APB: 2009 Topps #192 Collin Balester

I'd like to slam the door shut on 2009 Topps Series 1. Collin Balester. If you can hook me up, email me for my address. I'll send you back something in return, dealer's choice.

Thanks for helping. Double points for it being his gold or black card!

Trade With Ryan from "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog

Thankfully my little code challenge gave me some time to refocus on cards for a bit, and Ryan from "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog hit me up with a trade offer.

This was one of my favs from the bunch:



I want to say he knocked about 100 cards off my 2009 Topps Series 2 and U&H wantlists. He took so many cards off this is all I have left from 2009 Topps:

Series 1: 192
Series 2: 484, 500, 537
U&H: 1, 7, 13, 17, 20, 41, 48, 49, 68, 70, 76, 89, 98, 107, 109, 117, 119, 152, 155, 167, 176, 183, 184, 201, 206, 211, 223, 242, 247, 253, 255, 256, 260, 261, 276, 282, 289, 293, 324, 330

Ryan, thanks for the trade. I hope the 1983 Jim Palmer treats you well. Glad to knock something off your Top 10 Most Wanted. Check out Ryan's other Top 10s. I'm guessing some of you might have what he's looking for.

Where Are You Colin Balester - 2009 Topps Nearly Complete

This is where it all started last year. Just over a year ago I thought "maybe it would be fun to collect cards and write about it as I did it - as an outlet".

I had absolutely no idea anyone else was doing this, let alone 100s of people doing this. In the past year, I've talked with a lot of people who are out there collecting and trading. I've made a ton of trades and read a lot of your blogs. It's been fun, and to think, it all started with a hobby box of Series 1 Topps last April.

Here is where I stand, one year later. I missing just one card from Series 1. It's card number 192.

COLIN BALESTER WHY DO YOU ESCAPE MY CLUTCHES?

Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, does someone out there have this card? I want it. I want to cross Series 1 off my list. Speaking of lists, this is what I have left from Series 2:

417, 423, 430, 431, 448, 471, 484, 494, 500, 505, 510, 537

I'm 12 steps from Series 2 perfection as well. Again, any help would be appreciated. I swear I'll find something to trade you in return for helping me close the door on 2009 Topps Series 1 and Series 2.

I made it my goal to collect no new product until I finished up 2009 Topps.

I've also updated my needs list with 2009 Topps Updates & Highlights. That list is a bit longer.

2009 Topps Series 1 #192

Major oversight on my part last summer. While building the 2009 Topps set, I thought I was completely finished with Series 1. That statement is incorrect.

Washington Nationals pitcher Colin Balester is eluding me. I should also mention approximately 30 cards from Series 2 as well:

371, 382, 396, 417, 423, 430, 431, 437, 440, 448, 462, 469, 471
475, 477, 484, 492, 494, 500, 505, 508, 510, 537, 577, 581, 610
612, 619, 622, 624, 641, 649

If you can help bring any of these wanted cards into the fold for me, please leave me a comment or email me directly.

Also, to any of you hunting down Turkey Reds from last year, I have 9 or so leftover that I'd like to move in a trade. I'll try to post this evening.

My Local Card Shop

I was pleasantly surprised to find out my local card shop, Three Stars Sports Cards has a website complete with an online store and blog.

Last night a friend of mine bought a pack of the Goudey 2009 Baseball cards. He's currently trying to sell me on the merits of us each getting a box and trying to put a set together. In all honesty, at first glance that set seems a bit overwhelming to wrap my brain around, but he's slowly making his case to me.

We're already lined up to grab the last 30 cards of Topps Series 1 for this year, as well as breaking a box of Series 2 together to round out the set.

Topps 2009 Series 1 Need/Want List

Well, I finally got around to figuring out exactly which cards I need:

1, 3, 16, 49, 74, 82, 85, 88, 92, 93, 99

101, 132, 133, 135, 146, 170, 178, 182, 186, 192

215, 222, 225, 226, 233, 240, 256, 260, 279, 280, 296, 298

302, 321, 327, 328


Also to note, a buddy of mine recently broke open a series 1 box and landed a Mat Gamel autographed card. As he put it:

"99% of the world would be pissed that they got a Mat Gamel card, but not me."

Needless to say, I need to acquire one of these myself, or any of the other Brewer relic/auto cards. So if someone has one to trade, I'd be interested.

About the Loot

Since I promised more about the cards I found - here it is:

Relic:

CBR-BM - Brian McCann Game Used Bat

Gold Parallels:

#308 - Chris Duncan (1551/2009)
#299 - Hamels World Series MVP (1463/2009)
#125 - Roy Oswalt (1192/2009)
#105 - Francisco Liriano (1889/2009)
#34 - Brandon Inge (1910/2009)

Black Parallel:
#16 - Brian Stokes (55/58)

Legends of the Game:
LG22 - Thurman Munson
LG18 - Roger Maris
LG15 - Pee Wee Reese
LG14 - Johnny Mize
LG6 - Tris Speaker
LG2 - Honus Wagner

Ring of Honor:
RH27 - Kevin Mitchell
RH25 - Lou Piniella
RH23 - Mariano Rivera
RH21 - Johnny Podres
RH19 - Pedro Martinez
RH17 - Gary Sheffield

Turkey Red:
TR46 - Josh Johnson
TR40 - Kosuke Fukudome
TR37 - Kevin Kouzmanoff
TR36 - Jacoby Ellsbury
TR20 - George Sisler
TR19 - Brian McCann
TR17 - Conor Jackson
TR16 - Joe Mauer
TR3 - Jimmy Foxx


Right off the bat, I know that since I'm not a Braves or Brian McCann fan, I have no use for the relic card. Hopefully someone out there needs one and would like to make a trade. I've got the base set sorted out, but I need to make a list of the cards I need.

