An Instagram Trade With Al

Believe it or not, I actually hate trading.  Usually, it is a long, drawn out process where you have to haggle with folks and/or meet their demands to pull something decent off.  I prefer the arrangements I have with friend such as Max or Gerard where we just send each other stuff we think the other would like, and in the end, things kind of wash out.

That's not to be said,though, that I won't pull off a trade here and there.  Recently, a guy on Instagram named Al approached me about trading our extra prospect autos from IP graphing.  I keep a box of extra autos just for this reason, and with the cards that I had built up, I made a pretty sweet deal.

Al was super generous with his cards, and I didn't know he would be at the start.  I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the deal until he sent me some photos of cards he was making available.  The 2017 Topps Heritage Minors Gavin Lux is the card that got my attention, and ultimately what persuaded me to strike a deal.

I had a couple unsigned versions of the card, but I had no way of seeing Lux in person in order to get one signed.  I know he is a really well thought of prospect, so I was hoping I would have a chance to get him at some point.

Al and I basically did a card-for-card trade, but the autograph he was most focused on was Nick Madrigal.  I had one left, and was able to include it in the deal.  I think including that card set the wheels in motion on Al's end, and I think the both of us are very excited about each person's returns.  I was able to get: Lux, Jeff Brigham, Dilson Herrera, Lewis Brinson, Tyler Alexander, Helmis Rodriguez, Daniel Robertson, Chris Ellis, Ryan McMahon, Austin Beck...

 Justus Sheffield, AJ Reed, Forrest Wall, Rosell Herrera, Kyle Freeland, Alex Verdugo, Jamie Westbrook, Cody Reed, Sam Selman...

Jairo!, Tyler Danish, Andrew Sopko x 3, and Pat Neshek.  Al also included autos of Josh Morgan and Collin Wiles, but I already had them, so those will either be included in a future trade with someone else, or they'll make it into a gift or something.

I was very happy with my deal with Al.  He and I agreed to do some 50/50s together, if the season can ever get going.

Another TTM Success From Pat Neshek

When 2019 Heritage came out, I had to get the Pat Neshek from the set signed.  The card is cool as it is, but when you read more into it, it is even better.  Topps wanted to throw some subtle winks into the set, like they always do, and this card pays homage to the original set in that it resembles the Lowell Palmer card from 1970.  Neshek, himself, is a huge fan of that set, and was apparently elated when Topps approached him about recreating the Palmer card.

The card turned out really when when signed, and I am happy to be adding it to my album.

I got these two cards back from Neshek, as I always send him autos for his collection.  These were really nice cards to get back from him.

I had originally thought I was done sending to Neshek, but since the Heritage came out, I tossed this 2018 Topps in as well.

I mailed to Neshek on March 5 and got the cards back on March 14, for a 9-day TAT.  I sent to him via Phillies Spring Training.

Another TTM Success From Pat Neshek

I added some nice cards with this second TTM success from Pat Neshek.  I wasn't going to bother him again, but I had a couple cards I really liked, and decided to send them.

This red parallel from 2018 Stadium Club was really the one that pushed me toward sending to him again.  I got it out of a stack of cards my friend, Caleb, gave me at the National.

I mailed to Neshek on August 20 and got the cards back on August 31, for an 11-day TAT.

The Topps Autograph Project Page Is Now Live

A project that I started last year finally is complete now that I have gotten the final piece blogged.  I was able to get at least one card signed from each year of Topps cards.  This included both 1951 Red and Blue Back.  I had to buy up some cards to send TTM to be able to get some of the autos, but none of the autographs were purchased from a secondary market or collector.

I have created a page on this blog showcasing each year of Topps with the corresponding card that I chose for each year.  Some choices were easier than others.  Some cards were chosen because it showed a big name player, or a team that was no longer around.  The above 1953 Mike Sandlock was chosen because he was 100 years old and the oldest living former MLB player at the time he signed it.

Lots of the cards have stories, like the one I chose for 1970.  I took one look at this John Donaldson card and knew right away that it would represent 1970 in my project.  The card itself is sharp and in great shape.  The card also features the now-defunct Seattle Pilots.  It is only right that the Pilots would be the team I showed on whichever 1970 I picked.  Most of all, though, I chose this one because it was given to me by Donaldson himself when I lamented in my TTM request that I wished I had my own copy of the 1970 card to send to him.  He must have had one, and sent it back signed with the other cards I sent him.  This was an awesome gesture that makes me happy to be able to immortalize this card in my project.

Many of the older cards I have sent TTM have had some pretty outlandish jerseys.  I had to make sure I had the crazy Astros jersey show up somewhere in this timeline.  Luckily, I just got this Ken Forsch signed.

Some of the cards I have gotten signed are pretty awesome.  Some are even more than that.  This Wade Boggs might be my favorite and was the very first card I pulled for the project this morning when I was lining things up.  I was really excited when I got this Boggs signed and it definitely is one of the best looking cards in the bunch.

This 2008 Jamie Moyer is the final year that I needed in order to complete my project.  I use the term "complete" loosely, because I will always have a preference toward Topps issues before any other brand when I am sending cards TTM.  I don't know why 2008 was the more difficult series to get signed, but for some reason it was.

Finally, I had several 2016 Topps to choose from, but chose the more recent of the bunch in this Pat Neshek.  The other 2016s I got signed were 50/50s from my friend, Dilan.  Many of the cards I had to chose from for other years came from the help of my great friend, Max.  Ryan from the blog "O No Another Orioles Blog" was also a huge help.

I hope you all enjoy checking out the page for this project.  The tabs are at the top of the blog, just below the banner.  If you are on a mobile device, you can access the page by clicking on the little white down arrow to the right of the little ribbon that says "home".  I hope you all can access it and give me your feedback on this.  I'm really excited about it!

Also, what do you all think of the choices I made for each year?  Thanks for reading, everyone!

TTM Success - Pat Neshek

I don't do too many TTMs of current players, mainly because I never know which ones are signing.  Everyone who does TTM, though, knows that Pat Neshek is one of the best signers that currently play in the majors.  I had a few cards that I wanted to send him, then I bought a box of 2016 Topps Heritage Update and pulled this purple chrome parallel.  Once I had that, I knew I needed to get my cards in the mail.

I had been pre-treating some chrome and Finest cards with a pencil top eraser and have gotten pretty decent results.  However, I had heard that baby powder worked really well on chromes, so I figured I would give it a shot.  So, this card was put in a ziploc bag with a little baby powder, then wiped clean with a wash cloth.  As you can see, the auto turned out pretty nice, and didn't bubble at all.  Not bad.  I think I'll probably stick with baby powder for the chrome and Finest cards.  I do have some that were rubbed with an eraser coming up in a few future posts, so a comparison can be made.

Rumor had it that if you sent any autographed cards to Neshek, he would send you one of his own, so I pulled a couple autos that I had in my card show box and sent them along.  He returned my mailer back with the two cards at the top, a 2010 Topps and 2013 Topps.  Not bad!  The bottom two are the other cards I sent for him to sign, a 2016 Topps and 2015 Heritage.  All of the cards turned out great.  He definitely has one of the best signatures around.

Neshek (b. 1980) has played in the majors since 2006 (skipping the 2009 season) for the Twins, Padres, A's, Cardinals and Astros.  He has a career record of 28-19 with an ERA of 2.93 and 378 strike outs.

I mailed to Neshek on November 23 and got the cards back on December 3, for a 10-day TAT.