Available for Trade (3/14/2010) Cards I Need (12.10.2010)

Monday, April 27, 2009

IN A WORLD...

ONE MAN STANDS ALONE
....on the mound


AGAINST THE ODDS
...and the Tigers


HE HAS ONE CHANCE
...and one start so far
PHIL HUGHES IS....

THE STARTING PITCHING

opens Tuesday Night 7pm

Phil Hughes gets his first start of the year against Edwin Jackson. Yankees are desperate for a win and I hope Hughes can show them how valuable he could be in the rotation. I really hope he does well.


Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What would you do?

I bought this card on eBay with a BIN. Here is the image from the auction:



Here is my scanned hi-resolution version with some markings to point out the flaws:



Now go ahead and open that image in a new window. I've marked the creases with red circles. The one to the left of the "1" is a lot more pronounced than it's showing up on the scan.

Also the card stinks of cigarette smoke but it's in a clean penny sleeve and toploader now so that's not too much of an issue anymore.

But I paid 13.99 for the card. I expressed my displeasure with the card with the auctioneer and he offered to refund my money if I sent it back. He also offered to take $5 off if I wanted to keep the card.

So I'd be out 8.99 for the card. Here is the cheapest BIN on eBay.

I'm on the fence about this...What should I do?

Monday, April 20, 2009

Happy Birthdays indeed

I've been meaning to write this one for awhile and today was the perfect tie into it! You see today, April 20th, is Don Mattingly's Birthday! I didn't even realize it was his birthday today until I ran across 30-year old cardboard who won the contest on BadWax's blog.

So Don Mattingly was born in April and so was I. I had my birthday several weeks ago which happen to coincide with my eBay hiatus. So....I asked Kim to get me some Don Mattingly cards "for my birthday." And I think she did a heck of a job:

1993 Donruss Elite Jumbo
Don't let the name fool ya, because in real life it's pretty big. Kim was able to pick this up for me and get a good deal. I don't know the full story of their origin but I assume these numbered to 5000 cards were box toppers on some version of the Donruss boxes.

2007 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection America's Pasttime (that's a mouthful)
I don't know much of anything about these cards except that I think they're awesome looking. I've wanted one of these ever since I got back into collecting. Something about the red and blue just makes he card pop.

I also got another card from my birthday but it was from a family member. I had found a card I wanted really bad and I told Kim that she could get it for me for my birthday. But the auction just happened to end the same night as the Devils - Hurricanes game I went to earlier this month. So, I emailed my sister and told her "this is all I want for my birthday."

The hockey game comes and the Devils lose, thanks a lot Weekes, and when I get back home I quickly take a look at the auction. I checked the last auctions the buyer bid on and noticed the categories the user bid on were O-Scale trains. My dad had bought me the card.

1996 Topps Chrome Masters of the Game Refractor


I had been hunting this card down for awhile. I have the base chrome and refractor and the Master of the Game chrome but this was the one that eluded me. My dad got this card for me and I'll always remember that. He collects O-Scale Lionel trains and I went the cheaper baseball card route.

And these stories will always be attached to these cards. Whenever I look at the Donruss Jumbo or the National Pasttime cards I'll remember Kim buying them for me. And when I look at the Master of the Game Refractor it'll remind me of the hockey game and finding out to my surprise that my dad had bought me the card.

But there you have it, I'm showing the Don Mattingly baseball cards I got for my birthday today on Don Mattingly's birthday. Wrap your head around that one!

Friday, April 17, 2009

The House that Jeter Built

We all know how the Yankees lost the home opener of Yankee Stadium and Jorge Posada will go down as the first player to hit a home run in the new stadium.

But Yankee fans won't forget "Captain Intangible" Derek Jeter's 8th inning home run which gave the Yanks the lead and allowed Mariano Rivera to come in and close the door with his first save at the new Yankee Stadium.


Monday, April 13, 2009

You know your team is great when....

...your starting pitcher has the same number of strikeouts and innings pitched as your 1st baseman:

New York Yankees
PitchersIP H RERBBSOHRPC-STERA
C Wang (L, 0-2)1.068831061-3428.93
J Albaladejo3.053312260-344.26
E Ramirez2.041113151-312.70
P Coke1.013020038-189.82
N Swisher1.010011022-120.00

from ESPN

Nick Swisher does it all, literally. Good thing I picked him up on my fantasy team.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

A very exciting Saturday Part 1: The Icon

I went to the card show in Raleigh and also went to the Durham Bulls game. The Bulls game was rained out the night before and David Price was pitching. So he pitched Saturday. Which I thought was a great treat although Price didn't fair so well against a scrappy Norfolk Tide team.

But I'll start by talking about the card show in Raleigh. It was pretty good. As a Yankee fan and a fan of vintage cards, I'm easily amused when it comes to cards so it didn't take much to peak my interest. There was a pretty decent range of cards, there were a few vendors who had the same stuff other vendors had but for the most part there was parity between the dealers.

One thing I was a little disappointed about was the lack of reasonably priced newer boxes. There was a vendor who had a box of 2008 Allen & Ginter for $90 and some other boxes of new stuff but they were all priced way higher than what you can get it for on the internet PLUS shipping. There was another guy selling the same A&G box for $60 right by the front enterance. I could never understand how someone could grossly overprice their boxes when competion IN THE SAME ROOM is undercutting them significantly. I would assume you gauge the competition and maybe adjust prices accordingly. Now you can't do that for every card but when your main display is a stack of wax boxes and your prices are obviously inflated, how do you expect to move product?

