[SkylerDean0526]

So I haven't had much time to really take pics or add some of my new and newer 100-150+autos, patches, jerseys (not including serial numbered paralles, inserts, etc) to my org and I've been commenting on some posts about my hits without showing and trying to go by memory. I got a few various Topps Redemptions (I have 4 with Panini that entered like 2 weeks ago, and 3 or 4 more to redeem) in the mail today and while 3 are not that impressive, I def hit a nice one and figured I'd take a few pics before I put them away and show off my Trinity Box, some nice basic Playbooks, and 2 of my favorite Platinum hits (1 from a 40% off retail blaster, and one from a platinum hobby pack in a 40% percent off retail holiday value box where you get 3 exclusive mega chrome cards, 5 packs of topps and 2 hobby packs of platinum).



Tavon Austin Topps Platinum Frost Refractor Auto /50 (one of the Wally Worlds near me had one last blaster of Topps Platinum for 40 percent off). May send him out to get graded. Beautiful card in person.
Ryan Tannehill 2013 Topps Platinum Veteran Refractor Patch Auto /99. This came from the same store, same trip as the Tavon. They had 2 boxes of the holiday boxes left at 40 percent off so I grabbed both. This was in the first box I opened (I have gotten about 5 or 6 of these this year with no real luck at autos other than a Zac Dysert base), and shockingly was the second auto in the SAME PACK. The other auto was nothing to write home about it- a base Da'Rick Rogers. I thought they put the veteran decoy on the bottom because the the Rogers was face down and the Tannehill was face up so I didn't feel any groves or bumps from a sticker or patch. The topps packs gave me your standard topps filler of 2 dollar inserts, rookies, and a Keenan Allen parallel # /2013 Second box yielded a bunch of rookies, topps inserts, etc. The platinum packs were pretty much filler as well other than an eddie lacy black platinum parallel (look so neat wish they were numbered). Retail has been pretty nice to me this year.

Onward.....



I bought the last 2 Playbook boxes at my semi-LCS, Champion Card Collector (it's about 40 minutes away but a relative easy "quick" trip on the proper route. I live at the very northern end of my county in east central NY in the Hudson Valley. I am about 2 miles from the county line with the next county north of me. The hobby shop is at the other end of my county. There used to be a bunch around me that would be closer, but they have shutdown over the years. So its either order online and wait, hit up a Target or Wally World near me, or hop in car and take a nice lil trip) literally at a pretty reasonable price of about 100 bucks each.I'll gladly pay 5-10 dollars more for a decent higher end box then order offline to support my semi-LCS. First time I've ever bought a box of Playbook and I was feeling saucey Oprah rich that day (I bought those 2 boxes, a box of contenders, a box of totally certified, a box of topps Magic, a box of 2013 Press Pass Fanfare, a box of select, and another box that I can't remember, it may have been my first hobby box of chrome (update: it was), and an assortment of goodie bags, sleeves toploaders, one touches, etc. I'll post about those boxes and others in another thread soon). I like telling stories behind my hits and card quests

The First box of Playbook had the Lacy and Ellington and 2 other autos of semi-insignificance, who I can't remember right now. One may have been Jamie Collins and the other Bonner or something. The Escobar and the Ball were in the next one, and I really can't remember the other 2. I am not a Montee Ball fan, alot of hype and I just don't see it translating into a superstar nfl rb. Escobar, didn't play much, maybe another year or so and he will break out.

Moving along slowly lol....ya still with me? I've been writing this post over the course of a few hours, in between various life activities, it's near midnight. Don't have a real good story about the next guys up other than about 2 weeks ago, I ordered a box of 2014 Trinity, a box 2013 Momentum, which is my second, and a jumbo box of 2013 Score, which was a really fun break. So my package from Dave and Adams comes a couple days later, and I open the score and momentum first(I'll post those breaks in a different thread), and I start perusing the interweb forums looking at both the extremely generous and extremely weak boxes of Trinity. I got nervous, and left it on the kitchen table for a few days staring at me. Not now dude, time isn't right it always said to me when I picked it up. I had a pretty crappie day one day last week, my 2 yr old son had been up most of the night, deciding it was actually 2:30pm and not 230am, jumping around, wrecking the living room, beating me (softly)in head with his plastic black n decker hammer to get up, and then when that didn't get me completely up ( I had put pillows over my head, put him in bed with us, and put on one of his favorite shows, Baby Einstein Galileo which normally after 2 run throughs, he falls asleep next to us), he decided he would move on to the plastic pliers to "open eyes" as he told me the best he could with his binky in his mouth. That was his answer when I asked him what in the hell he was doing to me when my left eyelid kept getting pulled down and I could see him hovering over me with his tools and a big mischievous smile. Usually, he lays next to me and grunts and kicks me in the junk a few times to get up. He fell asleep eventually when I put him back in his room and put his moon and stars projector on. Anyways, I had alot of crap going on that day, my back and neck were absolutely on fire and stiff as hell (I got in a nasty car accident about 3 years ago, which has left me permanently partially disabled with some pretty serious back issues that are u operable according to 5 different specialist surgeons I have seen. My girl was in "Emily Rose" mode, as I call her when, she gets in a snippy, nit picky, agitated over everything (usually work puts her in this mood, she has a tough job and a full plate and is usually gone 10-14 hours a day, hence me being a stay at home dad for the time being), someone had also kicked up a rock and put a decent chip in my beloved Batmobile aka my semi custom G35x on my way home from pain management. My only real toy I bought for myself after settling with the lady who had ruined my life (another story for a different time), other than my cards. After all that and a few more aggravating events, I put my TENS unit on my back, popped a few of my pain meds, and began the process of opening the Trinity, my day couldn't get any worse, could it?



