Mail!

The first few days of parenthood have gone relatively smoothly, and definitely better than expected. The wife has been a champ with late night feedings while dad has struggled to adjust to jumping out of bed after a two hour nap after 24 straight hours of being awake. But somehow, as soon as I pick up my son it’s all worth it.

So before I fall TOO behind in my posting, I better get out a mail/thank you post.

I’ve recently sent out a few TTM requests from various football players but they seem much slower and/or reluctant to return my cards than baseball players. Luckily for me, a nice padded envelope appeared in my mail box the other day that’ll tide me over until some of the requests (hopefully) come trickling in.

This particular piece of mail is courtesy of Alfredo of My Past Time… I Love It! He helped me cross a few more 2008 Upper Deck Heroes off my ‘need’ list, which I’ll post shortly. I’m now just six cards shy of the set! I suppose if nobody has any of ’em I’ll turn to checkoutmycards.com; trying to pull the remaining few from packs doesn’t seem like the efficient route to take. Of course, a few measly Heroes cards were not all that was inside the envelope!

There was a huge stack of recent (current, in most cases) Yanks:

Some older Yanks from my younger days of collecting:

A card of Luis Rivera shouting at a jheri-curled Yankee in mid air (ultra rare hand written variation)

I posted this card because I’m a good sport, but a fair warning to all: the next Anti-Yankees graffiti card I get in the mail WILL be harmed. Nobody wants to see a baseball card get cut/ripped/shredded, but I’ll do it if I have to.

And finally, there were some truly old cards from a couple years before I was born. Note that “truly” old, in my case, is late ’70s and early ’80s…

Thanks, Alfredo!

2008 Heroes – Need List

OK, blogosphere, I turn to you in one final desperate attempt to complete my set of 2009 Upper Deck Heroes (baseball) before turning to <gasp> checkoutmycards.com or ebay.  Or worse, spending even more money on another box or packs.  

I’m 16 cards away, thanks to poor luck on the collation from my retail box.  I’ve posted the numbers and the player name in an effort to make things as easy as possible for ya!  Any help is greatly appreciated and will of course be reciprocated. I’ve got TONS of Heroes doubles in case you’re collecting the set, too, and lots of other goodies.  I’ve got plenty of 2007 UD Masterpieces to spare, or I can always put together a “pack” of your favorite player or team!  Leave a comment if you’ve got anything off the list and I’ll get in touch with you (so long as you’ve left a valid email).  Thanks in advance!

• #7 – John Smoltz
• #20 – Jason Varitek
• #30 – Dustin Pedroia
• #47 – Ken Griffey, Jr.
• #54 – Travis Hafner
• #70 – Dan Uggla
• #72 – Josh Willingham
• #77 – Hunter Pence
• #101 – Joe Mauer
• #121 – Yogi Berra
• #135 – Chase Utley
• #140 – Freddy Sanchez
• #157 – Troy Glaus
• #165 – Carl Crawford
• #167 – Michael Young
• #200 – Pujols/Jeter/Fielder/Ortiz

About those football cards…

Remember a while back when I had an itch for football cards and I went on a mini-shopping spree? Me neither – the cards I pulled were certainly forgettable.  Every year, right around the time football kicks into high gear, I get an itch for pigskin cards that needs to be scratched, and this season was no different.

The only thing different about this year was that I wanted more than the standard retail offerings, but I had one problem:  I didn’t know what else was out there. Thankfully, Dave – who runs the terrific football card site First & Goal – held my hand and pointed me in the right direction.  In fact, head over to his site to see my thoughts on the whole football card buying process!!  Big thanks for allowing me to write a guest column.

The contents of the packs are below.  Nothing too fancy, and all are available for trade.

From 2008 Bowman I pulled one of the two hits in the box, a Signs of the Future autograph of Adrian Arrington. It’s a nice looking card, but too bad the guy hasn’t played a single snap in the NFL.  It’s saved by the fact that the Saints are my third favorite NFL team.  I figure since I don’t follow football too closely I can have as many allegiances as I want, right?