Topps 2009 Series 1

I finally had some time to upload the pictures I took of the hobby box I recently opened. I hope to throw up some stats on the cards I pulled from the box later on this week.

I wasn't totally thrilled with the McCann relic card, and I'm hoping I can trade it off for either something more interesting or cards to complete the series 1 base set.

I was disappointed on the Brewers front. I didn't score a Hardy, Fielder, Weeks, Hart or Braun card. I'm unsure if they're all in Series 1, but I suspect at least a few were. The Alcides Escobar and Mike Cameron cards I found were dinged on the corners, so I'll have to see how to go about getting those (as well as the 6 or so other cards) replaced by Topps.


This was the completed madness from late last week. I've got a couple of thoughts from the insert sets.

I'm not really that interested in, or intrigued by the Turkey Red insert cards. I'm hoping to trade all these off. Just not my thing I guess.

I did dig the Legends of the Game inserts as well as the Ring of Honor cards and might look to trade to finish off those inserts after taking care of the base set.

One thing I did notice is that I don't think I got a single duplicate card in the entire box. I'm amazed by this, but again I haven't been collecting since the early 90s.

April HBL Meeting

Forbes and I have agreed to meet monthly to discuss 'the situation' with our beloved Golden Valley 55ers. What came of our April meeting is that we decided there aren't any useful pitchers available as Free Agents and that we should probably sign Kevin Kouzmanoff while he's still available. So, goodbye Taylor Teagarden, and hello Kouz. I'm happy about this signing and feel like we're buying low on the 27 year old. He plays in a big park, but he put up big slugging numbers last year even if they don't show up in his HR totals. Since we use total bases instead of HRs in our 5x5 mixed league it works beautifully for us. I'm still putting behind the terribleness that was/is our 3b situation of Alex Gordon, Melvin Mora, and Chris Davis. I'm still praying for Davis every night.

I also ripped open a few more packs from my box of 2009 Topps Series 1 last night. I'm now two-thirds of the way through it. The highlights from last night were gold parallels of Roy Oswalt and Francisco Liriano, a Gary Sheffield Ring of Honor (from his '97 Marlins team), and 3 Legends of the Game cards ft. Thurman Munson, Tris Speaker, and Honus Wagner. Saying Thurman Munson "retired" in 1979 was definitely one way to put it, although that did lead me to read his Wikipedia page today.

I'll probably open a few more of the remaining 12 packs tonight, and hope to see what I'm missing by the end of the week.

2009 Topps Series 1 Hobby Box

I decided over the weekend that I'd put together a set of Topps this summer.

I did really like the style of the Upper Deck cards, both the First Edition and the Series 1 cards, but in the end, the lack of stats and information on the back of the cards steered me away from those sets.

If anyone needs/wants the cards I got in those two Upper Deck packs I'd gladly give those away to a good home.

Sunday afternoon I started my quest to find a hobby shop that sells cards. This was surprisingly harder than I imagined. I called approximately 4 stores, all of which were out of business. I finally located a shop by the name of Three Star Sports Cards over in Roseville. I swooped in right around closing time, 4PM, on Sunday and grabbed a hobby box of Series 1 Topps.

My goal is to collect the entire set from this one box, and utilize trades with the online community to get the remaining cards I need.

I'll post some pictures later on today, but I went through 12 of the 36 packs last night. The highlights were a Brian McCann Career Best relic card (part of his bat), a few gold parallels (Cole Hamels WS MVP, Brandon Inge, and other other that's escaping me thus far), one black parallel of a Mets pitcher I'm unfamiliar with and cannot recall his name, as well as a few Turkey Red cards, a Pee Wee Reese Legends of the Game, and a WBC redemption card.

I immediately went out to the Topps redemption site, and was informed I'll be getting my WBC card sometime in the next 30 weeks. Unfortunately, they don't tell you which card you've "won". I guess I'll let everyone know in November.

In those 12 packs I've only unearthed three Brewers: Alcides Escobar (dinged corner and all), Angel Salome, and Dave Bush. I'm looking forward to more Brewery goodness tonight.

I've found a couple misprints thus far as well, but I'm sure they are uncorrected errors. The first one I noticed is on the back of Dave Roberts card, it says he lead MLB in stolen bases from 02-07 with 266. However, he hasn't even posted 266 steals in his career yet, and the card should have read 226.

The second misprint I found was on the back of the Phillies/Dodgers divisional series card depicting Fat Stairs. It shows the pitchers as Garza (1-0) and Lester (0-1) - clearly from the ALCS.