http://www.sportscardforum.com/blogs/23120-Flyers16 Sports Cards Forum for sports card collectors to buy, sell and trade sports cards. en Thu, 23 May 2013 21:38:50 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.sportscardforum.com/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.sportscardforum.com/blogs/23120-Flyers16 http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1493-2012-Allen-amp-Ginter Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:42:54 GMT Throughout the sports card Blogosphere (is that an actual word??) the past couple of weeks has been non-stop discussion of this year's Allen & Ginter set. This is the first year that I've actually paid attention to this unique set. I was mildly aware of the set in past years but couldn't be bothered when it came out. I thought 'who cares about a baseball set where a significant number of cards are of non-baseball subjects'. I chuckled in amusement as keeners tried to 'crack the code'. I had better things to do in my life than pour over cards trying to figure out some cryptic saying.

All that changed earlier this year. I bought a couple of boxes of 2011 A&G in a WalMart in in March when I was on vacation in Florida. The boxes were marked down and I thought they may make good trade bait. As I opened pack after pack, I was actually intreged by the various subject matter of the inserts. I'm interested in military history so I liked the Floating Fortesses inserts. I loved the colours of the Ascent of Man cards. The Hometown Heroes, though somewhat hokey, are kinda interesting. Mini cards are mini cards, and they are always neat to receive. The only insert set I really didn't like was the Highlight Sketches. They looked like they were done by a high school are class.

The base set is well done. The colours on the portraits are vivid yet not overwhelming. There is a good thickness to the cards. The set has all the current stars of the game. The non-baseball cards add to the interest. Where else can you get a card of Chuck Woolery(!!) and Dirk Hayhurst dressed up as a giraffe. I also got enought of the SP cards in my 2 boxes that I realized that putting the entire 350 card set was achievable.

Though not as challenging as the 2011 Gypsy Queen set, I decided that I could put the base set together and some of the insert sets. Since then I've obtained another 2 boxes when my wife went on a shopping trip to Buffalo, and some base and insert cards from someone who was selling off a bunch of his cards at an excellent price. I'm well on my way... This past weekend on The Bench I bought a bunch of the insert cards and SP's at a very good price.

Let's jump ahead to the 2012 set. Reading through the various blog entries on the internet, there appears to be a very favourable response to this set. The sketch cards are kinda scary. I saw the Ripken card - I didn't realize that he had a mustache. It was almost a running joke - another blog entry about a box break of the 2012 A&G!! Unlike the other sets that Topps has put out this year, there has been no big negatives about the set. It also appears that a number of the hard core collectors were looking forward to the issuance of this set more than the other sets that have come out so far. I'm undecided yet as to whether or not to tackle this set. Knowing me, if I can find a few boxes marked down then I'll go for it.

In my opinion, A&G has surpassed Topps, Topps Chrome and the Topps sets for collectors. It carries enough interest that it draws in collectors of all types. The basic Topps has been on the slide for a number of years. A&G has the appearance that the Topps company actually puts some effort into the base set and the inserts. There is enough changes from year to year to keep up the interest of collectors. ]]> Flyers16 http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1493-2012-Allen-amp-Ginter http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1418-Yard-Sale-Experience Sun, 20 May 2012 06:10:02 GMT I don't usually go to yard/garage sales. I've got nothing agains people who do. I guess everyone needs a past time and for some people they get up early every Saturday morning in the spring and summer and drive the streets of their community looking for bargains. After all, one person's junk is another person's treasure. I already have a toaster, and I don't have little kids, so there is generally nothing that I want that is offered at a yard sale. This warm Victoria Day weekend appears to be the start of the yard sale season.

There is something unnerving to me to go to someone's house and look through their possessions. I almost feel obligated to buy something just for being there. Especially if the homeowner starts talking to me. The times I do go to a yard sale I've learned keep my head down, move quickly and make sure that I'm not the only potential customer there. It's an in and get out quickly philosophy. Also, most of the time there is nothing that I'm interested in buying at the yard sale.

Which leads me to today. In the grocery store in my hometown there were a couple of postings for yard sales on Saturday. What caught my eye is that the postings mentioned sports collectibles. I thought what the heck, let's check it out, you just never know if they have sportscards.

