Quick trade

Recently Judson from My Cardboard Habit busted a jumbo box of '14 Series 1 and pulled a nice Julio Teheran relic. He didn't need the card so I offered him a card he needed and he sent it my way.

Thanks Judson!

Hockey cards question

Obviously I've made my blog all about baseball cards. Baseball is my number one sport. But hockey is number two. I LOVE watching hockey though I rarely get to go to games. However I've never been a hockey card collector. So I was wondering, those of you out there that collect hockey cards, what would be some good products from the last 3 or 4 years to check out? Preferably stuff that I could get hobby boxes for about $50 or less from Dave & Adam's or Blowout. I do prefer stuff with some hits. I need that thrill. So sue me =) I've gotten the impression from bloggers who collect hockey that Panini seems to be the best but I'd like to be sure. What do you think?

Mounting a shiny rescue

Today I stopped by Wal-mart for a few things other than cards. I really didn't have any intention of buying any cards because I've decided not to buy anymore Topps flagship. It bores me. But just like you guys, I could not resist strolling through the cards aisle just to see what was there. While completely ignoring the plethora of flagship zzzzzzzz packs I gave some serious thought to buying some football cards. There were rack packs of Score football and Panini Prestige that were discounted. Then I thought about maybe some Topps Chrome football. There were about 10 rack packs of Chrome football hanging there. I took one off to look at the odds on the back...and then I saw it. Buried at the back I saw the top of a rack pack that was red rather than blue and I immediately knew what it was. One lone rack pack of 2013 Chrome baseball! I pulled off all of the football packs to retrieve the baseball beauties. I knew I had to buy it. If I left it there I'm sure it would have been relegated to Fairfield repacks at best. I didn't pull any autos but it turned out to be a pretty good rack pack.

As you all know there are two retail exclusive colored refractors. Purple ones that are native to blaster boxes, and orange that come from rack packs. I prefer the orange refractors by a long shot. Maybe because they're so bright.

Pack 1:

154 Nick Franklin

1 Mike Trout

6 Jason Heyward Refractor

112 Allen Webster

Pack 2:

14 Josh Rutledge

DY-CSA Chris Sale Dynamic Die-cuts

40 Max Scherzer

218 Big Joke Upton

Pack 3: 

111 John Lester

72C-BH Bryce Harper 1972 Chrome

126 Jonathan Pettibone

120 Jason Kipnis

So an impulse purchase ended up probably being the last 2013 cards I'll ever buy. Unless I ever manage to get some TTT, of course. But I'm glad I stopped to see what they had!

I Love the 90's

The best cards in the 90's were the inserts. And the best inserts were usually the ones with Griffey Jr. on them.

Chavez Ravining contest

Hey guys! Alex from Chavez Ravining is holding a contest to win an Andrew Lambo Trajectory Auto from 2014 Topps Series 1. You can enter his contest HERE!!!!!

Trading with Chavez Ravining

Recently Alex from Chavez Ravining expressed interest in a card I had. I looked over his want lists and found a bunch of 2013 cards he was looking for that I could help with. In return Alex sent me a nice package of cards, none of which I had! I asked for anything Braves, Nationals or Pirates and Alex sure delivered! And a side note, you guys know the Braves are my team but I am also partial to the Nationals despite them being a division rival. I also have loved the Pirates since I was little because I have a lot of family in the Pittsburgh area and have been to almost as many Bucs games as Braves games.

First up some Braves

2014 parallels

Cards from Panini's resurrection of the Select brand. I like the look of these but they don't seem all that different from Prizm. 

I was surprised at how well the holo card scanned. Normally my scanner doesn't take well to those kinds of cards.

I think I got a PED contact high from holding this card...

A few cards from recent sets.

A great start on the 2012 flagship/Chrome Justin Upton rainbow. I may have to complete it now.

And now the best card in the package and my favorite..

2013 Topps Chrome Black Refractor # 008/100

This is the first black refractor from Chrome that I've gotten!

As you can see Alex is a very generous trade partner. Thanks again for the trade!!

Dime Box Doozies

Cards that show pitchers doing something other than pitching seem to be popular among many bloggers. But almost always these cards show him batting or very occasionally taking a lead off a base. So this shot of Tom Gorzelanny running over a catcher is definitely a rarity. 

Help a great cause! - Charity break at View from the Skybox

Hey guys. If you haven't seen it, Chris from View from the SkyBox is doing a charity break to support relief efforts for Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The typhoon struck last November and caused 5,260 fatalities as well as displacing hundreds of thousands of others.

