Group Break - Box #3 - 2009 UD Signature Stars

Sorry guys, with the Super Bowl and all, I lost track of time... here's the 3rd box from the group break, the first of two boxes of 2009 UD Signature Stars:

I Caved At Trade Night

So, BigHit Sports Card in Spanish Fort, AL is awesome. I've mentioned them a lot and well they did their trade night last night. They only did one Pack War for baseball, and it was 2012 of course. So as I sat there watching everyone open their jumbo boxes and hobby packs, I did what I said I wouldn't do. I threw down $10 for a jumbo pack. They handed over one jumbo and I took my seat to open them and wallow in my shame...

Here's the highlights from the base cards I pulled:

 Ok, I gotta admit, the photography on this year's set is AMAZING. Sure there are plenty of the standard "pitchers pitching" and "hitters hitting" shots but they've done an amazing job catching a bunch of guys in action. Brian over at Play At The Plate is going to love this set, as I got several cards highlighting a play at the plate. I like the Cardinals WS Champ card mainly because it's awesome to see Berkman finally get a ring, of all the good guys in baseball, he definitely deserved a ring.

And of course here are the regular vertical cards. Again, great photography. That Kotteras card is awesome.

Here are the inserts that I got (of course with a jumbo I also go a golden giveaway code card as well)...

I was geeked to get the Nolan Ryan. Do I love those mini cards? Yes, yes I do. Will I buy a bunch of packs in order to get them all, no way. They may be worth an investment for a complete set at some point but no way I'd hand collect them.

Oh yea, I miraculously pulled this beauty:

Ok, so for as much crap as I give Topps for being lame with this "game-changer" of a set, they really knocked it out of the park with this manu-set (and heck, all their manu-sets to be honest)! AWESOME! And check out the black felt behind the pin, an addition they didn't really have to make but it makes the card even better. These pins are going to be highly collected, I feel. They look great, are numbered and typically have a superstar on them. The guy next to me pulled a Willie Mays pin card. The guy next to him got a Reggie Jackson Ring Top out of his jumbo box. Those Ring cards are ridiculously awesome as well. Topps did well with their manu-relics this year, made them worth collecting and worth the "third" hit that comes from a jumbo box. I'll give credit where credit is due.

And while we're here, I also got entered in the door prize contest just for showing up. My ticket got pulled and I ended up winning this:

In the lower right corder there, that white rectangle is a piece of jersey certified to have been worn by Barry in the 2002 season during a game. The card is from Flair and the picture is of Barry becoming the "All-Time Home Run King". A nice framed piece of memorabilia. Not sure if I'm going to hang onto this one or not. If there's a Giants fan out there who would just LOVE to have it, please feel free to make me an offer. If not, I'll just hang it on the wall next to the other non-Astros memorabilia I have up there... seriously, HUGE Astros fan, my man cave walls have a poster of Babe Ruth, autographed picture of Nolan Ryan as a Ranger, and Nolan's 1978 Topps Record Breaker card as an Angel autographed and framed. I need to work on this...

Group Break Box #2 - 2007 UD SP Rookie Edition

Here's the second box for the break!


Scan after the page break...

Group Break - Box #1 - 2007 UD SP Rookie Edition

Here's the video of the break:

Scans after the page break...

More Trades!

I always get excited to see bubble mailers in my mailbox. Yesterday was no exception... I got two trades in yesterday.

First up, Derek from Tomahawk Chopping. He saw my post the other day about my quest to collect the complete mini and full sized relic sets from 2011 Gypsy Queen. I had pulled the Rickey Henderson in one of the boxes I busted, and he still had it and offered it up for trade. What a great guy, eh? Well, he also had a Dan Uggla as well...

 Thanks Derek!

Next up is Jeff from My Sports Obsession. He sent over a BUNCH of Astros and some 1978's I needed as well. I've got a White Sox package to build in return.

 I love the 1975 Topps design. Just awesome.

He also included these two autographs! The Wagner is just a sweet looking auto and a great looking card. I think Tommy Manzella has moved on from the Astros at this point. He had a chance to be the starting SS the past couple years and just couldn't get his swing going enough to justify staying on at the ML level. He's the kind of guy many consider to be a AAAA player. Excels at AAA but just can't do well enough at the ML level to stick. I wish him the best wherever he's headed to next (I want to say Arizona or Cleveland, but I'm too lazy this morning to fact-check it.)

Thanks Jeff! I'll be working on a package for you this weekend!

And The Randomization for the 2nd Team...

Alright everyone... here are the 15 participants:
1) jaybarkerfan
2) Matt Perrt
3) Jason
4) Hiflew
5) Jeffrey W
6) The Dimwit
7) Jess
8) IkesCards
9) Kary Smith
10) TheBrooklynMet
11) J.Bos
12) Dawgbones
13) IkesCards
14) IkesCards
15) J.Bos

And here are the remaining teams:
1) Arizona
2) Baltimore
3) Cubs
4) White Sox
5) Cincinnati
6) Florida
7) Kansas City
8) Angels
9) Oakland
10) Pittsburg
11) San Diego
12) Seattle
13) Tampa
14) Toronto
15) Washington

And here are the teams in random order, the number beside them will correspond to the numbers next to the participant names above:

So, the teams are:

Atlanta and Cubs - jaybarkerfan
Boston and San Diego - Matt Petty
Cleveland and Cincinnati - Jason
Colorado and Baltimore - Hiflew
Detroit and Toronto - Jeffrey W
Houston and Seattle - The Dimwit
Dodgers and Washington - Jess
Milwaukee and Pittsburg - IkesCards
Minnesota and White Sox - Kary Smith
Mets and Angels - TheBrooklynMet
Yankees and Oakland - J.Bos
Philadelphia and Tampa Bay - Dawgbones
San Francisco and Kansas City - IkesCards
St. Louis and Arizona - IkesCards
Texas and Florida - J.Bos

Ok, I double checked that and I'm fairly certain I got that all right. Anyways, if you want to trade and swap teams, just leave comments and let me know if a deal has been struck!

Thanks everyone.

I'm picking up the boxes tomorrow after work, so I hopefully will have the first video posted tomorrow night. I may do pack break posts for two boxes on Saturday and then the final video on Sunday. I've never done the traditional pack-by-pack breakdown posts, but if I have the patience to schedule them all for Saturday, I may do that... we'll see how it goes... again, let me know if you have a preference.

GROUP BREAK IS FULL

The group break has been filled. I will do the randomization tonight, pick up the boxes after work tommorow and start busting the boxes.

Any preference on full box video breaks versus scanned individual pack breaks?

On a side note... updating the blog on my cellphone is just a miserable experience. I have to do it in HTML and I just don't know how to code that very well... UPDATE: I did the smart thing... went and found the Android Blogger Ap. I swear sometimes my brain just tries to make things harder for me than they need to be... so much easier now!

Have a great day everyone!

A Couple of Trades!

Good morning everyone... I'll get us started today with a couple of trades. Quite a few of us bloggers got contacted by the one and only Smed a week or two ago and while he was doing some Winter Cleaning, he made a bunch of trade packages for team collectors he knew. Well, luckily for me I am his Astros connection, so I got a nice stack of Astros from throughout the years and here are some highlights:

I really like the blue/purple-ish bordered cards from Bowman Chrome, just cool looking. I had to include the Taubensee because well it looks like a Play At The Plate kind of card, but it also looks like a failed PATP with the ball trickling a away but no runner in sight. I don't think there's any way to research this card... Also, Smed sent over a few 1978 cards as well, I'd scan those in but I'm a Dimwit and already bindered them. Thanks Smed, I'll be working on a return package for you soon!

Next up is my buddy Matt (aka DocHoloday) who has one of the nicest looking blogs out there, what do you expect when the guy designs web pages for a living??? Anyways, I may have to contract him out to re-design mine some day... anyways, he saw a couple Red Sox cards I picked up in a trade (just for him) and he put together a VERY nice package in return...

That knocks three GQ relics off my need list... and this trade was going just fine and dandy until he had to up and include a Carlos Lee card. I mean, that's just WAY worse than Bipping... that's vindictive and full of malice forethought. I'll get you back Matt... expect some Buckner cards in your future... bahahahaha...

On a side note, I only need ONE MORE PARTICIPANT IN THE GROUP BREAK!!!!!

An Update... on the Group Break... and the Product Review

Ok, only 3 more slots remaining in the Group Break!!!! Hurry before you  miss out!!!!

Alright, Tri City Sports PL has reviewed my review... and well they weren't too happy. Here is their response:

"1. The cards are not laminated there incased in color changing soft plastic to prevent counterfiting. If the card is taken out of the plastic it will make the card get white stripes or white dotes that will keep getting darker over time. This plastic is actually new generation and very expensive.

