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Howdy folks. It's been awhile since my last post. I haven't had much to post about and I've been pretty busy with work. I actually just got promoted!! This past weekend was a big card show in Charlotte and I decided to treat myself for the promotion. I picked up some much needed top loaders and spent a chunk of change on wax. I also picked up three singles, including the biggest single card purchase I've ever made, and a couple loose packs.

This one came from a single hobby pack of 2015 Bowman Draft. I normally don't buy draft. I see it as a product geared solely towards case breakers and prospectors. I am neither of those. But at the end of my time at the show I had a few dollars left and wanted to buy a couple single packs to bust. I went for a pack of Draft, for no particular reason, and got lucky. Ebay sales tell me that at the moment this was a pretty good auto to pull.

The other single pack I bought was 2015 EEE which is another product I normally don't touch. I guess I had a hot hand on Saturday.

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Here are the singles I bought.

#80/99

Teheran is likely going to be the ace on a terrible Braves team this year. He's still young and I still hold some hope that he's going to reach his potential. But I feel that it's more likely he will just be a placeholder at the front of the rotation for a couple more seasons until the Braves are a real contender again.

#55/99

Strata is an intriguing product and seems to be well liked by most of the community. I haven't opened any though because I don't like spending $70+ for a box with two cards. I did want to pick up a single though and found this Craig Kimbrel patch for a measly $5. I will say one thing I do not like about Strata is that the relic window is closed. I like the normal open relic windows so I can run my fingers across the jersey swatch or bat pieces. I do like that Topps included MLB authentication stickers on the relics though. Certainly helps alleviate the skepticism over the authenticity of the relics. Kimbrel wore this jersey on May 29th, 2015. The Padres defeated the Pirates at home 6-2. Kimbrel pitched a perfect 9th inning striking out two and picked up his first win of the season.

#1/9

I went into the show with one of my main goals being to find a Chipper Jones auto. I have a couple Chipper autos from when I was a kid. I wrote to him once when I was about 10 and waited forever. I figured my letter got lost so I wrote again. In very short order I received two replies back in official Braves mailers. Both contained a form letter, a Braves sticker, and a 3"x5" black and white photo autographed in blue sharpie. Needless to say that was one of the best experiences of my childhood. I still have those autos but I wanted an official baseball card auto too. I was willing to spend more than usual at the show so I was hoping that would give me some options. Strangely enough I only found one dealer with any Chipper autos on display, and this is a show in Braves country with approximately 150 sportscard dealers. I've always seen plenty in the past when I wasn't willing to shell out for one, but this time when my wallet was open they were scarce. Anyways, the one dealer had this card as well as a Dynasty card. Dynasty is out of my price range. This one did not have a price on it so I asked. He quoted me a price that was a bit over what I was thinking. I considered it then decided to decline. He immediately knocked $20 of the price and that put it right where I was thinking it should be, Deal!! I won't say exactly what I paid for it but it is the most I've ever spent on any one card. Definitely worth it to acquire a collection centerpiece of my top PC player and childhood hero.