I feel like a real sucker

Someone on the interwebs recently posted some stuff they picked up from the Topps Vault.  I had never even looked at what they sell on their site so I thought I'd give a look see.

I think I let myself get suckered into buying something I wouldn't normally go after.

Those are 2013 Topps Blank Back 1/1 cards of Craig Gentry and David Murphy.  I don't know for sure, but I think Topps just made them to sell online and I assume (knowing full well how dangerous that is) they made one for each of the cards in the set.

Each card came encapsulated in plastic and has a foil Topps Vault 1/1 sticker on the back.  The sticker also has a Topps Serial Number.

Each card also came with a COA.

I really didn't have a reason for buying them other than I'm impulsive.   I think it's just a money grab by Topps and I'm sure a bunch of other people have fallen for it too.  Oh well, live and learn.

I haven't been back to the site since the night I bought these, but they do have some cool stuff.  I just need to stay away and let someone else buy it.

Making you an offer you can't refuse

Maybe it was me who couldn't refuse the offer.  Or I made the offer.  Something like that.

Months ago I saw this card on a blog.

I had to have it.  I made Tim over at Home of the Toddfather an offer.  It only took me a couple of months to follow through and send him a package.  He sent the Clark and plenty more.

"Hey fellas, I was a big league ballplayer back in the day."

"No way Ramon.  You're a liar."  

"Seriously, look at this 1990 Fleer baseball card."  

"Man, that's your Halloween costume from when you were 14."  

Umm, yea, I'm a douche.  

Kenny Rogers, Gold Rush card.  Yea, you've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to....never mind.

Anyone else thinking Jobu from Major League?

Shiny Ian Kinsler rookie...I like it, I really, really like it.

Poker anyone?  I'll bet you one Kinsler that Kinsler gets traded before the season starts.

I never promise you a Teagarden.  Or a rose garden.  Whatever.

Note to Topps.  Please, pretty please, use more red swatches on Ranger relic cards.  So much better that grey, white or even blue.

Tim, thanks so much for the great cards.  I hope to do another deal soon.  

We have a winner...actually two winners!

I celebrated the blogs 4th birthday the other day with a contest.

Thirty of you left a total of 108 comments.  I used random.org to randomize a sequence of numbers, 1-108.

The winning comments were...

Comment 58 was left by Andrew Carwile ( I think he has a blog, but the interwebs won't let me click on his name) on the 4th birthday post.  Andrew left only 1 comment so he lucked out.

Comment 62 was left by Night Owl on a Gint-A-Cuffs 3 post from July of 2011.  Night Owl increased his odds a bit by leaving 12 comments.

I have Night Owl's address, but I need one for you Andrew.

Congrats and thanks to everyone for playing along and being part of the blog!

I went back to the candy store

I made a second trip to the home of the former card shop owner I told you about last week.  He and I spent two fun hours looking through boxes for cards.  I helped him pull Cubs and White Sox for another buyer and he pulled Rangers for me.  He's getting up there in years so he enjoys the company and I enjoy spending time with someone who knows so much about the hobby.

This time I wasn't just looking for cards for myself.

I owed Need More Cardboard some Braves for winning the contest to guess how much I spent at the "candy store" the first time.  I think I got a pretty good deal this time around too.

(Subliminal message....contest, contest, contest....last chance)

I know a guy who collects Barry Larkin so I picked up a few.

Tony Gwynn is pretty popular so I pulled out a handful.

The Big Hurt was once one of MLBs Shining Stars.

We have lots of Dodgers collectors out there don't we?

I didn't actively seek out play at the plate cards, but I did notice this shiny Chrome play at the plate so I added it to the stack.  

You know I picked up a bunch of Rangers too.  Love that old school Rangers logo, circa 1983 Donruss.

Hey look, a card that shows my scanner needs a good cleaning.

Catcher in gear...check.  Pudge...check.  Brilliant...double check.

I'm sure I haven't seen every Juan Gonzalez card ever made, but I doubt there is a better photo of Juan than this one.  If you look closely, you can see the ball just above his glove.

Gold parallel of Kevin Mench--good.  Too much crotch in the shot--bad.  Very, very bad.  

Play Ball Pudge!

