Post #49! Top 11 List.

Well, I have been at collecting for just over a month and it is had to believe how many highs, lows, elation, and disappointments that I have experienced as I jump head-first back into collecting. I have never been a traditional dozen roses kind of guy, so I thought I would celebrate my 49th post with a top 11 of my favorite cards that I have collected thus far.


#1 Jackie Robinson SP from Topps 2009 Series 1.
How Obtained: Pulled from a hobby box
I remember being beside myself pulling this SP. Of everything I have collected thus far, nothing has been nearly as fun as the Topps set, as it continued to surprise with its wide variety of inserts. The best part about these short prints is that they do not necessarily fall after the center barrier card, so it is a nice surprise when you find these. My first official SP was Ryne Sandberg, who found his way to a proper home.

#2 Babe Ruth SP, 2009 Topps Series 1
How Obtained: Ebay
I simply could not envision a permanent collection piece that did not include this card. What a beautiful shot and I hope to find a few more Ruth's as the years go by. I feel fortunate to have jumped when I first saw this, because I have not seen any posted since.

#3 Jacoby Ellsbury Draft Pick Rookie Card, 2005 Topps Update

How Obtained: Purchased through Homerun Cards I had to have this Ellsbury card, as he is a staple favorite in this household, and namesake for my son.

#4 Roberto Clemente 1961 All-Star Patch

How Obtained: Target Series 1 Blaster

This card was the result of my mistake of purchasing an entire box of throwback series 1 as I thought I was finding an inexpensive way to complete my base set! As I casual opened up the packs and separated the few inserts, this payoff was at the bottom of box and immediately became one of my faves. The player, the colors, the history. This baby is a keeper

#5 Jason Varitek 2008 Upper Deck

How Obtained: Through Priceless Pursuit

Joe at Priceless Pursuit was more than happy to part with a great number of Red Sox cards after the 3rd consecutive sweep of the season. This card is just sweet as Varitek is a main reason why the Red Sox pitching is so successful, and he definitely earned that trophy.

#6 Ramon Hernandez, 2009 Topps
How Obtained: pulled from pack, received in trade, pulled from another pack

This card just cracks me up. It is really a classic card and very different from any card in this set...but I have traded it away 3 times! And it keeps coming back to me through other trades! There is ol Ramon, peeking at me through that mask. Book him.

#7 - Johnny Cueto Future Legends Auto, 2009 SP Legendary Cuts

How Obtained: Pulled from hobby box

I love young pitchers. I think there is a lot of great rising talent these days and I was thrilled to pull Johnny from a pack. He is technically my second auto pull, but this one that I will hang onto and watch carefully as cueto progresses throughout his career.

#8 Winston Churchill Upper Deck 2009

How obtained: Pack pull

This card was my first introduction to the weird, "non-baseball" insert. I found him odd at first, but have hung onto him in a Wilson from "Castaway" kinda way. I have never really filed this card anywhere in particular, yet I keep bumping into him. And look at me now, I am chancing Legendary Cuts Short Prints across the globe (let me know if you have some, hint!)

#9 Mark Derosa Silk print Topps 2009 Series 1

How Obtained: Hobby box pull

This pull was especially fun since I had already pulled the GU from this box, I did not expect much else to be left. While not necessarily a cub or derosa fan, This greenhorn has never seen a card quite like this

#10 Carlton Fisk Legendary Cuts Legendary GU

How Obtained: Hobby Box Pull

I have made a lot of comments that I pull nothing but Yankees and Twins, so this was a nice change of pace, a great player, a great design, and numbered to 50, cant really beat it. #11 Mitch Williams, 1987 Topps
How Obtained: Random stash from my Wifes Office

A co-worker brought in a ton of cards that her daughter had collected so my wife snagged me a good plastic bag full. Ah good ol Wild Thing in all his glory. This card is classy and he is kinda the unofficial mascot of the blog. If only this was his rookie, it would have been even better, as is, this is year 2.

