Opening old school wax, while driving with your knees...

Made a day trip today, and got bored on the ride... Opening packs of cards while driving is not advised, but I did it anyway.

Another pull from my second day at The National

I also pulled this card from a 2007 Bowmans Best while at The National today. Sure, it's not as exciting as a DiMaggio auto, but still, it's pretty damn good. A Ryan Howard buyback auto, hand numbered to 67.

2009 Legendary Cuts Joe DiMaggio

I pulled this card today at The National. Bought a box of cuts (despite my previous thoughts on the product) and took it over to the Upper Deck area to get my redemption cards. The guy helping with redemptions said I needed to pull an auto because nobody had pulled one with him yet. What a great auto to pull! I didn't get an Upper Deck redeption auto from their packs, but I did get three copies of each of the cards, so if someone needs a Jeter, etc. I've got extras...

2009 sp legendary cuts pull

I just pulled an awesome 2009 legendary cuts card. Rather than post this and not provide pics till later, I just won't say who it was until I can post the pic. I'm excited though, best pull I've ever had thus far, I think.

I picked up a few longoria autos today... Are you aware that 1 guy essentially buys 70% of the minor league cards produced and busts nearly all of it?! He has tons of any auto you want and that's how he gets complete sets of printing plates. He essentially runs the market and pricing, I find that a bit disconcerting. No competition means higher prices.

My first day of The National

Ok, now this is what a card show should be. Lots of cards, lots of everything, if you can't find something you like, you're not looking. I didn't pull into Cleveland in time to attend the VIP party, so I have no idea what that was like. I ended up purchasing around 6 hobby boxes of stuff. 2007 bowmans best, 2008 spx, 2009 Topps Finest, a 2009 National sig cuts, and a few others.

I will say, the 2009 National edition signature cuts card I pulled from Razor was one of the lamest I think I've ever pulled. I got a Walter Winchell cut auto. Don't know who he is? Neither did I. But now I do, and if you really want to know, I'm going to make you look it up yourself, so you get that own personal groaning feeling once you find out. Apparently the second sentence in his wikipedia page is his claim to fame. Since I opened the box in front of a Razor employee to get their redemption, they ended up giving me a Iona printing plate, which could be a good thing, but doesn't make up for the cost of the crappy card. Strangely it seems that you get to choose whether you want an auto card or printing plate. Shouldn't printing plates be placed in the product they were made for??? Of course not, that would make too much sense.

My box of 2008 SPX was pretty amazing I thought. A Josh Willingham auto box topper, autos of Mike Fontenot, Hanley Ramirez, John Danks, and Ross Detwiler. Memorabilia cards of Jorge Posada (triple jersey 6/10), Andy Pettitte 47/99, Matt Holliday 94/170, Grady Sizemore 43/99, Jim Edmonds limited dual patch (38/50), and Melky Cabrera YSL memorabilia card.

The 2007 Bowmans Best hobby box I opened resulted in autos of Lincecum, Justin Verlander, Erik Bedard, Clayton Kershaw, Adam Laroche, and a Chase Utley (blue I believe #/99).

Tomorrow I hope to pick up some old school boxes, I some some available, and think they would be interesting to break, should bring back old memories... I never opened a box of 2006 Donruss, and really want to. I saw virtually no Evan Longoria cards anywhere, which was a travesty, there's nothing here for me to buy to build that collection.

I'm going...

Here I am just a few days away from going to The National, and I still end up at Walmart buying a cheap-o blaster of a product that will remain unnamed. I clearly need to get some help, I should know better than to do something silly like that.

I've been saving up cash, and hope to either bust lots of wax, or at least come away with some damn nice cards. Hopefully both. I'm going to be in Cleveland for at least Wed, Thurs, Fri, and maybe a little Sat. To VIP party or not to VIP party, that's one question I need to answer.

