I've Been Gone A Minute...Again

Just when I thought I would be able to get back to posting regularly, more stuff comes up and keeps me away. I mentioned in a now-deleted post (not sure how that happened) that my grandmother passed away in April and I was having trouble dealing with that. I'm a bit better, now. To help out, I decided to move back to my hometown to take care of my grandfather while writing my dissertation. This has been an...adventure...to say the least. I don't care which side of the aisle you are on politically, medical insurance and government benefits should not be as complicated as Medicare is. I'm about to earn my PhD and I don't understand a thing about Medicare.

Anyway, I've got a ton of scans ready to go for future blog updates. I haven't purchased much cardboard this year, but what I have purchased recently is almost exclusively cardboard from the blaster variety. Therefore, I will soon be starting a serious that will be called "Blaster Madness" to take a quick look at what my $20 got me. 

One product that I did manage to get in hobby box form was this year's Allen & Ginter. I am participating in Gint-A-Cuffs again this year, so I will need to have my scans and scores posted this evening. I promise that will happen. Let's just say that between missing hits and a ton of Yankees, I doubt that I will be standing on the winners podium this year!

So that's it for now. Stay tuned for new content!

If Anything Can Bring Me Back, It's The Good Ol' Red, White, And Blue

Well, it has officially been close to (if not more than) two months since my last post. In it, I mentioned that I had a death in the family that sent me into a tailspin and I needed some time to get my sh*t back together and become a productive member of society again. Somehow, I accidentally deleted that post. I'm not sure when/how I did that.

I guess now is the time that I get going again. Though I haven't been blogging, I have still been collecting. I've mentioned in a few posts that I have been participating in some group breaks with a particular breaker. During my sabbatical, I participated in a few more breaks, mostly for Panini's Stars and Stripes product. This set is focused on the various Team USA baseball squads.

Why this product, you ask? Well, Steven Gingery is in the set. Who is Gingery, you ask? Gingery is the ace of the Texas Tech baseball team...at least he was entering this season, but he tore a ligament in his elbow and had to have Tommy John surgery early in the season.

Regardless, Gingery went in the fourth round to the Cardinals in the 2018 MLB Draft. I'm hoping he shows up in the Bowman Draft product later this year.

Anyway, let's get to some cards. Some cards are packed up, so I only have a few to share.

This is the base auto in the set. Though there are a few players that feature a sticker auto, most are on-card - including Gingery.

However, the dreaded sticker auto makes an appearance on these Silhouette relic/autos. To make matters worse, the signature goes off the sticker. Oh well, such is life, am I right?

This is perhaps my favorite card from the breaks I have participated in. It's numbered to 25, and all of the patches are awesome!

I will be all-in on next years Stars and Stripes, as well. A friend of mine - who I met in the card shop in Lubbock - will almost certainly be in the product. Josh Jung (pronounced like "Young") is Tech's starting third baseman. He was selected to play on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team this summer, as soon as Tech is finished at the College World Series (hopefully winning their last game!). Josh is predicted to be a first-round pick in next year's draft, also. Regardless of how things play out, it's been cool to have him as a friend, and I am beyond happy for him and all of his successes!

Cards From Julie

Julie of A Cracked Bat fame sent a mailer full of Ranger goodies my way a couple weeks ago. It came at a perfect time - my dissertation was getting the best of me and making me a cranky person. It was nice to receive cards as a pick-me-up!

Let's take a look at some of my favorites from the package, shall we?

This Frank Catalanotto Status diecut comes from 2002 Donruss Elite. To make it more interesting, this is a NSCC exclusive...

...numbered 5 of 5! Sweet! I always enjoyed watching Cat play. He was one of the few highlights in some pretty lean years.

A Topps Finest Rookies card of Mike Lamb. Gotta love that Finest feel!

A beautiful, shiny foil Upper Deck card of Mr. Ranger, Michael Young. There is nothing wrong with this card. It's perfect!

These three came together in a cello-like pack. Produced to bring awareness to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) organization, this were distributed...somehow. I'm not certain if they came in a package of something or if they were given away at games...there just isn't much information out there about the set.

All of the cards share the same backside. These have immediately become some of my favorite cards.

Julie, I can't thank you enough! Thanks for thinking of me!

Yet Another Case Break With Hawks Breaks

Well, a few cases to be exact. I bought into a three-case player break for 2014 Bowman Draft (I chose Luis Ortiz, drafted by the Rangers but traded to the Brewers) and a single team case break for 2017 Bowman's Best. You know how this works, so let's get to it.

I've always loved the silver ice parallels. These, along with atomic parallels (which I believe are essentially the same thing), are always some of my favorite cards. This was the only parallel I got from the Draft break.

I also snagged this refractor auto in the third case of the break. It would prove to be the only auto I got, but I am happy with my haul.

