Check Out More Cards

I had a couple of big sales on CheckOutMyCards out of the blue and decided to put those funds to good use. It’s interesting to see how my collecting has changed. In the 90s, I would pick up new stuff almost exclusively at card shows. I would pick stuff up at card shops as well, but not as frequently. These days, I might have a new card arrive to become part of my collection every day of the week. It’s always a pleasure to see a package arrive from COMC since a whole bunch of new cards will be added to my collection.

First up are a couple of 2011 Finest Tom Bradys. I’ve been slowly getting back into football due to Panini driving me away from basketball cards. When I saw that this year’s Finest offering pictured Brady in the Patriots throwback uniform, I had to have it. For good measure, I decided to pick up both the base card and refractor version of the card since they were both very affordable.

Whenever I get the chance, I’ve been adding Bryce Brentz autographs to my collection. If I remember correctly, this all started when I pulled one myself and from there things have snowballed. Both of these Brentz cards are from In The Game. The cards look nice even without any logos on them. The autos are on opaque stickers, but they go well with these designs. The only additional thing that I’d like to see on these cards is serial numbering. These days, a little detail like that on a card can make all of the difference. Brentz is currently the 8th ranked prospect in a loaded Boston minor league system.

Here’s a little bit of old and new. I picked up an off-center Dennis Johnson rookie and a black bordered parallel from Panini’s Basketball Hall of Fame set. Like most Panini products, this set is best acquired card-by-card. Every single card in this set with the exception of maybe 1% of the cards produced can be acquired for less than you’d pay buying them by the pack. There seem to be a lot of singles on COMC for around a dollar a card which is perfect for me.

Sticking with off-center 1978-79 Topps cards, here’s a Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell rookie card. It’s not quite as bad as it looks in the scan. I guess I inadvertently cut off the right edge of the card.

I have to chuckle a little bit at Upper Deck including Dee Brown in the Immortals section of the 2009-10 hoops set. I think these are short printed. Eventually, I’ll need to pick up a second copy of this card since I need one for my set and one for my Dee Brown collection. Dee had one of the best dunks ever in the Slam Dunk Contest, but in no way is he an immortal.

BRAINS! Like a zombie, I’m always on the lookout for Brains. Bobby “The Brain” Heenan was the best thing about wrestling in the 80s and 90s. I probably mention this every time that I post cards of The Brain, but his humor was really the only way to make it through some of the terrible matches from the 80s when half of the WWE roster consisted of jobbers.

These Brains all come from 2010 Topps WWE Platinum. The first two are part of the Platinum Performance insert set with the second being a green parallel numbered to 499 copies. The final card is a green parallel of the base card and it is also numbered to 499 copies.

As a kid in the 80s, my two main player collections were Dwight Evans, who played for the hometown Red Sox and Kent Hrbek who played for the Twins. It was pretty random when it came to deciding to collect Hrbek. I noticed that he popped up in a few of the 44 card retail sets that I had purchased and that I had a good number of his cards already.

Though the selection may have been random, I knew what I was doing when I picked Hrbek to be one of my player collections. Like Evans, Hrbek was insanely popular with the hometown crowd, but his abilities weren’t as widely known to the majority of baseball fans.

I couldn’t remember if I already had the 1982 Topps Traded Hrbek XRC, but for the price it was listed at, I wouldn’t mind picking up another one. This would almost definitely be in better condition than anything I would have had from my collection in the 80s. I knew I already had both the 1982 Topps Future Stars card and Hrbek’s 1982 Donruss rookie, but there purchases were made solely for condition upgrades.

The Starting Lineup Talking Baseball card might be the only new addition to my collection. I remember this game being heavily advertised when it came out, but I never owned it. The game came with the AL and NL All-Star teams, but the rest of the MLB teams could be purchased on additional cartridges. The cartridges came with cards of the players included on the team rosters. These painted cards stand up well next to current releases such as Masterpieces or Chicle.

