Sportlots Stack

I've had the urge to post something here for a while, but I was waiting for the first of three sports card purchases to arrive. (I'll post at least one "sports talk" post on The 1993 in the near future.)

As you probably know, I've been on a mission to complete as many card sets as I can. The set I was closest to completing was 2019 Score Football, as I needed just 2 of the 440 cards. A TCDB user I'd traded with in the past had both the cards and I made an offer at the end of October. No reply. I waited nearly three weeks before finally withdrawing the offer and shopping for the elusive pair on Sportlots.

That's where I found a seller with both the cards in his inventory - and a fantastic deal on shipping. 

Sheff573 will ship two cards for $0.68 - a very fair price, and one of the lowest I've seen on the site. But! He will ship 5-10 cards to you for $0.90. It gets better. If you order up to 25 cards the shipping charge increases to just $1.45. Double that order - 50 cards - and he charges you another 30 cents. 

$1.75 shipping for 50 cards? You can't beat that! At 18 cents a card I paid a mere $10.75 for this stack:

After procuring the two cards that completed my 2019 Score set I searched for more cards that fit my collection. Sheff's inventory isn't super expansive - which is good. It helps me narrow my focus. I didn't find any more set needs but I did boost a few player and team PCs - especially football:

No big deal, just a rookie card of the NFL's leading receiver this year. For 20 cents or so.

You heard it here first: the Packers will finish the year 13-4, earn home-field advantage in the playoffs, and lose the NFC championship to MFing TB again.

Or maybe they'll lose to Kyler Murray and the Cardinals this year. Two Kyler cards for two dimes apiece was an exciting find, doubling my Murray collection to four cards including his 2019 Score RC.

I would have been okay with the Cardinals winning the Super Bowl this year - if J.J. Watt were playing (and if Larry Fitzgerald hadn't retired.) All three of these guys are out for the year with injuries. Football is a brutal game.

Here are some more players I collect. Tough to pass up cards of these guys for a quarter or less:

I'm not a fan of the 2020 Illusions design but these three stars are underrepresented in my collection:

Finishing off the football portion with these:

I've been scooping up cards of quarterbacks from the late 1970s-1980s including Ken Anderson. The Pro Football Hall of Fame recently released a list of semi-finalists for induction in 2022 and no quarterbacks were listed. Which leads me to this question: which retired (and eligible) signal-caller do you think deserves a bust in Canton? I've got a feeling that the next QB enshrined will be Eli Manning but maybe Anderson deserves another look? (fwiw, his "Hall Monitor" rating is just below Eli's.)

Hoops and hockey here. The Barkley is from the Winter edition. Affordable Anfrenee cards are always nice, and I didn't have a Zach LaVine card outside of the 2015-16 Donruss set. Sheff573 didn't have much hockey to choose from, mostly 2020-21 Upper Deck base cards. I'm thrilled this Ovi was available. Career goal #750 is imminent.

I also grabbed a handful of baseball singles from Sheff:

No big deal, just a card with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on it. For 20 cents or so. (I know it's not a rare card, but try finding either one of those studs in a quarter box.)

Let's wrap up this 50-card order with some more 2020 Topps Archives and some Red Sox, including a pair of David Ortiz singles. I might have to write a post about Papi when the Baseball Hall of Fame vote is nigh.

I'll have a couple more "show and tell" posts once my orders from COMC and baseballcardstore.ca arrive. I wonder which one will get here first? (probably not COMC.)

Thanks for reading!

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Set Building Update

I've been having a difficult time trying to write a traditional sports card post.

There are a couple topics that I've considered discussing here and at The 1993  - perhaps a post about Kyle Schwarber or a catcher comparison featuring Buster Posey - but I seem to have exhausted all of my creativity on my 6-part "goodbye" series. (If you read any or all of that, I truly appreciate it. If you missed the series here's part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6.)


