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!

Trying to Finish of Some 2013 Sets

I got into the collecting world so late in 2013 that I am still trying to finish up a few sets from last year. Thanks to generous trading partners, I have been able to get a large chunk of my needs but there is still some more work to do. These are the sets I am closest to finishing. If anybody can help me out with any of these cards just leave a comment with what you have so other readers know. I will be giving out CC Points for any help, and will keep in mind your generosity for future trades. 

2013 Bowman

29 Coco Crisp
37 Curtis Granderson
44 Henry Rodriguez RC
118 Tommy Milone
120 Josh Beckett
125 Adam Wainwright
126 Shelby Miller RC
202 A.J. Burnett
219 Eury Perez RC

2013 Bowman Platinum 

19 Justin Upton
52 Kris Medlen
78 Robinson Cano
90 Jedd Gyorko RC
99 Dylan Bundy RC

2013 Topps Flagship

67 San Francisco Giants
286 Jurickson Profar
326 Andruw Jones
378 Joe Kelly
592 Nick Markakis
US143 Tim Lincecum Record
US199 Juan Lagares RC

2013 Topps Chrome

42 J.P. Arencibia
112 Allen Webster RC
117 Matt Harvey

2013 Topps Heritage 

4 David Price
   Jered Weaver
   Matt Harrison
   Jay Bruce
   Adam LaRoche
22 Andrelton Simmons
27 Joe Maddon
40 Carlos Beltran
53 Tyler Pastornicky
70 Brian McCann
75 Chris Carpenter
76 Ron Washington
78 Mike Napoli
92 Chris Young
95 B.J. Upton
96 Jeff Samardzija
108 Jarrod Parker
133 Chris Perez
183 Fernando Rodney
189 Freddie Freeman
197 Mark Buehrle
210 Jacoby Ellsbury
214 Jean Segura
215 Francisco Liriano
225 Jason Kubel
234 Adeiny Hechavarria RC
      Tyson Brummett RC
236 Jim Johnson
247 Josh Reddick
250 Prince Fielder
259 Miguel Montero
269 Justin Smoak
270 Trevor Plouffe
272 Matt Joyce
279 Victor Martinez
289 Lonnie Chisenhall
292 Trevor Cahill
303 Grant Balfour
318 Kendrys Morales
335 Jonny Venters
337 Kevin Mattison RC
       Tom Koehler RC
342 Homer Bailey
348 Miguel Gonzalez
357 Ryan Hanigan
380 Phil Hughes
393 Pat Neshek
411 Chris Archer

418 Justin Wilson RC

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Of course I couldn't have ended this post without a new card. Enjoy my newest piece in my Matt Kemp PC.

And enjoy my new custom creation......... sooooooo bad.

Trade with Cardboard Hogs: OMAHA!

I completed my first trade with Kenneth of Cardboard Hogs. He saw a card I posted on Twitter awhile back and we went from there. I received my end of the trade yesterday, while my package to him is sitting on my card desk (along with a few others). I never wanted to be that person that took forever to get something out to my fellow collectors/bloggers, but sometimes working and going to school full time eats awa at my time. That and the nearest post office is 15 miles away...

Before I continue into the trade I'd like you all to know how generous a trader Kenneth is. He went above and beyond and I appreciate his generosity.

Now I usually save my favorite card for last, but my excitement is still pouring out even though I opened his package a few hours ago.

A freaking Peyton Manning dual relic, including one from his days with Tennessee. (I somehow spelled that right the first time :o)

Manning has long been my favorite football player and he is the reason I am a Colts fan. In fact this commercial convinced me to root for the Colts. 

MOOOooooOOO-VERRRS. Still gets me.

The fun didn't stop there. I was lucky enough to grab my first HOF'er relic card. I'm not too knowledgeable about the Colts history, but I have heard Morre's name thrown around enough that I know who he is. This bad boy is #'d 26/99.

As if the two previous cards weren't enough for what i'm sending him, Kenneth even threw in an auto from Anthony Castonzo. I don't know 100% of the Colts roster these days, but back in the pre-Luck era, I knew pretty much every dude on the field. Castonzo was one of the names I knew and he is a pretty effective OT. 

