New Custom

Hey guys, I just made a quick custom, trying some football through the mails soon, and here is my attempt at a football custom:

Worst Autograph Bracket Round 3 BEGINS!

(click to enlarge)

And then there were 16. Hey everyone, Drew back here, and I'm proud to say that Round 3, the Sweet 16 of the Worst Autograph Tournament has begun! Please vote on my blog, JD's Wild Cardz, On Card Autos, and Mint Condition once all the polls are up! They will last for about 3 days just to let you know, so get voting once they're up! In my "Check Point Region", named after the wonderful autograph signed by Vernand Morency, here are the final 4 standing:

MATCHUP 1

Vernand Morency vs. Matt Leinart

MATCHUP 2

Rashard Mendenhall vs. Chad Ochocinco

Get voting! See Ya!

Contest at Enough Already!

Hey guys, I just discovered a blog called "Enough Already" through a similar contest post, and he's holding a nice little contest for some Pujols and Jeter stuff so all you baseball lovers go check it out! See Ya!

http://annoyanceatitsfinest.blogspot.com/2010/05/giveaway-time.html

eBay Pickups!

Hey guys, Drew back here, with some mail. I have more mail as well, but now I'm just gonna show you the eBay pickups I got. Due to Confirmation I will probably spend a ton soon, planning on sending a check to Whitey Ford for the auto I've been wanting, plus I may order a box of Series 2, and do the card shop/Check Out My Cards/eBay deal. I got 2 singles off of eBay for the Cano PC, and here they are...

To the left is a 2009 Ballpark Collection Dual jersey with Johnny Damon numbered to 400, which is actually very nice, and it's the 4th of 5 dual relics that I now own that feature Cano from this set. I now only need the dual relic with Jorge Posada!

To the right is a 2010 National Chicle Pants relic not numbered of Cano. It's a nice card, but my only problem is that many of the C's in the jersey swatches are really dirty. Anybody else notice this?

It helps but doesn't help that Cano is doing great right now. It helps because the Yankees need the help and it makes me look like a genius by collecting him, and it doesn't help because his prices shoot up! I now own 127 different Cano cards, including 16 cards with relics and 5 autographs, and 1 1/1. If you have anything that I don't have, please comment and let me know! See Ya!

2009 UD Spectrum Box Break Pt. 2

Hey guys, Drew back here. So, after a long night of partying, I'm back to discuss and review my box of 2009 UD Spectrum. If you saw my break yesterday you know that I hit a hot box, and a great one at that! Here's what I had to say about it...

Design: Well, for starters, the base cards are very ugly looking. Whoever had the genius idea to make a mostly male hobby set purple is crazy! I mean, some cards look decent but most of them look too feminine to me (no offense to any of the women bloggers around). But.... the colored parallels look GREAT! The reds and greens and everything adds some much needed pizazz to this set! Grade: C+

Price: Originally, not good. Way too high for a box that normally contains three decent hits. Now, if you get a hot box, which is kinda often compared to other product's chances of hitting one. And, with my box, I would have probably made the money back at the original price. It's not often that you make your money back on low end products so that's cool! Grade: C

Hits: This is a most definite hit or miss product. It also is based on your opinion on the cards you pull. The Celebrity autograph is certainly hit or miss, you could pull some High School Musical nobody or you could pull Kim Kardashian! Most of the relics are pretty good, but you could get a bad one, as shown with Alex Gordon. At least the color was blue and it was low numbered. Lastly, the rookie autos are hit or miss too. There are some decent names but most of them are pretty bad. Grade: B

Overall: I judged this box by the product, not by my box as you can tell, because if it was my box then the grades would have been much better. This is without a doubt a hit or miss kind of product, and we certainly got lucky. The pulls were fantastic in this break, pulling hits of Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols, a good rookie auto, and a great celebrity auto! Unless you're feeling lucky or have a pretty hot hand, I wouldn't probably try this. There are many other products around a similar price range that produce more, but you never really know what you're gonna get. Overall Grade: C

Back to regular schedule tomorrow, and be ready to see the next polls for the Worst Autograph Competition!!! See Ya!

