Time to Double Down!!

I love to come home and check the mail and find random envelopes with cards in them. Today bought another surprise from Tom with a few more Mariners to push the Super Set to near completion!! He was able to find the last two cards I needed from Donruss in a Rafael Soriano and an Ichiro! He also sent me six more from Fleer to bring their total down to 2 cards left!! The last two might prove to be difficult unless someone just has these cards laying around. I would give just about anything to get these last two cards into mt possession and be able to complete this lifelong dream. Here are a Mariners fan's most wanted card for his collection:

courtesy of eBay

 Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the first of my needs in the form of a 1994 Fleer Update rookie card of an over payed, soon to be confirmed cheater that is in New York now but started his time here in Seattle.

courtesy of eBay

Lastly, the second card to complete the dream is 2001 Fleer Tradition rookie card of Ichiro. I have watched him the last two nights as the Yankees have been in town to play the Mariners, and he is definitely starting to show his age and decline. It doesn't surprise me that the last two would be the higher priced RC's. If you have either one and would be willing to part with it, let me know and we will see what kind of deal can be made. I can't believe that I might get this done before the All Star break this year!!

I'm looking for a 10...

Where has I been? Unfortunately work has taken most of my time, and having a 14 year old son in two baseball leagues takes the rest of the free time. Not too long ago, Tom who has been like my personal savior with cards lately came through again. 

Within his last two packages, I was able to come up with the final cards I needed for my Angels in the Desert project. I now have all the 222 cards that I know of from the stadium of my childhood. The thing that is making most happy is that I am so close to finally completing my major project that had been almost 30 years in the making. I am the proud owner of 3439 of the 3449 base cards that have been since the Mariners inception in 1977. I am currently in need if these 10 cards to finish the dream. Can you help find these to help me out??

2001 Donruss

194 Rafael Soriano

2004 Donruss

381 Ichiro Suzuki Team Card

1994 Fleer Update

86 Alex Rodriguez 

1998 Fleer Tradition

587 Randy Johnson

2001 Fleer Tradition 

452 Ichiro

2002 Fleer Tradition 

88 Ichiro

345 Kazuhiro Sasaki

491 Bret Boone

2003 Fleer Tradition 

51 Ichiro

179 Dan Wilson 

Unearthing some Upper Deck

The year was 1989. It was my year to graduate from high school and get into the world. A new card company had decided to join the overloaded baseball card market. They would change the industry. From the start in 1989 until their end in 2010 Upper deck made some cards. As far as the Mariners go, they made 575 cards for the team, including their first card which is still sought after. I currently own ALL the cards from Upper Deck, meaning I currently am finished with this one and am closer to finishing the project!!!

Updated 4/12/13
Current 575/575 (100%)

THIS RUN IS COMPLETE!!!!!

It's that time...

I'm sure you all have run out the stores and have found all kinds of Update cards to your heart's delight. Sometimes out here in the Northwest, things move at a different pace. Yes the LCS's have them, but good luck trying to find it anywhere else. Since the new series is out and I continue to not want hundreds more cards that I don't want or need cluttering up my life, I once again ask for your help. The Mariners have 9 cards featured n the Update set this year. I need these cards to add to the Mariners Super Set that is getting closer to completion.

US18 Tom Wilhelmsen
US84 Eric Thames
US90 Michael Saunders
US92 Chone Figgins
US187 John Jaso
US204 Jesus Montero
US236 Lucas Luetge
US245 Erasmo Ramirez
US303 Kevin Millwood

Good luck to the eight teams remaining in the playoffs, and thanks in advance for helping me get these cards in the binder. Also, if you have extra Mariners cards laying around, I do need about 200 cards still to fill out the Super Set. Just look them up by maker over on the right, and maybe we can work out a deal so I can finish off all the binders someday. Thanks again!!

Time for Charity

It is that time of year again. I don't want to waste my time or money buying a bunch of cards I don't want. As I do with each new series that comes out, I ask you my fellow bloggers for some pity. I know that everybody has been picking up Series 1. If you want to rid yourself of extra Mariners, I'm your home for the poor Mariners cards.

Here's the Mariners I need from Series 1:

#118 Miguel Olivo
#119 Ichiro League Leaders
#168 Blake Beavan
#197 Brendan Ryan
#225 Michael Pineda
#232 Felix Hernandez League Leaders
#263 Steve Delabar
#269 Jason Vargas
#274 Alex Liddi
#286 Franklin Gutierrez
#315 Dustin Ackley

I'm open to any of the inserts that contain Mariners, but they are of lower priority.

