Blog Bat Around Shopping Spree, How I Spent My First Seven Minutes and 20,618 K!

To get up to speed, please read this post first… If you are reading this, I am at work, at the new job. I thought ahead and scheduled this so dust wasn’t growing on the blog while I am out. I can’t wait for the next “Blog Bat Around” topic because this was a ton of fun! Thanks again to Sports Cards Uncensored for hosting this! For each card the auction is linked, click and see what I "bought". Okay, let’s go shopping!
Starting now!
My first purchase was my biggest. I went straight for my personal “white whale”. A card I have coveted since I saw a picture of it in a hobby book as a child. A card I have never actually seen in person before. The greatest card in the history of the hobby! It is card #8 from the 1948 Leaf set of Satchel Paige.

Since this card is so far out of my price range I have no idea how much it should be, but I thought it would be appropriate for it to be the most expensive card from my shopping spree. I dropped $11,500.00 on this, but did get it shipped for free. In my dreams this card would have been a PSA 8 or 9, but today I will settle for a PSA 7. This is the earliest card of Satch that I know to exist, which I suppose would make it his rookie card, which is even more funny (and sad really) because he was 41 and a 20-year vet when this card was printed. I stuck with 1948 Leaf for the next card, too. This is another card that I have always coveted, but have never seen in person. I spent $3,700.00 on this PSA 8 Jackie Robinson from ’48 Leaf. Considering what I spent on the Paige, this seemed like a major bargain for the “rookie” card of the 1947 Rookie of the Year.
I was able to nab those two cards very quickly and at this point I was still on my game plan. I was going in order of the cards I had most coveted throughout my lifetime. The natural third on that list is a 1955 Roberto Clemente. This card was more complicated to search for as there are many more ’54 Topps cards out there as opposed to ’48 Leaf. More options take more time. I found the perfect card pretty quick though.
Here it is a PSA 8 Clemente rookie. A beautiful card, but I wasn’t prepared to spend $5,950. for a card from the 50s. It’s funny how serious I got about spending imaginary money. I wasted a minute looking for this and didn’t make the buy. Before my time is up I WILL get myself a Clemente rookie, but for about half that price, I hope. I will go back to this one later... With less than 13 minutes left I had just 2 cards in my cart and had spent $15,200. I wasted a little time without a purchase, but stayed on course and moved on to a 1954 Hank Aaron. My game plan was to find the highest grade I could for less than $4,000. I quickly settled on this PSA 7 for $2,400. I was a little bummed to not find a PSA 8, but I was happy with the cost. What I wasn’t happy with was that this seller charged shipping. I thought it was an unwritten rule that cards over 500 bucks shipped for free. Not only did this seller charge for shipping, he/she charged 20 bucks! What? Had this been reality that would have been a deal breaker. For the sake of this exercise the time wasted wasn’t worth $20.00 so I left it in my imaginary shopping cart. I wanted to make sure that I got some 1887 Ginter Champions as part of the deal. These 2 purchases went quick. I knew exactly which 2 cards I wanted and roughly what they should cost. I seriously do plan on someday buying these and finishing this set, probably in about 50 years, but someday. Anyway, I called up this ’87 Ginter card of Mike “King” Kelly, a PSA 4 for $1199 and then this PSA 1.5 of Cap Anson for $1,799. I wanted to stick between 3 and 5 on the grade for my Ginter set, but this 1.5 of Cap had most of its damage to the back and I have seen plenty of higher grade Anson’s priced much higher. One of my favorite “free time” searches is keyword “1887 Ginter”. I don’t know if they ever sell, but PSA 7’s are generally priced from 7,000 to 20,000 of Anson. I wanted the card, but I didn’t want it to be my main purchase, so I was stoked with a 1.5 for under 2K. At this point I swung at 6 cards, missed one and “purchased” 5 cards. I also burned up 7 minutes and only spent $20,618.00 (including 20 bucks for shipping which I wasn’t happy about). I have 8 minutes left to go and a long list of cards I am hunting for. Stay tuned for the remainder of my shopping spree, the sweat is dripping, but the collection is looking GREAT. I have $29,382.00 left to spend, do you think I can do it? How well do you guys know me? I smell a challenge and a contest... Comment here with the answer to 2 questions. One, will I spend it all and two, pick at least one card I will buy. Year and player would be fine. Whomever gets the most cards right wins a choice of some "hits" I still have. A choice of 5 different relics or you can choose one of my dupes from '65 Topps. I will have the rest of my cart posted soon, so get on it! Go Rays! Troll out.

AMAZING Magnificent MINI Madness!!!

Duane from the Democratic Roadkill Blog has been hooking me up with amazing Allen and Ginter cards for a while now. A few weeks back I got a mind blowing package filled with amazing inserts and minis from the 2008 set which I really need to get scanned. I opened 3 hobby boxes worth of the product and never pulled a single card from the Baseball Legends minis set. He hooked me up with TEN of them! I want to dedicate a special post to all of these awesome cards, but I can’t resist showing 1 right now. This is the first Jackie Robinson mini that I have ever seen! He also included a pair of Ginter Ad back cards of former Negro Leaguers Clyde Parris and my friend Willie Williams. There is a pair of Pablo Picasso minis and four more Rays minis with Ginter backs. I seriously love this series of cards! He also included my first Pat Neshek mini. I think that over half of my Neshek collection is Ginter cards. I can’t resist showing another Baseball Legends mini, so here is Johnny Mize. You will have to wait to see the other 8 in all of their glory. The trade pack included more Rays for my collection and more great Allen and Ginter cards. He finished off my State Card set and got me very close to finishing the 2008 Allen and Ginter base set, 1-350. For those concerned, the few cards I still need are: 43,55,83,95,238,305,315,318,320,341 and 348. Another thing that DR included in the package that I will tease, but will save for later to show in its entirety is the complete set of Worlds Victories cards. AWESOME! With all of these amazing cards I saved the best for last. This card absolutely blew me away and I honestly never imagined seeing one of these, never mind owning it. It is a mini, but its number is 399. The set ended at 350 making this an EXTENDED MINI! Absolutely amazing! I think the only way to pull an extended mini is by desecrating a rip card which I think are case hits. From there the odds of getting this one are astronomical. This is easily the best BJ Upton card I own and have ever seen. I LOVE IT!!! Thanks so much Duane, you have been hooking me up huge for nearly a year now. From my first Evan Longoria card to my first Rays relic to my first Allen and Ginter card and then mini to my first extended mini, wow, you are the best! A huge thank you to Duane and the Democratic Roadkill Blog! Thanks for reading and checking out the sweet new additions to my collection. Go Rays! Troll out.