Is Anyone Else Working on 2011 Topps Updates???

I am... I put all of my cards in the binder and I have 240 out of 330 (73%). I would LOVE to finish this off... As it turns out I have more than 100 dupes to trade, I even have a few Kimball minis too. Everything is up to date on my 2011 Topps list, check it out and see if you can help me HERE. I will try and create a list of my dupes, but if you have a wantlist or a link to a wantlist, shoot me a message... Lets help each other out! Go Rays! troll out.

View My Accomplishment... My FIRST Completed Page from 1963 Topps Baseball, Oh the Joy!!!!! Plus a Shout-Out to Captain Canuck, Hell May Have Frozen..

...over. Apparently blogger limits the number of letters in a title. I can't believe I didn't figure this out sooner... The 1963 Tribe trade-bait cards I promised are being pushed back a day because of this breaking news... I finished a PAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My very first completed page of 1963 Topps!!! Cards numbered 46-54 are safe in the binder… It’s funny (to me) because my first page includes my first 1963 Topps card, #46 of Tommie Aaron. Although I have posted this one and said I wished it was a card of ANOTHER Aaron, I really like this card and this is the one that made me fall in love with the design of this set. I have of this card now, too if there is any interest in the other Aaron brother…

The second card I owned from 1963 is also on this page. It was the 10th card in my mini-super-collector Billy Pierce collection. Bill Pierce is my favorite pitcher from the 1950’s and somewhere along the line I decided to become a Billy Pierce collector. Maybe it’s because he ended his career with 1,999 strikeouts, maybe cuz I liked the blog that sponsors his BR page, maybe he was just an amazing pitcher…

Unlike the Tommie Aaron card that made me love this set, the Pierce card is my least favorite BP card ever. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something I don’t like about this card. Anyway, like it or not it sets smack dab in the center of my first completed page! Also included in this page are card #47 of Senators outfielder Don Lock, #48 of Indians manager Birdie Tebbets, a card which I have a dupe of, and card #49 of Cardinals shortstop Dal Maxvill. Card 50 of Pierce comes next, followed by card #51 of George “Two Bats” Alusik, Boston second baseman Chuck Schilling (I have a dupe of this one, too) and card #53 of Dodgers pitcher Joe Moeller. The last card in the binder is number 54 of the Rookie Parade. It features Cubs outfielder Nelson Mathews, Cards pitcher Harry “Never Heard of Him” Fanok, Yankees pitcher Jack Cullen and White Sox pitcher and 2 sport star Dave DeBususschere. So there ya have it, my very first completed page!!!
My '63 Topps list is up-to-date, check it out! I have amassed about 20 duplicates from this set and I am looking for another ’63 Topps chaser to trade with, so get in touch with a Troll. I love this hobby! Vintage RULES! Oh, as an end note – should you glance out the window and see a pig fly by, don’t be afraid… After making him wait for two (yes 2!) YEARS, I am FINALLY shipping out a package to Captain Canuck, the King of the Great White North… The package isn’t sealed yet, just in case there are any vintage Braves he wants to add to the pile. With the Captain in mind I added a couple of cards to this post… A short printed team card, #509 featuring the Milwaukee Braves, card #46 of Tommie “Not Henry” Aaron and card #414 of Ty “I Misplaced My Hat” Cline. Ty Cline spent 5 seasons with the Braves; he played in 348 games and hit 1 home run for them. This is the same Ty Cline immortalized in the '71 Topps set for scoring the winning run in the NLCS for the Reds... Now like I said earlier, the Captain gets first dibs, then dayf, then it is a Braves free-for-all! Oh, just for the heck of it I am ending this post with a 2010 Topps card (WME-1) of a FORMER Brave, Mr. Babe Ruth. To the Captain… I know it is VERY hard to believe, BUT the package is somewhat ready, I bought the Canadian flat-rate-priority stamp and it is READY to go… I just feel like it needs a few more vintage cards in it…Captain, if you are reading this post, let me know if there are ANY cards I can add for you... If you are not the Captain, but are reading this post and somehow aren’t familiar with the Waxaholic, you can find him right here! His site is the official blog for insanely hot soccer chicks, need I say more? Oh, while I am pimping other blogs, you MUST read Play at the Plate tonight (and every night)!!! Less hot soccer chicks, but word on the street is that he has some pretty nice vintage cards posted up, so check it out and tell him the Troll sent ya... A huge thanks goes out to any and all who helped me out with cards to go towards this set and towards my first complete page! I REALLY love this hobby!!! Go Rays! Troll out.

Today's Card o' da Day, Colt 45 Edition...

