Ertz so good!

Nothing else to say!

Go Eagles!

Pull of the Year!

Last year's pull of the year was a Matt Moore / Jeremy Hellickson die cut auto numbered to 5 out of 2012 Topps Chrome!

This year it's also from Topps Chrome.. but I never actually had the card in hand before trading it. Even though it's a redemption nothing beat the excitement of pulling this rare card.

As many of you readers know I was able to trade it for a Michael Jordan rookie card graded 6.5. (I wanted a graded version simply for authenticity purposes).

Every year I open 1 case of Chrome so it's not a big surprise that my largest hit comes out of it. I bought a couple other random boxes but nothing else in bulk.

Also, if you need any base cards I have a ton of extra (including an extra base set) so please let me know.

This year has been good for my collection. I changed my habits some but I believe I am more focused on what I want. I have 2 main player collections in Ryan Howard and Frank Thomas. I've enjoyed chasing their cards down. The Frank Thomas NNOF is the holy grail at the moment.

I completed my dream of owning real life Mickey Mantle cards from the 50s and 60s. I always marveled at those cards as a kid and it feels good knowing I own them now. The banner on my page is hard to top in my opinion as far as centerpieces of a collection go. I would love to own the 1952 Topps of course but the prices were a bit out of my range. (Maybe if I hit it huge at the casino I'll splurge!)

I had the opportunity to show off a ton of my Ryan Howard's and I've added a few more since. I wish him a speedy recovery and a great season!

I don't have any specific goals for collecting. I just do what I feel would be fun! That's the whole point. Most of the time I do not like selling my cards but I do now and again. I live right near a Toys R Us that usually gets a ton of those purple parallel packs. I'm debating if I want to load up on those in 2014. I had this grand plan last year to sell them off for a profit. I ended up selling a few but I'm still sitting on over 100 of them. I got close to breaking even so it wasn't a total loss.

All in all a solid year of baseball!

Thanks for reading! 

Happy days in between Christmas and New Year's!

I like these last few days of the year. It's usually semi quiet at work and things wind down a bit before the new year and then it all comes back to reality afterwards. But I enjoy it while it all lasts. The Holidays were good, no family members killed anyone!

Anyways, been in a semi collecting lull. I haven't purchased any new product since the Chrome case. I did buy a couple old school boxes recently though. A 1999 Pacific Revolution box and a 1998 Stadium Club the Odds. They weren't expensive and tons of fun! Once I get them scanned I will share what I pulled! Love 90's Shine!

Check out some other randomness!

I'm not sure if this is considered 'on-card' but it's close enough for me! I was able to snag it for around 10 bucks too which I thought was really good! I don't think it will fade based on the pen that was used. It goes nicely next to the Mike Schmidt sweet spot auto!

Thanks for reading! Hope your year end goes well!

A little bit of Jimmy and a little bit of Ryan!

I recently came across this nice looking card on ebay. I offered what I thought was fair and the seller accepted! Only 2 more months til pitchers and catchers report! The Phillies unfortunately haven't done much of anything this off season. The season may hinge on the health of the veterans. Who knows maybe we'll catch some 1993 magic and ride it to the World Series!

Here's the 2 recent Phillies MVP's! Even though the autos are stickers, the card displays quite nicely. I like the pictures with the bats and the relics work. It's a nice addition to my Ryan Howard Triple Threads collection. It may be a while until the Phillies have some more MVP's, so have to appreciate the accomplishments of these 2 guys!

Thanks for reading!

A Quick Hello!

Been rather busy this week so here's a cool card to look at !

Ooo Shiny!

Contest winnings and a Redemption received!

I not so recently won a contest from Pat over Hot Corner Cards! He had an open invitation to post your "super collections". It could be defined any way you want but just show some stuff of your favorite player collection! For those long time readers (I've been blogging for more then a year woo!) you guys and gals know I collect Ryan Howard. I have over 40 relics/autos and am always on the lookout for more. I try and grab the rare ones when I can cause don't want to miss out and I am always more then happy to trade for a few. 

Pat was kind of enough to add to my super collection. I know for a fact a few of these are new cards!

I really like the spliced in photoshop job on the 2 cards on the bottom. Makes the cards unique in my opinion. I never bought any Triple Play so the Focus card is a new one as well! Much appreciated!

