Fantasy Baseball; First Loser! Also, a Shout Out to The Lost Collector

I HATE LOSING. Its ingrained deep within me for whatever reason. It may be an oldest child thing, I don't know. I took second place in fantasy baseball this year and it sucks. I busted my butt making sure I had the best lineup each week but in the final matchup my own Tigers lost it for me. Matt Boyd threw a 2 inning outing and Michael Fulmer is a delicate flower. I guess thats what I get for being a homer and picking up Detroit guys. In my defense; Boyd was good all year but just shit the bed when I needed him most. I lost by ONE category! Matt Boyd is dead to me now. I really enjoyed having this league to work on. I wish it would have been a bit more interactive. I was able to make zero trades even though I offered like 30 throughout the year. There was zero chatter on the league forum. I think more than half of the people signed up ghosted the damn thing after the first month. Typical for fantasy baseball. I hate to say it but I think there is probably a correlation between being able to finish a fantasy baseball season actively and being able to sit and watch a baseball game. Damn millennials and their need for instant gratification and entertainment. Anyway, congratulations to The Bonds Squad whoever you are. It was an amazing championship that came down to the last inning on the last day. A huge thank you and shout out to Jake (I think, I only know the accounts from the league, Twitter @sportcardscollec,  and the blog) from Sports Card Collectors for setting up the league! I am not up on things, it may be a collectively owned blog but always good stuff and peeks at new products.


I had some pretty great trades via Twitter recently. I mistakenly got anxious and worked it all into my collection before taking scans or posting individual contributions. So, sorry to AJ The Lost Collector  or @Lost_Collector. He hooked me up with some sweet Tigers cards. Here are some of the examples that stayed close enough to the surface to grab and snap:

The Trammell was a bonus card AJ threw in. It ended up being my favorite of the whole lot!

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:

Full Case Player Break -vs- Buying a Box; the Great Experiment to get the most bang for you buck.

Am I better off buying a box of cards with guaranteed unknown hits or to spend the same amount on a player break of a full case?

Donruss 2018 boxes run $90ish shipped. A hobby box boasts 3 hits (auto or relic) per box. Hobby Legends was running a player break on ebay for each player with a card in the set having its own auction. I foolishly scooped up a LARGE list of players at different prices but setting a personal budget for my total and a budget for each player. I only bid on players I wanted and then filled in gaps with players ending under $3 that fell into trade partner categories. Here is the list of my purchases.

Players I went for:

JaCoby Jones - Tigers    2.50
Jeimer Candelario - Tigers   2.77
Joe Carter - Indians   13.50!
Michael Fulmer - Tigers   3.75
Miguel Sano - Twins   9.46!
Roberto Alomar - Indians   4.25
Nick Castellanos - Tigers   2.86
Ted Giannoulus - Chicken   5.51!

Fill Ins:

Archie Bradley - D'Backs   .99
Ryley Gilliam - USA   2.51
Daniel Alvarez - Orioles    .99
Elvis Andrus - Rangers   .99
Braden Shipley - D'Backs   2.01
Tony LaRussa - A's   4.76!
Raimel Tapia - Rockies   1.29
Travis Shaw - Brewers   1.84
Adrian Gonzalez - Dodgers   .99
Elias Diaz - Pirates   1.88
Mac Williamson - Giants   2.26
Robbie Ray - D'Backs   2.26
Cole Hamels - Rangers   1.83
Joe Musgrove - Astros   3.61
Kevin Kiermaier - Rays   2.14
Aaron Altherr - Phillies   .99
Tyler Glasnow - Pirates   3.25

Total with shipping $82.18, just a little shy of the price of one box.

Keep in mind a few things. First, I researched on BreakNinja.com what cards each player had and only bid up to $1.26 for players with only base, $3.50 for players with relic/autos, and a little higher in some cases for guys like LaRussa, Musgrove, and Glasnow who I wouldn't mind having a hit from and see they have high probability of hitting. Also, look at some of the prices with ! after them. Those auctions I got into a bidding war and paid more than I wanted to. The same thing happened with Alan Trammell and Al Kaline who both went for double the price of one of their hits would retrieve on ebay. Also, the seller combines shipping for a one time payment of $2.99. I can tell you the package that arrived to my house cost 10X that to ship.

 Results:

I ended up with 7 hits instead of just 3 had I bought a box. I did not get the high dollar guys I wanted hits from but did pull quite a few prospects. There is some numbered stuff and variations in there too. Overall, I ended up better off than buying a box. I had some, though very little, but still some control over who the hits were. A full case offers 16 boxes per case. I saw a full rainbow of Otani come out. I wish Carter, Sano, Giannoulus or LaRussa would have hit for something to add to my PC but I did pretty well. Hobby Legends as always was terrific during the break, everything shipped super fast and safe, I have single box breaks I bought into the week before this one that haven't shipped yet, and they tossed in two packs of penny sleeves. Please, if you are wanting to try this method of chasing hits over buying boxes do your research. There is a reason I chose each player and paid certain amounts. I used BreakNinja and watched a few case breaks while taking notes before bidding. You don't want to bid up a player and then later find out they don't have any hits in the set. It is all chance. Over $30 of what I spent was only on 4 or 5 guys that I got no hits from in the entire case even though they have a ton of hits in the set. I could have just bought their cards on ebay for that price probably. While 2 auto/relic Musgrove cards for a $3.61 bid is a win, having not a single card to show for paying $13.50 for Joe Carter is painful or a Sano #'ed /199 and 16 base cards for $9.46.

Here is the haul:

I got 2 of these!

/99 pic borrowed from ebay as I gave the card to my brother

/199 pic borrowed from Ebay as I gave to my brother

/99

I got 2 of these /303

#'ed /49 I had to win a quick random for this against the idiot who paid way too much for Miggy.

/199

Blank Back variation.

/500

/199

And the base...

33 Fulmer

14 Ray

13 Andrus

8 Casty split with whoever had Cabrera. This is Nick's only card in the set.

13 Altherr

12 Chicken

16 Sano

29 Hamels, 17 variation

14 Shaw

43 Alomars, 12 say Robbie, 31 Say Roberto