#DONE

Putting to bed a set I started collecting (in my head) ever since I was a child. 

With the help of a generous blogger and trading partner, Dennis of Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams, I finally am able to put down a set I've admired since I could barely grasp what baseball cards were. A lot of people find the 1985 Fleer baseball set to be ugly or boring, but to me it was one of the first idealistic looks at what baseball cards could be, outside of the venerable The Topps Company. With team color-coded borders, SuperStarSpecials and plenty o' stats on the back, I always wanted a complete set of this stuff. The various rookie cards made it a bit outside of my meager budget for much of my collecting youth, but not many of those rookies (Clemens aside, I guess?) held their value over the years. More than once, I could have snagged a more or less complete hand collated set at a card show for a bargain price, but I decided to put it all together the old fashioned way. I bought some packs (okay, not too many) and put a want list online, occasionally whittling away at it throughout the years. Now, it's done and all slapped away in a binder. I couldn't be happier about it.

Dennis likely was sweating out the MLB trade deadline today, which passed without a trade of his (current) blog namesake. He did find some time to send me a bunch of Cardinals cards that I needed. I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but I used to really like the Topps gold bordered parallel cards. They don't look so great anymore, though.

This may look like a simple base card from the 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings set, but the logo is shiny and reflective and the card itself is numbered to 100. This set is one of the best examples of what people complain about when they talk about modern sets having endless numbers of parallels that are barely distinguishable from each other. And while I agree that it's all pretty silly, I really like these cards. They sort of feel like vinyl.

Speaking of the best things from the '00s, Fleer Greats are... great! Yeah, that's pretty much all I've got. I received another half dozen or so cards of the Wizard for my collection. I've temporarily lost track of how many unique Ozzies I own thanks to the demise of Zistle, but I'm (slowly) working on replacing my online checklist outlet.

Speaking of endless parallels. What was Topps thinking with this Co-Signers stuff? It didn't last, of course.

I don't have many slabbed cards, but since I'm guessing the only way to get this Tyler Johnson silver parallel from 2003 was in uncirculated form, I'll leave this in its cardboard prison for now.

More Edmonds, because... why not?

It certainly wouldn't be a "Too Many" package without a great crop of Ducks cards, and Dennis certainly didn't disappoint on that end. I usually save most of these for the college football Saturdays, but there were so many great cards to be had that I couldn't hold everything back.

Prior to receiving this, my collection of baseball cards in Ducks uniforms was comprised entirely of anything I pulled in that Panini Oregon Ducks Collegiate blaster from awhile back. Cleavinger was a 3rd round pick a couple years ago and was just dealt from the Orioles to the Phillies before the trade deadline. He's been playing at the AA level this year.

They were never my favorite, but I was a defender of the Ducks tire tread or steel grating or whatever the hell uniform look from the late '00s. In recent years, the team has strayed further and further from their primary colors, which is why it was actually refreshing to hear new head coach Willie Taggart announce plans to scale it back and stick to a more basic look.

Yeah, it's uh... a signed card of a shirtless Ducks football legend. Those fringe draft picks/prospects card companies are super weird. I don't actually collect a lot of football cards, but when I do I'm continually surprised at how willing people are to buy cards of players doing everything but actually playing their sport.

Finally, I have to say that I was really happy to get a Max Unger card. Unger plays positions that are generally overlooked when the card companies are setting out to print up some cards. Even though he's been to the Pro Bowl, won a ring and has been a league mainstay since he entered the league, I would be willing to bet that he doesn't have many cards out there.

On the Brink

Baseballers and basketballers from @CardJunk as I try to make sense of the intersecting seasons. 