2. Bobby's 1/1 cut auto went for $150 on ebay in the 2011 release according to the auction tracker software. If you where to pay retail on that paticuler box you would have tripled your money

So at this point your review in missing some facts."

If anyone will pay $150 for the Bobby Valentine autograph that I pulled yesterday, I've got some ocean front property in Colorado that you'll just LOVE! Oh, and laminated is laminated, even if you spent extra money on "special plastic". It's not "encased". Encased implies the type of casing used by actual grading services like PSA, JSA and Beckett. Anyways, since I'm contractually obligated not to sell the card, I offered to eBay auction the card and donate 100% of the proceeds to charity, Best Friends in Kanab Utah, but then the representative I was e-mailing suddenly no longer had the authority to continue to conversation. But he swore up and down that the 1/1 Bobby Valentine from THEIR PRODUCT sold for $150 9 months ago on eBay. However, since we can't go back that far in the historical search, I can't verify such a claim. Perhaps there IS a Bobby Valentine super-collector out there...

Needless to say, I'm sure MUCH to the dismay of all my readers, this will be my last sponsorship with Tri City Sports PL, I have no more interest in participating in what they are doing to legitimate autographs. Calling it a "Franken-Cut" would be an insult to Franken-Cuts. Anyways, it was fun while it lasted and at this point I don't think either of us has anything left of value to give to the other in the partnership.

February Group Break Sign Ups Are LIVE! - Break Is FULL

It's that time again! This month's group break has two exciting products... first up:

2007 UD SP Rookie Edition. This box comes with 2 autos and has some big names in the checklist and some great short print autographs. We'll be busting 2 boxes of this product!

Next up:

We've got 2 more boxes of 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars. There are 4 hits per box, but PLEASE NOTE... 2 or 3 of the hits will be Team USA cards. In getting these boxes from Big Hits Sports Cards, one of the guys up there (Andrew) is a big Team USA collector and said that he'll buy into the break for just the Team USA cards. So I've made them a separate slot in and of itself. Andrew is paying a hefty sum. How does this effect you? Well, it effectively drives down the cost of the break for everyone else... SIGNIFICANTLY!

Here's how it will work. There are a totally of 16 slots for the break. 15 Two-Team Slots (One your pick, one randomized to you) at $9 each and then there is 1 Team USA Slot which is already paid for and reserved for Andrew at $100. I originally wanted to open the Team USA slot to everyone, however in order to get this break going, I had to know that I could sell the Team USA slot and Andrew committed to it well in advance.

So, that will leave at least 4 hits, but most likely 6-7 hits to spread amongst the 15 Two-Team slots. So, here are the teams, leave a comment ON THIS POST to claim a team.

Payment: Please send to PAYPAL as a GIFT to samuelpair(at)yahoo(dot)com. $9 a piece gets you two teams! Please do not enter any other information on the Paypal submittal form. Once you've commented and paid, please send me an e-mail with:
1) Team you claimed.
2) Paypal Address you paid with.
3) Mailing Address

If you can't pay via Paypal, please contact me directly to make arrangements.

TEAMS:

Arizona

Atlanta - jaybarkerfan

Baltimore 

Boston - Matt Perry

Chicago Cubs 

Chicago White Sox

Cincinnati

Cleveland - Jason - PAID

Colorado - Hiflew - PAID

Detroit - Jeffrey W. - PAID 

Florida

Houston - THE DIMWIT - PAID

Kansas City

Los Angeles Dodgers - Jess - PAID

Los Angeles Angels

Milwaukee - IkesCards - PAID

Minnesota - Kary Smith - PAID

New York Mets - TheBrooklynMet - PAID

New York Yankees - J.Bos - PAID

Oakland

Philadelphia - Dawgbones - PAID

Pittsburgh

San Diego

San Francisco - IkesCards - PAID

Seattle 

St. Louis - IkesCards - PAID

Tampa Bay

Texas - J.Bos - PAID

Toronto

Washington 

TEAM USA - Andrew(BigHitsSportsCards) - PAID

Claim away everyone! Will pick up the boxes as soon as the break is full!

UPDATE: YES TRADING RANDOMIZED TEAMS WILL BE ALLOWED (AND ENCOURAGED!)

ALL MULTI-TEAM CARDS WILL BE RANDOMIZED AMONGST ALL TEAMS REPRESENTED ON THE CARD.