Dime Box Buy: 2015 Bowman Chrome Farm's Finest Minis #FFMAJA Alex Jackson

2015 Bowman Chrome Farm's Finest Minis #FFMAJA Alex Jackson

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots Mail - #7 of 11

Do you remember the ditty from Sesame Street about how "one of these things is not the same?"  That describes this part of my Sportlots order.

2001 Topps Heritage #237 Will Clark

The two cards had been in my cart for quite awhile.  I actually need a third copy, but the seller just had the two.  I plan to send one to him as a TTM request.  I need one for the Will Clark collection.  I will need a third one if I ever attempt to put the 2001 Heritage set together, but I guess that can wait.

This card is going to look AWESOME once it is signed!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 2015 Bowman Chrome Farm's Finest Minis #FFMMG Marco Gonzales

2015 Bowman Chrome Farm's Finest Minis #FFMMG Marco Gonzales

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots Mail - #6 of 11

Here we have another Russ Davis cards that I was able to get from Sportlots, with the shipping cost, for less than COMC.  I am always in "buyer" mode on COMC, so currently I can pick this card up for $0.74.  However, when I go to ship, I will have to pay another quarter in shipping.  From Sportlots, I picked this up for $0.18 + $0.75 shipping.  The other bonus is that I might not ship from COMC for another month or so, but already have this card in-hand.

1998 Score Seattle Mariners #12 Russ Davis

1998 Score Seattle Mariners #12 Russ Davis

This addition raises the Russ Davis line to 202/309/65.4%.  One more card and I'll be at two-thirds complete!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 2010 Topps Chrome X-Fractors #186 Cole Gillespie

2010 Topps Chrome X-Fractors #186 Cole Gillespie

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots Mail - #5 of 11

Most of the Russ Davis cards I need from his early career are minor league issues.  They weren't easy to come by in the pre-internet days but most can be found now.  It's just a matter of if you are willing to pay what someone is asking.

There has been a copy of this card on COMC for quite awhile.  The asking price is $2.95 so I moved on.  This copy from Sportlots was $0.30 + $1 shipping.

1993 Columbus Clippers Team Issue #3 Russ Davis

1993 Columbus Clippers Team Issue #3 Russ Davis (back)

This addition raises the Russ Davis line to 201/309/65%.  Just two more cards and I will be at two-thirds complete!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 2016 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP8 Billy McKinney

2016 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP8 Billy McKinney

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots Mail - #4 of 11

The moment that I opened this particular PWE, I was mad at myself.  I knew the card looked familiar and I figured I ordered the wrong card.  Once I sat down to research and write my post, I realized that I DID actually order the base card.  The seller sent the gold parallel, which I already have.  I've filed on the site to get a refund and we will see how it goes.

I figure I may as well still show off the card!

1996 Flair Gold #159 Russ Davis

The card that I need for the collection is the base card.  It has a silver background instead of the gold one that this particular card has.

1996 Flair Gold #159 Russ Davis (back)

I'm only showing the back for one reason.  I want to mention that Fleer did a fantastic job with the designs and photos on the back of their Flair brands.  I understand that most nobody cares about card backs, including the manufacturers.  That makes me appreciate the Flair backs that much more.

Unfortunately, this is a post that doesn't add to the Russ Davis numbers.  The collection remains at 200/309/64.7% of cards listed in the Sports Card Forum database.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1978 Topps #192 San Diego Padres CL

What I love about this card is that it's marked on the back.  That's what checklists were for!

1978 Topps #192 San Diego Padres CL

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots Mail - #3 of 11

I've posted two packages from one Sportlots purchase so far.  On to number three.  This one is a little different in that it's not just cards for the Russ Davis collection.  It's a little bit of a mixed bag. 

1998 Topps Minted In Cooperstown #202 Russ Davis

1998 Pacific Online Red #682 Russ Davis

1999 Upper Deck Victory #379 Russ Davis

These three cards now have me at 200 unique Russ Davis cards that are listed in the Sports Card Forum database.  The line now sits at 200/309/64.7%.

2015 Topps Heritage #344 Jedd Gyorko

2014 Allen and Ginter #12 Jedd Gyorko

While I don't believe I had the Allen & Ginter, I believe I have ten or so copies of the Heritage card.  Last time I tried to find them I couldn't, so for $.0.18 I picked this up "just in case." These two were the last two in the cart that I grabbed.  They weren't going to cost me any extra shipping, so why not?

All of the Blackhawks cards below had been in my cart on Sportlots for months and I'd just never completed the transaction.  Picking up the Davis and Gyroko cards from the seller was just an added bonus for me.

