I'm Not a Super Trader I Just Trade Alot

I may not be a Super Trader but I trade with most of you all including the leader of the group himself- JayBarkerFan. He started it and happens to be a Braves fan/collector like me so no luck for me but he still sends me sweet cards like these:

Mikie Mahtook has an 80 grade name and played well last year when he got called up by the Rays, he's currently hurt in AAA Durham but will be back in the bigs soon.

https://youtu.be/DwEqTbaFVXU

Sweet purple refractor of the Braves #1 Starter though Aaron Blair has looked pretty good in his first 2 starts with Folty and or Tyrell Jenkins close to joining them in the rotation.

Chrome Heritage parallel of fan favorite Martin Prado

Wes sent me the entire 2014 Bowman Chrome mini team set I believe, Alec Grosser was the only name I recognized that's still on the team. Hes' in rookie ball Danville still so this team is definitely in full REBUILD mode.

These milestone cards are cool no doubt but I think you'd have to be out of your mind to try and collect this set. Were there actually 400 some different Garry Sheffield cards serial numbered to 150?! Insanity.

Thanks for all the great cards Wes, I actually picked up something for you today at the flea market!

First Look - 2016 Bowman

Walked into Target today after work to see if they had the new Bowman, it's been on eBay for days and a bunch of people have been posting it early over on Twitter. I walked in and they had it all, loose packs, blasters, 3-packs you name it. Gypsy Queen seemed like it came about a week late at my store so it was nice to pick some up on release date this time.

I opted for a rack pack, six bucks for some retail crack? Sure.

This was the "hit" of the pack a refractor #''d/499. Kyle Tucker was a first rounder last year but not somebody I collect so if your interested let me know. 

Here's the backs. The design reminds me of a better looking 2015 Topps football.

The lone insert of the pack, a Top 100 of Cardinals LHP Marco Gonzales. This one's headed west.

The design of the veterans is a little different from the prospects as seen here. I like it, my favorite part of these is that there is NO foil. Look at it it's beautiful, I'm sure everyone will hate these though.

Chrome Prospects as usual, I like the prospects design way better that the veterans.

In a rare feat, 11 percent of the pack were Braves. I'm used to zero. Typical Bowman cards here with 2 right handed teenage hurlers. Been listening to some Rome games this year and Soroka has been lights out, while Touki has been wild.

Last few are base paper prospects that don't have homes. save them from being boxed away today!

Thanks for reading, Go Bolts!

Idaho's Best Trade Packages

Steve from The Card Chop recently sent me a care package full of Braves with a note saying he hoped they'd cheer me up for this dreadful season. I have no expectations so I'm trying to not let all this losing bother me but man it is hard to watch, especially the awful defense. Anyways let's get to the cards...

Steve had sent me some 1991 Dubuque cards before that i'd never seen and did it again with these 1990s. Easy to forget Justice started as an infielder.

Three more from the same set including personal favorites Lemke and Gant

1985 Hostess.. another set I'd never seen before today. Steve must have a bunker full of oddball Braves cards up there in Idaho.

1992 Lykes I'd seen before, I had a ton of these cards as a kid but only the 1995 ones survived. I'm guessing 4 year old me destroyed these while eating hot dogs.

This disc shaped oddball is from a 1993 set put out by Ben's Bakery. It looks to me like they still operate out of Sackville Nova Scotia. Good for them, this John Smoltz will fit nicely in my PC of his though it literally won't fit...

Steve posted one of these 1939 stamps commemorating the 100th anniversery of baseball a while back and I claimed the extra, very cool item and now the oldest baseball item in my collection

I honestly don't mind when cards this old were given the "Update" treatment before there was such a thing. Still great looking cards and all needed for the team sets.

The "S" on the pitcher cards is a mystery but these again all plug holes in my '64 team set.

The Phillies had a pretty good pitching staff in '67 it seems. Gonna be fun to see the potato sack set in Heritage next year. Am I the only one who instantly thinks "burlap sack" when seeing these?

The last of the vintage/oddball portion of this package was this much needed "Hank Aaron Special" Pretty great card making me realize I need four more Hanks.. this'll do for now.

Donruss makes hits not hits, Tim Hudson had a hell of a career with 200 wins and a World Series ring to cap it all off but now that i've seen the below picture it's all I can think of whenever I see Huddy

See what I mean?

This is my first manufactured Bat Barrel, very cool, thick card of one of my favorite players. I really miss McCann and saw he's playing some 1B now in New York which usually means a catcher is getting towards the end.

Finally Steve hit me with some 2016 set needs that knocked me down to one or two cards needed to complete the set. Maybe tonight i'll find time to finish bindering it up so I know for sure. I've had less time for cards and blogging lately and haven't been writing as much lately because of it. Thanks for reading and sticking with me! Most of all thanks to you Steve for all the great cards to blog about. I still owe trade posts to Shane D., Chris R., Mark Hoyle and JBF. I haven't forgotten you guys!

