Mail Day: The marathon edition

I had won a package on eBay, but two weeks later it hadn’t arrived yet.  I contacted the seller who gave me the tracking information for the package.  I tracked it and… there was an attempted delivery 12 days before that, but they didn’t leave a notification card.  It’s hard to go to the Post Office to pick up a package when you don’t know it’s there.  I called to find out what I needed to be able to pick up a package without the little pink card and was told they had a few packages for me.  I went to the Post Office after work to find 8 packages waiting for me from eBay, Wax Heaven and family.  I’ve gotten a couple of other packages since then and my DSL modem has gone kaput so I can write, but I can’t post so this will be an extra long edition of the mail bag once it gets posted.

Here’s three of the Skybox cards that I picked up through SportLots.com.  I got Glen Davis, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo who are pictured along with Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Al Jefferson who I still love even though he’s now a Timberwolf and out for the season.  He’s going to be one of the top big men in the league for years to come.

Here’s one card from a 10 card lot that I picked up on eBay.  I usually stay away from lots this small because the shipping kills it.  You end up paying something like forty cents a card and often end up with duplicates.  At that rate you’re better off picking out a bunch of eighteen cent cards at SportLots and having them shipped to you.

Here’s part of a lot that I got from SportLots.  I didn’t want to bother with the ridiculous Target and Wal-Mart blasters at all.  I don’t need three versions of the same set, but the player collector in me most certainly wanted three different versions of the same card.  One seller had almost all of the Red Sox at eighteen cents a pop so I grabbed one of each as well as some other stars that I like.  Here’s what I got: Dice-K, Big Papi, Francona, Lester, Lowell, Lowrie, Lincecum Cy Young, Okajima, Youkilis, Delcarmen, Josh Hamilton AL RBI Leaders, Lincecum, Hamilton, and Van Every.

There don’t seem to be as many Target retro cards out there yet so I’ll wait on those and then do the same thing to get those.  It’s a fraction of the cost of a blaster and I end up with every card that I want.  I don’t have the amount of funds to buy parallel blasters and cereal boxes just for a few cards in them.

This same seller had some nice Piazza cards selling at the minimum so I picked those up as well.  I got the 2007 Goudey Mini green back, 2003 Leaf Passing Through Time, 2005 Upper Deck Bound For Glory, 2006 Topps, 2006 Topps Updates & Highlights, 2006 Upper Deck, 2007 Bowman Heritage, 2007 Upper Deck, 2007 Upper Deck Team Checklist, 2007 Upper Deck Future Stars and 2006 Fleer Ultra.

Here’s a card from a 22 card Pierce lot that I won on eBay.  There are some shady lot sellers on eBay.  They mention “some duplicates” and then send you 4 or 5 of the same card in a lot.  Yet another reason to go player hunting on SportLots (which I’m no longer selling on and have mastered all of the search by seller functions that are well hidden and didn’t know about).

I think these cards might be my favorite part of the Mayo set.  The base set is alright, but I just can’t get into football cards anymore and don’t really have an interest in anything but Patriots cards.  I picked up all three panels of the three Patriots Super Bowl victories.  I still can’t stand the Flying Elvis Patriots logo.  I love the old Pat the Patriot logo and it seems like I’m not alone because I see more vintage logos around town than the new logo.  These cards were more eighteen cent specials on SportLots.

This is my favorite card from a 27 card lot that I won on eBay.  This lot had a couple of duplicates, but not too many.  It’s just a shame that the seller didn’t care to protect the cards.  There were 2 of the same three cards on the front and the back of the team bag and they all got wrecked.  Why not use different doubles on each side of the pack?  Fail.


That reminds me, this should be the spot where I talk about the nice Pierce, Allen, Garnett, Rondo Luxury Box quad jersey card that I won at a great price, but the seller sent it loosely between two top loaders and it got a couple of huge creases across the card.  I got my payment and shipping back, but the next time that the same card sold it went for over twice as much.  How hard is it to package a card securely?

Due to his injury last season, Ortiz rookies have taken a little bit of a dip.  I figured that this would be a great time to pick up his Ultra rookie.  I’ve got two of the Fleer rookies that I pulled out of a couple of retail boxes that I bought way back in 2005.  You won’t find this card in Boston for just over $10 that’s for sure.









I love absolutely everything about the Topps Murad set and so I had to get the Pierce jersey card.  It’s just a tiny little piece of jersey, but it is a great looking card and you couldn’t beat the price.  The numbered jersey cards are going for more making the unnumbered versions very affordable.




I participated in the Wax Heaven directory claiming David Ortiz, but that’s not a David Ortiz card there on the left.  What’s the deal with that?  Mario had written a post about breaking up with your collection and since Lowell is no longer with the Marlins, the card got shipped up to Boston.  (oh oh ooooooooh)  How awesome is that?  Mario is always including the best extras in his packages.  Since he’s got just about every Andrew Miller out there, I’m reduced to sending custom 2009 Topps Double Headers that I made with my duplicates from the 1989 set.

