Hall of Fame Signed Baseball - Joe Gordon

It has been a while since I last posted.  I just got back from a conference in Las Vegas, coupled with my wife having surgery.  I figured I wouldtake a break from blogging, since it would be tough to write posts about cards from the hotel.

While I was gone, I got in two signed baseballs that I needed, and I'll show the first one off today.

This is a ball signed for a reunion of the 1948 Indians in the 1970s.  I try to stay away from team balls when I can, but sometimes, I need them to get guys who I normally wouldn't be able to afford on single balls.  The player in question this time is Joe Gordon.

Gordon (b. 1915 - d. 1978) played in the majors from 1938 to 1943 and 1946 to 1950 for the Yankees and Indians.  In a brief 11-year career that was interrupted by World War II, Gordon amassed 1,530 hits, 253 home runs and a .268 batting average.  He was the 1942 AL MVP.  Gordon won the World Series in 1938, 1939, 1941 and 1943 with the Yankees and again in 1948 with the Indians.

Gordon was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously in 2009.

Gordon is my 106th baseball signed by a Hall of Famer.  I'll do another post soon on the rest of the signatures that are on this ball and where I got it.  Until then, I'm glad to be back!

More Cards From Scott F.

In the first trade package my buddy Scott F. sent me, he had included a few parallels and autos that I wanted to show off, but wasn't able to at that time.  I wanted to save them for a later post, and here it is!

Scott included this awesome purple chrome parallel from 2014 Heritage, a rookie card of Xander Bogaerts and Jonathan Schoop.  I recently organized my Schoop PC and found that I have quite a bit of Schoop's stuff, so this will be a welcome addition.

One of the autos that Scott sent was this 3/50 Lex Rutledge die cut from Panini Elite Extra Edition.  This is also a really cool card and looks much better in person.  I met Rutledge in 2013, and he was a really nice guy.  He had spent some time in Gastonia, NC, which is near Charlotte, so we talked about that for a little bit while he was signing autographs.

Finally, I picked up a little trade bait for my buddy, Max.  Since he is a super collector of Cubs cards, I figured he would like this Ken Holtzman card.  I haven't shown it to him, yet, but I'm certain he will like it.

Thanks for all of the great cards, Scott.

Black Friday COMC Pickups - Chris Davis Bowman Parallels

I was the winner of one of COMC's Black Friday shopping sprees.  A whopping $5, but it was $5 I didn't have the day before.  I took advantage of my luck and grabbed up a couple Chris Davis parallels that I needed for 2014 Bowman.  The first one is a yellow parallel numbered 90/99.  This card looks really cool when scanned to my laptop, so I'm enjoying it at the moment.  Something about bright, vivid colors.  Kind of improves my mood a bit, I think.

The green parallel that I got is numbered 87/150 and also looks nice.  Not quite as sharp as the yellow, but still nice, nonetheless.

I plan on getting a few more of the parallels, when I can.  Probably after the holidays are over and things calm down around here.

Non Orioles From Joey

I got a nice package in the mail the other day from my buddy, Joey.  He sent me a ton of Orioles cards, but some of the stuff in the package that stood out the most was the Non Orioles cards.

I have worked over the years to include cards and PC players who aren't Orioles so I can add some diversity to my collection.  One of the Hall of Fame players I loosely PC is Ralph Kiner.  Since we met him in 2013, I have been picking up stuff of him here and there.  This 2012 Gypsy Queen is a good example of one of his cards that I would grab when I saw it.

Eddie Murray is known largely as an Oriole.  This 1992 Donruss Diamond Kings card shows him as a Met, obviously, but still looks awesome.  I still to this day love these cards.  I love how it pops when scanned.

Finally, Joey included this dual relic of Bobby Crosby and Eric Chavez as a surprise in the package.  UD Reflections was a decent product and this dual relic is pretty nice.  I thought it was cool of Joey to throw it in to surprise me, and it did!

Thanks so much for the package, Joey!

So Long, Nick

Well, the longest tenured Oriole is out the door after Nick Markakis has reportedly bolted to the Braves.  He has signed a reported 4-year, $44 Million contract, which, the Orioles weren't comfortable matching.

My feelings are kind of "mehhh".  I like Nick.  I was more pissed last year when Brian Roberts signed with the Yankees.  I feel like the Braves are a good fit for Nick.  I think the Orioles have options that they can use to replace him (namely Dariel Alvarez) or they can get a cheaper option, like Nori Aoki, who will provide an upgrade on offense and hold his own in right field.

I'll miss Nick, and I will continue to collect him, but this does sting a little bit.  Good for the Braves, though.  I think he will do decent there.

On another note, my wife had foot surgery today and will be out of work for up to three months.  Card buying is going to be a bit painful, so I will likely cut back a bit.  We'll see.

A got a lot of well wishes from a lot of people, and we both thank you all!

Instagram Purchase From Anthony - 2014 Bowman Chrome Manny Machado Blue Refractor

I was contacted recently by my friend, Anthony who offered to sell me this nice 2014 Bowman Chrome blue refractor of Manny Machado at a good price.  I made the deal nice and fast and he shipped right away.

The card is numbered 6/250 and looks great.  I think I paid $2 for the card, not bad.

I am in the process of adding my PC cards into a spreadsheet so that I can tell easier whether or not I have something in my collection.  I have logged my Chris Davis cards, so far and time permitting, Machado, then Reimold will be next.  We'll see if I keep it updated.  The plan is to transfer the spreadsheets to Google docs and have them linked on my blog, that way folks can look and see what I have before discussing a trade.  In a perfect world, this would be an amazing tool to use.  It all depends on the operator (me) to keeping it updated.  Good luck to me on that one...

Thanks for the deal, Anthony!

Instagram Trade WIth Ben K.

I've met so many people on Instagram since I started trading cards on there about a year ago.  Some of them have been one and done trades, and some have bloomed into lasting friendships.  Some of the people I have met have been awesomely polite while others have been downright rude.  In all, though, I'd say about 95% of the people I have met on there have been really great.  One of the new ones I've met over the last few weeks is a really nice guy named Ben from Indiana.  He and his best friend buy and sell used sports equipment, mainly gloves.  They also collect cards, one (Ben) collects Cubs and his friend (Jake) collects White Sox.

I completed a trade with Ben by sending him a few Cubs cards and in return he sent me several Orioles as well as some Emerald parallels that I needed for my set.

Ben and I have already completed another trade for some great stuff that he should be shipping today, I think.  I lose track, I really need to write stuff down.

Thanks for the easy trade, Ben.  I hope yours and Jake's collections keep growing!