1st cards in the mail in 37 years

When I was young, I traded baseball cards in the mail. Living in an isolated mountain town in West Virginia, I would have never been able to do this without having joined up with the Topps Sports Club. That had little ads from people who wanted to trade baseball cards.

The way I remember it, things were much like today - there were set collectors, and team collectors, and some people had player collections even when there was only one manufacturer. I think they used their collecting energies on making scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings and photos of their PC guys. And check this out - I think the majority of those folks were female. Trading was only part of the simple joy of having a Pen Pal to communicate with. Now we all have probably too many Pen Pals, or electronic "Friends" as they are called today.

I'm hoping to discover some old mementos of those days later this year, and share them with y'all. It was a different century back then.

Now we communicate without the mailman, though he still remains key to trading the actual baseball cards. And this year has been great to be able to simply trade baseball cards, without setting up financial accounts on various websites to do it. I silently babble my musings into this liquid crystal display, and days or weeks later the mailman puts baseball cards in my mailbox. Miraculous!

My first trade of the 21st Century came courtesy of Adam at the Thoughts and Sox blog. If you have any old sports pages with a photo of Bill Virdon yellowing away, I'm sure Adam would want to see them. I shipped some 2012 David Ortiz picture cards across the country and Adam sent along an insert card that proved to be the last card in an insert set I needed, even after continuing to way over purchase Series 1 cards due to my Parallel Problem.

I liked this small (15 card) insert set. I like the visual arts. So you would think I would be all over Allen & Ginter, but that set just don't interest me. Not sure why, but 15 hand-drawn cards a year are just about the right amount. Plus, Willie Stargell was in that set, and each card had an interesting player bio tidbit rather than the "Over ten games in late June last season..." dreck. I haven't typed up the card surplus list from this one yet, but I have plenty more of most of them except CC here.

So I guess for me the art of baseball cards is all in the design. So sometimes 1972 is the place I wanna be:

Green, blue & yellow. Nothing to do with Reds. I love it. Oh, I like it when team and card colors harmonize, but I also like it when they don't, though that walks a finer line. I also like how the night game feel survived shrinkage to mini card land. This one though, became yet more surplus cardboard by the time I was actually able to meet up with this trade package in 3D life a good 6 weeks after Adam sent it. Plenty of these '72 minis available too ... how about if you buy too many Series 2 packs, and I'll fill out your Series 1 needs of these (list typed in when else but 'soon', whatever that means). Maybe we can get on the same page just in time for Ultra-Pro to finally make us some binder pages to hold these little beauties. I'll be watching their website closely around the time of the National.

It was actually a teensy bit of a complicated trade with AdamE (thanks again!), as my second and virtually simultaneous trade was with another Adam, as in ARPSmith's Sports Card Obsession. But all players made their correct connecting flights and Mr. Smith helped me with a card I have really been looking forward to scan...

...which turned out pretty nicely, but I think these cards will photograph better. These cards are amazing - one second they're blue, the next they are neon-orange. I was glad to send out an extra card of Stan the Man for this one. Stan Musial cards shouldn't be stuck in some random box for all eternity. I'm getting close to finishing the Spring Fever set and when I do, I think I will celebrate with some full-sunlight shots of their foil goodness. Then I think I will hang them on a Christmas Tree to bask in some pretty lights.

My love of shiny happy people baseball crowds has lead me to collect the Chasing History set in the foil version, which made up the other half of this trade. I can't believe I actually traded for something as dull as an Adam Dunn card. None of us need to see that, now do we? His was almost another pointless acquisition as I have since pulled the not-old "relic" version, which includes an exciting pinstripe swatch. Riddle me this how I got a white pinstripe on a blue swatch for a member of the Chicago White Sox. Another complaint for another night.

