Thank You, Twitter

I realize it's not a terrific mindset to have, but I started collecting 1979 Topps, with the idea in the back of my head that I wouldn't finish the 726-card set. 

Never before had I ever started collecting a set with this idea in mind, but the notion still genuinely made sense. Even to this day, I rarely see 1979 Topps at the Baseball card show and on the occasions which I do see singles from the set, they're grouped in with a bunch of other cards. 

I've never seen a vendor with a marked section devoted to this product, likely due to how it doesn't quite fit in with either the 70s or the 80s of Baseball card collecting. Card shows don't typically have cards from '79 Topps, and it can get too complicated to find them all for the right price on either Sportlots or COMC.

Therefore, I spent a couple of years collecting singles from this set as best I could, and I ended up making it to around the 40% mark before receiving a ton of help from other bloggers and collectors. 

I certainly have Mark Hoyle, Night Owl, and many Twitter users to thank for my recent surge in collecting the 1979 Topps set. Recently, I was able to complete yet another Twitter trade to add 50 new cards en route towards completing the 1979 Topps set.

As expected, there was plenty of color with this new stack of 1979 Topps singles, from the memorable rainbow Astros jerseys to the red banner featured on every Oakland A's card. The combination of red banners with almost-always green uniforms is an unorthodox one, but the color combo does work well with the theme of the set.

I'm not familiar with a ton of the names from a set like '79 Topps, but I easily recognize all the different jerseys present. Even when considering the era in which this set was produced, I don't know of a Topps set that features this many colorful uniforms.

Like I said, the sheer number of cards in this set with "non-traditional" jerseys must be pretty insane which makes for an incredibly interesting product.  There's no shortage of different bright and bold uniforms, but my favorite is most definitely the all-gold Pittsburgh Pirates.

One of the many criteria that I think about when choosing to collect a set is roughly what the finished product will look like. This is a significant factor in determining whether I'll collect a set or not. The idea of having the 1979 Topps set completed and in 9-pocket sheets inspired me to take initiative and begin collecting this product, in the first place. 

Even though the cards aren't super easy to come by, I'm always keeping the finished product in mind when going about my means of filling in gaps in the set.

As is the case for most sets from the 70s or before, a few of the cards I acquired for my 1979 Topps set have some slight creases or marks on them. The condition of a Baseball card has never been a huge deal for me, so I'm going to let these cards slide until the set is 100% completed.

However, if the condition becomes more significant to me later on once the set is finished, I can always go back and upgrade a few of the cards with versions that are in better shape and have fewer flaws.

This trade was completed with a fellow collector on Twitter who noted to me that the PC's White Sox and Mets cards. Thus, in return for the generous haul of '79 singles, I sent a few autographs and relic cards his way, featuring players on those 2 teams. 

The standout card of the entire trade was, without a doubt, the Twins team card. If you look closely enough at the bottom row, you can see 3 Twins players forming Xs with Baseball bats. Pretty cool though if you ask me.

It's almost become expected for me to receive a couple of these team prospect cards every time I complete a trade for some 1979 Topps set needs. At this rate, I'll have this small portion of the 726-card set completed rather soon.

Even though I have roughly half the team prospect cards that make up this subset, I don't believe that I've recognized a single one of these players so far. In fact, they remind me quite a lot of the 70s rookie stars cards as well.

Thanks to another generous card collector, this time via Twitter, I officially have 430 cards, or roughly 60%, of the 1979 Topps set. At this point, since I'm approaching the 2/3 mark, finishing up the last Topps set from the 70s definitely seems achievable, the exact opposite of what I expected when I started this set a while back.

I was pleasantly surprised that I've made such significant progress with this set over the last few months and am very appreciative to those who have helped me. Maybe, just maybe, I can get '61, '76, and '79 Topps to near-completion by the time 2019 draws to a close.

It's Like An Online Card Show

Over the last number of weeks, I've taken time to explore Twitter for baseball cards, something I've stated numerous times I never thought I'd be doing.

 I was always satisfied with eBay, COMC, and Sportlots for my online baseball card purchases. I never thought I would need more than that.

Alas, I was quickly disproven as soon as my first ever package of baseball cards bought on Twitter arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. Then came a 2nd package, next it was a 3rd, and finally, my 4th package of Twitter cards arrived at my front door this week. 

Another example of a Twitter user I've seen other bloggers buy from, @mrbkscards had a massive sports card sale that took place over multiple days towards the beginning of October. Due to the number of cards available as well as a lot of them being of guys I collect, this haul ended up being, by far, my largest purchase of cards from the site so far.

