Trade Me Anything XVIII: The Keepers

As you probably know, not every card from my annual Update box is available for trade.  It's been a while since getting anything really good (remembering a Kolten Wong 1/1 letter patch a few years ago), and this year continued the usual mediocrity, but there were a few things worth holding on to.

 

#89AU-VSC Victor Scott II 1989 Topps 35th Anniversary AUTO Black Border Parallel (022/199)

Here's the deal with this card.  If you know anything about me, you know that the Cardinals are my most hated team.  This card is better than your standard All-Star Game warmup jersey card, but not something I would choose for myself.  I am faced with a conundrum.  If I were to put the card up for trade, it basically guarantees that Scott becomes the second coming of Albert Pujols.  This turns into a $10,000 card, and Scott's batting average against the Brewers over the next 20 years will be .687.  I can't let that happen.  So, I choose to keep it, and Scott has an unremarkable career, and I sell this card for a dollar to a sketchy looking guy under the Gateway Arch.  Sorry, Victor, I am in control of your future, and it is looking bleak.

#89US-15 Rhys Hoskins 1989 Topps 35th Anniversary

Hey, I actually got a Brewer insert!  The best news of the off season came a couple of weeks ago when it became official that Hoskins would return to the Brew Crew in 2025.  He's someone who actually underperformed last year and has the potential to do great things.

 #89US-44 Jackson Chourio 1989 Topps 35th Anniversary

Chourio is the real deal.  For those of you who don't know much about the Brewers, he's the first in-house prospect to get really excited about since guys like Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun.  And this card looks great, too.  I'm usually not a big fan of the navy jersey, but put it in a combo with the new yellow-accented design and you start to have something.  The '89 design also gets a glow-up, favoring a lighter yellow for the team name and ribbon, a vast upgrade over the original mustardy yellow of 35-year-old Brewers cards.

Well, those are the keepers, a couple of Brewers and an on-card auto.  Calling this box a win.

Trade Me Anything XVIII Has Arrived!

Eighteen?!?!?!  That's right, Trade Me Anything is old enough buy smokes and porno mags.  I guess I often use this space to give a yearly life update.  Simply put, things suck.  I'll skip any talk of Tuesday in favor of more immediate hardship.  First of all, my family has been down to a single vehicle since May.  Back then, we bought (well, ordered) a new car, the first of my lifetime.  Everything was in place for a brand new Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid.  But about a week after picking out our package, Toyota put a stop production order on all Grand Highlanders because of an airbag flaw.  Production reportedly got back underway in later October, but we still don't have a car.  Luckily, I walk to work every day.  Unluckily, our secondary vehicle had to go into much heavier use than we wanted, and the long-in-the-tooth Murano is suffering for it.  A few weeks ago we broke down driving between Milwaukee and Madison for a soccer tournament.  The other team families were super helpful in getting us where we needed to be that weekend, but it ended up costing us over two grand in the end.

 

Speaking of expensive shit, what's the deal with Topps Update this year?  Last year I went the jumbo box route, but 2024 Update jumbos were going for over $300.  So what, I can actually complete a set worth $40 from a single box?  Nah.  I just bought a hobby box this year, but that gets you barely half of the base set.  You used to be able to complete the set from a hobby box.  Why is everything always getting worse?  Today's bags of Doritos are only slightly larger than those 1990s 99-cent Big Grab bags, and now you don't even get a Star Wars lenticular!  This country isn't going straight to hell, because we're already there.

In any case, I have a huge base card want list for this set.  They even had the nerve to slip me a bunch of base card doubles, an absolute travesty.  

So as to end on a positive note before I copy and paste the standard TMA instructions, I'll share that my children and I are very close to obtaining dual citizenship in Luxembourg, but that's another story for another day.

Here we go.

1. Check out the list of available cards below. Select one (or a few) you want. Just remember, the more you claim, the better your trade material should be.

2. Send me an email with your choice of card(s) at bill13boehm@yahoo.com 

Please don't leave a request comment on the blog. This just confuses people, so don't do it, it will just be deleted and will not count.

