TTM Tuesday!

Hey guys, Drew back here! First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who commented on my previous post advising my recent college decision. Regardless, I am planning on coming home next semester, and I want to say that its more than just that I'm homesick. Being lonely has played into my decision quite a bit, however I also feel uncomfortable on my campus and since it's a big sports school, a majority of the students have a really scummy attitude. I've made one friend on campus, and he and I agree that we're misfits at this school, and after a few of my old friends came to visit a few weeks ago, I realized I couldn't defend why I came to this school in the first place, so I decided that coming home would be the right decision for me. It's one of the first real life decisions I've had to make, but I feel relieved having made a decision and am looking forward to returning home and commuting to a great local private school while getting to see some old friends, my girlfriend, and my family.

Anyway, personal life aside, I've gotten four TTM successes since my most recent autograph post, and here are the first three of them! Enjoy:

Adam Kennedy: 2/2 in 22 Days (Received September 9th)

Adam Kennedy was a staple of my childhood watching baseball. He was always around, and I never knew much about him, but prior to sending off a few of my cards of his, I looked up his lifetime stats and saw that he actually was a fairly solid player. In 2009, he led a career resurgence in which he batted .289 with the A's, swatting 11 home runs, driving in 61 runs, and stealing 20 bases. Mr. Kennedy is now retired, and signed a 2008 Allen & Ginter as well as a 2010 Topps card for my collection; both of which look fantastic signed boldly in blue.

Austin Meadows: 1/1 in 127 Days (Received September 15th)

Last year, I sent 2013 Pirates #1 draft pick Austin Meadows this same card, only to get a response from his mother, which you can see here. Luckily, I retried Meadows earlier this season and got him back this past month, signed beautifully in blue. I've heard great things about him thus far into his minor league career and I really hope to see him succeed for the Bucs down the road!

David Murphy: 2/2 in 35 Days (Received September 25th)

David Murphy has had his moments so far into his 9 year career. He has been known as an average player often times, but he did offer a lot to Rangers fans; maybe to a little bit lesser extent than Nick Swisher gave the Yankees in his time. Now, they both play together in Cleveland, and neither of them had very good years in 2014. However, Murphy has shown that he could turn it around, and I'll definitely be rooting for him after he signed my 2009 Topps and 2012 Gypsy Queen cards in black with bible verses! I remember reading Night Owl Cards' posts about how much he liked that Murphy card, so when I saw it I knew I should try to have him sign it. Sure enough, he came through!

Thank you so much to these three players for signing my stuff, and again to my Dad for opening everything for me while I've been gone! But, I'll be home soon! 

See Ya!

Cards from the Blogosphere!

Hey guys, Drew back here. It's getting to that point that occurs once every week or two here at drewscards, and that would be mail day catch up time! I got 3 packages in since the last catchup, and all 3 were very helpful for me and awesome exchanges. First however, we start with the 2009 Blogger of the Year's package to me, Mr. Night Owl Cards.

Night Owl and I traded the basic team/set needs for team/set needs, and we both came out winners. First, he sent me 13 Topps Update cards for my set that slowly is being built, and those were really appreciated.

What a funky pose on that Valverde!

He also threw in a 2010 Bowman Platinum Lance Berkman, and a 2010 Bowman Throwback of A.J. Burnett. I needed them both and they're both very nice cards!

Lastly, 2 AWESOME refractors of Derek Jeter and CC Sabathia from 2010 Topps Chrome. I have a few variations of Jeter's Chrome cards this year, but this may be my favorite yet. Throughout all these years, x-fractors haven't gotten old to me yet. The orange refractor of CC (which scans like it's red) is also sweet. Chrome sets hadn't used a lot of orange yet, so it was nice to see a fresh color change. Both are un-numbered, but are sweet cards to add to the Yankees collection!

Thanks a lot Night Owl! Now onto the next package, this one coming all the way from Felix in Canada! Felix just started to buy boxes and get into the hobby, so he checked my wantlists and asked if I'd be interested in some cards off the list. Of course!

