Recent trades

 I’ve been getting a decent stream of mail since the start of the year so I figured I would show them off. 

First up is a package from Rod of Padrographs fame. Rod had a post a while back with some trade bait that he pulled from recent packs that he opened, and I saw 2 cards that fit my collection, both hits of Rays guys. I sent him some 1995 Topps customs of the rest of the Padres replacement players who played in Spring Training in 1995, and I was able to land these 2 cards of guys who I hope will be major players for the Rays in the future (and hopefully we'll get a new owner who will want to actually sign them). 

The first is a Wander Franco 2020 Topps Heritage Minors Clubhouse Collection jersey card. I have 6 cards of him now ('19 Bowman, '19 Bowman Platinum, '20 Bowman Green, '20 Bowman Chrome '90 Anniversary, '20 Topps Heritage Minors Clubhouse Collction, and  '20 Topps Update '89 #1 Prospect), , even though he is a pretty hot guy. I got most of them in trades, which shows the generocity of the blogging community. The 2nd card is a 2019 Leaf Trinity Clear autograph card of Xavier Edwards. The first photo doesn't show the card clearly, so here is a 2nd photo. 

Just a cool looking card. 

Up next is a package from Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji. Fuji sent some Rays cards from periods where I didn't get a number of packs, which helped me build those parts of my Rays binders. I'm surprised I never got the Opening Day stadium card. The Bowman Platinum Gold card of Price is great, and I'll have to get more cards from that sets. A few inserts from 2013/2014, and a card I would never have a chance of owning with the Museum Collection Cobb. The 2020 Allen & Ginter cards are all new, as I didn't even see those on the shelves this year. The main card from this trade was the 1993 Upper Deck BAT Dave Dravecky card, as Fuji recently opened a box of the product and had a number of doubles. He kindly offered them up, and since he had one of Dave Dravecky, a guy I collect, I commened that I wanted it. He kindly sent it as well as the others. Next time I hit up my LCS, I'll look for some A's guys for you.

Next is a pwe from Kevin, who runs the Diamond King blog. He recently had a contest, and basically you got points for the number of comments you left during the last few months, and you could use your points to bid on 12 different prizes. I decided to use mine on a 2014 Archives Marco Scutaro autographed card. I used to have 5 or 6 binders full of nothing but ip/ttm/pack pulled autographed cards, and even though I don't have them any more, I love picking up autographs when I can. I was able to win the card, and Kevin threw in a nice Bowman Chrome insert of Paul DeJong with it. 

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Dennis from Too Many Verlanders sent me a nice package that gave me some cards I don't have very many of at all in my collection, as well as a card that was coveted by me in 2013.

The first 2 cards are a flag patch Topps card of Chris Archer, and a Test Proof Diamond Kings card of Evan Longoria. I don't have that many manu-patch cards in my Rays binder (I think only 1 more), so I was happy to add another one. With the Test Proof card, I didn't even realize that parallel existed, and I've opened a decent amount of Donruss products since 2015 or so. I believe I had the base and Optic card, and now with this Test Proof, I'm closer to some kind of rainbow. The next card is a sweet spot autographed card of Jacob Nix, a guy I collect. The only other card like this I own is from Alejandro Friere. The 2009 Bowman Chrome Matt Moore rookie was pretty hot in 2013 when Moore won 17 games. I thought he was going to be an ace, and was sad to see him traded away, but I guess the Rays front office knew better. I'm still stoked to get this card. Next is a Stat Line card  of Evan Longoria. I wonder if anyone has put together a team set of Stat Line cards. What would be really cool was if someone put together a Stat Line team set with the same serial #. Pinnacle once offered boxes of all of their products if you did that for an insert set in 1997 or 1998. Don't think anyone did.  Got a few '08 Opening Day Rays, a card of one of my favorite Rays pitchers, Tony Saunders, 2 2011 Bowman Blue cards, some more recent Rays, and a 2002 Topps Post card of Greg Vaughn. I like Vaughn. Got his autographs a few times after Rays games, and I remember he had some spinnner rims on his car. Always thought they were fun. One time when getting his autograph, I told him I liked the rims, and he got a kick out of that.

 

The last package came from Greg of Night Owl Cards. Greg and I have done a couple of trades recently, consisting of some Allen & Ginter minis and Topps Heritage cards going to New York, and some Rays and Tigers coming back my way to Florida. Now that my Topps Rays run is complete (for about 25 more days), I'm focusing on non-flagship Topps sets, and Greg delivered, sending me some cards from Ultra, Upper Deck MVP, Opening Day, Allen & Ginter, the Christmas Topps set, Stadium Club, the '70's set from this year, and Topps Fire. All of these are needs and much appreciated. 

