Trade with Michael from Six-4-Three DP!

Hey guys, Drew back here! Continuing on my occasional attempts of catching up, here is a little mail I got from my new trade buddy Michael, who writes the blog "Six-4-Three DP"! He runs a very nice blog, which hasn't quite been noticed by a whole lot of you guys yet. Without a doubt I suggest you give his site a look in the future, because I'm sure he'd appreciate more readers! Anyways, Michael and I were able to work out a nice little deal, and here is my share of it:

Michael was able to successfully attack all of my team/player collections with some new cards I didn't have yet! One big card he included was the black bordered card of Swisher from last year's Heritage. I haven't even seen that card before, so I'm glad somebody was able to notice it and send it my way. The A-Rod "Stadium Lights" card is awesome, but didn't somebody say they were glow in the dark? I don't remember, but I swore I heard somebody say that. Well, I tested it and no light showed. Still a sweet card. 

Never noticed this either. Both of these cards are out of the 2011 Heritage set, and have the same card number. However, the pictures are different. Can anybody inform me if they know what kind of variation this is?

Under the "Drew is Collecting" piece of the sidebar, I stated some current MLB players I enjoy receiving cards of. One of them is without a doubt, the bearded man from San Fran, Brian Wilson. I don't have a whole lot of his cards, but I love getting a new one or two here and there. That's exactly what Michael did, so I really appreciate that!

I'm not gonna lie, I love the heck out of these 2011 Kimball Champions minis. I don't even remember which ones I had or not, but it doesn't even matter, I'll take all of them! One day it would be awesome to do this set. The only part I don't really care for is that the backs are really simplistic and boring. But who looks at the backs these days anyway?

Do you want to know just how convenient this trade was for me? I already had the regular Gardner rookie card, and Michael sent me the gold parallel. As for the Pineda, I already had the gold parallel and he sent me the regular. What a guy this Michael is! Also, I've done some research on Cito Culver, and I hope that he carries his potential into the majors one day. This Bowman Platinum really is a beautiful card.

Last but surely not least was this 2004 Upper Deck "Matinee Idols" relic of Mike Mussina! I mentioned in my previous post how my favorite pitcher of all time is the Sandman, Mariano Rivera, followed by Andy Pettitte. But without a doubt, a close third is Mr. Mussina himself. Not only was he one of the most consistent pitchers in baseball history, but he also had the honor of being the first baseball TTM success I've ever received! Since then, I've created his trifecta, and this just adds to it. Gotta love the Moose.

Thanks so much Michael for the trade, and sorry for the enormous delay of getting the cards out. I'm going to go work on getting that together now!

See Ya!

October 1st White Plains Card Show Recap! Part 1!

Hey everyone, Drew back here. I hope you all remember me, because it's been over a week. Sorry about the slack everyone, I wish I could be more active but with my busy life nowadays with school its very hard to keep the site running. However, this past weekend I spent majority of my Saturday with Dad and one of my best friends Matt at the White Plains show! I think we made out incredibly well, even though I didn't go overly prepared and were on short notice before we decided to confirm we were going for sure. To start off the recap, here are the many new additions to my growing Robinson Cano collection! I thought Cano deserved his own post after his incredible Game 1 performance in the ALDS, smashing a grand slam and driving in 6 runs in the Yankees win! Way to go Robby Cano!

PART 1:

ROBINSON CANO!

I didn't hope to accomplish anything overly specific at the show in terms of buying cards, I just wanted to add some nice ones to my collection. I think I did a pretty decent job, take a look:

Leading off was this card out of 2011 Bowman, part of the "Bowman's Best" insert set. It cost me a dollar and I figured why not because it was an all around nice looking card! I haven't picked up nearly any 2011 cards of either one of my PC players- Cano and Swisher, but when I do, I buy in bulk!

I find it ironic how clutch Cano was the night following all of these pickups. I had a feeling this postseason could bring an even bigger jumpstart to his card prices, so I definitely tried to help the collection while I could. Out of 2011 Topps Heritage, here is Cano's bat relic card. I like the look of this card but I think they honestly  could have done away with the yellow bottom design. It's a simple but effective look, and I got this as well as the next card for $15 together! 

I came to this seller frequently throughout the show. Yes, there were hundreds of tables, but this guy's low priced Yankees relics and autos had me biting all day. This one was out of 2008 UD Baseball Heroes, numbered out of only 50! Its cards like these that really pop, especially the blue parallel. Plus with the hint of a pinstripe, I couldn't go wrong! 

