I'm still here

This is my first post since July 28th. This is the first time since I started blogging in June of 2013 that I've gone more than a month without posting. Part of this is a lack of content to post about. Mostly it's because I just haven't had time. August means the start of school which also means the start of the high school marching band season, during which I am the head brass instructor for a highly competitive group. So between that and my "real" job I don't have a lot of time. There are some days that I leave the house at 5:30 AM and don't get home until 10:30 PM, only to do it again the next day. So needless to say I haven't had much time to think about baseball cards.

One day last week while taking lunch I found myself on eBay and ended up adding some late 90s-early 00's inserts to my Chipper Jones PC.

This one is my favorite. It seems to be an acetate type card.

I also picked up this Christian Bethancourt 2015 Panini Elite Members Only Prime Patch numbered 13/25.

It felt good to add a few cards to my collection. I have a couple more posts in the pipeline and hopefully I can get back to my usual hobby habits soon enough.

Prizm

The other box I bought from my favorite dealer was 2015 Panini Prizm. Panini missed the mark with the first two editions of Prizm, in my opinion. Last year I felt like they got it right, minus the powder, and this year was just as good if not a bit better. So I took the offer of a good price and picked up a box.

First the inserts.

Now the parallels.

Camo Prizm #142/199

Black and White Checker Prizm #003/149

Red Power Prizm #076/125

Jackie Robinson Prizm #09/42

I said it before and I'll say it again, where Panini really excels and I think beats Topps is in parallels. One reason of which being because of Panini's much lower production numbers they are able to provide more color per box. 

And lastly the autos.

#041/125

#82/99

Definitely pumped to pull the Folty auto. He's got a bright future with the Braves.

Topps Chrome is a juggernaut that Prizm will never outsell regardless of whether or not Panini ever gets a full license. But of all the sets Panini puts out that are easy to directly compare to a Topps set, this might be the best one.

Diamond Kings

At the show Saturday before last I picked up two boxes from my favorite dealer. The first was 2015 Diamond Kings. He mentioned to me that he pretty much never buys more than a case of unlicensed stuff because it just doesn't sell all that well. But that after selling his first case of DK he bought another two cases because it was such a hit with his customers. He also mentioned that he'd had one guy pull a Babe Ruth jersey relic (with pinstripes!!) from one of his boxes. I didn't pull anything that huge but it turned out to be a pretty good box that was a lot of fun to bust.

First I pulled one base parallel.

#08/25

Framed Parallels (Two per box)

Unnumbered

#04/99

And the hits (Two per box)

#14/99

#16/99

Pulling relics of old school players is always fun, particularly one that was the centerpiece of one of the greatest moments in baseball history.

Great box!

But wait! There's more!!!!

#02/10

BOOM!!!!

Show Singles

Went to a show last Saturday. These are the singles I picked up.

First I picked up Don Gullett's 1973 Topps card to add to my collection. I'm still looking for his Topps cards from 1974, 1976, 1979 and 1980.

The following cards I got from one dealer from a $5 or 3 for $12 box. I think I did pretty well.

I love 90's inserts.

#1374/5000

This one has a wood like surface similar to the wood minis we've seen in sets like Gypsy Queen.

Another addition to my HoF relic collection.

#119/150

#566/999

Schafer was once a highly touted prospect for the Braves. But he never really could get things going at the major league level with Atlanta, Houston, Atlanta again and then Minnesota. The Twins released him earlier this season and he has yet to sign with a new team. Perhaps someone will pick him up to use as a lefty bat off the bench down the stretch,

#74/75

I was really surprised to find this card in the $5 box as Cone's autos tend to go more in the $15-20 range so I had to have it,

Two Cards From Topps

Just a quick post about the two cards I recently received from Topps.

First up is the redemption from my recent box of 2014 Tribute.

I still can't get over how amazing this card is. I'm leaving it in the toploader with the Topps sticker intact just in case I have need to sell it in the future. But for now this one is definitely staying in my collection. I do know that Topps places a pretty high value on this card as it was delivered via FedEx and required a signature. I'm not sure what their threshold is for shipping with that method rather than through USPS but it's got to be at least a couple hundred.

The second card is my prize from the Call Your Shot promotion, aka Topps finding a way to make people pay to help clear out some storage space. Despite my cynicism I went ahead and paid the shipping charge since it seems some people have gotten some pretty nice cards from high end products. I wasn't disappointed.

Orange Refractor #74/75

I'm definitely not disappointed getting a minor PC player from a high end product, albeit a sticker auto, that was randomly pulled. Topps was also quick in sending this out. I received it less than a week after entering the winning code and paying the shipping charge.