The first two are my first pick ups from the 2009 Team USA Box set from Upper Deck. Chad Bettis played for the Falmouth Commodores in 2008 and was slated to play for our team last year but made the Team USA Roster for last year.

One thing UD changed from the year before that I liked on these on card signatures was the fact that the parallels actually feature different inks as opposed to last year where they just had a different foil stamp and nothing else was different what so ever. So that’s a plus to the cards, although this year potentially is my least favorite on card design for Team USA sets released from Upper Deck.

The next card I got in was the 09 BCDP A.J. Pollock Gold refractor. AJ was 2008 Cape Cod League MVP and one of the first players I worked with in my relationship with the Falmouth Commodores. We got to make his first ever card in our team set this past season. The only issue with the card was the fact that a lot of the refractors this year can have a sort of printer roll mark, and it looks like this AJ did when I compared it to his Blue Refractor and Superfractor I had.

The final two cards are the refractors of Luis Exposito. I have now completed the full rainbow of colors in Sterling of him with the Gold (Which I had him signed IP), and the black and the 1/1 Red. This years Sterling Refractors have a great deal of etching, which we asked for  many many times again. They pop a lot more than even the Bowman Chrome cards this year. If Topps had gone with the autographs being on card this set would have lived up to it’s price tag as opposed to being fairly panned by most critics. Owning both the Red Refractor and the Superfractor, I definitely think the better looking of the two by a landslide is the Red Refractor.

Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on my pick ups and me sharing my collection. Stop back over the next few days and I will be posting more pick ups.

Barron Vangor Toth designed and lived for the WWF Raw Deal Collectible Card game. I met him right before the Backlash expansion launched for Raw Deal. This set had a new character that I was looking forward to use and learn playing the game. ou see Barron was a huge fan of the character my friend Michael Manna played in the WWE in the Right to Censor. He had followed Michael since his days in ECW and was one of his biggest fans. I met Barron at Knights Quest in Gardner, MA. I had know idea really who I was looking for, but when I went in to the store to look for him and asked where he was people just told me “You’ll know who it is when you see him!”

Well I went to the back of the store and met Barron for the first time. He was quite the person to be around. He stood around 6’8″ I believe, but he was as kind a person that I have ever met. After this day he became one of my closest friends, we would talk wrestling, designing the game, and just about our everyday lives.

I would travel to card tournaments with Barron, and even roomed with him at two Wrestlemania’s. I was one of the few who could easily sleep through his snoring! He was always there for me to talk to, and I spent hours on the phone with him commuting back and forth to broadcast school.

But I will never forget the opportunity I was able to present him with one summer afternoon. I was going to visit Michael aka Stevie, and told him about how Barron had made him really over powered in the game, and how he would do everything he could to get Stevie on cards. So Barron, Stevie and I spent a day hanging out at the StevieCorp compound in Wallingford, CT. I was able to help Barron hang out with one of his all time favorite wrestlers, and if you knew how much Barron loved wrestling, that was a huge deal.

But overtime I slowed on playing Raw Deal and didn’t talk to Barron as much as I had before. But everytime we talked it was like no time had passed and we were right back like we had been hanging out and talking the day before. Last January, I told him that he was one of my friends that I was disappointed that we didn’t talk as much, but said to him “You are one of those friends that I will always be able to let time pass and pick right up like we had talked the day before no matter what.”. That was the last thing I ever said to him

But on February 28th last year I got the news that Barron had been battling cancer for the last year plus. We didn’t talk a lot in that time period not just due to me, but he had been undergoing cancer treatments the whole time. He passed away one year ago today, and I wanted to put something up to remember him through the channel that I have to communicate with people. Too often someone who is well known passes away and people make a huge deal of it right away, but it fades over time. Barron was a huge deal to the CCG world and the poker world. But he was a bigger deal to me, he was my friend, one of my closest friends and not a day goes by that I do not miss him.

God bless you Barron. I miss you man.

So a few days ago I got an email from Sure Shot Productions that promoted the Shriners show in Boston that I went to. On January 10th at Jillians in Boston the Red Sox were hosting a charity event benefitting the Jimmy Fund. The signing was from 11:30 until 1:30 and I hadn’t heard a thing about it before hand, but looking at the guest list I knew I had to go.

