Embarking on a New Collecting Journey

Hello to anyone who might still be out there! It sure has been a long time since I've posted here. I'm not really sure how it got to be so long. I feel like I blinked and seven+ months of blogging inactivity have passed by. I've written several different 'return post' drafts along the way and subsequently deleted them all. Each seemed like a good way to re-engage, but inevitably something would come up and I'd have to leave the post unfinished. By he time I was ready to begin work on it again, he subject material just didn't seem that exciting anymore. That is probably a function of my inactivity being strictly blog related, not hobby related. In fact, the past several months have seen quite a large explosion within my collection. In some ways this is good, but in many ways things are admittedly getting a bit out of control. For a little while, I thought I had done a good job setting and maintaining limits on my various collecting interests. However, the flood gates started to open about eight months ago and I am just now starting to close them a bit once again.

I'd like to say that I have no idea how hints spiraled so quickly, but in truth I know exactly how. I was working on a trade and happened to start digging through a box that hadn't seen the light of day in a few years. Immediately I was reminded of players, insert sets, and parallels I hadn't thought about in just as long. It's this idea that brings me to the focus of my first post in what feels like forever.

World Series/Playoff highlight cards have long been a fixture in baseball card sets, but they were significantly more difficult to come by in football products over the years. Imagine my surprise when 1998 Skybox Premium football dropped and there was a 15 card Super Bowl subset called One For the Ages that happened to feature my beloved Denver Broncos' victory over the Green Bay Packers in SBXXXII. I was thrilled when I was able to complete the 15 card base set via pack ripping. On the day I finished the set, I was busting a few packs at my then LCS. A handful of packs into my day I pulled the following Star Rubies parallel:

I was happy with the pull, but younger me was disappointed that it wasn't one that had Elway or Terrell Davis on it and I was still laser focused on trying to pull the last base card I needed for the subset. A few packs later I finished my subset and stopped buying packs for the day. Before I left the shop, I slid the somewhat disappointing parallel into a sleeve and top loader. When I got home it went into a box of some 'lesser' PC cards where it stayed, rarely touched in the years since. It had probably been around 5 or 6 years since I had last seen it when I stumbled upon the box it lived in while searching for cards I could include in a (relatively)recent trade. Funny thing is that when I saw it this time around it stirred up all of my memories surrounding that first SB victory for the Broncos. There began a search for other Rubies from the subset. I wasn't committed to trying to build the parallel subset, but the thought was now floating around my mind. In short order I had added a few more for cheaper than I thought I could get limited parallels from 20 years ago.

These three were acquired within a few weeks of starting to search. Slowly, I began to consider hunting for the full set. However, none of these featured TD or Elway and those would surely be cost prohibitive. I set a saved search notification and put the idea of finishing this potential project on the back burner. Then one day about a month later, a notification for another one of these popped up. It was reasonable priced with a 'best offer' option so I sent in an offer that I was comfortable with and it was quickly accepted. A few days later this greeted me at the mail box:

I was so excited! TD, Rod Smith, Mile High Salute...its all here in its sparkly glory. It was here I decided that finding the rest of these would be an official collecting goal. I just told myself that a task like this would require time and plenty of patience(funding and collecting sacrifice too). What immediately followed my decision to try to complete the subset was several weeks of no luck finding additional needs. Why not test hat patience right out of the chute, right? About two months into the hunting drought I received a new notification. I was immediately struck with joy and sadness all at the same time. There was joy at the potential of adding another of these to the collection. There was sadness because the asking price was nowhere near being in my collecting budget. I immediately began searching my collection for cards I could sell to raise funds. I sacrificed my Bray Wyatt 1/1 auto that I pulled a while back. I set it up on eBay with a really high BIN/make an offer. I was surprised that within a day I had an offer that was higher than I anticipated settling for. I gambled to see if I could get more out of it and countered. The buyer upped the original offer a bit and I accepted, all the while hoping that the sale would help me land the latest project need to hit the market. Once the funds hit my PayPal account, I offered on the Star Ruby. After a bit if back and forth, a sale price was agreed upon and I was one card closer to my collecting goal.

One HUGE card closer!

