Sticker(s) Up (For Trade)

All right, I'll fess up. I've encouraged a few card bloggers who picked up packs of the oh-so-childish 2011 stickers to go right ahead and stick 'em in their books.

Easy for me to say; not so easy for me to do.

I amassed a decent collection of stickers in the waning years of my initial baseball card collecting phase. I didn't stick any of them. Not one. I felt it would ruin them. Here's a glimpse at my collection. There are many more if you're looking for them. Football stickers too!

Thinking about these old stickers gave me the urge to look for the new version Friday at Target. I bought three packs. Yeah, I just turned 43.

Here's what I have to trade - if you need them. I have a couple from the teams I collect but would be happy to get a few more (or anything from my want lists) - or feel free to suggest deals for your dupes should you see one here that you need.

Happy Laboring. Oh, and if you're looking for Bowman Platinum, may I direct you to yesterday's post.

The Bowman Platinum Exchange

I dabbled a bit with Bowman Platinum this year before deciding it would just be too pricey for me to chase with abandon. My wish now is to deal away a good portion of what I own - ideally for BP Reds, Tigers and Cubs of various base and parallels.

I own a handful of these already so jot me a note if you would like something below and have Reds, Tigers and Cubs and I'll let you know if I need what you have. Of course, other key items on my want list would gladly be accepted - such as the Heritage short prints. Just sayin'.

I like most of the color parallels, particularly the green.

But the red parallel I pulled of the player below also looks very sharp - much better in hand than this scan shows. For some reason, while it's quite red the scan skews purple.

Without further adieu, here is a long look at some available cards.

Happy Labor Day Weekend.

My (All-New) LCS / Meet The Parkers

Months ago, before the move to Indiana, I documented my Local Card Shop experience at a joint in suburban Chicago called Matt's something or other. "Matt's Cards?" "Matt's Sports Cards?" Beats me. All I know is the terse fella who owned the place wasn't named Matt.

The gist of the experience: uncomfortable. * stretches collar a la Rodney Dangerfield *

So, once in Indiana, I wasted no time heading to an LCS in a nearby small town. My first visit was just swell. The gentleman behind the counter is apparently the co-owner and a font of information about cards. We chatted for a solid 45 minutes about card shows, the types of cards they carry and nefarious dealers. It was, well, nice.

The shop mostly carries boxes of newer product as well as a fleet of relic cards and autos and Jarrod Parker cards galore. If you missed my previous post, it explains this shop's Jarrod Parker fixation. Sidebar: If you missed my previous post ... Where were you!? Are you not following me!? How dare you good sirs (and two ladies)!

Anyway, this new-to-me LCS is a small shop and, sadly, has no dime or quarter boxes. But, I'll surely stop in now and then to talk cardboard and baseball, snag a relic and perhaps even buy a hobby box.

I'm not a big relic collector - at least not high on the one-color whites and grays - but I do love the striped jersey or the one-colored swatch that screams a certain team. That's what I took home from my first visit.

To wit:

Not related to the aforementioned Jarrod Parker.

I really love this relic - the large cut of cloth, the unmistakable Pirates' color, how it pops against the black and white.

To cap it off, Dave "The Cobra" Parker was one of my favorite players growing up, long before playing for my beloved Reds. The "We Are Family" 1979 Pirates left a big impression with me at age 11. In fact, I've been a closeted fan of the Pirates ever since. I should rank my favorite teams, being the list maker that I am. I believe they'd rank #5 or #6.

Parker, a two-time batting champ, not only has a World Series ring, but was the 1978 NL MVP and the 1978 All-Star Game MVP. I won't mention his usage of cocaine (which he confirmed in testimony against a drug dealer). But you just did mention it! Oops.

A seven-time All Star and three-time Gold Glove winner, he finished his career thusly: .290 batting average, 2,712 hits, 339 home runs and 1, 493 RBIs. But Parker never received more than 24% of votes on Hall of Fame ballots and his 15-year Baseball Writers Association of America eligibility expired on the 2011 ballot.