The guest list for the event were as follows

The 2009 event welcomes the following players*:

* Justin Masterson
* Michael Bowden
* Chris Carter — Red Sox outfielder
* Lars Anderson — 2008 Red Sox Minor League Player of the Year
* Daniel Bard — 2008 Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Year
* George Kottaras — Red Sox catcher
* Josh Reddick — SoxProspects.com #3 ranked prospect
* Jason Place — Red Sox 2006 first round draft pick
* Richie Lentz — SoxProspects.com All Star
* Special Guest Terry Francona

That was the list, so I figured I had to go. There were a lot of opportunities for pictures there, I could meet Michael Bowden and get a picture with his Sterling Red 1/1. SoxProspects.com top 4 players for the Sox would be there, and one of the few people from the 04 and 07 World Series teams that I had zero things autographed by, Terry Francona would be there.

Also back in Spring Training I started a trend to make my fiancee back home happy. She made me a stuffed bear for my birthday last year and she begged me to take a picture of him at the Red Sox stadium. Well I brought him to the stadium, and ended up sitting with Johnny Pesky for a while, and decided “Ehh, what the hell” and the following picture was the product of this brain storm.

So this gave us the opportunity to get Lil’ Papi’s picture with a TON of future Red Sox, a legendary manager, and also a good deal of signatures for my autograph collection. So I stocked up on some ROMLB’s, a few cards, some pens that wrote on the cards after testing a bunch out, and Emily and I headed to Boston for this event.

We got there and after waiting in line for a short amount of time we headed in to the bowling alley at Jillians. I was surprised going in at first because there really wasn’t an enormous crowd. I figured just with Masterson and Francona alone it should draw a lot out in Boston, but sadly it did not. They did say later on in the event that in just attendance fees alone they raised 15,000 for the Jimmy Fund, so definitely was a good fund raiser.

But after a little bit, Emily and I got in line. I had a few cards to be signed and a few balls, and a “Francona” as I call it. We got in line and tried to survey everything to have my stuff in order for signing. The first person on the walk way of autographs was Jason Place, former 1st round pick of the Sox in 2006. I said hi to him, shook hands exchanged pleasantries and asked him to sign the ball I had. He was there to do that, so he didn’t deny me. Then for the Lil’ Papi part, my fiancee Emily was in charge of that. “Can we get a picture with him?” She asked, extending Lil’ Papi at them. Jason sort of laughed but agreed with no problem. Richie Lentz hopped in the back of the photo as well laughing.

Ok, I was in the back of that picture, so does that cover me?” Lentz asked. “Listen everyone from Johnny Pesky to Jonathan Papelbon has taken a picture with him. You can do it!”. He cracked up, but showed the respect to a Red Sox great that he deserves , “Well if Pesky did it, then I have to.”

Richie took an amazing picture with Lil’ Papi. He said after “I hope my picture was a little different than everyone else you get, so you remember it. You’re probably going to get on Leno with this bear.” Then we went to Josh Reddick. I had one of his Donruss Threads cards to get signed. I don’t have a scanner where I am now, so I will have to post that later. But I had tested out markers with the threads cards before, and found that a Bic Marks-A-Lot worked the best on them. This Permanant marker really signs well on glossy cards. I have heard great things about Lumacolor from Staedtler, but the ones I found weren’t too thick and didn’t sign too great. So Josh signed my threads card and Emily handed him Lil’ Papi and asked for the picture.

HE SIGNED LIL’ PAPI!!! Now at this point I should also meantion that Emily loves to get different shirts for Lil’ Papi, and the shirt he was wearing was one from ChowdahHeads.com that said “Little Papi” on the back and had #34. Now we had the #4 Prospect for the Red Sox signing the shirt in Silver Sharpie. “You don’t sign the bear, you take a picture with him!” yelled Lentz at Reddick. “Oh..uhhh…..” said Reddick. All the players around laughed at him, and he quickly posed for the picture.

Then next in line was Daniel Bard #3 overall prospect on SoxProspects.com, and 2008 Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Year. He was really nice, laughing at Reddick, and signed the ball for me, since all his Bowman cards are signed. Next up on the line was #1 Prospect, and the best player in 2008 Bowman Chrome, Lars Anderson.