Purple Rocks in the Emerald City

Have you ever noticed when you made deals, you are surprised that people are nowhere near their teams? I've seen it quite often with many of the bloggers that I've made deals with. While some of us are near where our teams call home, some are halfway across the country, some are on opposite coasts, and some are on totally different continents. Is it because they grew up with a team and moved, or is it just a love affair with a team that started at a young age?  I recently found another who is removed from his team. Johnny(aka hiflew) of the great Cards from the Quarry is a big Rockies fan. He is based nowhere near Denver, which is cool to find a Purple fan. I sent some assorted Rockies, and I got a package all over the map to help many needs.

How about some cards from a side project that has been taking a nap? Johnny sent me about 10 cards to add to my Angels in the Desert project. Do you have some 70's and 80's Angels laying around that might fit the criteria for the collection?

What is a trade with a Mariner fan without some Mariners? A '92 Score for the Super Set, and some Canadian Mariners. Also some nice Laser cut Topps. While I'm not a big fan of this overkill kind of cards from the 90's, I will definitely add them to the great pile of Mariners.

As you may have seen recently, I have been working on trying to bump up the few player collections I really want to make look like collections. One of those players is the should be HOF'er Dale Murphy. Johnny was nice enough to send some Atlanta Murph love to add to the binder. Why can't he get more of the vote to get in?

The last few cards I'm sure made him happy to get rid of. As a Rockies fan, I'm sure he's not too high on players from other NL West teams. As you may have seen, my son has become a big fan of Tim Lincecum. Johnny was also nice enough to send along a few cards of the Freak for him. Big thanks again to hiflew for helping me along with many collections. It is too bad that his team wasn't around for the 1979 Topps set. It would have been fun to see the colors and how they would have fit in back then.

Looking for Mr. Right

I will leave that job to the ladies. I am looking for Mr. Mariner Alvin Davis. While he didn't have the longest careers, he was one of my favorites. Here is a list of the major cards from his days from 1984-92 when he played and a nice looking retro card. I know that there are many oddball and subset cards for Alvin, and I'm always open to those too.

Who couldn't collect a guy that was always smiling?

1985 Leaf DK 18
1986 SportFlics 31
1987 Leaf 118
1987 O Pee Chee 235
1988 Leaf 196
1988 O Pee Chee 349
1988 SportFlics 52
1989 O Pee Chee 57
1989 SportFlics 33
1990 O Pee Chee 373
1991 Fleer Ultra 334
1991 O Pee Chee 515
1992 Bowman 341
1992 Fleer Ultra 324
1992 Leaf 168
1992 O Pee Chee 130
1992 Pinnacle 467
1992 Stadium Club 617
2003 Topps Fan Fave 96

Division Enemies=Trading Friends

Have you ever noticed that fans of teams in your division make great traders? I have had great experiences in the past with Rangers fans. The Angels are a team I have a soft spot in my heart for. Their #1 blogger is Tom from The Angels, In Order. He does pretty historical and in depth work on the Angels. He sent me a few cards to help out on the Mariners Super Set.

The Peguero gets me one closer to finishing 2011. The two Donruss cards finish the 1982 and 1992 sets. I'm finding that the more I chip away at this thing, it seems like myself and no one else was collecting in the mid to late 1990's. Most of my wants seems to be in that era.

Tom also sent these that will be going into the boxes of different Mariners cards. I like the two players with coneections to the ownership in Japan. The gutierrez is my first Lineage card since I don't really buy much other than flagship stuff. I can't figure out why the A-Rod has a hole in it, is that where the steroid syringe goes into his butt cheek? I think it's cool to see a pitcher like Salkeld with a bat in his hands. I don't like to see pitchers hit though, both leagues need to use the DH. Jay Buhner is wearing the face mask and glasses so nobody will reconize him in New York.


Big thanks again to you Tom. Keep up the great work on the Angels. I wonder if Athletics fans make good trade partners? Does anybody know of some active A's traders? Hello Oakland fans are you out there?

Seattle's Most Wanted

OK, maybe not the city of Seattle's, but my big ol' Mariners collection's most wanted. Why would I say that a star with a name like Kennedy Ryan is most wanted?? I only need them to finish off 2011 and continue the slow work on years past. Do you own BASE versions of these cards you want to part with??