'round about the time these trades completed, I finally lucked into one of those 'Silver Slate Wrapper Redemption' cards, courtesy of a friendly card shop that took pity on me and simply gave me one, since they knew from their 21st Century technology that it was likely my tardy self would never receive any. I ended up with Heath Bell. Then I saw that Colbey from Cardboard Collections was much more on-the-ball than I with a post of his redemption. His included a card in my first player collection that I have also really been looking forward to seeing from a scan:

Also better in real-life, though the old-timey television-channel-off-the-air look from the scanner is unique too. This could possibly be Dotel's final card as he has moved on to the 60-Day DL without any good prognosis to be optimistic about. Colbey and I finished a quick 1-for-1 PWE trade for what I thought might be my first attempt at a rainbow. I thought I would start with some easy low-hanging fruit, but then of course I fell far deeper into wanting a rainbow not just of one player, when I could kinda sorta rainbow out the whole set. Octavio is now proudly anchoring a page in the Parallel Project, and remains to this day the only Blue Sparkle I have from Series 1. I could use some more. Hint, hint.

By this time Opening Day had arrived at last, and I set up another trio of trades to complete all while living out of a crew-cab pick-up truck. Perfectly suited for this was a trade of some '13 Opening Day and '13 Topps Stickers with the ToddFather.

I like stickers, and stickers like me:

I can't get too many of this sticker. It will be appearing in a lot of places, such as in random locations inside a nice brewery where some friends work. They make the best beer ever - Two-Hearted Ale. And they love Brewers thingamabobs and thingamajigs like this. When I was a kid I always thought Bernie slid down the slide into a great big ole keg of actual beer. Please don't ever pop that bubble.

The rest of the trade involved glossier mascots, in bigger photos:

Ta-da! An essential entry in my Chase of the MLB mascots this year featuring one of baseball's quintessential mascots. Thanks Tim!

Opening Day provided the base for another great trade, with Jim at Garvey-Cey-Russel-Lopes. I know it was actually Cey-Russell-Lopes-Garvey around the horn after a strikeout, but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue quite as well. GCRL sent along yet another challenge for the scanner:

Methinks the Topps Voodoo is strong with this one. All blurry and such, the way they say Josh is seeing the ball this year. Perhaps the Angels didn't hire a very good opthamalogist for the pre-contract physical. And if I was getting paid that much for that little production, I'd hide my broken-down eyes under the brim of the cap a lot too.

As a bonus I received a card for yet another couple pages of cards this year:

You may see a gimmicky card of a jose-average National League outfielder with a blatant product placement contained therein. One could only hope Topps did take a payment for this card, in truckloads of product. I'm sure their Customer Service reps could use a little stress relief these days.

But I see a key cornerstone of a powerful project: Purple Pirates! ARRRRRR! What better team and color to pair up than Pirates yellow and purple borders? OK, sure, the black border cards would look quite a bit sweeter. But Pirates bury their loot, they don't spend it on a project too farrrrr. Those black cards arrrrrrr tough to find, even for Pirates. And what better carrrrrrd than a Pirate to have some beer in the background? ArrrrRRRR. Pirates love beer, until they get a little cross-eyed:

The best part of that cardboard awesomeness is that this card isn't even the greatest piece of Pirate Parrot memorabilia I have received this year! Stay tuned, mateys.

For all that wonderful baseball card fun I was able to place some Dodger Blues in a good home full of Dodgers, and I was even able to send along a Turning Two card Jim didn't have yet - not easy to do. There were a few more portions of Opening Day ephemera in that multi-faceted trade, but there seem to be some Tigers chasing these Pirates to the scanner...

...courtesy of The Prowling Cat naturally. Along with a trade that had nothing to do with the Detroit Tigers, the 'Cat shipped along a whole litter of kitties:

I mean, what trader doesn't like bonus cards in a trade? Even when it is a Tiger in a funhouse mirror that I can't even remember playing in Detroit, as it turns out he got to supply the subject of the standard baseball announcer line "...spent parts of two seasons with Detroit before being....". Those were in 1995 & 1996, I was in a lot of shock those two summers. Nothing like a LAST NAME card to shake things up:

Who? TRAMMELL. Good thing Jim Walewander isn't in that set. That would be awkward. This might be my first-ever baseball card with just a player's last name, but perhaps not. I wouldn't think there would be too many sets with that feature. You'd have to ask Dime-Box Nick, he would know.