Back when this sale was taking place, 2018 Panini Chronicles was still fresh in my mind having recently opened a couple blasters of the product. Unfortunately for me, I was unable to rekindle my love for the set at Target a number of days ago when I stopped by for cards around my birthday. 

Because the set was still very fresh in my mind when this sale occurred, I claimed as many Panini Chronicles cards as I could, though some had already been requested by other users. I ended up with a decent selection, including a handful of Orioles players like Austin Hays and Chance Sisco.

Due to the premise that the first person to claim a card receives it, I must admit that there were a couple of times in which I didn't necessarily know what I was claiming. All I knew was I really liked the design and the cards featured players I collect. I suppose it's somewhat like a card show given that you don't always know what you're buying, but you find the card for the right price which ultimately proves to be enough.

Some under-appreciated 90's cards were among the many cards I decided to claim as part of this massive Twitter sports card sale. From late 90's Stadium Club with a stunning photo of Manny Ramirez to Metal Universe with the ever-abstract backgrounds. From planets to waterfalls, that set sure is weird, and I love it.

Perhaps one of the better parts of this particular Twitter cards purchase is that I was able to discover some cards of players I don't necessarily see every day in the dimes bins at the card show. While there's never a shortage of Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez cards, players like Derrek Lee and Darrell Evans don't show up all that often. 

Even though I collect both of them and have no intentions of stopping, I can't say it's every day I'm able to add to their respective player collections along with Ryan Howard and Cliff Lee as well.

Even with an extensive variety of cards, I definitely found myself leaning towards certain sets in particular or at least certain cards from those sets. Specifically, a decent portion of what arrived in the mail from this sale were Topps Gypsy Queen framed parallels, one of the things I miss most from the old Gypsy Queen products.

Starting off, we have the bronze frame parallels from the 2012 GQ set. Although these were fairly pricey, it makes sense given the caliber of the players featured on these cards. To be specific, all Hall of Famers who remains legends in the respective cities.

Flash forward one year in Gypsy Queen and we have the white framed parallels from the 2013 set, another group of framed parallels that I deemed were worth it and scooped up during this sale. However, this group differs quite a bit from the first group due to the 2013 white parallels consisting of all current players, in 2013 anyways, with the exception of Bob Gibson.

Although the serial numbering is not shown on the cards, some of the framed parallels I picked up are slightly rarer than the others and cost me around the same price if I remember correctly. The Steve Carlton is another bronze parallel which Topps decided to serial number out of 499 in 2015 while the Juan Marichal is a blue from 2012 number out of 599 copies.

Among everything that I claimed via this mega card sale, I was most pleased when I found new cards for some of my top-tier player collections. Out of my hundreds of player collections, there are around 30 that are at the top of my list of priorities, including the 4 players shown above. 3 players (Nolan Ryan, Manny Ramirez, and Greg Maddux) have passed the 200 card mark while an additional 25+ players have PCs with over 100 cards in them.

It's adding to these player collections, finding oddball cards, numbered cards for the right price, and a few others included is part of what has helped make Twitter one of my favorite new places to buy cards. As the title suggests, buying cards on Twitter is a lot like my own online card show.

A Quick 2-Card Twitter Package

Back when I received my first ever Twitter trade package earlier this week, I had intended to also show off a smaller package that I had claimed around the same time. 

Another Twitter user who I've since followed pretty closely since making this trade, I claimed a couple cards from Baseball Card Addict Jenny from a $1 per card lot she had posted a few weeks ago. This small purchase allowed me to gain access to yet another Twitter user who I'm in the process of completing another purchase with that will be finalized in the next few days.

As for these 2-cards, they came from a lot that had already been up for a couple hours by the time I got to it. Therefore, many of the cards I was looking to claim had already been taken by other collectors. However, this didn't stop me from getting my hands on this beautiful X-Fractor from 2013 Topps Finest of former White Sox ace, Chris Sale.

Not only is 2013 Finest one of my favorite Finest sets in recent years along with 2014 and 2016, but the throwback uniform Sale is also wearing adds to the uniqueness of this card. I'm not entirely sure if it's the same jersey he cut up years later in an event that eventually became a scandal, but it's an absolutely terrific card regardless, especially considering how fantastic it looks as an X-Fractor.

Similarly, the 2nd card is also from Topps Finest, though this is a Prism refractor and not an X-Fractor like Sale. With that being said, both of the parallels styles have their own plus sides, and one of my favorite things about this 2015 Topps Finest Anthony Rizzo card is the way the Prism refractor looks in contrast to the classic Cubs home uniform in the "modern art" Topps Finest set from 2015.

