Fan Packin' Across the USA!!! My hometown Brewers!

Disclaimer: I meant to have my Gypsy Queen box break post ready today, but I forgot to scan a bunch of stuff I wanted to show, so it'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Yesterday was a big mail day for me.  I ended up getting a huge trade package from Dustin from Coot Veal and the Vealtones. Trade post to follow soon. I also got packages from a Sportlots buy and JustCommons, both of which were mainly Brewers cards to finish off some team sets.  And I got my 2012 Brewers Fan Pack.

I will say there was some better stuff in last years package.  They had a towel in there for Pete's sake.  But still some nice goodies.

Four stickers.

A scratch off. I didn't scratch it.  You could win free tickets and I had thought about sending this to my brother who might use it if he won something, but all the games you could win tickets to are in mid April.  I think I'll just keep it as a keep sake.

Some Brewers beads!

3, yes 3 more, pocket schedules featuring Mr. John "the Axman" Axford.

And 3 Player postcards, well 2 players and a coach.  They're blank on the back side.

Not too shabby.  Lets see if the Cubs can out do them again this year!

2012 Gypsy Queen Framed Parallel Checklist

Since I couldn't find a framed parallel checklist anywhere I figure I'd take a few minutes and try to put one together by searching eBay.  I'm fairly confident that both the Blue (hobby #d to 599) and the gold/bronze/brown (retail) are the same checklist.  Since the set only parallels 100 of the the 300 cards it's a little tricky to figure out which ones you might want to chase for PC's and team sets or the whole set in general.

(I'm pretty confident this list is correct, if it's not please let me know)

1 Jesus Montero
6 Matt Moore
10 Roy Halladay
16 Eric Hosmer
18 Jackie Robinson
20 Chipper Jones
22 Kevin Youkilis
35 Jon Lester
44 Matt Kemp
49 Adrian Beltre
50 Miguel Cabrera
54 Mariano Rivera
55 Matt Holliday
57 Michael Young
60 Jacoby Ellsbury
67 Josh Hamilton
68 Alex Rodriguez
69 Troy Tulowitzki
71 Ian Kennedy
76 Mike Napoli
80 Ryan Braun
83 Ryan Howard
90 Mark Teixeira
92 Adrian Gonzalez
99 Hanley Ramirez
100 Derek Jeter
120 Mickey Mantle
135 Clayton Kershaw
137 Jose Reyes
140 Joe Mauer
142 Carlos Gonzalez
143 Dustin Pedoria
149 Ryan Zimmerman
150 C.C. Sabathia
157 Nelson Cruz
160 Prince Fielder
170 Cliff Lee
174 Josh Beckett
180 Albert Pujols
182 Buster Posey
190 Robinson Cano
197 David Freese
200 Felix Hernandez
220 Joey Votto
225 Albert Belle
226 Johnny Bench
227 Ralph Kiner
228 Eddie Mathews
229 Ty Cobb
230 Evan Longoria
231 Andre Dawson
232 Joe DiMaggio
233 Duke Snider
234 Carlton Fisk
235 Orlando Cepeda
236 Lou Gehrig
237 Bob Gibson
238 Rollie Fingers
239 Juan Marichal
240 Tim Lincecum
241 Larry Doby
242 Al Kaline
244 Roger Maris
245 Darryl Strawberry
246 Willie McCovey
247 Paul Molitor
248 Wade Boggs
249 Stan Musial
250 Ken Griffey Jr.
251 Gary Carter
252 Tony Gwynn
253 Cal Ripken Jr.
254 Brooks Robinson
255 Frank Robinson
256 Nolan Ryan
257 Ryan Sandberg
258 Mike Schmidt
259 Dave Winfield
260 Curtis Granderson
261 John Smoltz
262 Frank Thomas
263 Eddie Murray
264 Ernie Banks
265 Warren Spahn
266 Carl Yastrzemski
267 Bob Feller
268 Rod Carew
269 Willie Stargell
270 Roberto Clemente
271 Jered Weaver
273 Starlin Castro
280 Willie Mays
286 Chase Utley
290 Sandy Koufax
293 Yogi Berra
294 Reggie Jackson
295 Doc Gooden
296 Tom Seaver
297 Lou Brock
300 Babe Ruth

CB out.

Some new Big Hurt love

It's been a while since I added any cards to the Frank Thomas collection.  To be honest Frank is one of my lowest priority Player Collections.  That' doesn't mean I don't love the guy.  The first major league game I ever got to attend was at New Comiskey Park and got to see the big guy play.  And I also got to see the White Sox come back from a 5 run deficit in the 8th inning to win.  That's a story for another time though.

