Is this heaven??

There is always a pursuit and wanting for the Holy Grail. Every person is striving to find it.

It's Mine!! All Mine!!
 Do you have those cards that you hope to someday own so they can be the cornerstone of your collection?? I know that those cards for me were the three 1983 Tony Gwynn rookie cards. After spending a very warm Saturday afternoon at the Boeing Classic golf tournament with my son, we decided to head to my favorite card store that I don't get to very often. After finding a few Mariners I needed, and some Angels cards for the other side project, I perused the the cases of unobtainable cards. They shined at me like a beacon of light!! The first card I see is the mother lode I have longed for:

What would you pay for this card??The sticker said book value: $25, our price $10!! Sign me up, I own the first white whale.

Also in the great case was the second of his rookies. This 1983 Donruss beauty had a  price tag stating it was $6.95. A little high, but I could live with that to get the second of three rookies.

The completion of the trifecta was there in the case too. 1983 Fleer #360 was also on the glass shelf with a low, low price of $4.95. Hot diggity dog, I can have all three rookies for only $22?? Sold, sold, and sold!!
I thought I would never own any of his rookies, let alone all three at the same time. I guess it is time to start to focus on the player collections of Pops, and the Murph now.

Teal Theme Trade

Not long ago, I decided to focus this blog on the Sharks for awhile. I know that most of you are bored to death hearing about hockey, deal with it. Anyways, recently Mike of the newer blogs NYC Cards and Bombers Blog commented that he had some Sharks cards if I was interested. While I don't do much hockey, I'm always open to stuff from my team. I sent Mike a few Jets, Devils, and Islanders and these are some of the sweet stuff he sent me. This would be some of the cards of current players and the General Manager:

Also included were some older cards of all kinds of Sharks players. It is sad that there isn't a name I don't recognize:

After looking through the cards, my son staked his claim to these since he loves Nabby and wishes he was still in the pipes for Team Teal:

Mike blew me away with not one, not two, but three special cards. Autos of Torrey and one of my favorites, "Pickles." Also a nice black relic of Cheech. It is sad how his career has de-railed after being sent to Ottawa. Hopefully after this last season in Worcester, he might make it back.

Mike also is like everyone else and can easily see my obsession with Tony Gwynn. He sent this 1985 beauty. I have never seen these before but I kind of like it. The scan looks off, but I didn't want flatten a 3-D card.

Thanks again to Mike for some fun cards that were different than my other obsession with the Mariners.

Also, if you missed last night's Sharks game it was AWESOME!!  This team seems to thrive on living on the edge by going to OT. Four of the five wins so far all have taken extra time to decide. I didn't think they were going to pull out game 1 at home. Halfway through the 3rd period, Mr. Clutch Joe Pavelski put life in us Sharks fans.

Then, seven minutes into OT the birthday boy gets the game winner. On his 24th birthday, little used 4th liner Benn Ferriero beat Jimmy Howard for the WIN! Benn is the first player in NHL history to get an OT winner on his birthday. I don't think there was a better way for Benn to celebrate it.

I'm not too sure who these characters are that are out in Detroit, and Boston wearing uniforms that say Seattle across the front. These aren't the Mariners that I was not long ago. It is hard to believe they are only 3 games under .500 and playing good baseball. After the unfortunate passing of his father, Justin Smoak must be dedicating his season to him.

This kid is absolutely hitting the cover off the ball. I was happy to see him come from Texas last year. I think he will continue to improve. Off to the Sounders match tonight with my son for a little guy time against Toronto FC.

Status Update

Since Facebook was started seven years ago yesterday, and I'm coming up on a year soon, I thought the status of a blog update was due. I have found blogging to be pretty therapeutic, a bit obsessive at times but I'm loving it. I'm so excited for all the friends I've made. I'm even more excited for all the trades I've made, and the great things I've gotten from all of you.

 I used to be fairly active on Sportscard Forum, but found that to make a simple trade was work. I did make some great trades with guys on there, but to get some junk wax Mariners I sometimes was sending trades that were 20:1 in their favors. I do still log on once in awhile, but don't find anything that tickles my fancy. I'm a simple old school card guy. I don't need autos, relics, or any manufactured memorabilia. It seems that all I find on most boards, and in the one LCS that is on my drive home. I understand that's what is driving the industry right now, but don't forget about us regular card collectors. Lord knows, some think if it isn't numbered to a low number, it just a junk base card.

