Shining It Up With Brad's Blog

My Rangers Album just got a little brighter, thanks to a nice lot of shiny cards from Brad's Blog.   I had some old Phillies cards that I didn't need and he gladly took them off my hands and sent back these beauties:

These two numbered refractors were the cards I knew I was getting, and they are fantastic.   I definitely need to build a team set of the sepia cards.

However, that wasn't all that was in the padded mailer from Brad, much to my surprise.  He also sent a big stack of other cool Rangers:

I love these "ice" cards from Bowman, and am really stoked to get the card of Luis Sardinas.  He's a SS in the lower levels of the farm system and the Rangers are pretty high on him I hear. 

 Brad also sent a few great base chrome cards.  I don't have many cards of Leonys Martin, but he's quietly turning into a star, so I'm very excited to get this one.

I'm hearing lots of noise about Mike Olt being part of a trade package for Matt Garza of the Cubs.  I like Olt a lot, but I'd be all for that trade, considering the volume of the Rangers starting pitchers that are on the DL. 

There were several other cards in the package, but this by far was my favorite "bonus" card.  I love getting Darvish rookies!

Thanks for the great trade Brad, and I hope you enjoy the vintage Phillies!

A Wicked Strawberry

I miss Wicked Ortega.  Maybe he’s still out there reading the blogs, and maybe one day he’ll come back to blogging.  He had great energy, and some incredible trade bait.

Before his departure, he and I managed a small trade, but I’m giddy over what I got:

 
Daaaarrrrryyylllllll…… Daaaaarrrrryllllllll…..  Daaaaarrrrrryyyylllllll.

This is one sweet card,  and one of the best Strawberry cards I own.

The Wicked One also added a few other cards:

I’m not sure if he thinks I’m a Tigers fan, but the Frank Tanana auto is nice either way. 

If you’re out there Wicked Ortega, thanks for your contribution to the card blogging world and hope to see you around!

Checklist Chipaway: 2012 Bowman Platinum Prospects

I picked up a lot of 38 Bowman Platinum prospects on eBay  a few weeks ago, and I think I only paid around $6 or $7 shipped.  With rack packs of this stuff at $10, and only including a handful of prospect cards in each, this was a great value.

Better yet, many of the prospects I'm especially interested in were included.

I'm now at about 50% done with the set. 

The Good Olt Days

The only thing I'm miffed about with the recent call up of Mike Olt to the Rangers is that I was only two weeks away from seeing him in person play here in NW Arkansas had he stayed in AA.  His previous team, the Frisco Rough Riders, are scheduled to be here in the middle of August and I was looking forward to going to the games and using my 6 year old to help me get an autograph of him and Jurickson Profar.  Oh well, I guess we'll focus on just stalking Profar.

 I pulled this card at Walmart the other day.  Not sure why my press release to the local news stations has not yet received a response.

Those of you who read my blog will know that I am not prone to exaggerate or over react.  Keep that in mind when I say that I am certain that Olt will be a bigger deal than Mike Trout and Bryce Harper COMBINED.  And I want any and all Olt cards you can send my way.  Even though there are only about 60 games to go this season, Olt is now the heavy favorite to win the AL ROY as well as MVP.

Rich Folk Have Platinum Cards

So why can't I?  Sure, my Platinum cards are of the baseball card variety and not the credit card kind, but I felt quite high falootin' opening these rack packs:

These packs reek of sophistication.

Yes, they are a bit pricey ($9 for 15 cards) but sometimes you can't put a price on baseball cards.  Well, I suppose you can ALWAYS put a price on baseball cards, especially when you buy them and sell them.  I guess you can't when you trade them, but you sort of do since you are giving away something to get something in return and if you trace back how you originally came across the cards you traded out you ultimately come across a price at some point, sometimes you just have to go back a long ways and you might not remember what you paid, so maybe in that sense you can't put a price on baseball cards, not because you don't want you, you literally just can't.

I like Bowman Platinum, and I think the set has improved consistently over the past 3 years.  This year's checklist has a lot of great young players I've been able to watch here in AA land with the NW Arkansas Naturals, so I'm definitely going after this set.

 

I didn't get anything huge in my first 3 rack packs, so I'm assuming I'm due for something good when I go back again tomorrow.  Here are the first results:

These are not as blue as the scan shows, but they are pretty nice in hand.  This is the first card I've seen of Zach Cone, who is a toolsy outfielder the Rangers drafted last year. 

Of course, there are color parallels, which I don't care much about.  The Snydergaard is a refractor, and is very nice looking in hand.

Each rack pack had 3 "bonus" purple refractors.  Nothing too big here.  I'm happy to get a Mike Olt card, although I have a feeling he may not be a Ranger by the end of the week. 

There are a few very cool looking inserts in this set from what I've seen online, but these are the only two I got with my purchase.