eBay Mailbag

My latest eBay purchase brings me a lot of game-used jersey cards and certified autographs. I paid $6.25 shipped for 8 cards. Many of these cards are no name players. But I liked the Giambi and Pena cards. The game-used cards include Giambi, Pena, and Gookie Dawkins. The autographs include Dave Crouthers, Ramon Soler, Brooks Kieschnick, Tyler Pelland, and Mendy Lopez. The only player on that list that I’ve heard of is Kieschnick. He was a pitcher/outfielder. He was a novelty but quickly faded. Lopez played in the big leagues with several teams between 1998-2004. Pelland, Soler, and Crouthers never made the bigs.

2011 Topps Box Packs 35 and 36

This is my last post for my Topps Box. Until I get my Black Diamond cards that it. Pack 35 contained Twins closer Matt Capps, Free Agent Kevin Millwood, Angels Team Card, Hot Shot Catcher Buster Posey, Lucas May (Who?), Jason Bay, and Todd Helton. Inserts were Todd Helton again but a Diamond card, Jim Edmonds 60 Years of Topps, and ToppsTown CC Sabathia. That’s a respectable pack.

Pack the last contained current Brewer Zack Greinke, excitable fellow Heath Bell, the injured Josh Hamilton (who is on my fantasy team), Brett Sinkbeil, Neil Walker, the retired Trevor Hoffman, and Evan Meek whoever that is. The inserts included a Diamond Duos Thomas/Ramirez, 60 Years of Topps Yastrzemski with an original back, and ToppsTown Youkilis. So that’s the end of the line. It’s sad in a way. I don’t think I got any doubles of the base cards. I’m not sure if I will collect the set. I’ve never done that before. We shall see.

2011 Topps Box: Packs 33 and 34

Pack 33 of my 2011 Topps Box was one of my better ones. The inserts included a Gold Mike Aviles card, Adam Wainwright Topps 60, and a Toppstown Joey Votto. The base cards were just as good. There were two Yankee cards: Kerry Wood and Mickey Mantle. Also included were Clay Buchholz, Coco Crisp, Jason Jaramillo, Gaby Sanchez, and Justin Upton.

Pack 34 was also decent. The inserts included a Jason Bay Diamond card, Joe Mauer 60 Years of Topps, and Toppstown Mat Latos. Some of you may be too young to remember but that Mauer card is from all the way back in 2009. I think I would prefer the actual 2009 Mauer card. Topps should insert older cards into packs rather than reprints. Anyway, the base cards were Kevin Slowey, Yuniesky Betancourt, Trevor Hoffman, Colorado Rockies, Jimmy Rollins, Ian Kennedy, and Chris Volstad. I would like to get the Slowey and Kennedy cards signed at some point. Overall, that’s a pretty good pair of packs.

2011 Topps Box Packs 31 and 32

Pack 31 yielded some decent cards. I got a Kimball Champions Pablo Sandoval, Diamond Giveaway card, and ToppsTown Billy Butler. The base cards were so-so. They included Cliff Lee, Jack Wilson, Lars Anderson, Batting Average Leaders, Brendan Ryan, Tyler Clippard, and Nate McClouth. Other than the Cliff Lee card, there’s not much there.

Pack 32 brought some crummy inserts: Topps 60 Nick Markakis, History of Topps, and ToppsTown Dan Haren. The base cards were a little better: Erick Aybar, Adrian Beltre, Felix Pie, Buster Posey, Arizona Diamondbacks, Roy Oswalt, and Ubaldo Jimenez. Between both packs, I received some decent pitchers and a few good inserts.

eBay Mailbag: Xavier Nady

I will take a break from my box break to show off my latest eBay purchase. I was unsure if this card was a Black card or a Walmart card due to a subpar picture. It turns out that it is a Walmart card. That’s OK because I only paid 17 cents shipped for this card. It is a 2011 Topps Walmart card #137 of Xavier Nady. I’m not a Nady collector so I’ll just add the card to the general collection and move on. Oddly enough, I pulled a Nady Gold Card from my Topps Box.

2011 Topps Box: Packs 29 and 30

Pack 29 of my 2011 Topps Box wasn’t that great. The inserts were a Hornsby/Holliday Diamond Duos, Cy Young Vintage Repro, and a ToppsTown card of Ichiro. The base cards were Aaron Hill, Ted Lilly, Julio Borbon, Ben Revere (Who?), Brennan Boesch, Jamie Moyer, and Aramis Ramirez. Surprisingly, I have yet to get a double of a base card.

