Mail Day: 2/13/09

Got a mailday from Ross @ Sports Card Info.

Mail Day: 2/12/09

Got my first mailday from John in the U.K. who runs the card blog Pursuit of 80's(ness) John has shown his generosity to many bloggers and I'm excited to get my first overseas mailday from him. It seems John just got done sending out quite a few packages and I'm lucky enough to be one of the recipients. Thanks John!

Fourth Blog Bat Around from Dinged Corners

I originally wasn't planning on submitting a post for the fourth Blog Bat Around hosted by Dinged Corners as I couldn't think of any decent ideas but after receiving an encouraging email from Patricia on Sunday I decided I would take a quick crack at it. So here I am on a Wednesday night scurrying to get this up in time, but I don't feel bad as a lot of people do the bat arounds at the last minute it seems. Here's are the questions Dinged Corners has asked:

Which baseball card or set do you believe will be valuable in ten years? In other words, no matter what happens with the player(s) or industry going forward--injury, steroid accusations, drugs, gambling charges, the demise or ascendancy of Topps, Donruss and Upper Deck--what single card or set from baseball cards past or present do you believe is an absolute BUY and HOLD?

It's ironic what has transpired over the last couple days because when I first saw this question last week the first player that popped into my head was A-Rod.

Or maybe A-Roid, A-R*d, or FRod as he is being called now. Since I brought up the subject and haven't commented on it yet, here's how I feel about all this. I was surprised, but not shocked by the Rodriguez admission. At this point, I wouldn't be shocked if Ken Griffey, Jr. was found to have used performance enhancers at some point as well. I think it is safe to say, a majority of players took performance enhancers from 1998-2004. It should not come as a shock. In fact, I would be more shocked if it didn't happen. Here's the deal. There is a LOT of money to be made in professional sports. By the players, trainers and agents and everybody is looking for ANY edge or advantage they can get. This has been true since the dawn of professional sports. Steroids and crude performance enhancers have been around since at least the 1970s and advanced performance enhancers have been around since the 90s and will probably still be around as manufacturers look for new ways to beat the testing. There are two ways to go on this. Just let everybody use what they want at their own risk or rigorous mandatory olympic style testing for whatever list of substances you want to ban. And update the list and tests yearly. And by the way, baseball isn't the only sport with a drug problem. It's just that baseball holds a special place in America and it's statistical integrity is a big part of the game. Alright, I've ranted on that enough. Putting all that aside let's look at A-Rod's career and why I think his card will be THE card to have.

There can be little doubt after Bonds and after Griffey, whose age and injuries have prevented him from putting up the career stats he could have, Alex Rodriguez is the greatest player of our generation, if not the best baseball player of all time. Let's take a look at the stats.

Going into 2009, A-Rod has 2,404 hits, 553 HR, and a .306 lifetime BA. He is 33 years old. His stats at this point in their respective careers compare favorably to Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Mel Ott, Jimmy Foxx, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays, and Rogers Hornsby. Assuming he stays healthy, and is able to finish the remaining nine years on his contract with the Yankees, and is able to maintain his career per season averages, he will retire at 42 with roughly over 4,000 hits and 940 home runs. Performance enhanced or no, and we have reason to believe only his three years in Texas were, and those three years are not even as good as his monster MVP 2007 season in New York, A-Rod should be a lock for the Hall of Fame as well as a more legitimate heir to the all time home run throne. I believe that when it is all said and done, Rodriguez may be considered the best baseball player of all time and this leads me to think that his baseball cards will become highly coveted.

Therefore, I am predicting that ten years from now, when A-Rod will be close to retirement his cards will be worth quite a bit, and if he goes into the Hall and as a more legitimate all time home run leader, his cards will go up even more, perhaps more than any other cards from the 90s.

Everyone knows Alex Rodriguez's most coveted card is 1994 SP #15 which already books for $140 in Tuff Stuff. If A-Rod takes the home run crown and makes the Hall, I could see the card at least tripling in price and becoming THE card of the 90s.

1987 Topps Baseball

Here's the two cello packs of '87 Topps.
eBay seller id: magicmoneyman1234

2009 Topps Baseball

Here's a 36-card jumbo rack pack of Topps.

1980 Topps Football

Three packs of '80 Topps football. I will have the two cello packs of '87 Topps and a 36-card jumbo of '09 Topps up tomorrow.
eBay seller id: supply2

2009 Upper Deck Baseball

Sorry this took so long but I was up all night into the wee hours editing, encoding and uploading these videos. This first one has me ranting on UD for about six minutes so you may want to skip ahead. The big hit of the blaster is at the 8:30 mark. The second vid feautures the next six packs. The third vid has the last two packs and a box recap.


Blaster Recap:
Base Set: 64 of 500 (12.8%)
Blue Starquest: R. Braun
Gold Starquest: A. Soriano
Emerald Starquest: J. Beckett
Black Starquest: V. Guerrero
1 '08 UD Documentary: Card #4947
1 Historic First: First Indian MLB Players
3 USA 18U: N. Franklin, C. Garfield, H. Martinez
1 20th Anniversary: D. Jeter
2 Yankee Tedium Lunacy: M. Mussina, D. Jeter
1 UD Game Jersey: Billy Wagner

Coming Soon: 2009 Upper Deck Baseball

So it's a warmer than usual day here in State College, a downright balmy 36 degrees (it's been single digits all week) which means the WalMart was packed on a Friday afternoon but nevertheless I braved the crowded aisles to bring home this baby.

