Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Pullskies!

I told myself I wasn't going to do it...

I told myself save your money for when new stuff comes out (Archives and Gypsy Queen) and stop buying Series 1 already.  You're not going to build the set and you damn sure aren't getting any nice hits out of it.

But I did...

I had a bit of a bummer day earlier today and I needed a pick me up.  I had a half day at work so when it was time for me to roll out I went to my local card shop in Parkville and decided to pick up 6 packs of 2011 Topps Lineage.  I really liked the set and nothing else interested me.  I didn't really care... I just needed to bust some packs.

After I picked up the cards I went to the Charcoal Grill next door and got a Pit Beef Sandwich with extra BBQ sauce and a Coke.  It was exactly what I needed.

I went back and parked in the Hobby Store lot and rolled down the window.  It was a gorgeous day in Maryland... Mid 50's, no wind, and complete sunshine.  I had our local sports talk radio show on and they were debating the Orioles and how bad we are likely to be.

I could feel it just on the tips of my fingers.  I had Baseball cards, I had BBQ, the air was thick with the smell of Pit Beef from the stand next door and the Sun was shining so bright that it made it feel 10 degrees warmer when it was on your skin.

Baseball season is just around the corner...

So with my senses alive I grabbed the packs of cards and began to open them carefully pack by pack looking for a thrill.  It's almost like a game. 

Sure I enjoy buying a box of cards knowing I'm going to get my Pulls, but their is something about buying a few packs out of the box and grabbing the hit. 

The luck of the draw if you will.

So with more then half the box left I grabbed the 6 packs I thought best and wished my self good luck.

I pulled it out of the fourth pack and it has a BV of $30.  I only paid $20 for the packs.

HOF Pullskies...

2011 Topps Lineage 1952 Autograph Reprint Monte Irvin RA-MI

Monte Irvin is a HOF Left fielder and was part of the first All Black Outfield with Willie Mays and Hank Thompson in 1951.  He was an All Star in 1952 and won a World Series in 1954 with the New York Giants.  He was inducted in to the Hall of Fame based on both his Negro League and Major League career in 1973.  Monte also served in World War II from 1943-1945.  Check out the back of this card as well.


Needless to say this is the type of card that is right up my alley and will fit perfectly with my collection.  A great day for pulls... maybe you should go out and drop a ten spot and see what happens.

Until next time...




Monday, February 27, 2012

Spring Trading

Man, that happened fast.

I'm at it for less then two weeks and I've already pulled off my first trade.

My new friend Greg or "plaschkethysweaterisargyle" hit me up looking to see if I would deal my Longoria card.  I told him I'd take a look at what he might offer and found out he liked the Dodgers and more specifically Clayton Kershaw.

I ended up hanging on to the Longoria card and instead we came up with a trade for basically two Kershaw cards and a Podres auto.

First and foremost I should put it out there that I liked these cards very much and am proud of myself for letting them go to a collector who will appreciate them more then I already have... and that's a lot.

So much so that I've decided to make my first addition to...

(1950's SciFi Narrator voice)

THE LOST CARDS FILE

First up is the hardest one to let go of.

2010 Topps T206 Johnny Podres Mini Framed American Caramel Auto


I know its a sticker auto but I just thought it was a really good looking card.  Excellent design. Check out the back...


Like I said... I'm sad to let this one go and will now put it in The Lost Cards File.

The Clayton Kershaw cards are hard because of the fact that the kids a stud and these cards will only go up in value if he has a hall worthy career.  Check them out below.  They too are new inductees to The Lost Cards File.

2010 Topps Tribute Auto Relic Clayton Kershaw CK4

(sorry about the glare)

2011 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Jersey Relic


(yeah I know... the glare.  Sorry)

Both cards are nice and I wouldn't mind having them back in the collection either. 

I'm also throwing in an Andre Either 2011 Marquee base and a Bowman Sterling Josh Lindblom prospect auto that he already had but could likely find a better home for it as I didn't much care for it.  Heres a shot of it in the group.


At this point in the post you might expect me to tell you what I'm going to get in return but I think I'm going to hold out and wait until I get the cards in the mail.  Look out for the post "MAIL DAY".

Until next time...

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Treasure hunting and Wall art.


