Adrian Gonzalez, We Hardly Knew Ye - Another Printing Plate!

Here are some recent additions towards my attempt to collect as many Adrian Gonzalez Red Sox cards as I can that were released during his short time with Boston.

First up is this Golden Moments insert from 2012 Topps, which found its way to my mailbox recently courtesy of Dustin from the blog Coot Veal and the Vealtones.  I already showed it as part of the post for that trade package, but I'm including it again here for the official count.

Same goes with this one, which came in a recent trade from Brad of Brad's Blog.  Now that I've gotten those two housekeeping items out of the way, here's the real impetus behind this post:

I recently acquired my 7th Adrian Gonzalez printing plate!  This one hails from 2011 Bowman baseball, and it was used to make Adrian's Bowman's Best insert from that set, a card I've featured previously:

I loved these inserts at the time this set came out, I guess because I was a fan of the '90s Bowman's Best cards they are based off of.  Really happy to have a printing plate from this card in hand.

Here's a look at the back.  This plate came from COMC.com, a more expensive pick than what I usually go for on that site.  It set me back $12, not exactly a killer bargain but still more than fair in my opinion.  These three additions bring my total Adrian Gonzalez Red Sox card count to 56 and counting.  Here's a breakdown...

Adrian Gonzalez Red Sox Cards - Count

Total Cards - 56

#'d /2011 - 1
#'d /999 - 1
#'d/562 - 1
#'d/199 - 1
#'d/100 - 2
#'d/99 - 1
#'d/75 - 1
#'d /60 -2
#'d/50 - 2
#'d/25 - 2
#'d/10 - 2
1/1 - 8
Relics - 1
Silk - 1
Autographs - 1
Printing Plates - 7

Signature Sundays - Ellis Burks

This week's Signature Sundays card is another Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto, and like last week's Oil Can Boyd card I've been wanting an autograph of this particular player for quite some time.

I remember Ellis Burks mostly as a member of the Red Sox, where he had some impressive seasons.  He racked up some numbers with the Rockies as well though.  Actually he fared pretty well just about everywhere he went, including San Francisco and Cleveland.  At times he had trouble staying healthy but despite that he racked up over 350 career home runs and averaged better than a hit-per-game (2,107 career hits in 2,000 career games).  400+ doubles and a .291 career average are nothing to scoff at either.  Best of all he returned to the Red Sox (in limited play) in 2004, ending his career by capturing a World series title with the same team that had drafted him more than 20 years prior.  Great story.

The 1990 Topps design brings back a lot of memories as that set came right at the beginning of my childhood collecting run.  A perfect card all around as far as this Red Sox fan is concerned, kudos to Topps for including Burks on the Fan Favorites Autographs checklist!

Buy My Baseball Cards - Ichiro Cards Added - Still Just $25 Shipped

Looking to unload some nice baseball cards here in an effort to purge and make some space.  Haven't had a taker for the lot yet, so let's add some more cards to the pile.  Be the first to leave a comment and send a Paypal payment of $25 to shanediaz82 at yahoo dot com and this will all be shipped to your door:

Joining the pile are half a dozen Ichiro cards, with a couple of notable cards in the lot.  Masterpieces green framed parallel is nice, especially for a Mariners card with a green outfield wall in the background.  Also a Topps Chrome, Heritage insert, Upper Deck All Star Classics, etc.  Best of all, these six depict Ichiro with his real team, the Seattle Mariners.  In addition to these Ichiro cards you'll receive:

Three of the framed parallels that everyone loves so much from last year's Gypsy Queen set.  Three big name Hall-of-Famers here in Mathews, Gehrig and Mantle, pains me a bit to part with these but I just have too many cards and it's time to condense.

In addition, I'm including half a dozen stars from 2007 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts.  More Hall-of-Famers here including another Eddie Mathews, Carew, Schmidt, Palmer, etc.

You'll also get these 8 rookie cards of star players from last decade.  Longoria, Bruce, Fielder (x2!), Braun, Weaver, Uggla and Hanley Ramirez. 

And, finally, 9 inserts/parallels from various 2006 Fleer products.

Be the first to leave a comment and send a Paypal payment and I'll ship these to your door.  At 32 cards in the lot now you're looking at about 75 cents a card shipped, a bargain given a few of the cards in this lot.  Act now, or, wait it out and see what else gets added to the pile...

Milt-Jo! Let's Go Bruins!

Just a few minutes from face-off in what should be a thrilling Game 5 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals.  I wanted to post a Bruins card and wish the team luck, so here's a recent addition to my Milt Schmidt collection.  I cannot get enough of these Panini Classics autos.

Let's go B's!!!!!

Update:  Well, that sucked...

Coot Veal Red Sox - Part Four - Mo & The Rocket

Here's the fourth of six installments of the gigantic Red Sox package I received from Dustin of Coot Veal and the Vealtones.

