Trade with ARPSmith and a Bowman Chrome Update

At today's show, I was able to valiantly resist purchasing an entire box of Bowman Chrome at the show today.  Seventy two cards in a box is not sufficient for my opening needs, even at reduced show prices.  I did break down and purchase one pack.  My one thought on the base cards in the pack were "Wasn't this the same design as last year and the year before?"  I'm sure there is a difference, but I would be hard pressed to know what it is.  I also ended up pulling the following Nolan Arenado insert, which is super-shiny, but otherwise a card destined to sit in my boxes until it ends up somewhere else.



A few weeks ago, I worked a primarily "vintage" for new, glossy cards deal with Adam over at ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession.  As I was leaving for a short vacation last week, a hefty box arrived filled with cards from Adam.  The cards put a significant dent in my want lists towards completing sets, while the 1973 Topps cards heading west are unlikely to be missed.



There was a strong showing for all three 2012 Topps sets, though Series 1 and 2 dominated, as I purchased a box of neither this year.  The Willis and Ramirez cards showcase the players with teams you will never remember ten years from now.  In fact, I had already forgotten Dontrelle spent time with the Cincinnati Reds and this doesn't even cover the Diamondback, Phillie or Oriole portions of his career.



There was also a fairly large amount of 2012 Topps Archives in the box as well, somewhere in the neighborhood of half a set.  As you can might have guessed, my favorite design is the 1984 Topps, which I grew up with.  Yogi barely edged out the Babe for scanning.  I also have come very close to finishing the 2011 Topps Lineage set as well.  The Wagner is a nice addition to any set, since I am such a sucker for pre-war players on post-war cards.



Finally, we have the above.  My almost certainly misguided attempt to complete the 2010 Topps T206 Mini set was greatly aided by the box, knocking 30 or so cards off my list.  Kendrick's card has one of my favorite backgrounds from the original set, which is found on Hall of Famer George Davis's card.  The Diamond Stars Foxx is from CMG reprints set.  Given my new focus on the set, we may see Mr. Foxx appear again quite soon.  Finally, there is Tris Speaker on a 2000 Topps card.  Having went 15 years without thinking about baseball cards, I was almost surprised that there was no original 2000 Topps Tris Speaker card as some kind of shortprint.

Well, I hope Adam is as happy with his haul, as I am with mine.

Combined Shipping: The Beginning

Last week, I placed some 2012 Topps Archives Short Prints in my watchlist. I've been on the fence about collecting this set, as I genuinely like the cards and find most of the players in the short print set quite interesting as their careers basically dovetail with the time I followed baseball most intently. 

The auction started at $0.01 with a shipping charge of $2.99. With no one else bidding, I picked up 7 short prints (2 Bake McBrides unfortunately) for $3.00. Below are some of the fine short prints I added to my set.



Of course, having won such a low cost auction and noticing that other eBay victories would only require an additional $0.50 shipping for each additional item, I clicked that taunting link of See Other Items.  Not content to let my singular purchase go as is, when I, the well-reasoned and intended buyer can lower his overall total costs by purchasing other, low-cost items I might be interested in, especially with the shipping barrier significantly lowered. 

Armed with a mouse and willingness to purchase lots of cards on the cheap, I began bidding with heart, with gusto, with alarming regularity.  Taking a purchase of just 7 cards, I ended up with nearly 70 cards in my final order.  I also ended up with a new set quest, which I had no intention of completing.  The Brendan Shanahan below is my third 2012 Goodwin Champions Hockey Relic.  Since it was less than a dollar before shipping, it was an easy purchase.  Which has led to other easy purchases, which I will show off during the next few weeks. 



Combined shipping, you are an evil mistress.

Why I Hate My LCS: Hobby Versus Retail

I hate to admit this, but I hate all of the local card stores near me.  I am quite lucky there are three within driving distance of my home and one of which is in walking distance of my job.  Two of the card stores are own by the same operation, while a third is operated independently.  It used to be different, as the card store near my job used to have great cards, but limited product.  I purchased two of my T206s from the store, including a very nice (possibly VG) horizontal Barney Pelty with great color and just the slightest hint of a crease in the lower left hand corner.  I also bought a Wilbur Goode there as well for a decent price.  Of course, like all good things, it must end, as he ended up going out of business and selling to one of his competitors. 

Today, being a summer day and already in my car to run an errand near work, I chanced upon stopping at the local card store.  While I do hate them, I still frequent them, because shows aren't every weekend, nor open on weekdays and cards conveniently available is a big draw.  Now, if there is no parking right near by, I can keep on driving, but as usual, there was decent parking available on a Thursday afternoon.

I walked in and saw the same selection of merchandise, jerseys, cards from the 70s through 90s, expensive vintage packs, which unsurprisingly I've bought from during my nostalgic piques and moved over to the new packs, as I was already aware there would be no tobacco cards to be had in the store.  In fact, the one time I asked, I was told that he has other customers who always buy them from him.  As a proprietor in this day and age, I am quite pleased to see he does not need any additional business or people to purchase his wares, but nevertheless, let my desire for convenience beat my pride. 

So, I saw there were some 2012 Topps Archives packs available and noticed there were only three dollars a pack, which is cheaper than the five dollars a pack I saw the last time I was in the shop.  So, not wanting a whole box of highly overpriced cards, I purchase one pack and leave the store.

Now, as you may know, for Archives, Topps made the relic cards quite common in the retail packs and quite rare in the hobby boxes, with the inverse being true for autographs.  In fact, the one pack of Topps Archives I bought at retail this year contained a Yovani Gallardo relic card which sits somewhere amidst my card boxes.

For some reason, I decided to look at the back of the package and notice, lo and behold, my local card shop is selling Retail packs, as the odds of obtaining a relic card were 1 in 30.  I was very disappointed by this.  If I want to buy retail packs, I can go to Target, where people seem to genuinely want my business, rather than the LCS, whose primary draw is Hobby packs.  It's not even a matter of odds or results, it is the principle.  I think it is incumbent on the hobby store owner to indicate he is selling retail.  If I go to a card show, the guy who sells retail boxes and packs indicates quite clearly you are buying retail and not hobby, as he understands the expectations of his patrons. 

Not so, the less than jovial fellow who owns the LCS by me.  He believes we should all be experts and know the difference from 8 feet away over a counter and not feel like a sucker when he is taken like this.  In fact, it is things like this in my childhood that led me to stop collecting cards for a very long time. 

Despite this, I did enjoy the contents of the pack, as the top card was a Nolan Ryan in the very classic 1984 Topps design and my "insert" was a Carl Yastrzemski archives card, which was quite nice as well.  Of course, I still couldn't shake the feeling of how tainted it felt, because the proprietor failed to provide the necessary information about the cards.  Were I to feel even more strongly about the issue, I would call is a lie by omission.