Plug for Penny Sleeve's Secret Santa

A Penny for your Thoughts is doing a Secret Santa (click here) this year for bloggers/collectors.  I want to give him a quick plug as there are just a few days left to sign up.  Limit is $10 and as he said should be fun and allow collectors to get to know one another.  This will be my first time but I'm looking forward to it.  

Boston Red Sox Win the World Series!

The Boston Red Sox won the 2018 World Series 4 games to 1 culminating a historic season in which they set a team record with 108 wins.  No matter how good they were BoSox fans, including myself, knew anything could happen in the playoffs and going through two 100 win teams and an excellent Los Angeles Dodgers team gave us plenty to worry about.  Still they only lost three games en route to the championship.  That really spoke to the talent they put on the field and to first year manager Alex Cora.  Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, Chris Sale, playoff heroes Jackie Bradley Jr., Stephen Pearce, Joe Kelly and David Price and the rest of the roster from top to bottom helped put up "W" after "W" .  This was a fun team to watch and deserves all the accolades coming their way.  I really enjoyed this season.  It was great to watch a team dominate like they did and be able to bring home the trophy.  

       I do want to give props to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Considering how tough some of those games were to include the historic game three it is hard to believe Boston won 4-1.  That is a testament to how good the Dodgers are.  They just ran into a better team but good on them for making their second straight World Series appearance and how hard they played.

I know I'm late on this but travel for work threw me off the last two weeks and I actually thought I'd already posted something.  My bad.  Most will look upon the Red Sox and us Boston fans as having more than enough championships.  I really don't take them for granted.  The 2004 Championship ended years of frustration.  Growing up watching Yaz, Rice, Tiant, Clemons, and others never get there was so hard as a fan.  2004 was more than a championship - it was how it all went down.  That was a fun team who overcame the unbelievable to beat the Yankees and breeze through the World Series.  While the last three championships will never be that team they are just as special and as a fan I was very excited for this team's championship.  GO BOSOX!

Random Wax: 2017-2018 Contenders Basketball w/Auto

I'm a big fan of these 2017-2018 Panini Contenders basketball cards and didn't pass up a random pack when I found it.  I enjoy the design and star power this set delivers so I'll probably always gravitate towards them.  This year's set comes out just after Christmas and hopefully I'll be lucky enough to pick some up so thereafter.

Anthony Davis is a stud and fun to watch so I was happy to grab not one but three of his cards.  This set has variations of some of the players on base cards which have a different photo on the front.  Fun finds in the pack.

 

A ton of star power here.  I was amazed pulling big name after big name.  

Another A.D. card!  Some nice inserts in this set as well.

My auto was Dakota Mathias who did not catch on with an NBA team and signed to play with a Spanish team. 

BREAKDOWN:

22 – Total Cards

2 – Retired Greats

1 – Game Ticket Red Parallel

1 – Winning Tickets

1 – Playing the Numbers Game

1 – Hall of Fame

1 – Rookie Ticket Autograph

Card Show Baseball Card Finds

Grabbed some random baseball cards and packs at the card show and here they are.  I don't have near enough Greg Maddux cards and was able to help out my personal collection a bit with some of his cards.

Some more Maddux cards and the Ronald Acuna card I chased so much earlier in the year.  

The 1983 Topps baseball are a favorite of mine and I grabbed a pack while at the show.  I thought I had a nice pull with three hall of famers.  It is always fun to open these as there are so many memories from when I was a younger collector and opening these packs all the time. 

BREAKDOWN:

15 – Total Cards

1 – Piece of Gum 

Grabbed a pack of the 2010 Topps Attax baseball card game and a 2010 Topps Opening Day Attax bonus pack.  I didn't realize they were the same product at the time.  These aren't bad looking cards really though the ratings take quite a bit of space but that's just a part of these kinds of cards.  

BREAKDOWN:

2010 Topps Attax Baseball Card Game

6 – Total Cards

1 – Foil Card

1 – Code Card

2010 Topps Opening Day Bonus Pack Attax Cards

4 – Total Cards

Card Show Basketball Card Finds

I didn't pick up a ton of basketball cards but wanted to show off what I did pick up including a pack of the 1996 Topps Women's National Team cards.  Couldn't really find anything on this set but there were eight cards in the pack.  I like the base cards and profile cards which made up the majority of my pull.  To my amazement I at least knew of the majority of the players.  I'm by no means a women's basketball/WNBA guy per se but I like to at least be in the know. I know they don't match up to the men's game but I do enjoy watching the ladies mostly around tourney time.  I enjoyed this pack even if it isn't something I don't pick up very often.

BREAKDOWN:

8 – Total Cards

5 – Profiles

1 – Game Schedule

A couple of my all-time favorite players here.  Both are nice cards and look at that 'fro on Reggie!

Card Show Football Finds

Wanted to take a quick look at the random football cards I grabbed at the card show last month.  I really liked this Thurman Thomas 2012 Panini Prime Signatures card so I picked it up.  The base cards are all numbered to 499.  The card is a thicker stock which normally I shy away from but I really do like the design and photo of this personal collection guy.

 Grabbed a pack of 2010 Score Football which I've never seen before.  I pulled a Falcon, rookie Rob Gronkowski and Phillip Rivers which will all go into my personal collection so this was a nice pack.  I like the design though the white borders could have been a bit smaller in spots.

 Another pack I picked up was the 2010 Panini Adrenalyn XL.  These are part of a trading card game which was new to me.  Not something I'd pick up again but for a buck the pack was worth a shot and the design isn't too egregious considering it is designed for a game. 

BREAKDOWN:

2010 – Score Football

7 – Total Cards

1 – Rookie

1 – Art

2010 Adrenalyn XL

6 – Total Cards

2 – Rookie

1988 Donruss Baseball Hobby Box

This box of 1988 Donruss baseball was another I picked up at the card show this month.  I had already picked out the Upper Deck box and while I wasn't initially sure what other cheap box I should grab this was a great selection.  I actually picked it because Dale Murphy was the face of this set on the box and promotional materials.  Having just gotten Murph's autograph a few minutes earlier this was a natural choice.  This is a solid design for me and I like the colors.  This was a fun box to open.  Plenty of cards, stars and young future stars at the start of their careers.   The Bo Jackson card is my favorite with a nice shot of him early in the act batting. 

The early Donruss Diamond Kings are big favorites of mine with the Perez-Steele art.

Three of my favorite cards from this set.

Three future greats as well as key members of the Atlanta Braves' 1995 World Series team.

Some of my all-time favorite players.  

Cards of some of the stars of the time and some of my faves.

MVP cards were included in this set, including the aforementioned Dale Murphy.  Glad they were able to find Roberto Alomar's mug shut for his Rated Rookie card.  Just saying.  The puzzle for this year was St. Louis great Stan Musial.  I did pull a complete puzzle (63 puzzle pieces).

BREAKDOWN:

540 – Total Cards

36 – Stan Musial Puzzle Cards

22 – Diamond Kings (1 – Checklist)

17 – Rated Rookie

13 – MVP

5 – Checklist

1 – Stan Musial Card

1 – Ripken Baseball Family