I should point out Wally World had 36-card '09 Topps rack packs for $5 and I will be snatching some of those up every so often this spring for sure. I will be busting the UD blaster later tonight after work (probably will get the vid up no later than 11PM EST) *ah make that Saturday afternoon d'oh! as well as this goody that was waiting in my mail box.

I believe these are the three packs of '80 Topps football I bought off eBay. Wahoo!

2009 Topps Baseball

Well, I'm glad I was able to get one of the first Topps vids up and with better luck I would've scooped UD too but I blew it. Yesterday afternoon, before there were any posts or videos of UD, I stopped at Target after work. They didn't have any UD yet so I picked up some more Topps. I didn't even bother with WalMart which is on the way *sigh* because they haven't had anything yet. So I get home and during Sooz and Marie's live Topps case break dayf and Chris post scans and vids after going to Wally World. Scooped again! Honestly, sitting here today I don't even care now. I'll pick some up if I see them but I'm not making a separate trip. Besides, I think Night Owl and I are the ONLY bloggers who think Topps is better this year. Maybe I'll get the first scoop on Heritage... Oh, in the meantime here's that pack of Topps I bought.

Coming Soon: 1987 Topps Baseball

Won an eBay auction for two cello packs of '87 Topps for $1.99 delivered! I should have a vid of these before the end of the week.

2009 Topps Baseball

After striking out on my last trip, I made another run to WalMart and Target today to see if I could finally get my hands on some '09 Topps. No luck at Wally World and I intensely browsed all the '08 leftovers to see if there was SOMETHING I could rip. The only thing that even remotely caught my eye was a lonely pack of A&G but I resisted knowing that Target may indeed have some '09. So on I went and upon striding to the card aisle a quick look revealed ... nothing. You've got to be kidding. It's February 2nd for crying out loud. Punxy Phil has already seen his shadow. But no '09 Topps. Then, as I was looking over the cards, looking for SOMETHING to buy, there it was. At the high far end of the pegboard there was a big 'ol hamster feed box of '09 Topps retail packs in all of their A-Fraud glory!! My eyes got big and I instinctively reached up...

Nothing...empty!? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
But then after sliding my hand around the bottom I found this...LAST PACK MOJO! As far as I know I still have the first video up.

It's Good to Be the Champs

So I woke up late today, recovering from my post-Super Bowl party hangover, thank goodness I had yesterday AND today off work, and was anxious to let everyone know exactly how I felt about the Steelers NFL record sixth championship. But I think this LOL Jocks post pretty much sums it up.

Mail Day: 1/31/09

Here's two maildays: one from Brian @ 30-year-old Cardboard and one from Marie @ A Cardboard Problem.

Epic Fail: The Great '09 Topps Hunt

So, spurred on by nasty blogosphere rumors that Topps '09 is, in fact, live, several days ahead of time, I got out of bed early after a late night, chugged some coffee, braved 10 degree cold and drove the couple minutes it takes to get me to get to the WalMart and Target right down the road with the intent of scooping the internet's first '09 Topps video break for my blog. This was going to be Card Junkie's finest hour. What did I find? Lots of Steeler merchandise. And lots of "Super Bowl-type food products" such as chips, frozen pizza, appetizers, soda, and all the usual stuff prominently displayed with big signs. But after bobbing and weaving my way like Fast Willie Parker through all the Super Bowl "stuff" and cashiers sporting pink Polamalu jerseys, the only thing I was able to push across the goal line to paydirt at the checkstand was this.*sigh* You got it. No '09 Topps to be found. Kinda disappointing. But at least I'm not the only one who lives near a Target that is actually following the street dates. So I figured I might as well try to finish off my U&H. I should have a vid of this pack up by tonight and if I feel froggy I may continue the great '09 Topps safari tomorrow. Or I might just say screw it, bask in the glow of my Steelers all day long and wait 'till '09 Topps actually drops. At my Target. And by the way, '09 Topps is live in certain areas, here's proof and more proof.

Coming Soon: 1980 Topps Football

Just won an eBay auction for three packs of '80 Topps football. I got these for $8.90 delivered which is a pretty good deal. Possibilities include a fifteen buck Walton Payton, a twelve dollar Phil Simms rookie and a five buck Otis Anderson rookie. I should have these by early next week and I'll post the best pack on APAD.

Coming Soon: 1987 Topps Football

Just won an eBay auction for this '87 Topps football cello pack for $6.50 delivered. It has a Jerry Rice second year card which books for 12 bucks in Tuff Stuff showing on the bottom so this pack is already a winner plus there are a lot of other good money cards in this classic set so this will be really fun to bust for APAD.

2008 Goudey Baseball

Still biding my time until the '09's come out so I picked up this pack to keep me occupied in the meantime.

Mail Day: 1/24/09

Here's a mailday from reader Duane in Ohio and also my contest winnings from Patricia and Lucy from Dinged Corners. I just got some new video editing software and couldn't wait to try it out. The result is sort of an homage to

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Series 1

Here's another pack of UD series 1.

Goose Joak Originals

I made some Pirates cards for the Goose Joak Originals set.



You like?? In case you haven't heard, us bloggers are making our own cards using a design template created by Dave @ Goose Joak. To join in on the fun or make suggestions or if you just want to check out some of the awesome cards other bloggers have made so far click here. Here's some more...











Pretty cool, huh?