Am I Crazy? Wait... Don't answer that.... - Adam LaRoche edition

I received an email from someone I've been trading with for a looooong time. He asked me since when did I collect Adam LaRoche cards?

Only since 2007 I replied. He had no idea. I suppose that's my fault. I don't go around trumpeting or renting out a skywriter.

 

But just in case anyone else who reads my drivel didn't know that.... Yes. I want ALL the Adam LaRoche cards.

 

Of course Topps found out and decided to have some fun with me.

 

I call it Parallel Hell.

 

Walk down the path with me, won't you?

 

2013 Base card. Nice. Simple.

 

 the Base Mini... okay. Sure...

 The ubiquitous Gold

 

and of course the gold mini...

 

and the Not found in packs, blue sparkle wrapper redemption....

 

Wal Mart demands they have an exclusive parallel...

and so does the U.S. Army apparently

the Aqua Man seaweed version...

 uh... Gay Pride Parade version?

Toys R Us wanted to get in on the act

and of course so did Target...

Topps also put out an African American parallel

 

the sad part is.... even with all of those, I still don't have them all!!! I know there is a Pink mini, a Grey/Graphite version, as well as an Orange factory set only parallel.... among others I'm sure.

 

Just when your head is spinning, Chrome comes out...

 

 

with their pretty Refractors...

 

 

and X-Fractors. (don't give them any ideas or they'll make the other 25 letters as well)

 

a 1800's Sepia parallel...

a Burgundy (NOT red!)

of course the NAACP is represented again...

a light blue that doesn't look blue version

one of my favourites... Orange!

and Grimace gets his own as well...

 along with Gold, Camo, Pink, yadda yadda yadda.....


my head hurts now... and I'm sure most of you are now asleep dreaming of rainbows. (except you, Mr Putin)

So if any of you didn't know, now you do. And if you have ANY Adam LaRoche cards, please drop me an email so we can swap.

Thanks.

My first PWE! and a few overdue thanks...

Living in the North has it's advantages. I personally like it. However, it has it's disadvantages as well. Particularly within our little hobby.

 

Trying to buy one card on ebay and having to pay between $13.50 and $33 shipping. For ONE CARD! Needless to say, I haven't bought off of ebay for almost a year now.

 

Mail delivery. Due to the problems with potential Polar Bear extinction, all package delivery has been moved to the sled dogs who used to do just lettermail. The extra weight has slowed them down considerably.

 

However, I just received my first PWE from the "Lower 48 PWE Explosion."

 

It came from Steve at The Card Chop. He managed to stuff five vintage Braves in the envelope.

 

1956 Topps Bob Buhl. I tried to recreate that throwing motion in my bonus room the other day. I knocked over a lamp and popped out my knee. Kids. Don't try this at home.

 

Sticking with Mr Buhl, we find his 1961 Topps card. What the hell is he looking at? Couldn't the photographer at least try to get his attention?

a 1967 Denis Menke -  I think Steve's Chihuahua got a hold of one of the corners on this baby...

there were also two 1955 Topps, but blogger ate the scans... who knows what blog they popped out on. Keep an eye out for them, would you?

A couple of other bloggers also braves the Northern Polar Express mail route...

Night Owl needed some light reading, so he took a peek at my wantlists and found two cards that I needed.

Of course, one of them HAD to be a mini......

and the other one came with a wee note.

Hall of Famers? Where? This is a fantastic Tony Cloninger card...

I have no idea what Owl is talking about....

And all the way from Texas, Mr Play at the Plate sent me a Brave on TV.

and a very shiny Chipper... (along with a couple of others not seen here)

and a really cool metal John Smoltz! This thing is very thin, very heavy, and very sharp.

I could shave with this thing.

This PWE thing might catch on around here.... at least, I hope so.

Thanks guys!

Anyone really good at using Microsoft Excel???

I have a workbook that has around 3100 lines in it. (3 columns)

I need to be able to delete multiple lines at once. (they aren't blank...)

How do I select multiple lines at once in order to delete them? And no, they aren't consecutive.

For example... I need to delete lines 3,5,9,12,19,31,40,49,50,55,71,99,103,107........ blah blah.

