My #WalletCard runs on Dunkin Donuts!
The Sports Card Guy |
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2014 Topps Tek was one of the hottest releases in 2014, and the cards were highly sought after by collectors at the time of release. I've tried to narrow my collecting focus, so purchasing a box just didn't make sense to me. A box of 2014 Topps Tek yields 8 cards, one of which will be an autograph, another will be a base parallel #'d to 99 or less. A box of 2014 Topps Tek is priced in D&A Card World for $72.95, and your autograph can range anywhere from a dollar bin scrub (highly likely) to a vintage or current superstar (much less likely). After looking at the checklist, there were three PC guys that I collect (Pedroia, Garciaparra & Griffey Jr.) and a few other Boston Red Sox players in the set. Rather than risking $65-$75 on a box where I probably would get (at most) one card I'd want for my PC, I decided to take my $70 and see what i could get if I built my own custom "box" of Tek cards. How did I do on my "box"? I have spent $63.06 so far ($8.75 of which is S&H), and here are the cards I've gotten: Dustin Pedroia: Shattered Glass Base, Spiral Base, Gold Diffractor (#/99), Disco Diffractor (#/50) and Cloud Diffractor (#/25) Ken Griffey Jr.: Spiral Base and Wave Base Mike Napoli: Wave Base and Autograph Nomar Garciaparra: Wave Base, Cracked Ice Diffractor (#/75), Tektonics Insert (#/50) and Autograph Let this sink in for a minute:
I sold a Topps Bunt card on eBay for $3.75 and purchased a Topps Gypsy Queen Allen Webster Autographed card on eBay for $3.24 (includes the S&H cost). More Topps Bunt details: Topps Bunt awards users with 1,000 free coins every day that you login. If you wait enough days, you can buy packs of Topps Bunt cards. Therefore, you can earn Topps Bunt cards at the low, low cost of NOTHING! In some of these packs, you can earn cards that have been proven to sell on eBay for real money. Thus, I have earned over $150 selling virtual / fake Topps Bunt cards on eBay and the cards that I sold cost me nothing. That is pure profit. Thank you to all of my repeat Customers, I'm glad that you truly enjoy Topps Bunt and have decided to spend your money on cards that interest you - whether they're real or fake. It's not my thing, but glad you enjoy it and I'm happy that I can help you obtain cards that you may not have normally gotten. Checklist Repetition: I noticed one of my Twitter friends, @CollectTheMets, was disappointed with the 2014 Topps Chrome checklist as the Mets autographed rookie cards were the same two players that have been featured repeatedly in Topps products this year. I've noticed this trend, where Topps has the same exact player autographs in multiple products each year. Doesn't this dilute the "value" of some of the player autographs when they're overproduced in one product, then added and overproduced in future products throughout the year? How else can you explain getting a 2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Allen Webster autographed card for less than $3.25 (including S&H!), and he isn't even one of the players I'd consider to be diluted. #ThanksTopps: In the end, "Thanks Topps!" because you've essentially given me $150 to spend on REAL cards and some of those cards have been released by Panini. Let that one sink in too... As a Red Sox fan, how could I not be excited at the prospect of Xander Bogaerts becoming our Derek Jeter (only better!). I haven't purchased a PC item (BGS 9.5-style) in quite some time, so I had to bounce on this item once it became an auction and no longer a fixed price item at the seller's previously awful price. That's another topic for another day (remember when eBay was an AUCTION site??). I hope to purchase some BGS 9.5 Xander Bogaerts rookie cards from upcoming releases. I have some of the raw copies, but I'd love to pick up his BGS 9.5 copies of Heritage, GQ and (hopefully) Ginter once that releases. Until next time, keep collecting! Well, it appears that April 18th is the site's two year anniversary. I started this site roughly two years ago in an attempt to share my love for the hobby in the form of a blog, and have a central spot to highlight my collection, store my want / trade lists and track my TTM successes. In the time since launching the site, my life has changed considerably (living in a new state, baby girl, job changes) and the frequency of postings and hobby purchases have fluctuated as a result. Throw in the fact that my collecting focus has changed from time to time: graded Red Sox, graded vintage, current stuff, stuff from my childhood, complete sets, TTMs, Ginter, baseball, football, etc. With all of these, I've really been thinking about what the future holds for this site, if anything.