In this charity break he will be busting 11 (!!!!) different boxes! He still has 8 slots left and is starting the break tomorrow. The slot prices are a very low $20! If you would like to join go HERE for the instructions. Help Chris support a great cause for helping people who are in great need, and get some great cards while you're at it!

I Love the 90's

KABOOM!!

Dime Box Doozies

Whoever chose this photo of Polanco to use for his 2012 Topps flagship base card....well that person obviously chose it for a reason...

I Love the 90's

This is one of my absolute favorite cards that I pulled back in the day. These were an insert in the 1996 Leaf Preferred set. The card is actually made of metal though it feels more like aluminum than steel. 

I Love the 90's

One of my favorite cards as a kid. Like normal the scanner doesn't do it justice.

I Love the 90's

As I mentioned in my first "I Love the 90's" post, my parents got me started on baseball cards by buying me a couple packs of 1996 Collector's Choice. As such I was very loyal to that set for the duration of it's existence. I would save all of my allowance money and every couple weeks we would go into town for my sister's piano lessons. After her lessons she and my mom would go into the local Hallmark store to peruse the birthday cards, knick knacks and what nots that you find in such a store. It was located on main street of the town and the LCS just happened to be a couple stores down. So of course that's where I headed. Ray, the guy who owned the LCS, always kept the boxes on top of the counter. No worries about pack searchers back then. (Thanks Ray!) Every time I was in there I would spend 45 minutes to an hour carefully going over the inserts odds on the backs of the packs trying to decide what to spend hard earned money on from cleaning the bathroom and washing the dishes. Well like I said before, I was very loyal to Collector's Choice. With the huge base set I could generally land a lot of new cards every time without too many duplicates. In 1997 one of the inserts in Collector's Choice became my "ultimate chase card". That insert was the "rare" set titled "Ken Griffey Jr. : Clearly Dominant". The five card set was inserted at 1 in every 144 packs. I know, that doesn't sound all that spectacular. But to me it was. With Collector's Choice I was used to the only inserts being silver signature parallels in every pack and the odd gold signature every now and then. So the idea of pulling one of the Griffey's was distant.

Well there was one day where I bought some packs then went over to Hallmark to sit on the floor and rip while my mom looked at birthday cards.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I pulled this card I think I scared some elderly ladies that were looking at Christmas ornaments because I yelped and ran to show the card to my mom. 

If I remember correctly I believe this card was valued around $120 by Beckett back then. Now it goes for less than $5 on COMC. Like the great Billy Joel said, "And so it goes.."

Still one of my absolute favorite collecting memories.

Dime Box Doozies

"Yeahhh! Check out ma new iphone6!"

"You think you cool don'tcha? Well check out my iphone6s, chump!"

I Love the 90's

While going through some cards recently looking for some specific ones to trade my love for 90's cards was rekindled. I started collecting in 1996 when my parents went to a festival thing in the nearby town and bought a couple packs of Collector's Choice from the LCS for me thinking I might like it. Well they were right! Between then and about 2001 I saved all of my allowance money to blow at the LCS every chance I got. 90's cards catch a lot of flack from some people but I love them. I particularly love the inserts because the designs were cool and they really were much rarer. So I'm going to start showcasing some of my favorite 90's cards along with continuing my "Dime Box Doozies" series. Hope you enjoy!

I love any card that isn't smooth by nature.

*yawn*

On Saturday I stopped in the local Walmart that tends to have a better selection of cards. I entered with the intention of picking up some '14 Series 1 but unfortunately they did not have any stocked yet. Booo hissss! Well today I dropped in the other Walmart which generally has a worse selection and in which the card area is often a mess. Much to my surprise they had plenty of blasters, hanger boxes and rack packs in stock but no loose packs. I didn't really want to drop $20 on a blaster so instead I dropped $15 on a hanger box and a rack pack. I didn't pull anything spectacular but it was a nice start for my 2014 collecting. And it was very nice to get some new cards as I had not busted a single pack since Christmas. Here are the cards I received.