This Mo Vaughn represents my very first 1996 Topps card.  I would have been in 8th grade at the time this set was released, so this card came out just as my interest started to drift away from sports and towards other things like music and girls.  Basically my collection is devoid of most anything from around 1996 through 2006, but those gaps are filling each week thanks to repacks and generous trade packages like this one.

Another Mo, his 1991 Score rookie card.  I'm pretty sure this one is super valuable, with a book value somewhere around $60.  Kidding of course but I'm happy to have one regardless.

This particular portion of the bubble mailer really focused around two players primarily, Vaughn and Roger Clemens.

A duo of '92 Score.  Shouldn't I have all of these cards at this point?

Here's a cool one, from the almost universally loved 1993 Upper Deck set featuring Roger alongside Frank Viola with a nice Fenway Park backdrop.

This 1992 Donruss is actually a Bonus Card insert, numbered BC3.

Quite a few Clemens' I needed here.

Aside from Clemens and Vaughn there were a handful of Andre Dawson cards.

This one, also from '93 Upper Deck, is unquestionably the best of those four.

Back to Mo Vaughn...

I've had the Electric Diamond parallel of this card forever, but not the original until now.

A random couple of Hall-of-Famer Jim Rice.  Jim's one of those Red Sox players that I'm dying to get an on-card autograph of.  Hopefully soon!

Closing it out, even more Mo.  Another 22 new Red Sox cards here, I've now got more than 1,800 unique Sox cards and counting.  At this rate it should not be a problem at all to make my goal of 2,000 by the end of the year.  Thanks again Dustin!

Buy My Baseball Cards! Hall-of-Famers Added, Still $25 Shipped!

Alright, no takers on the previous lot of cards so let's add some more to the pile here.  For $25 you can claim the following cards and I'll ship them to your door.

I'm tossing in three of the framed parallels that everyone loves so much from last year's Gypsy Queen set.  Three big name Hall-of-Famers here in Mathews, Gehrig and Mantle, pains me a bit to part with these but I just have too many cards and it's time to condense...

In addition, I'm including half a dozen stars from 2007 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts.  More Hall-of-Famers here including another Eddie Mathews, Carew, Schmidt, Palmer, etc.

You'll also get these 8 rookie cards of star players from last decade.  Longoria, Bruce, Fielder (x2!), Braun, Weaver, Uggla and Hanley Ramirez. 

And, finally, 9 inserts from various 2006 Fleer products.

Be the first to leave a comment and send a Paypal payment of $25 to shanediaz82 at yahoo dot com and I'll ship these to your door.  Or, wait it out and see what else gets added to the pile...

Buy My Baseball Cards! Rookies & Inserts, All for $25 Shipped!

I've got more cards floating around than I know what to do with, and while I had last week off from work I did a good deal of condensing. I've decided to try selling some excess cards here before listing them on eBay just to see how it goes. Please check back any time you see one of these posts, there will be some really nice stuff going up for sale in the next few weeks. I'm going to mimic Thorzul's "Pull the Trigger" posts (they say imitation is the highest form of flattery) for my format. So, everything you see listed here can be yours for $25, which includes shipping to your doorstep. Pretty reasonable when you consider that it's about the cost of a blaster plus shipping.

Just be the first to leave a comment, send a $25 Paypal payment to shanediaz82 at yahoo dot com and I'll ship out same day.  If nobody claims these within a couple of days, I'll add some more incentive to the pile for the same price.  Wait it out if you'd like, but if you snooze you may lose!  Click the pics for larger images, although I can assure you all of today's cards are pack fresh mint...

In this lot we've got 8 rookie cards of star players from last decade.  Some pretty big names here if rookie cards are your thing.  Longoria, Bruce, Fielder (x2!), Braun, Weaver, Uggla and Hanley Ramirez.  There's good value here, I believe the Longoria Bowman Heritage Prospects RC books for at least $10 alone.  These 8 cards on their own may be a fair deal for $25 shipped, but I'll sweeten the pot right out of the gate with a lot of 9 inserts from various 2006 Fleer products:

A nice array of inserts and again, some pretty good star power here.  Works out to under $1.50 shipped per card if you do the numbers, which is a deal given some of the rookies included in the lot.  Be the first to comment and pay, and all 17 cards are yours, or wait it out and see what gets added to the pot...

Signature Sundays - Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd

I purchased exactly one rack pack of 2013 Topps Archives, and I won't be buying any more.  I don't know if it's the flimsy card stock, or the fact that I'm getting a bit burnt out on Topps reusing their vintage designs over and over, but I'm just not feeling it.  So, all of the cards I pulled (minus the David Ortiz) went straight to my trade box, and I'll be pursuing a Red Sox team set only.  As is the case for most sets I don't like, I can usually still find a silver lining, whether it's one certain card that worked for whatever reason, an entire subset, or a hit for example.  For this team collector, that silver lining with Topps Archives is the Fan Favorites Autograph.

