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?