So, I get up shortly after 8 in the morning. I know, the yard sales start at 8 am and usually the good stuff is gotten by the early birds. That's another thing that kinda creeps me out - these people that have to be the first ones at a yard sale. After eating breakfast and taking care of the cats and dogs I'm on the road about 9 am. The first place I stop at had a couple of old tabletop hockey games, and a few other items. Nothing I was really interested in. I was in and out in a couple of minutes. I did overhear one of the homeowners talking to someone that there were people at their home before the scheduled 8 am start. One get a real life. Second, I'm guessing if there were any real good sports stuff, they were purchased first thing.

Next place I go to had 'ball cards' advertised. The yard sale is run by 2 old ladies. The cards is a binder of the Nolan Ryan set (Pacific?), a binder of '91 UD, and binder of various Blue Jays. They wanted $10 for each binder. There was also a box of various cards from the junk wax era. Again $10. I didn't have the heart to tell the old ladies that if they truly wanted to sell those items, charge a dollar or two. At $10 only someone who does not know their sports cards would buy any of that stuff.

So I continue driving through town. There were signs posted on almost every street corner enticing people to go to their yard sale. I went to a few of them. Again, in and out in a minute or two.

I did stumble upon this one yard sale. Nothing outside but they had a tent set up. I went inside and in the back, lo and behold - cards in boxes. And lots of boxes. My heart is racing - great I've found something that I can be interested in. I'm looking through the boxes and that's when my heart sank. It's cards mostly from the junk wax era - hockey, baseball, football and basketball. And he's got it in stacks. So you have to buy a stack of cards, not individual cards. And most of the stacks have a mixture of cards from various years and sets. For a set builder such as myself, I would have preferred stacks of cards from one set, not multiple sets. There are a couple of stacks with some modern era cards in them. But I could tell that most of the cards in those stacks have junk, junk, junk cards.

I ended up buying a stack of about 50 baseball cards for 50 cents. I flipped through the stack and from what I could tell it had a bunch of '84 OPC and '90 OPC. I thought if nothing else, they could be good tradebait. It was shortly after 10 when I made my purchase. Based upon how the cards were in the box, if I wasn't the first person to buy any cards, I was one of the first. The boxes were pretty well full.

I get home and sort the stack. Besides the '84 & '90 OPC, it has a few '90 Topps, one '83 OPC and a bunch of '91 Classic. The thing that ticked me off was that there were a number of duplicates in the stack. Come on, the least the seller could have done is to put together 50 different cards. That is just pure laziness. The good thing in the stack is that it did have a couple of Puckett's and Seavers in there. I'm glad I didn't buy any of the more expensive stacks. Yes, the seller had a couple of stacks of UD hockey (I can't remember what year) for $10. With my luck, most of the cards in there would have been duplicates. Most of the stacks were $1 or $2.

So has my experience today changed my perspective on yard sales. No, not really. I'm still waiting for the day that I have that really big find at a yard sale. But then again, I rarely go to yard sales. So, it's unlikely that finding this treasure will ever occur.

Finally, to provide an update on my Crosby Dempster bread set I'm now up to 6 of the 9 cards in the set. If anyone is interested, there was a posting on SportsCardFun that someone had a number of the singles for trade. ]]> Flyers16 http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1418-Yard-Sale-Experience http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1404-Dempster-s-Bread-Crosby-Set Sat, 28 Apr 2012 05:38:38 GMT Yea, I know, it's been a while. Between work, vacation in sunny Florida and the home life, there hasn't been a lot of time for cards or this blog.

For those of you living in Canada, I'm sure that you've seen the Sydney Crosby Dempster's bread commercials. Within the last month Dempster's has started including Crosby cards with their breads. Of the 9 card set I have 3 cards. The cards are smaller in size than the standard card and are thinner. The pictures are of Crosby, though not in a Penguins uniform. That makes sense considering that Dempster's has to get NHL and Penguins approval for this. The pictures from the cards I have seen are of Crosby's face or him in generic hockey equipment. On the other side are quotes attributed to Crosby about working hard, how he's always loved playing hockey, etc. I believe that Dempster's is a national brand, so these cards will be available all across Canada. The thinness of the cards may cause creasing. Just getting it out of the bread bag I found is a bit of a chore. One other thing, apparently there are also autographed cards available.

Regardless of what you think of Crosby as a player or a person, I feel that the set is positive. Let me explain. Since McDonald's ceased with their national hockey card sets a couple of years ago within Canada there are no national card food issues. I remember the days when one could get cards with products from Kraft, Post, Kelloggs, HighLiner, Nabisco. This to me was an added bonus to buying the product. Or in my case, an incentive to buy the product. It was also a chance to get a card other than from the annual OPC or UD sets. With the set sizes not being that large, it was reasonable to put the entire set together. Within the last month I completed the Post Gretzky career set from 1999 with all the cards still in a cello wrapper. Lastly, it gave kids a chance to get cards for those who couldn't afford to buy packs or for those who were just starting to get interested in sports or cards.

