custom card #10

allow me to introduce you to derek moye. the redshirt sophomore has stepped up big time in his first season as a starter. he's been a huge deep threat, but he could even be bigger. his quarterback, daryll clark, has missed a wide open deep moye numerous times this season. it happened at least twice against indiana on saturday. look for moye to be a safety blanket for psu's new starting qb next year. i think he has the potential to be a first round pick in 2012.

Spotted my first possible fake patch

Here is a Derrick Williams Finest auto patch. It's not a refractor, and its numbered to 309. So is it just incredibly good luck or a little tampering? You be the judge. Oh yeah the seller has a whopping 12 feedback.

custom card #9

walk-on wr graham zug (now a scholarship) had a nice game against the 'cuse. zug hauled in 6 passes for 79 yards and a score.

custom card #8

so i've been going with penn staters for these last few. here is rb evan royster. he ran for over 1200 yards last year in limited carries. he was expected to break out this year with an increased work load. things haven't been going so well thus far as the o-line has yet to find its grove with 3 new starters (the 2 returning starters changed positions though.) add that in with a gimicky 3-3-5 defense that akron threw at them in game one, and syracuse having 2 of the best defensive tackles that penn state will face. its spells disaster for a running game especially with both teams consistently putting 8 in the box.

hopefully royster's numbers will increase as the line gets more comfortable. he has great vision and acceleration through the hole. he doesn't have great home run speed but he never seems to be caught from behind either. joe always talks about how royster was a great lacrosse player in high school, and that's why penn state really wanted him. so here is a card showing him in his high school lacrosse days.

contest winner

skoormit wins by default. he was the only one to comment. send me your address to kory.j.blose@gmail.com and i'll send out your prize.

custom card #7

freshmen slot man devon smith may be the smallest true freshmen to see action in a penn state opener. standing at 5'7" and weighing 155 pounds, smith is the size of an 8th grader. what he lacks in size he certainly makes up for in speed. penn state coaches say he is the fastest player they have ever seen in pads. the speedster hauled in 2 passes, had one carry, and returned 2 kicks. he totaled 75 yards for a 15 yard average per touch. not bad for the little guy.

custom card #6

so daryll clark had himself a day numbers wise against akron. 29-40, 353 yards, 3 tds and a pick. the numbers were great, but they didn't really reflect how he played. clark seemed a little to pumped up and threw a number of balls high. he was also locking on his receivers and forcing throws. the one pick he had wasn't his fault, but he got away with 2 other balls that should have been picked.

so let's hope he sees his mistakes this week in film review and has a great week on saturday against the cuse.

custom card #5

at last year's draft, i thought brett wallace was a perfect for the billy bean system. he has a great on and draws a ton of walks. the a's did get their man this year in exchange for matt holliday.

custom card #4

the rookie sensation ricky romero.

custom card #3

its a combo 1960 topps with a wave of the future feel. i'm getting addicted to this.

custom card #2

my inspiration for making these can be seen under the blogs list to the right. check out the custom card blog if you haven't already.

first custom card

here is a rough version of a 1983 fleer hank blalock

contest: answer this for me

so maybe this really isn't a contest. its more like a job. so here it is: come up with a way to build a website that stores the completed card auctions from ebay. this database must be searchable by registered users only. also, i want statistics tied to each active player (majors and minors) that are also searchable by a specified date range. i also want the ability to search the completed auctions by a specified date range.

the best answer will get a daniel schlereth 2008 bowman chrome draft refractor auto #ed 103/500. if its a really good, workable, detailed plan that i could put into action (along with you,) i'm offering up a 2005 bowman chrome ricky romero blue refractor auto #ed 023/150. this card won't be a garunteed give away though, but at worst i'll give away the schlereth. what say you? i'm going to let this run for about one week. submit your ideas to the comments, and feel free to submit as many as you like.

allan dykstra is having one heck of a week

check out allan dykstra's stats over the last week. he is an on-base machine. i can't believe billy bean hasn't traded for this guy yet. since august 17th dykstra has collected 11 hits and 7 walks in his last 22 plate appearances. for the year he is only hitting 0.220 on the year, but check out that 0.393 on base percentage.

