Thoughts on Tony Gwynn's Passing

I grew up in San Diego, living there from 1980 to 1998.  While I never really lost my first allegiance in Baseball which was for the California Angles (and NOT the Los Angeles Dodgers) I rooted for the Padres due to the home-town bias.  Didn't hurt that the entire time I lived in San Diego I was never further than 5 miles away from Jack Murphy Stadium.  Subsequently I was there and fully entrenched in Padre-mania when it hit in 1984, fueled by the spectacular season that one Tony Gwynn tore through hitting .351 with 213 hits playing Right Field.

Photo courtesy Laura K. Stevens.

I once owned a Tony Gwynn Rookie Card, his Topps issue, coveted by many in San Diego, more so than his Fleer and Donruss issues from the same year.  For one Topps was still "THE BRAND" back then and for two, the newcomers' cards were boring non-action shots, and his Topps showed, well, his ass.  Yup.  One of the greatest rookie cards in Padre history shows his butt.  Something even more curious I noticed, in my friend Laura's picture of Tony's rookie card, he's wearing a number in the 50's.  We all know his uniform number was #19, so hmm...


Seemed like outside of San Diego Mr. Gwynn was well respected, but not that well known.  That's OK, he was our hometown hero, after all even though he was born (like myself) in Los Angeles he went to SDSU and was a Lincoln High guy as well.  After he retired he went back to work for SDSU coaching.  He was a stand-up guy and there are tons and tons of tributes flowing over the last couple of days as there should be.

I don't personally own much Gwynn memorabilia anymore, I may have some stuff still in storage.  I was at the game where he won his final Silver Slugger award, and that was pretty special because if I recall correctly it was a really close race between Gwynn and Colorado slugger Larry Walker.  (Gwynn won the batting title by 6 points, .372 to .366.

I did attend the 1992 All-Star Fan Fest in San Diego at the convention center, one of the first times I'd ever been there, having eschewed the first two SDCCs at the new hall along Seaport Village (total honesty - I've never been to Petco either).  One of the promos was this wonderful full page sheet showing the complete 12 card set for that years' inserts.  The first 10 cards were found in packs about 1:13 or so.  The last two were mail-aways, a common component of sports collecting that I loved to go after back in the day.

This sheet has more sentimental value to me now than monetary.  It represents the early 90's so fantastically.  Upper Deck had been doing these "limited edition" sheets for awhile and Fleer wanted to get in on the action.  If you want one I notice there's one listed on eBay for a $5 bid/$10 BIN.  It's not my listing, so I'm not linking, but you can find it easily enough.  Search "1992 Ultra Tony Gwynn."

The sets of 12 themselves seem to be readily available at under a buck a card too.  Even for the mail aways.  It was the era of junk wax.  It might be more fun to find 1992 unopened Wax and search for the certified autos.  Wait, what's that you say?  Yup, Tony signed 200 of EACH CARD and they were inserted.  So theoretically there's a 10 card signed set out there somewhere.  Yikes.  Back in the day these cards were valued (by Fleer) at $50 each.  They're also readily available on the Bay of E for under $100 each.  Not too bad for a HOFer.

One last thing and here's where I'm going to get a bit preachy.  Tony died of Salivary Gland Cancer, which he contracted from years of chewing tobacco use.  I've had a few friends in the past chew tobacco, and I've never understood the habit.  Really.  It's disgusting to the Nth degree.  And it's dangerous.  It's high time that MLB took a hard-core stand, rather than the still tacit appeasement that they currently have.  Then again that would have the MLB take a stand on SOMETHING and we all know that under Bud Selig they don't stand for anything.

RIP Tony Gwynn 1960 - 2014

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/hall-of-famer-gwynn-passes-away-at-54?ymd=20140616&content_id=80040976&vkey=news_mlb


RIP Tony Gwynn. My 17 years in San Diego encompassed almost your entire career as a Padre. Saw you win your last Silver Slugger award in person. It was magical. You were the best pure hitter in the game, and I loved you for it. Following the path laid down by Ted Williams and Rod Carew you made the game more fun every time you played. So sad.

Budget Deal Alert - Mobile Suit Gundam 00 - Season 1 DVD for about $23 SHIPPED!

