Quick Morning Post!

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! In the next week (work permitting) I plan on doing my retrospective of 2014 and my look ahead to 2015. It's not necessarily setting any goals but more of a let's have some guidelines for the new year.

With that here's a shiny Ryan Howard!

This is the foil board parallel (out of 25) from this year's Stadium Club. It seemed like an enjoyable product this year (I haven't had the chance to open any) but I was more then happy to grab this card for about a dollar!

Hope everyone has a nice day/evening!

Thanks for reading!

Trade with Catching up with Collecting!

He was nice enough to contact me about some Phillies cards I might be interested in a while ago. Then sent over a pretty nice mix. I didn't want to post until I at least sent something back. I finally (very belatedly) sent some cards on Saturday (should arrive hopefully before new year's!), so now I can show off what he sent me! (I have no idea if that was a run on sentence but I'm sick at the moment so I'm not re-reading it).

Check out some cards!

 

J Roll is officially no longer a Philly, but he will go into the Phillies Hall of Fame (possibly the baseball Hall of Fame) after he retires. Ryan Howard is still here, at this point the Phillies obviously don't want to eat the money, so who knows he might play again for them this year. They know they don't have the team to compete right now and not too many young players that are ready yet. Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels could determine the fate of the Phils this year. If they are truely aces like they are paid to be it would give a big boost to their trade value as well as the team itself. 

I loved the Pence trade when they snagged him from the Astros.. hated the Pence trade when they gave him away to the Giants. For some reason Pence was getting a lot of the blame for why the Phillies weren't doing well. He clearly can be a part of a championship team if the parts are right (see Giants). Oh well hindsight is 20/20 but for the record I was right! Chooch might have one year left and then be done, he's had a nice run as a catcher. It's tough to continually take that wear and tear on your body. (I played catcher once in little league, that was the last time).

Lots of randomness in this post, but thanks for reading and thanks for the trade!

A Package from Too Many Verlanders!

I recently received a nice surprise from Too Many Verlanders! He is a Michigan guy (I went to Penn State, we can forgive him!) and he also likes the Tigers. He was kind enough to provide a very large milestone in my Ryan Howard PC.

Behold Hit number 100!!!!

Pretty sharp looking card that I did not have previously! Very happy to get to the nice round number of 100 autos/relics of Ryan Howard (before he leaves Philadelphia).

He also included a few baseball cards...

 

Really like the Jimmy Rollins picture. That was at the parade when the Phillies won the World Series in 2008. Easily a highlight of the last 30 years of Phillies baseball. Highly entertaining team to watch. They were just one of those teams that it didn't matter if they were down 2-3 runs in the 6th inning. They were going to come back against anyone. Good times! 

 Thankfully, I did not witness the Eagles game on Saturday (was busy) but I heard how ugly it was. The Eagles would've been eliminated anyway if the Cowboys win out but to lose to the Redskins is just plain bad. The Skins had nothing to play for and the Eagles forgot how to play football. Embarrassing. We'll see what the Eagles will do in the off season. Always fun!

Thanks for the cards and Thanks for reading!

A Ryan Howard Auto!

I recently picked up this auto. It's not pack pulled but it was already slabbed which was nice. It's a nice rookie auto of my current main PC Ryan Howard.

Not the cleanest auto in the world, but now I have this one and a few of the Bowman's Best auto's from 2003.

I received a couple packages in the mail the last few days. Work's been a little crazy but I will scan and show off sometime soon! Return packages are also still in the works, most likely after Christmas.

Everyone have a happy holiday and thanks for reading!

Trade with Infield Fly Rule!

I recently completed my first trade with Infield Fly Rule! He dropped me a note and said he had some cards for me. We quickly came to an agreement. He sent super quick, and hopefully the cards I sent have arrived. He sent me well over 100 different cards. It was quite a nice lot to go through. I scanned a small sampling of a few!

 

That's a nice shot of Daulton. Saw him recently in person, looked really good considering he was diagnosed with Cancer last year. Rollins hasn't officially been traded yet (maybe I think), so enjoy the last few days he's still technically a Phillies player. 

 

Can't beat that shot of Mitch Williams with a head band. Rockin' it! I always liked Jim Eisenreich. Even on those terrible teams in the 90s the dude just hit constantly. The 4 years he played for the Phillies, he hit over .300 each year. He should be the next hitting coach! 

The moustache look is fantastic as well. I just can't pull it off. A few Frank Thomas's, always much appreciated (nearing 700 unique!). Thanks for all the cards!

