Donruss 2017 Blaster and Some PC Additions

I picked up a blaster from Wal-Mart and had some pretty good luck.  I pulled 3 Cubs base cards, got a relic and two very solid serial numbered cards.

Kyle Schwarber, Kyle Hendricks & Jon Lester

The Pete Rose nickname variation is a fun little card.  Albert Pujols is numbered 16/49.

My hit from the blaster is a jersey relic of Brian Ellington.  I'll throw this onto the trade page.

My favorite card from the box is a gold press proof of Jose Altuve.  It is also the nickname variation numbered 65/99.  I have started a PC of Jose Altuve lately, so this card will fit in nicely.

Lastly, here are a couple of eBay pickups.  A Trevor Story auto from 2017 Gypsy Queen and Daryl Strawberry triple bat relic auto from 2016 Panini Pantheon.  

The Pujols and Ellington are up for trade.  I'd also consider trading Trevor Story for the right card.  Thanks for stopping by!

Donruss 2017 Divisional Break

Donruss 2017 released and I picked up a couple of spots in an online random divisional box break.  I got the AL Central and AL East.  I was fortunate enough to get a hit from the box and a few nice looking inserts.  I didn't realize it at the time, but the site I went through only ships rookies, inserts and hits.  If I would have seen that on the site beforehand I wouldn't have bought it from there.

The first few cards that I got were a Andrew Benintendi Rated Rookie, Keston Hiura 191/349, and a Chris Sale Dominators insert.

I also got a variation of Frank Thomas with a pink back.

For the auto I hit a red Jose Abreu auto 86/99.

Later in the same week I was shopping on eBay and decided to pull the trigger on a Ryne Sandberg auto with the retro border.  This is actually my first Ryne Sandberg auto in card form.  I've had a signed 8x10 photo for a long time, but I definitely want to pick up some of his card autos.

Donruss 2017 has a nice border design and while there is no MLB team license, these cards are a good bang for their buck.

Awesome Mail Day! First Superfractor!

I use www.lonestarboxbreaks.com for case breaks and "pick a pack" from time to time.  I have had some decent hits before, but none like I had last week.  The way pick a pack works is you go to the site and buy random hobby packs with a number.  Then the packs are mixed up out of the box (on live video feed) and numbered randomly.

I purchased some packs of 2016 Donruss Optic Baseball and Football, 2016 Panini Classic Football.  I also was given a free pack of 2016 NBA Hoops.  Each pack purchased last week got you an entry into a drawing for a 2015 Spectra Garrett Grayson Superfractor.  I had 10 entries and actually won!

First up is the Superfractor I won.  It's of Garrett Grayson from the Saints and it's the first one I have ever had.  Looks really nice in person.

From Optic Baseball I pulled a Manny Machado green parallel 2/5 and a Buster Posey Diamond Kings gold parallel 3/10! 

For my NBA Hoops pack I pulled an auto of Dakari Johnson.  I don't follow much basketball, so I haven't heard of this player.

I would say I had some pretty good luck last week.  I'm not PC-ing any of these teams or players, so all of these are up for trade.  I'm always on the lookout for Cubs cards and I want to get some Dak Prescott or Ezekiel Elliot cards.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Anthony Rizzo - 2014 Donruss Relic Card

The purpose of this blog is to show interesting Cubs related items.  Whether it be baseball cards, autographs, art and other memorabilia that I own.  From time to time I will showcase other teams, players and random things I like, but predominately I'll stick with the Cubs for now.

My first card I want to show is a 2014 Donruss Anthony Rizzo relic card.  What I like about this card is the classic design and that I was able to get one with some dirt on the jersey.  I wish Donruss had the MLB team license, but overall this is still a nice "classic" looking card with a solid action shot.