TTM's #29 and 30! HOF QUARTERBACK ALERT!

Hey guys, Drew back here. After hanging out with a friend for a while, I opened my mail to find 3 things. 2 TTM returns, and a Return to Sender from Warren Moon, which put the correct address on the envelope, so I'll resend soon. Both of the successes I had today are customs signed by a Hall of Famer and a future Hall of Famer! We'll start with the "less exciting one", which is an understatement in any sense of the word.

Former Steelers Head Coach Bill Cowher signed a custom for me! Bill took 12 days to return my card and inscribed it "Drew, All the Best!, Bill Cowher, SB XL". So awesome! Bill played 6 seasons in the NFL for the Browns and Eagles, and then became the Steelers head coach in 1992 after coaching for the Browns and Chiefs. His Steelers won the Super Bowl in 2005, and he resigned as coach after that season, walking off as a winner! This is yet again another amazing autograph to add to my collection!

But this tops it, this tops it by a lot:

STEVE YOUNG SIGNED A CARD FOR ME! Wow! This was completely unexpected, taking only 12 days to come to me! Steve, of course if you didn't know, was elected to 7 Pro Bowls, and won 3 Super Bowls as a 49er. He threw 232 Touchdowns in his career and threw for 33,124 yards, leading up to his Hall of Fame induction in 2005. And that guy signed a card for me. Hard to believe huh, well, believe it because it is true! This was signed very nicely, I was worried about the dark red background making the autograph look dull, but it looks great!

Thanks SO much Mr. Cowher and Mr. Young! What a great day of autograph collecting!

See Ya!

Contest over at Georgia Mindset!

Hey everyone, Drew back here with a very cool contest plug. Over at Georgia Mindset, you can have a chance to win a free box of 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball!

WHAT YOU ARE DOING STILL READING THIS??? GO OVER TO GEORGIA MINDSET NOW!

See Ya!

TTM #28 and Email Success #2!

Hey guys, Drew back here with 2 TTM's that I got in today, 1 of them being an email success. Let's start with the TTM, it was a good one!

Rex Ryan signed a custom for me! I sent this one out because I saw someone else on a forum got his autograph TTM on an index card, so I figured what the heck. I played around with some designs and came up with this one, which looks sweet because the card allows the autograph to be the first thing the person sees when they look at the card. This came out absolutely amazing, and I'm so psyched to own the Jets head coach's autograph! He inscribed to "To Drew" which is so cool, I always love when the signers inscribe my name on the items! It took 10 days for Mr. Ryan sign the card and return it, which was nice and short because I sent to him on their bye week!

Rex has led the Jets to a nice 5-1 start this season. He has a winner's attitude and will do and say anything to win us a Super Bowl. That could be a great thing for the Jets, but it's also a bad thing since, well, it is New York, and every single thing is remembered by reporters. Hopefully Rexy can lead us to the playoffs and more!

Next, I got an email a few days ago from my good buddy Vince Papale. As you may remember I got an autograph of his through the mail just because I sent him an email in appreciation of his contributions to the game last month. Here's what this email said:

Hi Drew,

Sorry it took a while to get back to you. I will be happy to send an autographed pic!

Be Invincible!

Vince

Well that was un-expected. I guess Vince didn't realize that I already received an autographed picture of him, but yet he sent another one my way! The first one was inscribed "To Drew, You Are a Star, Vince Papale". This one was inscribed "To Drew, Dare to Dream, Vince Papale". Sweet!

This was definitely a surprise, but it's pretty cool to have 2 of his autos. What a class act!

Thanks to Mr. Papale and Mr. Ryan! GO JETS!

See Ya!

Set Completion Mailday!

Hey guys, Drew back here, with a very small trade that I made with reader Tom S. We made a 1 for 1 trade that finished off a set for me and gave him a card of a player he wanted a card of! Here's what arrived in my bubble mailer:

I finally got my 2010 Allen & Ginter card #75 of Jayson Werth! That 350 card set is finished! He also threw in a 2009 206 Swisher bronze border card! Thanks so much!

