Coveted Ten Cards

OK I'm giving into peer pressure here. Other bloggers have a list of their most desired cards, their "White Whales", their "Elusive Eight" or what-not. Each blogger uses a different term for them to try to make their list unique. I think one blogger may have made a challenge ages ago and set  a trend for card bloggers to help out with these lists by sending another blogger one of their listed cards gratis. These are lists of the cards they are currently looking 'near and far', 'high and low' for. For some they have been looking for these cards to complete a set, or fulfill some collecting desire for many many years. For some it maybe only the last couple of hours because they discovered a new set to seek.

I am joining this Qard Quest. I've decided to make it a Top Ten, I could have made it a small five or perhaps a dozen or a large 20, but 10 I think is just about right for this thing. I'm calling it "CaptKirk42's Coveted 10". OK maybe I'll think of a better name later on, but I wanted use some kind of alliteration with the title.

I will try not to make this a list of all super expensive very hard to get vintage cards because then I would never be able to update and change the list. I'm not even sure what my real top ten most hunted are at this particular moment. The list will start off in no particular order, but as I get cards from the list I will remove the one I got and add a new card to the bottom of the list. That way eventually they will sort of be in a most desired order of preference. For now they will mostly be baseball as that is the sport I most collect and my checklists are more updated on.

One card I could add to this list is the infamous 2012 Topps Series 2 - 661 Bryce Harper Nationals Super Stupidly Stymieing Short-Print Card. (or even the 2012 Topps Archives 241 Bryce Harper Nationals ALSO Stupid Short Print) I want to add it and maybe one day will, but at this time I don't think many collectors would part with it for free or for a very reasonable price. Even before it was printed it was being pervertedly overpriced in the $hundred$ and those who are fortunate enough to pull one from a pack if they don't want it for their collection just see Dollar signs and toss them up on Ebay for Thousands or at least a minimum of hundreds. Sometimes it really sucks being a Nationals fan when they have had the number one draft pick for a ton of years in a row and the guy is a Super Phenom.

Another card I could put on the list  but is probably too valuable for some is the 1982 Topps Baseball Traded 82T  Cal Ripken Jr. RC Orioles.

I'm curious if the 2008 Topps David Wright with Mr. Met is a real card or one of those blogiverse custom jobs. i thikn it was a real one for the Topps Education program thing they did for retail stores. If it is a legit card then I also want that one.

Here is the Inaugural list:

1. 1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert 5 Harmon Killebrew Twins (To upgrade my current copy that has a black X marked on the back that bleeds a little through to the front)
2. 1970 Fleer Laughlin World Series 4 Tigers vs. Cubs 1907 WS
3. 1962 Topps Baseball 88 Ralph Houk MG Yankees (Yogi Berra in Background)
4. 1975 Topps Baseball 220 Don Sutton Dodgers (thought I had it but just have the mini)
5. 1973 Topps Baseball Baltimore Orioles Team Blue Checklist card (unmarked)
6. 2011 UD Goodwin Champions 89 Alexander Ovechkin (Hockey)  Capitals
7. 2008-09 UD Legends Masterpieces Hockey 86 Mario Lemieux Penguins
8. 2011 Topps Lineage Stand-Up TS2 Ryan Zimmerman Nationals
9. 2008 Allen & Ginter Auto AGA-AF Andrea Farina (Rock/Scissors/Paper Champ)  I have a relic version I can trade for
10. 1975 Topps Baseball Mini 140 Steve Garvey AS Dodgers

Chronicles of Fuji Contest Cut Plug

I don't normally plug other blogger's contests in part because there are usually too many floating around the Blogverse and in part because it isn't my contest, however, here is a pretty cool contest that I am entering/will have entered. Blogger Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji is having his 3rd Annual Chronicles of Fuji Contest. The prize packages are totally awesome and include: a 15 card lot of some Kellogg's 3-D cards, 1993 Donruss HOF Heroes Set, 2012 Wax Eye Cereal Killers series 1 set, some graded football cards (OK so that one isn't as awesome in my book), and a card lot that includes some promo cards and Japanese Kitty Cards those maybe weird but the look pretty cool don't cha think?

OK so contest entrants have to work for the prize packages by following some directions and answering questions and maybe some other stuff, but I think it will be worth it or at the very least down right fun.

I'm not sure which of the prize packages I like the most. I like most of them. The graded cards I'm not a huge fan of but the other stuff looks super awesome.