With the Tigers, the Topps cards are welcome, as I am missing some from recent years, as well as the fact that the franchise has cards from 1951-1997, when no Topps Rays cards existed. I got some early Topps cards ('73, '74, as well as some other cards. I love the Jeff Kaiser '92 Stadium Club card. It has the leftfield bleachers of Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida. I have been to about 100 games in the stadium, and have fond memories there. In those very bleachers, I won 2 quarters from a Pirates fan in a 1992 Spring Training game when I yelled "Go Pirates!" after me and my dad were yelling "Go Tigers" the whole game. I thought I was rich. The next year, we were in those bleachers watching the Tigers and Reds in Spring Training. I noticed Johnny Bench in the bullpen (just to the right of the seats in the photo). I went there to try to get his autograph, and was told he didn't sign during games. I was walking back to my seat disappointed, when Travis Fryman hit a foul ball down the 3rd base line. The Tigers 3rd base coach picked it up right as a was near the area, and threw it to me, and I got my first foul ball. I later got the ball signed by Al Kaline, Alan Trammell, and Chris Gomez. I still have it somewhere. In 1996, I got seats in those bleachers to a Mets game and 2 Royals games during Spring Training, and racked up on autographs. Neither teams were good back then, and I got guys like Bobby Jones, Alberto Castillo, Butch Huskey, Reid Cornelius, Alex Ochoa, and Jay Payton from the Mets, and the Royals were the real catch in my opinion. When they came to Lakeland, I handed my ball to a pitcher in the bullpen to get signed, and he proceded to hand the ball to the rest of the guys in the bullpen, and I got just about a whole ball signed. I got guys like Alan McDill, Jason Jacome, Mendy Lopez, Bob Boone, Guy Hansen, Rusty Meacham, Mike Sweeney, Tom Goodwin, Henry Mercedes, Jeff Grotewold, and Johnny Damon. Not really big names, but I had a full baseball signed. Those were fun times, and any time I see a card with a picture from Joker Marchant Stadium, I always look to see if I can tell where the picture was taken. One of these days I'm going to find a panorama of the stadium and make a post with some cards that showcase the park. 

More recent cards are a '20 Bowman Chrome and '20 Topps Fire card of Matt Boyd, and a Orange Parallel of Isan Diaz from '20 Big League Baseball which will go in my rookie card binder. 

Thanks to Rod, Fuji, Kevin, Dennis, and Greg for the awesome cards and trades!

I am working on putting all of the loose cards in my binders right now. So far, only my Rays, Diamondbacks, Braves, and Cubs cards are up to date, but if I can do 3/4ths of an album a day after work, eventually I'll get there (I have about 3 binders from every team). I have my cards organized by year, so if I can keep from getting cards that are less than 10 years old from teams that aren't Rays or Tigers, I might stand a chance at keeping my binders current as possible. 

With the binder project going, I have less time for customs, but eventually, I'll be back to the 1998 Topps Traded set. I'm about the same place there as I am with my binders, having the Rays, D-Backs, Braves, Cubs, and all but 2 guys on the Reds finished. Like Night Owl said yesterday, patience. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Trade with Johnny’s Trading Spot and some LCS fun

 A few days ago, I received a surprise package from John of Johnny's Trading Spot. Inside were a whole bunch of Rays to help me out with some of my sets. 

The first 2 were from the 1997 Lykes A Franchise is Born set, of which John sent me a ton of the last time he sent me cards. I have a feeling I am really close to finishing that one. 99% of the non-flagship Topps were new ones to me, including the cards from Upper Deck, Stadium Club, and Leaf which you see here. My Topps flaship run of Rays cards are now complete, but I still want to complete as many Rays sets as I can, and I will be really happy to finish off an Upper Deck set sometime. Those sets are bigger than you think. As for the flagship Topps cards, many of those can be moved to my rookie card binder, or like the 2006 Topps team leaders card, can be filed next to the base card of the player as well as at the end of the Rays set as I display them in my binders. I haven't purchased an Allen & Ginter or Gypsy Queen pack in almost a decade, so all oif those card are new. 

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The Bowman's are new to me as well, since I haven't purchased (or see a pack in the wild) any Bowman this year. Haven't seen any Fire, Gallery, or Gypsy Queen in the wild this year either, so most of those are new as well. I love the foilboard Meadows Fire card. I've had good luck with Heritage, but I think 1 or 2 were needs for me. 

