TRADING IN THE RAIN: Hanging with Dennis at CoPa. VIDEO BLOG : 4 Case 2019 Stadium Club break, TCDB & Ebay goodies

Big Mail Day Video Blog

I am getting too busy and lazy to make decent posts lately. I think my blogging activity follows the weather and the colder it is outside, the hotter my blogging is. Right now it is in the 90's outside, therefore; I am a ghost on blogger. 

I did however, get a huge mail day about a week ago and decided to record myself opening it all. Included in this video and cannot be overstated is one of the best trade packages I have ever received. Dennis from Too Many Verlanders and also the blog-trader's HOF came to a Tiger game with me and brought me some amazing cards. Two of which have me flabbergasted and will very soon find their way into a display in my card cave. I got too excited and started logging some of Dennis's package into Trading Card Database before I even took pictures. My bad, won't happen again. So not in the video are a stack of Nolan Arenado and Nolan Ryan cards from my wantlist. 

Our 4:10 first pitch Red Sox v. Tigers game ended up being an all night ordeal as first pitch happened sometime after 8:15pm. I got home after the game around 1am I think, I am sure Dennis got in much later. The Tigers gave 0 information as the day went on and the stadium took on water at a Titanic pace. There must have been 100 times we looked at each other and said "they have to reschedule." It was awesome having all the extra time to talk cards with Dennis and explore the park a little more than usual. I had a pretty crappy time leading up to meeting up with Dennis at this game so I am so glad he was there to hang out with or else I would have lost my mind.

In the video I review my trade with Dennis, a couple TCDB trades, some ebay purchases, and a big 4 Case Hobby Legends 2019 Stadium Club player break package in which I bought the Christin Stewart, Nick Castellanos, Michael Fulmer and Niko Goodrum spots.
The video is a little lengthy and I try to keep it moving . Here is a skip ahead cheat list of what I am opening at different times in the video:

0:32 Trade Package Dennis
1:28 The Game Changer Cards from Dennis
3:54 TCDB Trades
8:32 Ebay Packages
11:58 Hobby Legends 4 Case 2019 Stadium Club Player Break

Like a Cracked Bat Over the Head: Buried in Want List Cardboard

Please forgive me Julie for taking so long with this post, 'tis Tee-ball season.

A Cracked Bat

Julie runs the blog: A Cracked Bat: Baseball Cards and a Hot Dog. She chases the old English D along with John, Dennis and me. Recently, she gave me a heads up that a "small" box was headed my way. Her idea of a "small" box was a huge chunk of my wantlist from TCDB which we are both members of. I took some pictures but there was way too much goodness in this box for the few pics I took to do it any justice. This box had everything!

I have had the backer that these pins go on since 2007 and I think I have a Brandon Inge and Jim Leyland pin floating around here somewhere. These three are a wonderful addition and motivation to get this pin collection completed. 

Stick 'Ums and ProVisions. Be still my heart. 

Sweet Nolan Ryan from the year before I was born. 

Some thick cardstock of a couple former Tiger aces.

This is just some of the Ty Cobbs in the box. I needed the Masterpieces for the set I am working on. 

The Cecil Fielder gold signature is one of my favorite cards now. 

Two things I love; unscratched game cards and Jim Thome!

I saw Edmonds was going to be at the National but thought $60 was a little steep for me to give up box digging time for him. Especially when I can probably buy an Edmonds auto for less. BUT, then I saw the 1990 All Star card. I need some ink on that thing! And yes, that is a relic card.

Vintage Tigers!

Relics and Ink! I've needed a Tanana auto for a long time.

Omar Vizquel relic with the Indians. Amazing card!

Thank you so much for thinking of me and dropping these awesome cards on my Julie! Make sure everybody checks out her blog, tracks her down on Twitter, and friends her on Trading Card Database. You just might find yourself buried in wantlist cardboard.

High Quality TCDB Trade!

Check out this 7 card trade package I received in a recent Trading Card Database trade:

I apparently have an affinity towards highly skilled 3rd basemen i.e. Arenado, Chapman, B. Anderson...

I am usually not a fan of manufactured relics but this card is awesome in person.

Here are some other recent pickups:

Finally found Walgreens cards. (Now that nobody wants them). The two cards above made their way into my PC and I have  a stuck loaded onto TCDB for trade. 4 hanger boxes opened and not one yellow RC. 

The Paredes is from a TCDB trader who originally sent me a PWE that showed up owing $3.11. It made up for it!

I pulled the weirdest messed up Stadium Club card the other day. For ripples across the front. Never seen that before. #ebay1/1

Picked up some basketball on a whim looking for Pistons or Doncic cards. Got one.

Also pulled the lowest numbered card of the year so far for me. /10!

TTM Return!

This year has been one of the worst for TTM returns. It seems MLB players have given up on it. Matt Davidson did hook me up though. I saw this sweet looking card and thought it could use a scribble. 

Topps Home Run Challenge

It looks like the Home Run Challenge winners for April are about to roll out. Notice however, my May winner Ohtani says April...hmmm; he didn't play in April. We shall see what shows up.

