I’d Buy That For A Dollar!

Thanks for the post title, Robocop! I’m always meaning to try to pick up vintage Twins stuff I still need, and when I saw this one on The Bay for a reasonable price, I was intrigued.

front: 1962 Topps Baseball Buck Lenny Green

I won it for an okay price (more than a buck), making it the first of the ’62 Baseball Bucks in my Twins collection. I was surprised at the size, though; the image here is the same scale as the cards below — it is small, narrow and longer than a standard baseball card, requiring a 6-pocket page to store it. The scans I’ve seen of them don’t look to be terribly well centered, either, and this was one of them.

back: 1962 Topps Baseball Buck Lenny Green

Still three more Twins bucks to get (including Killebrew). Meanwhile, here are a few additional AU/GU picked up in trades or auction, many of them of the Diamond King variety:

clockwise, from top left: 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Signature Bronze #132 Lew Ford [35/100] (auto); 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Materials Bronze B&W #132 Lew Ford [29/100] (jersey&bat); 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Signature Framed Red #132 Lew Ford [10/50] (auto); 2005 Leaf Limited Monikers Bronze #88 Jacque Jones [27/50] (auto); 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Gallery of Stars #14 Jacque Jones [26/50] (auto); 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Signature Bronze #135 Jason Kubel [14/100] (auto)

Swap With “Sergio’s” Blog

A little while back I joked about “Sergio”, the proprietor of Brad’s Blog, working out a swap with me. Of course Brad is actually the owner of Brad’s Blog, and he had some great Twins cards to trade. I have a standing rule that I won’t post my end of any trades until the return package is at least in the mail, and I finally sent it off after I received this year’s Phillies team set to add to the other cards I had stockpiled for him.

Here are some of the great Twins pickups — a couple HOF’er GU and a Mauer variation among them:

clockwise, from top left: 2005 Donruss Signature Series Stamps Materials #SST-5 Harmon Killebrew [13/70] (stamp/bat); 2013 Topps Out of Bounds variation #107 Joe Mauer; 2012 Topps Chrome Refractor Purple #94 Justin Morneau [055/199]; 2002 Topps Stadium Club World Champions #WC-BB Bert Blyleven (jersey); 2013 Panini Cooperstown #109 Bert Blyleven; 2013 Topps Toys ‘R Us Purple #102 Denard Span

Thanks again for the trade, “Sergio”!

INCOMING!!!

Still working the trade wires, but meantime here are a few AU/GU from The Bay and elsewhere to tide you over (got any good Twins trade bait? well take a look here and let’s talk trade!)

Some newer Twins AU…and Pat Meares:

clockwise, from top left: 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen #GQA-SD Scott Diamond (auto); 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen #GQA-CD Cole DeVries (auto); 2010 Bowman Sterling Prospects #BSP-AW Alex Wimmers (auto); 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP183 Liam Hendriks (auto); 1996 Leaf Signature Series Silver Pat Meares (auto); 2013 Topps Turkey Red #TRA-SD Scott Diamond [666/689] (auto)

(more below)

Good News / Bad News / Good News Trade

The good news? I was offered a true 1/1 Twins card in trade. The bad news: it was a Delmon Young card. The good news, though — we were able to strike up an amicable trade, and I made a new trade partner out of the deal. Special thanks to Topher for pointing The Trumpet Man in my direction.

The 1/1 is a 2009 Topps Platinum, my first true 1/1 besides a few printing plates. The Trumpet Man also did the favor of digging through his other cards, and he came up with about a dozen cards I needed, most being 1990′s cards I hadn’t caught up with yet. Here’s a sampling:

clockwise, from top left: 2009 Topps Platinum #656 Delmon Young [1/1]; 1996 Topps Laser Bright Spots #B10 Marty Cordova; 2004 Fleer Ultra Colby Miller #364; 1995 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #431 Dave Stevens; 1995 Upper Deck SP Championship Series #169 Chuck Knoblauch; 1990 Pacific Legends #17 Rod Carew

I’ve suggested The Trumpet Man reach out to others of the neighborhood of blogging collectors and to consider creating his own blog someday; if you do get an email from him, he has my glowing reference. Thanks again for the trade!

Additionally, here are a few more recent pickups from The Bay and from trades:

clockwise, from top left: 2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Special Endorsements #SE-FL Francisco Liriano (auto); 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Materials Bronze #129 Jacque Jones [136/200] (jersey&bat); 2005 Leaf Prospects Red #224 Jesse Crain [011/100] (auto); 2006 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Ultimate Tandem Patches #UT-HK Jason Kubel w/Hermida [24/35] (dual jersey); 2003 Topps Finest #104 J.D. Durbin (auto)

A Four-Letter Trade

Another season, another blind package from gcrl at Garvey Cey Russell Lopes. gcrl has been good with remembering to send a Twins pocket schedule, and here came this season’s along with a sweet triple jersey GU, a couple Gold Rush parallels, my first Topps Sticker from this year, a couple hits on older Twins cards, … and he got rid of a lot of slag.

Here are a few representative cards that I needed:

2007 Upper Deck SP^x Winning Materials Winning Trios #WT-15 Johan Santana w/Garcia,Zambrano [12/30] (triple jersey); 2005 Fleer Skybox Autographics Inscriptions #86 Harmon Killebrew [039/150]; 2012 Topps Gold Rush #95 Chris Parmelee; 1999 Topps Chrome #211 Mike Lincoln w/Dotel, Penny; 2013 Twins Schedule; 2013 Topps Sticker #83 Trevor Plouffe

Dude — Dodgers coming back at ya! Thanks again.

Mid-Trade Additions

I’ve got a great second trade with Brad’s Blog proprietor Sergio* that’s in progress, and I have a policy of not posting cards received until I’ve sent my half of the return trade, which is temporarily pending. Meanwhile, I thought I’d show a few of my recent pickups on The Bay and elsewhere.

*no, it’s Brad, but how boring is that?!

Among other things, I got my first Justin Morneau and Luke Bard AU cards, and a couple #/25 GU cards:

clockwise, from top left: 2005 Fleer Classic Clippings Diamond Signings #DS-JM Justin Morneau (auto); 2007 Upper Deck SP^x Winning Materials Patches Triple #WM-FL Francisco Liriano [06/25] (jersey); 2012 Bowman Sterling Prospects #BSAP-LBA Luke Bard (auto); 2007 Upper Deck SP^x Rookie Signatures #117 Glen Perkins (auto); 2006 Upper Deck Inkredible #I-RC Jesse Crain (auto); 2007 Upper Deck Goudey Memorabilia #63 Johan Santana (jersey)

And Lew!!

clockwise, from top left: 2004 Upper Deck Signature Stars #SS-LF Lew Ford (auto); 2005 Donruss Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Absolute Ink Triple Spectrum #AI-69 Lew Ford [02/25] (auto/bat/dual jersey); 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospects Xfractor #BCP253 Danny Lehmann [240/250] (auto); 2010 Topps Chrome Refractor #202 Drew Butera [028/499] (auto)

Lew Ford is now up to 25 unique AU cards, but Glen Perkins increased his lead to 30 unique AU cards — no other Twins player has double digits.

Twins Gameday Graphics for 2013 Season

It’s the fifth year of the tradition of posting various graphics to be used in the WGOM Twins’ game logs this season, brought to you mostly by the magic of MS Paint.

This list is underconstruction; God knows there are enough new players that will need fleshing out these first few weeks. As always, past season graphics are still in play. First up are the strikeout thumbnails:

Vance Worley:

Kevin Correia:

Glen Perkins:

And various miscellaneous…

Preseason Trade Blitz

Once again it was time to trade Braves & Phillies with BobFranklin since it was round two of the contest at Sports Card Freaks. Unlike last time, though, I couldn’t help him advance to the next round. Still, it was a great trade:

clockwise, from top left: 2008 Upper Deck Timeline #TM-MO Justin Morneau (jersey); 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Memorabilia #SW-HU Torii Hunter (jersey); 2007 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Future Games Prospect Patches #BDPP104 Matt Tolbert [49/99] (jersey); 2005 Upper Deck Reflections Cut from the Same Cloth Dual Red #CC-MK Harmon Killebrew / Justin Morneau [28/99] (dual jersey); 2007 Upper Deck Artifacts Apparel #MLB-FL Francisco Liriano [082/199] (jersey)

We gave it a good try, Bob; thanks again for the trade!

In addition, I raided the trade bait page at Nachos Grande and flipped some Reds cards to Chris for these (and other) Twins cards:

clockwise, from top left: 2012 Allen & Ginter N43 Boxtopper #N43-8 Joe Mauer; 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Gypsy Queen Back #153 Delmon Young; 2012 Allen & Ginter Mini Black Bordered #297 Justin Morneau; 2012 Allen & Ginter Mini Black Bordered #138 Josh Willingham; 2011 Topps Lineage Diamond Parallel #20 Justin Morneau; 2011 Topps Lineage Venezuela #TV17 Joe Mauer; 2000 Skybox Metal #96 Brad Radke

Thanks, Chris!

Traded for a few other Twins cards as well, including my first Gaetti AU. Don’t forget to check out my Trade Bait page!