Spring Cleaning is Over!

That's a wrap on Spring Cleaning... any Nationals fans out there? Paging "constant1st"... 

The increasingly inaccurately named Spring Cleaning event has now come to a conclusion. With the exception of a late-requested Minnesota-focused package and a bunch of Nationals cards that I don't have a mailing address for, everything has been shipped. Did you miss out on all of the fun? I may still have a bunch of cards for some of the unclaimed teams. We can always try to work out a trade, but soon I am going to implement my now annual ban on trips to the post office soon. (PWE's will, as always, continue in abundance.)

In other blog news, I finally moved my "10 Most Wanted" list to the menu bar at the top of the blog. This will finally make it viewable on mobile and hopefully generate a little more interest than in the past. Google has been making it increasingly more difficult to edit and update certain widgets for those of us who liked to more or less stick to the old-school Blogger layout, so I might start removing other neglected things from the sidebar since they're not visible on mobile anyway. We'll see.

Next up for the blog? December will see the return of the annual college football bowl pick 'em contest. Maybe I will get some other cool ideas before then?

Spring Cleaning 2021!

It's time to get rid of some baseball cards. Again.

 

I would like to get rid of at least 30 boxes of cards. I know that's an ambitious goal, but I'm sure a few of you are up for helping me out. I am going to make this as brief as I can so that you won't get bored, stop reading and wander off somewhere else. I am expecting to send out boxes of smaller size as well as bigger Priority Mail style mailers. I'm hopeful there will be something interesting for everyone who chooses to participate.

Rules:

1. Claim a team below. More than one person can claim a team. I will divide up what I have amongst the people judiciously.

2. Send me a minimum of one card from my want lists. (Team Want List | Set Want List)

3. Send me your mailing address if I haven't sent you anything in the past year or so. If I don't know who you are or how to contact you, I am not going to consider your team "claimed" until you complete this step.

4. Don't be a jerk.

You can expect to receive a mix of cards for your team from a variety of sets, including (but not limited to):

1. Newer base cards (including stuff from 2021)

2. Older base cards (you guessed it!)

3. A few inserts and parallels, depending on availability per team. (Let's just say I don't have a huge number of Dodgers or Cubs, for example.)

4. Minor league cards where your claimed team is the parent club

5. A select few serial numbered cards, autographs, or relic cards. This will vary wildly from team to team. I'm not going to tell you which teams I have bonus goodies like this for, or else no one would claim anything.

6. Very little (if any) "junk wax", especially if you are receiving a small box instead of a big ol' Priority Mail mailer.

7. Something random?! You never know. 99% of what you'll receive will be for the team that was claimed, though.

More rules (what?!) This is all optional, but feel free to tell me if you want:

1. A larger box? This means a higher probability of junk wax, but I will also include more base cards from the past thirteen years of this blog's run.

2. Are you a set collector? Do you need base cards? The vast majority of my extra cards are sorted numerically by set, so it's easier for me to look at set based want lists rather than team specific needs, so I may be able to help you out without claiming a team.

3. Special requests (no Panini! no 1991 Fleer! no guys with hats?!) may be honored if they're not too unreasonable/time consuming. Yes, this includes other sports.

Claimed so far (more than 1 person can claim a team, defunct teams in italics): 

Arizona Diamondbacks

Atlanta Braves: Night Owl, dayf

Baltimore Orioles

Boston Red Sox: Matt (Diamond Jesters)

Chicago Cubs: Jafronius, @rossjmyers

Chicago White Sox

Cincinnati Reds: Nachos Grande

Cleveland Indians: OhioTim

Colorado Rockies

Detroit Tigers: Jeremya1um

Houston Astros

Kansas City Royals

Los Angeles Angels: Laurens

Los Angeles Dodgers: Night Owl, gcrl

Miami Marlins

Milwaukee Brewers

Minnesota Twins: gcrl

Montreal Expos: @MikeMatson67

New York Mets: The Diamond King

New York Yankees: The Lost Collector, Bo

Oakland Athletics: OhioTim

Philadelphia Phillies: Elliptical Man

Pittsburgh Pirates: bbcardz

St. Louis Browns: Night Owl

St. Louis Cardinals: The Diamond King, Bo, David, @rossjmyers

San Diego Padres: Rod (Padrographs)

San Francisco Giants: Nick Vossbrink, Jay

Seattle Mariners: The Diamond King

Tampa Bay Rays: Jeremya1um

Texas Rangers

Toronto Blue Jays: Derek, Robert

Washington Nationals: constant1st

Special Requests: 

Randomness: Bo

No '80s/'90s: Jay

Summer Cleaning 2016

[Updated 9/27/16] Stuff for the grabbing. 

Awhile ago, I discovered this filthy cardboard box that is built for containing microphone(s). What sort of horrors laid within?

AHHH! AHHHHH! Cardboard horrors! So while I clear this thing out, I figured this is a good time to introduce to everyone that I have finally fully (99.9% complete) cataloged my Cardinals collection. Because of this, I can finally make it easy on everyone who wants to find out if I have something or not before they send it. To celebrate, or possibly to just feel the thrill of purging weird old junk, I am offering up the following proposal which has no foreseeable expiration date.