Not too long ago, I finally picked up a Kevin McHale rookie for my collection, but this isn’t that card. This is a reprint from 1996-97 Topps Basketball. Topps has been doing this rookie reprint thing for a while now and have produced so many iconic basketball cards. It’s a shame that they can no longer produce basketball cards.

Here’s another card from current basketball card serial killer Panini. Panini relies far too much on serial numbering to create value in their products. They are lazy in design and uninspired in execution. I won’t even get into their tremendously horrible customer service because I’m sure that all of you are sick of hearing about it.

This Robert Parish rookie is the real thing, but right below it is the chrome version of his rookie reprint which like the McHale is from 1996-97. The Heritage insert from Studio is one of the nicer looking Panini inserts that I’ve seen. Of course, the player is way over to the side to make room for a jersey swatch that is shoved into some of the cards. The main thing that these cards have going for them is that the autographed versions of these are on-card autographs. Wrapping things up is another Panini Basketball Hall of Fame black bordered parallel. Who knows, I may complete the Panini HOF set by the time that their exclusive license runs out and Topps can (hopefully) make basketball cards again.

You know that any package that comes in the mail from COMC is going to include some Mike Piazza cards. This is one of the better batches that I’ve gotten though.

First up is the 1997 Donruss Preferred X-Ponential Power insert numbered to 3000 copies. I’ve had the Tony Gwynn from this set for a while now and think it’s the coolest card that I’ve ever seen. The background is printed on clear acetate, it’s die cut and there’s a good amount of holofoil accents. Once I obtained this card, I was willing and able to trade away the Gwynn which promptly went into a trade pile that will some day be headed off to Fuji.

Next up was a card that I picked up mainly for nostalgia reasons. Back in the 90s, I was completely hooked on watching Don West pitch sports cards on the Shop At Home network. These Elite Dominators were available exclusively through the network when you purchased a box of 1993 Donruss for $99. That’s a huge markup on those boxes for one extra card numbered to 5000 copies. You did have a chance at autographs of Juan Gonzalez, Nolan Ryan, Don Mattingly or Paul Molitor, but there were only 10,000 autographs out of a total print run of 100,000 Elite Dominators. Not terrible odds, but at $99 a box it wasn’t a great gamble either.

I picked up a couple of cards from great 90s Upper Deck insert sets. The Generation Next Era has a motion hologram on it that moves as you tilt the card. The Mickey Mantle Long Shots is printed on that classic Upper Deck holofoil, not the garbage that Panini uses these days. Both of these sets were retail exclusives, but redemption cards for the complete sets could be found in hobby packs.

To round things out is a 2010 Sterling. It’s a great looking card, but Sterling is ridiculously expensive for what you get. I’m perfectly happy just picking up the singles.

One of the few sets that I liked from Panini last year was Totally Certified. It wasn’t quite the original Certified and it wasn’t quite Dufex, but it was a nice combination of the two. I liked it until I busted open a box which reminded me how bad of a value any Panini product is. I ended up picking up the base card, red parallel, red jersey card and Fabric of the Game card pretty cheaply. To top things off, I also picked up the Crown Royale card which is a great looking base card.

The Totally Certified base card is numbered to 1849, the red parallel is numbered to 499, the red jersey card is numbered to 249 and the Fabric of the Game is numbered to 299. Does anything numbered this high really matter? You can usually pick up a card numbered to 499 for the same price as one numbered to 1849 (and I did). These days, unless the numbered is double digits or lower, it doesn’t seem to have a huge effect on the card.

These jersey cards were were purchased for $3.50 and $4.00 which is about the same as a minimum bid plus shipping on eBay. Does this make you happy if you open a box that sells for over $100 and pull a jersey card of one of the top players in the league? This is $60 box content.

