BIG POST: Too Many Verlanders, Not Enough Card Shows

BASEBALL IS BACK! and so is Lauren. 😎

MARCH CARD SHOW 

I am so lucky to reside in Michigan, home to the best card bloggers on Earth. Dennis from Too Many Verlanders  is one of my favorite bloggers and all around awesome guy. He must ask me to meet him at card shows 30 times for every one time I am able to go. Lucky for me, he still asks and we were able to meet up at my local show. As usual he brought me a big bag of goodies, including (above) this Nolan Ryan fascimile auto baseball for Nolan. As usual I owe Dennis a ton of better cards and need to venture into finding him some non-card goodies too. He brought me a Canseco SLU and a stack of cards including a ton of Thome #'ed cards, Tigers, everything I like.

This is my card show haul and stuff from Dennis. It was a great day. Always a good time when I get to hang out with other bloggers. Not sure if I even qualify as a blogger being that I post so rarely nowadays. A closer look below. Now Dennis is the kind of guy that searches a dollar box while you search a nickel box and says "I can't find anything else in here. Find a couple cards you want so I can get the deal." Who does that? Crazy generous. Sorry Dennis if your inbox gets flooded with card show invitations.

WALLET CARD 2019

This is my first wallet card. Dennis saw me find it in a dime box at the show. It deserved some attention. 

BIG NEWS!

My wife bought me tickets and hotel accommodations for me and my brother to go to the National this year! I get overwhelmed in the little card shows I go to locally. My head is going to spin for a long time at this one. Now to sell everything I own for spending $! 

HOF TTM Returns!

Great Pull

I dabble in all cards. I pulled this Collin Sexton auto from a Target 3 pack hanger. If you look on the back and sides of the card you can see some random sharpie marks from when he was signing them. I don't think I have ever seen that before. Just my luck it probably makes it worth less money instead of being the high dollar ebay 1 of 1. 

The other strange thing I had happen was buying a hanger pack of Topps Opening Day from Meijer which states 3 exclusive cards inside. Mine only came with 1 purple inside instead of 3. Anybody else have this issue? It was a Touki RC so I am not super upset. 

Topps Home Run Challenge Time!

This picture is from a TCDB trade. I only traded for the 4 Home Run Challenge cards but the dude sent all this! I have Bryce Harper for my first code uploaded hitting a home run tomorrow (03/30/2019). Wish me luck. I have close to 20 of these challenge cards right now and am working on getting more. I love them. I finally got my hands on an Ichiro RC through a TCDB trade too!

THRIFT STORE FIND

I see guys finding cards at thrift stores on Twitter all the time. I rarely find anything and probably look at the 4 shops on the way to my son's school once a week. I did find this bobble the other day though. If anyone needs it hit me up. 

FIRST HOBBY FAILS 2019

This is NOT how you package a single card.

Front

Back 

 Kudos to the Tigers broadcast team for jinxing J-Zimm.

Fail goes to the guy who put this card I found in his quarter box last year. Just sold it on ebay for 100X that.

Mike Trout Contest Winner and LOTS of Other Stuff

That Title Should Draw Some Interest, Eh? 

I won a contest on Instagram put on by Dre Day Cards account. I am very thankful to win this sweet piece. I do not dabble in much graded stuff for two reasons: 1.) The prices scare me off. Give me a raw RC for $10 over a graded 9.5 for $1200 any day. 2.) Like most collectors now, I started collecting in the 1980's as a kid. Most of my collection that made it to present day looks like I stored them in a rock tumbler. Instead of being mad at my younger self, I denounce grading. Basically because I am poor and once young and naive. So this card is a great addition for me! Please give @dredaycards on instagram a follow plus all the other social media sites.

Under the card is a sick Rawlings glove I found for Nolan at Goodwill for $1. It has Tony Gwynn inside!

Cards on Instagram and Other Venues

Cards on Instagram are plentiful as are the scammers. I have done business on Insta but choose very carefully who I deal with and often make potential partners angry. Anytime I see "I don't send first" or any kind of negative sounding crap on people's profiles I avoid that person all together. I have been ripped off on facebook, ebay, and email via this blog and now protect myself a little more. 99.9% of my trades now are on TCDB  as most of you know by now. Here is an example of a "bonus card" someone sent me in a recent trade:

When cards like this are the "bonus card" you know traders are legit on the site and happy doing business with you. Here is another transaction I received:

I gave up some big time cards (in my world) for these three, but come on; a Ted Williams relic!!!!!!!

Here is an example of an ebay transaction lately:

Sweet car, right? WRONG! The card itself would have been sweet except for the animal bite right in the top of it going through the card. The toploader doesn't have matching teeth marks so when the seller blamed USPS I had to laugh. Ebay downright sucks 50% of the time. I was given $1 off this card for the condition not being MINT as in the description. If only there was a card show every other day so I didn't need technology to scratch the itch.
Ebay is really only good to me for one thing: Breaks. It seems like break websites are expensive and I can find the best deals on ebay. Here are some recent break results:

Up and comer Tiggers

Available for trade

I entered two half case breaks. I do not know if the half cases were from the same origins. I bought Tigers in one and Tigers & Pirates in the other since Pirates went without a bid and I scooped it up for pennies with combined shipping.

Ebay is also good for finding specific cards at buy it now prices when sellers are trustworthy. Finally found a Clearly Authentic Niko I have been waiting for at a reasonable price:

I feel bad for whomever bought this box of Authentic for $40+ and had to sell it to me for $6.

Tigers Wrap Up the Season

I was very blessed this month. I was able to attend two Tiger games. My wife was offered some suite tickets from another doctor at work and we got to watch Christin Stewart blast his first 2 career home runs while stuffing our faces with all you can eat gourmet food.

Nolan, my dad and I were able to attend the last home game too, later that week. My brother and his family had tickets to that game and ended up in the next section from us so it was cool to enjoy the last game all together. Noles and me made the first game and last game together. He made it 2 innings on opening day and the whole game this last time. Maybe next year he'll watch some of it!

Last home game (top), opening day (bottom)

I'm a Baseball Card Creep

I love Panini's Stars and Stripes blasters for the sheer false excitement it gives you pulling 2-3 autos/relics per box. I say false because much like the card above, an auto from a 14 year old boy is not exactly something to get excited about. I feel like a creep collecting children's autos. Nonetheless, I like pulling ink scribbles and this box at least held a Royce Lewis jumbo relic and my first Casey Mize card.

CURRENT CONTEST!

Collector's Crack is the blog with the very best title picture at the top. Yeah, the one with the custom tobacco cards. That's the one. Go HERE for a sweet World Series prediction contest! My prediction is my dream scenario for the series; Astros/Brewers. Would be a fun series to watch.