Series 2 finally arrives !!

This year I decided to combine my Series 2 order with the delivery of my Allen & Ginter box, hence they arrived "late". I completed the base set but still in need of a lot of inserts (please check my Want List). Given that I am late to the party let's stick with the non-basesets in this post ! If you see anything you like let me know !!

Let's start with some colour variations, pink and black !

More colors ! Gold and Black with the latter already spoken for.

The "hit" was a Starlin Marte auto cards (also spoken for), not too bad although I am never a big fan of sticker autos.

Two relics were in the boxes as well, Guerrero and Hamilton. The latter I have in my fantasy baseball team hence boosting my stolen bases !

I also pulled these repacked vintage cards. I think the concept is cool but hate the "new" stamp on it. I prefer the have my vintage set being really vintage (or maybe I am just complaining about nothing). All are for trade except the Yankees card !

Besides working towards completiing the set I also pulled 3 cool Kershaws for my Kershaw collection !! I love the Saberstars inserts !

All in all, less fun then normal to be homnest, probably because it arrived with the A&G which is of course much more fun. Again, always happy to trade so let me know !!

It's Tiny !!

Last night Tom at Waiting Till Next year asked me to show the "mini mini" in context, i.e. side by side a regular mini and a RIP card. So here we go !

It's tiny isn't it ! Note that the middle one is already the size of a regular mini !

Thanks for visiting my blog today and by the way, both my 2014 A&G and Series 2 Want Lists are live so let me know if you would like to trade !
 

Finally Ripping it !!

The moment we have all been waiting for, or at least I have !!  Let's RIP the double RIP card and see if anyone guessed the contents right ! Here we go ! First thing that appeared were two black thin pieces of plastic, as indicated before by some, to make sure you can't use light to see what's in the RIP card without opening it.

Now let's move to the fun part ! As said, a double RIP card is supposed to contain 2 minis, or at least that is what most sites say. So here's what I found !  No-one guessed it exactly correct but two regular readers came close ! Combining the answers by Chris (Nachos Grande) and AJ (the Lost Collector) leads to the correct answers, i.e. a Yankees, Ellsbury, Mini-RIP card. So I consider them as "winners" of the contest and they should watch the mail box the coming weeks for a nice package from the Netherlands ! No 2nd mini in the RIP card by the way, "just" this one.

This provides me with the next dillema: To RIP or not to RIP !! Yes, it's a Yankee (since this season) and it's numbered to only 25 ! But hey, we are not going to stop here !! So let's RIP this one as well !! Here's what it got me !

A tiny mini Adrian Beltre 1/1. It's not metal, it's not wood, it's doesn't look glossy, but it is tiny and has a 1/1 stamp on the back. A shame it wasn't a redemption card for a set of framed-relics or any player I collect but of course the chances on that where tiny at best. So a little disappointed to be honest but it was a fun ride and I can take off my bucket list both Ripping a double-RIP card, a mini-RIP card and pulling a tiny mini 1/1.

Not sure yet what I am going to do with this one, most sell for a nice bit or maybe someone offers me a Glavine or Kershaw 1/1 for it !!

Contest: I am Ripping !!!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for your tips & thoughts in response to my last post "To Rip or not to RIP ?" After careful consideration I have decided to have some fun !! Yes, money is fun as well but I am not collecting wax for the money but simply to have fun and keep me (and maybe others) entertained !! Also, ripping a double RIP card is probablty a once-in-a-lifetime event so let's make sure I can cross this off my bucket list ! So let's have some fun and RIP this thing. As a reminder, the RIP card below is the one that will take some damage today, luckily it's just a Dodgers card (for all you Dodger fans out there :-)). From a positive perspective: After it being Ripped the Dodger RIP card is for trade !!

To involve everyone I am going to run a little contest called "guess the card" (yes, I came up with that title all by myself :-)). The double-RIP card can contain several things including, as far as I am aware, extended minis, metal minis, red mini autos, mini-rip cards and probably/hopefully many more cool stuff etc. I am hoping for a Kershaw, Glavine or Rivera 1/1 :-)

So leave a comment guessing both the team and what kind of mini it is. If you are right on both I am sending you a nice package with cards from your favourite team !

As a reminder, please examine the RIP card above closely, maybe the outside contains a clue for you (x-ray didn't work for me!). Gonna RIP it tonight and posting the contents tomorrow night (for you afternoon) so make sure to leave a comment before that time !!

May the luckiest collector win !!

To RIP or not to RIP ?

As you all might have read in my previous post(s) the best pull of my 2014 Allen & Ginter boxes was a RIP card, a RIP card numbered to only 5, a RIP card that is of a team whom a lot of you support !

Here it is, #3/5 Ramirez / Gonzalez Dodgers Double RIP card !

So the key questions of course is: To RIP or not to RIP this double-RIP card. Clearly, this card is worth more unripped in case I would like to sell it. I noticed the same card for $599 buy-out on eBay. However, I get a little nervous when selling high-end cards through eBay as I have no way of tracking them properly, hence the buyer can always claim they never received it and I have to refund the amount. Still, I could take this gamble....Second option is to trade although it will be so hard to find a proper trade around this with cards in return that I actually like (but do let me know if you have anything in mind). Third option is to RIP it !! I did here some stories that actually low-numbered RIP cards have crapy minis in them. But then again, if I trade it and all of a sudden it had a awesome card in it I am not sure I could cope with that :-)



What do you think I should do ? Trying to make a decision by this weekend !!

Allen & Ginter Box 3 !

Time for the final Box, box 3 of my Allen & Ginter break ! Clearly box 2 disappointed but this one is going to make up for that !!!

Let's start with the box topper. This time not a large card as is usually the case but actually a tiny little envelop !! I had no clue what I was going to find in there as I had never heard of these so I was very excited. Here's what I got !

All these red minis are numbered to /33 and look pretty cool. Still making up my mind if I am going to chase these or not (probably not, too much to chase already !)

More minis in the rest of the box, including Robin Hood and a cat or a Sphynx as they call it !!

 More Pastime, here's Glavine !!!! and Trout !

Another cool Fields of Lore card, love the way these look !

More inserts ! First up, Moscow...clearly in the Netherlands we are not happy with the Russians today after what has been happening in the last week or so. I read a statistic that as a % of population the events of last week had, for us, a higher death toll as a % of population compared to 9/11 (because we are a small country of course). Anyways, let's not compare tragedies as they are all incredibly horrible and should not happen in the first place. Let's turn to the positive and point to the cool Natural Wonder card and a nice Festivals and Fairs card.

Now let's move to the hits of the box, meet Fielder and a guy named Riess, apparently a poker player. Both are for trade !

Now let's turn to the best card of the box, a RIP card numbered to only 5. Given that this is my first (and likely only) RIP card I will ever pull I think it deserves a seperate post. This should also help to discuss the question: To RIP or not to RIP !!

Is this a proper cliffhanger or not :-)) hope to see you back tomorrow for the RIP card discussion !!

Allen & Ginter box 2

After I showed you the loot from Allen & Ginter box1 it's time for box 2 today ! Let's start with the disappointment: 99% of basecards and 95% of the inserts were the same as in box 1. Clearly not a great way to start collecting this year's set and not helping me much on my way to complete the set. But, as said in my earlier post, plenty of stuff to trade !! With the insert also largely the same let's focus on the fun stuff !

Let's start with the box topper, McCutchen. I like these box toppers and have a Kershaw on the way as well !

Next up, the 5% of inserts I did not find in box 1 which is a Field of Lore card. This one is from Wrigley Field. I was lucky enough to visit Wrigley Field last year, a cool experience. Hope to get my hands on the other cards from this set as well !

Next up a bunch of minis and yes, that's a black-bordered Glavine !!

Now let's move to the "hits" of the box, here's Tulowitzki and Posey, both for trade !

The last hit of the box was a framed auto of Kelly, a nice looking card if I may say so !!

That's it for box 2, a bit disappointed in all the base cards and insert but this will be compensated by the RIP card that I pulled from box 3, more on that tomorrow !!

Ginter Arrives across the Pond !!

I have been swamped with work, family and world cup in recent weeks so posting has been very modest. Hopefully things will accelerate from here, at least until my holiday in two weeks time !!

Best break of the year for me is always Allen & Ginter, closely followed by Gypsy Queen. Like each year I try to get 3 boxes of A&G and this year was no different. They arrived yesterday so let's have a look at what I pulled. As boxes 2 and 3 had almost exactly the same base cards (thanks Topps!) I still need plenty of regular cards (bad news) but also have plenty to trade (good news!!). The other good news is that I did pull my first RIP-card, one numbered to only 5 and from a team that a lot of you support so stay tuned for that one, maybe I will dedicate a seperate post to that one all together !!

As I am always 1 to 2 weeks behind everyone else let me not bore you with the base cards and focus on the inserts and hits. I do think they did a good job with the base cards this year although the non-baseball stuff is less exciting than previous years, in my view. Let's kick off !! The first box contained a box topper ! I pulled a Landmarks & Monuments. Although it's a hassle to store these properly I do love these and will try to complete the full set !! Meet Jefferson below !

Best insert for me this year is Pastimes. These cards really look nice, have a look at Ripken and Smoltz !!

After Pastimes, the best insert set for me is Air Supremacy. They are really cool looking cards. To me it would be really awesome in case Topps does a set of historic locomotives/trains for next year's A&G !! So Topps, in case you are listening :-))

Another one of the inserts are the World's Capital's, fairly nice looking cards.

Two more insert sets, Festivals and Fairs and Natural Wonder !

Minis !! Always love the minis and will chase all the sets and subsets !! Here are a few I pulled, including some of the mini inserts !

Let's have a look at the hits ! Here are two, Gonzalez and Zimmerman. I have the feeling I have been pulling a bit too many Zimmerman relics the last few years. Both up for trade !

Last hit of the box was a framed-mini relic iof Longoria. I like this years framed minis given the colour combinatiojns they have chosen.

I want to finish with something "strange" which is a regular base card without a number. I no we have had this with minis for years (apparently there are only 50 of these minis each) but never seen them for base cards. Noticed Night Owl also talking about this last week. According to the blowout forum all Jennings are missing a number and missing number 114. Might have something to do with "crack the code" contest.

That's it for box 1, box 2 and 3 posts should appear soon with one of them containing the first base card I ever pulled, from a team a lot of you are supporting !

In case you want to trade some A&G let me know, my want list should be up in the coming days!