I had already finished this set a while back, but I hadn’t noticed that one of the U cards had a crease from the bottom edge to the “relic.” So, when this one popped up cheaply, I had to grab it. These cards are a perfect example of serial numbering not meaning everything. These cards are numbered to 55 copies and don’t carry a lot of value while this year’s Topps manufactured relics are numbered to over 700 copies and sell very well.

There you go, a pretty big batch of cards. Normally, I would have broken this up into smaller posts, but I hadn’t posted in a while and have a ton of other things to write about so you get a marathon post. Thanks for reading and don’t forget about the Red Sox Frankenset. Where else can you possibly win prizes from trading away Red Sox commons?

Red Sox Frankenset

I took advantage of a week or so of not feeling well to start a project that I had been thinking of for a while. That project is a Red Sox Frankenset. Not only do I want to assemble a set of Red Sox cards numbered from 1-792 (which could be impossible, I haven’t researched it that thoroughly), but I want to represent as many players and different sets as possible. I’m going to run a contest that’s going to last the remainder of the year to reward people in helping me in putting this set together.

Here's the checklist so far.

I will trade for cards just like I normally do and points will be rewarded with the following criteria:

• If you trade me a card that goes into the binder you will be rewarded a point.
• If you trade me a card of a player that isn’t yet represented in the set you will get an extra point
• If you trade me a card from a set that isn’t yet represented in the set you will get an extra point

So, you can earn up to three points for each card that you send. I also reserve the right to award bonus points at my discretion. If someone sends me a vintage Ted Williams to put into the set then there are going to be some bonus points awarded. I’ll keep a running tally of the points going on the blog and at the end of the year will reward prizes to the leaders. I’ll offer up some sets I’ve got from case breaks, older sets that I’ve got multiples of, cards of the team/player that you collect and other cards that I acquire throughout the course of the year.

Topps Support Failure

I feel like there’s far too much complaining that goes on in the hobby these days and I hate to pile on, but I feel like this is a story that needs to be told. When I opened my case of 2011 Topps Update, I was shorted a hit in one of the boxes. On top of that, it seemed to me that I was missing what should have been the case hit. I scanned my UPCs and receipt and mailed them off to Topps; following the directions given by them to make things easier when shorted a hit. Some time went by before I got an email from Topps Support asking me to call them. I called and spent time on hold before being told that my attached image didn’t go through and I would have to send it again. Why they couldn’t tell me this via email I couldn’t understand.

I ended up resending the email with the attachment time and time again with a smaller and smaller file size. Something is wrong with the Topps Support email because they should be able to get the tiny attachments that I was sending. Each time, the only response that I would get was if I Tweeted @toppssupport about the issue. Again, no clue why the email account isn’t being staffed properly. After months of back and forth (or more like back, pester Topps and then reluctant forth), I finally emailed them again with a link to the images hosted on Google. I got an email telling me that I had to send them the UPCs, receipt, etc in order to get my missing hit. That just goes to show that the people manning the Topps Support email really aren’t reading the messages that come in.

I finally got my image in the hands of Topps and waited a little while. The other day this card came in the mail:

At first glance, this looks like a great card to get from Topps. It’s a dual relic numbered to 50 copies with the real NL MVP on it. It’s only upon further inspection that things get a little shady. First off, there’s the fact that the Kemp jersey swatch has a pull and is unraveling. Second, the bottom right corner is smashed and feathered. Honestly, this looks like a card that someone else sent back for replacement that they then sent to me. Thanks, but no thanks Topps. I can’t even be bothered to contact them again about this. My time is more valuable to me. I see what awesome customer service looks like on a daily basis. If this is what Topps currently thinks of it’s customers then I’m not sure if I want to continue to be one.

This Post is Sketchy

A while back, I ordered a bunch of boxes from BlowoutCards that contained sketch cards. Sketch cards can be hit or miss. You can luck out and pull something by Katie Cook who both is an amazing artist and has cards that sell for a ton of money or you can pull cards that just aren’t your cup of tea. This post runs the gamut.

