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!

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!

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

If your going to steal a scan...

I'll let the auction listing do the talking, especially the scan. Seriously if you must use someone else's scan DON'T use a scan of the most famous graded and expensive card of ALL TIME.

Honus Wagner.

Swag from Topps jumbo series 2 break with Arbitrary Crap

This is the second break that I've done with Martyn over at Arbitrary Crap . It was a great break and the first Jumbo that I've ever participated in. There were a few other people involved in the break such as Simon from 7 hours from Tampa and Colin from everyone favourite forum Sports Card Radio. There were others but I'm not sure if they have blogs/sites.


All teams were randomised, as were the Diamond anniversary giveaways and the Prime 9s.


As this was Jumbo there were 50 cards per pack and 3 hits per box. We did very well with this box!!


I'll just show of the highlights from my share, I'll let Martyn show off the others on his blog.


At the top of the page is one of the Golds I received. I did get about 4, maybe 5 including a few Giants players but the Longo is my favourite out of the bunch. Like all Topps Golds this card is numbered out of the year of release. In this case out of 2011.

Next I got this filthy Dodger, Don Sutton. This is a 60 years of Topps Original backed card and it is for trade. Any Dodgers fans out there want it?

My favourite basecard that I got was this Brandon Belt RC. Belt started out the season strongly before quickly losing steam. He was sent back down the minors to improve his skills. Still Belt will be become a key member of the Giants organisation in the next couple of years.

This is my absolute best card that I got in the break. Its the Giants team card Diamond Paralell version. It features the closer Brian Wilson and catcher Buster Posey celebrating the last out against Texas in the 2010 World Series.

There we have it, my highlights from the break. I know that some of the other guys got some better cards than me. including an auto, GU and two legends variation cards (Mantle and Aaron)

So a huge thanks to Martyn for hosting yet another break. I cant wait for the next one to happen!!

My first printing plate

I picked up this plate about a month ago from a guy at Blowout. It was a little higher than I wanted to pay but since the majority of the Lind plates I've seen lately have been going for around $50 I actually got a pretty good deal on it.

This is the Cyan International plate, not to be confused with the regular printing plates. Not sure why Topps/Bowman felt the need to include another 4 plates on top of the normal 4 that they normally put out. I guess its just a way to make more money.

Anyway this is my first ever printing plate and I think its pretty cool looking. I had read about them on other blogs/forum but other peoples opinions on cards don't usually match my own.

You can see that the plate has been well used as there are red and blue ink stains on it and also finger prints.

I wouldn't have been able to get hold of this plate if it wasn't for Randy over at Way Off Base. The seller wouldn't ship to the UK so Randy thankfully agreed to have the card sent to him before sending it my way. So huge thanks to him!

Reaching for 200

It was about a year ago that I decided to broaden my collecting habits and pick a player or two to 'supercollect'.

At that time I had quite a large amount of cards that I was trying to chase down, such as Heritage or A&G minis which are both tough sets to attempt. Anyone who has collected either Heritage or A&G knows how competitive bidding on eBay can be for certain cards in the sets and also how difficult it can be to trade for the rarer cards, so it took up a lot of my time and felt like I was missing out on other cards because my collecting habits were so streamlined.

The players I thought I would go for were, in this order :

Will Clark
Bobby Thomson
JT Snow
Jeff Kent
Bill Mueller
Adam Lind

I started strong with Clark and traded for around 40 different cards on my first day of collecting him and that was it. I think I've added 2 more cards since then that have come to me as free extras via trades.

Bobby Thomson is still active in my collecting goals but is very slow going. I have picked up a nice couple of cards such as vintage, GU and auto. I only add to this collection when I see something cheap on COMC.

JT snow lasted 2 cards before I lost interest. One auto and one GU.

Jeff Kent lasted 1 card. One GU.

Bill Mueller... Well this collection didn't even start.

Adam Lind, my last choice and as you can see the only non Giant player on my list. The only reason he was on the list was because he did really well on my fantasy team the year before.

This was the first card I picked up. Cant remember what I traded for it but I know that it came with the lot of Will Clark cards that I mentioned above.

Its a 2007 Fleer mini Die-cut and once I received it I just threw into one of my boxes and didn't look at it again until a few months later.

As you can see from the card it is slightly smaller than a regular sized card but not as small as a normal ginter mini. I also picked up the normal sized version a few months after that.

So that was the first card that I got for Lind. Lets take a look at my most recent pick up. Well when I say its my most recent its not, its just the only one that sticks in my mind.

