A trade with Brad

I recently completed an awesome trade with Brad of Brad's Blog.  You can see some of what he got from me at his blog.  Brad's a rad dude and he was very easy to deal with!  I forgot to take a photo of the 1989 Fleer #616 card of Bill Ripken that Brad sent to me in the trade.  However most, if not all of you, should already know what that infamous "Fuck Face" card looks like.  Here are the hits I received (Brad sent an awesome chunk of Dodgers cards, which I will post separately):

2012 Chrome, Yu Darvish sepia rookie refractor, #'d 66/75.  As I mentioned to Brad, I have an odd affinity for collecting cards numbered "66."

2011 Chrome, Brandon Beachy base rookie autograph.  Beachy is one of my favorite young gun pitchers, both for spectating and in fantasy baseball (when he's healthy).  This card is an upgrade over my first Beachy rookie auto, an ugly dud from Tier One.  He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2012, but should return this upcoming season.

Here is a gorgeous 2012 Chrome blue rookie refractor auto of Jesus Montero, #'d 055/199.  Brad actually sent me both Montero rookie autographs that he owned - a black and a blue refractor from this set - so that I could choose which one I liked best.  A class act, that's what Brad is.

This card is the highlight of my trade package.  2012 Five Star Fergie Jenkins auto, #'d 17/25.  I've always wanted an autograph card of Ferguson Jenkins - first Canadian enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cy Young winner, member of the 3,000 strikeout club, and a Harlem Globetrotter.  Sweet!  On card signature to boot!

Thanks for a great trade, Brad!

Dodger Southpaws

While browsing the glass display cases at my local card shop this past week, I happened upon this card, next to an entirely faded and ruined travesty of what was a once-proud Sandy Koufax autograph card:

1961 Topps #207, Dodger Southpaws.  Koufax two days in a row!

I purchased the card to rescue it from the harsh, inexorable ravaging of the Sun.  It is in pretty good shape, no?  The colors are still rich and vibrant too.  I enjoy the blurb on the back of the card.

I do not own very many vintage cards, but when I do I try to collect awesome ones.  I think this one of Koufax and Johnny Podres qualifies as pretty awesome.  The Dodger Southpaws are now the newest old card I own, being my fifth-oldest vintage card.  I will post those older cards eventually!

It's My Burfday! Here's a Holy Grail card!

Happy baseball birthdays to Tom Glavine and Hyun-Jin Ryu!  Also, happy birthday to Jim Lovell, Elton John, Tatjana Patitz, Anders Fridén (\m/), Bob Sura, Wladimir Klitschko, Lee Pace, Danica Patrick, Arnošt of Pardubice, first Archbishop of Prague (only included him because his name contains "Arno"), and many, many others!

I thought I would wait until today, my birthday, to post a recently acquired baseball card of most epic proportions:

1998 Donruss Signature, Significant Signatures #R3 Sandy Koufax autograph, #'d 0905/2000.

"Yurp," believe what you are seeing ladies and gentlemen!  Gaze upon madness.  Gaze upon prismatic card-stock perfection.  Indeed, I obtained a "Holy Grail" card of mine.  It is quite possibly a "Holy Grail" for many other collectors too.  No, I did not purchase this Sandy Koufax auto for my birthday.  I received a substantially large tax refund this year because I apparently overpaid thousands in taxes last year.  This card represents my big refund splurge.

I bought it a few weeks ago, in fact, at All Star Cards in Santee, CA.  They are one of my favorite card stores in California, so check them out if you happen to be in the San Diego area.  My girlfriend and I were in the card shop when I noticed an Albert Pujols signature card.  I said, "Man, I should just buy that instead of a risky box of cards."  However, I then looked behind the Pujols autograph on the shelf and saw the beauty you see above.  It was an epiphany of sorts, and love at first sight.  The awesome father-daughter team at All Star Cards even knocked several dollars off the asking price.  The black ink of the "K" and "O" in "Koufax" is imperfect, but to me the card is perfection in cardboard form.

I got my Koufax!

(Sweet trade post from Brad to come soon.)

Two Bees

2B's, that is!  I have a tendency to acquire cards of players I own on my fantasy sports teams.  As a collector, it just feels right to obtain cards of players I follow throughout an entire season - even if they are not usually players or people on teams I usually collect.  For example:

I certainly don't loathe the Padres like I do the Dodgers' other divisional rivals.  In fact, I like the Padres second best out of all the teams in the NL West.  I do feel bad for the city of San Diego, with their relatively poor sports teams and the constant threat from those teams' owners to move elsewhere.  I have Jedd Gyorko on several of my fantasy baseball teams.  I think Gyorko could have himself a breakout year.  Prices for his autograph cards have risen quite dramatically over the course of spring training.

I am a fan of Jason Kipnis' combination of speed and power.  Second base is a pretty thin position for fantasy baseball in 2013.  I really like Kipnis' signature.  Awesome!  This card is an upgrade over my other Jason Kipnis rookie auto, a sticker from Tristar OBAK.

I dread the eventual day I will have to move back to the SF Bay Area for work.  So many Giants fans again.  I shudder to think it.

My Get from a 2012 Triple Threads Baseball Group Case Break

I participated in a group case break of 2012 Triple Threads Baseball last week at Rip Kings.  There were 9 boxes in the case.  I had a $5 credit from Rip Kings toward a break and saw that a few good teams (well, "good" in terms of box breaking) were available at a reasonable price, so I purchased the Kansas City Royals team slot.  The Royals are like a fifth team I root for, and they have some decent players and hits in the product.  I was hoping to score a George Brett autograph.  I did not get one, but I think I still did quite well for myself:

Hey, still managed to get some sort of George Brett card!  What do they call this, a sepia parallel?  Brown?  Not an especially aesthetically-pleasing color combination here.  Looks like a big dust storm is about to engulf the Hall of Famer, Brett.

Country Breakfast!  Sweet.  Billy Butler auto-relic, #'d 2/9.  The blue ink on the sticker is a bit imperfect for some reason.  Maybe the pen Butler used was drying up.

Cool beans.

Check out my new blog: "Worst Fantasy Sports Trades"

After receiving several ridiculously bad trade offers in fantasy baseball recently, I decided to create a blog to share the best of the worst fantasy trades with everyone.

So, please to check out Worst Fantasy Sports Trades on Tumblr.  Also, if you'd like to share some awful trades of your own, please feel free to send me a screenshot.  I would love to feature them on my new blog!

Happy St. Paddy's!

I sort of celebrated St. Patrick's Day yesterday.  I definitely have not been partying today.  In fact, I have to make a same-day, roundtrip flight to San Francisco and back tomorrow.  I usually make the mistake of drinking too much booze the night before I travel.  Being super hungover on an airplane is one of the worst things ever.

A few months ago I opened up two boxes of 2012 Leaf Memories Baseball.  It is an awesome product.  From one of those hobby boxes, I pulled an on-card autograph of one of the greatest Irish-American baseball players (and, well, I guess one of the greatest American ballplayers in general for that matter):

This Texan is #'d 32/34.

Yipee-ki-yay!  A high quality photo looks much better than a supposedly HD video box break, no?

By the way, I have a bunch of cards up for sale on EBAY this week.  Also.