2009 Icons Box Break

These are the cards from the box of 2009 Icons I posted about last month. This was a lot of fun to open and getting the Ozzie and Markakis cards made it even better. Everything else is up for trade!

First – The Numbered Cards (all numbered to 999)



The Relics


The Lettermen (20/40 and 1/35)


The Auto (80 of 199)

New Sizemore Cards

Two more for my favorite player binder. The first is really a Josh Barfield card but the second is pretty cool.
2007 Co-Signers Josh Barfield / Grady Sizemore numbered 196 of 225



2009 Upper Deck Grady Sizemore Starquest Black Ultra Rare

What Bob Gibson says about the Cardinals’ Bullpen

I hope the Cardinals have lots and lots of good friends.

Orlando Box Break: 2009 UD Icons

We're home now but here's the last box from Orlando. We gave this box to Dad for Father's Day and he let me open it while we were on vacation. Good box with a Markakis auto and Ozzie Letter Patch.

Dad - Scans when I get back to the office.

2009 Signature Stars Box Break

My dad found a box of this on sale and gave it to me because he lost our bet. He bet me I couldn’t get to 500 reading counts points this year. The previous Third Grade record in my school was 300. I made it all the way to 513 points. Only two sixth graders had more points than me and they were over 600.

This was a bad box: two USA jersey cards, one USA jersey + auto (a repeat player!) and one average MLB auto. At least there were lots of Cardinals and a Lincecum and Markakis.

Trever Bauer and Chad Bettis jersey cards


Chad Bettis (again!) Jersey Autograph


Matt Tolbert Autograph


These are all up for trade.

Lucky Pack Break

Our favorite hobby shop moved last week but my dad took me to the new location yesterday for supplies and a few packs. He didn't have as many packs but I picked up a 2011 Topps Pro Debut, a 2011 Bowman,  and a 2010 Upper Deck Series 1. The new location is also close to a coin shop that sells cards so we stopped there on the way home. The owner is nice and discounts older packs. I got a 2009 Piece of History, a 2009 Icons, and a 2009 Goudey.

Here's the pack break:

2006 UD Ovation Adam Wainwright

Another numbered 2006 Ovation rookie card, this time of our injured Ace – Adam Wainwright.

Side By Side: Adam Wainwright

Bringing Side By Side back to keep things going until the season starts. Might as well start with Isaac’s favorite autograph from the 2011 Winter Warm Up. Here’s what we’ve got:
In person, on card:

2006 Topps Chrome Rookie Auto Sticker

2006 Topps Co-Signers Auto Sticker

2006 Upper Deck Special Something Or Other Auto Sticker

So what do you think? Wainwright definitely uses more room on the Relic card and the #50 inscription is nice too. The sticker autos, even though there is more room on them, seem rushed by comparison. They’re also eerily perfectly centered though!

Winter Warm Up 2011–Day 2 (The Packs)

My dad let me get more packs to open while standing in line and a few packs to open during dinner that night. The Cardinals had a souvenir booth and had packs on sale. Dad said they were expensive (Dad: Didn't realize they were selling all packs for $2 and $3 instead of the 500000% markup on the stadium price tags.)and were retail packs so I probably wouldn’t be as lucky as the day before. He was so wrong!
From the Retail Packs during the day. They also had 2009 Cereal Boxes for $6! We bought the last one but didn’t get much. The X packs were cool – a Peavy jersey card and some cards for my favorite players binder.

And back to the Hobby Packs at night. Two autos from the Astros and Cubs. Boo!

Winter Warm Up 2011–Day 1 (The Packs)

During our morning break we went to the vendor room and bought some cards for autographs and 8 packs to open while waiting in line. I got some Cardinals and lots of cool cards. Here are the cool cards.

Winter Warm Up 2011–Friday Night!!!

We stayed at the Winter Warm Up hotel again this year. My dad surprised me with some baseball card packs and a some cheap boxes he bought on ebay. My dad bought me a box of 2006 Ovation for Christmas. I liked them so much that he bought two more cheap boxes on ebay. Here’s the cool stuff I got. It was awesome.

Numbered Cards


Jersey Cards


The first autograph was of Miguel Cabrera!


The second autograph was KEN GRIFFEY JR.!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. I high fived my dad for five minutes (Dad: At least five minutes of continuous high fiving followed by random shouts of “Yes!!!!” “Whooohooo!!!” and “Ken Griffey Jr!!!” the rest of the night.).

Ovation is awesome!!!

Crazy Eight

Isaac turns eight today! In honor of this momentous occasion, Isaac opened eight random packs of UD Signature, Topps 2009 U&H, and 2009 T206 during breakfast this morning. Out of those packs, he pulled these… in addition to a few Cardinals. Chicle packs to come later.

How’s that to start the Birthday!

A Few For The Mini Binder

 
Never really got too excited about the Goodwin set or its corresonding mini’s. We’ve picked up a few of the Cardinal mini’s here and there. The black bordered versions are nice but the Gypsy Queen back looks unfinished.to me. A little bit of everything in this one. One for Ikes Cardinal HOF binder, one for his favorite players binder, and two for the random mini binder.

UD Ultimate Break

I don't normally participate in box breaks but decided to take a flyer on a small 2009 Upper Deck Ultimate break. I was hoping to snag some sweet Cardinals for Ike but got the Orioles and Tigers via the randomizer. Luckily, the O's came through and I now have a nice auto of one of Isaac's favorite players... either for a 2010 Dad Pack or for his 8th Bday in May.



I probably could have gotten this for less than the $30 I paid for the break but glad I got *something* Isaac will like. I also got base cards of Miguel Cabrera and Brad Bergesen if any one is interested.

Trade With Fielder’s Choice

Another day, another package for Isaac. Dave from Fielder’s Choice sent a package in exchange for some 2008 Heritage High and some U & H’s. Here are Isaac’s favorites:

David Kopp – 2008 Bowman Chrome Auto. Never heard of him so I told Isaac to look him up in his Cardinals prospects book. He said, without looking, that he wasn’t in the book. I told him to check the book… sure enough he wasn’t listed. The kid has a memory. He loves autographs since the Winter Warmup.

Albert – 2008 Masterpieces

Grady Sizemore – 2008 Target Chrome Insert & 2008 Topps Finest Refractor

Amazingly, he may have been more excited about the Sizemore’s than the Pujols. I’m chalking it up to having a ton of Albert in his binder and only a few pages of Sizemore. How excited? Between the Sizemore & the autos he wanted to site down and write a thank you note to Dave!