Dropped Third Strike

Bucket List 3000 hits: Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

2011-09-10T16:42:00.009-04:00

My next autograph is a player that is a bit more familiar to me. He spent a few years as a Yankee and helped them win their first World Series title since 1978. I have to say that Boggs may be one of the most interesting 3000 hitters. Boggs got his 3000th hit as a Devil Ray and at the time, he was the only hitter to get to 3000 hits with a home run. That is until this year when Derek Jeter changed that. But the spot where the HR ball hit is marked with a yellow seat in Tropicana Field.

So one of the most interesting stories with Boggs is his superstitious regiment. He would always eat chicken before a game. That's something I already knew but I later found out he took exactly 150 ground balls in practice, took batting pratice at 5:17 and ran sprints at 7:17. Before each at bat he would write the Hebrew word "Chai," which means life, in the dirt in the batter box. He is #1 on the list of most superstitious athelets on CBS Sport's web site.

There's also that 60-70 beer story that Jeff Nelson told about Boggs. I found a transcript of an interview Jeff Nelson did with ESPN radio here: 710 ESPN Steve Mason's Blog. Not only do they talk to Jeff Nelson about it but they call Paul Sorrento and he confirms the story. Essentially, on a cross country trip like New York to LA or Seattle to Boston, Boggs begins drinking beer at the start of the day and drinks all way til the end of the day. This is a man that has a .328 career batting average, multiple gold gloves and silver slugger awards and is a Hall of Fame member.

I was able to get a Wade Boggs auto for just under $20 which is a steal. His autos can go as high as $35 so he has a fairly affordable autograph. I'd say he's a must have for any personal collection. He is certainly one of the more interesting 3000 hit club members.

Bucket List 3000..er..4000 hit version (I'm Sorry)

2011-08-26T07:57:00.005-04:00

The all time hit leader with 4,256 hits, Mr. Pete Rose. One of the most infamous figures in baseball history. He's both famous and infamous for his deeds as a player and manager. Even now Pete Rose can stir up emotions in fans of the game. Does he belong in the Hall of Fame or is his ban from baseball justified?

Personally I think it'll take his passing and many many years before he gets elected. His 4000+ hits are an amazing feat and I'm not sure if it will ever be broken. Yes, I understand Jeter is supposed to break his record but I'm not sure if Jete has that many years left in him to pull off another 1100 hits. That's almost a good 6 years of 200 hits. So this is an amazing record in and of itself which gets next to no respect because of the man who holds it. Kinda like the Home Run record. I would definitely put Rose in the Hall before I ever consider Barry Bonds.

When Donruss dropped in 2008 this card would've easily commanded $400-500. But now that Donruss has essentially flooded the market with Rose autos and relics this card might get around $100. Pete Rose autos can be had for anywhere between $40 and $100 depending on the Donruss flavor and numbering.

I pulled this 5/10 prime relic auto from a box of 2008 Donruss the first year I got back into the hobby. It was an amazing pull and I think I might have a video of it posted on this blog. So it cost like $80 or whatever a box cost back then. That was a very lucky pull for me. Not sure if I've pulled anything as good as that since.

"I'm sorry I bet on baseball", it still makes me chuckle.

Bucket List the 3000 hit version

2011-08-17T21:56:00.007-04:00

With Derek Jeter's 3000th hit well behind us I've been a bit enamored with players in the 3000 hit club. So I decided to take a look at who was on the list: Wikipedia 3000 hit club

So I figured it would be cool to own a few autographs from that list. I do have to say that most will be unobtainable like Cap Anson, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb and Roberto Clemente. I'd have to find certified cut autos but they would be in the thousands. And I already have autos of some of the members so I've already started and didn't even notice.

So my first subject is a player I grew up watching. He was a long time Brewers player and I'm sure others remember him as one but I remember him from his days in Toronto and Minnesota. I remember him being one of the unsung post season heroes for Toronto. He won the 1993 World Series MVP batting .500

But his time in Minnesota was really special. 1996 was a great year for baseball, in my opinion anyway. That year Molitor hit his 3000th hit at Kauffman stadium in September. I remember him doing it because the highlight was shown on ESPN's Sportscenter and this was the first year we ever had cable. So I was able to watch a replay of his historic triple.

What makes Molitor stand out is that in fact he is the ONLY person to triple for his 3000th hit.

I'm a big fan of the 2005 Upper Deck Heroes cards. That's one of the few sets where you can get on card autos of some really amazing players. There was an eBay seller with a few Paul Molitor cards from that set and I opted for this one because it highlights his 3000th hit. I actually payed a little bit more than a #/20 blue version of one of the other heroes cards but I really wanted this one.

I paid $13.50 including shipping for this card which I think is a steal for such an iconic Hall of Famer. His autos tend to be closer to the $20 range so I got a really good deal on this card. I would definitely encourage collectors to seek out a Paul Molitor auto to add to their personal collection.

Bucket List Derek Jeter Rookie

2011-06-13T00:12:00.011-04:00

DEREK JETER HITS his 3000th hit!!

He's called many names: Captain Clutch, Captain Intangible, Jete, Mr. November, and now he's Mr. 3000.

Derek Jeter had an amazing day, July 9th 2011, going five for five. His second at bat yielding his 3000th hit, a Home Run to left field off David Price. He also drove in the winning run to help the Yankees win, the only thing he ever wants to do in this game.

This is probably his most sought after rookie card. The condition of the 1993 SP cards is very condition sensitive. Many of the cards have chipping or other issues that cards with this much foil have. That's why I opted to get a graded version. I figured this would be the best way to get the card in relatively good shape without trusting an auctioner's digital camera skills. This card cost me about $100 almost 3 months ago and I'm sure the price has gone up for graded versions. If you do have your heart set on one $100 is a deal for something in the 8 range.

Congratulations to Derek Jeter who has given me so much to look forward to in my life as a Yankee fan. I graciously thank you for all you've given us Yankee fans.

Bucket List #6: A Legend Among Legends

2011-05-24T20:23:00.007-04:00

I always liked Harmon Killebrew since I was a kid. Had really no idea who he was other than a player for the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins that hit very well. Killebrew to me played the game the way it should be played and excelled through sheer talent and hard work.

He scuffled his first few years in the big leagues. Until '59 when he got a chance to play 3rd base regularly. He started smacking home runs all over the place and became an overnight sensation. Yep, overnight after just 4 years with the Senators. His power was legendary but it was his humble and polite persona that outshone all that. "Killer" became one of those ironic nicknames like calling a large man "Tiny." It never fit his personality but it fit his swing. Harmon hit some towering home runs, one of which was estimated to travel 520 feet unobstructed and there's a red seat commemorating that blast in the Mall of America. Also a statue of a gold glove resides outside Target field exactly 520 feet from home plate. Just awesome.

I could go on and on about Harmon. To say he has my utmost respect is putting it mildly. As a Yankee fan I'm constantly reminded how blown up every Yankee is and how if "so and so" played for the Yankees he'd be big too. To me Harmon didn't need any of that. His epic home runs and humbled personality fit perfectly for those Washington Senator/Minnesota Twins teams. I'm sure it brings great pride to have a legend like Killebrew be synonymous with the Twins organization.

He has probably one of the best autographs out there. It's clean, easy to read and distinctive. I ran across a comment about Killebrew's autograph on an article. The commenter had heard a story that Killebrew took his autograph very seriously. He said "When he saw young players scribbling illegible autographs, he would pull them aside and explain how important they were for the fans asking for them and encourage them to do them well. When mass-signing baseballs for charity auctions, he'd self-edit and throw out balls he didn't think were good enough. "

If you don't have a Killebrew auto I'd strongly urge picking one up. I was able to get the one above for less than $30 and I recently picked this 1999 Epic Signatures one after his passing for a little over $30.

Killebrew is a true legend. I find it a little funny that for years it was thought that the MLB logo was based on Killebrew. I even believed it. But really is it hard to believe that the model for MLB the ICON for MLB should be anyone other than Harmon Killebrew?

2011 Topps Heritage Live at Target

2011-03-14T22:47:00.006-04:00

Went to a local Target and found a bounty of Topps Heritage.

There was a gravity feed box, a retail box, blasters and rack packs.

All in all, I'd say I was actually disappointed. Where Topps 2011 wasn't that bad in retail, Heritage just can't hold a candle to what Hobby offers. I know people say "never buy retail" but there's an instant gratification itch retail

1 Blaster results: 3 short prints, 2 inserts

2 Rack packs: 2 inserts
3 Retail box packs: 2 inserts (nice hair)

3 Gravity Box packs: 1 relic, 1 chrome, 1 insert and creepy floating heads

No Hughes and no Mattingly, son of a. I'm kinda disappointed but then again, it's retail and you can't hit the jackpot every time. So this time, the house won big time. So go out find some and post your results. Odds are they will be WAY better than mine.

If you pull Hughes or Mattingly and their chrome inserts let me know. I'm interested :)

Collecting Bucket List #5 We're off to see the Wizard...

2011-03-10T00:22:00.003-05:00

The wonder wizard of Ozzie. I'm not going to talk about his career. I saw him play when I was a kid growing up and he was like that fun uncle playing baseball. All the kids love him and he was just really cool to watch and be around.

His autos don't cost that much surprisingly. I assumed there would be a bevy of Ozzie collectors out there driving up the prices but there aren't. I got this auto for just around $20. And others are available for around the same price.

But there is something I would like to discuss about this card and it's causing a dilemma with my bucket list. Do this, open that image up in a new browser and look at it full sized. Now follow from the dot that belongs to the "I" in Smith and go to the right til you see a slight blue line that looks like a piece of string. That's the end of the sticker. Yep this is a clear sticker auto. I had no idea the 2004 Fleer Ex autos were stickers and I bought this card because it had both a relic, auto and was a great price. I do have to say it's a very well done sticker auto. It's hard to see it through scans but in person it is noticeable.

The problem is that I try very hard not to get sticker autos as my bucket list autos. The concept of my bucket list is for me to get cards that fit certain criteria. Now while sticker auto isn't a firm "NO" in my rules, I do have to say it is more *satisfying* as a collector to get an on card auto. As of right now I will keep this card because it fills a niche of an "Ozzie Smith" auto. It also goes above that by being an auto, relic, numbered card. But I still think an on card auto of Ozzie Smith will fit better with my collection. The jury is still out.

What do you think? When looking for autos of your favorite players do you try to get the cheapest you can find regardless of sticker or not. Or do you tend to gravitate toward on card?

2010 Topps Chrome Wrapper Redemption results

2011-03-06T17:33:00.005-05:00

I had amassed four hobby boxes of 2010 Topps Chrome. I held onto them until about February 25th when I packaged them up (24 wrappers in each box) in a nice Amazon.com box to be sent for my redemption. Now I know the deadline was the 28th and I was cutting it close but I was hoping they meant POSTMARKED by the 28th.

Luckily my redemption wrappers arrived Friday March 4th which was amazing turn around.

Here are the results in the order I opened the packs:

Pack 1: Babe Ruth, Jason Heyward, Tyler Colvin
Pack 2: Starlin Castro, Jackie Robinson, Stephen Strasburg
Pack 3: Austin Jackson, Ty Cobb, Mike Leake
Pack 4: Lou Gehrig, Mike Stanton, Carlos Santana (green refractors)

The first three packs contained refractors as is stated on the back of the cards themselves. But the final pack were green refractors numbered to 599. Every 10th pack is a green fractor pack according to the Topps website.

I really like this concept for a few reasons. For one, YOU GET CARDS! You take those unwanted pack wrappers and mail those suckers right back to Topps and magically they give you cards. Secondly, I think this lends to the possibility of Topps recycling the materials and reusing them in other packaging materials. Topps gets cheap material to reuse and it doesn't end up in a landfill, win-win.

I do have a question though. While I'm sure this is a "while supplies last" offer. But what happens to all the unclaimed cards? Do they stay in the Topps vault? The wrapper redemption is probably not a new concept but I'm sure it's not a widely embraced concept. I'm sure there are people who threw away all their wrappers or only bought a few packs which wouldn't make for a complete 24. Will these cards show up in other products or maybe even on the Topps Card Giveaway (whatever name it has for each year)?

Either way, I'm really happy with the redemption and I have one box of 24 Bowman Chrome wrappers I plan on turning in. Hope I get something good.

Collecting Bucket List #4 Paying Respect to "The Duke of Flatbush"

2011-02-28T22:34:00.005-05:00

If the Dodgers stayed in Brooklyn, I would be a Dodger fan today. I have no doubt about that even to this day. I would be complaining about the free spending Yankees and my underachieving Brooklyn Bums. When I think of "The Duke of Flatbush" I think about their 1955 win over the Yankees. It was the only time they ever beat the Yankees in the World Series, mind you. Even still, it was a great achievement for the Brooklyn team.

Duke was part of a golden age for New York teams in the 50's. From 1949 til 1958 there was at least one New York team in the World Series. And the only thing that really breaks that streak is the Los Angeles Dodgers winning in 1959. Duke was overshadowed by Mantle and Mays but his stats are right up there with the best of them. He was also overshadowed by his own teammates Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella but I always saw him as the glue that held that great 50's Dodger era together.

Snider's autos are plentiful and unfortunately due to his recent passing have gone up to closer to $35 which is still a bargain for this Hall of Famer. I can't remember what I paid for this card because I bought it sometime last year but it couldn't have been too far beyond $20. And Duke Snider has a very smooth and easily read signature. I think this 1998 Donruss Signatures card is one of the best ones to get because of the great picture , on-card Signature and the signature's placement (not on the back of the card like this one).

When things settle down you may want to hunt around for an auto of this Dodger icon. I think he's a must-have for any collector.

Collecting Bucket List #3 Warrior come out and play-ee-yay

2011-02-22T22:23:00.004-05:00

I was very fortunate to be born at the tail end of the Yankees worst decade in their history. In 1992 the Yankees traded Roberto Kelly for the man we would come to know as "The Warrior," Paul O'Neill.

He was a big part of "my" Yankees. He was there in 1993 with a team that featured Mattingly, Boggs, both Williams (Bernie and Gerald), Danny Tartabull and Paul Abbott threw is famous no-hitter. I really liked the 1993, 1994 and 1995 Yankees. Obviously 1996 was a changing of the guards so to speak. But O'Neill was there, much like myself, for a disappointing 1993 season. A 1994 season of amazing promise but foiled by MLB baseball players and owners. And the 1995 season which saw the first postseason with the new team alignment and Yankees as the first ever AL Wildcard winners. Then a golden age for the Yankees which saw them win 4 World Series in 5 years until that heartbreaking night in Arizona. The night we last saw O'Neill playing as a Yankee.

There isn't much I can say about Paul O'Neill that most don't already know. He was passionate and pissed. He had this swing that he could just stroke the ball into the outfield for a base hit. His passion for the game earned him the "The Warrior" nickname from the Boss. He had that catch deep in the Atlanta outfield during the 1996 World Series in Game 5 that ended the game. He played in the clinching Game 4 of the 1999 World Series, hours after his father passed away.

He's an important part of my baseball memories. I thought it would be fitting to get a reasonably priced auto of him as part of my bucket list. I found this great on-card auto for a little over $20. I was lucky because there really aren't many of his autos out on eBay and they tend to go for closer to $40 for the more basic autos (not short print or from high end product).

So if you're in the market for one good luck, they're out there you just have to find them.

Topps 2011 The almost blaster from Target (9.99 box)

2011-02-20T01:40:00.005-05:00

My fiance picked me up this weird box from Target. The part that hangs on the rack is blurred but you can sorta see it. I actually thought it was a blaster until I read it. It has 72 cards in it.

This is what was inside. No packs just a cello wrapped stack of cards. I think the cards totaled out to 10 inserts and 62 base cards. I ended up needing 34 out of the 62 cards.

The pack doesn't have any fancy inserts like autos, relics or original back 60 years of Topps. But you pretty much have one of every type of common insert. Although I do have a question. What the hell card is that David Ortiz? I've never seen it before. The number on it is THP-13 and it only has his name, team name and a blurb about him on the back. There's no subset name anywhere on the card.

So what is this insert and what are the other ones in its set?