This is a 2010 Topps 206 mini Gold Piedmont back numbered out of 50. This card has been on my main hitlist for a while now and this is only the second one that I've seen since the product was released, which is very strange since there are 50 copies.

This card also brought to my attention other Lind collectors. Nearly every Lind card that I've been bidding on or watching are ending much higher than what they would have a year ago. I guess this is due to his improvement on the field, which is great for him but bad for me!

The Gold T206 represents my 193rd different Lind card in my collection, so I only need 7 more to reach 200! Is there anyone out there can help me? Do you have any you want to trade? Please check my Lind page for all the cards that I HAVE. I you have something that's not on that list then please get in contact with me.

2011 Topps Opening Day Joint break with Arbitrary Crap.

A few weeks back Martyn over at Arbitrary Crap emailed to say he was going to pick up a box of 2011 Opening day and asked if I would like to get in on it.

Yes came my answer, of course I'd like to get in on it!! Even though Opening Day is not really on my radar there was an Adam Lind card in there that I needed. Plus I've seen some of the inserts on other blogs and they look cool!

The box took two weeks or so to make its journey from Germany (my closest LCS!) to Martyns home in Blackburn. A few emails were fired back and forth trying to arrange a time to film the break and thanks to some problems my end I was very nearly late to the party on Ustream.

Luckily with Facebook chat I was able to get hold of Martyn right as the break was starting. We both agreed to split the packs 50/50. I would take the odd packs, Martyn the even packs and on top of that we both choose three teams that we really wanted.

I choose - Blue Jays, Mariners and Giants.

Martyn choose - Phillies, Mets and Red Sox.

Now of course neither of us expected to hit anything of note. I think the odds of hitting an auto is 1:800 or there abouts. This break was purely for the cards.

Those of you that have Opened 2011 Topps flagship are familiar with the design since its exactly the same apart from the Opening Day stamp and the lack of foil on the name and team badge.

That's enough of the foreplay let me just show you what I got!!

Notable base:

Stephen Strasburg

Jose Bautista

Ichiro

Josh Hamilton

Manny Ramirez

James Shields

Evan Longoria

Jason Heyward

Your 2010 World Series Champions:

Madison Bumgarner

Matt Cain

Aubrey Huff

Tim Lincecum

Buster Posey

Jonathan Sanchez

Pablo Sandoval

Andres Torres

The Beard

Inserts

Team Mascots:

Baltimore Orioles

Rangers Captain

Kansas City Royals

Dinger

Toronto Blue Jays

This is an insert set that I quite like, not enough to actively collect but if a few were to end up in my hands I'd happily give them a home. And by the way, the Rangers mascot is lame. Really lame.

Presidential First Pitch:

Woodrow Wilson

Ronald Reagan

George W.Bush

Another cool insert set with a nice little blurb on the back of each card. Reagan for instance spent the next inning and a half in the Radio booth helping with the broadcast.

Superstar Celebrations:

Matt Holliday

Prince Fielder

Nick Markakis

Ubaldo Jimenez

I can see what Topps are doing with this subset and the idea is pretty cool. Take a picture of a player celebrating a win or some sort of on field achievement. I dont like them.

Spot the Error:

Buster Posey

Hanley Ramirez

Jose Bautista

Jason Heyward

Since this product is aimed at kids I really shouldn't criticize this insert set. Its a good idea and maybe Topps are trying to get cards to stare at the cards long enough for them to want to collect more and more of them. Just like some crazy Pokemon-esque subliminal message 'Gotta Catch Them All!'. Like I said though it is a good idea, its just not my cup of tea.

Stadium Lights:

Miguel Cabrera

Brilliant concept, not something I'd want to see a whole set of though. Oh and it doesnt glow as bright as you would expect.

Opening Day Stars:

Albert Pujols

Joe Mauer

Miguel Cabrera

Love it. Such awesome looking cards. These cards stood out above anything else in the massive stack of cards that Martyn sent my way. The cards really do look 3D and look a whole much better than the 3D cards that were around in the 90's. Saying that though it probably is the same technology.

The Hits!!

Shin Soo Choo

The Beard

Ricky Romero

Tyler Colvin

Not really hits but they were the best to come out of the box. All are numbered out of 2011. These are exactly the same as the Topps Golds except obviously the cards are in blue, a really nice blue actually.

Well that was the first break that I've done with Martyn. The first of many I hope.

Giants from the ORIGINAL UK blogger

John over at The Pursuit of 80's(ness) was kind enough to send me a stack of cool Giants cards, many of which I need for my team sets that I'm trying to work on.


