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 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.

I feel like I've sorted cards for days...

I literally just finished putting together sets from my 2010 Topps Update jumbo case. Everyone said you'd 5-6 base sets and that was exactly right. I was 16 cards short of the sixth base set, I'll pick those up on sportlots.com. The master set was a different story, I was way short of that. I had to pick up somewhere between 40 and 50 insert cards to complete that. I was able to pick all of those up on sportlots.com for just under $30.

All in all, I'd say it took me between 6 and 7 hours to put these sets together. I think the next time I buy a case like this I'll put cards in order as I open them, as lame as that sounds. I just can't stand sitting down at a table for hours on end sorting cards. Anyway, the picture below shows the aftermath of the sorting.

Awesome Mail Day!

I came home from work today and was greeted by a mailbox full of padded envelopes. I got a few orders from Sportlots.com filled with 2010 Topps Update inserts to complete my master set. The rest were full of prospects that I'm collecting. Here is the list followed by the pictures.

BGS 9.5 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Status Signatures Stetson Allie 29/50
2009 Bowman Sterling WBC Game Jersey Gold Refractor Liam Hendriks 07/50
2010 Bowman Chrome Refractor Autographs Liam Hendriks 277/500
2009 Upper Deck USA 18U Autographs Nick Castellanos - Lot of 11

Interesting note about the Castellanos lot, you'll notice he added his number to two of his signatures. I'm not sure if that would command a premium or not down the road.

eBay Rant

Why do people win auctions and not pay for them? I've never understood this and never will. Every time I win an auction I'm genuinely excited to add the card to my collection and pay for it immediately. The only exception is if I win something while I'm asleep or out of town. My payments may take up to 12 hours in those cases, never longer.

I got a message from a buyer tonight that made me laugh. The buyer paid today for an auction that ended on November 4th, that's twelve days from auction end to payment. The total including shipping was $12.16. The buyer had the audacity to leave me this message after they paid - "I am very, very Sorry for the delay. Thank you for the great card. Please lmk when you ship it, I need this by Sunday for a Birthday present. Thank you again"

You've got to be kidding me, right? You wait twelve days to pay and then ask for the item to be sent right away!? Of course, I'm going to send the card tomorrow because I also ship all items that I sell promptly. In cases like this I opt to not leave any feedback for the buyer. I won't leave a negative because they did end up paying, but I'm certainly not going to leave a positive either.

Retro Break - 2000 Fleer E-X Baseball

It feels funny to say "retro" when referring to a box from 2002, but that's really how it felt opening this box and pulling cards of players from that year. Aramis Ramirez was still on the Pirates!

I purchased this box on eBay for $37 shipped. The allure of pulling some really great low numbered inserts was too hard to resist for that price. The Fleer (Skybox) E-X brand always seems to be most popular with basketball collectors. Low numbered Michael Jordan cards from this brand always sell for big bucks. I decided to roll the dice and hope for something comparable in the baseball line.

I was guaranteed three game used cards out of this box. There aren't any autographed cards in the set. You can also pull a low numbered Essential Credentials Now or Essential Credentials Future card. The first hit I pulled was a Tom Glavine Essential Credentials Future numbered 015/110. The second hit I pulled was a Jose Video Hit & Run bat card. The third hit I pulled was a Behind The Numbers Ivan Rodriguez game worn jersey card. The fourth hit I pulled was a Essential Credentials Now Jason Giambi game used base card numbered 05/46. I also pulled two no-name nEXt Prospect cards numbered to 2499 and 2999 respectively.

The Glavine and Giambi cards would have been really nice hits back in 2002. I still have a feeling there are some player collectors out there that will pay some decent money for these cards. I think I'll mail both off to CheckOutMyCards.com and add them to my account.

All in all, this was a really fun break. The anticipation of pulling the low numbered inserts was great. I'd definitely buy another one of these for the same price to take another crack at some nice rare inserts.

07-08 UD Hockey Series 2 Box Break - Sometimes You're Lucky

I got a really great deal on some 2007-2008 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey retail boxes on eBay this week. The UPS man came through and delivered them so I have something to open over the weekend. I love when that happens.

