Mail Day!!

So I worked out a trade with Jamie, who just got back into collecting recently.  He also proved that yes, people other than the people who have blogs read this thing.  He helped me take out a big chunk of my '08 Heritage set, especially the Black Backs.  So I have adjusted the Needs List accordingly.  Here's what I got:

3 Base

17 Black Backs

2 News Flashbacks

1 Baseball Flashback

3 New Age Performers

1 Then and Now

2 Minis

1 Clint Sammons 2008 Topps Triple Threads #/50

I had no idea about the last card.  He said he was sending me something for a Braves fan, but I never thought it'd be that good.  Thanks Jamie and I'll get your cards out to you ASAP.

Packapalooza Commercial Break

I've been shamelessly plugging my needs list on occasion on here and have received many offers. If I haven't gotten back to you, I'm sorry. I've been here, there and everywhere the past few weeks. I'll try and get back to everyone I haven't contacted ASAP. But Dan from over at Saints of the Cheap Seats came through and sent me 78 cards I needed for my '08 Heritage Set. I'm working on getting his package together to send to him, but my list will be updated accordingly so everyone can see what I need now. Thanks Dan and yours will be in the mail soon. Packapalooza will continue in a little while.

Allen and Ginter Boxes to be posted tonight

But in the meantime, I went to Target today and they had a few 2008 Heritage Blasters that I guess they found in the back, so I bought one as I am trying to complete my set. So feast your eyes on my pull from the blaster:

The Trading Floor is Now Open

I just posted a needs list of 2008 Topps Heritage and 2007 Allen and Ginter.  I'll add to it as I come across sets that I need cards for, but if you see something you've got, e-mail me with your needs and we'll see if we can work out a deal.  

COTW for 3/2/08: 1959 Topps #373 Herb Plews

In honor of last week's Topps Heritage release, we have this card. Prior to getting my Topps buy back in one of my boxes last week, this was the only 1959 Topps card I owned. I can't remember where I got it. I believe it was from one of those baseball card "chests" (it was actually a cardboard box that had a chest-like design on it) that you order from Lillian Vernon or a like catalogue that's filled with mostly late 80's Donruss and Topps crap, but you get some good old cards. Maybe not of stars, but old cards none the less. Old Smilin' Herb here played in the Bigs from 1956 to 1959 with his last season being 1959 where he split time between the Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox. Herb wasn't known for his hitting, he only hit .262 for his lifetime average. Herb did put up some good defense, though with a career fielding percentage of .959. This is with Herb playing 2nd, 3rd and short stop in all 4 seasons that he played. Herb had some Real One autos inserted into packs of '59 Heritage and he currently lives in a retirement community in Boulder, Colorado.

Double Box Break Update

With the 2 boxes combined, I have 239/500 (47.8%) of the base cards which doesn't include the black backs.  The boxes when combined had 72 doubles.  That's exactly half the cards in the box.  In a 500 card set, I'd expect less doubles even with short prints.  Like I said, this set is going to be a beast.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

Two boxes of 2008 Heritage are better than one! Here's a double box break:

Box 1:

I opened up the box to find a 3 panel strip and a buy back. Here's my buy back:

Joe played in the Major Leagues for 13 seasons (1948-1962) with his best season being in 1951 when he had 304 at-bats, hit .260 with 8 home runs and 37 RBI. Not the best card, but I love having old cards, no matter how good the player. 

Now the 3 card strip:OH...MY...GOSH! I about crapped myself when I pulled this out. This is like the best box topper EVER. Tex, Smoltz, The Jones Boys....this has it all. Dayf, eat your heart out.

Now, the box stats:
Base Set: 154/500 (30.8%)
Doubles: 0
Black Backs: 24
Chrome Parallel: 3 (Matt Cain 1141/1959, Vernon Wells 1159/1959, Miguel Cabrera 1176/1959)
Refractor Parallel: 1 (Felix Hernandez 85/559)
News Flashbacks: 2 (Clutter Family, Fidel Castro)
Baseball Flashbacks: 1 (Orlando Cepeda)
Then and Now: 2 (Eddie Matthews and A-Rod, Johnny Podres and Eric Bedard)
Clubhouse Collection Relics: 2 (David Ortiz, Eric Chavez)
I really don't know if I could have asked more of this box. If they would have thrown me an auto and a relic instead of 2 relics, it might have made it better, but I'm not really sure. But this was a great box. OK on to Box 2

No buy back in this one, but here is my 3 card strip from the 2nd box:

Goodness, that's a strip of straight suck. And a Matt Capps pink card. Ugh. Ok, box stats:

Base Set: 157/500 (31.4%)
Black Backs: 24
Chrome Parallel: 3 (Ben Sheets 1150/1959, Jose Valverde 1160/1959, Francisco Rodriguez 1456/1959)
Refractor Parallel: 1 (James Shields 76/559)
News Flashbacks: 2 (Luna 2, Dalai Lama)
Baseball Flashbacks: 2 (Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks)
Then & Now: 1 (Orlando Cepeda and Magglio Ordonez)
New Age Performers: 1 (Brandon Webb)
Real One Autographs: 1 (Bob Blaylock)




















The second box was nowhere as good as the first, however I did get an autograph which is an on-card signature. Bob only appeared in 17 Major League games in his career with 3 of those coming in 1959. He pitched 9 innings, gave up 8 hits, struck out 3 and had an ERA of 4.00. Once again, not a great player, but I'm very glad to have his signature.

This set is going to be a complete beast to put together especially if you're trying to do the master set (which I am). It'll take a minimum of 4 boxes to get the complete set and with the short prints and all, it'll take more than 4. Since there isn't a clear short print checklist out yet and only postulations (actually, Beckett.com has a listing, but I'm too lazy to go through everything again), I held off on listing how many of those I got, but they're 1:3 packs so I should have gotten 8 or so in each box. I'm going to put all these cards in pages and I'll update everyone on what the combined total of the completed set is once I've finished.  And just so everyone knows, this is a really hot product right now.  My dealer told me that wholesale prices on boxes have gone up $17 since Wednesday.  Get 'em quick!