Card show bounty Pt.1

As I mentioned in my last post, this past Saturday I went to a show in Charlotte. There is a series of shows put on in NC by a company/group/person called Inside Pitch Promotions. They hold one show about every month rotating between Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte and Hickory. I've been to the Hickory show twice but had to miss the last two. This month was Charlotte's turn and as it was only a little farther drive for me than Hickory I couldn't pass it up. Boy am I glad I went! This show was probably twice as big as the Hickory shows in number of vendors. I had a blast perusing all the tables and deciding what to spend my money on. I'm going to split up my reports on my haul between a few posts.

First up will be three hobby packs of '14 Gypsy Queen. As both my local Wal-marts STILL don't have GQ in stock picking some up was a priority of mine at the show. The vendor I bought from also always has a table in Hickory and he always seems...a bit sketchy to me. And he lived up to that reputation. The open box of GQ he had still contained the mini-box. While I am no fan of minis I know that these always have a hit in them. I asked him how much for the box and he said $5, same price as a pack.

Win!

But then I picked up the box and saw that it had VERY obviously been opened already. If this guy was my LCS owner I would avoid his store at all costs. Talk about shady.

I didn't say anything to him about it but decided to go ahead and buy three packs.

I like the design on this year's Glove Stories.

I love cards with players wearing throwback uniforms, especially true old school uniforms.

Boom! Despite the sketch mini box I did manage to land one of the hits from the box. 

I also did my usual searching for good prices on hits. Anything will do if it catches my eye and the price is right. I ended up picking up two cards that fit nicely in my collection.

I've been toying with the idea of starting a HoF player relic collection and this Frank Thomas relic will help me on my way. I will always think of The Big Hurt as a White Sox player so it was a little odd to see this card listing him as a Blue Jay while showing him in an A's jersey with a swatch that appears to be from an A's green alternate jersey. Still, I got it for $5 and for a guy just elected to the HoF I felt like that was a great price.

#020/199

I'm always on the lookout for Braves hits. And the sketch dealer I mentioned above had a box full of hits that I quickly leafed through. I happened upon one card near the back that I immediately wanted. A Craig Kimbrel patch card from 2013 Tribute WBC edition. I knew it would be out of my price range. Then I turned it over and say the sticker that said $8! WHAT?! Yep! $8! Sketch dealer redeemed himself in my eyes a little with this one.

#093/131

More to come soon!

Sometimes I get lucky

This morning I went to a card show in Charlotte. I really wanted to bust a box but I couldn't seem to find anything I really wanted at a good price. I was talking to one dealer who had some higher end stuff like Tribute and Museum for good prices per pack. But me being a rip junkie I needed more with still some guaranteed hits. So I talked myself into a box of '13 Topps Finest for $79. I thought this was a pretty good price and it sure turned out to be.

This is a 1993 Finest buyback auto. They're inserted 1:1,206 packs making them rarer than some of the superfractors in the set. The card itself is not numbered but according to Cardboard Connection there are only five of each. There is a Topps authentication sticker on the back with a number. Is there a way to look those up?

Currently there is another Matt Williams list on eBay for $599 BN/OBO so this may be, meaning is, the most valuable card I've ever pulled. Sometimes I really do get lucky...

I'll have a full report on my card show bounty coming soon.

Trading ink with Dion

Recently I busted a box of '13 Bowman Chrome and was not interested at all in the auto that I pulled. Dion over at Dion's IP Autos Only offered to trade me from his very extensive list of autos for it. While I really had my eye on a Tom Glavine IP auto I knew that it wouldn't even be close to a fair trade. So in the end I picked up this IP auto of former Braves and Royals pitcher Kyle Davies.

Thanks for the trade Dion!

Haggling

For those of you that go to card shows, do you ever try to haggle with the sellers? I never have when it comes to prices on boxes. I'm planning to go to a show this Saturday and was wondering if this ever works.

