Another Amazing Deal With Michael

I completed a couple deals with my friend, Michael recently and they all came in one package yesterday.  One of the biggest pieces in the deal was this Miguel Cabrera 4-color patch card numbered 24/25 (Uniform Number Ebay 1/1 wooo hooo).  This card is amazing, and I plan on keeping it for myself.  I like Cabrera, and I really wanted a "sick" patch of his.

The other piece of the deal was supposed to be a Craig Biggio auto that I wanted to trade to a friend of mine, but Michael decided that he wanted to do a Biggio PC, so he sent me this Machado relic/auto instead.  I think I like this card a lot more than that Biggio.  Look at how young Manny is!

As some throw ins, Michael included this Chance Sisco Bowman Chrome auto and the below Black refractor.

I was surprised, I thought this black refractor would be numbered, but it isn't. I think it is just the black wave refractor.  I think they started the black static and carbon fiber refractors in 2014.

Michael also included this Michael Kopech refractor auto from 2014 Bowman Sterling.  This is a really nice card, and I already have an idea who will be getting it.

Another throw in was this Gregg Olson IP auto.  I actually started a binder for IP autos that friends have sent me.  This will look good in there.

Finally, the other big deal I made with Michael was getting this autographed game used Nolan Reimold bat from him.  I have pretty much anything else Nolan, but I didn't have a bat.  It looks awesome, and I need to get another bat tube, so I can display it next to my Brian Roberts and Brooks Robinson signed bats.

Thanks so much for another couple of successful deals, Michael!  I really appreciate it.  Now, let me save some money for the National!!  Haha!

We Won't Stop - Recap of My First Playoff Game

I can knock something off of my bucjet list, I went to my first ever MLB playoff game today.  Chris and I went, along with Ryan from O No Another Orioles Blog and some friends of his.  We skipped over a great deal of DC traffic this morning thanks to the HOV lanes and that we had so many people in the car.  I was worried because the start time for the game was 12:00, noon, and our plan was to leave Ryan's house at 6:30, but that would put us in DC at the Friday morning rush hour.  Thankfully, we sot through there easily and got to Baltimore right at 10:00AM with only two stops along the way.

I was really glad that I made the decision to bring Chris along so he could experience this.  He had joked that he didn't really want to go because he was missing school, but I could tell that he was really excited.  They handed us these awesome rally towels as we entered the ballpark, and Chris actually got an extra one, so my wife will get a souvenir.  I really appreciate the photo bomb by the random dude in the background, by the way.

Another thing I wanted to do while I was there was to finally try some of Boog's BBQ and who was there while we were in line?  Why, Boog himself.  He signed a ball for Chris and posed for a picture.  I told him I was happy to see him again, and he shook my hand and said he was happy to see me as well.  Boog is such an underrated historical player.  I know that the 1970 AL MVP is loved in Baltimore.  He's one of our guys and I like our guys.

This summer, when we were at the Tiger game, I was disappointed that I didn't get to see Verlander pitch and Miguel Cabrera was on the bench.  Well, I got to see both today, and Cabrera was a terror on the Orioles, but he also helped them out with some questionable baserunning when he was cut down at the plate trying to score late in the game.  That run would come back to haunt the Tigers.

Check out the sea of Orange.  I thought the Brooks Robinson statue dedication in 2012 was wild, but this crowd was raucous, energetic, pumped, whatever you want to call it.  They were a bit deflated in the middle innings when the Tigers jumped out to a 5-2 lead, but the crowd would explode in the 8th inning when Delmon Young hit his 3-run double off of the wobbly Tigers bullpen to give the O's a 7-6 lead.  Ryan and I were going crazy, and even Chris was jumping up and down, although he couldn't see over everyone who was on their feet at that moment.

There were chants of "Hey Hey, Goodbye" when Brad Ausmus lifted Justin Verlander for Anibal Sanchez; chants for "Joba, Joba, Joba" for Joba Chamberlain when he was throwing gas on the fire; chants of "We Won't Stop" when Delmon Young his the double; and one of the most gratifying chants was the role call for Nick Markakis after his home run early in the game.  Nick has been up with the O's since the 2006 season and missed out on the 2012 post season with a broken thumb.  It was really cool to see him finally play in a playoff game, and he has shone so far.

I shot a video with my phone of the final out of the game.  Sorry for the shaky camera work, but I think this captured the mood at the stadium perfectly.  Baltimore is itching for a winner, after all of those years of futility, and I believe that there isn't a fan base that wants to win right now more than the Orioles fan base.  Of course, I'm sure folks from Kansas City would like to weigh in on that.

So, I hope you all enjoyed the look into my day.  I am still elated over the outcome of the game.  I told Ryan that I had felt in the 7th inning that the perfect game would be a close one where the Orioles came from behind and won, and I got my wish.

Spread The Word - I'm Back On Ebay

I took several years off from selling on Ebay.  I had moved, started doing shows, started a blog, started a COMC account, but finally, after several painstaking hours of listing stuff, I am back on ebay.  This is probably only temporary, but who knows, I might find a few more things to throw up there.

What prompted me to do it was pulling this beauty out of my 2014 Topps Heritage box this weekend.  I casually looked it up and was amazed to see what they had sold for, so I naturally decided to try to cash in.  I figured, if I can get a decent amount of money funneled into my PayPal account, I could maybe expedite some set pursuits or maybe see about adding HOF baseball #101 to my collection.  We'll see.

