Christmas came early on the mail

Lots of surprises!

So Bob at The Five Tool Collector sent me a great package full of surprises. Very good surprises!

Since I started this blog I've read in many other blogs that there are a great way of living this hobby.

Trading!

There is a little downside to me because almost everyone I follow the blog is from USA. International shipping can be a sad thing for your economies.

But there are some people that makes you want overcome that little stone on your shoe.

Bob's blogs are on my list almost since the beginning and since I found out he had Portuguese family that made it for me to choose the first person to whom I'd send some cards.

I decided to present him with a little of what we have here that are mainly stickers. And I also got him some O's cards and other extras.

It was not the idea of getting a pack in return that made me send him one. But it was very cool to know that he was sending me, a week ago, a small package too.

I thought it was small. But it turned out to be full of great additions to my collection.

Lets see what he got me.

Sliding stars and Dust stars

These are for my Dust-Is-In-The-Air collection.

But they are also special because they are the first Gypsy Queen cards that I ever had!

I know many people don't like them because they tend to be a bit grotesque sometimes but I must say that I find them quite nice in person!

And when there is a sliding play there is dust.

Old time players, Dust and PC

Here three old time Orioles stars.

Two 2012 Topps Archives reprints of Brooks Robinson and Eddie Murray and an other Brooks Robinson from the 2006 Topps Rookie of the Week.

These cards is to learn more about great old players that Bob said I have to know about.

The other 5 cards are for my Players Collection.

One Paul Molitor 2011 Topps 60 Years of Topps inert set. He looks gorgeous!

Two Nick Markakis. One with beard and other without. It's for me to choose how I like better.

Then one Matt "Perfect Game" Cain and one Ryan Zimmerman.

The 2010 Bowman cards are also a first to me.

Almost all cards Bob sent me are from sets I've never seen in person. Or even on someone else blog.

Lots and lots to learn in the hobby.

More dust and PC!

Next two more dusty cards. The Crawford one is from this year Series One release and I've wanted it since I first saw it.

Ryan Zimmerman card is from 2007 Topps Flashback Fridays. It looks like those pop-up cards we had in kids that you would play with.

My first 2013 Heritage card is Joey Votto. He doesn't have that eyeliner I saw other players had for this set.

I'm liking Bowman cards more and more.

Two more Markakis cards. Even if the signature is not real it looks so good in gold that I truly don't mind!

Cole Hamels batting!? That's a bonus! And you get to see his face which in some cards is almost impossible because of the angle they took the photo.

Madison Bumgarner featuring his rabbit teeth. He wants to bite you at every pitch.

Dust and tongue. You have to love it!

Now for the landscape cards. Which look great in my binders because they are landscape oriented.

Lots of dusty clouds. Vizquel card features old time dust. Back in '95 they still had it.

The Gordan Beckham has an extra: tongue. And in my notebook, tongue is love!

Allen & Ginter's is probably my favourite set. And in this What's in a Name insert card I've learn that Cole Hamels' Cole came from Colbert.That's quite an imposing name.

Numbered party.

And Bob paid true attention to my PC collection.

Four Hunter Pence cards!

2011 Topps Lineage cards are great looking. Did Topps decided to not release that set anymore? It's a shame...

The Upper Deck 2007 Future Stars is numbered 88/500. That is cool because Hunter's number is 8.
The other serial number is from this year set and it's numbered 1895/2013. Even Hunter's eyes are popping out!

Other numbered card and PC card is Matt Cain blue bordered 2012 Bowman card. It's numbered 156/500. Workhorse is an expression that I particularly like.

But if it wasn't enough an other Cain's numbered card. This time a 2009 Topps Triple Threads numbered 261/525. The card is quite thick! I like to have cards like that without them being relic cards.

To finalize this bunch of cards two vintage players. The gold glove Will Clarck and yet an other numbered card this time for Paul Molitor numbered 832/999.

More numbered and draw.

Continuing with Paul Molitor and numbered cards a Tools of Trade card numbered 232/250. This is a great card to have through a trade!

Last year Gold Standard card features the feat of reaching 3K hits club.

2006 SP draw of Matt Cain looks great showing on the back his first MLB year stats. And that cap should be used by Giants more often.

Christmas in town.

This Paul Molitor card makes me think of Christmas! I think I'll hang it on my Christmas Tree this year. It is also numbered 1487/2299.

Other two Markakis that look awesome in person. Believe me! The shinny one on the right is a 2009 Topps Chrome XFractor. I have the base card and this is truly an upgrade.

The one on the center is one of my favourites that Bob sent my way. It's a 2008 Topps Chrome T205 insert card. I loved the T206 Topps released these past years but this is even better!

Great looking PC and dust.

Kurt Suzuki and Craig Biggio are two more cards for the dust collection.

And talking about T206 heres Markakis base card for the 2010 set and also his 2010 Bowman card.

Topps 2010 Heritage look so good! Couldn't they learn from the best years!? Two more Hunter Pence cards and sorry Giants but I've always preferred him with the Astros uniform. Maybe is just the colour...

