Santa's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits

This is my second year participating in Secret Santa organized by Matt over at Bob Walk the Plank.  Last year was a lot of fun and this year turned out to be no exception.

Who was my secret Santa this year? Let's find out!

Ah ha! It's Matt from Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits.  Admittedly I'm not too familiar with Matt's blog as it somehow escaped my radar.  I've rectified that error however as he is now part of my blog reading roll.  After looking around his blog for a bit I realized I did remember reading one of his posts where he bought a case of 2016 Allen and Ginter X for cheap as the seller had pulled all the autos.  Hidden among the packs though was a redemption for a Kenta Maeda autograph. How cool!  I look forward to reading more of his blog.

What did Matt send me?  As he noted, I don't really have a solid want list posted on the blog.  That's something I hope to add in 2018.  I started with a Top 5 list on the right sidebar.

Matt threw a bunch of Mariners cards my way, which is greatly appreciated! I haven't cataloged any of the cards yet but I can say with 99.9% confidence that these are all cards I do not have. Nicely done Matt!

A smorgasbord of cards from the 80s and 90s.  A lot of notable names like Harold Reynolds, Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez, and Jay Buhner.

Two silver buybacks.  I forget the "rarity" tier but I think silver was somewhere around mid-tier. 

Team sets from the last three issues of Allen and Ginter X.  Very cool! I didn't have any Ginter X cards before this.

More modern cards including two rad die-cut cards.

Another first.  My first Topps Gold Label card.  Mitch Haniger too, who is my favorite Mariner newcomer.

A jersey card of none other than The King.  Solid!

It wasn't all baseball.  Matt suck in this die-cut of Rich Sherman.  I'm not really collecting football like I used to but this card will fit happily into my collection.

Thanks for all the wonderful cards Matt!

Showing Signs of Life at the Card Show

You may or may not have noticed my absence from blogging over the past few weeks.  It has all been for a very good reason.  On October 10, my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Theodore.  Since then my life has been occupied with 3AM feedings, daytime naps, poopy diapers, and the occasional videogame to de-stress (Super Mario Odyssey is awesome btw).  I haven't even had time to keep up with reading blogs.

Newborn Theo

Newborns are supposed to feed at least every 3 hours so I figured I would have time in between those feedings to do card related stuff.  Nope. In between taking care of myself, my recovering wife, and making sure household chores don't pile up, time goes by quickly.

Now at the almost 1 month mark, things are normalizing somewhat.  My wife was even gracious enough to let me attend my local bi-annual card show.

The largest purchase of the day (literally) was a complete set of 2008 Upper Deck First Edition.  The big draw here was the price: $5.  The design is decent enough but the real kicker was the inclusion of a relic card.

It's not a card show without picking up a few additions for my Felix Hernandez collection.  I love picking up Topps Museum cards on the cheap ($1) considering these are from a high-end set. 

The playing window on Felix is closing soon.  He deserves the respect of being an opening day starter but next year he might be pushed back to #2.  That will be a sad day.

These cards are from this year's Topps flagship set.  Gimmicky as they are, I enjoy seeing players in their holiday/special event jerseys.  When I get several more cards of these alternate jerseys I'll have to branch them out into their own PC.

 

With the birth of my son, I've added a few players to my collection roster.  I'm collecting players who share a birthday with my son.  I plan to expand upon this idea in a separate post to come later.  Andrew McCutchen is a great player and I'm excited to start collecting him.  I don't know if this 2005 Topps Update card counts as his first rookie card but either way, it's a nice looking card.

The card on the right is from Panini's 2016 Father's Day promo set.  It is the thick stock parallel numbered to 50.  For only $1 it was an easy pick up.

Troy Tulowitzki is another player who shares a birthday with my son.  Tulowitzki had a down year last year with the Blue Jays, which hopefully will help soften the price on some of his cards.  

Typically I stay away from collecting Griffey in a Reds uniform.  I'm not upset or anything that he left Seattle, it's just that with so many Griffey cards I need some focus.  I made an exception for these cards since they feature the 2001 All-Star Game logo when it was held in Seattle.  As a bonus, this is a two-card oddball set from Ritz/Oreo.

The 2016 Panini Diamond Kings Rookie Signatures Silver is the only relic (and auto) set I plan to complete.  I have over half the set and was surprised to see a set need show up at the show.  

Retail relics from 2008 Topps. I love 2008 Topps. 