I will try to post some stuff during the week as I'm there, my iPhone 3GS has direct posting of videos to youtube, maybe I should actually use it. If there's anything that you would like to see video of, pictures of, etc. Just let me know, and I'll try to get footage of it.

From the Vault

Here's a few cards I've had for a long time, a few 1980 Topps basketball cards of Jabbar, Erving, and Bird. I originally got these from my brother back in the day (which was a Wednesday), so the reason they are separated and not part of 3 piece cards is all his fault. It's really quite tragic that they are separated, as these are a few of the all time greats... Makes me shake my head in shame to know that at one point the card, at least the Bird card, was connected to the Magic Johnson/Julius Erving trio. The lesson here is to never rip apart perforated cards. (And never try to cut apart a sheet of cards by hand. I'm pretty sure I bought a sheet of 85 Topps baseball from Toys R' Us back then, and cut the cards up by hand with those crazy safety scissors that kind of gnawed the cardboard instead of cut it. So stupid...)

On a side note: I'm pretty sure I'll be going to The National next week, hopefully busting wax, taking some videos, etc.

2009 Topps WBC Redemption Mail Day

Got my two Topps WBC Redemption cards in the mail today. The Yu Darvish looks pretty good, the De Jong is poorly cut however. Did they seriously just send me a miscut redemption? You know someone had to had place that card into a top loader, at any point did they think that maybe this card was very off center? So much for quality control. Here's hoping other people get cards that are cut better. Oh, and yes, the cards have a chrome finish to them, and have a "nice" look, not nearly as nice as the red hot rookies, but the chrome is not bad.

A 2009 A&G card I didn't want

So I got this card today in a box of A&G, it's an Iris Kyle relic card. The problem here comes down to a simple issue. This relic is essentially a piece of swimsuit which was likely touching her body in one of 3 places butt, breast, or "vanessa". I'm all for sexy celebrities relics, or whatever, but Topps essentially just cut up some chicks bra/panties and put it on a card, and that is weird. The only bra/panty relics I want are ones I pick up off my bedroom floor. Yeah, I just said that...

Hell, I wouldn't want a piece of Schwarzenegger's banana hammock either, you know what was touching that?! That's gross too. If you insist on giving me a Ms. Olympia card, give me an auto, that's something I can accept without feeling like a perv...

UD Icons

I bought a blaster of 2009 Icons today, and I'm kinda left scratching my head. Maybe I don't entirely like the design, maybe it's the price point ($70 for a hobby box of 60 cards) maybe it's the unimpressive design, maybe it's the continued failure of printing (some cards I got had a silver residue in wrong locations of the card), it just all adds up little by little as to why I'm not a huge fan of this release. To say something positive, I DO like the foil short print/jersey cards, if for no better reason than because I like the shine of the foil cards...

You'll notice the odd silver traces on the top left quadrant of the card, beneath the baseball...


I just look at the card of Evan Longoria, compare to the card I made the other day in only about 10 mins, and think which card would I rather get in a pack. In many ways, I'd probably prefer my own (and not just because I made it.)

A WPR Original Card - Evan Longoria (1st Revision)

Made some revisions, and like this design a little better...

A WPR Original Card - Evan Longoria

This is my first attempt at creating an original card design. I have no intentions of actually printing it out or whatever. I like futuristic designs to a certain extent, I'm not a big fan of borders since they are rarely centered well, and of course there has to be room for an on card auto.

Mail Day

So excited, it was a good mail day today. I finally have my first Longoria printing plate, a true one of one.

2009 Topps Finest Hobby Box

I just opened another hobby box of 2009 Topps Finest. Pretty good box, a Joba Finest Moments auto was nice. Yes, I "could" have walked away from the card store with a box of 2009 A&G, but I'm just not that much into A&G.

A 2009 Allen and Ginter Bad Card Idea...

You know... because nobody knows whether he really should be the President of Iran. Not making any political commentary by creating this card, but it's certainly a bad idea, because nobody wants nuclear war with a country whose "elected" leader thinks the holocaust never happened. Just saying...