US28 Adam Kennedy

US167 Brendan Ryan

 

Also, feel free to help out with some of the sets from the past if you would like. I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday's college football. My Wolverines came up big against Nebraska, but the Huskies layed a stinker against the Beavers. Apple Cup is this weekend, just beat the damn Cougars!! I see the losing streak to the Suckeyes coming to an end in Columbus on Saturday. Go BLUE!!

HELP! I need somebody

Help! Not just anybody. Help! You know I need someone, HELP! OK, enough with the Beatles lyrics. Let's talk Topps Series 2 for a minute. As most people know things happen in the east first. I know that everybody is posting about Series 2, but I haven't seen it yet way up here in the corner of the map. Now that it is out, it has come for the time again when I beg and plead with all the great bloggers to help out a Mariners fan with their extra cards from Series 2. Here is the checklist cards I will be looking for:

333 Tom Wilhelmsen

362 Doug Fister

385 Ichiro

399 Adam Moore

402 Jack Cust

403 Felix Hernandez( just need a base card, not gold)

468 Chone Figgins(just need a base card, not gold)

477 Franklin Gutierrez

483 Justin Smoak (just need 1 card, not 2)

530 Felix Hernandez (just need a base card, not gold)

589 Mariners Team Card

595 Michael Pineda

618 Josh Lueke

624 Luke French

all photos of Series 2 cards courtesy of eBay

If anyone comes across extras of these or just doesn't want them, I can use them for the Super Set. Thanks again to everyone in the blog world for the help that will come in making this happen.

Angels in the Desert

Since this is the new side project, here is a partial list of the cards I'm pretty sure the pictures were taken in Palm Springs. I'm think this list is full and correct. If you have Angels cards that look like they have a big mountain in the background or palm trees and aren't listed, let me know.

Updated 5/14/13
Current collection:  222/222(100%)

The Angels are all in the outfield in the Desert! I collected them all!!


PS Angels Alumni
Garret Anderson
Jim Edmonds
Tim Salmon

J.T. Snow

Keep your eyes out for this

I know that most of the country is trying to survive the blizzard right now, so I can wait. If any of you do make travels out and do buy cards, keep me in mind. I still haven't decided if I want to buy a box of cards to have as trade bait, but all I really want for sure is the Mariners cards. I feel like I have so many other cards right now that I don't want or need. Anyways, here the list of cards I'm looking for to make the 2011 Series 1 complete in the binder.

1. #83 Greg Halman
2. #85 Jack Wilson
3. #116 Russell Branyan
4. #149 David Aardsma
5. #168 Felix Hernandez
6. #173 Jose Lopez
7. #200 Ichiro
8. #224 Milton Bradley
9. #235 Felix AL ERA Leaders
10. #237 Jason Vargas
11. #252 Michael Saunders

Any help from my great blog friends and readers would be greatly helpful. Also, big thanks to 82Redbirds of Way Off Base fame for the help on the list of cards needed.

Look at what I found

I decided I had a little extra time the other day, and was near the only local card shop within about 40 miles of home. If I'm lucky, I make in there 2 or 3 times a year. I went in with my wantlist for my super set. Within 1 hour, I was able to walk away with about 130 new cards I needed. I only just sort of flipped through the boxes, I didn't completely collate the list to cards in hand or I would have been there all day. If anyone is near the Seattle area, give a look into DJ's Sports Cards. If you are nowhere near here, besides the website they also have a Beckett marketplace that has tons of cards. Don is a great guy and will always be willing to make deals. I hope everyone gives them a look.