I haven't purchased any current-year cards in a long, long time. This may be changing soon, as I'm intrigued by 2021 Topps Archives and 2022 Topps flagship. It would be good timing since I've managed to earn some bonus cash at work and I'm in dire need of new trade bait.

 

 

The only cards I've been adding to my collection have been set fillers - mostly from the overproduction era. Basically I'm just trying to clear out as many duplicates as I can for... pretty much anything I don't have. I seem to have run out of trade matches on TCDB, so if any of my regular readers want to browse my trade list let me know what you need and I'll send a PWE your way. I'm not expecting anything in return but I've posted my complete set building list below - just in case I don't write another post for a while:

Baseball Checklist

1993 Fleer Ultra inserts
Home Run Kings #6 Barry Bonds, 7 Joe Carter
Strikeout Kings #4 Nolan Ryan

1993 Upper Deck
#257 Andy Stankiewicz, 486 Barry Bonds, 487 Dennis Eckersley

2013 Topps
#270 Manny Machado, 338 Mike Trout, 536 Mike Trout

2013 Topps Update
#US8, 26, 29, 51, 79, 80, 87, 99, 100, 101, 109, 116, 138, 146, 150, 168, 175, 178, 183, 199, 216, 218, 224, 250, 253, 255, 259, 265, 274, 278, 279, 282, 290, 300, 315, 321, 324, 329, 330

2017 Topps Heritage inserts
Baseball Flashbacks #BF-NR Nolan Ryan
Now and Then #NT-10 Aaron Judge
Topps Game #8 Anthony Rizzo, 12 Jake Arietta

2018 Topps Chrome
#1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 21, 25, 30, 32, 39, 42, 49, 54, 61, 65, 66, 67, 70, 72, 80, 82, 92, 93, 98, 100, 101, 104, 105, 109, 110, 113, 117, 122, 126, 128, 133, 135, 141, 147, 148, 150, 153, 155, 157, 162, 164, 170, 173, 177, 179, 180, 181, 193

Football Checklist

1986 Topps (upgrades)
#19, 25, 42, 54, 106, 112, 119, 125, 127, 135, 174, 176, 179, 183, 195, 218, 241, 252, 257, 259, 294, 296, 297, 321, 331, 371, 376, 389

1987 Topps (upgrades)
#27, 36, 37, 52, 64, 70, 117, 133, 136, 168, 170, 179, 232, 266, 326, 366, 374, 386

2019 Score
#10 Chris Conley, 346 Miles Sanders RC

Basketball Checklist

1990-91 Hoops
#4, 13, 279, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 353, 355, 358, 372, 376, 378, 379, 380, 382, 383, 385, 386, 388, 389, 390, 392, 394, 398, 399, 400, 403, 408, 426, 428, 431, 436, 437, 440

1991-92 Upper Deck
#4, 5, 22, 30, 32, 33, 34, 44, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 69, 70, 72, 75, 76, 92, 94, 100, 146, 148, 162, 171, 176, 192, 197, 198, 199, 200, 209, 245, 250, 251, 261, 270, 272, 273, 287, 291, 300, 317, 318, 319, 324, 333, 334, 335, 337, 346, 347, 348-351, 365, 380, 386, 398, 400 (plus most of high series)

1992-93 Upper Deck All-Division Team inserts
#1 Shaquille O’Neal, 8 Larry Johnson, 11 David Robinson, 12 Karl Malone, 16 Kevin Duckworth

2003-04 SP Authentic
#6, 8, 13, 15, 26, 30, 35, 38, 49, 62, 77

Hockey Checklist

1988-89 Topps
#9, 13, 16, 25, 27, 28, 29, 33, 34, 35, 38, 42, 44, 53, 54, 56, 57, 61, 63, 66, 68, 75, 83, 90, 91, 98, 105, 112, 113, 120, 121, 123, 125, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 145, 149, 152, 153, 158, 160, 165, 176, 177, 178, 183, 186, 187, 195, 197

1993-94 Leaf Painted Warriors inserts
#4 Patrick Roy, 5 Grant Fuhr, 9 Tom Barrasso

