Pack Break: 2013 BBM Legendary Foreigners 2 Deep Impact

A very rare pack break as I haven't been super interested in any new product (and I totally blew my card budget, more on that in a week or so). Something popped up that I consider an insta-buy, and as a bonus it was from a seller I have ordered from in past who usually has others things in his store, like oddball Japanese baseball packs. I will never turn down reasonably priced BBM packs, especially from this set which I have a few cards on my wantlist.

Zistle PWE Trade

I nice little trade from zistle showing a little more diversity from what I am usually looking for. Of course there would be Gypsy Queen though, another short print down from the 2015 set, a card with a good photo, kind of a rarity for 2015 GQ.

COMRockies

Time to show off some Rockies from the recent COMC package, which included some bigger cards from the mailbox system. First off, a nice on-card auto of Todd Helton from 1998, or the pre-goatee era. Only my second Helton autograph, a part of my collection that is severely lacking.

Mini Mailday

It took me a while to jump aboard the mini bandwagon, and while I am not fully obsessed with them, I jump at the chance to add certain tobacco size cards. First up is a 2011 Gypsy Queen photo variation of Troy Tulowitzki, the first 100 card in the Gypsy Queen set have mini versions with different photos, and are very hard to find.

Acetate Appreciation: 2005 Topps Hot Button

A weird little set that you don't see much of, 2005 Topps Hot Button. These cards were part of a game made by Topps in which players would insert cards into an electronic game unit and the game would come up with a result based on the cards used. The cards themselves were sold as a starter kit with 20 cards and a game unit and as booster packs with 7 cards.

Acetate Appreciation: 1999 Finest - Peel and Reveal

An insert set from when peel off protective film coatings were a common thing to see on cards. These cards came in packs of Topps Finest with a black film on both sides that had to be peeled of to see which card you got. The three parallels were Sparkle, the most common (roughly 1 per box), Stadium Stars, the least common (roughly 1 in every 5 boxes) and Hyperplaid being somewhere in the middle (about 1 per 2.5 boxes). These cards are very hard to identify by scans so I used a black background below to help out. The Sparkle are just what you would expect, with shiny specks in the clear space, Hyperplaid are probably the best looking in person looking similar to X-Fractors from recent Topps Chrome releases. The Stadium Stars are the hardest to see with Stars and Circles that create a slight 3D effect.

Acetate Appreciation: 2007 UD Elements

A very weird and confusing set released by Upper Deck in 2007, the cards were released with 3 mini-boxes per box, 5 packs per mini box, 3 cards per pack, with what was advertised as "3 unique Technology Cards" with Relic and Auto cards mixed in as well.

Box 1 contained cards 1-42 and 127-168 on "Foil Board" (Think Chrome Refractors)
Box 2 contained cards 43-84 and 169-210 on "Lt Fx" (Think Fleer Metal)
Box 3 contained cards 85-126 and 211-252) on "PETG" (Think thicker than average acetate)

The first 126 cards were of veteran players, with one card per "Technology" and cards 127-252 being all rookies limited to 550, meaning each player has 3 different cards in the set. The PETG (or Polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified) are clear plastic cards that fit into the "acetate" part of my collection. The "Technology" is pretty much wasted on these as only the top portion of the card is clear, and the back containing a bio and stats shows though to the card front. The photos used on the PETG cards look to all be posed studio shots, making my dislike for these cards even greater.

Custom Card: 1990-91 Skybox NBA Todd Helton

A design I have been playing with for a while, 1990-91 Skybox was a favorite of mine when it came out, combining a simple border design with weird and colorful background and a glowing basketball. Now considered junk wax, it remember it being a pretty big deal back in the day.

The second point of this post is just to acknowledge Todd Helton who played his last game in Denver and will have 3 games in L.A. this weekend to close out his career. Obviously as a Rockies fan I loved watching Helton and really hope he makes the Hall of Fame. He will be fighting the Coors Field stigma, as well as playing in a market without much national media attention but that's an argument for a later date, now is just a time to reflect on a great career and just say "Thank You Todd".

Rockies From Japan (2006)

I didn't collect much from around 1998-2011, but I did pick up the odd team set including these Japanese cards. From what I can find they are from the 150 card 2006 Konami Powerful MLB set. Judging by the card backs these might have been a video game cross promotion. Nothing really special here, just a chance to show off some unusual cards while waiting for some packages to arrive and show off some new stuff.

Rockies from Japan

A sort of odd ball mail-day with some Rockies cards from the Japanese Sega Card-Gen set. These cards show up on the bay from time to time so they are not really that rare, but still pretty different. The Helton and Rosario are from the 2013 set and the Belisle is from the 2012 edition. I believe these are used in an arcade game, but most of the info is in Japanese so I'm not sure the details. Most of the text on the card backs is in Japanese other than a few lines, one of which has Rosario as a "Strong Plate Blocker" and Belisle as a "Dependable Relief Workhorse".

Tricked by a Baseball Card

Over the past few years I have been getting pretty good at noticing acetate cards from a scan. When I saw this 1999 Skybox Molten Metal Fusion insert I was pretty sure I had a new card for the acetate collection. I was wrong. The usual indicators were there, cropped photo on the front, and the mirrored logo on the back of the cards is usually a dead giveaway. Once the card arrived in the mail I discovered that it was regular card stock, and the head shot image was made out of holes in the card. While not a new acetate card, it is something different and a nice addition to the Rockies collection.

