Mail from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop!

Hey everyone, so much for a grand start to the year. With all of this constant planning for my European adventure about to set sail in less than 2 weeks, I haven't had much time to blog. Thankfully, my buddy Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop randomly asked for my address and sent along a whole lot of Yankees cards I've never seen. Daniel is one of the mainstays our blogosphere has enjoyed the company of for several years, and has fantastic Diamondbacks collections.

I absolutely love the occasional care package, especially when I get to pick through dime box quality inserts and parallels. Daniel gave me that chance, but I didn't even have to choose between cards or get my wallet out!

There appears to be a difference between the material released today versus ten years ago. It seems like there are a never ending influx of insert cards that came out in the early to mid 2000's that I've never seen. I wasn't much of a collector until 2005, when I first got into baseball. So being able to add various inserts of the Yankees I grew up watching as a kid that I've never seen is always enjoyable.

Many of the cards Daniel sent over were short printed. My favorite obscure parallels were the 2003 Donruss Black and White Exhibit cards of Mike Mussina and Jason Giambi. The Mussina is numbered 30/63 copies, whereas the Giambi is 14 of only 46 in existence. They're unique cards of two players I got to know really well over the years. Here's to hoping Moose makes it into the Hall of Fame one day.

The final card I wished to highlight from Daniel's care package was this awesome Eric Chavez 2013 Topps camo parallel numbered 61 of 99. 2013 was the first year Topps brought camo parallels to their flagship baseball sets. In 2014, they did something very similar, and in 2015 went with the "Snow Camo" look. This is my first of any of the three, and I really like it! Granted, Chavez won't be known for his Yankee years, but he did have a few noteworthy moments in pinstripes.

Thank you so much Daniel for a really fun package! I'm going to do my best to return the favor before I leave!

The Man Who Ruined Fenway's 100th Joins My PC!

Hey guys, Drew back here! Yesterday, my JV coach gave us all a break from practice, because we've played so much of late. While I absolutely love playing baseball, I was glad we got this break because not only was I extremely exhausted but also the Red Sox vs. Yankees game was an earlier one and I wanted to catch the game! It was certainly a special day in Fenway Park, as the Sox honored their past and present greats in celebration of their stadium's 100th anniversary. While being a Yankee fan, I thought it was really nice what they did for the fans, because no matter who you are, you have to respect the tradition and greatness of Fenway Park. I would love to go there sometime just to see what it's like, but all that is for another post. When gametime came, it was all about my Yankees ruining the party!

They most certainly did ruin the party, knocking Clay Buchholz around for 6 runs, 5 of which coming from home runs! Ivan Nova won his 15th straight decision, which is unreal for a guy as young as he is to accomplish, by a final of 6-2. The game would've been much closer if it wasn't for their backup 3rd baseman, experienced veteran Eric Chavez, who hit two solo home runs en route to the victory! I happened to just recently pick up an autograph of Chavez, so it was only fitting that he did so well the other night. Take a look:

This Chavez auto came out of 1999 SP Authentic's "Chirography" subset, which was made during his best years of his career. The 6 time Gold Glove winning 3rd baseman has hit 232 home runs in his very solid 15 year career. He won't be considered one of the best of the best when he's all said and done, but he has been a pretty solid all around player for a long time, which has to say something. Another thing I like about him is that he was one of the better players on that "Moneyball" team, which I have to say was one heck of a good movie. I was surprised that Brad Pitt would be able to pull off a baseball movie that well!

With this very cheap addition to my collection, I now own an autograph of about 17 of the current Yankees rosters' autographs. Rivera and A-Rod will be the most expensive, but I'm making it a goal to at least get one of the 2 this year at some point.

See Ya!

2008 UD Masterpieces Box Break Part 1

Hey guys, Drew back here. For my birthday, I decided to pick out 3 boxes to break. I ended up with 4, but I'll get to that eventually. The cheapest one was 2008 UD Masterpieces, so I'll share that with you now. But first, the product info...

PRODUCT CONTENT
12 Packs Per Box
6 Cards Per Pack
72 Cards Per Box
4 Yankee Stadium Legacies
6 Short Prints Per Box
1 Game Used Jersey Card Per Box
1 On Card Autograph Per Box

Let's get rippin!

MY BOX BREAK:

Base Set: 56/90 (1 double: Ryne Sandberg)

- The base from Masterpieces are truly Masterpieces, the canvas feel makes the cards one of the best sets, in my opinion, ever. EVER. I think 2007 got it beat a little on the player selection but 2008 is awesome too.

Short Prints: 6/30 (Sandberg, Griffey Jr, DiMaggio, Berra, Schmidt, Musial)

- Great cards of awesome players. I don't know if I'm gonna attempt this set though after my troubles with Goudey.

Yankee Stadium Legacies: 4/7,000,000,000,000,000,000

- Very boring set at this point, even as a Yankee fan. But I do like the Yogi and the WWII one.

Black Parallels: 4/120 (Pence, Howard, Harden, N. Ryan SP)

- These are so nice, even nicer than the base cards I must say. We pulled a Short Print Black Border of Nolan Ryan also, and it looks amazing. The Harden and Pence are definitely for trade, make me a good offer if you want the others.

Red Parallel: 1 (Jake Peavy)
Blue Parallel /125: Max Scherzer RC (003/125)

- More true greatness, the blue kinda looks really similar to the black unless you look close. The red, well, what do you think, it sticks out a ton, and looks pretty nice!

Game Used: #CC-EC Eric Chavez

- So, I have a funny story to tell ya. So I was opening this box of 2008 Masterpieces, and it was all nice and stuff, until I opened a pack up to find this piece of material, that Eric Chavez wore in an MLB game. Last time I checked this could be anything, maybe, ya know, couch worn pajamas while wearing a full body cast watching baseball on the sidelines? Ok, my rant is done. Point is, this hit is DEFINITELY FOR TRADE! Moving on.

Autograph: #SG-XN Xavier Nady

- We conclude this box break with an autograph signed by former Yankee Xavier Nady. Not an awesome hit but I'll certainly take it for the Yankees collection! He has a really cool auto, and the card is very nice.

The grades are being worked on now, and they will be posted tomorrow! See Ya!

Nice card I got recently

I went to Dragons Den last weekend and picked this up: (sorry for the glare)

It's a
2009 UD Piece of History
Franchise History Relic Card of
The Captain
4 Time World Series Champion
Mr. November
And My favorite player,
Derek Jeter

My 1st!
Now I have a tiny piece of a jersey he wore in a game! YIPEE!

Also I got this, which is for trade (although I don't know who would want it):

2009 UD Piece of History Eric Chavez Stadium Scenes #ed/999 ( i got this in a pack)

Also, my mom gave me 2 packs of Topps Series 1 09 today and the best card was a Travis Snider Rookie Card. See Ya!