Ever get that incredible pull that seems to good to be true? The kind of pull that feels like a true piece of art work that deserves to be displayed for all to adore?

Well I haven't!  But I'm still questing for it!

Don't get me wrong... I have a lot of nice cards and some of them are just too good to stick away in the card catalog.  Since I'm still working on the Cave I won't show it off at all but I do have a couple of interesting things on the walls already that I'd like to share in case anyone else gets inspired.

Treasure hunting... Is it safe to say we all do it?  I know I do.  I find myself stopping by the Goodwill or Salvation Army from time to time looking at the shelves and in the cases for some discarded baseball cards or other items that I might find for a steal.

Not too long ago I stopped in the local Goodwill down the road from my house and was looking for such a find.  I wasn't there for any particular reason and was just looking around when I came across something that really caught my eye.

It was an old Baseball board game from the early 1950's and all it was was the actual game board itself with out any of its game pieces.  Here is an example of the game itself with its original box that I found online.


This is what I picked up.

When I first saw it I thought it looked really unique and had never really seen anything like it.  It's big in person and stands about 4 feet tall.  I knew instantly that It'd be perfect for displaying some of my nicer cards.  I didn't see the price at first but when I turned it on its back I saw a small little 5 written in the corner.

$5? That's all? Of course I had to buy it!

I took it home and pulled out some of the nicer cards I had in my collection and began the debate of which cards I should display.  I decided that I'd try and pick an All Star for each position and with the exception of Short Stop I managed to do a very nice job.  Here is the final product below as it is hung on my wall.


You might notice that there appears to be more cards then your standard 9 positions on a baseball diamond.  At the very top of the game board I decided to put in a bull pen and those cards are mainly my nicest super star pitcher hits.  In the field of play I decided to put a couple of cards in the on deck circles as well as on the bench which I decided would be the bottom corners of the game board.


Here is a close up of the infield.  Pujols relic card at 1st with a dual relic auto of Dustin Pedroia at 2nd.  SS is an Inglesias auto of the Red Sox for now as he happens to be the best current SS card I have. From what I hear he is the future full time SS for the Red Sox.  My case hit Longoria is on 3rd and I have "The Freak" on the mound Tim Lincecum jersey card.  Behind the plate is a dual relic of my all time favorite catcher and boy hood hero Ivan Rodriguez.  In the Batters Boxes I have a dual relic Ryan Howard and Chipper Jones Jersey card.  On the bench I have a Gary Sheffield and Delmon Young combo relic card as well as the "Flying Panda", Giants catcher Pablo Sandoval auto.


This close up of the outfield shows Ichiro in Right, Hunter in Center, and a sick patches Braun in Left.  In the bull pen is a CC jersey, Smoltz jersey, Cliff Lee All Star jersey, and my favorites Neftali Feliz rookie auto and Kershaw relic auto!


Here is a nice close up of that nasty Ryan Braun patch card. 



Of course not everyone can find a nice little item like this and for those of you who are thinking that I have an answer for you as well!


I also started trying out other methods of displaying some of my nicer cards and I recently put this together for the Cave.


All this is is a record frame I picked up from Target for $10.  Framed are some nice cards that aren't top of line but still have a value of $10 or more.  In the middle is a 1/1 printing plate of Michael Young and a 1/1 Sketch card of Adrian Gonzales.  Combined in this frame is over $125 worth of cards. 

Now that's what I call pricey wall art!

Until next time...



Friday, February 24, 2012

Do you see what I see???

Does anyone else see and American Flag in my beer suds?  This delicious draft is Fat Tire and is some of the best beer I've tasted and apparently it's damn patriotic too!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Finally Organized

A while back I had this great idea to take care of my collection.  I would find an old library card catalog and organize my cards (in dewey decimal order of course).  Some people thought me crazy... but I knew what I was doing. 

This past summer my wife and I bought our first home together and with it came a partially finished basement with wood paneled walls and orange carpet.  I swear to you that when I stepped in to that room the walls screamed out my name as if they had been waiting there whole crazy wall lives for me to arrive.  This would be my "Man Cave" and finally I had a place to properly display everything I've been collecting since the age of 8.  Thats 19 years of junk people and thats a lot of junk. 

Since I finally had a place to house my collection it was time to get serious about getting it all organized.  I had told my in-laws about this idea to organize my cards in a library card catalog in some random conversation when I first thought about it and my mother-in-law happens to be the kind of lady who remembers these random conversations!

Through her work she met a gentleman who worked for the Oxford Library and she had told him about my need and he told her she could take one for a donation to the Library.  He didn't put a price on it and i'm not sure how much they decided to contribute but before I knew it they were pulling up in front of our new home with a giant card catalog in the back of there pick up. 


It was a sight of beauty and was the proper motivation I needed to get it all organized.  The task was monumental... 1000's and 1000's of cards mixed together in such a manor that I literally had to look at every single card I own.  I realized I have a lot of junk and a lot of duplicates.  I basically organized everything by company and year and my next job is to inventory each drawer individually, put them in numeric order, and remove any duplicates. 

Check out the final product...

This particular drawer is dedicated to relic cards

 and next to that is the autograph drawer

examples of how the drawers are organized for now with post it dividers from set to set or year to year.

For now all of the drawers are labeled hand written on loose paper, but my awesome wife got me a label maker to properly label each drawer.

Even sweeter then all of that is the fact that my wife lost a bet to me in the AFC playoffs and now has to label them for me... not sure what I'd do with out her!

Once the Cave is completely finished I'll post pictures of the final product.  We're still a couple months away.

Untill next time...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Sick Pullskies

Okay... so I did splurge the other day and bought this pack of 2011 Topps Marquee baseball.  I only got a mini box and for those of you who don't know about this product its only one pack per mini box with 5 cards a pack and a garaunteed hit.

I know some people didn't like this stuff very much and prices tanked a little in Beckett recently, but i've gotten a few nice cards and think its worth the gamble.

The hit I pulled was serial numbered 6/10 Titanic Threads of Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins.  For those of you who don't know about Fergie he just happens to be the greatest Canadian hurler ever!

This card is SICK!  A huge jumbo swatch of a jersey from early in his career when he was with the Chicago Cubs.  What makes this card so sick is the swatch is actually a repair job from back in the days when ball players didn't get a new uniform every week.  Check out the pics below and let me know if you think its as sick as I do.



Christmas Pullskies

Being a Baseball card collector can be difficult at times because it just isn't easy to justify spending over $100 on a box of cardboard, especially if you're married.  Before I got hitched it wasn't a big deal to go blow money on cards, now I have to answer and account for all of that activity.  So as a result I rarely splurge and buy boxes of cards and settle for the occasional $20 trip to the hobby store.

Since I can no longer spend that kind of money guilt free I ask for boxes of cards for special occasions.  Christmas of course falls in to that category and I was handsomely rewarded this past year with a box of 2011 Topps Lineage and a box of 2011 Topps Tier 1.

The Lineage was awesome and was one of my favorite products for 2011.  I really enjoyed them, and the Tier 1 gave me a chance at some nice cards for a great price.

Here is a picture of the hits I pulled on Christmas


The hits from 2011 Lineage were the Michael Morse on card Auto, The Ichiro Mini relic (love this card) and the Matt Batts Auto redemption.

The hits from 2011 Tier 1 were the Eric Thames Auto (meh...) the Jimmie Foxx Bat Card (over the top for that one. Love to collect MD natives) and that Evan Longoria on card Auto was a Case Hit!  My Sweety did great!

The Matt Batts Auto came in the mail the other day and is pictured below.  He was generally a back up catcher most of his career but did play a whole season for Detriot one year.  Catcher is by far my most favorite position and I do have a nice little Catcher collection.  Its a great addition and beautiful card!



Monday, February 20, 2012

So I've been at it for only 24 hrs and I've already got a little positive feedback so I'm excited to continue with this.  I just added a new page which will detail some cards I'm willing to Trade.

GASP...

Trade!?!  But, didn't you just call your self a hoarder???

Too true Woog...

I guess as long as I'm not selling my collection whats the big deal?  Cardboard for cardboard is A Okay with this guy!

So with that being said I will soon update the Trade Bait page to detail the cards I can part with.

