Trade with Johnny's Trading Spot

I recently posted about trading, and that post has netted me a number of new trading partners. The most recent is John from Johnny's Trading Spot. John commented on the post I mentioned, wanting to dump some Rays on me, and I was more than happy to take him up on his offer. Yesterday, his package came in the mail, and I was excited to check out the contents. 

First up are cards for my Rays binder. I got a number of late '90's cards to help out some of the first Rays sets produced. Towards the bottom of the photo are some keepers from 2012 Topps and 2015 Heritage, which are 2 sets that I don't have many of, due to just not really buying packs at the time. 

More 2015 Heritage Rays, including a zero-year card of Grady Sizemore. The 2017 Topps Chrome Fish-Fractor of Jake Odorizzi is sweet!  In the middle are some Rays from a few random sets which I didn't have, and almost every Ray from the '19 Topps Update set.
The bottom row are guys from my Favorite Player binders, a 1998 Bowman and 1999 Topps Quinton McCracken, a '98 Finest Tony Saunders, and a '15 Topps Heritage Ben Zobrist.

I'm excited to add these cards to my binders. I have a few cards set aside to shoot back, but hope to go through my binders a little more thoroughly once the craziness of the holidays settle around a week from today. The next 3 days at work are going to be insane, but I'm just glad it's almost over, and as long as I can keep my blood sugar from going low and have enough caffeine, I think I can make some nice looking bread and rolls, and do it in record amounts.
I ordered some cards from COMC during the last few days, and hope to ship them when they have thier Black Friday sale. I'm thinking that with a few more trade packages coming in that I may have to re-organize some binders around the start of the year. That's going to be fun.
I worked on a few checklists today. I was able to finish the 1985 Topps Traded checklist, and finished everyone except for the Twins, Yankees, A's, Mariners, Rangers, and Blue Jays in 2017 Topps. It took about 4-5 hours. I think I can finish '17, '18, and '19 by the end of the year, and I'm running the possibility in my head about finishing 'Traded' checklists for each set. A few have them done, and they don't really take as long as a normal one. Many guys that do customs don't like to do them 'yearbook style', and if I make these extra checklists, most of the customs they do can cross cards off of my checklists. I think for years with Traded sets, I will add those cards to the Traded sets, and ones without it will be added to the regular sets. Stay tuned.
Thanks again, John for the trade. Expect your return package soon.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Trade with Infield Fly Rule

A little over a week ago, I emailed Adam from Infield Fly Rule Cards, and asked if he wanted to trade. I felt like I still had some nice Rockies cards I could swap, and he kindly said he was up for a trade. He also mentioned that he wanted some inserts from some of the last few years Topps sets in whatever teams I had, so I dug through some binders and found some of them as well. I guess in spite of one of my previous posts, you don't have to look too hard, and you will find some cards that another collector can use. 

Yesterday night, I recieved a package from Adam in the mail, and got a bunch of Rays, Tigers, and PC guys. The Rays got me closer to completing a few Topps team sets, including 2006, 2012, and 2014. I have a feeling that with a couple more trades and hopefully a COMC purchase in the coming weeks that I should knock some of those sets out.

I got a number of Tigers cards, which helped me out a ton. Many of them helped replace cards for whatever reason. The '88 Topps Bill Madlock is his sunset card, so now I have a copy of one in my sunset binder and this one to put in my Tigers binder. I love the '90 Bowman Ed Romero. The photo was taken during Spring Training in Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida. I have been to at least 100 games in that park. I can tell that it was taken on the 1st base side because on the 3rd base side, the stands don't go out that far and there would be a small fence in the background. I have probably went chasing after a foul ball though the tunnel behind Ed's left shoulder at least a dozen times. I think I will do a whole post on Joker Marchant Stadium and include pictures I've taken from various games, as well as some cards showing different parts of the stadium. Expect to see a lot of early '90's Bowman, Stadium Club, and a few Topps cards.
Back to the cards, the '96 Topps Flaherty and Nitkowski, as well as the '02 Topps Kenny Baugh all replace cards I had autographed. I got a ton of Tiger autographs through the years, and in a moment of stupidity in 2012, I sold most of my autographs, and many of the cards I have been getting in trades have replaced ones I got signed and that are no longer in my collection.

The '04 Topps Don Kelly, Kody Kirkland, and Chris Shelton are more that I got signed and sold. If you look closely, the '06 Topps Kenny Rogers is a 1st Edition (You can see it on the bottom left). I haven't ever seen one of those, and it is pretty cool. Some '12 and '14 Topps cards get me pretty close to finishing those Tiger team sets. 

Lastly, I got some cool cards of guys I collect. A '91 Stadium Club Brady Anderson starts us off. Then 2 John Axfords from '15 Topps Update and the sparkly Topps Chrome Refractor. There is a '14 Topps Mini and '14 Topps Opening Day card of Tyler Colvin, a power hitting prospect. Sam Fuld is a Type 1 diabetic like me, and I don't know how I didn't ever get his '11 Topps Update card, but now I have one thanks to Adam. Same thing with the '04 Topps Update Joey Gathright. I busted so many packs of both '04 Topps Update and '04 Topps Chrome Update, that I should have numerous copies of the card, but this one is the first. My Quinton McCracken collection got a big boost. First off is a '93 Bowman rookie, then a 1996 Fleer team set card, a 1997 Collector's Choice team set card, and a '98 Score card. I'm glad to knock some of those tougher team set cards off of my list. Next is a 2014 Topps Drew Stubbs. I remember when Stubbs came up, and it wasn't his skill set or anything related to baseball that got me to collect him, but the fact that he plays piano. I play piano, and when I found out that Drew has a keyboard that he takes with him on the road, I knew I had to collect him. The last 2 cards are additions to guys who I probably have at least 50 cards of already, with a 2014 Topps League Leader Max Scherzer, and a 2012 Topps Archives Ben Zobrist. I remember not buying many packs at all between 2012 and 2014, and with all of the 2014 Topps cards that Adam sent, I think I may be getting closer to having a respectable amount of the set.
He also threw in a 1992 Classic Cliff Floyd, which I will happily add to my rookie card binder, and some Anibal Sanchez cards, which I don't have, that will fit in nicely in my Marlins binder.

