A while back, Mario over at Wax Heaven had a contest.  He was giving away the winner’s choice of cards from his break of 2009 Bowman Sterling football, in exchange for finding some of these:

I tracked down 8 or so, and got in touch with Mario.  He sent the Bowman Sterling cards I selected my way, and told me to send the Barnses his way when I received.  They have been patiently waiting on top of my scanner to be sent south.  Here’s the cards I got in return.

Thanks for the contest, Mario.  The Barnes card will be headed your way tomorrow. 

I love this stuff.

Autograph: Dave Scott

Memorabilia: Chris Young (this guy looks terrified in this picture) & Yogi Berra (my first vintage GU piece).

Base Set Variation: Ken Griffey, Jr night sky variation.

I have the usual assortment of base, minis and SPs.  I will probably be posting what I have for trade in a few days.  If you want to let me know what you are looking for, drop me a note and I can look.

First game should be pretty much underway by now.  Just a quick post here to point out a cool story on CNN.com about the mud that all MLB & MILB teams use to rub the gloss off a new ball.

In 2007, Josh Hamilton’s card population exploded.  Aside from strict prospect only sets, I think he was in every set issued.  In fact, he might have been in most of the prospect sets as well, because he was one of those ‘Rookie Logo’ players in 2007.  His comeback was big news, but for most of the season he flew somewhat under the radar.  His cards had picked up from where they had bottomed out during his absence from the game, but they weren’t breaking the bank.  I was picking up 2007 Bowman Sterling autographs for right around $10.

His cards really exploded during the 2008 MLB season, and they went even higher after the Home Run Derby.  As a Hamilton collector, it has been quite a ride.  I am missing a lot of 2007 cards, but I recently had the chance to score a few of his lower end Rookie Logo cards for a good price.  Included in this purchase was a 2007 Bowmna’s Best card.  These cards are serial numbered /799. The scan makes the card look slightly gold, but it is actually almost a rainbowish refractor type finish.  Nice, thick card stock as well.  And of course, it displays the dreaded Rookie Logo prominently.

Today’s mail shows the benefits of plowing through everyone’s tradelist when they say they are interested in a card of yours.  Every so often, you find a card you need, but that you weren’t specifically looking for.  For me, this is usually Josh Hamilton cards from between 2000 and 2004.  He had a ton of cards issued in those years, but I am  not really familiar with the sets.  Topps Stars?  Topps Fusion?  Topps Tek?  Topps Gallery?

Its all a bit of a blur for me.  But I love picking these cards up when they present themselves.

This 2000 Topps Stars Spotlight presented itself in a recent trade I completed on The Bench.  I had never seen this card before, but it has slotted itself into one of those ‘Ooooo, shiny’ favourite slots in my collection.  The gold shadow behind Josh on this card looks like it is gold flecked.

I tried for a while, but I just came up empty.  Beardy showed off his half of our trade a few days ago, and the mailman droppe my cards off today.  You know its good, because I actually scanned them the same day they showed up.  Let’s get on with the show.

Starting off small….

Get it?  Small?  It almost makes up for my lack of a beard pun.

Almost.

From small we are moving directly into the shiny section.  Two refractors.  The Hidden Gold is some type of proof, and it is slightly oversized.  Oh, and it looks awesome.

After the shinies, there were some very nice looking cards, but someone went and scribbled all over them.  Luckily, that someone was Josh Hamilton.

Love, love, love this card.  Its so simple, yet so awesome.

Hamilton has a remarkably consistent autograph.

Even after his comeback in 2007, the autograph still looks pretty damn good.  Greg went out of his way to make this trade work, picking up these cards off eBay to fill holes on my wantlist.  I really wanted that bug, but circumstances were not in my favour, so I am happy with these cards.  It was an intense couple hours of negotiating, but we got it all worked out, and I think we both ended up happy.

If you follow my Twitter,you know something kind of neat came out of this box.  If you don’t follow my Twitter, you should, because then you would know stuff like that.

Here’s the goods, starting with the Hamiltons:

And the card I was really, really hoping to pull:

I pulled one of the SPs out of this box, Johnny Mize:

You get a Chrome Rookie Refractor as a box topper, I got Wilkin Ramirez:

Black Parallel /58 of Omar Quintanilla:

Silk Collection of Mark Teixera, numbered /50, but badly damaged.  How is Topps for damaged cards?  Anyone have any experience?

Team Letter Patch:  Pee Wee Reese/50:

Brandon Inge ASG Jersey (these cards look great!):

And now, my first ever pack-pulled 1/1:  Sidney Ponson Parallel:

But that’s not it.  Although the 1/1 was the lowest numbered card I pulled, I still like this next card just a little bit more.

Carlos Pena Autographed / Jersey /25:

Most of these are available.  Probably looking for Hamiltons in return.

save

There seem to be a few hockey fans who trip across this blog on the internet, so I thought I would give everyone the heads up on a contest I am running over at my hockey blog where I am giving away the hits from a box of ITG 1972:  The Year in Hockey.  Check it out here. One of the ways you can get entered is to throw a few hits my way by linking to it, so feel free.

Got this post from a thread on FreedomCardBoard.com. Is this Lance Berkman minor league card the best picture ever?

I think its darn close…..

A quick post about a new pickup this evening.  I am torn between liking and hating numbered base cards.  Often, it comes down to whether it is a nice card or not.  2009 Ballpark Collection?  Nice base cards.  I picked this one up in a flawless transaction on FreedomCardboard.com.  I also snagged a PSA 9 copy of Hamilton’s 1999 Topps Traded Rookie Card.