All Hail the King! (a Box Break)

Nice try, Topps.  I will never forgive you for the trespasses you have committed against me in the past.  This box of 2013 Topps Chrome Baseball was quite nice, nevertheless.  I don't buy as many baseball hobby boxes as I used to - namely because I feel Topps is uncreative and doesn't provide enough value, while Panini and Upper Deck aren't as desirable because they lack MLB licenses.  Consequently, I've gravitated toward buyback, oddball, or prospect boxes like what Leaf or Pastime has been putting out.

This type of purchasing behavior doesn't help people like my friend "J," though, who owns a brick and mortar sports card shop in Northern California.  It's just easier and cheaper for him to stock and sell Topps (and Panini and Upper Deck to a lesser extent) products to the masses than stuff from lesser known brands.  So, once in a while I'll visit his store and buy some Topps (usually Bowman) cards from him.  Solidarity!  Bros!

Here's some highlights from a semi-recent 2013 Chrome Baseball box I got from my friend:

Todd Frazier desert camo refractor numbered to 15 and a Joey Votto black refractor numbered to 100.  The camoflage border is different.  I like it.

 Rookies!

This Darin Ruf rookie autograph was actually the last hit I pulled.  At that point the card was just a third "bonus" hit to me.  You'll see why.  (Yes, indeed, three hits.)  The Ruf auto is in my trade bait.

Paco!  This was the first hit I pulled out of the box.  Man, what a year the Dodgers had.  Also, what great rookies we had this season.  I wanted a Paco Rodriguez rookie autograph card, and I pulled this redemption.  I still don't technically have it in hand, but I eagerly await the arrival of the actual card from Topps in like 12 years.  It's a "variation" too, so I imagine it's a refractor of some sort.  I already own a Yasiel Puig prospect auto.  It'd be awesome to have Hyun-Jin Ryu's rookie auto too.

"HUURRRNGH!" I believe was the reaction when I pulled this beaut.  "King" Felix Hernandez bigass four color patch auto, #'d 03/10.  What a monster patch!  This makes for my second Felix autograph card.  I didn't even know these existed in 2013 Chrome.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the surprisingly thick pack and found this dude in there.  Awesome!  I think the patch is from the Seattle Mariners away jersey?  What portion exactly?

Speaking of the Mariners... it'll be super bananas if they manage to pull off signing Robinson Cano!  Payday.

Pair o' Dodgers Hurlers

Showing off some loot:

Left: 2004 Fleer Greats of Game, Johnny Podres autograph, #GBA-JP2.  Right: 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game, Carl Erskine auto.

The Podres auto is a sticker and the Erskine signature is on card.  I love autograph cards of old timey (at least, old timey to me - I was born in the 80's) Brooklyn Dodgers.  Both Carl Erskine and Johnny Podres were part of the 1955 World Series winning Dodgers team - and what a team that was!  I just noticed I subconsciously put the lefty Podres on the left and the righty "Oisk" on the right in the photo.

Anyone paying attention to all the wild hot stove action the past day or so?  I wonder if the Dodgers will make any crazy moves soon?  Think we'll make a serious play for David Price?  MLB Trade Rumors is a daily read for me.  I recommend it!

Trade bait!

Dat Feels Good

Dodgers!   Uribe!

Auf Wiedersehen, Los Angeles

I'm moving up to northern California tomorrow after being back home in Los Angeles for almost a year.  A few of you fellow bloggers might recall that I got a job at Pinterest in San Francisco.  It should be cool beans.  Nevertheless, I ultimately prefer living in southern California.  One of the best things about living in LA?  Being able to make the drive to Dodger Stadium and watch my team, the Dodgers:

Click to enlarge and see it high quality or original size on Flickr.  You can see my friend Adam at the right of the photo.  You can also see Greg Zakwin's (of Plaschke) knee and elbow to the far right of the picture.

I took the above photograph on Monday, April 15 during the Jackie Robinson Day game against the San Diego Padres.  I had totally forgotten it was Jackie Robinson Day, though I knew they were handing out Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Don Newcombe statues.  Packing and the prospect of moving has made me spaced out at times.  It was awesome to catch a ballgame in my hometown before I move back up to the land of poor weather (to be fair, poor for California but better than most places) and dumb SF Giants.  It was also great to hang out with fellow blogger and friend, Mr. Zakwin.

