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!

Box Break: 2011 Topps Chrome Hobby

I preordered this box a little while back and had almost forgotten about it until I got the shipping notification. I started to get cautiously excited knowing the debacle that 2010 Topps Chrome was.  It had been nearly 2 weeks since I opened any packs (which is a long time for me!) so it was good to smell that new card smell again.  So I ripped a few packs and was pleasantly surprised to see that the cards were of a pretty high quality.  No pringle warping, no surface gouges, no dinged corners, no off-center or miscut cards and hardly any roller marks that plagued last year's edition.  I am happy to see that Topps fixed these issues for this years release.  Even the non-card collectors that work there know that those cards were of totally crappy quality!

I'm going to list the "lesser" inserts here:

Topps Heritage Chrome: Nelson Cruz, Carlos Quentin, Neil Walker, Brandon Beachy

Nothing to really write home about here...

Topps Chrome Throwbacks: Aroldis Chapman, Freddie Freeman, Felix Hernandez, Brian McCann

I know the back of the package says Vintage Chrome, but I hardly consider 1996 Topps Chrome to be "vintage".  I'll just call them throwbacks since Pepsi can call their 1990's designs throwbacks!

Refractors: Brandon Beachy, Carlos Pena, Dustin Pedroia, Andrew Cashner, Ichiro, Vernon Wells, Jonathan Sanchez, Jorge Posada

The Refractors from this box produced the exact amount of cards allotted for the box.  The odds were 1:3 packs.    I really cleaned up on Brandon Beachy and overall Braves in this break.  The Jorge Posada card is kinda funny because it says he is a Designated Hitter but the picture is of him in catchers gear chasing a foul pop up

My Astros lucky streak continues with this Sepia Refactor.  I particularly pull a bunch of Parallels of JA Happ.  I think I got an Orange parallel from 2010 Bowman, a Blue from 2011 Bowman and now this Sepia Refractor.   I could take or leave this version of refractor.

I think the Atomic refractors are kind of neat but to me they just look like a zoomed in version of the flagship Diamond Anniversary parallels.

Blue Refractors make their return.

This gold I was happy to get since they are numbered out of 50.  I'm not really thrilled about the player because he hasn't played in nearly a season and a half.  Oh well, you can't win them all.

My first promised autograph is actually the refractor version.  Somehow the scanner didn't pick up the rainbow coloring.  I thought that Crow was once a hot Starting Pitcher prospect and it wasn't that long ago.  KC fans help me out here, I'm interested to know why he is pitching out of the bullpen.  Did he totally tank as a starter?

Here's my second promised autograph of the box.  This was probably the second best autograph (in my opinion) I could have pulled next to Zach Britton.  Earlier in the season, Pineda was lighting it up and a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year.  The league caught up to him but he is still a very solid pitcher and seems he will form a tough 1-2 punch with King Felix for years to come.

I'd give this box a 4.5 out of 5.0 score only because I pulled 2 Orioles from the entire box (Markakis and Derek Lee base cards).  Otherwise I was very pleased with the results and I think the cards look great in Chrome.  The flagship was only so-so in my book but be chromed, they look a little more dignified.  I'm still scratching my head about the double team names around the baseball and logo though.

All cards are for trade except the Pineda.  I want to hang onto that card for a while, unless I get an offer I can't refuse.

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.