An Extraordinary Instagram Trade

I received a random direct message on Instagram a while back from a guy who uses the handle "extraordinary_cards".  He had this Tier One Cal Ripken auto that he wanted to trade.  I humored him, but figured that I definitely didn't have anything that would match up in a trade.  I made a comment saying "I don't think I have a lot I can offer, but I do have a Nick Castellanos 1/1 letter patch".  It turns out, he PCs Castellanos, and I didn't need to look for anything else to offer.

He also didn't feel like the Ripken was enough to seal the deal, so he added this Tim Lincecum relic for Chris and two autograph cards.

I didn't have any David Hess certified autos, and I was able to get this Poncedeleon for Andrew.

I think the trade worked out really well.  It took a while to get here, because USPS delayed the package for about a week, but everything ended up getting in safely.

As you can see, I am finally caught up on TTMs, for the moment, at least.  I have some other pickups that I want to get in, so there will finally be a little variety in my posts.

Amazing In Person Graphing Success - Tim Lincecum

I had one of my best IP autograph success today, almost by accident.  I am in Baltimore with my sister and have tickets to the Orioles series against the Angels.  My goal was to try to get Mike Trout on a ball.  I was actually really close to getting him, but I wasn't quite lucky enough, but I did get someone pretty awesome, Tim Lincecum.  You can see the ball that I got signed, it turned out great.

When Lincecum came up to where I was at, a small kid in front of me who had already had his ball signed offered to get mine signed as well, since he was right up against the wall.  This helped my ball get to the front, and Tim signed it.  While he was signing, I told him "You are my son's favorite player, ever.  He loves you!"  Tim looked at me, smiled and said "Make sure you tell him I said hello!"  I got out of the crowd and jumped on my cell phone to call my mom.  Chris, my son, is visiting my parents, so she had to get him out of the pool and to the phone.  I told Chris what Lincecum said and he was speechless.  I really wish Chris had been able to make the trip, but my fear is that had he been here, Lincecum wouldn't have been signing.

I was graphing with my friend from Instagram, Stefan, and another Instagrammer, Brian.  Stefan was able to get Lincecum twice and then got Trout!  Stefan has pledged to help me get Trout tomorrow, so maybe I will come away from this trip with some really good autos!  I had a really good time hanging out with the guys.  I am now getting into meeting up with fellow graphers, and have hat a lot of fun.  I know I'm really late to the game, but these kids have a lot of knowledge and expertise!

As far as the game, I hope that I am able to say that I saw Ubaldo Jimenez's last start as an Oriole.  You hate to see someone lose their job, but with the $50 million contract that he signed, he isn't hurting.  Let's hope Buck can find some decent starters somewhere, lest the Orioles lose their grip on the AL East lead.

Instagram Trade With Luke - 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Tim Lincecum Relic

I made a quick and easy one for one deal on Instagram with a guy named Luke for this 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Tim Lincecum relic in exchange for a 2006 UD Artifacts David Wright relic.  This had to have been one of the easiest trades I have ever made, as Luke and I reached a deal within something like 5 minutes from initial contact.  Luke turned out to be a really cool guy and has already added me to one of his trading groups on Facebook.

I'm sure you all know where this Lincecum is headed, it is on Chris's desk waiting on him to get home from visiting his grandparents.  I know he will be excited when he sees it.

Thanks for the trade, Luke, I really appreciate it.  I hope you enjoy the Wright relic, I've had that thing for years!

Mail From Michael

The above card isn't mine, but I had to show it off.  You know, since Chris has abandoned his blog (he's been busy, he'll probably start it back up soon).  Anyway, our friend, Michael sent this Triple Threads Tim Lincecum to Chris recently and I wanted to make sure it got posted and he got a proper thank you.

The card is awesome and Chris loves it.  It will be put with his Mariano Rivera autograph for safe keeping for now, until he can take care of his things.

Michael also sent this Chris Davis signed All Star Game ballot that he got IP at a recent Orioles game.  The signature turned out great and I really appreciate Michael hooking me up.  He said it was in exchange for me hooking him up so much recently, but I have no idea what he's talking about.  Michael is a great guy and I really value his friendship.  He is also awesome to Chris and I know that Chris appreciates it as well.

Thanks Michael.

