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John

My 2011 Card Purchasing Priorities

As you can see from reading my blog I mainly collect baseball prospects. I'm not much for cards from other sports, although I do dabble in hockey from time to time. I've thought about the cards that I want to purchase in the new year and I break them up into two categories, prospects and Hall of Famers.

I'm not much for vintage cards, but the thought of diversifying my collection is appealing. The problem I have with prospecting is the wait for return on investment. Granted, a player doesn't have to make the majors in order for you to turn a profit. I've sold plenty of prospect cards at a profit when a players moves from AA to AAA. The issue I have is that prospects are kind of like taking out a 2-year CD at the bank, the money is tied up and can't be touched. What if I come across a really great deal and need to come up with some cash quickly? I'd be selling off prospects at the expense of future earnings to purchase more prospect cards that are going to sit and wait for future earnings.

Vintage Cards

My 2011 collecting/investing goals now include vintage cards. I really think there are some deals to be had on vintage right now, especially with some of the bigger names. I'm doing this as an investment and a way to get that quick cash that I spoke of before if a great deal comes along.

1955 Topps Roberto Clemente - I had a chance to purchase one of these when I was a kid and didn't do it. For Pirates fans, this is the holy grail of baseball cards. A PSA 3.5 recently sold for $400.

1954 Topps Hank Aaron - The true home king. Did you know that you can pick up a PSA 3 of his rookie for around $400? Absolutely crazy.

1963 Topps Pete Rose - The hit king, another record that will probably never be broken. You can pick up a PSA 5 in the $400 range.

1980 Topps Rickey Henderson PSA 9 - The PSA 10 is a little to rich for me right now. The PSA 9 hangs out between $175-$200. That's a bargain in my eyes considering he owns a record that will never be broken.

Prospects

There are too many cards available to list individual cards. I'll go the route of just naming players, in no particular order, that I'll be prospecting in the next few months before prices really start to rise.

Jesus Montero
Dustin Ackley
Jarrod Parker
Grant Green
Aaron Hicks
Brett Jackson
Nick Castellanos
Tony Sanchez
Julio Teheran
Kyle Gibson
Mike Moustakas
Martin Perez

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 1

Picking my #1 purchase of the year was the easiest card to select in this list. It really wasn't even close. Brett Anderson is by far the main player that I collect. My collection consists of mostly rookie cards from 2007, but I'm always looking for anything rare of his. Right now I'm working on his 2009 SP Authentic By the Name set. I currently have four of the eight letters. I'm always looking for low numbered inserts and parallels of his as well.

Anderson was drafted in the second round of the 2006 MLB Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was traded to the A's in 2007 as part of the Dan Haren trade. Anderson made his major league debut in 2009 and didn't disappoint. He went 11-11 with a 4.06 ERA and 150 strikeouts with only 45 walks. He struggled with elbow injuries last year and only made 19 starts. When he started, he was dominant. He went 7-6 with a 2.80 ERA and 75 strikeouts with only 22 walks. His slider is his top pitch. It's a beautiful thing to see him drop that slider on the back foot of a right handed batter for the third strike.

The card pictured is his 2007 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Gold Status Autograph graded BGS 9.5 gem mint. Only five of these cards exist. I purchased this raw on eBay taking a chance that the condition was as good as the seller said it was. It turned out to be an accurate description as it came back a gem from BGS. I was thrilled to just own the card, having it grade so high was icing on the cake.

I'm hopeful that Anderson can stay healthy in 2011 and show everyone that he is one of the elite left handed pitchers in the game.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 2

I know, here we go again with the Pirates. I told you when this all started that it would be obvious who my favorite team is by the end of this countdown. I can also reveal that Andrew McCutchen is my favorite Pirate. He plays the game hard and with a smile on his face. There's nothing to not like about this guy.

The Pirates selected McCutchen with the 11th pick in the first round of the 2005 MLB Draft. McCutchen finally joined the Bucs in 2009 and immediately made a huge impact. He finished fourth in the ROY voting, too low if you ask me. He's batted .286 each of his two seasons. Last year he eclipsed 30 stolen bases (33) and continued to be one of the best centerfielders in baseball.

The card pictured is his 2005 Bowman Sterling Autographed Jersey rookie graded BGS 9.5 gem mint. This card will the void in my McCutchen collection until I get one of his 2005 Topps Chrome Update Autographs.

