It's like having my own Card Shop

White Elephant Winnings

2013-05-19T16:41:00.001-07:00

Napkin Doon held an awesome "White Elephant" type game recently to celebrate him having 100 followers and I was lucky to be able to participate. The game was a ton of fun and he put up some great prizes. Thanks!

Here is what I got as my prize. A four card lot from 1969 Topps. The cards are not centered that great, but the corners are pretty sharp for being 40+ years old and they include some great players!

First up is a nice Ted Shows How card featuring Ted Williams showing Senators star Mike Epstein a thing or two about hitting.

Next up is a card of Hall of Famer Jim Bunning. I have to admit, I wasn't aware that Bunning player for the Pirates.

This checklist looks brand new and features Don Drysdale.

Finally, here is a very young, very clean cut looking Jim "Catfish" Hunter.

Also included in with my prize was 2 packs of 1989 Score, which yielded 4 Hall of Famers! I included a scan of the back because I miss the detail that used to grace the back of baseball cards. Notice a head shot of the player, demographic information, their stats from their entire career, and an informative write-up about the player.

Trade with GCRL

2013-05-14T13:14:00.002-07:00

I completed another trade with GCRL a few weeks back. Jim and I have traded made several trades and he always finds great cards to send my way. Here are a few. Thanks Jim!

First up are some current and former D-Backs!

When I scanned these it reminded me of a kaleidoscopic.

Jim also included a card for my Cards featuring Awards and Multiple Bats collection!

Finally, here is a Steve Sax USA Rice card. Sax is the D-Backs first base coach and so I'm going to try to get him to sign this. It should be interesting to see what he says about it.

AMAZING experience at the D-Backs game! Behind the scenes, Batting Practice, and Autographs galore!

2013-04-28T07:51:00.001-07:00

After the Diamondbacks Fan Fest in January I emailed the Diamondbacks and thanked them for a great time! I also explained how we had bought autograph tickets for Jason Kubel, but when we got there he was already gone. I explained how while we were disappointed, the staff went out of their way to get us some additional autographs.

The Vice President of Marketing, Karina Bohn, responded to my email and thanked me for the positive feedback and apologized for us not getting to meet Kubel. She invited us to a game of our choice including an opportunity to go on the field during batting practice.

So, yesterday my family and I (minus the baby - big thanks to my mother-in-law) went to the Diamondbacks game. We met Karina at 2 o'clock in what is called the WOW Lobby. She took us upstairs for a behind the scenes look at the offices of the staff of the D-Backs. She took us into a conference room that was just amazing. Take a look at the pictures below.

In the first picture you can see bats from the 2013 Opening Day lineup. On the other side are autographed baseballs by each player on the 2013 25 man roster. In between are Randy Johnson's and Brandon Webb's CY Young Awards. The second picture shows various awards, pictures, and memorabilia from the Diamondbacks over the years. Pretty cool stuff!

Then we got to go out on the field for batting practice. When we first got out there the roof was open so they had us off to the side in the shade. We were just standing there and Luis Gonzalez walked over and asked my boys if they had gotten a baseball yet. He told them to come with him. As they were walking, Willie Bloomquist walked by and gave my oldest son a baseball that he had been using to play catch with. Gonzalez gave my other son a ball. The ball my son got from Gonzo was brand new. Here they are with their baseballs!

They closed the roof and then had us move down directly behind home plate while they continued batting practice. Wade Miley was taking a few practice swings near home plate and he came saw my boys holding their baseballs. He looked at them and squared to bunt and indicated that he wanted them to throw the ball. My oldest threw his ball. Miley caught it and threw it back. Then he turned to my other son and had him throw his ball to him as well and then threw it back. It's not every day that you get to play catch with a Major League Baseball player.

After they were done batting several players came over and signed autographs. Here's what we got!

Miguel Montero signed 2 8 x 10's and a ticket from a D-Backs Brewers game were he and Mark Reynolds, Adam LaRoche, and Stephen Drew hit back to back to back to back home runs. I got Reynolds to sign the ticket during Spring Training so now I just need Drew and LaRoche. He also signed my boys baseballs.

Paul Goldschmidt signed 2 8 x 10's and my sons baseballs and took a picture with them.

A.J. Pollock signed these three cards for us and my sons baseballs. He also took a picture with them.