3. I will reply to you as to the card's availability. First come, first serve. I will include my mailing address.

4. When I confirm the card of your choice, pick out one or more of your own cards or anything else you want to send me. A few guidelines about what you can't send: Nothing that should really be in the garbage, nothing perishable, and nothing illegal. (Notice I didn't say nothing immoral.) I've got a want list you can check out, too!

5. Send me whatever is was you picked out. Don't tell me what it is before you send it, I'd like to have it be a surprise! Include a SASE or you won't be getting your card.

6. When I receive your item, I will take a picture of the trade materials and post the happy couple on my blog, and then I will send you the card. Here are the cards you may choose from. Cards that have officially been claimed are in BOLD. 

Base Cards

5 Mitchell Parker - Nationals

28 Mitch Spence - A's

44 Combos Adley Rutschman / Craig Kimbrel - Orioles

49 Jared Jones - Pirates

58 Evan Carter - Rangers

90 Adam Duvall - Braves

97 Jackson Holliday - Orioles - gcrl

124 Jon Berti - Yankees

129 Tanner Banks - White Sox

131 Zack Gelof - A's

134 Cade Smith - Guardians

156 Jack Leiter - Rangers

163 Combos Clayton Andrews / Josh Maciejewski - Yankees

186 Landen Roupp - Giants

220 Max Schuemann - A's

227 Combos Mason McCoy / Chandler Seagle - Padres

310 Oliver Dunn - Brewers

All-Star Game

5 Gunnar Henderson - Orioles - gcrl

12 Ketel Marte - Diamondbacks - gcrl

19 Corbin Burnes - Orioles - gcrl

21 Garrett Crochet - White Sox - gcrl

23 Mason Miller - A's - gcrl

36 Rafael Devers - Red Sox - Tim

37 Josh Naylor - Guardians - gcrl

Rainbow Foil

194 Jurickson Profar - Padres - Morgan

251 Tony Kemp - Reds

Gold (#/2024)

54 Trevor Rogers - Marlins

156 Jack Leiter - Rangers

 

All Class

6 Willie Mays - Giants

Autumn Tales

26 Albert Pujols - Cardinals - Tim

35 Stephen Strasburg - Nationals - Zpop

Mystical

9 Juan Soto - Yankees - Morgan

19 Jung Hoo Lee - Giants

1989 Topps 35th Anniversary

2 Ozzie Albies - Braves - gcrl

21 Connor Phillips - Reds

30 Mickey Mantle - Yankees - gcrl

1989 Topps 35th Anniversary Refractors

16 Darell Hernaiz - A's

50 Ketel Marte - Diamondbacks - Morgan

60 Pedro Martinez - Red Sox - Zpop

65 Jordan Beck - Rockies

***Please note, I will be going out of town for much of the weekend, so I will probably not be responding to requests made on Friday or Saturday until Sunday.  Of course I will be responding to email in the order they are received.

Alright, make your claim and go find some anything!

Packs That Just Showed Up #5

It's time for another one of these packs, and next on the pile is a pack of 2015 Topps Update Series.  Like my pants after Thanksgiving dinner, it's a good thing this pack is already open to accommodate some extra girth.  You'll see what this means soon enough.

No, I didn't mix up my photo files, these are 2018 Topps Update Series cards emerging from the 2015 pack.  At some point in the past several years, these cards made it into the 2015 wrapper, along with the actual 2015 cards.  It's a cozy fit in there, but they're making it work.  No cards are complaining about anyone hogging the armrest.

US161 Seranthony Dominguez, US117 Kyle Martin, US96 Tyler Clippard, US52 Justin Anderson / Michael Hermosillo

Four horizontal cards to start things off, kind of weird.

PO-18 Mariano Rivera Postseason Preeminence 

It's an educated guess as to the name of this insert, it's really hard to read with the player blending into the text, especially with the pinstripes.

#S-5 Bo Jackson Legendary All-Stars

Bo Jackson just always looks awesome in a Royals uniform.

US64 Mookie Betts, US63 Corey Dickerson, US146 Blake Treinen, US276 Hector Santiago

The Santiago is a stealth Feces Smear parallel (unnumbered).