John and I have been swapping cards for over a year now. There's nothing really regular about it and hardly any correspondence. The only time either of us know that we're getting cards from each other is when they arrive at our door.



I always enjoy getting cards from John because of the surprise of what will be in the package. Normally when a trade is arranged both parties are aware of what they are getting, but like I said we have no idea when cards are being sent.


This time I received more than cards!




Included with the Giants was this small book. The MLB 2011 Collectors Guide.

It features a small write up about Topps, a few adverts for various products and the full Topps 60 anniversary cards from 1952 up to 2011. Now I was under the impression these would be iconic cards and it starts off strong. From 1952 (Mantle) all the way to 1980 (Henderson) the cards make sense. The players featured so far have been the must have cards from the respective set that they represent but from 1981 onwards there are a few debatable entries. For instance when you think of 1985 Topps, what iconic card do you think of? For me there can be only one card from that set and that's the Mark McGwire Olympic RC. I'm guessing due to the controversy surrounding McGwire he wasn't used. Instead we have Dwight Gooden. Sure, he was a great player but the card does not deserve its place in the list.

Then you have 1993 featuring Ryne Sandberg, another great player in his day. Again though there is another card I think of and that is the Derek Jeter RC. Jeter is not a favourite player of mine but much like the McGwire from 85 this Jeter was the card to own from the 93 set.

This of course is a matter of opinion and I'm sure those of you have seen the full Topps 60 lineup would make changes to it if they could.

Also in the little book is a full schedule list of every team. I love this! I prefer looking at schedules on paper as opposed to online, not sure why I like it better I just do.

Right back to cards. Not only was I sent the really cool Posey Topps 2020 at the top of this post, I was also sent the following:

Three nice Buster Poseys and a few Giants heroes from the World Series.

So many thanks to John for all the cards, as soon as I build up another stack of Red Sox for you I'll make sure they get to you.

The epic Fuji contest is back!!

Do you remember Fujis summer contest from last year?

The contest with all the cool prizes and interesting questions?

Well its back!!

Follow that link, answer the questions and win some cards!!

Mailday from COMC

I've been very quiet the last few weeks with this blog. I don't really have any major reasons for not updating this thing, I mean I have been fairly busy with job hunting and family stuff but there has been plenty of time to work on the blog.
I don't want to call it writers block, since I have plenty to say. Its just that when I sit down to write about the hobby or about my latest pickups something always pops up and distracts me! Most recently its been LA Noire on the Xbox 360, which is a fantastic game!
Also Blogger has not been helping with my lack of posts. Is anyone else having BIG problems? I remember a few weeks back when Blogger went down and I couldn't look at my blog or anyone else's. I also read, when the blogs came back up, that a lot of bloggers had lost entire posts? I've not really had that problem. However, my auto save function has taken a kick in balls. This is actually the third time in as many days I've tried to finish this post. On each occasion I would get so far and save but when I return to finish it off half of my post would be missing. What a pain. So this time I'm going to try and get it all typed up and posted in one go, which is easier said than done since I'm posting this from work and my customers seem hell bent on interrupting me at every opportunity!

Anyway on to the good stuff!

I picked up all of the following cards from COMC during the last few weeks. One or two of them have actually been sat in my account since before Christmas just waiting for me to get them sent to me.
As usual all the following pics are taken directly from COMC.

2010 Topps 206 Mini auto in a Polar Bear frame. I was very pleased to able to land this card since these mini autos from this set are proving tough to hunt down, except for the Piedmont frame which appears to come out of every single hobby box! I'm now looking for the Old Mill frame which seems to be extremely rare, I've only seen one listed on eBay since the product has been released.


Next up as an 2007 Exquisite Imagery numbered 04/25. What can be said about Exquisite that I haven't said before? The cards are beautiful! The only issue I have with the product is the thickness and its not even a direct problem with Exquisite. The problem is I have trouble finding the appropriate sized top loaders for the card to fit into. At least now COMC offer top loaders with all cards for a small fee.

Yet another Exquisite! Only this time its a dual auto numbered out of 40. The other guy on the card is Jeff Baker. Hes pictured in his Rockies uniform but is now with the Cubs. Interesting fact about Baker, he was born in Germany. Maybe its not that interesting but its the best thing I can find about the guy!

Topps Co-Signers. What a nightmare of a set! There's tons of variations of this auto and I have a few of them. I cant remember what this is numbered out of because I'm in work and the card is at home. I'm looking for a couple more of his autos from this set so if you have any then please let me know.

