My 1st Major Piece of Game Used Memorabilia!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Every once in a while, I like to branch out my collection a bit. It seems kinda boring to continually just add cards and occasional signed photos to your collection, so when I have the opportunity to mix things up, I very well might. So just recently, my good friend Anthony from the blog "Anthony's WPS and Vietnam Collectibles Blog" and formerly "Mike Pelfrey Collectibles" has been working on selling off his entire collection, including his incredible Mike Pelfrey cards. I've done a lot of business with him, and this just happened to be probably the best pickup yet! For a great price of $10, I got this wonderful new addition to my collection:

Anthony went to a Mets game about 3 years while former Yankees great Willie Randolph was manager. Randolph picked a ball off the ground, signed it, and tossed it up to Anthony in the stands! A stamp behind the autograph says Practice upside down, so obviously the baseball was used by either the Mets or the opposing team that day, which is really awesome. The ball is signed nicely on the sweet spot, and looks pretty nice in person! The baseball also has a lot of wear and dirt on it too, which is much cooler than a plain white baseball.

Willie Randolph was a great player back in the 1970's and 1980's, and was most known for being on the "Bronx Zoo" team featuring Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Lou Piniella, Bucky Dent, Chris Chambliss, Graig Nettles, Catfish Hunter, Sparky Lyle, Goose Gossage, Billy Martin as manager, etc. He was a 6 time All Star and a 2 time World Series Champion as a player. He was a key role player, with a great glove and great speed, often near the top of the lineup behind Mickey Rivers. After playing for several other teams and following his retirement, he was the base coach and bench coach throughout the Yankees incredible World Series run in the late 1990's. He spent 2005-2008 managing the Mets and was fired, and now currently will become the bench coach for this years Orioles!

He's certainly lived a life in baseball so far, and I'm a big fan! I'll make sure to keep the story alive Anthony and you know I'll keep good of the baseball. Thanks so much!

See Ya!

3 Awesome Autos from Anthony!

Hey everyone, Drew back here, starting up school for the week, but I should have some stuff up while I can. Anthony, as you know by now, has done a lot for me, and he's a heck of a guy, and I just wanted to share my latest loot from him. I'd rather help guys I know out selling things than just buying things, if that makes sense. Well, here are the 3 autos I took off his hands this time:

Al Oliver

First, you all know, I'm a fan of Al Oliver's, not only because he was the first player I was able to meet for free in my life, and he was a great guy, but because he was a great player who was very underrated and still is. Anthony obtained this auto the same day I got some autos of him myself, August 16th, 2009. What a great day. The last awesome thing about this is that it's his rookie card, a card I've wanted for a while. I was eventually going to drop $4 or so on one, but now $1 more and it's signed!

Mike Mussina

One of my favorite Yankees pitchers must've signed for the former Met fan in the past, which is cool. I love this Bowman Heritage card, I even wondered if I should send again to Mike to get it signed. But apparently he hasn't been signing much lately. Which is a shame, since he was a great signer. I hope he makes the Hall of Fame, I really do, he was an incredible pitcher in his prime for sure, and even in his final season, winning 20 games for the first and last time!

Jim Thome

Okay, I don't know how the heck Anthony got Thome back TTM, because as far as I know, I thought he never signed! Well, his auto sure is sloppy, but for the price I paid, a near 600 home run guy, totally worth it.

Thanks again Anthony, you're an awesome dude! Please everybody help him clear out his TTM auto collection, I guarantee it's all authentic, from TTM's, and there's some great stuff left to take, for a very low price! I paid $10 for this lot! See Ya!

HOF Pickup from Anthony!

Hey guys, Drew back here. My buddy Anthony of what used to be Mike Pelfrey Collectibles and what is now Anthony's WPS and Vietnam Collectibles Blog, had a sale. I already attacked it previously, but then he did a seperate post on 8x10's and baseballs for sale, and I wanted one. For a great price of $12, Anthony sold this to me:

Heck yeah, a Bob Feller 8x10 auto! It's authenticated by the MLB thing in the corner, and with a nice inscription and a great picture, this makes for a great framed photo for my room! I recently got Feller through the mail, and I'm trying him one more time to get the custom right, and I made it thinner so it didn't get bent up in the mail. Thanks again Anthony for the incredible deal, and please please please help him get rid of everything else he has for sale.