i've been following dykstra since last year's draft. after looking at what he did in college, i though he was a guy to invest in. i picked up a bunch of cheap autos last year, and they can still be had at a fair price. maybe its because the only autos available right now are through razor and donini.

my $0.02 on the ud beckett exquisite fiasco

honestly, i don't see what the uproar is. regardless of what you think about beckett, it only makes sense for a card company to let them open products. this is just smart advertising. i mean look at all the fuss that was created over a $2k case of cards. they couldn't buy this kind of attention for a measly 2 thousand dollars. unfortunately, beckett still is the most visible card publication out there. i stopped getting my monthly issue long ago, but that doesn't mean plenty others stopped. i realize that ebay prices are a way better representation of a cards true value, but that doesn't mean others have accepted it.

as far as a conflict of interest, i just don't see it. yes they could skew card values that they pull, but its not like we're talking about gold or platinum here. those things have what i'll call "real" value. its something that is traded constantly in a global market where a buyer is easiy found. a card's value is different. just because beckett lists the price as $XXXX.XX doesn't mean its worth anything. its only worth what they could get for it, and many pontential high end buyers realize this.

bottom line is that we're only talking about $2000 worth of cards. its not that much. i'm sure more than $2000 worth of exquisite will be stolen this year. the people who want to buy this will still be able to. if you have a problem with UD or beckett, i suggest just ignoring them. because going on rants about how awful this act was isn't going to make it go away. like they say, any publicity is good publicity.

my thoughts on topps unique

premium hits look good. stickers autos are what they are. once topps' vault of stickers runs out, then we will start to see more on card autos. i wouldn't expect it until then. from the business end, i don't blame topps for doing it. i actually like the foil stickers, but think they could be worked into the design better. speaking of design, i don't really see a problem here. i don't think its any better or worse than say exquisite. i might actually buy some of this. i like the bat knobs, but i think the photos should have been taken to incorporate the know some how. if its $100/box with a combination of 4 autos and premium relics per box, i'd drop $500 on this product.

dennis dixon is a player

anyone else watch the steelers play on thursday? if so, you had the pleasure of watching a future star at qb. i was extremely impressed with the way dennis dixon played. for a guy who is known for his wheels, he did a great job of staying in the pocket and going through his reads. he delivered and accurate, catchable ball. unfortunately, barring injury, the guy will never get a chance in pittsburgh, but in the meantime, i'll be happy to have him as the third stringer this year and possibly the back up next year.

i'm not sure if others noticed his performance, but his auto cards seem to be currently at quite a bit higher than the completed auctions. this is my ebay version of beckette's little black arrows.

i'm sponsoring a baseball-reference page!

check out the daniel schlereth's baseball-reference page. notice the new sponsor? i've been following schlereth since last year's draft. he was a pretty good pitching in college, and he has been dominating double a this year. check out his stats in the 10 appearences before his most recent call-up. 12.1 IP 7 H 1 ER 8 BB and get this 24 K. he was striking out 2 batters an inning! the majors haven't treated him very well so far, but i think this kid definitely has it. now if he could just make the 'graph a little bigger and cleaner

vote for pedro!

pedro martinez is back tonight starting for the phils against the cubs. its on espn right now. he's looking pretty good, but no better than a guy who no one has seen all year. we'll see how he does the next time through the lineup. his patch cards go for a decent price so why not pick one up of the future hall of famer.

lots of blalock stuff to choose from

so right now there is a plethora of hank blalock patches to choose from on the bay. there is even a donruss laundry tag available that will be my next target. i've been fairly successful collecting blalock autos and patches since i started picking up his stuff in april. though lately it has been getting a bit more expensive than it was 4 months ago. he'll probably go for a career high in homers this year, and i think he's got a pretty good shot at 400 for the career and an outside shot at 500. not too bad for a guy that started his career in the heart of the steroids era, yet won't put up his best hr total until 5 years into testing.

what a terrible card!

