Mystery Packs from eBay: Is It a Good Idea?

Hey guys, Drew back here. So one day I was just surfing around eBay looking to buy something nice for my PC when I came across a seller who was selling mystery packs. With Griffey Jr. autos and Hall of Fame relics galore, and 2 hits plus inserts for 6 dollars a pack (free shipping), I thought it was a great deal. It seems like out of the 50 packs made total, that I got 3 of the lower end packs. But was it still worth the price? Let's take a look:

So, in addition to the 2 "big hits" per pack, you get a few nice inserts. I combined the 3 packs in this post, but anyway, I love the refractors. I think I liked some of these cards more than the hits. With 2 Strasburgs and 2 Heywards popping up, they made for a nice rookie group of cards, and I love the orange refractor cards, even though I've never seen them before and I have no clue what they are. The purple refractors are all pretty sweet too, even though I don't know these prospects. They are numbered to 899.

Next were 8 Moments and Milestones. It's kind of sad to consider these cards "inserts" just because they are numbered, because this was actually a base set and Topps' dumb concept to completely confuse us collectors. All of these but Sheffield and Granderson are for trade.

Here is a 2010 Topps Chrome Hunter Pence purple refractor numbered to 599. This is a really nice card, and I think Topps did a good job at bringing purple into the refractor rainbow, even though most people would normally think thats a terrible idea. Pence is a solid player, but this is also for trade.

TIME FOR THE INSANE MOJO!! Here we have an unbelievable looking 2006 Upper Deck Ovation JJ Hardy gray jersey card! Wow! In all honesty, this is a pretty awful hit to start it off. Don't worry it gets better, I guess.

Ok, it's not getting much better. Nothing better than a 2006 Cliff Floyd bat card! For trade.

From 2004 Topps Pristine, a Moises Alou jersey card. While Alou was a very good player, and this card is way nicer than the first 2 hits shown so far, the value of this card is close to nothing. Relic overproduction? Maybe, but this is just boring.

Continuing on our journey from junk relic to the next, this is a familiar face in my collection. A 2006 Upper Deck Rafael Palmeiro relic. Again, a great player, but this is just boring! The funny thing is that I actually owned this card, but traded it away a long time ago to William, so now, I have it again. And its for trade. Again.

Woah, Rafael Palmeiro again? I haven't seen you in a while! From 2001 Donruss, a bat chip of his numbered to 550. Yawwwwwwwwwwwn.

Almost done here guys, don't worry. Here's a 2008 Sweet Spot Manny relic. One of the biggest collector pet peeves is used here, and I bet it stands out nice and big to you right now. Red Sox uniform? Dodgers logo? No, Upper Deck, what were you thinking?

The final card is 10x better than any of the above cards, because of the tiny black piece of patch in the corner of the relic. The card is of ex-Yankee Austin Kearns, numbered to 250 from 2003 Leaf Certified. This is a sweet card in person, so I think I'll hang on to this for now.

So I think the most valuable thing I bought with this purchase outside of lots of trade bait was a lesson. A lot of sellers do a great job of showing off the stuff that have horrible odds, and you get sucked right in. I can't be the only one to do this, right? Do you guys think this heap of junk was worth $18? An average blaster produces 1 relic and like 5 inserts, so this owned those odds, but I think I could've done better with that money. Whatever, you live and learn.

Have any of you guys tried "mystery packs" out? How did you do? See Ya!

A Lot of Great Catch Up Mail!

Hey guys, Drew back here. It's that time again folks, the one where I have to show off all of the recent trades and acquisitions I've made with bloggers recently, because I'm too lazy to do them all separately! So, here goes, starting off with a package from Dan of Grand Cards. Dan was a Curtis Granderson supercollector during his stay on the Tigers until he was traded to the Yankees, and he decided to throw in a ton of Curtis' cards along with the trade itself.

The trade was for these cards above as well as the rest of the 2010 Topps Chrome Yankees set. My dad gave me the entire Chrome set for Christmas this year, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have all the Yankees separate from the set. My favorite cards in the set are probably Mantle, Cano, and Jeter, all 3 being very nice cards!

