Wanted: Piazza on-card auto

Here’s a great opportunity for any of you reading this.  I’m looking to add a Mike Piazza on-card autograph to my collection and am willing to offer up some of the better cards in my collection to do so.  Below, you’ll find some of the gems available to the one who has a Piazza auto to trade as well as some other cards that are cool if not quite gem status.

I could sell some of these cards on eBay and then use that money to buy a Piazza autograph, but I wanted to try this first.  That way I can avoid all of the fees and someone can get some great cards.  If you see some cards that you really want, don’t have a Piazza auto and see a card available somewhere, let me know.  If I like the card, we’ll work out a deal and you’ll get some great cards for helping me add an important piece to mine.

I’m also looking for a 1992 Fleer Update set and will work out a deal for that as well.  There’s not as much booty available for that card, but it will still be worth your while if you have the set.

If no one takes me up on this offer or there are cards posted here that aren’t traded for that you like, let me know.  Maybe we can work something out.  A lot of these are cards that I’ll only trade for something special, but maybe you have that special something.  I’m currently redesigning the site bit by bit and eventually I’ll post a page of cards that I’m currently looking to trade for just about anything.

Now for the booty:

1994 Upper Deck Minors Trade Card – There were two trade cards available at a rate of one in every 135 packs.  That put an A-Rod redemption card in every 7.5 boxes.  Back in 1994 when redemption cards had to filled out and mailed in, a lot went unredeemed.







1997 Donruss Preferred Albert Belle Precious Metals Gold – This card is printed on 1 gram of fine gold.  This card will always be worth something even when no one remembers who Joey Albert Belle is.  The card is encased in a plastic capsule at the factory so you don’t have to worry about anything happening to the precious metal.





2008 Stadium Club Carlos Delgado Beam Team autograph – These cards are beautiful and while I’d like to keep this card in my collection, I’ll let it go in the right deal.

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces Gavin Floyd Stroke of Genius auto – Not a huge card, but a great looking on-card auto.  I know that some people are putting together Masterpieces master sets so I thought I’d include this.




2001 Donruss Ken Griffey Jr. Career Stat Line parallel.  This card is serial numbered to 33 on the back.  At that point in his career, Griffey had hit 33 triples in his career.  2001 Donruss was a very strange set filled with all kinds of strange cards including 1999 and 2000 sets included one per pack depending on if you were buying retail or hobby packs.  There are serial numbered cards all over the place.  I liked it, but never did much with the set after buying a hobby box other than purchasing a few of the Rookies set coupons on eBay.

2009 Upper Deck A.J. Griffin USA Baseball auto – I pulled this out of one of the packs that Upper Deck finally sent me to make up for my box that had four packs with only 10 cards in them and was missing two out of three hits.  The weird thing was that they sent two packs of series 1 and two packs of series 2.

I think that Griffin is in the Phillies minor league system.



2010 Topps Hanley Ramirez Peak Performance auto – Again, this is a card that I’d love to keep in my collection under normal circumstances, but a Piazza auto would make me much happier than a Ramirez auto.








2007 Upper Deck Goudey Rich Harden Goudey Graphs auto - This Rich Harden auto was what was sent to me in place of the auto that I didn’t get in my box of 2009 series 1.  It’s an upgrade since the flagship autos were all on stickers and the majority of them were of bums.




2001 Donruss The Rookies Ichiro Rookie Diamond King - Speaking of the 2001 Donruss Rookies coupons, this Ichiro is from the set that was sent out in exchange for the redemption card and $25.  I think the cost of the set kept too many people from sending away for it.  People knew it would contain Ichiro and Pujols so it’s not a rare set by any means, but the coupons were always available for a low price on eBay.




2001 Donruss The Rookies Ichiro – This is the base card from The Rookies redemption set.  I’m not sure exactly what this card qualifies as since Ichiro was in the regular 2001 Donruss set as a Rated Rookie.








2001 Topps Ichiro RC – I forgot that I had this card until recently because I had it organized under S instead of under I with the rest of the Ichiro cards in my collection.