Fast forward to just before Christmas, and I hadn't seen any other copies online or at the few shows I was able to browse. All of a sudden, a 6-day auction popped up for one I needed. Every day I anxiously checked in on the auction to see if any new bids were made. While I certainly preferred the gratification of the BIN nature of the others I had added, the waiting forced by the auction reminded me that the hunt should be just as fun as reaching the goal. I can't easily verbalize how I felt, but going through a week of checking and hoping and checking again made winning that auction even more satisfying.

With this one in hand, I sit at 7/15, teetering on the edge of halfway complete. Once again it's been a long time since a new need has popped up. That's alright though. Patience is on my side. Someday I'll track down the eight remaining needs and this project that inadvertently started over 20 years ago will be compete. Until then, I'll do my best to enjoy search. If you've made it this far, thanks for coming along on the journey with me.

Happy Topps Release Day!!!

To be fair, I was able to find the cards I'm going to share here on Monday this week but haven't been able to write about them yet. Today is the day that so many collectors anxiously await, the release of the year's first baseball card product. It's Topps series one release day! As mentioned, I was happily surprised to start my week by finding some new cards sitting on the shelf at Target on Monday.

I decided to try a blaster and a hanger box to kickoff the new collecting year. I was happy to see the 'Target Exclusive' Derek Jeter Highlights cards advertised on the front of the blaster. Others may be tired of new Jeters or new Yankees in general, but I'm excited to chase more cards of the Captain. I was just hopeful that the card design would look nice. I guess its an added bonus that there are also some coupons to use later. I decided to rip into the blaster first.

Here is a representation of the different subsets to be found. Future Stars, League Leaders, World Series Highlights, and team cards are all available. I scanned the Hosmer and Ozuna because I thought they were some of the more interesting photos from the blaster. I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about the design this year. I've heard some people refer to it as the 'Aquafresh' set or the 'wave' set. So far, for me, the design element that my eye tends to be drawn to is the effect found on the right side of the player and team name bars. It reminds me of the movie 'Pixels'. The more I look at it, the more it grows on me.

Here is a smattering of different inserts that I found. We've got Award Winners, Opening Day, Topps Salute, Superstar Sensations, 1983 35th Anniversary, and Legends in the Making. I was really happy to pull two Judge inserts after not having much luck pulling his RCs last year. I love the early career photo of the Straw-Man they used on the Salutes card. Across the bottom row, I scanned Verlander and Darvish because they show them in their new unis. While they may not be the first pieces of cardboard to do so, I still thought it was nice to see. I pulled 4 of the 1983 cards. I decided to scan Devers(despite being a Red Sox) because he is one of the most exciting young players to have RCs in series 1. I really like the way these look. However, they used a more modern card stock which leaves them a bit too slick feeling for my liking. I'm not sure if I'll make even a half hearted attempt at putting that set together. I feel like it would have been a real winner if they had used the same 'old school' card stock they used on the 1987 set last year. 

The Captain!!! I was thrilled to find 4 of these Derek Jeter Highlights cards in the blaster and I'm really happy with the simple, jersey-inspired design. I will definitely need to track all of these down.

While I was excited to be opening packs of the first set of the year, the blaster had left me a bit underwhelmed until the second to last pack I opened. I had only pulled a single gold, a single rainbow foil parallel, and only a few rookies(none of which were the ones I really wanted to pull). However, right in the middle of that second to last pack was a card that helped redeem the box.

Willie Calhoun has been a pretty highly touted prospect in the Dodgers system over the past few years. The Rangers acquired him in the Yu Darvish trade and he was one of their September call-ups, playing in 13 games. This is the Mother's Day Pink parallel and is #/50. I beat pretty astronomical odds finding this in my blaster as they fall 1:694 packs. I still had the 'relic' pack to go too. This year, series 1 includes Manu-relics featuring the altered MLB logo that was used during Players Weekend. I thought this was a pretty fun idea for a 'relic' set which is the main reason I opted to go for the blaster and not just multiple hangers.