I know I mentioned previously I finally received my Jim Palmer auto from Topps! Here is the card in hand! I'm glad I waited and didn't request a replacement. One more to go! I also have 7 redemptions from this year Topps Chrome that I have not entered yet. I am debating whether I want to go through the hassle or just trade or sell them off.

I know there was some chipping issues on last years five star. Thankfully this card came from Topps really clean and very well packaged. Pretty cool card, it will go nice with the signed Program that I have!

Also, if anyone is interested in the Chrome redemptions they are of the following players:

Jedd Gyorko (base)
Tony Cingrani (2 base autos)
Oswaldo Arcia (base)
Jose Fernandez (refractor)
Nick Franklin (blue refractor)
Tony Cingrani (black refractor)

Thanks for reading!

Pink Refractor!

This year Topps added some new colors to Topps Chrome make it more difficult to put together rainbows. Thankfully the Pink Ryan Howard numbered out of 5 showed up on ebay and I was able to snag it quickly. I am still searching for the Super! Any help finding it I will reward with some sort of cards!

Here is Mr. Howard in pink!

I do like the picture they used for this Topps card. The Five Star picture is kinda bad.. I don't have any in hand yet but once I do I will be sure to show it.

One card and 2 printing plates away  from the rainbow! It will look sweet next to the 2012 Rainbow once I find it. I hope the super gets pulled and known to the public at large though (always a risk when not starting the rainbow with that card!)

I have been a little bit lazy on scanning this week. I haven't had any trades but I did win a contest! So I do want to show some of that stuff. I'm slowly organizing some things and will be happy to show some cool vintage stuff in the coming weeks!

Happy holidays and thanks for reading!

Bye Bye Roy!

Thanks for the memories!

I remember his no hitter in the postseason. I was in a bar in Atlantic City (In the Trop for those that care) and I made sure I watched every pitch cause I was witnessing history! Love watching cool stuff happen in sports. (This past weekend for football was pretty good!)

Lee and Hamels are still with the Phillies, but Halladay was the rock of that rotation that won over 100 games. Check out these stats!

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO

2010

33

PHI

NL

21

10

.677

2.44

33

33

0

9

4

0

250.2

231

74

68

24

30

1

219

I remember when there was trade rumors in Philly that we were going to get Halladay from the Blue Jays. The big sticking point is should we trade young up and coming prospect Kyle Drabek. Drabek unfortunately tore his elbow not too long ago and is still rehabbing but even if he was doing well, the trade was completely worth it! Thanks for reading!

The Card Show!

I had trouble thinking of a witty title for this post, so I kept it simple. (Not that all of my other titles are especially witty). I am planning to go to the Philly show tomorrow as usual. They usually have a nice amount of tables and lots of things to look through! I've been slowly but surely tackling away the Phillies team sets from the 50s and 60s from this show. Seeing as there is about to be another one.. I never showed what I got from the last one

Everyone saw the Jordan rookie that I traded for, which was obviously the biggest card I got by far. But I did receive some other little goodies.

A couple of pretty cool vintage autos. The Bouton I grabbed cause I am currently re-reading his book ''Ball Four". It's still a great read and very enjoyable. The Virdon I grabbed well cause its 1963 Topps and if Adam out there wants it, I will gladly trade it to him.

The card on the left Mr. Jonathan Herrera.. I just liked his signature. Looks like he signed it "north" no idea why. The Joe Savery is my continued quest to get everything Phillies.

This I got from a dealer for the price of a blaster! I had never seen this auto before but I more or less know the market for Howard cards and was comfortable buying it. I've become a bit more selective in my Howard purchases, so this auto being on card was huge! He does not have a ton of on card autos out there. Tons of stickers though!

Here's hoping we complete another team set or 2 at the show! Hope everyone comes out!

For those who don't know happens a few times a year. http://www.phillyshow.com/

(I am in no way affiliated with the show just wanted to try and inform the card collecting community)

Thanks for reading!

A "Rhino" 1 of 1!

As always, I never buy boxes of Triple Threads because they are expensive and you rarely get the bang for the buck. But I am usually looking to pick up the rare Ryan Howards for way way less then the price of the box!

Check out the latest 1 of 1 from this year!

The patch is decent. Multi colored etc. I like the design of this card though. The swirlies and what not in the background make it pop out.

