Hollywood42's Rolling Pickups Thread- 2015

[Hollywood42]

This thread will be my official showoff thread for my acquisitions during 2015. Whenever I get anything I feel like sharing, I will post here to show them off!


I was hoping I would be able to post this thread sooner, but college makes it hard to do any trading/buying, so my first post hasn't been until now. But, it should be a fun one! I was home for Twinsfest this past weekend, and I had a great time! Let's get to my summary of my day and pickup pictures!


I attended this year with my girlfriend. It was her first time going, and while it took her a bit of getting used to with all the waiting in lines through the day, she adapted and had a great time! The first thing we did when we got into Target Field was head to the yard sale. I was hoping to find something cool and affordable, but only found cool stuff

In all seriousness, there wasn't a lot of stuff I was interested in. I actually found a Chris Herrmann game used bat, complete with MLB authentication sticker and everything, but it had a $75 price tag on it which was just too much for me this time around. It hurt a lot, but I put it back and moved on. Held some other cool stuff, including bats from Colabello, Koskie, jerseys of Sam Fuld, Jordan Shafer, and more cool stuff. I was definitely interested in some things, but based on prices, the only thing we came close to buying was a huge cardboard standup of Brian Dozier. This thing was probably 7 feet tall and would have been kinda cool/amusing/difficult for Dozier to sign later on in the day, but common sense won over (nobody wanted to carry the big thing around all day, and we already had something cool for Dozier to sign), so we left the yard sale empty handed.

Next, we went down to the service level to walk through the dealer tables. I was looking to try to find something cool for Danny Santana to sign, as well as get a couple cards of the lesser named players for them to sign, but we struck out on both as well. The only cool things of Santana we saw were Fan HQs cleats and batting gloves of him (which were already signed anyways and too expensive at this time), but I promised myself a long time ago I would find a way to buy those sometime. But we passed on the cards too, as all of the dealers were trying to sell minor league cards of guys you have never heard of for 2 or 3 bucks, just because they knew they were signing today. Having struck out on everything so far, it was time to go get in line for the first autograph session of the day.

The first line we went to was Danny Santana, Eduardo Escobar, Brian Duensing, Nate Hanson, and Treyson Vavra. The original plan was too have something cooler than a baseball or 8x10 for Santana to sign, and have a card for Hanson, but as I already mentioned, those plans didn't work out and we went with ROMLBs for everyone in this line. Check em out:

Danny Santana



Eduardo Escobar



Brian Duensing



Nate Hanson



I will show the Vavra ball in just a little bit- You'll see why!


With some new ink, we ran upstairs to the suite level to catch our next set of autographs: Kennys Vargas, Mike Pelfrey, Eric Fryer, AJ Achter, and Tanner Vavra. To my surprise, there was absolutely no line when we got there. It was down to the last 45 min of their allotted time, but I was still expecting to have to wait a bit. Not going to complain though! We had a mix of items to get signed for this line. Check them out!


Kennys Vargas bat


Zoomed in look at the auto:



Mike Pelfrey ROMLB



Eric Fryer



AJ Achter picture will appear later on in this post


Tanner Vavra- Here's the Treyson Vavra autograph as well!



I asked Tanner if he recognized the signature already on the ball, and he laughed and said he definitely did! My plan is to get Joe Vavra to sign the same ball next year to complete the family. Worked out well so far and should be fun to complete!

The bat I had Vargas sign was originally intended for Buxton to sign- I missed his line by 5 people last year. So close! I was able to get Miguel Sano to sign a bat last year though (the plan was to have Buxton and Sano, the stars of the future, sign matching bats). However, after seeing Buxton was paired with Tony Oliva this year, I knew the lines would be really long and didn't want to spend all my time in lines this year. So, I had an extra bat, and after seeing Vargas crush some baseballs last year, he was the easy choice to have it signed by! I love the way it turned out, signature looks really clean and everything! Love silver on black for bats.

To my disappointment, none of the players so far had been very outgoing. I know some of the guys we had met already (Santana, Escobar, Vargas) may not have the best English, so I could understand it. But both of the Vavra brothers were really laid back and fun, and Palfrey and Achter were nice guys as well.

