Opening Night.. Again!

Tonight we get to start baseball again! Phillies officially start tomorrow! I have my Phillies calender to hang up at work all ready to go! Hopefully this guy can get it rolling in April..

My newest addition!

This rookie auto is one I've been chasing a while. I had put in some really strong bids in the past year but lost them all. Thankfully, I was able to get this one for more then 100 dollars cheaper then my previous bids! I know the auto grade is a 9, but I don't care! This card looks great in person and fits in nicely with my Ryan Howard collection!

Went to a charity dinner last night to help out some local folks. It was a lot of fun! I was able to buy the sports basket and will show off some of that stuff soon (once I take pics). Also bought a limo for a night and a party at hooters! Should be fun!

Thanks for reading, Go phillies!

A couple of Ryan Howard Rookies!

Not much can top the cardboard love received on the last post. My girlfriend and I went back and found the original post where the Harper was pulled. August 25th 2012 to be exact. Good times! Still love cracking my one case per year!

I recently filled some Ryan Howard gaps in the collection!

Some sweet rookies!

The Howard Pristine is a nice card. It's numbered so therefore rare! The Upper Deck prospect premiers might be Howard's 'true' rookie card. Now I have 3 of the regular rookie cards (along with the bowman drafts picks and prospects card)

I picked up one of the rarer autos the other day! That will be in the next Ryan Howard post!

Go Phillies, counting down to opening day!

Thanks for reading!

Two Year Wait Is Over!!!!!!

I pulled this card in August of 2012. I was rather excited at the time and redeemed it ASAP. I figured I'd have the card in a couple months since it was the off season coming up and players don't play baseball then. Silly me.

It's on card and it's beautiful!

Harper auto! Finally in my possession! The auto looks pretty clean and the card itself is very clean. (Any marks are from my unclean scanner) Even though I'm a phillies fan I can appreciate the talent of a young player in the division. I hope he lives up to the potential (and then I can sell this card for a million and retire right right?!?)

Anyways, happy day!

Thanks for reading!

A Trade with Sports-Card-Mask-A-Rade!

I recently completed my first trade with Sports Card Mask A Rade! I finished off his base set for 2013 Topps Chrome (FYI I have a ton of extra base please hit me up if you need some!)  He sent me a petty awesome package. I do enjoy the random surprise packages. I only agreed to some Frank Thomas's and some Eagles cards. My expectations were more then met.

I scanned 9 at a time but there are definitely a few gems I want to highlight!

Received some new Frank Thomas cards! Always appreciated! The Topps Chrome is a refractor and numbered out of 650. The RBI Kings card is a pretty sweet 90s insert. One day I will own every card out there and this is a good start!

These are all Donovan McNabb! Despite his lack of ability to handle the media he was possibly the greatest Eagle QB of all time (we will see what Nick Foles can do). The top card with Daunte Culpepper is pretty cool. I was a big fan of his when he played with Randy Moss. One of my best fantasy teams all time featured Randy Moss, Daunte Culpepper and Torry Holt.

This scan is pretty awesome. Regular card, refractor, regular card, refractor... etc! It was fun to go through the pile seeing that. The Dynmaic Duos card is cool too. Every Eagle Fan liked Duce Staley for the way he played. Always gave it his all on every play.

The card of the package to me is that Charlie Garner on the top right! It's a Precious Metal Gem numbered out of 50! Never thought I'd own one in any sport of the originals! Jeremy Maclin might become the man soon for the Eagles Wide Receivers. All these rumors flying around that D Jax is going to be traded. Which honestly I don't get. He creates space for the other receivers. I could care less if hes a loud mouth, if he can run and catch 80 for 1300 yards, I want him on the team. The Chad Lewis is cool. The little window with his helmet is see through!

The Rodney Peete is a great 90s insert too, Dufex Technology is awesome! Love the Hugh Douglas picture. He flattened that Bills player! I went to one Eagles playoff game in my life at Veteran's Stadium. They were playing Tampa Bay and I remember when Hugh had a sack fumble against Shaun King. This game the Eagles won too (lets not talk about the other one).

Thanks for reading and thanks for the trade!

In Honor of Basketball Tourny... A Trade!