HERE ARE THE RULES:

1. Pick something from the list!

The list will be updated throughout the summer. Possibly throughout the year and beyond. I will add more stuff to this list if it proves to be popular enough to warrant that. I have a lot of stuff that I don't need. This is not a 1:1 thing, so you aren't limited to picking one thing, nor are you limited to just one of...

2. Find a card to send me!

• My team-based want lists can be found here.
• My set (non-team focused) wants can be found here.
• Here is a foolproof way to find out if I have a Cardinals card or not: search here (player name + card number usually gives the best results) and if it doesn't show up, I don't have it! You don't need a Zistle account to do this.

3. Tell me what you want and where to send it!

This is the easy part. All I require is a minimum of one card that I need for anything that you claim.

Note: If you're a #Supertrader and you claim something, I already have your address and you don't even need to send anything. If you're just plain super and have traded with me in the past, I'll probably send first because I probably owe you anyway. Otherwise, I just may wait to get my grubby mitts on that Plain White Envelope because I'm eager to mark things off of my nearly endless want list.

4. Rules are made to be broken, and that includes this one!

Really, the idea is just to spark some trades. If you have stuff you think I might like and you also have stuff that you like and I might have, send me an email, drop me a note or tweet me a... thing... and let's get this thing going.

Sorry about the Pro Set.

New stuff added to the top of the list!

THE LIST 

• Jose Fernandez 2013 Topps Chrome Update All-Star
• Oscar Taveras 2013 Bowman Chrome Future of the Franchise Mini
• Emmitt Smith 1990 Pro Set rookie card (well... it's Pro Set) [x3]
• Cam Newton 2011 Press Pass Class of 2011 insert
• Jerome Bettis 1993 Upper Deck rookie card (The Bus!) [x2]
• Jake Arrieta 2011 Topps
• 2006 Seattle Seahawks Pocket Schedule (Shaun Alexander is on the front) [x5]
• 2009 Seattle Mariners Pocket Schedule (Brandon Morrow is on the front)
• 2015 Hillsboro Hops (A-Diamondbacks affiliate) Pocket Schedule
• 2014 Portland Timbers Pocket Schedule (USMNT member Darlington Nagbe is on the front) [x2]
• Assorted Max Scherzer rookie cards, 2008 Goudey [x2], 2008 Stadium Club [x3]
• 1990 Pro Set Super Bowl Art Set (24 cards - one was inserted in every pack of 1990 Pro Set Football if I recall.) [x5]
• 1993 Seattle Mariners Pocket Schedule (Lou Piniella is on the front!) [x4]
• Portland Trail Blazers Pocket Schedules, assorted, 1988-89, 1991-92 [x3], 1992-93 [x5]
• 1993 Portland State Vikings Football Pocket Schedule (featuring Billy Matos and Matt James) [x8]
• 1991 Donruss Willie Stargell Puzzle complete set (one was inserted in every pack of 1991 Donruss, while one Elite card was inserted in every 11 billion packs)
• 1990 Donruss The Rookies complete factory set (this has been opened, but I swear I did not remove the coveted Ben McDonald card.)
• 1990 Score Rookie & Traded set complete factory set (this has been opened... featuring Frank Thomas and Eric Lindros hitting a baseball for some reason.)
• 1987 Topps St. Louis Cardinals team set
• 1985 Topps St. Louis Cardinals team set
• 1989 Topps St. Louis Cardinals team set
• 1988 Topps St. Louis Cardinals team set
• 1991 Upper Deck Nolan Ryan Baseball Heroes set (9 cards, inserted in packs of 1991 Upper Deck baseball)
• 1989 Upper Deck Team Logo Stickers set (all the teams)
• 1990 Upper Deck Team Logo Stickers set (all the teams)

More to come!

Spring Cleaning 2016 is Coming

How do you organize your cards? 

Have I been doing things all wrong? Recently, I began organizing my doubles from sets I am trying to collect by team instead of in number order. I started doing this as part of last year's semi-successful Spring Cleaning trade-off. I've kept things going in that regard, and it's helped me find quick fodder for team collectors when I am trying to stuff a padded envelope.

Some recent blog perusings got me thinking: should I be doing this with the rest of my cards? Should I bother keeping my 2002 cards separate from the 2001 cards? Should I still keep them grouped by set, alphabetically, by year and by card number? There's almost no point to me continuing to do this when I don't collect these sets, unless a lot of people have a lot of want lists for me to look through.

I could even take things further and start recycling cards from certain sets and certain years (hello, late '80 and early '90s!) It's kind of hard to do that in the day and age when someone is literally trying to collect every single Tim Wallach card out there. Maybe someone out there really needs a 1990 Topps Bryan Clutterbuck. And some cards might be more recyclable than others just on the environmental side of things. I'm not sure that glossy UV coating is going to pulp up really well.