Of course, I couldn’t resist the football version of Upper Deck Heroes.  The football set is kinda strange, though.  There are three or four cards of each player, so the 220 card set only has 40 or so players.  So you feel like you’re pulling tons of doubles, but you’re really not.  Plus the back end of the base set conists of “Guitar Heroes”, most of whom I’ve never heard of since my musical preference is ’90s alternative.

Why are these in the set?  To capitalize on the popularity of the Guitar Hero line of video games?  I don’t get it.  These packs were saved by the two serial numbered cards:

At this point I figured I’d be better off with packs from the bargain bin.  From 2008 Score I pulled two inserts. a Red Hot Rookie Dwayne Bowe and a Gold Zone Jared Zabransky RC, serial numbered 102/600.  Zabransky was known more for his feats at Boise State and appearing on the cover of an NCAA Football game…

Also from 2008 Score, a card of a guy with his name taped to his helmet.  Go get my water, rook!

From 2009 Score, a sweet looking throwback design rookie card from 1989 Score!! It’s of Darrius Heyward-Bey, who will never amount to anything so long as JaMarcus Russell is throwing him the ball in Oakland.

And finally, a card I pulled from a pack of 2009 Topps Philadelphia, also a retro themed set.  I got this pack at Target on the way to the card shop.  It’s #NC49, is smaller than a typical card, and features a train.

With that, consider my football itch scratched.  I almost immediately regretted spending $30+ on football cards considering the only “hit” I pulled was of a crappy rookie.  O’well, there’s always next year.

2008 Upper Deck Heroes – retail box break

I purchased a retail box of 2008 Upper Deck Heroes in hopes of being able to complete the set with the missing pieces left after the hobby box.  I was sorely disappointed, as the retail box only netted six or seven of the missing cards.  Not good.  I’ve not got tons of doubles, so let me know if you’re also looking for missing pieces and I’ll send ’em your way!

I’m not going to scan any of the Yankee Stadium Legacy cards because most of you probably don’t care.  I swear these things are multiplying in my storage boxes, I’ve got so darned many of them.  I know they’re “inserts”, but they’re found so frequently across virtually all lines of Upper Deck’s products that it’s hard to get excited about pulling one.  Other than six too many YSL’s and only a few missing pieces, the box certainly could’ve been worse.

Chipper Jones/Ryan Braun/Miguel Cabrera, #’d 334/399:

Carl Crawford, #’d 38/199:

Kevin Youkilis, #’d 7/49:

Kelly Johnson, #’d 19/25:

Gary Sheffield, jersey relic:

Not bad for a retail box!  The low serial numbered cards certainly surprised me.  Anything you see is available for trade, although the Braun and Youkilis cards have already been sent away as parts of other packages.  I’ll post a Heroes “need”  list soon.

Mid week mail

It’s been a while since there’ve been any baseball cards in my mailbox.  I’ve got nobody to blame but myself since I’ve slowed up a bit with trades and TTM requests with the recent move and all.  Things should start returning to normal since we’re now mostly settled in the house and baseball card/guest room is nearly complete.  All that’s missing is a large piece for one remaining wall.  I’m holding out until I find the perfect vintage piece in an antique store.

In the mean time, I DID get a package in the mail from “M. Ryan” of The Ripken Pursuit.  He’s also behind Ryan’s Memorabilia… two plugs in one post!    Also, the “M” is for Matt.  I’ve always wanted to have a first intial, middle name type of monicker as they always sound so distinguished.  Not that there’s anything wrong with my own name, Joseph.  Heck, I like it enough to have named my soon-to-be first born son the same thing.  But if I were to abbreviate my name like this, it’d be “J. Walter”.  Kinda cool, right?

Anyhow, let’s see what the distinguished M. Ryan sent my way.

Two missing cards from my ’09 UD Heroes set.  15 more to go, I’ll get a want listed posted soon.