I had heard things about Lars being pretty abrasive in person, but earlier in the day had witnessed him interacting with some children from the Jimmy Fund, and he was extremely friendly to them and came across very genuine. I went up with him with a ROMLB that I wanted him to sign by himself to hold for a long term collection item.

“Can you sign it ‘To Rob” I asked him. He looked at me and asked “How do I spell Rob?” I laughed at this and fired back “Uhh, it has less letters in it than Lars.” He laughed and signed it for me. At this point Daniel Bard handed him Lil’ Papi for his photo op, and Lars began to sign his shirt. For the second time we got to hear “You take the picure, don’t sign him!!” Now I’m not someone to turn away another Lars autograph, I mean he was already signed. But Lars stopped and posed for the picture with Lil’ Papi, and it was an adorable picture that I hope will be famous when Lars is an All Star.

Next up was George Kottaras, who was extremely nice. He signed the ball for me, and took an amazing picture with Lil’ Papi. As we walked away he made sure to say to Emily that he really wanted a copy of the picture. Her and I do plan, as another experiment, to send the pictures through the mail to the players and see how many we can get signed.

There were only four guys left, but they were four that I was very excited to meet. Justin Masterson, Michael Bowden, Chris Carter, and Terry Francona were the last four that you would come up to. I had cards for Justin, Chris and Michael to sign. I also had got at Olympia one of the “Francona Jerseys” as I call them to have him sign.

The cards I brought were all refractors that I had powered some, and may even get some heat from people for getting high end cards signed, but I had Justin sign a Blue Refractor of his rookie, I had Michael sign his Gold Refractor Rookie, and Chris Carter I had a his 2008 BCDP Blue Refractor but for some reason when I got to his table I handed him a baseball to sign.

When I talked to Michael I wanted to get a picture that I figured would be fairly unique. I own his 1/1 Sterling Red Refractor, so the opportunity to take a picture of a player and their one of one rookie has to be extremely rare, but I was able to accomplish it on this day.

Then for the last autograph I got on the day I handed Terry Francona the “Francona” to sign. He signed it in silver sharpie, and I wanted to get a picture with him myself, but we handed him Lil’ Papi and Terry became the third person to try to, and the second to successfully sign the Little Papi shirt. So I got to ask the manager that steered my favorite team to the World Championship in 2004 and 2007 to actually take a picture with the small bear instead of signing him.

After meeting everyone in the autograph line, we walked around the area a little. It was a great set up. They had some really nice stuff for silent auction, and also had a table with more than you could have hoped for in a reasonably priced selection of autographed memorabilia. Nothing was priced over 100 dollars, and they had everything from Josh Beckett signed World Series, or All Star Game baseballs to 16×20 autographed pictures from players such as Pedroia, Papelbon, Buchholz, and Schilling. Emily and I got the 16×20 of Clay Buchholz for fifty dollars. It was a picture from his no hitter, and probably would have cost around 200 if we bought it in a store.

But one bonus that they really didn’t advertise was there were nine more Red Sox prospects that were hanging out and bowling. So we went up to them and got some more autographs and pictures.

Zach Daeges and Wes Littleton were the first two we saw, so we approached them. They were both very friendly, and were cracking up at the pictures with Lil’ Papi idea. While I was going around getting stuff signed, Emily was off discussing the whole picture idea with different people. I didn’t really know who she was talking to, but found out soon after.

Argenis Diaz and Felix Doubront were engaged in a vicious bowling battle, so we didn’t bother them at this point. There was one other group of players towards the middle of the alley, so we went over to them. This turned out to be a lot of fun.

Emily approached Mark Wagner about a picture and he started cracking up. “With the bear?” He asked. At this time NESN’s Camera’s were on Lil’ Papi, and also the person who Emily had been talking to came over for pictures, and I recognized her now as the Red Sox team photographer. Mark at this point rounded up the other players in the area “Come over here, take the picture with the bear!!” He shouted at everyone. Dustin Richardson, and Kris Johnson came right over and took the picture and signed the ball I had brought with me for the day.

