2007 UD Ultimate Sabathia and Hammerin' Hank

Once again, I was poking around eBay, or maybe Beckett, and I came across a game-used Sabathia card. Now, how could I pass THAT up!? I mean, he *IS* the 2007 AL Cy Young winner, after all. But, when I got the card, I checked out the front, the swatch, the picture, etc, and then I flipped it over. I "whooped" out in excitement, adding a "Yes! Finally!!" for dramatic effect. My wife (whom I had scared out of her wits), glared at me, saw the card in my hand, and nonchalantly asked, "Yes??" I then went on my 5-10 minute tirade about materials cards not saying anything except "Congratulations, you got a materials card..." Instead, this card actually SAYS something else about the player no less!! FINALLY!! So, I tip my hat off to you, sir or ma'am at Upper Deck who took the time to write a little blurb on the back of a materials card. It made my day.... And then....

---

I mentioned a couple times that I had won a box of cards. Well, turns out to be TWO boxes (technically four boxes, two shipments). As I was searching through this shipment, looking for Tribe cards, my eyes caught sight of something that looked like it said "Hank" passing by in a blur. I stopped, backtracked a little ways, and sure enough, Hank Aaron was staring at me. Surely this was one of those Topps Archives cards, I thought. But, no, the condition was too worn for it be an Archives. I slowly turned it over, scanning every inch for some modern-day copyright mark. There were none to be found. I turned it over and over, marveling at the front, reading the back, finally letting it sink in that I held in my hand a 1957 Topps Hammerin' Hank Aaron card.

I collect Indians almost exclusively, but I am not a moron (well, perhaps it is too early to say that yet - read on). I had been sent an original card from the baseball gods themselves. Had my Dad not passed away this year, I would have wrapped this puppy up and given him the surprise of a lifetime (I believe I have relayed the story of his "disappearing" ball cards, but I will check the posts and See. If I have not told you the story, I will) - one of the cards from his childhood collection.

Part of me, okay MOST of me, wants to keep this card in my "non-Indians" collection. But (and here is where you pass judgement on the "moron" part), I have decided to sell it on eBay (Item 320192526626). Why in the world would I sell a card I have never seen before today, and will most likely never see again in hand? I'm not sure, exactly. But, here is my thinking: Someone out there will appreciate this card more than I really will. I am an old-school collector. I suppose the "nobler" thing to do would be to trade it rather than sell it. Guess I'm not quite THAT old school, huh? :-)

Tradeaway #4 and a serious I-D-10-T error

Getting: 1993 Republic of Liberia Dollar Coin Nolan Ryan
Giving: Derek Jeter Heads Up, Alex Rodriguez Green Back

This trade comes from Brandon in Kokomo (and, yes, I hear you singing the song in your head right now!). I tried very hard to honor Brandon's request, alas, the closest I could come was a couple Yankees.

This trade falls under the "any oddball ya got!" category, and I am glad to accept it! Though my collection is accurately 99.97% Indians, I do collect certain other players, and Ryan is definitely one of them. This coin commemorates seven career no-hitters. I have never had a coin minted from another country (except "Canada, but that doesn't count because it's, like, attached..."), though I have seen those commercials for "painted" coins from Liberia. Evidently, Liberia makes a killing off of producing money featuring things we Americans like to celebrate or commemorate... Who knew?

As for the Jeter and A-Rod: I like the "Heads-up" versions of the Goudeys, and you get to learn things like the fact that "Derek is Bob Dylan's favorite baseball player." That'll be on some game show, I'm tellin ya! A-Rod opts for the classic "bat on shoulder" pose. In a way, I always found this to be an odd pose because I have heard more than my share of coaches constantly yelling, "Get that bat off your shoulders!"

---

Okay, so the I-D-10-T error... After I spent most of my creative juices coming up clues for DAYF's cards, I pulled a bonehead move and left his Goudeys on the blankety-blank scanner! So, my apologies to DAYF, and I will send those to you ASAP...

---

I received my box(es) of 6000 cards, as I had discussed winning on eBay not long ago. My 5-year old daughter and I went through every card, picking out the Indians. I will input the ones I need into my card database, and then put the rest up for sale (along with the other 5950 cards) soon.

If you have not had the pleasure of looking through rows and rows of cards, searching for specific teams or players, with your very young child, allow me to paint you a picture:

The shipment is in two 3000-count boxes, so I pull one box onto the floor. Using an unopened pack of hockey cards in the box as a divider, I pull out a stack of cards and hand them to my daughter. I then grab a stack for me.

"We're looking for Indians, Honey," I tell her.

