Much Delayed Pickups from COMC!

Hey guys, Drew back here! I haven't had a whole lot coming in over the past few weeks, but I did get this package in a while back that I haven't gotten around to showing off to you all just yet. I ordered some cards off of Check Out My Collectibles after selling a few cards I'd been wanting to move, all of which going towards my new Player Collections box I've been building while I've been away from the blogosphere. Take a look at what I was able to add this go-round:

When I first made my list of players I wanted to collect from this point on, I made sure to look young in some cases. Obviously I love a lot of the legends of the game, and a majority of my list consists of those players, but I was also sure to pick a few new favorites such as Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, and Bryce Harper. Cutch has been a favorite of mine for a few seasons now while I've been warming up to Trout and Harper along the way. The Home Run Derby I attended last summer definitely made me a bigger Harper fan, because I originally labeled him as cocky and arrogant (kind of like Puig). I love the intensity each of these 3 players bring to the table; they're always willing to go the extra mile and that has allowed them to be as successful as they have been. Also, while Robinson Cano left New York, I still decided to collect his cards because I've been a fan of his from the very beginning of his career and I can't let the business part in baseball get in the way of me rooting for one of my favorite players ever. I don't like seeing him in a Mariners uniform but he is still a favorite of mine, without a doubt!

The Knicks suck. I've been so incredibly disappointed with them this season, as I came into the 2013-14 season with high expectations coming off of a very good previous season. Now, I can't even bring myself to watch them, and I think a lot of smart business moves need to be made before I can really take interest in them again. However, I don't see James Dolan making any of those smart moves, so until he's out of the franchise, I don't know if I can get my expectations up again. Amar'e Stoudemire, despite all of his injuries, is still my current favorite Knick, although Carmelo is carrying most of the load. I feel bad for his poor health even though he's making a boatload of money because I see how much he cares about being a part of the team and wanting to contribute. I picked up this relic of his for a few dollars just for the heck of it. It's out of 2012-13 Timeless Treasures and is numbered 76 of 99. 

Tyson Chandler is another favorite of mine on the Knicks during this dark period. I love the way he carries the team on defense and he does a great job in his role. Unfortunately he doesn't have much help, as the defense is basically helpless outside of his performance, so with his frequent injuries it leads to many more problems. I picked up this gorgeous dual patch autograph of Chandler's from 2012-13 Panini National Treasures numbered only to 10 for a pretty fair (while expensive) price, but it's absolutely gorgeous and I'm glad to add it to my collection, despite how pathetic the Knicks have played this season.

Finally, going back to my Cano tangent, here's a really sweet 2011 Topps Triple Threads relic numbered only to 9 featuring Robby along with Hall of Famer's Joe Morgan and Roberto Alomar! The relics spell out Second Sackers, and while sort of cheesy, the card is still amazing to look at in person and it's really cool to see a personal favorite player of mine stacked up with the all time greats at his trade! I think Cano will ultimately go down as one of the best second basemen of all time (especially offensively, while he more than holds his own defensively as well), and quite possibly a Hall of Famer as well!

So that's all I have for now everyone, hopefully I'll be getting some stuff in soon leading up to perhaps the biggest event I've attended yet coming up next month! Be on the lookout for that, but until then, see ya!

Revealing the Mysterious Binder... A Little at a Time... Awesome Rookie Cards!

Hey guys, Drew back here! So, I believe the binder series is almost complete, with this and maybe one more following it! I don't think I could ever be any more lucky in my life than I was with this thing. While you probably already are jealous enough, I'm sure you will be even more jealous after you see these:

This post is dedicated to the rookie cards I found in the binder. These 4 1967 Topps rookie cards were fairly nice, as the main rookies out of them were Rick Monday, Mark Belanger, and Joe Niekro. I really like the 1967 Topps set, its fairly colorful and has a lot of nice photos in it. I bet I could even build it one day with the amount of cards from it that I found in the binder. 

The first big rookie was also from the 1967 Topps set, of Minnesota Twins legend Rod Carew! Before I get into Carew more, Hank Allen, the other player on the card, was a decent utility player, who could play anywhere. He wasn't as great as his brother, Richard "Dick" Allen, but he was an average player in his 7 year career. As for Mr. Carew, well, what can't you say about the guy! In a 19 year career, Carew spent 12 years as a Twin, and 7 for the California Angels. His lifetime batting average speaks for itself, an incredible .328! In that 19 year career, he was named to 18 All Star teams, and was named the AL Rookie of the Year following his rookie season. In 1977, he won the AL MVP by posting a remarkable .388 batting average for Minnesota. He's also a member of the 3,000 Hit Club, and obviously, the Hall of Fame!

