They Pulled Me Back In...

Greetings fellow bloggers and collectors!

I'm fairly certain I haven't posted anything in years, nor have I really had any interest in baseball cards.  Ever since I finished nursing school about 4 years ago my baseball card collection more or less went on the back burner.  Until last week that is.

Last week I invited myself along on Sooz's trip to the National and left my paycheck in Chicago.  I bought all kinds of things, some things I didn't even know I wanted or needed.  Some things I just bought because well why not?  I have a cardboard problem after all.

I think a lot of my sudden come back has a lot to to with chasing big RC, Judge and Bellinger.  Ripping wax is more fun when there is someone good on your favorite team to pull.  I have never bought hobby boxes or blasters with the intention of making my money back because that will rarely ever happen plus I will never sell a Judge that I pull unless it's a low numbered auto that I can pay off my credit card with then I would consider it.

My Ryan McDonagh collection has been my focus the last 4 or so years and is pretty sweet and mainly missing 1/1's and base cards.  I don't chase 1/1's and I have no interest in buying base cards because they will always be available so I focus on auto's and game used cards.

I go through cycles of different addictions, cards, car parts and supplies, sneakers...  So for now it's baseball cards.

I am going to give writing a post a week a try.  I make no guarantees but I have just had an energy drink, a coffee and a pail of Starbucks Peach Citrus Tea so I may be up for days with lots to say.  I have some cool things I added to my PC to talk about, plus I fell off the wagon hard and landed in multiple Target's and my LCS this week.  Pretty sure the wagon is broken.

Show off!

I may be off the grid but I still creep on eBay sniping and bidding (yelling,screaming and crying) over cards.  I always wait until I have a big bunch of cards and then I scan them to put into the folder on my computer with all my McDonagh autographs and game used cards.  After scanning everything and opening all my Ultra Pro snap magnetic snap cases, I have realized I did not buy enough 130pt ones to put everything away which makes me angry.  I have a little bit of an OCD with how i keep my autographs and game used cards for my PC.

Here is what I have picked up since the last time we spoke:

 2010-11 Showcase Showdown /19

2010-11 NHL Ink /25

2011-12 Threads /50

Has anyone opened any 2015-16 The Cup Hockey?  Curious what people think about opening a box of that since I will never ever be able to justify buying one on my budget.

Also, if you have any base or inserts of McDonagh that you don't want please contact me to trade.

I'm deleting my eBay app.

LOL, yeah right.  Well, I should probably make someone at least change the password so I can't buy anything for a year after the month long bender I went on.  I have to update my want list with taking off all these cards and some inserts I picked up and also adding newly released cards from sets like 2014-15 Flair.  So y'all tell me how I did on these...

2010-11 Panini Dominion Showcase RC /50

2010-11 Panini Pinnacle Threads RC /25

2013-14 Panini Contenders Six Signatures

2014-15 Artifacts Tundra Trios (I accidentally bought the One with Kesler twice however the first one had damage to the top so this worked out well.  I'll sell the other one.)

2014-15 Artifacts Tundra Sixes Rangers/Devils

2014-15 Artifacts Tundra Sixes Straps Rangers/Flyers /3

2013-14 Panini Contenders Quad Auto Richards, St. Louis, McIlrath, McDonagh

2013-14 Panini National Treasures Quad auto /50 Brassard, McDonagh, Moore, Diaz

 2013-14 Panini Titanium Patch /15 McDonagh and Boyle (boooooo)

2014-15 Fleer Ultra Road to the Championship cards

2015 National Hockey Card Day auto

Still waiting on a couple of cards to arrive which is the downside to having to purchase most cards from Canada.  I am pretty happy with what I was able to knock off the old want list here.  I may be even more happy that knocking off some of those artifacts cards will make my want list appear slightly less crowded and neater.

Bubble mailer week...

Well, it was also PWE day because some sellers on eBay are just lazy.  I love getting a bargain so sometimes I will stray from solely buying autographs or only buying my guys.  That's where this nice Kreider auto came from.  I like it alot and it was way cheaper than it should be.  Then again hockey autographed cards are no where near as expensive to collect as baseball autographs.  Maybe it's just me.

Here are the new McDonagh cards I can cross off my want list today:

2014-15 UD MVP Super Scripts /25

2010-11 ITG Heroes and Prospects auto

 2014-15 Upper Deck Tundra Trios (USA)

These were $1.69 for both, and I didn't have one so I figured why not.  The price is right.

2014-15 SP Six Authentic (I won't lie I don't like the card as much as I would if the Flyers were the "back of the card".)

I did also add some Cano cards to my collection as well.  Both are from 2105 Topps Series 1.

Blogging about my eBay pick ups makes me remember why I should stay away from packs.  I do occasionally grab boxes of hockey and baseball but focusing on my collection has helped it to grow and has stopped the amount of cardboard in my house from increasing 100 fold a year.

New PC additions and a CONTEST!

This is my favorite kind of post.  I get to show off my new loot and potentially give stuff away, well that's if you actually want the prize.  If you build sets, you will want the prize.  First, LOOT!!!


2011-12 SP Game Used Extra Significance /25 - Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuuuuuuuuucarello

2011-12 Panini Titanium Game Worn Gear /25 Ryan McDonagh auto

2010-11 Panini Zenith Ryan McDonagh RC /199 - This card has a sort of funny story.  I saw the card on eBay, saw that it said /199 and assumed it was autographed and I knew mine was /999...  So I made an offer...  He accepted the offer and I got so excited because it was a low offer and thought I was stealing a card.  I go to pay for the card and see that it is not autographed.  Yeah, I'm dumb.  So this card cost more in shipping from Canada than the card cost.  Lesson learned.

CONTEST:  Here is the deal.  I updated my want list for my McDonagh collection...  To win the contest all you have to do is send me 20-25 McDonagh cards that I need.  What do you get?  You will get a flat rate box filled with cards.  You will get a choice of random cards from random sets or you can get bunches of player cards.  Players are random ones that I have separated into 4 row boxes and I just want to get rid of them.

If you are interested awesome!  If you aren't, I totally understand because I would be like the last thing I want is a box of stuff to store here.  Just leave a comment and let me know if you are interested, and we can work out the details privately.  No rush on getting the cards together either.

I am trying to downsize from hundreds of thousands of cards I don't even look at into just the players and teams I collect.  The only two sets I am actually working on are 2009 OPC baseball, and 2014-15 Fleer Ultra Hockey.  (Want list for the Ultra not ready yet.)


EDIT: WANT LIST FIXED!

2 Reasons I'm Over Parallels

I posted a blog a couple of days ago about not bothering with inserts and parallels until I'm at a show or I already found a way to get all the better/harder to find later cards. I thought I would share a couple of my mail days to show you why I stopped bothering.

Mail Day #1

2011 Topps Finest Robinson Cano Finest Moments Auto /274


Mail Day #2

2011 Topps Finest Robinson Cano Finest Moments Auto /20


While writing this I realized something ironic. While I may be done chasing base card parallels it seems as though they still have me sucked in. I'm still buying parallels, they are just autographed now. Yay. The difference to me is that when I get an autograph it thrills me to no end but when I win a refractor version of something the only thing I'm thinking when it arrives is, "oh good I can fill one more pocket on the page of these exact same cards in my binder." Then I'm over it. I am more likely to flip through all my plastic snap cases of autographs then I am to flip pages in my binder unless I am putting the cards away.

Eventually I will try and find the Finest parallels and inserts, or maybe one of you guys have some to trade. In the meantime if anyone has the purple refractor auto of Cano /5 to trade, let me know. One was already sold on eBay and there is one currently for sale in this auction. I want this card pretty badly to complete the Finest set of them, but unless one of you guys feel like buying me a birthday present it may be out of my price range for the time being considering the other one on eBay ended around $108.

I'm going on an eBay break until after Christmas because any money I have from now til then will be saved for shopping. I have one more mail day to show you guys, and one more I've been waiting about 10 days for it to arrive. I don't want you guys to think I lied.

P.S. Please keep me in mind for any 2011 Finest, 2011 Bowman Chrome, and 2011 Topps Chrome cards of my guys you come across. I am definitely interested in trading and have plenty of cards to flip.

Discussion: Have parallels/inserts changed your habits?

I sort of got into a discussion about this issue on Twitter and it's something I have been thinking about more lately just based on what I look for on eBay and at shows. I have made it known that I love blue refractors, so I can't say that I think all parallels and inserts are a waste.

My collection in the last year or so has shifted focus and I may have mentioned that once before. I basically look for autograph versions of my players and then fill in the base and base variations later on. I never thought I would be "that" collector who only cared about autographs but I talked myself into thinking my logic is actually logical.

If I were to do my weekly (read: daily and sometimes hourly) searches on eBay for Robbie Cano cards there are always tons of parallels, serial numbered refractors, and game used non-sense cards. Try and find 2009 Triple Threads Cano autographs, I dare you. I have seen the White Whales and maybe a triple relic autograph from 2009 but that's about it. So keeping that in mind, why wouldn't I go after his low numbered autographs and just regular autographs when they will be either non-existent in a few weeks or months or I will end up priced out as a result of scarcity?

