This Post Is Immaculate

 

The best-looking product this year that I have seen was Panini Immaculate.  It came out in the summer and people immediately started pulling out some amazing cards from it (that Brett went for $460).  There were quite a few case breaks happening for it, but the prices for a slot were going for more than I wanted to pay, and I just kept getting outbid on them.  Instead, I decided to take the money that would have gone for a slot in the case break and just pick up a few singles on Ebay...creating my own cheaper break.  I watched several breaks that I had bid on (and lost), and there were no Royals cards in there that were better than these (and about half of them were shutouts for the Royals), so I don't feel like I missed out on them. 

The card at the top was a great value -- Raul Mondesi /99 - Immaculate Materials - 5 swatches.  The fabric is blurry in the scan since it is so thick.  The Royals have rushed Mondesi before...hopefully they are patient with him and he will develop into a solid player.

The second card I picked up was Alex Gordon /99 - Immaculate Duals.   It shows the Alex Gordon low follow-through...best exemplified here. 

 

While I was on the site, I looked for any other cool, cheap Royals cards I could snag.  The first card I picked up was this "Zebra" from 2016 Donruss.  I believe they called these "Holoflow" parallels.  They are numbered /199 and are very shiny/refractory (you can pick that up in the bottom of the scan).  LoCain is showing a little of his "lean-back" follow-through on this beauty.  

 

Another quick pick-up was this Danny Duffy 2017 Chrome in the 1987 Topps style.  It was free shipping and the seller likely had a negative profit on this one.   It's a beautiful glossy card and I'm glad to have it.

All in all, these cards cost me WAY less than a case-break slot would have, and I am pleased with what I got. 

If you are looking for what's still available from that set, you can check COMC or the 'Bay.

What is your favorite Panini Immaculate card that you have seen?

Bountiful Bonus Booty Bestowed by Benevolent Blogger

Who is the Benevolent Blogger?  Why, Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits, of course!

Matt ran a contest last summer to see who could identify a player that he had selected, based on a series of clues that were increasingly specific.  When all was said and done, I narrowed down the answer to just a few players, then finally down to one - Wilson Ramos!  That qualified me for a prize, and when the randomizer was done spinning, I came out of it with a whole lot of 2017 Ginter cards!  Knowing his affinity for Ginter cards, I figured it would be something good.  It was.  :-)

Here you can see the box that hit my mailbox.

 

To be specific, that box had a full base set of 2017 Ginter (Cards 1-300), and then half of the short-prints (301-350).  1987 Topps (favorite set!) were used as filler.  No respect for the classics!  :-)

Here's the full team set of 2017 Royals (non-SP). 

 

He also included one SP (LoCain), and a mini of Hosmer and black mini of LoCain.  

It didn't seem like the Ginter base set had as many interesting non-baseball cards in it as it has in past years, but there were still a few good ones.  All of the cards in the next two pictures are other cards from the base set that I wanted to keep. 4 Ex-Royals (Kendrys, Manaea, Zobrist, Cueto), guys from my earlier days (Canseco, Smith, Banks, Johnson, Dawson), Random current guys I like (Ichiro, Werth, Wilson Ramos(!), then the miscellaneous ones.  Vashti Cunningham and Laurie Hernandez were Olympians.  I watched a Crossfit documentary on Netflix and Ben Smith was the winner of that (Spoiler!).  There was no "Revolving Door" or "X-Ray" card in this set, so a Panda and a Waterfall will have to fill that gap. 

As I mentioned, there were also half of the Short-Prints from this set.  Those are shown below and are all available (except for Lorenzo) since they don't fit my PC.  If anyone still is working on this set and needs one of these, let me know and I can get that to you.  I have a lot of base to trade/give, too.

I really only need one more full-size base card from this set -
Base SP #313 - Matt Strahm. 

Do any of you have that one for me?

Thanks so much, Matt!  You might be wondering why it took me 3 months to post this.  Well....this package hit my mailbox the same week my wife gave birth to our daughter.  Between her and my two older boys, I've had limited card-blogging time since then.  But these were all much appreciated and will be given a good home!  

My Wife - The Prognosticator

Before the playoffs began, everyone in my family filled out a bracket with their postseason predictions (motto:  "Bracketology:  It's not just for March Madness anymore!").  That paper you see in the picture above is my wife's bracket.  She got every series right except for the Indians/Yankees series.  Next year I am going to take her to Vegas and we are going to get rich.

Four Packs To Be Named Later

I recently did a four-pack series of 2017 NFL retail football cards for A Pack To Be Named Later.  You can see them all at the links below.

In order of my personal preference:
2017 Score Football
2017 Donruss Football
2017 Panini Prestige Football
2017 Panini Football

Card Meme

I mean, really, what's better to chase?

This?

Or this?

20,000 Cards - Box 2 - All Layers

Hello to the Blogosphere!  This has never been a blog that was big on video posts, but I have one for you today.  My in-laws took my sons to their house for the week, so I had both the time and the safety to sort out another of the boxes from my 20,000 card purchase.  See it below, and let me know:  What is your favorite set or favorite player from all the ones I pulled out of this box?

Don't CALL 1 (877) CARD MLB

Working through the 2nd giant box of my 20,000 cards purchase, I came across this card...well, actually there were four of them together.

Front:

Back:

The card features Sosa, Ichiro, Randy Johnson, Piazza, Jeter, and Pedro, and instructs us to call 1 (877) CARD MLB to find a card shop near us.  This is from 2002, and has MLBPA and MLB licenses.  It might have come from 2002 MLB Showdown?  There were quite a few Showdown cards around it.

2002 was the year I graduated college.  This card was a vestige of the era where the internet was rapidly becoming well-developed, but there were still many people (like my parents) who were on dial-up connections who still used the phone for most things.  Only 20% of Americans had broadband at that point.  This is pre-iPhone by five years.

Anyway, this morning, I wondered....IS THIS LINE STILL WORKING?  Does MLB have some bored intern manning a phone line waiting for people to ask where the nearest card shop is?  Or is it just a recorded message telling everyone that card shops don't exist anymore and you can only get cards at Target?

So, I called it.  I was hoping for a live person.  Otherwise, a recording telling me where I could buy cards.  Mostly I expected a "this line has been disconnected" error message.  What I got was even worse.

MLB has abandoned this line.  It has been taken over by a scam company offering "free" cruises (you just pay them some "small" FEES, of course) and "free" medical alert systems to prey on the elderly.  Because the elderly are the only people who call 800 numbers anymore.  (Sorry if I offended anyone out there.)

Does anyone remember calling this line?  I hope you aren't relying on this anymore.  If you are ever out-and-about and urgently need to find a card shop, just give me a call.  I'll be happy to point you in the right direction.  :-)