Card Show #2 and Many, Many Trades

I was only able to hit the local card show for ten minutes while waiting for a prescription to be filled at the CVS across the street this week. Lack of funds and money (the usual) kept me from being able to pick up any good Tigerfest worthy stuff. The guy who always recognizes me and has great deals always deserves whatever cash I bring. I went right in to his table and spent my ten dollar bill quickly. Here are the cards I got for $1:

/250 Piece of his "N" I suppose.

He was blowing up when I was in college in his home town. 

I keep expecting Berrios to make the leap to superstar. Maybe this year.

I am a bigger fan of his deer hunting than ball playing. 

Great looking card. Enjoyed watching Cleaves in college.

Next are the cards I got for .50 cents:

These Clear Vision cards look amazing. Bruce Brown has been impressive. Hopefully these guys sign locally soon and aren't traded.

Then, I spent the rest of my dough on his dimeboxes:

I had to leave a lot of Cal, Nolan, and Rickey in the box. At 10 cents a piece it breaks my heart.

I am a big Flaherty, Haniger, and Soroka fan! Send those guys my way.

I don't care if I have 1000 '81 Fleer Fidrych cards I won't leave any behind. I was very surprised to see the coca cola cards in a dime box at a Detroit area show!

I don't think this includes everything but I can never make it halfway through one of this guy's dimeboxes before spending all my money. Someday when I hit the lottery I will be able to pick through all 5 boxes he usually has. I know, I know I could probably just buy the boxes but I would hope I would be more frugal than that. I might even start looking through 50 cent boxes if I was a millionaire. 😲

My USPS sucks still. I have been trying to make some trades and pick up some cheap ebay stuff to take to Tigerfest but the USPS always wants to fight me. Like this package that went to wrong town's post office before being sent to mine and trashed to hell somewhere in between. The ebay seller packaged okay but not great. Top loader and team bag are always needed but one piece of cardboard wouldn't have changed the price to ship and would have helped the package out a little.

Who the F*** writes damaged on it with nothing else?! Since when is that okay?!

Had a die cut Baez #10/10 and a Casey Mize card in it.

Found a single clearance pack of 2017 Topps Update at Walmart the other day and pulled one Judge RC. Always nice to have extras.

TRADING CARD DATABASE - WHY AREN'T YOU ON IT?

To complete a trade with a gentleman on TCDB I had to reach into my collection and give up a Gold David Ortiz. Today I got a random PWE from that guy with this note. Seems he found this card elsewhere and felt bad I gave it up so he sent it back. These are the honest, amazing traders on this site! Unbelievable. I don't know why people keep getting scammed on Twitter instead of uploading and swapping on TCDB. I know its getting old hearing about it on this blog but believe me I get no incentive for mentioning it. I just feel the more traders on the site the better it will be. While it may be more exciting to show the actual cards I get, I feel it is more interesting to see what was given up to receive those cards. So once in a while I am going to post a trade recap of some recent swaps.
Here is a look into my most recent trades completed on there:

This was a good sized trade. I got some good cards for Tigerfest and a sweet Joey Gallo RC.

I have uploaded enough basketball cards to get offers on those now too!

The secret may be out that the reason I go after minis is strictly to trade with this specific trader on here. One of my favorite trade partners.

I do a few small trades every now and then. Its a good way to break the ice with some members. This one was offered to me.

This trade gave me an extra Ronny Rodriguez for Tigerfest and my first Victor Alcantara card in return for some oddballs and older baseball. I was the one to propose this trade.

Scribbled Ink's Island of Misfit Hits Giveaway / Contest / Challenge

I had such an amazing year of collecting and trading in 2018. I want to give back a little. I am so grateful for The Trading Card Database and the awesome traders on the site that this giveaway/contest/challenge is based on getting my readers to at least visit it. It has totally changed my collection since I started uploading on there. So, here are the details for this giveaway/contest/challenge thing to promote more great members to TCDB:

To Enter: Contest is open to anyone (except my brother) who reads this post and comments with their Trading Card Database profile name. If you don't have one, you will need to make one. You can thank me later if you end up taking advantage of what the site offers after creating a login and it blows your mind and enhances your collection tenfold.

Prize and Selection of Winner: I often find myself with strange cards that don't fit into my collection, both sports and non-sports. I have a stack of sports (not just baseball) and non-sport relic, autographed, numbered cards and other collecting related items beyond your wildest dreams for one winner. Winner will be chosen by a method of my choosing to be named later, probably using my 4 year old in some way to pick randomly. Example: Write everyone's name on a nerf dart and film him chasing me while shooting and the first dart to hit is the winner. It won't be that but it will be something similar. If you are pissy about the randomness of something absolutely random; this giveaway/contest/challenge is not for you. BUT, if you are a collector who could use some new and interesting stuff to add; you found the right place.

Hit me up with any questions. I hope this is pretty straight forward: comment with your TCDB name on this post and you are in.

CONTEST ENDED & WINNER CHOSEN 

Winner announced here: https://scribbledinc.blogspot.com/2019/01/island-of-misfit-hits-winner.html

Winner will be announced on this post and in a new post on or before 1/3/2019. Make sure to check back in case I don't have contact info for everybody.

Comments get screened for spam so don't worry if yours doesn't show up right away.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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.