3 cards that made me forget about 2017 Topps for a day.

On February 1st everyone was going crazy over the release of 2017 Topps Series I. Okay, not everyone, but the first baseball cards of 2017 garnered a lot of attention from collectors and the blogosphere, YouTube, and Twitter was a buzz with images of Topps new issue.

The night before I took a little trip to Target in hopes of procuring a pack or two a day early, but I didn't have any luck.

I didn't open any 2017 Topps on the 1st. I waited until the 2nd. What was it that got me to wait, even if it was just a day? Well I happened to get a package from ebay on the first that made me forget about 2017 Topps long enough for me to wait until the next day to track down the new cards.

I purchased a lot of 25, 1984 Fleer cards. It was one of those listings where just the card numbers are listed and you can pick any 25 you want to "complete your set". I paid under $5 shipped for the 25 cards, so less than 20 cents a card.

There was really only 3 cards that I wanted, but it was fun to hand pick the other 22.

I would have considered these three alone for under $5 shipped a bargain.

Let's see the rest of the 25 card lot. There are some rookie cards, a couple of unique names, a few Mormons, some Hall of Famers, some famous fathers, a great pair of sunglasses, a couple cards for ttm, and Dale Murray (I had picked out 24 cards and just needed one more, so I picked #134).

3 out of 43 is not a good percentage.

3 out of 43 is 6.9%. It could be worse.

I purchased a 43 card lot on ebay recently and of the 43 Paul Goldschmidt cards I only needed 3 of them.

These put my at 14 new Goldschmidt cards for 2017 and a total of 231 different Goldschmidt cards.

Here they are.

Did everyone get two different 2016 Bowman Chrome cards?

eBay Pick-Ups: Paul Goldschmidt

I'm trying to clean out some folders of scanned cards/pictures and came across these. I don't think that I ever posted about them. I picked them up off eBay about a month ago.

 2014 Topps Tier One Paul Goldschmidt Acclaimed Autographs 169/299

2014 Bowman Paul Goldschmidt Gray Parallel /75

eBay Pick-Up: 6 card lot

I picked up this 6 card lot of eBay for $8 shipped BIN. If my math is correct, that puts each card at roughly $1.33 apiece. Here's what I got.

2013 Bowman Chrome Black Refractor of Aaron Hill numbered 02/15. Hill's jersey number is 2.

2011 Hope Diamond parallel of Miguel Montero numbered 29/60. 

2014 Topps Trajectory Wade Miley Auto

2011 Topps Throwback Manufactured Patch card of Martin Prado. 

2003 Topps Pristine Luis Gonzalez Bomb Squad jersey.

2002 Flair Luis Gonzalez Power Tools Bat card. 

eBay Pick-Up: Ryan Roberts Game-Worn jersey

About two weeks ago my family and I took my best friend out to dinner for his birthday. After dinner my friend and I went to see The Edge of Tomorrow (I was a little hesitant about seeing it, but I actually thought it was a great movie!) I gave my keys to my wife so she could drive home and I went with my friend. After the movie we drove back to my house expecting to find my wife and kids, expect she wasn't there and I didn't have any way to get it. I called her and she forgot that I had given her my keys.

While we were locked out and waiting for my wife to get home I decided to do an eBay search for Ryan Roberts and found an auction for a game-worn Ryan Roberts Tampa Bay Rays jersey. It's MLB Authenticated. The current price was reasonable and it ended that night, so before I went to bed I put in my highest bid and hoped for the best. I checked my phone as soon as I woke up and was surprised to see that I won it. I paid $60 shipped. It came in the mail last Friday. It was the start of a near perfect Father's Day weekend!

ebay Pick-Up: 2006 Opening Day Game-Used Base Card

I picked this card up off ebay recently for just over $3 shipped.

It says "Authentic Opening Fay Game-Used Base" on the front of the card. Now does that mean it's from a base used on Opening Day and if so, was it used in the Rockies vs. Diamondbacks game on April 3rd, 2006? Or does it mean that it's a game-used base card from 2006 Opening Day set?

I choose to believe that the piece of base is actually from one of the bases used in the Rockies vs. D-Backs game on Opening Day on April 3, 2006.

An Amazing eBay Seller: wpcgarciaparra

I purchased two auctions from eBay seller wpcgarciaparra back on 11/14. One was a 3 card PSA Graded 2010 Topps Peak Performance Gerrardo Parra Autographed lot and the other was a 4 card PSA Graded 2010 Topps Peak Performance Chris Young Autographed lot. I won each auction for $7.95 and shipping was $3.95. I contacted the seller about combining shipping and he did, $4.25 for all 7 cards. The total for everything including shipping was $20.15, which I paid via PayPal right away. I then waited for the cards to arrive. I waited and waited, but by December 2nd they had still not arrived. I contacted the seller, wpcgarciaparra, and let him know that I had not received the cards. He got back to me right away and apologized saying that he had not been able to do anything eBay wise and that his grandson was supposed to have been handling things for him. He asked me for my address and assured me that they would be in the mail the coming Monday. He apologized again and said he would "make it right". Today a package arrived and when I opened it I not only found the 7 cards from the 2 auctions that I had won, but also a $20 bill and a note from wpcgarciaparra, again apologizing. I was shocked! The cards are amazing and he refunded me my money. Thank you wpcgarciaparra! You certainly made it right, and I'll definitely purchase from you again! I did not expect such great customer service from an eBay seller. He has some great stuff up on eBay right now, so go check him out here.

Some more recent eBay purchaces.

I got the 3 cards below from the same eBay seller in order to save on shipping. When I spread out the shipping costs among them, I ended up get each one for about $3.00. So let's see what I got.

2005 Topps Chrome Update Micah Owings FY RC Auto - Micah is back with the D-Backs this year, after spending the last two seasons with the Reds.

2007 UD Masterpeices Strokes of Genius Micah Owings Auto - Check out the difference in Micah's signatures. His 2005 Chrome Update autograph is just his initials, while this card features a much more detailed signature. I wonder what made him change.

2010 Upper Deck Justin upton Game Jersey - I've always really liked these jersey cards (2010 UD) for some reason. I like the red jersey piece and I like the fact that he is wearing a red jersey in the picture.

eBay Purchases

I got a couple of eBay purchases in the mail today. First up is this 2010 Topps Update Event Worn All-Star Jersey card of Justin Upton. I have the Dan Haren version of this card, the other 2009 MLB All-Star representative from the Diamondbacks, so I have been wanting this card for a while now.

I picked up this 2003 Topps Gallery HOF Artifacts Bat card of Bucky Harris because it was too good of a deal to pass up. I'll either trade it, put it back up on eBay and try to make a little profit, or I'll just hang onto it for a while. Bucky played from 1919 -1931 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager. To my knowledge, the 2003 Topps Gallery HOF Artifacts bat card is the only Bucky Harris bat card that exists!

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.