I have a bad habit of not listening to myself

When I go to card shows I have a bad habit of blowing my remaining cash on bad ideas after I've bought the stuff I went in for. Well this show was no different. 

One dealer that I usually buy from had an open jumbo box of 2013 Bowman Chrome. The jumbos have three autos per box as well as a wealth of color. So I thought maybe I could score something good and bought six packs, half the box. I know better than to buy something like that, especially from a weak year for Bowman Chrome like 2013. But I had high hopes.

Well...

Risin' Through the Ranks minis

151/250

At least I got one auto. And Almonte is one of the Royals top pitching prospects so this isn't a bad pull.

Maybe I let my hopes get too high but I expected better from six jumbo packs. At the very least I was hoping for one more color refractor. I imagine the other half of that box is/was pretty good. I know it has two autos at least.

Some Very Expensive Mehhhhhhhh

My biggest planned purchase at yesterday's show was a box of 2015 Topps Museum Collection. I've seen some forum posts of box and case breaks and watched Crackin Wax' case break. Obviously a product of this caliber can provide some incredible cards. I however did not select one of those boxes containing the awesomeness.

First the parallels.

111/199

14/99

Canvas Collection Reprint

And now the hits.

58/75

18/50

29/75

277/399

It's disappointing to pay as much as I did for this box, a little less than current online prices, and not have a card numbered below 50. Interestingly enough the Rizzo probably has the best resale value even though it's the highest numbered card from the box. 

Despite my box being underwhelming, my impression of Museum Collection hasn't changed. I still think it's an awesome set with beautiful cards. If I had the money I would totally bust a case of it as that would guarantee getting the big hits like the framed autos and awesome patches. Not to mention that busting high end Topps is always a blast. But unfortunately Museum is one of the sets that always gets more and more expensive as time passes so this will likely be the only box I ever bust of this year's iteration.

Show Day

My posting has been very sporadic recently, though I guess that is ordinary for me. But as today was a card show day in Charlotte, I have some new stuff to talk about.

First up I made a bunch of additions to my HoF relic PC for a lot cheaper than I would have expected. There's one dealer at these shows that always has boxes and boxes of relics that I enjoy looking through. All of these cards are of players I previously did not have. I got each of these cards for only $5 each except the Musial for $10. She's lowered her prices since the last show. I would have expected to pay $15 or more for each of them.

Wills isn't a HoFer but I think the Golden Era Committee will eventually put him in.

I'm assuming that the swatch comes from Ashburn's final season, which he played with the Mets in their inaugural season. It's odd to see him in a Mets uniforms when he's known as a Phillie.

The swatch on this card could possibly be from Robinson's time with the Reds. But because of the material I think it's more likely from his time managing the Washington Nationals. Even so, it's a relic and he's in the Hall so it works for me! 

On a side note, I wish we saw manager hits in baseball card products. I would love to pull a Fredi Gonzalez jersey relic or a Joe Maddon auto.

I also picked up one Braves PC relic. A nice Andruw Jones patch.

#337/500

More to come soon on my other show purchases.

Catching up

I've had these four cards for over a month now but just hadn't gotten around to posting them.

I pulled this Wil Myers blue back from a Topps Heritage  Wal-mart blaster. According to Cardboard Connection there were only ten of each made, five in hobby and five in retail. So it was a pretty tough pull.

When 2015 Donruss S1 came out I was surprised to see my Walmart stocking it. I realized last year that I like the new Donruss better than Topps flagship so I picked up a couple rack packs and pulled this Yovani Gallardo relic. I'll probably pick up a hobby box at some point.

Last year in a Target repack box, from a pack of 2013 Panini Prizm Draft, I pulled a redemption for a a Rainy Lara Blue Prizm auto #/75. A low level Mets pitching prospect. I saw that the base autos were live but the color variations were not. I went ahead and redeemed it and waited. After the required four month waiting period I hadn't received anything so I contacted Panini to inquire about a replacement. I asked if I could have a comparable Braves auto as a replacement and the rep told me that would be ok. After about three months of waiting I received this Ron Darling auto. Not a Brave. But Darling had a fairly successful career. So I'll take it over an auto of a guy that's unlikely to ever see the show.

Have you ever been browsing on eBay and seen a card that would be perfect in your PC. but you knew it would be out of your price range? Well this was one of those cards for me. I've built a good collection of Chipper Jones relics but didn't have any patches. One night I saw it on eBay with something like 15 bids at $16 with about 12 hours left. I knew it would go out of my price range but I threw caution to the wind and threw in a $20 bid. Unbelievably no one else bid the rest of the auction and I won the card. This card is now the centerpiece of my Chipper Jones PC.