Bryce Harper beat up...by his own bat?

I've heard a lot about this kid in the last week and so far the picture ain't looking to pretty.  I collect just as many guys for how they behave on and off the field as much as I do for their performance on the field.  That said don't expect to see me collecting Bryce anytime soon.

Going out on a limb for the Group Break

It's no secret that I'm not made out of money.  That said I usually wait until I've sold enough slots/teams each month for my Affordable Group Break before I plunk down the money and order the boxes.  This time around however I'm going on a virtual limb here as I just placed the order with the Baseball Card Exchange.

I don't mind claiming another team (or two), but I really don't want to eat a lot of teams.  If you've been on the fence now is the time to grab a team or two.  Boxes hopefully will ship today and be in my hands early next week.  I'll wait to cut off sign ups until the boxes are in hand.

A big thanks to everyone that has signed up and paid already.  Without everyone's support these breaks can't happen on a monthly basis.

Pack Break - 2012 Bowman

Ah, the new Bowman set has been unleashed on the collecting public and I again fell prey to at least buying one pack. 

I actually bought one of those blister card 3 packs that contain 3 super special cards (purple parallels).  I'm still question my decision, but while I continue to ponder that here is the contents from the first pack and a few other cards.

First card out of the back was Michael Bourne so that made me feel a little bit better about my purchase.  I like the base design for a change.  One thing I noticed is I got a lot of Blue Jays across the 3 packs.  Good thing for D a V e as they'll most likely be added to his upcoming group break stack.

The trend of 2 Bowman Chrome cards per pack continues.  I ended up w/ 2 different Jose prospects.

As promised my retail blister package gave me 3 exclusive purple parallels.  Again, most of these will be going to my upcoming group break participants.

Oh yeah, the boring gold parallels are still there...

I landed one non-parallel insert - Bowman's Best shiny chrome card of the Tigers' Jacob Turner.  Hmm, did someone claim the Tigers yet in my May 2012 Affordable Group Break?

If you caught my subtle hints I always try to include freebies in everyone's stack that participates in my Affordable Group Breaks.  As of this morning there are still several good teams left and just some plain cheap teams (read $4 shipped).  Do you want some freebies seen here plus other surprises?  Yeah?  Then what are you waiting for.  Fish those coins out from your sofa and go and sign up!

A World Series of a trade

I've been a bad trader lately.  I've got stacks and stacks of cards that need to be collated and removed from my want lists.  I've got want lists that haven't even been made yet (2012 Topps & GQ for example).  I've sad several bubble mailers come over the last few months containing cards from fellow bloggers that I haven't shared.  I'm working on getting my desk cleaned and organized, but I feel overwhelmed at times.  All that said I did recently get one card that I had to share b/c it's so cool...well at least to me.

Andruw Jones 2000 Upper Deck HoloGrFX A Piece of the World Series game-used base

I know what you're thinking.  How can a Andruw Jones card be cool?  Well just look at it!  First of all it's a game-used base card and those are really cool.  Second its from the 1999 World Series.  I know the Braves were swept in the '99 WS, but the card still contains a piece of history.

AJ aka the Lost Collector was gracious enough to offer up this card for trade as I believe this was an extra he acquired while building this entire set.  Down the road I think that may be a challenge I'd like to accept, but for now I'll just enjoy this beautiful card.

Do you have game-used base cards you don't want?  Chances are I may want them!  Send me an e-mail and we'll see what we can do.

May 2012 "All Donruss" Affordable Group Break - Teams start at $4 shipped!

For this month's Affordable Group Break I wanted to change up the formula I've been using over the last few months.  I'm going with an all Donruss theme this time around for starters. 

I'm also changing how the teams are claimed.  This time around you're only signing up for one team.  This will bring the cost per team down a bit and you won't possibly get stuck w/ a team you don't want.  Several of the teams that don't seem as popular will be discounted right off the bat with tiered pricing.  For the teams claimed that weren't around in 1986 I'll do my best to throw in some extra cards for you.  Trying to be fair to everyone.  Keep reading for all the details.

