2015

Today marks the start of the 2015 Major League Baseball Season in 2015 A.D.

Today marks the 11th year in my search for the 2002 MLB Showdown Ichiro DCI promo.

This is the year.

10 years ago....

It was 2001. Holy shit, it really was 2001. I'm 14, most likely watching Baseball tonight in my room with no air conditioning. Aside from the tv, the only light comes from a desk lamp situated on my massive desk. this light also doubles as flood lights for a baseball game. My room is dark and very humid, which to me always added to the darkness of the room.

I honestly didn't care to ever turn on a light. I was too busy playing MLB Showdown with the 2001 Base Set. A 462 card set broken down into 400 commons and 62 foils. And yeah, I completed sets. And this month 10 years ago marks the release of 2001 Pennant Run.

Pennant Run was a set composed of 175 player cards and 25 Strategy cards. I'm gonna turn back the clock with the rest of this month and breakdown this set.

Even if you didn't play Showdown, there's some really fantastic names that make you go "did this guy really play pro baseball?"

Hope you enjoi

And then there were 2

Shawn Green. Ichiro.

two of the final pieces to the puzzle that is the 2002 MLB Showdown DCI Promotional Card set. I've never seen either in person.

Kerry Wood was the third puzzle piece, however he was acquired in the last week from a former boarder at the best website ever, Showdowncards.com. Brycie, if you read this, reopen the forums.

I traded 2001 Promotional Cards of Richie Sexson and trot Nixon. Both of the Future Stars set. Never traded away cards I only had one copy of before. Always thought it'd bother me to lose them and get further away from the goal of having every card. Guess it takes a little loss for a gain, right?

I'll find them all eventually. Just adds more a bit more chase.

Blown Chance

Work until 6. See my Mom after for an hour or so. Go home, make a quick bid on Ebay and then go help a friend move. It's Sunday, I want to do none of those things, except see Mom of course.

So I end up placing the bid via phone and that is super confusing. Some real slow browser that I assume I'm hitting the buttons but the screen doesn't change. So I hit again, this time shoots me ahead 2 pages and I'm about to confirm a bid for $6,500 instead of $65.00. Shit, costly mistake.

Luckily I was able to sort the phone out and placed a bid. I changed it at the last second. $66, Mario Lemieux. Get home later, check Ebay.

$68 final. Fuck. Crushed..I had been watching this auction for a week debating should I BIN for $75 (I didn't). At least I saved about $75. No idea what I want to put that towards. And what was I bidding on....

1,500 new Showdown cards.

SWAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

How Long is too Long?

NOTE: This post is going to be about MLB Showdown, sort of.

With the start of MLB under full swing and me being bored, I've started searching for MLB Showdown again. I never understand why I still do it. Outside of maybe 10 games played against ghost co-blogger James, I barely touched my cards. I have easily over 10,000. Add to the fact I moved in November and all my cards are still at my parents house.

Anyways, my goal is to find and personally own every printed MLB Showdown card. Promotionals included. Some of the 2000 promos are hard to find. 2001 somewhat harder. 2002-2005, simple. Except for the 2002 DCI promos. Occasionally Sammy Sosa or Kerry Wood pops up on Ebay. A few are for sale on Beckett Marketplace. The most ultra rare is the Ichiro. Beckett Marketplace had one for sale for $30.00 a few years back. I balked. Something about spending $30 for a single card (especially Showdown) didn't seem right.

Not only that but if I were to buy that card I felt my whole search (which at the time had spanned 4 years) would be cheapened by such a simple click of a mouse. I guess I really enjoy the chase. Once you find and get your item of desire, what happens next? Ichiro would just become an afterthought collecting dust in a binder at my parents?

I didn't buy the card. My search, now nearly 7 years in the making is still going on. I'm searching for the shark that ate my best friend. Steve Zissou style. He found his shark eventually, I should too.

I guess my question for anyone who comes across the blog or still reads this is, what do you do when you find your white whale (Jaguar Shark)? Do you move onto something else?

I'm honestly not sure what the next step would be.