For the past few years, other than the annual McDonalds sets, there have been nothing, nil, zilch in the way of Canadian food/oddball sets. Now with McDonalds ceasing their hockey card promotion there has been nothing. I don't even recall what has been on the box of Wheaties in Canada. The positive I am hoping is that this is a sign that there will be more food sets in the future.

Maybe someone else will strike a deal with Steven Stamkos. Toews has an endorsement deal with Canadian Tire so there is a possibility there. There is a renewed interest in the Blue Jays. That's another possibility. Especially considering that Topps usually comes up short in the number of Jays players in their main set. It would be good to get a card of Jason Fraser, Casey Janssen, Omar Vizquel in a Jays uniform.

All in all, I just hope that this one little set is a sign of bigger things to come. ]]> Flyers16 http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1404-Dempster-s-Bread-Crosby-Set http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1345-2012-Topps Sun, 12 Feb 2012 06:45:02 GMT Ok, so the 2012 Topps Series 1 came out a few weeks ago. This marks the start of the 2012 baseball card collecting season. I guess one could say that this is 'Opening Day' in baseball collecting terms.

So, I thought I'd write about my thoughts on the set and what I've been seeing on the various trading sites and reading about the set in other people's blogs.

• The base set has been nicknamed the surf board set. You know, it fits great. That swirly design in the corner does look like a surfboard with a stripe. It's not a great design, but it's not the worst.
• What's with all the gold? It seems that most of the insert sets have a gold theme, and even though there is no serialized gold parallel cards, there is a parallel set. I could understand if this was the gold anniversary of Topps, similar to last year being the Diamond Anniversary. But I don't understand the gold connection.
• The '87 mini set, I'm not really sure about. It's almost like Topps has taken the Heritage theme and the mini card theme and combined them as an insert set. I think Topps should have had more cards in this set to make it a set unto itself and more of a challenge to complete.
• The SP cards. I don't mind the Pujols and the Reyes SP's, and it's similar to last year with Crawford. However, I have read that the estimates that there is only 100 copies of each, which would be a downer for Pujols collectors and for master set builders. The squirrel card is just plain stupid. The other SP's are original for the most part, but it's no loss if I don't get any. It's just a variation card of the base card for that player. Plus it's better than last year's sparkle cards.
• There apparently are errors in the stat lines. That's rather sloppy proofreading by Topps and really is unacceptable.
• Is it me, or does there seem to be a lot more people putting the set together this year? There seems to be a lot of trading going on, and lots of want lists for the base cards. I don't know if that means people like the set, or it's just the itch to start collecting the 2012 sets.
• There has very little activity of people selling base cards and the inserts at discounted prices. Maybe in the coming weeks when the other sets come out, but nobody is selling the inserts for a quarter or dime yet.
• Topps has really got to put more effort into the insert sets. There is too much similarity between years. The walk off home runs is something new. The other insert sets just seems more of the same thing from prior years.
• This was supposed to be the set that blew everyone away. From reading the blogs, I think that noone is feeling this way. It's not a failure, but it's not a home run by any means.

]]> Flyers16 http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1345-2012-Topps http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1342-January-Results Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:09:11 GMT Ok, these are the results from the month of January in meeting the goals for 2012. * 62 total The Bench trades + 104 total SCF trades = 166 total trades. 34 trades over the remaining 11... Ok, these are the results from the month of January in meeting the goals for 2012.

• 62 total The Bench trades + 104 total SCF trades = 166 total trades. 34 trades over the remaining 11 months, which averages to just over 3 trades/month. This is going smoothly. I have 5 pending trades (and it's only the first week of February), so upon completion I'm ahead of schedule for February.
• Nil 90's hockey inserts completed to date. I counted that I have 20 hockey inserts sets from the 90's that require 5 or less cards to complete. I almost had a trade worked out to take care of a couple of the insert sets, but it fell through which I'll talk about at a later posting.
• 2008 UD X base set and die cuts - I received 1 of the 4 base cards that I needed in a trade during the month. I will be receiving the other 3 base cards during February as part of another trade and some die cuts. So this is progressing nicely
• Organizing my player collections - nothing done yet. Oh well, one of these days...
• Organizing the OPC 08/09 retro - another nothing done yet.
• World Series cards - I picked up a few 2011 Cardinals and Rangers in a couple of trades. I've got a few more which should arrive in February. The excellent news is that I did make a transaction during January for some Topps Traded cards from various years which I required for the World Series collection. I've rarely seen anybody have these available on the sportscard trading sites, so I'm happy to be able to pick up these cards. I believe that this person made available single cards from boxed sets.

