Triple the Fun!

Happy almost New Year! Time flies when you're collecting baseball cards. Also, happy last day of Football regular season. Lots on the line for the Eagles this week. All week on the radio there has been Foles vs Wentz debate. I stopped listening at some points cause there is a zero percent chance the Eagles get rid of Wentz. Does not matter if Foles wins another super bowl (although that would be amazing I'm totally on board with this happening). I didn't spend as much as I used to this year on cards but I maintained focus and grew out the PC a good bit. I was able to complete a few older team sets (damn those high numbers are difficult) and get some cool cards that I deem keepers.

Like this one...

 

A gold auto of my main guy Ryan Howard and 2 undoubted future Hall of Famers Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera. This is my 2nd Pujols auto and first Miggy Auto. Cards this low numbered and more then a few years old don't pop up for affordable prices too often. Grabbed this one for exactly 100 dollars. I was and am happy with that price considering the star power and rarity. I know these are sticker autos but they didn't make non sticker autos for Triple Threads in those years (or any year for the Triple autos, seen a couple on-card regular autos though through the years).

Thanks for reading enjoy the time off if you have any!

Five Star Trifecta!

The Phillies had Manny Machado in town the other day for a visit. We shall see if that leads to his signing here. Either way someone is going to give him a lot of money to hit a baseball. It would be cool if the Phillies got him and Harper. The Dodgers are the new Harper rumor since they just dumped a bunch of contracts to the Reds. This is all groundbreaking stuff I'm sure none of you have read yet.

Check out these cool on card autos I got recently!

I'm liking the design this year of Five Star and nice clean on-card autos. Singles aren't that expensive either. Thank you to the breakers out there making these cards affordable for me. Can't wait until Pitchers and Catchers report!

Thanks for reading!

Shiny X-Fractor card!

I recently picked up this cool card of Roy Oswalt. I did really enjoy the Phillies year when they were rolling out Hamels, Halladay, Lee and Oswalt. A proverbial dream team of pitching.

This card is the die cut variation from 2011 Topps Finest numbered out of 10.

One day I'll find all the other Phillies cards. Just a quick post to say hello! Hope all is well!

Thanks for reading!

Ichiro and Pujols!

Ichiro officially retired this year. No doubt he will be elected into the Hall of Fame in five years. Pujols is still trucking along (I would be too for the money he's making) but clearly is not nearly as dominant as he was with the Cardinals. They will both be no doubter Hall of Famers.

I've been trying to grab some rookies of them since most aren't outlandishly priced and it fits into one of my side PCs. The same seller had both of these at the card show.

 

The back of this card also has Hideo Nomo which is pretty cool too. Graded GEM or whatever. I didn't buy them for the grades but I do like the protection of the cards.

This card is pretty sweet. Two future Hall of Famers on one card. I do like a good vintage rookie with 2 guys on it and besides the Trammell and Molitor on one card you'd be hard pressed to find 2 better players on a rookie card (maybe Nolan Ryan/Jerry Koosman?)

Thanks for responding on the puzzle debate. Most of the puzzles aren't worth framing. We did glue together a Disney one that's 2000 pieces but to get a custom frame is going to cost too much at this time. Just started playing a new (to us) game called Sequence. It's fun lots of strategy involved. I always enjoy those types of games.

Fantasy Football playoffs start this week for most leagues. Good luck to you if you're in it. I made playoffs in 2 out of 5 leagues. I was hoping for 3 but the game didn't break right last week oh well. Hoping to win at least 1 Championship that would be a successful season!

Thanks for reading!

It's not jewelry, but it's Tiffany!

The Wife and I spent some time in Oaks PA this Saturday at the Card show. It's the same one they did at the Valley Forge Casino in King of Prussia but due to renovations to that space they moved the show to Oaks. (They are only a few miles apart venue wise) Parking was crazy, there was a Beer fest, a gymnastics competition and a Coffee and Tea festival all going on as well at the same time. The show itself I thought was really good. Lots of different dealers and lots of things to see. Tons of vintage and unopened and modern, anything to suit your tastes. I didn't have a crazy budget for this one but still managed to snag some cool cards. Going to show them in different posts but figured I'd start with the most expensive card I bought. 

