Cards I won't be getting at the National

Only because I am not going. It's in Cleveland and I am not driving out there, however, since next year it's in Baltimore, I'll be hitting it in. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some cool cards then.

Received the National newsletter this morning and it announced some of the cards that would be available at the show.

The newsletter reads: "The Topps Company continues a very popular tradition at the 30th National Sports Collectors Convention. Leaning on their long history, the 2009 Topps VIP Cards will be a 50th Anniversary version in the style of their 1959 issue. The cards in the set include "Cards That Never Were" also continuing a trend.

"Highlighting the issue are two different Mickey Mantle cards, one featuring The Mick batting left-handed, while the second shows him as a righty hitter. ... Also included is a 1959 Roger Maris card with Maris as a Yankee. ... Another of these cards will show Roy Campanella as an Honorary Coach of the Dodgers. ... The final card in the 30th National Topps VIP Set shows Jackie Robinson.

"We wondered what Jackie would have looked like in a Giants uniform and the 2009 National VIP card of Jackie Robinson answers that question."

The VIP ticket price is $119 online and $129 on site. It's admission for all five days, including the sneak peek. You get to attend a little party, enter through the VIP entrance, use the VIP lounge, 12 VIP autograph tickets and a single set of VIP gifts. But it does not include parking.

Here are pictures of the cards:

FYI: etopps release for this week

Just a reminder that this week etopps is offering the following cards: David Price, Ryan Howard, Kyle Blanks, and Jake Fox. They are sharp looking cards for this current release.

Image from etopps website.

Weekend card show pickups (not all Jeter)

Hit a show with one my boyfriend's friends (my boyfriend and his friend's wife were there too). The show was about an hour from my home, but we got food, ice cream and baseball cards. It was a good day.

I picked up 62 of the O-Pee-Chee cards I needed to complete my set for .15/piece, including a Derek Jeter.

Here are the some of the singles I picked up.

This is Pat Venditte, a 'prospect' in the Yankees organization. I put prospect in quotes because he really isn't considered a high prospect, but he is ambidextrous. He can pitch effectively with both arms.

Venditte isn't in Baseball America as a Yankees top 30 prospect, but he was recently promoted to Single-A Tampa from the Charleston RiverDogs. In Charleston, he had a 1.47 ERA out of the pen. He threw 30 2/3 innings with 40 K and just two walks.

This is a Jorge Posada/Carlton Fisk dual jersey card from this year's SP Legendary Cuts.

Here are my Jeter hits. This is a bat card (more like a bat chip, but I like it) numbered to /200 of Jeter. I like bat cards more than I have liked Jersey cards.

1997 Denny's Holograms

2000 Private Stock PS-2000 Action (it's a mini card, the same size as the mini Allen & Ginter)

2008 Stadium Club

2008 Stadium Club 1st Day Issue /599 (the guy selling this card was amazing. I got this card and 10 other various cards for $4. You don't usually get Jeter cards that cheaply).

2009 O-Pee-Chee insert

Not pictured were a few other Jeter cards from various years. I also picked up some other Yankees, but not too many: two Jobas and a Phil Hughes, I believe.

There is another card show next week in Wildwood, NJ at the Wildwoods Convention Center. I'll be going on Friday early in the morning to avoid the holiday traffic.

More Vintage Treasure

So I scoffed these cards from my uncle because I wanted to blog about them, although I know nothing about them. They were in a small plastic bag in the shoebox and I thought they would make for great conversation, and perhaps we can identify these because like I said I am too lazy to do the leg work on this. Not to mention have a ton to study, which clearly you can see isn't getting done. I just had a glass of milk and I am ready for bed despite not knowing half of what I need to know. I have turned into an old person, a glass of milk and bed. Sad.

Here are the cards, I scanned the back of one as just a sample of what they look like. There was one other card that is in terrible shape, it was bent down the middle and looks like it may have been stored that was for a long time, or used in flipping or a bicycle years ago.

I think these cards are awesome because they are actual vintage as opposed to "new" vintage designs we see now. I am very partial to retro designs and love them, but nothing comes close to holding onto cards like this. I won't lie and say I know the value but value is only what someone is willing to pay or accept for something as far as I'm concerned. If anything here strikes anyone's interest let me know and I will relay it to my uncle and see what he was going to do with these.

Stay tuned tomorrow when I am not studying and blogging about the contents of 2 OPC blasters. I have become slightly obsessed with these cards since finding out they will be scarce later.

Ode to Derek Jeter (in baseball cards)

This isn't even close to all the cards I have, it's not even five percent. I uploaded some fun cards of Derek Jeter's on his birthday. As I was going through my binders, I realized how much I liked cards about 10 years ago than I do the designs that are coming out. Oh well, I will still collect because it's what I love to do.

It seemed almost appropriate to start with this Bazooka comic card. Four rings, his birthday and plenty of room for more rings on his toes. Well, we all know it stopped at four and time is running out for the 35-year-old short stop.
These are a few cards from Jeter's younger days.



He got older and as he matured, the rings started piling on. He became loved in New York and hated everywhere else, especially Boston and Atlanta.

This guy was hot!


And, although, he wasn't much of a home run hitter pitchers still didn't want to face Captain Clutch.

Jeter is one of the players that is going to go down in Yankee lore. Despite being 'overrated' he has the numbers, rings and hardware to back it up.



He and his teammates gave younger Yankee fans some of the best baseball memories.


He's a competitor and a role model. He's a ladies man and loyal friend.

Mostly, he just enjoys the game.

And, hopefully, he'll end his career as a Yankee.

The End. Happy Birthday, old man.

Happy Birthday to the man of my youth

I was just 16 years old when the this tan kid with the hair fade entered my life. He really hasn't changed much except for looking older. Today, Derek Jeter turned 35.

He was the 1996 Rookie of the Year and won his first World Series that year.

He got World Series championship rings again in 1998, 1999 and 2000. In 2000, he was named the All-Star game MVP and World Series MVP.

There's never a time, even after all these years, that Jeter does not quit.

It's one of the reasons he has been my favorite Yankee since 1996 and why I continue to chase his cards. As of Jeter's 35th birthday, I have 1,361 unique cards. Many of them with the help of fellow bloggers who are willing take my Red Sox, Braves and any other card that doesn't have Jeter or Kouzmanoff on here.

In a short while, I am going to upload some of my favorite Jeter cards from my collection.

I just wanted to get this out there.

Happy Birthday, Derek!

Updated: Michael Jackson bucked at 50

Celebrity deaths don't usually bother me. Other than watching in a movie or listening to music, they don't have a great presence in my life. I've never been caught up in the whole celebrity (other than collection pictures of baseball players on little cardboard).

But, TMZ is now reporting that Michael Jackson has died. CNN is saying he is in a coma.

He was rushed to the hospital in apparent cardiac arrest. It makes me sick. I don't know why. I was never a big Michael fan, but anytime I heard his music I thought to myself, "Damn, he was so good."

Just two nights ago I played "Beat It" on Guitar Hero and said to my boyfriend, "How can you not love this song?"

He had some serious issues in his life. There were harsh accusations and tough things he had to deal with that I will never understand.

And, yet, I still feel as though I lost something.

What a sad life. What a sad death (if that's the case).

And now, CNN is saying that the LA Times and CBS News are saying he is dead. So there it is.

Topps Agreement Forces Upper Deck To Discontinue Production of Key Sports Card Sets

I saw the link to this article on Twitter and needed to post it for everyone who doesn't follow Blow Out cards. This article was originally seen on the Cardboard Connection, however I read it from a link on Twitter at Blow Out cards message boards.

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Earlier this year Topps sued rival sports card manufacturer Upper Deck on the basis that numerous 2009 Upper Deck Sports Card Products copied the designs of various 1970's Topps Baseball Card Sets. Upper Deck scored an early legal victory when a New York judge ruled in their favor by denying Topps' request for a temporary
restraining order that would have prevented Upper Deck from releasing 2009 Upper Deck Series 2 Baseball and 2009 O-Pee-Chee Baseball.

The next chapter in the legal battle between Topps and Upper Deck was revealed late last week when the two bitter rivals reached an out of court agreement as they await their day in court. According to court documents filed on June 18th, the agreement will allow Upper Deck to continue to sell its existing stock of 2009 Series One and Two Baseball, 2009 O-Pee-Chee Baseball and 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards until July 16. Upper Deck will then have to cease production, distribution, and promotion of the sets named in the lawsuit. A hearing on whether Upper Deck will eventually have to recall the aforementioned products will be delayed until the case goes to trial. The trial date has yet to be scheduled.

