In celebration of...

the Packers win, or rather, the Eagles loss. (that's the key here, is the Eagles loss. Because we hate the Eagles.) We honour the Pack's number one fan, Matt from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius.

You'd think I'd post a Packer, or even a football card. But no. You get this beautiful card.

Why?

Awhile back Matt put out a call for a card from his wantlist. I had it. I sent it, along with some other stuff that I can't remember. Matt was nice enough to send this back my way.

I definitely got the better end of the swap.

Thanks Matt! And congrats on the Packers win!!! (Eagles loss!!!)

Generousness... a good start to the new year.

One thing you will not see here is the obligatory new year 'state of the blog' address, nor any resolutions, look backs, recollections, top 10 lists of 2010, or any other review type post. There are enough of those out there right now. Not to say that they aren't interesting, but I've never been one to follow the crowd. And I'm a wee lazy too... so when you combine those, you get what we have here. A post that barely even acknowledges that we are in a new year. Just another day. I remember the biggest pain in the butt of the new year was remembering to write the correct year on your cheques. But I don't think I've written a cheque in over 10 years. Do they still even have cheques? Whatever. I digress.

The title of this post in Generousness. I thought I made it up. It's a great word to describe most of the great bloggers out there. Turns out I didn't make it up. It's a word. Look it up. I did.

 Before xmas I posted about a package I received from Darkship aka Todd. He sent over one of the last two stickers I need for the 2010 Panini World Cup sticker book. Not being satisfied with just sending a sticker, Todd ran throughout his house, frantically looking for something else to send with it. He did. I can picture him doing it. Lord knows I've done it dozens of times. It's almost a dance.

A dance Todd does well. He sent over one of those fancy, only available in the U.S. Orange refractor thingies of Braves phenom Tommy Hanson. 

 and an auto of perhaps the greatest race car driver of all time, David Pearson.

A very cool on card auto of a former moon shine runner. What a country!

Thanks Todd!!! And let's have a great next 365.

Trade Night Success! and an update....

My 'local' card shop has a trade night every month. Nothing too special, just a bunch of guys getting together to generally belittle each other's choice in sports teams, with pizza and pack wars thrown in. Surprisingly, very little trading occurs. But a lot of wax gets busted.

This time, there was a lot of trading. Usually when someone comes up to me around here and says; 'You're that Braves fan, right?' It isn't a good thing. This time it turned out to be.

I was able to trade a couple of Martin Brodeur inserts for this baby....

 On card /99. Doesn't get much better than that. Thanks for the swap Mike.
I also traded for a bunch of hockey stuff, but you can see that on Just A Bit Offside when I get around to it. Maybe tonite. Maybe.

Also a small envelope from Darkship arrived. Todd had one of the last two stickers I needed for the 2010 Panini World Cup Sticker Book.

 Shiny!

Chris Harris had sent me two of the last four I needed....

So now I'm just down to #36. From what I hear, dayf has it on the way. I can't wait. I just might finish this sucker in 2010. Awesome.

simple is better....

Trading cards over the internet is not an easy activity. You don't know the other person, and they don't know you. You might think you have valuble cards, they might think you have junk. Your idea of value and theirs are never the same.

This is why I really don't trade with members of the blogging sphere. I've been doing this for a long time, and back then it was if I had cards you liked, I sent them to you. If you had something you thought I might want, you sent it to me.

I still do this to this day. I'll send Marlins to Wicked, Braves and Hoops basketball to dayf, Dodgers get split between gcrl and Night Owl, Rays to Troll, BoSox to John in the U.K. etc... etc........ and every once in awhile, I'll get something from them.

But lately, everyone wants to trade. I don't have time for that. The back and forth emailing, keeping track of what's what. Remembering to include everything in the envelope. Oy. I'm just not that smart.

So for instances when I need to trade, simple is best. Thankfully Dave over at é rayhahn, rayhahn felt sympathy for me and concluded a simple one for one swap.

He posted this beauty in a trade post awhile ago....

and after very brief negotiations, I sent him a 2007 Bowman's Best Glen Perkins auto.
Clean.
Simple.

Thanks David!

Some Fly Mail....

A wee while ago, Colbey, aka Flywheels commented on wanting a card I had posted. I said sure, no problem. I put it, aand whatever else I could find laying around in the numerous piles I have going on into an envelope and sent it off.

As usual, he did the same and then some. Among the huge stack of cards he sent, I pulled a couple of my baseball faves to share here. I say baseball faves because the swap initiated with football, and he sent some football cards as well, which I'll share later on....

Chipper! I got 4 or 5 Chippers I didn't already have, including this one. I really like this set and hope to finish it one day.

 A game used Jeffrey. I think he'll end up in Kansas City this year after hitting over .300 for Texas last season.

 A BMac Turkey Red. I have no idea if this is from the Turkey Red set, or one of the eleventeen Turkey Red insert sets they did. Could Topps publish a worse website?

 And a few shiny Topps Chrome to tell me once again it's time to clean my scanner. Tommy, which I had already, but dupes are welcome...

 and Chipper! Which I didn't have until now.....

the addition of Mr Jones means I now only need #174 Jason Heyward to complete my 2010 team set.

Thanks Colbey!

closer.... closer.... ever so close now....

You all remember the World Cup. I still miss it. Most of you probably don't. But it's still not quite over. Not until I finish that damn Panini 2010 FIFA World Cup Sticker Book. I will finish it. I promise. I'm a little bit closer now due to a trade arriving in the mail a few days back. From Serbia.

