2011 Summer Clearance Trade with Eric

For a pile of junk wax Royals and some random cards featuring mustaches, Eric has sent me a pile of nice cards, including 62 cards that I needed for my collection. I can't possibly show them all, but here are the highlights. Thanks, Eric!

1987 Phillies 1950 TCMAThis is one of my favorite cards I've gotten in this trade event so far. It's from a 1987 9-card set commemorating the 1950 Phillies Whiz Kids, the first Phillies team to go to the World Series.

1995 Fleer #469 Greg SwindellIn the mid-1990s, the Fleer designers seem to have lost their minds. The results were cards like this. This set featured 5 different designs, each one more baffling than the last.

1995 Pinnacle #33 Luis GonzalezLuis tears a hole in the outfield padding trying to catch a ball which was probably way over his head. Pinnacle put big blobs of gold foil on their mid-1990s cards. Considering the current price of gold, they might be worth melting down.

1995 Upper Deck #25 Craig BiggioOne of my all-time favorite players, even before I moved to Texas.

1997 Metal Universe#206 Benito SantiagoHere's an even more extreme example of Fleer designer psychosis. I only bought one pack of this and didn't have any Phillies or Astros. Benny has taken his catcher's mask off so he can better see his pitcher being consumed by a nuclear fireball.

1998 Collector's Choice Star Quest Special Delivery #2 Scott RolenAnother 1998 Star Quest card I needed.

2007 Ultra #136 Jimmy Rollins
2007 Upper Deck #877 Jayson WerthI'm showing the backs of these last two cards to make a point. Upper Deck seems to have been just phoning it in for awhile, even back in 2007. The fronts of these cards both have minimal designs but can be told apart. The back designs are virtually identical.

2008 Upper Deck Documentary #203 Jimmy Rollins21 of the cards were from this set. This set is probably the poorest execution of a great idea that I know.

2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition #5 Delino DeShields, Jr.Since I don't have a decent card shop anywhere near me, I don't see cards like this on sale too often. Eric sent me 3 Phillies and 4 Astros. This set features players in the minor leagues, some in their college uniforms. DeShields was the Astros #1 draft pick in 2010. These are the first Panini produced Donruss cards I've seen.

2010 Topps 206 Ryan HowardI bought 3-4 blaster boxes of this product and didn't get too many Phillies or Astros. Eric filled a lot of holes in this set for me, including this one, my favorite, the Ryan Howard short print.

2011 Topps Throwback Commemorative Patches

I don't hate these manufactured patches, but I really don't need six of them. I happy with the Utley card but don't care one way or another for the rest. And I really don't need two Expos patches. If you're interested in any of these (except the Utley) and have a Phillie patch to trade, please let me know.

2011 Summer Clearance Trade with Nachos Grande

The second package of cards I got in the 2011 Summer Clearance Trade was from Chris at Nachos Grande. It was a nice stack of cards. Most were dups but there were 12 cards I needed. I'm quite satisfied again. At $2.50 for postage, that works out to about 20 cents per card. Works for me. I got these a bit out of order.

2004 Upper Deck Vintage #27 Richard HidalgoUpper Deck Vintage, Upper Deck's attempt to duplicate Topps Heritage from the heritage they don't have buy stealing card designs of the past.

2008 Upper Deck Goudey #83 Hunter PenceGoudey is a design from the past that they paid for. Apparently Fleer owned the Goudey name and designs.

1997 Collector's ChoiceI didn't buy much of this set. I have all of the Phillies cards from the set since I bought the Phillies cards on eBay last year.
But I didn't have too many of the Astros.
This is now the only 1997 Luis Gonzalez card I have for some reason.
This guy appeared in all of 52 games for the Astros, all in 1997. There are only 2 cards featuring him in an Astros uniform that I know of.
Abreu was still not a regular player in 1997, his last with the Astros. In 1998 he'll be with the Phillies and his career will take off.

1998 Collector's Choice StarQuest Special Delivery #21 Richard HidalgoIf you though those Star Quest cards that Upper Deck saddled us with for a few years were a new idea, think again. They used the same concept in mid to late 1990s Collector's Choice cards.

