Sportlots: The Topps half

Like I said in my post yesterday I got my first order from Sportlots.com in the other day, here's the rest of my haul:

Got this on card auto of Julio from last year's Museum Collection, love the marble look and the thickness of these cards but I don't think i'll actually ever open a box. I'll just stick to buying them one by one, only paid $5 for this one. Teheran has been up and down all season and his ERA is sitting around 5.00 because of it but it's still early and I believe he'll turn it around, hopefully starting today in San Francisco versus MadBum.

Picked up a couple more of his I was missing including the Dealing Aces insert from last years Gypsy Queen and the All Star 2014 from Update.


Also grabbed 2 base cards of Andrelton I was missing. I know YAY BASE CARDS!

  A couple of the always shiny Topps finest one from 2014 one from 2013.

A couple Freeman inserts I didn't have and a golden Bowman.

I like to have a card of every guy on the active roster and didn't have a Ciriaco card, picked this one up and man this card looks great gonna have to track down some more of these bad boys.

Some guys currently in the minors including a mini 2015 Bowman of Max Fried, one of several guys recovering from TJ surgery the Braves traded for this offseason. Jose Peraza has been playing center field in AAA due to Jace Peterson playing so well at 2B and the Platinum Glover in the way at SS. 

Saw this swatch card of John Smoltz for $2 in the guys store and grabbed it without knowing what it looked like, nothing crazy but nice to have a relic of the Ol' Flamethrower.

Closing it out with a few more old timers (sorry Chipper) Gotta track some more of those Upper Deck Goodwin Champions cards down, love the look. Scored that Niekro Museum Collection for $0.20 cents.

Spahn says good day. I'll be back tomorrow with some cards I scored at the Flea Market "in the wild", as always thanks for reading.

Panini: Change of Heart

In one of my first posts I stated my distaste for Donruss/Panini due to the lack of logo/licensing. Well a month later and here we are.  I made my first Sportlots.com purchase the other day and got it in the mail recently.

Once the Braves traded Heyward in the offseason, Alex Wood became my favorite current Braves player. Got this auto #'d 90/99 for about $2, my first of his. The picture is a good one, showing Woody's funky delivery.

 Still love Diamond Kings logos or not, Shelby Miller listed as an Atlanta Baseball Club player, obviously still in his Red Bird garb. Oh well still a nice looking card with a fancy finish. The Bethancourt looks the best in my opinion  but I love catchers gear cards. For some reason the Jace Peterson has him in Padre blue, lists him with San Francisco on the back then goes on to describe him as a San Diego player. Nice editing Panini.

Weird that some of the 2015 Donruss cards have Folty as a Brave and some have him still as an Astro, I know for sure there's a dual relic auto with him with Atlanta and another auto which I have coming in the mail listed with Atlanta too.

These Prizms aren't my favorites but I collect all of these guys so whatever. I got a lot more cards from the same order that were of the Topps monopoly variety which i'll post tomorrow. 

Also made a trip to a new flea market today which I'll save for Monday. As always thanks for reading.

Flea Market scores - Space WIzard

Went to the local Flea Market last Saturday and picked up a couple of cards. Really like this Wonders of the Universe card out of 2013 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions.

Grabbed this nice thick Ozzie out of the quarter box

 Here's 2 prospects the Braves picked up over the offseason. Ricardo Sanchez is only 18 but has given up 14 runs in 14 IP so far this season in A ball. Meanwhile Rio Noble Ruiz is hitting a whopping .165 at AA Mississippi. Neither guy is starting his Braves career out very well but I especially like Ruiz.

Cool high school shot of Heyward I didn't have and a sweet mullet shot of Klesko with the Terminator-esque Gwinnett Braves logo from the 90's

I don't thin you can go wrong with a shiny HOFer.... until you scan them. The Smoltz especially looks great in-hand.

Closed it out with a few Deions for the PC. The Stadium Club is a cool shot as always, I saw that "Deion Drops In" on one of Nick Dimebox's old posts and was stoked to add it to my collection. Didn't have this years GQ, odd to see him in Reds but that is where he played last. Bottom right card is 2003 Leaf Limited #'d 987/999, my first serial card of his.

Story time: Walter Lee "Dirk" Gibbons

I work as a fire inspector and one day was inspecting the University of Tampa, while in line at the excellent buffet in the employees lounge. This older gentleman told me he liked my Braves hat and sat with me, turns out he played for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues shortly before Hank Aaron arrived and gave me this card which he signed for me.  Nice guy and we talked for a while over lunch about his life in the Negro Leagues.

