The Collective Returns of 'On This Day' and 'Single Card Post'

That's right, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you! Today I have dusted off two of my long-dormant series to pay tribute to one of my favorite ball players, Josh Gibson. The Negro Leagues portion of my collection often falls to the back burner in favor of whatever is new or whoever is in new releases. This is something I definitely need to work on because I tend to forget how happy I am whenever I add a new card depicting anyone from this part of baseball history. That being said, let's get into the dual theme for today's post.

On this day in 1947, the aforementioned Home Run King of the Negro Leagues passed away at the young age of 35. He left behind a 17 year career filled with many achievements of mythical proportions fueled by a combination of his incredible skills and the 'word of mouth' documentation of the era. Like many, I am enamored of the various legends surrounding his playing days.

Shortly before the holiday season began, I found this Gibson that I had never seen before on eBay. I was fortunate to win the auction and give it a new home. I easily determined that the card was distributed at the 2006 All-Star FanFest in Pittsburgh, but it took some additional digging to uncover that it wasn't a part of the main FanFest set. Instead, it was part of a separate 6-card set that Topps gave out as a bonus to correspond with the purchase of a special 'Pirates Edition' Factory Set. Here is the back:

As you can see, it is even #/1000. Yes, I realize that isn't exactly considered 'limited' in this day and age. This is the most exciting addition to my Negro League PC in some time. However, I do have one issue with it...the picture shows him playing for the Homestead Grays but card only lists him as a member of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. It's a knit picky observation, I admit. Overall, it doesn't change my appreciation for this awesome piece of cardboard. Thanks for reading!

Recently Acquired Ink From a Few of My Favorite Bulls

Now that I've had the chance to rip my first packs of 2016 product, and with Spring Training approaching, I find myself looking forward to another season of Durham Bulls baseball with my family. I know I've written about some of my favorite players that I've had the opportunity to watch up close at the DBAP before. Until recently, my collection of most of these guys has consisted of base, a few parallels, and Bulls team set cards. Thanks to some Paypal funds, courtesy of the recent sale of a few unwanted cards, I decided that I needed to add some substance to my former Bulls collection. A few eBay steals and a rather large chunk of Listia credits later and I am the proud owner of some great autos.

Snell is the most recent player that I had the fortune to see play in Durham. He had quite an impressive 2015 across three minor league levels and walked away with multiple Minor League Player/Pitcher of the Year awards. This one was found during a trek through the Land of Listia and cost me a nice chunk of credits, but it was definitely worth it. This picture doesn't come close to doing it justice! I'm not sure whether he'll officially be a former Durham Bull to open the season or if I'll have an opportunity to see him start a few more games before making his way to Tampa. Either way, I'm happy to add this certified auto to my in-person signature I snagged at the end of last season.

Next up is this great rookie year, serial numbered auto of Brandon Guyer. A few seasons back, he was my favorite Bull. He plays at 110% all the time and I dig that. This is my second Guyer auto, but my first showing him in a Rays uni. I was overjoyed to win this one for just over three bucks shipped on eBay.

Last, but certainly not least, is probably my current favorite non-Yankee.

I have been keeping my eyes open for one of these Kiermaier RC's almost since it was released. Though he's not a superstar, every copy that I have seen has gone for way more than I wanted to spend on it and most had either a plain white swatch or a piece of bat chip. When I saw this one pop up through my eBay saved searches I knew I had to make a serious run at it. At the end of the auction, when the dust settled(there was a crazy, last second flurry of bidding) I was thrilled to be the highest bidder. 

This concludes my brief distraction from the pending 2016 Topps obsession. Said obsession will likely return tomorrow or Friday at the latest since I will be taking delivery of my jumbo hobby box tomorrow around mid-day. Thanks for reading!

A Hefty Yankee Addition courtesy of eBay

That is the first 'silver framed' parallel that I've had the good fortune to hold in my hand. I've seen a bunch of these written about across the blogging community and I thought it would be nice to pick one up if it ever fit my budget. So, I happened to be searching around eBay about a week ago and saw that this Phelps was going to end soon and had a $0.99 starting bid and was $2.50 for shipping. I watched it and figured as it came close to ending that its price would pop up over $10 or more. However, when I checked back about 15 minutes before the end of the auction, there were still no bids at all. I figured I'd put in a $2.50 max bid and if I could pick it up for $5, I would. Even still, I assumed that I'd be outbid. Later that day, when I had the chance to check my email, I saw that I'd won the auction. To make things better, mine was the only bid! This arrived in my mail box yesterday. When I opened it, I was impressed with the weight of it. 

Granted, Phelps is no longer a Yankee, but I liked watching him pitch while he was in pinstripes. Now, if I can only pick up a relatively cheap copy of an acetate Yankee...

