Two Young Gun Autographs!

Hey guys, Drew back here! The past few days haven't exactly been busy for me, however rather than blogging I've been preparing for a card show I'm going to tomorrow! Finally, all the wantlists are ready to go and I'm looking forward to going with my buddy Schuyler early tomorrow morning! So, in the meantime, check out the two autographs I've recently picked up off of eBay within the past month or so! 

First, out of 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen, here's a pretty sweet looking Daniel Hudson on card auto! Hudson has been one of the better young pitchers in the game over the past few years, although this year hasn't really gone as well so far. I've had him on my fantasy team a few times in the past year, and he's been able to provide me with some solid starts. This year's Gypsy Queen autos, along with most Topps 2012 autos in general, look fantastic, and I'm glad I was finally able to get my hands on one. For the price I paid, it was well worth buying, without question.

While the Hudson autograph was pretty awesome already, I went out and outdid it by picking up this 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars rookie autograph of Pirates emerging star James McDonald! James is enjoying a breakout season that has had people arguing whether it was worthy of an All Star selection or not. I picked up McDonald about a month and a half ago and he has been nothing less than brilliant, and on the season he sports a 9-3 record with a 2.37 ERA for the first place Pittsburgh Pirates! The Pirates have become my second favorite team in all of baseball since I've started following them for a few months, and I'm glad to say that I now own an autograph of arguably their ace! While this card doesn't have the sex appeal the Hudson has, it certainly isn't the ugliest design I've seen. It's a sticker autograph, but sometimes you have to buy what's fairly cheap and affordable.

Anyways, I hope to see a few more people join in on the contest before the July 21st deadline! Click here if you haven't seen it yet but want to win some great prizes for next to nothing! But for now, so long and See Ya later!

Autograph Pickup of an All Star Flamethrower!

Hey guys, Drew back here! So first and foremost, it looks like some of you have enjoyed doing the contest thus far, which is great! I sure hope we can get the word around even more though guys, so please don't stop with what you're doing, because 10 entries really isn't anything spectacular, especially for prizes of this caliber. Someone out there wants a 1/1 cut autograph of a Hall of Famer, right? You can do this! I'm rooting for you!

Anyways, to kick off the next 1,000 posts here on drewscards, let's start it off with an autograph of a guy whose young career will probably just be getting incredible by the time I get to #2000! Take a look:

My apologies for the horrible scanning job, but this right here is a 2011 Bowman Chrome rookie autograph of Reds gunslinger Aroldis Chapman! Chapman has made a ton of waves in the MLB in his first few seasons due to being notorious for clocking well over 100 mph on his fastball. He set the record for fastest pitch in a game with a 106 mph fastball blazing inside to Andrew McCutchen, who could hardly even see the ball. However, he's also a very talented young pitcher with a load of potential for the Reds. He's posted a 1.93 ERA and 9 saves as the fill in closer, due to an injury to Ryan Madson in the beginning of the year. Of late, he's blown quite a few saves, but there is no concern that he won't bounce back.

I paid about $15 for the card, and I'm hoping it was a fairly reasonable buy down the road. No matter what, it is kind of cool to own an autograph of the hardest throwing pitcher in history, even though the card is as dull as anything I've ever seen before. Note to all of you out there, if you're going to get any of these, at least pay $5-10 extra for the refractor. You're better off. 

So that'll do it for today, I've got a game tonight and when I come back I want to see some new guys getting in on the contest! The link will be posted right above this post, or you can just keep scrolling to the post directly below this! Let's Go!

See Ya!

1000th POST CONTEST! Lots to Give Away!

Hey everyone, Drew back here for now the 1000th time in the history of this blog! Before I get to what I promised in the title, I just wanted to say a few quick things. First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you out there who has taken some of their time out from their day to give this website a look! I grew up always being a numbers guy, and seeing some of the numbers of page views and followers and comments and what not is just astounding to me. While in the past year this blog has been wildly inconsistent (similar to AJ Burnett), it doesn't mean I'm losing my passion for the sports memorabilia hobby, it's just been that I've had a lot going on. These teenage years always offer a lot of excitement and memories and I don't want to spend those moments behind the screen of a computer the entire time. However, when I get a chance, I absolutely love to throw a post up about how my collection is coming along, as well as reading all of your blogs! You all have built me a certain amount of confidence that I can't thank you enough for. I feel like I have fans when I get on here, even though some times in my real world life it may not seem that way as much. So, not only do I do this for me, but I do this most definitely for all of you as well.

