Dime Box doozies

Goose looks like he should be a real life Texas Ranger with that cold stare and rockin 'stache.

"Charity" break?

So last night I posted again about wanting to do a "charity" group case break. View From the Skybox suggested that I drop a couple boxes from the break and thus drop the slot price since with Christmas approaching some collectors may not be able to find the money to take part. This hadn't occurred to me but it makes sense. So I dropped two boxes from my shopping cart on Dave and Adam's. A third is now out of stock so I added a new box to the mix. Here is what I am looking at now.

1999 Topps Gold Label
2004 Upper Deck SP Prospects
2006 Upper Deck SP Authentic
2008 Topps Finest
2011 Topps Lineage
2012 Upper Deck SP Signature Edition
2012 Panini Prizm
2013 Bowman Platinum

Slots are now priced at $40 for the first and $35 for each slot after that. What do you guys think?

You can read about why I want to do this break here: http://needmorecardboard.blogspot.com/2013/10/would-you-take-part-charity-break-of.html

"Charity" break?

Recently I posted about possibly doing a break to help raise funds to go towards my summer missions internship in Ukraine. I didn't receive any responses before so I'm going to try again. You can read about it here:

http://needmorecardboard.blogspot.com/2013/10/would-you-take-part-charity-break-of.html

Contest winnings

So a couple weeks ago Play at the Plate ran a contest to guess how much he spent on cards from a former LCS owner. I won the contest and he sent me a nice stack of great cards of some of my favorite Braves players from sets I had never collected. Here's what he sent.

2002 Donruss Originals

1999 Topps Gold Label

I really like the look of these cards. They have a nice refractor sheen that didn't show up in the scan. I may need to hunt down a box of this to break.

1999 Fleer Brilliants

1998 Flair Showcase

1998 UD SPx 0635/4500

1998 UD SPx 4216/4500

1998 UD SPx 4499/4500

1998 UD SPx 3050/5000

1998 UD SPx 1681/7000

1997 UD3

When I first looked at this card it was sitting flat on the table and I thought the right side was just a mirror of sorts. Then I picked it up and realized that it was translucent and had another picture of Dye. It didn't show up well when scanned as you can see, but it looks pretty cool in person.

1997 UD3

So, a great set of Braves cards from Play at the Plate! Thanks!!!

Allen & Ginter box break Pt. 3

And it's time to wrap things up!

Pack 15

195 Derek Norris

82 Roberto Clemente

287 Bill Mazeroski

99 Barry Zito

AGA-SD Scott Diamond Autograph

290 Eddie Murray mini

ATY-JC Across the Years Johnny Cueto

And there is our second hit of the box and a nice looking sig at that. 

Pack 16

91 Carlos Ruiz

48 Starling Marte

282 Tim Lincecum

87 Ken Griffey Jr.

235 Carlos Beltran

281 Cliff Lee

82 Roberto Clemente mini A&G back

ATY-DP Across the Years Dustin Pedroia

The kid just looks better in Mariners garb. One of my all time favorite players. I'm glad Topps is still including him in sets.

Pack 17

59 Joey Votto

251 Frank Thomas

286 Alfonso Soriano

25 Ernie Banks

89 Michael Brantley

271 Prince Fielder

318 Eric Hosmer mini SP

ATY-DJ Across the Years Derek Jeter

Pack 18

20 John Smoltz

277 Paul Goldschmidt

5 Albert Pujols

42 Jackie Robinson

197 Dexter Fowler

OLC-CM One Little Corner Comet

115 Stan Musial mini A&G back

320 Shaun Marcum SP

Pack 19

193 Josh Hamilton

73 Tim Hudson

166 Jim Johnson

40 Will Middlebrooks

233 Starlin Castro

MM-ZU Martial Mastery Zulu

232 Andre Dawson mini black border

317 George Brett SP

When I look at this card all I can think of is "What year is it?"

Pack 20

160 Brian McCann

182 Cody Ross

84 Jason Vargas

293 Jim Palmer

AGR-HI Hisashi Iwakuma mini relic

230 Derek Holland mini A&G back

ATY-WS Across the Years Willie Stargell

And there is our final hit of the box. With four packs left I was hoping I would get lucky and get more than the promised three. But really...its Topps. They don't provide nice little surprises for collectors in that way like our friends at Panini do ala my box break of USA Champions last month.