These signed cards have been the best part about Topps Archives for the past two sets as far as I'm concerned.  I love everything about them really.  They're on-card and the player selection is very interesting.  Sure, you could get super lucky and land something like a Ken Griffey, Jr. or Nolan Ryan, but in all likelihood you'll be staring at Delino DeShields or Tom Brunansky once your wax has been ripped and the dust settles.  I don't mind that though, in fact I prefer it.  As someone who busts very little wax and collects almost entirely from the secondary market, I am excited at the chance to land autographs of some of these mid-level stars, guys ordinarily relegated to the commons box.  Today's card is a perfect example:

I've wanted an Oil Can Boyd auto for a long time now, years even.  My requirements weren't much, I just wanted the card to be licensed so that it would have a team name and logo, and the autograph to be on-card.  Sure, there was a beautiful (still is at the moment) Goudey Sport Royalty autograph listed on eBay if I didn't mind paying $52.  Thanks to 2013 Topps Archives I can finally cross Dennis off my list, and what a great looking card too!  This one ran me a whole $11.27, and I could have had it even cheaper than that had I been willing to wait a bit.  I had been waiting so long already that I would have paid $25 to $30 for this card if that's what the market had commanded.  I was ecstatic to land it for less than half that amount.

Well done Topps, thank you!

Have you picked up any Archives autos the past couple of years?

Whoooo!!!

Coot Veal Red Sox - Part Three - More Superstars

Here's the next installment of the recent trade package I received from Dustin of Coot Veal and the Vealtones...

This portion of the package contained 29 new cards for my Red Sox collection.  Starting things off is a nice Bowman Hideki Okajima rookie card.  I really, really liked Okajima during his time with Boston and he is sadly under-represented in my Sox collection.  I thought for sure his MLB career was finished after he appeared just a handful of times for the Red Sox in 2011, but was pleasantly surprised to see he's back with the Oakland Athletics this season (and has given up just one earned run in 5 appearances).

I appreciate this card because Ken Ryan is actually a local guy from here in Rhode Island.  He actually runs a baseball academy about 15 minutes up the road from my house.  Also, this card features a great backdrop of an empty Fenway Park.

This insert from 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History is numbered to 999 copies.  A little busy on the design here.

A nice O-Pee-Chee black parallel.  Still can't believe the Dodgers took this contract.  He's 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA and is currently on the DL for Los Angeles.  Thanks again LA!

Here's an insert I had never seen before, from 2007 Topps.  Sort of a dumb name for the set considering that Loretta signed as a free agent with Houston and was not traded there by Boston.

Here's a new Adrian Gonzalez card, nice!  I'll be featuring this one again and tallying towards my official count in my next "Adrian Gonzalez, We Hardly Knew Ye" post.

One of my favorite cards in the entire package believe it or not, a Trot Nixon Electric Diamond rookie from 1994 Upper Deck.  I don't know too many Red Sox fans who didn't like this guy, it was almost impossible.  As a child of the early '90s I'm a total sucker for the Electric Diamond parallels as well.  Just an awesome card all around.

Here's another Nixon rookie, this one from the Collector's Choice set.

I had never seen these before, but found thanks to Zistle that this is from the 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game Forever insert set (what a mouthful).  Dom's 1953 Topps card is currently very high on the list of graded vintage cards I'm searching for.

There were four new Frank Violas in this section...

It's a complete coincidence that I finished scanning these in time, but today is actually Wade Boggs' 55th birthday.

There were a handful of his cards in this bag.

Interesting photo on this one, looks like Wade just held off on a pitch and is about to look up to the umpire for the call.

Even though this card is from one of the most hideous sets any company ever unleashed on collectors, I still needed it for my collection so it's a win.  Here's something a little easier on the eyes:

This is actually from the 2002 Topps Traded set (the Red Sox got Floyd in a trade from Montreal).  It's a gold parallel numbered to 2002 copies.

Here's another gold parallel, from the 2009 Updates & Highlights set, numbered to 2009 copies.

Here's another Boggs, pretty comical shot of Wade as a kid.

A couple from the 1990 Fleer set.  I especially like this Boggs/Greenwell card.  Actually I have a really great Greenwell card to post in the near future.

No, this isn't a 1973 Aparicio, it's one of those Cards Your Mom Threw Out inserts.  I do have the O-Pee-Chee version of this card though!  I do have an original though, thanks to a very generous blogger.

Another 2010 insert...

This one was very cool, even though the painting is strange to say the least.  My first black bordered parallel from the 2008 Masterpieces set.  Funny because I think I sent Dustin a black parallel in his package.  Coincidence?

My first 2012 Gypsy Queen mini...

I had no clue what this one was at first, looks like it was part of a promotion and the cards were given away at hobby shops.  Not a terrible looking card, although I question why the MLB logo needs to be so dominant.

Finally, a fantastic Yaz, numbered to 399 copies.  I've said this over and over but I absolutely love the 2005 and 2008 Baseball Heroes sets.  Really happy to have this one.  Thanks for another great run of cards Dustin, I'll have the next portion of the package up early next week...