January Multi-Trade Post

hey everybody - hope the weekend was as great for you as it was for me.  i attended a fantastic winter brew beer tasting, and played poker with the boys.  good times.

the start of this semester has really taken a bite out of my ability to blog regularly.  i hope as everything settles down, i can devote a bit more time to my hobby - and get more trades going.  on the bright side to that, my experience blogging here has led to the creation of a blog for one of my classes. 

january turned out to be another great month for trades, and even though my blogging schedule slowed, the packages kept arriving from the mailman.  here's my sunday night post of some more great cards received...

first up is my first trade with dhoff over at coot veal and the vealtones

i've been eyeballing this card on the bay for a while. once again, a blogger brother comes through.

WS co-MVP.  sweet card. 

this one is the real jewel of the trade for me.  i now have this one and charlie neal's card from this series.  any more from this set out there ?   THANKS for these great cards, dustin.  lookin forward to trading more vintage. 

 next up is a trade with our man in florida, the cardboard don

they say the grounds crews at candlestick used to super soak the ground around first base in order to try and slow down mr. wills.

crooked scan or not, koufax is always a cool card

THANKS for the trade, wicked. 

 next up is my first trade with spankee over at my cardboard mistress

two sweet minis, and honus wagner is always great to have.

this is a great ty cobb. thanks for including this one, spankee

gotta love the way piazza just CRUSHES the ball. what a swing.

just to round things out, he tossed in a cool swatch. THANKS for the awesome trade, spankee !

next is a top trader, adam from thoughts and sox

believe it or not, the only GQ's i get are through trades. the old timer cards are the bomb

another from the fleer set. very nice

Adam sent lots more than you see here. i'm almost an official red sox collector now.  many THANKS for the trade, adam.

last up, my first trade with reader steven.  the centerpiece was this shawn green swatch. very nice card...

this rickey henderson mini was tossed in as a surprise.  a really cool surprise.

THANKS for the great cards, steven.  all of these were first-time trades. looking forward to the next ones !!

Worst Trade Bait Ever !

i've had these cards scanned and sitting in my hard drive for a very long time.  in all good consciousness as a Dodgers fan, there's no way i should post this next batch of trade bait, but ... it's even more true these have absolutely no place within my Dodgers abode.   thus i gotta post em so's i can trade 'em.

the flip side holds a bit of irony as i can turn these atrocities into cards i actually want in my collection... thus proving the theory that lead can actually be spun into gold.  i will now let the atrocities speak for themselves...

Not All Traders Suck

derek over at tomohawk chopping recently posted about a bad trading experience.  i'm not gonna rehash it here, and if you care about my opinion on that topic,  just check out what i said on the comments.

a couple of you may have wondered why i haven't posted in a while.  my last post was about wilbert robinson.  i've been away because school just started and i've been crazy busy.  i missed posting here, but i tried to keep up with all your blogs and comment when i had a minute. 

this post is a shout out for a few great traders - not my ultimate list - just the latest to join the list.  i also wanna show off a couple of cool autos i got from former Dodgers catcher, Steve Yeager.  thanks to a heads up from roberto over at vin scully is my homeboy, i ran over to catch a yeager auto and was not disappointed.

first up is arpsmith and this was our first trade.  he's an awesome trader - double recommended.  he sent me a fantastic package full of cool liquorfractors, some nice additions for my jackie collection, and other shiny goodness.  today i bring the vintage (and a couple other favorites)

'64 topps  ron went on to be the long time pitching coach under lasorda's reign.

related to our discussion about what constitutes 'vintage', this is my cut-off point: 1980

arpsmith tossed in a GU.  aside from the 1% of negative trades, it's the generosity of others that makes me so glad i made the leap and joined our community.

it's the legendary mini-75 that night owl brilliantly deconstructed in his post about the oddity of koufax wearing a Brooklyn cap with an LA jersey.   ANY koufax is great cardboard and will always be worth 1000 lynce - yawns. 

