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 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 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.

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

The Results Of My Latest BGS Submission

I took advantage of the great 10-10-10 deal Beckett Grading had last month. It was 10 cards for $10 each on 10-day service. I had just opened some 2007-08 and 2008-09 Upper Deck Hockey and a case of 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball. I also had a couple cards from recent eBay purchases that looked good enough to send. You'll see below that did really well evaluating my cards. I was hoping for at least one pristine but that didn't happen. I guess you can't complain when 9 out of 10 come back gem mint.

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.

Blowout Cards Black Friday Purchases

The Blowout Cards Black Friday sale is still going strong but I figured I'd post my purchases to this point.

2 - 2008 Upper Deck Goudey Baseball Retail Box @ $11.27 ea.
6 - 2008 Topps Football Fat Pack Box @ $9.99 ea.
3 - 2008 Leaf Rookies & Stars Football Retail Box @ $9.99 ea.
2 - 2003 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Baseball Hobby Box @ $29.95 ea.
1 - 2007 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Football Hobby Box @74.95 ea.
2 - 2008 Topps Series 1 Baseball Jumbo HTA Box @ $11.27 ea.
1 - 2007 Topps Triple Threads Football Hobby Box @ $119.95 ea.
1 - 2007 Bowman Chrome Football Hobby Box @ $11.27 ea.
2 - 2008 Bowman Football Hobby Box @ $11.27 ea.
2 - 2007 Leaf Limited Football hobby Box @ $59.95 ea.
2 - 2007 Upper USA Nationals Team Baseball Box Set @ $42.90 ea.

I love that they're putting a lot of 2007 Football products on sale. Adrian Peterson rookies are fun to go after.

Head on over to their site before the sale is over. They're doing an amazing job of posting a huge variety of products at amazing prices. Thank you Blowout!

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.

Upper Deck Baseball Series 2 Review

I had to run some errands on the way home from work today. I had to go to the drop off some packages at the post office, buy a birthday card and buy some groceries. I could have bought the birthday card at the grocery store but they don't have baseball cards. I went to Target instead and bought four packs of 2009 Upper Deck Series 2 Baseball. Oh yeah, I got the birthday card too.

I'm going to start a new series in the next couple of days for new product reviews so this post will just be to show the "hits" that I got and a quick first impression of the product.

The packs were $2.99 each and come with 18 cards per pack. Target also had blasters for $19.99 each. Those have 10 packs with 8 cards per pack. They also had the fat packs of 36 cards for $4.99 each. The fat pack is the best deal in terms of price per card but I'm not sure if those include all the inserts available in the blasters and retail packs.

The cards are pretty much what I expected as they're not much different from series one. I actually got a few doubles in only four packs from the same box. That's not very impressive. On the flip side, I think I got some good "hits" for only purchasing four packs. I got a Michael Jordan Goodwin Champions preview card, a 20th Anniversary Retrospective Pedro Martinez and an Emerald StarQuest (Ultra Rare or something) Nick Markakis. These are all pictured below. I also four common StarQuest cards and a Team USA card that aren't pictured.

I don't know that I'll purchase more of this product. I have no interest in building the set and the insert cards aren't that interesting to me. Getting a StarQuest card in every pack is a bit much. The Goodwin Champions cards look nice but I'd rather buy that product when it comes out than to buy Upper Deck 2 to chase the preview cards.

Stephen Strasburg No-Hitter

You knew it was coming at some point. Stephen Strasburg already had a 10-0 record with a 1.38 ERA and a load of strikeouts coming into the game. He's cleary going to be the #1 pick in the 2009 MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals. He's received more press attention than any college baseball player that I can ever remember. What else could he do? Throw a no-hitter, of course.

Strasburg tossed a no-hitter against Air Force last night, walking only two. He racked up another 17 strikeouts in the game. This guy is putting together an amazing season.

Head on over to the Upper Deck Blog and check out their coverage of the game. They live blogged from the game last night and have some great video from the ninth inning.

Strasburg autographed Upper Deck USA cards are selling in the $100-$600 range on eBay, depending on the card and the amount produced.

2009 SPX Rookie Exchange Cards

Upper Deck announced the first two 2009 Upper Deck SPX Baseball rookie exchange cards a couple weeks ago and I've been meaning to write a post about them since. The two cards announced were Koji Uehara of the Baltimore Orioles and Colby Rasmus of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The player selection starts of well enough but that's not my problem. My problem is with the autographs. The regular Uehara comes autographed in English while the limited version, numbered to 25, comes autographed in Japanese. I like this idea. The Rasmus is a completely different story. His regular version comes autographed but the limited version comes with an inscription of "Go Redbirds #28". That's it! There's no autograph on the card.

