Fishing For Nick Johnson On The Bay Red Edition

OK so the title of this post almost blows the sensationalism out of this post. Lately when I've been shopping on Ebay I just get the BINs and the fixed price listings, not the auctions. This beauty of a card and one of the pieces to a Rainbow was only $4.99 + $2.50 shipping. It is the latest variation in the 2010 Topps Baseball Nick Johnson Rainbow I've been assembling.

2010 Topps Baseball Factory Set Red 181 Nick Johnson Marlins #d 214/299

(Front and Back)

 This is the Factory Set Red Parallel version that is serial numbered to 299. But that wasn't all the seller I got this card from also included some bonus FOOTBALL cards. Now fortunately I don't mind too much when dealers sweeten the pot by including bonus cards from a different sport, but I'm sure there are some buyers who get really ticked about this. Sellers Please at least include the same sport, some folks are just one sport collectors. A few years back I would have been really ticked if I had gotten some basketball bonus cards. I'm still not huge into basketball but back a few years ago I didn't want to have anything to do with any hoops cards. Oh back on track here is what I got I won't go into detail on them as only one of them will remain part of my PC. I have them all marked in my Zistle since I was toying with the idea of building the set but I'm not sure on that. 

Anyway here are the seven 1993 Topps Football cards that were included as a bonus:

34 Tom Carter Draft Pick Redskins (PC)
35 Jeff George Colts (Might keep this one, not sure)
36 Larry Centers Cardinals
37 Reggie Cobb Buccaneers
41 Haywood Jeffires Oilers
42 Alfred Williams Bengals
43 Aaron Wallace Raiders 

 1993 Topps Football Bonus Cards:

(Front and Back)

GOING GOing Gone!

The following post is a presentation of the Nachos Grande: 2013 Blogger Bracket Challenge Launch. Please do not panic but keep your arms and legs in the blog tram at all times.

GOING Going and Gone!

GOING:

Going, going, GONE! That is what happens when you play this card as it is intended for your 2011 Topps Attax game campaign. You hit a Home Run. If you're lucky and your HR is a GRAND SLAM! All the Mascot cards will do a celebration dance for you (OK maybe not all Bernie Brewer rarely does anything but drink and slide). If you played your cards right, at the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs, you win the game and the satisfaction of seeing your opponent's face go from a big wide grin to a droopy gloomy sour puss pout.

GOING:

Featured on this card is Carlos Lee when he was playing for the Astros. When this image of Carlos was first captured he was only thinking of knocking the ball out of the park, or pretending to if it was a staged photo op. Little did Mr. Lee know that he would have only one more year wearing Astros Orange and that the Astros would only have one more year at the bottom of the National League, OK he might have know of the impending League move for his then current team.

GONE:

So Carlos bid farewell to that baseball in 2011, then in 2012 farewell to Astros' Orange in exchange for Marlin's Neon Orange. The Astros bid farewell to the National League in 2012 and Hello to the American League in 2013. Out of the league's cellar and into the other league's... well cellar.  Oh and Carlos has since bid baseball farewell and said hello retirement. 

Billy The Marlin 2009 A&G Auto

ON Saturday 23 February 2013 I got a one card package from Ebay. 2009 Allen & Ginters Autograph Card AGA-BM Billy The Marlin Marlins Mastcot On-Card Blue Sharpie Auto. It was near the top of my willing to pay for cost at $19.99 plus $3.99 shipping. But it was worth it. So here it be:

 2009 Topps Allen & Ginters Autograph AGA-BM Billy The Marlin Marlins Mascot

(Front and Back)

I am always on the lookout for Mascot cards. I also accept Mascot Postcards and team issued promo cards/photos of mascots.

Mascot Monday: Billy The Marlin

BILLY THE MARLIN

Florida/Miami Marlins 1993 - Present

Originally portrayed by John Routh

Billy The Marlin made his MLB debut on 25 February 1993. For details of his history see his Wikipedia page. I have chosen his 2007 Topps Opening Day card to highlight. This particular set was the first time I know about Topps showcasing most of the current MLB Mascots. For many of the loveable foam headed creatures it is their Rookie Card outside of any team issued sets the mascots may have been a part of. The Mascot cards were part of the regular set near the end of the set but not grouped all together. In fact I think a few cards that were originally listed were never made and replaced by a player. In later years Topps would include the Mascots in the Opening Day set as a sub-set if they included the mascots at all.