Other than that this pack is really only good for someone looking to build the set on the cheap. I'd rather stick with a blaster and its guaranteed commemorative patch, throwback cards and chance for better inserts. Or rack packs if you're trying to keep things a little cheaper but still get some inserts on the side.

Upper Deck 2010 World's BIGGEST AUTO STICKER DUMP!!! WTF!

2011-02-08T21:33:00.005-05:00

I had no idea this is what Upper Deck had in mind when they were creating their World of Sports...

Upper Deck 2010 World of Sports

Sticker auto upon sticker auto of cards with just names on it.

I found this all out by finding this: Phil Hughes 2010 Upper Deck World of Sports

SAY IT ISN'T SO!!!!

This is what Upper Deck is reduced to?! Couldn't they have found a better way around this? I'm just in disbelief. Some of my favorite cards in my personal collection are from Upper Deck. Phil Hughes and Mattingly autos and relic cards that look, well to steal one of their own product names, exquisite.

It breaks my heart to see them this way. I sort of feel like they're that underhanded guy with a jacket full of fake Rolexes trying to bait you in. But then I feel sorry for them for being beaten into submission by Topps....into creating this, this GARBAGE: Crappy three auto card

Epic Fail Upper Deck, epic fail

Collecting Bucket List #2

2011-02-04T07:56:00.007-05:00

Andy Pettitte Auto

It seems that the end of a player's career or life wakes up collectors. I guess it's like that whole "an artist doesn't sell their work until the person dies." I didn't wait for Pettitte's announcement to retire before I purchased the above card. But I got it for a completely different reason.

I had a "bucket list" idea to collect an auto for every 2009 Yankee team member. I have to say I have most of them but Hideki Matsui will be the only player I will never get an auto for. His auto cards are just way too expensive.

But now that I think back, I'm really glad I bought this card because I would be scrambling on eBay trying to find one that doesn't have the price jacked up.

It never dawned on me until today how important Pettitte was to the many successful postseason runs. When you think of Yankee starting pitchers from 1995 to 2010, Andy Pettitte is #1. Period. Out of his 16 year career, he missed the post season 3 times. He holds many post season records mainly because of the frequency that he was able to compete. But Andy did have many amazing moments in the post season and I can honestly say I don't think the Yankees could've won any of the 5 without him.

He may not have the Hall of Face credentials or what-have-you, but as a Yankee fan he is a living legend. Which is why he is apart of my collecting bucket list.

2011 TOPPS LIVE AT TARGET!!!! (Final)

2011-01-31T21:05:00.010-05:00

Bought 4 loose packs, 2 rack packs and a blaster. Updates coming....

BASE and TOPPS TOWN (loose packs):
INSERTS (from loose packs):

INSERTS and some Base (from rack packs):

INSERTS & Throwbacks (Blaster)

Well there you have it. The blaster had the only diamond giveaway card. It also had two throwback packs and the only original back 60th years of Topps card (Roy Campanella). I think the rack packs with the security strips have those blue 60th anniversary cards. Topps town cards look WAY cooler than I've ever seen. I assume the way cooler stuff is in Hobby. Notice I didn't get any gold cards. All I got were the diamond parallels and Target is supposed to have something called a Red Diamond as their exclusive.

Anyhow, this signifies the start of collecting season. Have fun and good luck out there.

...I call any Mattingly's you pull!

NOTE: Some of the 60 Years of Topps cards are "Lost Cards." The Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford insert cards from the rack packs are "Lost Cards" but the Stan Musial underneath that is just a 60th Anniversary card. There's nothing special beyond "THE LOST CARDS" phrase and the card number as 60YOTLC-# on the back.

NOTE2: Got a bunch of damaged base cards in the rack packs so buyer beware.

Collecting Bucket List #1

2011-01-29T23:05:00.009-05:00

I'm sure most are familiar with a bucket list and what that concept entails. And I'm sure most have put together a collecting bucket list whether they realize it or not. You know, collecting certain cards based on a criteria you deem as important. I'm not going to dig into what that criteria should or could be. That just doesn't seem right to tell someone else what they should be collecting. What I will do is share some of my bucket list.

It's unfortunate that the subject of the first card I choose to talk about recently passed. When I think of this guy the first phrase that comes to my mind is "the Feller that pitches for the Cleveland Indians." I always wanted to get a Bob Feller auto since my buddy William talked about getting a ball from his museum. But I'm not a hardware kind of guy. I don't care for autographed balls, pictures, bats or gloves. I like getting Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer, or Donruss autos that came from wax packs. I don't know what it is about those cards but I feel like getting a good autograph is on the same level as getting their rookie card.

The good thing about Bob Feller's autographs are that they're very affordable. You can get a decent auto in the range of $20 to $35. Which I think is pretty good considering it's a card signed personally by a player and that card is seated possibly one per box.

I really like the auto on this card and how clean the card itself is. The Greats of the Game sets are awesome sets to look to when trying to find veteran autographs.

I can list tons of reasons why Bob Feller but the fact remains he was an iconic pitcher during that era and I feel had a huge impact on the league during his playing years. He's a player everyone knows about. You may not know all of his accomplishments like the classic trivia question "Who is the only person to throw a no hitter on opening day?" Or him being the first person to volunteer for military duty immediately after Pearl Harbor and his 4 years serving in the Navy.

But most everybody knows that Feller that pitches for the Cleveland Indians. I'm happy to have this card in my collection and part of my bucket list.

YSL two down, two to go...

2010-09-27T19:07:00.004-04:00

I've been able to track down two of the YSL jersey cards I've needed on eBay. The Elston Howard has shown up a lot more than it had in the past. But I have to say "Sweet Lou" has certainly eluded me. I dropped a lot more money on him than I ever expected while I got a really good deal on the Howard (which also included another Howard jersey card from 2008 SP Legendary Cuts.

So that leaves me with two Yankee Stadium Legacy jersey cards: Joe Pepitone and.....

the Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout the Great Bambino....

BABE RUTH!!!

That auction is already over $160 with 6 days left. While it would be nice to knock out the hardest card to get from that set, I don't think I can drop $200-400 on a relic card.

So I'll try to concentrate my efforts on Joe Pepitone. I've seen him show up on eBay a few times but I think he might be rarer than Lou Piniella.

This has been a real treasure hunt but it's difficult not owning the most expensive piece in the collection. Still, I'm sure I'll own it one of these days. Til then I'll just have to concentrate on the next to last card.

Allen & Ginter 2010 Extravaganza (3 hobby box hits)

2010-07-24T08:13:00.006-04:00

I tried real hard not to get involved in the Allen & Ginter hoopla this year. Last year's product was an extreme disappointment in my opinion. My girlfriend was not impressed with last year's product which left me with an uncompleted 2009 set. She loved 2008 which led to her buying retail packs and blasters as well as a hobby box or two from me which led to a complete set and us lending a hand to bloggers' short print wantlists.

But the addition of Strasburg had me intrigued and the new design won me over. I think it's the blue and the "Allen & Ginter's Topps" logo at the bottom of each card.

Without further ado the hits:

I'm a big fan of the Lords of Olympus cards. I might attempt to collect them.
The black border Hudson card above has a nasty gash across the front of it. And I ended up with a double of the Biggest Whale card.

The Duensing auto is damaged in the back. It seems like something went wrong with the plastic being applied to the back of the card and it warped. It caused the gash mentioned above on the hudson card. Not sure who to contact about that. I threw all the wrappers away but I still have all three boxes I opened.

There you have it 3 hobby boxes, about 6 hobby packs, 3 or 4 blasters and some retail packs.

My wantlist is updated with the cards I need. I haven't posted my doubles but I'll be doing that soon. I have quite a few short print doubles.

Need 4 Cards to Complete Yankee Stadium Legacy....

2010-04-21T23:06:00.006-04:00

...the relic set.

I've severely slowed down on my Yankee Stadium Legacy pursuit. But I've been actively pursuing the Yankee Stadium Legacy relic cards. And I only need four cards:

Babe Ruth
Elston Howard
Joe Pepitone
Lou Piniella

That means exactly what you were thinking, I actually own these two cards:

They weren't cheap by any means and it stung pretty bad to get them. But I knew if I didn't get them when I had the chance it would bother me. I started collecting this set from a Don Mattingly and then a very cheap Reggie Jackson and Jorge Posada. It grew from there until it got to a point where I wanted all the cards except the Ruth, DiMaggio and Gehrig. That's just for the simple fact that these cards would be hard to find and if I did find them they would be extraordinarily expensive.

Well, I did find them and the prices were hard to swallow but not enough to turn me away. I was able to pick up the DiMaggio on eBay. It was a bit more than I wanted to spend but then again, I didn't know when I would see one again and would totally regret not picking it up. I picked the Gehrig up at a card show in Raleigh, NC the day before Easter. A guy had it and was asking quite a bit of money but I knew that this would be one of the few chances I would ever get to obtain this card. The card show didn't have anything I wanted other than a few singles for my Heritage sets. So I went for it.

And now I only need four more cards. I might have to pass on the Ruth. I'm pretty sure it'll go for an insane amount of money and I just don't think I can do that one. But the other three I think are feasible. The Piniella has been especially hard to come by but a couple have cropped up on eBay and I hope I can grab one for a reasonable amount. The Pepitone is about as rare as the Piniella, not sure when I'll be able to get ahold of one. Might end up overpaying for that one just because. I'm holding out on the Elston Howard because that's one of the more common ones but sellers are trying to sell it high. I don't expect to spend more than $20 for one and even that's pushing it in my eyes.

As for the rest of the YSL set, I have 1583 YSL cards which has me as 18th overall on the OwnTheLegacy site. If you have YSL cards feel free to email me, I'm open to trade.

A Very Important Phil Hughes Auto

2010-04-20T21:22:00.006-04:00

I've recently picked up what I would consider the cornerstone of my Phil Hughes collection. Actually this may be the cornerstone of my entire non-Mattingly collection. It's an on-card auto of one very well known Phil Hughes and some other guy. Never heard of this guy but I think he might go far.

But seriously, I've seen this card two times on eBay and I've been in the market for a Derek Jeter auto. I figured I would only have one Jeter auto in my collection so I wanted an on-card auto. The Jeter card I was interested in was this one which commemorated his passing Gehrig as the all time hits leader in the old Yankee Stadium.

But I found this gem and I HAD to have it.

The back should read "HOLY S@#$! YOU PULLED A FLIPPIN' DEREK JETER AUTO. YOU LUCKY BASTARD!" because that's how I would've felt if I pulled this.

I hope Topps is reading this because this is what a cool on-card auto looks like.

2010 Topps Jumbo Box x 2 (Player Collector WIN!)

2010-03-14T13:35:00.008-04:00

I busted two boxes of Topps 2010 Jumbo many weeks ago.

I was able to complete Series 1 with the help of the crap ton of retail I had bought weeks prior to busting these boxes. I almost have a second set if anyone is interested in doubles.

Everyone has seen the base and we all know what that looks like. I wanted to post some of the highlights of the pull and one very special card.

My gold card pulls read like an offseason award list:

My short prints are Cy Young and Hank Greenberg.

My Relic and Auto cards are Ortiz (relic/auto), Weeks and Ripken (which has been traded away). Not too happy about getting a Red Sox player as my relic auto and there was some damage at the bottom edge of the card that I found later. Seriously fellas? When are we going to get insert cards that don't have these major flaws? Guess I'm asking too much.

Here are the hat cards. I was hoping for the Maris or any other Yankee but these aren't too bad. The Verlander Detroit D looks pretty cool though.

Now THIS is more like it. Yankee gold cards. I have to admit that William from foulbunt pulled the Yankee Team and Yankee history gold cards. But I pulled the Jorge gold.
Then I pulled something that play collectors usually dream of when they open a box. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to pull a Yankee AUTO!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, your #5 Starter for the New York Yankees.

Phil Hughes!!!

I was thrilled with my box breaks. I figured this is the average. The Hughes auto is a common auto and you can probably get it for less than $10 on eBay. I didn't get any art cards, printing plates or silk cards. But still, I'll take a Yankee auto of a player I collect any day. Despite the Ortiz card, I think this box break was successful.

By the way, I have plenty of doubles so if you need something let me know.

2010 Heritage Box Break (Box 3 of 3)

2010-03-10T00:32:00.004-05:00

This box wasn't the greatest box in the world but it was better than the others.

Mariano Rivera to close out the base cards

Short prints galore

A relic of a relevant player! And the Mets box topper.

Ruth '61 chase cards I didn't have.

Maris and Mantle inserts.

Finally, Dice! Unfortunately it's a Red Sox player. I think I know someone who would appreciate this card more than me.
That's it and that's all. I think I might be done buying boxes. Although, the price is on the rise.

My wantlist is posted on my blog and I should probably post all the doubles. If anyone is collecting the set let me know and I can help them out with base cards.

2010 Heritage Box Break (Box 2 of 3)

2010-03-06T12:32:00.007-05:00

This is the second box. It's not too different from the first. Relic card of an Asian player.
Common buyback and kinda crappy boxloader.

I did get a black border chrome card which is pretty cool. Still no dice cards though.

The "High Powered Battery" card is interesting. High Powered maybe, but looks like they're in the "rest" position.

8 Short Prints, I believe I got 7 last time.

More Babe Ruth chase for 61

Check out the black border Sizemore and King Felix refractor.

Roger Maris hits 61 HRs (the true Home Run King)

This time around it's a regular box loader instead of a team boxloader. And a Kuo relic card.

2010 Heritage Box Break (Box 1 of 3)

2010-03-03T22:13:00.002-05:00

I bought 3 boxes of Heritage from Blowoutcards.

I think Topps did a much better job on card quality than last year. Last year I remember a lot of smearing and bleeding on the cards.

Here are the highlights:

Base cards (Nick Johnson pedo-stash is kinda creepy)

Don't know why but I like the airbrushed uniforms.

Short Prints
Chrome (Markakis, Uggla, Carpenter, Hamilton)
Chrome Refractor (Jurrjens, Dice-K)

Babe Ruth 61 Chase cards

Flash Back inserts
New Age Performers

Relic (Jojima)
'61 Buyback cards
Then & Now (Maris/Pujols)
Boxloader (Royals)

Topps 2010

2010-01-20T20:28:00.014-05:00

14 Packs of Topps 2010 from Target

Not completely sold on the card design but they did a good job with the pictures. And I like the subsets and inserts I've seen so far. They're ahead of last year's set in that respect.

The Cards Your Mom Threw Out (my favorite insert set)

*NOTE* these are reprints and only the front of the card is reprinted, the card backs are not the original backs.

Topps Town

Turkey Red

Peak Performance (top)
Legendary Lineage (bottom)

Million Card Giveaway promotion (top)
When They Were Young (bottom)

History of the Game (left)
Tales of the Game (right)

Red Backs (top)
Topps Gold (bottom)

Something interesting I noticed on the Topps Gold back is the numbering

digi-numbering instead of the foil stamping

That's the new Topps product. Not bad for a first showing. But I'm more intrigued with what Upper Deck will come out with this year. I hope they do keep the logos on there and fight MLB and Topps.

Cool pull from 2009 Heritage Hi# Retail

2009-12-24T19:59:00.005-05:00

Went to Target tonight with the crazies. Not because I needed anything but that's just what I do when I'm in Kernserville. I got a couple fat packs and 4 retail packs.

I was waiting in the car for Kim and I couldn't wait so I opened a fat pack and got nothin. Then I opened one of the retail packs and I got something pretty damn cool.

It's a piece of seat from the old Seals Stadium.

The thing that really excited me about this is that I knew who the San Francisco Seals were. Three of the DiMaggio brothers (Joe, Vince and Dom) played for the Seals. I remember a very long time ago, I wrote a report about Joe Dimaggio and I thought his time (as well as his brothers') with the Seals was intriguing.

Having a piece of that stadium is pretty cool. I like it way better than the Adam Jones relic I got out of a hobby box. It isn't exactly a Roger Maris pants jersey. But getting a piece of baseball history in a retail pack is pretty frickin sweet.

Merry Christmas to everyone in the blogosphere. I'd like to give a shot out to William of Foul Bunt,PA of The Player To Be Named Later, Marie and Sooz of A Cardboard Problem, Happy Holidays to you and your families.

