(Group Break) Pimpin' Ain't Easy - The Daily Dimwit: 2010 Bowman Platinum

Hey everyone, Sam at The Daily Dimwit is hosting another multi-box group break for six boxws of 2010 Bowman Platinum. The set includes rookie cards and "first cards" of players such as Starlin Castro, Stephen Strasburg, Jason Heyward, Aroldis Chapman, Jeremy Hellickson, and a whole lot more. Slots are only 20 bucks a pop, and there are some multi-team slots available. With 6 boxes busted, 24 hits will be available, so check him out and jump on in to a VERY promising break of cards.

Group Break from Cardboard Collections

Despite not writing for a LONG while, I can assure you, I am still here. I have also been pretty active in the hobby, picking up some retail, bidding on some ebay, and partaking in some cool group breaks, like a couple put on by Colbey at Cardboard Collections. The first break was for boxes of 1996 and 1997 Fleer baseball. Natually, I picked the Cubs. Got me a couple Rynos that I didn't have already, plussome cards of Sosa and Grace.

And as usual, Colbey threw in a couple of random cards from the team, which included a 2011 Bowman Platinum Starlin Castro that I was VERY excited about.

Colbey also did a break of 2011 Topps Marquee. He opened a half case (12 boxes) and I picked my Cubbies. After the person who picked the Yankees dropped out, I decided to grab them up, too, since there would be plenty of base cards, and possibly, hits, from the boys in pinstripes. Luckily, I did, bcause the two best cards, value-wise, were yanks: a Mickey Mantle gold parallel numbered to 99 and a SWEET looking Paul O'Neill on-card auto numbered to 75. To be quite honest, my intentions were to try an flip any Yankees hits on ebay to make back some money spent on the break, but as good-looking of a card as this O'Neill is, I might just have to keep it.

Here's a look at the rest of the Yankees cards I got from the base set.

I'll probably keep the Jeter, but the rest are up for trade if anyone has something cool to send my way.

The other three teams I had ownership of were my Cubs, the Twins and the Mariners, which netted me a total of one card each. Still, looking at the three I got, I could have done much worse.

Thanks for a great couple of breaks!

Be sure to check out Cardboard Collections and keep your eyes peeled for the next group break he puts together.

Be Sure To Look At Those Cards Carefully

Feeling the hockey fever the other day, I stopped by my local retailer and picked up a blaster of 2011-2012 Upper Deck Victory. This set is basically done as the inexpensive opening issue to the new season, similar to what Topps does with Opening Day. I got a few good cards, like a Sidney Crosby checklist card and a couple of Evgeni Malkin inserts, but my big one almost got by me. I noticed that one of the rookie cards, Flyers defenseman Erik Gustafsson, was a little bit different than the rest. As it turns out, I pulled one of the Victory Black parallels. The odds? Only 1:1440 packs.

Not bad for 10 bucks, eh?

Here's What 35 Bucks Got Me On Ebay

I had some credit burning a hole in my Paypal account, so I had to do something about it. Here's what I was able to pick up from a seller who I have bought many items from in the past. The grand total ended up being $29.77 plus $5 shipping.

I picked up relic cards of two hall of famers and one future hall of famer. The Campanella was the most expensive card of the lot, but a steal for the $4.03 winning bid. I didn't realize this at the time, but it's serial numbered 6/25. Very cool.

I picked up two Astros relics to possibly trade to Sam at The Daily Dimwit. And even if he doesn't want them, I'd be perfectly happy keeping them in my own collection. The Hollywood relic is a swatch from Bruce Almighty. The back of the card informs the holder that a person named "Jim." wore the shirt. We all know who it is, but it's still funny to see Upper Deck work around those pesky licensing restrictions.

A few Cubs relics are always good, especially at a buck a pop. I like Ramirez, and while I don't care either way for Daryle Ward, those Turkey Red relics look SWEET!

The Jeter refractor and Butera auto have all of the wonderful curviness we have grown to love, but still, they're nice looking cards. The Thome was actually the second most expensive card in the lot, because I (an apparently, the 1 or 2 people I was bidding against) thought it was his rookie. Actually, his official rookie came out a year earlier, but really, does 1991 Bowman count anyway?

