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The National is easily the best card show I’ve ever had the privilege to attend. I know not everyone has the opportunity, but if you can arrange it, please do yourself a favor. There are so many vendors there that are simply looking to liquidate everything that they have, and there’s so much to look through that it’s easy to find good stuff on every single day even though you’re “competing” against thousands of other buyers.
I don’t really have any “holy grail” cards per se, but the show is one of those elite experiences where its possible to find those types of things as well (assuming it’s not a 1/1, although…maybe). Tons of vintage, which I’m still too scared to even think about, a lot of recent stuff, a lot of memorabilia, some oddball stuff, virtually anything you can think of is on the floor.
 Silver = class You can even find a few surprises, like some 1996 Donruss Elite cards for $1. When Elite hit packs in 1991, it changed everything.
 Cursive = class By the time 1996 rolled around, they were still numbered to 10,000 copies each, but the luster had gone away a little bit. They were still tough, but the floodgates had been opened. I would also say that the actual design of these, compared to the flashier 1991 and 1992s makes them less desirable too.
 Marble = class However, spending a dollar on each of these is still a pretty good deal and quite a surprise on the last day of the show. I can’t find one online for less than $5 before shipping, doing a quick search. And now, I don’t have to open cases of old Donruss chasing the dragon, either.
 Love the way the blue foil pops Speaking of floodgates, how about the fact that two years later, Elite had it’s own set and this Craftsman insert #/3500 is now “worth” just as much? Elite was a shot in the arm of the hobby, but maybe a different disease came through.
 Framed like a work of art Here we have a really nice looking 1998 Elite Aspirations die cut numbered to only 750 copies. I might have paid $2 on this, but I’m not sure. I did expand my price ranges a bit this time considering I didn’t have to worry about shipping. So, if I were to pay $1 plus shipping, why not pay up to $5 on some cards?
 Wait, what’s the set again? Even though Elite was its own product in 1998, Donruss also still had their Elite inserts, which I like more than 1996. They’re also down to 2500 copies each two years later.
 Gold = class By 2001, The Elite brand was basically all numbered inserts, all the time. Probably before that, but you know. These are the highest print run, aside from the base cards, at 2500.
 Kitchen tile =/= class That only means there’s a lot more to try to find in a future show from the set.
 Strange that 20 wins was his career high Stuff like this, from 2004. The 1000 run is close to the top of the print runs here. They were also adding more hit variations, so I have a few more Career Bests left.
 Not supposed to checker foil the middle part Lastly, is a throwback to the 1992 days. This is an un-numbered insert from the 2014 Panini Hall of Fame set in 2014. That confused me in my checklisting, because they also had Elites in this style in the normal Donruss release as well. They sure do know how to milk a brand name, don’t they?
I don’t get to go to the 2018 show, but I should be there in 2019. Maybe I’ll get really lucky and find some even older Elites I need!
It’s been a little more than a month since I’ve added to this series, and I have quite a few autographs from my player collections to show off. I don’t have an autograph of everyone (looking at you Bryant and Rizzo, among others), and I think a couple of the relievers have no certified autos at all, but I do have enough to put the series into the double digits. Today we’re looking at starter turned reliever turned maybe starter again, Mike Montgomery.
Even after having a hand in the case-breaking world, Autographed cards still fascinate me. Allow me to explain with this series introduction from the early days of the blog. To see the other parts of the series, click on the “Card-ography” tag at the bottom.
Now that I’m back into collecting, one of the biggest surprises greeting me at the door was that signatures on cardboard (or on stickers placed on cardboard) are now a regular part of the hobby. In fact, it’s basically expected at this point. I know there are plenty of people who feel that if their box doesn’t have an auto – or even the RIGHT auto – then it’s a waste of money. Hell, I’m still not completely jaded by relics, so I can’t understand this theory.