The similarities between the Upper Deck cards in question and 1975 Topps Baseball are numerous. Both baseball card designs use a 2-color outer border, a thin white border that surrounds the players' photos, bubble-lettered team names complete with shadows near the tops of the cards, player names written in a single color located at the bottom of the card, and sport a baseball in the bottom corner.

Upper Deck says in its defense that the Topps baseball card designs that it supposedly copied are "common and functional" and therefore not protected as a matter of law. In taking this stand, Upper Deck appears to taking the position that trading card designs should not be protected by copyright laws. Should they prevail over Topps, this could ultimately diminish the level of protection available to any and all trading cards - including their own brands.

Regardless of the similarities that exist between the sets, Topps could easily find itself in a no win situation. Should Topps come out victorious, it would significantly strengthen the copyright protections available to the trading card industry as a whole. However, in doing so they would also drive up the demand for 2009 Series One and Two Baseball, 2009 O-Pee-Chee Baseball and 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Hockey. The hobby's love of short printed cards could easily catapult these products into a previously unattainable degree of success.

-The Cardboard Connection

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This is not good news for us, since as you know we both loved the OPC set. Sigh.

Buried Treasure: 1952 Bowman Mickey Mantle

First let me start by saying that these cards are not mine, and are not for trade. My uncle is probably going to be selling them through an estate sale for a good friend of his that has just passed away. He found a whole bunch of baseball cards at the house and brought some to show me. There were 2 of the same 1952 Bowman in a box, one is in great condition, the other one... not so much. He had wanted to have them graded, or at least the one and I had advised him against it until I could write this post showing the blogosphere the cards figuring perhaps someone might want to buy it ungraded as a result of most people not being fans of BGS and PSA/DNA.

These are the pictures of the cards, the one in the case can be scanned without for anyone sincerely interested. Honestly, I just wanted to showcase these cards because it is not everyday any of us stumble upon cards like this. I would like to try and finagle the one in bad shape for my own collection.

There were many other 1951 and 1952 Bowman found though I am not sure what is going to be done with those. If there are any vintage collectors interested in knowing who I have here please let me know. They are in good condition, nothing will grade for higher than a 5 or 6 if even that (just as a point of reference). I also have some cards that I can't identify right now that I will probably put up later tonight if time permits so that maybe you guys can help figure out what they are if I can't (by can't I mean too lazy to look).

Anyway, enjoy the look at them because I sure am. Sweet cards, even if you aren't a Yankees fan.

My O-Pee-Chee decision

There were so many options to choose from and the only one that didn't cost me money was not collecting the set. However, that wasn't a realistic option because I really wanted these cards.

I've decided that I am going to collect the base cards of the players and send them out for TTM autos. Sure, I won't be getting some (maybe lots) back, but the project just seems very interesting to me.

The good news is that I only need 500 cards, not 600. That bad news is that I need 500 cards.

My one venture into TTMs happens last summer where I sent about five cards to Yankees prospects. I got all but one back. I'll post updates as I send groups of cards out and what cards I get back and how long it took to get them back.

Anything, I don't send out by Aug. 15., I am going to wait until spring training to send out.

This could take a while.

Update on Blog Fantasy Baseball League

It's been a while since we have posted an update. Grand Cards has been smacking us around. However, there is no guarantee he's going to win as first and second are fairly close.

Here are the standings:
1. Grand Cards 3890
2. The Dude 3777
3. Purple Donkey 3497
4. Legion of Boom 3398
5. Victorius Secret 3359
6. Carolina Xfractors 3356
7. The Franchise 3310
8. Cards on Cards 3261
9. gcrl 3019
10. Boneyard Braves 2885
11. Gabe's Babe 2659
12. Westcoast Pimp 2639

I pulled a fast one

Well, I wouldn't say that is totally true but if anyone has been to Sports Authority you know that their blasters and rack packs are overpriced. I took the liberty of asking them to price match Target on a blaster of 2009 O-Pee-Chee since they were marked $24.99, and the guy told me I would need a flyer. I told him that they are never in the ads and I would go upstairs to Target and take a picture of all the blaster prices and come back, he said don't worry about it and gave it to me for $19.99. Hooray! I was so excited to have found the blasters that I never bothered looking at the box to see which cards were on it til about 30 minutes later in Barnes and Noble. I ended up with Jeter and Hanley Ramirez, which is great because I have a Pujols incoming from Baseball Dad.