I still like the design of the card and I have no issue with pulling a Josh Donaldson. I do have an issue with their photo selection though. One of the most fun aspects of Players Weekend was the use of nicknames on the jerseys. Why have a set that is supposed to highlight Players Weekend if the photo selected doesn't showcase one of the main aspects of said weekend? I just don't get it. I have yet to  see the Yankees from this set, but I sure hope that their nicknames are visible, especially since there is the added novelty of the Yankees never wearing names on their jerseys. I'm hoping they'll be really cool additions to my collection once I track them down. Let's move on to the hanger box.

Ahhh, finally a few of the RCs I will be chasing made an appearance in the hanger box brick. Since I'm a fan of any WS Highlight cards, I had to scan the WS MVP. As I'm sure anyone reading is aware, Kiermaier is one of my favorite players in the league. Robbing HRs has become fairly common for him, but I never tire of seeing photos of him in action. This particular one looks like he is doing his best MJ 'Jumpman' impression. I decided to include the newest Yankee for exactly that reason and I love the gritty detail on that Tapia. It's just a great baseball card. There were no inserts that I felt the need to scan, but there was one card I thought looked a bit different as I flipped through the brick of cards. A quick scan of the minuscule codes on the card backs confirmed my initial suspicion that I had uncovered one of the lower tier photo variation SPs.

I can't even put into words how thrilled I was that I had pulled an SP that would immediately slip into my PC. This is the variation on card #1 in the set. Obviously I love Judge(otherwise this wouldn't be his third appearance in this post), but am I the only one that can see Cameron(Alan Ruck) from Ferris Bueller's Day Off here?

It's not too much of a stretch, right? Anyway, to all who are searching for new product, I hope you find some and have great luck as you rip into the first cards of the year! I think I'll go searching for some loose and fat packs so I can use some of my coupons from that blaster. Thanks for reading.

30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 4

It's been a while, but I'm back on track and tackling the day 4 topic: a rookie card of one of my favorite players. I went back and forth about which player/card to focus on. Something that happened Friday night made my decision for me though. One of my favorite former Durham Bulls, Taylor Motter hit his second grand slam of the season(and career) for the Mariners. I'd venture to say that this one was far sweeter than the first because it came against his former team, the Rays! I hate that the Rays traded him during the offseason. He became one of my favorite players during his time in Durham. I even got the chance to meet him a few times at the ballpark. He's genuinely a nice guy and I had hoped he would earn the role of super utility guy in Tampa. While that won't be happening in the foreseeable future, I am still pulling for him to have a great season.

As it relates to the cardboard, I'm kinda cheating since I'm about to highlight two different parallels of one of my favorite player's rookie cards. I've had these tucked away in my collection for a few months now so there's no better time to show them off.

As any modern-day collector knows, there are typically 20-30 different RCs to chase of any given player. However, this is one of only two official RCs featuring Motter. That makes it easier for a player collector to go parallel hunting. Though you can't tell from the scan, the card on the left is the reverse stock version. These flip the finish from a 'normal' card. The front is rough and has a flat finish to it, whereas the back is smooth and slightly glossy. On the right, we have the red back version. These aren't serial numbered, but they have a reported print run of 10 copies. For what it's worth, I'm still looking for the far more common gum-stained back. If anyone reading happens to have one, I'd love to trade for it. Thanks for reading.

(Finally)The 12th Day of Trade Posts...

Dimebox Nick sent to me, a bit of just about everything! Today, I highlight the last of my really overdue trade packages. Moving forward, I'll be able to get to my just a bit overdue packages. Some months ago, I received a rather large, bulging bubble mailer from Nick. Side note - the mailer had a small tear in it, but fortunately none of the contents were missing. I know this because I can't imagine anything more cardboard actually fitting in it. As usual, the trade from Nick contained a little bit of everything that I collect. Let's get on to the highlights!

Among the various stuffed team bags were these. Despite the note, there were not 179 Burger King cards in that pack. There was a half dozen cards towards the Yankees set though and that was an awesome start. In the middle here is a sleeve stuffed with minis of all sorts. Perhaps most interesting in the pack was the alert to 'check the backs...' Upon flipping them over:

Wow, the Ginter #23/25(best I can read the hand numbering) and a Sabermetrics Brett Gardner variation were surprising finds.