Mario also sent the Big Papi cards from Upper Deck, Attax and Spectrum.  Another surprise was extra BoSox cards from Spectrum such as the Papelbon to the left.  I’m kind of fond of the Spectrum cards.  They look pretty good in person.  I wouldn’t buy a box because the hits are ridiculous.  Then again, I wouldn’t complain if I was lucky enough to pull Leslie Neilsen and Ed O’Neil out of a box.

I went to my first card show in years specifically to pick up the last six cards that I needed for my 2009 Topps Baseball set so I could put that to bed, but I forgot my checklist.  That’s what happens when you’re out of practice.  Back in the 90s, I’d never be seen at a card show without my little notebook full of checklists.  There was almost no wax to speak of.  One guy had some unopened boxes and another had 3 or 4 open boxes.  I decided to do some player collecting and hit the quarter box for some Pierce and Ortiz cards.  I had to pick up the 06-07 Finest card because it’s a great design.  The dealer also had the Larry Bird card from the set which went to my wife who picked up some cards of Larry Legend and Bernie Williams.

I also had to pick up this Bowman Elevation card.  I still haven’t decided whether or not I like the card design.  I thought that maybe there was some rhyme or reason to the design that I would eventually figure out, but that hasn’t happened yet.  It’s shiny and it’s mine and at some point in the future I might really love it or really hate it.  I also grabbed his Bowman Best rookie, 03-04 Showcase, 07-08 Co-Signers, 06-07 Trademark Moves, 02-03 Pristine, 07-08 Luxury Box, 06-07 Topps Chrome, 99-00 Gold Label, 06-07 1952 Style, 03-04 Hardcourt, 07-08 SP Rookie Threads, 01-02 Ultra Gold Medallion, 99-00 Retro NBA New School, 03-04 Topps Love It Live, 00-01 Ionix, 06-07 Hardcourt, 04-05 Upper Deck and 06-07 Ovation.

Here’s my favorite Ortiz of the four that I picked up.  The 2007 Bowman’s Best looks better in person than it does in the scan.  I also grabbed 2004 SPx, 2007 Bowman Chrome and 2006 Bowman Chrome.

I picked up 4 ball cubes that I needed for my baseball collection and called it a day.  What surprised me the most was the amount of relic and auto cards that you could buy for for a buck or two.  Just further proof in my mind that chasing hits isn’t worth it most of the time.  If you have a hard time selling your one per box or per pack hit for a buck then is it really worth it?

While it may not look so big here, this is the jumbo version of 1995 Bowman’s Best.  It’s large and refractory and all mine.

I also got the Dice-K 89 Reprint card from the same seller.  Classic design and it came in a “Rookie Card” top loader which amused me.  No matter what Topps wants to do with Bowman, insert cards shouldn’t be rookie cards.  This card, while cool, is not a rookie card.


I agree with all of the people who disliked the 2008 Upper Deck X set.  The set has some of the best looking insert cards ever though.  I saw this Big Papi card and just had to snap it up.  It’s shiny and embossed to the 4th power!










Below is an interesting lot that I picked up on eBay.  It included 3 Glen Davis rookies as well as one Larry Bird insert card.  The same seller was also selling a lot of 3 Rajon Rondo rookies and another of 6 Leon Powe rookies.  With combined shipping it was a great deal and I took advantage.  Rondo is one of the top 2 point guards in the league and I don’t have nearly enough of his rookie cards.  Powe is a solid player, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Celtics didn’t re-sign him after this season.  They’ve got too many players that do the same thing and need a little more variety off of their bench. 

The only good thing about Kevin Garnett getting injured has been the play of Glen Davis in his absence.  Big Baby has really stepped up and elevated his game.  He can score inside, is extremely quick on his feet for someone his size and also has surprising outside range.  The only thing missing from his game is a vertical leap, but he makes up for some of that with his quickness and intelligence.  If a rest Garnett can come back in time for the playoffs, the bench is a heck of a lot better now that they’ve got a guy on there who could be starting.  There shouldn’t be a lapse on offense when the big three take a seat.

The next two cards were failed attempts at taking advantage of combined shipping.  Yes, the cards themselves were cheap, but the shipping was not.

Pruitt has had some good minutes, but right now he’s behind both Rajon Rondo and Stephan Marbury.  He’s only going to play in blowouts right now.  He’ll be the backup again next season, but won’t get any major playing time as long as he’s with the Celtics.

Here’s another Big Baby for my collection.  Luckily it looks better in person than it scans.  It’s numbered 521/599 on the back.

Last and certainly not least was a huge contribution to my Murad set by Mario over at Wax Heaven.  With those cards and a quick stop over to SportLots, I’m now 13 cards away from my set.  Still loving this set.  It’s by far the best looking basketball set released this year.




There you go, hopefully no one fell asleep while reading this.  I thought about splitting it up, but at this point I just wanted to get it all done and out of the way so that I can get back on track.

Technorati Tags: Paul Pierce,Glen Davis,Mike Piazza,David Ortiz,Boston Red Sox,Boston Celtics