And the 'Cat didn't know it, but he sent along an entry on another new-set-to-complete-finally list, the 1984 Topps Detroit Tigers:

Sure, he only got round about 2 at-bats per game as a backup on the world dominating 1984 Detroit Tigers, but how many players are you going to find that can back up the Plate and the Hot Corner...and hit a 2 run Homer in the World Series? A collection is born. I was slack on the cards in 1984, surprisingly enough. Perhaps you don't need baseball cards as much when your team leads wire-to-wire.

There was so much roar restored in that package, I almost forgot the prime object of the trade in the first place. Everyone hold their breath:

That pop-up is drifting ... another of this year's Out-of-Bounds Short Prints, #5 on the year for me. Still a long way to go. #6 arrived a few days ago but will supply the beautiful imagery for some boring information about the excitement of trading baseball cards, when I will add another Braves card blog to my new traded with the Pros roster. I tried to round up as many Topps goodies as I could for the 'Cat (who also hooked me up with 2 more Spring Fever needs, but we've already seen one of those - you'll have to wait till Christmas for the rest); I hope I found enough to balance the scales here, but I don't think so. I have my eye on a few items...

Recently, we finally made it to Official Summer Time, and the end of my extra-busy time at work. So I have been able to swing some more complex trades across a number of insert sets in those complicated Archives releases.

Dislocated Padres fan Marcus rolled all the way to Texas where he hosts his All the Way to the Backstop blog. He meticulously picked through my somewhat new want list on my blog, which started out with my hopes and dreams and extras for the pieces of the last two years of Archives, and did he ever deliver with, yep, a scanner work-out:

Just a '77 style Verlander? Nope, that is a '77 Cloth Sticker Verlander. Sharp.

Marcus also went the bonus cards route with a bonus stack of 2009 O-Pee-Chee. I am going to enjoy working on this set for months to come, and supplying you with great card images like this one:

Light-towers. Storm-clouds. What's not to like? How much did I like this package? About this much:

But wait....there's more...well, not from the Backstop, but from another blogger trying to complete another very complicated Master Set: 2011 Lineage. That would be Nick from The Lost Cards File. I too am chasing parts of that set; much easier parts than Nick is. I sent along all I could that would help, including several of the '75 mini relics from my ceaseless hunt for those now-old blasters this winter. And in return I made beaucoup progress on my '11 Lineage '75-mini needs:

Yeah, so the Braves have never ever sported Padres colors, not even on your Throwback Nightmare night. Who cares? It's 1975, baby! I don't think they even had night cards hardly in 1975. I have to admit they did have much better card backs than the phoned-it-in snoozers the Lineage editors came up with. Which kept me from collecting some cards I really, really, really wanted when they came out. But that first set you bought much of when you are 8 years old — ahhh, you never forget your first one. And now I am in it to win. Hurry up, Ultra-Pro! Get-r-done! This set won't fit on the Christmas Tree. It needs binder pages.

Nick also collects more high-end cards than I, so he too could send along some extra sweet bonus cards for me as easy as rolling off a log. I did say I love those sparkles:

This one is tuned to two different off-the-air TV channels - the blue one, and the green one. I have definitely learned how to pick which Blue Sparklers I want. What TV has those channels? Why the baseball card television known as my trusty mailbox. This card makes a fitting end to tonight's broadcast....tune in tomorrow when we celebrate Canada Day. Eh.

I should have played the dollar machines that day

I am fairly immune to the lure of gambling. This is serving me fairly well in collecting baseball cards, though I experienced some weakness during the late winter.

I don't have some personal tale of woe, nor have seen gambling addiction up close amongst anyone I know. Once upon a time, I had a random experience that taught me a lot about gambling.

It happened in Reno, or maybe Sparks actually. The usual random freeway motel had the usual small Nevada "casino" attached, and after the usual way, way too adjective-less run from Salt Lake City to Reno, it seemed like a nice way to unwind for a while. In advance, I decided to strictly budget just 20 bucks towards boredom busting. I was on the way to the City by the Bay, and friends and fun were waiting for me there.