2007-2008 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey has one great Young Guns rookie card, Jonathan Toews. That card is the only reason I bought the boxes. Tuuka Rask has a rookie in here too, nice card, but not what I'm looking for. The Rookie Materials jersey cards are nice too, but again, not what I'm looking for.

I couldn't stop myself from opening a box right when I got home. I'm sure you know where this is going... I ended up pulling a Jonathan Toews Young Guns rookie in the first box. Awesome! Each pack comes with an Upper Deck Victory Update card inside, pulled a Toews rookie from those too. My jersey card (1:24) was a Rookie Materials of Andrew Cogliano. Cogliano isn't a great one but I'd rather get a Rookie Materials than a Game Jersey card. The other five Young Guns and the various inserts aren't worth mentioning.

Now, the question, should I open the other three boxes that I bought or store them away? I got the one card that I wanted.

Demaryius Thomas Mail Day

I'm a Broncos fan. It's been a tough go since Josh McDaniels became head coach. Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Tony Scheffler all were traded away after having differences with McDaniels. For that reason, the offense was entering the season with only two skill players to be excited about, in my opinion, Eddie Royal and Knowshon Moreno. The rest of the skill players are cast-off's from other teams.

Well, this is what I thought before seeing Demaryius Thomas play. In his first game against Seattle he had 8 catches for 97 yards and a touchdown. Last week against Indianapolis he only caught two balls but made the most of them going for 43 yards. He's a big, strong kid that looks to have all the skills needed to excel in the NFL.

I knew that I had to pick up at least a couple cards of his as soon as I watched the Seattle game. I opted to go for his 2010 Topps Rookie Variation and his 2010 Topps Platinum Autograph. Both cards only set me back just over $20 combined. I'm pretty happy with both deals.

On a side note, I love Topps Platinum Football. It was fun product to break last year and it remains as fun this year. The card design on the autographs is fantastic and some of the patches I've seen on eBay are amazing. I'd highly recommend breaking a box or a blaster of this stuff if you're looking to open up some football.

2010 Topps Red Hot Rookie Redemption #10

I've never participated in the Red Hot Rookie Redemption in past years. I've always just sold any redemption card that I had before the player was announced. This year is different. The rookie crop this season is so strong that I couldn't resist putting together a set of these.

The assumption is that the 10th card will be the autographed card. Last year had Gordon Beckham (only 10% signed), 2008 had Jay Bruce and Evan Longoria.

I purchased #1-9 on eBay and sportlots.com. I got my #10 from a hobby box of 2010 Topps Series 2 that I purchased. I really don't have much money in my set. That being said, the excitement of the pending announcement got the best of me today and I purchased two more #10's for $15 each on eBay.

Are you anxiously awaiting the announcement like I am? If so, who are you hoping for?

1986 Fleer Basketball Wax Box on eBay

The greatest modern day wax box, 1986 Fleer Basketball, is up for sale on eBay. There can't be too many of these out there anymore, at least that are legit.

I took a look at the sellers feedback and sales history. The feedback is solid and the past sales are all for vintage wax and old sports programs. I'd say that the seller seems very reputable.

What would you do with a box like this? I know that I wouldn't be able to. There will never be another box from the modern era that will be as desired and highly valued as this. To me, it's just too rare to open. Can you imagine opening it and getting a wax stained Jordan?

View the auction here.

Target Half Price Blaster Saturday - 2008 Bowman Football

I know what you're thinking, how could I be buying blasters when I bought all that stuff at the Blowout Cards Black Friday Sale yesterday. Well, trust me, I thought the same thing. Although, the cards from Blowout won't arrive until Tuesday at the earliest. So this purchase is justified... right?

Anyway, I went to Target specifically looking for 50% off blasters. I wasn't going to buy anything that was full price today. I settled on two blasters of 2008 Bowman Football because the only other choices were 2008 Upper Deck Heroes Football and 2008 Upper Deck Series 2 Baseball. I've been on a football kick lately so I figured I'd stick with it. I also needed to see if the two 2008 Bowman Football Hobby boxes I got from Blowout are worth opening.

