A little post-Christmas red & green

I hope everyone was able to have a safe and healthy Christmas. Mine was extremely quiet compared to what was planned. I was supposed to travel a few hours away to spend the holiday with my parents and siblings. However, a few tested positive for COVID-19 a few days prior, causing us to stay home and have a small little family Christmas. While it was nice and slow, I did miss being with my larger family.

As for the big day, I didn't get any cards for Christmas, although to be fair, I didn't ask for any either. There's just nothing out there I really want or care to open right now.

I haven't been buying or trading much the last few months. It's not uncommon for me lately to spend less than $10 a month on cards on Ebay. For example, in November I spent $6.66 total on cards on eBay, including shipping. It's kind of liberating.

However, in December my total jumped to $18.44, as I bought three cards during the month. Only one of them was a baseball card:

A nice 2012 Elite Extra autograph of Ty Hensley with green ink. This card is numbered 05/10, and set me back $7.88 including shipping. While I probably paid more on shipping than on the card, it was a Hensley I didn't have, which don't pop up much any more. Therefore, I'm likely to overspend, even if I'm the only market for such a card.

The green autograph looks nice against the red background, forming an inadvertent Christmas-colored card. This card brings me to 126 unique Hensley cards. I'll always pick up his cards when a new one arises.

It'll be quiet around here over the next few weeks, so I'll take this moment to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

A smaller, yet bigger milestone

Yesterday, I collected my 125th unique Ty Hensley card.

While that number pales in comparison to 1,000 Tino cards (or 3,000 Andrew McCutchen cards!), I feel like it's almost more impressive than my Tino collection.

Ty just doesn't have a lot of cards. TCDB lists 246, all between 2012 and 2014. Most of what's left are basically 1/1s - superfractors and printing plates.

Ones I need for my collection just don't pop up too frequently. What's left on COMC is vastly overpriced and has just been sitting there for years. I've never found one on TCDB that I need.

So I'm left to my eBay saved search. I probably average about 3-4 new Ty Hensley cards per year, at this point.

To me, that's why it's more impressive than my Tino collection. I can always find Tinos I need, plus he keeps getting autographs in modern releases. But anytime a new Ty card pops up on eBay, it feels like a minor miracle.

The latest was a 2012 Panini Extra Edition Gold Prizm, numbered 10 of 10. I have a lot of cards from this set, including most of the autographs. But I don't recall ever seeing this card. I even had some bidding competition, but ultimately won it.

Ty has also had a tremendous year for Utica of the USPBL. Yes, many independent leagues have been playing this summer! As of August 21, Ty was 7-0 with a .75 ERA and 42Ks in 36 IP. In a normal MiLB world, I'd have to imagine Ty would have been scooped out of independent ball by now and assigned to a minor league organization.

Please keep me in mind if you ever come across a rare Ty Hensley card!

Ty Hensley chucks a no-no

Last night while browsing Twitter, I was greeted with a few tweets that made me really happy. Ty Hensley chucked a no-hitter for the Utica Unicorns of the USPBL!

First off, glad to see some of these independent leagues playing baseball this summer. I just found out the NJ Jackals in my area are open for business, which I wasn't expecting.

I was really happy to see Ty's personal achievement. From what I can tell via social media, he's put a lot of work into not only getting back on the mound, but honing his craft and improving. He frequently post videos that show major league velocity and spin rates, which isn't surprising for a former first rounder. He's still got it!

Ty has obviously always been very kind to me, so it continues to really make my day when I see good things happen to good people. But make no mistake, this was the result of hard work.

Congrats to Ty, and I look forward to watching how the rest of his season unfolds.

To celebrate, here are a few of my favorite Ty Hensley cards and collectibles.

Patience is key

For the last year or so, I've seen this card in my Ty Hensley saved eBay search.

I set my mark of $7 (plus shipping). I decided I would not pay above that. For months upon months, the listing fluctuated between $9.99, 12.99, and 14.99. Each time I offered $7. Each time the seller tried to get a little more out of me. I balked.

Maybe I was being cheap for a card I wanted. But also if it's listed that long...and only one person is inquiring...maybe it's listed too high.

Finally I wore him down. Maybe? He did accept $7, literally after almost a year my first offer. Maybe I could have gotten it for less. I don't know. But at this point rare autographs and 1/1s are the only Ty Hensley's I don't have, and they don't come up often, so I think it felt it was an ok price since I only buy one every couple of months.

Regardless, I like it. It'll look nice in my collection.

Not neglecting Ty

In my chase for 1,000 unique Tinos, picking up old basketball rookie cards, and trading for Gleyber Torres cards on TCDB, it may seem like I've neglected my Ty Hensley collection.

Wrong!

I still actively search and seek out new Hensley cards I need. There just aren't a ton of them out there, so I do get excited when one pops up.