Starting off the bunch were 4 very nice cards of Pettitte, Sabathia, Rivera, and Cano. Looking back on 2010 Allen & Ginter now makes me feel that it was weaker than past versions of the product but still had some really nice cards, especially those two on the bottom row.

Felix sent me some 21 cards I needed for the Topps Update set, another huge help. As you may have noticed with the Wainwright card being in both trades, the set wantlists got a little mixed and I got maybe 2 or 3 doubles from these 2 trades, but that is absolutely no problem with me! I really like the Arencibia rookie card, that kid's gonna be good.

Thanks so much Felix and good luck with your collecting future! And, lastly, what would one of these posts be without a guest appearance by William of foul bunt. The most recent box he sent me included some stuff I need to help him out with and some CD's, but the best things were these 2 items:

First, a commemorative puck from the 2011 NHL All Star Game! William went down to some of the NHL All Star events this year and got me this as a souvenir, which was truly awesome. This isn't just a puck however, it is also signed by one of the All Stars on the team! He's not too sure who the player is that faintly signed the puck, and the signature doesn't help much because the only part I can see is his number inscription. Our assumption is that the autograph is of Edmonton Oilers left wing Taylor Hall, but we're not really sure. I don't know much at all about hockey, but this is my 1st puck, so it's pretty cool!

The final card in this post is this 2006 Upper Deck Rookie Debut autograph of Jets 2 time pro bowl offensive tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson! He picked this card up for me at his former card shop just before it closed down, and boy I'm happy he did. Da Brick has a sweet signature, and is one of the best Jets on the team, so I'm very happy to own this card!

Thanks so much William! You're such a great friend, and I'll just add these to the never ending pile of awesome things you've given me over the years!

Well that'll just about do it for this edition of "Cards from the Blogosphere"! Thank you so much to the 3 of you that made this post possible! I couldn't have done it without you. I'm your host Drew, and I'll See Ya!

A Nice Weeks Worth of Mail!

Hey guys, Drew back here. I recently got 2 nice packages from the blogosphere, the first being from Mr. Scott of "Mr. Scott's Baseball Cards". He has been one of the most generous traders I've ever dealt with, parting with cards from his PC to improve my Yankees PC! He never wants anything in return, so I got a ton of great cards for free! Check out some of them:

We begin with a few nicer late 90's-early 2000's Yankees. A great David Cone card based on his perfect game, a cool sliding Wade Boggs, and a Don Larsen World Series highlight. I'm pretty sure I had none of the cards in the scan above, so that's always good!

Outside of the Kennedy Masterpieces, I needed the rest of these cards as well. I love the 2009 Sweet Spot design with the seams that stick out of the card, and the card of Torre signing autographs was pretty sweet too. And you can't go wrong with some Diamond Kings!

Also, I'm not sure if this is the entire 2010 Bowman Yankees team set (yes, Vazquez was in there too but didn't fit on the scan), but if not it's still awesome anyway. I'm not the biggest Bowman fan by any means, but this past year the base looked pretty good.

Scott also decided to help me out with some Topps inserts. Here are 8 of 9 History of the World Series inserts (the other is in the next scan), my favorite being the Yogi Berra for sure! I only need 4 more inserts from this set to complete the 25 card set (#'s 8, 16, 21, 25), and when it's pieced together its actually a pretty cool set!

Here were also have 3 Legendary Lineage's (love the Mantle/Tex one), 2 Topps 2020 inserts, 1 Turkey Red of Denard Span, and 1 more History of the World Series. I really like the 2020 inserts, needing 6 more to complete the set now (1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 19). Legendary Lineage is almost wrapped up too, at least for Series 1 + 2, needing only card #45 to finish that off.

He included 2 more cards, along with 2 enormous stacks of base that were only briefly covered above. The first of these 2 was a 2003 Bowman Charlie Manning Rookie Refractor of some sort numbered to 170. Manning was given up by the Yankees shortly after this card was produced to land Aaron Boone in a trade with the Cardinals, and we all know how that one worked out. Soon after the Yankees got him right back, but since he has been on multiple teams and hasn't done close to anything with his career. Oh well, cool looking card though!

