Down With 2013 Giants, and Arp With 2014 Dodgers

Hey everybody,

I completed a few trades at the close of 2013, and it's about time I give up some props to those awesome trade partners - whom I'm looking forward to making even more trades with in 2014.

First up is a perfect example of what makes our hobby so cool.  As we all know, the Dodgers and the Giants have one of the most storied - and violently heated - rivalries in sports. The bad blood between the teams goes all the way back to when the clubs were just a streetcar's ride apart in the old time boroughs of New York.  The hatred for the other team's uniforms continues to burn to this day, unfortunately leading to bloodshed between the fans more often than any hard collisions between the players out on the basepaths.

Which brings me back to our cool hobby.  Out here in the blogoworlds, Dodger and Giants fans read each other's blogs, Yankee and Red Sox die hards trade unwanted cards of their rivals to each other, and fans from other rivalries, old and new, comment on each other's blogs and even meet up in real life as friends.  Aint it grand?

I'm always able to pass off cards of the hated Giants to good ol' Arpsmith ,  and his unwanted Dodgers can always find a good home in my binders.  Although, now that I think of it, this trade was started by me actually shipping a Dodger card TO Arpsmith!

  He was collecting the Double Play set of game cards and I offered to send him an upgrade for his misprint Claude Osteen card.  Let's lead off with that clean but misprinted card that Arp sent to me...

 Arpsmith sent over some sweet extra cards as well. Naturally, being the cool Giants fan that he is, he sent over more Dodgers...

  You say Lou Brock?  You say Ricky H?   I say Maury Wills.  He's the guy that reinvented the game and made the stolen base a (once again) legitimate and dangerous offensive weapon.

The card was apparently part of some giveaway sets with messages about fire safety on the rear.  Check out Smokey the Bear's ever-lovin' mug under Mr. Wills.


What's better than a Hideo Nomo card that you never had before? 

BAAAAMMMM !!! Having its matching mini of course. 

Batting clean up is the man whom I dubbed El Jaguar last season...

I'm sure that baseball fans from San Diego to Oakland can appreciate the flag of the great Bear Republic gracing this hunka awesome cardboard.   What a glorious backdrop for A-Gon.

THANKS for the great trade, Arpsmith !

BTW, a reminder that you all have until Super Bowl kickoff to enter ATBATT's first contest of 2014.
See yesterday's post for details. 

Happy Birthday To Me And I'm Back In The Game

Hey everybody !

Remember little ol' me?  I've been away for awhile and I said I would be back in January.
Since it's the last day of the month...I better keep my word and get a post up and running.

In case any of you are wondering - I was away because I had an unhappy event occur and I just didn't have the desire to post.  That's a bit in the past now, so I'm gonna get my bloggin' boots back on and return ATBATT to its humble little place in the blogosphere.

Besides all that, it's my Birthday today, and what better than to have some fun with my hobby on my special day. 

Enough about me...let's get to the reason we all gather here...that glorious cardboard.  I reenter the game with a couple of cards that came my way through ebay.   These represent a few of my top collecting loves: Vintage, vintage Dodgers, past Topps subsets and World Series heroes.  

First up, 1965 Topps featuring a couple of the greatest Dodgers ever:

 I'm chasing the '65 Topps Dodgers, and although the above card isn't particularly hard to find, it is hard to find in good shape for a great price, and that is exactly what I caught here.


Next up is 1959 Topps  Baseball Thrills.  Again, a beauty of a card found at a beauty of a price.  I'm one more card closer to finishing this great, underrated subset. 

Finally, for all of you readers and trade partners who stuck with me through this post, I'm offering a bit of a "welcome back" and thank you contest.  It's super easy to win.

The first person to leave a comment will win a fistful of cards from their favorite team, and everyone who comments from the time of this post until Super Bowl kickoff will be entered into the randomizer in order to win cards from their team and other assorted goodies.

Yes, the first commenter can win twice.  :) 

Thanks for reading !