Another eBay-centric Post

I miss Yu Darvish. I was exhilarated to see him pitch well for the Dodgers leading into the World Series; I was crushed to watch him get crushed. I was furious that Yulieski Gurriel made a racist joke toward Darvish's Asian heritage, and even more pissed that MLB essentially gave him a slap on the wrist for the action.

I'm still holding out hope that he re-signs with the Rangers. 

In the meantime, I've picked up a few Darvish cards via eBay. I have to admit - these were low bids that I didn't expect would stand up...but they did! I'm not complaining. Let's get to it.

This is a gold wave refractor from 2017 Topps Chrome. I've never been one to complain about parallels, but when Topps essentially has two gold refractors, both numbered to 50...well, perhaps we've gone a bit overboard.

I also snagged this no nameplate variation from 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen. Whereas the gold wave was a bit too far, I think these are just lazy. "How can we make a new variation?" "Hmm. Let's just leave the name off the front. It worked for Frank Thomas, right?" Yet, I still purchased it.

Speaking of variations...

This is one of the photo variations from 2017. As you may remember, I complained about the over-abundance of photo variations in 2017 Topps Update a little while back. I'm clearly biased, because for some reason, I don't mind this one (or the other Darvish photo variation featuring him on the mound in a Dodgers uniform). I'm going to give myself a pass.

When I began writing this post, I definitely did not mean for it to become a gripe-fest! I apologize! What are your thoughts about some of the "variations" in the various 2017 sets? 

Trade With It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

Daniel, the proprietor of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop, recently hit me up to let me know he had a few cards that were on my Set Needs list. I was happy to see his email - my set builds have slowed to a near-stop lately, so this was quite exciting. 

We quickly agreed to a deal and I received the cards a few days later (I was a bit slower sending my side- apologies again, Daniel!):

All from 2017, these knocked out some needs from my Allen & Ginter, Gypsy Queen, and Heritage sets. The two Ginter cards each completed the  respective insert sets for me.

Thanks again, Daniel!

eBay Mailday(s)

I've fallen behind in posting my eBay purchases. There haven't been many, but I could certainly do a better job of posting. Let's clean out the ol' eBay scan folder and see what has come in recently.

First up: this hideous Easter purple/pink Cole Hamels parallel from 2017 Gypsy Queen. I really hate that color and think it looks terrible on a baseball card. But I wasn't consulted - and I'm sure there is someone out there who loves it. Either way, it's a new Hamels for my collection.

Next up:

I mentioned a few times that I really like the Meaningful Materials relic cards from this year's Museum collection. I previously purchased a version of this card (also numbered to 50) but I was able to upgrade to one with a better patch (see above). The best part? I won this card for .49 cents (plus $3 shipping). I'll happily pay $3.49 for this card!

I also grabbed another parallel of this card, this one numbered to 10. It cost me maybe $5 total. Again, I will happily pay that!

But I'm not done with Museum Collection yet:

I was also able to get my hands on this Rougned Odor Meaningful Material relic. This one was a bit more expensive, but still well less than half a blaster. This is the base parallel, numbered to 50.

That's it for this eBay Mailday - but fear not, there are more in the future!

Judge-Mania Pays Off

Last week, I visited my LCS to see what was new. Because of the rookie rage this year (JUDGE, Benintendi, Bellinger, etc.), most products have become too expensive for me to afford. That wasn't a problem this time, because the only baseball product available was 2017 Tier One. 

So, I'm not going to fork over $150 for two three cards. It just ain't gonna happen. However, the owner had something else that I wanted, and trust me - this piece will be a centerpiece item. I didn't have the cash for it at the moment, but he agreed to hold it for me and let me pay it out. I'll let you in on what it is in a later post. (Oh, the suspense!)

Anyway, I went home and started looking for semi-valuable cards that I had in my collection that I wouldn't mind letting go. I never thought about it, but I checked to see what I had of Aaron Judge in my collection. Turns out, I had a silver ice and a blue parallel of Judge from 2014 Bowman (oh, if they would have only been a year older!) and a Clubhouse Collection relic from 2016 Heritage Minors. Then I started looking at what I had from this year's cards and I found rookie cards from Diamond Kings, Heritage, Gypsy Queen, and Series 1. IN all, I found ten cards. Instead of trying to sell each one individually, I decided to put them all into one lot:

I list the group at $100 or best offer. I am thinking I will be happy with $60. I wait for a few days and nothing happens. No bites.

Then, something magical occurred. While I am at the theater watching the new Spider-Man movie (which was great, by the way), Mr. Judge decides to do this:

Thank you Mr. Judge!

I walk out of the theater around 12:30 and check my phone and viola, I have an offer much higher than I expected! So I hit 'Accept' and smiled all the way home. The item I want is that much closer to being mine!

How, I feel the need to say that I am clearly not in the hobby to make money. I do it strictly for the enjoyment. That being said, I am on a grad student budget, which means that I don't have the luxury of having a ton of cash set aside for my hobby. Therefore, I have to sell cards that aren't central to my collection to get cards and items that are. So if it bothers you that I sold those cards, then I'm sorry. But it's how I grow my own collection.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great day!