1993 Bowman Derek Jeter RC – Come on, it’s a Yankees card.  Do I need to say anything more?  I’ve actually got two of these.  I was trying to put this set together at one point, but I wasn’t even close after busting two boxes back in 1993 so I ended up pulling the Jeter out of the set in progress.






1993 Topps Derek Jeter Draft Pick Gold – This is the regular gold version and not the Winner version.  Yes, Topps did print up a ton of cards in 1993, but at least this is a rarer version of that card.








1993 Stadium Club Dome Derek Jeter – When I originally bought this set it was to get the Nomar Garciaparra rookie that was in there.  Now it’s the Jeter card that is the best card in the set.  I was buying a ton of cards in 1993 and ended up with a ton of Jeters.  I’ve got his SP rookie as well in my set, but that’s something that I’m going to continue to hold on to.





2007 Bowman Best Joba Chamberlain auto – Full disclosure, this card has two indentations on the front to the right of Joba, but it’s got a great autograph on it and you could always cut this card up and make your own cut card or sell it to Upper Deck so that they can do it.







2009 Allen & Ginter Manny Ramirez relic












2008 Topps Joe Mauer Event Worn All-Star Jersey – It’s event worn, but it’s a nice looking card.







2007 Bowman Chrome Matt Palmer X-Fractor.  He’s on the Angels Opening Day roster.  Numbered to 275.










2001 Bowman Albert Pujols RC – If not the first, this was one of the first Pujols rookie cards to be released.  It was a huge card in 2001 until some of the autographed rookies started to show up.









2001 Donruss The Rookies Albert Pujols RC – There was an Albert Pujols card in the base set, but it was a redemption numbered to 500 copies that is ridiculously hard to find these days.  This card isn’t as rare, but isn’t plentiful either and has remained popular with collectors.







2001, 2002 and 2003 eTopps Albert Pujols.  The 2002 card has an upside down eTopps logo on the front of the card making it an extremely rare error 1/1? in eBay terms.  The Pujols rookie is one of the few eTopps cards that I’ve purchased which have gone up in value.  I love the cards, but these days I wait to purchase cards instead of purchasing them at the IPO because that’s just throwing money away most times.

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces Albert Pujols brown parallel /100







2005 SP Authentic Honors Albert Pujols jersey /130 – Upper Deck included this card when they sent back a bunch of 2007 Timelines cards for replacement.









1995 Upper Deck Reggie Jackson auto – Full disclosure, there are some rough corners on this card, but it’s a Reggie Jackson auto.  I’m not sure why the Upper Deck Authenticated sticker is on the front of the card since it is on the back of others that I’ve seen.  I don’t remember if this came out of a pack or if it was a redemption.  I want to say that it was a redemption, but I can’t find any information online about it.  This was back when pulling autographs out of packs was still a big deal.



2001 Bowman Jose Reyes RC – I have an old Beckett where this card has a big price tag on it.  I doubt that’s the case anymore.  Figured that I’d include it anyway.









2009 Finest Angel Solome autographed manufactured letter – I pulled this out of one of the packs that Topps sent me after the replacement card switch-a-roo.  Still not a fan of these cards.  I’m glad that I sold my David Price from my box back when it was selling high.







2009 Topps Updates and Highlights Jimmie Foxx and Nolan Ryan SP – I haven’t pulled any of the SP cards out of Topps boxes until I opened a box of 2009 U&H and pulled two.  One of them was in there in place of one of my other promised hits in the box.  The hits that I did get were in terrible condition and I still have to send them in for replacement.

2009 Topps 206 Denard Span Piedmont framed auto – Span made Sportscenter the other day for hitting his mom with a foul ball.  These cards are very similar to the Allen & Ginter framed autos, but I prefer these slightly.  I think it is due to the mini card inside being a little bit bigger or the window being smaller.






2009 Rittenhouse Spider-Man Dan Quiles sketch card – Quiles is listed as very limited in the set.











2007 Bowman Best Chase Utley blue parallel /99

2009 Upper Deck DeAngelo Williams 20th Anniversary relic – These were one in every other case of Upper Deck X.  I’m not sure of the pull rates in other Upper Deck products.  Every other case hit mojo!