Recently a 2012 Bowman Sterling magenta plate popped up on eBay. It was a 7-day auction, so I waited anxiously and bid toward the end. Of course, I was the only buyer, but you never know.

The fact that it is autographed makes it even cooler to me.

This is my 123rd Hensley card, and ninth printing plate. If you ever see one out in the wild, let me know!

Customs count!

Do any of you player collectors count custom cards in your "official" total of a player? I sure as heck do.

I've received a few customs over the years, and I always make sure to include them in my number of unique cards for a player. It's part of the reason why my numbers will ever match on TCDB, but I don't care about that. The custom cards mean a whole lot to me. Whereas Topps puts no thought into many of their cards, the same can't be said for guys like Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown, who makes awesome customs.

On Monday, I got a sopping wet envelope from him, but luckily the cards were perfect. Gavin told me I sent him some cards like a year ago and wanted to hit me back. I suppose that's true? I can't remember what I sent.

There were a few Tinos and such, but what really stood out - and this should come as no surprise - are the awesome customs Gavin made.

I loved them all, but I think my favorite is the Ty Hensley from his current team, the Utica Unicorns. Ty is battling his way back to affiliate ball (and deserves a shot...former first rounder with upper/mid 90s heat...someone take a shot!), and he's clearly working hard to get there. To my knowledge, the Unicorns did not issue any team sets while Ty was there.

The card looks phenomenal, and as he always does, Gavin spends time on the card backs. While I wish I was better about enjoying card backs in general, I always make sure to check out the ones Gavin does. Sometimes I forget Ty's name is "Michael."

Also, as I told Gavin, when I shared this card on Twitter, Ty himself liked the Tweet.

I LOVED this custom in the look of 1987 Donruss. Tino in his Team USA gear, reminiscent of Panini Stars and Stripes. Tino led Team USA to a gold in the '88 games. Look at the metal Easton bat! That's the best part of the photo to me.

As as expected, a perfect replica of the back!

Lastly, such a cool card. Mattingly in the look of a 1973 Kellogg's. I wouldn't put it past Gavin to one day figure out how to use the same 3D effect on his cards. I love this old shot of Mattingly. Is he wearing a shirsey?!

Gavin made sure to do a very detailed back. I didn't know Donnie Baseball was ambidextrous. Go figure. I think he made the right call being a lefty.

Truly special work, Gavin. Thank you!

Fuji Funds My Nest Egg

I was one of the luck 30 or so people to receive a mailing from San Jose Fuji over the last week.

First and foremost, I'd like to pause this post to go throw these in a safety deposit box...

...because my kids's college education is now set!

My favorite card of the package is this Joe Pepitone card. It's a fascinating card from 1968 Atlantic Oil. "Collect card 7 and win $10." That is a lottery! Baseball cards are gambling anyways. This card is very very cool. By the way, $10 in 1968 would be about $74 now. More nest egg fuel!

Fuji hit my PC guys with a Ty Hensley auto and a Tino RC. For what it's worth, I still consider this Tino's RC even though it's probably not factually correct. Oh well!

What a gift. Or two gifts! I really like these relic cards. Although I'm confused as to why the gray on each of these has a different texture. I assume they are taken from different uniforms, such as part of a spring training jersey or players weekend jersey.

Speaking of Severino, I'm very sad about his TJ Surgery news. He's such a talented pitcher, but this just doesn't bode well. Maybe he'll be back at the end of 2021, but with last year being mostly lost due to injury, and now this, there will be a lot of "what could have been" when looking back on his career.

Fuji rounded out the package with a TCMAs that are older than me, and a Ryan Sink Bowman Chrome auto.

Great package from a great person. Thanks, Fuji!

Turning eBay bucks into Gold

I've pretty much exhausted the market on Ty Hensley cards. The ones I still need are usually over-priced or out of my budget, but every now and then one pops up in my range.

This one was on the cusp of my range, but also happened to coincide with a 10% eBay bucks promotion, so that led me to pulling the trigger on a card I had kept an eye on for a long time:

Oooh, so shiny and gold. And autographed. This one is numbered to 50 copies. It was one of the highest print run Hensleys I still didn't own.

This marks my 121st different Ty Hensley. Trading Card Database says there are 244 Hensleys. Basically, the only ones I'm missing are ones /1, /10, and from that fake brand Leaf Rize.

And in case you're wondering, I am the #1 Hensley collector on the site. I'm also #1 for Tino, and will be for Clarke Schmidt once I add my cards of his to the site.

Ty is also a really good follow on Instagram for anyone on the platform. I look forward to watching him once again take the mound this spring, and hopefully latch on with an affiliated team!

You can find me on TCDB

I did it! I finally logged my Tino Martinez and Ty Hensley collections into The Trading Card Database (aka TCDB). I've been wanting to do it for some time, and I'm glad I got around to it. If you're on there, my username is 'thelostcollector'.

