September Mail Roundup

How many times have you read this on the blogosphere: I've been slacking on here over the past month. No excuses, just haven't gotten around to posting much. Despite my journalistic failures, I've made plenty of purchases and a few TCDB swaps. Time to show off some the highlights from September:

Derek Jeter - 1993 Topps RC

A good friend of mine was cleaning out some old possessions and came across a small card collection from his childhood. He hasn't collected in a long time and has no intentions of getting back in. He's an experienced eBay seller - so he was able to liquidate and make some money. While doing so, he gave me a good deal on this Jeter rookie. It's not an expensive card by any means - I think there are about a million copies of this card out there - but I'm super pumped to add this to my collection. It's my first Jeter rookie. I feel like it's almost a must-have for any baseball collector. 

 Eloy Jiminez - 2019 Topps Chrome RC Refractor

My first eBay pickup of the month. The White Sox were tons of fun this year,  and their young nucleus of players is firing on all cylinders. Their "window is open," and they've got a few great years ahead of them. Hitting in the middle of the lineup you'll find slugger Eloy Jiminez. His career is off to a blistering hot start. After hitting 31 homers his rookie year, he followed it up by hitting 14 homers and hitting .296 in 213 at bats. 

Eloy was the hot prospect last yearbut has since been eclipsed by fellow CWS outfielder Luis Robert. He's already been slept on, so I felt it was a great time to grab a nice rookie of his.

(L) Ke'Bryan Hayes  - 2015 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects - Chrome 

(R) Ke'Bryan Hayes  - 2015 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects - Chrome Purple Refractor #/250

Ke'Bryan Hayes joined the Pirates big league roster this year, and as one of their top prospects, he did not disappoint. In just 24 games, he hit .376, played Gold Glove caliber defense, and had a WAR of 1.8. I really should dedicate an entire post to his season and I have plenty of his cards to show off. Hayes has the potential to be one of the best 3B in the league, although I fear his prime may be wasted with the Pirates inability to contend over the next several seasons. 

Gavin Lux - 2020 Topps Turkey Red

Acquired via TCDB trade. Lux is another exciting young rookie. I was able to add this in a counter-offer and my trade partner agreed.

Kyle Lewis - 2017 Bowman - Prospects Silver #/499

Also acquired via TCDB trade. Lewis was a surprising rookie this year and I was happy to pick up a cool prospect card of his.

Javier Baez - 2015 Bowman Chrome Rookie Autograph Refractor #/500

As a Pirates fan and Cubs-hater, this one pains me a little bit. When Baez first came up, his demeanor was a little triggering. After developing into a well-rounded and popular ball player, he's earned my respect. "Real recognize real," I suppose. Doesn't mean I'll root for the Cubs. 

Now onto some basketball...

Bam Adebayo - 2017 Donruss Optic Bam Adebayo RC Lime Green #/175

I had a blast watching the NBA finals, specifically watching the Heat make a really special run. I've been following Kentucky basketball closely since 2015, almost never missing a game. I liked Bam's game at UK, but I'll be honest, I didn't predict this kind of early success at the NBA level. In college he was very much a traditional big man, but he's done an exceptional job of adjusting his game to the NBA style. He's developed a great dribble-drive, a reliable jumper, and he's a good inside-out passer.

I actually acquired this card via a Twitter sale. For the record, I don't endorse buying cards on Twitter. I've been part of the Twitter-card community for a while now, so I have a decent eye for red flags and such. Even so, there are no real buyer protections and you could easily get burned. There are definitely some dodgy characters on there. The upside is that you can find some really great deals. Sellers love it because they can avoid the fees. I've made a handful of purchases via Twitter (less than 10) and never had a problem, but I hold my breath every time.

(L)  Ja Morant - 2019-20 Panini Contenders Draft Picks School Colors Insert

(R) Ja Morant - 2019-20 NBA Hoops RC

These two were part of one eBay sale. I went on looking for the just the Hoops base card, but the lowest priced BIN included the Contenders insert so I jumped on it. I think Morant is the best player last year's draft and I'm adamant that he'll have a better career than Zion Williamson. I don't want to spring for any of Ja's other rookies, so Hoops is a great middle ground.