It's nice to get spatterings of base cards because for guys who I collect (like Ryan Yarbrough), I put their cards in my Player Collection binder first, but still like to get a 2nd copy of the card to put in my Rays binder. John helped me do that with the '20 Heritage Yarbrough. He also sent some Paul DeJong's to add to his spot in the aforementioned Player Collection Binder. I love the Gold Fire card. Other favorite players represented are Tony Saunders and Ryan Yarbrough. The next 4 cards are ones I have already, but they are lucky enough to go to my rookie card binder. Shout out for sending the '20 Gypsy Queen Randy Arozarena! While I haven't officially started collecting him, I am starting to end up with a ton of his cards, as you will soon see. Thanks, John, for the nice surprise package!  I'm saving up some Braves inserts/parallels, and as soon as I get a decent stack, they will be headed to GA or FL.

I wanted to go to my LCS today because the last time I was there, it taught me a lesson. A few weeks ago, I had some cards I wanted to mail out to some bloggers, and I decided to stop at the post office first, since it would be easier on me while driving (I would be driving past my LCS, but the post office would be on my right, and so would the LCS on the way back, eliminating some left-hand turns into busy traffic). I sent out the packages, and then went to the card shop, digging through 3 .50 cent boxes, and promptly finding a ton of cards I could've added to the packages I had just sent. Today, I decided to go to the card shop first and brave a few left-hand turns in order to add some more cards to stuff I had planned to sent out today. I got there and dug through the usual 3 .50 cent boxes they had, and was able to help out someone with an insert set they are collecting, I found a card for a guy who collects a certain player (which I actually haven't sent out yet), and found a few other cards to add to some envelopes that I have just sent out. A good payoff for deciding to go the the card shop first. 

I even found a few things for me as well. I was hoping to find some Randy Arozarena cards, and I wasn't disappointed. The last time I went, I was mainly looking for refractors and newer Rays cards, so I basically skipped over all of the Prizm stuff, and I missed 3 Randy's. I also missed one from Optic, but I found them today, and I believe I have tapped that .50 cent box out of Randy A. cards, really only skipping over some '18 Topps cards. I was hoping to find some '20 Topps Update cards (I am only 8 cards away from completing the set). I should've looked closer at my list. I picked up the Christian Yelich card, but I didn't need it. Still 8 cards away....I also found some shiny cards for players I collect, and a card of Logan Gilbert that I figured I would get since I don't have many cards of him. 

I'm still on the fence about collecting Randy, just because he is so young and because of the incident he had with his ex. Maybe later this year I'll bite the bullet, but I'll still be on the lookout for his rookie cards just because of how hot they've become.  Here is a picture of all of the cards of him that I've gathered so far.

When you break it down, that’s 4 cards I’ve pulled from packs (Donruss,Red Stadium Club, Topps, and Topps Update), 1 from a Complete set (Topps), 1 from a team set I got on eBay (Update), 9 from the .50 cent boxes at my LCS (Bowman, Optic x2, Optic Lime Green, Prizm, Prizm Red White & Blue x2, Chrome, and Chrome X-Fractor), and 2 sent by nice people in trades (Gypsy Queen x2). 

I would like to point out that it wasn't all luck with these, as if Randy had been a touted prospect like Wander Franco, none of his cards would've got past the flippers, and they wouldn't have found their way into the .50 boxes. I also had the chance to add a dual bat card of Randy in September or so. I was looking at purchasing a few Rays team sets on eBay, and being fairly naive to how eBay works, I was trying to add something from the same seller in order to combine shipping. The seller had a '20 Diamond Kings dual bat card of Randy for 4 bucks, but for some reason, I didn't get it, and it's probably at least 20 bucks now, so I'll have to wait awhile to acquire a memorabilia card of him. 

Before I go, I must say SHAME ON THE RAYS for dumping salary when you were 2 wins away from winning it all!  Stuart Sternberg has the money to spend! After all, he is rich enough to own a baseball team. How can you let down your fans? You put all of the pressure on the GM to make sly trades in order to compete because you won't spend money. You can't expect them to win all of the trades, and eventually, they are going to be cellar dwellers again. Nobody will come to the games, and you are going to be forced to sell the team at a low price, or move them. Everyone loses. The Rays were maybe a #2 starter and a decent hitting catcher away from winning it all and competing for the next few years. If you have someone who isn't a baseball fan who owns a team, they don't care about winning a championship. The team is almost like some idiot who wears the latest Jordan's even though they don't know a lick about baseball. It's just an accessory. Sternberg goes and trades away our #1 pitcher, lets the #2 leave for free agency, and re-signs our weak-hitting catcher. The Rays are never going to compete with Sternberg as an owner, and he needs to sell the team to someone who hopefully keeps them in St. Pete. I'm still going to suupport the Rays, but I won't be expecting them to compete for another 10 years, and I'm counting the days Keven Kiermaier has left with the team. Randy A., you are next...The Tigers will hopefully give me something to watch while Tampa gets it's crap straight. Suck it, Sternberg!!

