2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,700 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Perk And Friends

Throughout this past year I’ve scoured trade bait posts, The Bench, my LCS, and eBay for reasonably priced Twins AU/GU, and Glen Perkins has extended his commanding card count lead to 46 unique autographed cards in my collection (would have been 47 if some sellers knew at least the basics of how to properly ship cards 😦 ) — here are the latest pickups:

clockwise, from top: 2005 Topps Traded & Rookies Signature Moves #SM-GP Glen Perkins [245/275] (auto); 2007 Topps Co-Signers Silver Red #117 Glen Perkins [102/175] (auto); 2009 Upper Deck Inkredible #INK-PE Glen Perkins (auto); 2007 Upper Deck Artifacts Autofacts #AU-GP Glen Perkins (auto); 2007 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Rookie Signatures #119 Glen Perkins [004/299] (auto); 2007 Topps Co-Signers Red #117 Glen Perkins [171/275] (auto); 2007 Topps Co-Signers Blue #117 Glen Perkins [160/225] (auto)

And here are some nice Twins GU plus a first-time Twins autograph for Luis Tiant:

clockwise, from top left: 2013 Topps Five Star #FSBA-PMO Paul Molitor [282/386] (auto); 2005 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts Lasting Legends #LL-RC Rod Carew (jersey); 2005 Donruss Signature Series Silver #70 Kent Hrbek (auto); 2005 Upper Deck Artifacts AL Artifacts #AL-KH Kent Hrbek [175/325] (jersey); 2013 Topps Update All-Star Stitches #ASR-JMA Joe Mauer (jersey); 2005 Upper Deck Classics Classic Moments #CM-JM Jack Morris (jersey); 2007 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts Masterful Material #MM-KP Kirby Puckett (jersey); 2005 Upper Deck Ultimate Signature Signature Decades #SD-LT Luis Tiant (auto)

Hope your 2014 collecting year is a great one!

The Diamond King Puts Away The Shotgun

I’m not a fan of shotgun trades, as I have quite a slew of Twins dupes piled around here gathering dust. When Kevin The Diamond King contacted me, though, he had two cards in mind to trade — a couple of this year’s Heritage Real Ones autograph cards. Thankfully he identified several cards from my trade bait page that I could send in return. I was surprised to find the other cards below also in the package (as well as several more); turns out Kevin is like me in that we believe cards don’t travel well in small numbers 😉

clockwise, from top left: 2013 Topps Heritage Real One #DOA-BD Bill Dailey (auto); 2013 Topps Heritage Real One #DOA-BF Bill Fisher (auto); 1993 Topps Stadium Club 1^st Day Issue #10 Gary Wayne; 2003 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection #92 Michael Nakamura [361/625]; 2005 Upper Deck First Pitch #325 Johan Santana / Joe Mauer; 2006 Upper Deck Gold #695 Tony Bautista [218/299]; 2000 Pacific Omega Gold #82 Jacque Jones [116/120]

Thanks for creating this great trade, TDK!

Dug Out Of The Dugout (+ Black Friday Summary)

Not long ago, Kyle from Nolan’s Dugout reached out to me regarding a trade, followed by some serious searching through our respective trade piles. When the smoke cleared, we each had ~30 cards for each other, and put some good hurt on our wantlists. Here’s a good example of the type of cards that crossed paths in the mail:

clockwise, from top left: 1997 Donruss Press Proof Silver #148 Greg Myers; 1998 Pacific Invincible #45 Marty Cordova; 2000 Bowman Retro #257 Matt LeCroy; 1998 Pinnacle Inside #29 Chuck Knoblauch; 1996 Upper Deck #109 Paul Molitor; 1996 Flair Gold #121 Brad Radke

Thanks for taking the time to dig through your dugout, Kyle! Let’s do it again sometime.

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‘Tis the time of year for Black Friday as well, and so I made my annual online pilgrimage to COMC. I selected 77 Twins cards, satisfying these criteria:

• AU: 23 (1st’s: Scott Aldred, Erik Bennett, Travis Bowyer, Matthew Fox)
• GU: 2
• Lewwwww Ford!: 3 (1 AU, 2 GU)
• vintage: 2 (’63, ’67)
• oddball: 6 (’74 stamps, ’76 O-Pee-Chee, ’79 comic, ’82 sticker, ’90 O-Pee-Chee)
• s#’d: 14
• parallels: 23
• Pucketts: 12 (4 proofs, 1 1^st day)
• UD Documentary Gold: 5

A sampling:

clockwise, from top left: 2005 Donruss Signature Series Silver #67 Travis Bowyer (auto); 2004 Upper Deck SP Prospects #314 Matthew Fox [308/600] (auto); 1996 Donruss Leaf Signature Extended Erik Bennett (auto); 2005 Donruss Classics Team Colors #TC-23 Lew Ford [045/100] (bat/jersey); 2005 Donruss Leaf Century Post Marks Silver #198 Jacque Jones [032/100] (auto); 2004 Fleer National Pastime Signature Swings #SSA-LF Lew Ford [024/183] (auto); 2005 Donruss Leaf Century Position #71 Lew Ford [171/250] (jersey); 1996 Donruss Leaf Signature Extended Scott Aldred (auto)

#Winning!

Back in June, David K held one of his incredible autographed card giveaways. Just as incredible…I was the winner! Here was the prize:

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Black Autographs #47 Ken Griffey Jr. [07/25]

Sweet!!

I decided that my goal would be to sell it and use the proceeds to acquire one or more autograph cards of the Twins players I didn’t currently have yet. My LCS owner posted on eBay for a few months, but only with so-so inquiries. Eventually, he worked out a good deal with one of his in-store customers — one that included cards and cash. The cards in the deal were these below:

clockwise, from top left: 2013 Topps Triple Threads Unity Relic Sepia #TTUFR-PM2 Paul Molitor [24/27] (bat); 2013 Topps Tier One Double Relic #TODR-JM Joe Mauer [05/50] (jersey); 2013 Topps Allen & Ginter #AGR-JM Justin Morneau (bat); 2013 Topps Update All-Star Stitches #ASR-GP Glen Perkins (jersey)

Aren’t those borderless high end Topps GU a treat? I already had the A&G Morneau, so that went to my trade bait page.

With the cash from the deal, I purchased these four beauties, all my first AU cards for these players:

clockwise, from top left: 2013 Topps Tribute #TA-PM Paul Molitor [19/99] (auto); 2013 Bowman Platinum Prospects Green #BPAP-MS Miguel Sano [205/399] (auto); 2005 Donruss Greats #5 Bert Blyleven (auto); 2007 Upper Deck Spectrum Shining Star #SS-JM Joe Mauer [30/99] (auto)

We have a winner!