July 2025 New Arrivals

[nevermore]

@General_Says_Tso -- Not to mention it is a sticker auto! There are a lot of much nicer Jeter cards to be had for $10K.

I am in the process of moving a few things to fund a bigger purchase. It is very hard to let go of PC cards. Thinning the Yankee collection is a painstaking process as I don't really have much of a trade box. Hoping the curation process is worth the efforts to secure this one card.

As part of this process, I am trying to keep just display-type cards from key sets/players which brings me to my pick up....

2005 UD Ultimate Signature Empty Tin -- Keeping the Jeter theme alive, I bought an empty 2005 Ultimate Signature tin for display. I am pairing empty "wax boxes" along with key PC cards. I enjoy seeing the colorful packaging on display, especially when a Yankee is featured. Picked this up to pair with my Mattingly Inscriptions auto since it has a Yankee on the cover. Rather than pairing cards with SI/Sporting News magazine covers, or action figure SLU/McFarlanes as I've seen done before, I've attempted this approach.

My working checklist with the corresponding boxes. Looking for key card releases as well as boxes with the key player featured like 2001 Golf and Tiger or 2003 SPx w/Matsui. Trying to work backwards through images of current and past sets/years to see which boxes to find and which PC cards would pair with them. Possibly sets like 1914 Cracker Jack or early Topps issues with reprint/Heritage boxes.

1. 1975 Topps (Heritage) Empty Box & Thurman Munson Auto (have both)
2. 1993 Finest Empty Box & Mattingly Refractor (need both)
3. 2001 SP Authentic Golf (or Upper Deck Golf) & Tiger Woods RC (need both)
4. 2001 Topps Traded Box & Ichiro Retrofractor RC (need both, just sold towards grail)
5. 2003 UD Exquisite & Patrick Ewing Auto /100 (have both)
6. 2003 UD SPX Box & Hideki Matsui RC (need box)
7. 2005 UD The Cup & Lundqvist RPA (need card)
8. 2005 UD Ultimate Signature & Mattingly Inscription Auto (have both)
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?
12. ?

My completed 1975 display with autographed Munson card.

 

[WizardofOz1982]

Been kind of quiet on the Helsley PC pickup front recently because I just haven't been that interested in chasing the explosion of parallels (48 and counting) that is 2025 Topps but I couldn't pass these up. I decided I'd snag the rarer cards I saw since I can always go back and add the more common parallels if I get the urge.


2023 Topps Big League Foilfractor 1/1 - These are gorgeous in hand. Just need the Black Foil /25 now to finish this rainbow.

2025 Topps Series 1 Red Foil /5

2025 Topps Purple Foil Rabbits SSP (15 copies):

2025 Topps Wood Parallel /25:

I also grabbed a nice graded copy of my favorite Yadier Molina RC, a slick Fleer Prospects card of Yadi and Waino, and a 2002 Fleer Classic Cuts /35 Tommy Lasorda auto which finished my set this week.

2004 Fleer Inscribed SGC 9.5:

2005 Fleer Prospects - This is another card driven stupidly high by Cardinals collectors. It's not a RC for either Yadi or Waino so there's no reason it should regularly sell for $50+ but it does. I got this one fairly cheap so I finally added it to the collection.

2002 Fleer Classic Cuts Auto /35 Tommy Lasorda:

 

[mrmopar]

Saw this and had to have it. It looks like maybe it was a box to hold pencils perhaps, possibly pre-production, as it's blank on back. The iron-on is printed on the cardboard. I have a couple similar iron-on oddball items, several on thin white paper and a couple on newspaper. Floyd would go on to be one of the better pitchers the Mariners had in their early woeful days. Says to collect all 6! Would love to know if 5 others exist, who they are and what they look like.

Another Philly auto

Almost positive I have this card (and the entire set). Jordan 15K Point Club. It was one of the cool 90s insert sets that were so popular back then. Can't ever go wrong with a 90s Jordan insert.

 

[mrmopar]

Maybe I should whine more about not being able to find inexpensive autos of guys who were once red hot, but have cooled. I used Kris Bryant as an example, no longer than a week ago and then fell into a score of this GU/Au 2025 card /50 on ebay for $5.50! The other 2 were also won in separate listings along with some other 90s inserts. The Mountcastle is /10.

Now just need to find steals for Judge, Ohtani, Harper, Soto & Trout!!

1997 Fleer Rolen Emerald auto. Love this set issued across 3 product lines. Most are or should be relatively cheap, but Arod and Rolen lead the pack of otherwise so-so to common players who were featured (Erstad, Hollandsworth, Ochoa & T. Walker were the others). 3 different cards of each (Circa, EX2000 and Metal). If anyone has any of the unredeemed redemption cards of any, let me know. I still need a few of those as well as a few more of the autographed cards. just have not found them cheap enough, not that they are not out there.



Another Philly for the run

 

[madbull34]

Picked up a pair of Darvish blacks

 

[nevermore]

2001 Sweet Spot Game Used Base Derek Jeter & Mike Piazza -- $12 pick up at local show this weekend. Coolest thing about this card is the GU piece is dated to a specific game, 10/21/2000. It doesn't say, but a quick search reveals this is dated to Game 1 of the 2000 World Series, Subway Series between Yankees & Mets.

 

[jmc855]

Sox Home jersey button /5. Better than the Yanks away one I had

 

[jmc855]

2001 Sweet Spot Game Used Base Derek Jeter & Mike Piazza -- $12 pick up at local show this weekend. Coolest thing about this card is the GU piece is dated to a specific game, 10/21/2000. It doesn't say, but a quick search reveals this is dated to Game 1 of the 2000 World Series, Subway Series between Yankees & Mets.