I recently was trying out COMC's new shipping policy.  It's getting better.  I had picked up some beautiful 1963 cards for cheap, the last two 1971 Topps Brewers coins I needed for my team set, a whole slew of 2012 87 mini's for my set, and I decided to peruse the offerings for Mr. Thomas to see if I could pick up anything cool for cheap.  And I did.

First up I snagged a 1996 Leaf Frank Thomas' Greatest Hit's #2.  There we 8 cards in this insert set.  All die-cut and made to look like a piece of CD.  All serial numbered to 5000.  Which back in 1996 was a pretty big deal.  Back in 1996 this card was probably worth over $100 bucks, now it books for about 12 and I got this one for under 2.

This card commemorates his sophomore season.

Next up is a dual relic card from 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings.  If you remember the set there were so many parallels and inserts it was a little overwhelming.  I think it could be use as the extreme for parallels in a set.  Not only were base cards paralleled, but just about every insert had multiple parallel variations. This card is pretty much a dual relic parallel of the base card.  

Offiicially called Materials Bronze, we have a slice of bat and pants with the card being numbered to just 200.  I got this bad boy for under 4 bucks.  There was a slight touching on bottom left corner, hardly noticable, but I'm assuming that's why it was so cheap.

Welcome to the collection.

And if you read all the way down here, I went out and bought a hobby box of Gypsy Queen last night.  I'll have the write up tomorrow.

Oh a post about Gypsy Queen

As a card collector you have to love release day.  Today is Topps' Gypsy Queen official release day.  I know retail has been trickling out onto eBay for days, like usual, but it's really exploded on eBay today.  With Topps you never quite know what to expect.  I mean they put out a tentative checklist and then when the product comes out it's totally different and usually they have a few surprises not on the sell sheets.  I haven't gotten to bust any product yet.  Boxes are a little over a hundred bucks online.  Which isn't bad considering you get 4 hits per box and the sell sheet says 2 autos and 2 relics.  I'm planning on heading down to the LCS this afternoon. I probably won't buy a box, but you never know.  I will most likely buy a few packs and I'll probably end up buying a few rack packs as well.  So I'll have a review when I actually get some in hand.  I'm trying to be good and save my limited funds for Series 2 and Allen and Ginter, mainly because I really don't plan on putting this set together, but knowing that all the SP's are actually mini's and not regular size base cards, it's tempting.

I've already bought my teams set, and put a few bids on some Brewers relics.  I tend to like to wait a week or so till the fervor dies down, but I'd see if I can snag a few for cheap early.  I haven't noticed anything unexpected, but did find a few cool relics.

The first one is the Indian head pennies.  I know coin cards have been done before.  But I do so love the odd balls.  And these are numbered to just 10.

Here's a great Reggie Jackson I'd love to add to my collection.  Probably not going to happen though.
There is a fairly large checklist for the penny cards.

I figure I'd add this one for the Dodgers fans to drool over.

The other relic I liked is the Stadium seats.  I know it's been done before as well, but even as a baseball fan I've all ways loved the ecclectia that get thrown into sets like Allen and Ginter and Goodwin Champions.

The checklist for this is quite small just five stadiums and I have a Brewer's relic to chase..

MS-MCS Milwaukee County Stadium
MS-SHP Shibe Park
MS-SP Sportsman's Park
MS-TS Tiger Stadium
MS-WF Wrigley Field

I've only seen 3 up on eBay right now, I know it's still early, but looking through brentandbeccas store they only have one up for auction and they break a ton of cases, so these might be quite rare.  At only 5 in the set though I can see a few oddball collectors really going for this insert.

That being said enjoy your Gypsy Queen release day.

CB out.

TTM Success Jaime Navarro (Mariners Pitching coach, former Brewers pitcher)

Got home this afternoon to another TTM return envelope in the mail box.

This time is Mariners pitching coach and former Brewers pitcher Jamie Navarro.  I have fond memories of watching Jaime pitch back in the early nineties.

I sent 2 cards to Jaime at the Mariners spring training address.  I was getting worried, but it looks like he took his fan mail home with him and sent the cards back from Seattle.

1992 Upper Deck. One of my favorite Navarro cards. Jaime just taking a nap and using a base for a pillow.

And a 1991 Topps card.  This is the third 1991 Topps cards I've gotten signed.  I'm getting close to a complete set.

TTM Stats

Date Sent 3/19/12
Date Received 4/17/12 (postmarked 4/14/12)



Address Used:
Seattle Mariners
Peoria Stadium
16101 N. 83rd Ave
Peoria, AZ 85382

I would use the Mariner's Seattle address to send to Jaime now.

Seattle Mariners
P.O. Box 4100
Seattle, WA 98194-0100



Thanks Jaime, another great addition to my TTM Brewers collection. I already have two 1991 Topps, but the 92 Upper Deck spot is all yours.

