The 2014 Topps Ryan Howard project continues!

I was able to snag one of the big ones out of Topps Turkey Red. All Howard has is a base card the 4 printing plates. Never know if the plates are going to see the light of day. I got lucky and one was on ebay. Also had to use my crazy good negotiating skills or just plain luck that the person was a bit stubborn about their initial price.

Card went up for auction with a reserve. I messaged the seller and asked what the reserve was. They told me 40 dollars. I said I'd give them 30 right now if they took the auction down. They decided to let it ride. Auction ended in the 27 dollar range.

I messaged the seller again and said my offer still stands at 30. They declined and put the card up as a 10 day buy it now without a best offer option at 40. I watched it but decided against spending the extra 10 dollars.

The 10 days came and went, the seller re-listed again at .99 cents with no reserve. I again messaged the seller and offered 30 dollars. He again told me that he wanted to let it ride. I couldn't argue too much it was his card he could do what he wants. So I decided to bid. I sniped the auction for 13 dollars!

And that is why ladies and gentleman if you are selling don't turn down reasonable offers!

Check it out!

As far as plates go its not too bad. I like that the picture is still visible and you can actually tell who it is. Some of those other plates I have no idea unless someone told me. Got some other good stuff coming this week! Can't wait!

Let's not talk about the Flyers, but I do have a sweet hockey card coming from Canada (hopefully comes soon)

Thanks for reading!

That's Patch-Tastic !!

I love these series of posts, mainly because it means I was able to get my hands on a sweet patch! Triple threads from 2012 are really awesome. It seems like Topps made an effort to make the low numbered cards look really good. I have a few of Sapphire and now 2 of the rubies!

Check out this beauty!

I did not personally get this card graded. I'm tempted to crack it out but the ridiculously thick case is entertaining! The corners got whacked on the grading though but the rest of it is pretty good. I had to do some serious negotiating to bring the seller down on price. We negotiated some in January and they wouldn't come down. I waited them out 4 months and low and behold my offer was good again! I should negotiate multi million dollar deals like Jay-Z did for Robinson Cano. I'm totally qualified.

The Phillies are above .500! On our way!

Thanks for reading!

The Big Hurt!

I haven't shown a lot of Frank Thomas lately, but I did pick up 2 pretty nice cards (in my opinion) of him recently. I'm happy he made it into the hall of fame on the first ballot. I expect Ken Griffey Jr to do the same. Growing up in the 90s those were the two superstars in my mind. It was always fun to pull a sweet insert or even just any card of them. I loved 1995 Emotion and 1996 Spx and some other sets.

Check out this newly acquired auto!

Hailing from 1993 Leaf this is my 3rd auto of his! Its a pretty cool picture of Frank being INTENSE! I like the Frank Thomas only insert set that Leaf put out this year. Very nice photography.

Here's a more modern card!

It's the 2013 Five Star base card! I was able to snag it for under 10 dollars because the seller was in Japan. It actually shipped in under 2 weeks so I was quite pleased. Five Star can be tough to collect because so many of the cards I want go for so much. One day I will gamble on a box but I haven't been able to justify the cost vs risk. You'd be better off picking the singles up to the cost of the box and probably be much happier. Such of the life of a wax ripping addict.

I'm counting down the days til Gint-A-Cuffs! I had a blast last year participating and intend to win it this year!

Thanks for reading!

My First Taste of Gypsy Queen - Group Break Results!

I recently participated in a group break over at My Cardboard Habit! He did a really good job of showing all the cards and sending promptly. Thanks Judson for hosting! I had the Phillies as my chosen team and the Royals as my randoms. I was a little disappointed that Ryan Howard did not make the checklist at all. Less parallels for me to chase. I didn't get any crazy hits but got some nice cards!

Check em out!

 

I like the design of this year's Gypsy Queen. I find it generally pleasing to look at. I have the 2011 set with all the short prints and inserts but I haven't really collected the other years beyond the Phillies. I think it's a little overpriced but that's just me. I'm saving my money for Chrome! 

 

 Here's all the mini's I was received. The Sepia is numbered out of 50 and the 2 blacks are numbered out of 199. If anyone wants the Royals minis let me know, I'm sure we can work out a quick and easy deal.

The Schmidt frame is pretty cool and numbered out of 499. The Lee and Bo are short prints in the set so it was nice to see them. The Ventura is one of these hot young pitchers that will hopefully pan out. I'm rooting for him to do well. All in all a solid break. I'm happy to complete the Phillies team set in one fell swoop.

Go Phillies!

Thanks for reading!

A Trade and a PWE!

Last week I posted a one card trade bait! I had the card a while and I picked it up for the sole purpose of trading it to another collector. Thankfully, Chunter from The Home of the Braves wanted it! We quickly came to an agreement and the mail came and went.