2009 Topps 206 Jordan Zimmermann Piedmont framed auto – He’s going to miss this season with Tommy John surgery, but these days a lot of pitcher come back from that even stronger than they were prior to the surgery.










That’s it for now.  Thanks for reading.

Trading Block: Non-sports Trade Bait

I’m not quite sure why I decided to touch this stuff, but I did.  There are some decent cards to pull, but it seems like there’s a lot more junk than quality stuff.  Stupid, spur-of-the-moment decisions.  If anyone is interested in any of these uncirculated autos, drop me a line and we’ll work something out.

Pictured is Peter Wingfield as Methos from Highlander, Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb from Firefly, Patrick Flueger as Shaun Farrell from The 4400 and Dan Butler as Rev. Sorenson from Supernatural.

And there was much rejoicing… yay

Is it still exciting to pull a 1/1 card when that card is a yellow scrap metal “one-of-a-kind” collectible of Rob Mackowiak?  Anyone interested in trading for this?  Any of his family members reading this?  Thanks Pacific, or whoever first put printing plates into their product, for creating this ridiculous “collectible.”

Technorati Tags: Rob Mackowiak,printing plate,2008 Topps Update & Highlights

Moving sale! Everything must go!

The main reason that this blog has become so neglected over the past 4 months or so was due to me moving.  It was just a temporary move and due to that the majority of my collection is currently in storage.  I also have a longer commute and less time to devote to things such as writing about sports cards.  The good news is that we’ll be moving again at the end of the month so the collection will be coming out of storage and my commute will be shortening.  I’m not the only one that will benefit from this.  All of you reading this can potentially benefit from this as well.  I’ve got a few piles of things that don’t necessarily have to be in my collection.  Instead of packing them up again and taking them with me, I’d rather find them better homes.

In the grand tradition of multiple blogs who have done similarly, I’m looking to trade the following cards for stuff that will have a home in my collection.  What might that be?  Well, it could be cards that I need for sets.  You can find my want lists on Google Docs by clicking on the link right under the site header.  I’m also looking for cards to add to my player collection.  Have any baseball cards of Mike Piazza, Dwight Evans, Kent Hrbek, Clay Buchholz or David Ortiz floating around that you no longer want?  What about basketball cards of Paul Pierce and Glen “Big Baby” Davis?  Drop me a line at michaeltravers@gmail.com and we’ll work out a deal.  The pictures here should link to larger images in case you aren’t able to make the players out.  If you know of any collectors out there who may not read this blog, but may be interested in any of these cards send them on over.  I’ve got plans for the cards if they don’t get traded, but I wanted to offer them up here first.  Without further ado, here’s the cards:

Technorati Tags: Trading Block

Trading Block: Chris from SacBunt

The first trade that was initiated by someone reading my blog was with Chris from the Sac Bunt Baseball Card Blog.  I’ve been making comments all over the blogosphere and I think he found my site through one of those.  He read my post about 2007 SP Rookie Edition Baseball and had a good amount of cards that I needed including the Dice-K over to the left.  In return he asked for Orioles cards and you can see what I sent him in his post about the trade.

To the right you’ll find what I still need for the set.  It’s mostly short printed cards so I don’t know how long it’ll take me to complete the set.  I’m not a big fan of chasing those.  Hopefully someone else with a stack of these will happen across my site and we’ll be able to work out a trade for some of the others.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Upper Deck SP Rookie Edition Baseball

Trading Block: A Heavenly Trade

Another trade that I made before I really got going on my blog again was with Mario from Wax Heaven.  While going through some of the various cards that I pulled from 2007 releases, I came across an Andrew Miller card that Mario didn’t have and wanted to change that.  The card inspired a whole post about Turkey Red and was the last Andrew Miller parallel that Mario needed from the 2007 Turkey Red Set.  In return, Mario sent some very cool Piazza cards for my collection.

I really like these first two Finest cards.  The Ballpark Bounties card especially is a very cool one.  I love the design and colors and wouldn’t mind picking up more cards with that design.

The Finest Masters card is kind of bland looking to me.  If I remember correctly this is when the Finest sets had bronze, silver and gold cards and a ton of different subsets.  Not really fun to collect in my opinion.

