Honoring Memorial Day and the Hostess baseball card show!

 My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost a loved one serving our nation and are extended to those lost serving our communities, and to everyone else who have lost loved ones too. 

My baseball card tribute to the day.

Now, let's get on to the Hostess cards. Originally, I had planned this post for tomorrow (Tuesday), but the next few weeks are IFFY. May sucked overall as a month for me, so June needs to be handled with care. Lot's of stuff going on so I want to get as much squeezed in where I can. If there are a day or two without posts, I'll be okay and I am sure that you will be too.

I made tremendous headway on my Hostess collection this year.

To the point I am getting close on the 75's, 76's, and 77's.  My 78's & 79's still need quite a bit.  I am going to showcase tonight/today my doubles. Extra's, the FOR TRADE Hostess cards from 75-77.  Every card here is available for trade. Rules are simple: trading is Hostess to Hostess, unless it is for something I just can't refuse. I expect (hope) that this post will be somewhat popular, so it will be a first come first serve basis. Shall we begin?

1975:

There are some with the Twinkie stains. However, for the most part they are cut well. Here are my NEEDS: 11 Hooten spelling variation, 37, 72, 80, 89 Rader spelling back variation, 90, 96, 97, 101, 105, 114, 144. I do have upgrade needs you can check those out on my set build section on my website.

1976:

The 1976 set is my favorite of the 5 vintage Hostess sets. I only see 1 with a stain on the front here. Here are my BLACK BACK NEEDS: 10, 12, 16, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40, 45, 49, 52, 53, 54, 58, 59, 60, 63, 66, 81, 89, 97, 98, 99, 102, 108, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 123, 141, 146, 147, 148, 149. Again, upgrades and Brown back needs are on my website.

1977:

Just a few with stains here from what I can tell.

My NEEDS: 9, 21, 23, 29, 34, 35, 36, 38, 61, 68, 69, 73, 77, 79, 104, 106, 117, 119, 124, 125, 126, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138. Not many upgrades needed, but those are the website too.          My Hostess needs Page

I have these cards (scanned above) sitting right next to me, so if you want an overall condition of a specific card just ask below.

Let's trade some food issue baseball cards from the 70's!

Baseball Player Blogger Bat Around

 The Diamond King started this one. With limited time over the next few weeks. I am skipping scans (mainly the time to get the card out, etc).

Just the list:

Hank Aaron: no brainer for me.

Ernie Banks

Roberto Clemente (Bobby Cox would be my pick, but as a manager not a player).

Joe Dimaggio (Josh Donaldson would be pick for modern players).

Ecks.

Freddie Freeman

Tom Glavine (there are plenty of G's to choose from, but Glavine was a Brave and they meant more to me than anything else).

Roy Halladay (tough one with Rickey)

Monte Irvin (he's a birthday guy).

Chipper Jones

Craig Kimbrel (Close pick with Kershaw)

Tim Linceum

Greg Maddux (not to lessen Mantle or Mathews).

Phil Niekro

David Ortiz (Ohtani is working his way up).

Albert Pujols & Mike Piazza (couldn't choose between them, sorry).

Dan Quisenberry (not a lot to choose from).

Jackie Robinson (again not to lessen the Babe, and Tim Raines was always fun to watch even before I                                 knew we shared a birthday).

John Smoltz

Frank Thomas

Bob Uecker

Justin Verlander (Mo and Fernando were up there too).

Ted Williams

Robin Yount (a birthday guy too).

Barry Zito.

I obviously am Braves biased, but I could have totally filled half the roster with them and didn't  :)

Incoming trades

 First, Bo sent huge trade packages to me comprised of set builds. Mostly 2003 Fleer, but there were some vintage too including a couple of needed 69's in that quest. I didn't scan any, but wanted to acknowledge the trade. 

Next we have Gavin.

gavin even returned those Big Fun Tickets from early last year.

I made about 6 trades on the 69's, 1 is on the way, and the other is still in the works.