Another special thing about this Rizzo card is that when I updated the inventory, it turns out this card is my 70th total card of Anthony Rizzo, establishing him as one of my largest active-player PCs along with Joey Votto, Andrew McCutchen, Adam Jones, and Buster Posey. Keep in mind, Rizzo made his debut in 2011 and although he had over 300 at-bats in 2012, he didn't start playing full seasons in 2013, meaning he's already been able to reach 70+ cards by only playing for around 6 seasons.

I know this was a pretty quick post, but I really wanted to be able to demonstrate how buying from the right people on Twitter can lead to some fantastic cards for even better prices. If you haven't considered it yet, trust me, Twitter cards are definitely worth it. 

The Benefits of Twitter

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I never really saw the benefits of having my own Twitter account.

In terms of the baseball card collecting community, I simply saw Twitter as a place for the high-rollers and case breakers to post their highlights from their breaks as well as the occasional blogger to post about what's going on in their card collecting world at the moment.

Point is, I was on Twitter using my account @cardboardgreats simply to stay up to date with other bloggers' updates that they couldn't post on the blog and not really for much else. That is until I began to take notice of sales happening right there in front of me.

Towards the middle of last month, I saw other bloggers post highlights from Twitter sales that they had completed. At first, I was skeptical since Twitter isn't as secure of a selling site as, say Sportlots, COMC, or eBay. However, I quickly learned that there were tons of dependable sellers out there who were just looking to unload their cards for a good price.

Eventually, I came across a Twitter user named @StadiumLites who had announced the start of a sale in which I decided to take part in, making this my very first experience of buying cards on Twitter. 

In addition to the usual suspects, that being player collection cards, I was also able to find a couple cards that I need for my 2018 Topps Chrome set, all delivered to me for less than the price of a blaster box.

Whether it was Donruss or Fleer cards from the 80's or more oddball cards from the 90's, I definitely appreciated the variety of player collection cards available, all for very fair prices. For many of the PC cards claimed, they seemed to typically be dime cards ranging to quarter cards. Either way, the range of different cards available is greater or at least equal to what I usually see in the dime bins at the show, like the 10 cent Joe Carter or 25 cent Cecil Fielder card shown above.

I never really thought I'd get super into these "virtual dime or quarter boxes" but I must say I was definitely wrong. In fact, I can definitely see myself coming back for more sometime soon.

In addition to having cards to choose from available in 10 or 25 cents per card lots, there was also a fair share of multi-card lots you could buy for a fixed price, giving this mega sale even more variety and choices. I didn't spring for too many of them, but one of them that I couldn't resist was this 6-card Astros lot for $2. Given how well Houston played all year and against the Indians recently, this lot is a pretty great deal when you consider the only player in this lot that I don't (yet) collect is Yuli Gurriel.

More so than nearly any other set, this seller had a surplus of 2018 Topps Fire, a set I have not even looked for at Target yet. Don't get me wrong, I think they have a good idea with the base card designs, but it's not something I would purchase retail.

However, just like I did last year, I am fully on board with picking up a few of these cards for my player collections if I see them for the right price. Most of the guys I grabbed were retired players and all the Topps Fire cards I picked up were 3 for $1, a price I definitely believe seems fair. Especially when you realize that this is my 100th Ernie Banks card, the newest member of the 100 card club.

As far as card design goes, my favorite cards of the entire group would have to be these Fired Up insert cards that I picked up for $1.25 each. With 2 players I collect, Manny Machado and Clayton Kershaw available, I was more than happy to go for it and buy these cards, because I knew I wouldn't have much of a chance at them in the future, and I am a huge fan of this extremely colorful insert card design, especially the orange jersey on the Machado card.

Like I said, I didn't want to stick to just player collection cards, especially if I saw any set needs available for the right price. Low and behold, I was able to bring home a couple of needs from my 2018 Topps Chrome set that I've been unable to pull in packs thus far. 

The addition of the Corey Seager Superstar Sensations inserts gets me 1 card closer towards completing that insert set. However, the biggest addition is definitely the Ozzie Albies Freshman Flash which checks a major name off the insert set filled with big name rookies whose cards I need to chase down in order to complete my 2018 Topps Chrome master set.

But it was this card, an image variation Buster Posey from 2018 Topps Chrome, that was easily the best deal of the entire purchase at a mere $3.

One of my highest prioritized current player collections, Posey was hovering around 75 cards last time I checked, including another variation card similar to this. That card is a capless variation from 2018 Topps Gypsy Queen that I bought in the dime bin earlier this year. As for the chrome card, it's the 2nd one I have in my collection with the first being Robinson Cano. I was very much surprised to see this card for such a good deal and needless to say, I didn't waste any time in claiming it.

Although I didn't know if it would be for me, I'm very glad I discovered buying cards on Twitter. Now, in case I didn't already have enough options, I have another way to purchase cards if I'm getting that baseball card fever.