A few new pickups including some HOF RCs!

I really don't care to flood my blog with "pick up" type posts, but as I sit in front of my computer waiting for all of my stores to close at 4 PM today (so I can enjoy the rest of my 4th of July), I decided to scan a few new cards just for kicks.

We'll start off with two new Max Fried RC autographs I grabbed on the cheap. Max is coming off a dominating start against the Cardinals after being called back up from Gwinnett. He really has had the chance to make much noise in the majors, but if he can pitch like he did the other night on a consistent basis then the Braves have another bright star in their rotation. Best of all, his autos are fairly inexpensive right now. Of the two, I prefer the Finest (right) over the Tier One, but both are beautiful cards.

From 2005 Donruss Prime Patches comes this beautiful card of Ben Sheets. It not only features his autograph, but also game worn pieces of jersey, shoe, hat and pants. Best of all, it's serially numbered 01/93.

I don't have a large PC of Ben, but I ran across this card for less than $4 and seriously, how could I not pull the trigger? Ben belongs in my "Faith Brothers" mini-collection.

Ever since I started collecting baseball cards in 1990, I wanted a real RC of Cal Ripken. He played ball for the Charlotte O's in the early 80's, my hometown. While I can't say I remember watching him play at the old Crockett Field (I would've been 3-4 years old), I find it cool that a legendary player like Cal played minor league ball in my hometown. None the less, his RCs were always too pricey for my reach as a youngster so it was wishful dreaming to own some of his rookie cardboard.

While his 1982 Fleer RC may not be the most in demand or best looking card, I'm thrilled to have finally acquired this piece. Of course this just fuels the fire to acquire his Topps and Donruss cards next!

I'll blame this acquisition on Panini of America. Ever since they revived the Donruss brand, they have started to use some of the older designs, such as this 1983, in their current product. Well I ended up finding this Tony Gwynn RC for a mere $5 with free shipping not too long after I found the '82 Fleer Ripken. With Gwynn playing on the west coast his entire career, I was only able to watch him play when he played against my Braves or the Cubs (thanks to getting WGN), but I always marveled at his patience at the plate. The guy hardly ever struck out and always made contact. He may not have marveled fans with his power, but the dude could flat out hit the ball. From what I knew of him off the field, he also seemed like a great stand up guy too. I'm thrilled to add this vintage (at least to me!) piece of rookie cardboard to my collection.

Up next? Well I need to put the finishing touches on gathering all the details for my next Affordable Group break for July. Stay tuned, especially if you like Canadian cardboard!

2018 Topps Living Set Ronald Acuna #19

The mail man brought me a fat padded mailer today and I couldn't be happier with what was inside. When Topps launched their Living Set earlier this year, I wasn't sure what to make of it. $7.99 for a single card or $14.99 for the 3 cards released that week...not too bad. After all I've spent $9.99 on single Topps Now cards in the past. Nick Markakis was the first Braves player to be featured in the set...but I passed. I don't care that his card is trading for big dollars on eBay currently, but now that I have a card in hand I realize how beautiful they actually are.

The Braves' rookie phenom, Ronald Acuna, was called up from AAA Gwinett on 04/25/18 and has made an immediate impact. I don't have many RCs of his yet so I decided to jump on this Living Set card. While I wish they had used a different design, I love the card. At first glance it may appear to be just another Heritage type card, however the card stock used is a little thinner than Heritage. The other big difference is the photo isn't a photo, but a drawing of the player. These cards are really beautiful in hand. I'm starting to see why more and more people are jumping on this set and trying to build it now. That's not for me, but I will be cherry picking a few players moving forward.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the idea behind this set. Yea or nay? Have you bought any Living Set cards? If so, do you like them? If you haven't bought any, why?

2017 Topps Now: Dansby Swanson #59 (916 print run)

Dansby Swanson didn't take long to make himself feel at home in the new SunTrust Park. On April 17th, he had his 1st career walk-off. Tied 4-4 against the Padres and down 1-2 in the count, Dansby would fight off a few pitches until he got the one he was looking for.

This is one of the higher print runs of all the Topps Now cards I have, mainly because of the RC designation I imagine. I hope to see this young kid show up in more Topps Now cards in the 2018 season because that'll mean he is living up to his hype.

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!