1995-96 Playoff One on One Challenge
#119, 123, 125, 127, 136, 137, 146, 148, 150, 151, 152, 158, 160, 180, 181, 184, 190, 195, 208, 219, 220 (plus high series SPs)

2001-02 Topps
rookies #331-360

2003-04 Topps Lost Rookie Cards inserts
#LRC-BH Brett Hull, CJ Curtis Joseph, JR Jeremy Roenick

2003-04 Topps Pristine (base rookies #d/1199)
#107 Patrice Bergeron, 113 Dominic Moore, 137 Matt Stajan

2007-08 Black Diamond
#194 Carey Price RC

 

Also I thought I was finished with COMC forever but I am starting to get that 'Black Friday' feeling again and it would be nice to have something to look forward to and enjoy this holiday season. So I might have something interesting to discuss by the end of the month. We'll see how it goes.




Thanks for reading!



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500th and Final... For Now

This is going to be a long post in which I recap the remaining cards from my COMC order, squeeze in a set build, and look back at the previous 499 posts here at The Collector. On the plus side you won't have to read anything else from me for quite a while. (Notice I didn't say Never. I'll get to that...)

I discovered COMC in November 2013, while searching for some rare Peter Worrell parallels (that also led me to start shopping at Sportlots) Aside from the two Worrell cards I picked up hockey set fillers and some Bowman prospects. However I soon discovered that COMC had tons of great looking vintage singles available. Almost every order I placed after 2013 contained at least one card released prior to 1970.

This 1950 Bowman Sheldon Jones card was in my last order. I was very excited to see it in person. Even though COMC scans both sides it's still a bit of a risk buying ungraded vintage online. You never know what hidden flaw you may have missed on screen. However this card looks fantastic. Here's the back:

Not bad for $4.65 I'd say. This was the third-most expensive card in my April order. Coming in at number two is this Jonathan Toews 2015-16 Black Diamond Exquisite single, numbered to 149:

This 30-card set was assembled almost entirely on COMC, with two or three exceptions purchased on eBay. Every team has one base card numbered to 149. I've spent about $100 on the cards (JT here cost $5.54) and another $20 or so on the extra thick top loaders, but it's been a fun project - and it's almost complete:

The only one I'm missing is #29 Alex Ovechkin. COMC has two copies available, but I won't be placing an order with them just for that one card (unless I can't find it anywhere else.)

My box of thick cards and relics is stuffed, but I made room for one more Immaculate Numbers acetate single. Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks is the latest addition to my collection, at a reasonable price of $12:

I now have 13 of the 100 jersey/patch cards from the 2015 set. Some of them were purchased on eBay (including Jonathan Stewart and Andy Dalton) As with the Exquisite hockey singles, this was out of necessity. COMC's prices are more reasonable, but eBay won't make you wait four months to get your cards!

That wraps up my COMC order, but before I sign off I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some highlights from the five years I've posted at The Collector. You probably missed my first entry here in August of 2016 so here it is:

Under 100 words, ha! Who was I kidding?

Less than a month later I published Buying Back My Childhood: Starting Lineup This was my fifth post ever on this blog, and it remains my most viewed ever by far. On average I'd say my posts get 80-100 views, with 200+ being the high end. This one has 1,358 views!

I'm so grateful to everyone who comments on my blog, especially those who comment on nearly every post. On average, each of my regular-length posts receive 6 to 10 comments, with 15 to 20 being the high end. Four of my posts have received 30-plus comments, though that includes my replies to each. The top two of those posts were giveaways, including my most commented post ever. In third place: a post about collecting players who share your birthday.

Fourth on the list, with 30 comments (including mine) is the Celebrity Crush Championship. Since I probably won't write another post here in 2021 I'll name this year's winner now: Elizabeth Olsen.