something seem wrong with the card featured above? maybe a little "one of these things is not like the others" happening? i would have bought this card if almost any other former pirate was pictured. but come on, i mean jason bay?? really? he had what 2 good seasons? and i stress good. they might have seemed better because he was all the pirates had, but they weren't any better than good.

i would have honestly rather had jose lind on there over bay.

more national

also check out the write up at VOTC (voice of the collector) and Rob's photos here. he also has a contest going on to give away the free swag he got at the national.

the national

so it was 2003. i had just graduated high school, and it was prime graduation party season. the national was in atlantic city, nj that year. i had dreamed of going to the national since i saw pictures of it in beckett as a wee lad. the only day i could go was the last day on a saturday. the only problem was that my best friend's graduation party was the friday before. i knew this party would go on until saturday morning around 3 or 4 am. there would also be some chicks that i definitely wanted to make some headway with. oh the dilemma.

well i did what any 18 year old collector would do. i checked out of the party at about 11 pm and went hope to get some sleep before starting my 7 hour trek at 4 am. this is where is went bad. first i slept in and didn't get out of town until about 8:15. then, once i arrived in atlantic city, map quest failed me and i was lost. after driving around until almost 4, i pulled over at a gas station and asked the first person i saw for directions.

well, that person was quite a character. he was carrying a brown paper bag with a bottle inside it. hmm, i didn't think it was pepsi. he said, "oh yeah, i know where that's at. let me get in." i froze at that moment. what should i do? do i let him in? do i drive off? my mom would kill me if i let him in. i cant be rude and just drive away. this guy is freaking drinking right now. is he gonna rob me?

well, he walked around the car, got in, and made himself comfortable by reclining the seat way back. he had me drive him to where he wanted to go and then pointed me in the right direction from there. i finally made it with about 1.5 hours left in the show. many vendors had packed up already, but i didn't care. i mean, i was at the national!!

i quickly spent my $200 i came with and then drove home in the worst rainstorm i had ever experienced. all things considered though, it was a good day. i did walk away with a poorly centered rickey henderson rookie. its what i really wanted at the time.

check out espn.com writer's, bill simmons, story about his trip to the national. he has many pictures, its a fun read. do you have any national stories to share?

deadline deals

well the tigers and white sox both dealt for pitchers, but neither got the best one available. i still don't quite understand why people thought halladay was so overpriced. if i were running a contending al team, i would have done almost anything to get the one guy who owns the al east. at least the sox ended up with a pretty good pitcher in peavy.

good luck to them the rest of the way, but when the yankees beat you in 7 don't say i didn't tell you.

latest pirate trade rumor

so the pirates are rumored to be trading lefty reliever john grabow to the cubs. this trade will make grabow the 9th player off the opening day roster to be traded. 9/25 gone. that is just crazy. oh yea, and the total salary of their current active roster is just over 21 million, and that includes grabow's 2.3 million salary. the current highest paid pirate is paul maholm at 2.5 mil whose most important role was probably being part of the allen & ginter code.

update: make that 10/25 as they threw in tom gorzelanny

nix that giants trade

forget about the possible trade i outlined below because the giants just traded alderson for freddy sanchez. i'll score this one as a major steal for the bucs. this makes me feel like the current gm knows what he's doing.

now i'll be keeping my eye on alderson autos like this orange version.

lets make a deal: giants

why the giants want halladay: so i just read an article on baseball prospectus stating that the giants' odds of making the playoffs would more than double with halladay. this, of course is all based on lots of fancy math that i dont care to try to understand. there was also another fancy article over there explaining how much money a team stands to earn if the team makes the playoffs. it breaks down like this: a team earns an additional 25 million for losing in the first round, an extra 45 million for losing in the league championship, 75 million more for losing the world series and 105 million for winning the world series. if you're the giants, why not trade some of your stockpiled pitching talent for a 28% chance of at least 25 million in extra revenue while only paying halladay about 6 million for the rest of the season.

