My first trifecta!

Yesterday I received a package in the mail that I had anxiously been waiting for the past few days. Inside was this beauty. I had always wanted a Chapman autograph and now I have one. For $10 shipped, I couldn't pass on this card. Sorry about the poor excuse of a scan...I forgot to take the card out of the top loader. This card completes my first Cincinnati Reds Trifecta. Although this autograph is considered a rookie, I went with a 2011 eTopps that you can see here. The 2012 Bowman Chrome printing plate that you see here rounds out the trio. Now I just need to pick up an ultra pro 3 card screw down to display them all together.

1950 Bowman

I finally landed my first 1950 Bowman Reds cards over the weekend thanks to a certain eBay seller I deal with that had a sale on all of his cards. I'm very impressed with these cards primarily for their artwork and their size. Talk about tiny.....these things measure only 2 1/16 x 2 1/2 in size. While they are small, the cardboard doesn't appear flimsy. Not only do I like the art, I enjoy the player write-ups on the card backs. Sure, they're lacking in statistics but in terms of storytelling, these are a home run.

A New Year...With New Goals!

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year. My family and I had a decent New Year's day here in Northeast Ohio. However, with the amount of snow we've received over the past week let's just say that I'm sick of winter and anxiously awaiting the start of Spring Training! I was very happy with sticking mostly to my collecting goals last year and was only one goal short on the year (completing my 1953 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Set). So, due to my previous year's success I'll take another stab at creating some goals for 2014. One objective I have in mind this year will be to concentrate more on my sets and less on vintage Reds cards since I've always enjoyed putting sets together and it's getting more and more difficult to find affordable vintage that's in great shape at a reasonable price. It gets a little discouraging when my monthly card budget is spent on just a few cards. Feel free to check out my goals this year on the right sidebar of this here blog :) Here's to pursuing some card sets this year and wrapping up a few more vintage Reds sets! 

One more for this year!

This will be my last post for 2013 as I hurry to wrap up my Christmas shopping, wrapping, etc. and spend the next week with family and friends. I did want to share with everyone my latest pickup that completes another 2013 card collecting goal. This 1957 Topps Kluszewski was the last card I needed for my 1957 Topps Reds team set. I'm happy that not only do I now have the 57 Reds team set, but I now have a complete run of Topps Reds team sets from 1954 to 2013. That includes the base set as well as the traded/update sets. While I wanted to wrap up my 1953 Topps Reds team set, that will just have to wait until next year. I'm very happy with what I added to my collection this past year. Not only did I knock out some vintage Topps wants, I was also able to complete a few sets I've always wanted (1992 Bowman, 2005 Studio and 1989-90 Hoops). I nabbed a few more tobacco cards this year and I've whittled down my wantlist for 1986-87 Fleer basketball to just 7 cards! (unfortunately 2 of those are the Michael Jordan base and sticker cards) So I guess you're all wondering what's in store for next year. I will be concentrating on more vintage Reds cards, but I think 2014 will be the year that I devote more towards my set collecting. I decided to start a project where I'll be collecting my favorite Topps set within a given decade. As a result, I've updated my wantlist with some vintage Topps sets that I've always wanted to complete and this coming year I'll start down the road to adding them to my card collection. I still haven't decided what set I would like to collect for the 2000s and I'm still torn between 1990 and 1991 Topps. I know that it'll take a few years (or perhaps a decade) to complete these sets, but I'm excited to get started and I can't wait to share this journey with the rest of you. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

TTM: Scott Service

Did you know that Scott Service pitched for the Chunichi Dragons? Neither did I, but now you do!

TTM: Scott Scudder

Did you know that Scott Scudder has coached Sweden's national baseball team?

TTM: Herm Winningham

Did you know that Herm Winningham scored the winning run in game four of the 1990 World Series? Did you also know that Herm's middle name is "Son"?