You've got a friend in me

Yesterday, I gifted a stack of baseball cards to a fellow baseball-loving coworker of mine.

As far as hometown teams go, he's a Sox fan, but he also likes the Astros, and as far as players go, he's partial to past 'stros like Jeff Bagwell and Hunter Pence. (Most of the stack I gave him was comprised of spare Pences I had lying around.)

It felt good to physically hand baseball cards to someone I know. Rewarding, in a way. I have no idea if my gift will inspire him to buy more cards here and there in the future, but at least I can feel good knowing I did what I could for now.

Part of the responsibility of a collector, I think, is to try and expose as many people to the hobby they appreciate and love so much.

As you probably know already, however, that's not always easy when it comes to baseball cards.

It's a pretty limited hobby. I personally haven't had a card-collecting friend since about 7th grade. I've tried several times since then to pass the bug onto some of my other baseball-loving buddies, but it just never panned out.

Though I've often wished I'd had a close friend to share the hobby with over the years, this blog has helped close that gap a bit with all the great people I've (virtually) met. One of those blogger buddies is reader Michael P. who has been nice enough to drop quite a few large boxes of cards on me, his latest being a thick brick of cardboard I received around the time of my hiatus this year.

This most recent box included the GQ Abreu mini at the top of this post, as well as new hits to my player collections of John Olerud and the late Oscar Taveras you see here.

Michael also supplied some psychedelic '90s action here with a Bobby Bo Pinnacle Shades insert and a Bulldog from the always polarizing '95 Fleer checklist.

You can always get on my good side by sending me some millennium-era Pacific, because cards like these have turned out to be surprisingly tough finds these days.

A couple super early images of some future superstars, including a jarring image of A-Rod in what looks to be some kind of minor league reincarnation of a White Sox cap.

I've never specifically set out to collect errors, but I certainly won't turn them down when people like Michael send them my way.

That's HOF catcher Rick Ferrell on the left, as well as perhaps the most defective baseball card I've ever seen on the right. (Actually pictured: Mark Grudzielanek.)

I wouldn't say that horizontal cards are objectively better than their vertical counterparts...just that they have a higher potential to be.

Michael was gracious enough to throw a couple unopened packs of Panini Triple Play into the mix as well.

This set has become a staple of scrap heaps and dollar store repacks everywhere -- I have quite a few extras that I could supply to any budding card-collecting friend I may make in the future -- but I'll always have a soft spot for it.

Also included was a hearty helping of '92 OPC Premier singles.

It's not the most dazzling set ever made, but between Jim Abbotts and Rod Beck rookies and Andres Galarragas (as a Cardinal), I still found quite a few pieces to add to my collection.

O-PEE-CHEE!!!!

(You'll have to take my word that the McCarver is a treasured OPC, but it is.)

Most trade packages I receive these days has at least a little mini-collection flavor to them, and Michael is certainly an All-Star when it comes to those.

Here's a fairly famous Bip PATP that, to my complete and utter surprise, I found that I didn't already own.

A handful of panoramic Opening Day inserts for my anthems collection.

A couple for the bat barrel and tip of the cap themes (and the Dunn is actually a refractor, despite what my scanner is trying to tell you).

Even though it's seven years old now, 2009 Upper Deck OPC is still one of the last sets that I feel was truly made with novice collectors in mind.

Cheap packs. A large base checklist. A small number of insert/parallel sets. Lots of fun images, including this former Dime Box Dozen need of (pitcher) Jake Peavy scampering to third base that I was ecstatic to see fall out of Michael's trade package.

I feel like one of the reasons it's hard to entice new collectors into the hobby is the sheer fact that many of them wouldn't know where to start. Let's face it: with gobs and gobs of inserts and parallels and what-have-yous in seemingly every set these days, there's not a whole lot of simplicity available for the novice collector.

I truly believe having a set like 2009 OPC available to the masses again might entice people like my coworker to pick up a pack of baseball cards, whether it be once a week, once a month, or once a year.

Along with a little urging from longtime card collectors like you and me, of course.

Frankenset redux, Page 2: Numbers 10-18

One page into the new frankenset and we already have an unprecedented quandary on our hands.

Believe it or not, we finished with a four-way tie for first last week. The quartet of cards you see above each finished with five votes a piece. Nothing like this ever happened in the first frankenset. (I don't even think we ever even had a three-way tie in that one.)

What I'll ask my readers to do in order to break this deadline is to simply comment on your personal favorite between the four cards. The first card to receive three of these tie-breaking votes will be the champion, however many comments that may take.

I'll update this post once we have a winner.

Edit: We have a winner!

