Oh Dear.

The card above isn't mine, it's one I found while browsing Topps Sterling 2010 on Ebay. The card is a Frenchy Bodagaray cut auto 1/1. I realise that ole Frenchy has a long name,but come on Topps this is a flagship product and this is what you get. Would you be happy with a 'bert Pujols auto or a 'andy Koufax? No I hear you cry. Then why should anyone be happy with a cut off cut auto. This card is for sale for $175 if anyone is interested. I would love a Frenchy card as he is an old Brooklyn Dodger, but not this card thank you.

Ahoy Sailor!!!!!

Ralph Vivian Stroud also known as Sailor, you won't find Stroud in the Hall of Fame, he only spent three seasons in the majors,pitching for the Tigers and Giants. His career statistics are not too shabby though, 20-20 with an ERA of 2.94. His best season was 1915 with the Giants where he went 12-9 with an ERA of 2.79. He continued pitching in the Minors until 1928 when he was 43 years old.
So he is not in the Hall of Fame but he is immortalized forever in cardboard form. The card is an Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada C46. Printed in 1912 the set consists of 90 cards. All the cards are of minor league players fromBuffalo,JerseyCity,Rochester,Toronto,Montreal,Baltimore Newalk and Providence. The set contains two hall of famers Joe Kelley and Joe McGinnty,also the popular deaf player Luther "Dummy" Taylor.

Ralph Sailor Stroud

Born. 3/15/1885 Ironia New Jersey

Died. 4/11/1970 Stockton California.

Please Please Pretty Please.

I hate begging,but on this occasion I am going to. Do any of you wonderful people out there in blogworld have any of the following cards. I am getting quite desperate here.

Topps Chrome 2010.
James Shields.Purple Refractor, Red Refractor.
Wade Davis. Xfractor,Purple Refractor,Red Refractor,Print Plate. Gold Refractor Auto,Red Refractor Auto.

Bowman Chrome 2009.

James Shields:- Blue Refractor,Gold Refractor,Red Refractor
Matt Garza :- Gold Refractor and Red Refractor.

2009 Upper Deck Icons

James Shields Letterman Patch Letter I Numbered to 35.

Thanks for reading.

Drum Roll Please!!! 100 Shields Cards!!!

Well folks I have finally achieved a collecting landmark.I have just got my 100th James Shields card.Actually its 102 but that doesn't look so cool as a title.I was just collecting game used and autographed cards until I discovered the forums and COMC.com. Now I am collecting everything I can lay my grubby little paws on. Thanks to forums and comc I can now get base and inserts at a very reasonable price or trade away my crap for cards I need.

The card above is the very first James Shields card I got. Aptly it's a 2006 Sweet Beginnings Jersey card.If my memory is correct I believe I paid the grand sum of $1 for it.

Above is card number 100.A 2006 Exquisite dual Rookie Auto of James Shields and Jason Hamels.Hamels of course is now a starter with the Rockies.

The goal now is to carry on collecting and try to reach 200 cards by the end of 2011.This shouldn't be too much of a problem due to the amount of parallels printed in each set.Also I want to try and pick up a few more 1/1 cards and maybe even a Superfractor,but that may be out of my price range.Rumours abound that Shields may be traded away from the Rays,if he is I will still continue to pick up his cards,unlike my Kazmir pc which is strictly Rays cards only.

I would like to thank Tony McD for putting me on to COMC and his help in finding Shields cards for me. Also it was Tony's awesome Adam Lind collection that finally spured me on to get the more common Shields cards. Cheers Tony.

Fallen Angel

I hadn't bought/traded for any Scott Kazmir cards since he was traded away to the Angels. Last week on SCF someone was selling off his collection and he had two Kazmir auto's that I didn't have,after a bit of wheeling and begging I got the price I wanted and got these two sweet Kazmir cards.
Above is a 2007 Upper Deck Black auto/jersey card 12/50. I love the Black cards,they are nice to look at and very thick.Of course when this set was released back in 2007 I could not afford to buy any of the cards. Remember they were $120 for a box which only included two cards. Now of course alot of the players in that set are on the downturn career wise and they are much easier to pick up.

The second Kazmir card is the 2005 Origins Baseball Old Judge card. I'm no expert but I am guessing this is a set based on an old cigarette card. I like the old style picture but it could be a little bigger for my liking. I'm not sure if I will revive the Kazmir pc totally,but if some nice cards come along at the right price you never know.