A big heap of cards from my two favorite teams arrived the other day, courtesy of old-school card blogger Cardboard Junkie. This blog was around when people still had to use clicky things to navigate to their favorite "websites" instead of sliding their greasy fingers across a tiny piece of a glass-like slab. The Grouchy Junkie sent over some Blazers cards, some Cardinals and a bunch of set needs from the wayback machine (circa 2006-07). I thought I'd lead with some basketball cards because the Blazers are on the brink of elimination in the NBA Playoffs, with a Game 5 against the Warriors set for tomorrow night. It's been a remarkable season for Damian Lillard and a bunch of relatively unknown guys, a team expected to finish at the bottom of the conference and win no more than 25-35 games. Hopefully there are even bigger things on the horizon for this fun to watch group.

I remember getting these cards in my cereal and noting how frustrating they were. They're just slightly too big to fit in a normal 9-pocket page, or penny sleeve, or top loader, or really anything. It's not even a Topps Big Baseball situation. It's just kind of random. I'm pretty sure I had the Hakeem Olajuwon card from this set and maybe another one, but definitely not The Glide. This is now my 176th unique Drexler card.

I am pretty sure this is my first Blazers McBob card. I miss Fleer. Ultra wasn't always the best, but it certainly held its own.

I've been reading Breaks of the Game lately, David Halberstam's informative but somewhat rambling book about life in the NBA at the end of the '70s. It focuses on the Blazers in particular. It's definitely helped fill in a lot of information gaps in my brain, having been raised to listen to and watch the Blazers since birth. I heard a lot about the '77 championship team and have seen the final game in its entirely, plus a bit of archival footage. My first memories of listening to and/or watching games came about a few years later, so the book has done a good job filling in the years after the Bill Walton blowup. Lloyd Neal's card is from the championship season, when Topps was experimenting with card sizes (this set is HUGE, dimensionally speaking).

From Walton-to-Oden, the franchise has been cursed with serious injuries to core members (not to mention poor draft choices and, for a time, mismanagement.) This card actually comes apart in the middle and can be slotted back together. I don't know, it's weird.

On to baseball... St. Louis baseball! (Portland baseball was exterminated.) There are several Bo Hart candidates on this year's team, players who get inexplicably hot from the moment they are called up. Jeremy Hazelbaker and Aledmys Diaz could quality, although Diaz was a guy that was imported from Cuba and given a serious MLB contract. Hazelbaker is a guy who had been flushed out of a couple of organization's minor league systems before ending up on this year's Cardinals. This year's team has beaten up on bad teams and has looked feeble against good teams, good enough for a just-barely-above .500 record.

I've mentioned this several times recently because I'm excited about it, but I will be up in Seattle to catch the series against the Cardinals next month. The last time I got to see St. Louis play here in the Northwest, Bud Smith was on the mound and things did not go well.

Carlos Martinez has, once again, looked like the best pitcher in the Cardinals rotation. He was pulled early from his last start and has been pushed back a couple of days (until Saturday) for his next outing. Supposedly he's not hurt. Supposedly!

HAMM! No one has sent me more than one Hamm so far, so JediJeff remains Hamm King for now.

For a number of years, there was no flagship Fleer set even as there were many other Fleer sets. Some have decided that Fleer Tradition replaced (Plain Ol') Fleer for these lost years, but how do you explain this 2002 Fleer set?

I wonder what Scott Rolen is up to these days. I wonder if he has Tony La Russa's face on a dartboard at home, just for when he gets bored?

Every time I get a Tyler Johnson card, I'm reminded of my plan to collect a an autograph of every member of the 2006 and 2011 World Series teams. I should get on that someday. I have a few Tyler Johnson autos at this point, but I am less optimistic about Scott Rolen.

Waino hasn't pitched like an Elite pitcher this year, but he is showing signs of "turning it around", which in baseball lingo means competency.

As mentioned above, part of this trade package was a bunch of cards from 2006/2007 sets, Bazooka and Allen & Ginter. This one is headed straight for my Cardinals collection, however. I don't have many Grudz cardz in a Cardinal uniform as he just spent the one season with St. Louis. He did well.

With the Cardinals currently playing the Angels in a series in Anaheim, I thought it best to leave you with this card. If both teams had a chance to reconsider the Pujols contract today, I wonder what would happen. How much would the Cardinals offer Albert in hindsight? Would the Angels want to sign him at all?

Odds & Ends & More Trade Bait

I have cards flying in and out the door these days at a high rate. I'm still making good headway with Listia, despite my 0% success rate in referrals. I picked up this fake-o Bob Gibson patch and a couple of certified autos from the 2003 Bowman's Best set recently, one of which (should become obvious) is up for grabs. I also bought a few more packs of Update at Target and took advantage of a loose pack sale which strikes me as the first time I've ever seen that store do anything of the sort.

This is the "up for grabs" card. I couldn't tell you who Eider Torres is, but he came with the card I was really bidding on. Hopefully I can make a super hardcore Cleveland fan something slightly more favorable than indifferent with this card someday.

This is my second certified auto of Tyler Johnson won from Listia. He was a key member of the bullpen on the rag-tag Cardinals crew that won the 2006 World Series. These autos are on card, which is always nice.

Nothing remarkable emerged from the three Update packs, aside from one of my packs containing two Golden Giveaway code cards. I finally earned myself a $10 shoptopps.com code. Hooray!

I like the Target parallels well enough, but I should take some time to hit one of the other big box stores if I want any variety in my pack ripping life.

So the big Target sale was on loose packs of 2012 Topps Series 1 and 2. Not only were they 50 cents off, knocking the initial price down from 1.99 to 1.49, but it was also a "Buy 3 Get 1 Free" sale. 8 packs of Series 2 ended up costing me just $9, which is a nice deal. Somehow, I actually struck out in the code department, but I did get another pile of inserts and parallels that are fully up for grabs.

George Brett is a guy. He's on a card. You can have that card if you want.

I swear this is the fourth time that I've pulled this card and I really haven't bought all that much Series 2.

Just imagine that the ball is a taco.

It's sad because Galarraga's career has gone nowhere but south since this game.

Dillon Gee's hobbies include hunting and golf!

What's worse, breaking your ankle in the ALCS at Jeter's age or going 0-for-13,000 like A-Rod?

I hate these cards. I am fearful that Topps will come up with something even worse than the gold sparkle and diamond vomit for next season.

Cameron Maybin. On acid.

I should mention that there was also a dearth of Cardinals cards in these packs. I still need to go over my want lists and add some things to them, especially in the Topps base department.

There's a lot of wasted space on this card, especially in that red area.

I've heard of this guy!

Listiamania

Before I get into my own thing here, I just wanted to congratulate Miguel Cabrera on pulling off one of the rarest of feats in today's game. There hasn't been a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime and I think it's cool that someone pulled it off. I'm no particular fan of Miggy's, but better him than... I don't know... A-Rod or something.

Anyway, this post is about a few things I've won for free from Listia recently. I try not to post everything that I get from this website or get too crazy about it, but I figure that it doesn't hurt to occasionally pop in with a few images when I'm short on time. I'm already used to receiving multiple little plain white envelopes every day at this point, and I bet my mail carrier thinks I'm engaged in some sort of old school chain letter scheme right now or something. The first image is a Stan Musial card from the 60 Years of Topps Lost Cards insert thingo. I now have all of the Lost Cards, but none of the "original back" versions which I think would be fun to look at since the cards did not really exist.

I also won a few Jiffy Pop cards (discs?) from the '80s, of which I previously had none. I have a second, slightly worn Vince Coleman and a Buddy Bell (Reds) from this set that are up for grabs.

Finally, this might be the best card I've pulled off of the site. Tyler Johnson was a key member of the bullpen on the championship 2006 Cardinals club, even though he's shown wielding a bat here. He disappeared almost as quickly as he arrived in a heap of arm problems, but I'll always remember his lefty sidearm slider fondly. This is from the 2003 Finest set. I've also won a few Heritage SPs and that Glaus jersey card that I posted awhile back, and will continue to occasionally chase the under-the-radar hits when I can.

Wild Card game is up next on Friday... at 2:00pm my time... while I'm at work. Shh, no one ruin it for me. I'm going to have to DVR it.