I know that most of the autos aren’t all that valuable, but seeing that blue, red, and sometimes black ink on a card in your hands still holds significance to me. It still makes for some of the most enjoyable moments in collecting.
That’s why I’m starting a series that will analyze the signatures we see. It’s common to see people lump them into “good” and “bad” categories, but I want to take it farther than that. This player took the time to sign your card (although some of them don’t take tons of time). I’m going to take the time to inspect it.
 Never played with the Royals This was one of my finds at the National this past year. Bowman is a good (?) resource for finding autographs of a lot of the reliever types, because it seems like almost everyone gets an autograph. Die hard fans of the blog will recognize this card from a 2011 post that Andy did before he left the blog and collecting for personal reasons. In there, he cites the higher prices Mike’s cards were going for at the time. Well…patience is a virtue and a money saver. This card is not the exact same one that he has (or had, not sure if he actually kept his Royals): I checked.
Literal:
If you didn’t know his name, what would you think this said? “Miles NHarry”
Style points:
There’s very little style to be found. It’s quite up front and straight forward. These are the letters in my name and I will write them.
Space Usage:
Not ideal. He decided to scrunch it all down at the bottom and slightly overlap the nameplate area. For a pitcher, location is everything, and he missed the strike zone.
Laziness:
The signature isn’t lazy, especially compared to other people with shorter names, but it’s not all that exciting either.
Intangibles:
It’s all about the glow behind the ears. It’s not a very flattering picture of the Royals first rounder for a 1st card. However, I look forward to seeing a blue refractor of this in person some day.
Overall:
It’s nice to get my first auto of Mike out of the way. The odds of it being my last are pretty low. Right now there are less than 100 cards for me to collect and over 1/4th of them are autograph cards from a quick count. I’ll keep my eyes peeled at the next card show or shop I get to attend.
Back in late September, I posted the first part of a significant trade I made with Bill, then in April I got back on track and showed off part 2. May saw part 3, and here we are in June for part 4. As a quick refresher, he responded to some of my Gypsy Queen trade bait posts and we worked out a nice, large exchange – mostly for my budding 2016 WS champ players. Far too many cards for one, or even a few posts. So, this is part 3 of many. As mentioned before, he doesn’t have a blog of his own, but he’s known as minibbcards on the Trading Card Database and his want lists are fantastic (and found here).
This time around, we’ll be looking at Stadium Club, Gypsy Queen and a couple other random pieces to round things out.
 I’m going to assume night game First up is an Arrieta card I’ve seen before, but in a different form. I pulled the rainbow foilboard #/25 from my box of this back in the day – before I started collecting him. However, I never got around to selling/trading it, so now I have that and this one!
 Infield fly shots are underutilized I don’t remember seeing this one. Any new Rizzo is a good Rizzo.
 You’ll be smiling in a couple years There’s something to be said for unique action shots, but I really like the simplicity of the green gradient background.
 Dugout cards are used more than infield flies, but still not enough Maybe I’m alone in this, but I still can’t get straight which design goes with which year by looking at the fronts alone. How much does it really matter, though? The photos are the focus.
 Have a few minis and autos to chase Edwards has a ton of prospect and rookie cards, but since he settled into the role of reliever, his presence in sets has dropped off. So, it’s great to see newer cards of his in trade packages.
 Need some minis here too Lester is in a bunch of sets. The Cubs bats get more attention in the smaller ones, but if they do include pitchers, he typically makes the cut.
 Make a wish on Zoltar In 2017, Topps removed the tobacco sized minis and left us with only these less wide fortune teller cards. Personally, I’m happy because I hate the minis and their never ending permutations. Bill probably isn’t thrilled.
 Not Panini’s “Finest” Like I said, we’ll end on a couple random cards of Lester. I actually kind of miss Panini Prizm. This first set was a bit rough, but it got better over time.
 Not throwing to first I don’t have a lot to say about this other than to say that Lester may be earning himself an All-Star slot again this year. Time will tell, but his season is quietly good enough in my opinion.
