A Blue Chicken and Some Sparkly Suits

Back in late July I made a purchase from "Erik's Fire Sales" on Twitter (@EriksFire)...well it was really a large quantity of very small purchases.  He was posting tons of cards for sale, and you could claim whatever you wanted.  Here are the highlights for my keepers...in addition to these, I grabbed some cards for the PCs of my frequent-traders.

Obviously, my stack would always start with Royals.  I love the red Guthrie, the green Holland, the Black Gold Montgomery, and an assortment of unusual Salvys.

Here are some Basketball Coaches.  This is a VERY minor, back-burner PC of mine, but I grab them when I can.  However, I've got to say something about the Panini photo selection here...is this the best you can do??  Coaches just standing there - arms crossed or hands on hips?  Do these guys actually DO anything?  Can I get a pointing and a screaming coach, please?

On the plus side, it's not every day you get an X-Fractor of a guy in a suit.

 I grabbed a few football cards:

1. Kurt Warner - my favorite player ever.
2. David Johnson - another UNI alum and prime contributor to my Fantasy Football success in 2016, so I have a small PC of him.
3. Alan Page - Just in case anyone doesn't know his story, the guy had a Hall of Fame football career, got his law degree while he was still in the NFL from the University of Minnesota, and THEN became a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court.  What a life!  

Brush with Greatness:  When I offered to pay my dime for the Alan Page card....his wife liked my Tweet.  :-)
https://twitter.com/DenHartogJ/status/1016475151372836864

This blog is called "Royals and Randoms" for a reason...I do like my oddballs. The chicken is a blue parallel and my sons are trying to get me to trade it to them.  I like that I am developing two oddball collectors.

His prices were quite reasonable...I don't think anything you will see here was more than 50 cents --  the Luminescent die-cut was the most expensive.  He hasn't run a sale in the last month or so, but he's definitely worth following on Twitter for some good cheap pickups next time he runs a sale.

Which of these cards was your favorite?

The OdieGoat

3 months with no posts?!?!  Well, I'm here now!

I have spent most of my card-time in the last few months cataloging my collection over at Trading Card Database after the Zistle collapse, and have almost all of my Royals cards entered over there.  Once that is done I will have a rather comprehensive want-list there that I can use to make trades with the active trading members over there. 

The other avenue that I have been exploring (besides blogging) is Twitter.  See, blogspot.com is blocked at my office, but Twitter is not.  :-)  I am there @DenHartogJ, but I don't tweet much...mostly I use it to look at other people's cards and listen to people whine about the Royals. 

However, one interesting thing that happens there is a "Flash Sale" or "Fire Sale" where someone will post a bunch of cards with a price for each one, and you can claim whatever you want - first come, first served.  One member I have bought from on several occasions is @odiegoat, who hosts his "Odie Sales" every month or so. Last week I bought a few cards from him for both myself and some of my trading partners.  These are my favorite keepers from my haul:


This Bo Jackson is from 2018, and since I have been buying NO new product, this was a great one to pick up.

2018 Topps - Bo Jackson 1983 Topps

 Johnny Cueto -- Put that shimmy in the windup, big boy!   This is a "Prism Refractor" which looks great in-hand.  Cueto's complete-game victory in the 2015 World Series will live on in Royals lore for ages, and keeps him in my good graces even if he did sign with the despised Giants.

Topps Chrome - Johnny Cueto Prism Refractor

 And the main reason I bought cards from The OdieGoat this time was this George Brett:

2017 Topps Silver Pack - George Brett

My favorite player on my favorite Topps card design?  And it's shiny?  YES PLEASE.  This is from the 2017 Silver Packs that came with Topps Hobby Box purchases.  I paid more than I should have for it, but didn't want to risk missing out on this one!  It was still under the price of one retail pack of Ginter or Gypsy Queen. 

There were some other cards too, but those will be finding their way into mailboxes over the next few months. 

While I'm on the topic of flash sales, the other guy that you should follow is @EriksFire.  His prices can't be beat, and he reduces the price on unsold merchandise until it goes.  So a 50-cent card will become 25-30 cents, then 10-15 cents over time.  It's like a virtual dimebox, and he lets you accumulate a stack and just pay/ship once a month. 

That's all for now - Do you have a Twitter handle?  And who are your favorite card-sellers or card-related accounts on there?