See Ya!d

Vintage Cards from Pop Popps

Hey guys, Drew back here. I've been around for a while, just haven't had a lot to write about, except a week or so ago my Pop Popps gave me more cards for my vintage collection! A few Yankees in Murcer and Lyle as well as Yankees not pictured in their uniforms, ie: Piniella, Reggie, and a few other nice cards like the Frank Robinson and Billy Williams/Rod Carew dual.

Thanks so much Pop Popps, this collection is really getting nicer and nicer by the day!

See Ya!

There's Always Next Year

Hey guys, Drew back here. I'm very disappointed right now, for sure. As you all know, the Texas Rangers beat my New York Yankees last night 6-1 to win the series 4 games to 2, and eliminating the Yankees from the playoffs. The Yankees looked absolutely awful for most of this series, and it was heartbreaking to watch such a good team do so poorly. Throughout the whole series, Sabathia delivered one solid performance, and Pettitte kept us in a game enough, but Cliff Lee ruined our come back chances. None of our overpaid big shot hitters could make some sort of contact, especially A-Rod, Swisher, Gardner, and many others.

Before the postseason began, I had a funny feeling that this year wouldn't be our year. Sure, any team would love to make the postseason, but the Yankees have a different goal every year. A year is not a good year if we don't make the World Series. That may seem stuck up, but if you think about that, it's a good motivator for the players, and for the fans, to know that there's no excuses for not reaching the Fall Classic.

I don't like complaining, it's just when you get that far in the playoffs, you feel very disappointed if you were one step away from being in the championship. It's very hard to swallow. But, congratulations to the Rangers, you definitely deserved to be in the championship sometime soon, and I'm very happy for Josh Hamilton, and Vladimir Guerrero, who both have not played in a World Series in their careers.

It was a tough season for the Yankees, it was certainly a solid season. Robinson Cano batted .319, with 29 home runs, and 109 RBI, which if you noticed is one away from bigger numbers (.320, 30, 110). Seems to be the story for the 2010 Yankees. CC Sabathia went 21-7 with a 3.18 ERA, and is a serious contender for AL Cy Young.

I guess you can't win it all every year haha. I would say enjoy the Phillies/Giants game, but hey, a lot of us can't even watch that, so, uhhh, enjoy the World Series? Nope. Never mind. Enjoy.......

See Ya!

Grandpa Roy Column

Hey guys, Drew back here. It's been a few months, but we're still kicking here with the Grandpa Roy Column. Grandpa sent me an email a few days ago with an interesting question, and I don't even know the answer haha. Here it is:

What 4 things do these 4 players have in common? The players are Carl Warwick, Cody Ross, Rickey Henderson, and Cleon Jones.

1. The Players Batted Right and Threw Left (Schuyler)
2.
3.
4.

Okay, so if you weren't with us in June, here's how it works. You are allowed to guess one of the 4 things per every 24 hours. You may not answer more than one at a time, just so multiple people can take their turns and guess what they think. Try your hardest to think of this out of your head and not use a Baseball Reference, Wikipedia, or any other informational site, since there are no prizes for this other than you getting to recognize that you are a true baseball fan.

Good luck! See Ya!

Sweet New Pickups: Check Out My Cards!

Hey guys, Drew back here, with some nice new mail from Check Out My Cards I got in today. I've made 4 or 5 purchases off the site, if you haven't seen it before I highly recommend it for single purchasings. I bought quite a few cards, so let's not waste any time and get to the cards!

2010 Bowman Starlin Castro RC

Good rookie, was a leftover $ purchase, only cost 24 cents or so. I think this kid's gonna be a true stud so I'm definitely planning on hanging on to this.

