Just Another Manic Mailday

Okay, not really manic. Three pieces of mail. And one of them was from yesterday's mail, I just didn't get around to posting it.

Anyway, enough babbling. I received back a TTM, and it's a beauty:

Rangers Hall of Famer and knuckleball extraordinaire, Charlie Hough! This is a 1991 Topps, which I actually happen to love. I can't tell you why I'm such a fan of that year's design, but I am.

The next two cards are for my Jordan Zimmermann PC, and they are both from 2013 Triple Threads:

UAJR-JZ5, Gold parallel numbered 10 of 25, and:

UAJR-JZ1, Emerald parallel numbered 11 of 50.

I know that some people think the Triple Threads parallels are a gimmick, and I can certainly understand the logic of that. But I admit I love 'em. I love everything about them. As a matter of fact, there is only one thing I would change - I would make it a strictly on-card autograph.

Anyway, that's it for this post. Everyone have a good weekend and be safe out there!

And The Winner Is...

Don Larsen!!!!

But, I'm going to take PATP's advice and send a ball to both. I just have to go get another $15 OMLB ball.

What? I can tel you're looking at me like you thought I was going to announce the winner of something else. Sorry, I got nothin' for ya.

Oh wait - I forgot. I need to announce the winner of the Harper Black Friday card. First, I had random.org randomly select a number for me to act as the number of times I would randomize my list. It selected number 32. Would have been way cooler at 34 (Harper's number), but I never have anything cool like that happen. Anyway, after 32 rounds in the randomizer, the winner is....

Alex of Chavez Ravining! I feel kind of bad about this - I first "met" Alex because he decided he no longer wanted to focus on building a Bryce Harper PC. Greg (Plaschke, They Sweater Is Argyle) told Alex I might be interested in acquiring his Harper cards - and I was. Unfortunately, not long after our trade, Alex decided he did want to keep his Harper PC. Even worse for him, I'm kinda greedy when it comes to Harper cards, so I didn't offer to give the cards back. (I know I'm an ass)

So, here's to a new start, Alex!

Quick Poll: Answer Me!

I'm trying to get geared up for a new project that involves autographed baseballs. More details to come later, but here's what you need to know for now.:

I'm going to be sending out a ball, TTM style, tomorrow. Which former player should I send it to:

Don Larsen

- OR - 

Jim Bunning

I'll look at your votes/comments below on the poll to the right and send it to the winner tomorrow! Voting closes at noon central time, so get your votes in! And to thank you for helping me out, I give this awesome meme below!

I also tried to find a meme for our awesome Canadian friends, but this really doesn't need to be a meme. It's just that awesome - a passport-operated beer fridge solely for Canadians in the Olympic Village.

Mail Day and an Update

I received a couple packages in the mail today, and both of them were awesome.

First up, this 2013 Triple Threads Nelson Cruz "Boomstick" auto/relic:

This is the gold parallel numbered 3 of 9. Fits nicely into my Cruz PC. The only thing that bothers me is the slight misplacement of the middle patch. If you look closely, you can see that the top edge of the patch is visible in the "M". I'm not sure if it shifted after packaging or if if was placed in there like that. Regardless, I still like it.

As beautiful as that card is, this was my favorite in today's mail.

This is officially my first booklet card in my collection. Normally, I don't waste money on Panini cards because of the lack of logos. It bother me. However, this card just looks...classy. After MY announced his retirement, I figured I should pick up a few cards for my collection. What better way to start than this one???

Moving on from mail, I have a few updates. A few of you have contacted me about a trade. I haven't forgotten, I've just been swamped. So, here we go:

• Douglas Corti - I mailed a package to you earlier this week.
• JediJeff - I'm going to try to mail out the miscut buyback I received tomorrow. If you could, email me your address. judsonmeeks AT gmail DOT com.
• ARPSmith - The Giants Power Players will be in the mail toorrow.
• Brian (PATP) - The Votto topper will come soon...trying to find a safe way to ship it
• Dutch Card Guy - Saem with the cabinet cards - looking for a safe way to ship them.
• Brad - The Cepeda relic will be in the mail tomorrow.
• Tom (Angels, In Order) - I will try to get the Cron card in the mail tomorrow...I'm looking for your address.

I think that catches me up. If we have discussed a trade and I have agreed to send you something but haven't listed it here, please leave me a comment so I can get it out to you, I promise I didn't mean to forget!

Opinions Needed!

First, I want to thank everyone who has commented on my last post! It's funny how social everyone becomes when there is something being given away for free...bums! Hahaha I'm kidding about being a bum, but I am completely serious in thanking you for jumping in on my contest!

