Spanning the Borders of North America - It's Trading Time!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted around here.  I’ve been struggling with a bit of writers block, and a huge amount of sheer laziness.  Now that I know I’m going back to work in a couple of days, the need to be productive with my time has flown out of the window.  I’m not going to lie, it feels a little like the last week of summer of vacation.  It’s time to start squeezing in as much laziness as possible (Monday’s schedule consists of sitting on the couch and mainlining Cheez-whiz straight from the bottle while watching the Star Wars trilogy).

One of the few productive things I HAVE been doing is rocking the card trading world.  From Canada to California the cards have been streaming in.  Actually, just those two places.  Still it’s not bad.  The best part is that the two traders have really helped knock out some needs from the ol’ Heritage want list. There is nothing I like more than getting cards for nothing…or what I consider nothing. 

First up some cards from the fine gentleman from the north – Captain Canuck.  He saw a couple of Heritage cards that I had on my trade list and promised to send some in return that I needed.  After receiving his envelope, I’m glad that I found some extra cards on his want list that he claims he needs.  What did he send me?

In addition to the Heritage and some 1990 Topps that I needed he threw in a couple of extra Lightning cards capped off with……



Nice card of the captain (image from zistle)

How’s that for a sweet swatch of sweatery goodness? The card comes from one of the few ITG higher-end sets that includes Lightning relics. It’s a silver level black piece of jersey from the “Captains” set that ITG released earlier this year. Now that’s how you do non-licensed cards. my friends!

Also received this week from Woody – a reader who I’m not sure has a blog – a straight up Heritage for Heritage trade.  For some of the dupes that I had he offered to let me pick six or seven cards that I needed. 

Chances are this pitch was 90 MPH and a strike - image from personal collection

My boy Koji had to be one of them! Even if he’s not in an O’s uniform it’s an awesome card, especially since it’s designed as a “night card”. 

Thanks for the cards, guys!

The Winner

Wow, I'm really kind of slow at posting things aren't I?

Let's not keep the world in suspense any longer. The winner of my spur of the moment contest is none other than...



Captain Canuck.

Yes, the masked superhero from the north. Writer of not one, but two blogs. Commissioner of a Fantasy Hockey League and all around excellent trader wins with this entry:

Captain Canuck said...
after a tantrum, and his mum fixing his hair with a kleenex spit bath, little Steven finally relented to having his picture taken in the sweater Grandma made him.

What made this a winning entry?

I enjoyed the reference to the hair, the sweater and the use of the word "mum". We need to use that more in everyday life.

What did he win?

A hand signed card that I was able to procure during my unemployment last year. And maybe some other prizes I can dig up in the next week or so. The card will be sent to you and hopefully clear customs sometime before the playoffs start. Unfortunately, I no longer have a photo of it so maybe once he receives it he will be nice enough to post it :)

Congrats. Stay tuned there might be more contests (with things other than cards, Dani!)

So congrats Capt.

Look Who Went Shopping

So I haven't found a decent post office yet (i.e. one that's open when I'm not at work), but I did manage to find myself a card shop. Last month I stumbled across a post from SewingMachine Guy asking for some help finding a card shop in Chicago. Knowing I was moving to the city I bookmarked it.

Everyone's favorite Canadian Superhero Captin Canuck mentioned Tim's Baseball Cardshop . Since I trust all Canadians implicitly I decided to check it out. On a dreary Sunday morning I dragged my roommate Hamel onto the Northbound Western bus and after approximately 75 stops (do they really need to have a stop at EVERY corner?) I found myself in front of the small shop.

Tim was there and apologized about the messiness of the shop, it appeared as if a customer had just dropped off a bunch of merchandise and it was spread out in the small front showroom.

I looked around a bit, he had some decent pricing on boxes that until I have a couple of paychecks under my belt I'll have to wait to purchase. He also had several glass cases with singles divided by sport. Compared to what I used to see in my old shop his prices seemed pretty reasonable.

There were a couple of nice O's cards (Ripken auto, Brooks rookie, etc), but my eye kept getting drawn back to one card in particular.




A Sports Illustrated Autograph Collection of Earl Weaver.

Let's see:

1. An Oriole Legend
2. A Hall of Famer
3. On Card Autograph (and it's legible to boot!)
4. The subject of one of the best YouTube rants ever (caution foul language).

It was a no-brainer. It was a little out of my price range (i.e. cash I had on me) so I asked Tim if he could sell it for what I had in my pocket. He said yes and the card was mine!

I'll be heading back to the shop as soon as the cash flow opens up. He has tons of singles that I need to go through for player and set needs, and like I said - good prices on boxes. If you're in town give him a look!