2008 Goudey Frank Robinson SP

Another nice one, now I only need 8 more to complete the Short Printed Legends set. This set has been a slow work in progress but I love the 2008 Goudey cards and they hold decent value too.

2009 Topps Sterling Dave Winfield /250

I never owned a single card from Topps Sterling, and now I get a general idea of why people buy it. Well, I still don't get paying over $200 for a box, but this is really nice, with a rainbow look in the background surrounding the player. The card is thick, but definitely pretty nice for 50 cents.

2009 Upper Deck Derek Dietrich Relic

I met Derek this year with my friend at a Renegades game, since he currently plays for them. He's a decent prospect, not really worth investing in, but I thought it was cool to have something of him other than the IP autograph. Plus, the jersey piece has stitching, and hey, maybe STEPHEN STRASBURG (bam, more views) touched it!

2010 Bowman J.R. Murphy RC Auto

J.R. is currently in the Yankees organization, as a young catching prospect with a lot of potential. Romine, Montero, Cervelli, Murphy, yeah, I think the Yankees will certainly be stacked at catcher when Posada calls it quits. Pretty happy to have this, hopefully he turns out!

2007 Topps Turkey Red Austin Kearns Autograph

First of all, this card is beautiful looking. It's like a crazy rainbow! Even with the sticker it looks decent, although it would look better on card. It was only a few bucks, and he's on the Yankees postseason roster so I thought it would be a solid pickup, even though he probably won't be with us next year.

2008 UD SP Legendary Cuts Goose Gossage Relic /99

This card fits under 2 categories of my collection, mainly my Yankees collection but also for the 2008 Legendary Cuts set I'm starting to work on. Pretty sure this is the 9th or 10th, as you can tell I don't pay attention much yet, because it's going to be a work in progress for sure. Definitely cool to add to the mini Gossage collection too for sure!

2001 Legends of New York Hank Bauer Relic /400

I didn't have anything of Bauer yet, so I saw this for a few $ and grabbed it. I love vintage relics, and it's numbered to 400 of a guy who played with the Mick, and was a great player himself.

2006 SPX Football Brandon Lloyd Autograph

I needed to get something of this guy, because although he's been in the league for a few years now, he has finally amounted into a top notch wide receiver! Lloyd, now on the Broncos, is leading the NFL in receiving yards, with 663. Kyle Orton and him seem to make a great duo!

1966 Topps Whitey Ford

Even though he's in his second to last season in the MLB on this card, this is my 1st Whitey Ford card from his playing days and I will definitely always hang on to it. The off centering is bad, and the corners are ok, but the surfacing is nice and the card looks great in general. Every time I make a purchase on COMC I always pick up a vintage card. Vintage has never been my thing, but I always love adding great old cards to my collection!

2000 Pacific Crown Royale Lance Berkman Rookie Autograph

This is also a very nice looking card. I had to pick up an auto of one of our big mid-season acquisitions, now I just need an autograph of Kerry Wood to get the 3 new guys! Berkman has had a great career, with a career batting average of .296 and with 327 longballs, and was elected to 5 All Star Games! At the age of 34, he may only have a few semi-productive years left but he's gonna be known as one of the better hitters of the last decade.

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Carl Crawford Autograph

This was the big card of the purchase! Crawford has always been a favorite of mine, and now since he's a free agent and the Rays can't afford to keep him, I would love to see him on our team. I don't know how we'd fit him in, we would have to bench or trade Gardner, which would be tough because he's been a pretty solid player for us. Nevertheless, an auto of one of the top hitters in baseball can always make my day better!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Check Out My Cards is a great website, and I definitely recommend that you check it out. What do you think of my new goodies?

See Ya!

Oh Come On!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Over the past few nights, I've been wasting my time watching: bad pitching, terrible hitting, and most definitely a lack of effort from 25 guys making millions of dollars to do that. Otherwise known as my New York Yankees. I thought things were bad enough, until this happened last night.