a third article on prospectus detailed the giants windfall of young pitching with madison bumgarner leading the way. while the giants may be reluctant to include young madison, they still have many other great pitching prospects. i think the blue jays would take a deal including tim alderson, jonathan sanchez, and angel villalona. wouldn't the giants become instant favorite for the wild card and big time contenders in the nl this year? look at 2010's starting rotation. lincecum, halladay, cain, and bumgarner (in may). oh yea, and who could forget the 126 million dollar man, barry zito? sounds like favorites to win it all to me.

probability of this deal getting done: low, the giants need offense. they'll dangle that youthful pitching to try to get a big stick. although, with philly getting lee, its a better chance that before.

p.s. philly got lee, but did you notice that all 3 players that the jays wanted are still available?

i like razor

i'll come out and say it. i like razor. i like their ebay store and their vision for selling individual cards in the bay. if i were to start my own card company, i'd honestly follow much of their business practice. i know a lot of people get their panties in a twist about hand delivering products for beckett to review, but wouldn't you do the same thing if you were in their position. really, its just good business to get some of your best product in front of collectors. i dont like beckett as much as the next guy, but they still are the most visible card information source. if i were to change one thing, i'd support the main blogs much more. other than that, i really like what razor is doing.

buy it now

get your hands on some brian matusz cards now. of any prospect out there, i think he is the surest thing. the kid was absolutely dominating in college and team usa. he has been ripping through the minors. next stop, orioles starting rotation. i think he'll be there sometime after may of next year. the o's will keep him down there just like weiters to save a year of arbitration.

this nice patch auto from last year's team usa set just hit the market. i'm guessing it will go for under $60. so before you go bust a box of series 2 topps to get your marcus giles and orlando hudson relics, consider picking up a nice brian matusz auto.

another crazy day in baseball

josh willingham hit 2 grand slams yesterday against the brew crew. as amazing as that may sound, there was once a young hot hitting 3rd baseman for the cardinals that accomplished the same feat in one inning! fernando tatis hit 2 big fly balls with the bases loaded in the same inning 10 years ago.

you may remember tatis from his hot 97 bowman chrome rookie cards back in the day, but here is a nice on card auto from 99 skybox. i can't imagine that it will go for very much, and its a must for any tatis collector.

this guy is worth a championship

at least thats what the phils think. kyle drabek is holding up the halladay deal. not him personally, but the phils seem unwilling to inclde him in any deal for halladay.

this is totally stupid. i dont know how any one can say that drabek's potential is worth an actual breathing, dominating halladay. now, drabek has been pretty dominating too, but its double a.

to each his own, and if you'd like to make a drabek auto your own, check out this auto rookie from bowman sterling. they've been going for about 20 bucks in the bay.

lets make a deal: detroit

why detroit wants halladay: they are currently leading the al central by 2 games over the chisox. i've seen numerous statistical analysis about how halladay would add 3-5 wins for a team. this would all but insure a division title for the tigers. the real value in halladay is having him pitch at least 2 games in any playoff series. you have to like your chances there. he also has pitched his entire career against top teams like the yankees and red sox and has proven to be able to handle these teams. so now you'd have halladay along with the rest of detroit's pitching staff, and suddenly they look like big time contenders.

detroit does have some nice young pitching prospects, but i see this deal working like this. dontrelle willis is currently earning 10 million this year working through his anxiety issues in triple a. he's due 12 million next year. the tigers have also been trying to get out of magglio ordonez's contract. he'll likely make his clauses, and that would put him at 18 million in 2010 and 15 million in 2011. so here is the deal. halladay and wells to detroit for willis, ordonez, and one prospect.

why this works for both teams: detroit gets halladay!! nuff said. they also dont take a big hit financially and they are out from under the ordonez contract. they are saddled with wells' contract instead, but he is alot younger than ordonez, and they really have a good shot at winning the next 2 titles. toronto gets rid of the awful wells contract. they also get more financial relief after 2011 and some of those compensation picks as well. dont sleep on willis who has proven that he is an effective pitcher in the past. if he can get his head straightened out, then this would be a really good deal.

probability of this deal getting done: medium. this is my dark horse deal if the phils are stupid and refuse to give up kyle drabek.

before there was doc halladay...