Pack 21

274 Raul Ibanez

248 Mariano Rivera

163 Don Mattingly

8 Gary Carter

292 Yovani Gallardo

88 Clayton Kershaw

233 Starlin Castro mini
ATY-RHO Across the Years Ryan Howard

I despise the Suckees. LOATHE THEM. But I have nothing but respect for Mo. What a great career. And much like Jeter I have tons of respect for a guy that stays with one team his entire career. It would be nice to see him coaching pitchers somewhere in a few years when his bust has been added in Cooperstown.

Pack 22

250 John Calipari

278 Mike McCarthy

187 Scott Hamilton

139 Red Schoendienst

227 Fernando Rodney

OLC-CT One Little Corner Centaur

211 Jacoby Ellsbury mini black border

322 Robin Yount SP

This might be the first "baseball" card I have of a guy I've actually met unlike Crackin Wax who has had the fortune to meet a lot of players and coaches because of his job. 

Story time: My Uncle taught high school math in Pennsylvania for thirty-some years and coached the basketball and tennis teams. When he first started coaching basketball, Coach Cal was his ball boy. Fast forward to the late 90's when Coach Cal was hired by the New Jersey Nets. During the summer my family was up in PA visiting and one evening we were at my Uncle's house and who should stop by to say hello? Coach Cal! When he first introduced himself my sister thought he said he coached the New York Knicks and she got all excited cause she'd actually heard of that team. But when he corrected her and said it was the Nets she immediately lost interest. A funny memory now. I need to ask her if she remembers that. I haven't had the fortune to run into him since then but he and my Uncle still keep in touch. 

And now we return you to your regularly scheduled box breaking...

Pack 23

61 Alex Gordon

242 Robinson Cano

146 Vida Blue

14 Ben Revere

199 AJ Burnett

MM-SP Martial Mastery Spartans

122 Jay Bruce mini

314 Avisail Garcia SP

Pack 24

240 Mike Leake

207 Troy Tulowitzki

144 Torii Hunter

181 Wade Boggs

54 BJ Upton

CAP-IN Civilizations of Ages Past Inca

HHH-SLM Heavy Hangs the Head Solomon

328 Alex Fraudriguez SP

Well that wasn't a bad box. Not a spectacular one either. No glossy lid card. Trust me, I checked, rechecked, and checked again. No luck. But this was the first year that I've done an A&G box and I definitely will again next year.

If there is anything you see here that you are interested in feel free to shoot me an email!

Finis

Allen & Ginter box break Pt. 2

Here is some more A&G goodness!

Pack 7

300 Bud Selig

185 Guillaume Robert-Demolaize, Ryan McCabe, Frank Lattuca

152 Anthony Rendon RC

234 Death Valley

AGFR-TH Todd Helton Full size relic (road pinstripe gray)

94 Billy Butler mini

ATY-AR Across the Years Anthony Rizzo

My first hit of the box. It was nice to pull this card just a few days after Helton announced his retirement.

Pack 8

279 Gio Gonzalez

24 Anthony Gose

190 David Murphy

115 Stan Musial

189 David Freese

PS-NC Palaces & Strongholds Neuschwanstein Castle

127 Doug Fister mini

350 Bill Walton SP

Why does Bill Walton have a regular base card and a short print? They both look exactly the same and have the same info on the back. I don't get it.

Pack 9

296 Ekolu Kalama

15 Julia Mancuso

231 Artie Lange

180 Nik Wallenda

116 Lindsay Vonn RAWR!!

17 Roy Jones Jr.

HHH-CON Heavy Hangs the Head Constantine

ATY-JP Across the Years Jurickson Profar

Hmm, another pack without any baseball player base cards.

