It's An Avalanche

Hitting the mailbox tonight there were three packages waiting for me inside. The first was an artelope return from the Colorado Avalanche

If I wasn't a fan of the Ave's I wouldn't bother writing the team due to the sad thing they consider a return.

Not only didn't it contain the business card I had hoped for. The one schedule above is all the envelope contained. The crazy thing is next year I will be right back at it with another attempt.

Jay Gives Me The Business

To say that October was a good month when it comes to my business cards would be an understatement. Not only was I able to add some great cards when I did the big schedule trade early in the month. The month ended with a bang when cards came from another schedule collector Jay.

Starting to get a little more serious into the sports teams business cards. Jay sent out an e-mail to the group looking to trade some of his doubles for new cards. Any time someone does this I jump right on the mail, and look for some new cards for the collection. While most times I come up empty, I keep on trying. This time my trying paid off as Jay had eleven off the top that I needed.

Besides the eleven there was another batch that I had to see before making the decision. Good thing I asked as another fourteen cards made their way into the trade due to this questioning.

Seeing all these great cards had me excited with the thought of adding them into my collection. Now we just had to get through the problem of him finding cards he needed from my traders.

 Luckily for me this wasn't a big problem. Honestly it was probably the easiest part of the entire trade. Most times when I find cards it gets tough as the other person doesn't need near the amount from me. Being his collection is still in the newer stages. Jay needed over 50 cards from my traders list. Knowing the feeling he was suffering from I told him to send the list, and all 50 cards would be on their way. With all these great cards Jay sent my direction. I feel like it was more than a fair trade.

And I Didn't Have To Walk The Plank

Not long ago Matthew from the great blog Bob Walk The Plank contacted me. Hearing from a guy with the name Bob Walk The Plank had me feeling a bit like this.

Wondering how long it would be before my fate. Matthew let me off the hook by letting me know a mailer would be making its way my direction. A few more days passed as the excitement of knowing that I wouldn't be fed to the sharks, but was getting some cards. Then came another e-mail from Matthew, and fear back into my heart. Had he changed his mind, and I was about to be making the walk? Once again I was spared as word came that in a few days I could be expecting a package.

Once again I was spared from the fate of the plank. Instead what I got were some sweet additions into the collection.

Avery a 2008 second round draft pick by the Baltimore Orioles was part of the trade that sent Mike Morse to Baltimore in 2013. In 2014 he played 120 games for the Mariners triple A affiliate the Tacoma Rainiers. At the age of 24 Avery still has the chance to reach any potential he might have.

Matthew wasn't done there as the second card got even better.

Jeff Baker spent his 2014 season playing for the Miami Marlins in 90 games he hit .264.

Matt Holliday, we all know is by far the better of the two players. Having a great few years in Colorado, Holliday was eventually traded to the Oakalnd A's. This sweet looking card contains elements of that trade as he's seen donning the Rockies uniform, but the A's logo. With the patch being purple, it would have been awesome for this card to have been totally Rockies.

Closing things out was the main event of the entire mailer.

A card that I never thought I would ever own. Not only is Seager a great player who I hope to see in Seattle for many years. I live in the Northwest so Mariners cards come with that added little boost to their cost. Being one of the biggest stars of the team only makes that worse. Matthew helped out the Seager collection in a big way with this sweet Gypsy Queen autograph.

All I can say Matthew is thanks for sparing me the walk down the plank, and for some cards who will have a home in my Rockies, and Mariners collections.

Last Card Show Of 2014 Ends With A Bang

Just over one week ago I mentioned that I was hoping to hit my last card show of 2014. Then the day came, and everything went as planned. Walking in I had hopes for a successful show, and this show didn't disappoint.

Mentioned last week in my Sunday NASCAR post was the 20 something Kyle Busch cards that I added. Normally NASCAR related cards don't exist it seems. At this show I found them in three different locations, and I bought at all three.

NASCAR wasn't my only find though as I nailed some of the sets in my wantlists.

At the last card show I picked up some of the silver 'You Crash The Game' cards. Even though they aren't from the 1995 silver signatures SP set. I think they look good with the set so I'm going to build the subset to go with the SP's. Seeing two more was a find I was glad to be going home with.

Speaking of the silver signatures. One of the dealers dropped his usual 25 cent boxes, and turned the into dime boxes. Searching through his mass amount I found the two silver signatures, and was thrilled to be bringing them home.

In the same boxes came the 2003 Ichiro MVP card. I seem to be having some decent luck finding the Mariners from the set. All the other teams seem to be a little tougher to nail down.

Another very unexpected find was the Griffey Jr. cards from the 2000 Twizzlers set.  These have been impossible to come across so getting this was a great find. Now if I can only find the other nine.

My best finds were in the category of player collections. I know that these two aren't listed in the player collections currently. That is a situation that I will be addressing at the end of the year, or beginning of 2015.

While I have recently started accumulating both players I am still in the process of figuring out all my player collections, and where these two will stand.

One of my more well known player collections is Nolan Ryan. His cards have been in the collection since the day I started organizing my collection. While it might not be as well known of a collection here on the blog. In other circles they know about my love for his cards, and try to feed me any oddballs that someone has doubles of when they come along. Some of these might end up being doubles, but for the price of one dime I thought it was worth the risk of getting them just to make sure.

Until seeing the love these get on other blogs I never appreciated these cards. All they used to be were wasted cards that took up space. Now I'm adding them into the collection, and having that same appreciation the other bloggers have. To all of you who have brought me around to these cards I say thank you.

Closing out the player cards was the guy who odds are will be as big of a mainstay as Nolan Ryan has been. So far his cards have been like Ryan was in the 90's, everywhere. You can't find a set being made these days that isn't loaded up with Mike Trout cards.

Not only did I nail down some fairly common Trout cards. A few that I thought might be a little out of the range I'm willing to pay popped up. All these were found at prices more in my range, and thus made their way home with me.

Overall it was an awesome show that I haven't even shown everything I bought. There were a few cards that will be shown by the person they were bought for. That is once I get my act together, and send them out. Will that be before or after vacation is the big question.

Besides all those I found a few more cards for the ever popular 'It Still Hurts To Watch' posts. So those will eventually be showing up one day.