This card normally sells for quite a bit of money, typically from between $75 and $300, depending on the condition, with a possibility of it being worth even more graded. So its safe to say it would've been a major pain to land this card without having to shell out quite a bit of money! It's a beautiful card, in very nice shape, and I definitely am happy to add it to my Hall of Fame rookie card collection. 

But that's not all! On the final page of the binder, I found this 1965 Topps Houston Colt .45's rookie card of Joe Morgan and Sonny Jackson! I got this same card from my Pop Popps a while back, and already wrote a bit on Morgan and the card in general when I first posted it. I'm definitely happy to find a second copy of the card, but I'd be very interested in trading this straight up for either the 1961 Topps Juan Marichal rookie or the 1961 Topps Ron Santo rookie, that way I can help my set rather than have 2 of the same card. Let me know if you have either of those, or any other nice Hall of Fame rookie that you would trade for it. 

Well, that's it for this part of the series dedicating my pot of gold! Hope you enjoyed it! 

See Ya!

White Plains Card Show Recap 3/27/11! Part 4

Hey everyone, Drew back here. It's been a long, grueling battle to get myself back to this blog lately, with all of the baseball and school work going on. I've had this long term science project to do on Extinction Level Events for the past few weeks, and it has been by far the most boring stuff I've ever had to write a paper on. Also, I had a scrimmage for my town league yesterday, and I ended up going 4-4 with 3 singles, a walk, 2 RBI, and a huge triple over the left fielders head. I also got my opportunity to pitch, and I went 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball in relief of my starter. I struck out 3 and allowed 2 hits and 2 walks. Late last night, I was playing manhunt at my friend's house, and I ended up hurting my back by turning it funny, so I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle in it. Nonetheless, here I am now, finally ready and able to finish off the final post on the White Plains Card Show. Without further adieu, let us continue!

After Dad, Mike, and I got some quick lunch at Nathans, the indoor mini fast food restaurant the Westchester County Center contains, Mike and I jumped in line. We began to start talking to a fellow collector in line, who was familiar with our school, and actually looked pretty familiar. He ended up being the father of a girl in our freshmen class, and we didn't even know that until he notified us of that just a minute or so before we began to meet some players. It was pretty cool to see a local collector at a card show, especially one with as many cool collecting stories as he did.

So, the first player I met was former pitcher Luis Tiant! Tiant was a 3 time All Star throughout the mid 1960's to the early 1980's, and he was best known for his stint with the Red Sox. A famous moment etched into Yankees lure is when Bucky Dent hit his memorable home run, which was actually given up by "El Tiante". He also pitched for the Yankees in 1979 and 1980, and is subjected in the 2009 ESPN film "The Lost Son of Havana", displayed in Cuba, where Tiant was born.

I went up to Mr. Tiant, who must have been battling a cold, because outside of the few seconds he took to shake my hand and sign my card, he couldn't go without holding his tissues and sneezing right in front of me!

I didn't get to say a whole lot to Mr. Tiant, but I did walk away with this very nice looking signed Yankees custom I made of him. Tiant has a pretty cool looking signature, and it is now my second autograph of his in my collection, after I bought a triple autograph of Ron Guidry/Goose Gossae/Tiant a while back.

As I walked down the line of former players, the next I met was former Yankee Ron Blomberg. Blomberg began his career in the late 60's, but played until the end of the 70's. He was a solid player all around, but he was most known for being the first player to play the Designated Hitter position in MLB history! Blomberg was a really cool guy and he really liked the looks of my custom I made for him to sign. While he wasn't the biggest name I met, I'm pretty sure he was my favorite one of the day!

Here's a scan of my card signed by Blomberg. I really struggled to find a good picture of him, but I don't think this one looked too bad.

As a special bonus to buying tickets for both Tiant and Blomberg, you could receive this 8x10 photo of the 2 of them together for free! It would've looked nice signed but I had other intentions with the autographs anyway, so I'm good with just the picture. Tiant had actually been the first pitcher to face a designated hitter (Blomberg) in history, so it was a cool little piece of information.

Next was Steve Garvey, the player I spent the most $ to meet that day. Garvey had been a 10 time All Star, 4 time Gold Glover, and the 1974 NL MVP back in his day for the Dodgers. He had been a part of one of the best infields of all time, the infield consisting of Dodgers: Garvey, Bill Russell, Ron Cey, and Davey Lopes. With 2,599 hits, 272 home runs, and a lifetime batting average of .294, in my opinion I think he should have a plaque in Cooperstown. Anyway, he was a very nice man, and he seemed like he was a fan of my custom. It was hard to tell how much he really wanted to be there, but I think he was fairly content with signing for the fans.

I took advantage of the "1 Free Inscription" deal, and got Garvey to write "74 NL MVP" under his autograph and number. It looks fairly good, maybe it would have been better if he used sharpie instead of just a plain blue pen.