2010 Topps Chrome Red Refractor /25! I never thought I'd get my hands on this card. I first saw it on COMC for a price of $4.99. I went straight to the checkout to pick it up but it said 'Sold out'. Damn. Then about a day later the card was re listed under a newer price of $14.99 but I managed to snag it for around $11. I only wish I was just a bit quicker when I saw the original listing.

That's all for now, still plenty more cards to show off plus I still need to get my Topps Giants want list together.

A little bit of vintage from the bay

Every once in a while eBay UK can really throw up a few nice surprises. And by nice surprises I mean vintage!

Theres always someone selling vintage on the site but most is either overpriced or set as a BIN, which I dont normally like to hit if I think I can get it cheaper if it were to come to auction.

This past week a couple of nice cards came up at auction and I had my eye set on three of them. The type of cards on offer were Topps from the 50's, 60's and 70's and also a bunch of 1955 Bowman. All were starting off at just 99p. So I added the ones I wanted to my watch list and kept my eye on them.


Out of the three cards that I went for I managed to win two, at what I consider an absolute steal!


First the card that I lost out on was a 1962 Topps Whitey Ford. I put a bid in during the last 30 seconds but was outbid with less than 5 left.

The first card that I did win is from one of the greatest sets ever, 1952 Topps.

Gene Woodling was an outfielder for the New York Yankees. According to Wikipedia he spent 49-54 there before spending time with the Indians, Senators, Mets. He ended his career as a coach for the Orioles. He had a fairly good career, an all-star in '59 and also won an incredible 6 World Series, 5 with the Yankees and one with the O's as part of the coaching staff.

The card is in great shape for its age. Sure the corners are rounded and there's a slight indentation just below his ear but its still in a perfectly collectible condition.

The second card that I picked up was the card I wanted the most out of the ones I had been looking at. Its not often a vintage HOF'er is listed in the UK and when they are its usually at a ridiculous price or is damaged.

This one is also from an iconic set, 1955 Bowman.

Phil Rizzuto, Hall of Fame Shortstop for the Yankees.

He was known alot more for his defense rather than his offense. He was 5 time all star and also captured 7 World series championships. He also spent two years in the Navy during World War 2. He was elected to the Hall in 1994 by the Veterans committee.

The card is in great condition. Like the '52 the corners are rounded. There was also some slight paper loss. You can see on the pic above some of the paper loss on the border, right above Rizzuto's head. The second bit of paper loss is on the back and covers the 'ST' in the word BEST. All in all its really nice.

As much as I like these cards I would still rather trade them for something that I could use and appreciate more.

Any vintage or Yankees fans out there want to trade?

Been a while

Its been a long, long time since I last posted. I haven't lost interest in this hobby, infact its probably become much more obsessive for me because its been difficult to dedicate the time to it. So any spare time that I have managed to grab has been used to scour eBay, COMC and all the blogs and forums that I frequent.

There has been two main reasons for not blogging and for not participating on the forums. Firstly my Grandfather was taken into hospital in February and hes still there. Hes improving greatly but unfortunately hes suffering with both dementia and Parkinson's so its taking its toll on my family.

Secondly both my wife and I were informed in March that our jobs were being moved to India and that we were being made redundant. Yay. So I've been spending time updating my CV, practising interview techniques and also looking for a job. We both have until July and then its time to find a new job. Thankfully though, we're expecting a nice payout from the company so at least we'll be OK until we land a new job. I hope to find a job before I leave my current position so I can use my redundancy money on something useful such as cards and more cards.

Anyway in the brief moments that I spent on eBay I did manage to pick up three new cards.



First of all I picked up the above 2007 Upper Deck Lind RC Green predictor edition. I picked up really cheap on the bay but I dont know much about it. I understand that they are fairly rare and were only part of a redemption set, other than that I know nothing about it. It is exactly the same as the base version apart from the obvious green borders and embossed 'predictor edition' on the front of the card. Still its a nice addition to the collection.




Next is this 2010 Topps Black numbered 23/58. I have been after one of these for about a year and now I finally own one! I honestly didnt think this card would ever arrive. I won it back in the beginning of March and it didnt show up until today, after almost a month and half. I always give a card 4 weeks or so from the time I paid until I expect it to arrive. After the 4 weeks had passed I contacted the seller expecting to be told that the card was shipped and its probably lost. But to my surprise the seller messaged me back apologising that they had forgotten to send it and they would get it out to me ASAP. I did not expect to see it and was going to start a chargeback on Monday but the seller was telling truth and I now finally have this card in hand. Now do I leave feedback for the seller? I'll need to think about that one.