Well, thats it for now, and I am sure with Allen and Ginter out next week, several new favorites will find a permanent place in our collection!

United we plunder!

This is just a short little jobber to explain my latest poll. I have been reading up on the next "Crack the Ginter Code" and apparently the "be on the card" is so 2008 and this year the grand prize is an entire set of autos from their auto subjects. Unsure quite how many there are total, but cardwise, they have said there might be up to 100 code cards??? Ridiculous. Clearly they are hoping to make a killing in selling cases upon cases and profiting from ebay sales. Plus then you still have to SOLVE that damn thing!



So I propose this. We start a grassroots campaign to collect the cards, get them together, (hopefully) solve the code, and then split the autos among us. I mean hats off if there is somebody out there that is going to spend on ton on cases of cards, I am buying a few boxes, but gunna chill out after I have the base set.



So the poll is would you want to participate? I could be way off on this, but thought it might be something fun to try as a group. Vote away!

Warning- Serious Post Ahead!

As you may notice from my last post, I am a bit moodier about card collecting the last couple days. I mean, who disses on there own team set? I am not really going to apologize to upper deck though on that one, their product speaks for itself and they could have done better.

I think one reason for my mood is a web page I read the other day that really has me thinking about how I purchase my cards, this a snippet from that page:

"Here is the product breakdown of 2006 SP Legendary Cuts Baseball. Note the bolded sentence. If you want to pull a cut sig or a signature card, you should not buy a box of 2006 Legendary Cuts Baseball on eBay. Here is the very common scenario why.
So a eBayer buys a case of 2006 SP Legendary Cuts Baseball on Ebay or somewhere else. After opening the 6th box, he hits the second and final cut sig of the case. Since his only reason to buy the case was to get two great cut sigs, he decides to sell the other boxes on ebay to get some of the money back that he spent. So he lists the boxes on ebay and all the buyers, who want to hit a cut sig, get a box that will not have a cut sig gareenteed without knowing that they don't have a chance at a cut sig.
If you are looking to buy a 2006 SP Legendary Cuts Baseball Box to hit a cut sig, your best bet is buying it from your local hobby shop or from a trusted sportscard source (such as Dave and Adams Card World), and not from some guy in a different state that you don't know.
Also, I would like to say that I have nothing against this product it is just unfortunate what some people do".

Now keep in mind that this "alert" is only eluding to the 2006 SP Legendary Cuts, but who is to say that ANY product is immune to this type of collusion?

As a new collector, I like to assume best intentions. When I make a trade through my blog, I assume that the other party will follow though just as they assume that I will follow through. There is that trust factor there.

I have to have that same trust factor with vendors, whether it be a hobby shop or a seller on ebay. I have purchased several hobby boxes online, and have also pre-ordered a couple boxes of A&G and was thinking of a third box from another vendor that offers steep discounts. I would love to assume that these vendors simply pull all the boxes from the case and ship them out without cracking open a few for themselves. Heck, I would even love to believe that when you order a full CASE, that it has not been tampered with by the vendor. After all, the product says 2 cut autos ON AVERAGE...whoops, yours had none? Well, their are always outliers to any average, tough break.

My skepticism is not helped when I see these amazing hits posted online by hobby shop owners. I struggle to pull a future prospect auto, and there is a cut Mickey Mantle on ebay! I have to assume best intentions with sellers, but really, these people are not in the business to make trades with us, there are out there to make money. And the above scenario makes a lot of sense. If you nail the "hits" early, then sell off the individual boxes full of sub-par hits.

Another item I notice on ebay is these so-called HOT PACKS. Guaranteed Cut Auto inside. Selling for upwards of 150-200 bucks. So a vendor reseals a package with a cut auto, do you really believe he is going to insert anything of value in that pack?

So, bloggers, where do you stand on this issue? Am I paranoid? Are some vendors more susceptible to this than others?

As a family man on a limited hobby budget, I want to make purchases with confidence that I have a chance to pull something nice. Am I going about it the wrong way. Leave some comments.