Celebrations

It's playoff time!

Minus the Maple Leafs like usual, of course.

eBay pickups

Despite my recent frustrations in dealing with crappy sellers on eBay, I have picked up a couple nice cards.

First up is this sweet Dave Stewart Silver Signatures red parallel #11/20 from 2013 Five Star. I didn't have a specific need for this card but I wanted to have something from the most exorbitantly expensive set in the Topps catalog. Stewart is probably one of the "worst" retired players on the checklist and that made this auto pretty affordable. I got it for less than $15 shipped.

Second, I wanted a printing plate. Any plate would do. I just wanted one for my collection since I didn't have one yet. I ended up getting this Corey Hart cyan printing plate from 2013 Topps Archives for about the price of a blaster. It is more than I'm usually willing to spend on a single card but considering that a lot of plates go for a good bit more money, I'm happy with it.

Junk Wax and Rack Packs and Repacks, Oh My!

Continuing on the repack craze, recently I've picked up a couple more of the Wally's version. I'm not going to go into much detail about the contents. I haven't managed to pull any hits like some of my fellow lucky pack ripper addicts. But I've gotten some decent stuff. here are the highlights. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

#05/50

This is the best card, not surprisingly, that I've pulled from the repacks.

Ok. We all know this was the best card.

Introductions

The final new hockey series that I am introducing to my blog is called Introductions. This series will focus on one of the fun parts of hockey games, the pregame player introductions. These events often come full of laser shows, fireworks and inflatables. These can be a lot of fun for the fans because of the close proximity they have to the players.

UghBay

There is very little that annoys me more than eBay sellers who mark an item as shipped and then wait two days to actually ship the item. Especially when they charged for shipping and I submitted payment for the item two minutes after the auction ended. -_-

/rant

The Hits

This is my next new hockey blog series. While the title may make you think about autos and relics, this series will focus on one of the most exciting parts of hockey, the hits. When a player gets upended mid ice, slammed into the boards or even flipped into the bench.

Celebrations

Back on my birthday I opened some hockey boxes. one of which was 13/14 Score. This set provided a ton of cards that I thought would be good for some new recurring blog series. The first of which will be titled Celebrations. This is going to showcase one of my favorite parts of hockey. Every time a player scores a goal they celebrate like a kid scoring for the first time. They also tend to celebrate as a team rather than just the individual. I love that.

Here is the first of many Celebrations.

A quick Heritage blaster

The other day I picked up a Heritage blaster at Wally's. It was pretty boring really. I'm starting to get a good many dupes so maybe it's time to wind down on my Heritage purchases. At least with Gypsy Queen and Bowman coming out soon I won't be bored for long! Here are the highlights from the blaster.

I imagine this card could be quite desirable to all of you Dodger collectors out there.

Short prints

Chrome refractor #263/565

I've mentioned before how much I love Heritage Chrome and wish Topps would release a set of those. And the refractors look even better!

That's all for now.

Bowman Chrome box

Sunday before last I made a trip by the LCS to pick up some supplies. I spent some time chatting about cards with the owner and browsed his stock. In that time I convinced myself that I couldn't leave without busting some packs. His boxes are generally overpriced so I don't like to go that route when I'm there. (We're talking junk wax boxes for $30.) But he had two boxes of 2013 Bowman Chrome for only about $10 more than they're going for online right now. So I figured I'd get one and save on the shipping and be able to bust the box as soon as I got home.

Now I, like all of you I'm sure, always have that hope that a box will contain some massive hit like a Superfractor. On very rare occasions I get really lucky and hit a big one in a box.

This was not one of those boxes. But it was about average I guess.

My scanner doesn't seem to pick up the rainbow shine of refractors very well. But these have to be the most bright and shiny refractors I've ever seen.

I love these sapphire rookie reprints that were spread out across all of the Bowman sets last year. And this is my favorite one that I've gotten so far.

