more card show keepers

My haul from this past weekend's card show was pretty much evenly split between cards for my collection (pictured left) and cards picked up with others in mind / trade bait (right).

This post will feature some more of my keepers. Again, they're all numbered parallels I picked out of a 50¢ box.

Lots of shiny here. The non-shiny card is /99.. the only copy of which on COMC right now is $10+, so I'll count that as a nice deal for me.

Red Sox legends Yaz and Dewy.

More HOFers. The Smoltz is the lowest numbered of this bunch at /100.

Slugging 3rd basemen. I'm thrilled my Padres signed Machado, but with such a big, long deal, you can't help but be nervous. But give me just one championship over those 10 years and I'll be over the moon.

More San Diego-centric cards.

New cards for my PCs of Mike Jacobs (though it's technically a Hanley Ramirez card) and Mark Buehrle (though it's technically a Paul Konerko card).

A pair of /99 Tigers.

Here are more cards. Vlad, D-Lee, and Chili.

Some hip young dudes with blue hues. Lewis Brinson has been having an incredible spring training with Miami (5 HR in 26 AB as of this writing).. maybe this'll be his breakout year.

Let's end on some thicc cards. Tribute, Triple Threads, Inception, etc.

Solid card show haul. I think I've got one more post to get out of it: the trade baits. Coming soon.

New Year's at the Museum (high-end box break)

Kicking off the New Year by busting a box! 2013 Topps Museum Collection. This box was a Christmas gift, though I had restraint and held off opening it till the 1st. I don't have super high hopes for it, as the 2 or 3 Topps Museum boxes I've opened in the past haven't been all that great. But maybe this one will buck the trend and knock me on my ass? Let's hope so! Here we go...

Wow.. this has got to be a nicest relic card I've ever pulled! Awesome patch(es). It's numbered a cool 1/5. The only bummer is Dustin Pedroia isn't a guy I collect. He's obviously a very good player, though, and other than a lost 2018 season, has had an impressive career.

My second hit is a jumbo relic of Miguel Cabrera. Lots to like here: dude I collect and probable future HOFer, numbered 2/5, and the rainbow foil is nice. But what sinks the card is the mega boring big gray swatch. If you had a piece of patch or something on there, then you'd really have something. Oh well, still a sweet addition to my Miggy PC.

I actually opened those above 2 packs (mini boxes) just after the clock struck 2019, then went to bed to save the other 2 (which must contain the 2 promised autos) for New Year's Day morning.

Ouch.. expired redemption card. Hisashi Iwakuma had some solid years, but he's definitely not a big name to pull. I suppose that's good because if this was an expired redemption for somebody like Hank Aaron or Mike Trout, it would hurt a lot more.

Ok, down to the final pack.. no whammies, no whammies..

Ooof! That sucks! Jeff Niemann's career had already been cut short by the time this stickergraph came out. And it's a Rays card which means its trade value is miniscule.

So after two strong relics to start off with, the box is bombed by a pair of worthless autos (well, one auto and one expired redemption). That's a bummer. Hopefully this isn't an omen for my 2019!

At least this box was a gift, so I don't have to think too hard about what it cost.

Museum Collection isn't just hits, though. Let's check out the other cards I pulled...

Some numbered parallels. Not bad.. I can use the Boggs and Kershaw.

More players I collect. The Strasburg Canvas Collection is kinda neat.

Here's the rest of the cards. I know Topps has used that Jackie Robinson photo hundreds of times over the years, but it's still a great looking card.


Again, despite the brutal autograph pulls, it was still a fun break. I should probably stay away from Museum Collection, though, as it never seems to go my way.

Happy New Year

Contest winner! + some more card show recapping

In the bottom of the 14th of Game 1, with a tie score, bases loaded and no outs, most of the baseball world was watching Royals vs. Mets, but to me it was Matthew Scott vs. Red Cardboard. With the running total of 22 hits in the game, the contest was Matt's to lose. A hit would give it to Red Cardboard, but a walk, sac fly, error, passed ball, wild pitch, HBP, etc. would seal it for Matt. Eric Hosmer came through with a sacrifice fly that sunk not only the Mets, but also Red Cardboard's chance at winning the contest.

While I'm a big fan of Red Cardboard and his blog, I was happy to see Matt of Bob Walk the Plank win since I was a winner of his most recent contest a couple months ago (post). So now we've essentially done a trade via contest winnings! I thought that was cool on a karmic level. And ironic that in my post that gave the contest lineup, the first card I showed off had a Pirates logo and I mentioned I had a cache of cards ready to send to Matt. If I had then simply randomized for a winner and Matt was #1, it would have looked very suspicious of funny business. But luckily I had no power over how many hits the Royals and Mets combined for, so I'm in the clear. That's a big reason I add that extra bit of randomization to my contests; Just want to make it very obvious it was truly random and nothing sneaky if, say, the winner is a guy I had a bunch of cards set aside for burning a hole in my "set aside for traders" box. Or like one of my early contests that Night Owl won. Because of course I would like it if Night Owl won, because if he wins your contest, you get a nice plug on the most popular card blog around when he eventually posts about his winnings.

But anyways, congratulations to Matt! So you say you want a Bob Walk custom? Sounds good.. any specific requests (photo, design), let me know. Obviously I assume you want him in a Pittsburg uniform, but let me know if you have anything else in mind, or just want me to surprise you with something. In either case, I'll whip it up for you and send it along with a bunch more Pirates soon. It won't be quite "jaybarkerfan war" magnitude, but it'll pack a good punch!


Now here are more pickups to show off from last weekend's card show.

The dealer I buy most of my cards from always has plenty of Jeter in his bins, and I normally thumb right through them. But I'm a sucker for a serial numbered card, whether /99 or /9799, as with these specimens here.

It's tempting to try flipping them to make a little profit, but they'll likely stay put in my tiny Jeter PC.

Hey, here's a guy both Matt and I collect, Brian Giles. Giles, of course, spent much of his career in Pittsburgh, so he's well-represented in Matt's collection. I collect him because he's from El Cajon and went to the same high school as me. If you missed my big Brian Giles story from a few months back, it's worth a read.
As for these cards, here we've got a nice quad bat relic also featuring Preston Wilson, Shawn Green, and Todd Helton... nice group of players.. I probably would have picked up this card even if it didn't have Giles on it. I already had that auto, I believe from a trade with Mark Hoyle, but for less than a buck, I couldn't resist picking up another one. Maybe someday I'll find another (non-team specific) Brian Giles collector and unload my dupes on them. Seeing as this is an Indians/Kinston card, I don't think Matt would have any interest.

I was happy to come across this Tom Glavine relic. I just recently picked up a Glavine auto (haven't showed it off on the blog yet), so now with this jersey swatch, my PC is off to a good start. --or more like restart, as Glavine is a guy I kinda collected, then kinda stopped, then recently started again.

Lastly for today, this 2013 Miguel Cabrera photo variation SP was a good pickup for me. Looking at eBay, seems to be about a $10 card, so for under a buck, nice addition to my Miggy PC.


Ok, now I know I promised a "second chance" contest for anyone who pimped the contest, so let's bust that out.

There were 7 valiant souls who shouted about the contest to the vast expanse of the internet:
Bo
Jason T. Carter
Jon
Mark Aubrey
Stealing Home
the bowl cut kid
Tony L.

Here they are in random order. Let's say the winning number is the total number of runs scored in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series.

Again, the winning number is the combined runs in Game 2.
Anything over 7, we'll cycle back through the list. So 8 = Stealing Home, 9 = Tony L., etc.

Best of luck to you guys!