With all of the through the mail autograph requests that I sent out for Spring Training, it's hard to believe that it's been 21 days since my last success.  Needless to say, I was thrilled to see another successful return today, especially since I'm moving in a few weeks and have concerns about future TTM returns not being delivered to my new address.

Justin Masterson, former Boston Red Sox pitcher, signed both a 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter card and a 2012 Topps Heritage card for me through the mail.  I've read that he's a great signer and was really excited to see the biblical scripture on the card as well.  I had the chance to meet Justin at an autograph signing at the Shriner's show that was put on by the Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club (GBSCC) and got his autograph on a cool 8x10 picture.  He is a very nice guy and was great with all of the fans that got his autograph that day.  It's nice to see that he signs autographs through the mail as well, and I'll have to try him again as soon as I can dig up a few of his Ginter cards from when he was a Boston Red Sox.

I'm a big fan of Justin Masterson and I hope he has a great season in 2013!  Until next time, keep collecting and reach out to me if you'd like to make any trades.

THIS is what eBay should be!  A true auction site where people list their items at $0.99 and they sell for what the market truly dictates it's value is.

As a collector of BGS/BVG cards, especially 9.5's, of my favorite players, I saw this item post on eBay with a starting price of $2.99 (not $0.99, but not bad for a starting price).  The S&H cost was $0.99 and it was a true BGS 9.5 of Bobby Doerr, one of my favorite Boston Red Sox players.  How could I not pass up this item?  I put in a low starting bid which would at MOST totaled out to $5.00 if it reached my max bid.  What did it end up selling for? $3.98 TOTAL, including the S&H cost.

This is the eBay that I miss the most.  No high starting bids, no BIN prices, no fixed price items.  Just good ol' fashioned auctions with low starting prices that sell for what the item is truly valued at by the market.  I have been cutting back on my purchasing due to the upcoming move, but I couldn't pass up this item as it's rare to find BGS 9.5 Bobby Doerr cards posted on eBay (or anywhere else for that matter!).

Until next time, keep collecting and trading!

It is with mixed emotions that I finally announce that my family and I will be moving to Southern New Jersey in mid-April.  While this is the best move for my family and I from a personal and a professional standpoint, it's bittersweet to be moving away from an area that we've called home for the past five years.

In addition to helping to re-establish my love for the sports card collecting hobby, the area is home to some of my favorite sports teams: Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics.  I've enjoyed being able to witness World Championships for each of my favorite Boston teams while living in Massachusetts, which I think is a pretty cool achievement.

The Boston area is a hot bed for sports card collectors, both in terms of the number and quality of shows, but also the Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club.  The GBSCC meetings have been great and the annual convention has been a must-visit every year since I moved up here.

I'm looking forward to our move and finding new card shops / shows to attend.  I hope to meet a ton of new collectors and attend a few Phillies and Flyers games.  I'll likely have a tough time posting updates until after the move is completed, so I hope you all stay with me and continue to visit.  Be on the lookout for a lot of great new features, posts and TTM successes upon my return.

For my friends at the GBSCC, say hi to Sibby Sisti for me wherever he is.

A business trip for work brought me to Northern Virginia and close to the home of the infamous hobby collector Chris Harris a/k/a @StaleGum.  I sent Chris a few messages through Twitter and arranged to have dinner while I was in the area.

Chris is a very passionate collector who shares his thoughts and views on Twitter, and this has earned him his fair share of fans and detractors on Twitter.  His debates with Chris Olds from Beckett are legendary, as they both have very passionate views about the hobby that we all love.  Despite exchanging numerous messages over the past two years, we had never had the opportunity to meet in person so I was excited to finally meet one of my card collecting friends from Twitter.

Chris arrived with a box of cards full of stuff from my Want List, and the box also contained my first official "Bipping" (for those unfamiliar, see the origin here: Thorzul's January 2010 Blog Post.   I opened the box and immediately saw a handful of 1986 Fleer Update Bip Roberts XRCs.  Oh Chris, why did I not see this coming?  The even bigger surprise, was that I had also been Moore'd!  He was "kind" enough to include 55 copies of 1989 Topps Brad Moore cards.  Too funny!

It was a great night, we talked cards, the hobby, sports, sports radio and a variety of other topics.  Chris is a great guy and I'm glad that we finally had a chance to meet.  I recommend you give him a follow on Twitter (@StaleGum) and check out his website (StaleGum.com).  You may not agree with everything he says, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone more passionate about the hobby and their collection.

Until next time...

I was psyched to get two cool TTM Autograph returns last week.  I had quite a hectic week, so I apologize for not posting these (or other posts) sooner.

The first return (top of the picture) was from Andrew Bailey.  From what I've read, TTM requests to Red Sox players have been historically difficult to achieve as there is a rumor that the Red Sox prevent their players from signing during the season.  This success was sweet not only because of the rare Red Sox success, but also because he's in a Red Sox uniform on the card.  It'll be interesting to see if there is a turn in success for the Red Sox this year, as they have added some players who have a historically been great TTM signers (Napoli, Dempster).

The second return was cool for me, because as a dog owner I always thought it was cool that Tony Hoard signed these cards for his dog too.  Being that these cards were released quite a few years ago, I was taking a chance that he was still actively signing these.  Needless to say, I was happy to see this one return and my dog was happy too!

I have at least two more posts coming this week, so stay tuned to the site for more blog updates this week.  Thanks for reading!