My last retail purchases of 2014

Back in December, before fully committing to giving up retail cards, I bought a few more repacks. Here are the hits and good cards I got.

#20/99

This is a great photo. Presumably taken at the conclusion of Bailey's no hitter at Pittsburgh on September 28, 2012.

Gold refractor 223/250

Pulled this one from a 2014 Mega Box.

383/399

Blue Refractor 176/199

This one was pack pulled.

This one was pack pulled as well.

Ick...see those little brown spots on the relic? That's roid residue.

Probably my favorite card that I got.

Pack pulled.

Pack pulled as well. Also the first time I've pulled a relic of someone I've actually met. (Calipari was the ball boy when my uncle coached girls high school basketball in the early 70's. I met Coach Cal when he came to visit my uncle back in the late 90's while he was coaching the New Jersey Nets. They still keep in touch but I haven't met him since.)

While this looks like a huge haul, these are actually just the best cards from quite a few purchases. It's just gotten to the point where I'm spending too much money to get very little that I actually want and a lot of stuff that just takes up space. See my last post about that. 

I'll probably slip up now and then and buy some retail, but for the most part I'm sticking with hobby and singles. And of course trades!!

Question

In the new year I've changed my collecting focus and shifted away from retail purchases. This change has already begun to pay off. However I am still faced with the large amount of cards I have that don't fit into my collection. I desperately need to clear storage space and have decided that the best way to do it is to basically give the cards away. Therefore I'm going to put together USPS flat rate boxes to ship to anyone that wants one. All I will ask is that the recipient pay the shipping cost via PayPal plus a little extra to cover PayPal's take and packaging costs (bubble wrap, team bags etc.) I'm going to offer these here first before I offer them on Facebook collecting groups. But before I start putting them together I have a question:

Regardless of whether or not you are interested in a box, do you think it would be better to do team lots or just bulk lots of everything? I'm leaning towards bulk lots because it cuts down on the amount of work I have to put in plus some team lots may be difficult to get rid of. But I would still like opinions.

Thanks!

One for One trade, or maybe /18 for /18

Recently I completed a trade with Brian from Play at the Plate. He was interested in a Koji Uehara auto/triple relic that I pulled from Triple Threads. Not because he collects Koji, but because the card was numbered 08/18 which happens to be Brian's birthday. Cards numbered to 18 aren't very common so I can't blame him for jumping at the chance to snag one whenever he can. I was happy to send him the card as it didn't really have a place in my collection. In exchange Brian sent me a similar card numbered to 18 that definitely does fit in my collection.

Thanks for the trade Brian!!

Show singles, mostly

The last of the cards I picked up at the show on Saturday helped fill out some PC needs. One dealer had some boxes with cards at $5 or 3 for $12. I picked up some needed additions for my Hall of Fame relic PC. Some of these cards had $20 stickers on them and it surprises me that I was able to get these for the price I did.

I picked this out before I knew I would pull a Big Unit relic from my box of Tribute. Nevertheless I like this card.

This one is a preemptive addition. 

I also picked up this Freddie Freeman 2011 Diamond Giveaway die-cut card from the same boxes.

But wait, there's more!!!

One of my favorite dealers at these shows always has a big cardboard box full of team bags with random cards in it. The contents generally consist of about 50 cards, mostly recent Topps base cards, junk wax and a few good cards. He always puts cards on the outsides like Chipper Jones, Ripken etc. He sells them at 3 for $1. So even though I generally only get one or two cards from each one that I want it's still an outstanding deal. I picked up 9 of these team bags and got maybe 12 cards that fit into my collection. Totally worth it. One of them also contained this card.

At first I was quite confused as I did not recall there being a blue sparkle parallel in 2013, or any year for that matter, not including Opening Day. But then I realized this is a Blue Slate parallel from the wrapper redemption program. I'm surprised the dealer put this card in there.

My final purchase was three packs of 1995 Topps Dimension III. I was not previously aware of this set. The dealer selling them had them at 3 packs for $1 so I bought 3 to check it out.

I'm guessing Topps produced this set to compete with Sportflics. They're interesting cards but I think they would be better if the 3D effect included movement. Still they were fun to open and provided some previously unknown cards for my PC.

In conclusion, this is maybe the 6th card show I have been to since I rejoined the hobby and I have found that I absolutely LOVE going to them. It's so much fun being around so many other collectors and talking about the hobby with dealers. I also can't pass up the opportunity to see cards I could never afford, in person. T206 etc. I can't wait for the next show!

Two packs, two hits

One of the purchases I made at the show was two packs of 2014 Donruss series 2. The dealer had just opened the box and I took two of the packs off of the top row. I got lucky and pulled two of the hits.

Players who can't keep their signature on the sticker are the main thing I hate about sticker autos. But I blame the card companies for that a lot more then I blame the players.

I opened this pack second. It was a little thicker than the first so I figured it had a decoy in it as half of Panini packs generally do. Nope!

2014 Topps High Tek box

The second and final box I bought at the show today was 2014 Topps High Tek. This was my main goal going into the show. I wish the boxes came with more cards but I really like this product.

Disco Diffractor

01/50

I am quite surprised how well these cards scanned. Normally my scanner makes acetate cards look very dark.

Currently these cards are not for trade except for Braves cards from High Tek.

2014 Topps Tribute box

Today I attended a show in Hickory, NC. My biggest purchase, and one I had not planned on going in, was a box of 2014 Topps Tribute. In this new year I have shifted my collecting goals and subsequently my buying habits. I am cutting out nearly all retail purchases so that I can budget more money to hobby boxes and singles. With the large portion of my paychecks that I was previously dropping on retail, this change is letting me be able to buy more high end stuff like this. So far I am very happy with my choice. 

I bought this box from the same dealer that I bought one pack of Tribute from back at a show over Thanksgiving weekend. Here are the parallels and hits from my box.

Base gold

01/25

Base blue

31/99

Tribute Titans sepia relic

 13/35

Tribute to the Throne blue relic

34/50

Tribute Traditions auto

52/99

Tribute to the Pastime sepia auto

08/35

Tribute pink auto

26/45

Tribute Traditions green auto

14/25

BOOM!!! The rest of the box was ok. Nothing amazing. But this...well I was very happy to pull this.

The Ryan, Johnson and Griffey cards are not for trade. The rest are available for trade for something comparable.

2013 EEE

A recent purchase of mine was a 12 card hanger box of 2013 Panini Elite Extra Edition. EEE is a product I'd never opened but the box guaranteed an auto for $10.

Always nice to pull a Braves hit. I had not previously heard of Salazar. He has pitched for two years in rookie ball and low-A with mixed results. He's still young though, only 20. So hopefully he will pan out and make an impact at the major league level in a couple years.

I also pulled this USA relic that was not guaranteed.

Two hits from a 12 card, $10 box sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

It's 2015...

...and I still spend too much money on cards. But don't we all in this wonderful hobby. Around Christmas and into the new year I picked up some cards from the bay. 

The only Brave I picked up.

The above and below are my first two Ripken relics for my HoF relic PC.

041/250

The Vidro relics came as a lot. I have no real interest in having any Jose Vidro relics, but I jumped at the chance to have a couple Montreal Expos relics. 

Most of the cards above I bought from one seller, who I have bought from before. He always has a really nice selection of cards with awesome BIN prices. As a thanks for buying multiple cards and being a repeat customer he threw in this cool Roger Clemens card. I'm not sure why the photo portion of the card is blurry in the scan because it's clear in person. Pretty cool card though.

Happy New Year friends!