Evan Longoria's Tiny Head

I got a really nice card last weekend of former Durham Bulls star Evan Longoria.  It pains me a little bit to say former Ray, or Giants third baseman.  Still in denial.  He will always be a favorite player and I still intend on collecting his cards no matter where he is playing baseball.  My more recent Longoria cards have been more towards the high end of the spectrum, although Longoria cards are not really all that expensive at this point.

This was my last Longoria card......

which was from last year's Five Star set.  

The new Longoria card also comes from a high end product, but it's a set that Topps retired a few years back.  I liked these cards....

out of Topps Sterling.  

These were always attractive looking cards, although I never really liked that they had sticker autographs.  Sterling was always a product that I never actually opened myself, just bought the single cards off of Ebay.  I like the appearance of this Longoria Sterling card, there is just one thing that seems off about this card.  

The autograph is nice, though it's on a sticker, the relic pieces look fine too.  Card design is decent.  However, the picture of Longoria on the top of the card is somewhat ridiculous.  He's tiny.  I almost wonder why Topps even included a picture on this card.  

Was this standard on Sterling cards?  I consulted my card collection for answers.  I found a few.  

Bernie Williams?  Normal.  

Pujols?  Normal.

A-Rod?  Normal.  

Sterling cards from other years?

Normal and......

normal.

I understand that the Longoria card has a whole bunch of relics, and an autograph on the card.  The space around all of that stuff is pretty small, but the Sterling Longoria card has to have the smallest head shot of any card that I can remember.

While I was looking through my for my Sterling cards, I actually found another Longoria card with a limited amount of space for the picture....

even a card with a giant letter smacked in the middle of the card has a bigger picture of Longoria than the Sterling card.  

Sure, it's a card with a tiny picture, but in the end a Longoria autograph with a print run of ten is nice no matter how goofy someone at Topps went with the design.  

Bizarro World: 2010 Topps Sterling Bernie Williams Autograph/Quad Jersey

Social media is a funny place.  I am on Blogger, Twitter, and Facebook.  I've dabbled with Instagram and Tumblr and a few others along the way too.  The funny thing about the card world on social networking sites is that you generally have a group of people you can trade with, know their card interests, and can get some trading done.  Then there are always a few lurker-bys.  You know, people that are on your Twitter feed/Facebook friends, but they have an odd niche collection or they just congratulate people on cards.  A few of them make ridiculous offers on the high end cards that you pull or trade for.

So, this week I actually made a trade with a person I've never trade with before on Twitter.  I've noticed the person's handle and they've made a comment or two on a few cards I've posted.  It all started last week when I made a fairly harmless Tweet about pulling a Hank Foiles card out of a box of Topps Heritage.  It was during my vacation.

2012 Topps Heritage Hank Foiles Autograph

Hank Foiles is an okay autograph.  I looked over the checklist for the vintage guys in Heritage this year and would have loved a Stan Musial or a Dick Groat, but an autograph is an autograph.  I snapped a picture and posted it up on Twitter.  Literally ten seconds later I got a Direct Message from a follower identifying themselves as the biggest collector of 1960s Angels cards anywhere.  I posted my only other 60s Angels autograph of Jim Fergosi (signed in person) and was offered a trade package that wasn't very inspiring which happens sometimes with niche collectors.  They only have what they collect and if it's unique enough then it's hard to price.  Like Ray Lankford.  So, I was forced to look at his best card, which he apparently just got and he moonlights as a Yankees fan.  Hmmm.

2010 Topps Sterling Bernie Williams Autograph/Quad Jersey

Now, normally I can get pretty snarky about just taking cards for the sake of taking cards.  I also understand that the Foiles autograph is his only certified autograph and has actually been a pretty busy card on Ebay, but I was offered this Bernie Williams card for the two aforementioned Angels autographs along with a Troy Percival/Scott Shields dual autograph and a Tim Salmon jersey card.  Not even a Bernie Williams fan, but I took the card.  After sending my cards out and receiving my new Bernie Williams I received another DM telling me that I've been wiped out of 60s Angels cards and then unfollowed.  Definitely a win on your part buddy.  Thanks for the card.  

  

2010 Topps Sterling Al Kaline Triple Bat Card

I am spending some time today to work on my collection.  I have cards to put away, cards to trade, cards to sell, and various other errands dealing with my cards.  I figured before I got into the real work of the day I would post I card I received in a small trade last week.

2010 Topps Sterling Al Kaline Triple Bat Card

I have added several Topps Sterling pieces during the past year and also think they are pretty sharp looking cards for the most part.  The checklist tends to be filled with older players, usually Hall of Famers, and and the designs of the cards tend to be very nice.  The Topps Sterling set has sticker autographs, but the relics cards are awesome.  I actually already own another copy of this card, but couldn't turn down another one for helping to fill out a 2008 Topps set.  I am hoping to find the six piece relic of Kaline from this set, but in the meantime I happy owning two of this great looking card.  

