O's Game Today! Little League Parade! Derek, Nick, Adam, Brian, and Vlad!!!

What a great time we had today!  Today's O's/Nats game was quite an event.  Today we were in the little league parade around the warning track of Camden Yards.  While waiting to enter the park for the parade, we were off to the side right next to the players parking lot...Oh, hey look there, its Derek Lee...who is that behind him??? Nick Markakis.  They were late for warmups, but did not seem to be in a hurry.  We were only about 20 feet from them, and they both waved to the kids.

Now they lead us into the service entrance of the yard.  My son's T-ball team was the first group to go, so we are at the front of the line.  I say we because I am a coach, and my wife is the team mom.  We are led to the garage door in right field, but not out into the park yet.  What a surreal view of the stadium!  There is Adam Jones playing long toss with another Oriole (Nolan Reimold, I think).  While we are waiting for the parade to start, out of one of the doors in the back comes the Oriole Bird.  Of course, I had to give him a high five.  After a few minutes of Hamming it up with the little leagues, he goes out onto the field.  All of the sudden, I look up, and here comes Adam Jones, gold chain and all, running into the service tunnel to high five some of the kids.  He is a class act, this was NOT the way into the clubhouse.  He shook my hand first!!!  I am so excited now, it is like I am a 36 year old 10 year old!!!  First Derek Lee and Nick Markakis, and now this!

We finally start the parade around the warning track, and there is Brian Matusz playing long toss.  I yell out "Hey kids, there is Brian Matusz!"  He turned around, and the poor guy looked so confused as to why there were all of these kids on the field.  I guess he didn't know about the parade, he probably could have been in it, he is not much older than the kids are!

This was probably my 5th or 6th time actually being on the field at Camden yards, but every time is as exciting as the first!

We finish our lap around the stadium and they lead us back into the service tunnel under the ball park.  As we are walking back up the ramp to the outside of the stadium, a big dude is coming down it is street clothes...It was Vlad, the big man himself!  I said "Hey man!" and he greeted me right back.  He actually cam in the service entrance instead of the players entrance just so the kids could all see him.  Don't tell Showalter, but Vlad was hella late getting to the park!  Vlad also went on to hit the 2-run shot that gave the O's the win!

A few college buddies met up with us at the game, Mike, Matt, and Matt's "Lady Friend" Sydney.  And my buddy from work Brad and his fiance Crystal came too.  We all sat together and had a great time!  My son had an absolute blast too, which means everything to me.

I really felt like a kid again today, more so than I have at a ball game in a long long time.  I hate that they are not contenders, but I love my O's!!!

Yet Another Sweet Trade!!

I am here to report exactly what the title of this post says...yet another sweet trade!  This time I go together with Dave from http://mmmrhubarb.wordpress.com/ and we pulled the trigger in just a few days on a trade that made us both happy.  I sent him a couple Twins auto's (of players that meant nothing to me, but something to a Twins fan) and about 35 or so cards from his want list. and he hooked me up with some '71 Phillies, some Gypsy Queen O's and Phillies that I needed for my team sets, and my very first (second) Topps silk cards, a 2010 Corey Patterson (a year ago I traded/bought-can't remember a Cole Hamels, but that was a gift for my father)

So with no more delay, here is what has me so happy!  Thank you, sir!

One last thing...Mark Reynolds is garbage...worst acquisition for the O's since Glen Davis!...but I still needed him for the team set...but he is still garbage...

I Need Your Gypsy Queen Mini's!!!

Hey there sports fans.  I have decided to take on the (stupid) task of collecting the mini, red back mini, sepia min, and black mini's of the Orioles and Phillies.  Please let me know what you have and are willing to trade.

I am also looking for the regular minis of the Home Run Heroes and The Great Ones...so let me know if you have any of these to trade as well.

I will trade base cards and inserts/paralells/#'d cards for these, but not g/u or autos.

Lets trade!

My Kid's First Hit, Mail, And A Mega Trade!

Hey there sports fans, I have a few new additions from Ebay and a huge trade to show you.  But first of all here is my 6 year old son's first ever hit.  He got it out of a pack of WWE cards I bought him at Kmart

Randy Orton is one of his favorites, so he was pretty happy about this.  If you have any WWE relic cards you want to trade let me know, If it is a superstar my son likes, we can work a trade.

