Genuine!

I've been watching a lot of Parks and Recreation lately and I wanted to make a joke about Genuine sounding a bit like Genuwine. 'How did I not know you were related to Genuwine?' Anyway, I recently picked up this Fleer Genuine card. I personally did not have many Jimmy Rollins autographs. He is not in a ton of releases so he doesn't seem to sign too much.

I thought this was a pretty cool card.

The autograph is inside the card! It slides out along with the relic. Pretty neat concept. Also, reminds me of a Zoolander quote "the files are inside the computer *throws the computer*" Those are my kind of pop culture references.

Also the seller let me grab these cards cheap with no additional shipping cost.

Bunch of rookies. Nothing to not like there for the Phillies collection.

Thanks for reading!

Legendary Lineage Part 2

After doing extensive research (Read:typing words into google for the checklist) I found out that Ryan Howard has 2 Dual relics in this set. I was able to procure the other one via means of ebay from a seller who accepted my best offer without countering (glad they didn't counter I thought I low balled). Turns out I paid about market price but hey that works for me too.

A pretty sweet McCovey/Howard Dual relic. My scan cut off the bottom but trust me it is there. These cards don't come up too often anymore being how its almost a decade old and there is only 50 of them. This is locked away in my PC for the foreseeable future.

Pairs nicely with this card that I showed previously..

As far as I know Howard doesn't have any other dual relics paired with legends like this. I've seen one from Panini that he has with Beltre but the lack of logos annoys me too much to spend money on it. Although I don't mind the lack of logos on some of the NT stuff. Depending on the picture it can look ok. It's the airbrushing that is super obvious that detracts too much from the card.

Anyways, let Panini and Topps both have licenses (and Upper Deck for that matter) so we get some competition! Maybe drive the box prices back down?!

Thanks for reading!

A couple more trades completed!

I haven't been great about posting things that people have sent me. I am still trying to re-organize (or organize for the first time) all the Phillies cards people have sent me through the years. I feel comfortable in my Ryan Howard organization and Frank Thomas. Also, comfortable on my auto/relics organization for Phillies. Still working on/trying to figure out the non Phillies. Some I consider PC cards that would be quite hard for me to trade others I would definitely trade for similar Phillies cards. One day I'll get there! It's nice to have goals.

I recently completed 2 trades (3 this past month!) with reader Oren and Jim from GCRL fame (his blog went quiet but he still reads and is easy to trade with)

Oren sent me some Phillies and Eagles and Flyers.

I've always been a fan of Matt Read. He had a couple 20 goal seasons early in his career but never developed completely into that goal scorer.

Jim took a bite out of the want list..

Here are the non set cards he sent me. Besides these he was able to knock off about 40 cards from my team set and set collection lists. 2002 Upper Deck Vintage is completely done with what he sent and the boxes I had posted previously. The Greats card of Roy Halladay is real nice, its way thicker then the normal card stock. I'm forever a fan of any Cognac refractor from 2011 Topps. They look good on all the cards in that set. If I had more money I would go after all of those and the Blue Hope Diamond ones (I currently have 1 blue one)

Thanks for the trades and thanks for reading!

2020 Heritage Blaster break (crushed the odds!)

Recently, my wife was ordering stuff of Target.com and needed about 15 dollars more to get free shipping. I requested a blaster box and the only one that was normal priced was Heritage so why not. She kindly ordered the box for me and it arrived with no issues. (feels like we get daily packages at this point)

First pack right in the middle of it..

A really nice red ink auto of Bryan Reynolds. Excuse the dust on my scanner the card is sharp. The packs odd were 1 in 1,275 packs! This is the 2nd red ink auto I've ever pulled out of Heritage or Heritage high number (the other being Manny Machado that I still have upstairs)

Also, got the requisite inserts. Nothing crazy there a few short prints and a mini Yelich.

Thanks for reading!

2019 Stadium Club Retail box

Thanks for all the comments on my last post! It was a lot of fun opening some old boxes and not having bricked cards (ugh 1994 Score is the worst) Also, on this same order I wanted free shipping so I grabbed a 2019 Stadium Club retail box. 24 packs, no guaranteed autos or anything. Not to spoil the surprise I didn't hit any autos but I still thought it was a solid box.

I really like the photography and the feel of the cards in Stadium club so I was more then happy to order it. It was a fun rip because basically every pack had some sort of parallel or insert or something. Always something to look for.

I'll start with the Red Parallels (I just realized they scanned black for some reason) but really they are red. They are the easier to find parallel, trust me the lettering is red.

The Black Parallels are above, I received the exact amount I should've. Nice to hit an Acuna Jr. (I literally traded 1 away the day before)

Received 3 of each of these. The Sepias look nice but I enjoy that parallel in most sets. Nothing crazy on the Warp Speed and Power Zone's.

