Lineage: Joey Votto Box Loader Pull

I have heard a lot of critisism about Topps Lineage 2011 but I actually quite liked the set so I decided last year to start collecting the set. When the time came to order some Topps 2012 boxes I couldn't resist to add some Lineage as well. As it turns out this box actually completed my base set !!

I am still on a quest to collect all the minis as well and simple the Yankees inserts of course. The box break had some nice cards in it starting with a couple of mini relic cards

Furthermore, I pulled two 3D cards: Jeter and Ichiro

The autograph in the box was from Fernando Rodney in Angels gear (having recently moved to the Rays if I am not mistaken)

Also, I pulled a great cloth sticker of Cano, a nice addition to my collection !

Lastly, the box loader was a nice relic (#/64) of Joey Votto of the Reds

From here, I will now focus on completing my mini set (although only just started so a long way to go !).

Thanks for reading and hope to see you back soon !

Getting Organized !

It's Sunday so having some to think about my "new" hobby. As most of you will recognize, one of the key challenges, if not the largest challenge, in baseball card collecting is keeping track of all the (thousands of) cards. When I received the 15,000 card collection a few months ago, I started to seriously try to address this issue. Surfing the net I of course came across the Beckett Organiser but I basically fell asleep waiting for all the pages to load when trying to input my collection. Therefore, I decided to quickly move and look for a proper alternative. I think I found one in Zistle, a free organiser site with already loads of scanned cards. The site works pretty well and I have already put in over 10,000 and counting ! Check it out some day as it is really a neat site with lot of possibilities. The one thing I am still thinking of is to actually put my player collection into Excel to keep track of some nice statistics which is always harder to do with sites like Zistle or Beckett.

Here you can check my first 10,000 cards that I put into Zistle !

Please let me know how you organise it all !

Topps 2012 Loot: Some fun & interesting stuff !

So the last few days I have enjoyed myself breaking some Topps 2012 boxes that arrived in Continental Europe with some delay of course. Therefore, most has been said already so I won't bore everyone with yet another view on Topps 2012. So let's keep it simple and just show some loot !!

Note that my first contest on this blog, my Topps 2012 Free Redemption Card contest is still open so do check it out !

4 Golden Moment Relics which look fairly oke, no Yankees hits sadly enough...

My one Auto card in the 6 box break, Adam Lind of the Blue Jays

A pulled a bunch of minis and I like 'em so gonna collect the full mini set. Above my Yankees mini pulls

 2 SP's in my break...no squirrel though....

1x World Series Champions pin card, I like these.....

David Price Silk card (#/50), I am going to chase the Yankees ones, especially Rivera and Sabathia.

So these were the highlights of the break. I will soon post what I am still looking for in my "want list" and I do have plenty of extra base cards in case you are missing some. Don't forget to check out my contest !

Join My First Contest ! Topps Prime 9 Redemptions !

So I finally opened my 6 boxes of Topps 2012 yesterday and had a lot of fun. The best pulls will appear on here this weekend. As you might all be aware, Topps came up with, a supposedly fun, addition which is the Topps Prime 9 redemptions card program.

The details: “Beginning Feb. 13, collectors can take the redemptions that they find in packs of the 2012 Topps flagship set, arriving Wednesday, and exchange them for that week’s card. The redemptions note which week the card is good for. But that’s not all that can be gained out of this one. Collectors can also fill out a form on the backs of the cards for a chance to win a trip to this year’s MLB All-Star Game Home Run Derby.”

The nine stars that one can redeem the cards (#1-9) for include Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron ! Supposedly, the card that is been handed out in week 1 (beginning Feb. 13) is Frank Robinson.



While looking a lot a fun at first, reading the fine print made it clear that it was not for me. As you all may know by now, I live in Europe and non-US residents are excluded from the fun !! Therefore, my options were limited.

1) Find someone in the US who would be so nice enough to hand them in for me every week and send them back to Europe
2) Put them in an album and never look at them again
3) Use them to light a fire
4) Hold a fun Contest !!

While option 1 is doable I thought it was all too much hassle and I am actually only after the Yankees cards anyways. Option 2 is just plain boring while Option 3 is silly. That leaves me Option 4, hold a contest with the grand prize being these Redemption cards !

As I only recently launched this blog (my first post only appeared last Sunday), I can use all the promotion I can get. Therefore, you can win one of the redemption cards by simply

1)    adding my new blog to your blog roll on your own blog/site
2)    Leave a comment below indicating on which site you added my blog
3)    send me an e-mail at thedutchcardguy at gmail dot com with your blog and your mail address

Excluding the redemption for week 1 (which will not get to you in time) I have 10 redemption cards so the first 10 bloggers that add my blog to their blog roll will receive one free redemption card (the cards should be arriving in time to actually redeem the card at your LCS !).

Thanks for your support and let the contest begin !

Topps 2012 arrives across the Pond !

After reading and seeing everybody enjoy (or criticise!) the new Topps 2012 boxes I have been waiting and waiting for the mailman to ring and deliver the Topps 2012 boxes I pre-ordered a couple of weeks ago. In these instances Europe seems far, far away and it takes ages to get a package delivered from the US (or so it feels when you are looking forward to breaking some boxes). Finally, my wife called me at work today to tell me a package had arrived (complaining about the extra import charges of course!) so tonight is going to be a fun night. I am especially looking forward to the minis. Keep your eye out for a nice post on what I pull !

Now let’s break some boxes !

Pitchers & Yankees PC Additions !

I recently started strolling eBay in search for some nice and fun additions to my player collection. Here’s what the mailman delivered:

I like these Triple Thread Relic Cards with this CC Sabathia a nice addition to my PC.

 Another great Yankees Pitchers card featuring not only CC Sabathia but Rivera as well !

 

The Top Tier One Relic set I like very much so it was an easy decision to pick up this Topps Tier One Tim Lincecum, one of the key pitchers I am collecting as well as one of the set I am collecting !

Lastly, a nice UD Piece of History card of Jeter, Cano and Giambi which is another nice addition to my Yankees collection as well as my Piece of History set collection, killing two birds with one stone !

Next up, hopefully soon, Topps 2012 entering the European mainland !

What to Collect ?!?, Choices, Choices....

The most difficult thing in recent months for me has been to answer the question “what should I collect ?” Having lived in New York I came to like the Yankees very much but also enjoyed visiting some Mets games. So maybe I should collect Yankees or Mets cards?

I remember the first game I attended. It was a Sunday in 2004 (yes, I got into the game a little late, in my late 20ties) when the Mets played the Rockies and Tom Glavine came close to a no-hitter. The funny thing was that I had to read the importance of the game in the newspapers the next day as it was my first game and didn’t even know that such a thing as a no-hitter existed. Since then, I very much like to watch the pitchers, so maybe I should collect some great pitchers ?

At the same time, when looking at the baseball cards sets that came out I was drawn to sets like Allen & Ginter, Gypsy Queen, UD Masterpieces and UD A Piece of History. Maybe I should collect those.

So to make it easy on myself I decided to pushed out this key decision into the future and now collect:

1. Yankees
2. Great pitchers: CC Sabathia, Mariano Rivera, Tim Lincecum, Justin Verlander & Tom Glavine and maybe some others at a later stage
3. Sets: A&G, Gypsy Queen, Topps series 1/2/update and other fun sets here and there like Topps Tier One Relics set. I even recently decided to take a stab at Yankees Legacy which is over 6,000 cards it seems (yes, call me crazy !)

It’s a lot, I know, so at some point I will have the narrow my focus but for now I just enjoy it all !

Any tips, please let me know !