For comparison's sake here is a 1 of 1 from last year's triple threads.

Not as cool as background.. WAY better patch. I also like the Sapphire patches from last year too. Maybe they used up all the cool parts of the jersey on 2012. Either way, I'm happy with the pickup and it didn't break the bank!

Thanks for reading!

Silky Smooth!

I recently completed a quick and easy trade with My Cardboard Habit! He posted some cards he had received recently and I was interested in one and next thing I knew it was in my mailbox! Much appreciated.

I really like the look of these silk cards!

If anyone happens to have other Phillies ones I am interested. I believe this is my third ever silk card.

Hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving/Hanukah festivities!

Thanks for reading!

A MEGA Box Break!

I recently was visiting the local big box store and happened upon the card aisle (or purposely detoured to check it out). I happened to see 4 MEGA boxes. For those who don't know you get 5 packs of Topps Update and 2 Packs of the newly created set Topps Update Chrome. Seeing as how I am a huge fan of chome I figured this was right up my alley! And I figured correctly!

It was a fun break and beat the odds a bit! I will probably want the base set of these Chrome cards to put in the binder with my other Chrome set. I think they will be happy togethhhhherrrr! (sorry I randomly broke out into song thankfully you can't hear me)

 

The above was from the Update packs. The Profar gold is pretty nice. I like the shot and that it says "Rookie Debut" on it. A few minis and some other inserts as well. Nothing crazy out of these packs. 

 

Managed to get the Puig which is nice if I decide to chase the set. The Inserts are pretty nice with the shiny foilness of them. Harper's mo hawk is a bit ridiculous but hey to each their own. I'm sure if I had millions of dollars and I was 21 I'd sport a mo hawk cause I could. 

 

 

Hit one of the All-Star Stitches relic! Best part is I actually got one I wanted! It's sweet to hit a PC player and these fall 1 every 34 packs (or 16 boxes)!

Last but not least, hit a nice Mariano Rivera numbered out of 250. It's clearly off center but still nice to get one of his last playing days cards (I'm sure he'll have plenty of more cards produced). I'm not above trading it but I would have to get a pretty decent Philly type card back in return.

I had a good time opening up the MEGA boxes. 7 Packs for 15 bucks is a pretty solid deal. I don't think I will be buying any more but it gave me a nice start to the Update Chrome set and hopefully will complete it in the future!

Thanks for reading!

Trade with The Lost Collector!

I recently completed a quick and easy trade with The Lost Collector! He collects Yankees and Mike Pineda. I was able to send him a bunch of those and he sent back a pretty cool package.

Also, he is the first person to successfully compare me to Pele and Madonna.. I am impressed. 

 

The Cole Hamels is a pretty cool card from Opening day. I never buy any (not sure why it's def in the price range and seems fun to open) so it was nice to get this insert I didn't have. I still need to search and catalog my Howard cards like the Thomas cards. It would be nice to know how many different ones I actually have. 

 

Vintage!!! I am still on a quest to complete every Phillies team set 1952-1985! I am almost done with the 50s which honestly is cool but still a ways to go! Anytime I get a vintage card in a trade I am more then happy!

 

Here was the card that started this trade! Super thick Manu Bat Barrel. Now I have this one, a game used bat barrel card and a Ryan Howard auto bat (to be shown at a later date). That has to be some sort of trifecta. 

Thanks for the trade! Always appreciate when someone finds a Phillies card and thinks of me! 

Thanks for reading! 

P.S. The awesome girlfriend picked up a sweet piece today for me out of the blue! Psyched about it! 

A New Book Card -- Mike Schmidt!

I recently made a purchase for this sweet book card from 2012 Five Star! This is actually the second one I have of this particular card but they are really nice. On card auto's and triple relics, nothing I can complain about. I thought the opening bid was a good price.. and then no one else bid! Love when that happens.

Check it out!

Hope the Phils new 3rd baseman Cody Asche can do half of what Schmidt did! This card will look pretty next to the other one.

I am in need of more magnetic books. Last time I purchased them they were about 9 dollars a piece. Anyone know where I can possibly find them cheaper?

Thanks for reading!

Trade with Reader Scott!

I recently completed my 3rd trade with blog reader Scott (if you have a blog let me know and I will gladly link you). He's real easy to trade with and has always sent really fast too! He somehow finds cards I want and makes fair offers so hey of course I'll say yes!