Packs 10

256 Rickie Weeks

170 Hanley Ramirez

221 Salvador Perez

159 Jose Altuve

150 Reggie Jackson

OLC-JPT One Little Corner Jupiter

HHH-CTG Heavy Hangs the Head Cyrus the Great

311 Bob Lemon SP

Pack 11

33 Nana Meriwether

27 Shelby Miller RC

298 Evan Longoria

156 Jurickson Profar RC

191 Bryce Harper

MM-RM Martial Mastery Romans

PM-DL Peacemakers Dalai Lama

331 Tommy Milone SP

Pack 12

65 Jose Reyes

93 AJ Pierzynski

74 Yu Darvish

39 Desmond Jennings

172 Jon Jay

224 Brett Lawrie

40 Will Middlebrooks mini

ATY-RC Across the Years Robinson Cano

Pack 13

264 Adam Dunn

218 Zack Cozart

109 Asdrubal Cabrera

32 Aaron Hill

203 Adam Eaton

PS-HP Palaces & Strongholds Hohenschwangau Castle

22 Bob Feller mini

306 Carlton Fisk SP

Pack 14

258 Billy Williams

294 Johnny Cueto

107 Trevor Bauer

183 Ryan Ludwick

76 Jim Abbott

69 Jake Peavy

317 George Brett mini SP

ATY-TB Across the Years Trevor Bauer

As a side note, I have noticed that on the short printed base cards the blue frame thing is darker than on the non-SP base cards. 

More to come later...

Allen & Ginter box break Pt. 1

So when A&G came out I bought a few loose packs here and there, then a rack pack, then a blaster. Most all of which I shared the contents of here. But at my recent card show visit I decided that I loved this year's edition of A&G so much that I had to pick up a hobby box. Here are the contents.

Oversized Box Loader: OB-MK Matt Kemp

Pack 1

98 Darryl Strawberry

128 Joe Mauer

9 Giancarlo Stanton

265 AJ Ellis

94 Billy Butler

CAP-MY Civilizations of Ages Past Mayans

178 Carlos Gonzalez mini

301 Tommy Hanson SP

Pack 2

6 Chanel Iman

100 Bill Walton

176 Abe Vigoda

112 Ziggy Marley

85 Phil Heath

223 Matthew Berry

19 Bobby Doerr mini

ATY-PG Across the Years Paul Goldschmidt

A pack without any baseball player base cards, interesting.

Pack 3

122 Jay Bruce

22 Bob Feller

127 Doug Fister

178 Carlos Gonzalez

19 Bobby Doerr

290 Eddie Murray

Codes, Ciphers & Cryptographs The Phaistos Disc

ATY-AJ Across the Years Adam Jones

Pack 4

219 Freddie Roach

254 Lou Brock

23 Adrian Beltre

154 Mike Morse

245 Mark Buehrle

179 Bonnie Bernstein

CAP-SD Civilizations of Ages Past Shang Dynasty

2 Derek Jeter mini A&G back

335 Andrew McCutchen SP

Pack 5

114 Yasmani Grandal

50 Willie Mays

165 Felix Hernandez

3 Babe Ruth

2 Derek Jeter

135 Vance Worley

Austin Jackson mini Red Bats Back 03/25

ATY-JWR Across the Years Jayson Werth

Pack 6

95 Curtis Granderson

60 Yoenis Cespedes

257 Michael Young

64 Neil Walker

194 Juan Marichal

PS-SP Palaces & Strongholds Summer Palace

165 Felix Hernandez mini A&G back

338 Marco Scutaro SP

A great start to the box with the bats back Austin Jackson mini! More of the contents to come soon!

  

Dime Box Doozies

"I only look angry because my trainer stuck a needle in my ass 10 minutes ago."

Dime Box Doozies

Ohhh Mark Lemke...

When I became a baseball fan Lemke was the Braves everyday second baseman. He was always a pretty decent fielder with a .984 career fielding percentage. I guess thats why he was able to stay in the lineup seeing as that in 3664 career plate appearances he hit .246 with 32 home runs. 

But really, I would've paid a dollar for this card simply for the hi-larious big glasses picture in the corner. Ohhh the 90's...

My first Listia listing

2010 Topps Turkey Red Miguel Cabrera

My first Listia listing! Check it out HERE if you're interested. Now I think I'm going to listen to some Franz Liszt.

Dime Box Doozies

I don't think I have ever seen a card where the player being featured took up such a small portion of the picture. Interesting choice by Topps for this Gabe Kapler card from the 2010 Update Series.

My first foray into the world of Listia

Recently I received an email invite to join Listia. I honestly have no clue who it came from. Didn't recognize the name of the person who invited my via Listia's system but I figured it was someone from the collecting blogosphere. I figured I would give it a shot and I got two nice cards to show for it.

