Teal pumpkin project - cards

Have you heard of the Teal Pumpkin Project?

Since many kids have food allergies nowadays, it allows them to still enjoy Trick-or-Treating without worrying about the the treats that come along with them. You're supposed to paint a pumpkin teal (or hang a print out of one by your door) so that trick-or-treaters know you'll participate.

Then, if the child/parent requests it, you provide something different than traditional candy. Ideas include sticker sheets, pencils, etc. We live in an area with a lot of kids, so there's bound to be a couple.

Anyhow, I put together a few baggies of cards if a kid would rather have those. I only did five, figuring we probably wouldn't need more than that. I only put a couple cards in each, but made sure each included a Met and a Yankee given our location.

Not sure if we'll have any takers, but I think it's a cool option, and maybe something I'll put more effort into next year.

Dollar Treeing it - part 2

I bought another one of those hilarious Dollar Tree 30-card jumbo packs. I would have bought more, but they are out! Just some other crap, like One Direction and X-Files cards.

Here is my first experience with Dollar Tree packs, in case you missed it: click here.

Remember, I am promised 1 to 5 superstars! So how did I do? I'll say that I scored two superstars:

 

The Nomo Rookie Cup is pretty sweet. One corner is all mangled. Think I can send it back? Will Clark looking very Will Clarky in the other superstar card.

Whoa, serially numbered MOJO! Wasn't expecting this! Just 1 of 25,000 made! I am accepting offers.

The oldest card and the most recent, you might be wondering? Why, here you go:

Orange you glad there's 1 to go? I am.

Pretty, isn't it?

That card has a few of my favorite things. The color orange. Refractor. Ty Hensley.

But the best part about that, is that I am now down to one card to complete my Ty Hensley 2013 Bowman Draft rainbow (minus 1/1s). I've been after this one for a while and finally found a good deal and pounced. It's #'d 01/25.

All that's left is the red paper parallel #'d to 5. This is going to be tricky. There is one on COMC for $45.25, but no chance I'm paying that much. I don't know what my budget is for that card? Maybe $15 tops? Hopefully it'll pop up on eBay one day.

Anyhow, I'd love to complete this 1/1-less rainbow. I never intended to get this far, but with Ty missing so much time due to injury, he hasn't had many new cards, so I've been able to focus on what does exist.

I'm close. Let's do this!

Hensley Ford - not a car dealership

I scanned these two cards at the same time. I then saved the images and noticed "Hensley Ford." I laughed, thinking it sounded like a car dealership.

Hey, come on down to Hensley Ford and pick up a 2016 Taurus, or drive home in a brand new F150. Cars are flying off the lot, and there's never been a better time to...

Ok, you get it.

So here's the Whitey Ford, a 1958 Topps beauty. Its actually crease-free other than very fuzzy bottom corners. When I got the eBay email that I won it for $3.95, I though "oh shit, what did I do?" figuring with shipping it would be close to $7, which is way more than I like spending on a card. Well, it was free shipping, which is probably why I bid, so I came away with this guy for under 4 bucks. I win.

 

The second card is a Ty Hensley card I've seen a lot, but never snagged. I made a "best offer" for it and the seller accepted, so I'm proud to say it's my 66th unique Hensley card.

That's all I got for ya today. Hope everyone has a great Sunday.

Big Red BIG MIKE

Topps keeps rolling out these 5x7 sets online. They are actually pretty cool. I have no idea how to store them or their actual purpose (listed under wall art), but I won't lie, I get intrigued when they pop up for sale online. I think consumers gobble them u and then sell the cards individually.

The regular series 1 were hand-numbered to 99. I actually have two Michael Pinedas from this set. Then I saw this red one pop up, numbered to just 10. I grabbed it for a few dollars. While the early ones were hand-numbered on the back, this is numbered in foil on the front (hard to see in the scan).

If you check Topps' website, they have a lot of these types of sets, all actually pretty reasonably priced. I'm sure those who bought the sets broke them up, and sold them on eBay easily made their money back, and then some. They all have a limited print run.