Now we get to the cards that were actually in the 2015 wrapper.

US340 Fernando Salas, US25 Byron Buxton, US54 Max Muncy / Tyler Ladendorf, US227 Mike Trout Checklist

Since I already have this complete set, maybe I'll put the Buxton and Muncy cards on eBay as a nice little rookie lot.

WW-10 Jim Palmer Whatever Works

I don't remember this insert set, but it's an interesting one, basically a compilation of superstitions held by various players.  Jim Palmer ate pancakes during every Orioles victory in the 1966 World Series, so he kept doing it throughout his career.

US16 John Axford, US346 Brandon Crawford, US66 Neftali Feliz, US211 Tommy Milone, US69 Zach McAllister

Twenty cards, three inserts, and a ton of fun, pretty good stuff for a DIY fat pack.

The $1.99 Goodwill Grab Bag

The other day I was out thrifting and I hit up one of the Goodwill stores in town.  In addition to finding some all-timer hip-hop CDs that never show up at thrift stores (Biggie, Gravediggaz, Brand Nubian), there were several bagged stacks of cards hanging on a rack near the checkout.  The usual suspects were there, none of which were worthy of coming home with me, but there was one bag that had me intrigued.

Initially it was the 1970 Topps Scratch Off that caught my eye, and the reduced price sticker ($1.99, a buck less than usual) was what drove it home.  Let's see if there was anything interesting inside.

First, the Jim Spencer Scratch Off.  Really rough shape, but the presence of the black residue suggests that this was once part of a bigger pile of these, and there might be more inside.

 

That's a big nope.  No more were to be found, and the game had been played to its maximum.

Next up, a pair of 1982 Fleer.  I actually have a list going for this set, but I didn't need either of these guys.

There were exactly four 1982 Topps cards in the bag, two of Ed Romero and two of Randy Lerch.  Some home cooking, I see.  They'll go into the Brewers box next June, where there are likely a few more just like them.

 

We saw Joe Niekro from outside the bag, and there were a bunch more 1981 Topps.  I already have the whole set, and there's nothing special here, but I do like the ink smear on the Sees-toh Brewers card.

For the rest of the package we stay in the early '80s with a pile of 1982 Donruss.  Got some top-tier Diamond Kings, a few more than once.

The only problem with these is a flaw with the upper left corner on the back of most of them.  Probably the result of some improper storage techniques over the last 40-plus years.

Here are the rest of the base cards from the same set.

Not many standouts here, either.  This foursome is probably the best of the bunch.  Gene Tenace is included for absolutely killing it during the 1972 World Series, and Jerry Augustine makes the cut because not only was he a Brewer, he was also the head coach of the UW-Milwaukee baseball team in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  He even got the team into the NCAA tournament, which doesn't happen often in this northern climate.

It was a good grab bag of cards whose status could improve depending on how things shake out once I get the Donruss sorted.  I'm just glad I didn't get Bipped.

But I came pretty damn close.

Packs That Just Showed Up #4

We're digging deep into the category labeled "Stuff I Wouldn't Buy."  My rule of thumb for logo-less sports cards is, if it didn't get cut off a box of Fruit Roll-Ups or from the frozen innards of a package of regionally branded chimichangas, I don't want it.  Or, at the very least, I won't seek it out.  Panini baseball cards, as they are currently sold, just aren't for me.  Let's see what was inside this ten-year-old pack of 2014 Panini Donruss baseball cards.  

195 Johnny Bench

Not a bad start, seeing as the chest protector and backwards helmet obscure the missing stuff.

132 Giancarlo Stanton

The backs mimic the basic blue design of 1986 or 1988 Donruss.

175 Jay Bruce

Bruce retired shortly after the start of the 2021 season, which he started with the New York Yankees.  File that one away for the Immaculate Grid.

70 Troy Tulowitzki

Tulo retired in the the middle of the 2019 season, also with the New York Yankees.

72 Elvis Andrus

Elvis is not currently with any MLB team, but has not yet retired.