To my surprise, the "One Authentic Memorabilia Card" they mention on the front of the box is a 2008 Topps Rookie Premiere Jersey card. I just figured it would be a jersey card from the 2008 Bowman set. As you'll see below, I did very well on these. I got a Matt Ryan and a Joe Flacco. I can't complain about that at all.

As for the rest of the cards, nothing exciting. You basically get two Bowman rookies, one Bowman base, one Bowman Gold and one Bowman Chrome rookie per pack. I also ended with two Bowman Blue cards, each numbered to 500. The best card I got out of all of that was a Tim Hightower Bowman Chrome rookie. There really wasn't anything else exciting. I thought it was really funny that one of my Bowman Blue cards was Tony Sparano. I didn't know they made coach cards in this set.

The Bowman/Bowman Chrome design is boring to me. The Bowman singles have black borders and many of them have chipping straight out of the pack. I'd have been very disappointed with the condition if I'd paid full price. Bottom line, I'm not a fan of this product at all and won't be opening the boxes from Blowout. Those will be Christmas gifts or eBay items.

Allen & Ginter George Washington DNA Relic Hits eBay

One of a supposed three 2007 Allen & Ginter George Washington DNA Strand of Hair Relics has surfaced on eBay.

The seller claims that one of these sold for between $30,000 - $40,000 in a private auction. I never heard that and find it hard to believe. It will be very interesting to keep an eye on this and see what it gets up to. The seller has a reserve so my bet is that bidding never reaches that amount.

Either way, it's an amazing card and one that's rarely ever seen. I cannot imagine the rush of pulling something like this from a pack. It would certainly make up for a lifetime of bad box breaks.

Link to the auction here

2008 Allen & Ginter Hobby Break - Red Autograph

I've never opened a box of Allen & Ginter before. I've always liked the way they looked but never got around to buying a box. Well, last weekend I broke down and purchased a box of 2008 Allen & Ginter.

My first impression was the odd shape of the box. It looked more like a box of crackers than a box of baseball cards. Anyway, once I opened the first pack I loved the product. The cards look great and they're perfect for autographs. I'm a big TTM autograph collector so a lot of these will be going out in the mail.

Enough talk, here are the cards that I got:

Mini Baseball Icons (1)
Rogers Hornsby

Mini Black (3)
Marie Curie
Andrew "William Ocean" Litz
Greg Smith

Mini World Leaders (2)
Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said
Robert Fico

Regular Mini High # (1)
Bengie Molina

Mini A&G Back (17)
Mickey Mantle
16 others. Is it normal to get so many?

Relics
Matt Kemp
Carlos Marmol

World's Greatest Victories (1)
The American Revolution

Base SP's (12)

Notable Base Cards
Evan Longoria RC
Jay Bruce RC



I was thinking with a few packs left that I got some cool stuff but the box just didn't have enough bang for the buck. I really went into this hoping to get a Mini Bazooka Back. Much to my dismay, I did not end up with one. Instead, I got a Red Ink Autograph of Rampage Jackson numbered 6/10. I don't watch MMA but I've heard of Jackson. I know that this has to be a popular card but I really have no idea what the value is. One of the regular versions sold on eBay for $51 so this one has to be fairly valuable.



Bottom line: Topps has made a fan out of me. This is a really fun break. The relics looks great and I love the idea of all the mini parallels. I'll be purchasing another box in the future.

Upper Deck Redemption Mail Day

I ordered a tin of 2007 Sweet Spot Football from Blowout Cards about a month ago hoping, against hope to get an Adrian Peterson rookie. Instead, I got Laurent Robinson and a couple average jersey cards. I also got this Reggie Wayne Green Pigskin Sigs numbered to 99. It was a redemption and took about a month to arrive.

Sure, it's not an extremely valuable card and definitely not the hit I was hoping for. But its a cool looking autographed card of one of the top three receivers in the NFL and sure Hall of Famer when all is said and done.

It's a very timely arrival considering that Wayne caught the winning touchdown last night against the Patriots to seal the last second victory for the Colts. I think this one is going to end up in my private collection rather than go on eBay.