McCovey's, Banks, B. Williams, Santo, Gibson, Fergie, Podres, and of course that 69' Seaver. It has a bit missing in the top right corner, but I can live with that for now.

To finish cleaning out the scan files here are some Diamond kings Debut Diamond Kings.

Picked these off of Sportlots for .25 each, even Adell.

Have a safe holiday weekend. Remember that Memorial Day is for remembering those we've lost. Originally for those lost serving this nation, but I believe we can all reflect on so much more.

ComC part 3

 This one wraps up the last ComC order. BTW, still haven't heard back from their staff. Just saying.

Glad to get the Freddie patch.

Very colorful swatches.

Again, we have another wasted card with the Jumbo swatch.

Some autos.

Yes, I know the Kolby Allard (4) are duplicated, but cheap 5 Star and Tier 1, I had too.

Okay that wraps it up for now. I have apx 100 cards in my inventory left to ship. We'll see how that goes after "the move".

Now, I'll drop a few incoming trades tomorrow, and Monday will be the Hostess Postess with the Mostest. If you like or collect vintage Hostess you will want to get in on that post immediately.

ComC part two: no fussing

 No fussing this round. (I still haven't had a response to the error/s yet).

The Glavine on top, was a dupe. I wound up with a few dupes. 

Love the tri color Teheran. Not to mention all of the low serial numbers.

Blues and Reds.

I count different colored swatches as different cards.

A few large swatches there. I don't really like my cards that way, wastes a lot of space.

I'll stop here and finish up tomorrow night.

Latah!

Wacky Wednesday: 1985 Topps.

 I posted last year a partial 85' set more like a bit less than half the set. I have the entire set here for you tonight. 

This was Topps first attempt on a "new" set as compared to the re-runs in 1979 & 1980.

As you can see there are a few re-do's in there.

Good news for the June Wacky posts as I have a huge....huge collection en-route to me. I probably own most of those that are coming in, but definitely not all. Some of the higher series are coming especially the puzzles, and some of the 1979 2nd re-run set. So at least for now I'll be able to keep posting Wacky Packages. I even have a lead on a bunch of the 1969 Wacky Ads. 

See ya!

ComC ........ disaster?

 I started out yesterday with a gripe, so why not continue on today. After all, it's been a pretty shitty (literally) day. ComC..... I've always disliked vehemently the slowness of ComC. Long before the Covid period, they had their shipping issues. But, it was worth it most of the time. 3 weeks ugh hated it so MUCH. There was a lot to love with ComC, say like scans front and back, often great prices can be had on the not so inexpensive cards. However, over the years 99% of what I bought were the everyday ole commons base set build needs or more likely just the base Braves. Cards that should have been a dime, were .30 minimum. Then I found cardbarrel well formerly just commons. That was so great base cards for .08-.13.....PERFECT LOVED IT. Those prices slowly creeped up, although I seen one for .13 the other day. CB has got somewhat inline with the GREAT SportLots at .18, still I'll take it. I love to buy cheap. Who doesn't? Last year I blew my lid with ComC with the delays. I swore them off, after upping my game to the more pricier rarer cards, and then waiting months and months and months and months. Somewhere, after that last bitch session I had (probably December 2020) about the delays at ComC, I fell into their trap again. Loading "x" amount of dollars in the store account, all to get a card or two I wanted. Then you use it up and I did, then request shipment which I did on January 27th 2021. A few days later Feb. 3rd, I got my "expected shipment" e-mail stating they would ship on April 29th. As that date approached Gavin posted about a delayed delayed issue with an order he placed, and I started to wonder.....Oh crap not again. He got his order with the additional delay. The next week I was expecting my "we mailed" it e-mail to come. Yeah, that didn't happen. I started stewing, you see like a dumb ass, after I requested shipment I threw a hundred bucks into the store account and slowly added cards using the funds, (I still have $15) so another ten bucks or so before I request shipping again. so yeah I am stewing, I still haven't gotten that e-mail saying they were on their way. The 4/29 date came and went. After waiting three full months, what's another day or a couple of weeks! Still, nothing so I wrote them, YES..... you bet I did some ass chewing and also explained that I would most certainly be writing this post! It would be a couple of days for them to respond with a May 14th, email stating my cards had shipped. However, they did NOT, I checked everyday and the shipped out on May 17th. 3 Day priority the box said when it arrive on Friday May 22. I of course ripped right into it. another hate is that you do NOT get an invoice showing every damn card you ordered. The cards are not in chronological order, just those little slips with each card. I ordered 155 cards and the receipt they sent says so. Right away I see an issue. Two boxes with individual tickets/receipt on each. One said 78 cards and the other 76 cards.  Although they (ComC) are in Washington where I guess they are using the NEW Math, I am not accepting 154 cards when I paid for 155. I counted them (154) and I put them in order so that I would be able to figure out what was missing (which I couldn't) BTW. Along the way I realized that one of the cards a 1991 Topps Desert shield card was not a Desert Shield card, those aren't cheap you know. I was pissed even more.

