2011 Diamond Giveaway Odds?

Hey everyone, I've been busy and will probably resume posting next week.

Meanwhile, I think my luck in the diamond giveaway contest has been terrible. 17 codes, no die-cuts and only one card from the 60s...
How about you?

9/23/11 Weekend Deals: Fall Sale and Non-Sports Boxes Sale

Over at Dave and Adam's Card World, there is a fall sale where "virtually any newer box is marked down."

There's no way to show which products are on sale, and most of the price still aren't lower than other sites.

Blowout Cards is having a sale on non-sports boxes, including a box of Simpsons stickers for $3. That sounds like a good throw-in if you're making a purchase, but otherwise, the shipping costs might be a bit prohibitive.

Check the sidebar for the rest of the deals. Most of the boxes have gone down a few more dollars. The links go to the cheapest price I could find.

New this week to the weekend deals: 2011 Heritage Minor League, 2011 Marquee, 2011 Obak Football, and 2010 SP Authentic Football.

Finally Finishing the August Card Show Pickups: Inspired by Bloggers

I couldn't really tell how to fit these cards into a theme, so here they are. Miscellaneous cards.

As you can see, I couldn't really figure out to fit them onto the scanner.

Most of these pickups are actually inspired by bloggers.

The Sewing Machine Guy is completing this magic relic set, and reading about the scarcity of these relics made me pick this card up. It was $1 and it's an eBay 1/1, so I'm pretty sure that quality covers the cost.

I picked up the Fred McGriff for SpastikMooss over at The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame, so I hope he doesn't have it yet.

Some guy was selling his Kobe stuff 50% off, and I figured I should have a rookie card of one of the best players ever (even though it was the very cheapest one).

The Brandon Jennings auto is numbered to 149 and set me back $4. The Gold Standard cards are really nice and aren't holding much value, so I'd recommend picking up a card of your favorite player. I bought this card from some guy who always busts cases of what turn out to be terrible products in terms of value. For some reason he busted half a case of Totally Certified and hit almost nothing... if he had bought the whole case the video card would have paid for half the case anyways....

I really hate my scanner... here are three Bowman Beaters that were inspired by a long-ago post by dayf over at Cardboard Junkie. Although the post only came three months ago, I believe the post precedes his pony infatuation. 

Introducing the New Weekend Deals Format

Hey everyone, I think I've found a good way to post the weekend deals each week. Most deals repeat, so I'm putting a banner on the right side of the blog with newer products and any especially good deals. The links go to the lowest price I could find for each product. Let me know how this format works for you.

Two Triple Threads Steals

I picked up a couple of Triple Threads cards of eBay which had no bids on them even at the last minute.

A Hall of Famer triple relic card for $10? Even though Frank Robinson's cards aren't that expensive, this one is a beauty. I now have relic cards of HOF'ers Mel Ott, Frank Robinson, and Carl Yastrzemski.

I think people didn't bid on this card because the intent of Bradford's injury was unknown at the time and also because collectors are focusing on Cam Newton. This card is the sepia variation # to 27. In real life, the card is more of a sepia tone that goes well with the Rams colors. I picked up this great-looking card for $25. 

Unbelievable Thanks to Stale Gum

So there were some NFL team lots available by the inch over at Stale Gum.
I picked up an inch and a half of Rams for $30. I was a bit apprehensive because usually team lots mean lots of junk wax and random base. Not in Chris's mind.

He doesn't collect football but he has received boxes since 2009 for review. I can't believe this card was in the lot...

#/99. Bloggers are the best.

Here are some other notable cards. I paid $3 for one of those Topps 52 Bradford's earlier this year. It was nice to find a second hit in the lot and I always appreciate Laurinaitis rookies.

The cards curve a lot so it's hard to get them to line up straight on the scanner. There were also a lot more rookies and a nice blue O.J. Atogwe, but none of them are Rams anymore.

BTW: PABLOOOOOOOOOO Cycle!

Blogger Jinx

Wow... what a terrible game for the Rams.

Serious injuries to Steven Jackson, Danny Amendola, Jason Smith, Ron Bartell, and Quintin Mikell
and an unknown injury to Sam Bradford.

I really jinxed it: http://cccollecting.blogspot.com/2011/09/august-card-show-rams.html

Every player I posted about got injured.

Still, I have to put these injuries in the larger context of today, and assuming that all the players recover within a season, their plight does not match those of the men and women who serve our country.

Thanks to those in the military, public service, and also homeland security for all you do for this country.

Contest Winner and Lots of Shiny Trade Bait

Only four people guessed correctly that the Ackley auto cost more than the Jordan 8 jersey card. The Ackley cost $6 more than the Jordan and I 'll release the prices if/once I sell the cards. Thanks to everyone for their advice. C'mon, everyone knows that the market values prospects/rookies more than four hall of famers and four more of the most iconic NBA players ever ;).

Congratulations to Napkin Doon! Contact me about your prize.

