Out of Town

It's been too long... I'm on the road in Denver until August 1st, so the blogs will be taking an extended All-Star Break. I'm hoping to pick up some great Rockies cards while I'm here and, if so, I'll share those when I get back home to Florida.

You might have seen a post I made on Tulo Trader earlier this month about a great trader that contacted me. Well, he needs some help in both getting rid of some of his cards as well as adding to his collection. Eric was so kind to me and I'm going to help him out and post a pseudo-classified add for him.

Listen... he's got some great stuff. I was blown away with what he sent me; quality and rarity guaranteed. So, if you want to make some trades, hit him up. Here's a blurb on Eric's behalf:

"I recently got back into the hobby and went on a mass buying spree, trying to bolster a relatively anemic Yankees collection. Consequently, I am also getting ready to move to a new place and the less I have to bring with me, the better. That being said, I'm looking for other team collectors who want to do some trading. I'm getting rid of pretty much everything non-Yankee (save for the industry standards: Pujols, Griffey, Mauer) and would gladly trade a lot of 50-100 cards for a handful of guys I collect. I don't worry about getting strict Beckett value, I trust the fairness of other readers. In fact, I would rather somebody receive their cards from me first and send me what they think is an appropriate trade. If you want to send me a couple of nicer Jeter/Clemens cards, great. If you want to send me a boatload of Pettitte and Posada, equally great. Here's who I try to focus on (but am not limited to):

Derek Jeter
Andy Pettitte
Roger Clemens
Jorge Posada
Mariano Rivera
Joba Chamberlain
Alex Rodriguez
Don Mattingly
Phil Hughes
Ian Kennedy
Paul O'Neill
Bernie Williams

I don't need anything from the 80s - about 94. After that my collection really fell off. That being said, I will probably be mailing out a pair of shipments: the first would come from my place up here, which is 99.9% from the past couple of years. Back home I have a ton of cards from the previously mentioned time period, that I would rather see a team collector enjoy, and those would be mailed out in a seperate (much larger) shipment. If you're interested in acquiring a large amount of your team's cards, please contact me at epslette AT hotmail DOT com - no spam please.

Looking forward to hooking some collectors up and getting some nice Yankee stuff in the process!"

Bowman Loses a Slice of the Pie

I'm heading down to West Palm Beach in the morning for two nights of Dave Matthews at the Cruzan Amphitheatre, but I wanted to give you all some reading material in case you haven't come across it already. Our 'friends' at Razor Collectibles, LLC. have really done on a number on my favorite set (Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects) in all of baseball card collecting. Haven't heard yet? Check out the links below to stories written by more talented bloggers than myself:

Razor takes a bite out of Topps? [Wax Heaven]

Razor Collectibles Signs MLB Draft Picks... [Sports Cards Uncensored]

Cutting into Topps [Stale Gum]

I'll be back in town on Sunday evening with some 80s wax. Have a safe weekend!

- J.C.F.

Operation '98 Metal Universe (Box 1/Pack 3)

I can't believe it's taken me so long to get back to this. Here's pack #3 of my first box of '98 Fleer Metal Universe:


41 Scott Hatteberg with the bling of the Massachusetts Capitol Building shining in the background

185 Sean Estes... a Lefty Pitcher on the Left Coast

170 Mike Mussina in one of my favorite cards. "Moose" has the USS Constellation and Baltimore's Inner Harbor to his back

180 B.J. Surhoff... no, this Oriole isn't pictured in the Inner Harbor, but what appears to be a seaport. Good work, Fleer.


83 Hideo Nomo in Bat Country



70 Mark Grudzielanek fielding GBs near what must be the Laurentian Mountains

40 Will Clark's got it

201 Steve Woodard, like many others in this set, is out of this world

I hope I'm not wasting your time with dragging this box out. It's hard to see the scans due to the metallic backgrounds, so if you want me to focus on something else, shoot me an email. Don't worry, I take criticism well.

That's it for today.

- J.C.F.

A-Rod Singles as Yanks Have Night Off

It's official (or is it?)... A-Rod's wife files for divorce

Pack Break: 2006 Fleer Ultra

Here's another from the Target packs. No hits in this one... I lied.



Here we go...

SOK2 Johan Santana


130 Hank Blalock
74 Victor Martinez


18 Rich Harden
DP14 Derrek Lee


90 Juan Encarnacion
146 Garrett Atkins


52 Jorge Cantu

Good pack, good series. The inserts in this pack are pretty nifty as well. Can't complain when I pull a Mile High-er.

Happy Fourth!

I'm taking the weekend off for Independence Day festivities and a trip to Daytona for the Coke Zero 400. Have a safe and happy weekend!

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2007 Topps Turkey Red [Retail]

The local target it trying to get rid of some retail packs of '07 and older product and despite my need to tighten up on spending dough, how can you turn down $0.99 to $1.52 packs of cards? I snagged 4 packs today, all of which had a hit a piece (surprisingly)... not too bad for $4 worth of retail wax.

Here we go...

30 Barry Bonds, lacrosse arm guard and all



41 Barry Zito
164 Jorge Posada



59 Carlos Beltran



12 Orlando Hernandez
37 Edgar Renteria
114 Gary Matthews (Refractor, #1154/1999)



11 Kenji Johjima
## Topps of the Class waste of space

Ok, that was weird... Follow me on this:

A) Two Giants with the same first name to start

B)Posada, who plays with former Zito teammate Giambi, and currently plays in New York

C) A second New Yorker from the other team in Carlos Beltran

D) A third New Yorker that's played for both teams in the Big Apple, but is currently playing with the NL East's Mets in "El Duque" (all three are Hispanic as well)

E) A Mets' rival in the Braves' Renteria

F) Then Gary Matthews who shares a former teammate with Renteria (Mark Teixeira, Rangers/Braves)

G) And to wrap it up, another AL Wester [like Matthews] in Johjima

I don't know how valid/relevant that is, but it was kinda creepy to bust. I'm not gonna lie... the Renteria/Matthews relationship was a stretch. I just wanted to figure out a link so the pack was complete and I could hype it up even more.... whatever.

Good pack, I think. Most of them will end up going somewhere in a trade or on eBay, aside from the Posada... that's a dope card.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.