Here are the goods!

 

The vintage is much appreciated! Always nice to cross some more cards off the list! The Mayberry is one of those elusive green retail parallels.

 

Bobbbby Abreeeeu! This is a nice relic card of his. And he was just called up by the Mets at 40 years old! I hope he has a nice last hurrah in the majors. Can't believe he get up to the show again! He always had a sweet swing at the plate.

The Roy Halladay came from a PWE that I recently received. It was from Adam at now no longer updated blog Thoughts and Sox. (I'll link if you want me too) He was kind enough to pass on a card that he knew I would like. I'm always on the lookout for rare Virdons! 

The Howard is the same subset so I thought they'd look nice scanned together. How about that 4 hit night last night. He was robbed of the cycle but hey can't win em all!

Also, who collects Yankees cards? I sort my cards by team that I trade away to people and I am being told by the manager of the card room (my girlfriend) that the Yankees box is nearing full. Therefore I need to trade a largeish stack to someone for some random phillies. Who's up for it? (I can accomodate more then one trade)

Thanks for reading!

A Couple Old trades!

I not so recently completed 2 trades! I sent mine sometime last year and recently received the return end in the mail! I actually forgot that I had sent anything but I did go back in emails and confirm that I did. I am glad that the blogger verse is mostly honest and thank you to these two for sending over some cool stuff!

From The Baseball Dad

I had sent him some Indians Chrome and he responded in kind!

 

Pettibone needs to setup his game for this year. He got rocked by the rockies last night (pun intended). I like the way the Orange Parallels look! 

From The Junior Junkie

 

The top 3 cards are all serial numbered which is always nice! I have been organizing the collection lately and filtering out Phillies serial numbered cards to see how many I have. 

Anytime a Big Hurt is involved, I like the trade package! I am now up to 635 Unique Frank Thomas cards! They are kinda pricey for autos so I've been selective on what I pick up but I am always willing to trade!

Blog Update: I updated the Want List, Trade bait, Ryan Howard Want list for 2014 and the Phillies Hits today. The Museum Collection Patch went for 112 dollars on ebay! I had it at 110 and got sniped. Couldn't believe someone was willing to go higher.

Also one card trade bait was a rousing success! I will make a concerted effort to highlight some cards to get some deals going!

Thanks for reading!

A quick hello!

I've been a bit under the weather in the past week but I am finally starting to feel on the up and up! The weather change got me this year. I am still actively collecting my Phillies and thoroughly enjoying the beginning of baseball. Despite the Phillies losing to the Braves, at least they battled back and almost had it. I don't think we would've seen that last year. Here's hoping they have that kind of fight all season long.

Just wanted to show a recent pickup that I quite like!

Despite my poor scanning abilities this is a pretty sweet 1957 Topps Richie Ashburn! I may crack it out of the case so I can put it in the binder with his friends. I was originally looking for a raw copy but everywhere I looked where I thought the card was nice they wanted 25 or more. I was able to snag this card in an open auction for 11 dollars! Patience paid off for this one!

Thanks for reading!

A Whole lot of Metal!

I recently received these 2 cards in the mail! They are both very thick and metal like. They were popular when they were released so I waited to jump on the bandwagon. It paid off, costed me under 5 bucks for both! Love weird ending ebay times.

Check em out!

The Silver Slugger award is crazy thick! It must be 30-35 base cards stacked up. The Phillies bats have been ok this year, but the bullpen has been to be nice.. not good. They really need to get some outs and hold some leads!

Officially going to the game next Thursday, can't wait!

Thanks for reading!

A one card Trade Bait post (who wants it?)

Edit: Card has been traded!

This card has been on my trade bait from the beginning. It is a nice card overall but the case is big and I don't have a good way to store it. I want to trade it. If you claim it I will send it to you and send me something back. I don't really care what you send back.

Here it is!

Ian Kennedy Topps Tribute Relic numbered out of 99! I picked it up in a trade bait draft way back when (remember when those were all the rage) It is in the original case and still has the original sticker. If you wanted to take it out of said case well that's ok but I'm not going too.

Please claim in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

A trade with Scott!

I recently completed another trade with reader Scott! He's super easy to trade with and we've had a nice back and forth going for a little while. Just wanted to show off some of the wares. A nice mix and good stuff as usual!

The Big Hurt! Always appreciate the new Frank Thomas's. And now I have dedicated binders to properly store them! Look Topps Heritage.. but thats Upper deck! Who copied who?!

The Howard career best is a nice new relic card! Another add to the Ryan Howard super collection! The Blue sparkly parallels are nice always a fan. The two basketball cards are none other then Eddie Jones and Aaron McKie. They were my favorite college players when I was younger. Dominated at Temple! McKie was a key contributor on the sixers 2001 team that made the NBA finals. Eddie Jones ironically enough was almost traded for Allen Iverson, but because Matt Gieger had a no trade clause (they needed his contract in the deal to make the money work) the deal did not happen. He exercised his no trade rights.. Iverson won MVP next year and became Philly's favorite.