Billy Marlin's card was the second Mascot card I got from this set, my Homie Mascot Screech (Nationals) was my first card. It took me a while to get the rest of the Mascots from 2007 because they are spread out so toward the end of the set, not grouped together.

 2007 Topps Opening Day Baseball 197 Billy The Marlin - Mascot Marlins

(Front and Back)

I am always on the lookout for Mascot cards. I also accept Mascot Postcards and team issued promo cards/photos of mascots.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here. 

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball Set

On Saturday 07 April (yeah I keep on focusing on the stuff I got from this post. So what? Its my blog and it was a huge mailday, and I am way behind on tons of stuff.) I got a sportlots order of the 2012 Topps Opening Day set of 220 cards. I got the set for 25¢ + 17.00 shipping (only cost the seller $5.10 to ship). So not a bad price even though the shipping is THE price of the set. Then about a week and a half later, from Ebay I got the Mascots subset of 25 cards on Wednesday 18 April for $22.99 + $3.50 shipping. I'm going to blog about the cute Mascots soon as well as the 2010 Mascots subset I got the following day. I love Mascot cards. I need the 2011 Mascots set.

OK now for some select cards from this set.

I suppose I should mention that the last card in the set card Number 220 Carlos Lee Astros has no number on it. I think this is an UER (Uncorrected ERror). I noticed other people in the blog universe have been questioning this and it seems every Lee card on Ebay is unnumbered. So NO it should not be sold or bought for tons more than the rest of the individual cards from this set.

 2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball 220 Carlos Lee Astros

(Front and Back) - NNO UER

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball 33 Nick Markakis Orioles
(Front and Back)

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball 95 Victor Martinez Tigers
(Front and Back) - Chose this card for the cool play at the plate picture

 2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball 51 Prince Fielder Brewers
(Front and Back) - Now with Tigers but you'd never know it with this set

 2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball 59 Alcides Escobar Royals
(Front and Back) - Cool sliding picture "Look Ma No Hands!"

 2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball 201 Jose Reyes Marlins
(Front and Back) - New Miami Uniform (Airburshed)

 2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball 132 Kurt Suzuki Athletics
(Front and Back) - Cool catcher in his gear action photo

The seller included some "Diamond Giveaway" Code cards. even if I wanted to use the codes they expired 31 Jan 2012. I got numbers: TDG 3, 4, 15, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27 I think I will try to get this little novelty set.

 2011 Topps Baseball Diamond Giveaway Code Card TDG-23

(Front and Back)

Note: The code shown on the back of this card has long expired.

I will also try to get the rest of the 2010 Million Card Giveaway Code cards I don't have. Actually for those I'd like to get some duplicates of them because I have an idea for them. I don't care that all these code things are expired the cards themselves (like some of the Toppstown cards) are fun to collect.

Topps 2010 Million Card Giveaway Code Cards I still need the ones I mentioned needing in this post. As I said I'd like to get some dupes of them for a project.

Note: The Jayson Werth Nationals card shown at the top of this post I have already talked about at my Curly W Cards blog in this post.

A and G minis from Nick's Dime Box

On Saturday 07 April 2012 as previously mentioned briefly in this post (so this is sort of a repeat/recap), I received a package of 2011 Allen & Ginter Minis from Nick at Dime Boxes. I had sent him about 50 Vladimir Guerrero cards from Vlad's Expos years (a "Vlading" as it were it in reference to "Bipping" except I didn't send multiple duplicates, I think I only sent one dupe) and in the brotherly Trading Card Universe way he returned in kind, minus the Bipping er Vlad-ing by sending me 20 A&G Minis. I'll repeat the list of goodies and then highlight a few of them front and back.

Regular backs
27 Dillon Gee Mets
51 Jimmy Rollins Phillies
36 Eric Sogard A's
88 David Ortiz Red Sox
184 Pedro Alvarez Pirates
190 Sue Bird "Champion Women's Basketball Guard" WNBA Seattle Storm
195 Tommy Hanson Braves
201 Andrew Romine Angels
236 B.J. Upton Rays
259 Tim Hudson Braves
302 John Buck Marlins
322 Trevor Cahill A's
349 Yuniesky Betancourt Brewers

A&G Backs
44 Ozzie Martinez Marlins
113 Miguel Montero Diamondbacks
117 Jonathan Sanchez Giants
132 Colby Rasmus Cardinals
222 James Shields Rays
224 Jason Kubel Twins
288 Rickie Weeks Brewers

 All except one of these cards were of baseball players it is still a sports card not one of the Non-Sports cards. It is Sue Bird of the WNBA team Seattle Storm and according to the title on her card "Champion Women's Basketball Guard". I don't know much about women's basketball I've rarely watched even a few minutes of it as I'm not much into basketball but I'd rather see 10 women running back and forth on a wooden floor than 10 sweaty giant men.

