Trade and Christmas Package From Nick S.

I have been talking a lot lately to a really awesome guy in Texas named Nick.  We have traded a few times, and chatted some, but recently, we decided to talk a lot more.

What started the whole thing was when Mark Trumbo was traded to the Orioles, Nick messaged me saying he had this Trumbo signed baseball and he wanted to know if I was interested.  I wasn't too interested at the time, but told him that I would think about it.  A week or so later, Nick messaged me again saying that he really wanted the ball to go to me,   So, I asked him what it would take to get the ball and we reached a deal really quickly.

The ball is really cool, it is a game used foul ball that Nick caught, and it is a commemorative ball of the Astros 50th season.  I am getting to where I really like these commemorative baseballs.  I have been getting quite a few of them, and I think that is really where the appeal was in this one.  That, and Nick was really awesome about the trade.  So much so, we became very good friends following our discussion.

Generally, when I am sending out a trade package, I try to include some extras.  I wanted to do that with Nick, since he was so nice, and also because it is Christmas.  I told Nick that I was going to include some extras for him, and he told me that he had already gotten some together for me.

When the package came in the mail, I was blown away.  Oftentimes, I will get to chatting with someone and feel like we hit it off, and folks would promise tons of stuff, only to have everything kind of die off soon thereafter.  Nick, though, really blew me away with what he "threw in" to the package.  Not pictured was a stack of Topps gold parallels that he included, two of which were 2014 Topps mini golds of Bud Norris and Dylan Bundy.

The above signed ticket  was from a game he attended (I think he said 6/13/15, and also the day Trumbo signed the ball, I believe); the ticket is signed by Carson Smith.  I don't remember who he told me signed the bottom of the ticket.  Maybe he will read this and comment.

Nick included these IP autographs of former Oriole-now current Oriole- LJ Hoes.  Hoes was a pretty decent prospect for the Orioles, but was traded to Houston in 2013 for Bud Norris.  Now he is back and is looking to make the team out of Spring Training.

I don't know if Nick knew this or not, but this Steve Bechler auto is tough to get.  Bechler was the pitcher who passed away in Spring Training 2003.  His death is the reason why ephedrine is now banned in baseball.  I remember when it happened, and it is still a really sad story.  I really appreciate Nick including this in the care package.  I think I have one other Bechler auto, and I was hoping to add some more over time.

Finally, here is a card I really enjoyed that Nick included.  Don't laugh, I'm serious.  This "well loved" 1969 Topps Hank Aaron appears as if someone ran it over a few times, dropped it in a puddle, then kept it as a wallet card for about 10 years.  The card would probably grade lower than a 1.  Maybe a 0.5?  However, since one of my favorite blogs is POBC (Poor Old Baseball Cards), I really think this card is cool.  I have quite a few POBCs, and this one now probably takes the top of the list.  I may actually make an album sometime with the ones that I have.  Nick might have thought sending this was a bit of a joke (and trust me, the kid is so very funny), but really, I LOVE this card.

Thank you so much for a great trade, an amazing care package and beginning of a really nice friendship.  This stuff really blew me away, and I can't thank you enough, Nick!  If you are on the Instagram, you can give Nick a follow as baseballcards035.

TTM Success - Mike McCormick... Again

I sent off two TTM requests last week and got one back the other day.  I got this 1959 Topps buyback of Mike McCormick signed after it being out only out for about 5 days or so.

This was the oldest buyback card that I had pulled, which was kind of nice, but I still don't really care for the foil stamp that Topps puts on these things.  When I pulled it, I kind of thought to myself, gee, nice '59, but really, what do I do with it?  Then, I remembered that McCormick lived in NC, so a TTM would likely take a short amount of time, so I gave it a shot.

This is a second year card of the former Cy Young award winner (1967).  I didn't realize (or maybe I just didn't remember) that McCormick was a former Oriole.

He charged a $5 fee to sign this card, which wasn't too bad.  He is 77 now, and you can see in his signature that age may be catching up to him a bit.  I do like how his auto kind of matched the facsimile auto on the card.

A Look at the Signed Baseballs I Got at Fan Fest

When the autograph vouchers were announced for this year's Fan Fest, there weren't a lot of surprises.  Nor were there too many guys left that I hadn't met, yet, so I picked up only a select few vouchers.  I wanted to see Nolan Reimold again, so I bought the session that included him, Brady Anderson and Dylan Bundy.  Melvin Mora was making his first appearance there in a long time, so I wanted to meet him, so I got the Mora, Tim Berry and Dylan Bundy session (so two meetings with Bundy) and finally, I wanted to meet Tyler Wilson, and that session also had Jim Palmer and Christian Walker.  For each voucher I bought, I got a second, so Chris could go through the line with me.

I decided that I really liked signed specialty balls.  I was able to find a real cheap 1996 All Star baseball for Brady Anderson to sign.  As you can see above, the ball looks really good, even though Brady's signature is pretty bad.  Chris also got a plain OMLB signed for me, which was nice.  He knows that all of my stuff will eventually become his, so he did a really good job at Fan Fest in helping me find stuff, and also getting things signed.

For the people that I didn't necessarily need second signed balls of, I let Chris have an OMLB, which he got multi signed by a bunch of the guys there.  I had only taken 14 balls to Fan Fest, then sold two to Ryan, so I needed a way for Chris to enjoy the signings as well.  Also, in a rush to leave on Friday, I had forgotten the large photo that Chris had been getting signed by former Orioles.

I was able to find another specialty ball on Ebay, a 2005 All Star ball.  This one was for Melvin Mora.  I actually got complimented from a fellow O's fan on the ball, which was pretty cool.

The ball turned out really nice, I think.  I really like the different colored seams on the All Star balls.

I was able to meet Hall of Famer, Jim Palmer again, which is always a treat.  I can't count how many times I have gotten his auto at Fan Fest, but I try to every chance I get.  I also traded for a signed Palmer ball from Ryan, then also ended up with Chris's ball.  I had a pending deal with my good buddy Max for one of the Palmer balls in exchange for an upgrade to another one of my Hall of Famers (which I will show another time).  The other, I ended up making a deal with my good friend, Sam for that.  So, of the three I got, I have deals pending for two of them.  The last one I will hold onto for now.

I think, other than Nolan, I was most excited about meeting Orioles pitcher Tyler Wilson.  He just completed his rookie season, and had a pretty decent showing.  He struggled, for sure, but I think he has a bright future with the Orioles.  I had seen him (with Ryan, of course) pitch for Bowie a couple years ago, and really was impressed (much more than I was with the next day's starter, Eduardo Rodriguez),

Wilson was very nice when we signed, and I wished him well for the 2016 season.

I got another ball signed by Christian Walker as well.  His signature has changed since last year, which is interesting.  Walker has a chance to break camp with the O's, unless something drastic happens, and Chris Davis re-signs.  I doubt Davis will be back, so maybe Walker gets his shot.  Who knows.

I'm sure some folks are wondering if I got something signed by Nolan.  I did, but since I have a ton of stuff signed by him that I absolutely love, I decided to do something nice for a friend of mine.  So, I had Nolan sign a ball with a message, and I dropped it in the mail today.  I hope my friend loves it!

So, of all of the baseballs I took with me to Fan Fest, I have one left.  I will likely hold onto it for now, unless I decide to get it signed TTM by someone.

Fan Fest Pickup - Oct 4, 2015 Lineup Card

The piece I was most excited about that I picked up from Fan Fest was this game used lineup card from the Oct 4, 2015 game against the New York Yankees.

If you remember, that was the final game of the 2015 season and also the game that Chris Davis hit two homers, his final ones as an Oriole.

I was at the game with my son, Chris, and my friend, Michael.  We were seen on mlb.com and also MASN after Davis hit the second homer.

I had seen the game used lineup card box at the Orioles authentics booth at Fan Fest, but I was looking through game used hats because Michael told me that there were some Reimolds in there.  I didn't find those, but while I was doing that, I asked Chris to look through the lineup cards to see if any of the October games were in there.

He told me that he didn't see any, but I decided to take a look anyway, and I found this.  I checked the box score on my phone and found that this was from the final game.  I was so excited, I bought it on the spot.

I plan on putting this up with a copy of the screenshot of me celebrating the home run (from mlb.com) and a copy of the box score.  I think it'll be a bit expensive, but will look cool when it is done.

If you look closely, you'll see that it is signed by Buck Showalter, which is an added bonus.

2016 Orioles Fan Fest Thoughts

Another Fan Fest is in the books and while it was a lot more rushed this year (thanks Orioles for forgetting to book the venue for January, we all know that's what happened), we had a good time.

I left there with a bunch of stuff: 9 signed baseballs, 23 signed post cards (my son helped me get a bunch of them), 2 new hats, a new hoodie, a game used spring training jersey, a pair of winter gloves, MORE RALLY TOWELS, a Steve Pearce bobble head, a coffee table book, a bunch of Orioles fathead stickers and a game used lineup card.

I went to Fan Fest this year with my son Chris and my friend Ryan from "O No Another Orioles Blog".  At Fan Fest, I met up with my good friend, Michael, and I also met a fellow instagrammer named Reed.  I ended up giving Reed my extra Dylan Bundy ball because he has followed me on Instagram for a long time and always seems to be a nice guy.

I will break down everything that I got over the course of this coming week.  I hope you will all stay tuned to check it all out!

COMC Pickup - 2015 Ginter X Rocky Characters

I used some of the money I raised on COMC during the Black Friday sales to pick up the remaining cards I needed of the Rocky characters for the Ginter X black parallels.  I already had the Apollo Creed card, so I went ahead and got the others that I needed.

My plan is to display all of them (10 cards) somehow.  I have my buddy, Max, working on getting me some of those multi-card screwdown holders.

I think that once I get those in from him, I will be able to show these off.  I really like that Topps added these guys to the set.  The cards look really cool, and it gives me a chance to have some cards from a movie series that I have enjoyed my entire life.

I wonder if Sylvester Stallone had any idea when he wrote the original screenplay that the characters he was creating would have the staying power that they have.  I mean, everyone knows who Rocky Balboa is.  He is one of the most iconic movie characters there is.

Huge 1994 Topps Package From Michael A.

I got a small box in the mail a couple days ago from Michael A, in Arizona.  In the box was a bunch of 1994 Topps that I needed for the set that I have been slowly working on for quite a while.  The deal for the cards was in the making for a long time, as well.  Michael finally got them in the mail, and I spent last night knocking the list down and updating my wishlist.

I have had a few people tell me that they can help me close out that set, which would be very welcome.  I'm glad I finally got the box from Michael and got my list updated.  I think I counted last night that I need only 47 cards to complete the set.  Not bad at all.  It will be a goal of mine to finish this set in 2016 and move on to 1995 Topps.  I have been really slow in finishing those sets, but once I do, I will have a string of Topps sets from 1973 to 2015.  Seeing that really makes me want to get them done!

Thanks for the package, Michael!