Cards From The Cheap Seats

An unexpected package of Orioles arrived earlier this week. I love it when that happens. These cards came courtesy of Dan from Saints of the Cheap Seats, who aside from running an excellent blog, also hosts an occasional group break. Here's what El Sainto Cheapo sent my way:

1981 Fleer sticker

Quite possibly the worlds most perfect sticker, and from my birth year no less. Look at their 1980 record. 100 wins? That must have been nice. I'd settle for 82 right now.

2004 Donruss Diamond Kings Mike Mussina Flashback

Oh Mikey. It's a shame you had to leave us for the evil ones. Sorry you weren't able to finally get that ring you always wanted. This is a pretty nice card, and it's nice to see licensed Donruss products every once in a while.

2001 Topps Gallery Albert Belle

Another nice card that looks like a painting. The artwork on both this card, and the Mussina is solid. The players are easily recognizable, which is more than I can say for some of the earlier Diamond Kings. Topps got it right with Gallery, and it's one of those products I'd love to bust someday. This card clearly features Albert Belle, and NOT Joey Belle. Joey Belle was a mild-mannered outfielder for the Tribe, Albert Belle was a maniacal DH for the Pale Hose & Birds.

1994 Stadium Club Brady Anderson

I've always liked how the last name on these cards looks like it popped out of one of those old-school label makers. I don't know which is more unbelievable, the 50 homers he hit in 1996, or the fact that he dated Ashley Judd. Nice going Brady.

2009 Topps David Hernandez gold parallel #'d /2009

This guy has one of those beautiful framed autos in the new Topps 206 release that I'd love to get my hands on. Hernandez is tough to project long term. While he has the skillset necessary to be a decent MLB hurler, he may get lost in the shuffle amongst all the other young guns in the Orioles organization right now. Sometimes it was fun to watch him pitch last season, other times it was torturous.

1994 Topps Gold Chris Hoiles

This is at least the 3rd or 4th copy of this card to find it's way into my collection. Black Gold cards were cool, especially in the early 90's. I tried 3 or 4 times to get a decent scan, where the text was readable, and the gold foil was shimmery, but it just wasn't happening.

2004 Topps Heritage Jay Gibbons Chrome #'d /1955

The resemblance that Jay Gibbons bears to Sloth from Goonies is uncanny.

1990 Topps Kevin Hickey custom mini

Custom mini is being incredibly kind. We all know this card was trimmed in an effort enhance it's already enormous book value. It obviously wasn't enough for Dan to have the ultra rare '90 Topps Kevin Hickey, he had to have the rarest one of all, even if he had to manufacture it himself. At least the corners are sharp. Oh, nevermind.

This concludes yet another wonderful trade post. Dan, thanks for the surprise, and be on the lookout for an envelope of Tribers headed your way early next week. It feels good to get back to posting some O's, after a few days chock full of Turkey Red & miscellaneous random crap.

Wowee Zowee!

All of this arrived today from a single reader interested in making a trade. There are some seriously classy cards here, including two that I've been on the hunt for since August. I'll scan the highlights later, and show them off properly.

The highlights can be found in the top left corner.

As if that wasn't enough, I also received this. I've said this before, but the generosity of my fellow collectors sometimes leaves me speechless, and this is no exception. Granted, I am trading away a nice card, but to get this much back in return makes me feel better about parting with it.

2008 Topps Chrome retail box

Scans and the usual attempt at humorous banter will probably be up tomorrow, along with an announcement regarding prizes for the Ho Ho Holiday custom card contest. Even though no one commented on the contest post, I feel fairly confident there will be a plethora of entries. Hopefully the usual suspects decide to participate.


Oh yeah, and the title of this post is also a kickass Pavement album.

Random Packs From Tribecards

A few weeks back I was fortunate enough to have received some random packs from David of Tribecards. Granted, everyone who responded was fortunate enough to receive cards, which makes it all the more remarkable that David got them all sent out. Everyone who has posted them so far has gotten much more than they ever expected. I won't keep you in suspense, and let you know from the jump that I also received more than I was expecting. Not only did the packs include a few "hits", there were also several cards that I found quite interesting, and had never seen before.

