100 Words About 5 Cards and 1 Cool Idea

Aloha, everybody, 

Many of us collect because it reminds us of being younger. Few of us blog because it reminds us of school, but Robert from $30 a Week Habit started a contest that manages to combine both experiences. 


We got five cards from our wantlists, and had to write 100 words about them. I’ve got 40 left...

The only other Gaylord I know is named Focker...

Lou was a pretty good Red Soxer...

In '71 the Bucs won it all...

I don't remember a Dodger named Wall...

The Penguin was great, but not very tall....

Aloha, y'all! 

When a Swing and a Pop Up Gets You Closer to Home

Aloha, everybody, 

First of all, my hat's off to all you bloggers out there who blog it day in and day out. You know who you are. I don't know how you do it. 

There was a time in my blogging life when ATBATT was putting out fairly regular posts, at least twice a week. I was able to carry that flag for a couple of years, but as much as I want to, I just cannot squeeze in as much time for the ol' blog as I used to. 

2013 Bowman Prospects

Oh, I plan posts in my head. I know you blogomaniacs do that in your walking life, the same as me. I'll be walking along - or more often because I live in LA - driving along, and something will stir an idea for a post. 

So my heart's in the right place, but I just can't find the keyboard time to keep up with the rest of you on the blogroll treadmill. So congrats and thanks to all of you who regularly bring it to the blogosphere.

2010 Bowman Platinum

All that said, let's get to the point of this precious post. A few days ago I received a surprise PWE from Bert over at Swing and a Pop Up. 

2012 Bowman Chrome Prospects

Good ol' Bert remembered I'm chasing some sets and sent me some awesome cardboard to get me closer to the goal - because he's cool like that. 

These cards are awesome for a few reasons:

A week ago I was nine cards away from completing the 1987 Hygrade Baseball's All-Time Greats set.  Bert's PWE took me from nine to a magic seven to go. 

They also rock because of their amazing condition. The Hygrade set was printed on fairly thin stock, so while many of the commons are common, they often show wear and tear. 

They also had the bad luck of being made with below average materials and processes, which led to plenty of cards with lackluster finishes. These babies have neither of those limitations. 

Sharp base colors, sharp corners, and bright inks on the photos make these primo cards. 

You know what else is primo? Getting cards of these guys. Any day Mr. Robinson and Mr. Spahn show up in my mailbox is primo! 

Thanks for checking my wantlists Bert and getting me to just seven to go on the Hygrades! I'll be putting together a little sumthin' for you too. 

Aloha!

Prizes, Trades and Gifts Are What Makes The Cardboard World Go Round

Hey everybody,

Gotta get in a post about more great cards that graced my mail lately...

First up is a thanks, (but no pics this time).  HUGE THANKS go out to Patrick, the mastermind behind The Card Hobbyist.  If you like a blog that also features cool games with da shite prizes, Patrick's place is definitely in your wheelhouse.  As a matter of fact, I'm happy to say this is the second time I won a contest over there.

But why no pics?  Two reasons:

1. I won basically the same A & G Dodger cards in a box break at Tribecards a couple of weeks ago and I've already  posted them.  Yes, they were essentially doubles, but they were also doubly great because they were 2013 Dodgers, and they contained a second Puig RC!

2. Since they were doubles, I gave the cards from Patrick right over to my son, who was stoked to have his own Puig rookie.  Thus, those particular cards were not scanned are now stashed away securely in his binder. No pics, but double thanks for the great prize, Patrick.

The next batch does have pics. These are the result of my first trade with Nate, who is kinda new on the blogs.  Nate's site is Big 44 Sports Cards.  Nate's a stone Pittsburgh collector, so that means, you best have some Pirates or Steelers for trade.  But no Penguins, Nate?  To each his own.

Heck, I don't collect hockey myself, but here's a note for all you hockey collectors out there. I would love a hockey card from one of the baddest L.A. Kings to ever wear the uni...Tiger Williams.  I grew up on Tiger in the days the Kings wore the Purple and Gold of the L.A. Forum.  Did you know Tiger holds the all-time record for most penalty minutes?  Yeah, back in those days, the Kings were doormats of the league, but Tiger wasn't one. Tiger was bad- ass personified.

So I shipped some black and gold Pirates to Nate, and he sent over some cool stuff to me...

You can never go wrong with golden sparkle Kershaw

And you can't ever go wrong with Cobb on cardboard.  Here we get a fantastic portrait of the Georgia Peach. That sly glance of Cobb's says everything, but reveals nothing.  Also, limited number.  Sweet card that I hadda have.

Finally, comes a great gift I received a while back.   A gift - unexpected and out of the blue.  This was no simple PWE.

Supercool Bert, from Swing And a Pop-Up, came through once again and sent me another fistful of cardboard from the 1987 Hy-Grade "Baseball's All-time Greats" set.  Bert has now helped me to get the chase to under 10 cards.  I can't believe it!  Just 9 cards to completion.  Check my "What I Collect" page if you have any extra Hy-Grades lying around.  You just might have those final 9.

This Hy-Grade set is very cool.  It's big limitations are the simplified green border and cardstock thinner than Topps.  But the upsides are a checklist of baseball history and royalty, and the photography is mostly great.  It features quality early color photo technology and lots of close up photography.   In addition, the players are often shown in their primes and we get more than a few legendary stadiums in the background. 

Since the Dodgers are opening a 4-game series against the ELIMINATED team from the bay, let's start off with a Dodgers/Giants face off.

 You're gonna feel like you're walking down a wing in the baseball Hall of Fame...

How's about all that cardboard?  Pretty good, thanks to my fellow collectors.

I Swung - And Up Popped A Trade

Hey everybody,

Clayton Kershaw dominated once again last night.

Kershaw is definitely the real deal.  You just know the team's gonna win when he takes the mound.  I was born too late to see Koufax pitch, but I've been lucky enough to see some of the other great Dodger dominators such as Don Sutton, Orel Hershiser, Fernando, Ramon Martinez, and Hideo Nomo; now, Kershaw.  It's a beautiful thing when guys like this pitch for your team.

A couple of posts ago, I started the "Trade Me (Almost) Anything" series, and the first post dominated like Kershaw.  That post helped introduce me to a new trade partner, Bert, and his blog, Swing And A Pop Up .  That might not seem like dominating stuff, but that was just the beginning.

Bert checked into what I collect and he noticed I was chasing the 1987 Hygrade Baseball's All-Time Greats set. 

* WHAM!! *  In one fell swoop of blogo-generosity and coolness, Bert absolutely crushed those set needs by sending me a  hy-stack of those Hygrades.

IMHO this is a an overlooked and undervalued set.  Perhaps it's not undervalued in a monetary way because the card stock is not very thick and printing standards seemed to vary as some card runs seem to have washed out colors.  That's OK to me because the positives of the set far outweigh those small negs.

There are 103 cards in the set and the checklist reads like the walls of the Hall of Fame.

There are the usual suspects, sure...

But there are also plenty of guys that I would never get a chance to get a card of, due to their cards being overpriced, simply not available, or being ignored while Topps prints tribute cards of the same 6 or 7 players over and over.  Bert's generosity and this set helped me to get cards of guys like Three-Finger Brown, Dizzy Dean and Pie Traynor, just to name a few.

Here's what the backs look like:

Here's one more great...

THANKS for a dominating trade, Bert!