I recently updated my Want List with some sets that I will lightly chase, and if I happen to complete, great, but if not, I won't worry. Nothing big, just a few sets that were pretty important sets that came out when I first started collecting. The first is the 1992 Topps Gold set. The first parallel set, it shouldn't be too tough or expensive to complete. I figure if I am collecting that one, then I should also collect the 1992 Topps Gold Winners set (the one with the word 'winner' stamped on it). The next might be a little tougher, the 1993 Topps Finest regular set. The refractors would cost me an arm and a let, but the main set might be a little more doable. I remember everyone in 3rd grade talking about the set and how it cost like 10 bucks a pack and how the refractors were worth a ton in Beckett.
The last 2 sets might be challenging. I decided to tackle the 1996 Topps Chrome Refractor set. It doesn't have too many expensive rookies in it, and it was the first Topps Chrome Refractor set. Why not? The last one is the 1998 Topps Minted in Cooperstown parallel set. It was just a fun set, and with no really expensive rookie cards in the set, it could be doable as well.
The 4 team sets I have listed should be a piece of cake. Just some team sets of expansion teams that came to be during my lifetime. 1993 Topps Marlins and Rockies team sets, 1997 Topps Diamondbacks team set, and the 1998 Topps Diamondbacks team set. I am choosing 2 yezrs for Arizona since Topps issued like 4 cards of them in the 1997 set, and then had the free agents/expansion draft choices in the '98 set. The list of those sets are at the bottom of my Want List page, and they have links to their individual want lists.
Thank you Adam for helping me out with some cards to knock off some cards off my want list. Hope you enjoy your package (Sorry about the Moose card! I had to do it).
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

World Series customs

I just wanted to say thanks to anyone who commented on my last post and thanks to everyone who wanted to start a trade. I tend to overthink things, and I think that's what I sometimes do with cards too.

Today, I am posting all of the World Series Highlights cards that I have. Someone over on the FB Custom Card group wanted to know if anyone had made any.  I will start with the oldest ones I have.

I like to get action shots from the actual game for the cards, and some of these have bad images or just not any at all, so I had to settle for a pose. But, it is what it is, and there is my 1982 World Series highlight set from 1983 Topps.

Sometimes, you just get a boring game with not many highlights, as in Game 2 of the 1983 World Series, so for those, I just don't make a card. I was born in 1983, so I don't know what happened in that game. Heck, I can't remember what happened in Game 2 of this years' World Series. I did, however, make 3 cards for Game 5, as Murray, Dempsey, and McGregor all had noteworthy performances in the game. 

This is the only one I have for the 1985 World Series so far. For all of the ALCS/NLCS/World Series game from the 1979-1996 Topps sets, I have checklists for each card needing to be made on the corresponding set page, so you can see which ones need to be done and which ones I have done (as they are crossed out). 

The 1986 World Series set on the 1987 Topps set is complete, with the Mookie Wilson cards being one of the first customs I have ever posted. 

In the 1989 Topps set, I made 1988 World Series Highlights cards, but I can't for the life of me find a few of the individual cards. I know I made them, as I printed out a set for Night Owl. I did, however, save the sheets of 6 cards that I printed out, so along with the World Series set, you get the NLCS set as well, including the backs. 

 I believe Richard B. made a few of these, but here are the 3 cards I have for the 1989 World Series. Still have a few more to go to finish this set.

I know Bob J. made a way better set in the same design, but here is my 1990 World Series set. 

The 1991 World Series appears on 1992 Topps, the first set I ever attempted at completing every missing player on. I was naive enough to make backs for thes whole 700+ card additional set. Never again.

The 1992 Series was the first one I remember watching. I was a Braves fan, and as a 9-year old, I really wanted them to win. I remember watching the final game, and I fell asleep when it went to extra innings, and I think I woke up to see Winfield hit the double to basically win it. At least I would see the Braves win in 1995. 

I was rooting for the Phillies in 1993, and they let me down as well. It was a good series, though.

This was the Braves title I had been waiting for.  I had misbehaved or something during the morning of whenever Game 6 was on, so I got punished and wasn't aloud to watch it. My mom, knowing how much the game meant to me, woke me up before the 9th inning, and let me watch, and I saw Marquis Grissom catch a fly ball for out #3. 

 The 1996 Series doesn't matter, since the Yankees won it, so I haven't got around to making any for that set, and that brings us to the 1998 Topps set (1997 World Series), which Topps actually made. They made them for every season since (save for the 2001 World Series on the 2002 set, the 2009 World Series on the 2010 set, and the 2010 Series on the 2011 set), and I am also going to make a set of the 2006 World Series on the 2007 design, since Topps decided to go all non-yearbook style and add it to the '06 Update Series.

I hope you have enjoyed this post on all of the World Series customs I have.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy