It's My Birthday And I'll Buy If I Want To.

Today is my birthday (Yay) and thanks to my parents and sister I have around $100 in the old paypal account. The question is what do I buy? Do I buy a few things for the various PC's I have going? Or do I buy a nice lot from one of the forums so I can make a bit of extra money on resales? In recent weeks I have been doing a little of both. I have bought some nice Rays prospect cards including blue and gold refractors from the new Bowman set. Also I have picked up a few nice cards which I intend to move on if they ever arrive. For a $100 I know I can pick up a really nice lot on SCF which would include some Hall of Famers or some nice auto's or patches,but I could also pick up some really nice PC items like a nice orange refractor for my prospects PC. The other alternative is to buy a hobby box,but do I really want the risk of getting a crappy one with poor hits and be left with a shedload of base that I will never shift. Any advice or suggestions would be very welcome.

Help!!!!

I'm not normally one to beg,but I am going to right now. The reason being is I need some help finding a card,I am looking for a 2009 UD Icons James Shields Letterman card,the card I am looking for is the letter I.I only need this card to finish off his name,I have been searching for this card for six months now and have not seen it anywhere.The only one I could find was the auto version which I'm not collecting.Any help finding this card would be greatly appreciated.

Another Rays Card.

Time to show off another of my favorite cards. This time we have a cool dual patch of Carl Crawford and B J Upton. This one comes from Upper Deck Premier 2007 and is numbered 19/25. I love patch cards espescially those with more than two colors. This little beauty only cost me $8 from e bay and I think that's a hell of a steal. We have one bona fide superstar in Crawford and a potential superstar in Upton. To be honest I have thought of moving this one on,the reason being that I'm not too much of an Upton fan and Crawford is probably heading for pastures new in 2011.

Quick Trivia Question.

I'm off to bed,but before I go I will leave you with this question.
What is unique about Addie Joss being in the Hall of Fame?

Matt Garza.

A nice Garza auto here,love the on the letter type autos.This is only one of two Garza autos I have,they are either too pricey or he is in a Twins uniform.

The real reason for this post is to talk about Matt's no hitter last night. Matt threw the Rays very first no hitter in franchise history,a great night for all Rays fans,made all the more exciting because as you all know the Rays have been perfectoed twice and no hit once in the last 12 months. The real point to this post is to reply to some of the comments and articles I have read in the last 24 hours.Most of the comments have been along the line of"well he only beat Cabrera plus the Mud Hens"or "well the Tigers were injury depleted". Ok,I won't deny that the Tigers were far from having their strongest lineup. So what? If you took a MLB starter and put them up against any Triple A line up I very much doubt any of them would throw a no hitter. Case in point,a few years ago I was in New England on vacation and was lucky enough to see the Pawtucket Red Sox play. Their starting pitcher that day was Curt Schilling on his last rehab start before going back to the Sox. Did Schilling pitch no hit innings?Did he shut down the other team? No he didn't,if I remember correctly he got tagged for a least four runs in five innings.I think we can all agree that Curt Schilling is a better pitcher than Garza is right now. So why didn't Schilling shut down his Triple A opponent? Simple,baseball is a bloody hard game to play.Triple A players are only one step away,they have a lot to prove. Do the detracters of Garza's no hitter think that the recent call ups gave away their outs? You would think they would be trying twice as hard so they have a chance to stay with the big club.If C C Sabathia had done this the boards and articles would have been filled with gushing praise and "all hail the Yankess"stuff.(You know who I'm talking about ESPN).
So in conclusion don't belittle something that ws a piece of Rays and Baseball history.celebrate it for what it was,a great pitching performance.

In Honour of a No Hitter.

In honour of Matt Garza's no hitter. The four colored refractors from Topps Finest 2009. I love refractors there is just something about shiney cards. Maybe I was a Magpie in a previous life.If anyone out there has the base card and ordinary refractor let me know as I don't have either of those or a printing plate.

Topps Tribute.

You have just spent over $250 on a box of Tribute,you get home all excited about your high end purchase. You begin to bust it open,you pull the G/U first wow a Jeter,a Longoria and a Hall of Famer. Ok not too bad but nothing great. So the last three packs are holding your auto's. Will you pull a JFK/Nixon cut maybe a big Hall of Famer? So you open the last three packs and you get Bengie Molina,Chone Figgins and Aki (I was DFA'D by the Pirates)Iwamura. The point of this post is to ask Topps why the hell these guys are even close to being in a high end product. I understand you won't pull a Jeter 1/1 every time,I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is why such players are in this product. Even the worlds biggest Mariners fan is going to be pretty pissed if he pulled a Figgins. Come on Topps you owe the hobby more than this. You have sole rights over the card market,give the collecters more bang for their buck.To be honest I would be pretty pissed if I pulled a Figgins out of a low end product.

