TTM returns, Lions Signing, Box Breaks, and Hobby Schtuff.

TTM returns are fun because as long as they are out there you never know when they might show back up at your door. Here are two examples of the extremes; CC was sent out YEARS ago and RoFlo returned within 5 days of me sending and both showed up on the same day.

CC caught up on his correspondence and sent back everybody's TTM requests from years past!

MLB Central is my favorite show! Its so perfect it makes me sick thinking it could be changed or dropped ever. Robert made the show way more laid back and fun. Plus...Lauren. 

Roar. My brother talked me into hitting a free Lions signing. It was originally supposed to be Ziggy Ansah but he is hurt so Pro Bowl-bound Darius Slay stepped in. The only problem was the store had Ansah stuff ready not Slay but still posted only in-house post cards would be signed. Ultimately, you did need to bring something yourself. We ended up running too late to find anything to take just in case anyway. I bought a Lions Calendar with this pic in it to get signed and my brother bought a ball.

In hobby news, Mark Jackson was all the rage on ebay. I saw this post on a facebook group. Topps sent this guy two of the Topps Living Set art prints that are serial numbered. BUT, he only ordered 1 and got two with the same numbering. Just another example of Topps not even close to having it's shit together.

More shitty Ebay shippers. This card came in a penny sleeve inside a shipping envelope used for adding paper work to a box in a PWE. Just when I think there is not another way I could receive a card shipped poorly. I guess you get what you pay for with a free shipping 25 cent auction win on this photo variation SP.

Card showed up okay and is available. 

I had $1.00 burning a hole in my paypal pocket so I entered a 1 box inception team break with the Orioles. I was hoping for one of their many rookies. Got this base Machado instead. I have quite a bit of Machado cards available. I hate the guy so hit me up on here or TCDB (pjdionne12) if you collect Manny.

Topps Home Run Challenge Winners!

I am getting pretty good at this contest. If you didn't know; Topps has Home Run Challenge cards in most of its 2018 sets. They give you a code and a player, you have to decide what day he hits a homerun. If you are right you get a card numbered to however many winners there are for that player in that month. I am now 4-13 in the contest. Really 4-12 considering I put in Adam Duvall hours before he was traded so he did not play on the day I chose. I am 2-2 with Edwin Encarnacion which is kind of interesting. I have given my brother all the winning cards except the Machado since he decided he didn't have time to do the research to play the game. I told him I would do it and give him the winnings. Somehow I keep winning on his cards and losing on mine. Except Manny...

I still have a handful of these left to do. I think its super fun and kind of hope Topps keeps doing it but also want this to be the only year to increase the value of the cards. I have Mike Napoli who I am pretty sure fell of the face of the earth and Gary Sanchez who may not play again this year that will stay unscratched forever probably. I'm picking Jonathan Schoop to homer off of Chris Archer on the 14th. He owns him. Wish me luck. If anybody has any of the unscratched they want to trade me or want me to research and play for them let me know!

Proof of my record so far.

Also, here are some recent cards sent to me in trade on TCDB:

One Million Cubs?! & LOTS of Recent Additions

 I Am Alive

Well, its my turn to have the "Blogging Yips" where I can't get myself to sit down and post or find the time to. Unfortunately, my hobby activity is probably at an all time high right now and I have too much to post about and can't; or won't. I am not sure which. This post will be blog-vomit but enjoy the pics.
I have succumb to twitter trading. It seems I am always one step behind. As soon as I got this blog back up and running and found and friended other bloggers for trades it seemed they all started trading via twitter and trading via blogger went stale. I finally have made the jump to posting and looking for cards on twitter and that is one reason this blog has been a ghost town. The other reason is that I have a good grasp on how The Trading Card Database works now and have completed 2 trades and have 5 processing right now. I love it. I will have a post coming up soon on tips for getting more trade offers on there.

 

 

WARNING: @onemillioncubs Is Hoarding Shawon Dunston Cards

@onemillioncubs is owned/operated by Beau Thompson and has a website (www.onemillioncubs.net) and I am sure you can guess his collecting goal by the name. I had been watching his twitter from the shadows for a long time and finally reached out to him for a trade. We swapped 650 Cubs for 650 Tigers. It was a great trade for both of us. I recommend trading with Beau if you have a bunch of team sorted junk wax sitting around. Its for a good cause and I got a lot of great cards not just team set fillers.

Beau threw in a /299 Verlander and the Kaline variation from 2018 Donruss.

EBAY BUCKS Y'ALL!

I had enough Ebay bucks to get this sweet Omar Vizquel Detroit card for half price. See it in all it's glory below:

Speaking of Vizquel

I paid my favorite Ebay breaker a visit and bought into a 4 case player break of 2018 Topps Tribute for Omar Vizquel and Michael Fulmer and then a 4 case player break of 2018 Diamond Kings for Jacoby Jones. I have come a long way from a junk wax collector in a very short time. Never dreamed I would be holding cards like this. Here is the haul:

TRADES!

The Trading Card Database has been my best friend lately. pjdionne12 is my profile if you want to browse my stuff or be friends.

Courtesy user name:  alanschwarz

Via NACHOS GRANDE

 

Via Kenneth Kizzer on Facebook:

Via Collin J Rae on Facebook:

Via @connorkelly4222 twitter:

 VIA Wallgreens and Rite Aid $5 boxes"

Pretty sweet "game used" relic /150 shows Angels, says Red Sox

Via Ebay:

Via TTM:

Via Target box:

2017 Topps Holiday Hobby Shop Set (Bowman) at the LCS! and BOOM!

FYI

I finally updated my Trade Bait page. Its looking a little weak due to my heavy trade activity in the past month. I'll try to build it up by next month.

Topps Update Jumbo Pack

So I won't make it a mystery; my LCS is Grand Slam Sports Shop in Sterling Heights, MI. Its about 3 miles from my house and I don't visit it even a fraction of as much as I should. I always pull hot cards there. I went in to get the free pack of 2017 Topps Holiday cards you could only get at hobby shops after spending $10 on Topps products. I dropped $15 on a jumbo pack of Update to spend my minimum $10 to get my 3 Holiday card pack. I had my son with me and he was not in the mood to be at a card shop at 9:45am so I just grabbed the first pack that was at least $10. I have done well with cheap retail Update packs but don't really enjoy the product due to lack of Tigers and it only being made to overpopulate the world with Judge and Bellinger cards. Anyway, I didn't get crap in the pack that cost 3X the retail ones. Not even a gold numbered card. No Judge, no Bellinger, no real hits.

SP, whoopdeedoo. This year Topps has killed the SP Photo Variation Market

Not a real "hit" in my book. Of course I just finished a trade with a certain D'backs collector. I'll have to hang on to it for him.

Foil. I keep pulling the Keuchel cards and I keep becoming more annoyed with him.

Who the hell is this guy, and why do I now have 8 of this card? Is there a pack of Update that this card isn't in?!

Bittersweet JV and another World Series participant and my 6th DeJong update card.

Finally a new name.

HOLIDAY PACK

The Holiday pack made up for it though. I pulled 3 good names and one was numbered. Can't complain there.

My streak of rarer Cody's continues.

I think I have every one of Yuli's RCs without trying.

#'ed /99!

That's One Way to Spend a Couple Bucks

Lastly, I had a few bucks in change and there are standards I live by that state you cannot walk out of a card show with more than 24 cents in your pocket and you can't leave a card shop with more than 99 cents. So I grabbed the top pack of 2017 Heritage Minor League and was done buying. The case boasted one auto per box but it didn't look like anybody had bought any yet. I busted the pack to find only one name I recognized:

#'ed /50!