Delighted by the dirt cheap beer obtained therein, I decided to stretch my time budget by playing the nickel machines. I do like the video poker, on the perhaps dubious thought that by picking the cards to discard, I was more involved in the process of losing my money than the zombies at the regular slot machines. Somewhere during the very bored doldrums of losing my last dollar, I got a Hit. I found a baseball card in there? No, silly, a "jackpot". Hmm, I think I will say that loudly the next time I'm ripping packs and I get some B-list "game used Relic" card no one wants. Maybe Saturday, when I get to visit a new FLCS that I hope has some Series 2 for me to rip. I hope the owner doesn't get mad at me.

What was it? How much did I win??? It was a Royal Flush on that video poker machine. I won 20 bucks!

Exciting, eh? My partner in crime suggested moving on up, but  I celebrated by quitting on top, even on the evening, dollar-wise, and even a little ahead of the joint, since I had four beers worth of buzz going on, and my 20 bucks.

I can't remember the odds of pulling a Royal Flush, but the payout was around 400:1, give or take a little. (This was over 20 years ago now). But the whole experience was very deflating actually, and it has stayed with me ever since. This is because I instantly realized that if I had been playing the quarter machine, I would have won a Benjamin Franklin, and if I had been playing the dollar machine, like my buddy was, that would have been four Benjamins. Real Money.

And I've hardly gambled ever since. Risk just a little, win just a little. Risk a lot, lose a lot. Now when I once-in-a-while check out some old fart band at the backwoods casino round here, I avoid all the gaming machines and 'the pit'. Instead, I gamble at the bar. The backwoods are just full of cougars you know.

I have been thinking about this since Saturday, when I got to thinking Fortuna was really smiling on me, and perhaps I should have bought Lottery tickets that day. On that day I decided to try out some of this year's Archives. First, I hit up a Wal-Mart, probably the closest one to my hometown (yep, 23 miles away), since I wanted one last blaster of blues, and some binder pages. I didn't think the other box store down the way had binder pages. But Wally was sold out of binder pages and blasters, though he did have the new Archives. I'm seriously in need of some more binder pages as the stacks and cardboard boxes on my new card table are getting out of hand. So off I went to the other box store, the one you've never heard of most likely (Meijer's). Their binder pages were junk, but they had Archives too. Don't mind if do, blaster number two.

So, so, so, are we gonna see some cards finally? Sooooo much text, nooooo cards. Nope, we'll go with the wrapper first. I love this wrapper, plus it has foreshadowing:

I mean, that anonymous Montreal Expo there is gonna blast one, right?

But the wrapper also has my first OCD complaint. No, I don't have OCD. My card stacks are a mess. (I do use lots and lots of penny sleeves though, your trade bait stays in nice shape on my card desk.) But learning where this wonderful wrapper came from makes one jones for a 21st century version of Topps Super. Would have made perfect box-toppers. But then the extra-thick cardboard would make this 2013 extra-thin cardboard seem that much thinner, now wouldn't it. What is Topps Super? Check out this excellent blog for all things Topps, if you've never seen it. I could (and do) get lost in there for hours. And last year we had the so-hard-to-pull-I-never-pulled-one '82 In Action subset, not this year when we have '82 style cards.

So, yeah, Archives is another frustrating Topps product. But, I've always liked 1972 cards, and it will be a long time, if ever, before I chase a set of 1972. Sure, it would be great fun, but I doubt it will ever rise to the topp of the to-do list. So I made my peace with what I don't like — since these will just be going into binder pages to enjoy visually, I'm sorta OK with the terrible card-stock. My Heritage cards, I like to paw through the stacks. A totally different experience.

And this is what I like:

Back in '72, there weren't any Babe Ruth cards. I have a soft spot for them, though I have no need to chase them, since I now know Topps will probably be showering them on me the rest of my life. I do really need that '75 style from one of the Fan Favorites set about ten years back now, however.