The last card I got as a birthday gift from my mother. She had no clue what I wanted and just said to pick a card on eBay and she'd get it for me. Well the first card that I saw was for the above 2011 Heritage stamp card numbered out of 62. It was a BIN with a price slightly higher than the completed auctions for the same card although the seller was offering free worldwide shipping so taking that into account it actually worked out cheaper than most of the completed listings. This marks my first Lind of 2011. Its actually a pretty cool looking card. The borders are very bright in person and the stamps are placed behind plastic to stop any wear and tear. I believe each player in the Heritage stamp set has two different cards two different cards so I'll need to keep my open for the other one.

That's it for now. I hope to post again very soon.

Still kicking

Just a quick update to show that I'm still keeping the blog active.
I haven't been able to blog due to some family problems this past few months.
I have a few packages that I also need to send out. They have been waiting on my table since the middle of February but I just haven't had the time to get to the post office. Luckily they aren't trades otherwise I'm sure I would have pissed a few people off by now!
I hope that I'm able to be much more active in the next month or so. At least I hope to be able to respond to some emails that I have gotten and even log into some of the forums.

2011 Topps retail box break part 2

Heres the second part of my break, for the first part follow this link.


I'll do a full recap at the end of this post of everything that I pulled.

This is the Topps 60 insert set. I pulled a Strasburg and a Heyward. Really nice looking cards. At the top of each card its says a little bit about what the player has achieved. For example the Heyward says 'Walks by a 2010 rookie', then on the back of the card it gives the top ten players who would qualify for most walks.

Two more insert sets that I pulled were the Diamond Duos featuring two players on each card and also I pulled a history of Topps card. This card makes note that Topps set the standard size of a card in 1957. Pretty boring actually.

The final inserts that I pulled are probably my favourites out of everything else that I pulled. The top row of cards are vintage reproductions using famous cards from many different brands.

From left to right we have - George Sisler on a 1921 Caramel card, Jackie Robinson on a 1949 Bowman, Jimmie Foxx on a 1935 Diamond Stars and at the end the Babe Ruth RC featuring him as a pitcher in a Sox uni. The card is a 1916 Sporting News.

I love these cards because they showcase some of the designs that were used over the years plus the back gives information on the set.

The bottom set of inserts are the Kimball Champion cards... and their minis! I pulled some nice cards from this set including Ichiro and Jeter. They were very close to being my favourites of the entire box BUT each back is exactly the same! The backs are just a checklist of the set. Theres no stats, no pointless bit of trivia, just a list of players. Boring.

Oh and I pulled this too. A Derek Lee GU jersey. I was not expecting any hits in this box and only bought it for the Giants cards and inserts but this sucker showed up in one of the last packs that I opened so it rounded off the break nicely. Its not a great pull but when you consider it was a retail box and the odds for a GU is 1:96 packs its pretty cool.

All in all at was alot of fun. Everything you've seen is for trade (apart from a few bits and pieces). Here is a full list of everything that I pulled:

Base - 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 36, 39, 40, 43, 44, 49, 54, 55, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 88, 90, 9192, 93, 95, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122, 124, 125, 126, 129, 130, 131, 133, 134, 135, 140, 142, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155, 157, 158, 162, 163, 166, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 180, 182, 189, 190, 191, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 208, 209, 213, 217, 219, 220, 223, 224, 227, 229, 230, 232, 234, 236, 237, 240, 242, 243, 245, 247, 249, 252, 254, 255, 257, 258, 260, 262, 263, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 275, 276, 277, 279, 281, 282, 283, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 292, 293, 295, 296, 297, 301, 302, 304, 305, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 316, 318, 322, 324, 325, 326, 327, 329, 330.

The Lost Cards - 1954 Mickey Mantle, 1957 Stan Musial.

Gold Cards /2011 - 77, 181.

Diamond Giveaway x2

60 Years of Topps - Phil Rizzuto, Bo Jackson, Rod Carew, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks, Bernie Williams, Bob Gibson.

60 Years of Topps Original back - Tony Gwynn.

Platinum Diamond Anniversary - 22, 48, 86, 266, 271.

ToppsTown - 24 of them. If you need a list let me know.

Topps 60 - Jason Heyward, Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, Ike Davis, Mat Latos, Josh Hamilton, Neftali Feliz.

Diamond Duos - BW, BY, GT, HHO, TR, VG.

History of Topps - Topps sets the card size standered.

Vintage Reproductions - Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Jimmie Foxx, George Sisler.

Kimball Champion minis - 1 Ubaldo Jimenez, 2 Derek Jeter, 10 Ichiro, 33 Martin Prado, 38 Roy Oswalt, 48 Justin Upton.

Topps 60 GU - Derek Lee.