There was one blaster left, and I saved my receipt so that after class I can stop there and see if the other one is still there and snag it. I love baseball cards.

Here are some of the highlights from the blaster. I got one card that is probably my favorite so far, and it has nothing to do with Pujols (who has not made an appearance in my packs or Sooz's yet). It is a Jeter card and it is from the last game at Yankee Stadium, which both myself and Sooz were at and this was probably one of the moments I will always remember from the Stadium.


These are the rookies I pulled, I am not sure if I am going to do a complete set or not, so I am not trading anything from this set just yet. I will trade black cards and SP's, just not the base yet. I don't think I have completed a set since 2004 or 2005 of anything, though I did end up with a 2007 Topps Series 1 only because I was chasing the Jeter error.



Stadium cards:



Face of the Franchise



Couple more highlights:








Hopefully I will be back later with the story that I found another blaster.

Happy Father's Day!

I wanted to wish all the Dad's out there a Happy Father's Day and ask how many of you were lucky enough to get some baseball cards from your children? The more important question here is how many of you have started collections for your young children, and gotten them interested in continuing their collections as they got older? I'm sure some of you have children too young to collect on their own, but there are others that probably have children old enough to decide what they like buying or collecting.

As a kid I was always taught about baseball, who played what position, and to root for the Yankees, of course. My dad took me to tons of games as a kid and even a Mets (boo) game or two in there, and we saw a Marlins game way back when they played at Joe Robbie Stadium. For Christmas my parents got me a complete set of Topps every year for a while, until I told them that it was boring not being able to open them and look at them. They wised up and started letting me get packs of cards here and there during the year, for report card rewards, being good for mommy in the store (I still use that one to this day), and then other family members got into spoiling the kids with cards. There was nothing like a pack of cards and rock solid gum peeled off the last card to chew on the way home.

If (big if here) I have children, they will definitely be collecting cards up until they tell me they hate it (which they won't), but if they do... more for me! I think it is very important today to give kids a positive hobby, and something that will bring them a little fun for a low price (relative to products purchased). Whenever I see little cousins or my friends nephews I always give them baseball cards. I'm the crazy adopted aunt that gives kids weird things. One of my friends nephews are Mets fans, so I happily put a few cards in a team bag and bring them when I see them. I brought Frankie, Sooz's nephew a bunch of Jeter's and Yankees for his birthday- we are trying very hard to make him like collecting and baseball.

If anyone wants to share a story, feel free. I will be going out to dinner with the family, and hopefully the restaurant has a tv to watch the Yankee game. I hope you all have a great day with your families.

Sooz's O-Pee-Chee Dilemma

I really like this set, so much so that I want to finish it. I'm not a set collector. The only thing I ever go after are Derek Jeter and Kevin Kouzmanoff cards and will gladly give away anything that isn't that.

However, I bought an O-Pee-Chee blaster last night (with the cut out Jeter card) and want to finish it. So, I bought another one today. But there are a number of roads I can go down and I don't know which one to pick. OF the 600-card base set, I got 126 and about five doubles.

Before we get to the options, let's see the highlights of the blasters.

I like the Yankee Stadium, but of the stadium cards it's a little boring.

Sweet! I got a Kouzmanoff base card. Although, he looks kind of scary on it.

This is a Joba mini-black parallel.

This was the favorite card that I got. It was actually the only Jeter card. I didn't get a base of his in two blasters.

Two things stuck out about the set that I didn't care for. One was the checklist cards. I love the stadium checklist cards, but they aren't all like that. Some of them have the floating heads. I got a double of the Cardinals checklist and that just have a bunch of floating heads of Cards.

The other were the Moments card, specifically this Michael Young card, which I also got a double of. He looks bored and I don't see how this is a special moment from the '08 season. And why is it the '08 season?

I got the same card as the last card in both blasters. Probably one of my least favorite players.

So here is my dilemma.

1. Do I collect just the base cards?

2. Do I collect the master set? Marie isn't me collecting the master set because I pulled this card.

3. Do I just not even bother collecting the set and stick to getting the Jeters. I think there are 13 different Jeter cards in this set alone.

However, one thing I am considering doing is a little bit of a crazy project. I want to collect most of the base cards (excluding the checklist and team leaders cards) then send all of them out for TTM and see how many of them I get back. I am leaning toward this one because it's a little different, but we're talking about hundreds of dollars in postage.

So what do I do?