Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Surprise Vintage Package from Bozeman Mike

There is a reader out there named Mike, who happens to live in Bozeman, Montana. Mike and I first traded a few months ago, when I was looking to get rid of a bunch of my '08 Ginter doubles, and every once in a while Mike will send me a bubble mailer chock full of O's, accompanied by a hand written want list; mostly of cards needed to finish sets. He's sort of a man of mystery, and I have thusly dubbed him "Bozeman Mike".

Bozeman Mike sent me over quite the stash of vintage Topps Orioles, and we'll get to those in a moment. I'd like to start out by showing off a few of the more modern cards that were sent along:

1987 SportFlics Orioles logo thingy
What a great logo. I've said it many times now, but I think the O's should go back to the cartoon bird. After all, it was the symbol of the organization "glory days", from the mid-60's to the mid 80's. DO IT!

2002 Topps American Pie "American Sluggers" Brooks Robinson

2003 Fleer Fall Classic Brooks Robinson

2 very nice Brooksies for the player collection, and an awesome SportFlics logo card. Talk about a great way to start a trade post! Now, we've got a healthy dose of vintage in store. I will start part 2 of this feast for the eyes with the "newer" cards that Bozeman Mike sent along, seven 1971 Topps.

#53 Paul Blair

#170 Mike Cuellar

#491 Jim Hardin

#219 Elrod Hendricks

#193 Bob Grich

#196 1970 A.L. Playoffs Game #2 Highlights


#80 Mike Curtis
Topps' old football designs, especially from the 70's, were awesome!


Also included was one 1966 Topps card, a great one at that, if you ask me. It's in pretty good shape for being 40+ years old, unlike most of the vintage I own.

#390 Brooks Robinson

As if that wasn't already cool enough, Bozeman Mike also sent over nine 1964 Topps Orioles. NINE! These are the first '64 Topps I've ever owned, and are in remarkably good shape. The majority of them even have something resembling sharp corners, making them among the nicest 60's card in my whole collection.

#382 Wes Stock

#565 Stu Miller

#126 Russ Snyder

#45 Milt Pappas

#364 Joe Gaines

#239 Herm Starrette

#322 George Brunet

#263 Chuck Estrada

#221 Bob Saverine


That was a pretty impressive package from Bozeman Mike. Thank you very kindly sir! The 1964 Topps cards are absolutely beautiful in person, and have really made me appreciate the design a little more. If anybody has any more '64's or '71's of Orioles not pictured in this post, I am interested in trading for them. Since this package got me off to such a good start, I might as well attempt to build each O's team set. Eventually, I'd like to build every 1960's Topps Orioles team set. The '50's & '60's designs are so beautiful, I want all of them in my collection.

By the time you read this, I will be sitting through jury duty. Ugh.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Newest Markakis Addition

Picked this bad boy up on eBay with some of the proceeds generated from the Goodwin Tiger relic sale.

2009 Bowman Chrome #179 orange refractor #01/25


What better color for a refractor of an Oriole star than orange? I hereby declare that all Oriole cards be orange refractors. It won't matter that they're numbered to 25, they're still Orioles cards, and no one will want them but me (and a handful of other equally awesome people who deserve it for loving a team that has been this bad for this long).

I figured out that the sweet spot on my scanner for optimal refractor scans is right smack dab in the middle.

Thoughts & Sox & More 1960 Topps

If you recall, last week I posted about a trade that went down between myself, and Adam of Thoughts & Sox. He had sent me a bunch of awesome 1960 Topps Orioles, and in exchange, I sent him a Big Papi autograph. Done deal right? WRONG! Early last week I checked the mail, and found another most excellent package from Thoughts & Sox. This one contained a card that at the time made what was a terrible day at work, truly awesome.