A Heroes insert from 2006 SP Authentic. I looooove me some Heroes:

Yankee Stadium Legacy.  These are starting to pile up in my collection.  I think I’m only 5,987 short of the complete set!

 

1996 Upper Deck Rock Solid Foundations, Derek Jeter.  Rock solid is right!  I’m getting a bit tired of hearing about Jeter being overrated.  He’s not.  Sure, the all-time Yankees hit record may not be the most glorious stat ever, but it’s an impressive list to be on top of.  He’ll blow through 3,000 hits and may even challenge 4,000.  That’s insane!  Compare him to other shortstops – offensively, he’s in rarified air.  And he’s not nearly as bad with the glove as people make him out to be.  There are definitely worse shortstops in the league.  This card is much shinier in real life:

2009 Topps Finest Mark Teixeira, blue refractor.  Back when I had more disposable income (re: before real-world bills, a house, and a kid on the way), I was a Finest junkie.  I’ve been sober for five years, until now.  Thanks, Matt, for the near relapse:

And finally, more assorted Yanks, all of which are greatly appreciated:

Thanks!!  Make sure to check out M.Ryan’s Ripken and Memorabilia sites (linked at top of post) – both are great reads!

Box Break – 2008 Upper Deck Heroes

I love 2008 Upper Deck Heroes baseball.  It’s a fact, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.  The first entire box of packs I ever bought was 1992 Upper Deck baseball, and inserted every few packs was a Heroes card of Ted Williams.  It had a cool “stone” looking border and a round picture in the middle.  I loved pulling these and thought (at the time) that they’d some day be worth a TON.  Heck, I thought all of my cards would some day be worth a ton.  There’s still time, I guess, but my cards’ values are trending in the wrong direction.

A few years ago Upper Deck brought back the Heroes insert, and in 2008 they went all out with an entire set of the stuff.  Lots of you probably hate the stuff, especially if you’ve become jaded by higher end cards with more than a hit or two per box.  That’s OK, to each their own.  But at $52 for the box (after a coupon code), the three relics and one autograph – not to mention my favorite card design of all time – I couldn’t pass it up.  I put together a decent amount of the base set (with more doubles than I’d like for a box in this price range), and I purchased a retail box to try to collate the entire thing.

Let’s take a look at the inserts and hits from my box of ’08 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes:

Yankee Stadium Legacy:

I can’t imagine what it’d be like to NOT be a Yankees fan while busting packs of any 2008 Upper Deck product – the YSL cards are freakin’ everywhere.  I’m not even sure how much I like them any more, I’ve got so darned many of ’em.  I suppose if there’s a positive, it’s that I don’t have any doubles yet.  Of course, that has something to do with the fact that there are six million cards in the set.  Moving forward…

Carlos Delgado, Reggie Jackson, Andruw Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Corey Hart, green serial numbered to 499:

Bob Gibson, Mark Teixeira, Andre Eithier, gray serial numbered to 399:

Erik Bedard, Delmon Young, John Maine, brown/gold serial numbered to 299:

Kevin Kouzmanoff, red serial numbered to 249:

Ryan Braun, Andrew Miller, blue serial numbered to 199.  The Braun is noticably darker (in person) than the Miller, so maybe it’s a different “variation”.  There are too many to bother figuring it out:

Daric Barton, charcoal/black autograph serial numbered to 150:

Alex Gordon dark blue relic (#9/50), Troy Tulowitzki light blue relic (#25/200), and James Loney light blue relic (#2/200):

At first I was disappointed with the box, thinking my relics all stunk.   Which they do, in retrospect.  But if I’d purchased this back when it was released I would’ve been pumped about a low number Gordon relic since he was supposedly the next George Brett and the savior of the Royals organization.  That didn’t work out, but it’s not Upper Deck’s fault that I purchased this box so long after it’s initial release.  There are worse relics in the set than the Tulowitzki, plus the guy has been huge for my fantasy team this year.  So maybe the box wasn’t so bad after all.

