Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Big High End Mailday!

Hello everyone! I just got in a ton of mail the other day, so I thought I would share with you. This is probably my biggest mailday in a long time. It also has some really nice high end cards. Here is what I got...

2009 Topps 206 Autograph Ryan Braun




2011 Topps Triple Threads Unity Relics Sepia /27 Kevin Youkilis




2011 Topps Triple Threads Unity Relic /36 Kevin Youkilis




2011 Topps Triple Threads Relic /36 Kevin Youkilis




2010 Topps Triple Threads Relic Emerald /18 Kevin Youkilis




2003 Bowman Chrome Autograph /1700 Kevin Youkilis



2009 Ultimate Collection Dual Autograph /39 Kevin Youkilis and Dennis Eckresely



Pretty nice right? Still waiting on a few more things, and possibly bidding on more. And oh yeah- GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

-20youksox

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Finished My First Set!!!

I don't usually build sets, but after buying 2 boxes of 2011 Allen and Ginter I was pretty close to having a complete set. After discovering this I decided I would bust another box to try and fill my set. The box yeilded only a handfull of base I needed an a huge stack of doubles. That is when I resorted to trading for the rest of my needs. So, today I recieved the last card I needed for my set which is number 314 Nick Markakis.



Cards 301-350 are shart printed, so this made the set a little more challenging. This set it also great because of the unique people who appear on the cards like Wee Man and Stan Lee. Another thing I like is the way the pictures almost look like a painting. Anyways, I am glad I finished my set and maybe I will try to get next years Allen and Ginter set. Also, I am expecting a bunch of maildays in the coming week, so be on the lookout for those.

-20youksox

Friday, January 13, 2012

Last Night's Bruins Game-- Suban is Like a Turtle

I am a huge Bruins fan, and last nights game was pretty exciting. For those of you who didn't see the game, PK Suban made a high hit to the head of David Kreijci. Kreijci says that he didn't think the hit was dirty,but the part that upset me was what happened after. Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference approached Suban to let him know that he is not okay with hits like that. As soon as Ference came over, Suban hit the ice and covered his head like a turtle. In my opinion, Suban needs to man up and fight Ference. Here is the play so you can watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heF3OY2Pnoo

Now here is what I think of Suban...



Just thought I would share with you. He is one of those players that I just can't stand between his dirty play, diving, etc.

-20youksox

Monday, January 9, 2012

Cards For Cancer (Please Read + Comment)

Hey, everyone. I was musing over my card collection yesterday, and was thinking about why I have so much of this junk wax or cards that just don't fit into any of my PC's. This put something in perspective for me; we are as collectors, in a way, avaricious. We have a desire for an unlimited amount of these worldly things (eg; cards). We could collect so much, but we'd never be happy. People tend to focus their life around this hobby. Now, I love baseball cards, but I have priorities in life, and collecting is merely a hobby. I have tended to spend too much on cards in the past when I know that I could purchase pratical things before splurging on my hobby. The KEY is moderation. Thousands of dollars a year? I don't think so...how about some packs on occasions, maybe if you're feeling the urge to rip. Buy a blaster box, and rip a pack every other day from that box. Kids used to cherish the commons they had. Imagine pulling a base card of your favorite team or player before they had relic, auto, or patch cards? Fan packs are another great, free way to build your collection! And, on occasion, buy a box maybe. Again, moderation is what we as collectors need to develop. Returning to the tons of cards we don't know what to do with, I have a pretty sweet idea. A year ago, my uncle lost his life to cancer, and it took quite a toll on my family and myself. What if, just for a minute, we could brighten the days of cancer patients? My idea, is that we sort through any cards we have that are old, junk wax, dupes, etc, and take a rubber band and group maybe twenty or so cards together. If you can, make it team appropriate for your area. Do this as much as you see fit. Nearly all cities have a Hospital with a Childrens Care program or area, and others with Teen Programs. Take an old box, and package the banded cards in the box, and one day either mail it or deliver it in person to the hospital. These people go through the worst pain imaginable in life. If we, as collectors, band together once or twice a year and deliver cards to our respective hospitals, imagine the smiles on the kids faces when they find out what a cool premise collecting is. Also, consider putting some up for ebay as a charitable auction, and donate all of the proceeds to the many options of cancer care and research. Please, folks, consider this task. It is just a little thing we can do to help these people. I propose one day a year where we auction off some cards, even relics or hits, and donate the proceeds. In the mean time, individual donations can go a long way. PLEASE, if you are willing to do this, comment below and let us know we have support. Thank you, and God Bless. -T.P.P.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

I Can't Believe I Just Picked This Card Up Yesterday...

As most of you know, I collect Kevin Youkilis. Most people are familiar with his 2003 Bowman Chrome Rookie Auto, right. Most Red Sox collectors would consider this the holy grail of Youkilis cards. So, you would think that being a Youkilis supercollector that I would have one. Well, wrong- until last night. The thing is, people just want to much for it. The card has a book value of $60. If you take a look on eBay, you will probably notice that people are asking $100 for this card. I personally am only willing to pay $40 for it because it isn't really rare, and I refuse to pay over book for it. As I was doing my daily eBay searches, I came across one priced at $25. I jumped all over it, and now own my very first copy of this card. I also have the xfractor version that is /250 with a book value of $250.




Also, I thought now might be a good time for a PC update since it is the beginning of a new year. Just yesterday, I surpassed the 350 card mark. Along with the 350 card mark, I also was able to get my percentage over 20%. I am really excited about this feat, and my goal for this year is to get up to 500 unique cards of him. I also want to finish my Red Sox Diamond Die Cut team set, and my 2011 Allen and Ginter base set. Those should be easy because for the Die Cuts all I need is the Wade Boggs, and for the 2011 Allen and Ginter Set all I need to do is wait for the mailman to deliver the last few that I need and put them in my binder. Finally, I would like to share with you a link to my photobucket. This has most of my better Youkilis PC cards, and I will be working on adding serial numbers in the title as well as adding some new scans. Enjoy!

http://s873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/20youksox/Kevin%20Youkilis%20PC/

-PS, make sure you look in all of the sub albums...

-20youksox

Saturday, January 7, 2012

8 Diamond Giveaway Codes Results (With a Nice Hit!)

So I traded for these codes a while ago on The Bench because I am trying to get enough rings to get the 60th Anniversairy Set. I am currently 3 rings shy. Anyways, I thought I would share the results of my eight codes. I am going to go from worst to best.

1983 Brewers Checklist with Robin Yount and Pete Vuchovich



1986 Dave Winfeild



1985 Don Sutton Record Breakers



1985 Dwight Evans (Red Sox)



1979 Skip Lockwood



1973 Ken Holtzman



1969 Ted Uhlaender



and 2011 Topps Diamond Die Cut Tyler Colvin!



This was a fun break. Hopefully I can trade the base for anothe Diamond Die Cut of Youk.

-20youksox

Friday, January 6, 2012

What??? Topps Fixed a Mistake for a Customer???

Hey everyone! I ran across a really cool story about Topps actually practicing good customer service. Here's what happened: A collector pulls a Lou Gehrig dual jersey bat knob relic card pictured below.



But wait, something is clearly wrong with this. The jersey swatches are obviously too new to be from a jersey worn by Lou Gehrig. So, the collector sent the card in to Topps, and they actually fixed it? Lets see how they did...
















WHAT?????????? That's right, they put a cut auto in the slot where the incorect relics were making an already sick card even sicker. I am really impressed that Topps actually did something about it rather than say "it is a production error and can not be fixed or replaced" like they usually do. So, way to go Topps.

-20youksox

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Couple of Recent Pickups

I have gotten a little behind on posting some of my recent pickups, so what I am going to do is just post the highlights of the last few maildays. I will start off with something that isn't technically a mailday yet, but it will be eventually. It is a Kevin Youkilis Diamond Die Cut I traded for on the Diamond Givaway site. This is my second regular Diamond Die Cut, and I also have an in hand black Diamond Die Cut.



Here the nicest of the batch, a 2008 UD Spectrum Patch /5. It is a pretty nice looking patch and I am glad I could add this to my collection. This cost me $35 which was a little more than I wanted to spend, but it was definately worth spening the extra money.



This is a card I got in a trade. This card is actually really nice for a manufactured relic. It is surprisingly thicker than I thought it would be which is dumb considering I have a black version of Tim Lincicum that I pulled in my box of cards for trade. I think Topps needs to cool it with the manufactured relics because I am sick of them.



Well, those are the highlights of my mail week. Hopefully I will have some more new pickups to show you soon.

-20youksox

Monday, January 2, 2012

My Top 10 MiLB Hats

I was recently looking at MiLB hats, and realized how cool some of them are so I thought it would be fun to share my top 10 MiLB hats. Minor league hats are really neat because they often showcase the history of the cities they play in like you will see in some of the hats below. I also like that they are much more colorful and creative the MLB hats (well the Miami Marlins hat a pretty colorfull and strange). Here they are!










10) Mahoning Valley Scrapers








9) Jamestown Jammers








8) Bowling Green Hot Rods










7) Quad City River Bandits






6) Everett Auquasox






5) Charlotte Stone Crabs






4) Great Lakes Loons






Winston- Salem Dash






Cedar Rapids Kernals






1) Las Vegas 51's






Hopefully you guys think that these hats are cool. The Las Vegas 51's hat is a hat I actually own and wear adn I am working on getting a Cedar Rapids Kernals hat. I would love to see other peoples top 10 lists if you would like to post them in the coment section below!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

All Star Patch Scans

Okay, I finally got all 3 of the 2011 Topps Update Kevin Youkilis jumbo patch cards /6 in the mail. Here are some scans of them together.



This is the first of the 3. Cost: $83



This is the second one I bought. Cost: $52



Here is the third one, and my favorite. Cost: $47



Here are the three of them together.



And here are the three of them together, only flipped. As you can see they spell out RICAN from AMERICAN on the 2011 all star game jerseys. Hope everyone enjoyed this! Hopefully I will be able to get the other 3!

-20youksox