As bad as Mark Teixeira had been doing in this series (o-14), the Yankees are going to definitely miss him as they removed him from the postseason roster due to a hamstring injury in last nights game. This may be the final blow for the Yankees, as Josh Hamilton and the other feared Rangers hitters are taking the Yankees by storm and are now up 3 games to 1.

There's not much else to say, but I sure hope that CC finds a way to win tonight, or the Yanks will be starting their golf seasons early. See Ya!

TTM #27, and a Weird One Too!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Usually I hate TTM failures, but this one kinda cracked me up. I got 2 envelopes in the mail yesterday, the first one I'll show was a nice success!

Giants Hall of Famer Monte Irvin signed a card for me! Right now the Hall of Fame autographs are rolling in, just add this to the list. Irvin if you didn't know played left field in the Negro Leagues for the Newark Eagles, then broke into the majors in 1949, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. His career batting average in the MLB was .293, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his Negro League play as well as for his contributions to the game. Today he serves on the Veterans committee for future Negro League elections into Cooperstown.

Monte signed the card beautifully in blue sharpie, inscribing his number 20! It took 14 days for the card to arrive home, and I sent him $5 because I normally do that to guarantee me a HOF autograph. Thanks Mr. Irvin!

Moving along to the odd one, I sent a custom Yankees card to Horace Clarke, a former second baseman for the Bronx Bombers back when they stunk it up in the 60's. People refer to this era as the Horace Clarke era for a reason! So when I got this letter back in the mail, I was not very surprised...

Instead of just signing the dang card, he had to write me a full letter on the back of my letter! This is what it says if you are struggling to read it like I did (and still do):

"Dear Fan, sorry to disappoint you since I think whom ever direct you to me for signatures has a money making business and because of what I've noticed over the years, I will no longer let myself and fans be used to whomever. Very sorry. Gon on website and mail your request to my address and don't deal with that money making guy who ever he is."

Ok... well that is pretty much the weirdest thing I've ever seen in a TTM. I get the point that, wait never mind, I don't get any points. So he took all this time and wrote this whole letter to me, and not only did he not sign the letter, but he accused me of being in a money making business? What the heck? Is he paranoid?

I'll leave you with that. Is Horace Clarke paranoid? His autograph never sells for more than 5 bucks so it's not a big deal if we sold it anyway, which I wouldn't have done.

See Ya!

A Rough Game 2 to Say The Least

Hey guys, Drew back here. I watched most of Game 2 of the ALCS yesterday, and I was extremely disappointed of how the Yankees played. The offense, other than Cano, who hit a home run and hit almost every ball to the warning track, was cold, and couldn't get anything going. The pitching, well, Phil Hughes was pretty awful, allowing 6 runs. What is up with the Yankees? Let's just hope that tomorrow's game won't have the same result, but we're facing Cliff Lee, which should be a very difficult matchup.

I couldn't even watch the NLCS, because FOX just had to disagree with cable and they stopped airing fox. I didn't miss a ton, but it was a good game, resulting in a Giants win 4-3.

See Ya!

TTM #26- YANKEES HOF'ER!

Hey guys, Drew back here! Yesterday, I received an 8x10 from a TTM I sent out 25 days earlier. I'm really excited to have this, check it out:

Yes, that's right, Goose Gossage signed this picture for me! This isn't the first Goose auto I have, I've gotten 2 autographed cards of his before, but this beats those 2 easily! I've always really liked Goose, and I did announce him as one of my secondary PC collection guys when I wrote about that a week or so ago. He inscribed the picture with "HOF 2008", which was awesome, because my dad and I actually went to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame that year, so I'll always remember that Goose finally got the call that season.

I now own 8x10 autographs of 3 of the 4 living Hall of Famers that went in as Yankees. The only guy I'm missing is Reggie Jackson, someone I REALLY need an autograph of. I also own a Rizzuto 8x10 signed, and the Catfish Hunter auto on the card I just showed you guys, so I've been on a roll lately with Yankees Hall of Famers. Anyway, the picture came out absolutely fantastic signed, a big thanks to Goose, who I did send $5 to, and I can't wait to hang it up!