Moving on! From there, it was time to honor my girlfriend's wish- Hit the photo session with Paul Molitor. We went back down to the club level, ran over to the photo station, and after a bit of confusion on how to actually go in the right way, we got a picture with Molitor in the last 5 minutes of his appearance. Timing was going really well so far! Molitor was a really nice guy, shaking both of our hands, asking our names, and thanking us for coming out, making a bit more small talk too. Those Minnesota guys, I'm tellin ya!

After that, it was time to continue our busy morning by jumping back down to the service level and getting in the last "must do" autograph line of the day: Brian Dozier, Ryan Pressly, Tom Brunansky, and Tyle Duffey. The line was already pretty long when we got there, and I originally was worried we wouldn't be able to get through, but it turned out to not be any problem at all and we got through in just half an hour. Check out the goodies from this line!

Dozier All-Star jersey



Ryan Pressly ROMLB



Tom Brunansky ROMLB



Tyler Duffey (and AJ Achter) on a mini helmet I got years ago after buying ice cream at a ballgame



This line was easily my top priority this year. The Dozier jersey looks absolutely awesome! After hosting the ASG this past year, I knew I needed to get some related stuff signed by the guys the Twins had take part in the festivities. I love the jersey, the plan is to have it framed with the arm patches showing. It is super awesome!

Achter and Duffey on the mini helmet looks a lot better than I was expecting it too, not going to lie! I'll probably bring that helmet back in the future years for more of the lower-named guys to sign. Gotta fill up that blank space!

Brunansky and Duffey were both really nice as well, and joked around with us, as my girlfriend was helping me carry everything (I swear, she wanted to!), so that was a lot of fun! Dozier was also really nice, as expected, and made a bit of small talk while signing the jersey. Super happy with the results from this line!

That concluded the busy part of our day, and the rest of the day would be much leisurely. It was around 12:30 at this point, and we were both pretty hungry, so we went up to the club level and got some food, snagged a chair and ate overlooking the field partially covered in snow. It's always fun to just look at a ballfield- There's something about it!

From there, it was really whatever we wanted to do. We decided to first go down and walk through the Twins clubhouse. I had done that the year before, but my girlfriend hadn't been in there. Needless to say, it was an awesome experience. They had an area open that they didn't last year, and we got to walk down a hallway, see where we think the players go to the dugout, and be right next to the Twins' batting cages. Super, super cool.

After that, we went into the Champions Club. That is the super expensive ticket area, the big cushioned seats right behind home plate. They have a big restaurant-type thing back there, complete with a bar and everything. There, we watched Brian Dozier, Nick Gordon, and some fans play some minute to win it type games. It was nice to just sit for awhile, as we had been on our feet lugging around a bunch of stuff all day.

When we finished up there, we walked through the dealer tables again. I don't think I mentioned this before, but the lighting and spacing was much, much better than last year. Space was still tight in the morning when the Torii Hunter auto line ran down the entire hallway, but it was much better than last year. Anyways, this was our time to actually look through cards and everything closely, as before was more of a quick run through just looking for a few certain things. We saw some really cool cards, but only ended up getting 6 hobby packs of 2014 Update (we rip them soon!), and the following 3 cards:

Jorge Polanco Inception auto, Glen Perkins auto /399, Torii Hunter dual relic



Got the trio for just 10 bucks, so I think it was a pretty decent deal!

I saw a bunch of other things that I wanted to get, but didn't have the money for (which was probably for the best anyways). So, we wrapped up down there and headed back up to the Metropolitan Club on the club level to walk around there. That didn't take long at all, as it was a bunch of booths with business for the most part, nothing too exciting. But, we did sit on a comfy bench for a little bit and unwrap the 2014 Update packs we had just gotten!

The dealer had the packs set at 3 for $5, so I picked 3 and she picked 3. We put them in my bag while we finished up downstairs, so they were mixed up when we got upstairs to rip them. But, my girlfriend killed me in a little pack war. There wasn't anything crazy out of the first 5 packs (we didn't do too bad either tho, a nice mix of inserts, golds, a red foil, I think we did alright). But then this guy popped out of my girlfriend's last pack:

Chapman clear parallel #ed 05/10



Are you serious? Man, I don't think there's been a time I've opened '14 Update this year where I didn't get something awesome! Even out of these 6 hobby packs, we pull a Chapman numbered to 10! We definitely won with the packs, it was great!

