RK Cardboarding

I have been putting off buying from RK Collectibles for a while now. He just seems to always be a tad higher than Bleacher Seats, and since i wasn't sure how he packages and Bleacher does such a bang up job, i prefer to go with what is proven. Well i really wanted the Longoria All-Rookie Team card from o-pee-chee and they have been the only ones selling it for months now. So i finally broke down and placed an order, also the bowman chrome team set was cheaper than Bleacher :) and i picked up a few extras:

two Longo additions i needed and

2010 Bowman Chrome Rays Team Set


SHINNY :)
so glad they went with different photos
now if Topps would do that with all there product :)
BJ is so close to the same photo (feel free to compare here)
but the rest are much improved over the Bowman base

2003 Topps Rays Team Set

going with a set from the past that i really enjoy
and genuinely sad i wasn't collecting when this came out
Crawford and Hamilton definitely the highlight
followed by the BJ, Gomes and Huff


2006 Topps 52 Rookie Edition Rays Team Set

picking up some fun cards, the classic 52 design, nice
for some the scan of the Zobrist looks better
than the actual card, go figure

Some sweet additions, still on super hubby detail, so cooking, laundry, cleaning and trying to get baby Emmy in a sleep routine is life. Its great having cardboard as my one minor escape. Have an awesome cardboarding week and thanks for checking out TWIC.

102 Rays

I received an awesome assortment of Rays cards courtesy of Mets Collector's Attic. Sorry I won't be showing everyone of the cards. That would be a lot of scanning :( but also because many i have already shown and he sent doubles and triples of the same card. Which didn't really bother me as much as i thought it would. It is fun having extra of cards, i am not worried about dropping them, (which i did) or scratching them or letting Emmy or the kitty (which stepped on the stack :) around them. So what awesomeness did he send, here is a look:

First up some Team Sets:

2008 Topps Update Rays Team Set


2009 Topps Series 2 Rays Team Set

and here some of the singles that floated my boat

i really like the O-Pee-Chee stadium card
i have wanted it for a while so THANK YOU
also the Crawford Target is Sweeeeeet!
Definitely would love to chase the Target sets
or better yet the sets sold by Target were these
My first card with Hellickson on it, nice
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!!

Hope you enjoyed the show, please check out Mets Collector's Attic when you have a chance :)

Bleacher Cardboarding

Yeah after two horrible blasters i just went to Bleacher Seats and picked up some cards i knew i would like.

A&G Rays Team Set



T206 Rays Team Set



Update Rays Team Set



Chrome Rays Team Set

and i guess you could say these were my hits :)

the 20/20 and Gold were from Bleacher
the Chrome Blue was from some random eBayer

I was going to write all about each set, how much i liked them, what my favorite cards were, and all that jazz, but i just can't seem to find the time. The wifey is still going through physical ailments and so i am on super hubby detail taking care of the three of us and the kitty. Hope you enjoy the the show without the tell. Have an awesome cardboarding week and thanks for checking out TWIC.

Bay Cardboarding

Yep, Bay, as in ebay, I can't help myself. First stop, Bleacher Seats, love that cheap shipping for all you want, and they package so well. The first thing I picked up was some more team sets.

2010 Topps Series two (11 cards)

the Upton & Garza photos are different from Opening Day, nice

and a 2010 Bowman (10 cards)

and the reason i pick up the team sets is because they are cheaper than a pack from the store and its free shipping because the blue and gold parallels are the real reason for the order

Check out the back of the Throwback card

What a great photo
if I ever get a "you sketch it" card
i think i found my photo

Well under budget, i found two other cards i needed

a die cut and pretty blue insert
its funny how it says pennant run and talks about the playoffs
but there is a huge empty section in the stands
which leads me to believe the photo is definitely not from the play-offs

Thanks for checking TWIC

Rays Cardboarding

Still addicted to ebaying some Rays team sets, Bleacher Seats has a pretty nice shipping deal, so i raided his Rays selections

First up 2009 Topps Update Team set, i needed the Longoria, so for a practical reasons, instead of buying just Longoria for a dollar, i went with the team set for 1.50. The surprise was the Zobrist AS because i didn't know he had two cards in the set

Then i picked up two other 09 cards for my player collections

I have really like blue parallels
the red Longoria was just to tempting not to buy

Then i moved on to 2010, with another Topps team set, i still needed quite a few from series one, so in one 1.50 purchase I got the Zobrist and Wade Davis along with the Team card i really wanted, Price was the other i was missing

Then i also picked up the gold version of the Rays Team card along with the CC, still hoping Crawford decides legacy over green, money, greed - your choice on word usage

Two Upton blue parallels, scanning just does not do the Finest justice. The Finest is so choice. Then the two Longo cards i was still missing from Opening Day, i love the Superstar Celebration card, great moment captured. If anybody wants the code on the toppstown, feel free at it, i don't use them.

