What Did The Dimwit Buy With His Christmas Money?

Baseball cards of course... duh!

Alright, we stopped by the LCS this afternoon and I snagged up a box of 2012 Bowman Sterling. This is new and improved. As they got rid of the mini-boxes from years past and loaded it with ONLY autographs. No cheap relic hits and such now a days. You get 18 autographs! Last year I was shorted my promised dual auto or relic and it was replaced. This year there is no such promise, but there are some available.

Here's my loot:

The six base cards/inserts:

Let me be the first to say, these cards are ridiculously nice! The top row are all numbered. They are all kinds of shiny and the scan (as great as it is) doesn't do it justice. Awesome looking cards and yes, they are all for trade!

Next up, my autographs!

 These are 15 of the base autographs, plus the redemption for the Montero refractor! Most of these guys, I've never heard of... some like Fried, Travieso, Walker and Cecchini have a bit of recognition factor. Slick looking autos, all on-card the card stock + shiny factor make me very happy. Great looking set of cards. It'd be pretty awesome to put together the set of these autos. It'd look awesome in a binder!

The two refractors I pulled:

I don't know nothing about this Haniger fella, but Parker looks like he's going to be a force to deal with in the AL West! Crazy how the Diamondbacks keep trading away such great arms with the recent Bauer deal to Cleveland. They know how to pick 'em! 

Well, unfortunately there's not a single card from this box that fits in my collection. There are some Astros in this set, so if any of you pull one I'd love to swing a deal! 

My Wife's Christmas Loot!

Ok, so the main gift to my wife this year was an awesome new blanket and a great fondue pot... she'll make great use of those of course but you know I've got to get her some cards for Christmas! So in her stocking I found two loose cards at the LCS, plus a couple of blaster boxes of American Pie... we're still hoping to put together the full HOLLYWOOD sign set, but haven't made much progress... and didn't make much with these blasters either!

Well, here is the first of the two loose cards:

This is from 2011 Americana, of course. A nice triple relic of Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Lamour and Bing Crosby!

The second card is from American Pie, I think it's pretty neat...

Yes, if we all wanted to we could go to Dallas and get some of the Grassy Knoll, but it wouldn't be as cool as this card! It's unique and a bit gimmicky, but it's still a piece of history and we like it! 

Alright, the first blaster was a bit of a dud, and only netted us the following relic:

By all means, any of you who are The Monsters fans this card is for trade... I have no clue who this guy is or who he played... I don't know if I've ever really watched a full show... 

The second blaster was LOADED with good stuff... first up, a buy back card and a /76 Spotlight parallel of Rod Serling!

Ok, so I wasn't even aware there was a /76 parallel set to American Pie as we hadn't pulled any of these! So, it was cool to get one out of a blaster. The buy back is from 1979 "The Black Hole" movie card set. I hadn't even heard of this movie! Am I THAT out of touch? Granted, I wasn't alive in 1979 but still, I'd have thought I'd run across this movie somewhere along the line, right? 

Finally, she got a BIG HIT out of the second blaster...

Whoa! We now are half way to the American Pie America Relics (we only need the Lewis and Clark Trail and the Gettysburg piece). Very cool! That was a nice redemption for the first blaster! I just wonder how Topps got away with going up to the statue and chipping off enough to get these cards made!

She did so well with that second blaster, we were at Target last night and I picked her up another blaster! She got a card with pack odds of 1:670 packs! Check it out:

Ok, so it's rare-ish (not numbered)... but it's Kato Kaelin... hmm... kill it with fire!!!!! I love the tag line at the bottom "Actor/Trial Witness" because you know, we'd totally remember him as an actor if it hadn't been for that whole OJ trial thing... Thanks American Pie... thanks... looking at the checklist of available auto/relics, this isn't the absolute worst but there's not a "WOW" card in that list either...

SEE UPDATED "WANT LIST" on the side bar if you have any American Pie stuff for trade!!!!

Packages Abound Upon My Return

Wow, ok so the mailbox was chock full of goodness upon our return from Christmas break...

First of all a trade with Arno of I'm Ballsy fame... we hammered out a deal where I ended up with these two beauts:

For all you Tigers fans drooling over the Tramell, sorry but I dealt for this card (#'ed 1/10) as part of a deal to get a trade completed with Dustin over at Coot Veat and the Vealtones, this one is headed right back out to the mail on Monday! The Hollywood card is for the wife of course, she loves the old leading men and ladies of Hollywood's Golden Era.

Next up, a quick redemption from Topps!

Freddie, we really need to work on this autograph of yours! Anyways, it's for trade!

Next up, a purchase from BrentAndBecca on eBay. They had a bunch of the Leaf Buybacks /20 on sale and none of the Astros had any bids, so I snatched all these up!

And finally...

A long awaited package that I wasn't sure would ever show up... a couple months ago now, Kevin aka The Diamond King held a Trade Bait Draft and I jumped in. The cards accidentally got mailed to my former Houston address on November 17th. The package was stamped "return to sender" then had a forwarding label slapped over it, so apparently the current occupant took the package to the PO and they finally realized I had a forwarding request in... anyways, long story short I got my cards!!!!

I ended up with quite a bit of trade bait and a few keepers... all the bait has been added to my photobucket for those interested... behold...

A slew of Game Used and Autos!

And then some nice vintage and base cards!

My first copy of Lance's Bowman "First Card"...

Some nice vintage there! Kevin, thanks for a great draft!

I've got more stuff to show off tomorrow once we're 100% unpacked!

Hope you all had a VERY Merry Christmas, and sorry for the prolonged break, but I think I needed it!

Christmas Loot

The wife did a great job! JJ Watt autographed mini helmet! Sweeeeeeet!

Another COMC Haul!

Well, I had some spare money and headed over to COMC to have some fun... here's what I ended up with:

Mini's:

This slew of 2012 GQ minis reduces my needs list down to just three: 88, 119, 160.
Also, the Konrad Schmidt from 2011 reduces my needs list in 2011 GQ minis down to just three as well: 310, 324, 331.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts, please contact me immediately... ;)

Full sized cards...

 The Car-Go is an SP which is my last non-Yu-Darvish SP needed to complete the set base set. I don't know if I'll ever end up with the Darvish. For some reason my want list said I needed Mays, Felix and Gibson and I don't know why but I picked them up anyways. I need just two more Gypsy Kings to complete that set as well! I picked up a couple of GQ autographs towards that subset with Gio and Clay. The Nolan auto was a cheap /99 pick-up! I was pretty excited!

Triple Threads Rainbow!!!!

 Gotta love a nice TT rainbow of a favorite player!

Finally, some hits!

A SWEEEEEET Berkman /25 patch card, a Berkman/Oswalt/Pence triple relic and a manu-patch! Not too shabby. The Martinez is #'ed out of 199 and is all shiny!

Have a great break everyone, this may be my last post until the new year!!!!!

December Group Break - Bonus Blasters!!!!!

Since we got shorted a hit in the final box, I decided to turn two blasters that I bought for myself into BONUS BLASTERS for the group break...


A scan of the exciting stuff after the page break!

December Group Break - Box #4 - 2012 Gypsy Queen Retail Rack Pack Box

As always...


Scans after the page break...

December Group Break - Box #3 - 2012 Gypsy Queen Retail Rack Packs

Here's the video:

So I had NO CLUE how long it would take me to bust the entire rack pack box... this video is pretty long in terms of Dimwit Group Breaks. In the next video tomorrow, you'll see I went from showing every base card, to basically doing the mini's, inserts and short prints while rushing through the base! It's totally worth watching the video for my reaction to the big hit that lurks within!

Scans after the page break...

December Group Break - Box #2 - 2008 Goudey Retail

Here's the video:


And as always, scans after the page break...

December Group Break - Box #1 - 2008 Masterpieces Retail

Thanks to TJ over at 6,000,000 Cards and Counting for this break!

Here's the first video!


As always, scans of the good stuff after the page break:

A Trade With Kemp Kershaw

I don't feel like typing out the complete name of his blog, so Greg a.k.a Kemp Kershaw and I had worked on a trade for a while and finally completed it the other day. I have yet to mail his end out, since I'm waiting on the massive mail day that will be the Group Break to get all my mailings out...

Anyways, here's the cards from Greg:

Nolan Fontana may be the next big thing in Houston... he also could be the next Adam Everett. He drew 5 walks in his first game in the Astros minor league system so I'm pretty excited to watch his potential. He skipped rookie ball and went to A ball out of the draft so here's hoping he moves quickly through the system. I love the Bagwell half of the SPX Materials card, anyone want to take the bottom portion if I cut it in half???? Another Bagwell to round out the top row! The Jonathan Meyer card was a bit of a surprise when he offered it because I had to go research who he was! Apparently we drafted the guy and I wasn't paying attention! Anyways, a very nice patch auto numbered out of just /30. Finally, we have a card for the wife's collection, a gently loved Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford card from a mid 30's tobacco set! She loved it!

Hopefully our group break package arrives today. It was shipped Wednesday via "Priority Mail (2-3 days)" but showed "Left Sorting Facility"this morning, my fingers are crossed it gets to my PO before my driver packs up their truck for deliveries!

USPS Is A Lie... Group Break Update

Well, the good news is that you all have another day to put trades together... the bad news, USPS says the expected delivery was by today and they aren't here... boo...

Have a great Friday evening and if you're sad about no cards, blame USPS!

:-D

December Group Break - 2nd Team Randomization

I'm a horrible group break host, I remembered tonight that the cards will be here tomorrow and then realized I hadn't done the 2nd team randomizations! You will have a full day to make trades, leave comments if you want to make a deal!

1) Atlanta - jaybarkerfan
2) Baltimore - Jeffrey
3) Boston - Matt Perry
4) Chicago Cubs - Matt Pederson
5) Chicago White Sox - Jeff Wilk
6) Colorado - Joe Average Card Collector
7) Detroit - Classic Card Collector
8) Houston - The Dimwit
9) LA Dodgers - Dutch Card Guy
10) NY Mets - buckstorecards
11) NY Yankees - daddyohoho
12) Philadelphia - Richard N.
13) Pittsburgh - NY Hitman23
14) St. Louis - madding
15) Texas - Matt Pederson

Here's the randomization:

1) Atlanta & San Diego - jaybarkerfan
2) Baltimore & LA Angels - Jeffrey
3) Boston & Cleveland - Matt Perry
4) Chicago Cubs & Miami- Matt Pederson
5) Chicago White Sox & Seattle - Jeff Wilk
6) Colorado & Oakland - Joe Average Card Collector
7) Detroit & Minnesota - Classic Card Collector
8) Houston & San Francisco - The Dimwit
9) LA Dodgers & Cincinnati - Dutch Card Guy
10) NY Mets & Milwaukee - buckstorecards
11) NY Yankees & Kansas City - daddyohoho
12) Philadelphia & Washington - Richard N.
13) Pittsburgh & Tampa - NY Hitman23
14) St. Louis & Toronto - madding
15) Texas & Arizona - Matt Pederson

By all means, trade away in the comments!

New Link In Sidebar - Trade Bait: "Hits Autos Relics"

Hey everyone! I have decided to abandon my Google Drive Document with my Trade Bait list. It was WAY out of date and getting unmanageable. Took way to long to edit and whatnot. So I spent a couple hours scanning in cards and created a photobucket.

Now the link for Hits Autos Relics will take you to my photo bucket with scans of each and every card in my bait. I hope this helps everyone!

I have three albums: Baseball, Football and Oddball. Should be pretty easy to look around. If you have a question about a particular card, let me know!

Group Break Update

Alright everyone, boxes will be here Friday.

I have one slot left to fill the break. If anyone wants it, please let me know. Plenty of great teams left. Where are my Giants fans at?!?!?!?

If the last slot goes unsold, I'll take it and we'll go from there. Thanks everyone!

December Group Break Update & Flea Market Finds

First of all, I only need one more person to sign up for the group break. Awaiting payment from Jeff, Joe and madding.

It's going to be a fun one with a BUNCH of cards!

Yesterday the wife, my parents and I went venturing out to a local flea market... I picked up the following cards for pretty darn cheap!

Hirsh went to Colorado in the doomed Jason Jennings Deal. Wags was the best closer we have ever had and Santana came over to the Astros system in one of the many deals we made with Philly over the years. I think he was in the Pence deal.

Anyways, have a great Sunday everyone!

December Group Break Sign-Ups Are LIVE!!!

Hey everyone, I'm about 6 days late getting this posted. I had a grand idea that didn't quite work itself out, but I have a way to make it work another month, so stay tuned. As for this month, I have a great break planned!

First up, a retail box of 2008 Masterpieces!!!

I think we all love this set, it's a great "painted" set and there are some great cards in here! 24 packs, 4 cards per pack!

Next up, another retail box but this is 2008 Goudey!

There is the possibility of pulling original 1934 Goudey buy backs in this box! It also has the Derek Jeyer says... subset! Another 24 packs, 8 cards per pack!

Finally, we have 2 retail boxes of 2012 Gypsy Queen RACK PACKS!

There are 18 rack packs per box, with each rack pack having 3 packs plus a bonus 3 card pack of bordered parallels. That's a total 108 packs and 36 bonus packs of parallels!

This is going to be a lot of fun and a lot of packs to bust! So, I'm going to do this 2-teams per slot style, one team of your choice the second team randomized. I will also be holding a special card draft during the group break this month, and you won't want to miss it! Claim your teams by a comment on this post, no e-mails please. First comment by time stamp gets the team slot. Once 15 slots are filled and paid, I'll randomize the remaining teams and trades will be allowed.

Cost for the break will be $17 per slot. Payable via PayPal GIFT to samuelpair(at)yahoo(dot)com. If you are international (outside of the US), please make it $20 even. For additional slots beyond the first, subtract $2 per slot.

Teams:
Arizona
Atlanta - jaybarkerfan - PAID
Baltimore - Jeffrey
Boston - Matt - PAID
Chicago (NL) - Matt Pederson - PAID
Chicago (AL) - Jeff Wilk - PAID
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Colorado - Joe Average Card Collector - PAID (minus $4)
Detroit - Classic Card Collector - PAID
Houston - The Dimwit - PAID
Kansas City
Miami
Los Angeles (NL) - Dutch Card Guy - PAID
Los Angeles (AL)
Milwaukee
Minnesota
New York (NL) - buckstorecards- PAID
New York (AL) - daddyohoho- PAID
Oakland
Philadelphia - Richard N. - PAID
Pittsburgh NY Hitman 23 - PAID
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
St. Louis - madding -  PAID
Tampa
Texas - Matt Pederson - PAID
Toronto
Washington

Trading 2 x 3 Heroes

I recently had the pleasure of putting together a trade deal with Jeff over at 2 by 3 Heroes. He had his eye on a Chris Sale auto for a while and we put a nice trade together... here's my side of the loot:

I never really intended to have a massive Lance Berkman GU/Auto collection, however it seems like the trade winds and fates just keep sending more Berkman my way. It's by far the largest part of my collection. I'm not complaining at all, it's nice to have a big chunk of cards from a player I liked both as a player and as a person. In my grounds crew days, Berkman was one of the few who would talk to us grounds crew guys as if we were equals. Jeff also sent over a slew of Astros cards, Ryan, Bagwell, Biggio and some roster-filler guys. Thanks Jeff for a great trade! If you don't have him on your blogroll or RSS feed, get him on there!

Contest Results

Well, I said I'd wrap this up tonight! So here we go!

I had an amazing 22 entries into this contest! While many of you pointed out blogs that are already in my Google Reader Feed, I did pick up on some great stuff and the Hotwit and I have had a blast watching some videos!

Well, onto the randomization... I hit the good ol' random button three times and here are the results:

Congratulations to CynicalBuddha, who runs the great blog Collector's Crack. Thanks everyone for the great entries and for reading. I really wish I could mail out 22 prizes. Mr. CynicalBuddha, send me an e-mail with your address and let me know if there's been anything on the blog lately that's caught your eye. Otherwise, I'll start putting together a nice package for you of Brewers and whatever Packers cards I might have sitting around, there will be a premium item or two in there!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

A Fun Night at Trade Night

Well, we had another Trade Night up at the LCS... it was fun, a little sparse in participants but made up for in busting some boxes! I got a couple of tins of 2011 Sweet Spot NCAA for the heck of it...

Not too shabby. Kendall Hunter has turned out to be a decent player.

Then I picked up a prize:

This one is numbered /50! I'm not a football collector, but it's a sweet auto! May have to get this one up on eBay!

I got a box of Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects... here are the colorful highlights...

I texted a Red Sox buddy of mine... he had no clue who Pat Light was either... apparently a 1st round pick of the Red Sox this year (supplemental), #37 overall. Meh...

Finally, I did the dirty deed and picked up another box of Triple Threads... here are the base cards!

And my 4 parallels:

A very nice Reggie /50!

And finally, we have the two hits from the first pack!

I got all excited about the redemption, seeing the corner of it when I opened the pack... I slow rolled it... thought it might be something AWESOME... then it was just Danny Espinosa... boo... that Dodgers card is SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET! I know a couple of Dodger collectors who might be droolin' over that one... lol...

And the second pack!

WHOA!!!!! Holy HOF'er BATMAN! And how about that Triple Auto/Relic! Three great young on-the-rise stars! Freddie could use some work on his penmanship for sure. But I'm pretty excited about it, numbered /27 and all. Not too shabby!

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the cards. As always, all non-Astros are firmly in the Trade Bait category.

Group Break Package Update - Post #800... and a contest...

The International Packages (Canada, The Netherlands and The United Kingdom) all went out in the mail today. I apologize again for the delay... I think I'm going to try and plan the next break where my postal days will fall a little closer to Friday/Saturday and I have time to get to a Post Office before it closes...

Speaking of the next break... I think I may have something up my sleeve for this next one. I've got ideas... and plans... and schemes... Stay tuned for more details.

Anyone else trading lately? I am working on a deal or two, but things have slowed to a trickle lately despite several trade bait posts? Is everyone out of Astros? Haha... Am I asking for too much in return? Does my bait suck? Ha! Who knows...

Anyways, here are cards I'm holding in my "pending trade" file and who they are for...

1) Lot of A&G 2012 Mini's and such - Democratic Roadkill
2) Ryan Zimmerman GQ Auto - Spankee
3) Lot of 2012 Topps 1987 Mini's - Sports Syzygy
4) Bunch of Dodgers & Miscellany - Platchke...
5) Lot of Bowman Platinum - Napkin Doon
6) 2 Zumaya Relics - Dennis B.
7) Ike Davis Auto - Spiegel
8) Ty Wigginton Silk Card - Brad's Blog

Wow, guess I had more than I thought pending... if I've missed you, if we're working on something, please remind me in the comments... especially if you've sent me something and I owe you. They don't call me The Dimwit for nothing...

Oh yea, this is "officially" my 800th post... here's the blurb I accidentally posted the other day:
"Wow, this is post #800... seriously, when I started this blog a few years ago now, I never thought it'd last a year, let alone get me to 800 posts! Crazy! Thanks for all you loyal readers and for those who have been encouraging along the way! I am blessed by how supportive and awesome the collecting community is in general, even if there are a few bad apples in the bunch. I know my blog isn't for everyone, but for those who keep coming back, you are AWESOME. Best group of readers ever!"

And I mean every word of it... for all those loyal readers, just leave a comment and let me know two things 1) what your favorite blog is (and don't you dare try to flatter me, it won't help you) as I want to see if I can find some more blogs to read! and 2) Leave a link to your blog, photobucket, trade list, or a funny video you like on youtube. 

All entrants who LEGITIMATELY post BOTH OF those two things will be put into a randomization for a prize package from the Dimwit's collection that will reflect your collection in some way.

I'll wrap this up on Sunday night, so hurry up and get your entries in!

A Random Package from A Fan

A Jay Barker Fan that is... Wes from JayBarkerFan's Junk sent me a random package of Astros the other day... I am not entirely sure what I did to deserve these cards, but AWESOME cards Wes... I really do appreciate it!

A vintage Dierker! Some SWEEEET autographs! And a nice Berkman jersey! Thanks again Wes!

FYI, I found out the other day that I was over my limit in Blogger's picture database... so I was faced with a choice to either pay for storage (not happening at $2.50 a month perpetually) or delete old photos. So, in case you go wondering back through my archives and wonder where the hell the pictures went, well they are gone... never to return... sad day...

Have a great Thursday! The weekend is almost here!!!!!

Massive Trade Bait Pick Up!

*NOTE: I originally thought this was my #800 post... but I was wrong, there were two blank drafts that I hadn't noticed were lingering.. so this is actually only #798... #800 celebration in a couple days! haha!*

So, over the Thanksgiving break I sniped an auction at the last second and netted a huge lot of jerseys, autos and a specific relic that I am currently trying not to drool all over...

Let's get started on this winding journey through a bunch of trade bait!

Ok, so if anyone wants the Leake, it's still a valid redemption and unredeemed. If someone doesn't claim it quickly, I'll go ahead and redeem it. Most of the Team USA guys are in college so it's a bit of a prospecting type deal. We'll see if any pan out... those last two guys, never heard of them...

More team USA and then some MLB guys. Too bad Joel Zumaya didn't last longer, those are a couple nice cards. I'm thinking BA Benny might be interested in that Ike Davis if he doesn't already have it!

More Team USA, with a Manny Machado appearance... Adam Dunn and Eric Thames to round out the scan.

Back to MLB guys. The Nathan and Willis relics, I think they are parts of hats, but I'm not sure. They don't feel like jersey and the card back doesn't provide any clarification! Finally, the Hector Jimenez auto for the Astros is one I don't think I have but wasn't going to really trade for, so nice it was included in the lot.

Finally...

The big Mac Daddy of the lot... the card I could have bought for the price of the lot on it's own...

Behold...

#14/50... look at that SWEEEEEET patch!!!!!! Tri-color and almost perfectly centered! They did their best not to kill my OCD on this one! AWESOME CARD! I love it! Totally worth what I ended up paying for the lot.

Hope you all enjoyed this trip through a purchase! If any of the non-Astros interest you, they are all up for trade of course!