Under $30.00 at a card show - Part 1

I could have titled this under $15.00 at a card show, but then I spotted someone selling boxes of 2003 Pacific CFL at $15.00 for a hobby box, and I couldn't resist busting a box. I'll probably get to the great cards from the 3-down game later.

If it is a show in Canada, it is going to be hockey instensive, and that's what this was. I did end up with a grand total of two baseball items, though.

Yowch! It isn't as bright in person, but is still pretty loud. It is from the 1992 Panini sticker set, and I just picked it up because I thought a certain Junkie might be interested in getting a PWE with this this sticker within.

I just grabbed this because I figured there couldn't be that many cards of Manny in Rays colours.

And to wrap up the non-hit portion of these cards, here's a definite oddball of Marty Turco. This one is bound for a Wolverines collector at some point.

Bringing on the relics, I can't have enough in my 2.14 binder. So, here's the only new one of the day, a barely two-colour relic of Milan Hejduk. Cmon! Somebody sign him so I get cards of his on a team other than Colorado.

He might be a Red Wing now, but I'll still never pass on a relic of Alfie.

And finally, two bucks for a two colour relic of a first ballot Hall of Famer? And it is even a game worn as opposed to event worn? Take my toonie! Take it!

This covers about half of the non-CFL $15.00 I spent. Tomorrow, I'll get to a trio of autographs, and some masks.

Shiny Refractor-y Trade Bait

If you like shiny cards, this is the trade bait for you. Even after sending out the cards to participants in the group break, I still had lots of refractors left over from the hot box. Anything that isn't a Met or a Canadian player is up for trade, and that totals quite a few.  OF the non-break teams, cards are available for the Braves, Angels, Phillies, Indians,  , Nationals, Twins, and Royals.

So, if you want one of these teams, or an addition for your PC, let me know here and we can work something out. I'll be a cheap date. Only the Trumbo is numbered from this group. It's 100/199.

Group Break Video #6

The video -  http://youtu.be/WxiiKbYcFMU

Here are the hits from this. If I recall correctly, both came from the final packs I opened from each. I'd already picked the Mets as my team (I opted for whichever of the Mets or Jays wasn't the first picked). The Garcia is a very hieroglyphic autograph. It isn't numbered. In fact, the autographs were the only cards in the box that weren't refractors.

Both of the multi-sided insert cards went to Detroit. The Lawrie was the only card in this that went to the Blue Jays slot. The Jays/Brewers was the only slot that didn't at least receive an XFractor in their envelope. But, there might be a Sakic or three in the envelope to lighten the loss.

Edit: The Shields card should have gone to the Royals slot, but it was in the Rays envelope. A screw up on my part, but since I had them, the loss is on my part.

And this wraps up the Pro Debut base cards. I'm not sure why I opted to have the Ozuna card at the end by itself. But, there was 1 too many for the scanner, so that's as good a reason as any.

Plus, I can show the back and how it was so easy to sort these cards by team. Unfortunately, it did list the Paulino card as a Pirates affiliate, when he was with Cleveland. Fortunately, Cleveland was not a claimed or randomed team, so I don't feel too bad about it ending up in the Pirates envelope.

Looking back, the big winners were the Cubs (two autos, although I randomed one off), the Rays (getting an auto, and probably the best card in the break with the Sepia of Wil Myers) and the Tigers with the auto, and the two Connection Die-Cuts. But, considering we got a hot box full of Refractory fun, we did a lot better than can be expected.

Hope you enjoyed this, and your cards should arrive sometime next week.

Group Break Video #5

Video - http://youtu.be/qHAnD-dhINI

I think this was the best 8-pack of the break. The Puig is nice, but it is only a base card. Myers is /75, and the Dunston is a parallel /50. The card shows him with the Boise Hawks, and it goes to the unclaimed Cubs slot. We've seen 3 of the 4 autos so far, and 2 of them were Cubbies. I thought it might have been a Jays card, but I confused him with Dwight Smith Jr.

The Florida teams really did well in this portion, getting the Jose Fernandez refractor, and the Xfractor of Longoria. The Beltran, with the ivy backdrop, looks great in refractor form.

And here's the Debut. A few of these players have already made appearances in the bigs. Wong. Romero. Rienzo. Wacha. I'm probably missing somebody.

1 auto left. 1 relic left. I'll try to have the final post up later today.

Group Break Video #4

As of about 9 o'clock this morning, the packages were all mailed out.

Video -

Here are the highlights from this portion. The Perez goes out to the Diamondbacks slot, and is /50. The first of the 2 connection die cuts goes to the Tigers slot. Both of these for randomed teams here. We also got our dynamic die cuts insert. Another one to Atlanta. Looks like I'll have lots of Braves tradebait once all is said and done.

madding may have traded away the Angels, missing out on a /199 Trumbo, on the hunt for White Sox trade bait. The pair of refractors here are a nice consolation prize. The positioning of Sale himself really works with Exfractor. Darvish is still a good find. Crawford isn't the Dodger you want to see out of a hot box.

And the Pro Debut! If you hate a name like Rougned Odor, you are a filthy commie who hates America and Mom's apple pie.

I'll try to finish this off tomorrow. Part 5 goes up tomorrow.