2007 commemorative box arrived

Today was a rather slow day for business. Only two Legendary SP's came to be from Ebay, there would have been a third, but my track ball decided to stop working with less than 1 minute left on "Oil Can" Boyd. I have a lot of trades in the hopper, but no envelopes today, so I was very happy to see my package from Upper Deck sitting on the porch. Something to open up!

This was the Red Sox 50-card commemorative set that I treated myself to ordering on Fathers Day. Definite props for a quick delivery, however, I have to say that I was a bit underwhelmed with the product itself...which is sad because this was supposed to be a memorable keepsake from my 2007 world champs. There cards are not all bad, but they are definitely hit and miss.


Firstly, the 25 card team set: I am pretty happy with these, though there is nothing to really jump up and down about as all of the player cards feature similar poses, zooms, and style. 18 of the 25 cards are vertical shot, and each card tends to blur out all but the player. I guess the main point is that there is not a lot of variation or creativity here.


There are 15 season highlight cards. Here is an example:

See that background? On every card. Basically another close up vertical shot superimposed on a background. Sure there is a little story on the back of the card, but I guess I was thinking that these would be candid shots of the season. Nope, just 15 cards virtually identical to the card above. disappointing.

Then there are 9 memorable moment cards

Oh yeah, I remember this one, this is where Beckett....threw...that....pitch. While not quite as mundane as the season highlight cards, the blurry backgrounds lend nothing to a story. But of course you can read a story on the other side of the card.

Now there are a couple of items that I did like about this set. I could not find an actual jpeg of the card, but they included an MVP card of Mikey Lowell

Of course it has always been of my opinion that both Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia should have been MVP's the way there tore it up that entire series against the Rockies, but one was a rookie and the other was not even considered a rookie at the time, so it makes sense*

This last card is an oversized commemorative that came with the set. I love this card and wish that more of this series had followed this example:

So, a mixed bag. I have these safely stored in their three-ring pouch, and there they will stay, but overall I would have to say that upper deck could have put a lot more effort into creating a memorable product. And where the heck was Wally? Maybe after THIS years team wins it all, Upper Deck will get it right!

APB on Gehrig

Have you seen this man?

I am this one card away from completing the 15 card career best legends set. If you have a double and are willing to trade, please let me know!

Thanks

Mike

History of the World, Part 2

Day 2 of the Lengendary hunts was a resounding success, as you may notice several PENDING slots on my wish list. My wife shakes her head and says that I have gone from a pack buying junkee to an ebay junkie. What can I do though? I am on a mission with this series and gotta git going while the gittins good! Plus I am getting pretty savvy with the ebay and learning when to bid and how much as well as looking for lots where they can combine shipping. In a perfect world I would be able to just trade with the bloggers for these, but it does not seem like that many of you are collecting them, so either way works for me. There were several purchases yesterday, but I will just select a few:

Christoper Columbus in his feathered-hair, and Seinfeldian pirate shirt.

Was present at the Boston Tea Party in 1773, and well as being the "Midnight Rider" for the Battles of Lexington and Concord. "One if by land, two if by sea" if I am not mistaken. Watching historical battles with the British, I was always amazed how the British simply fell in line and waited to get slaughtered. Did you ever see "Last of the Mohicans"? Magua tore those dudes up!

Signed the Declaration of Independence. It's actually a really nice signature too. I should find this guy and see if he will sign his card.

Francis Scott Key: Lawyer, Poet, wrote The Star-Spangled Banner", Rocked a white bow-tie, and kinda looks like Dr. Who.

Jacoby Dustin- CEO and President of JD's Wild Cardz. Accomplished cow wrangler by the age of six months. Future Olympic swimmer (check out those feet, folks!) and know Kendall Gill destoyer! Most recent achievement is throwing up on me TWICE this morning while giving a goodbye hug. One per shoulder...truly an ace marksman.

More to come. Please let me know if you can help with the short prints as well as the 9 or so commons that I have listed on the sidebar!

Gotz some mail!