2013-14 Score Alternate Back #108 Brandon Bollig

I both love and hate that Score put these cards into their product.  They look like any other card, but it's the backs that make them different.  The card below is the back scan.  However, the normal base card backs were printed in black.

What I dislike about them isn't their scarcity, it's that likely people don't know about them.  I was never able to acquire a copy of this for my Andrew Shaw PC.  I never even saw one.  There are probably a handful sitting in some kids' box of cards and he has no idea how much I'd give to snag the Shaw copy.  UGH!

2013-14 Score Alternate Back #108 Brandon Bollig

2013-14 Score Red #102 Dave Bolland

2013-14 Score Red #101 Niklas Hjalmarsson

2013-14 Score Red #100 Viktor Stalberg

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #122 Jonathan Toews

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #126 Corey Crawford

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #127 Patrick Sharp

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #128 Brent Seabrook

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Pulsar Prizms #124 Duncan Keith

I planned to get away from modern, but I've gravitated back on a few things.  Something I really enjoy are Blackhawks cards with black or red borders.  I know I'm not alone and that many collectors enjoy parallels with their teams' colors.  I'm not sure how active I will be in searching for them but at some point I will try and get some of them up on my want lists.  

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1977-84 Galasso Glossy Greats #6 Smoky Burgess

1977-84 Galasso Glossy Greats #6 Smoky Burgess

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Why I Collect - Russ Davis

A few days ago I posted a couple of Russ Davis cards that I picked up from Sportlots.  Matt, of Bob Walk the Plank fame, mentioned that he must have missed why I collect Davis.

It got me to thinking, that could be a series of posts.  So many people out there collect players like Mike Trout, Connor McDavid, Bryce Harper and any other number of the same players.  Aaron Judge is the latest one that so many collect and it just bores me to tears.  It's so unoriginal.  Over time, some of the names I've collected are Andrew Shaw, Russ Davis, Darrell Whitmore, Steve Kline, Chris Enochs, Bob Sura and Jedd Gyorko.  The only name that's been a superstar was Jeremy Roenick, who is now in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

There are reasons we all collect and many of us aren't just "collecting" to invest.  Some don't understand that.

For me this is one of the things wrong with the hobby.  There's nothing that I can do about it, so I just move on.

I was visiting my family in Alabama one summer (I would guess 1993 or 1994) and my uncle told me about a kid from the next community over that was a top prospect in the Yankees system.  There was nobody from my hometown to collect and even if there was, it would have been expensive to collect a local player.  So, I started collecting Hueytown, Alabama's Russ Davis.

As most know,  collecting in the mid-1990s was different.  Card shops and shows were really the only place to get singles.  There was no internet and eBay.  Early on, I was just going to all sellers at shows and asking what they had.  Davis was enough of a prospect that he had cards and dealers knew who he was.  He wasn't a top-five prospect in baseball, so I was able to get his cards cheaply in bulk.  I don't believe I ever had to pay a buck or more for a card since we didn't have low-numbered, autographs and memorabilia cards.  It was a good time.

There was a husband and wife dealer in my area that opened a lot of cards.  The lady took a liking to me and any time they pulled a Davis card, she set it aside for me.  If I didn't see them for a few months, she might have 50 or so of them for me.

One card that I had trouble coming by, though it should have been easy to get, was the 1995 Score Air Mail card.  The reason was that the insert was available ONLY in Series 2 jumbo packs.  Anyone collecting then knows that you couldn't walk into any store and get a jumbo pack.  I remember being on a family vacation and found a place selling them.  I bought as many as I could.  No Davis card.  It wasn't until I was on eBay in the late 1990s that I picked that card up.

There aren't too many pre-1997 Davis cards that I need.  The ones I do need are minor league or tougher parallels that weren't easy to find at card shows.  I started at West Virginia University in the fall of 1997.  I still collected a bit, but there were other things paramount in life.  His last cards were from 2002 releases and I wasn't very heavily back into the hobby at that point.  Even if I had been, I wasn't very interested in baseball by then.  My sports focus had shifted to football.

I'm working to finish off the collection as best I can.   There are a few 1/1s and low-numbered cards that at this point, I likely won't come into.  All I can do is get as close as I can and recount some of the fond memories of collecting cards as a kid.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 2001 Sunoco Dream Team #12 Roger Maris / Catfish Hunter

I bought a lot of Sunoco fuel in 2001.

2001 Sunoco Dream Team #12 Roger Maris / Catfish Hunter

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots Mail - #2 of 11

There aren't too many pre-1998 Russ Davis cards that I need.  I started at West Virginia University in 1997 and I was collecting cards a bit less in the following years.  I did find one that I needed on Sportlots for a good price and I made it mine.