Group Break Video #3

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JAnk5kZC_0

Starting again with the good stuff. Sadly, the Angels were traded away, missing out on this /199 blue refractor of Trumbo. Fortunately, the #'d refractor from later on the break does find a home, and it is a really nice rookie card.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I love the mascot manupatches. In this case, Bubba Grape is the mascot for the Jamestown Jammers, an A affiliate of the Pirates. So, this one finds a home with Nathan in this break. It it out of /120.

Here's the cards that are being sent out from the chrome. Aside from the Trumbo, just the base here.

And here's the Pro Debut goodies. Since the mascot took the room of several base cards, this is another one where there were more than half of the cards going out. The rest of the way will see 18, 16, and 19 Pro Debut cards heading out, so you will definitely be getting a good number of base.

Mailday is tomorrow! Part 4 will be sometime tomorrow afternoon!

Group Break Video #2

Iffy weather is going to postpone the mailout. They should all be in the mail tomorrow morning. Everything is in bubble envelopes and addressed.

Part 2 - Break Video -  http://youtu.be/96JOAOA3qto

Starting off, here come the autos!

One for the randomed Rays spot, (congrats, Jess!) and one for the Cubs spot, who were not bought/randomed. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't want to end up with more than half of the hits, but that's what happened, as I got this Fujikawa, the Giles from the repack, and two more that will show up later.

I was going to offer the Giles as the randomed card, but I offered a choice between this one and the Giles to the randomized winner.

Spoiler alert. I put all the purchased teams in the randomizer whose teams didn't get an auto/relic/manu-patch, and it was the Orioles slot that came up on top after 3 randomizations, and a mis-click on my part. I dropped Ryan H a note, and he opted for the on-card Fujikawa.

Randoming video -   http://youtu.be/7o387uG9ATE

The good thing is that the Orioles/Padres slot was one of two participants that didn't even get an X-Fractor for either their chosen or bonus team, so that was quite nice to have the hits spread around.

And now, for the base cards (such as they were for a hot box).

The second X-Fractor of the break. Nice that 10 of the 16 cards from this portion went out.

Unfortunately, this Pujols could have gone out, but the randomed Angels were traded away.

And with these 15 cards from Pro Debut, half the cards went elsewhere. Yay!

Part 3 will go up tonight, and we'll see a pair of numbered cards make an appearance, including the nifty mascot manu-patch. It will go to one of the chosen teams. Find out if it is yours!

Group Break Video #1

If you saw the post, you'll know the Chrome box was a hot box. That means that there were no base cards in the box. Only refractors. In fact, the only non-refractors were the two autographed cards. It was strange going through the box looking for a different looking card, only to realize that they was no base.

The only bad news is that the bonus packs were of the hockey variety, and with no way to distribute those, they aren't part of the break. Although I think a certain Wolverines alumni collector would like the glossy Mike Cammalleri.

I included the opening of the box to show what the bonus was. From there, it was 4 packs at a time, in order to make scanning manageable.

Video here - http://youtu.be/BZcyv4LZYrU

I'm only going to scan the hits, the parallels, the numbered cards and the inserts. Unfortunately, in terms of volume, we didn't get off to the best start. However, we did get some solid rookie refractors with Bundy, Myers and Cole. That's a beautiful photo on the Cole.

A pair of Braves among the inserts. I did offer the Braves as trade for the Giles auto, so I didn't feel to guilty about ending up with these two. These, along with most of the cards that didn't go out in the break, will be up for trade.

And to wrap it up, only 10 of the 32 cards from Pro Debut went to claimed teams. Bogaerts and Taveras aren't bad, though. Plus, how can anybody hate a card of a guy named Scooter? It's either him or Scooter Tucker for those that just need to have a card of a guy named Scooter in their collection.

8 packs down - and no hits. 5 more uploads to go, and as a spoiuler the rest of the way home - this will be the only 8 pack without at least a numbered card.

MAJOR group break news!

I was looking to see which of the cards were refractors.

4 packs in, they ALL were!

HOT BOX!

I love it when things like this happen!

$30 a week trade + Break Update

At this moment, my parcel shows as "Out for Delivery". I'm hoping it is here today, and can start busting and posting tonight. The only problem is there is construction on my street today, and the post office might be too lazy to go down the street to deliver it.

Keep your eye on THIS LINK and hope the words "Attempted Delivery" don't appear in the status.

Anyhow, now for the trade. I've sent a couple PWEs stateside, filled with serial numbered cards, Joe Sakic cards, and a set completer. The favour was returned last week with a small envelope of goodness.

The highlight of the pack was this card of Stephane Da Costa. And an on-card autograph to boot! Stephane made the team's opening day roster this year. This my second hit of his, both autographs. I'd prefer a full name on the card, but at least it is legible, and not just his initials.

When you buy gold Topps parallels in bulk, you're bound to get some extras. These here qualify, but will find nice homes in either my Mets or Canadian Content binder.

And finally, some early Carlos Delgado cards where he's still sporting catcher's gear. Those are always welcome, especially the Sportflics card. Gaudy, but still great additions to his binder!

Thanks for the trade! I'll keep looking for Sakics!