The first card comes from Rittenhouse’s Heroes and Villains release. I’m not sure if the card actually pictures a hero and villain though. The second Ant-Man, Scott Lang, is the father of Stature, Cassie Lang, also pictured on the card. Scott Lang started as a villain and actually stole the Ant-Man suit from Hank Pym to save his daughter’s life. After that first appearance, he spent the rest of his life as a hero.

To be fair, these boxes only state that it contains a dual character sketch card and this card is exactly that. Nit-picking aside, this is a great card. I’m a fan of Young Avengers so it’s nice seeing Stature on a sketch card. I’m also a fan of the style of art here. This sketch card will definitely be staying in my collection.

Next up is a Black Panther sketch card from Rittenhouse’s Marvel Dangerous Divas set. This is T’Challa’s sister Shuri pictured on the card. Shuri currently has the title of Black Panther and the inherent abilities that come with it. T’Challa has new mythical abilities and was spending some time in Hell’s Kitchen while Daredevil was away.

I’m a big fan of this sketch as well, but it does have on soft corner. I contacted Rittenhouse about a replacement and they were very helpful. They didn’t have any other sketch cards from this artist to use as a replacement so I decided to hold onto it. If I’m not looking to sell it then condition isn’t as big of a concern. There’s some amazing art on this card though.

The Shrek card came from a cheap box and it’s a decent enough sketch. The last sketch makes me happy that Inkworks is out of business though. I feel like I’m the butt of a joke. Inkworks made the mistake of inserting individual pieces of a sketch puzzle into different packs. I guess I should be happy that I didn’t get the boring card featuring the feet. Rittenhouse does things the right way by putting complete sketch puzzles into one pack creating “hot boxes.” That’s the right way to do things.

Thanks for indulging me this brief foray into the non-sports world. We now return you to your (ir)regularly (un)scheduled sports content.

This I Might Chase…on eBay

There hasn’t been a lot that’s come out of the land of Panini lately that has interested me. That’s pretty disappointing considering that I’m a huge basketball fan and loved the retro stuff that was coming from Topps. This card in the Beckett preview of 2011 Preferred caught my attention though. I’m not stupid enough to buy one of the $200 packs of this stuff especially since I’m pretty sure that this Howell card will go for less than $50 even though it will be limited to 99 or fewer copies. This card would make an awesome addition to my Celtics retired number autograph collection.

Speaking of Panini, it dawned on me today why I can’t stomach any of their products. Without hobby heavyweights Michael Jordan and LeBron James in their products, it’s rare that you can pull a card that isn’t a low serial numbered parallel that’s worth a lot of money. Check out Totally Certified, one of the hottest products in the hobby right now. What are people chasing? Is it a hot rookie auto? No. Is it a hot veteran auto? No. Is it a cool insert set? No. People are chasing the green parallels which are numbered to 5 copies. That’s what Panini is all about. There aren’t many cards with real value in their products. It’s all manufactured value that comes from slapping a low print run on a different colored version of a card that exists in 5 other versions. Yawn.

To all of the baseball card collectors out there complaining about Topps’ exclusive license and hoping that Panini gets a baseball license I say, be careful what you wish for because you just may get it.

The Battle of Who Can Care Less

I think for the most part, collectors don’t have a problem with redemption cards. It’s all of the hoop jumping, delays and expirations that make collectors loathe those pack-inserted placeholders. My annoyances with Upper Deck and their handling of the expired Ken Griffey autograph redemption that I pulled were well documented on this blog. Now I have two more stories to add to the pile.