Aaron Hill signed 2 8 x 10's and my sons baseballs and took a picture wit

h my boys.

Heath Bell signed a card for me and my sons baseballs.

Patrick Corbin signed a card and my sons baseballs.

Adam Eaton signed his Rookie Card for me and my sons baseballs.

We also got Gonzo to sign a couple of cards.

Here are the baseballs that my boys got signed.

Baseball #1

Alfredo Marte

Paul Goldschmidt

Aaron Hill

Adam Eaton

Heath Bell

Patrick Corbin

A.J. Pollock

Baseball #2

Miguel Montero

Alfredo Marte

Paul Goldschmidt

A.J. Pollock

Adam Eaton

Heath Bell

Aaron Hill

Patrick Corbin

After Batting Practice was over Karina took us back up and got us some Wade Miley Garden Gnomes.

Then we went and found our seats. Here's our view. The tickets were also provided by Karina. The D-Backs ended up winning the game 3-2 in extra innings! This was an amazing experience and something that my boys and I will never forget! Big thanks to Karina Bohn and the Arizona Diamondbacks!

Opening Day and a surprise from a fellow blogger!

2013-04-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

Opening Day was almost 3 weeks ago. I'm still catching up on the blog as you can tell, but I'm almost there.

I took my two oldest boys with me to Opening Day, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. St. Louis Cardinals. We decided to take the light rail to Chase Field which saved us money on parking but took a lot longer to get there. Consequently we didn't arrive early enough to try to get any autographs before the game started. It didn't matter though because we all had a great time. There is just no other game that can compare to Opening Day! To top things off, the D-Backs won!

Adam, of the blog Thoughts and Sox, had emailed me a couple days prior, asking if I was going to be at Opening Day because he had something for me. We arranged to meet during the 4th inning where the D-Backs Mascot, Baxter, signs autographs, since we both had our kids with us.

Speaking of Baxter, my boys got these Topps Mascot cards signed.

I didn't know what Adam had for me but was really excited when I saw Chris Young signed ball. Adam explained how it came into his possession, but thought that I would like it more since I'm a D-Backs fan and he's a Red Sox fan. He also had a letter from the Diamondbacks about the ball. I'm very excited to add this to my collection! Thank you so much Adam.

Adam also had some cards for me. He had some Cards Featuring Awards and Multiple Bat Cards for me from his Red Sox cards, as well as some D-Backs cards.

These 2003 Upper Deck Standing "O" cards look fantastic. The only downside for me is the part that says STANDING "O". Otherwise, it's an almost perfect card! Take a look at the schilling and then look at the Gonzalez. The STANDING "O" is white so you can barely see it against Schillings white jersey, but it really stands out on the Gonzalez card. The two die cut cards are really cool and the stitching of the baseball even has texture to it giving you a feeling of a real baseball.

TTM Success: Daniel Hudson

2013-04-14T13:46:00.003-07:00

My oldest son wrote a letter to Daniel Hudson and sent two cards and asked for an autograph for him and one for his brother Brady. I had him include his name because I knew that Daniel Hudson personalizes his ttm autographs. When my son got the cards back, they were both made out to him. I tweeted about the mishap and Daniel Hudson responded to my tweet and apologized. I thought that was pretty cool. I sent off another letter to him and asked him to sign two cards for my son Brady and one for me. This time he read the letter and we got back the cards just 10 days later.

2001 World Series trophy!

2013-04-14T13:38:00.001-07:00

The Arizona Diamondbacks partnered with my sons Little League to host a mini D-Backs Fan Fest on March 30th. They had inflatables for the kids and a few tents with local retailers giving a way coupons and samples, among other things. The Diamondbacks also had the 2001 World Series trophy on hand and you could have your picture taken with it and then they printed it off for you. Here I am with the trophy!

TTM Success: Nate "Tiny" Archibald

2013-04-14T12:27:00.001-07:00

Not sure exactly when I got this back, but I'm guessing it was during the first week of April, which means it took somewhere between 40-45 days for me to get it back since I sent it out on February 19th. Great return from an NBA Hall of Famer!

eBay Pick-Up: 2012 Allen & Ginter Ryan Roberts Black Border Mini

2013-04-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've added any new Ryan Roberts cards to my collection, but I did pick this 2012 Allen & Ginter Ryan Roberts Black Border Mini card up off eBay recently. I won it for $0.86 plus $2.49 shipping.

