Play at the Plate Trade

As you might already know, I had a mini-collection of Ian Kinsler.  Even though Kinsler’s an awesome player, I had no reason to hold on to them.  And the perfect candidate for a handful of Kinslers was Brian from Play at the Plate.  After exchanging emails, the deal was finalized and here are the highlights of the amazing package I received:

Bart Miadich #/500, Troy Glaus #/284 (nice random #), and Mo Vaughn #/2001.  Some sweet #’d inserts.  If you look closely (which is hard because of how small the scan is), Troy Glaus’ toe looks lodged in the dirt.  Just wanted to point that out.

As you’ve heard me same many times, I’m obsessed with 2009 Topps Chrome and I love these XFractors of Erick Aybar and Jered Weaver.

I love this Darin Erstad Topps Finest Refractor #/499.  Sweet card.

Darin Erstad Lumberjacks GU bat #/500 and Elpidio Guzman Prospect Jrsy .

Two awesome Erstad relics: one a jersey w/ pinstripe and another a GU base #/350.  My first ever GU base card, pretty sweet!

And last, but not least, some on-card autos.  There’s nothing I love more than a clean, on card auto.  One of Orlando Palmeiro and the other a Tim Salmon.  My first “Big Fish” auto is a sweet one.

Thanks a lot Brian!  I really enjoy the cards and I hope you enjoy yours too!  If you don’t already know about him, go check him out at Play at the Plate!

Thanks,

Angelsfan!

Contest Winner!

Just today, I received the 15th comment guess on my COMC purchase!  Wow!  I never thought that there would be 15 guesses.  Thanks a lot guys for participating.  Getting back to business…as promised I said that whoever made the closest guess would win a jersey card of their choice.  The total was……$19.40!!!! (including $5 shipping).  Which means Captain Canuck won with a guess of 19.95!  Looks like cynicalbuddha went on the wrong side of Captain Canuck with 19.96!  So, Captain Canuck: email me at mattersted@gmail.com to choose your prize.  As proof of the total price:

If you add up all of the purchase prices and then add 5 at the end for shipping, you will get 19.40.  Also, in the top right, it shows I have .60 left store credit and I originally put 20.  Thanks to everyone who participated!

Thanks for reading,

Angelsfan out!

Pack Break: 2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition

I cracked this pack awhile ago, but I thought I’d share it with you along with my opinion of the Donruss Extra Elite Edition product.  The guy at the card shop said that this set, Elite Extra Edition, gave you a bunch of rookies and a possibility of an auto.  I didn’t get an auto, but I got something a bit better than base:

The highlight of the pack was a Scott Green School Colors insert #/1500.  Cool card, but who’s Scott Green?  That’s my main problem with this product.  When I’m opening a pack of a product, I want to know who the players are.  Unless you pull a Gordon Beckham, you’re not going to have a clue.  The cards are shiny and have a decent design, but not knowing these players bothers me.  What do you think of Donruss Elite Extra Edition?

Thanks for reading!

-Angelsfan

COMC Purchase (Read to the end for a Special Contest!)

Warning: This is a monster post, so I suggest you sit down for this one.

Unless you were born yesterday, you know that COMC stands for checkoutmycards.com.  As not retiring is the new retiring (Favre, Warner, and Shaq), COMC is the new eBay.  The layout, accessibility, and the ability to shop more efficiently of COMC is leaps and bounds ahead of eBay.  It’s much more shopper friendly as all of the cards are stored in one location, so there is combined shipping.  Also, viewing the cards online is quite convenient.  However, there is a $0.25 S&H fee for every card to go along with the starting 2.75 shipping fee.  So you can really rack up the shipping cost before you know it.  Despite this issue, COMC is revolutionizing how you card shop online.  With a specific budget, I went to work to compile a great purchase.  Here is what I got:

2009 Bowman Draft Patrick Willis Orange

I really like what Bowman did with 2009 football.  It’s a great layout based on the simplicity of it.  Plus, it’s a pretty good action shot.

2009 Donruss Threads Patrick Willis Gridiron Kings

Another Patrick Willis insert in which I love the design.  Donruss Threads looks awesome for football, but it didn’t do it for me with baseball.  I love the gridiron inserts of this product.  Two great things about these cards, are the paint-like filter of the picture, and the weaved pattern texture of the card itself.

2009 Topps Chrome Patrick Willis Blue Refractor

As you might already tell, I’m obsessed with the 2009 Topps Chrome product for both baseball and football.  I already have a Willis Copper Refractor of 2009 Topps Chrome and couldn’t help but get the Blue refractor version.  The blue refractor looks filthy.

2008 Donruss Threads Patrick Willis Gold Holofoil #/50

This is the 2008 version of Donruss Threads and looks equally awesome.  Also a simple design and it’s numbered out of 50, so even more filthy points.