So check it out and enter The Chronicles of Fuji Third Annual Contest

RAC1 Contest Winner (Plus a bonus)

Looks like my First Random Act of Cardness contest was a success. Now to determine the winner - Good luck to all. Here are the people who entered the contest in comment order:
Skroeker
dawgbones
Dan
Chunter
Dhoff
Mariner1
Play At The Plate
Grag Zakwin
High-Five Man
cynicalbuddha
Hackenbush
Nathan
Kev
Ryan
Jeff Laws

Now the Randomized list:
There were 15 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Play At The Plate
2. Nathan
3. Chunter
4. Skroeker
5. High-Five Man
6. cynicalbuddha
7. Dan
8. Grag Zakwin
9. dawgbones
10. Ryan
11. Jeff Laws
12. Dhoff
13. Mariner1
14. Kev
15. Hackenbush

Timestamp: 2012-05-22 13:58:37 UTC

Congratulations Brian at Play At The Plate. Grand Winner!

BONUS: I'm feeling pretty generous with the random cardness so I'll go ahead and random two more winners:

There were 15 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Mariner1
2. Chunter
3. Ryan
4. Skroeker
5. Kev
6. Play At The Plate
7. cynicalbuddha
8. Hackenbush
9. High-Five Man
10. Dan
11. Nathan
12. dawgbones
13. Jeff Laws
14. Dhoff
15. Grag Zakwin

Timestamp: 2012-05-22 14:02:49 UTC
You have randomized this list 2 times.

Congratulations Mariner1 at Emerald City Diamond Gems our 2nd place winner.

And now the 3rd place winner:

There were 15 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Dhoff
2. Dan
3. Hackenbush
4. Kev
5. Jeff Laws
6. cynicalbuddha
7. Grag Zakwin
8. Ryan
9. High-Five Man
10. Mariner1
11. Nathan
12. Skroeker
13. dawgbones
14. Play At The Plate
15. Chunter

Timestamp: 2012-05-22 14:04:52 UTC
You have randomized this list 3 times.

 Congratulations Dhoff of Coot Veal and the Vealtones our 3rd Place Winner!

Winners please send me your mailing address to my yahoo email account in my profile. I will get the cards out this weekend hopefully. Congratulations to our Winner(s).

RAC1 Contest over

My Contest "Random Acts of Cardness" Number 1 is officially over. Thank you to the 15 folks who entered the contest. Looks like the contest got me a couple of new followers, however I also lost one for some reason. I will announce the lucky winner later today.

Random Act of Cardness Contest number 1

It seems that contests on blogs attract attention, or at least get a few sure comments. People like it when you give away stuff even if it is an old piece of cardboard with some ink or maybe paint on it, maybe with a piece of cloth glued into it or a splinter of wood attached. So I thought I'd try my hand at one here on my blog hopefully it will attract some more readership. I have done a few contests over at TCC that I have titled "Random Acts of Cardness" they range from the simple "first one to respond" to a random trivia question to "guess the number" to the slightly more difficult "guess what?' type that requires a little thinking.

This will be a random drawing contest open to people who comment to this post. Just simply post a comment with your favorite MLB baseball and/or NFL football team to be eligible. The contest ends Midnight Eastern Time Monday/Tuesday 21/22 May 2012. The winner will be chosen at random from the list of entrants via random.org. The lucky winner will receive a batch of cards from their favorite team.

This contest is open to residents of the US and Canada ONLY. Sorry sending mail to other countries tends to be a little more expensive, takes a long time (longer than most people's patience) and package tracking can't be confirmed.

RAC1

Skins from GForce

On Tuesday 03 April 2012 I received a batch of Washington Redskins cards from a fellow member at TCC who is leaving the hobby for personal spiritual reasons. Gary known as GForce083 on the forums collected Redskins and focused on Jason Campbell especially GUs. He made a tough decision to sell his collection. He says it's been difficult but it is something that he is determined to do. More power to him.

Here is what I purchased from Gary for a grand total of $80. Most of these beauts are for my Redskins PC some of them might eventually find their way to other Redskins team collectors.
1995 Fleer Metal
192 Tom Carter
193 Henry Ellard
194 Darrell Green
195 Brian Mitchell
196 Heath Shuler
1995 Upper Deck SP
105 Henry Ellard
106 Ken Harvey
107 Gus Frerotte
108 Brian Mitchell
109 Terry Allen
110 Heath Shuler
1996 Fleer Metal 121 Brian Mitchell
1996 Fleer Metal Goldfingers 12of12 Michael Westbrook
2005 Donruss Leaf Certified Materials 119 John Riggins (pretty sure I had this already)
2005 Upper Deck NFL Rookie Debut 98 Clinton Portis
2006 Uppder Deck SPX Football 88 Clinton Portis
2010 Panini Threads 273 Perry Riley RC #d 095/250
2007 Leaf Limited Rookie Spotlight 333 LaRon Landry RC Auto black sharpie on sticker #d 04/49