Then i grabbed a 2010 Topps Finest team set

Very nice packaging from Bleacher Seats, all individual items were in penny sleeves inside a top loader wrapped in bag with the fold over sticky part (not sure if there is a name for these little guys), each team set was also in in a bag then the top loaders acted like a shield around the team sets and everything was divided in to two larger bags. With foam peanuts in the bubble mailer, i imagine to prevent sliding around. Very nice. Well done sir.

Thanks for checking out TWIC

This Week in Cardboarding

Welcome to This Week in Cardboarding! This week i ebayed another Rays team set and three extras - the Mascot insert, Longoria Blue and Longoria Bazooka insert. Upton and Longoria weren't in 2010 Topps series one, so i was really excited to see them before series two came out :) I had a slight problem with damage to some of the cards, the bottom left corner of every card in the team set was dinged. I imagine because they weren't protected by cardboard. My Heritage set was sent protected. Not sure if anyone has dealt with TNT Sportscards, but they did replace the team set. The interesting thing about it, is i sent an email when i first got the cards and then i wait three days which i felt was an adequate amount of time and sent another requesting some service. They actually snapped at me like i knew they were sending me a replacement set.

we replaced the team set. We have been rather busy. Would you rather have had me send you repeated emails and not replace the item? Please send back the damaged goods.

I honestly didn't know how to respond to that, so i didn't, but i kind of wanted to tell them they wouldn't get multiple emails if they responded to the first email and probably wouldn't get any if they protected the cards they send out. Neither time did they put cardboard with the cards for protection. Needless to say i won't be shopping them anymore. The Longoria Blue upper left corner is white, it was shipped in thick top loader with the other two inserts without penny savers, so they were sliding around quite a bit when i got them. Its not worth the hassle of dealing with them anymore so i will just move on and enjoy my pretty blue Rays card and the rest of the Opening Day goodies i got.

I really like the Longoria photo, the ball about to hit the bat
the Upton is nice too
but what i really like is that almost all the cards have the same uni
that makes for a really nice overall look

Thanks for checking out TWIC.

This Week in Cardboarding

Three packs of 2010 Heritage.... sort of. Actually, seeing many bloggers buying packs at four dollars, made me think, maybe i should take a different path with heritage this year. For the price of three packs twelve dollars, here is what i scored:

one base team set and a chrome refractor Longo

Although I don't usually chase team sets, it was nice knocking off so many player collections from a purchase that was the equivalent of a hobby pack. The only bad thing was that shipping for the two buy it now auctions was essentially the price of a pack or what i will call the invisible third pack. So pack one was the nonSp Team Set and pack two becomes the Longoria Refractor 066/561. For the Rays I am still missing the SPs, which are Price 426, Garza 435, Longoria 439, Madden 461, Garza (ALCS MVP) 485 and for my player collections I would still like the Gordon Beckham and maybe all the cards that feature that giant trophy. I am really diggin the trophies in Heritage - I hate the base Topps trophies this year, they are Uuuuuuu-gly. I will be passing on Ichiro this year in Heritage at least the base because I already have the photo from the card like ten times. Seriously Topps take/find a new picture of Ichiro . I don't care if it is a technically a different stadium, the same shot/pose in five straight years (probably more, my collection isn't all that extensive) of cards is cheap, pathetic, insulting and uncreative. Way to show you have no integrity Topps.

Hey MLB, this is something collectors would be happy about. Next time you make a monopoly, try and set some guidelines that would actually make collectors happy. Since you seem all proud that you know what makes them happy, by the way you obviously don't. For this collector, having ten cards with the same photo makes me not so happy, actual it's very irritating. Having ten cards with ten different photos makes me happy. That said the Sporting News Ichiro is very cool and i hope to acquire it sometime. Rant over.

Thanks for reading This Week in Cardboarding.