I recently completed another trade with reader Brandon. He found some cards at a garage sale and offered up some basketball cards I might like for some of my trade bait.

It was a quick and easy deal as usual!

 

I'm a Philly homer when it comes to sports so I was more then happy to get this Rick Brunson autograph! He was great for John Chaney at Temple. In 94-95 he averaged over 16 points a game and led the Owls to the NCAA tournament (they were ousted in the first round by Cinncinnati). 

The next two autos are from John Celestand. Villanova has been good recently. They are a #2 seed this year and I hope they make some noise in the tournament. I went to basketball camp for 3 years as a youngster and it was run by Villanova's current coach Jay Wright. I credit him for teaching me how to shoot and putting it in the eye of one or two defenders that talked some trash to me. Thanks Jay!

Thanks for the trade and Thanks for reading!

What's your fanttaaaasy!

I did 2 fantasy drafts last night! Both run by different bloggers and former bloggers. I do one other league with a group of guys I know from college. I am not great at Fantasy Baseball but I enjoy it so I always give it a good go.

Team #1:

Keeper League. You can keep up to 4 from last year but they are your first 4 picks. I only kept 2. 12 teams

Team Name: Springfield Isotopes

C- Joe Mauer (5th round)
1B-Albert Pujols (6th round)
2B-Robinson Cano (keeper 1st round)
3B-Adrian Beltre (3rd round)
SS-Xander Bogearts (12th round)
OF-Alex Gorden (8th round)
OF-Josh Hamilton (9th round)
OF-Shane Victorino (10th round)
Util-Michael Bourn (14th round)
BN-Jimmy Rollins (16th round)
BN-Mark Teixiera (17th round)

Pitchers
Adam Wainwright (keeper 2nd round)
Justin Verlander (4th round)
Jordan Zimmerman (7th round)
Matt Moore (11th round)
Jon Lester (15th round)
Rex Brothers (18th round)
Paco Rodriguez (19th round)
Cole Hamels (13th round)
Drew Smyly (20th round)

I feel pretty good pre season about the team. I am lacking some in speed but hopefully can make that up in power and OBP. Bogearts is a big wild card but if hes good Rollins is a candidate to be dropped. If you noticed I have no closers. Saves is not a category so a good 8th inning guy is worth the same as a closer. The bench in this league is pretty short so maneuvering during the year will be a must!

2nd Draft

Non keeper league. 12 teams, deep rosters.

Team Name: Brad's Blog (fancy I know)

I got lucky and drew the first pick! It took the thought of the first round which was nice. Trout all day!

Here's all of them:

C- Joe Mauer (5th round)
1B- Jose Abreu (11th round)
2B- Matt Carpenter (7th round)
3B- Jurickson Profer (10th round)
SS- Asdrubal Cabrera (14th round)
OF- Mike Trout (1st round)
OF- Billy Hamilton (4th round)
OF- Josh Hamilton (8th round)
Util- Jonathan Lucroy (13th round)
Util- Ryan Howard (16th round)
Util- Nick Castellanos (22nd round)
BN- Chase Headley (20th round)
BN- Derek Jeter (23rd round)

SP- Adam Wainwright (2nd round)
SP- Jordan Zimmerman (6th round)
SP- Andrew Cashner (15th round)
SP- RA Dickey (17th round)
RP- Craig Kimbrel (3rd round)
RP- Sergio Romo (9th round)
RP- Ernesto Frieri (12th round)
P- Joakim Soria (18th round)
P- Ervin Santana (19th round)
P- Yovani Gallardo (21st round)
P- Edward Mujica (24th round)
BN- Bartolo Colon (25th round)
BN- Miguel Gonzalez (26th round)


By the 26th round I was just trying to find someone I knew. I am cheering for Joe Mauer and Josh Hamilton to do well this year. Asdrubal was the only shortstop left at the point, but with Profar's versatility I may be replacing him quickly. I can shift Headley to third, Cabrera to the bench and Profar to Short. Carpenter also has 3rd eligibility which is nice. My pitchers are a little scattered. Strong at the top but lots of question marks in between. I went from no closers in the first draft to the best closer in the 2nd. If he does his usual I should be competitive in saves. Soria could close for the Rangers, they haven't officially announced one way or the other.