Maybe next year I'll write a blog goals post, I tend to aimlessly go for things. I did attempt to get every Ryan Howard parallel this year.. did get quite a lot, but def not all of them. It got expensive real quick. I will definitely continue trying to get Vintage Phillies Team sets.  Have made great progress the last couple years. Working on the 60s as a main focus right now and then onto the 70s!

Thanks for reading!

Old School Box Break 1994 Finest!

Every card show in King of Prussia there's usually 3 dealers with all unopened product. Always like to take a look to see what they have. Steel City Collectibles (whom I've purchased from before) happened to have 3 boxes of Finest reasonably priced. 1993 Finest although fun would be way out of my price range for a single box. There was 2 Series 1's and one Series 2. Figured one of each was the way to go.. so I bought two, went and met Mr Dawkins and then came back and bought the last one!

I had no idea how often refractors landed per box so as we were opening we (my wife and I) made sure that we were under a light to check for the rainbowness! Also, each box had a pretty cool boxtopper on top!

I didn't scan a ton of base cards, but here's one!

 

It's stated that the all star cards and rookie subsets are not any rarer then the base cards, but those subsets only come one per pack. So kinda rarer, but not worth any more or less.

 

These were the 3 box toppers. Two out of three ain't bad! Happy with the Maddux even though he killed the Phils in the 90s. Always happy hitting a Philly! Lenny Dykstra! Only dud box topper was Troy Neel!

 

In three boxes, we hit 8 refractors. Pretty solid. There's a whole lot of green in this set. If you do not like that color, this set is not for you!  If you can't read the scans the players are Brian McRae, Scott Servais, Tom Henke, Jose Mesa, Scott Brosius and Jeff King.

Two big "hits"!! Orel Hershiser refractor and Sammy Sosa refractor! Pretty awesome to actually get two bigger names from the set.

These boxes were fun, who knows if I got full value if I were to sell. The Sosa and Hershiser are clearly the most expensive cards. I could easily see getting all scrub refractors though. Overall, lots of fun though! I like busting these older boxes. Also, a big plus is the cards were a little sticky, but not a single one was damaged. (When we opened 1994 Score, about half the cards were stuck together like a brick).

Thanks for reading!

Philly show Recap Finale!

Overall, In conclusion, etc etc, the card show was a lot of fun and am looking forward to the next big one in March. I have a few more pickups to show off as well! Some of these are spoken for and some aren't but never hurts to ask.

Check it out!

 

The George Brett is one of those 3000 Club inserts, just a cool looking set. The Ripken scanned kinda funny but its actually a hologram! The Frank Thomas.. goes straight to the PC! The numbers keep climbing, gotta catch em all!

 

Here's a few Mets cards, I don't collect Mets particularly but I owe some people and I know they'll like them. The Etopps Wright caught my eye. I always want the Phillies from the sets but I feel like they are all overpriced on ebay. The Montero I may hold onto for a bit to see if he becomes good. I think he's one of their good prospects. Pedro will be in the Hall of Fame soon!

Here's a few Pirates cards. The Autofacts that is a bit cut off by my scanner is of Adam Laroche. Always nice to see on card autos from Tier one and inception (and not have to buy the boxes!). The blue chrome's are a nice subset and refractors this year were tougher to hit (based on my own case breaking experience). I never heard of Willy Garcia but its a Bowman on card auto!

Thanks for reading and following along! I'll return to my usual semi randomness shortly!

Philly Show Part 2 .. Baseball Cards!

Before getting to meet Brian Dawkins, we did get to look at baseball cards and find some cool things! There seemed to be a couple new dealers and some regulars that we always go and have some nice conversations with. Always lots of boxes to look through! Fun to search for some hidden gems!

I will just stick to the Phillies portion of the pickups for this post. (and one other card)

 

Didn't go too crazy with vintage this time but was able to find a couple hard ones. The Frank Herrera is a high number, same with the Art Mahaffey! They are a pain to find and all quite pricey. Inching closer to completing a few more 60s team sets! 

 

Here's some new Ryan Howard's. The relic is from 2011 Gypsy Queen, which is super expensive so I was happy to grab the single. The Super Poweres Mike Schmidt is a psychedelic looking card, who doesn't enjoy that! Picked up some prospect autos just cause I didn't have them, Jake Sweaney and Severino Gonzalez. No idea if they are going to be good, hope so!

The Cody Asche is my first auto of his, and its on-card! I actually quite like this Triple Threads design. The Cord Sandberg is the green parallel from Bowman Platinum. The Barry Bonds is a base card from 1993 Finest! Great set, had to pick it up when I saw the card.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more baseball card goodness!

Thanks for reading!