So, overall, there is some progress being made on my 2012 goals.

Until next time - all the best in collecting!! ]]> Flyers16 http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1342-January-Results http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1325-2012-Collecting-Goals Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:13:30 GMT Ok, while January is still here, I thought I would write down my goals for the coming sports card collecting year. In no particular order: * Combined 200 transactions between Sports Card Forum... Ok, while January is still here, I thought I would write down my goals for the coming sports card collecting year. In no particular order:

• Combined 200 transactions between Sports Card Forum and The Bench. Right now, I have just over 100 transactions here and just over 60 on The Bench. That's a goal of 40 for the year, which averages to just over 3/month. As longer as the other trader leaves feedback, that should be achievable. Actually, if everyone I have dealt with on both sites would have left feedback, I'd be over 170 in combined transactions right now.
• Finish my 1990's and 2000's World Series team wants before the 2012 World Series begins. When I renewed my interest in sports cards back in 1980, I decided to put together Topps team sets of each year's World Series teams. I have most of the cards that I need for each World Series team. I need about 20 cards from the 1990's and about 50 from the 2000's. The 1990's cards I still need are from Topps Traded sets from when the Traded sets were only available in boxed sets. So it's a matter of finding someone who is trading or selling singles from the boxed sets. For the 2000's it mostly from the past 3 years and the 2003 Traded. I should be able to trade for the recent cards, but the 2003 Traded seems hard to find someone who has traders.
• Complete 5 1990's hockey inserts sets. I'm working on completing a number of 1990's hockey base sets. I work on completing the insert sets that go with the base sets. There is a number of these insert sets that I need 5 or fewer cards to complete. The issue seems that 1990's hockey is a forgotten entity. Also fellow traders who have cards from this era for trade I have very few of their wants as I have plenty of base cards but very little in the way of 1990's inserts. Therefore, it's difficult to make a trade.
• Organize my player collections. I've got cards of Yaz, Eddie Murray, Tom Seaver, Fred McGriff and Travis Fryman sitting in boxes. I've got to put them into binders for each player.
• Complete the 2008 UD X base set and die cut set. I'm 3 cards away for the first set and about 25 for the second set.
• Organize my 08/09 OPC. I've got 5 boxes of cards to open and sort. I'd like to work on the parallel set, but first I have to find out what I need.

Well, I think that is enough to work upon this year. I'll try and give updates as the 2012 progresses.
Happy Collecting - Jeff
]]> Flyers16 http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1325-2012-Collecting-Goals http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1323-The-Beginning Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:11:52 GMT Well, you have to start somewhere. And this is it - my first posting to a blog. Over the past 5 years or so, I've read many sports cards blogs. Most of them are good - I wouldn't say excellent - but good. Most deals with the bloggers card collection or what they have received in their latest trades. There's a few that's anti this or anti that. There's other's that take a card by card look at certain vintage sets.
There were 2 that I found was excellent which unfortunately no longer blog. The first was Mauro at Wax Heaven, who due to personal reasons no longer blogs. He had a easy writing style, wrote a bit about his personal life and his personal collection (Jose Canseco), wrote about the card industry, reviewed card releases and periodically looked at previous card sets. This was my first introduction to card blogging, and when he quit writing it was like a friend had moved away.
The second was written by an industry insider. I believe that during the time he wrote the blog he was unemployed (he had worked with Upper Deck and maybe another card manufacturer). I believe he stopped writing when either he got a job with a card company (hence conflict of interest) or just got a job. He had some very interesting insights into things like card set development, and decision making by management at the card companies.
So, how do I foresee my blog? I want to talk about my experiences as a sports card collector, as an on-line card trader, and my take on card sets - both old and new. I've been thinking about doing this for a while. Luckily for me, SCF gives me a forum to do this. It may also be theraputic for me (not that I'm ill), but it'll be like a journal or diary, and sometimes it's just good to write down your thoughts.
Well, I think that is all for now. I've got work to do, and I've spent enough time writing blog posting #1.
Happy Collecting - Jeff ]]> Flyers16 http://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/1323-The-Beginning