Base cards:

1 Mike Trout
212 Jason Heyward
24 Manny Machado Future Stars
240 Ernesto Frieri
178 Erik Johnson RC
235 Jason Kipnis
25 Troy Tulowitzki
157 Matt Adams Rcup
51 Kyle Lohse
181 Jim Henderson Rcup
30 Mark Buehrle
176 Alex Cobb
275 Nolan Arenado
303 Andres Torres
169 Nick Franklin Future Stars
87 Tyson Ross
300 Yu Darvish
238 Alberto Callaspo
151 Bruce Chen
302 Carlos Gomez
131 Junichi Tazawa
165 Rajai Davis
78 Bronson Arroyo
54 Andrew Lambo RC
100 Bryce Harper
248 Travis D'Arnaud RC
128 Erasmo Ramirez
114 Francisco Liriano
96 Wily Peralta
57 Yadier Molina
123 James Paxton RC
301 Shane Victorino
183 Darwin Barney
173 Brandon League
134 Josh Donaldson
211 Dioner Navarro
268 Don Kelly
152 Jonathan Herrera
42 Mariano Rivera
39 David Murphy
294 NL Wins Leaders Wainwright, Zimmerman, Kershaw
153 AL RBI Leaders Davis, Cabrera, Jones
321 Mariano Rivera Checklist
112 Torii Hunter
86 Wilmer Flores RC
180 Ben Revere
16 Johnny Cueto
230 Andre Rienzo RC
69 Jhoulys Chacin
167 Jeremy Guthrie
11 Mike Carp
137 Boone Logan
97 Alex Gordon
246 Eduardo Nunez
73 Kyle Seager
31 Victor Martinez
185 Howie Kendrick
304 Juan Lagares
113 NL ERA Leaders Kershaw, Fernandez, Harvey
105 Ryan Howard
320 Hector Santiago
98 Edwin Encarnacion
99 Melky Cabrera
124 Jay Bruce
101 Chris Nelson
53 Clay Buchholz
307 Jake Peavy
 290 Chad Bettis RC
206 Jon Lester World Series
213 Justin Smoak
286 Josh Fields
70 Marcell Ozuna
239 Jeff Samardzija
200 Derek Jeter
273 Mark Derosa

After years of having short printed variation cards, now Topps is using photos that seem like they would be a variation but they aren't. Silly Topps messing with your customers.

I pulled duplicates of the following cards that I would be happy to unload: 1, 11, 31, 69, 97, 113, 114, 128, 137, 152, 167, 185, 230, 248, 268, 304

Some thoughts. The base set design seems to be getting mixed reviews from the community. I don't particularly love it but I also don't hate it. It is a nice enough change from last year to be a little bit fresh. But overall Topps is boring us to death with the same bland white borders and a little bit of foil year after year after year. I know a lot of people have bashed the team name tab on the right hand side of the card. And I somewhat agree. It reminds me of mid-2000's Upper Deck cards that had a similar look. 

As far as the inserts go I have some likes and dislikes.

0449/2014

 There are way too many parallels. We already had the retail exclusives with Walmart blue, Target red and Toys r Us purple. But now adding green and yellow parallels as well? It's just too much. Enough already. The red foil parallels I like though. They look pretty good in person and I like them better than the emerald green from last year but not as much as the cognac and silver of 2012 and 2011. An improvement nonetheless. 

My scanner doesn't like diecuts for some reason and likes to cut the protruding edges off.

As far as the minis go, I normally hate them. Really, I can't stand them. I got so tired of them last year being in most of the products I opened. I just don't like them. They're more difficult to store and in the case of sets like Gypsy Queen and A&G most of them are nothing more than the regular card in miniature form. I'd rather just receive an extra base card in a pack than a mini. I may actually be trying to unload most of my minis pretty soon since some collectors do like them. This year's edition of minis though are not that bad. I like that these are diecut. If not for design then at least to know that Topps had to spend a little bit more money to produce them. Take that you corporate jerks!

I do not like these inserts. They just look cheap. They look more like something that would be an insert set in Opening Day. Topps fail.

These ones on the other hand I think I may like. They strike me as being like a base card in a high end set, except on thin cardstock of course. I do think I like them.

I am not planning on trying to put together the whole set so most of these cards are available for trade if you're interested. Particularly the base set duplicates. Just shoot me an email! 

Thanks for reading!

Uh...what?

I was just perusing COMC as a boring evening activity. And I saw this...

Everything else afterwards is priced normally. And those cards are from two difference sellers. I assume it's just a glitch....but really...

Glorious Glavine

Recently I received an email from Listia that I had some credits just sitting there not being used to bid on free* stuff. I hadn't used Listia in awhile since I wasn't "selling" anything and as such did not have many credits bid with. But I headed on over and found this sweet Tom Glavine base card from Topps Finest 1998. I got it for 101 credits shipped and seeing as it was free for me I'm happy with it. So a shoutout to one of my childhood heroes for his recent election to the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately I never got to see Glavine pitch in person. Though I did get to see Greg Maddux throw a 2 hit shutout against the Blue Jays.