Thanks again to Bill for all the great cards. I still have about 4 more parts to go, if you can believe it. I’m not sure where we go next on this adventure, but hopefully you’ll all join me. Maybe I’ll even post it before the month is out.
Well, this will be quick. After a larger December, the first month of this year only saw two new cards come in the mail. Things will slowly pick up from here for a bit until about now where I’m stalled buying cards due to travel. I’m really itching to relax and open packs, so when I return from this work trip I’ll probably be buying a couple boxes.
I doubt they’ll have anything for my collection in the same vein as these, though.
 RIP, I guess? First up is part of my continued effort to chip away at the 2017 Bunt set needs. Perhaps I should say “effort” because I haven’t been specifically pursuing them. They just land in my lap with minimum bids because no one else seems to care. It’s amazing how quickly and cheaply I’ve been able to put together this Kool-aid stained things.
 I think this came from Asia Contrary to the Bunt stuff from last year, some of the Topps parallels are getting less obvious. This is the black #/99 version, which looks very very similar to the normal one with silver foil. I’ve seen them do this color swapping a lot lately, and many of the designs do not make the color change obvious. Hopefully they’ll start to change that back in the near future and add some features to make them pop, or…and hear me out…don’t make numbered parallels of the inserts?
Since I’m out of the country, I have no way to watch the Cubs in the month of June. Gameday could be an option if the time difference wasn’t so big. A 7pm start is actually 5:30am here. Sadly, the team has refused all of my zero requests to stop playing the game until I return, so I have to keep up with things from afar and check box scores.
Well, I’m not doing anything with my time away from the office, except being sick and having trouble sleeping, so how about we turn back the clock a bit and look at games 31-40 to stay on track a bit. We start with a 5 game winning streak.
 Remember the rule – replacing players I collect for players of the game that I don’t collect. Soler seems to match body type to Happ Win #17 – Ian Happ (not pictured) – Ian’s been struggling a bit, but he temporarily broke out to go 2 for 5. Both of those hits were homers (one from each side of the plate) and accounted for 5 of 14 Cubs RBIs on the day.
 Looks to be back on track Win #18 – Carl Edwards Jr. – There was nothing spectacular on the batting front, so we look to the pitching. The best example I could find here was Edwards Jr. with is one scoreless inning pitched. All three outs were strikeouts and he even got the the win in relief. That reduced his ERA to 0.53 on the season at the time.
 Not one of the many Donruss variations Win #19 – Anthony Rizzo – This was a tough choice, but I decided to go with Rizzo. He hit 3-5 with 5 RBI on the day thanks to two doubles and a 3-run homer. This was also a day where Contreras hit 2 triples and Bryant hit his 100th career home run in a blowout victory.
 Speaking of Contreras Win #20 – Willson Contreras – Two triples the day before and the next day he follows it up with a 4-5 effort. 2 doubles and 2 homers (one solo and a grand slam) means his 7 RBI game had to be the choice.
 Just missed three in a row Win #21 – Contreras – He’s back again. This time he hit only 3-5, and only one 2-run homer, and only managed 3 RBIs, but he did leave no one on base for the second straight game.
 I see you, state flag Win #22 – Ben Zobrist – Separated from the 5 game winning streak is the only other win of this stretch. This one was not a great offensive game for the Cubs, but Ben knocked in the winning run in the top of the 9th after the team entered the inning down 1. That hit was his only one for the game but he did also draw a walk.
Hi everybody. Greetings from halfway around the world. I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in a lesser known, but still incredibly busy city in India for a work trip.
It is not going well. I do not wish you were here. Actually, that’s partly not true. It would be great if someone were here with me, because even though I know several people from work, I’m very much isolated. My bosses advised me not to try to navigate the streets because the roads are too busy and basically impassible, and besides it’s not a good idea to trust the food unless you give yourself a lot of time to adjust, and even then you need to stick with very well-known trusted sources.
