Its Official: I Have a Yankees Card in my PC

Well, I have been dreading the day that Topps starts making Kevin Youkilis cards as a Yankee instead of a White Sox like in Series 1.  With the release of Topps Heritage, Youk will now appear as a Yankee on his cards.

You can tell this is photoshopped because as a Yankee, Youk had to shave his famous gotee.  The design is nice though and I love the 1964 design.  I wish he was wearing a hat or helmet though because he is bald.

This card was sent to me from a great member of the Blowout Cards Forum.  I am always greatful for members like thewild3.  If you ever come across this, thanks a bunch!  After I got this I decided to pay it forward and send another member a card they needed to finish a set.

-20youksox

Steal of a Mailday With Some MOJO!

I bought a lot off eBay a couple weeks ago, and I finally got the package.  I am really excited about this lot because for $30, I got 31 Kevin Youkilis cards.  Thats cool, and 10 of the cards were cards I didn't have yet.  When I bought it, there were a couple cards listed that I had never heard of before.  They turned out to be Red Sox gift set photo variations.  I only scanned one of those, but it is pretty cool.

These cards weren't even the coolest part of the lot.  The lot had 2 SPs and an SSP.  This first one, a sparkle variation is worth $30 by itself.

And if the sparkle wasn't enough, there was a 2013 out of bounds variation.

And oh yeah, there was this $65 card.

Pretty sick for $30.  If you haven't figured out the lot theme yet, it is every Topps base brand card of Kevin Youkilis including short prints.  I had been meaning to get the 2012 Topps Update SSP for a while, but it was just too pricy for a card that didn't have some kind of auto or relic.  When I found this auction, I knew it was my best chance at getting this card for a decent price and boy was I right.

This is one of my favorite maildays in a while.  My Kevin Youkilis PC is getting close to 600 unique cards.  I am also getting close to 30% of all Kevin Youkilis cards.  I got another in the mail today that I will post tommorow.  Happy Maundy Thursday!

-20youksox

Karma Hates Me

Well, today I decided that karma hates me.  I saw somebody on a forum needed a card that I had.  He didn't have anything I needed in trade, and it was a Yankees card, so I offered to just give it to him.  So I walk out of the Post Office after mailing the package, and my car won't start.  I thought doing something nice should give me good karma.  Apparently not.  When I finally got home, I did have a package in my mailbox so that made me feel a little better.  My car should be fine, but it really just sucks.  I'll post the mailday tommorow.  It was a nice one too!

-20youksox

Rack Pack Mojo

I was at target the other day and had the urge to open some packs, so I picked a a few rack packs.  I got 1 2012 Topps Chrome, and 2 2013 Topps Heritage.  The Topps Chrome didn't have anything special besides to normal orange refractors and a Kevin Youkilis base for my PC.  Out of the Heritage, I pulled this.

When I pulled it, I just blew right past it thinking they came one per pack.  Then, the second pack didn't have one so I thought okay, maybe one every couple of packs.  After that, I started looking online and saw that these are actually quite rare.

The odds on pulling these are 1 in 377 packs.  Then, I started looking at eBay sales.  I saw the same card selling for $40-$60.  That is a great pull for retail, better than a crappy 1 color relic or a no name auto.  I feel like I always pull rare minis.  To bad I don't have a mini card PC.

I should have a mailday or two later this week.

-20youksox

2013 Mailday

Well, I have a small package from eBay today.  This package had two Youkilis cards from the new 2013 Topps, including the pink and gold parellels.  The gold is numbered out of 2013 and the pink out of 50.  For those of you not familiar with 2013 Topps, the pink parellel is not just pink to be pink.  This set is to support breast cancer.

I like the idea of the pink parellel, but for me it was poorly executed.  They should have put a ribbon, or some blurb on the back about breast cancer awareness or something so people pulling these aren't wondering why they are pink.  Also, I'm not a huge fan of the shade of pink they chose either.  Its not the same as it looks in the scan and its a little too neon for me.

I also have the same problem with the golds every year.  The serial number is printed not foil.  Also, I feel like gold doesn't really work with the colors on this card, but I'm no color expert.  Despite this, these are two nice cards I'm glad to have in my Youk PC.  More maildays should be coming in soon.

-20youksox

Upper Deck Gets MLBPA License, and Panini Signs Strasburg to Auto Deal

Well, shortly after Topps gets an exclusive MLB license, Upper Deck gets a license from MLBPA.  This means that Upper Deck will be back in the baseball card business, just without logos much like Panini.  Weird timing as it came just after Topps released there new deal.

This is nice because I have always liked Upper Deck.  The last major card company, Panini, also made a splash in the licensing pool by signing National's sensation Stephen Strasburg to an exclusive autograph deal.  Strasburg's first autos will appear in 2013 Panini Prism.

With this preview, I am certainly glad Panini got the exclusive over Topps.  This also makes me excited for the release of 2013 Prism.  The only concern I have with this deal is that it means there will be no Strasburg autographs with logos on them.  This could decrease the value of Strasburg's autographs because many collectors simply refuse to buy unlicensed products.

Also, the idea of exclusive licenses turns me off.  I have always enjoyed variety in collecting, so autos from just one company can be boring.  This will certainly be bad for Topps, who loses a high value, big draw signer.  I wonder if Topps will counter by signing Bryce Harper to an exclusive (if they haven't already).

-20youksox

Topps Exclusive MLB License Extended to 2020

Well, here's the bad news.  Topps exclusive license to manufacture baseball cards has been extended through 2020.  I was looking forward to this expiring, so to say I am dissapointed would be an understatement.  I don't like this deal because quiet frankly this makes Topps a monopoly, so they can make crappy products, like they have been for the past three years, and collectors will still have to buy it because there is no other option.

I have always perfered Upper Deck and Panini over Topps, because I think they make better cards.  With no compitition, collectors have less choice and less control over prices.  Topps quality control has been slipping over the years with incidents like the famous Topps Chrome bowing, and 5 Star chipping.  I haven't bought a hobby box in a year becuase the new products suck, and the old products I love are filled with expired redemptions.  I will have to reset my countdown to the Topps Monopoly expiration for 2020.  That's going to be a long wait.

-20youksox

2012 Topps Chrome Rainbow Complete With Superfractor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have't posted in a while because I have been busy for the last week, and I haven't really had any maildays.  Well, I'm free now and I have a nice mailday to share.  This mailday was the last card I needed for my 2012 Topps Chrome Kevin Youkilis rainbow.  I'm not going to post an individual scan of the gold, but I do have a scan of completed rainbow.

It took a long time for me to create this scan because they didn't all fit on the scanner.  So, I had to take seperate scans and morph them together in Microsoft Paint.  Obviously it looks better in person and would look better if it wasn't a "franken-scan".  Hope you guys think it as cool as I do, and I put a lot of work into completing this.  Also, I realize this scan is huge, but I think if you click on it you can see an unobstructed version.

-20youksox

Happy Birthday Kevin Youkilis!!!

Today is my favorite player Kevin Youkilis' birthday.  I hope he has a happy birthday, and thought that this card was appropriate to show on his birthday.

I always loved this insert set because I find history interesting.  If you can't read the scan for some reason, on this day in history Roman Emperor Julius Ceasar was assasinated.  I have an awesome mailday post for tommorow!

-20youksox

Brawl Breaks Out at WBC

Well, I haven't posted in a couple days.  It wasn't because I was busy or anything, but because I have been watching the World Baseball Classic which has games on pretty much all day.  Now here comes the purpose of this post.  I was watching today's game with Canada vs. Mexico when a bench clearing brawl broke out in the 9th inning.

This all happened after a Canadian player bunts for a base hit with a 9-3 lead.  The Mexican pitcher threw inside at the next batter not apreciating Canada trying to run up the score.  This was not the case though with run differential being the tie-breaker category.

Umpire's trying to stop things before they get serious issued warnings to both sides.  Next pitch, the Canadian batter gets nailed and the benches cleared.  This was not just a dust-up with several punches being thrown and multiple scrums within the brawl.

As if things could not get more out of control, fans became involved throwing things at team Canada.  A Canadian coach was hit in the head with a mostly full water bottle, and when action resumed, baseballs were thrown onto the feild.  This is certainly not what you want to see in an international tournament designed to help spread baseball internationally.  This incident could effect future tournaments with MLB clubs reluctant to send players with the fear of injuries in a fight.

One player who was heavily involved was Red Sox releif pitcher Alfredo Aceves.  Aceves came out of the fight with welts on his head and a cut on his wrist.  I would suspect that he will face some kind of disciplanairy action for his involvement in the brawl as well as several other players from both teams.  Seven players were ejected from the game.

If you didn't see this, I would certainly recomend looking it up on youtube.

I can't wait to see the rest of the WBC with the action heating up.  For the record, I am rooting for team USA.  If USA doesn't advance to the next round, I am rooting for team Italia.  Playing for Italy is a local independent ball hero Chris Colabello, who I am rooting for.  My third favorite team would be the Netherland because they have Red Sox top prospect Xander Bogarts on the roster.