Remember people... I'm looking for the Lost Cards.  I'll basically hear any offers but if you have one of the missing I'm ready to make deals.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

New Favorite Card




2010 Topps T-206 Mini Booklet Dual Relic Babe Ruth Mickey Mantle

The Lost Cards File. My First Post

I've been collecting since the age of 8 when my Dad bought my brother and I a box of random junk wax from the 80s for a bargin price I'm sure.  The box was filled with some stars but mostly no namers and a few topps team stickers that made the whole thing worth it at the time.  It felt like our own personal baseball treasure.  Eventually my brothers enthusiasm wanned, but mine didn't.  Nearly 20 years later and I'm finally starting a blog about it.  Aside from a few bad trades when I was younger (a Griffey Jr. rookie for a Todd Hundley collection... I got had.) I pretty much kept every card I ever came across. 

Eventually the time would come when I had to part with some of my cards.  I had just gotten married and my wife and I had been stretched pretty thin and we didn't know how we were going to pay some of our bills.  Well I guess thats why i've been collecting cards all this dang time so it was time for them to save the day.  I basically sold my best cards for a fraction of there value but got enough to pay those bills and keep us a float. 

My wife and I are doing great now and my collection has never been better really.  However, I really do miss the cards I lost and hope to get them back one day.  Hence the name of the blog... The Lost Cards File.  Below is a chronicle of the cards I sold and a little discription about each one.  If you have any and you'd like to offer a trade or sale I'm interested.  Here they are...

My Best Retail Pull (at time of sale)
2007 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs
Brooks Robinson ROA-BR

I pulled that card from a blaster box at Target for $20.  At last check the BV was $120

This would be my first Mail Day Cards. 1994 Nabisco All Star Legends Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer.  I was 10 years old cutting out UPCs to get these bad boys and was over the top when they came in the mail.


The next one is one of my biggest collecting thrills to date.  I walked in to my local shop during a lunch break at work and saw they had the 2000 Fleer Updates boxes for $20.  Turns out they lost these when they first came out and had just found them and priced them to move.  1 out of every 80 Boxes had a Mantle Pieces Card.  There was 5 on the shelf and I went for the middle one.  I paid up and went to the car and as soon as I shut my door I was cracking it open.  I was guaranteed the Johan Santana Rookie that was BV $15 so I didn't have much to lose.  When I pulled back the box lid I saw a tiny sliver of silver in the midst of all this grey cardboard.  Low and behold...

Mickey Mantle Fleer Tradition MP1

As I've gotten older there are few people I know who will relate to my card collecting habits.  I actually rubbed off on my cousin and he began to collect hockey cards.  He's a huge Pittsburg fan but I don't hold that against him.  So I took a road trip from Baltimore to Indiana, PA and we hit up his local shop.  I picked up a tin pack of 2009 Sweet Spots Baseball and pulled a card that was the gem of my collection untill I sold it.  It will be forever known as the Best Road Trip Pull.
2009 Sweet Spots Signatures Derek Jeter S-DJ ($200 BV)


This next card I would call my best Bargin Bin Find.  This card came out of a $10 mystery pack at Walmart.  A box of mostly bad 80's wax and a 1 in 4 chance of an autograph.  I opened my box and saw a little brown envelope and knew I hit an autograph.  I had expected a garbage prospect card of a no name player and was happily surprised with this.

1993 Ted Williams Collection Brooks Robinson BR3

The rest of the cards below made up my entire offer and helped me get enough cash to pay off some bills.  They were good cards but had no special attachment to me aside from the fact that I have a hard time parting with any baseball card.

(Not exact, mine spelled "Steady" his nickname.)
2008 Topps Triple Threads TTR-69 22/27

(Mine was not graded)
 1997 Donruss Signature Frank Robinson 1668/2000

2003 UD Sweet Spot Cal Ripken Jr. SJ-CR


(Mine was not this patch version, Black swatch Ripken, White swatch seam Murray)
2008 Sweet Spot Cal Ripken Jr. Eddie Murray Dual Jersey DS-RM

2002 Topps Archive Reserve Brooks Robinson TRR-BR

2006 Fleer Greats of the Game Steve Carlton 86-AU

2005 Topps All Time Fan Favorites Juan Marichal FFA-JMA

And this concludes the Lost Cards File and my first post.  I'll check back with some other stuff I'd like to talk about and hope someone out there reads this and likes it.