Cards From The Night Owl

Recently, I shared the results of my foray into 2017 Topps Update. Spoiler alert: I wasn't impressed and felt there were too many photo variations.

The legendary Night Owl left a comment asking if one of the cards was available. It was and I sent it his way, happy that it found a home.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a bubble mailer (I think - I can't really remember, to be honest!) from Mr. Owl with an assortment of goodies inside! Here are the highlights:

This Sonny Siebert is an addition to my 1969 Topps set build, which is coming along very slowly (but surely!).

I didn't venture into Topps Chrome very much this year, but I am certainly very happy to receive this pink refractor of Yu Darvish. Darvish is still unsigned, and I am hoping that means he will eventually find his way back to the Rangers. I'm starting to find that I am going out of my way to snag his cardboard.

Speaking of guys that I have been unknowingly PC'ing, the is the "negative refractor" of Cole Hamels. I really think Topps missed the opportunity to call these "negafractors" - it sounds way cooler. Anyway, I'm always happy to add a Hamels to the collection!

Night Owl, thank you for the cards! I certainly wasn't expecting anything like this in return!

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!

Some Inserts That I Actually Like

Usually, I'm not a fan of inserts. I often feel they are a gimmick, inserted into packs for no reason other than to make building a set more difficult. The common flagship set now has somewhere near 10 to 15 inserts each year. Isn't that a bit overboard?

However, there are inserts that occasionally catch my eye. I'm a big fan of the Fortune Teller inserts from 2017 Gypsy Queen, and I loved the Skippers insert from last year's Allen & Ginter. 

I don't know how, but I missed the 1969 Topps Super inserts from 2016 Topps Archives. When I saw the Cole Hamels card in that set, I knew that I had to snag it. 

There is just something about the simplicity that I love. It reminds me of oddball sets, in that it is simply a photo and a facsimile signature. Plain and pure.

The back is also bare bones. Nothing fancy, no Twitter handles or silly "facts" ("Cole likes video games!" Who cares???). Just a simple box with the player's name, team, and position. This is the base (or "blue back") version.

I also managed to snag the red back version, numbered to 50.

Sometimes, an insert speaks to me. Especially when it is this simplistic.

I hope you are having a great day!

It's Been Awhile...So Here Are Some Recent eBay Pickups

I feel like a broken record saying this, but I've been gone awhile and haven't posted since the end of May. That being said, I feel the need to break the postless streak. So let's look at what I have picked up on eBay during the past month or so.

First up, I finally broke down and grabbed a couple cards I have been wanting for a while:

First up is this Buddy Bell card from the 1982 Kellogg's 3-D Super Stars set. I also snagged this card from the same set:

Al Oliver! I love the Kellogg's sets. I've thought about trying to put together the entire line, but I keep postponing that idea. We'll see if I take the jump one day. But back to the cards - I really love the now "vintage" T on the hat. I wouldn't be upset if I never saw the bubble font used on the jerseys, though.

I also purchased a card from a recent set:

This meaningful material relic of Cole Hamels comes from the 2017 Museum Collection set. I gotta say, I really like this set. Sadly, a box runs about $200...and I do not have that kind of cash. No worries though, I can pick up cards like this one, which set me back a whopping $8, shipping included. 

That's it for now, but I promise that I am working on having more posts ready for you to read soon!

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.

Trade Time!!!

This week has kicked my butt. I was doing the math yesterday and I realized that I had only gotten roughly 11 hours of sleep since Tuesday. It's the time of year where most of the mass communication academic conferences have their conference paper deadlines, and I have been trying to finish up a few papers for these conferences. All of this boiled to a head yesterday when I was at a bar with a group of classmates who were celebrating their recent employment. I flat out fell asleep. And not the "dozing" type of sleep - the kind of sleep that promotes a healthy snore.

Once my friends woke me, I headed home. I walked in the door with the intent of going straight to bed, but then I remembered that I had a few bubble mailers I haven't opened that I received earlier in the week. So let's take a look at one!

Recently, I noticed that Chris, a.k.a. The (Pedestrian) Collector was busting a few boxes of 2017 Heritage. I left a comment asking if we could work something out if he happened to pull any Rangers. Lo and behold, he pulled a Cole Hamels Clubhouse Collection relic:

I admit it: I'm a sucker for relics, especially when they aren't just plan white swatches. Even better, this year's relic cards are of the vertical orientation, rather than horizontal. I really dig it.

That wasn't the only card that Chris sent me, however. Also included was this:

I'm generally not a fan of the buybacks that Topps seems to be regularly inserting now. It was a big deal last year - why is it necessary to do it two years in a row? That being said, I have always loved Mitch Williams. The guy is just downright funny. So this buyback is actually a welcome addition!

But wait - there's more!

Chris also sent this along:

This Yu Darvish Career High relic hails from 2015 Topps Series 1. I mentioned above that I like relics, but this particular design was and is one of my favorites. Don't ask me to explain why - I can't. But I have always really liked these.

Chris - thanks again for the trade! I really appreciate it, and I hope it is just the first of many!

A New Addition From '16 Heritage

I've always been fascinated by the coincidences in life. There are so many that, when you really think about them, life becomes really interesting. Naturally, since I'm talking about it, I can't think of any general examples. 

One coincidence that I can think of occurred yesterday. I purchased my two boxes of 2017 Heritage and had a pretty decent haul. Once I got back to my apartment, I found a package in my mailbox. When I opened it up, I found this:

This is a gold parallel Clubhouse Collection relic of Cole Hamels from '16 Heritage High Number. What makes this a coincidence is that I thought this card was lost in the mail and had essentially given up on ever receiving it. However, I got it today.

Okay, so maybe that isn't a huge coincidence. But I needed something to say other than "Hey, look at my card!" Regardless, I appreciate you sitting through all of this and bearing with me. I hope all is well!