"Okay," she says, and begins to cycle through the cards, creating a scattered 'pile' on the floor. About halfway through her stack, she stops. "How do I know which ones are Indians?"

"Look for the picture of the Indian (the logo, though she knows what I mean because she has seen the 'picture' a billion times now), or the card will have the word 'Indians' on it. It begins with an 'I' for 'ih-ih-ih-Indians." I sound it out, so that she knows what to look for.

With one side of her mouth cocked upward and a raised eyebrow, she invokes the 'tone of DUH' and says, "I know what Indians starts with... Ih-Ih-Ih like IGLOO..." The 'DUH' is not vocalized, but I feel it hanging there just the same. All I can do, of course, is laugh.

She picks up the cards again, and this time methodically searches for Indians. She discards football, hockey, and basketball cards. All the while, she is calling out teams like the Pirates, the Red Sox, and the Cardinals. Frankly, I'm impressed. She does hand me a couple of Braves, thinking they are Indians, and again, I cannot help but smile at the aforementioned email from dayf on the subject.

As we complete stacks, the unopened pack is moved along, and I spend more of time straightening out her 'pile' to put the cards back into the box than actually searching through my own stacks of cards, but it is a small price to pay. At one point, however, she has grown tired of looking through card after card, and suggests that I give her all the "shiny" cards to look through. Thus, we sort each stack into "shiny" and "not shiny." Basically, if the thing had any scrap of foil, it was shiny. Given the preponderance of foil on cards these days, spending my time 'fixing' her piles did not hinder progress much at all... :-)

In record time, we burn through 6000 cards, and we have created quite a nice stack of Indians cards, though I have to be honest and say I thought there would be alot more, simply based on the fact that in the past, Indians have served as "filler" cards for many of the bulk purchases I have made. I'm not sure if I am glad this is not the case this time or not... Ah well...

So, now you know... If you have young child or relative and have not had this experience yet, I encourage you to try it out for yourself. It's a memory you will both keep for a long, long time.

Tribe Tradeaway #3 - "Native Americans" for Indians

Before this trade, I received a rather cryptic message (or it was to me until I "got it") from DAYF: "I'll definitely take any Native Americans not of the Cleveland variety of course." No one has ever accused me of being smart, so I "missed" what he was trying to tell me. It was not until, during a later discussion, that he said: "I collect Braves and like you with Indians, I'll take any of them I can get." Being the slow-minded person I am, I still did not get the "Native American" reference until I was staring at a pile of Braves cards I had laid out on my desk. Yeah, yeah, put me on the short bus... (Please, no offense to Native Americans, slow-witted people, or those who spent their going-to-school time on a short bus). And, now that I've managed to offend a portion of my potential audience, let me continue with my tradeaway:

Dave (yes, that is another Dave in the growing pot) sent me SIXTEEN Cleveland Indians cards! That is very cool! Ideally, I would have loved to have been able to send him 16 Braves UD Goudeys in return. Alas, I had but three:

I am not going to post the other cards that I am sending along because I'd rather they be a surprise. But, in the same vein that Dave initiated the cryptographic trade, I offer the following:

• One should not "label" a couple of these
• Would YOU accept the signature of a traitor?
• One gives new meaning to "Stinky Pete"
• A couple of these guys sure are cheesey
• and perhaps E.T could have used a couple others

Once Dave has these all in hand, perhaps he will share with you the "secrets" of the clues... Then again, he may keep you guessing....

---

On another note, Joey over at Squeezeplay Cards is showing off his sports collectible Christmas Tree! And the first ornament he shows us is a Cleveland Indians Jersey! It is very, VERY cool!

Tradeaway #2: Two Duffys and a Duncan

I have no idea why the goofy scan saved as a GIF, let alone why it is sooooo small... Yeesh. Guess that's what I get for blowing away Windows yesterday to reinstall everything... I digress.

Tradeaway #2 comes from Bart in Missouri!

Getting: 1975 Topps Frank Duffy, 1975 David Duncan, and a 1976 Frank Duffy.
Giving: Dan Uggla (Red), Aaron Rowand (Red), Ramon Hernandez (Green)

First of all, this trade adds ANOTHER "David" into the mix. I'm telling you, there are strange things afoot at the Circle K...

Frank Duffy always reminds me of Clint Eastwood in Clint's very young days. No, I have no idea why. Though, perhaps it is some other actor I'm thinking of, or perhaps just some figment of my imagination altogether! Remarkably, both Duffys come with "customization." The '75 has a "B" written in ballpoint pen in the upper left corner of the back, and the '76 has something written VERY lightly in pencil across the back.It's hard to say if some youngster was practicing forging Frank's autograph or if it just some random doodle of a yet-to-be-discovered Rembrandt. His claim to fame on the back of the '75 is that in 1972, he hit .330 in September, going 30 for 91. Is it just me, or does that not say a lot when your "fast fact" is a stat from three years ago?