 Unrelated cards time Honestly, I’ve been very anxious and depressed this whole time already. I arrived late Saturday night for my three week trip (after about 24 hours of travel and layovers + 10.5 hour time difference) and…international airports are intimidating. The one here was extremely so, because the design felt like an afterthought. It was the first time I’ve gotten off a plane (normal jet) to go down stairs onto the runway. That’s just how it works. It doesn’t lead back into the inside gates (it did in Delhi for the first leg, which is a much bigger hub). You are walking around the various planes to get to the baggage, etc. with really no signage. I just had to follow people and hope I got it right.
 Posting a few rainbows to brighten my day Did I mention I didn’t really have any phone access as well? So if something went wrong, and as a naturally paranoid person I assumed it would, I really had no way to let people know. I was a nervous mess. So, there was a shuttle from the airport to take me to the hotel, and that did not help things. You may have heard stories of traffic in India and it is not an exaggeration in any way. I was afraid for my life on several occasions and I hate to say it, but the streets we were on did not seem like the best of neighborhoods. The drivers to take from the hotel to the office have been less aggressive, but still a scary experience every time. In a sense, I think they must be the best drivers in the world to avoid collisions that should obviously be happening much more frequently than they are. Motorcycles cut in front of everything, cars dart in and out of lanes and into oncoming traffic to get around people. People seem to make up their own traffic rules, but everyone else also seems to know those rules. It’s a marvel, but I’d much rather be an outside observer than an passive participant.
 After all, it is monsoon season here The hotel, from what I can tell, is one of the nicest ones in the city, if not the best. I’m thankful my company has given me the star treatment in that way. The main 15 hour flight was great and I got to be in the executive class with one of those seats that turns into a full bed. The hotel room is quite big and comfortable. They say to only eat the food in the hotel for the above mentioned reasons (even when at the office, they advise we order from the hotel and have it delivered) and thankfully I haven’t been disappointed.
 Although thankfully I’ve seen very little rain – only while waiting for the connecting flight However, despite that, I’m writing right now because I have the day off from my job after getting sick. Last night, around midnight (which would have been early afternoon for you), I started to have an ulcer — my second this month. This is one of my biggest fears. Sadly, it was a really bad one that lasted more than an hour, so I ended up calling in a doctor. Shortly after I got off the phone with him, and before he arrived in the room, I vomited from an ulcer for the first time. That certainly helped relieve the pain some, though.
 These scan very blue, which is quite appropriate So, long story short, I’m a mess mentally and physically and I still have two and a half weeks to go. I hope I can make it.
Here we are at the end of the dimebox glory. It’s probably no surprise that names like Bryant and Rizzo are absent from the titles. Maybe someday soon they will be, but there’s too much of a new player shine on them still. But, if Gwynn, Maddux and Thomas are in there now, with recent cards (not junk wax commons), then it’s only a matter of time. I can wait. In the meantime, I’ll grab a few cards of the other guys that are a bit more budget friendly.
 You don’t wear ties on the field, silly We’ll start where we left off last time, with the 100 Years of Wrigley insert. Some fans are not seeing this contract as a celebration. I’m okay with it for now, but don’t understand how money for him and Zobrist was okay but Castro was a waste at significantly less.
 Fingerprints are free The ’07 SP Rookie Edition set is full of short prints in various throwback styles, and there is still a bit of a market for them for some reason. Not big money, but it wouldn’t be weird to see these sell from a dollar box.
 95 set look So, it was nice to find these in there.
 ’93, of course I’m not sure which ones are the rarest, but there is an order. If the ’07 rookie crop was a bit stronger, it would be really interesting to see how this set performed over time.
 Awkward face Luckily, there are not multiple rookie cards for this set. What a gross looking set this was.
 Don’t leave him hanging That’s better. Another gold paper Bowman. I’ll high five over that.