It is always nice to come home from a long day of work and find a nice brown envelope (or two) in the mail. It is definitely a good feeling that you finally have a free pack to open, and quite frankly after a frantic initial month of blogging, it gets a little difficult to remember the trades that I have made, so it is always a nice surprise in each envelope.

So tonight I had the fortune to come home to two, the first package coming from Jeremy at noonesgoingtoreadthisblog.blogspot.com (they will now!) Jeremy kicked me down some Sox for my ever-increasing binder pages, got some nice retros as well as Francona, Lowell, Papi, and a few series 1 commons that I need to try to finish off my second full set. If you have not already, you should receive a package from me very soon. Everybody make sure to check out the blog and bookmark that address so you only need to type it in once!

The second package is one that I have been looking forward to for some time, it comes from Jeffrey at Card Junkie . Below are some of the cards. I apologize for my lack of scanner yet, this is the poor mans version!

These are a couple of the career legends career best series, Christy Mathewson and Ty Cobb and his bionic arm. The best, and worst thing about these cards is that I am ONE short of the 15 card set, Mr Lou Gehrig. It is always the last card that is the hardest to find, so if ANYBODY can locate this card for me, this set collector will feel very good to close the book on one of many unfinished sets.

These are exciting because they represent the first of the Turkey Reds since my official turkey hunt began a couple weeks back. Connor Jackson, Cole Hamel, and Derek Jeter (bum) and look what else? A 3-month SP Jacoby Dustin! Doing his Dr Evil impression none-the-less.

Also included were several more commons in helping to complete my second complete set. Inching ever closer thanks to you guys!

As always, thank you for supporting our blog and here's to more trades down the road!

The Hunt Begins

Sporadically I will update you on my progress towards completing the 2009 Legendary Cuts series. I find this product pretty fascinating and as I am slowly discovering that I am a series collector kind of guy, this is one that I definitely want to finish and keep in my permanent collection. My search will take place via eBay (somebody wrote about another site that seemed more reasonable on pricing and shipping but I cant remember it) and hopefully through some trades with you guys. Please keep an eye on my wish list on the side bar of the blog, and also check out the available list for base set 1-100 singles if you have a favorite player that you would like me to send you.


Okay, so now to my first SP purchase on EBay....actually back up a second. Have any of you seen what the cut signatures are going for on EBay? How come I never pull on of THOSE? Actually I see that the prices are sell now prices, so I am a bit skeptical on whether or not the seller actually ever sees that amount. There is one up there for Comisky that the guy is asking $75,000 for!


Anyways, that is a side tangent. So I went on eBay last night and searched for lots of SP's. I found a lot of 4 that had no bids and were spaced a minute apart. I nailed the first 3, but SOMEBODY outbid me by a nickle for Reggie Jackson. So here is what I snagged..

George Washington. The first President, the $1 bill, the guy you can track on the Internet to see where he has been (something I would rather not know). The guy (as Slater points out in Dazed and Confused) that grew marijuana on his farm. Also credited with introducing the mule to the US, and had the shortest inaugural address at 135 words.

Bill "Maz" Mazeroski (2B) is known more for his defensive prowess, earning eight gold gloves in his career. While only batting a paltry career .260/.299/.367, he did have a remarkable .983 career fielding percentage. Must have had stickum in that glove.

"Et tu, Brute"? Caesar got it stuck to him....23 times stabbed by his own Senate members. While a tragic ending, Caesar did leave us with a variety of tasty salad dressings, MANY movies about his life, and me one card closer to completing this set. Oh, did I forget to mention the grand palace in Las Vegas that Caesar did NOT live at, and also originator of the toga party.

So my EBay experience is dependant upon the shipping costs, and while the seller indicated that he would package shipping costs together, my pay pal balance would beg to differ. I will keep an eye to see if any of this is credited back once discovered that I purchased multiples on the same day.

Stay tuned for more updates on my chase for the cuts!

Mission: Educational!