Speaking of your prize... I picked up a box of 1991 1953 Topps Archives cards for $20 at the GT Sports Marketing card show. I haven't busted the whole box, but here are some highlights.

The black and white and the Hank Aaron cards are extra cards that were made in 1991. As nice as the designs are, vintage doesn't look right completely new.

I've been opening some 2011 Bowman Platinum.

The Leo Nunez is an interesting card, a bat card for a NL closer?

The Jose Reyes is green and the Robinson Cano is gold.

The McCutchen and the Carl Crawford are gold.

I also picked up some packs of 2011 Threads.

Cortland Finnegan is one of my least favorite players in the league.

Here's my first look at 2011 Chrome. The Heritage Neil Walker is really cool because of the woodgrain texture on the back of the card. The Vernon Wells is numbered to 225. 

Let me know if you're interested in any card.

EDIT: WTF is going on. It was like 90 degrees earlier and now it's thunderstorming. Also, the Giants are beating Clayton Kershaw?!?!!? (albeit 1-0).

EDIT #2 : @#$! !@%$# I JINXED IT.

Two Boxes of 2009 Gridiron Gear

Checkout the quick contest in the post below! I'll announce a winner tomorrow as I showcase some of the archives cards!

I really like Gridiron Gear. The checklist is unbelievably better than Certified and the Topps products where most hits are of terrible rookies. Gridiron Gear also contains ridiculous patches of veterans, lots of rookies, and some nice low-numbered cards. I also like the base set designs. I picked up the first box for $55 at the card show and the second box for $65 from Chris over at Cardsinfinity.com (had him break it also).
Here's a reminder as to why Gridiron Gear is one of my favorite products:

I pulled this unbelievable patch from 2010 Gridiron Gear earlier this year.

Box 1: 

The regular rookies are numbered to 999.

The X rookies and the Jason Smith are numbered to 250.

The Peyton Manning is numbered #14/25.

OK, so Rhett Bomar isn't the best rookie... but that's a ridiculous patch #38/50!

Steve Largent Patch with stitching # 4/250. Calling San Jose Fuji!

Love these Rookie Gridiron Gems pullout autos, #98/100

Box 2:

Same Numbering as above, the Jim Brown is numbered to 250 and the Rivals card is numbered to 100.

Strangely enough, I pulled the Peyton Manning platinum X #15/25!

Brandon Gibson is ready to breakout this season after proving he's the Rams most reliable and best YAC receiver. I picked up one of his Sterling rookie autos also.

The Josh Freeman is numbered to 250.

The Percy Harvin Jersey is numbered to 250, the MJD dual patch is numbered to 100, and the Knowshon Moreno patch auto is numbered to 25.

I love these patches....

A Couple High-end Cards: What Should I Do? Quick Contest!

I recently jumped one on of those port sales on Checkoutmycards where a seller lists each card at a huge discount. I picked up two cards for great prices that I could easily flip for profit, but I kind of want to keep them too:

2009 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Elite Series Autographs #1 - Dustin Ackley/100 #/100

Interested? Make an offer here!

Normally I could never afford a prospect/college auto of a future great (is it too soon?), but these Ackley cards have been hot and I figured I could sell this card easily. However, this is a card that I can see myself proudly displaying in a few years as one of the best cards in my collection. Still, I'll probably flip the card and buy a rookie/prospect Posey auto (I don't have any yet).

2009-10 SP Game Used 4 on 4 Fabrics 65 #FFGUARD - Walt Frazier Clyde Drexler Spud Webb Steve Kerr Michael Jordan John Stockton Jeff Hornacek Dan Majer #/65

Interested? Make an offer here!

I didn't even realize this card held eight jersey swatches when I bought it.... 

I really would like to get this card delivered to me before I sell it. Picturing four hall of famers and four other iconic NBA legends, this card is simply incredible. I'm really debating whether to sell or keep this one especially since I've never had a Jordan memorabilia card.

For a chance to win some 1991 1953 Topps Archives Cards:

Which card do you think I paid more for?

 What should I do with the cards?

You must answer the first question correctly to get into the drawing.

Two Quick Trades

Captain Canuck from Waxaholic sent me two Giants relics and a nice Laurinaitis rookie for a Ruby Freddie Freeman rookie and some other Braves cards.

I sent Ryan G from This Card is Cool a Gio Gonzalez auto for some Lineage Giants because he had them in a group break.

He sent me the team set and some American Pie Giants.

Here are the highlights, two diamond parallels.

Thanks for the trades!

The Future of the Blog: Developing Cheap Card Collecting

I thought I'd dedicate a post to want I want this site to become. Although I enjoy making the usual trade posts, pack breaks, and card show posts, I really want to develop the value-finding and "Cheap Card Collecting" part of the blog.

The inspiration for this blog is the site, http://www.cheapassgamer.com/

     Although I mainly play video games during the summer now, I used to spend a lot of time on Cheap Ass Gamer looking for deals. Basically, the site highlights deals on games throughout the internet and tracks prices (along with the usual website duties). When I used Cheap Ass Gamer to look for deals and the best times to trade in games, I basically spent only $80 dollars a year without altering my buying habits. I still bought new games and whatever other ones I was interested in, but I barely had to spend any money. Gamers who bought the same games as I did at full MSRP and without trading in old games probably spent $400-500 a year.