2003 Upper Deck Honor Roll #35 Jeff Kent
2003 Upper Deck Honor Roll #85I had exactly 2 cards from this set and they were both Lance Berkman cards. I'll take every Craig Biggio card I can find.

2005 UD All-Star Classics #92 Mike SchmidtMan, I love this card. But I already had it.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter #196 Brad AusmusAs much as I've always liked Allen & Ginter, I didn't really get on the A&G bandwagon until 2008. So I don't have many cards from the 2007 set.

2007 Topps Heritage #251I didn't buy too many cards from this set either. Flash Gordon signed an $18 million 3-year contract with the Phillies in 2006 and responded with 34 saves that year. But he had rotator cuff surgery in May of 2007 and was never really effective again.

2011 Topps Series 2

Since the Series 2 cards have the same design as the Series 1 cards, I'm not going to spend any time on the base cards. Here are some of the inserts that I'm pretty happy about. I bought a blaster box and a hanger pack from Target and a blaster and a rack pack from WalMart.

Diamond Stars
This insert is new to Series 1. It looks to have the same technology as the Diamond Anniversary Parallels. I actually got two of these, one from Target and one from WalMart.
And I scored the Chase Utley as well.

Topps Target Hanger Pack Exclusives
I had a little bit of trouble figuring out what this was. It's an insert that is exclusive to these Hanger Packs. These have 72 cards wrapped in cellophane rather than in individual packs.

Before There Was Topps
Another insert new in Series 2. There are 30 cards in the set.

Ticket To Toppstown
I pretty much hate this insert set so watch for them in future clearance trades. Unless of course it is a Phillies or Astros card. Just to annoy me, Topps changed the numbering on these cards for the Series 2. The Series 1 cards were numbered TT-xx, where xx is the player's initials. The Series 2 set is numbered TT2-xx, where xx is a consecutive number. Who knows why?

Topps Kimball Champions
I love pulling a Mike Schmidt card from a contemporary pack.
Biggio retired after the 2007 season. This is the first post-career card of Craig that I've seen.

Topps 60
I'm not a big fan of these Topps 60 cards either, but I collect Alomar who retired in 2004. This is the first post-career Roberto Alomar card I've seen.

Song of the Week - Garden of Earthly Delights by The United States of America

My daughter brought this CD home from the library. Classic psychedelia from 1968. This was the kind of stuff you heard on 'underground' FM radio stations of the day, which were the alternative to Top 40 AM radio. I remember this song and several others on the CD but I have no recollection of the band itself. According to Wikipedia, the album sold poorly and the band broke up soon after release. And no, they have no relation to the 1990s band The Presidents of the United States of America.

Birthdays June 19 - June 25

June 19
2004 Donruss Elite Turn of the Century #190 Lou GehrigThe Iron Horse was born in 1903 in New York. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939, he is one of the all-time great baseball players.

June 20
2011 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relic Carlos LeeEl Caballo was born in 1976 in Aguadulce, Panama. He was signed as an amateur free agent by the White Sox in 1994. He played the first 6 years of his 13-year career with the White Sox and has played the last 5 years for the Astros. He is a career .286 hitter with 336 home runs. He is a popular player in Houston. A bunch of fans wear big cowboy hats and ride toys horses out in the outfield when he comes to bat.

June 21
1991 Topps #415 Rick SutcliffeThe Red Baron was born in 1956 in Independence, MO. He was the Dodgers 1st round pick in 1974. In his 18-year career he pitched for the Dodgers, Indians, Cubs, Orioles and Cardinals. He had a 171-139 record with a career ERA of 4.08. He was a 3-time All-Star with an impressive list of awards including: 1979 NL ROY; 1984 NL Cy Young; 1984 NL TSN Pitcher of the Year; 1987 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award; 1987 Roberto Clemente Award; and 1987 NL TSN Pitcher of the Year

June 22
1992 Conlon TSN Gold Inserts #665 Carl HubbellKing Carl was born in 1903 in Carthage, MO. He pitched for 16 years for the New York Giants, from 1928 to 1943. He had a career record of 253-154 with a career ERA of 2.98. He was a 9-time All-Star. His best season was probably 1936 when he won a league leading 26 games with a lead leading ERA of 2.31 and was named MVP. The Giants also went to the World Series that year, although they lost to the Yankees. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1947. He died in 1988.