I love blue refractors of my Dodgers, but it works just as well with the blue and white of the Colts. This Fleener refractor is #'d 70/199.

Getting into baseball now, this Emerald is a new addition to my Ryu PC. 

In addition to the Ryu, I received a few misc Dodgers from over the past few years, including an awesome Pedro Martinez insert from 2014 Topps S1. 

I also received a decent size stack of Colts cards that should keep me busy for awhile. A trip down to Target for some more binders is in the works. I'll have more info on binders in the next few days.

Thanks for the Kenneth. You have no idea how excited I was for that Manning. It wasn't on my Most Wanted, but I am handing over 50 CC points to you anyways. Expect something from me next week. 

Another Trip Down to my LCS

I made another trip to my LCS after work yesterday and was able to walk away with some awesome new PC additions. 

Matt, the owner, has been trying to convince me to buy a spot in a baseball box break this weekend at a card show type event at one of the mall's in town. I am always interested in new cards, but $40 for a spot is a price I wasn't willing to spend. He said he is opening up a few boxes of 2013 Triple Threads, as well as 10 other boxes. $40 bucks is probably more than worth it, but as a full-time college student money is hard to come by. 

He told me he was looking to beef up his cards for the show this weekend and asked if I could bring in commons/relics/autos for him. I don't buy that many cards, but I did have some stuff for him. I took him a 3 inch stack of Yankees, as well as a 3 inch stack of base cards from 2014 S1. I threw in about 15 NBA/NFL autos/relics, and about 150 basketball cards. I don't really have an interest in basketball cards, but they always end up in my hands after Dikran keeps the cards he is interested in after opening a box. Needless to say, I cleared out some space and helped my LCS owner for the show.

He told me over the phone that he would give me some store credit for anything I brought in but my expectations were low. I figured I would be lucky if I got $10 bucks. He took a look through the stuff when I got there last night and ended up giving me $35 bucks in store credit. He put me down for a spot in the break this weekend and told me to bring him some more base cards and Yankees and we'll call it even for the other $5 bucks. So, If you have Yankees from the past 2-3 years you don't want, I'll gladly take them off your hands. 

Anyways, I took a stroll around the shop and ended up digging through some dimeboxes and eventually walked out with a nice little stack of cards. 

Eight new cards for my A-Gon PC. He looks 100% in a Dodgers uni IMO. The card that stands out the most is the brand new 2014 Donruss card on the bottom left. It actually came out yesterday and I was already able to pick up a couple of Dodgers. 

Six new cards for my Big Papi PC. The diamond sparkle cards are pretty snazzy and the UD Masterpieces is wonderful as well.

I also snagged this 2012 Topps Chrome Refractor of Matt Kemp after realizing I did not have any of his 2012 TC cards.

Two new cards for my Andre Ethier PC. The more I look at these diamond sparkle cards, the more I want to chase them all down. They look pretty damn awesome.

I also picked up a new Beltre card to add to the binder. Am I the only one who thinks the card looks cutoff on the right? 

I will never pass up a Ryu card, as the Korean is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. This is the other 2014 Donruss I picked up BTW. 

Kind of a weird pairing for Topps to make here. That is until I realized they are both Jewish. It took me a minute to notice that on the back of the card. I guess I should take a closer look at the back sometimes. I should also get a move on uploading my Koufax PC to the blog. Maybe this weekend.....

I also grabbed these even though they don't really fit into any of my collections. The Piazza on the left doesn't actually come from 1994, it is a reprint from 2011 Topps. The Sellers card was calling my name for some reason. He isn't anything special on or off the field, but it is an aweome card nonetheless. 

In addition to the cards above I was able to grab nine new cards for my Topps TeamSet project. 

The best thing about the entire trip to my LCS is that I didn't spend a dime (except on gas). Matt was gracious enough to let me walk away with these fantabulous cards for nothing. I was also able to secure a spot in his box break this weekend, and I cleared up space in my room by doing so. I won't be able to make it to the break, but hopefully I will have some goodies to show off this weekend. 

Contest Winnings From Foul Bunt

I recently won a contest hosted by William of Foul Bunt fame.....on Instagram. That's right, the card game has moved to Instagram. William is the only card guy I follow on there, and it is refreshing to see some cool cardboard amongst endless pictures of food or cars posted by my friends. 

