White Plains Card Show And Meeting John Smotlz

I just got back from the White Plains Card Show, and it did not disappoint!

I got there around 11:30 (it started at 10) and had to go around the back entrance where the dealers enter, since it was downstairs. Getting there took about an hour and a half which isn't too bad. Meeting John Smoltz was definitely the highlight, and also the first thing I did.

Since I was in a wheelchair, I got to skip the whole line (which wasn't too long, but I sort of felt bad doing it) so I was second for John Smoltz. I saw the first person who went up to him, and he he (John Smotlz) didn't smile. I had him sign a ball and a photo, since I forgot to order the Jersey which was a little painful for me. I asked him to personalize both items for me, which he did! I forgot what exactly he said, but he was very nice! I thought of him signing my cast, but didn't ask him.

I honestly don't even know which item I like better. It would be the photo by far, but there is a smudge at the end of the autograph which is a little disappointing.

The ball turned out great!

Now onto the cards!

I managed three 1/1's which is pretty good, and scored some pretty good deals, while keeping a low budget and trading some cards!

I looked around for while until something caught me eye. It was this pink Adam Warren /35 in a one row box! I saw it for a pretty good price, so I knew there had to be some more treasures to dig for. 

I saw a million other Adam Jones cards in the box, but this one seemed good enough for my liking, and cheap enough. I'm not really a Jones collector, although he is a very good player. The next card is my favorite of the three cards I got from this particular dealer.

Yangervis Solarte was probably my favorite player when he was on the Yankees. I have no autographs of him, but this sure makes up for that! I thought that since I have the 1/1 parallel, (If you didn't notice) I might as well go for the rainbow! It's not a whole lot, and will probably be pretty cheap, so what the heck. This is the first 1/1 of three that I traded/bought.

One of my goals was to get another strata autograph, and I did just that. Biggio was a very good player, and also had over 3,000 hits in his career with the Astros. Hopefully 2015 is the year he will be inducted into the Hall Of Fame.

My second 1/1 of the day was a Matt Cain triple relic! Cain is one of my favorite pitchers in the NL. I traded away one card and combined some cash for the Biggio, Cain, and the next card. Hopefully Cain can bounce back in 2015 and have another great season for the Giants!

Matt Kemp is also another one of my favorite players in the NL. He also happens to be on my second favorite team, the Dodgers! It is also a 1/1, so I'll be trying to go for the rainbow for the Kemp and Cain. 

After looking around for some more cards, I decided to wheel my self back to the same dealer since I found nothing else that I liked.

Yes, more from 2014 Triple Threads! This was the last card I got for the day before I called it a day. Felix Hernandez isn't one of my favorite players, but is one of the best pitchers in the AL! It's too bad this card isn't a 1/1.

I spent most of my money at one dealer, so I guess this was a "thank you" and "get well" gift to me.

The guy was very nice and gave me this James Shields five star autograph free of charge! I almost pulled the trigger on this card earlier, but didn't. It's in my collection nonetheless!

A little surprise came later on. I thought of the idea of having John Smoltz sign my cast, so I asked the person how much it would cost to have him sign it. John Smoltz said he would do it for free, so he came up to me a signed my orange cast, not the blue one. It actually turned out better than I thought and he even wrote get well. We talked for a little while, he told me to feel better, than I left him alone. 

This is the cast that he signed

 Of course I had to buy a box of cards. Well, it wasn't really a box of cards, but it was a baseball. It was the bronx edition which was was sorta cool, but I'm not to familiar with the player. If you can't see the name, it's Bob Turley. He played with the Yankees for a couple years and won a cy young award, so he must have been a pretty good pitcher. Still, a pretty cool autographed baseball!

Tony Gwynn Redemption From Topps

I have been dying to get this card in from Topps. I redeemed it about a month ago and Topps came through pretty quickly. It's probably one of my favorite cards in my collection, and by far the best looking. The strata cards are probably one of the best autograph "inserts" that Topps has ever made. I (personally) think they look just as good as me. No, wait, what am I talking about. That's all a lie. But seriously, I need to get some more strata autographs in my collection.

*BEHOLD*

 I had to make the picture extra large because it's so beautiful. Don't get me wrong, it looks A LOT better in person. The scan is kinda blurry, but the patch in the right corner is pretty awesome, and if you look close enough, it goes into the corner of the card. It looks like it's from the logo on his jersey, but I could very well be wrong. Please let me know what you think it's from!

I did see a similar one to mine, but (personally) I like mine better

Yes, It covers the whole card (and it's a better picture) but it's just from a regular old letter on his jersey. It's still an awesome card, but (personally) I like mine better.

Here's a slightly better scan of mine

Happy Tuesday and thank you Topps!

Joe DiMaggio autographed photo

I saw this on ebay for a very reasonable price and just couldn't say no. 

No, It's not authenticated, and it does have a white scratch through the middle, but you really can't go wrong with Joe DiMaggio.

There is that small chance that it's fake, but I will send it to JSA right away.

It's a pretty bad picture too. It's a 5X7

This is a great addition to my collection, and to my wall!

UPDATE: The ebay seller cancelled the transaction, for what reason, I don't know. That's a little disappointing...