I also got a few hockey singles for my player collections, including a Crosby and 5 Lemieuxs. This is what I love about ebay. I live in Houston, Texas, where I would have never SEEN any of these cards otherwise.

Any of these cards (except for the Campanella and the hockey) are up for trade, so hit me up if you're interested.

(Case Break) Pimpin' Ain't Easy - The Daily Dimwit: 2006 Artifacts

Hey everyone, there's an awesome case break being put on by Sam at The Daily Dimwit. He will be busting a 20-box case of 2006 Upper Deck Artifacts. For all you hit seekers out there, each box contains 4 hits, making a grand total of 80 HITS!!! There are still the following teams available:

Athletics
Brewers
Rays
Dodgers/Dbacks/Pirates
Giants
Mariners
Nationals/USA
Padres
Rockies
Tigers
White Sox

If anyone's interested in those teams, head over to The Daily Dimwit and get yourself signed up!

New Diamond Die Cut Cards

A couple of months ago, Topps as letting people vote on their Facebook page for three new diamond die cut cards. The winners were Eric Hosmer (rookies), Jay Bruce (current players), and Ryne Sandberg (retired players). Now Sandberg, bein my favorite baseball player of all time, got me really excited, but still, it does not appear as though any of these cards have been unlocked. I have posted a question abou i on the Topps Facebook page and sent a message to Topps Support on Twitter, but have not gotten a response. So I ask all of you, does anyone have any idea when these will be available? I'm tring to close out my account and get my cards sent to me, but I want to wait until I get everything together so I only have to pay one shipping fee.

Collection Consolidation

It has occurred to me recently that not only do I have WAY too many cards, but that I really need to do something about it. The original plan was to sell a ton of them on ebay and use all of that Paypal to buy a small number of cards that I REALLY want. That part of the experiment has been fun, but I'm still left with six 5,000 count boxes full of baseball cards. I'm sure there are others out there who have dealt with a similar task, so for those of you who have, how have you gone about it? How did you decided what to keep and what to get rid of? Did you get anything in return, or did you just give them away? Thanks for the input, guys.

Shameless Self Promotion

Recently, I've been doing quite a bit of ebay trading. What this entails, basically, is selling cards on ebay and then using the Paypal funds to purchase new cards. It's been a lot of fun and I've really managed to strengthen my hockey collection, and as you saw in my last post, pick up some SICK relic and auto cards. Anyway, I have quite a few cards up for sale on the online auction block, so if you're interested, go check them out here.

A Few Cool Ebay Pickups

Well, I finally did it. I finally got rid of that pesky Frank Robinson/Mike Stanton dual auto relic card that I pulled from Topps Heritage this year. Well, after seven days on the auction block, the card closed out at $250.50. Now, of course, ebay will take their piece of the pie, as will Paypal, but still, there's quite a lot that I can turn the remainder into........including this card.

A triple bat relic card from 2010 Topps Triple Threads. Cost me 30 bucks. Now, yes, it's a sticker auto instead of on-card, and yes, it doesn't contain an on-card auto and four-color patch of one of baseball's hottest young players, but I still have an autographed relic card of the same baseball hall-of-famer, with a lot of Paypal to spare.

Here's a few other beauties I got my hands on:

The bids were starting at $9.99 for the Greenberg and Cepeda, so I figured I'd put one down for each, just to see what would happen, and sure enough, I ended up the only bidder. Don't get me wrong, I was THRILLED to get these cards as cheaply as I did, but I shouldn't be able to buy a, Orlando Cepeda autographed ANYTHING for 10 bucks, let alone a relic card. Even though Alomar played recently, he's still a hall-of-famer, and all three of these are just FANTASTIC cards.

(Contest) Pimpin' Ain't Easy - Cheap Card Collecting

Be sure to check out this really cool contest over at Cheap Card Collecting. There are tons of great prizes available, so head over there and see what he's got!