I'll get to the prize in a minute, but before I do I'd like to show off five new Shawn Green cards William sent along.

Man, those sketch cards truly are something else. Hopefully I'm not the only one who thinks the sketch looks reminiscent of Wil Myers. 

Carl Pavano

This was the grand prize and I actually didn't win it. Like I said, William held the contest on Instagram and posted a picture of this ball. To gain an entry into the contest you had to simply guess who signed the ball. He randomized the few names that correctly guessed Carl Pavano and I came in 2nd. The true winner declined the ball and William offered it to me. The auto is slightly faded, but overall the ball is in good shape. I'm not the biggest Pavano fan, but adding a signed ball to my collection is cool no matter the player. 

Thanks for the awesome prize William. I will be shipping cards your way this week. 

Trade Bait Tuesday

I've been going through my cards and need to get more organized. I have a ton of cards I'd love to trade, but keeping track of them is difficult sometimes. So, I have decided to create Trade Bait Tuesday. I will post a scan with a page full of cards for trade. If you are interested in any of the cards just let me know in the comment section. Expect this every Tuesday and some Thursdays. 

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. 

Andrew Lambo Auto Winner

I decided to hold all of my future contest without Twitter this week, and the number of entries I received were still close to last week's record of 137. There were 108 total entries this week, split between 12 people. Thanks again for entering!

After 11 randomizations, the winner is Caitlin Jennings! The other winners are down below. 

These are the Top 36, which is all I could fit into one picture. 

Caitlin Jennings - Andrew Lambo auto and 5 CC Points
Dodger Penguin - 4 CC Points
Nate Bell- 3 CC Points
cpuJesse - 2 CC Points
Nathan Tuttle - 1 CC Point

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On a side note, I will not be running a contest this week. School has picked up and I simply won't have the time. I should be good to go for next Monday though. 

Trade with Dime Boxes: An Appearance From The Penguin

I completed my first trade with Nick from Dime Boxes fame last week. After a few emails back and forth last month, I was able to walk away with some much needed cards for my Topps Team Set Project, as well as a few more awesome pieces of cardboard. 

Because I received this package earlier in the week, I don't remember exactly what was going through my head as I was going through the stack of cards Nick sent me. I do remember that this card stood out above the rest.

Being born in '93 means I only know so much about the Dodgers. Reading about the earlier teams and players is enjoyable, but at the end of the day I can only retain some of the information. Experience really helps the brain, but I never did get to experience the Penguin first hand. (Not you Matthew) When the name Ron Cey comes up in conversation, I instantly think of the all-star third baseman for the Dodgers, but after that my knowledge is shallow. 

The front of this card shows just about everything I know about Ron Cey. What he looks like, what position he played, and his all star appearance as a Dodger. But, the back of the card is a completely different story. I learned Cey had 8 RBI's in one game against the Padres in 1974, while establishing the team record for Dodgers third baseman in homers and RBI's. Those records now belong to Adrian Beltre, but baseball cards contain a lot of knowledge I may have never known. 

Although I didn't know much about Ron Cey, I did know about Kirk Gibson before receiving this awesome card. I'm fairly positive this card doesn't need to be explained, but for those of you that have been in a box for the past 25 years; Kirk Gibson hit the infamous homer off of Dennis Eckersley to lead the Dodgers to a walk-off win over the A's in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. 

Another great card courtesy of Nick is the Paul Konerko RC from 1998 Score. Too bad Konerko didn't spend too much time in the organization. 

2005 is my favorite Topps set from the past 15 years. This is only my second card from the 38 card team set, so I guess I have a little work to do. Chad Billinglsey turned out to be a great arm for the Dodgers, though after having Tommy John surgery last year, he has been out of limelight lately. Joel Guzman, if my memory serves me correct, was once a "can't miss" prospect for the Dodgers. Like so many prospects do, Guzman did not end up having any kind of success at the major league level. Even though Guzman did not pan out, I enjoy seeing these doubled up player cards, especially of my boys in blue.

Thanks again Nick. Hopefully we can do this again soon. 

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.