I've yet to make my first trade. I've actually only gotten one offer so far, and it was to buy a Giancarlo Stanton card. Happy to trade, not here to buy. I hope that doesn't happen a lot.

I only have 190 cards listed for trade, so I assume that's why things have been slow on that front, despite listing some newer Heritage High Number and Fire. But that's really my hope - to turn a few cards I don't need into some Tino or Hensleys I do need. I'll add some more in the coming days.

My want list is a bit messy on there as well. I added all Tino and Hensley cards I don't have, as well as all Gleyber Torres and a few cards of other guys, like Stanton. I don't want ALL Gleyber cards, but just figured he'd be a good guy to have listed to make trading easier.

As for my rankings for my two main guys, I became #1 for both Tino and Hensley. The number of unique cards don't quite match up to my blog totals, as the card either wasn't listed, human error on my part by missing it, or it was a custom or something that I count as uniques but wouldn't be on the site.

Anyhow, hopefully this helps my goal of 1,000 Tinos!

The Rize from independent ball to the big leagues

The 'mad online' culture found its way into my nerves this past weekend, as many found it DISGUSTING that Yankees fans were chanting "Uber" at Twins pitcher Randy Dobnak. Many felt it was unfair to heckle a guy trying to make ends meet as an Uber driver. Sure, I get that. But chanting something at an opposing team in a PLAYOFF game really isn't anything new. Any other fanbase would have done the same.

Usually I can shrug my shoulders at this type of stuff, but I really felt like this one was a reach.

Part of the reason fans chanted "Uber" was because of how forced the narrative was all week. I had never heard of this pitcher prior to the ALDS (and I'm sure I wasn't alone), and really the fact that he was an Uber driver trumped his story of how effective he had been for the Twins late in the season. You bet if he shut the Yankees down, it would have been "Uber driver slams door on the Yankees" versus "Twins hero Randy Dobnak shuts down Yankees." Some of it is just Yankee hating which I tend to not care about, but really, it was ribbing that happens in all Playoff atmospheres. And I've heard much, much worse. You probably have to.

What wasn't lost on me was hearing that Dobnak was once pitching for the Utica Unicorns before finding his was into the Twins organization. The Unicorns hold a special place in my heart, as that's the current organization where Ty Hensley pitches! It gives me hope. If Dobnak can be discovered there, perhaps a former first rounder can find another shot with an affiliated club as well.

My two newest Hensley cards come from the Leaf brand, "Rize", which I'm not even sure it's a real brand, honestly. There only seems to be one seller on eBay who consistently has these cards, and they are all marked at ridiculous prices. Anyhow, two decently prized printing plates hit the market, and I scooped them up, because that's what I do when new Hensley cards I can afford pop up.

It's a little bit of a player collecting nightmare - snagging cards of a brand I don't care for nor respect. But alas, joke's on me since I bought them.

Its getting harder and harder to find new Hensley cards, which made my trigger finger extra itchy. Overall, I'm glad to have them, but these certainly aren't amongst my cherished 1/1s.

Ty Hensley continues to grind

Just 26 years old, Ty Hensley continues to grind in his effort to get back into pro baseball. This past year, he spent time with the independent ball Utica Unicorns, an awesome team name. Zippy Zippy made me aware of this a feature on Ty last week by the Detroit News. You can read it HERE.

As always, I'm on the prowl for new Hensley cards, and during the last COMC sale, I was able to pick up two different autographs, both numbered to 5:

Nice cards. Not particularly new, as I have the less-rare versions of both of these, but still nice to check them off the list.

I'm proud of Ty and how he continues to fight for his dream, and I wish him all the best in 2020 as he takes another step closer to a big league mound.

A unicorn is spotted in Michigan

A few weeks ago, I noticed that Ty Hensley was no longer on the roster of the Evansville Otters. There was a press release over the winter that stated he was returning this year, so I was concerned he was once again injured.

A few weeks went by, and it finally popped up in my newsfeed that Ty had signed on with a new independent league team, this time the Utica Unicorns of the United Shore Professional Baseball League.

I was unaware that Utica, NY had a professional baseball team, as that was the only Utica I know. A quick browse of their website shows that I'm incorrect, as this team is based in Utica, MICHIGAN, just outside of Detroit.

Here's Ty in his new duds, courtesy of the Unicorns' website:

Pretty cool logo. Fairly Rumble Ponies-esque.

I wish Ty nothing but the best this year, and hopefully he has a successful season. I'll be sending some cards his way to Utica to distribute to his new teammates and local fans, although I think with independent ball it's quite hit or miss as to whether or not mail is actually delivered to players. Hopefully he gets it!

