Finally, After All These Years...

I have been waiting for seven years to write this blog post.  When 2009 Topps Series 2 came out, the one and only Pete from Dropped Third Strike suggested that I try to complete the series.  On June 13, 2009, I posted that I picked up two Us and an N.  Pete had a C that he ended up sending to me.  So, it actually took me seven years and two months to complete the series.  By my calculations, since each card is numbered to 50, and you need two of the Us, two As and two Cs, only 25 of these sets can be completed.  So, essentially, this set is a 1/25.  I am pretty proud that I have finally finished it.

I looked a three different National Card Shows to complete the series, with no luck at all.  The closest I came was this year, when I found a vendor with maybe 15 of the letters from various series, but the only Brooks he had was the C.  I thought I was smart back in the day when I added the search on Ebay as a "followed" search, only to be teased by the occasional L or E.  Finally, last week, the followed search paid off when someone listed several of the letters at once.

I had been waiting so long to finish this set, I was willing to pay almost any price to complete it.  Luckily, when I saw the R go up for sale, it was $10.00 BIN with free shipping.  So, I got it for a lot cheaper than most of the letters, which I paid between $15-$25 per letter (a couple were as low as $7, I think).

So, I can now turn off the Ebay notifications.  I can now stop searching through manufactured patches at card shows.  I am officially taken out of the market for these letter patches.

The original post that started this project can be seen HERE.

Instagram Pickup - 2009 Topps Legends of the Game Letter Patch

I got a steal off of Instagram recently when I picked up this 2009 Topps Legends of the Game Jimmie Fox letter patch from a guy for $2.00 + shipping.  I couldn't pass up the deal.  I wish it was the Brooks Robinson letter that I needed but I'm still happy adding this to my Jimmie Foxx PC.

By the way, I will NOT be pursuing the set of these.  I have learned my lesson with my Brooks patches.  Maybe someone will come along with the R that I need.  One of these days.

One More Brooks Patch To Go

I'm still on a cloud from pulling that Jose Abreu auto today.  In case anyone was interested, the card (and some other things) is listed on Ebay.  My user ID is Roaddogg57.  Here is a link to my seller page.  Please bid!

So, I have been active on Ebay lately and was happily surprised to receive an email from them telling me that someone had listed a bunch of 2009 Topps Brooks Robinson letter patches. There were may 7-10 of them and luckily, one of them was the letter A.  I needed A and R to finish the set, so I pounced all over this one.  It only cost me $9.99 + $3.00 shipping, so I was really lucky is wasn't more than that.  Not that I would have minded.  I'm at the point where I'd pay just about anything to put this set away.

One letter to go!  If anyone has or has seen the letter R, please let me know!  I want to finish this set that has been 5 years in the making!

Two More To Go

I am so close to finishing up my 2009 Topps Legends of the Game Brooks Robinson patch set.  I never thought it would take this long, but I am down to two letters now that I picked up this 'C' from Ebay.  All I need now are the letters 'A' and 'R' and I will have spelled out Vacuum Cleaner (Brooks's nickname).

I will feel very gratified once I am able to complete this set.  It has been one of the toughest that I have ever worked on.  Maybe not cost-wise, but actual card availability.  They were all over the place back in 2009 when the set first came out, but now, they are near impossible to find.  So, if any of you see an A or an R from the set, please let me know! 

The Letter M

I finally added another letter to my 2009 Topps Brooks Robinson letter patch project.  I've got to say, this project has been TOUGH!  I went to the National card show last year and couldn't find a single one of these.  I've been working on the project since 2009, obviously, and still, 4 years later, I haven't completed it.  I only need 3 letters (C, A, R) after this one, but finding these on Ebay are few and far between.

Here's to holding out hope that the last 3 cards pop up somewhere.  I haven't given up yet!

The Letter E Plus a Bonus

I was able to knock off another Brooks Robinson letter patch recently after letting the set sit for 3 years or so.  This one, the letter E, came with a nice bonus as well, a signed Brooks Robinson picture.

I now only need 4 letters to complete the set, so here's to hoping I can finish this in my lifetime.  Maybe the upcoming national card show will have a vendor who has these among his wares.

The autographed photo was a nice bonus.  It wasn't authenticated, but it looks just like every other Brooks autograph I've seen, so I'm content with it.  I didn't need a bonus to get the letter patch, but I can see why someone would feel the need to include it.  Otherwise, what is someone going to do with a card with a giant E on it?

Bought A Vowel

I was finally able to find another 2009 Topps Legends of the Game letter patch that I needed for my Brooks Robinson 'Vacuum Cleaner' series.  I started this in 2009 and have been unable to find any more letter patches for probably over a year and a half or so.  I was chatting with Andrew the other day and out of the blue, I decided to do a search for them and there this one was.

The Letter A.  Luckily, I got this one before it got away, so I can finally make a change on my want page for this set.  Cool thing is, soon after this one went off, another patch became available and I snatched it, too.

2010 Topps Finest Box Break With Max

A couple weeks ago, Max came to the card shop with me and we decided we wanted to bust something. Something. Anything. Crap, there's nothing to bust. We decided that we would split two boxes of Topps Finest, since that was pretty much the only thing available at the time.