When I had the opportunity to talk with Kris I asked about the rumor I had heard about him collecting his own cards. He said that his father was the real big collector of his stuff, and had been able to get a lot of, as he put it “The plates the cards were made from”. I knew I had seen RBadger on FreedomCardBoard.com with Kris’ Superfractor in his sig, so I told Kris this and he lit up. “Seriously, the Superfractor? My Dad would go nuts! I gotta tell him!” and he pulled out his Blackberry Storm and instantly emailed his father a link to FreedomCardBoard.com and Superfractor.com.

So after this Emily and I were almost ready to head out, but Michael Bowden ended up right in front of me. So I decided to take the opportunity to actually take a second and talk to him. I asked for a picture with both of us and the Red 1/1. He said he had tried to get a lot of his cards, and had seen that card before. We talked about what it cost me, and when I got it. I said how I had picked it up right before his MLB Debut and we had one of the coolest exchanges that left me a little speechless.

“Well, you made a good investment.” Michael said to me, and I had to take a second to answer him because it was a pretty cool moment for me. I was talking with the person about his best card, and he was complimenting me on getting a good deal on the card because he was going to be a success. I just thought that was great, and really makes me even more of a fan of Michael.

In all I walked away with a baseball signed by everyone there but Terry Francona. I got the jersey I wanted signed by him though. I got a 16×20 picture signed by Clay Buchholz from a game that is very special to me. We got to support an amazing cause in the Jimmy Fund and the fight to end cancer. Plus, Emily and I got a day that neither of us will ever forget.

Here are a few pics of signed stuff.

You read all the way down here?? Cool, just send me a PM and someone will win a Justin Masterson signed TTM Tri Star card.

“I have to go out spend like a grand or something on a ring, but you don’t have to get me a thing?? I should get like one of the cards I want the most or something.” She looked at me, laughed, and then something crazy happened, she agreed to it. This moment began a few month effort to find the right card. The cards bantered about, and then bid on, then lost were some of the following, Tom Brady SP Authentic Rookie, and Tom Brady 2000 Fleer Masterpiece 1 of 1. Those were the two big ones we went after, but there was one other card I had in mind as it was the number one card of my favorite baseball player with out any question. The Brady rookies were great, but there were other Brady cards that could be debated as his best rookie and since I already owned his 2000 Contenders autographed rookie they didn’t completely stand out from the rest.

So we waited for a bit, I had the money for a ring, she had the money for the card. Then in the summer we found the right card. Now we just had to win it. It was a PSA 10 Graded David Ortiz Donruss Signature Rookies Century Marks. David Ortiz is my all time favorite Baseball player. Growing up it was always Roger Clemens, but rift between him and the Red Sox, him going to the Yankees, plus the fact that David Ortiz hit the ball twice in 2004 on occasions that account for two of my top 10 happiest moments in life put Clemens down a few pegs.

The day the card was ending was when my fiancée was actually away visiting friends in upstate New York. I didn’t know about Snipe programs at the time, so we sat there on the phone as I put in my bid on the card at the last possible minute, and watched hoping that no one came in at the last second and blew me away. But on this occasion I didn’t lose, we had our card. It came in a few days later, and she would proceed to taunt me with it for quite some time.

Then one day she went away again for a few days, and left the card and the envelope it came in on my bed with a little note. We knew we would be getting engaged sometime soon, but I did not expect at all for her to do this. So I tore it open as fast as I could. I reveled in the sight of the card that truly was the top card that I could get. I couldn’t believe she would just leave it for me to have at that time. So I instantly called her to talk about it.

Well turns out she didn’t mean for me to have the card yet, and said she had taped it shut so I didn’t open. I didn’t notice any tape….. But I had my card, and on September 30th of last year she had her ring.

The card turns out to be her favorite I have as well, soon after I got that card I took her to her first Red Sox game. During that game David Ortiz hit a grand slam off the Angels, and became her favorite player as well. We have bought a good number of Ortiz cards since then, but to this day the Century Marks still is, and always will remain my favorite card.

Also as a side note to end this, at the time of our purchase of this card the PSA Population Report on it was one. There has been one other graded a 10 but it came out of Mooresville, North Carolina so I still feel good about mine being the only legit PSA 10.