This is the card in question, except it isn't a foil. There's a silver DCI stamp on it.

....I also lied, this is totally about MLB Showdown. And I guess my weird collecting/search habits. OCD I suppose.

Sports Cards, Boring.

You know when card collecting becomes truly fun? It's not really about pulling that huge hit, 1/1 super refractor, Hottest Prospect X, none of that stuff is more than a pissing contest. Who gets that first scoop on the newest product...Beckett or Blogs? Who fucking cares. Cards now are filled with such bullshit it's insane. Hype, flash, re-sell value, new reprocessed vintage set...big deal. Why did you or I get into cards?

I got into it thanks to my dad. I have fond memories of him taking me to card shops/shows/fests when I was real young...shit was surreal. Trading, buying, selling...of baseball players? I wanted some of my own.

Which is why when I played MLB Showdown I got that same feeling. A card game featuring baseball players...bye Pokemon. Tons of trading, all the time, and everywhere too. Online, in person, tournaments, friends. Thoughts of should I trade my Pedro for Ivan Rodriguez and Randy Velarde? These were my worries back in 2000. ...Wait, time out...I'm not sure who'd get the better part of that deal...like honestly that's a pretty solid deal.

I really miss this that the most. People just trading and enjoying it. Cards weren't worth much and we all knew it. And what reminds of that is an email I received recently. I wish more people were out there trading, I'd really love to get that 2003 Mark Grace Super Season.

Bring Back MLB Showdown.

Overproduced, Underappreciated

Nostalgia has set in here at Attic Insulation. Searching for that first real full time job and not having much cash to blow doesn't leave one able to purchase new boxes or packs. Instead, I'm digging through cards from 1955-1996. Plenty of winners to be had in the lot.

I bring you the third and final installment of the WAX RACK SEARCH. When I see some of these cards, I feel like I've been digging through the ocean floor and have just found the Titanic. Actually no, not the Titanic. More like the Hope Diamond.

Seriously, so many people just see 1980's-1990's cards and say "junk wax". And in all honesty, that is so true. I see posting on Craigslist all the time about "please buy my cards, plenty of rare ones, 1980-1990's! Ken Griffey Rookies!!!". Unfortunately for these people they will never sell that Griffey ($3 value) along with the other 10,000 cards for $300. In fact, I doubt I'd ever purchase cards from that era again, but I'd be a liar to say it's not so much fun digging through them seeing how goofy those dudes looked.

Although, to be fair, I'd never pass up a box of Fleer Metal. Unless the store owner wanted $40 (LOOKING AT YOU GUY IN CANTON).

Enough about junk wax, let's get to the hope diamonds.


First up, Milwaukee Brewer's golden child BJ Surhoff. I really like the photo used. There was no way to get a shot of him doing anything else? Running away from the play. No hitting, fielding, sitting on the bench with gum on his hat? This card reminds me of Eddie Matthews MLB Showdown card, except that card is so much worse. At least you can see Surhoff's face in this. Solid effort Donruss.

This has to be the most basic card I've ever seen. It is also one of the best cards I have ever seen. This card could be pulled today and nobody would blink an eye. The best part is Ryno's card is from the tail end of the 1990 Score set. Yes, Score used to make good looking cards, I had a hard time believing it. I hope that I have more of these lying around somewhere. Cardboard perfection right here folks.

While I joke about how much care I didn't take with my cards growing up, sometimes I surprise myself. This Canseco is in a penny sleeve! I knew Canseco and his home run hitting power. I also remember him as the guy whose head helped Candy Maldonado hit a homer at the old Municipal Stadium. I was also there for that game. I was little, but I was there. Going back to the card however, not even a penny sleeve could handle my youthful strength. A beautiful solid bend tarnishes this card forever. Or gives it character, you tell me.

This card is heavy. It is also embossed. AND VERY VERY ACTION PACKED. (Also creased, lol). I didn't know embossed cards happened in 1992. But here's living proof that yes, yes indeed, embossed cards happened in 1992.

