A Mantle Walks into my collection

Have you ever gotten an unexpected card that makes you stop in your tracks?

A couple weeks back, Matt over at Bob Walks The Plank sent me a bubble mailer. I wasn't expecting anything from him, although he did give me a shout about a few Jeters he set aside. (side note - Matt blogged last week - check it out!)

When I opened the package, a post it note apologize for the condition of a Dirk RC he sent me. I wasn't worried about it! It was cool to have, and happy to add it to my collection of growing basketball rookies. 

But the Dirk wasn't what made me say "wow."

It was the third card in the package.

The second card, and on top of one of the team bags, was a very cool Don Mattingly Leaf bat relic. Pretty solid relic card, actually. Nice photo of the player, nice chunk of bat, some classy script font. Certainly an excellent addition to my Mattingly collection, but still not the card that made me say "wow," even though I was thankful for it.

Now, onto the third card, tucked nearly behind the Mattingly, was the one. I legitimately said "WHAT" out loud. No exaggeration. Flipping past the Mattingly was this piece of vintage goodness:

WTF, Matt. Are you kidding me? That is a Mickey Mantle card. A real one. Just look at what a perfect card that is. I was so floored I could barely even focus on the Jeters that followed.

To me, original Mantle cards, all of them, are still such holy grail territory. And to have one as part of an unexpected card package was something that was hard for me to grasp.

The Jeters were great as well, highlighted by an Action Packed I had seen for a long time but never owned.

I also thought this was a great looking card on the old school Fleer design. Jeter rocking the Franklin batting gloves in his pre-Jordan days.

I had no idea Jeter was in 1998 Ultra RBI Kings. Tino was in this set, but I never expected to see Jeter in there, as he wasn't quite known as an RBI guy.

What an amazing gesture from Matt, and I look forward to repaying him with a package of Acunas, Vlads, Bellingers, Trouts, and maybe even a Dominguez.

Sports wagering, with interest

I like to bet a little. Not a lot. Just a little.

I'll never be someone to throw down massive sums of money on betting, but a little skin in the game? Sure, why not? Plus, sports wagering is now legal in the state in which I reside, and many others are on the way, and on the way quite soon. It's going to be mainstream here in the US (if it isn't already), and frankly, I'm glad to see us catch up with the rest of the world on that front.

But one does not need to bet in just cash. Cards are a solid form of wagering!

I'm not talking about buying Bowman, which is a form of gambling in its own right. I'm talking about cards as the payment for a friendly gentleman's wager.

In December, when it was announced that my alma mater, Syracuse, would be taking on the hometown squad of Bob Walk The Plank, West Virginia University, in the prestigious Camping World Bowl, we decided to make a friendly wager out of the ordeal. Loser would buy the other a $10 card of their choice, related to the school that won. I think those were the terms.

Syracuse ended up winning the game 34-18, although admittedly it wasn't a fair fight. WVU was without their stud QB, Will Grier, who decided to sit out the game to avoid the risk of injury heading into the NFL Draft. Plus, for a perennial bowl-bound team like WVU, I can't image this game felt too big for them. For Syracuse, the game was a culmination of their best season in years, with a lot of optimism for the future with a solid team and a great coach. The game felt like it meant a little more for the Orange because of the way the last two decades have gone.

Regardless, Matt is a man of his word, and this was the card I chose:

I'll always have a soft spot for Malachi Richardson due to his performance in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, so I felt like owning an autograph of him in a Syracuse jersey was the way to go.

Matt decided to charge himself some interest for a delated payment, which I wasn't expecting, and sent four additional cards my way:

The Gleyber/Adams dual relic is awesome! Matt said he actually pulled it from a pack, which makes it even cooler.

The Leyritz buyback autograph is very cool, and then Winfield jersey is great. There's even some dirt on it! I appreciate the low-numbered mini of future Hall Of Famer CC Sabathia, as well.

Thanks for the bet and following through, Matt!

What has Napkin Doon been up to? A Q&A with a blogging legend

A few days ago, Bob Walk The Plank came out of semi-retirement to make a blog post. I half-jokingly asked two legends, Napkin Doon and Jaybarkerfan, to do so as well. But since Wes' retirement is a lot more recent, I decided to check in on Napkin Doon, who has not blogged since March of 2014.

Napster was kind enough to answer a few questions and share what he's been up to.

The Lost Collector: "Napkin Doon is a Jerk" is still one of my most popular blog posts. How does that make you feel? 

Napkin Doon: About the same as when you asked me that in our last Q&A. (my note: burnnnn. Still got it, Nap.)

TLC: Are you still a jerk? 

ND: No. I’m a good person now. A very, very, very good person now.

TLC: Are you ever coming out of blogging retirement? 

