So I may have gone a little crazy w/ 2015 Donruss

In my last post I shared the contents of a retail value pack of 2015 Donruss I picked up from my local Target store. I was enamored by the cards and inserts so much that I sought out what eBay had to offer in the area of Braves singles. Well as you'll see below I may have gone a little crazy with some purchases, but I scored them all for a song if you ask me.

Opening Day always gets me excited, however this year I'd be at the beach camping. I missed the first two Braves games against the fish in Miami, however I stayed glue to my phone trying to get updates on each game...that is when I had a connection!

Of course the wind was taken out of my sail Sunday night when I saw the news that Craig Kimbrel was traded to the San Diego Padres. My expectations for this season were already a little uneasy at best with the shake up new GM, John Hart has made. However I've tried to stay as optimistic as possible and none the less was please to see them Braves take down the Marlins in games 1 and 2.

I got home last night in time to watch the 3rd and final game in the series and wow, what fun it is to be watching baseball again. This just makes new card acquisitions that much more fun. I'll leave you with some images of my new 2015 Donruss pick ups, in the mean time I'm off to learn more about some of these new faces on the Braves that have impressed me early in the season.

Freddie is now the veteran on the team and has a lot of pressure on him as such. For many reasons I've gravitated to collecting more and more of his cards and these two sub-theme cards are great additions.

I always liked the old Production Line serially numbered inserts. Card looks way better in hand than the scan appears. Card has that rainbow "refractor" like look and is serially numbered to his .461 Slugging Percentage, 434/461.

Alex Wood is the other Brave that I've picked up the pace in collecting. I hate I missed his start in game 2 on Tuesday evening, but I'm looking forward to watching this young pitcher continue to grow and mature. I've already picked up the blue version of this beautiful auto so now to keep my eyes open for the red version numbered to /49.

Speaking of the red Signature Series autos, check out this Ron Gant! I'm glad older players were inserted into the checklist of this great looking insert set. Numbered 42/49, this card only set me back $3 believe it or not.

While labeled a member of the Astros, I could pass up this $2 auto of the young ace we picked in the Evan Gattis deal. This is one time where not having the logos on the cards doesn't hurt!

Lastly we have the former Brave, El Oso Blanco aka Evan Gattis. I hated to see this guy exit the club, but I can understand the move. I'm not sure his value would have gotten any higher and Christian Bethancourt was just waiting in the wings to show his stuff. Nice card design and for a change it's nice to get a small swatch of bat over jersey. B.J. Melvin Upton is in the same set, but unless someone sends it to me in a trade I'm not bothering with it.

Maybe I didn't go too crazy, but the initial offerings on eBay were pretty good and not many bidders either. I may have paid $15 total for these? And thanks to eBay Bucks none of that money spent actually came out of my PayPal account!

Stadium Club Firebrand wood inserts are back!

Just when I thought I'd skip over this year's Archives set, I saw that they contained a 10 card Stadium Club Firebrand insert set.  Sold.  In just one day I managed to pick 6 of the 10 cards for less than $10.  I'm waiting for the Carlos Baerga to show up in the mail.

These are cool because 1) they are wood, 2) they feature some decent die-cuts and 3) feature a mix of old school and new school.  And here I was thinking I was getting a little bored with Topps!

In the Mail 10/9/10

I've gotten way too used to dropping in on eBay to "take a peek" at what Braves deals I can find that I need to stop...because every time I look I find something that I place a bid on.  Here lately I'm winning most of these auctions too.  Yes, I have gotten some very nice cards and reasonable prices (or downright steals), but the amount I've paid in shipping when I spread out my purchases could make a grown man cry.  I know because I've cried a little!  Seriously though I got some nice swag in the mail the last 2 days so let's take a quick look.

2005 Topps Cracker Jack #TO-BC

This is easily my favorite card of the bunch.  The timing of my running across this card is also excellent what with this being Cox's final season managing the Braves.  I never bought much of the Topps Cracker Jack product, but what I do have is all very nice.  This not quite regular size card features authentic game-worn uniform.  I wonder if Bobby was ejected from a game in this uniform?!

2002 Topps #HRR-RF

I always enjoyed watching Rafael Furcal play the field when he was a Brave.  I have to admit though the black composition notebook look doesn't make out for a very appealing ball card though, jersey piece or not.

