Thursday, October 29, 2015

Spree Card #8


Next up is this Frank Thomas patch card #16/25 from Panini National Treasures. This is another one that I was surprised to win at auction and for a lot less than I expected. This card makes for one of the best additions to my HoF relic PC. I was always a fan of Frank Thomas in his playing days. He looks even better now as one of the most, if not THE most, prolific power hitters of the 90s-00s that has never been linked with PED use. A lot of people seem to forget that while Thomas is a member of the 500 home run club he also finished his career with a .301 batting average and .419 on-base percentage. In his first 11 season in the majors he hit below .300 only once. As he moved into his mid-30s  age and injuries began to catch up with him. Dude could rake though.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Spree Card #7


Next up is this nice Rod Carew triple relic #17/27 from 2015 Topps Triple Threads. I won this one at auction and was surprised that 1) I won the card, and 2) I won it for as little as I did. $8 I think. It makes a very nice addition to my Hall of Fame relic PC.

The seller also included a couple extra cards.


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Spree Card #6 - An Oddball Auto


Next up is this auto/relic of Kirk Saarloos from 2003 Playoff Piece of the Game. As soon as I saw this card I knew I had to have it. Why you ask? Well I think that's pretty obvious. The autograph sticker is signed, simply, "Loos". I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Loos is his nickname. Interestingly enough though of all his autos listed on COMC and eBay every single one has his real signature, including cards identical to this one. So I don't know if he just decided to sign this one as just "Loos" or perhaps Playoff ran out of stickers and someone decided to do the worst forging job ever. Either way, this card makes an awesome oddball addition to my collection. 

Loos here had a pretty mediocre major league career so needless to say I did not spend much for this card. I think it was only $2.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Spree Card #5


Next up is this 2015 Ginter jersey relic from Wilmer Flores of the newly crowned National League champions. The first thing that caught my eye was how dirty the jersey swatch is. That's always fun. I also wanted to show some support for Flores. If you didn't know, Flores shot to national prominence in July when at the trade deadline he thought he had been traded away from the only team he knew and was in tears on the field. His sadness at the thought of leaving the Mets, and then happiness upon finding out he hadn't been traded, was an awesome illustration of a player who plays for the love of the game and not the money. I'm no Mets fan but I'm glad to see that he was able to stay with the Mets and now is going to get to play in the World Series.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Spree Card #4


Card #4 is pretty obvious. A nice red jersey relic of Andrelton Simmons from 2015 Ginter.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Spree Card #3


192/199

Up next is this Freddie Freeman jersey relic from 2015 Tier One. Tier One is a product I will almost certainly never break myself as it's high priced with generally low returns, unless you pull a bat knob or a Tier One auto. But it does provide some nice looking cards like this one.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Spree Card #2


The second card from my eBay spree is this Matt Wisler auto from 2015 Five Star. Wisler was acquired from the Padres in the Justin Upton trade, I believe. He has shown a ton of potential and was able to pitch in 20 games for the Braves this season. He struggled with control issues at times and with an unimpressive stat line of 8-8 with a 4.71 ERA and a 1.459 WHIP. Not terrible. A decent start to his major league career. I am hoping he will develop into a top tier starter.

As a side note, with this card I can definitely see why people really don't like the different format Topps went with for Five Star this year. Previously each box would yield something like four or five hits, all numbered, in the $300-$400 range. Now it's two cards for like $125. If I paid that much for a box of this and pulled this card, which is unnumbered, I would be pretty unhappy. And I say that with this card fitting nicely into my collection. Rather I was able to get it on the secondary market for less than $10.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Spree Card #1

I recently allowed myself to go on an eBay spree and picked up a bunch of cards to add to my collection. Here is the first.



09/75

First up is this 2015 Triple Threads Unity auto/relic of Braves pitcher Shelby Miller. I am optimistic that Miller is going to become a dominant presence at the front of the rotation for years to come. His stat line this year shows that he has the potential, as well as showcasing the level of the Braves futility this season...

6 wins
17 losses
3.02 ERA
1.247 WHIP

It's pretty obvious that he pitched pretty well but got zero run support. Frustrating for him I'm sure, and for fans like myself.

More cards coming soon!

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Sousa's Favorite Box

Recently I picked up a box of 2015 Panini Stars and Stripes. I've always liked Team USA stuff regardless of the sport so naturally this set had my interest. One of the big draws was the possibility of pulling hits from Kris Bryant and other recent highly touted MLB call-ups like Joey Gallo or Carlos Rodon. I didn't pull anything huge but it was a fun box to bust.



Longevity parallel


Longevity holofoil parallel 36/99

Inserts





I think these Crusade cards are my favorite insert from any baseball set ever. They are just gorgeous in person.


Gold parallel 10/25

Hits


135/299


087/299


69/99


293/299


56/99

According to Blowout each box should contain four hits. Mine had five which isn't unusual for Panini, something I love about them.

Nothing huge but a lot of fun at a good price.

PS: See what I did there with the title? ;)

Monday, October 5, 2015

Bowman Chrome Jumbo

Recently I picked up a jumbo box of 2015 Bowman Chrome. It turned out fairly well.

A sampling of the inserts.


They call these "minis" but they're more like the "Tall Boy" inserts from Heritage. I feel like inserts of this type don't really fit into any Bowman product, particularly Chrome.



A logical addendum to the Top 100 inserts from regular Bowman.



Woo die-cuts!


Parallels


Refractor 368/499



Refractor 395/499



Refractor 193/499



Purple Refractor 218/250



Blue Refractor 013/150



Green Refractor 09/99


Autos


Base - with a nice looking signature



Base



Refractor 148/499



Purple Refractor 188/250

Also the rare Bowman prospect photo where the player's head isn't photoshopped onto someone else's body.



Blue Refractor 140/150

Davis is definitely the best auto in the bunch. He tore it up this year at High A Lancaster in the California League finishing with a .286, 26, 101 line. Definitely a bright future.


Jumbo boxes of Chrome are a lot of fun to bust, but they are pricey. I feel like I did ok. There are some better boxes I've seen and a lot of way worse ones.