I recently posted the results of my 2011 Finest Baseball break. I did really well in the break, pulling one of the best cards possible, but it’s pretty crappy to have both of the hits in your box be redemption cards. I redeemed the Hosmer gold dual relic auto right when I got back from the show, knowing that it was a live card. It’s now two weeks later and I still don’t have the card. What’s worse, the card has had a tracking number listed on the Topps website for a week with no tracking information. That means the card, my card, is packed up and sitting somewhere in Topps instead of it being in the mail on its way to me. That makes me feel that Topps doesn’t really care. I asked support and they said that they send stuff out in batches. Are you kidding me? They should be shipping stuff out every day of the week. I paid for this card, it is my property and they should be rushing to do whatever they can to get the card to me. It’s not like it’s even an on-card auto. They just didn’t manufacture it in time for release.

That’s nothing compared to Panini though. You would think that Panini would be better since they have a fancy website where you enter your redemption codes, open claims for damaged cards and other correspondence with the company. The only problem is that no one seems to be checking the site any longer. I remember that you could select between two periods of time that you’d like to wait on your redemption before Panini contacts you about a replacement. I think they are 3 months and 6 months, but I can’t remember for sure. Either way, the amount of time that I waited was far longer than any of the choices given.

I would send messages periodically through the Panini website asking what my option were for a replacement, but I never got a reply. After a year of waiting for the Cheryl Miller autograph, I finally decided that it was time to get something else because there’s no way that this card is ever going to exist. I tried the website again, but no one got back to me. I called and left messages with their support department and no one ever got back to me. It wasn’t until I contacted Tracy Hackler on Twitter that someone from Panini finally contacted me and told me that they’d be sending me a replacement card (at a $25 value) along with some packs of Hall of Fame Basketball.

It is now 3 weeks later and I haven’t seen a thing from Panini. You would think that after keeping me waiting for a year they would want to do something to make me happy as quickly as possible. That doesn’t seem to be the case though. At this point, I feel like they should be sending me a case of Hall of Fame Basketball. The product was a huge flop anyway and there’s still a ton of it out there. They should have lessened the amount of autographs that were numbered 499 and above. That might have made this product a hit.

I won’t even get into the problems that occur when a replacement card doesn’t match the card it is replacing. I might have to go another round with Panini once my redemption card arrives. I had to do that with Upper Deck when they sent the first replacement for my Michael Johnson autographed card. In the end, I would up with an awesome Paul Pierce on-card auto, but I wonder why that wasn’t sent in the first place when I told them I was looking for a Celtics card as a replacement.

You’ve also got issues of availability. That’s especially evident with things like the Home Run Legends in 2012 Topps Baseball. There are many people who don’t have a card shop near them that they can get to in order to redeem the cards.

I’ve got to give Upper Deck some credit for their upcoming World of Sports release. Sure, it’s unlicensed. Yes, last year’s release was a flop. Yeah, this year is likely to be a flop as well. You know what though? There are absolutely no redemption cards in this set. That’s a good thing. When you can possibly pull players such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tiger Woods isn’t that important? Having pulled a Michael Jordan autograph out of a pack, I can say without a doubt that it was 100 times more exciting to pull the actual card. Pulling a redemption card for the auto would have been a huge buzz kill.  I probably would have just sold the redemption card and never had the opportunity to hold a Michael Jordan autograph in my hand.

So, I think with some changes, the stigma around redemption cards could change. Card companies have done well in extending redemption expiration dates to around 5 years, but having them expire at all is never going to be ideal. Turnaround times need to be quicker. Communication needs to be better. Panini has made great strides with this and Topps followed suit for a little while, but their support on a whole has been really lacking lately.

Hopefully there will come a time when redemption cards are a thing of the past, but for now they’re one of the worst parts of the hobby.

“Will you ever rest…”

2012 Topps Jumbo Box Break

I love Topps jumbo boxes. The fact that most of the time they contain a complete set is a huge plus, but you also get a guaranteed autograph and a whole bunch of inserts and giveaway cards. On the basketball side of things, I’ve pulled a  couple of rip cards and a Blake Griffin McDonald’s All-American autograph. As far as baseball goes, I haven’t pulled anything ridiculously good. Here’s what I pulled out of this box.

