Revealing the Mysterious Binder... A Little at a Time... Awesome Rookie Cards!

Hey guys, Drew back here! So, I believe the binder series is almost complete, with this and maybe one more following it! I don't think I could ever be any more lucky in my life than I was with this thing. While you probably already are jealous enough, I'm sure you will be even more jealous after you see these:

This post is dedicated to the rookie cards I found in the binder. These 4 1967 Topps rookie cards were fairly nice, as the main rookies out of them were Rick Monday, Mark Belanger, and Joe Niekro. I really like the 1967 Topps set, its fairly colorful and has a lot of nice photos in it. I bet I could even build it one day with the amount of cards from it that I found in the binder. 

The first big rookie was also from the 1967 Topps set, of Minnesota Twins legend Rod Carew! Before I get into Carew more, Hank Allen, the other player on the card, was a decent utility player, who could play anywhere. He wasn't as great as his brother, Richard "Dick" Allen, but he was an average player in his 7 year career. As for Mr. Carew, well, what can't you say about the guy! In a 19 year career, Carew spent 12 years as a Twin, and 7 for the California Angels. His lifetime batting average speaks for itself, an incredible .328! In that 19 year career, he was named to 18 All Star teams, and was named the AL Rookie of the Year following his rookie season. In 1977, he won the AL MVP by posting a remarkable .388 batting average for Minnesota. He's also a member of the 3,000 Hit Club, and obviously, the Hall of Fame!

This card normally sells for quite a bit of money, typically from between $75 and $300, depending on the condition, with a possibility of it being worth even more graded. So its safe to say it would've been a major pain to land this card without having to shell out quite a bit of money! It's a beautiful card, in very nice shape, and I definitely am happy to add it to my Hall of Fame rookie card collection. 

But that's not all! On the final page of the binder, I found this 1965 Topps Houston Colt .45's rookie card of Joe Morgan and Sonny Jackson! I got this same card from my Pop Popps a while back, and already wrote a bit on Morgan and the card in general when I first posted it. I'm definitely happy to find a second copy of the card, but I'd be very interested in trading this straight up for either the 1961 Topps Juan Marichal rookie or the 1961 Topps Ron Santo rookie, that way I can help my set rather than have 2 of the same card. Let me know if you have either of those, or any other nice Hall of Fame rookie that you would trade for it. 

Well, that's it for this part of the series dedicating my pot of gold! Hope you enjoyed it! 

See Ya!

Topps Traded Sets: 2 Nice Ones!

Hey everyone, Drew is here, and yes, I am talking about Topps Traded sets. My dad bought me a bunch of stuff for my birthday at a yard sale, and this is the first part of I think 3 small parts. 2 of the pieces of the purchase were small Topps Traded sets, 1992 and 2000.

In 1992, we found a few nice surprises!

This is a nice group of guys, if all goes well, 6 of these guys will be in the Hall of Fame within the next 10 years. Murray, Carter, and Winfield are in, Sheffield, Schilling, and Sosa probably will be in.

You may notice one of these guys doesn't deserve to be here, and that would be Phil Nevin, but he was the 4th best so I put him in. The other 3 rookies, Nomar, Varitek, and Giambi are all pretty nice cards. Very Red Sox populated but still good to have never the less. They all look so young!

Now this, is an awesome set. You get all the rookies plus 1 random auto, and there's some sweet potential! And some not so sweet.

First are just some of the big name rookies in this set, Aaron Rowand, Brandon Phillips, Jose Molina, Barry Zito, Lyle Overbay, Brandon Inge, Brett Myers, and Carlos Zambrano. Not bad! By the way, I'm keeping the sets as 1 and no cards are for trade unless I specify it.

Even more great rookies! Ben Sheets, Francisco Rodriguez, Juan Pierre, Rocco Baldelli, Adam Wainwright and Adrian Gonzalez! Dang! I'd want that team!

And a rookie card of former wife beater Miguel Cabrera! Miguel is putting up an outstanding season, possibly a Triple Crown candidate. 2010 was the first year that Miguel has been some what mature and more focused, and it's really paying off. It's a nice card to own right now as he's on pace to possibly become the first AL Triple Crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski did it in 1967. He will need quite a few home runs, and I doubt he'll get there considering he's behind by a lot. Should be interesting though.

And who will be the auto? Will it be this Miguel Cabrera?

Nope. I don't know anything about Andy Tracy so I looked him up on Wikipedia. Looks like a prospect that never panned out. He's in the Phillies organization now. It's for trade if you want it, you don't need to offer me much.

And that is why my dad's catch phrase is "One man's junk is another man's treasure!" See Ya!