Commitment Issues

It took a few weeks longer than I anticipated... but I finally made it down to the post office and shipped out the grocery bag full of care packages that I owed so many of you guys.

I've also been thinking about removing myself from the awesome group of Super Traders.  I'm just not sure if I can continue to pull my weight over the long haul.  When I first reentered the hobby back in the late 2000's, I loved making trades on Sports Card Forum and Card Collector's World.  However something has changed.  I've lost the motivation and at the present time... feel a little burnt out.  

This hobby has always been my personal happy place.  The past eight years, I've always turned to my collection, my blog, your blogs, and all of your great posts whenever I needed a break from work or other things going on in my life.  I assure you that I have no plans of walking away from any of those things, but I'm considering taking my name out of the Super Traders hat and letting a more responsible... more punctual person take my place.

Are there any other Oakland Athletics bloggers/collectors out there who would be interested?

This doesn't mean that I've sent my final care package out.  I still have plenty of cards to give away... no strings attached.  No trade commitments.  No guaranteed shipping dates.  Just friendly care packages.

Have a good weekend everyone.  Happy Saturday... and sayonara!

End of Summer Box Break

My summer break is officially over.  I reported back to work this morning and spent the day lesson planning and sitting in meetings.  Wednesday is the big day... when I'll meet my 160 seventh graders.

Fun.  Fun.  Fun.

In preparation for my return to the classroom, I went to the wholesaler last week and picked up two boxes that were on sale:  2013 Panini Prizm Draft Picks ($28) and 2013 Topps Supreme ($39).

Normally I'm not a fan of Panini products... especially their draft stuff... but I needed some Yankees prospect cards for Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards.  The wholesaler had 2014 boxes available as well... but the 2013 was more affordable.  In the end... being cheap paid off, because I pulled my very first Kris Bryant autograph.

In addition to the Bryant, I also pulled a Katoh autograph for my Japanese PC and two other guys I've never heard of.

Kenny... the Michael O'Neill is yours.  One problem... I forgot to put it inside of your care package... so you'll need to wait for the next round which will probably ship out during either Thanksgiving or Christmas break.

Here are the rest of the inserts and parallels from that box:

The Topps Supreme box was kind of a bust, but I knew this was one of those high risk kind of breaks going into it.

I was a little disappointed to see Fielder featured in his Yankees pinstripes.  It's like pulling an autograph of Rickey Henderson and seeing him wearing a Dodgers jersey.

Oh well... I can't complain too much.  He was fun to watch back in the 80's and this is my very first autograph of him.

I'll wrap things up by updating everyone on the status of care package construction.  I know I'm a little tardy... but I should have packages shipped out to the following bloggers by the end of the week: The Lost Collector, Cards on Cards, GCRL, Oddball Card, Torren' Up Cards, Dawg Day Cards, 1975 Baseball Cards, The Angels In Order, The Underdog Card Collector, Night Owl, Too Many Verlanders, Jay Barker Fan, Waiting 'Til Next Year, Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary, and KevAlan (CCW).

Packages range from flat rate boxes to PWE's.  I apologize for the delay.  Sorting and organizing took a lot longer than I anticipated.  Plus I needed to go out and restock some of my trade bait.

If by chance I owe you a care package and you don't see your name on this list... please email me or leave a comment below.  The good news is I always pay off my debts.  The bad news is my next round of packages probably won't ship out until my Thanksgiving or Christmas breaks.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Enough Blame to Go Around

For years I always gave Todd Van Poppel credit for ruining my interest in prospecting and investing in rookie cards.  However after I received this 1996 Best Minor League autograph of Benjamin Grieve from AJ (The Lost Collector), I realized it wasn't entirely Todd's fault.

Back in the 1994 the Oakland Athletics drafted Grieve with the second pick in the amateur draft.  He spent a few seasons down in the minors and was considered one of the top prospects in baseball.  It was during this period of time that minor league products featuring autographs were exploding on the hobby scene... and I dove in head first.

My number one target... Mr. Grieve:

This is only part of my Ben Grieve PC.  I've actually given away some of his signatures over the years... and probably have a few more hidden away in my A's collection.  There was a time when his minor league autographs were a hot commodity and fetched upwards of twenty dollars.

In 1998, the twenty-two year old outfielder made his first and only MLB All-Star appearance and took home the AL Rookie of the Year Award.  He continued to be a contributing player for a young and developing Oakland A's team.  And his cards continued to hold their value.

Then on January 8th, 2001... Grieve was shipped off to Tampa Bay in a three team trade.  That's right about the time when I was getting out of the hobby and focusing on my career and paying off my debt.

I decided to only keep a couple boxes worth of cards.  Inside of those boxes were some of my most treasured cards, like my 1983 Topps Tony Gwynn and 1985 Donruss Kirby Puckett rookie cards.  Wanna know what else I kept?

I held onto a bunch of Ben Grieve autographs.  Sadly... Grieve's numbers were never the same after that trade and today those cards are worth about a tenth of what they were worth fifteen years ago.

But we learn from our mistakes, right?  These days I refuse to pay top dollar for signatures of minor leaguers and I owe it all to guys like Van Poppel and Grieve.