 2007 Leaf Limited Spotlight Rookie Phenoms Auto 333 LaRon Landry RC
RedskinsBlack Sharpie Auto on Sticker #d04/49

(Front and Back)

2009 Absolute Memorabilia Team Quads GU Jerseys 16 Chris Cooley (all maroon)/ Clinton Portis (white/gold w/stitching/maroon-tiny bit)/ Santana Moss (maroon/gold)/ Jason Campbell (maroon stitching/gold stitching/white) #d 19/25

 2009 Absolute Memorabilia Team Quads GU Jerseys

16 Chris Cooley/ Clinton Portis/ Santana Moss/ Jason Campbell #d 19/25

(Front and Back)

2009 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket Auto 188 Marko Mitchell blue sharpie on sticker

 2009 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket Auto

188 Marko Mitchell blue sharpie on sticker

(Front and Back)

2009 Playoff National Treasures 146 Brian Orakpo RC Auto black sharpie on sticker #d 67/99

 2009 Playoff National Treasures

 146 Brian Orakpo RC Auto black sharpie on sticker #d 67/99

(Front and Back)

2011 Panini Playoff National Treasures Ring of Honor Auto 24 Doug Williams blue sharpie on sticker #d 24/50

 2011 Panini Playoff National Treasures Ring of Honor Auto
24 Doug Williams blue sharpie on sticker #d 24/50
(Front and Back)

This Is What Happens When You Get Traded

Wow talk about getting traded all over the place. Here is a case of a player being traded late in the season to a team that moves to another city the next season but he gets traded to a third team before playing in the new city then before he can play for team number three he gets traded again. I'm talking about this player and his card.

1954 Topps Baseball 19 John "Johnny" Joseph Lipon

1954 Topps Baseball 19 Johnny Lipon Orioles/White Sox

(Front and Back)

It wasn't until I looked at this card closely while I was scanning it when I noticed all the crazy team changing. Looking at this card one can get all sort of confused. ON the front Johnny in the main color portrait is shown in a Red Sox hat and in the small black and white action photo he is wearing an Orioles cap. The card states he is with the Orioles and shows the Orioles Team Logo. Now on the back it says he is with the White Sox. It also mentions that he was traded late "last season" (1953) and played only 7 games with the "Browns". It then goes on to say he was traded to the White Sox in February of 1954. So how does ONE player go to FOUR different teams within one year? Wait I just did some researching and it is even stranger. He never played for the White Sox before playing a single game for them he was traded to the Cincinnati Redlegs (Reds).

So to try to get things straight: John Lipon was playing with the Red Sox when he was traded to the St. Louis Browns in 1963 late in the season. The Browns would move to Baltimore and become the Orioles in 1954, however, Johnny was traded in February of 1954 to The White Sox before playing in Baltimore. The White Sox then traded him to the Cincinnati Redlegs before he even played a game for them. The card doesn't say so, but my research shows he only played one game for Cincinnati then got sent down to the minors where he played a few more years and then started coaching. So as Nick at Dime Boxes would say this is a "Zero-Year" Card. Well sort of he never played for the Orioles but did play for the franchise that moved and became the Orioles, and he never played for the team he is listed with White Sox on the back.

Vintage War and Aviation Cards a pair

Back in March (Tuesday 27 March 2012) I got a bunch of cards mostly baseball some of which I will eventually talk about here, but I thought I'd get these two Non-Sport cards out of the way. I got them from Sportlots for 25¢ plus whatever the shipping was. It was two separate one card auctions from the same seller. The subject of War isn't too fun, but the images of these two cards are pretty cool.

I don't know much about the sets these are from, but this first one is from 1939 so the war had just begun, but not for the US yet where the set was printed. They seem to be pretty rare and auctions at real auction houses usually have full sets going for outrageous prices.

1939 Gum Inc. "World In Arms" 2 British Death-dealing Balloon Barrage

(Front and Back)

This next card is from 1952 well after the war years. It is from the very popular Wings set by Topps. They have the feel of military issued training flash cards, but I don't think they had ever been used as such. The plane featured is the F4U Corsair a plane that I first saw and heard about in the mid 1970s largely in part from the television show Baa Baa Black Sheep later renamed Black Sheep Squadron for syndication starring Robert Conrad as Maj. Greg "Pappy" Boyington who was a real World War II veteran/hero. The show featured other actors who went on to later fame such as John Larroquette (Night Court). The real Pappy Boyington did a walk-on role as a General for the show. The show got a lot of flack because of the way it depicted Boyington's men as misfits and that it was historically inaccurate.