Philly Show Part 1 (I met a famous athlete!)

If you're a regular reader you guys and gals know that I attend the Philly Show in King of Prussia on the regular. It's worth the drive usually and always tons of vintage and other cool things to see (wish I made way way more money haha) I saw a Mantle 1952 rookie graded a 4... only 20K! This show usually has a pretty good lineup of Flyers/Eagles/Phillies that sign. The headliner this time was Brian Dawkins! The price wasn't outlandish so my wife and I decided to go for the auto and meet him! Glad we did, it was great.

We got lucky and the ticket we had was number 24, so not a whole lot of people in front of us when the signing started.

Here's a pic of me with Dawkins!




He was gracious enough to shake my hand a 2nd time and smile for the picture! We had a nice discussion about which pen to use because the pen I had brought wasn't working as expected. We ended up using a silver paint pen to sign this...

The Dawkins is evident in the top right! Looks nice! The long term plan is to get Corey Simon, Jevon Kearse, Donovan Mcnabb, Brian Westbrook and TO to all sign it! That's the goal! It is currently framed and hanging up but can be easily be popped up if the opportunity arrives for the next player! All in all a super positive experience with Dawkins. He seemed to take the time for every person was super gracious to everyone. It was really nice to see that.

Next up will be actual card purchases. Got some cool stuff and some things that will be on the way to other people sooner or later!

Thanks for reading!

A sweet PWE!

I received a pretty awesome PWE from Fantastic Catch! He saw my post about the great Brad Sorenson  auto that I picked up from ebay (99 cents!) I mainly picked it up because I liked his first name.. now I have some additions to this side PC!

 

If you can't read the pictures, these cards are of Brad Davis, Brad Evans and Brad Sorenson.. they all have one awesome thing in common!

 I also received these 2 Phillies cards in the PWE! I did not have many red foil parallels and I know I didn't have a sealed copy of Chris Roberson's rookie card from Topps Chrome (not sure where they come sealed like that).

Thanks for the surprise, made the mail fun!

On a side note, I went to the Philly show today with my wife! It was a ton of fun, had quite a haul. Some of it is scanned but still have quite a bit to sort through! I'll be posting some things and I'm sure will have some more to post down the line. (I have about 2000 new cards to sort!)

Thanks for reading!

A surprise package from Home Run Apple!

I recently received a surprise package in the mail from The Home Run Apple! He's been semi dormant on his blog lately but if you want to send him stuff, he likes the Mets! I am going to the King of Prussia show this coming weekend (can't wait always enjoy it!) I usually don't bother with buying any of the autographs, but I couldn't resist getting a ticket for Brian Dawkins! (60 bucks not bad) I plan on having him sign this Lithograph print that I recently got (for free!) I'll be sure to take a pic once it's signed. Should look pretty cool! There's other players on the lithograph so the long term goal will be to get them all but we'll see how that goes! Either way getting the all pro safety and meeting him will be neat!






Went off on a bit of a tangent there. This was supposed to be a thank you post! I'll be sure to try and find some cool Mets cards to send back though at the show!

As you can see this is a nice Bob Boone on card auto from Topps Archives. That is definitely a plus for the archives sets. It's nice to see all the on card autos! 

Here's a sampling of some of the other cards that were sent over. I like the gold parallels from Archives as well. They look nice in person. Always appreciate getting a numbered Cole Hamels from a high end set. That's a card I probably would not have acquired but now I have it! Look at Jayson Werth before he become a caveman!

Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving and is able to get back into the swing of things!

Thanks for reading!

A hit from a Pack!

I received a nice Target gift card from some people at work.. so naturally I had to hit up the card aisle. I went for one of those Topps Chrome update mega pack things. I had enjoyed opening a couple of them last year, so why not. I had no Topps Update from this year so they were all new cards to me! The Chrome packs were fun as usual! My wife called it before we even opened the packs and said a nice hit would be in there.

Without any more introduction 1 in 34 packs or so:

A pretty shiny Troy Tulowitzki chrome refractor. This pack only consisted of 2 cards. This card and a Mookie Betts rookie card (one of the better base cards in my opinion!)

Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving! It was great for me being an Eagles fan. All of Philadelphia was happy and sports talk radio is real fun to listen too when the Eagles crush the Cowboys. Made the Turkey taste that much better haha!

Thanks for reading!

Im Back again (although I never really left) (and some cards!)

I'm officially married! Hey yo! The guest room is no longer overrun with wedding stuff too! I can start trading and blogging a bit more. I haven't bought nearly as much new stuff this year but that's ok I have a decent amount of stuff laying around at the moment. I plan on hitting up the card show with the wife in a couple weeks. Hope to find some vintage Phillies and other cool stuff!