Recently I have picked up only autographs of Cano and haven't bothered with anything else. Part of me doesn't even care about the rest of the cards but then the other part of me sees my page of 2011 Topps Chrome missing a regular refractor, atomic refractor, gold refractor, red refractor.... and it makes me mad for three reasons. Reason #1 - Mad at myself just because I'm mad about not having them. Reason #2 - That I have OCD and feel the need to fill those gaps in one day even if it's not now. Reason #3 - I (sadly) like having a page of the same refractor (there, I said it).

Now I know some of you might be going, well it must be nice to spend all that money on autographs. No, not even close. If you priced all the refractors that I am missing from Topps Chrome and Bowman Chrome if I were to just buy parallels it would probably afford me at least 2 Cano autographs maybe even 3 depending on what I went after. If I have $30 to spend on cards and there is an autograph I need in that ballpark vs. a bunch of parallels I am going for that autograph every time, no question.

Quick example, if you want to see how much a couple of parallels of Cano would add up to you can click and add them up.

2011 Finest gold refractor /50
2011 Finest red refractor /25
2011 Topps Chrome red refractor /25

Would it be nice to have those cards? It sure would. But it's always nicer to have a card like this instead.

I feel like I can save all the inserts and parallels I pull out of packs that I don't want to trade with other collectors for the ones I need rather than chasing those cards on eBay. I think this makes more sense anyway because it's not often that when we all rip wax that we pull the guys we collect in parallels. And if there are no trades on the cards I can always wait until I can get to a card show and rummage through bins for cards and buy a group of them for less than buying individual cards and paying for shipping online.

I would love to hear if your collecting habits have changed in terms of waiting on parallels and inserts and going after the autograph or game used cards first. Or do you go for the inserts/parallels first and take the quantity route for the bucks?

I accidentally won this card

I know what you are all thinking already, "she is forever searching eBay for nonsense and now claims she bid 'accidentally', ok". Well, that is sort of how it went down...

So I saw this card on eBay and as you all already know, I don't care for game used cards unless it's a sick patch and even then I would rather spend the same money for an autograph. You also already know that I hate plain swatches on any card with a passion. So why did I end up with this 2011 Topps Marquee Titanic Threads card?


Well... I saw that the auction was ending within a few minutes of doing one of my 2478534897537903490 daily Cano searches and decided that I was not going to let someone else steal it for what started at $3.25.

I bid $5.50... outbid. OK, I don't even want it. But then I bid again without even thinking about what I was doing.

I bid $8.00... outbid. I really don't even like this friggin card...

I bid $10.00.... outbid. Now I am just annoyed because either I let someone else have it cheaper than I think it would end for with just like 2 minute remaining or I...

Bid $15.00... you are the current high bidder at $13.05 with 6 seconds remaining.... tick tock tick tock tick tock. You won!

F---ing wonderful.

I started out mad that it was too cheap to not steal and ended up mad that I got sucked into a card I don't like. This is what is called stupidity for those kids reading at home.

#LOSING!

A First for my Cano Collection

Lately I haven't been making many trades, mostly because it seems like many of us are buying less packs and boxes and more singles. I have been doing that, well... with the exception of the great Bowman Binge of 2011as I will now call it. That product sucks the life out of me every year, not just the last two, I always end up in way too deep to end up with 2 complete sets.... Anyway, that's not the point of the post.

I got an e-mail about a month or two ago from a reader who claimed to have a Robbie Cano card I would want. Boy was he right! I had told him to give me a little time because with the end of the semester and finals coming up I couldn't really devote the time to turning my room upside down for a trade. Being a nice guy, he put the card in a safe spot and held onto it for safekeeping just for me.

We completed the trade last week, him getting almost my entire David Wright collection (including a RC /100 that he looked amazingly cute in, you know, for a Mets player). Believe me, I didn't shed a tear to send them off. In return, I got a bunch of Pujols cards with some of them being serial numbered (which I wasn't expecting, or at least forgot about so it was a fun surprise) and a Cano card that kind of completes my set in a way. This is the card I got:

2008 Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch dual patch card Robbie Cano/Brian Roberts /25


I am in no way a fan of the Orioles, but I like Brian Roberts. Yes, I will admit it partially because he's cute but the rest is because he's gritty (when he's not on the DL). This card marks the first patch card in my Cano collection. When I search for cards I usually go straight for autographs, and game used stuff is secondary because I feel like the game used cards will be easier to get later. So, I have a dirty Cano card and now a patch.

I freaking love this card.