So if you scroll down the page a bit on the right tool bar, you may notice that a new magical want list has suddenly appeared. This want list is for the SP Legendary Cuts SP's #101-200. I have really been sucked into this set (as you may see by the duplicates I have for trade). I think these cards are masterfully made and all are exceptional looking cards, but my reasons for wanting the whole set go beyond the quality.

When I think about my son growing up and into the hobby, I want to be able to show him the cards we have gathered so far. This set is fantastic in that it not only covers todays premiere players, but the short prints cover great players from the past, and also great people of historical significance. I thought what a great set to get Jacoby interested in current, past, and history.

I know that this is going to be a difficult, but doable task to gather these cards and I may need the help of ebay to achieve it, but I am also reaching out to the blog community as well. Please take a moment to scroll down the side and see if you might be able to help me bring a little Davey Crockett and Abraham Lincoln into JD's world!

Thanks,

Mike

Good Johnny/Bad Johnny

Receiving a pack of 2004 Red Sox through the mail yesterday really brought me back to a place and time that I have not thought about for quite some time. It used to be my own tradition to watch the 2004 World Series video the night before the season opener. The season opener is then spent throwing on the jersey, and eating brats, potato salad and beans. The evening after the opener is spent regretting eating too many of those brats and beans.

The point is, as a fan of all sports (main ones anyways) when the Red Sox won the World Series that changed EVERYTHING for me. I have never had a winning team in any sport. The Seahawks had one shot at it, the Trailblazers had a few chances, and the Red Sox were traditionally cursed.

Now I don't need to go into the story of how it happened, it is well documented, including a movie about it, and becoming only the 3rd team in sports history to come back from down 3-0 in a series. You all know the rest, or at least SHOULD know the rest.

Anyways, after going bananas and purchasing all of the newspapers, sports illustrated and commemorative dvd, plus leaving little boxes of Boston Baked Beans for all of my coworkers, I settled into a nice winter break, having had a content ending for the first time in my life.

I made a decision that year...I knew that in an off-season after a championship, your players are in demand, and teams want them....or if they are free agents, then it is going to cost that much more to keep them. So I decided that no matter where my team was going to end up in the future I would always give them a free pass for what they did for Red Sox nation.

And leave they did. Mueller and Lowe to LA, Orlando Cabrera to the Angels, Kevin Millar (and his crazy handshakes) to Baltimore, Pedro to the Mets....so on and so forth. All those guys get passes.

And then come Johnny Damon. Without a doubt one of my favorite of the bunch of idiots (his words). a major factor in that World Series win (especially game 7 of the ALCS). All winter long we assumed that Johnny would re-sign with the Red Sox. He was saying all of the right things, and it seemed more like a formality than anything else. Until that dreaded day...

You.............have..............got............to..............be...........kidding.............me!

Now don't get me wrong, many Redsox have become Yankees, including others from this group like Alan Embree, he gets a pass also. But Johnny Damon was a tough pill to swallow and still is, although seeing his team suffer annually and his throwin arm be a liability make it easier. Many theories still abound as to WHY he signed with the evil empire...my personal take is that his wife decided for him. SO, does Johnny Damon get a pass?

Yes* he does. But it is not easy to say so. I will give Damon a bit of credit. When he came back to Fenway Park for the first time after signing away, he stepped to the plate to massive boos, and with a touch of class, stepped back from the plate, raised his helmet to the fans, and saluted them...gave me goosebumps. Immediately 2/3rds of the crowd began to cheer, the other 1/3 will always be bitter. I thought it was a perfect ending to a great run. Now he just gets booed all the time :)

So the point of this blog is that I have a particular talent for pulling Yankee cards in packs. It disgusts me but makes for great trade material. I recently purchased a pack of O Pee Chee (for like double the price of you other guys...where the hell do you shop at anyways?) and pulled this card

This is not the Johnny Damon I care to remember. This is Corporate Johnny, I am looking for more of

Well okay, not quite, but definitely more of

So here is my proposal: I am officially opening the Johnny Damon Wing of my collection, but I am looking for the Caveman, the guy that smashes into walls (and other players), the guy that shaves his beard not for a paycheck, but for charity, the guy who rocked a porn stache just for the heck of it one game.

