Prospect Pickups: James Kaprielian

Hey everyone, Drew back here! I hope you all are enjoying a nice, relaxing Memorial Day Weekend with your loved ones. But, if you have a few minutes to scour the blogosphere, allow me to show off a lot of James Kaprielian cards I purchased off of eBay while I was studying abroad!

Kaprielian is the Yankees current top pitching prospect by a considerable margin now that Luis Severino has graduated to big league status (for now). The former UCLA standout was drafted as the 16th overall pick in the 2015 Draft, and is estimated to make his debut in the big leagues in 2017. He's only started three games in 2016, and is currently on the disabled list with elbow inflammation. Luckily, it doesn't appear to be anything more than that.

This lot included 8 copies of his 2015 Bowman rookie card and 5 of his "Draft/Dividends" inserts, which shows how much your draft stock can improve by going to college. Kaprielian was drafted in 2012 in the 40th round by the Mariners, but his decision to go to UCLA helped him grow into a first round talent.

2015 Bowman DPP Refractor Autograph

The centerpiece of the lot was this gorgeous Bowman rookie refractor autograph! In my honest opinion, there is no better card to own of a player than one of these. Bowman offers several rarer color parallels, but the basic refractors are often relatively affordable while also being aesthetically pleasing.

Over the summer, I'm going to be looking to add Bowman refractor autographs of several of the other Yankees top prospects. The major targets will be Aaron Judge, Jorge Mateo, and Gary Sanchez. Unfortunately, this mini project will probably have to wait a little while because I'm a little short on money at the moment.

Which product do you think offers the best, most memorable autographed cards?

Mystery Packs from eBay: Is It a Good Idea?

Hey guys, Drew back here. So one day I was just surfing around eBay looking to buy something nice for my PC when I came across a seller who was selling mystery packs. With Griffey Jr. autos and Hall of Fame relics galore, and 2 hits plus inserts for 6 dollars a pack (free shipping), I thought it was a great deal. It seems like out of the 50 packs made total, that I got 3 of the lower end packs. But was it still worth the price? Let's take a look:

So, in addition to the 2 "big hits" per pack, you get a few nice inserts. I combined the 3 packs in this post, but anyway, I love the refractors. I think I liked some of these cards more than the hits. With 2 Strasburgs and 2 Heywards popping up, they made for a nice rookie group of cards, and I love the orange refractor cards, even though I've never seen them before and I have no clue what they are. The purple refractors are all pretty sweet too, even though I don't know these prospects. They are numbered to 899.

Next were 8 Moments and Milestones. It's kind of sad to consider these cards "inserts" just because they are numbered, because this was actually a base set and Topps' dumb concept to completely confuse us collectors. All of these but Sheffield and Granderson are for trade.

Here is a 2010 Topps Chrome Hunter Pence purple refractor numbered to 599. This is a really nice card, and I think Topps did a good job at bringing purple into the refractor rainbow, even though most people would normally think thats a terrible idea. Pence is a solid player, but this is also for trade.

TIME FOR THE INSANE MOJO!! Here we have an unbelievable looking 2006 Upper Deck Ovation JJ Hardy gray jersey card! Wow! In all honesty, this is a pretty awful hit to start it off. Don't worry it gets better, I guess.

Ok, it's not getting much better. Nothing better than a 2006 Cliff Floyd bat card! For trade.

From 2004 Topps Pristine, a Moises Alou jersey card. While Alou was a very good player, and this card is way nicer than the first 2 hits shown so far, the value of this card is close to nothing. Relic overproduction? Maybe, but this is just boring.

Continuing on our journey from junk relic to the next, this is a familiar face in my collection. A 2006 Upper Deck Rafael Palmeiro relic. Again, a great player, but this is just boring! The funny thing is that I actually owned this card, but traded it away a long time ago to William, so now, I have it again. And its for trade. Again.

Woah, Rafael Palmeiro again? I haven't seen you in a while! From 2001 Donruss, a bat chip of his numbered to 550. Yawwwwwwwwwwwn.

Almost done here guys, don't worry. Here's a 2008 Sweet Spot Manny relic. One of the biggest collector pet peeves is used here, and I bet it stands out nice and big to you right now. Red Sox uniform? Dodgers logo? No, Upper Deck, what were you thinking?

The final card is 10x better than any of the above cards, because of the tiny black piece of patch in the corner of the relic. The card is of ex-Yankee Austin Kearns, numbered to 250 from 2003 Leaf Certified. This is a sweet card in person, so I think I'll hang on to this for now.

So I think the most valuable thing I bought with this purchase outside of lots of trade bait was a lesson. A lot of sellers do a great job of showing off the stuff that have horrible odds, and you get sucked right in. I can't be the only one to do this, right? Do you guys think this heap of junk was worth $18? An average blaster produces 1 relic and like 5 inserts, so this owned those odds, but I think I could've done better with that money. Whatever, you live and learn.

Have any of you guys tried "mystery packs" out? How did you do? See Ya!

Future Yankees Star eBay Pickups!

Hey guys, Drew back here. I bought a nice lot of cards on eBay from 2010 Topps Chrome for about 7 bucks shipped a few days ago. They arrived yesterday, check them out:

Those are indeed 5 Topps Chrome Ivan Nova base rookie cards. Nova is gonna be a stud someday, he even looked good this season, so for less than 10 bucks I was able to get a ton of him. Whats this, more?

2 refractors! One of them, pretty sure the one on the right, has a little surfacing damage and it looks weird. The other one is mint however in my opinion. But wait, that's not all!

Yes, I got all those, AND the autograph for 7 bucks! The regular autos are kinda lame as usual, boring, dull, and even in the light it doesn't look great. I'm still happy because I got a nice deal, but my advice for Topps Chrome buyers is to BUY REFRACTOR AUTOS. These are boring, refractors are gorgeous and normally don't cost all that much more. Also, the auto isn't in 100% mint condition either, I swear there's a smudge on it, a common problem already known about this set.

Also, the seller threw 6 (yes, count em'), 6 Mike Leake rookies! For free! Leake is one of the best pitching prospects, and that was just plain unfair to the seller to even attempt at throwing those in!!!! If you are reading thank you so much!

The seller's name is asinha, please check out their store, because whoever it is, he/she is a great dealer! Check them out!

See Ya!