This coulda been Marie

It's great to know people

By that I mean it's great to know people who are not Yankee fans, like Beardy. Beardy is a Baltimore Orioles fan, and by nature hates the Yankees. I'm okay with that because that means Yankee Stadium Legacy cards and a variety of goodness that came in the mail the other day. Here are some of the cards Beardy sent over.

The Phil Hughes is a refractor (sweeeeeeet)


There were also a bunch of YSL cards to make my collection a smidge closer to completion, not that I see that happening at the rate I am currently moving along at. I'm very grateful for all the friends I have made through the blogosphere, and for their continued generosity.

I am currently on a brain break because I can't see straight anymore from reading my notes. My poor card collection has felt so neglected in the last week or two because I have barely done much of anything, I have piles of mail sitting around waiting to be sorted, logged, and put into binders that I just haven't done. I'm not very good with time management, and tend to over-stress on beating information into my brain rather than managing my time so that I don't feel looney by like 10pm.

The coolest envelope ever

Yesterday I went to the post office and was supposedly mailing things (which were home on my scanner and went out today- VOTC & topher) when I discovered the "yellow card" in my P.O. box. I love yellow cards because as you might know, that is what you get when something is too large for the box (insert jokes here). The mailman hands me two packages, one from The Mojo Hand and one from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius. Matt from HBC is a frequent trading partner of mine and a great guy, and Jay from the Mojo Hand will definitely be on my list of great trading partners (though for now he gets an IOU 'til I have something 'mojo-esque' for him).

I want to start with Mojo Hand simply because this was by far the coolest way to send baseball cards I have seen yet. Not to say I need anything fancy like this ever, but what a great idea. Perhaps if my bills came in the mail like this they would be more tolerable.






I would have been happy with just the envelope, however the cards inside were indeed worthy of the title we have all grown to love/hate and make fun of "mojo". Take a look at what Jay sent me:

2008 Topps Stadium Club Beam Team autograph Robinson Cano (Holy schnikeys!)

2007 UD Elements Troy Tulowitzki RC, 2008 UD Baseball Heroes Joba Chamberlain /249 (sweet because I have no serial numbered or SP's of Joba), and 2009 Topps Heritage Robinson Cano SP

Variety of Yankee Greats to add to my Yankee Stadium Legacy collection

Jay, you and I are going to get along famously- if I don't find anything for you perhaps a $12 bleacher ticket will make-up for it in the future. Thanks a million!!!

Now, onto Matt's package from HBC... Matt is always on the look-out for Pujols cards and Yankee Stadium Legacy for me, and often just sends things along (like this), for cards to be named later. I shall search for those cards this weekend. Matt found 2 Pujols inserts from 2005 that I don't have and now am giddy about. Here is what Matt sent me:

2005 Topps Total Albert Pujols, Total Topps and Total Production

Yahoo!!! What a day for mail, and I didn't get a single bill in the mail which made this even more fun. Thanks so much Matt, I will see what I can send you from you want list.

I will be attempting to put together a small break blog later tonight or tomorrow depending on how late I make it. I have been asleep before the 11 o'clock news almost every night this week. Sad.

Trade with Cardboard Junkie

As many of you know a trip to K-Mart a while back landed me a '34 Goudey buyback of Baxter Jordan. dayf from Cardboard Junkie e-mailed me about trading it to him and I was willing to entertain trading it since it really didn't do much for me, other than look cool and end up a trophy pull from a blaster.

I was offered a boatload, and by boatload I mean over 40 YSL cards PLUS a Pujols GU jersey card for the '34 Jordan, some cards to help him complete a set and some Braves that he was interested in (at least I think that's how this went down). dayf was also kind enough to throw in some free Pujols cards that are making new friends here on my desk for now.





Thanks dayf this trade got me a few centimeters closer to that far, far away finish line on the YSL set.

P.S. I opened the 2009 Topps Series 2 packs and they were uneventful, which was more or less expected after the luck on the Goudey. Stay tuned.

K-Mart bargain blaster hit

In a blog from last week I told everyone that my local K-Mart had a big sale on 2008 products, and that I had picked up among other things a 2008 Goudey blaster for $10.99. Since my pillowcases and blanket are still in the dryer I decided to break it because I can't go to bed anyway. I decided to see if I could tell if any packs felt differently than others so if I did I could save that pack for last. They all felt exactly the same to me, what do I know.

