Like Dick Clark at my LCS

During the past week, my LCS (yes, I have one very close to me) moved one of their locations (yes - they have a total of 6 stores) from Joliet to New Lenox. I have talked in the past of their pack wars drawings at their locations. Well, yesterday would have been Joliet, but since it's now New Lenox, they hold a bit of an opening day celebration. I didn't make it there during the day, but my wife and I headed out to see the new location (it's nice) and have some fun ripping packs. I was pretty busy the WHOLE night. How busy?

I ripped close to 100 packs yesterday. Packs just loaded with goodness. I pretty much couldn't stop pulling hits last night. All total, I ripped open 4 boxes. Yes - FOUR! A box of 2014 UD Artifacts, box of 2013 Panini Golden Age, box of 2007 Bowman Prospects and a box of 2013 Leaf Valiant football. Total hits (auto or relics) pulled?

16.

It was crazy. Crazy Awesome! Let's start with the Artifacts. I won this box from the raffle.

Nothing amazing. I have had better pulls from Artifacts in the past, but for a box that cost me $20 (two tickets), I am quite happy with what I have. Moving to the actual pack wars rounds, I ended up with these hits out of my packs.

Tavares came from MVP, the Gilbert fell out of a pack of Valor, and that far right card - I saw the back of the card first and saw "Congratulations" and "Payton Manning" and became really nervous turning it over. Just a relic, but still. Three hits out of $100 worth of packs. That would be all, if it wasn't for the tickets received during the ripping. From those tickets, I won an '07 box of Bowman. My hit was weak.

WHO? But the box did have a few Lincecum rookies in it, so it wasn't a total waste. Another ticket secured me a box of Golden Age.

Love the Colbert relic! Goes nicely with a Jackie O I pulled from my other box. I remember Geese from Wide Wide World of Sports. Every week I hoped it was the Globetrotters. I also pulled a bonus hit from my Golden Age.

Box topper relic FTW! And a nice one with Joe Frazier. The Thrilla in Manila. Rumble in the Jungle.

Lastly, during pack wars they do a super round. Special tickets in that round for a chance at really nice prizes. I hit it again and received a box of 2013 Leaf Valiant. Five cards, all with autos.

Too lazy to take them out of the card sleeves. Kind of meh, I guess, except for the Manti. That one is numbered to 25, and will be hitting the bay. I may sell the others, unless someone wants to talk trade.

So the three boxes and 30 random packs cost me that hundred. It was, by far, the most amazing night at my LCS. I have no reason to feel sorry for not winning after a night where the hits wouldn't stop.

Support your LCS and get free stuff

I am a fortunate collector. I know many of you are not lucky enough to have a card shop within a decent driving distance. I can get in my car, and be at my LCS in 10 minutes. In fact, I am lucky enough to have at least 10 card shops in my area. My LCS alone has 6 different locations, and I know of a shop near my work I haven't visited, plus a couple downtown. I think most would be hard pressed to have that many locations less than an hour from their home.

I love my card shop. I know the owner well, and most of the guys behind the counter. I try to stop by at least once every other week. There's always something I can look at, and always something I want need. Brian, Jeff, Chris, Zach and the rest are always good to chat with about sports and even life. I certainly don't spend what others will drop in the shop, but I am a regular customer, and I think they appreciate it.

Other day was a prime example. Stopped by because I needed some team bags. I have cards to ship, so I stopped by to get some. The owner Brian was there, as was someone else shopping. I started digging through a 3 for $10 box of autos and relics. Every so often new stuff shows up, and I look for me as well as for anyone I trade with. While I didn't find anything for you all, I did find this:

Just a relic card, but someone did get Harold to autograph it, so I'll take that for $3.33. Well, I roamed upstairs to see if any new boxes of junk wax came it. Upper Deck for $12? Heck yeah! But alas, no. They did move around the cases upstairs, which is nice. And they set out a couple more boxes of cards I had not dug through before. One of them - jackpot. But we'll get to that in a bit.

As I came back down, Brian comes to me. "Hey Jeff - watch the shop for a couple minutes, would ya? I need to look at this guy's cards." Sure. There was just one other guy in the shop, so I set down what I found and slid a little behind the counter. The other shopper asked about basketball singles, so I walked him upstairs to the one case I know they have. Brian finished up with the guy after maybe 5 minutes, and my employment came to an end.