June 23
1990 Donruss #7 Jim DeshaiesJD was born in 1960 in Massena, NY. He was drafted in the 21st round by the Yankees in 1982. He spent most of his 12-year career with the Astros compiling an 84-95 career record with an ERA of 4.14. His Chris Berman nickname was Jim "Two Silhouettes on" Deshaies. He is currently a respected analyst with the Astros broadcast team.

June 24
1983 Fleer #176 George VukovichGeorge was the Phillies #4 draft pick in 1977. He played for the Phillies from 1980-1982 and then for three years with the Indians. He was part of the 5 for 1 trade (include Julio Franco) that brought Von Hayes to the Phillies in 1983. This is one of the few autographed cards I own. Vukovich was coaching the softball team of the son of a good friend of mine in the Atlanta area and my friend got this card signed for me.

June 25
1992 Bowman #127 Carlos Delgado
Carlos was born in 1972 in Aguadilla, PR. He was signed by the Blue Jays as a amateur free agent in 1988. He has a career batting average of .282, has hit 473 home runs and has 1,512 RBIs. He spent the first 12 years of his career with the Blue Jays until signing with the Marlins in 2005. The Marlins traded him to the Mets after the 2005 season. He had hip surgery in May 2009 and has not played since. He has had several more hip problems since then and announced his retirement last year. He was a 2-time All-Star and won the Hank Aaron Award in 2000. I got this card in 1992, when a card shop owner gave me a free pack of 1992 Bowman. This was a very hot card in 1992.

2011 Summer Clearance Trade with DW

I mailed out 12 packages of cards this morning, fulfilling my side of the Summer Clearance Trade. Returns are all ready coming in. I got a nice package of cards from DW for a bunch of Tigers. I found 11 cards that I needed. Most of the rest will be put away as duplicates but that's OK. I'm pretty happy with this deal. I spent about $2.50 in postage for each package I mailed. To have bought these 11 cards on ebay, assuming I could have found them, would have cost more than that. Here's what I got that I needed:

1990 Fleer #565 John KrukThis was the only 1990 Fleer Phillies card I didn't have. It's also the only 1990 John Kruk card that I didn't have.

1992 Classic Best #231 Mike Lieberthal
A nice minor league card. Mike became a long time Phillie, playing 13 seasons with the team.

1992 Classic Best #262 Ricky Bottalico
Here's a card I didn't know even existed. I had a list of the Phillies from this set but missed Ricky. He's currently a broadcaster with the Phillies.

1993 Leaf #460 David West
One of my favorite Leaf sets. I still need two more Phillies from the set.

1994 Upper Deck Minors #100 Brian L. Hunter
Hunter was the 2nd round pick by the Astros in 1989 and made the big club in 1994. I'm really only interested in post-1994 Astros but this one was nice to get. Brian played for the 1995 Astros. I only have a handful of cards from this set and I did not have one of these foil All-Star cards. So this card goes right into the reference binder.

2001 Fleer Platinum #1 Bobby Abreu
I have very few cards of any team from this set.

2001 Topps Post #16 Moises Alou
This was an 18-card set available in Post cereal boxes. I've never seen any cards from this set. Since this was ten years ago, it has the Topps 50th anniversary logo.

2001 Topps Stars Moises Alou
When I pulled this card from the package I thought I had another winner as I knew I had very few cards from this set. As it turns out, I only had one card from the set, this one. Oh, well.

2007 Upper Deck #391 Jeff Conine
This card looked familiar but it turns out, I have the Upper Deck First Edition version of this card, not this one.

2008 Upper Deck Timeline #287 Jimmy Rollins
I had two other Rollins cards from this set, but not this one.

2009 Upper Deck Doug Brocail
Doug spent two years with the Astros in the 90s and another two years at the end of his career in 2008 and 2009. This is the only Doug Brocail card I have with him in an Astros uniform. He was just named the Astros pitching coach. Sounds like a thankless job.

2009 Upper Deck 662 Humberto Quintero
Humberto is currently the Astros starting catcher but is currently on the DL. He looks quite displeased in this photo.