Putting a Bow on 2016

Well, 2016 is over. It has been for a bit more than a week. I spent a couple weeks at home for the holidays, and I made an active effort to "disconnect." It sucked not reading the blogs at one of the best times of year (I mean, everyone has something new to share and it's awesome!), but at the same time, it was pretty relaxing.

So I'm back. Before I can start with new posts for the year, I have to write up the obligatory year in review of goals for the upcoming year posts. So let's get to it.

In January 2016, I made five primary collecting goals and five "I hope to do ____" goals. My first primary collecting goal was to get rid of excess cards. Well, I actually did this! I gave two 3,200 count boxes to the son of a colleague who is getting into card collecting. He seemed to like them, so I hope I can give him more while I am here. I also mentioned that I wanted to send some cards to Signatures for Soldiers. I have the box full of cards, I just have to pull the trigger. So I consider this goal completed.

My second goal was to organize and catalog my collection and trade bait. Back in August, I posted a few pictures of my lack of organization accompanied by a plea for help. This led to a contest which P-Town Tom won. The contest didn't have a lot of entrants, but it seemed that a few people that wanted to enter didn't see the contest until after the deadline. So, I'm thinking we need a Round 2!!! More on this and my collection organization in a later post. Just know that I give myself a solid "B" for this goal. 

The third goal was to be a better trade partner. I will say right now, I still need to work on this. I made a few new trade partners and I sent out some cardboard "just because," but when it comes to active trading, I need some work. 

Speaking of needing more work, I also need to work on commenting more on your blogs. I read the blogs every day (minus the last couple of weeks), but I don't always comment. I need to change that.

Lastly, I wanted to select a pre-1970 Topps set and collect 15% of it. As with many of my goals, I think I set the bar a little too high on this one. I selected the 1969 set, which has 664 cards, not including errors. Of these, I have collected 46, or roughly 7 percent. To reach the 15% target, I would have needed nearly 100 cards. On my budget, that isn't realistic. So, even though I didn't get to my goal, I consider this a success.

I also had five other "lesser" goals. I wanted to acquire a Mantle from his playing days (fail), gain 10 new followers for my blog (success!), find five new trade partners (umm...honestly not sure), add 100 new cards to my Rangers team set project (success!) and incorporate more TTM requests into my collecting habits (success!).

Of these, the lack of adding a Mantle stands out the most. The 1969 Mantle was the first card on my 2016 Top 5 Most Wanted list and it was the only card that I didn't acquire. I guess it will have to be on the 2017 list. 

So, all in all, I guess 2016 wasn't too bad for my collection. My interests have continued to narrow and reaching my goals seems to be possible. I'll take it. 

Now, if the Rangers can just win the World Series, I will be truly happy....

My First Twitter Trade: I Now Have A 2016 Allen & Ginter Unannounced Mini!!!

A couple weeks back, I took my search for the 2016 Allen & Ginter "Skippers" mini insert of Rangers manager Jeff Banister. I've been watching on eBay and have even made a few bid, but all cards were out of my price range. So I asked the Twittersphere to help me out. 

@CRyden33 came to the rescue. A few messages back and forth and we agreed on a trade that was more than fair. I went home for the holiday, and when I returned this guy was in my mailbox:

That's one handsome card!

I super stoked to have this in my collection. The SSP unannounced minis always seem really hard to get, so I am glad I found someone willing to make a trade.

I hope everyone have a relaxing Thanksgiving!

A Few Boxes of 2016 Heritage Minor Leagues

I've got to get this out: I hate the Blue Jays. For numerous reasons. I cannot stand them. Their fans are pretty awful - I've already received a handful of hateful/threatening tweets since the game ended just a few minutes ago. Stay classy, you keyboard warriors of Toronto.

Okay, I feel slightly better, but not a lot.

On to something that will make me feel better. This year, my box opening has decreased dramatically. This is due to a combination of being on a tighter budget and the fact that Topps products are becoming more and more disappointing.

However, when I saw that Heritage Minor Leagues would have an on-card auto and a relic card in each box, I knew that I was in. The best part? A box only runs about $50. So I set aside some money to purchase two boxes, as I thought that would guarantee a full set. Spoiler alert: it didn't.