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces #SG-KJ

Ever since I saw the discounted blaster boxes of Masterpieces @ Walmart I've been tempted at buying a few since I seem to marvel at the few individual cards I currently own.  I have resisted thus far from buying much of this product, but how could I pass up placing a last minute bid of $.50 for this card?!  Sure, Kelly isn't a Brave anymore, but that doesn't take anything away from this being a beautiful card.

2005 Topps Blue #65 (13/50)

Let's see - what was I doing in 2005 when this set came out?  That's right - graduating from college.  That's way I never saw or bought any of this...I was busy & broke!  I ended up buying a mess of these cards of different Braves players in a variety of colors for cheap.  I'm still trying to find out how many dang color variations there are, but this Gant card is the lowest serially numbered.  The others I bought include David Justice, Javy Lopez, Jermaine Dye and non Braves player Tim Salmon.

2010 Topps Pro Debut #243 Blue (040/369)

Starting first baseman for the Braves in 2011...or at least that is what a lot of people are saying at this point.  I wasn't surprised to see that Freedie wasn't included on this year's post season roster, but it's OK as I see a bright future ahead of him with the Braves organization.

2010 Topps Pro Debut #TT17

The same seller that had the blue parallel also had this card in the same lot.  I probably wouldn't have bothered with this card if it was sold on it's own as I don't like the fact the same image was used as was used on the base card.  However the back of the card has a interesting quote from Baseball America stating "because of his defense, comparisons of Freeman to Keith Hernandez and Mark Grace (w/ more power) have become commonplace."

In the mail 4/6/10

I love getting mail, especially bubble mailers filled with baseball goodness! 3 packages today to open. 1 for my wife and 2 for myself. Let's start with the wife's bubble mailer.

I'm so glad that Brooks Conrad made the Atlanta Braves team this season for several reasons, but the one main reason is now perhaps Topps will get him on a card in a Braves uniform. He had a 6 game stint in the majors (2008) when he was with the A's organization...but the wife doesn't want those cards. Even though Brooks was called up late last season I don't know of any MLB cards so for now we'll have to settle with minor league Braves stuff.

2009 Choice Marketing Gwinnett Braves #10

Since I wasn't buying baseball cards in the 80's I missed out on a lot of those releases, but thanks to eBay I've been able to pick up some Braves team sets for not a lot of coin. We'll start with the 1982 set that arrived today.

1982 Fleer
Bob Horner, Dale Murphy, Phil Niekro, Gaylord Perry

I knew the Braves uniforms were ugly, but boy do these cards do a good job of showing these off. I also have to mention the horrible photo quality. I know that digital cameras didn't exist in 1982, but couldn't have Fleer done a better job? The poses of some of the cards are also horrible. I was surprised at how little there are of action shots. Most of the pictures are of the players just standing around @ spring training or at practice. What fun is that?

And my last package was full of baseball "cards" from Panini? I didn't even know these existed!

1989 Panini Stickers
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Jeff Blauser, Ron Gant, Dale Murphy, Tom Glavine

These are small stickers designed to fit inside an album I do believe. They are a little bit smaller than a traditional baseball card. The backs are rather plain just featuring a number and the cartoon knight logo of Panini. The Braves logo and stadium have that silver prismatic like background. I could care less for that effect, but seeing a picture of the old Fulton County Stadium brings back lots of memories when my late dad and grandfather would take me to games. I love odd ball cards and sets so I was very pleased with this purchase.

In the mail 3/16/10

I got a nice assortment today in the mail box. Let's start with a few older Braves cards.

Bobby Cox 1978 Topps #93, 1991 Topps Micro #759, Joe Torre 1983 #126, Ron Gant 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #30, Sid Bream 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #31, 1991 Topps Traded #13T

I ran across this John Wetteland card in the closing minutes of it's eBay auction. Nabbed it for $2.50. While I wouldn't normally add a Yankee to my collection, I've collected John Wetteland since discovering he was a Christian in the early 90's. I'm not entirely familiar with this Upper Deck set so if someone can shed some light on the card I would greatly appreciate it. It's number is #AU-39 and it's from 2004. The Pujols is a nice thick insert from 2001 Topps Stadium Club #RT19. Pretty card for a buck.