I won an autographed bat on Twitter last night!

I checked Twitter right before bed last night and noticed that Diamondbacks minor league 3rd baseman Matt Davidson just finished up a contest for an autographed bat. The contest was won by fellow blogger Matt C. of MC's Autograph Signings. I also noticed that Davidson was going to be hosting another contest starting in about 20 minutes for another autographed bat. So I decided to stay up and wait. To win the bat you had to be the 25th person to correctly guess what type of wood his bats are made of. I guessed ash at first but then did a little research and found out that he uses SAM bats, which are made of maple. He didn't specify that you could only guess once, so I proceeded to guess maple until he announced that one of my guesses was the 25 correct response. I am super excited! Being a huge D-Backs fan, this was just awesome! It was after midnight, but I woke my wife up to tell her the good news. She was less than thrilled. Oh well! Not sure when I'll get the bat in the mail but he did follow me and had me send him my address in a direct message.

I follow a few fellow bloggers (Moe of My 2008 Topps Set Blog, 30 Year Old Cardboard, Fuji, MC's Autograph Signings, Plaschke Thy Sweater is Argyle, and Night Owl) on twitter but if you are on twitter let me know and I'll follow you. Thanks!

Here are a couple of Matt Davidson cards that I have. If we aren't able to resign Prado after this season, then the D-Backs will probably bring up Davidson to play 3rd base.

TTM Success: Dusty Baker

On Wednesday of this week I got a large envelope in the mail with no return address or postmark. I had no idea who it was from. I opened it up and found that  Reds manager  Dusty Baker had responded to a letter I had sent to him during the year. He sent me an 8 x 10, a 5 x 7, and a book advertisement all signed. Very cool!

eBay Pick-Up: 2007 Sweet Spot Chris Young Leather Auto 18/25

I picked up this 2007 Sweet Spot Chris Young Leather Auto numbered 18/25 off eBay recently for $5.00 with $3.50 shipping. I was willing to pay $8.50 for the card, but was disappointed when I opened the package and found the card placed in a penny sleeve that was cut down the side (because it's too thick to fit into a regular penny sleeve) and then folded up in the invoice. I couldn't believe that it wasn't shipped in at least a toploader. There are a couple of chips across the top of the card above where it says Sweet Spot, but overall it's in good shape. It's just frustrating to pay $3.50 for shipping and handling and have it show up like that.

eBay Pick-Up: $25 well spent

I came across a lot of 8 Steve Finley cards on eBay last week and couldn't get it out of my mind. The seller was asking $30 plus $2.50 for shipping but it had a Best Offer option. I offered $22.50 which with shipping would put it at $25 total. A few hours later I saw that the seller had accepted my offer and his package arrived in the mail yesterday. $25 for 8 cards means I paid just over $3 a card. I think I got an awesome deal!

2004 Donruss Studio Game Day Souvenirs Steve Finley Jersey numbered 095/250

2003 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Red Steve Finley Jersey numbered 221/250

2003 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Blue Steve Finley Jersey numbered 013/100

2005 Prime Patches Major League Materials Steve Finley Jersey x4  numbered 069/107

2005 Prime Patches Major League Materials Steve Finley Prime Jersey x4 numbered 22/25

2005 Prime Patches Major League Materials Steve Finley Team Logo Patch numbered 02/14

2005 Prime Patches Major League Materials Steve Finley Name Plate Patch Auto numbered 13/25

 2005 Prime Patches Major League Materials Steve Finley Prime Jersey x3 Auto numbered 4/5

LCS Pick-Up: Stryker Trahan Auto

I picked up this 2012 Bowman Sterling Stryker Trahan auto a couple weeks ago for $3 at my LCS. I didn't notice the huge scratch until I scanned it. It doesn't look that bad in a toploader.

The first time I heard about Trahan other than the D-Backs drafting him with this play at the plate back in July of last year.

Trade with Farrell

A reader of my blog named Farrell contact me about some 2012 Heritage cards I had up for trade. Farrell is a fellow D-Backs fan, so it was nice to swap a few D-Backs doubles as well. Thanks for an awesome trade Farrell! Farrell sent me a great stack of 2012 Diamondbacks from:

Topps Chrome

 Heritage High Numbers

Finest

Gypsy Queen (including the Chris Young Glove Stories and it's mini version)

 Allen & Ginter (including some sweet mini's)

Farrell also sent a few random cards featuring D-Backs past and present.

2000 Pacific 7 Eleven motion disc (Awesome! Never seen this before!)

1989 Topps Randy Johnson RC (RC of Future Hall of Famer)

1991 Donruss The Rookies Luis Gonzalez

2011 Bowman Paul Goldschmidt Topps of the Class

A tribute to "The Man"

I pulled up Twitter on my phone yesterday morning and saw the sad news that Stan "The Man" Musial had passed away. I went through my collection and pulled out all my Musial cards. Sadly, no vintage cards from his playing days, but I've got some great cards of Stan "The Man" Musial.