So, I just re-upped for FIVE MORE YEARS! I love this hobby. It's long been a passion of mine, ever since I was a kid. New 2014 Topps frustrates me. I love dufex inserts from the 90's. Ginter is so freaking cool. Panini is making progress, although I still can't get over the lack of logos. I'm loving the challenge of building sets. I've started paging my sets in binders. Still love BGS 9.5 and BVG 8.5 cards. I'm passionate about the hobby and I feel like my opinion / thoughts / posts may be interesting to collectors. Hope you won't get sick of me. The hobby lives... In a what was a somewhat last minute decision, I decided to attend a card show in Newark, DE and it was a GREAT decision! For starters, I got to meet up (again) with one of my favorite people on Twitter, Chris Harris (@stalegum). You'd be hard-pressed to find someone more knowledgeable about the hobby and it's history than Chris.
I arrived shortly after the show opened, immediately noticed Chris and stopped over to say hi. I had brought a small box of stuff he needed (mostly Ginter) and topped off the box with a 1992 Studio Bip Roberts card. I parked myself in front of a "25 cards for $1" box to see what I could find. It was mostly base cards, but I thought I might be able to find some set needs and/or treasures. Here's the 25 cards that I purchased for $1: '85T Hershiser RC, '85T Fisk, '85T Gwynn, '85T Carew, '83T F. Jenkins, '82D Winfield DK, '90D Yaz Puzzle, '06A&G Gibson & Lajoie, two cards I need for sets (a Chicle & 206) and a 14 UD Masterpieces cards (2 from '07, 12 from '08). I've liked the UD Masterpieces cards for quite some time now, so I figured it was a chance to pick up a small lot at a low cost in order to build a set. My next stop was a corner table (always hidden, great for finding treasures) and I hit the JACKPOT! The guy was super nice and seemed like he was looking to unload stuff at great prices. I was digging through the "2 for $1" box and found some great cards, then I dug through the $1 box and found some more great cards. Finally, I saw another stack of stuff and the guy said "$1 each". I also searched through a "$5 each" box. Here's what I ended up getting for $30 (all in GREAT condition): '81D Yaz, '94UD Minor Michael Jordan, '93 Leaf Heading for the Hall Nolan Ryan, '91UD Nolan Ryan Heroes CL, '87 Leaf Mark McGwire, '85T Saberhagen RC, '85T Franco RC, '85T Gooden RC, '85T Davis RC, '83T Traded Strawberry XRC, '84F Strawberry RC, '85T Strawberry, '85T Clemens RC, '85T Puckett RC, '83T Boggs RC (x2), '83F Boggs RC, '83F Sandberg RC, '81T Ryan, '73T Bob Gibson and a '62T Warren Spahn All-Star. WOW! Is that a huge find? Leave me comments below, let me know how I did! Finally, I felt like going prospecting and found a sweet box full of Bowman and Bowman Chrome cards from the past few years. The cards were $.10 each or "15 for $1" so I picked up 30 cards for $2. Here are the 30 cards (mostly Red Sox): '10BC Henry Owens USA (3x), '10B Doubront (2x) and the following cards from '13 Bowman Draft & Top Prospects: Webster (2x), D. Britton (2x), Bogaerts (3x), W. Myers, Bradley Jr. (2x), Barnes (2x), Singleton (3x), T. Walker (2x), Wheeler, A. Bradley, Singleton, Wacha, Correa and a Cosart. Not bad for $2, right? As a result of my purchases at the show today, I've decided to attempt to build a few more sets: 1985 Topps, 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter, 2007 UD Masterpieces and 2008 UD Masterpieces. I have added the list of cards I need from them to my Want List, and would love to make some trades to knock off items from my Want List! So, tell me what you think! How did I do on my purchases? Have anything from my Want List that you're looking to trade? Post a comment or shoot me an email HERE. I'm excited. Miggy's excited. Are YOU excited? August 7, 2013 is the official date of this year's National Topps Allen & Ginter Day. As I've mentioned previously, my collecting funds are limited this year but I've been eyeing this year's Ginter release as my triumphant return to collecting (albeit on a smaller basis). I am committed to completing a full expanded set as usual, but it may take me longer than normal. This year's lineup is STACKED with non-baseball people that pique my interest and the interest of others (based on reactions I've seen on Twitter). Similar to last year, here are 10 non-baseball autograph cards that I'm most excited about from this year's Topps Allen & Ginter release: 1. Freddie Roach 2. Monty Hall 3. Adam Richman 4. Bill Walton 5. Penny Marshall 6. Mark Cuban 7. Ed O'Neill 8. Axl Rose (although it'll be quite expensive) 9. Pele 10. Bud Selig (not personally a fan, but a cool inclusion) I don't think it was too bad for my first video. I failed to recognize TWO Venezuelan backs and one white chrome from the box. Hopefully they get better from here on out. If you are interested in any of the cards pulled, please email me or leave me a comment on this blog post.
