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I don't have all of these cards anymore, but you're going to see them anyway


A few weeks ago, I participated in a card draft put on by Scott Crawford on Cards. I love card drafts. If I wasn't so broke, I'd try to get in as many as I could. But to date, I think I've participated in maybe three. I'll have to work on that.

What made this draft so cool was the wide, wide, wide array of cards available. All sports. And nonsports, too. And if baseball is your thing, there was vintage, current cards, parallels and hit mojo booyah, too.

Another cool part was that it was held in a Google + live chat room thing so you could talk about cards while you're drafting them. Unfortunately, the draft was held at the same time as one of the busier Sundays in my work world, so I couldn't be there to talk or even pick. Scott acted as my proxy selector. And he did a damn fine job of it.

The draft was 20 rounds. But good guy that he is, Scott added on a few more rounds. And then when he sent out the cards, he tacked on a few more rounds, too. So I counted 30 rounds altogether. That's a great deal for 20 bucks.

Also included in the package he sent were some cards from a trade we were working on, so this envelope was packed with cardboard flavor ... or whatever the young kids are saying.

I'm going to make you suffer through all 30 of my picks, mostly because a fair number of these cards have been involved/will be involved in transactions. Some of these cards I don't even have anymore.

Also, like dayf did when he was in Scott's first card draft, I'm doing it in reverse order. Because that is how lists should be presented, worst to first. Always.

Get ready for a wide array of goodies:


30. Jeff Kent, 2008 Upper Deck Premier: I've never seen a UD Premier card before, so I can't tell you anything about it. It's numbered 13/15, which seems pretty exclusive to me. How exclusive? Don't know. Don't care.


29. Jim Wynn, 1970 Topps: I cannot pass up a pre-Dodger card of one of the coolest players of the '60s/'70s. It's possible this card may be dealt to one of the 465 Astros fans I know though. (Yes, 465).


28. Travis Snider, 2011 Topps Heritage green refractor: Travis does not appear too impressed with his card shininess. But I'm impressed enough for the both of us.


27. Lowell Palmer, 1970 Topps: An absolutely legendary card of the legendary Lowell Palmer. I have his 1971 card already, but this one was the first example of the best shades in carddom. The diamond-cut quality just adds to the quirky nature of the card.


26. Paul Blair, 1969 Topps: I can't tell you why I picked this card. It's a vintage card of a player I like. No more, no less.


25. Andrew Bailey, 2011 Topps, hope diamond parallel: The hope diamond parallels of 2011 are the pink/camo parallels of 2013. I pulled a grand total of one hope diamond card two years ago. It's since been dealt. I'd like to have at least one in my collection.


24. Herb Washington, 1975 Topps: Yes, I have this card already. But this one is going toward my first TTM try in a couple of years. It better come back with scribbles.


23. Colby Rasmus, 2013 Topps emerald parallel: Rasmus cards are just horrifying. So you know that I don't own this card anymore.


22. Brian McCann, 2006 Topps A&G mini: McCann was selected for the mini frankenset quest. I'm proud to say it is bumping '08 Francisco Rodriguez from his perch.


21. Walter Alston, 1970 Topps: You can never have enough Smokey cards. Especially with the number of Dodger card bloggers around.


20. Larry Sherry, Mike Lowell, Then & Now, 2008 Heritage: I absolutely freaked when I saw this card available, because for some odd reason I never knew it existed. It took all my will-power not to select it first. I kept telling my brain, "You idiot, nobody is going to know who Larry Sherry is." And my brain kept hyperventilating, "But you DON'T HAVE IT." I was able to talk brain down to pick 20.


19. Delwyn Young, 2007 Topps gold parallel: The dearth of 2006-08 Dodger gold parallels in my binder is disturbing on a daily basis.


18. Mike Napoli, 2012 Topps Finest xrefractor: Shiny Mike is crossing the country right now to new living quarters.


17. Mark Fidrych, 1994 Ted Williams Company: Any chance I have to land a Fidrych I don't have I have at.



16. Jacoby Ellsbury, 2012 Topps Finest gold refractor: It's been awhile since I sent the blogosphere's Ellsbury collector a package.


15. Kyle Drabek, 2011 Topps Gypsy queen black mini: Black borders even make a set like GQ appear collectible.


14. Mike Cuellar, 1967 Topps: There is this really stupid part of my brain that thinks I'm going to collect the 1967 set someday. So I humored it.