The final card to show off from this package was this 2005 Bowman Sterling Steven White autograph! White was nothing special at all, bouncing up and down through the Yankees minor league system up until 2008. He totaled 32 wins and 30 losses in the minors with a career ERA of 4.06. He never made the majors and appears to be a free agent as of now. This card looks really awesome nonetheless!

Thanks SO much Mr. Scott, you really did not have to do all that! The second and final package this week was from Samuel of "The Daily Dimwit". Him and I made a trade recently, and this was his part of it:

Four 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces cards that I needed! And 4 sweet ones at that. The Posada card is a surprising need, but now I'm only down to 3 base cards that I need (#8, 29, and 86) as well as 19 out of 30 short prints that follow the standard base set.

Next were 17 2010 Topps Update cards I needed for my set, and with 2011 Topps already out, I am beginning to be in a rush to get this done and overwith. I did have the Cervelli and Nick Johnson cards prior to the trade but they were caught up with the other Yankees cards and I forgot about them. Still, it's good to have 2 of them, one for the Yankee binder and one for the set binder!

And last but never least, a 2006 Upper Deck Artifacts Nick Swisher relic numbered to 150! I haven't picked up much of anything Swisher and Cano related right now, but I've found myself to be saving money for the card show, plus I've also been really picky lately. This however, is an awesome card to add to the collection, becoming my 125th unique card of his. I love different colored relics outside of the typical gray or white, and that's a cool thing about Swisher playing for the A's. Cool relics.

Thanks so much Samuel! Your part of the trade will go out very soon!

See Ya!

2010 Topps Update- NEED HELP!!!

Hey guys, Drew back here. This year, I decided to take on a challenge and attempt to complete the 2010 Topps 990 card complete set. So I bought boxes of all 3 series, and the only one that gave me trouble in completing the set was the most recent release, the Updates and Highlights set. I'm pretty sure I still need about 85 cards, as the jumbo box as you may remember produced as many doubles as singles. So, please go take a look at my wantlist (on the sidebar if the links don't work), and shoot me an email to yanks1996wsc@gmail.com so we could work something out. And, if you need any cards yourself, let me know, because I have WAY too many doubles from this set!

Thanks! See Ya!

Trip to the Card Shop- Nice Vintage Pickups!

Hey guys, Drew back here. A week or so ago, my dad and I went out to a card shop that we normally don't go to, because its often very unorganized and takes forever for them to find prices, etc. I've pulled that Dexter McCluster letterman auto from a month or 2 ago, as well as that Chipper Jones Baseball Heroes patch autograph numbered to only 15! So, we had a lot of time on our hands, so we decided to get a few packs and also check out the little boxes of mixed cards. First, I'll start with the packs. Dad bought a jumbo pack of 2010 Topps Update, and a pack of 2010 Panini Threads Football. Here are the results:

2010 Panini Threads Football:

- Kellen Winslow Jr.
- Felix Jones
- Rashard Mendenhall
- Adrian Peterson
- Steve Breaston
- Peyton Manning
- Devin Hester
- Thaddeus Gibson RC

2010 Topps Update Jumbo:

- A Bunch of Base

- Jeff Suppan Gold /2010
- Ryan Doumit Turkey Red
- Johnny Mize Vintage Legends
- Joe Mauer Topps Attax
- Dale Murphy Cards Your Mom Threw Out
- Carlos Pena Peak Performance
- The Truman Show Tales of the Game
- Barry Larkin Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Back
- Million Card Giveaway

Not very impressive in my opinion, let me know if you're interested in any of these outside of some of the 2010 Topps inserts (ie: Turkey Red, Vintage Legends, CYMTO, Tales of the Game, Peak Performance). Which leaves the Larkin, Mauer, and Suppan inserts for trade and most of the base.

However, we weren't done. I bought 4 singles that added up to around $20.

First, a 1991 Upper Deck Heroes Baseball Hank Aaron hologram card! I don't have a whole lot of Hank Aaron cards and it was only a dollar and it looked really cool, so, I got it.