I’m personally a big fan of the Upper Deck USA cards, and anyone who has them knows that they are extremely condition sensitive. The card pictured above was in someone’s signature on BMB until they blew the boards up on there. I had checked it out, and then saw it at one point come up for auction on EBay. The population report of this card is that out of the 100 produced six have been graded. Five of the six have recieved an 8.5 grade for the card. This one is the only one to recieve a 9.5 of Matt Laporta and only one David Price has recieved a 9.5 from the red autographs besides this card.

So I picked the card up, and started following Matt online. He had a great journal last year on MILB.com, and for anyone who hadn’t followed him before he was the main player traded to the Indians last year for C.C. Sabathia. He also was on the Olympics roster for the USA and got beaned violently in the Olympics.

He came out as one of the most hyped players on message boards. But between family tragedy last year, the Olympic injury, and the pressure of being in such a profile trade, he had a rough second half of the year last year. Many people predict him to break out like Evan Longoria did last year in 2009.

I have collected a lot of his other cards, and hope nothing but the best for Matt in all his future endeavors.

I hope you enjoy this piece by Eric aka ThoseBackPages, for anyone who thought he was just a baseless basher of non-MLB rookies, maybe this will change your mind.

Remember when you bought a pack of cards for the gum? If you do, then odds are you’re over 30 years of age. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I’m 37. I’ve been a serious baseball card collector on and off for the last 25 years, that’s a pretty long time. I’ve seen players come and go, pan out and just the opposite.

Collecting baseball cards back in the early to mid 80′s meant that you put together the Topps set and possible Donruss and Fleer, if you had the desire and/or funds.It was the thrill of opening pack after pack to track down that Manny Trillo that you needed to finish your set, and beat your friends to the punch, or the thrill of having opened enough wax packs that you knew the sequence that the cards ran just from seeing who started the pack.

Somewhere in the mid 90′s, that all changed. Maybe it was that we were all grown up, maybe it was that the card companies wanted to make more money, hell, maybe it was all that rolled into one. Sure in 1990, Upper Deck rolled out “FIND THE REGGIE”, where they actually inserted “only” 2,500 hand signed Reggie Jackson cards,but when the odds of pulling one were closer to 1:10,000 packs, we didn’t put too much stock into it.

By 2001, collecting rookie cards was all about the rookie card being “autographed”. Albert Pujols and Ichiro were the darlings of the baseball rookie card world in 2001. In 2002, Joe Mauer and David Wright were two more bright stars on the horizon and Bowman Chrome Auto “Fever” was growing rapidly, and has been “the card” to have, if the card you want is an autographed rookie card. Sure Bowman Chrome has faced some challenges, mainly in 2004 with SP and EEE, but those two releases lacked MLB Logos, and eye appeal. That doesn’t mean that they are not popular, just not popular with EVERYONE, especially those collectors that like to see their rookie card picture the team that drafted them.

2008 saw the birth of a new draft picks producer called “Razor”, although new to the baseball card world, they’ve made their mark in the Poker Collectible Card World, as well as some other Non-Sports issues. Although Razor has nothing but good intentions, they lack the ability to use MLB team names or logos, rendering them useless when it comes to satisfying the crowd that wants to see “their guy” on a MLB Rookie Card.

As we enter 2009, the “autographed rookie card” has really lost steam. I realize the financial ramifications of what I’m about to say, it’s time for the hobby world to turn back the clock, and have traditional, non-autographed rookie cards once again. I know that that is somewhat of a stretch to today’s teenage collector, but I cant help remember what it was like as a 15 year old to rip open a wax pack of 1985 topps and see a Dwight Gooden Rookie Card.

As 2008 came to a close, three major prospect-driven products released within weeks of each other, and the case breaks started to be offered. Andrew aka All In Cards was responsible for the majority of them. Running a case break seems like it would be the best of both world – you get the thrill of ripping all of the packs, with none of the financial worries about “What if I don’t get my money back?”. You already have the whole thing paid for in advance.

I had a case of Bowman Draft coming in, thanks to the live.com discount, but had no plans for busting Donruss Elite or Razor Signature Series. I decided to take part in case breaks of all three products to compare the random nature of the products and the case breaks.

