Contest Winnings from Judson of My Cardboard Habit

I've done a lot of emailing and chatting with Judson from My Cardboard Habit recently.  He recently finished up his Gypsy Queen set for 2013 and he decided to celebrate by giving away a bunch of the hits he acquired while doing so.  I was a late entry to the contest but I also made a post on my blog about it and ended up scoring a bunch of extra entries.  I appreciate everybody saying that they heard about the contest through my blog.  Hopefully each of you followed Judson's blog since he does have a knack for writing interesting posts.

So on to my prize package.  I was not expecting the huge bounty he sent me.  I knew I'd get some hits but definitely not 7!

First up are the autographs.  I think my favorite is the Wally Joyner.  There aren't many cards being produced these days.

I got 2 full sized relic cards too.  I really dig the orange swatch on the Matt Cain card and the white swatch on the Uggla makes it look like theres a hole in the card.

I like mini relics but I've never understood why Topps couldn't make the card inside as big as the frame.  I just don't like them sliding around.  I just noticed how I scanned these cards.  It actually looks like Nolasco is pitching to Brian McCann!

Since I pimped his contest, I also wanted to pimp his Group Break he's got going on.  He's breaking some 2013 Allen & Ginter.  Hurry on over and claim your spot!

Thanks for the awesome prize pack Judson!

Group Break Announcement: 2013 Topps Minis

I haven't run a Group Break since last fall and I think its darn well time for me to get one going.  I've decided to do a product that was a lot of fun last year.  With the mini craze that Allen & Ginter started several years ago, Topps decided to do a mini parallel of the flagship set.

I'm going to order 3 boxes of the 2013 Topps Mini offering as soon as they are available on Topps.com.  These boxes are not going to be available in hobby shops or at retail as far as I know.  Not like this is going to be the only chance to get cards of your favorite team, but this one will be the most fun.  The release date is tentatively scheduled for next week so claim your teams before someone else does!

Here's a preview that Beckett did right HERE.

The rules are going to be similar to the other breaks I've run in the past.  You sign up for the team you want (if you want more than one, that's fine too).  You're then going to get a random team from the 15 that weren't picked.  I'm not asking for payment for your slots yet.  I did some math and the slots should come out to about $12 after shipping and all discounts are taken.  International shipping will be extra.  I'll ship the cards and then ask for the remainder of the shipping cost after I get them out to breakers in other countries.

For everybody involved, I will ask for payment as soon as I know how much the total price of the boxes and delivery cost is as well as my carefully calculated and fair packaging and shipping costs to get the cards in your hands.  SEND NO MONEY NOW.

***UPDATE ***All 15 slots have been claimed!  Thanks so much to everyone.  I'm just waiting on Topps to open up the sale of the boxes.  As soon as they come available, I'll buy them and let you guys know what the cost is going to be fore everyone. I hope to do the randomization of the remaining teams in the next few days and open up the trading of those spots.***

Atlanta Braves - Chris Mays - PAID
Arizona Diamondbacks -
Baltimore Orioles - Ryan H. - PAID
Boston Red Sox -
Chicago Cubs - P-Town Tom - PAID
Chicago White Sox -
Cincinnati Reds -
Cleveland Indians - Baseball Dad - PAID
Colorado Rockies - Tim Byrd - PAID
Detroit Tigers - bigbern28 - PAID
Florida Marlins -
Houston Astros - The Dimwit - PAID
Los Angeles Angels - Play at the Plate - PAID
Los Angeles Dodgers - night owl - PAID
Kansas City Royals -
Milwaukee Brewers -
Minnesota Twins -
New York Mets - buckstorecards -PAID
New York Yankees -
Oakland Athletics -
Philadelphia Phillies - dawgbones - PAID
Pittsburgh Pirates -
San Diego Padres -
San Francisco Giants - Design on Deck - PAID
Seattle Mariners -
St Louis Cardinals - madding - PAID
Tampa Bay Rays -
Texas Rangers - Play at the Plate - PAID
Toronto Blue Jays -
Washington Nationals/Expos - Dan - PAID

Trade with Brian of Base Set Calling

Brian of the awesome blog Base Set Calling contacted me about trading for the Brandon Moss camo parallel that I pulled from a pack of 2013 Topps and a trade was born.  He sent me a bunch of gold in exchange!