At some point, I need to buy one of these really big cards to hang up somewhere.

Dollar Treeing it

One of coolest things I discovered in my new neighborhood is that we have a Dollar Tree nearby. It's nice to pick up the occasional household cleaning items there, but also I've seen other bloggers get cards there. I had to explore.

A few days ago I stopped in, and indeed, there were cards.

Most were non-baseball cards, such as teenybopper music and TV show cards. However, there were a few types of baseball cards:

First, there were these four-card Donruss sample packs. Some were from 2014 and some 2015.

There were also some of those awful cartoony Triple Play cards.

Then, there were these 30 card Jumbo baggies filled with junk from Cleveland, TN. So naturally I bought some.

These are fun because they say "Guaranteed one to five superstars." Sometimes you really have to guess who the superstar is, let me tell ya. Other times it's obvious. There is also quite an interesting range of years, but mostly late '80s and you'd expect.

Jumbo Baggie 1:

I have to guess that Matt Williams was the superstar. I found no one else who could be close. The oldest card was from 1986 Topps, while the newest was 1995 Pinnacle.

Pack 2:

Ok, I'd say Mike Schmidt is definitely a superstar. That works. I guess Willie Randolph is borderline, but I'll include him for the sake of it. The oldest cards were from 1987, while the newest was a Ugueth Urbina 1994 Upper Deck Prospects card.

Pack 3:

This was the best pack of the bunch. I'd say we got 2-4 superstars here. McGriff, Giambi, Dave Henderson, and Steve Finley. Ok, ok. Cases can be made for each. The oldest card was '84 Donruss, while the newest was this surprise 2011 Topps Heritage Jordan Zimmerman. Didn't expect a 2011! Also, a major bonus card - an OJ McDuffie Score football card snuck into the pack! Where is the quality control?!?!

Fun times at the Dollar Tree! I'll definitely pick up more of these, as I had fun opening them. It was worth the couple of bucks based on entertainment value alone.

A new Pineda 1/1 has a home

A few weeks ago, I got an email titled "Pineda PC."

It was from Jeff of 2x3 Heroes. He pulled a Big Mike framed printing plate from Allen & Ginter, and immediately set it aside for me.

I know that Jeff could have probably got back half of what he spent on the box if he listed it on eBay. Instead, he instantly set it aside for me and then said "I'm sure you'll send something back that's fair."

What an awesome gesture, and it really put the pressure on me to prove him right. I'm just about finished putting together a White Sox package for Jeff that I really hope he finds to be suitable. I actually had a lot of fun putting it together, so I hope it he enjoys it.

This is my second Pineda 1/1, and man do I appreciate this gesture. After I added one to my collection last year, I figured I was done, but this one just fell onto my lap, and I'm really thankful.

Jeff, thanks for this, and I hope you enjoy the White Sox headed your way.

A little 1952 reward

I don't buy myself things often.

I'm not a gadget person or someone who buys the latest things. I make sure all the money goes first and foremost into paying bills and the kids' daycare tuition. I'm not going to act like I'm a saint or anything. These are the things that need to get done first and foremost, so I do them.

I'm not big into actual shopping either. I refuse to go to a store unless it's something I know I need. Then I know I can go in and out and be done with it. On the other hand, my wife will go into a store with nothing in mind, and still emerge with a bunch of stuff.

Recently though, I decided to treat myself to something I've wanted for a long time. I waited patiently and found one for a good price, and I pounced:

Now, my Phil Rizzuto collection is complete! I have every single Topps base issue of Rizzuto. Most are in disaterous shape, but a few are decent. The '52 is actually pretty good. It does have a couple small creases and fuzzy corners, but by no means is it all beat to hell. It's a black back, and I don't anticipate adding a red back any time soon. I don't feel incomplete without it.

Here's the whole family!

 

Late at the Plate

I'm still working through a folder of scanned cards from the spring and summer. Where has time gone??

