This Year's Incredible Christmas Gift, Courtesy of William!

Hey guys, Drew back here! The most wonderful time of the year is among us, and I'm eagerly awaiting my Christmas vacation after just 5 more school days! Aside from preparing for my first SAT test in a little over a month, it should be a fairly stress free break. As usual, my awesome friend William contributed to making my Christmas special. I always look forward to our annual gift swap, and this year wasn't any different.

Since I just about outlawed buying packs this year, I'm often a bit behind on the times in the card world. Fortunately, William gave me a small sample of the new Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects, as well as Panini Cooperstown! I'm not going to lie- I may seriously consider checking out more of the Cooperstown set. It appears as if the idea was finally executed really well, which isn't surprising from Panini. Imagine if they had a license...

William recently bought a great new camera, and he sent me a few pictures he took from Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Rickwood Field is America's oldest professional baseball field, built originally for the Birmingham Barons in 1910. It is used today as a museum of sorts, and William got the chance to check it out a few months ago. I might consider using these beautiful shots in future TTM requests, so be on the lookout for that!

I normally don't discuss music on my blog, however I had to also mention that he threw in the new Muse CD, "The 2nd Law". I consider myself almost as big of a music geek as I am a baseball geek, and Muse is definitely one of my favorite bands in today's rock genre. William and I both share similar music interests (except I also enjoy hip-hop), so this was a nice gesture from him. I listened to most of the album yesterday while helping my Dad get Christmas lights on the roof, and I thought it was phenomenal. Thanks again for throwing this in!

Last year, the main gift was a Tier One Lou Gehrig relic card, and this year's main gift was just as awesome, if not better! There aren't many players who have been as generous as Virgil Trucks has been to our hobby, however he recently got sick, and I never got the opportunity to get him on a baseball. There have been rumors that he's signing again, but I kind've felt like it would be rude to request another autograph from him. 

No worries though, because William took care of me, once again! This beautiful signed baseball signed by "Fire" Trucks himself from the Bob Feller Museum certainly fills my need for one more autograph of his in my collection! Trucks inscribed "45 World Champ" as well as "2 X No Hitter", which were two of his more notable feats during his great career. Trucks had Hall of Fame talent without question, but unfortunately his career numbers weren't strong enough to put him in the Hall. Trucks does have something that some current HOF'ers don't have though; a Hall of Fame heart. 

Thank you so much William for the incredible gifts! Like I've said before, for us living hundreds of miles apart; you're as good a friend as I could ask for. All of this means so much to me.

See Ya!

Check Out My Cards on COMC!

Hey guys, Drew back here! Today has been a big day for me, as I've finally started to lose the "I want everything" mindset and instead only want things that really appeal to me. I listed 64 cards on Check Out My Collectibles (formerly Check Out My Cards), all of which being rookie cards, serial numbered cards, relics, and autographs! I'm trying to raise enough store credit to buy a few cards I'd personally prefer in my collection, and it really would mean the world to me if you guys took a minute to check out what I have to offer! I'm willing to work with prices, and oh by the way, shipping is free for any card purchased on the site during the holiday season!

Thanks everyone! See Ya!

New Trifecta Alert: Call in the Doc...

Hey guys, Drew back here. Boy has it been a while, as I've been drowning in schoolwork the past few weeks. Fortunately, Christmas break is coming up, which means 1) more opportunities to post, and 2) more TO post! I haven't had a lot of things come in lately, but I did forget to show you guys this pickup. Take a look:

Out of 1999 SP Signature Edition, I added a sweet Roy Halladay rookie auto! This is one of Halladay's first certified autograph cards, which only adds to how awesome any autograph of his could be. I've always wanted to add "Doc" to my collection, since he was one of the dominant pitchers I've grown up watching. Randy Johnson was older when I began watching baseball, along with Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, and Greg Maddux, so Halladay was one of the best ones I've gotten the privilege to watch. With 199 wins to his credit, I decided to get one now before he reached number 200, most likely in the 2013 season.

This card also completed my Halladay trifecta, consisting of a 2009 Sweet Spot relic, a Bowman's Best rookie card, and now this sharp autograph!

Please, be sure to be on the lookout for more awesomeness within the next month. Christmas is going to be big for my collection from the way it sounds, and a card show will soon follow. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

See Ya!

Recent Mail from Around the Blogosphere!

Hey guys, Drew back here! I know I haven't been around in a while, but I hope all of you had a nice Thanksgiving! I've been trying to savor my holiday break, but unfortunately tomorrow will be the start of the pre-Christmas school stretch. It won't be fun, but hopefully if I keep it up, I'll have more money to spend on the hobby! Around a month from now, I'll be beginning to sell pieces of my collection on Check Out My Cards, and I'll be sure to provide a link when my store goes live. I'm just trying to get rid of stuff that I don't personally have a connection with, so I can buy a few higher end cards for my collection. 

Anyhow, for now, check out the mail I've recently received from a few awesome members of our blogosphere:

William just never seems content with the amount of cards he's sent me over the years. A few weeks ago, he sent me a nice small box filled with mixed cards of the players and teams I like. Most of the cards were from the late 80's, and I probably have all of these laying around somewhere, but I'd prefer not to hunt through binder after binder for them. This is much easier, so thanks man.

As usual, he also caught me up a little bit with what I've been missing since I've basically given up buying products. The cards are awesome, however I prefer buying cards for my PC's over spending $20 on a blaster box or $10 on a rack pack. Money doesn't grow on trees for me, and I think I finally realized that. With that said, I love the All Star cards from 2012 Topps, which I finally got to see courtesy of my good friend. And nothing is cooler than getting my first Ichiro card in a Yankees uniform, although it's most likely photoshopped. He was a great asset to the team last year, and I would love to see him back this upcoming season.

Next, I received a small package from Larry of My 2008 Topps Set Blog, which I have to admit is one of my favorite blogs to read these days! He included his blog card in the package, which was really cool as well (I need to do that one of these days). 

A few weeks ago Larry posted this Topps Update SP card of CC Sabathia to his blog, asking if anyone was interested in it. He wasn't asking for a whole lot in return, so I decided to put an offer in, and we agreed to a nice small deal. CC sat out this year's All Star Game, as did Matt Kemp, so they had plenty of time to talk. 

Lastly, my buddy James (or Chunter as many of you know him by) of Chipp 'n' Dale felt it was necessary to hook me up with a nice addition to my collection, out of the kindness of his heart! He emailed me recently telling me he had a nice card to help me out with a trifecta collection, which completely shocked me considering I've been as close as dead on this website as possible the past few months. Sure enough, a small package came in, with these nice extras on top of the main event:

Out of 1977 Topps, a very nice Rick Cerone rookie card to add to my Yankees collection. Sorry, bad joke. The Dale Murphy rookie card has been a card I've pursued ever since I met him in person a couple of years ago! Finally, thanks to a Dale Murphy collector, I have my own copy of his rookie card to put towards my Murphy trifecta! I may need to go get a relic, because when I met him I had him sign a relic card, which looks fantastic by the way. A trifecta should consist of three cards, so I'll have to fulfill that, but for now, I want to thank James for doing this for me! It takes a lot for me to give up my Yankees cards for other people, so I know it couldn't have been all that easy for him. But, it means a lot, and it's in good hands.

A big thank you to William, Larry, and James for all of the awesome stuff! I'm glad to see that I'm still in the back of some collector's heads even though I'm knee deep in the most difficult year of my life.

Have a nice Sunday everybody! See Ya!

TTM #102... or Juan02

Hey guys, Drew back here. While the season is over, perhaps one of my favorite times of baseball is just beginning. I've always been into sports business management type-jobs, so the idea of free agency is very interesting to me. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Yankees will do, even though I'd prefer for them to hold off a little bit. However, I recently got a TTM success from someone who will most likely be staying put in Philadelphia this winter. Take a look:

None other than MLB Memes legend Juan Pierre signed two cards for me! Pierre will go down as one of the best speed threats of this generation, swiping 591 bases in 13 years! He's bounced around quite a bit since his rookie season in 2000, but has contributed everywhere he's gone. He also has just over 2000 career hits and a career average just below .300! I'd easily consider him one of the most underrated players in my short lifetime, and I'm really happy he took some time out to sign for me. In addition, Pierre added the Bible Inscription Psalm 37, which basically explains to trust the Lord and not be envious of those who commit crimes and wrong-doings. 

Along with the autographs, Juan threw in this pretty sweet Bible card, entitled "Beast Mode, 24.7.365". While I'm not necessarily an overly religious person, I really enjoy receiving throw ins from players. It seems like Pierre is a very faithful Christian man, and I have nothing but respect for someone like that.

Thank you to Mr. Pierre! Juan post down, many more to go!

See Ya!