1960 Topps #12 Milt Pappas

1960 Topps #241 Albie Pearson

1960 Topps #399 Young Hill Stars- Pappas, Fisher & Walker

1960 Topps #290 Power Plus- Colavito & Francona
This might have been included by mistake. Adam, if you'd like this card back, let me know. If not, there's a Cleveland fan out there somewhere who will be receiving this card in the future. This card arrived prior to my Cleveland rant, otherwise, I'd take it personally.

1960 Topps #490 Frank Robinson
This card absolutely blew my mind. What's that you say? It's not an Orioles card? Um.... so freakin' what?!? It's a 1960 Topps Frank Robinson. Cincinnati Red or not, he's still probably my favorite player of all time.

Wow, just wow. Thanks a TON for the great cards Adam! I've got to be pretty close to having the whole 1960 team set by now, thanks to you. I know Brooks is still missing, but aside from that there can't be too many others. If you haven't checked out Thoughts & Sox yet, I suggest you do so right now. This man takes his Red Sox cards very seriously, and for good reason. This isn't 'Nam, there are rules here... man!

Stuff From Ryan's Memorabilia

The crazy parcels of insane generosity continue to rain down on me. This post is about 2 weeks late, but M Ryan, of Ryans Memorabilia, sent me a box full of Baltimore goodness that just has to be shared. Since he is a fellow Birds fan, sometimes we have to get creative in our trades. While there were a few cards included, the highlights of this package were clearly not cardboard related.

I will start off with the big stuff:

2 bobbleheads: Nick Markakis & Brian Roberts
I believe both of these were stadium giveaways, and I didn't make it to either game. The Markakis bobblehead is truly awesome! I was tempted to remove them from their boxes and take more pics, but then thought twice about it. Besides, if I take them out, they'll just get dusty after awhile.


There were also 4 T-shirts, and an bucket hat. Here are my 2 favorite shirts:

"This is Birdland"

Nick Markakis stadium giveaway
I also didn't have this Markakis shirt. I have one, just not the stadium giveaway version. These are all pretty sweet!



No package would be complete without at least a few cards, and here are a few that M Ryan sent my way.

2009 Allen & Ginter's "Creatures of Myth, Legend & Terror" Fairy mini
Another one down. After picking up 3 for pretty cheap on checkoutmycards earlier this week, I now only 5 cards from completion.

2004 Upper Deck NFL Legends Kyle Boller
This is one of the funniest cards I have ever seen! Not only does it feature the words NFL & Legend, but it also has Kyle Boller on it, looking incredibly pissed off. Perhaps he gets the joke, and is upset himself. Perhaps he just threw one of his many boneheaded interceptions? Perhaps he just realized that he's now the starting QB for the St. Louis Rams?

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces Cal Ripken green framed parallel
I have the black and blue framed versions already, so it's cool to add the green as well. Taste the rainbow!


There were also 4 PSA graded Ripkens thrown in for good measure.




Very cool stuff! Thanks a lot for the great Orioles stuff, M Ryan! Be on the lookout for some Ripkens in the mail this week! If anyone else out there wants to help out M Ryan in his pursuit of all things cardboard and Cal related, check out his other blog, The Ripken Pursuit.

I've got a few more trades to post, as well as a few pack rips from my trip to the card shop yesterday, so stay tuned.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

I don't hate ALL of Ohio...

Cincinnati is INCREDIBLE!

Thanks for the breathing room, as I am much less scared of the Bungles than I am the Steelers.

Hope I didn't just jinx the next Ravens - Bengals game.

Afterthought: Brett Favre have 40 comeback wins. FORTY!

Where You Been Man?

Where have I been? I've been around. Haven't posted in 3 days, and there are a multitude of reasons for that, none of which involve me not getting new cards. There's plenty to discuss and show off, I just haven't scanned any of it yet.

Baseball is also the furthest thing from my mind right now. The Orioles season has been over since July, and I just can't take watching any more losses this year. Baltimore is about to lose it's 100th game, and I for one, certainly want no part of that. Nope. None. The energy and attention that was going towards my pursuit of baseball has instead been transferred to football, and I couldn't be more pumped to watch the Ravens-Browns game today.

