2012 East Coast National Recap! (Pt. 2)

Hey everyone, Drew back here. It is now that time where I'll try to show you how I blew a good portion of my birthday money! Aren't you excited? Here goes.

First and foremost, there was a local dealer at our show that had a lot of football pictures for sale, all for fairly low prices. He was a nice guy, and although his stuff didn't have COA's, I trusted him because he told me each and every signing he got the pictures signed at. I remember Santonio Holmes having a local appearance at a Gold's Gym nearby, and sure enough, this picture I bought signed off of him was from that signing! I had a baseball game that day and missed out, but from what I've heard I didn't miss too much, as he's a bit of a jerk. However, I can't discredit him for helping the Jets big time throughout the past couple of years.

Second, we have a beautiful 2012 Topps Museum Collection jumbo relic of Curtis Granderson! It has one very visible pinstripe, as well as 2 others that are a bit cut off, oh, and it's numbered out of 35! I've loved Museum Collection from the start, and I've been meaning to acquire one of the large relics they feature. Finally, I did.

Say what you want about the ugly looking sticker autograph, but Raul Ibanez has been beyond clutch for the Yankees this year! There aren't a lot of great autographs of his out there, and for the price, I couldn't go wrong. I didn't like the signing at the beginning of the year (I wanted Damon), but the Yankees ended up making myself, as well as many other critical fans, look stupid. 

From the same vendor, I also took home this 2010 Topps National Chicle autograph of Giants phenom pitcher Madison Bumgarner! I don't follow Bumgarner a whole lot but he has a lot of potential, and I've been meaning to get his autograph off of the checklist. It's a very nice card, even though a majority of this product got a bit sketchy. Surprisingly, with all of the autographs of current players that I own, this is my first of any Giants pitcher. 

As I mentioned earlier, before this season I wished the Yankees would try to sign Johnny Damon again. But after his performance on Cleveland, leading to his release, I can see why they passed on the aging veteran. However, I loved Damon while he was a Yankee, and I needed his autograph pretty badly too. Not out of my favorite product, but it is very nice nonetheless.

I also bought this 2012 Bowman Platinum relic autograph of Rays rookie Matt Moore! Moore technically is in his rookie season, but he impressed big time in the postseason, enough to make the rotation this year. I took a chance with him in fantasy baseball, and while he started off pretty badly, he got it all together and lately he's been beyond solid. The card isn't numbered, but it really is nice for a sticker auto. Well done Bowman Platinum, well done.

The final purchase of the day just so happened to be with my good friends Rich and Hunter, and it was a 2002 SP Legendary Cuts relic of Yogi Berra! After going to his museum, I almost felt like it was necessary to buy at least one card of his at the show. With just under $20 left, and searching for just the right closing card, I came up clutch with a beautiful wool relic swatch. I'm not as big into relics as I once was, but that wool always makes me think twice. 

Stay tuned for Part 3 of 4 of my card show recap!

See Ya!

Mail from "Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle"!

Hey guys, Drew back here! Boy, am I taking my time with this whole "catching up" thing. I've got about 3 trades sitting on desk, along with a few TTM's, and some eBay pickups that haven't even posted yet. Oh well, I'll get to them eventually. First, I want to share my results of a trade I made with Greg from "Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle". Hopefully I will soon make enough trades with Greg that I will remember how to spell Plaschke without having to go to his blog. Anyways, Greg sent me all sorts of great stuff after I sent over my Russell Martin autograph, which he needed for his Martin collection. Take a look at what I got in return:

First off, Greg sent over a lot of very nice Knicks and Nets cards for my basketball collection! I prefer the Knicks over the Nets, but I am a big fan of Brook Lopez; and former Nets Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, and Devin Harris! A lot of the players were out of my time period in this case, but I recognized most of the names, and its cool to see Celtics coach Doc Rivers on a card as a Knick!

Getting back to my favorite sport, I was also sent a bunch of nice Yankees for my collection! I never saw the Daryl Strawberry and Alfonso Soriano cards before, so I'm glad I was able to finally add them.

There is nothing more exciting than opening packages that contain multiple relics and autographs inside them! Greg sent 5 of which in this package! The first was this awesome 2011 Topps CC Sabathia relic card, which is just a really great card all around. The relic isn't the plain white jazz you always get these days, but instead looks to be a different part of the jersey. I'm not exactly sure where, or if this is even from his Yankees uniform (I'm guessing Brewers), but if anybody has a reasonable guess, please leave it in the comments because I'm very curious to find out where this is from!

I doubt many of you have seen my "Secondary Collections" page, which contains a list of all of the other things I collect, and my current status at achieving Trifectas of as many people that I've met yet. If you can recall, I happened to meet Steve Garvey way back when, and after adding an autograph of his to the collection, I still was in need of a game used relic and a rookie card to complete his trifecta. While I'm still in need of the 1971 Topps Steve Garvey, Greg helped me out by sending over this 2001 SP Authentic "Cooperstown Calling" relic! Unfortunately, Garvey has never gotten a call from Cooperstown, but after looking back at his career statistics, he honestly deserved more of a chance. 

Hey, what do you know? It's a 2005 Just Minors autograph card of Russell Martin! If you remember correctly, I mentioned at the beginning of the post that I traded my Martin autograph in order for this trade to work out. It turned out that Greg is a big Russell Martin Supercollector, and he had duplicates of a rookie autograph of his that he could send over to me in exchange for the one I had, which he needed badly for his collection. I was fine with dealing my autograph, and I'm certainly content with this one here. It's numbered 75  out of 100, and while the design is lacking something in my opinion, the autograph is there which is all that matters. As a side note, I really like Martin's signature; in my opinion its one of the better ones in baseball today.

