I am sometimes surprised by the number of Cubs cards that I pull from packs or discover in my boxes of duplicates but I always know a good place to send them. That place would be to Beau @onemillioncubs.
I recently put together my 2nd trade pack for him and sent it out just before one of the recent Korean holidays. It usually takes 3 weeks or so for him to get them, but the delivery was super fast this time and he got them in 1 week. I guess the Korean postal service was trying to get holiday gift packages to America in a hurry during that time. A couple of days later he let me know that he had my package ready and would be sending it out. By the way, he always does a great job of shipping safely.
Yesterday, I came home to discover the wonderful sight of a mail day in my mailbox. It was my package from Beau and it was a great one! So let's start with the most exciting card for me from the package. It was none other than this 2019 Topps Heritage Minors of Nolan Gorman! It's awesome and my 1st Gorman auto for the collection.
I love the Heritage Minors and they didn't stop there. Here are a few more that were included in the package along with a sweet Elehuris Montero box loader.
However, the great cards didn't stop there. There were also some awesome relics from Martinez and Wacha. The Wacha relic is the 1st of his for the collection!
There were also some other cool cards from the Topps Holiday Exclusive release included. One of them from one of my current favorites, Tyler O'neill.
Next up, a mixture of Bowman, Topps Chrome and Topps Fire. The Yadi is sweet!
And last but not least, a card that I didn't even know existed. This awesome Keith Hernandez 1981 Perma Graphics Super Star Credit Card. It's such a cool oddball card and I am happy to have it in the collection!
A few days ago, I decided to play a bit of #BetterThanaBlaster. It’s pretty much just buying some vintage or modern cards for less than the cost of a retail blaster box. Anyway, I had a couple of extra bucks in my account and decided to to a bit of a similar game #BetterThanaRetailPack. So, what was I able to get for a couple of bucks on COMC to bolster my vintage Cardinals collection? It was this 1941 Double Play (R330) “Creepy” Crespi.
It’s only half a card, or is it? The 1941 Double Play (R330) cards feature two players on each card, which measure approximately 2 ½ by 3 ⅛. Each player on the card is given a number. In this case, the Crespi side is number 145. On the other side, if this card had not been cut/torn, there would have been Jim Brown with number 146. So is this only half a card or is it a whole card? I don’t really care what others say, I am gonna call it a whole card. Would you do the same? You can decide for yourself. Either way, I think it’s a cool card and a welcome addition to the vintage collection.
Some people like him and some people don't. He can be a bit controversial at times (I guess?) but nothing that he says bothers me or gets under my skin. I think he is correct that people are just jealous of his stacks of 1991 Fleer. I have enjoyed following him for a long time on Twitter. I find humor in it, after all, he will hook you up with a pie chart if you don't really understand his Twitter account.
Anyway, back during the heat of the card trimming scandals, he was posting a lot of funny, as well as informative, information. He was also running some fun contests and giveaways at the time. During the same time, I was working on some 59 Topps designs in Photoshop for a baseball board game that I was making for work. Then it hit me! Why not make a card for him? So I ended up doing a quick 53 Topps design and I sent the photo off to him.
1953 Topps Design
He thought it was prize-pack worthing and sent me a nice batch of vintage Cardinals since I am working on building up a collection of them (see photo below for some of the cards).
Then a few months later, I was at home for my annual summer vacation and I wanted to grab some more vintage Cardinals so I hit him up with a request. I told him that I was just looking for some vintage in the range of $2 per card. He said he would pull some out for me and send me some photos. He sent me photos the next day and I bought them. A few days later they showed up in the mail. Here is a look at some of the cards from the prize-pack and the purchase.
Some Vintage Cardinals from the Prize-pack and Purchase
If you like some comedy about cards, awesome prize-pack chances, or your just looking to make some vintage purchases, @CardsFromAttic is a great guy to deal with. Give him a follow on Twitter or take a look at his site.
There are many different types of collectors out there. Some collectors prefer to rip packs, some collectors prefer to buy single cards, and some prefer to just do trades. I tend to do a little of all of the above. For many that are in to just ripping packs, retail blaster boxes, which typically sell for around $22~$23 dollars after tax, are their go to for acquiring cards and hoping for a nice hit. I enjoy ripping a blaster from time to time but I typically stick with hobby, it's what's available in Korea, and my retail luck is typically pretty bad. I have spent up to $250 bucks on retail at one time to only get 1 auto and I could have bought 2 hobby boxes and gotten multiple autos and other hobby only cards.
