Fleer you're really disappointing me!

Even if I really like Fleer brand, and their 2000's products (especially stuff like Patchworks, Platinum Nameplates Teams and similar), I was really disappointed yesterday, when opening a sealed pack of 1988 Baseball MVP.

I got it as part of a bigger lot recently received, and as I said, it was perfectly sealed in its wrapping.

The set is made of 44 cards plus six stickers, depicting a stadium on one side, and a team logo on the other.

Here below are the scans of both front and back of the package.

There's one thing I invite you to consider, written in yellow and on the front side of the package....
...you found it? "Complete set inside each box !"...what does it mean to you?

To me, it means that you get 44 cards and 6 stickers in every box, am I right?

Then, please somebody explain me why I have 43 cards!

It's a true mystery, and I was so firmly convinced I received a complete set that i already started putting the cards in binder pages, ready to be scanned and loaded in the section of the blog dedicated to complete set but then..."Hey, there's a missing spot!"

The missing card is no. 21 Mark Langston, and believe me when I say that I carefully looked around the table and inside the box, even checked if two cards where stuck together due to the decades spent in the sealed package, but the card is nowhere to be found....
I checked on COMC and this card has a pricetag og 1,5 $, which is more than the price I usually pay for my autographs and relics, and I'm still deciding whether to buy it or not...

In the meantime here's a scan of it...

I know it seems stupid to be mad at late 80s quality controls of a defunct company, but still...

Well, my rant is over, have you ever had similar experencies with products deemed to be complete?

Have a great Sunday everybody and keep collecting!!

CIAO!

.552 2016 spring training average

I know you're wondering "What's this guy talking about this time?"

Here's the answer.

As you might know, I sometimes like to buy lots of cards on ebay (and I mean a bulk or job lot, not "a huge amount of singles"), and that's exactly what I did back in February, when I picked up from a UK seller 3 lots, that he/she was kind enough to combine in a single shipment.

The cards arrived on Friday of last week, and in a couple days I completed the sorting and check listing of them all..but how many cards are we talking about this time?

The exact count was 2.143, which is a pretty stack of cards!

Why this post is entitled that way?
Because 2016 Spring Training is on its way, and being an accountant in life, I can't help but keep track of the performance of the lots I blind buy on eBay...

The additions to the infinite sets I'm chasing have been a whopping 1.183 single cards!

It means that 55.2% of the cards received have been added to the completist's collection!

Some notable cards in the lots are Rookie Cards, and even a pre-rookie card, here they are

Both are from 1994 Collector's Choice, and feature an Icon of the Yankees as well as one of my favorite players (no matter what)...

In 1994 also MJ was featured in Collector's Choice set, despite it's hard for me to consider him a baseball player..cool card nonetheless

This is apparently the Jeter rookie card, and comes from 1995, so how should I call the previous card of him?

Also a couple of Topps key rookie cards were included, on top there's 2002 Joe Mauer and bottom is the 1992 Manny Ramirez.

Last, is something that probably should be called pre-rookie card, but you'll be the judges...

From 2002, a Grandstand pre rookie card of Brandon Philips!

Stay tuned for more scans, rants and cards!

CIAO!

Show and tell - Lesson 1

Welcome everybody to the first episode (or should I say lesson?) of this new series.

Q. "What will you show us?"
A. I'm not exactly sure....
Q."What will be told then?"
A.Ehm...

Let's just start this thing and see where it'll lead us ok?

A "Show and tell"deserving respect should be focused on a specific theme, and be supported by facts and figures, maybe even documents, that prove the worthyness of it.

Today I'm presenting you "2007 Upper Deck Exquisite", focusing on some autographs and relics that I proudly own.

Since this is the first post of its kind, I feel like I should start with the rookie themed cards in this beautiful set.

Exquisite Rookie Signatures - Next Generation 

Cards in this subset are numbered to 20 (except fot the 1 of 1s), and are horizontally oriented.

I really like the black and white and faded picture in the back, opposed to the close-up on the left side. The auto is a sticker, as I'm not aware of on-card autos in this set.

Exquisite Reflections

This time the cards are numbered to 40 (except the 1/1s) and feature a double sticker auto of players that could be teammates (like the Gardner - Lindstrom on bottom) or players from different teams (like the top card). The heads of the players seem to popup from the round frames in the corners, and I'm pretty sure that the coloring on the left side of the card has something to do with the team the players belong to (at least for the Marlins on the bottom one).

Exquisite Common Ground Signatures

Again, cards are numbered to 25, and carry a pair of sticker autos. I don't know why UD was repeating the same pairings in various subsets, but I guess for logistic reasons when they had to gather the autographs...who knows? Again, the couple Fred Lewis and Michael Bourne share the same card!

Exquisite All Rookie Team Signatures

Finally some vertical cards! These cards could be numbered to 20 (like the above Justin Hampson), to 15 (like the Travis Metcalf below), to 5 or to 1, but unfortunately I have no specimens to show for the last two print runs.

To be noted that the Hampson is the only card in this post that has the Upper Deck logo in golden foil, while the others have a silver foil logo.

Also for this subset, UD used sticker autos, the only flaw I can find in this amazing product. 

Exquisite Rookie Signature Materials 

This is by far my favorite Exquisite subset. The cards above are from the "Rookie Signature Materials" set, are numbered to 85, and feature 4 jersey pieces and a sticker autograph.

But these are my absolutely favs in the Exquisite roster of 2007. "Rookie Signature Materials Parallel Patch" should be their complete name, and as you can see, they come packed with 4 patches and a sticker autograph. The cards from this parallel set are numbered to 25, and I was only able to pick up two Joe Blanton cards, and I'm very happy about it...I mean, just look at the sick patches on the bottom card!!

That's all for the 2007 Exquisite , at least that's all I have to show and tell about!

I hope you liked this (very long) post, I wish you all a great weekend!

CIAO! 

Show and tell - The Preview

Growing up I was a big Peanuts fan, and I used to wonder why here in Italian school there isn't a "Show and Tell" type of lesson.
For those of you that aren't into Peanuts, during "Show and tell" lessons, one of the characters shows to the classmates and the teacher something that's important or noteworthy to him/her.

Something like this

How cool would have been for me to stand up in front of my classmates with a stack of baseball cards and share with them thoughts on how beautiful this hobby is?

Well, as I said, there's nothing like that in our schools, and there's also a timing problem, since I started collecting many years after I finished school..oh well...

But I could use this blog for a new and special "Show and Tell" baseball card related series of posts!

Since the series "This week in my mailbox" had an early finale due to the fact that I no longer receive the ebay pickups directly ad home, and the "What's in my mailbox" has been suspended since I prefer scan the cards myself once I get them delivered instead of using COMC scans, I think it's time to start a new series of posts...

So stay tuned!

CIAO!!  

New month, new blog's section

Like the more careful of you might have already noticed, the blog has a new page in the header section.
This time is not about some new set I'm trying to chase down, but serves as a recap of those that I already completed. Well, the word "already" may not be the most appropriate word, since some of them required (inexplicably) nine years to reach completion, but still it is a huge satisfaction for me to see a checklist completely checked!

In the new page you'll find a link to a dedicated Dropbox folder, where all the scans are organized.

As usual, this is a work in progress, and I'll add more scans everytime I can, as long as the complete sets least obviously!!

Thanks so much for reading this quick and unusual post, and please, feel free to take a look at the pictures and in case you need them, use them freely.

Keep Collecting people, Keep Collecting!!!

CIAO!

The hiatus is now over!

As the title suggests, in this post I'll show some cards from a trade package I recently received from Anthony, aka Off Hiatus Baseball , in case you don't know his beautiful Brewers-themed blog, I invite you to visit it, and then you can come back here and thank me...

So, since he regularly updates his wantlists, I once decided to take the time to go through the boxes of cards I have for trade, and put together a nice lot of cards, cherrypicking whatever could help him to write something off the wantlists.