Elington base Pure Glass was on top, so I could see through to next card which was the bronze patch auto of Charles Sims, then came the Mosley base patch auto, which looks like a regular 1 color jersey, but is actually a big part of a seem or stich. Batting fourth, was the Benjamin chicken scratch, I mean Inscription #4/15, and I closed my eyes and moved the Benjamin, to reveal a Manziel base Pure Glass. I chuckled out loud and my girl said "well, you either got a really crappie box and are just laughing instead of being super ticked cause your day could only get worse, or you hit something you were hoping for."el>

Sorry for the long winded post, started out writing this late at night but fell asleep. Also most of my card pulls all have a pretty neat story behind them. That's what makes nice hits even more special the back ground story. Next group up, the Topps Redemptions Mailday, only one wild story about these guys...



The Magic Autos were hit out of blasters, the Geno blue wave refractor auto /50 came from my first hobby box of chrome which I bought on my birthday on may 1st. The Dickerson bronze ring has neat story to it. My girl, my son, and myself all drove down to Tennessee (horrible idea because of my back and neck issues, I can't sit in a car for more than 45 mins without horrible pain, even with meds) to see her family about 2 weeks before Christmas. Her mother had a condo timeshare at one of the Wyndham Resorts with indoor water park down there. Now, besides my son (he was 1.5 at the time), and my girls sisters 2 year old son, I was the only guy there. Wonderful, a week with 3 sisters, my girl is the oldest, and her two younger sisters....the youngest is 21, the middle sister is 25, and my girl is 28, her mother, and then her best friend for a few days. After roughly 2 days of being Severely outnumbered, estrogen flowing faster and rougher than the indoor water parks massive indoor water tube rides, I had to get out and Crack some wax and play some lotto or something. My girl decides she needs a break from her sisters as well and needed some wOman products so we head to the local Wally world. I snag my son and immediately go looking for the register aisle that has the cards. In the Wally Worlds around me at home in NY, the cards are usually located at checkout aisle 9 or 1. They're not anywhere to be found in this Wally World in Tennessee, so I ask a Trip Dubs (Wally World Worker) and they tell me there's a whole aisle in the toy section. I find it pretty quickly and itd ransacked (that's what you get for having sports cards in the toy section with Pokemon cards next to it, and all the action figures on other side of aisle). There are Topps packs scattered everywhere, obviously someone had searched them. I pick up 2 packs in front of me and the first pack I grab weighs like 6 lbs and immediately feels like a piece of wood is in it. I laughed to myself thinking whoever searched the packs SOME HOW missed this pack that is now in my hand that must contain a card printed on petrified sequoia wood. I walk away feeling very satisfied and a little guilty knowing that I'm going to get a pretty nice hit out of the one pack and the other one I just snagged for the heck of it. In line, I start feeling a bit cheated that I was able to just pick up a pack and know it was a pretty hard to pull hit judging by the odds on the backs of the packs. So I go back to the aisle and find a topps box that looks like it's been untouched, grab a handfull from the front right side of box, about 5 packs or so. Get to the car and open up my meteorite pack, telling my girl that these types of packs are one of the reasons I collect. There was only 2 cards in the pack, don't remember the first one, and I actually thought I had hit a booklet. It turned out to be an Prime Time Deion Sanders Silver Statue Bust #/50, not what I was expecting (and hell I'm not gonna complain cause the odds were pretty high AND someone had searched just about all of the Topps boxes and hangers there were but somehow missed it), but this card was/is amazing to look at and have in my hand. I couldnt get over the weight and detail the bust had on it and it just looked really wicked. I was amazed. I put it off to the side and continued to open the other packs, as I'm still telling my girl about the odds of hitting that card and how it really should have been a redemption, I get a redemption.....of the Eric Dickerson Bronze Ring. I crapped myself thrice at the odds and luck. I stuck it in my wallet, so I wouldn't forget about it lmao....well I forgot about it until a few weeks ago when my son had gotten a hold of my wallet and pulled everything out of it. So I turned it in when I turned the Geno and the others in.

