Orioles FanFest 2011 pt. 2

As I said in my last post I went to the Orioles FanFest this past weekend. I showed off some bobbleheads and a magazine that I got there. Now, let me show you some of cards and postcards I got signed.

This Robert Andino card is the first actual card I got signed all day. I like this play at the plate card for an autograph. It's probably Robert's best card since he doesn't have that many. I even made the remark to him that I bet he's tired of seeing this card. He just smiled and let out an affirming groan. I think he was in a better mood at this year's FanFest because he got to sign beside Brian Roberts and not Squinty McBigTooth (Garrett Atkins)!

I got this Jason Berken and Jeremy Accardo for helping out Kirk of Eutaw Street Cardboard with his extra Jim Palmer autograph ticket. Berken had a huge pile of them pre-signed and you could grab as many as you want. He's a player that "gets it" apparently. Accardo was also pleasant even though I didn't have anything to say but thank you.

A little later in the day, I was walking back up to the memorabilia sale and found this Brandon Snyder Autograph laying on the steps! I looked around to see if anybody was coming back for it but I guess it wasn't that important to them. Finders Keepers!
This is the final card that I had signed on Saturday. A 1983 Fleer card of Orioles Hall of Famer Tippy Martinez. I like this card because it looks like Tippy is playing catch with a teammate sharing a laugh. If you can stretch your imagination a little bit you could say that he's waving.

Next Up: the 8 x 10's I had signed (AKA: The good stuff!).

Orioles FanFest 2011 pt. 1

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending Orioles Fanfest 2011. While it is a 2 and half to 3 hour drive, I still think its worth it to make the trip up I-95. This year the Orioles instituted a new autograph policy in which you had purchase one of the 250 available tickets for each session. For 15 bucks and peace of mind, I think the new policy is fine. A lot of people were complaining that they didn't know they had to preorder the autograph tickets, but these days you have to pay attention to what is going on with your team.

Here's a picture of the free giveaways that I was able to get in between my autograph sessions:

During last season the O's had 3 different bobblehead nights. Apparently they had tons of these things left over because I saw people carrying around all they could carry of these things. I think it is a little unfair that these people were just going through the line time after time grabbing all they could just so they could sell them on eBay. (Strangely enough I haven't seen a single one for sale all day. I'm wondering if ebay is not allowing these for sale since they know these were given away for free this weekend.) I was able to get two of them and only need the Riemold to complete the set. The smaller bobblehead on the left was from the Aberdeen Ironbirds display. It is of Nick Markakis and they were 2 bucks because the bat was broken off. I super-glued the bat back on! I also grabbed the palm tree bottle opener from the good people at the Sarasota (O's spring training site) booth.

I also bought this out of print Sports Illustrated that I had never seen before from a memorabilia dealer. 2 dollars and its in great shape. I haven't read all of the articles yet but it's got the Ironman on the front, how could I resist?

Now, the Orioles had a game used memorabilia sale running where you could dig through piles of stuff until you found something you might want. I had some spare time near the end of the day so I rummaged through the $20 game used / BP worn jerseys. I was able to find this Rhyne Hughes BP Jersey at the bottom of one of the piles. I couldn't resist. This may be Rhyne's only BP jersey because he was only with the team for about 2 or 3 weeks this season. Anyways since his name is so close to mine I had to have it for my wardrobe.

Next up I'll show off some of the autographs I got.

Trade with Cliff of Capewood's Collections

I'll start out this trade post with a thank you to Cliff who sent me this great trade package. For a bunch of Phillies cards he needed, I ended up with a really nice stack of Orioles cards I needed. This is just a sampling of the cards because I don't have the time or space here to feature them all.

This card is one that I have been seeking for a while. It has been residing on my Top 10 Wanted list for a couple of months now. I think this is Melvin's earliest Orioles card. Being a Topps Traded card, it was a little harder to track down than the regular base set.

