Trading with a soon to be "rival"

  When the Astros (or whatever their name will be that season) move to the AL next season they'll become rivals with the Texans Rangers. That's what every stupid sports talk show mentions when they discuss the Astros move to the AL. 

If you ask fans on either side they'll probably agree and say there won't be a huge rivalry anytime soon. When the Astros were great the Rangers weren't so great. Now that the Rangers are great again the Astros are at the bottom of the barrel. I'm sure there will be years where they're both competitive in the future but it's not happening yet. I'm sure most Rangers fans are pretty apathetic towards the Astros just like many Astros fans really don't care what's happening in Arlington. For the sake of baseball I hope a true rivalry does blossom for both of these teams but I don't like MLB trying to manufacture one. 

I got off course there so let me get back to the happy news, ha. After busting a mini-box of 2011 Bowman Sterling I made a trade with Brian over at Play at the Plate or PatP for short. He was interested in the Ogando dual relic I pulled and he sent me over the goodies below. It was a simple trade but a great one and I couldn't be happier with the results.

I don't have very many serial numbered Bagwells so it was great to get this beauty. The front scan doesn't do the card justice as it looks so much nicer in person. I was expecting a couple of Bagwells but nothing this awesome. 

Three orange Astros refractors are a nice addition to my PC. I didn't buy ANY Topps Chrome last year so every chrome card in my PC from 2011 was via trade. These cards look great in person and now I feel compelled to finish the Astros orange team set, ha.

This was the big piece in the trade we made. I love the look of the Masterpiece base cards and these relic cards are just as great looking. I know Berkman is now a Cardinal but it's still awesome to add a jersey card when you can. I do miss Big Puma but it was nice seeing him get a championship finally.

I just want to thank Brian again for the awesome and simple trade. Brian, don't worry even if the Astros and Rangers become EPIC rivals I'll still trade with you as many chances as we get. After all we know once they're done rebuilding the Astros will go back to being THE team to beat in the great State of Texas!!! Only kidding...kind of.

Recent eBay pickups...

Like I said in my previous post I haven't really been buying/trading much lately but a few weeks ago I purchased the following cards. Two of them came from Canada so it took awhile to ship but for the price it was well worth it. 

I picked up this Berkman TT for less than $1 shipped (I needed to spend my $1 so it was a good pickup). It's a nice addition to my small Berkman PC.

The seller of the card below threw this in with my purchase. This card and the next one were the ones from Canada which I picked up for about $5.25 shipped which was an excellent deal. I figured I could wait a few more weeks with shipping for that kind of price.

I love this card and I love Gretchen Bleiler! She's one of my favorite winter athletes and she kills it on the snow. I had been looking for this card for awhile so I'm glad I finally own it.

Shameless Plug Contest!!!

As I said in the previous post I am having a contest to make up for the lack of posting the past few weeks. I also know contests can be a good way to get my blog out there in front of new readers. I'll be happy if even one new follower actually starts to read my blog daily. Setting the bar high I know, ha. 

It's a pretty straight forward contest and here are the rules. The contest starts now and will end July 10 at 11:59 CST. To gain one entry simply follow my blog and comment that you follow the blog. To gain a second entry just promote my contest by making a post about it on your blog and leaving me a comment with your blog URL. That means the max number of entries per person is 2. I'll input all the names into a random.org list and randomize the list 3 times. #1 from the first randomization gets top prize, #1 from the second randomization gets the 2nd place prize and #1 from the third randomization gets the 3rd place prize. If someone wins twice I'll just go to the #2 name on the list of that randomization. 

Now for what everyone wants to know, what kind of prizes will be given out? These prizes may not be as good as what others have given before but they aren't horrible.

Grand Prize:

I know a lot of people will want the Brees so I thought it would be a nice grand prize. I personally pulled both the Brees and Cosby.

Second Prize:

It's hard for me to let go of the Berkman but I figure I can spare one, ha. I know everyone hates the manufactured patches but I figure some Rays fan may like it.

Third Prize:

I pulled this card on vacation and you wouldn't believe it came from a Dollar General pack, not too shabby.

Now you know everything and the contest is open. Remember the contest ends July 10 at 11:59 CST. Good luck to everyone and if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments. Thanks for reading!