Jackie Bradley Jr. and the Red Sox

While I don't follow many Minor league players for the Red Sox, Jackie is a player that I do. For those of you who dont know who he is, Jackie is a prospect of the Boston Red Sox. He attended Prince George High School, in Richmond Virginia. Prince George is where I play some of my tournaments. But anyways, Bradley attended the University of South Carolina, before he went on to be drafted by the Boston Red Sox. He was on the College World Series team in 2010 for The University of South Carolina, and was named College World Series Most Outstanding Player. Bradley was selected 40th overall by the Boston Red Sox in the supplemental first round of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft. He has since been in the farm team system developing, to hopefully have a shot at the big leagues. I personally have met Jackie, and he is quite an inspiration. He is very friendly, and a great role model. Best of all, you can actually read his autograph! A player that actually signs his full name? That's hard to come by these days! Here is the ball I got signed by Jackie.

If you ever get the chance to meet Jackie, take it! He is an awesome guy!

HOF relic card out of Wal-mart?

I was walking around Wal-mart getting my grocery shopping in for the week, and I figured I would take a quick look at the card section. I noticed they had rackpacks from 2011 on sale for 2 dollars! picked one up, and to my surprise, a Topps 60 relic of Rickey Henderson was in the package! Can't complain!

An Autograph From Nationals Park

About a week ago...I went up to D.C. to go see a Nationals game. One of my coaches has connections from his wife who works at the Pentagon. She gets free Nationals tickets to every home game the Nationals play. She generously extends the connections through my coach, who then extends them to some of his best buddies. Besides the cost of food, these trips to the park are absolutley free to me. He has brought me to now 2 Nationals games with some other friends and his son. We have had an absolute blast! The tickets aren't nosebleeds either! The last game I went to had tickets right behind the home dugout when Strasburg was on the mound!! It was an awesome experience to be so close to him. Knowing that when he was sitting in the dugout, he was right below you. Awesome experiences and awesome seats! I took many pictures of Strasburg and Harper that I will share with you below. Last game I got an autograph from Gio Gonzalez, pitcher for the Nats. I yelled out his name, Gio, right before the National Anthem, and he turned around and saw I had a ball and a pen. So he had me throw the ball and pen down into the dugout so he could sign it without being seen. Pretty cool to know this ball was in the dugout with Harper and Strasburg. Anyways, here is the ball and the pictures of Harper and Strasburg!

Nice looking autograph I thought! Thanks Gio!

Now for some cool pictures of Harper and Strasburg...

Stephen Strasburg

Stephen Strasburg

Stephen Strasburg

Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper

So all and all, an awesome experience!

Topps Customer service very reliable

Hey guys, just got some mail in today! Today found another package in the mail from Topps. This one comtained the REPLACED relic of Elvis Andrus! The original card looked like somebody had bent the card in HALF. And when I say in half, I mean in half. This was no packsearching mishap or something. This card was either screwed up in packaging, or chewed up while it was made. Anyways, I got two relic cards for sending that one in! (Look at post below to see what else Topps sent me for it. They sent me a pack while they had the Andrus card, and in the pack was another relic!) Here is the replaced card.

As you can see, not a scratch, and NO bends! Awesome Topps! Another great experience with Topps customer service. Thanks!

Yu Darvish Gold Insert Card

Hey guys, those of you who would be willing to take the time and comment/ let me know what you think about having this card graded would be GREATLY appreciated. I have never had a card graded before so I just need somebody who knows if the card is worth getting graded. What would this card get? There are NO scratches, NO chipping, NO dings. The corners are perfect and I personally think that the centering is darn near PERFECT. All blemishes you may see are on the toploader and toploader only. Thanks guys! And here is the card!

A hotpack of 2012 Topps series 1 from Topps!

Again, I found myself wondering when I would ever see my Elvis Andrus Golden Moments relic card again that I sent off a week ago. It had major creases all up and down the card, so I sent it off to customer service to get it replaced or fixed. Well, finally Topps has earned some brownie points with me! I found a package in the mail today from Topps. I opened it to find a pack of series 1. My hopes dropped thinking I would never see my Andrus relic card again. I read the printed note attatched to the pack. It read "Topps is sorry for the damaged relic card that you recieved in one of our distributed trading card packs. For your inconveinence, we have sent this pack of cards to you. You can expect the Elvis Andrus relic card back within a week. Again, we are sorry for the inconveinence. - The Topps Company" My jaw dropped. Topps actually cares about it's customers?!? I have heard horror stories of Topps screwing people over for missing hits, damaged cards etc. But they are actually taking action for me! I was even more stunned when I opened the pack. Here is what I got...

A Chad Billingsley relic card! AWESOME! I don't know if they did this on purpose, but I'm stoked! I will get my Andrus relic card back with no creases, and I got a Chad Billingsley relic card from the pack they sent me for being sorry! Wow Topps....Wow. I appreciate this greatly! Thanks Topps!

A chrome card out of a 2012 Heritage pack

Wow! When was the last time I pulled a chrome card out of Heritage?!? It's been so long I can't even remember!

Not a Braves fan, but still a nice looking card! (#'d 1657/1963)

Mailday from William (foulbunt)

I got a package in the mail the other day from a good friend over at foulbunt. He is an awesome guy so you should definitely try to hit him up with some offers and trades! Anyways, here are the cards he sent me!

Since I'm inept at pulling any Red Sox cards, my friends help me out at getting some of them! Thanks William for the cool cards you send me! I really enjoy getting mail every now and again. (Bought roughly 7 or 8 packs of series 2 Topps, and a JUMBO pack! Still have yet to pull a BASE card of a Red Sox player)

Wow...these 87 minis are awesome! I think i'm going to try and piece together at LEAST the Red Sox portion of this mini set. These cards are more that William sent my way after his 3 box break of 2012 Topps jumbo series 2. Thanks again!

A 2012 Topps Heritage hotpack!

Well these hotpacks are found few and far between! This is my first 2012 Heritage of the year. Here is the hit! I also got a nice red bordered exclusive card of Paul Konerko.

Not too bad considering the pack was marked down to a dollar! Why? no idea. But it's a nice relic!

Here is the red bordered exclusive card of Paul Konerko. Very nice card I think.

A hotpack of 2012 Topps series 1

So while I was looking around at Target the other day, I discovered a hotpack of 2012 Topps series one. I got an Elvis Andrus relic card. I sent it off to Topps because it had MAJOR creases all over the card. I hope to see it fixed, in the mail soon!

some of my most recent notables from 2012 Topps baseball

Here you will find some of the nicer cards from 2012 Topps that I have pulled over the past month. I have bought from my Hobby shop, Target and Wal-mart. (If you are wondering, the Yu Darvish was pulled from a hobby jumbo.)

Here are two nice mound dominance inserts. (Top- Sandy Koufax.... Bottom- Dwight Gooden)

Some Golden Moments and Gold Standard inserts. I thought that the Tom Seaver and Hank Aaron Gold Standards were nice!

Some nice Gold Futures inserts. The Drew Pomeranz is a nice one.

Here are three gold foil inserts. I thought these were a nice insert for Topps cards this year. It really brightens up the packs!

Possibly one of the more desirable gold foil inserts? I think yes! Very nice card from top to bottom!

Nice looking relic card I pulled out of a pack from Target. (A.J. Burnett)

And here are two randoms that I thought were nice from the product as well. Im not a HUGE fan of diecut cards but I must say that the Willie Mays is a very nice card. The Blue bordered Wal-mart exclusive Corey Hart, is also a nice insert.