Following Garvey, we took a little break, but then headed in line to meet 2 more guys, the first being the freebie of the day, former Cy Young winner LaMarr Hoyt. Hoyt used to rock a huge beard during his hey day in the 1980's, but since then it has all disappeared. He didn't really say much, but he wasn't a jerk, so I'm fine with that. Dad found me an extra autograph ticket laying around on the ground earlier, so I was able to also get an 8x10 signed along with the custom.

Outside of the awesome looking White Sox uniforms, there is nothing overly exciting with this guy. He had actually been arrested 4 times due to drug problems throughout his career, but since he's been drug free. I must say though, I don't get that autograph at all, because it looks like it says "Don/Son Hoyt" rather than LaMarr. Still nice adds to my collection though.

Finally, the last player we met was former All Star pitcher Tommy John! While of course he is well known for the surgery named after him, frequently now given to pitchers that had similar arm problems to him, he was a heck of a pitcher from the 1960's to the late 1980's. He won 288 games, the 26th most of any pitcher in baseball history. He made 4 All Star teams, and pitched for the Yankees in 2 stints in the 1980's. He is often found in the same boat with former pitchers Jim Kaat, Bert Blyleven, and now Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte, in the group of pitchers that have good stats but perhaps not good enough for the Hall of Fame. The borderline guys. Blyleven of course made it into the Hall this past year, so maybe it'll soon be John's turn.

John was a fairly nice guy, but he seemed very caught up with signing 8x10 photos for something, maybe the mail order or something. He looked up quick to talk to me about my card and shake my hand, and took a picture with Mike and I, but other than that, he was signing his hand off. It seemed like a lot of the guys from the show had their hands full that day. However, the custom looks great and I was really happy to be able to meet him.

But that's not all! Outside of the 5 guys I had the opportunity to meet that day, I also sent in a mail order request to get a card signed by someone signing the previous day. I would have preferred to go on the Saturday rather than the Sunday, but dad had to work Saturday so I was in desperation to get one of the guy's autographs. When I was getting ready to send it out, I checked the website one last time and realized that the card needed to be at the place by the next day or else it wouldn't get signed. So, I had to pay 20 bucks extra on shipping just so the card could get there in time. Unfortunately, I had to pay a ton just for a single card to get signed, but now that I have it, I don't have to worry about getting his autograph again!

The card was signed by Reds Hall of Famer Joe Morgan! Morgan may be one of the most awful announcers of all time, but when he was a player, he was terrific. A ten time All Star, 2 time World Series champion, 2 time NL MVP, and a 5 time Gold Glover makes him perhaps the best 2nd baseman of all time! He was a tremendous player all around, and could hit for power, a very often hard to find feature in a second baseman. Today, it's very hard to find a second baseman that will hit some home runs, so it goes to show how good of a player he is.

Morgan had never been much of a TTM signer, so I knew that when I had an opportunity to get his card signed, even for the price, I knew it was worth it. He is now the 8th player in my Hall of Fame set, joining: Feller, Doerr, Snider, Bunning, MacPhail, Irvin, and Kiner!

All in all, even though I came home dirt broke, with not a dime in change, I bought a lot of really nice cards and met some former great players. We all had a blast and as always, can't wait for the next one!

See Ya!

Vintage Cards from Pop Popps

Hey guys, Drew back here. It was a long day, I couldn't log on until now because we went to the mall. I got 12 packs of 2010 Topps, a blaster and 2 hobby, and 1 pack of 206. I'll have those up tonight or tomorrow, probably tomorrow. Pop Popps gave me some cards after I went to Al Hammell pre-season baseball camp, and they were sweet! Here are the highlights, it was a regular size stack but I just scanned the best ones:

4 Hall of Famers (and Steve Garvey)
I already had the Schoendienst but he's a Hall of Famer so I don't mind. I really like the Billy Williams card for some reason, I don't have much of him. Definitely some cool ones in this bunch.


1974 Topps Reggie Jackson/Willie Stargell League Leaders
Boy this is a sweet card! 2 examples of 70's players with awesome facial hair! And 2 excellent players! I never hear anything about Stargell, well, that may be because he passed away.


2 1965 Topps Bob Veale/Bob Gibson/Don Drysdale League Leaders
Awesome, my 1st Drysdale vintage card, actually, probably my 1st Drysdale anything! I have a Gibby auto and 2 game used from boxes, and I really like him, because he was so dominant. So overpowerful, which may result in being on a strikeout leader card. Adding Veale is practically a bonus. Lovin this card(s).


1965 Topps Joe Morgan/Sonny Jackson Rookie Card!
Now we're talking! One of the best cards he's given me, books for 60 but you could get it much cheaper. It's not in great shape but it's awesome to own a Hall of Fame rookie card, even if he is a pretty bad announcer. This is not for trade!

Thanks Pop Popps, and See Ya!