Well, along with my Baines and my bags, I bought two packs of Bowman Chrome jumbos. Brian, being nice, opened a fresh box for me so I could have max chance at the 5 autos within. In two packs I pulled:

Two autos. One of them being a printing plate. I would have been fine pulling from the other box, but that's Brian. He likes to help his customers. And the big help to me? For just watching the store that five minutes, he let me keep what I found upstairs at no cost. I certainly didn't break his bank, but it was a great gesture to me. He saw how excited I was to find these cards, so I think to him it was maybe 3 bucks or so, but to me, it was the world. My freebies?

I've been working on Kimball 3 years now. When I got a hold of a ton of minis, a lot of the big names were missing, as you see above. I don't check often, but I have never seen the Nolan Ryan cheaper than $5 on ebay. This dozen puts me at 5 cards left to complete the set.

So if you have an LCS, pay it a visit. Get to know the guys behind the counter. At the very worst, you have someone to chat with concerning cards, sports and life. And maybe, you might own the store for
.0009% of a year.

And thanks Paulie. Cya later...

Battle aftermath

This past Saturday was another pack wars at my LCS. But not my usual location. See, in 11 days, my wife, daughter and I will be driving to Denver to visit our son/brother. We are taking him my mom's car which he will purchase. It's in amazing shape for a 10 year old car, and he needs a trustworthy vehicle. My usual location (Plainfield) will be holding pack wars the weekend after we leave. I had a free $20 round I earned, and I didn't want it to go to waste, so I hit up the Joliet location.

I have taken my wife and daughter to pack wars before (on their request). I didn't think it odd when my daughter asked to tag along, and my wife came too. As I walked in, Jeff behind the counter goes "something was dropped off here for you".

Uh - whaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

Sure enough, he reaches down to pull out an envelope with my name on it. I am sure the puzzled look really threw everyone, but I turned it over to open it - and find a Father's Day card from my daughter. I won't share the whole letter, but she started the note "hey douchebag" - that should give an indication of our relationship.

 Her and I in our natural habit - being idiots.

Also included was $30 store credit. That would cover a $20 round and a raffle entry. What a sweet girl. In the end, though, I am saying I used the credit for something else. You'll see.

Well, I grabbed my free 20, got a 2nd 20 for my daughter, and a $50 rounder. Plus a couple raffle tickets. Raffle won me nothing. Oh well.

So in the $20 rounds, I got lucky with a pack of series 1 UD hockey and pulled the hit that comes in the box.

Nice Eddie the Eagle hit. Not with the Hawks, but I will take it. Though, can anyone that is a Leafs fan ID that swatch? Look at the size of the weave? No way that is a jersey, unless they did something weird when he played there 02-06. Either practice jersey, or some inside mesh. Still cool either way.

My daughter pulled this from her $20 round out of a pack of Topps Chrome.

Not too bad. I heard he is with the Titans now. If interested, you know where to reach me.

And that....was all the hits from the $20 round, though there is one last card that, while not a hit, works for me.

Ugly card design. But a nice pull in the long run.

Before they started the $50 round, the owner Brian was making killer deals, that night only, on anything in the store. Ask and he would offer up a price. My wife asked me what I wanted, and I went for a box of Rookie Anthology. I got it for over $15 LESS than you find online. But before I show you the hits, let jump to my only hit in the $50 round, from a pack of Bowman Jumbo.

This makes two Trinkwon autos I have pulled from Bowman. Com'on Dodger fans - trade me for these!

Ok - so Rookie Anthology. Panini is loading their last hockey releases with hits from all their products. I have bought a couple packs of this and pulled these so far.

Nice Titanium hit in Yakupov. Lessio may turn into an okay player. I got my guaranteed four hits. In fact, let's call it 4 and a half.

Huberdeau is not too bad. Lee could be a good 2nd line forward. Chaput is serialed to his draft. Wait & see on him. My two big hits in the box.

Not a huge name, and may end up a floater in the league, but a nice low number with a hell of a patch. I am thinking the R or A in RANGERS. But the hit of the night, and the reason I am calling this box my real Father's Day gift is this pull.

Just enjoy that card for a while. I certainly am. A nice card with a piece of his stick. I couldn't be happier with this Father's Day. Well, we could be playing the Rangers tonight, but that's ok.

Sometimes it takes a while

This past Saturday was my LCS pack wars night. It was a sparce turnout, mostly from the Easter weekend. I had no luck in the raffles, and in the $20 and $50 rounds, I only managed one hit...

2013 Allen & Ginter Endangered Animals "polar bear in a snowstorm"

Yup - I pulled absolutely nothing in all my packs. Pretty disappointing. I was going to get a few packs of '14 GQ, but then they started traditional pack war rounds. For those unaware, all who participate buy a specific pack. The man in charge calls out a specific card option (tallest player, youngest, lowest number card, etc...) and then you all open to find what you have. Whoever wins the round wins all the packs, hits included. I figured what the hell.

