One Heck of a Mail Day... Plus My Christmas Loot

Wow, you leave town for 6 days, and you get home to a huge pile of packages! Alright, I warn you now, this is going to be an extremely long, picture laden post... so strap in and enjoy... lots of great cards!

First up, is Greg from over at Plaschke, Thy Blog Title Is Too Long haha... but really, great blog and great trader! I sent over a Tulo and a couple Utley's (one from my friend James, in exchange for the Edmonds):

The Bagwell is numbered /199. With a SWEET pinstripe down the side! Thanks Greg!

Next we have Chris from Nachos Grande. We worked out this trade in a matter of about 10 minutes, simplest trade yet, we sent each other some want list cards:

Awesome! I'm getting closer to my Bronze Framed paper set. Although, I've now had to buy a huge chunk of them myself, so I think I'm not too far from ending the contest and just awarding 2nd, 3rd and add a 4th prize. Sorry guys, but I was hoping it would get completed a while back and without me having to go buy about 1/2 of the cards I needed myself. Anyways, I'll still give away the Smoak auto, a random hit for a team collector and I'll find another prize to add for 3 total. Anyways, thanks Chris for a fast and easy trade!

This brings up my buddy Derek from Tomahawk Chopping as we both plug away at our Gypsy Queen set needs! He sent over a "just because" package that I'm working on reciprocating (ooo, big word for a small mind!!!):

 I love me some mini's!

And I love me some base too!!! Thanks Derek!

Alright, now I move into the purchase portion of my post... first up is my loot from Crinkly Wrappers' Triple Threads group break! I got some great cards!

Wow, don't even know where to start here! Some great names and cards here. The Astros Johnson A&G has a pretty dirty swatch. (Almost a NSFW typo there... eeks). All non-Astros are instant trade bait of course. I love the look of Triple Threads, I just wish I could afford it! Haha! Ted did a great job of helping everyone out on this break by making it affordable and fun!

Here are the base cards that were part of my loot! Very cool.... I think there may be some claims on some of these pretty quickly? Chris? Derek? Brian? Haha! 

And the grand prize from my part of the break, this Triple Auto Triple Relic of Strawberry, J-Hey and Chris Young. It's pretty impressive in person. My only gripe is that they could have had all three sign the same type of sticker if they are going to use stickers. But I also understand that Topps may have gotten Strawberry to sign about 5,000 pages of stickers 10 years ago and they're trying to find a way to use them up... Nonetheless, an awesome card! Thanks again Ted!

Next I will be showing off a BUNCH of pick-ups from CheckOutMyCards.com. I went on a spending spree last week and ended up making a huge dent in a couple of needs lists:

Yay Minis!!!! And an SP! :-D Only 3 SP's left to complete my base set! Holy toledo!

Ah, more bronze borders! LOVE EM!

Did I mention I bought a bunch of bronze bordrs??? Haha!

A nice bunch of 1978 Topps, including a Reggie Jackson and an odd Cubs team card.... leave it to the Cubs to have to be different...

 

WHOA! The Dimwit bought 18 1987 Topps Cards from COMC.com? Is he REALLY THAT dumb??? Well, fear not, I'm not completely insane! These aren't just 1987 Topps, these are 1987 Topps TIFFANY. And they were bought because these exact 18 players will be signing at the 2012 Tristar Sports Card Show in Houston, TX on January 20-22! And I'll be there!!!!! My AWESOME wife and parents bought me a VIP pass which includes all 18 autos from the 1986 Astros Western Division Champs Reunion!!!! I get a picture with Nolan Ryan and finally get to meet Mike Scott and Glenn Davis in person. And I can tell Bill Doran that he was who I modeled being a Second Baseman as a little league-er before Biggio took over (he can't still be bitter about that, can he???) Anyways, I'm SO excited! In fact, for any and all of you who will be at the show or in the area, I'm looking to put together a breakfast on Saturday morning before the show where we can hang out, talk cards and maybe even trade a little. Let me know if you'd be interested.

Finally, the last card from COMC is this dual jersey of Gaffney and Biggio. I thought it was cool, made a lowball offer with my remaining credit and it was accepted. A sweet addition and my first Texans/Astros combo relic! 

Finally, we have my loot from Christmas, as I bought 3 discounted Topps Chrome Blasters (alas, no autos), a 2008 Masterpieces discounted blaster and one of those "One Auto + 4 Packs" rip-offs just for the heck of it! On the plus side, I finished off my base Chrome set finally! I've got plenty of base to spare if anyone is still looking for any to complete their set!

These are the best refractors I got... the Ortize is #2/499!

Some nice Heritage Chromes...

And then my wife got my some rack packs in my stocking and these are the Orange borders included in those packs...

Some great cards! Here's the highlights of the other packs/blasters:

Hopefully someone from his family reads this blog and wants this card, otherwise I think it is stuck in my collection! Haha!

Good ol' Frank. He's pictured as a Blue Jay but listed as an Athletic. Really UD, you are doing the artwork, can't you photoshop an A's helmet on there? Just sayin'....

Anyways, pretty much anything in this post is trade bait if it's not an Astro or part of my set collection.

Hope you all have a great weekend enjoying the New Year, be safe, buckle up and don't drink & drive.