Thanks and keep collecting! This year, I had purchased and ripped two boxes of 2013 Topps Series 1 and pulled two of the Spring Fever redemption cards. I was heading away from home for a few days, but was lucky enough to have the trip scheduled for the day AFTER the Spring Fever packs were released to the public. I made a late trip to my local card shop (Batter's Up in Tewksbury, MA) on February 20th to redeem my cards for two Spring Fever packs. My card shop was fully stocked and prepared when I arrived, so it was a quick and easy redemption process. The guys at Batter's Up are very friendly and I always have great conversations with them whenever I visit. While I was at the shop, they had a few extra packs from National Hockey Card Day so he gave me two packs of those as well. I saw that they had a blaster box of 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen, so I picked that up too since I was thinking of trying to complete the set. My two packs of Spring Fever were good, but unfortunately I didn't receive an autograph. Some players of note were: Mike Trout, Cal Ripken Jr., Stan Musial and Matt Kemp. While I really like the cards, I am happy that I didn't go overboard and purchase a lot of the redemption cards. It seems like others have complained about the pack collation and receiving a lot of extras. All the cards are for trade and I also have the cards from my National Hockey Card Day packs for trade. Until next time, keep collecting! Baseball season has officially begun!
January 30th marked the official release of 2013 Topps Series 1. While the release hit the retail outlets (Target / Walmart) earlier than Wednesday, the official hobby release started off with a bang yesterday with news of hits and box breaks running wild on the internet and Twitter. I had pre-ordered a Jumbo HTA box at my local card shop but decided to splurge and purchase a second Jumbo HTA box when I went to pick up my pre-order. Here are my results and pictures of my hits below: Box #1: Mark Trumbo Chasing History Autograph (1st pack I opened) Willie Stargell MVP Manufactured Pin Relic Andrew McCutchen Chasing History Relic Danny Espinosa Camouflage Parallel #/99 Box #2: David Justice Chasing History Autograph Roy Halladay Cy Young Manufactured Trophy Relic Wade Miley Chasing the Dream Relic Pablo Sandoval World Series Game 1 #298 Black Parallel #/62 Overall, I was thrilled to rip into 2013 Topps Series 1. I think that they really did an outstanding job with this year's release and the photography on the base cards is some of the best I've seen in quite some time. Personally, I think I am starting to prefer the manufactured relic pieces to the jersey cards, as I find them to be very unique and creative compared to a plain swatch of "something" (jersey, pants, etc) that fails to include more detail around what it is and when it was worn. I was able to put together a complete base set and have a TON of extra base here that I can use to trade for insert cards that I need for compiling my traditional master set. I was disappointed in the fact that I failed to pull any of the SP variations, which display picture variations of players attempting to catch/field balls in the stands ("Out of Bounds"). The Rookie Card Silk cards, found in retail blaster boxes, is one of the coolest insert sets and created quite a buzz with collectors prior to the hobby release. I purchased two blasters at my local target and pulled the Bob Gibson and Albert Pujols cards. I've included some pictures of my hits below and I welcome you to provide your thoughts/feedback on this year's Topps Series 1 release. Also, if you have any set needs or would like to make some trades, feel free to send me an email or reach me on Twitter. Until next time, best of luck with your box breaks! |
About Kevin:I live in Southern NJ, originally from NY. I have collected cards for most of my life, currently focused on PSA-graded cards, rookie cards and Boston Red Sox cards. Archives
June 2020
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