Crunchy roll has great deals every now and then, today's deal with about 12 hours left is a DVD set of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 1.  This is 26 episodes of mecha goodness with some nifty extras.
You get 3 different sets each with 2 dvds and there's also manga included.  List price is about $120.  When you put the item in your cart it will show up as 3 different sets for $10 each, making it $30.  Shipping to California was $9.


Oh but wait, you can get 15% off with code 537C-E735C-7698
AND if you have a premium membership (which you can get with a 2 week free trial) each set is a whopping $5.

My order cost me $23.10 shipped.


Here's the link:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/store/d/3364/Gundam00-Season-1-Complete-Collection

Adventures in eBay - LA Kings Stanley Cup Playoffs Edition

Because I've been able to parlay a couple of nice pulls into PayPal money recently, I figured it was nigh-time to bring in some new cardboard under the auspices of the bay of E.  Basically that was a long winded way to say I sold some cards and bought some cards.

Here's what I got:


Upper Deck 2013-14 Series 2 - Young Guns Martin Jones and Linden Vey.  I paid $1.00 for both of these, what a steal right?  Naw, I had to pop $6 for shipping from Canada.  I checked though, his shipping only cost him $3.50 something.  Needless to say his star ratings on his shipping price was very low, and he took forever to ship too.

Various lot of Kings cards from Artifacts, Score, Upper Deck, OPC and Titanium.
Upper Deck 2013-14 Artifacts Tandems Jeff Carter and Mick Richards
Upper Deck 2013-14 Artifacts Luc Robitaille Dual Jersey #9/125
Upper Deck 2013-14 Black Diamond Dual Jerseys Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown

I got all of these from the same buyer, decent prices and I got combined shipping, but again I got ripped on the shipping.  It cost him only $3.30 to ship to me and he charged me two bucks extra.  Again didn't get good shipping star ratings.  Great cards though.

I don't know what it is about jersey cards, but I really dig 'em, always have.  I kind of hate the fact that they're so hard to pull, and so basically worthless, unless they're numbered to some ridiculous low number and signed.  See I really like these double cards with two players and two swatches.

Or One player with two swatches (numbered to some ridiculous low number)

Or they're puzzle pieces!

I really dig these Black Diamond dual jerseys.  There's two more Kings in the set, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick and they have a different Kings Logo in the middle.  I'll need to be on the lookout.

These last few cards are from previous purchases

The top two I bought in previous auctions for less than a couple bucks each.  The Quickie I PULLED last week.  I do believe it is the first and only Kings memorabilia or limited card I've ever pulled.  

There are ELEVEN Kings in the standard UD Game Jersey set this year, I checked because I figured I had three already, I might want to go for the full set.  Here's the rest of the set and their odds:  

GJ-MR Mike Richards F 1:23

GJ-WG Wayne Gretzky A 1:3481

GJ-AK Anze Kopitar C 1:65

GJ-DD Drew Doughty D 1:57

GJ-DU Dustin Brown C 1:65

GJ-LR Luc Robitaille D 1:65

GJ-MR Mike Richards B 1:2901

GJ-SV Slava Voynov D 1:57

The Jeff Carter is Group E 1:39.  Marcell Dionne Group F 1:23.  Jonathan Quick Group C 1:65

Now I've looked online, most of those single swatch jerseys are a couple bucks, shouldn't really be a problem, but that damn Gretzky is a short print.  There's only one on eBay right now and they want two hundy.  I ain't paying no two hundy for a single swatch jersey, I don't care how rare or who it is.  OK maybe if it was from Babe Ruth...or Joe Jackson.  Whatever.

Here's a card so nice I bought it twice

That's 2011-12 SPx and it's a 1:18 insert, so not really very rare I guess.  When I bought that one I inadvertently bought several duplicate cards.  It's never a bad thing to have dupes, especially of Kings.  Gives me something to trade.

It's HOCKEY PLAYOFF TIME - Now with good pulls lately

I'll fully admit it, last week when the Kings lost to the Sharks in Overtime in Game 3 to go down 0-3 in the First round I wrote them off.  Oh I always expect the worst because well, when your expectations are so low you can only be surprised by a better outcome.  This was my father's world-view and I sort of adopted it as an adult.

Anyway, I still watched every other game in the series, except for Monday's when I was in a class, but I left early to catch the end of the third period.  These Kings, they might not be a team of destiny like the 2012 squad, but they certainly are exciting.  Bring on the Ducks!

