Blog Bat Around Spending 50K

Deadline extensions are great for a procrastinator like me. I actually started researching this post Saturday but got sidetracked by actually buying stuff. So it is a total do-over.


First of all if I had 50K to spend on Ebay I would wait until the right card came along. The right card is an M-101 Babe Ruth. You know the card where he is in a Red Sox uniform. It would make for a short post though because it would take the whole 50K. Since this exercise is supposed to be right now I have to write a lot longer post and you didn’t really want me to mail it in that easily did you? (But then again at least I would be posting something; yea it has been that long since I last posted)

Not a lot of commentary because there are a whole lot of cards here.  But a ton of cool pictures of cards to drool over.
 

So basically my first search is 54 Bowman Ted Williams.  Money spent $1,549.

Next I did a Ted Williams Playball search and came up with the following.

1939 Playball Ted Williams                            $5,995

1940 Playball Ted Williams                            $2,567

1941 Playball Ted Williams                            $4,736

After I knocked out all the Ted Wiliams cards I thought I would be getting I switched to doing a search for Red Sox only Pre-War and only over $250. Then I sorted by highest price first.

1916 M101-5 Forrest Caddy                        $5,500

1909 T204 Eddie Cocolte                             $1,950

1941 PlayBall Jimmie Foxx                            $1,350

1914 Cracker Jack Joe Wood                       $1,750

1934 Goudey Lefty Grove                             $1,045

1948 Leaf Ted Williams                                 $995

1911 Turkey Red Tris Speaker                      $900

1909 Coglans Chip Tris Speaker                   $753 Odd Buy It Now Price

1914 Cracker Jack Tris Speaker                   $750

1911 Turkey Red Harry Niles                       $700

1909 Coglans Chip Harry Hooper                 $604

1941 Double Play Ted Williams                     $500

1920 T210 Old Mill Harvey Bussey               $475

1914 Cracker Jack Harry Hooper                 $455

1911 Turkey Red Ed Walsh                          $450

1923-24 Exhibit O’Neil                                 $400

Insperation for those pain in the ass Goudey SP cards.

1938 Goudey Bobby Doerr                           $355

1921 E220 National Carmel Everett Scott     $350

Not sure what is going on in this card but it is a 120 years old so I gotta have it.

1887 Buchner Gold Coin Medoc Wise          $330

T202s are some of my favorite cards even though I don't actually own a single one. They have to be a bitch to store though.

1912 T202 Hassan Stahl/Cicotte                   $250

1917 H801 Boston Store H.B. Leonard        $250

N29 Allen& Ginter John Morrell            $200 I don’t know why this one squeaked by the $250 preference but I am glad it did because I always wanted an original A&G card.

Now I jumped to a search of “Boxing Card”. Only Pre-War sorted by highest price first.

 

1910 UNC Candy Jim Jeffries                       $5000

I have no idea that these are and I would probably be getting a raping dropping a grand on them but they are really cool. Good thing Gellman gave me lots of virtual money

1909 Jim Jefferies Playing Card Complete Set $995

1937 Doughnut Company Jim Jefferies           $436

Panicking now because I know I am running out of time. I get desperate and search for Ted Williams auto because I know I can knock a ton of money out with only a few cards.

2003 Sweet Spot Classic Ted Williams Auto  $3,500

2006 SP Legendary Cut Ted Williams Auto    $1,750

2009 SP Legendary Cuts Williams/Sisler Auto $1,300

2003 Sweet Spot Ted Williams Auto               $1,550

This is actually my favorite of all the auto cards.  Ted Williams auto on a Ted Williams card produced by the Ted Williams company.

1993 Ted Williams Card Co Ted Williams Auto $800

Total price comes up to $48,080 for 34 cards. Honestly if it wasn’t for the time limit I wouldn’t have picked a quarter of those cards. I would have nickel and dimed thousands of pre-war cards with my 50K. I also wouldn’t have ended up with a single auto.  I also have to admit that I probably couldn't have actually bought all those in 15 minutes.  I counted opening the window as bought.  I didn't even really look at some of them either.  I really REALLY wouldn't have bought that Williams/Sisler auto if I had really looked at it.  I hate those Frankencut autos.

My Blaster Fantasy Team

This is my first blaster of 2010 and the first 2010 Heritage I have opened.  By the way, every single card from this break is available for trade.   Here is my rip.

Lastings has to be pissed about the picture Topps used for his card.

PACK 1

Omir Santos

Aubrey Huff

Brad Bergesen
Lastings Milledge
Ichiro
Fausto Carmona
Chris Carpenter
Ryan Howard NL MVP SP

I bought this blaster to play a game but not a dice one.