At the last card show I found a WSU Cougars Smokey set.  As luck would have it, I found another set at this show.  Since the cards are unnumbered I wasn't sure if I found the complete set or not.  Unfortunately, after checking the Trading Card Database, I discovered I am one card short: Drew Bledsoe.

It will be difficult to find that card available as a single so I might have to purchase a complete set.  Bummer.

That wraps up my card show for this year.  It was a nice feeling to get back into cards! Thanks for reading!

Color Coordinated

Two recent purchases have made me appreciate the art that is a color coordinated parallel.  Occasionally a card's colored parallel will match up well with the player's photo/team colors.  

Here are two such examples that I can think of off the top of my head:

2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Debut - Gold

I'm loathed to actively seek out a Los Angeles Lakers card.  The 2008 and 2010 NBA Championship Finals with the Boston Celtics and the Lakers are the primary cause behind my dislike for the Lakers.  The Celtics should have captured their second title with the "Big Three" (or four if you counted Rondo). 

Anyway, I'm a Gonzaga basketball fan, which is the primary reason I was drawn to this card.  The other reason being that I think the set design is top notch.  With the photo of Turiaf in his college uniform I consider this part of my Gonzaga PC.  Even though it is properly listed as a Lakers card. 

As much as hate to admit it, the card matches the Lakers' purple and gold colors very well.  As a bonus, this card is low-numbered out of 50. 

2017 Topps Chrome - Green

Whereas the previous card look nice due to the design elements coming together, here the photo matches up with the parallel color.  The Mariners' "Northwest Green" uniforms debuted in the 90s and hung around for a couple years.  After some sporadic appearances in the 2000s, these jerseys became a regular fixture in the Mariners' uniform rotation in 2011.

The greens don't match up perfectly (side note: at one time my wife legitimately thought I was color blind) but I think they match up enough to consider this a color coordinated parallel.

Do you have any favorite color coordinated parallels?  

Crackin' That Chrome

I've bought into a total of four group breaks.  Group breaks are antithetical to my idea of collecting.  I like collecting my team cards but I also like to complete sets.  I could easily use that money towards blasters, singles, or even buying a complete set outright.  The allure of landing a big PC hit is temping so I can understand the draw.

Two of my group breaks have come at the hands of Crackin' Wax. The husband and wife team are entertaining on the stream, have a passion for the product, and treat the cards well.  For whatever reason I decided to buy into their 2017 Topps Chrome, half-case break.

I strongly dislike this year's Topps design but Chrome cards typically look nice, even if the base design isn't savoy.

I have't yet to hit a nice card in my group breaks so did I have any luck this time?

As expected, I hit all of the base cards with some extras to boot.

The lone insert of the bunch.  I don't recall if this exact card was in Topps Flagship.  I know this insert set was included previously.  I will admit these are a fun look at at a player's Bowman cards.

Unfortunately, no Chrome color this time around.  The colored parallels are really what make Chrome exciting and pop.  While disappointed, getting a total of 4 base parallels felt like a surprise.

Enough teasing with the boring cards, you came to see some hits!  It turns out the very first hit of the break was for ME! I could not wait to see that beauty in person.  And wouldn't you know, I had another hit on the way!

When my spoils arrived at my house I checked and double checked but did not see the two autograph cards! After e-mailing Crackin' Wax, they quickly said they would track down what happened.  A day later, the mix-up was solved and the cards would be on their way to me shortly.  100% professional service and in no way nefarious.

My two cards literally came to me from the Tampa Bay Rays.  After trading us back Erasimo Ramirez (who admittedly has performed adequately since coming over to the Mariners), I couldn't believe that I had been fleeced by the Rays, again.  All was well, though!

There we go.  A purple parallel of Dan Vogelbach! I would have much rather preferred Mitch Haniger, as Vogelbach is going to languish down in AAA for who knows how long.  An auto numbered to 250 is still a solid hit.  The base auto was a nice little bonus.

I'm not one to buy into group breaks regularly but I can confidently say that Crackin' Wax has done well by me.

An Alternative Baseball Card Day

I didn't make it out to a card shop on Saturday to pick up my pack of free Topps cards for National Baseball Card Day.  My schedule Saturday morning was packed.  When I woke up I had to finish cleaning the house and yard for my wife's baby shower that afternoon.  We will be having a baby boy at the beginning of October!

