time for trades

i recently swapped some cards with a couple of bloggers, including my first trade with jeremy at topps cards that never were. i had helped him complete a couple of sets, and he let me know he would send some vladimir guerrero cards my way in return. he wound up sending a bunch that were new to my collection.

here's a 1997 donruss preferred checklist

along with five more from 1997 and one from 1999

and then one from 2001, two from 2002, and six from 2003

i miss the expos!

next up, i wasn't trade #300, but i did complete a time travel trade with diamond jesters. i picked up a 1955 bowman bob nieman card

for the set build.

and, in my ongoing attempt to catch up with trade posting, here are a few more cards that i received from sluggo last year

2018 topps factory set exclusive cody bellinger rookie cup greats medallion

2021 topps update roy campanella 70th anniversary patch

2021 topps mike piazza 70th anniversary patch blue parallel

2018 topps allen & ginter kenley jansen full size relic

2020 topps clayton kershaw major league material black parallel

trea turner relics from 2022 topps and 2022 topps heritage

2016 panini prime cuts pee wee reese

and a 2022 leaf lumber bat rack 3 platinum card of campanella, john roseboro, and piazza

thanks for the trades!

this one is not so bad, but still, avert your eyes because it has friends

my fascination with cut autos, and tristar signa cuts in particular, struck again in the form of a purchase of this 2008 tristar signa cut card of steve garvey

which features a chopped-up 1981 fleer card that he signed.  it looks more familiar on its side

even though garvey's signature lines up well with the card's orientation thanks to his penchant for signing cards vertically.

there has been a recent uptick in rare-ish garvey cards being posted on ebay lately.  in the span of a week, there were three different cut auto cards from 2014 leaf history of baseball listed.  i wound up with one of them that features a nice blue signature on a black & white photo

i thought i knew the photo that this came from, but i was wrong. i was thinking it was one of the team promo shots used on the 1982 builder's emporium 8x10 giveaway, but it is not.

another cut auto that i picked up is from something called 2013 historic autographs the decades - 1970's.

i've seen these before, but hadn't picked one up until now.  the cut auto is surrounded by 1970's references, including a misspelled thurman munson ("munsen") reference.  the auto comes from a signed cachet, but not this one commemorating garvey's 1000th consecutive game, 

nor is it this one from garvey's 1,118th consecutive game

which features billy williams during a postgame ceremony. this was a game that i attended, by the way.  instead, the cut auto comes from this cachet

which fetes the same milestone event.

last, but not least, is a cut auto from 2016 panini prime cuts harmon killebrew card

i think the design of this card is outstanding with the photo selection panini used and the way it's paired with the 1996 mlb alumni card. this strengthens my opinion that not all cut auto cards are abominations!

building a custom 2016 panini prime cuts box of my own

i recently considered purchasing a box of 2016 panini prime cuts.  i've picked up several 2016 panini steve garvey cards and have been very happy with them.  adding to my enthusiasm was a series of posts by the daily dimwit, who returned to the blogosphere to show off some great pulls from the product.

before i pulled the trigger, however, i listened to the angel on my shoulder who reminded me that it's probably wiser to purchase singles from the product since my collection is fairly focused.  that voice also reminded me that fuji had done something similar a while back.  so, i set out to build a custom box.

there are five cards per box, but i didn't pay attention to the typical splits (if there are typical boxes of prime cuts), i just focused on five cards for less than $149.95.  that was the price i was considering paying for a box.  let's see how i did.

first up is a fairly generic eddie murray relic card, numbered to 149

it's always nice to see guys like murray featured as a dodger in products.  better that than as a met.  here, eddie is all bundled up in blue and gray and has his signature little league hat under the helmet thing going on.  we don't see that very often these days.  this card cost me $6.98 (all prices include shipping).

next up is a auto biography (fairly clever, panini) auto/relic card of don sutton

this card is numbered to 10, and pays tribute to sutton's rookie season of 1966 when he won 12 games and had an era of 2.99.  the photo is not from 1966 (sutton's hair was straight then), but it's a classic sutton action pose. too bad that the card design doesn't allow for a 'suttoning' pose.  i enjoy picking up cards of sutton, as he was the only hall of famer on the team of my youth, and has been featured in a bunch of recent sets from panini and topps.  this card cost me $17.50.

next up is another card numbered to 10 - a dual patch clayton kershaw and don drysdale card

that's two great pitchers that go great together.  obviously, sandy koufax is usually the southpaw to drysdale's, what, right-handedness?  eight years ago, i was kind of hoping that kershaw and chad billingsley would form the same sort of dodger duo, but the closest the dodgers have come to sandy and don is a year or two of kershaw and zack greinke.  this card cost me $43.00.  i probably overpaid for that one.

here's kershaw all by himself on a patch card numbered to 25

i didn't see any red number patch versions, unfortunately.  the photo selection for kershaw is about the best panini could do.  the hat logo is missing, but otherwise there are no tell-tale signs of the lacking license.  this card cost me $22.50.

last up is the big hit.  it's a corey seager dual relic/auto numbered to 49.

aside from the blank jersey (which i do still find annoying), it's an on-card auto with some jersey (or pant) piping of the 2016 national league rookie of the year.  good stuff.  this card cost me $46.67.

so, i came in at $136.65 for my five cards. there's no jackie robinson relic, but i would have been very pleased with a box that had those five cards.  and, since i was under my price point, i added a sixth card - a basic mike piazza relic numbered to 149

for $8.98.  that's not a bad box, if i do say so myself.

speaking of the daily dimwit, i won a contest he ran shortly after he showcased all that prime cuts goodness, and he sent me a few dodgers as my prize. thanks sam!

here's former dodger prospect grant holmes on a 2015 bowman's best auto card

i was hoping that holmes would be the second coming of don sutton - both on the mound and with the hair - but now he's with the a's and just getting his first taste of double-a action.

this is a 2016 topps adrian gonzalez scouting report relic card

this one features a gray swatch, and i also have a white swatch version. relic variation, yo!  by the way, the scouting report i'm thinking of has cody bellinger hot on gonzalez's tail.

finally, here's my friend yasiel puig on a 2016 topps allen & ginter relic card

i watched two of the first three dodger games this season, and i liked what i saw from puig. hopefully he can keep it up for another 150+ games.