Spring Mail!

I spent most of Thursday and Friday checking to see if I made the school baseball team, so I never did get a chance to show off my latest mail. I finally found out yesterday that I made the middle school baseball team so that was definitely a great way to start off spring break!

This is my third Aaron Judge bowman chrome autograph that I have in my collection, and I'm not quite sure why I have 3. I don't usually collect prospects, but Judge being the Yankees #1 prospect it's hard not to like him. He had a rough year in AAA last year and struggled during spring training this year, but he still has a very high ceiling. Hopefully he can produce once he gets called up to the majors!

A couple weeks ago I pulled a Luis Severino topps heritage black refractor /67, and I thought I would be holding onto it until I was offered this Didi Gregorius autograph /3 for it. This is my first Gregorius autograph, and it's even better when it's numbered only out of 3!

The final card that I acquired last week was this Ernie Banks finest greats autograph /99. As soon as I sold the five star autograph that I had, I knew I had to acquire another Banks autograph. I chose this finest greats to pair with the Lou Brock finest greats autograph that I have, and needless to say they look great together!

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Love At First Sight...

Finally. Only two days left until spring break, and all my tests are finally done with. I finally have the chance to write up a post! I would have posted a few cards I acquired last week, but I was so caught up with baseball tryouts and math that it had to be put aside. This was one of the cards I acquired last week:

It was the second Harper autograph I was able to own, but I seized the opportunity and took advantage of a sale which allowed my to acquire this beautiful card...

Mariano Rivera 2015 Topps Dynasty autograph /10! I sold the Harper, which allowed me to purchase this Rivera. The picture is a little dark, but the card is absolutely stunning. The picture doesn't do this card any justice. This is the 2nd autograph (on a card) that I now own, and this is by far my favorite. The other holds a lot of sentimental value because I pulled it, but this card is amazing. Rivera's autograph also adds a lot to the card, and you don't see too many Rivera patches in many new products (with the exception of dynasty). This may be my favorite card in my collection. I'm going to be showcasing something on Friday (or Saturday) which I'm extremely excited for. But for now I'm just going to be showing off some of my latest mail.

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Fourth BGS Submission

Every now and then I'll submit a few cards to BGS for grading, it just depends on how broke I am at the time. This time Matthew took care of my submission which saved me some money, so thank you to him!

This is the only non autograph that I sent to BGS, and I fully expect this to get a 9.5. I paid less than $10 for this Judge tall boy insert, and I would love for this to come back with a gold label!

Please excuse this wonderful counter picture... I took this while I was making popcorn, and didn't want the popcorn to burn so I decided to take the picture on my kitchen counter. No, not the best quality, but it's still better than no picture! As much as I would love for this to get a 9.5, I think a 9/10 suits this card well.

I was a little skeptical of sending this card to BGS, only because of the rough edges. The autograph isn't the cleanest either, so it has a shot at a 9 in my opinion. I think the card is deserving of an 8.5/10, so anything above that I will gladly accept!

There was no doubt in my mind that I would be sending this card to BGS. I have no plans on moving this card (or any of the cards in this post for that matter), so the grade on this one doesn't matter as much to me since I don't expect it to grade well. A 9/10 would certainly be nice!

Oh, would a gem mint be nice for this card... I don't think that will be the case though. The bottom left corner is a little soft, which will probably bring the corners down to an 8.5 or 9. Does this card have a shot at a 9.5? I'd like to think so.

Now onto the three Arenado autographs that I submitted. First up is this gold /50 from 2013 sterling. This card came straight from Topps and still has the Topps seal, so I definitely expect this card to come back a 9.5 or better yet a 10.

Another card that came straight from Topps is this topps chrome black autograph of the gold glove third baseman. This card looks extremely clean and should come back a gem mint!

The final card of the submission, is this Nolan Arenado finest green autograph /125; another card that I expect a 9.5!

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2016 Topps Heritage Box Break

I haven't done a box break in forever... Or at least it seems like forever; all I know is that it's been many months. So I took a trip to the hobby shop, and decided to test my luck on a box of the newly released 2016 Topps Heritage!

