Half-A-Mega-Trade Part 1

Welcome to the second-largest trade I've done yet! I still have less than a dozen trades under my belt, but I'd say this ranks up there with some of the larger trades I'll end up doing this year (other than possibly trading for complete sets, of course). The instigator of this trade is Dominic, who runs the fairly-new trade blog Buckeye State Cards. A few weeks ago, Dominic emailed me a list of about 50 cards that had to offer, which ended up ballooning to 129. All this week, I'll be treating you to commentary on many of the cards he sent, starting with the base cards, and working my way up to the hits!

The trade focuses on 2009 Upper Deck. In fact, that's almost all he sent! But that's perfect, because he is a big help towards finishing the set. Here are some of the base cards he sent:

Conor Jackson, at what appears to be an Astros game, which would put Carlos Lee behind him as baserunner. The D-Backs only played the Astros three times in Houston in 2008. Conor played in none of them. He did play in two of the three matches in 2007, Friday 5/11 and Sunday 5/13. The Astros jersey appears to be a Sunday alternate version. Carlos Lee reached first 3 times that day, so this could have been any of those at bats.

To the left, to the left...

All the hitters like to lean a little to their left...

Where's the ball? I think he missed. Or maybe he already hit it, or it's really inside. How many ballplayers wear sunglasses while batting?

One of the two 1000+ card-number rookies Dominic sent.

The other - and this is a great action photo. Nice plug on the billboard, by the way. Too bad your entire business and the end of your phone number is blocked. However, that is a Florida area code, and the Indians don't have a Florida affiliate, so this must be spring training 2009.

Another sunglass-wearing batter!

C'mon, put your back into it! (Why is it I know so much hip-hop?)

Colby signing autographs on a beautiful day. I like the angle - but I bet it wasn't planned. Perhaps the photographer was in that little pit next to dugouts and Colby wandered over to sign some stuff, and he just turned around and snapped the picture.

VOODOO!

Justin Morneau sporting his 2008 All Star Home Run Derby trophy. Since I don't pay enough attention, this is the first time I actually saw a HRD trophy.

Fear the beard! 2009 edition.

And finally, Chris Waters says, "I have two baseballs! How cool is that! But what am I supposed to do with two?"

That's all for this first post, and thank you to Dominic for this and all the other cards that you will and won't see this week! Tomorrow I start showing inserts!

A Costly Question on Autographs

My personal collection, on the baseball side, is a bunch of autographed cards - some are in-person, but most are releases from sets. It focuses on a few teams that mean something to me and a couple accomplishments. Occasionally I browse eBay looking for deals on the autographs I want but don't have, and with the new season and (almost) new location, I've been looking a lot lately. One of the people on my list is Mark McGwire, and he will probably remain on the want list for a long time. At the time of this writing, this card is at about $120 with time remaining. He's not worth $100+ to me.

Not on my list, but not for reasons you think, is Barry Bonds. After seeing the prices on McGwire autographs, I decided to look up Barry. For someone in the news a lot, he's not going for very much. This card sold for over $100, but several of his certified autographs are going for $50-75.

So my first question is, why? Both of them have used steroids/performance enhancing drugs, and admitted it (though Bonds says he didn't know it). Bonds is a bigger name and has more accomplishments than McGwire. The only answer I can figure is supply - it looks like McGwire's cards are in shorter supply.

Now on to another autograph subject, while I'm on the topic. When I was in Georgia, there weren't big shows like the TriStar shows with autograph guests. Occasionally one of the shows would have someone like Clete Boyer or another former Brave. At those shows, autographs would cost a few bucks at most. Now that I'm here, I see flyers for these supershows and autograph prices, and they aren't cheap. Matt Cain is signing at a card store here in a week or so, and the autograph fee is $90. $90! You can get a certified autograph on eBay for $10-25. Is the thrill of meeting Matt Cain worth $80? What do you tell your 10-year-old Giants fan when he wants to go? Sorry, bud, but your hero costs too much. I've heard the argument - "Why should I charge $10 for my autograph so some dealer can get his stuff signed and sell it for $100 or more?" But come on, it's fricken Matt Cain. Or Jonathan Sanchez (who, coincidentally, doesn't have a single autograph card - he's got a couple Co-Signers with other players). Or Will Clark. Sure, Clark is a local hero, but pretty much nobody outside of San Francisco cares about Will Clark. Why? Why is it so expensive? Nolan Ryan, Albert Pujols, A-Rod have all signed a ton of cards and their autographs go for a lot, so they should rightfully charge a good bit for an in-person signature, but $90 for Matt Cain? Really? So if I decide I don't want it anymore I can't get anyone to buy it from me since I don't have proof it's authentic unless I spend another $50 or more for the service? After waiting in line for an hour to get his autograph? Just so I can see him sign it for five seconds?

I'll just get his certified autograph off eBay for $10 and save the hassle.

And one last question, this one actually serious - for all you TTM people, where do you get your autographs? I'm assuming current players are sent through the club. Ever had any luck at sending ahead to a stadium they are heading to? (Have all these questions been answered on some other forum or website I'm missing?)

Don't Just Stand There, Bust A Pack!

At last weekend's bust of a card show, I picked up a few cheap packs - five '94 Fleer and a '96 Fleer Update. I guess I didn't have enough of '94 Fleer with Colbey's break. This was all in the name of fun, so with the exception of the noted cards, I'm making everything available for trade.

'94 Fleer Pack 1:
Highlights include ... well, there was a Curt Schilling in the pack, and that Darryl Kile card. Nothing else stands out. Oh, and all the '94 Fleer packs had issues with cards sticking together, so most/all of the cards are somewhat damaged. I'm keeping the Van Slyke and Gross for the Awards/Leaders.

Pack 2: Mark McGwire, Jack McDowell, and one of those beautiful Pro-Visions of Tony Gwynn. I'm keeping the Gwynn.

Pack 3: Rickey Henderson, HoJo, and John Kruk as an All-Star. I hated him back around this time - him and the whole nasty Phillies team. I'm keeping HoJo, Rickey, Mesa, and Shaw.

Pack 4: Dave Winfield, a good selection of pitchers, and Will Clark on an insert. Keeping Dave, Kenny Rogers, Eric Young, and Tim Leary.

Pack 5: Barry Larkin All-Star that's slightly oversized (?!), and Barry Bonds. I'm keeping the Barrys.

'96 Fleer Update pack: These cards are on a matte finish with full-bleed photos - this is where Fleer Tradition got its start, and probably eventually led to the Topps Heritage line, among others. It's a stark contrast to the high-gloss, white-bordered '94 cards. Kevin Brown is the Tiffany parallel; I also pulled Kenny Lofton, Wade Boggs, Ryan Klesko, and Mike Piazza. I'm keeping Kevin, Mike, and Kenny.

Well, that does it. For all the cards I'm not keeping, I'll probably take most anything I need in trade because of the condition. Because of the condition of the cards, the '96 Fleer was nicer to open, though I do like the clean simple design of the '94 Fleer set.