Gold Sparkle that is.  I can't believe that I hadn't tracked this one down before now.  Simon has been gone from the O's for almost a season and a half but has seemed to find a home in the Reds bullpen.

More Gold from 2012 Topps Update.  I'm glad that Topps decided to make real gold bordered parallels instead of the sparkles this year.  Andino is back in the minors with the Mariners and O'day is being awesome in the O's 'pen.

I don't go out of my way to collect the stickers that Topps puts out these days but when they come in trade packages, I can't refuse them.  A nice shot of the Bird with his "Series Sweep" orange broom.  and of Nick crushing a double into the left-center gap.

Thanks for the trade Brian!

Trade with Mark of This Way to the Clubhouse

I'm not sure what took Mark of This Way to the Clubhouse and I to strike up a trade, but I'm definitely glad we were able to get one completed.  Mark wrote about our trade right HERE. I sent him some Mets cards and he sent me a few cards I needed for my collection:

First up is a 1997 Topps Tommy Harper.  He wore many different hats during his career and was solid player at all of his stops judging from the back of this card.

I think 2011 was the last year that Topps did the Legends SPs in the base set and this is a parallel of said SPs.  I'm glad to have this Palmer to add to my notebook.

A lot of my older team sets are reaching completion through some of my purchases on Sportlots but 1997 Fleer Ultra gets closer to completion but adding this Wady Almonte.  He never made to the big club so this is probably a Spring Training photo.

Last but certainly not least is a cool insert of Brooks Robinson.  I love the card but I think it could have been even better if the wood grain went all the way to the edge of the card instead of the pea-green it is now.

Thanks Mark for the quick and easy trade!

Box Break: 2013 Bowman Hobby

I know earlier in the spring I said I wasn't collecting Bowman sets anymore.  I usually try to sample each set that comes out that interests me just to see what its all about.  Plus, it gives me a good amount of trade bail.  I started off just buying a blaster of this years Bowman.  Then Another, and then some loose packs.  I liked what I saw and fell off the wagon.  I decided since I've collected Bowman for many years now, that I wanted to continue building them.  At the CSA show last weekend I bought a hobby box to help me on my journey to completion.  Here's the spoils:

I really like the Ice parallels.  I could do without the purple and red parallels of parallels though.  I've never seen purple ice in person and red ice only happens in hockey.  I could have done worse than Giolito and Howard so I can't complain about these 2 cards.

This was apparently a Rockies parallel hot box since I got the blue refractor of Max White and the regular blue bordered Shane Broyles.

I think he mini chrome refractors showcasing the top 5 prospects per team is a slick idea.  I got several regulars as well as the blue wave Aaron Sanchez from the Blue Jays.

Aaron Sanchez hot box.  Notice the Same picture was used in this card as the Mini Chrome above.  Albert Almora is a nice prospect that the Cubs are hoarding for stockpile of Prospects.

I had no idea what this card was when I pulled it.  I went to BaseballCardPedia as well as Ebay to do some research.  I'm not sure I understand the point of blue sapphire rookie reprints as a continuity insert set.  I'd rather just see the original border.  Or No Reprints at all.

Here's my big hit of the box.  It's actually a refractor autograph so I can't complain too much.  I'm not really getting "Andrew Aplin" out of that chicken scratch.

I got a lot of decent cards from the box but they are mostly from teams that don't have a huge following.  I'm sure I'll be able to find nice homes for all of these cards eventually.