View attachment 365167

Pretty sure that the date of the Clemens Piazza one as well.... gotta go look......

 

[banjar]

That's about the best-spent $12 I've seen in some time.

2001 Sweet Spot Game Used Base Derek Jeter & Mike Piazza -- $12 pick up at local show this weekend. Coolest thing about this card is the GU piece is dated to a specific game, 10/21/2000. It doesn't say, but a quick search reveals this is dated to Game 1 of the 2000 World Series, Subway Series between Yankees & Mets.

 

[baberuthfan]

 

[nevermore]

Pretty sure that the date of the Clemens Piazza one as well.... gotta go look......

Correct! That particular card is dated from Game 2 of the World Series. Actual date of their famous confrontation. Even other, later, UD sets feature game used cards from the Subway Series such as the back of these. https://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball...-Base/BB-CP/Roger_Clemens_Mike_Piazza/2564167

@banjar -- Thank you, the card is not valued very much. $10-15 dollars is close to comps, even online.

 

[banjar]

Really? I would have guessed much, much higher

Correct! That particular card is dated from Game 2 of the World Series. Actual date of their famous confrontation. Even other, later, UD sets feature game used cards from the Subway Series such as the back of these. https://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball...-Base/BB-CP/Roger_Clemens_Mike_Piazza/2564167

@banjar -- Thank you, the card is not valued very much. $10-15 dollars is close to comps, even online.

 

[General_Says_Tso]

Picked up a nice Cody Bellinger the new $140 million dollar man.

 

[mrmopar]

Just trying to nab autos of the better "affordable" active NBA players. I'd prefer a card that looks better, but don't want to pay the premiums.

James Harden. /25


Added this Baerga. Was hoping to win a few more cheapies from same seller, but lost all but this one. This is when I hate the auction format. Combining a bunch of purchased together makes sense. Buying 1 cheap card and paying full postage for it is a waste. Sadly, this is a regular reality in the world of singles buying.

 

[mrmopar]

My 5 year saga with redemption cards has come to a close. These Panini redemptions were the last I had pending, after promising myself to never buy another one again. Fleer went bankrupt and screwed me on several Garvey redemptions that were never made and then UD screwed me with one that I have never seen, so also presume it was not made. I chose to just keep the card itself unscratched, after the Fleer debacle.

Anyway, in July 202o, I redeemed 3 Steve Garvey Diamond King redemption cards so as not to miss the expiration date. One was /10 and 2 were /25. I believe all were for autographs. I tried calling them after a while, I think the Covid shutdowns and WFH were still in play. I could never get anyone to answer the Panini CS line. I finally gave up and just waited, and waited, and waited! With the 5 year anniversay coming up, I decided that i am not getting these stupid garvey cards and decided to call the CS line again. This time they answered right away and I had someone help me convert my redemptions into the replacement gueue. I was not happy about that. I have heard stories, but I really probably had no choice. He said he'd try to make sure I got a decent replacement.

Today the package arrived. I got 2 crds. I'll need to check my online account, but I am assuming they decided that these 2 were equal to my 3 Garvey. given that I am no longer chasing every single garvey card made, it was easier to accept the replcements. I was just hoping that they'd make it worth my 5 year wait.

Here is what i got. I showed thew Pujols in my Dodgers thread, but didn't share the story there. I directed people to come here to read about it. Its a dual bat auto Albert Pujols /7. Pretty nice. Its a sticker auto (but the Garvey cards would have been as well), and it's logoless, but all panini cards are these days. That is about all i can say to downplay this card. Otherwise I am pretty happy.

The other card is a Vlad guerrero patch/Au with a very impressive patch. It's /2 if you like that kind of thing, and i do. I mean he is a HOFer and the card is impressive. I can't really complain too much about it, other than I have several Guerrero autos and I don't collect him per se. I think in the end, I am OK with this trade. A 3rd card would have really wow'd me, especially if they came with the same star power, but that is probably why I got the 2 for 3 deal. Panini, you screwed me out of the Garvey cards I paid good money for, but in the end you at least came through with a decent payback.

This older Archives Tettleton is a bit of a fizzle finish after the 2 redemptions, but it's still a cool card.

Finally, another very fun lot that I bought arrived today. Advertised as a 98 item baseball lot, I saw a few things I really liked and figured the rest would just be fun to go through. This is one of the pictures. There were maybe 5-10 keeper items, but most of it will end up being on the block when I do finally start to thin out the collection.

 

[mrmopar]

Have not added many of these lately, but these two were really reasonably priced with low shipping.

Theismann. Fairly certain these were all "factory" autographed, but this one did not come with the COA I have seen with the others.


Saw this as a relatively low BIN/BO compared to a lot of his manufactured certified autos and made an offer that was accepted. I don't love logo-less Leaf cards, but I figured it was my only chance at an affordable Durant. As this Mancave autograph fraud story is breaking and there being mention of major card makers, I always felt I was fairly well protected from fraud in what I bought. I am hoping that these companies like Panini, Topps, Leaf were not buying sheets of sticker autos from dealers, rather than having the players sign them under their supervision, or at least having them sent to the player direct. That kind of discovery could be a stake in the heart that they might never recover from. The GU BS is bad enough.

1/1 Leaf Kevin Durant Au

 

[mrmopar]

A couple Old School sigs (Floyd & Chambers) and a Clemens GU /175