The nice thing about collecting Pirates prospects is that their cards are always cheap. If McCutchen played for the Yankees or Red Sox you'd never be able to pick up his cards at their current levels. The bad thing about being a Pirates fan is that McCutchen could end up on the Yankees or Red Sox when he becomes a free agent. Such is life.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 3

This card may look familiar to those of you that read the blog regularly as I just picked this card up within the last two weeks. As I've already stated, I'm a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. I started my Jameson Taillon collection the minute the Pirates drafted him #2 overall in the 2010 MLB Draft. The Pirates haven't had a pitcher with this kind of talent in their system in a long time.

The card pictured is his 2009 Upper Deck USA Red Autograph numbered to 25. I try to pick one of these up for every prospect that I'm investing in. I know a lot of collectors/prospectors stop buying Upper Deck USA cards as soon as a Bowman card is produced of the player their collecting/prospecting. I continue to buy the USA because the prices on the base autographs drop significantly. Give me an autographed USA card over a chrome refractor any day of the week. The fact is, if the player becomes a star, the USA cards are going to rocket back up in value.

Baseball America doesn't release their Pirates Top 10 Prospects until January 12th. I'm guessing that Taillon will top the list. From all indications the sky is the limit for this kid and I can't wait to track his progress in 2011.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 4

Grant Green immediately became one of my prospect targets when he returned a TTM request I sent to him at USC. Any modern player that signs through the mail is alright in my book.

Baseball America recently rated Green the #1 prospect in the A's organization. That bodes well for my ever-growing collection of his cards. He'll start 2011 in AA and work his way up to AAA at some point. He's projected to be playing shortstop for the A's sometime in 2012. Green's bat is there and consistent, the concern is his fielding. His arm is on the fringe to play shortstop in the majors.

For every prospect I collect, I always try to land a Donruss Elite Extra Edition Status Autograph numbered to 5. They're obviously very hard to find, but I've been successful with a couple of the players I collect. This is another one of those cards that I saw on eBay and knew that I had to win, no matter what the price ended at. The price, if I recall, was somewhere in the $65 range, a bargain in my opinion.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 5

This is another card that I knew I had to own when it hit eBay. I'd been looking for the 2006 Christian Colon Aflac regular version for a long time. I'd already picked up the promo version a while back. I couldn't believe my luck when the first one I ever saw was graded a PSA 10 gem mint. I really couldn't believe my luck when another one showed up on eBay just weeks later. I obviously bought both of them.

Colon is one of the players that I've been collecting for almost a year. I've amassed a huge collection of his Upper Deck USA autographed and memorabilia cards. I also picked up a nice stash of his 2010 Bowman Chrome USA cards.

The Royals took Colon with the 4th overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft out of Cal State Fullerton and quickly signed him for slot money. Colon got some good experience under his belt by signing quickly which should get him to AA this year, well ahead of his fellow first round picks. If all goes as planned, Colon could be the Royals stating shortstop in 2012. Their system is loaded with talent that will be arriving from 2011-2013. The Royals are poised to have a really good team for a 4-5 year span if they play their cards right.

I couldn't resist inserting a tiny rant about Topps before closing this post. Topps claims that only 250 of each Aflac regular version exist. This card absolutely proves that number isn't correct. Colon was part of the Debut Cuts set in 2010 Topps Pro Debut Baseball. That set used cut autographs from 2006 Aflac regular version cards and the Colon was numbered to 200. 2010 Bowman Draft also included Colon in the Aflac buyback autographs. Understandably, the Colon is low numbered (/49) because they used up a lot of them in the Pro Debut Cuts set. That adds up to 249 of these cards that Topps has released in their 2010 products. I obviously own two of these so that puts us up to 251. If you search eBay you'll find a couple more out there, putting us up to 253. How many were produced? Who knows. I know one thing, it's still a very rare card and I'm excited to have two gem mint copies in my collection.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 6

When I saw this card on eBay I just knew it had to be mine. This is where I'll give away the MLB team that I'm a fan of, that's right, the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's been a tough 18 years, but things are looking up because of recent draft picks like Stetson Allie.

The Pirates took Allie in the second round of the 2010 MLB Draft and Jameson Taillon in the first round. They were the two hardest throwing right handed pitchers available in the draft. The Bucs thought so much of Allie that they gave him a 2.25 million dollar signing bonus. Amounts like that are typically reserved for first round draft picks.

This card is Allie's 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Status Autograph. Only 50 copies were made and this one is graded BGS 9.5 gem mint.

Investing in high school draft picks can take a long time to pan out, especially if it takes the player a long time to adjust to the rigors of a full minor league season. In this case, Allie plays for my favorite team so I'm not worried about this one sitting on the shelf for a few years.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 7

This is the only card on my list that I actually pulled from a pack of cards. Sadly, it was one of my better pulls of 2010. Not to bash the card, but I'd hope for something better than this card for my pull of the year.