THANKS for the awesome trade, arpsmith !

batting second is jeff over at my sports obsession.  jeff and i are getting a little history of  several trades now.  this one was a small trade, and one i was very happy to close:

limited numbers, low number, beautiful design, and YAZ.  very cool card.

aint this one a sweet hunk a cloth?  every time i see that clip of mike schmidt retiring and breaking into tears...i dont wanna laugh.  i feel it too.  THANKS for another cool trade, jeff !

next up, is troll.  homeboy's got a few blogs and a busy life.  part of that busy life is being involved in roller derby.  i wish i loved close, cuz i would love to take in a match and have a brew with troll.  there's something about a roller derby girl....

troll digs vintage same as me and almost as soon as i got my first Alston card, he helped me with an upgrade.

did i mention i dig vintage? not my first '50 bowman, but the first Dodger.  THIS is why i love our community.

troll included a half dozen '71 dodgers. when my old man went into the army, it was in the days they didn't look kindly upon left handers. he was forced to write with his right hand and forever afterward he signed his name with the same kinda shaky, over-thinking style i see in osteen's sig.

yet even more '64 topps.

i've said before, but i'll say one more time:  sure kent was an ex-hated one, but when he played for us, seems he always went balls-out (pardon my french, ladies) and gave 110%.

floating heads. i wonder if back in the day, these cards gave nightmares to sensitive kids.  THANKS for the trade, troll !

batting clean up are the yeager autos.  the boomer was signing autos over at a restaurant in long beach.  free auto, just buy a meal.  great deal ! i was there.  turns out it was a kick ass pizza parlor sports bar.  it was also the day of the 49ers-saints playoff game and the GREATEST FOURTH QUARTER EVER.  what a blast to be among 150 49er fans and 6 saints fans riding the roller coaster of emotions that day.  yeager was super cool. he took the time to be genuinely friendly with everyone.  a first class guy and he treated us all like first class fans.

i got 2 of these bad boys. i'm gonna send one over to certain fellow dodger fan who's over on the east coast and doesn't have access to cool Dodgers events like this.  i got your back, brother.  this'll be included in our next mega-Dodgers trade.

Wilbert (Uncle Robbie) Robinson Rocks !

 a few days ago i joked about switching out the ATBATT gals in the header above and giving you all a pic of robbie robinson.  i figured most of you non-Dodgers fans, and one or two of you who ARE Dodgers fans wouldn't have any idea of who robinson was.  so it inspired me to actually write a post about him; one of the colorful managers from the early days of the grand old game.   besides that, i have an excuse to show more great old-time baseball photos.  


speaking of old photos, check out the one in the header, with robbie managing in the 1916 world series.  i chose that photo because he's styling with that dapper sweater.  then i noticed something else...look behind him and you'll see more of those sweaters hanging in the dugout.  apparently those are team sweaters. no brooklyn 'B's - i wonder if somebody's mom made em.   obviously jinxed sweaters as we lost that series.  no wonder we never saw them again.

robinson kicked some decent butt in his playing days.  in 1892 he set 2 records in one game, getting 7 hits in 7 at bats and knocked in 11 runs.  that hits record still stands and the RBI record held for 32 years.

(have a look behind robbie in the stands and check out the dude rockin' the lincoln stovepipe hat...)

 robbie once caught a triple header - a fricken triple header !  then he got up and caught a double header the next day !  he was the first catcher to play directly behind the batter for the whole at bat, as previously catchers didnt play close until there were 2 strikes in the count.  bloody pansies.

dont even cross these boys in the pub

Robinson was the Brooklyn skipper from 1914 to 1931, compiling a 1,399-1,398 record (scoreboard !) and leading the Dodgers to thier first two pennants in 1916 and 1920. 

every Dodgers manager should have a mean ass facial scar

 Robbie was so actually so popular the team called him 'uncle robbie' and Brooklyn changed the team's name to the “Robins” for his 18 years as manager. 

robinson and tris speaker

 
  Robinson once bragged he could catch a baseball dropped from an airplane. casey stengel got the  airplane pilot to substitute the baseball for a grapefruit, dropping it from an altitude of 150 feet.   robbie caught it, and it exploded, knocking him to the ground and covering him in grapefruit juice. good times.