Purple Rhys!

I wanted to make sure I got the Hoskins rookie purple from Toys R Us, since Toys R Us is no more. Not to happy in general about it being no more. Hedge funds suck at running businesses. I will never forgive Cerberus for destroying Chrysler but that's a story for another day.

Rhys has had quite a nice run after the All Star Break. Seven home runs in 8 games! He's batting like the way he should and can. I hope he emerges as the next big Phillies star along with Nola. It would be great if the Phillies made it to the playoffs and built up to a World Series in the next year or two.

Pretty nice parallels in general. I wasn't able to find any packs before the whole bankruptcy thing so I had to buy it secondary. I still have quite a few purple parallels from 2013 Topps. That year the Wife and I hit up several Toys R Us's over a weekend and opened like 70 blister packs or so. It was fun. Sold a few but still have a ton of parallels left. (including 2 Trout's!) Last one sold for 50 bucks on ebay not bad!

Thanks for reading! Go Phillies!

A little bit of Action!

I picked these up on blowout from 2 different sellers. I like to peruse the buy/sell/trade and occasionally come across some cards I want. Haven't had any problems buying there. I've sold 2 cards there and had no issues there and have made 2 trades as well without issue. (One of them netted a Ryan Howard superfractor) All in all a good experience in that regard. The Nola was in a lot for 15 dollars that included an auto and most dealers at the show I was just at was pricing this 1 card at 15 so I think it was a really good deal. The Hoskins was 28 delivered. I've yet to see it priced below that on ebay or anywhere else for that matter. Very happy with the purchase.

Hoskins has started off nicely after the All Star break. I was happy to see he did well in the Home Run Derby even if he lost in the 2nd round. Hitting 20 Home Runs in 4 minutes is still impressive. Nola was the starting pitcher for the 16 inning marathon the Phillies had last night. I actually went to bed in the beginning of the 15th inning so I didn't see the end when it happened. Go figure, either way I'm glad they won cause they had such a quick turn around to play again at 12:35. It's gotta be demoralizing to lose like that after such a long game. Carried that momentum into the next game and won the series against the Dodgers. I hope the Phillies make some positive moves at the trade deadline. It would be real  nice to see some playoff baseball. The division is wide open with the way that Nationals are playing and the Braves are a young team.

Thanks for reading and Go Phils!

2018 Stadium Club Box Break!

On the way out of the Chantilly Show we decided to pick up a box. Even if we didn't hit anything big the pictures and cards in Stadium Club are usually top notch. This was a fun break and I may consider picking up multiple boxes in the future if it's in the budget.

Onto the cards..

These were all the parallels in the box. The Sonny Gray is the Chrome that is 1 per box and I was happy to hit the Frank Thomas for the PC.

These were the inserts that were perfectly collated. Always nice to hit a Hoskins and a decent pair of Astros.

Got my promised 2 autographs. Just he base autos of Jack Flaherty and Tzu Wei Lin.I know Flaherty has been decent this year and should be staying in that Cardinals rotation.I know nothing about Lin though, hope he's good!

The Beam Team Insert are 1 per box. Happened to get Jeter. The Hank Aaron Black and White parallel are 1 in 48 packs. Pretty cool to hit a legend the card looks great.

The next 2 were the big hits!

2 Case hits based on pack odds.Pretty cool to hit in 1 box. The Trout Instavision falls 1 in 321 packs! The Seager Gold Minted Chrome fall 1 in 257 packs! Pretty solid out of 1 box! Probably came close to making my money back on the box if I sold it all but I don't plan too. The Trout card really pops.

Overall very fun break and the buy in wasn't crazy (paid 69 dollars). I'm sure people can get lucky and hit a really good autograph but even without hitting a big name auto the break can be good.

Thanks for reading!

Chantilly Show Part 2 of 2!

This post is reserved to show off the 2 biggest non-card pickups of the day (come to think of it the only 2 non card pick ups) but I digress they are both awesome in their own right. My Wife and I have been working on getting some In Person Eagles autographs for a lithograph that I happened to get for free kinda randomly. I really liked the picture and thought it would look cool to get signed by each player. My wife was immediately on board and the quest began. One elusive signer was Jevon Kearse. He didn't play for the Eagles for a long time but he was always a fan favorite wherever he would go. His skills were undeniable he just had some unlucky injuries after signing with the team.

I will say this he was super super nice to everyone. Very impressed. I shook his hand (I'm about 5'10" normal-ish size) his hand was literally three times bigger then mine. I also asked him what it was like to play for the Eagles. He said Jim Johnson (Former Defensive Coordinator for those that don't follow the Eagles) was crazy. He would have him drop into coverage and the scheme to him was so much different then his Titans days. Even in my limited time to get my item signed he took the time to do it nice and added an inscription for free! Also he wasn't outrageously priced (45 dollars).

