Cards Delivered Just Over the Wall

Another long overdue trade post!  This one featuring Shane of Off the Wall.  In fact, Shane just recently threw up a very rare post regarding interesting 80's cards.  Go check it out if you haven't seen it.  In any case, I threw Shane some Red Sox a while back and this is what I got in return.

Naturally, we have to start out the post with some more miscut vintage.  As I mentioned before, I certainly don't mind getting stuff like this.  It means I know they're real and I have no intentions of ever building out these complete sets, so miscut versions are just fine!

Shane came up big with some random mini needs from A&G sets between 2009-2012.  That T-Rex looks nothing like any image of a T-Rex I've ever seen... granted, nobody really knows exactly what they looked like.  I think I once heard some paleontologist suggest that these big carnivores were actually quite brightly colored, similar to a woodpecker, or other male bird.

More insert needs!  As suggests from the last few posts, this trade occurred quite some time ago.  It simply was the next post in my drafts folder.  What makes it really strange is that just yesterday Shane reached out to me via my relatively inactive Twitter account and asked me about the start of another trade.  I promise this wasn't planned.

Some base mini needs were included in the package as well.  I picked out the two best pitchers in the lot to showcase.  Shane also included a black mini of Frank Thomas for my frankenset which is slowly making progress!

From two great pitchers, to possibly the best of the modern baseball era.  I'm certainly not anywhere close to completing this parallel code-card set, but this was certainly a big one to cross off the list.

Finally a SP need from 2016 Heritage and a really fun back to the 1996 Fleer Ultra John Smoltz.  Love it!  Great stuff Shane!

Merry Christmas + Some Cardboard Gifts!

First of all, Merry Christmas!  I hope you all had a wonderful day, whether it be with friends, family, or working like myself.  No worries!  I have a fabulous family dinner waiting for me once I get out.  In the meantime, its so slow here today that I was able to take some time and write up this post.

I'll take the time to highlight two Christmas present I received!  The first is my Secret Santa gift courtesy Kin of I Feel Like A Collector Again AND Beans Ballcard Blog.  Yes, he's got two blogs, and yes, his second one is vastly superior only because he uses 'B' alliteration like I do.  Amazingly, we didn't duplicate a single word in either of our blog titles.

Kin immediately won over my heart by sending me tons of Ginter minis.  He even pre-slotted them into 15-pocket pages!

Some more minis.  The two black bordered ones both make my black bordered Frankenset that I'm working on.

These were by far my favorite minis included in the package.  I hadn't opened almost any 2017 retail this year, so I had previously had no access to these beautiful Horse in the Race minis.  Kin put a dent in my checklist with the above two...

...and ten more.  I think my favorite of this batch is the Scandinavian Coldblood Trotter as there's a beautiful foal featured on the card.  It also has a pretty awesome name.

Thanks for the awesome Secret Santa gift Kin!  Knocking minis off my wantlist is always some of the most fun I have.

---~~~---

Next up is a Christmastime bombing that All Trade Bait, All The Time sent out to seemingly the entire blogging world and I'm honored to be included in the mix.

We got pitchers not pitching, which is always fun.  Mahler going through these boxes of balls is a pretty cool shot.  I wonder if they had pitchers 'rub the balls up' pregame before the modern day official Delaware River mudding of the balls.

More Glavines!  One even complete with a psuedo-mullet!

Oscar hit up my Teheran PC as well.  I haven't gotten to open up almost any '17 Heritage, so the fake blue skies card was definitely a need.

Finally two of the newfangled Gypsy Queen cards.  I've never really appreciated this set all that much, and this year really isn't much of an exception.  The team nameplate at the top of the card is the only design feature that I really enjoy.  The green border parallel was definitely a need though, and who can say no to a Colon card?

Thanks for the thoughtful send!

Merry Christmas to all and thank the Lord for sending us his Son this day!

A Pankratzy Package!

This one is REALLY old... so old that the blogger that sent me these hasn't posted since March.  Not entirely sure what has been going on with Adam from Addiction As Therapy, but he sent me the below cards earlier this year.  Let's go through them!