Zimmerman Bowman card makes me think he's running the bases after hitting an homer.

An other Paul Molitor from the 2011 Topps 60YOT insert set.

Pee Wee Dust and Flamingo poses

Right next to the Markakis favourite is this Pee Wee Reese dusty card. It makes me stay looking at it without remember the time passing.

Chris Hoiles is tagging some Braves' player whom trying to slide is getting more dust in the air. Put him out in a cloud of dust. It's poetic.

Two more Paul Molitor being the one on the left with the same photo from the 60YOT I showed before but this is from the Archives reprint set.

Make the Flamingo pose Mark!

Two Mark Teixeira!

I got a doubt looking at the photo...he is trying to get under the ball to catch it or is impersonating a Flamingo!?

Eating dust

Almost ending the post more horizontal beauties.

The 1996 Pinnacle Will Clack card is all shinny and refractoring. Is one beauty in person.

Joey Votto playing first with a giant behind him!

And more four dusty cards extravaganza.

Three of them from my favourite Upper Deck set: Collector's Choice.

Luis Gonzalez is almost eating dust! And to add to it it's one of those silver signature parallel cards.

Making sand castles

Teixeira Walk-Off card was on my wantlist for last year insert sets. I really wish Teixeira would get back to health and hitting like before. He still is a great defense player at 1B but is getting difficult to see him batting.

Ken Caminiti dusty card is my favourite. Why!? Look closely and you'll see that besides getting the dust in the air he seems to be making a sand castle. How cute!

Packs surprise!

And if the cards I showed were not enough Bob also presented me with three hobby(!!!) 2013 Heritage packs.

The results of the packs I'll show you all in a future post.

Right now I'm still savouring the cards and very happy with my first trade.

Fantasy - To bench or not to bench

I Benched Teixeira because I didn't believe that right after coming out of the DL since the start of the season he would be Teixeira.

I was wrong!

Well, at least for Monday.

I might have lost these 10 points but he might not  make that much for the rest of the week.

But I truly hope that he keeps that way!

Even if I benched him for next week he might get promoted to the lineup.

2009 Upper Deck Ballpark Collection #56

I only knew about Teixeira right in his first year as a Yankee.

(I knew most of the players that year...)

And it was a charm!

And no matter what happens, if it is the DL or even moving out of the Yankees I'll always like Teixeira.

So here's one of the numbered cards I have. The only one featuring Teixeira.

Two relics bonus

I buy stuff and the seller present me with some bonus. Here's two relic cards he got me.

I've searched for it and found products from 2004 and 2005.

That was a great product that I'd like to buy some packs. Haven't found them yet.

The seller already presented me in the past with other Cracker Jack relic card, a Teixeira bat card. This time around is a Posada jersey.

If it is grey that it's from the away uniform. I'd love to have a jersey card with a pinstripe patch.

And I miss Posada. I love seeing Cervelli catching but Posada was a true Yankee.

And speaking of Teixeira...The other card is a Teixeira T60 jersey card. A away jersey patch again.

I've looked it up and found there are two. One form Series 1 and other from Series 2.

I must say I like this one better.

I put relic cards on binders. I only have two binders pages with relic cards so you see that's not my goal in the hobby, but don't they look awesome!?

2008 Upper Deck X

I have mixed feelings about Upper Deck X sets.

The first times I saw cards I wanted to have! After getting a few packs I started to doubt.

I think it's not quite the thing about the X sets but about cards where the real background is replaced by a designed background.

One moment I love them.

The next moment I hide all those cards away in a box.

The first pack I got of Upper Deck X was the '08 release. I thought they only released this set this year but then I found out they repeated the treat on '09.

Only.

These are the base cards. They have an X just to make sure we don't forget the set's name.

Russel Martin is looking up to make sure he doesn't bump his head on the card top. Even m ore because he has no longer the helmet on.

The set's description on BaseballCardPedia says: "2008 Upper Deck X is a 100-card set released in September 16, 2008. Each pack contains one die-cut parallel and one XPonential insert."

So I got one extra card.


I got Jake Peavy Die-Cut. He is almost making the X like the Vitruvian Man.

Then I got an Xponential Maglio Ordoñez. These are pretty shining cards. And the border around the player looks like he is a 3D model popping out of the card.


So instead of getting an other base card I got one Yankee Stadium card.

I, as a Yankee fan, get quite happy with getting these cards as bonus on every other pack released by Upper Deck during '08.

But for all the other anti-Yankee this is really a pain somewhere...in there.

Next time around I got 2 packs.

They are quite space-shuttle like.

It's like watching "2001: A Space Odyssey" back in the '60s.

They look futurist. But those Comic Sans letters down there do quite the opposite.

My Die-Cut for first pack is Lance Berkman as an Astro when he used to play.

He did a pretty good job as a Yankee but it didn't make anything for his career in return.

This time around I did not get any bonus card and so here there are my 4 base cards.

Atkins already retired.

Mauer is one hell of a Catcher!