Anyone have an idea?

Ginter Goodness...

I'll get through this comc package if it kills me. And it just might.

Today we'll show off a whack o' Ginter. Nothing but the hits baby!

I did quite well here... selling off old 2008 Ginter hits of random no names and acquiring 2013 Ginter hits of much wanted Bravos.

Allen&Ginter  had two separate types of relics, full size, and bordered min relics.

Here are the full size. They look sharp. Well done.

Brandon Beachy - $1.08

Craig Kimbrel - $1.24  best reliever in baseball, and the cornerstone of my fantasy baseball team the last three years.

The J-Hey kid... $1.46

and the good Upton. (No, not Kate....) $1.24

I only need the Hank Aaron full sized relic and my set is complete.....

Bordered minis...

Brian McCann - $1.31  I'll miss him. Although I'll see him on tv four times a week now instead of four times a season..... Next on FOX! Yankees vs. Red Sox!

Jason... again.... $1.47  couldn't we have mixed up the player selection a bit? I already have a Kimbrel mini as well... seriously Topps...

oh, and a random Mike Joy for my dad. He got a kick out of it. $2.23

I'm really glad to have been able to pick these up... now I just have to find someone with the full sized Aaron relic....

Yeah... good luck.

vintage week - Day 7 Pops and Hammerin'

wrapping up vintage week a couple of days late. But we'll end up with a beauty.

 

I have no idea why everyone is in such a hurry to buy the latest 2014 Topps inserts and parallels for outrageously high prices when you can buy cards like this for $0.81 cents!!!

ah well... kids these days.

my '72 team set is coming along nicely... I believe I only need one low number (Sal Bando!)
while still chasing those effing high numbers.
Thankfully the only big name needed left is Phil Niekro. Unless you count Dusty Baker?

my needs
#348, 451, 540, 591, 601, 620, 641, 675, 740, 758, 764, 787

vintage week... Day 6, International League Stud

vintage week carries over because I don't have time to post on weekends!

 

today's gem is a 1965 Topps Mack Jones. No word on whether his nickname was "Knife" or not...

 

Mack was such a badass that he didn't bother with stuffing his back pockets with batting gloves... he put his fielding glove in there.

in 1964 Mack led the International league in homers, (42) RBI's, (113) and was third in batting average, (.317)

not too shabby.


still needed for my '65 Topps Braves set...

#170, 200, 287, 305, 383, 426, 461, 476, 487, 500, 520, 542, 567, 585

vintage week... Day 5 ZZzzzz edition

today's card is another '61 Topps. Thankfully it's the last '61 for awhile. No offence to Don McMahon, but this is about the most boring baseball card ever.

 

EVER!

 

Even Don himself seems unimpressed.

The only saving grace to it is the trees / forest in the background. You won't see that around any ballparks or training facilities anymore.

Any other nominations for the most boring baseball card ever? And no, you can't nominate the entire 2014 Topps set.

If I get enough, maybe we'll have a vote off or something. I should be able to find the images easily enough if I don't already own the card.

vintage week... Day 4. Papa Roach

moving right along, here is the card I had planned to show yesterday.

 

a 1961 Topps Mel Roach

 

and before you go running to baseball-reference.com, Mel was born in 1933. So he's 27 in this pic.

Really.

No kidding.

That is IF Topps used a current photo of him. And we know how Topps LOVES to use old photos.

So he may be even younger.

Hmmm.

1961 is one of my least favourite sets of the vintage era. I think it and the 1966 set are by far the worst.
I still love them.
But they u-g-l-y.

What's your ugly set?

vintage week... Day 3. Birthday edition...

vintage week continues from my check out my cards swap/purchase. Only today we are calling an audible.

I'm showing off the card originally scheduled for Day 6 today (Day 3) because, well because it's Hank Aaron's 80th birthday.

 

1970 All Star #462  $0.63

 

63 cents!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday big fella!

it's vintage week... Day 2

day 2 of vintage week brings us yet another 1959 Topps. Only this one be green.

 

I have 26 different '59 Topps Braves, and this is only my third green one. I have fifteen yellow, one pink (shown yesterday), three light blue, two dark blue, and two All Star cards.