A lot of people have criticized this year’s Topps inserts for their Panini-like qualities and they’re right. Far too much blank space on there cards. I really hope that Topps doesn’t make a habit out of designing cards for the autograph variations. From this box (plus my one pack) I pulled Ryan, Molitor, Ripken, Banks x2, Reggie, Seaver (Reds), Cobb, Thome, Jeter and Seaver (ChiSox). Everything is available for trade especially if you are offering gold, red or blue Red Sox or 1987 Minis.

This is the Topps nonsensical pairings set of the year. I could do without these cards altogether unless they greatly improved the pairings. I pulled Molitor/Braun, Mattingly/Hosmer, Mays/Kemp, Robinson/Bautista, Sandberg/Uggla x2, Bench/McCann, Bob Gibson/Halladay, Joe Morgan/Brandon Phillips, Banks/Tulowitzki and Edgar Martinez/David Ortiz. Everything except for the Ortiz is available for trade.

Here are some more Panini inserts. I pulled Derek Jeter, Dawson, Prince, Braun, Jered Weaver, Paul O’Neill x2, Pujols, Brooks Robinson, Kaline and Aparicio. Trade me stuff for these.

I think these cards might be the worst offenders when it comes to mimicking Panini’s laziness. The logo holds the place of the relic and the grayscale image on the bottom holds the place for a potential autograph. It’s still not as bad as Panini because they do this with their base cards and insert cards, but it’s still pretty damn bad. Trade me stuff for these as well.

I think these might be the best inserts in Series 1 that aren’t minis. I pulled Gehrig, Ryan, Mays, Mays, DiMaggio, DiMaggio, Jeter, Clemente, Ripken, Aaron and Ruth. All of these are available for trade as well.

Ok, so maybe there are too many inserts in Topps Flagship. I pulled Lavarnway, Britton, Chapman, Hellickson, Kimbrel, Arencibia x2, Rizzo, Stanton, Dee Gordon and Arodys Vizcaino.Everything but the Lavarnway is up for grabs.

Here’s the gold parallels. I’ve got Betancourt, Teixeira, Dee Gordon, Jeremy Moore, Joe Benson, Kelvin Herrera, Scott Downs, Brian Matusz, Michael Taylor, Chris Parmelee and Mark Trumbo. All are up for trade.

I’m going to be putting this set together, so none of them are available for trade except the extra Jeter that I have which is only available for another mini that I need.

Here are the traditional hits from the box. Even though the Billingsley is a powder blue swatch instead of the typical plain white that you usually see, it’s still kind of boring. The basic jersey card has run its course due to overuse and overproduction. When some players have had hundreds of jersey cards, you know that too many have been made. I wouldn’t be that disappointed at all if jersey cards were to disappear from the hobby. At least limit their production a lot more and keep them all serial numbered.

Then there’s the sticker auto. What is there to be said about the sticker auto that hasn’t already been said. At least Topps is using clear stickers instead of the gaudy foil stickers that they used to stick on cards.

So, you’ve got a terrible autograph on a lazy, Panini-like insert card. That’s not game changing at all. The Byrd is available for trade.

The black parallels are a standard of Topps Flagship releases, but since this product is so hot right now the black parallels are selling for a lot more than then normally would.

I also think that a lot more people are chasing the black parallels since there aren’t any cards serial numbered to 2012. It seems like the increased production would have required a numbered parallel in every other pack so they just decided to leave them out this year. Seems strange to me to leave out the gold parallels in the gold set, but that’s Topps for ya.

This is where Topps hit the jackpot. These pin cards, the ring tops and the embedded coins are all beautiful cards with unique card designs. Check out the sale prices for most of the jersey cards from this set and then check out the sale prices for the rings, pins and coins. Big difference, isn’t it? Personally, I know that I’m more interested in a good looking card and innovation than and endless stream of jersey cards. The Ortiz and Pedroia pin cards are beautiful looking. Great job done by Topps on these.

