Bait that Hook

Some new items available for trade ----

2013 Topps trade bait

Yu Darvish Rookie Manu - patch

Anthony Rizzo  Manu/patch

Joey Votto Manu-patch

4 Cards Away

I am four cards away and I turn to the blogosphere for some assistance in completing 2013 Topps Series One.... I will gladly help you out via trade.

167 Luke Hochever
188 Brian Fuentes
212 Eric Chavez
262 Kevin Correia

I have plenty of 2013 inserts, paralells, die-cuts, minis to send your way!!!

Keep it hot on the corner, pat.

UPDATE : Less than 12 hours of this posting, I have trades in the works to complete my '13 series 1 set.

Thanks!!!!!!

4,003 Tigers on the Wall

Wow, almost 1,000 Tigers garnered this 2013.

I keep thinking it's going to be a tad difficult to keep pace to hit 6,000 by August.  Keep sending 'em.

Now, a great haul this week including the insert draft cards from Jaybarker.

A couple of grabs out of the QUARTER box at the LCS.

Really, a quarter?

How much fun are these cards?

I really liked this card that my LCS dealer just had to show me.

The color is slick and Ginter always provides a slick card, especially the minis.

All in all a good week.

Keep it Hot on the Corner, pat.

Surf Board for a Turtle

I am putting together last year's set and I have a giant amount of 2013, parallels and inserts plus 2012 Update for trade.

Will have a 2012 want list available soon.

Keep it Hot on the Corner, pat.

Jaybarker Insert Draft Recap

What a great idea!!! Have a draft of the cards you can't trade or need.  I quickly jumped in the Jaybarker draft a couple of weeks ago to kill the winter blues.

I also sent him some vintage, here are his thoughts on that.

Plenty of Tigers available so many of my selections were of the Bengal variety (Surprise, Surprise)

With the first pick the Hot Corner Cards select....

Justin Verlander 2007 Fleer Rookie Sensations

No brainer here, MVP, ROY, CY Young, why not?  I was surprised Kirk Gibson Baseball & Boardwalk went ahead in this round.

The Second Round Selection of Hot Corner Cards selects....

Jack Morris 1984 Topps Glossy Send In

Mr. Hall of Great (for now) still in excellent shape, solid selection

In the the third round Hot Corner selects....

1997 Pinnacle/Denny's Hologram

Probably a reach here, most likely would have been available in a later round, but couldn't pass this up.

Fourth Round  - Nate Robertson 2008 Allen & Ginter - State Card

Real thick card, totally unrelated, Robertson benefited many seasons in my EAS Sports MVP dynasties with multiple All-Star game and CY Young wins in the dreadful 2000s.  No idea he was from Kansas, players who wear glasses are also cool.

Fifth Round - Jack Morris 1988 Topps UK Mini

Closing in on the set here, one more to go, more Jack (no wonder he's no.4 in my PC)

Sixth Round - Jack Morris 1986 Fleer Star Sticker

More Jack, Pepper Jack, Jack n Coke, Jack Rabbit

Seventh/Eighth Round Pick - 2007 Allen & Ginter MiniiiiiiiS !!

Jimmy Smokes & Bondo

Really hope the best for Bonderman with Seattle in his comeback, he never seemed to have a good 1st Inning but ate alot of innings at a young age for bad teams.

Tenth Round - 1986 Sportflics Eric King

Pitched for the Tigers in the post World Series years, need to read up on the baby face man.

Great idea Wes!  Count me in for the next one.

I am going to do one of my own prior to Opening Day!!!  Stay tuned.

Keep it Hot on the Corner, pat.

One of a kind

So I have been trying new things since re-entering the collecting world.  TTM, numbered to, blogging itself.

Prior to my lenten refrain from ebay, I purchased my first 1/1 printing plate an Avisail Garcia 2013 Topps Rookie Card.

I really had no expectations of what it would look like or how I would appreciate it.

However, this is Avi Garcia,  my new favorite Tiger and if someone is going to own his Topps Rookie Card 1/1 printing plate, by God it's going to be me!!!! I haven't been this excited about any Tigers rookie in a very long, Verlander, time.

 I did get in quite a bidding war and was happy to complete the process.

Once it got here, I was pleased, I didn't think they would be that light, pretty cool little deal.

