Happy Birthday Matt Kemp!

Happy Birthday Matt Kemp!

In celebration of Matt's 30th birthday, I decided to show off one of my most recent acquisitions: a 2014 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractor, #'d 64/75.

I'm not going for the rainbow, but I couldn't turn down a cheaply priced sepia refractor of my main man. It was delivered for around three bucks, and, unfortunately, it was the last card I purchased on eBay. (Just over three weeks ago!) Homework has limited my time to scour eBay for cheap cards, but at least I'm saving money. 

Manny Ramirez Carries a Big Stick

I've had this in my scans folder for a long, long time. Actually, it has been in my scan folder since around the time I started the blog. I'm not sure why I decided to wait so long to post it, but here we are. 

I actually pulled this card from a pack of Topps, and it was quite obvious at the time that something would be in the pack. If you have handled one of these cards before, you know it is THICK. It also has a pretty decent weight to it, considering the metal bat Topps used to commemorate Manny's many Silver Slugger awards. 

It takes up a ton of space, but it is a great card to add to my Manny Ramirez PC. 

Patience is a Virtue

The last month or so has been crazy for me. The start of a new semester, a new job, and three weeks away from home can do that to a person though. I'm two weeks into my "new normal" schedule, but I am still trying to find ample time for blogging, watching baseball, and general tomfoolery. 

This has left me a little behind on posting. I usually write up a post on cards within 2-3 days of receiving them, but I'm about 2-3 weeks behind my typical schedule.

Though it isn't always my fault, sometimes eBay sellers just take a long time to ship.

I picked up this sweet Matt Kemp autograph for just under 7 bucks shipped on July 23rd. Keep in mind, that was still 8 days before I took my 3 week leave of absence. I was hoping to have this card in hand before I left, but the 31st rolled around and my mailbox was empty. A week later I asked my dad to bring some mail my way. He dropped off a few packages of cards, but still no Matt Kemp. I decided to message the seller on the 7th to see what was going on. I checked back two days later, but my inbox was empty. However, the shipping information was updated that same day. I finally received the card on the 12th, but never got an apology or any kind of response from the seller. 

tl;dr: The beautiful card took 20 days to get to my house.

Somehow, while I was mass leaving feedback for my recent purchases, I left positive feedback for this particular seller. I was planning on leaving a neutral, or at least asking for my shipping money back, but I didn't do that either. 

Quite frankly, I am just happy to finally have the card in hand. #'d 18/50, this beauty is my 9th Matt Kemp autograph, and my 172nd unique Kemp card. Hopefully the next one won't take so long to get here. 

That's a Tasty Patch

Another day, another fantastic gift to show you all. If you missed yesterday's post, be sure sure to check it out. It basically explains that I will be splitting up my next few posts while I am away from home. Oh yea. It also features a couple of fantastic new cards that my buddy Dikran bought me for my birthday.

Wowzers! Talk about a nasty patch. I'm still shocked that Dikran still went out and bought cards for my birthday, even after presenting me with another awesome gift earlier in the year. 

This bad boy is #'d 21/25 and features a sick four-color, five-layered patch. It is by far the tastiest patch card in my possession, and its not even close. 

The card comes from the Super Veterans subset in 2014 Topps, which is easily my favorite insert from Flagship in the past few years.  Considering it features one of my all-time favorite players in both his Rangers and Dodgers gear, it may go down as one of my favorite cards in my collection. But I plan on doing a countdown at the end of the year, so we'll have to wait and see wear it is ranked. 

I'm Back...And I'm Fearless

It seems like I've been out of commission for a long, long time. In reality, I made my last post 5 days ago, the longest stretch between posts so far on this blog. It feels weird writing from work, but I am going to truck through it for the next couple of weeks. 

As you probably heard around this time last month, I celebrated my 21st birthday on July 5th. My buddy Dikran bought me a couple of fantastic birthday gifts earlier in the year (here and here), but he also decided to purchase a few more cards to give to me when the actual date arrived. I have been slow to post them, but I figured now would be a perfect time to start. 

In an effort to spread out the posts and provide some content, I will spread the card posts over a few days. 