Spent 60 dollars for this beauty fish (Brian Regan joke). I now have the 1990 Topps Tiffany and 1990 Bowman added to the Frank Thomas collection. This card gives me currently 824 different Frank Thomas cards. Even though I have way more Ryan Howard relic and autos I believe my Thomas collection has more variety. Granted there is more years to collect Thomas and he has plenty of cards in newer issues as well. Still can't beat the classics. Always enjoy asking for prices on cards I can't afford. I saw a few 1952 Mantles as usual, PSA 1's were 9-10 thousand depending on how messed up they were. Nuts!

Unrelated note. Occasionally the wife likes to put together jigsaw puzzles. (I help but not really) Regardless the debate is this, after she completes them she doesn't take a picture or anything just looks at it for a second and then puts it back in the box and then donates them. I'm all for donating after finished but I think she should at least take a picture for keepsake. The jigsaw puzzles she does are either 1000 or 2000 pieces so they definitely aren't easy. The question is to picture or to not picture? What would you do?!

Thanks for reading!

Let Er Rip!

I have acquired my third rip card that is complete intact. I have debated ripping the one (Salvador Perez/Eric Hosmer double rip) I doubt I'd ever rip the Clayton Kershaw/Kenta Maeda double rip. This one is going straight to the Ryan Howard PC. These are hard to find so thankfully I was able to work out a price I could live with with the seller.

2015 Allen and Ginter rip card out of 25. Wonder how many are out there in tact. I'll at least always have 1!

Thanks for reading!

2018 Topps Chrome Sapphire Phillies!

This is the third year of Topps Chrome Sapphire. The first 2 years Topps released them as full sets with guaranteed Superfractors and other parallels included. The cost was pretty high. If I remember correctly 1,500 at release and then came down some after that. I never had any designs of buying the whole set but I picked up just the Phillies base team set of both years. They are nice looking cards. This year Topps changed up the format and went with more of a box break with autos included. It 199 a box with 3 autos and 1 in 4 chance of a Superfractor. Seems like most of the breaks I saw provided some value. I just wanted the Phillies team set so I didn't buy any. I did manage to piece the Phillies team set together through a couple purchases.

Check em out!

Rhys Hoskins is really not that dusty, totally on my scanner. Sharp looking cards. They will fit right in with my other Sapphire Team sets. The most expensive card was the Hoskins (12.00). I have a decent rookie card collection of him and one auto at this point. Not trying to go overboard but I hope him and Harper power the Phillies for years to come (I may or may not have insider information on Harper.. (I do not))

Thanks for reading!

Topps Archive Blaster break!

I picked this up a while ago but I neglected to share with my many many devoted readers. For this I apologize, but I will make up for it by showing you the good cards now! I always like to check out the card aisle in Target and Wal Mart. In my area its really hit or miss though. Occasionally get lucky and get a good blaster to open but often nothing. Always on the lookout for the elusive 2011 Topps Update that was never put out! Have yet to have that happen though.

Here are the contents of this break:

 

Hit a couple Phillies and a future Phillie (Arrieta).

I was lucky enough to get a numbered card of the best on base percentage guy ever Carlos Santana (Gabe Kapler's words not mine).

Now that the Eagles officially suck again (Thank god they won last year) Harper mania is in full effect. I am totally on board overpaying a 26 year old superstar. If it brings them closer to a World Series and back into contention do it. No reason to wait, they have no payroll right now and the only guys making real money are on super short term deals.

Thanks for reading!

Silky Smooth

I will say despite my infrequent posts my title game has gotten strong. The silky smooth moniker is relevant I promise. Work really gets in the way of my blogging lifestyle. Although if my blogging lifestyle paid me the same as work well then I wouldn't work haha!

Season is obviously over. The team with the best record in the regular season won the whole thing. Not overly surprising they were obviously very good. All the talk on the sportstalk radio around here is Harper or Machado. I have a sinking feeling that we aren't getting either. I would love both of course (hey not my money). The Sixers completely whiffed on everything this off season. The Phillies might too. Either way we still have Hoskins who I obviously like. The pitching has to take a step forward this year. Nola was a beast but after that it was just cross your fingers that they don't get blown up.

Check out this 'silk' card!

