Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Trade Me a Better Card Crossover Deal

As promised, I wanted to feature some of the cards that I'm going to be sending to "FTN" from Silver Spring, MD who so generously dealt me the "Fab Five" autograph cards (2005 UD Clayton Kershaw, 2005 Bowman Jon Papelbon, 2007 Bowman Refractor Longoria/Crawford, 2005 Bowman Refractor Justin Verlander & 2007 Bowman Refractor Joba Chamberlain) in an effort to bolster my Honus Wagner efforts on my other blog, Trademeabettercard.com.

So with no further adu:

1951 Bowman Del Ennis

Although it wasn't requested, I wanted to make sure I passed along a nice collection of Phillies cards over the years, and I decided I would start with a key member of the 1950 Phightin Phillies.


Ennis, an underated player in team history, remains in the Phillies all-time record books with the following achievements (among others):


- 5th most games played (1630)

- 4th most hits (1812)

- 2nd most home runs (259)

- 3rd most RBIs

Ennis was a teamed with a young collection of players that featured two other all-time Phillies greats that went on to the Hall of Fame- Starting Pitcher Robin Roberts and ...



1958 Topps Richie Ashburn



Ashburn is beloved among Phillies fans- that's understood. I'd actually like to point out that this card set, 1958 Topps, was the 2nd set to feature the modern size baseball card (2.5'' by 3.5''). And while 1957 might have been the first, I always prefered the style and design of this set. Great colors, clear presentation, clean and not too busy.


1974 Topps Mike Schmidt





This is Michael Jack's second card, and first card that he doesn't have to share the cardboard with other "Rookie Stars". Once again, Schmidt is missing the trademark moustache that he carried for rest of his career- I'll go on the record in guessing that this and the previously mentioned rookie card are the only cards ever issued that were missing his stache action (this photo captures the stache, not to mention a killer whiteman fro):



So those are a few of the classically great players featured on cards I'm passing along to FTN. FTN insisted that I only send him some of the Phillies featured players of the late 80's and early 90's, and I'd be remiss if I didn't features a couple of those bad boys as well:


1987 Donruss Chris James



I always thought it was kind of neat when athletes had brothers who played professional sports in other leagues. I honestly can't think of many instances, although I'm sure there are a few I'm not aware of. Right now, the best I can do is Mark and Dan McGwire (Seattle QB) & Chris and Craig James (New England RB). Help me out with other instances of this if you can't think of any.


1987 Topps Steve Jeltz




From now on, any package of cards that I deal in the trademeabettercard experiment should include at least one Jeltzie- It can be my calling card.


1989 Donruss Ricky Jordan


FTN requested one particular player- Ricky Jordan- and I was happy to comply. Jordan was one of my favorites back in the day as well. After a stellar rookie year, I thought the Phillies had the next Don Mattingly- unfortunately it ended more like Randy Milligan.


I sent out quite a few other cards, some notable (1964 Topps Rishie Allen rookie, some Carltons, a couple other Schmidts) and some less notorious (Ron Jones, Rick Schu, Glenn Wilson, Wes Chamberlain, & Kim Batiste), but I altogether, a package IMHO custom made for a Phillies fan- I hope you enjoy FTN.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Blog Trade!!! The Great '65 Topps Project!

One of the main reasons I got involved in this Blogging business was to reconnect with my inner 12 year old, and trade some baseball cards. Buying the cards off of ebay is fun and all, but I love making a deal with a fellow collecter, and exchanging cards for other cards. It's the ideal baseball card transaction, in my humble opinion. With that said, I'm happy to announce the first Phillies 4 Me deal- a deal constituted with another great baseball card blog:

http://1965topps.blogspot.com/

Kevin over at '65 Topps approached me regarding whether or not I had any '65 Topps cards towards his ultimate goal of a complete set. Here is what I had to send along to him (with The Phillies duplicates that I was able to trade posted with photos- this is a Phillies site, right?):

Frank Thomas - AKA the Big Crew Cut


John Boozer - Are people with this last name destined to a lifetime of alcoholism- odds have to be increased a little, right?


Gus Triandos- Grumpy Gus is a popular phrase that was possibly started by this card.


Tony Taylor - Taylor remained a member of the Phillies organization as a coach for many years, and was inducted onto the Phillies "Wall of Fame" in 2002 for his years of service.

Alex Johnson - Dude won the A.L. 1970 Batting Crown with the California Angels, hitting .329. That's something, right?

Ray Herbert - If Ray had fangs, I think he'd look a little like Dracula. Count Ray.

Ray Culp- The Phillies had the market on Rays in 1964. Not a lot of Rays around these days. And yes, that was an unintentional rhyme. It happens from time to time.
Along with these Phillies, I sent Kevin these other '65 Topps cards that I somehow managed to own (don't ask me how):

Orioles 1965 ROOKIE STARS (Curt Blefary & John Miller)
Tigers 1965 ROOKIE STARS (Bill Roman & Bruce Brubaker)
Senators 1965 ROOKIE STARS (Pete Craig & Dick Nen)
Twins team card
3rd series checklist (unmarked)
4th series checklist (marked)

Stay tuned- my next post will discuss the booty that I received in return for these gems.