My favorite Indian growing up prior to my Kenny Lofton lovefest in the 90's. I really don't have an explanation for my fandom of Brook. I think it was his name. Anyways, I used to have a small card book that was given away to all kids of the Indians Fan Club back in the early 90's. It allowed for 4 cards per page, with probably 5 pages in it total. I remember nearly half of that book was Brook cards. Then Jesse Levis and some Joey Bells. I'd love to find that book one day.

Holy shit, this guy played baseball. A watered down version of Rod Beck, in style only. I love the background of his photo. The "FANTASY DRAFT" icon. What I really want to know is, if given a chance at a "Fantasy Draft", would you take Bryan Harvey? For me, 1,000 times yes.

Mike Benjamin. I had no idea he had played in this time. I only know him as the On Base 5 Shortstop with a +5 arm from 2000 MLB Showdown.

I really believe Matt Stairs is why EastBound and Down exists. Everything Matt Stairs has done in his career has been perfect. My only wish is that he played for the Indians. Matt you are a legend and one day I will visit Cooperstown and tell my kids "yes, I saw Matt Stairs hit many moonshots in my life", as memories come rushing back and tears swell up and I choke on every word of that sentence.

This card really wasn't going to be included. I have no idea what Bottenfield's life stats are. I didn't bother looking at the back to see if he had a good year. I didn't care. I just remember he somehow got 2 MLB Showdown cards in 2000. The first one was a Control 0 with Saint Louis. The second a Control 3 with Anaheim (hey remember that team?).

Up until finding this card, I forgot all about Damon. He was another favorite of mine growing up, simply for his last name. Berryhill. God, imagine how good a hill full of berries would be. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. I'd make so many PBJ and pancakes filled with berries it'd be unreal. I want a Berryhill.

At first, I thought this was a Valentine's Day card that I forgot to give out in 2nd grade. The goofy banner around the photo confused me. The photo of Babe is real cool, but everything else was straight Looney Tunes. So then I flipped to the back.

Apparently this card came with a Collector's Plate? I honestly have no idea where it came from or what it came with. It is a baseball card, goofy looking, and now is on the blog. Common sense pick really.

And you probably thought, what could top Babe Ruth? Of course the logical answer is Hipolito Pichardo. James, if you ever read the blog again, I posted this card with you in mind. That and all the Hipolito Pichardo super fans out there. I GAAAAA-RUNNN-TEEE that blog traffic just went up 200%.

And finally we have come to the Hope Diamond. Everything about this card is perfect. The Expansion Draft. The photo. It being our former failed grinder manager Eric Wedge. And certainly the mustache. Holy shit that mustache. Any dude who has or have ever had that mustache cannot be taken serious. This ladies and gentleman, is the best card in my entire collection.

This is beyond baseball, this is mustache.

2/93....2.15% Done

As I've mentioned before (nearly a year ago) I wanted to try and collect the whole 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Autographs. Figuring that I'd continue my card quest and nothing would happen to side track me I would have a decent collection going a year later. In that time, I've purchased ZERO of the autographs. My count still stood at 1, a lonely Harmon Killebrew that I've owned for 9 years.

Harmon as of two days ago has a new pal. Paul Blair. Paul only cost $6.49, shipping included. Having wanted to get back into my quest, he was the first (and cheapest) autograph to purchase. In all honesty, I had no idea who the hell this dude was until I Wiki'd him. Blair spent 17 years in the majors, 4x World Series Champ, dominated on Defense with 8 Gold Glove Awards (had a solid run of consecutive GG's from 1969-1975), and also works out at Triangle Fitness is Eldersburg, Maryland. Paul also bowls at Kings Point Lanes in Reisterstown, Maryland. FUN FACTS!!!



So there you have it, number 2 on my quest to 93. After reading Guy's Basketball Blog and seeing his Murad chase slowly but surely happen, I wanted to try something that is a bit easier than finding the 2002 MLB Showdown DCI Promos....and I'm not sure I picked the right thing. It's a chase, but it will be worth it. And sorry for the bad picture, the auto isn't cut off, I just took a bad photo. Kill me.