I debated for a few days about which card to begin this post with, and managed to convince myself that if one has a card this ridiculous and awesome, then one has no choice but to start with....

KARATE ELVIS!

This is a 1992 The River Group Elvis Collection card, and it is kickass. Chubby, mutton chop, Vegas Elvis is my absolute favorite Elvis era. This is a still from Elvis' appearance on "Kung-Fu", starring the late David Carradine, and it's really awesome!


These next 2 are pretty sweet as well. I loved TMNT when I was a kid, and they are one of the prime reasons I believed Rafael Palmeiro was Italian in descent. They are from the 1990 Topps Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie set.

Remember how hard the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game was? The level where you had to swim in the sewer used to be my demise.


Sticking with the movie theme, here's an E.T. card from 1982. It was released by Universal Studios, and is in really good condition. I was one when this set was released, so it's cool to have one, especially since it was obviously issued before my time as a collector. The star border on this card is awesome.

Here's another non-sports card. This one is quite strange, and appears to have been released by Harley-Davidson. It's a custom motorcycle set technically released by Thunder Productions, but a close inspection of the fine print reveals that Thunder Productions is affiliated with the Harley Davidson Company.I'm not big into Harleys, but this one is pretty nice looking.

All right, enough of the non-sports. Let's see some baseball cards. First up is a 1996 Topps Stadium Club Eddie Murray. Even though he's not in an O's uniform, it's still an Eddie Murray card, and he still looks all business.


A Barry Larkin Diamond King. This one is from 1990, and definitely takes me back to my childhood collecting days.


I'm really starting to get tired of seeing this guy on baseball cards, but I didn't already have this one, and it's a nice compliment to the '08 version that I already have.

There were a few Orioles to be found in my random packs of kindness as well. I already had them all, but it's always nice to pull a card of your favorite team from a pack of cards, even if it is a repack of kindness.

1990 Topps Bob Melvin

1992 Topps Stadium Club David Segui

1991 Score The Franchise Cal Ripken Jr.

Those "The Franchise" inserts were hot little numbers back in the day. I always like them, but not as much as the Dream Team inserts, and it was pretty cool to find a potential future Hall of Famer waiting for me. Of course I'm talking about the card below, a 1993 Score Dream Team insert of Tom Glavine.


Speaking off Hall of Famers, here's a 1992 Fleer Ultra Ozzie Smith card. 1992 was the heyday of my childhood collecting days, and this was one of my favorite sets. Ozzie was in his twilight at this point, and was still a ton of fun to watch.


Wow, this has to be the ugliest female superhero ever. She's so.... green... and strong. This card is from 1993, and was released by Skybox. It's part of a Marvel Comics set, and is definitely interesting I don't know much about comic books, they were never really my thing. I can appreciate the artistry of them and all, which is why I like this card. They were just never really by bag is all.

Another 1991 Score Dream Team card of a Hall of Famer. Kirby Puckett was my little brother's favorite player growing up. Even though he wasn't an Oriole, which I viewed as a betrayal on the part of my brother, I couldn't really blame him for liking Puckett. He was one hell of a player, and definitely one of those guys you could never really dislike. He played his heart out and left us too soon.


I mentioned earlier that there were some "hits" included in my random packs. It was pretty cool to find them both, especially since I had no idea they were going to be in there. First we have a 2004 Upper Deck Legendary Cuts bat card of Joe Morgan. I really like the design of this card, and having a bat piece in the shape of an H is much better than a boring ol' square.

And finally, a 2003 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Mark McGwire patch card. This is manufactured patch, which isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world. It's also of Mark McGwire, who isn't my favorite person in the whole world. He betrayed most of us, and made a mockery of the game. He was among my favorite players in the late 80's early 90's, so I took it personally. It's still a nice card, and once again unexpected. One could definitely do worse.

David, thanks a lot for the random kindness. I really enjoyed checking out some cards that I otherwise never would have seen.