Zack Wheeler was rated the #3 prospect in the Giants organization by Baseball America entering last season. The two players in front of him were Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner, now with the Giants. This means that Wheeler could earn the #1 spot in the Giants organization when Baseball America releases its 2011 Giants top ten on January 26th.

What really makes this card special is the grade given to it by Beckett Grading. It earned the elusive BGS 10 Pristine grade, my first card to ever receive this grade. This is his autographed Xfractor from 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft, only 225 produced.

I never could figure out why the autograph received a 9 grade. I've had a couple come back that way with no explanation.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 8

Well how do you like that? Another Aflac card. Like I said yesterday, I love these cards because it's the very first card produced of every player in the set and the regular versions are limited to 250 copies. These cards are handed out at the Aflac All-American game so it can be challenging to find nice mint copies.

I picked up this Matt Purke BGS 9.5 on eBay early on in the 2010 college baseball season. I'm not quite sure what this card would go for today as you never see them. I just know that I was really excited to find this card, let alone graded BGS 9.5 gem mint.

TCU will enter the 2011 NCAA Baseball season ranked #1 in the country. Purke will look to build on his incredible 2010 freshman season where he went 16-0 with a 3.02 ERA and 142 strikeouts with just 34 walks. Two of those wins came in the College World Series where he went 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA.

Purke was drafted 14th overall by the Texas Rangers in the 2009 MLB Draft, but Texas failed to sign him. You can be sure that he'll go higher than 14th if he decides to enter the 2011 MLB Draft in June.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 9

It's funny, the first two cards I'm posting are of prospects in the Minnesota Twins organization, but that's not my favorite team.

This is a card that I searched almost two years for. Topps/Bowman puts out their Aflac All-American set every year, only producing 250 of each card. More common promotional versions were released in 2006 and 2007 and I already had one of those. Landing the regular version at a reasonable price always eluded me. It wasn't until Hicks had a slow start to his 2010 that I was able to pick one up.

I'm a big fan of the Aflac cards as they're always going to be the first card produced of any player featured in the set. Being that they're limited to 250 make them even more desirable in my mind. Also consider that many of them are given to the players and many are purchased back by Topps and released as buy-back autographs, or more recently cut autographs in 2010 Pro Debut Baseball. This makes the non-autographed versions one of the most rare cards you'll ever find for players featured in the sets.

Hicks is rated the #2 prospect in the Minnesota Twins organization by Baseball America, formerly #1. He's 21 years old and will begin his 2011 season in HiA at Fort Myers. He's projected to be a five tool center fielder with good power.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 10

Over the next five days I'm going to count down my ten favorite card purchases of 2010, two per day. As I was going through my cards tonight I realized that I'm partial to my favorite team and a particular type of card. You'll notice these trends over the next five days. I only have a couple players I collect and they both have a card represented in this list.

On New Years Day I'm going list a card, or list of cards that I'm most looking forward to purchasing in 2011. Hopefully I'll be able to show off those cards during the year as I obtain them.



Most of you are going to say who is Liam Hendriks? Well, as you can see from the card pictured, he pitched for Team Australia in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He's 21 years old, from Perth Australia and had a fantastic 2010 season between LoA and HiA in the minors.

Hendriks is in the Minnesota Twins organization. He split 2010 between Beloit (LoA) and Fort Myers (HiA), posting a combined 1.74 ERA in 108.2 innings pitched He had an 8-4 record, 105 strikeouts, just 12 walks and a 0.84 WHIP. Baseball America ranks him the #6 prospect overall in the Twins organization. Among pitchers he ranks #2 just behind #1 overall Twins prospect Kyle Gibson.

The card pictured is his 2009 Bowman Sterling World Baseball Classic Game Jersey Black Refractor numbered 24/25. This was his only card until 2010 Bowman Chrome came out this year. I've purchased quite a few of 2010 Bowman Chrome autographs but I still prefer this card as it is very hard to find. I spent almost the entire year looking for this version after I'd already picked up the base, refractor, blue refractor and gold refractor versions. I was thrilled to finally add this one to my rainbow.

2011 Topps Baseball Packaging

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. I spent time with family and ate a lot of good food. Santa didn't bring me any cards so I've had to get my fix reading card news online today.

The thing that got me most excited was the first look on the Beckett Blog at the 2011 Topps Series 1 Baseball packaging. This is obviously a blaster box, but still gives us a look at the design and a small peek at the odds.

The odds that we're given are for the Diamond Giveaway code cards, 1 per blaster box.
If my memory serves, the odds may have been better in retail last year. I seem to recall pulling two code cards per blaster in 2010. The odds for Diamond Giveaway in hobby (1:6) and jumbo (1:1) remain the same as they were this year.