I enjoy cards of O's players that show the B&O warehouse in the background. This one is no different. Tomorrow I'll probably catch a glimpse of the longest building on the east coast. More on that in a moment. This Cal card is going into my team set binders. I am now going back and adding Cal to all of those binders because I realized that these team sets really aren't complete without him. I guess my thinking was that I already have the cards in the Cal binders, so why do I need 2 copies? I guess my OCD bone kicked in and decided otherwise!

This is quite an interesting card. I didn't catch the error on the first, second, or even third look at it. I don't think that the player pictured is Scott Erickson. I think that "Scott" is actually none other than Gabe Molina!

Here is what Scott really looks like, but you knew that anyways! While looking at this Fleer Ultra card, I realized that I don't have many Ultra Orioles from 1994 to 2005. Hook me up with some!

I'll close here with a card of Adam Loewen. While he ended up being an overall bust for Baltimore, I pictured this card for a different reason. I will be in Baltimore tomorrow for the O's FanFest! I should have some neat stuff to share when I get back so keep an eye here for some updates next week...

A Couple of Quick Hits

This is one of my most recent eBay wins:

I know a lot of people loathe these gimmicks including me but I bid on it anyway. Maybe it was the allure of Amber Theoharis's arm in the photo, the intense look of concentration on Dr. Jones's Face or maybe just knowing Jake the Snake just dominated the Yankees in his Major League Debut.

Switching gears, I got home today to find a bubble mailer from none other than Topps. I opened the package to find a mysterious foil pack of cards. It had no markings on it, no accompanying paperwork or anything else to tell me what the contents may be. I opened it to find 10 of the wrapper redemptions cards that are from Bowman Chrome. Have a look:

I think I like the black borders just fine, its just odd seeing them like that when I've been looking at the base version for 6 or 7 months now. I will be seeking out the Caleb Joseph version to re-complete my rainbow. If anybody gets one, I will reward you handsomely! I did get one Oriole, the Cole McCurry card that is pictured and I was pretty surprised to get the Aroldis Chapman since he was/is one of the big prospects of the set.

That's all I have for today....

Trade with Spiff of Texas Rangers Cards

While doing my normal daily blog reading lately, I read one of Spiff's latest posts about him posting all of his wantlists. I am a sucker for wantlists. I guess I just really like helping other bloggers by finding cards they need to reach whatever goals they may have. After a few emails, we had a trade hammered out. I was able to help him out with his Rangers need and he sent me some Orioles I needed. Here's just a few of the great cards he sent me:

This 2004 Fleer Tradtion card of Brian Roberts is one of his earlier issues. While his rookie season was 2001 he really didn't stick in Baltimore until 2003. I really enjoyed the design of 2004 Fleer Tradition. I can't really put my finger on it but I think it's just the simplicity of the card design.

My Pacific collection is slowly growing. While most of the photography from the 1994 Orioles team set is pretty vanilla, I couldn't help but notice the goofy expression on Gomez's face. It's kinda like he's saying. "I can't believe I popped up! Again!" I'm very surprised that he isn't wearing his trademark oversized spectacles I've seen him wear on many other cards!

That's right Roberto, the second time you were on the HOF ballot you made it. I know it's a little late but congrats to Roberto Alomar for being elected. Even though he spent on a short time in Baltimore, I still enjoyed watching him play here.

Thanks to Spiff for the trade. Check out his blog for his wantlists. Maybe you can help him out. While you're at it you mind as well check mine out too!

Trade with Big D from Hey! That's Mine

Well as soon as I post about not having anything to blog about, I get a package in the mail. This trade comes to me from Big D of Hey! That's Mine. Before Christmas I sent him a package of 2010 Topps base cards and some inserts. I also sent some unopened packs for each of his kids. I've always wondered how he came up with the name for his blog. I wonder if he was pondering over the name and his kids were in the other room arguing over a toy. I dunno... onto the cards.

Big D was admittedly low on Orioles because they have the best bloggers of any team and he has traded with a lot of them in the past. The O's he did come up with were great though. Several will come in handy for FanFest this month. Here are a few others that I liked:

I don't have many Pacific cards in my collection so if you have some, dig 'em out and trade them to me!

