nothing really for sale or trade at the moment - need to check out all my own set needs before doing that - but just wanted to share tonight's break.....
bought 5 boxes off ebay and going in i had two very big worries......the last 5-box lot of this product i bought was purchased here on the bench....literally EVERY chrome card in all 5 boxes had two sets of roller marks and EVERY non-autographed chrome parallel except the basic un-numbered refractors had severe edge damage on the back....not to mention my only non-basic auto from that batch was an expired redemption (kyle lotzkar x-fractor).....after that experience , i was terribly paranoid that all the chrome would be damaged again or that i'd pull a big stack of expired trade cards.....
already worried about these issues , the transaction itself worried me.....bought and paid for the boxes june 28th...seller , who was listed as being in los angeles , had a 2-day shipping time....ebay gave me an estimated delivery date of july 2 so i was hopeful i'd have them in hand in time to work with them over the long holiday weekend....second comes and no package , but no worries....still have thursday the 3rd or even saturday the 5th....nope.....10 pm monday the 7th i wrote the seller just to ask if he'd actually shipped it since according to ebay it was now 5 days late AND there was no tracking number posted yet (surprising on a rather pricey package)....he wrote me back within an hour and apologized , with the following information : "Your purchase was shipped out late last week, though with the holiday rush I could see there being a bit of a backup (as there often is around here). I have the tracking info of course, sorry for not uploading it at an earlier date. The carrier is USPS. I will post the info as soon as I get to work tomorrow and have access to my work computer where everything is located."
i'll break in to add my 2-cents .....really ???? there's a postal "holiday rush" for the 4th of july ???? now christmas or even valentine's day i could see , but independence day ???? come on , man !!
ANYway , it's the next day around noon when the tracking info gets posted to ebay....i check the number ...nothing.....nada....zip...zilch....8 hours later and still no update....finally around midnight the tracking gets updated....the only info ? "july 8 - electronic shipping info received" ....i had a sneaking suspicion that he'd lied about it having been shipped the previous week , but had no proof yet.....then around 3 in the morning the next update appeared...the package was dropped off at the post office at 6:09 pm on the 8th - IN FREAKING BROOKLYN.....so now not only had he lied about WHEN it was shipped , but also from WHERE he was shipping it....he'd only had 3 sales this year (no cards at all) and only 4-5 more last year so i was definitely concerned - but relieved to know i was covered since i'd paid via credit card.....
just before 6 pm thursday , it finally arrived....had to wait til after bowling to open them , but i must say i had a blast and i think i shattered the odds....and not even one redemption card....only issue was that in 4 of the 5 boxes , the front base draft (green) card in each pack had a light diagonal surface scratch running all the way from the top right corner to the bottom border.....fortunately all the chrome , parallels , and inserts were ok....
below is a full list of all the "hits" (my personal faves highlighted in blue).....after i go through my partial sets and see what i need and what i have left , i'll add a follow-up post to let you know what is available and what i still need (working on a master set w/o superfractors and plates so my need list is extensive).....
a-rod road to 500
426
432
432 x2
436
437
438
439
440
445
blue draft draft picks
19 lars davis 161/399
22 matt west 125/399
31 scott carroll 150/399
blue future's game prospects
67 collin balester 257/399
98 joey votto 263/399
draft picks refractors
7 cory luebke
12 freddie freeman
30 justin jackson
42 daniel descalso
47 jason monti
54 jason heyward
62 danny payne
future's game prospect refractors
68 carlos carrasco
74 franklin morales
75 luke hochevar
104 matt tolbert
draft x-fractor
46 homer bailey 33/299
future's game prospects x-fractor
103 jay bruce 295/299
draft picks blue refractor
50 sean doolittle 32/199
future's game prospects blue refractor
104 matt tolbert 153/199
future's game gold refractor
89 j r towles 15/50
draft orange refractor
34 matt brown 25/25 - damaged
autographs
124 james simmons
127 jonathan gilmore
134 nick hagadone
135 clayton mortensen
refractor autograph
137 ed easley 294/500
gold refractor autograph
122 michael main 50/50
bought 5 boxes off ebay and going in i had two very big worries......the last 5-box lot of this product i bought was purchased here on the bench....literally EVERY chrome card in all 5 boxes had two sets of roller marks and EVERY non-autographed chrome parallel except the basic un-numbered refractors had severe edge damage on the back....not to mention my only non-basic auto from that batch was an expired redemption (kyle lotzkar x-fractor).....after that experience , i was terribly paranoid that all the chrome would be damaged again or that i'd pull a big stack of expired trade cards.....