Only FIVE More!!!!!

We only need five more spots to be filled for the group break to happen! Take a look here and leave a comment picking your team if you are interested!

Maybe a Group Break???

Nate of Big 44 Sports Cards sent me an email last week inquiring about the Glasnow I pulled in one of my 2017 GQ Boxes. He also asked if I had done any group breaks recently, and that made me want to do one. It has been a really long time since I did, so now seems as good a time as any. I put some feelers out on Twitter, but it seems that I should do the same here. So here's what I'm thinking:

The two are identical except for the Bowman, with Option 1 breaking a single-auto hobby box and Option 2 breaking a three-auto jumbo box. The price shown includes shipping, and all cards will ship.

Is anyone interested? I've listed a few people who have agreed to participate below, so if your team is unclaimed and you want to join, leave a note in the comments and say which option you prefer.

PS - My posting has been especially sparse lately. I have been taking my qualifying exams (my oral defense is Wednesday and it will hopefully be over!) and moving to a new apartment, so I've been a bit preoccupied. I hope to get back to a somewhat-consistent posting schedule soon!


1. DBacks
2. Braves - Chris Mays
3. O's
4. Red Sox
5.Cubs - Judson
6. White Sox
7. Reds
8. Indians
9. Rockies - C. Seidle
10. Tigers
11. Astros - Bru
12. Royals -  Laurie D.
13. Angels
14. Dodgers
15. Marlins
16. Brewers
17. Twins
18. Mets
19. Yankees - The Lost Collector
20. A's
21. Phillies - John C.
22. Pirates - Nate Bell
23. Padres
24. Giants
25. Mariners
26. Cardinals - Brady
27. Rays
28. Rangers - Judson
29. Blue Jays
30. Nats - Capt. Kirk

Gypsy Queen Box #2

Following up on my post from yesterday, I have a second box of Gypsy Queen to share. I did pretty well in Heritage earlier this year, but this box may have topped it. 

For the past three weeks, I have been toiling away at finishing a couple research papers. The big academic conference in my field, AEJMC, has an April 1 deadline for paper submissions, so I was trying to get my papers in. I finished around 3 p.m. and decided to stop by my LCS to grab a box to "reward" myself for, essentially, doing my job.

I was beat, so I took my box back to my apartment to open rather than opening it in the shop. I got home and sat down at my desk to dig in.

Right of the top, I pulled a purple GlassWorks boxtopper of Nomar Mazara! These are numbered to 125 and they are absolutely stunning. Good start! More after the jump!

2017 Gypsy Queen: Box 1

I said I wasn't going to do it. I swore to myself I wouldn't. I made a promise to myself that I had enough self-control not to do it.

But I did it.

I broke down and bought a box of 2017 Gypsy Queen.

After seeing the cards, I couldn't resist. They just look so great. I'm attached to GQ - it's the first set I built when I got back into collecting - so this set pulled on my heart strings.

Back to the story. I bought the first box - that's right, I bought more than one - last week, a couple days after release. Let's take a look and see how it was.

Right off the top - see what I did there? - was this GlassWorks boxtopper of Stephen Piscotty. By far and away, these are the best boxtoppers of any product I have opened since I got back into collecting. This scan just doesn't do it justice. 

My first box had plenty of parallels. Here are the missing backplate parallels I pulled:

These are...interesting. They are easy to find, as they stand out like a sore thumb. They're unique, I give them that. But I still don't know how I really feel about them.

I also pulled a couple purple parallels numbered to 250:

Not bad players! You've got a guy who rakes and then there's Giancarlo Stanton...how incredible was Mad Bum's two dingers on Opening day?!?!?! 

I also pulled a green back variation:

These aren't numbered, but I think they are numbered to 50 (or so I believe - I could be completely wrong). 

The final numbered parallel I pulled was this black and white parallel of Kevin Gausman numbered to 50:

Beyond parallels, I pulled two variations. First up, this Marcus Stroman no nameplate parallel:

Mr. Stroman will appear again in a later post in a much more impressive fashion.

I also pulled this capless variation of Francisco Lindor:

Not too shabby.

As promised, my box had two on-card autos:

I guess my autos could have been worse. One knock - the machine that loads these into packs seems to have put a crease in them. They don't look like they have been folded over, but it does look as if they went through rollers that had too much pressure. You can't see them in the scans, but trust me - they're there.

The set got rid of the minis this year. I know there are some people who have a problem with this, but I'm not one of them. Those things were nearly impossible to store in any way. However, there is a "mini" insert set called "Fortune Tellers." I put "mini" in quotes because they are closer to tall boys than minis. Anyway, I really dig this set. I was stoked to see that there are three Rangers in it. I happened to pull the Cole Hamels in this box:

So freakin' cool, man!

Anyway, everything you see here is for trade. well, everything except the Hamels. That's for me.

Keep your eyes open for a post about a potential second box of GQ.

Okay, there's definitely a second box. Post coming soon.