Saturday, April 28, 2012

HUGE Astros Collection Find

I decided to take a trip over an hour away to visit a guy with an Astros game used collection that was said to be one of the biggest in Texas.  While I doubt that, I must say, I am very pleased with the purchase.  The only bad thing that came of it was the possible malaria I contracted thanks to the thousands of mosquitos that made a buffet out of me while the seller and I were outside talking. 

I am sitting here watching Bryce Harper at bat in his first major league game, and going through everything.  I figured hey - why not take some pictures to share on my blog?  Here we go ...

Over 300 - Mainly Biggio, Berkman, Bagwell and Oswalt. 
Some of these cards have 3 players and a few have six players (3 front and 3 back)

Several Triple Threads
A couple PSA 3 T206's
A few retired guys / hall of famers + you can see a nice exquisite patch bat barrel auto, etc.
Various patches, some jerseys with up to 6 pieces of material, etc.  Really, really cool stuff!
Tons of Biggio jumbo prime patch cards
I am very happy with the purchase - there is a lot of fun stuff here.  I am surprised with how many aren't just the typical small piece of jersey - many have several pieces, several players, actual patches, etc.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Easy come, easy go

My last blog spoke about how awesome my most recent haul from out of town was.  Now, I am back writing about it all being gone.  Yes, a dealer friend came over to take a look, and we did a deal shortly thereafter for not only them, but also for pretty much everything else I had that was good.  We are talking a boat load of great stuff.  When all is said and done, it probably ended up being about 40 boxes of good stuff - from jersey and autograph cards, to refractors, to serial number and inserts to base stars and rookies. 

Needless to say, my office is significantly more clean now, and I can focus my brain more on work.  I look forward to the big card show that is coming in town in about a month.  It is nice to start off with somewhat of a clean slate! 

Monday, April 16, 2012

Vacationing and Cardboard - Mammoth Purchase!

The wife and I took our son to Legoland this past weekend and stayed in a hotel.  A good time was had by all!  We were able to take lots of pictures, be together, and catch up with some good friends.  If you are a subscriber here though, you don't want to hear about that - you want to hear about the score, so I'll get right down to it! 

First off, when getting lost on the way, we found a Dick's Sporting Goods.  I read on the internet that they sometimes sell cards - I went in, and lo and behold - they had a 2011 Topps Value box ... yay!  I heard that Topps had yanked them, so I plopped a $10 bill down to grab it.  We went back to the car, and later on pulled an SP Nolan Ryan diamond sparkly looking card, a Topps Gold Kershaw, and a Red Bryce Harper.  It was a box that made me glad that we had something to open up as a family. 


The Cardboard mobile loaded up again!

Secondly, I had been conversing with an older gentleman who used to be a dealer up in the area where we were at for a few weeks.  I decided to drop off the fam at the hotel after Legoland, and go over to his house.  At first blush, I wasn't blown away with the stuff, and was prepared to walk away from the very pricey purchase.  I was able to talk him down several hundred dollars, and have him throw in a 1984 Donruss set, 1990 score fb set, 10 misc 5,000 count box cards and a 1990 Topps case - early production!  Not to mention 3 boxes of miscellaneous holders.  This all made it a better deal, so I pulled the minivan in his garage, gave him the cash, and loaded up.  When all was said and done, the cards were purchased at below 10% of book.  Lots and lots of fun stuff - mainly inserts!  There were plenty of cards like serial numbered diamond king Brad Fullmers (yay) but there were also various Ripken, Jordan, etc.  (YAAAY!)  Also some game used Jeter, Yogi Berra, Ripken, refractor Jordan, etc. 



The motherload!  I haven't gone through many of them yet, but look forward to it.

I tossed and turned that night because I passed on his deal of 95 unopened boxes of cards.  Playing with the numbers, I kept thinking can I make a profit or not?  That next morning, I ended up going back over to his place to see if we could do a deal, but in the end, it just didn't make any sense, so I passed it up.  I did, however, buy a nice little box of 1960's cards from him, which made the trip good. 



This is Herb.  He is an early production unopened case of 1990 Topps baseball.  Frank Thomas NNOF possibility?  He was my son's passenger friend on the way back home.  He didn't talk much though.  Herb didn't, that it.  My son doesn't stop talking. 
 So, we got back home and I unloaded it all.  It is funny - because I bought the cards on Saturday, and lef them in the car at the hotel, without bringing a single card up to inspect.  We got back home yesterday evening, and aside from unloading, I hadn't really touched them either.  Yes folks, that is right!  I have had the cards for 2 days now and haven't really done anything with them! 

I decided to bring one of the monster boxes in - I decided to pull in the one with some packs that I found.  What I found inside was rather exciting. 


WINNING
What you are looking at is over 280 unopened packs of cards - most of them are baseball, and most of them are from 2001.  Obviously, a popular year because of a man by the name of Albert Pujols!  Not to mention Ichiro.  I don't know what I am going to do with them yet, but this is certainly a fantastic start to the collection!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Blogging from out of town

Sleeping in the bed behind me is a wife who is not happy I brought our laptop on vacation, and our son who is ecstatic to go to Legoland tomorrow.  Yes, that's right - we are out of town!  We are in the big D.  For those of you non-Texans, that is Dallas.  I get a kick out of the fact that I can work and blog from anywhere.  The whole reason I am up right now is because I had to wrap up some updates for a client.

While we are here though, I'm going to make the most of my cardboard collecting habbit by paying a visit to someone who is selling their collection.  He is claiming tens of thousands of dollars in book value.  I might just snatch it all up, but to be honest with you, I'm expecting something similar to what happened to me the past few times I met with someone for their collection.  That's ok though - it'll be fun to go through some cards, and who knows - maybe I'll have even more blogging fodder for my next post!  Let's just hope it is complete with pictures of the huge treasure i purchased :)

Monday, April 9, 2012

Mail Day - Lotsa Rooooookies

I'm a sucker at times, for some base rookies.  Because of this, I had bought a boat load of rookies of Biggio (, Bagwell, Thomas, Jeter, Arod, Chipper and Maddux.  Oh, and a Gwynn & Sandberg rookie as well.  Feast your eyes on the below!

1983 Ryne Sandberg Topps
1983 Tony Gwynn Topps
1987 Greg Maddux Donruss x 6
1987 Greg Maddux Leaf x 2
1989 Craig Biggio Topps
1989 Craig Biggio Fleer x 3
1989 Craig Biggio Upper Deck x 5
1989 Craig Biggio Donruss x 22
1990 Frank Thomas Score x 6
1990 Frank Thomas Topps x 6
1991 Chipper Jones Upper Deck x 14
1991 Jeff Bagwell Upper Deck
1991 Jeff Bagwell Leaf Gold x 2
1993 Derek Jeter Upper Deck x 2
1994 Alex Rodriguez Collectors Choice x 6
1994 Alex Rodriguez Upper Deck #298 x 12
1994 Alex Rodriguez Upper Deck #298 Electric Diamond
1994 Alex Rodriguez Upper Deck #24 x 12
1994 Alex Rodriguez Upper Deck #24 Electric Diamond x 3

I have about 5 rookies of Paul Goldschmidt coming from the same dude too.