Card Shop Pick-Up: 2005 Topps Chrome Chris Young First Year Card

I went to the card shop today because they were having a raffle. For the past several months for every $10 you spent they would give you a raffle ticket and today was the drawing. I didn't take my boys with me because I knew the place would be packed. As I was leaving my 6 year old said, "If they still have the card of Chris Young as a White Sox will you buy it for me?" So after looking around a bit I purchased two 2005 Bowman Chrome Chris Young First Year Cards, one for my 6 year old and one for my 4 year old and I got this 2005 Topps Chrome Chris Young First Year Card for myself.

Aaron Hill just hit his second cycle of the season!

Click here to watch as Aaron Hill hits for the cycle. This is the second time he has done that this season! Amazing!

1997 Pinnacle Zenith 8 x 10 Ken Griffey Jr.

Anybody out there remember the 1997 Pinnacle Zenith 8 x 10 cards? I have a few of these including this Griffey. They are really sweet looking cards but somewhat difficult (costly) to display/store.

Ladies and gentlemen...Pat Sajack and Vanna White!

I haven't really gotten any new cards, other than the pack that I bought on our trip, in a while. No eBay packages, no trips to the card shop, no trades as of late. It makes it hard to post everyday, which is something that I am trying to do. So far I have posted at least once every day so far this year. Todays post is a couple of non-baseball, heck, non-sports ttm autographs. I saw that a quick email would get a couple of autographs from two famous tv game show personalities and so I sent a request a couple of weeks ago and got back signed two 8 x 10's last week of Pat Sajak and Vanna White.

A pack of 2010 Topps Heritage

Just got back from Las Vegas. Spent a couple days there visiting my brother and his family. While we were there we stopped at a Target and I picked up a pack of 2010 Topps Heritage out of the discount box for $1.59. I got two cards of significance. I pulled a 2009 World Series "The Winners Celebrate" card that features the World Series trophy for my Cards Featuring Awards collection and a Tim Lincecum SP All-Star card.

Non-Baseball Autographs for Trade

I've been sorting through my collection recently and I have a pile for autographs. I was looking through that pile recently and came accross a few non-baseball autographs. I thought I would post them and see if anyone was interested in trading me some baseball cards for them. The Michael Dickerson card does have some small chips on the top of the card that you can't see in the scan. Let me know if you have any interest in them. Thanks!

20th Anniversary of 1992 Dream Team

I recently watched the documentary on the 1992 Olympic Basketball Dream Team and so I searched around and found these three cards that I had that celebrate the greatest team ever assembled.

http://vimatech.com/

Ian Kennedy Bobblehead

D-Backs vs. Cubs

Went to the D-Backs game tonight with my family. The D-Backs have a reading program for kids where if your child reads 500 minutes they get a free ticket. Additional tickets can be purchased at a discounted price. Tonights game was against the Cubs and an Ian Kennedy bobblehead was given away to the first 20,000 fans, so even the cheapest tickets were pretty pricey. We got the one free ticket and then paid $8 apiece for the additional tickets and I think they would have normally been around $24 each. We got there super early and did get the bobbleheads. Ryan Roberts made an amazing play at third base in the second or third inning and my 6 year old son called Justin Upton's home run in the 3rd inning. We left shortly thereafter because by that point we had already been there for 3+ hours and hadn't eaten dinner yet. We listened to the game on the way back and watched part of it while eating dinner at Red Robin (Yummm!). The Diamondbacks lead 10-5 right now in the top of the ninth, so hopefully they can hold on and get the win. I'll show the bobblehead off tomorrow.

1990 Upper Deck Jose Cano

I came accross this 1990 Upper Deck card of Houston Astros pitcher Jose Cano as I was sorting through a box of cards the other day. Jose is the father of Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano. He pitched to his son in last years home run derby and is planning on pitching to his son this year as well.

eBay Pick-Up: 2012 Bowman Justin Upton Blue Parallel numbered to 500

I picked up this 2012 Bowman Justin Upton Blue Parallel numbered to 500 off eBay recently for $1.50 shipped.

2012 Bowman Red Ice Diamondbacks Team Set

Aaron Hill hit for the cycle!

My family and I were at the Diamondbacks game last night. I had picked up a voucher on Saturday that was good for 2 free tickets to one of the games this week against the Mariners. I'm glad we choose to go to yesterdays game because Aaron Hill hit for the cycle. He's just the 5th D-Back to hit for the cycle and one of less than 300 players in MLB history to do so. I'm going to try to get my ticket signed sometime soon.

2003 Topps Gallery Heritage

I came accross these cards today in a box that I was looking through. They are 2003 Topps Gallery Heritage insert cards. I forgot how cool these cards are. These are some of the first cards I remember that had the painted look to them that so many cards today have.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there! I hope that you are all able to spend some time with your kids and enjoy the day as much as I am! I got two new D-Backs shirts and two very special cards!

A Random Card Shop Pick-Up

I picked up this 2011 Topps Tier 1 Jackie Robinson numbered to 799 today at my LCS for $1. I got a few supplies and a couple of other cards for a friend. I also went to a Cox Solutions store this morning and got a voucher for 2 free D-Backs tickets for a game this next week against the Mariners, so that should be fun. And I won an eBay auction today that I am really excited about! I'll post about it when I get it in, but it was the last card I needed to complete something that I've been working on and I have only seen 2 now on eBay, so I'm glad I got it.

Arizona Cardinals Fan Fest Recap

I haven't had the best of luck this year at Fan Fests. You can read about my experience at the D-Backs Fan Fest here, although it did turn out awesome! On Wednesday, my family and I went to the Arizona Cardinals Fan Fest at University of Phoenix stadium. We got there at 5:30 pm, which is when it opened. We waited outside in line for 40 minutes before we were able to get inside. Once inside it was wall to wall people and all the autograph wristbands for the kids were gone. You could barely move. They were expecting 5,000 and got 15,000 people. We took an elevator up to the upper level and found a nice spot to watch the practice only to have security inform us that we weren't allowed up there. We ended up leaving just before they started practicing. Needless to say, I had an upset wife (she wasn't happy about waiting 40 minutes in 105 degree heat) and two very disappointed kids. On Thursday I sent the Cardinals an email about the experience and I got a response back today. They explained that because of the new collective barganing agreement they had to have Fan Fest on a weekday and they just did not expect 15,000 people to show up. They thanked me for my feedback and offered me 4 tickets to one of the Cardinals preseason games, so that was nice!

eBay Pick-Up: 2011 Allen & Ginter Rudy Ruettiger

I saw that Rudy Ruettiger signs ttm, so I picked up this 2011 Allen & Ginter card so that I can send it to him. Rudy is one of my all-time favorite movies!

2012 Topps Series 2 Blaster Recap

I got a 2012 Topps Blaster from Target yesterday. I was disappointed to learn that relic and auto's were not offered in the blaster. Sure the odds are always against you when buying retail, but at least there was a possibility. I got more inserts obviously, but nothing special. The Reggie Jackson Retired Number Patch is for trade if anyone is interested.

2010 Upper Deck Ballparks cards

Here are the Ballpark cards that I pulled from a box of 2010 Upper Deck recently. Eventually I'd like to get them all. One of my "bucket list" items is to see a game at every Major League stadium.

2 Additional Cards Featuring Awards

I'm currently trying to organize all my cards. In doing so I've come accross 2 additional Cards Featuring Awards for my collection. I am trying to get to 50 this year. These two put me at 20. If you have any you would like to trade that I don't already have, just let me know. Thanks!

I added 115 D-Backs cards to my collection!

I recently agreed to purchase some D-Backs cards from Kyle of the blog Juuust a bit outside. He was cleaning out a his collection by team and I agreed to buy the D-Backs. He sent some great cards (115 cards to be exact) and I think I might steal his idea as a way to get ride of the cards that I have accumulated over the years that don't fit in my collection, so look for an announcement soon about that. Anyways, here are a few of the cards he sent. Thanks Kyle!

First up, he sent two Paul Goldschmidt and 2 Josh Collmentor 2011 Topps Rookie Cards.

He sent a few Webb cards, but this is one that I didn't have yet.

Next up are 4 Chris Young cards. CY is one of my kids favorite players.

Here's a Miguel Montero Rookie Card.

Here's the 1st Bowman Card of pitching prospect Trevor Bauer.

I really like this O-Pee-Chee Montero.

A 2011 Topps Sparkle Willie Bloomquist. I want to get the entire 2011 Topps D-Backs Sparkle set, so here's another one off that list.

Finally, 19 different Justin Upton cards which I think have prompted me to start an official Justin Upton player collection.