Will collectors really pay a premium for limited version of this card without an autograph? If I were a Rasmus collector I'd actually be upset to receive the limited card. I'd much rather have the autographed version.

You can check out the pictures of the Uehara on Upper Deck's Facebook page.

Helen Keller UD Legendary Cuts Autograph on eBay

This is pretty cool. Upper Deck has some really great autographs in its 2008 Legendary Cuts product but this has to be one of the best.

How many Helen Keller autographs could possibly exist? I can't imagine that there are an abundance of them.

This one is at $676.00 and the auction ends on Thursday night. It will be interesting to see what it goes for. I posted about a Bruce Lee autograph from the same set back in March that the seller was was asking $20,000 for. It doesn't appear to have sold.

Here is the auction: HELEN KELLER 2008 08 UD LEGENDARY CUTS AUTO CUT 1/1 SP

Mike Mussina Really Likes My Cards

Date sent: 3/13/09
Date returned: 4/8/09

I will start this post off by saying that Mike Mussina is one of the best TTM signers out there. You rarely find a modern day player of Mussina's stardom that signs so reliably. I've sent requests to him on three different occasions and each time received cards back signed in under 5 weeks. You can see from the picture that he has a very nice signature.

I thought it would be cool to get a couple cheap jersey cards and have Mussina sign those. As I've said before, I'm willing to send some nicer cards to players that charge for autographs, or in Mussina's case, are very reliable. So, I purchased two 2008 Topps Heritage jersey cards off eBay and sent them off. The cards only cost me a total of $10 with shipping included.

Here's where it gets a little odd... I had read some posts in the past on the sportscollectors.net forums that Mussina is a collector and tends to keep jersey cards that are sent to him. I'd read the same thing enough times to make me purchase two '08 Heritage jersey cards. Otherwise, I would have just sent one. I figured if I sent two that he wouldn't possibly keep both of them, I'd at least end up with one. I even said in the letter that I wrote him that he could keep one and to please sign one for me.

Well, on April 8th I opened my mailbox and there was an envelope with my handwriting and a return address of Montoursville, PA. I knew that it was my Mussina jersey cards. The minute I picked up the envelope I knew something was wrong, it just wasn't thick enough. I tore it open and found a 2006 Bowman Chrome and a 2001 Bowman Heritage.

I posted to the sportscollectors.net forums later that night asking if anyone had received my cards. I listed the cards that I had received and stated that I'd like to switch them out if anyone got mine. The only replies that came back were members that had sent jersey cards and received others in return, just like me. The rumors were true. Mike Mussina keeps jersey cards.

Am I upset? Not at all. I knew the risk and I'm thrilled to get back beautifully signed cards from Mussina each time I send a request to him. The signed Upper Deck rookie pictured above was a recent return from him. I'll just know not to send jersey cards to him in any future requests.

1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. BGS 10 on eBay

I couldn't resist pointing to this auction too. According to the latest BGS Population Report, fifty five 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookies have been graded a Pristine 10. This is the first one I've seen on eBay but I'm not in the market for one of these.

This is the top card produced in the 90's and one of the most famous of the modern era. You'd never be able to find a more perfect example than a BGS 10.

I wrote about a couple of the 1989 Upper Deck Griffey Buy Back Autographs earlier this month. They ended up selling on eBay for $1,600 and $3,650 respectively. I'm not sure why there was such a large difference.

Which card would you rather have? The perfect example of the Griffey rookie or an autographed version limited to 89 copies?

You can view the BGS 10 auction here: KEN GRIFFEY JR. 1989 UPPER DECK #1 RC BGS 10 PRISTINE

2009 Philadelphia Football Preview

Upper Deck has posted a preview of their 2009 Philadelphia Football product and it looks sharp. The card pictured is a Matthew Stafford from the National Chicle insert set. That is one great looking card. I think it looks better than the base set card but those are really nice too.

Each box will contain one autograph and two memorabilia cards. Each case will contain 2-3 original Philadelphia buy-back cards. I have a feeling that this is going to be a very popular product. I know I'll be purchasing several boxes of this.

I do have one negative comment. Included as insert sets are The Story of Barack Obama, Woodstock 40th Anniversary, The Vietnam War and The Election Years. I really don't like this trend of adding historical and entertainment cards to sports sets. I don't want them. If I'm buying football cards, I want football cards. I'd much rather they put out an all history or all entertainment product.

Here are the specifics released by Upper Deck:

Regular Set:
• 1964 Philadelphia Base Set (300)
• The Story of Barack Obama (25)
• Woodstock 40th Anniversary (5)
• The Vietnam War (10)
• The Election Years (11)
• NFL Stars in Action (49)

Top Inserts:
• 1935 National Chicle
• 1935 5x7 National Chicle R311 (1 per box!)

Box Break: (on average)
– One (1) Autograph
– Two (2) Memorabilia Cards
– Fifteen (15) base set short prints
– One (1) 5x7 National Chicle R311
– Four (4) National Chicle Inserts

Case Break: (on average)
– One (1) 5x7 National Chicle R311 Autograph
– One (1) 1935 National Chicle Auto
– 2-3 Original Philadelphia Buybacks

Release Date: 7/8/09

Upper Deck Product Preview: http://sports.upperdeck.com/collectorszone/productpreview.aspx?aid=5643

Mike Minor TTM Success

Date sent: 3/28/09
Date returned: 4/10/09

This continues the trend of returns from players with cards in the 2008 Upper Deck USA set. Most of the requests I sent were to high school players, 2 have come back. This return my first from a college player in the set.

Mike Minor is a junior at Vanderbilt University. Here is what his coach had to say about him: "Mike is one of the most complete pitchers that I have coached. He has three above average pitches with plus command and pitchabilty. He will be our "go to guy" and one of the top pitchers in the country. Mikie is a well conditioned athlete who has a strong work ethic." - Coach Tim Corbin

David Price pitched at Vanderbilt so it's not like Coach Corbin hasn't seen pitching talent before.

As with the other players, I sent two cards and requested he sign one and keep one for himself. Mike did just that.

Austin Maddox TTM Success

Date sent: 3/28/09
Date returned: 4/18/09

This is my second TTM return from a high schooler with a card in the 2008 Upper Deck USA set. I had previously posted about my Matt Davidson return.

This return is from Austin Maddox. He's a senior at Eagle's View Academy in Jacksonville, FL. Here is what Baseball America had to say about him in their draft preview: "Tremendous arm behind the plate, but throws can be erratic. Rare amateur player allowed to call his own game."

Maddox signed two cards for me. I sent two cards to each high schooler. I requested that they sign one and keep one for themselves.

Matt Davidson TTM Success

Date sent: 3/28/09
Date returned: 4/16/09

I had a crazy idea a few weeks ago while looking at some 2009 mock MLB draft boards. I knew that a lot of the players listed had cards in the 2008 Upper Deck USA set. The problem is that many of these players are still in high school. Could I possibly send a TTM request to a high school player? Was this breaking some sort of TTM code of conduct? I really wasn't sure so I decided to send a few off to see what would happen.

My request that I sent to Matt Davidson of Yucaipa High School in Yucaipa, CA arrived in my mail today. For each request I sent, I included two cards. I asked each player that they sign one card and keep one for themself. Matt Davidson did just that.

Here is what Baseball America says about him in their Top 50 Draft Prospects article today: "Some of the best raw power in this year's high school crop."

In the end, I'm glad that I sent this and the other requests. Any doubts I had about whether it was right or wrong to send a request to a high school player were curbed when I saw that they have already been paid to sign cards for Upper Deck.

What do you think? Has anyone else out there sent a request to a high school player? If not, would you?

Stephen Strasburg Mania

Stephen Strasburg is a 20 year old senior that pitches for San Diego State University. He also pitched for Team USA in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. I don't know that there's been as much hype about a pitcher since Dwight Gooden in mid-80's.

Is the hype deserved? Well, yeah, it probably is. Through five starts this year with SDSU, Strasburg is 5-0 with a 1.70 ERA in 42.1 innings pitched. He has 88 strikeouts with only 8 walks. That's quite a strikeout to walk ratio. Did I mention that his fastball tops out at 103 mph? He's an incredible talent, no doubt. But are collectors going a bit too nuts for this young phenom?

Here's a recent example of an eBay sale, from yesterday actually, of his 2008 Upper Deck USA Red Autograph /25. The card sold for $550! Seriously? He hasn't even pitched in the minor leagues. I know he's been dominant in college and for Team USA but let's get real. I just can't imagine spending that kind of money for a player who's still in college.

The card pictured is his Team USA Retrospective card from 2009 Upper Deck Series 1 which I pulled from a blaster I purchased. This card is not rare by any means but it sold on eBay for $15. I didn't think twice about selling once I saw what they were going for.

Who knows, he may turn out to be the greatest player I'll ever see pitch in my lifetime. If you're interested, he pitches tomorrow against UC Davis at 2:30pm PST at Petco Park in San Diego.