See Ya!

Strasburg Auto- What Should I Do?

Hey guys, Drew back here. I spent much of last week thinking about what I should do with my recent crown jewel of my collection, a redemption for an autograph of pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg, a card that typically sells for between $200-300 as of right now. I ended up redeeming the card a few days ago, and now I'm starting to think twice.

I explained on the post in which I revealed the pull that since I got the box for free, I would feel like I would be taking advantage of my grandma to sell the card and make a profit for my own good. I also said that it's for my own good that I don't sell it because most likely I'd end up buying things that maybe I wanted more, but nothing that could touch the value of this card right now.

But now, my thoughts have kind of shifted. I'm a big fan of Stephen Strasburg's. I think the hype that he has/had been getting over the past year or so is fantastic for collectors. We now have that element of which we could be happy just pulling a standard rookie card of a guy like Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Jason Heyward, those kinds of star rookies. Before the mania began, we hoped for the ever so boring white and gray jersey swatches and sticker autographs of no name middle infielders for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and when we didn't get enough of that, we would complain and complain to Topps and Upper Deck in disappointment.

This has also been a bad thing for our hobby. Prices have soared on boxes, and the value of the dollar has steadily decreased in our hobby. People are unloading hundreds, even thousands of dollars, or waiting in an enormous line, just to get their hands on a card of this big name pitching prospect. This is almost as crazy as Beatlemania!

But now- this kid is injured. This kid undergoes a major operation on his shoulder, just because of a minor mechanics problem that has put him in danger for the rest of his career. Perhaps throwing 100 mph is harder than it looks! 1 Tommy John Surgery later, and now those same very collectors that dropped thousands of dollars on his Bowman rookie autographs and superfractor, are looking like the bad investors. Now people will be more afraid when the next big prospect comes up, perhaps when Bryce Harper has his first Bowman autograph as early as next year.

Getting back to the card, I've been having nightmares, of me keeping this card, and even though I didn't blow hundreds of dollars on it, seeing it in the bargain bin and then regretting my decision to hang on to it. But I already redeemed the card, so no matter what I can't sell the card right now, just the used redemption, which wouldn't sell for a buck on eBay most likely. I would never just let this card leave my collection if there wasn't a purpose for that, which is why I have a substitution that maybe I could get in an "exchange" for the Strasburg autograph. And that would of course be, an autograph of Albert Pujols.

This guy's scribble is much more valuable to a baseball fan like me, then an autograph of a pitching prospect that you'd have to gamble on. People are telling me that Strasburg's autographs will never go for a higher amount then right now. Now is the time to sell, all that stuff. The collector in me wants to keep the Strasburg, the fan in me wants a Pujols instead. This is my golden opportunity to get an autograph for no cost most likely, of the player with the best chance at breaking Hank Aaron's true home run record. (Barry Bonds will never be #1 on my list)

No matter what, I have no choice now but to wait for the autograph to arrive. It's not like I don't want the Strasburg, it's just that I might be able to do something better, invest in someone more worth it, with the amount of $ Mr. $trasburg is selling for. If I was to do this, I would have to wait for the right time to sell the autograph, which most likely would be weeks before his next pitching appearance, which could even be in 2012.

So, do any of you have advice for me in this situation? I really need advice on this, because I seem to be the only one that is agreeing with myself about this other than Grandpa Roy. Thanks for the help in advance, because I know I'll get some advice here from you guys. You're the best!

See Ya!