1952 Topps Wings 34 - F4U Corsair

(Front and Back)

2011 Topps Baseball Mailday 06 April 2012

On Friday 06 April 2012 I from sportlots I got a lot of 50 Topps 2011 Baseball cards. They smelled kinda smoky at first UGH, they seem OK now. Here is the list of what I got:

3 Jon Lester Red Sox
17 Mark Ellis Athletics
18 Kevin Millwood Orioles
44 Martin Prado Braves
47 Kevin Correia Padres
62 Jonathan Papelbon Red Sox
63 Edinson VVolquez Reds
66 R.A. Dickey Mets
74 Tyler Clippard Nationals
84 Roger Bernadina Nationals
91 Lucas May RC Royals
96 Zach Duke Pirates
98 Bronson Arroyo Reds
99 Ben Revere RC Twins
331 Carlos Guillen Tigers
348 Landon Powell Athletics
362 Doug Fister Mariners
381 Michael Gonzalez Orioles
384 Nick Hundley Padres
388 Kenley Jansen Dodgers
396 Adam Jones Orioles
429 Skip Schumaker Cardinals
438 Ryan Theriot Cardinals
483 Justin Smoak Mariners
509 Michael Bourn Astros
530 Felix Hernandez Mariners
565 Mark Teahen White Sox
572 Brad Haupe Padres
577 Mike Fontenot Giants
617 Joel Zumaya Tigers
626 Dan Haren Angels
641 Travis Wood Reds
646 Los Angeles Dodgers Team Leaders
647 Jeanmar Gomez Indians
US15 Aaron Heilman Diamondbacks
US40 Brian Fuentes Athletics
US59 Matt Kemp AS Dodgers
US71 Jeff Francis Royals
US80 Jose Bautista AS Blue Jays
US90 James Russell Cubs
US94 Ryan Vogelsong Giants
US138 Michael Young AS Rangers
US139 Rafael Soriano Yankees
US202 Derrek Lee Pirates
US240 Blake Tekotte RC Padres
US248 Octavio Dotel Cardinals
US257 Erik Bedard Red Sox
US269 Sergio Santos White Sox
US279 Trevor Plouffe Twins
US325 Jason Giambi Rockies

2011 Topps Baseball 384 Nick Hundley Padres

(Front and Back)

2011 Topps Baseball 396 Adam Jones Orioles

(Front and Back)

Note: The two Nationals cards I scanned for the quartet of cards at the beginning of this post (cards 74 Tyler Clippard and 84 Roger Bernadina) I will show on my other card blog Curly W Cards soon.

A and G minis from Nick's Dime Box

On Saturday 07 April 2012 as previously mentioned briefly in this post (so this is sort of a repeat/recap), I received a package of 2011 Allen & Ginter Minis from Nick at Dime Boxes. I had sent him about 50 Vladimir Guerrero cards from Vlad's Expos years (a "Vlading" as it were it in reference to "Bipping" except I didn't send multiple duplicates, I think I only sent one dupe) and in the brotherly Trading Card Universe way he returned in kind, minus the Bipping er Vlad-ing by sending me 20 A&G Minis. I'll repeat the list of goodies and then highlight a few of them front and back.

Regular backs
27 Dillon Gee Mets
51 Jimmy Rollins Phillies
36 Eric Sogard A's
88 David Ortiz Red Sox
184 Pedro Alvarez Pirates
190 Sue Bird "Champion Women's Basketball Guard" WNBA Seattle Storm
195 Tommy Hanson Braves
201 Andrew Romine Angels
236 B.J. Upton Rays
259 Tim Hudson Braves
302 John Buck Marlins
322 Trevor Cahill A's
349 Yuniesky Betancourt Brewers

A&G Backs
44 Ozzie Martinez Marlins
113 Miguel Montero Diamondbacks
117 Jonathan Sanchez Giants
132 Colby Rasmus Cardinals
222 James Shields Rays
224 Jason Kubel Twins
288 Rickie Weeks Brewers

 All except one of these cards were of baseball players it is still a sports card not one of the Non-Sports cards. It is Sue Bird of the WNBA team Seattle Storm and according to the title on her card "Champion Women's Basketball Guard". I don't know much about women's basketball I've rarely watched even a few minutes of it as I'm not much into basketball but I'd rather see 10 women running back and forth on a wooden floor than 10 sweaty giant men.

 2011 Allen & Ginter's Mini 190 Sue Bird WNBA Seattle Storm

Champion Women's Basketball Guard

(Front and Back)

This next card I thought it was weird that a baseball player was carrying a football helmet. I didn't think about the fact that it could be and is his catcher's mask/helmet. D'uh.

2011 Allen & Ginter's Mini 302 John Buck Marlins

(Front and Back)

Now here is one one of the 7 A&G backs from this batch. I chose it because I wanted to at least show one of the A&G backs.

2011 Allen & Ginter's Mini 224 Jason Kubel Twins A&G Back

(Front and Back)