Before I go, I just wanted to say tomorrow is the card show, and it should be great! Can't wait to meet Kiner, White, Stottlemyre, and Gooden! I'll have plenty of info for you after, and I'll talk to you guys later! See Ya!

Today It's My Birthday!

Hey guys, Drew back here, and if you didn't know already...

I'm going on 14 today, which means it feels better than it does worse to be older! Well, I got an awesome few gifts from my parents, one was the usual dad junk wax yard sale craze that was a hit yet again, and the other was these 3 beauties...

Here we have 2010 Allen & Ginter, 2008 Upper Masterpieces, and 2007 Sweet Spot Classic! And I haven't opened them yet, but I am soon! There's a lot of good potential in this break, and probably some trade bait too, and I can't wait to rip them open! Wish me luck!

And lastly, thanks to Mike Pelfrey Collectibles for the immediate shipping of the one card he forgot to send me, this awesome 2006 UD Epic Willie McCovey jersey for the Hall of Fame PC. What a cool orange swatch, it's so nice! Thanks!

See Ya!

Stuff from Mike Pelfrey Collectibles

Hey guys, Drew back here, with some nice mail today, from Anthony of Mike Pelfrey Collectibles. But, before I get into it, first I wanna say R.I.P. Ralph Houk, who died yesterday at the age of 90. I wanted to get TTM but it was too late unfortunatelt. Houk was a great manager and he will be missed. I also wanted to say that I'm going to skip showing the videos sadly. I don't really have time to do a ton of work for just one post, so for now I can't really show them. I wish Blogger was better at uploading videos though, I mean, they were a minute long! Anyway, moving on to the mail.

Anthony was having an online yard sale of his entire collection, because he's grown bored of the hobby and wanted to move on and try something new, which in his case was War Memorabilia. So first, if you have any of that, go to his blog and let him know. His sales were great, and he negotiated with me really well and I feel like both sides made out well. I'm pretty sure he forgot one of the cards in the package, so I contacted him about it and he said he accidentally did forget about it and will ship it soon. So, here's what was in today's package!

Yes, he did write on the bottom right card. He says he has like 50 of these cards, so he figured he'd send some my way. I do enjoy collecting cards of players that aren't on the Yankees, as you will see more of in this post. I like Mike Pelfrey, although he's struggled a bit, he's a good pitcher and I'm happy to own a few of his rookies.

I got these from Anthony because they're two favorites of mine that don't play for the Yankees. Morneau was completely under shadowed by the Pujols and Ichiro phenomenon but has turned out to be a great MVP caliber player. Longoria was brought up on a local team that I occasionally go to games with, and in 8 games with that team, he hit 4 home runs. I also really like Evan's talent and it's a nice card to have.

Now for vintage, I got an Oscar Gamble 1977 Topps since I didn't have it, and the Andre Dawson rookie card. I've wanted Dawson's rookie ever since he was elected to the Hall of Fame last year, and even though it's not mint condition, I really like the card.

Here's the 1st of 2 Sheffield relics I got, a 2005 Cracker Jack "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" relic at that. It's really nice, smaller than a regular card but bigger than a 2007 Goudey card I'd say. Sheff as you may know used to be my favorite player, until he left NY on a bad note. I still like him and I'll try to add some of his better cards to my collection from time to time.

The second Sheffield is from 2006 Topps Heritage, another bat card. I must say I like the one above this more but this is nice too.

The final card here is a rookie jumbo jersey from 2006 Sweet Spot of Giants pitcher Matt Cain. Cain has been very good so far in his career, but is very unpopular due to Tim Lincecum being the star pitcher in San Francisco now. This may be the biggest relic on a jersey card I have, and I like the simple design. Plus, it's numbered out of 299.

All that plus one more nice relic for $15. Thanks for the great deal Anthony, go check out this link to see if you like anything, Anthony needs to get this stuff out of his collection! See Ya!

A Bunch of Mail, Trying to Catch Up!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Today, I wanna try to catch up a bit, I have a baseball tryout later, but it's only to divide up teams evenly, and after that I've got a friend staying over, so that'll be cool. Here are 3 quick maildays, check em out!

Package 1: Care Package from Mike Pelfrey Collectibles

Man I gotta send this guy some stuff back!!! He is really attacking me with awesome new cards, all of these were needed. There were 6 base cards I needed, along with those inserts. I like the Ruths the most, the one of him in a Sox uniform actually has a Yankees logo on the back... sweet. Can anybody cheer Yadier Molina up? Thanks a lot dude!