Buying in Lots

I recently won a rather large lot of MLB Showdown cards on Ebay about a week ago. The majority of them aren't cards I need at all, in fact I need very few considering there are 40+ sets ever printed.

The main reason I purchased this lot was due to a rare promotional card of Luis Gonzalez from 2002. The set this card comes from is known as the Showdown Stars card set. I already had the other 4, and Luis Gonzalez was the remaining card for the completed set.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:



The binder these all came in was stuffed full of cards, with more than 1 of each player in the same pocket. I happened to pull out the Gonzalez to take this photo, and it just so happens, this lot contained two of these promos, crazy luck.

MLB Showdown: 2000 Promotional Cards

I've covered this game before in this post. These cards pictured were prizes given away in MLB Showdown Leagues. All cards shown below are from the 2000 MLB Showdown set. To receive these promotional cards, or promo cards managers who had the best overall record or ranked as the best team in certain stat categories (HR, RBI, Pitching Wins).

I actually never participated in the Showdown Leagues in 2000. All of these came through trades or purchases from Ebay.

In 2000, there were 3 seperate Promo Sets:
Home Run Hitters (14 Cards)
Future Stars (13 Cards)
Diamond Stars (22 Cards)



I miss having Manny on the Tribe. Complete offensive monster at the plate. His last at bat at Jacobs Field before leaving for Free Agency, a homer. Salt in the wound.



My childhood officially ended when Griffey retired earlier this month. I can try to relive it by playing Ken Griffey Presents MLB for Super Nintendo, or play Showdown with this card.



A highly rated prospect in 1999 who quickly flamed out. The Future Star cards were essentially rookie cards that tried to lure sporting card collector's into purchasing MLB Showdown.



Warren Morris. MLB Showdown's Base Set was 462 cards. That leaves a lot of space for scrub guys to make the set. At 13 cards the Future Stars set really didn't give a lot of leverage for scrubs. Somehow Morris made the set. Either way, he's a Showdown legend, and Future Star forever.



Cleveland legend and current first base coach for the Tribe. This card was an odd one. As mentioned before, the Showdown Base Set was massive. However, Sandy didn't have a card. In fact, before purchasing a lot of promos off Ebay, I had no idea this card existed. In the 2000 Pennant Run expansion Alomar was given a card, with the exact same stats as this card.



I love this photo. The Crime Dog was a favorite of mine growing up too. Shame he never got to 500 Home Runs.

Is it possible?

After being out of the loop for quite a few months due to school and work, I've come back to blogging. The hatred of Beckett seems to be dwindling (at least to me). However, the lingering fact that Beckett's Saving Grace, their "price guide" still is used by so many collectors.

After multiple conversations with my dad about my cards and how much they are worth (according to Beckett) I've realized he was one of the many who got caught up in the late 80's early 90's collecting craze. Granted for his sake, he had collected since he was a young child, and his collection will forever surpass mine, regardless of how many 1/1's or multiple relic auto's I pull. To see mint rookies of Kareem, Pete Rose, Joe Namath, it's humbling. He's got Yogi's, Mantles, Spahns...you basically name it.

A few nights ago, him and I were talking about Beckett and how it really isn't the true go to for pricing. I explained the whole Ebay versus Beckett and he understood and laughed at how him and I would save all rookies from anything. I'm sure my college education that I've been receiving will easily be paid off with those Tim Bogar rookie cards. And if Tim isn't a great money grabber, we still have plenty of mint Steve Finley's.

But the main point I want to ask all of you is this:

Is it possible to create our own Price Guide and update it via ending bids by Ebay? Sure you can remember all of the final auctions of a card you want, but I'm talking whole sets. For instance, when Allen and Ginter drops later this year, within a week or two, there could easily be an online Blogger made price guide and people would then be able to use that. Here's the kicker, they'd have a REAL expectation of what their card is worth. I'm currently testing this with my favorite cards, MLB Showdown. It's easy for me to test this on cards such as Showdown since the game and cards haven't been produced since 2005. The tricky part about this idea is that a set like Ginter would take quite a few dedicated people to help put together a price guide for fellow collectors/bloggers.