Check out the Lithograph, have 1 to go.. Corey Simon.. if you know him please let me know!

First here is me watching Kearse sign it and chatting with him. His shirt is awesome too.

The Terrell Owens auto is there just a little darker pen, but Kearse, Dawkins, Westbrook and McNabb all look good. Only 1 left!!! It's been a fun project and everyone has been nice even TO (he wore sunglasses indoors the entire time) 

I eluded to 2 items. The 2nd item is just cool, not something you see everyday. My wife spotted it at the card show but the price tag was a little high. I gave her some tips on negotiation she used none of them and still got the price she wanted. Way to go! 

That's me next to an 8 foot banner of Ryan Howard that was hung outside Citizens Bank Park on the light poles. We are now the proud owner of this banner. We haven't decided wear to hang it yet, many good ideas include using it as a window blocker in the card room, putting it in between the dining room and kitchen like a curtain, using it as a window shade for one of the front windows.

What other good ideas do you have to hang the banner? And who wants to help me stalk Corey Simon for an autograph.. (half joking!)

Thanks for reading and hopefully enjoying my stories!

Chantilly show Part 1 of 2 (lots of scans)

Hope everyone enjoyed my fanfest recap below. I enjoyed writing it. It was fun to think about what we just did and relive the experiences. The plan was always to go to the card show afterwards. Thankfully I am good at making plans so it all worked out. I booked a hotel room through work since it was cheaper and had no issues checking in or anything. Love the lack of hassles. This show was a considerably larger space then the King of Prussia show I typically go to. Some of the dealers were the same but a lot were different. The diversity of things in the room was pretty darn good. There was high high end all the way down to 10 cent boxes to dig through if you wanted. Also, tons of cool pictures and memorabilia to look at even if you aren't in the market (I need more wall space!)

Let's start with the card portion for part 1. I have diverse tastes from vintage to modern so I'm always on the lookout for a good deal or anything that catches my eye. Ended up buying 1 big card and a lot of little(r) cards.

We can start with the Rhys Hoskins portion of the show. I was able to bolster my Rookie Card collection. There is tons of variety out there. I really like the Bowman Sterling atomic refractor look. Very visually appealing cards.

From the same seller..

He had a bunch of Phillies in a dollar bin. Always love grabbing nice parallels for a buck. He ended up only asking 6 dollars for these 9 so I actually paid less. The Cliff Lee is numbered out of 25 and I'm a sucker for Topps Chrome Phillies parallels. I'll buy all of them at that price point.

Picked up these 3 cards in a 3 for 10 bin. The AJ Pollock auto is nice and on-card and of course 2 Phillies relics I didn't have so simple easy purchase.

One Jimmy is the refractor and one is the base. It was nice to grab both at the same time. The Franco (still a Phillies player for now) was just a cool looking die-cut insert. I realized I didn't have the Nola base rookie so I added it to the pile. Maybe Conforto will come back better next year when his shoulder issue is further behind him and that card will be more appealing on both sides.

A trio of future Hall of Famers. Figured I'd get the rookies now before they hit the Hall. Spent 20 on the Pujols didn't know if I overpaid but looking at ebay comps that's pretty in line. Got the Beltre and Ichiro in a package deal so their portion of the deal was 7.50 a piece which I thought was pretty reasonable.

The Phillies only current all-star. I like his auto its actually legible and these are all on-card rookie autos. I paid 10 a piece which was fair.

Also grabbed one more High Tek Auto. These cards are great in hand. This was the Phillies 1st overall pick Moniak. Paid 20 bucks. Small investment for sure but I didn't have an auto of his. Hopefully he pans out and makes it to the majors.

One super random card I grabbed for 5 dollars. Why not? Its Topps Tiffany and the picture is great.

Two more actual Hall of Famers. Last show I went too I bought the Dale Murphy rookie by mistake instead of the Dawson. Ended up buying the Dawson (12 dollars) from the same guy. It was an honest mistake I grabbed the wrong card. The Reggie feels good to add to the collection (scanner chopped off the border) It's not in perfect condition but it cost me all of 15 dollars! I didn't get it from a dealer. I was doing a deal for one of the Nola autos and this person next to me offered me 2 more Nola Autos and let me look through his other cards. He has the 2001 Bowman Chrome auto of Pujols. Was pretty awesome to hold that card in person. He sold me the Reggie Jackson, Ichiro, Beltre and 2 Nola Autos for 60 total. 

Last but not least, my most expensive purchase of the day.

A beautiful triple auto of Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols. This card really pops in hand. I might've overpaid by a little but I don't care, it was worth it. Don't often see triple autos from 2010 off of the internet. It was a good feeling to get a high end card of Howard from the show.