He also helped me complete my 2007 UD Masterpieces set. This single card was the only one I needed from 07 or 08 including shortprints. This made the trade for me!

He also was able to throw in few 2010 Topps Updates I needed for the set. Ike Davis has eluded me in every pack of 2010 product I've busted now that I think about it. Now I finally have one! I still need a few 2009 Upper Decks to complete my entire run from 1989 to 2009. Norris Hopper here completes my Series 2 so hopefully I can finish this set out really soon.

I want to thank Big D for the trade I enjoy reading his blog and seeing the custom cards he makds. I wouldn't mind seeing an Oriole or two in the near future!

State of the Blog

I'm sure that not many of you have noticed the lack of posts lately. But I have been neglecting it for a week or two now. First off, I just have had no motivation to post anything interesting. I've been reading my Orioles Encylopedia that I got for Christmas and playing my new Wii that I got from Santa. I've been reading about all of the cool things that everyone else got for Christmas on their blogs. I'm jealous, because I didn't get anything card related except a few 2010 Topps Update packs from the Dollar Tree (5 cards, no inserts of any kind). I guess the Dollar Tree packs are good because they don't have any of that damn ToppsTown Propaganda in them eating up a card per pack!

Second, There hasn't been much going on in the Baseball card world that has me really interested right now. No affordable (Topps and Bowman Sterling for example) or well designed (i.e. Bowman Platinum) product for me to want to shell out some money.

Third, I've been dealing with my car breaking down so I bit the bullet and purchased a new (new to me) truck. Hopefully making the payments and insurance won't eat into my card budget(as small as it is already).

Trading has been rather slow recently. I guess everyone is slowly getting over their "holiday hangover". If you are interested in a trade, I'd love to hear from you. I sent a trade request or two out so I'm waiting to hear back. I should have some coming my way in the mail, so hopefully I'll have something to post about soon. Orioles FanFest is coming up at the end of the month so hopefully I'll be able to show the faithful readers some cool things from that. With the season starting up I'm sure I'll have more interesting things to write about too.

2 Blaster Break

I had some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket so I went to Target to spend it! The real reason I went there was to get EA Active 2 for my new Wii I got for Christmas. It's a workout game that was on sale for 60 bucks down from 100 (the bargain shopper coming out in me again). It comes with the heart beat monitor, motion sensor, game and batteries (motivation sold separately!!!). I decided I needed it so I can work off all the Christmas goodies I've been stuffing my face with and plus I need to get in shape for my summer league baseball team. Shortstop won't play itself you know!

I also splurged on some blasters from the card aisle. It literally looks like a bomb went off there. I don't think anyone has straightened it up in months because there were packs of Justin Bieber cards mixed in with Football boxes. Also the 2010 Topps Chrome gravity feeder was completely empty! It was full about 2 weeks ago! Interesting to say the least. Anyways, I searched around and decided on a blaster of 2010 Bowman Draft Picks and a blaster of 2010 Bowman Platinum. I know that I said I probably wasn't going to get anymore Platinum. I did say probably won't. It was gift money so that's how I justified the purchase!

Here's the highlights of the BDP:

I was pleased to get the Wheeler Blue Refractor because they fall at a rate of 1 in every 123 packs! The Gold bordered O's are cool because getting 1 in a box is a crapshoot but 2 is just plain lucky! I only need Matusz and Bell since I found the Hughes in a pre-Christmas rack pack. I also got a couple notable Rookies (Strasburg, Santana) and Prospects (Lee, Taillon) to round out the break.

And now the Platinum blaster:

I had low expectations for the Platinum but I did better this time around. I don't know much about Thames but it is an on-card autograph and it's not bad looking to boot. I got 2 Orioles I needed for the PC binders in Jones and Matusz so I only need Arrieta and Markakis now. I got another Buster Posey Rookie, and Miguel Sano and Mike Trout's Prospect Cards.

That's probably going to be the last big break for me until 2011 Topps Series 1 comes out in mid February.