Go Dodgers!  I'll be back.

A trade with GCRL

I've been hanging around and partying hard for several days, so my blog has been a bit ignored.  Here's a quick post to make up for that.  I recently completed a trade with GCRL.  It was cool to trade with him, as Jim is one of the longest-standing and most prolific Dodger bloggers around.  I sent him an Adrian Beltre autograph from 1999 Gallery (plus a few extras) that I originally posted at the Blog of Trade Bait.  This is what I received in return:

2004 Upper Deck Legends, Timeless Teams #181 Pedro Guerrero auto.  On card.  Sweet!

I don't have many Pedro Guerrero cards, but this is a great one to own.  Opening Day is today.  Baseball!  Yaaay!

I accepted an offer to work for Pinterest.  So, I will be moving back up to the shoddy half of California soon.  I will definitely try to fly back for some ballgames at the new and improved Dodger stadium though.  Go Dodgers!

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.)

Los Angeles Catchers

Here are your two Dodgers catchers for this season:

Yaaay!  On the left: 2012 Update, Golden Moments, A.J. Ellis autograph.  On the right: 2011 Heritage Minors, Tim Federowicz auto, #'d 210/861.

I tried to acquire the Ellis signature the moment I realized it existed.  It took a long while, but I have obtained one!  Now I jealously hoard it away, as I return to Valhalla, to slumber and feed.  (Bonus points if you guess that reference.)  Tim-Fed's mustache makes him look kind of creepy, but I'm really just sullen and vexed because I can not grow one of my own.  Super catcher team, go!  Go Dodgers!

A trade with Plaschke (in-person)

Greg of Plaschke and I traded some cards while we waited in line at Mike Piazza's Long Shot book signing in Pasadena last week.  I posted about the event here.  Here is what I received from Mr. Zakwin:

Per usual with my trade posts, here is a selection of some of my favorite cards from the trade.  The Anze Kopitar parallel (top row, second from left) is numbered to 25.  The Dee Gordon blue parallel on the bottom right is #'d to 500.  My Hideo Nomo collection has been quite neglected of late, so it is nice to refresh the ol' binder with some new "Tornado" cardboard.  Charles Nagy is on the back of the Nomo card in the bottom row, second from left.  He was pretty good.

On the left is a 2010 Upper Deck Series 1 Baseball (hell, there was only one series before UD was shut out), Hong-Chih Kuo gold parallel, #'d 75/99.  Some of you may know that Hong-Chih Kuo is one of my favorite players.  I have an impressive collection of his cards that I plan to post at some indeterminate time.  This gold parallel was one that I insanely desired.  Now I have it!  Cue maniacal laughter.  My Nomo rookie card collection has also been disregarded recently.  But, the rookie card above was definitely one I needed.

2009 UD Signature Stars, James McDonald rookie autograph.  McDonald is not on the Dodgers, having been traded with Andrew Lambo to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Octavio Dotel in 2010.  The trade seems ultimately pointless in retrospect - because Dotel kind of sucked and Lambo tested positive for substance abuse - but at least McDonald got the opportunity start in Pittsburgh.  McDonald had himself a half-awesome, half-shite season last year, and I am rooting for him to have an all-awesome season this year.

Such an odd card.  I like it!  Card collectors and bloggers have all probably seen these 2003 UD Game Face Gear cards before.  This is the first one that has come into my possession.  I wouldn't call it a "good" design per se, but I enjoy it.

2008 Red Hot Rookie Redempion #11 of Clayton Kershaw.  It is a gorgeous card.  This was actually a contest prize from Greg, not part of the actual trade.  Nevertheless, it is awesome!  Kershaw's nickname is "Kid K," though I prefer to call him "Kid Kilowatt."  If you know who or what Kid Kilowatt is, then you are a pretty cool cat.  (Hell, I'll just tell you... to me, "Kid Kilowatt" alludes to two great things - baseball and a certain supergroup composed of Massachusetts hardcore and metal stalwarts.)

2007 Tristar Elegance Showtime game used patch #CK, Clayton Kershaw.  It's a three-color patch.  Might be hard to tell from the photograph.  Elegant, indeed.  Looks fabulous.

