Very Vintage.

The above card is a 1931 Pattreiouex Cigarette card. For it's age it is fantastic condition.It's nice to have a little bit of British baseball history. I going to have to spend ages on google to find out more about the history of the British Baseball Cup.

Two Birds With One Stone.

The two cards I have wanted for ages have finally arrived. Ignore the base cards in the picture and check out those sweet auto cards. Top right is the Upper Deck Ultimate Rookie Signature card,I have been chasing this one for a while now,the only one on EBay is way overpriced at $40+,this one was $15 but the coolest thing about it is that it is numbered 33/180. 33 is of course James Shields uniform number,this is the first uniform numbered card I have managed to get my hands on.

The second card is the Sweet Spot 2006 Leather Auto 5/20. This was my Shields holy grail,these were only available through redemption from upper deck. I had never seen one until I put a post on FCB asking about Shields cards,the guy I got this from had two of them. It cost a little more than I usually pay for cards,but I thinking if Ipass this up I may never see another. I am really happy to have this in my collection and thats where it will remain for many years.

Another Shields Mail Day.

Another week and another haul of James Shields cards. These cards bring the Shields pc total into the 80's. Hoping to have the century by Christmas if possible,I have three more sitting at COMC I am waiting to add some more before getting those sent out,also waiting for 3 auto cards which I obtained on the forums.One of those is a card I have been searching for since I started collectin Shields,I am very excited about it arriving,I won't tell you what card it is though because I want to show it off on here. Anyone want to guess what it might be?
Anyway on to this weeks haul,first in line is a 2006 Topps 52 IP auto. I don't normally go after IP cards because you never know if the auto is kosher. I got this one for two reasons, first it was very cheap at $1 and secondly I didn't have a Topps 52 in my pc,so I killed two birds with one stone on this one.

Second card this week is a shiny Topps Chrome 2010 Gold Refractor. The mission is to try to collect the rainbow. I just missed out on a Red Refractor on the bay earlier this week.Not many
colored refactors of Shields on ebay yet, I have not seen a blue,orange or xfractor yet.

Third card is more shiny goodness,the regular refractor from 2010 chrome.

Fourth card is the Upper Deck Icons GU card. Recently picked up the base card from this set and now need the #ed versions to make a full set. I am only missing a letter I from the letterman set. Getting desperate for that one now,really want the full name set.

Card five is a 2007 Spx winning materials dual GU #/50, this is the fourth GU I have from this set,but the first dual GU. I am looking for a patch from this set,a guy on COMC has one but won't budge from his set price. Still hoping to grind him down.

Last and certainly not least is a 2009 Goodwin Champions GU,I love the look of this set,I think its the differing backgrounds that make it a nice looking set of cards. So far I have the auto,base,regular mini and now the GU from this set,looking for the black border mini,foil mini if Shields has one and a plate to complete the set. If any of you lovely people have any of the cards I am looking for and are willing to part with them please let me know.

Until next time folks,happy collecting and breaking.

Holy Crap I Won.

It's not very often I win anything,mainly because I rarely enter contests. The wonderful folks over at Sports Card Radio ran a contest last week with the prize being one pack of Panini Absolute Football. I will mention here that the good folks at Panini donated the box to SCR. All we had to do was post in the contest thread of the forum to get an entry.The names were then randomed off to see who would claim one of the packs. My name was 4th on the list giving me a pack of cards.

The big hit from the pack was a Jimmy Clausen Auto/Relic card 210/299. This is the best card I have pulled (or pulled for me). I actually know who Clausen is and he was rated highly by the scout pre draft.

The other 3 cards in the pack were an Adrian Peterson,a Dallas Clark and a Jermaine Cunningham Rookie card. I had to Google Cunningham as I knew nothing about him. He was 53rd pick in the 2010 draft,an alumni of Florida University and was picked by New England.So far this season he has 11 tackles,1 sack and forced fumble.

I would like to take the chance to say a big thank you to the guys at SCR for running the contest and also to Panini for donating the box. Hey all you other card companies support SCR and show them some love.

Interesting Pick Ups.

As I was browsing through Ebay UK the other day I came across this nice little card.It's a Sport Kings Tony Gwynn mini card. As it was only 65p or a Dollar in US money I decided to buy it. When it arrived the other day I found it had a couple of companians in the package.