Dave Duncan also sports some "customization." On the back of his card, there is a "B" but it is located mid-center on the left side at the top. When the Duffy and the Duncan sit atop each other, I envision a stack of 1975 Topps, all with "B"s on them, arranged in such a way that should the bearer of the stack flip the cards rapidly, the "B" would make its way from one side to the other in classic flip-animation form... :-) Dave's claim to fame is his '72 World Series pick-off of Joe Morgan. Again, three years earlier. How many other Tribers saw their peaks in '72?

As for the Goudeys, Rowand looks like he just might whack you with that bat he's holding. Uggla looks like he is trying so hard to pose that he comes off appearing extremely constipated. Hernandez looks like he is willing to use his bat to defend himself against Rowand's attack, but really, he'd rather talk it out first...

Sidebar: Bart's box number is 122C, which by any other count seems harmless. However, before Emergency 911 service in our area, my box number was 221C... That's kinda cool. But, add to that, Bart's city is Rich Hill, MO. Growing up in Western PA, I went to school with a guy named Rich Hill... Yeah, I know, it's a lot like the whole Kennedy/Lincoln thing - some people will the connections, while others will simply shake their heads, smile, and wait for their cards... :-)

Tribe Tradeaway #1 and a question answered

My very first Tribe Tradeaway comes from David in Ohio! Before I get into descriptions, I just wanted to say that not since the days of "Kids in the Hall" have I seen so many "Daves" in one place! David A sends cards to David H, and in return, he receives not one but TWO randomly drawn Davids... That is just weird....

Getting: 1977 Topps Jim Kern and 1977 Topps Duane Kuiper
Giving: 2007 Goudey David Wright (Red Back) and 2007 Goudey David Eckstein (Red Back)

It appears that Jim Kern could have been foreshadowing the "Billy Ripken incident," though instead of a curse word, Kern simply has his name on his glove. I am curious as to why he would feel as if he HAD to have his name on there at all... Then again, perhaps, when his Mom heard that he was in the bigs, she made him put his name on everything... "Just in case." The back of the Kern card is where things really shine, though! Get a load of that gum spot! I feel sorry for the kid that had to peel the card away from the gum, though he/she did a good job not to take any of the paper backing with the gum!

Mr. Kuiper demonstrates the "perfect" batting pose. Not "stance" mind you, but "pose." To be more honest than I need to be, I am going to admit that for the longest time, I had mispronounced Kuipe's name. My version was something not quite resembling "cue-ooper." In fact, when I finally did his hear name, it took me a while to connect that name with this player! Well, it's a funny story in MY head, anyway... As for the backs of the 1977 Topps, I kinda like the "billboard" design. It conjures up mental pictures of teams traveling along the highway, reading the signs as if they were Burma-Shave ads... "Duane tied" ... "for Tribe club record" ... "with 19 stolen bases" ... "in 90 games" ... "1975" ... Talk about your close shaves!

I decided that since this was the first tradeaway, I would try my best to honor the request enclosed on the accompanying note. However, since I don't have any duplicate Indians Goudey cards, I am enclosing a "surprise" card with this trade. Hopefully, it will be one David A does not already have. :-)

---

To answer a question posed to my last post regarding my eBay purchases:

The 1995 Classic Phone Cards were actually bought on eBay when I kinda 'stumbled' onto them. I was looking for something else (and now cannot recall just what), when I came across a seller offering three unopened, sealed boxes of the phone cards. I did a quick check in some of the guides I had, and decided that I would snag them up for the Indians I could get out of them. I held on to the other cards until they were simply taking up more space than I cared to provide for them, so I decided to sell them on eBay for whatever I could get. :-)

The other lots that I have purchased recently are about 6000 cards in each lot. Based on the listing, I have a good handle on what I'm getting, though I also realize that when I buy lots in that size, there will be commons and such, too. I am by no means a dealer myself, at least not a professional one. I would eventually like to become one, so that's probably where my random "big lot" purchases come into play. I have bid on 50,000 and 100,000 card lots as well, but those quickly grow way out of my price range... :-)

Now, because I collect Tribe cards almost exclusively, I do often buy large lots of Indians-only cards because I have found that I can usually find little nuggets in those that I cannot seem to locate by other means. Much to my wife's chagrin, though, it means I have boxes and boxes (ad infinitum) of duplicate Indians cards stacked in the closet (or next to the computer).

Now You Know... :-)