The Start of a Great Series

Hey guys, Drew back here. Last night I watched the entire first game of the ALCS, Yankees vs. Rangers, with my friend. It didn't look good at first for the Yankees, down 5-0 in the 7th inning, until Robinson Cano hit a solo home run to put the Yankees on the board. CC Sabathia did not respond well to the long rest, allowing 5 runs in 4 innings, getting a no decision. Then, Joba Chamberlain came into the game in the 5th inning, and Dustin Moseley allowed 0 hits in 2 innings of relief.

In the 8th inning, the Yankees battled back, with Brett Gardner leading the way with a clutch slide into first, beating out the pitcher C.J. Wilson to the base. This led to a huge rally, with key hits from Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Robinson Cano to bring the game back to the Yankees, now leading 6-5. They never looked back as Mariano Rivera closed the doors and the Yankees took Game 1.

Today's game at 4:00 (ET) features a battle between Phil Hughes and Colby Lewis. Both pitchers were dominant, not allowing a run in both games for each of them. It should be a good matchup, and I can't wait to watch it! Overall I'm really impressed to see the Yankees battle back like that.

The other game tonight may be one of the top postseason matchups you can see right now, between Tim Lincecum of the Giants and Roy Halladay of the Phillies. Hopefully we can see a true pitchers dual! I'll definitely be glued to the TV tonight, are you

Yankees Hall of Fame Auto Pickup!

Hey guys, Drew back here, with a card I just recently bought on eBay. I saw some people who previously bought this card for a low price, so I figured for a nice low price I could get one too.

1993 Nabisco Catfish Hunter Autographed Card

These cards are basically as cheap as they come autograph wise, but when you see some of the names in the checklist, they turn into must buys. These small name companies did a great job with these cards, as the cards look very nice signed. I'm psyched to be able to add an auto of a deceased Yankees Hall of Fame pitcher! I watched the "Yankeeography" show on YES a while back about Catfish, and it seemed like he went through a lot and still was a great pitcher. Of course, he passed away due to ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease, in 1999, at the age of 53. What a short life lived for such a great man.

Here's the certificate, pretty nice to have, considering these Nabisco dudes don't have licenses.

Well, it was a cool pickup for sure. Thank you eBay dude!

See Ya!

Awesome Yankees Mailday from a Great Friend!

Hey guys, Drew back here. On Tuesday, this box of cards arrived at my home. It was from a great friend and blogger William, Mr. foul bunt himself. This was really fun to look through, all Yankees basically, filled with cards I didn't really have. Check out what was included:

Here are just a few of the cards I liked most. Some Bernie and Vazquez stuff resulted in a few that I needed, pretty sure I needed more of the 1990 Donruss Bernie. You wouldn't believe how many of his rookies I have. I really like that Mantle, and the Munson is an Old Mill mini, which is sweet.

Next, a very cool 2010 Upper Deck Heroes insert of Joe D, one I needed; an A-Rod Turkey Red insert that I must've missed last year; a sweet Gehrig from my favorite set ever, 2007 Masterpieces; a few Ruth Heritage inserts were awesome too; as well as my first cards of Yankees prospect Dellin Betances and pitcher Dustin Moseley (for the Rookie PC); and a few other sweet cards. One sentence. Siiiiiiickkkk.

The big highlights were these 4 cards IMO, 2 2005 Gold cards of Rivera and Randy Johnson, very cool. But my favorites of the package were the Rivera card in the bottom right, which is numbered to only 30, and the Winfield card, only numbered to 15! Wow! Some rare cards we have here!

Thanks so much man, you really are the best!

PLEASE CHECK OUT HIS BLOG!!!!

See Ya!

TTM's #24 and 25! Great Old School Successes!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Just days after pulling the coveted Strasburg autograph redemption, I received 2 TTM successes! Check these out!

First up, former baseball front office executive Lee MacPhail signed a Hall of Fame Card for me! Lee was a director of player personnel for the Yankees, a general manager for the Orioles, the chief aide to the commissioner William Eckert, and the American League President during his 45 year career in baseball! He made the controversial call about the Pine Tar Game, when George Brett was caught using too much pine tar on his bat after hitting a big go ahead home run in 1983. Today the ALCS MVP award in the postseason is named the Lee MacPhail award in his honor! He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998, joining his father Larry MacPhail as the only father/son members in Cooperstown!