2012 Topps was a good year. Nice design good looking parallels. I have a few of these silk cards now and would not be opposed to adding more!

Thanks for reading!

A Couple new Howard's

I picked up a good bit of stuff in August. No idea why but everything I was looking for seemed to pop up in rapid succession. I don't think I bought a single card in September so funny how that works. Gotta keep grinding!

Check out some new Howard's!

A pretty cool Just Minors auto. This silver version is numbered out of 200. Look how young he is before his career got going. 

This is the color swap variation from 2013 Heritage.I had gone after this card several times before finally landing one. Always had a specific price in mind so I finally got it for what I wanted. Figured there was enough of them out there that I could be patient. 

Just a quick hello today. Hope people are enjoying the World Series and not everyone's Fantasy Football season is already done!

Thanks for reading!

'Oldies' but Goodies

When I bought my ginter box I didn't want to pay shipping so I bought one of those grab bag hope to get a super awesome card for cheap type of boxes. I didn't hit one of the big chase cards but at least I hit a card for the PC!

Definitely 'lost' value wise but I don't care I'm keeping the card.

GEM MINT 10! Steve Carlton! He was pretty good. Happy to add this card to my Phillies team sets. Always a work in progress but always making progress!

Also picked up this card in a another deal. I had wanted one for a while to add to the PC. It doesn't necessarily fit in my Hall of Fame rookies since he didn't quite make the Hall of Fame but I still like the card.

A Donnie Baseball rookie card!

Yes, I do realize I called 1983 and 1984 old. It is only slightly older then me but not by much. Would this be considered the junk wax era? Or was it in full force with 1986 Topps? I remember that being super abundant when I was a kid and went to a local LCS. I'd open packs cause it was cheap and I liked the look of the cards.

Thanks for reading! Hoping the World Series is entertaining this year since the Phillies decided to collapse historically.

A Whole lotta Hoskins

I have a little bit of a Hoskins Rookie card PC going. I showed off the one auto I was able to get for a reasonable price but I've gotten some other things along the way. My current number 1 target is the Stadium Club Gold Minted Variation. I pulled one of Corey Seager in my lone box and I really like the look of those cards. I haven't seen any on ebay for a bit but I'll keep searching. Bound to pop up eventually. Or if you have one let me know we can trade or you can sell! Your choice!

Here are some more Hoskins..

A few Gypsy Queen's a few Bowman's and a couple of Bowman Mojo's at the bottom. Those are nice looking cards. I like the 'atomic' refractor look. (doesn't everyone?!)

The end of the Phillies season was pretty dreadful. Even I can admit that. And then the GM saying that he could make an argument that every single player got better. Yea ok. Better players go on historic collapses. I'm not bitter or anything but this is a results oriented business you don't get results you get fired. I think the players tuned Kapler out with his way over the top everything is positive no matter what speech. Telling someone they are doing something wrong without spinning it positively every single time actually makes you a human being and someone people can relate too. Anyway that's my 2 cents for what it's worth.

Have any cool Hoskins let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Gint-a-Cuffs (Packs 17-24)

Now our exciting conclusion!!

Currently at +81

Pack 17:

Pedroia

Longoria

Hosmer

Gooden

Maybin

McCovey

Baseball Equipment Baseball Donut +2

Kris Bryant A&G back mini +5

Running Total: +88

Pack 18:

Heyward

Turner

Epstein

Devers

McCann

Lester

World's Talent Darvish +2

Maddux base mini

Running Total: +90

Pack 19:

Arenado

Flaherty

Seager +1

Eckersley

Berrios

Keuchel

Magnificent Moons Mimas +2

Nelson black mini +4

Running Total: +97

Pack 20:

Ray

Nelson

Gonzalez

Severino -1

Benintendi relic +5

Fantasy Goldmine Carlton +2

Posey base mini

Running Total: +103

Pack 21:

Brett

Schoop

Taillon

Pederson +1

Fedde

Weaver

World's Greatest Beaches South Beach +2

Matt Chapman A&G back mini +2

Running Total: +108

Pack 22:

Sano

Hamilton

Gallo +2

Segura

Smoak

Betances -1

World's Talent Jones +2

Trea Turner A&G back mini +2

Running Total: +113

Pack 23:

Ohtani +4

Clemente

Dozier +2

Marquez

McGwire

Total Solar Eclipse

World's Greatest Beaches Bora Bora +2

Folio of Fears +3

Running Total:  +124

Pack 24:

Freeman

Pence

Gehrig -1

Rogowsky

Barreto

Robinson +1

Fantasy Goldmine Henderson +2

Rogowsky base mini 

Total total: +126

Not bad, we'll see how it stacks up against everyone else. As always subject to audit! Did pretty well with favorite players and by far the rarest card in the box was the brooklyn back mini. First time I have ever hit one of those. Pretty cool! 

