Friday 10 February 2012

This blog is dead!!!

This blog is over.

Come check out my new blog here.


Monday 7 November 2011

Two breaks 4000 Miles Apart and I get the same card

A few days ago I was involved in two breaks.

The first was being run by Josh, who I met on the SCR forums. He had gotten a good deal on some boxes from his local card shop and threw up a thread on the forum. I got in as soon as I could.
As I had made a few bucks from my recent Finest break I thought I'd go for it and picked up fourteen teams.
I didn't get to pick the teams as this was all arranged while I was asleep. Luckily Martyn was on hand to suggest some teams on my behalf. And I'm glad he did!
I cant remember off the top of my head what teams I had, all I can remember is the Blue Jays and Nationals, both teams picked for me by Martyn.
He choose the Jays for the off chance a Lind is pulled and I needed it.
The Nationals were chosen mostly because of Bryce Harper.
Martyn did good as these would have been the teams I would have liked. Obviously I would have loved to have had the Giants but they went to SCR who also had a slot in the break.

Anyway  the break was a box of 2011 Finest and 2011 Bowman Platinum. I got nothing in the Finest and almost nothing in the Platinum.
I say almost nothing because I did get this auto of some dude.


Bryce Harper green refractor auto
 out of 399!

Awesome! That card covered that break.

Check out the video of the break. Especially for the few seconds after the Harper was pulled when Joshs better half makes a cameo appearance. I found it very funny!


Next was a six box break with Martyn. This was a 'free' break because we used the proceeds of our 2010 Bowman Chrome Shelby Miller Orange Refractor auto /25. That's right, one card paid for six boxes!
To see the breakdown of what was busted altogether then please hit Martyn's blog and take a look.

One of the boxes we ordered was 2011 Bowman Platinum retail. It was cheap and full of cool looking cards. |This box was just filler, just something to open. We knew that there was no auto, no GU and probably nothing numbered less than 200.

Boy were we wrong!


Another Bryce Harper Green auto /399!!

It was an incredible feeling seeing both cards pulled. Both Josh and Martyn sounded very excited to see the cards come out of the packs.

I wont be keeping them. Both will be sold on the bay and the profits from them will go towards more boxes.

I wonder how long we can keep this going? So far me and Martyn have spent about $80 on one box of 2010 Bowman Chrome.
That one box turned into six boxes:
2009 Just Minors baseball
2010 Just minors baseball
2011 Bowman Chrome hobby
2011 A&G retail
2011 Bowman Platinum retail
2010 Topps Chrome hobby

Thanks for Martyn and Josh for busting the boxes and pulling the Harpers!

Sunday 30 October 2011

2011 Finest break part 2

Heres the second part of my Finest break.

Still focusing on the hits of my six boxes.

Out of my six boxes (the other two went to Martyn and Simon) I only pulled on redemption, thankfully it was of a player I'd heard of!

A mike Moustakas Gold refractor RC auto. TO be honest I was not thrilled in receiving a redemption (who would be?). What made me even more bummed out was the fact that Topps doesn't really look after its overseas customers so would probably refuse to send it.
But thanks to another Brit collector (Andy over on SCR) I was made aware that Topps would indeed fulfil redemption's regardless of where you live. So I entered the code on the site and I'm awaiting an update on the card.
Very strange that Topps would send this card overseas considering that no one outside of North America is able to participate in the Diamond anniversary promotion or bid on their Topps vaults eBay auctions. Don't you just love Topps consistency!


This Sabathia is the case hit. Its numbered out of a low 24 and features a plain grey swatch and sticker auto. This came out as a bonus because out of the box I'd already pulled a Belt ref auto and the above Moustakas redemption. The scan makes it look a little dirty but its all good.
Its probably one of the best autos that I've pulled and had in my possession and I debated whether or not to keep it. But like 99% of the cards I pulled from my boxes I plan to sell.

Like this one...


A Brent Morel purple auto RC /5! I was very excited to pull such a low numbered auto, just a shame I have never really heard of the bloke. I offloaded this card off eBay a day after busting my boxes and was please with the price I got.

I had a specific goal in mind when I initially ordered my case. That was to keep only PC cards ( and possibly one complete set) and sell all other cards on in order to raise the funds to get another case. I highly doubt I'll be able to get the full amount for a case from my sales but I should be able to get about half. Then comes the fun part of deciding what to get!

