few Ginters.

2012 Allen and Ginter - Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas

I like coach/manager cards...but I especially love GRUMPY manager cards.  Here are two that definitely fit the bill from Topps Heritage.

Finally, the fine mustachioed gentlemen of the past and present have come to pay us a visit.

Stan Wall is "so 1977" right there.  John Axford is a modern man, but looks like a swashbuckling, Spanish pirate....of which I completely approve.  :-)  He has the style of a true Canadian.

Thanks, Spiegel.  May our wants coincide again in the near future!

Doon Discs

Now for your collecting pleasure, DOON DISCS!  My shipment of Doon Discs just arrived.  They are good for healing vertigo, jock itch, sore thumbs, and uncontrolled ennui.  I can really feel the Liquid Napkin (TM) Technology doing its work -- my blogging has never been better!!*

*Better is a subjective term.  No guarantees of increased quality are implied.  Side effects of Doon Discs include dry mouth, toe cramps, and receiving lots of awesome Minor League cards of guys named Michael.  Thanks, Napkin!