there was doc gooden. dwight gooden was born too late. can you even begin to imagine the hype that would surround him if he were drafted two years ago? 07 bowman draft would be the absolute hottest item right now if they had autos of gooden in their product. a 19 year old who goes 17-9 with a 2.60 era and leads the league with 276 ks. thats exactly what doc did in his rookie campiagn of 1984.

many might think that he had reached his ceiling. how could you possibly improve on those numbers. well, in 1985, doc did just that. here is his line for the year: 24-4, 1.53 era, 16 cg, 8 sho, 268 k. that line ranks up there with some of the best pitching seasons ever.

sadly, doc got caught up in drugs and derailed his promising career. today, you can pick up a nice on card auto from 2005 ud origins for a reasonable price.

lets make a deal: phillies

why philadelphia wants halladay: they are 5.5 gmaes up on florida and atlanta. i have serious doubt that either of those teams will actually push the defending champions, but winning the division isnt the goal here. the goal is winning another world series, and having halladay would surely make them the NL favorites for this year and next. the asking price is also very reasonable. the phils certainly have a deep farm system, and losing the likes of kyle drabek, j.a. happ, and dominic brown wouldnt be considered mortgaging the future. really i think the blue jays could get one more piece from them. also, remember this, if halladay were to leave after next season, the phils would get 2 first round picks.

probability of this deal getting done: high, it makes sense for the phils, and they have the resources necessary to get this deal done.

top rookie

with training camp about to open, its officially football season. the last 5 months have been hard. football is my favorite sport to watch (baseball is my favorite to collect.) so my question for today is which rookie will have the biggest year? last year it was a pair of matts. ryan and forte had spectacular years and their cards were some of the hottest selling ones in the industry.

who will it be this year? will it be a high profile guy like stafford, sanchez, or moreno? or will it be an unknown free agent or later round pick? look for rookie rb james davis to make a splash if anything happens to jamal lewis. the depth chart is clear in front of him if the usually durable lewis starts to break down in his tenth season.

if you don't like press pass, i'd opt for this ud icons auto numbered to 99.

you're witnessing history

one thing i love about baseball is the chance for the extraordinary. each and every game has the chance to be historical or to see a first. today, mark buehrle made history as he threw the 17th perfect game in regular season major league history. buehrle, who is my pick as the next 300 game winner, has faced the minimum number of batters before though. he faced 27 batters in his 2007 no-hitter against texas. his only baserunner that game came when he walked sammy sosa in the fifth inning. after only 2 pitches, buerle picked off sosa.

great job by mark, but what seperated this game from the other 16 is that it included another spectactular event. josh fields hit a grand slam to help fuel the 5-0 win over the tampa bay rays. this was the first grand slam in a perfect game.

want to pick up a nice josh fields auto? check out this on card beauty from 2005 turkey red.

and the winner is:

Sophie K. Sophie, cards have been sent. i hope you enjoy. thanks to all who participated!

first contest

to celebrate the new record for most visits in one day (thanks mario!) i will be holding my first contest. to enter, just leave a comment with your name and how you found this site. the winner will receive this 2008 razor metal base robbie weinhardt auto. this card was limited to 199 copies. also, you will be receiving a 2005 topps chrome update ricky romero black refractor #214/250.


update: the contest will end tonight at 10 pm est. all you have to do is leave a comment and tell me where you heard about this site, and the cards pictured above could be yours!

underrated: 1996 finest refractors

back in the day, these were the hottest cards out there. im talking about the gold refractors from 1996 finest. i was never lucky enough to pull one of these, but luckily, they can be had on ebay for some decent prices.

check out this jeff bagwell. like most inserts from this time period, it will go for much less than it highest book value from years ago.

lets make a deal

new series that will be running until the non-waiver trading deadline. its called lets make a deal. ill come up with trades that could land the jewel of this trading season: roy halladay. first up is the chicago white sox.

before i start, i want to give my thoughts on trading halladay. first, i like the idea. it has to be done if you're toronto. second, the price will be at least 2 first round caliber plays and another very good prospect, or 1 good prospect if the jays can swap out vernon wells' contract for another big, but less hurtful, contract.