This month's break is again sponsored by the fine folks at the Baseball Card Exchange.  First up let's look at what's on the table this month.  How about some old and some new?

1986 Leaf

- Possible RCs of Cecil Fielder, Andres Galarraga, Fred McGriff

- The only true RC of Billy "Moneyball" Beane!

 2002 Donruss (Hobby)

- Lots of sequentially numbered parallels and inserts

- Click HERE for a complete run down

2002 Donruss Best of Fan Club (Hobby)

- Possible Cliff Lee RC

- 1 auto & 1 game-used memorabilia card per box

- Loads of inserts

- Click HERE for a complete run down

If you are interested in claiming more than 3 teams please let me know and perhaps we can work out some sort of discount.  To claim your team(s) please respond by commenting letting me know who you want.  Send your gift payment via PayPal to: cardboardcollections at yahoo.com .  Please send me an e-mail to the same e-mail address with the following info:  team(s), screen name/ID & mailing address

1st tier - $8 shipped

Atlanta Braves - Cardboard Collections (PAID)

Los Angeles Dodgers - The Dutch Card Guy (PAID)

New York Yankees - Stealing Home (PAID)

St. Louis Cardinals - IkesCards (PAID)

2nd tier - $7 shipped

Baltimore Orioles - 

Boston Red Sox - Stealing Home (PAID)

Chicago Cubs -

Chicago White Sox - Jeff Laws (PAID)
Cincinnati Reds -
Cleveland Indians - The Dutch Card Guy (PAID)
Colorado Rockies -

Milwaukee Brewers - cynicalbuddha (PAID)

New York Mets - TheBrooklynMet (PAID)

Philadelphia Phillies - arfmax (PAID)

San Diego Padres -
San Francisco Giants - 

Seattle Mariners -  

Texas Rangers - aj245 (PAID)
Toronto Blue Jays - D a V e (PAID)

3rd tier - $5 shipped

Detroit Tigers - The Lost Collector (PAID)
Florida Marlins - 
Houston Astros - The Lost Collector (PAID)
Kansas City Royals - Josh D. (PAID)
Los Angeles Angels - 

Minnesota Twins -
Montreal Expos - Cardboard Collections (PAID)

4th tier - $4 shipped
Arizona Diamondbacks -  
Oakland Athletics - jaybarkerfan
Pittsburgh Pirates -
Tampa Bay Rays -

Sunday Verse

Romans 5:6-8

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Powerful stuff.  Have a great Sunday.

Yardsellr finds

A few weeks before I left for vacation a Facebook friend invited me to join Yardsellr.  I hadn't heard of the site at the time so I checked it out and ended up joining.  After doing so I kept getting several e-mails where so & so joined and I won Photons or a friend gifted me Photons.  Photons are basically Yardsellr currency from what I can tell.  I still don't have the whole site figured out, but I did find a few cards that peaked my interest.

This Tim Hudson game-used hat card was the crown jewel of my finds.  It comes from the 2003 UD Vintage set and is serially numbered #156/250.  The seller was asking $6 shipped which in itself seemed like a fair offer.  I figured the same card on eBay would typically sell for more.  While mulling over the price I noticed I could use all of these Photons I had ticking down in my account and only have to pay a small handling fee.  Sold!  I ended up paying less than a dollar I believe for this awesome card of Huddy!

The seller I got the Hudson card from also had these Chipper Jones 2001 Topps HD 20 20 card.  I was able to exchange a few more Photons for this card too!  I'm a sucker for die-cut cards and I have always been intrigued by the Topps HD sets so this one was a no brainer to pick up.

The last card of the haul is this Chipper Jones 2002 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition Materialistic insert.  The center of the card is some sort of cloth.  I can't say I've ever seen this card before and the seller was only asking a buck or two.  I wasn't able to use any Photons for this transaction, but it still was a good deal.

Since I acquired these cards I've looked at the Yardsellr site a few more times, but nothing else has popped...well at least things that I can exchange my Photons for.  My collecting budget is ever shrinking so I have to wait until I can find great deals like these.  My question to everyone is have you bought (or sold) any cards on Yardsellr yet?  If so sound off.  I want to hear about your experiences/deals.