2006 Upper Deck Special F/X 

Eric Bruntlett Green Parallel 51/99

2007 Upper Deck SPx

Yuniesky Betancourt Winning Materials Blue 003/175

Neither one of these players were/are stars. Both have spent their careers as mostly middle infield defensive plugs with Betancourt spending a little more time starting for bad teams than Bruntlett did. Nonetheless, I got these for very low amounts of credits. I believe I got the Bruntlett card for 50 and the the Betancourt for 250. 

Now that I've had some experience with Listia I'm going to use it to get rid of some of my duplicates.

Cheeeeeeap auto

At my most recent card show visit I found one vendor who had a box of autos and relics for a whopping $1.25 a piece. As you might expect most of the cards in the box were from non-star players, one hit wonders, and sets from Panini that focus on amateur players. But about halfway through the box I encountered this gem.

2012 Topps Tier One

Ricky Romero On the Rise Autograph 55/75

Romero was showing quite a lot of promise as recently as 2011 when he was an American League All-Star. Last season things went south for him in the second half and this year was even worse with him spending most of the season in the minors. I doubt Romero will be back in a Blue Jays uniform next year but some team will likely give him a shot at a roster spot. 

So despite Romero's recent disastrous performance it was still an on-card auto, and a nice looking sig at that, from a high end Topps product. For $1.25 I had to jump on that. I even asked the guy selling it if it was really priced that low and he said he had considered putting it in a $3 box but decided not to. Worked out in my advantage I think.

Yeah right, maybe if it was Panini

Recently I picked up some old wax packs at a card show. One was a pack of 1991 Topps that I got for a quarter. I guess that is about what it would have cost back then, so factoring in inflation I got a good deal. I hastily tossed the 22 year old stick of, what was even back then, not very good chewing gum. Of course it had left a nice oily imprint on the back of the card it had been sealed against for so many years. Ozzie Martinez I believe or some such other 4th outfielder that merited a card in the eyes of Topps back then. The gum imprint makes the card more notable in my collection now than his stats ever did. The pack as a whole was filled with forgettable players who I had either forgotten about or never even heard of in the first place. Robin Yount was the only player of particular note in the bunch. The pack did however include this.

Obviously I didn't win. If I had been an instant winner I wonder how hard it would have been to convince Topps to honor it 21 1/2 years after it should have been claimed....heh..yeah right, maybe if it was Panini. But nonetheless, what a nice prize! The first 40 years of full Topps baseball sets. Wow! I wonder who won it back then and what they did with it. I wonder if they sold the sets or if perhaps they're just gathering dust in someone's attic in suburban Ohio. For some reason that is how I picture it.

I wish Topps still did giveaways like this.

Dime Box Doozies

Only The Big Unit could have fielded that ball.

Topps Chrome blaster break

Recently I felt the urge to get some Topps Chrome so I picked up a blaster from the local branch of Walton's Conglomerate. Contents are as follows. Most everything is available for trade so if you're interested shoot me an email.

Pack 1

68 Paul Konerko

67 Ryan Vogelsong

162 Donald Lutz RC

138 Yasiel Puig RC

I am not a Pweeg fan. At all. So if you want this card I would love to get rid of it. But I also know how much its going for. So make me a fair offer and its yours. I like pretty much anything Braves. =) 

Pack 2

47 Jake Peavy

182 Paco Rodriguez RC X-fractor

172 Mark Teixeira

185 Kevin Youkilis

Pack 3

179 Aaron Hicks RC

21 Carlos Santana

120 Jason Kipnis Refractor

108 Rickie Weeks

Pack 4

208 Cliff Lee

136 Albert Pujols

46 Mike Napoli

105 Casey Kelly RC

I scanned these cards a few days ago and I'm not sure why I didn't scan one from this pack.

Pack 5

133 Will Middlebrooks

122 Adrian Beltre

CC-JV Justin Verlander Chrome Connections Die-cut

215 Domonic Brown

Pack 6

30 Adam Warren RC

150 Justin Verlander

119 Michael Wacha RC Refractor

55 Mike Olt RC

Pack 7

85 Bruce Rondon RC

DY-EL Evan Longoria Dynamic Die-cut

135 David Freese

166 Jackie Bradley Jr. RC

Bonus Purple Refractor pack

134 Kendrys Morales

170 Carter Capps RC

153 Dan Straily

27 Rob Brantley

Pretty good blaster. Pulling the two die-cuts was nice. I'll probably be picking up some more Chrome in the near future.