COMC Pickup - 2010 Topps Chris Davis

Continuing right along with my COMC batch, here is a 2010 Topps Chris Davis that I picked up.  I'm certain I had this card at some point, but it probably was sent off in a trade to some Rangers fans.  Or, I could have sold it with my bulk 2010 stuff at a show.  I'm not sure.  Anyhow, I picked this one up off of COMC dirt cheap, so I'm glad to have it in my collection again.

I mailed out some Christmas packages to a couple fellow bloggers and i have a couple more that I want to ship, hopefully tomorrow.  I am done with the two Secret Santas I signed up for, the one with Crackin' Wax and the other with Weston.  I hope to also have those mailed out tomorrow.

Some of the lower end items have been moving from my COMC page.  I'm very glad to see these things sell off.  Please, everyone, take a look at my page and buy some last minute Christmas gifts for friends or family, or even yourself.  I've got some good deals on there and when you buy something, you help me add future items to post on this blog.  It's a win-win!

The link to my COMC page is posted at the top of my blog.

A Package From Nick

 Nick from the amazing blog "Baseball Dimebox" sent me a package that I got today.  There were a ton of Orioles in it, several of which I needed for various PCs.  The above Jim Palmer Boyhood Photos of the Stars card is especially nice (since I completely forgot it existed!).  the amazing thing about this card is the Palmer's hair hasn't changed after all these years!

Another card I really liked (I liked them all, but I can't scan them all) was this one that I had never seen before.  This is a Sunoco Dream Team card of Bob Feller and Lou Boudreau.  It is a surprise addition to my Feller PC.

Nick has a really good eye for the "Diamond In the Rough", if you will, which is one of the many great parts of his blog.  Nick's ability to find something cool about any card is something I really try to use in my card shopping adventures as well.

Thanks for the package, Nick!

Wow, What a Week

The English majors in the crowd will appreciate the alliteration in the title of this blog post.  You're welcome, Adam.  So, a show of hands from everyone who predicted that the week before the Winter Meetings would be packed full of moves.  Crickets?  Yeah, I didn't see it coming, either.  I mean, really, who thought Robinson Cano would go to the Mariners? 

I thought that the Orioles would maybe make a move, but I wasn't all that thrilled that they traded Jim Johnson and seemingly got not a whole lot in return.  Jemile Weeks may be a good change-of-scenery guy, so you never know.  I also still don't know who they will get at the PTBNL; We'll find that out next week after the Rule V draft.  Johnson blew 9 saves last year and saved 50.  The O's played in WAY too many close games, so I think his saves and save opportunities stats are a bit inflated.  I like the guy and will miss him, but really, I do believe he can be replaced.

I also see that former Orioles Scott Feldman and Nate McLouth offically became former Orioles today.  Feldman was serviceable this year and in my mind, the O's really didn't give up much to get him.  I was so done with both Strop and Arrieta that I feel the trade is still a wash, even thought Feldman turned out to be a rental player.

I am saddened, however, by the departure of Nate McLouth.  He was a player you could really root for and I hate to see him go.  It especially hurts that he is one of my son's favorite players (behind Lincecum, of course) and I had to let him know this evening that we won't be seeing Nate at Fan Fest.  Dang.

Finally, I am still whittling down my COMC stack with today's card being the 2013 Topps Chris Davis Gold parallel.  The card is numbered 397 of 2013.  I now need a printing plate, Pink parallel and the Black parallel.  Not bad, right?

COMC Pickup - 2012 Topps Chris Davis Mini

I didn't think I got any mail today since I saw the mail person drive away and there was nothing in my mail box.  Then, when we were leaving for Cub Scouts, I saw her driving back down our street as if she had forgot something.  Long story short, I just now remembered this, 4 hours later, ran outside and saw that I finally had some mail.

Anyway, this post is not about that mail.  That mail was Christmas presents from COMC that I will be packaging up to send out to a couple bloggers.

This post is about the 2012 Topps Mini Chris Davis that I got off of COMC a month or so ago.  You know, because I still have 10 or so cards from that purchase left and I want to make sure I have stuff to blog about up until the Christmas presents come in.