If you were wondering where the stuff I dropped off at the post office is going, the zip codes they are headed to are 13601, 48105, 61615, 97202, 97230, and 98662. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Cards from Angels in Order and finishing the 1992 Topps Traded set

A few days ago, I got some cards in the mail from Tom of  Angels in Order fame.  I sent him some cards around the same time after he initiated the swap.  

Now that I have complete my Topps Rays run, I think I’ll be getting more Upper Deck and parallel Topps flagship/Heritage/non flagship Topps brands in trades, and I’m cool with that.  It would be cool to nail down all of the Upper Deck sets (‘98-‘10) as well. 

Tom helped with the Upper Deck sets as his envelope contained cards from 4 different UD base sets as well as some sets like UD Choice and MVP.  All of these cards are needs and will headed into my Rays binders sometime in March when I get my cards from COMC.  Thanks Tom for the great cards!

 Today I finally finished the 1992 Topps Traded set, making a dream a reality. 5-6 years ago, I came across some custom cards on a blog, and I was fascinated with the idea of creating cards that Topps missed out on. I was a huge fan of the 1992 Topps set, as it was the first set I remember purchasing with my own money. At one point, I had tried to get the entire 792 card set autographed, getting over 500 done. I questioned whether a complete set of missing cards could be possible to be made, and I wondered if backs could be possible. I succeeded with the regular set a few years ago, and while making Traded checklists for each set, I did the 1992 one, not really expecting to work on it. After finishing the '93 set earlier this year, I decided to go after the 1992 Traded set, hoping to get it done by the end of this year. I started going after it pretty hard core during free time on off days, and today, I am happy to say that it is finished. That means that anyone who played a game in the 1991 and 1992 seasons has a 1992 Topps card picturing them with the correct team (either in Topps's main sets, or one of mine). Here is a link to my 1992 Topps behemoth. Here are some of my favorite cards from the Traded set.

Steve Lyons Braves, one of 3 Steve Lyons cards in the Traded set (4 if you include the main set as well)

Steve Lyons card #2

Jeff Kent's rookie, one of 2 in the Traded set (since he was acquired from the Blue Jays in '92)

Tim Salmon rookie (this card would've been RED HOT in 1993!)

Kirk Gibson (from a picture I took in Spring Training in 1992). 

Billy Hatcher that I liked the photo of

John Wathan (I searched far and wide for a photo of John Wathan in an Angels uniform from 1992, finding nothing. When I finally searched 'California Angels 1992 team photo', I came upon a photo from a fight they had against Seattle, with Wathan, albeit not facing forward, right there)

Jackie Brown (note the Donruss logo on the scoreboard)

Mike Fetters acting crazy

Steve Lyons #3

Jose Canseco (a HUGE traded card that missed making the Traded set because he was traded so late in the season)

David Cone (see Canseco reason)

And finally, another Jeff Kent rookie.

This set was fun, but I really don't want to ever make a set with backs again. This took probably 3 times the amout of time as a normal set has. I'll be glad to make regular front-only sets from now on. I believe I'll start on the 1994 & 1998 Topps Traded sets as my main sets, while working on the 1986 set to help the ARAIG guys.

I eventually want to get the Traded sets done and work on the ‘91 Topps main/Traded sets. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy 

Epic trade with Johnny's Trading Spot

Around the 3rd week of June, I recieved a decent sized package from John of Johnny's Trading Spot. When I say decent, I mean huge. 

I had so much fun going through them, and it probably took a good 2-3 days to get everything organized and separated. John has been hooking me up with Rays for the past year now. I'm not surprised that he has a good amount of Rays, seeing as he spends part of his time in Ocala. Shortly before we started trading, we actually attended the same baseball card show but didn't know it. I really hope to swing by Ocala sometime or attend a card show and meet up with John whenever this covid stuff starts dying down. Ocala is only about an hour and a half away from me, and I would love to see his card room and all of the set binders he has been working on. 

Ok, now on to the cards. First up is probably one of the first ever Devil Rays card sets. I know nothing about the issue, other than it has the Lykes logo on the back (they put out some Braves sets in the early '90's), and they look like they were punched out from sheets. It looks like they were from 1 or 2 of the Rays' first minor league teams, and I feel like I have to be close to having a complete set. 

Even myself, living in Rays territory since 1990 (6 years before the franchise was even announced), didn't recognize all of the names of the guys in the set. Some guys you will probably recognize that appeared in it were Mickey Callaway (former Mets manager), Tom Foley (former utility infielder and longtime Rays coach), and Alex Sanchez (the first guy to get busted and suspended for taking PEDs). 