I don't remember exactly when it was (mid to late June circa), but when the cards arrived in Atlanta, he posted a great post that you can find here.

As I said, I recently received a countbox full of cards, and a note in which he apologizes for taking so long for completing the trade.

First of all, even before the cards I received, I want to make clear to Mr.Lehman that I'm extremely happy of the trade we had, and that there's absolutely no need to apologize, because I really appreciate the fact that he took the time to put together a great selection of cards, many of them from sets I never has the chance to own.

So thanks a lot Tony, again and again!!

And now let's get to the cards, because they are really excellent!

 The lot includes vintage cards as well as more recent and modern cards...but vintage first

1968 Topps # 222 - Jim Hardin

This card is so high-quality, that at first sight I tought that belonged to some sort of modern day reprint set. But I later discovered the card is an original card from 1968, and in beautiful condition!

1960 Topps # 213 - Chuck Dressen

This is probably one of the oldest Topps cards I (now) own, and I really love the fact that depicts a player (well, manager) of a team that no longer exists, at least doesn't play in the same city anymore. So a tribute to the Milwaukee Braves and their manager Chuck Dressen!

1955 Bowman # 39 - Bob Darnell

This card, in my humble opinion, beats them all. because comes from an iconic set, and it's the first card I own from it. Beautiful "picture" of him in the act of pitching for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1981 Topps Scratch-offs # 49 - Steve Stone

Another "first-specimen-from-that-set"in the lot, and thanks to Tony I now added a Steve Stone card from 1981, not even scratched, so even more valuable!

2004 Upper Deck Chevron # 8 - Richie Sexson

A set I didn't know exised, here's some informations about the set directly from the "Baseballcardpedia" website:

" 2004 Upper Deck Chevron is a 12-card set distributed by the gas station, primarily in the Midwestern US. The design is identical to that of the 2004 Upper Deck flagship, with the exception of a "Clean Outta Here" logo on the front. The set is not licensed by MLB Properties, and as such, all trademarks have been airbrushed. One card with the purchase of eight or more gallons of fuel. "

Maybe I'll try to put together the entire 12 cards set.

1992 Score Select # 360 - Derek Jeter

The last card I'm showing for this post, is a beautiful rookie card of one of the most respected and widely loved player of the last decades. The Yankees Captain, The #2, Mr. Re2pect...Derek Jeter!

I really, and once again, thank you Tony for the beautiful lot of cards you sent oversea, and the fantastic cards everyone can see above.

Thank you very much to all the people reading this post and this humble blog.

Keep Collecting!!!

CIAO!!

Double faced cards

When I started collecting about nine years ago, one of the first lessons I learned about card collecting was that on the front of the card there's the player's picture and on the back there's a huge load of cool statistics about the player's career.

But what happens when both the front and the back of a card showcases players' relics?

That's something even cooler than statistics right?

During 2015 I was able to pick up a couple of such cards, one from an Instagram user in a trade, and the other from eBay...

Here below you will find for the first time ever on my blog (probably) a front and back scan, as well as the scans of the certificates, both issued by Upper Deck (I really miss you, UD!).

First is a 6 swatch relic (really?!) from 2008 Upper Deck Ballpark collection.
The featured players are Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Troy Tulowitzki, Jeff Francis (with a pinstripe!), Matt Cain and Aaron Rowand!
I probably like the Certificate more than the card itself, but nonetheless a nice addition to my heterogeneous collection!

Next is a 8 swatch (wait,what?!) card, issued again by Upper Deck, but in the 2009 Ballpark Collection set.
This time the players featured are Chipper Jones and Yunel Escobar from the Braves, Nick Markakis and Adam Jones from the Orioles, Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun from the Brewers and Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander from the Tigers.
Nothing special in the swatches, but very cool names on this card, and once again great to have a Certificate accompanying it. And it's also numbered to 300...

Do you like this kind of cards or you stick to the regular picture-on-front-stats-on back cards?

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and as usual...

KEEP COLLECTING!!

CIAO