Contest Win from The Lost Collector

Back in June, A.J. a/k/a The Lost Collector ran a contest to give away a sketch card.  The contest was simple: follow his blog and then leave a comment with the player that you would want sketched.

I was lucky enough to win in the midst of my winning month, and earlier this week I got the results of A.J.'s hard work in the mail:

Well, A.J. is an amazing artist, but he did not draw a chrome card.  This was his packaging filler -- which, by itself, is a nice card to get in an envelope alone.

But, seriously, A.J. did a fantastic job:

Not to make anyone else mad, but I have to admit -- this has to be the best contest win I have had since I got back into baseball cards and started blogging back in February.

A.J., thanks again for the great contest and the great prize!

Breaking Down a Trade with Baseball Card Breakdown

Fellow bloggers last year voted Baseball Card Breakdown as the Best New Blog of 2013.  As I was just getting into the blogosphere at that point, I am not sure what the criteria for that vote were. But, I'm pretty sure that the award was deserved under whatever criteria were used.  Gavin is a very good writer, he is creative, and he's generous to a fault.

He and I exchanged trade envelopes after he posted a Nyger Morgan Sliding Stars card from the Gypsy Queen set that I did not have.  Here's that card:

Along with this card of the departed Tony Plush -- who used to be a great character on Twitter when Morgan's baseball career was going well; now, it's just a photo of Morgan with his hockey gear on (and yes, he played at a pretty high level once) -- Gavin included a number of great Brewers cards including the 1991 Topps Traded Brewers team set:

A lot of folks forget that Dante Bichette was a Brewer before the Rockies selected Kevin Reimer from Texas in the expansion draft and then traded him immediately to Milwaukee for Bichette.  Bichette became a Brewer by way of a trade with the Angels for Dave Parker, of all people.  All four of these players are probably better known for playing elsewhere -- Stubbs as a Dodger, Maldonado as a Giant, and Randolph as a Yankee (though later as a Brewers manager).

The next fun card from Gavin was this super shiny, rainbow-ish card from Pacific of Dave Nilsson which takes its place immediately in my player collection of the Australian catcher:

Nilsson teamed with Graeme Lloyd to form the first all-Aussie battery in major league baseball history back in 1994.  Nilsson was also the first ever Australian to be named to the All-Star team in 1999 -- and then, at the age of 29, he quit major league baseball to focus both on playing in the 2000 Sydney Olympics (back when baseball was still a sport in the Olympics and skateboarding was not) and owning an Australian baseball league.  It didn't hurt that his knees were nearly shot already after years of catching, but he was a guy who left major league baseball a bit too soon -- and it certainly couldn't have hurt that Bud Selig was successfully running the Brewers directly into the mantle of the Earth by that point.

I'm digressing a bunch here, clearly, so, in light of my short attention span and the fact that I can't wait to get to the highlight of this entire trade, let's get to the highlight of the entire trade:  Gavin sent me a Robin Yount 1 of 1:

I don't know that anyone could top this card in any trade.  I mean -- a personally drawn glow-in-the-dark card?

This is as good as my photography skills could get with getting the effect of the glow-in-the-dark card to show up on camera.  It gives a feel -- but doesn't do full justice -- to the hard work that Gavin put into this awesome card.

I know there will never be another like it -- thanks Gavin!

The Last of the eBay Splurge

The last of my major eBay splurge from earlier this month all arrived within the past week or so.  I am happy with all of the purchases, though obviously I would have preferred to spend less money than I did, but things like that happen sometimes.

So, what do I have to show tonight?

First off, I found at a reasonable price a mug that I should have just stolen from one of the many break rooms in the offices and factories I worked in as a teenager and college student:

This coffee mug was one of a nearly yearly giveaway from Maxwell House Coffee of a Brewer coffee mug. As with many of these useful-type giveaways, most of them end up actually being used for their intended purpose -- here, drinking coffee, obviously -- rather than on a shelf somewhere.  This one looks pristine and did not cost more than about $6 or $7 with shipping.  It's a nice oddball add to my Yount collection.

Then, I hit a milestone.  I bought my first 1 of 1 Robin Yount card.  It's one of those Topps Vault money grabs, to be sure -- one of the blank backs -- but it is a gorgeous card nonetheless.  It's the Topps Tribute blank back:

This is the item over all others that I really liked but which I really had hoped to pay far less.  But, on the plus side, I paid less than $75 for a unique Robin Yount card with a hologram authentication and everything.  It's better than paying $390 for a signed sticker with a piece of cloth and a piece of wood embedded in the card, in my opinion -- based almost entirely on price alone.

On the other hand and in the vein of my Mat Latos 1/1 Turkey Red blank back, I saw another Topps Tribute blank back that I was shocked to see lagging well below $20.  Once again, I just knew that this card should go for far more than that.  Once again, it did not.  As a result, I am now the proud owner of a Topps Tribute 1/1 Blank Back of none other than the Ryno -- Ryne Sandberg:

Since Sandberg spent most/all of the time that I really got to watch the Brewers in the National League, I never felt any problem with cheering for him and for the Cubs.  So, I always liked Sandberg.  I have never actively collected his cards, but I liked him as a player.  It reminds me of a story.

I had an aunt that lived in Chicago until about 1992 (she passed away just before Christmas, and her funeral was on my birthday...ugh), and she was a huge sports fan -- and, in particular, she was a huge Cubs and Bears fan.  She loved those Cubbies in 1984 in particular, and even bought my mom and I tickets to go to the Cubs "baseball card" day in August of that year.  It was my first trip to Wrigley -- and it would be my only trip there until 2007 -- and the Cubs finished off a four-games-in-three-days sweep of a key series against their NL East rival New York Mets.  I know it was the game in the box score because I recall vividly that Walt Terrell was pitching for the Mets.  Sandberg stole a base in that game, drove in a run, and generally made things happen.

I'll never forget that day, but not for Sandberg.