Pack 30 contained a Kimball Champions card of Jose Bautista, Johnny Cueto 60 Years of Topps, and Miguel Cabrera ToppsTown card. I don’t think of Johnny Cueto when I think of great baseball cards of the past 60 years but I digress. The base cards included Matt Joyce, Gio Gonalez, Derek Jeter (Score!), Jeremy Jeffress (Who?), Red Sox Team Card, Chipper Jones, and James Loney. I think that Pack 30 was the better only by virtue of the Bautista and Jeter cards.

2011 Topps Box Packs 27 and 28

Pack 27 of my 2011 Topps Box yielded a Justin Upton Diamond card, a Diamond Giveaway card, and a ToppsTown Manny Ramirez. I heard that Manny retired in disgrace. I hope that works out for him. The base cards were: Yadier Molina, Garrett Jones, Kurt Suzuki, Neftali Feliz, Shin Soo Choo, Freddy Sanchez, and Darren Ford. I have honestly never heard of Darren Ford.

Pack 28 was even more lackluster. The base cards included A.J. Pierzynski, Yorvit Torrealba, John Buck, Scott Cousins, Jake McGee, Ryan Kalish, and Jair Jurrjens. The inserts brought a Kershaw/Latos Diamond Duos, Mickey Mantle reprint, and Evan Longoria ToppsTown card. Somebody needs to explain why Latos and Kershaw are on the same card.

2011 Topps Box Packs 25 and 26

Pack 25 of my 2011 Topps Box yielded a few interesting inserts. I received a 60 Years of Topps Tommy Hanson, Gold Freddy Garcia, and ToppsTown Vladimir Guerrero. The Garcia card shows him as a member of the White Sox, but he has been decent this season for the Yankees. The base cards included Miguel Montero, Derrek Lee, Pedro Alvarez, Ozzie Martinez, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Brandon Inge, and David Price.

Pack 26 brings a Diamond Duos card of Brett Wallace and Lance Berkman. Meh. The ToppsTown card was Carlos Santana. The base cards are Lucas Duda, Brian Fuentes, Jon Lester, Hanley Ramirez, Freddie Freeman, Ryan Dempster, Carlos Silva, and Adam Dunn. But wait!! That’s no ordinary Ramirez card. Look at the helmet. That is a sparkle variation card. I almost missed that. This pack just got interesting.

2011 Topps Box Packs 23 and 24

Pack 23 of my 2011 Topps Box was a really good pack. The inserts included an ARod 60 Years of Topps, my second Andrew McCutchen Kimball Champions, and a ToppsTown Buster Posey card. The base cards were decent too.

Seth Smith

R.A. Dickey

Josh Johnson

Wins Leaders

Kevin Correia

Alexei Ramirez

Hank Conger

Pack 24 was an equally good pack. In fact, I think it was better. I got a Diamond Giveaway card, a Neil Walker Diamond card, and Dustin Pedroia ToppsTown card.

The base cards were:

Andrew Cashner

Gregor Blanco

Rickie Weeks

Pedro Ciriaco

Brett Gardner (Yankee!)

Jeremy Bonderman

Nelson Cruz

I don’t think I have any doubles of base cards yet. That’s pretty impressive. Overall, these were a really good pair of packs. The base cards were decent but the inserts were terrific.

2011 Topps Box: Packs 21 and 22

Pack 21 of my 2011 Topps Box was rather unimpressive. The base cards included Torii Hunter, Koji Uehara, Desmond Jennings, ERA Leaders, Home Run Leaders, Jason Marquis, Tyler Colvin, and Edgar Renteria. The Uehara card will make a good TTM auto candidate. The inserts were pretty lackluster. I received a Diamond Duos card of Joey Votto and Adrian Gonzalez and a ToppsTown card of Felix Hernandez.

Pack 22 wasn’t that great either. The base cards were Ian Desmond, Barry Zito, Mike Stanton, Aaron Harang, James Shields, Milton Bradley, and San Diego Padres. The photograph on the Bradley card is pretty interesting. The background is a Majestic billboard which looks really cool. The Desmond card also has a cool Turkey Hill ad in the background. The inserts were a Lou Gerhig Vintage Repro, Gary Carter 60 Years of Topps, and ToppsTown David Wright.