May 2022 Graphing of Yard Goats at Baysox

With the Wood Ducks out of town this weekend, I decided to head to Bowie and catch a few Orioles prospects that I had missed in the past.  I had the above 2021 Bowman Chrome aqua shimmer refractor of Jordan Westburg that I absolutely wanted to get signed.  He signed it, even though it is personalized.  That doesn't really matter to me, except for one of the guys I was with took one of my Gunnar Henderson cards and said "I'll get him to sign it for you."  I told him that Gunnar would ask his name an personalize the card and the guy said "That's ok, I'll tell him my name is William, too..."

So, I let him take my 2020 Topps Heritage Minors Gunnar Henderson, and he proceeded to tell him "Oh, my name is Carl..."  Meaning, he personalized the card to Carl.  I told Carl, "Hey, it's no big deal, you can keep the card.  I have a few other of these, so I'll bring one next time."  Carl said, "Oh, no, I don't want it.  It's funnier if you have a card in your collection with someone else's name on it."  I would have much rather he kept the card, though.  To be fair, he's my friend's uncle, and he was fun to talk to about baseball during the game, and he did seemingly have a good time.  I just don't think he quite understood how I enjoy getting autographs and put a lot of time in preparing for trips like this.  To each their own, I suppose.

I finally was able to move several Adam Hall cards out of my box.  My Staedtler seems to be dying; the cards at the top were signed with the dying Staedtler and were in my friend, Alex's book.  The ones on the bottom were signed with a new type of marker that I found at Hobby Lobby.  The new marker seems to be doing really well and is substantially cheaper than a Staedtler.

I also was able to get a couple cards signed out of my 2019 Delmarva team set.  Dean Kremer was rehabbing with the Baysox, but he ignored us.  Hudson Haskin also ignored us pre and post-game.  We also were ignored by Zach Watson.

Speaking of Watson, I almost missed that he was on the roster.  While thrashing on Friday to find some of his cards, I found two Riley Pint cards that I had picked up from a dime box at last year's National.  I also had found the 2020 Heritage Minors Michael Toglia card while looking for some 50/50 stuff.  So, after the game, Alex and his aunt and uncle left; I stayed behind and was able to get the two Yard Goat guys I had cards of.  I got them outside, which was a lot easier than I remember from the last time I was in Bowie.

Personalizations aside, I had a great with with Alex and his family, and I would definitely go with them to another game.  Bowie is really easy to graph at, even if you have some guys ignoring you.

In all, I got Adam Hall x 6, Gunnar Henderson x 1 (I'm not counting Carl's card), Jordan Westburg x 1, Kyle Moore x 1, Drew Rom x 1, Joey Oriz x 1, Riley Pint x 2 and Michael Toglia x 1 (14 total autographs). 

Some Cards From Dugan

It took him a while, but my good friend, Dugan, sent me back cards that he had tried to get signed for me last season, and added a couple nice cards in the process.

I love the deckle edge Ryan Mountcastle card from 2018 Heritage.

The above Richie Martin patch auto from Leaf Trinity was really nice.  I didn't know this card existed.

Finally, Dugan was able to get two of the cards I sent to him signed.  Rain cut his trip short, or he would have been able to get a couple Columbia Fireflies done for me.  Oh well, I appreciate the effort.

Thanks so much for the cards, Dugan.

March 16, 2019, Raleigh Card Show Recap

I hadn't been to a card show since last year's National, and I really wasn't planning on going to the Raleigh show this past weekend.  I received a message from my friend, Jackson, who wanted to go, and he asked me if I would go with him to the show.  I figured it would be nice to spend time with him, so I decided to go ahead and attend.

I had some Christmas money that I hadn't spent, so I had a little bit of a budget.  I bought mostly stuff for other people, which is usually the case.  I did, however, find a few things for myself.  Most of what I bought was vintage stuff for TTMs and cirrent prospect stuff for graphing.  I did grab a few things for the collection, like the above 1949 Bowman Ralph Kiner.

The Kiner is really rough, but I liked it, and it was part of a bulk vintage deal with one of my favorite vendors.  I paid $20 for this card and a stack of lower grad vintage for TTMs.

This blue wave Riley Pint auto was part of the last deal I made.  The guy had a ton of nice Bowman parallels and autos.  I got a decent stack from him for $50.

I picked up a bunch of current and former Wood Ducks autos, as well.  I got this Eric Jenkins as part of a 2/$5.00 or 5/$10.00 deal.

Kyle Cody is a case of "buy low" at this point.  He has been out with arm injuries, but when he was on the Wood Ducks, he was pretty much "lights out".  I'm hoping he can bounce back and also spend a little more time in Kinston before he moves up (for selfish reasons, of course).

 I loved this green shimmer Cody auto, and this was the card that started that bulk $50 deal.  Jackson found it for me, and I made sure to take it home.