Parker, now 60, owns several Popeye's Chicken franchises in Cincinnati and has two fake knees. But in his day, at 6'5" and at a playing weight of 230 to 240, he was an intimidating physical presence.

He's also the only known baseball player to wear a hockey goalie mask to the plate, which he did while pinch-hitting in his first game back from a fractured jaw and cheekbone.

Dave Parker, without question, a man to be reckoned with.

Hoosiers on Cardboard, Part 1

Congratulations! You're reading the first installment of a series on pro athletes who either were born in Indiana or spent their formative years here. Happy reading!

Jarrod Parker

Two months ago, about a week after moving back to Indiana after 25 years in West Texas, Ohio and Chicago, I paid a visit to a nearby small town to check out a baseball card shop I read about online. I haven't written about this experience yet but will one of these days. Suffice to say it was much improved from this experience.

A nice gent greeted me as I walked in. He sat behind a three-sided counter jammed with Jarrod Parker cards, surely every one produced to this point. I used my keen brain and deduced he must be a local.


And sure enough, Parker grew up just down the road - about 12 miles from my hometown - in a sneeze of a town called Ossian, Ind., population: a shade under 3,000. 

I wasn't surprised to learn a big leaguer is from these parts. I was more surprised that I hadn't heard about it before. I guess 25 years away has a way of making you lose touch.

An image borrowed from checkoutmycards.com. I need to check out their cards (and begin my Parker collection.)

Parker, just 22, is a top prospect - by some accounts the top prospect - for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
A righthander, his main pitch is a fastball that reaches 96 mph. According to Baseball America, before this season he was the #33 MLB prospect. He's hovered around that number every pre-season since being drafted straight out of Norwell High in Ossian - 9th overall in the 2007 MLB draft.

Now, I'm no scout but I am a roughly 20-time fantasy baseball league champion so clearly I'm a baseball genius, yet I somehow still have no idea whether Parker will bust out or break out. Who does, really, when it comes to prospects. Considering he missed all of 2010 after Tommy John surgery in October 2009, his future success - much like any pitching prospect, I guess - is far from guaranteed.

This season, he pitched pretty well in AA but didn't exactly light the league on fire. I imagine he's still another year away from the majors.

But I'm rooting for him. 

Whatever happens with his career, Parker is a natural for me to collect. Beyond our regional link, I had been thinking some about adding two or three prospects a year to my PCs. I'm not really much for prospecting - but a bit of it here and there is kind of fun. I guess I'd better get back to that shop since I didn't buy any Parkers that day.

Well, I did buy one Parker - but I'll write about that in the coming days.

So there you have it, the first in a series on Indiana-ish baseball players. The first of any series on the Indianaland blog. History has been made.

Three New Trade Pals

I've been away a few days but caught up some tonight with trade chatter that's been swirling in my inbox.
 
I've fallen off in recent months as far as posting trades. My "Trades With" page is horribly out of date as I've completed deals with at least another new dozen collectors in the past month and have worked 2nd, 3rd and 4th deals with many others.

But I want to catch up today with a quick thanks to reader Ryan LaMonica. Ryan doesn't have a blog yet, as far as I know, so he's been great with coming to me with trade offers after reviewing my wants/availables posted on my blog's front page. I do that quite a bit myself so it's a welcome relief to have someone approach with offers.

We've already dealt a handful of times in the past couple of months. This time I sent him, well, I'm not exactly sure and I'm too tired to take a look. I believe it was a slew of Heritage 2011 and a few cards from 2010 Update and possibly 2011 Topps and maybe even a Gypsy Queen or two. All I know is that Ryan surprised me with the return package and sent along this:

This was unexpected and I'm grateful. I love jersey relics with a stripe (or a solid standout color - red, blue, etc. but gray and white notsomuch).

Here is a smattering of what else he sent my way.