Series 2 Needs

I realize that everyone has moved on to Allen&Ginter, or whatever else is hot now. If anyone has some extra series 2 cards laying around I could use some help finishing this off. Here's the list of needs:
338 Brett Cecil
341 Texas Rangers
342 Melky Cabrera
345 Chris Volstad
346 Taylor Teagarden
347 Aaron Harang
354 Evan Longoria
356 Angels
359 Aramis Ramirez
364 Trevor Hoffman
370 Robinson Cano
380 J.D. Drew
386 Dan Haren
396 Jake Westbrook
400 Alex Rodriguez
407 Nick Punto
418 Aaron Laffey
420 Shin-Soo Choo
421 Doug Fister
425 Dontrelle Willis
426 Mark Reynolds
428 Baltimore Orioles
429 Seth Smith
430 Kazuo Matsui
435 Nelson Cruz
438 Jason Bartlett
442 Dan Runzler
443 Jason Hammel
447 Jeremy Guthrie
449 Ryan Sweeney
452 Allen Craig
464 Francisco Liriano
467 Fausto Carmona
471 Drew Butera
478 Conor Jackson
479 Chris Carpenter
482 Mike McCoy
484 Mike Fontenot
491 Rafael Furcal
493 Travis Ishikawa
501 Jake Peavy
504 Jeff Mathis
508 Chris Getz
509 Todd Helton
511 Chicago Cubs
514 Rafael Soriano
515 Seattle Mariners
518 Corey Hart
519 Alexi Casilla
520 Randy Wells
547 Brett Gardner
548 Minnesota Twins
550 Freddy Garcia
560 Ryan Rowland-Smith
561 Ryan Zimmerman
571 Brandon Lyon
573 Johan Santana
583 Anibal Sanchez
584 Matt Capps
585 Dioner Navarro
589 Edinson Volquez
591 Fernando Rodney
594 Andy LaRoche
598 Alberto Callaspo
604 Atlanta Braves
606 Chad Qualls
608 Pittsburgh Pirates
610 Alex Gordon
612 Lastings Milledge
614 Kelly Johnson
615 Justin Verlander
621 Aaron Cook
631 Marc Rzepczynski
633 Daniel Bard
634 Casey Kotchman
640 Matt Diaz
642 San Diego Padres
649 Casey McGehee
650 Dustin Pedroia
656 Jon Lester
657 Chris Young
659 Nick Blackburn
660 Brandon McCarthy

If anybody can help me out, that would be great. I wasn't going to do series 2, but thanks to Ted at Crinkly Wrappers, he sent me almost the entire series 2, minus the cards listed. I might as well finish it off now that I have most of the set. Thanks for the cards, Ted!!

Blast to the past

I know that everyone has moved on to Heritage, Chicle, and Bowman but I was wondering if anyone has these cards laying around that they don't need? I really don't do those three sets only the standard Topps set.I would really like to finish off the Series 1 stuff before I start chasing Series 2 soon. I lifted pictures of them off the internet since I don't own the cards. Thanks for all your help everyone!

Be on the lookout!!!

Keep an eye out for these people.

1. Prince Fielder(Milwaukee)
8. Mauer/Ichiro/Jeter(AL Avg)
51. Eric Young Jr.(Colorado)
79. Fransisco Cordero(Cincinnati)
109. Justin Masterson(Boston)
171. Feliz/CC/Verlander(AL Wins)

These are the few cards I need to finish of Topps Series 1 before Series 2 comes out. If you can be of help, let me know. Thanks all!!

Big thank yous to many!!

I have been holding on to this post for a couple days, but it is a good one. I have recently gotten about five trades in the mail and I am so thankful for all of them.

First off, I want to thank the Collective Troll. We exchanged e-mails and he said he had a couple of Phil Bradley autos, and an Alvin Davis auto that he would send me for being an M's fan. I got these in the mail from him, and I sent him whatever Rays cards I had laying around. Thanks Troll, you are top-notch!


Also, one of his readers Noah sent me an unsolicited e-mail saying that he had some Mariners cards if I would like them. I decided to send him a package of Mets cards from many different years. In turn, he sends me this box of cards, that not only contains almost all my needs for the 89 Fleer cards, but also this beauty of Doug Fister. Thanks again, Noah!


Next on the thank you list would be Greg at Night Owl Cards. We agreed to exchange some Dodgers for him and of course Mariners for me. He comes through with this little dandy of cards.


Also hidden the bubble mailer was this cool thing I had never seen, but really like it!


The next person on the list would be Rob at Texas Rangers Cards. We decided to exchange Rangers for M's. I sent him a box of assorted Rangers cards from all kinds of years, and he send me this box of beauty.


These cards are all current or former major league guys. They are from the AA Jacksonville Suns, AAA Calgary Cannons, and A Wisconsin TimberRattlers. Way too cool! Thanks Rob!

Last, and by far not least is a stack of cards from Community Gum. They recently bought a huge box of 81-85 Fleer. I said that I would love to get any Mariners cards out of that for the massive Super Set. I received this stack of 81, 82, and 83 Fleers to add to the collection. Definitely way too cool. Thanks Andy!


In the end, this is what I was able to figure will be added to the Super Set. Thanks again to all the readers and fellow bloggers for making me feel so welcome. I am humbled by your generosity. THANKS EVERYONE!!!