 Still hanging Oh, hey! I recognize this picture. Some Chrome rookies can be valuable. Some only hold value to the collector rather than the monetary kind. This is the latter.
 Go back to the other picture It’s a Fowler rookie avalanche. Avalanche. Because he played for the Rockies. Mountains.
Moving on.
 Needs more Alice the maid I even found a rookie insert in there. I assume the green border is the most common version, and the surrounding 3 don’t inspire interest, but I don’t care.
 Ball placement To end things in this booth, the last dime card is a bowed refractor. Cheap parallels are a nice surprise, but even though they may have cost a few more cents, I have plenty more parallels to showcase going forward. I bought hundreds of cards at the show and there are a lot of beauties in there that I’m looking forward to showing off. I don’t know what part 5 of the 2017 NSCC will look like yet, but it should be fun.
It’s trade post time! Looking back, it’s surprising how many trades I’ve been able to complete this year with relatively little effort. What’s even better is that nearly all of the trades have been quite large, which means I need multiple posts to get through everything you fine people have been sending me.
After I get back into the country, I really want to make a more concerted effort to scour blog want lists and pro-actively offer more trades, and also post more trade bait here. I have a few posts waiting for me to stay in the US long enough to respond.
Tom from The Angels, In Order didn’t have to wait. He saw my post about Upper Deck Documentary where I made note that I (still) have a TON of this stuff to trade and he wanted a brick of Angels sent his way. I was very happy to oblige (and I’m still happy to do so if anyone needs a team lot or specific player from that set) and trade with Tom again. It had been a while.
In return, he sent me a smattering of John Lackey cards (and some others) to really boost my quickly growing collection of him. Seriously, there’s no lack of Lackeys here, so it’ll take a couple parts to get through it all. To start, I’m focusing on the year 2009, because for some reason I decided to not post these…”in order.”
 Always interesting to see a middle name in the official signature A few posts ago, I showed off the gold version I found for a dime. I didn’t even have to spend that much for this guy!
 Nice lighting, too I love a good horizontal card. This composition fits the frame wonderfully. It’s also great when a mundane action like this can still find a way to be visually interesting.
 Get that sweat glare In contrast, here is a vertical card that looks more like a typical after thought pitcher photo. The glove even looks a bit too blurry.
 The fog I know some might not like posed shots, but sometimes they can break up the monotony. Even a little angle change like this can be enough.
 Yeah, I figured as much This insert set was a bit too big. I know they go for a 100-card thing each year, but too many repeated countries means it’s a bit of bloat.
 Teeth are closer than they appear I wish UD had a baseball license just so I would have more of an excuse to collect the Goodwin Champions set. As it stands now, there’s too much variety and stuff I don’t care about. If it was mostly baseball with other sprinkled in, like A&G, it would be a different story.
 Even this picture is better for being different, or, “unique” I’m a little surprised that Unique only lasted a year. It looked like it did well, and I love the matte stock with high gloss. Maybe now that nearly ten years have passed it will get a reboot.
 Some photo effects should not be used Goudey I’m less interested in than Goodwin. I think you can see why. I’d rather have Chicle back.
 Spring training game, perhaps However, OPC is sorely missed. I loved the black borders from this set (and the card stock). It’s great to knock this, and all of the other cards off the want list.
Thanks a lot for the trade, Tom! I’m looking forward to sifting through and showcasing the rest of the package in future installments.
I’m temporarily back to the blog. After spending a week in London and Scotland, I got home Sunday night, picked up my dog from the parents on Monday and largely caught up on work today. I do want to talk about my trip in some detail, but I’m anxious to get something posted now. Hopefully over the next couple of nights, I’ll be able to get things started, but I have a lot of drafts pending and trade posts unfinished. The Europe stuff may have to wait until I’m settled into my hotel in India, because in just about 10 days, I’ll be flying out there for a 3-week work trip.
