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!