Dayf Strikes First in Trade Me A Lincey Contest!

The 2008 Sweet Spot Sweet Beginnings Signatures Jarrod Saltalamacchia card is now off the board! Dayf from Cardboard Junkie quickly sent a package consisting of 6 Lincey cards! All he wanted in return was the Saltalamacchia card, so thanks to his generosity, the contest gets to keep going a little longer. He could’ve wiped out six cards! Instead, I sent him a few Braves cards from the Elements box break. Hopefully he can enjoy them. Here’s what I got in return:

For the most part they are from the new 2009 Topps product with the exception of the Zito Co-Signers. You know, a lot of people have complained about Co-Signers, but I really really like the technology of the card. It’s holographic-like in that if you lay the card flat, you can see Lincecum, but if you look at the straight on, he kind of disappears. Beautiful. I really want to try to get all the parallels from that set now, but that will have to wait as there is another card I am currently after on eBay. I will let everyone know soon if I get it.

Don’t forget to submit your card submissions for The Road to 10,000 Hits Contest: Trade Me A Lincey!

I will update the Lincecum Collection right now so that it is up to date. I’m pretty sure Dayf has all the 2009 Topps base cards covered though. This brings me up to 94 different and unique cards in the collection, which 2-ups Dave from Fielder’s Choice I believe 🙂

Plug that Auction!

So I usually wouldn’t want to plug an eBay auction but when it comes to my own, I have no shame. I am selling off a number of nice autograph cards and silk cards in order to support my addiction with a certain 2007 Bowman Chrome card that I am after and that has recently become available. I am putting up a total of 8 cards up for bid. Five of these cards come from 2008 Allen & Ginter silk cards. These cards are all parallels of the regular base cards, but are numbered out of 10. I tried putting together the Giants team set collection, but failed horribly as these cards are insanely hard to get your hands on. I got up to five and that was the end of that. I actually had a Lincecum for a while, but the corner was badly bent and I actually got a refund from USPS for damage of the package during delivery. So I’m guessing if they followed protocol, that card is now destroyed so there’s only really nine silk cards of Lincey out there. Here’s what I have:

I’m hoping to sell these for around $20 each so I could at least make back $100. I think I paid that same amount for them in the first place. They’re really nice cards and one of the reasons I love the 2008 Allen & Ginter product. The frame is really nice and everything is nicely constructed.

The other three cards that I’m parting with are the cards that I pulled from the 2007 UD Elements box break. I’ve decided to sell off the Ripken because I would much be happier with that BC. Dave also decided he didn’t really like the Iwamura/Igawa dual autograph because of the Yankee Akinori is paired up with. Yankees ruin everything. I saw that a single Iwamura from the 2007 product sold for $8 so hopefully I could sell the dual auto for around $15. Lastly is a Conor Jackson Sweet Spot glove auto. It was the only Sweet Spot Signatures out of the three that ever sold for over $5 so every bit helps. I really hope I can get a total of $200 from all the cards sold. I’ll probably end up with only $150-170 calculating my bad luck selling and eBay fees. If anyone who reads this blog wins, let me know and I’ll try to throw in some extras!

You can find all these cards on eBay here.

10,000 Hits Contest: Trade Me A Lincey!

What’s a Lincey? A Tim Lincecum card of course. Here are the rules:

1. You must send me a Tim Lincecum card that I do not currently have. (You can check what I have here; it is always updated)

2. It can be any card, base, insert, etc., as long as I don’t have it.

3. Parallel cards that I don’t have, works.

4. Serial numbered cards that I don’t have,  also works.

5. The number of cards you send = the number of cards you get to choose from (For example, if you send me three different Lincey cards, you get to pick three different hits)

7. I constantly update my collection due to trades, purchases, etc. so check it often. As soon as I post that I got something, it is no longer up for trading.

