Way Overdue Trade Post

I want to say a quick thank you to several traders that I've gotten packages from over the last month before I put the cards away that are sitting on my desk.

 These 2 new to me Cal Ripken cards were sent to me by Jeff from My Sports Obsession.  I love the orange Jersey on the 1992 Donruss/McDonalds MVP card and the redemption card from 1995.  I'm not sure if they were a hobby shop giveaway or a ballpark giveaway but it's a cool card nonetheless!

Jeff also paid close attention to my Player collections pages and sent me the Reimold from this years Heritage and a Finest from 2010 to fill 2 holes.  Thanks for the great cards Jeff!

The second package I'd like to say thank for comes from Paul from Carl Crawford Cards.  I won the contest he was running to celebrate the life of Virgil Trucks.  I never got around to writing Mr. Trucks and I missed out on getting his autograph.  Now I can mark that regret off of the list!  Paul gave away 3 of these autographs in his contest and I was lucky enough to get one.

These 2 relic cards also came from Paul.  I sent him a couple 1978 Topps cards he needed for his set and he reciprocated the trade by sending a HOF bat chip and a minor league jersey of former O's top prospect Zach Britton.  I still have hopes that Zach will become a good minor league pitcher he just needs more experience.  He's currently in the rotation but we'll see how long that lasts with the imminent return of Wei-Yin Chen.  Thanks for the autograph and the relic cards Paul!

The last trade I need to get to is from Andrew Q of Need More Cardboard.  I had to have this retail exclusive White Framed Paper parallel from this year's Gypsy Queen that he pulled from a value pack.  I mean come on, it's a Cal Ripken card I didn't have.  You don't think I'm going to let it slide by do you!  It's a great looking card!  While not a huge fan of retro/reprint sets, I do think that Gypsy Queen is a nice product because Topps actually has to create a new design each year and not rest on it's laurels from 50 years ago.  Plus it does have some decent insert sets like Glove Stories and Sliding Stars.  Nobody wants and insert card reporting the news from 50 years ago (News Flashbacks from Heritage)!

Thanks to these 3 wonderful traders and I'm sorry that it took awhile to get this posted!

Not-So-Recent Auction Wins

I've been absent from posting here for nearly 2 months.  I've got plenty of excuses though!

1.  Traveled to Japan for 2 weeks in early May

2.  Been watching the Orioles on TV.

3.  Topps sucks sometimes

4.  Springtime means plenty, PLENTY of yard work.

5.  The beginning of my adult baseball season.

6.  Finding Video Games as a more worthy pastime than blogging.

7.  Too hot in my "MancOve" to stay and look at cards and write about them.

8.  Family functions.

9. Being too tired to type cohesive sentences.

10.  Working tons of overtime.

11.  General malaise about blogging.

I have been picking up a few blasters here and there as well as some nice Ebay items that I want to show off.  These have been in my draft folder for about the same amount of time I've been away.

First up:

A Nolan Reimold Silk card from Ebay.  I forgot how much I paid but I know it was less than 15 dollars.  Hopefully Nolan gets back from the DL soon and starts punishing baseballs like we know he's capable.

It's numbered 30/50, which is an Ebay 1/1 since 30 was the number he wore in the minors.

Second Pickup is this Nick Markakis Clubhouse Collection GU from this years Heritage.  While I have my issues with Topps Heritage, I'll say that this year's relic cards look nice and the gold/bronze numbered versions are even nicer.  This one is an Ebay 1/1 since 94 is the year that Nick and me turned 11 years old.

Nothing really remarkable about the front of these auction wins.  They look like the regular old base card.

Turn them over and it's a whole new ballgame.  These are the covert Venezuelan black back parallels.  I score both of these for under 5 dollars a piece!  Not too shabby.

Finally a few more gold cards.  These are gold refractors of Nick the Stick from the last 2 versions of Bowman Chrome.  I got the 2012 version on the right during the Super Bowl.  (yeah these cards have been in my draft folder for a while!)  While everybody else was stuffing their faces with Buffalo wings and watching overhyped commercials, I was getting deals on Ebay!  I snagged it for about the price of a hobby pack of Gypsy Queen.  There's no cool story about the 2011 that I can remember, but it's just a cool card!

I plan on sharing some pictures from my Japan trip here on the blog as well as some of the cards I've picked up recently.  Just bear with me, time is not kind to me these days!  I'll get around to it eventually!