Win -- 1993 Stadium Club #5 Tony Phillips (5 votes + tie-breaking vote)

Place (tie) -- 1998 Team Best #3 Hiram Bocachica, 2016 Stadium Club #4 Kevin Kiermaier, 1994 Topps #6 Derrick May (5 votes each)

Show -- 2000 Ultra #9 Mickey Morandini (4 votes)

Once that tie is broken, go ahead and vote on this week's page of frankenset nominees.

Let's meet the newest nine.

1994 Collector's Choice #10 Butch Huskey

Butch Huskey, one of the all-time great baseball names, signing for the fans.

1987 Fleer Limited Edition #11 Glenn Davis

Ryno and Keith Hernandez cameos...on the same card? 

2000 Topps Gallery #12 Ray Lankford

A swift kick to Mike Scioscia's face. 

1991 Topps #13 Mariano Duncan

A double play card (with a cameo from The Wizard) that has always confused me for the sheer fact that both players are wearing similar red uniforms. 

2015 Topps Opening Day #14 Michael Taylor

A topsy-turvy, last-second lunge.

 1994 Topps #15 Jay Bell

Double dipping in San Diego.

2009 Bowman Draft #16 Brian Dozier

Baseball's newest 40-homer guy turning two on his rookie card. 

2016 Stadium Club #17 Raul Mondesi

Raul Mondesi -- the only player to ever make his MLB debut in a World Series -- with the spoils of his labor. 

2013 Topps Opening Day #18 Jemile Weeks

A page riddled with cameos closes with a guest appearance from Mr. Cespedes.

The polls are now on the sidebar, and don't forget to help break last week's tie!

Happy voting!

Five years

Five years ago today, I acted on a crazy impulse to start a baseball card blog.

In other words, this blog has been around for half a decade. That's almost inconceivable to me. I started this blog when I was still a teenager, and here I am now just having received a college degree. I like to think I've matured in the years since then, but who can say for sure?

At times, I'll stop and think Gosh, it feels like just yesterday I started this thing while other times I'll mull it over and say Man, I HAVE been blogging for a long time, haven't I? As is the paradox of time.

It's safe to say that year five has been the most teeter-totter one of them all. I said goodbye, returned when I realized just how much I needed blogging in my life, and have stuck around since then, albeit infrequently. Granted, I don't post much anymore. Three times a week tops, ten posts a month if I'm lucky. I'll admit, this dip in posting has made me feel like an outsider at times, someone in the back of the blogging group photo.

Still, I guess what I've learned this year is that staying a part of this wonderful community isn't wholly dependent on how much you post around here. I still make it a point to read/comment on other blogs and ship PWEs out to my blogging buddies as often as possible, and I get a great amount of joy out of that. (And I do offer a heartfelt apology to the delay in trade posts for anyone who's sent me cards over the past handful of months. I'm working on it.)

I tend to get a bit introspective on these blogging anniversaries. But in the end, the only word I can really come up with to describe what I feel is: thanks. Whoever you are, wherever you live, however you read my blog, thanks.

I wouldn't have made it anywhere near these five years without you.

Into the Sunset, Pt. 33: Kenny Lofton

(Note: I'm thinking of moving my frankenset posts from Mondays to sometime over the weekend.

Vote totals have taken a sharp dip since the frankenset tournament ended, so go ahead and get your vote in on the first page of new frankenset contestants if you haven't already! 

Now let's return to your regularly scheduled programming with a reboot of my "Into the Sunset" theme.)

I know I'm on the younger end of the card collecting spectrum, but that doesn't mean I can't still feel old sometimes.

I'm sure every sports fan has probably experienced that dreaded Gosh-I'm-getting-old moment at some point. It comes with the territory. For me, it came when some of the most hallowed ballplayers of my youth began to retire, one by one. The first of those retirees I can recall was Kenny Lofton, a man so fast that not even a parachute could stop him.

I'm not quite old enough to remember Lofton on those great Cleveland teams of the '90s, but following his baseball career during my baseball adolescence made him one of my all-time favorite ballplayers, a title he retains to this day.

But the sad fact of the matter is that even the best in the game have to retire sometime.

One of the first things that drew me to Kenny Lofton was how often he switched uniforms. He played for a whopping eleven clubs in his 17-year career, and amazingly, he spent a year or less with ten of those teams. Unlike some other well-traveled ballplayers, however, I think it was more of a case of other teams wanting him as opposed to teams being desperate to unload him.

Lofton played ten of his 17 seasons with the Indians over a course of three separate stints with the club, the last of which came during his sunset campaign of 2008 when he was dealt from Texas to playoff-bound Cleveland at the trade deadline.

I don't count subset issues as official sunset cards, but these two are worth mentioning since Lofton's 34th career postseason stolen base secured a record that still stands.

Kenny Lofton received three sunset issues from a card market that was quickly dwindling.