I bought my first two boxes at my LCS in Lubbock. My relics weren't bad - at least I've heard of these guys:

My autos? Well, they were a different story. I haven't heard of either of these guys:

I also pulled a few of the blue-border parallels:

And I even snagged a peach-parallel (can we please call it something else???) numbered to 25:

However, the "big hit" of my two boxes was this:

The Tyler O'Neill "green bat" variation (thanks to eBay for the photo - I'll explain momentarily). So far, only three of these types of variations have been found. It's cool to pull one.

A few days later, I was back in DFW and I decided to stop in and visit with Duane of Duane's Sports Cards. After the initial hand collation of my first two boxes, I had only about 66% of the set. So I decided to buy another couple boxes.

My relics were decent:

I've heard of these guys, too. How about the autos?

Wait - another Jackson auto??? Okay, that sucks. What about the blue-border parallels?

That Blandino looks familiar...oh yeah, I pulled the same card in my first round. I also pulled a peach parallel (still sounds stupid):

Hey, that isn't too bad.

And I also noticed that one box had two autos in it. You may have seen the tweet:

Forgot to post this earlier. Pulled Phil Bickford SSP no team name auto from '16 Heritage Minors. pic.twitter.com/zqUhIbzkUT

— My Cardboard Habit (@cardboardhabit) October 2, 2016

Sweet! One of the "SSP" no team name autos of Phil Bickford!!!! I didn't realize Bickford was traded to the Brewers earlier this year, but this is still a sweet card.

When I returned to Lubbock, I stopped by my LCS and dropped off the Bickford and O'Neill to be sent into PSA for slabbing and grading. I don't care so much about the grades (I expect both to be 9's), but I love seeing a Heritage card in a PSA slab. I guess it's an OCD thing.

I also collated my new boxes to finish off my set. But wouldn't you know, I am STILL a few cards short. Most annoyingly, I need card number 107. I shouldn't need ANY base cards after buying four boxes. Ridiculous. Beyond that, I need three short prints: card numbers 203, 206 and 212. If you have any of those, let's talk!

Lastly, each box comes with two cards that offer chances at winning a day to "make your pro debut." Each card has a code that is revealed by scratching the coating and entering the code on the website www.topps.com/promotions. The card looks like this:

I had eight of these cards. I never win anything, so I threw the cards away. Then I decided, what the heck? I pulled the cards from the trash bin next to my desk and scratched them and began entering them one-by-one into the system. Loser after loser. On the sixth entry, though, I actually won! The system said I was a winner and then asked me to answer a few short questions about my love of baseball. Sweet!

So, what exactly did I win?

It appears as if I won either a hat or a pin! Cool deal! I seriously doubt that I will win the grand prize, so I will take whatever I do win and be extremely happy!

So, overall, I love the set. Heritage in all of its variations is one of my favorite product lines. However, this set is a major disappointment in its collation issues. I shouldn't have to buy four boxes to put a set together, and if I did buy four boxes, I should have the entire set! I was not so fortunate. Receiving the same autos and parallels was just a coincidence - or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

Anyway, I am off to bed. Hope everyone is well!

A Nice eBay Mailday

Recently, Topps Heritage High Number hit the market. I love the Heritage products, so I knew I needed to grab a box or two. I did just that, but in the excitement of getting everything organized and put away (more on this in a later post), I forgot to create a post about what I pulled. In short: nothing terribly exciting.

So I decided to hit up eBay for some of the cards I did want. A couple came in a few days ago, and since I am in Iowa City, Iowa, for a wedding, I have a bit of free time on my hands to share with you what I bought.

First up, this guy:

You can't tell from the front....

...but this is actually the mini parallel version of the card. Only Desmond and Nomar Mazara had mini parallels in the set. Speaking of Mazara...

...I was able to grab this redemption for his Real One Auto. Topps hasn't indicated whether or not Mazara has signed these, so I am assuming that means that he hasn't. However, if the way the Rangers are playing the Blue Jays is any indication, he may have a few months of free time pretty soon.

That's it for now. I hope everyone is doing well!