USA plays Italy tonight at 9:00, and Canada tommorow at 4:00.

-20youksox

Mailday From Topps!!!

Well, I got my Golden Giveaway die cuts in today.  They came in a lot faster than I thought, seeing that I ordered them at the last possible second.  I'm also very pleased with the condition.  Many collectors have been receiving cards with the spikes damaged.

Mine have no spike damage, and are good overall.  I started off with David Price and Clayton Kershaw, so it was pretty easy to trade for some Red Sox die cuts.  I'm still sad that my PC player Kevin Youkilis wasn't part of the checklist.  I'm happy with these two players anyways.  More maildays to come, plus I broke a pack of the new 2013 Topps Series 1 Baseball.

-20youksox

The State Of Red Sox Farm System (And Ryan Westmoreland News)

The Red Sox farm system is going downhill.  I don't mean that their farm system doesn't have promising yound players.  I mean Red Sox prospects are being stupid, and in some cases jepardizing their futures and careers through careless injuries and trouble with the law.

Drake Britton

Every once in a while, you will hear about somthing stupid that a minor leager does like make a baserunning error, or say somthing offensive in an interview.  However lately, I have heard a lot of stories about stupid things Red Sox prospects have done.  Headlining them are Bryce Brentz, and Drake Britton.  Brentz shot himself in the leg trying to clean his gun.  Drake Britton was arrested for driving 111 MPH while drunk.

Bryce Brentz

The Red Sox organization ought to be embarresssed by incidents like this and as a fan, I am certainly embarrassed.  Granted the gun incident may have been a freak accident, the Red Sox may want to make more strict rules regarding the use of alcohal.  With these events happening so close together, I am really concerned that stuff like this is becoming more common, and it needs to stop.  It is also unfortunate for the Red Sox because both players have a lot of potential and now stupidity is keeping them off the feild and slowing their developement.

The Red Sox also received some news today regarding a retirement.

Ryan Westmoreland

On a sad note, former top prospect Ryan Westmoreland (pictured above) announced his retirement today.  Westmoreland has retired after two surgeries on a cavernous malforation in his brain.  Red Sox fans can only imagine what could have been if only he was healthy.  I hope that he will be able to get healthy and live a successful life outside of baseball.

-20youksox

2012 Allen and Ginter Mini Rainbow Completed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like I said last night, the black mini was in hand and I just needed to scan all the cards together.  This was a little complicated because some parellels have a different boder while others have a different back.  Being a little OCD, I spent a while trying to find an asthetically pleasing way to arrange them, and I think I did a pretty nice job.

This picture is a little small, but here is a link to a bigger scan.  This completed rainbow from left to right includes the 1/1 wood, red back /25, black border, no number /50, retail gold border, ginter back, and regular minis.  I started this rainbow in July-ish, and finished a few days ago.  Feels good to complete another rainbow!

-20youksox

NNO Mini Mailday

This is the second to last mini I needed for my 2012 Allen and Ginter Kevin Youkilis mini rainbow.  This is the no number mini which has a print run of only 50 copies.  The front is nothing special, but the back is like the "ginter backs"with the set number missing.  In past years, they were serial numbered out of 50, but this year they were just short printed out of 50.

 It is a nice card, and I did need it for my Youkilis PC.  To finish the rainbow, I need the black bordered mini which I did get in the mail.  I will post scans of them all together when I get a chance.  This is not the only rainbow I am about to finish though.  I am also working on the 2012 Topps Chrome Kevin Youkilis rainbow with the last card I need in route.  I also tried a pack of 2013 Topps that I will post.

-20youksox

Small Mailday

Just a small mailday, but a card I have been meaning to get for a long time.  It only books for $5, and isn't really rare, but it is a Kevin Youkilis card so I needed it for my PC.  This card comes from 2004 Topps, which is one of my favorite base sets of the modern set.

As you can see, this is the gold version numbered out of 2004.  One of my favorite parts of this set is that they have the little silouette in the bottom left corner.  It also helps that it was Youk's rookie year and the Red Sox won the World Series for the fist time in 86 years.  More mail is on the way.

-20youksox

HURRY: THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE FOR GOLDEN GIVEAWAY CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is the last day to get any Golden Giveaway cards shipped.  After 11:59 tonight, all of you cards will dissappear, and who wants to lose out on free cards (well, mostly free)?  I just got mine shipped, and I'll post when I recieve them.  Another heads up, many people are reporting receiving die cuts coming in with damage to the side panels.  Good luck with your Golden Giveaway winnings!

-20youksox