Black Friday Booty: Part 2

2009-12-24T13:05:00.004-05:00

Part of my order from Blowoutcards were 2 boxes of 2008 Masterpieces retail. I was hoping to get some of the 5 short print cards I needed. Also the boxes contain Yankee Stadium Legacy cards which is a plus and there are some neat inserts in there.

These are the cards I pulled. I didn't get a single short print I needed and the inserts were "meh." I needed almost every Yankee Stadium Legacy card I pulled.

The cards below are available for trade EXCEPT THE OZZIE SMITH. That one goes in my personal collection. The Sizemore is #/125 and the SPs are: 95,96,99,108,113,117,117,118.

Box #1

Box #2

The box would've been a total loss except for the YSL cards I pulled and I like the Ozzie Smith card.

And I went ahead and bought the rest of the SPs I needed for 2008 Masterpieces so that set has finally been completed.

Black Friday Booty: Part 1

2009-12-16T23:40:00.005-05:00

I'm going to try to show off some of the cards I acquired from my purchases from Blowout Cards during Black Friday.

These cards were part of the 2009 Topps National Convention VIP 1959 Retro Card Set.

I really bought this set for this card. What could've been a 1959 Roger Maris card as a Yankee.

The set is sold out at Blowout Cards but Dave and Adam's sells it for 24.99.

I was able to purchase this set for $9.99

I've wanted them ever since I've seen them but I wasn't going to pay $25. For $10 I get all 5 cards even though I only wanted the Maris.

It would've been pretty interesting if there were traded sets back in the 60's. I'm trying to think of a big name player who would be the most popular traded player but I'm drawing a blank.

If you can think of any I'd love to hear them.

My Masterpiece of Mattingly Obsession

2009-12-15T21:59:00.011-05:00

I've just spent an hour or so scanning about 30 Mattingly cards. I feel a sense of accomplishment and am very proud of myself. Most people will think I'm crazy for doing this. I found a set that had inserts that were obtainable and that I actually liked. So I kept a watchful eye on eBay for the cards. I have to admit that once I got to the final 3 cards I went way overboard to get the cards. But I was so close to having every single card that I didn't care.

I like the 2008 Donruss Threads set. When I returned to the hobby I was upset to learn that Donruss didn't have a license. I was a Donruss collector back in the 90's and I really enjoyed their 94 and 95 releases. So I bought a box of 2008 Threads and pulled a Pete Rose auto relic and a Don Mattingly base card. But I didn't stop there. I kept going.....

Mattingly jersey relic (#/150) and bat relic (#/250) and base card

Green Proof (#/250) and Silver Proof (#/100)

Gold Proof and Gold Proof Signature both (#/50)
Platinum Proof and Platinum Proof Signature both (#/25)

Prime Jersey # to 10

Century Collection Prime (#/10) Regular (#/75)

Baseball Americana
Relic (#/100) Position Relic (#/50) Regular (#/500)

Relic Auto (#/25) Auto (#/25)

The Diamond Kings

Silver (#/250) Gold (#/100) Platinum (#/25)

Diamond King Framed Red (#/100) Blue (#/50) Green (#/25)

Diamond King Black Border (#/10)

Diamond King auto (#/25) and base

Diamond King Relic Cards
relic (#/150) Prime (#/25) relic auto (#/25)

And the grand finale the Prime relic auto (#/10)

Well there you have it. It took a year but I finally collected every available Don Mattingly card from the 2008 Threads set.

I double checked my cards with the checklist found here (it was the only one I could find).

So this is my obsession.

That card "you'd like to own someday"

2009-12-12T21:13:00.003-05:00

We all do it. We scout over eBay looking for cards we'd like to add to our collection. Some cards are "must haves." We've seen them before and always wanted to add them to our collections.

Then there are those really awesome looking cards you would love to add to your collection. You didn't know it existed. But once you saw it, you knew someday you would make that card yours. I'm not talking about a short print Derek Jeter/Albert Pujols auto card. I'm talking about something attainable but might be too much for you to shell out at the time.

I found a card like that not too long after getting back into collecting. It was a Mattingly card from a set I'd never seen (nor will ever open a pack of).

2005 Upper Deck Ultimate Signature Edition Don Mattingly and Yogi Berra

I just thought it was a really cool card and it features two Yankee LEGENDS. Not only that but something that made me even happier when I finally got it was that the autos are ON CARD! That means both Yogi Berra and Don Mattingly had to touch that card to sign it. So I could do a NCIS analysis of the card and see both Yogi's and Donnie Baseball's finger prints. That might be taking it too far.

But I was able to get this card for HALF of what I've seen it go for before. Thankfully it's a buyer's market. I'm extremely happy to have this piece added to my collection.

Is there an awesome card floating around eBay that YOU plan on adding to your collection someday?

2009 World Champions!!!!

2009-11-04T23:07:00.006-05:00

The new house has been christened!

Congratulations to the 2009 New York Yankees, THANK YOU FOR AN AMAZING SEASON!!

YANKEES WIN THE PENNANT!!!

2009-10-26T00:36:00.004-04:00

We are going to the World Series and I am so excited. I hope it's a great World Series and we can pull it off against the Phillies. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes down to 7 games and it's a dog fight the whole way. Can't wait til Wednesday. (image courtesy of Sooz)

My not so exciting first ever 1/1

2009-10-15T00:52:00.003-04:00

It's been a long time since I've blogged but I haven't had much to blog about. I significantly curbed my card purchases, well at least in my eyes. So I haven't really come across anything interesting until now.

A few weeks back I bought a few packs of ticket to stardom to see how I'd do. Sometimes packs are like lotto tickets. You buy the $1 scratch offs and you might win a free ticket, $1 or $2 but every so often you'll get that $20, $40 or $100 ticket. That's the one we're always looking for.

Well, needless to say I pulled my first 1/1 card. At least that's what Topps says it is.

While I was excited to pull the card, I'm a skeptic at heart. So we look up 2009 reagan on eBay and see what we have:

This one is available on ebay

And these have already sold

So 1/1? Doesn't seem like it. Not sure what makes my card a 1/1 vs all the others that have sold on eBay. It's a rather disappointing end to something that could've been epic and exciting for me. I don't believe in artificial 1/1's. If a card is someone's jersey # that doesn't make it a 1/1 anymore than any of the other numbers in the sequence.

I'm sure one of these days I'll pull a 1/1 card that's unique and exciting. Either that or win the lottery, whichever.

Two Packs of 2009 Topps Chrome

2009-08-06T17:22:00.003-04:00

I visited the local hobby shop today to pick up some binders (I've been on vacation all week). They finally got 2009 OPC and they had the new 2009 Topps Chrome. The OPC packs yielded nothing that stands out. But I thought I would show what I got in my Chrome packs.

I got a Brad Hawpe #/25 and a Manny Corpas WBC card. Check out the ghost figure behind Orlando Hudson. Oohhhh spooky!

I will at least go after the Yankee cards, specifically the parallels for Nick Swisher and Xavier Nady. If I feel ambitious I'll collect the set. I've probably stretched myself thin with all the sets I'm collecting this year. But now that Topps has exclusive rights for 2010, I think I'll have plenty of time to finish out my 2009 sets.

Waking up to a nightmare

2009-08-06T03:03:00.004-04:00

I was sleeping on the couch with the puppy at about 2:30am. I awoke not knowing what time it was nor where Kim was. The only thing I knew is that the puppy, at some point in time, snuggled up underneath me to join me in my nap. I took her out to the bathroom in the dead of the night picking her up and carrying her out over the water. It had rained. She did her business and I brought her back in the same way I took her out. I went and got a soda and sat down to the Internet and checked the scores. The Yankees had won and the Red Sox lost so it was a good night. Checked my fantasy stats and saw I was up 6-1-3 and Thome hit 2HRs. I was feeling real proud of myself for taking him off the bench and starting him.

Then I checked the blogs.

I first saw this headline from Gellman and didn't think anything of it:
Topps Exclusive Is Bad For Business

Then I saw this one and hit the panic button:

Breaking News: Topps gets exclusive rights to MLB cards

This has to be some sort of baseball card nightmare. While I enjoy Topps products this year, I've always found their offerings campy at best. With the exception of Heritage and Allen & Ginter (which is wearing out its welcome apparently), their products have left some things to be desired.

I do have to admit though, Topps Chrome is growing on me. I bought a box of 2008 Chrome and enjoyed busting it way more than any box I've busted this year. And I've considered collecting the 2008 Topps base set now that I have Topps 2009 base set. I'm also working on the 2009 Heritage set and 2009 Allen & Ginter (with Kim....sorta).

All that aside, that doesn't mean I've turned my back on Upper Deck. I still enjoy their products. I'm working on the 2009 UD set and the 2009 O-Pee-Chee set. I'm sure in a couple of months I will be buying packs or a box of Goodwin cards. And I'm still collecting the ultimate Yankee fan set the Yankee Stadium Legacy (1256 and counting).

My point is that I enjoy the offerings from both companies and I don't really pay much attention to Donini because of their lack of license. I liked 2008 Threads but since then I haven't payed any attention to anything they've released lately. Part of that is the lack of a license and the other part is the unappealing design. But to be honest, the lack of license is a really big part of the turnoff. I can't fathom Upper Deck not having a license next year. I can't stand seeing that New York (AL) on the card and glaring bright flashes over the logo or magically photoshopped jerseys and helmets that have no logos.

I read the New York Times article on this and all I could think is what a crock. "Confusion" on what products are out there? Most of what I've seen at Walmart and Target are Topps and Upper Deck base, Heritage and Allent & Ginter. Too many products? Too confusing for kids? And the article talks about the last 30 years when other products entered the market and confused people. Which makes me think of the cards from the 50's, 60's and 70's when the game was great. It was America's game. But much like the game itself today, baseball cards aren't what they used to be. Our game is riddled with PED and 20million dollar a year players. Our game is modern and so should our card collecting.

Giving Topps and exclusive contract will utlimately hurt the hobby. Many collectors, and by collectors I mean grown ups, will leave the hobby or turn to older cards. I know they want to bring kids back to the hobby but I just don't see that happening. Baseball cards reached their pinnacle during the golden age of baseball. Baseball isn't that same game anymore. And if you look at the products that come out, the hobby is geared toward the people who collected back then. Think about it. Goudey, Heritage, O-Pee-Chee and other retro-styled sets flood the market. Even players depicted on cards are from that golden era of baseball. They could gear sets toward adults with kids so they adults could try and get their kids involved. But to be perfectly honest, if I was a kid in this day and age and my dad wasn't into baseball or card collecting, I wouldn't spend a dime on baseball cards.

Then there's the concept of competition. If you think about products in the world that exist almost completely uncontested the you realize how they charge whatever they want. Your choice is whether to buy or not to buy rather than just picking an alternative. My world revolves around computers so when I think of competition I think of AMD vs Intel and nVidia vs ATI/AMD. When one company has large technological gains over another, prices get high and they stay there. The minute the other company picks up the slack and closes the gap, then both companies have competitive prices. How threatened did Upper Deck and Topps seem when Donruss reared its head again? I didn't see anyone running for the hills.

The bottom line is Topps can produce whatever trash they want. They have the exclusive license. They can create Triple Threads, CoSigners, Sterling and whatever else they want. While we won't have UDX anymore, we'll never see Masterpieces again unless Topps creates a cheap knockoff. And remember that MLB wants to get kids back into collecting. So 99 cent packs will be the norm which means cheap cardboard and unappealing designs. You might as well take a picture of the player and slap their name on the front in white font and call it a day. More worthless jersey and auto cards of players who you never heard of will be the "hits" in boxes.

Like most people, I don't know where that'll leave my card collecting for next year. Even when I was a kid, I always leaned toward non-Topps products. Donruss, Pinnacle, Score, Fleer, Upper Deck were usually my first choices over Topps. I still can't believe they're all gone and only Topps is left.

Thankfully as a player collector I can focus on Don Mattingly cards and YSL even more. And I won't have a lot of Phil Hughes cards to collect because there will only be one company producing cards. The only set Topps will produce with Mattingly in it is Sterling and that's pure garbage. It's essentially the same card over and over again in different configurations for an extreme amount of money. That product makes me dread the future with Topps.

I expect every collector (except Topps fanboys) to be livid about this news. The hobby will not be the same until that multi-year Topps license is up and more competition is allowed to enter the playing field. But what can we do? Petition MLB to stop this and allow Upper Deck and other companies to enter the field of competition? They'll never listen, they've never listened to the fans before so why would they listen to collectors now?

Really, did anyone ever listen to the collectors?

Yankee Stadium Legacy HELP!

2009-07-28T19:25:00.002-04:00

I'm looking for Babe Ruth card #6 from the Yankee Stadium Legacy set. That card has eluded me and it currently goes for way too much money on eBay. I'm trying to stay strong and not try to buy it.

I'd rather trade for the card. Especially if someone really doesn't want the card.

Contact me and we'll work something out.

Thanks blogosphere!

Perfection

2009-07-23T16:39:00.004-04:00

Mark Buehrle just pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Centerfielder Dewayne Wise, who replaced Quentin in the outfield, made a spectacular catch that will probably be the defensive play of the year.

Through the marvel of modern technology that is the MLB.TV package, I was able to watch the 9th inning and enjoy a few minutes of perfection.

Happily, Mark is on my fantasy team and helped me out in what looks to be another week where I get pummeled by my head-to-head competitor.

A big congrats to Mark on his perfect game.

FYI My primary computer is dead so I don't have my scanner which is usually the tool I use to blog. I had a whole lot of cool things I got from fellow card shop visitors that I wanted to show off. When I fix it I should be back up to blogging on a fairly infrequent basis yet again.

Evan Longoria gets DIRRRTY

2009-07-13T22:14:00.006-04:00

I pulled this relic card from a box of A&G this past weekend.

That dirt was on the card when I pulled it. I remarked to Kim (who was helping break our two boxes) that it had dirt on it but it doesn't look quite like dirt to me if you catch my drift. But I'll take it.

I also pulled the Unstoppable Upton brothers:

Two batty Camerons, no relation:
And all well that ends...Wells:

6 relics in two boxes. We got a bunch of minis but nothing overly exciting. The hoodwinks are good fun. And Kim went squee when she pulled the Milky Way. And we're both big fans of the Pi hoax.

I've seen a lot of heat on 2009 A&G. This is Kim's second year collecting these cards and my first. This is a set Kim and I can do together because it appeals to us both. It has baseball players, parallel inserts, autos, relics. For Kim it has art, history, science and cultural appeal. It's fun discovering this set with Kim. And when the blasters hit Target and Walmart, we'll get those too and build our set.

We'll be working together to complete the set as well as most of the blogosphere. Just some good old fashioned set building fun.

2009 UD Icons is live

2009-07-13T15:55:00.002-04:00

And I really couldn't care less....

Nick the Stick Relic

Nick the Stick Auto

I think this is one of those products whose price will drop dramatically when little interest is shown in the product itself. Don't know if there are any Phil Hughes, Phil Coke or Nick Swisher cards in there but those are all I would interested in.

Good luck to anyone who breaks that stuff.

Well that didn't take long....

2009-07-07T23:33:00.003-04:00

2009 Allen and Ginter cards are out on eBay...we all know that.

Apparently there's a Phil Hughes auto in the set. And three of them have shown up on eBay

I have two boxes coming. But my odds of pulling the Hughes auto are next to zero because I'm a Yankee fan and we aren't supposed to get our own kind from packs. So I think I'll try to pick this one up off eBay.

Oh, if someone comes across a OPC Nick Swisher black mini card let me know. I'm looking for one.

The Greatest Don Mattingly Card EVER?

2009-07-06T22:22:00.001-04:00

This card could possibly be the greatest Don Mattingly card to ever exist...

Don Mattingly 1/1

When I win the lottery, I'm buying that card.

Mariano Rivera Gets Career RBI #1 !!!!!!

2009-06-29T00:18:00.005-04:00

K-Rod walked Rivera which drove in a run. One of the most interesting at-bats I've seen all season.

Oh and he also notched his 500th Career save! The Phenominal Phils, Mr. Coke and Mr. Hughes, both pitched on this historic night without giving up a run. Even Chien-Ming Wang was able to hold the Mets to 2 runs without dishing out batting practice.

This card is courtesy of JD's Wild Cardz.

