Cards from Boxbusters.net

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

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

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)

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

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

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)

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

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.

Who says you can't get anything good in a blaster

So Kim and I went out to Walmart for some ornament hooks. We stopped by their card section, which was severely lacking, so we decided to go to Target. I looked for some Goudey blasters and picked up 3 of them. Told Kim, "Pick one." She proceeded to pick up each box one by one and hold them. She points to the first box and says, "That one." I quickly put the others back and held onto the one she anointed as we perused Target.

We get home and while she tended to the tree, I began busting my blaster. On the second pack I saw a Yankee Stadium Legacy card of George Pipgras.


I remarked to Kim how I've never gotten one of these before because I've never heard of this guy. And proceeded to the next card.

"Short print card," I say.


"And another, oh look at this." It was a Brandon Webb patch. I hand it to Kim so she could look at the patch. She promptly replies "See, you should've videoed this." Oh how right she was.



The talley is 1 YSL, 2 SPs and a relic card.

I caught a glimps at the bottom of the next card and saw "Graphs." I knew what that meant, a Goudey autograph card.


The rest of the pack went as follows:

Hit Parade

Mini Base

One of the reasons I picked the Goudey Blaster is because of how well Newspaperman did in his blaster break on Cardboard Icons.

Needless to say the rest of the box was a mild disappointment.

I pulled 3 more short print cards (two of which I needed), another YSL card of Urban Shocker (I was shocked by his name), and 4 cards I needed to help complete my set.

While Glen Perkins and Brandon Webb aren't my idea of a great pull, the idea of pulling a YSL card, a relic, an auto, 2 short prints, a parade of champions and a mini-card all in one pack is unfathomable to me.

Kim is picking all my packs and blasters from now on. If I order a box from the Internet, she's clicking the submit button for me.