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 On August 9th, Evan's Sports Cards and Collectibles (one of my LCS) held an autograph signing for former Philadelphia Phillies player Ricky Jordan. The signing was great, Evan's had ROMLBs to sign and even had some of Ricky's cards to purchase. They were offering a free autograph with any item purchased, so I bought the ROMLB and two of his rookie cards (1988 Score Traded & 1988 Fleer Update - $1 each) and got three autographs for under $20! Can't beat that deal! When I got to meet Mr. Jordan, he couldn't have been nicer. He signed the baseball first with the inscription of his number and "Phillies". Pretty cool. When he signed the cards, he was excited to see the 1988 Fleer Update. He said that it was the first card he was ever on, and how he asked them for a bunch of copies and carried one around in his wallet. I thought it was cool to see the excitement he had when he saw the card, probably brought him back to the first time he saw it. It was great to see the impact that a simple baseball card to make on a person. Anyways, if you're ever in Voorhees, NJ stop in to Evan's Sports Cards and Collectibles. He's got great memorabilia, good singles, supplies and even a few dime boxes to look through! Introduce yourself to Evan too, he's a nice guy and a great shop owner! 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... I have a copy of this issue of Sports Illustrated. As a Red Sox fan, I feel like it is my duty to honor Tony C. by having a copy of this. "What could have been?" is never more true than when you discuss Tony Conigliaro's career. He was a hyped prospect who was putting up huge numbers when this happened. He was the youngest home run champion in AL history - think about the great players who had come before him, and he held that title. Youngest player in AL history to reach 100 career home runs. Unreal talent. It's sad to think about how his career was cut short, but he'll certainly never be forgotten by true Boston Red Sox fans. Here's to you, Tony C.! The East Coast National has come and gone, and I was fortunate enough to attend on Saturday. I arrived shortly after the show opened, approximately 10:30am, paid my $8 entrance fee and entered the show. There were two free autograph signers, and I was excited that Luis Tiant was one of them as I had a Fenway 100 Years ball that I wanted him to sign (already have Fred Lynn and Cecil Cooper on it!). Come to find out later, the line to get free autographs was obscenely long and I honestly didn't feel like waiting for it. Overall, the autograph signing process was terrible and the show promoters should be ashamed of the process. Despite having ticket #37 for Dwight Gooden, I waited in line for over an hour as the show promoter didn't announce the numbers for any of the signers except Patrick Ewing and Dennis Rodman. People were upset about having to stand in line for so long, no one knew which lines to stand it as they were very long and it was time that I could have spent walking the floor buying things so I can't imagine dealers would approve of this process.
Anyways...rant over...I decided to build my '80s collection and got autographs of Dwight Gooden and Jose Canseco ($25 each) on their signature rookie cards. I'm psyched to have added these to my collection. Gooden was super nice and was interacting with people. Canseco was kind of disinterested in interacting with people, but I'll give him credit - he's still jacked and looks like he could still play (even though we know he can't). I never made it to get Luis Tiant's autograph as the line was super long and I wanted to spend time walking the show. I dug through a pretty good $.10 box and found a ton of cards that I needed for sets, almost completed my 2013 Panini Golden Age set. The only other purchase I made were three autographed cards that were $10 each or three for $25. Not a bad group of autographs for $25. Overall, the show was ok. The autograph process was horrible. The selection of stuff was either vintage or new mojo rookies etc. It's funny to see boxes set up with 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's (well, through 85T). I wonder when the 90's cards will become popular again. Definitely not enough of the $.10/$.25 boxes, most only had new stuff (2013-2014) for set builders. I'd go again, especially if there were some decent, low-cost autograph guests. It started with the haul of cards that I purchased at the card show in Newark, DE. The '83T Boggs RC, the '83F Sandberg RC, the '84F Strawberry RC, the '85T Gooden RC. These were signature cards when I was a kid that I could never afford in a million years. Now that I'm an adult, why did I still consider these cards to be well beyond my means? A tweet by one of my Twitter friends, @waxtopia, about the '83T set made me realize that maybe I wasn't alone in thinking this. For example, let's start with Don Mattingly rookie cards. When I was a kid, Don Mattingly rookie cards might as well have been Mickey Mantle rookie cards. They were THE signature card to own when I was a kid and they were far beyond my financial means at that time. Do you know that up until last year, I had never owned a Mattingly rookie? To this day, the only one that I own is his Topps rookie card. Why do I still continue to think that his rookie card is unattainable? Why haven't I picked up copies of his Fleer and Donruss rookie cards? I'm sure the same could be said for a number of the star players from the mid-80's (Mattingly, Strawberry, Gooden, Puckett, Gwynn, Boggs, etc.). When I started collecting again, after my late high school / college hiatus, I thought I would only tip my collecting toe in the water and focus on BGS 9.5-grade cards that I always wanted as a kid: Boggs RCs, Puckett RCs, Mattingly RCs, etc. This way I could have that "dream collection" that I always wanted as a kid, but all the cards would be in top condition. Along the way, I must have gotten distracted by Bryce Harpers, new Topps flagship releases, autographs, set building...you name it! I'm starting to think that I should refocus some of my collecting efforts (and funds) to get back to what I originally set out to do. I'd love to hear your thoughts. What rookie cards (or cards) did you always want to have when you were a kid, but you still don't own? 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... |
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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