MacPhail took 8 days to sign, a very fast return for the 93 year old! The signature is a little shaky but still nice to have!

Our next success was also very cool...

Former Tigers, Browns, White Sox, Athletics, and Yankees pitcher Virgil Trucks sent us back some mail! Virgil pitched 17 years in the majors, winning 177 games and striking out 1534 batters. He threw two no hitters in the same season, joining only Nolan Ryan, Roy Halladay, Allie Reynolds, and Johnny Vander Meer as the only 5 pitchers to throw 2 no hitters in the same season!

Mr. Trucks also signed my index card, "To Drew, With Best Wishes, Virgil "Fire" Trucks"! I love how he signs "Fire" in red ink, while the rest is blue, just kinda a cool thing about it. He also stamped the fire truck, the no hitter dates, and the pictures of him. Looks pretty awesome!

Here's where things began to get interesting. He included 3 more things, and here are the first two. The top one is a card that's a little bigger than the standard 2.5 x 3.5, commemorating his 2 no hitters in the same season. The bottom piece is a paper with his career stats on them, inscribed "2x All Star 1949-1954, WS Champs 1945, Virgil 'Fire' Trucks" with the fire truck again. On the back is an advertisement about his book, if anyone is interested in ordering one shoot me an email and I'll send you the information regarding it. The book costs $30, but only 500 hardcover books were printed so get yours soon!

And lastly, possibly the greatest thing any signer has ever done for me, Virgil Trucks himself handwrote a letter to me! Wow! Go ahead and click on the picture if you wanna read it, it doesn't have much personal about it. It may be a little hard to read but I made it through with few pauses. This is so cool, I never imagined how good of an idea it was to send to Mr. Trucks. For 93 years old, being able to put this much effort into each letter is unreal, a truly unbelievable man.

If you guys want to get a really fun through the mail back from Mr. Trucks, I suggest you do so soon! Both of these guys were really awesome to me and even though I doubt they're reading, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

See Ya!

2010 Topps 206 Box Break- HUGE PULL!

Hey guys, Drew back here. I know, I know. Back on August 31st, I threw up a rant post on this set, because I didn't like the looks of it. The creepy mug shots scared me and the back variations were dumb. But, yesterday, my grandma took me to the card shop just for the heck of it, and she bought me a box. I got to pick what I wanted as long as it was relatively cheap, and I saw this, and decided on it over the new Topps Chrome. I had a great experience with the first 2 packs, the first card being a Strasburg and a cycle mini was found too. I kinda just got it just because I need to get back in the hobby, and maybe this could do it. Let's see how this box went...

PRODUCT CONTENT
20 Packs Per Box
9 Cards Per Pack
180 Cards Per Box
1 Mini and 1 Bronze Parallel Card Per Pack!
1 Autograph Per Box
1 Relic Per Box
Look for Printing Plates, Mini Booklets, Silk Cards, and original buybacks!

Base Set: 156/300 (52%)

Stars


Yankees


Rookies (Heyward!)


Legends

I am starting to really like some of these. There are many boring cards in the set, but the Yankees cards look good, and the legends/star players are awesome looking too. I love the Yogi Berra, Lou Gehrig, and Reggie Jackson cards! Also pulled a Heyward rookie, which was cool too!

Base SP's: 3/50 (6%)

These are the hat variations, pretty lame idea, but it is helpful to recognize it easier. The Musial is beautiful while I could care less about the Braun and Bays, kinda boring looking.