Anyhow, Brian from Play At The Plate sent me pretty much all the 2015 Bowman Yanks he pulled, including a sweet Rob Segedin auto. It's a few years too late for Segedin, once a very promising player in the Yanks system. However, I could never get him TTM for some reason, so I'm very happy with a certified auto.

When I got these two cards, I never figured each would make his MLB debut this year! The Yellow Sanchez is sharp.

 

Finally, a sweet Refractor of Bernie! I liked these RC Flashbacks. Nice job there, Topps.

Thanks again, Brian!

Relics from the Lost Years

I believe I have most Tino Martinez relics. There are variations, but for the most part, I own 'em all. I have 32 Tino relics in total.

But every so often one or two pops up, and it just so happened two I hadn't even seen came into my eBay feed within a few days of each other.

These are both relics of Tino while he was with the Cardinals, part of his Lost Years from 2002-2004. Still, I want 'em. Plus, the swatch below is game-used pants from the Yanks, according to the back of the card.

The quad bat is pretty cool, with some solid players on there. Who knows if these are actually pieces of their bats, or if the person making this card kept the little wooden triangles straight. Probably not, but still a cool card.

See you never, Redemption

Back in the spring, I redeemed this on Topps' super modern looking redemption website:

Now, I already have a Ty Hensley 2014 Bowman Red Ice Auto redemption that is outstanding with Topps and has been for over a year. Not happening, I know. The Hensley/Montgomery is from 2013 Bowman Sterling.

So my chances are slim, right?

But here's the thing. The card exists in Bowman Platinum! It's been on ebay! Look:

So where is the Bowman Sterling one if Platinum exists? Did Topps run out of stickers? The set seems to be all stickers, so what gives?

Topps doesn't have answers and keeps offering me a replacement. Nope, sorry, guys. Give me my card.

CustomZZ and AutographZZ

I have so many scans to clean out of my folder. It needs to happen. I don't even know when these were from, but hopefully I am forgiven.

Zippy Zappy makes some cool custom cards that he ends up getting signed. Like, pretyy much all of them. He also gives them to players, friends, and family members. It's a super cool thing he does, and I know the players appreciate it.

He was nice enough to send me one for my Ty Hensley collection, as well as spare one of LUUUUIIIISSSSSSS!

The scans came out dark for some reason, but they are a nice gray to match the SI Yankees uniforms. You better believe that I added the Hensley to my PC and am counting it as another unique card.

ZZ also sent me a Fred Lewis certified Bowman auto. Lewis seemed like a good relief prospect, but was unfortunately released this past April after a couple of games.

Kenny, thanks as always for these cards you sent me like 6 months ago.

Showing off my Junk

Dude, no.

I'm talking about a box of cards I received from my pal, The Junior Junkie.

You see, I won a contest of at the Griffey Card World Headquarters. I simply guessed a number and somehow came away the winner. The number I guessed? 24 for Seattle Griffey, then 30 for Cincy Griffey. 2430. How do you like that? Rigged!

The prize was 100 different Griffeys, all of which I'll give to my son and put in his binder as I force him to like baseball cards. I promise, all of these will go to him.

While there were 100, true to his word, here are a couple that I liked the most, including the iconic bubble gum card:

 

 

And of course, he won above and beyond and sent me some great Yanks, including this 1991-1992 Rising Stars book and card set that includes Tino (he's in there, I promise):

Here are a few of the Yanks, many from the '90s and early '00s. It brought back a lot of memories to go through them. We're talking Pacific Private Stock, Gallery, Zenith, Topps Stars, etc.

 

Topps Stars was one of the coolest sets back in 1997. It had a cloth-like feel, and the cards felt premium. They were hard to find. You definitely weren't finding them at CVS. It was a huge deal for my to get the Tino from that set, and it took years for me to track down his card in the 1997 Topps Stars All-Star insert set. It was a tough, tough find.

Unfortunately, Topps got cute in 1998 and did the whole "all cards are serially numbered" thing. Not necessary. However, this is one of those sets that I wouldn't mind them raising from the dead for a year or two.

TJ, thanks my man. The Griffeys for my little guy will surely be treasured. Hope you had a good birthday!