While you were out...

Last week, it would appear that a great number of collectors migrated East...at least East of Oregon, and attended the great Mecca that was the National. I have to admit that I was initially jealous of such a fantastic show. I don't think we have anything anywhere near that caliber out here in the Northwest.

But as the blog reports and reviews came in, I felt a lot better, as most people seemed to report that most products were vintage and slightly high-priced. I am a newer collector who is focused on newer products and would be looking for killer deals to be had, so while the spectacle and the sheer entertainment value may have been there, the bargains probably would not have been worth my time.

HOWEVER, I did take advantage of the general collecting populous being away from their computers to jump onto eBay and find some outrageous deals on Topps Tribute that would have easily been double the price that they were going for on eBay that week. Here are a few of my lucky snags...

Carlos Pena Auto-Relic 23/99. My goal is to fill up a sheet of Tribute...five autos and four relics. There is nothing overly outstanding about this particular card, but I have always like Pena, and wish Boston would have kept him around. I also like these single-relics because the display both a team logo and a player number. The double relics have just the logo, and the triple relics...well, you better know your players. Of course, this is Tribute and not Obak, so player recognize SHOULD not be an issue.

Anyways, the fun of this find was that I discovered it with a mere 13 seconds left and somehow found a way to get in an absurdly low top-bid and Carlos made his way to Oregon.

From here things got a lot shinier!

Ah, Big Papi! Gold #5/25 double-relic auto. No scanner does justice to any of these cards, but the gold cards especially. If you thought that Pena's auto was perplexing, check out Papi's.

And if you though Papi's auto was perplexing, Check out Fielder! #4/25. I Like GOOOOOLLD! This is my first Fielder autograph and definitely a quality snag.

I also threw down for a couple packs. Not the most economically sound decision, but you gotta have that thrill factor from time to time, right? Results were not all that shabby. I will post those soon!