Tanner Rahier

Tanner Rahier is a player in the Reds minor league system.  He plays third base and spend the year in Dayton with the Reds Class A team.  I sent this in April, so he must just be getting to his mail.  The Bowman autograph actually looks better on the scan than it does in person.

Tanner Rahier
Signed 2/2
Sent c/o Dayton Dragons
214 days

Joe Oliver

A second attempt at Joe Oliver was successful for me!  I had tried back in 2012, but had a RTS.  I was really excited to get this back; the Fleer card will look great in my catcher collection!

Joe Oliver
Signed 3/3
Sent c/o Home address
39 days

This week's mail

First of all, I would like to let everyone know that I am super busy with school, work, and life, so if you have tried to propose a trade via Zistle, I will try to look at it over Thanksgiving vacation.  Again, school impedes on my hobby.  

I got a couple of letters back this week.  This first one was from the AFL.  I noticed from some other bloggers that they also received mail back from Tyler Austin this week, as well.  I love how the signature looks on the Bowman Platinum cards.

Tyler Austin

Signed 1/1

Sent c/o Scottsdale Scorpions

33 days

The other letter I got back this week was a RTS from the Padres.  It was a request I had sent to Jason Marquis back in April 2013.  I had written this one off a while ago.  I guess the good thing about getting my letter back was my SASE!

Mega trade, part 3: Royals

The final installation of the mega trade is cards from the Royals.  I have thoroughly enjoyed spending a baseball post-season watching some playoff baseball live in person.  I was at Game 6 of the World Series, and it's something I'll never forget.  Everyone should have their favorite team go to the World Series in their lifetime.  Now, the Cubs need to get on it so I can go to Wrigley for a World Series!!!

I was able to add 26 cards to my Royals collection!

A few old George Brett cards

This will probably be the last we see Billy Butler in a Royals uniform.  He was made a free agent by the Royals over the weekend.  I have to give him props, he filled in for Hosmer during the summer and did just fine.  I remember thinking during that time about all the rumors that were going around about Billy being possibly being traded to Seattle during spring training and how I was so glad that didn't happen.  Billy Butler is a lot like Mike Sweeney.  He will always be a Royal.

This is from 2012 Topps; Cards Your Mom Threw Out.  If your Mom threw out this card back in the day, it was very costly for you!

A moose sighting

Probably my favorite Royals player (and the guy that buys everyone drinks at the bar), Eric Hosmer.  I picked up these sweet SPs of Hosmer in the 2012 set.

Mega trade, part 2: Cubbies

Here is part 2 of the mega trade.  I got a lot of Cubs to knock off of my Cubs collection list.  15 to be exact.  I also got some Cubs for my player collections.

Cubs collection:

Ryno:

Other Cubs player collection needs:

Tomorrow, part 3 of the mega trade contains cards of your 

2014 American League Champions, the Kansas City Royals!!!

Mega trade, part 1: player collection

I made a huge trade over on Zistle with a multiple times trade partner, hpennington22.  This trade was so big, I'm going to have to do multiple posts!  The first post will be player collection goodies, as well as additions to my other collections.

One of my favorite catchers, and two sweet additions to my Terry Steinbach collection:

I think these chips are neat!  I might collect them just so I can use them for blackjack!

Player collections:

A pair of 2014 Bowman to add to my set that I'm still working on completing:

Iowa Hawkeye Alumni:

Ole Miss baseball Alumni.  #HOTTY TODDY!

Creighton Bluejay Alumni:

Iowans in the MLB:

Tomorrow, part 2...Cubbies!!!

Spring training mail!

I was surprised to get this one back, being I send it in Spring Training.  Usually at this point in the year, I pretty much write off any Spring Training TTM's that I haven't gotten back yet.  This one is personalized!

Brian Dozier
Signed 1/2 (didn't return second card)
Sent c/o Minnesota Twins ST
243 days

Arizona Fall League mail

I sent out my usual 6 envelope to the Arizona Fall League this year.  I usually try to get one guy from every team.  I got two responses back this week!

Daniel Robertson is with the Oakland A's system.  He won AFL player of the week honors last week. He spend the 2014 season with Oakland's minor league team, the Stockton Ports.