Saturday 22 October 2011

2011 Topps Finest break part 1


How long have I been away from this blog?
To damn long.
Anyway I'm back and with a six box break of 2011 Topps Finest baseball!
I pre-ordered a case way back in May and have been eagerly awaiting its arrival since then.
Each case contains 8 boxes, each box contains 2 mini boxes, each mini box contains 6 packs each and each pack contains 5 cards. There are also two guaranteed autos in each box.
I was very pleased with the results of the boxes that I broke. Even though there are only 5 cards per pack I was able to complete 2 base sets, which surprised me. The base card are of high quality and look great. Much like you would expect from the annual Finest release. I haven't scanned any base but I'm sure that you've all seen them already.
I'll be breaking this down into a few different posts in which I'll be focusing on the hits. Theres no particular order to the following cards, I'm just showing them in what ever order I feel like.
Brandon Belt RC auto 398/499
Refractor /499
Out of all the autos I got this is the only one that I will be definitely keeping.
The Giants had high hopes for Belt at the start of the season and Belt came out of swinging. Unfortunately Belt struggled and was demoted back to the minors a few times. I feel like Belt will achieve his potential in time for next season and bring a much needed bat to the Giants line up.
Photobucket
Die Cut /10
This card was a surprise that came out of the last mini box. I had no idea that there were Die Cuts in this set and also had no idea they were so low numbered!
I could have done a lot worse than Ryan Braun. But then again I could have done better and pulled low numbered Pujols...
Albert Pujols Finest Foundation /5
Like this one /5
Probably one of the best cards from the entire break! The card is not serial numbered anywhere but it has been confirmed that the purples are out of 5.
Mike Moustakas RC auto 353/499
Moose RC /499
The final card for this post is this Mike Moustakas RC auto. This was the first dual relic auto that I pulled from the boxes and set the flow of the break nicely.
More to follow over the next few days including the case hit and a Purple rookie auto /5.

Monday 29 August 2011

2011 Allen and Ginter needs

I didnt want to try and complete a set this year. I've sat out of Heritage, Gypsy Queen and up until now Ginter.

I picked up the remnants of four hobby boxes from eBay about a month ago with the intention of selling on a few of the key cards and using the rest for trade. However I only sold two cards (I got like $9 for a mini David DeJesus A&G back, which I thought was crazy high) and have traded about the same amount. So I thought I'd put the cards to good use and finish up the very nearly completed set.

I'm going for the complete base and SP set.
Baseball Sketches.
Hometown Heroes.
Floating Fortresses.
Minds that made the Future.
The Ascent of Man.

Here are my needs, as you can see I'm pretty close.

Base & SPs:
24, 26, 29, 71, 81, 100, 167, 177, 186, 189, 193, 228, 240, 262, 274, 330, 342.

Baseball Sketches:
1, 2, 10, 12, 13, 19, 20, 22, 25.

Hometown Heroes
4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 19, 22, 28, 35, 41, 43, 49, 61, 64, 66, 68, 69, 71, 72, 75, 76, 81, 82, 86, 91, 92.

Floating Fortresses
1, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 20.

Minds that made the future
1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39.

Ascent of man
3, 4, 10, 13, 21, 25, 26.

I have a ton of cards available for trade from various years and sets so please leave a comment if you can help me out and we can get the ball rolling.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

My biggest pull ever (sort of)

Today I participated in my third break with fellow Brit and blogger Martyn, over at Arbitrary Crap.

The box was 2010 Bowman Chrome hobby box and we got fairly cheap online. It did take a long time to arrive but it was definitely worth the wait!


I'm only showcasing one card here, if you want to see the rest of the break then click the link to Martyns blog (and why not follow him when you get there? He puts out some good stuff!)




A Shelby Miller Orange Refractor auto numbered 1 of 25!!
Miller is an up and coming prospect in the Cardinal farm system. Hes currently playing for the Springfield Cardinals and seems to be doing quite well.
Hes being rested at the moment due to throwing a hell of lot of pitches so far this season.



When we ordered the box a few weeks back we both agreed that if we pulled anything good ( we were hoping for Strasburg!) then we would list on eBay and use whatever funds we get to pick up another box.


Dont really like to plug my own auction on my blog but I'm going to do it anyway.


Shelby Miller Auto 1/25


Its set at a pretty high price but we're hoping for offers.

Monday 25 July 2011

Cards from Martyn

A few weeks ago I participated in a break with Martyn from Arbitrary Crap. In Fact there's been two breaks in the last few weeks with another one planned very shortly.


I've already shown what I got in the breaks of Topps Opening Day and Topps Series 2 but I haven't shown what else Martyn sent my way.


Firstly is this Topps Pristine Bobby Thomson numbered out of 549. This is probably the first card to hit my Thompson PC this year. I've been very neglectful picking up his cards since all the focus has been on Adam Lind. The only card that I actively search of Thompson is his Bowman RC from the forties. I haven't found one yet at a price that I like but the search will continue.


This is a card that I was very excited to see. This is my first and only Sterling card in my collection. As you can see from the front of the card its numbered 24/50. The scan does not do this card justice, it really is beautiful and you can just tell this is from a 'premium' product.

Huge thanks Martyn, I do have a few cards to send your way but I'm sure you've known me long enough to know that I can take a little while to get cards in the post!!