A Case for Charity

2013 is shaping up to be a very big year for yours truly.  I recently got a promotion at work and the wife and I are preparing to have our first child in May.  Needless to say that I will soon be very short on personal time and realize that I no longer have the ability to purchase new product the way I would love to.

So I've decided to scratch that classic itch another way.

A more productive way.

Frankly this first part I'm actually dreading, but I know in my heart of hearts is a necessary evil.

Inventory.

Yup.  I plan to finally get the ball rolling and go through every drawer in the catalog as well as every box of cards not in said catalog and not only will I sort them in order by set, year, and number, but I will also be removing all duplicate cards from my collection so that I only have one of each card in my collection.

This will in turn create much more room in my card catalog for new product that I will no doubt acquire over the rest of my life, but also allows me to finally kick the tires on an idea I've had for years.

My own charity.  Sort of...

I've had this idea for a while that I would take all of my duplicate cards and organize them in to grab bags of sorts to be donated to children in need.  I've even got a name for my charity.

Karing with Kards.  Naturally I have a logo made up with a K and a backwards K that together form a diamond in between them that resembles a baseball diamond.  Instead of a pitchers mound there is a small "w" and thus completes the Karing with Kards logo.

By no means do I believe this is an original idea and if I can contribute to someone else' venture then that would be much easier for me I'm sure.  Please hit me up with any suggestions and if you are so moved I'm also willing to start taking donations to give away with my own personal cards. 

Anywho... stay tuned for updates on that and my inventory progress.  I'll let you know if I make any pulls, but don't waste away waiting for something awesome. 

Thanks for reading!

Pullskies III (Th'as Roman for 3 sucka!)

Yes Friends!  I'm back! 

And I'm ready to write!  Buckle up your reading glasses and grab a Coca-Cola and get ready to.... read.  Aaaaa llllloooooottttt....

First thing I gotts to hit on are my Baltimore Ravens.

Super Bowl Champions!  Last time I got to say that I was a 10th grade JV Football Stud and Football was my universe (yes... a brief time in my life where baseball cards took a back seat to playing sports and chasing girls).

Life was Glorious... I was young, popular, didn't have a lick of responsibility, and the Ravens won the Superbowl... and they did it before those no good, leaving in the middle of the night, Indianapolis Colts did since leaving Baltimore.

Fast forward 12 years

30% of my hair has turned stark white, popularity means nothing, and I have waaaayyy too much damned responsibility.

But the Ravens are Champions... and life is still Glorious.

I may never in my life enjoy or witness another season where I see the Orioles in the playoffs and the Ravens win a Championship...

Here's to hoping the Orioles can win the Series and make Baltimore Title Town for 2013.

Moving on...

Recently I had my second reader contest and asked my loyal fan base to tell me what connection Roberto Clemente and Neil Walker share that no other Pirates player in history shares.

The answer was they're the only two Pirates to ever hit a Grand Slam on Opening Day.  An amazing feat considering they've been around since 1901.  

Steve, a reader of blogs, but writer of non, won my contest.  We emailed back and forth a couple times and I found out that Steve is a Mets fan.  Steve told me he'd been reading my stuff since last Spring... it was cool to interact with someone who was kind of anonymous in that way.  I just assumed most people who read my blog had they're own blog.  Anyways... here is what I hooked Steve up with from my collection.

2012 Topps Archives Ed Kranepool Auto.

I assume this would be a good card for a Mets fan since Kranepool was a lifer for the Mets, won the 69 World Series, and is a member of the teams HOF.

 

It's a free auto... I'm sure he'll like it!

 

Thanks again Steve

 

 

Today is February 11th and I'm finally getting around to posting what I actually pulled on Christmas Day!  Hence the title of this post Pullskies III.  So let's just dive right in to it. 

 

In years past I was lucky enough to get a couple high end boxes with some mid range boxes, but was not the case this year.  I instead got a couple of mid range boxes and was plenty happy about it.

 

The first box I opened was another 2011 Topps Lineage.  While I have at least two complete base set I did get at least a dozen more insert cards that I needed towards the master set.  If I didn't already update that list I will soon and I've slacked on the project recently.  Honestly I know I'll complete it someday, but would really like to knock out the mini relics.  I'm just about half way there with those!  Anywho... here's what I pulled to from that box.

 

 

 

Another John Buck and Pablo Sandoval auto.  Happy to have a duplicate on the Sandoval auto but that's definitely the 3rd John Buck auto I pulled and it's not like I bought 30 boxes... I didn't even get 10.  Oh well... I already gave one away to my co-worker.  These are both available for trade.

 

I did get a mini relic I needed though.

 

 

So this card with at least 16 different insert cards made this box a victory for me!

 

Next up under the tree was a box of 2012 Topps Heritage.

 

Obviously this is just a fun set to try and build and I enjoyed opening it up.  I even pulled a Chris Carpenter photo variation and was stoked when I pulled this little gem.

 

2012 Topps Heritage Josh Hamilton Clubhouse Collection bat card.

 

This would be my first Hamilton relic card.

 

Before I got this box for Christmas I picked up a few packs and was lucky to also pull this card...

 

Cliff Lee Clubhouse Collection jersey card

 

and since I'm posting pulls I made forever ago here is another card I got when I picked up some 2012 Topps Heritage Minors cards

 

Joe Testa is a minor league pitcher who I doubt will ever sniff the majors.  In 5 seasons he has yet to crack AAA.  At least he has a baseball card... a nice looking one at that.

Good job Joe.

 

THIS JUST IN

 

I was going to finish this post off with my weekend in Philly, but alas I'll leave it for another day.  Apparently I ran out of file space and couldn't post.

 

So with that I'll say good night.  Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Topps Golden Giveaway mini post

As promised I will be making my final post about what I pulled over the previous holiday...

Once that one gets posted I will hopefully be making some pulls if the wifey decides to get me some packs or dare I say a box for Valentines Day.  Here's to hoping!  The hint hath been dropped. 

However I wanted to just post a quickie about the 2012 Topps Golden Giveaway.

In all the codes I redeemed I pulled 2 virtual cards.  The first one I pulled was kind of a big pull as I consistently got around 60 trade offers for it.  Check it out!

 

Obviously a popular player to collect and naturally I declined all offers and have since redeemed it for shipment.

 

The second card I pulled was a Ryan Howard diecut card.  This morning I went online (when I redeemed the Koufax) and saw that I still had around 60 trade offers, but of all the offers I had, only 2 were for Mr. Howard.  However, one of the 2 happened to be an offer for a Jim Palmer diecut. Trade accepted.

 

Aaaawwww Yeah!

 

 

BOOM

 

Redeemed!

 

I'll be showing these two bad boys off when they come in the mail. Based on my previous experience with Topps shipping cards I expect to get them say around Christmas, lol!

 

My next post will likely depend on the outcome of Superbowl Sunday.  If the Ravens win I'll be high on life and will take to the blog to celebrate... If we lose you may not see me for a week or two as I'll be crying myself to sleep every night.

 

When I do make it back I'll be detailing the last boxes I got for Christmas, any other random packs I've picked up and the cards I dealt to the winner of my reader contest!

 

GO RAVENS

 

Thanks for reading

 

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!!!!!