READER CONTEST

As many of you know, it isn't always easy being a baseball card collector (or any sport card collector) when you happen to be over the age of 12.  When I first got in to collecting it was because my sister, who was a couple grades ahead of me, absolutely had to have baseball cards to trade at lunch because it had suddenly become the latest fad at school.

I was in third grade at the time and knew already that I would one day be the everyday backstop for the Baltimore Orioles.  For reasons still unknown to me, I always wanted to be a catcher going back to my days playing tee ball. 

Do you understand how odd that statement is?  A catcher in tee ball... not like I was actually doing any real catching, but I can still pull out my first little league baseball card and see my position on the back listed as catcher.

So being a sure thing for the Orioles I naturally was interested when my sister asked my father for some baseball cards.  My father likely assumed my sisters interest would last as long as the fad did (a few weeks as I recall) and bought this giant box of cards for her to share with my brother and I.  My sister quickly left the cards to me and my brother, and since he never really liked baseball as much as I did, I soon found myself the proud owner of a giant box of cards.

To this day I still own at least 90% of those cards.  A ton of junk wax from the late 80's. 

So needless to say I never made the Orioles let alone the freshman team in high school, but I did stick with collecting cards.  I never really had a problem as a collector until I started getting nicer cards and needed to share the excitement... but all I ever got back were blank stares. 

That is until one day my cousin Adam got a load of my collection and being the kick ass man that he is instantly understood my passion. 

He caught the bug and started his own collection of hockey cards.  Although I didn't collect hockey and he didn't collect baseball we still both could appreciate amazing pulls and finally I had someone I could go to when I needed to get the reaction a big pull deserved.

So Adam is a HUGE Pittsburgh fan and of course I am a Baltimore fan and we love to talk smack and enjoy the rivalry our two cities share.  For the last 4 or 5 years we've put a wager of cards on the winner of the Ravens v Steelers game.  This year we split so we each got each other some cards.

Traditionally we bought packs, but this year we both decided to pick up some relic cards.  He picked me up 3 nice cards and I got him 1 very nice card.

Here is the card my cousin claimed in this years bet!

 

2011 Panini Luxury Suite Sydney Crosby dual relic. Numbered 19/20.

 

I know... sick card... right!?

 

Check out the cards I got in return!

 

2004 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Rafael Palmeiro bat/jersey relic 240/250.

 

First up is a dual relic of Rafael Palmeiro.  This is actually my relic card of Raf, and despite his legendary denial in front of congress and subsequent failed drug test, is still one of my favorite Orioles and a Hall of Famer in my book.

 

PERIOD!

 

The next two cards are great additions to my collection, but are both Pittsburgh cards.  Obviously my cousins little jab at the rivalry.

 

First up...

 

 

2004 Donruss Elite rookie auto of Neil Walker 28/100.  Walker is a budding star with the Pirates and after playing every position but pitcher for the Pirates found his calling at second base.

 

The real gem of the three cards was this bad boy...

2008 Donruss Sports Legends Roberto Clemente bat relic card 32/250.

 

This would be my second Clemente card and is an amazing addition to my collection.

 

So I know what you're thinking... where the hell is the contest!?!

 

My cousin didn't realize it at the time, but Roberto Clemente and Neil Walker actually share a unique bond that no other Pittsburgh Pirate shares.

 

If you can tell me what these two guys have in common you win my contest!

 

First person to answer correctly gets a prize.

 

Stay tuned for my follow up post detailing the winner in "Christmas Pulls part 3"

 

Yup... still detailing the holiday pulls.

 

Till next time

 

Thanks for reading

 

 

 

BREAKING NEWS!!!

My wife and I are going public...

We're having a baby girl!

I will do my best to raise a spoiled rotten little brat who I will never be able to say "no" to.

More importantly...

An Orioles Fan...

Christmas Pulls Part Deux

And I'm back!  In our last installment I told you of the riveting story of my Pete Rose autograph that wasn't and then was.  Thank goodness for good customer service!

In the timeline of pulls the Pete Rose autograph came last, but actually should've come first.  So moving forward my next batch of pulls came from a box of 2012 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Box.  I pulled some nice cards, but no Bryce Harper rookies...  In fact this whole year I hadn't pulled a single one of them.  So here is what I did pull...

A.J. Burnett Golden Moments jersey card (slightly frayed)

 

World Series Pin of Bill Mazeroski. I like this card alot since the 1960 World Series is the series in which he hit a Walk Off Home Run in Game 7 against those gawd damned Yankees.

 

Lastly a Golden Moments autograph of Alexi Rameriez.

Thrilling...

 

A couple weeks after I busted that box I found myself at my parents house for Christmas eve.  I had asked my parents to get me a box of cards and while they have in the past, they declined this year and instead got me a nice dress jacket instead for work.

 

I loved the jacket and all but on a side note...

 

Clothing for work is just not a great Christmas present.  My job requires me to wear a suit everyday, so I will buy these items out of necessity.  Getting those items for a Christmas and or Birthday present is the equivalent of giving a kid his school uniform for his big gift.

 

So now that I sound like a rotten spoiled jerk I'll reiterate that I loved the jacket!

 

I did get a gift card for $25 to Amazon with a little note that said "for the perfect baseball card" from the parents so all was not lost.

 

So I hit the internets and decided to try and sift through pages and pages of single cards for sale on Amazon to come up with my perfect card.  I decided I needed a HOF player I didn't have a relic card of, it had to cost less than book value, and preferably a jersey card over a bat card.