More Mail From Roger

I am slowly catching up on my mail from the last few weeks and todays post covers a sweet package I got recently from Roger over at "I Don't Know, 3rd Base..."  I had sent him several Tigers cards and in return, he sent me a ton of Orioles stuff as well as some Series 2 Emerald Parallels.

It is really hard to believe that I didn't already have the above Brian Roberts blue refractor from 2008 Finest.  Those are some really nice looking cards, I think.  It is numbered 49/299, not bad!

I really liked this 2010 Topps Chrome Tim Lincecum orange parallel.  I guess Chris will get it in his collection eventually, but for now, I think I will enjoy it myself.

Finally, Roger sent me 23 Series 2 emerald parallels.  I should be coming along nicely on this set.  I really hope to be able to sit down and sort and catalog my needs.  I've been saying it for a while, but I think it really needs to happen.

So, thanks again for the trade, Roger!  I'll continue to keep an eye out for Tigers stuff.  Also, as far as the trade you proposed in your note, please shoot me an email and we can discuss.

Completing a Trade - With My Son

Even though I bought him the 2013 Topps Jumbo pack from the LCS, when my son Chris pulled a pink parallel, I told him that I would trade him something cool for it so I could, then, flip it to someone else in another trade.  So, I showed Chris a few of the Tim Lincecum parallels from 2013 Topps and told him that if I couldn't get the Silver Slate parallel, then I would try to get him a Blue Sparkle parallel.  Well, I was able to get him the Silver Slate parallel after all, but I might still get him the Blue Sparkle, just because, you know, he is an awesome kid.

The Lincecum is numbered 10/10, (Ohhh Emmmm Geeee, Ebay 1/1!!!).  I 'traded' it to Chris for the Pink Parallel Rafael Furcal that he pulled, which I will then flip to Weston over at Fantastic Catch.  I know I overpaid him, but he is my son, and I knew he would really like this Lincecum.  I got myself a Silver Slate parallel, which hasn't arrived yet, but when it does, you know it'll get posted on here.

Another Trade With Kalib

I completed another trade with my new friend Kalib over at "Cubs Cardboard" recently.  I sent him some random Cubs cards, including a couple vintage ones.  He recently posted some trade bait on his blog, so I had to ask for the above Tim Lincecum relic for my son, Chris, and the below Andrew McCutchen 2013 Topps Blue parallel for my own PC.

I think the blue and yellow on the McCutchen really pop off of the card as you may be able to see in the scan.  I think they go really well together.  I definitely need to get more parallels from 2013 Topps!

Finally, Kalib also included some random Orioles cards that he found in a few shoeboxes and one of which was the above 1992 Score No Hit Club featuring the combined no hitter that was thrown on July 13, 1991 (21 years ago!!!).  Bob Milacki, Mike Flanagan, Mark Williamson and Gregg Olson combined to no hit the A's that night.  I really like this card because it features Mike Flanagan.  Flanny is still sorely missed by all Orioles fans, since he took his own life in August of 2011.  To me, that was probably the darkest of days for any Oriole fan in recent memory and it still is tough to think about.  I always feel bad for him and his family whenever I see his cards.  I plan on creating a PC of him sometime soon.

So, thanks again for the trade, Kalib!  I enjoy kalib's blog and I, again, recommend you all to follow it!

2013 Topps Series One - The Inserts

I have finished sorting the cards from my 3 jumbo boxes of 2013 Topps Series One.  I was able to make 2 sets and have enough leftovers from the third partial set to put some stacks together for some of my regular trade partners.  Today, however, I wanted to go through the insert cards and show what all I got from those.  You won't see the green parallels on this post, I want to do those separately because I think I have an idea for them (more on that later).

Chasing History: Not a bad insert set.  I think the cards look really nice and as you can see, they cover a wide range of subjects, such as the above Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth.  I pulled 30 of them, of course since they are one per pack.  Here are the numbers that I pulled.  All are up for trade except for card 39 - Jim Thome:  3, 5, 11, 15 (x2), 16, 17 (x2), 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 29, 30, 31, 32 (x2), 34, 36, 37 (x3), 39, 40 (x2), 41, 48, 49, 50.

As you can see, I got two Black Parallels.  Andre Ethier 26/62 and Angel Pagan 20/26.

I thought the die cut 'Cut to the Chase' cards looked real sharp.  The below Ken Griffey, Jr. is a really nice card.