Bronze Variations: 20/300 (6%)

These look better this year, but again, they are so pointless! The Burnett is going to the Yankees collection (..unfortunately), and I'm keeping the Longoria too because it's just a really nice card. The other bronzes were: Jake Peavy, Aaron Hill, Chris Iannetta, Denard Span, Aramis Ramirez, Allen Craig (RC), Raul Ibanez, Marco Scutaro, Scott Rolen, and Jason Bartlett, which are all for trade.

Historical Events Minis: 5/20 (25%)

These are so boring, and I absolutely can't stand why Topps has to use dumb gimmicks for EVERY set! Tribute, Ginter, 206, what else? Really? I did kinda get a kick out of the guy jumping out of the burning balloon into the Hudson River, since the river is close to me. I might keep that but the rest are certainly for trade or headin to the campfire.

Minis:
Piedmont- 5 (Howie Kendrick, Barry Zito, Josh Hamilton, Clayton Kershaw, James Shields)
Caramels- 5 (Ryan Doumit, Roy Oswalt, Lou Gehrig, Akinori Iwamura, John Maine)
Polar Bear- 2 (Manny Ramirez, Michael Bourn)
Old Mill- 1 (Joba Chamberlain)

Fronts


Backs

I really like the look of the minis, when they aren't offcenter/miscut. Many of these have at least a little of that. Some of my favorites are of course the Gehrig, which is absolutely gorgeous, the Joba Chamberlain, and the Josh Hamilton. The rest are for trade!

Topps Personalities Minis: 1 (Chris Holmes- Topps Brand Manager) /206
Gold Chrome Mini /50: 1 (Wee Willie Keeler)

One is these is completely awesome, and the other is a complete waste of time. Great guess! Yeah, I love that gold chrome mini, and the other one, well, it has a picture of A-Rod on it at least. For now unless you have a Yankee, the Keeler is not for trade, but the other one again most certainly is.

Jersey: 1 (Kevin Slowey)

Ehhhhh, I honestly don't think he should have a relic card in this set, as he is just a decent pitcher, but hey, whatever, it's got a nice design and the pinstripe is always nice. If anyone wants it and has a Yankee relic for trade, I'll certainly take you up on it (no Nick Johnson, Javier Vazquez, Carl Pavano PLEASE??)

and our autograph............................................................

OMG!!!!! THIS IS AMAZING!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I PULLED THIS THING! That was certainly only a small portion of my reaction when my dad pulled this thing out of the pack. We always record on video for the heck of it, so when we saw a redemption in the pack, I immediately thought Strasburg. I was right! My reaction would've been crazier if it wasn't a redemption and I actually held it in hand, but still, unreal!

In terms of selling/trading, I won't sell for sure. I feel like it wouldn't be right to sell a card for $200-300 dollars when I got the box for free. If I sold it, most likely I would've blown the $ on something not as good. Trading wise, 99.9% chance you won't get this card in the mail from me anytime soon. Unless you offer me a Pujols and A-Rod auto or something crazy like that, I will pretty much say no. I really hope this kid pans out, because it would be a great thing for this hobby, and if he didn't pan out, it would be a tragedy for all the people who paid a lot of money for his cards.

A few things I want to mention before I give my final grade, first, I gave a set I didn't like at all a chance and cashed in for sure. So, you never know what you're gonna get out of something you may not even like. And also, I want you guys to think of me as a true collector, and I hope you realized that as I blabbed on about how amazing it was to pull a Strasburg auto redemption. I don't like selling, as a kid, I love making money, but I know that if I sell stuff I even kind of want, I still end up getting stuff I don't want as much in the long run.

So, I'll give Topps 206 a strong B+. Again this is not based on MY box, because people have gotten junk in their boxes too. I got VERY lucky in this box, so please, do not think that you can go buy a pack of this stuff and get what I got. It's possible, but not very. I see a lot of flaws in this product, aka, miscut minis, dumb hat variations, historical junk, and some bad relic inclusions. The cards are nice, and you always have a good time opening something like this.

Here's proof that it's mine in case you couldn't believe it too.

What do you think of my pull? See Ya!