 

Mel here set me back $0.96

 

According to the cartoon on the back, Mel attends the University of Virginia in the offseason.

I wonder why Mel looks so wistful in the pic? What is he thinking?

Regardless, it's a lot better looking card than tomorrow's.....


still needed for 1959 Topps,
#'s 40, 212, 380, 450, 467, 551, 561, 565, 567, 571

it's vintage week... Day 1

continuing on with my Check Out My Cards order, (I have to or I'll never get these cards put away into their binders and then they'll get lost and then I'll end up buying them again swearing the whole time because I'm sure I already have these but they're not in their binders and I never posted about them so where the hell are they anyways? Arrrgh.)

 

Now that I finally have electricity again, I'll put up a series of quickie posts featuring the vintage.

 

Yes.

 

The vintage.

 

1959 Topps Carl Willey.

 

and it's pink.


my 1959 Topps needs... #'s 40, 212, 380, 450, 467, 551, 561, 565, 567, 571
...some heavy hitters in that bunch.

...one day...

Check out my Ginter...

had my Check Out My Cards order shipped awhile back.... just getting to it now. Decided to make a post about a few different things and mix it all into one.

We'll talk about COMC, Freddie Freeman, Allen & Ginter, team sets, and wantlists.

 

Let's dive in.

 

A couple of months ago or so, I sent 200 cards that I never wanted to see again to COMC to sell. Their fees are pretty high, so rather than take my money... I used it to buy cards that I did want. That way I only have to pay the $3 shipping and I get cards I really want for stuff I could not care less about.

Kind of a convoluted trading system if you will.

 

My first shipment contained 113 cards. (I now have another 39 cards waiting to be shipped, but that's for another time waaaay down the line)

 

Among them were some A&G short prints I needed to finish up, or at least get closer to finishing, some team sets.

 

2013 Freddie Freeman #304 SP  - $0.55

 

Freddie signed a long term deal this week.
No, not with the Braves. He still goes to arbitration, asking 5.75 million while the Braves counter with 4.5 million. Either way, it's an upgrade over the $356,000 he made last year.
And Freddie may need it. He just got engaged to former bikini model and current realtor, Chelsea Goff.

 Congrats Freddie. On more than the contract.

I still need #'s 20 and 67 for my team set.


2012 #317 Jason Heyward SP  - $0.38

 I almost fell off of my chair when A&G didn't SP Jason for the 2013 set. He seems to be one in every other year.

Still need #247


2011 #335 Jason Heyward SP  - $0.67

see?
I accidently bought the code card version... but does it really matter? No.
That finished off my team set.


2010 Troy Glaus #329 SP  - $0.50

 Troy finished off my team set...


2008 Tom Glavine #315 SP  - $0.50

Smiling Tom here came with another SP. Matt Diaz #344. No one knows what Blogger did with the scan... it be gone but good.

I still need #'s 51, 188, 192, 221, 260 and US20 for my team set.


2013 - #'s 20, 67, ATY-CK, ATY-JHY, ATY-JU, ATY-KM
2012 - # 247
2008 - #'s 51, 188, 192, 221, 260, US20
2006 - #'s 53, 99, 112, 151, 189, 259, 291, 318

If anyone can help me out, I'd mucho appreciate it. I built complete Ginter sets in 2008 and 2009, but not the other years... if anyone has a bunch of extras from the other years and is feeling overly generous and would like to help me out with that, great! I'll take 'em.

The only Hall of Fame post you need......

I'm not saying I'm not overly thrilled with Maddux and Glavine being elected to the Hall. Most deserving.

But everyone knew that was coming.

Some people deluded themselves into thinking guys like Morris or Martinez (HA!) would be in the running, but no.

 

But here it is on Canada's National sports page, front and center.... well, maybe down and to the lower left actually.

Behind the lead story that Montreal is starting their backup goalie against the Flyers tonight.

But! It did make it ahead of Michael Bradley signing with Toronto FC! So there's that...

 

How baseball has fallen over the years... almost an afterthought. Hopefully whomever takes over for that idiot Selig can right some wrongs and bring baseball back.