My apologies to A Priceless Trade

Sheesh, I am a tool.

I was going back through my blog list looking for a wantlist post and I came across a 2 month old, half completed post regarding a trade with a fellow blogger. I don't really know what happened besides the fact that I dropped the ball on this one. Perhaps my disaster of a desk finally caught up with me.

Anyways the following cards were courtesy of Joe from The Priceless Pursuit. Joe, I am sorry that this took so long. I remember that Joe broke a box of 2008 Upper Deck Heroes on his blog and I asked him about a Ryan Braun card and we put together a trade. I have no recollection afterwords.

Thanks for the cards Joe. I'll try not to be such a dufus next time.

2007 Goudey red back Rickie Weeks. Here's to Rickie coming back strong in 2010. Possibly in center field? With the way Lopez has been hitting it may happen.


1992 Studio Scott Fletcher and Ricky Bones. Did you know that the Brewer traded Gary Sheffield and two other players to pry Ricky Bones away from the Padres - no wonder the franchise went 15 without a winning season.


Bill Hall 2008 Upper Deck Heroes. My what a fall from grace. This card celebrates his pink bat mother's day walk off that he hit in 2006. Yep, 2007 sucked so bad for Billy that UD had nothing to document.


And to finish it all off, a quartet of Ryan Brauns. Ryan has a shot at 200 hits this season, needing 15 more. He is also one dinger short of 30 and has driven in 103. Not a bad year at all. Now if management can just get some pitching to go with Braun and Fielder, things should be better in 2010. Then again, Brewers fans have been saying similar things since 1992.

Closure by the Night Owl

Today is a good day, I finally finished the 1987 Topps set. The last two cards that I needed, George Brett and # 792 Checklist arrived today courtesy of Greg from Night Owl Cards. This is starting to be a trend, as Greg also supplied the last card needed in my 2009 Topps Heritage set. Either that or he is the only person that reads this blog. Anyways, Thanks for the help Greg, and all of the other people that sent cards for this set.

Greg didn't stop there. He also sent a great selection of Brewers for my team sets. Aside from the quality and variety of writing found on Greg's blog, I have always been impressed by his team set wantlist organization. I wish I could get mine to behave like his, instead I have the wild step brother want list. Even due to my complete lack of a list Greg provided some excellent cards to fill the numerous holes in my collection. He sent a nice bunch so I thought I show a handfull of them.

1982 Topps Thad Bosley and Jerry Augustine. Man look at that hair. I remember when a friend Jon got a perm (might of been 84, maybe later) and even though were were like 10 we bagged on him mercilessly. Dude kept the hair cut for like five years to. Jerry on the other hand is a local boy. He was born in Hales Corner, about 2o miles from where I am at. Brewer fans can also listen to him on the post game after Brewer games on the radio flagship.


1983 Pete Vuckovich and Ben Oglivie, two stalwarts from the early eighties Harvey's Wallbangers. Look at that windup, that is soooo old skool. Vuckivich was 18-6 in 1982 with a 3.32 ERA. Oglivie on the other hand is the forgotten son of the 1982 team with 34 HR and 102 RBI.


1984 Donruss Richard Eugene Manning and Robert Craig McClure. I always thought it was cool that Donruss put the players full name on the cards, like it gave you some voodoo against rivals.


Other team set hightlights are Jim Gantner and Greg Vauhn from the under appreciated 1990 Fleer set. Gantner is another local boy, who according to the back of the Fleer card was residing in my home burg of Hartland during the 1990 season. Last year he managed the Wisconsin summer college team up in my home town of Wausau.


2000 Upper Deck Gold Reserve cards of Bob Wickman and Jeromy Burnitz. I might be mistaken but I thought that I read recently that Wickman finally officially retired (I am not entirely positive so...). These two are interesting because they show the transition to the Brewers current uniforms, Jeromy sporting the older version (my least favorite of all Brewers gear) and Bob the new.


