Go Yanks! (no, not THOSE Yanks)

Go USA! Beat Ghana!

RIP Tony Gwynn

Sad news today. RIP to one of the best hitters many of us have ever seen.

Another new old Maris

Keeping up with a quick show and tell post while I travel, here's a new/old vintage Maris I picked up. It's also got Orlando Cedpeda on it, which is cool. It only set me back a couple bucks.

Here are the other Maris cards I own, so this will fit nicely.

Prospectin' for autos

I'm in the middle of a busy time at work, plus traveling Thurs-Sunday, so I've got some short show and tell posts lined up. Let's be honest, that's what most of my posts are, but these are especially straight to the point.

I recently snagged two autos of Yankees prospects on eBay. The first is this Gabe Encinas auto. He's working his way back from elbow surgery. I hope he makes it to the bigs, because I'm sure the tabloids would have a field day with the name. "Encinas Man" comes to mind.

Also snagged this relic/auto of former first rounder Slade Heathcott. Love the guy's skills, but he just has a very hard time staying on the field. Still, a cool card and I'm hopeful he can eventually make it. He's in AAA and on the 40-man, so it's not unreasonable.

Raz-zle Dazzle

A few weeks back, I claimed a card over on The Raz Card Blog. I hadn't traded with Raz yet, so I felt like it was a good time to claim a card and enjoy a new trading partner. In full disclouse, Raz probably cannot say the same about me, as I still owe him a return package. Raz, it's coming. I'm sorry man.

The card that caught my eye was this 2014 Bowman Top 100 Die Cut of Yankees 3B prospect Miguel Andujar. Miguel is currently in Low-A ball, but he's just 19 and playing against guys mostly 2-3 years older than him. After a great short season rookie ball campaign last year, the Yanks aggressively chose to move him to full-season Charleston. He got off to a slow start, but has been a lot better as of late. While he's only hitting .222, he does have 5 HRs. He's got a ton of tools, and he's young enough that if he puts them all together, he could be a very good player one day.

Raz also added the following two cards:

 

The Tyler Austin is a PC guy for me, and a card I didn't have. I'm noticing a lot of off-center Bowman Chrome cards this year. Anyone else?

The Jeter is cool too. Opening Day has been my favorite product this year, and I'm glad they keep bringing back these 3D Opening Day Stars cards. Topps actually acknowledged that Jeter's 2013 opening day was in July in 2013 due to injury.

Raz, thanks for the cards. I'll get yours out shortly.

If only all sellers were this awesome...

Yesterday, I mentioned my Holy Grail Tino Martinez card recently arriving via a Listia auction. The seller actually threw in a nice brick of Yanks as well, which was both unexpected and unnecessary.

Here are a few of the cards that I really enjoyed.

Um, yeah, that’s an auto.

Actually, there were 14(!) autographs. When I emailed the seller thanking him and asking about them, he said he was a fairly prolific autograph collector a few years ago (both IP and TTM), and has thousands. I thought it was very cool that he decided to throw in a few that I’d enjoy. Here are a bunch more, ranging from guys like Gil McDougald to Dioner Navarro.

 

It was above and beyond. The seller and I have had some good email conversations since then, and I’ve won two more auctions of his on Listia. From those, he’s sent me over 100 autographed cards. He’s incredibly generous, and I’m happy to give him my credits. He lists fantastic cards regularly, and if anyone would like his user name to check out his auctions, please send me an email. He offers a lot of high-end relics and autos, and I can attest to his trustworthiness as a seller.

My Tino Holy Grail has arrived

Back in 1998, I graduated 8^th grade and moved on to high school. I did well academically, and graduated at the top of my class (it was a small class, hence me finishing first). I got a little bit of cash for graduation, and combined with a few bucks I had from mowing the lawn, had my mom drive me to the local card shop, where I promptly bought a box of Stadium Club. I believe it ran me about $65 at the time. That was a lot for a 14-year old kid in 1998. Still is.

Why Stadium Club?

Easy. Tino Martinez was featured in the Co-Signers autograph set. For me, that was one of the first times he had been featured in a high-end insert set. Fresh off of his 44-HR season, he started popping up more and more in inserts. This was a sign that he had made it.

Little old naïve me thought I’d for sure pull one of the Tinos Co-Signer autos. The cardboard gods would be with me. I didn’t. They weren’t. I didn’t pull any Co-Signers autos, in fact. I’m sure I nabbed a few insert cards, but I know in the end I was probably disappointed in my $65 hobby box (oh, a sign of things to come!).

I saw a few pop up on eBay over the years, but never pulled the trigger. Then, somehow one popped up on Listia. Yep, Listia. And the tip I got was actually from the seller letting me know the card was up. He knew I collected Tino. The starting bid was 24,999 to protect himself from losing the card too cheap.

I had been accumulating a decent amount of credits, but felt that I needed more. I quickly threw up a few cards that would each net me a few thousand credits, and I even sold a small, unopened iHome speaker I had no intention of using. I had a nice stable of credits.

So I waited. And I watched.

Finally, the end was near. I waited, and I sniped with under 15 seconds to go. For the sum total of 57,552 credits, I won this:

BOOOOM! What a rush. How sweet is that?! On-card, with a Hall of Famer on there too.

Honestly, one of these Co-Signers has been my most wanted Tino for years. I was thrilled, and couldn’t wait for it to arrive, as it was about 16 years past when I thought I’d first have it.

The seller also threw in a few others cards, which I’ll show in part 2. Needless to say, I’ve been a repeat customer of his. More to come.