Destined For History indeed. It's amazing what he's been able to do for almost 13 years with one really awesome pitch.

A Big Thank You to Upper Deck

2009-06-27T16:53:00.006-04:00

I won an auction on eBay and when I received the card I got a little panicked. After looking over the card I started to feel like I'd been had. Like someone put a bogus card out there and I was the poor sap who bit.

Well, I emailed Mario and told him I the situation and asked if he knew anyone who could help me figure out if the card was a fraud. He gave me Chris Carter's email address at Upper Deck and said I could try to see if he would help.

I emailed Chris explaining the situation and he emailed back asking for scans of the card. I zipped up hi-res scans of the front and back of the card.

After some time I got an email stating this:

"After reviewing with the MLB brand team, we confirmed this card to be authentic parallel numbered of five."

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Don Mattingly's 2007 Goudey Diamond Stars #/5

I just wanted to extend a thank you to Chris Carter and his team at Upper Deck. It's very easy for an email to get ignored and go unanswered. Chris took the time to respond and gave his people take a look at my card. And for that I'm very thankful.

I know we rag on the card companies a lot and give them a hard time. But it's also good to give credit where credit is due.

Objects in this relic card may appear FREAKIN HUGE!

2009-06-16T19:27:00.006-04:00

I know I don't post often but I had to share this. This is one of those awesome things I've discovered since returning to the hobby.

Here are two 2003 Flair Greats Sweet Swatch Classic cards. I got these off eBay thinking the gimmick here is that the relic on the card was larger than normal. The image didn't give any hint to the cards' actual sizes. I got the package in the mail with a bunch of other packages. I had no idea what the heck it was until I opened up the package and exclaimed "Holy crap! Look at the size of these cards."

I posted normal cards so you can see the size difference. These cards are impressive looking in person. If your favorite player has one of these cards I suggest hunting them down and getting them. I was able to pick up the pair for less than $20. The bat card is #ed to 490 and the jersey card is #ed to 880.

2 x Topps Series 2 Jumbo boxes

2009-06-07T06:21:00.000-04:00

Topps Series 2 shouldn't surprise anyone. But I think Topps upgraded a bit versus Series 1. I'm happy with the two boxes I got but not overly excited. The boxes I broke were a mashup of the really cool stuff you can get and the utter crap that could line the bottom of your bird's cage.

I know, I was excited to pull that Fred Lewis. I gasped and exclaimed "who the heck is this guy?" Seriously, this auto relic thing is horrifically overdone. Topps and Upperdeck, listen... you have my full permission to make relics and autos hard to get as long as they're very recognizable names in baseball. When I look at my Eric Chavez, my heart gets full and it just makes me want to say "why?" Seriously, why?

Now here is something I did like. The Career Best cards were a pleasant surprise. I pulled a Ruth and Gerhig. Turkey Red is back with what look to be even better images than Series 1. I pulled a Gerhig card and it looks beautiful. Again we have the black and gold parallels.

Here are some WBC cards that Topps decided to throw into the set and I was able to pull a Molitor and Yaz manufactured patch card. I'm sure I would enjoy these if I actually pulled someone I collected.

I really like this gold card and I will enjoy having it in my personal collection. Nick Swisher has won me over and I'm a fan for life. He has a great personality and has brought that "something" to the Yankees and I have to say I enjoy watching him. I follow Nick here on Twitter.

And then there's this card.

I'm glad I pulled something interesting this time around. My Series 1 experience was dull and when I pulled this I felt better. I just think this card is cool. I'm not sure the origin of this stamp but I really would like to find out. If anyone has any information on it I'm very interested.

I'm still working on checking my Series 2 base cards to see if I got the whole set but I'm fairly confident I did this time. If anyone needs any cards let me know, I got tons of doubles so far.

Overall, this experience was better than Series 1. Nothing phenomenal but an improvement over the last time around.

Til next time

It's been such a long time, guess I should be bloggin'

2009-06-07T00:08:00.004-04:00

One of the cool things about blogging is that you run the show. You're the program director and you say what the "who, what, where,when, and why" is. But I do love reading other people's blogs a little bit more than I like posting mine. You guys come up with really interesting topics and I'm an avid follower.

With that being said, I've been completely distracted these past couple of weeks due to a new addition to our family.This is Bella (her full name is Bella Bow Wow given to her by Kim). She is a JackChi or Jackuahua which is a Jack Russel Chihuahua mix. She's really Kim's dog but she's become a "daddy's little girl." Her favorite past time is crawling into my lap or arm and falling asleep. We're still adjusting to her and trying our best to potty train her and teach her not to bite us. Things sure do change when you get a little one in the house.

But this is where my head has been at lately. Although, I have gotten some great packges in the mail, busted two boxes of Series 2 Topps, went to a card show and received some interesting things off eBay. So hopefully I'll find time to post some of these things.

Legendary Cuts Already?

2009-06-02T22:44:00.003-04:00

While all of us are posting and reading about Topps and UD Series 2. I found this auction on eBay:

2009 Don Mattingly Legendary Cuts

The relic card looks pretty sharp. I think I'll be buying a box of this.

What would you do? Revisited

2009-05-23T00:54:00.002-04:00

Remember how I had a dilemma about a card that I wanted to keep but was damaged?

Looks like it's someone else's problem now.

I sent it back and got a refund and the seller just put it right back on eBay and sold it.

But I wasn't going to keep a card that damaged in my PC. It would always bother me and I would want to replace it with a better conditioned card. So what good is having a card in your collection that you're not happy with? After all, it is your personal collection.

And I recently won this card to replace it for just a few bucks more than what I paid for the damaged one.

It may not have all the pinstripes the other card had but it is in way better condition.

But I just can't figure out why some eBay sellers can't do the right thing. If there's something wrong with the card, disclose it and let the buyer make the choice. You run a high risk of negative feedback and the loss of future customers. Even Beckett (I know don't stone me) talks about condition and the value degradation due to physical damage. It's kinda funny when the same people that put "BV" or "Book Value" on their auction don't disclose obvious condition issues which would negatively affect the value of the card.

What Card is This?...answer

2009-05-07T23:08:00.002-04:00

Good job detective dayf. It certainly a 1991 Cracker Jack/Topps card.

And this is the size comparison of the regular 1991 Topps vs 1991 Cracker Jacks Topps. "I shall call him, mini-Mattingly."

It's a shame that Crack Jack and Topps don't get together and do this more often. I don't know if anyone has bought Cracker Jack's lately but the prizes inside SUCK. Baseball cards in Cracker Jack's would be a huge upgrade.

According to Baseball Almanac, 1993 was the last year Cracker Jack put cards in their product. In 1992 they used Donruss Series 2 cards. Found some on ebay.

I didn't know these cards existed until I found it on CheckOutMyCards.com. I picked this bad boy up for a mere 25 cents. It was the first time I've ever purchased from that site and I was impressed with its simplicity. Deals are a bit hard to find because of the much worshiped book value but every now and then you'll find yourself a good deal like I did. I ended up with 7 new Mattingly cards to add to my collection for an extremely reasonable price and reasonable shipping cost.

So dayf, I'll see if I can send you something cool because you were the only one that guessed and got it right.

What Card is This?

2009-05-07T18:46:00.002-04:00

Three Packs of 2009 SPx

2009-05-01T08:12:00.000-04:00

Kim and I got 3 packs of Upper Deck SPx just because. It appears to be more affordable than last year's product. Out of the three packs, 2 didn't yield much more than a Matsui base card and one pack yielded several cards that will go into my personal collection.

This is what came out of the first two packs.

Out of the final pack I got these:

I pulled an Albert Pujols, Griffey Jr, Reyes patch card, Derek Jeter and Johan Santana (not pictured) in that exact order from one of the packs. It looks like the relic card doesn't really count as a card because there are only supposed to be 4 cards in a pack.

As for the design, the player is embossed a little bit on the card and as you can see the background of the card has almost a refractor or holographic shine to it. It's a simple design and is pretty sharp.

While the front is nice, the back of the card troubles me a bit. You have this huge graphic, small 3 sentence blurb and the player's stats only go as far back as 2004. The Griffey and Pujols also only go back to 2004. If you're going to cut stats short just show their 2008 stats to keep it relevant. Why do they cut the stats short? The 2008 SP Authentic got it right last year. They got a photo of the player, their FULL stats and even a little graphic that resembles the front of the card.

*shakes head* I just don't understand why the graphic is so big. It seems like a space filler and completely takes away from the back of the card.

A box of SPx is about $20-30 cheaper than last year. And I think that shows in the quality of the card. The card design is a hodgepodge of Upper Deck X, Spectrum and Authentic SP. I thought their 2008 cards were pretty cool and their design mirrored their cost. To get a cool looking card you gotta shell out a bit of money. Unless you're Topps Finest. There are 12 more cards in a box of SPx than Finest but I'd sacrafice those 12 cards for the cooler Topps cards.

This really should be a product that competes with Finest in terms of cool technology but that just doesn't seem to happen here. While they did bring down the price of SPx they also took hits in the style and creativity department. I can give a bit of praise to Upper Deck for attempting to make their SPx product more affordable and include more cards but they kinda missed the point. We don't want plain cheap cards. If we wanted that, we'd just buy Upper Deck X. We want cool looking cards that are affordable. If you make a cool card and put it at a relatively good price point, people will buy it.

IN A WORLD...

2009-04-27T23:06:00.010-04:00

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.

What would you do?

2009-04-22T23:23:00.005-04:00

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?

Happy Birthdays indeed

2009-04-20T23:14:00.006-04:00

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!

The House that Jeter Built

2009-04-17T16:18:00.011-04:00

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.

Yankees win 6 - 5

You know your team is great when....

2009-04-13T23:46:00.005-04:00

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

New York Yankees
Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
C Wang (L, 0-2)	1.0	6	8	8	3	1	0	61-34	28.93
J Albaladejo	3.0	5	3	3	1	2	2	60-34	4.26
E Ramirez	2.0	4	1	1	1	3	1	51-31	2.70
P Coke	1.0	1	3	0	2	0	0	38-18	9.82
N Swisher	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	0	22-12	0.00

from ESPN

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

A very exciting Saturday Part 1: The Icon

2009-04-12T07:57:00.010-04:00

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.

Got any plans this weekend?

2009-04-09T11:30:00.002-04:00

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?

MLB ain't technologically impared

2009-04-06T13:20:00.000-04:00

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.

That exciting LAST CARD

2009-04-04T20:23:00.000-04:00

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.

Congratulations in order

2009-03-31T00:15:00.000-04:00

Congratulations are in order for the starting centerfielder for the New York Yankees.

Brett Gardner

And for Melky, hmm, well....

Actually, Melky will be the 5th outfielder behind Damon, Nady, Gardner and Swisher.

I really like Gardner. He isn't exactly Carlos Beltran but he is a base stealing threat and can hit around .300 which is something I think the Yanks need. We need people who can get on base and move into scoring position either by sacrifice or stealing. Manufacturing runs is the name of the game. The goal should be to plate at least one run every inning and pray your pitching doesn't blow up. It's obvious you can't score every inning of every game but scoring around 6 to 7 runs a game wouldn't hurt.

I'm sure Brett is really excited, I'm extremely happy for him. I saw Brett play in that game I went to last year. He hit a sacrifice fly which turned out to be the winning run. I have nothing against Melky but I like Brett's style of play. He makes contact, he's fast on the basepads and just flat out hustles. He won't be a mega-star but I hope he can get on base and score lots of runs.

Greatest of All Time

2009-03-17T23:58:00.002-04:00

I know this is a predominately baseball blog but I'd like to take the time to acknowledge some hockey history. Tonight, March 17th 2009 Martin Brodeur has become the winningest goalie in the NHL. The Devils won 3-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks to etch Brodeur as one of the greatest if not THE greatest goalie of all time.

Tomorrow night I will be headed to Raleigh to see Marty and company the day after this historic event. Hopefully he'll extend his record by 1 win and maybe even score a shutout to inch his way closer to the all time shutout leader.

I want to congratulate Brodeur and the rest of the Devils for a surprising season. I haven't been able to watch the games but I've seen the scores and watched the highlights. What Clemmensen did in Brodeur's absence has been nothing short of fantastic. Parise is having a phenomenal year and what Brodeur has done since coming back from a torn bicep injury has been nothing short of brilliant.

I've seen the Devils play twice both at RBC Arena in Raleigh against the Canes. I hope to see them at their home stadium in Newark, NJ. My grandparents live literally minutes away from the stadium. I could theoretically walk there for a game...if it was daylight and I had someone picking me up afterward.

This is the only Brodeur card I own and it was pulled by Kim. She was nice enough to "trade" it to me. I hope to one day own an autographed card of Brodeur but I have a feeling that'll become more expensive after tonight.

I'm just proud that the greatest goalie of all time...is a New Jersey Devil.

Thank you Marty.

I'd like an order of Nachos Grande please

2009-03-11T21:51:00.005-04:00

Chris at Nachos Grande had some cards he was trading away to help his wantlist. Among those were YSL cards and some Timeline cards which was right up my alley. I went through my very large collection of Upper Deck 2008 doubles and was able to pull out quite a few cards to help him along with his set as well as some parallels.

In return I got a healthy stack of YSL cards. I'm now sitting at 995 cards and Marie from A Cardboard Problem will help push me over 1000 cards soon. So if you have any YSL cards you don't want let me know. I may have something you want and I'm more than willing to trade. My eBay hiatus is making it very difficult to acquire them so I'll have to rely on trades.

Some Timeline Gold cards of Yankees.

I know, I know. It's A-Rod. But let's be honest, it's still A-Rod. He is a Yankee and I do collect Yankees. Besides, I could always give it to Kim....when she recovers from A-Rod's misdeeds.

And some Timeline cards to help my set.

I don't know how I'll finish this Timeline set but it'll happen....eventually. I wish someone would put those boxes on sale. Those short prints really kick your butt.

2009 Topps Heritage Packs

2009-03-10T23:40:00.004-04:00

I had to buy some Heritage packs from the local card shop this weekend. And Kim got some as well.

I absolutely love these cards.

Here is my very first Mark Teixeira card as a Yankee. Photoshopped perhaps, I guess it'll do.

Juan Miranda rookie card.

The Captain Derek Jeter.

A flashback card. This is an interesting choice for a flashback card. You gotta wonder how Topps came up with this card.

What baseball card set would be complete without relic cards? Here's a pointless relic card of Vernon Wells. I just don't see how they fit anywhere in this set. But the card companies are putting them in every set so oh well.

Here is an example of a short print (Ben Sheets All-Star) vs a base card (Matt Cain).

Here is a chrome refractor that Kim pulled. She also pulled an Ian Kinsler chrome card. She always gets the nice looking insert cards. Me? I get the big mitt.

I do have a complain about these cards. They do seem prone to damage on the front or strange photo blemishes. If you look here you can clearly see the back of a card superimposed on top of the Tom Glavine card. Also if you look at the Jeter card the image isn't very solid. I can't describe it but it looks like some sort of pixelation or side effect of the zoom in. If you ever see the Mark Buehrle card which is card #1, you'll see it's a pretty good photo. We're not exactly pulling Stadium Club but the photo doesn't look grainy or rubbed off.

So here you have it. Heritage in full swing. I plan on getting a box eventually but until then I'll enjoy busting packs and maybe a blaster or two.

Topps Baseball cards...OF THE FUTURE!!!

2009-03-09T14:16:00.002-04:00

I read about technology every day from a site called Dailytech.

Here is a post about Topps trying to come up with the next gen baseball card to bring kids back to the hobby. I always like to read the comments sections, they're usually interesting and include lots of negative banter.

Here's the New York Times article.

I think it's interesting how they're trying to attract kids back to the hobby like this. I don't have children or know personally of anyone with kids that collect baseball cards. Odds are, if your dad collects baseball cards, you do. Or if you're a huge enough baseball fan, you may end up collecting cards. I'm not saying every baseball fan collects cards, but I don't know any baseball card collectors who are not baseball fans. People who buy cases to flip product don't count.

But I think the game of baseball itself needs a resurgence in general to help attract new collectors. Or the next new gimmick to bring back old collectors who stopped collecting sometime ago. Something to make them go, "Man, that card or set is pretty cool. I should start collecting again." That was Yankee Stadium Legacy for me.

But I just don't think 3D cards are the thing that can bring kids back.

Topps 2009 Jumbo Box break x 2...tale of an unhappy box breaker

2009-03-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

William, PA and I went in together on a whole case of Topps 2009 jumbo packs. I know what you're thinking, "But Peter, you broke those boxes almost 4 weeks ago. Why are you posting it now?" To be honest I was disappointed and ashamed of what I pulled. In my opinion it wasn't even worth blogging about. But I'm gonna suck it up and throw these out there just so people can see what you might pull when you buy a box of these.

After opening two jumbo boxes, I'm one card away from completing the base set. What a slap in the face that is. That was the nail in the coffin for me after I broke these boxes. I spent the next day after the break collating the cards into their proper order and that's when I realized I was one card short. I find that statistically mind blowing. Out of 1000 cards, 2 x 500 and even subtract out the inserts which is something like 3 per pack perhaps. I should've easily pulled off a 350 card set. But I have quadruples up the ying yang which is even worse because it leaves you with not much of a variety to trade with.

Anyhow, these are some of the inserts I pulled:

The Jeter Ring of Honor was actually pulled by William. He was kind enough to give it to me. The only thing I liked about these cards is that they featured more Yankees this time around. Otherwise, it's the same exact thing from 2008 Updates & Highlights.

The Gold cards I pulled weren't even exciting. I did actually pull the Matsui gold. I may have traded with PA for the Miranda gold. The only good gold card I pulled was the Rays Highlights gold card.

The Career Highlight cards are the biggest disappointment out of the entire box. I get a crappy auto and 3 crappy relic cards. Complete trade fodder. I have no use for these cards so if you want them, make me an offer on something I need and we'll deal. I know lots of people don't like the YSL cards and I'm more than willing to trade for them. I hate the design of these cards, I like Upper Deck's relic designs a hell of a lot more.

I did get a bunch of Turkey Red cards and I have to say I do like these cards as an insert. I have some Turkey Reds from 2007(?) and they're okay. But I don't think I would collect a whole set of these. I think these cards work pretty well as an insert for 2009 Topps. If Upper Deck was smart, they'd make Masterpieces an insert set in one of their sets later this year. And if they're not bringing it out next year they should consider adding it as an insert to the Base set like Topps did here.

Out of the very few black cards I pulled this is the best one. I saw one of these sell on eBay for about $30 so when I figure out how to do it, that's where this is going. Once again, I have no use for a Red Sox card in my collection so the world's biggest flea market is getting this card.

And then there are these Legends of the Game commemorative patches. I have no idea what to make of them. They're manufactured patches that are short printed. They're just a letter from a phrase that has to do with the player. It's not the full name of the player but it could be a nickname of the player as we see with these. I've contemplated going after the Roger Maris "Against All Odds" but that's way too long and they're selling for too much on eBay. I may sell these on eBay one day. It would've been nice to pull Mickey Mantle or Thurman Munson so I could add them to my Yankee collection.

I did pull some Legends of the Game cards but we've all seen those before.

These are the variation cards I pulled. I actually had no idea they were variations until I started to see them show up online and everyone began talking about them. I didn't think anything about these cards and put them in the regular set. I had to go back through and take them out. I also pulled the Johnny Mize variation. PA pulled the CC Sabathia variation and William pulled the Barack Obama variation.

I also have a WBC redemption card which I've entered on Topps.com. The likelyhood it would produce a good card is slim to none in my opinion. I'm not sure how the WBC fits in with the first product of the year. We don't have the full rosters to know who is on the teams and it's a redemption card. Redemption cards should be religated to hot up and coming prospects or really special autographs or relic cards that they didn't want to package in the regular packs.

And that's it. No printing plates, no 1/1 sketch cards, no amazing autograph, no high demand Obama cards. Not even a full set. I can't say I hate the product because I don't. I like the base cards, they're one of the best Topps designs I've seen in awhile. But breaking two jumbo boxes and just having this to show for it is pretty disappointing. I was really hoping for a 1/1 printing plate or something else special. When you buy this big and expensive of a Cracker Jack box you expect to get a pretty decent prize. I've never pulled a 1/1 and I figured this would've been my best chance. I'm not going to go out and buy any, I just wanted to have the excitement of pulling one from a pack.

But I do have to paint the whole picture with this case, William and PA (who had the other 4 boxes in the case) had some really great pulls. I just happened to get two run of the mill boxes out of the case.

But that's the risk you take. Am I going to stop buying boxes because of this? Hell no. It's a crap shoot and you never know what you're gonna get. Sometimes you can pull a Pete Rose autograph relic or no autographs at all. It's a gamble.

Was it worth it? Not really. My goal was collecting the full set and getting some insert cards that I would want to keep in my personal collection. Neither happened. While I'm only 1 card short and I know William has that card waiting for me, it's unacceptable that two jumbo boxes almost 1000 cards can't produce a complete set. And as far as the inserts go, when I saw the release sheet I was excited at what I saw. Topps marking had me. But my actual experience differed than the advertisement, go figure.

I'm starting to think I did this collecting the base set all wrong. Maybe this is supposed to be a long drawn out process of buying 1 regular box, some blasters, some packs and accumulating the cards over time rather than go for a big bang with a couple of jumbo boxes. Who knows.

All I know is that these boxes put a bad taste in my mouth and a box of 2009 Heritage may help wash it out.

PS. I got a boatload of doubles if you're interested. Just let me know what you need or send me your wantlist and I'll see what I can do.

Opening Day for 2009 Yankee Collecting

2009-03-04T22:53:00.000-05:00

It's spring training and the start of the collecting season. As a player collector and set building you learn to pick your battles. I'm one card away from finishing my '09 Topps Series 1 set. And I've given into temptation and got 2 blasters of 2009 Upper Deck base. So I'll work on that set as well. And I know for sure I'll be working on Heritage this year.

But for those other sets I'll be looking around for some of my favorite Yankee players. And maybe jumping on the Teixeira bandwagon due to his Mattingly connection.

But I'm really excited that there will be a bunch of cards of Xavier Nady in a Yankee Uniform. I know 2008 Updates & Highlights, 2008 Documentary and 2008 Ultimate(?) had him in a Yankee uniform but there's nothing like pulling your favorite player from a good ol' fashioned regular set.

Also Phil Coke has made his mainstream debut in both Topps 2009 and Upper Deck 2009. I know he has an auto card in Spectrum which I hope to pick up when my eBay hiatus is over. I've seen his Heritage rookie card which looks great. I actually own a Jim Kaat rookie from the 1960 set and the rookie cards are similar in design except they have that ROOKIE CARD MLB logo in the middle of the ribbon as shown here. I'll have to dig into the 2009 checklists and see what sets he's in.

And my man Phil Hughes is a hobby regular in this year's sets. I have a feeling I'll be tracking down quite a few Phil Hughes cards this year. I've seen the 2009 Heritage Hughes card and I love it. I want it! I hope he somehow finds his way into the rotation this year. I'm really rooting for Hughes to do some great things in his major league career. Which is pretty unheard of for me. I'm used to sticking with players that are established and Phil Hughes is a pretty big gamble. The odds that he'll be traded within the next 3 years is probably extremely high given the state of the rotation at the moment. I held my breath this off season hoping to not see his name in the hot stove reports and I've been lucky. I don't know how I'd feel if he got traded.

I really like Upper Deck's Game Used Jersey insert for this year. The letters are a bit more exciting than putting a big square swatch or X shaped swatch (I'm talking to you Upper Deck X) in the middle of the card. And it's better than that stupid UD thing they had in 2008. I never liked that.

So in summation, if you find yourself with a bunch of Phil Hughes, Xavier Nady and Phil Coke cards that you don't really want. Just drop me a line and I'll see if we can work something out.

Oh yeah, if you have any of those YSL thingys hangin' around, I'm interested in them too.

Awesomeness for Awesomeness's sake

2009-02-26T22:30:00.006-05:00

I snatched this card up on eBay a few weeks ago. I insured the shipping because I didn't want anything to happen to such a valuable card. I'm not sure I needed the insurance because it came with its own bomb blast suit. The seller actually sent the card in this armored hulking shell. I think this thing could survive a nuclear attack.

I have never seen a screw down this thick for a relic card but it's so impressive and majestic that I'll just have to keep it this way. It even came in a jumbo-sized team bag for that added protection.

I was so impressed I had to email the seller and express my gratitude and utter amazement.

Awesome, just plain awesome.

2007 Masterpieces Set COMPLETED

2009-02-24T23:18:00.003-05:00

Todd left me a comment saying he had the final card I needed to complete my 2007 Masterpieces Set. I sent him an email with my address and ask if he needed anything. He politely said no, no needs. And this little guy showed up in the mail:

I completed this set by trading, donation and $1.59 packs from Target. I don't have any inserts from the packs but this is such a great set by itself.

Big thanks to Todd and anyone else who sent me cards to help complete this set.

The sacrifice

2009-02-24T21:33:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday for us Catholics. I must admit that I'm not a devout Catholic and I hold views and lived a life that would be seen as blasphemous in the churches eyes. That aside, I do practice Lent every year.

For Lent, it's tradition to give up something as a gesture of sacrifice. You figure Jesus went 40 days in that desert without food or water, you can give up some aspect of your comfortable life. So my usual choice for sacrifice has been chocolate and soda. While chocolate I can do without, avoiding soda is a bit of a lifestyle change.

Now with Lent 2009 approaching Kim made a suggestion. While it may have been jokingly, it was a poignant suggestion. I've gone a bit overboard with eBay these past two months. I've certainly added to my Mattingly and YSL collection along the way. But I've dropped quite a bit of cash along the way. So she suggested I'd give up eBay for Lent. As I looked at the auctions today, I realized I've become quite addicted and this would certainly be a challenge. It would kill me if a card came on eBay that I've been looking for and I wasn't able to go after it.

So it's my decision in the end. I've been debating on how to approach this. Obviously, I'll have to handle any auctions I'm already bidding on which is a handful. I'm struggling with this one. I'll still be able to buy boxes online but the majority of my purchases have been Mattingly cards. The last box I bought was in December or January and was a 2008 Timeline box.

So, I think I'll be negotiating this one with Kim. But the goal is to get me to break this addiction that is eBay.

I don't think I can do it but I'll at least give it a try.

I love the 90's

2009-02-18T00:08:00.006-05:00

This is one of my favorite cards. I was a big fan of Pinnacle and all their products in the 90's. I have tons of Score cards. I was a big fan of Select Certified's thick card stock and foil finish. I like the shininess of the Mirror Gold Parallel. I already had the base from this set but it took me some time to track this card down on eBay but I finally was able to find it.

Another thing I love about this card is that Mattingly is sporting a goatee. You may ask, "But Peter, don't the Yankees have a strict policy against facial hair below the upper lip?" Why yes reader, they indeed do. But back in 1995 (1996 Donruss also has a goatee wearing Mattingly photo), when Jack McDowell joined the Yankees he begged Steinbrenner to let him wear his goatee. So Steinbrenner allowed him to wear his goatee but soon after that others on the team began growing goatees including the Captain. Well after going 1-8 on road trip the no facial hair policy was reinstated as punishment (although the Boss denied that). Here's the story.

2009 YSL Update 7/5/2008

2009-02-07T13:13:00.005-05:00

This game is very significant to me. I was actually at this game with Kim. This was the last game I saw in the old Stadium (both Kim's first and last at that stadium as well). I think Upper Deck may have got it right here. It pictures Melky Cabrera who actually scored the Yankees first run of the game in this very game. So Upper Deck put a player on a card that actually had an impact in the game. Even though it never mentions that on the card and references Melky's solid April which was probably his only productive month all year.

Brett Gardner (the left fielder that game) hit a sacrifice fly to give Yankees a 2 - 0 lead which was the deciding run. Rivera came into the 9th and quickly got the bases loaded with nobody out. Then got 3 outs while only surrendering 1 run. I must say he gave us all heart attacks that day but eventually closed the door on our bitter rivals.

This card will hold a special meaning to me because of what it signifies.

Here are a few more pictures from that day:

Today is the day we do our box breaks

2009-02-07T11:56:00.003-05:00

William of Foul Bunt, PA from Player to be Named Later and myself are busting a case of Topps 2009 Jumbo. We each get 2 boxes and we hope to get some really good stuff. I enjoyed Marie and Sooz's break and hopefully we can get a variety of cool stuff.

I'm not sure if or how we'll be documenting this break. It probably won't be live because I don't think there's a wireless network at the card shop. I may bring my laptop and use the built-in camera to record video. I still haven't made my mind about it yet.

Hopefully I will have my stuff posted tonight.

It's STUPIDICULOUS!

2009-02-06T17:28:00.002-05:00

I don't follow the NBA closely but occasionally they spit out a nugget of entertainment. It appears Mo Willaims from the Cavs has been passed over as an All-Star selection. Someone with talent not being chosen to an All-Star team? I've never heard of that before *cough*MLB*cough*

ESPN Story here

That's not the news though. The news is what the owner said about it. "Ben Wallace was right when he called Mo originally being passed over for the All-Star Game a shamockery," Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert said in a tongue-in-cheek e-mail to The Associated Press. "But not naming him as the natural and obvious replacement for the unfortunately injured Jameer Nelson is stupidiculous, idillogical and preposterageous."

I love the ridiculous nature of stupidiculous. I don't know why but I find that word more hilarious than the others and actually usable. In fact, I think this should replace "MOJO" completely. If you're gonna use a stupid adjective you might as well get creative with it.

OMG JETER AUTO 1/1, that's STUPIDICULOUS!! see also Redonkulous.

Mattingly Heaven

2009-02-05T20:14:00.005-05:00

So I got a box in the mail today which is unusual because I rarely get boxes. It was from Steve B who I had been working out a trade with.

Inside this marvelous box was a plastic case which contained 4 of the last 5 cards I need for my 2007 Masterpieces set. I need exactly 1 card to complete that set. That set was built entirely on $1.59 retail packs and a whole bunch of trades.

Behind those 4 cards were pure gold. Euphoric could be a term to describe the next 17 cards.

I can't even describe how thrilled I am at these cards. These are the sets I never had a chance to see. They're all base cards that most people could care less about but I'll never pull them from packs unless I buy a box online. And if I bought each card individually I would most certainly overpay due to shipping.

AWESOMENESS!!!! The elation! OMG! I'm so happy with these cards. Absolutely satisfied. Ya know, the kind of satisfaction you get after eating a good steak (which Kimmy cooked tonight, so doubly happy!).

I still have to get Steve's out to him but I'm going to try to find some more stuff he may be interested in.

Thank you so much Steve, you made my day!

eBay Sellers of Genius

2009-02-03T20:48:00.003-05:00

I saw this auction and I had to do something extra special....

*to the tune of Bud Light's Real Men of Genius commercials*

Dropped 3rd Strike presents eBay Sellers of Genius
(eBay Sellers of Genius)

Today we salute you, Mr. Get-Common-Cards-Graded Guy
(Mr. Get-Common-Cards-Graded Guy)

You take the basic common cards that usually go for 99cents and increase its value...twenty-fold
(Buy it now for twenty bucks!)

Sure there are 2 million of that card in the world, but your card is pristine, gem mint 10 all wrapped up in a virtually indestructible hard plastic case
(GET ME PLIERS!)

You dug deep inside yourself and your wallet to have this mediocre card brought to the pinnacle of its existence
(You actually paid to get it graded)

So crack open a cold one Mr. Get-Common-Cards-Graded Guy, while you may never have that relic autograph 1/1 card for your eBay store, you're a perfect 10 to us
(Mr. Get-Common-Cards-Graded Guy)

Group Break Pimpin' - Saints of the Cheap Seats

2009-02-03T11:36:00.005-05:00

Dan over at Saints of the Cheap Seats is doing a group break and still has a few spots open.

The product he's busting is a case of
2007 Upper Deck Ultimate: approx. $600 per 4-box case; 8 relic (including 1 patch), 4 autos, per box. 48 "hits" total. Checklist with autos and prospects here. Total cost per person approx. $22.