And a bunch of 2006 Topps highlighted by Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks.


Two to file in the "what could have been" folder - 1996 Topps Cal Eldred and 2009 Bowman Chrome JJ Hardy. Cal was a young promising right hander for the Brewers who went 11-2 in his first season, led the league in games started and innings pitched in 1993, and in games started again in 1994. He then promptly blew his elbow in 1995 and need Tommy John surgey - and now people say Cal who? JJ is now in Minnesota, and I wish him the best as he was a favorite of mine.


And one to file in the "what the hell" folder, 1999 Upper Deck Ovation Jeromy Burnitz. I am not sure if I like this card or not. Mostly because it confuses me. I like the baseball background and the raised stiches, but why and the hell is the circle background in the middle a chromy picture of nothing...Looks like Jeromy popped another one up


Just for kicks, a 2008 Topps Stadium Prince Fielder. I really like the look of this set but not real impressed with the gimmicky checklist. If it was just straight forward and the price was right it could be highly collectible. But since the card companies are always looking for an angle, its not.


Last, a 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom Seasoned Veterans card of Ryan Braun. Seasoned veteran? after 2 and 3/4 years of MLB? O-kay...Man, is it me or does Ryan Braun have some of the goofiest baseball cards.


So there ya have it, a little slice of goodness from the Night Owl. Brewers card in all of their versions are always appreciated. Thanks Greg.

Lake Effect Brewers Cards

Came home to a nice little package from Greg at Lake Effect Baseball Cards. It was so nice that I thought that I'd change the name of his blog for a post. Greg and I swapped a bunch of 87 Topps cards a while back. Recently, he sent me an email saying he had some 2009 Updates for me and that he would send them off.

Well he did send them of and they arrived today. To be honest, I had forgotten about them because I have been distracted by work (I know, you should never let work interfere with your card collecting. Don't worry, it wont' happen again), so it was kind of a surprise. Yeah!

So the package contained a Ryan Braun and a Prince Fielder, both in All-Star Glory.


Also included was the fifth place runner up in the NL ROY race, Casey McGehee, second base rental Felipe Lopez, and back up catcher Mike Rivera.


Now, here's the great part, there were two bonus cards. Everyone likes bonuses, right? Bonus card #1 is a Topps Propaganda insert of Ryan Braun. I have seen some of these for other players, and well they are hit or miss for me. I think there is even one for Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres that has a Brewers logo on it. Umm, Okay? The Braun one at least looks decent.


And the card most spectacular, bonus #2...2009 Topps Career Quest Mat Gamel Autograph. Nice! I have hardly any autos in my personal collection, so this is an awesome card to receive. Hopefully, Mat can turn it around because his rookie season last year was not what many were expecting. Mat spent a lot of time on the bench and it seems to have thrown his timing off at the plate. Hopefully he will get regular at bats next season and he will rake.


Thanks Greg! The cards are very much appreciated and I will make sure that I can help out with some of your wants.

2008 Upper Deck Heroes

So after a busy day of running errands, I swung by K-Mart to see what cards they had for half off. In the past I've gotten some Upper Deck X, Upper Deck Series 2, and Masterpieces blaster for 10 bucks. Occasionally, I've been able to get individual packs of 2007 and 2008 Goudey for half off also. The had the usual X and Series 2 blasters but what really caught my eye was a freshly opened box of 2008 Upper Deck Heroes with only a single pack missing. Advertised price was .99 a pack. I contemplated buying the whole dang box but cooler heads prevailed and I walked out of there with ten packs.

I have always enjoyed this set but this was my first purchase of any of the product. I've gotten a few of the cards in trades and thought that they were pretty cool in a retro oddball kind of way. I was planning to buy a hobby box of this a few weeks ago, but I bought a box of Heritage High Numbers instead (it still hasn't arrived, arggh). I think I may still try to put the set together, but I am kinda on the fence right now. Anyways, I don't really want to post a pack by pack account but I thought that I'd show some of the highlights.

