Mail Day!!

I haven't bought any cards in awhile and with some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, I surfed over to Dave and Adam's Card World. I purchased one of their combos which was a box of 2007 SP Authentic, a box of 2007 SP Rookie Edition and a tin of 2007 Sweet Spot Classic. I also bought a box of 2008 Heritage High Numbers in order to start that set as I'm trying to do the whole 2008 Heritage set and am well on my way. I also got 2 packs of 2007 UD Elements as a free gift from D&A. Elements might be the most useless product I have ever opened a pack of. And that includes Topps Lazer. We'll start off with the 2007 SP Rookie Edition. There's good "rookies" in this set with Josh Hamilton, Tim Lincecum, Dice K and a few others. The rookie cards are done in various designs of Upper Deck SP of the past, much like Timeline, which I enjoy them using old designs. The box also had 2 rookie signatures per box. This is what I pulled:Kory Casto? Hmm...ok. Last year in 2008, Kory played in 66 games for the Nationals hitting .215 with 2 home runs and 16 RBI. He's not exactly lighting up the place. He's listed as OF on the card, yet the MLB site lists him as a 3B. So this means he's a pinch hitting utility player. Ok, so not a great card, but at least he's someone who's in MLB still. Next we have....Joe Smith, a pitcher from the Mets. Joe is now with the Cleveland Indians, but played last year with the Mets. He appeared in 82 games last year with a 6-3 records, 3.55 ERA and a .220 BAA. Joe appears to be a very good relief pitcher and should have a good career ahead of him. The only problem with this card is the ding at the top middle of it. It's hard to see on the scan, but it's there and it's really noticeable in person. Oh well. Let's move on to 2007 SP Authentic. The big thing with Authentic was the 2 By The Letter autographed patches that came in the box. Some people like them and some people hate them and I have never seen one really up close, so I thought this would be a good chance to get a few. Colation in this box is great as I'm only missing 4 cards out of the base set of 100 and I'll put these up on my need list ASAP. Now on to my hits

A rookie signature of Brad Salmon 20/75. Brad, a pitcher, for some reason is holding a bat on the card. Salmon now plays for the White Sox and didn't play in MLB in 2008. In 2007, he played in 26 games for the Reds with an 0-1 record and a 4.13 ERA. I got one more of these and it's much better than this one.Alex Gordon 23/25. Alex had a decent year last year with KC hitting .260 in 493 ABs with 16 HRs and 59 RBIs. Alex turns 25 next month so this should be the year that he starts his upswing of talent as he's been a highly regarded prospect for a long time. Now having some of these By The Letter cards, I really like them. I think they are well done. The Alex Gordon with the gold signature looks very classy and I like the shadow work on the "O" in Salmon's card. I know there are a few who are not fond of these, but I have no problem whatsoever with them. Now the manufactured letters with stickers on them or no auto, I'm not a fan of those, but these are just fine.

I'm not going to post anything about the Hertiage High Series as I got that just for the base cards. My hit of the box was an Aramis Ramirez plain grey game-worn jersey swatch. Nothing to get excited over. I didn't get a buy back and my refractors and chrome arn't anything to write home about. However, I'm saving the best for last. This tin of Sweet Spot is the first one pack product that I've bought. The tin was a Babe Ruth tin, so I was hoping for something big. I got 2 base cards #/575 of Jose Canseco and Judy Johnson. My hits were as follows.
An unnumbered swatch of Donnie Baseball. For some reason, I find Mattingly as one Yankee that I don't hate. I don't know why. Next:
A Sweet Spot Classic Sig of Dave Winfield 43/75. Hey a Hall of Famer! I could have done a lot worse. I also would have liked to have a sig that wasn't faded all to hell. I knew when I saw Mario's post that these things do fade, but man, seeing it in person is a different thing. It's really worse that the scan shows. I think it was a black ink sig and there's all kids of bleeding of the pen. And I know exactly why. The "balls" that the players are signing are basically plastic. This is the first time I've been able to feel one of the cheaper materials and the only cow this ball came from is one that's made by Mattel. UD needs to use better quality materials in order to make these sigs last. This is just ridiculous. I bet you're all wondering why I showed the Sweet Spot before the other swatch card. This is why:
Harold Baines patch 24/55. It's a really great 2 color patch. If I was Captain Ebay, it'd be a 3 color patch because there's literally 2 threads of white in the bottom left corner, but it's a 2 color. I really like this patch. Great stiching and great Sox colors. Overall, I think I did pretty well with these boxes and I really had fun busting them. If I knew that all the Sweet Spots I got wouldn't be faded, I might buy some more Sweet Spot Classic, but the fading might keep me away. But all in all, money well spent.