Check out my Cards from COMC

COMC package day is always one of favorite days, I usually only make an order every 4 months or so, and not only do I get the COMC cards I picked up, I also get my "Shipping to Canada is Crazy" Mailbox cards, including, yes, another 2013 Ramon Hernandez, the last non-printing plate needed, the mini black numbered to #5.

It's a Sickness, is what it is

Don't ask me why, but I now own the above card. I thought having 19 different 2013 Ramon Hernandez cards would be enough. It is not. I had to buy a 2012 Ramon Hernandez printing plate. At least 2013 has a nice photo, this is a photoshop. Don't ask me why, but it's here, on my card desk, looking at me, waiting for more of it's friends.

Binder 9

I have seen a lot people around doing this, so I took some time to go through my collection and see what I could come up with for my top 9 cards, I started limited to baseball, but there was a few that I really didn't want to leave off, so it became multi-sport.

2013 Ramon Hernandez, The Return

Just when you thought I ran out of Ramon Hernandez posts, this little beauty shows up, and by little I mean "Mini". 2013 Topps Mini Ramon Hernandez to go with the full size rainbow. You know I wasn't letting this get away, and for only $16.00 this came along two other black bordered minis, a Drew Storen and Jhonny Peralta which have since been sold on COMC.

My Top Acquisitions of 2014

With the end of a year, there are always two things, a chance to look back at the year that was, and lists. Here is a combination of these two things with my top acquisitions of 2014. These are in a sort of order ending with my most favorite, but I decided not to number them as my order would change if I tried to to this again.

2013 Topps Museum Collection Framed Museum Collection Autographs Gold Wilin Rosario - My feels toward Rosario as a baseball player have soured, and he will most likely not be with Colorado when 2015 opens, but there Topps does that is as nice as the Museum Collection metal framed autographs. Scans in now way do these cards justice, they are just amazing.

Just when you thought I couldn't post any more of these

A pretty exciting addition to the collection, joining the 2013 Ramon Hernandez rainbow, the black printing plate used to make the cards. I know the magenta has been pulled and sold on ebay before I started this project and is probably stashed in someones collection, and I had all but given up finding one of the other three, so I was trilled just to get 1 of the 4, and who knows maybe the rest will pop up eventually.

Last of the Denver Loot.

Along with catching a few Rockies games while in Denver, I managed to find my way down to Bill's Sports Collectibles, and picked up a few things. The big score for me was a couple Rockies magazines, these are full of photos of old obscure Rockies that make for some good custom card material. With some time to kill I dug through a few boxes of 10 cards for $20 and while probably overpaying at $2.00, it was fun to spend some time in a big store dedicated to something other than hockey.

Goodies From Across the Pond

Winnings from a recent contest at everyone's favorite Dutch Card Blogger, arrived, with an Inception Auto Relic of prospect Slade Heathcott, I love the Inception line and even though I don't collect Yankees this card is a welcome addition. Some random Rockies also came along for the ride.

First Ever Rainbow (or Way Too Many Ramon Hernandez Posts)

A pretty big moment in my collecting career, I finally finished the 2013 Topps Ramon Hernandez rainbow. The final tally checks in at 14 cards, not counting printing plates. Above you see the Orange factory set parallel numbered to 230 beside the Gold numbered to 2013.

My Top Acquisitions of 2013

A quick post just showing of some of my favorite pick-ups of 2013, I don't bust a ton of wax so only one was a pulled by me.

9. John Buck 2005 Absolute Memorabilia - Possibly the ultimate catching relic card.

Why did I even buy this?

I usually have a small niche that I collect, and try not to stray to far from that for budgetary reasons. I mostly collect base cards, and an un-numbered autograph means just as much to me as a low numbered color-fractor parallel. Sometimes my itchy bidding finger gets the best of me and I end up with something outside my comfort zone. This is one of those things. A Topps Vault Blank Back 1/1 card, from Topps Mini no less, and with all apologies to mini fans, a set that I have absolutely zero use for.

First off, I find it disgusting that Topps produces these things as a straight to ebay item. They are nothing more than a quick cash grab that really adds nothing to the hobby. If they were released into packs as redemptions (I know, that last thing we need is more redemptions) or something like that I would have no problem, but as a straight to ebay only item, that's what I have a problem with. I realize that most cards end up on secondary market sites like ebay anyway, and it is an easy way to get things like this into collectors hands, it still seems a little shady. As someone who hates redundancy (hence my Topps Mini dislike), these things don't really need to exist.

Obviously, I am not as outraged at these as I thought I was, because I bought one. It was relatively cheap and is pretty nice in it's Beckett graded case, and it fits into my 2013 Topps Ramon Hernandez rainbow that any regular readers (If I have any) have seen me working on for a few months.

Check Out My Rockies (Oct 2013)

After a recent COMC package arrived, I thought a few cards deserved to be highlighted here. First off this Will Swanner Bowman Black Collection from ebay via the COMC Mailbox service. Just a beautiful card on thick stock, numbered to 25, featuring a Rockies catcher. I may have overpaid for this, but for such a nice looking card, it doesn't hurt that much.

2013 Orange Rockies Catchers

Another installment of 2013 Topps flagship parallels. This time it's the orange border from the Factory Set, numbered out of 230. These are challenging the pink borders for the ugliest version of flagship, and look even worse with the Rockies purple in the design. This brings me up to 12 different versions of the 2013 Ramon Hernandez and a pink parallel should be making it's way here via the COMC mailbox service to complete the rainbow.