First the relic, came out of the first pack I opened. Unfortunately it is not of a person I collect but nice to see nonetheless. Ladies and Gentelemen, Pat "the bat" Burrell, although my in-laws from Philly call him something else.


Second "hit" was of an off colored serial numbered version of Nolan Ryan. Usually I pull parallels of has beens or never weres, so this is a plus.


Next up are a group of Brewers, four of them to be precise. This never happens. I pull boat loads of Yankees, Red Sox, and Rockies, but never Brewers. I figure that this blows my allotment of pulling members of the team I collect for my next couple of purchases.


A couple of more HOFs - always nice. I guess in a set called Baseball Heroes, this should be expected.


And more HOFs in a different color, even better


Overall, I really enjoyed opening these packs. Like many of you, I enjoy the bargain aspect of buying older cards and this group was great with excellent value for the amount of money I spent. I still might buy that box...

The Alberta Clipper is early this year!

Look what blew in from Alberta...a nice yellow package of baseball cards from the cap'n over at Waxaholic.

Incidentally, I was reading his blog yesterday and noticed that he picked the Cowboys over the Packers. I, like most Packer fans, despise the Cowboys due to annual ass whopping they put on the Pack during the early/mid 90's. I think I am over it but then again the hatred flares up once and a while. And regarding yesterdays game? Well, at least he showed the correct cheerleaders with his pick!

On to the highlights from a nice stack of cardboard goodness. Thanks Brian the cards are very much appreciated.

A bunch of 2008 A&G for my set wants - found on zistle only because it is so huge. Yes, I am still working on this set event though the 09 looks better. I plan to post a want list as soon as I can get it down to a more managable level.


A sweet group of the Brewers infield from the 80's. Starting with third baseman (at the beginning) and HOF Paul Molitor. Molly in the 1988 Donruss looks fairly confused -Skip, you want me to do what? I also think that the 1990 Fleer is a very under rated set with a nice clean simple design.


Two of Robin as centerfielder from the end of his career. These two are going into some team sets that I am working on but have not yet posted. Building the want lists for the team sets has been killing me because my collection is so full of holes.


Second basemen Jim Gantner, aka Gumby. Look at those glasses! Quick, what do you notice about the 87 topps card?


A 2009 O-Pee-Chee black bordered team card. Picture this exact shot but from the terrace level. Those would be our season tickets, uhh, former season tickets. We decided not to renew because it just became to much with the kid and all. Hopefully we'll still make a couple of games next year because my wife's work/boss has season tickets just behind the visitors dugout and he is very generous with giving them away.


Lastly, it wouldn't a trade with the Captain with out a couple of wax packs from the early 90's. I got a 1991 OPC and 1991 Score to crack open. Perhaps I'll let you know what I got in a future post, hmmm.

Extreme Value Pack

The other day I posted about a decision I had to make when I was in Target - 2009 Sweet Spot or a Fairfield Repack. Well, in that previous post I chose the Sweet Spot, and the results were not really that good. Today I didn't make the same mistake and instead went the cheap route. So lets see if there really was "Extreme Value" as advertised on the packaging.

So I opened it up and there were 10 packs of cards for 10 bucks. Already I feel better than that last purchase. Showing on the front were two 2007 Turkey Red packs and two 2007 Topps Updates packs. I am not going to bore you with the nitty gritty of what was in each pack but the packs that were included were one 2004 Topps Opening Day, one 2006 Topps Updates, two 2007 Turkey Red, two 2007 Topps Series One, and four 2007 Topps Updates. Since I was not collecting in any of those years I am more than happy to open the packs.

The Highlights...

2007 Turkey Red Tim Lincecum


...and a couple of future HOFs.


2007 Topps Derek Jeter with Mantle and Bush. I wasn't collecting back when this first came out to all of fan fare. My brother told me about it after he bought one for about $10 from a card shop.