No I haven't finally found a malt liquor to sponsor this blog, this post is about the Colt 45s from Houston, more specifically one of their original outfielders... Al “Spanky” Spangler put together a really nice career… He stayed in the big leagues for 13 seasons with 4 different clubs. He was a valuable left-handed bat off the bench and was a reliable left fielder with good range. All that said I had never heard of the man before I received his card from reader Brent in the mail last week. I have heard of him now and did my five minutes of research on him before giving him the honor of being today’s CT Card o’ da Day. Appearing on card #77 from 1963 Topps baseball, Spanky fits many of the criteria for being a card of the day. I own the card, it is from a set I am chasing, he has a nickname (Spanky), he was a Nitty Gritty player and he was an original member of an expansion team (I just added that one to the list). There is also a cool cartoon on the back showing a ballplayer at the "base store". The card also is an error showing Spangler with a left handed batting stance up top and a reverse neg in the inlay, but most importantly, Al Spangler is now the 100th card I own from 1963 Topps and I am pretty happy and grateful to add so many so quickly. Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who has helped me out! My want list is once again up-to-date; check it out if you please. Go Rays! Troll out.

2011 Topps Haves and Wants...

So, after my last post of my super rad 1/1 Albert Pujols cards which will hopefully bring in enough dinero to get a hobby box or 2 of 2011 Heritage several of you e-mailed me asking if I had a want list for 2011 Topps. Well, I have exactly 100 cards so far. This means that I still need 230 to finish off ye olde set. I did put together a list, finished it just a few minutes ago actually. My 100 cards are now in a binder along with the 5 minis I have, plus all of my dupes and the various inserts that I will NOT be collecting. You can click RIGHT HERE to see what I got... Thanks so much for checking out my list. Hopefully I have something that someone needs... By the way, I am WAY over tired and I think this entire post links to my wants/trade list... troll out.

Drumroll Please Cuz Someone Gets To Say "Neener Neener Neener!"...

Okay, it started with me trying to build suspense, but it has since turned to me just having zero time... I had hoped to slowly pull each winning card and THEN announce the winner, BUT I think I have made y'all wait long enough... I had shown off the Al Kaline card already. Joining Mr. Tiger are 2 Hall of Fame hurlers. I wish I had scanned each card individually, but alas the time issue... Plus, since I no longer own these, it wouldn't be right for me to post them - that is the WINNER'S job!

The total prize package ended up containing, from 1956 Topps Baseball, card #20 Albert William Kaline (white back), card #180 of Robin Evan Roberts (white back) and finally card #255 of Robert Granville Lemon (gray back). 3 cards, all Hall of Famers. One of the finest hitters of All Time, coupled with arguably the BEST pitcher of the 1950s in the American League AND the top hurler of the '50s in the National League. I won't post their bios or stats, again, winner's responsibility...
Oh, now that the prize is set, y'all probably wanna know who won, right? There is the topic of certain awesome bloggers saying neener neener neener to other amazing bloggers. Read on, I WILL get to it. If you really read this blog, you know you have to READ!

Let's rewind for a moment... In case y'all don't remember what the contest was; here is a quick rundown... My son was expecting a child, my FIRST GRANDBABY and I set a contest for the blog-o-sphere to guess exactly what time the baby would be born. On December 22, 2010, Atlas Ray came into this world at 11:35 PM. Over 130 of you guessed and about 10 of you got within a half hour of the correct time.

Three of you were within 6 minutes, but the GRAND PRIZE WINNER guessed 11:31, just 4 minutes from the time. This Troll has already awarded two Honorable Mention Prizes, but this is the GRAND PRIZE. Well, the blogger with the neener neener rights is none other than my second favorite Padres fan (can't beat Padrographs Rod!)

The GRAND PRIZE WINNER OF THE FIRST EVER COLLECTIVE TROLL'S GRANDBABY CONTEST IS: (pause and drum roll please...) The granddaddy grand prize winner is the blogger we all know as Doc.who writes nearly as many blogs as I do, including, but not limited to Baseball Card Recollections, which, coincidentally is holding a contest RIGHT NOW!

Always quick to kill 2 birds with one stone (who doesn't love killing birds economically?) this is me pimping Doc's Contest RIGHT NOW! Another GREAT blog that Doc runs is the super cool 1,000,000,000,000,000 (or some large number) Cards For Kids... I LOVE making the trip to All Children's Hospital in St. Pete, Florida with bags of Rays cards for the awesome kids there. One day I will actually get some pictures and contribute to that blog. One day. Anyway, I managed to draw this out long enough...

The Cliff Notes version is this. Contest over. We have a grand prize winner. It is Doc of Baseball Card Recollections. He wins 3 cards. They are all 1956 Topps. They feature Al Kaline, Robin Roberts and Bob Lemon. It is now Doc's responsibility to acknowledge his win here. Then deliver the appropriate neener neeners throughout the blog-o-sphere and then email me his mailing address within 3 days of this post. THEN I will say goodbye to these 3 beautiful slabs of cardboard. Then I will attempt to return to "normal" blogging.