Check Out My Rockies

Another load of Rockies cards from COMC. While not being a fan of unlicensed cards, they usually have nice catcher cards as the equipment makes editing the photo unnecessary. This card of Wilin Rosario is instantly one of my favorite Rockies catchers cards.

The Eddie Butler autograph an on-card auto which is nice, but it is kind of an ugly card, but I got it for cheap and Butler has been the best pitcher in the Rockies system this season. The Ben Petrick is also on-card and a nice addition to the catcher collection.

More catchers with Rogelio Arias, a Charles Johnson bat card, and two more Ramon Hernandez cards for the rainbow attempt. Joe Kennedy set a then Rockies record with a 3.66 ERA in 2004 before sadly passing away in 2007. The Pomeranz is limited to 199 and this one is #1. The Helton is an acetate and will be in an upcoming acetate appreciation and the Gary Wayne was the second the last card I needed for the Rockies frankenset.

June COMC Loot

Going through the cards to sort/post folder I found a couple scans from a COMC order and figured I might as well show them off. The main card was a Matt Holliday autograph numbered to 25 filling in the biggest hole in my Rockies autograph collection. Trevor Story is a highly ranked Rockies prospect and Lance Painter and Steve Reed are from early Colorado teams of my youth. Lance Painter might be best known for having to pinch hit in the 1995 playoffs after Don Baylor burned though his bench.

Small Sportlots April 2013

Another small Sportlots order, I noticed the seller lowered the price on the Toys 'r us Purple Ramon Hernandez, probably the hardest to find of the retail parallels, so the search began to find more cards to even out the shipping. I can't believe I didn't pick up the 2011 Gypsy Queen of Gary Carter in an Expos uniform until now, I love seeing Expos jerseys in newer products. I already had the Craig Counsell base but not the foil, that completes the Craig Counsell Rockies Rainbow. Jim Abbott was a player I collected as a kid and didn't have a card of him with the Brewers until now, it fits into the "pitchers batting" collection and is my first 1999 Upper Deck card. Brandon Inge fits into the catchers with hockey masks collection featuring a pretty decent paint job on his 2000 Just card.

Ramon Wrapper Redemption Rainbow

Two separate eBay auctions merged into one post. Part of the quest to complete my first rainbow, the 2013 Flagship of now former Rockie and current Dodger Ramon Hernandez.

Pretty nice cards, I overpaid for the blue thinking they would be hard to find, but for cards that are reportedly limited to a print run of 150, they are very easy to find for reasonable prices. They don't scan great, but look really good in hand, similar to the emerald green parallels. I thought I made out ok with the silver as it's limited to ten and only 2 have shown up on eBay so far. The silver is a framed border, think Gypsy Queen framed parallels, and looks really nice with the name and the logo having an etched look, really simple and works well.

Small Sportlots Mailday

The ongoing saga of the 2013 Topps Ramon Hernandez rainbow continues with a reasonably priced camo parallel numbered to 99 from sportlots. Along for the ride were a few randoms for the wantlist to make shipping cost per card a little more reasonable. A Drew Pomeranz numbered to 199 from Bowman Sterling, I really like the looks of this set, they don't scan great but look really nice in real life, Chris Cowell and Jordan Pacheco go into the Rockies Catcher collection, Pacheco is a part time catcher so it's nice to get a card of him in catcher gear, even if it's a spring training shot from the terribly ugly Finest set. The Neely is a throwback to my youth as he was the first player I ever actively collected, and finished off with some 2012 Gypsy Queen photo variants that I already had, but were too cheap to pass up and are added to my GQ tradelist.

Blown Budget Mailday: 2013 Topps Platinum

We have a new record holder for the most I have spend on a single card. This is the first true 1 of 1 I have ever owned (I don't count printing plates because there are 4 of them), the thrill of the bid on eBay got the best of me here. It's a card I was pretty sure to never see again, but not being a huge fan of Ramon Hernandez, I could have lived without it. Interesting note, as far as I can tell Hernandez is the active leader for homer runs by a catcher with 160. There are have been trade rumors all winter, so I have officially jinxed Hernandez to either get traded or have a terrible year.

Between this, MLB 13: The Show and saving for 2 boxes of Gypsy Queen in April, March will be a slow month for card purchases other than chasing the rainbow on this card, I already have the Black and will be on the lookout for the rest of the parallels and maybe try and get a frame display or something for them.

The Obligatory 2013 Topps Post

"Oh what's that, 2013 Topps is out, why didn't anyone say anything about this?"

My excitement for the opening day of the 2013 baseball card season is pretty low, mostly because living in the middle of nowhere I have no way of getting my hands on any for a while, and in joining a group break I will wait for that before deciding on buying any more, but I will take time to share some thoughts on what I have seen so far. I love the design of the base cards, using the hat logo instead of the primary logo is a really nice move, as is the team color in the infield portion of the design. The photography is also very impressive in this set, Topps chose some really nice photos and did a good job with oddball things like retro jerseys and celebration shots. The design also leds itself well to parallels with the Emerald and Black borders looking really good, and as a Rockies fan I am going to try and track down some Toyz-r-us purple borders.

Now on the the bad, the pink and camo borders look bad, the camo might be ok with the classic green camo, but the desert camo is pretty boring. As a Rockies fan, player selection has always been a problem for me, and the Rockies getting 6 cards in pretty lame, but not as bad as the Astros with 5 and the Twins with 4. Seriously, in a 330 card set, there are only 4 twins cards? I am also not a fan of the 1972 design or "mini's" that don't fit into any pages I know of, so those are a write off for me and the rest of the inserts don't so much for me either.

Overall, Topps did a really good job with this set, most of my negatives are of the personal preference kind and not serious issues.