I have Josh Hamilton (x2), Jeter, Griffey, Brett Lawrie, Yu Darvish, Carlos Gonzalez and Lance Berkman.

Imagine my disappointment when I pulled only one Desert Camo parallel and it was of Luke Hochevar.  Uggh.  I would have fallen out if it was Dylan Bundy or Manny Machado.  I'm watching a Chris Davis on Ebay right now.  I might pop on it, but the price is a little high.  We'll see.  I love the parallel set though.  It's different and it is a slight nod to our uniformed personnel, which is always good to do.

Out of my 3 boxes, I got only one of the 'Out of Bounds' short prints.  Not a bad card, it being of Matt Kemp.  I could probably get a good haul in a trade for it.  Maybe.  I can hope at least.

I really like these 'The Greats' inserts.  They look like something out of Tier One or something like that.  This is a nice subset for folks who can afford Topps Flagship, but maybe not the higher end stuff.  Of these, I pulled 5: Banks, Nolan Ryan, Musial, Seaver and Jeter.  I will likely keep the Musial for my Musial PC, but the others are up for trade.

The Chasing the Dream inserts are ok.  I think the design is the 2013 version of 1990 Topps.  Go ahead, look up 1990 Topps and see.  I'll wait.  See!  They resemble them at least, haha.  Oh well.  Here are the ones I have, in case there's a trade on the horizon: 1, 2 (x2), 5, 6 (x2), 7 (x2), 8 (x2), 9, 12 (x2), 13 (x3), 14, 16 (x2), 17 (x3), 18, 19, 20 (x2), 21 (x2), 24, 25.

I like the design of the Calling Card insert set.  They have little stories about some rituals that players have, which I think is pretty cool.  I ended up with 16 of these: Stargell (x3), Teixeira (x3), Ortiz, Dickey (x3), Prince Fielder, Lincecum (x2), Sandoval and Sabathia (x2).

A staple for any Topps set of recent memory, Gold parallels are back.  I pulled the above Manny Machado out of my first pack of 2013, so you know I was happy.  I got 12 of them: Machado, Rasmus, Samardzija, Kershaw, Santana, McCann, Andruw Jones, AL Wins Leaders, Raburn, Giants WS Champs, Fielder and A-Roid.

Finally, here are the latest minis, using the 1972 design.  I got Adam Jones, so I'm happy to add that to my Jones PC.  Otherwise, I'm kind of mehhh on these.  Here's what else I got, 30 of them: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 35, 39, 40 (x2), 42, 43, 46, 47, 49, 50.

Overall, I enjoyed this year's inserts.  I really love the green/emerald parallels.  I also like the other color parallels such as the pink and desert camo.  I want to make a couple rainbows of some Orioles, such as Chris Davis, etc, so we'll see how that goes.

Congratulations to the Giants and Their Fans

Well, the World Series is over and the Giants have taken home their seventh championship and second in three seasons.

They swept the Tigers in 4 games and their pitching staff just dominated.  Tim Lincecum, my son's favorite player, was lights out out of the bullpen.  Chris was really happy that the Giants won, having claimed them as 'his team' recently.  He is lucky in that he is only 6 and has already seen them win the World Series twice.

I was listening to XM this morning and they were discussing whether or not the Giants can be considered a dynasty.  That was food for thought, since they have already won two titles and are poised to make a run again next year.  I believe that they have as good a chance as any and will really do well if their pitching staff can maintain the success they had this postseason.  They also need Tim Lincecum to put up better numbers next year than he did this year.

What do you guys think?  Personally, I would be fine if they don't repeat next year if that means that the Orioles win!

Birthday Package From Andrew

I got a nice package in the mail Friday before we left town from my friend Andrew.  This was his birthday package to me, along with catch-up for a few trades.

He included several cards that I will likely use as trade bait for Orioles cards since he didn't have a whole lot of them to offer.  Trades or COMC bait.  Oh yeah, hit up my link at the top of the blog to see what is being offered on COMC.

This is a pretty sweet Kory Casto auto from 2007 SP Rookie Edition.  Casto was a 3rd round pick of the Expos in the 2003 draft.  He played a few games in 2007 and 2008 and has since been out of MLB.  It looks like he last played in 2010 in AA for the Diamondbacks.

