A Hobby Christmas

I meant to post this yesterday, but I got sidetracked stumping for the Blogger Awards and a fellow bloggers blog, both worthy pursuits. I didn't rake in a big hit or lots of greatness for Christmas, but for someone who hasn't gotten a card on Christmas morning in 25 years, I'm glad to have anything hobby related. Everything you see on this post came courtesy of my dear sweet mother-in-law. She tried, she really did, and I appreciate it. She did come through in a big way on one item. We'll start at the bottom and work our way up.

First off, she knows how I like a discounted blaster. She picked out three of those for me. Unfortunately, two of them were 2008 Leaf Rookies and Stars Football blasters. These were $5.97 for five, five card packs. I managed to pull two Cowboys, Marion Barber and Terrell Owens, which I'll pass on to my son for his Cowboys collection. The two very questionable "hits" of the blasters were these two:

Some kind of John David Booty Crown Insert and a Tracy Porter Rookie #320/349. I very rarely open any football cards, but I seem to be a "Booty" magnet. I know that sounds wrong, but it's true and I really wanted to write it. All of these, and I do mean all of these are available. Except the two Cowboys.

I'll save the other discounted blaster for later. She also picked up 5 Fat Packs of 2007 Fleer Ultra marked down to $2.48 each. These were much better than the football. Some of the photography used on these is really nice. I didn't pull any hits, but I got 7 of the gold parallels numbered to /999.

From top left to right:

Adrian Beltre-032/999

Alfonso Soriano-822/999

Jamie Burke-828/999

BJ Upton-807/999

Matt Holliday-765/999

Chien-Ming Wang-791/999

David Eckstein-521/999

The funny thing to me is the Jamie Burke card is a "rookie" card. On the back the first line says "At 35, Burke is poised to be the Mariners primary backup catcher for 2007." Really? At age 35? Way to keep the dream alive Jamie!

The Beltre, Burke, Upton and Eckstein cards are already loaded into some trade packages. The rest are up for grabs if you're interested.

Next up was a blaster of 2009 Topps Heritage High Numbers. I pulled 13 of the "Rookie Stars" including one with a different shade on the back. Is that an SP??? I pulled one Then and Now, one Rookie Performer, two Chrome and one Chrome Refractor. Wanna see...?

The blaster had three Rangers, a John Mayberry "Rookie Star", the Nelson Cruz and the Rookie Performer Elvis Andrus. I don't care much for the Then and Now card I got. I don't get it.

Is it just me or is that an unfortunate name?

Here are the Chrome cards. Homer Bailey #1160/1960, Melky Cabrera #74/1960, and Refractor Vin Mazzaro #417/560.

The final card product was a discounted blaster of 2005 Fleer Showcase. She said this was the only one she found. It had eight, five card packs.

I managed two Rangers, Michael Young and Hank Blalock.

I pulled two Measure of Greatness (1:5) inserts. It figures the Red Sox and Yankees would be my pulls.

I pulled one regular and one jersey Wave of the Future. The regular ones fall 1:15 packs and I was real happy to pull Joe Mauer. The Wave of the Future Jersey Green cards fall 1:48 packs. I wasn't as happy to pull Pronk.

That's it for the Christmas Card Haul. I did get one more hobby inspired gift. I got a new SCANNER!!! Finally, I'll be able to start scanning cards instead of taking pics of them. I was happy to open that package and it also came from my mother-in-law. I have a handful of trade packages ready to post that I already took pics of, so when those get posted I'll be using the scanner for trade posts after that. I hope you all got what you wanted for Christmas! I've seen some pretty nice stuff posted out there. Who knows what the New Year will bring?