Here is one package I received the night before my wedding.

Matt from Bob Walk the Plank was kind enough to send over some Phillies goodness. I will definitely be on the lookout for a nice Pirates card at the show.

 

I'm a big fan of Ryan Howard (shocking!) and this is a nice looking card. Always happy to receive another relic! The framed relics are also, always welcome in my household. The Gypsy queen ones are done well. Here's to Jimmy's future Hall of Famer (maybe!). 

 

This was unexpected and awesome! A dual auto of Andrew Miller and Cole Hamels! Never opened any UD Premier but I like the look of this card and it easily has a place in the PC!

Thanks for the cards!

Thanks for reading!

A Super quick hello!

Been crazy this week preparing everything! Almost there! Also, I did receive this redemption from Topps a while ago. There was a lot of redemptions out of 2013 Topps Chrome, but at least all of them got fulfilled within a reasonable amount of time (I think). 2012 Harper's took over 2 years!

Always have to like Chrome's on card signatures. This year's chrome's price has dropped like a rock too. Wish I waited a little bit to buy my case instead of getting in on the pre-sell. Oh well, never know who's going to blow up or if Abreu or someone else would carry the product up. Maybe if the price keeps dropping I'll jump back in for the fun of it! Or go back to 2011 and get more color! Either way opening packs is a good time and I don't have the time or money to do it as much as I would like too.

Anyways have a wonderful Thursday and enjoy the weekend!

A couple random things!

I haven't been as blog active this month. I've been quite active in general though! I'm getting married in a week and I had my bachelor party last weekend and I've been doing all sorts of things including work.

Here's a Frank Thomas card I got a while ago!

These were from 2013 Topps Archives the Triumvirate inserts. Pretty cool looking set in general. I never did get the 3rd White Sox player to complete the set though. I didn't buy too many packs of 13 archives, I did really enjoy 2012 though.

Here is another fun card!

Wow my scanner was dusty.. I think it's cleaner now. I like the picture on this bowman chrome card. The sliding Howard and the blue borders work well together. Excited to see what happens on the up coming winter meetings! I wonder if Stanton will be the first 300 million dollar man. Can't blame him if the Marlins offer it. That's a crazy amount of money!

Thanks for reading, I'll be sure to be more active after the wedding .. everything is on hold until after the wedding!

Trade with the Lost Collector!

I recently completed a trade with The Lost Collector! He claimed most of the Yankees from my Chrome case, and I was more then happy to trade them away for a much better team, The Phillies! I can only imagine if I was a kid in the 50s and 60s how many Mantles I would've flipped for random Philly cards.

Check out some of the wares!

 

This card was basically the size of my scanner! I was pretty happy when it arrived safe. It's larger then today's boxtoppers from ginter! Scott Rolen was a phenom when he was young, shoulder injuries among other things derailed his career a bit. He did have a world class glove most of his career though.

 

Three new hits! My first look at some Donruss and Topps Finest! The Phillies pitching staff is going to be interesting next year (especially if they trade Hamels). Maybe Tyler Cloud will make a comeback with the big club, who knows. 

Here's a sampling of some more cards. I liked the cards in the 90s with the protective peel. Made all of the cards seem super special! Love some good vintage and anytime Mitch Williams has a mullet, that's a good time! I hope he comes back to by the Phillies announcer eventually, he would do well in that role.

Thanks for the trade and thanks for reading!

Trade with Reader Scott!

Thanks for all the comments on my previous post, much appreciated! I will post the rainbow sometime next week when I can get all the scans together.

I recently completed another trade with Scott! He always sends some good stuff and is really easy to trade with.

 

The 1992 Topps Frank Thomas card isn't the original. It's an insert from a couple years ago for 60 years of topps. I do like the look of that card from back in the day though. The Leaf cards of Thomas are quite nice too.

The RBI Kings insert of Scott Rolen are really nicely designed cards. They are an insert set I'd look into putting together. Some more Big Hurt. It's fun to flip through a binder of all Thomas's cards! I don't have nearly the high end that I have of Ryan Howard but it's still a cool collection!

Thanks for the trade and thanks for reading!

It Arrived! A "Super" Pickup -- RAINBOW COMPLETE!!!

After searching religiously.. I found it!!!

Love Superfractors in hand! This is my 2nd one of Ryan Howard (have 2012 Topps Chrome as well!) Not going to say much but enjoy!

Thanks for checking it out!

An Auto of me?!

I was perusing ebay and somehow stumbled across this amazing card..

