A Crackin Giveaway and Grande Trade

Hey everybody,

Happy Friday out there. Hope your past weeks were good and the upcoming weekend will be even better. 

Recently I participated for the first time in a great - and super generous - program over at Crackin' Wax.  Why is it so great, you ask ?  because topher over there at CW simply opens packs and then gives those cards away to the rest of us - just for the askin !  if that aint cool, then what is?  let's check out what i claimed for meself...

most of you who read ATBATT know that besides the Boys in Blue, my next collecting passion is HOFers.  I've long collected the Ryan Express and here's one more for the binder.  way to rock them old school nikes and stirrups, fireballer.

picking up this cool Gherig makes me feel like...like..the luckiest...luckiest...trader in the world...world...

5 WS rings, 8 time all-star, cy young winner, a friggen PERFECT GAME, his number 27 retired by oakland - and - wings of hair.

pulled in my first tony gwynn card.  i secretly fear we're gonna trade gwynn and he's gonna blossom into an awesome center fielder for another team.  till then - go gwynn !   p.s. BOO ! for that orange and black lurker.

and now for something almost completely different, a trade.  a couple of months ago nachos grande posted an awesome relic card that i absolutely hadda have.  we worked it out, and i'm one happy trader...

besides the ryan express and the iron horse, i also collect the greatest catcher ever.  here's bench delivering one more souvenir into the outfield seats.

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..and finally...the cool card that sparked the trade....

speaking of HR blasters, presenting reginald martinez jackson.  when nachos posted this, the first thing that caught my eye was that totally awesome gold swatch.  as nachos knows, i don't really dig the minis like fellow bloggers night owl  and the daily dimwit.  but man oh man, this card was calling out to join my reggie collection.  when i opend my trade package, i saw a cardboard beauty.  it's now one of my favorite relic cards.

THANKS for the cool free cards and the great trade, gentlemen !

next post: trade bait

Vintage Trade Bait

hey everybody,

i was gonna post this a lot earlier, but i couldn't stop watching the AWESOME comeback by the Dodgers tonight !  at first down 5-0, and then 6 -1, we kept clawing back to win our 6th game in a row.  what a game, what a team.  every night a different hero steps up.  dee gordon got back into the lineup tonight, after being benched a few games by the skipper, mattingly.  although he didnt do much with his bat tonight, we saw that great defense that we (of the Dodger Blue persuasion) know he has inside,  including his turning an incredible double play throw sideways - in midair - to seal the win.  absolute sweetness.  :D

back to trade bait business...

as i mentioned in my last post, i'm gonna be putting up some vintage for trade.  although i don't make any crazy claims like we see on ebay that all of this trade bait is nm/mint, i can safely say you're not gonna see many chewed up, origami cards .  however, i make no claims against chewy scans.

while lots of my blogging brethren sing the praises of 'well-loved' vintage, and despite the fact that i'm starting to understand those praises, most of my vintage collecting goals have centered around a mantra similar to the real estate version of "location, location, location".   for vintage collecting, i'm generally a believer in "condition, condition, condition".

how about three - count em -  THREE HOFers on one card.  imagine being a national league pitcher facing these guys in the all star game. but then again, we had Don Drysdale on our side, and he got the win.

\i don't have the kind of budget that's gonna allow me to even look at the cards under the glass case at the card show.  however, when i get the chance to hit the show, it's my pleasure to find some vintage in pretty nice shape for an affordable price.

Rookie of the year, 2,766 hits, 506 stolen bases, 13 times all-star, 9 gold gloves. need i say more?

let's face it, while most of us don't collect as an investment, we all understand old-time vintage of old-time HOFers is only gonna increase in value - and that aint a bad thing, right? 

like i said...chewy scans are a definite possibility.  don't worry too much about the washed out appearance. the card's sitting inside a thick screw down case (screw visible right-hand side).  if anybody asks, i will certainly take it out and rescan it.

hey look, they were called the nationals in the old days too!  ramos pitched for 15 years, but maybe his big claim to fame is serving up the pitch that mickey mantle famously banged off the top deck facade of (the old) yankee stadium. 

does it look to anybody else like randolph is rockin a 'terminator x' baseball cap?

(i consider cards from 1980 downward to qualify as vintage)  on to molitor: First ballot HOF, .306 lifetime batting average, over 3,000 hits, 1,300 ribbies, 506 SBs, WS MVP, brewers retired his #4. 

didja know:  rod carew was born in the panama canal zone, on a moving train. he was delivered by a doctor (named rodney) who happened to be on that train.  his mom then named him rodney, after that traveling doctor.    the cobra, big dave parker (as vinny called him) was the first player to get a contract that paid a million every year.  he won the home run derby in 1985.

who don't like floating heads?

how cool is it to be named 'dutch'?  oh yeah, the dutch card guy knows. 

finally, the chewiest one of the bunch, but the closest i can get to affordable vintage from teddy ballgame.  what can i tell you baseball lovers about williams that you dont already know?  so i leave you with a reminder of what he did in his final at bat...what else, the greatest hitter of all time blasted a home run.

look for more vintage trade bait coming up...