New PC Additions

A while back I did a trade and picked up a couple of relic cards.  I had forgotten about this trade until recently.  The two relic cards I got are of Javier Baez and Greg Maddux.

The Greg Maddux is a manufactured patch, but I thought it was a pretty fun little card to get.  I also had some leftover Amazon gift card money and went on the hunt for some memorabilia.  I finally settled on a Matt Szczur autographed baseball with #trynottosuck inscribed below the signature.  

In the future I'll post all the current memorabilia that I have aside from my cards.  I've been collecting sports memorabilia since I was a kid and recently have been getting it back out for display.

Walgreens MLB Jumbo Value Box

Walgreens has these 100 card value re-pack boxes of baseball and football cards for $4.99.  It says on the box there is a hit in every fourth box, so I figured why not take a shot.  After sifting through the cards here are the ones I liked the most.

Check out the awesome Kent Tekulve!  I'm gonna have to start a PC for him ASAP.

Yu Darvish, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry and Steve Avery.

An Ozzie Smith, Stan Musial and Jose Canseco/Terry Steinbach/Mark McGwire combo card.

Lastly, Ryne Sandberg and Kerry Wood cards I didn't have in my PC!  I also got a hit!  An autograph of Miguel Negron 95/100.  Doesn't look like he ever made it to the majors, but it's nice to get a "hit". lol

As it turns out, this was a really fun box I picked up that had some cool cards to add to my PC.

Junk Wax Adventures #1

I mentioned in a previous post how I wanted to collect some of the better players from 1987 Donruss.  So I picked up 4 packs of 1987 Donruss.  I am hoping to get a Greg Maddux, Bo Jackson or Mark McGwire rookie card.  While I may get no one of interest, it's always fun to open up some junk wax.

First pack I opened and got a Mark McGwire Rated Rookie card!  Pretty good start! 

Second pack had no one of interest aside from Chili Davis.

Third pack had an Orel Hershiser.  Not a bad player to get.

Last pack had a couple of current MLB coaches.  Dave Martinez (bench coach for the Cubs) and Mike Maddux (pitching coach for Washington Nationals).

Overall I am happy I got one of the cards I wanted.  1987 Donruss is super cheap and a decent looking set from the 80's.  Also, these puzzle pieces are pretty fun so I might try to complete it when I need something different to complete.

Redemption Day!

I finally received my redemption from Panini that I pulled from Donruss Optic!  While Raul Mondesi is still a "rookie", and didn't have a very good 2016, this is the nicest hit I've ever pulled from a pack.  I love the retro border and the gold.  The fact that it is 2/5 makes it an even nicer card.

I plan on picking up more Donruss Optic soon.  Even without the official team license I have really taken a liking to this product.

Is this heaven? #FlyTheW

Trade Days #3

Gavin, of Baseball Card Breakdown, and I had another trade.  He has a "Christmas Card" collection going and wanted the Dallas Keuchel card I had pulled from The Loot Locker.  I shipped him that card with some other items I thought he might need for his collection and he sent me the following.

First up we have some base Cubs cards of Hack Wilson, Ben Christenson, Starlin Castro and Brian McRae.

Next we have a few junk wax era cards from 87 Donruss.  I really liked this year from Donruss and have decided I'd like to pick up some more good players from this set.  I'm looking for Greg Maddux and Bo Jackson next from this set.  I feel like everyone should have some fun junk wax cards in their collection.

A Miguel Montero, Mark Prior Studio Portraits 13/50 and Carson Sands 87/100 from Prizm.  Really love that Mark Prior card.  The Montero also completes my 2015 Topps Cubs list.

Another Kris Bryant to add to my collection.  This one appears to have been given out during All Star FanFest this year.  If anyone has any more info on this card, let me know!

Continuing with more Kris Bryant cards are a couple of custom made cards from Gavin!  Thanks for these, they are always fun to get and add to the collection.

Lastly, we have a Topps Archives Signatures Vida Blue.  I'm becoming a sucker for these Archives Autos.

Thanks again go to Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown.  He has a great blog and is great to trade with.  Thank you!

The Loot Locker

The Loot Locker is a $20 monthly subscription service that sends you hobby packs of sports or movie/tv cards.  You can choose between baseball, football, basketball, hockey and the new movie/tv boxes.  I purchased a single baseball box from September.

The box it comes in is a 400 card storage box (nice touch) and inside it had 4 hobby packs of cards, toploaders, penny sleeves, team packs and some bonus candy.  If you are lucky you can get an upgrade to your box with bonus packs of cards or hits.  I was fortunate this time to get an upgrade which you will see at the bottom of the post.  I don't want to spoil it, but I was pretty happy with it.

The packs for September were 2 Donruss Optic, 1 Bowman Chrome and 1 Diamond Kings.

I didn't get anything interesting from Diamond Kings or Bowman Chrome, but my second pack of Donruss Optic had a really nice hit.  I pulled a redemption for a Raul Mondesi Rated Rookies 1987 Retro Signatures Gold /5!  If you haven't seen any of the retro signatures from Donruss Optic, they are in the format of the original Donruss cards from the 80's.  It looks really nice in a chrome format too.  

