Mannys in the attic

Okay, so I don’t exactly have an attic but last night I went searching for an old camera looking for an extra memory card to lend my sister when in an old box I made an amazing discovery! In an old lunch box I found 4 cards that survived the death of my collection from Y2k. You see, by the year 2000 I had already been out of the hobby for a while but held on to my cards in just in case. One year we were hit by a hurricane that caused some minor flooding but just enough to destroy my two 5,000 count boxes of baseball cards. To be honest, I didn’t care much about it since my Jose Canseco collection was safe but everything else was gone. I had cards from as early as 1989 to as recent as 1999 Bowman. I guess looking back now I am somewhat bummed that I lost my 1992 Bowman Manny Ramirez, 1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa, and a huge collection of Derek Jeter cards that would have got me brownie points today. It’s not a big deal, though. I got a pretty nice collection today and I would consider myself very lucky that the woman I love is into the hobby as well.

Below are the four cards from my old collection. This is all that survived. The two Manny Ramirez cards are from trades I made with a school friend, the Pat Burrell is from an Upper Deck Retro box I bought. Back then it wasn’t a “hit” per box. Odds were pretty high to pull that card but I did. It once booked for $120, I’m scared to look at the book value today. As far as the Iverson, I loathe basketball but watched enough of his college games to know he was the real deal and possibly the “next Jordan”. I asked the dealer to get me some of his rookie cards to hold on to and ended up with the EX 2001 and SPx (lost in the flood). I don’t think it’s worth more than $5 today, though. I am not much of a prospector, am I?

Pull out those 5,000 count boxes!

It doesn’t matter if you have 500 baseball cards or 500,000…I am going full speed into my player collections of Marlins prospect Andrew Miller and former big leaguer Ozzie Canseco and I need YOUR help.. I currently have 29 Andrew Miller cards (9 auto, 1 g/u) and just 13 Ozzie Canseco cards (2 auto’s). I am trolling eBay every single day & night but I can’t do it all on my own.

I am going to be trading big time in the next couple of weeks so if you have any Andrew Miller/Ozzie Canseco I don’t have, you will come away with something nice in return, within reason of course. For any Ozzie I don’t have, I will send you a list of game-used and parallels available for trade. For Andrew Miller, since he is still hot in the hobby…I am going to pull out the big guns. Just one warning, I don’t like dual auto’s for Miller unless it’s the Lincecum/Miller dual auto. That might be the coolest dual auto I have ever seen and lost out on.

Thanks guys,

Mario A.

This Week In Baseball Cards

Okay, a little late but better late than never, right? This is ‘This Week in Baseball Cards’ for the week of March 17th through March 21st. If I missed any stories, please let me know!

1. An interesting editorial about collecting baseball cards (link)

2. If you see this guy, hide your baseball cards! (link)

3. The Mickey Mantle rookie card bandit has been caught! (link)

4. What a surprise! Obama baseball card more popular than Clinton’s! (link)

To read last week’s issue, click HERE

I feel REALLY guilty

So as it turns out, I really didn’t have to break into my wife’s eBay account because after I got home from work there were 3 different eBay packages for me that Tatiana had purchased and not even told me about. Needless to say, I feel pretty guilty but it doesn’t take away from the joy of adding three great new cards to my collection!

The first card is a 2007 Bowman’s Best autograph. Trust me guys, the scan does not do the card justice. It is beautiful and resembles a Refractor. The other Andrew Miller is a 2007 Upper Deck Premier, a product I would never bust in 100 years. It’s great to have the main card from the set in my collection. I am sure there are 15 different parallels but this is good enough for me.

As nice as those cards are what’s even nicer is the rare Ozzie Canseco card she picked up for my new player collection. It’s one of many Minor League Ozzie Canseco I have my eyes on. If by some weird coincidence you have some rare Ozzie cards, let me know. I will have my entire Ozzie Canseco scanned this weekend.

Oh, and check out the Infamous Tatiana’s blog. She’s been updating daily with the sickest new Jeter cards she’s added to her collection and well, she’s the best wife a collector could have.

Lost the fat, gained $153 million

Our former hometown boy Miguel Cabrera continued to break our hearts after signing an 8 year contract with the Detroit Tigers for $152.3 million over the weekend. This deal was the equivalent of your ex-girlfriend dumping you and then seeing her at the end of the year prom with a new guy, who drives a better car than you. Damn it, Miguel—stop breaking our hearts! A few of us thought you would be back after we got our new stadium.

Some in the media have questioned giving that much money to a 24 year-old who has dealt with weight issues but in 2007 and at his highest weight of his career Miguel came just 12 hits shy of 200 and hit for a .320 average.  When you add his 34 home runs and 119 R.B.I, you see ust why Detroit took a chance and gave up the money they did. Just look at it like this, at 24 years of age Miguel already has three 30+ home run seasons, four 100+ R.B.I seasons, and has an average of .320 or more in the last three years. The man is a monster and you can expect him to eat up American League pitching for 40 or more home runs in 2008.

Hey, it’s healthier (not to mention more profitable) than Arroz con Pollo.

Tatiana is going to KILL me!

Okay so this morning after Tatiana left to celebrate Easter with her family, she left her eBay account logged in and well….I got myself into some trouble. To explain how this started you would have to go back a few weeks ago when a local restaurant payed me to create their website. Ever since then Tatiana has been bugging me to create a site for her family’s business. I told her I would but only if she would get me both Andrew Miller ‘07 Upper Deck Sweet Spot cards (bat barrel & glove). Unfortunately the guy who had the bat barrel was looking for $150 but kept re-listing for less and less until one day I finally talked him down to $70 plus shipping. Tatiana said that was all she could afford and so the deal was closed and I sat by each day checking to see if I could find the glove auto for less than $50 but it was impossible. Well, until earlier in the week when someone listed it for $4.99 but for whatever reason it would not appear on the front of “Newly Listed” which gave me one hell of an advantage!

Today, with just 12 hours left it remained at $4.99 until the very last hour where it seems everyone found the card. By the end of the auction is was stuck at $17.00 with 13 total bids. Following the advice of Bryan the Canseco King, I made my first bid with 30 seconds left in the auction and wouldn’t you know it, I won the card for under $30! I am truly ecstatic to own these two cards. Aside from the 2007 Topps Finest Black Refractor, these two Sweet Spot cards are THE best Andrew Miller rookie cards. I don’t count printing plates. The bat barrel auto is #’d to just 10 (!) and the glove to 25. Next up is the Topps Finest Black Refractor autograph which  I have only seen one time in the last three months on eBay but it was graded. I hate graded cards. I am so happy right now I can barely type. Luckily for me I have to get offline and clean the house, wash the dishes, and cook dinner before the Infamous Tatiana gets home. It might be a little easier to break the news to her if she arrives to a nice home-cooked meal and clean house.

I hope I don’t end up on the couch again! Anyways, these are the eBay pictures. I have will have full scans when they arrive. I am also looking for the SP Authentic ‘By The Letter’ auto (letter M or K) but those have also been hard to find.

WOO HOO!!!