Victory in the Craigslist Free Section - Griffey and Nolan Ryan

Craigslist is a wild place.

It's main advantage is that it frictionlessly brokers any type of exchange that you can think of.  You can find any sort of trouble that you want there, but it also fosters the quick transfer of goods to people who want them from those who no longer have any desire to keep them.  Usually, there is some cash exchanged, but the best part of Craigslist is the FREE section.  Whenever someone is cleaning out a garage, moving, etc., they will find stuff they don't need but want someone else to have -- so they just post it for free.  No strings attached.   I just gave away my equipment for "Rock Band" on PS2 tonight, for example.

I have an alert set up on my local Craigslist so that all posts with "cards" in them get sent to my Google Reader (note to self, find some service OTHER than Google Reader to use after June).  Recently, one popped up in the free section as "Uncut Sheets of Cards."  I emailed the guy then hustled over there.  Here is what I came home with for a grand total of $0.

Here are two uncut sheets from 1991 Mother's Cookies.  The one on the left is a 4-card "Father and Son" set of Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ken Griffey, Sr.   On the right is the 4-card set called the "300 Wins Set" of Nolan Ryan.  The 4-cards are just printed over and over on these sheets. I guess that means I have 18 complete sets of each.  :-)

Here's a little blurb on them in the 2011 Standard Catalog.

Here's a close-up on the Griffey's.

So are you jealous yet?  There's no need to be.  I'm not keeping these.  As cool as they are, I'm probably not going to display these, frame them, or do anything productive with them.   Living with my family in a 2-bedroom apartment, I don't have a ton of extra room for stuff that is not in the heart of my collection.

So, would any of my fellow blog-people want these to do something with?  Griffey fans?  Rangers fans?  Uncut sheet fans?  I'd let them go for the cost of shipping/packaging.  They are a thin cardstock, so they don't roll-up super tight.  I could try to get them into one of those big priority mail triangular tubes, maybe.  I wouldn't want to make them all curled/bent/jacked-up any more than is necessary.  Let me know if one or both of these is up your alley.

There is some damage on these, although they still look pretty good for being stuck in some guy's garage for 15 years. 

Tear along the side

Jaybarker Fan's Junk Mega-Post

As you may have seen, I've posted more in the last 2 weeks than I did in the prior 2 months.  Part of that has been catching up on the ever-growing stack of incoming packages on my card shelf.  Usually that means dealing with one package-per-post, but I'm not gonna do that when I have FOUR packages from Wes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk.  If you aren't reading his blog yet....HOW have you missed out this long?  He's a super-generous dude here in the blogosphere and has run some fun card-drafts, too.  I gotta post my favorites in honor of all he's doing out there for the people.

So here we go....the first (annual)

 Jaybarker Fan's Junk MEGA POST

NUMBER ONE
First package was one of his PWE BOMBs. 

Teahen looks downright regal in this card from UD A Piece of History.  I think he should be on the $2 bill or something.

NUMBER TWO
The second package was from one of his card drafts.

 I used my first pick on this Jay Buhner relic.  Not really sure why, but it was neat.  :-)  Anyone want it?  It's for trade.

 

Next, I picked up a few vintage Royals.  I'd never heard of Billy Sorrell, but that didn't stop me from pulling the trigger.  One of the nice things about cheering for a team that has only been around since 1969 is that you don't have to get bogged-down with all the old players from before you were born.  Just think if you were a team collector of the Yankees or Cubs.  You'd have to be on the lookout for everything starting with the turn-o'-the-century.  Not my problem.  I can mostly stick with the '70s and up.

 

TEBOW!  I'm pretty sure JBF just threw this one into the draft pile since he knew I would jump on it.  Love me some Tebow.

Here's a few "Propaganda Posters" that I grabbed since I thought they looked cool.  Any David Wright or Ichiro collectors need these?  They're for trade.

Here's a Deion Branch that I grabbed for my buddy, Raj.  It's X-Fractory.

Finally from this package, as my last pick I was able to grab a Rafael Palmeiro Pepsi card.  On this one, Pepsi is claiming to be the "Flavor of Baseball."  Call me crazy, but I always thought that the flavor of baseball was "Leather and Cork."  I guess we'll agree to disagree on this one.

(Oh yeah, this card is slightly wider than a regular card, so it doesn't fit in a penny-sleeve or page.  It is destined to live in a top-loader forever.)

NUMBER THREE
The penultimate package was ANOTHER PWE BOMB.  

This one had two more sweet cards I needed.  A Score Traded Buckner, and the Alex Gordon Masterpieces card.

NUMBER FOUR
The last package is from the "Oddball Draft."  Hey, I'm an oddball.  I like math and wear glasses and goofy band T-shirts.  I guess that means I should participate.  Oh, it was Oddball CARDS?  I misunderstood....

Let me take a look at what JBF is offering here....and I'll do my shopping.

CARDS ON MY HISTORY WANTLIST?????  Yes, please.  26 left on that subset to go.

Royals parallels? Throw those in my cart.