Favorite Cards Pt 2.

Yes indeed it's another James Shields card. Why do I like this one so much?Simple answer is it's a Sweet Spot.I love these cards,the signature on the ball looks so sweet. I think there is something special about these cards,the thickness,the feel,the piece of equipment being used for the signature. My next quest is to try and find a bat barrel card with Shields auto on it.The only ones I have found have been well out of my price range. The only drawback to these cards is that the auto has a tendancy to fade away.I own a Carl Crawford one and the auto has all but disappeared.
Today is a special day for Rays fans as Matt Garza has just pitched the franchises first no hitter.

My Favourite Cards Pt1.

Exquisite 2007 James Shields/Juan Salas Gold Dual Auto 1/25.

This card is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons.Firstly it's a James Shields auto and he is my main man when it comes to collecting and also is my favorite Ray.The other reason it's in my favorite list is because it's my first ever dual auto,even though the other guy Salas has sunk without trace.

Also I love the Exquisite cards,such a nice looking card and it has the feel and thickness of a high quality card.This baby was bought from E Bay for the princely sum of $8 in an auction.The other dual autos of the same card are all buy it nows and are up for over $40.So even though they are two lesser players it still ranks as a steal in my book.

You Want How Much?

I pride myself on being an honest and fair trader/seller. If I add shipping to my prices it will always be exactly what it costs me. My E Bay shipping is $3.50 to the USA from the UK and that is exactly what it costs me,taking into account shipping cost,mailer cost and toploader costs. My question is why do some sellers on E Bay want a stupid amount of money charge for shipping. An example for you all, I was very interested in an Alexander Torres Bowman 2010 Orange Refractor, it was a decent price for a card of that type. The lister had not specified an overseas shipping charge instead they invited me to mail them with the question. The seller responded quickly to my request for his costs which is always nice,upon opening the message I found that they were asking for $15 in shipping. I mailed the seller back and asked if this would be USPS priority shipping as I know this can be quite high in cost. Reply came back "No this will be USPS 1st class international mail and its the best I can do". Well bugger me!!! $15 for shipping one card? I think not sir. USPS charges $1.64 to send 1-4 cards 1st class international,I pointed this out to the seller and he didn't take kindly to this information and suggested I do something rather unsavoury to my mother. When I see these kind of shipping costs it leads me to a couple of conclusions.
1. You don't really want to send your cards overseas.
2. You are a rip off merchant who thinks all overseas buyers are stupid.
I can understand point one,maybe they have been burnt by overseas buyers saying they didn't recieve their cards etc. If this is the case why state that you will ship worldwide?Just list your cards so only American buyers can see them, is that too hard to do?
Moving on to point two, a simple look at the USPS website gives any potential buyers the information they need about how much its going to cost to ship out their cards. The most I will pay for shipping now is $5 and that is only if it's a card I cannot get from any other seller.

Most of the sellers/traders I have dealt with over at SCF have asked me how much is it to send? I have always sent them the link to USPS website so they know I am not conning them and so they can have it for future reference. So in conclusion it's hats off to SCF traders and a big raspberry to con artisits over on E Bay.

The answer to the triva question I posed is. Don Larsens wife served him with divorce papers the day he pitched his perfect game.

Todays question.
Why is WWE champion John Cena allowed to make movies?

First Post

Q. Why is your blog called 7 Hours From Tampa Bay?
A. Simple really,it takes 7 hours to fly from UK to Tampa Florida.

Q. Why Tampa bay?
A. For my sins I am a huge Tampa Bay Rays fan,this is because in 2003 I took a vacation to Florida and took in a Rays ballgame.(lost 7-1 to the Yankees)

So there it is folks the reason behind the blogs name. As well as being big baseball fan I am also addicted to collecting baseball cards. I have only been collecting a little over a year,but have managed to gather a pretty nice collection. My main wants are James Shields,Matt Garza and the old Brooklyn Dodgers. Just recently I have started trading and buying and selling on forums such as SCF. This has given me a great insight into the World of baseball cards and a new respect for the people who collect them. Also it proves that no matter where you come from everyone wants something for nothing. Don't get me wrong almost every transaction has been done smoothly and in a very friendly manner,but there are some traders who will argue the toss over a dollar in value.Ok so its fair enough to haggle if I want a $100 card and only have $75 in value to trade,but if I want your $6 card and you want my $5 card what is the point in making a fuss over the $1? My fellow trader and blogger TMCD will recognise who I am talking about.

I will leave you all with a trivia question.
What else happened to Don Larsen the day he pitched his perfect game?

Thanks for reading.