UK Cards Topps 2016 Baseball Break

I joined a Facebook group called 'UK Cards' and every now and then we decide to all pay in to a box break.

The first of 2016 was for the Topps Baseball set. There's a lot of Yankees fans in the group and so between us all we decide who is getting the Yankees. I've not had them yet but guess I will do one day.

Every interested member pays £20 and the number of members entering decides the number of Hobby boxes we buy. This time there were 18 members so the organiser Glenn purchased a full case of which 6 boxes would be for the group and the rest for himself.

I didn't get the Yankees but still entered and decided to go for the Nationals. Any unallocated team goes into a draw. I ended up with:

Every Box - Washington Nationals
Box 2 - Colorado Rockies
Box 3 - Milwaukee Brewers
Box 4 - Milwaukee Brewers
Box 6 - Colorado Rockies

I'll post my cards and thoughts on the set when I receive them.

If you want to watch the breaks they're all filmed

Box #1 - https://youtu.be/UQ5gs2hEFgQ
Box #2 - https://youtu.be/jalp7kbWaFg
Box #3 (part 1) - https://youtu.be/X52XP5QMpdc
Box #3 (part 2) - https://youtu.be/C9jkrPI8AaU
Box #4 - https://youtu.be/lP4mkhxX_-4
Box #5 - https://youtu.be/kxjTGzEgSZ4
Box #6 - https://youtu.be/vW-DNher_S4

Pay Day Blues

It's Here!

As mentioned in my previous post January pay day is always a welcome arrival. The long time between December pay day and the one in January along with the excesses of Christmas mean funds are tight during the month of January so when pay day arrives at the end of January it usually involves an increased spending compared to normal months.

So the postie has been busy this week with a number of deliveries.

First up was a lot of 2015 Gypsy Queen Framed Paper White. 18 cards for $0.99.

I like the 2015 GQ collection and the white cards really took my eye so trying to complete the set.

When looking at an item on eBay I always look to see what other lots they have so I can combine shipping costs otherwise it's too expensive. Luckily this seller had some other lots so I got:

Another 2015 GQ Mini Red for my collection 

and a lot of 2015 Allen & Ginter minis including 

a CC card for my Yankees collection

The following day I received 10 items comprising of 65 cards. Mostly for my Yankees collection.

Some nice additions. I really like the 2014 Gypsy Queen insert lot of the Babe, Yogi and Mo and the 2001 Upper Deck Joe DiMaggio cards. Might go for the set of those.

There's just to many cards to collect and my eyes are too big!

Zistle Time

Collecting on a budget means one thing.

Trading!

As well as the members of the 'UK Card' group on Facebook, The Dutch Card Guy from Holland and The Italian Completist I trade with members of the database and trading site Zistle.

Today my 10th successful trade arrived the America and I'm very pleased with it.

Last year (2015) I decided I'd start collecting baseball cards from the year of my birth so the 1968 Topps set was added to my wantlist.

My wife started my collection off (with help from a UK Cards member) as a Christmas present so 47 cards marked the start of my collection.

As the end of January, and payday, approached I decided I'd add some cards to my collection. The usual frustration with ebay and the high postage costs to England switched my attention to Zistle.

The easy to use 'Find Trades' guided me to 'Bumfan'. A quick check of this users profile showed as well as being from Washington State had successfully completed 20+ trades. As I always do I contact the user first to see if they are willing to trade with a collector from England. The higher shipping costs and associated risk is something that puts some users off and I have been turned down before for those reasons. Fortunately they said yes and using the 'Trade Manager' you can easily select the 'cards you get' and then 'cards they get' and then review the 'trade summary'.

In this instance I was after the 1968 set and the cards they were getting were mainly 2015 base set so I offered nearly 3 cards for my 1. Seemed a fair deal and always keen to set a sweetener on the first trade to encourage repeat trades.

Anyway the cards were posted in both directions, theirs arrived yesterday and mine arrived today.

So after all that build up here they are. 24 more cards for my 1968 collection and a 2015 insert I was missing too.

Nice cards in good condition and mostly nicely centred

 The other cards including the 2015 'Til It's Over