While I am only highlighting a few cards, it does not take away from the fact that this was an completely amazing box that John sent, which forced me to add 1 or 2 binders to my Rays collection. 

Some highlights for me included a 1998 Topps Minted in Cooperstown parallel of Rob Butler (always thought he would be a 25+HR hitter with a .300 Avg., a 1999 team photo card (still want to find a 1998 team photo), a cool insert of Canseco, a cool looking Gold Crown Die-Cut of Greg Vaughn, a 2000 SPx Vaughn (first 2000 SPx card I ever owned), and a 2000 Topps Home Team Advantage Josh Hamilton Draft Pick card. John sent near-complete sets of a few HTA and Limited Edition Topps sets, which was cool, as I've never ever come across a card from these kind of sets. The next row included a 2000 Topps Dave Martinez (I had a few copies of the Opening Day version, but never came across the plain Topps one), a 2001 Topps Mike DiFelice (had this card signed back in the day, but it got sold, as did many of the cards pictured), and a 2002 Steve Cox HTA card that I think more people should be talking about. I've always loved the photo on this card. I usually don't pay that much attention to photos on cards. Usually, I just care who the player is, and what team they are from. This photo is funny to me, as you can tell Cox is trying not to get hit by a pitch, the pitch kind of looks like it is going to hit his groin area, and his last name also sounds like an innuendo of where it looks like the pitch is going to hit him. At one point, I had the regular version of this card autographed by Cox. The next card, a 2002 Topps 206 Toby Hall, I had autographed as well, and it didn't make the cut of keepers. The Delmon Young card looked very strange to me, and I finally figured out that all of the 2003 Upper Deck cards had the players uniform number on the left hand part of the nameplate, and the Young doesn't. Also, he is pictured in a photoshopped uniform as well.The James Houser card was one I didn't have of him. I saw him play for the Montgomery Biscuits in 2006 or 2007, and I had some cards of his to get signed. As he signed, I mentioned how I had opened lots of packs since the cards I had of him had come out (2003 and 2004), and how I was surprised how I hadn't seen any more cards of his. He told me that after he had the 2 Bowman cards come out, that he reconsidered signing or something, and wanted to wait a little bit before his first Topps rookie card came out. Interesting, but I guess if you're in the minors, you don't want Topps making tons of money off of you if you don't ever make it to the show. The Marlon Anderson is a Stat Line Parallel, my 2nd from that set (Carl Crawford was the 1st). The Brazelton is a 1st Edition card. I never pulled many Rays from the 2004 Heritage set, so it was nice to see a Carl Crawford from the set. I had the '04 UD Vintage Zambrano signed before. He is one of my favorite Rays, since he put up good numbers for us, got traded, and then got us Scott Kazmir. The Lou Piniella is a 1st Edition, and the Kazmir is a Museum Collection card. The next 3 are Topps/Bowman parallels, a Glenn Gibson refractor, David Price Green, and JP Howell Orange. The Dylan Floro is a mini refractor?, and the Curt Casali might be my first Casali card, and it is autographed. Another Bowman mini refractor makes an appearance with the Justin Williams card. The 2015 Kevin Kiermaier's are as follows: Toys R Us Purple, Opening Day Blue, and Rays team set. I also believe I have the Opening Day and regular base Topps card. I love the Talent Pipeline Bowman cards, and I believe I have 2 including this one. I hope to get all of the ones eventually. 

The next page starts off with a card that I should've had for a while, and almost ended up on my most wanted list. The 2018 Topps Daniel Robertson was the last card I needed to complete the '18 Topps/Update Rays set. The Kiermaier is a Holiday Metallic card. Be sure to feel all of your Holiday cards. I wouldn't have known it was different if I accidentally hadn't felt the snowflake part. The Wander Franco Bowman Platinum was an exciting card to get, and it completes my '19 Bowman Heritage Rays set. The highlights of the Rays finish up with an '19 Optic insert of Blake Snell.

Next up are some Favorite Players. First is a Rolando Arrojo I didn't have. You don't see it here, but John sent me about 20 new Paul DeJong cards. These 2 are my favorite, a '17 Topps Gold rookie, and an '18 Chrome Pink Refractor. Another DeJong, this time Sidney, makes an appearance with his World Future Stars card from 2006 Upper Deck. I already have the '99 Fleer Tradition Eddie Gaillard, but this one will go in my Rays binder. 2 additions to my Joey Gathright and Gabe Gross collections, and some nice Aubrey Huffs for his part of my binder. The Jaso is part of the '15 team set. I had never seen the '08 Chrome Elliot Johnson, even though I opened at least a few packs of it. I'm not a big Fleer guy, so if you can't find anything to trade me, I probably won't have much from Fleer sets, as it is with the Fleer Focus Quinton McCracken. The Justin Ruggiano and Luke Scott cards were new, and while I had the Topps versions of the Bubba Trammell and Doug Waechter cards, I didn't have the HTA and 1st Edition versions. I believe I've opened 2 packs of Allen & Ginter in the past 8 years, so the Zobrist was one I hadn't seen, and it can be hit or miss with Heritage for me, depending on money and if I've opened a ton of Series 1 or Opening Day or there is newer product on the shelves. I guess I didn't have this particular Heritage of Zorilla, who is now retired. 

Lastly, John sent me some hockey cards. I don't collect hockey, although I enjoy watching the sport from time to time. However, these cards will definitely find a place in my collection. The first 9 cards are from the first Tampa Bay Lightning team. I remember getting some Lightning shirts pretty early during their history, and I wish I had kept them. The last card highlights Wayne Gretzky breaking Gordie Howe's goal record, and that will take up a spot in my highlight binder.

Thanks so much John for the awesome package of goodies! I look forward to playing bingo tonight (that is, if I don't get caught up at the grocery store).
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Trade with Nothing if not Random and a few recent pickups

About 2 months ago, I completed a trade with Nothing if Not Random. I sent Roy some team and player wants, and he sent me a nice stack of Rays and Tigers. 

So many cards! Here are some of my favorites from the Rays stack. The '06 Doug Waechter is one I have in my Player Collection binder, and now I can add this one to my Rays binder. Same thing with the '11 Opening Day Zobrist. I didn't have any of the '17 Bunt Rays, and now I have the complete set. 

The Raymond mascot cards are cool, and I've recently started to take my mascot cards and I've just put them in a box in the hopes that my almost 4-year old will start liking baseball more and I can add them to his collection. I'm sure I'll probably get some Raymond doubles at some point, so I'll hopefully add more to that part of the ox. I was really wanting to get all of the Talent Pipeline Rays cards from the last few years of Bowman, so the one Roy sent is appreciated. 

Roy sent a number of Tigers that are additions to my collection. The '92 Upper Deck got me closer to completing that set, and the '93 Flair ones have put me from like 1 card in the set to only needing a few more to complete it. Like the Rays, Roy also sent me some Bunt Tigers. 

The Orange Bunt parallel of Martinez was a low numbered one (I believe to 100), and the '19 Donruss, '19 Stadium Club, and '19 Archives cards are all cards that put me really close to completing team sets.

The last photo are the last of the '19 Topps cards, and some new '20 Topps cards. I'm pretty close to finishing the '20 Topps Series 1 set, and have knocked out a few from Series 2 (more on that later). 

Thanks, Roy, for the great trade!

Next up are some recent winnings from some giveaways and such. 

Nick from Dime Box fame gave away some cards, and I was able to pick up some great cards that have been on my lists for a while. 

Jacob deGrom has been a favorite of mine since 2014. When he made his debut in 2014, a co-worker was talking about him, so I checked him out. He went to college at Stetson University, which is right across the street from the church I play piano at. Anyways, my coworker has a daughter who is pretty close friends to his wife Stacey. Sometime that year, I pulled deGrom's base Topps Gold card and his rookie debut card. I gave them to my coworker after she was sure she could get an autograph, and haven't seen them since. Nick put the base deGrom card up on one of his giveaways, and I hurriedly claimed it. Along with it, he also sent the Rookie Debut card, giving me the 2 cards I needed to re-complete my Topps deGrom run. I also claimed an 2018 '83 Dee Gordon and '08 Heritage Scherzer rookie, 2 guys I collect. Nick was nice enough to also include some newer Rays cards, 2 Chrome Austin Meadows (one pink refractor), an Utz Jake Bauers, a Gold Label Blake Snell, and some cards from new 2020 products. I've been hoping to get my hands on some 2020 Bowman, but every place has been shut out so far, so I'm happy to get these. Ronaldo Hernandez is a guy I hope will turn out to being a great catcher for the Rays. Shane McClanahan should play for the Rays this year, and we've all heard of Wander Franco. Lastly, is a 2020 Topps Big League Austin Meadows insert. 

Thanks, Nick, for the sweet cards. 

I recently played a Bingo game that John from Johnny's Trading Spot held. I won one of the games, and John sent some TCMA cards, including a Ken Boyer, and some Yankees. 

Thanks, John, for holding the bingo game and for the nice prize. 