How do you guys and gals think I did?

Share your teams or leave a thought, always interested in other peoples view points!

Obligatory card picture:

Ryan Howard metal card!

That's Patch-tastic!

I haven't gotten a great patch from Ryan Howard in a little while, Until now! I have a few nice patches but this one is easily one of the top. It's low numbered and displays real well.

Check it out!

My first and only vertical booklet! Only an auto added to it would've put it over the top. Just a quick post, baseball is coming up soon!

I have 2 fantasy drafts on Sunday... I have no strategy so I will just pick who I want to cheer for!

Thanks for reading!

Philly Show saved the best for last Part 3!

I know I got some sweet cards in the previous posts, but these next items were the big pickups for me!

Yes those are boxes of 1994 Stadium Club! I was able to get three series 1, one series 2 and one series 3! My girlfriend has been sorting the cards so I hope to have a want list shortly. I'm sure we have quite a few doubles too. There was some sticky cards but most of them survived.

The box of 1995 Score was fun to open too. Almost no cards were destroyed! The 1994 score super packs (jumbos) were the worse. They were literally like bricks and all of the gold rush cards were ruined! ALL of them. Luckily all the other boxes very few or none of the gold one per pack cards were messed up.

Love me some cheap 90s wax!

This next piece was the big one!

It's Chase Utley and Ryan Howard! Side by Side photos with on-card autos underneath and a sweet Phillies patch in the middle! The frame is custom and very well done.

Part of the reason I think my girlfriend likes these card shows is the ego boost it gives her. At least 4 different dealers told her that she was a keeper when she dropped some various baseball card knowledge.

All in all a really fun show and some sweet showpieces!

Thanks for reading!

Philly Show Pickups Part 2!

Hope everyone enjoyed part 1!

Onto some more interesting things!

 

A sweet Fergie Jenkins rookie card. A must add to my Phillies collection.  I don't mind that it was already graded the guy had a 20% off sale on his graded stuff so that was nice. I now have an auto and rookie card, just need a relic for a trifecta! 

I was able to pick up these 3 cards from the same seller. He had a pick 3 for 25 dollars from his case. I'd been in search of an Ozzie rookie and they usually go in the 20 range by itself, so I was more then happy to grab the Gary Carter and Jim Rice rookie cards! I won't say no to hall of famers! I love the 70s side burns as well, that style needs to come back. I would partake.

 

We were able to hit some of the want list. Knocked off a total of 21 cards from 1965 and 1967 Topps for a grand total of 30 bucks. I was quite pleased with the price and the dealer was super organized (number order by year!) 

We will have one more post on the show tomorrow. The biggest piece I picked up has not been shown yet and some other goodness. Lets just say 90s wax was involved! 

Thanks for reading!

Philly Show Pickups Part 1

I have no idea how many parts I am going to break these posts into, but I want to have some sort of organization (no matter how loose it may be). I had a ton of fun walking around with my girlfriend at the show. Lots of dealers were interested in talking baseball and cards. Saw some stuff I wish I could afford but can't. There was a 52 Mantle there PSA 8. Pretty ridiculous! All in all if you searched there was bargains and expensive stuff, tastes for every kind of collector.

 

 We started our journey with a quarter box. I noticed the World Baseball Classic base cards right away. Very Shiny! I was happy to pull the Rollins and Aumont for myself. The Ramirez will make its way into someones Dodgers package most likely. The Upper Deck X diecut is always a favorite and it's Ryan Howard. The Hasek card is not something I typically collect but I really liked the photography. Very nice looking card. The Carl Erskine was more then a quarter, but I picked it up specifically to trade it to one of you Dodger bloggers! 

These were all from a quarter box but a different seller. 2 bucks for em all! He had a nice stack of random Howard's to seach through. I asked if he had a lot price in mind. I said 50 bucks.. he said 100.. so I had to leave the rest of the stack there. I did search through them all, a couple nice cards but nothing I could justify 100 dollars on.

 

Here's some Relics I was able to grab. The Sammy Sosa/Mark McGwire I specifically picked up for our friend The Diamond King. He always gives away so much at the end of the year. I wanted to give him something back. It will be on its way to you later this week (as long as I can find your address).  