Thanks for reading!

Gint-a-Cuffs X (Packs 9-16)

Running total is starting at +38, onto the cards!

Pack 9:

Rosario

Sandberg

Wainwright

Sanchez -1

Dawson

Zobrist

World's Talent Acuna +2

Carlos Martinez Brooklyn back mini (1 in 248 packs) +7

Running Total: +46

Pack 10:

Moustakas

Russell

Kingery

Altuve

Bader

Arcia

World's Greatest Beaches Harbour Island +2

Tim Beckham A&G Back mini +2

Running Total: +50

Pack 11:

Stroman

Stephens

Aaron

Arcia (back to back packs maybe its special?)

Benentendi framed mini relic +6

Fantasy Goldman Jim Thome +4

Strasburg base mini

Running Total: +60

Pack 12:

Machado

DeJong

Lucroy

Mazara

Gregorius -1

Richards

Baseball Equipment Vintage Cleats +2

Gohara black mini +4

Running Total: +65

Pack 13:

Martinez

Myers

Gohara

Acuna

Bour

Gurriel

World's Talent Cotton +2

Longoria base mini

Running Total: +67

Pack 14:

Thames

Castellanos

Thome +2

Santana

Renfroe

Piscotty

Baseball Equipment Pitch Counter +2

World's Hottest Peppers +3

Running Total: +72

Pack 15:

Blackmon

Lamb

Bomb Cyclone

Greinke

Puig +1

Pillar

Fantasy Goldman Robinson +2

Method Man base mini

Running Total: +75

Pack 16:

Abreu

Kipnis

Archer

Brinson

Smith

Pederson +1

Magnificent Moons Europa +2

Mismatched Socks +3

Running Total: +81

Onto the end of the box, one more hit to go!

Gint A Cuffs X (Packs 1-8)

I have enjoyed Gint A Cuffs through the years. I've won it twice and winning is awesome. I don't care what you win at but it's awesome. If I win a raffle for a free umbrella I am the man for that day! If I win free lunch, dude I just ate lunch for free! Can't beat that! Wish the Phillies had my winning attitude. I could be the next manager! I managed my Fantasy Baseball team to the title, can't be that hard!

Without further introduction hopefully my winning box of Ginter. Always fun to open, we shall see how it treated me this year.

For the purposes of scoring my Favorite player is Shohei Ohtani and Favorite Team is the Dodgers.

Box topper:

Jose Altuve +4

Pack 1:

 Votto

Jackson

 Santana

Cain

Stugotz -1

Cabrera

Magnificent Moons +2

Running Total: +5

No joke there was no mini in this pack. Literally the first pack I opened. I was worried the rest of the box would be miniless (it was not) I'm willing to bet this pack should have had the wood mini but because of Topps screw up they were never packed out.

Pack 2:

Cole

Jones

Fulmer

Andujar -1

Riley -1

Ortiz

Fantasy Goldmine Alomar +2

Adam Wainwright A&G Back mini +2

Running Total: +7

Pack 3: 

Seager

Ripken Jr

Marte

Gonzalez

Inciarte

Almora

World's Greatest Beaches Venice Beach +2

Indigenous Heroes Pocahontas +2

Running Total: +11

Pack 4:

Cano

Koufax +1

Davis

Lue -1

Correa

Altherr

World's Talent Urias +3

Doolittle base mini

Running Total: +14

Pack 5:

Donaldson

Bryant +2

Arrieta

Bruce

Bauer

Leake

Baseball Equipment Modern Baseball +2

Postage Required Ben Franklin +3

Running Total: +22

Pack 6:

Mancini

Gonzalez

Lecomte

Garcia

Rizzo Relic +5

Fantasy Goldmine Randy Johnson +2

Koufax base mini +1

Running Total: +30

Pack 7:

Banda

Cruz

Hicks -1

Davies

Calhoun

Mejia

Magnificent Moons Encelaous +2

Josh Donaldson A&G back mini +2

Running Total: +33

Pack 8:

Jake Lamb HR Challenge +1

Bellinger

Boggs

Contreras

Franco

Bullpen Car +1

World Talent Brandon Nimmo +2

Yu Darvish base mini

Running Total: +38

Solid start!