13. Brett Lawrie, 2012 Topps Finest, Finest Moments: I'm a little surprised that a shiny diecut of Mr. Excitable lasted so long. Glad it did.


12. Russell Martin, 2008 Upper Deck Premier: You can't see it, but this card is numbered 1/99. Another ebay 1/1!!!!! (Commence mojo dance of triumph). I believe this card is #/99 and the Kent card earlier is #/15 because one is gold foil and one is silver. Which is absolutely ridiculous.


11. Vida Blue, 1979 Kellogg's: This is actually the end of my run on '79 Kellogg's cards in the draft. I saved the Giant for last. He was much preferable when he worked across the bay.


10. Dwight Evans, 1979 Kellogg's: Dewey Red Sox cards are notorious for being difficult to obtain. The late, great Chris Stufflestreet and I agreed on that. This one was remarkably easy to obtain.


9. J.R. Richard, 1979 Kellogg's: A collector I know is after this card. I don't know if I want to give it up.


8. George Foster, 1979 Kellogg's: George is toasty on the edges, but just as bad-ass.


7. Adam Lind, 2012 Bowman Chrome blue refractor: Blue shiny is the best shiny.



6. Cole Hamels, 2012 Topps Finest, finest moments: Another card that I selected entirely too soon. I think I was involved in a possible transaction with a Phillies fan at the time. I don't know if it's still going. I need to consult my notes.


5. Kenley Jansen, 2012 Topps gold parallel: You can barely see the serial-numbering on the back. It's almost a crime. But golds we must have.


4. Jacoby Ellsbury, 2013 Topps purple parallel: Another one for the Ellsbury cause. I actually don't like the look of these purple parallels at all. But that's mostly the color's fault.


3. Eddie Murray, 1979 Topps: A second-year Murray for the now-public chase of the 1979 Topps set. Want list on the way.



2. Ted Williams, 2013 Topps Cut to the Chase insert: I grabbed this because Williams is my dad's favorite player. He doesn't care about cards at all (although he collected as a kid). But I might show this to him just to get his reaction on what they're doing to cards these days. I expect a rant to follow.


1. Josh Wall, 2005 Topps Chrome Updates & Highlights black refractor: Wall was still in the Dodgers bullpen plans when I selected this card first. He's been sent down to Triple A to start the season, but I'm hoping he returns soon. I've been waiting for him to do something.

Besides, this amused me:


The draft was really a good time, even though I wasn't there. There was lots of good stuff left over, too, and I think Scott is going to do another one. I'd recommend joining.

After all of that, though, I'm out of energy to write about the cards Scott sent me in the trade, so I'll just show them here (included is the Ramon Martinez electric diamond card way at the top):





OK, I'll talk about the last card a little bit.

I previously received a '54 Bowman Preacher Roe card from AdamE of Thoughts and Sox. It was kind of a loaner, a great gesture from one collector to another, as Adam has a connection to Roe and collects him.

If I was ever to come across another '54 Bowman Roe, I promised to return the card to Adam.

Well, Scott had one and I worked out a deal and the other Roe was sent back to Adam. Everybody's happy.

And that seems like a good place to end this.

Comments

Nick said…
Love the Kellogg's cards! I don't think I have any from the '79 set yet.

That '54 Bowman Roe is amazing. I found one a few months ago, but yours is in about a thousand times better shape than mine. :)
Josh Wall quoting Dumb & Dumber. Nice.
Roy-Z said…
Suspicious amount of Blue Jays in this post.
Brad's Blog said…
If you want to start a trade with a Phillies collector, I don't have that Hamels card!
carlsonjok said…
#17 - Is that a preposition I saw you end that sentence with?
night owl said…
Yup! Livin' on the edge tonight!
Captain Canuck said…
I was going to try and lay claim to that McCann... until I found out about it's responsibility in the Frankenset.


and wait.... did you say someone actually uses Google +?????????
Scott Crawford said…
Canuck: it's more or less useless, aside from the Hangouts feature. Multi-user video chat with a text chatroom attached, bandwidth that isn't a joke and a login that most people already have? Yeah, I can get behind that.

Glad you liked the cards, Mr. Owl, sir.

For the rest of you mugs: there'll probably be another draft soon. Stay tuned to my site (scottcrawfordoncards.com) for details.
Brian said…
Looks to me like Colby is taking some kind of injections to look like Michael Jackson. Appears to be working!
That Lowell card needs either a white cane, or a seeing eye dog