The Donruss Certified is a very nice card.  I already had the red serial numbered version of the card, but not the regular version.  Now that has been remedied.

Thanks Mario!

Trading Block: Trading with Dayf

One of the main things that has gotten me back into collecting is the amount of great baseball blogs out there.  One of the best is Cardboard Junkie written by Dayf.  I read one of his posts where we listed off the Target Heritage minis that he needed.  I happened to have the last two that he needed sitting right in front of me from a blaster that I had just purchased, so I contacted him and soon was completing my first Internet trade.  I sent off the cards pictured here in Dayf's post and here’s just some of the cards that he sent back:

Mike Piazza – 2008 Heritage.  I bought one blaster of Heritage at Target and 7 or 8 loose packs one night at a Cracker Barrel (which I didn’t even know carried baseball cards) and that was the extent of my Heritage purchases.  I didn’t pull a Piazza myself so this was a welcome addition to my Piazza collection.  On a side note, the Heritage blaster that I purchased was full of smashed up cards.  So, I sent the blaster back and got one back from Topps that deserves a blog post of its own.

Mike Piazza – 2007 Topps Red Back.  I didn’t buy a whole lot of 2007 Topps.  In fact, I don’t even think that I have the regular version of this card.  Topps can definitely get out of hand with the parallel sets, but they took that to a whole new level with 2009’s black Walmart and retro Target parallel sets.

David Ortiz – 2008 Allen & Ginter.  Big Papi is my current favorite player on the Red Sox.  He was a favorite late round pick of mine in fantasy baseball drafts when he was with the Twins.  I told all of the Sox fans that I knew that the signings of Ortiz and Billy Mueller would pay dividends for the Sox if they could remain healthy.  I had no clue that Ortiz would become the hitter he is today under the tutelage of “Papa Jack.”  The low risk, high rewards type of signing has become the calling card of Theo Epstein and combined with an amazing ability to scout and develop talent is why the Sox have become the huge success they are at the moment.

Manny Ramirez – 2007 Bowman Heritage.  While it was great seeing Manny destroy baseballs in a Sox uni, the antics eventually got to be too much.  The stunts that he pulled to get the Red Sox to trade him and not exercise his option years took away all of his leverage when trying to find a new contract.  It’ll be interesting to see how he behaves this season in LA.  He skipped the part of Spring Training he dislikes the most and has already had one “injury” pop up.  There’s no reason to believe that this tiger will change his stripes.

Jonathan Papelbon – 2008 Goudey.  Papelbon is proof that you can be a character and be goofy while still being professional.  I could care less about his dancing or any of that stuff as long as he continues to stare down batters like Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn and blow the heater by them.  I can understand why he wants to be the best paid reliever of all time though, the poor guy can’t afford a chew toy for his dog.  The little mutt has supposedly destroyed two historic baseball including the one used to record the final out of the 2007 World Series.

J.D. Drew – 2007 Heritage.  I really wanted Drew to prove everyone wrong when he came to the Red Sox.  His first season was a disaster until the last couple of months.  His huge home run in the playoffs bought him some good will with the fans and since he was dealing with family problems in 2007, there was hope things would get better in 2008.  While his numbers were improved in 2008, the injury bug started to show its ugly head again and Drew was a non-factor when it came playoff time.  The Sox didn’t have a good bench in 2008 and they suffered for it in the playoffs.  Injuries are already a problem for Drew in 2009 and it remains to be seen whether this once hobby darling will ever fulfill his potential.

Kevin Youkilis – 2007 Fleer.  2008 was a breakthrough season for Youkilis.  It was the first time he had been able to perform well for an entire season and it got him 3rd place in MVP voting.  As good as Youkilis has been with the bat, he’s even better with the glove.  He set a record for consecutive errorless games at first base after moving there from the hot corner when the team acquired Mike Lowell.  Youk makes up part of a young core of players that should keep the Sox in contention for at least the next 5 years.

This is just a sample of that cards that I got.  It was a great trade that added some cards to my collection from years when I wasn’t buying too much.  Thanks dayf, anytime you get a pile of Sox together I’ll gladly search for some Chippers and Braves to send your way.

Technorati Tags: Boston Red Sox,Mike Piazza