We can also see on the packaging that the manufactured commemorative patches are back and fall one per blaster box. I find that the patches sell very well in the first few weeks of release. It's nice to know that you can pay for your whole blaster if you hit a desirable patch.

The other thing to remember with Topps Series 1 is that there are usually hidden short printed cards. Last year it was Abe Lincoln hidden in a handful of Cubs cards. I wouldn't go selling sets or base cards until these short printed cards have been discovered. On the flip side, it would be a good time to buy up commons and complete sets before everyone figures out what those cards are.

I always get excited for the flagship Topps release. This year should be a blast considering it's the 60th year of Topps baseball cards. It really fills the void for me between the end of the NFL season and the start of spring training baseball.

Awesome Upper Deck USA Mail Day!

I'm John and I'm a Nick Castellanos addict. You may think this is a repeat post, but it's not. I've bought a bunch more 2009 Upper Deck USA Nick Castellanos autographs. I also got some other really nice cards with this lot.

I guess it's time for me to start buying some chrome cards of these guys. I only have base chromes of Machado, Taillon and Colon, nothing autographed. I have a few Castellanos 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition autographs.

Here's what I got in the mail today:

10 - 2009 UD USA Nick Castellanos Base Autograph
1 - 2009 UD USA Nick Castellanos Red Autograph /25
4 - 2009 UD USA Manny Machado Base Autograph
1 - 2009 UD USA Jameson Taillon Red Autograph /25
1 - 2009 UD USA Christian Colon Red Autograph /25

Bowman Chrome Wrappers!

You guys have all seen the results of my Topps Chrome wrapper redemption packs. I redeemed enough wrappers for 24 packs. I was really happy with the results of those so I figured I should dive into the Bowman Chrome wrapper redemption program. I purchased a lot of 684 wrappers on eBay which will yield 38 redemption packs.

For the Topps wrappers I paid an average of $3.35 per box of wrappers. For the Bowman Chrome wrappers I paid an average of $6.75 per box of wrappers. I think the increase is price for the Bowman Chrome is very reasonable considering what these packs can yield.

Topps tweeted last week that the redemption packs will start shipping in January. I'll be sure to post the results of my packs as soon as they come. I can't wait!

Bowman Chrome Wrapper Redemption Program Details

For every 18 wrappers of the hobby version of 2010 Bowman Chrome Baseball set to the company, collectors will receive an exclusive 5-card pack of exclusive Black Bordered Parallels of 2010 Bowman Baseball cards. All 110 prospects from the Bowman checklist will be included.

In addition, Topps will randomly insert the following cards into 5-card redemption packs:

37-card USA Baseball Bowman Chrome Black Bordered Autographs numbered to 25 featuring the 2010 Collegiate National Team as well as the 2010 18 & Under National Team.

5-card Bowman Chrome Rookies & Prospects Autographs numbered to 100 featuring Buster Posey, Mike Stanton, Mike Moustakas, Miguel Sano and Dustin Ackley.

And due to a production error, the previously announced Autographed 2010 Bowman Chrome USA BUYBACK program will now be included as part of the wrapper redemption. Cards will be numbered to 100 and will include big names like Bryce Harper, Jameson Taillon, Yasmani Grandal, Drew Pomeranz, Michael Choice, Christian Colon, Manny Machado and Bryce Brentz.

Blowout 12 Days of Christmas Break - (2) 2005/06 Upper Deck Hockey Series 2 Retail Boxes

Below are the results of my 2-box 2005-06 Upper Deck Hockey Series 2 retail break. I was looking for the same card everyone is looking for when they break this product, the Alexander Ovechkin Young Guns rookie card. I got an Ovechkin rookie, but it was from Upper Deck Victory Update which are inserted one card per pack.

This was a pretty disappointing break as I was really only interested in the Ovechkin Young Guns rookie card. It was nice to get his Victory Update rookie but it's not the same. You also have a chance to get Sidney Crosby's Victory Update rookie in these packs. His Young Guns rookie is in 2005-06 Upper Deck Series 1. Below are the highlights of the break:

Victory Update Rookies
Alexander Ovechkin
Henrik Lundqvist

Stars In The Making
Sidney Crosby

All-Time Greatest Finalist
Wayne Gretzky

Destined For The Hall
Mario Lemieux
Steve Yzerman

Rookie Threads Jersey Card
Ryan Suter
Cam Ward

Game Jersey
Nick Boynton
Tim Connolly

Young Guns
Adam Berkhoel
Brad Richardson
Gerald Coleman
Greg Jacina
Jakub Klepis
Dennis Wideman
Erik Christensen
Eric Nystrom
Dimitri Patzold
Tomas Fleischmann
Jeff Tambellini
Danny Richmond
Gilbert Brule
Matt Greene
Al Montoya

Blowout 12 Days of Christmas Break - 2008 Topps Chrome Football

Blowout Cards has been running their 12 Days of Christmas promotion for 10 days. You should check it out as there have been some really great deals. The deals on Day #9 were too good for me to pass up. I purchased a box of 2008 Topps Chrome Football for $39.95 and two boxes of 2005-06 Upper Deck Series 2 Retail Hockey for $39.95 each.

