Bo Knows!

Found this card recently! And in honor of my Fantasy Football Draft week (1 down, 2 to go)..

Here it is!

It's clearly a pristine 10. Love the highlight when he runs up the tunnel and runs over Brian Bosworth (2 different highlights). Also, in baseball when he just casually runs up a wall in KC. He was parkour before parkour!

Thanks for reading!

Then there was one...

Carlos 'Choooooooooch' Ruiz was traded to the Dodgers yesterday afternoon. He was one of two players left from the Phillies 2008 Championship team. The only player left is none other then my main PC player Ryan Howard.

Bye bye Chooch, you will always be remembered as one of the best catchers in Philly history and always doing a great job handling the pitching staff.

Pretty nice action shot on the metal card from last year's Topps.

The Last of the Phillies.. Ryan Howard.. here's my latest pickup.

A sweet spot Sig numbered out of 10. Red ink. This card really pops in hand, pretty pleased with it. No fading on the auto either. I kinda hope Howard retires after the Phillies buy him out at the end of the season. He has almost 400 home runs in one uniform and will definitely be on the Phillies wall of fame as soon as he is eligible. He'll get a vote here or there for Cooperstown but I know he won't get in.

Thanks for reading!

Cards from Brian!

Brian over at Pirates Treasure Room recently sent me some cards saying that just belonged in my collection. Was he ever right! Also, check out his Andrew McCutchen collection. It's quite impressive. I think I have a nice one I can send over as a thank you.

 

My first and only auto of Jordan Matthews. Currently the only Eagles WR who is competent. He catches a lot of balls and should be a solid player for years to come.

Two new one of ones! I love the moments and milestones set. I don't know if I'll ever complete it but the red with the Phillies look great on these cards. Thanks for the cards Brian, I'll be sure to get you something back soon!

Thanks for reading!

Cards from Scott!

I recently received 2 packages from one of my trade partners Scott. He does a good job keeping an eye out on new Frank Thomas's that I don't have! He did real well in these envelopes. I definitely will hit you back with something good!

Sorry for lack of posting this past week. I was away for work and its tough to post on the road  (also the working long hours thing)

Without further ado... Frank Thomas!!

 

Topps Gold Label is a great set. That's one box I'd like to open eventually, even the base cards are nice looking. The Prime Cuts card at the top is a diecut on the word CUTS which is pretty cool.

 

Always enjoy getting inserts I've never seen. (Thomas was in a lot of sets!) I am now up to 787 unique Frank Thomas cards. Pretty happy about that number. I started seriously collecting him about 5 years ago. I'm sure other people have more but either way I have the NNOF! (I may have to try and work that in to every post for the rest of the year haha) 

Anyways all kidding aside, thank you for the cards and thanks for reading! 

 

My Last National Post!

I started with the big bang, but I still picked up some other stuff before I got that card (it was the last card acquired on Friday and we pretty much left right after it was graded)

Here are some vintage-y pickups..

 

This card I picked up for cheap since its his rookie and has a crease. But it looks good.. also I won't be keeping it it's for my brother.

 

My scanner chopped this card a bit but it looks good in hand. 1962 Topps is a nice looking set! (card is also for my brother)

 

Managed to complete my 1965 Topps Phillies team set. Nothing like nabbing a high number! 

 

This card is also not as bad as the scan but 1975 was a good year!

 

A sweet Jerry Rice rookie. I now have this and Barry Sanders!

 

I probably slightly overpaid for this card but it was for charity. Still a nice Nomar rookie! Goes well with my autographed ball!

I opened a 30 dollar grab bag. This Celebrity Gala is JSA Certified and signed by Dan Marino, John Elway and if you look at the bottom Clemens also signed it. Pretty nice for 30 bucks. All autos I did not have previously (also got entered into a raffle for a nice poster thing, don't think I won that though)

Overall, the National was a great experience. I would go back next year if possible (might be tough being in Chicago though). Lots to see and definitely some deals to be had. Just have to shop around and be willing to walk away. Some big pieces of history that I wouldn't see in any other places (The Honus Wagner card, Babe ruth bat, etc) 

Thanks for reading!

 

A Couple More Hurts!

The No Name on Front wasn't the only Frank Thomas I picked up in early August. I grabbed 2 other cards to add to the PC. They weren't overly pricey and in my opinion looked good.

 

A regular rookie card autographed! I had wanted one for a while but didn't want to pay ebay prices. 

This one I just bought on a whim. I just like the card. Oversized bats and the pose, wonder if he knew at that time in 1992 how great his career would become.

Thanks for stopping by!

Some other Nationals Pulls!

