Nick Checks Off Every Box

 I recently completed the first trade in a long time with Nick from the essential Dime Boxes blog. It's been a busy summer, and I've been trying to focus on Super Trades and writing longer blog posts (when I have the time to post at all). So, it was long overdue! Nick sent back some tremendous cardboard, that checked off every box. Just look at that 1969 Topps Checklist! Unmarked and Super Sharp all around. The Great Tony O on the front and it is pretty much a perfect card.

 Minis!

 Everything from Vintage . . .

 to the latest Topps releases, Archives and Series 2 (which FINALLY appeared in my city a couple days ago.).

Oddballs, Parallels, Prospects, Hall of Famers, Fan Favorites! Nick is an expert envelope stuffer and this latest was a big hit.

Thanks again Nick for another great trade!

Back For More

Once I get on a roll on COMC, it can be hard to stop - the 50 under .50 was such a big win! I went back again once those cards arrived and made a much smaller order of a small handful of cards I had been looking to add for various reasons.

 So 90s! This one was on my Arbitrary List. I originally put random cards on that list, but generous and well meaning collectors would send me those random cards in the mail, so I had to switch it up - now it's always a random sampling of cards that I don't own but would like to.

 This card is so cool. The Crystal Ball had no idea what was in store for LaTroy, who retired following the  2015 season.

 Kennys! This insert has a Superfractor look and feel to it, but it was much much cheaper than a 1/1. Vargas ended being included in Series 2 for the Topps flagship set this year, I was not expecting him to be included but I am hopeful that he will get another shot at the big leagues soon.

 My first Byung-ho Park card! He's been able to provide plenty of big homers, but the league seems to have found some weaknesses in the strike zone, and he struggles a little with big league heat. It's his turn to adjust, or Kennys will be taking his place until he figures things out!

TONY O! This is a hand cut card from a 1971 Milk Duds carton. It's seen better days, but a little love just made it cheaper for me!

ok,  I got a little lazy with the scanning on this one - Museum Collection is printed on a fairly thick cardstock, I think that may have confused my scanner a bit.

So there you go, 50 under .50 and here's 5 under $5. A little something for everyone!

Quality via Quantity

 I've been reeeeeeallly slow about updating this summer - This post was inspired by Night Owl's 50 under .50 - I logged into COMC and went to town with Twins cards (and a few others, like Moises up there) -- everything under 50 cents!

 Horizontal Heroes!

 I steered clear of the true vintage cards this time around, but I was able to find cards from several generations of Twins teams.

 It was great to get the band back together - Jacque Jones, Torii (from the first stint in MN), Corey Koskie, Christian Guzman, Brad Radke... and BOOF.

 Lots of Super Shiny deals to be had, including a 2015 Bowman's Best Brian Dozier.

Picked up some junk wax too - it was a great deal, so why not???

A Shocking Development

I've Been Zapped! It was a surprise zapping from Zippy Zappy over at Torren' Up Cards .

 Ben Revere, leading the league in smiles!

It's kind of hard to read the name in the scan, but the prospect on the top left is Will Hurt. Would be a great name for a linebacker. Looks like he played in rookie ball for three seasons and as of 2015 was no longer in organized ball.

 The Future and present Twins were well represented - Kenny knows how to pull the prospects!

 The local paper had a clickbait article from one of its regular fly in the ointment, armchair psychologist, hot air balloon meatheads this week- and all this dingus wanted to do was complain about the Twins celebrating a win too hard. I don't recall the guy being appointed Chief of the Fun Police! In addition, he specifically called out the Twins for not developing high school pitcher Kohl Stewart fast enough. The 2013 first rounder was just promoted to AA, and is 21 years old. I guess the problem is he's not in the majors yet? I don't know- it was pretty weak and it pissed me off. There are lots of reasons why the Twins are bad. Being happy about winning a game and being in AA at the age of 21 (3 years younger than the average player) are not among them.

 Hey Look it's Joe Nathan! Chicago is taking all the last chances for Twins this year - the Cubbies signed Joe, and the White Sox have added Justin Morneau. Best of luck to both of those guys, I was thinking "Morneau to the White Sox" ever since LaRoche retired.

Nice! 1960 Topps All-Star Rookie Pitcher Jim Perry! He was the winningest active righthander in the American League at the time this card came out, so put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Kenny, thanks so much for these cards! I should have the return package heading your way this week.

Now Look What You've Done

Thanks, Topps. Right after this card came out, Sano injured his hamstring running out a routine grounder and went on the Disabled List. Coincidence? Yes, of course.

Why can't we have nice things, Twins? There's a Dozier card out "Now" as well, but I held off on getting that one, maybe I'll skip it.