Thanks for a fantastic trade, Greg!  It has been a while, but we got it done.

A Brief Meeting with Mike Piazza

Greg of Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle and I attended Mike Piazza's signing of his new autobiography, Long Shot, at the Vroman's Bookstore in downtown Pasadena today.

 #31 jerseys abound.

The whole experience, minus the line, felt rushed.  I managed to exchange a few pleasantries with Mike Piazza before I was swiftly ushered away to allow the next batch of fans to seek his autograph.  Still, I walked away with a feeling that the overall experience was very cool.  I met numerous current Dodgers players less than a month ago at Dodgers FanFest 2013, yet the brief book signing, photo op, and quick exchange of "thank you's" felt somehow more poignant to me.

 I like pictures of signs.  This sign is bossy.

Maybe it's not necessarily that I was starstruck, but perhaps it was the simple fact that it was Mike Piazza himself sitting there.  He wasn't some baseball player near my own age to whom I could more easily relate.  Hell, professional athletes are just mortals, right?  We're all pink on the inside or whatever.  It wasn't until after I left the queue that I finally realized, "Whoa, I grew up watching that dude play, rooting for him."  So, I guess that was the point when I understood just how grand and badass these players can seem to a kid - especially since I was apparently starstruck and in awe after all, if however briefly.

Here are some more photos from the event (unfortunately a few did not come out super sharp):

(More after the jump!)

Corey Seager

Corey Seager is a top-five prospect for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  He's currently a shortstop, but will probably convert to man the hot corner instead.  Seager's older and similarly positioned brother, Kyle, is on the Seattle Mariners and had himself a nice 2012 season.  While shopping for autographs of top baseball prospects, I have found that Dodgers top prospect cards seem to be cheaper than those of players from other organizations.  I wonder if other collectors have experienced something similar?  I finally managed to get my paws (feet?  hands?) on a sweet Corey Seager autograph though:

 2012 Leaf Metal Draft, Corey Seager "prismatic" auto, #'d 52/99.  I tried to capture the "prismatic" effect in the photo.

I've recently tried to obtain some high-rated and/or hyped prospect signature cards of players from the Reds, Rays, Rangers, Cubs, Cardinals, and A's organizations with little success.  Some of these players are priced incredibly high.  One can only imagine how pricey their cards will get once they make their professional debuts.  However, by then Topps will probably flood the market with rookie autographs so the prices will go down.  Maybe.  I guess I am a fledgling prospector, indeed.  Though, I rarely buy and sell just to flip a card.

A trade with Too Many Verlanders

I very recently completed an excellent trade with Dennis Blay of Too Many Verlanders and Too Many Manninghams - two exemplary blogs, indeed.  Dennis has been a generous and affable trading partner, and I definitely look forward to trading with him again in the future!  You can check out what he got from me at his blog.  Here's what I received in return:

A selection of Lakers cards from the big pile that Dennis sent.  I especially enjoy the Stadium Club cards of Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel.

A smattering of cards from the Dodgers and Yankees I received.  My Derek Jeter and Ryne Sandberg collections are quite substantial.

2009-10 Upper Deck Be A Player, Dual Signatures autograph card of identical twin brothers, Henrik and Daniel Sedin.  The Sedin twins are two of my favorite hockey players.  Isn't it neat when brothers play on the same team?  It is even more awesome when both brothers are elite performers.  Looking at you, Upton bros.

2012 Topps Chrome, rookie refractor autograph of Zack Cozart, #'d 146/499.  Cozart was a mix of solid and streaky last season, his rookie year.  I hope he improves and continues to start in the lineup this coming season.  The Reds should probably drop him in the batting order though.

2005 Flair Significant Signings auto of Zack Greinke, #'d 231/250.  This is a simple, elegant card.  It is a definite upgrade over my other Greinke signature card, an ugly foil sticker autograph from the rather unattractive 2009 Topps Unique set.

Awesome!

Much thanks to Dennis for a ballsy, easy, and fair trade!  Party hard.

Please to check out my trade bait, if you'd be interested in trading with me!

