A Brock for my little tot

I have found that I need little projects to keep me engaged in the hobby. I'm not a set builder, so I have to get creative. That's why there is my Topps Yankees Project, my Rizzuto vintage collection, and a new project that I just came up with.

I have a 13-month old son. He's an animal. A complete beast. And he's awesome. I will never force cards on him, but I do want to build a collection for him. Plus, one day mine will be his. I've put a couple cards aside for him - a Jeter rookie, a few relics that fellow collectors have sent me specifically for him, and a binder full of Yankee dupes that I have.

One other thing I want to do is start acquiring vintage cards of Hall of Famers. I'm not going to go after every Hall of Famer, but some of the more popular guys to play, such as Koufax, Gibson, Clemente, Aaron, etc. Name brand players. I'll eventually create a targeted player list.

Here is my first pick up for the project, a 1973 Topps Lou Brock. Pretty sweet card. Weird buying cards of non-Yanks. Very liberating.

For all you Dodger fans

Scratch that, for all you Baseball fans, check out Google's homepage today in honor of Jackie Robinson's 94th birthday. Pretty f'in cool.

The opposite of 2013 Topps

Vintage, that is. I haven't had a chance to make it to any retail stores to pick up some new stuff, so I figured I'd post a few oldies but goodies that I recently picked up.

These came as part of lots and are completely for trade:

Rocco Baldelli laughs in my face

A few days ago, we made a family run to Target. Diapers, cleaning supplies, etc. I swung by the card row, hoping to find a discount blaster from the previous year. While everything was fully marked, I did find a discount pack that contained "one relic card plus three packs." I've read stories about other bloggers finding some true gems in these packs, even a Mickey Mantle jersey. With thoughts of a major score dancing in my head, I plucked one off the rack.

Why on earth would I think I'd even get a halfway decent card? I should have known and saved the money, but my mind does weird things in the card row. My hit was of the one and only, the next DiMaggio (at the time), Rocco Baldelli. Sigh. I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed, but I was.

As for the three packs that were included? About what you'd expect.

A few more TTMs that trickled in

I haven't sent out a TTM in a few months, but a few have still managed to trickle in.

A TTM Happy Ending

No, not that kind of happy ending, sicko. Something tells me that if that were the case, the TTM hobby would be a lot more crowded than it already is.

You may recall that over the last two years,I've had a hard time getting Mason Williams to sign for me. Mason is one of my favorite Yankee prospects. He's pretty much a consensus Top 50 guy, and probably top-three in the Yankees system depending on who you ask.

One time I sent to Mason, my card came back unsigned. The next time, I got this note below.

I figured I was just destined to never get him TTM. Luckily, my pal Paul over at Carl Crawford Cards was able to hook me up with a Mason signed card from his summer spent in Charleston. I was content.

However, on December 31st, two TTM envelopes arrived. They were sent to my old address, and luckily the post office forwarded them. Each of them contained a Mason Williams signature - one on a Bowman Chrome, one on a regular Bowman. I couldn't believe it!

It was a pretty darned good way to end 2012.

Credit card? You got it!

Bonus points if you know what movie that title is from.

Was aka Jaybarkerfan once again sent me some goodies. Seriously, this is one of the coolest cards ever.

1995 Studio is one of the coolest sets of all time. The credit card set. This Boggs is a gold insert, which I had never seen. It’s cut more like a credit card with rounded corners. I’m really tempted to keep this in my wallet

Here are a few other cool cards that Wes sent.

Wes, congrats on the Upton brothers!