ND: Despite relentless peer pressure from you and Wes, I don’t see it happening. There are times when I come up with something that I think would be a good blog bit, but I then realize I couldn’t sustain a blog again for longer than a month or two. I just don’t have enough to say to start up

again.

TLC: Are you currently collecting, and if so, what's your focus as of late? 

ND: Yes, I still collect. My focus has been on Topps Runs of HOF’s and my favorite players. I just finished my Frank Robinson run recently, and it’s awesome! And I have a few other main focuses:

• Still chipping away at 52 Bowman.
• Trying to add more T206s when I can (I recently picked up a card of a guy named Boss Schmidt that apparently beat up Ty Cobb and wrestled bears. I had to have that card. I mean, look at the flipped-up collar, and his name was “Boss.” (This should be a must own for every card collector)
• I’ve basically completed my Topps sampler album (1 page for every year of Topps from 1951 to now, with no player in the album more than once)
• I’m about 3/4 done with a junk wax sampler album (1 page per year of base of Donruss, Fleer, UD, Score, Bowman and Sportflics from 1981 to 1999). This project has been really fun (and mostly inexpensive) and the album is awesome to flip through. I’m trying to add any of the notable cards (Bill Ripken FF card, 89 UD Griffey, 84 Donruss Mattingly etc.) of the era are in it when possible.

I’m trying to cut down my bulk collection. I was inspired by the book “The Joy of Tidying Up” (even years ago before it was cool) and I’ve been limiting wax buys as much as I can because the bulk boxes of cards I’ve accumulated don’t bring me as much satisfaction as they used to. My kids have no interest in this stuff, so I’m imagining long term that when I hand over my collection, I’d rather it be manageable and interesting to whomever inherits it, rather than bulky and a big nuisance.

TLC: You recently sold a Vlad Jr card you've been hanging on to, and used it to buy a few

awesome cards. Care to share? 

ND: Sure! I bought a gorgeous T206 Wee Willie Keeler that I’ve wanted forever, a Johnny Bench Rookie, a 1959 Clemente and a 1972 Traded Frank Robinson. All paid for by a non-autographed card from 2016.

TLC: 2019 Bowman - yay or nay? 

ND: I won’t be buying it if I can help myself, but yay on the design. It’s pretty sharp looking IMO. Buying Bowman is one of the topics I was referring to when I mentioned I sometimes think of bits to do if I still had the blog. The bit was to have an ongoing series called “The Collector.” I was going to pretend like I was “The Bachelor” on TV, and all of these card collecting options were going to be like the hot babe contestants trying to get me to marry them at the end of the season. Early on, I would kick Finest, Triple Threads and other expensive sets to the curb because despite how hot they looked, all they wanted me for was my money. Modern Bowman was going to be one of the early favorites since I’ve bought so much of it in the past, but after Bowman and I would go on our “ one-on-one date” I would decide there was no future with “her” long term, and it ultimately wasn’t going to work out between us. Interestingly, before our one-on-one date, there would be a scene where 52 Bowman would pull me aside and go through this act where she tells me how much she cares about Modern Bowman because they are related, BUT, as much as it hurt her to say, Modern Bowman was nothing but a short term fling and not in my best interests. It would all lead to an emotional rose ceremony, with me sending Modern Bowman home, while all the remaining contestants looked on in shock and catty satisfaction. Plot Twist: later in the season, the cameras were going to catch me and Bowman making out away from the mansion and all sorts of drama would unfold with the contestants that were still around. Spoiler Alert: Topps HOF Runs and 1952 Bowman were going to finish in an unprecedented tie for the final rose. (my note: Folks, this is the kind of stuff we're missing around here.)

TLC: Which product are you looking forward to most this year? 

ND: Topps flagship. That’s it for the new stuff.

TLC: Any final thoughts? 

ND: Yes, but they are too disturbing to admit.

And there it is folks. As legendary as ever.

Thanks, Napkin Doon!

But I still I love Tek-nology

The other day I got a warning from Bob Walk The Plank that a mysterious card was arriving at my house that day. I assume he picked up a card from eBay or another online site and had it sent to me directly to me. He also warned me that it was not the card he purchased for me on our epic wager on the Camping World Bowl, in which Syracuse beat West Virginia.

Instead, I opened the envelope and found this:

Cool, a 1999 Topps Tek Gold Tino Martinez, numbered to just 10!

I think this is my only graded Tino.  I might have one or two others I don't recall. This card didn't grade out too strongly, as the corners and surface dragged it down. I think I might free it at some point.

Topps Tek is both an awesome and stupid/frustrating set at the same time. The cards are really nice - and I loooove clearcuts - but it's super confusing and the concept is pretty maddening. 1999 had both home/away versions as well 30 different patterns. Oh, and the year before had 90 patterns. WTF.