So, here is the 2012 Topps Mini Davis that I got.  Thing is, I'm pretty sure my friend, Ryan, sent me this card already, but I am so bad about keeping up with what I have, I went ahead and bought this one with my store credit.  Oh well, here it is anyway.  I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Black Friday Pickup - Historic Autographs Ball of Fame II

I'm sure many of you who read this blog on a regular basis remember that when Historic Autographs came out with their Ball of Fame offering back in 2011, I was really excited.  You can read the post I wrote here about my first one.  I actually opened 4 of them (if I remember correctly).  Well, for Black Friday, when I was purchasing presents for folks, I saw that one of the promotions was for the Ball of Fame II 2013 National Promotion for $59.95.  I figured this was a pretty good deal, so I jumped on one for myself.

The ball (and the other stuff I bought) came today, so I immediately got my good friend, Andrew, on Skype and I busted the box.  As you can see below, I am definitely not disappointed!

I picked up possible future Hall of Famer, Jack Morris, inscribed 91 WSC.  Not a bad pickup.  The ball is authenticated by PSA/DNA and also came with a name card (which is how I knew it was Morris right away, without having to open the red velvet-ish bag it came in.

Morris (b. 1955) played in the majors from 1977 to 1994 for the Tigers, Twins, Blue Jays and Indians.  He had a career record of 254-186 with a 3.90 ERA and 2,478 strikeouts.  Morris's career numbers don't tell the complete story of his career or the on-going Hall of Fame argument that surrounds him.  He was regarded as quite the big game pitcher, especially in the 1984 and 1991 World Series.  He was a World Series winner with the 1984 Tigers, 1991 Twins and 1992 Blue Jays.  He never won a Cy Young Award, but he finished 3rd in the voting twice (1981 and 1983).  He was also a 5-time All Star and finished as high as 13th in the AL MVP voting (in two seasons, 1991 and 1992).  Morris was the league leader in wins 1981 (14) and 1992 (21).  He won 20 or more games two other times in his career (1983 - 20, and 1986 - 21).

Regarded as a possible Hall of Fame candidate, he has appeared on the ballot 14 times and has only gotten as high as 67.7% of the vote.  Unless he gets a groundswell of approval before January 8, 2014, he will have to wait until he appears on the Veterans Committee ballot in order to gain entry to the Hall.

In my opinion, it wouldn't be the end of the world if Morris makes it into the hall.  His career ERA of 3.90 would be the highest for a starting pitcher who is in the Hall already, but there are other pitchers who have already been enshrined who I would not have start game 7 of a World Series before Morris.

So, there you have it, my latest opening of a Historic Autographs product.  Again, I'm very pleased with the ball overall and will definitely consider opening another!

COMC Pickup - 2013 Topps Chris Davis Purple

This post looks strikingly similar to yesterday's post.  It is because I have this and one other 2013 Topps parallel of Davis yet to post.  I'm getting there.  Slowly catching up with my COMC pile.  We'll see if I get through it all one by one or if I finally lump some together for a quick post.  We'll see.  This is, at least, keeping me busy.

I don't know why the Toys R Us purples are a little more expensive than the Wal Mart and Target parallels, but maybe it's because Wal Mart and Target sell more cards.  Simple supply and demand.  What do I know, though, I failed Economics.

Anyway, I do like the purples.  They look especially better in the Chrome variety, but the base ones look good too.  I noticed that Opening Day had purple parallels as well and the only Davis I saw was going for $20 on Ebay.  Wow.  May have to hold off on that one.

Davis's parallels from 2013 are getting knocked off of my list, so I hope I can add the tougher ones soon, like the Pink, Plate, Black, etc.  Good luck to me.

Still Dealing With Leftovers

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, surrounded by friends and family.  We ate dinner here, Thursday and left Friday for a weekend at my parents' farm.  We had a great time hanging out, fishing, shooting guns, riding horses, that kind of thing.

I was unable to blog this weekend, but that's ok, because I enjoyed my break.  I'm back full swing, now.  I had a couple cards sell this weekend as part of the Black Friday weekend sale, so that was nice.  The sale runs through tomorrow, so please check out my page for some serious deals.  Help me clean up and also help me flip some cards for PC and set needs.

The above card is from a September COMC purchase that feels like it is never ending.  The 2013 Topps Chris Davis Target red parallel.  This is a nice card, that took me a while to find, for some reason.  I have just about all of Davis's 2013 offerings from Topps base, now I need to switch to Update and knock some of that stuff out.