We'll start out with a pair of fantastic looking inserts from Panini Prizm. Though Panini doesn't have licensing, they continue to put out some quality inserts in their products. I'm still a little 'meh' on most of Panini's base cards, but their brightly colored inserts are fun. 

The card on the left happens to be the purple parallel #'d /99, though I'd argue it is more of a pink. The blue parallel on the left, which scanned much better than the purple one, is #'d /75. Both are fantastic additions to my Adrian Beltre PC which now sits at 104 cards. On a slightly odd note, my Adrian Beltre, Shawn Green, and Clayton Kershaw PC's all have exactly 104 cards. Weird.  

For those that got this far, be sure to check out the brand new blog Rhythm and Wax that Dikran started to admire both his cards and his music. His last post actually shows off one of the many birthdays gifts I am planning to purchase Dikran in exchange for all of the wonderful gifts he has showered on me. 

Thanks again Dikran! 

A Mattycake Bargain

I thought I got the deal of the year when I won this card on eBay a couple of weeks ago. Somehow I topped it a couple of days ago, but that doesn't disparage the great bargain I got this card for. 

Numbered 20/99, this bad boy hails from 2011 Panini Playoff Contenders. Upon my re-entrance to the hobby, I bought a TON of this product. The packs were cheap at my LCS, and each box had 6 autos. I never did pull any quality hits, but I successfully pulled my first ever auto, a Nick Castellanos autograph. That is long gone, so I am pretty surprised I remembered that little story.

But like I said, I got this card for a helluva deal: $5.65 shipped. You can't beat that price with a stick. This beauty pushed the total cards in my Matt Kemp PC to 167 cards, eight of which are Mattycake autos. 

Ya Heard? With Perd!

Let me begin this post by starting it.

The thing this blogger bought on eBay, is a card. That amount it set this blogger back, was a small one.

But enough Perd talk. This card cost just a few bucks shipped, and is a great addition to my Parks and Rec autograph subset. With the addition of this card, I now sit at about the halfway marker toward my goal of obtaining all 13 autos. Check out my progress below.

My Progress (6/13)

Amy Poehler (Leslie Knope)

Rob Lowe (Chris Traeger)

Aziz Ansari (Tom Haverford)

Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson)

Aubrey Plaza (April Ludgate)

Jim O’Heir (Jerry Gergich)

Retta (Donna Meagle)

Jay Jackson (Perd Hapley)

Mo Collins (Joan Callmezzo)

Megan Mullally (Tammy Swanson)

Paul Rudd (Bobby Newport)

Fred Armisen (Raul)

Parker Posey (Lindsay Carlisle Shay)

A Superba Matt Kemp Auto

Last week I was fresh off a nice little paycheck with the expectation of more money coming in for a project I've been working on for awhile. As such, I decided to splurge a little bit and pick up some cards I've had my eyes on for a while. 

Greg of PTSIA, just so happened to send me the link to an eBay listing of a beautiful Matt Kemp auto. The stars must have aligned at that particular moment, because the card in the listing was the one I planned to go and spend on. 

And here it is. An awesome card, another one that a scan shows no justice.  There are some scratches on the case right in front of the signature, but that is not a big deal. 

I am more enthused about the card itself. Ever since I laid eyes on it, I knew I had to acquire it at some point in time. Tribute is an absolute beautiful brand that produces some high quality cards. The blue auto fits the card perfectly, especially with the large amount of blue featured. Semi-low numbering was also a selling point, with my copy #'d 64/99. 

However, the thing that drew me to this card was the fantabulous throwback Matty happens to be rocking. That's right, I love them so much that I made up a word to describe them. I love those old school Brooklyn baby blues, and you cannot go wrong with the Brooklyn 'B' on the helmet. Frankly, the Dodgers probably don't throw it back enough. Their jersey's have stayed relatively unchanged since they moved to Los Angeles; they also happen to be the best in the MLB, at least in my opinion. So while I would love to see more throwbacks like the one above, I can forgive them if they don't do it. 

Overall, this is probably the sweetest Matt Kemp card I've ever seen, with the exception of a few rookies. No seriously. Check out the card DodgerPenguin just displayed on his blog. One thing is for sure, this is the king of my collection and won't be easy to dethrone. 