And it's about time I paid some of you back for all you've helped me through over the years! A while back, I promised to give away the contents of the Tri-Star OBAK football box I opened, and well, other plans got in the way. However, today, and for the next two weeks, you will all get an opportunity to win a piece of the break! I know my blog following is shifted much more towards baseball than football fans, however, some of these prizes are just too nice to pass up! I divided the contents of the box into five respective categories, each of which are fairly simple to enter. There are 3 autographs scattered within the groups they belong in, but the groups not containing autographs do have nice parallels and minis as well. So, without any further delay, I'll jump right into each group, one at a time, and I'll tell you how to enter for a chance to win the cards in the group! Let's Go!

GROUP A: The African American Innovator Collection
Throughout the past hundred years, exciting new talent has come along when professional sports opened the floodgates and let African American people play. Some of these athletes will go down as some of the most talented and best all around players of all time! To win the group of cards below, highlighted by a box topper numbered 1 of 25 featuring on one side, Emlen Tunnell, the first African American in the HOF, and on the other side Charles Follis, the first African American Pro Football player; as well as a green base parallel of Tunnell numbered 3 of 25, please name in the comments below your favorite African American Athlete of all time (any sport).

(click to enlarge photo)

GROUP B: Pioneers of the Game
For all of you history buffs out there, Tri-Star certainly hooked you up in this product! In it features so many cards of players/coaches/executives that don't often get much of a spotlight, although they may have had remarkable careers! In this lot of 23 cards plus a mini of the father of American football, you can not only take home some very nice cardboard but you can learn an awful lot about the game that you may not have known before. Since so many of these people were very smart, I would like to know, in order to win the lot below, what has been your smartest investment/purchase you have ever made (inside or outside of this hobby). 

Group C: Award Winners

Alright, here's where things start to kick it up a notch! I'm not saying not to put in for the first two groups, because A) they're easy to join and B) I'd love to read your answers, and C) you could win! Anyways, in this lot of 22, you will find cards with recipients of awards such as the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Bear Bryant Award, and the Doak Walker award, all of which are prestigious college football awards! Bo Jackson is featured twice in this lot, as well as 2 great autographs of former Heisman Trophy winners Charlie Ward (numbered out of 50) and Andre Ware (numbered out of 75)! Both had great college careers and would be nice additions to any fans collection! In order to take home this solid lot, please leave me a comment sharing one of your favorite stories having to do with this hobby! It can be anything, just make sure it's longer than a sentence as this is one of the better lots in the contest!

Group D: Legends of the Hall

Simply put, this lot is filled, and I mean filled with Hall of Famers- whether in the Pro Football Hall of Fame or the College Football Hall of Fame! How about 46 cards everyone, including an autograph numbered to 100 of Hall of Famer Jim Otto (famous for wearing #00), as well as 11 minis, one of which being a green parallel mini of legendary running back Earl Campbell, numbered only 23 of 25! For free? I would not pass this lot up if I were you guys, without a doubt. All you have to do to win this big chunk of cards is leave a comment stating one thing you love about the hobby today as well as one thing you hate about it. That's it. 

Group E: American Heroes/Best of the Rest

The final major group of cards you can take home is a bit of the miscellaneous stuff, but one big portion of this  43 card lot has to do with players who've been in the military during World War II and Vietnam, as well as 5 cards of former Presidents Reagan, Nixon, Kennedy, Ford, and Johnson (all of whom had a significant impact on the game at one point or another)! Besides those cards, you can find a green parallel of legendary kicker Morten Anderson numbered out of 25, and cards of many #1 Draft picks, NFL stars like Dante Hall, Kurt Warner, and Roger Craig, and many more! In order to take home this final lot, all you have to do is follow my blog and leave a comment saying that you did! 