Next, Jeff from Wax Pack Wonders had a giveaway where you could pick 3 players. I picked Corey Kluber, Orel Hershiser, and Mickey Cochrane, and Jeff hooked me up with some cool cards. My favorite of the bunch was the Out of the Blue Orel Hershiser. That was a great book that Hershiser wrote in 1989, and I have a beat up copy in my house. I don't remember the book having a card, so I'm happy to pick this one up.
Thanks, Jeff, for the nice cards.

Finally, my wife went by Target the other day and was able to find some packs of 2020 Topps Series 2, and Big League, but not Bowman (maybe one day). I actually got 2 different sets of cards as she had to go back the next day because she forgot something. 

The first time, I got a slew of highlights cards, some key rookies, and 2 sunset (maybe?) cards. I believe Pedroia will retire, and it is up in the air if Zimmerman will come back in 2021.

The first batch had a hit with a Sandy Alomar, Jr. autograph from Big League. I pulled some parallels, and a few favorite players, including DeJong, Gordon, Hicks, Kluber, Simmons, and Weaver. 

The Tigers and Rays were pretty well represented too, with the ones here. The Schoop card is actually in my favorite player collection, as he played on the Dutch National team.

The next batch didn't have as much pop as the first, but did have some guys I collect, like Bauer, Bogaerts, deGrom, DeJong, Dozier, Sale, and Scherzer. The Schoop is the one from the first run.

A few more Rays/Tigers, and rookies/sunset cards. I've been good at pulling Alvarez parallels this year, pulling ones from Topps, Opening Day, and Big League. I also pulled a parallel (maybe) sunset card of Zimmerman.

It looks like from the last post that I will be holding off on putting more music up, and that's ok. I appreciate the kind words, though. I just have one more trade to post, a huge one from Johnny's Trading Spot. The sunset post is done through 1992, and I hope to get it done in the next few weeks.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Trade with Nomo’s Sushi Platter and another song

First off, thanks for all of the kind comments on my last post. I have never pictured myself as someone with insignt, more as someone who to learn what not to do from, so that was very encouraging to hear people say that. More on the previous post later. 

I am still 3 trades behind in getting caught up after a huge package that Johnny's Trading Spot sent last week, but this post will get me a little closer to getting caught up. 

About 2 months ago, I emailed Michael from Nomo's Sushi Platter after seeing a blogger post about trading with him, and we got a trade started. I sent some cards of Hideo Nomo, Andre Ethier, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, and Matt Kemp, and Micheal sent back a bunch of Tigers and Rays. 

The first pic starts off with a deckle edge Willie Horton and a sunset card of Bill Freehan. Many of the cards helped me get closer to finishing some Tigers sets off. I could've sworn I had the '88 Topps Nokes All-Star, but must've had it autographed and sold it, because it was listed as a need. 

My favorite cards from this page are probably the '92 Topps ones, since I've got both of those autographed and needed new copies for my binders, and the 1993 Stadium Club cards, as the photos for many of them were taken at Joker Marchant Stadium, which I have been to hundreds of times. 

This page has a number of sets that I missed out on in the '90's, like '94 Triple Play and '95 Fleer. The '94 Upper Deck Matt Brunson brings back memories, as I remember pulling his '94 Bowman card that year, and I had hoped to get it signed. I must've missed him playing in Lakeland in the minors, because I probably went to 1 game in '94 and he wasn't there. I didn't stay much after Spring Training games at that point either, so I probably missed getting him there before he retired. 

This page features a number of cards which I had signed at one point, but ended up selling, including the '98 Collector's Choice Catalanotto, the 99 Topps Robert Fick and Justin Thompson, and the '02 Fleer Matt Anderson. 

Some of my favorites on this page include the '02 Upper Deck Victory Wil Ledesma, the '07 Topps Mike Rabelo (one of 2 Tigers cards Mike got in that set), the Al Kaline '08 Donruss Thread parallel, the Ultimate Collection Fu Te Ni (the first card of Ultimate Collection I have ever owned), and the Cut to the Chase die-cut Fielder insert. 

This page finished off the Tigers and gets to the Rays portion. Does anyone remember when Upper Deck PowerDeck came out? I remember a few people thinking that CD's were the future of baseball cards. I think the set only lasted 2 years, and here we are now with online on-demand sets that Topps can just print out enough of to cover the orders, and all of the high-end stuff that doesn't do team players any favors, and did I mention the hundreds of parallels to everything? I think the CD's would've been a better way to go, don't you?

Most of the Rays were new-to-me. I have never been a Fleer guy, so just about any time someone sends me Fleer, I need it. Nothing bad about Fleer, I've just always been a Topps guy, and I just like their designs better. 