Fan Packin' Across the USA!! Yankees vs. Red Sox

I found my Yankees fan pack I got a couple of weeks ago and it must be fate that just the other day my Red Sox fan pack made it to me as well.  And since the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry is one of the oldest in sports history, lets keep it going by seeing how each team's fan packs stack up against each other.

Interestingly enough the Red Sox package was sent from Florida.

Lets start with the Red Sox.

First we have a letter from Phil Derick the Fenway Ambassador.  At first I was pretty in awe to get a hand written reply letter, but after looking a little closer and a quick search on the internet it's pretty obvious that this a reprinted form letter.  I also got a nice Red Sox sticker and a bag of Fenway dirt. Since this is my third Red Sox fan pack it's also my third bag of dirt.  So I'm slowly working on my own infield track made up of Fenway dirt.

There was also a Red Sox Nation arm band...

The 2012 Red Sox schedule celebrating Fenway's 100th Anniversary.

There were also two picture postcards one of Wally the Green Monster and one of Adrian Gonzalez.

Did you know you could get Wally to come to your next birthday party?

I'm sure his traveling cost would make it a little cost prohibitive to get him up here in Alaska.

Next up the goodies from the Bronx.

We have here 2 bookmarks, 2 pencils, 2 sets of stickers, there are 3 stickers per sheet, and an advertisement for Yankee's Universe.

There was also a 46 page coloring book and...

Two 2012 schedules. This year celebrating Jeter's 3000th hit.

Over all it's really close.  Both teams put out a very nice fan pack, but I'm going to have to give it to the Yankees.  Mainly because of the coloring book and pencils.

cb out.

Fan Packin' Across the USA!!!! Rangers, Astros and A's

A couple of years ago, about the time I started up this blog I started a spring ritual of asking MLB teams for fan packs.  I make no apologies here on the blog being a Brewers fan, but I'm also a fan of baseball in general.  This might stem from being a former military brat and growing up all over the country.  I also like free stuff.  I've learned a few lessons in the past few years requesting fan packs.  For the most part it's simple, takes maybe a half hour to request them from the teams that still let you request them by email, and don't bother requesting from the Phillies because unless you live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware they won't send you anything.  I guess those are the only places Phillies fans live.  I also stopped requesting from the Padres because all they do is send you a PDF in an email.  But some teams send some great stuff.  By far the best are the Brewers, Cubs and Red Sox, but a lot of other teams go out of their way with big packs like the Yankees, Rangers, Orioles, and Twins.  Some teams make you send a postcard.  Right now those are the Cubs, Twins, Yankees, Mets, and Braves.  I'm probably also going to have to send postcards to the Rays and Cardinals because I keep getting an undeliverable email message every time I try.

That being said I've already received a few fan packs barely a week after emailing.  I got one back from the Indians, but unfortunately I found it in a snow bank near the mail box.  I don't know if I did that or the mailman, but it wasn't a real big loss.  The Indians send a letter of thanks and a coloring book page and usually a schedule.  But no schedule for me this year.  And everything was pretty much water logged by the time I got it inside so I just threw it away.  But I got my Rangers fan pack this last weekend and the A's and Astros this afternoon.  I also got this years Yankees fan pack from when I requested it last year, or maybe this winter I can't remember.  I'll dig that one out for later.

First up the Astros.

No letter or anything with the Astros envelope.  Inside was an over sized card of Jason Castro, a window sticker and this years pocket schedule.

Next up the A's.  If I had to pick a secondary team to root for the A's would be right up there being the rookie teams for two of my favorite players.

Inside the envelope we had a photocopy of pages 2 and 3 from the A's media guide documenting the 40th anniversary of the teams 1st Bay area World Series, a pocket schedule featuring Brandon McCarthy, and a 2009 Topps Jack Cust card.  The Cust card looks like one specially made either for the team or Cust.

Check out the numbering on the back OK-3. I know Topps makes cards specifically for teams and players.  Anyone know who #1 and 2 are?  Also interesting that they send a baseball card of a guy that hasn't been on the team in over 2 years.  But a nice oddball for sure.  Cust was released by the  Astros minor league system after spring training.  From what I could find he is now in the Yankees camp somewhere.

And finally that big envelope from the Rangers. Oh you poor Rangers.  I've rooted for you twice now to win the World Series.  Maybe this will be your year.  The Rangers are looking strong already.

Inside we find an oversize card of Neftali Feliz, some temporary tatoos, 3, count them 3, pocket schedules, and a Jr. Rangers application card featuring Napoli, Hamilton and someone else.

There was also a letter of thanks (which I didn't scan) and this cool AL Champion team photo.  Not a bad fan pack from the team.  

CB out.