The first comes from probably the most disappointing design of my collecting lifetime: 2008 Topps. I use the word disappointing because this design could have been so great, but it ended up being a dud.

It was nice of Topps to insert Lofton into their 2008 checklist following the speedster's retirement the year prior, because you know what that means...

...complete career stats!

Lofton's stats are among my favorite to read because of the stellar numbers and the sheer overload of teams he played for. Look at those accolades. A .299 career average. Over 2,000 games played. Not to mention his 622 career steals, which ranks 15th all-time.

I'm not sure if Lofton is a Hall of Famer, but I sure as heck believe he deserved better than the 3.2% of votes he got in his only year on the ballot (2013).

Though the shot is almost exactly similar to Lofton's Flagship issue, Topps also inserted him into their Heritage checklist in '08.

It was a great time to have a sunset card in Heritage, since Topps honored one of its top-tier designs that year: 1959.

I probably opened more packs of Heritage in 2008 than any other single year since because of how much I enjoyed the look of it.

But in the end, Upper Deck provided the finest farewell to Mr. Lofton, at least in my opinion.

Most collectors seem to agree that 2008 UD is the brand's last great set. They'd be out of business just two years later, but the greatness of their 2008 edition remains to this day: an all-around fantastic mix of stellar photography and simplistic design.

Upper Deck captured Lofton in the joyous huzzahs following (what I assume is) Cleveland's division-clinching win in 2007, with an anonymous teammate lifting the 40-year-old veteran from behind.

Even with a fantastic sunset card, it's hard to be neutral when a beloved ballplayer like Kenny Lofton retires. It hurts. It sometimes feels like a part of me has gone missing. Many of my favorite players of my youth are out of the game by now, and what's more: many of baseball's brightest young stars are actually younger than I am.

Here's hoping the Ichiros and Bartolo Colons of the baseball world can hang on for just a few more years.

The best damn garage sale ever

A display like this resembles something you might come across at a card show, but take a closer look and you'll find that what you see here is actually someone's garage.

More specifically, this was what awaited me at a local garage sale I attended this past weekend. The online ad dubbed it The Best Damn Garage Sale Ever, which I naturally thought was a bit hyperbolic. Turns out I'd actually been to this very same garage sale a few times before. The guy's selection seemed to be dwindling the last time I went, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot when I made the drive over this time around.

Good news: among the first things I noticed upon entering the garage/card lair this past weekend were two large 3200-count boxes labeled Baseball -- 15 cents each. Bad news: the guy began putting SOLD signs on everything card-related not one minute after I stepped foot in his garage.

Apparently, someone had made him an offer for everything he had on display, and he accepted. His collection had been bought. And I didn't even get to look through those 3200-count boxes...

I put my head down and prepared to walk out of the garage with nothing.

That's when the guy kindly informed me that until this mystery buyer came to haul the cards out, everything was still up for grabs, a special deal that I'm guessing he may have granted me since I was a repeat customer of his.

I felt my stomach loosen at the happy ending being presented to me: turns out I was going to get to tear through that pair of 3200-count boxes after all.

As I've detailed in past posts, the guy who runs this garage sale is a high-end dealer/collector.

I saw remnants of his past breaks with the cards from big-dollar sets like Leaf Limited and Museum Collection I found in his scraps. I could tell he's the type of collector who buys a box, plucks out relics/hits/anything else of "value," and throws the rest in a box somewhere.

That's okay: I've basically built an entire collection out of culling also-rans from collectors who have a lot more money than I do.

We swapped very different collecting stories (his involving redemptions, mine involving dime boxes) as my eyes continued to light up over what I was finding in those 3200-count boxes, things that you rarely see in discount bins anywhere, much less a garage sale.

Things like big-name rookies.

Things like minis.

(I'm guessing Julio Urias was a relative unknown when the guy originally pulled these.)

Things like short-prints.

(RIP, Jose.)

Things like...buybacks?

Indeed. Among the most surprising finds of the afternoon were the dozen or so buybacks I unearthed from those boxes. Most are earmarked for a few different bloggers I know of who are undertaking various buyback projects, but these two are staying with me.

I'm a huge Bernie Carbo fan, and the Haney (actually a reverse-negative error) is an exciting oddball-ish add to my Pilots collection.

The guy seemed to have busted a lot of Panini product over the past few years, some of which were complete unknowns to me.

The Wilson in particular (a mighty thick card numbered to 125 copies) comes from a set called America's Pastime released in 2013 -- which I had never once heard of before last weekend.

More inserts/parallels from Panini, including a healthy dosage of shiny cards which actually don't look half bad despite the lack of logos.

Most of what the guy had on display involved newer product, though I did find a small dose of randomness thrown into the mix.

I mostly stay away from Kraft cheese these days, but the oddballs are still cool.

You're telling me a garage sale can have mini-collection hits, too?