A New Set Collecting Goal

Here we are a few days into the 2015 MLB season and I am finally almost done with Topps series one(down to 5 more base cards to go). I guess it was inevitable that I would find some set to work on to continue the 'thrill of the hunt'. Over the past two weeks or so, I have stumbled upon a few cards from the 1968 Topps Game insert set. I recently posted the first of these to find a home in my collection(Joe Torre). Well, the same night that the Torre post went live, I was able to rescue an Al Kaline from the Land of Listia. The next day, I was able to snag a Brooks Robinson and from there, the idea of finishing this set just gained momentum. After grabbing those three, the Listia supply had dried up, so I expanded my search to eBay. I quickly found and won 2 small lots for really reasonable prices. After receiving one of the lots, this is where I stand:

 

I have 10 out of 33 in hand with my second lot, which contains Roberto Clemente and Pete Rose, still en route. I'm currently watching a few more small lots, but my hunt will probably slow down now since I don't have the benefit of any card shows close to me anytime in the near future. So, I figured that it's time that I reach out to all of you in the blogosphere. If anyone has any singles from this set that they'd be willing to trade, please let me know. I could sure use the help! I'm not sure what it is about this set, but I've really taken a liking to it since holding that Torre in my hand for the first time.

Have any of you out there actually played this game before or at least completed this set? Thanks in advance for any help and for reading!

On the Trading Block vol. 1

It's been a busy few days catching up on work stuff after digging out of the great NC snowstorm last week. As I sit here, I realize that it's Heritage release week coming up! Not only does that mean more product to go find at my local Target, but it also means that the start of the next group break I'm signed up for is coming up soon! With that in mind, I wanted to get an idea of interest in a few items I pulled out of Topps series one before I out them on eBay.

Junior Lake Snow Camo 33/99

Miguel Cabrera Gold 1613/2015

Paul Goldschmidt First Hoe Run Medallion

I'll give it a day or two for folks to speak up before throwing these up for auction. If anyone is interested, shoot me an emailt at: tim dot trisomenc at gmail dot com.

I've also got a bunch of the Toys R Us purple parallels, so let me know if there are particular players you're looking for. Thanks!

Snowy Mail Day

This is the scene out my window when I woke up this morning. Granted, it's nowhere near what the Northeast is dealing with, but I live in North Carolina. This is far more than NC knows how to deal with. So, it was a stay at home and take care of the kids kind of work day today. I've got care packages prepped and ready to send to a few of you out there in the blogosphere, but getting to the post office will have to wait until another day. Sorry for the delay. I am also expecting a PWE or two and a few items I won from either eBay or Listia. So, I had at least a little motivation to go out and shovel the driveway, in hopes I'd be rewarded by at least one package.

I took my girls out to play in the snow for a bit, then we went inside and got lunch and hot cocoa. Then it was time for them to take their naps. Once they were fast asleep, I told my wife(who was taking conference calls from the home office) that I was going out to finish up the driveway. I found out two things. First, I'm getting too old for this shoveling out stuff. It took quite the toll on me. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to this anymore. It has been 18 years since I moved to NC from the Hudson Valley region of NY. As an aside, I think I'm the only transplant that actually misses the winter weather, but I digress. Second, when I made my way to the mailbox, I did have a bubble mailer waiting as a reward for my hard work. From the packaging, it was obvious that it was one of the eBay items I was expecting. The only question left was which one was it. I got back inside, took off my snow clothes, and opened the package.

THIS is what was waiting for me. I was hoping that it would be this one! I'm not going to go all crazy and try for a rainbow for either of Jeter's cards this year(no way it'll fit into my collecting budget), but I feel like at least picking up the gold and rainbow parallels of card #1 and card #319 should be reasonable. This is the first parallel in that quest. If any of my readers have any leads on these, I'd appreciate he heads up(especially since I wasn't lucky enough to pull any of the DJ parallels in my own packs). All I can say is I'm thankful that the USPS motto 'neither snow nor rain...' held true on this snowy day and they were able to make their deliveries as normal.

Burn Baby Burn!

NOTE: I began writing a draft of this post a few weeks ago. I'm actually glad that I didn't get around to finishing it until now.

I LOVE Bernie Williams! He is one of my favorite Yankees of my generation. He was a great hitter(won an AL batting title) and fielder(won 4 Gold Gloves) and was a part of four World Series Championship teams. Addendum: the Yankees announced that they will be retiring Bernie's number 51 this Summer. This is a well deserved honor in my opinion and I'd love to be able to make the trip for the ceremony at Yankee Stadium. 

Despite playing in one of the biggest markets in MLB and putting up solid numbers over 16 seasons, he gets relatively little love in our hobby. That's actually alright with me though. It simply means that I have the chance to pick up his cards on the cheap.

Exhibit A:

This is a quad memorabilia card from 2005 Absolute. I've got plenty of relic cards, some dual, even a triple here or there, but this is the first quad relic I have. On top of that, it's the first shoe swatch embedded in a card to make its home in my collection. I was able to pick this up on eBay for just a few bucks, so I jumped at the chance to add a new Bernie.

It's hard not to love a hard working, home grown, low key, loyal player like him.