I pulled more serial numbered cards than I would’ve liked, but most people probably care about them more than I do.  I would’ve rather gotten more base cards, but again, not everyone buying these boxes is looking to collate the entire set.  The base cards I did get were nice, thick, and glossy. I’m satisfied, but let’s hope my retail box has the missing pieces I need!

As always, anything you see pictured is available for trade.

Online card shop Friday

I finally finished breaking my hobby box of 2008 Upper Deck Heroes (box break coming soon!), and I’ve found myself approximately 30 cards short of the entire base set.  Typically, the only sets I even consider completing are those that are available in both hobby and retail boxes/packs, and ’08 Heroes fits the bill.

My card shop actually carries the retail Heroes football boxes for the same price (after factoring in shipping) as the online retailers, but they’ve got nothing (other than packs) when it comes to the baseball set.  No big deal, as it’s a need that can be easily filled by Dave and Adam’s:

I’m not going to bother explaining the methods I use to determine how much I spend on any given purchase – mostly because it’s random and I don’t understand it myself – but I had about $15 more to get rid of.  I’ve eased up a bit on the cheap stuff at my shop and have become more interested in chasing ‘hits’ in slightly higher end packs.  It’s more fun (to me), and I end up liking the base cards more, too.  I suppose the saying, “You get what you pay for”, holds true even when buying baseball cards.  Anyhow, I picked up one pack of 2009 SP Legendary Cuts for $8.50:

Still more to spend!  I wanted to try something new, but decent chances of a hit were still a requisite.  I decided to get a two pack lot of 2009 UD A Piece of History:

I’ve never even seen this product in person, and it looks alright from what I’ve seen in online breaks.  Nothing fancy, and nothing particularly valuable, but a somewhat reasonable chance of a hit for a relatively low price.  I’ve never ordered individual packs online before, and it’s not an economical way to buy cards unless the shipping charges also apply to a larger box.  Also, it’s kinda strange not picking out my own packs, but I have no reason to believe Dave and Adam’s would pack search.

And so ends my online mini shopping spree at Dave and Adam’s card world.  Breaks to follow after everything has been opened!

But ya know what?  It was a slow day at work yesterday and there were a few storage supplies I really did need to pick up… so I made a quick trip to the brick and mortar card store where I picked up a storage box wide enough to hold top loaders upright and one pack each of 2009 Upper Deck X and it’s big brother, ’09 SPx.  Fun stuff.

Card shop Friday

I had doubts that I’d be able to go through with it, but I spent my week’s allotment of baseball card money on football cards.  Blasphemous?  Perhaps.  But I had to give in to my urges, even if for just this once, to see what the other half of my card shop offered in the way of pigskin cards.

Turns out their football and basketball sections combined are the same size as their baseball selection, if not still slightly smaller.  I made a list of products I’d been checking out online, breaking down overall odds of hits and which rookies were in what sets.  They didn’t have everything I’d hoped for, and I quickly became overwhelmed by what they had, but I pulled through and came away with some (hopefully) good packs!

In case you care, I got:

Five (5) packs of 2008 Bowman hobby.  With two hits per box and chrome in each pack, I figured this was a good place to start.  Plus, a full hobby box is relatively cheap online, so if I like what I see I may just go for the entire set.

Four (4) packs of 2008 Upper Deck Heroes hobby.  Four hits per box, plus I’m an absolute sucker for this set.  I love the baseball version, so I’m hoping football is more of the same.  Even if I don’t come away with a hit in these packs but still like the base cards, I’m already thinking of picking up a retail box or two.  Heck, I may buy a retail box of football and a retail box of baseball (to try to complete that set, too), put on a neon green shirt, umbro shorts, and pretend it’s 1992 all over again.  That’d be totally rad!

Three (3) packs of 2007 Score retail, from the dollar bin.  I think there were some good rookies in ’07.  I have no idea if they were in this set or not, but it’s not much of a loss if they’re not.  I picked these up just to get a glimpse of what else is out there.

Two (2) packs of 2009 Score retail, because I had to get something new.  These were also from the dollar bin.