Oddballs!!! I can't imagine receiving a trade from Nick without some form of oddball being included. The Smokey the Bear Angels were ones that I had previously eyeballed on Johnny's Trading Spot several months before this package arrived. Bill Dickey is one of my favorite old school Yankees players. It's always awesome to find a Hostess card in a trade pack and that also goes for any Kellogg's cards. I was doubly grilled with that Guidry because it was completely crack-free.

Moving on to some former Yankees that I have sentimental attachments to for one reason or another. As you can see, the oddballs continue through this scan as well. I love that Strawberry with him taking a curtain call. The Donnie Baseball is one of the sometimes tough to find box bottom cards. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my love of those Dufex parallels before. The Topps Kids Kevin Maas actually looks really similar to the way I remember him when he was mashing HRs in his rookie season. The blue parallel, serial numbered Betances doesn't really fit since it's kinda mainstream, but it was definitely a welcome addition. Finally, a minor league issue of Hideki Irabu. I vividly remember the hype that surrounded him and the hope I had for him to be even better than Hideo Nomo. Good times, reminiscing about a time when he had all the potential in the world. Too bad he was one of the biggest busts.

Here, we've got some old and some new. I especially love the Buck Leonard and the Trea Turner, but they're all pretty great.

Next up, some Archives-y and Heritage-y inserts of former Yankees. The 1951 design is my first from that set and it only serves as a reminder that I really need to pick up one of those factory sets one of these days. In case you guys haven't gotten the idea from reading my previous posts, I am a sucker for these old school oddball-type sets.

I was blown away when I flipped to this one in one of the stacks. Now, I'm no Jayson Werth fan, but I have eyeballed these Sega Card-Gen issues since I first saw them on several other blogs. Occasionally, I've search d for these on eBay and I've never come across one that fits my collection well enough to pay the asking prices. I love this card.

I was shocked to see these. Knowing Nick's usual point of view on relic cards, I would have never thought I'd find one(let alone two) in a trade from him. These are welcome additions to my former Durham Bulls collections. If only that Souza had the Rays logo on that helmet... Usually, if I'm lucky enough to find a relic in a trade package, it is the final scan that I post. However, this particular envelope happened to contain a parallel that blew me away even more so than he truly unexpected relics...

There you have it! Maybe it's not so awesome to some of you being that this is a week or so from opening day. Though I'm embarrassed to say it, this card arrived in my collection right at the beginning of Gary's barrage of home runs last summer. I actually kinda felt bad because had Nick held onto it for another week or so(rather than throwing it into this trade package), he probably could have sold it for a pretty penny. I'm extremely thankful that he was willing to include this awesome RC parallel. Thanks for another great trade, Nick. I've got several stacks set to the side with your name on them. I'll be sure to get them in the mail to you really soon. Thanks for reading.

On the 7th Day of Trade Posts...

...another two PWEs! Let's take a look at a few Rays that came to me from Stealing Home.

The Longos are pretty nice, but I really like the rainbow foil Odorizzi. Others have said this, but the Future Stars tag is a bit off the mark. It's still a nice card to add to the collection of former Durham Bulls.

Next up is the most recent PWE from Brian over at Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary.

I was thrilled to see the black border retail parallel of Blake Snell! The Boggs hails from one of the 'ultra premium' sets of the mid-90's, Leaf Limited. Rounding out the highlights of this envelope was the awesome dual-rookie Johnny Barbato/Ben Gamel rainbow foil. These guys may not be household names, but I've had fun watching Gamel several times when the Scranton Railriders have come to Durham.

Thanks for the great cardboard guys! I'll definitely be putting together return packages for you both early in 2017. Thanks for reading.

Double Dose of #supertraders

 

This arrived not long ago, and so it began. I received my first two packages from members of the Super Traders group on he same day, so I decided to write them up in the same post. The first was a size able bubble mailer from the founder himself, Wes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk. It was chock full o' Rays.

Parallels abounded. These weren't even all of them, not by a long shot. Yunel knows it Wes, you're the man! I think my favorite of this bunch is the mound conference on the Alex Cobb.