We'll start with a handful of set needs that Adam sent me.  2011 minis still have a long way to go for me... I have far too many of the inserts and far too few of the actual base minis.  Adam brought me ever so slightly closer which I greatly appreciate.

While I didn't really make any official blog resolutions this year, one of the things I told myself was that I was going to work hard on my A&G insert set review series.  I haven't.  I've worked very not hard on it.  Regardless, this World's Deadliest Predators set from 2014 remains one of my favorites that Ginter has ever produced.

Another fun insert!  This 2011 set featured visionaries and scientists mostly from the Industrial and Progressive Eras.  Samuel Morse invented... what else, the Morse Code, and this card (and the entire set in general) focuses and features the inventor rather than the invention.  I enjoy this little cap tip as I don't think we necessarily highlight these people as much as we should, though I suppose most of these guys did get their inventions named after them.

Adam sent me a single black mini parallel for my frankenset build.  One of the greatest women's soccer players ever to play the game instantly graces the binder.  Unfortunately, the USMNT got slaughtered at Red Bull Arena last night by Costa Rica in a World Cup Qualifying match.  With three matches to go, the US really needs to get a result in Honduras on Tuesday to not go into panic mode for the last round of the Hex in early October.

These are pretty cool.  2011 base code card parallels.  These came roughly four to a box and spanned the entire 350 set.  Over the years, I've met a number of people who have been sitting on a handful of these parallels with no real idea of what to do with them.  I've picked them up and have been slowly making my way towards building this set.  It's a slow, but fun process and Adam had 10 of these to contribute.  Here are my two favorites from the lot.  Apparently, the flower patterns line up with other cards to produce a message that was unrelated to actually breaking the Ginter Code for that year.  Red Herring!

The final card in this package was a PC addition.  A Gypsy Queen black mini parallel of Julio numbered out of 199, complete with floating ball in air!  I've never really been a huge fan of Gypsy Queen, but this card is pretty sharp looking.  Then again, most black bordered cards are pretty sharp.  Many delayed thanks to Adam for this package!

Covering all the Bases: SP's, Completed Sets, and Frankensets

Night Owl recently sent me a stack of cards neatly packed inside of a bubble mailer.  The vast majority of the cards were needs from 2016 Heritage which I am foolishly attempting to complete this year.  I honestly don't know how he ended up with most of these cards, as I haven't seen this set featured all that much on his blog.  I also don't think he's trying to collect it himself either.

Whatever the case may be, I received a healthy stack of regular base cards that I needed plus these five pictured short prints.  That's a big deal for these obnoxiously seeded cards.

Heritage has somewhat taken a back seat to most of my other collecting goals recently, and I'm mostly okay with that.  I'm probably at the point where buying any more of it would, more likely than not, yield no new cards to my goal.

I think part of the reason for me ignoring the set is because I've become a bit bored of it.  I started collecting it because I really enjoyed the design, but looking at more and more of the cards makes me realize how repetitive close-ups can get.  That Odorizzi especially leaves something to be desired... no arms, no background, no real sense of playing baseball.

This was probably my favorite of the Heritage cards I received.  I really don't mind the posed shots when the player is able to "act" well like Betances seems to be able to do.  He really looks as if he's trying to hold a runner on at first... and perhaps he really is, because this shot looks to almost assuredly be a photo-shopped or green-screened background.

On to more entertaining cards (at least for me)!  Night Owl sent me the last mini I needed to complete this year's Ferocious Felines insert set.  Greg is good at doing this.  The last time he sent me cards he was able to complete my Birds of Prey insert set.  Apparently he likes giving away his animal minis.

Lastly, Greg also included three black bordered Ginter minis along with a note: "Do any of these minis find their way into your frankenset?"  He's referring to my (somewhat) recent post in which I decided to start a frankenset of black-bordered minis.

Alright Night Owl, I'll humor you.  We'll go diving into why these may or may not make the cut. 

