My Randomized Brew Crew

As previously mentioned the Brewers were my randomized team in the recent Nachos Grande group break. I don't hate the Brewers by any means but I'm not a fan. I did pull some pretty nice cards in the break though and for that, I'm happy.

 I was lucky enough to pull two Astros like this (lower print runs on those) and pulling this as my 3rd one is just icing on the cake. I remember hearing Grissom's name a lot when I was growing up but I never really watched him play. 

This was probably the coolest card I pulled in the group break. It's a die cut of Robin Yount for the 3000 Hit Club. It may be kind of gimmicky but I like the obnoxiousness of it, ha. The back of the card gives some highlights of Yount's career. Interesting trivia from the back of the card, in 1999 when Yount, Nolan Ryan and George Brett were inducted into the HoF it was the first time since 1936 that three guys got in their first time on the ballot.

 More of the Upper Deck Decades 1970's cards. Not much to say about these cards but it might be a fun set to put together. I wasn't around in the 1970's so I don't have much attachment to the players of that era but maybe some of you do. 

Another full page scan of the Fleer Tradition set. I've already got two teams down now (Astros and Brewers) so if/when I decide to put this set together I'll be good to go. This set came out in 2000 and I grew up watching baseball in the 90's so many of these guys remind me of my childhood. 2000 really doesn't feel like it was 12 years ago, man I'm getting old.

Overall I'd say I did pretty well in my first ever group break. The Astros cleaned up nicely and the Brewers had a few nice inserts themselves. The only bad thing about doing well in my first group break is now I can see myself getting addicted to them, ha. That's why my girlfriend is around, to keep me in check. She'd rather me waste my money on dates and gifts, absurd.

Group Break Pickups from Nachos

I've finally scanned my Astros pickups from Nachos Grande's last group break. The cards have been sitting on my desk for about a week just begging to be scanned and organized. Or maybe it was my girlfriend begging me to scan and organize them. Either way here are the pretty awesome results...

I really wish my scanner would show how nice this J.R. Richard card looks in person. It's chrome like but you can't really tell that from the scan. This card comes from the UD Decades 1970's set which came out in 2001. Great little card to add to my Astros PC.

A couple of future Hall of Famer's from the 2000 Fleer Gamers set. Luckily I didn't own any cards from the boxes Nachos busted so these are all new PC additions. I don't really like the texture of these cards but luckily they'll be going in binder pages so I won't have to touch them.

I love this Bagwell from 2000 Fleer Tradition even though it only books for $0.50. Maybe it's cause I love the old blue and gold uniforms of my childhood or because it shows Biggio and Bagwell on the same card, a 2-for-1 if you will. Whatever the reason I'm happy to have pulled this card.

Pulling these two serial numbered cards was awesome. Once again we get to see the blue and gold that I love AND the card is serial numbered. I'm not a big Caminiti fan but it's still a nice card. I like seeing Biggio's Sunshine Kids pin on his cap, he wore that thing everywhere. The card looks elegant in person and lucky for me I pulled 2!

This is just a page full of Astros cards I pulled from the 2000 Fleer Tradition set. I'm actually a big fan of this card design and its simplicity. Of course there are tons of retro sets out there right now that I like but the pops of color set this one apart for me. 

I pulled a few other Astros in the group break but didn't want to go too scan crazy. My randomized team from the group break was the Brewers and I'll be showing those cards off soon. Thanks again to Nachos Grande for making my first ever great group break  a great one. I can't wait to participate in another one this year.

eBay and a Nacho Mail Day(s)

Here's another great mail day courtesy of eBay and Chris over at Nachos Grande. I bought the eBay items using a gift card my girlfriends mother gave me for my birthday. Whenever I have a gift card I'll always buy something I've been putting off. Most of these cards are from the past week but once I got Chris' card in today I decided to finally post.

We'll start off with Hunter Pence 2011 A&G that Chris sent over in exchange for a 2011 Topps Diamond Parallel. A&G and Bowman Platinum may be my last sets I grab Pence cards from (unless Topps Marquee has some good ones with him in an Astros uniform).

I still love the old school look of A&G even if this years set has disappointed many.

Now for the eBay cards...

 

2011 Bowman Platinum Ruby Hunter Pence. I like the design of Bowman Platinum much more this year than I did last year.

 Jimmy Paredes has looked pretty good so far this season with the Astros. They're a team filled with mostly young guys and I'm excited to see how he and the rest progress throughout the years.

Delino is fast and can hit the ball well but I haven't seen enough about him to make my mind up on what kind of player he will be. I figure for $3.00 you can't go wrong with getting a young Astro with plenty of upside.

My favorite eBay pick up would have to be this 2008 Bud Norris auto. I love Norris and he seems to have a bright future in the organization. He likes to strike guys out and he isn't afraid to come at even the bigger guys. 

Thanks again to Chris over at Nachos Grande for hooking me up with the Pence. Thanks to you guys for taking the time to read this and hopefully soon I'll have a few J.D. Martinez auto's to show off for you. He seems to be one of the guys I'll be focusing on collecting now. Have a great one!!!

Trade Time

I recently completed a trade with Chris over at Nachos Grande. I contacted him after noticing I had a few of his set needs and we worked out a pretty quick deal. I've been away from home for a couple of weeks so I'm just now getting to my mail. 

Disclaimer: Remember that just because I don't show a card doesn't mean I don't love it, because I love all of my cards ha. It's always so hard to narrow down which cards will be shown.

I'm still chasing the Astros complete Series 1 (just need some of the #'d blacks, Walmart blacks and a few diamond die cuts...excluding 1/1's). However I don't think I'll be going after too many parallels of Series 2 Astros.

You may not be able to tell very well from the scan but this is one of the foil cards from 2011 Attax. CJ may not be that great of a 3B but he's a real nice guy and is quite humorous. As far as Attax cards go... I'm not a huge fan of them but if they've got an Astro I'll collect it.

 

I enjoy the design of these cards and may consider collecting the set one day now that I've got a couple. I'm kind of sad to see Jeter get to 3000 as Biggio was the last to do it back in 2007. I was there for Biggio's 3000th and it was crazy so I can just imagine how crazy it'll be at Yankee Stadium.

I'm sure all of you can guess why I love this card. Not only is Drabek wearing the blue/gold but he's also rocking one of the sweetest mullets. I'm all for crazy hair, I'm looking at you Coco Crisp, and this hair is no exception. Can you imagine his son Kyle rocking a mullet with the Blue Jays?

Now I would like to show you a card that drove me crazy for a few hours. It's the 1997 Upper Deck Collector's Choice #120 of Bobby Abreu. I'll let you look at it first and then tell you why it drove me crazy. 

Does anyone else see what I see? I may be wrong but the front looks a lot more like Richard Hidalgo than Bobby Abreu. The back is obviously Abreu no doubt about it. I looked on the internet for awhile when I first saw the card and nowhere did I see any explanation on whether it was or wasn't Abreu on the front. 

I'd like to hear what you guys think. Am I dumb and that is Abreu on the front or am I completely justified in my questioning? I know most people don't care and I shouldn't care about it either but it has been driving me nuts.

Chris thanks again for such an awesome trade and hopefully we can work something out again soon. I hope you enjoyed your cards. Anyone else who may want to trade I promise I'll be getting my want list up soon so you can see what I do in fact need.