Minis were in there too! I got to watch Desmond Jennings in Durham, and I'm quite disappointed thathis MLB career has been pretty lackluster. With all of the outfield talent they have in the system, he may be out if he can't figure out a way to hit the ball a little bit.

There was some shiny in there too. His only scratches the surface(more to come in a moment). Nice to have a Wade Davis chrome and the Kazmir is #/10! Hard to believe that he began with the Rays, he has molded quite a respectable career since his departure from FL.

These are mostly shiny and all numbered to /400 or less. My favorite is definitely the Alex Sanchez. I remember watching him play in Durham too and I loved the 1998 Bowman's Best design. This happens to be my first refractor from that set, and here are only 400 of them. Back then, it was a big deal to be limited to that low a number!

That concludes a really solid package from Wes to lead things off. The second package to arrive that same day came from Brian of HSCA. He is quite the prolific trader and I received one of his kickoff PWEs.

I love adding new cards of Boggs from his days in Tampa. It is an underrepresented period in my collection. Hey, there's a base 1998 Bowman's Best! The Price is the purple refractor. I sometimes wish he was still pitching in Tampa, especially now that he'll be toeing the rubber in Boston this season.

While I was a fixture at the ballpark in the years surrounding Longoria's MLB debut, I was not collecting at the time. Therefore, I've been late to the party in acquiring his RCs. This UD Masterpieces is new to me and has  immediately become the favorite RC of his in my possession. I love the canvas look and feel! Brian loaded some other Rays in there, but he also sent this:

I snagged my first 2015 Certified cards(Shane Ray RCs) at the recent card show I visited, but having this Elway fall out of the PWE was a great surprise! So there is my first Super Traders experience. If all of the packages are this strong, I'll be glad that I've been planning to step up my game on my outgoing packages. Thanks Wes and Brian, I've got some cardboard almost ready to be packed up and shipped out in your directions. Hope you enjoy it as much as I dug what you sent my way! Thanks for reading.

Congrats to Brett Gardner, AL All-Star

I was thrilled to hear that one of my favorite current Yankees was named to the All-Star squad yesterday. I had been voting for him as my Final Vote candidate. In the absence of The Captain this year, he has really been the heart of a team that is exceeding expectations at the halfway point of the season. His drive and work ethic are unmatched plus he's been an underdog for his entire career which makes it all the easier to pull for him. In honor of his first All-Star Team selection, I wanted to share the only 'rainbow' that I really feel I've completed.

2005 Bowman

2005 Bowman Gold

These two are the paper varieties.

2005 Bowman Chrome

2005 Bowman Chrome refractor

These are the non-serial numbered Chrome versions.

2005 Bowman Chrome xfractor

2005 Bowman Chrome blue refractor

Finally, these are both serially numbered. The xfractor is #/250 while the blue is #/150. Granted, I didn't have to track down any 1/1's here, but this 'rainbow' has more of a place in my collection than any I could try to put together of these more modern day products with a dozen or more variations I'd have to get.

Congrats on the awesome achievement Gardy!

Oh Captain, My Captain! A Tribute

A little over two months ago, I posted about a mail day that was my perfect reward for a hard snow day's work. Since I posted the gold version of the 2015 Topps Derek Jeter checklist card (#319) back in February, I have been in the hunt for the gold version of card #1. I've bid on at least a dozen of them, but they all ended at prices higher than I wanted to pay. I decided to start following the search. Boy, am I glad I did! The other day, I was looking through the newly listed auctions and found one that had a $6.50 opening bid with $1.00 for shipping and a buy it now option of only $8.50(also with $1.00 for shipping). I couldn't complete the transaction fast enough! Yesterday this arrived in my mailbox:

I'm still not looking to complete a rainbow, not even close. However, right after the gold Jeter arrived, I found a rainbow copy of the checklist card for way cheaper than I thought I'd be able to. So, a BIN later, and all of a sudden this card is on its way to my door. 

In he span of a few days, I took two steps closer to completing the parallels I wanted to put together. Three down, one more to go. If anyone out there has a rainbow foil copy of Jeter #1 that needs a good home, I can help with that.