More Recent Auction Wins

Alrighty, jumping back into the pool with something easy to post about.  This is becoming a pretty regular feature here on the blog.  Recent auction wins!  I'm a bit of a bargain hunter when it comes to ebay auctions but I also don't usually buy super popular cards either.  I also have the good fortune of working at a place where I have internet access all day so bidding on an auction at 10am on a Tuesday morning isn't really a problem.  I can peruse ebay all day long but can not read my personal email (stupid firewalls).  Looks like I'm rambling again.  Here's the cards:

Here's my first Nolan Reimold card that I won.  It's a Blue Refractor '05 Bowman Chrome Draft picks numbered 140/150.  Man I hope this guy stays healthy this year.  I know he could hit 25 to 30 homers if he did.  He'd be able to replace Mark Reynolds' power and strike out a lot less.

This black beauty is from 2010 Topps Heritage.  The Black Refractors are pretty awesome I think.  I really hope Nick stays healthy this year too.  Injuries haven't really been a concern for Nick the Stick during his career so I think last year was a fluke.  Let's just keep Captain Cheesburger's fastballs away from the wrists. BTW, this one is lucky-numbered 7/61.

The next Nick that won was this 2011 Topps Chrome Red Refractor numbered 2/25.  I own about eleventy billion different versions of this card through flagship, Chrome, and Opening Day.  I think the only version I'm missing is the rack pack exclusive un-numbered Orange Refractor.  How does that happen?

The final card that I'm showing off today is a 2009 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor of Nolan #d 42/50.  Not a whole lot left to say about Nolan in this post.  Just stay healthy. *fingers crossed*

Here's my winnings from Listia over the last few weeks:




Oh right, I didn't win anything because I refuse to pay 1000 credits (approx $10-12) for a stack of late 80's commons.  The credits required to win a couple of Cal Ripken cards got way out of hand in my opinion so I refused to bid.  There seems to be more and more sellers starting to charge for shipping too.  No way am I handing over 2000 credits and 2 dollars shipping for a relatively plentiful mid-90's insert of Cal, no sir!  My patience with Listia is running thin, so when I finally spend the rest of my credits I'm closing my account.

See, I told you that I can put pictures on a post!  Hope you enjoyed the cards as much as I do.  Thanks for reading!

Recent Auction Wins

In between running my group breaks and the tradebait blowout, I've also been scouring ebay and Listia for deals.  I've had a pretty good run of ebay wins. If my memory serves me (I'm too lazy to log in), I think all of the cards I've won on Ebay have been for less that 15 bucks shipped.

While I'm not a huge fan of the Golden Moments insert set from 2012 flagship, this  Markakis Golden Moments jumbo relic card #d 11/20 is awsome.  I love the dirt stains!

Another Ebay win this Reimold Silk #d/ 25/50 from 09 Updates and Highlights helps fill out the rainbow I have going of Moldy.  Between William of Foul Bunt and I we own 4% of the print run of this card!

I also dabble in Listia looking for Cal Ripken cards that I don't have on the cheap.  This Fleer Ultra Gold Meadallion from 1998 was mine for less than 500 credits!

The Orioles top draft pick in this years amateur draft was Kevin Gausman from LSU.  My cousin is a big LSU football fan though I doubt he knows who the 2nd best pitcher in the O's system is. I decided to splurge a little bit on this one and paid about 20 bucks shipped for it.  I think up to the time I won this one, the lowest completed auction price totalled about 25 dollars.

Here's my most recent Ebay triumph.  It's another silk card from this year's series 2 of Nick markakis.  The cloth is a lot darker than I've seen before and there's no card number on the back plus it's a little scratched up.  I think maybe the seller stored his cards between sheets of 220 grit sandpaper.  It doesn't really matter that much since you can't really see the scratches in a 9 pocket page.

There's always deals to be found on the various auction sites around the webernet.  You just gotta know where to look!

"Had" to stop by Target on the way home

I stopped by Target on my way home from work today and, lo and behold, brand spanking new 2012 Topps was sitting on the shelf.  I looked Friday just in case they had snuck it on the shelves early but no luck.  Today was a different story.  I arrived in the card aisle at the same time as another collector also strolled up.

"You're looking for the same thing I am aren't you?" he said.  "Yup!"

This is the first time since the Target opened (in 2008) that I actually saw somebody else perusing the card displays at the same time I was.  We talked for a minute or two about cards and how we each did with the Diamond Giveaway.  He got 2 Diecuts, the same as I did.  I asked him what his thoughts were on packsearching and he made it clear he was definitely against it and he had never run across any at this Target.  So after exchanging pleasantries and forgetting to pimp my blog, I grabbed a hanger box and hurried towards the register with 1 person in line buying 3 bottles of Hydrogen Peroxide.