I'm planning to publish a box break on The 1993 tomorrow, but then I'm going to take some time away from the blogs. My kids are growing up much too fast so I want to spend more time with them, as well as call my mom more often. I definitely want to get outside and exercise some more while the weather is still warm. There's also a pile of books on my shelf that are waiting to be read, and I really should continue looking for a better (paying) job. One without you-know-who.

I did say I was "retiring" from the hobby, and I will try to stick to that. It's going to take some time for me to move out my duplicates and fill my unfinished sets so I'll be active on TCDB from now until New Year's. If you haven't added me to your friends list I'm hockeydude.

However it occurred to me that I never showed off my (nearly) completed All-Time Teams collection. I might do that in 2022 -- and/or a weekly Sports Card Tour update since you all enjoyed that series. So don't unfollow The Collector just yet!


I'll pop in and comment on your blogs from time to time. Until then, thank you all for reading and following me here at The Collector and The 1993. I appreciate all of the discussions, comments, and trades. You've made my hobbies - card collecting and writing - a lot more enjoyable. Thank you!

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Feeling Blue

There are a lot of things going on in the world, in our country, and in my life that absolutely suck. 

My mom was scheduled for major surgery in August but it was delayed due to the first of two hurricanes to hit the northeast in the past 16 days or so. The one that hit us Wednesday dumped enough rain to flood our basement and our front window. It just so happens that I work for a mitigation company - but I knew firsthand that our crew would be booked for days. Luckily we were able to dry it out ourselves.

The day before, I went to the dentist for the first time in.. I dunno, ten years? We've been barely scraping by until this year. Stimulus checks + selling sports cards + brother-in-law making bank after his company went public and sharing the profits = finally enough money to see a damn dentist. And I'll need all of it if I want to avoid looking like a pro hockey player.

Home life isn't great. I won't get too personal but I'm definitely going through a mid-life crisis, feeling lonely and already pre-grieving my mother - who isn't in any immediate danger of dying, she's just in a lot of pain. 

My marriage isn't what it should be. It's not bad, it's just.. well, my wife has described us as "friends who had kids" and sometimes I don't even feel like she likes me all that much. All of this makes it much harder to go to work and make small talk with OG. I like my job, I love my manager, and most of my co-workers are awesome. But I often come home feeling forlorn.

Anyway.. you might read all of this and assume I am depressed. Not exactly. It comes and goes, but at the moment I feel good. I'm going to see my family tomorrow and some of my favorite seasons are about to start - fall and football.

My manager G and the aforementioned young lady I work with have been busting tail all week in and out of the office. They're both in the office longer than I am, they both have kids, and they're both on call after hours. That can be very exhausting, especially during a disaster.

Anyway, those bearded QBs you see above are among the handful of blue parallels I acquired in my latest (and last?) COMC order. Color-matching parallels have always appealed to me - but blue cards in particular really make me smile.

I prefer Panini Prizm parallels and both Fitz and Fouts were cheaper than these Press Proof parallels of Houston legends. But I must have been in a blue mood when I added these to the COMC cart.

Have you ever noticed how many songs have the word "Blue" in the title? There are at least three that I have on my playlist - and none of them make me sad. In fact they make me want to dance. My all-time favorite is New Order's "Blue Monday"

 

I still have this cassingle in my closet.

My high school best friend used to sing(or shout) "I see a shit in the harbor" whenever this song came on. That always made me laugh.

Here's another "blue" song that cheers me up whenever I hear it:

My current favorite is the song that converted me from a skeptic to a follower of Chvrches:

That beat drop is strikingly similar to Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" And I just can't get enough blue parallels. Terrible segue, I know. I'm really bad at this. I should just stop.

I've tried to acquire a Steven Stamkos Blue Prizm parallel but they're always just out of reach. I settled for a Phil Kessel instead. The Credential card you see here isn't a blue parallel, it's something called a "Mandelbrot Fractal" - whatever that is. These Dazzlers aren't exactly blue, either:

But thanks to ePack they were cheap. These two Avalanche stars plus the Stamkos above totaled 91 cents (Stammer's jersey number) Here are some other cheap hockey cards I picked up at COMC:

Wait a second... these are all red. Blue might be my favorite color but a lot of my favorite teams wear red.