Pack 2

Clayton Kershaw

Adam Everett

Billy Butler

Bobby Cox MGR

Matt Holliday

Vladimir Guerreo DICE GAME

Dutsy Baker MGR

Josh Thole

Leyland looks about 100 years old on this card.  If he really was 100 he probably wouldn't make it through the season, that is why I picked him to loose the least amount of games. 

Pack 3

Jose Guillen
Justin Upton
Gary Sheffield
23 Amendment is Ratified
justin Morneau
Felix Hernandez
Fernando Martinez
Jim Leyland

What a crappy name to have (almost as bad as Lastings).  But that is one kick ass Topps Rookie Trophy.

Pack 4

John maine
BJ Upton
Micah Owings
Brandon Phillips
Carlos Gonzalez
Delmon Young
Tori Hunter
Elvis Andrus

I pull the priemer fantasy pitcher and it is an SP.  Normally I would be happy but in this case....

Pack 5

Ricky Nolasco
Michael Saunders
Trevor Cahill
Yadier Molina
A's Team
Ozzie's Aces
Jhoulys Chacin
Tim Lincecun AS SP

I chose this card to represent the pack becasue of the sunglasses.  I wonder if anybody wore sunglasses in the original 61 set.

Pack 6

Adam wainwright
JA Happ
Brad Hawpe
Ronny Cedeno
Alex Gordon
Core Four Pettite/Posadsa/Jeter/Rivera
Checklist
Akinori Iwamura

 

I thought about using Grienke here on my team using the half rule.  Say he has an ERA of 2.20.  Half of that would be 1.1 and work pretty good for my team.  But not nearly as good as half of the 0 ERA that Whitey puts up.  But I figured that dayf would throw that out so I am not using them. 

Pack 7

Cole hamels
Melvin Mora
Pirates Team
T&N Ford Grienke
Jimmy Rollins
Vladimir Guerrero
jason bay
Zach Duke

This was a horrible blaser.  I only got one Red Sox card.  Not only did I only get one Red Sox but it was a double.  The guy at the ballcard store already gave this one to me last week. 

What was Topps thinking Boston Speed Party.  Pedroia isn't exactly a league leader in steals.  Hey did anyone know that Jacoby isn't the fastest guy on the Red Sox team?  The fastest guy is a pitcher, no joke.  From what I have read Clay Buchholz is crazy fast and beats jacoby in a foot race. 

Pack 8

Felipe Lopez
Derek Holland
Jose Lopez
Adam Lind
Boston Speed Party Pedroi/Ellusbury
Max Scherzer CHROME REFRACTOR
marke buehrle
Derek Lowe

So there is my break.  Right after I busted it I thought "Crap I didn't get a catcher."  When in fact I got 3 of them.  Problem is none of them jumped out at me.  In reality though 3rd is where I am screwed.  Anyway I'll start with the core players on "My Team".

Core Players

Catcher: Yadier Milona - Again not the best of caatchers as far as fantasy goes.

Catcher 2: Omir Santos - UUUGGGG

First: Justin Morneau - Not as good as Pujoles, Texeria, or Cabrerra but a solid firstbaseman.

Second: Brandon Phillips - A highly ranked middle infielder is always nice to get on your fantasy team.

Shortstop: Jimmy Rollins - I picked him on 2 of my "real" fantasy teams, so I am happy with this.

Third: Melvin Mora - This is where I got screwed.  Of the thirdbaseman I pulled Mora is the only on in the majors.

Outfield: Matt Holiday - Matt is goingto have an awesome season batting back to back with Pujoles.

Outfield: Ichiro - Or Cheeto as hs is known by the Giants.  (you would know if you watched Baseball Tonight tonight)

Outfield: Justin Upton - My favorite of the Uptons.  Why?  He gave my son a ball while at a game.  He didn't just throw it to him either.  He picked him out of the crowd told everyone else to get back and gave it to him.  Then ruffled my boys hair and went to finish pregame.

The Pitchers

No closers to speak of in my box so I'm sticking to starters.

Chris Carpenter - Cy Young contender every year if he can stay healthy

Mark Buehrle - Southsiders Opening Day Pitcher.

JA Happ - His name makes me smile. Reminds me of happy.

Adam Wainwright - even bigger ballpark this year so he should be even better than last year.

Felix Hernandez - The King...

Clayton Kershaw - Please oh please no sophmore slump.

Cole Hamels - I need 2008 Cole not 2009 Cole.  We'll find out whoch one shows up to the ballbark real soon. 