There was a lot of radio beef between Cleveland and Baltimore this week, which popped off when douchebag "conservative" Cleveland radio personality Bob Frantz, of WTAM, decided to name the top 10 reasons why Baltimore sucks, which can be seen HERE. Trust me pal, Baltimore is well aware of the reasons why it sucks. The last thing we need is to have it pointed out to us by someone from the middle of fucking nowhere Ohio. Cleveland, seriously? The only good things about Cleveland are it's bloggers (you know who you are). Baltimore does not need to be trashed by some dude from a septic tank of a city on Lake Erie. That's like, not even the biggest Great Lake. There are bigger. I don't even see what's so "Great" about Lake Erie.

Anyway, all of this has only furthered the deterioration of the relationship between Baltimore, and Cincinnati Jr. You see, even though we had a football team stolen from us in the early 80s, all anyone in Cleveland talks about is how we stole their precious Browns. Get over it! It happens. You have your Browns back now, and they're worse than ever! We turned your ex team into champions in less than 5 seasons, which is quite the accomplishment when you take into consideration just how bad they were in Cleveland. Nice try guys!

That's enough hate mongering for now. I plan to post a lot in the next few days, and have a lot of trades to catch up on. I also had my first negative trading experience, but that's a story that will never truly be told. There's no reason to tell it at this point, especially because the very next day what could be one of my very best trades ever was hashed out, and with a little luck, I'll be able to post the results in a week or 2.

The aforementioned "negative trading experience" was another factor in there being 3 days of silence on this blog. I was a little bummed out and pissed off. It started to make me question why I even bother collecting, since my reasons sometimes seem so drastically different then those of a trade partner. Luckily, introspect is a pet peeve of mine, and all thoughts of this nature were quickly brushed aside. I do this because it makes me happy, and because I want to make other people happy. It's not about personal or financial gain, and never will be.

Enjoy your football Sunday everybody, and GO RAVENS!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Whole Lotta Chro(me)

Stopped by the LCS on Monday, and picked up 2 packs each of Topps & Bowman Chrome. As luck would have it, I managed to pull a hit from each brand.

We'll start with Topps Chrome. By now, everyone knows what to expect here; 4 cards per pack of chromey goodness, with some WBC inserts thrown in for good measure.

Pack 1:
#16 David Ortiz
#184 Shairon Martis
#3 Dan Uggla refractor
there's some sort of funkiness on the bottom left corner of this card. It's below the surface, so it appears to be a "factory defect"

#37 Carlos Delgado

Pack 2:
#6 Phil Coke
#119 Hank Blalock
#237 George Kottaras autograph
why couldn't you have been Nolan Reimold?

#132 Derek Lowe

Finally got me a Topps Chrome auto... too bad it's of a Red Sox player. Still not too shabby for $6 worth of chrome packs.

Now, let's move along to the BoChro. These were the first 2 packs of this year's that I've opened, and I must say that I like it considerably more than the flagship Bowman release, or even this year's Topps Chrome release. I also picked up 2 packs, so let's see how I did:

Pack 1:
#BCW48 Dennis Neuman WBC
BCW50 Alfredo Despaigne WBC
#115 Jason Bay
#29 Russell Martin

Pack 2:

#BCP171 Bryan Shaw
#BCP180 Taylor Harbin
#BCP161 Mark Hallberg #04/50
I'd of rather pulled Mark Wahlberg.

#31 Rich Harden

Well that about does her. 4 packs of chrome, posted for your viewing pleasure. All cards are for trade, so if you're interested in something, don't hesitate to drop a comment.

On a side note, how come no one ever told me "My Name is Earl" is so damned funny? I hate it when i don't realize a show's brilliance until it's in syndication. It happened with Futurama, King of the Hill, and now My Name is Earl. At least it's on TBS every day now, so I won't have to wait a week between episodes.