Player Collection: Sowers

I am a player collector for the most part. I did the whole MLB Showdown bit since 2000. The cards I need now don't even exist anymore (read: super rare promos). This left me with collecting Grady Sizemore cards, which I've done since 2004. I honestly haven't purchased any since probably the middle of last year. None of the new cards are even worth the time or the price. So I decided to re-start my Jeremy Sowers collection.

I started collecting his cards around mid 2005, I believe. My grand total for Jeremy is 6 cards.

2005 Carolina All Star Card with the Kinston Indians

2004 Bowman Sterling (which I paid $15 for in 2005 at a card show)

2005 Bowman DP&P Signs of the Future (lol) Auto

2005 Topps Personal Endorsements Auto /497

2005 Topps Turkey Red (Red Version) Auto /300

2005 Bowman Chrome X-Fractor (4x) /225 (177, 123, 062, 036)

All in all that's not really that impressive. Then again, neither is Sowers career to date, but he's my favorite player, so he gets a pass. Within the last two weeks, I've added quite a few nice cards to my collection.

The first being the card in the upper left hand corner. Yes it's a parallel. Usually I don't like parallels at all. However, I do think the Topps base design this year is quality. The red border I think also adds to the picture of the card, along with our "retro" themed jerseys. Here comes the homer part, it's serialed to 25 too.


This card has two different versions. This one is serialed to 299. The other is a die cut which is serialed to 61. I haven't seen the die cut on ebay in quite some time. I've always like the design of this card and the simplicity of it all. I'm not sure if it's an on card auto or not, but it doesn't matter, no ugly silver sticker, so that's a positive.

Last but not least is this one. I've always wanted to own an Exquisite card. They are the Ferrari of the sports card world. And when I saw that Sowers had an autograph in any Exquisite product I got excited because a) it's exquisite b) it's Sowers and c) it's going to be relatively cheap. The card ended up selling for a bit over $12. Ironic that it's with Andrew Miller, WaxHeaven's main man, who himself has been bounced around quite some time after being touted as the next big thing. The fact that there is only 10 of these cards is neat too. Add a big plus to the fact that both of these dudes are lefties, and I'm sold.

My Collection

I've been collecting Grady Sizemore cards since early 2004. I've got some pretty good ones, although I don't have the 2000 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects Autograph or his 2001 Topps Update Autograph. I probably never will. They are just too far out of my price range.

After reading Dave from Fielder's Choice Blog about his Longoria Collection, I wanted to see how my Sizemore collection compared.

Currently, I have 118 Grady Sizemore baseball cards. I thought I had about 70, haha.

Breakdown:
1 Printing Plate
4 Autographed (3 Serial Number Auto's)
11 Jersey cards (6 Serial Numbered)

My favorite card by far is this one below. I've written about it in a past blog.




I stopped collecting Grady cards in 2008. I didn't really have much time for card collecting and would like to try and acquire some before all the 2009 stuff comes out. If you have any to trade, get in contact with me.

I don't know where to begin on this

Like usual, I'm checking Ebay to see if I can find any new Sizemore cards that I don't already have. Basically any card from 2008. What I did find could be the best Ebay seller to have ever been on the website.

sleepover8

Go have a look at their shop.

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/sleepover8

I don't know whether to feel bad for this person for setting the prices on the cards so high, or wonder if they really are 8, like the number in the username.

My favorite part about the whole store is that Justin Upton is only $2.

Also, if any of you know how to actually link on Blogger, can you let me know. Some reason the code does not work for me. Thanks!

Trade?

Does anyone have any Grady Sizemore cards to trade? Ebay really doesn't have much to offer, at least in terms of cards I don't have. I'm mostly looking for all 2008 cards of his, along with the late 2007 releases.

My other wants at the moment are the list of players to the right.

As for sets, I'd be interested in trading for any 2008 Topps Finest Baseball(especially the Refractors), 2008/2009 UD Black Diamond Hockey, or Evgeni Malkin. Unfortunately, I do not have an exact needs list for the set online anywhere. I'd also be interested in any and all Tribe cards, especially those from pre 1980's

If you have any of the above, post a comment and let me know what you are looking for, I have tons of cards from all sports, with a much higher quantity in baseball.

New Low in Card Collecting

This is my first post in nearly a month. I'm quickly losing interest in sports cards. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I don't really have much money to splurge on cards, maybe it's because there aren't that many sets out right now that interest me, actually the main reason I'm losing interest in sports cards are PARALLELS!

These things suck. My favorite baseball player is Grady Sizemore. I like to think I have a pretty good card collection of him. Plenty of commons, some rare cards, some auto's and a lot of game used stuff. However, every time I head over to Ebay to see what I might want to buy, I get disgusted when I see 10 different listings on the first page of "GAME USED SWATCH UD SPECTRUM, PURPLE RAINBOW STORM REFRACTOR /75". That card is selling for 5 bucks. Cool, I'll pick that up. But wait, I'm not done yet as I've still have to purchase the /10, /55, /35, /105, and the ever so rare /555.

Seriously Topps and UD, stop doing this shit. I know quite a few blogs out there that I frequent (most notably Sportscards Uncensored) talks about this daily and I love reading about it.

