Penny (Sleeves) on Christmas are a Great Surprise

Aloha, everybody, 

Hope you had a great Christmas holiday. I keep it simple and low key for Christmas, and this year, happily, was just that. 

I received a modest package from my buddy, Jon, the proprietor of A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts. Simple and low key may describe its outer appearance, but Christmas magic describes what was inside. Come along and check out my latest video, as we unwrap some cardboard goodies. 

Aloha! 

A Small Trade With A Big Blogger

hey everybody,

i just don't know how the guy does it.  he writes an awesome blog that i faithfully read.  besides that, he writes yet even more blogs, which i'm quite sure are equally fascinating, but i confess, i don't read those as often.

keeping up with several blogs would be enough for any regular mortal, but that's not enough juggling for the Night Owl.  on top of all that, the guy has time for twitters, tweeters, listias and tumblers - and whatever the heck all those things entail. think he's done?  not even close...

then he squeezes in time to be a sportswriter, and a regular joe with a family and everything that comes along with those responsibilities.  whew!   he does all of that before finding time to maintain, catalog and love a huge card collection.  WTH - does this guy get an extra allotment of hours per diem that we don't?

you may ask yourself, "why should i care if some crazed blogger wants to eat, drink and sleep baseball cards?"  it's because the man still cares enough to use some of his carefully scheduled schedule to TRADE!  have we overused the term - 'he's passionate' yet?

which brings me to our latest trade.  Night Owl scored a couple of '65 topps Dodgers that he mentioned will be upgrades for his collection.  since i'm trying to collect that same year's Dodgers, i immediately requested, and was just as immediately given, those '65s.   if i was as busy as N.O., i would be forever crabby and have no time for others.  Good ol' N.O. shipped those right out to me, along with a fistful of other Dodgers.  coolness, indeed. 

here's the '65s that started this trade. i dig this set's design, colors and those pennants.

Howe's is a tragic story.  he was a truly good pitcher who never reached his full potential because drugs and alchohol kept taking control of his life.  this is a great photo because it seems Howe himself is wondering about what might have been. 

 here's a tragedy of a different sort.  Adrian Beltre came up with the Dodgers and played a solid third basewhile wielding a pretty good bat.  he left LA as a free agent, and while he suffered a few lean years, he is still around bashing multi-HR playoff games and still rocking the hot corner.  Beltre was recently awarded a gold glove for the 2012 season.  since Beltre's departure, LA has had about 500 third basemen.  among the 2012 Dodger third basemen, juan uribe.  a fricken tragedy indeed.

with a name like his, ol' Burleigh had 2 choices - play baseball or bootleg liquor in chicago.

my first Karros relic!

this Sheffield card is transparent awesomeness. 

i can never, ever have too many nomo cards. 

THANKS for a great trade, busy man.

Posts on Trades on Cards

hey everybody,

it seems i'm no different than a lot of my blogger brethren who fall behind on putting up trade posts.  my hat's off to those of you who have the discipline to stay on top of it.

Kerry has been posting some great trade bait of past players over at the cool blog Cards on Cards.  go on over there and check his posts from october.  there might be some good stuff remaining.

(note: in the latest frustrating development with blogger, i can no longer use red for the color of the font in my links.  links now accept only the color blue. hence, the almost invisible font on links. *sheesh*)

i was able to pick up some great cards to fill out my player collections. first up, mike schmidt...

these 'legends' series cards look great.  this is a most excellent shot of the proper way to play the hot corner.

the proper way to watch a bomb sail over the fence

anybody know about that '100' patch on his arm?  is that 100 years for the phillie franchise?  maybe 100 years of philly cheese steak sandwiches?

MVP!

above is a great card of the hit king.  we recently had a good back-and-forth here in ATBATT about cheating players.  i wrote a post about mark mcgwire and mentioned pete rose.  a couple of folks weighed in with their opinions and i really appreciated that.

sure, it's fun to have a blog and opine on all things large and small, but it's even better when you, my readers and fellow bloggers drop in with your thoughts. we call it a community for a reason.

speaking of cheaters, here's LA's most famous member of that club.  i hear manny is still playing in some off-league somewhere.  if he can work his way back into baseball shape, i would be really interested in seeing how he does...with a different club.  