Dimwit's February Group Break Haul

I partook in Sam's (The Daily Dimwit) February group break recently.  He busted a box each of 2005 Topps Updates and Highlights Chrome, 2011 Panini Limited Baseball, and 2013 Topps Series 1 Jumbo.  I naturally secured the Dodgers as my main team and received the Seattle Mariners as my randomized second team.  I was particularly excited for the 2005 U&H Chrome box because of the Matt Kemp rookie cards present in that set.  Ultimately, I did not get anything from the 2011 Panini Limited box, but I did receive a nice haul from the other two hobby boxes:

Ol' Thomas Oldham there on the left looks like Sergeant Brody (Damian Lewis) from Homeland.  Though Oldham is out of professional baseball as a player, he apparently runs a baseball school in Nebraska - Tom Oldham Baseball.  I imagine Oldham's daily life to be much less stressful than that of the fictional Sgt. Brody.  Also, Pokey Reese.

Dodgers!  The Russell Martin rookie card is nice.  I do enjoy pack-fresh older issue Chrome cards.  Jealous, Zakwin?  Jose Valentin's (far right) son Jesmuel was the Dodgers' first round pick in the 2012 MLB Draft, 51st overall.  I posted a card of Jesmuel Valentin a few weeks ago.

Yay!  I got the Matt Kemp rookie card.  It's your standard Chrome base rookie of Kemp, but pack fresh!  I am also happy that I got the Mariners as my second team, because of what I got above.  Rumors abound that "King" Felix Hernandez signed some insane, mammoth blockbuster of a contract today.  This is my first rookie/prospect card of King Felix.

A pile of Seattle Mariners cards from the 2013 Topps Jumbo box.  The Mariners only have 9 cards in their team set for this release.  I tend to root for the underdog Mariners if they are not playing one of my favorite teams.  But hey Seattle, at least the Seahawks are really good!

Mini-King.

A pile of Dodgers cards.  Some of you might be aware of my general ambivalence toward Topps and its products.  Heck, I've even moved beyond ambivalence into unbridled animosity and pure hatred for that company at times, depending on what new way they decide to screw me over.  I do not trust Topps after several debacles with their shoddy customer service and community support, as well as having to experience their absolutely atrocious 2011 UFC Finest set - the very pinnacle of their failures in quality control.  That being said, I do like the photography and design of 2013 Topps Baseball.

Emerald thing of Dee Gordon.  So, are you Team Hanley or Team Dee for Dodger shortstop?  I am Team Put-Hanley-at-Third.

Lastly, an insert card of Jackie Robinson.  Happy belated burfday, Jackie!

Thanks for the group break, Sam!

A trade with Spiegel (in-person)

I completed an in-person trade with cool cat Spiegel of Nomo's Sushi Platter at Dodgers FanFest 2013 last Saturday.  This was my first in-person trade outside of a local card shop since I started collecting cards again in 2009.  I traded autographs of Chin-Lung Hu and John Ely to Spiegel.  Here are some of my favorites from Spiegel's trade package:

Chin-Lung Hu is currently playing for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.  I did not know that team or league existed until I looked up what Hu was doing nowadays.  Hell, I thought he was still on the Mets.  The Matt Kemp card is one of those holographic deals.  I think I still like the old "Rookie Card" logo more than the new one.

1995 Score Gold Rush #238, Orel Hershiser.  It is always nice to get new cards of Bulldog.  Hershiser has some interesting photos on his cards.  Look at that expression he's making on the back of this one!  Great.

1978 Tommy John #375 and 1979 Charlie Hough #508.  Nice condition vintage cards.  What do you think, should Tommy John have been elected to the Hall of fame?  The Dodgers have had quite a few knuckleballers in their history, the most recent being Charlie Haeger.  There was also Hough, of course, as well as Hoyt Wilhelm, Tom Candiotti, Dennis Springer, and Nap Rucker.

Three TTM autographs!  1991 Fleer Ultra Rick Honeycutt #249, 1974 Claude Osteen #42, and a 1991 Fleer Mickey Hatcher #206.

Thanks for the trade, Spiegel!

