My patience pays off

As many of you already know I love eBay. I also love when I can contain myself and have some patience to wait for cards to drop in price to buy them. I need this last card to complete my Topps for 2009 (I'm not chasing the black /58), and I won it for 99 cents.

2009 Topps #4 Gold

The same seller also had another card I needed, and the shipping was combined for I think $1.50 or so. You can't beat that for shipping on eBay. That's one thing that is good and bad to do on there. I always check when adding a card to my watch list to see if the same seller has other cards that I need this way I only pay for shipping once. It's bad because you tend to buy more than you planned on.

2007 Adam Lind Gold

Last night I picked up a few steals, some had free shipping which makes me smile. I will save those for a later release but all the Pujols collectors that were sleeping last night, I thank you very much.

Anyone pick up anything good on eBay lately? It seems as though I have better luck when I don't care about paying attention to the things I want. If I bid one price and then tell myself that there is no more bidding I seem to win.

Going to the Yankee game on Friday and Sunday, I sold my tickets for tomorrow so maybe I should go Target hunting tomorrow... Can someone ask the Target people to get in some more 2009 products? Maybe if we all promise to buy them, they will start sending them.

Topps Red Hot Rookie Redemption

Well folks, after the estimated November shipping date my Red Hot Rookie Redemption #11 (Clayton Kershaw) has finally shipped. I like Kershaw, and it's a card I will hold onto until I see how he pans out. Then maybe I can trade him for Albert Pujols if he is decent, or Adam Lind if he sucks.

But they said 10-14 days it should be in hand, I won't be holding my breath. Keep your eyes peeled in your e-mail for the Topps e-mail if you have sent out redemptions for this sub-set.

Back later with some grumblings, hopefully some cards from Target, and some bubble mailer news.

Topps Red Hot Rookie Delay

Today I received the following e-mail from Topps, twice actually for two cards I redeemed many, many moons ago.

Dear Consumer.

This email is to inform you that the Topps Company is currently experiencing a delay in processing the following redemption card: Red Hot Rookie #11

There was also a pin # and code.

Really? This was supposed to ship according to the cards by the first week of November. November of what year? The letter should have read:

Dear Consumer.

This e-mail is to inform you that you are just another sucker who spent money on the most boring product of Topps 2008 line. Thanks for your donation, you will get your final crappy card when we are good and ready to send it out.

Now if I could respond to this, some of the hair on the back of your necks might stand with the profanity that would be in that response.

I did luck out with Card #11, and I have no idea who #14 is but I am supposed to get that dude also. Here is the final checklist if anyone is interested in what they may or may not ever see from Topps.

2008 Topps Red Hot Rookie Redemption Checklist:


# 1 Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds / Autographed
# 2 Justin Masterson, Boston Red Sox
# 3 John Bowker, San Francisco Giants
# 4 Kosuke Fukudome, Chicago Cubs
# 5 Mike Aviles, Kansas City Royals
# 6 Chris Davis, Texas Rangers
# 7 Chris Volsatd, Florida Marlins
# 8 Jeff Samardzija, Chicago Cubs
# 9 Brad Ziegler, Oakland A’s
# 10 Gio Gonzalez, Oakland A’s
# 11 Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
# 12 Daniel Murphy, New York Mets
# 13 Chris Dickerson, Cincinnati Reds
# 14 Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco Giants
# 15 Nick Evans, New York Mets
# 16 Clayton Richard, Chicago White Sox
# 17 Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays
# 18 Taylor Teagraden, Texas Rangers
# 19 Collin Balester, Washington Nationals
# 20 Lou Montanez, Baltimore Orioles

What I Learned from 2008 Baseball Cards

10. Topps Series 1 always, always, always SUCKS. I say this, yet we pre-ordered a case because I am confident this year it won't. Every year I swear it off, and every year there I am like a schmuck on the day of release waiting to flush my cash.

9. Topps Heritage is fun. While you don't get much in terms of a bunch of auto's or game-used cards the cards are fun to break with all the SP's and variations. I particularly am fond of this one for whatever reason.

8. Yankee Stadium Legacy will be a life long pursuit at this point. I knew going into this whole thing that it was going to take some time, however after roughly a year I have about 650 cards (some laying around un-logged as usual), and I am barely to 10% complete. Good luck to me.