As always, heritage looks really nice. It's always tough to tell the difference between the action variations and the regular base cards, but I'm pretty sure this is just a regular base card of the 2015 rookie of the year.

Now here's the 2015 NL rookie of the year, Kris Bryant! The 2015 all star rookie trophy really makes the card in my opinion, along with the facsimile autograph which is always a cool addition to the card.

It's awesome to see Hicks in a Yankees uniform on a baseball card!

Tex has been featured a thousand times as a Yankee on a baseball card, so nothing too exciting there...

Gregorius had a terrible first half last year, but really picked it up after the all star break. Hopefully he can continue his second half play in 2016!

Now here is an action variation. It's awesome to pull one of a Yankee!

The double play duo of Castro and Gregorius should definitely be exciting to watch!

For the first 30 games of the season, Miller will most likely be the Yankees closer. After that, it will be Chapman!

And of course the manager Joe Girardi.

I have no idea what this is, but it's still an interesting insert...

Same with this one.

These Then and Now inserts are really cool.

Heritage has some of the best inserts (in my opinion) and the rookie stars insert is definitely one of my favorites.

I thought this card was worth noting, only because Nevin Ashley's wife's name is Ashley, so her full name is Ashley Ashley.

Heritage also has all 30 team cards, which most other sets do not have, so that's definitely an added bonus!

It's difficult to stay optimistic about the Rockies. At least they have Nolan Arenado...

And of course the 2015 World Champions. With all these neat looking insert sets, I think I may have to try and put together the set!

Out of all the inserts from 2016 Heritage, this is by far my favorite. Buxton didn't get much time in the big leagues in 2015, and the time that he did spend with the Twins he didn't do very well. Meanwhile, Sano managed to come in 3rd for AL rookie of the year.

Another really awesome picture, this time of Pence and Belt!

I guess Topps had a tough time coming up with one for the Phillies... So they had to include Howard who hit only .229 in 2015. Poor Phillies.

I'd have to guess that this picture is from the postseason last year, since Piscotty hit a ridiculous amount of home runs in the postseason.

After a terrific 2015 season, it was tough to watch the Pirates play one postseason game only to be eliminated. Maybe next year Pirates.

And of course the league leaders insert.

Nolan Arenado hit the most home runs in the NL (tied with Harper) but didn't even come close to NL MVP... It makes absolutely no sense.

  

These flashback inserts are pretty cool, but after all of the other inserts it makes this one seem useless.

This is when inserts become a little ridiculous. Almost 10 different inserts per box?!

This was my hit which I was a little disappointed with, but this time it wasn't the hit that made the break.

Behold...

Luis Severino/Miguel Sano black chrome refractor /67!!! It's awesome to pull a Yankee and not a Red Sox player (which usually happens), and I'm more than happy about this pull! This is definitely a card that I'll be holding onto, and hopefully it'll be heading to BGS sometime soon.

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A Nice Little Trade

I haven't made a trade on Instagram in a long time, and for good reasons too. But, I did happen to come across someone who had this museum collection quad and I made an attempt at a trade. Most people on Instagram are extremely difficult to trade with, so I usually just stick to forums, but this is one of the easiest deals I've made on there. I sent three cards over his way, while he sent over this card:

A quad patch from 2015 museum collection! This card features reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson, along with a very strong candidate for the AL Cy Young award! Of course you can't forget about Norris, who was an all star a few years back, and Reddick who won a gold glove back in 2012! Not to mention this flawless moment from the 2014 season:

And that is why we all love baseball.

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Another Wednesday With A Side Of Strata

3/2/16 Post

Today, I got the acceptance letter for the high school that I worked to get into... The only problem was, it was a rejection letter which was a bit of a letdown. Oh well. Onto the cards:

I won the two cards in this post for a grand total of $10 and some change. I'm not a huge fan of the design of strata, but it is better than most Panini designs. The price point is fairly low, and it's hard not to like one of the games best players. The card is numbered /75.

The main card of the lot, is this Bernie Williams strata autograph! This is my second Williams autograph, but this one is numbered /99. It's always nice to add another autograph of Bernie to my collection.

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