So I check it off the list, I have a printing plate.  Next!!!

Happy belated birthday to Mr. Alan Trammell, you're still the man!

Keep it Hot on the Corner, Pat

3,961 Tigers on the wall

The last of the pre-Lent Tigers rolled in this week.  Almost a third of the way to the 2013 goal of hitting 6,000.

Thanks to Jaybarker for the great trade post review.

Here's the new ones.

Kirk Gibson 1981 Topps Rookie

Always have loved Gibby and I am glad he got a shot in Arizona, hopefully he can get it done in the West this year after a big trade away this winter.

More Miiiiiniiiiissss! ( I tried.)

I always have like the 1972 Topps design and love these two Tigers in the set, should be a great year.  I have all the series one cards now, what will I do until Heritage comes out???

This was a nice add this week 2001 Topps Archives Reserve, slick card, slick player.  Mr. Tiger

Trammell of the Week : 181 strong, pushing toward 200. 1993 Leaf.

It's been quite awhile, but I got two of these in a pack, let alone pulling a Trammell that I didn't have. TWO!  

I don't know if this was a real thing, but the local convenience store would GIVE us another pack if there was a double in the pack you bought.  That was AWESOME!!!! Let me know if you have a similar story.

Keep it Hot on the Corner, pat.

Two Card Request!!!!

I am in need of two cards to complete the 1988 Donruss Stan Musial puzzle, 16-19 & 22-24.

In addition, I may be able to make a Carl Yastrzemski puzzle for you!!!

I will surely take care of a slick trade on your end.

Please!!!!!

A Damn Shame

You may have heard that the IOC in all their wisdom eliminated the sport of wrestling from the 2020 Olympics.  This is just a damn shame.  You want tradition and history--- wrestling has been in the games since Ancient times and was at the modern games in 1896.

I have been around wrestling since 1994 when I joined the middle school wrestling team.  My dad was a wrestler and I felt some kind of connection to the sport immediately.  It kept me in great shape, I had to work each day to get better, I could blame no one for failure but myself and feel the pride of accomplishment in victory.

I have been a fan, a coach, and a supporter of this sport for many years now and this is just crushing.

Wrestling has taken me places and allowed me to achieve in all aspects of life because of it.  Legendary American wrestler Dan Gable.because "Everything else in life is easy once you have wrestled" as stated by

Wrestling provides opportunities at every level.  We're talking jobs at the collegiate and Olympic level.  The sport is already been wounded by Title IX, weakening the Division I level to roughly 80 programs.  Now don't get me wrong, Title IX has provided women (like my sisters, nieces, and cousins) plenty of opportunities, but it is killing non-revenue sports in general.

What will young people aspire to?  I want to be an Olympic champion like these guys....

These cards got me back collecting this summer and their stories are inspiring to all.  If you don't know their story, it would worth your time to find out.

Rulon Gardner - Heavyweight, won gold in the 2000 Sydney defeating Russia's Alexsandr Karelin, the Russian hadn't lost in international competition in over 10 years and had won the last 3 Olympics.  Gardner would then win bronze in 2004 after a couple of near death accidents between Olympiads.  His book is great "

Cael Sanderson - Won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, he was the only NCAA wrestler to win four titles AND remain undefeated through college at Iowa State.  After the Olympics he coached at Iowa State and then shocked the wrestling world and went to Penn State, since then his teams have won the last two NCAA titles, several NCAA individual champions, All-Americans, and a Hodge Trophy (the Heisman equivalent) in that span, and they are positioned to make another title run this season.

This isn't even close to the good stuff in the sport of wrestling, every level has this much excitement.  It's worth saving for Olympic competition.

Wrestling was eliminated to spare modern pentathlon, really?

Keep fighting, keep wrestling.

Absolutely HOT on the corner, pat.

Page Worthy

I always favored top loaders for cards.  More secure. Maybe because when I was a kid all I used was pages and inevetibly my more "valuable" cards would become damaged, dented, destroyed.

Most of my Tigers are in top loaders and in 3,200 count boxes.  However, at about the turn of the new year I started getting on a binder page kick.  First was to organize my football cards, then the Nothing But Tigers binder, then another binder for 2012 Update, 1985 Topps, and finally 1984 Topps.  The urge kept growing adding another binder of Tigers that were smaller or incomplete team sets.