 

A few quick extra notes for you guys:

- If you plug the contest and advertise it on your own respective blog or site, and put it in with your contest submission, you will receive TWO additional entries to each group you put in for! So instead of getting the one chance for entering, you can have 3 chances to win each group! (Note: You must enter at least one group to gain the additional 2 entries)

- If 50 or more people enter this contest, I will throw everyone's name into a hat and whoever I pull will win the big pull of the box, a 1/1 cut autograph of Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Hank Stram! This card can sell anywhere between $100 and $200 from what I've seen, so if you really want a chance to win it, plug this contest up!

- If 75 or more people enter, I will do the same as I can do with the cut, and the winner will receive a mystery group of cards from my collection. You can bet that there will be some pretty nice stuff in there! I don't know if we can get this many entries, especially for a football contest, but keep in mind the more you plug this contest on your own blog the better chance you have to win some nice prizes!

Also, please put all of your entries in one comment, just to make things easier. So, this is my gift to you guys, and I really hope you take advantage of some of these prizes! I don't care what you do with them if you win, because you guys deserve every bit of this! Thank you once again to the good folks at Tri-Star for providing my blog the opportunity to review this product, and well, best of luck to every person who enters!

CONTEST CLOSES: SATURDAY, JULY 21ST AT 8:00 PM! DON'T MISS OUT! 

Thank you for every moment, and here's to another thousand! 

See Ya!

TTM #85- Soon to Be 2 Time MVP!

Hey guys, Drew back here! It's been a great day so far, as I've learned I got over a 90 on my three state tests, as well as 97.64 quarter average to cap off my sophomore year! Outside of that, I have my first summer league baseball game tonight, with a bunch of my school friends, and some of my family is coming to stay for the weekend that I don't get to see often. They're Red Sox fans, and it's only fitting that the Yankees will play against them this weekend! The rivalry continues! Anyways, I got this incredible TTM success about two months ago, one I never expected to come back. Sent all the way back on February 16th of 2011, here is now one of my better autographs in my collection...

None other than Reds superstar first baseman Joey Votto signed a card for me! I didn't remember sending him this 2009 SP Authentic card, but I'm guessing I threw it in alongside a custom I made. The custom never returned, but who the heck cares, especially since the custom was probably destroyed by the time he got to it. Votto has always been known as a streaky signer, but he almost always gets to his mail eventually. A lot of the autographs look different, so I'm not all that worried about it being fake, however, you never really know. 

Votto was deservably voted as the starting first baseman for the National League this year for the All Star game, batting .350 with a great .469 on base percentage! He also has 14 home runs to go along with 47 RBI for a Reds team that wouldn't be anywhere near the success they've had without him. For only 28 years old, many can easily argue that he's the best hitter in the game. And now, I can say that I own an autograph of his!

Thanks so much to Mr. Votto for taking out his time to sign my card, and See Ya!

PS: CONTEST COMING UP ON THE NEXT POST! BE ON THE LOOKOUT!

Tier One Relic Set Additions!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Over the past month or so I've bought quite a few cards off of eBay, including the 2 I'm about to show from the set I'm attempting to complete, 2011 Topps Tier One Top Shelf relics. I already had 31 of the 50 cards going into these purchases, so with these two I'm now 66% of the way through! So, without any further delay, take a look at my latest pickups for this high end relic set.

First, I was able to cross off Jacoby Ellsbury from the list. I'll have you guys know it is very painful for a Yankee fan like me to buy a card of a Red Sock. When this set is done, Pedroia, Crawford, and Ellsbury will hide in the back of the box. 

Second, and lastly for now, I picked up the Jose Reyes relic. Reyes hasn't been anything special this season for Los Miami Marlins, which was disappointing to me considering I took him in the third round of my fantasy draft. Hopefully in the second half of the season he'll show how he won the batting title last season in the Big Apple!

Anyways, that'll do it for now. If you have any Tier One relics for trade, please please please check this page to see if I've got it or not, and if I don't, feel free to comment or email me to let me know. Thanks everyone!

See Ya!