Fun Retail Box Break From Target

It's been a very long time since I've posted. What compelled me to get back on the horse, you ask? It was a box of cards that I bought this morning at Target. Rarely is a retail purchase something to write about but this one inspired me.

Target has full retail boxes (24 packs/5 cards per pack) of 2008 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Football for $24.99 each. That's right, this is a full box, not a blaster. As I was staring at the 2009 Topps Chrome Football blasters for $19.99 each, I just couldn't justify buying another with this Absolute Memorbilia box and its $24.99 price tag staring me in the face. The box claims to yield at least one jersey or autograph per box on average. Let's see how I did.

This was a really fun break, that's why I'm posting and recommending you go pick up a box. Overall, I got four jersey cards, 7 red spectrum parallels, 2 blue spectrum parallels, 1 Gridiron Force insert, 1 Star Gazing insert and the #101 Brett Favre card (short print?). Here are the jersey details:

Rookie Jersey Collection
Early Doucet
Matt Forte
Dustin Keller

Star Gazing Jersey /250
Limas Sweed

As you'll see from the scan below, I got Colt Brennan and Peyton Manning in the red spectum parallel cards. Could I get $24.99 for all this on eBay? Probably not. Could I squeeze $24.99 out of it on COMC? I bet I can.

All in all, this was a fun box to break and there's potential to get some really good cards. For just $5.00 more than a blaster box I think this is a great purchase. Target also has some new half price blasters on the shelf. I saw 2008 Goudey Baseball and 2008 Upper Deck Series 2 Baseball. There was probably some more stuff too that I didn't notice.

I'll be posting more frequently from here on out. I've got some good stuff coming in the mail soon to break, including a 2009 Bowman Chrome Football case. Check back soon for the results of that and some other breaks.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Date sent 5/22/09
Date received: 6/6/09

Dick Groat is my fifteenth TTM return from the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates. Groat played fourteen seasons in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants. He also played one season in the NBA for the Fort Wayne Pistons. Groat was a two sport star at Duke University, playing basketball and baseball. He went straight to the Pirates out of college, never playing in the minor leagues.

Groat was a career .286 hitter, finishing with 2,138 hits. He was a five time All-Star and won the league MVP in 1960. Groat was also part of one of the best double play combinations of all time with Bill Mazeroski.

Well, this was really the last realistic request I had out there. I'm going to consider this project completed. The others that I'm missing will have to come from in-person signings or off of eBay. It seems like I've been doing this forever but the first request went out only 41 days ago on April 27th.

The autographs I received during that span are R.C. Stevens, Roman Mejias, Roy Face, Hal Smith, Gino Cimoli, Bennie Daniels, Dick Schofield, Bob Skinner, Danny Kravitz, Dick Groat, Bob Oldis, Bob Friend, Vern Law, Bill Virdon and Joe Gibbon. I also purchased a Rocky Nelson signed '60 Topps card on eBay.

I don't know what my next TTM project will be. I'm open to ideas if anyone wants to leave one in the comments. I'm ready for a new challenge.

The Ultimate 1981 Topps Football Cello Pack

What could be better than Joe Montana on the front of a 1981 Topps cello pack? How about Joe Montana on the front and back of a 1981 Topps cello pack! It's times like this that you don't care about getting doubles in a pack.

I know that I've seen two of the same card on the front of a rack pack before but never a card of this caliber. The cello is on eBay and ends Sunday. It's currently up to $330.55. I can't wait to see what this goes for.

This is also the first time I've ever seen a PSA graded pack. I had no idea they were offering that service. I thought I only GAI was doing that. Does anyone have any idea how long they've been grading packs?

I've never had a pack or box of cards graded. Although, I've never had a pack valuable enough that would make sense to grade. I've had pricey boxes of vintage cards but I bought them to open them. I just don't know how I feel about getting a box of cards graded. I could see getting a pack graded, especially something like this. I really can't see myself ever getting a box graded, though. I'm not even sure that PSA grades boxes but I know GAI does.

Hopefully one day soon I'll have a pack or box valuable enough to consider grading. That's a problem I'd like to have.