Daniel Robertson
Signed 1/1
Sent c/o Mesa Solar Sox
14 days

John Hicks is with the Mariners organization.  This is a UER on Topps part; I have read on message boards they improperly photo shopped him.  He spend some of last season with Tacoma, the Mariners AAA team.

John Hicks
Signed 1/1
Sent c/o Surprise Saguaros
17 days

Topps Football Valor

I will admit, I have been slacking on the blogging this month, but when the Royals make the run to the World Series, it makes you distracted (and a lot of late nights!).

I recently saw a post on Facebook from Topps about the release of their Valor set for football.  I really liked the look of these cards.  I don't really buy football cards, but when I was at the store today, I decided to try it out.  I really like them now that I have them in my hand.  I wish Topps would do this design for baseball!!

I  just bought a rack pack for about $5 that included 18 cards.  Here is what I got:

Chiefs!!!

#'d 222/399 (didn't scan well)

These cards look great.  I love seeing the Steve Young, Luke Kuechly, and the cards also have a nice rookie card logo on them, Stephen Morris (it didn't scan well).

Here is what else I got that I didn't scan:

Richard Sherman

Von Miller

Reggie Bush

DeAndre Hopkins

Dez Bryant

Joe Namath

Kendall Wright

Greg Robinson RC

Jace Amaro RC

Tom Savage RC

Ben Roethlisberger

Everything is available for trade through this blog or on Zistle except for the Chiefs.

ZIstle trade with rbarone5

Another trade via Zistle, with a new trade partner, rbarone5.  It was a small trade, but hopefully we can do another one again soon.  I've been a little busy attending post season playoff games here in Kansas City!!!  I plan on attending Game 1 of the World Series on Monday.  Even though it's Tuesday (and I wrote this post before that), hopefully the Royals are leading 1-0!!!

Speaking of Royals...

A card of the guy the Royals traded to get the players needed to get to the World Series...

Vernon Wells

This was my second attempt at Vernon Wells.  I had sent him mail while he was with the Angels a few years back.  I sent this one to his home address and got two nice cards back.  I have always like Stadium Club, and need to get my hands on some 2014.  I have also always been a fan of the Lineage set.  I have always been disappointed that they never produced this set again.

Vernon Wells

Signed 2/2

Sent c/o Home address

37 days

Jason Grilli

I felt a little guilty getting this one back last week.  I sent this to Jason Grilli right after he got traded to the Angels from the Pirates.  My Royals swept the Angels, en route to the ALCS.  He signed this after they lost to the Royals.

Jason Grilli
Signed 2/2
Sent c/o Los Angles Angels
53 days

A package from Panini?!?!

I got a package last week; I thought it was cards from one of my trades.  However, when I looked at the envelope, I saw it was from Panini.  I am one of those people who sends in my envelope to the no purchase necessary address on the back of the wrapper packages to try to win something cool.  I was ecstatic to maybe finally win something!  I felt like this guy:

Here is what I got:

He is in the White Sox organization.  He spent most of the year at AAA Charlotte.  He did pitch in 5 games for the White Sox this year.  Not what I expected, but I guess I finally got a reward for sending in to the no purchase necessary address.

New Zistle trade partner

Another new trade partner on Zistle, Birdrules.  The main chunk of this trade was 2014 Bowman Platinum, but there are a few other goodies sprinkled in there.

ROYALS ROYALS ROYALS!!!!  LET'S GO ROYALS!!!

A Rizzo rainbow!

Player collections:

This is one to add to my Iowan collection:

Another Zistle trade with bdlehman18

I was able to do another trade with bdlehman18 on Zistle.  I was able to get some great additions for my PCs.  He had several cards up for trade that I had never seen before.

I'll start with the wild card winners, ROYALS!  I was at that game last week, and I had never see The K like that before.  You would have thought it was a Chiefs game!  It was unbelievable!

An awesome card to add to my JFK collection:

Cubbies!  I had never seen the steel card before.  That card is awesome!

I'm excited to get my hands on some of the new 2014 Stadium Club.  I always liked the set and photo quality.  Hopefully, Topps doesn't reuse photos (like they currently do).

Additions to my A's player collections:

Finally, a rookie card to add to the Neil Walker pages.