If you are on the other side of the fence and Corporate Johnny is your guy, I propose we do a nice, easy exchange. I believe that I have several other Damon's in my yankee section and would gladly trade them to you for an earlier model.

Let me know if you are interested. Operators are standing by.

Priceless Red Sox Have Arrived

Being a new collector on the Blogosphere, and also being a Red Sox fan puts me pretty low on the pecking order when it comes to acquiring Sox cards. As i started out this hobby I knew that I wanted to complete some sets, but didnt really know what I wanted beyond that. It came to me at one point that I wanted to collect not just Red Sox cards, but cards from the 2004 team that I will never forget.

Along came Joe from The Priceless Pursuit, and left the first ever comment on my blog. He mentioned that he had some Sox cards, absolutely wants to puke at the sight of them, and will get them over to me ASAP. After the Red Sox once again swept the Yankees, he made sure it was AAASAP. I wish I had a scanner, because I dont think I can find these photos online. I promise to get a scanner soon, but basically I was sent back in time with images of Varitek, Manny, Trot, Johnny Damon sans caveman, but not corporate man, Petey, Youk, Papi, Bill MUUUEEELLER, Kevin Millar Shea, and also a fantastic Clay Buchholz A&G Rookie. Okay, Clay wasnt there, but it is a great drawing. The best card is Tek holding up that trophy, man it gives me goosebumps. I love that team.

Outstanding, Joe, and much much appreciated. Of course now I need to go and buy more three ring sheets, which will cut into my new "Priceless Pursuit" weekly budget! Thanks a million, and let me know if you ever need anything.

SP Legendary Cuts Base Cards Now Available!

As promised I have added many base cards 1-100 of SP Legendary cuts. If you click on the available link on the right bar, it will take you there.

I really like this set and think the cards are of amazing quality. Everybody should have one of there favorite player in this design and I am happy to send them out to you. I do have a crazy idea in my head that I am going to pursue the ENTIRE series include the 101-200 short prints, so if you happen to come across any of these, maybe we can work a 2-3 base card for one short print trade of something of the such. Eventually I will post my needs in the sidebar just like the turkey hunt and see if we can widdle it down over time!

Take a look and enjoy!

Greenhorn Question of the Week: Storage

Just a quick question for you all:

As my collection continues to grow, I have debated the best way to store my cards. I have been using the card boxes for my sets, including the "rookie box" which every single rookie or prospect card I pull, penny sleeve, and throw in the box, and also my miscellanous team box which I dip into to fill out my brown envelope mailings.

I have recently started to purchase the three ring, nine slot plastic sheets...are these considered a safe way to store cards. I assume as long as they are kept out of extreme conditions they are pretty safe, but for permanant storage of sets, is it better to go with the boxes?

Also, for autographs, of which I have precious few, should I hard case those, or is the three ring plastic sleeve sufficient enough?

I just want to make sure I am taking care of these cards properly, so please leave me some feedback! Thanks!

A Decidedly Red Sox Weekend

I have marveled at my amazing ability to pull GU's and Autographs of either Cubs, Yankees, or Twins (I actually pulled an Ian Kennedy auto from SP legendary cuts yesterday), but have always had trouble gathering anything Red Sox related. When you like the Sox you have to work your magic quick on the blogs or the cards vanish quick!

I decided to turn the tides a bit and went to Upper Deck yesterday to try out my "mystery discount" card. After a major pain just getting signed up for the site, it turns out that my coupon did not qualify for my purchase...what a shocker! I now use these cards as filing spacers for my box of team randoms!

Anyways, I decided to go ahead and purchase the UD 2007 World Series Commemorative Red Sox set for $9.99

Does it eliminate the thrill of the hunt? Yes, but I still have my quest to find as many 2004 (so I imagine the 2005 cards is where they would be) memorabilia from my favorite WS team. Hell, they should just make a 50 card commemorative set from the ALCS and I would be happy!

