Another Five-Star Acquisition, Brewers Police Cards Made it to Idaho, and a Box Break Delivery

Another day, another mail delivery.  I think my wife is thinking I've taken out a second mortgage on the house to buy cards.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Today's mail brought me three different packages of goodness in different sizes.  I had a padded envelope for a purchase from the four-color auction marketplace for a Ryan Braun 2013 Topps Five-Star card. 

This purchase was a basic lesson in working the system on eBay.  This card was available in a fixed price sale at the same time that an auction was ongoing.  So, of course, I set my maximum bid for the auction slightly less than the amount this one cost.  When the auction blew past the fixed price sale, I immediately grabbed this card. I'd say that I feel smart for doing that, but I'm horrible about both impulse buying and about trying too hard to win auctions on eBay.  To be calculating and cautious was a good change.

The second delivery was a PWE from Idaho -- the Card Chop delivered again.  Somehow, three cards from the Brewers Franklin Police Department and Franklin Noon Lions Club (and yes, there are at least two different Lions Clubs in Franklin, I just learned) set made their way out to The Chop Keeper, and he was kind enough to shuffle them my way.  Here's Rickie Weeks to lend advice to kids:

That's right Rickie, be good.  Deeply profound words from the sometimes second baseman.  Thanks a bunch, Chop Keeper!

Finally, a mailer box arrived from Nachos Grande with the booty from the recent group box break he ran, the 2011 Allen & Ginter set I bought with my three slots, and some extra Brewers that Chris was kind enough to throw in.  While I would have loved to have had the Brewers for that break (hey Quarryman, I'm looking at you!), I was pleased to get some nice cards for all three of the teams I selected. 

First, from the Twins, what's better than a Hall of Famer showing up in your box?

Well, Blue Jays fans, don't feel left out -- a Hall of Famer showed up in the break in your uniform as well:

While there weren't any current Hall of Famers in the Diamondbacks group, one excellent player appeared often -- a guy who is, in my opinion, a Hall of Fame certainty so long as there aren't any PED revelations coming down the pike on him: Randy Johnson.

You gotta love the flying mullet. 

Finally, while I did not have the Brewers in my break, I still got a Brewer...tagging Luis Gonzalez out, it appears!

Hi there, Jeff Cirillo.

Thanks again to Chris for running the box break -- I really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to getting involved in a few more of those.

Box Breaks

Over at the fantastic Nachos Grande blog, I decided to get involved with my first ever group box break via the Internet involving a box each of 2000 Topps Tek, 2000 Topps Stadium Club Chrome, 2001 Topps Stadium Club, 1995 Fleer Flair, and 1999 Topps Gallery.  Coming to the game late meant that Cards from the Quarry had finagled a deal to claim the Brewers in lieu of his Rockies' mortal enemies, the Diamondbacks.

In fact, I got involved so late that I ended up buying a 2011 Allen & Ginter base set as part of my selection. In the end, I ended up selecting the Diamondbacks, the Twins, and the Blue Jays.  I had no rhyme nor reason for why I picked each team other than thinking that the Diamondbacks in those years had some pretty good star power in Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, some fun former Brewers and eventual Brewers -- such as Milwaukee native Craig Counsel and West Salem native Damian Miller along with my one-time favorite reliever Dan Plesac being there in 1999 and 2000 -- and the D-backs won the World Series in 2001.

I picked the Blue Jays on the off chance of picking up some Paul Molitor cards I don't have (from the 1995 and 1999 boxes) and I thought maybe I would get lucky and get an early Roy Halladay card. Also, I saw a three-game series at the Rogers Centre back in 2008 against the Royals (who were awful) so I have had an affinity for the club since.

Finally, the Twins.  Well, maybe there will be a Paul Molitor card in there?  Or an early David Ortiz? That's all I got here.  Or, maybe there is a Twins blogger I could trade with.  I guess the Twins just seemed like a good idea at the time, I suppose.

Anyway, I have started anxiously awaiting the posts breaking open the boxes.  So far, I have not done too badly.  It's never bad to get a serial numbered card, but then I got two -- TWO!! -- 2000 Topps Tek serial numbered cards of some Blue Jay prospect from the late 90s called "John Sneed" who never got past throwing one inning at AAA Edmonton in the Minnesota organization in 2002.  To top it off, I then got a Topps Stadium Club Chrome of him as well.

If John Sneed is out there and reads this at any point in time, you should have gotten a shot.

John Sneed.  Texas A&M Aggie.

This is Sneedland.

My breakdown of cards so far is:

1995 Fleer Flair
1.  #95 Joe Carter (Blue Jays)
2.  #96 Tony Castillo (Blue Jays)
3.  #60 Pat Meares (Twins)
4.  #59 Pat Mahomes (Twins)

2000 Topps Tek
1.  #42-4 John Sneed 1515/2000 (Blue Jays)
2.  #42-15 John Sneed 0146/2000 (Blue Jays)
3.  #41-15 Ruben Salazar 0943/2000 (Twins)
4.  #41-1 Ruben Salazar 0823/2000 (Twins)
5.  #22-9 Randy Johnson (D-backs)

2000 Topps Stadium Club Chrome
1.  #170 Steve Finley (D-backs)
2.  #178 Jay Bell (D-backs)
3.  #153 Carlos Delgado (Jays)
4.  #174 Tony Fernandez (Jays)
5.  EG1: Eyes of the Game Randy Johnson (D-backs)
6.  #130 Omar Daal (D-backs)
7.  #141 Cristian Guzman (Twins)
8.  #165 Randy Johnson (D-backs)
9.  #216 Rob Ryan (D-backs)
10. #148 Luis Gonzalez (D-backs)

I am really enjoying this process of going through these packs a lot, and I'm hoping that I continue getting pretty nice cards along the way.  The great thing is that I don't think I have any of these cards at all, so all of them are new to me!