 History MINIS.  Last year when Ginter came out, I decided to look up who LL Zamenhof was since I had no clue.  Turns out he invented the language Esperanto.  Nobody needs to know that, right?  Wrong.  That little piece of knowledge won me a match in my online trivia league last season.  Yes, I am in an online trivia league.  And it is glorious.

 I had no idea this set existed.  I would have chased it.  Jared Ingersoll was a lawyer and VP candidate who signed the Constitution as a representative of Pennsylvania.

Finally....this appears to be my first "modern" tennis card.  I had to unlock the Tennis section in Zistle for this.

And.......Scene.  That's it!  Thanks for all of it, JBF!

Just Call Me "Josh Sr."

Right before the Super Bowl, Colbey at Cardboard Collections ran a Football Group Break.  That's something we don't see around here too often, so I had to jump in.  There's just one problem, I don't have one team that I root for, that is "MY team" like I have in baseball.  This is the result of growing up in a state with no NFL team and a father who was into college football way more than pro ball. 

Anyway, so I had to pick teams.  I decided I would try to get a Tebow (and grabbed the Broncos) or a Peyton Manning (and grabbed the Colts). 

No Tebow, but got 3 Peytons!  Here were my two favorites.

Peyton Manning

Here were my top picks among the other cards.  Got an Andrew Luck Score rookie, and a very sharp-looking Eric Decker.

It was a buy-one-get-one random team setup.  My random teams were the Falcons and Lions (not too shabby).  I got lucky and picked up a Lions hit.  Mr. Titus Young.

Or should I say "Titus Young Sr."  Why would I say that?  The guy is only 23.  "Sr." gets affixed to your name when you are in your 40's at the earliest, right?

Nope, Titus cared enough about naming his son Titus that he had the "Sr." put on his jersey last season. 

It's spreading!  Mikel Leshoure was doing it, too.  Oh, Detroit.

I doubt we'll be seeing much more of Titus Young now that his name is mostly seen in headlines like:
TITUS YOUNG SUCKER PUNCHES TEAMMATE and TITUS YOUNG RUNS WRONG ROUTES ON PURPOSE.  He doesn't get the privilege and opportunity that he could have had.  The Lions cut him after the season, he was picked up by the Rams, and then cut by them after nine days.  Have fun in the Arena League, Titus.  It's too bad....that's an awfully pretty card and blue swatch.

With that, my first football group break post is done.  Thanks to Colbey Hopper Sr. for making it happen!

Nothing Plain About These

I've got a few more goodies to show off courtesy of Roy-Z at "Plain Gray Swatch."  There's nothing plain about these, though.  It started off with an autograph of David DeJesus signing an autograph.  He is truly a class act -- graciously signed in-person for me once and tossed a BP ball to my wife before a game at Angels Stadium.  Just another reason why he's my favorite Royal.

And a few more that are NOT TOO SHABBY....Topps Chrome Purple!  Hosmer and Herrera.  Boo-yah.  These are very pretty in-person.

Shiny Stuff from Sunny SoCal

2013 Topps Spring Fever - SF-21 - Salvador Perez

Look at that card.  Shiny.  Sunny.  Palm trees.  I can almost feel the ocean breezes wafting my way.  It must be spring!  Even though this card is of a Royal, it's definitely got a "California Vibe" to it.  That must have been infused by it's previous owner, Mr. ArpSmith.  He's a resident of Orange County (aka "The OC"), and even though he is in the Angels' backyard, he's a Giants fan.  Luckily for me, that means he has no use for any of these Royals...and two recent packages yielded these goodies.

That Salvy is the prettiest card he sent over.  The next best is this Aaron Crow parallel.  As always, the Wal-Mart blue borders look awesome with the KC powder-blue uniforms.

2013 Topps - Wal-Mart Blue Parallel - #213 - Aaron Crow

These emerald ones are weird.  Don't like the green + blue + yellow + white.  Yuck.  We've got Jeremy Guthrie for the next 3 years, so hopefully he can keep up the level of play to what it was in the 2nd half of last season.

2013 Topps - Emerald Parallel - #289 - Jeremy Guthrie

The last thing he sent me was the result of his question, "Do you need a Juan Gonzalez relic card?"  I responded honestly..."Nobody needs a Juan Gone relic card...especially one of him in a Royals jersey.  However, I do not have one."

I do now.  Thanks, Arpsmith!

Sea Shepherds, See Rams, No Seahawks

I love using Listia...as you can see from all my other Lista wins.  Everything I bid on is always free shipping.  That usually means a plain white envelope (PWE) with the card thrown in it.  Maybe a little note that says "Thanks for bidding" or somesuch.   However, in my most recent package, I got my card plus a little something... 

The seller included this sticker.  Sea Shepherd is apparently a group that tries to protect dolphins.  There was a little flyer in there about their work, too.  I'm trying to decide where to stick this.  Whenever I receive stickers in my trade packages (like I have from Spankee and from Nachos Grande), I always stick those to one of my trade boxes.  But this isn't really card related...If I had a punk-rock guitar case, this would look great on there.  But alas...

Oh, you probably want to know what kind of cards the environmentalists are getting rid of...

It's a 2012 Topps QB Immortals Insert - Kurt Warner. 

 

As always, if you have extra Kurt Warner cards, I'm your man!

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