TTM Success: Yogi Berra

I sent a letter and two cards to the one, the only, Yogi Berra on February 14th. Just 8 days later I recieved both cards back in the mail. Yogi signed one of the cards for me but returned the other one unsigned. The card he signed is a 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game card that looks fantastic! Thanks Yogi!

New additions to my 500 Home Run Club Bat Collection (Ruth and A-Rod)

Here are a couple of eBay purchases that I made last week, that I got in the mail yesterday. By adding these two, I now only need a Jimmie Foxx Bat Card to complete my 500 Home Run Club Bat Card Collection. The Ruth is the card that I posted about last week, saying that I had spent more on this single card than any other card since getting married almost 7 years ago. I had to put a bunch of cards up on eBay to please the wife. Okay, she wasn't really pleased, but at least she didn't kill me. I'm really happy about the Ruth card because it's the card that I wanted for this collection and I think that I got it for a great price. Now only one more to go.

2001 Upper Deck Hall of Famers BABE RUTH Bat

2001 Upper Deck Sweet Spot ALEX RODRIGUEZ Bat

Trade with Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle

Greg, of the blog Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle, contacted me a while back asking if I would like to make a trade. I sent him a TTM Duke Snider autograph and a few Dodgers cards and he sent me a two Brandon Webb cards that I needed, a few random D-backs and a Rafeal Palmiero bat card for my 500 Home Run Club Bat Card Collection. Thanks Greg!

2010 Allen & Ginter Brandon Webb base and mini

Dealing with the consequences

I made a purchase today on eBay that gets me one huge step closer to finishing one of my card collecting goals that I set for myself in 2010. I don't want to say what it was that I purchased because I want it to be in hand before I post about it. The problem is that I had to spend more money than I have spent on a single card in a long time (since before I was married). I was able to justify the purchase by having listed several cards on eBay myself in an effort to keep my wife from killing me. So, I thought I would do a little advertising for my stuff on eBay here on my blog. I have 17 cards up on eBay right now so below you can find a sampling of what I have up.

Pack Break: 2011 Topps Jumbo

On the way home from work on Friday, I stopped at the card shop and picked up a Jumbo pack of 2011 Topps. Here are the results. All cards, except for the Chris Young, are up for trade. Thanks!

Chris Young

Stephen Strasburg Rookie Cup and Base - I didn't pull any Strasburg cards from 2009 until the end of December and now I pull two in one pack.

Diamond Duos Barry Larkin and Derek Jeter

60 Years of Topps Phil Rizzuto Original Back

60 Years of Topps The Lost Cards Bob Feller

60 years of Topps Ernie Banks

Topps 60 Derek Jeter and Diamond Anniversary Angel Pagan *Claimed*

Kimball Champions David Wright *Claimed*

My first look at 2011 Topps

I know, I know. I'm a little late. Oh well. On Thursday I stopped at Target to see if they had any 2011 Topps, but they didn't. So I went to another Target and they had rack packs and regular packs. I picked up a rack pack and here are the highlights. All cards, except the two D-Backs, are up for trade. leave me a comment if you are interested. Thanks!

Arizona Diamondbacks Team Card - great shot of (l to r) La Roche, Young, Upton, Reynolds and Drew.

Miguel Montero - I like the design of the base set. It's clean and features all relevant information (name, team, position) and I like the baseball's 3-D effect.

*Claimed* Diamond Anniversary Parallel Kevin Gregg - I don't know what to think about these yet. Really it's just another parallel.

60 Years of Topps Roy Campanella - Love the concept, but when are they going to run out of cards to do this for.

60 Years of Topps The Lost Cards Stan Musial - Great idea for a set!

Diamond Duos Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera - Don't like these unless the two players are esily conected.

* Claimed* Kimball Champions Victor Martinez - Like these, but don't have the patience to put together a 150 card insert set.

Target Red Diamond Jimmie Foxx - I like the idea of this insert set, but can't stand this particular card.

Topps 60 Troy Tuluwitzki - Not sure how they came up with each category. For instance this card features Slugging from Clean-Up Spot 2005 -2010, seems pretty random to me.

D-Backs from For Card's Sake

Nick, of the blog For Card's Sake, sent me some D-Backs recently out of the kindness of his heart. Thanks Nick! I'll see what Yankees I can send your way. Here are a few of the cards that I recieved. First up are a couple of current Arizona Diamondbacks players, Stephen Drew and Justin Upton.

2010 Topps Chrome STEPHEN DREW Orange Refractor

2010 Bowman Platinum JUSTIN UPTON

Next, a few cards of some of the D-Backs former stars.

STEVE FINLEY

RANDY JOHNSON

CURT SCHILLING

LUIS GONZALEZ

20 and 21 down, only 4 to go

Recently I was reviewing my 500 Home Run Club list and realized that somehow I had left Eddie Mathews off, meaning that instead of 24 members there were 25. Sorry Eddie. To make up for it I, went to eBay and picked up bat cards of Eddie Mathews ($8.24 total) and Harmon Killebrew ($6.24 total) to add to my 500 Home Run Club Bat Card Collection. I now only need 4 more cards and then I will have a bat bard of every member of the 500 Home Run Club. I have a Rafael Palmeiro bat card coming as a part of a trade, so that means that I really only need 3 more: A-Rod, Foxx, and Ruth.

Barry Bonds 762
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Ken Griffey Jr. 630
Alex Rodriguez 613
Sammy Sosa 609
Jim Thome 589
Frank Robinson 586
Mark McGwire 583
Harmon Killebrew 573
Rafael Palmeiro 569
Reggie Jackson 563
Manny Ramirez 555
Mike Schmidt 548
Mickey Mantle 536
Jimmie Foxx 534
Willie McCovey 521
Frank Thomas 521
Ted Williams 521
Ernie Banks 512
Eddie Mathews 512
Mel Ott 511
Gary Sheffield 509
Eddie Murray 504

Justin Upton Jersey Card

Back in December I put up a post offering 126 Jeff Bagwell cards for trade. I wanted just one card in return. I only had a couple of offers, but was happy with the outcome. Fellow D-Backs fan Skoormit offered up a 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum, Spectrum Swatches JUSTIN UPTON Jersey card, which I was happy to trade for. Thanks Skoormit!