Overall, I like the base cards and hopefully will be able to fuel a lot of trades with the inserts. When you factor in the wrappers for the redemption offer, the three hits, the Golden Giveaway cards and getting a complete set this is a great deal. Considering that I got this box for double digits when most places were selling them for $120 makes it an even better deal.

Slick Ginter

I’m a fan of the Allen & Ginter sets that have become a staple of Topps’ yearly release schedule. The only thing that I’m not a fan of is how difficult it is to complete the set.  You don’t even get enough cards in one box and then when you factor in all of the short prints, completing the set becomes more of a chore. Buying the complete set is no fun and so 2011 was the first year since I returned to collecting that I didn’t purchase a box of Ginter.

Topps did something different with 2011 Allen & Ginter that they hadn’t ever done before which was offer a factory set. This wasn’t just any factory set though, this was a limited edition, serial numbered to 999 factory set. The weird thing is, in this day and age, one of these sets ends up being worth more broken up than it is complete. There are a ton of team and player collectors out there.

I found someone on eBay who had broken up their set and had the singles listed at very reasonable prices. Pair that up with combined shipping and I’m a customer. The cool thing about getting all of these from the same person is that the serial numbers all match.

I picked up all of my favorite Sox along with Stan “The Man” Lee. Glossy Ginter cards are a first, but it brings me back to the days of the Topps Tiffany sets. Those cards weren’t serial numbered like these are, but they were pretty limited compared to the print runs of the regular cards.

2012 Topps Launch Day Major Hit

When I picked up my box of 2012 Topps Baseball Jumbos, I grabbed a single pack with the thought in mind that I would pick up a jumbo pack here and there to get myself up to the 14 wrappers needed for a redemption pack. I was pretty excited to find this card in the single pack.

There are 15 Gold Futures cards that come in autographed versions and each of these are numbered to 15. That’s just 225 cards across the whole production run of 2012 Topps. The stated odds are 1:8,875 jumbo packs or 1:148 jumbo cases. Case breaker extraordinaire Brentandbecca opened 60 cases and didn’t pull one of these autographs. (Although, I’m sure he doesn’t mind since he pulled one of the 14 Golden Tickets.)

Hosmer, Belt and Pineda are the big names to chase in this set, but Hellickson is no slouch having won the AL Rookie of the Year last season. The card is currently up on eBay with a three day auction and is the first one to be listed. Wish me luck!

More Teasing

It looks like I’m going to be able to pick up a box of Topps Jumbos tomorrow (whoops, forgot to post this and already picked up the box). That’ll be a fun break and I’ll make sure to post the blow-by-blow here. I love the jumbo boxes even though I haven’t had much luck with the baseball versions. I had amazing luck with basketball pulling rip cards and Blake Griffin autos, but baseball has not been very, very good to me.

I spoke to someone on the phone at Panini about the replacement for my Cheryl Miller autograph card a week before redeeming my Eric Hosmer redemption card. The Hosmer has shipped while there’s still no sign of anything from Panini. Gee, I wonder why I’ve sworn off buying any more packs of Panini products (except maybe stickers).

My COMC order shipped today. I’m pretty excited about this order since it’s got higher quality cards in it than usual due to some big sales of my own cards on there. What’s coming? Here’s a breakdown: 1 pre-rookie, 4 Kent Hrbek, 4 Robert Parish, 2 Kevin McHale, 3 Panini Hall of Fame, 5 Piazzas, 19 serial numbered cards, 3 Brains, 10 Celtics, 6 rookies, 6 Pierces, 1 Jeremy Piven, 2 relics, 2 autos, 2 Bryce Brentz and 2 Tom Bradys (in the awesome throwbacks).

I probably won’t be opening another case of anything for a while due to saving up for the Boston ComicCon in April. I want to get some commissions from Katie Cook and Stephanie Buscema and maybe another artist or two. Original art is pretty pricey, but it’s worth it. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up a case of something this summer.