2007 Topps Update Prince Fielder Home Run Derby. Back when he wasn't HRD champion and only went deep three times.


Last but not least, a Prince Generation Now insert.



Honestly, I feel that I got more value in this purchase than I did from the Sweet Spot. This is due partly to the fact that I can use all of the 2007 cards for the sets and I got a couple of cards for the PC.

What's a team collector to do?

I was going through and organizing a big box of cards that hold all of the Brewer cards that I've accumulated but have yet to put into my "team set box/binder". These are cards for sets that I don't have many of and as a result I don't want to put them in a binder just yet. Well, anyways when I was going through them it struck me how many sets there were during the late 90's and through the mid 00's. I wasn't collecting then so I didn't have to deal with the plethora of cards available to the collector.

When I started collecting again I had no intention of collecting every Milwaukee Brewer card out there, but as things have progressed through trading I became happy and am still happy to get any Brewer cards that are offered. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, the organization of the collection has not kept up with acquisition of all of the cards. Many of the cards are of players not in the PC, and on the other hand, are not really a team set type of card. The dilemma that I now face because of all of these loose random cards is what do I do with them? Do I just start a random Brewers collection? Throw them out? Trade them away? Give them to the 20 month old to fold and "paint" on?

To highlight the point I grabbed some cards of Brewers players that fall into this random category because I don't know how to deal with the situation.

1997 Pinnacle Inside Dave Nilsson. Not sure what the picture is about - I guess Dave Nilsson is just really bored with baseball, Inside. On the back it lists a series of tidbits about the player; Dave's nickname is "Thunder" and his scouting tip is that he "like low balls." Oh, and by the way, any set that only has three players in it from a given team cannot qualify as being a Team Set. Personally, I put the cut-off at about 6 cards.


1998 Circa Thunder John Jaha. Wow, card set names were pretty cool back in the day. Is this a reference to the abilily of the players to hit home runs - like John Jaha is bringing the Thunder! I just looked this up on www.teamsets4u.com and this set has 300 cards to it. I am not BSing you, did anybody know that? And guess, what 9 of them are Brewers - I may have to rethink some of my criteria for collecting a team set. I would say that any set that uses meterological terminology should be in, but that background is killing me.


1999 Upper Deck HoloGrFX Jeromy Burnitz. This has to be the oldest card I have with the "x-fractor" finish to it. I know x-fractor is a Topps thing and this is a Upper Deck product but I know of know other way to discribe it. Pretty neat. Jeromy had some nice years with the Brewers back then, but baseball was barely on my radar in 1999 so I have no recollecion of his exploits.


1999 Upper Deck something or other Jeromy Burnitz. I tried looking this card up in, umm, a baseball card magazine that I own. I got no friggin' idea what set its from. Perhaps the UD Flagship? Whatever. Its got a gold seal in the lower left that commemorates the 1999 All-Star game in Boston.


2000 Upper Deck Hitter's Club Jeromy Burnitz. Do you see a pattern? I got lots of Jeromy Burnitz cards from some of the off shoot sets. He, and his .266 career ba, was the only current Brewer worthy of being included in this set.


2000 Upper Deck Legends Jeromy Burnitz. WTF? As much as he was appreciated in Milwauke, Jeromy Burnitz and Legend should never be used together in a sentence. To put him in a Legends set is an abomination and UD should have lost their license back in 2000 for this.


2001 Upper Deck MVP Mark Loretta. I have always wondered about this set. Why would you call it MVP and then fill it with scrubs? Ok, OK. Scrubs is a little harsh, but Mark Loretta? Actually there are 10 Brewers in this set, none were even remotely close to being an MVP.


2003 Hot Prospects Richie Sexon. Let's see, Richie hadn't been a prospect since the late 90's...why is he in a prospect set in 2003. Yeesh. Very busy card, makes me tired, think I will go lay down...zzzzzzzz.