OH NO!!!'s Poor Vintage Collection #2

The cards that are featured in this recurring theme were found by my father strewn about the floor of an abandoned farm building near my childhood home. There were approximately 1000 cards that laid undisturbed from the late 60's to early 90's when he discovered them. Most are in poor condition because exposure to the elements. He recently gave them to me and I will feature them here on my blog.

1958 Topps #187 Sandy Koufax. Overall, this card is not in as bad a shape as some of the others in my collection. This card has some surface wear and a crease extending from his chin to the right side of the card. It's a little off-center, well a lot off center from right to left. I really like this card because of the yellow background because in 1958 Sandy was a bright, up-and-coming star in the game.

Adventures in Retail #2

Just a quick post today. I ran into Target on Black Friday to get my 2 year old nephew a Christmas present. I got him the Rumblin' Chuck toy that's made by Tonka. Wow, their toys have changed a lot since I was a kid. Anyways, I had to stop by the card display on the way out and picked up a value pack of 2010 Topps Chrome. Here's the damage:

The base cards were nothing special save for the Mike Leake Rookie card. The x-fractors are nice but not really my cup of tea. The Markakis Orange Refractor wasn't a total surprise but it did influence my purchase a little bit. My fiancee actually saw the telltale O in the logo thru the front of the outer plastic sleeve and said I should get it. Good eye, babe! If you have picked up one of these value packs you know how they are situated in the outer plastic sleeve. I guess it wasn't a total win though because it's off-center and it has a blemish in the finish above his left hand.

This Daniel McCutchen Autograph was quite a surprise since they fall about 1 in 171 packs. I am really killing the odds with these value packs. I might get a few more for my birthday coming up in a few days.

Quick Post...

I just popped in to say I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend and to post a couple Brian Matusz cards that I have recently acquired:

I won the autograph redemption for 10 dollars and it showed up in my mailbox the other day. The Bowman Chrome refractor and the Topps Chrome Refractor came in trades and the Topps Update Rookie Refractor was won on eBay. Enjoy O's Fans!

Box Break: 2010 Bowman Chrome

I had been waiting for hobby boxes of Bowman Chrome to drop for while. I was able to get one delivered for less than 50 dollars (I learned my lesson with reordering!). I had never opened any of the product and I have always been a Bowman fan. I know there are two camps in the Bowman world, people who love it and people who hate it. I love seeing all the young prospects on their first cards, hanging onto them for a few year and digging them out when they make it to the Major Leagues. So you get 18 packs of 4 cards and one promised autograph card. I like that Topps changed the photos from the regular Bowman set. Nice touch, Topps! Let see what I got.

The regular refractors are really nice looking. I'm actively seeking the Orioles Team set. The Josh Johnson is my favorite because I like horizontal action shots.

My one insert was Topps 100 Prospects Jard Mitchell. The Kung Fu Panda Blue Refractor was a nice surprise, numbered 23/150. Blue Refractors fall 1 in 48 hobby packs.

The Team USA cards look nice with the white borders. I'm a little disappointed in the fact that they are miscut.

And here is my autograph card:

What's the matter? Don't see it? Neither did I. I did not get one in my box! I've already sent in the wrappers, UPC code, copy of my receipt, a letter bitching about how I was shorted an autograph card and why after 15 years of printing chrome cards that they still can't figure out how to cut the cards correctly.

I have a theory on why my box was shorted the autograph card. On the back of the packs the odds of pulling an autograph card are 1 in 24 packs. There are only 18 packs in the box! So either Topps had originally intended to make the boxes 24 packs or they ain't being no good at maths. Part of the evidence supporting my hypothesis is the 2 extra sheets of thick cardboard in the bottom of the box. Why would Topps "give" me two sheets of cardboard these days with many companies slashing productions costs? It just doesn't make sense to me. Anyways, I will keep the blog-o-sphere up to date on the status of my missing autograph card I was shorted.

Check out my Check Out My Cards Bounty

I think this is an appropriate Thanksgiving Post. Today we give thanks for the bountiful lives we live here in the good ole USA. As we get over our tryptophan induced haze and pumpkin pie tummy aches, feast your eyes on the bounty of cards I got from CheckOutMyCards.com . I was able to get a free processing coupon at their table at the National back in August. I sent in a bunch of cards I didn't want and turned some of the profits into cards I wanted:

First and Foremost I was able to buy 90, yes 90 new Cal Ripken cards I didn't have before. Here are just a few. Many will get their own chance to shine in their own posts sometime in the future.