* Bonus points if you actually understand my cheesy title

Fearless

Fearless does not really emulate my mindset heading into my Calculus final tomorrow. 

However, it does mimic the style of play Yasiel Puig plays with every night. 

Fearless could also describe my feelings when purchasing this card. For $6.00 shipped, I feel I got a pretty good deal. The only thing I was really fearful of was the USPS losing or damaging the card during the shipping process. 

You may be wondering, "Why did he pay $6.00" for that?" I believe that question is fair. I mean it is a cool and all, but six bucks for a single card? Well, this happens to be a purple refractor (looks more pink to me) that is limited to just 99 copies. My copy just so happens to be #'d 2/99. 

I mentioned this in a post a couple of days ago, but I have generally been priced out of Yasiel Puig cardboard. As soon as I saw this while browsing eBay in class (Yes, I'm that guy), I knew I had to win. I was feeling like purchasing some Puig cards anyways, so good timing.  I spaced out of the lecture for about 15 minutes while the auction was winding down to ensure I would win, and I did. Well worth it by the way. 

Anyways, back to studying for tomorrow's final. It is gonna be a doozy. 

Zack Attack

Lately I have been making a conscious effort to purchase less singles and inserts, and more relics and autos. For awhile it seemed like I would spend my weekly card budget on unneeded packs of cards or singles. I decided to let the base cards come to me, as most bloggers end up with extras anyways. Now I have been able to go after the "expensive" cards more frequently. 

Of course, expensive means different things to different people. As a college student, expensive can sometimes be 10 bucks depending on how many hours I worked on a given paycheck. But now that I am buying less singles, I am able to focus on some of the fun cards.

Take this sweet Zack Greinke relic from Triple Threads for example. It isn't too fancy or flashy, but neither is the Dodgers 1A pitcher. The semi-low numbering is a bonus too - this copy is #'d 12/36. Although multiple colors are always nice to see in relic cards, plain swatches like the one above work well with Triple Threads. 

This card cost me around 7 bucks shipped, not bad considering the former Cy Young's performance this season. In the past, that 7 dollars probably would have been spent on some late 2000's Matt Kemp or Clayton Kershaw base cards. I guess this is a classic case of quality over quantity. Something I plan on sticking to in my future card endeavors. 

A Dre from the Bay

I spent last Friday evening scouring eBay for some good deals. Because, you know, that is what all twenty-year-old's do on Friday nights. 

I ended up only winning one auction that night, however, it was a great deal if you asked me.

Yup. My first authentic Andre Ethier auto and boy is it a beauty. Topps Tribute puts out some of the nicest autos you'll see and I was able to capitalize by having this shipped to my door for a penny under five bucks. That is a good deal for just about any auto, but the deal is that much better for the Dodger outfielder. 

A 9-Month Wait That Was Worth It

When I first started this blog, Corey Seager was a primary PC of mine. As my collection grew I stepped off my pursuit for Seager cards for the guys you see featured on the blog a little more prominently now. However, that doesn't mean Seager is not going to be a big part of my collection in the near future. Cards of the Dodgers #2 prospect (in my opinion) are not frequently released, only appearing in a handful of Bowman products as well as a few other unlicensed sets. 

A product called Bowman Inception was released last summer and my buddy Dikran graciously bought be a box for my birthday. He also bought himself a box and at $140 a piece they were not cheap. 

He happened to pull a #/25 Oscar Taveras auto, which was selling for around $150 at the time, as well as a four other decent hits. 

My box on the other hand was as close to a dud as possible. I got 4 autos that sold for about $20 bucks combined, as well as a redemption. The box probably would have been a complete dud to a non-Dodger fan, but it was the perfect birthday gift for me. 

After about 9 months of waiting from Topps, my card was shipped last week and arrived yesterday. This is the standard base auto, but it is a beauty. The Inception design is pretty damn cool, and the on card signature is puts it over the top. I would have liked to see a little more of the Dodgers logo on the jersey, or at least some red numbering, but I'm not going to complain. 

