https://www.sportscardforum.com/blogs/2995-arpsmith SportsCardForum is your source for everything related to sports cards for collectors and non-collectors alike! en Sun, 07 Jun 2026 07:42:46 GMT vBulletin 60 https://www.sportscardforum.com/images/misc/rss.jpg https://www.sportscardforum.com/blogs/2995-arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/791-It-s-been-a-while Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:11:24 GMT Been a few months since I posted here, life is pretty crazy with the two little boys. Oldest one is playing t-ball, the youngest is rowdy and demands constant attention. Still been buying cards and... Been a few months since I posted here, life is pretty crazy with the two little boys. Oldest one is playing t-ball, the youngest is rowdy and demands constant attention. Still been buying cards and doing some trading but the collection is getting a little disorganized.

I hit a MAJOR milestone in my USC collection. I now have over 10,000 different cards of USC football players. My collection includes over 600 autos and almost 700 GU cards. I have actually decided to take a little break on the buying of USC guys, just stick to trading and focus my purchases in other areas.

I have been spending a lot of time trading to complete my 2010 Topps set with all the inserts. I am close to finishing all the insert sets except for the original backed CYMTO. If you have any, drop me a PM. I love the fact I can complete the base set with the purchase of 1 Jumbo box then move onto the inserts. 2010 UD is another story. 2 hobby boxes in and I still need about 200 of the 600 cards. Not sure what I plan to do there.

In addition to my sets, I plan to focus my purchases on my Willie McCovey and Ronnie Lott collections and dabble a bit in Rickey Henderson. I am also slowly picking up baseball HOF autos. I just finished reading Bill Simmons basketball book which has peaked my interest in some of the older basketball players. Picked up a cheap Rick Barry auto and may start picking up some basketball autos for the PC. Also gonna start looking for some Sacto Kings Autos/GU. Mostly the players from a few years back - Peja, Webber (started a PC of him a few years back that has stalled), Vlade, Bibby, etc.

I am also working on getting my base and inserts loaded into sportlots.com. Not only do I sell a few (then turn around and spend my sales on singles), it is a good database to pull a list of cards by player to trade.

That's about it for now. Happy trading! ]]> arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/791-It-s-been-a-while https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/581-Collection-Update Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:23:33 GMT So far my quest for some HOF baseball Autos has worked out pretty well. I am looking for bargains at this point as I test the waters and try to gauge how much some of them sell for. I am also... So far my quest for some HOF baseball Autos has worked out pretty well. I am looking for bargains at this point as I test the waters and try to gauge how much some of them sell for. I am also focused on looking for cards that have good eye appeal (at least from my perspective). In the last few weeks I have picked up autos of Fergie Jenkins, Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer (/10!), Monte Irvin, Frank Robinson, Gaylord Perry, Rollie Fingers, Jim Bunning and Gary Carter. You can check out scans in my bucket.

As always, I am looking to fill some holes in my McCovey and Ronnie Lott PC. I just picked up a 2001 Donruss Signature Auto of McCovey that is shortprinted to 20. It has eluded me for quite a while so I am happy about that pick up. I also just got a 2003 Topps Tribute patch - it is only one color but I had never seen one for sale and it is shortprinted to 30. My other McCovey pickups include a 5/5 2008 Prime Cuts dual GU and a 2005 Donruss Signature Series Auto. As for Lott, he finally had a 2009 release in Spx and I have picked up 2 different GU cards - I believe there are only 6-8 with nothing lower than /25 so I should be able to pick them up pretty quickly. I also just picked up 2 cards from 1995 - a Pacific Gold Prism and a Ditka's Picks 4 of Diamonds card.

I decided to buy a bunch of low end USC autos and GU for my collection and found quite a few. Got some Willie McGinest, Johnnie Morton, Derrick Deese, Keyshawn, Chris Claiborne, Will Poole, Mike Williams, Rob Johnson and more. I also picked up my 2nd Reggie Bush auto for my collection - a 2006 Absolute triple GU/Auto /100 - very excited! Also got a Triple Threads card with Carson Palmer, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart that spells out USC and has a pic of the Heisman. Very cool card.

That's about it for right now, always tons of things I want to get. The challenge is deciding what to focus on. If you have any Trojans for trade, drop me a PM. ]]> arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/581-Collection-Update https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/523-It-has-been-a-while Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:05:40 GMT I haven't posted in a few weeks as work and home life have gotten crazy. Have to cut somewhere and it wasn't card purchases or Facebook games (I may be addicted to Mafia Wars) so the blog suffered a little bit.

Still been focusing my collection on McCovey, Lott and USC Football. Also working on the new Topps Football set. Just made a trade to get the last base card. Still need a few cheerleader cards (what a concept!), a few Topps Town cards and a bunch of Chicle inserts. Trying to plug away with trades right now.