Personally I had a ton of fun with this contest. I loved sharing my amazing news and super new grand baby with all of my collector friends. The well wishes and comments made me feel great and I want to say thanks to ALL OF YOU who played along. There were over 130 entries and even more people who didn't enter, but showed me some love and support anyway. I love this forum we all exist in. Y'all rock!!!

Doc, congratulations to you sir. I hope you are pleased with your winnings. I am glad that I didn't pick the Jackie Robinson envelope cuz I REALLY love that card, but I hope you aren't disappointed with what you ended up with. Thanks again to all of you! Thanks for reading, commenting, following, trading, chatting and collecting with me!!!! I don't always have time for this blog, but I LOVE this hobby and always will!!!

On a collecting note - all of my want lists are current and up to date. I REALLY wanna finish off 2010 Topps before 2011 comes out. I sorted out ALL of my dupes and I am working on making a list today, so check that out when it happens... 1965 Topps Baseball shall be priority #1 until its done (which may take forever) so keep me in mind if you bump into any...

While I have your attention I must kill a third bird (not an orange one!) and pimp another SUPER contest at one of my favorite blogs.. . Want a chance to win a certified autograph of a Hall of Famer??? Just click here and leave him a comment. Its that easy...

Speaking of easy... I am killing a 4th bird right now... My buddy and fellow Floridian Chris from the Vintage Sportscards Blog is giving away some Hall of Famer cards himself... Check it out RIGHT HERE!!!

One more note... Does anyone remember last year when I worked as an outdoor security guard and braved the cold to blog like crazy? Well, I will be covering shift the next 3 Saturday nights so look forward to some actual card blogging from your friend the troll.

That's all for now... Seriously... No more birds shall be harmed today... Go vintage! troll out.

Checking Off...

Any set-builder knows the thrill of scratching a card off of their needs list. Since I prioritized 1965 Topps, I have had great luck doing just that. Earlier this week I got a card in the mail – a single card purchase I made from an auction site (it isn't the sweet Norm Cash card). With this card I needed only 3 more cards to complete the first 99 cards of the set.

With each new card I get I generally spend a while staring at the photo, reading and re-reading the back, googling the player to look for new information and career stats, then I scan the card and finally put it in the binder.

The card I am writing about today broke that routine. It was a much needed one and I anticipated owning it, but holding it in my hands I didn’t feel that excitement I generally do.
It did fill up a page, which is awesome, but there was no googling, no memories, no stories, no sweet photos, no getting to learn about a player I may not have been too familiar with.

That is because card #79 is a checklist.

When I was a kid checklists were cool. Like many others, I used them. Well, I didn’t write ON them, I put them in a penny sleeve and then marked them off AND I used them to make my want list. Now, with the power of the internet I had a checklist before I even bought a binder. All this card really does is fill a hole in a page. This card is in GREAT shape, a little off-center, but has sharp corners and no markings. I got a good deal on it and it shipped to me for 3 bucks, but that was only after a lot of careful searching. These can and do sell for 5 bucks a pop PLUS shipping, for a card with no pictures.
Looking at this one does make me smile now that I think of it. The front lists the first 34 cards in the set. I have ALL but one.

The back shows cards numbered 35 – 88. I have all but 2 of those.
Collecting this set has renewed my love of this hobby. All of crap with Topps’ monopoly, overpriced cards and crappy inserts goes away when you dive into a set like this. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is getting disenchanted with the hobby.

But, I am wondering – how do y’all feel about checklists?

That’s all for now. Details on the contest will come soon along with details on my grades. I have to wait till Monday for my test score so I don’t know whether to be happy or sad just yet. Feel free to check out my want list. The binder is looking damn good with 97% of the first 100 cards safely sitting in its pages. Oh, Norm Cash has little to do with this post, but I wanted a real photo of a card that I got REALLY excited about scratching off my list...
Go Rays! Troll out.

Wasn't There a Really Big Baseball Series Held Not Too Long Ago?

Gosh, the World Series seems like it happened years ago... When it ended I had promised to post some Giants cards on my other blog. Well, I finally put one up. You can check it out in all of its Nitty Gritty goodness right here...


Aside from that, I have been a card sorting, list compiling maniac. I sorted through ALL of my Rays cards which is about 30,000. I sorted everything into seperate boxes of Topps, Topps Chrome, Upper Deck, Bowman, Topps Heritage, Bowman Heritage and Bowman Chrome. I want to document and finish all of those sets first. The Fleer, Donruss and spinoffs of the other brands will be dealt with later...


I did pick out a few favorite sets to work on, like Fleer Tradition, Upper Deck Vintage, 2008 Upper Deck Documentary and Topps Total. Lists will be coming soon. I have also spent a lot of time getting all of the cards I have recieved into their appropriate binders. I owe some traders some posts, but it feels a ton better knowing all the cards are where they belong...


I do also realize that I stumbled past 100,000 hits. I have the prize cards in my hot little hands and will open the contest soon... Thanks for reading! Go Rays! troll out.