Local Card Shop Pick-Ups

I stopped by one of my local card shops today, Sports Collectibles of Houston and picked up a bunch of cards. Mainly autographs but also a couple of other cards as well... check them out!

Ok, so first if all we have a autographed 1962 Bobby Shantz Colt 45's card, then an autograph Milo Hamilton card (legendary announcer for the Astros, called Hank Aaron's record breaking homer), J.R. Richard auto (oh if he hadn't had the stroke, the Astros would have challenged for the playoffs with a rotation of Nolan, Niekro, Richard, et. al.) and J.R. Towles serial auto. Nice additions to my Astros auto group. Next up is the Enos Slaughter auto postcard, always awesome to pick up a reasonably priced HOF auto. If anyone is interested, the store has several more of these so e-mail me and I can pick one up for you and mail it to you for $10 shipped. Finally, a bit of trade bait for Rhubarb_Runner! Hope he needs this one, Kirby Puckett 2002 Topps Archives Reserve Best Years game used jersey card (hint of a pinstripe vertically on the far right). David, let me know if you're interested!

Next up:

Two more HOF'ers in Yount and Carlton for my 1978 set chase. And a Gino Cimoli 1963 base card. I got his cut signature in my Tri City Sports PL box breaks and I wanted to get one of his cards, lucky for me it was in the $0.50 box. He passed away this February, so I am glad I now have his auto and a card to put next to it.

Finally I bought a couple of packs of Heritage (although I hate having a stack of them now... but they were cheap and I got a hit!):

Definitely available for trade!

18 of the Gypsy Break packages went out today. I am waiting for addresses from Rod (Padres) and Colin (Mariners). I'll shoot them another e-mail but if any of you converse with them regularly, let them know I'm needing their addresses!

Speaking of Gypsy Queen... I wasn't going to buy any more, but after doing the group break... I'm HOOKED... must have more... so be prepared for something next week as I look to buy some more!!! I want the complete set!!!!

2011 Gypsy Queen Group Break!!!!! It's FINALLY HERE!!!!

Here's the video... all packages are ready to go, will probably get them mailed out Friday at the latest... enjoy...


So the positives: some pretty good hits... a printing plate, dual jersey/auto, sepia mini, couple of jersey swatches... LOTS of cards! 48 packs + 2 mini packs! Great design and execution of the set.

The negatives: Shorted 2 hits (as has been the case for most boxes of this set), HORRIBLE COLLATION!!! The bronze border parallels were horribly collated with sequentially numbered duplicates within the same box! I will be writing a nice long letter with the two UPC labels that I'll be sending to Topps for our 2 replacement cards.

The Walter Johnson cards when to the Twins and the George Sisler "St. Louis Browns" cards went to the Orioles, as those are the direct teams which those franchises moved to. The randomization of the Gypsy Queen cards are at the end of the video, in case any of you couldn't wait that long! I have 2 complete checklists and another with 3 of the 4 cards. First 3 people who e-mail me will get them.

I still need mailing addresses for Colin (Mariners) and Rod (Padres). E-mail them to me ASAP!

Overall, there were what I would consider two below average boxes. The collation on the inserts and the base cards was ridiculous, and you'll see when you get your cards that there are some players that got 4 base cards in the two boxes. No bueno. Hopefully you all enjoyed the break video and for those of you who got the good hits, congratulations! All teams' group break card totals have been updated on the sidebar. (I realized afterwords that I included the "bronze border parallels" as inserts in the total count, sorry guys!).

Hopefully this break, my first to host, won't be the last and I hope that all of you feel you got your money's worth! Thanks to each of you who participated!!!

The Dimwit is back...

Vacation was great... 7 day cruise through the Caribbean with stops in Honduras, Belize and Cozumel. I will tell you now, Honduras (specifically Roatan Island) sucks big time. Was not a fan. The tour guide pointed to a rusted out metal boat laying in the harbor and tried to tell me it has been there since the 1650's. I wanted to kick her in the face with a nice round house and tell her to shut her face, but the wife was there so I just laughed in her face and kept looking around at the rest of the island. Still can't figure out why Royal Caribbean (or any cruise line) decided to make it a port-of-call. Maybe we missed the good part.

Belize was nice, we zip lined through the tree canopies and got to walk around a bit. Got a cheap bottle of Captain Morgan Private Stock rum which will make for some nice Rum & Cokes to get me through the Astro games this season... Cozumel lived up to its reputation. A catamaran trip with snorkeling, kayaking and a private white beach was just what the doctor ordered.

Finally the last night of the trip, my wife and I sat down at 10:45pm with $160 bucks at the Three Card Poker table and walked away at 1:00am with $500. Sorry folks, but that will not be "bonus break money" but rather "supplement the personal collection" money. I've got my eyes on a decent condition Nolan Ryan rookie card and I want it!!! GIVE IT TO ME!!!! MY PRECIOUS!!!!!! Ok, I'll settle down now...

I should be picking up the Gypsy Queen boxes tomorrow provided my LCS has received their shipment. Thanks in advance to Houston Sports Connection for the boxes, I will of course pimp them to the brink of annoyance during the break, but you Houston area people need to get over there and shake hands with Howard. He give great deals to honest collectors and people who aren't looking to screw him over. He knows you can get better deals online, but will make the best deal he can within reason to get you the cards you want. I think he has an eBay store, but I don't have a link to it as of yet. I'll see if I can get that info from him so you all can take a look at what he's got posted.

Have a great week everyone... hope to have a video or two up soon!

Gotta love Wal-mart and their discount blasters - - 2011 Gypsy Queen GROUP BREAK BONUS!

Alright, here you go everyone... another bonus...

I wanted to scan this in just to show that it does in fact say "Astros" on the front. If it were a more desirable player, I'd make a bigger deal out of it. But I'm going to go ahead and cede it to the Rockies, since it is my break and I make the arbitrary rules. Plus Preston did far more in a Rockies uniform than in his half season with the Astros before moving onto the Cardinals to win the title with them!

I'll warn you all ahead of time, in reviewing the cards after breaking the box, the is quite a bit of corner damage throughout the packs, in fact almost every card has a small noticeable dent in the top left corner on the back. Sorry...

Seriously, this is the last post... vacation starts tomorrow and I still have to pack!!!!!

What? Where did this video come from?!?!?!

Oooooo... look what I found...



Ok, so maybe I wasn't done before I headed out for vacation...

Group Break Results - Inserts, Parallels and Hits

Here's a couple scans of all the hits, inserts and parallels. I left out the Oswalt, the odd thing is that I already had this card, so it becomes trade bait! Here's the scans!

I do have to say, even though I've never heard of Shawn Camp of the Devil Rays, it's a nice looking signature.

As for the Bay card, I've decided it will be randomized off. 1) Because that's what I said I'd do. and 2) Because even though he was with the Pirates that year, there are plenty of collectors in the break who would collect it as well and 3) It states his team as Canada on the card, which is what I'm basing the team designations on, so it'll go in the random stack.

I have posted a team-by-team break down in the side bar!

And here's the thrid box! 2006 Artifacts... got some nice hits...

We've come to the end of the pre-Gypsy Queen portion of our break (or have we?!?!?!?) and I want to send out a BIG thanks to the guys at Atlanta Sports Cards for all of their help and the discounts on these boxes. You've got 4 hits to look out for here in this video and again they all went to different teams. Unfortunately this box missed some teams, but that was expected with only 10 packs at 4 cards per pack! Enjoy! I'll get the grand totals thrown up on the side bar this afternoon!



Another big thanks to my wife as well for putting together the credits at the end. I'd have never figured it out, and was in fact about to start kicking something when she intervened to help.

I might squeeze a post in on Saturday, but I'll be on vacation starting Sunday, so you won't hear much from me until the 25th at least! Hope everyone enjoyed the cards from these 3 boxes!

Let's have a standing ovation for... Ovation... 2006 that is... BOX #2 of the BREAK!

Here's the second box... we'll have something like 2 hits, 6 inserts and 2 parallels in this box... if my chicken scratch record keeping is correct...

Let me apologize ahead of time: I kind of poo-poo'ed one of the hits because it wasn't a player I was familiar with, but I am sure the person who got it will be excited, so to that person I hope my disappointment doesn't sour your hit! Hopefully you all will understand what I mean, I felt bad about it as soon as I stopped recording... anyways, here you go, one box of 2006 Ovation!


There is an insert in there from the World Baseball Classic... I kind of asked for input, I had said cards without a team would be randomized off, if anyone has an opinion on whether this card should be randomized or given to the team which that player was on that year, please let me know. As of now I'll random it because I said I would. But I'm conflicted...

Artifacts box video tomorrow!

The 2011 Gypsy Queen Group Break Begins!!!!!!

Here you go everyone... I've busted all three of the first boxes, but I'm going to make you all wait for all three! Here's the first box, 2002 UD MVP. 24 packs per box, 8 cards per pack, special Ichiro insert set (congrats Colin), gold & silver parallels and the possibilities of jersey and signatures! At the end of the video is a recap by team with how many base, inserts, parallels and hits each team received. I'll do this for each box, then once I get these three boxes done I'll post a sidebar of a complete recap of all three boxes!



****Many thanks to my wonderful wife for doing the credits on all the break videos, this Dimwit couldn't figure it out and she helped me out!****

Group Break Update

Well, turns out that the release date for Gypsy Queen apparently got pushed back to the 27th, so it looks like it'll be at least then before I get to bust those two boxes. However, the first three boxes of the break should arrive here at the Dimwit abode tomorrow or Wednesday... so I will probably do a box per day through the end of the week. I'll do a running tabulation of cards for each team throughout the break!

I did want to reiterate that any cards with multiple teams will be randomized among the teams listed on the card. Additionally, I know sometimes Upper Deck had a horrible habit of putting a team name on the card and then have the player's picture in a different uniform. For this break, we will be using the team name shown on the face of the card, regardless of what picture is used. Additionally, for the Gypsy Queen break any cards that are non-baseball related will be randomized off amongst all participants. If there are multiple cards of this sort then they will be distributed by means of the randomized list order. All randomizations will be videoed as well as screen captured. Any cards from teams that have moved will go to the city/team that the team moved (example, all Expos cards pulled will go to the Nationals).

Hope everyone had a great Monday!

The Final Box of the Super Group Break is....

It's been a decent weekend as far as sports goes... the Astros finally won another game, today against the Marlins. J.A. Happ pitched a solid 7 innings and the offense finally showed up for more than 4 runs. Never would I have thought at any point this season that the Astros would have as many wins as the Rays and Red Sox COMBINED!!!! Muahahahaha... sorry, had to sneak in an evil laugh there...

I've had my eye on a few eBay auctions but alas the opening bids are way too high and with less than an hour to go there are no bids. Why start an auction with a price so high? If you start with a lower bid, surely the auction would probably get to the price you want to start with.

Alright, alright, enough procrastinating, I'll get to the point you all are actually here to read about...

Heck yea! That's our third box!!!! In recap, that is a box of 2002 UD MVP, 2006 Ovation and 2006 Artifacts. Like I said, Atlanta Sports Cards threw together a great deal for us and they shipped on Friday. Hopefully I can get these busted and posted by the end of the week.

Oh yea, these may not be the last cards added to this break... there's a card show this next Saturday before I leave out for vacation... I'll let any additional packs be a surprise at the end of the Gypsy Queen video that I put together Monday/Tuesday the 25th/26th!

Have a great week everyone!

Trade Post... Book Info... and some group break news...

Alright, first things first, I want to give some props to Eric over at Manupatches and Chrome Scratches. Not only does he run a very entertaining blog, he had some Astros mojo to send me and I just happened to have a Manupatch for him. The keystone to the trade was the Bagwell/Dye game-used base card. A GAME USED BASE! And of course anything Bagwell related is gladly welcomed into the Astros hit binder here at The Daily Dimwit! He also sent along a few sweet Astros cards as well!

Secondly, contrary to what anyone says about me, I do know how to read. I recently got an offer to do my first book review! So, I'm going to take the book shown below on my cruise vacation and hopefully breeze through it and give you all a decent review! It looks like a very interesting book!

Finally... I guess you want the group break news... well, I think it's only natural that I throw another jump break right.... about... now...

2011 Gypsy Queen Group Break Update!!!! AWESOMENESS!!!

I've got great news everyone. The two questions from the last post have been settled. First of all, I'll let you know that this group break is now going to be co-sponsored by Houston Sports Connection (my local card shop) for the Gypsy Queen portion of the break and Atlanta Sports Cards for the non-Gypsy Queen portion of the break. Now, you may be wondering what the heck is going to be the non-Gypsy Queen portion? Three boxes! YES, you read that right THREE hobby boxes. Now, I'll tell you I had to dip into my own money just a bit to get these three, but I couldn't pass this up. So, for the break we'll have a total of 5 HOBBY BOXES!!!!!!!

Oh, you want to know the exact boxes??? Well, I'm going to add some suspense. I'll tell you the three boxes over the next week or so, one box at a time... one post at a time... first up is this beauty after the jump:

Final Two Teams in Group Break!!!! Get a STEAL OF A DEAL!

Alright, I'll make the offer to anyone who wants the White Sox AND D'Backs. If you claim both teams, you can have them for $16. Or of course if you want one of them, $10 each...

I'm currently awaiting payment from Johnny and Schwang17, both of which should have payment sent by Friday. I should be in good shape to secure the boxes and bonus cards by next weekend. At this point, I'm going to ask any and all participants to leave a comment with ideas or requests for the bonus box and/or product in the range of $50-$60. Would you prefer a few blasters, rack packs, loose packs and/or a few "hot packs"? Or would you like a full box of unopened product?

Feel free to put in your requests in the comments and thanks to everyone who is participating!!! I CANNOT WAIT to get these boxes in hand. Also, does anyone have a suggestion for LIVE broadcasting of the break? I have a USTREAM account, but I know the ads can be annoying. Let me know what you think or if you wouldn't mind if I just recorded the break and put it up on YouTube as with my normal break videos. If I do it that way, I can record it in better picture quality with my camcorder as opposed to the webcam. Let me know what you think!

****UPDATE: The last two teams have been claimed, we have a full break!!!!! I will definitely be getting a full hobby or maybe a couple retail boxes depending on what you all vote on. Thanks for all those participating!!!!****

Trade Post and Gypsy Queen Group Break Update!

Hey everyone, I have a trade to show off... this is from Johnny over at Cards from the Quarry. He had his eyes on a Brad Hawpe jersey relic card in my trade bait for a while, and was able to come up with this absolute beauty of a card!

This is my first Mike Scott relic card, and this is only one of two that I'm aware of! The other one is a relic card from the celebrity softball game held at Minute Maid Park during the All-Star festivities a few years ago. So, this is the only actual MLB game-used jersey card from Mike Scott, so add in that it's all chromed out and it is impressive in the binder! Thanks Johnny!

Alright, I am going to close the group break this Friday the 8th! I still have 3 teams available: D'backs &White Sox!!!!!. If you want either of these teams, they are only $10 each, but if that's too much feel free to make me a reasonable offer (please be reasonable) and if someone wants to make an offer for both teams, please do so! I'd love to get these all closed out and not be left with a bunch of cards from teams I don't collect! All payment is due by this Friday for anyone who hasn't paid. ***UPDATE: I heard from Schwang17 and his payment is on the way.***

Here's the plan, once I close the break and all money is collected, I'll put aside an estimated amount for shipping and for the two boxes, then any excess will be used for buying additional packs, blasters or a box if there is enough. I plan to make absolutely ZERO PROFIT off of this break. I did not build in any profit and fully intended all along to use any excess specifically for extra packs/blasters/box for the break. I will pay for the boxes on the 16th of April. I'm going on a vacation the 17th-24th, will pick up the boxes on the 25th and break them that afternoon/evening! I need to get the money collected by this Friday in order to get the money transferred and withdrawn from my bank account in time to start buying! If anyone knows of people who might be interested in the remaining teams, please get them in contact with me! Thanks everyone!