We enjoyed the break, even though there weren't too many packs in each box. Here is what I pulled:

I pulled an Ian Desmond Lettermen Auto which is pretty nice, I think. I really like the lettermen cards. I'm sure you all knew that by now.

Got a pretty sweet Joe Mauer refractor. I'm a big Mauer fan, for sure. He is, in my mind, one of the best players in the game right now.

For any Ryan Howard fans, I got 2 Howard refractors. If anyone wants to trade for these, they are available. I'd enjoy some O's refractors for a straight-up exchange.

I enjoyed the Finest Break, especially since I was able to do the break with my best friend. This was probably the only way I would be able to buy the stuff, so it ended up working out.

Trying to Find Positives in a Sea of Negativity

The 2010 season is already a wash to me, only 18 games into it. The Orioles are inventing ways to lose. The past 2+ weeks have been beyond frustrating, especially because the Orioles were supposed to be closer to 0.500. Someone please tell them that they are going in reverse. It has been very hard for me to stay interested in blogging on a consistent basis with the epic downer that my team has created. I'm trying guys. Please bear with me.

There are a few positives to this season if you dig deep enough. As much as I like him, Dave Trembley will be gone soon. I now feel like he definitely is not the answer to the future of the club. Unfortunately, I have no idea who could take over during the season and cause a dramatic turnaround (Jim Tracy for the Rockies last year was an exception, not the rule).

There are some positives, however: The Oriole starters (which was a huge weakness last year) have been good enough to keep the games close.

Ty Wigginton has proven very useful given consisten playing time. He most likely will be moved by the trade deadline for more prospects. I'm ok with that.

The biggest positive from this season so far has been Brian Matusz. He will win more games than he will lose. He racks up Ks with great frequency. I still believe he will be a strong Rookie of the Year candidate, but he's going to have to get some run support.

So, that being said, I picked up something cool because of how good I think Matusz is going to be:

2008 Razor Lettermen Brian Matusz Auto, letter Z. #ed 5/20. Freaking sweet. I got this for a steal on Ebay and seriously think that its value will only increase.

Happy prospecting. Yeah. With Matusz, it's going to be very happy, I think. He has been a ray of light in a dismal season so far. Yes, it will turn around before the season is over, but damn it has been hard to watch. I'm waiting for the O's to shoot off a 12-game winning streak or something like that to get them back on the right track.

Please make some bullpen changes so leads aren't coughed up in the 9th inning, though. I blame the bullpen for at least 6 of the losses. If the O's had a competent bunch of relievers, the season would be markedly different.

Thanks for putting up with my bitching guys. Hopefully I haven't pissed too many of you off :) I'll be ok sooner or later.

Mail Day - Cruise Control

Today's blog is brought to you by the letter V.
I finally added another Brooks patch for my quest to spell vacuum cleaner. Hooray for me. Now, I need 6 more letters. I found a place that has every letter I need for $15.00 each, but I'm kind of waiting to see if I can skim a few for less (much like the above letter I got for $8.00).

Once I complete the phrase, I'll be pretty happy. Maybe I will take a picture of the letters spelling the word or something. Not a bad idea.

Nice pull... that I forgot to blog about before.

I bought 5 packs of SP Authentic last Saturday and got a gooood letter patch. Travis Snider of the Blue Jays. Hooray. I like the manufactured patches actually. I think if you're going to get a jersey card, they'd be more significant if you ended up with this size of a swatch. Those little crumbs of bat and/or jersey don't really do a whole lot for me anymore.

...I don't wanna come back down from this cloud...

There isn't a whole lot I can post now that will measure up to the awesomeness of my previous post. I still can't believe it, I actually did meet Brooks. WOW. Still hasn't hit me. Anyway, a nice productive week, in more ways than one. I met Brooks on Monday, got an offer on my house Wednesday night, negotioated and accepted the offer on Friday, had a Yu Gi Oh PreRelease at the shop on Saturday, met up and went to dinner with my best friend in the world today... very very productive week. Oh, I also opened a few packs and got a little mail... Here are the highlights... Effing wow to this one... 4 pc jersys, Ken Griffey Jr the 5th (inside joke there), some guy named Derek Jeter (never heard of him), Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols. Pretty dang good pull, if i do say so myself.

Next up is a little bit of mail from Sportlots. Yay to sportlots. I have a good bit of stuff coming from them over the next few days, so hopefully more blog updates to come...

F Yeah, a NICK THE STICK jersey. Always a good pull for me. Stick is awesome and will continue to be for the Orioles for a long time.

Thanks to Jim, one of my favorite people to watch a game with, I got a 1970 Topps Pagan to knock another high number off my set. Im slowly chipping away at this set, as well as my 55 set. Soon, though, they will be complete and I will move on to 1959!!! Yaaay.

Finally, pulled a by the letter Chris Volstad from 2009 SP Authentic. I like the teal from the Marlins and this card shows up so nice on the scan. What do you guys think?

Finally, in some personal news, we have signed the contract on selling the house, so soon, my finances will have recovered and we will be able to have some cards flowing through here!!! Im so excited! In celebration, I am going to make a purchase off ebay and will share with you all shortly... Thanks for reading, please comment me up. Also, if you haven't, please check my previous post about my trip of awesomeness to see Brooks Robinson!!!!!!!