These are the teams available:
Pirates
Diamondbacks
Padres
Rockies
Nationals/Expos
Marlins
Rays

I'm STILL surprised no one snatched up the Pirates or Padres.
For the Padres there are quite a few Jake Peavy cards, Tony Gwynn and Greg Maddux.
Pirates have Jason Bay (tons), Freddy Sanchez, Adam LaRoche, Bill Mazeroski, even a Stargell.
Rockies have Troy Tulowitzki, Helton, Matt Holliday(tons).
Diamondbacks have Brandon Webb, Randy Johnson(tons), Micah Owings, Stephen Drew.
Marlins have Willis, Miguel Cabrera, and Hanley Ramirez, Willingham.
Nations tons and tons of Zimmerman, and some Kerns and a Tim Raines.
Rays have Kazmir and Carl Crawford, BJ Upton.

So come join in, $22 the first team, $20 each additional team.

Topps 2009 Series 1 Pack Breaks

2009-01-31T15:02:00.006-05:00

I had Kim do reconnaissance at a local Target and she came back with 8 packs of Topps 2009 cards. There were no blasters but here is a sample of what we pulled. I apologize for the scans, the foil doesn't come out well when scanned.

Some more....

If you're feigning for packs, look for A-Rod.

The Toppstown cards have players on the front now as someone else has mentioned. And they come in the regular and gold versions. And there's an advertisement in the packs for Topps Attax.

So what are these?

2009-01-31T07:40:00.004-05:00

While I was at the card show going through cards at the table where I purchased the Gibson, Snider, Ford and Berra the guy handed us all white Upper Deck packs. He said it was just a gift for looking at his stuff. All three of us got packs, I neatly put it in my hoodie pouch and went about my business. I opened it later and I pulled 3 cards. I don't remember exactly which three but I know I pulled a Longoria and I have since combined all 3 packs of cards together.

But these are the cards that were inside:

Has anyone seen these before or know what they are? I know Upper Deck has mentioned "20 Anniversary cards" being inserted in their product this year. Anybody know if these are them?

The Evan Longoria card is numbered UDC20 UD-77 and the back of the card says Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Card and it even has the id code you enter on their website. To be honest these look more like Collector's Choice "Crash the Game" than something modern. Just thought I'd throw this out in case anyone had more info. I've seen these popping up on eBay but never heard anything about them.

Trade with Marie and John strikes again

2009-01-29T23:01:00.010-05:00

I've been trading back and forth with Marie from Cardboard Addiction. We're both collecting the YSL set so we go after each other's doubles. And she's been feeding me a steady diet of Timeline short prints. Marie is an excellent person to trade with and I highly recommend her. She definitely has her stuff more in order than I do. She sent me these beauties as well as 3 YSL cards I needed.

We are actually in negotiations for some more YSL and Timeline cards. Marie is sitting pretty at #30 on the list and I have increased my North Carolina lead to 677 cards making me #37 on the list.

And Mr. John from OldSchoolBreaks strikes again. He bought a Timeline and Stadium club blaster and posted what he got. I left a post asking him to post the Timeline card numbers because I was interested in seeing if he got ones I needed. He sends me a comment saying:

Take these cards off your Timeline wantlist:
139, 148, 157, 166, 180, 287, 347
They're headed your way.

Sure enough...

These cards are tucked away nicely in my binder. And I have the utmost respect for John. He's sent me so many packages now and I have no idea what I could possibly send him back. And he's having a group box break that I'm included in. This guy, lemme tell you, this guy, he's somethin'. I'll have to figure out a way to hook him up this year.

So John, if you're watching, please give me an idea of what I can possibly send you. Anything you're interested in. Maybe what you plan on collecting this year so I can possibly hook you up with something.

Something I've wanted to ask people is how some of you organize your trades? Do you have a certain routine you go through when you begin the trade dance? Any tips you can give me? I'm open to hearing any stories of "how I organize my trades." Comment or maybe post a blog about what you do and send me a link, I'll be sure to post it here.

And now, my feelings on the word "MOJO" Reader Discression is Advised

2009-01-28T19:18:00.007-05:00

This is in response to Dave's post on Joe Collector. I completely agree with his description of "Joe Collector." I posted a comment on what I think young Joe Collector might say on a message board. But I want to talk to you about a dirty little word. A word that, in my opinion, has no place in this hobby. That word is M...Mo. Ugh, I can barely say it straight faced.

It's MOJO okay! *shakes head*

Before I brought myself back into the hobby and blogging community that went with it, I felt it necessary to learn about the new culture that is blogging and collecting. So, I found Gellman's blog and read his section dedicated to stupid things people in the hobby do. Pretty much the "don't act like this" encyclopedia to communicating about your collection on the Internet. The links escape me and I know there were quite a few so if anyone can help me find them I'd be more than proud to link them.

Reading those made me aware of the phrase "mojo." Mojo can be affixed to whatever you're doing or collecting. Derek Jeter Mojo means you just pulled a Derek Jeter card or wish to pull one from a pack or box break. Box breaking mojo, Yankee Mojo, autograph mojo, kitchen sink mojo, I live with my parents mojo, etc. You get the idea.

After reading a blog of Gellman's which pretty much piledrives the phrase into a table, I knew not to utter that phrase. But to be honest, I don't think I could ever bring myself to say such a juvenile sounding phrase. I was a kid collecting cards and unless I'm mistaken I don't recall any phrases like that. I'd rather say something like "I hope I'm lucky enough to pull that Jeter Auto" or something similar. Long wind? Sure, but it shows some measure of thought. Jeter Auto Mojo just sounds...well stupid as hell. Ya know, if you pull something awesome just say "Awesome Jeter Card", "Sweet Card", "that card is frickin' sweet."

Why Mojo? Who the hell came up with taking the word "mojo" and injecting it into the hobby like it somehow belonged. Mojo, to me, has always meant some sort of voodoo force or the libido of Austin Powers. I really can't figure it out and I avoid saying that word at all costs. And I know some people say it but I treat it like those who say certain offensive words that I choose not to say. That's fine if that's acceptable in your world, but I think I'll just restrain myself from saying it.

But hearing someone utter it is like hearing "that" word. You know the word I'm talking about. The word that may have a clean meaning but somehow it's like nails on a chalkboard to you. I have a friend who completely freaked out when I said the word "moist." Now for some of us, moist accompanied by delicious means Duncan Hines chocolate cake. Period. But to her, it made her think of something dirty. Certain slang words for female genitalia may invoke the same feeling. My sister, for example, does not like the "T" word for female genitalia and my friend's wife does not like the "C" word. These are perfectly valid reactions to those words. They're slang words that are demeaning or degrading toward women and can sound outright offensive.

Now think of the word MOJO. *shudder* That feeling you may have just got? That's called "douche chills." Yes, that feeling has a name. My friend brought that to my attention in a blog post. If you go to that page, do a Ctrl + F and find "douche chills", when you see Rapping Granny you've found the post. Read it, I'll wait.

Done? For those of you who skipped the post I'll provide his formula:
Make this stop + Euch + I'm embarrassed for everyone involved = Douche chills

Think of old white people using "Bling" in everyday use, how about corporate emails describing "leet speak" when providing information about changing your password (I have it and oh I would LOVE to post that email here!), and how about Nancy Perlosi "Rick Rolling" everyone. Yeah, that's how I feel about the word "mojo." It's a dirty habit that I hope eventually goes away. But I think Joe Collector out there will never let it die.

So if you ever catch me saying Mojo, you can put those "sarcasm html brackets" around them because I don't mean it. In fact, I'm making fun of none other than Joe Collector.

MAILDAY MOJO WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;)

Card Show in Raleigh, NC

2009-01-27T22:39:00.008-05:00

I made the hour and fifteen minute trek to Raleigh to a card and memorabilia show. I went to a show in Charlotte in December and the trip took about the same time. Do they ever do card shows here in Greensboro or Winston-Salem? Seriously.

Anyway, it was myself, Kim, and her brother were at the Fair Grounds in Raleigh very close to the coliseum where the Carolina Hurricanes play hockey. We walked around the fairgrounds because we went right past the building the card show was in. I don't know how the heck it was colder in Raleigh than in Greensboro but the two native North Carolinians with me had a hard time handling the cold while walking outside.

We finally made our way inside and it was a decent size show. Kim and I were looking to complete some of our sets and it wasn't long before we found a guy with commons. I was able to get card #50 Matt Garza to complete my Topps Update & Highlights, some 2008 Masterpieces cards, and the two common Goudey cards I needed to complete the base (non-short print) set. Kim was finally able to find the last cards to complete her 2008 Allen & Ginter set which is her first official complete set of baseball cards.

As we walked around I was pretty amazed at all the cards from the 50's and 60's. Especially the ones with 5000 count boxes of commons for each of those sets. Plenty of people had Mantles at high prices. I saw a Roger Maris rookie that intrigued me as well as other cards from yesteryear.

Early in the show I saw an awesome card that I really wanted. I walked all around the show thinking about that card and contemplated buying it. While I pondered the purchase of such a poignant card, I found a dealer who had some old cards for decent prices. I picked out a few cards I was interested in and this is what I ended up with:

I love the 1960's Topps set. I almost bought more but I didn't want to go overboard. I don't have any Bob Gibson cards so I got him, I always loved Duke Snider so I got his card as well. I almost picked up a Drysdale and Brooks Robison 1960 card but I didn't want to go overboard. I really like the 1960 set and I thought to myself, "ya know, that's an old set I should try to complete." I already have the Roger Maris, Harmon Killebrew and Roberto Clemente for 1960. As for the 1966 Whitey, I've seen that card all over the place and I didn't own any Whitey cards so I picked that one up as well. And finally, the 1959 Yogi Berra card. I didn't have any Yogi cards and after much consideration I decided to go ahead and get the card.

After visiting that table, I turned around and went back to the first table I saw "the card" at. I began to look around and noticed a Don Mattingly patch card as well as a Don Larsen and Johnny Mize.

I went through his stack of rookies and pulled some Phil Hughes cards and Kim picked up a few A-Rod cards (rolls eyes). And I found another Mattingly I didn't have.

A-Rod cards not pictured for obvious reason

Then I told the guy, give me..."the card"

It cost me a bit of money but I really wanted to get it because Lincecum cards have hit the roof since his Cy Young win. I think it's an awesome card. Kim, her brother and I had conversed with the guy about Jake Delhome's failure as a quarterback. Kim's brother, who I never considered a big sports fan, was quite adamant about his hatred for Delhome and went as far as to say "my team has no quarterback, he's dead to me." The dealer was pretty cool and told us a story about him going to Yankee Stadium to see that Epic Fail 22 - 0 Indians win (he was a Cleveland fan) over the Yankees. And I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about without even having to look it up. After chit-chatting, I handed him my stack of cards and he analyzed the prices and did some math. In the end, I made out pretty damn good. After that, I turned to Kim and said "Let's go before I spend more money."

I had a great time and picked up some cool cards. The only things that I was disappointed was with my not picking up any toploaders (wtf was I thinking) and the fact that there was not one dealer with Yankee Stadium Legacy cards (to my knowledge). I wasted boatloads of time printing out my list just so I could go dig for some and not one person had them. I thought that was strange but I am in North Carolina so that may be it.

I look forward to going back to Raleigh the next time they have a show. I thought it was just the right size. When I was a kid I went to card shows in my local area and they were really small. VFW's and such. This was big enough to have competition and a bit of variety but small enough to where you weren't completely overwhelmed. I look forward to the next one which will probably be an hour and a half away. Who knows, maybe I'll cross paths with the famous Dave next time :)

#1 in North Carolina: a YSL story part 1 the epic begins from the start...at the beginning

2009-01-22T22:08:00.018-05:00

I am number 1 in North Carolina (as of 11:30PM on 01/22/2009). If you go to OwnTheLegacy.com and look at the Top Collectors, I am sitting at #50 with 538 cards. Today I entered in 50 YSL cards and surpassed nc-atcollectible who was the last user from North Carolina.

But I think the lack of new product has really gotten to me this month. I've been buying several lots of Yankee Stadium Legacy cards off eBay. Just today I paid for 24 more cards on eBay and I have at least 60 more cards in transit. A 6500+ card set is a formidable opponent but I'm really determined to complete it...someday. My main goal is to collect all the Mattingly cards. So far I have 39 Mattingly cards. But it's hard to get all the Mattingly cards without buying whole lots which led me to start collecting the whole set.

I know I never went into this but the Yankee Stadium Legacy set is what got me back into collecting. I forgot about baseball cards completely. Then one day while in target with Kim, I walked over to the card section and started looking at the product that was available. After picking up a blaster of Upper Deck Series One or First Edition I saw the Yankee Stadium Legacy information. I did some research about it online. I learned of the chance to win free tickets to the All-Star game, the last game at the Stadium and the first game at the new Stadium and I wanted in on this sweepstakes. I started buying packs and blasters of Upper Deck product, anything that would help me pull those little blue and gold lottery tickets.

But I'd like to thank a couple of people who have given me a whole lot of YSL cards. William and PA, who I see regularly at a local hobby shop, have provided me with about 30 to 40 cards. I'm extremely appreciative of the cards. I know they could've turned around and tried to sell them on eBay but they decided to help me with my collection. Thank you thank you thank you!!!! That's one of the coolest things when other collectors help you out with your own collections. It's funny when I pull any Josh Hamilton cards I think of PA, Orioles I think of William, Rays of course Dave, Indians I think of Saints of the Cheap Seats, and Reds I think of Nachos Grande. It's good when you pull something for your own collection, but every so often you pull something and go "Ya know, so-and-so would really appreciate this card". It's amazing how other people's collections become your own by proxy.

Anyway, I've wandered again. But yeah, I just wanted to announce my latest addiction and thank everyone who has contributed to that addiction. I appreciate it immensely and I hope to return the generosity.

Blog Bat Around #3

2009-01-21T00:01:00.004-05:00

This will be the first blog bat-around I'm writing about. 2009 will be the first year since 1995 when I was collecting cards at the beginning of the year. I got back into collecting sometime in July last year so a lot of the base sets were already out and I wasn't (and still am not) aware of the history of certain sets.

What type of sets would you like to see produced in 2009 and beyond? What sets from 2008 and past years do you want to see return?

I would've liked to have Masterpieces return in 2009. I do have to say that discovering that set after I returned to collecting was a breath of fresh air. I hope Upper Deck can figure out a way to get these cards out to people. Even if it's a subset of another set then so be it. Masterpieces has a very "collectible" feel to it and that is exactly what you want to put in collectors hands. Topps Allen & Ginter has the same "collectible" feel. That set has a unique design, contains a variety of images (players and non-players alike), and most of all is aesthetically pleasing.

Unfortunately, the sets I would like to see return are sets from dead or non-licensed companies. Donruss's base offerings in 1994 and 1995 are probably my favorite sets. They have a good design and their inserts and parallels range from easy to find to limited in number and harder to find. Leaf and Leaf Limited were also sets I enjoyed collecting. I'm saddened by the fact that the Pinnacle brand is no longer around. Their mid-tier products were very nice and I always enjoyed collecting them. Fleer Ultra is another set I collected religiously when I was young. Sure their "insert in every pack" was blatant overkill but the product always seemed fresh to me (I'm still talking 90's).

Which brands would you like to see killed off? How could existing brands be improved and what new types of card sets would you like to see created?

I think these ideas go hand in hand. You need to destroy some product lines that aren't or repackage them to make them more fresh or modern.

It wouldn't break my heart to see Upper Deck X die. That is definitely a set that should have never of seen the light of day. I'm not even sure what they were thinking when they created that set. The only aspect of this set I would keep is the Exponent insert design. Maybe not the tier level aspect, but certainly the card design.

I think Goudey should be laid to rest. It doesn't really connect back to Upper Deck very well. They would probably be better off taking their O-Pee-Chee design they insert in their base set and made a set of those. I know Goudey is Upper Deck's answer to Heritage but Topps just has them beat with the amount of sets it produced so it can reach back and create retro sets with ease. Goudey seems like a stretch to me. Although I really liked Dave's idea of rehashing Fleer designs.

Ultimately, Upper Deck needs to reconnect with its own heritage and re-release some of its designs that were popular in the past. Timeline was trying to do this but it was poorly executed. They jammed about 6 different designs into one set. And to make matters worse, they just kept using the same players over and over in the set. What a set of wasted potential Timelines turned out to be. That 1993 SP design itself could've been made into a Heritage set all by itself. Maybe they could've rehashed the 1993 base card design and then used the 1993 SP design as the inserts or short print rookies. Something along those lines.