2009 Bowman Chrome Torii Hunter Blue Refractor #/150

The scan makes it look like a flashy, neon blue, which it is in reality, just not as extreme.  Anyways, this is the first Angels card and its a sweet blue refractor out of Bowman Chrome.  Despite the printed signature (which I don’t care for; don’t know why Topps has to put that on the cards of their products in the past couple of years), it’s a shiny and glossy refractor, which I really like.

2009 Bowman Chrome Patrick Willis Refractor

As I said before, I love the 2009 Bowman Chrome football set and this refractor is pretty sick.  I love the crossing lines across the card that makes it look a little like an X-Fractor.  Awesome card.

2002 Leaf Certified Darin Erstad Bat Mirror Red #/75

I really like this card, but, unlike the scan, the card is a bit banged up with some dinged corners and scratches and smudges on the face of the card.  I don’t care that much, as it’s still an Erstad.

2005 Leaf Certified Materials Vladimir Guerrero Jersey #/250

For some reason, I really enjoy the Leaf Certified baseball product, but unfortunately it was discontinued.  Although it’s just a plain, white pieace of jersey, it’s numbered and I got a good deal on it.

2008 Leaf Certified Materials Patrick Willis Jersey #/150

When you thought you couldn’t get enough of Leaf Certified, here’s another!  In terms of memorabilia, Donruss has got it down for football.  I absolutely love the design with the red.

Sorry that this post has been quite long.  You must be wondering how much my shipping and handling must have cost considering I purchased 9 cards.  Well it was a hefty sum rounding out at $5!!  That’s pretty crazy.  I saw this coming and I planned it perfectly.  However, when I received the bubble mailer earlier today, I noticed that the stamp postage only cost $1.73!  What the heck!  What a rip!  This is one flaw for COMC, which I hope will be tweaked.  This COMC purchase, as you probably can tell, was focused on adding to my new Patrick Willis collection.

My trivia for you is to guess how much my purchase cost (including the $5 shipping).  Post a comment with your guess.

If 15 or more people comment with a guess, then there will be a prize to the person who’s amount is closest!

I have a few game used jersey pieces that the winner can choose from.  The more people who comment, the bigger the prize could be!  So tell your friends!

Thanks for reading,

Angelsfan out!

Angels Sign Pineiro

The Angels recently signed Joel Pineiro of the Cardinals to a 2-year deal. I like this move for two reasons. I believe Joel is a solid pitcher. He can be inconsistent, but when he’s good, he’s good.  Also, after losing Lackey, we need some help on the 5-man rotation. Let’s hope Pineiro looks good in Angel red!
-Angelsfan

Some Wicked Generosity

In the past few weeks, I’ve completed two trades.  It’s been quite busy the past week or so, so this post is a little overdue, but better late than never!

Daniel from It’s like having my own Card Shop was interested in a Chris Young x-fractor I had pulled from a 2008 Topps Chrome pack.  He had a card I was interested in and the swap was made.  Thanks Daniel!

2008 Topps Chrome Rich Thompson RC Auto

Next was a trade with Wicked Ortega over at My Past Time…..I Love It!.  He wanted a D-Train refractor I had posted on Trade Bait.  He had a healthy stack of Angels waiting for me and to make the deal more interesting I added in some Uggla’s with some other Marlin goodies.  I hope the package gets there Wicked!  Along with a MONSTROUS stack of Angels base and inserts, he threw in this Torri Hunter.

2008 Topps Heritage Torii Hunter GU w/ pinstripe

Along with the base and inserts, there were some awesome minis of John Lackey and Ervin Santana (Goodwin Champions), Vladdy (A&G), and Joe Saunders (T206).  My first T206 mini!  All awesome cards.

Thanks Wicked and Daniel!

-Angelsfan

Bowman Sterling Autos FTW

As everyone probably knows, when it comes to baseball rookie cards, Bowman has got it down.  And more specifically, Bowman Sterling is where it’s at.  Sterling is high end, expensive, and best of all shiny.  And who doesn’t like shiny, expensive cards?  No, I have not busted a box of Bowman Sterling as it’s banana crazy expensive and if you just buy the single hits of the set, you will be equally satisfied.  I had four of them, but traded the Buster Posey one to Giantsfan for some Angels goodies.  Here they are:

Here’s a Gordon Beckham rookie auto out of the 2008 Bowman Sterling product.  This and the Posey were being auctioned off by one eBay seller and were ending 30 seconds apart.  I was the lucky winner and snagged both of them.  I love the design of this card and it was hard for me to give up the similar Posey.

This is from the 2007 set and as you can see it’s equally sick, a Ryan Braun rookie auto.  I love how the clean, blue auto really stands out.

It’s hard to pick favorites from these three awesome cards, but if I had to, this Evan Longoria would take the cake.  Also from the 2008 set, but a different design than the Beckham.  I think the card and auto speaks for itself.

Thanks for reading!

Angelsfan

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Box Break

Giantsfan and I decided to split a box of UD Heroes as a treat for the New Year.  This was the first time we split a box and this was a great product to bust.

In Heroes, you are guaranteed 3 jerseys and an auto.  After the first two packs, we suspected it was a hot box as we pulled two of the four hits in those two packs, but it wasn’t.  Nonetheless, we got a sick hit which deserves it’s own post, which will follow this post.  We got a bunch of parallels and yankee stadium legacy cards.  We’ll spare you the  time of not showing the Legacy’s as in my opinion are very umm…boring.  Here’s the results:

Here are the highest numbered parallels we pulled: Emeralds #/499 of Chone Figgins, Phil Hughes, Andre Ethier, and Steve Carlton.

Here are Charcoal Parallels #/399 of Carlos Delgado and Todd Helton.

Here are the Beige Parallels that are slightly different colors both #’d 269/299.  What luck!  Jacoby Ellsbury and Josh Hamilton.

Here are the Red and Blue parallels of Bob Gibson #/199 and Pat Burrell #/249.

I know, a lot of parallels, but this is the last bunch.  Sea Green Parallels of Eric Chavez and Derek Lee #/99.

Moving on to the hits…

One of the cards opened in the first two packs is this Vernon Wells Swatch Jersey Blue #/50.  A good start.

A Derek Lee Jersey with a pinstripe #/125.  ’Nuff Said.

And here’s the auto which is some sort of a letdown, but at least it’s not a terrible player, Blanton is 3/4 decent.  It’s a Joe Blanton Sticker Auto #/150.  This was the other card opened in the second pack.

So not a bad box, but you have yet to hear about our last and downright sickening hit.  But that will have to wait for the next post.

Thanks for reading,

Angelsfan and Giantsfan

New Year New Cards Part 2: Patrick Willis

As part two of my checkoutmycards.com splurge, I had an idea to broaden my collection and start collecting a specific player.  I couldn’t think of any from the MLB, so I tried the NFL for the first time.  Living in the Bay Area, my first thought was Patrick Willis of the Niners.  He is so good at linebacker and his cards on checkoutmycards.com were pretty awesome.  I’ve always wanted to collect a NFL player and here was my chance!  I didn’t get much of Willis since my main focus of this splurge were Angels, but here they are:

Flipping through the pages, there were a lot of rookie cards with Willis in his Ole Miss Jersey, so I got the cheapest one they had.  Above is a 2007 Topps Draft Picks and Prospects (DPP) Patrick Willis Rookie Card.  It’s not numbered even though it has a gold border.

Since I wasn’t going to spend too much on some Willis cards yet, I decided to find a sweet refractor.  Here is a 2009 Topps Chrome Patrick Willis Copper Refractor #/649.

When you start a collection, you have to get a hit or some sort of memarobilia.  Above is a 2007 Leaf Rookies and Stars Patrick Willis Rookie Jersey 230/250.  This was one of the sweetest jersery cards checkoutmycards had and I love the look of it.

This is just a start to a Patrick Willis collection.  If you happen to have a Patrick Willis hit, leave a comment or shoot me an email at mattersted@gmail.com and we’ll work something out.

Also, this doesn’t mean I’m going to start collecting Football cards, it just means I’ll be collecting Patrick Willis cards.

Thanks for reading,

Angelsfan!

New Year New Cards Part 1: Angels

Instead of stashing my holiday money in my bank account, I decided to splurge on some singles on checkoutmycards.com.  If you haven’t already, you should check them out (pun intended).  I got some great deals on some sweet cards.  Here they are:

Above is a Garret Anderson ‘Dual Materials’ Jersey card 73/75 from Fleer Ultra.  I love the look of the card and the dual jersey is pretty cool.

On the right is a Vladimir Guerrero UD Sweet Spot Sweet Threads.  Nothing too special, but I had to get a Vladdy.  P.S. The wrinkle on the Vlad scan is just the penny sleeve, no worries.

Above is a Chone Figgins SP Authentic Auto 467/550.  Again, I like the design and picture of the card and the sig is pretty clean.  I know it’s a sticker, but the back does say it was personally autographed and sent to Upper Deck by Chone Figgins so still legit.

On the left is a Darin Erstad On-Card Auto; another SP Authentic and it’s a chirography.  This is one of my favorite cards that I bought.  It’s a clean auto and really stands out.  On the right is a Darin Erstad 2004 Donruss Throwback Threads Blue Jersey #/100.  Darin Erstad is one of my all-time favorite Angels players.

I thought these cards were pretty awesome and a great addition to my collection, what do you think?

Thanks for reading,

Angelsfan!