First round was Fleer Showcase hockey. The winning card - lightest player. I pull a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Winner! No hits, but I did score these nice Metal Universe inserts. 

I pulled the Gretzky, but I did snag the Yakapov from someone. So one for one for me. Next round was 2014 series 1 jumbos. That call - youngest player. I pulled Jurickson Profar to pull out the win in round two. If I didn't feel guilty in the hockey round, I felt horrible in this one.

That Sundberg buy back was in my pack. The Brett is a black framed rookie reprint numbered to 199. The Cabrera is gold, numbered to 99. But that wasn't all.

A Rickey Nolasco auto, plus that Strasburg jersey were pulled by other people and I had to take them from the pack openers. To top things off, when I got home and sorted the seven jumbo packs I won, I found this amongst the cards.

That would be a Puig SP. So instead of buying 4 packs of GQ for $20, I ended up with 13 packs of Showcase and Topps Jumbo ($130 bucks worth of packs). I decided to stop there before everyone hated me.

And then they go and sucker me in for one more round - Panini Certified hockey. Lowest number card. One of the kids at the end of the case calls out "three". I reply "three". And that's a tie. So Jeff behind the counter asked for the highest card in the pack. The kid had 132. I had 167. Four more packs coming to me. And my spoils?

That Nolan auto is card #167 I pulled, so I didn't have to give it up. My buddy pulled that Ovech numbered to 150. I also "stole" that Strasberg jersey from his jumbo pack. That was it - I was leaving before I was killed.

End total - $30 spent. $170 in packs won. I think I did ok.

Final Tis the Season post, and some updates

I can say that ALL the packages from the holidays have shipped. The last 16 or so left today. So, if you signed up for something, you should see a small box or envelope next week. For a recap, it was expensive fun. The highest cost of any one shipment was $27. You know who you are, Canadian hoser. All total, I think shipping ran me about $200. Yeah - ouch. But again, I hope you all like what you receive and find a lot of cards you need.

Club PWE update: since Tis the Season is over, Club PWE is starting up again. I have envelopes going out to those that recently signed up but yet to receive a PWE from me. Except for 3 of you. One of you were in the last shipment of TTS, so I will hold off a month. Another of you is a trade I still need to complete - look for stuff very soon. But the third of you signed up, then never told me your favorite teams. So reader, if you initials are JR with a zip of 40475, sign up again and let me know who you like. Thanks!

Lastly, pack wars tonight at my LCS. So spoils (with luck) tomorrow. Peace out.

Trust me on this video, BTW. It's worth the click.

Got me some brag swag

When I was a yoot, we had our own colloquialisms of the day. We didn't hurry, we booked. You didn't get sick, you ralphed. Overly excited people were spazs. After a long day, you just wanted to veg out. Cool stuff was gnarly, fresh or rad. Bad stuff was heinous, grody or bogus. Just like the terms nowadays make no sense to us, our parents thought we, as teens, were L7s.

Today, as a parent, I have to deal with cray, YOLO, swag, whatevs, douche....the list goes on. It's only for the amazing-ness of this post that I use "swag", a term only less hated because of the creation of YOLO. Basically, kids today are dorks. But a little background.

Thursdays, I head into the office. I drive me wife to her job (school) and head off to mine. Then, on the trip home, I pick her up. Simple. On the rare occasion, a coworker will take her home. Yesterday was one of those rare days, which couldn't have been better timed. I had my yearly performance review, so I left work 30 minutes later than normal. Luckily, my wife left me a phone message that she had a ride and not to bother picking her up. Ok, instead I will head directly to pick up my daughter from her job. She is having some car issues right now, and her work is right along the path home. Because of the rain yesterday, I didn't get off the expressway until 5pm. Daughter is picked up at 6. It's still a good 15 minutes from the exit to my house, so I would really just get home for maybe 20 minutes before I would have to head back out. Better to just go get her directly, but how to waste a half hour?

By sheer luck, my LCS is RIGHT OFF the expressway. So I was forced to go there to blow of time. Yes - FORCED! I figured I would price out some Fox vintage and maybe pick up a couple things. Well, Fox stuff isn't cheap, at least the quality my shop had was too high to warrant me purchasing any cards. I don't need fresh out of the pack cards. So I spent time digging through a few other boxes, grabbed some vintage Aparicio and a box of '92 UD junk wax to rip ($12). Heading back down to the packs, I picked up another jumbo of 2014 (I'm an idiot). Jeff, behind the counter, knows I am a hockey guy and mentioned Upper Deck SPx just came out. Ten bucks a pack. I usually buy a few higher end packs of hockey during the season. I made mention that I will probably pull some nobody relic, cuz I always do. My pack of SP Game Used from the week prior is a prime example.

No pushing! No shoving!!!!! LINE FORMS TO THE LEFT!

Yeah, quite unspectacular. But still, with my good raise and bonus, I'm going for a pack of SPx. Even without those, I would get a pack. So I picked my poison and checked out. I always like ripping the higher end packs in store. When I ripped, it was kind of weird. The other clerk behind the counter noticed, just at the time I did, there was a card already in a penny sleeve in the pack. So I got a hit.

Oh boy, did I get a hit.

PULL
OF
MY
LIFE

!!!!

On card buy back autograph of the Great One, numbered to 24. It's a buy back of the 1996 SPx hologram cards. The card was in a penny sleeve so the COA would not get lost. 

I can say I have loved blogging, because along with acting like an idiot, I get to share in everyone's spoils, and get only the slightest twinge of jealousy at the monster hits. Now I have a monster of my own.

Catching up before I head out.

Pack wars tonight at my LCS. My wife is coming along, partially cuz of the free food (I hope it's good), but mostly because she gets nothing but joy watching grown man act like fools and spend lots of money.

And to think she almost married this.

The first package I need to get up comes from Julie at Funner Here. Jules is the Halladay stalker, with a side of Cliff Lee. I drop dang near everything I pull with Roy on it to her about once a month. She sent back a nice assortment of cards that she said she owed me, and didn't want to transport here for the National.

Quick side note: Julie, nor any of you, ever "owe me" anything. If we work out a large trade, it just the trade cards. If I send you a PWE, it's cuz I want to send a PWE. If you want to send something back, that is your choice. However, I would send you a hundred PWEs and not think once about sending #101 if you never sent anything back. PWEs are great fun to get in the mail. Join my Club PWE if you haven't, ok?

Alright, back to the goodies. How about some set fillers?

2013 GQ insert (sorry Gary, my OCD puts you on your head) and a nice SP for my Heritage set. How about some Sale's?

I bought 2 packs of 2013 Bowman - I'm done with that, so it was nice to get a couple White Sox Bowmans from Julie. I also never pulled the Sale from last year's crappy (IMO) Heritage set. How about some serials?

Now that is how you ship a Museum card - no creases! And that Buehrle Chrome has the worst Chrome curve I have ever seen. It's a nice low number though - #19/199. How about some oddballs?

I am not sure if it is a running joke with Julie, but this is the 2nd time she has included cards that don't match anything. I am certain she mistook the Chacin as a White Sox. And the Bradley? Well.... The best part - I love these cards. I think I will start a "why did I get this in a trade" binder for stuff like this. :) And lastly, how about some awesomeness?

That would be Reed rookie auto #2 in my collection. YES!!! He, and Begley. are the lone highlights of this horrible season. And the sparkle Dunn is quite sparkley. Thanks again, Julie. See you in 2 weeks!

Now yesterday, I posted my Bip'ing from Pat at Hot Corner Cards. Pat commented there were more in the envelope, which is true. I always planned to show the other three cards - you just have to highlight a Bip'ng when it happens.

Two new additions to the DP binder, and a nice Topps 2012 insert I had yet to pull or receive. So thanks as always, Pat. See all the love in the PWE? Even with the Bip'ing, it ruled!

You so silly!

Ever look at something a few times and never catch on, only to have a light bulb suddenly appear after the 20th time? I am sort of like that, except my light bulb is more snarky/sarcastic thoughts and attitude. My was refers to it as "a-hole". Well played, honey. Well played indeed.

I know a few of you read that about me & think "Nah. Not you, Jeff. You are kind and lovable". I have two responses. One - put down the Captain Morgan. And two - flattery will get you nowhere.

Rum. HA! Oh scotch, how do I love thee? Let me count....

So over the weekend, at my LCS pack wars, my wife liked the look of 2008 Goudey and bought a pack. You remember those - 8 cards to a pack, with one that was kind of a mini. Well, one of the cards was a black and white Peavy with little writing on the front.  Here are six of the other seven.

Ken Griffey sure is a chatter box about all these guys. Blah blah blah future star blah blah blah all time great blah blah blah. We get it, Junior. That leaves one card in the pack. If you pause long enough, you may be getting into my brain and predicting where I am heading with this. Good luck in my noggin by the way - 'tis a frightening place. But sure - let's reveal card #7.