 THANKS for the great trade, Kerry ! 

Plashke, Thy Trade Packages Are Awesome

hey everybody,

a wise blogger once said, "hootie hoot, nobody trades like a fellow Dodger trader".  once again, those words are proven right.  Greg, from the hipster celebrity blog, Plashke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle,  and myself put together our first trade last week.

Why would i call his blog 'celebrity hipster'?  perhaps you out-of-towners know that his blog is named after a sports reporter for the LA times - and his blog's namesake actually had a mini-tweet conversation with Greg, which he later shared on his blog.  go over there and check it out.

it was a 99% Dodgers for Dodgers trade that was actually spawned by an autograph card i had from angel pitcher jered weaver.  jered, by the way, is brother to former Dodgers pitcher, Jeff Weaver.  that card (along with a couple others) went off, and i got lots of Dodgers goodness in return...

 these action packed cards are very cool.  they have an embossed feel. the outline of the player is raised, as are the borders and text.  anytime Brooklyn Dodgers are included, it's a good trade.

i need more cards of Dodger Stadium's first ever speedster, Maury Wills.

unfortunately for Mr. Branca, his main claim to fame was serving up the pitch that bobby thompson hit for "the shot heard round the world".   rest easy, Ralph.  it's since been discovered the other team was stealing your signs. 

now, the jewel of the trade. beautiful blue tint and high gloss.  serial numbered, and a low number at that.  Sutton was the ace Dodger pitcher of my youth.  i saw him pitch a one-hitter at Dodger Stadium.  this card is extra cool for me because it features a bat - for a pitcher. this is old school N.L. all the way. 

here's a nice assortment of Dodgers whom i totally forgot existed. 

Trevino was a so-so slap single hitter (not too often), and Stubbs was a so-so power hitting threat (also not too often).

if the game is on the line, and you need one clutch hit to win - hand the bat to Manny.  game over.

i also got some new Kemps 

just when i thought i had every Dodger card from this year's topps, along comes a new one!  the extra bonus is i was at that game, so this one is a cool memory card for me.

THANKS for a great trade, Greg!  

Trading With Kings and Mysteries

hey everybody,

with baseball over until next year - man, i hate saying that - i'm feeling pretty happy that i can get my baseball fix through our blogosphere.   my next couple of posts will feature some recent great trades i made. 

today's post starts with 2 hearty THANK YOU's to my trading partners below, but there's one small problem.  as i write this, i can only positively identify one, the great blogger, Kevin from The Diamond King

the second trader's identity was lost, unfortunately, in my comglomerated jumble of trade packages coming in and going out, and piles of cards to-be-scanned, to be boxed, and to-be-bindered.

UPDATE:  the mystery trader was Mariner1, Larry from the very cool blog 1979 Topps



leading off with a small trade with The Diamond King...

a vintage classic

 Kevin posted a few cards for trade, and like a couple others of you out there, i jumped on my favorites and got a trade going.  this yaz and the clemente below are welcome additions.  the binder pages for these guys are slowly pushing out the reprints and adding in the real deals.  i love it.  it's like having baseball and American history in my hands.

clemente looking appropriately heroic with a lone flag in the distance

this HR leaders card is an update for me.  you might recall my first copy of this card from the Binder Page Heroes post featuring reggie.  the card above is moving in and my original is up for trade if anybody wants it.


here come the cards from Larry...

 this was a fantastic package.   in addition to the awesome vintage all-star above, i got groups of Dodgers from topps years in the 70's and 80's.  sweet stuff !

Cey: "Face hair rules!"   Boomer: "You said it, Penguin. Face hair, huzzah !"

"FACE HAIR, HUZZAH!"

reprint gold plated goodness

 here's a great shot of Ramon bringin' strike three to some hapless frisco player

 THANKS Kevin and Larry !

THANKS to everybody else for reading.  Next post: trading with a fellow Dodger blogger !