I redeemed it last week and it hasn't shipped yet.  When I get it I'll make a separate post on the blog.

Now for my bonus hit that was part of my upgrade.  I got a Topps Tier 1 Clear One Autograph of Dallas Keuchel numbered 12/25!  Pretty awesome to get this added to the Loot Locker since he won Cy Young in 2015.  (Sorry for the crummy picture.)

Overall, I think The Loot Locker is a solid value and a fun thing to get in the mail each month.  If you are interested in picking one up you can go to www.thelootlocker.com.  No monthly subscription is required, you can purchase single boxes.

1 Box of 2016 Topps Archives Snapshots

Topps released an affordable product online under the Topps Archives banner called "Snapshots".  All images are from the Topps Vault and the base set is 50 cards.  Every box contains 1 on-card auto, 1 black and white parallel and 10 base cards.  It is only $25 a box, which is a steal in my opinion.  Let's see what I pulled!

The first four cards are Jon Gray, Bob Boone, Luis Severino and Brian Johnson.  I like that they include former players in the set.

Next up we have Hector Olivera, Ryan Klesko, B.J. Surhoff and Bryce Harper.

Now comes the black and white parallel of Brian Johnson, then a Carlos Correa and Corey Seager rookie card!  I'm pretty happy with the Correa and Seager.  I do wish I got a different player for my black and white parallel though.

Lastly, we have my on-card autograph.  I got Sandy Alomar Sr. which is pretty cool because I love old-timer autographs.  They took pride in their signature, unlike some new players, **cough** Brandon Drury **cough**.

This was a fun box to open and I plan on getting another one soon.  I'd also like to get the base 50 card set.  It seems like a reasonably cheap/easy base set to complete.  If you have any you'd like to trade, let me know!

Trade Days #2 with Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits

I worked out a trade with Matt at Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits to help fill some of my Allen & Ginter 2012 base set and get some Cub's inserts I saw he had for trade.  The 2012 set was my first year to collect Ginter and it was the start of me getting back into the hobby.

I traded Matt a couple of Ginter hand numbered minis, insert and relics.  I also threw in a few other cards he needed for his collection.  I got a nice return from Matt and I appreciate it very much.  Thanks Matt!  Now on to the cards I got!


I didn't take a picture of the Allen & Ginter base cards because I have already put them in my 2012 Ginter binder and I can't remember which base cards I got.  LOL

Let's get started with some Anthony Rizzo Allen & Ginter cards and a Gypsy Queen:

Next up, I got a really nice Anthony Rizzo Topps Heritage Chrome Purple Refractor, Topps Heritage RBI Leaders insert, Donruss 2016 base card and Topps 2016 Gold RBI Leaders insert:

A couple Allen & Ginter minis of Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo I didn't have:

And last but not least, the Auto's and Relics!  A Brett Jackson framed auto, Anthony Rizzo relic and Derrek Lee relic.

Once again, a thank you goes to Matt for trading me these cards.  He was very generous with what he traded me and I appreciate it very much.

2 Packs of 2016 Topps Chrome - Auto Hit!

I purchased two packs of 2016 Topps Chrome from Lone Star Box Breaks and overall I'm pretty happy with what I got. Scroll below to see what I pulled!

First pack was pretty good with a Blake Swihart Future Stars insert and a base Hisashi Iwakuma.

My second pack was great and I'm happy I got an autograph.  Matt Harvey, Yasiel Puig and the Brandon Drury auto are all good cards.  I wish Brandon Drury had a nicer looking autograph, but hey, I can't complain about getting anyones autograph in a pack.

These are all up for trade or sale, so hit me up via twitter or comment below if you are interested in any of these.  I'm also working on a tab for the blog with all the hits I have for trade.  It will be mostly baseball hits with some football ones thrown in occasionally.

My next post will be a trade I made with Matt from Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits.  It was a great trade and Matt was more than generous with what he traded to me.

Kyle Schwarber Additions

Today, I have three new Kyle Schwarber cards I recently got off eBay for a few bucks.  Two are inserts from Topps Chrome 2016 and the third card is from a Panini VIP 2016 pack.

The two Topps inserts are Perspectives and Youth Impact.  I'd like to get all the Cubs players for both of these insert sets.

The Panini VIP card is 29/49.  I'd also like to pick up one of these in a "cracked ice" parallel or a relic version.  This card looks really nice in person with lots of "shiny-ness".  Panini makes a nice product even without the MLB team license.

Mail Day #3

For this week's mail day I got an autograph of someone I've been wanting since he was drafted by the Cubs.

Donruss Optic 2016 Studio Signatures Kris Bryant!  I've always loved the studio cards from the early 90's.  It's nice that they have been brought back in a "chrome" type card.  I don't think I'll be able to get very many Kris Bryant auto cards due to the price, so this most likely will be the only one in my collection.  Of course I can always dream of pulling one of his autos from a pack.