Carefully putting everything back into the packs and gently into storage, we were essentially done for the day. We did just walk around everything for awhile longer, taking everything in and just enjoying being there. But we had done everything we had set out to do, and it was time to head out.

All in all, it was another awesome day at Twinsfest! I'm glad I've made it a habit to go there whenever I can, it never ceases to disappoint!



That's all I have to share in my first post! Thanks much for the read! Again, this will be updated throughout the year with my pulls, trades, purchases, etc. It will be pretty slow when I'm at school, but I do my best to get trades in when I'm home on breaks. So, thanks for the look!

[TTMMaster19]

Awesome!! My highlight was probably getting Buxton and Saño! Awesome jersey

[awz50]

Awesome stuff looks like tons of fun

[enbambam6986]

Nice! Looks like Twinsfest was awesome, I wish the mets had one

[exitmusicblue]

Dig the cards and the stories !

[Firerunner4]

Really cool stuff! Thanks for sharing, great stories. Also that Dozier jersey looks amazing!

[Hollywood42]

Thanks for the comments everyone! Twinsfest is always a blast, and it was again this year. To the comments about the Dozier jersey- I saw it in the Fan HQ store and I knew I had to get one and get it signed. Super pleased with how it turned out!

[Hollywood42]

Hey everyone! Not a whole lot to share today, but just a few things I forgot/didn't know about my previous post!

First off, I just realized the Glen Perkins autographed card in my last post is actually a refractor auto! I knew it was numbered to 399, but I didn't realize it was a refractor until last night!

Next, I have a few more cards to share! After my busy weekend last week, I had completely forgotten that after Twinsfest, my girlfriend and I stopped by Target and got a few more packs! Here's what we got:

1 rack pack 2014 Bowman Platinum (3 packs, 1 purple refractor pack)
1 rack pack 2014 Topps Chrome (3 packs, 1 orange refractor pack)
1 loose pack 2014 Topps Update (12 cards)

Here's the breakdown of what we got!

Platinum
A couple of base cards, but the prospect cards were the most notable of the base, including Soler, Joc Pederson, Trahan. After that, we really beat the odds, getting a Jason Kipnis Ruby and a Eddie Butler Xfractor in the same pack (both parallels are 1:20 odds!) Also hit a Gaby Sanchez Top Prospects card. In the purple refractor pack, we did alright, hitting Urias, DeShields, and Clayton Blackburn. Here's 2 highlight pics:






Chrome
The Platinum packs definitely beat out the Chrome packs this time around. Chrome wasn't a particularly bad break, just not as exciting. A couple of the better base cards were a Jeter, Goldschmidt, and a Bogaerts RC. Hit another Xfractor (Asdrubal Cabrera), and again beat the odds on an insert (1:12 odds on a Stephen Strasburg Chrome Connections). Orange refractor pack wasn't too exciting, but we got a Rafael Montero RC, Taijuan Walker RC, and a Salvador Perez. Highlight pic:




Update
As I said in my previous post, Update has always been good to me this year (for those of you that didn't read my last post, we bought 6 loose hobby packs and hit a Aroldis Chapman Clear parallel #ed/10 last time around!), so we decided to throw a couple bucks at a loose pack. Nothing crazy here- Best base card was a Betts RC. I did notice that 3 of the base cards were horribly off-center top/bottom (see Cruz in the picture below). Not a huge deal to me though, as these are probably doubles, triples, quadruples by now. Insert wise, got another Future is Now of Castellanos, but then hit an insert I haven't hit before! All-Star Game Access of Derek Jeter! Anybody know if those are retail-exclusive? I would think after opening 2 full jumbo boxes, plus a bunch of hobby packs, I would have hit an Access insert before know. Regardless, happy I got it, it looks great! Plus, it was 1:8 odds, so nice to hit that from a single pack! Highlight pic-





That's all for today! Just a couple of packs I had forgotten about. Overall, they weren't super exciting, but I think we did pretty decent overall- Beat the odds in each of the 3 products, and I think we did fairly well, even without any jaw-droppers.

