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!

Today's post features 1 (struggling) Brave and 2 guys I wish were still Braves

The 2015 baseball season, both on the field and in cardboard for the Braves has been interesting. On the field, the team got off to a red hot 6-1 start, before running into problems with both starting pitching and the bullpen.

On the cardboard front, many of the early 2015 cards feature players that aren't even Braves as of the start of the season. This is in large part because of the many late off season trades the club made. However I still try to acquire new Braves cardboard when I can and here are a few of my latest acquisitions.

The smattering of colored parallels for Gypsy Queen has begun. I was able to snag this Gold parallel of Alex Wood's mini (#05/99) for around $3 shipped.

While I miss seeing Heyward in a Braves uni patrolling left field, his replacement (Nick Markakis) has done an admiral job at filling his shoes. What I don't get is why so many of Heyward's inserts still feature him as a Brave when he's a Cardinal in the base set?

I've actually been trying to pick up this 2014 Panini Immaculate Collection card of Hudson for several months now...but the price was always more than I wanted to pay. However this low serial numbered card (45/49) finally became mine for just a few bucks last week. Like Heyward, this one has him as a Braves player too.

2014 Topps Finest Atlanta Braves

It's been awhile since I've bought any new Braves cards, let alone a whole team set, so you'll have to excuse my excitement over this 2014 Topps Finest set. Being out of the loop a bit I didn't even know that Finest was having a 2014 release. Now that I have these cards in hand I'm loving the wild 90's design. Makes me want to seek out a few of the Refractors now.

#41 Jason Heyward

He hasn't even been gone for a whole month and I already miss him. I'm anxious to see what Markakis can do in right field, but boy does he have some big shoes to fill.

#45 Freedie Freeman

Freedie had another solid year at 1st base and I expect nothing less from him than in 2015.

#52 Christian Bethancourt

Evan Gattis who? Yup, looks like Gattis may be on his way out (to left field?) to make room for Bethancourt to be the everyday catcher. I liked what I saw from him defensively and I hope his offensive game starts to heat up this upcoming season.

#73 Craig Kimbrel

Release the Kraken! Craig continues to amaze me. I think by now people know he is a force to be reckoned with.

#96 Justin Upton

By the time the 2015 season rolls around I'm not sure this guy will even be on the team. I know his strikeouts were up there last season, his bat will be missed if he is traded away. I know you've got to give up something good to get something good. Let's just hope GM John Hart can work out a good deal because I know the other clubs will come knocking this winter.

So Long J-Hey Kid

Yesterday marked the end of the hometown kid's run in Atlanta. Jason Heyward was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Shelby Miller. While I understand the trade, it doesn't help remove some of the sting from the announcement. Heyward to me was one of those guys that epitomized what a major league player should be. Hustle. Hard work. Loyalty. I know Jason may not have lived up to some of the hype he had, especially after his rookie season, but he's a solid baseball player and I can't wait to see how he does in St. Louis under Mike Matheny and crew.

I still don't know who will fill his shoes out in right field, but I sure am glad I got to see him play one last time earlier this year. The Braves are a wreck and I sure don't envy new general manager John Hart and the position he is in. This move has proven (so far) to be pretty unpopular among us fans. Then again there is a reason we are fans and not general managers. This was a tough move to make, no doubt about it. Only time will tell if it was a good move.

The question I had to ask myself was what to do about collecting Heyward. I'm not a Cardinals fan. In fact I despise that ball club. However I think I've come to the conclusion that if I can collect Dave Justice cards wearing the Yankees pinstripes then I can collect Jason Heyward wearing the two little redbirds. Seriously though, for several reasons Heyward will remain a large part of my card collection. I respect his athletic ability, his work ethic, his love of the game, being a former Brave, but for most importantly he still falls under one of my collecting goals and that is we share the same faith in Jesus Christ.

So I end this post with a few random scans I had handy of the J-Hey kid. You'll be missed out in right field son. I wish you all the best...of course except when you come home and play the Braves!

    

  

    

    

    

    

   

   

 

"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!

A few picks up during the off season

I have cut my card buying WAY back for several reasons and I don't intend on ramping it back up until some things change.  However I'm still a sucker for beautiful cards and good deals so I may snag a few things here and there.  While I have just about cut out set building for the time being, I'm still focusing on a few players.  Here is a sampling of a few things I've picked up over the past several months.

I don't always care for the Triple Threads brand, but I loved the last auto I picked up of Tim Hudson so when I found this one for a few bucks it was hard to ignore.  Sadly this card marks the last year of Hudson truly being an ace on the club.

If you can't tell this is one of the cards from the internet only 2013 Topps Mini set.  I know the parallels are a bit tough to pull and this pink Breast Cancer Awareness parallel numbered #22/25 was under $5.  Still haven't messed with picking up the base mini or the gold mini parallel.

Chrome and die-cut?  Sold!  I don't know what this insert set is called, but it came in a lot with a orange Refractor - both from 2013 Topps Chrome.

I loved the Pinnacle brand back in the day, but I was only so-so impressed w/ the one pack I bought earlier of the new 2013 product.  I grabbed this one insert to see if it would tickle my fancy and I have to say it's pretty sweet looking in hand.  The card is covered in a holographic like prism w/ gold foil stamping.  The center of the card is a clear acetate and apparently comes in a variety of colors with different words.  This Heyward only set me back a buck.

I'm not really sure how I started a Jeff Taylor player collection, but I amassed just about every single auto of his from his rookie year last year.  So why not continue the trend with the new 13-14 offerings?  It's not like his autos are expensive.  Plus he is a great young player that when I do watch my Bobcats play, I enjoy watching him play and put up the 3 pointer.  This card hails from one of the earliest sets in the new basketball card season, Panini Prestige.

NBA Hoops I believe made it's come back (thanks to Panini) last year and in the 90's it was always one of my favorite sets.  After it was released I checked the checklist to see if Jeff Taylor had an autograph in the set and I was happy to see that he was included.  However these red and blue parallels are lame and seem pointless to me.  This red bordered parallel is #d 47/50.  Still need to pick up the regular version and perhaps the blue that is #d to 25.