Contest Winnings from the Baseball Dad Himself

Saturday, 31 March 2012

Friend of the Quarry, Jack (better known as Baseball Dad) held a contest over at his blog All Tribe Baseball.  It was a guess the number of duplicates contest and surprisingly I was the closest.  I almost never win guessing games, but I got lucky this time.  My winnings for this contest was cards unsurprisingly.  Here is what I got for being a lucky guesser.

This card was the star of the package.  It is a dual purple relic of Larry Walker and Todd Helton from 2001 SPx Update.  It is actually the 2nd copy of this card that I have gotten from another blogger.  I got the same card from Dennis of Too Many Grandersons Verlanders over a year ago.  It's still good that this card came because that one had a couple of small creases near the swatches.  This one is aesthetically more beautiful.

Here is nice card of Charlie Hayes from the futuristically named set Sportflix 2000.  The set was put out in 1994, so it was futuristic back then anyway.  Ahh the days of being scared to death of the Y2K bug, don't you miss them?  The Howard Johnson is from 1994 Stadium Club Team Series and actually gives me an idea for a new feature which I will debut soon. 

Next up we have a pair of starters from the mid 90s.  Bret Saberhagen was one of the many chances the Rockies took on a formerly great starting pitcher that didn't really pay off.  In Saberhagen's case, injury was the main culprit rather than the pre-humidor Coors.  Thomson was a 7th round pick in the Rockies 2nd draft ever in 1993.  Tossing out 1999, Thomson was a very effective pitcher for the Rox and later on for several other teams. 

Up next is a pair of Vinny Castillas.  The first is from Donruss' attempt at cashing in on the Finest craze 1997 Donruss Preferred.  It may look like a bronze parallel, but it is actually a base card.  Each card in the base set was either bronze, silver, or gold depending on rarity (I think).  The second card I absolutely love.  It is a magazine pull out card from 1999 Sports Illustrated for Kids.  This is one of those cards that I would have never gotten because I didn't know about it. 

We couldn't have my card winnings without a Todd Helton.  It is a 2002 Upper Deck Diamond Connection base card which (sort of) finishes the team set for me.  I still need several SPs and jerseys which were numbered along with the base cards.  The middle card is a 2002 Donruss Fan Club Mike Hampton from a subset called Fan Club Favorites.  The only fan clubs that Mike Hampton was a favorite of were Rockie opponents.  The final card is from 2003 Donruss Estrellas and is of Lanzador (pitcher) Jason Jennings.  Counting the unopened pack which garnered me two Rockies, Jack has now sent me 75% of this team set.

My favorite item from this package isn't even a card.  It is a foldout schedule of the 2004 Rockies.  Granted that was not a particularly good season for Todd and the Todd-lers, but it is still a great new part of my Rockies collection.  What a beautiful photo.


Thanks a lot Jack.  As always, I will keep my eye out for any Indians that you might like.  Unfortunately, the Indians (along with the Twins and Cubs) just never seem to find their way into packs I open.  Oh well, at least I know I'll have a great place to send them should I ever get any.

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Bad News...Well, not for you...Just for Me

Saturday, 3 December 2011

When I took my sabbatical from blogging, I didn't have much use for my scanner.  It was basically a large paperweight, although I did set my Playstation on top of it for a while.  Anyway, the point is I hadn't used it since around August.  Well, I was going to scan a very generous package from everyone's favorite Baseball Dad, Jack from All Tribe Baseball, which included an AWESOME pack of 2003 Donruss Estrellas along with the 2011 Rockies team set from the Topps Limited Edition set.  Unfortunately, I got a nice l'il error message which after a bit of Internet tracking told me NOTHING.  Actually, it did tell me one thing...I need a new scanner.

Now with my current financial situation, this ain't happening for a little bit.  So I will continue blogging, but I will only be able to use pictures that I have used on the blog before or scans that I hadn't used yet but are on my hard drive.  This sucks, because that means no scanning cool new (for me) cards that I get from the generous community, but eventually I will either my scanner fixed by a magical elf or I will break down and buy a new one.  Until then, I will be working on posting want lists and hot stove news and the occasional brilliant commentary (ED NOTE: Your definition of brilliant may be different than the author's).

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RTP #17 - Special Guest Jack from All Tribe Baseball

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Welcome back to the latest edition of The Rockie Trading Post.  Today's special guest is Jack (aka Baseball Dad) from All Tribe Baseball.  If you haven't met Jack yet, surprise he is a Cleveland Indian collector, but he also has a couple of cool side collections of Jim Abbott and the Pacific ornaments set (which I love also).  I contacted Jack after he mentioned opening a few packs of 1993 Diamondmarks which are one of the rare early oddball sets containing Rockies and asked him if he got any of the 4 Rox in the set.  He replied he got two he didn't need and a trade was born.  See Jack's review of what I (and McCann Can Triple) sent him here.  Here is what he sent me.

First up is the two Diamondmarks, which are basically a combination of a baseball card and a bookmark.  I honestly had no clue what these even looked like before they arrived...they are HUGE, even slightly larger than the oversized Fleer products from the mid-90s.  If anyone has an idea on good storage for these please let me know.  They are great looking though and pack fresh, and if anyone has a Daryl Boston (what an odd choice for a small set) and Charlie Hayes I would welcome them.

This one was a COMPLETE surprise, since I didn't send Jack any GU or numbered stuff.  I appreciate it definitely.  Once the shock of getting a jersey card #'d to 775 wore off, I was wondering a bit about the bright red swatch.  Was this an early Rockie card and they used an Expo jersey or a late one that used a St. Louis jersey?  Nope it's from the 2002 Upper Deck Diamond Collection.  Then I read the back and saw it was from the All Star Game, makes sense now.

Next up is a 2003 Topps Total silver parallel of failed catching super prospect Ben Petrick.  Well maybe failed is too strong a word, because he did play in the majors for several years, but he was hyped as the next Piazza or Fisk in the minors.  Maybe the next great Colorado catching prospect Wil Rosario will pan out and shore up a position (2B also) that has never really had a star in Denver.

Here is 2011 Topps Toppstown insert of Carlos Gonzalez.  I am so glad he lived up his minor league hype last year, having been the centerpiece of separate deals for both Dan Haren and Matt Holliday.  The 7 year/80 million dollar contract extension is a bit scary (for a non-Yankees team) for one real year of production, but if he produces over the life of the contract what he did last year it will be a steal of a deal.  If not it could be a long seven years for the Rox, but let's not go down that road.

Our Todd Helton card of the trade is this thick 2005 Bazooka gold parallel.  I always loved the Bazooka comics as a kid, but some of the jokes were lame even for a kid.  I do like the Bazooka cards though and will probably bust a box or two this year.


Thanks again Jack for the great trade and I hope we do it again real soon.  Don't forget to check out his blog here.  Well, that just about wraps up this edition of The Rockie Trading Post.  Tune in next time for a rare trade where I give up Rockies.  Until then, we are officially signed off.

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