Shrek was his nickname.  He was a fun loving Ranger.  No crotch shot on this card either.

Flair Showcase was a beautiful set.  This is the 1998 version and it's great.

The 1999 version is even better.   Love that color.

The second trip to the "candy store" netted me the following:

1 very slightly used binder loaded with 100 Ultra Pro Platinum pages

Rangers--112 cards
Dodgers--44 cards
Braves--51 cards
Barry Larkin--6 cards
Frank Thomas--6 cards
Tony Gwynn--7 cards
Various other cards--54 cards

Total cards--280

The total cost for all the cards, the binder and the pages was $14.60.

That's a bargain if you ask me.

Guess who already has another card search scheduled for next week?

Prison Break

The title of this post does not contain a typo.  I participated in a 2012 Prizm break with Chris over at View From the Skybox.  I'll be honest.  I don't like Prizm.  For the most part, the players look like they are wearing prison uniforms.  Now the title is making sense.  Or maybe only to me.

As I said, I don't like Prizm.  I really just wanted to get in the break to get the Rangers so I didn't have to buy any packs.  I did buy one pack, but it was a bust.  I ended up with the Tigers, Angels, Astros and Twins in the break too because Chris gave me such a good deal on those extra teams.  I was hoping to get a Nolan Ryan and maybe some Mauers.  The rest I could use for trade bait.

This was the best Angels card I got.  At least it has some color on it.

The emerald parallels are really nice.  I got two for the Twins.  Scott Diamond is ok, but Joe Mauer is better!

I was really glad I picked up the Twins when this emerald Mauer showed up in the break video.

I don't remember if the break had two or three autos, but I got two of them.  The first was Prison Josh Willingham on a Minnesota card.

I picked up the Astros on the cheap so I could get Nolan.  Anything else might be good trade fodder for the Dimwit.

The second auto I got in the break was JD Martinez of the Astros.  I mean the "Houston Baseball Club".

I picked up two of Brycer Harper's cards.  This "ROOKIE" has some red so it's not too bad.

My son claimed this Harper USA card for his USA collection.

He also claimed this Verlander USA card.

No Ranger card looks more like a prison yard card than Mike Olt.

We'll end up with a tale of two Yus.  The plain "ROOKIE" and...

the far nicer green emerald parallel.

I'll be offering up the other teams as trade bait if anyone is interested.

Thanks for doing the break Chris!

Consider this sentence your contest reminder for today.

Don't miss out on my contest

 If you missed my morning post, you missed an opportunity to enter my blog birthday contest.  It's not too late to enter. 

Sorry I can't link to the post.  I'm using my phone to do this and it's not blogger friendly. 

Guess who's turning 4 today?

Play at the Plate, that's who!

I'm setting aside my heartache over last nights Rangers' loss to the Rays and celebrating four years of blogging.

I'm sure those of you who have been around since I started are shocked that I'm still here.  I started PATP as a way to thank the people who had traded with me on blind faith.  I think I had around 50 trade packages that needed posting when I started.

Here we are, 4 years later.  I'm a numbers guy so let's look at the numbers.

1804 posts, counting this one.  A couple of them are actually worth reading I think.

Over 9100 comments (many asking me to stop posting such drivel).

Over 156,000 hits.  That's just crazy.  All those numbers are crazy.  I just wanted to be around for a year or so, but it's just so much fun (most of the time).

Countless trades and a good deal of money contributed to the delinquency that is the United States Postal Service.

I've even held a contest or two along the way to repay the kindness shown to me by many in the community.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the blog's 4th birthday than by having a contest.

Here's how to enter.  From this time until I end the contest tomorrow, comment on as many posts as you want to from the past 4 years of PATP.  Every comment is an entry.  My only request is that the comment be a real comment, not just "In" or "In again" or something similar.  Make it relevant to that post.  I'll take all the comments, in the order they were made, and I'll randomly select two numbers.  The comments that correspond with those two randomly selected numbers will each win a value pack of 2013 Topps Chrome and possibly an assortment of their favorite teams cards if I have some.

Thanks for coming along for the ride these last 4 years everyone.  I really do appreciate every one of you who stops by and spends a few seconds of your day with me.