Here is what I ended up with (just highlighting the better cards):

2 Yankee Stadium Legacy cards


Sport Royalty Magic Johnson (black back), Steve Carlton (black back), James K. Polk (black back), and Ichiro (green back)


Mini Sport Royalty Jack Nicklaus (Red back), Brooks Robinson mini (red back), Wayne Gretzky Hit Parade of Champions


and....... drumroll please.........

1934 Goudey Original Buyback of Baxter Jordan of the Boston Braves.



My expectations of this blaster were not very high, I figured maybe a GU card at most and bought it mostly for Yankee Stadium Legacy and the chance at an auto. Not in a million years would I have expected to pull a buyback that only came one per case (at least that's what I remember when we opened ours). I'm happy even though I have no idea who he is.

I'm not really sure what I plan on doing with all these base cards since I don't need any of them. I was thinking of sending them out for TTM's when I decide to actual follow through on sending any, or maybe I'll trade some for cards I want.

I do know that I now desperately want to go back to K-Mart, but lightning doesn't strike the same place twice which is why the last Heritage blaster I bought was the one with the Mat Gamel auto /60.

Yankee Stadium Legacy arrives from Ohio

Some of the more frequent commenter's may have noticed a new name around here, Duane. Duane and I have been e-mailing back and forth for a little while about trading for some YSL cards, and we made it happen just yesterday. Duane is a very nice guy and a great trader so I urge anyone to help him out with his set building quest.

I ended up with 35 new Yankee Stadium Legacy cards that I just logged into my collection. With the additional cards I have broken 1,200 cards, and am officially sitting at 1,206. This makes me happy.

1,206 down and 5,535 to go...

Mariano got a save today, 484 down and 16 to go.

On a random note, I am still eating Easter bread and it's the only time it's acceptable to have sprinkles on bread (lots of sprinkles, too).

Stay tuned for the pictures and story for Opening Day.

Nasty weather

Last night we got some really nasty weather in my area, hail was the size of quarters and silver dollars. It was coming down so hard we thought the windows were going to break, the deck was covered and so was everything else. Today I go outside to run an errand, I look at the hood of my car and it is dented like Swiss cheese. It got pelted and destroyed, hood and trunk alike. I checked the other cars on my driveway and they were all dented, but not as bad as mine. Lucky me. So we have to have the insurance company come look at everything. Did anyone else experience this lovely weather last night? If you did, I hope you checked your cars. It has hailed here before, but never the way it was last night- it was absolutely insane.

After it calmed down I was going to open my one lonely blaster that I was saving for a rainy day, but my dog was being a baby and needed to practically sit on my lap. So I was babysitting one dog, and my brother was babysitting the other dog. In their defense, it did sound like we were being invaded.

On another, more related to the blog kind of note, I picked some YSL cards from a dude selling them for a buck each over 2 weeks ago and I am still waiting. He said he was out of town on business and blamed his wife for not mailing them. Really? That's the best excuse he could come up with? I wanted to let him have it and ask him why he didn't just e-mail me when they were purchased and let me know he was out of town along with some other choice words, but I decided to just wait it out.

Baseball season can not get here fast enough. I am bored out of my mind.

1142

That is how many Yankee Stadium Legacy cards I have right now. I got a package on Friday or Saturday from madding containing a good chunk of cards that I needed. I just logged in 47 cards total from all the bubble mailers this week. I know Sooz has some more for me also so that is cool.

I have a great deal from this years UD thanks in part to fellow bloggers because I don't think I pulled any of my own, other than buying on eBay. So thanks to all the people who have sent me cards, and e-mailed me with offers for trades or donations. All are appreciated.

What I have zero of is another story. I do not have a single card between #2000-#2099, not one. I haven't even researched which product these numbers were released in, but it's very odd that in a year of collecting these cards I haven't come across a single one. If anyone has any info, or better yet any cards between 2,000-2,099 please let me know.

P.S. 7 days left til baseball season starts!!! I'm so excited.

Another reason to love the readers

In the mail yesterday I got a bubble malier from Charlie, who writes the blog behind these hazel eyes. Charlie was kind enough to send me a TON of Yankee Stadium Legacy cards in lieu of something to be named or picked later. He is currently looking to downsize his card collection as you can see from reading his blog. Charlie was also kind enough to include a card I didn't have and love, a 2008 Baseball Heroes charcoal Albert Pujols #156. Here are a couple of scans to make this blog look more aesthetically pleasing:




For some reason when I look at that Ruth card, I feel like he is looking up at someone doing something really annoying and possibly mumbling something under his breath.

I put together a package for Charlie that went out yesterday, and I think he will like it just fine. I included only players that he had on his want list, and I hope he doesn't have them. One of the cards that I sent I absolutely loved because it is one from a subset that is so hard to find, and I am sure he will appreciate the card once he sees it.

Make sure you stop by Charlie's blog, his want list is very player specific and he is a great guy to trade with.

Mail Day

Currently I am sitting in my desk chair watching Mariano Rivera pitch the 7th inning against Boston in a tie 1-1 game. I figured I would share a very generous mail day from Todd, a reader of the blog. My delay in sending his cards hopefully will not make him a non-reader.

Todd sent over the 2009 Spectrum red /250 Pujols as we discussed, and threw in a 2008 SP Authentic Marquee Matchups Pujols/Lidge, and a retro 2009 Topps #4, Jones, Pujols, Holliday card which makes me want to go find myself a retro blaster. Those cards are way cooler than the base set. I scanned those cards for your viewing pleasure. Todd was also kind enough to throw in some Yankee Stadium Legacy cards which made me smile from ear to ear.

I am going to dig some more to look for more cards for Todd, so keep an eye on your mailbox.

Go Yankees!!

Yankee Stadium Legacy Milestone

In case you were wondering, this is what 1,038 Yankee Stadium Legacy cards looks like.

I am ecstatic to announce that as of today, and with Don Mattingly I have broken the 1,000 card mark. I am officially holding at 1,038 (with a few trades in queue for more) and am so psyched to be about 1/6th of the way to complete. It may even take me less than my lifetime to finish this, which would be nice.

I received 3 packages today, all of them contained Yankee Stadium Legacy cards. Sooz bought me a bunch at the Backstop, Eric from the Pettitte Pursuit sent me a bunch because he's a nice guy, and a trade with Ron (Section 36) got me a few more including a bonus Babe Ruth that was very appreciated.

It has taken over a year of packs, boxes, eBay auctions and trades to get here but I finally feel like I am making progress by breaking 1,000. Anyone looking to get rid of their Yankee Stadium Legacy cards, I would be very happy to trade for them.

Mail Box Excitement

For those of you who say women are hard to please, you are dead wrong. Today I go to the mail box to check for any of my eBay auctions that I shouldn't be buying, and there was a penalty card. (That's what I call the yellow cards that tell you that you have a package that did not fit in your P.O. Box to claim.) I go to get it, and to my suprise it was a GLORIOUS package from Todd (Uncommon, I presume).

I was dying the whole 5 minute ride home to open it because it was something I was not expecting, and once I got home I tore into it like I had never seen mail. And what you may ask was in the box, well... It was a BOATLOAD of Yankee Stadium Legacy cards, and some House that Ruth Built inserts, which I have none of. Best day ever! Todd, you made my week. There are so many here that I can not wait to total it all up into Beckett to see where this leaves me.

I shall seek only the finest Royals cards this side of the blog for Todd. I hope I can send him stuff that makes him just as happy as I am.

I also got one eBay auction that I will show off later on. I have to go work on sorting the teams for the people who have claimed and paid.

My Current OCD

I am addicted to eBay, have been for many years and I can freely admit this. How can anyone not like eBay? Yes, there are the occasional sellers out there with the outrageous shipping charges, horrendous packaging of products, and terrible customer service. But you have to admit, the good outweighs the bad in this instance.

I find myself not daily, but more like 10 times a day searching for "2009 Pujols", and "Yankee Stadium Legacy". For one week there have been a little less than 2 complete pages of Pujols cards on eBay with my setting of 100 per page. Yankee Stadium Legacy is insanely overpopulated, yet the prices are still holding strong.

I am currently holding at 934 cards, with 16 that need to be sent back to Upper Deck because they were obtained in a trade that the trader said they came damaged out of the pack. Upper Deck's website claims 4-6 week turnaround on replacement cards. I will keep track of that once or if I send them out. Sooz, who is the best, picked up about 30 cards for me a little while ago at the Backstop, and Chris from Stale Gum also gave me some cards from his box break that day. Those cards are not included in my total yet.

Sometimes I wonder if all the effort, trading, and money I put into the YSL set were put into my Pujols collection how many cards would I have by now.