This one finished off the Rays, with just about all cards being ones that I needed. The Total Rob Bell brought back some good memories. I saw Rob at a Rays game one year before a game. I had the Silver version of that card, and Rob came over to sign, and he signed his '98 Bowman card for me, and I asked him if he had the silver Total card. He said no, so I gave it to him, and he proceeded to put it in his back pocket, and then sat down in the dugout. It made me cringe to see him sit on the card and probably bend it. I love the Tropicana Field photo, as I can imagine myself walking around the park. There is a little river that runs along about half of the park. I usually enter the park around the CF gate, and the river is just to the left of that. The parking lot is along the LF side of the park, with a railroad track running along the side of it. I hope we can get back to a game in 2021. 

Here are the cards for my Favorite Player Collection. I love the Upper Deck Vintage card of Carl Everett. I remember a guy on an autograph messageboard had got the Tigers version of that card signed by everyone except for Rich Becker (who was a pretty decent signer ttm, at least for me), and he was freaking out about sending to Becker, wanting to send him a certified letter first explaining that he would be sending the card to him to finish, and contemplating getting insurance and the whole 9 yards. I understand being worried, but it kind of seemed like he was going overboard. Never found out if he sent it or not. I love the '91 Stadium Club Fielder/Canseco. The Didi is a minor league issue. 

The Huff's are either new ones or ones that will fill in holes in my Rays binders. I appreciate the time Michael took to go through my Want List and how he hit many areas of my collection. The Mark Lowe and Brandon Morrow cards are both autographed. I'm stoked about the Lowe, because he only has 1 certified autograph card, and the lone copy on COMC is overpriced in my opinion. Not many people I've traded with have taken the time to send highlight cards, but Michael fond a few to add, and I'm excited to add them to my Highlights binder. He also found some Topps Gold cards for that project and a card of Jason Campbell, who was Auburn's QB shortly before I lived in Montgomery, Alabama and really started following them.
Thanks to Michael for the awesome trade.

So the last post that I made featured a video of an original song that I wrote, along with the lyrics and a chord sheet. I still am not sure if the video worked for everyone, so I tried going the YouTube route. I had made a video on how I make customs and put it on YouTube, so I took the 2 song videos I made and posted them to YouTube, so if you can't view them on my blog, you can perhaps view them there.

The first song was called 'Plan B', and here are the videos and lyrics/chord sheet.

Here is the link to the YouTube video if it doesn't work.

The other song I recorded was an original song I wrote called "I am your Peace". In around 2002, I had written a bunch of what I now think are just crappy songs. I didn't really know much about chord progressions and music theory back then, but I did write the majority of this song back then. Sometime during that period, I was talking with my friend Jason, who is an excellent piano player and drummer. I told him (naively) that I thought I had run out of topics to write songs about. He asked me if I had ever written one about peace. I thought about it, and then had a topic for my next song. Jason and I were in a band with some people in our youth group. We mostly just did the worship songs for the services, but we got together when we could, and had tried to perform some original songs. Our friend Joe, who played guitar and sang lead vocals in the band had written some music for a song on guitar with a D, A/C#, Bm, G main progression, and a Em, G, D, A secondary progression. Nothing really came of Joe's song, but while playing the progressions a few times with him, I came up with a sweet piano part to it. I never told Joe, but I took the piano riff I came up with to the progression he had, and used it in 'I am your Peace'. While living in Montgomery, Alabama, I came up with the main melody of the solo part on a guitar, actually. I have performed the song a few times over the years, once in 2004 or so at a youth worship service at our church, once while getting to open for a band called Thalon in 2007, once at a talent show for our church's college group, and a few times at a church that a co-worker went to for their Friday night music service in 2010. 

The song lyrically is about all of the struggles we go through and how the person saying 'I am you peace' in the song will always be there. That person can be different things to different people, whether it be God, a significant other/spouse, a good friend, or a close relative. I hope, like in the last song I posted, that it is a message that can be held on to during these crazy times in the world. 

Here is (hopefully) the video of that one, as well as the Lyrics/chorcds.

Here is a link to the YouTube video if the one posted here doesn't work.

I wanted to mention that I have a few more 'Christian' songs that I have written that I could record and post if anyone is interested. If nobody is, I don't really see the point in wasting anyone's time, so if I get enough interest, I'll do it. If you would enjoy hearing any of these other songs, please comment, and if I could also get a few people to comment if these videos are actually working. I'm still not sure if the one I posted previously ever did.

I am still working on the Sunset Card post, and have the 1951 to 1978 Topps sets finished. There is a lot of research involved (identifying who to list for each year, seeing if Topps gave them a true sunset card and if so, identifying the card number, and finally, if they don't have a true sunset card, seeing if a custom card has been made of them (thanks to When Topps had Balls, 90% of guys in the '70's do), but I think all of the research will be worth it in the end, and it could end up being a valuable list for collectors.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy