Happy New Year

I had planned on starting the New Year off by being nicer... Well, that's a lie I didn't plan on starting the new year any differently than I started today or 4 weeks ago. I think resolutions are kind of lame for two reasons, 1. why do people need an excuse to do something good for themselves, and 2. doesn't a new year technically start on your birthday?

I hope everyone out there has a great night, and a great day tomorrow filled with sports and food or the gym (which is where I will be).

I have a doozie of a story for everyone about dear old Topps, and how for the new year they can suck it. =)

....until then..... drink up, be merry, and stay safe.

Happy New Year.

Yahtzee!

I'm actually speechless right now. I opened a hobby box of 2009 Sweet Spot tonight while Marie was on the phone. She can verify how cranky I was before I opened the box and the crankiness spewing from the phone through the first five packs.

First pack wasn't too bad with a triple game-used jersey card of Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Bill Hall.

It started going way down hill from there.

Pack 2: Carlos Lee GU jersey. Yes, that's a double for me. I got this card in a group break with VOTC.

Pack 3: Carl Yastremski (however, it's spelled) GU jersey. Wait, yes, that's a double too.

Pack 4: Rick Porcello GU jersey. While I liked the hit, the card was actually damaged. There were two dings in it and white showing because it was chipped. So, I'm annoyed I got a damaged card.

Pack 5: Donald Veal auto /650. Who?

At this point, I'm shaking my head at buying a hobby box of this. I couldn't believe I spent $81 (at Dave and Adam's) on this hobby box. I'm yelling at myself in my head and begrudgingly opened the final pack.

I like to tease myself when I know there is a hit. So, I slowly move the base cards out of the way to see if I can get a peek at who it is.

Suddenly, I see a Yankee helmet on the picture.

I freeze and get nervous. Marie is yelling at me to look at the card.

Well, here it is:


I didn't have much to say because I'm floored I pulled this card. Marie didn't believe me because I was just so surprised and couldn't say anything.

Funny thing about this card is that this is the card she was trying to get me for my birthday because she likes the black bat better. But, ended up with the brown bat.

Good thing, because I would have ended up with three doubles of game-used cards.

I opened my Christmas loose packs

I got 4 retail T206 packs and 2 SP Authentic Hobby packs in my stocking. I opened them pretty quickly, but just didn't get to scanning and posting until now.

There were hits in both sets of packs which was pretty cool, however neither of the hits really interest me.

First the T206:

Honus Wagner NNO SP (should slab it and list it for $5,000,000 on eBay)

Jason Varitek (clown back, I mean Polar Bear)

Chipper Jones Old Mill relic card

The 2009 SP Authentic:

Derek Jeter base card

Alfonso Soriano Future Watch Flashbacks #033/495

Phil Coke By The Letter Auto letter "T" (Spells "SP Authentic" which is pretty f-ing dumb)



So there you have it. Some fun stuff to see when you open the packs, but just trade bait at the end of the day.

Prices for the case break will be up tomorrow hopefully. Just waiting on one more quote, but so far Blowout looks to have the best price (as usual).

Sunday Question: What did you get for Christmas?

We showed you ours, now we want to see yours.

What kinds of cool sports cards or collectibles were under your tree or in your stockings?

And more importantly if you got any cards that would peak our interests, let's trade! =)

P.S. We didn't forget about the case break. We are going to e-mail out for pricing this week.

The Christmas loot

Part of the fun of Christmas is the following days reading everyone's blogs and seeing all the cool cards and gizmos everyone got. Sooz loved her present, which made me happy since I debated a few different things (I also debated on getting myself the same card because I liked it that much).

My family is fairly well trained in what to buy me, and they did pretty well for themselves as far as cards go. I got other things that no one here would care about like gym sneakers, slippers, some bling, etc. But you are all here waiting to see my loot. So here we go, starting with Sooz's presents:

2004 Leaf Limited Albert Pujols game used jersey serial #47/50

2008 UD Premier Albert Pujols triple game used jersey serial #59/75

2008 SPx Albert Pujols game used PATCH (My first patch card!!!!) serial #19/50

I love serial numbered cards, and when they have a game used piece on them, even better. I have wanted a Pujols patch card for some time now so the patch card was super awesome.

My parents got me some packs, a hobby box, and a single card.

4 2009 T206 retail packs, and 2 2009 SP Authentic Hobby packs.

2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom hobby box

Oh... and this card...

2005 Sweet Spot Albert Pujols Autographed Glove Leather serial #04/15 (!!!!!)
I saw this card at a card show over the summer, talked to the seller of the card and walked away because clearly I can't afford one of these. My mom went back and played "let's make a deal", and well here it is. Freakin' sweet card that I am VERY happy with.

My brother got me some cool loot, also. He got me a cool framed picture of Albert serial numbered to 1,000 copies, with 2 gold commemorative coins from the Highland Mint, a Robbie Cano card to complete my 2009 Triple Threads quest to have one of each of his cards, and cash to buy myself an auto of Pujols when I find one I like.


2009 Triple Threads Robbie Cano auto/gu serial #1/9

I did pretty well for myself as far as cards go this year, and I think this was more fun than last year opening a bunch of boxes and not getting any cards I really wanted. This year was all about single cards that would enhance my collection and make me happy. I'm very thankful to have gotten so much nice stuff, and having a terrific family that took the time to think of the awesome gifts in this blog post.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends, and I look forward to reading some of your blogs about your loot.

What Santa Marie got me for Christmas

I usually have to rely on Marie to get something fun for Christmas.

Last year wasn't as rough as sheets, thankfully.

However, all that really matters is what Marie got me. I did get other cards (hobby boxes I bought so people knew what to get me), but this is pretty much the one I am going to remember from this Christmas.

She got me two Kouzmanoff Ticket to Stardom cards, but that's not as fun as this one either.

Here is the fun:

Not a creature was stirring....

just me putting the presents out for the morning. I wrapped all my gifts during the snowfall over the weekend, labeled them tonight and put them out with my cards. I didn't notice any boxes wrapped for me that looked like hobby boxes which makes me sad, but then I think about the presents I do know and thats HAPPY TIMES! I love Christmas.

My favorite part of Christmas though is probably people's reaction to the presents I picked out for them. As an adult Christmas kind of loses the magic when you have to do all the shopping, wrapping, thinking, etc. And also because people tend to just ask you what you want or ask you to buy it and then they will give you the money and wrap it up for you.

With that being said I am eager to see Sooz tomorrow to give her the present I picked out, and because there's going to be tons of good food here and I probably wouldn't share it with anyone else even if it is Christmas.

I leave you all this hilarious Christmas video of me to enjoy for your holidays.

Merry Christmas to all our readers, and to all the great friends we have made through the blogosphere, like Flash and Kim whose address I may know by heart because I am always sending something there.

2005 Donruss Champions Box Break (or the Roger Cedeno fan pack)

I'm slowly getting around to opening hobby boxes that I have laying around the house. The sad thing us, I have several: 2009 Sweet Spot, 2009 Topps 206, 2007 Sweet Spot, 2008 UD Heroes and 2002 Fleer Triple Crown.

I opted for the 2005 Donruss Champions that I bought on Black Friday from Blowout Cards.

I am not putting up much text. I am going to let the pictures do all the talking.

Here are a few Impressions parallel cards.







The game-used cards



Yes, these are two different Cedeno bat cards










The big hit! It's numbered to /126 or something like that.

Mail Day: Trade with Behind These Hazel Eyes

Todays trip to the post office went much better than yesterdays mangled, destroyed mail. I received a trade package from Behind These Hazel Eyes a.k.a. Lonestarr, a.k.a. @TwitchySensei. The package contained a bunch of Cano, Pujols, Russ Martin, and a Lind or two. I scanned some of the cards from that bunch in this picture.


The next card is super sweet because it is from the Ticket to Stardom set, and serial numbered 065/110. This is my first and only Pujols ticket stub from this set, and it came all the way from baseball heaven, at least that's what the ticket says.


The last two cards I'm going to show were totally unexpected, and probably my favorite. They aren't even baseball cards. They are WWE cards of John Cena. I like these cards for several reasons, one of which is that Lonestarr actually pays attention to things I sputter on Twitter. Most women think men never listen to a word they say, however this disproves that theory. Another reason I like them is because I haven't owned a wrestling card since somewhere around 1989 or 1988 when the "WWF" cards looked like little tv screens and George the Animal Steele was on them. Last reason I like them: John Cena is hot.

Go check out his blog and see the ridiculous card he pulled from a retail pack.

What makes me hate eBay

Since the release of 2009 Topps Series 1 I have been trying to get my mitts on a black parallel of Adam Lind. I missed a couple early on because I knew that eventually the price would level out on them. So now about 10 months later I finally win one on eBay or $3.50 and $1.95 shipping. Sweet.

Not really.

I go to the post office yesterday to check my mailbox only to find that they have placed a yellow card in my mailbox indicating that a piece of mail was too large and they are holding it. Or in this case that my mail is destroyed and I need to pick up the pieces. How all of this even made it to me is amazing. The envelope, that's right, a PLAIN WHITE F-ING ENVELOPE, was open, ripped, and destroyed, along with my poor Adam Lind card. Card was inside a toploader that was too large, and ironically there was a team bag taped to the inside of the greeting card, yes the seller attached it to a f-ing greeting card, yet did not place the toploader inside the bag.

Now at this point yesterday I was steaming mad. I emailed the seller who appeared to be willing to work with me, said after I sent him the pictures of the damaged card he would refund my money. I send him the 4 pictures I am posting here, and his response after is:

"The Ebay Return Policy is to return the item, then get a refund. I can see no damage to the card at all. Sure, the envelope was damaged, but your photos show no damage at all to the top loader and your photo of the card is in a torn soft sleeve that could not have been torn due to the fact that the top loader was sealed in a team set bag and taped to the rigid card. As soon as the card is returned, I will refund your payment per Ebay return policy. Please do not do any intentional damage to the card"

Now why the hell would I buy a card and then rip it, to get a refund? Why bother to buy something only to destroy it and send it back. Now I'm flippin' angry and ready to blow my top. I really want to know why the f- this dude thinks that it would have been ripped. So now I have written him 2 not nice e-mails because I am ready to scream. I just opened disputes with eBay and PayPal as well. I suggest you all avoid purchasing any items from mikegrove7 on eBay because he ships in PLAIN WHITE ENVELOPES and uses a greeting card as "protection".

UPDATE: The sellers response to the card being damaged and me filing a complaint...

"I've been doing this for 10 years and always the same way. The card WAS placed in a soft sleeve, then in a toploader, it was then placed upside down inside the team bag and the team bag was sealed and taped to the rigid card stock. There is NO VISIBLE DAMAGE to the card shown in your pictures. Only damage to the soft sleeve. I will be investigating this with Ebay Seller Services tomorrow. This is the 3rd time I have sold this card on ebay. The first 2 times the buyer never paid and the buyers account was closed. I will be reporting this matter to Ebay along with your complaint for them to research any connections between these accounts. I have offered you a FULL refund for the return of the card. This is Ebay Policy. "

Pick the case poll

Looking through the cases, there were several viable candidates for A Cardboard Problems first group case break.

There were several thoughts going into picking a case, but the prevailing thought was that we wanted to go with something that many of us would not normally open on our own. This meant no 2010 Topps or the like because within of the release of that product, we'll all likely have doubles of triples of those cards.

Prices are included with each option. This could change, no more than a $1 higher, but could likely go lower if one of the card places gives us a good deal.

You would pick the team you want in the case break, if in a first-come, first-serve basis. If some one else has your team, pick another and perhaps you can trade cards with that person or wait for the next case break (if this one goes well).

The Yankees (Sooz) and Cardinals (Marie) are off the board. The rest would be up for grabs. However, this is NOT the post to pick the team. Once we figure out the product, we will have an official, I pick my team post.

Here are the list of candidates. Please email us with what you would like to see opened. If there is a case on here you don't see, and are interested, let us know that too. Perhaps we overlooked something.

1. 2009 Unique (10 boxes per case, 24 packs per box, 7 cards per pack)
Price per team: ~$35 with shipping

- This didn't get a good reception by one of the Card Bandits, and with good reason. However, this is seemingly a product that is meant for a case break party than with a lone box by yourself. This is our pick for the case break, but we are giving other options.

Highlights: 1 unique auto relic or unique relic card per case
1 auto per box
1 jumbo relic #'d to 40 or less, or 1 patch relic 3'd to 99 or less per box
1 numbered relix per box

2. 2009 SP authentic (12 boxes, 24 packs per box, 5 cards per pack)
Price per team: ~$34

Highlights: - One Insert Or Short Print In Every Package!
- 3 Autos per box, including two By The Letter Signed Patch Cards
- 6 Serial #'d Base Or Base Set Parallel Cards Per Box
- 12 Short Print Base Set Cards Including Faces Of The Game And Emerging Stars per box
- 1 Dual, Triple, Or Quad-Signature Card In Every Case
- 1 20th Anniversary Memorabilia card per case, on average

3. 2008 SPx
Price per team: ~$34

- One Autograph or Memorabilia Card in every pack, on average!
- One Patch card per box, on average!
- Two SPx Mystery Rookie Redemption cards per case, on average!
- Two unique 1 of 1 cards featuring Ken Griffey Jr. or Babe Ruth per case (which I think would be given to a person who did not get any hits or done through random.org)

Cut Signatures from current players?

There seems to be an eBay seller creating their own "cut signature" cards of players that you can get real autographs on real cards from. I'm not really sure what possessed this person to make this ridiculous looking cards, or who would even want them but I figured you might want to see these. They are marked "1/1", and make no indication of where the signature came from, or whether or not the player actually signed them. The player is not even pictured on the cards.

I happened to find this while doing my usual search for Adam Lind, and then clicked to see what else they were selling and saw that they are making a bunch of them.

What do you think of them?

New PC Acquisitions

Over the last two weeks or so I have received a ton of mail, from trades, for no reason from people, and from eBay bargains. While I am going to have to admit I have no idea who gave me what, or what came from where now, I love it all. In my defense, I always email people to let them know I got stuff.

First I want to thank REALjtCarter, from Twitter for sending me a boatload of Jeter, Bernie, Girardi, and others. The cards were awesome.

beardy sent me some 2004 Finest cards of Jeter, A-Rod and Albert as well as a 2009 Finest Pujols refractor. I already logged all the cards in and put them away and I am too lazy to take them out and scan them.

Two 2009 Sweet Spot cards that I traded some Ballpark relics, and something else. I remember when I opened the dual relic I had no idea why someone sent it to me for no reason... took me like an hour to remember where it came from, why and what I sent.


I believe I also traded some game used card or cards for this as well. (Again too lazy to look through my email.)

These I know came from eBay, the Unique card cost a whole 99 cents, and the Bowman's Best was $3.00. I am a big fan of getting a great card for less than the cost of the pack.

The next card I got the first time on eBay, forgot that I won it, paid for it 7 days after the auction and the guy said it's not for sale anymore. He refunded my money, and then re-listed the card (d-bag). Then, Sooz went to the card show in PA and found someone selling the card for $5 so I told her to grab it. It actually saved me a buck by him sending my money back since I would have cost about $6 or so with shipping. When Sooz brought me the card I gave her two options, cash or cardboard (even though I was going to give her both once I got change), and she took cardboard. She got a 2008 Inkredible Kouzmanoff auto and $5. The Kouz auto was supposed to be part of her Christmas gift but I didn't want her to end up buying it before hand.



Sooz also brought me this card that she got doing a box break of 2008 Upper Deck.

Between my birthday and all of these cards, my PC got a nice boost to it and that makes me happy.

Please check out the Sunday Question and let us know if you are interested in doing a group break with us. We are going to do some research tomorrow on different case prices, and then see what you guys think.

Sunday Question and Week in Review

This week's question isn't hobby related. Us, chicks, at Cardboard Problem want to know if you guys are interested in a group break of a case or a few boxes of cards. I've done breaks in the past, but normally I pass on them because I don't like getting cards I don't want. That's the bottom line.

So, if we hold a group break and separate it by team of your choosing, how many of you would be interested. I don't have a product in mind yet, but I figure newer product that we normally wouldn't buy ourselves would fall into this category.

Some of the numbers I crunched for some cases came out to $20/team.

Let us know what you think or if you have any suggestions.

Week in Review

-Sooz found a fancy collection on display at Citizens Bank Park over the summer and finally got around to posting it.

- Marie has had some good luck at card shops recently.

- Sooz is ungrateful for her pulls even though she beat the odds, so she's sticking to buying cards online.

- Marie unveils her birthday presents, the good , the bad and the one she thought got away.

Jeter patch: Real or Fake

This Derek Jeter patch card has been on eBay for almost 10 days and ends in a little less than 24 hours (at the time of the post). The card is up to $33.

I had to edit my mistakes. However, I still do wonder if this card is real or not.



I contacted Gellman and he thought this could be a fake. I also contacted Upper Deck, but have not heard back from them about the card.

What do you guys thinks?

Collection on display

I looked at this display often over the summer. The Phillies had this in a case at Citizens Bank Park in the Hall of Fame Club. I took a few pictures of the cards inside and meant to share them sooner.

However, it took nearly two months for me to post this.