Right now we are awaiting some sort of "massive" snowfall which was supposed to have started by now and hasn't as of yet. I opened some packs the other day at my job that I am going to scan and show everyone soon. Stay tuned...

Bubble Mailer Day!

I love when I get to the mail box and there are bubble mailers stuffed in there. It makes my whole day. See, it doesn't take much folks.

Both of these were from trades, and from great people as well. The first package I opened was from Heartbreaking Cards and it was the missing link I was talking about earlier. Drumroll please..... 2008 UD X XPonential 2 Albert Pujols!!! After months, and months of searching for this card it is now mine... all mine! Thanks so much, Matt! First time trading with him and it was awesome.


Now my second package was on a long journey from Canada, and arrived rather quickly. This one was from Tricia over at The Hamiltonian, who sent me a great bunch of cards as always. She is a great trader, and very nice person so if you have any Hamilton cards, let her know she will give them a good home. I received the following cards:

2009 UD #343 Albert Pujols

2009 UD #479 Albert Pujols CL

2009 Yankee Stadium Legacy 6682 Melky Cabrera

2009 Yankee Stadium Legacy 6710HM 2008 All-Star Game (I love this card.)


Thank you so much Tricia!!!

The YSL All-Star Game card will probably be forever one of my favorite cards from this set simply because I was at that game. The whole All-Star Game experience from Fan Fest, Homerun Derby, and the All-Star Game were all experiences that I could never put a price on. I would have sold my soul to be at those events, and thankfully I was able to purchase all of the event tickets because I am a season ticket holder. Sooz and I went to Fan Fest together and had a blast, and for the Homerun Derby and All-Star game we were both there but she was working and I was playing. I can definitely see why Tricia likes Hamilton, any guy that can smash homeruns off the back wall of Yankee Stadium is okay in my book.

Sadly, I don't remember taking any pictures of these events. I think I was just interested in taking it all in and remembering it and not trying to worry about pictures.

I Never Met a Red Sox Fan I Liked...

until about a week ago, at least. I met "Section 36" through a trade proposition e-mail in which he scanned a bunch of cards that he thought I might want, including some Yankee Stadium Legacy cards. He was interested in Red Sox cards, which is great because all I would use them for otherwise is kindling for Sooz's Chipper fires.

Here is what I escaped with from Section 36, this doesn't include my favorite card that I somehow forgot to scan. My favorite from this trade was a 2003 Bowman Heritage First Year Robinson Cano card that I have wanted for quite some time. I put him in my binder already and I am too lazy to take him out and scan him. Sorry.








With all the Red Sox cards I have laying around, and Section 36 not liking the Yankees I think him and I might get along famously well.

Hooray for Card Junkie

I received one of my favorite pieces of mail today. The kind of mail that comes from Jeffrey at Card Junkie and usually contains some Yankee Stadium Legacy goodness. Mail day definitely delivered the goodness, with two Yankee Stadium Legacy cards inside. I got a Derek Jeter, and a Mike Mussina card both from the 2009 Upper Deck. One thing I noticed about these is that the writing across the top is smaller this year than last years cards. No big deal, just an observation. Jeff's cards went out in the mail today, so keep your eyes peeled next week buddy. He is a great guy and trader so stop over there and check out his blog.

Just a note for everyone: Post office is closed Monday, so don't get giddy about picking up the mail Monday.

Bubble Mailer Day

I finally got around to opening the package that was in my mailbox on Saturday, and it was glorious! It was a lot of 29 Yankee Stadium Legacy cards I got on eBay for a whole $18.99 and free shipping. Sweet! The 29 cards are all from the 2008 Sweet Spot set, which is perfect because I only opened 2 boxes and the odds for doubles were slim to none.

I opened up the box, and there they were... all crisp and neat just waiting to join their friends in Beckett and the YSL box here. I logged all of them in, and only got one double in the lot which made me very happy.

More importantly, my total is now 860 cards. I still haven't picked up any 2009 Upper Deck to check out a new game, but I will eventually. If anyone has some for trade please let me know.

I'm up to 860/6742 cards (that includes all this years cards), which means 1,000 by the end of the year is very possible.

Trading Time

One of our readers, Greg, e-mailed me that he had a bunch of Yankee Stadium Legacy cards for trade. After I did a short jig, I e-mailed him back with some banter and cards to try and seal the deal. We worked it all out and he sent me a whole mess of cards including some Pujols, and a couple for Sooz.