These two came in the mail fro Ebay recently:

A few weeks back, 'Joe from the D' shot me an email that he might have a few cards from my list.  Well, after a bit of back and forth emails and card pulling, I got a huge package with a ton of cards from Joe.  This includes a giant pile of cards from my set and team set lists, a giant pile of inserts and parallels, and some a few other sweet cards...feast your eyes on some of the highlights of what Joe sent.

The Ray Rice card is totally the cherry on top, a patch/auto #'/10

I have a package ready to go out to Joe, and I will be on the look out for more to send him beyond that as well.  Joe from the D...you cam e strong!  Thanks for a great trade, your cards will be in the mail shortly.

Do you know who these people are?

Life takes too much time away from collecting1  I am back after a 3 week disappearing act.

A few nights ago, I was going through some cards and pulled out a bunch of cards of players that I either don't know or don't care about.  Most of them are scrubs to me, but to you they may be a card you might want.  If so let me know and we can work out an easy trade.

If you like anything here, just leave a comment and we can get a trade done.
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A Moment To Honor The End Of A Wrestling Era

Today I am sad. I just found out one of my favorite wrestlers from my college days, Edge, has been forced into an early retirement due to spinal injury.  http://www.wwe.com/inside/edge-announcement  

When I was in college me and my buddies used to take time off from being model students every Monday and Thursday night to watch WWF (now WWE) and WCW, get drunk and injure each other.  My favorite wrestlers of the time were Mankind, Steve Austin, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge and Christian.  Edge and Christian used to have the insane TLC (tables, ladder, and chairs) matches with the Hardy Boyz and the Dudly Boyz.  Thses matches must have produced some of the most painful injuries in the world!  They were by far the most exciting matches to watch as well.  Here is one of the greatest matches that I have ever seen, it took place in Wrestlemania X7:

Part 1: This is a classic match.     

Part 2: At 3:42 it gets crazy.          

Part 3: This only takes :16 seconds

Since my son has gotten into wrestling about a month ago, I have started watching again too. I was really happy to see that Edge was still around.  I am glad I got to watch his final matches.

HOF + Benny = A Great Mail Day

Everyday when I go to the mail box, I am looking for cards.  Even when I know that there are none coming.  This past week however I knew I had some cards coming, and they were all in my mailbox at the same time.

First were two separate ebay purchases, both of NHL Hall Of Famers

Pierre Pilote was pretty much a career Blackhawk who was ranked number 59 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 greatest hockey players. The Blackhawks retired his #3 in 2008.  Back in 2005, in a series of stamps honoring great hockey stars, the Canada Post honored Pilote.  I am about 99% sure that this is not that stamp.  I don't care, I love the card, and he is a HOFer.  Gilbert Perreault was a Sabre for all 17 seasons of his NHL career.  He has 500+ goals and 800+ assists and a whole bunch of hardware to show for it.  This jersey looks to be from some sort of HOF game jersey, as I do not know of any red Sabres jerseys.  I could look at the back of the card, but it has already been stored away.  No matter, I like it and I got it!

Now the third package was from BA Benny. I have a bunch of cards that I will be sending out to him tomorrow, but when I got my half of the trade...let's just say BA Benny came hard like Boscoe Albert "BA" Baracus! 

These are just the pretty faces in the bunch.  He also took the time to go through my want lists and pull 32 cards I need for my team sets!

I do so love a full mailbox!!!

Mial From Topps Via Tristar

I finally got my Topps Tribute Nick Markakis Auto redemption in the mail.  But the funny thing is that the return address was Tristar Fulfillment.  I am looking at the envelope thinking, "What the hell did Tristar send me?"  Turns out it wasn't from Tristar at all.  I was supposed to get this card in November....Topps continues to suck!  At least I got my card.  The only company I have ever had pleasant redemption experiences with is Donruss/Panini.   Well, here it is

  This tasty little morsel cam in today's mail too, only $5.00 shipped!

Chantilly Show = A Giant Pile Of Great Cards!!!!

