Welcome to my blog!!!

I have collected baseball cards and autographs over the years. I still have boxes full of cards (as well as newer cards) that are just sitting there. So, I have decided to see how many of them I can get autographed. I use through the mail as my preferred route for this adventure. I also have an account on Zistle and The Trading Card Database for trading purposes (stevienicks77).



Monday, January 27, 2014

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Daniel over at It's like having my own Card Shop held a contest to help out a fellow blogger, Pack War, get 100 followers.  So, I went and followed Pack War to check it out.  Low and behold, I won the contest!  Woo Hoo!  First prize was this:


Nice addition to my player collection!  Plus, it's my first Museum Collection card!  Thanks Daniel!  I'll put it out there one more time, go check out Pack War!  Daniel also sent me some Royals cards, and there were several that I needed for my player collections, as well as some Royals cards I have never seen before.

Super duper small George Brett!  I knew Topps had the small cards as part of Crack Jack set, but I never realized Donruss was part of it as well.


Player collection additions:


Other random Royals:



Sunday, January 26, 2014

Jeff Lageman

This card of Jeff Lageman was one of my very first football cards that wasn't a Topps card.  Jeff was a first round draft pick of the Jets in 1989 out of Virginia.  He played with the Jets and Jaguars during his career.

Jeff Lageman
Signed 1/1
Sent c/o Home address
35 days

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Danny Hultzen

An AFL return!  Thank goodness!  I was beginning to think I had lost my AFL TTM mojo!  Another great looking autographed 2013 Bowman Platinum card from Mariners rookie Danny Hultzen.

Danny Hultzen
Signed 1/1
Sent c/o Peoria Javelinas
98 days

Friday, January 24, 2014

Finally!!

Last year for Valentine's Day, I got two packs of 2012 Bowman Sterling.  I received this in one of the packs.


I was über excited!  I have never gotten a redemption card before.  I quickly went to the Topps online redemption website and put my code in.  I kept checking it every couple of months, and initially, my card was in my account, waiting to be sent to me.  However, when I last checked before Christmas, it was gone from my account!  I contacted Topps on their Twitter page; they seem to do an excellent job of interacting with fans.  However, not with me.  I finally found an email address for Topps support, so I emailed them.  I quickly got the generic response, "We're happy to get your message.  We'll get back to you shortly."  I never heard from them, until a couple of nights ago when I got home from work and a package from Topps was waiting for me.  Inside was this:


I'm excited to FINALLY get this, but disappointed on how long it took.  I really don't want to get a redemption card from Topps if I have to go to all this trouble to get it.  I have read that others have had quick success with Topps, and others have not.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

The River & The Thread

I am a HUGE Rosanne Cash fan.  She was in Kansas City last year, and I got to go and see her and her husband, John Leventhal, perform an acoustic set.  It was great!  At that time, she said she was working on a new album, and it was due out in 2014.  It came out a little over a week ago.  I bought it from her personal website because I wanted the autographed copy.



Here's a trailer on You Tube of her new album:


PWE in the mail!

I completed another trade on Zistle with jkgrice.  He helped me out with a few 2011 Heritage SPs and a Todd Benzinger card to put in my Royals binder.  This trade also helped me start my 2014 goals!





Monday, January 20, 2014

2014 Goals

I have decided to make some goals for myself this year.  I have found that I have a lot of projects that I want to complete, but realistically, can't complete.  So, I'm going to simplify things in hopes of completing some of my major goals of autographing, card collecting and this blog.

1.  Complete 2011 Heritage (including SPs) and 2013 Topps Update.

2.  Hold two contests through this blog.  Not sure what I'll do yet, but I have some ideas.

3.  Complete five trades through this blog.  I'm totally jealous when I see other bloggers posting their goods that they got through trades!

4.  Achieve 50 TTMs in the 2014 calendar year.

5.  Complete my Royals and Cubs needs.  Probably my hardest goal of all.

I hope these changes for myself will help me concentrate on the items I really want to achieve through my hobby of card collecting, TTMs, and trading.  I will post this under my stats tab so I can keep track throughout the year.

Ed Sprague

Ed Sprague was a first round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1988.  In 1992 and 1993, he was a member of the Blue Jays World Series Champion teams.  He hit a huge game-winning home run in the 9th inning of Game 2 in the 1992 World Series against the Braves.  He's no stranger to being a champion, he also was a part of Stanford's College World Series Champion teams in 1987 and 1988.  He also won a gold medal in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.  He's currently the head coach at Pacific University.

Ed Sprague
Signed 2/2
Sent c/o University of the Pacific
33 days

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Ryan Church

Yeah!  My mailbox has been fairly steady with PWE from all the requests I sent out prior to Christmas.  Yesterday, I got mail back from Ryan Church.   During his career, he played with quite a few teams, ending his career in 2010 with the D-backs.

Ryan Church
Signed 1/1
Sent c/o Home address
26 days

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Casey Kotchman

The other half of my post-Christmas TTM letters!  Casey Kotchman is currently a free agent.  I sure hope he gets picked up before spring training.  He is known for setting the record for having the most consecutive put-outs without committing an error.

Casey Kotchman
Signed 3/3
Sent c/o Home address
12 days

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Eric Bell

I received a couple of TTMs after Christmas, and I'm now just finally getting time to get these up!  I recently bought a notebook computer and ditched my desktop, so now I'm trying to figure out how to use everything and transfer everything over.  The scanning was tricky, but I think I have it figured out.

Eric Bell
Signed 2/2
Sent c/o Home address
14 days


Friday, January 10, 2014

Zistle trade with shoebox

I completed another trade with shoebox on Zistle.  It was a trade we were working on before the holidays, and completed after Christmas.  He is a Gypsy Queen collector and I was able to help him out.  He helped me out, as well, by getting me the three 2013 Topps Series 2 cards I needed to complete the set!  Yes!  Now, on to completing 2013 Topps Update!  Here are some of the goodies shoebox sent me:

The last three 2013 Topps Series 2 cards I needed!


Some Royals:


Cubbies!


Iowa Hawkeyes!


Player collections: