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.

First Video Post: Clearance 2017 Packs Series 1, Heritage and Mail

Once in a while I find a good pack of cards marked for clearance. Today I found a whole peg of marked down 2017 Series 1 and a couple Heritage Series 1 (which I thought were High Number until I went to open them). Apparently, I longed for the feeling of years past searching for Judge, Bregman, Bellinger and JaCoby Jones RC's. The last clearance pack I opened had a Judge Rainbow Foil RC so that definitely factored into me wasting $28 on packs today. I decided to run video while opening the packs and my mail for the day. Spoiler Alert: I do pull an auto! I do NOT pull Judge, Bellinger, Bregman, or Jones in any of the packs.

Here is a breakdown of my deal with user karsal on The Trading Card Database. This is our second or third deal on there. As I mention in the video it is a Canadian trade which I am trying to do less of since it cost me $16.00 to send the cards in the left column to Kari in Ontario. Hopefully the pics below are readable for anyone curious of what we swapped. Going forward I think I am going to post all my trades on TCDB like this. I think its interesting to see what each person values and what they are willing to give up.

Recent blogs from number gurus like Night Owl and Nachos Grande have inspired me to try to add a tracker on here that shows the number of card shows I attend in the year and the number of trades I complete on TCDB. I hope to attend at least one show a month and complete less quantity ($hipping) and more quality trades this year. So look for me to add some numbers to my page at some point. 

2018 Elite Extra Edition and Catching Up

 I am already not posting as much as I would like on here. I am really active on Twitter but everybody on there is getting a bit "Catty" for my taste. Too much drama. So I am backing away from there for a while and hopefully throwing up some more blog posts.

2018 Panini Elite Extra Edition Retail (Blaster?)

I got thinking about the Stars and Stripes boxes I have found while grocery shopping this year and decided to take a look for one of those tonight. They are a pretty fun rip for $20 because of the great looking cards even though there may be 2 decent guys in the set. I could only find the Elite Extra Edition blaster at Walmart but grabbed it anyway.
The box is kind of silly for one single pack inside. It does boast 2 hits on average on the box though and there are a couple of Tigers prospects I have been chasing in the set. So here goes...

2 "Hits" on average. I was lucky enough to help that average. 

Never heard of him. Doesn't mean he's no good, I don't typically research other team's prospects. 

Another mystery ball player. 

I have heard of Akil Baddoo. I like the looks of these cards and /75 for a quad relic is cool!

Ah, my auto. Well...I think I kidded about an auto I got in Stars and Stripes from a child. This takes the cake.

These cards are really cool in hand. I hope I can find some Tigers players of this style. 

So, all in all about what I expected from the box. One pack for $20 is over pretty quick. I could have had a little more fun with a blaster of Topps Update but I wouldn't have seen any ink, relics or even numbered cards. The auto is a joke to be honest. Google the kid. You can't even find anything about him at all! I tried to find his age but was unsuccessful. If I had to guess he is maybe 14 years old. If anybody has some Tigers prospects they want to trade for some or all of these hit me up.

Ebay Bucks

Its that time of year again when some of us get to spend the pennies we earned spending dollars on ebay and the other half of the collectors out there ask "what the hell are ebay bucks?!" Here are some quick grabs with the $3ish I had to burn.

Kennard is fun to watch. I don't see him being HOF worthy or even ever making an allstar team but Detroit always has that one outside shooting white guy 6th man I like to root for (i.e. Jon Barry, Jonas Jerebko, Jud Beuchler...).

Recent Tiger acquisition I hope is at Tigerfest.

/99 and I paid 99 cents. Good deal. 

Are These Guys Going to be Something?

Is Jordan Montgomery going to turn into a big leaguer and eventually a star? This one is for you Lost Collector. The promise was there before the injuries. Some dudes come back from TJ surgery better than before. I just picked up this /50 auto card in a trade on TCDB so I hope he has a good 2019 if he plays this year. 

/250 scratches on top loader

Now how about Victor Robles? My theory is that if Harper is gone this guy gets some serious playing time and hits better than Soto. We shall see. I pulled this card out of a pack from my LCS. 

Tigerfest Prep

Tigerfest is in a couple weeks. I am getting ready as usual. If there are any newbies going this year; search Tigerfest on this blog to see how I prep and what to expect from years past. They are advertising Miguel Cabrera in attendance again this year. I am dubious but prepared. I have yet to find early entry tickets. It seems nobody has them. BUT there is one account on ebay selling multiples of them for $55 a piece. Are they real? Are the Tigers selling them on ebay instead of giving them out?!  If Miggy is really going to be there I need to find a set.