Upper Deck's claim to fame in the 90's was their holograms and foil technology even before Topps debuted their chrome technology. I don't know why they don't try to leverage that as their "signature." To me, Topps as a company has major impact points. They include some aspect of Chrome in almost all their sets which is their staple. Their Heritage set has major notoriety because of its nostalgic and universally recognized designs. Allen & Ginter has become a major flagship for Topps and it seems to draw in collectors of all types of cards. I can say that I'm probably one of the only people that has not collected that set (that's mostly because Kim is collecting it). But I've seen everyone else have Topps A&G on their wantlist which tells me that this brand is universal for collectors. They got it right with that set and I hope they don't screw it up in 2009 (assuming it's released).

Should new sets be geared more toward set collectors, or should the number of hits (autographs and game-used relics) be increased? What about short prints? Parallels? Inserts? Gimmicks?

I don't think all sets should be geared for set collectors but I do think that that aspect should be available. Think SP Authentic, does the base really matter? Honestly? No, people are going after those By the Letter autograph patches. But what about combining a set that's collectible with a powerful insert concept. What if you put letterman auto patches in base Upper Deck on a very limited print run? Sure you won't get 3 in a box, to be honest you may not even get one in a box. But maybe 1 in every other box? Does it make sense to produce a base set around an insert set? Look at Ballpark. What purpose does its base cards serve? It's a product that's entirely hits, base cards are completely out of place there.

Card companies seem to be producing sets geared toward different people. Relic collectors (Ballpark), Auto collectors (Co-Signers...stop laughing, Stadium Club Hobby), insert collectors (...drawing a blank), player collectors (Heroes) all have some product geared toward them. Oh yeah, and base cards and parallels for set collectors (lots).

Should it be like this? I don't know. A product like Sweet Spot certainly has a large following and high end products like Sterling and Prime Cuts seem to have a large following. So that model must be working for somebody.

I'm going to abstain from going too deep into Short Prints, Parallels, etc just because I think that's a very large topic that would take up more than just this one blog. I started to write about Short Prints and realized it would be bigger than what I've already written. So I will tackle those at another time.

What do you love about current cards, what do you hate, and where should the card companies go from here?

What I love about the current cards is the photography and player selection. If a player played in the majors during the year, odds are there's at the very least one card of him (and that card will have parallels). There are rookies and up-and-comers who are knocking on the doors of the majors that have cards. Those guys may be the breakout star of the year next year. You may be holding their rookie autograph card a full year before they hit it big and what a surprise it'll be when they do. You may have felt like an idiot when you pulled it but you'll look like a genius when he makes it big and you still have the card.

The photography is sensational. I think Upper Deck base has some of the best photography I've seen on a card. Stadium Club also has some stunning shots. But I think Upper Deck really should be commended on their photography for their 2008 set. That was one of the first things I noticed when I started collecting the '08 base. The photos are crisp and clear.

I hate the having a parallel or autograph insert in a set just for the hell of it. Seriously, you don't need to put a bloody parallel in every single set you make. It's okay to skip out on it if it doesn't fit with the rest of the set (read: Timeline). I don't like the overload of relics. You can make them harder to find, it's okay. This isn't the "no child left behind" where every person HAS to have a relic when they buy every product. We can make it without them in certain sets, I promise. Crappy autos are another one. What happened to exclusive autos of Derek Jeter or Ken Griffey Jr limited to 5000 produced randomly inserted in packs? Shiny cool technology inserts that can be cheaply made can replace the glut of "this guy isn't even good" autos. While I think it's cool to pull an auto, telling me there's an auto in a box doesn't get me excited. I know the chance of pulling something good is slim to none.

Instead, why not make a product people are interested in, throw some pretty cool inserts that are hard enough to get that they aren't overkill, and throw a fancy patch or auto 1:N boxes. That way, you can have that excitement when you actually pull one of those because they're so limited. You don't get auto and patch burnout. It really isn't exciting when you're tossing relics to the side like a cheap overproduced insert. Limit the autos an inserts, save yourself some money and then pass the savings onto us so we can buy more packs, boxes and cases.

It's up to card companies to listen to all the different types of collectors and gauge what people are asking for. If Topps can get it right with Allen & Ginter then I know there's hope. Now, it's also the card company's responsibility to be looking to the future. I'm sure Upper Deck didn't think about creating a product like Ballpark when they put the first Game Used Patches in their product over a decade ago. Much like any other entertainment driven product (like videogames), it's very hard to get the formula right. Sometimes you stumble across it and other times you anticipate and deliver ahead of time. But there's such thing as product burnout and people can easily turn on a very successful or beloved product if you tinker with it too much.

Second place ain't that bad

2009-01-18T03:07:00.005-05:00

I have to give major props to John from Old School Breaks. He had a quick "What's wrong with this card" trivia question on his page and I answered 4 minutes too late to Night Owl. I was kinda screwing around with my answer to make it a bit more interesting which in turn cost me first place. Even those I answered too late John decided to give me a runner-up prize due to style points. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when this baby showed up:

Ladies and Gentlemen, say hello to the first Devils Autograph card I have ever owned. I'm not a hockey card collector but I would never refuse a Devils card. Kim pulled a Marty game used swatch from a pack of Artifacts from Target and I begged her for it. After a few minutes of sweet talk and the promise of many A-Rod cards, the card was mine.

But this is one of the coolest cards I've ever owned. An on-card auto of Scott Nedermayer! Nedermayer was one of my favorite Devils from the Cup years. I was really sad to learn that he went to play for the Ducks. But I always liked him and I was happy when he was able to win the Stanley Cup again with the Ducks. He helped NJ to three Stanley Cups so I was glad he was able to find success with another team. Saddened by it, but glad for him.

I also received a 1995 Don Mattingly Donruss Studio Gold Card and a 2001 Donruss Classics Phil Rizzuto card numbered 1342/1755. I love getting cards like the Phil Rizzuto one because I missed out on a lot of these old sets. It's nice to see the card designs and what I could've expected to pull if I had been collecting back then.

But that Nedermayer card is by far one of the coolest cards I've ever received via trade or winnings. I thank him from the bottom of my NJ Devil loving heart and I hope to someday find something to send him to show my appreciation for his generosity. Thank you again John, I really love the card.

Trade Props 2

2009-01-18T02:24:00.006-05:00

On top of the massive eBay purchases I've made this month, I've made a few trades. I sent a package to Marie from Cardboard Problem, I just sent out one to Daniel of Saints of the Cheap Seats and I've yet to send out my package to Chris from Nachos Grande (but that will probably work in his favor when I pull more cards for him).

Marie sent me some Goudey short print cards to help chip away some of that. That set has proven to be a very tough one to complete. She also sent me some 2008 Masterpieces cards to help out with that one. And a few Updates and Highlights. I'm pretty close with Masterpieces and I will savor in completing that set. I really like the 2007 and 2008 Masterpieces cards and vowed to complete both sets. It's a shame they will not be bringing that set back in 2009. I think that's one of the most anticipated sets each year.

Daniel from Cheap Seats sent me an Allen and Ginter card that Kimaloo needs for her set, a few Updates and Highlights cards, and some Phil Hughes cards. His package went out Saturday afternoon and I hope he enjoys the cards I sent.

Chris from Nachos Grande sent me some much needed Timelines cards. Most of them were the very shiny 1993 SP design that I love so much. I haven't sent his package out yet but I think I have some things he'll be interested in. Hopefully I can finish packing his cards together and ship them out so they'll get there by midweek.

I trade often with Daniel and Chris. So often that I get the two of them confused when trying to remember what I'm trading to them. Seems like I'm always trading with both of them at the same time. We're all set builders so I think we naturally help each other out. It's tough being a set builder sometimes. I mean, it's hard enough with all the damn short prints these companies shove down our throats but if you're collecting a set that no one else is collecting it's hard to put a set together. Now if you have someone else buying the same boxes you're buying, then you can trade cards back and forth and help each other out.

New Year same old me the eBay trance continues (ode to ebay?)

2009-01-13T23:31:00.004-05:00

Looks like I'm not off to a great start. I promised myself I would blog more but I'm having trouble keeping up with that. I promised myself I'd work on organizing my collection *looks at the desk to my right that's loaded with stacks of cards* that ain't happening.

The only thing I have been doing is hunting eBay for Yankee Stadium Legacy cards and Don Mattingly cards (of course). I had plans of buying more 2008 Timeline boxes to help complete my set. Instead of buying about 2 boxes of those, I went in the opposite direction and bought tons of YSL cards and very expensive (but hard to find) Mattingly cards. It seems like even though there's no new product out there I appear to be spending way more money.

eBay has been my drug and I've been taking steady doses of it this new year. There's something about hunting down those hard to find cards and winning them. Or snatching YSL lots from others at the last minute, claiming them as your own *picture viking standing on defeated foe*

I can honestly say that I could not return to collecting without eBay. I doubt the local shops here in North Carolina will carry the Mattingly cards I would be interested in collecting. So my alternative is to find those out in the world who are willing to part with their Mattingly cards. And eBay is my main supplier of those. I'd like to thank Al Gore, the Interwebs, Bill Gates, the people who made eBay, PayPal *grumbles inaudibly*, and the little mice that power my computer.

I hope to one day, step away from eBay long enough to actually write a meaningful blog. Judging by all the money I spent in a matter of 3 days, I think that time is coming much sooner than later.

To Be Continued...

Sometimes parallels just get in the way

2009-01-10T10:42:00.002-05:00

You ever get a parallel and scream NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I was organizing my 2008 Timeline base set and then I ran across this Randy Johnson card.

I apparently had no idea this was a parallel and put it with the rest of the base cards. I completely missed the gold numbers stamped neatly across the Big Unit's....well, you know. And obviously because it's a short print I don't have a double to replace it.

Phrases like, "Aww man!" "COME ON!" "Son of a...." are uttered.

But is that the proper response for a getting a parallel? Shouldn't it be "ooohh, an 83 of 100, yay!" But not when you're trying to build a freakin' set! I had this very same problem with 2008 Heroes. It seemed like I was getting parallel cards for all of the cards I needed for the base set. And I got them frequently. If it wasn't for me buying the rest of the cards I needed from Sportlots, I'd still be looking for Troy Glaus who I had 2 black parallels and one red.

Let's face it. Parallels sometimes just get in the way and have no business in a set. It's cute but to be perfectly honest, the parallels in Timeline are utterly unnecessary. I can understand the gold parallel for the non-short print base cards. But parallel numbering for cards that are already short printed? STUPID STUPID STUPID!

This is yet another way Upper Deck screwed up a set which could've had potential if it was configured properly.

NEW RULE FOR THE HOBBY: If you put a parallel of a card in a box, put at least one base version of the paralleled version. Hell, to make things simple, just put them in the same pack back to back. That way you can ensure the collector has both versions so they can feel special about it. "I'm a big boy, I got both the parallel and the base card!"

frickin' ridiculous

Here's my own cartoon in the style of Cardboard Junkie.

2008 Timeline Box Break #2

2009-01-06T23:10:00.007-05:00

I've come to really like the Timeline set. Although the short prints are a little over the top, the product is relatively inexpensive and features some nice designs. I was pleased with the hobby box I busted. I saw a lot of new faces that I hadn't seen before so that helps me get closer to completing the set.

Here we go...

A very determined Phil Hughes.

My favorite card of this set:

It reminds me of the elusive 1993 Derek Jeter SP rookie card. I wish they would resurrect this as a complete set in 2009 as a type of "Heritage" edition. The foiling technology today is far superior to that of 1993 and I think a full set of these would come out extremely sharp.

Gold Parallel cards - 5
20th Anniversary stamped cards - 2

4 Yankee Stadium Legacy cards

I've never pulled a numbered parallel from any packs or the previous box. But I did this time. It's a Daric Barton numbered 25/25. You can barely see the number on his thigh and if you notice the A's logo is kind of hologrammed.

2 autos: Brian Bocock and Clay Timpner

His autograph looks like "BBQ"

I'm fairly familiar with Bocock's cards, but I've never heard of Timpner.

There was this one pack that was in my box and it's nothing I've ever seen before. It looks like when register tape is almost finished. They have that strip of color to let you know you're about to run out.

So I decided to open this pack last and these are the highlights of that pack:

A towering Travis Hafner...

A-Rod...

Joey Votto prepared to do battle...

And yet another awesome looking Longoria card:

I posted my doubles and I'll soon post my wantlist. I know the short prints are a turnoff but Hobby boxes are really chock full of them and the product is cheap.

If Upper Deck had put in new players in the short print section and put the more common players in the base set I think it would've made this a better set. It's really stupid to have Jeter and A-Rod in this set 3 times each. I really would've liked to be in the meeting when they designed this set.

I get so frustrated when I look at this set and then the rest of the Upper Deck products. Topps uses chrome technology and from what I can tell the majority of people like it. Couldn't Upper Deck do something like that? I mean the hologram on the back is cute and all but when you think of Upper Deck is there a specific technology that comes to mind? Holograms and Foiling, perhaps? They just never really took technology like that and made it a staple. You don't have to put it in ALL of your sets but instead of stupid gold foil stamping on just the name, make the entire card foil similar to what's on the 1993 set. And maybe make one set foil and give it a higher price than base but don't make it unaffordable. Like I mentioned before, take a look at Topp's chroming technology and how they use it and apply the same principal.

I think Upper Deck is going to have a horrible 2009 year, especially with Masterpieces and Sweet Spot gone. If they release Goudey and it has the same short print design as 2008, I'm not touching it. Everyone harps on Timelines for having so many short prints but at least you can buy a box for $30 and get only 2 base cards and the majority of the cards in the packs are the short prints. Goudey is still $70 a box and trying to put together a set of short prints is like finding a needle in a haystack. You're not guaranteed a short print in every pack. I don't believe I'll ever put that set together because of the scarcity of the short prints. And it doesn't encourage me to buy more boxes like they think it would. Now, if I buy a pack it's because there's really nothing else to collect until the '09 stuff comes out. When that happens I'm sure Goudey 2008 will be on the backburner.

Anyway, that's my box break complete with mini-rant. Wantlist will go up soon and doubles are already posted. Take care.

2008 Masterpieces Box Break #3

2009-01-06T22:28:00.006-05:00

Sometimes it's really hard to say "I'm content with the box I just broke." Usually box breaks go either two ways, you got one really awesome hit and the rest is kinda meh or it's just all crap and you feel like you blew your money.

I'm here to say, I'm content and very pleased with my break. I can't remember the last time I broke a box and was just happy with everything I got from the box. I think the part that helps is the fact that I only paid $39.95 for this box of 2008 Masterpieces.

I knew this would be a pretty good box when the first Yankee Stadium Legacy card I pull is non other than Don Mattingly.

Here is what I ended up with:

4 base cards I needed - Joba, Fukudome, Mauer, Tulowitzki
4 short print cards I needed - Eddie Murray, Derek Jeter, Al Kaline, Albert Pujols
2 short print doubles - Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench

4 Yankee Stadium Legacy cards (including Don Mattingly game #5171)

Captured On Canvas Relic: One of the newest Yankees...Mr. C.C. Sabathia

Stroke of Genius Auto: Joe Nathan

I think I made out the best with the border cards

Border Cards
Black: Magglio Ordonez, Freddy Sanchez, Ryne Sandberg, Tony Gwynn

Red Border: Greg Maddux

And the highlight of my box break:

Blue Border

Cal Ripken Jr numbered 30 of 125

Can't beat that for 39.95. I really enjoyed opening this box, there seemed to be something in every pack and that's always a plus. I'm down to 14 cards I need to complete the set. I doubt I'll buy another box but if I can find one for $40 (the price of 2 blasters), I'll be very tempted to get another.

On tap this week on Dropped Third Strike

2009-01-05T08:31:00.004-05:00

I'm pausing on trades based off of my wantlist until I break a couple of boxes I have coming in. According to UPS, my boxes should be arriving on Tuesday.

