Trade with the Collector's Crack

Mark from the Collector's Crack had a stack of Braves and Carolina Panthers building for me for some time and recently sent over some good stuff. I had shipped him earlier some Brewers and Packers stuff I had been sitting on for him as well.

I received four team set bags full of cards plus a few others. The bulk of the cards of course were Atlanta Braves, many that I'm pretty sure I didn't have already.

A few of the highlights include some HOF players like Dale Murphy, John Smoltz (which by the way this TSC card features a great picture!) and this numbered Chipper.

Always nice getting cards of players that wore the Braves jersey for only a brief time, or just don't have cards made very often. I think this makes maybe the 2nd or 3rd card I have of Robert Fick in a Braves uni and the first of Shane Reynolds and Horacio Ramirez.

I don't have a lot of Braves minor league cards in my collection, but this shiny foil Pro Debut card of Jason Heyward is a welcome addition.

Last of the Braves highlights is this 2018 National Baseball Card Day of Ozzie Albies. The only LCS close to me didn't participate in the program, but thankfully Mark's awesome local shop did and he tossed this Albies card in my stack.

I don't feature too much football on my blog, but Mark is one of the few baseball card collectors that I know also dabbles in football. Here we have a look at the original rookie Panthers QB and the current Panthers QB. Love those older Pacific football cards.

Rounding out the Panthers were two jersey card, one of draft pick bust Joe Adams (though still a beautiful card) and fan favorite RB DeAngelo Williams.

The perfect ending to the trade is a healthy addition of new Ben Sheets cards for my PC of his. Shy of hitting up COMC or SportsLots I don't often get too many new cards of Ben so I'm very grateful to this Brewers fan to these. I'm hoping the Brewers can stave off elimination in tonight's NLCS game against the Dodgers. Thanks again for the trade Mark!

A few new pickups including some HOF RCs!

I really don't care to flood my blog with "pick up" type posts, but as I sit in front of my computer waiting for all of my stores to close at 4 PM today (so I can enjoy the rest of my 4th of July), I decided to scan a few new cards just for kicks.

We'll start off with two new Max Fried RC autographs I grabbed on the cheap. Max is coming off a dominating start against the Cardinals after being called back up from Gwinnett. He really has had the chance to make much noise in the majors, but if he can pitch like he did the other night on a consistent basis then the Braves have another bright star in their rotation. Best of all, his autos are fairly inexpensive right now. Of the two, I prefer the Finest (right) over the Tier One, but both are beautiful cards.

From 2005 Donruss Prime Patches comes this beautiful card of Ben Sheets. It not only features his autograph, but also game worn pieces of jersey, shoe, hat and pants. Best of all, it's serially numbered 01/93.

I don't have a large PC of Ben, but I ran across this card for less than $4 and seriously, how could I not pull the trigger? Ben belongs in my "Faith Brothers" mini-collection.

Ever since I started collecting baseball cards in 1990, I wanted a real RC of Cal Ripken. He played ball for the Charlotte O's in the early 80's, my hometown. While I can't say I remember watching him play at the old Crockett Field (I would've been 3-4 years old), I find it cool that a legendary player like Cal played minor league ball in my hometown. None the less, his RCs were always too pricey for my reach as a youngster so it was wishful dreaming to own some of his rookie cardboard.

While his 1982 Fleer RC may not be the most in demand or best looking card, I'm thrilled to have finally acquired this piece. Of course this just fuels the fire to acquire his Topps and Donruss cards next!

I'll blame this acquisition on Panini of America. Ever since they revived the Donruss brand, they have started to use some of the older designs, such as this 1983, in their current product. Well I ended up finding this Tony Gwynn RC for a mere $5 with free shipping not too long after I found the '82 Fleer Ripken. With Gwynn playing on the west coast his entire career, I was only able to watch him play when he played against my Braves or the Cubs (thanks to getting WGN), but I always marveled at his patience at the plate. The guy hardly ever struck out and always made contact. He may not have marveled fans with his power, but the dude could flat out hit the ball. From what I knew of him off the field, he also seemed like a great stand up guy too. I'm thrilled to add this vintage (at least to me!) piece of rookie cardboard to my collection.

Up next? Well I need to put the finishing touches on gathering all the details for my next Affordable Group break for July. Stay tuned, especially if you like Canadian cardboard!

"New" pick-ups

Please tell me someone that I'm not the only one that has fallen behind on scanning new card acquisitions! With the exception of the 2014 Donruss Evan Gattis auto, the rest of the cards have been sitting in a stack on my desk at home waiting to be scanned for who knows how long!  The getting caught up work continues!

The beginning of a new PC: Ben Sheets

I was aware of Ben Sheets as a MLB player, but I hadn't really followed his career much.  In fact I didn't even know he had been out of baseball for a few years before the Braves signed him earlier this year.  How could one not get behind a guy like Sheets in 2012?  I'm not going to go hog wild buying up his cards, but when I came across a few autos of his online I couldn't resist.  As I continue to scan my backlogged cards I'll share more, but for now here are the first two purchases of his I made.

2002 Fleer Authentix

2005 Donruss Prime Patches #39/93

I love the pseudo ticket look of 2002 Fleer Authentix, but my favorite of the pair has to be the Donruss Prime Patches card.  Jersey, hat, shoe, pants and an auto.  Plus it's #'d out of 93.  Yeah it's a sticker auto, but at least Donruss embedded the sticker in the card.

Farewell Ben...I hardly knew you

With today's earlier Braves / Pirates game, pitcher Ben Sheets had his last start as a Major League Baseball pitcher.  After the Braves' chances of winning the division were squashed by a loss to the Pirates Monday night, manager Freddi Gonzales decided to give the scheduled starter, Tim Hudson some much needed rest.  Today's start was Ben's 250th of his career.  Sheets struck out two of the three batters he faced in the one inning he was on the mound.

Ben only had 8 starts for Atlanta this season after coming back from retirement.  I knew of him being a baseball card collector and all, but I never really got a chance to see him pitch before he joined the Bravos.  I wish his shoulder could've lasted a bit longer and he could have stuck around a little longer.  He provided a breath of fresh air for the team the last half of the season.  I wish Ben all the best in his retirement.