Look it's my name on a card! So clearly written too (my real signature is more like a doctor's signature) (I am not a doctor). I do like these Crown Royale cards though, if they ever made baseball cards with shiny crowns I'd be all over that set! Apparently, I used to play for the Chargers but didn't get a ton of playing time. Currently, I am a free agent looking to be signed! Sign me I have a cool name!

Thanks for reading and checking out my auto card!

A Gem I tell ya!

I recently picked up this card from ebay. I actually did not have this base card (although I do have the silver version). I was able to get it for about 2 bucks already encased... since it would cost me more to do that (not that I would for a base card) I figured why not!

Ryan Howard before he was an All Star, Rookie of the year, MVP winner and World Series winner. Who knows if he will be a Phillie after this off season. Either way when he was raking he was one of the most feared hitters in baseball. Always a threat to go yard and always someone the pitchers had to game plan against. I don't think he makes it to Cooperstown but he should definitely make it into the Phillies Wall of Fame after he decides to hang up the cleats. I'm sure he'll play a few more years and then see how the legs are holding up regardless.

Thanks for reading! .. Foreshadowing alert.. made a massive PC purchase today, once it arrives in a few days I will be more then happy to share! Very excited about it!

A Swing and a Hit!

Baseball season is officially over. (sad face) Let the Hot Stove begin! Some big names out there. Pablo Sandoval, James Shields and Max Scherzer immediately come to mind. Will the Phillies trade Cole Hamels? (personally I hope not, hes one of the few reasons to watch). Ruben Amaro somehow managed to keep his job, wonder who he has pictures of! These questions and more will be answered in the coming Hot Stove winter.. and just in case I forget, happy almost daylight savings time!

The title of this post comes from these 2 refractors!

I very much enjoy the home run pose. I say everyone should flip their bat if they get a home run, you hit it you deserve to enjoy it.

This 2011 Topps Chrome set is what got me back to collecting. I bought a blaster on a whim at Target and hit a pretty sweet Buster Posey refractor. I ended up buying a case.. now that was fun! It has since become my one large annual purchase. This picture is pre-injury Ryan Howard, so you know he was in fine form. Head down bat extended, bye bye ball!

Thanks for reading, enjoy the baseball off season!

A Diecut auto!

Just to show something a little bit different this time. I have a bunch of new-ish Ryan Howard's but this card does not fit in that category. I simply enjoy the design of these cards and wanted a cool auto.

Although Nelson Cruz is no longer on the Rangers, he had quite a good season for the Orioles. He was mashing the ball down at Camden Yards (fun ballpark to visit!). As you can see these are numbered to 25 and although the auto is a sticker it still works for me. These cards non sticker came 1 per box in 2012. They are nice and a welcome edition to the Topps Chrome universe. One day I'll get the non auto set. I have a bunch of these in my 2012 Chrome binder.

Only one more win for the Giants. Quite a performance by Bumgarner.. he deserves MVP if they win it!

Thanks for reading!

A Surprise from Bob Walk the Plank!

Mr. Bob Walk the Plank is a very generous trader and without any of my asking was kind enough to send a couple cards that fit perfectly into my collection! I dropped a return package in the mail so I hope he finds those cards to his liking. Blind trading can be a good time!

Not one, but two autos that I did not have!

 

Larry Bowa! Arguable the 2nd best shortstop in Phillies history (Behind potential HOFer Jimmy Rollins). It's a nice on-card signature from this year's Panini's Pastime Signatures. Nice looking set in hand, if the price keeps dropping might give it a shot. 

 

This is an interesting card of Chooch. He signed on a piece of Leather from 2005 Leather and Lumber. It will be a sad day when he leaves the Phillies. He was the perfect catcher for the pitching staff the last decade or so. His handling and ability to hit a fastball really helped the Phillies win all those games. 

Thanks for the cards Matt and thanks for reading!

Ryan Howard Rainbow Progress!

I am still working on the 2014 Topps Chrome Ryan Howard Rainbow. I have everything except the Printing Plates and the Superfractor. I've been searching but they've yet to pop up (to my knowledge).

Check out the colorfulness!

Xfractor

Purple

Orange

Blue out of 199

Black out of 100

Sepia out of 75

Gold out of 50

Red out of 25

Atomic out of 10

This year is a little bit easier then last year. They dropped out the Camo (out of 15) and Pink (out of 5) refractors. I think it was a good decision to do that. There's already enough parallels to chase each year. If anyone knows where the super or plates are please let me know! (I have all except the Super and 2 plates from last year as well)

Thanks for reading!