 Yes. Serbia. I'm going to the ends of the Earth to finish this damn book before the end of 2010. Nice of them to stop the war long enough to swap stickers.
Some of the stickers that came trans-Atlantic were Brasil,

 one of the greats to ever play the game, now sadly past his prime, Ronaldinho..

 Mr Higuain, looking more Greek than Argentinian...

 and German keeper Rene Adler. I post Mr Adler for the oddity that in the 2010 World Cup, Germany played two keepers. Panini oddly put two keepers in the German team set, when most countries only got one.

But the two keepers Panini included did not play at all. So we ended up with stickers of two keepers who didn't play, and no stickers of the two that did.
What are the odds?

Now with the help of my LCS (four stickers) and after a trade arrives from a fellow blogger, giving me two more stickers towards my goal, I will be down to needing TWO stickers to complete this set.

#36 and #259.

Somebody, anybody, please help.

Takin' care o' business....

around 3 months ago or so... my good buddy Don Ortega put up a post showing off his latest acquisition. You all read My Past Time.... I Love It and know that the Wicked One spends at least 8 days a week shopping, looking for his next trade. Well, he put up a winner, and I bit.

Here is what I sent him.... LINK... go. read. but come back when you're done.

Back? Yeah, I sent over 150 '68's in NRMT condition... they were sweet. But Wicked wants to do the set, and I, never will, so it's a win/win.

A few days ago I received a package from FLA... and it was squishy. Oohhhh.... I know what it is!
Ripping it open, I found this...
Andruw Jones! The most dominant outfielder from 1998 to 2007. 10 straight Gold Gloves.
But wait.... what's that on the number?

Oh yeah baby! Signed, sealed and now, delivered.

Andruw is hitting over .300 and has 3 HR in 21 AB's so far this year.... too bad it's for the White Sox.

Thanks for the swap Wicked. Now I just gotta figure out how best to display this sucker....

at long last...

I was reading a post by Ed at Roll out the barrel in which he stated a desire for Dave Bush cards. I don't question such things. I understand. I had a couple of extra Brewer Wal Mart Black cards, including Mr Bush, and proposed a trade. I ended up with Jo-Jo and Tim, which you see here.

Ed also include this Heritage James Parr rookie that I needed for my team set. Thanks!

and a Chipper I didn't have! Turkey Red style...

But then it got interesting... I saw in Ed's "For Trade" list, that he had a card I've been wanting for a very long time. Since I first laid eyes on it, I knew it must be mine... but what did I have for trade? Think man, think! Wait! Remember this???
Way back in April, some ebay scammer sent me that.... now, will Ed want it? Why yes, yes he did. And in return, I got my card...

Awesome.

Thanks Ed.

a BIG round of applause...

Back on the 28th of March, I posted about a big junkwax tradeaway. Trade me anything, and I'll send you some junkwax. Well reader Julie and her 8 year old son Nick were the first to send me an email.
They offered to finish off my 1991 Fleer Braves team set (you didn't think I was collecting the whole thing, did you?) in exchange for some junkwax. Awesome.
I stuffed a large bubble mailer as full as it would go, and sent it off. This is what I received.
In true card collector community style, Julie and Nick didn't stop with the Fleer. Feeling bad that they didn't have any duplicate Chippers, they dug deep and found a Garrett Anderson for me. Sweet!
Did it stop there? No. Also enclosed were these beauties...

Chipper on a card with some wannabes....

Jeffrey!

Big Mac!

James' RC...

Mr Utility...

Another one of the Jones boys...

One of the best young arms...

the new guy at 1st

That's awesome!

If anyone has some spare Cubs laying around, shoot me an email or leave a comment and I'll give you their address.

Thanks Nick, best of luck to your Cubbies (except when they play the Braves of course.)

Two for the weekend...

What a way to head into the weekend... not one package, but two! The first, from the ladies over at Dinged Corners. We were able to help each other out with our '08 A&G sets... here's what I got......

Aaron Rowand
Hanley Ramirez

Steve Williams
Geovany Soto
State Flag insert Illinois
State Flag insert Oregon
State Flag insert South Dakota
and...

Chipper Jones! Great Googly Moogly! How could I not have him yet????? I bought two hobby boxes! I'm the biggest Braves fan north of Atlanta! @$#%$@#(^&)11!!!!
Thanks girls!!!!!!!!

For my second package of the day... I receivedan offering from Scott at Hand Collated. Scott was nice enough to send this gratis, but I will be finding some hockey to send his way very soon.

The last card I needed for my '87 Topps Braves team set. (or so I hope)

Darryl Motley

and some more '08 A&G!
Jeter and the Mick!

Mark Buehrle

Julio Lugo

Brian Bannister

Hank Blalock

Ty Wiggington

and,

Johan Santana

Matt Diaz

Johan is ready to give the gas.... Matty does not look impressed. Go ahead Johan, give Matt a first pitch fastball... I dare ya.....

My A&G is looking better and better.... Thanks to both of you!

Wantlist, well, a start anyway

I've got some trades in the works, so for now I need to throw this on so it can be kept track of. It's certainly not gospel, and definitely a work in progress...

1976 Topps Baseball

#589, 592, 597, 631

1987 Topps Baseball

#99

1990 Donruss Baseball

#14, 109, 135, 147, 151, 155, 201, 325, 421, 424, 462, 496,

511, 515, 533, 535, 541, 558, 569, 581, 584

2008 Allen & Ginter

#105, 170, 175, 221, 226, 262,

301, 304, 312, 313, 320, 325, 346, 347, 348, 349

State Flag Inserts

#2, 9, 27, 30, 39,


*** numbers in RED are in a potential trade.