A 1957 Topps Hank Bauer! This card isn't in great condition by any means, but it's nice enough for me. Bauer was one of many parts that led to the Yankees World Series run in the late 40's and early 50's, and for only a few bucks, I couldn't turn it down. I'm not a huge fan of the 1957 design, I think it's kinda boring, but it's not a bad card by any means.

Next is a 1964 Topps Elston Howard! Elston was no Yogi Berra, but he could catch really well, and his number was retired by the Yankees in 1984, 4 years after his death. Elston made 12 All Star teams, won 6 World Series, and was the 1963 AL MVP. This card is really sweet looking, and it's in excellent condition! For only a few bucks, no doubt this was a great deal.

And finally, a 1961 Topps Duke Snider! Duke is becoming a player that I wouldn't mind collecting more of, especially after I got him through the mail and got that autographed card from dad. I saw this in the bin, and it looked really nice even the borders were damaged. So, for about $5, I got it!

Also in the bin, we saw a few 48 Bowmans, which certainly did not belong in there, so we put them in the pile, but dumbo at the card section decided why not check book value before I buy them. A half hour later, and they were re-priced to $30 a piece. I was also looking at a $5 Keith Hernandez auto, but that was repriced to $15, and I wasn't paying that for a Met.

Whatever, I think I did well, what do you think? See Ya!

2010 Topps Update Jumbo Box Break Recap

Hey guys, Drew back here. One of my bigger Christmas gifts was a box of 2010 Topps Update Jumbo Baseball. The reason I asked to get this box was simple, to finish off the complete 990 card Topps base set. I also would love to collect the inserts like I did in Series 1, but that would be very difficult especially considering the small amount of time I do have in the hobby right now. So for now the base set was the main focus, and if time comes around maybe in the future I'll try the inserts more, specifically Vintage Legends and Turkey Reds. So, lets see how I did, but first the product information!

PRODUCT CONTENT
- 10 Packs Per Box
- 50 Cards Per Pack
- 500 Cards Per Box
- 1 Rookie Chrome Refractor Box Topper Pack Box
- 1 Million Card Giveaway Redemption Per Pack
- 1 Gold Parallel Card Numbered to 2010 Per Pack
- 1 Tales of the Game Insert per Pack
- 1 Vintage Legends Insert per Pack
- 1 Topps Attax Insert per Pack
- 1 Cards Your Mom Threw Out Insert per Pack
- 1 Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Back Insert per Box
- 1 All Star Game Used Card Per Jumbo Box
- 1 Autographed Card per Jumbo Box
- 1 Manufactured Bat Barrel Card Numbered to 99 or less Per Jumbo Box

Well, there's an awful lot of stuff to see, so we better get started. Here we go!

MY BOX BREAK REVIEW:

Base Set: 203/330

Well, I did awful. 203 cards out of 330, which means I'm missing 127 cards! What the heck? So the cards look nice as they did in the past 2 series, and the All Star cards are fairly nice too. There are a lot of nice photos in this set, especially seen on the Matsui, Halladay, and Carlos Santana cards in the scans above.

Doubles: 202

WHAT!?! I got one less double than base card, and that is absolutely ridiculous! When you buy a box for a high price that gives you enough cards to complete the base set, then you should complete the base set and not have to sift through countless doubles! Wow am I disappointed.

Stephen Strasburg: 9

- 1 Base RC
- 3 Rookie Debuts
- 2 Merry Strasmas' (really?)
- 1 Turkey Red
- 1 Peak Performance
- 1 Topps Attax (not pictured)

Ok Topps, Operation Strasburg Overload is OVER. This guy was a big hit in the hobby, and all his cards were valuable, up until the injury. 9 out of 10 collectors knew that, if we gave it a little time, Topps was gonna ruin all of the fun, and guess what, they did. I really like his base rookie and Turkey Red, but when you go out of your way to make a "Merry Strasmas" card then you are most certainly over doing it.

Gold Parallel: 10/330

- Scott Hairston
- Ian Kennedy
- Austin Jackson (Rookie Debut)
- Conor Jackson
- Brad Penny
- Jon Garland
- Brian Wilson (All Star)
- Corey Hart (All Star)
- Brian Stokes (not pictured)
- Don Kelly (not pictured)

Yawn, these are starting to get really boring, all of them are for trade.