Do you think this would work or would it just be a waste of time?

How Beckett Can Save Itself, Maybe. Part 1

The last time I purchased a Beckett magazine was in mid 2004. That was so I could get the 2004 Trading Deadline Alex Rodriguez Prmotional MLB Showdown Card. I have not purchased or even picked up a Beckett since. No, I'm not anti-Beckett at all. To be totally honest, I don't really like magazines at all.

However, I'm very in touch with all the Blogs vs Beckett war going on over the last few months. While Gellman over at Sports Cards Uncensored, is very against them, as are many other bloggers, I just don't really have that kind of hate. Have both his blog and Beckett slung mud at one another, yes they have.

When Mario over at Wax Heaven became sponsored by Upper Deck, I was pretty shocked. For any blogger, let alone Mario (a very good one I might add) to get sponsored by one of the biggest card companies in America is huge. Unfortunately, Beckett used their clout to get UD to stop sending Mario exclusives, and that was the end of the sponsorship. Was this a shady tactic, no I don't think so. Beckett just played business politics and won. Unfortunately, this burned some bridges that Mario had at Beckett and after a few emails, everyone could tell there was more than just the UD sponsorship. That was crappy on Beckett's part.

This has put Beckett in a tough spot for many of the "in the know" collectors and bloggers out there. We all collectively feel that Beckett is no longer what they once were, due in part to them eating their own hype that they really are the World's Number 1 Go to Guide for anything Sports Collectibles.

What I don't like about Beckett:
1- Pay for Website and Membership
-Yeah, no thanks.
2- Price Guide is way out of touch
-Why would I ever pay $600-$900 for a Gretsky rookie?
3- Out of Touch
-Talked about this already.

Their business model is outdated and if they continue down this road, they are done for. In order to compete in the current economy and with other sites (Blogs and Ebay) they need to act just like us, and here's how.

1. Change the Marketplace
Turn the Marketplace into an auction format. Set it up just like Ebay, in fact, even talk to Ebay about using their design and set up but run it all on Beckett. It'd generate more appeal into their site and help get them back into the true authority they once were. Another positive this could give all collector's is that all the fake patch and shady people who put fake patches into cards would be done away with, or at least dwindled down.

2. It'd give up to date pricing
The hobby analysts would actually be doing their job instead of throwing darts at a dartboard and using that as a price determiner. The foundation of the price guide could be kept in place (i.e. minor stars $.05-$.10, stars $0.10-$0.25, etc.). But the bigger cards would have a more real-life monetary value assigned. And hell, even the low number serial number cards would have a value instead of "No Pricing due to scarcity".

This is where I'll finish off right now. Sorry if this is at all incoherent, I've thought about this for quite some time now and these are just a few ideas on what can be done. To be honest, I don't think these ideas will ever come to fruition, but I can always dream, no?

Actually, why don't all of us bloggers just put something like this together? I'd love to hear any thoughts and comments about these ideas above. Oh, and if you guys at Beckett stumble upon this and take my ideas, I'll come down on you harder Eddy Curry did on his limo driver.

MLB Showdown

I haven't talked about Showdown in quite some time. To be honest there hasn't been a good reason to talk about it.

But I've recently started to search on Ebay again for Showdown. I'm hoping that I can find all the 2001 promos to help finish off my sets. I need probably around 20-30 of them and I have no idea where to buy them. Yeah, there's Showdowncards.com, but the prices are (and have always been) a complete rip. Back when that place had a messageboard, it was a decent place to go, because at least you could trade, now it's just a store, if that's what you want to call it.



What surprises me the most about Showdown and Ebay, is the fact that people are still making fake Showdown cards. Not only that, but those things have been around since Showdown ended, way back in mid 2005. How Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, Ebay, MLB, or the MLBPA have not stopped these people is beyond me. I'd have thought these things wouldn't be around anymore, but they are.

Not to knock the people who make them, because the cards look nice. I also wonder who the people are that buy the fake cards too.