I think the pitching staff looks alright that is why I went with the Howard SP instead of the Lincecum.  Well that and Tim has he arm mechanics of a Yugo and it is only a matter of time...

The Extras

Corner Infielder:  Billy Butler - Hopefully he has as good a year thi year as last.

Middle Infielder:  He ain't nothing but a hound dog but he is all I had to pick.

Outfielder: Adam Lind - Was last year a fluke?  I hope not (except for when he plays Boston).

Utility; Ryan Howard - using my Insert/SP rule on Howard.  (sucks I had to choose between him and Lincecum)

Scanned the inserts just for the heck of it.  Max is a Refractor and Topps screwed me out of a good baseball card with that amendment card.

I'm pretty happy with this team.  I haven't looked to see what everyone elses team looks like but I feel like mine is solid.  We'll see just how solid  over the next few months.

I need some 2001 set help

Did you stop collecting for a time and now wish that you had been collecting when a certain product came out?  When I first heard that there was a Red Sox only set put out by Fleer in 2001 I wished that I was collecting then.  I mentioned that a few weeks ago and like magic I had a trade offer.  Section 36 offered up almost every single on of them for some other Red Sox. 

This set is so awesome.  Just look at page #1 Yaz and Wiliams

Page 2 is loaded with HOFers also. 

Page 3 brings the greats also.  Can page 4 keep the streak alive?

Yep still going strong.

Dam the train just fell off the track.  Yes there are HOFers on there, 3 to be exact, but I am missing a card.

Ahhh another one missing!!

 

Back on track with the complete page.

To lazy to look it up but is Zimmer in the hall?  He is a baseball lifer an if he is not there the veterans will put him in eventually.  Alright here is the rest of the set no more comments till later.

Here starts the inserts.   I almost have a compete set of them too.

Well not a complete set of all of them.  This is the only Splended Splinter inster card I have.

Now here is where I need your help.  I am short 2 base cards out of 100 and 11 inserts out of 20. 

2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Anniversary

38 Johnny Pesky
53 Dick Radatz

2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Anniversary Yankey's Heroes
1
4
8
9
11
12
14
15
17
18
20

Please oh please if someone has these e-mail me.  I would love to knock this thing out. 

Thank You so much Section 36.  I would still be at 4 cards if it were not for you.

Sign or not to sign

Rumor is the Sox are working on resigning Beckett. They are not only working on it they are supposed to be close to terms.  That means a bunch of years with 1 2 3 of Lester Beckett and Lackey.  I can handle that.

The regular and mini Beckett came via Matt of Heartbreaking Cards.

Thanks Matt

Play at the Plate sends cards

One big ass card from Play at the Plate one little post from me.

 

I put it next to the Vaughn to show how big it is and because that is my favorite Stidio set they ever made.

A week late but my take on Nomar retiring a Red Sox

I have read a ton of article on Nomar's retirement. There are quite a few schools of thought on it.

Some people are happy because he was the face of the franchise for a decade. They are happy to see him come home gracefully and hope to see the number 5 in right field some day. Then there are the guys that hate that he retired as a Red Sox. These are the people that remember only when Nomar left the team and blame him for all those missed rings. These guys like to mention Jeter diving into the stands while Nomar sat on the bench. The last group of people thinks his one day contract was an act put on by ESPN to help announce his new job.

Now which way do you think I remember Nomar, the franchise face or the guy pouting in the dugout?

Drum roll please…

Neither.

I always saw Nomar as a really good player, nothing more. Emphasis on good but not great. Yeah I know he won two batting titles but that doesn’t make him great in my book. Heck, Mueller won one also this decade and he wasn’t a great player. I also don’t remember him as the quitter in the dugout. Throughout the season every player takes some days off and it isn’t his fault Jeter made a great play that day. I remember him for something else altogether.

I remember him as the famous husband of Mia Hamm.  Shocked? I know some may be. If you ask who the better athlete was it was defiantly Mia. Is that baseball blasphemy? Maybe but I was a soccer player as a kid not a baseball player. I was always a little kid and almost blind on top of that. I was just physically better equipped to play soccer.


Oh yeah and then there is the fact for most of Nomar’s Boston career I was a single and in my 20s. Whose poster do you think was on my wall Nomar or Mia?

By the way, the first two cards came via trade from Rickey Henderson Collectables.  The other three came from Gordon the Red Sox Collector.  I would write up full trade posts but I am sick of witing them ad I'm sure you all are equally sick of reading them.  That being said I have about 6 of them in que because I have done a ton of trading lately and I really think I need to highlight trades.