In addition to the Grieve, AJ also sent me this Rick Harden jersey card:

And a bunch of other cards for my Oakland A's collection:

I was surprised and saddened to see Mike Norris in a wheel chair when he came back to the Oakland Coliseum for Turn Back the Clock Day last weekend.  

Last season, Tommy Milone threw a ball into the bleachers during batting practice... and I happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Thank you AJ for the nice addition to my Ben Grieve PC... as well as all of the other A's cards featured in this post.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

I was originally going to write a sayonara salute for Prince Fielder, but after reading Tony's amazing tribute, I figured I'd just send you guys over to check out his post.  If interested... click here.

The exact same thing can be said for AJ's tribute to Alex Rodriguez right here.

Enjoy your retirement Alex and Prince!

Paying Top Dollar for Mr. Baseball

I have wanted to add a vintage baseball card of Mr. Baseball ever since his days on Mr. Belvedere and Major League.  Recently I decided to stop procrastinating and finally do something about it.  The first thing I had to do was decide on which card I wanted.  Luckily for me, Uecker only has a handful of cards from his playing days.

He was first featured with four other players on his rookie card in the 1962 Topps set.  Topps would also feature him on their baseball card checklists for the next five years.  If my selection was based purely on card design, then his 1965 card would hands down be the winner.  That card also features my favorite photograph of him as well.

However I decided to go with his 1963 Topps card, because I like the dual photo design and the fact that he's featured with the Milwaukee Braves... his hometown team.

Next... I had to figure out a nice balance between condition and purchase price.  At first I was content with picking up a cheap copy... even one that I could use as my next Wallet Card.  Cheap copies can be picked up for as little as a dollar on eBay.  Unfortunately... after several attempts, I was unable to secure one at that price for myself.

Then one day back in May, I stumbled across a signed copy that was SGC authenticated.  After one week of the 10 day auction... the card was already at $25, which is about the most I originally wanted to spend.  The next day the card shot up to $40.

At this point, I almost stopped watching the card.  This was way over my budget and was beginning to get out of hand.  But the fact that this was a signed copy of the card I really wanted made me hang in there.

On the final day of the auction, the card reached $50 and I honestly had no business bidding on it... but I decided to enter a bid (of what I believe was $55) at the last second and won it for $51 (+ $3.95 shipping).

Did I overpay?  Hell yeah, I did.  I could have picked up a PSA 7 copy and had enough money leftover to buy a blaster.  Plus... nobody really knows if Bob Uecker actually signed this card.  But believe it or not... as a guy who actually considers himself to be a budget collector... I have zero regrets about this purchase.

It allows me to cross Bob Uecker's name off of my wantlist.  That's a name that's been on there for over two decades.  And I choose to have faith that Mr. Baseball once held and signed this card which was destined to be in my collection.

What about you?

Have you ever knowingly overpaid for a card, because you wanted it that badly?

Looking forward to seeing if there are others out there like myself... or if I'm a lone wolf.  Comment away!

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Mr. Baseball Can Wait

I originally had a Bob Uecker post planned for today... but that will have to wait, because there was no way I'd miss addressing yesterday's milestone event.

2013 Five Star Autographs #MMA

No... I'm not talking about Manny Machado and his insane three home runs, which made him just the 2nd player in MLB history to hit home runs in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd innings of a single game.  That was obviously impressive.

2004 SI for Kids #360

Michael Phelps' 19th career Olympic gold medal was equally... if not more impressive than Machado's feat.  But this post isn't about him either. 

1994 Fleer Pro Cards #1063

This post isn't about Alex Rodriguez announcing his retirement either.  Although I've got to admit... after watching his press conference, I had serious mixed emotions.  I can't say I've ever considered myself a fan, but I recognize his accomplishments and his retirement is just another reminder that I'm getting old.  However... like I said... this post isn't about him.

2001 Fleer Tradition #452

2001 Topps Gallery #151 (Japanese)

For this card collector... Ichiro Suzuki's 3000th hit yesterday trumps any of this weekend's sports highlights.  Ever since he entered the league back in 2001, he's been one of my favorite players.

1993 Tomy ID #102

He's the greatest MLB player to come out of Japan and hands down the centerpiece of my Japanese athlete collection.

2004 Topps All-Stars #TAS2

2002 Fleer Ultra #51

I've always been a fan of contact hitters since I was a little kid and Ichiro has to be considered one of the greatest.

Plus he's entertained fans with his insane catches and ridiculous throws from right field over the years.  And let's not forget that he has one of the coolest and unique pre-batting stances in the league.

1991 Leaf Gold Leaf Rookies Bonus #BC25

1991 Leaf Gold Leaf Rookies Bonus #BC26

Congratulations Ichiro, Machado, Phelps, and A-Rod!  You guys seriously put yesterday into the history books.  I can't remember being so excited about watching highlight reels over and over since Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock's stolen base record and Nolan Ryan threw his 7th career no-hitter on May 1st, 1991.

What about you...

Anyone have a specific date that stands out in sports history for them?

Happy Monday and sayonara!