You bet.

How about a couple plays at the plate for good measure?

The Martin is a card I've wanted ever since 2013 Topps Chrome hit the shelves, but hadn't yet tracked down for whatever reason.

And now we've come to the main attractions from those 3200-count boxes: the parallels.

The chrome Ethier and baby-blue Price you see here were certainly treats...

...but the real story came in the form of Flagship parallels.

I found about a half-dozen blue-bordered beauties from 2011 Topps Update in those boxes, including this one of former Chicago fan favorite Tony Campana, who still holds a near and dear place in my heart.

But maybe the surfboards from 2012 Topps are more your speed.

Tulo double dips and Matt Harvey gold sparkle rookies are sure to grab anyone's eye.

Or maybe the sea turtles from 2013 are more your game: blue sparkles, red borders, gold borders, whatever you like.

Probably around 50-60 cards I bought were 2013 Flagship parallels, including my first parallel of 2013's Card of the Year, Adam Greenberg.

Or perhaps about 2014 Topps and the -- whatever that design was supposed to look like -- are to your liking.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: these boxes were absolutely loaded with parallels, more so than almost any other discount bin (card show, garage sale, anywhere) I've ever had the privilege of digging through.

And if all that wasn't enough...

...how about a couple black parallels, numbered to just 63 copies each?

No?

Okay, how about a good ol' camo parallel (99 copies) then?

You may have noticed that up until now, I've left one precious detail out of all this cardboard goodness: the final price. Things got kinda out of hand as I was digging (can you blame me?) and, even at the glorious price of 15 cents per, my purchase pile of right around 250 cards was still bound to total more than the cash I had on me that afternoon.

I was just starting to count the number of cards I'd picked out when the guy stopped me, glanced down at the stack I'd picked out and said: Today's your lucky day, just gimme five bucks for everything.

I was so floored that I looked right back at him and said: Are you sure? He answered yes, and I felt like I was getting away with some sort of robbery when I handed him that five-dollar bill.

Let's see: 250 cards, divided by five dollars, that's...OH MY GOD!...two cents a card.

How could this day possibly get any better?

Turns out there were a couple other boxes with higher-priced cards I hadn't noticed during my first tour of the garage. One contained various stars/rookies, separated by player, while the other housed past and present Chicago greats. In the end, the guy let me have the 13 cards I plucked from those two boxes for $20.

I know that sounds like a king's ransom juxtaposed next to the five-dollar deal I just recapped, but trust me here, don't be so quick to judge.

Along with the Corey Seager rookie came Mini Babe and Big Babe from the non-Chicago box.

Inserts and parallels of couple current Cubs with Rizzo and Lackey here, and I must say GQ's blue border parallels sure mix well with Cubs cards.

Now we're starting to get into part of what really made this deal so sweet.

Not surprisingly, I've noticed cards of the Cubs' young core experiencing an uptick in price both during and after the magical season of 2016. Willson Contreras looks to be the backstop of the future in Chicago, and has quickly become one of my personal favorite players to watch in all of baseball.

I nabbed these Bowman and Bowman Chrome rookies of his for what amounted to a little over a buck each, which, I can assure you, is far less than I'd find them anywhere else in the Chicago area these days.

Here's a quartet of beautiful Addison Russell cards, three of which -- given Russell's non-tenure in Oakland -- are treasured new additions to my zero-year collection.

A mini chrome, a melting insert, a numbered parallel, a refractor...what else could this guy possibly have?

Ah, vintage.

And we're not talking buybacks here, either. This is the real, unstamped stuff. Specifically, a 1977 Topps Pete Rose I've had my eye on for a long, long time -- and in nearly flawless condition, no less. Rose cards are hard to come by on the cheap, and they don't get much cheaper than this one.

Gosh, what a way to cap it off. Well, that just about does it for this garage sale from something out of Paradise. SPs, parallels, rookies, vintage, I couldn't ask for much more out of...

Hold on...

...what?!

Yes. That, my friends, is indeed an authentic 1961 Topps Ernie Banks. That I found at a garage sale. I'm hoping that if I say it more I'll start to believe it, because I'm still not entirely convinced all this actually happened.

Let me assure you that I was fully ready to put this one back, because I pretty much assumed that it would catapult me over my cash limit for the day. But once again, when the guy quoted me a twenty-spot for the lot, I had to ask: Are you sure? 

He (again) was, and now I think you can see why $20 for this baker's dozen of cards was an out-of-this-world steal. The whole afternoon in all set me back a grand total of $25, and I exited that musty garage with a box of cards and a huge dumb grin on my face. I had to walk around the block a couple times just to get some air, to take in the deal I'd just gotten.

One thing's for certain: I'll be damned if that sure wasn't the best damn garage sale ever.