Three is the Magic Number

Group breaks normally aren't my thing.  I enjoy spending my money on specific singles that call out to me.  And if I need a little excitement in my life then I'd rather just pay for a box and experience the joy of tearing into packs.

However... I understand their role in our hobby.  Over the years, I've joined in my fair share of them.  And a few weeks ago, I decided to put my name down for the Oakland A's and Miami Marlins in Peter's 2017 Topps Series 2 group break over on his blog Baseball Every Night.

The price was definitely right.  He only charged $3 per team and that basically covered the supplies and shipping charges.

I didn't open any Series 1 packs, so I didn't really know who was on the checklist.  I quickly found out that there were at least sixteen A's in Series 2.  That's gotta be a record, right?

The only card I was secretly hoping to get was Ichiro's base card.  Unfortunately there wasn't one sitting in Peter's box.

He did manage to pull a trio of inserts.  The Gordon features an awesome action shot and is numbered to 66.  Also really excited to add this new Byrnsie to my collection.  Hmmm... maybe it'll be my first TTM attempt of the year.


The next day, I received a care package from Steve over at Collating Cards.  I might not have gotten the Ichiro from the group break, but Steve hooked me up with an insert from this year's product:

2017 Topps All-Time All-Star #ATAS-32

He also threw in another Ichiro insert:

2015 Topps Update Rookie Sensations #RS-2

Plus a few other Oakland A's inserts:

I have one more care package to share.  This one is from Shane over at Reds Card Collector.

He send over a trio of Oakland Athletics...

Next to Archives, Gypsy Queen is probably my second favorite Topps product.  I'm a big fan of their on-card autographs.  Shane happened to include two of them.

He also threw in these four BBM cards:

I didn't recognize any of these guys, but they made nice additions to my team collections in my Japanese baseball card binder.

Three packages.  Three days.  Three generous bloggers.  Three is the magic number.

Thank you Peter, Steve, and Shane for these awesome cards!  I hope you all have a enjoy your weekend.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #123: It's an Addiction

Have you ever been addicted to something, then tried to quit?  Then when you fall off the wagon, you try to blame it on someone else.

That's me.

About a month ago, I wrote a post announcing the end of my relationship with the Capitol Flea Market.  After a very uneventful visit, I had an epiphany and realized that it was no longer worth my time.

Fast forward a few weeks.

My buddy Mike was in town for the Serramonte Mall Show.  The mall doesn't open up until 10am on Sundays, so he asked me if I wanted to walk around Capitol to kill time.  I probably should have passed, but...

I couldn't resist the temptation.

The worst part is I enjoyed it and actually found stuff to buy.  The question is... will I go back?

Let's see if my purchases are worth future visitations...


Purchase #1:  Two LP's  $4

Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy (1973)

I'm not a diehard Zeppelin or Beatles fan, but I appreciate both bands and their contributions to music history.

The Beatles: Abbey Road (1969)

Both of these album sleeves are iconic in design... and at two bucks a piece (paid $5 for my other copy of Abbey Road).. it was a no brainer.

Purchase #2:  Two boxes of Cards  $10

I found a guy who had close to twenty thousand baseball cards ranging from the early 2000's to a 2015 Topps.  

After 30 minutes of digging through his stuff, I filled up two boxes (550ct/800ct) worth of baseball cards.

More than half of the cards were 2007 Topps Moments and Milestones (btw... I hate this product:

There was also a bunch of 2005 Donruss Leather and Lumber, some 2005 Topps Chrome, and a handful of 2005 Topps Finest commons.

The rest were hand picked inserts, parallels, a few base cards of players I collect, plus a small stack of autographs and memorabilia cards.

Honestly there weren't any high end cards in the lot, but I was able to add a few cards to my Prime Number PC:

Plus anyone who reads these posts knows that I lack the willpower to resist framed parallels and shiny refractors:

Purchase #3:  Six Card Lot  $10

There's a guy who buys storage units who always has cards at Capitol, but I'm so used to his inflated prices that I don't bother to look at his stuff anymore.

However this time around, Mike saw a 10 box case of 1996 Finest Star Wars boxes.  The guy wanted $100 for them and after a quick eBay search, he took him up on his offer.

Mike also spent another $400 with the guy on a collection that featured a Derek Jeter autograph, a Peyton Manning autograph, a PSA 10 Steph Curry rookie card, and an MLB authenticated Mike Trout signed ball.

He brought out more cards, which I was hesitant to dig through... but he kept insisting he'd give me a good deal.  So I pulled out these six cards:

 

After going back and forth, we settled on $10.  I was especially happy to pick up the 1960 Topps Don Larsen for my vintage binder.  The front looks amazing...

But the back has seen better days.


Purchase #4:  1996 Finest Star Wars Boxes  $20

Being a huge fan of Star Wars, I asked my buddy if he'd be willing to sell me two boxes from his case.. which he generously did.  One of these days, I'll get around to opening them up.

Until then... let's get back to the initial question... will I go back?

No and yes.  I don't have any immediate plans on returning.  My feelings on this flea market haven't changed and I'd rather catch up on sleep or grab breakfast with a friend.  However... I have a few friends who still enjoy this flea market, so if they were to go... I'd consider tagging along.

Well that's it for now.  I hope all of you enjoyed a safe 4th of July holiday.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Represent... Represent.

2012 Goodwin Champions Auto #A-JC

Joey Chestnut represent... represent.   

Lil' Matt Stonie represent... represent.

The 2017 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Competition...

Who's gonna take home the title?

I'll be pulling for the two favorites... who both come out of my beloved hometown.

San Jose, California represent... represent.

Happy 4th of July!  Celebrate America's 241st birthday, eat plenty, party responsibly, and sayonara!

A Healthy Reminder

Experienced card collectors know that there isn't a "right" way to collect.  Each of us collect in our own way... fine tuned to our areas of interests and budgets.  I know that I have personally gone through numerous collecting phases since entering the hobby in the early 80's.

Right now my main focus in on nicer singles for my player and team collections, on-card autographs of hall of famers, specific graded vintage cards, and PSA slabbed rookie cards that have been signed.

In fact one glance at my recent eBay purchases will confirm that almost my entire hobby budget focuses on those four things.

But that doesn't mean those four things are the only things I collect.  I'm still picking up inserts and parallels for my binder collections.  And I'll always looking to add stars to my vintage binders.

Recently two fellow collectors reminded me that I'm still building sets too.

Commishbob over at Five Tool Collector sent me a care package that included this 2016 Topps Archives Aaron Nola rookie card.

At first, I thought that maybe The Commish confused me with a Phillies blogger, but the rest of his package targeted my interests.

Yoda is one of my all-time favorite Star Wars characters.

1954 Topps World On Wheels #68

I'm also a fan of any non-sport vintage cards... but I'm guessing he put this card into the package because it's has "Oakland" on it.

And this 2017 Archives Jeter Retrospective card honors one of my favorite cards from the past decade... the 2015 Topps Derek Jeter, which I've written about before here and here.

Then it hit me... the Nola is a set need.  With him out of the way... I'm down to needing only one more card: Mr. Brandon Crawford.

Within days of receiving The Commish's care package, I ran into Mr. Haverkamp at the Serramonte Mall Sports Card, Toys, and Collectibles Show, where we exchanged some cardboard.

He helped me get four steps closer to completing my 2013 Allen and Ginter Across the Years set with these:

Plus... he helped me cross off three more cards on my 1986 Donruss set wantlist:

Thank you Commish and Mr. Haverkamp for the cards.  It was a healthy reminder that I collect more than just Rickey Henderson and Jose Altuve autographs.  I'm a set builder too.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!