YouTube Contest Winnings

2013-04-14T11:55:00.003-07:00

I entered yecards95 YouTube sub contest a few weeks back and won 2nd prize. I won three sweet autographed cards! Thanks Tim!

First up was this 2012 Bowman Platinum Randall Delgado Autograph. Delgado was part of the Justin Upton trade, so he's now a Diamondback! This was definitely the highlight of the three cards for me!

Next is this Jordan Schafer 2009 Ballpark Collection Autograph. I did a little research and Jordan hit a home run in his first Major League at bat. 114 players have done that. I think it might be an interesting little side project to try to get an auto from as may of them as I can.

Finally, an Alex White 2011 Bowman Sterling Auto.

TTM Success: Don Baylor

2013-04-14T11:35:00.003-07:00

Don Baylor was another D-Backs coach that I hadn't gotten at Spring Training and I knew he signed ttm so I sent him a couple of cards on 3/19/13. I got back the two cards on 4/3/13. Both cards look great!

TTM Success: Alan Trammell

2013-04-14T11:28:00.001-07:00

I hadn't been able to get Alan Trammell to sign a card during Spring Training so I sent him a card ttm on 3/18/13. I got it back signed on 3/30/13. The upper right hand corner got a little damaged in the mail, but it's still a great looking autograph.

eBay Pick-Up: 1954 Topps Gus Zernial

2013-04-14T10:52:00.002-07:00

I couldn't sleep one night about a month ago so I started browsing eBay on my phone and came across a couple of 1954 Topps cards from the same seller that were about to end and were really cheap. I put in a couple of low bids, hoping to win them both and do combined shipping. I went to sleep and when I woke up I checked and I had only won one of the auctions. I got it for $0.54 plus $1.50 shipping. It was this 1954 Topps Gus Zernial card.As you can see, it's in pretty rough shape, but I still like it.

I did a little research and found out a few things about Mr. Zernial. Gus hit 7 home runs during a four game span back in 1951. He hit six in the first 3 games and had his picture taken with six balls nailed to his bat - this photo was used for his 1952 Topps card. He hit his 7th home run the next day. I don't have the 1952 Topps card, but I'd like to pick one up someday.

He was also the first player to hit three home runs in the final game of the regular season. He was also the first player to hit 4 home runs during the regular season in October when he hit 2 home runs in each game of a doubleheader on October 1, 1950.

Topps owes me a few Gypsy Queen cards!

2013-04-14T10:29:00.002-07:00

I'm not sure why, but I bought another 3 pack rack pack of 2013 Gypsy Queen. The first pack yielded 6 base card - no mini. The second pack had everything it was supposed to contain plus a small piece of plastic (like from a plastic grocery bag almost), which I thought was weird. The third pack, the one on the top that was with the 3 white boarder cards was really thin. It only had 2 base cards a one mini card. Topps, you owe me three cards! I called Topps last week about it and got a message saying that they were all either in a meeting or at a company event and to try back later. I'll have to call back sometime this week.

Pack #1

Pack #2

Pack #3

3 White Border Cards

PWE adds a new Brandon Webb card to my collection!

2013-04-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get caught up here on my blog. One of the worst things about playing catch-up is that sometimes you loose track of who sent what. I think this card came from Kerry, from the blog Cards on Cards. Kerry, let me know if it was from you. Even though I don't know for sure who it was from, I'm very appreciative of what was inside! It contained a new Brandon Webb card for my collection. in fact, I'd never even see the card before. Thanks for this awesome Webb card!

Spring Training Autograph Recap: Indians and Reds 3/30/13

2013-04-13T19:55:00.002-07:00

Trying to get caught up on my posts. My oldest son turned 7 back on March 30th. Since it was a Saturday, we went to the Cleveland Indians practice in the morning and then went to the last Spring Training game between the Indians and Reds. It was a split squad game for the Reds and so none of their big league roster was there. We got a few Indians autographs at practice and then got Billy Hamilton to sign our tickets at the game. We got one autograph at the Indians parking lot after the game.

Jason Kipnis signed a card for us at practice. He was a great signer throughout Spring Training and was always very personable with the fans!

We also got Jason Giambi to sign a few cards for us. Giambi was typically the last guy to head into the clubhouse and yet he almost always still stopped and signed for everyone. Wish him the best this year!

We left the game in the 5th or 6th inning and went over to the Indians parking lot to try to get a few autographs. There was only one other person there when we got there. He actually recognized me from my YouTube channel, which was kind of weird. We only got one autograph, but it was a nice one. Ubaldo Jimenez signed a card for us. I don't even really remember seeing him the rest of Spring Training, but the pitchers weren't as accessible as the rest of the players so we must have just missed him.

Here are the tickets that Billy Hamilton signed for us. He made our day! (This will make sense if you follow Billy on Twitter).

In Person Autograph Recap: 4/10/13 - Diamondbacks vs. Pirates

2013-04-13T08:19:00.004-07:00

On April 4th the Diamondbacks beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 16 innings at what is the longest ever game at Chase Field. The game lasted 5 hours and 32 minutes. The D-Backs next played in Milwaukee, but the Diamondbacks offered $5.32 upper level tickets for the next home series which happened to be against the Pirates to commemorate the 5 hour and 32 minute game. I took advantage of the promotion and got tickets for myself and two of my boys for the Wednesday day game. I took the day off work and took my oldest out of school early and we enjoyed a great day of baseball!

The game started at 12:40 pm. We got to the stadium about noon and tried to go down to the field for autographs but the usher said, "Can I see your tickets?" I told him that we were just going to go down to the field for autographs. He said that they were all done signing autographs and that the game was about to start; that it was almost 12:30. I told him that the game didn't start until 12:40 and he said "Yeah, 12:40, but there done signing autographs." I don't know if that was his first day on the job or what, because I knew that players sometimes sign right up until the game starts. We ended up going one section over and I asked the usher if we could go down to try to get autographs and he said we could.

Aaron Hill was the first player to come over and sign, but we didn't have anything for him. Paul Goldschmidt came over next and we had a card for him so we got that signed. Then Gerardo Parra came over and he signed a card for both of my boys. After that we left and went to our seats. I thanked the usher that let us go down and told him that we had gotten Goldschmidt and Parra's autographs. I should have gone over to the other usher and said something, but I didn't.

I was looking at some of the pictures from the game and noticed that one of the pictures is of Parra signing autographs before the game. You can see my son right in front of Parra. He's wearing a red shirt and has on glasses.

My boys also got Baxter's autograph during the game. The D-Backs won 10-2 and we had a great time!

TTM Success: Heath Bell

2013-04-12T20:20:00.003-07:00

Today is the 12th of April and my last post was on March 31st. I'm way behind and need to catch up here on my blog. Let's get started! Here is a TTM return that we got in yesterday from Diamondbacks reliever Heath Bell. Bell had a rough first appearance with the D-Backs this year, but looked much better the last time he pitched. He signed these three cards for my son. Not sure why he signs sideways or why he uses a purple Sharpie (I've seen others get him with a purple Sharpie). The 2013 Topps card looks pretty good with the sideways signature, but the other two look pretty bad. I should start keeping track of what cards we send out because I don't remember sending the Gypsy Queen card. Oh well, we were all still happy to get the cards back signed!

Happy Easter: 2013 Gypsy Queen and Opening Day

2013-03-31T14:01:00.002-07:00

I got a few cards for Easter this year. I got a Value Pack of 2013 Gypsy Queen that has the 3 packs and 3 framed parallel cards and I got two jumbo packs of 2013 Topps Opening Day. I'm going to show off the entire contents of the Gypsy Queen value pack, but just the inserts from the Opening Day.

First up are the three framed parallel cards. I think these cards look great and I'd be willing to trade these for D-Backs, so just let me know.

Pack #1 only contained 5 cards, but that's because one of them was a jersey card of Alex Gordon. I can't tell if the swatch is from a jersey or patch. I'm leaning towards patch. This is also up for trade if you have a D-Backs relic from this set. just let me know.

Pack #2 contained a Roy Halladay No-Hitters card, a Profar rookie, and a Josh Hamilton mini.

Pack three contained B.J. Upton and a bunch of retired stars including a Sliding Stars card of my favorite all-time player Ken Griffey Jr.

Here are the inserts from the two 2013 Topps Opening Day jumbo packs. The Baxter mascot card has already been traded to my son. I think he's going to try to get it signed tomorrow at Opening Day.

Spring Training Autograph Success: Cincinnati Reds

2013-03-27T17:20:00.002-07:00

Two days ago we got Reds prospect Billy Hamilton at the parking lot on a baseball. We just asked him to sign it, which he did. But in retrospect, I should have asked him to sign the sweet spot. Oh well!

Today we got Bronson Arroyo to sign one card and then we got Mike Leake to sign three cards. He personalized each of them.

TTM Success: Bobby Doerr

2013-03-26T14:53:00.001-07:00

I sent a card to Hall of Famer Robert P. Doerr last week (3/18/13) and got it back yesterday (3/25/13) just one week later. Always awesome to get a Hall of Famer back! Bobby signed my card and included half an index card with a different address. So if you plan on sending him a ttm request, use the address below.

Pack Break: 2013 Topps Opening Day

2013-03-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was filled with yard work and running errands. My two older boys helped me out in the yard and with the money they earned they decided to get a few packs of 2013 Topps Opening Day from Target. We got four packs in total (two for my soon to be 7 year old, 1 for my 5 year old, and one for me). My oldest son was really happy to pull two Diamondbacks (J.J. Putz and Paul Goldschmidt) an Albert Pujols Superstar Celebrations card and a Baltimore Orioles Mascot card. He turns 7 next Saturday and will be getting some more Opening Day for his birthday! My other son got a nice Andrew McCutchen Play Hard insert and was happy! I think I did pretty well for $0.99. Here are the cards I got.

This Brandon League card was on the top of the pack.

The blue parallel numbered to 2013 was a few cards later. I don't know why but I think it's cool to get the base and a parallel of the same card in the same pack. The blue parallel works really well with it being a Dodgers card. GCRL contacted my about a trade yesterday, so this will be headed his way, assuming he needs it.

I got base cards of Granderson, Santana, Ryan Howard, and Carlos Quinton.

I also got a Ballpark Fun insert of Dustin Pedroia.

Win a game-used Troy Tulowitzki bat courtesy of Christian Colonel

2013-03-24T00:57:00.003-07:00

Christian Colonel, a.k.a. @Batting4MyBoy on Twitter, is going to give away a Troy Tuluwitzki game-used bat when he reaches 5000 Twitter followers. He and Troy were teammates in the Rockies organization. Christian is an awesome guy that provides entertaining tweets and is constantly giving away autographed cards, balls, and bats. In fact, I just won an autographed ball tonight! Anyways go follow him on Twitter right now for your chance to win a game-used Tulo bat.

pic.twitter.com/aNXpyi2NbP

Spring Training Autograph Success: Arizona Diamondbacks plus a former Phoenix Suns player

2013-03-23T08:03:00.002-07:00

Like I said in my last post, the Indians played the Diamondbacks in a night game yesterday out in Goodyear. my family had tickets to the game so my boys and I went to the Stadium early and got a nice spot to get D-Backs autographs. There were quit a few players that signed, but I didn't have cards for all of them, but we got a few good ones.

Kubel was the first player to come over. We only had one card for him to sign because we got him a few weeks ago.

Cliff Pennington came over and signed as well. This guy next to me was kind of annoying. He was talking to Cliff about how great he was because he had given his son his batting gloves earlier this Spring and then when Cliff left, he said "Thanks Chad!" Wrong sport Dude!

Josh Parr came out and signed for just a few people and was headed back into the dugout, but I called him by his first name and asked him to sign my card and he came back over and signed our card.

Steve Sax was the last person that we got to sign. He signed three cards, one for me and each of my boys.

Almost forgot, but former Phoenix Sun Cedric Ceballos was at the game. He threw out the first pitch and did some of the public address announcing later in the game. During the first and second inning he was set up though at a table to sign autographs. I didn't know he was going to be there so we just had him sign our tickets.

Spring Training Autograph Success: Cleveland Indians

2013-03-23T07:44:00.001-07:00

The Indians played the Diamondbacks in a night yesterday. I took my boys over to the Indians practice fields before the game. We got there a little late a some players had already gone in, but we were able to Michael Bourn (who we hadn't gotten before) and Jason Giambi.

As you can tell, my Sharpie wasn't working very well, so I was glad he used someone else's black sharpie to sign the other card.

Spring Training Autograph Success: Bronson Arroyo

2013-03-21T16:55:00.001-07:00

Only one success today at the Reds parking lot today, but it was a good one and one that we hadn't gotten yet so we were very excited. Bronson Arroyo signed two cards for us.