OK, I'm one of those guys who doesn't like the Yankees. I do believe they're my least favorite team. Oh, who am I kidding - I know this for a fact. (No offense Ryan, AJ and other Yankee lovers.) However, I also believe you can never go wrong with a Babe Ruth card and former Red Paul O'Neill may very well be my favorite former Yankee.

I'm not collecting the Lineage set but I am chasing the retirees.

Here is another examples of some cards I received, but wasn't expecting.

For some reason the Cabrera scan stinks but it's a nice-looking new Cabrera for my collection.

I doubt I'll be able to pick it back up and post all of my full trades for a few months as I've had way too many obligations outside of blogging lately and until we're settled in a permanent residence, well, life is crazy goofy. However, I'll do my best to get some acknowledgments up in some visible way.

For now, I'd like to send thanks to a couple of additional recent trading partners. Jeff Laws at My Sports Obsession and I have traded several times since we both launched our blogs earlier this year. He's a great trading partner. Also, new blogger Robert Mitchell at $30 a week habit and I have been sending some cards to and fro in the past few weeks and he too is a gem mint of a trading friend.

Glad to find awesome new blogs. Eight months in and I'm already starting to feel like the crotchety ol' blogger around here.

If anyone else is interested in trading baseball picture cards, send me a note. As of this moment, I need to touch up some minor moves on my trading pages but they're probably 99.9% updated - 'cept for A&G which gets a makeover tomorrow thanks to three deals in the works.

At the moment, I'm particularly interested in chasing down some more Heritage SPs.

- potch

Heritage Collection: A Love That Grows

Topps released the Heritage '11 set months ago, yet my feelings for it are only now fully formed.

As a card hobbyist reborn earlier this year, Heritage '11 was my first exposure to this throwback set. Clearly the set is made tailored for guys like me - old schoolers at heart.

Still, I was indifferent about Heritage '11 when it first arrived. I'm not exactly sure why, I just know I sent scores of the cards out in trades, figuring I'd just go for the Reds, Tigers, Cubs and a few favorite players.

But as the year wore on, I found myself returning to my Heritage cards. I kept looking at them, appreciating them. Take a look at a sampling, if you would.

Any Frank Robinson as a Red is a great card to me. The inserts overall are quite nice.

I just love the pose and the black parallel Target works particularly well here. This one is up for all of the goths who seem to now be visiting my site. Hello Goths!

Wasn't in the card market for Strasburg mania last year but I do enjoy the classic pose here.

Wistful about his short print status, I'm guessing. Lucky son of a gun.

And so, like many others, I'm working to complete 2011 Heritage. I have needs, of course, and no doubt the short prints will be the bane of my grand set completion plans but I'm committed to staying the course.

Cy Verlander. A rare short print I managed to land in packs.

The All-Star cards look spectacular.

Hey, I think I just found my new collecting focus - alliterative cards!

So, I'll work eBay as needed to complete Heritage '11but consider this a request for help. My Heritage needs are updated - as are my other pages, I'm pretty sure.

Fondly.

Junk Sale, Part Two

The entire point of this post is to help you help me get rid of cards I don't want. I don't necessarily have anything spectacular, hence "junk" sale, but if you're looking to build a collection from your favorite team or teams, then send me a note.

Take a look at this post if you'd like a little more detail.

I had takers the first go-round for the Phillies, Dodgers, Cardinals, Blue Jays - Braves are a little light now - but I have several dozen cards of most of the other teams that I'd like to ship out.

I'm not seeking much of anything in return - a card or two, should you have them, from my want(s) that are posted on the left side of my home page - or feel free to send me your excess Reds or a couple of Cubs or Tigers (both pre-'84) or White Sox ('00 to '05) or suggest a card from my stated player collections. I'm not terribly picky - especially as you'd be helping me clear space.

And, if you'd like to expand the deal to include cards beyond "junk" feel free to make some suggestions. I'm a voracious trader.

This card has nothing to do with this post really. Happy Birthday Mr. Yaz!