2009 UD Spectrum Box Break Pt. 1

Hey guys, Drew back here. Again, it's been a while, I'm struggling to get on track here, so many projects and finals it's just driving me crazy. I have multiple Grandpa Roy questions, I need to continue the Worst Autograph Bracket, I have some mail to post, and this, so I better get started. This is indeed Part 10 of the White Plains recap, a box that my awesome dad gave me for us to open. 2009 Spectrum was never a big favorite of mine but there is some good potential Ok, so another talking, and more breakin! But, first, the very valuable Product layout!

PRODUCT CONTENT
14 Packs Per Box
5 Cards Per Pack
70 Cards Per Box
Randomly Inserted 20th Anniversary Cards
Randomly Inserted Base Parallels
1 Celebrity Autograph Per Box
1 Rookie Autograph Per Box
1 Game Used Per Box (on average)

The base cards have a purple background, kinda feminine, I'm not a big fan of them, but the parallels are very nice looking. Let's see what I pulled!

MY BOX BREAK REVIEW:

Base Set: 60/100

As I previously mentioned, the base set is purple with silver on the sides. It's very similar to Upper Deck X, but more purpler, if that's a word.

20th Anniversary Cards (5):
- #260 Operation Desert Storm
- #17 Carl Yastrzemski 3,000 Hits
- #226 Nolan Ryan Win 300
- #37 Michael Jordan "A Star is Born"
- #494 Rollie Fingers 7 All Star Selections

These cards are kinda pointless, but I did get a laugh to see that they still screw up Rollie Fingers cards. Click on the picture and check out the bottom of the card. Hahaha.

Base Red Parallel /250 (2):
- #17 Alfonso Soriano 179/250
- #76 Andy LaRoche 198/250

What some people buy this product for, the great looking parallels. Maybe Upper Deck should've considered this color as the main base color. I'd gladly make purple an insert color!

Base Green Parallel /99:
- #19 Kosuke Fukudome 81/99

Sorry, this is already going to someone, but yeah, it's a nice low numbered card!

Spectrum Relics Gold /99:
- #30 Grady Sizemore 22/99
- #45 Alex Gordon 99/99

As you already can see, there are only supposed to be 2 relics in a box, well, we got lucky and hit a hot box! Nothing special with these, both for trade if anybody's interested.

Spectrum Rookie Autographs:
- #102 Conor Gillaspie

Spectrum of Stars Di-Cut Celebrity Auto /50:
- #TC Tommy Chong

First off, the rookie auto actually sells for decent money which kinda surprised me, but what really surprised me is the second one! Tommy Chong, a comedian that was before my time that I didn't really know, well, the regular auto sells for $20-45 dollars, so, how about the di-cut version? Pretty good!

Spectrum Swatches /99:
#SS-PU Albert Pujols 85/99
#SS-JE Derek Jeter 15/99

Who are these guys that came as hits 5 and 6? Probably some minor leaguers, so, if you want them, I'll send them to you free! :)

All jokes aside, these are two great cards of arguably the two best hitters of the 2000's, and one is my favorite player, obviously Jete.

What a great box we got, and we had a very lucky day at the show! The full review will come next and then we'll be back on schedule! See Ya!

White Plains Card Show Recap Part IX

Hey guys, Drew back here. I hope you all notice the roman numeral differences, because the title has been the same for now 9 straight posts, just with a different numeral. If you've been thinking it's the same post every time, scroll down, and check out this cool stuff. I was debating whether to put the special part of the show here or next, but I'll do it now and the very good box break next. So, check out these amazing prizes!

PART 9:
THE POT OF GOLD!

After May 15th's crazy day we should have definitely had my dad hit up the lottery tickets! We entered all 3 door prizes, and we won all 3! One prize was the box of 2o10 Topps cards that was in like part 1 or 2, my dad won that. The first prize winner was me, and I won this...

I'll let the pics do the talking. Well, the Mets took my Yankees but a Yankee fan certainly took a Met! Sorry guys, it's not for trade by any means, it'll be in the collection for a lllllllonggggggg time!

My friend won this....

Yes, a Don Larsen auto inscribed with the perfect game date! This has a certificate too, just in case you're wondering.

We entered the contest with a minute or so to spare each time and got real lucky! Please comment and let me know what you think of these bad boys? See Ya!

