Bo Knows

I fully enjoy blind trades but appreciate a fellow collector who takes the time to go over the want ads. This can be a challenge, especially when the prospective recipient has a long and very detailed list or spreadsheet with several tabs.  I have trouble reading small print anyway.  It's the 'in my face with your highly organized collection'  moments I find difficult.  

Bo Rozny is one of those guys.  A real Mr. Organization.  I hope to be like him some day, minus the Mister parts.  He found some cards missing from my list of completed Tiger team sets then blessed me with many new additions:

2001 UD Vintage

 During Upper Deck's we will use Topps copyrighted designs period, they put out some really great stuff!  The Vintage release made for some good-looking cardboard.

2006 and 2011 Bowman Heritage

2001 Bowman Heritage

We should wonder why there's no current Bowman Heritage product available with so many new years available now for reprinting.  I'll likely regret that comment in days to come.

BO hit my PCs too:

94 Pinnacle, 2001 UD Evolution, 2002 Fleer Maximum, 2015 GQ

After opening what was easily a case of these, I still love the look of 94 Pinnacle.  Their Dufex Museums were a great chase.   A nice grouping of Piazzas!

Included in the box were at least 50 Masterpieces from 2008.  Looks like I'll have to put the set together now.  Bo insists.

There were two more special cards, both from 1994.  This package from Bo arrived just a short time before Darren passed.

Bo knows baseball cards come to life.  Thanks to cardboard, Darren lives on.    Check out BO's blog for a look at where former players are today.

$30 Habits

The trade ban had barely lifted before the flood gates opened in Cracked Bat territory.  The packages find their way to me, even waaaaay out in the woods.

I hadn't traded with Toronto fan, Robert,  for more than a year two years.  What is wrong with me? [Rhetorical.] He dropped an envelope in the mail from sunny, warm Florida.  [Seems he'd moved too.]   Having loose Tigers around your place is never a good thing, especially if you're a blue jay. No worries.  I'll always take those cats off your hands.  

2017 Stadium Club: a still smiling Miggy,  slumping but happy to collect his paycheck.

One at bat = $49,423.

2017 Topps:  it may take some time - years in fact - to reach the 3000 plateau.

Rookies who hit a homer in their first MLB at bat become highly collectible, right?  I haven't pursued JaCoby's cards.  In fact, I count on you to send them!   I hope he does well.  This team needs fresh blood!

Robert topped it off with this fat manu-patch.  I like these a lot.  The bright blue vinyl patchy thing is cool.  It smells too - a bit like an inflatable kiddie pool toy.  Sorry it's taken so long to trade!  Let's do this more often Robert!  

You can find him blogging about his habits here.  $30 a week?  That won't buy 4 packs of Stadium Club anymore.

The Mighty Quinn

I'm blessed with great trading pals and don't always feel deserving of the awesomeness that arrives in mailers and boxes.  Does this mean I feel deserving at times??  Why certainly, at least around the holidays.  

Quinn has been sending packages with great regularity, easily identified among other items in the mailbox.  They've been covered in small 'fatheads' and glow star stickers but on this occasion, the mailer was plain. The contents held another package containing a unique box topper, truly one of the highlights of this trade. 

Underneath was yet another box which at first glance I thought might be a happy meal.

No - it's taffy!  Except it wasn't taffy.  {Where do you find these boxes Quinn?} Right on top were a couple of graded 90s Pudge:

Along with a couple of homemade fat packs hitting up my player collections.  Here's a sampling of these paper goods:

Two of my favorite Yankees.

Altuve, Posey and Scherzer.  

Cards with interchangeable player heads!  Finally, something new and refreshing from Topps!  I gave Marichal a little makeover.

I'm among the crowd happy for Ivan's election to the Hall and was fortunate to attend many of his games in Arlington.   I find it somewhat odd that he and my all time favorite catcher Daulton, both won their only rings with the Marlins.  Obviously Pudge had the better career.  He is currently the all time leader in putouts as a catcher. 

Quinn included Topps Tek for Pudge, Miggy and Fulmer.   These are super cards to find within a trade.  I'll never purchase them. Lots on ebay aren't cheap either.  It takes special kind of insanity to assemble this set with its variations from hell-o!   Fess up  - how many of you are that crazy?

Fulmer in high-numbered black attire.

As much as I liked GQ base this year, the green parallels are even sweeter.  Old Ty is numbered/99

Q has taken to finding new Piazzas for my growing hoard.  I do have a couple of these.  The 93 Ultra will move to my catcher collection.  93 Donruss starts my new mini-collection of floating bats.  I can't resist this urge any longer.  There is something magical within a photo that captures a bat suspended mid-air. 