A few mid-70's cards of Orioles HOF'ers I was able to get on the cheap. These cards are in great shape and I got them for basically a song!

This Nick Markakis card is one of a Rainbow I am working on. This particular rainbow is particularly frustrating because I am having a heck of a time tracking down a a Black Version #'d to 59 and the Target Throwback editions of the card. I can't find them anywhere on the Webernet.

This Steady Eddie may as well serve as my capstone card on my 2008 UD Masterpieces set. What more can be said about this set other than it looks great in a binder!

Why Andrew McCutchen? I think he is a dynamite player and I am still plugging along on my 09 Topps 206 set. I still need a few more Shortprints and a good bunch of the Piedmont minis. Any help on these sets would be much appreciated.

So that is just a little sampling of the great cards that I was able to purchase with store credit at COMC.com . I highly recommend this site for anybody interested in selling cards or just looking for cards of their favorite player. If anybody would like to look at what I have for sale, search for seller ryanhughes12.

Adventures in Retail

I had the retail itch the other day and stopped by Target on the way home. I admit I get retail fever from time to time. I am glad I was running a pack busting fever on this particular day. I picked up a 3 packs of 2010 Topps Update. Here are the highlights of those packs:

Yes I got 3 Strasburgers in 3 packs. Since he's on like 20 different cards in Update series, the odds are stacked in the collector's favor. I know a lot of collector's are stressing over the #661 thing. I put it at the end of my base set. It's #'d 661 for reason. The Gold and the More Tales of the game kind of annoy me for some reason. I don't think I will be buying any more Update Series because I'm a few cards short of the set.

I also bought 2 of the value packs of Topps Chrome. Refractor's galore! I think this is the first time I have ever opened a pack of Topps Chrome. I was pretty lucky I think because I ended up with some sort of refractor in each pack! The Strasburg and Stanton Orange came from the same clear cellophane pack. The Arrieta came in the other. Jake brings me one step closer to the Orioles Orange Refractor Team set. The Manny card is my best refractor/x-fractor pull of the bunch. To my astonishment, the Escobar Gold Refractor is a 1 in 775 packs! I am seriously thinking about busting a Hobby box of this stuff because I've had such good luck. My birthday is coming up so maybe I should treat myself or maybe I should quit while I'm ahead. What do you think?

Not pictured are : Orange Refractors: Yadier Molina, Roy Oswalt, Jered Weaver. Refractors of Torii Hunter, Johnny Cueto. X-Fractors of Carlos Zambrano, Erick Aybar

So this time I beat the odds at retail. I guess every collector has his day some times.

Group Break Recap: Cardboard Collections

I ponied up the cash for Colbey's November Group Break and got some great cards! I really like Colbey's Breaks because they don't break the bank and he always adds in some extra cards of the team you pick! It's a nice touch on his part. Here are the goods:

These are the 3 Cal Ripkens he pulled and they are all new to my collection. I can't say I've ever seen a Stars and Steel card in person and they are made of real steel! The Starstruck Ripken is nice because it has a rainbow sheen to it. I like the Embossed card to. I ended up with the golden version in one of my recent eBay wins.

Here are some of the extras he threw in. I'm digging the 1991 Topps Cracker Jack cards. I know I said I need more mini Orioles but these seem to be about half the size of A&G minis. Also a nice Brian Roberts insert I didn't have and the Melvin Mora Goudey card completes my base team set!

Thanks to Colbey for holding the group break. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

TTM Success!

Some long time readers of my blog might remember this post: http://anotheroriolesblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-first-rainbow.html

Now I have another unique card to add to my Caleb Joseph rainbow! I missed out on getting Caleb's Autograph this year when I saw him play live here in Richmond versus the Flying Skunks, errr, Flying Squirrels. I sent him a TTM request to his Arizona Fall League team about 3 weeks ago and this came in the mail:

I'm pretty stoked about the autograph. It looks like it has changed a little bit since he signed his rookie contract with Topps but it is still recognizable. I wish the surface of the card was a little more accepting of the sharpie he used but that's my fault. I have heard different ways of prepping glossy cards for autographs. What does everybody else do? If some of you more experienced autograph seekers have any pointers I'd love to hear it! I'd really like to get some feedback on this so I can send out some TTMs during spring training this year.