why chicago wants halladay: they are only 3.5 games back of detroit right now in a very winnable central division. halladay would almost certainly make them the favorites right away. the chisox would feel much better with gavin floyd as there #3 man if halladay were their ace.

what it will take: gordon beckham, aaron por- wait hold up, if it takes beckham, chicago is not doing this deal. they would be more likely to do the wells deal. so its wells and halladay for jermaine dye and pithing prospect john ely.

probability of this deal happening: low. money wise, chicago has all their money tied up in pitching, 1b, dh, and dye. since wells would need a spot and chicago would need some payroll relief, dye makes the most sense. the only problem is that dye has been their most productive offensive player this year. replacing him with wells, who will make twice as much next year, is just plain offensive.

i search for this everyday

www.ebay.com
michael robinson finest

disappointment.

everyday i get up and type that search into ebay. im looking for my last piece of the rainbow. ive missed out on it twice. im looking for a 2006 finest michael robinson gold refractor. the last one went for only 9 bucks. i wasn't paying attention to the time and forgot to bid. that was a tough one to take. the one before it went for $30, and i just wasnt willing to pay that. this has been a tough set to put together. im not even really expecting to find the 1/1's. i have the base, refractor, xfractor, blue refractor, blue xfractor, green refractor, green xfractor, black refractor, black xfractor, and the gold xfractor. just missing the regular gold. does anybody have one of these laying around somewhere?

new favortie set

ive been following ricky romero cards lately, and ive been waiting for this one to pop up. its picture at the left and found in 2005 topps chrome update and highlights. there are loads of good rookies from today's stars in this set.

i particularly like the red x-fractor parallel. ive always like x-fractors and colored refractors so it makes sense that id like a combination of the two. i picked up romero's black refractor numbered to 250 last week for 6 bucks. this red refractor is numbered to 65. hopefully i can snag it for under $10, but i have a feeling it may go for over $20.

just another recent ebay purchase (jarep)

i recently picked up this beauty from the bay. i had tried to win it earlier in the year but was outbid. i made sure that didn't happen this time. i won the auction for $3.35. throw in another $3 for shipping, and it will be mine for a total of $6.35. it was a little bit more than i wanted to pay, but i dont see these available very often.

the shipping is a bit steep. not that $1 or 75 cents really means that much, but i dont see how these sellers justify charging $3 or more for standard shipping. i charge $2.25. its about $1.25 usually for shipping itself, 11 cents for the for the toploader and penny sleeve., and 45 cents for the bubble mailer. i swear the bubble mailers have gone up in price about 33% in the last year or so. my total expenses for shipping are about $1.80 so i guess i could come down some as well, but $3, even though its pretty standard, just makes me mad some times.

what do you charge for shipping?

the blue jays biggest problem

21 million, 23 million, 21 million, 21 million, 21 million. ring a bell? im not talking about how much cc sabathia or mark teixeria are making. its how much vernon wells is making over the next 5 years. vernon wells and his 9 home runs and .303 on base percentage is going to make over 20 freaking million a year over the next 5. trading halladay is not what the jays need. it only makes sense to trade him if they can convince someone to take wells' contract along with halladay's.


as far as wells is concerned, you can pick up a nice on card auto of him here.

one of my favorite auto sets

besides being one of the most recognizable designs in all of baseball, the 1952 topps design lends itself perfectly to the on card auto. that's why i loved it when topps brought back the design for a rookie set.

check out this dan uggla from the 2006 '52 topps rookie edition featuring a nice on card auto. hurry though, there is less than 2 hours left on the auction.