At the end of the day, I am happy with my friends $140 dollar investment that netted me this slick auto of the Dodgers future Shortstop/Third baseman. Trust me, this will not be the last you see of Corey Seager on here. 

Shades of '93

I picked this card of the bay a few weeks back, and like the Matt Kemp I showed off yesterday, it ran me about two bucks and showed up about two weeks ago.

I really enjoy the design of these inserts, probably because they hail from 1993 Topps Finest. Because I was born in 1993, these things have a little added significance to me. 

I very rarely show the back of cards on here, but rarely are they this good. We get to see an awesome shot of Zack Greinke in Dodgers spring training garb, and that "Getting a Grip" shot (Thanks Ethan) is fantastic.

I will be on the lookout for the rest of this insert set. I'll probably ask Dodger Penguin who is in the set because I am too lazy to look it up and he already completed it. If you have any laying around let me know.

BTW: There will be no Trade Bait Tuesday today. I will be posting a larger Mega Trade Bait post later in the week.

Matt Kemp is an Elite Dominator

After a long day of posting yesterday, I plan on taking it easy today. I will be getting back to my roots, for a while at least, and posting card of the day type posts again.

This was had off the bay for about 2 bucks shipped. Any time I can add a new card of The Bison to my PC I am pretty happy. The fact that this one is #'d, albeit to 999, makes it all the better. I wasn't the biggest fan of Donruss when it came out, but I do enjoy the inserts. I know there are a few more Kemp inserts out there, as well as some of the other Dodgers. The only thing that truly bugs me about these unlicensed cards is the blue numbering on the front of the jersey. That certainly isn't Dodger baseball and it kind of ruins the card for me. I try my best to look past things like that, but sometimes you gotta vent. 

Newest eBay Pickup

I bought a few cards around this time last week and my first one arrived last night. 

This slick card only cost four bucks and change. Most of that went to shipping though, as I won the card for only 99 cents. 

I came for the Green, but I stayed for the Wood. Kerry Wood is one of my favorite non-Dodgers, though his career didn't turn out as well as it should have because of injuries. Can you believe he only had 86 wins in his 14 year career? Not that wins matter, but still doesn't seem right to me. I may add Wood to a new binder I am starting. But I'll get more info on that out sometime this weekend. Until then enjoy this beaut!

Greens on the Cheap

It seems like every week I am able to add a new Shawn Green card to my PC. Over the weekend I got my Shawn Green fix via eBay, as four cards from four different sellers all showed up in my mailbox.

This bad boy was shipped to my door for less than a dollar shipped. That is a price you cannot beat anywhere. The scan came out kind of dark, but I'm sure most of you are familiar with the 2000 Topps Chrome design. This is actually my first Topps Chrome card of Green.

And this is my second. This puppy was had for just over than two bucks shipped, and is one of my favorite Green cards out there. I absolutely love the black refractors on Topps Chrome and I will probably end up putting the team sets together with black refractors. 

We now move on to the "higher priced" cards, as this jumbo relic cost me $2.95 shipped. It feature Green as both a Dodger and a Diamondback, but the relic is most likely from his time with the Dodgers. 

Finally we have my third Shawn Green autograph. This was the most expensive, costing me $4.50 to have it shipped to my house. It is a sticker auto, although it is not as noticeable in person as it is in the scan. The back also mentions Vin Scully, so this card is a win-win for me. 

Reminiscing About 2011 Matt Kemp

I ran across this card a few weeks ago and picked it up off the bay. It didn't cost too much, and it is pretty cool in person. I'm not normally a fan of the manufactured patches/pins, but this is a nice looking card.

I got a new laptop yesterday and splurged a bit on the purchase. I went in to Best Buy with a price I was planning on spending, and ended up leaving after spending a few hundred more than I planned. My new laptop is superior to the ones I was looking at, and I am in love with it already. 

My new screen has PHENOMENAL resolution. Therefore, this scan looks crystal clear to me. Scans used to show up a little foggy, but I can chalk that up to a 6 year old laptop. 