As to the status of my card collections. I have decided to put a temporary hold on anymore Gwynn cards. I can't believe the generosity of you guys. I started this blog owning maybe 20 Gwynn cards. Now, including some duplicates, I think I have about 600 Gwynn's. Unless you want to send me anyone of these:

I will gladly take any '83 Gwynn, but I know there might be a high price to pay for any of those. Instead of Tony, for right now as far as player collections go, I'm going back. I looking to go Vintage, and borderline vintage to borderline junk wax era. I think it's time to focus on bumping up my collections of these guys:

Willie "Pops" Stargell started his career in what's now vintage, and ended just as the other guys came in. I only have a few of his cards, and I really want to try and bump up his pile. The guy had talent, style, and charisma.

Also, I've gotten a few more cards of this guy from some of my fellow bloggers. His cards started in the edge of vintage now to the beginning of the junk wax era. I first got to know Murph and the Braves in the summer of  '82 watching the SuperStation TBS at my grandmother's house in the summer. If you love the player or the card of him is it junk wax to you?

As far as my obsession with Mariners cards go, I think one day the boxes of Mariner cards may fall over and crush me. I feel so humble by all the people that I have made a point to over send me so many great M's cards. I have a lot of cards I've never seen before and I love them all. I think by quick eyeballing, I probably have about 4000 cards that are dupes or something other than what goes into the Super Set binders. As of today, in the binders are 2724 Mariners cards from base and traded from 1977 to 2010.

After consulting the spreadsheets I currently need the 11 new 2011 Topps cards that are out, I am missing 113 cards from any Donruss years, my big hurdle is Fleer. I still need 260 different Fleer cards to close the book on them. I'm getting close on Score, only needing 73 cards from them. Most of those are from their Rookie&Traded series. Lastly, I only need 41 Upper Deck cards from their flagship releases. All in all I have 84.8% of all base cards from the Big 5 makers.

So to all of you out there that have helped with trades, and those who have inspired me to write better posts by reading yours, THANK YOU! I only hope that I can continue to do a decent job of writing and showing off to keep you reading and trading. I know it's hard to read all the blogs out there, because they are all great. Thank you ladies and gentlemen, and may you be showered in cardboard of your liking!

Climbing the mountain with Fuji

Get it Mt. Fuji? It was the best reference I could come up with. It sounded clever in my head. Anyways, I recently sent a small care package to Mark over at the Chronicles of Fuji. It had a few cards from a long ago Seahawk Steve Largent, and some extra Ichiro's. Well the self proclaimed short, fat Japanese guy who collects cards did not disappoint in return. I was surprised by the variety of Tony Gwynn's he sent me. I know it had to be hard for him to do being a Gwynn collector himself.

First off there was some shiny Gwynn's. OOHH, AAHH!

Also was some old, new, and unlicensed cards of Tony.

The best Gwynn was one that knocked off another card from the Prime 9. This great 1985 Donruss Gwynn.

Then, with a handwritten note(I love those, they feel so personal) was this gem complete with red Sharpie auto. He even has all the pertinent info on the back.

I will definitely treasure this card of The Fuji himself. Mark is a guy after my own heart by being a Gwynn fan, and also he is a San Jose Sharks fan so he's all good in my book. Thanks again Fuji and I hope to find some more stuff for you soon.

A Prime 9 Triple Play

I recently got an e-mail from one of my readers Ron. We had done a trade long ago, and he said that he had another stack of cards I might be interested in. Me being one to never say no to cards I need, I said I was game. Once I opened the box of cards Ron sent, I was a happy boy to say the least. On top was these three beauties that were all on the Prime 9 list:

Now added to the list: 1981 Fleer Murphy and 82 Donruss Murphy

Of course as everyone knows, me being the biggest Tony Gwynn fan I know, Ron included about 25 other Gwynn's including these older cards I didn't have:

Not to be forgotten, Ron also sent some Mariners cards new and old. Some of these guys were well known, some not so much. Some were here for a blink of an eye(Bobby Thigpen), and some were long timers(Ichiro, Edgar). Not to be forgotten, I found about 6 cards that I was able to scratch off the Super Set wantlist. That now brings it down to 516 cards I need to finish off that big bad boy. Please take a look and see if you can help, I would like to get down to needing less than 200 by the end of the regular season.

Thanks again to Ron, you need to start your own blog to show off some of the great cards you own. And to all my fellow collectors if you get an e-mail from Ron about a trade, go for it he won't disappoint you.

Thank you Santa!