2009 allen & ginter autos

is it just me or does the auto checklist for '09 allen & ginter really suck? this biggest auto is michael phelps, but as far a baseball players go, you're looking at longoria and hanley ramirez. the next best include, this phil hughes, which seems like its grossly overpriced, ryan howard, and joba chamberlain.

if you're looking for hits, i'd pass, but i guess allen & ginter is really for the set collectors to begin with. still, would it be too much to ask for a few more top player autos? i'd be happy with roy halladay, dan haren, nick swisher, and ian kinsler. you wouldn't even need a pujols or a-rod to make me happy.

jump on it now

if you witnessed brett anderson's dismantling of the red sox on monday, you were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of what this guy is capable of. in the past, anderson has been pegged as a command/control lefty, but with a steady 92-94 fastball that occasionally touches 97, he is much more than that.

home runs have been a problem, but he hasn't surrendered any in his last 3 starts covering 19 1/3 innings. he does indeed have good control as shown by his 2.54 SO/BB ratio, and honestly, at 21 years old, the guy has tremendous upside but still a lot to learn.

anderson has some autos available from his time with team usa in 2005. i recommend jumping on this one now instead of buying a impulse blaster and a couple packs from target.

flashback 1996

it was the summer of 1996. i was a cocky 11 year old little leaguer that was certain i would one day go to lsu on a baseball scholarship. when i told me dad about my intentions, he just scoffed and said 'not when you've got blue and white down the road." he was speaking of penn state which was about an hour and a half drive from my home town. he turned out to be absolutely right.

the college world series matched my lsu tigers against miami. it was the bottom of the ninth, two outs, one man on for second baseman warren morris. lsu was trailing 8-7 until morris deposited the first pitch just over the right field wall. it was his first home run of the year and first walk off HR in college world series history.

my pirates eventually traded for him and he had a stellar rookie campaign in 1998. unfortunately it would be his best season as a pro before retiring in 2006. i bet this card won't get much more than the opening $0.99.

would you take this chance?

here we have an interesting auction. it is for the redemption pictured above. as you can see it's a 2009 finest redemption for rookie #10. it is also a gold refractor of whoever rookie #10 turns out to be. the $200 buy it now price might seem a bit high, but what if it's stephen strasburg? what if it's autographed? surely if that were the case, this redemption would be worth much much more based on the sales of his other low numbered autos. so i ask 2 questions. what do you think strasburg's chances of making it to the bigs this year are? and what do you think the chances of him being redemption #10?

2009 topps magic football

i'm really liking 2009 topps magic football. i love the fact that the players are in their college unis. i know this isn't for everyone, but when you're a penn state football fan, it's nice to see some cards of your favorite college players sporting the blue and white. it looks like paul posluszny autos are going in the $7-$8 range. i may have to pick up one of these. i might also snag a derrick williams and dan connor while im at it.

a big purchase yesterday

so i picked up the card to the left yesterday to send over to mario at wax heaven. its my little way of saying thanks for keeping me entertained for the last year and a half. its a shame he doesn't get paid for all he does. i mean, i pay over $200/year to read about penn state football, and mario provides way more articles.

i was also able to secure the gold and black refractors for him as well. so, mario, keep a lookout for the final pieces of your 2007 miller finest collection. they will be in the mail as soon as the xfractor arrives.

some talent for a change

so the pirates traded 2/3 of their starting outfield away for the second consecutive year. the first move, trading nate mclouth, didn't make any sense to me. it wasn't the fact that they traded one of their more talented players. i've come to expect that. the really disappointing thing was that it seemed like they could have gotten a lot more for him. if they had kept him until the trading deadline, i think the pirates could have made a big score with some top prospects.

i was really excited about the other trade. the pirates essentially exchanged nyjer morgan for lastings milledge. to me, that was huge. milledge is a very talented player. probably the most talented player the pirates have had since bonds. this was a steal. i don't mean to knock morgan, but he wasn't a baseball player. a great athlete? yes. a good baseball player? no. this trade make perfect sense, and i'm hopeful for the future. i'm going to try to lowball this milledge card to add to my collection.

recent ebay pickup

i started buying chris hernandez autos while researching last year's (2008) draft. in my analysis, he was the 3rd best pitcher in college in 2008 behind strasburg and brian matusz. he was so good that chris was selected to be part of team usa. while all the the usa pitchers fared really well, chris was probably one of the bottom 2 in the rotation.

unfortunately, 2009 was not kind to chris. his hurricanes didn't do very well this season, and he didn't make the cut this time around for team usa.