  

At least the kid is modest. 

So, how's your LCS?

I am so glad you guys asked. I understand some of you have a trek to get to a LCS, while others don't have one in any sort of decent radius. I am fortunate to be just 10 minutes away from a pretty decent shop - The Baseball Card King. And Saturday was their monthly raffle and pack wars night. So, how'd I do?

For starters, I totally got the time screwed up! Got there about 7, but it started at 6, so I missed the door prize and the raffles from the monthly purchases. It happens. I missed out of $20 pack wars, but was able to get in on the $50 (the hundred dollar was out of my range). Out of the six packs for the pack war, I did get a very nice hit.

Can't say I know the guy, but it's a dang sweet pull. I am still trying to figure out what part of the Leafs logo the patch is from. It's either the "R" from Toronto or the "P" from Maple - I am leaning towards the later.

BTW - someone in the $100 pack war won a mystery bat and pulled a Miggy. What a score.

I bought a couple hockey packs, Nothing much in one, but I did get a gimmicky Goalie Pull from a pack of Certified.

Nothing exciting. I spent the rest of the night ripping packs of Panini Cooperstown. I am liking this set a lot. I got a few sparkly cards (think Topps sparkle parallel) but did hit, on my last pack, a wood card.

I still can't find any idea of the card's rarity. Maybe one per box. Well, I have one, so there! And since I liked the cards so much, I went back to my LCS yesterday for some more Cooperstown. Finally found the auto that comes one per box.

It's not a sticker, which is nice. Granted, there are others in the list I would rather pull, but I won't complain over a WS champ manager. Next stop is a box of these. Hey Santa - ya listening? 

This means war (plus vintage)

I am a few days late getting this up. Granted, I know you have no clue what happened a few days back, and maybe you don't give a flip. But I am going to tell you anyway, cuz this is my house, and this is my yard and you can just take your toys and go home.

Wait....wait. Don't leave. I'm sorry. I haven't had anything to eat yet today, so I am a little cranky-er. Let me take a few deep breaths and center my thoughts before I come over there and smack you around for acting like everything is all about you, cuz it's not!

Oh boy - hold on. Let me grab a bagel real fast.

<CHOMP> <CHOMP>

So much better. Again, I apologize for all that. So where was I? Right - the other day. The other day was the monthly raffle and pack wars at my LCS. I have tried for many a month to get there, and finally had the chance. Didn't partake in the food (wasn't hungry) or the liquids (Coors Light?), but I did check my tickets for purchases during the month and for the door prize. No winners there, but that's alright. Cuz it's your favorite and mine - PACK WARS. It's like robot wars, but without the robots. Or the arena. Or the fans with home made posters. So really, it's nothing like robot wars. I took part in two of the drawings. Ticket for the selected card and a ticket for hits. For starters, how about a quick glance at my hits for the night?

Technically, the Kopitar is from a pack I purchased before I left. Nice hit, but way too much white space on that card. The Lindley is numbered to 350, which would be something if I knew who the hell this guy was. You want it? Email me. That Coffey was hidden right behind the exact same base card in the card. Deju vu for sure. Nice relic of an Oilers sweater.

Well, my tickets from pack wars did garner me a couple wins. I snagged an Earl Bennett autograph (8x10) and a blaster of Bowman Platinum. The Bennett will look nice on the wall, but I know you want to see the awesomeness of the blaster. Well, go to another blog, then, cuz the best part of this blaster was that it was (for the most part) free. Best three cards?

Trout and Paulie base. And a nice Chippa die cut. Like I said - snoooooooooooooze.

Ok - so I said "vintage" in the title, and that is why you are still reading. Here's the deal. Before I hit my LCS I stopped at Target for a few needs, and picked up a repack box of 10 packs. Nothing so great, but I was shocked when I pulled out three vintage packs to open. Usually, you only get packs from this century, but holy hell if the repack did go old school on me.

HEY!!! Those babies are almost 25 years old!!!! Ok, ok...I suckered you into that. But it was fun to have the feel of a true wax pack in my hand again, as well as the Score celo pack. As my standard, here are the best three cards, one from each pack:

Hell yeah I pulled a Johnson rookie card! Surprised to see that. The other Donruss was a major blah with the Gwynn being the winner. The Score was even worse, but you always respect the specs when it comes to Tekulve.

It was fun, if not completely knocking my socks off. But there are drawings at the end of every month, and it can only go up.