White Plains Card Show Recap Part VIII

Hey guys, Drew back here. I wasted a lot of time already today, so I can't post much, but I do wanna share some more of the show. I figured there will be 10 parts, and on number 8 now I say I'm in good shape. Here is part 8:

PART 8:
MURPHY AND McGREGOR

The lineup was the only down part in my opinion for this show. I've been fortunate to meet Dave Winfield, Ric Flair, Al Oliver, Bill Madlock, Dave Parker, Cecil Fielder, Don Mattingly, and John Montefusco already, so the lineup was always the purpose in going to the show. Sure, I love to buy cards, but, I love a good lineup to blow money on! I thought the lineup was pretty weak to be honest, especially when I was going originally on Sunday but changed due to my friend not being able to make it that day. On Sunday the lineup was Wally Backman, Rafael Santana, Lenny Dykstra, and Joe Charboneau. Iwww. Dykstra was rumored to be enough of a jerk to just "forget" about the show and was a no show, so I'm glad I didn't go that day (though I doubt I'd have met him anyway, who likes Mets :)

So I felt very lucky to go Saturday. Billy Williams was supposed to be there for $35 an autograph, so I decided to do it and make a custom for him. Unfortunately, Billy came down with a virus and was too sick to attend. I understand, I feel like garbage today so I don't wanna go anywhere, plus he's only like 60 years older than me!

I had a decision to make, and I think I did the right thing. I decided to spend $30 on an autograph from former Braves star Dale Murphy, a should be Hall of Famer. Mike didn't have the $ to try Murphy, so I got my card signed and also got Mike a picture with him. Dale was a really really nice guy. We talked a little and he asked if I wanted an inscription. Since inscriptions usually cost extra, and he offered to do it for free, I said sure! Check out my auto, on a card that I bought for $3 to get signed.

Is it just me or does that look really nice?

The other signer we visited, actually the only other one there, was 2 time All Star pitcher Scott McGregor. McGregor was an Oriole for most of his good years, but he actually came up through the Yankees system! Scott was a very nice guy, and Mike and I both met him and got some cards signed. I didn't prepare well before coming, which is shown by the 3 of us running around like idiots trying to find his cards. One guy was making a profit by selling them a dollar each and since nobody had any of him, I grabbed 2 of them. My dad found 1 more for 10 cents, a much better deal.

The autographs look very nice, and I'm glad we found cards of his on time!

Overall, both guys were really nice and it was a cool experience to meet them. Stay tuned for tomorrow or Monday's next post, which should be a box break, hint= this box was not cold

Tomorrow is my Confirmation, which is a big day for me. Not only because I'm getting out of CCD for life, but I should be getting a lot of money, plus an out to eat treat at the end. The ceremony will be over 3 hours long most likely due to 101 kids getting confirmed at the same time at my church, so that won't be fun, but once it's over it'll be a celebration of the 8 terrible years I lived in CCD class.

See Ya!

White Plains Card Show Recap Part VII

Hey guys, Drew back here. So, what you're about to read is explaining the use of my worthless dollars throughout the journey into the jungle that is White Plains.

PART 7:
DREW'S TREASURE CHEST

It's gotten to the great part of our recap again, the part where everything is amazingly nice and expensive! From this point the review has dragged on but it is looking good so far! Lets get started!

I needed to feed my Nick Swisher obsession and I did it well, in $4 total. I bought a very nice 2006 Bowman Heritage bat card and a 2007 Spectrum jersey /199. The second one is really shiny and the green jersey relic is a plus.

For $2.50 or $3 I picked up this nice Dave Parker jersey relic. It's from 2002 Sweet Spot, and since I met him, I do like buying a card of his every once in a while.

I bought this for I think $5, and it was worth every penny. The engravement in the bat piece alone makes the card, not to mention a Hall of Fame slugger that I once shook hands with. Where? At a White Plains show silly!

I bought 2 more 2007 Sweet Spot Classic relics at the show to add to my many already, and I'm very happy to own them. Boggs was a great player who is very undervalued in the hobby, and Thurman could have been a legendary player if not for his sad airplane crash in 1979 that ended his career, and his life. This is my first Thurman relic, and it will most certainly not be the last!

Although Beardy certainly hates my Yankees to death, he must like this card. In fact, from this very same set he pulled this beauty. But yeah, from what I heard this is a short print and hard to find, so for $10 I bought my 3rd Reggie relic! What a great looking card though, and an auto in that blank space would look fantastic. But if I'm getting a Reggie auto, it's gotta be a framed picture!

Concluding the relics I bought from the show is this. Numbered out of 155, out of the great 2006 Upper Deck Epic set, is a beautiful Whitey Ford game used relic with a nice pinstripe. For the price I payed on it you can't go wrong, and I'm very excited to own this!