7. Blasters are my friend. When you have enough cash to buy a few packs, but not a hobby box these bad boys are the best. It's the fun of opening a whole box, with the bonus promise of a GU card in every box, or a bonus pack. Granted, I am not one of those people that pulls "MOJO" from a blaster, it scratches the itch.

6. Starting a business on eBay is not as profitable when the economy is rapidly on the decline, the President is a bozo, and people are just not spending.

5. Upper Deck Goudey was both fun to break, and profitable by a narrow margin. 'Nuff said.

4. FVF a.k.a. Final Value Fees can suck it. Never, ever list cards on eBay for auction unless you are going to pull significant cash on them because in the end, it eats your profits.

3. "Short Print" is no joke, and is a mild understatement to say the least. When you collect Pujols or Jeter and it takes 18 boxes to get 2, they are not kidding. Good job by us collecting these two.

2. Target is THE BEST place. 2008 Stadium Club Blasters is all I am going to say because really, the rest of what you can get there is just a bonus.

1. Good friends buy cards, or trade cards. Best friends get you Albert Pujols Triple Relic Auto's.

I finally obtained a "centerpiece" card to my Pujols collection, and it finally feels well rounded, and it "completed" it (and me, sadly or happily).

Topps Red Hot Rookies

Topps has red hot rookies in their Series 2 product this year. This way you can get all the best of the top rookies in the league. Some are going to be better than other. So far, Topps has announced four of the 20 Red Hot Rookies.

Here are the cards so far:

1. Jay Bruce Auto (probably going to be the best card in the set)

2. Justin Masterson (pictured)

3. John Bowker

4. Kosuke Fukudome

2008 Topps Series 2 Box Break

About a week ago I was wandering through the mall, wondering what I should waste some money on. I walked into BC Sports, and found out that a Topps Series 2 hobby box would only cost me $58 bucks. Bargain! And by bargain, I mean the only box that was in the $50 range I was willing to spend that day.

I will give Topps a little credit on the Series 2 because they included a mystery redemption card in the hobby boxes, as well as a game used card. I was so furious with getting a boxload of crap in Series 1, I'm not sure why I decided to buy this box but then again I hate money.

I got a Jose Reyes 2007 Season Highlights Game Used Jersey card, Red Hot Rookie Redemption #14, 2 Mickey Mantle cards, about 8 Gold cards, and quite a number of gold foil. I also got the usual inserts that are not very exciting, like the presidential ones, Topps Stars, and a couple of Trading Card History.

Overall, for $58 bucks you really can't go wrong with Series 2.

The Wonder That Is Target

Most people go to Target to get Blasters or new retail packs, I go to Target looking for the bargain packs. Those are the packs that are a year or more old, sitting in a box on the bottom shelf somewhere. A few days ago I grabbed 10 2007 UD Goudey packs, and 10 2006 Topps Heritage packs. In the Goudey, I got Nolan Ryan and Cal Ripken Jr. Heads Up cards, and an Ichiro, Smoltz, Pedro Martinez, and someone else I can't remember Short Prints. In the Heritage, I pulled a Barry Zito Pieces of Greatness Jersey Card, Signs of Greatness Kevin Whelan auto, and a Signs of Greatness redemption card for John Drennan (?). The redemption is good til December, and I am hoping they send me someone else because they ran out of that guy.

Since I am good at wasting money, I went back to Target because there were 10 packs of 2007 Topps Heritage left and I bought those. This was fun also, I got a couple of SP's I didn't have, one rainbow foil SP, and a Pieces of Greatness Jeff Franceour bat card.

Not bad for $1.59 per pack. The first trip cost $17 bucks, and I got far more than you get in most blasters.

I have some scans, I have to put them into a webpage to put them in here. Will be up later tonight, hopefully.

Anxious to Get the Mail.....

I am expecting 2 hobby boxes of 2008 Topps Co-Signers this week... I can not wait. I have taken a small break from buying cards recently as a result of having some bills to pay. But I have a small update on the status of my Yankee Stadium Legacy collection, it is up to 140 cards, not including the cards that MPStar here has for me.

Again, if you have any Yankee Stadium Legacy cards for trade and are on the Beckett message boards, please PM me on there, screen name 39poolshark.

Stay tuned for a box break sometime this week. Anyone get anything good in the mail recently? Any good bargains out there I should know about?