However, when browsing today, I have seen it all. The 2008 UD Grady Sizemore Jersey out of their base set is not serial numbered which makes it not as rare. So how would the seller make this card seem enticing?



Yep, just plop a pair of pushed up tits with the card in the middle of the two. Genius. Whatever dude buys that card will be in heaven. Probably gloat to his buddies "d00d i just won a jerzey card of an all-star for 10 bucks and it was on some tits!"

Personally, I think this option of selling your cards is real tacky. Not to mention it screams white trash when you consider that in the lower left corner the woman's hand is pushing up her boob so the stupid card is "centered".

By the way, if you guys care enough to look at some of their other SUPER BOOB auctions, the persons name is sweet daisy20.

Have fun.

I Love Exquisite

There's no way in hell I'd ever pay $200 for a box or tin of cards. As much as I love buying cards and getting an awesome pull, I just cannot pull the trigger on shit like that.

Last year I bought a pack of 2007 SPx for $20. I had never purchased a pack of SPx before, so I figured why not try it once. One Dennis Sarfate autograph later, I wanted my money back. I can't imagine getting that feeling knowing I just spent 10x as much on a box of Exquisite.

The hype for Exquisite at the National card show was mayhem. Between that and Allen and Ginter just coming out, that's all the dealers talked about. So as many of them were breaking case upon case of Exquisite, I'd just watch and see these great looking cards being pulled. And nobody pulled anything solid that day.

Now, I want to finally get some Exquisite. I just got my paycheck and can easily buy some of the holy grail of sports cards. With that said, I'm going straight to Ebay. As a Cleveland Indians fan first and foremost, I'm going to try and find Tribe cards.

Within the first few minutes, I've seen a ton of cut signatures listed, and sitting around $30. For all the hype these kind of cards get after being pulled, as the owner selling it, I'd be kinda pissed that I'm only getting back $30 in return. Then again, I'm not the seller so I couldn't careless. One cool cut signature I did see was Earl Averill, former Tribe great and one of the few who has his number retired with us.

I've got two cards I am going to be bidding on later today. One is a dual signature of Jeremy Sowers and Paul Maholm. The second card is a tri-patch featuring Hafner, Martinez, and Sizemore. Never seen this card before, and it'd add another great card to my already large Sizemore collection. Hopefully I'll be able to win the auction.

Indians Cards!

Much like Jon, I love to collect anything with the Indians name or Chief Wahoo logo on it. I have a ton of Tribe cards, and love breaking them out here and there to look at some of the names (mostly Topps Total 2002).

However, recently, I've been wanting to purchase a bulk amount of older baseball cards just for the sole purpose of looking at pictures, uniforms, and names of the players. Over on David's Indians card blog (It's in my blog roll, check it out!) he posted this fun card listing:

http://tribecards.blogspot.com/2008/06/selling-7000-indians-cards.html

7,000+! This is a dream come true. It sold on Ebay for nearly 50 bucks, and I was the lucky winner (yes I'm a sniping pro). I really excited to be receiving this and plan on uploading many photos to this blog. Unfortunately at the moment my USB drive is broken, so any pictures I take, do no good.

In the last week, I received my 2005 Playoff Prestige Grady Sizemore Purple Parallel /100 along with my 2008 Co-Signers Sizemore Printing Plate.

Also, I'm going to Chicago with my parents for the Peterson Bowling Tournament, and hope to find a few card shops out there near the hotel so I can bust some packs, or start a Ryan Theriot collection.

Fake

2/10? Yeah right. If memory serves me right, this card is out of /530 or so. Update doesn't parallel that much. Good try. Anyone that pays $50 for this should be refunded.



Here's a real version of the card. To be totally honest, I didn't think fake relics would make it's way onto a low end Sizemore card.

First Packs of UD Series 2 and 08 Finest Baseball

Decided to take a trip down to Akron to see two stores I'd never been too yet. The first one featured Magic: The Gathering with thousands upon thousands of Magic cards laying out. His sports section was a few glass cases and one row of basketball, baseball, and football cards.

The owner really didn't have anything, however he did have the new Upper Deck Series which everyone has been raving about. So I bought a jumbo pack.

UD Series 2:
Denard Span, Minnesota Twins (Rookie)
Dmitri Young
Season Highlights CC Sabathia
Season Highlights Jose Reyes
Brian Bocock San Francisco Giants (Rookie)
Orlando Cabrera
Adam Eaton
Josh Beckett
Kenny Rogers
USA Baseball Insert Brett Hunter
UD Anniversary Ad (More about this later)
Bill Hall
Shane Costa
Jeremy Hermida
Duaner Sanchez
Yuniesky Betancourt
Rocco Baldelli
Ryan Church
Brad Lidge
Miguel Olivo
Kazuo Anal Fissures Matsui




Not a bad pack some great pictures (Bill Hall) and some bad ones (Baldelli). I have a Ryan Church card which I'm excited about because I used to be all about him when he was back in Akron. Not to mention the fact I got current Indian, CC Sabathia. I'll probably keep buying packs of this here and there, but I don't think that I will try collect any of it since I didn't pick up any of Series 1.