Side note, saw a person and a dealer do a 10,500 dollar deal with high end football cards. Also, saw a 1951 Bowman Mantle PSA 3(MK) sell for 3,100. This 3 with the mark looked way worse then my 2. I'm happy it sold for so much! The first dealer I went too had a rookie I was interested in, pulled out Beckett showed me the mark on the card and then quoted me the book value percentage. I politely declined and walked away. I'm glad the day went way better after that. Didn't really hit the Phillies 50s want list but thats ok I had fun hunting and finding other things.

Also, on the way out had some extra cash so bought a 2018 Stadium club box.It was a fun rip and cards are super nice. I will show the results in a future post.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for Part 2 when we get the auto we've been hunting for 3 years!

All Star FanFest Recap!

The Wife and I woke up at 5:15 AM on Friday to drive down to Washington DC for all the All Star Fanfest. We live a good 2 hours away but with Friday morning traffic we weren't sure how bad it would be if we waited too long to leave. The drive down actually was not bad at all we barely hit any traffic until getting into downtown DC. I was lucky to only drive around a little bit and found parking 2 blocks from the convention center for 20 dollars all day. I was expecting to spend a bit more for that. We got in line right away around 7:40 AM. There was only a few hundred people in front of us so not too bad. It was outside and you could see they had a ton of security checkpoints setup for entry. The night before we downloaded the QR codes on our phones so we could easily register for activities and pictures and things. I had a nice chat with the guy behind us in line. He is a Nationals season ticket holder but from near where I live. They started letting people in around 8:45 even though the show officially opened at 9. We had no issue getting in and followed the crowd the correct direction (the convention center is freaking huge). We were both able to get the mini Ryan Zimmerman bobbleheads being one of the first 3,000 people. That was cool.

As soon as we get on we made an immediate bee line to register our spot for Juan Marichal autograph. We got there fast so we waited maybe 10 minutes and were both able to reserve our spot. Some people complained that they could only reserve one spot at a time but this method was so much better then waiting in line for 3+ hours for one autograph. This way you can enjoy the exhibits and they text you when its time to get in line and your auto is guaranteed. They had overflow lines if you didn't register and the player still had time. We were able to get 2 really nice Marichal autos. He wasn't a particular fast signer but he took his time and made sure his signature looked good. Also the autos were authenticated with a MLB sticker holo on site. Very nice touch.

The top one is 1962 Topps and the 2nd is 1974 Topps. They both came out really nice especially the 74. Really like the picture and Mr. Marichal added his own inscription. Always appreciated. That was the one autograph I really wanted. I was super psyched to get it and not have to run to a line or anything like that.

The second thing I wanted was the Topps Giveaway all star stamped cards. I liked the design and gotta get them being a card collector since I'm there. Totally got gouged on the price of the packs (spent 42 dollars for 12 series 1 packs) but don't really have an option there. I should've bought some packs before the show and just kept them sealed. You have to open them in their presence to get the give-away cards. In the packs hit 1 nice card..

 Pretty nice Joey Votto Relic. I do like the design in hand, they aren't drab.

Onto the set.. these look cool in hand too.

Harper, Scherzer, Trout, Bryant, Altuve and Judge. The who's who of baseball right now. I believe my all star set from Pheonix is in a binder right now. I'll have to combine these with them.

After this was completed we got some food from a stand inside the convention center. It was decent I had barbecue chicken with mac and cheese and the wife had Jerk chicken with rice.

Just to give an idea, the convention center was huge. It dwarfed the one in Pheonix a few years ago. They had tons of different stations and games and everyone in our experience was super friendly.

This is an overhead view of maybe a quarter of the place if that. We were able to pick up 3 new Beer Cozies for that collection (never pay for them but I always say yes if someone wants to give me one) My wife really wanted a picture with the big ball in front. There was a line there so after we ate we made our way over there. Turns out there was a line because Livan Hernandez was doing a free photo op!

 That's me in the flesh. He was nice shook my hand and took a good picture. After that we went to the other side of the ball and had a volunteer take our picture unobstructed.

Also, they had the actual World Series trophy there that will be given to the future winner this year. Pretty nice piece of jewelry (its made by Tiffany and Co.)

I had no interest in doing anything involving throwing because I already know I suck at that and didn't want to hurt my shoulder. There were 2 different live batting cages so we ended up doing both of those. For someone who hasn't swung a bat since the last FanFest in Pheonix I did pretty solid. A few swings and misses but more contact then not. Got a hold of a few and gave them good line drives. Was very pleased with myself. I could really swing those 31 ounce bats haha.

In between batting cages there was a Q&A with the All American Girls Baseball League (the real life Ladies that A League of Their Own was based off of). That was actually super interesting and it was fun to listen to them talk about their experiences and how it compares to today's game. Lots of personality there and anyone who enjoys the history of baseball I'd highly recommend talking and listening to them if you get the chance.