I found out from my mailbox yesterday that Santa lives in Michigan. Dennis, the fine proprietor of Too Many Grandersons sent a small package to me. Inside said bubble mailer was many of my new favorite cards. The piece de resistance was the card that doubled my relic/auto collection of Tony Gwynn cards from 0 to 1.

Also Dennis was nice enough to send along these eight beauties from the great #19.

And because he knows that I am Mariner fan at heart, Dennis sent some 1983 Topps Mariners, 1982 Topps, and these two gems from the 2008 Trading Card History set. I really like the look of Felix on an '86 style.

Thanks again to Santa in Ann Arbor. I hope that everyone I sent out Christmas cards to, received their cards without too much hassle and enjoyed them. To all my friends in the blog world, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Enjoy your day, and enjoy your family. Family and friends are the most important things in life.

P.S. Santa in Michigan, can you deliver this team to a win a week from today in the Gator Bowl? I would appreciate that very much. Go Blue!!

My fellow bloggers..

I have decided to take a page from another blogger who is pretty smart. You may know Thorzul of Thorzul Will Rule. During the year this year, he has asked for the generosity of the readers to send him the cards to make series 1 and 2 of the Topps set this year. I would like to ask the same, but the only cards I really want are cards that say Mariners on the front. There is only 8 cards in this year's Update set for my lovable losers.
US19 Russell Branyan
US72 Milton Bradley
US103 Matt Tuiasosopo
US105 Chone Figgins
US130 Ichiro All Star
US138 Brandon League
US261 Jason Vargas
US262 Rob Johnson

If anyone is buying the new Topps cards and comes across these, or has extras let me know. I would like to have these cards to continue my pursuit of the super set(feel free to see if you can help). I am open to making trades for them, or will take charity cards.

As a side note, if anyone is opening Update and comes across this card:

Please think of me!! I would be willing to make a deal for this card.

Get well Tony!

As everyone knows, I am a huge fan of Tony Gwynn. When I saw the news yesterday that he revealed he had a beginning stage of cancer, my heart skipped. Thankfully, the doctors believe they caught it early, and it will be treatable. He believes it is linked to his use of tobacco while playing. If this isn't a wake-up call that the stuff needs to be outlawed, I don't know how many more famous players need to get sick before they do. It is already banned in the minors. I know it's not easy to quit dipping, I did it. I hope that as a good showing to the kid fans, players will eventually re-think it.

If any guy is going to take a swing at cancer and win, it is this gangster looking guy:

Too Many Grander...Gwynns

I recently did a blog pimp for a newer blog by the name of Too Many Grandersons. Dennis is a man after my heart by being a Michigan Wolverine fan.

He sent me a code for the new Topps Gridiron Giveaway, and sent a long a few cards as a thank you. He did send some Saints football cards, but the treasure was in the Tony Gwynn cards. All in all there had to be about 75 Gwynn cards. Many of them were needed for the never ending quest to get new Gwynn cards. Here are just a few of the cards of beauty.

His package contained newer cards and some nice older cards too. If you want to read a newer blog on the block, but very well done, give him a read. Thanks for the great cards Dennis, and I'm putting something together for you to get out to you soon.

Happy Birthday...

To ME!!  I recently did a trade with Steve of The Greatest 21 Days. He had gone to Cooperstown and bought a pack of 1984 Topps. One of the cards he pulled was a Tony Gwynn. As you may know if you've read my blog, I'm a huge Gwynn fan, and the 84 Topps is on the Prime 9. Steve was willing to send me it for a 84 Topps Andre Dawson. Unfortunately, I do not own one. I was able to send him a 84 Donruss, an 87 Topps Traded, and a couple other Dawsons for the Gwynn. His package arrived Saturday, but I waited until yesterday and opened it as a selfish birthday present. Now the 1984 Tony has come home to stay with me. This means a new card to add to the Prime 9, the 1985 Fleer Tony Gwynn. I won't ask for 1983's because I know people will want to hold on to those cards. Thanks again Steve, and if you like minor league stuff make sure to give his blog a read.

Birthday cards from Padrographs

Yesterday was a very important birthday. It wasn't mine, but the great Mr. Padre turned 50 yesterday. Last week I received a package from Rod at Padrographs. He is streamlining his collection and had extra Tony Gwynns that he was willing to send to me. In all I got about 50 new cards that I didn't own. I big thank you to Rod, and a big Happy Birthday to Mr. Gwynn. Look at some of these cards, aren't they just great! Thank you Rod!