Instagram Trade With Angelo - Dual-Sided Cut Auto

I completed a trade with a guy named Angelo on Instagram recently when I sent him a Yoenis Cespedes Topps Hi Tek auto and a Dave Winfield triple relic for this Famous Fabrics Ink Big Apple Baseball dual cut auto of Hall of Famer Monte Irvin and Max Lanier.

Angelo offered me the card just after Irvin passed away and I figured it was a pretty cool piece to add to the collection.  It is a brand I have never heard of before, and serial numbered 325/2,000.

Another thing about this card that appealed to me was the Lanier auto.  I know next to nothing about him, so we will all learn together via baseball-reference:

Lanier was born in Denton, NC in 1915 and died in 2007 at the age of 91.  He played in the majors (a pitcher) from 1938 to 1946 and 1949 to 1953 for the Cardinals, Giants and Browns.  He had a career record of 108-82 with a 3.01 ERA and 821 strikeouts.

Lanier won the World Series with the Cardinals in 1942 and 1944 and made the All Star team in 1943 and 1944.

It seems to me that Lanier was a pretty good pitcher in his day.  I'm glad to have been able to add his auto to my collection.  Thanks for the trade, Angelo!

Instagram Trade With Alexander

I completed a trade last month with a guy from Instagram named Alex.  I sent him something that I can't quite remember (I think it was a Bowman Sterling auto) in exchange for this awesome Jonathan Schoop auto from 2014 Inception.  Inception is such a good product, but the Orioles haven't really had a whole lot of major prospects come through that set, with the exception of Schoop, Hunter Harvey and Christian Walker.  I'm hoping the Orioles recent draft picks start to show up in products like this.  Also, I can't wait to see stuff of Trey Mancini and Chance Sisco in this stuff as well,

Alexander included some extras in the package as well.  They were a few Orioles cards, but the most notable was this Jimmy Paredes sparkle chrome from Topps Update.  I wish Chris Davis had one of these this year, because I would be all over it!  This card just looks so cool.  It's too bad Paredes tailed off after the All Star break, because he was on pace to have a pretty special year last year.  I hope he can bounce back.  We'll see though.

Thanks for the deal, Alexander!  I wish I could remember what I sent, but I'm sure you were happy with it.

Orioles Trade With Dylan

I completed a trade recently with my buddy, Dylan, when I sent him a Bowman Sterling auto and a bunch of Red Sox prospect cards in exchange for a bunch of Orioles cards.  This Cal Ripken from 2014 Triple Threads is one that I didn't have, yet, and was happy to add to my collection.  It is numbered 1/50.  Dylan also included a bunch of other Cals that I think I needed for the collection, but I am really not sure.  It will take a miracle for me to log all of the Cals into my spreadsheet.  I don't know if I ever will have the time for that.

Another cornerstone to our deal was this Frank Robinson ring card from 2014 Topps.  I looked around, and I have been adding quite a few decent F. Robinson cards lately.  I still contend that he is one of the most underrated Hall of Famers there is.  He really was one of the all-time greats, and I think he kind of gets overlooked a lot of the time.

Thank you for the deal, Dylan!  Not only did he hook me up in this deal, but a couple days later, I got an unopened 2015 Topps Orioles team set, which I haven't been able to find around here.  That was really awesome of him!

Trade With Josh F. - Adam Jones Snow Camo

I completed a trade recently with a guy on Instagram named Josh F.  He and I have traded before, and this time around was no different.  He is a friendly guy, and collects some guys that I normally wouldn't be able to unload in Patrick Corban and Jason Grilli.  He offered me this Adam Jones snow camo from 2015 update and in return I sent him a few Yankees parallels (notably, a Robert Refsnyder) and some Corban and Grilli cards.

I think Josh was pretty happy with the package I sent, especially since he was going to a signing with Grilli not too long after we made the deal.  If I remember correctly, he was able to get all of the cards I sent signed.  Not bad.

This is a pretty nice Joney from update.  It is  numbered 61/99 and shows him in his All Star jersey from this past year.  I think it looks pretty cool.