I have added a new area of focus to my collection. I am going to get an Auto or GU card (preferrably Auto) of each baseball HOFer that meets my dreamed up criteria. It really isn't within my budget to hunt down a Ruth, Cobb or Gehrig card so what I have decided to do is to target players who played in a season since 1950 (managers as well). I took out umps and executives and my list now stands at 99 players. My current collection has 38 of them covered with 12 of them being Autos. I have a Gaylord Perry Auto coming in a trade to replace his GU and Frank Robinson & Fergie Jenkins autos coming as well which will get me up to 40. There is some low lying fruit on my list which I will target first while also looking for bargains to replace some of my GU with Autos. I also figure I will set aside some cards of guys I think will be in the HOF soon.

Wish me luck! ]]> arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/523-It-has-been-a-while https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/447-Collecting-Update Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:48:12 GMT It has been a little while since I posted, I have been busy organizing my collection and trying to determine where my focus will be. First task was taking better care of my USC collection. I had... It has been a little while since I posted, I have been busy organizing my collection and trying to determine where my focus will be.

First task was taking better care of my USC collection. I had most of the cards (with the exception of some of the very high end) in 3600 count boxes not protected with penny sleeves or top loaders. I have now gone through and put all GU/Auto/Printing Plates into top loaders. They are taking up way too much space but now they are much better protected.

Next up was to build a new tracker for my USC cards. I currently keep track on an excel spreadsheet and list all the cards for each player on a separate tab. It still works great but I have no way to see how many different cards I have, what percentage I have or how many Auto/GU I have. So I built a separate spreadsheet that shows each player, how many total cards, GU, Auto and Auto/GU per Beckett. Then I list how many of each category I have. Now I know how many cards (9332), GU (546), Autos (500) & Auto/GU (17) I have in my collection.

Finally I think I have settled on a direction of focus for my collection. I am going to work on completing my sets while looking for deals on the cards I need. I actually just purchased the last 4 SP cards I need to complete my 2007 Topps Heritage set this week on sportlots! This set was a beast. Other sets I need to finish are 2009 UD baseball (Series 2 base along with Series 1 & 2 insert sets), a few more 2009 Topps inserts, 2008 UD Timeline & 2008 UD Masterpieces (need some SPs). I am also on the lookout for 2 2008 Topps Opening Day Autos (Botts & Perkins) - if you have these let me know.

My co-priority along with the sets will be my Ronnie Lott & Willie McCovey collections. I am a supercollector of both and mainly have high end cards to add. If I can get 1-2 of each per month I will be happy.

Next up will be adding to my USC GU & Auto totals. I have over 23% of all base but only 9.4% of the GU and 11.5% of the Autos - not to mention only 1.2% of GU/Auto. With my new tracker I can easily see which players have GU and Auto cards I need and can use it to target those with several possibilities.

My lowest priority will be adding to my Rickey Henderson and SF Giants collections. With Rickey I will probably look to add cheap GU cards and base from prior to 2000. My Giants collection is only GU and Auto cards from some of my favorite players from the past.

If I can stick to my plan, I think I can make progress in the areas that will make me most happy. I have to try and limit my box purchases (still will need to do a few to get some trade bait and fulfill the need) to save funds for the players.

Happy 4th of July to all! ]]> arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/447-Collecting-Update https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/433-I-need-to-get-my-collection-more-organized Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:05:26 GMT I was moving some cards around tonight and opened a box of cards that I hadn't touched in a couple years. Running my fingers across the top I noticed a Ryan Howard GU card. I was pretty excited so I sat down at the kitchen table and looked through the entire 660 ct box.

I found the following:

2006 Topps Chrome Jason Avant Auto
2005 UD GU of:
Randy Johnson (Yankees with pinstripe)
Jake Peavy
Ken Griffey Jr. (Reds with pinstripe)
Manny (Red Sox)
Frank Thomas (White Sox with pinstripe)
Carlos Beltran

2005 Turkey Red Todd Helton GU with pinstripe X2
2006 UD Ryan Howard GU X2
2006 A&G Pedro Martinez GU with pinstripe
2006 A&G Clint Barmes GU
2006 A&G Frank Thomas GU Bat (A;s)
2006 Absolute Charlie Whitehurst GU
2006 Donruss Threads GU Demerius Williams

And the Biggie!!!

2005 Turkey Red Black Auto of Dustin Pedroia 72/99

I now remember pulling it and having never heard of him and being disappointed. It books for $120!!!

I will get scans up over the next couple of days and I believe they will all be for trade.