I also have a soft spot for Topps Pops cards. I got one way back in February in the kinda-goofy "Calling Cards" insert in Series One. I hadn't seen Pops on a cardboard in a very long time, and that started to mellow me on insert set silliness. I am pretty happy to see him again:

Can't say I've ever noticed a batting helmet put on over a regular ballcap before, though I'm sure it has happened elsewhere. Hey Willie, let's get a batting shot. Sure, let me grab a helmet. I will be watching for that odd little meme on all cards going forward. It also makes me realize that serious batting poses shouldn't go with ballcaps, but of course they do on baseball cards. See what these baseball cards do to me?

Moving on, I just love this card, another '85 style:

This card pretty much has A Lot Going On. Great Night Card of course. And helmet-on-backwards, but the mask off. The way a Catcher card should be. And we have a Patch Card - shoulder patch that is. The memorial patch for Paul Splitorff. But that means this photo is from 2011. Tsk, tsk Topps, hitting soft lazy fly balls again. But since their Spring Training shot backdrops are getting incredibly repetitive, we'll let that go. And then we have Salvador about to throw a fastball. How cool is that? Can't say I've ever seen a non-pitcher about to do that on a baseball card before. And, hey, he might even be chewing tobacco there. Pretty doubtful, but just that extra tick of old-timey baseball imagery, it's almost getting subliminal, or instinctual, or sentimental, or something.

I've been watching for Salvador Perez cards since I got his Spring Fever card earlier this year. I still need some of those, by the way. Googling around on his card oeuvre so far, it makes me wonder how he slipped into the world of Topps without the little RC deal. His is in 2011 Bowman. I never buy Bowman cards. Yes, I know that's Topps too. I like and dislike that RC thing.

I've found some other things to enjoy in my little stack of Archives so far, but I'll be merging those scans with other recent cards that are all going to live together on my esoteric themed binder pages.

Here's a good example of what I don't like:

1990. Why, Topps, Why? Sure, some of these newer ones nicely matched the card colors to the team colors. But the nice efforts just can't wash out the taste of the nonsensical ones.

I am keeping this one, but more because I like cards with Trees on them, and chain-link, and I enjoyed watching Ryu hit a triple the other night:

Dodgers and yellow? Red, Topps, Red. Duhh. Great blue glove though. I like colorful cards and the 70s and nonsense and colors and Design and things that make me dizzy....but not 1990. I give Topps credit for going for it and taking a mighty rip, like Ortiz probably just did up there, but they fell down in a heap over the plate. I mean the design has always seemed Mondrian-esque, but it is in the baseball card dictionary in my head as the example under the word FAIL. Here is the masterpiece by my second favorite Dutch painter:

OK, now let's hope I never have to discuss 1990 Topps ever again. Mondrian might return one of these days though.

And I was meandering there about Topps photo backdrops of late. Each team has one just for them it seems, at least down in Floriday. This one amuses me some:

I've always liked empty stadium shots for some reason. But I'm starting to think the Yankees play their Spring Training games in a prison. Not sure if I want to bind some of these together. They make me feel kind of bound-up. I just can't look away. Who is watching me from those windows? I didn't do it. I didn't do it! Snowden did it. I surrender!

Another mystery is this pair of cards:

Did Topps borrow these from the set of some new 3-D video baseball game stop-motion recording effort? I just can't recall such perfect matte-backdrops on cards before. Or the Belt card is the most perfect pure blue sky shot ever, but it doesn't look very outside-y. Sometimes, maybe the digital age is just too digital. Oh no, here is a terrible thought....should I only collect vintage because that old time analogue film gives card images more "warmth"? How else can I keep up with the hipsters down at the record store? Will I need special antique shoeboxes to keep the cards in, so they age just right too? What would Neil Young say? He probably has special gear for his cards.

Also in the Why, Topps, Why department are these two items:

At first I thought I had doubles. I score two of the special 1969 4-on-1 mini sticker cards, but I only end up with 6 different stickers. Lazy, lazy, lazy. And I looked it up - Topps is not mimicking the 1969 checklist with the repeats. Just lazy. And they totally missed the chance to make the greatest card # ever if they had put Sanguillen-Ichiro-Carew-Kubek on one of these for the 69S-SICK. That would've thrown all the teenage baseball card dealers all over the card forums for a loop.

