Christmas Card from Angus

Got a Christmas card from Angus over at Dawg Day Cards the other day and there were some great cards inside as well.

He told me had the base cards from Tim Horton's newest hockey release and I was excited about that. He included both Stamkos inserts from the set which was awesome. Thanks a bunch Angus.

Here's the other insert and I didn't even have to go all the way to Canada for a coffee and a donut.

Here's the base cards which are super nice, shiny and the waves behind the players are slightly raised to make these cards really pop. 

Also in the package were a few Falcons. Julio and Co. are playing like shit lately and are getting blown out 38-0 in Charlotte as I type this. Oh well it was fun being 5-0. 2016 here we come...

That's not to say these cards are unappreciated. That Alfred Jackson is a stamped buyback, my first football buyback. The Scott Case is a mini sticker.

The largest card in the package is one I'd never seen from McDonald's of Gerald Riggs. Thanks for all the great cards Angus I sent you a return package the other day. Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas! 

Vintage Haul from the Flea Market

Went to my local flea market yesterday and found a new vendor with loads of awesome vintage. Didn't have much cash in my wallet but I feel I made the most of it.  Let's see what I got. 

Picked up this '60 Mathews for cheap,  this is a card I never thought I would have and am very happy I found it. It's in pretty good shape, Beckett grading is coming to the card show next weekend and I may submit this one. 

I grabbed a bunch of '73 Braves for my team set and asked the guy if he had this card in his non common boxes. He pulled it out and when I asked him how much he said "you can have it". It does have a crease running down the middle but again this was a huge addition to my collection and will go in the binders with my close to completed '73 team set.

Along with this fella which ran me a whole $1.25. If you need commons for your team sets from these years let me know as I'll definitely be going back to my new favorite vendor. 

Everybody on the cardsphere has been posting vintage Bowman so I finally braved the boxes and pulled this beauty out for a couple bucks. 

The back has a small stain but that's ok with me,  I now have a '52 Bowman! Take that 2015 Bowman Draft!

Continuing with new items to my collection. I had no '65 Braves before today but at 75 cents a common I asdsd added these 4 to start off the team set.

Grabbed a box full of Commons for 10 cents a piece. Mostly Braves team set needs but grabbed a few stars out of the binders including this Dock, Vida Blue, my first Bill "Spaceman" Lee card and others from '73, '75 and '76 Topps. I got all of the above cards except the Mathews for 10 bucks. I could've stopped there but I'm glad I didn't as the other card vendor there had that Mathews along with these..

'64 Mathews

'69 Niekro

'70 Niekro

'58 Bob Hazle

'53 Eba St. Claire, my first of this set. 

'52 Vern Bickford my first '52 Topps of anybody. It felt good to knock some of the huge names off my team set lists for my Braves Topps Team set project. All told it was a good day at the flea market. Thanks for reading. 

LCS Pickups - Victory Mixer

Popped in the ol' LCS to see if they had the new Bowman Draft on shelves but alas no such luck so I went to digging for singles.

I came away with my first 2015 High Tek card of none other that Chipper. These are pretty nice, acetate, shiny they check all the boxes but the stats on the back are tiny.

Also picked up this Bowman Chrome Auto of newly acquired Chris Ellis who came over in the Andrelton Simmons trade. I am signed up for a Bowman Draft box break for the Braves but wish I had signed up for the Diamondbacks too.. Oh well.

This was me when I picked up the last 2 Lightning cards from the new Upper Deck S1 set

After a PWE from Jeff 2x3 last week I only needed Johnson and Killorn to complete the team set. I also picked up some others for you fellow hockey collectors I trade with so look out for those.

I also picked up some baseball cards of actual players still on the Braves roster! A couple of parallels of Teheran and Wisler. The 2015 is one of those rainbow foil shiny doo-hickeys.

Even though i'm down on my team right now I still picked up some football cards, including this awesome acetate card of rookie running back Tevin Coleman. I had picked up one of these of Kevin White for Bob Walks earlier and was jealous because it is a really sweet card. Glad to have my own now, at least cardboard Tevin can't fumble in the redzone!

So in the past 2 weeks i've watched 4 games, all big ones, all losses. Gators on the left, Falcons on the right please. Neither one of these guys were to blame.. but man is it hard to watch Treon Harris and Matt Ryan right now. 

Sucks that Dante got hurt before training camp even started. Vic on the other hand has played every game and hasn't shown much in his rookie year.

Shiny complaining WRs here, hopefully Cam Newton doesn't embarsass Atlanta too badly tomorrow but that's why they play the games right? Right?

Brad's Cards - On the Move

Brad's Blog had a moving fire sale and was giving cards away by the boatload as seen elsewhere on the cardsphere. Of course i'm never one to turn down Braves cards so I signed up and got my package sometime last week. 