2003 Skybox Autographics - LeBron James/Kobe Bryant Rookies Affirmed Insert

Saved the best for last. This was also acquired via Twitter, but not blindly. I had already traded with the seller through TCDB and I was very happy with our trade. The cards were sent quickly and packed well, and the purchase of this card was no different. This was a bigger purchase for Twitter and I probably wouldn't have done it if I wasn't familiar with the seller. 

This card is awesome. Two of the greatest players on one card . It's also from 2003, LeBron's rookie year, so we'll call it half of a rookie card. My only gripe is the gigantic Skybox logo across the middle of the card which doesn't make a ton of sense to me. We would have been way better without it.

 I have a nice little collection of both LeBron and Kobe and this will fit right in.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Six Years in the Making: 2013 Topps Chrome Baseball Blue Parallel Set

Way back in 2013 , I chronicled my desire to build the entire 220 card set of 2013 Topps Chrome Baseball with a twist: Not only did I want to build the full set, I wanted to build it entirely of blue parallels which are numbered to /199.

I’m happy to say that I achieved that goal two years ago during my blogging hiatus when I finally hunted down Madison Bumgarner. I sat on 219 cards for almost a year before the Bumgarner card finally popped up an eBay saved search. I’m a huge fan of that eBay feature. 

Last week I pulled the set out and went through it card-by-card. Man, there are some memories in here. It was hell of a journey that took a lot of time and effort. To commemorate the journey, let’s hit on some random thoughts.

There were some cards that are a steal for the price, looking back:

• #1 Mike Trout
• #25, Hyun-Jin Ryu RC
• #65, Didi Gregorius RC
• #78, Nolan Arenado RC
• #179, Aaron Hicks RC

There were cards that I paid way too much for, looking back:

• #12, Manny Machado RC
• #57, Jurickson Profar RC – ouch
• #73, Trevor Rosenthal RC
• #138, Yasiel Puig RC – This was the most expensive of all 220 cards. I remember all the “mania’s” around certainly players when it comes to collecting (Darvish, Tanaka, Ohtani), but I think Puig-mania takes the cake. A lot of THREE of these cards sold for $7.50 on eBack in June. Brutal.
• #220, Bryce Harper

There are things about this set that make me really sad:

• #104 Roy Halladay, #88 Tyler Skaggs and #32 Jose Fernandez left us at way too young of an age.
• Christian Yelich did not have a base card in this set, only autos. It was his rookie year.

What the hell happened to:

• Evan Gattis?
• Allen Craig?
• Robbie Grossman?
• Mike Olt?
• Mark Trumbo?

There are some bonafide future Hall of Famers towards the end of their careers:

• #10, Derek Jeter
• #34, Felix Hernandez
• #68, Paul Konerko
• #79, David Ortiz
• #100 Miguel Cabrera
• #168 Alex Rodriguez

Now that the set is six years old, we have a very good idea of what these 220 players careers look like. The rookie class is strong with names like Machado and Arenado, and the Trout card has the “All Star Rookie” trophy stamp on it, so that boosts it’s value. Because of that, I sent these three cards of the Beckett for grading. Grading was never my plan necessarily -- but I guess that’s kind of the point of building a set and then holding onto it: Looking back and seeing what's changed. Digging up memories and preserving value.

I’m hoping the three cards come back with decent grades and further add to the intrigue of this set. Either way, I’m excited to place the set back in storage and pull it out in another two years.

This was a huge challenge but it's been fun and rewarding to build it up card by card through trades, hobby shops, COMC, and eBay.

What do you think? Should I try something similar again?

Take My 2014 Topps S1 Parallels and Inserts, For I Need Them Not

So far I've only bought two hanger boxes of Series 1. I'm happy with that, because I'm on a pretty tight budget as of now. It also helps that I'm not in love with S1, although it does offer some good stuff- none which I've pulled. In my opinion, everything I've pulled is crap. Big lack of Pirates too, which is disappointing. 

Here's all the crap that I've pulled. It's all for trade, and it won't take much in exchange for you to take them home. If you're interested, drop a comment or shoot me an email at nsbell440@gmail.com!

Thanks for reading, Nate