YSL two down, two to go...

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)

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....

...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

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!)

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)

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)

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)

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

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.