One (1) pack of 2009 Philadelphia retail, $1.99.  These are retro-ish, which I like.  Plus I “searched” and got the pack with LT on top, ohhhh yeah!!!  Not really searching when you can see right through them, but still.  At least there’s one decent card in there.  For what it’s worth, there’s a Buccaneer on the back, which is probably a bad card.

Five, four, three, two, one.  Hmmm, I certainly didn’t intend for it to work out like that.  Stay tuned, I’ll eventually get around to letting you know what’s inside!  Also, my hobby box of 2008 Heroes arrived, so look forward to a break  of that, too.  Interestingly, the last four numbers of the serial number on the box are 1918!  Would’ve been more fun it this were 2003 and the Red Sox were still cursed, but I still kinda get a kick out of that particular year/number.  Maybe it’s a sign of a crazy hit… probably not.

And don’t forget, there’s still time to enter the football ‘pack’ giveaway!

Online card shop Friday

I wasn’t able to sneak away from the office for a trip to my brick-and-mortar card shop this week but I had money burning a hole in my pocket that just HAD to be spent on baseball cards.  And really, since discovering that my hobby shop marks up boxes a little too much for my tastes, buying over the internet makes a lot of sense.

Welcome to the 21st century, Joe.

As a child of the ’90s (for the most part), I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the overproduced garbage given to us by Upper Deck, Donruss, Topps, and the likes.  When Upper Deck released Heroes in 2008, which is a complete throwback to their early ’90s inserts, it was love at first site. With three relics and one auto in each box (plus two patchers and two relic/autos per case) my next hobby box purchase was a relatively easy decision.

On it’s way from Blowout Cards is one box of 2008 Upper Deck Heroes baseball:

Card shop – the results

Enough build up.  This past Friday I took a chance on some higher end product in search of hits, something I’ve never really done before.  Sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do to get a piece of jersey.  Unfortunately, I’ve always been a horrendous pack picker, so I was fully prepared to not pull a single hit.  Although I wasn’t technically guaranteed anything, I bought enough of each type of pack (of Heroes and SPx, anyway) to stack the odds heavily in my favor.

I’ll start with the two packs from the dollar bin, 2007 Upper Deck Future Stars.

The packs says to grab authentic autographs of today’s hottest rookies!  I’m fairly certain these are retail packs, so the chances of any autograph grabbing are slim.

The cards:

• #27 Grady Sizemore
• #30 Matt Holliday
• #40 Roy Oswalt
• #42 Gil Meche
• #46 Jered Weaver
• #57 Torii Hunter
• #78 Adrian Gonzalez

And a serial numbered insert, MVP Prospects Daisuke Matsuzaka, # 198/500.  I definitely appreciate the slight bend in the upper left corner.  Thanks, everyone who’s ferociously rummaged through the bargain bin before me!

Not bad, I guess.  Lots of established players for a set that sounds like it’ll be all prospects.  I only purchased these to get the total to an even $40, so I wasn’t expecting much.  In retrospect, I should’ve gotten a couple packs of ’07 Goudey instead.

Next up, the pack of 2008 SP Authentic.  Inserted at random are Yankee Stadium Legacy (1:4), Autographed cards (1:8), and Yankee Stadium Legacy Memorabilia cards (1:288).

The cards:

• #46 Carl Crawford
• #50 Carlos Zambrano
• #78 Dan Uggla
• #91 Jonathan Papelbon
• #MM-18 Marquee Matchups Vladimir Guerrero/Justin Verlander

Bleh.  That was a waste of money.  The design is nice enough, but I could’ve done without the card of one of my two least favorite players (Papelbon.  The other is Kevin Youkilis.)  The Marquee Matchups isn’t worth the storage space to scan.  Needless to say,  this was the first and last pack of SP Authentic I’ll purchase.

OK, let’s move forward to the better stuff, starting with 2008 Upper Deck Heroes.

