Recently Acquired Ink From a Few of My Favorite Bulls

Now that I've had the chance to rip my first packs of 2016 product, and with Spring Training approaching, I find myself looking forward to another season of Durham Bulls baseball with my family. I know I've written about some of my favorite players that I've had the opportunity to watch up close at the DBAP before. Until recently, my collection of most of these guys has consisted of base, a few parallels, and Bulls team set cards. Thanks to some Paypal funds, courtesy of the recent sale of a few unwanted cards, I decided that I needed to add some substance to my former Bulls collection. A few eBay steals and a rather large chunk of Listia credits later and I am the proud owner of some great autos.

Snell is the most recent player that I had the fortune to see play in Durham. He had quite an impressive 2015 across three minor league levels and walked away with multiple Minor League Player/Pitcher of the Year awards. This one was found during a trek through the Land of Listia and cost me a nice chunk of credits, but it was definitely worth it. This picture doesn't come close to doing it justice! I'm not sure whether he'll officially be a former Durham Bull to open the season or if I'll have an opportunity to see him start a few more games before making his way to Tampa. Either way, I'm happy to add this certified auto to my in-person signature I snagged at the end of last season.

Next up is this great rookie year, serial numbered auto of Brandon Guyer. A few seasons back, he was my favorite Bull. He plays at 110% all the time and I dig that. This is my second Guyer auto, but my first showing him in a Rays uni. I was overjoyed to win this one for just over three bucks shipped on eBay.

Last, but certainly not least, is probably my current favorite non-Yankee.

I have been keeping my eyes open for one of these Kiermaier RC's almost since it was released. Though he's not a superstar, every copy that I have seen has gone for way more than I wanted to spend on it and most had either a plain white swatch or a piece of bat chip. When I saw this one pop up through my eBay saved searches I knew I had to make a serious run at it. At the end of the auction, when the dust settled(there was a crazy, last second flurry of bidding) I was thrilled to be the highest bidder. 

This concludes my brief distraction from the pending 2016 Topps obsession. Said obsession will likely return tomorrow or Friday at the latest since I will be taking delivery of my jumbo hobby box tomorrow around mid-day. Thanks for reading!

Ripping Packs - My First Impulse Buy of the Year

Yesterday was a crazy day at the office which actually capped a really insane week for me. I arrived at the office at 9am and had to stop by the local Target to pick up a few things before driving home sometime around 9:30pm. I made the mistake of browsing the card aisle while I was there instead of just getting in and out. Two weeks into the new year and I had been doing really well with the goal to control my impulse spending. Since there hasn't really been any new products I'm interested in, it has been fairly easy. However, after such a long and difficult day, my willpower was MIA. The pickings were slim. I considered a hanger or blaster of The Force Awakens or maybe one of those retail three packs of Topps Chrome football. I wrestled for a minute or two which should have been my cue to just walk away. Then I saw a freshly opened box of Topps Platinum football. I shouldn't have cared for so many reasons: I don't buy a lot of football packs, I'm not a huge fan of the Platinum brand, and there are only four cards per pack to list a few. I guess the lure of the fresh box was too much to overcome because I grabbed the top two packs and headed to checkout. At least the box boasted that there would be a guaranteed rookie auto or rookie auto/relic in each box.

Here are the packs as they were sitting in the box. I waited until I got home, checked on my two oldest girls who were asleep, and fed/put my one month old to sleep. Finally, I had a few moments for myself. I opened the Gordon/Gurley pack first.

Hmmm, only three cards in the pack. I guess the disclaimer about 'packs with a special insert may contain 1-3 cards' applied here due to that blue parallel? It's not numbered, but I'm gonna think of it that way instead of feeling like I got shorted a card. It was a disappointing first pack for sure but I tried to stay positive about the possibilities in pack two. I ripped into the Winston/Mariota pack and hoped for the best.

The first card provided a significant upgrade over the contents of pack number one. Then, I flipped to this:

Wow is all I could think of! I don't collect the Browns, but it was very cool to pull a rookie auto/patch(if you look closely, there's two colors there) #/125 of a guy who played fairly well this season. Ripping those packs served the purpose of being a fun mental break after making it through the tough day/week and it was well worth the $6 price tag. I've even got a few of these set to travel to new homes already.

Ultimately, I'm not sure whether the results of those packs was positive or negative. My first impulse buy of the year and I was rewarded with an auto/patch card. It's a double edge sword. Nice trade bait, but the positive reinforcement of the behavior I'm trying to limit probably doesn't bode well for the rest of the year. Oh well, the goal was to 'limit', not eliminate impulse spending. I've still got 50 more weeks to keep working on that. Thanks for reading!