Tulo In New York?

This is something Yankees fans could either dread, or scream about. In a good way.

I (personally) would love if he came to New York, although he couldn't wear number 2. He would be taking the place of someone he wore his number after, and be filling the shoes of one of the best shortstops to ever play Baseball, which isn't always easy.

Tulowitzki wouldn't be easy to a acquire. The Rockies may ask for some of the young guys the Yankees have: Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, J.R. Murphy, and Dellin Betances, even though he's 26.

Tulo get's hurt a lot, and his amount of home runs, and maybe even average, would probably go down because of Coors Field. I'm not saying they will, but that's just my opinion.

If Troy DID go to the Yankees, then he would be probably be the #3 hitter behind McCann. The Yankees line up (as of now) would look something like this:

-Jacoby Ellsbury OF

-Chase Headly 3B

-Troy Tulowitzki SS

-Brian McCann C

-Mark Teixeria 1B

-Carlos Beltran DH

-Brett Gardner OF

-Jose Pirela or Martin Prado 2B

-Ichiro Suzuki OF

The top of the order seems pretty good, but then you go into the middle, and it looks pretty bad. 7,5,6 also seems really good; all .270+ hitters.

No I didn't forget about A-fraud (or whatever you call him nowadays) but I DO NOT want to see him in the lineup in 2015. Of course Cashman already said he will start at 3B, but maybe somebody will throw at him and he'll get hurt. I can dream.

The Yankees are going to make some (more) big moves this winter, maybe Scherzer, or Lester, or Miller... So there will be some better players in the lineup. I hate Beltran, Teixeria, and McCann, so seeing some new faces will be a nice change.

Nope, nobody's gonna notice this one. No way. He deserved the out he got himself.

He deserved this one too. 

Tulo doesn't like it either...

2014 Bowman Chrome + Grab Bag

The box wasn't too bad, overall, it was a lot of fun. 

Jacoby is only 22 years old, but has some serious power, hitting 23 home runs for West Virginia. On top of that he also stole 17 bases and had a batting average of .288. 

I'm not too familiar with Guerrero. The Rookie autographs are 1 / 1835 packs or 1 / 102 boxes, so that makes me feel a little better! He's 27 and batted 0.077 in 11 games... I changed my mind.

This is what Topps calls a carbon fiber refractor. I think Topps has gone a little overboard with the all the different refractor colors. For now, they should just stick with actually colors.

/35

Former Yankee, you can't go wrong with A.J.

/500

...Except for his 5.26 ERA with the Yankees in 2010...

...And his 18 losses in 2014...

2014 AL ROY

/150

And of course, a box isn't complete without all the inserts. The Kris Bryant is a pretty nice card, but the fire die cut is probably the worst insert Topps has tried to make. 

Now onto the $5 grab bag I got so I could have some fun looking through and get some cards for TTM.

I only put up scans of the more notable cards, but there were a ton of other cards that I'm not going to put up because it would take way too long.

Everything is for trade except the Jacoby Jones chrome and the Don Mattingly mini. Overall, the grab bag was a lot of fun, and I got some nice cards!

Happy Sunday!

Thurman Munson autographed book

No, It's not mine, although I wish it was.

I was watching some classic Yankees games, (2003 ALCS, 2001 World Series, 1996 World Series, 1976 ALCS) and it was a lot of fun. I thought of Munson, so I shopped around ebay, and came across this.

 It was currently at a $100 bid with about a day left and I wanted to pull the trigger on it, but there always is that chance that it's going to be fake, or something else, so I didn't, even though the description said it came with an authentication.

Well, it ended at $150, and I was REALLY disappointed that I didn't put a bid on it, because I would have put it at $200. Now i'm thinking back, and wondering if that was the right choice.

I try NOT and think about that too much, but I did get a box of 2014 bowman chrome that I will be posting tomorrow!

Also, I have wanted to send out some TTM cards, but don't know who to send to. Any suggestions? Thank You!

Happy Saturday!

Well, now it's Sunday...

More For Trade

I've finally gotten the time get my new printer working so I finally found out how to work it. Here are some more cards that I have up for trade that I didn't put up before. I haven't had a whole lot of time to trade and all that because I just got back from the hospital Sunday. I pretty much sit all day. 

This is what I am looking for in return:

-ANY Yankees

-Core Four

-Nolan Arenado

-Clayton Kershaw 

-Christian Yelich

-Reggie Jackson 

/99

HOF pitcher for the Indians 

Now with another team, no need for this card.

/18 

The Hanley Ramirez is /99 and Matt Harvey is short printed

50/50 

/63

This is a pretty cool card, but I am only looking for 

A really cool 1/1 Magenta printing plate of Travis D'arnaud. I am not a huge fan of D'arnaud, even though he should become a pretty good catcher.

These are all from the 2013 Bowman mini set

/50

/25

/25

/15

1/10

/10

I love the look of this card, and Xander Bogaerts will be an outstanding SS, but I'd much rather have some cards of players I actually collect.

/50

/50

/50

/75

/75

/75

/75

Please contact me at:

Frankie13.Massa@gmail.com

to work out a trade!

Thank You!