I got a steal of a deal on 2008 Masterpieces and 2008 Timeline from Blowoutcards. Also, I got Kim a box of 2008 A Piece of History. And she gives me the YSL Legacy cards from her packs so I plan on getting a bunch of those. I'll add any doubles to my tradelist after those boxes are broken.

I bought 3 lots of YSL cards on eBay and I'll have some doubles so keep an eye on my cards available for trade.

That's all I have so far, I've been keeping an eye on people's wantlists and seeing if I have anything they need. If you're interested in anything especially Goudey 2008 base or 2008 Topps U&H let me know. Kim has a whole bunch of A Piece of History doubles and 2008 A&G doubles so either shoot me or Kim an email of your wantlist. And it's never too late to start a 2008 Upper Deck base set, I'd be willing to send whatever you're looking for either via trade or simply for the actual cost of shipping (but Shoebox Legends has first dibs on them) .

If I get ambitious enough, I may blog about a 4 way box break of 1991 Topps we did at All About Sports this past Saturday with Kim, PA, and William.

Origins: The Flash

2009-01-03T03:45:00.005-05:00

Sometimes I feel like my card collecting lives in perpetual flashback. Looking at new designs or cards from the '98-'07 time period are alien to me sometimes. Pictures of Mid-90's Fleer Ultra or Donruss insert cards are comforting and remind me of the card shop I used to work at. That is the origin of the "Flash."

I'm sure a few of you have noticed "Flash" show up as my name when I publish comments on Blogspot blogs. That's me, Peter of Dropped Third Strike, we are one in the same. I've been wearing Flash in almost every aspect of my Internet life, it has proven to be a very useful nickname. The majority of my username handles contain Flash.

Anyhow, I began working for a local card shop "Kearny Rare Card and Coin" in Kearny, NJ during the 8th grade. I was a regular at the shop during 7th grade and one summer while at a card show I somehow convinced John, the owner of the shop, to have me work at the card shop. I don't remember if I began working there that summer or if I started when school started. But during my lunchhour I would walk about a block to Peter's Pizzeria to get a slice of pizza and then walked 3 stores over to the card shop to handle lunch duty. I barely worked 40 minutes but I helped handle the kids coming in to buy packs of cards, individual cards or pogs (that was the fad at the time). I didn't really get paid much but then again I was only 13 or 14 years old. What was I going to spend my money on, really......well, other than baseball cards.

And that brings me to one faithful night early on in my employment. See I worked at lunchtime but I also worked Friday nights and sometimes Saturdays. One Friday night, my dad came to pick me up and I was fighting that internal struggle of spending my just earned money on cards. Now, I've walked away from that shop with no pay and even out some of my own money but with a Hank Aaron or Willie Mays or a crap ton of Fleer Ultra. It was a blessing and a curse to work in that shop. After having my father wait however long it was until I made up my mind, I started moving toward him and the door. He looks at me and goes, "You all done there Flash?" With that my boss chuckled with a laugh that could only be described as Santaesce. He then says "Flash, I like that, I think I'll call you that." It just happened to be a name my dad threw out there. My dad calling me Flash was a little change in pace. He used to call me "Chief" all the time which is what we would sometimes call my grandfather (who is also named Peter and has his own nickname of "Fish.") Anywho, my father and I were departing John says, "Have a good night, Flash." And thus my card shop name of Flash was born.

While you might think it's strange to walk into a building and take on a completely different name, it's something that apparently happens routinely for me. While I worked at a Pizzeria here in North Carolina I was called "Pino" which I think is an Italian singer. And where I work now, the HR people call me Uncle Pete because I became an uncle about 4 and a half years ago.

But when I walked into that shop or anytime I was around John, I was Flash. And it felt like I had just put my shoe on the wrong foot if someone called me Peter or Pete while I was at work. All my co-workers called me Flash and none of them really knew my real name unless they asked. Conversely, outside of the card shop if anyone called me Flash it felt awkward and uncomfortable.

My Flash nickname is as much apart of my collecting baseball cards as the box of Mattingly cards I accrued while working at the shop. It doesn't bother me on the Internet because that's the place of anonymity and different personas. But in person I reserve the right to be called Flash by only two people, my father and "John from the card shop." And I had the privilege of being called Flash during my recent visit to NJ...

but that's a story for another time.

The MLB Network

2009-01-02T00:52:00.004-05:00

I'm not happy at all with Time Warner. I received the emails from MLB.TV about the new MLB Network Channel. After some searching I was able to find the channel among my HD channels. But the channel was unavailable and I would have to "order" it. If I can get ESPN and Versus with my regular package why can I not get MLB Network?

I'm a premium subscriber with MLB.TV and I would love to see what they do with their own channel. MLB 24/7? Are you kidding, I would never have to watch ESPN ever again!

Anyway, I sent an email to Time Warner. But concidering the horrific MASN incident that's been going on with them, I don't believe I'll have the MLB Network channel anytime soon. MLB.TV would blackout Orioles-Yankee games because of the region I'm in. MASN would've been the way to watch it but Time Warner refused to add MASN to the lineup.

Can someone explain to me why there's only one cable company in this region?

Anyway, any channel that can bring me non-stop baseball information is alright by me. But until Time Warner gets off their ass and actually does something, I'll be in the dark.

To Be Continued...

Cards from Boxbusters.net

2008-12-29T21:52:00.011-05:00

Ross from Boxbusters.net sent these cards as well as a few more Yankees cards.

I really love the Joba and Bernie Williams cards. And the 2008 Goudey Matsui card which I needed to help complete my set.

I'm glad Ross liked the Heroes cards as well as the extras. I have tons of Heroes cards so if anyone is interested please don't hesitate to ask.

My gmail username is pcaprara. If you see anything you need just shoot me an email or just send me a link to your wantlists and I will see what I can do.

Thanks again to Ross!

And now for something completely different

2008-12-29T18:53:00.004-05:00

And now for something completely different

New posts coming soon.

And this one too

And Rutgers beat NC State in the Papajohns.com Bowl

Merry Christmas to all

2008-12-24T12:00:00.004-05:00

At the time I'm writing this I'm in the process of packing to go to New Jersey to visit family. I'll be carting Kimaloo off to Jersey after she gets off of work.

Just wanted to wish all the bloggers a very Merry Christmas!

Hope you guys get lots of shiny refractors and 1/1's for Christmas!

He came he came, Santa came!!! (Christmas comes early)

2008-12-23T16:49:00.005-05:00

Well, I did a refresh on my blog and noticed that PA had posted a blog. So I refresh my RSS feed to see this post on Yankees.com. Then over to ESPN to check out what they're saying. (Technology rocks)

So it appears we have a new first baseman to replace that Giambi guy. I've had a love-hate relationship with Giambi. Just when you think Giambi is turning the corner he just lets you down. Don't get me wrong, he's done pretty good for himself offensively and occasionally had some good plays at 1st base.

Giambi was that huge MVP that the Yankee brass went after the 2001 World Series. George took that loss to the Diamondback really tough as did most of us. I can handle the 2004 collapse because I saw it coming. At no point in time did I see Mariano blowing the 9th in Game 7 of that World Series.

Replacing this guy would be tough. Martinez became an icon after winning 4 World Series rings and doing some incredible things during that postseason run. Giambi fell short specifically in batting average. He digressed into a power hitter-home run-rbi-strikeout guy. He pretty much became a designated hitter and all his "troubles" that he was "sorry" for didn't really help matters. I think in his final year he became that Yankee player we were all waiting for. He still wasn't the hitter we were expecting although he did surprise us a few times beating the shift by hitting to the opposite field. But it wasn't enough to warrant the Yankee brass offering him another contract.

Fast forward and the Yankees pick up Nick Swisher to be our 1st baseman/4th outfielder. We traded away Wilson Betemit who I was kinda fond of. As a utility man, Betemit did a pretty damn good job in my opinion. I think if he was able to play regularly he could be a decent consistent player.

So this man was our 1st baseman. To be honest, I didn't believe it. I really expected this idea to fail and Juan Miranda to take over first base. Then the Yanks end up signing CC and AJ Burnett. They overspent for CC, and I'm not sure if Burnett will work out. Anyway, that's a whole lot of money to throw out and I figured we were done shopping. I was hoping we'd pick up some else to cover 1st base. Also praying that Tex wouldn't go to the Red Sox. And I don't want Manny Ramirez. I'm sorry, we have enough outfields who can't play outfield well. We're overflowing with DH candidates so we don't really need another one.

Then the Yankees go ahead and give the fans an early Christmas:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!

1st base became a revolving door for us. Hell, Gary Sheffield played first base. We brought back Tino, we had Nick Johnson, Andy Phillips, Wilson Betemit, Johnny Damon played for part of a game. We had rumors of Posada going to 1st, Matsui, Damon, even Jeter.

I do feel bad for the players in the minors because we have 3rd and 1st sewed up for a long time. Juan Miranda will be relegated to a 40 man roster backup. Eric Duncan probably won't ever see action in the majors. But that may be for the best. I'm not a baseball scout and I can't tell you how well they'll do in the show. The little I saw of Miranda when he was called up and the two games at the Governor's cup were a small sample. He had promise but sometimes you just never know.

I really don't know how things work out with Tex. He seems like a player that works hard and has been consistent over the years. I hope he can continue being that same player with the Yankees. Do I think he's worth the money? Probably, he's one of the few good offensive first basemen who is a good fielder that's left. Should the Yanks have let him go to the Nationals? They could've, but then there'd be that hole at 1st base (I'm sorry I never saw Swisher as a REAL solution to first base). And we've lost lots of RBI's and Runs when we let Abreu and Giambi walk. All I know is our infield is pretty set for quite a while. Our outfield will continue to be a work in progress but I hope it's an outfield that includes Xavier Nady. I'm a big fan of his style of game and I hope the Yankees have him in their plans moving forward.

I don't know how I feel about this team. It feels different than the teams we've been fielding for the past few years. I hope it's different in the right direction. But we won't know until they take the field in 2009. I've grown accustomed to avoiding predicting or expecting the Yankees to make the playoffs due to the last 3 years or so.

But, for me, no one will ever replace this man at first base. He is and will always be the 1st basemen of my Yankee team.

2008 Timeline Hobby Box Break

2008-12-21T08:16:00.007-05:00

Here is my 2008 Timeline box break. I was in a hurry to go out Christmas shopping so you'll have to forgive me. There's also a voice cameo appearance by Kimaloo.

The hobby product is way better than the blasters. You get tons more short print cards and smaller amounts of the standard base. I have yet to pull a gold card from a blaster but I pulled quite a few in the hobby box.

I really wish Upper Deck would do a Heritage kind of thing (except with their own Upper Deck products) and use old base sets as their design. (Just for clarification in the video, when I say Upper Deck doesn't have a Heritage set I mean that Topps Heritage shows card designs from Topps sets. Whereas Goudy cards aren't part of the original Upper deck cards whose foily goodness started with the 1989 set). But stick with just one design for the whole set instead of plowing all of their different versions in one product. Granted a lot of the cards from the 90's have similar designs, that wouldn't exactly make things exciting. But the SP products were pretty good designs, at least the 93-96 ones were. I can't vouch for the others.

I know a few people don't like this set but I do. The short print situation is very unfortunate but I just can't stay away from the nostalgic design. I didn't get any "big hits" and I don't think this product is about that. I think a set like this is designed for set builders. Honestly, what single insert card from this set do you really want? I can't even think of anything important in this set. Boxes are relatively cheap, when Blowout cards has a sale going a box sells for $35 so it has a pretty good price point.

That's my take on Timeline, thanks for watching.

Packages have been sent, props to be given

2008-12-18T13:08:00.007-05:00

Packages have been sent out as of 12noon Saturday December 20th. They're going out first class so you should receive them by Christmas Eve:

Nachos Grande - sent him exactly what he asked for on my Available for Trade page

Saints of the Cheap Seats - Sent me a nice stack of 2007 and 2008 Masterpieces to help me complete my collection as well as some Phil Hughes cards I did not have. I sent him some Indians as well as

Dinged Corners - Sent her 3 A & G cards she needs to complete her set as well as some Mets. She sent a stack of Yankees cards that includes two YSL cards, a Phil Hughes I didn't have, and 34 more Yankee cards. As well as, some Jeter and A-Rods for Miss Kimmy.

The Pettitte Pursuit - Eric has been a fixture on many blogs without a blog of his own. But now he's got one and I'm very happy to link him. I sent him the Derek Jeter Heroes base card as well as a few other Yankee cards. I had sent out the same card a month earlier but apparently it got lost in the mail. Which is unfortunate because I included two Andy Pettitte cards and I'm sad he did not receive them.

Boxbusters.net - I sent a whole mess of Heroes he had on his wantlist. I had won his very first contest when I tried to guess how many hits he had on his site. Out of 4 cards, I pick the one from the 90's. But he sent me some extras in my winnings package:

So thank you to all who traded with me. I apologize for the slowness. I attribute it to my lack of organization as well as general happenings. That and I procrastinate badly. But I do deliver. I have too much of a conscience to purposefully rip someone off. I'm Italian and Catholic, guilt is something I'm all too familiar with.

I also want to give major props to William of Foul Bunt and PA of The Player to be Named Later.

They hooked me up with a whole mess of Masterpieces 2008 and 2007 and Goudey 2008. William gave me a whole bunch of Yankee Stadium Legacy cards that I did not have. I know there are a lot of people who don't collect these and just kinda put them off in the corner. I am
#126 on the collector's list with 229 cards on the OwntheLegacy web site. I hope to someday in my lifetime complete the set. At the very least, get all the Mattingly cards in the set.

I gave PA some Stadium Club cards he was looking and William got the 2008 Sweet Spot Nick Markakis patch and base card that I pulled from my Tin break.

I know I'm linking like a mofo so I should probably wrap things up. I have a Timelines box break that will post soon once I can get it uploaded (hopefully the audio and video will sync).

I'd like to say that it's an honor to trade with so many considerate people. 10 years ago I probably couldn't have fathomed such a thing. But with the advent of technology, many good hearted collectors are able reach each other and help out with their collections. And I think that's pretty frickin' sweet.

(not so) EXCLUSIVE 2008 Sweet Spot Retail break (as of 12/05/2008)

2008-12-06T22:27:00.009-05:00

I say exclusive because I haven't seen or heard of this product being released anywhere. It's still pre-sale on Blowoutcards so I'm screaming a big loud "FIRST!" I saw this at Target and jumped on it. They had two or three more tins left.

I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to pull an auto. But I think the price point vs the gamble is pretty decent. I haven't looked at the set checklist yet so I have no idea what is included in this set. I can only speculate that there's a crapload of non-star autographs and relics just so Upperdeck can say "hey, there's a game used patch or autograph in every box!"

Here are pictures of the base card and the relic card. The "baseball stitches" are embossed on the Rivera card, you can see them in the scan.

I like the really cool tin with Jeter and Ripken on it.

Trade Props

2008-12-04T19:13:00.009-05:00

I have to give props to FanOfReds from Nachos Grande and AdamE of Thoughts and Sox.

FanOfReds sent me a big batch of 2008 Goudey cards which helped me make a huge dent in my Goudey collection. I've been buying more and more Goudey so I think I'm going to push my efforts into trying to complete the set (plus its packs are chock full of YSL cards which are always a plus).

I sent FanOfReds some 2008 Spectrum and 2008 Heroes cards to help his wantlist. (I hope he got them by now, I was fairly tardy to send out my packages).

Mr AdamE sent me a very nice stack of Yankee cards capped off by these gems:

I was especially excited about the Mussina cards

And this very nice Eric Duncan card:

I was excited to see Duncan during the 2008 Governor's Cup Championship games against Durham. Eric is a New Jersey native and my uncle told me he lived in the same town as them, Basking Ridge, NJ (or it could've been Bernardsville).

Here he is manning 3rd base during the Championship in Durham.

Regardless, Adam sent me some great cards and I hope the cards I sent him back are sufficient. I'm starting a new pile of Red Sox for future trades. Apparently, all the packs and boxes think I'm a die-hard Red Sox fan and keep dumping them on me. More trade bait I guess.

But if you're interested in a trade let me know. I plan on updating a list of my available cards as well as card that I need.

Thanks again FanofReds and AdamE for the trades, I hope my tardiness didn't turn you off so we could potentially trade again.