Below are the results of my 2008 Topps Chrome Football break. This product is loaded with rookies that are having great seasons this year. Unfortunately, I didn't pull any great rookies from this box, but I still got some nice stuff. I'm a big fan of the box topper that comes with this product. It's a nice added bonus after you've torn through all of your packs. Here are the highlights:

Autographed Rookie
Eddie Royal

Box Topper
Tom Brady Gold Refractor /199

NFL Dynasties Refractor
Bill Bates /100

Regular Refractors
Chad Henne RC
Adrian Peterson Pro Bowl

Base Rookie
Darren McFadden

2010 Bowman Draft Retail Break

I didn't find any of this while I was on vacation in Phoenix. When I saw some at my local Target this morning I couldn't resist picking some up. I picked up four rack packs and two blaster boxes. You'll see scans of the odds for each pack below. The rack packs have far better odds, just as 2010 Bowman did.

Blaster Pack Odds

Rack Pack Odds


I've included a scan of the base chrome, base chrome prospect, base chrome USA, blue refractor, purple refractor and USA jersey card below. The best card I got out of all the packs was a Manny Machado purple refractor. I really like the look of the USA jersey cards, even if they do use the same photo as the base card.

Vacation Mail

I got quite the bundle of mail from Topps while I was on vacation. Most of it was Red Hot Rookie redemptions finally rolling in, the rest were autograph redemptions from 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball. Here's the funny thing, all of these cards came regular mail except one, the Stephen Strasburg RHR was sent certified mail. I guess Topps is making sure that they have proof of receipt for those. I think it would have been cheaper for them to send those first class with delivery confirmation than certified, but whatever.

The Red Hot Rookie redemptions look great and they're on chrome stock. I wasn't expecting them to be chrome stock, but I've never had any of these cards from previous years to know if they always are. Topps has sent me #'s 1-8, I'm just waiting on #9 Mike Minor and #10 Brett Wallace. I hope that I get at least one Brett Wallace autograph as I sent in three for redemption. I'll keep you posted on those.

The two autographs I received from Topps Chrome were Brian Matusz and Brandon Hicks.

Vacation Breaks

I've been on vacation for the last five days in sunny Phoenix, AZ. That's the reason for the lack of updates to the blog. Reality punched me in the face last night when I returned to temperatures in the 20's in Washington DC.

While I was in Phoenix I couldn't resist the urge to check out a Target and Wal-Mart to see what they had. I ended up buying a blaster of 2010 Bowman Platinum Baseball and a 2010 Best of Chrome value pack.

Bowman Platinum Blaster These come with 8 packs for $19.99. I've been seeing some great breaks in the various forums and figured I would give one a try. I really don't like the base cards. They're not chrome stock, just regular cardboard. The cards are flat silver but come off cheap looking to me. The nice thing is that these packs are loaded with prospects and rookies. It gives you a good shot at getting a base rookie or prospect card of many different players. I did end of getting an autographed refractor in my blaster, like many others that I've seen. Mine was Justin Marks of the Oakland A's. You'll see the card design below. I included a base rookie, base USA and the autographed refractor. The scan made the base cards look really dark, sorry for that.




Best of Chrome Value Pack These come with a nice looking 5-card refractor set of Stephen Strasburg, Jason Heyward, Starlin Castro, Jackie Robinson and Mickey Mantle. You also get 2 Million Card Giveaway Redemption code cards, 5 packs of 2010 Bowman Chrome Baseball retail packs, 5 Topps Chrome Baseball retail packs and 1 2010 Bowman Platinum Baseball hobby pack. All of this will set you back $29.99. I like this assortment. Kudos to Topps for putting a great Christmas gift out there for a young collector at a reasonable price. I would much rather open one of these than a blaster.

I didn't fair so well from these packs. The hobby pack of Bowman Platinum yielded all base cards. The best card from Topps Chrome packs was a Roy Oswalt National Chicle refractor. The Bowman Chrome packs did yield an orange refractor but it was Ryan Dempster. Still pretty nice to hit a refractor that rare from retail.