So, today, I’m throwing up this third part of the 2018 season, because it’s been 26 days since the last installment, and I missed a whole week of games while I was gone, and I really don’t want to fall drastically behind on another series.
After bouncing back and forth all season and hovering near .500, the Cubs finally broke out with a 5-game win streak. And then they proceeded to follow that up with a 5-game losing streak. At times, I really don’t know how this club has a winning record overall. Our bats were not strong during that winning stretch, either, so you’ll see a lot of pitchers on this list. Still, we made it through and I’m happy to have a few more in the W column.
For the first time this season, I now have to decide how to handle players I don’t collect that earn the player of the game honors. My decision is that I’m going to use cards from other players from the World Series team that are no longer with the Cubs. Pitcher for pitcher and batter for batter.
 All about optics Win #12 – Kyle Hendricks – In a 1-0 win, pitching is crucial. Luckily, Kyle gave his team 7 innings out of 9, while only allowing 4 hits with no walks or runs (obviously), and recording 5 Ks
 All about Donruss Win #13 – Yu Darvish (not pictured) – Darvish has been disappointing this season (and currently on the DL as of this writing). However, on this game day, he managed 6 innings, 3 hits, 2 BB, a whopping 8 strikeouts and was tagged for 1 unearned run. He also hit a nice, awkward double where he stumbled rounding the bases (not the cause of his DL stint, I think)
 Just peachy Win #14 – Jose Quintana (not pictured) – Huge performances from our starters in this stretch of games. Jose has been more solid overall with the Cubs, but slipped some this year. Here, he went 7 innings, held the Brewers to 2 hits, and 1 walk. He struck out 7 and kept them scoreless. He also picked off one of those few base runners at first.
 Just rainbow-y Win #15 – Tyler Chatwood (not pictured) – Another new Cub starter that has occasionally under-performed, he followed Jose’s lead by also going 7 innings, only letting Milwaukee have 2 hits and zero runs. No pick-off and he did give up 3 BBs, and only 4 Ks, but Tyler did contribute with his bat by hitting the game-winning RBI single.
 Still all about the optic Win #16 – Bryant – The only batter of the bunch. Bryant displayed some nice defense (it’s been good to see that part of his game seem to improve) and also rocked a triple that led to the game-winning run on Rizzo’s subsequent ground out.
Five straight wins, but that was surrounded by five losses, so that stretch was equalized. Can’t win the division like that.
Yesterday, I showed off the first part of my December wins. It’s pretty rare for me to get the part 2 of anything up so quickly, but I checked and there were only 4 more cards to end the month and the year. I also wanted to just get it out of the way now, because I’m leaving town for about a week very soon and this will likely be my last post until the end of May (then after that I have to leave the country for 3 weeks in June, but let’s not talk about that right now).
So, let’s send this off on a bang.
 The hair was thrown in for free by me I just know there are a lot of Studio Portraits out there in the hands of people that collected over a decade ago and then just ignore their cards now. So many parallels to chase and slowly pick off. This one is the Diamond Kings White #/60.
 Nice to see the Class listed on the side Here’s a card that likely is part of the lot I referenced before. I really don’t know what the main impetus was for finding that seller anymore.
 Putt-Putt! If I cataloged this card correctly, it’s from the Father’s Day promotion that Panini did. I have a another version of this card too with a higher numbering that really looks virtually identical. You’ll see that as some point, I’m sure.
Now if you thought that this card #/50 was the best find of the month, you are underestimating my abilities. It was a cheap one, obtained for the minimum, but the best of the month is…
 Bang! …this Topps Chrome auto! One of the interesting parts of these past few years is that Frank Thomas continues to sign autographs at a rapid pace, and so the prices overall are going down. I don’t recall exactly what I paid for this, but I do know I started trying because I saw how cheap this particular auto seemed to be for what it was and its print run. I’m happy to be in a position where I can chase autographs more frequently, so my hope is that you’ll start to see a few sprinkled into the 2018 ebay posts.
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