And here are just a few of the tons of Granderson cards he included! Granderson has been on a lot of really nice cards over the years, and I needed quite a few of these. I'm actually considering becoming a Granderson collector, to add to my Cano and Swisher collections. I have a lot of his cards now and he's a great young player!

But wait, there's more! Dan also felt like it was right to include this nice 2008 Topps Heritage Pants relic card, which was awesome! While I'm not the biggest fan of owning a piece of someone's pants, it's still a nice relic, and will fit in well with my other Granderson cards!

For the next package, we have stuff from Jim of Sixty Feet Six Inches. Jim wanted my Johnny Venters autograph from my Topps Update Jumbo break I recently did, and so he sent me these in return:

First, Jim threw in these extras. From the 2005 Upper Deck All Star Game Series, 2 Derek Jeters and an Al Kaline/Ivan Rodriguez. This is a pretty nice set!

From 2007 Allen & Ginter, a Mike Mussina white jersey relic. I've gotta say, this is a gorgeous card, everything about it was done well! Allen & Ginter relics tend to be my favorite design year in and year out and this is just another of a former Yankee great!

And lastly, the main highlight of the trade was this 2003 Upper Deck Yankees Signature Series Lee Mazzilli Autograph. I've been meaning to pick up a card from this beautiful Yankees auto set for a while now, and I finally have my hands on one! Mazzilli only played for the Yankees for 1 season (1982) and didn't have the greatest numbers for his career, but he was also the manager for 2 mediocre Orioles mid-2000's teams. He was also the 1st base coach for the Yankees from 2000-2003 and the bench coach in 2006, and was the lead studio analyst for the Mets SNY coverage a few years ago. It's safe to say that lee has covered a lot of ground in his long baseball career. Anyways, a nice auto and a nice card, sweet!

Next up is a nice Christmas gift I recently received from Ryan of "The Great O's Autograph Project". He told me he was going to send me some stuff and boy I guess he did!

Of the huge lot of Yankees cards he included, I only scanned my favorites. On this first scan we have a lot of sweet Mantles, and by far my favorite Roger Maris card I've ever seen. I also really like the Matsui Bowman Heritage refractor card, minus the fact that it's very miscut.

Here we have quite a few Don Mattinglys along with a few other 90's inserts of Bernie, Paul O'Neill, and a sweet Topps Finest David Cone. All of the Mattinglys pictured were needed and are all really nice cards, especially the 1992 Leaf Heritage Series Insert and the 1995 Topps Stadium Club. Starting to really get quite a nice Donnie Baseball collection!

Lastly, a 2005 Topps gold card of Jason Giambi /2005, and a whole lot more of 90's inserts and base. We have the 1995 Andy Pettitte/Ruben Rivera rookie card, and also a really shiny Ruben Rivera rookie! I really like the Bernie Williams card too, another nice one I needed.

And before I move on to our final package, I want to say that Ryan is holding a contest on his blog "The Great Oriole's Autograph Project" giving readers a chance to win a sweet looking Earl Weaver autograph! Please go check that out if you haven't already!

Finally, last but not least is yet another package from Mr. Virgil Trucks Interviewer himself, William from foul bunt. As you know by now him and I are really good friends and he recently picked up another nice card to send my way as well as a copy of his interview with former pitcher Virgil Trucks! Here are the cards he sent my way:

Here are 8 of 29 Topps Update cards I needed, that he decided to hook me up with. Unfortunately, I shouldn't have to have needed these cards, as the jumbo box should have provided most if not all of the set, but the doubles pile is overflowing. For some reason I really like the Giambi card.

And what better way to end this post than a sweet Mark Sanchez dual jersey /150 from 2009 UD SPX! I never got a chance to post about the Jets heartbreaking loss against the Steelers, and while I am angry that we didn't show up for the 1st half, I'm glad the team made it far, and Sanchez hasn't been too too bad in his first 2 seasons by any means. This is a beautiful card and even though the relics are event used, it's still worth staying in my collection for sure!

So, I want to thank everyone who made this post possible, I got some really nice new additions, and I love them all! Thank you so much guys, it really means a lot that you are willing to feed my addiction, and I gotta get you all back!

See Ya!

Christmas Gift from Dad! Sweet Stuff!