These are the YSL cards I got, I copied and pasted this list from the e-mail so hopefully this is what was there, lol.

Game 2179 Joe DiMaggio
Game 2154 Johnny Mize
Game 6076 Derek Jeter
Game 2124 Joe DiMaggio
Game 860 Tony Lazzeri
Game 5237 Jim Leyritz
Game 5212 Kevin Maas
Game 5908 Joe Torre
Game 1861 Yogi Berra
Game 2149 Johnny Mize
Game 3595 Joe Pepitone
Game 3545 Joe Pepitone
Game 2234 Joe DiMaggio
Game 2209 Allie Reynolds
Game 4339 Goose Gossage
Game 391 Urban Shocker
Game 4140 Reggie Jackson

I now have 808/6661. I can't wait to see how long this actually ends up taking me.

The other thing I wanted to mention to everyone that has e-mailed me for cards in the past, and will in the future is THANK YOU!! I enjoy talking to new people about cards, and I like trading. Trading saves everyone some money, and we all get what we want. I invite you to e-mail me and let me know if you have anything I might be interested in because I have plenty of cards that I have no interest in to trade.

And another thank you to everyone who stops by and reads the blog. We have written quite a few this month and are hoping to keep it going into February.

(Photo courtesy of Upper Deck, though I did see this in person at the Fan Fest over the summer.)

Yankee Stadium Legacy Travels From Singapore

I received an e-mail from Aik Sheng a while ago telling me that he had some Yankee Stadium Legacy cards for trade if I was interested. It took me a couple of days to get back to him, but thankfully he still had them and was still willing to talk shop with me. He collects Ken Griffey Jr. and Nick Swisher so we worked out a deal for some of those cards for 9 Yankee Stadium Legacy cards.

The cards arrived today in perfect order. I got the following games:

-5103 Tommy John
-5128 Don Mattingly
-5153 Dave Righetti
-5689 Joe Torre
-6261 Roger Clemens
-6286 Andy Pettitte
-6311 Mariano Rivera
-6336 Hideki Matsui
-6361 Jorge Posada

So for all of you out there that are apprehensive about trading overseas, this guy is okay. I can't pronounce his name to save my life and I am not going to pretend I can and end up insulting him. However, if anyone has some of those 2 players and need to unload them I can link you up, I am sure he would be interested in getting some new cards from reliable traders.

I do have another trade or two to acknowledge and I will try to get to those at some point tomorrow. I went from working in the store one day to 3 straight somehow and just haven't been home. Sorry if the entertainment around these parts has been slacking in the past few days.

I encourage all of you to keep me posted on YSL cards that are available, I will be more than willing to negotiate.

Recent Trades With Fellow Bloggers and Readers

First and foremost I would like to say what a great group of people I have met through this blog, and through other blogs. Everyone so far has been super-nice and very helpful with getting me cards, and in some cases even making them. I never thought I would end up making a bunch of friends on here that would want to trade at all, much less regularly. I am going to do my best to showcase the trades that have come in this week, and do my best to remember what went out.

I am going to start with Aardvark Trading, Co. (a.k.a. Cards in the Attic) who was kind enough to pull together some interesting Russell Martin cards, a 2007 mini Allen & Ginter Phil Hughes card, and 5 Yankee Stadium Legacy cards in exchange for (I think) 10 or 15 Allen & Giniter mini cards. Splendid trade!





The next trade I want to show is one that took some time, and more effort on their part than mine. This has to be by far one of the coolest things I have ever opened in a bubble mailer, and definitely is an instant favorite in my collection. This trade came from one of our readers "topher". I sent him some Twins cards from Timeline, Documentary, and some random surprises in exchange for 2 Gameday Graphers, which are cards he makes himself for TTM, or in person autographs. He sent me as promised a Russell Martin, and Phil Hughes. But... he also included a GREAT surprise... the Albert Pujols one I had wanted, AND it is numbered 1/1. The letter in the bubble mailer stated that he will not make another Pujols card for anyone for the rest of the year, and that 1/1 is all mine. Yahoo!!! Now the debate is, do I keep the card or make some meager attempt of sending it with a letter to Albert and pray daily that he signs it for me. We'll have that discussion another day. Here are the cards:








I will get another blog posted with the other 3 trades shortly. I want to give everyone a chance to read each, and leave comments. Well, and also because I think one blog will take over the entire page. Thanks to both of these great guys for working all this out.