Topps Attax Inserts: 10/50 (20%)

Again, really, they had to extend this series again? ToppsTown and Topps Attax are getting really annoying, and they have no value or use in this hobby other than attracting kids. I like the idea of attracting a young audience to the hobby, but can you leave that in their own respective products? Nobody else wants these.

Legendary Lineage: 8/30 (26%)

These inserts have been one of my favorites throughout the series, and this time, a lot of the cards feature rookies compared to legends of the past. Of course the stat comparison really throws you off but I think they did a fairly good job at matching the players this time around. Unfortunately, this screwed up box produced 2 doubles out of these 10 cards, meanwhile, 22 other cards were out there still. Wow. At least I got the Cano/Carew card!

More Tales of the Game: 8/15 (53%)

Ugh, even Topps sounded disappointed with the return of this set. MORE Tales of the Game, oh man, could they just come up with new ideas? Out of these cards, the only one I cared about was the Ruth, but thats not even all that exciting. This was a great set in Series 1, but please, Topps, GIVE IT UP! Oh, and guess what, 2 more doubles!

Cards Your Mom Threw Out: 10/58 (17%)

You don't know how SICK of this set I am now! I'm sure I'm speaking for a lot of you at this point. First of all, reprints are lame. Second of all, we don't need 3 reprints for EVERY TOPPS SET PRODUCED! Do I really need 3 2009 Topps reprints? In Series 1, I built this set because 1) I'm insane, and 2) I liked the idea of having a card for each Topps year in order in binder pages, that way I could get to learn the sets better. But this set should've ended after Series 1. Unfortunately, next year, we have to see 60 more reprints on Topps' 60th anniversary, and that won't be fun either.

Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Back: 1 (Derek Jeter)

I actually have never seen this card before! Call me crazy, but I've never really gotten a whole lot of mid-90's Topps cards, and I never knew this card existed. Wow, I feel embarrassed now. None the less, its still a stupid reprint but at least it taught me something.

Vintage Legends: 6/25 (24%)

I actually kinda like this insert set. Maybe it's because it's somewhat fresh since it started in Series 2, or maybe because it's actually a pretty nice set. Of course, Topps has done this idea countless amounts of times, but this looks pretty nice I must say. I really like the Honus Wagner and Campanella cards out of this group, and I wouldn't mind trying to get both Series 2 and this set.

Peak Performance: 4/25 (16%)

The Strasburg card is under his own respective category, but any ways, only 4? Wow, something seems wrong there. This set has gotten extremely boring, and honestly, I'm kind of glad I only got 4 in the box. I like the Stanton and Strasburg cards though.

Turkey Red: 8/50 (16%)

Ah, finally, my favorite insert set, and remarkably, still my favorite insert set. You would think after all this Topps Mumbo Jumbo they've been doing this year, I'd be sick of this set. But of course not, it's Turkey Red! Again, the Strasburg card is above, and it's my favorite one I pulled, over Walter Johnson and Duke Snider by just a little. I also received 2 more doubles (Stanton, W. Johnson). If I had the time, I would love to build this set, and I'll try to pick some singles up eventually, and maybe that could be a possibility.

Million Card Giveaway: 10

Well, I redeemed all of these, but they got lost in my collection of 33 cards online, so I forget which ones I unlocked from this box. All I remember is that the newest card of the 10 was a 1983 Lou Piniella Yankees card, and a lot of the cards were late 70's. I did really well though!

Chrome Rookie Refractor: 1 (Felix Doubrant)

First off, never heard of the guy, and he's a Red Sox, so it's for trade. Second of all, I opened the pack and took out the card, and it was covered in dust! Has anyone else had this problem yet? It was really weird.

Legend Shortprint: 1 (Reggie Jackson)

Now we're talking! This card was one of my favorite cards in the box, Yankee uniform or not, I collect him! These SP's are done really well and I've always liked them, it's like a bunch of Vintage Legends cards based off the 2010 design. It has his full career stats on the back and it looks very nice in person! Sweet!

