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 #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.

Wait....what's that? That's the Maildays music.....

If you get the reference in the title, you probably have watched wrestling at some point in time from 1988 to now. Ol' JR and his ability to hype up any incoming wrestler into the ring.

The difference between me and him? I am hyping up my 2nd mail day post out of the last 3 posts I have had, but, seriously, the last two times I have hit up the post office, I have had a combined TWENTY bubble mailers/packages waiting for me.

Yeah, I went a little crazy on eBay and COMC, but still, I have been happy with EVERYTHING I have picked up, and that's what it is all about, right?

On to the mail:

Some Hidalgo stuff (including only my 2nd game used card of his):




The game used.



  
Elite gold Status #ed /100


Two cards I bought while drunk tweeting and caught "off guard" by a fellow blogger (i'm sure you guys can figure out who she is):






Two new hobby staples:



Don Mattingly Topps Rookie



   Ken Griffey Jr. Sweet spot auto


My first foray into prospecting since about 2005:

He was a supplemental pick for the Red Sox and has ALREADY signed and I think will be playing short season ball.




The last card of the day, deserves to be bigger than the rest:

2009 Topps Chrome Javier Vazquez Superfractor






Looks even better here, next to one of his Bowman Chrome Cousins:





I have plenty more (by plenty more, I mean 9 more) packages on the way from eBay, plus about 8 things I am currently watching and plan on attempting to win.

Sorry about having two mail day posts so close together, but they were both phenomenal to me, so they deserved the posts.

Small highlights in a rather poor day.....

So, I missed going to the post office Friday, which resulted in me having TEN, yes, TEN, total envelopes/packages waiting for me, all eBay purchases.

The poor part of the day? My wife and son flew back to the states earlier today (about 8 hours ago) and I won't be seeing them in person again until around the end of January/beginning of February. I knew this day would come, but still, it is tough being in what is now a basically empty full house, ya know?

I guess I could post some of the highlights of the mail day (ok, some of these are from last week, but I didn't scan them in until today):

Some pretty awesome Javier Vazquez personal collection stuff:

2007 Topps Series 1 Yellow Printing Plate

2001 Donruss Class of 2001 Diamond Aces 3 Color Logo Patch #ed 3/3

2002 Donruss Best of Fan Club League Leaders Auto #ed 85/300

2004 Playball "Green" Parallel #ed 07/15

2009 Bowman Chrome Red Refractor #ed 1/5


A few Richard Hidalgo things (thanks to some good deals from Syndicate Sports Cards on eBay and COMC):

2004 Sweet Spot Sweet Gloves Auto #ed 10/15

1996 Fleer Ultra Golden Prospect Gold Medallion - This looks really awesome in person, as it is a see-through "gold". Pretty sweet.

2003 Donruss ReCollection Collection Auto "2001 Donruss" #ed 2/9

2003 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Auto Plaque #ed 66/135

1998 Pacific Revolution Rookies & Hardball Heroes "Gold" #ed 14/50

2004 Leaf Limited Threads "Russell Laundry Patch" 1/1

1997 Bowman's Best Mirror Image "Atomic Refractor", "Refractor" and Inverted


I also picked up an 82 Topps Ripken RC, a 2001 Topps Ichiro RC and a few Bryce Brentz USA autos.

A great mail day to kind of sweep away the clouds from a rather dreary day (quite true also, as it did/is raining as well).

I did get to watch some soccer though (saw the Japan upset and part of the Italy tie). Now I am just burning time until I have to go up to work and issue out M4's to all the soldiers headed out to Afghanistan soon (I will be there in a few weeks as well).

A Century Old

Of course by century, I mean 100 posts, but you get the gist.

Two posts ago was my 100th post, which actually came at a much slower rate then I would have thought. Then again, I haven't been able to keep a passion for writing in me.

I feel like it has just been a ton of things that have been keeping me back. Stress from my upcoming deployment, stress from my wife not being back in the states yet, stress from the Astros terrible season so far and my overall lack of motivation to write, though I always have something going through my head.

I changed the way the blog looked. That didn't help. I recently came into a little bit of money to help feed my collecting. Hasn't helped much (but maybe the mail days I have will).

Hell, I didn't even notice my 100th post until BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet had his 100th post contest (which, by the way, happened at a much quicker rate than mine did) and posted a little link to it, which happened to be my 101st post. And then, not even that encouraged me to post.

Maybe it's the fact it has been tough for me to put my words into action since, well, since I drank my way through two semesters of college? I was a brilliant (well, I thought I was brilliant) writer all throughout high school and even in my two semesters of college, but then I stopped writing. With no assignments (and no blog at the time) I had no reason to write. I spent all of my free time (IE: time not working) wooing girls, playing video games, drinking, experimenting with plants (it was short lived, but still, it happened), playing sports and hanging out with friends. Not to mention, my collecting habits stalled because A) less funds available (it's a lot tougher blowing money when you are no longer living with your parents) and B) busy having a social life, with not much room on the side.