So, if you have time and money burning a hole in your pocket, please head over to Ebay and check out my wares.  My Ebay ID is roaddogg57 and I will give you the courtesy of a page link here.

Thanks for looking guys and good luck if any of you decide to bid!

2013 Topps Series 2 - Inserts and Hits

After sorting through all of my 2013 Topps Series 2 cards, I wanted to show a few of the inserts I picked up.  I busted 3 jumbo boxes of Series 2 and ended up with 30 1972 Minis.  You can see I got the above Brooks Robinson for my PC.  I also got Bundy, Machado and Lincecum that I will be holding onto.  For trade I have: 51, 53, 54, 55, 62 (x2), 66, 69 (x2), 70, 72, 74, 76 (x2), 80, 81, 83, 87, 88, 89 (x2), 92, 93, 94 (x2) and 99.

Here is the one Camo card I picked up.  I didn't pull any pink parallels.  I have already had someone ask for any Camos that I pull, so this one is likely not for trade.

I got a Cal Ripken Cut to The Chase as well as a Manny Machado.  Other guys I got, who are for trade are as follows: Killebrew, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Belle, Banks, Jered Weaver, Posey and Koufax.

I ended up with two case hits in my boxes, which was really cool.  This Jorge De La Rosa may be for trade if someone has something comparable to it.

I got 30 Topps Gold parallels.  One of which is the above Brian Roberts for my PC.  I was really happy that Roberts, Markakis and Reimold are all in this series, so I have some parallels to chase down.  Other golds I got for trade are: 333, 370, 377, 389, 407, 429, 430, 459, 467, 471, 477, 482,504, 519, 530, 562, 576, 584, 593, 608, 619, 620, 622, 624, 626, 633, 655, 658 and 659.

My manu-relics consisted of Willie McCovey ROY, Ted Williams 1946 MVP and Luis Aparicio ROY.  My relics were the above Jeter (not for trade), Tim Lincecum (not for trade) and Carl Crawford.  The autos I received were Wilin Rosario, Collin Cowgill and Chris Archer.

The Making Their Mark cards look really sharp.  I got the above manny Machado for my PC, plus another that will likely go to Ryan.  I got 28 others and they are for trade as follows: 1, 2 (x3), 3, 5 (x2), 6 (x2), 8 (x2), 9, 10 (x2), 11 (x3), 13 (x2), 15 (x3), 16, 21, 22 (x2) and 25 (x2).

Another of the case hits was this #25 of 50 (OH DEAR LORD EBAY ONE OF ONE!!!!) silk parallel David Freese.  This one has been claimed and a trade is in the works.

I got 15 WBC cards, all for trade.  3, 4 (x2), 5 (x2), 6 (x2), 8, 10, 12, 13 (x2), 14 (x2) and 15 (x2).

I got 2 Topps Black parallels, Jon Lester #12 of 62 and Devin Mesoraco #35 of 62.

I got 7 'The Elite' cards.  They look really sharp, like Museum Collection or something and are pretty thick.  For trade are: Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Johnny Bench, Jackie Robinson and Ozzie Smith.

I got 15 'Chase it Down' inserts including Manny Machado (he is all over this set) and Adam Jones for my PCs.  Weston from Fantastic Catch is getting most of these with the exception of the Pablo Sandoval, which is going to my nephew, Jacob.  Remaining cards for trade are: Bryce Harper, Cameron Maybin, Mike Trout, Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas.

Chasing History inserts included Manny Machado (again) and Dylan Bundy, so those are mine.  Cards up for trade are as follows: 51 (x2), 52 (x2), 54, 56, 59, 66 (x2), 69, 70, 72, 73, 74 (x2), 75, 76, 81, 82, 83, 88, 89, 92, 95 (x3), 98 and 99.

I hope everyone remembers that I am pursuing the Emerald parallel set.  I am about a third of the way done with Series One and now need a bunch for Series 2.  I got 30 parallels out of my boxes.  Here are the cards that I got, meaning, I don't need to trade for these: 336, 337, 338, 363, 373, 374, 382, 389, 393, 411, 418, 433, 439, 455, 458, 464, 469, 474, 480, 529, 537, 550, 553, 557, 564, 565, 589, 590, 625 and 661.

Last, but not least, I pulled an SP.  I got the Mike Trout signing autographs SP, which is a really cool card.  I have also seen the David Ortiz Boston Strong speech card, which is just amazing.  This Trout might be for trade, but it will take something really good to land it.  Do you have what it takes?

So, there you have it.  Several of the teams have been called for out of the inserts, so I will be going back through them either tonight or tomorrow.  Once I do so, I will transfer my 'haves' over to my trade page (which needs some life, for sure).  I also plan on going through my inserts from Series One and adding them to the trade page as well.  I'm either going to trade most of this stuff away, listing some on COMC or setting up a table at my local card show very soon.  These boxes were expensive and I plan on making back a little bit of what I spent and I think I can do so pretty well.

That being said, if there is anything any of you want, please don't hesitate to contact me, either by email or commenting on the blog.  I appreciate all of the folks who have already gotten with me and the others who plan to.