Here is a 2011 Topps Hope Diamond of Jason Pridie.  He was a second round pick by the Rays in 2002 and played a few games this year for the Phillies.  It looks like Pridie still could get a shot in the majors.

Here is a relic card out of 2012 Topps of Pirates reliever Evan Meek.  Meek was an All Star for the Pirates in 2010.

Finally, here is a 2012 Opening Day Stars Tim Lincecum.  These cards are really cool.  They remind me of the old Sportflics UC3 cards from the 1990s.  I actually miss those cards.  They were a real cool concept and I, for one, bought a bunch of Sportflics packs way back when.

Thanks for the birthday package, Andrew.  It is much appreciated!

Set Complete - 2012 Topps Chrome

Well, that was easy.  I was able to complete the 2012 Topps Chrome set by making 2 trades.  One of the trades ended up being a tad redundant because the second trade was for a complete Chrome base set.  Now, I have a ton of Chrome singles, in order, missing quite a few in order to complete another set.

I got the completed set from fellow blogger Brad who is the proprietor of the blog: Brad's Blog.  All I had to do was send him some Phillies relics and autos and he hooked me up with the set.  Pretty easy transaction.  I got an email from Brad seconds after I had committed to a trade with a friend of mine from the old card shop named Zach for all of his commons.  So, now I have a ton of Chrome commons, haha.  Oh well.  I made two trades in a day when it has been forever since my last one, so I'll take it.  I wouldn't mind making more trades (wink wink nudge nudge), so hit me up.

Thoughts on 2012 Topps Chrome

So, I bit the bullet and decided to buy a box of 2012 Topps Chrome last week at my LCS.  I figured that it would be a fun break and I may get a couple decent autos, as well as some of the different refractors.

There aren't a whole lot of Orioles in this year's Chrome, but one I pulled was Chris Davis.  He is quickly becoming one of my favorite players, so I was glad to get this card.  Would have been nice to get a parallel of him, but that might be something I end up pursuing soon, just for the fun of it.

I got this nice Ryan Braun die cut.  This card will likely be up for trade.  I don't have a Braun PC.  I think he is a really good player, but I just don't see myself holding on to this for much longer.  If interested, shoot me an email.  Oh yeah, a bunch of you guys commented way back when I posted Topps Series 2 that there was interest in the inserts and parallels, yet no one has emailed me.  If you are interested, send me an email.  I don't bite... hard.

This Drew Smyly auto is actually the second auto I pulled, but for some reason it posted first and I'm too lazy to move them around.  You'll be ok.  This card is already spoken for.  Dustin will get this one soon, once he comes up with some Orioles that I need.  No rush, Dustin.

I also pulled this Kirk Neuwen... Niewen... Nieuwenhuis, yeah that guy, auto.  He was on my fantasy team for a good bit of the year and did ok.  I'm not a Met fan, so this one will also either be traded or sold.  I'd prefer sold, unless someone has something nice that they would send.  Again, send me an email and let me know.

Oh look, its a Bryce Harper RC.  Nice, I don't have to get one off of ebay.  Is this one for trade or sale, you ask?  That's a clown question, Bro.

Awesome, a Stephen Strasburg refractor.  I enjoyed this card for about 160-180 innings before I was told by the higher ups that I had to shut it down.  Also not for trade, sorry.

AWESOME!  I got the gold parallel, numbered 8/50 of Andrew McCutchen, my new PC.  I was REALLY happy to add this card to my collection!  I will probably look for the McCutchen Rainbow out of this year's Chrome.  If you want to trade me one of the other colors, EMAIL me and we can work something out!  McCutchen is a great ball player and should be the NL MVP, even though he has cooled off lately.  I mean, he has carried the Pirates all season, so I imagine he is exhausted.

Finally, another card that has been spoken for.  I traded this card for a Wei-Yin Chen base Chrome.  Did I overpay, you ask?  Well, since I bought the pack of cards that the Chen came from and still had to trade to get it back, you might think yes, but since it will be going to my son, Chris, I don't think it is too much trouble to swing a trade with him.  Especially since this Lincecum is going in a top loader and being put in my box for safekeeping anyway.