Since relics are done now, time for some autos! How about a $2 Jorge de la Rosa and a $5 Josh Johnson RC auto to start them off? Rosa is on one of my two fantasy teams, and Johnson is on the other. Hopefully de la Rosa recovers from his injury soon, because he was pretty great to finish his 2009 campaign. Johnson is a mainstay on any Drew fantasy team, I'm a big fan of his, and this is a very cool card!

These two cards were both $15 each, and again, in my opinion, very much worth it! The first one is a CC Sabathia 1999 Team Best Minor League autograph! Sabathia is one of my favorite pitchers and he's a great one. Through 10 seasons in the bigs so far, he has a career W-L of 140-83, with a career ERA of 3.61, 1633 strikeouts, and a World Series Ring (hopefully more to come)! I think someone of this greatness needs to be more recognized, but in a way, it's kinda nice to pick up great cards of a great player for dirt cheap!

The second one is a 2009 Tribute Doc Gooden dual relic (pinstripes on both) auto numbered to 99! Gooden has had his off the field issues in the past, but was a great pitcher back in the day! 2009 Tribute is one of my favorite sets, and this is now my 3rd card I've bought from it! The shine and refractor-ness is really really nice, and I enjoy looking at the cards for hours! (not that long, but close)

And the final card I have to show in this post...

JESUS! Jesus is a top ranked prospect if you didn't know him already, and his cards sell for high prices since everyone thinks he has excellent potential! I bought this for $20, which is not bad, especially if he works out! It could be a steal! It's numbered ONLY out of 975, and the sticker is crooked, but I'll take it thank you very much! Let's now hope and pray that he works out!

Stay tuned for the last 3 big finales of this spectacular day! See Ya!

White Plains Card Show Recap Part VI

Hey guys, Drew back here. Before I show my huge amount of hits I bought at the show tomorrow, I want to show what my buddy got at the show. One of them was for trade at the time, he bought it, suddenly didn't like it, tried to sell it, and now is stuck with it. You'll find out which one later, and I'll have to ask him if he has any interest in trading. If you have interest in the card, please leave a comment and offer up a Yankee or NY Giant in exchange for it. I'll let you know if he wants to trade it. Anyway, here goes, check them out:

PART 6:
MIKE'S CARDS

So, he sent me these pictures and I figured I'd share them, he didn't have a ton of money on him, but he bought a lot of nice looking cards and certainly got his money's worth by days end. More on that later. In this first picture, there are a bunch of nice rookies. He got a dirt cheap Knowshon Moreno rookie from 2009 Bowman Chrome, 3 Cano rookies that he got for the price of one from one VERY nice seller, a Mussina rookie in the 25 cent bin, as well as the Vlad rookie, and Greinke rookie. He got the Longoria rookie and Austin Jackson rookie for cheap, so his prospecting skills are pretty good. Lastly, he got a nice Ron Guidry rookie card that I need to buy at some point for a few bucks. I think Guidry needs more discussion for the Hall of Fame because he certainly was great.

His main "hits" that he bought are very nice. His first purchase was this Kelly Johnson auto, since he is very hot at the plate so far this season. Next he bought the Schilling jersey /75, which is a good card especially for a few bucks, but he did not like it and wanted to trade it. So, if you want the card and have an equivalent Yankee for trade, please comment and let me know. His two last purchases were really cool. The Al Leiter patch is just insane, 4 colors, dual relic. It was his first patch in his collection, and it was staring at him. The final purchase of his was this awesome Victor Martinez autograph numbered to 50. Not only is this a beautiful card of one of the top catchers in baseball, it's also a chase card from 2007 Exquisite Baseball. Exquisite looks like a total waste of money but did produce some great looking cards, and this is one of them.

Please comment and let my friend know how he did. I think he did pretty good, and he really enjoyed it. I'll be back with Part 7 (my hits) tomorrow! See Ya!

White Plains Card Show Recap Part V

Hey guys, Drew back here. Got a short little post, since I forgot some in the last post, so check them out!

PART 5: OLD JETS
(and 1 Yankee)

My dad got me these ones also, I forgot to include the old Yankee team card in the last post but here it is now. There was some really cool stuff here, I really like the Maynard and the team leaders. I don't have many old school Jets cards so any of them make a nice improvement to the collection.