Hey guys, Drew back here. So, it's becoming a tradition every year for Dad to go out of his way and go Craigslist crazy for my Christmas gift. He loves getting lots of cards and hoping for nice finds, which we certainly have found in the past, the best being a 1980 Rickey Henderson rookie card. This time, he got 4 sets, a 300ct box of Yankees, a few Hall of Famer autos, and a good 17 relics. I didn't wanna overload you guys on scans, so I made one of those video slideshows for the first time in a long time. Check it out!

I will show you scans of the two biggest cards in case you couldn't view the video. On top of the box were 2 Hall of Famer autographs, and they were of Orioles Great Jim Palmer and Dodgers Great Duke Snider! I got Snider TTM but this is a sweet addition to the Hall of Fame PC and I did need Palmer which was cool. Both were from the Nabisco All Stars set, which is a really cheap and affordable set for Hall of Fame autographs! Each card comes with a certificate of authenticity, and they display nice photography. I own the Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Duke Snider, Jim Palmer, Bob Gibson, and Catfish Hunter autos from this set now, and I don't know if I'm done yet!

Thanks so much Dad! See Ya!

Cardboard from the Midwest Mailday!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Yesterday I got my first package in weeks, coming from Todd of MidWest Cardboard. It sure has been a while, but maybe I can get on track a little coming up. Here's the nice cards that my buddy Todd traded me:

First, some sweet refractors from 2010 Topps Chrome. A Mark Teixeira refractor, AJ Burnett Xfractor, and a Derek Jeter Orange Refractor. All 3 cards really pop and are absolutely awesome looking. However, when I take them out of the toploaders, they have an extreme bend, which is definitely a problem! It seems to be a major problem with this set, hopefully it gets fixed by next year.

2 Legends of New York for sure right here. Jeter has always been my favorite baseball player until Nick Swisher came along, and that card just sums up how great of a man he is. The Namath card is sooooo nice, by far the nicest Namath card I own and one that I will continue to love!

Lastly, an autograph from 2009 National Chicle of Hakeem Nicks, one of the Giants top wide receivers. I hear a lot in school about the Giants, being in New York, and as a Jets fan I felt it was necessary to add his autograph to my collection. That means the player has to be awesome, considering I won't trade it to my friend and I'll keep it myself! This is a sweet painting and an amazing card, definitely a job well done by Topps.

Overall I'm really pleased with this trade, thanks so much Todd, enjoy your cards! Be sure to check out MidWest Cardboard when you get a chance! See Ya!

Future Yankees Star eBay Pickups!

Hey guys, Drew back here. I bought a nice lot of cards on eBay from 2010 Topps Chrome for about 7 bucks shipped a few days ago. They arrived yesterday, check them out:

Those are indeed 5 Topps Chrome Ivan Nova base rookie cards. Nova is gonna be a stud someday, he even looked good this season, so for less than 10 bucks I was able to get a ton of him. Whats this, more?

2 refractors! One of them, pretty sure the one on the right, has a little surfacing damage and it looks weird. The other one is mint however in my opinion. But wait, that's not all!

Yes, I got all those, AND the autograph for 7 bucks! The regular autos are kinda lame as usual, boring, dull, and even in the light it doesn't look great. I'm still happy because I got a nice deal, but my advice for Topps Chrome buyers is to BUY REFRACTOR AUTOS. These are boring, refractors are gorgeous and normally don't cost all that much more. Also, the auto isn't in 100% mint condition either, I swear there's a smudge on it, a common problem already known about this set.

Also, the seller threw 6 (yes, count em'), 6 Mike Leake rookies! For free! Leake is one of the best pitching prospects, and that was just plain unfair to the seller to even attempt at throwing those in!!!! If you are reading thank you so much!

The seller's name is asinha, please check out their store, because whoever it is, he/she is a great dealer! Check them out!

See Ya!

Contest over at Georgia Mindset!

Hey everyone, Drew back here with a very cool contest plug. Over at Georgia Mindset, you can have a chance to win a free box of 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball!

WHAT YOU ARE DOING STILL READING THIS??? GO OVER TO GEORGIA MINDSET NOW!

See Ya!