Thanks for reading!

Fantasy Championship!

I finally won my head to head league that I've been a part of for several years now (mostly same group of guys) We do head to head, 11 categories. Last year I finished regular season in first and got knocked out in the semis. This year I finished in 4th and won the whole thing!

Check out the final roster!

C - Yasmani Grandal (20th Round pick)
1B - Rhys Hoskins (Traded for)
2B - Jose Peraza (Free Agent pickup)
3B - Alex Bregman (4th Round pick)
SS - Gleyber Torres (Free Agent pickup)
OF - Whit Merrifield (9th Round pick)
OF - Aaron Hicks (Traded for)
OF - Nick Markakis (Free Agent pickup)
Util - Trevor Story (8th Round pick)
BN - Mike Moustakas (13th Round pick)

SP - Jacob DeGrom (3rd Round pick)
SP - Corey Kluber (Traded for)
SP - Mike Fiers (Free Agent pickup)
RP - Kirby Yates (Free Agent pickup)
P - Ken Giles (Free Agent pickup)
P - Tanner Roak (19th Round pick)
BN - Joe Musgrove (Free Agent pickup)
BN - Trevor Williams (Free Agent pickup)
BN - Carlos Rodon (Free Agent pickup)
BN - Joey Lucchesi (Free Agent pickup)

This league I typically rolled 3 closers in years past. This year after I drafted them poorly I decided to go with the extra starter and just hope for saves some weeks. My mistake was taking Corey Knebel in the 7th round who I ended up dropping. Drafted Brad Hand as well in the 10th who was good but I dropped him for Yates when he was traded.

I traded Aaron Judge and Chris Archer (2 days before Judge broke his wrist) for Corey Kluber, Aaron Hicks and Mitch Moreland (ended up dropping for a pitcher)

I really killed it with Story Bregman and Degrom. They were stalwarts all year. Also Merrifield leading the American League in steals and batting over .300. The other trade I made wasn't as great but it worked. I traded Paul Goldschmidt when he was cold and Walker Beuhler (who was hurt for a while after I traded him) for Rhys Hoskins and Gio Gonzales.Gio was good for a while then went real cold. I know I'm not an expert but I targeted Bregman and Story and I made the right call with DeGrom. (7th pitcher taken in my draft)

Rhys approve of this Championship!

Thanks for reading!

Hoskins Salutes you!

I recently picked up my first auto of my new semi mini collection PC player Rhys Hoskins. I would go full blown PC but a lot of his stuff is quite pricey. I was quite pleased this card didn't grade well cause that kept the price down! I was able to snag this for 30 dollars.

Pretty nice auto numbered out of 25. The corners got dinged big but there's nothing crazy. It's fine for a raw card in my opinion and displays real nice. I have a bunch more rookies to show and would love to pick  up some Topps Chrome color in the offseason hopefully when the prices go down. Would love to shoot for the rainbow but with the waves of colors not sure I have the wherewithal to do it this year.

Hoping the Phillies finish out strong.

Thanks for reading!

Samples on Samples!

I picked these 2 sheets up at the Chantilly Card Show. The dealer charged 3 bucks for each which I thought was more then fair. I wanted the Frank Thomas's for my collection.

 

The immortal 1994 Donruss! 

1993 Triple Play

I remember as a young person buying packs of these at an LCS for a buck a piece. None of the cards said Promotional Sample on them though! Pretty cool 90s oddities. Probably not worth a fortune but meh 3 bucks a sheet I can more then live with.

Hoskins just hit his 31st HR. Despite the Phillies falling out of the playoff race at least Hoskins will have a nice follow up to last year. I hope he continues to get better. 

Thanks for reading!