Except for 1 thing, this will now do it with the stuff dad got me, so I wanna say thanks so much for all the nice cards dad!

See Ya!

White Plains Card Show Recap Part IV

Hey guys, Drew back here. We are making our way into Part 4 of many, and I hope you're enjoying these so far.

PART 4:
YANKEES PICKUPS

This may be a broad name to start this post, because I do have plenty more after this, but from this show, my dad bought me a ton of cool cheap Yankee cards which could add up. So, again, thanks dad, and let's continue.

I bought these cards, along with the next few from this set. I got them for 10 cents each and that added up to 2 bucks. So, if you're a math wiz, then you know that I bought 20 cards (sarcasm intended)!

I really like the looks of these, but since I have a lot to write about, I must continue.

So, 4 more are from that set and the other 4 start the wave of cards from dad! The Catfish is an SP from 09 Legendary Cuts (/550), and I love that design and that card. The Whitey Ford is one I haven't seen before, numbered /1500 and very nice. The Mantle and Dimaggios are cool too.

All old school here, including some nice rookies of Paul O'Neill, David Cone, Bernie Williams, Al Leiter, and Mike Mussina! Then some cool Mattingly's that I didn't have.

Next are some cool horizontals and a few others, including 3 of many Gehrig or Ruth playing cards. Never seen them before but they are really neat. The Rivera in the upper left is cool as well as the Larsen and Pettitte numbered to 599.

Dad found a nice upgrade for my A.J. Burnett rookie in the rookie collection, and added a few more rookies for my Phil Hughes mini collection. Also a nice Gardner rookie, a CC rookie, a Rivera /499, a Cano, and a sweet A-Rod from 2007 Bowman's Best.

I bought the top row here, some 2010 Bowman inserts of Tex and A-Rod, which by the way look really nice, and a Swisher and Cano. On the bottom are the last 4 here from dad, all numbered. The Dock Ellis is to 1500, the Matsui to 150 from the never ending Moments & Milestones set, an A-Rod to 150, and a Moose that would look great signed /2500.

I got all of these, a nice Austin Jackson 2008 BoChrome rookie since he's hot on the Tigers right now, and a Tommy Hanson 2009 Bowman rookie since he's Tommy Hanson. Also got a bunch of 2010 Bowman, including the Cano base. Lastly, a parallel from Topps Attax of Cano.

Finally, these 3 great cards I bought will round out this post. Actually, my dad bought me the Mattingly rookie, which is nice, so now I just need the Donruss. I got a 50 cent Cano rookie even when he's hitting well, and for $5, an Elston Howard 1959 Topps is a complete must buy! I have barely any 50's cards but this sure is a nice one.

Hope you liked them, cuz they'll soon be locked up in the vault that is my basement! See Ya!

White Plains Card Show Recap Part III

Hey guys, Drew back here again, here is part 3 of the show recap.

PART 3:
Random Finds

My dad got me a bunch of stuff at the show, and most of this is from him. Really cool stuff, here goes...

First off is a 1991 Donruss "The Rookies" set, which contains all rookies and 1 puzzle.

The main highlights in it were rookies of Luis Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, Jeff Bagwell, and Chuck Knoblauch. The puzzle was of Willie Stargell, and it was pretty nice overall. I think he got it for like $2 so in my opinion, thats like a steal.

Next is another complete set he got me for cheap, a 1983 Donruss Hall of Fame Heroes set. That is the name of my custom card set so that's pretty cool, but I can't touch the amazingness of these cards! The picture just shows the highlights, there were about 40 cards in the set. My favorite has to be the Hank Aaron though, what a cool card!

Most of these except one were from dad too. The Nolan Ryan is very nice and was cheap, and so was the Seaver, although the seller said it was a 30 dollar card. Sure, and the world is gonna end in 2012. WTF? The Hank is really nice too, never saw it before and I must say I never heard of Topps HD. Lastly, that Griffey is just a great card, sweeeeeeeeet! I bought the Heyward for $6, because I needed one of him. I have him on my fantasy team and I'm hoping he has a great career. I may very soon start getting more of him too.

Finally, from dad, a beautiful 1991 Bowman Jim Thome rookie graded 10! Sure, it's a USA graded card, but a Hall of Fame great condition Thome rookie for $2 is a steal!

Part 4 coming soon... See Ya!