8. They must be undamaged/mint cards.

6. Once I receive your card, I will send you your choice of the following cards:

Group A (by columns top to bottom):
– 2007 Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Memorabilia Josh Beckett (SW-BE)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Adam Lind Blue Ink Bat #’d 03/99 (SS-LI)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Boof Bonser Blue Ink Ball #’d 238/299 (SS-BB)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Sweet Beginnings Signatures Travis Buck (139)
– 2007 Elements Elemental AuTographs Travis Buck (AU-TB)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Memorabilia Eric Chavez (SW-EC)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Memorabilia Lance Berkman (SW-LB)
– 2008 Masterpieces Captured on Canvas Rod Carew (CC-CW)
– 2008 Masterpieces Johnny Bench Blue-bordered #’d 017/125 (98)

Group B (by column top to bottom):
– 2008 Masterpieces Stroke of Genius Gavin Floyd (SG-GF)
– 2008 Masterpieces Stroke of Genius Chone Figgins (SG-CF)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Memorabilia Jermaine Dye (SW-JD)
– 2008 Series 2 USA Baseball National Team Jersey Eric Surkamp (USA-ES)
– 2008 Sweet Spot Sweet Beginnings Signatures Jarrod Saltalamacchia (120)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Memorabilia Kendry Morales (SW-KM)

7. Include in your package your choice of the cards. If someone beat you two the punch, then they win. If you do not write down your preference, I will send you card(s) at random. Please include a return address (that is also legible).

8. Send all packages to:
Bailey Z.
One Miramar St. #929671
La Jolla, CA 92092

9. Contest starts today and ends when I run out of the above hits to send out.

10. I said the contest has already started, what are you still doing here reading these rules?! Get a packing’!

Update on Upper Deck Quality Assurance Dept.

So I’m not sure if this counts as better or worse than Topps’ Quality Assurance Dept., but I ended up sending those 2007 UD Elements damaged cards with some 2007 Sweet Spot damaged cards to Nevada to get them replaced, knowing the risk of rejection since the product is way past 8 months old. I sent the cards in on Saturday, January 31, and I received the cards back today on February 4. That’s a turnaround of 3 business days, which is amazing! They shipped FedEx too so it was damn fast. Then again, it’s only Nevada as compared to Pennsylvania, so I think it would have arrived around the same time as the Topps shipment had the distances been the same. Anyway, unfortunately, they sent the cards back because they most likely did not have any more left in stock. They didn’t send any letter or note with the package. But luckily, they sent some compensation. They sent me 5 packs total of 2008 UD Masterpieces,  which was a nice gesture. Two packs were hobby packs and three packs were retail. I ended up pulling a few hits, but they were nothing special. You can see them in the next entry because I am hosting a new contest to celebrate my race to 10,000 hits!

Topps Consumer Relations Dept. is not too shabby

If it’s one that thing bothers me more than disorganized cards, it’s damaged cards. Bent cards, dinged corners, chips, scratches are really what nightmares are made of. When I get any card from fellow bloggers, I am always quite grateful, but when it’s damaged, it makes me sad and I’m very OCD about pristineness so I feel like I need to replace it right away with a mint to near-mint version. Well that’s what happened when I got a really bent Topps Stadium Club card from Steve from The Easy Life. The problem was that it was a First Day Issue card that’s stamped and also serial-numbered. I thought I would be more happy if I at least tried to get it fixed then not, so I sent it into Topps, knowing full well that it might not get replaced at all due to their strict policy currently in place regarding damaged cards. They require a copy of the UPC from the box, all the wrappers from the product as well as a copy of the sales receipt. I just threw it up in the air and wanted to see what came of it. I also submitted a dinged corner card from Topps Opening Day that was sent in from Dinged Corners (ironically). I mailed these a week or two ago and I got a package in the mail today with a turnaround time of a week or so! That’s incredibly fast if you ask me. With it, they sent a letter saying that this is a courtesy one-time replacement and all that stuff. I’m glad at least it worked out okay this time. The new serial numbered card is 066/599 so now there’s actually only 598 total cards since #078 no longer exists.