already worried about these issues , the transaction itself worried me.....bought and paid for the boxes june 28th...seller , who was listed as being in los angeles , had a 2-day shipping time....ebay gave me an estimated delivery date of july 2 so i was hopeful i'd have them in hand in time to work with them over the long holiday weekend....second comes and no package , but no worries....still have thursday the 3rd or even saturday the 5th....nope.....10 pm monday the 7th i wrote the seller just to ask if he'd actually shipped it since according to ebay it was now 5 days late AND there was no tracking number posted yet (surprising on a rather pricey package)....he wrote me back within an hour and apologized , with the following information : "Your purchase was shipped out late last week, though with the holiday rush I could see there being a bit of a backup (as there often is around here). I have the tracking info of course, sorry for not uploading it at an earlier date. The carrier is USPS. I will post the info as soon as I get to work tomorrow and have access to my work computer where everything is located."
i'll break in to add my 2-cents .....really ???? there's a postal "holiday rush" for the 4th of july ???? now christmas or even valentine's day i could see , but independence day ???? come on , man !!
ANYway , it's the next day around noon when the tracking info gets posted to ebay....i check the number ...nothing.....nada....zip...zilch....8 hours later and still no update....finally around midnight the tracking gets updated....the only info ? "july 8 - electronic shipping info received" ....i had a sneaking suspicion that he'd lied about it having been shipped the previous week , but had no proof yet.....then around 3 in the morning the next update appeared...the package was dropped off at the post office at 6:09 pm on the 8th - IN FREAKING BROOKLYN.....so now not only had he lied about WHEN it was shipped , but also from WHERE he was shipping it....he'd only had 3 sales this year (no cards at all) and only 4-5 more last year so i was definitely concerned - but relieved to know i was covered since i'd paid via credit card.....
just before 6 pm thursday , it finally arrived....had to wait til after bowling to open them , but i must say i had a blast and i think i shattered the odds....and not even one redemption card....only issue was that in 4 of the 5 boxes , the front base draft (green) card in each pack had a light diagonal surface scratch running all the way from the top right corner to the bottom border.....fortunately all the chrome , parallels , and inserts were ok....
below is a full list of all the "hits" (my personal faves highlighted in blue).....after i go through my partial sets and see what i need and what i have left , i'll add a follow-up post to let you know what is available and what i still need (working on a master set w/o superfractors and plates so my need list is extensive).....
a-rod road to 500
426
432
432 x2
436
437
438
439
440
445
blue draft draft picks
19 lars davis 161/399
22 matt west 125/399
31 scott carroll 150/399
blue future's game prospects
67 collin balester 257/399
98 joey votto 263/399
draft picks refractors
7 cory luebke
12 freddie freeman
30 justin jackson
42 daniel descalso
47 jason monti
54 jason heyward
62 danny payne
future's game prospect refractors
68 carlos carrasco
74 franklin morales
75 luke hochevar
104 matt tolbert
draft x-fractor
46 homer bailey 33/299
future's game prospects x-fractor
103 jay bruce 295/299
draft picks blue refractor
50 sean doolittle 32/199
future's game prospects blue refractor
104 matt tolbert 153/199
future's game gold refractor
89 j r towles 15/50
draft orange refractor
34 matt brown 25/25 - damaged
autographs
124 james simmons
127 jonathan gilmore
134 nick hagadone
135 clayton mortensen
refractor autograph
137 ed easley 294/500
gold refractor autograph
122 michael main 50/50
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