 2011 Allen & Ginter's Mini 190 Sue Bird WNBA Seattle Storm

Champion Women's Basketball Guard

(Front and Back)

This next card I thought it was weird that a baseball player was carrying a football helmet. I didn't think about the fact that it could be and is his catcher's mask/helmet. D'uh.

2011 Allen & Ginter's Mini 302 John Buck Marlins

(Front and Back)

Now here is one one of the 7 A&G backs from this batch. I chose it because I wanted to at least show one of the A&G backs.

2011 Allen & Ginter's Mini 224 Jason Kubel Twins A&G Back

(Front and Back)

Random Cardness 001

Just wanted to do an experiment. I'm going to randomly pick 5 cards that I've scanned at one point and post them here. Lets see I'll do a Football, Baseball, Basketball, Non-Sport and Hockey I guess.

OK Here goes:

FOOTBALL:

 1973 Topps Mercury Morris Dolphins

 

Dang it I recently blogged about getting this one. The card itself is not bad. It is a card that is in demand pretty much since Mercury was on the "Perfect Season" Dolphins in '72. I got this card from Ebay for pretty cheap if I recall correctly.

BASEBALL:

2003 Bowman's Best Josh Willingham Marlins Auto

ACK! Again with a fairly recently blogged card. This Josh Willingham card I bought from a fellow card collector from TCC for $10 bucks I think.

That makes one wonder if the "randomness" is truly random. Well let me tell you it was. In the "compose" mode here at blogger.com I clicked on the add an image icon and opened up each of my picture folders one at a time and scrolled down a bit and than clicked one at random. I wasn't happy with some of the choices but with being random you gotta go with what you get.

I was wanting to try to highlight some cards I haven't shown before that is one of the reasons I decided to add Basketball into the mix and speaking of which that is next:

BASKETBALL:

 2008-09 Upper Deck Antawn Jamison Wizards

As I said I wanted to highlight some cards I haven't yet, and probably wouldn't thus adding Basketball into the mix. I don't really pursue basketball, and haven't liked it since the early 1980s. It may have been because of the general attitudes of some of the basketball jocks I knew in High School and College. The only Basketball cards I actively pursue are From the Bullets/Wizards Franchise, even then it is very infrequently.

NON-SPORT:

 

1993 Cardz Tales From the Crypt

64 October 1950 Comic no.20 Cover

In the early 1990s (starting in '89 really) HBO had a television Horror series "Tales From the Crypt" based on the old 1950 pulp comics. In 1993 the card company CARDZ which specialized in Non-Sport Cards, released this 110 base card set. The special "chase" cards from the set were a subset of Hologram cards. That was before the big costume piece (same idea as jersey cards for the sports) and auto cards.

HOCKEY:

1993 Classic Prospects

3 Manon Rheaume "The First Lady of Hockey"

Back in the early 1980s the Classic Game company produced a ton of cards. I recall first seeing them at the toy store I worked at, I thought of them more as part of a game than serious trading cards. Most of the cards I recalled from back then were "4 Sport" cards a series of cards that had players from the 4 major US sports Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey. Around this time a young lady named Manon Rheaume was making strides in the boys club of professional hockey. She signed as a free agent for the Tampa Bay Lightning as goalie, and played in a couple of preseason games in 1992 and '93 making her the first woman to play in the NHL. Just about all of the Manon Rheaume cards I have I've gotten from Ebay. Most of them I have gotten in lots of several cards. This is one of those cards.

OK so that does it for this Random Cardness experiment.

A Fishstripe Auto From A Current Nat

From a fellow member of TCC (tradingcardcentral.com) I bought a 2003 Bowman's Best Certified Issue Auto BB-JW Josh Willingham Marlins.

 

Josh played for the Florida Marlins from 2004 - 2008 he was drafted in the 17th round of the 2000 amateur draft. He made his MLB debut in July 2004 for the Marlins vs. The Pittsburgh Pirates.

Josh was traded to the Washington Nationals (with pitcher Scott Olsen for Emilio Bonifacio) in November 2008 and is now one of the Nats big powerhouse hitters.