All Star Relic Card: 1 (Jonathan Broxton)

Not too bad, but certainly could've done better. I had Broxton on my fantasy team for all of last year, and while he struggled towards the end, he is a pretty solid closer. But, come on Topps, a workout jersey? What the heck?

Peak Performance Autograph: 1 (Johnny Venters)

WHO?!?!?!? For trade.

Manufactured Bat Barrel: 1 (Yadier Molina Black Bat /25)

Before I upset myself more, I wanna say that this card is absolutely amazing looking. Sure it's manufactured, but it looks sweet! But.. it's Yadier Molina. Sure, he's not awful, but I mean there are so many big names in the checklist and I get him? Oh man, it was one of those boxes.

I'm just gonna do a quick little overall grading, because this post is really dragging on now haha.

Overall: Well, I'm pretty upset about this box, not because of the poor hits as much as the insert doubles and pulling as many doubles as base cards. Topps really needs to control that, because I may have decided to buy more of this product to collect the inserts had they not jipped me in this box. I really wanna call and complain but I'm sure that won't get me anywhere. Well, I've gotten some more cards from this set, and once I knock them off my checklist, hopefully I'll be closer to freedom! 2010 Topps is a hit or miss product, it's got a nice design, and some very nice cards are in the set, but the dragging on of certain subsets, and damaged cards, does not provide for the top product of the year. Good job Topps, I guess, but certainly not good enough. Overall Grade: C+

Some Super Red Hot Rookie Came In..

Hey guys, Drew back here. Yesterday I got a mini package from "Tristar", which apparently is Topps' undercover corporation that produces redemptions, missing hits, NPNs, and damaged cards. I got this red hot rookie redemption in my jumbo box of 2010 Topps Series 2, which was for the 3rd card in the set. This card happened to be...

of Tigers rookie outfielder Brennan Boesch. I had Brennan on my fantasy team for a majority of last season and I was really impressed, even though his stats went down as the season progressed. Overall he hit a poor .256, but he had a monster May and June, batting in the upper .330's and hitting 11 home runs. For a rookie, I was extremely impressed, and I hope he's not a one year wonder!

The card looks fantastic, better than any of the past Red Hot Rookie cards. This year they actually added a refractor touch, and the chrome cards also don't have a bend to them! I was extremely impressed when I opened this package, and I probably will keep this!

Did you get your redemption? What did you think?

See Ya!

Trip to the Shop.. Nice Pull!

Hey guys, Drew back here. While I'm on the weekend I figured I'd catch up and post a little more. Last weekend after some shopping I stopped at a card shop, not the usual one, and got 3 packs and some supplies. I got 1 pack of 2010 Topps Update, 1 pack of 2010 Topps 206, and 1 pack of 2010 Panini Threads Football. Here are the results:

2010 Topps Update Baseball:

- Marco Scutaro
- Milton Bradley
- Ryan Church
- Lance Zawadski RC
- John Lackey
- David Freese
- Jonathan Lucroy RC
- Adam LaRoche Gold /2010
- Million Card Giveaway (Redeemed 1980 Barry Foote)
- David Wright Topps Attax

Not exciting at all, moving along.

2010 Topps 206:

- Alex Rios
- Yogi Berra
- Brian Roberts
- Nick Johnson (:P)
- Rick Porcello
- Rickie Weeks
- Matt Kemp
- Julio Borbon Bronze Border
- John Maine American Caramels Mini

Other than Berra, this was another waste of 4 bucks. But, maybe the last pack will be good?

2010 Panini Threads Football:

- Carnell "Cadillac" Williams
- Heath Miller
- Chris Johnson
- Jay Cutler
- Mike Sims-Walker
- Tony Romo
- Visanthe Shiancoe
- Dallas Clark

But thats not all!

- Dexter McCluster Letterman "U" Rookie Auto /450!

Pretty happy about this pull. McCluster seems fairly popular in the hobby, this card selling for around $20. He was a 2nd round pick by the Chiefs in the 2010 NFL Draft, and he is a great athlete. This year he's caught 15 passes for 147 yards and a touchdown. Hopefully he gets more touches in the future and this card can go up in value!

See Ya!