Facebook Trade

It's been a busy July and my trade volume has been down this month due to vacations, trips, and the beginning of the school year.  I still had time to complete a trade two weeks ago with Jeremy, a collector from Arkansas, who runs his own Facebook Trade Group.  His group is one of the better and trusted groups around on the internet.  If you are looking for a good place to trade you cannot go wrong there.

I posted a few Nolan Ryan cards last month and had a few other nice Ryan pieces I have been sitting on for a trade.  Jeremy is a big Nolan Ryan collector and had plenty of cards to offer up for trade.  I ended up getting five nice cards in return for my lot of Ryan memorabilia cards.

First up, is a 2004 Flair Albert Pujols patch card.  This is a two color patch featuring a large piece of yellow and a small strip of blue.  The yellow is clearly part of the bat from the front of the Cardinals uniform.  While Pujols is not a Cardinal anymore, it is still a great addition to my Cardinals collection and I was really happy to get the card.

2004 Flair Hot Numbers Albert Pujols Patch

I also received a sweet 2009 Topps Sterling Ernie Banks 5 piece relic in the trade.  I have traded for several other Topps Sterling cards over the past few months.  The cards always look great and they are a fantastic way to get an affordable premium relic card of a Hall of Fame player.  This card is serial numbered to 25 and has two pieces of pin striped jersey, one white piece of jersey, and two pieces of bat.  

2009 Topps Sterling Ernie Banks 5 Piece Relic 

The other three cards were also very nice.  I received a Topps Tribute Ozzie Smith bat card, a Triple Threads Evan Longoria Triple Bat Card, and a Topps Heritage Carlos Beltran bat card.  

2002 Topps Tribute Ozzie Smith Bat Card

2010 Topps Triple Threads Evan Longoria Triple Bat Card

2011 Topps Heritage Carlos Beltran Bat Card

This Week's Trades Part I

I have made several trades this week, but haven't had a chance to post any of them on my blog, so I am going to spend this evening and tomorrow showing off my trades from the past week.  Sunday I will show off a few collection pieces I have put together over the years involving a lot of cards I picked up in a trade earlier this week.  

This evening I am going to focus on three different trades that I made earlier in the week.  The first trade involved a dealer from St. Louis.  Living and collecting baseball cards in St. Louis for most of my life I've noticed that the market for Browns cards is non-existint at times.  It's true that the Browns were a terribly run franchise and were unpopular for a good reason, but they did have a few good players during their history.  George Sisler might have been the best of all the St. Louis Browns.  In fact, he owned the American League hits record until 2004 when Ichiro Suzuki broke it.  In the process of breaking the record, Ichiro studied up on Sisler and grew to appreciate the Hall of Famer so much that he visited his gravesite outside of St. Louis during the 2009 All-Star Game.  I snagged this card for a pair of Pujols and Holliday relic cards.  

2010 Topps Sterling George Sislger Bat Card 

The second trade was completed on Facebook.  I traded a few Red Sox and a Matt Moore autograph for these two awesome cards.  The first card is more of a curiosity and I've always wanted this card.  It's a 2006 Topps Alex Gordon cut out card.  This card came in the pack this way.  The long story short is that Topps had some sort of contractual problem and printed these cards too soon.  They needed to get Alex Gordon off the cards and this was the solution.    The other card I received in this trade was a 2011 Topps Ozzie Smith bat card.  Always great to get some Ozzies.  

2006 Topps Alex Gordon Cut-Out

 2011 Topps Ozzie Smith 60 Bat

Last trade for tonight.  A local one.  Josh Hamilton cards are really easy to trade in these parts.  There are many people that have stories about how they saw Josh Hamilton play in high school, or Legion, or their uncle's backyard.  I believe Athens High in Raleigh might have outdrawn the Pirates, and perhaps the Reds, while Hamilton was in high school.  I pull out a few Hamiltons, listen to some stories, and walk away with some sweet cards in the end.  A few Hamilton jerseys and a pair of Hamilton Heritage Chromes and I got.....

2012 Topps Museum Collection Matt Moore Autograph

 2012 Topps Museum Collection Allen Craig Triple Jersey Auto 

Mail Day

I've been picking up a Carlos Beltran card here and there to add to my collection since he is the newest Cardinal.  The card is a 2009 Topps Sterling 5 piece bat card.  I got this off of Ebay, but at a pretty good price for a Topps Sterling materials card.  For now I am adding Beltran cards, but giving his injury history I am not going to sink a ton of money or effort into him until I am sure he's not going to sit on the bench and collect checks the next two years.  I am going to try and add a trade page later this week, or this weekend, to get some trades going off of this page.