I'm not sure I like the idea of borrowing from other sports for my baseball cards. Topps should have lots of odd old baseball products to regurgitate on us, but perhaps they are running low. I did like the cartoon on the back of the Cespedes "Tall Boy" (dang that makes me both thirsty, and wanting to reach for some Widespread CDs); haven't seen anyone post a back yet:

Don't forget you can just click on a picture embedded on a blog page to get a bigger view of it.

I will be letting go of most of the things that I got in these 2 blasters, except for the 72 cards. How much will I have to pay somebody to get rid of this one:

Might be the last time we see him for a while, but then I keep pulling A-Rod cards too.

One neat thing about "in-the-style-of" cards is when Topps uses an original design that included facsimile autographs. I think some hand-writing expert should get to work on 21st century sports star card autographs, vs. prior decades. The decline of signatures just makes me laugh. At least Topps could hand the ball-player a decent working ink pen:

10-4 there Asdrubal, or fffobrof or whatever the heck. And Yo, Topps, I like smiling baseball players on my baseball cards, 'cept maybe that creepy Tall Boy up there; they're kinda rare outside of the Heritage set. But maybe you could be a little nicer to the Caribbean players who didn't have access to good dental care when they were young. K? Thanks. They are so nice and friendly though. Not like them 'mericuns.

Another goofy autograph is found on this card, but I like this card too:

A Cloud Card, AND a Light-Tower Card. And I just like Chapman's cards, usually. 'cept when they basically repeat his pose. Repeats repeats repeats. No, not this card, I like this card. I just had to type repeats repeats repeats in this post here somewhere repeats repeats repeats. That's probably why I like this card. Chapman's upcoming Series 2 card is pretty much a repeat of his awesome 2011 card, and that bums me out. When they're not repeating the picture (like Asdrubal's), they are repeating the pose, as Night Owl ably demo'd recently. Lazy lazy lazy. I used to set aside repeat card images so I could cleverly put them all together and bitch about them, but there are just too too too many.

Anyway, I like this 82 Chapman effort. You'll see it again, along with a bunch of others from 2013 Archives when I amalgamate them with other cards with Clouds, or Light-Towers.

What you probably won't see again, are very many of this type of card:

Fan-Favorite Autograph, I should have had to purchase about 8 blasters to find one of these. Autographs just don't do much for me. Eventually I'll put up a long roll of the ones I have for Trade Bait. Watch this space tomorrow for a big post on my big new project, that won't involve autographs, but will involve giving up all my autographs to complete. And it will involve the Base Set of course.

Anyhow, I have always thought I would like just one autograph card to keep. Preferably an on-card autograph. Of a Detroit Tiger. And whaddyaknow:

Boom! Maybe they don't call 'em blasters for nuddin'. 2 Blasters, 2 FFA- cards. The Odds? Dang, if only I had gone to a Friendly Local Card Shop instead, I could have picked up a Hobby Case instead. There is that '75 Pele auto to Chase. Hey, I'm going to an FLCS on Saturday....

Wally World again?

Yes, I have the Fever. There's a Johnny Fever baseball card? No, I don't think so. I'll brb after I ask The Google....

Nope, no Johnny Fever baseball cards seem to exist. Such a pity. Just think of the possibilities on the Jennifer Marlowe super-short-print variation card. In fact, searching for them leads to an image of a 2013 Topps Spring Fever redemption card.

Which is what I have a mild Fever for. So the stars and moon aligned (just past full tonight), and off I went to a very friendly LCS. I'll write up a review of my adventures there later.

I did pick up two more packs of the Spring Fever cards. The shops are pretty generous with them actually. Well, I base that on a survey sample of 2 so far. But both are in a very friendly state.

These two packs increased my set to 38 of the 50 cards. I simply went back to yesterday's post and edited the lists there to keep things simple, silly. Eventually I'll put up full-on want lists, etc.

And I still want to write up an FAQ on trading cards in the mail. You probably know all the answers; I'll have all the questions. Maybe tomorrow.