 

I love this set.  The Heroes inserts in early ’90s Upper Deck were my favorite, and this set replicates the look of those cards.  Perhaps it’s a lazy move by UD, but it works for me.  Inserted randomly are Yankee Stadium Legacy (1:4), Memorabilia cards (1:8), Autographed cards (1:24), Autographed Memorabilia cards (1:120), Patch cards (1:120), Yankee Stadium Legacy Memorabila cards (1:240).  Good stuff!

Too many base cards to justify a long list, so here’s what I got in paragraph form:  Brandon Webb, Tim Hudson (x2), Derek Lee, Justin Verlander, Mariano Rivera. Jacoby Ellsbury, Jim Thome (x2), Jeff Francis, Howie Kendrick, Ivan Rodriguez, Jorge Posada (x2), Eric Chavez, Daric Barton, Felix Hernandez, Jose Reyes/Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones/Ryan Braun/Miguel Cabrera, Joe Mauer/Hanley Ramirez/Troy Tulowitzki, Ken Griffey Jr./Roberto Clemente/Vladimir Guerrero/Joe DiMaggio.

Yankee Stadium Legacy, Don Larsen.

I don’t care for these.  Not so much because it’s an absurdly large set (over 6,000 cards), but because they’re spread out among most of Upper Deck’s products.  It’s an OK card to pull from Heroes, but I’d be disappointed if I pulled one from something a little higher end.

And two serial numbered cards.  “Beige” (though it took a glance at my Beckett magazine to figure out why it was numbered – it looks exactly like the base cards) Jim Thome, #’d 091/299, and a “Navy Blue” Jason Varitek #’d 102/199.

No relics, which was unfortunate, but these were reasonably priced and I like ’em, so I can see myself purchasing more of these in the future, especially on “supply days.”  I’m thinking of going for the entire set, but if I do I’ll turn to retail boxes from Dave and Adam’s.

And now, the really good stuff: 2009 SPx.

 

These packs weren’t cheap, but as is the case with most everything in this world, you get what you pay for.  I paid for great odds of a relic, so let’s see if the gamble paid off!  Inserted randomly are Game Used Memorablia cards (1:6) and Autographed cards (1:18).

The base cards:

• #15 Jack Cust
• #22, Troy Glaus
• #30 Roy Halladay
• #36 Trevor Hoffman
• #70 Carlos Quentin
• #77 Brian Roberts
• #86 Mark Teixeira
• #92 Chase Utley
• #100 Ryan Zimmerman

Nice designs, though they’re awfully similar to the lesser Upper Deck “X” set.  Don’t know if that makes X a good buy or these a poor one.  Thankfully, there were a few hits.

20th Anniversary Retrospective #691 Jsaon Kidd, #721 Governor of Texas.

There aren’t hits, but I just wanted to comment about how stupid I think these are.  I really, really, really don’t like non-sports products in my packs of cards (unless it’s explicity clear that “gimmick” cards are a part of the set).  Even worse, in my opinion, are basketball cards in baseball product.  And I’m not sure why I should care about George W. being elected Governor of Texas.

#JD-19, Joe DiMaggio Career Highlights, serial #’d 286/425.  I’d rather have pulled a relic or an auto, but a serial numbered Yankee is the next best thing.

Flashback Fabrics #FF-LG, Luis Gonzalez.  Not to get picky with my relics, but I’d rather have pulled one of someone who hasn’t had a World Series winning hit against the Yankees, and also one with a slight less ugly color scheme.  It’s saved by the fact that there are two pieces or jersey, one being striped:

Winning Materials #WM3-DOF, Jermaine Dye, Magglio Ordonez, Jeff Francoeur.  Three freakin’ pieces of jersey on one card!!  Very slick:

The verdict is in:  this won’t be the last time I ever purchase high end packs.  I must’ve just missed the relic cards in the packs of Heroes, but the box was nearly full so maybe next time I’ll get one in each pack!  They’ve got them as part of a 3-fer deal (three packs for a discounted price), so chances are good.  SPx was a bit expensive, but the hits are nice.  I can see myself picking up a few more packs at some point.

Everything you see can be had in trade, you know how to get in touch!