Here's all my trade bait from 2013 Bowman:

Gold Parallel: 4 Jackson, 6 Freese, 13 Me Cabrera, 19 Middlebrooks, 48 Sale, 49 Price, 50 Pujols(2), 51 Longoria, 53 Montero, 58 N. Cruz, 61 S. Marte, 64 Gallardo, 66 Headley, 89 Nathan, 92 Wright(2), 94 Heyward(2), 96 J Zimmerman, 97 Bumgarner, 98 Holliday, 99 M Montero, 109 Phillips, 131 Hechavarria, 133 Gose, 134 Beachy(2), 136 Jeter, 137 Freeman, 144 Alvarez, 145 Motte, 147 Ortiz, 152 Choo, 153 Beltran, 173 Cingrani, 177 Rizzo, 178 Belt, 182 Stanton(2), 183 Segura, 184 J. Santana, 191 Gordon, 197 Young
Hometown Parallel: 90 Butler, 98 Holliday, 102 Halladay, 144 Alvarez, 178 Belt, BP3 Montgomery, BP6 Salazar, BP7 Hahn, BP28 Muno, BP31 Robles, BP51 Freeman, BP104 Sanchez
Silver Ice Parallel: 98 Holliday, 190 Howard, BP5 Giolito
Purple Prospects Parallel: BP29 Diaz, BP35 Cisnero, BP48 Sanburn
Blue Bordered Parallel: BP96 Broyles #d 177/500
Orange Bordered Parallel: 129 Maronde #d 112/250
Blue Sapphire Rookie Reprint: 1955 Bowman Hank Aaron
Bowman Top 100: BTP-37 Almora, 46 Sanchez, 60 Rosenthal, 73 Webster
Cream of the Crop Mini Refractors: CC-MB3 Morris, MM2 Yelich, NYM1 d'Arnaud, TBR1 Myers, TR4 Gallo, WN2 Goodwin, WN4 Cole
Cream of the Crop Mini Blue Refractor: CC-TBJ1 Sanchez #d 240/250
Prospect Chrome Refractor: BCP15 Gelalich #d160/500
Prospect Chrome Blue Refractor: BCP14 White #d 176/250
Prospect Chrome Refractor Autograph: Andrew Aplin

Box Break: 2013 Topps Series 2 Hobby

My other big purchase from the CSA show was a hobby box of 2013 Topps Series 2.  I'm not going to show the base cards because everyone's seen enough of them already.  Just the inserts:

When I first busted the pack containing the Seaver, I thought I got my 1 per box relic card.  It was just this unnecessarily thick "The Elite" insert.  These suckers are thicker than my promised relic card that I pulled.  Why do they need to be this beefy?

Alright, here's one quick look at the base design.  It's of Grizzly Adams.  It's a Shortprint.  Nobody really collects A's cards.  This will stay in my collection forever, unfortuneately ....

Chase it down is a pretty cool idea for an insert set.  I'm pretty thrilled to add this Mike Trout to my PC of him.

The Chasing History insert set has some weird records that are being chased but I think the design is pretty solid.  I love pulling new to me Ripkens from a box of cards.

Here's my obligatory relic from the box.  I could have done a lot worse than Buster Posey.  If you look close enough, you can see some stiching towards the bottom of the swatch.

Here's a complete list of the inserts I have available from all of my Series 2 purchases:

Chasing History Gold Relic: CHR-JZ Jordan Zimmerman #d 42/99
Chasing History Relic: CHR-BP Buster Posey
Red Target Parallel: 335 Hermann, 384 McGee, 521 Scribner, 540 Bourn, 602 Sanchez, 610 Beachy, 614 Upton, 630 Dirks, 635 Gyorko
Gold Border Parallel: 349 Frieri, 452 Ibanez, 519 Greinke, 525 Arencibia
Chase It Down: CD-2 Sandoval, 6 Moustakas, 10 Jay, 11 Gordon, 14 Maybin
World Baseball Classic: WBC-1 Reyes, 3 Votto, 8 Morneau, 9 Beltran, 10 Cabrera
Making Their Mark: MM-5 Hellickson, 9 Skaggs, 11 Bauer, 13 Moore, 15 S. Perez, 22 Darvish, 25 Strasburg
1972 Minis: TM-52 Freese, 53 G. Gonzalez, 62 O'Neill,  63 Berra, 76 Altuve, 80 Bench, 86 Brett, 87 Profar, 89 Middlebrooks, 94 Ortiz, 99 Smith
Chasing History (Silver Foil): CH-55 Griffey Jr., 58 Henderson, 65 Carter, 69 Koufax, 73 Cano, 76 Gwynn, 77 Clemente, 83 Mays, 90 Fielder, 92 Schmidt
Chasing History (Silver Foil/Holofoil): 56 Holliday, 59 Lynn, 95 Cain, 98 Crawford
Chasing History (Gold Foil/Holofoil): CH-53 Weaver, 62 McCovey, 76 Gwynn, 82 Hernandez, 94 Cobb, 95 Cain
Cut to the Chase: CTC-34 Banks, 36 Morgan, 39 Cespedes

If you see something you need, please let me know!

Card Show Pickups: The Other Orioles

We'll round out the July CSA show singles purchases by showing a motley crew of miscellaneous Orioles cards that I needed for my various collections.

You don't see a ton of Luis Aparicio cards these days.  I'm happy to pick this one up since it seems a little out of place in the 2002 Fleer Tradition set.  There are the modern day Orioles in the set and Luis and Boog Powell are stuck in the middle of those guys.  Weird.

Brandon Snyder finally made it to the Orioles after toiling in the minors since he was drafted.  I think he is playing for Boston in some capacity now.

Poor Nolan.  This guy can't stay healthy.  From the looks of things he could spend the rest of the year on the DL and his career might be over due to the reoccurrence of the symptoms that shelved him for most of the season last year.

Ivanon Coffie got his cup of coffee with the O's during the "lean years" in Orioles history.  Now I have this card to commemorate him in my One Card of Every Oriole binder.

Another short-term Oriole is Dorn Taylor.  I was too young to remember him playing for the O's but he too gets a spot in my One Card of Every Oriole.  I like the Orioles Crown/Coca-Cola set because some of the guys from the 50's that got into even 1 inning of a game were immortalized on cardboard.  I wish I had the whole set!

Card Show Pickups: Chipper Jones Gallery

Chipper Jones has been a minor PC for me and when I see his cards going for basically peanuts (10 cents) I put them in my pile and then add them to my binder pages.  Since I'm feeling Chipper this morning, I'm going to show off just 10 of the best out of the 25 or so that I bought.

A very early 90s Chipper.  Notice the 4 as a jersey number.  Probably has a 6, 7, 8, or 9 in front of it.

Textbook Excellence is a good description of Chipper.

Another shiny card that attracted my attention in the dime boxes.

Looks like just a reguar old Collectors Choice card but this one has the Silver Signature. Larry Wayne Jones Jr.

 It doesn't look that way in the scan but this one does have a refractor-ish sheen to it.

This was a pretty cool insert from 2009's Topps Unique.  I think it showed players all in retro uniforms.

A nice looking Pinnacle card commemorating Chipper's HR Derby performance from 1997(?).

I've always wanted to bust a box of Topps Gallery from the late 90s.  I saw a box of 1997 Gallery for 30 dollars at the show but didn't bite on it.  Oh well.

I'm somewhat surprised to see Chopper made the 10th anniversary team for 1999 Upper Deck.  He was only in the Majors for 3 or 4 seasons when this card came out.

I think Fleer Tradition from the early 2000s was pretty cool.  I liked the vintage inspired designs but I wish that they had just a regular "Fleer" set for those years.