Of course, anything can happen when you start up a blog to discuss Topps base sets and immediately start by babbling about an obscure redemption-only set. Kinda like baseball - once the first pitch is thrown, all bets are off. 'Cept maybe in a certain dug-out in the 80s I guess.

So of the 3 cards I added tonight, the first was card #1 - Wally Joyner. Well played, Topps, well played.

I saw him on the checklist several weeks ago and had to chuckle even then. Of course this set features both Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, the two "IT" players right now. (Stephen Strasburg seems to be becoming somewhat MIA lately). What are the current Vegas odds Mike Trout is on the box & wrappers for the second series - 3:2 ?

But back in 1986, it was all about Wally Joyner. Angels home games were soon played at "Wally World." I don't know if the hoopla set off a Joyner card printing frenzy - this was long before a hot player generated 50 different cards a year, or whatever the totals might be for those 2 guys on every checklist right now.

Eventually the Absorbine cooled off of course, though it took several years. I was never much of a fan as he was a bit of a Tiger killer. (Walt Terrell no-hitter through 26 batters, cough, cough). Joyner finished with very respectable numbers across his career, definitely ones good enough for Topps to salute with a new card, especially for such a popular player. I don't know if he has been on any cards since retirement, but I suspect not.

Despite this well-deserved new issue, I don't think Topps selected him as card #1 of their Spring Fever set just because he was Wally Joyner. Spring time goes so well with hot Rookies, and I think the set editor at Topps on this one had some fond memories of that 1986 season, amidst all this phenom fever.

Let's trade Topps Spring Fever

So you thought I said I couldn't put cards up yet?

Well, it will be a long while before I can do them up right with a scanner. But I decided to give it a try using my phone.

I think it will be the way to go with these foil cards, as it turns out. Though the pro collectors probably wouldn't grade this effort very well on centering, would they?

This is one of my favorites of the set I have seen so far. It looks like Rickey has already made his jump towards 2nd, as you would expect of him. And, he is an Oakland Athletic which is how I will always think of him, to answer a question from earlier tonight on a blog I admire.

I like foil cards. Believe it or not, I think these are my first ever foil cards, though I might have some single example from some random pack purchase in the last 20 years. Eventually, like all bloggers, I'll share my baseball card collecting history here. There is another set of foil cards I am slowly falling for; naturally that is a perfect set-up for a future blog post.

I have 35 of them...here is another favorite. I've always liked seeing a baseball on my baseball card:

Again some card photog flunkie couldn't get the borders right. I especially like a baseball in flight, and especially when it flies through refracting colors as you turn the card in bright light. There is a nice white baseball on the back of every card too; a bit surprising Topps didn't exploit that nice white space somehow.

Of course, having only 38 of them means I need 12 more. Naturally, I have doubles, and fortunately, I have 22 of those, sort of. So I am looking to trade 1-for-1 only on these Topps 2013 Spring Fever cards.

Oh, and ever since I met my first fellow baseball card collector when I was ten years old, I have referred to owning 2 or more copies of the same card as "doubles". Perhaps 'dupes' or 'duplicates' is more common, I don't know, but "doubles" certainly has more of a baseball ring to it.

Also, I haven't really started advertising this blog to get some readers/subscribers/fans/followers/eyeballs for it yet. But I will soon.

I need:


2 Haren
5 Cepeda
9 Machado
12 Middlebrooks
19 Fielder
23 Gonzalez
25 Segura
26 Wright
34 Clark
38 Rodney
40 Longoria
43 Hamilton

I have available:

6 Hanson
16 Peavy
17 Frazier
24 x4 Eovaldi
33 x4 Marte
35 Griffey Jr
36 x2 Musial
44 x3 Bautista
47 x4 Votto
50 Posey

With so many triple-doubles (hmmm, what sport are we obsessing over again?), it seems like it could be tricky to get this done. Keep in mind that I am on the road and not always within simple range of a Post Office. I work back in the woods you see.

I'll have some other questions about 21st century trading etiquette in my next post. It's been a long, long time since I have traded baseball cards in the mail. I can't wait to open my first package...