Anyway, about a month or two ago I noticed people on Twitter posting vintage pick ups with the #betterthanablaster (@ShaneKatz73 I believe). I thought to myself that I could also get behind the movement. After all, I am trying to expand my vintage Cardinals collection and I am working on a Bob Gibson vintage PC. So while funding my COMC store credit in order to pay for the processing of my submission, I decided to throw a bit of extra money in my account to play a little #betterthanablaster too. This bit of extra cash led to the following additions to my Gibby PC for a cost of about $22 so I would guess that qualifies as #betterthanablaster worthy.
1960 Topps #73
1963 Post #166
1965 Topps #12
1966 Topps #225
For $22, I don't feel like this was a bad deal. I have a feeling that there will be many more #betterthanablaster purchases in the near future when I have a spare $20 in the COMC account.
About a week ago, I ordered a couple of boxes of the newest SCC/Daewon Media release, 2019 KBO Premium Collection 1. A posted a pack by pack break of some of the cards and a great discussion was started about KBO cards and even got a bit into some cultural things here in Korea. Check out the photos and conversation from the Twitter feed here:
Also, if you are ever interested in purchasing some boxes and you live outside of Korea, Gmarket is a great place to search. You can do everything from their English site (link to SCC Premium) and you can purchase from sellers that ship internationally. This will be designated by a small airplane icon beside their listing. The shipping itself will be a bit expensive, but the boxes will typically run you about $40 per box for the Premium Collection Releases. These are also the most popular because will yield either an autograph, a relic, or #'d card in each box. Of course, the autographs are usually the hardest to pull.
I don't remember exactly when, but I do remember One Million Cubs popping up on my Twitter feed about a year ago. My first thought was this guy is ambitious. My second thought was I have some pretty cool Cubs cards sitting in boxes and binders that could help him out so I gave him a follow. Once I finally got around to sorting some cards and getting prepared to refocus my collection, I put together a list of Cubs that I had (or at least the ones I had pulled out at the time) and sent him a message to ask if he would be interested in making a trade with me from Korea. He gladly accepted so I packaged them up and sent them on their way. I think he was just salivating for the Javy relic that I was sending him. Anyway, he received the cards with no issues and in return, he was preparing and sending me a nice stack of Cardinals for my collection.
Here is a look at what he sent and it was great! I was able to add a lot of cards that I didn't have to the collection as well as a couple of player autos that I didn't currently have. There was even a sweet oddball in the mix.
First up are these 3 Carlos Martinez cards. While I don't open Topps Fire, I do enjoy getting them in a trade because it means that I most likely won't have them in my collections.
Next up, this Pujols Topps insert. I really wish that he had stayed with the Cardinals, but I do still carry a lot of respect for him. He has had such a great career.
Then an Adolis Garcia RC auto. This is such a beautiful card. I have always loved the 84 Topps design. He also has a bit of a KBO connection since his brother, Adonis Garcia, played with the LG Twins in 2018. He looked like he was going to be great with the Twins until he was sidelined with a string of injuries.
There were also some Miles Mikolas in the mix. I love how he rocks the high socks!
Next came "The Big Bear," Marcell Ozuna. I love the Topps Chrome X Factor auto. It's a great card and a player auto that I didn't have in the collection yet. It's only fitting that it featured him making a catch. After all, he is sometimes known to make or not make catches.
I think the weight of the chain around his neck pulled him to the ground.
Following up The Big Bear, there is some Yadi action. Such a great catcher and one of the autos that I still need to come up with in the future.
After that, I had some various RC, base, and inserts. The Gibson is great and will go well with my Gibby collection. It isn't vintage, but it's still an awesome card that I am happy to have.
Then comes a future stud (I believe) in Nolan Gorman. I also have to eventually get his auto.
One of my childhood favorites as a kid, Ozzie Smith. It was so awesome to watch him play the game and the backflips gave me goosebumps every time. After all, who doesn't like or want to do backflips? I always wanted to, but my husky weight would never allow for it.
Next, some Carpenter, Piscotty, Grichuk, Pham, and a Cardinals team card from Heritage. I love team cards. Sure they don't have just one player and they display the team name, but I think they are great even if they are not always all that sought after.
There were also some awesome Bowman Mojo Refractors. Hudson is gonna be great, and the Knizner is a cool 1st Bowman. I never turn down a 1st Bowman card. After all, it's kind of like a RC, right? Let the debate begin!
Next, the only Leaf card in my collection and it's of my favorite current Cardinals pitcher, Jack Flaherty. This guy has been a beast on the mound this season.
Let's follow up Flaherty with a fireballer, Jordan Hicks. I hope he gets healthy and stays healthy. Such a fun guy to watch. Who doesn't like guys that clock over 100 with their fastball?
This one was a surprise, it's not a Cardinal, and it's awesome! It's Korean pitcher Chan-ho Park on what appears to be a promotional postcard-sized card and it's autographed! This checked off a couple of boxes in my collection, another Korean player autograph, and my 1st Chan-ho Park autograph.
