Jaybarkerfan sends some Yanks - part 1

There is no better feeling than coming home from work and finding a flat-rate shipping box from Wes of Jaybarkerfan’s Junk. This happens far more than it should, as it’s always jam-packed with Yankees for no reason other than the fact that Wes is awesome. This box had six team bags stuffed with cards from all years – mostly the ‘90s and ‘00s. Each was a blast to go through.

There were too many cards to scan, so here are my favorites:

I didn’t have this Topps Jeter with the Mick and G-Dubs in the background. I’ve seen it many times, but never gotten my paws on it.

Jeets minor league goodness. So young. So much ahead of him.

 A-Rog stand-up card. My first one from 2011 Lineage.

 A sampling of awesome. A Johnny Sain shiny Archive Reserve, a sweet el Duque Heritage, and a clear-cut Big Daddy from EX.

A few Topps Archives. I want the real ’53 Whitey.

 1997 Pacific Prism. I love this set. The window behind the players’ heads are clear-cut. I want clear-cuts back.

A few Jeter inserts. The 1999 Chrome “Early Road To The Hall” was spot on after Jeter had been in the league just three years. Really the only player included in the set who isn’t a borderline HOFer is Nomar.

More Jeters.

And a 1979 TCMA Bob Meusel. I’ve read a lot about him lately in the Lou Gehrig bio I’ve been reading.

More goodness from Wes coming up in my next post.

A Glavine relic for my set

Man I love this set. I’m almost done with it. I just need to find the Roger Clemens. I really wish the set had 12 cards instead of 11, but it’ll still be cool to finish. I don’t need to re-hash the 1999 World Series to you, and I’m not sure I’d like this set as much if the Yanks didn’t win. I do know that I think these are attractive cards and the World Series base relic is a cool touch. The relic itself is different on each…some have a different texture or color. Some have dirt on the base. I assume it’s just how the base was cut and what part of it is on the card. I guess in this instance it’s a little odd to have the base for a card of the pitcher, but still cool. I look forward to completing this set in the near future.

A poor condition Dave Winfield RC

During a 2am feeding with my little man, I was on my phone and pulled up my ebay app. I did a few random searches, and somehow stumbled on this. A Dave Winfield RC in crappy condition. No clue what I was searching for at the time, but it was 2am. That's my excuse. I placed a low bid, and ended up winning the card for about $2 shipped. It’s in rough shape, but I still thought it would be pretty cool to own a Winfield RC. What do you think? Worth the few bucks, or should I have spent a bit more on a better conditioned one?

Gary Sanchez Obak Auto

I’ve been wanting a Gary Sanchez autograph for a while. He’s one of the Yankees top prospect, and easily is best positioned to be the next Jesus Montero – aka power-hitting catcher who may not have a future as a catcher.

Sanchez has not responded to any of my TTM requests, so I decided to go the way of a certified auto. He only has a couple – a 2009 Bowman, and 2010 Elite Extra, and this 2010 Tristar Obak to name a few. This one was by far the most affordable, and it’s a nice card. Sure, it’s a sticker auto and sure, the signature is cut off a little. I’ve found that to be true for many Tristar autos.

I’m glad I got in front of this and picked up his auto, as I have a sneaky feeling the price of his cards are going to skyrocket in the next year or two.

Tino Tuesday #33: 2002 UD Authentics #106

This card came to me from Kerry at Cards on Cards. He has sent me a bunch of Tinos from The Lost Years, as I'm sure he acquired a few during Tino's stint in St. Louis from 2002-2003. I wasn't collecting much in 2002, so I had never seen the UD Authenics. It's really cool to see Tino featured in Upper Deck's original design. I wish it didn't have the Cards logo and the "Sighed by Cardinals" text, but that's life. It's still sweet to see him in this design, and I may have to pursue the other Yanks from this set.

Contest winnings from Cards on Cards

Back in December, Kerry at Cards on Cards held a College Bowl Pick’em contest. I won and recently received my prize from Kerry. Mind you, I finished last in his 2011 March Radness contest and received a prize for that, so this win felt a bit better.

Kerry sent a hanger of 2012 Topps, as well as two rack packs. He also included a nice stack of Yankees. Highlights are below. Thanks again, Kerry!

This guy was unlocked from a code from one of the packs.

I needed all three of these Tinos as well!

 

 

TTM Success: Jayson Nix

Yankees non-roster invitee Jayson Nix signed two cards for me. Neither of them show him as a Yankee of course. Nix is basically the Yankees third string back up infielder, if that make sense. Eduardo Nunez is the incumbent, Ramiro Pena follows him, then Nix. He'll provide some nice depth in AAA if he sticks around.

TTM Success: Lance Pendleton

Lance Pendleton signed my 2011 Topps Chrome card from Astros ST. He pitched in a few games for NY last year before being acquired by Houston in September. He has a solid arm, the Yanks just didn’t have room for him. I wish him success with the Astros!

Fine, I'll show some vintage too

Well, everyone else is showing some vintage. I might as well. Vintage is popping up on blogs more and more. I think people are bored with newer Topps issues and prefer the good old stuff. I could be wrong, but it just seems that all 2012 issues, even Heritage, aren't holding too much attention amongst collectors.

I picked up this 1956 Topps Jerry Coleman for $2.50 shipped. Condition is ok. I haven’t decided if I’m going to hang on to it as is, or send it to Coleman TTM. I already have a few TTM autos from him, so maybe I won’t deface this particular card. Either way, I love getting cards of Coleman, and this was impossible to pass up for the price.

 

TTM Success: Five in one day

Two Thursdays ago, I had a really nice TTM day. I arrived home from work to find five SASE’s. I’m nearly certain five in one day is a record for me.

The card featured in the first envelope has already been shown in a blog post. Austin Romine signed my 2012 Topps card. I hadn’t been able to get a success from Romine in a few attempts while he was in the minors, so this was very welcome. 

Next up, Brandon Laird signed three cards for me. I’ve gotten him in the past, and I actually asked him to keep two of the three cards I sent. He signed all three. The Obak looks nice. 

Third, we have Kyle Higashioka, a catching prospect. He signed my Bowman Chrome and Topps Heritage Minors cards.

Next, Adam Warren signed two cards. He is a good prospect who would fit in nicely in the back end of most pitching rotations in the league. If the Yanks need a spot start, he’ll probably get called on ahead of both Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos.

Last, pitching prospect Graham Stoneburner signed my Bowman Chrome. He has one of the most badass names in baseball. Look for him in the Yanks bullpen in the next few years.

So no huge names here, but all great successes.

A nice pull from a Heritage Blaster

I've seen a lot of folks having some nice success with Heritage blasters this year. I've seen a good amount of relics pulled, and when you consider that a hobby box has only one relic guaranteed (I think this is the case - keep me honest), it seems that blasters are providing a good value. I had been ducking into Modell's after work each night to see if their Heritage blasters arrived, and finally on Tuesday there was a fresh stack. I grabbed one (as well as an Opening Day blaster). I'll provide all those results/tradebait in a later post.

Truth be told, this pull came on the eighth and final pack of the blaster. True story. You know that feeling when your hope for a good pull dwindles and dwindles until there are only one or two packs left? That's how I felt. Buyer's remorse. I has hoped for a relic - of anyone. Didn't matter who it was. As I opened the last pack, I saw a little bit of shininess peeking thought. To my surprise, here is what was there:

Wow! A Curtis Granderson Chrome Refractor. But look closely. The borders. They are BLACK. It's a not just a normal Refractor! I checked the back of the pack to see the odds, and this was a cool 1:690 pull! The card is numbered 59/63 and is certainly the rarest card I've pulled since I got back into collecting over a year ago. The fact that this is a Yankee makes it even better. The scan was quick and came out crappy - my apologies. But the card really is beautiful.

I'm tempted to buy another blaster, but I know this was a luck pull and I'll probably stay away and just collect the Yanks.

Manny Banuelos Auto Redemption Arrives!

Back in January, I bought a Manny Banuelos 2011 Bowman Sterling auto redemption on eBay. When I went on the website to redeem, it said it should arrive around April 20. That got me worried since it was a few months away at the time. The last thing I wanted was Topps to send me a replacement auto that is valued the same in Beckett.

I was pleasantly surprised last week when my card arrived. It's a really nice card. I was a little bummed it was a sticker auto, but that shouldn't surprise me anymore. Overall, I'm very happy with the card and to have a Banuelos auto where he is in a Yankees uniform.

Group Break Loot from The Dimwit

I hadn't joined a group break in a while, so I decided to jump in The Daily Dimwit's March Group Break. He was busting some nices boxes of mid-'00s cards, so I felt like I could pick up some good Yanks from years I didn't collect. I was hoping for a hit too, but I was shut out. No biggie, I still enjoyed my cards. I was also assigned the Expos/Nationals, so I got a few nice Vlads too. Does anyone collect him?

There were a lot of cards, but here are the highlighs:

These are each #'d to 250

Golden Giveaway - well that was unexpected

Last year, I unlocked zero Diamond Die Cuts it in the Diamond Giveaway. This year, I unlocked six codes ion the Golden Giveaway, and all I had to show for it were six fake coins that don't even have chocolate inside. For some reason, people actually make trade offers for these. I ignore them.

Anyhow, I recently pulled two more code cards. I thought about trading them, they are no good to me. After about two weeks of them just sitting on my desk, I decided to go unlock them. I was pleasantly surprised with my first code:

How about that? A Reggie Jackson die cut! I was very surprised. I've gotten a few lackluster offers for it, but I hope to eventually flip it for a Yankee. I'm still down on the Golden Giveaway - it's a lot less fun than the previous versions - but this card helps make it a little better for me.

Tino Tuesday #32: 2005 Prime Patches Jumbo Jersey Swatch

I love the 2005 Prime Patches set. It kills me that Tino is featured as a Ray in this set, because it's truly one of my favorites. The relics are so classy, despite all the various versions of the card. I'll tell you, if Tino was a Yankee in these, I'd be aggressively trying to complete all of his cards in the set.

With that being said, I still monitor these on ebay from time to time. I recently put in a low bid on this particular card and won. Yes, the gray swatch is a bit bland, but it's a jumbo swatch and my first of it's kind. It's also #'d 113/177. Not sure what the 177 represents.

TTM Success: David Adams

Let's start Monday off with a TTM success, shall we? One of my favorite Yankees prospects, David Adams, signed my card c/o Yankees spring training in just over a month. Adams is recovering from a devastating ankle injury that occurred in 2010. He was a legit prospect before that, and I hope he can recover and eventually pick up where he left off. He was to be included in the Yankees/Cliff Lee deal, but the injury scared the M's away and they couldn't agree on a replacement prospect. Oh well.

TTM Success: Mike Stanton (LHP)

This was one of those requests you forget about, then it shows up out of the blue. After 13 months of waiting, former Yankees reliever Mike Stanton returned my two cards signed. One was smeared a bit as a result of being stacked on the other card. There is even a little blue on the back of the card where the smear occurred. Anyhow, one card came out perfectly, and I’m happy to now own a Mike Stanton auto!