As I mentioned, I had the Rangers in the 2017 Bowman's Best single case break. 

Willie Calhoun is featured on these inserts. On the top is the Baseball America Gradebook insert. Below is the Prime Cuts insert. The Baseball America insert also has a few autographed parallels, though I didn't get one.

This would have been my best hit from the break. It's a green refractor auto of Christopher Seise. I also got a base auto, but I forgot to scan it.

Not too bad of a haul. As they say, "them's the breaks!"

2017 Elite Extra Edition

My LCS had box of 2017 Elite Extra Edition for sale for a really good price. Though I'm not normally a Panini guy, I decided to give it a try. The box came with eight guaranteed hits, at least six of which were autos.

This is a base auto from the set. It's an on-card auto. Most of the autos in the set are on-card, though there are still a number of sticker autos.

There are also auto parallels. This is a diecut "Status" parallel featuring Detroit's Alex Faedo, numbered to 75.

The box contained a number of parallels, also. Unlike Topps, these parallels really pop.

Some parallels are diecut, like this one. 

My box had two relics. The first was this one:

This jumbo Future Threads relic features a jersey swatch from Rhys Hoskins, numbered to 99.

My last relic was this:

A jumbo patch auto of Ynmanol Marinez, now a member of the Miami Marlins organization. It's a nice patch and a low number. The only problem I have is the sticker auto. But hey, it does no good to complain now. 

I enjoyed this break. Having seven autos in my box (though not all are shown here) was pretty awesome. I also really enjoy the parallels. As I mentioned above, they really pop and stand out from what Topps would consider a parallel. 

A Violation of Common Sense

BEFORE I BEGIN: I am currently working on my "What I Collect" post for Night Owl's Blog Bat Around. It's taking me a bit longer than I anticipated (because my dissertation is ruining my life, as I have mentioned previously). I promise it will be published this week! Now, on to today's regularly-scheduled post...

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I'm really growing to love the Trading Card Database. It is a fountain of cardboard information and even facilitates trading with new people. This is great...until it isn't.

I recently completed a trade with a user that would net me the Adrian Beltre Players Weekend manufactured patch. I know, just last week I complained about these cards. Still, this is a card featuring a Ranger and I collect cards featuring Rangers, so you do the math. Full disclosure: I sent only four insert cards to the other person (who proposed the trade), so this "problem" wasn't a big deal. 

Fast forward to the day that I received the card. The other person sent the card in a PWE. Not a problem, but it is a relative thick card. So long as he put it in a toploader, the card should have made its way to me safe.

But it didn't. 

Turns out that the other trader doesn't really care about packaging, as he just threw the card in a team bag and then an envelope. No penny sleeve, no toploader. When it arrived, it had a vertical crease down the middle.

The crease isn't visible in the scan, but it's there.

This really bothered me. It still does. However, I decided not to say anything about it to the other trader. I felt that the card was essentially free so I shouldn't complain. Now I'm kicking myself because it is definitely outside of the acceptable timeframe to complain.

Still, it's a violation of basic common sense that anything sent in a PWE will go through an automated sorter, meaning that extra thick cards are at serious risk for damage. I wonder if he even felt the slightest built guilty when he received the bubble mailer from me that had each card in a penny sleeve and top loader. Doubtful.

Am I making too much of this?

Sportlots Comes Up Big (And Silky)

It's been a while since I last visited Sportlots. I love the site - I find that I can often get commons there as cheap or cheaper than anywhere else. However, I just haven't been purchasing many cards as of late.

That all changed a few weeks ago when I decided to look and see if any sellers had posted any cards that would fit into my player collections. I can usually spend $10 on Sportlots and come away with a bubble mailer packed with awesomeness. So I logged on and ran a search for Matt Harrison.

And there is was: a card I've been looking for for what seemed like ages!

This is the silk parallel from 2010 Topps Update, numbered to 50. If you take a look at my Harrison PC, you'll notice that I don't have any cards from 2010. I'm not sure why, but I just can't seem to find Harry's cardboard from 2010 Update (his card number is US248, in case you happen to have any!). I was stunned to find this on Sportlots; I was even more stunned that it was listed at $5. I couldn't click "Add to Cart" fast enough.

As I always do, I checked the same seller for cards that would fit my other player collections. I only found two:

You can't tell, but this is the Emerald parallel of Rusty Greer from the 2000 Metal set. I really like these cards, but it is abundantly clear that my scanner does not. 

I also picked up this Gold Medallion diecut of Greer that hails from the 2003 Ultra set. Nothing really special about it, other than I needed it.

Moral of the story: always check Sportlots when you're looking for a hard-to-find card for your PC!

What's the strangest place you have found a low-numbered or harder-to-find card for your PC?