The Thome was just a cool card. It has like a piece of a ticket and a relic on it. The Big Hurt relic is just one I didn't have and it was cheap. Same with the Quad, for the price of 3 bucks I was happy to grab it. 

Some modern cards! Anthony Rendon auto! Joey Gallo numbered out of 99 and Nelson Cruz numbered out of 35! All pretty nice! (Already spoken for, they will be sent on Thursday!) 

This was the start of the show.. stay tuned for Part 2.. it may include some vintage and other things!

Thanks for reading!

Ryan Howard Rainbow Progress ! (lots of scans)

I waited patiently and received one of the harder to find cards last week! I am pretty happy where the rainbow is at right now. Without further adieu check them out in picture format!

Base

Power Players

Walmart Blue

Green

Yellow

Upper Class Insert

Purple

Red Hot Foil

Red

Gold out of 2014

Upper Class relic out of 99

Camo out of 99

Black out of 63

Pink out of 50

Silk out of 50

Topps Vault One of One

Acetate out of 10 (really cool looking card)

Black Printing Plate 1 of 1

I now have 18 different 2014 Topps Ryan Howard's! Only 4 left by my count. The Platinum and 3 printing plates. I haven't seen them surface yet (or I missed them, hope I didn't miss them).  The Acetate was tough because the first one on ebay went for over 100 dollars and I wasn't the winner. I got lucky and someone put it up as a buy it now for half of that so I had to jump on it.

Thanks for reading! I had a great time at the Philly Show this past weekend. I plan on showing off what I acquired in the next couple posts! 

Five Star and a CD card!

A few months ago Topps released its second year of Five Star for baseball. I had bought a decent amount of singles last year for its inaugural release. This year I took it easy. Watched some cards but only pulled the trigger if the price was right. I was able to snag this sweet card!

A nice legends relic numbered out of 25. I have the bat one from last year also numbered out of 25.

This is the 2011 Topps Sparkle card. I do not understand completely why the 2014 Sparkle SP's are selling for so much. I was able to pick this one up for about 3 bucks a while ago. Yes it has a sparkle in it, no I do not know why.

On to cooler things, it's a CD!

Or is it a card? It's a card and a CD! I wish I could watch the highlights. My computer is too advanced to actually play it! I need to find an older model so I can check it out. I'm sure its a nice grainy video of him hitting a home run!

The Howard card I was waiting on arrived this week. I hope to scan it tomorrow and show my rainbow progress!

Thanks for reading!

A Trade!! A Trade?!? YES A TRADE!!!

I recently completed A TRADE!! with none other then your friend and mine Too Many Verlanders! I sent him some Tigers he wanted and he returned some awesome stuff in kind. It was a great package to go through as I will show you all in scans! Scanners are great! and trading!

 

These were some of the random cards that were included. I'm very sure that most of these are new and if/when I ever get past the 80's in organizing I will know for sure! The Dykstra metal card is sweet, big fan of that set!

 

Welcome to the Bobby Abreu section of this trade post! I really like the shiny holographix card, they are super nice in person. (I'm a sucker for shiny things). The Upper Deck card that looks like a baseball is textured too which just adds to the coolness. Abreu is back with the Phillies this year. Maybe he will catch some magic and have some pop off the bench this year! 

Welcome to the Scott Rolen portion of this trade post! The top left card is see through, which is always a good idea (60% of the time it works every time). Rolen is famous for being good at defense and turning down the Phillies 140 million bucks and getting traded instead. It all turned out for the best cause the Phillies ended up being pretty good in the last decade. 

Here is the meat so to speak, of the trade (editor's note, I do not eat baseball cards on purpose) The Greatest Hits set is just cool. I like CDs and Frank Thomas, so yes! There's 8 cards in the set. I currently have 4 different. I will officially add them to the want list to complete the set. So close! The Carlton was a complete surprise. A very happy awesome surprise! I love me a good relic hall of famer!

Side note, Philly show this weekend! I will be there on Saturday for a few hours (usually stay 3-4 til I get tired of searching) I haven't decided if I want to spend 70 dollars to get Brian Dawkins auto. One of the most beloved Eagles of all time. I hope the show is good as usual!

Thanks for the trade and Thanks for reading!