Which, I might add, is a DREAM Playoff Matchup for this Kings fan.


I started collecting Hockey Cards again this season, mostly because of the dual Rookie Card class.  I've pulled some great RCs already this year, including these two beauts that I have gotten from my friendly LCS California Sports Cards - their Upper Deck Series 2 boxes have been very kind to me:

Nathan MacKinnon RED Parallel OPC Rookie

Mikael Granlund Young Guns Exclusives #41/100

I currently have 124 cards on eBay right now, ALL WITH FREE SHIPPING.

AND BEFORE YOU COMMENT CAPTAIN CANUCK - -I DO NOT SET THE PRICES FOR CANADIAN SHIPMENTS - It's supposed to be FREE SHIPPING, but International Shipments aren't covered.  If you're Canadian and you want some of my cards, let me know ahead of time and we'll work it out.

I've already received an offer on the MacKinnon of $50.  BOTH cards are great pulls, the MacKinnon is a case hit (1:336) and has sold twice in the last 90 days, once for $46 (including shipping) and one a best offer (the original price was $80).  So if you're interested, offer more than $50.

 Not sure on how hard the Young Guns Exclusive was to pull, but there's SIX standard exclusives in a case of 10, so it's gotta be pretty rare.  Other copies have sold between $30 and $60, so my $50 price seems reasonable to me.  I'm accepting offers on that one as well.

That's all for today, remember GO KINGS GO

Mini-Figure Trading Time

 I'm pretty sure it's no secret that I collect Mini-Figures of all shapes and sizes.  Be they Lego, Kre-O, K'Nex, OYO Toys, Mega Brands or Character Building, I've got a mini-figure or two.  Some lines more than others.  Character Building is my current favorite, they of the awesome Doctor Who line.

To that end - here's my doubles that I have to trade:

Doctor Who Blind Bag Series 3
Handbot
Judoon Trooper

Doctor Who 11 Doctors Blind Bags
3rd Doctor
6th Doctor
7th Doctor
10th Doctor

Scooby-Doo Character Building (no stands)
Clown

Character Building Blind Bags (no stands)
Race Car Driver African American
Red Shield Knight

Simpsons Lego Mini-Figs
Scratchy

And here's what I NEED from the Doctor Who Character Building Line:

Series 1 Blind

Weeping Angel Serene

Silurian

Smiler

Series 2 Blind

Silent Open Mouth 

Series 3 Blind

Rory Eyepatch 

Sontaran

11 Doctors Blind

1st Doctor

5th Doctor

8th Doctor

Brix Wave Blind

Judoon No Helm

Sontaran No Helm

11th Doctor with Fez

Dalek Black

Non Blind Bagged

Dalek Orange

11th Doctor Blue Tie (Newspaper)

Dalek Yellow (Newspaper)

Amy Pond Red Hands (Newspaper)

Space Man (Cyberman Conversion Set)

Cyberman Damaged (Cyberman set)

Cyberman No Logo (Cyberman Set)

Cyber Leader Brain (Cyberman Set)

2nd Doctor Gold (11 Doctors Set 2)

3rd Doctor Maroon (11 Doctors Set 2)

4th Doctor Green (11 Doctors Set 2)

11th Doctor Maroon (11 Doctors Set 2)

If you want to trade please let me know via email or comment (comments are all moderated).

Buy My Cards on eBay!!!

Looking at my seller dashboard, eBay tells me that my first ever sale was in 2002 and that I've sold over 1000 items for just about $5,400 since then.  Those numbers aren't all that spectacular, but they are decent in my humble opinion.  Up until the last couple of months I did what every other seller usually did, list items for a 5 or 7 day auction, but I've recently seen the light, and am now simply listing each item on a 30 day fixed price.  WITH FREE SHIPPING in the UNITED STATES.  Yes, that's right.  I start most of my items between $1.29 and $1.49, with only a select few priced higher than that.  Anything priced higher than $2.00 can be bought with a best-offer bid.

NOW, free shipping really only includes an envelope and a stamp.  If you buy more than one card then I'll throw them in a padded envelope.  I haven't had any complaints with my shipments.

So check out my current auctions, there's going to be a bit of everything up over the next few days, AND if you buy something and tell me that you read about it in my blog in a note with your payment I'll go ahead and throw something free in your shipment.

Click and Check out my auctions