Needless to say, I replied back to the staff e-mail letting me know they "shipped" them. I still have not heard back from them. Can you imagine paying a few bucks for a 1991 Topps Tom Kelly manager base card? I tried to figure out 10 cards at a time on the ComC website for the shipment, matching card for card, as they can not be sorted into chronological order there. I get to page 16 of the shipping invoice and just 4 cards remain, hmm. Where the heck is card #155. Now I can not even figure it out what was missing. As I write this post, venting my frustration with ComC knowing I still have to request another shipment I may have figured out the missing card.....It is NOT a damn card, but the item is the shipping cost. I won't know until I hear back from them......if I hear back from them. 

So, now that we cleared all of that out. How about looking at some of what I did get.

Three autographed or relic birthday boys and a Japanese Kanebo card of a PC guy.

Here are the other Desert shield pick ups. Below.....4 vintage Hank Aaron cards.

Yes, I knowing bought the two 1962 Topps Hank Aaron. It was in late 2020 when i made the purchase and was sitting in my cart when I decided earlier this year to STOP doing such things when possible. So it is still not wasted. I will put one in the PC and the other in the set build. As for the other two. Triple HOFer's and all PC guys, love em. 3 of the 6 are Braves.......

It is hard to see in the scan, but these are all the metallic snowflake parallels.

Finest Flashbacks. I still need #99 (I think is is Acuna). I also still need two of the Finest base Braves cards as well  101 & 114.

The Braves trio of 2020 Trbute and a trio of Acuna "special" cards. Turns out that with my impatience I picked up one of the Topps Choice Acuna cards already while waiting to get this one. Another gripe about ComC....too darn difficult to scroll through the shipment listings to see if it is on the way. My stomach is churning just now knowing I have apx. one hundred cards sitting in my inventory.

Shiny.....Shiny.....Shiny.

How is that for a variety of relic cards?

I think that this is a good stopping point for tonight. It gives you a pretty good idea of what will be coming in Thursdays post.

2021: Bowman, Diamond Kings, and then some Higher end.

 Okay, the cards have been on a slow roll this year. That is to say they should have half of the year out already (or close to), but No. I could post for days on the inexcusable reasons.......but, I won't and just leave it that 80-90% of the card manufacturing process does not require much more than 1 person or two, it's computerized. Just someone push the damn button will ya (Mr. Eisner). Even the logisitcs and sales could be done today by a person or two as Topps (like all of the other corp. AH's) sublet/contract out nearly every part of the process. That's enough venting. Except, what do you folks think will happen in the next few months when the "going public" stock deal happens? Will all of a sudden at years end will we have an abundance of cards? If so, what will the pricing be like? 

Now on to the most recent Braves cards for the 2021 season.

My Bowman base and Bowman Prospects. I do have the 3 Chrome Prospects secured, just not received yet. I also need the 3 Mega box (mojoish) and the 1st Edition cards.

2021 Inception. I still need the SP #63.

I still need the 3 SP's (121, 122, 166).

2021 Tribute: done!

These Tributes are super shiny. Look great in hand.

Have a fantastic week!