My favorite card out of the box. #010/250

#195/199

And lastly, the auto.

This is probably one of the worst names on the auto checklist. Portillo used to be one of the better international prospects but he's struggled at nearly every level of the minors he's played in. Since 2009 he's spent the vast majority of his time in Class A and only pitched in 8 games in AA. At 21 years old he still has plenty of time to develop into a MLB level pitcher. But seeing as he hasn't really improved at all in five professional seasons I don't think he'll go much higher than he is now. 

If any Padres fans are interested in the auto I'd be more than happy to trade. In fact all of the cards above are available for trade other than the blue Minor. And if you're putting together the base set and need something let me know and I'll see if I have it.

Repack report

One day last week I was in Walmart perusing the card aisle. I was looking for some more Heritage but they were out. What caught my eye was a pack repack box for $20. I figured this would be a more fun rip for $20 than a S1 blaster, which I had no interest in. I expected at least some junk wax like the repack I got from Target a few months ago. But the oldest pack was from 2007. Here are some of the highlights.

2012 Topps Archives rack pack

Rainbox foilboard

Die cut mini. My scanner didn't seem to like the cut.

2011 Bowman retail pack

This card is weird and it has nothing to do with Tulo...

2012 Gypsy Queen retail pack

2012 Topps Heritage rack pack and retail pack

SP

Upper Deck 2008 First Edition Update

2010 Topps Series 2 retail pack

2012 Bowman Platinum retail pack

Turned out to be a Rays hot pack

And this beauty

And then there was a pack that said nothing on the outside except "Bonus Pack". Inside were these three cards.

A three card pack with two the same....that's nice.

Does anybody know what these are? A box loader pack perhaps?

There were a few other packs. A 2007  UD S1/2 combo rack pack, 2008 UD Documentary (zzzzz), a 2012 Topps S2 pack from a blaster, a 2011 Topps S2 retail pack and a 2012 Topps Opening Day rack pack. Oh and a pack of the worst baseball card product ever created, that Pete Rose trash made by Leaf.

Overall a fun break for $20. That was the only baseball box they had among a few football boxes, but if I see another one in the future I might buy it.

Birthday break pt. 4

Sorry about the silence recently. I've been having some internet issues lately.

This is the final box of my birthday hockey break.

2011/2012 Upper Deck SPx
18 packs
4 cards per pack
1 bonus ICE pack

I wanted to open an Upper Deck box and had heard good things about this product so I decided to give it a shot. It didn't disappoint. The box advertises that it will contain one rookie jersey card and one rookie jersey/auto card. I pulled both of those in the first three packs. So needless to say I was not optimistic about the rest of the box. But it turned out pretty well.

First the bonus ICE pack.

This is a pretty cool see through acetate card.

And now the rest of the box.

As I mentioned before, the above "promised" two hits I pulled in the first three packs. 

Bonus 1: The backs of these cards state that the jersey swatches are from the rookie photo shoot. Props to UD for being honest about the origin of the relics.

Bonus 2: That Lennart Petrell auto is one of the worst looking pro athlete signatures I've ever seen.

I ended up pulling three more hits from the box but no more ink. But I was definitely not disappointed.

Ok..ok..

Here we go! Dual swatch of a star player. I'll take it. 

And an interesting side note, these swatches are obviously from the Hawks' road whites. Both swatches are a bit miscolored. They almost have a yellowish stain tint to them. They're also a little...umm..crusty..feeling. Makes me think this jersey was very well used. Cool...well, gross, but cool.

And the last pack mega winner...

BOOM!!!

Dual patch of two future NHL Hall of Famers numbered 10/15!!!! 

The Lidstrom "patch" really only has a little seam on the left side. But the Datsyuk two color patch is pretty cool. This has to be the coolest card I've pulled in my short time in the modern collecting world.

Well that's it for me birthday break reports. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it particularly for the plethora of hits. 

Thanks for reading!