So, thanks for another look! No trades or anything incoming right now, but I have a break until next Wednesday, so hopefully I'll be able to post here a couple times more soon. Thanks again!

[Hollywood42]

College has been super busy lately, but with a few extra bucks in my PayPal and a short break at home earlier in the semester, I have been able to work out a few deals. Spring Break is over tomorrow, but I was unexpectedly able to get home for a day. That means I was able to open some packages! Here's the goodies from the first half of the semester:

We'll start with the minis. First up is a Brian Dozier Mini Gold parallel that I picked up cheap. Numbered 56/63:




Picked up the Pink parallel as well, this one is 22/25:




And, to complete the rainbow minus the 1/1s (believe I have the base card somewhere in my collection, just not in this post), I picked up the Black parallel as well! This one is 2/5, Dozier's jersey number, for what it's worth




Finally, 1 more mini I was able to add: Another Chris Herrmann Pink from the 2013 Topps Mini set! This one is numbered 07/25 and is, I believe, my 4th or 5th Herrmann Mini Pink from this set. I know where a few others are as well, so I might try and pick up all 25.




Now, let's move to some refractors. Here's a 2009 BDDP Gold Refractor of Herrmann, #ed 05/50:




Since one isn't enough, here's the 13/50 as well:




Finally, I was able to add another Orange Refractor from the set as well! This one is 23/25:




And lastly, here is one more card that I have gotten in. Like this card a lot: Patch/auto of Michael Cuddyer from 2014 Topps!





And that's my mail from the first half of the semester! Not a ton of stuff, but a bunch of cool cards that I am happy to add to my collection. Don't think I'll have a lot of time to work out many deals in the second half of the semester, but my first half pickups were pretty fun! Thanks for the look!

[harnold1018]

Any way you would trade the Vargas bat. Huge fan of him and wanting to add to my collection.

[Hollywood42]

Sorry, but no! That is staying in my PC. Pretty big fan of him as well, hope he explodes this year

Originally Posted by harnold1018

Any way you would trade the Vargas bat. Huge fan of him and wanting to add to my collection.

[Hollywood42]

Wow, it's been a long time! I'm finally back home from college and working on some trades and sales that will hopefully give me some more mailday posts soon! That being said, I have one to share today! However, it's not a conventional one- My sister was cleaning out her things, and came across some stuff she thought I would like! A few years ago, she tagged along with my dad and I to Twinsfest and got some cool stuff. Well, she decided she didn't want them anymore, and gave them to me! Check it out-

First, is a piece of Metrodome roof. No pic, but kinda cool. Then there was a baseball used in a game between the Twins and the Royals. Actually my first GUed ball in my collection, so thanks sis!

The rest are 8x10s- Check them out!


Danny Valencia and Carl Pavano signed (both picked pretty bad signing spots...):



Mauer and Morneau unsigned:



Jacque Jones and Shannon Stewart signed:



Then...


Michael Cuddyer signed!







Aaaaaand!






Joe Mauer signed!!



There we go! Some cool 8x10s to add to the collection! Great free adds to the PC. Thanks, sis!

[Hollywood42]

Y'all are gonna want to watch this thread this week- Have some SWEET cards coming in soon!

[Hollywood42]

Alright, I don't have all of my cards from this week in yet, but I have some of them! Have some down time at work right now, so I figured I might as well show off what I've gotten in so far! Let's get to it-

First off is a semi-PC card. This guy is doing really well for me in my fantasy dynasty league, and I have no doubts that this card will only go up in value-




Next, a nice little auto/relic of a guy that will soon be bashing balls into the upper deck-




Next comes a pretty color of a guy that's played pretty well for the Twins over the years. /25-




One more of the same guy- Tek Black Press Proof 1/1!




2 more cards to show- These are probably my favorite 2! First of the pair is another Orange refractor /25. Happens to be a RC as well- Love this card!