     When I returned to the card collecting hobby at the beginning of the year, I had never bought full hobby boxes or understood the prices and gambling that come with modern-day card collecting. I'd like to contribute to the community like how Cheap Ass Gamer contributes to the gaming community. Without trying, I spent most of my time searching for which boxes have the best balance of design, hit resell value, price, and photography. I spend hours watching box breaks and reading previews trying to find out which products will deliver. I create a database in my head of which cards are pulled from certain products and look up their values. Don't think that I only judge on resell value though, because I know that you don't bust boxes to make a profit (unless you bust cases of Bowman). I look at base design, inserts, numbered cards, checklists, etc. I can't spend hours sorting through base cards to build sets, but I'll spend hours trying to find products that provide the best value. It's just the type of collector I am. Even though each person looks at products differently, there are plenty of products that 90% of collectors can say provide poor value (see 2010 Limited football where most boxes contain two plain jerseys and a terrible rookie autograph).

Here are some objectives I'd like to complete for the blog:

• List online sellers with reasonable prices and update weekly for special deals (I don't update every week because most of the time, the sites feature the same deals each week).
• Price tracker for popular boxes and products in the sidebar highlighting the lowest prices.
• Guides to selling on eBay, Checkoutmycards, and Sportlots.
• Tips on finding value outside of the main products--- card shows, sites that assemble their own boxes, how to find a good lot, etc. Some opportunity for guest posts here?
• More reviews on whether a box has good "value"
• Increased user interaction and reader opinions on products.
• Turn into more of a full site than just the daily blogging.

My Diamond Giveaway Cards

I've entered 11 codes with no die-cuts but no modern cards either.

Let me know if you'd like any of these cards.

August Card Show: Rams!

First of all, good job to the Giants and Carlos Beltran for finally remembering how to hit.

Here are some Rams I picked up from the card show:

Bartell is a top cornerback. Some Rams fans use metrics to compare him to Revis and Asomugha, but Bartell is simply a good no. 1. I was pretty surprised to find this rookie numbered to 99 since I've only seen two copies of the /499 version (for around $3-5). I'm not a fan of the mid 2000's Bowman designs, so this card is probably his best rookie.

The Jason Smith patch is pretty incredible, and this card is numbered #1/25. I don't really like Absolute Memorabilia's die cut materials, but I'll gladly make an exception for this card. I picked this card up for $2, probably because he's a right tackle now. Even though he started his career slowly, Jason Smith has had a strong pre-season and could approach pro bowl status soon.

Of course, I had to overpay for a Bradford rookie ($8) since I'll never be able to afford most of his cards.

I'm proud of this Danny Amendola pickup since I got the card, numbered #15/50, for free! You'd think leading the league in all-purpose yards would earn some respect. Amendola only has one true rookie which is from 2008 SP Authentic and goes for around $15. He only had around seven 2010 cards (which each had many variations) and this card could go for around $5.

Also see:

Amendola is one of my favorite players since I love the small receivers with great hands. Wayne Chrebet is another one of my all-time favorites.

This Bowman Sterling Jason Smith looks really lame compared to the Stargazing patch...

August Card Show: My Two Most Expensive Pickups + Two Cardsinfinity Breaks

Here are the two singles I spent the most on at the show:

I've stayed pretty far away from the Bowman craze, but I couldn't pass up this Blue Auto numbered to 99 for $20. Unfortunately this card was the last Vanegas the dealer had and the autograph is way off-center. The dealer had a huge box of prospect autos and graded cards that were all half-price. Most of these Vanegas autos go for around $40. If you're wondering why I'm collecting Vanegas (sort of), Eric L over at Manupatches and Chrome Scratches sent me a USA jersey auto of his. After I learned that he'll be playing at Stanford where I'll be able to watch his games, I've kept an eye out for his cards.

This 2004 Leaf Limited Cuts Will Clark Manupatch auto set me back $25. I can't find any listings for this card online (print run is 100 cards), so that always makes for a good buy. I think the manupatch auto works well because the colors look great and it's "on-card." This is definitely a cool auto.

I've been watching Chris Justice's cardsinfinity.com breaks (where you order boxes and he breaks them on video) for way too much time, so I finally made one purchase. I really shouldn't have bought Court Kings, but I couldn't resist my love for box toppers and a good chance to get an autographed one (they are inserted 2:15 boxes and the rest of the case had yet to yield an auto).

I always love Gridiron Gear, and I picked up a box from the card show also which I'll post later. Interestingly enough, I pulled the Peyton Manning #14/25 in my box and Chris pulled the Peyton Manning #15/25 for me in this box. Also, Brandon Gibson is now on the Rams and is ready to breakout. He has great hands, route running, and YAC ability. He's been the best receiver on the team this preseason.