2016 card #191: Anthony Anderson

I'll say right off the bat that this card doesn't have a chance.  While I appreciate the inclusion of actors far more than I do all the comedians in the past two years, this particular actor I haven't watched (almost at all).  Black-ish, Barbershop, all "his" TV-shows... never seen any of them.  Apparently he was in Transformers which I did see a long time ago (crappy movie), but I don't remember him being in it.  The only movie I do recall seeing him in was one of my all time favorites, The Departed.  He played a beat-cop and didn't get much screen time, so that hardly warrants a spot in a frankenset.

The card slated to occupy slot #191 is 2010 Justin Morneau.

2011 card #56: Scott Kazmir

This one was simple too.  Kazmir simply gets outclassed by the competition in this slot.  We've got Whitey Ford, Jason Heyward, Apollo Creed, Carlos Correa all being card #56 over various years.  Currently in the binder (because I have it) is the 2014 Jason Heyward, but that can probably be upgraded too.

2014 card #318: Jason Kipnis

Winner!!!  This mini slots right in to the frankenset.  The only other #318 I owned was 2015 David Price which admittedly would have been a tough choice, but I also plan on using Price elsewhere in a different slot.

Thanks for the awesome package Night Owl!  You really did cover all the bases.

I Need Your Help Being Decisive

I enjoy minis.  I strive to collect a complete set of regular back Allen & Ginter minis from every year that Topps has produced them.  So far, I have only fully completed one set, but that okay.  It gives me something to chase after.

With all this mini collecting over the years, I've accumlated a vast assortment of "unwanted" minis.  It's not that I don't like them... it's more that they don't fit in any specific collection, so they get set aside.

Today I attempt to change this!

I'm going to be putting together a Frankenset of black bordered Ginter minis with a few rules:

1. As is typical of a Frankenset, I must include a single card of every number (1-350 in this case).
2. No card subject can be repeated.
3. The most "iconic" mini will always make the binder ahead of another mini.
4. I will attempt to keep each year of Allen & Ginter represented at least somewhat fairly.

This idea originally started coming together after my case break from last year.  In 2014, I pulled a black bordered Bryce Harper rookie card and last year I pulled a black bordered Kris Bryant rookie card.  I figured that these cards were the definition of "iconic" (not to mention a bit pricey), so I wanted to do something with them to show them off.

I spent the past month creating a spreadsheet of Ginter checklists over the last 11 years and slowly eliminated cards until now.

I need your help.  I'm at an impass.  337 of the 350 potential mini slots are accounted for.  These last 13 have yet to be decided.

Statue of Liberty vs. Steve Carlton

Will Clark vs. Orlando Cepeda

Javy Lopez vs. Jack the Ripper vs. Colin Cowherd

Daisuke Matsuzaka RC vs. Chris Johnson RC

Dwight Eisenhower vs. McKayla Maroney

Moises Alou vs. Javier Vazquez

Eiffel Tower vs. Rafael Furcal

PT Barnum vs. Charles Goodyear

Sacagawea vs. Jeremy Hellickson RC

Mario Andretti vs. Albert Einstein vs. Rollie Fingers

 

Alexei Ramirez vs. Garrett Richards

I know those aren't black minis (trying to find pictures of all the black minis would be tough), but they are the base card counterparts.  If you have any kind of opinion on the above "matchups," throw your thoughts in the comments.  I'll probably listen to you.  :)

Lastly, below is a list of Allen & Ginter card #326 throughout all 11 years of its existance.  I'm completely at a loss as to what to do with this slot.  None of these cards seem iconic to me.  So we're doing a poll... over there --->

Go vote on your favorite card #326.  I'm curious as to which subject will win.  Here's the pictures in case that sways your vote.  Thanks for your help!

Chester A. Arthur

Alex Rios

Adam Kennedy

Cameron Maybin

Aaron Rowand

Jason Castro

Logan Morrison

Ruben Tejada

Mike Olt

Mitch Moreland

Peter O'Brien