On the the point we go. A while back (4 or 5 years, maybe?), I was fortunate enough to receive this:

Sean Henn, former Yankees relief pitcher, was a client of my mother's insurance office. She knew that I was abaseball fan, and, during the course of conversation with Henn one day, brought up my love of the game. He autographed this bat with the inscription, "JUDSON - Best Wishes! Sean Henn" From that moment, Henn has been one of my favorite pitchers.

Fast-forward to today. Henn is/was in the Mets organization. But, after being sent back down to their Vegas affiliate in October, he elected free agency. Everything I find shows that he is still with the Mets, but I can't find anything showing that he re-signed with them. Do any Mets fan know?

Also, I spoke with William of foul bunt last night about all of this. I am planning on sending Henn a couple of my favorite cards of his to get them signed with the intention of having them framed with the bat. Furthermore, I wanted to send an authentic Yankees jersey for him to sign to frame with all of this, but I can't find one (all I find a batting practice jerseys). Therefore, my plan was to send the cards to Henn and ask to buy one of his jerseys, if he had one available. Do you think that is out of line? I don't want to be "that guy," but I also don't think that asking that would be that terrible. Thoughts?

A Few Random Things

Topps proves once again that they suck at life. I've been waiting almost 8 months for a few redemption autos. Finally, last week week, I gave up and called and asked for replacements. Today, I received the three replacements.

So, for a 2013 Topps Tribute blue parallel auto of Gio Gonzalez, a card with equivalent book value would be...

A 2011 Bowman Chrome auto numbered to 500 of CJ Cron? Never heard of him... I'm having a hard time believing that this is a card of equivalent value of a 2013 Gio Gonzalez blue auto numbered to 99.

And a 2011 Bowman Chrome auto to 500 of Trevor Story is supposed to have the same book value as a 2013 Tier One Crowd Pleaser copper rose auto parallel of Nelson Cruz numbered to 25. Impossible.

This was the replacement for my 2013 Bowman Inception base auto: a 2012 base auto of Max Fried. Okay, I believe that these two could have similar book value.

I'm currently on hold with Topps, Caller 7 to be exact, waiting to get an explanation for this nonsense.

UPDATE: I finally talked to someone. I was told that the Cron-for-Gonzalez swap I'm stuck with because the book value is the same. Which is nonsense. However, they "made a mistake" in sending me the Story for the Cruz card, so I have to send it back to get the right card. The a**hole I talked to also let me know that he thought it was stupid of me to ask for replacements, and said that I shouldn't have been upset for having to wait more than eight months for the cards. I swear, had he been telling me this face-to-face, I would have dropped him like a sack of potatoes. I grew up in the country, in Texas, where we are taught not to treat someone like that. I've punched men for less...
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I also received an eBay package today. It makes me much happier than the package from Topps. In it was this:

A couple weeks ago, I showed off a Panini Black Friday card of Harper that I got. Well, I liked it so much that I got the other black Friday card. But, to my surprise, there were two of these in my package. I went back and read the item description, and somehow I missed that I was bidding on two of these cards. Oh well, I paid less than $3 for the both of them.

So, in the spirit of blogging brotherhood, I'm going to give the second card away. All you have to do is make sure you are following my blog and comment below. Also, if you mention the contest on your blog (post the link to your pimping in the comments section below), I'll give you anothe rentry. And if someone else enters the contest and mentions your name and blog, I'll give you another entry. The contest ends this Friday at noon central time, so get on it!
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Lastly, I leave you with a picture from Petco Park in San Diego. I visited last April, and I was just going through my pictures. I kind of forgot how beautiful it was!

The Best TTM I've Ever Received! (Part 2)

I've seen a couple posts about people getting a TTM back  from this person in the past couple weeks, so I was optimistic that I would get mine back. And I did:

Boom! Kid K, Clayton Kershaw! I'll be honest, when I sent this out, I didn't think I would get it back. I figured that a star pitcher like him probably got too much mail to sign and return everything, so I had written it off. Yesterday, I opened my mailbox to find a familiar self-adressed stamped envelope. The postmark had a North Texas stamp, so I was a bit confused - all of the cards I sent out to Rangers players have been accounted for. I temporarily forgot that Kershaw lives in Highland Park (side note - even with the new contract, Kershaw probably isn't the wealthiest person in his neighborhood).

The signature is beautiful - the blue ink looks great- and the added number inscription makes it even cooler.

I am pretty happy to add this to my collection!

PS - Be on the lookout for my next post - I'm going to rant a bit, but I will end it with a contest!!!