HBO: Fresh off the Presses

Here ye, here ye!!!

Fresh off the presses!!!

I have another printing plate!!!

HBO: Seeing Red

Ugggg.  This card has me so angry.......that it took me so long to get it into my collection.

Numbered 3/5, this 2007 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects red refractor is a welcome addition to my BDPP collection.

Semi-formed rainbows like this one are why I'm going to go through the Hochevar catalog on Beckett to find out which cards I'm missing in my set.

HBO: Fifty Carats of Gold

Continuing down the 2007 Hochevar drawer, how about a #/50 gold autographed parallel from the 2007 Bowman Chrome release.

And the rainbow isn't looking too shabby either, including a bunch of doubles, which arrived in magnetic cases, thanks to the HBO.

HBO: 2006 Farm Hands

When Josh sent me his Hochevar card spreadsheet, this was one of the cards that helped me know his collection was one of high quality, and I had no idea it was graded (not that it matters to me, but it is a nice bonus). 

Numbered to /25, I've only ever encountered one other card from this parallel set, and it's listed for $125 on COMC, which lead me to believe that I'd never have it in my set without winning the lottery, which is exactly what happened when Josh contacted me. 

It goes well with my base version of the card and there is now one less white whale for me to kill in the Hochevar Card ocean.

Blue Whale

I added another on-card Hochevar card to my collection and it's one of my favorites.  I present my blue whale.

It is numbered 97/150.

The problem with reeling in a whale like this one is that I'm finding fewer and fewer of them in the sea or the bay.  Each cast of the search engine line yields fewer and fewer Hochevar whoppers.  Which is why I'm placing more and more focus on my Murad T51 set. 

A Card to Make Herman Melville Proud

I finally killed one of the white whales I've been chasing for months.  I won the card for under $20 (with free shipping), which was perfect for my budget.

 

I ended up with the blue variety, which are numbered to /25.  And, of course, the base version of the "E" card popped up on eBay the same day I won this card.  However, it was short printed (?) to /75 cards while the rest of the set had a 200+ card run per letter, which might explain why I had such a tough time tracking the base card down.

I like that it sticks out from the rest of the nameplate.

Now I need to find a new "white whale" to hunt down.  Maybe it's time to add some vintage cards to my collection in the form of some 1910 Murad Collegiate cards.

A Platinum Opening Day

As everyone knows, today kicks off the 2011 MLB season.

I'll be headed south on I-29 today to watch the Royals take on the Angels this afternoon.  I'm pumped because Luke Hochevar will be the starting pitcher for the Royals.  It's my first MLB Opening Day game and it's Luke's first Opening Day start.

I thought I'd commemorate Luke's start by talking about one of the best cards in my collection, a 2010 Topps Series 2 Platinum parallel that is serial numbered 1/1.  This card has an interesting (to me) story behind it.

And the back of the card.

When I got back into the collecting game last summer, I began tracking down Hochevar cards on eBay and COMC.  I was only interested in his cards.  It wasn't until I had over 100 of them that I began to branch out into collecting other players and sets.  And when the above card popped up on eBay, I knew I had to have it.

I've mentioned before how much I love 1/1 cards.  Before this card, printing plates and blank-backed cards were the only 1/1s I'd been able to afford.  The few 1/1 parallel cards that I'd encountered were all out of my price range.  (Incidentally, there has been a 2007 Bowman Chrome Superfractor in my eBay watch list for months now but the seller is unwilling to budge from his $250 BIN.  Sucks for him and for me, because it would be a great addition to my collection.)

This Platinum card was all I could talk about for a week.  My wife knew how much I wanted the card, so when I reached the ceiling of how much I wanted to bid on it (somewhere above $50, I believe) she knew I was bummed.

We were visiting my parents the weekend the auction was ending.  I would later find out that my wife had told my mom how much I wanted this card.  As the auction was ending, my family was sitting around the kitchen table and I was watching the auction, bummed that I wouldn't win this card.  My mom and my wife both tried to get me to raise my bid on the card, but I told them I couldn't do it.

After the auction ended, I just stared at my computer screen dejected.  Then my mom told me to look at her computer.  It took me a few moments to understand why.  She had eBay pulled up in her browser and the screen congratulated her on being the highest bidder on a baseball card.  It still didn't sink in what had happened.  I looked up for clarification and they were both smiling from ear to ear.

Turns out my mom had put in a max bid of $200 (it went for about half of that) and said she was going to go higher if she would have needed to.  She wanted me to have this card.  She said it was an early birthday present.  I was blown away.

As hard as it was watching the seconds tick away as the auction was ending, it was even tougher waiting for the card to arrive in my mailbox.  

I am so lucky to have such a supportive wife and family.  They know how much enjoyment I get from collecting cards and they do everything they can to enjoy them with me.

I'd like to thank my mom (and her ornery accomplice) for her generosity for the umpteenth time.  I love this card and am proud to have it in my collection.

As Hamilton 'Ham' Porter would say, "PLAY BALL!!!!"

Trade Report: A Special Trip to the LCS by Darkship

Fellow card blogger Darkship, of the fine journal MidWest Cardboard, and I had been working on getting a trade going for a few weeks, but negotiations had come to a standstill.  That's when he sent me a note saying his local card shop had a 2008 UD Baseball Heroes Luke Hochevar card on display. 

To say that trade talks restarted is an understatement. 

The card he found is a red autograph, serial numbered 7/10, which has been one of my white whales for my Baseball Heroes rainbow.

Who knows if I ever would have tracked this card down on my own.  I guess all the time and energy I'm spending on this blog is paying off.

Darkship also included a handful of Royals cards.

As well as a few Denver Broncos cards.   I especially like the National Chicle cards, although I don't quite understand the background behind Elway.  Maybe it was inspired by a game the Broncos played on a baseball field?

Thanks for trading with me Darkship.  I hope you liked the cards I sent you as much as I like mine.

2010 Topps Chicle Dexter Fowler

I love 1/1 cards.  I own a pile of printing plates.  I own a handful of blank-back 1/1 cards that I bought from the ToppsVault on eBay.  And I own a couple 1/1 parallels.

I love 1/1 cards because I love being the only person in the world with that particular card.  I like that feeling.

Here is one of those cards.  It's a 2010 Topps National Chicle Red Back Umbrella of Dexter Fowler and it is serial numbered 1/1.

Front of the card.

Back of the card.

I love the old-school Topps logo on the back of this card.  And I'm the only person with this card.  So there.

Sunday Double Rainbow

It's a Sunday Hochevar double rainbow, all the way across the blog!!!

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces Hochevar Rainbow - White, Red, Black, Grey, Green, and Blue

2009 Topps Triple Threads Rainbow -- including a 1/1 White Whale

Have You Seen this "E"?

If so, please contact me ASAP.  His family misses him and really wants him to come home.

What you see above is my nearly completed 2009 Topps Finest nameplate for Colorado Rockie Dexter Fowler.  I say nearly completed because I desperately need an "E" to fill the gap and finish the name and, as far as I know, they never made the "E" manupatch.  For as long as I've been looking for these cards, I can not remember ever seeing an "E".

So, one of my "white whales" is a 2009 Topps Finest Dexter Fowler "E" Autographed Manupatch.  If you find one (or have one) please let me know.