Btw, what started out as a short post, turned out to be a novel, I will not go into such detail with my posts from now on. I started to think though when I was writing this, I love reading stories about cards and getting cool hits. I love the background stories; they just add to the whole collecting experience, so I figured I'd write one as I went on.

Almost done, bare with me.

I'm gonna switch it up a bit though and tell the story before I post the pics.

This last Saturday I wanted to go to the semi-LCS for supplies (I really needed thick toploaders, teambags, and some specialty cases. It also gave me a reason to go knowing that I would end up with a box or 2. I didn't end up going cause they would have closed by the time I got there, as it was later in the evening when I would have had some time. So I went n settled for a few rack packs of 2014 upper deck from my local walmart and target. I grabbed a pile off a rack at each store, about 8 packs each. I got 1 sp(can't remember who), and 2 sp autos- Scott Chrichton I believe and Austin Franklin. Satisfied me until I could to the semi-LCS. Next day, Sunday, I get there and see he restocked on Sterling, I had gotten a pretty good box the firest time, nothing too special but a nice box (will post about it later) and a box of Select (I love the deep auto checklist and have been trying to pull a nice Zac Stacy auto, unfortunately the auto checklist is Toooooo deep), I have snagged 3 of them so far with some pretty bleh results and like 3 redemptions (again I'll post about those in another thread). I knew better but suspense was killing me and I had hoped I'd hit at least one decent auto or a low numbered prizm rookie or something nice. I open first mini box and bam, Cobi Hamilton auto, my second one from this product. Next auto is a prizm Earl Wolf. Bleh. Got standard rookies and inserts in the mini box as well. Second mini box I sort and find the rookie auto jersey pack and put off to the side for last. I open the other packs, and get a base Mike James auto. Cool, my first of him, hope he gets a lil more playing time when Doug Martin comes back. Showed some promise but I won't hold my breath. Other packs have standard rookies, inserts, a base prizm of stepfan taylor. Just leaves my last pack, and my hopes were very slim after another dud box......




Day saver. Absolutely gorgeous. I was thinking to myself, I havent hit a numbered parallel or prizm (non auto) in this box at all. My first box was Greg Jennings In Motion Insert parallel #6/10, can't remember the second one, and the third was a regular gold prizm Carson palmer # /10, so I guess this guy was my numbered parallel prizm and rookie auto jersey. Probably gonna keep this one a while unless I get an amazing deal or offer I can't pass up. I've seen only one other C Patt like this one fleabay that was sold for a semi nice chunk. The upper deck autos don't get a pic after all this until my next thread when I post more pics and less story cause most of them are just straight up busting wax hits after a trip to the semi-LCS or some decent retail pulls out of blasters and hangers of rack packs. All will be for sale or trade once I load them into my org. Some already are, but I need at least a solid 2 days to update that thing with all the newbies I have pulled since last year up to recently. Just hopped back on to the forums after lurking, reading, looking, and occasionally commenting in the last week or so. I've been gone for a lil over a year and only see a few names I recognize now (forum members that is), glad some guys are still arounnds. Also, I don't always get back right away and take my time looking at orgs so be patient I'd you open a trade with me. Thanks for taking the time to read.

[Harv72b]

And here I thought I typed a lot in my break threads. :p

Anyhow, if it's for trade I am absolutely interested in the Mosley.

[SkylerDean0526]

Lol, I didn't mean for it to be so long. I do write alot when I comment, guess I have alot to say. Mosley is for trade....lemme add it to the org.

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Someone on here is a Jonathan Franklin collector, can't remember who but I have some pretty nice stuff of his. I also remember reading another member collecting Aaron Mellette, I got a few numbered cards and a pretty nice auto of his. Ryan nassib, Stedman bailey, gavin escobar, and Rex Burkhead haunt me something wicked. Lacy and Glennom were haunting me for a bit too but not as much as the others. Not gonna complain about Lacy or Glennon haunting me too much.

[Kingofallmarks]

Its fun getting the back stories on the cards, congrats on the nice haul. I'd be interested in the Patterson if it becomes available.

[Harv72b]

I also remember reading another member collecting Aaron Mellette, I got a few numbered cards and a pretty nice auto of his.

No idea who that might be, but I do hear that he's insanely handsome and quite possibly a superhero.

[SkylerDean0526]

I was just seeing if you were paying attention. You got a few things in your org I may be interested in-2014 UD Cooks auto and a few others I'm back and forth on. Lmk. I'm still looking at your stuff, they need to optimize the site for smartphones cause layout sucks and it's alot extra back pages and unnecessary and insanely frustrating site navigation, lag, and load times. I'm usually on the go and use my phone until I get free minute to hop on my laptop. And as good as the org and trade system are, it's still a royal pain to load a bunch of cards, hence why most of my new additions aren't in yet. Slowly adding