Check out the Big Hurts!

The masterpieces card is pretty sweet. I'm a big fan of the black border and artsy look. I like the Triple Play card from 1994 as well. I remember buying packs of those as a kid (before I got into the still popular Magic cards).

All in all very happy with the trade!

Thanks for reading!

In Honor of Draft Picks and Prospects -- Ryan Howard

As many of you know the prospecting product of the year came out recently. Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects. I've seen a few breaks, some good some bad. I can't say I know all the names of the youngsters but I am curious as to what percentage will turn into something. For every Mike Trout there's 300 Kevin Maas's right? Baseball is hard to be the best in the world at.

I showed my oldest rookie card in a previous post. This isn't my newest rookie card by any means.. but it is one of my favorites!

Check it out!

 

Chooch has officially re-signed with the Phillies! Even though the Phillies should probably re-build, I am happy about that because I like Chooch. The core of the 2008 World Series is mostly still here. I really hope they are eating their Wheaties and really bring it next year.  

The best part about this card is I saw it at a card show and inquired about the price. The dealer said to me 100 bucks cause its Gem and thats really hard to find. I was like ok and walked away.. I got the card online for about 17 dollars. 

Good times! 

Thanks for reading!

A Sweet Rookie!

I recently picked up the oldest card in my collection! I love vintage rookies and eventually (if I win the lottery etc) want to own all the hall of fame rookie cards!

Here is a nice start!

Richie Ashburn!!!

 The front has some obvious tape marks on it, but the picture itself is in pretty good shape for being so old. The back is super clean! All things considered I like the way it displays and plan on keeping it for a long time!

It was a good week with MJ and Whitey joining my collection!

Thanks for reading!

Trading with a Community!

I have completed quite a few trades this year, but this is my first one with Community Gum! He busted a box of Moments and Milestones and there is about 7,000 variations of Ryan Howard in that set. I have about 30 or 40 of them so I am well short of completing the set. I sent him what I could find of his various player collections and he sent me Ryan Howard!

 

Look at all those Moments AND Milestones! Home Runs, battering averages, stolen bases (probably not many for Howard) galore!

 

These are the ones numbered out of 25! I believe I have 20 or 21 of these now, which is awesome! 6,079 to go!

Die Cutting goodness. If you are interested in diecuts contact Community gum. He has a whole lot of them and they are really sweet looking cards in person. I highly recommend them for cutting bread as well (please do not attempt)

Thanks for reading!

I won a contest and got an awesome package!

I recently won a contest from My Cardboard Mistress! This contest was one of the longer and more involved ones I have seen. In this post from March 10th he lays out the rules. If you don't want to read it, it's essentially picking the team that will win the super bowl based on opening packs in a very well organized format.

My comment for picking the Broncos and ultimately the winner. (The Eagles were already taken)

Brad's Blog said...

Von Miller already said they are winning the super bowl.. so I will take the Super Bowl Champion Broncos

March 10, 2013 at 3:04 PM  

 

Genius logic obviously! 

 

 I eventually won this contest on September 1st! 

 

The prize was worth the wait! I didn't scan everything cause that would've taken me all night. First off not pictured he sent me a unopened box of 1999 Victory Football cards! Promises to have one rookie card in every pack! 

 

 

I did not pull a Ricky Williams out of the box, but in my opinion got 3 of the top rookies from the year. None other then D Mac, Jevon Kearse and Torry Holt! The photography in this set is mostly fantastic as well. It was quite fun to open and see the pictures. 

 Here is a great example of an amazing picture. So many questions. Why is Vonnie Holliday on a bike in his uniform? Who is riding on the pegs? Where is he going? Does he even know the kid leaning on his shoulders? Some questions will never be answered but this picture is still fantastic! 

 

The Zach Ertz is the photo variation short print! I like the fly eagles fly pose! He's been solid this year playing as the backup TE. I think next year he will be the guy and take a big step forward in his role in the offense. 

 Also, included are three RC's of the most dynamic young QB's in the game today. Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck are both having great sophomore campaigns and are well on the way to their to the playoffs. RG3 is starting to come around from his knee injury and as long as they fix the defense next year they should be a scary team for my Eagles to face. 