hopefully, this will motivate him to turn in a stellar 2010 performance. if he could just match his freshman campaign, we are looking at the top 5 pick easily. the final cost of the card to the right was $5 shipped.

busting wax vs. ebay

so every time i look at iamjoecollect's site, i'm tempted to buy some wax. it does look fun and exciting, but when it comes down to it, i just can't pull the trigger. ebay is just far too enticing. i would much rather spend 8 bucks for the 2 autos that i actually want. its just too frustrating to spend $60 on a box to get 2 autos that i don't want. its not really a money thing either. sure, if i'm not going to get the cards i'm after, i'd rather get the good hits so i can recoup my money. i think i'll just stick to letting joe collector buy the boxes, and he can show me what he gets.

another recent ebay conquest

a nice 3 color patch of the new guys in the collection, hank blalock. i picked up this beauty for $3.75 shipped, or $1.25 per color.

before there was silk

one of the more interesting non-auto & non-game used inserts over the past couple years has been the unique topps silk line. they seem to be a hit with played collectors. its refreshing to see an insert line be so successful without using a sticker auto or a tiny piece of jersey, bat, base, or band aid.

however, this idea was alive and well over 12 years ago. 1997 leaf featured an insert called "dressed for success." though i've never seen one, this auction describes the card as a cloth card. it's also serial numbered. donruss was so ahead of the curve back in the day. does anybody have one of these cards?

a recent purchase of mine

this bad boy cost me $8.51 including the shipping. i was pretty happy to get it. it's not every day you see a patch card with this many colors on it. the seller listed it as a 4 color patch, but you can see that it's clearly a 5 color patch. count em: gray, black, white, red, and blue.

i started collecting hank this year after adrian gonzalez got off to a hot start. i had been collecting adrian for a couple years. it sucks being priced out of your player, but i'm not complaining too much. i did make about $130 selling 5 autos that i bought for maybe $16 with shipping. it's definitely funded my blalock collection. i now about 15 autos and 6 patches including the beauty to the right.

when i found the mo rivera card below, i decided to look at some other 1996 leaf signature series cards, and i stumbled across this card. though its not serial numbered, this gold version is supposed to be limited to 500 sets.

there doesn't seem to be to many thome certified autos around. the guys just gets no respect. i mean his power numbers are just incredible. yes, his career ran right through the heart of the steroids era, but he hasn't slowed down much since testing began, and his peaks come at what you would expect for his age at the time. 554 career probably clean home runs puts him in some pretty good company. he even has a shot at 600. any thome collectors out there?

a must for any pittsburgh fan

i was born to late to ever visit forbes field in pittsburgh, but i feel like i've been there before. my dad and uncles used to tell me tales of past superstars that played there: clemente, stargell, mazeroski, the waner brothers and pie traynor. but, they always made sure that they included josh gibson in the discussion of the greatest pittsburgh players. they told me how he was probably the real home run king, and that he, not babe ruth, was probably the greatest player ever.

now the card to the right of gibson is a little misleading. he is in his crawfords jersey. the crawfords were another nergo league team in pittsburgh at the time of the homestead grays. gibson actually played for both teams during his career, but it was the homestead grays that played their home games in forbes field not the crawfords.

i'll hold off on snagging this card for a few days just in case any other pittsburgh fans out there want to grab it.

mo gets no. 500

mariano rivera has had a remarkable career. last night he picked up save number 500 against the mets. what has been so incredible about that number is the fact that rivera has one pitch. he throws his famous cutter, and that is it. just sit back and digest that a bit. i mean he has consistently dominated big leagues with one pitch. this never happens. it doesn't matter if you throw a 105 mph heater. you won't make it very far if that's your only pitch. major league hitters are way to good to be dominated by one pitch, one speed. yet mo has established himself as the most reliable and dominate post season closer in history. oh and his regular season numbers aren't too shabby either.

so before you run out and drop another c-note on another prospect, give this card a look. it's from back in the day when getting a certified auto in a pack was a thrilling prospect.

back to mo's cutter. i think that's the one pitch i'd like to step in the batters box and try to hit. anyone else up for that?