40 Tim Beckham Rated Rookie

It's interesting to note that at the back end of the aughts, two players with the same last name were selected as top 10 draft picks.  Tim here was #1 overall in 2008, and in that same draft the White Sox chose Gordon Beckham.  Collectors were left to wonder which Beckham would break through as an eventual superstar.  The answer, sadly, was neither.  That's the way it usually goes.

153 Domonic Brown

Six-year career with the Phillies, All-Star in 2013.

138 Victor Martinez

After Bench, probably the best player in the pack.  Named an American League All-Star five times.

As stated this product is not my cup of tea, but I will file these cards away in a box marked, for the time being, "2013-Present."  Such is the state of my collection of "recent" cards.

Packs That Just Showed Up #3

Let's keep the Topps Heritage posts coming, shall we?  This next pack that somehow showed up at my house is a retail pack of 2016 Topps Heritage High Number Baseball.  This set features stars from seven years ago in the 1967 design.

 

The wrapper depicts a baseball player for a nondescript team getting tripped up by the controversial "mashed potato hazard," a short-lived attempt to slow runners on the basepaths during a portion of the 1966 season.  A literal and figurative "hot potato," the obstacle was abandoned after a two-week test run that August.  The baseball world never got to see the reputed follow-up, gravy foul lines.

Let's see who we get.

623 Denard Span

536 Ryan Madson

596 Adam Warren

661 Geovany Soto

RP-JU Julio Urias Rookie Performers

You know what, I had this card scanned and ready, but I'm going to leave it out of this post.  This blog has no space available for men who abuse women.  Insert or not, I'm moving on.

Actually, let's go back a step and recognize the good works of Denard Span, who started the Denard Span Foundation, which aims to "serve and empower single-parent homes."  Bravo to you, good sir.

523 Logan Verrett

655 Matt Reynolds

558 Mike Napoli

654 Brad Ziegler

As far as I know, no domestic abuse pleas from any of this quartet.

And while we're at it, let's give a shout out to Brad Ziegler, who is apparently a pretty serious card collector.  One of us! 

Not an amazing pack, but still a nice look back a few years.

Completion! - A Familiar Face

This is a post that's a long time coming.  Shortly after completing my 1959 Topps set, I received the final card needed to finish the modern set using the same design, the 2008 Topps Heritage High Number set.  The card that completed the set was #686 Gavin Floyd of the Chicago White Sox, a card that was short printed.

Let's take a tour of some of the highlights of this set.

Unlike it's 1959 design-sake, the Rookie Stars subset checklist was amazingly robust, featuring rookie cards of Max Scherzer...

Evan Longoria...

...and Clayton Kershaw.

(Editor's Note: Death Stare Cards normally eschew graded and slabbed cards, but when the time came to acquire this Kershaw, this BCCG version was actually selling for less than any raw versions we could find.)

My Milwaukee Brewers are looking good in this team photo.  Good job by the photographer to keep everyone especially well lit while the sun was rising behind them.

Onto the inserts.  There are more Then & Now cards, continuing from the original series.

Some more Then & Now cards, and the first half of the Rookie Performers inserts.  Again, a distinctly strong checklist with these rookies.  That Kershaw is very nice.

More Rookie Performers.

The last two rookies and some of the 2008 Flashbacks.  Griffey, Pujols, Ichiro, all legends.

And to finish things off, I also completed the partial parallel of black backs.  These are actually very easy to find, and key cards usually cost less as a black back than the regular green ink back.  I think I finished these off before I was a parent, and I'm slated to have a teenager in the house later this summer.  So it goes.

The Kershaw black back parallel.  This one actually came out of one of my boxes 15+ years ago, didn't have to hunt it down.

Is this the end of the story?  Maybe not.  I do have a pretty tall stack of chrome parallels from this set and the regular Heritage set.  That impossible-to-find Jerry Hairston is throwing me off the scent, though.  (Look it up, it's a dark corner of Topps Heritage history.)

As for now, I'm happy with this set in its binder with the requisite box cover header.  One of my most enjoyable periods of collecting is, for the most part, done.