You're not here for shopping stories or missed opportunities to grow my blog, you're here for the breakdown:

Adam Jones makes a cameo appearance on this card.  This is a perfect opportunity to throw this idea out there.  I think I'm going to start a binder of cards that Orioles make a cameo appearance on.  O's in the background, breaking up double plays, sliding into bases, play at the plates.  If you are flipping through cards and see an Orioles cameo, let me know because I want it.

This is just too cool of a card not to post up.  I think its from Nolan's walk-off HR against the White Sox.  Or, he just flied out and Buck is giving him "the business."

 These look almost like the liquorfractors just a little more gold in coloring and smaller speckles

 The 87 minis are kinda neat.  I don't know if there are any Orioles in the set.

 Bleh, done before, twice.

 These look pretty cool but I think I've seen the design similar to it in a UD product.

 These look great with the gold foil stamp, but the 3000 hits is too light.

 Why didn't they gold stamp these like the card above.  It looks cheap without it.

 Too much empty space on this card.

 Too much empty space on this card.

 My 2 Target Red Bordered Exclusives are 2 former Oriole 3rd basemen.  Hopefully Bell will run with his next big league opportunity and he won't be "former" anymore and possibly more "future".

So my impressions of series 1.  I think the base cards are pretty nice looking.  Some of the inserts are just "OK".  It really looks like some of them are clearly designed for relic pieces or sticker autographs (too much empty space).  I can't wait to bust more when my hobby box comes on Wednesday.

Card Show Report: My 5 Favorite Things

So I went to the card show in Raleigh this past weekend and was able to pick up a lot of great cards that fit the needs of my collection.  I picked up a bunch of vintage Orioles cards to fill out my team sets, a bunch of Chrome cards from the last 2 years to fill the sets I'm working on, and I was able to visit with one of my fellow Orioles bloggers, William from foul bunt.  I'm just going to post 5 of my favorite things from the show.

I was able to purchase this fine looking Brooks card for 20 bucks.  The centering is pretty good, there are no creases or really beat up corners so I think I really got a great deal on this vintage beauty!

This card I actually purchased from William.  Its an Oriole, its an autograph, and it's on card.  In my collection, that's a win on all 3 fronts!  Doyne didn't really work out in Baltimore but I like the card nonetheless!

Here's one of the other vintage cards that I picked up to finish my 1960 Topps Orioles team set.  This is Steve's rookie card and I'm very glad to have it.  He stuck with the birds for about 6 or 7 years and had his greatest success there.  He was a local product hailing from Takoma Park Maryland.  I think he is probably one of the most underrated Orioles players in their history since he won over 100 games for them.

This card actually came to me in trade.  I brought about 20 cards with me and had them set out on William's table to see if I could sell or trade them.  I got this Matty Ice card for the Brett Lawrie Blue Refractor and the redemption card for the team USA set that I had pulled recently.  In my opinion I got a great deal but objectively it was probably a pretty even trade.

And that brings me to my favorite thing of the whole show.  It's not something I bought, traded, or bargained for.  William was nice enough to bring his batting gloves for me to see.  These aren't just any batting gloves though.  These are Nolan Reimold's batting gloves from the last game of the season.  These batting gloves had a major role in crushing the Red Sox playoff hopes and sending them home for the winter.  You can read he whole story about how William came into possession of the gloves right here.  You can see in the picture that both of the gloves are autographed on the thumbs so these are true collectables and I'm glad I actually had a chance to put them on.  I mean look at me, I'm grinning like a little kid!

I really had a blast at the show picking up some new cards for my collection and most of all just hanging out talking with William and his son.  So I guess that really wraps up the show.  Thanks for reading!

Trade with the Night Owl

Night Owl contacted me about the availability of a couple of the Topps Update Dodger Shinnies that I had pulled from my hobby box and retail packs.  I was happy to make the trade since we have made several great swaps in the past 2 years.  At first he said he didn't really know if I'd be interested in this card:

This is one of the Cloth Stickers from Lineage.  The best one out of the set if you ask me!  This is the first cloth sticker that I've actually gotten my hands on and they really do have a neat texture to them.  

 Here is the second card that the Owl wasn't sure if I'd be interested in.  Moldy is one of my favorite current O's and I really hope he gets a chance to shine as an everyday player this season.

 And here is one of the surprise cards of the package.  A Red Orange Refractor of Mark Reynolds.  Why must everyone's scanners make these retail exclusive refractors look like a super rare hobby only pull?  Anyways, I really dig this card!

Thanks for the nice package you sent my way Greg and I hope you really like your shiny new Dodgers1

Post Season TTM's!