For all three of the breaks, Andrew changed the format a little bit from earlier attempts; he charged a flat fee, and then randomly assigned the teams. Donruss Elite was the first product up – $35 was the buy-in. I was chosen to receive the San Francisco Giants. I was thrilled with this selection.

November 26, Thanksgiving eve was the Elite night. After not being able to get the break live on a video conference, he went to the backup plan of breaking each box and scanning the hits. Box two gave me a Gold Roger Kieschnick die-cut /25 (non-auto). Not too bad, but I didn’t want the Giants for Kieschnick. Box five and six each have a Porcello in them, so that’s looking nice for whoever got the Tigers. Earlier in the day, I had opened three boxes of Bowman Draft that were shorted autographs. I’d hit nothing besides the Gold parallel yet in this case, I was in need of sleep, and had an early day to start the holiday. I wussed out and went to bed.

I wake up, and while my wife is in the shower, I just check to see how bad the last 4 boxes were for me. Things improved greatly. Box eight gave me a Waldis Joaquin auto, a Roger Kieschnick auto patch, and a Buster Posey/Tony Thomas dual auto /20. Box nine gave me another Kieschnick auto patch, and a Buster Posey die-cut /150. The final box, Box ten gives me a Posey auto patch. Needless to say, I felt much better, and that my $35 was well spent.

Next up was the Bowman Draft case. $30 was the cost for this one. I actually didn’t get in until the third case, because the first two were so popular. This time, the drawing gives me Cleveland. That gives me Chisenhall on the auto checklist, LaPorta on the prospect checklist, and I don’t even know what else. This wasn’t the best team to hit, but I just went with it.

This one was able to be broadcast live on Ustream on Monday, December eighth. I had a road game with my basketball team, and after having to wait for all of the parents to pick up their kids, I didn’t get home until after 2 boxes had been opened. Box three gave me a Chisenhall base auto. The next 9 boxes were nothing for me, but if you had the Marlins, you were sitting pretty. The Mets, Brewers and Rays also had solid hauls.

Razor was right on the heels of Draft. Tuesday night was the team draw, even though Andrew was the only one that got to see it, while the rest of us on Ustream saw a blank grey screen. But when the teams were revealed, I had the Pittsburgh Pirates – complete with #2 pick Pedro Alvarez. Back to being stoked!

Wednesday night was the rip. Ten boxes, ten autos per box, so there were ample opportunities for everyone to come out with something. Myself, I had five guys on the checklist. Box one gave me Robbie Grossman. Box four gave me an unnumbered Pedro Alvarez. And that was it. It’s hard to say who the real winners were, as Razor neglected to print on the card which team drafted the player, and I haven’t taken the time to research them all. But the case had some great hits on the /199 cards, but there were zero of the /25 or /5 autos. The real winner of the night was Andrew and his sweet shirt. The only real negative on the night were the trolls on the chat board.

Also, as of my writing, I have received the contents of the Elite break. I’m pretty sure people don’t mail out fine china with this much care and protection. Everything Andrew has done is first-class. There are a lot of positives about these breaks if you have even the slightest gambler in you, then you should get in on one of these.

Editors notes:

I just wanted to throw something in to suggest people get in on Andrew’s breaks if they have a chance. We also would like to begin doing some breaks of this nature here on The Card Podcast. We can’t rely on companies sending free product to us to review, so feel this would be a great way to get a comprehensive review of the products at little cost to our site.

This being said for a site to truely be the voice of the collectors it can not just be written by one collector. We have a lot of guests on The Card Podcast and that part of it definitely is delivering the voice of the collectors, not just myself. So we are putting an invitation out to anyone who listens to The Card Podcast, posts on FreedomCardBoard.com, or just views this site to submit something you would like to write for this site.

I will personally review all submissions to TheCardPodcast@live.com to be put up here Once some are sent in, based on quality, post them to the site. So this is your opportunity to be heard. We will promote all articles and discuss them on The Card Podcast, and hope to get a lot of great submissions soon!
Thanks,
Rob Zeida
The Card Podcast @ Superfractor.com