According to the paper, this is only a partial collection on the Szwajkos family, a collection that spans over 80 years.

The cards in the display are only people who have been enshrined into Cooperstown.

Check out some of these cards. They are pretty nice.

2009 SP Authentic Packs

The other day I was randomly looking for local card shops online to see if by some chance I missed one somewhere. Apparently I missed one that according to mapquest's directions was 3 minutes and one block from Trader Joe's where I get my groceries. Today I decided to stop in the shop and see what it was about.

The outside of the store would give you no clue that they even sold any kind of sports cards, it was all video games, movies, etc. in their store window. I parked anyway and figured if it was a bust I'd still have a story for all of you to be tortured through. The cards were in the back, in one single case. They had a case full of game used cards and auto stuff, all separated by team and all insanely overpriced. Two that I remember were a Spectrum Pujols jersey for $25 (single white swatch), and a Halladay single blue swatch for $20. I saw a Nolan Ryan auto, which to me was the most reasonably priced card at $120. Packs were varied from years, including 2008 UD Series 1 for $6.99 a pack, 2006 Topps Chrome for $6.99 a pack, 206 $7.99 a pack, and SP Authentic $7.99 a pack. There were others but I don't remember the prices, but they had Bowman Heritage, some Topps, etc.

I decided to spend a little bit of the cash on SP Authentic because I had already seen packs of everything else there. I am not disappointed in my choice, nor am I upset about getting ripped off for two reasons:

1.


2.

I didn't scan anything but the hits because the cards have been done, and they are boring to look at anyway. Yeah, so maybe I'm on a hot streak. If that is the case I sure hope someone in my family picked up a box of something for me to break Christmas morning.

(Note: Markakis card is on hold until I speak to beardy, and Griffey Jr. I am probably keeping unless someone has something super freakin' awesome.)

2008 Masterpieces retail box break (Black Friday deal from Blowout)

Sometimes boxes sit in my home and fester until I can't hold back any longer. This is completely different from the way I normally act when it comes to baseball cards. If the box comes in the mail, I could actually sit on it.

If I buy packs or boxes at Target of the local shop, I immediately have to open. And, by immediately, I mean, right in the car in the parking lot before I get home.

Yet, my boxes from Blowout, I let them sit until I decided to open.

Here's the first of two I will highlight.

2008 Masterpieces is a 120-card set with all the cards above 89 being short print. Of the 89 base set, I am missing just four cards from the set after opening the retail box, and just one double.

I received four short prints:

94 - Ryne Sandberg
99 - Ken Griffey Jr.
108 - Joe DiMaggio
110 - Yogi Berrra



Six Yankee Stadium Legacy cards, which are all going to Marie (and it happens to be a trend for this box).

Two framed cards

David Ortiz framed black (another Red Sox insert)



Ken Griffey Jr. #52 framed green 18/75



And, one game-used jersey card, which is also going to Marie. It's like her birthday never ends.



Review: For the $11 or so this cost, this was a great break. I got a jersey card of a star, two variations of stars, including one numbered to 75. I nearly completed the base set and got two Yankee SP. Good times.

I know I shouldn't be cranky, but ...

I'm going to get ripped for this post. I'm aware it's going to happen as I write this.

Here's my story:

I went to Target and picked up a $30 tin of 2009 Sweet Spot, my second of the year. The first one I didn't too terribly. I didn't get many Yankee base cards, but I didn't hate the hit.



Then, I did a group Twitter break with Voice of the Collector. I hated the card I got there. It was so bad not even the Houston collector wanted it.



I thought I would try my luck a third time. Third time's a charm ... heh. Well, I did get lucky. I smashed the odds that state there is supposed to be one jersey or autograph per tin.

Just one.

So, I opened the first pack and saw a Derek Jeter base card on top. Not a bad way to start.

I got the hit in the first pack:



Then, I thought, I don't think the UD 20th anniversary game-used cards are real hits. I think they are extras. So, I probably have another.

Next pack a Joba Chamberlain base on top. Cool.

Then, this hit:


I open the third pack and peek at the card in the middle. I see it's another jersey. All I'm thinking to myself is "Wow. I can't believe I got three jersey cards."

I look at the card:


Yet, after all that I felt incredibly deflated. I smashed the odds and two out of three cards were Red Sox. The third was from a sport I haven't watched in five years, at least. RED SOX!!

There ya go. I almost wished I saved the money from that tin.

Now, go ahead and rip me.