After cleaning up, I needed to leave the house before the two dozen ladies stormed upon my house.  I planned to see Dunkirk in IMAX, which didn't leave me any time to swing by my LCS. I did, however, have a chance to stop at Target to pick up a blaster and hanger pack of Topps Chrome since it is next to the movie theater. There was nothing of interest in my packs so I'm not going to bother showing them off.

Dunkirk in IMAX should be the only way you see the movie. The tension of the movie felt ratcheted up even more given that the screen was larger and the sound had greater depth. I've read some articles about how the movie is not completely accurate but these inaccuracies do not take away from the powerful nature of the film.

Anywho, while I didn't partake in the official pack openings, I did pick up a Seattle Mariners stadium giveaway set on eBay.  I didn't need cards of the jabronis Topps was giving away on Saturday. I wanted my Mariners!

Cano leads off the Seattle team set and is the Seattle representative in the main promo set.  This design is much better than the Topps flagship design.

A quick look at the back of the cards.  

This could be Iwakuma's last card as a Mariner.  He has been sidelined with injuries this year and with his age, the Mariners will likely move on from him.  

I appreciate the fact that Topps included a current season photo of Segura.  I can tell by the patch on his right arm.  

I do wish Topps would use a new photo of Mitch Haniger.  They have been using this photo since the Spring Training Topps Now set.  The Topps Now sets were supposed to be unique.  When Topps continues to use the same Spring Training photo, when Haniger has surely plenty of regular season photos, it is very disappointing. 

Diaz has not been the reliable, lock down closer that I had expected him to perform like.  He's still been pretty solid in the closer role.  He's young and I think he will get even better with more experience.  

This is my favorite card in the set.  The Paxton photo looks excellent with the 40th Anniversary patches prominently shown.  Paxton was pitching lights out this year until his most recent injury. This is his second stint on the disabled list.  He loves going on the DL. 

I believe every team set featured one legend card.  A Griffey card would have been nice but Edgar is nothing to sneeze at.  The Mariners retired his number over the weekend, making a big show about the retirement weekend.  In typical Mariners fashion, they lost every single game against the Angels. They sure do know how to disappoint their fans.

I hope everyone had a good National Baseball Card Day!

Catching Up After a Busy Weekend

In between working overtime on Saturday and participating in a live, Legend of Zelda escape the room game, I manage to fit in a card show.

This show advertised 45 tables booked, which would make for a big show.  Unfortunately after working overtime, I didn't make it to the show until the afternoon so I couldn't spend as much time there as I would have liked.  Probably for the best as my budget was only $12.

A low budget meant I spent all time browsing the dime and quarter boxes.  The first table I looked at didn't have that much that interested me but I saw cards for sets I needed.  Nothing too fancy.

I need most of 2015 Topps Series 2 so I picked up about 10 cards.

I also needed 1 more card to give me an even dollar amount so I found this Crown Royal die-cut of Raul Mondesi.

People typically like Bowman for the prospects and rookies but I like the design of 2016 Bowman that even the regular old pros are good enough for me.  I hadn't actively been looking for base of Bowman but after seeing a fair number of Bowman, I decided to pick these up and add the set to my collection radar.  

1992-93 Topps is a set that I'm always looking out for when I head to card shows.  I've now realized I only have about 22% of the set so it might take me a finish up this set.

A couple random Upper Deck cards to round out this table.

After leaving this table part of me felt glad to knock down some set needs.  A bigger part of me felt disappointed because my selections were so boring! Most of the cards above I could have just as easily purchased online.  I feel like when I go to a card show I should grab something special. Something I wouldn't normally see.

Well the next table scratched that itch.

Ahh here we go! The next dealer had quarter boxes full of Griffey cards.  Most of the cards I bought were base but I have such a lack of Griffey cards that I will pick up Griffey cards for a quarter all👏day👏long👏

This will bump Griffey up to being #1 in my collection.

Several more Mariners pick ups including a couple base cards from high end sets like Tribute and Museum Collection.  I also snagged a 2009 WBC card of Dae Ho Lee who played for the Mariners last year after coming over from Korea.  I think this card marks his first card appearance.  

Lastly, and somewhat randomly, there is a 2013 Topps Chrome refractor.  I picked up this card only for the fact that this set looks metallic.  

I'd say I made good use of my $12 coming away with some set needs and fun pick ups for the PC.  I think the next card show will be in June and that should be the one that's only 5 minutes away.  I can't wait!