Top 10 Wishlist Pickup - 2011 Topps Black Diamond Virgil Trucks Auto

This is one of those cards that really should be seen in person to be truly appreciated.  When the Black Diamond Wrapper Redemption cards came out, I missed the boat and failed to submit my wrappers.  I didn't catch on to the wrapper redemption thing until the next year with the Topps Gold Rush cards.  Man, did I miss out.  I had seen that Virgil Trucks was a subject in the autograph offerings of this set, but I hadn't bought one because the price was way too much for me.  I had seen several of these sell for $100.00, so I held off.  The prices were really all over the place, then poof, none were to be seen for a while.  I would search for one here and there, never to find any, but autos of the other guys in the set were plentiful.  Trucks was so elusive.

Finally, I remembered to add the search "2011 Topps Black Diamond Trucks Auto" to my Ebay saved searches, and kept checking my phone daily to see if any ever would pop up.  As luck would have it, I signed in to Ebay one day, just to look around, and one was listed right in my Home feed.  Why did it not show up on my app?  Well, as I would find out, I hadn't checked my app that day, and this card was newly listed.  With a Buy it Now price of $29.99, I immediately bought it.  I didn't want to let another one go by without me picking it up, and the price was well below any of the other cards I had seen.

Numbered 56/60, the card is in amazing shape.  Once I scanned it, I put it in a magnetic case and will re-use the brand new toploader that the seller included.  The card is just beautiful, and will now be one of the top cards in my collection.

This is one of those cards that I have been watching for so long, I am excited to add it to the collection.  New Virgil Trucks cards don't show up often, or ever, really, so my Trucks collection is virtually complete.  I may find an oddball card here or there, but in all honesty, I have just about everything I can find that pertains to him.

Not a day goes by that I miss receiving letters from him telling me how his family is doing, or him asking me about my son.  I would have loved sending him a letter a couple weeks ago to tell him that Chris got his first two hits of the season, or that he aspires to be a pitcher.  All of this for a man that I never met once in my life.

Mr. Trucks was amazing to all of his fans, and I am really happy that I can now say that I have this card in my collection.

Completing a Trade - With My Son

Even though I bought him the 2013 Topps Jumbo pack from the LCS, when my son Chris pulled a pink parallel, I told him that I would trade him something cool for it so I could, then, flip it to someone else in another trade.  So, I showed Chris a few of the Tim Lincecum parallels from 2013 Topps and told him that if I couldn't get the Silver Slate parallel, then I would try to get him a Blue Sparkle parallel.  Well, I was able to get him the Silver Slate parallel after all, but I might still get him the Blue Sparkle, just because, you know, he is an awesome kid.

The Lincecum is numbered 10/10, (Ohhh Emmmm Geeee, Ebay 1/1!!!).  I 'traded' it to Chris for the Pink Parallel Rafael Furcal that he pulled, which I will then flip to Weston over at Fantastic Catch.  I know I overpaid him, but he is my son, and I knew he would really like this Lincecum.  I got myself a Silver Slate parallel, which hasn't arrived yet, but when it does, you know it'll get posted on here.

2013 Topps Series 1 Wrapper Redemption Results

I finally got my 2013 Topps Series 1 wrapper redemption packs in the mail today (along with a ton of other stuff).  Man, I was really happy with what I got this year.  The blue sparkle parallels look really nice and I was able to get an Orioles RC out of one of the packs, Manny Machado.  I imagine the Dylan Bundy is going to command a whole lot on Ebay or COMC, so I figure the Machado won't be too far behind, value wise.  I'm glad I pulled it.

I had 30 jumbo wrappers that I mailed in, so I received 3 packs.  In the 3 packs, I got one of the Silver Slate parallels, which are serial numbered to 12.

I know some folks will be drooling over this Cliff Lee Silver Slate parallel.  It is numbered 2/10 and will be up for a pretty hefty trade or will be rolled over to COMC at some point.  Or, if one of you awesome bloggers got any Orioles Silver Slates (especially Bundy, Machado, O's Playoff Win or Chris Davis), I would definitely be up for a trade.

Speaking of trading, I do have some of the blue sparkles that I got available for trade:

Ryan Cook - A's
Buster Posey - Giants
Kirk Neuwenhuis - Mets
Kurt Suzuki - Nationals
Dee Gordon - Dodgers
Andruw Jones - Yankees (going to Drew)
Scott Hairston - Mets
Kyle Kendrick - Phillies
Daisuke Matsuzaka - Red Sox
Jason Kipnis - Indians
SF Giants 2012 NLDS Game 5
Felipe Paulino - Royals
Heath Bell - Diamondbacks

So, if you are interested, please email me.  I still can't respond to comments, unless I post a new comment and I'm afraid that if I do it that way, you won't see my response.  So, yeah, email me, please for all trade requests.

Series 2 Topps Wrapper Redemption Cards

I meant to post these yesterday, but I still wasn't feeling all that great, so I put it off until today.  Of course, today, they would have been posted sooner but when I scanned them, I noticed that I needed to clean up all of the pictures on my laptop.  So, I did that, then we decided to make a trip to the beach for the afternoon.  Anyway, here I am, a little late.

I had enough jumbo wrappers from Series 2 Topps to get 2 Topps Goldrush packs.  I was really happy that the first card I saw was this Cal Ripken.  Again, it is always nice to add a new Ripken to the collection.

 I also got this Nick Markakis.  2 Orioles in one pack, not bad at all.

I think this Mike Trout was a decent pull.  I think it will be some good trade bait or a good sell at my next card show.

Another decent pull is this Yu Darvish.  I saw that it is selling on Ebay for around $22, so that is definitely worth it to me.  More trade bait!  Or sell bait.  Whatever you want to call it.

Anyway, I liked this year's wrapper redemption cards, even though I didn't pull an auto.  I still want to get the Virgil Trucks auto from last year's wrapper redemptions.  If anyone has one of those, please shoot me an email.