Catching up on some scanning: Rockies

A few scans that have been hanging out in my "to be posted" folder to fill up some otherwise dead time on the blog. I think most of these come from a COMC order featuring some cheap autographs of guys you have never heard. Kyle Parker is part of the Rockies affinity towards drafting college quarterbacks along with Todd Helton, Seth Smith, Russel Wilson and possibly more I am forgetting. The three auto's start with Darren Clarke, who pitched in 1 1/3 career innings over 2 games in 2007 as an emergency call up from Double-A Tulsa. Derrick Gibson was a big home run hitter in the minors, but only managed to play 17 career MLB games, all with the Rockies.

Jeff Winchester is the only catcher drafted in the first round in Rockies history, but he never made it passed Double-A in 9 minor league seasons. The bottom left is my first booklet card, kind of a boring card with a plain grey "game used" piece of Helton's uniform, but for under $4 I jumped on it. Finished off by a Tulowitzki prominently showing the number 14 he wore as a rookie.

2013 Silver Slugger Mailday

The first 2013 card to arrive in my mailbox, I picked this up off ebay just to check out the hype surrounding these Silver Slugger Manu-relics. These are really nice and really thick. I measure it as 1/4" thick. Topps has done a lot of things right with the 2013 base set, and this is another winner in my eyes.

Acetate Appreciation: 2005 Donruss Studio Stars

More Acetatey goodness with Donruss Studio Stars, Stars was an insert set in the Donruss Studio line, the 2003 edition has already been featured here, the 2005 set consisted of 50 cards and was parallel with Gold, numbered to 500, and Platinum, numbered to 50, with not much difference other than the color of the brand logo in the upper left. This set keeps with the round corner from previous year, buts get away from the credit card style of 2003 and 2004. The entire set is posed shots that was the style of Donruss Studio making it pretty low on my list of favorite sets.

Contest Winnings

Just getting around to post a mystery package that came in the mail, and judging by the address must be contest winnings from the "card back contest" over at Cardboard Heaven. Pretty nice bunch of cards with a my first Tulowitzki relic showing a little bit of a pinstripe. Gypsy Queens are always appreciated are here, but even more so when it's an photo variant I need, and this Votto brings me up to 38 of 50. Among the Rockies we have a Cargo mini and blue framed out of 599, some serial numbered Helton cards, a high ranking prospect in Trevor Story and a gorgeous Wal-Mart Black Eric Young, Jr.
Thanks for the cards!

Zistle Trade #1

I don't think I really profess my love for www.zistle.com enough on this blog, but I do love the site for organizing collections and want-lists. I recently completed my first trade on Zistle, and really love how easy it is to start a trade with the want-list/trade-list capabilities on the site. Coming my way was the usual trade package, some 1992 Pinnacle needs including the Dibble to the right and some random catchers for the "Tools of Ignorance" collection. What could me more awesome than an Expo catcher with a goalie style mask. The 2009 John Baker is a personal favorite card of mine and some additions to the Ron Hassey collection.

Loot from Jaybarkerfan's Card Draft

After participating in my first card draft over at Jaybarkerfan's Junk here is what I ended up with. The card that really interested my was the 2003 Donruss Champions Garrett Atkins Autograph numbered to 400. Atkins had a few good years with the Rockies and was a part of the 2007 team that made it to the World Series. I also ended up with a new Helton and a Gold Sparkle Eric Young, Jr. for Rockies. Added some Hall of Famers to my collection as well with a Josh Gibson, Walter Johnson and Cy Young. I have never seen those UD HOF placards before and really like the set, might have to add a few more someday. My keepers are rounded out my some 2012 Topps '87 mini's, the McCutchen is in the running for my "Best Card of 2012". I ended up getting the only 1971 Topps, but sadly the Hoyt Wilhelm  was not an upgrade over the one in my set. The rest are scanned below and up for trade.

Rockies from JABO

Not much going on for me card related right now, so far Topps Series 2 is getting a "meh" response from me other than Rafael Betancourt finally getting a Rockies card, so in the interest of keeping up to my at least 3 posts a week goal I have a chance to show off some Rockies from Jabo's Blogarage Team Lot Clearance. He sent about 80 cards with only around 15 I already had. I am pretty high on Jordan Pacheco so his cards are always appreciated, and a couple more guys I collect in Chris Iannetta, Kaz Matsui and Larry Walker. He still has some teams available if you are looking for some cheap cards. Also if anyone knows why mt thumbnails would not be showing up in the reading list please let me know how to fix this.

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Trade w/ Royals & Randoms

Today began well with a completed trade with Royals & Randoms, after sending him some Royals along with some Kickers/Punters and a few Randoms, he sent back this box full of goodness. A pile of Rockies, Redskins and few randoms of my wantlists. I scanned a little bit of each to give a taste of the total package. I have to thank Josh for looking through my lists as there were almost no cards in the box I already had. Along with the Rockies were some 1992 Pinnacle which I am very passively trying to complete, some 87 Topps wants and the sweet 1978 Darrell Porter. The large pile of Redskins included a Brad Edwards I needed and a Jumpy Geathers which fills a need for the most wanted list. Thanks for the great trade.