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Breaking News - Trumbo traded for Skaggs

Okay so it's not exactly breaking news. The Diamondbacks and Angels pulled off this trade with a little help from the White Sox almost two weeks ago. What you don't know is that afterward I contacted Tom from The Angels, In Order about a trade of our own. I asked if he had a few extra Mark Trumbo cards he would be willing to part with. I offered up some of my extra Tyler Skaggs. The trade was quickly agreed upon and a few days later these four cards showed up.

They're great and they'll come in handy this Spring Training since I couldn't find a single Mark Trumbo card of my own. Thanks, Tom!

2013 Bowman Chrome - Miguel Montero Pink Refractor

My wife's favorite color is pink and her favorite D-Backs player is Miguel Montero. So I bought this shiny, pink card for her.  She wasn't that excited. Even when I showed her it was numbered to 35 on the back. 

1993 Triple Play Nicknames - Ryne Sandberg

You'd probably never guess what the first three cards from our COMC Black Friday purchase are. They're of Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg! Random right? Well sort of. Ryno was my favorite player growing up and I saw these cards and had to have them.

The last Ryne Sandberg card I bought was from the 1993 Triple Play Nicknames insert set. Any card with "Ryno" across the top is super cool in my book. This was another must have.

I haven't tried to pick up much Sandberg stuff since I was a kid. It was fun going through the cards COMC had available and picking out a few cheap ones. I'll have to keep my eye out for more.

1996 Denny's Holograms - Ryne Sandberg

You'd probably never guess what the first three cards from our COMC Black Friday purchase are. They're of Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg! Random right? Well sort of. Ryno was my favorite player growing up and I saw these cards and had to have them.

Like many other collectors, my dad and I ate our weight in Denny's Grand Slams to get as many of their Upper Deck hologram baseball cards as we could. I think we had the whole 1991 set but by 1996 we were over it. Therefore I never had this Ryne Sandberg card. For sixty-two cents I had to have it. 

1994 Leaf Slideshow - Ryne Sandberg

You'd probably never guess what the first three cards from our COMC Black Friday purchase are. They're of Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg! Random right? Well sort of. Ryno was my favorite player growing up and I saw these cards and had to have them.

First up is Ryne's 1994 Leaf Slideshow card. I had a few of these classic 90s inserts but never got this one until now. 

My COMC Black Friday Purchase

I finally made my first COMC purchase! For the second straight year I decided to browse their Black Friday sales. Last year I had a cart full of good stuff but bailed at the last minute when I saw the total price of the cards I had selected. Not this year!

This year I couldn't walk away. This year I spent more money than I wanted to. This year I got a bunch of Daniel Hudson and Luis Aparicio cards. This year I made my first COMC purchase!

It amounted to fifty-six amazing cards that I'll show off over the next few weeks. Who am I kidding? Knowing me it will be more like months. I justified the money I spent knowing that these fifty-six cards would turn into fifty-six blog posts and those fifty-six blog posts would entertain the dozen(s) of people who read my blog. 

I've created a "COMC Black Friday - 2013" label so we can all follow along more easily. The first post should hit sometime soon. First I have to find time to start scanning everything in this stack. 

My Free T-Shirt from AlliedShirts.com

The fine folks at AlliedShirts.com contacted me last month to see if I'd be interested in trying out their custom t-shirt service. There seems to be tons of these websites out there now and I've always wanted to try it out.

I'm no clothing designer and I'm too impatient to come up with something complex so I made a simple orange shirt with the name of my blog on it. Snazzy, huh?

The whole t-shirt creation process was simple and fast. AlliedShirts.com even beat their expected delivery date by about a week. That was a nice surprise. If I ever need to make a custom t-shirt, I'll definitely go back to these guys.

2013 Topps Pro Debut - Keon Broxton Certified Auto

I'm a sucker for a cheap certified autograph. This card of Diamondbacks prospect, Keon Broxton, from the 2013 Topps Pro Debut set me back $2 shipped.

I'm not really sure what to think about this guy. Keon was a third round draft pick back in 2009. I don't think he's really a prospect any longer. He's not in MLB.com's top 20 D-Backs prospects and he was recently removed from our 40-man roster.

Keon is currently playing for the Sydney Blue Sox of the Australian Baseball League. He's playing pretty well for them so far. Maybe he can turn things around in 2014. 

# 292 - Mark Loretta

After about eighteen months, Mark Loretta signed and sent back his 2008 Topps card for our set. I was glad to get this one back. Mark was a pretty good player. He was a two-time All-Star and he won a Silver Slugger Award in 2004. After retiring Mark took a front office job with the Padres.

# 292 - Mark Loretta

Progress: 521/990
 

Luis Aparicio Collection - 2013 Panini Cooperstown Gold Cracked Ice Parallel

On a recent trip to Sportlots I found a seller who had a few 2013 Panini Cooperstown cards I needed. Next up is the gold cracked ice parallel of Luis Aparicio's base card. This one is the rarest of the parallels and is numbered 120/299 on the back. 

The final card for this rainbow should arrive in the mail this week. It was part of my COMC Black Friday purchase.

Diamondbacks To Non-Tender Daniel Hudson

I woke up this morning to read this news. Hopefully he's still be able to work something out with the D-Backs.

Diamondbacks To Non-Tender Daniel Hudson

By Jeff Todd [December 2 at 10:22pm CST]

The Diamondbacks will non-tender starter Daniel Hudson, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca. Though the sides had attempted to work out a deal to keep Hudson in Arizona, he will hit the open market. Hudson likely would not have been a non-tender candidate were it not for his injury struggles. The righty is working back from his second Tommy John surgery at 26 years of age, but was projected to earn a $1.1MM salary through arbitration due to his strong early-career performance. Though he had an ugly 7.35 ERA in 2012, that came over just nine starts; in the prior year, his only full season of MLB work, he posted a 3.49 ERA in 222 innings. As Nicholson-Smith notes, however, there is still reason to believe that the sides can come together. Indeed, both Hudson and the Diamondbacks have indicated a strong interest in a reunion, though he figures to garner some interest from clubs who would like to take a chance on his upside.

# FLA14 - Mike Rabelo - Team Set

Former Marlins and Tigers catcher, Mike Rabelo signed his card from the 2008 Topps 14-card team set. Mike is currently a coach in the Tigers minor league system. This is the first card we've gotten signed from the Marlins team set.

# FLA14 - Mike Rabelo - Team Set