There were tons of cards inside including this '63 Lou Johnson. I have only 2 or 3 other '63s so this one was definitely my favorite. To be honest I didn't know much about Mr. Johnson so of course I went to trusty dusty google and now I NEED one of these... James T. Elder Postcards 

Ok sorry for that tangent.. also inside were more modern cards such as this ridiculously shiny Huddy. The Auburn man and Georgia native called it a career after the 2015 season, farewell Huddy! 

SILVER AND GOLD! 

Brad sent not one but 2 of these shiny beauties of Hammerin' Hank. I had the Spahn and Smoltz from this subset but not these, thanks man!

I need to make a custom of this.

More shiny with this 1995 Score parallel..

This Futuristics Bruce Chen..

And this first class photograph of a really nice looking Fred McGriff card.

Closing out the shiny with this gang of X-Fractors from 2012 Topps Chrome

More awesomenes with this bat relic of Rafael Furcal.

Some sweet 90's inserts

I never saw a Chipper I didn't like.

The guy on the left is about to get PAIIIIDDDD the guy on the right is one of only 2 members of that 2011 team.

Thanks for all the awesome cards Brad, I've already got some cards set aside to send back your way just need to put the finishing touches to make it a proper Moving In Package.

Package from P-Town

Tom at Waiting Til Next Year posted the above card from a pack of Heritage he cracked up for trade. Knowing no one ever claims Rays I did so and got a stuffed bubble mailer in the mailbox the other day from P-Town Tom. Cabrera just signed today with the Mets and they made a move for Neil Walker after missing out on the Zobrist sweepstakes to Tom's Cubs. The Winter Meetings are absolutely crazy this year and I love it.

He packed a ton of Rays in from a bunch of different set. The Beckham Obak and Richie Shaffer were my favorites out of the many Rays prospect cards inside. The Rays were talking about moving Alex Cobb who's recovering from TJ but talks seem to have stalled.

This red parallel Bazooka is super thick. I remember Zambrano on the early Devil Rays teams when they were losing 100 games every year.

Tom packed some Bravos in there too, including this SI Kids Glavine. I miss getting these cards as a kid but I guess they still make them because I just found one of Dansby Swanson.

Another oddball, this one from an old Baseball Card Magazine.

Murph and Lemmer!

More Murph, these are all minis. 

More team set needs from a fairly old set, I love the old players on new designs however.

One of my favorite Braves ever, the Mad Dog's personal catcher for many years - Eddie Perez who's now the longtime bullpen coach for the Braves and manages in the Venezuelan Winter League as well.

Thanks for all the great cards Tom, I'll hit you back soon!

Farewell Shelby, Hello Dansby! - Hot Stove Special

The Braves pulled off a true Blockbuster trade last night,  sending Shelby Miller and Gabe Speier to Arizona for Dansby Swanson,  Aaron Blair and Ender Inciarte.

I like Shelby Miller, I just got this card in the mail yesterday a few hours before this trade went down.  But the Braves made a great deal, a steal even according to most national writers: 

the price the Diamondbacks paid was “comically high.” - Keith Law

The deal “looks like a clear, obvious mistake” for the Diamondbacks,FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes.

The Diamondbacks don’t care that executives around the game think the Braves won the trade in a rout,Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports writes. (“Worst trade I’ve ever seen,” said one.)

Swanson is the prize of this deal, he was the first overall pick in June's Draft. "Swanson is a polished and very talented college player who could move through the minors quickly, the way Michael Conforto and Kyle Schwarber did." He's also a local boy from the same town as me - Marietta, GA. I ordered this card and it's Chrome counterpart last night from a seller that had Bowman Draft (releases today) listed already. I can't wait to chase this guys other cards and watch him develop in the minors. 

Also the Braves get a rare thing in a No. 1 Overall Pick without having to completely tank. "Swanson joins Adrian Gonzalez and Shawn Abner as the only first overall draft picks to be traded while still in the minors by the teams that drafted them, MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo writes. "

Aaron Blair was a first rounder in 2013 and may be major league ready. "Blair gets plenty of ground balls and has “a hint of Brandon Webb” to him. And Law writes that he would rather have six years of Blair or five years of Inciarte for the three years of Miller the Diamondbacks will receive."

"His 2015 season was his best by ERA. In 13 games with AA Mobile he went 6-3 with a 2.70 ERA in 13 games, and he didn't show much of a drop off with his move to AAA. In 13 games with the Reno Aces he went 7-2 with a 3.16 ERA in 13 games." - Talkingchop.com

Let's not forget the major league outfielder in the trade,  Inciarte hit .303 in 132 games last year with a 3.3 WAR. He is a contact-hitting plus defender that should start in CF. 

Sorry for the long winded, heavily quoted post but I'm really excited about this deal and for the future of the Braves. Thanks for reading.