Last but certainly not least, as well as one of my favorite cards in the trade, a Todd Zeile oddball. Reading the back was awesome. "Keep all the Todd Zeile cards that you are lucky enough to find in your 1990 wax packs, but don't invest heavily, yet." That was some pretty sound advice!
Anyway, I would like to thank Beau at One Million Cubs for the awesome trade (sorry for taking 4 months to post this blog) and look forward to getting the next trade from him in the mail. I sent out a package to him last week and he received it in record time from Korea, just 10 days (including the weekend)! Hopefully, he enjoys it!
I got back into collecting about 4 years ago and it was actually the KBO and KBO baseball cards that got me back into it. I collected as a kid in the mid-'80s and early '90s and ended up selling my entire collection in the early '90s to put toward buying a car. Honestly, it was probably a good choice since my collection of the "junk wax" era pretty much paid for my 1st car at 14 years old. Yes, I bought my 1st car at 14 years old because at that time I could get a learners permit at 14.5 years old and my actual license at 15. Anyway, I was away from collecting for a large number of years so let's get back to my current collecting and making a choice to start selling on COMC.
After about 1 year of collecting KBO cards, I started to collect MLB cards again. So for about 3 years, I have been building up some MLB cards without really thinking much about how to focus my collection. I like to build sets and I'm also a Cardinals collector. However, in the process of ripping boxes to build sets and obtain Cardinals cards, I started to accumulate boxes and boxes of base duplicates as well as autographs, relics, SPs, etc. that I really had no need for. I started by clearing out the base, by just giving boxes to other collectors (they pay shipping) and that helped to cut down on all of the build-up.
It felt good to get the cards out to collectors that would appreciate them, but it also left me with a lot of autographs, relics, and SPs so I started to take to twitter to offer trades and sell a bit. I made some trades and sold a few over the last year, but my stacks of cards were not really going down much since I would buy additional boxes from time to time and accumulate more. I thought about starting to sell on eBay, but since I live in Korea there is always a concern about shipping and it also takes a lot more time to take pics, list, and ship than I want to spend. As a result, I started to look into COMC.
1st COMC Submission Ready to Travel From Korea to their Headquarters
COMC will scan my cards onto their site, list my cards across sites like eBay and Amazon, store my cards, and ship my cards once I make a sale. It all comes at a fee, which I find reasonable, but it also takes all of the unwanted work out of my hands. After all, this is a hobby and not a business for me so I just want to do the things that I find enjoyable within the hobby. Also, COMC has a lot of cards listed that I could use to fill holes in my sets or team collections and I can use the credit that I get from my sales to purchase them and they can hold them and send them to me in one big batch. But for me, one of the biggest things that COMC will do is get my cards in front of a larger audience and people will know that the cards are coming from the US. I have lost more than a few sales or trades over the years when people saw that the cards would be coming from Korea. I don't blame them or fault them about it. I feel the same way when I see cards coming from the US. Shipping can be expensive and a lot can happen between here and there.
Anyway, with the pros outweighing the cons for me, I signed up for a COMC account, packaged up a box of about 200 cards, completed my submission order on their website, and headed to the post office to send them to their headquarters. The submission will cost me roughly $60 for their end of the work with listing and everything, and shipping to the US cost me about $35. So in total, I will have about $95 put into this project, but I think it will all be worth it in the end. Once things are posted to their site, I will be sharing my link to my cards for everybody to take a look at and hopefully make some purchases. Fingers crossed that it all works well and I look forward to doing future updates about how things are going. Now, I will just wait for the 1st cards to drop.
Also, if you are interested in how to get started with COMC, take a look at this video to help you out.
Most of what I have written about in the blog has been KBO related, but I want to try to do more regular updates (hopefully), so I will be writing a bit more about what I currently focus more on which is the St. Louis Cardinals.
Over the years, baseball has seen a number of utility players. They come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. Take Julio Franco for example. I am pretty sure he played until he was 90 years old all around the world (including the KBO) or it could have just been that he looked 90 years old at the end.
Julio Franco - Samsung Lions 2000 Teleca #72
Anyway, I'm writing a bit about a former Cardinal and current Cubs utility player, Daniel Descalso, who also has a bit of a tie to the KBO (kind of). Descalso made his MLB debut, with the St. Louis Cardinals, exactly 9 years ago to the date of this post on Sept. 18, 2010. From that time on, he spent his time playing various infield positions (primarily 2nd base), but on May 12, 2014, he got to show off his skills on the mound when he was brought in to pitch the final out of a game where the Cardinals were getting blown out by the Cubs. In that appearance, he threw 2 pitches and recorded the final out of the game.
Daniel Descalso Topps Finest RC Auto acquired via trade with @CardsChop on Twitter?