But still, for far too long I treated these cards as a "have" for a single card on my Tino list, but that's silly. They are parallels and different cards. So I need to go back through my collection of these and pull out all the unique ones. It'll inflate my Tino numbers a bit more, but they are different cards, dumb as it may be.

This is definitely my first gold though, so I thank Matt for thinking of me. Any time I can get a super low numbered Tino, I'm very happy. Thanks, Matt!

His blog may be dormant...

...but his trade packages have been erupting all over the internet.

I'm talking about Mr. Bob Walk the Plank. I've seen it on Twitter and on the blogs. He's cleaning out some trade bait and really sending some excellent cards.

I was the lucky recipient of two gorgeous cards of current Yankees that his desk threw up.

Whoa.

That was my reaction when I saw this Dellin Betances 2007 Topps Five Star autograph #d to 50. The signature area is very unique. It's almost superfractor-like. Add the fact that it's on card and about as thick as 10 regular cards, and it makes for quite a good looking piece.

Last but not least, a jersey card of the criminally under-collected Luis Severino from 2017 Donruss. Sure, it might be a plain gray swatch, but I appreciate Panini's efforts here to have a home plate-shaped area for the jersey. Not a bad design at all.

These were two excellent cards, indeed. Thanks, Matthew!

Cardboard roulette (h/t BWTP)

Matt over at Bob Walk The Plank recently showed a few cards from higher-end products he's picked up for well below the cost of that pack or box. In this case, he was talking about Archives Signature.

It's basically cardboard roulette, Matt says. And I agree. Most of the time, collectors pay top dollar for these higher end products, and then the non-mojo SiCk hItZ end up on eBay for a fraction of the cost of the product.

A small portion of collectors certainly must pull great cards, but the others? Well they list Dellin Betances cards like this for dirt cheap:

This set me back a whole $2, including shipping. It's from Topps Tier One, a product that costs $100 per pack for 3 cards - 2 autographs and a relic.

So like Matt, I'm happy to let other people pay premium prices, and then reap the (cheap) benefits when the cards they don't want hit eBay.

Walk-ing to the mailbox

Ahh, the Bob Walk The Plank puns!

When I got back from vacation, I had an unexpected bubble mailer from Matt over at The Walk. He mentioned in a note he found something he thought I'd like, and well, he was right.

The package contained three cards, but each was pretty great.

The first is this cool Carlos Beltran relic from 2015 Topps Tribute. It celebrates one of Beltran's Player of the Week wins, as the jersey spells out "Player of the wk". It's cool that there are three pinstripes, although I would have liked to see them spaced out evenly. The card is numbered to 36, which was Beltran's number in NY.

Clint! I love this healthy-sized jersey swatch from one of Frazier's minor league stops. It's definitely my first Frazier relic of any kind. Matt sent this before Frazier got called up. Hopefully he didn't regret it once Clint homered in his first game, although he's gone a little cold since then.

Lastly, Matt found this very cool relic of AL ALL-STAR(!) Luis Severino. If you hold told me he'd be an All-Star this year after last year's messy season, I wouldn't have believed you...unless you told me he was a reliever all year. Yet as a starter, Sevy has excelled, and has given the Yanks something to look forward to for the next few years.

I'm uncertain where in the minors this relic is actually from, as I don't recognize the colors. Zippy Zappy and I both guess Charleston at some point for a minor league promotional night.

Matt, these three cards are excellent. Thanks for thinking of me.

The repack domination is over

The repack domination streak has come to an end. If you remember, I recently shared two pretty solid 100-card repacks from Walgreen's. While they both contained autographs, it's not solely a hit that determines the success of a repack, but the level of enjoyment and the fun cards they often contain.

I'll also say that I long for the day when Triple Play packs will no longer be included. Sheesh, I'm sick of those. I don't even open them most of the time, or just hand them to my kids to play with.

With the Walgreen's $3.99 sale set to expire on April 29, I wanted to grab one more. The cards in the windows weren't very appealing, and settled on this for no other reason than it was shiny. Bad start.

I'll come right out and say that there was no hit in this repack. I expected my luck to run out in that department, and I was right.

Like the last re-pack, there were still a few 2015 Topps team issue cards, which I don't mind. There was also a Bryce Harper from the All-Star set of that year. That was the best card I found, in my opinion.

I only counted two Hall of Famers, but this particular one didn't have the "5 Hall of Famers" sticker on the front. The Boggs mini is ok. I'm surprised Topps hasn't re-used this design yet for Archives minis. Maybe we'll see them in Heritage in 25 years.

This is a cool oddball that will go to Bob Walk The Plank.

Steve Garvey on an old Diamond King is cool. He signs TTM for $5, so maybe I'll send this off to him.

The junk wax was more plentiful than ever in this, with a major lack of mid-90s cards. The oldest card was a Derrell Thomas from 1982 Topps, while the best of the '90s was a Paul Konerko Donruss rookie.