Beckett I don't like you in red or blue.

I usually don't like the standard Aces...Verlander is one of those.

And in this pack I learn that are more Xponential cards than I thought.

Here a Prince Fielder X3.

Got love it!

The back seems like having scratches but no. Is the popping out of the card that makes it. On the front we see the player almost getting into live. That's the effect on the back.

The second pack brought me 4 more base cards.

Conor Jackson which I started collecting after knowing he is the son of Mister JAG!

I've loved so much the series that when I read Jackson was the son of the actor who portrayed A.J. Chegwidden the first (and true) JAG I knew I had to collect his cards.

I think it won't be a very difficult jog because he is now playing in the minors.

Furcal is ok.

Lincecum was on of those Aces just like Verlander to me.

Last year he played out of the bullpen.

This year I don't know. But he sure returned to that hair style from '08.

Ankiel got me thinking I was seeing double.

Wasn't he a pitcher? Well he was...no longer is.

I have to see if I have any card of him before as a pitcher before getting injured and changed to OF.

My Die-Cut for the pack was Carlos Lee. I got 2 Astros Die-Cuts. Cool.

I liked Astros just like I liked D-Backs. Not only because of the players but because of the uniforms.

So I'm a bit confused right now about what to feel about Astros returning to those old uniforms (and logo too).

The other insert card was Hideki Matsui Xponential 2 card!

Great way to end the pack with the last Yankee WS title MVP.

And I noticed that the X2 cards back are different from the X and X3.

Why the X2 cards back do not have the players photo too? The others were like a reprint of the front.

They like to confuse us.

I got all my X packs from those Repack Boxes with different packs from different years.

The first 3 packs were alright but look at this one! It is all scratchy and I feared the inside was not that good ether...

I got 2 Die-Cuts.

Braun and Milledge.

Braun is one of the All-Stars for sure but Milledge I've never heard of before.

Milledge played last year in Japan and got pretty good stats for 125 played games: hitting exactly .300 with 21 HR and 65 RBI.

Will he return to the MLB?

My base cards are two Padres and Morneau.

Adding Morneau to Mauer from an earlier pack and I got the Twins team.

But this beauty made the pack to me!

Mark Teixeira Xponential card!

Sure he is with the Braves but I like him in every team.

Even if I had to take some painkillers if he starts playing for the Red Sox.

Since it's a X card I get the reprint front on the back.

But if the cards seemed good on the previous photos my fears were right about this last pack being into war somewhere else before I got it.

You can see that the cards were damaged on one corner.

And it's not the top of the corner. It is quite a large part of the corner.

I'll have to deal with it.


Since getting these packs I had the opportunity to by one box of '08 Upper Deck X but in the last moment I backed up and bought other repack box. In which I didn't get any other X pack.

eBay shopping can drive a woman crazy!

Womens are known to like shopping...a lot.

And are known for shopping a lot and spending a lot of money.

I'm no different and I do the same for cards as I do for cloths.

So can you help me giving me the men inside view!?

I'm torn between buying some specific cards or buying packs.

The packs are 2003 Upper Deck MVP hobby packs. Each pack brings 8 cards. And each costs 2.20€.

The main thing about them are the fact they are hobby packs and I can get something 'different'.

And other fact is that surprise thing that comes along opening packs.

The specific cards have 2 players cards I collect (Teixeira and Markakis) and other stuff:

• 1 Mark Teixeira 2011 Topps Tier One  (numbered)

• 1 Nick Markakis 2008 Sweet Spot Swatches Game Used Baseball Card

• 1 Mickey Mantle 2012 Topps Gold Standard
• 1 Brandon Webb 2010 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relic (jersey)
• 1 Paul Molitor 2011 Topps Triple Threads Emerald (numbered)
• 4 Cal Ripken Jr. cards
• 3 Upper Deck Piece of History numbered cards

What would you do? Have fun opening some packs which are hobby and expect to get something cool, or play safe and invest in some specific cards to add to personal collection?

Surprise on the mail

Yesterday arrived mail. It was the package with the cards I purchased and talked here (along with some NHL packs). So you can imagine my surprise when I was expecting a small box containing all of this but got a large one.

What was happening? I thought they got no other boxes to pack it so they have sent this one bigger.

Then when I opened it I got surprised for what were inside.

My European seller sent me this Yankees reusable bag. Pretty awesome!
I know it's not the ultimate bag or something and yes I've spent a lot of money buying cards from him. But I'm a sweet heart and got touched by the attentiveness of him.

Besides the fact I don't need this kind of incentives to keep buying from him. So I just got this big smile on my face.

With so much work to do I only looked carefully to the cards I bought late at night. Yep, those up in the photo. I organized them and took an other picture.

They are nice! Love having a Teixeira relic card. Even if it's from his Rangers years. And even more because the card is a mini one. It kind gets lot of cute that way.

The Yankees team card is now the oldest card I have in my collection. It's a 1974 card! The year of Freedom Revolution here.

Now I'll go open the UD NHL rack packs.