Dodgers FanFest 2013

Dodgers FanFest was insanity.  I want to start off by thanking my fellow Dodgers-blogging friends.  I do not think I could have lasted the day without them.  Pretty much the entirety of the event was spent standing and waiting in some sort of line.  I had fun, though.  Perhaps more so than mutual interests, mutual commiseration and suffering tends to build bonds.  I like that I finally got to meet several of my fellow bloggers, of whom I have only known by name and reputation for a few years until yesterday.  I will use the photos I took to help tell the tale of FanFest:

I arrived at Dodger Stadium around 10 AM.  You can see some of the outfield construction and remodeling here.

The line to get wristbands (!) for autographs did not seem too bad from this point.  But, then I crossed the ridge and saw that the line seemed to have no end.  Spiegel of Nomo's Sushi Platter fame met up with me around 10:20ish AM.  Spiegel and I had drawn up a cursory plan to get autographs from Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu.  The plan was doomed to fail from the start.  The autograph line must have been at least a mile long because it wound, folded, and curved on itself.  I thought that there must have been at least ten thousand people there, though Dylan Hernandez said that the Dodgers thought the number was closer to 21,000.  After about an hour of waiting in line and shooting the shit, Greg of Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle fame met up with Spiegel and yours truly.

This was where we were a little more than an hour and a half into our riveting line-standing.  It was almost noon.

At some point during our wait in line, Josh Dodgerbobble, Stealing Home and his son met up with the three of us.  Dodgerbobble managed to score himself a Magic Johnson autographed baseball, the lucky duck.  We all traded a few cards and chatted for a while.  Dodgerbobble and Stealing Home left early.  We finally got to the wristband tent some time between 1:30-2:00 PM.  That was a three hour line!  Spiegel, Zakwin, and I each got our one autograph wristband for Hyun-Jin Ryu and proceeded into FanFest.  It wasn't necessarily better inside the event area than what was outside.

On stage right is Matt Kemp playing at DJ'ing and on stage left is Nancy Bea.  As you can see, it was super crowded inside FanFest.  This was the view from where we were standing in line to get Ryu's signature.

More after the jump...

Orange you special

Any Los Angeles-area bloggers going to Dodgers FanFest this coming Saturday?  I might go!

The cards in 2012 Leaf Valiant Baseball are strange looking.  What's with all the fleurs-de-lis?  They are pretty nice cards though.  Here are two Dodgers prospects from said product:

Jesmuel Valentin, orange refractor autograph, #'d 97/99.  Valentin, a shortstop and native of Puerto Rico, is a top-five Dodgers prospect.

You probably know about this dude already.  Yasiel Puig, orange refractor auto, #'d 41/99.  The Dodgers signed Cuban defector Puig to a seven-year, $42 million contract back in June 2012.  Hopefully he will turn out to be a great investment like Yoenis Cespedes for the A's, hm?  Like Valentin above, Puig is also a top-five prospect.

Let me know if any of you are planning to attend FanFest.  Maybe I'll see you there!

Sponsored box break: 2012 Leaf Inscriptions

Here's a video for a sponsored box break of 2012 Leaf Inscriptions I did, courtesy of Atlanta Sports Cards.  This is a very nice product if you like autographs!

Donnie Baseball!  Awesome.  Lead us to victory this year, Don!  I will post some nicer, high quality photos of the card once I get around to photographing some of my recent acquisitions.

Los Angeles does have one team in the playoffs...

The Los Angeles Galaxy already clinched a spot in the Major League Soccer playoffs, that is.  Game 7 of the NLCS is tonight.  If our rivals, the SF Giants, win then they will be playing against the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.  Sigh, Dodgers.  Well, at least there's the Galaxy to root for (they did win the MLS Cup last year, in fact), and some sweet card pick-ups to dull the pain!

2011 Upper Deck World of Sports, Landon Donovan autograph.  I like that Donovan wrote "#10."

Landon Donovan is probably the most well-known currently active US soccer player, though Clint Dempsey is definitely making his name in the English Premier League.

Orel Hershiser

On this date, 24 years ago, the Dodgers won their most recent World Series title against the Oakland A's.  Orel Hershiser had a hell of a season that year.  He won the Cy Young and World Series MVP awards, among several other accolades.  It took me a while to acquire an Orel Hershiser autograph card, but I think this one was well worth the wait.

2010 Panini Century Collection, Orel Hershiser prime patch auto, #'d 13/50.

What a photo!