 

He also included about 4 full team bags worth of Eagles cards! I scanned a whole bunch to show the diversity and interestingness. (made up a word!)  I like how it looks like the ball is floating in Reggie Brown's hands. 

 

Fred Ex would like to thank his hands for being so wonderful. I wish we still had Asante and B Dawk in his prime in the Eagles secondary. They definitely need some help.

 

I love cards with crowns on them. Whoever thought of that had a great idea. Asomugha was just cut this week by the 49ers. He did a great job stealing some money from the Eagles when he was here. I thought he was supposed to be the best and he really couldn't cover anyone. 

 

Just picked up Riley Cooper on one of my fantasy teams. Seems like him and Foles have some chemistry. I hope the Eagles keep it rolling against Green Bay today. Should be a good game regardless. 

Thanks so much for the contest winnings package. Exceeded my expectations and was very generous. This is just a small sample size of everything included. 

Thanks for reading!

A Trade with Raz Card Blog!

I recently completed my first trade with The Raz Card Blog! He was really easy to deal with, I sent him a whole bunch of Royals including a sepia refractor he was interested in. I got back some very useful to me cards! (that was a poorly written sentence)

Anyways, anyone who hits some cards off my want lists is a good guy in my book!

Check out the Silver ices, I scanned 9 but he sent a couple more, I needed all of them! I am getting close to completing that set. If you happen to have any I need please let me know and I'm sure we can work out a deal!

 

 These cards will join their friends in the Silver Ice binder shortly. I have skipped all the necessary spaces so one day it will be full. 

Oh yea, he also 'threw in' a sweet Cliff Lee relic that I did not have! It has a cool stripe down the middle from this year's Ginter. I bought one box of Ginter this year and my best hit was a Maury Wills auto that I traded away about a week later. Love me some gint-a-cuffs though, very fun.

In conclusion go trade with The Raz Card Blog!

Sorry if this post was all over the place been under the weather this week.

Thanks for reading!

Also, thanks for all the kind words on the previous post. I am still excited to have the Jordan rookie! (I already had the sticker rookie so now I have both!)

From Puig to Jordan.. !!

As all of you readers know (or if you didn't I am about to tell you) I am a big fan of Topps Chrome. It's fun to open and it's shiny and I am rarely disappointed by it. It's been my biggest rip of the year since I've gotten back into collecting. For those that followed my case break, I pulled some really good stuff including this monster..

So after hitting this card, I had 3 options, sell it on ebay (and deal with the fees etc), redeem it (and hope I get the card in a reasonable amount of time) (FYI still waiting for my 2012 Harper black auto) or trade it for one of my many chase cards that I want to be apart of my collection.

I took the card with me to a card show and decided to ask different dealers what they thought. Most of them more or less agreed that it falls between 400-600 retail. Which I thought was a fair enough estimate. I know these guys wouldn't pay that straight up cause they want to make a profit. After about 2ish hours (not sure how long but my girlfriend did wander around for a while) of negotiating, I was able to get this card! Never thought I would own one!

Check out this baby!

I pulled the trigger on a trade! Puig for MJ! This instantly goes into the top 5 in my collection! Maybe I could've got a couple extra dollars if I just sold it. But as far as a trade goes I'm quite happy with adding this iconic card and I'm sure the dealer flipped the Puig as fast as he could. So it's a win-win!

Thanks for reading!

I'm still here -- Water card

Been crazy busy, but I will get back to regular posting in the near future. Have a large stack of cards to scan and gotta thank some people for trades and contests etc. In the mean time check out this funky card. It is actually full of water.

Good player too, borderline hall of famer in my opinion.

Thanks for reading!

What is Trevor Taking Pictures of?!

This is my entry into Round 1 of Nachos Grande Blogger Bracket Challenge! Voting hasn't opened yet (it should on Thursday or Friday) but please vote for me! Or vote for the other guy if you don't like puppies..

So the question is What is Mr. Trevor Hoffman Taking pictures of?!



 He is of course taking pictures of something that we all care about.. Other baseball cards!

We have vintage...

Work it Mick! He looked good in his rookie year.

We have Superfractor shiny...

 

Work the shininess. Pose for that home run ball! 

And last but not least we have The Big Hurt!

Put the Hurtin' on the camera! 

Mr. Hoffman was just trying to spread our love of baseball cards! What a stand up guy! 

Thanks for spreading the enjoyment throughout the world!