Got my 1 per box Beam Team Insert. He happens to be on the cover so that was pretty cool. I'm obviously not a Mets fan but DeGrom has crushed it for my fantasy team so I have nothing against him.

This is the 1 per box Chrome. This came out of the first pack. Another A's player! It was an A's kind of day.

This is a rarer insert with the Members Only stamp. They fall 1 in 256 packs. He's a good player just needs to stay healthy.

Last but not least..

Pretty happy to hit a Gold Minted Chrome. They are really nice in hand. I now have a Johnny Bench, Rhys Hoskins, Corey Seager and Sammy Sosa Gold Chrome in different years.

Thanks for reading!

2002 Upper Deck Vintage Retro break

I was able to scan cards this weekend. (It's not that hard I just have to walk my laptop to the scanner since I am using my laptop for work these days) I had purchased 2 boxes of 2002 Upper Deck Vintage from D&A card world. No issues with shipping and I got free penny sleeves for my trouble. I was fully expecting a lot of base cards and some inserts. There are no guarantees of any hits and the hits are tough odds for only 48 packs total. The relics are 1:144 packs and the quad relics are 1:288 and then there are dual autos that are numbered out of 100 with no stated pack odds.

I went in with low expectations, all I really wanted was to complete the base set that has been on the want list for seems like forever. (or since 2011 when I got back into collecting)

Here are the 2 box break results..

These Day at the Park inserts are 1 in 23 packs so basically 1 per box. The checklist is solid so not a bad player to hit in any of the inserts.

The Night Gamers and Sandlot Stars are both 1 in 11 packs. I hit 1 extra Sandlot Stars in one of the boxes which was a nice surprise.

Boooom! Hit a Vintage Special Collection relic of Sal Bando! Was really happy when this came out of one of the packs.

A few packs later.. same box..

BOOOOOM! A's Hot box! Nothing like hitting a quad relic that has been hiding in packs for 18 years. Had zero issues with cards sticking or condition or anything like that. I know its not worth a ton of money or anything but I like it! I'll probably be holding onto this card for a while.

On a side note, I did not complete the base set via these boxes. I was 6 cards short and I have well over 200 doubles. Not the best collation. I was able to grab those singles off of sportslots for cheap just to complete it.

What other retro boxes would you guys recommend?

Thanks for reading!

Phillies still undefeated!

2020 Heritage Blaster breaks

Also, on my birthday I took a drive to target to see if they had any cards. Surprisingly it wasn't completely cleaned out (I have since checked when Bowman came out and there was literally nothing on the shelves except Wrestling cards) I have not checked for Mega boxes, don't know if I feel like making the drive to not buy anything. The previous time I checked at least I came back home with much needed paper towels. I grabbed 3 blasters of the 15 or so they had.

I enjoyed this year's Heritage. I've opened 2 previous boxes and did pretty well with 2 autos and 2 relics and a Gavin Lux action RC. Doesn't hurt to hit nice cards I suppose. This break was nothing crazy but it was still fun.

Seem to have a penchant for hitting Mets Relics. Have the Conforto and McNeil now. I like Conforto personally, he has done me well in fantasy and I would draft him again this year if you know Baseball is going to be played. 

These were the other highlights. Always nice to get a Phillies insert. JT Realmuto's contract negotiation should be interesting. He's on the last year of arbitration this year and is arguable the best catcher in the league currently. Does he command huge money or because revenue is down this year will he have to settle for less? The bottom 3 cards are short prints. May have heard of that Soto guy.

Have a 'retro' break to share soon, it was fun and hit some cool stuff. Just have to get it scanned!

Thanks for reading!

My Birthday Month has gone..

For those that don't know my birthday was in May. I typically (for the last few years at least) host a Phillies tailgate at whatever home game on a Saturday and invite 25 of my closest friends. Had 18 people last year which was a pretty good turn out. I was debating going big this year and going for a luxury suite and surprising people. Maybe next year? Who knows with the way things are going I could have a luxury 'entire stadium to ourselves'.

The only reason I mention my Birthday passing is because my wife got me this awesome present.

This has been on the list for a while. I did my research and from everything I can tell this is an authentic copy. The logo looks right. I know its not a high grade or whatever but those were way more then I wanted anyone to spend for the card. This was a reasonable price and the card just got dinged down cause of a couple of rough corners. Just looks like the card hung out in a shoe box for a while before being pulled. No creases or anything glaring at all.

I more or less finished cataloging my Frank Thomas collection. I have about 1,000 cards of his currently. Lots of base and inserts and then a couple nice ones, including the one above.

Thanks for reading!

Phillies still undefeated!