Diamond Icons -- Jim Thome!

I had always wanted a Thome autograph with him in a Phillies uniform. I remember when he signed here right before the new stadium opened. It was a big deal for the Phillies to get such a big name. He doesn't have a ton of options in a Phillies uniform. Some nice Dynasty stuff but that was a bit more then the budget. I was able to offer on this card and the seller accepted. 

It's from a nice high-end product. 

 Solid signature, low numbered, sharp looking card. I'd love to open Diamond Icons but I'm not paying 2k a box or whatever crazy number it is. 

Congrats to the Rays! I hope they win it all. I personally can't cheer for the Dodgers or Braves to win. I do like those teams for Fantasy Baseball though they score a lot of runs. As of this typing the game si 3-2 Braves so we'll see what happens!

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Major League Materials!

I was able to acquire some nice Ryan Howard cards from 2020. Got sniped on 2 last night but that's ok. Thankfully after some effort I landed these 3 nice cards that go as a 'set'. The one of one obviously only had 1 shot at and hit a price I was comfortable with. The other 2 I was able to bide my time and got for way less then the high water mark. 

The 1/1, /25 and the /50 all together! I do appreciate that Topps put in nicer patches in the lower numbered cards. Hopefully Howard is hitting a home run in that picture out of the batters box. According to cardboard connection this is the full rainbow! 

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Elite!

 I recently received my 5th copy of this card in the mail. 5 down 95 to go! (It's a pipe dream but hope springs eternal) I don't like to spend more then 40 dollars on them and there are a few out there with much higher price tags. Surprisingly, all 5 of mine are graded and not by me. I think a lot of these got graded when Howard really blew up his MVP year and this card was quite pricey at one point. Thankfully for Phillies collectors like me the price didn't remain outlandish. 

This is numbered 10 out of 100 on the side. Kind of hard to read on my scan. I've watched and bet on quite a few of the playoff games so far. It's been fairly entertaining. No real big surprises. I didn't think the Cubs were all the great and I'm not shocked Atlanta vs the Dodgers seems inevitable. I have no real affinity to either team so just hoping for some good games to watch. 

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2020 Finest Flashbacks Team Set!

I didn't get the opportunity to buy any of these boxes. I wish I did, apparently MSRP was only 50 dollars which in this market is an insane bargain. I believe secondary market immediately jumped to 300 or so per box. With a quick check online seems that the market is settling around 450-500 per box if you want one. The initial rush to sell is over so it doesn't seem worth it. You would have to hit a monster card to get your money back. 

I did get the Phillies team set for pretty cheap. 

 Realmuto gets the all star and base card treatment. Speaking of Realmuto, if the Phillies don't sign him, what a disaster. They traded Sixto Sanchez and Jorge Alfaro from him. Alfaro was a throw-in but Sixto looks like a legit pitcher. He's throwing triple digits with control. If they don't sign Realmuto who I really think is a great catcher why trade for him?! Klentak stepped down as GM yesterday but he's still in the organization (probably cause he has 2 years on his contract). Hope the new GM prioritizes Realmuto. Arrieta is coming off the books so they should have plenty of space under the luxury tax.

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A small silver set! 2020 Topps Archives

I didn't open a lot this year but I was able to pick up some nice singles to make my collection even nicer! I probably paid market rate which thankfully isn't too crazy. I really liked the looks of the silver borders with the on-card autos. The Phillies only had 2 cards on the checklist so it made collecting the team set very easy. I'm only counting the regular sized cards for this case. There is a Rhys Hoskins boxloader that I have yet to acquire. I opened a lot of archives in 2012. I have the base set and most of the insert sets complete. I should probably complete it since I'm pretty close to having a master set. Missing some SPs, some reprints and some of the retail insert sets. I like the idea of the set even though it is a bit of a re-hash of heritage. The on-card autos of subjects that tend to not get a million autos is appealing. 

This was my first Charlie Manuel auto. Will always be the one who managed the team to the World Series in 2008. Really wish they would've beat the Yankees the next year in 2009. They were really great again in 2010 but the season ended on Ryan Howard's achilles in the playoffs and it's been mostly downhill from there. 

These are sharp looking cards. Definitely recommend grabbing for your favorite team. 

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Couple of Trades with Oren

Over the last month or 2 I completed a couple trades with Oren. I sent him a few of the cards off my trade bait page. Despite me being lazy and not adding much to it even though I do have a bunch of other cards, I did an ok job of keeping track of what was added. I am not 100% that I have it all but it's pretty close. So far I've been able to find everything he has wanted. 

He sent me all Philly sports!

A nice subsection of of the 4 sports. My Eagles/Flyers/Sixers collection is not very big but I have some cool things. Phillies obviously trumps them all by a good margin. 

Thanks for the trades and thanks for reading!

An Atomic Hoskins!

Glancing at my post history, I have already surpassed the number of posts I did all of last year this year. Three months ahead of schedule! I still plan on posting throughout the end of the year and beyond. I should probably write posts in advance but I rarely do that. 

This card I had been after for a while. I lost out on several auctions and that's ok, I had a price limit I wasn't willing to exceed. Finally, caught an auction ending at an odd time so I got lucky and no one sniped at the end. 

This is a very pretty card in person. I remember when I first saw the atomic technology in 2011 Topps Chrome, back then the base were numbered out of 225. Then in 2012 they made them super rare and numbered them out of 10 (I have the Cliff Lee and Ryan Howard from that year) 

This one is numbered out of 100 but the shininess is all the same! 

I don't care that its graded but I do like the protection the case provides. I now have the atomic and the blue from 2018 Bowman Chrome. I don't think I've ever actually opened a box of Bowman Chrome so it's nice to have 2 semi rare cards from it. 

I traded for the blue above a year or so ago. My scanner was dirty at that time as well. 

Phillies bullpen still stinks. I hope they make the playoffs. Even if they lose to a better team at least get in when 8 teams get in. It would be sad if they don't. 

Thanks for reading!