But I found a couple of dealers that had some stuff I was looking for. One dealer had a very large stack of Yankee cards and I rummaged through it looking for Mattingly and some other things that may catch my attention. I pulled a fewJoba cards and got a Jeter relic and a really nice Pettitte relic.


I also found some Mattingly cards that I didn't have which is rare.



The cards were decently priced but I would have to say that I was expecting more of a discount since I bought a stack of 12 cards. But the prices were written on the cards and they were already "discounted" so I guess it was a WYSIWYG kinda situation. He threw in a card for free but a free 75 cent card is hardly a discount.

Then I moved back to a vendor that I knew was going to be trouble for me. He had a ton of Yankee cards both vintage and new. Mostly autograph cards including this one:

It's an on card auto and it just looked like an awesome card. There's even an embossed stamp stating "Authentic Signature" which I like for some reason.

So I had that card in my pile and there were a bunch of other card I was debating. One card contained 2 of my most favoritest players to grace the field and one of the greatest players to ever set foot on the field.


(sorry about the blurred image)

I'm a big fan of Roger Maris and Al Kaline and to have them on a card with Mickey Mantle is just plain awesome. The only Mickey Mantle card I own is his 565ft blast card which only shows a picture of the stadium and a dotted line showing where the ball traveled and landed. So there isn't an actual picture of Mantle on there. So I've been really wanting a real Mickey Mantle card.

But I don't consider this a true Mickey Mantle card. While it is a great card, it's a secondary card in the set and features a bunch of players. I really wanted a card that was just Mickey Mantle.

Enter:

This is officially my first true Mickey Mantle card. The card itself is actually in great condition with some wear on the bottom right corner but the card is really off centered. I'm not complaining at all though. I was also looking at a 1966 but he was asking a bit more for it and I got a pretty decent deal. $200 for all three cards. Now I normally don't drop that kind of coin down but I make exceptions for vintage cards. I really wanted a Mantle card and I was looking for an affordable one and this was it. I checked these cards on eBay and found the Mantle goes for $120 PSA 5 BIN and I saw the Mantle/Maris/Cash/Kaline card for $100 PSA 5 and the Mattingly auto I could probably land for around $30-40. So I think I got a pretty good deal.

Before I left I went to a guy who had some late 90's early 2000's boxes for cheap. I picked up two boxes of "a product" for really cheap. One box is for me, the other is for John from OldSchoolBreaks. He's sent me some really nice stuff and I've been meaning to find him a box of something he could break on his blog. I just searched on his blog and realize he has broken this box before but he gave it a very favorable review so I hope he'll be pleased with another one. He may even pull an auto.

After I picked up the boxes, I turned to Kim and said "let's get out of here before I spend anymore money." While I uncharacteristically spent a sizable amount of money I'm pleased with what I got. I can proudly say that I own a Mickey Mantle card. I don't really care much about the grading of the cards because the number itself doesn't mean much to me. I picked the card up and scrutinized its condition looking to see if it had any flaws that I didn't like. The only flaws I saw were the corner and the centering and both were negligible to me so I didn't care. But the card is in a protective slab that will never expose the card so I don't have to worry about damaging it. And odds are high that the card hasn't been trimmed which is something I'm always worried about when buying ungraded cards on eBay. Although, I'm assuming the people who are grading the cards are checking for trimmed cards so that may be a wrong assumption.

Anyhow, I think I got a good price on the cards and got to add an icon to my collection. I've grown quite fond of going to the Raleigh show. Considering the very small local shows I've been to in Kearny, these are pretty cool.



Thursday, April 9, 2009

Got any plans this weekend?

For those of you in the North Carolina area of the country, there is a card show in Raleigh Saturday the 11th from 10am to 5pm.

Conveniently, there is also a Durham Bulls game against the Norfolk Tides at 5:05pm. Kim and I have discussed going to both. It's about a 30 minute drive from the Raleigh card show to Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

I checked the weather and the high will be 71 degrees with morning showers. Provided the field doesn't flood, the game should be on and the weather should be nice.

Anyone else interested in going to either or both?

Monday, April 6, 2009

MLB ain't technologically impared

CNN Money article on MLB

I ran across this article today and I have to say I'm proud. MLB has worked their tail off at getting the new streaming video for MLB.TV up and ready for 2009 and they hit the mark. As a programmer I'm fairly impressed with their offering so far. I've only watched one game with the new player but I was able to hook my laptop up to my 42" TV and watch the game in HD and I was thoroughly impressed.

And they went ahead and launched their own Network. They actually went from entirely web based content to a cable channel. How many programs can say that?

I look forward to watching the games on MLB.TV. I renewed my subscription again and plan on using it a lot more now that I'm in a fantasy league.

Technology sure has come a long way.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

That exciting LAST CARD

If you're a set collector, sometimes you get down to just a few cards you need to complete your set. When you get down to that last card, now that's a card you don't forget.

And my last card for Topps 2009 Series 1 is no exception.



Exciting isn't it. Cito Gaston was the last card I needed. I got it from a trade with Matt from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius.

Needing a manager card seems like such an anticlimactic way to end a set. But needless to say my Topps Series 1 set is done and my efforts are on 2009 Topps Heritage.

Cito Gaston, how exciting.