 This Jairo Beras auto was a steal.  He is a really cool guy, and even if he doesn't make the Show, I will hold onto this, since we met him several times.

I guess I have a small bit of a PC for guys that I have met, so adding this Jose Trevino made sense.  He was an awesome guy, even though he wasn't a Wood Duck.

This Ryan Ripken auto was a throw in on the bulk deal, and I was glad to grab it.  I was also glad I have finally learned not to wear Orioles gear to a show.  I got hosed back in the day when Ripken was first drafted, since I had an Orioles shirt on.

Finally, my big ticket item was this graded 10/10 Leody Taveras auto.  I paid $50 for it, and I think it will only go up.  I expect to see him again in Kinston this summer, but probably for not very long.

I had a great time at the show.  I was happy with everything I picked up, and I really appreciate Jackson inviting me.

2017 National Card Show - Trade Night Pickups

One of my favorite things from this year's National was that a fellow Instagrammer hosted trade nights at a neighboring hotel for a couple nights after the show.  We made it to trade night for Friday and Saturday nights.  At the trade nights, I was able to pick up a couple nice Trey Mancini autos from a couple folks that I'll show with the rest of the Mancini suff that I picked up.  I also was able to purchase two different Bowman's Best Riley Pint autos from a guy named Phil.  He had the Pint cards because he used to play against him in local ball, but was ok with letting them go for cheap.

I believe I picked up both Pint autos for a total of $30.  I was really happy with that, and will likely hold onto both of them as I follow Pint's career.  I have shuttered my Sonny Gray side PC, since he is a Yankee now, and am likely to sell off all of those cards.  It will be nice to transition to another player who isn't an Oriole.  It also helps that I have met Pint in person.

Another fellow Instagrammer made a point to seek me out at the trade night and work up a deal for me to land this Cal Ripken auto from Upper Deck Sweet Spot.  This is a rare Sweet Spot auto that didn't fade all to crap, but the surface of the card itself is pretty jacked up.  The trader (TimHudsonfan) made a great deal with Max for the card, and I then bought the card off of Max for cheap.

Remember the lady I spoke about who helped me with Ron Davis?  Well, I had told her about the trade nights, and her and her boys showed up on Saturday.  It turned out that her oldest son was someone I traded with on Instagram back when I was first getting started.  We worked out a deal for another Trey Mancini auto, along with this Mountcastle patch auto.  We also discussed a future 50/50 since both of the boys are Indians fans and I will be seeing Lynchburg soon.

I also met a fellow Instagrammer (santiagosportscards) who has been following me for a long time.  We discussed an orange parallel that I had gotten out of my box of Pro Debut.  I was just going to give it to him, but he insisted I take this Jonathan Schoop auto, as well.  He also had a gold refractor auto Schoop from 2014 Topps Chrome.  I almost walked out of the trade night with that card, but he said he didn't really want to sell it.  So, I told him that he should keep the card, but let me know if he ever wanted to move it.

Finally, I got this graded 1987 O Pee Chee Barry Bonds RC as a throw in to one of the deals that I made at the trade night.  I can't remember who I got it from, but I figured I would pick it up since it was a nice RC that I didn't have.  Also, since it was a throw in, I couldn't argue about the price!

So, I know that if I go next year, I will definitely make time for the trade nights, if they are being hosted.  I had a great time and left with some really cool stuff!

Graphing the Asheville Tourists at Greensboro Grasshoppers

I wanted to get a game in this weekend while I was transporting Chris to my parents for his visit with them.  So, he and I checked out the schedule and decided to try to get Riley Pint with the Asheville Tourists.  I ended up finding some more guys from the team and had enough time to get in some 50/50s from Gerard.

I was able to get two Max George cards signed.  We couldn't get him inside the stadium as he was one of the last players to come out on the field and the coach had run Chris and I off (apparently, the players can't sign by the dugout...?).  We ended up getting George at the team bus.

I was really happy to get Pint.  I had wanted to follow his career, so I had picked up a few of his cards.  I was really worried, though, as I couldn't find the cards I had picked up until a couple hours before the game.  I also found a Pro Debut in a pack of cards that I got at the card shop in Winston-Salem.  Pint was really nice, and signed everything that Chris and I had.

We also got Tyler Nevin and Brian Serven,  I found Serven at the LCS, and Nevin I found through my last pass through my Bowman box before I left town.

Finally, I got Colton Welker at the team bus.  Welker was the last guy that I needed, and I really wanted to get this South Atlantic League Top Prospects card signed.  Chris was ready to leave but we saw some players coming out, so we decided to wait out traffic and ended up getting Welker and George.

Chris got two baseballs during the trip, and kept telling me how much fun he was having.  I'm glad, because I'll miss him while I am on my trip.