A card redeemed!

I pulled this card before last volleyball season. I had a gift card to Modell's and bought a volleyball and some hanger packs. It was cool to hit a rarer card in one of the packs.

 

This little blue piece of paper turned into this...

 

Pretty solid on-card auto. I would love to trade it for a similar looking Phillies card.

Thanks for reading!

A nice Vintage Rookie Card

This was the last card I picked up at the card show. I had been wanting one for a while but didn't want to overspend on some trimmed card that looks nice. I figure I'm safer playing on the lower levels of grading and not messing with the ultra high end (not that I could afford it anyway) This is a nice addition to the Hall of Fame rookie PC that I am super dis-organized and pick up things randomly as I see them.

Good ole Mr McCovey. A solid BVG3. Obvious wear on the card but it still looks cool to me. It pair well with my only auto of his.

A nice one from year's past Triple Threads. Always happy to get a big check mark off the proverbial list without breaking the bank.

Been a fun offseason so far. Lots of big spenders and the market is moving quickly unlike last year. The only mysteries now if there will be any big trades. The three biggest names in my opinion are Mookie Betts, Franciso Lindor and Kris Bryant. Phillies have no shot at Betts or Lindor but the rumor around here is they want to go after Bryant. I would be totally cool with trading prospects and some major league talent for a guy of his caliber.

Thanks for reading!

I did meet Ryan Howard!

A Big Piece (see what I did there) of the card show was the opportunity to meet and get Ryan Howard's autograph in person. Obviously I have his autograph on multiple items but I never had gotten one in person from the man directly. I wanted something cool signed not just a typical bat or ball (which I already have multiple of). This was probably my most unique item that I currently own. The photo op and auto lines were pretty well run. They changed the setup a bit which I think was a good change. They turned the auto lines so it didn't clog up the one side too much which was usually a problem. There was a lot of people there for autographs for Brad Lidge and Carlos Ruiz and Allen Iverson. (among other people).

Here was my photo op photo, I have an 8x10 of it professionally printed and upstairs in one of my cases.

I was rocking my Howard shirt with all of his career stats that I picked up in the Citizen's bank lot for 10 bucks. Howard's hands are ginormous. He was nice and I'm glad he smiled in the photo. They take them real quick so who knows how they come all come out.

This is the banner folded up. We bought a curtain rod yesterday and hung it in the card room. It looks really cool with the autograph. I will have to take a pic of it completely unfurled. My ceiling in that room isn't quite high enough so it does touch the floor. This banner was hung outside of Citizens Bank on a light post, I'll have to look up which year because it does have the MLB authentication sticker on it. Not sure if it tells you which year though.

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to meet him!

Thanks for reading!

A Whole lot of Shiny!

These were 2 of the shinier cards I got at the card show. I actually didn't have either of them. Surprisingly, I did not have the Ryan Howard rookie (have the base, gold and xfractor but was missing this one)

The Hamels was the most expensive card I bought at the show but I feel like it was still a solid deal and not a card I've seen out in the wild all too often.

I don't love that Hamels signed with the Braves but they did offer a lot of money for 1 year so at least it makes sense. Two very nice PC additions!

Thanks for reading!

A Team Set Complete -- 1954 Bowman!

It's been a while since I've been able to post a complete team set. I know this one isn't particularly large but complete is complete! Slowly but surely chipping away at the Bowman sets from the 50s after doing the Topps. It's one of my more fun collections to look at without all the vintage-y goodness.

The only graded card is the Ashburn. It's pretty nice. I am not planning to grade any of the other cards. They all fit my criteria for a team set. No paper loss and no crazy creasing. It's all about the eye appeal!

The card show was fun, will have some more things to say about it soon!

Thanks for reading!

A Gold white whale!

I recently picked up a tough to find Ryan Howard card. I was pretty happy about getting a reasonable price on it too since they don't pop up too often. I would've been happy graded or raw so extra protection is fine with me.

Numbered 15 out of 24.

In more important news, Ryan Howard is going to be at the Philly show this coming Saturday! I got my photo op and premium autograph ticket, can't wait!

Thanks for reading!