So, in all, I was really satisfied with this year's Topps Chrome.  They weren't warped like 2010's and I actually pulled two different colored parallels out of one box (unlike NONE from maybe 5 boxes of 2010).  2010 really soured me on Chrome, even though that is the only Chrome set I have built.  I may actually attempt to build this Chrome set.  If anyone has any duplicate base cards they want to unload, let me know.  I might be interested.

Mail From Cam

I got a package in the mail the other day from Cam over at "The Bullpen Cardboard".  He is a nice kid whom I have traded with on occasion.  He got wrapped up in school, so this package was some 3-4 months in the making, but that wasn't too big a deal to me.

Cam sent me a bunch of early to mid 90s Oriole cards.  One of which was this 1991 Topps Billy Ripken.  1991 Topps doesn't get the praise it deserves in the annals of Topps history.  The 2009 set (where Topps vastly improved their photo quality) appeared to be a throwback to the 1991 set; a minimalistic border and fantastic photos and action shots.  I really like the 1991 set.  I might build it again, just for fun, since I see 1991 boxes all over the place, and cheap!

Cam was nice enough to include a Bowman Chrome blue parallel of Tim Lincecum for my son, Chris.  It is too bad that Timmy is having such a terrible year.  Chris doesn't quite understand that, yet, but even if he did, I doubt he would leave as a Timmy fan.

Finally, Cam included this 2000 Topps Alex Gordon auto.  No, not THAT Alex Gordon.  This Alex Gordon was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Orioles in 1998 at the age of 18.  He displayed decent power potential in the minors hitting 54 homers in 356 minor league games.  He never got any higher than High A ball before his career ended in 2004.  I wonder what he is up to now?

Thanks for the package Cam!  I mailed something off to you today.

Trade With Johnny

I recently completed a trade with Johnny from I Collect Stuff 2.  I sent him some Braves cards (Chris also sent him a Dale Murphy hologram).  He hooked Chris up with this really awesome 2007 Bowman Chrome Tim Lincecum.  I'm certain that we didn't have this already, so it was an awesome trade for Chris.

I also got an assortment of Orioles cards, one of which is the below Nick Markakis 2011 Topps Chrome.  I remember thinking when I pulled the Markakis base card out of 2011 Topps, that it would look awesome as a chrome.  I was right!

Thanks for the trade Johnny.  I'll keep a lookout for some more stuff for you!

More Mail From Andrew

I said in this post last week that I have found some new trade partners in Weston and Andrew.  They both are really good kids who are just getting into card collecting and blogging.  One of my missions with this blog has been to help educate people on card collecting and set building and I am always happy to help out with someone's set and PC needs.

I sent Andrew an assortment of Cardinals cards as well as a 2012 Topps Gold Rush Aroldis Chapman, since Chapman was his favorite player.  He totally surprised me when he emailed me and told me what he had sent my way:

He sent this 2011 Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper!  Very awesome of Andrew to send this to me.  Did I mention that he was a really nice kid?  He also included a card for Chris:

He also included a bunch of Orioles cards, including the below Matt Wieters 2010 Upper Deck RC.

Thanks so much Andrew.  I really hope you liked the stuff I sent.  I thought this was a great package from you.  If you all haven't gone to his blog, yet, please check it out and follow him:  ANDREW'S BASEBALL CARDS.

Trade With Andrew

When I completed a trade with Weston from 'Fantastic Catch' the other day, he had one of his friends, Andrew, who had also started a blog (called Andrew's Baseball Cards) message me for a potential trade.  Andrew had a few Orioles cards that Weston knew I would like and all I had to do was hook him up with some Aroldis Chapman and St. Louis Cardinals cards.  So, I emailed Andrew and worked out a deal.

Andrew had this 2011 Topps Update Series Tim Lincecum Cognac available, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add something to Chris' new binder.  He even remarked the other day how much he liked the 'shiny' cards, so it will be awesome to show it to him (he went to bed tonight before I could open my mail).

Andrew added this 2011 Topps Diamond Parallel Zach Britton, which looks really awesome scanned.

We began the trade with a discussion for these two 2011 Topps Opening Day Blue Parallel Orioles, Adam Jones and Brian Roberts.  I like the Blue parallels and always enjoy getting them.

I encourage all of you to check out and follow Andrew's blog.  I, for one, am enjoying seeing more and more young people getting into blogging and into card collecting.  Let's hope it continues into more pageviews and visits at the card show.