The final two cards were both of my beloved yet disappointing Jets. First up was this awesome "War Room" prime relic of rookie running back Bilal Powell. I don't know much about Powell, besides the fact that he was the 4th round pick last year and he didn't get much playing time last season. This card is supposedly a patch card, although no other colors are showing. It's also numbered very low, at 9/50! Hopefully he'll pan out someday!

The final card was of everyone's favorite wide receiver who doesn't like to shut up, Santonio Holmes! Holmes has certainly had issues on and off the field during his entire NFL career, but somehow I still love watching him play. If people have a problem with him as a team captain, don't make him a captain then. Other players can fill the roles much better. He has a lot of talent but that doesn't translate into a good leader always. He already signed a lengthy contract with NY prior to last season, so he won't be going anywhere. I love watching him make great catches in clutch moments, and hopefully the best is yet to come! This career is numbered 2/99, out of 2011 Panini Crown Royale!

Thanks so much Greg for the trade! I really appreciate it and I hope to deal with you again! Everyone please go give his blog a look!

See Ya!

Dad Strikes Again (Show Recap Part IV)

Hey guys, Drew back here. I've been pretty busy lately, but I'm back, with Part 4 of the show recap, the one where dad buys everything in. Take a look!

PART 4:
DAD ATTACK

So, while I bought my things and waited in line, dad bought quite a bit of stuff. He requested a copy of my wantlist and really helped do some damage to it. Check out his set list attack:

First of all, the rest of the 2010 Allen & Ginter set, except 1 card. He accidentally missed card #75, so we need that. This isn't all though, I'm expecting a few more needed cards in some trades coming up. But, yeah, a ton of the cards I needed for Allen & Ginter, which isn't as nice as 2009 but is still great nonetheless.

Also, he knocked off a majority of the 2010 Topps Series 2 Legendary Lineage cards. I really like the looks of these, and they look awesome side by side.

Also, he raided the .10 cent bin, and found a nice lot of Yankees goodies, including 4 Bernie Williams rookies, and a Marcus Thames rookie, which I needed for my Yankees rookie card collection. Nice!

A sweet chrome card from 2010 Topps Heritage of Mariano, numbered 1227/1961.

And a ton of other rookies, including:
- 1984 Fleer Don Mattingly
- 2000 Bowman Chrome Adrian Gonzalez
- 2001 Topps Justin Morneau
- 2003 Bowman Chrome Sergio Mitre
- 2006 Bowman Chrome Jeremy Hellickson
- 2007 UD SP Rookie Edition Tim Lincecum
- 2007 Bowman Tim Lincecum
- 2007 Bowman Phil Hughes
- 2008 Donruss EEE College Ties David Price/Brett Jacobsen /1500
- 2009 Topps Magic Mark Sanchez
- 2010 Bowman Gold Austin Jackson

A really sweet lot! My favorite is the Hellickson, then probably the Rookie Edition Lincecum, but they're all awesome.

Then onto some hits!

2009 Sweet Spot Josh Hamilton Jersey

Josh Hamilton has evolved into one of my favorite players in baseball, because I like how he got through all his troubles and became an MVP candidate this year. I loved his display at the Home Run Derby a few years ago, oh, and did I mention he was on the Renegades, my minor league team? I may start a small collection of Josh, so be on the lookout for a future announcement regarding that.

2007 Topps Joe Mauer Bat Card

Well played, Mauer. A very nice bat chip of former MVP Joe Mauer, another non-Yankee favorite of mine. I've always respected Joe and he seems like a cool guy, plus he's a great batting average hitting catcher, something we don't see often.

2007 Topps Ryan Howard All Star Jersey

ANOTHER one of my favorite non-Yankees, Ryan Howard. Ryan has had a nice little career so far and I really like this card. Except it says patch for the whole set, which isn't right. Plus, black jerseys are cooler than white/gray jerseys, more unique.

2010 Donruss Elite Santonio Holmes Jersey /135

Another awesome card, haven't gotten much 2010 football cards yet, so this is a nice start. Also, it's a black jersey again, which is awesome too, and it's numbered relatively low. Santonio is gonna be a monster once he gets out of his 4 game suspension, and the Jets are going to need him down the stretch.

2010 Topps Heritage Evan Longoria Bat Relic

Look who decided to show up again? It's Mr. Longoria and he found his hat it looks like, which is good. Here's a nice little sliver of his bat for you, a very nice card indeed. I like these relics, even though this is probably one of the top 3 cards in the set, which isn't really impressive.

2010 Upper Deck Mariano Rivera Jersey Relic

This is a card I've bookmarked before, because it's so nice! And now it's mine, honestly, I think it may be my 1st Mariano Rivera jersey card, which is kinda unimpressive. Mariano is a legend, and I really really like him, he seems like he could be any man's best friend. And 500+ saves? 1st ballot Hall of Famer all the way. Cool Card!

2006 UD Future Stars Boone Logan Auto

Well, Boone has emerged as a top reliever for the Yankees this year, after starting off slow. He came back however, and replaced Marte as the left handed specialist. It's nice to have his auto, and it's a RC auto so I guess I can count it in the RC PC too.

2005 Bowman's Best Michael Bourn RC Auto /974

This guy is becoming a pretty good player, and I like him. He steals a lot of bases, doesn't do much else, but he's fast, and I like speed a lot. No, not the drug, fastness, running hard, that stuff. 44 steals so far, nice!

Thanks so much dad! You da man! See Ya!