Who said there was nothing good in retail boxes?

So we've all heard the saying when it comes to buying baseball cards. "If it's not hobby, it's not worth getting." Well I know that retail packs and boxes don't guarantee anything. And even when they do insert something into retail packs it's extremely hard to get. But to those of you who actually read my blog (I know, I can hear the crickets in here) retail stuff is no that bad. Case in point I have pulled an Alex Rodriguez autograph card out of a box. The odds of that card been in there was an astronomical ratio.

Well lately I have been buying up some retail products again. 2011 Bowman Platinum, its not the greatest product but there are chock full of rookies in it. Nothing is guaranteed so when anything nice comes out of it it makes you feel much better.

In about a months time I ended up buying four blaster boxes and four rack packs. Here are some of the hits that came out.

Plus a Alex White autograph, one Bryce Harper rookie and one Bryce Harper Xfractor.

Young baseball card collectors and their vintage collections.

I often hear new collectors talk about vintage baseball cards. They start talking about rookies, second year card, what to buy and grades of cards. Then they post the years of the cards they were talking about and... it appears to be cards from the 80's. When this happens I don't know whether to laugh or feel old.

To a young collector I suppose cards from the late 70's and on are considered vintage. But to the more advanced collectors we know that vintage means cards before the 80's. And its funny to hear a collector refer to their vintage collection when you know the oldest card they have is a 1982 Cal Ripken Topps.

I don't mean to rain down despair on the young collectors but vintage is usually older than that. When a collector starts speaking in codes like t206, Sweet Caporal or Goudey then you know you've hit the advanced mark. I do welcome young collectors to collect vintage as well as modern cards. Vintage cards teach us the history of baseball and usually has an older generation feel, if that sounds right.

A dream fulfilled by a baseball card

Every kid who is into baseball cards have that hero they admire. Every kid who got into baseball cards have that one card they have always wanted. They don't realize the sticker price on that baseball card they want so badly so when they hear their mother's reply in shock "no way are you spending that much money on a baseball card" their heart sinks a little.

They dream of owning that baseball card one day, they dream about that player. So they collect the modern cards of their heroes and work backwards hoping that when they grow up they can afford the one their parents said no to. Welcome to my dream card

A 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan rookie card.

No its not the most expensive card in all of baseball card history. But its my hero, I grew up idolizing Nolan Ryan, the ruggedness, the toughness and the way he pitched. This was a man that threw fastballs in the high 90's towards the end of his career, had nearly 6,000 strikeouts and was not afraid to go out and beat the crap out of Robin Ventura.

This is my dream card, and after nearly 20 years of baseball card collecting I can proudly say. I own a Nolan Ryan rookie card. Maybe one day I will get an upgrade of it but right now I'm satisfied with my card.

The over abundance of game used products

Baseball cards have always been a printed media for people to collect. It all started out on the back of tobacco products from the early years. Children and adults collected the cards for the love of baseball. Through the years companies like Topps and Leaf have produced basic plain baseball cards with the same assorted problems. Awfully cut, misprinted and/ or mis-aligned cards that we loved. Then Upper Deck came in and introduced the use of Game Used products. These instantly became a new trend and every company jumped on the bandwagon. But at what cost to the hobby?

Game Used cards are no longer worth the cardboard they're inserted into anymore. Collectors throw these around like garbage mainly due to an abundance of jerseys, bats, caps and scrub players. It's not bad enough that game used cards are over produced, companies like Topps, Upper Deck and the such no longer give us game used equipments anymore. These are now called Event worn. So exactly what does that mean? the player touched the equipment for an exact 0.2 nano seconds. Thats whats game used now, technically anything can be event touched. A pen, paper, part of their car or even an encapsulated air bubble that they breathed out can be made into a card.

When will this madness end? Sometimes it might be better to try to improve a product by its core base rather than fancying up the extra bonuses. I would like to see MLB come up with a clause that does not allow any so called game used product to be produced in one year. Unfortunately I think the collectors would go on strike and make all the baseball card producers go bankrupt. But seriously we all need to look back on the history of baseball cards and learn the true meaning of "baseball card".

Long Wait

You may be asking what is so special about this card that prompts me to write about it? Well it's just a short story about my collecting habits. You see I have a weakness for triple autographed baseball cards.

These three players Cody Ross, Josh Willingham and Jeremy Hermida are not my favorite players. They are baseball players that just happened to sign this card. Well I got this card in the mail today to my surprise a big surprise I may add.

Well you see I bought this card off ebay in 2007. I never got the card and just gave up on it. I figured it was a small loss and I was not going to make a big deal out of it. Surely I was not going to lose sleep over a $10 baseball card.

The other side of this story is also how the USPS works, very, very slow. Well at least I got my card, after three years of waiting.

Not sure if it's visible but the date on the stamp is printed Feb. 26. '07

Busting old Wax

Well it's only been a few days since I busted some wax but I've decided to try my luck again. Passing by a Sports Authority by where I live I saw two blaster boxes of 2007 Bowman Heritage. And since it was only $10 I decided to see how it was. Here is what happened.
First box yielded two Mickey Mantle cards. One regular and one short print. A Joba Chamberlain rookie and a Corey Koskie game used bat. Along with some Rainbow cards.
Second box got me some more Rainbow cards. Some notable names were Philip Hughes and Alex Gordon. A Tim Lincecum rookie. And a Fernando Martinez Prospect card.
All in all it was alright. Nothing spectacular but not bad either. And since it was only $10 each I can't really complain.

A trip to Cooperstown Hall of Fame reveals an A-Rod Auto

Here is a little story I like to share with everyone. A few days ago I decided to take a trip with my father to the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. Being that we live in downtown New York it was a trip we had to plan. I had my doubts about going since it was a long drive plus overnight stay just to see a museum. But at the end I decided to go since I am an avid baseball fan.
The museum was awesome. Showing everything from Babe Ruth's jersey and bat to Dice-K's Japanese jersey. It was also a lifetime experience showing me the history of baseball as well.
To make a long story short. I passed over a few hobby shops after the visit. A few uneventful stores later I passed by a store called Legends are Forever. A pile of boxes to the side of the store attracted my attention. Upon further inspection I saw a few boxes I liked on clearance. It was one rack pack box of 2007 and two boxes of 2006 Topps series 2. I decided to get the two 2006 Topps since I was drawing a blank on the 2007 Topps.
It took me five hours to get home and by that time I was dead tired. Not wanting to stay up longer I decided to open one box and keep one for later. In the middle of the box I saw a nice green autographed card. Not knowing who it was yet I slowly pulled the card out. And there it was, an Alex Rodriguez Topps series 2 auto, short printed to 50. It took me awhile to recover and then I saw the odds on the rack pack, odds of Group A auto 1:60,000. What about the other box? It's still there waiting for me to open it.
This proves a few theories in life such as "Being in the right place at the right time". Nonetheless that one decision made my day, and probably a few days afterward too.

And here is the card, in all it's glory.