After that we were pretty beat since it was a long day starting at 5 AM or so. We decided to leave and drive down to Chantilly VA to check into the hotel for the night since we had a big card show day ahead of us the next day! No issues driving down there and hotel was good and normal. We ate dinner locally at a burger type restaurant/bar and went to bed at a normal time to get prepped for the next day! Stay tuned shortly for card show recap! Picked up a lot and had a great time overall!

Thanks for reading, anyone else make it to FanFest this weekend?

A Goldy and some other stuff!

Just had an awesome 2 days. I need to get to scanning and cropping some photos to share with everyone. Wife and I went to fanfest in Washington DC on Friday and then we stayed overnight in Chantilly VA and hit up the card show today. Both were fun and had great experiences. Enough of that because they will comprise my next few posts. I have some backlog to get through.

This card I got as part of the Austin Meadows card I sold. I also received this card back in the swap. I have no idea if that sentence made sense I'm pretty tired from all that driving.

Pretty nice patch. On-card auto, low numbered. Good picture. I've never opened a box of Five Star and probably won't start so I was happy to pick this up and not be buying it.

I opened one blaster of Series 2 the other day just to check it out and hopefully get an Ohtani rookie finally.

Well luck was on my side..

One blaster box, 4 Ohtani's! They were all in back to back to back to back packs to finish the break. Apparently the blue one is 1 in 12 packs! Retiring now! (Please deposit 900,000 to my bank account and it can be yours!)

Also liked the look of this card..

He's not having the best year but he's been a solid player for a few years now. These are manu-patches but I feel like the quality is there. Pretty thick card.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for card show and fanfest recaps!

A little bit of Red!

Ink that is! See what I did there.. such good writing styling. Another day of some good baseball. I like MLB.TV makes following fantasy fun. Also, get to watch a lot of baseball. I've officially added Rhys Hoskins to all of my fantasy teams. I even traded him away in April and traded back for him in one league this week. I was happy to grab this card a week or so ago. It's not one I've seen very often pop up and it usually goes for more then what I paid (40 some dollars). Heritage followers are legit.

I assure you the card is real my scanner just cropped out all of the white borders. Looks like I trimmed it with some bad scissors. I also do not trim my cards cause that's not cool either. Not going to go for the print run of these but I am a fan. Nice picture on card auto, semi low numbered, sought after set. Lots of positives. I opened 6 boxes of Heritage High Number last year and really enjoyed it. (Hit 3 on card autos too!) Those cards all look nice as well. If the prices ever come back to normal I could see myself opening more of Heritage type releases for the enjoyment.

Thanks for reading!

Who has 2 thumbs and 4% of a print run!

This guy! I recently received another Ryan Howard rookie auto. Love these cards and will always be on the lookout for them. I'm not willing to pay 300-400 like some that are listed on ebay but I am patient and I will wait until they go to auction and win them that way! Persistence and patience pays! (I should be a motivational speaker!)

Without further adieu.. the new one .. and the rest!

All considered mint. 2 of them are mint mint! I didn't pay any of the grading fees. They were all pre-graded by the sellers or whomever they got the cards from. One day I will own all 100 or maybe 5% of the print run! Next piece of advice in the business world under promise, over deliver. You're welcome you will get many raises.

Go Phillies!

Thanks for reading!

Happy 4th of July!

This year is flying by! So much stuff happening! I'm not able to make it to the all star game this year but I am able to carve out a day to head down to fan fest! Pretty psyched about that. I went to the Phillies fan fest in the 90s but I was pretty young then. Remember waiting in lines and not a ton else. Also, went to the fan fest in Phoenix a few years ago (and every other all star event which was awesome!) and had a blast. I learned I can no longer throw a ball without throwing out my shoulder if I give max effort. May skip that throwing hard thing. On the flip side I learned I can still hit a pitching machine. Feels nice to actually make contact considering I gave up playing baseball in about 6th grade or so.

I have gotten a bunch of new cards this past few weeks just need to scan them. Always good stuff in my opinion.

Hope everyone has a nice 4th. Should be pretty low key for us. We were planning on going to a minor league game and see some fireworks but it was 90+ with 100% humidity so we skipped it. Thankfully good choice cause the thunderstorms started rolling in right around when the game was supposed to start. Also, we lost power until about 5 AM. Always fun to play some cards by candlelight.

All was not lost on the fireworks front though. I did go to the Phillies fireworks game on the 29th with my Mom and Wife. We try and go every year, always fun and the show is always good. That was the one game the Phillies lost to the Nationals 17-7. Never seen so many runs in person before. It was practically a home run derby.

Obligatory patriotic card!

My Mark McGwire USA rookie card! Thankfully I did not buy this card at the peak of the home run craze. If I remember correctly it was going in the 500ish range? Could be wrong. I grabbed it for 10 dollars last year at a show. Figured that was a fair price for a card I had wanted.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the holiday and hopefully time off!