After the end of the 2014 season, Daniel was signed by the Colorado Rockies. During his time with the Rockies, he never got a chance to toe the rubber. I would like to think that it's due to the thin air and potential for a routine fly ball to become a moon shot in Colorado, but I could be wrong. Then, at the end of his 2 years with the Rockies, he made his way to the Arizona Diamondbacks on a 1-year deal and was later picked up for a 2nd year by them.
In his two years with the Diamondbacks, he became a more common go-to guy once the game had gotten out of hand. In 2017, he pitched in 2 games across 2 innings and kept his ERA of 0.00 intact. However, in 2018, things got a bit rocky on the mound and he got his 1st boost to his ERA by giving up 3 runs across 2 games and 3.1 innings. At the end of the 2018 season, Daniel was signed by the Cubs, the team he made his pitching debut against, on a 2-year deal.
Now, we finally get to his KBO connection as a pitcher with the Cubs in 2019. During a game against the Pittsburg Pirates on July 1, 2019, Descalso was called into pitch since the Cubs were being blown out by the Pirates. However, things didn't go so well when former KBO star Jung-ho Kang stepped into the box. Daniel put a pitch right over the plate and Kang put it right of the foul pole for a 2 run HR.
Even though he has had some shaky appearances on the mound at times, I would throw him onto the mound if we were getting blown out and a was the manager.
This past weekend, I started a new project. I had a lot of time on my hands and a lot of photos that I took last season so I thought it would be cool to do something different with them. I decided to work on some custom autograph photos that I can hopefully get some players to sign.
I enjoy collecting in person autographs for memories and display but unfortunately I am never very successful in attempting to get them. It is mostly due to where I live and the difficulty of getting to a stadium early enough in the mornings to catch players as they arrive. Also, I am only able to seek out signatures like this on the weekends, which is when 100's of other fans are doing the same. I really wish I could do this on weekdays when the crowds are smaller, but it is mostly impossible to do so unless it's a holiday (which also brings a lot of fans to the stadiums).
Anyway, last Friday night and Saturday, I spent a few hours making and printing some custom autograph photos. I started with a photo of an old baseball sitting on grass as my background. You can't see a lot of it due to the photos and signature areas covering it, but I didn't want to just do a plain background and I also wanted to make sure that the photo and signature areas were big.
After putting in the background, I put in photos that I took last season and a signature area that are both the same size. I could have just put in a photo and let players sign that, but I like having an area that is just for a signature. In the signature area, I put a transparent image of the team's current slogan. I followed all of that up by placing the player's name and position at the bottom.
While it may not be the greatest of designs, I like it and think they will look nice on display after getting them signed. With time I will probably make some changes to the design and background, but for now I am happy with the results. Here is a look at what I ended up with. This one is of Choi Ju Hwan of the Doosan Bears. For now I only have them made for Doosan players, but I will make some of other teams in the future.
Choi Ju Hwan Custom Signature Photo
I will try to post some of them signed so that you can see how the turn out if I can manage to get any autographs in the near future.
Today I opened up the final 5 packs of my box and they were definitely better than the previous 15 packs which isn't necessarily a bad thing when you don't want to pull the hits right at the beginning. Anyway, I ended up with a few more Yamada cards, a few more inserts, and an autograph. While the autograph isn't what I was hoping for (Yamada of course), it could have some potential given that it is from an 18 year old rookie, Yuta Ichikawa. Hopefully he is able to have a long and successful career.
I am back today with a break of the next 5 packs out of my box of 2019 BBM Yakult Swallows cards. So far I have only pulled base and inserts with one #'d / 75 from the "Fly High" inserts. I didn't pull any autos today and no additional Yamada cards so the search will continue tomorrow with the final 5 packs of the box.
Anyway, here is a look at a couple of insert cards that I pulled today.
Taishi Hirooka - "Growing Up" Insert
Yuhei - "Fly High" Insert
Through 15 packs, the results have been a bit lackluster as of now. I was at least hoping to have pulled a few #'d cards of younger guys with superstar potential or a Yamada #'d card. Anway, I will finish off this box tomorrow so check back to see how this box turns out. Cheers!
Today, I opened up 5 more packs of 2019 BBM Tokyo Yakult Swallows cards. Still no autos, but I did get my 1st Tetsuto Yamada out of the box.
I also pulled a base card of one of the coolest dude in baseball, Dave Huff. I got to know Dave a bit when he played for the LG Twins in the KBO. He was always fun to have a chat with and also a very nice guy that helped us out with our charity work back in 2017.
Dave Huff - Base
Taichi Ishiyama - "Fly High" Insert
Wladimir Balentien - "Fly High" Insert
Tetsuto Yamada - "Record Makers" Insert
Check back tomorrow for part 3 as I open 5 more packs. Cheers!