Card Show Pickups: The Rookie Cards

If you follow the blog regularly you know that I do enjoy collecting rookie cards.  I was able to fill some holes in my informal PC during the show.  Once again, everything pictured here was pulled from the dime boxes.

A pair of 1987 Donruss Rookies.  I think I like the green borders used in The Rookies set than I do the black in the base set.  Both of these guys should be enshrined in the Hall of Very Good.

While Hamels hasn't had the greatest season (Boy do I know it because he's on my fantasty team) but he hasn't had great run support either.  You would think that the ghost of Ryan Howard would have a little more pop (also on my fantasy team).  Thank goodness for Dominic Brown (another Pepperidge Farm Goldfish) giving Ham a little support enroute to making the AS Team.

I've been looking for this card for a while now and finally found it for a price I found right.  I've been a fan of Helton for a long time and I'm happy to have his RC in my collection.

Both of these cards will require you to take a second look at who they are.  If you cover up the names you'd be hard pressed to figure them out.  Neither Kent or Wakefield are really associated with the teams they are pictured on these 2 cards..

I was pretty surprised to see a card of a hot sauce salesman in a baseball card box.  I guess I could have done worse.

Finally we come to the Chrome Rookie card of Nate McLouth.  I've become quite a fan of his girtty play in the field.  I'd like to see the O's lock him up for a few years more.

Card Show Pickups: Orioles Personal Collections

I didn't neglect my other Orioles needs at the show either.  I'm going to show off a bunch that I pulled from dime boxes.  Once again each card posted here was a dime!

I nice Koji rookie card from Bowman Sterling.  FOR A DIME!  I really miss this guy pitching for us though the return we got in trade for him has definitely been worth it.

I left the penny sleeve on this one to show you how much this card sold for in 1998.  Now it's just a dime box card that will live in my Roberto Alomar PC

This card scanned like crap.  It's numbered out of the absurd # of 3500.

I've seen the Donruss version of this card a ton of times before but never the Leaf.  Eddie's stare on this card basically said "Take me home with you or else".  I did out of fear of the repercussions.   BTW, the Leaf logo looks more like a feather to me.

Last but not least a Brady Anderson I hadn't gotten before.  It's an all-time favorite from the Topps Archives in the 1999 Topps design.  I like 1999 Topps because of the minimalist design they used.  If they would have used team logos instead of just the name, I think it would have had a little more mass appeal.

Card Show Pickups: The Chunks

I'm a dime box diver and I always find plenty of good stuff in them.  Everything you see pictured in this post cost me 1 dime.  I titled this post "The Chunks" because I was able to find large chunks of several of these sets and "rescue" them from dime box obscurity.  

This Floyd Robinson from 1968 Topps was the oldest card I purchased at the show.  I didn't find a whole chunk of 1968 Topps but hey, vintage cards for a dime.  It's a steal in my book! Look at the condition of this card!  Its probably Near Mint!

I did grab a huge chunk of 1970 Topps.  Most of them don't have any creases and only minimum corner wear.  No huge names in the pile but I couldn't just leave these cards in that box when they cost only 10 cents.

I also pulled cards from just about every year in the 70s out of those boxes.  All in pretty decent shape too!

I guess this card would be my best of the bunch.  I actually have a decent stack of 79's toward a set.  I posted a list on my Set Wantlists tab.

Out of the future sets I'm building, I think 1980 is the next biggest stack I have.  Not enough to write up a list yet but a healthy stack that I can add this Carew to.

I also found a nice stack of 2006 Allen and Ginter in the boxes.  These 2 guys were the biggest stars of the bunch.  It's amazing how many of the other guys in the stack are not even playing anymore.  If anybody needs any 2006 A&G, let me know and I'll go thru the stack for you.

So I added some girth to my 70's Topps stacks toward my sets that I'll build one of these days.  They aren't a big priority right now so I'll just keep chipping away adding cards as I find them on the cheap.