Black & white can also shine

Over the past year, I've cooled a bit on seeking out prospect cards.

I've always enjoyed following the Yankees minor leagues, but with so few prospects panning out, I'm often left with cards of guys who never made it or were dealt to other teams. While I don't collect these guys with the hopes of striking it rich, it does seem to take up unnecessary space in my collection. 

Still, there are a few exciting young prospects in the Yankees system who do seem poised to actually do something other than serve as trade bait. Outside of Aaron Judge, the last decade run of Yankees first rounders has been awfully bad. Still, there are a few right now who are pretty exciting, including bat-first 2020 first rounder Austin Wells.

After a very good 2021 and then a solid Arizona Fall League, his cards got a little noticed. Not Anthony Volpe levels, but still a little more than they had. I decided to see what current stuff he has out there, and saw a Bowman parallel I hasn't seen before:

Pretty neat looking card, and I got it for a low price. While Bowman Chrome has approximately 400 parallels, "black and white mini diamond" refractors were new to me. Perhaps they have existed before, I don't know. The card looks pretty striking with the player's photo in black and white, surrounded by colorful mini diamonds. It's not rare or numbered, but I found it to be an attractive card and to me, that counts for something.

In the same lot I also got the standard "mojo" refractor.

I hope Austin Wells turns out to be a good player for the Yankees. But even if not, I won't be left holding the bag. 

January 6, 1991

January 6, 1991. The date the Cincinnati Bengals last won a Playoff game.

At the time I was seven years old and in first grade. Sadly, I have absolutely no memory of the game. I don't think I watched it or knew what was happening. I can confidently say that I have no conscious memories of the Bengals winning a NFL Playoff game.

Today at 4:30, they take on the Raiders with a chance to snap that 31 year drought. I won't be surprised with either outcome, sadly. The teams are evenly matched, although the Bengals are favored by 5.5 as of right now. I guess it's not that even, but still. I could see the Bengals dominating. I could see them laying a goose egg. I could see a tight battle that comes down to a late FG by one side.

The reason I feel different about this game versus the last seven Playoff games is because of Joe Burrow. He's an elite, franchise-altering QB. I like everything about him, frankly. Over the past few weeks, I've snagged a few RCs of his. Nothing big, just a few of the more common ones I wanted to have.

But a QB is only as good as his WRs, and his two best have made an impact as well. Ja'Marr Chase has been incredible, an exciting playmaker who proved to be the right draft pick, taken 5th overall. I pulled all of these from packs:

Not be overlooked, Tee Higgins is a high volume, dependable WR who has built up a great rapport with Burrow. Beau from One Million Cubs was selling a few of these on eBay, so I bought four RCs.

Will I see the Bengals win a Playoff game today? I hope.

And if they don't, well, the future is still bright.

A real Bru-haha

Right around Christmas, Marc aka Bru from the old school Remember The Astrodome and I made a nice swap on TCDB. It's really nice having someone to send crummy Astros to, and in turn, get Yankees I want.

It was around a 20 for 20 card swap, give or take. I helped him with a few Astros and set needs, he sent me some assorted Yankees from a bunch of brands. It was actually a really fun mixture of cards, especially because there were a bunch of Panini products I don't see a lot. I kind of hope Fanatics buys Panini as well, since they've been kicking Topps' butt with better designs and products the last few years. Although I guess it wouldn't be true competition if they all rolled up to the same mothership. 

Still, seeing Donruss and Prizm with official marks would be cool.

Regardless, back to the variety. I was able to add five Gleybers to the collection, including a couple with the RC logo...which apparently doesn't really mean what it used to a few years ago.

I also got my second card of Odor as a Yankees, and this one is pretty great at highlighting his fiery personality.

I won't lie, I laughed when I saw this mugshot. What a dopey card.

I still have hope for Clarke Schmidt being an impactful Yankees pitcher. It would be nice if a first rounder not named Judge panned out.

A few more Stantons. I need to do a count on his cards, but I must be approaching 175 or so. I like the Fire red foil a lot. Maybe my favorite card of the trade.

And here are the rest of the goodies.

Marc, thanks for the trade, and please enjoy your time with the beautiful baby girl you just had.