Some vintage-y goodness, still working on all those team sets! Randall ready to juke some defender out! He was a freak of an athlete! I like the Lindros and LeClair cards. I was a big fan of the Legion of Doom line. One of the best lines in hockey! Just need Renberg to finish the line! Hope the Flyers can make a good run to the Cup this year!

Thanks for the trade!

Thanks for reading!

This post has very little to do with baseball...

It's been a long day. Wanted to get done some scans, but I didn't have a chance to. I hope to get it done tomorrow. The good news is that even though the guinea pig ate the laptop cord, she didn't get the one for the scanner!

In other news, spent some more time organizing the card room today. My girlfriend's idea about the shelving was a good one, but I'm still trying to figure out how to put some of my graded cards into boxes. Any ideas for storage?

I went to see Captain America today. One of like 12 people in the entire theater. Two guys come and sit directly behind my girlfriend and I. They are just sitting there quietly until the previews start, when Guy A turns to Guy B and goes "Well, yea, Jessica and I broke up..." Guy A is like "Oh, dude that sucks, when did that happen?" and Guy B goes "Well for the first time..." At this point my girlfriend starts shooting them death glares, to which they seem to be impervious. I turned around and they stopped talking. What is the weirdest thing that you have overheard in a movie theater?

The first three paragraphs were written by my lovely girlfriend. She also likes to collect the occasional cardboard as well. Check out some cards she picked up at the last show we went too.

AJ McCarron is a good guy in this household because of this story! Ching Lung Hu had a very nifty Chinese signature. Pie well.. who doesn't like pie? The Phillies patch is interesting because its actually a Giants player. The Kent was just a nicely designed card. It's fun to look through boxes for anything interesting.

Thanks for reading!

A post about nothing!

I am/was a big Seinfeld fan. I enjoyed that show through the years and was sad to see it go off the air after a nice run. (The last episode was on my birthday though!) Today was a big day, my girlfriend and I bought a new shelving unit and are re-organizing the card room. Once it gets all in order I'll be sure to share with everyone. It's a nice start to not having just stacks of cards everywhere in very loose semblance of order.

I am behind on scanning, I admit it. The first week of the month is always killer at work so I get behind on that type of stuff. I will catch up shortly and be sure to share some of the great stuff people have sent me!

The Phillies are off to a solid 3-2 start. Could've easily been 5-0 but hey I'll take a winning record. Hope the bullpen starts playing well and they keep being competitive in games. That will make for a good baseball season!

I finally got a large chunk of my Frank Thomas's in binders. It's fun to flip through and see several hundred cards of the same player with all different styles colors types etc! I need to do that with the myriad of Ryan Howard's I have out there but one step at a time!

I am so close to completing the 1957 Topps Phillies Team set! TWO cards to go! For some reason 1957's been tough and rather pricey for the most part. Seems that way for most 50s cards. Can't imagine living back then and getting a Mantle for a nickel!

And if you didn't read any of that here's a pretty picture of a card that I have!

The 1994 Score Dream Team Gold Frank Thomas! This pickup was inspired by blogger friend Fuji. He grabbed some and I couldn't resist getting the Thomas! Thanks for the idea!

Thanks for reading!

And back to Reality!

The Phillies despite starting the season undefeated.. lost their next game. AJ Burnett pitched very well but the offense was only able to muster up 2 runs. I personally think Ryne Sandberg was overthinking the lineup. They mashed the ball in game one, so go ahead and bench a guy who hit a home run and a double (Cody Asche). Makes no sense to not keep him in the lineup no matter what. I'd want him to get experience against lefties and righties if he is going to be apart of this teams future. /end rant

On a more positive note check out this sweet card. 

A Ryan Howard auto from Topps Sterling! It's low numbered but also a sticker. At least it's the clear sticker and not the crazy shiny noticeable one. I wasn't collecting when this set came out but I do like the cards that come from it. Lots of quality interesting pieces. Howard smacked a double yesterday to drive in one of the runs, hopefully he continues swinging the bat like that today!

Thanks for reading!

On Pace for 162-0!

The Phillies got the W yesterday! Nothing like putting up 2 touchdowns in baseball! Of course they gave up a TD and a field goal.. but we won't dwell on that. Always love to see the bats come alive early and often. Let's keep it going today!

A Ryan Howard Rookie auto for your viewing pleasure. I now have 2 of these beauties! If I had my way and a lot of money I'd get 1000 and make wallpaper out of them. Baseball is back and roaring into April!

Thanks for reading!