In any case, I recently unearthed an old box of weirdness that's going to serve as the launching point for this year's Spring Cleaning efforts. More details to come next week, but I'm going to basically list a bunch of things on the blog here in lots for people to claim, and all you have to do is send me a minimum of one card from my want list. (If you're on that spreadsheet that's been going around, you don't even need to send me anything because I know you're good for it.)

Spring May Be Over, But the Cleaning is Still Going On

White Sox, Padres and Reds (Oh my!) Plus some other teams that no one really collects, I guess?

I've been working on a couple of projects and going through my entire collection to pull cards for a couple of people who are very deserved over the past couple of weeks. I'm still noticing that I have a lot of cards organized into team piles with no one to send them to. This is sort of a "last call" for the Spring Cleaning sign-ups before I start actually harassing people via e-mail to take this junk off my hands.

Honestly, if you're feeling bad about not sending me anything in return, don't worry about it. And if you're still worrying about it, keep in mind that I probably won't be buying any Topps Series Two for weeks (or any Topps Archives ever?)

Spring Cleaning Sign-Ups

Only true Ballers need apply.

I am divvying up my extra unwanted cards from sets that I collect into piles of teams. I teased this awhile back, but all you need to do is sign up for a team and find a minimum of one card from one of my many want lists (player collections, team collections, or sets) to get a pile of cards from your favorite team. Of course, I would be happy to receive more than one card, but I would be perfectly happy to exchange a pile of this stuff for a single needed card sent to me in a plain white envelope. Please just choose one team unless you are positive you have several things to send me.

This is not for the doubles-phobic, but there are some short prints and a few notable inserts/rookies/not exactly junk cards. Everything must go! If you are familiar with the sets I do collect, we're primarily talking about Heritage cards (Topps and Bowman) as well as Allen & Ginter. There are a few other oddball sets that I like and have some extras of. And if there are enough cards to justify the upgrade to a priority mail bubble mailer (or if I'm just feeling generous), I may (may? ha!) toss in some extras. You never know!

I unfortunately have to restrict this to USA addresses only, unless you able to provide compensation for postage up front or are otherwise able to work out a deal that will make the extra expense worthwhile. If you are from another country and find something on my "trade list" that you really must have, I will definitely set it aside and put it in a standard white envelope for you. Fortunately, that still only costs $1.15.

Finally, if for some crazy reason you can't find a single card that I need (I have a lot of needs), you can arrange to send me the $6.10 it costs to cover a priority mail bubble mailer full of stuff.

Arizona Diamondbacks 
Atlanta Braves - (sending to Jaybarkerfan)
Baltimore Orioles 
Boston Red Sox - Swing and a Pop-Up
Chicago Cubs - cubsfan810
Chicago White Sox - 2 by 3 Heroes
Cinncinnati Reds 
Cleveland Indians - TSHenson
Colorado Rockies - (sending to Infield Fly Rule)
Detroit Tigers - Dennis
Houston Astros - The Dimwit
Kansas City Royals - Jupiterhill
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - The Angels in Order
Los Angeles Dodgers - Night Owl
Miami (Florida) Marlins
Milwaukee Brewers - (sending to Off Hiatus)
Minnesota Twins - (sending to Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary)
New York Mets - Steve D.
New York Yankees - The Lost Collector
Oakland Athletics 
Philadelphia Phillies - Spiegel83
Pittsburgh Pirates 
San Diego Padres 
San Francisco Giants 
Seattle Mariners 
St. Louis Cardinals - @ChrisWNation
Tampa Bay Rays - Jeff Jones
Texas Rangers - Play at the Plate
Toronto Blue Jays - (sending to $30 a week habit)
Washington Nationals / Montreal Expos
No Team/Non-Baseball - Play at the Plate

Spring Cleaning is Coming

I need to get rid of cards. Plus, a trade post. Why not?

I'm a team collector who has made the unfortunate dabble into collecting sets on occasion. Because of this, I have a lot of doubles and triples that I have absolutely no use for. While my want lists are pretty easy to find, even longtime followers of the blog might not know that I also list my unwanted cards below each want list. My plan is to flush all of these extras completely out of my possession, and I'm going to do it "group break" style.

Before I start burning things down, anyone who tries to collect these types of sets much like I do should go to the lists and check the things out. Since my sidebar links don't seem to be available in the mobile phone view of this blog, I'm going to put some links here:

• Topps Heritage
• Bowman Heritage
• Allen & Ginter

The links within the links correspond to a particular year where you can view what cards I need from a particular set and, more relevant to this particular blog post, what cards I absolutely do not need. If you find something you'd like, let me know and we'll work something out. By about next week at this time I'm going to start removing those lists of extras and sorting them by team to mail around the country.

But what would be a desperate midweek blog post without showing off a few cards from a trade. Phillies Phan Dawgbones sent me this really nice on-card auto/"event worn" jersey swatch of Allen "King" Crabbe from his rookie year. Crabbe has been a spot starter this season praised primarily for his defensive chops, though the former Pac-12 Player of the Year is a legitimate scorer when given the opportunity.

Dawgbones also sent over a few Topps Opening Day Stars inserts (so fun!) including Big Prince and the dastardly Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod is back, baby! Can't you just wait for spring to end? Uh... can you?