This card was actually my final pickup of the show, that Dad actually bought for me. He had a few spare singles and we put together enough money to buy this 2006 Allen & Ginter jersey relic of don't ya know? Robby Cano. I absolutely love any relic or autograph from any year of the Ginter line, and this card has to be one of my favorite cards of Cano in my PC. Again, this one has a pinstripe, and with this card I now only need his newest relic out of 2011 Ginter to complete the chase of his relics in the product. 

Finally, the most expensive Cano card of the day was this 2011 Topps Triple Threads five piece bat relic, spelling out "Robby". Numbered only 12 of 27, this is definitely one of the lowest numbered cards I own of his, and I love its design. Triple Threads is such an expensive product but if you hit big, I think it can be well worth it! I would be happy with this pull, but then again I did buy the card for $25, instead of paying a good $100 on a pack of it. 

Anyways, I hope by now you can tell that Cano is certainly one of my favorites on the current Yankee team! At this moment I have 172 unique cards of his, and will have a few more incoming! Be sure to stay tuned for more card show review posts and future posts!

See Ya!

Heck of a Package from a Heck of a Guy!

Hey everyone, Drew back here. After a long day walking the floors of the Museum of Natural History, I'm about ready for either sleep or something super entertaining to make up for the tiny amount of fun I had today. Fortunately, maybe a week ago now, my awesome friend and fellow blogger William sent me an enormous box of all sorts of goodies! He recently moved from an apartment and unloaded a bunch of unwanted Yankees stuff for Connor and I to share! Take a look!

My dad came walking into my room that Saturday, saying, "Drew, you have a package", while holding by far the largest package I've ever gotten in my life.  

In the box was a good 15-20 old Beckett Baseball magazines, spanning from the late 1990's to basically now. Going through the articles was certainly fun, especially the one after the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, as well as the Tuff Stuff magazine published just following the passing of Mickey Mantle. That magazine featured a really interesting interview that they had with Mickey just before he passed.

Some of my favorite magazines were these old Becketts from the mid 1990's. Both of them featured a young Alex Rodriguez, before the steroids! In the first, he's shown reading a Superboy comic book, and the second also featured Derek Jeter with A-Rod! I didn't get an opportunity to read them yet but I'm sure it will be fun to read, especially when I can look at their current statistics today. 

Finally, there were also a few smaller magazines and articles in there, including the 2009 Season Preview book. Jeez, I wonder how those 3 Yankees on the cover turned out for them!

Also in there was this cool poster advertising the release of 2007 Topps Moments and Milestones. I'm assuming he got this at his old card shop where he used to work, so it's neat to own something that most likely hung up in a card shop. Moments and Milestones certainly was not one of the best products ever made, in fact, I can clearly state it was one of the worst, but its still very neat to own.

Next was a large photo of many of the famous game worn memorabilia from the Don Larsen World Series perfect game! It came with some sort of certificate of authenticity, and also came a little bent up by the mail, but I think it would be pretty cool to get signed by Larsen TTM! We'll see if I get some time and materials to get it out, which should be interesting, but hopefully I'll get it done.

Scattered around the box were a good 5 or 6 loose packs of 1989 Topps Big baseball. I'm not sure what to make of these, because they don't fit in just about anything I can put them in, but I'm happy I pulled a few Mattingly cards at least.

Perhaps my favorite part of the package came in a Sweet Spot Classic tin, a load of 2011 Topps Heritage cards! While I assume there's still plenty more Yankees to find in the set, these knocked a ton off the team set list. I'm a big fan of the new Heritage design, and while most of the cards are basic close up shots, it really represents what the set was getting at back in the early 60's.

There were also a few subset cards and inserts from the Heritage set. The subsets included the CC Sabathia action shots, along with the Mark Teixeira/A-Rod "Hot Corner Guardians", and the inserts include the Marichal/Sabathia Then and Now, and the Cano New Age Performers, which I needed for my Cano collection!

The final card in the package was a chrome card out of 2011 Heritage, numbered to 1962, of my man, Nick Swisher! I could always use a new card of Swish for my collection, and now I have the chrome and green chrome refractors of his from Heritage. I'm not sure if there are any more variations of his for this year but if there is and you have one up for trade, please let me know. 

So, all in all, William, you're the best trader I've ever worked with, and one of the nicest guys not only in the community but all around, that I know! Thanks so much for everything you've done to help me out and I look forward to trading with you in the future! If you haven't seen his blog yet, please please PLEASE go read foul bunt! He would definitely appreciate any and all new readers!

Thanks again dude! See Ya!