Also in the mail today came some cards from Saints of the Cheap Seats. I got black bordered mini parallel of 2008 Allen & Ginter so I’m now up to 88 total cards for the collection. Be sure to check out Dan’s 2007 Ultimate Collection baseball group break. It’s only $22 for the hits and base card and it should be fun.

I ended up submitting those Upper Deck Elements and Sweet Spot Signatures cards into Upper Deck because they were damaged. The only thing I’m worried about is the fact that it’s way past 8 months since the product was released so I’m nervous over whether they’ll end up replacing those. Still, there’s no excuse for damaged cards, especially in products of that price range (originally).

Superfractor Found!

OMG, the 2007 Bowman Chrome Superfractor has been found and listed on eBay. I found the listing while scouring Tim Lincecum cards, especially from the 2007 Bowman Chrome set since I’ve been trying to get the rainbow parallels from that set. I know that the Bowman Chrome autograph has been found a while back, but I didn’t know if the regular base card had been found until now. I guess it’s been around since December of ’08 and this guy has been fielding offers for it since. With this economy, it’s probably difficult to find a buyer at the price that he wants. I wonder what the highest bid for it is. I think if it was like $200, I would definitely buy it, but that is but a dream. I’m not sure if I would prefer this card over his autograph gold parallel card that sold for over $500 back in December. What would you pay for this card?

2007 Upper Deck Elements – Biggest hit of my life!

Okay, so I couldn’t resist the temptation and busted the box and opened the remaining packs from the order. Since I ordered over $150 from Dave and Adam’s Card World, they sent me two free packs of 2007 UD Elements to go along with my 2007 UD Elements Hobby Box. Each hobby box is broken down into three mini boxes with 5 packs per mini box and 3 cards per pack. Supposedly there’s (1) game-used memorabilia, (1) autograph, and (1) auto/game-used memorabilia card per box so there’s 1 of either of those three per mini box. The mini boxes are split into three different products with three different types of cards: foil board, Lt Fx, and PETG technology. My favorite is the PETG cards because they’re like plastic cards and they are slightly opaque at the top. They remind me of those glass cards from the basketball products, except they are plastic. They are much heavier than average cards by weight. Here are my first two hits from my two free packs, which is pretty amazing considering the hits fall (1) per mini box and here I got two already in two free standing packs. Thank you DAcardworld for the free packs promotion!

This is a pretty nice dual autograph. Japanese players sure like their shades. Hey Dave, let me know if you’re interested in this and other Rays hit below. Maybe we can work out a trade for that Lincecum Sweet Spot plus cards or cash 🙂

I’m sure the girls at Dinged Corners would enjoy this card! Actually, they might also like the previous card just because there are TWO Asian players. It’s great that Zito has beef up this offseason by working out with Brian Wilson at his LA home. You can’t get any worse than starting off the season 0-8. I look forward to him bouncing back this season. Now onto the hits from the actual box (mini boxes).

Seriously, what is with my luck and getting Travis Buck?? I need to find an A’s collector to trade all these A’s hits to. However, I do like the design of the Elemental AuTOGRAPHS (it’s a play on the periodic table of elements’ symbol for gold, which is Au), which is quite clever. Too bad the autos are on stickers. This was from the Lt Fx box I believe.

Another dual GU card for Scott Kazmir. Not a bad hit since he is really an up and coming star pitcher for the Rays. It’s too bad I can’t say the same for the Zito card. This was from the regular foil board mini box. And last but not least, the card that came from the PETG technology mini box…

Yes! I can’t believe I actually got a card this good in a product like Elements. I was in shock for about half an hour and I’m still kind of surprised. To me, a Ripkin card is like getting one of those old time Yankee cards since he’s going to go down in history as one of the greatest athletes in history. This is by far the best card I’ve ever gotten in opening packs and boxes. Now onto something a little more serious. If you look carefully around the edges of the window, there’s some slight chipping and damage. On the back, there is also some type of residue that seems like it was stuck onto another card. Some of the other PETG cards are scratched up. I need your help. Do you think I should send this into Upper Deck to get it replaced? What are they chances they have another copy of a card to replace it with? If they don’t, will they just confiscate this card and give me something worse or will I at least be guaranteed this card back? I have sent in cards to UD before for damage replacement and they came back in a timely manner without any problems. I’m just hestitant to send this one in, but I really think I should be getting a top quality card to go along with the quality of the hit. Leave comments below.