One more...

Thanks for reading!

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What if I don't want to complete the set?

One aspect of card collecting that I still enjoy is the thrill of filling a set. Player collecting, and especially team collecting, can feel infinite. There are often hard to find singles out there for even the most obscure players, making a complete collection nearly impossible.

Sets are finite. Sets are fun. The Trading Card Database makes tracking set progress very easy, and I've definitely become more of a set collector as a result. I've even finished off a handful of insert sets I wouldn't have pursued without TCDB.

Once a set build crosses that 50% meter it becomes very difficult for me to abandon ship. There are outliers, of course.

I've mentioned that I'm one card away from completing 2016 Donruss Football - and that one card is Dak Prescott's Rated Rookie card. Spending $25 (or more) for a non-numbered RC of a Dallas Cowboys quarterback is not my idea of fun. Neither is spending $50 (or more) for a Carey Price rookie card to complete the 2007-08 Black Diamond hockey set. I've gone this long without it, what's the rush?

Both these sets are over 99% complete. The only other "so close" set in my collection is 2013 Topps baseball.

I currently have 654 of the 660 cards in the 2013 Topps set, good for 99.1% completion. Three more singles are on the way via trades, though one is an upgrade. Once received I will need four cards: Mike Trout, Mike Trout, Mike Trout, and Manny Machado's rookie card.

If I had started this set build three years ago, the Trout singles wouldn't have been an issue. I probably could have crossed them off my list for $10 total instead of $10 each, which is what they'd cost me now.

A user I've traded with on TCDB had one of the three available for trade. I asked about it and got this reply:

My 2013 Trout has been in a top load since out of the pack. I doubt we could come up with anything for that. The things I would consider would be...The 1972 Aaron..
Obviously the Aaron would be an even trade if yours is not in Mint condition.

Technically my '72 Aaron is not in "mint" condition.. but I still can't imagine a market where this equals this:

And now you know why I'm about ready to retire.

As for this jerk .. forgive me for not rushing to pay $5-10 for a rookie card of the guy who ended my favorite player's career.

Moving on from sets I don't want to complete to a set that can't be completed... the primary reason I bothered to place an order at COMC in 20021 was to fortify my All-Time Teams frankenset. COMC was the one place where I could view the exact scan of the card, which was crucial for purchasing vintage singles of middle relievers from the 1950s:

There are only 23 Marv Grissom cards to choose from, and this was pretty much the only standard-sized option (aside from the bland '58 Topps issue) I'd be happy paying $2.10 for any '57 Topps single in this shape. Elston is a high number and cost just $1.57 - which had me worried that there was some flaw I couldn't see in the scan. If there is a crease or scratch line on this card I still can't see it.

This might be the only non-playing card of a player in my All-Time Teams collection. That is, Hughie Jennings is clearly well past his playing days in this photo - yet I'm adding it to my Barnstormers page because he's not doing that derpy "Ee-yah!" dance for once.

I added two Frankie Frisch Cardinals cards to my COMC cart because I couldn't decide which one I liked better. What do you think: Licensed McDonald's oddball, or unlicensed serial-numbered Crystal parallel?

Some cheap upgrades here - except for the Cy Young card which wasn't as cheap ($1.50) and the Tyler Clippard card which arrived in a TCDB trade. I also traded for this card of Angela Stadium:

The American League binder is now complete. The National League binder is missing a pair of players.

New York Giants shortstop George Davis has 49 cards. More than half of them are 100-plus years old. The only attainable singles are: postcard, wrong team, and wrong George Davis. And then there's Reds pitcher Noodles Hahn. The first time I checked, Noodles had three or four cards. He now has eleven, but this playing card is the only modern item that would work for my frankenset.

Wait a sec... Noodles has a bobblehead?!? They couldn't have included a card inside this box?? Sigh..

Two more to go...

Thanks for reading!




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