Anyways, back to the card. This card commemorates Kemp's 2011 season, something that will be nearly impossible to reproduce. He hit 39 homers and stole 40 bases. This card specifically mentions his RBI total, which was a league leading 126 in 2011. It is a shame Matt lost the MVP to Ryan Braun. Braun also had an excellent year, but Kemp was the rightful winner. Too bad we can't change the past.

Best Kemp Card Ever?

I added this beauty to my collection over the weekend. It is #'d 188/199 and is one of the best Kemp cards in creation. The blue border just takes this already beautiful card to another level. There are 199 copies of this card, so I guess I'll be on the hunt for the other 198.

I'll be moving back to smaller posts during the weekdays. School is really starting to take a toll on me. Combine that with work and running the blog, and you can see why I've decided to take it easy.

I also landed a gig over at Pro Sports Extra as the head Dodgers writer. As if I didn't have enough to handle already, I've added this into the mix. My debut article appeared yesterday which you can check out here. Although this isn't a big time gig, it gives me enough flexibility to write at my own pace and improve my overall writing. I hope to move onto bigger things in the future, but this is a start. 

Because of my loaded schedule I feel like I've forgotten about some of those I've been trading with. If I haven't responded to an email, or if you haven't gotten a trade package just let me know. I'm not intentionally forgetting you, my mind was probably just elsewhere.

Topps Chrome Rainbow: Greinke X-Fractor

I used the rest of the change left on my gift card and picked up a pack of 2013 Topps Chrome while at Target last night. Although I didn't get anything special, I did get a much needed card. 

The Zack Greinke x-fractor parallel. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my Topps Chrome Quest, wander over here for a detailed background. I am basically trying to acquire every parallel of every Dodger player from Topps Chrome. Of course some are more difficult than others, and Puig cards are definitely not in the budget. 

This card puts my Dodgers x-fractor total to 7 out of 10. I have yet to get my hands on an x-fractor from Kershaw, Puig, or Paco. I plan on getting the Kershaw very soon from a buddy off of COMC, but Puig and Paco are still at large. 

Remember anybody offering assistance in helping me achieve my Topps Chrome Rainbow goals will be rewarded. 10 points to anybody that can help with a non-numbered refractor and 25 points to anybody that can help with a #'d refractor. Matt Kemp refractor cards are worth double, but check my Topps Chrome Rainbow page in the menu bar to see what I have first.

Card Totals:

Base: 7/10

Refractor: 6/10

X-Fractor: 7/10

Purple: 3/10

Orange: 5/10

Blue: 2/10

Black: 3/10

Sepia: 1/10

Gold: 1/10

Red: 2/10

Camo: 0/10

Atomic: 0/10

Pink: 0/10

A Couple of Green's for a Couple of Greens

Sometimes a title pops into my head that is too good to pass up. This is not one of these times. I'm disappointed in my cheesy title, though at the same time I am very proud. It takes a certain kind of special to make something sound so bad that it sounds good. Anyways....

I picked these two Shawn Green relics off of ebay a few weeks ago for two bucks. That is obviously where the title comes from, but I digress. Green was my first collecting interest as a kid, and although I don't look for his cards as often these days, I can't pass up a good offer.

I'm not gonna lie. The card on the left is pretty ugly to me. Dull colors, plain white swatch, just not something I am overly enthusiastic about. It comes from 2002 Fleer Flair Jersey Heights. Is Fleer Flair right? Just Fleer? Just Flair? Older cards confuse me too much. 

On the right, we see a more aesthetically pleasing Shawn Green relic, that is before you get to the Arizona A on the bottom left. Trading Green to the D-Bags is one of the worst memories I have of the Dodgers as a kid. Green was my favorite player and I did not yet understand the business side of baseball. I still don't even know who we got back in return, but it is probably better I don't. The photo of Green is great, but I don't like the Diamondback portion of the card. At least I know the swatch came from a time when he was with the Dodgers.

If you haven't noticed already, a lot of my scans are crooked. I never really thought about how other people scan there cards so I figured this would be a good opportunity to ask. Do you have software that automatically crops the card for you? I've heard people that do, but I just throw everything into microsoft paint and hand crop it. Let me know what you do to get a card scanned and uploaded online. There will probably be some points thrown out to those that answer.