1994 Fleer ProCards Columbus Clippers #2956 Russ Davis

I picked this card up for $.18 + $1 shipping.  Originally I had planned to buy it from another seller, but that's seller's rate went from $1 shipping for one card up to $2.70 if I bought two card.  It was cheaper to buy from another seller and pay shipping.  That seems odd to me, but I'm going to buy from where I get the best deal.  The only copy of this card on COMC has an asking price of $3.20, so it was definitely a win!

After adding this card, the Russ Davis collection is at 197 of 309 cards (63.8% complete).

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1991 Stadium Club #399 Mark McGwire

1991 Stadium Club #399 Mark McGwire

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots Mail - #1 of 11

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen that I finally had time to restart and finish cataloging my Russ Davis player collection.  As soon as finished that and posting my need list, I started looking to fill holes in the collection.  I started with Sportlots and places a significant order.  There are cards coming from 11 different sellers.  I spent a lot of time on the order, weighing cards costs against shipping so that I could get the most for my money.


I placed the order Sunday evening and by Wednesday this one had made it from Puerto Rico.  I paid $0.58 for the cards and $1 shipping.

1998 Topps Inaugural Devil Rays #202 Russ Davis

There weren't any copies of this on COMC.  There was another seller on Sportlots that also had it, but there were no other copies of the card below on Sportlots, so I elected to pick them both up from one seller.

1998 Topps Inaugural Diamondbacks #202 Russ Davis

This was the only copy available on Sportlots and the only copy on COMC has a $1.74 asking price.  No complaints from me on spending $0.79 each on these two cards.

Adding these two has me currently sitting at 196 of 309 (63.4%).  There are more on the way!  

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1994-95 Excel #131 Reid Ryan

Knowing that Reid Ryan is Nolan Ryan's son, I couldn't pass this one up.  I felt it would make a cool blog post.

Ryan pitched two seasons in the minors, finishing with a 5-15 record and a 6.04 ERA.  He never made it out of high-A ball.  He is currently the Houston Astros' President of Business Operations.

1994-95 Excel #131 Reid Ryan

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1991 Denny's Holograms #22 Pedro Guerrero

I've enjoyed how popular any Denny's hologram post has been.  It's obviously that collectors loved these and that kids begged kids to go eat there.  That's good marketing!

1991 Denny's Holograms #22 Pedro Guerrero

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1981 Donruss #372 Phil Garner

1981 Donruss #372 Phil Garner

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1990 Score #566 Bo Jackson (All-Star MVP)

I probably watched the 1989 All-Star game 100 times as a kid.

"And Bo Jackson says hello..."
-Vin Scully

1990 Score #566 Bo Jackson (All-Star MVP)

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1990 Score #695 Mitch Williams (Dream Team)

I just realized how much I like this design.  It's so basic.  It's not a photo.  It's basically the T206 design.  I think this is a great card to get signed and I hope to find that Mitch Williams will sign through the mail.

I'd also love to get more cards from this subset if anyone reads and has some they'd like to send my way.

1990 Score #695 Mitch Williams (Dream Team)

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

TTM Success #41 - What Happened When

My latest TTM return was sitting on the table waiting for me when I came home from work on Thursday.  This one isn't from a former player.  He's the man behind one of the podcasts that I depend on to get me through my work week.

I'm mentioned a podcast and shown you that it came from Atlanta.  I've mentioned that he's not a former player.  Any guesses?

Wrestling is one of the few things that my dad and I bonded over when I was young.  I was all sports, all the time and he wasn't much into them.  He did love pro wrestling and I took to it as well.  During those teenage years that many stopped collecting I never did.  However, I lost interest in pro wrestling.

In college I became interested again and all the names that I knew weren't in WWF.  They were in WCW and that's where my viewing interest leaned.  The voice of WCW television was Tony Schiavone.

After the WWE purchase of WCW, Schiavone left the wrestling scene but remained in the media.  He is play-by-play radio voice of the Gwinett Braves and that's where I sent these to.

Thankfully for us wrestling fans, he now records a weekly podcast called "What Happened When" where he discusses his time in pro wrestling.  You can also find it on iTunes.  It started in February and the next episode will be number 30.

The upcoming episode is probably the one I've most looked forward to so far.  I have loved Tony's stories about "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson so far throughout the series.  On Monday we will get more than two hours of Enforcer talk and I can't wait!

