Less than 12 hours left to bid Cubs fans!

I may should have waited and listed this card later in the day last Sunday, but as of right now there are less than 12 hours left to bid on my 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Kris Bryant RC Glossy Mini 1/1. I'm hoping that one of the near 30 people currently watching the auction place their bid(s) tonight while I'm sleeping so tomorrow morning feels like Christmas morning for me!

Can a baseball card cause a heart attack?

If you follow my Facebook page for the blog then you would have known that Sunday evening I nearly had a heart attack. No, my health is fine...thanks for the worrying. What caused this was what I found sitting inside a discounted blaster of 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter I was sorting.

I'm way behind on organizing 2015, 2016 and now 2017 A&G. I didn't have them in pages/binder yet alone have a want list created for 2016 before a few days ago. While going through these opened packs, I had set aside the minis since I usually don't do much with those. As I was doing so, one card caught my eye as the front was a little different than the others. It was glossy instead of the normal matte finish. I looked at a pack and saw the odds were 1:2,167 for a glossy mini parallel. I thought cool, it's of Kris Bryant RC...perhaps I can trade this for something good.

Then I flipped the card over and saw it was a 1/1!! Cue heart attack.

I never have good luck buying packs. Its rare these days I buy a hobby box/packs so most of my purchases come from retail outlets like Target and Walmart. After I composed myself, I took my latest find to social media to try and figure out what I should do. I was given all sorts of advice before I settled on listing it on eBay with a starting bid of $9.99. The Sewingmachineguy (remember him bloggers?) gave me some of the best advice. Just toss it on eBay and let the market decide it's worth. Within hours of putting it on eBay, the price jumped to $50, then doubled to $100. The auction will run until Sunday morning, 08/13/17. While I hope it brings in a nice amount, I just hope someone gets it that will cherish it as a part of their collection. 

** EDIT ** By request, here is a link to the auction.

This is easily the best pull that I've ever had. It just kills me that its been sitting right there underneath my nose all this time and I never knew it!

Redemption from Topps...Finally!

Over on the sidebar I have a section where I keep track of redemption cards. While I'm not a huge fan of them, I know they serve their purpose and find time to time I'll pick up a redemption card for myself, like the recent Jacoby Brissett I redeemed. However pulling a redemption card myself doesn't happen very often.

Let's rewind the clock to 2015. I picked up a few boxes of Allen & Ginter as I was working on the set and not surprisingly a lot of the hits I pulled were just lack luster relic cards...until I pulled a card for a 10th Anniversary Buyback auto of Buster Posey! I set the card on the corner of my office desk and almost forgot about it until earlier this year. On January 6th, I finally went online to redeem the card and the wait officially began.

2 weeks ago, Wednesday 09/21/16 to be exact I got a bubble mailer from Topps and this beauty was inside.

While I knew the card was a auto Buyback, I didn't know it was going to a mini or that the card would only be numbered to 10! If you can't make out the number in the scan, it's 08/10. Now as cool as the card is, I'm not a Giants fan. I'd much rather try to swap this for a few Braves autos of Smoltz, Glavine, Tim Hudson, Chipper, Andruw Jones or just about any other notable Braves player. I don't know what the card is "worth", but if I were to sell it I'd throw it up on eBay with a Buy It Now price of at least $100 based on what I've seen some of Buster's auto sell for.

Trade or sale at this point, I'm not sure. I could use the money, but I figured I'd share the card here first and see if anyone was remotely interested. If not I'll toss it in that big stack of items I've been too lazy to list on eBay.

More Surprises from 2x3 Heroes

During my break from baseball, I took the time to get some of the sets I'm still actively building organized, want lists updated and cards finally put in a binder. It was also during this time that I made a few small trades, which was fun. I really would like to do more of that again as I love helping others with their collection needs. I've got some ideas, but I'll save those for another post.

One of the trades I made was with Jeff of 2x3 Heroes. Surprisingly enough I didn't have his great blog on my blogroll originally. I believe he found my blog through someone else's, anyhow after the trade was completed I've come home to two small packages from Jeff!

I've been able to knock off several base cards from my 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen want list and a few off my 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter want list as well. Good thing too as the 2016 baseball card season is finally underway. In addition to a few cards from my want lists, Jeff also slid in a few Braves cards I didn't have!

Any day I get a new John Smoltz card is a good day in my book! I can't think Jeff from 2x3 Heroes enough for his generosity and for helping fill in a few holes in those sets. I owe you one big time!

$30 Trade Completed

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail out of the blue from Robert at $30 A Week Habit. He was looking to fill in some holes in his 2015 Allen & Ginter set and in exchange was offering up a few cards I needed, but also some inserts.

Trying to get collectors to part ways w/ A&G inserts can be tough at times. Thankfully Robert was looking more for base cards as well as the Starting Points inserts so we were able to work out a deal benefiting both of us.

Topps never ceases to amaze me with the themes each year of the A&G inserts. Even the full size inserts captured my attention this year. I particularly like the Ancient Armory and Menagerie of the Mind. 

It's been awhile since I've completed a trade so I appreciate Robert reaching out. Between his trade and putting my 2015 GQ cards in pages and a binder yesterday its got me a little more active on the card front than I have been in months. I find that a little odd since baseball is over and all. With my Braves trading away everyone on the team as it seems I'm not all that excited about the upcoming season. I guess it's just the thrill of completing a page. Up next is getting more older GQ and A&G sets finally in pages.

New A&G Trade Bait

I'm ready to deal some 2015 Allen & Ginter cards...who's with me? All of the cards in this post are available for trade. Looking for base cards to complete the set, including SPs. Also working on all of the insert sets, both full size and the minis. Check out my 2015 A&G want list or just browse all my want lists if I have something you want!

Relics

10th Anniversary Buy Backs

full size inserts

Regular minis

SP minis

A&G Back minis

SP A&G Back minis

Black Bordered minis

No # mini

Hand Numbered mini

Box Break - 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter

Hobby boxes of the annual Allen & Ginter brand by Topps have not been kind to me, at least in the guaranteed hit department. Will my luck change this year?

I grabbed a hobby box of Ginter late in the game, however it was less than $90 shipped so I don't feel too bad for waiting. No Gint-A-Cuffs this year as I missed the deadline, but it was still fun opening the box. My box actually arrived while I was away on vacation at the beach, but I was able to satisfy my Ginter fix by grabbing a few rack packs from the Walmart near the campsite. In years past I had really good luck pulling retail hits from this very same Walmart. That tradition continued as I pulled two more retail (full size) relics. But more on those later...lets get to the contents of my hobby box.

Three hits are guaranteed in each hobby box and finally I got something better than just your run of the mill relics. Busty Posey buyback auto redemption! The other two I could care less for, but actually all 3 are up for grabs. Looking for Braves autos and relics.

I'm still not sure what to think about these Buyback cards. I ended up with 3, one each from 2010, 2011 and 2012. I am a sucker for the framed minis, but again all 3 of these are up for grabs.

Regular minis

Mini SP

A&G Back minis

A&G back SP

Hand numbered mini

Black Bordered minis

Mini inserts

Full size inserts

All in all I was satisfied with the contents of the box, although I was expecting to pull more mini inserts than I did. I'm again working on building the base set w/ SPs and all of the inserts. I'm not keeping any of the non-insert minis. I've already compiled my 2015 A&G Want List so if you see something in the post and want to work out a trade, please look over all of my Want Lists.

All of those other inserts, relics and duplicates that I've amassed from retail packs/blasters have also been added to my Trade List along with a lot of the cards from this post as well.