Tampa Moments & Milestones Breaks

No one ever said we were frugal. We ended up buying 5 boxes, 2 each and split one because we have serious issues. It's an addiction, and it can sometimes be costly, or depending on what bargain packs Target has, it could be cheap fun.

Here are some of the top notch cards I pulled, the scans are missing a 1/1 Red Luke Hochevar RC. (a 1/1, which by the way has been on eBay twice already.)































That's the best of it. Sooz got some great cards also, she was the one who pulled the Braun auto, but I acquired that for a Cole Hamels Bowman's Best Auto. I did also give her a Brandon Jones auto ERR card that is really Joey Votto.

Back from Tampa

Greetings baseball card addicts! We just got back from Tampa tonight, and boy did we have some fun. We found a great card shop, and got great cards for good prices. I will be scanning and giving you the info on it all tomorrow or Monday.

Between us we broke 5 boxes of Moments & Milestones, and bought some single cards we needed. Lots of autos, lots to trade, and more importantly lots to show everyone.

We are definitely interested in trading for Pujols and Jeter. Please e-mail us if you have either for trade, and we will get you a list of what you are interested in.

2008 Topps Moments & Milestones Break #2

:::yawn::: I mean, yay that was fun. By fun I mean there wasn't anything fun in here for me. The cards I got that I liked, I didn't scan because I'm lazy. Those cards are Votto RC, Hochevar RC, 2 Pujols, 2 Jeter, Mariano, Cano, and some A-Rod's.

Here are the rest. (This box makes me want to get up and go to BC Sports and buy more so I can possibly get something cool.)

Bubble Mailer #2

I know, I am overloading you with cards, and blogs today but it's fun! I love getting bubble mailers, it makes the day worth going to the mailbox.

This was my most recently received eBay purchase:

2008 Topps Series One Hobby Box, The Second...

You are probably wondering how on earth I opened another box of these cards after the news of the first box. Well, I bought both boxes as pre-sales before having any knowledge of what could be in them, or in these 2 instances, what wasn't in them.

Although there were no GU or AU's in this box, I did fairly well on the Mickey Mantle cards, and the TCH subset.

MMS 46, 47, 51
MHR 508, 509, 512, 532, 534, 535
(532, 534, 535 are for trade, I need 501, 502, 507, 510, 511, 513-524, 526-531)

Presidential cards, Obama (x2), Biden, Paul

Future Stars Kazuo Uzuki

Own The Game - Thome, Fielder, Lackey, Carmona,

Trading Card History - Mauer, Pence, Teixiera/Francouer, Justin Upton, Alfonso Soriano, Wang

Gold Cards - Miguel Tejada, Odalis Perez, Alex Rodriguez MVP, Paul Konerko, Mickey Mantle

Year in Review - Russell Martin, Manny Ramirez, Chase Utley, Jake Peavy, Hideki Matsui, Tim Lincecum

50th Anniversary Rookies - Garrett Atkins, Dan Uggla, Austin Kearns, Mark Teixera, Melky Cabrera, Brandon Webb, Derek Jeter, Prince Fielder

16 Gold Foil cards as well.


To all those who have wondered here from the Beckett and Topps Boards, most of these cards are available for trade. Yankees are excluded. Especially if anyone needs any of the gold foil cards to make a set, I have a ton of them and I have no interest in keeping them.

Maybe I'm Missing Something

Right now, I'm missing a 2008 Jeter Topps card.

For Valentine's Day, I received four jumbo and four regular packs of 2008 Topps. This was my gift and I love my boyfriend for it. I ripped the packs because it's been a while since I have gotten any cards. I've been saving money for other reasons and baseball cards haven't made the list.

Shockingly (well, not really), there was no Jeter base. I never get it and always buying the cardon eBay, but I bought another jumbo today just because I had to. Baseball cards are my crack. Anyway, no Jeter. So, I went to eBay and typed in 2008 Jeter. I saw UD cards, inserts and base cards. I also saw the Jeter 50th Anniversary card, but no base card. I went to the Topps website to scout the checklist.

No Jeter in the base set. Wait, what?

How can there be no Jeter card in Topps base set? Are they waiting for Series 2?

I'm really confused about this and don't understand. Maybe someone else can tell me what's going on.