The first of the free cards I was sent is a Eusebio Sport Kings mini. For those of you who don't know Eusebio was a soccer player. He played 64 times for Portugal and scored 46 goals. He is one of the greatest ever european soccer stars.

The third card in the package was a War Admiral Sport Kings mini.War Admiral was born in 1934, he won the Triple Crown in 1937.The three races which make up the Triple Crown are The Kentucky Derby,The Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes.Most non race fans will know of War Admiral because of his famous match race with Seabiscuit. Seabiscuit defeated War Admiral by for lengths in the Pimlico Special of 1938,thus cementing his claim as the best racehorse of the era. War Admiral gained $273,240 in prize money during his career,winning 21 of the 26 races he competed in.After retirement he went on to become one of the top stud horses of the 20th century. War Admiral passed away in 1959.

It's a Bit Blowy Here.

As my Dad would say "we are having a bit of weather at the moment".

Good to Have Friends.

Tony over at collector from across the pond(Wales No1 Baseball Card Blog)was kind enough to send me a couple of James Shields cards this week. First up we have two cards from 2009 t206,the card with the white border is the standard base card and then we have the bronze border parallel. I like the look of the 2009 set so much more than the terrible looking 2010 set.These are very nice additions to the Shields PC.




The other card Tony sent is an Upper Deck Ballpark Auto/GU. Always pleaseing to add an auto or GU,doubly pleasing to get both in one card.This set is one of the reasons I miss Upper Deck,yes it was overpriced and some of the multi player GU cards had an odd mixture of players,but it is a nice looking set, one I am happy to own.

I have some more new Shields cards to show off,but as Tony is a good friend I think these cards deserve a post of their own. Also a quick thank you to Martyn at Steal Second (Blackburns No1 card Blog)for sending me teo Scott Kazmir GU cards.I will post these when I get the scans sorted out.

BTW nice to see the Yankees get mullered today,even though a typhoon knocked out my electric midway through the 5th inning.

Shields Shopping Spree.

What do you do when your team is bombed out of the play-offs?Sulk?Whine?No,you go shopping.Here is my latest batch of James Shields pick up from COMC.
First up a 2006 Topps Update.

Topps 2007

2008 Goudey,shame it has Jeter on the front.

2009 Topps t206.Prefer last years look to this years.

Bowman 2010 Base card.

Allen and Ginter 2010 mini,looking for the black border one next.

Bowman 2010 blue border 36/250

Bowman 2010 Gold border.

2009 Upper Deck Icons base card,really like the look of this one.

Topps 2008 Gold border 1012/2008

2006 Topps Rookie Debut.

Fleer Ultra Retail 884/999

2006 Upper Deck Rookie Card.

2007 Upper Deck Base

2010 Upper Deck Base.

2008 Upper Deck Diamond Collection.

There is Always Next Year.

Hats off to Texas and Cliff Lee. I hope they kick the Yankees butt.

Who Will Win The Battle Of The Lefties.

ALDS Game 5. Which superstar leftie will prevail? I really hope Price can deliver the goods tonight,but I honestly think Lee is going to be too good for an up and down Rays line up.

Oh Dear.

I hate this card,in fact I loathe this card. I can't decide if Shields looks more like a Rabbi or Circus clown. Imagine a red nose and make up and bingo you have Coco the clown. Topps seem to have scored a bit of an own goal this year. Firstly we had the Chicle set,which if we are honest was a bit of a let down.Some fantastic artwork mixed in with some bloody awful artwork. Tony at collecter from across the pond has addressed the Chicle issue in his blog,including the Tom Seaver "evil twin"card. I know Topps wanted to keep the 206 series in keeping with the original,but unless all those old timers were suffering water on the brain Topps missed big time.The Shields above is not the only weird looking card in the set,many of the players seem to be suffering from pumpkin head syndrome. About time Topps got some new artists I think.

Got Quads?

Two new Shields cards to show off to you. As you can see both are quad GU from 2009 Upper Deck Ballpark Collection. These are my first multi player GU cards and I am fairly happy with both. I do have a problem with the top card though. As you can see it has another of my plyers Matt Garza on it, the problem I have is that Garza is still in his Twins uniform. He was traded to the Rays prior to the 2008 season,so this just smacks of laziness on the part of Upper Deck. I know there were complaints with many of their products during 2009, the SPX set had many GU cards showing the player in the wrong uniform. Is it any wonder that MLB went with Topps and no one else for the license to produce cards.