Who knows what other wonders I might come across if I finally get everything organized. ]]> arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/433-I-need-to-get-my-collection-more-organized https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/410-PC-Update Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:19:31 GMT The collection is going well. I am a supercollector of Ronnie Lott and Willie McCovey. Over the past couple days I have picked up 4 inexpensive Lott cards on Beckett along with an 06 National... The collection is going well. I am a supercollector of Ronnie Lott and Willie McCovey. Over the past couple days I have picked up 4 inexpensive Lott cards on Beckett along with an 06 National Treasures GU /15, an 06 Classics Platinum Parallel /10, a Unocal Phone card, a 92 Stadium Club Promo sheet and a Metallic HOF card - these were all cards I needed for my PC. I also picked up 3 inexpensive McCovey cards on Beckett in addition to the 2000 Greats auto I blogged about a couple days back.

I also collect USC cards, need to see if I can get some memorabilia picks to demonstrate I have reached Supercollector status. I have made a few trades here to bring some cards in and decided to buy some GU Reggie Bush cards on ebay. Had a couple nice pickups - a patch /45 along with a rookie turkey red for about $10 and 2 jerseys along with 4 other cards (needed all 6) for about $6. Also picked up an 06 Lofa Tatupu Sweet Spot Auto for $12.

On another subject, twice in the past week or two potential traders have asked me to pay them to ship the cards I wanted. This seems odd to me, especially since both trades were in their favor by a couple of bucks. I have been actively trading for a couple years (over 150 trades) and this is these are the first times this has happened. Am I the only one that finds this somewhat offensive? ]]> arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/410-PC-Update https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/398-Good-Night-Tonight Sun, 31 May 2009 04:18:07 GMT I had a very good night tonight. We took our boys to the Angels/Mariners game. I was my 2 year old's first baseball game ever and he loved it! He had a great time and I think he is going to be my sports fanatic. While my 5 year old seems to enjoy sports, he isn't overly enthusiastic. The only down side was having to leave the game early. The Angels were up 1-0, ended up going up 3-0 then the Mariners tied it up in the ninth. As I am typing, the M's are up by 1 in the 10th. Used to say that I would never leave a game early that all changed with kids.

Now, coming home, I check my ebay account and I won a card that has been somewhat of a white whale to me - Willie McCovey 2000 Greats of the Game auto. Is is an SP and books for $200. They pop up fairly frequently but I always seem to get outbid. I put in a bid through bidnip and ended up winning it for $46.85 plus $3.99 shipping. Don't know if I would call that a big steal but not too bad in my opinion. Knocked off my #1 want for my McCovey collection, gotta take a look and find out what the next one might be. ]]> arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/398-Good-Night-Tonight https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/392-A-little-about-me Thu, 28 May 2009 05:00:46 GMT My name is Adam, I am married and have 2 little boys, Nick - age 5 and Noah - age 2. I live in sunny Southern California, am a graduate of USC and work as a claims director for a large insurance... My name is Adam, I am married and have 2 little boys, Nick - age 5 and Noah - age 2. I live in sunny Southern California, am a graduate of USC and work as a claims director for a large insurance carrier.

I have been collecting cards since 1979 off and on (mostly on). I have a fairly large collection with too many focuses (if I have too many focuses does that make me unfocused???). My collecting priorities seems to shift weekly.

Here is a summary of my collection:
I am a baseball set builder. I have every Topps set since 1977 along with the sets from 1959 and 1960. I have my eye on sets from 73-75 at my LCS but seem to spend my money on boxes instead. I have every Donruss set produced and every Upper Deck set with the exception of 1998 (need to pick that one up). I have all the Fleer sets up to 1992 and a few of the more recent ones.

I am a huge USC Football fan and have over 9000 different cards of former USC players. I collect everything, base, inserts, GU, Autos. My favorite Trojan of all time is Ronnie Lott and I just achieved Football Supercollector status with my Lott collection.

I also collect several other players. My all time favorite baseball player is Willie McCovey. A couple months back I was named a Baseball Supercollector for my McCovey collection.

Some other players I collect, just not a religiously, are Roger Craig (FB), Dwight Clark, Fred Dean, Rickey Henderson (my former #1 focus and over 1400 different cards), Dave Winfield, Chris Webber, Scot Pollard, Vida Blue, Reggie Jackson, Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing. I have also recently started to pick up GU and Auto cards of my favorite SF Giants, SF 49ers and Sacramento Kings - my favorite sports teams in addition to the Trojans.

I am always looking to make trades for cards that fit into my PC. I have all my Auto and GU cards that are for trade scanned on in my bucket along with all the Auto, GU and 1/1 cards for the players I collect. Feel free to take a look and let me know what you think about my collection.

www.photobucket.com/arpsmith

I will try to post some of my shifts in collecting habit, nice box breaks, PC pick ups and whatever else is on my mind in future posts. ]]> arpsmith https://www.sportscardforum.com/entries/392-A-little-about-me