Where is this all going?

I have another binder with 100 pages ready for something.  Now it's a matter of filling it up.

I have decided to start collecting individuals and placing them in the binder.

Chad Billingsley (a former student of mine and his brother was my college teammate) is the first inductee (to borrow a phrase from Dime Box).

Now, I am having a hard time deciding who will be next?  Curtis Granderson ?  Rickey Henderson? Cameron Maybin? Jacob Turner?

For certain there will be Griffey, Jr. Mariners cards.

Part of me wants to keep the cards I have stored away in top loaders in a box on a shelf and part of me wants to put them in the binder and enjoy from time to time.

Roger Clemens was another fave player from my youth, but I am not inspired to put him in the binder.  Frank Thomas, Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, too.

I had quite a large Biggio collection that will find it's way in soon.  Loved how he broke in as a catcher.

How do you decide if they are page worthy?  Dime Box?  Anybody?  I guess it's a matter of preference and style.

Now that I got to thinking there are plenty of guys wandering around my boxes....

John Smoltz - my all time favorite, from Lansing area, would hold a card show and baseball clinic every winter, I used to play on the field he funded at St Gerard in Lansing, the Tiger that got away!  

I guess you gotta go with what you like and enjoy.

Keep it Hot on the Corner, pat.

A Fat Tuesday of sorts....

I couldn't fight the urge being in the vicinity of the LCS.  I made the choice of refraining from purchasing cards for the season of Lent, so I just had to get it out of my system before the clock struck midnight.

I loaded up first with some 1975 Tigers minis.  I think this how you do it....

miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnis!!!

Twenty two of these bad boys made their way home with me, slick.

I also picked up two 1600 count boxes entitled "Big Box of Baseball Cards" which included a hefty lot of 2012 Topps Heritage, Gypsy Queen, and Topps.  In addition he had a 200 count box entitled "100 cards, $100 BV, 1 Auto $10"  So I got that too.   I am filling up packages for those Phillies, Orioles, Padres, and Dbacks, and Dodgers fans out there.

If you want to make a trade for some or all of these for your favorite team or players, please send me an email bp_weber5 AT hotmail DOT COM

So I will be spending time from here on out re-organizing my collection so when baseball kicks off in April I'll be primed for some new cards.

Keep it Hot on the Corner, pat

3,848 Tigers on the wall

A huge loss became a harsh reality today as I traveled to the farther LCS today all closed up.  This was a nice change of pace card shop when I needed some supplies or some cards in a pinch.  Too bad that they couldn't stay open.

Sometimes ebay huge lot buys are hit or miss.  I won a box of 500 Tigers online which helped propel the number of Tigers this week, I would estimate 3/5 of the cards were new to the collection.  Plenty to help out the Nothing But Tigers binder, not to mention a boost of almost 200 this week, Lots of good stuff.

Up to 180 some Trammell's in the PC, added two O Pee Chee cards via eBay this week.

Another Trammell I added over the holidays in one of my favorite Topps sets....

I've been able to catch up with all my piles of Tigers since December, now it is time to organize them properly.

Another Tiger added this week...

All these new Tiger cards have made me anxious to get the RIGHT NOW!

The card I was most excited about adding this week is Avisail Garcia 2011 Topps Heritage Blue Auto.

I sure hope this guy makes it big, I am a huge fan.  This card is so slick, one of all-time favorites right now.

Pitchers and catchers report this week, thank God!

Keep it Hot on the Corner, pat.

The Best of Ryan Raburn

There wasn't much to be excited for in 2012 with Ryan Raburn.  He quickly fell from grace and just couldn't hit a baseball to save his life (ok, maybe not that dramatic)

So with the recent release of 2013 Topps one of the cards receiving a ton of buzz is that of Raburn.

Seriously, for as much negativity Topps gets for a variety of reasons, they have been producing quality images consistently.  And a shot like this salvages a year of such mediocrity for Raburn (ok, maybe not)

Raburn signed with Cleveland this off-season, a reunion of sorts where he ran into the outfield wall and the door for the maintence crew blew wide open allowing for future Tiger Jhonny Peralta to hit an inside the park home run.  Coincidence?

Keep it Hot on the Corner, pat