So far this season, Ty has appeared in four games, with a save and 16 Ks in 10 IP. Nice numbers there! Maybe he'll dominate out of the pen and an organization will give him another shot!

Just yesterday, my 116th different Hensley arrived, yet another 1/1. This is a 2012 Leaf Memories yellow plate, with a sticker autograph obviously attached.

Good luck, Ty!

Very purpley

I've had a decent run of new Ty Hensley pickups lately, but this one is a definitely a highlight:

That's a 2012 Bowman Draft Purple Refractor autograph, numbered to just 10. Outside of the Superfractor, the only autographs I'm missing from this run of his cards are the gold (which I swear I have somewhere but it's not listed as a 'have', and the red). The red will be toughest to find. There I a gold on COMC for $100 right now. Noooope.

The purple popped up on eBay, and I won it for the minimum .99 bid. I tend to think sellers are still confused when I'm the only bidder on their YANKEES FIRST ROUND PICK LOW NUMBERED AUTOGRAPH OMG. But in all honestly, I'm really the only market for Hensley. I've tried to tell sellers this to get them to come down on prices, but it usually doesn't go well.

The purple refractors tend to be some of the nicer ones, so I'm very pleased to add this. And as it becomes harder and harder to find new cards of Ty, I am starting to appreciate adding a new one more than ever.

Ty Hensley heads back to Evansville

A few weeks ago, it was announced that Ty Hensley will be returning to the Evansville Otters for the 2019 season. You can read about it HERE.

I still have an outside hope that Hensley will catch fire and open up the eyes of an Major League team. Guys get plucked out of independent leagues all the time, and he's a former first round pick with low mileage on his arm. If he dominates, it seems likely that someone would roll the dice.

I did send Ty a 'thank you' card for the amazing gift he sent me before Christmas. However, I'm not sure if he got it, and hopes he doesn't think I didn't appreciate it. I'll send him another one when Evansville's season starts in mid-May, just to be sure.

My two newest Henlseys are right here. The first is an orange auto from 2013 Bowman Platinum. These were exclusive to the National Card Show. It's numbered to 5.

The second is from that same set, a red refractor numbered to 25.

Best of luck to Ty this season!

A little Extra confusion

About 10% of my Ty Hensley collection is from 2012 Elite Extra.

It's a confusing set. There are a lot of different versions of each card, from Prospects to Aspirations to Status. Plus each parallel has color and die-cut versions. And then autographs of each. Even typing that out made me confused.

I guess the silver lining is that as a player collector of a guy who doesn't have many cards, it always gives me something new to chase and discover.

Every now and then on eBay, one of these pops up that I don't have. At this point it's usually the lower numbered autographs, although I swear Elite Extra is still putting out new versions of these just to confuse me. I didn't even have to check my 'have' list when this showed up in my saved search. I knew I needed it.

It only set me back a few bucks, and is numbered to just 08/10.

Sure, this set is confusing. But at least it's something that always offers a challenge to chase, and for that, I'll put up with a little confusion any day.

Zapped...before Christmas

Over the past few months, I have received two very generous card packages that I've been slow to properly show. They are sort of daunting to scan, which admittedly is the main reason. Each were incredible, but honestly it's just easier sometimes to show off the smaller ones.

One of these was from Zippy Zappy, who for some reason, kept telling me sorry it was taking him so long for a proper zapping. I always thought this was silly, as he owed me nothing.

While I was away for Christmas, a large flat rate box arrived. I figured it likely had one of his repacked hobby boxes, which are always fun. But I was wrong. Here's what was inside.

Yes, there were some of his famous repacks, but not in a box. Instead he sent a full on binder, and some other odds and ends, including a Yankees CD from 1998, which looks to have a collection of Stadium songs and game calls, as well as an Ultra Pro ball case. I have a few signed baseballs that are unprotected, so this will go to good use.

The packs were mostly minor league team sets, which should create some good TTM folder.

On to the binder, which had a custom Luis Torrens taped onto the front, and an Eric Jagielo glass autograph taped onto the inside. Side note - Zippy and I probably spent a lot of money on Jagielo cards, who was one of three Yankees first rounders with Ian Clarkin and Aaron Judge. If we had only funneled all the money into Judge early on...

So I took a pretty easy way out and snapped a bunch of photos to really help show the assortment. It was a really fun binder to flip through, and I've actually still got it intact.

There was a page of almost all relics and autographs, and here are a few. Crazy to see Wilkerman Garcia as a "throw in", as he got SUPER expensive at one point after 2015, but has had a couple of uninspiring seasons since.

This is a new Tino to my collection! If I want to get up over 1,000 Tinos, I should just focus on Topps Tek. That would get me there with all the variations and patterns.

Here's a different assortment of cards I particularly enjoyed as well.

ZZ, this post didn't really do you generosity justice, but thank you for thinking of me.