Package 2: Care Package from Sports Card Forum Member markinca

Next we have a nice package from markinca from the Sports Card Forum. He sent me 14 needed base cards from 2010 Topps. So I don't have to go through this trading mess next series, I'll do a jumbo box for Series 2 maybe. There are a couple awesome players in this lot, he sent the Griffey at the top of the post, which is one of my favorites in the entire set so far. Pat Neshek, Joe Nathan, and Pablo Sandoval all sign TTM, Sheffield used to be my favorite player when he was a Yankee, and Hamilton played for a minor league team that I root for, and a field I've played on, so I kinda consider him a local-ish guy. So this is a cool lot, thanks a lot dude!

Package 3: Trade with Slangon of Condition:Poor

Slangon really hooked me up in this trade, giving me 8 base card needs from 2010 Topps, a few inserts, and he threw in a bunch of extra Yankees. My favorites are the ones on the bottom, I love the 09 Sweet Spot base cards and only have a few, and I needed the Damon and Chien-Ming Wangs so that was cool. I haven't seen that A-Rod/Sheffield 06 Topps card in a long time, and I don't have that either so that's awesome. Someone tell baby David Ortiz to put a shirt on!!! It's cool to see Damon as a baby too, we're gonna miss him in NY this year. Thanks dude!

So thanks to everyone in this post who sent me stuff, as I'm on the verge of catching up! See Ya!

Mail from Mike Pelfrey Collectibles

Hey guys, Drew back here, with some mail from Tony at Mike Pelfrey Collectibles. He told me he was sending me some stuff but this was beyond any regular stuff, one of the best packages I've gotten if I must say so myself, especially not knowing about any cards going my way. Be sure to check his blog out, he deserves some credit and is a great trader. Here are the cards he sent me:

First off, he sent me 2 needed 2008 Stadium Club cards, Jeter and Posada. Then he sent me 2 more I needed from Goodwin, the Posada base and mini. Funny how all the Posada's have a similar pose, mixed between 2 different card companies at that. Mix it up guys!

Next was a very nice Brett Gardner rookie card. Someday I wanna get his autograph, he's just a beast on the field, he is so fast! I have the regular Bowman Draft card of his, well, the gold parallel (the thick one), so I have 2 different rookie cards of Brett "The Jet" Gardner. Awesome!

The next one is awesome, and sadly it is behind 2 other cards in order, and it is awesome. I don't know for sure if they call this a "true" rookie card, but it is from his rookie season and that's all I care. This card is a pretty cool one overall, the background design was a hint to the fans that he'd be wearing pinstripes about 10 years later. Rodriguez has had a successful career, although the steroid issues have been critical in his fame. But I give him credit, he gets spotlighted on every move he makes. I kinda feel bad for him, as well as guys like Jeter, Tiger, LeBron, Kobe, and a few others. Well, some guys like the spotlight (yeah I'm looking at you Ocho Cinco) Getting back on track....

Now this is a really cool card. It is a manufactured jersey of A-Rod from 2008 Topps! I'm pretty sure these cards go for a high price, so thanks man! Now, just out of curiosity, is this all manufactured, because the back says this:

"Congratulations!
You have just received a commemorative
All Star Game Patch Relic card from
2008 Topps Baseball Series 1.
Featured on the front of this card is
Alex Rodriguez
who represented the
New York Yankees
in the 2007 All Star Game"

Now, next it says the whole "Topps pledges to bring you close to the game" and all that stuff, so is it all manufactured. I was thinking maybe the orange jersey is real but probably not, since it's only numbered to 539. It is one sweet looking card relic or not!

So, I was fooled because I saw Phil Rizzuto first, but at least the young 2001 Topps Heritage realized collectors wanted to know what they're relics are of, unlike this recent group of idiots that claimed there were more Babe Ruth bats than actual in the cards! I've wanted Yankee Stadium pieces for a while. First I wanted the dirt for $100, now I want a chunk of the centerfield black for $100. Boy, Steiner can really get me going. But for now, I'll need to stick with tiny pieces of relics. Boy, I hope those seats were sanded back then, or else the splinters would raid my pants! I really like this card and will have to force myself to keep the card inside the holder so I can't feel the relic so constantly that you can't smell baseball anymore, instead you smell my stinky fingers, which I do to all my other Yankees relics, whoops.

Thanks so much Tony, and everyone else PLEASE go check out his blog. See Ya!

Catching Up.... All in One!

Hey guys, Drew back here. As you see I made it out of mid terms alive, wait not yet, Math test Monday. Argh! Anyway, since it's the weekend, I felt like catching up, and tomorrow my mom and I might go to the mall to try to hunt down some 2010 Topps. Maybe a stop at the hobby shop for supplies could help too, I'm low on binder pages and binders. I also need some thick quality paper so I can get these TTM customs printed and shipped. Wow, quite a list! Well, I got 4 packages in the past week, so let's get started!

First up is a package from Tony over at Mike Pelfrey Collectibles. As you see he posted his share of the trade last Saturday, but the card show has been holding me up, and that's finally caught up, and I can FINALLY get back to regular blogging. Here are the cards, he sent me a ton of needed cards and says he has more for me, and we may get another trade brewing! Check these out:

6 2009 Topps Heritage Cards

Eric Hinske & Melky Cabrera Heritage Updates Base Cards, Ramiro Pena & Fransisco Cervelli Rookie Cards, and 2 Chrome cards of the newest Cub Xavier Nady and the newest Padre Jerry Hairston Jr numbered each out of 1960. Cool, needed them all! I really like the Rookie cards, Cervelli is going to be good.

8 2009 Ticket to Stardom Yanks

Wow, needed 7 out of these, I got the Jeter before but needed all the rest of them! The Granderson is a perforated parallel, and he is going to be great as a Yankee. I could use his 1st Yankees card, the shortprint in 2010 Topps, and of course, the Swisher & Cano Pie in the Face Short Prints. It's awesome that they are doing that. Out of this bunch though my favorite may be the Pettitte, Damon, or A-Rod. They used good pics on those cards.

2008 Finest Cano Topps Team Favorites
2009 Ticket to Stardom Swisher

Awesome, 2 more cards for my PC's. Swisher is barely hanging on to his pinstripes, but I think he'll stay. Very cool though. I saw a guy selling the Cano at the card show for I think like 10 bucks. Ridiculous!

2002 Playoff Piece of the Game Reggie Jackson Bat Card!

This is my first relic of Reggie and boy it's sweet. I have a bunch of his 70's cards and they are very nice, but it's cool to get something modern of Mr. October. Although it's just a small sliver of bat, it's very cool looking and it adds to my very small yet growing bat card group.

This is my favorite part about this card though. On the back it shows what jersey they or bat they took the relic from. How nice! If only Topps and Upper Deck could think of doing that! Thanks Tony for the cards, great stuff!

Next we have 2 Blowout Forum Trades....

2007 Bowman Sterling Melky Cabrera Bat Card

I traded my 2008 Donruss Threads Wilson Ramos Prospect Autograph for this, and you may be asking "why the heck would you want this since he's a Brave?" Well, needed it to complete his trifecta, so it's a nice card for that. You can check out the trifecta page here, as an update to the post will be added with the newest completed trifectas.

2007 SP Legendary Cuts Dave Parker Jersey /199
2007 SP Legendary Cuts Don Mattingly Short Print /550

This was the next trade on the Blowout Forum. I have officially made 7 trades on that site and I think 5 or 6 on the Sports Card Forum. You should definitely check those sites out if you haven't already, they're great for trading. It's cool that I met both the guys on the cards, and I needed the Parker for the trifecta. Since I did nothing to improve them at the card show I traded for a few cards for trifectas. I like the Dave Parker card but I hate the 3 blank spaces in the relic design. I have a Joe Torre triple relic from this set too and that's a sweet one. The Mattingly shows a nice picture and deserves to be a short print.

Last was a sweet eBay purchase...

2009 Topps Tribute Robinson Cano Blue Dual Jersey Auto /75

I love this card and suddenly it may be my favorite Cano card I own. This is my 5th Cano auto and it's numbered out of 75. I got it for about 15 bucks, which in my book is a pretty good steal. This set has some really nice cards but paying 50 bucks a pack for something like this, or the mass prodcution of Jay Bruce, Dustin Pedroia, Clayton Kershaw, Evan Longoria, and David Wright, is just not worth it. Now Topps is admitting that the Ruth triple relic is seat/jersey/seat. Yuck! People paying big money for cards that look like they have bat relics but really they're pieces of a seat that maybe your great great grandpa sat in! I heard these cards can get smudged easily so it's staying the plastic. I love the card and hope to get other versions of his cards in the set.

Hope you liked the cards, thanks to everyone I traded with in this post, and see ya!