I Want I Want I Want!

Aside from battling with my car (and losing) today was spent sorting cards from my team collection and making lists… The want list for Tampa Bay Rays cards has enlarged quite a bit… I have mentioned that I want to collect one of every base card ever made of every Rays player and that is still my goal. I am way too scatterbrained to keep track of what I have and don’t have. I know I have a lot because there are boxes all over the house that say Rays on them, unfortunately details beyond that were limited. I started by making lists of all of the Topps flagship releases and I have actually finished two years (2004 and 2009) so I thought I would expand it. I figured I would include my favorite brands (Topps, Allen and Ginter, Heritage, Fleer Tradition, Goudey) along with stuff that everybody rips like Upper Deck and Bowman. The list now covers my team needs for 44 different products and by next week I should have over 50. Until I get my car running again I can’t go to the card shop and get more sleeves, binders, etc, so I am at a standstill for now. Anyway… Check ‘em out and let me know if you can help a Troll out!

Post #200! Carl Crawford Cards from Carl Crawford Cards!

Welcome to Collective Troll post number 200! Congrats to me! I thought about trying to put together some type of “epic post”, perhaps something about the Dodgers “epic meltdown” last evening, but I thought it would be better to make number 200 a somewhat typical post. Not typical in length, but typical in the fact that I am showing sweet Rays cards that I got via trade with another blogger, typical also in that I have to be to work in twenty minutes and I really don’t have time to blog, but I don’t wanna miss the opportunity, so I’ll go to work late, without brushing my teeth or eating anything, but I know there will be a fresh post up here!
Okay, this is a trade from my buddy Paul who runs the blog Carl Crawford Cards…Our primary targets for collecting are identical-we both chase Carl Crawford, Jonny Gomes and vintage cards, so it isn’t easy to work a trade. Plus Paul’s CC collection is like triple the size of mine, so it isn’t easy for me to find cards that he needs or wants that I am also willing to get rid of. It took some looking, but I found a few and it resulted in a jackpot of 4 fresh new Carl Crawfords to add to my lil collection, plus a couple new Esteban Yan’s, Ben Grieve and Randy Winn to round it all out. He also sent me a 2008 Durham Bulls set which is freaking awesome! I will save that for a separate set… Okay, here we go…Two fresh new Esteban Yan’s to add to that ever growing collection… Yan was a pretty spectacular reliever for the Devil Rays in the early part of this decade. He had a fastball that hit the high-90s, a good slider and change up. He saved 22 games for the D-Rays in 2001, his first year coming out of the pen. That might not seem like many, but the D-Rays didn’t exactly win too many games back then… Right now Yan is still pitching, but now he tosses for the independent Bridgeport Bluefish and he is really good TTM signer. Next season these two might end up in the mail heading to Bridgeport…2002 Topps is another set that I have a long way to go on to finish the D-Rays team set, one card that I no longer need is #122 of former All Star and current San Francisco Giants outfielder Randy Winn. These two cards are my first sampling of 2001 Finest and what finer players to start with than former ROY Ben Grieve and future Hall of Famer Fred McGriff? Now, on to the Carl Crawfords! I think I have like 10 copies of Geoff Blum from the 2005 Fleer set and that is the only card that I have ever seen from that one. I wondered if he was the lone D-Ray included in the set. Apparently he isn’t, folks just aren’t as apt to give up CC cards maybe. I am not in love with the dumb look on his face and his mouth agape, but it’s another mid decade CC I can add to my growing list! This card is far cooler and I have been hunting for it for far longer. Straight out of the 1999 Topps Traded set is CC’s Topps Rookie card, #T75. Did you know what Crawford’s batting average was in high school? I didn’t and neither did Topps apparently. They do call him a two-sport star reminiscent of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, but then mention that he was highly recruited in two OTHER sports as an option quarterback and a point guard. That would make him a THREE-SPORT star Topps! Moving away from Topps and onto Upper Deck, this is the first 2001 CC I have possessed in my PC. A 2001 Upper Deck Southern League card showing him on the Orlando Rays, it is card #21. He stole 36 bases for the AA level Orlando Rays in 2001, nice card! The final card is another that I have been hoping to possess for a long time. I love Topps Heritage and I have ripped it by the case in the past, but when it comes to pulling Clubhouse Collection cards I always end up Eric Chavez and Bobby Abreu, I have never pulled a Rays card, never mind a Carl Crawford. Paul rectified this situation sending over a CC relic card of CC of the Rays! This one is from the 2009 Topps Heritage set and it is awesome! Cool funky orange and yellow around a gray jersey swatch with a poorly composed shot of CC growing out from a weird black background that takes up half the card. I don’t care how foolish this card looks, it is instantly a favorite! Thanks so much Paul! I truly do appreciate you sharing these with me. I do also intend on making a list of all of the CC cards I own. I would like to possess each and every base card of him and as many relics as I can get my greedy little troll mitts on. I think I am up to around 140 cards and I am pretty sure there are well over 1,000 cards of him out there. Someday. Thanks again Paul, these cards rock and I LOVE the 2008 Durham Bulls set! Thanks to anyone who has read any one of my 200 posts! Why not end my 200th post with a picture of a Derby Girl from North Carolina giving another derby girl a lap dance? Go Rays! Go Angels! Go Dodgers! Troll out.