I also finally got lucky with a GU card when I pulled: Numbered to 50 and with the left field pole named in his honor, I am thrilled to have Carlton in my permanent stash. I also pulled a generations card with him and another player, but that card is currently on its way to said other players favorite collector...nuff said.

I guess the only other "big pull" was a Varitek 20th anniversary UD card. Those cards are terrible and there must be well over 2000 in the series, but at least it was a Sox. If you guys happen to bump into any swatches or sigs, let me know and I will do my best to make you a fair trade offer!

Honorary Mention

Happy Fathers Day from JD and me!

In an effort to bolster the chances of completing my Turkey Red Hunt, I want to open up my Ring of Honor Series as available for trade. For those of you looking for a piece of memorabilia from your favorite world series team, please take a moment to click on the "available for trade tab" to see what I have available.

A little later this week I will be posting up some 2009 SP Legendary Cuts base 1-100 cards. I have quite a few doubles and once I inventory these, I will post them up as well for trade. These are really fantastic looking cards, so if you have a favorite player, stay tuned over the next couple days to see who is available and I would be happy to send them your direction!

As for wants, I would also love to complete the career legends series of the Topps 2009 set, so please take a moment to look over my want list to see if you can help me out. I am really hoping to wrap up a lot of these prior to the release of A&G next month so I can focus on those. From the results of my poll so far, response looks positive towards these sets, so I am hoping for a pretty strong network for us to trade across!

Just a couple of administrative mentions...As I become a blog post-a-maniac, I am starting to find it more difficult to spot new comments on older posts. So if you happen to dive further back into the blog and have a specific question or a trade need or offer, can you please send me an email at yinchuan2005@yahoo.com, as I definitely am checking my email frequently throughout the day.

Also just a personal request that always get a bit nervous with USPS, as it has bitten me in the past. If you happen to receive an envelope from me, can you please email me and let me know it came okay? Not looking for any blog props, just want to make sure you are getting your merchandise and it arrives in good condition.

Thanks guys, and again Happy Fathers day to all, and for you youngins out there...stay off drugs!

We will return to regularly scheduled blogs tomorrow!

An error of absolutely no significance?

Well at least at midnight is seems pretty funny. So I continue to bide my time waiting for brown envelopes to arrive and for the release of A&G, so in the meantime I need to keep the hobby shop owner in business, so I have been snagging more Bowman 2009 packets. For the most part these are generally not exciting to me, and I really have pulled nothing of significance, but I figure that I will store away all the prospect and rookie cards and see what shakes out over the next several years. BTW, many of the prospects in todays batch are Twins, if Crackin Wax is listening...oh and also a nice gold Magglio for Grand Cards if you want.



Anyways, yesterday I stumbled on the great batting photo of pitching phenom Edison Volquez...well tonight think I one upped it with this great Bowman classic...

Note that this Ervin Santana card has Johan Santana's signature on it. Whoops. I checked around the internet and nobody really seemed to notice or care, I checked ebay and while many of these were posted for bidding, only one person seemed to notice the wrong signature, but clearly the bidders did not care, as the bid stood at a whopping .99 cents. I am new to this hobby and remember error cards in my youth. While I would certainly consider this an error, my guess is that this kind of stuff happens all the time?

In other news, since I have not really heard a peep about my two extra WBC redemption cards, I decided to enter them into the Topps redemption system, only to see that one of the cards does not have a code on the back of it to enter. Hmm...anybody else have this problem? I am going to mail it in...who knows, maybe this is a special little card, or maybe (and more likely) I will receive nothing at all from Topps for it.

Lastly, I did receive a call from the hobby shop today. Seems another collector left a small packet of commons that went towards completing my second base set. I have MOST of series one complete (minus 4 cards) and have about 28 left on series 2 if you can help me out.

Happy Fathers day to all of you dads out there. This is my first and so far JD is rewarding me with a full night sleep.