TRADE BAIT! (Mets Edition)

Another trade bait post — after the jump are scans and photos of the Mets cards that I have for trade for comparable Twins cards currently in my wantlists — click on the “Continue reading” link below to see them.

If you have any specific questions about anything you see here, please feel free to ask. I have access (indirectly) to a lot more than this, too, if interested.

A Wicked Christmas Gift, And A “Travellin’ Lee” Sighting

Once more Wicked Ortega from My Past Time…… I Love It! showed his perfect timing. After a brief exchange of emails regarding one of his trade bait postings, I quickly dropped a Mike Stanton refractor into the mail on its way. The Wicked One, on the other hand, calculated the exact delivery time for a Florida-to-St. Louis package and took his time so that the precise arrival would be on Christmas Eve. Not only that, he once more caused a “hope my package got there haven’t seen yours yet/sorry nevermind it arrived in today’s mail” pair of emails from me…d@mn, he’s good!

clockwise, from top left; 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #107 Joe Nathan, from his dark & brooding period, 2009 Upper Deck Icons Icons Green #IC-DY Delmon Young [047/125], 2009 Upper Deck Icons Future Foundations #FF-JM Joe Mauer [195/999], 2005 Topps Crack Jack Mini Stickers #194 Jason Kubel

Sorry though, Wicked, I’m going to have to avoid your blog for a while — you’re posting too many cool Twins cards for trade bait, and I don’t have anything (yet) to offer up! Thanks again, dude, and happy holidays.
(addendum: unless you need a 2010 Bowman Platinum Carl Crawford, Mike Stanton, and Josh Johnson?)
————————–

The second part of this post is to announce that I have found two receptive (and patient) traders with which to make my first three-way exchange (possibly their first as well); more details at a later date. The reason I mention this now is that one of these two fine traders is going to find himself the recipient of the “Travellin’ Lee” — another of those cool ideas that got introduced to the friendly neighborhood card trading blogger community. Mr. Lee has been to several traders already, and each has made their mark on the front of the card (nicely subtle, Captain). After trips overseas and north of the border, Cliff has his bags packed for a quick trip to…well, you’ll have to keep your eyes open for his appearance at another blog…

Merry Christmas! (Post #200)

What better use could there be for the 200^th post on “é rayhahn, rayhahn” than to wish you all a hearty “Merry Christmas”?  None whatsoever!

Merry Christmas!

To everyone who has stopped by in the past, whether it’s:

• Facebook friends
• baseball card trade partners (or future trade partners)
• Spookymilk Survivor readers
• random searchers who’ve found an article about eclipses, insect photos, music recordings, or Minnesota Twins graphics
• stalkers

…whatever the reason, hopefully you found something entertaining or educational here. God bless your Christmas, and have a wonderful holiday season — stay healthy and safe.

— Rhu_Ru

K-Dog With A Twins-For-Twins Trade

K-Dog, contributor over at The Mojo Beard, originally hit me with an offer of trade for some Fan Favorite cards, and a trade dialog was started. When I found out that he was another Twins collector living away from God’s Country, well, you gotta help a guy out! What turned out a bit humorous is that, when all was said and done, he didn’t send me any Fan Favorite cards! (well, okay, I just got several in a recent trade before he had the chance)

What he DID send me was a nice slug of cards from my wantlists (I’m always grateful to a trader who can wade their way through those): Bowman and Bowman Heritage, Bazooka and Cracker Jack, Donruss Champions, and a few other miscellaneous singles.

clockwise, from top left: 2007 Fleer Crowning Achievement #CA-JS Johan Santana; 2006 Topps Gold #458 Luis Castillo [0386/2006]; 2005 Bowman Heritage mini #150 Johan Santana; 2006 Topps Bowman Chrome Draft Picks #BDP10 Boof Bonser

The Former Dodgers Infield Scores Big

gcrl from Garvey Cey Russell Lopes was one of my earliest trading partners, so when I came across some nice Dodgers cards recently, I went back to the well to see if any Twins cards had piled up there since the last trade.  The answer was a resounding “yes!”  Captured below are a few representatives of the relics and other cards wiped from my wantlists in this swap:

clockwise, from top left: 2005 Donruss Champions Impressions Materials #299 Paul Molitor; 2005 Donruss Prime Patches #P-47 Jacque Jones [015/100]; 2005 Topps Chrome Autograph #231 Kevin West; 2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History Timeless Moments Jersey #TM-28 Joe Mauer

TRADE BAIT! (Red Sox Edition)

Okay, going to try another trade bait post. After the jump are scans and photos of the Red Sox cards that I have for trade for comparable Twins cards currently in my wantlists — click on the “Continue reading” link below to see them. (Not as many this time around – sorry.)

If you have any specific questions about anything you see here, please feel free to ask. I have access (indirectly) to a lot more than this, too, if interested.

How Printing Plates Work (Courtesy of Sewing Machine Guy)

Not long ago, I was contacted by Sewing Machine Guy about a trade (he had an ulterior motive). Before he even mentioned what he had to trade, I was interested — he’s another one of the card collecting blogger community I’d wanted to swap with at some point.  And then he set the hook: what would become my very first Twins printing plate (oh, and he included a Delmon Young card, too).  I’d already been struck by Michael Harrington’s (who?!) you-know-what-eating grin on his Bowman Chrome and Bowman Chrome Blue cards in my collection, and now they are joined by the cyan printing plate that created them. Both for a slightly used ’63 Al Kaline.

Turns out Chrome cards are printed using reversed plates, and as you probably already know, four plates are used to apply the four colors required for the finished product: magenta, yellow, cyan, and black.  I’m not sure what order these colors are applied (or if it matters), but here is the cyan plate:

2009 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP190 Michael Harrington cyan printing plate
(front and back)

I just so happen to have images of the other printing plates for this card, so I can show how the rest of the image is created.  Next, the three other print colors are applied, using their respective printing plates:

A Card From The Great White North (Complete With Weather)

Growing up in the NW corner of Minnesota, a person got a good understanding of the winter storm terminology used by the TV meteorologists, and an expectation of what was coming. First, there are the wet Chinook winds out of the Pacific NW, which can get pretty chilly. The next level is the Alberta Clipper, a cold blast of Canada’s finest that will have snow drifting all over the place. And then there’s the dreaded Siberian Express, the nasty bone-chilling cold air mass passing right over the north pole with a shipment of frostbite direct to your doorstep. It was one of that last one where I set my personal low temp record of -46°F (-105°F windchill) just before Christmas in 1983.

Well, two packages arrived in today’s mail (I’ll get to the second one in a subsequent post), and one of them was from Waxaholic‘s own Captain Canuck…and not far behind was the Alberta weather that it brought with it.

Living just outside of St. Louis is nothing like living Up Nort’, but it still gets (relatively) chilly here. Our temps dropped over 20° and winds tonight will be ~30MPH, with some snow (not a lot) overnight. That is one powerful package you sent, Cap’n.

So, what was in that package? Although I’d been looking for an excuse to trade with C. Canuck in the past, my Braves trade bait post finally did the trick. And though I had hoped for a more grandiose exchange, it turned out to be a simple one-for-one swap. Meh, what the heck — it did the job, even if it messed up our weather for a while.

2007 Topps Bowman’s Best autograph #83 Glen Perkins

Thanks again, Captain…but next time, keep the weather!