A last minute entry in the $10 Challenge 2/26/11

Upon poking around on Twitter this afternoon, I noticed a few collector friends were having another $10 challenge.  Here's the quick version: Head over to your local hobby shop, spend 10 bucks, post your treasures to twitters. Treasures could be something valuable, vintage, odd, or just plain interesting. I'm not sure how many folk participated but I did notice Chris Olds scored a Nick Swisher auto #'d to 10, not only a great score but Chris is a huge Swisher fan and collector, making a card like that all the more sweet. Another follower @cardboardicons got himself a few Steve Johnson autos and some vintage game used, great stuff. Heres the best part: No one really wins or loses this contest, but it's just a cool way to see what other collectors have access to. 

So here's my story and submission. 

I headed over to the Flea Market today to get the wife's watches fixed, I really didn't have plans to enter the $10 challenge, but theres a little shop there, I usually don't go there cause the owner's a Dick, flat out. But, score for me, we wasn't there today! So I spent 6 minutes, 10 bucks, and came home with these guys:

Naturally, I'm going to ask you to put condition aside, but these are 2 cards I've always wanted for my collection. To me the Uecker didn't matter, I just don't have any..now I do. The Reggie, well the Reggie is in terrible shape, but the card is classic, and now it's mine.

So I had to haggle with the worker to give me the Uecker for $2, so i could afford this one to complete my $10 (the can was $3). It's a 1997 Pinnacle "inside" Pack-in-a-can. The can is unopened (we'll see how long that lasts for, I've been known to bust unopenables after a few Jack and Cokes). The card features one of my faves Andy Pettitte on the outside. 

So there it is, I'm down $10 but I got a few nice cards I've always wanted and can of mystery. All in all, a pretty good day.

Every Rose has it's Thorn (MFP #3)

The thorn in this case is MLB licensing. Besides for that this, IMHO, is a stellar card, and clocks in at #3 on "my favorite pulls" list. Great design, nice chunk of jersey with stripe. Great photo, and Sleek card design. This card actually looks worse from the scan than it does in person.

My Opinionation: Topps 2011 Series 1

Well today is the day. It's the official launch of the Topps 2011 Flagship set, and i'm like a Seal at a fish fry. A lot of collectors like to bitch about everything that is wrong with this product, well any product for that manner. Anyone that follows me knows I'm a positive guy who tries hard to live by the ole' "If you ain't got nuttin nice to say....." adage. So enjoy the next few comments and photos as I swoon over the product that got us all started.

So far I've picked up a jumbo box and 2 blasters so the cards below were snagged by me personally.

The Base Card:  

I'm digging the design. It's pretty straight forward and clean, like it should be. I've been noticing a good mix of Landscape vs Portrait cards

The Parallel:

So this is a "Diamond" variation card and I'n not gonna lie.....I love it. I'm seriously considering building this entire set. Naturally there a Gold variations of the base card and even "Canary" variations which are like Gold variations of the Diamond Parallel. They may even be 1 of 1's. Awesome!

The Mini's:

That's right. This years Topps has a Mini insert set called "Kimball Champions" It's a 50 card insert set that I'm psyched about


The 60th:

Here's another insert set pretty much just depicting the 60th Anniversary. There are some great names in this subset. There are relic and Auto versions of these cards ( I have yet to get my hands on any)


60YOT (60 Years of topps)

This is a classic reprint set of some of Topps' greatest cards. Look for original back short prints with this one


The Reprints:

Ok this is the one I'm most excited about. This is a 30 card insert set of some of the hobby's most well known cards. Including reproductions of T206, Goudey, Bowman and more. I've landed 2 Babe's already.

The Duo's

This is the only thing about 2011 Topps I'm not crazy about. In my opinion this is just a recast of last years "Legendary Lineage" set. Even the design is similar.


The Manufactured Glove Leather:

I jacked 2 of these from my jumbo box. After the Hat and bat barrels from last year, a glove was the next logical step. Keep in mind these are manufactured and have not been worn by the player.

The SP's

This product promises alot of short prints including 1 of 1's that have real diamonds embedded in them. I've seen SP's on eBay that have the faintest sparkle of a diamond located somewhere not obvious on the card. And of course the retro players on new style cards like the one above.

The Exclusives:

When purchasing blasters at either Walmart or Target you can expect some pulss you wouldn't normally find in hobby boxes, including black cards, Manufactured patches and other 60th anniversary variations. I just Yanked this Yank at lunch. Welcome to the PC MR. Jeter.


I'll keep you posted of any stellar cards I pull. In other words, I can't wait to pick up some more.

The Beans Finally Pay Off...In a good way

I love contests, who doesn't? I mean I never win but it's nice to have hope. So last week when someone on Twitter posted: "Follow @steinersports for a chance to win a $50 Gift Card.", I did. Honestly, I probably follow someone new or 'Re-Tweet" something 4 or 5 times a week just for the purposes of possibly winning a contest. Well I finally Won, and it was all due to my dumb twitter name (YanksandBeans). I thought it was so cool of Steiner to base a contest on something other than a random number generator. In this case it was their favorite twitter name. I've purchased many Steiner items before so these will come in handy:

Long story short kids, enter those contests, and re-tweet-away. You too could have a happy thumb!