So now, it seems the only time I feel like writing (when I am not tweeting randomness) is when I drink. Since I drink a lot less often then I used to, I blog less often than I used to. Which sucks, because I need a way to get whatever pops into my head out of there.

Ok, enough with the ranting randomness.

I've hit two round numbers recently: 100 posts (which you know) and 40 followers (which you may not know). Yay me, I supposed. More importantly, I am closing in on two big collecting goals for this year: my total number of cards in each of my primary personal collections, Javier Vazquez and Richard Hidalgo. Thanks to Check Out My Cards, Sportlots and a rash of cards on eBay, both of my goals (400 total Hidalgo cards and 300 total Vazquez cards) are within reach and may be surpassed by July 31st.

Which leads me to my next point: I haven't shared much of my recent maildays, but I am scanning more often, so I hope to show them soon. I have new autographs, low numbered parallels, a 1/1 or two (or three, maybe), a little prospecting (which I will talk about soon) and even random rookies and a nice hall of fame autograph or two.

Since I sold off all of my game used and autos from my non-p/c, I have decided everything I buy will either be PC or prospecting, so I haven't strayed from that. Add in that I came into a decent sum of money for collecting purposes only and you have a recipe for success.

Uh, if you have made it this far, thanks for letting me rant and ramble. I try not to do it often on the blog, but it seems to be happening more often than not lately. For your dedication to this post, I leave you with my latest eBay win that brought a super big smile to my face:

Newest Autos to the PC Collection

Well, over the past few months I have been able to pick up auto cards of my two main PC guys (Richard Hidalgo & Javier Vazquez) at pretty considerable amounts, so I felt like showing them off.

Javier Vazquez

First up, I will start with one of the newer auto sets, from 2010 Chicle.

 This is an Artist's Autograph, numbered 6/10. I really like two things about the Chicle set: on card autos and, well, I really like the art work on his cards.

Next up is a hard to find Leaf Certified Material Mirror Gold auto.

 Now, onto the three recent Richard Hidalgo auto pick ups, starting off with something from far south of the border.

 This is a 94-95 Line Up Venezuelan auto, shipped from, well, Venezuela. The seller has two other autos up for sale, but for more than I paid for this one, so I am holding back on buying them. Please note, this isn't a bad scan, just what is on the "top loader", which seems to just be a crazy piece of plastic all around the card.

 2003 Donruss Team Heroes auto, 74/100. I've seen a few here and there, but usually for BINs much higher than I would be willing to hit on, even for a PC card. I hate sticker autos, but it doesn't look TERRIBLE on this card, in my opinion.

 1997 Scoreboard Visions Signings auto. These are generally easy to find, but some of the bigger names in the Scoreboard sets have a tendency to be faked, so a lot of people ignore this set. A great early, on card auto of Hidalgo.

Well, those are all the auto'ed cards I have gotten in recently. I have a few more big mailday packages coming in soon, including 2 from Check Out My Cards, one from sportlots (just a large handful of base, but more to knock off of the ol' checklist) and a decent sized lot from Syndicate Sports Cards, in an off eBay deal, where they were willing to take an offer of less than the total combined price for all of the cards. And, yes, the 3 larger lots include more autos.

Thanks to the sell of all of my game used and auto cards that were not PC, I have been able to work very diligently at my 2010 Collecting goals and should be able to knock out a lot by the end of the year.

Thanks for looking guys.

Sweet Spot Autos

And the way they fade.

This card has been in my collection a few years:

As you can tell, the auto has faded TERRIBLY. Now, I don't mind too much, since I got the card for a solid price and it is 25/25, but I bring this up because I recently won my second Sweet Spot auto glove:

As you can see with this one, more fading, but not as much. One would think that the fading would happen throughout the product, on all types of cards, but it seems the actual baseball autos have held up pretty well:

Now, I could attribute this to the types of pen used. It seems as if a regular, blue pen was used to sign the above card, whereas the two glove cards seem to be signed by what looks like bleeding felt tip pens, hence the thicker lines.

I am no expert on ink life, light exposure and how to keep these autographs from fading over time, but has anyone else experienced this much fading on any surface other than the brown glove Sweet spot autos? From the ones I have seen, I think I can confirm there are no fading problems with the black leather autos.

Also, anyone have any ideas on how to display these cards WITHOUT the fading becoming worse?

Thanks for any ideas guys.

When work gets in the way of fun......

Who would have thought it would be so tough to find just a little bit of time to knock out a well thought out, thought provoking, interesting, knowledgeable post, while also being a part of the Army?

One person I know: This Guy.

I eventually knew it was going to get crazy around the Balk Four Headquarters and it did. For the last two to three weeks, work has been starting early and ending late. I rarely have internet time and have even less time to blog.....which sucks.

Today, I just caught a break. Wet, cold weather coupled with going to a German firing range (and earning an award, but more on that later) meant a short day at work today, which means I have time to blog :) (that, plus the wife and boy are talking to Grammy and the wife is watching America's Next Top Model).

Anyways, since my lat post about the volcanic activity and the disruption in my life it has caused, the one card pictured, hasn't arrived (I mean, seriously, two plus weeks eBay seller, really? I bought something LAST week and received it yesterday, get it together). What has arrived, though, was many, MANY packages, including a few 1/1's.

Without further ado (well, some ado after the photos) my mailweeks, in pictures:

 Ok, obviously that is only 7 pictures, probably a lot less then you expected. Well, that's less than I expected too. I haven't had a chance to scan anything yet, so eBay pictures had to do and many of my ended auctions had the pictures already pulled. My bad.

I also won a 52 card lot of Jeff Bagwell, had a 200 card order from Sportlots and FINALLY received my Nike+ Running Device, so I can finally track my workouts better.

On a sad note, I am slowly but surely, selling off everything in my Hunter Pence collection besides the Blue Refractor auto and the base and inserts. All of the autos have been sold and all but like 3 game used are gone as well. It has become terribly tough to collect four players and a team, so I decided to focus on the team and three other players. It was a tough decision to make and even tougher to list the auctions (especially since almost all sold for way too little), but it was a decision that had to be made.

On the positive side: My family and I headed down to a resort in the Alps of Germany last weekend for a marriage retreat, which is really a "free trip to the alps with three hours of suggestions on how to further enrich your marriage". This is the second time we have gone and it was more expensive this time than last. Why, you ask? Well, my 25th birthday was last weekend, so we went out for drinks that weekend. For my wife, that was the first time in THREE years she has been able to go out and drink over night, without being A) Pregnant or B) home by 11. I went out the night before (Friday) with a couple of buddies and had a great time as well. Got pretty drunk (hey, it's been awhile and I am still young), had a German band sing Happy Birthday to me in English and woke up without a hang over. As for Saturday, my wife and I went out with the supply sergeant of my troop and his wife and hit up a few Irish pubs. We started out the night with Black Irish Russians and ended the night drinking Irish Whiskey (Paddy's Irish Whiskey to be correct, can't find it in the states, but you can get a few companies in England to mail it to you.....it's worth the extra money, believe it).

Other than that, we have been packing for deployment, going to ranges (all kinds of cool shit, M4, M249 SAW, MK19, M2 .50 Cal Machine Gun, a new gun the M320) and today I went to a German post (our sister company in Germany) and had the chance to fire three of their weapons in the schutesenschneres and earn a Bronze badge, which is awesome. What makes it better is, in the two plus years I have been in Germany, my troop has only sent FOURTEEN people, so I was extremely happy to have been chosen to go.

Ok, wow, that was a TON of words. Anyways, i'm hoping to be back in the blogging game (and active on Twitter, because I have block leave soon, plus things are finally starting to slowdown at work, so I should have plenty of more time to get back into the swing.

Thanks for reading guys, sorry for so many words.

A return from the vast beyond.....

Ok, maybe it wasn't "the vast beyond", but it definitely has been quite the break between posts. I'm not gonna lie, there have been various reasons for my absence (I was without internet for three weeks during a training exercise in the field, lack of passion for writing, not much to talk about during Spring Training and, well, I just wasn't really feeling the hobby for awhile there), but I plan on coming back to my usual, irregular postings about all things baseball.

I have had quite a few mail days in between the last time I was here and now, so just enjoy the scans:

Javier Vazquez PC

2009 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor 4/50

22

2009 Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor 20/25

2003 Donruss Elite Aspirations 11/24

2003 Donruss Elite Aspirations 69/77

 

2003 Topps Black /52

2006 UD Special F/X RED 13/50

Richard Hidalgo

1997 Visions Signings Autograph

2004 Honors Credits Gold 11/25

 

1997 Venezuelan Line-Up Autograph

2000 Pacific Premiere Date 4/27

 

1997 Donruss Crusades Red Non-Serial Numbered

Bob Gibson

1994 Nabisco Auto

1967 Topps #210

On top of these great cards for my PC, I also picked up two random autos (99 SI Joe Niekro, 99 UD INKredible Fred Lynn) and received and busted my box of 2010 Topps from FCB. I also received a few packages from bloggers (one loaded with 2008 Topps...i'm talkin' like over 200 I needed for set, mostly series 2, but I need series 2 the most) and one from GSNHOF (containing a ton of Astros cards). Thanks to both of you (sadly, I have forgotten who sent the Topps cards...but I will figure it out).

On the Astros: I was going to stay up late last night and watch the season opener but, well, I just couldn't make it. As predicted, they lost to the Tim Lincecum led Giants, one of many.......many.....MANY losses they will most likely pile up this season. Outside of their core group of players (Pence, Bourn, Oswalt, WayRod, Berkman and Lee), there just isn't much to get excited about with the team (at least until Jason Castro FINALLY gets the call). I will never lose my passion for the team, but I truly hope they take FULL advantage of their early picks and focus on top players, instead of guys they know will sign (I mean, Jio Mier looks great, but he wasn't the best player on the board at that point). Here's to hoping they at least finish higher than the Pirates.

I plan on posting about my fantasy baseball teams in my next post, with the primary focus on my team in the Blogger's League.