In all, there were 25 different Piazzas.  I mentioned the box-topper only to save it for last.  This card is gorgeous and all mine! 

1997 Score Reserve Collection #501 Mike Piazza GY Artist Proof

I had a good time going through this package.  Every time I see Quinn in the return address, my thoughts always go to the classic Manfred Mann recording of the Bob Dylan song...

 

                                              

Thank You Dutch

This morning I awoke to the news of Darren's passing.  Thank you Twitter, for making me cry. Dutch was my first PC guy and will always be one of my favorite players to collect.   I had an opportunity to meet him many years ago and shared my Daulton story here.    Darren could not have been more kind.  His stats are easily found elsewhere so this post is a simple tribute.  I have most all his cards; elusive parallels aside.  Here's a selection of favorites from the Dutch Binder. 

1994 Triple Play

1992 Ultra

1993 Donruss Elite

1996 Stadium Club

1995 Donruss

1993 Finest Refractor

1992 Pinnacle

1992 Score

1995 UD Special Edition Foil

Thank you Dutch.

North Pole Express

Is it John or Kenny Rogers?  Only Santa knows for sure and I doubt he's talkin.'    While the reindeer frolic on the beach, Santa is enjoying a summer's day  nap.  He's been a busy man,  keeping postal clerks working those long Christmas-time hours...IN JULY!

Santa thought I'd been pretty good this year and chose to reward me early, before I had a chance to screw up the remainder of 2017.  He checked my list and found many Tiger Team sets missing.  His elves stuffed a priority mailer with at least 200 cards!

86 Leaf and 82 OPC -   Leaf  and OPC sets to complete!  I owned one OPC card.  These three are over-the-top awesome!  I get it now!  I had to own a few to get a clue!  Great additions to my team sets!  

An 87 Donruss set I knew nothing of - Opening Day.  I like the maroon-brownish borders.  I'm not sure what color they are but certainly a refreshing change.

2000 Upper Deck - a high end look and feel for base cards.  Blue and copper tones are extremely appealing to my eyes.  A couple of  good catcher shots there too.  I always purchased UD base so there's no reason for me not to own these cards.  I expect the market glut kept me from buying more than a pack or two.  I wanted everything that came out in those days and likely sampled a bit of all offered.

In 1981, The Detroit News released a boxed set The Boys of Summer 100th Anniversary to celebrate a centennial of professional baseball in Detroit.  The set includes All Time Greats, Championship pictures, headlines etc.  I'm fortunate to own all the cards but for Cochrane.  This Norm Cash from John goes into the PC!

2016 Donruss Optic was a pricey version of Chrome.  I picked up a few cards in an Ebay lot to satisfy my need for these.  The black border Kinsler/199 is a sharp-looking card as is the pink prizmy Upton.

2017 Bunt with parallels and an Infinite insert looking very much like Studio of old!

2017 Ginter mini [Maartinez has an A&G backside] and Archives: so far - thanks to the trading community - I've had no need to purchase them!

John included an old press guide from 1992.

This was fun to look over.  I was quite taken by the ticket prices.  Who doesn't miss the days of $12.50 box seats  and  pins, gloves, and baseball giveaways?  Campbell's Soup Famous Chicken Day - now that's a sponsorship!

1987 Boardwalk and Baseball - the fat B/B logo  and pink and black borders of these cards screamed purchase!  I now own a set!    It was a one time issue produced by Topps for a theme park in Florida, not too far from Disney.  You can read about it here.

2003 Fleer Hardball - I was excited to find these!  Looking over prices on ebay made me happy to own a few Tigers!

How about this for old, cool and oddball? Collectors Quarterly was offered in 1975. Contents included articles on collecting, trading, and autographs plus perforated SSPC cards for the tearing and ripping apart.  I'm not sure how this card fits with the magazine except for advertising purposes.  Very unique item for my collection!

2003 Fan Favorites - the name says everything.  Classic Tiger faves including beloved Ernie Harwell.  Seeing the smiling face of Mark Fidrych made this gal's heart quite happy.

In June, John posted cards for music lovers.  Although I didn't comment, John knew I would love having one of these:

Oh yeah, I want it!   I also love cats so this is a purrfect choice!  From 1978, going into the 70s binder.   Time to close this out with one more card, I'd never seen.  From 2003 Fleer Fall Classic:

 It was a sharing challenge, choosing from so many cards new to my collection.  Seriously, I needed  all but a few.  Merry Christmas John!  Please check out Johnny's Trading Spot.  It's wacky!