This was a few years ago, probably 2012 but I found this card while sorting this weekend. I need to find an original card of his and go down there and see if I can get him to sign it for me. He is from Tampa and played for several teams in the Negro Leagues, here is a link with more info on him.

http://coe.k-state.edu/annex/nlbemuseum/history/players/gibbonsw.html

Heritage 2015, blaster blasted

At Walmart getting the honey-do's done the other day I saw a blaster of Heritage sitting in the checkout aisle. I have no willpower so I caved and bought it. Had only bought one pack of Heritage so far this year so felt this was justified to get a true sampling of the product. I ordered the Braves team set back when they first came out and called it a day.

 Well I think I pulled a box meant for a Dodger fan, but hey I got this mini Ryan Braun #'d 37/100 and a card of brand new Brave Juan Uribe.

I don't know if I pulled a "purple chrome blaster" or something but every pack had one of these in it. All are up for trade if anyone's interested.

 I already have a chrome refractor without the ugly purple of Kimbrel so if anyone wants that one shoot. I mean they are shiny and fancy but especially that Cespedes card the purple just looks not so hot in my opinion.

More Dodgers.. at least I pulled a Mays?

Well at least the Koufax looks cool, don't think i'll be buying anymore Heritage this year. Although I do like the thickness and the actual cardboardness of the cardboard on these.

Trade with 2x3 Heroes : Bravos

I wrote about my trade with Jeff over at 2x3 Heroes the other day but since he sent me so many cards I only covered the hockey cards he sent me. Well here are the Braves cards he sent me:

Clean looking 2014 Allen & Ginter Kimbrel relic

 Can't go wrong with 4 new Chippers for the binder, my first die cut of his

One of these is not like the others.... Love the Fleer Star Stickers. 2 Freeman rookie cards I didn't have and I think this 2012 Topps Freeman completes my team set.

Cool Gold coin that i'm guessing didn't count as a hit like the First Home Run fabricated coins Topps put out this year... don't like those fabricated relics but this one is a great looking card of the Hammer.

Fleer was another brand I always liked. Didn't have either of these paper like matte finished Kleskos. 

 Some assorted Upper Deck cards he sent me. These are just  a fraction to show all the different sets he sent over. Like I said in the previous post he sent 5 team bags crammed full and about 2 of them were Braves.

As much as I try to dislike them these newer Donruss cards are growing on me logos or not. Great shot of Bourn robbing a homer at Yankee Stadium. I'm gonna need to find the rest of the Topps 206 set.

Thanks again for the cards Jeff. If you haven't already check out his great blog 2x3 Heroes. This isn't even half of what he sent me just the highlights.

Trade with 2x3 Heroes : Overwhelmed by Lightning

Well the Lightning sucked it up last night at home but getting this package in the mail from Jeff at 2x3 Heroes made things a little easier.

2014-15 Black Diamond Upped Deck 36 

Card looks way better than it scanned of Tyler Johnson scorer 12 playoff goals

I sent Jeff a message saying I had some of his wants off his 2015 Gypsy Queen want list and sent him those and a few White Sox cards in a bubble mailer just telling him I like the Lightning and Braves. He sent me a small flat rate box stuffed with 5 team bags of newer Lightning players going all the way back to 1994. He also sent me some Braves cards but I am going to do a another post for those as he sent me so many cards.

As someone who hasn't bought hockey cards in a few years this package is probably going to inspire me to bust some packs as most of these cards look great and make me miss Upper Deck, Panini & Fleer in the baseball card world.

3 more of the netminder who has carried us this far, 11 GAA in the last 2 games but I believe in him. Love the card in the middle of him mid-save, eyes bugging out catching the puck.

 Of course what Lightning post would be complete without some cards of the Captain, Stammer who scored his 6th goal of the playoffs last night

Some former stars, this one playing for the bad guys in the ECF right now, though not very well.

My favorite hockey player of all time still. El Capitan, Vinny, who is currently lurking in Philly right now counting his money. 

Jeff also sent 2 hits of the hockey variety - these 2 relic cards of 2004 Playoff heroes

In our email Jeff stated that he had a "crapton" of 90s and later junkwax, well like they say one man's trash is another man's treasure, I didn't have any of these older cards and all are welcome additions to my Lightning collection. 

 Puppa, Bradley, Hamrlik, Gratton all old favorites, these aren't all the cards he sent just samplings of some of my favorites. Check those uniforms in the Renberg card. 

 If you haven't yet (which i'm sure most of you have) check out Jeff's blog 2x3 Heroes ASAP he is a generous trader who has an affinity for miscuts, shattered bats and bunting. Thanks again for the cards Jeff, I hope you like what I sent you in return. 

Quick hits - Ebay in the title

Decided it was time to add some Topps Museum 2015 to my collection and started with this beauty...

Boy these cards are thick, don't have any of the base Museums but I see lots go on Ebay for reasonable prices so I may have to pick some more up. Not touching the packs/boxes for the money they want but these are some fine looking pieces of cardboard.

This is my first autograph and relic from Simmons so this one was a long time coming.