Next was the second card store, which turned out to be a house where a man just sold vintage items. He had a few of the premium '60's-70's cards, but outside of that mostly just Starting Lineups. He did however have the coveted '89 Griffey rookie, and was asking $40. If I go back, I'm going to be buying the program from the 1948 World Series, he was asking $50 for that.

After being thoroughly let down on my first two stops, I decided that a stop was in order to my usual card store, AllPro in Cuyahoga Falls (or is it Stow?).

I walked in and went straight for the Indians card section to see if any new Grady cards were in; however I couldn't even find the Tribe box. The owner has a big box of relic and auto'd stuff that all costs $5 for a single card. I wanted to see if I could start Drazen Petrovic collection, but nothing in there other than a Sizemore jersey which I didn't have yet.

2006 UD Artifacts AL Artifacts Blue Jersey /325


After that I bought a Mini Box of 2008 Topps Finest. I don't know why, but last night I had a dream that I bought Finest and received the Jay Bruce Redemption Card (Redemption Card #2). I attribute that dream to reading a blog post on the set, and the Beckett hype about Bruce. Now, onto the packs:

Pack One:
Mark Teixeira
Grady Sizemore (!!!!!!)
Justin Verlander Green Refractor (042/199)
Carlos Pena
Bronson Sardinha

Pack Two:
Prince Fielder
Erik Bedard
Jonathan Meloan Rookie Auto White(??) Refractor (Blue Ink Auto 046/499) LA Dodgers
Finest Moments David Ortiz
Chris Carpenter

Pack Three:
John Smoltz
Carlos Lee
Curtis Granderson
Topps Team Favorites Eric Chavez
Donny Lucy Chicago White Sox (Rookie)

Pack Four:
Ryan Howard
Justin Upton
Carl Crawford Blue Refractor 053/299
Redemption Card NUMBER TWO*******
Josh Newman Colorado Rockies (Rookie)
Dan Giese New York Yankees (Rookie)

Pack Five:
Tim Lincecum
Derrek Lee
Finest Moments Matt Holliday Black Refractor
Finest Moments Trevor Hoffman
Garrett Atkins

Pack Six:
Joba Chamberlain
Curt Schilling (he still plays?)
Finest Moments Mark Reynolds (who?) Blue Refractor (146/299)
Topps Team Favorites Alfonso Soriano
Barry Zito




Mini Box breakdown:
Percent of Set Complete: 11% (18 out of 166)
Doubles: 0
Rookie Redemption (1:3): Redemption #2 (Jay Bruce)
Blue Refractor (1:2): Mark Reynolds, Carl Crawford
Green Refractor (1:2): Justin Verlander
Gold Refractor (1:7): Carlos Pena, Josh Newman (Rookie)
Topps Team Favorites (1:?): Alfonso Soriano, Eric Chavez
Finest Moments (1:?): Trevor Hoffman, David Ortiz
Finest Moments Refractor (1:4): Matt Holliday

Yes, I'm not lying when I said I received Redemption Card Number Two. Yes I really did have a dream about getting it. I think it's time to start dreaming about winning the Lottery.

As for the set itself, it's nice. I found that a few of the cards that I looked over turned out to be refractors, and I honestly have no clue how to tell the odds of each refractor. So some of those listed above aren't totally right.

The biggest pull by far is the Redemption card, and then second I guess would be the auto. Granted Meloan isn't pithing well in AAA; with 50 IP under his belt so far he's sitting on a 4.14 ERA with a 1.58 WHIP (47K/27BB). We'll see if he ends up with my "what could have been" autograph club. So far that is occupied by Dennis Sarfate (07 SPx) and Miguel Montero (07 Moments and Milestones).

Well this is by far the longest post, but I had a good haul, so whatever.

Overall, this is a really nice set. And a great way to start it. The premier Redemption card (not named Fukudome) and a Grady card to boot. I'll probably buy a few more of these before the season is over, but I'm most definitely going to purchase a box of UD Legendary Cuts first.

Nothing really new

Yeah, I got two more Sizemore cards that I bought off Ebay this weekend, the 2004 Bowman Heritage serial numbered to /1955 and a 2008 Topps Moments and Milestones 22nd Home Run Card Serial Numbered to /10.

So far for the 2008 M&M set I'm going to try and collect a single card of each of the blue parallel for each of his 24 homers. 2 down, 22 to go...not bad for a complete shit set, huh?

I was also really bored and looked at some of my older cards and found my two Albert Pujols 2001 National Promo cards (for the Heritage set of 2001), and wow. Ebay had one going for nearly 60 bucks and Beckett Marketplace (ha) had one going for $125. Not bad considering I traded a few MLB Showdown foils a few years back to scoop up my second Pujols promo off my cousin.

I'm debating going to the card store to pick up some packs but most of the stores around here aren't really that great, aside from one. Guy specializes in wax and I might be waiting for more stuff (Allen and Ginter) to come out before I drop more money in his store. Plus the way gas is going, I can't really travel very far to find new stores.

If I get around to it tomorrow, I'll maybe upload some pictures of my Sizemore cards.