There really isn't much else notable. I still enjoyed opening, but it was definitely a clunker compared to some other recent repacks. The sale ends in three days...do I test my luck one final time?

SuperTraders #4: Bob Walk The Plank

SuperTraders packages are coming in faster than I can post about them, but that's ok! I love it. I did some sorting over the weekend breaking cards out into team lots. It's a great way to get rid of excess inventory!

On Saturday, I got two beauties in the mail from my pal Matthew over at Bob Walk The Plank. While it was "just" two cards deep, they were really nice.

The first that fell out is protected by one of those thick, tamper-proof plastic cases from Topps Tribute. Rarely do I get a card from this high-end of a set, and it did not disappoint. Feast your eyes on a flawless, on-card, shiny David Cone autograph. Ooooh man, is that nice. Numbered to just /199, the signature is great. Really classy card design too. Wow, I like this.

Despite the no license issue, Panini has been putting out some nice products over the last few years. They also have a nice, Refractor-type technology they put on select cards. Sometime it feels a little off on guys from the past, but I think it works well here:

Joe D #'d to just 75. What a pretty card. So nice I don't even notice the lack of an NY on there!

Matthew, I've got some stuff set aside for you that I look forward to sending your way. Thanks for these two awesome cards!

Plank you for being a friend

Seriously, how many "walk" and "plank" titles have there been since Bob Walk The Plank became a blog? My guess is 300. And also, each one is worse than the last one. But that won't stop me.

As several bloggers have done, Matt sent me a housewarming gift to my new house. It was a very kind gesture, and the package packed a lot of punch for being just three cards deep.

The first card I saw was the back of this one. Cool, I thought. An old '85 Leaf Phil Neikro. This can go in Joey's binder. However, it was more than that:

Boom. A buyback auto from Leaf hand-numbered to 35. This is my first Niekro auto, and I love it. What a pleasant surprise. I've always like the slant and style of Niekro's auto. Sort of looks like a lefty's signature.

I was on a Niekro knuckleball high, but that evaporated when this dropped out:

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

Roger Maris. Game used. I mean...I just can't.

There is nothing I don't like about this card. Old school jersey swatches are the best. The cream color of the Yankees home jersey is so cool. They should go back to that for a throwback game. But, seriously? A Maris relic? With a prominent pinstripe. This is one of the best cards in my collection, hands down.

The last card is so shiny I think I could put it on my roof to power the new house. It's a very cool low-numbered Mariano Rivera from 2005 Leaf Limited.

Matt, this was a great package. Thank you so much!

Contest loot from Bob Walk The Plank

A few weeks back, I was fortunate enough to be one of the winners in a contest held by Matt over at Bob Walk The Plank. The prizes were fantastic! Matt took the time to tailor each prize package to the four winners, which he really didn't need to do.

However, his attention to detail and really shopping for cards that each person would like shows what kind of guy Matt is. I was thrilled with my winnings, and I really appreciate each of them.

Matt sent me five cards, all of of which I needed and more importantly, all of which I love.

The first is a Ty Hensley auto. Hensley cards don't grow on trees, so I'm going to guess that Matt went out of his way to find this one. It's an auto #'d to just 10, and is a really stunning card.

Next, my first Jeter home uniform relic. I did a post a few weeks ago about having three Jeter relics - one away gray swatch, and two of bases. I didn't have a home jersey/pinstripe, so this instantly becomes my favorite.

1/1 of mojo!!! And not just a nobody, but Mr. Brett Gardner. I love this because it shows how Gardner would look as a righty. The fun of printing plates!

This John Wetteland auto is a beauty! I didn't have a Wetteland auto in my collection. In  fact, I was telling Matt that just a few days before this came, I was checking to see if Wetteland was coaching anywhere so I could shoot him a TTM request. I love this set too!

 

Finally, a Tino that is new to my collection and needed!

Matt, this package rocked. Thank you so much!

Bob Bleepin' Walk

Bob Bleepin' Walk doesn't quite have the same ring to it as s Bucky Bleepin' Dent, does it? However, that didn't stop Matt of Bob Walk The Plank from sending me a few awesome cards in a recent trade...or maybe it was a swap...or maybe it was just a "here are some cards, send some back some time." The Dent was part of the swap, although it wasn't what started it. This was:

Nice! I thought at first I had this, but turns out I didn't have the diecut version. Ty Hensley doesn't have a ton of cards, so when a fellow collector finds one for me that I need, it's extra cool. It slotted into my growing Ty Hensley PC just perfectly.

The Dent came along with it. Matt is contemplating putting together this Donruss Signatures autograph set, which would be super cool. For what they are, I think they are exceptionally nice.

These gems filled out the rest of the package! Matt, it's always a pleasure trading with you.