 

Here is what I came up with!

 

 

I went with Stan because (as previously posted) I discovered through a baseball card that he actually served in the Navy during World War II and was stationed in my hometown of Port Deposit, MD.  This card is now even more special to me with the passing of Stan this past Saturday.

 

My day was already crushed early on when I found out that the Earl of Baltimore, that is, the great Earl Weaver passed away passed away early Saturday morning.  So when I found out that Stan Musial passed away the same day I decided to crush a few cold ones and howl at the moon.

 

So with that I'll end this post and will do part 3 soon!

 

Rest in Peace Earl and Stan.

 

Till next time

 

Stan Musial (in Bainbridge uniform) 1920-2013

Earl Weaver "The Earl of Baltimore" 1930-2013

 

 

 

 

It's getting hot in here!

Whoooaaa... What a ride!

My Baltimore Ravens are going for the Super Bowl title for the one and only Ray Lewis' last game!

What a year for Baltimore fans!  Let's just hope the Orioles can follow up the same way the Ravens did this year!  Dammmnnn it feels good to be a Baltimore fan!!!!!

Christmas Pulls Part 1

 

So I wrote on New Years Day that I'd post something soon, and low and behold today is the 17th and I was totally like...

FUUUGGGGG!!!!

I haven't posted anything in a while!  So I decided early on today that I would get my act together and post.  Must've been something in the stars or my coffee because when I came home I had a sweet little envelope in the mail box.

So i'll start with that little adventure.

Back in December my boss had hooked up all the managers in his area with a nice little $25 giftcard and took us out to breakfast.  It wasn't a big deal nor was it expected and I really didn't know what I'd want to pick up with the gift card. 

I had a feeling that compared to the Christmas before I was in for a smaller year when it came to baseball cards.

Not complaining of course... just that last Christmas was a big year with big pulls and this past Christmas I'd have been foolish to expect the same luck. 

So I decided that I'd have a go at picking up some gaurunteed hits and ensure myself some nice additions to the collection.  Or so I thought...

The gift card would go towards 2012 Leaf Pete Rose The Living Legend Baseball cards.  Each box garaunteed an autograph or redemption for a relic autograph.

 

 

 

However when I opened my box and packs I got NO such hit.  Naturally I was slightly crest fallen, but decided to just get ahold of customer service and see if I couldn't get it straightened out.  Now, I knew Leaf had been bought out by someone else but beyond that hadn't dealt much with them.  So I was surprised to find that they didn't have a customer service department like Topps.  No email communication, just a phone number.  When I called said phone number I got a specific person and her voicemail.  Not a good feeling to be honest.  But I left a message anyway with my situation and thought this would be a lost cause. 

 

However I got a call back about a week later from that young lady and we spoke about the box and she asked if it had the original packaging and all that.  I informed her I'd been collecting for a while and felt like I didn't buy a box that had been tampered with and she told me to just go ahead and send in the UPC and serial number from the box and she would get me my card. 

 

I was very impressed.  I went in to this thinking it was a long shot to get my replacement and I was wrong.  This just goes to show that the smaller companies do just a good job, if not better (i'm talking to you Topps!  10 Months to send me that friggin Sketch Card!).  Here is my new Pete Rose Auto.... A welcome addition since I had recently traded away the other one from my collection.

 

 

I really like the card and the candid photo of Pete reading what I assume is the sports section.  Most likely checking up on the scores for games he had bet on the night before, lol.  Still a HOF in my book.

 

WOOGIES NOTE:  So I started writing this a few days ago but found trouble uploading photos, but my brilliant wife discovered if I switched from Compose format to HTML format that I could upload photos that way.  Its a pain in the a$$.  So I'm going to break this post up.

 

I hope you enjoyed my Pete Rose update and stay tuned for the Christmas Pulls.

 

Sad day...

First Earl Weaver and now Stan Musial...

and I still can't upload pics on this damn blog.

I'm just going to crush a beer and go howl at the moon...

Good Night

Help...

I'm trying to write a new post and I can't...  well I can, but blogger isn't allowing me to upload pictures.  Is this a thing for anyone else or is it just me?  Who the hell wants to read my blog if I don't have pictures?  I sure as heck don't wanna write with out them. 

Anyone got any advice or knowledge of the problem?

Happy New Year

Indeed... A Happy New Year to you all!

I spent my day off today cleaning up and putting away all the Christmas decorations and my home is once again back to normal and in good order.

I had a good holiday and came up with some excellent additions to the collection!  Some with interesting tales to go along. 

I will soon be posting what I got this holiday and will either do one long post or a two parter.  I would have got cracking tonight, but my phone needs to be charged and I haven't taken any proper photos of what I have to display.

So you've got that to look forward to anyway.

I would like to discuss my New Years Resolution though...

As a collector that is.  (The real one is to lose weight... fat chance)

It is a task I've been dreading for a few years but with all the new product and future new product I am bound to get it has got to be done...

The Dreaded Inventory!

That's right... that damn card catalog is about 85% filled and I need to inventory it all.  I'm at least ahead of the curve in the fact that it is mostly separated by company, year, and set.  However, I haven't a clue for the most part of what I have.  Who knows... maybe I'll find some killer SP cards that I didn't even know I had.

Only one way to find out... and that's my resolution!

(so you can look forward to those posts as well... gripping, I know)

Until Next Time

HAPPY NEW YEAR!