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I would have to go all way back to mid-August that was about the time that I was sick with Ginter fever, I had it really bad… After a ripping a few hobby boxes I needed more, but my dealer couldn’t get anymore. I began turning to retail outlets and tearing a blaster a day and still getting satisfied. I was buying a blaster after school and ripping it before work and stopping at Wal-Mart on the way home from work and snatching up whatever they had on the shelves that night. It was on one of those nights, after work, that I grabbed 4 jumbo packs of Allen and Ginter, with a price tag of $4.97 a pop. As I was tearing into the third one I saw the edge of that beautiful floral frame that housed the good cards. I didn’t know if I had a bat, jersey or an autograph, but my 20 bucks suddenly felt well spent. My heart raced when I realized that it was an auto, and then I looked closer and realized that it was an autograph of a young boy. I stopped being so happy and excited. Of all the potential autographs in the set I wasn’t exactly pleased to receive a signature of someone not associated with baseball at all, who was not even old enough to drive. I immediately posted the card and with the help of Nate it was determined the card an eBay value of around 30 bucks. That was pretty good. It covered the 20 I had spent on cards that night, but I don’t do eBay, so it really didn’t help me too much. I placed the card on the block and to my surprise I got 8 different offers for it. Some of them were pretty damn good, too. Most of them involved other autos (of the baseball variety) and relics, but weren’t necessarily of players that I really wanted. One of the inquiries came from Patricia of the super awesome Dinged Corners blog. We had traded before and had a good trading relationship, she knew what I liked and she said the magic words that earned her the card-she said her daughter wanted it. I could never deny a child something they wanted, especially when it is a baseball (uh… juvenile guitar) card that was in my possession. The card was packaged with a couple of Wrights, Zitos, Grandersons and Moyers for filler and off it went to New Mexico. The card was received and received its own special post which made me happy, fulfilled and glad that I chose to send it to them. I became gladder, of course, when I received an envelope full of awesome from the aforementioned ladies in New Mexico. Since I already have your attention, I will display the amazing contents of said envelope now…
There were a number of random Rays cards, many of them being of the Rays third baseman Evan Longoria, the 2008 American League Rookie of the Year. I recently binderized my Longo collection and it is quite small. I would really like to add a relic, refractor or autograph of the young third baseman someday. For now I can add a 2008 Upper Deck, card #113 and a 2008 Upper Deck Timeline, card #303 to the binder. One of the cards was of a former Ray, the team’s career strikeout leader Scott Kazmir. This card is of the shiny and short printed variety-two of my favorite things! From the 2007 Bowman Heritage set is card #186 of Kazmir in rainbow foil goodness. A close look at the card shows a lack of a facsimile autograph on the front making it a SP. One (2 actually) of the more unique cards in the bunch were 2004 DAV cards of Tino Martinez and Damian Rolls. These were issued by the Disabled American Veterans and the back of the card is an ad for their organization. Check out http://www.dav.org/ for more info. Up till recently I did not know that DAV delved into card making, but I found a Carl Crawford card issued by the organization in 20007, but they have apparently been in the game for a while. Moving right along and heading to cards focused on a different American League East team, the Baltimore Orioles, more specifically their All Star second baseman Brian Roberts. They sent along a 2008 Upper Deck UD Jersey card with a little piece of grey material that is certified to have been used in a major league game. For those keeping track, this is now my second Brian Roberts jersey-this one here came from Roll out the Barrel last month. The fine ladies did not stop by merely sending a Brian Roberts jersey card, they also included a 2004 Upper Deck 25 Years of USA Baseball Anniversary card of 1997 National Team member Brian Roberts which bears a very large and very blue autograph across the front of it. The card is number 152 in the set and cites on the back that Roberts batted .330 for Team USA that year and they finished 4th in the Intercontinental Cup. I am curious as to how many cards are in this set because I think I would like to chase it. International baseball fascinates me to no end, the WBC, the Olympics, the various Cups. It’s cool.
The final card in the package and my personal favorite is an insert from the 2007 Bowman set. It features the Rays tallest righty in his Futures Game appearance from 2007 where he started the game for team USA while playing for the Durham Bulls. I really like the Futures Game relics and want to make an effort to collect up as many of these as I can, but since Niemann is one of my favs, so is this card. I really like the cute-factor of the jersey swatch cut-out being in the shape of a little shirt. Overall I have to say that I am far happier having a bunch of new cards of my favorite player than an autograph of a young boy and I really appreciate all of the awesome stuff y’all sent me. Thanks Patricia, you rock! Back to my homework… troll out.