So yesterday was the big show in Chantilly Virginia, and I went for the first time.  My buddy Don went a few months back and got John Elway to sign a football for him, and since he was going this time for Walt Frazier, I decided it was time for me to go too.  Our buddy Brandon joined us as well.  Second only to last years National, this was the biggest show I have ever been too.  I am not a autograph hound, so I didn't spend my money on that...even though the list  of signers was great Hector Macho Camacho, Reggie Jackson, Jim Brown, Walt Frazier, Alexander Ovechkin, Peyton manning, Brooks Robinson, and son on ans so on...

I really don't want to keep up wit the suspense, so here are the highlights of what I got at the show:

Love me some Brooksy.  I did not have any of the Biography Ripken cards.  Believe it or not, I have never seen this Hargrove card, the back says "You have just received a 'Coaches Collection' game used bat card of Mike Hargrove from 2002 Topps baseball,"...I wonder who used it, Managers usually don't get too many at bats?

The Adam Jones was $3.00, that is cheaper than a pack!  I am not a Pirates fan, but who could walk by that Kiner cards?  That Donruss signatures Baseball HOF set is a really soothing design, I do hope to get more in the future.  The Hoyt Wilhelm card is officially one of my all time favorite cards.  The scan does this card no justice at all!  This sexy cards is 5/25.  I got it for under $10, but I would have paid a lot more for it!

I am a Flyers fan, but I have rooted for the Caps for may years also.  My hockey hero has always been Ron Hextall.  Rod Langway was a very close second, probably the bet fundamental defenseman that I have seen in my hockey days.  Al MacInnis played for the Calgary flames for most of his career, inducted to the NHL HOF in 2007, and there was no way I wsn't buying this card at $4.00!  It is 43/50.

As always, since I keep a look out for stuff for my rather, and he did well.  The Schmidt would be a bit nicer if he were looking at us, but that is ok, the relic arrangement makes up for it.

It was a slow show for football cards.  Everything that I found that I liked was way out of my price range.  I did manage to squeak these out though.  The Mason is my 25th or 26th patch card of him, and the dual patch Ed Reed was $15.  I love ravens patch cards that have the Maryland patch in them!

The Brian Roberts is the first 1/1 that I have ever bought.  It was only $25 for this autographed printing plate, and I probably would have paid more!  The Ripken card is a beast I have never seen before.  "The enclosed piece of On-Deck Circle was cut from an Authentic On-Deck Circle used in an official Major League baseball game on April 2, 2001 featuring the Orioles and Red Sox.  The Authentic Game Used Piece was obtained and is guaranteed by the Donruss Trading Company."  That is sweet!  It is officially the first on-deck circle relic of my collection.  That game was opening day at Camden Yards, and the O's won 2-1 in 11 innings. 

And finally, the crown jewel of the show!!!  Those who know me, are well aware that I have been looking for and Eddie Murray Auto for a long long time.  Until yesterday, all that I have found were either way too expensive, or just weren't the right card.  This Topps Sterling auto is a quad g/u to boot!  it is numbered 6/10, but to be honest it could be 6/1000000, and that wouldn't matter to me.  I love the card, and the price was right.

An awesome show from top to bottom!

*Collecting goals 24 Derrick Mason Patches-check, Eddie Murray Auto-check....what's next?

Also I have a very very long overdue shout I need throw out to Chris over at Nacho Grand.  We traded a few weeks back, I sent him and A&G auto and some other Reds cards, and he sent me Two Topps HD cards (Albert [don't call me Joey] Belle, and Cal Ripken) as well as a bunch of other O's and Phillies.  Thanks Chris, for yet another great trade!

The Countdown To Chantilly Begins

On Saturday March 19th, I will be attending my next cards show (and possibly my last for quite a while) IN Chantilly Virginia at the Dulles Expo Center http://www.csashows.com/

This a CSA show, and although I have not actually been to a CSA show, I see the ads for them all of the time, and I have only heard good things about them.  Although I do not expect it to compare to the National convention (returning to Baltimore in 2012 http://www.nsccshow.com/), it is a 250 table event!

This will be a different experience for me, I am going with two buddies to this one, whereas I usually go alone.  What makes things even more interesting is that we all three have different collecting styles.  Don is going for the autographs (there will be at least 24 signers there), Brandon is a big ticket prospector, and I am...well, I, uh...just try to buy everything that I like!

Anyhow that is now just 13 days away!  I invite anyone out there in the blogasphere to come to the show, and if you do, let me know because I would love to meet some of you!