2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Baseball (3) Box Break

So, sorry for the delay, but when the office picks up your UPS packages, you never really know when you’ll actually get them. I finally got them this afternoon and began busting them open on the spot. Instead of buying one box, I bought three according that three box average that I am Joe Collector uses as a better statistical tool for assessing how good a product is. I also decided to give out any hits that I got in the product from the first box to my regular trading partners and keep the rest for myself. Suffice to say, the product is pretty disappointing. I guess the Saltalamacchia and Lind aren’t too bad for the first box. Steve from White Sox Cards got the only hit from the first box so let me know if you want that Jermaine Dye game-used as you are the only blog that I’ve had mail from (you can e-mail me your address and I’ll get that out for you). The second and third box weren’t too exciting either, except for maybe the Pujols game-used. I’m also moderately happy that I got a Giants’ card with the Fred Lewis rookie autograph. I’m kind of sad that I went through the three boxes so quickly. I ordered a box of UD Elements too since it was so cheap and it’s sitting on my desk right now. I’m tempted to open it just because I was so disappointed by Sweet Spot.

Box #1:

Box #2:

Box #3:

Reorganization and Love of Parallels

I have reorganized my Tim Lincecum Collection page to follow the format Mario goes by with his Andrew Miller collection. I hope he finds this as a form of flattery and not a copy-cat thing. I just found his way of organization so much better and efficient. The number is now at 87 different and unique cards. I just took a read of dkwilson’s entry on NeedMoMorneau today and it got me thinking about what I purchase on eBay. He’s right in that I can’t expect to buy every single Lincecum card that comes out – it’s way too costly. I have to pick and choose the ones that I think are best. I also think that when there’s a deal to be had, it needs to be seized. The two cards that I added today cost me $1.25 for the dual swatch and $1.04 for the xfractor parallel. I really, really love the parallels that come out of the Bowman Chrome products. I’m telling you that it’s all you really need: refractor, xfractor, blue refractor, gold refractor, orange refractor, red refractor, superfractor – the seven colors of the rainbow. That got me thinking that I should focus on his rookie year Bowman products. If it’s out there, I want to get the rainbow collection of 2007 Bowman Chrome, his Bowman Chrome autograph, and Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects. It might never happen (especially with the superfractor), but it’s a goal worth attaining someday. Until then, I will have to settle for looking at the nice, cheap 2008 xfractor, which is the highest level parallel that I have from the Bowman products.

Giantographs and Darin Blood

So I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while now and I’ve decided I’m going to streamline my collecting habits even further. I cannot continue to allow so many team cards accumulate unappreciated in boxes any longer. They just end up stacked high and taking up a lot of room. My collecting basis is shifting from quantity to quality. Two people have influenced me in what I collect. First, Mario’s collection of Andrew Miller drove me to be a player collector for Tim Lincecum. Second, Rod has influenced me to collect autographed Giants cards. I think those two types of collecting really floats my boat. Speaking of which, Rod sent me a bunch of cards the other day.

One of the cards was an autographed card of a player that I’ve never heard of. Darin Blood was drafted by the Giants #47 overall in 1995, but I’ve never heard of him reaching the big leagues. I guess he never really progressed past the minor leagues and his career ended there. The biggest thing he’s known for is a trade that brought Joe Carter to San Francisco in 1998. As you know, Carter is a big name in Toronto Blue Jays history for homering in the ninth to win the ’93 World Series against the Phillies. I think Mario can really appreciate this card because it comes from one of his favorite sets, 1997 Bowman Chrome. I really like the vertical striping in the card design. Thanks again Rod!

In summary, here is my priority for collecting now:
1. Tim Lincecum cards
2. Giants autographed cards