Mailday: Trade with Mr. Baseball (Scott)

Hey guys, Drew back here. On Christmas Eve, I opened a blaster box of 2014 Topps Updates & Highlights, and the hit of the box was a David Ortiz Commemorative patch card. As soon as I pulled the card, I thought in my head "Scott", and immediately texted him to see if he was interested. A few years ago I pulled a Stadium Club Ortiz Triumvirate auto, and as much as I didn't like Ortiz I was reluctant to move it until I saw my friend Scott starting to collect any and all of his cards. I traded him the Ortiz for a Michael Pineda blue Chrome refractor rookie auto out of Topps Chrome, and well, I'm still hoping the deal pans out for me! This year I didn't take as big of a risk, but sent him some cash and considerations along with the Ortiz for a 65 card lot of Yankees base/inserts over the past few years. Take a look at some of what I came home with:

Nothing overly spectacular, but that's exactly what I was hoping for in this move. I haven't bought nearly enough packs/boxes in recent years, so with moves like this I feel almost rejuvenated in a sense. I'm looking forward to adding these to my card boxes and sorting through them all, and I really appreciate the move, Scott! Best of luck in school next semester!

For any of you that haven't gotten the chance to check out Scott's blog or YouTube accounts, please do yourself a favor. He's got a very impressive Ortiz collection, and since a good majority of baseball fans don't like the Red Sox, perhaps you guys may want to work out something with this poor guy ;) Thanks again for the deal Scott!

In other quick blog news, I'm currently working on finalizing a few things to display my personal collections. I'm one player away from unveiling my Google Docs spreadsheets containing every card I own of all of my PC players, and also working on a Flickr account that will show the highlights of each of those collections. Be on the lookout for that, and also in the future I should have a trade/sale album on there too. I'm still selling on COMC.com, and if any of you want to look at my store, click this link here. I'm willing to negotiate on nearly everything so I can buy cards of players to send out TTM next season and for future endeavors as well. Lastly, I've been on Twitter for a little while now, and I'd love to be more involved in our community on social media, so I'd love to connect with any and all of you guys on there, just give me a follow!

Anyway, that will do it for now, stay tuned for plenty more to come this month, but for now, See Ya!

Mail Catchup!

Hey guys, Drew back here! For the second day in a row, we have a snow day here in "upstate" New York, which has been nice for me as I'm trying desperately to get somewhat organized before the holidays. I think it's about time I get some of these cards off my desk and loaded into binders, so take a look at some of what I've gotten in from my buddies William, Scott, and Andrew over the past few months!

We'll kick things off with William, who; although I've had a hard time keeping in good touch with this year, still treats me better than anyone else in this hobby. I can't begin to express my gratitude for his friendship and I always appreciate the random care packages! He always catches me up on the products I don't buy (which is basically every product at this point) and sends me the Yankees, and once again he came in clutch and really helped me out. I really like the Panini Cooperstown product and I like how they chose some pictures that aren't used as commonly. It's a nicely designed product and maybe one day I'll buy a pack or two!

I always have checked out Allen & Ginter, so it really says something about my interest in investing in packs that I hadn't bought a single pack this year. The Berra & Cano's were really appreciated, as well as the Jeter insert! It's going to be weird remembering Cano isn't a Yankee anymore but I'm still going to recognize and honor the 9 great years he put towards the Yankee organization and highlight him in my collection.

He also sent me all of the Topps Update Yankees he pulled, which was awesome of him too! I hardly opened any of the flagship product this year, and I actually really liked it. I've been spending my hobby money elsewhere, such as improving my Mickey Mantle 16x20 project and I've also had to allocate that money towards real world stuff such as gas and food. I've always enjoyed the update product though, because I'm the type of fan that really enjoys seeing how GM's can upgrade their teams and a majority of the cards in this set are the small names that Brian Cashman needed to make the most out of what was a pretty bad 2012 season. Lyle Overbay was solid all season, however Kevin Youkilis was injured most of the year. You win some, and you lose some, I guess.

Andrew surprised me one day with a PWE containing this sweet Mariano Rivera 2013 Bowman purple refractor numbered out of 199! I really appreciated that he went out of his way to give me this card for nothing other than being a good friend. Everyone go give his blog some love if you haven't already!

But that wasn't all that Andrew had to offer. I also recently participated in his group break of a box of Topps Update, and I ended up with the Yankees and Mets. I got all of the big base cards from each team including the Mariano Rivera inserts, the Home Run Derby cards, the Harvey card, and the Wheeler rookie card!  

On top of that, I got a few nice inserts, my favorite easily being the Mariano green parallel. While this past year wasn't very good for the baseball team, honoring Mo's legacy did make the season somewhat more of a success than it would've been! I also really like the Mussina "Chasing History" insert. I really hope he does well on the Hall of Fame ballot this year, because I think if he can survive the heavy classes of the next few years, he'll eventually get in.

Last but certainly not least, I made my first trade in the past century with my good friend Scott over at Mr. Baseball. He and I have made some trades in the past, but nothing major was ever moved between us, until now. I finally gave up my David Ortiz Stadium Club auto in exchange for all of these goodies, because while it held a significant memory in my hobby experience, it fit much better in Scott's Ortiz PC. I got a bunch of nice inserts in the deal, including the Jeter red parallel and the Cano silver ice out of Bowman. 

