Saying farewell to a collection.....

I come to you this evening, in a semi-sad mood. The man above has left my personal collection.

For those of you who do not recognize him, that is New York Yankees Starting Pitcher, Javier Vazquez. Through eBay, I met a fellow JV collector who, it seems, has much deeper pockets and a MUCH better and larger JV collection than I do. I soon realized we had been hurting each other, by affecting the outcome of many eBay auctions, in turn costing each other money in the long run.

Just about an hour ago, I agreed with my fellow collector on a paypal amount, to send all of my Vazquez cards his way.

I am going to use the funds to further enhance my Hidalgo collection (have a white whale ending in under two hours), my RC collection and other aspects (such as my Astros Team Collection).

You will be missed, Javier.

Mail Post #3: The Start of an NBA Player Personal Collection

The last year or so, the NBA has slowly, but surely, been pulling me back into enjoying the game.

Though it still has plenty of egotistical, me first players, other, team first, unselfish stars were beginning to shine and bring a fresh face to the game (or refreshen the face they had).

From Kevin Durant in OKC, Dirk Nowitzki revamping himself in Dallas, Chris Paul in New Orleans or David Lee in NY, you had guys playing for the team first, themselves second.

That's why I decided to start a David Lee PC: tough nosed rebounder, active on the offensive side of the ball, has improved every year he has been in the league, works on his weaknesses and never worries about personal stats.

I started this collection off with a bang, focusing primarily on patches, autographs and low numbered game used and parallel cards.

09/10 Absolute Memorabilia Spectrum 22/25 

09/10 Panini Limited Jersey 05/10

09/10 Panini Timeless Treasures Jersey Prime 05/10

08/09 Topps T-51 Murad Autograph

05/06 Upper Deck Trilogy Signs of Stardom

05/06 SP Signature Edition Authentic Signatures

09/10 Bowman 48A Auto & Base Card

 

07/08 SP Rookie Threads SL Multi Marks 2 David Lee/Rudy Gay 29/50

09/10 Classics Dress Code Prime Patch/Auto 01/25

Pretty nice start and I have more on the way, that can really build a collection up in a nice way. I plan on adding more base cards soon, but figure with so many of his nice cards hitting eBay, I am going to see how many I can land before going after the smaller fish.

Mail Post #2: The Beginning-ish of a new corner of my PC

This beginning, is something I had been wanting to start for a while and recently decided, hey, what the heck, why not, let's hop right in and get it going.

What is this, you ask? Collecting modern and vintage hall of fame rookies (including those who will become hall of famers a la Griffey Jr., Jeter, etc. and those who I think SHOULD be in the hall of fame, like Dale Murphy), primarily of the Topps corporation (though, some will be of the company they are none for, like the Upper Deck Griffey).

I already had a few of these in stock, originally as trade bait:
1983 Topps Wade Boggs
1985 Topps Kirby Puckett
1985 Topps Roger Clemens
1985 Topps Mark McGwire
1984 Topps Don Mattingly
1982 Topps Cal Ripken, Jr.
2001 Topps Ichiro

Here are my most recent additions (with a handful more on the way from eBay):

1977 Topps Dale Murphy #476

1976 Topps Dennis Eckersley #98

1979 Topps Ozzie Smith #116

1993 Topps Derek Jeter #98

As you can see, already some of the bigger names from 1975 on, but still a ton missing. I do have Paul Molitor, Rickey Henderson, Andrew Dawson, Gary Carter and Eddie Murray rookies on the way and I will be sure to share them when received!!

Mail Post #1: Newest Additions to the Javier Vazquez Collection

In what has easily been the largest addition to my personal collections in the recent month, is the additions to my Javier Vazquez collection.

I received a large mix of Vazquez and Richard Hidalgo cards from Sportlots recently (all base cards) and I did not keep track of that, but believe I did add about 30 or so Vazquez's to my ever growing collection.

The cards I will be showing, though, make me very happy. They include five new autographed cards, four low numbered parallel cards and one very sweet triple patch card.

2003 Prime Patches Team Materials Triple Patch 033/150

 

2005 Donruss 25th Anniversary 11/25

 

2005 Donruss Studio Studio Proof 01/25

2003 Donruss Elite Status 07/23

2008 UD Premier 4/5

2006 Ovation Spotlight Signatures

2004 Topps Pristine Personal Endorsements

2004 Flair Autograph Collection 184/187 

 

2004 SP Chirography SP Chirography Duo Tone 60, 72/75

2003 Donruss Champions 38/50

Wow, right? That's a pretty good haul for a few weeks (the past three or so). It's the most autos I have added at one time in quite some time (like, when I first started collecting Javier). It felt great knocking out some much needed lower number parallels as well.

Recharging the ol' Batteries

Recently, I stepped back from the keyboard and kind of took a little sabbatical from writing about this great sport (and hobby) of ours.

No writing on the blog.
Little writing on message boards (and 90% of that writing had to do with off topic stuff).
No writing down ideas that pop into my head.
Nothing.

Why, you may ask? You weren't writing THAT much as it is, you say.

Very true, that may be. Sometimes, I just need to step back and read. Read what other bloggers are saying. Actual "writers" (by actual writers, I mean people who write for a living, be it on a website, for a magazine, in books, etc.). And listen. Listen to Sportscenter, Baseball Tonight (no MLB Channel out here, so I miss that stuff), live broadcasts, tape delayed broadcasts, movies, the news, everything.

And now, I am back with a ton of mail posts (seriously, like 4 mail posts, one for each area of my personal collection), my own opinion on the All Star game (including snubs), my upsettedness about not being able to participate in Gint-A-Cuffs and even a Wants post.

This, my friends, is just a post letting everyone know I am back and I am okay (and, I have yet to deploy....as the fly date for my group keeps getting moved around).

Anyways, I have a lot of typing to do and will try to space these next 8 posts or so out over the next 4 days or so.