For those of you that regularly read the blog and wonder what this game is all about, I've got plenty of left over starter sets, playmats, dice, rule books, and cards (nearly 20,000) that I'd gladly trade for anything other than more Showdown, that is unless you have some of the cards I need.

If you read the blog and do know about Showdown, leave a comment, I'd love to talk about Showdown again. And if you have played and have some of the DCI promos from 2002, definitely get in contact with me, I'd love to trade for them.

MLB Showdown

Back in 2000, my dad took me to a card show. Usually I loved to go to card shows with him because he'd show me all the great old time players, former Tribe players and how bad they were, or just buy boxes of cheap wax and break them open with me when we got home.

However, my interest in sports was dwindling. I still played them all the time, attended Tribe games all the time, and even opened some packs here and there, but the main priority I had at this show was simple:

Pokemon cards.

I was crazy for those stupid things. Even though I was at a show where millions of cards were, I wanted to collect and "battle" with cards of animals that looked like they just came from the Chernobyl plant. My dad would (I think) reluctantly drive me to Toys'R'Us every Wednesday so I could play in the league and get promo cards.

One Wednesday, everything changed when I walked into a game called "MLB Showdown". It was a new card game made by the same people who make Pokemon (Wizards Of The Coast). I love baseball, so I picked up a starter set and 3 packs.

My Pokemon adventure was done the moment I got home. I cracked open the starter, and my dad was interested to see what I bought. The first pack gave me my first foil, Kenny Lofton. My father and I played a few games that night, and I decided I was going to see if some of my friends wanted to convert from Pokemon to MLB Showdown.

Over the course of the six years that Wizards made Showdown, I never stopped collecting, and now have nearly 15,000 cards. Most of the cards have little to no value and couldn't be given away, but I like them because it reminds me of all the time I spent late summer nights watching a late MLB Game or Baseball Tonight while constructing decks and deciding between putting in Todd Van Poppel or Scott Sauerbeck. In the end both of those players were in my bullpen.

In 2006, Wizards stopped making the game due to lack of interest and the fact that the MLBPA wanted way more money for a new contract with Wizards.

I (along with Jim) still buy MLB Showdown, but it's getting much harder now because no place carries a product that is 3 years out or print coupled with the fact that it really didn't sell all too well.

I like to thank MLB Showdown for getting me back into baseball cards. Had I not found those cards and bought them, I'd probably be playing World of Warcraft in my parent's basement eating Dorito's and 3 day old Taco Bell. At least to me, I'd much rather own 15 Darren Oliver cards as opposed to playing World of Warcraft.

First Post (Probably one of the last also)

I made this blog because I like so many other people collect baseball cards. I remember being very little when my dad took me to card shops and shows. I really had no idea what was going on, but it seemed like sports cards were the real deal. This was in the early 90's, before all the bullshit parallels, autographed cards, memorabilia/game-used cards, serial numbered cards, and even parallel autographed game-used serial numbered cards. It was just about collecting.

I remember being in Myrtle Beach one summer (I think 1992), I was 5 at the time and my dad took me to a card shop. It was late August and the Football sets were about to be released. My dad bought a bunch of packs and the shop owner was very pleasant, and seeing how he appreciated my dad's business, he asked me who my favorite player was, which meant I was probably going to get a free card or two. So instead of saying "Kenny Lofton", I said "BIP ROBERTS!!!". The owner looked really confused and my dad said "yeah, he likes odd players." That is my first memory of cards, and probably why I like to collect oddball stuff like MLB Showdown (which this blog will talk about frequently.

Lately, I really haven't bought any packs because most of the ones I want to buy are out of my price range (stupid stuff like SPx that is $20 a pack when I pull a Dennis Sarfate auto, yeah no thanks). So I look to the almighty Ebay and scour the Grady Sizemore cards. Outside of Sizemore, I'm going to try and finish my Fleer Metal baseball card sets and my 1989 Fleer set (all Ripken Varients and RJ Varients included).

Hopefully I'll have maybe 2-3 more contributors aside from myself, but that's wishful thinking.