In addition to the inserts, I managed to pick up this Andy Pettitte relic with a pinstripe out of 2008 Upper Deck Timeline. Many people overlook the fact that Andy didn't play his entire career in New York, but he had some of his best seasons for Houston in the mid 2000's. He capped off his brilliant career last year, and he'll certainly be missed in the Yankees rotation next season. However, as Pettitte exits, enter a possible new era, as this guy could be vying for a spot next year:

Numbered out of 199 from 2011 Topps Chrome, the newest big addition to my collection is this Michael Pineda blue refractor autograph! Pineda has a ton of potential, some of which he's already shown in the majors during his rookie season. He played very little last season, all in the minors where he was recovering from his shoulder surgery he underwent. He currently has an opportunity to take a spot in next year's rotation, but Yankee fans haven't gotten their hopes up. He's still only 24, so there's a lot of time left before considering the near 2011 Rookie of the Year a dud. If he ends up working out, I'll be very proud to have this card, but if he doesn't, that's part of the risk you have to take with cards like these.

So, I want to thank all three of you for everything, you all went out of your way to improve my collection and it means a lot to me!

See Ya!

Mail from a New Friend, Scott!

Hey guys, Drew back here. I was really fortunate a few weeks ago to meet a kid named Scott through William! Scott is one year older than me, and is a genuinely awesome person without a doubt. William met him at one of his card shows and worked out a few deals with him, thus leading to him directing Scott over to my blog, as he always seems to do! Scott emailed me asking about a future trade, and we were able to work out a blockbuster trade as reporters would say. Take a look at some of the sweet cards he sent over to me:

I'll start with the extras I received. There were quite a few cards I needed badly, such as the Cano chrome card and the Eduardo Nunez chrome rookie. I even think I still needed the Nick Swisher Allen & Ginter card, which goes to show how well I've collected him over the past few months. The other day I was sorting out cards for a trade and found a box of Allen & Ginter laying there, still filled with all of the loose cards I already broke out of packs. I opened that box in August. Time to catch up there, Drew.

Here are some of my favorites of his throw ins. I absolutely love the Thurman Munson cereal box chrome refractor, which has alluded me for a few years now. The Vazquez purple refractor is numbered out of 599, and while he wasn't necessarily effective as a Yankee during his two stints, it really is a gorgeous card. I also really like the Josh Hamilton propaganda card. Hamilton has undergone a bit of speculation over this offseason with the whole "couple of beers scandal", which I find absolutely ridiculous and blown up. He still remains one of my favorite players, so nice try media.  

We now arrive to the meat of the trade, which begins with this very nice 2008 Upper Deck Spectrum relic card numbered to 99 of Curtis Granderson! Curtis has become a favorite in New York after his enormous 2011 season, and while it may be hard to repeat, he may be one of the only players in baseball that has the talent to be able to repeat it. Granderson is part of my secondary player collection list, and I'm always looking for cards of his I didn't already have. 

Next was this 2008 Allen & Ginter relic of Mark Teixeira. There isn't much to dislike about Mark, besides his often slow starts and occasional painful to watch playoff performances. He's a great clubhouse guy, as well as perhaps the best defensive first baseman in the league, and a very good power hitter. Sometimes his streaks irritate me but for the most part I like the guy a lot. This card is awesome too, even though Tex hardly played for Atlanta. Any red relic is uncommon to find, and as soon as Scott offered it to me I jumped right on it!

The final relic of the three he included in the trade was for my 2011 Topps Tier One relic set, this being of Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels. Hamels is one of the newer players on the checklist, and while most people wonder how he shares a card in the same set as the Great Bambino, I find it kind of cool to have a solid variety of players. Hamels will probably never have the career statistics to put himself in such an elite set, so I guess he should enjoy his time to shine now while he has it. This makes the 11th card of the 50 card set for me so far, which is great considering I started the set just a couple of months ago!

However, we aren't quite done here yet! Scott informed me prior to mailing his package out that he was going to be attending a dinner event with some current major league players, and offered to try and get me an autograph! I gladly took up his generous offer and sent over 2 customs cards, one for him and one for me, of one of the players attending the dinner! 

Scott didn't promise me an autograph by any means, but the fact that he was willing to try meant a lot to me. Sure enough, however, he came through in the clutch, landing me an Adam Jones autograph! Normally I don't tend to go for many Orioles cards/autographs, mainly because they typically don't stay in my collection all that long. In my opinion though, Jones has to be their best player nowadays, and I thought it would be cool to at least have his autograph. He inscribed his number 10 below the autograph, and I love the way it came out! Scott had a great experience meeting Jones, Willie Bloomquist, and a bunch of current prospects at the dinner event, and you can take a look at his recap here. 

Thank you so much Scott for everything you did for me! I really look forward to extending our friendship more and more and making more deals in the future! Everyone please be sure to check out his blog when you get a chance, even though he is... a Red Sox fan!

See Ya!