A little post-Christmas red & green

I hope everyone was able to have a safe and healthy Christmas. Mine was extremely quiet compared to what was planned. I was supposed to travel a few hours away to spend the holiday with my parents and siblings. However, a few tested positive for COVID-19 a few days prior, causing us to stay home and have a small little family Christmas. While it was nice and slow, I did miss being with my larger family.

As for the big day, I didn't get any cards for Christmas, although to be fair, I didn't ask for any either. There's just nothing out there I really want or care to open right now.

I haven't been buying or trading much the last few months. It's not uncommon for me lately to spend less than $10 a month on cards on Ebay. For example, in November I spent $6.66 total on cards on eBay, including shipping. It's kind of liberating.

However, in December my total jumped to $18.44, as I bought three cards during the month. Only one of them was a baseball card:

A nice 2012 Elite Extra autograph of Ty Hensley with green ink. This card is numbered 05/10, and set me back $7.88 including shipping. While I probably paid more on shipping than on the card, it was a Hensley I didn't have, which don't pop up much any more. Therefore, I'm likely to overspend, even if I'm the only market for such a card.

The green autograph looks nice against the red background, forming an inadvertent Christmas-colored card. This card brings me to 126 unique Hensley cards. I'll always pick up his cards when a new one arises.

It'll be quiet around here over the next few weeks, so I'll take this moment to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Something stinks...

...but it's not these cards. 

Sure they have an odor to them. But that's because Johnny's Trading Spot sent them.

No, no. It's not about Johnny. I assume he smells fine. In fact, he sent me my very first card of Roughned Odor as a Yankee. If you told me this guy would be a Yankee a few years ago, I thought that would have been cool. But last year he was a no-cost pickup. Fun player, not very effective. He has since been released by the Yanks, but I'll always have this card from Johnny.

Speaking of firsts, Johnny also sent me my first non-on-demand Joey Gallo card. I like Gallo. He struggled quite a bit, but he's a cool player. Awesome power, good OFer. I think people get tired with the true three outcome-ness of his game, but I think he'll have a good second season in NY.

Johnny also sent a few more Topps Holiday cards, which is welcome because I didn't open any of these and they are always one of my favorite releases of the year.

Thanks for the PWE, Johnny. I keep saying it, but I owe you some Braves and will send them soon.

As for the rest of ya, Merry Christmas!

The upside down & a birthday

This is my second day in a row posting. I feel like I'm living in the upside down! This isn't something that's happened since last spring. Don't get used to it!

Speaking of the upside down, I recently purchased a new Tino Martinez card that has a few upside down qualities:

This is a weird printing error where Tino's name is nowhere to be found. The card state's Rich Amaral's name and team upside down, above Tino's head. The Studio logo is also upside down in the lower right.

Normally I don't care about printing errors and don't chase them. Many people find miscuts and misprints and errors to be more fun or even more valuable. I have never really been in that camp, nor have I actively gone out of my way to pick them up.

However, I though this one was pretty cool, and for a buck or so, found it to be a unique addition to my Tino collection.

Speaking of Tino, today is his 54th birthday! I have trouble remembering my family members' birthdays, yet every year December 7th shows up and I remember it's Tino's day. Did you know he was also acquired by the Yankees on December 7th, 1995? Must've been quite a day!

A TTM success trickles in

For the most part, I have stopped sending out TTM requests. While I enjoyed this aspect for the hobby for many years, I no longer feel the same about it like I once did for a multitude of reasons.

However, I have hundreds of unanswered TTM requests still out in the world, and every so often one finds its way back.

The most recent was sent in February, 2020, a few weeks before the pandemic changed the landscape of the 2020 baseball season. I was already sending out fewer TTM requests due to absolutely dwindling response rates over the past few years, but that didn't stop me from sending a handful to spring training just to give it a whirl.

Twenty two months later, former Yankee and most currently Red Sox Adam Ottavino returned two cards signed. Back when he was a Rockie, Adam used to sign with purple sharpie. It looks like he has traded that in for a more traditional blue marker.

Both came out great. The Heritage is fairly cool.

Ottavino was sent to the Red Sox for virtually nothing so that the Yankees had some wiggle room under their self-imposed fake salary cap. For the most part, he was a dependable arm for Boston. He appeared in 69 games, throwing 62 innings and striking out 71, and saving 11 games. I didn't agree that the Yanks should send a veteran reliever to their rival, but what do I know?

I'm sure another TTM or two will pop up in my mailbox at some point, but for now, it's always fun when a surprise return comes back.