I sent these 2 TTMs out later in the season and got them back after I got back from the honeymoon.  I guess these guys opened all of their fan mail after they had gone home for the winter.  

Unfortunately for me I tried a new way to send out TTM's and it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. You can't really tell from the scan but the autograph smudged in the middle of his last name.  You can see it rubbed off in the envelope and reapplied to the card on the white portion near the bottom.  This is what I get for sending Chrome cards through the mail expecting that every player has a Staedler pen to autograph cards.  Lesson learned.  Nonetheless, I am very pleased to get Zach's autograph for my collection

I had the opportunity to get Nolan's autograph at Fanfest last winter and decided to get him on an 8x10.  I ultimately wanted to get a regular card signed sooner or later at the ballpark or TTM.  I wasn't able to get him while I was in Atlanta because he either rode the team bus or snuck in through the Braves team entrance with Nick the Stick.  I thought I would try my luck through the mail and perseverance pays.  Both of these cards look great signed.  If I had to pick a favorite of the 2 it would have to be the Topps Heritage because of the All-Star rookie logo.

In case Nolan or Zach reads this, Thanks for signing my cards and sending them back to me!

Moldy, FTW!

Nolan Reimold hit a walk-off home run!  Way to go Moldy!

Card Show Wrap Up: Part 2

Here's part 2 of my card show wrap-up (if you couldn't tell from the title!)

5. 2010 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks Buster Posey Refractor. I think this card was mistakenly in the wrong box. It was nestled deep in the 7 for 5 dollar box so I couldn't refuse to pick this card up. It looks awesome in person and its in great condition. My Scanner refused to pick up the refractory shine this time.

4. 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars USA Star Prospects 18U National Team UD Game Jersey Manny Machado. What a mouthful to say! I got this card on the cheap from a guy who had a ton of Team USA cards. Most of the higher end Manny stuff was out of my price range but I did drool a little bit on the glass!
3. 2001 Pacific Private Stock Brady Anderson bat card. I've been looking for a Brady Anderson relic card for some time now and I finally got one! He doesn't have many but this one looks awesome! There is even a short bio on the back along with stats. When was the last time you saw a relic card with those on the back?
2. 2007 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts Legendary Materials Brooks Robinson. These last two cards I got for a combined 20 bucks a triple relic card #d to 99 of a Hall of Famer and.... you'll see. This is a great looking card. Maybe one of these days I'll feel bold enough to open a box of Legendary Cuts.
1. 2009 Topps Chrome Blue Refractor Autograph Nolan Reimold. I'm sorry if you feel a little let down by the top card on the countdown. I really have a soft spot for Nolan for some unknown reason. Maybe its because he is one of the few legit prospects the O's have in the Upper Minor leagues right now. Regardless this is my favorite card of the show. It doesn't look like it but the autograph is actually on card!
I hope everyone enjoyed seeing my favorite cards from the show!

Orioles FanFest 2011 pt.3

I'm going to finish my experience at Orioles FanFest in this post, I promise! I'm going to show off the 8 x 10's that I had autographed. The first one I want to show is this one:

Nolan Reimold burst onto the Orioles scene in May of 2009. Due to his excellent play and a walk-off homer against Toronto late that month I started to take a liking to him. He played well for the O's for the rest of the season. Last year he kind of hit rock bottom. Hampered by the recovery from his achilles surgery in the off-season and some not so nice off the field issues he pretty much sucked and was demoted to Triple-A. He returned in September and hopefully he will stay with the big club for the rest of his career.

Brian Roberts was sitting right next to Nolan at the autograph station and he penned this nice autograph on my 8x10. He also handed me a business card with information about his new charity he started.

This Nick Markakis 8x10 is the crown jewel of the day for me. Nick is my favorite current player on the Orioles and I'm looking for him to have a big season this year. His normal numbers were there last year except the absence of homeruns. Opposing teams pitched around him last year so he rarely saw pitches that he could yank out of the park. I was pretty excited to meet him even though I was a bit starstruck and couldn't muster any words.

I also had this 8x10 of Chris Tillman signed. The black sharpie doesn't show up very well on this particular picture but it is easier to see in person. I had already met Chris last year at FanFest. If you are interested in reading about that experience check out one of my very first posts in the archive. Chris is still very much a prospect. He just hasn't gotten the extended period of time in the majors to figure it out.

All of these signed photos proudly join my rapidly growing collection of Orioles 8x10. They Cal, Brooks, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, Frank Robinson, Earl Weaver, Boog Powell and Rick Dempsey.