Thanks for the trade, Josh!

Christmas Gift From Jacob

I'm still working away at getting my "to be blogged" stack down, and it looks like I will be writing about Christmas gifts from the community well into February.  By no means, however, am I complaining.  The community has been very good to me over the years.  I've met a bunch of people and made quite a few friends.

One of those friends is a guy named Jacob who also hails from NC.  We have traded on Instagram and met in person at a few of the Raleigh card shows.

For Christmas, Jacob sent me this cool Cal Ripken metal card that I didn't have in my collection.  I haven't actually seen any of these before, so this was a nice surprise.  It says it was made in 1996 by Metallic Impressions.  I thought I had seen all of the Cal cards that there are to see, and Jacob pulls this out of his hat.  Well done!

Thank you for the gift, Jacob, I love the card.

1969 Topps Set Pickups From The Antique Shop

When I wasn't buying high-value vintage cards or stuff for friends at the Columbia antique shop, I was knocking cards off of my 1969 Topps set wishlist.

I picked up 41 cards that I needed for the set.  After this trip, I need 178 cards to complete the set.  I couldn't believe that I still needed this Brooks Robinson for the set.  I thought I had added it a while ago.

There were a bunch of stars that I picked up,  This Don Drysdale was a nice pickup.  It is far from mint, but it is still a nice addition.  This is actually Drysdale's last Topps card, as he would retire due to chronically sore shoulder during the 1969 season.

This Bob Gibson is nice, but will probably be upgraded at some point.  I didn't notice that it had a big crease near the bottom right corner.  I know not to expect my vintage sets to be mint, so I may ot even upgrade it at all.

I picked up several of the All Star cards that I was missing.  I added this Brooks (again, I thought I had an extra of this from my PC), Willie McCovey, the below Ron Santo and a Bob Gibson.

So, I made a nice dent in the 1969 set.  I am happy with what I spent, and I hope to keep chipping away at this set this year.  It would be really nice to close it out BEFORE the National, that way I can pick up other stuff, but I don't know.  Events are piling up already for me this year, and budgeting is going to be tough.

Columbia Antique Shop Pickups - 1953 Topps Hall of Famers

I finally got a chance to visit my brother in Columbia, SC after almost a year.  I try to get down there a few times a year, but last year, I was only able to get down there for the crawfish festival in May.  We went down there to hang out, since it had been a while, and also to get out of town for a bit.  The drive down wasn't bad at all, even though there was a winter storm a little farther west of where I was.  It was cold as crap all weekend, though.

As always, I made sure to visit Conrad at Chic Antiques while I was in Columbia.  I emailed him ahead of time so he would have an idea of what I was looking for.  This time around, though, he wasn't able to locate any of the Hall of Fame baseballs that I had on my mind.  That made it easier for me to focus on cards, however, and I was able to knock a nice chunk out of my 1969 set while I was there (will be shown in a later blog post).

Since I didn't get a ball, I got some nice vintage for a few friends of mine.  Aside from the 1969s, I only took home two vintage cards for myself.  The above 1953 Yogi Berra was one that I have seen there a few times, but haven't bought.  Finally, I took the plunge and added it to my collection.  It is a really cool card and I am glad to have it alongside the rest of my Berras.  I think 1953 Topps is a very underrated set.  I have a couple of the big name cards, with the Satchel Paige, Berra and a couple others.  The Mantle is ridiculously priced, but otherwise, this may be a nice set to work on here and there at some point.

Speaking of 1953 Topps, I added another with this nice Ralph Kiner.  Conrad pretty much did a buy one, get one free on these.  For the price he had the Berra listed, I paid that price for both of these cards.  I don't know which card looks better, Berra or Kiner, but I do enjoy the old school Pirates logo on this one.

I intend to start up another 50s set sometime soon, and Conrad has been enlisted in helping me get started.  I doubt it will be 1953, but I do look forward to the day when I can work on this one.  I think they are beautiful cards.