The Sports Card Expo In My Mailbox

Doug of Sportscards From The Dollar Store went to the Canada Sports Card Expo earlier this month and did some shopping for me. Thanks for saving me the trip pal! 

I saw this card on the top right away and let out a "No Way!" A mini puck autographed by Ben BISHOP! Awesome, plus it's from my favorite hockey release out there right now. Hopefully Bishop can get his first shutout tonight to finish off the Chicken Wings. 

My first Slater Koekkoek card is a relic from Artifacts which would be a close second in sets this year if I was ranking them. I was actually looking for a card of his at the card show this past weekend but refused to shell out $4-6 for a base rookie. There's only one guy that keeps Lightning stuff out there and all his stuff is insanely high, so thanks a ton for this one Doug!

The hits don't stop there however as seen with this Brett Connolly on card auto, he may be a Bruin now but I still like him as a player.

For the umpteenth time Doug sent me some cards from a set I had zero. The Silver Crown looks good.

All new for the PCs. 

These two were actually from a PWE Doug sent me the week before. Wish we had Stamkos for these playoffs but Drouin has been filling in nicely.

This Joe Haden auto was also in that first PWE, loved watching this kid play at Florida. Wish the Falcons would draft a Gators corner one of these days. Apparantly they're interested in Josh Norman, I don't know how to feel about that one.

Speaking of Gators defensive backs this 1970 O-Pee-Chee of Gators safety Bruce Bennett is my oldest Canadian football card  easily. 

French football 

Wrapping up this double trade package with 8 needs for my Topps 2016 set conquest. According to my list I'm only missing 1 card now. Thanks for these and all other great cards Douglas! Go Bolts!

Retail Fail 3 - 2016 Gypsy Queen

Finally got my hands on some Gypsy Queen. Walked into Wal-Mart and grabbed the triple pack with the 5 paper parallels and walked out in about five minutes. 

3 packs and I got one SP,  not bad. Really like this card too.

You get 5 blue framed cards from Wal-Mart these are all for trade. I need an Ender Inciarte base card.

Here's the minis I got, don't trade with any of these teams so if you need them let me know. 

Here's the inserts I got, Red Sox and Yankees... yay. At least these have homes. 

This guy's good. 

Ordered the Braves online, still need Ender Inciarte base and the SPs. 

FOUND - Red Wing Killer at the Card Show

Big game 3 tonight for the Lightning. Hopefully they can pull this off to go up 3 games to 0. Just watched the end of CHI-STL and was glad to see the Blues pull it off.

Found a bunch of this year's Trilogy card including Mr. 4 Points in Game 2. These were actually in a nickel box!

So I couldn't help myself from grabbing a few more. You're going down Detroit. I think New York and Washington will win their series.  

West side! Go anybody but the Hawks

These were cool finds, never seen this sweet sepia set before. 

This box was 17 bucks sealed, as you can tell it didn't stay that way long. I'll break this thing down soon. 

One dollar well spent, thanks for reading. Go Bolts!

The Great Trade Catch Up Week - Wrigley Roster Jenga

Behind on trades again.. the perpetual "problem" of blogging and trading. Not that I'm complaining mind you. Including this PWE from Tony who writes the always informative blog Wrigley Roster Jenga I have 4 trade packages with 2 more on the way I know of to write about so let's get started.

Tony pulled this Dansby out of  a Contenders blaster and was nice enough to send it my way. Swanson's hitting .350/.422/.500/.922 with 6 doubles so far this year in High A. Hoping he makes a Conforto type leap to the majors soon.

Switching from the future to the past there was a nice mix of mini oddball reprints in this particular envelope as well. Well since Mr. Roster Jenga himself sent these to me why not learn a little bit about baseball history while looking at these old players - From Johnny Cooney's SABR bio (found here )

"In 1920, at the age of 19, Cooney became a pitcher for the Willimantic team of the American Thread Athletic Association, an industrial league, hurling a 1-0 perfect game on August 20 against Rockville.[1] Cooney pitched his gem under most unusual circumstances, according to a 1949 article in The Sporting News. On his way to the game, the train on which he was traveling struck an automobile and killed four people. Johnny tried to help get the victims out of the car, but couldn't, and became physically sick. But he took a few sniffs of ammonia to overcome the experience, then went out and pitched the perfect game.  "

Soon after his tragic perfect game he signed with the Boston Braves for $500 cash after turning down a check of the same amount from the Red Sox. Good choice Johnny.

That's Ebba St. Claire there, I know him from my only '53 Topps card. Also from this picture -

Atlanta Crackers players (left to right) Country Brown (real name: Ralph Brown), Hank Eastman, Ebba St. Claire, and Eddie Mathews posed for this picture at Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta, Georgia in 1950. They were told by the press that they would be posing for headshots so they didn’t wear pants.

Here's some Braves legends from different eras. 

Needed this mini Julio for my PC, here's to him getting back on track his next start out after being a victim of a Topps Now moment in his last outing. 

Closing this one out with a couple new Chippers. I just reorganized my binder for him the other day and am now over 200 cards.   Thanks for all the great cards Tony, I'll be hitting you back soon