Thanks for all the kind words on my last post! Still super psyched about finding that card! (not super psyched about paying the bill but totally worth it!) Wanted to share some of the Pulls we had from the National. My Wife and I are both participating in Gint A Cuffs and purchased our boxes at the show. We opened last night and scanned all the packs just have to get the posts together on our respective blogs. This post will not be for that.

This will be for stuff we pulled while getting the redemption packs. We decided to buy a couple boxes to participate. I bought 2 boxes of Topps Chome and she bought one box of Ginter. Unfortunately her box was not great.

Three base relics..

Jacob DeGrom, Jake Arrieta and Yeonis Cepesdes. All solid players for sure, but nothing exciting for Ginter.

My Chrome boxes were solid to decent.

 

Three color refractors. Schwarber Purple, Cabrera Wave type pattern (out of 75, real nice looking card) and a Machado green. 

 

Two base Autos, Robert Stephenson and Peter O'Brien.

A Tyler White Gold auto of 50!

A Trevor Story blue auto out of 150!

Two Boxes, 2 color autos. I won't complain about that. Since we opened 70 packs we received 7 redemption packs. We were extremely lucky in these.

Hit 2 monsters...

 

Jorge Mateo auto numbered out of 29!

A super nice Austin Meadows auto numbered out of 5! Seven packs, 2 autos, it was awesome!

(haven't decided yet buy may be selling the above 2 autos)

Thanks for reading!

New Centerpiece of my Collection! White Whale Found!

Wasn't sure how to convey the excitement in my blog title, but to put it mildly I AM EXCITED!!

The National was great and I'm going to start a few posts of recaps with the big one. My wife and I found the Frank Thomas NNOF by just being in the right spot at the right time. We spent a good portion of Thursday not buying anything and just asking dealers if they had it or knew someone that had it. We got a lot of 'yea that's a great card wish I had one' or 'oh yea I had a bunch of those years back but they're all gone now' (fyi saying that to people doesn't help).

Around 2ish it seemed hopeless so we decided to at least do some digging in boxes and picking up a few cards. That was a good time!

Fast forward to Friday, we more or less figured the Thomas wasn't going to happen, so we decided to spend some time at the corporate booths and browse a bit more. (Also, met Donovan McNabb, very cool) We had decided to try and pick up a case of 2016 Chrome. All the big dealers we asked were out which was great cause I couldn't have afforded the Thomas if I had bought the case.

After the blowout giveaway at 3 pm, my wife decided she wanted to take a break and sit down. I decided to just browse a bit by myself and see if any cool cards popped out to me. I stopped at a booth where the dealer was negotiating a deal with someone. In one of the dealers cases he had 5 or 6 Koufax rookies in all different grades. I decided to wait for the deal to be done and then ask for prices.

As soon as the deal finished, a friend of the guy who sold the dealer cards asked the dealer to take a look. The first three cards out of the box were Frank Thomas NNOF's. I couldn't believe it! He had 2 graded PSA 8 and one raw. I asked immediately what he wanted for one. He was in the 4K range for the PSA and he said the raw wasn't for sale but if he was going to sell it he'd take X,XXX and nothing less. I said "I'll buy it for X,XXX". We had a handshake deal but I had spent a bunch of money on other stuff so I was short cash. I ran across the floor to get my wife and let her know what was going on and then ran to the ATM to cover the rest of the money. Then ran back to buy the card. My wife said while I was gone 2 other people inquired about buying the card but the person selling to me said he had already made a deal (thank God for honest people).

Of course it being raw we were all concerned with authenticity. He said he had bought it from a dealer on the floor but he had worked out the deal before the National and just picked it up there. The dealer had guaranteed the authenticity to him and we walked over and the same dealer gave me that guarantee. I wanted it slabbed as soon as possible to keep my mind at ease and so it was protected. The grade was secondary but we all assumed it would grade about a 7. I was cool with that. The dealer had a connect at SGC and he did a rush job for us and got it slabbed in about an hour and 15 minutes.

Here is the card raw... snapped a quick pic with my phone.

And here it is now in all it's glory.. and oh yea it graded an 8!!!

 

The card I had only personally seen once in person. I witnessed 4 of them at the National. Three of them were owned by the person I bought mine from. The last one was a PSA 9 and the dealer wanted 25,000. I'm sure that one is still sitting in the case. 

I'm not sure what my next big card will be, but this one will be hard to top! 

Thanks for reading!

I'm Back... From the National!

I just spent the last 2 days at the National Card Show! If you haven't been before (it was my first time) you should go, it's freaking awesome. I just got home a little bit go but just wanted to give a quick preview..

More to come tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!