We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat

by Matt | Aug 16, 2012 | Baseball

We’re catching sharks baby! Not quite “white whales” of card collecting, but we’re getting pretty close. It was a very good month to be fishing the waters of the Bay of E. I pulled in some whoppers.

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Trade Bait Update

by Matt | Aug 13, 2012 | Baseball

I’m still working on scanning things purchased over the last month or two, but work has been crazy busy lately and I just can’t find the time. I did manage to scan the contents of a package from Greg over at Plaschke Thy Sweater is Argyle, from a Trade Bait Draft he held a while back. I’ve had the cards for a while, and I’m terrible for not posting them sooner. The whole point of a Trade Bait Draft is to get things that might interest other folks, and not posting them pretty much defeats the purpose. There were a wide range of cards that were my results of the draft, but a couple for my personal collection and a couple more were “common” cards I’d probably throw into a package in the event of a trade for something else, and that leaves us with just the highlights. These have also been added to my Trade Bait page in case you’re interested. Scans after the break.

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2012 Ginter Team Set

by Matt | Aug 3, 2012 | Baseball

Thanks to a quick trade with Sam last week, I’ve knocked out the Red Sox base cards and SPs from this years Allen & Ginter. I’ve mentioned before my thoughts on 2011 vs 2012, but I really do like these. I think this is probably one of the strongest Ginter designs that I’ve personally collected.

Anyway, Sam hooked me up with two of the short prints, the “What’s in a Name” inserts and all the minis seen below, which was a huge help. Now there’s only a couple of WiN cards left to chase.

That’s a nice looking set right there. That’s in “binder position” as well.

Next, the SPs and the What’s In a Name.

Finally, the mini’s.

There’s a total of 6 Red Sox “What’s in a Name” cards, so I have 4 left to find, plus the “Highlights Sketch” of Fisk as well. Here’s what I’m still looking for…

BH-19 Carlton Fisk – Baseball Sketch
WIN13 Carl Crawford – What’s in a Name
WIN47 Jacoby Ellsbury – What’s in a Name
WIN64 David Ortiz – What’s in a Name
WIN70 Jonathan Lester – What’s in a Name

If anyone has any of those, I’d be very interested in them.

Edit: Found the WiN cards. Still need the Fisk Sketch card!

Bowman Platinum

by Matt | Jul 26, 2012 | Baseball

I have a not-so-secret secret. I love Bowman Platinum. In hand they are absolutely awesome. Right up there with Pristine and Finest. They’re shiny, and chromed, and just plain neat looking. Yesterday was the actual street-date, but I picked these up on Monday since my Target seems to not give two flips about street-dates in general. I bought a blaster and a rack pack. Scans after the break.

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Where’s the patch bro?

by Matt | Jul 23, 2012 | Baseball

I’m just going to post this right up front…

Normally, I would be posting my various goodies from a recent group break but I think this is a far more interesting topic for discussion. Plus, you don’t really want to see any more Opening Day and Topps Unique anyway. I can tell.

I need to say, right off the bat, that I think Kyle is even more upset about this than I am, and that things like this simply happen, and that it’s no one’s fault, and certainly not his. Kyle hosts some of the best group breaks around, and I’m extremely happy to have been and, going forward, continuing to be a part of them. He always opens great stuff and is just an all around great guy. When he opened this last week, I know his heart sank when he saw it. He deserves major kudos for contacting me personally and trying to make it right, even though there was no need to on his part.

So, the question is, what to do about it? I’ve reached out to Topps via email, and on Twitter, and haven’t heard back yet. I’ve heard that in the past they’ve made good on missing swatches and patches and at least offered something in return. The problem with this one might be that it’s a product from 2009. I can’t see them giving me a 2012 product for it, and I doubt they have any of these just sitting around.

Has anyone ever has Topps replace a card, or offer a different card in exchange for something? If so, who did you contact, and how did it get resolved?

And, as a follow up, if Topps won’t do anything, what should I do with it? Is it completely worthless, or does the limited (49/50) printing hold at least a tiny bit of residual value, perhaps to a big Thome or Indians fan?

Thoughts?

Oh, and in case you want a close up view of fabric adhesive, click to enlarge…