Thank you for signing, Mr. Schiavone!  It didn't go unnoticed to me that you used different color sharpies that allow the signatures to better show up!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going over to Pro Wrestling Tees to pick up my "Damn I Am Good" WHW tee.  Can't wait to get my phone call from Schiavone for ordering!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1990 Leaf #212 Tim Raines

1990 Leaf #212 Tim Raines

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1987 Mother's Cookies Texas Rangers #9 Pete O'Brien

1987 Mother's Cookies Texas Rangers #9 Pete O'Brien

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1993 SP #277 Cliff Floyd

1993 SP #277 Cliff Floyd

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1993 SP #276 Carl Everett

1993 SP #276 Carl Everett

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1993 SP #284 Eduardo Perez

1993 SP #284 Eduardo Perez

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Mail from Breakdown Cards

I sent Gavin (@breakdowncards) of Baseball Card Breakdown a couple of cards in a PWE a week or so ago.  The quickness that he replied (and I didn't send to him expecting to get something back) tells me that it's possible he'd already set aside a few cards for me.  It wasn't long at all that I received a PWE back with set needs and a buyback.

All six A&G cards, as well as the Wil Myers 87T design were needs for my sets!  WINNING!  I've been accumulating 1987 Topps buybacks, as that was one of the first two sets (along with 1987 Donruss) that I put together myself.  Sometime down the road, I will officially begin work on an 87T buyback set.  That is many, many projects down the road, though.

Thanks for the cards, Gavin!  I do appreciate it!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Dime Box Buy: 1993 SP #278 Alex Gonzalez

1993 SP #278 Alex Gonzalez 

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Saturday Show Spoils

It was card show day again today!  I didn't plan on picking up much and walked out with more than I planned to.  I walked away very happy though.

Before I went to the show, I stopped by Triple Cards in Plano.  They are one of the Topps Baseball Card Day participating stores so I wanted to stop in and claim my pack.  You can check out what I walked out with here.

When I first got to the show, Stephan was already there (with Angela) and he was digging through Rich's boxes of cards.  I'm not even sure he looked at other tables the entire show.  After chatting for awhile, I made my rounds.

I chatted up the gentleman that's promoting the new Fort Worth card show.  He will be moving the shows to Saturdays on some future dates.  I guess that means I won't be attending many since college football is just TWO WEEKS AWAY!

I talked with Nate momentarily.  He submits to BGS frequently and I need to get my Auston Matthews Canvas Young Guns submitted.  He looked at it for me a couple of months ago and believes it's easily a 9.5,  WINNING!

My purchase was from a seller that I've bought from before.  He always has an impressive 3-for-$1 box and I raided it again today.

The next two scans are cards I picked up off one of the regular sellers at local card shows.  I don't dig through his stuff often (he has SO much), but went through a few boxes today and picked these five cards up for $30.

It's been probably a year since I've picked up any cards for my 1955 All-American set.  It's fallen off the radar as I've learned more about other cards.  I believe another thing that keeps me from finishing it off is that there's just so many of the cards out there.  Dave puts "book" value on his cards and then everything is half that or less.  The Germany Schulz has a book value of $30 and this one is in great shape.  I was happy to pay $15 for it in that condition but his son told me $10.  YES, PLEASE!  Hindsight is 20/20, but I should have seen what he wanted for the other ones he has.  They would be doubles, but all would be set upgrades for me.

I actually bought the cards in the second scan at a different time and got them for $20.  The Will Clark has a canvas finish.  I picked this card up solely to send to Clark and have him sign for me.  I'm not striving to collect all cards of hometown hero Jedd Gyorko.  There's just too much and it's like pissing into the wind.  However, I do want to pick up any cards from the baseball sets I like (Heritage, Gypsy Queen and Allen & Ginter) and I didn't have this autograph yet.

I will likely never put together the 2000 Fleer Club 3000 Memorabilia set and this is the first one that I have acquired.  If anyone has any of them that they don't want, please let me know.  I don't have many Tony Gwynn cards, but I pick up some if I come across them at the right price.  Memorabilia cards are "meh" to me anymore but this one is from back when they were a much bigger deal.  I do still need a Tony Gwynn autograph.

I picked up the two cards below from Rich.  I probably overpaid for them (considering the Stautner condition), but I've gotten some good deals in the past and it takes the sting off it.

As I was about to leave and looked down at my watch, it was 20 after the hour.  It was just ten minutes until the hourly drawing for a $15 voucher to spend with any dealer.  I figured it was worth the wait, so I stayed.  Yup, my ticket number was drawn.  There was nothing I'd seen and REALLY wanted but passed on.

I had looked through Leon's T206 cards earlier and recalled that he had a few cheapies.  The Hobe Ferris card is a pretty common card in the set and it's not overly impressive.  However, I didn't have it and it was free.  Hard to beat that combination!  This is the 15th T206 in my collection.

1909-11 T206 #171 Hobe Ferris

It was a good day!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!