And finally, my last card to show off today, it's brother, Mr. Red Refractor RC /5!





Still shocked I was able to land those Dozier RCs /25 and /5!! Now all I need is the super and the rainbow would be pretty easy! Sadly, I read that the super has already been pulled and sold to someone's PC... Oh well, I may try to track it down anyways and see what happens!

Really pleased with the week's mail so far, and I still have more to come! Thanks for the look and be ready for another post in a day or two!

[Hollywood42]

(sorry if the scans are huge, posting from my phone and will make them smaller if need be when I can get home to my laptop)

[TTMMaster19]

Awesome awesome!!!

[enbambam6986]

Nice pickups dude!!

[Hollywood42]

Thanks you guys! Really stoked about the Mauer 1/1 and the 2 Doziers

[dbacksfan4life]

Very nice pickups! That Dozier red is beautiful.

[Hollywood42]

Thanks much! Yeah, I love it. I'll definitely be picking up some of the other parallels soon. Hopefully I'm able to track down whoever has that super too!

Originally Posted by dbacksfan4life

Very nice pickups! That Dozier red is beautiful.

[Hollywood42]

Another day of some cards to show off!

First are a couple cards I grouped together in the same image because I didn't want to take the time to do each one individually:

Joe Nathan Atomic Refractor /225
Mauer/Carew insert
Molina blue refractor /99
Berrios, Gibson, Polanco refractors




Next up is 2 more patterns of Joe Mauer from 2014 Tek. I'm pretty unsure on the pattern names, but I'll do my best...

Spiral?


and Laser Ice?



That brings my Mauer Tek collection up to 5:

Spiral, Laser Ice, Wave Gold Diffractor /99, Wave Disco Diffractor /50, and Press Proof Black /1: (Sorry if this pic is huge)


Not sure if I'm going to seriously attempt the Mauer Tek rainbow or not, as it would be expensive and really difficult, but I will definitely pick up more patterns whenever I can! Love the looks of these.

Side note, I'm taking my pictures of my Tek cards with a black background (cardboard paper underneath the card). I think they turn out really sharp that way- Definitely would recommend it!


Next, some ink- Got this one for just a buck! Autograph of an All-Star closer, great looking card with a super solid sig? Yes please. 2008 Goudey Graphs, Glen Perkins:




The rest of the cards I have to share today will be from my Chris Herrmann collection! These will be in no particular order, just showing off my new adds. I'm now over 70% completion, not including 1/1s!

First off is 2 black parallels from 2013 Topps:

19/62:



and 55/62:




My 2013 Topps rainbow of Herrmann is getting there! Just the purple, pink /50, and then the 1/1s:




Speaking of rainbows, after tracking down a Purple Refractor, my Herrmann rainbow from 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft is coming along nicely:



I'm still missing the base and a refractor, both of which are easily available to me, I'm just not willing to pay as much as people are asking for them currently (I shouldn't have to pay more for a base card and a refractor than an purple or blue refractor, right??). Still, after those two, it's just the super and 2 more plates from the full rainbow!


Next up is a card that is unnumbered, but has been surprisingly hard to find. This is my 2nd copy, and I've only seen 1 other out there. Red Prizm from 2013 Panini Prizm:




Sticking with 2013 Prizm, I got another Herrmann Orange Die Cut /60 in, also my 2nd copy. This one is 33/60:




On a side note, if anyone has Herrmann's Finite Prizm 1/1 from that set, I'm still waiting for it!




Next up, another Gold parallel /25 from 2013 America's Pastime!




I won't picture them all right now, but I know have 5 of the 25 (20%!) of Herrmann's gold parallels from this set! I have serial numbers 2, 4, 6, 15 and 19! Would love to get even more tho! Currently watching guru's case break of this set in the box breaks section and hoping he hits another Herrmann


Sticking with the theme of trying to track down entire print runs, I now have in hand my 3rd and 4th copies of Herrmann's pink parallel /25 from 2013 Topps Mini!

First, 04/25:



and, 13/25:




I won't picture all of those together right now either, but I have serial numbers 4, 7, 13 and 21, and I know where one more is! Just need to buy it


Now, I just have 2 more cards to share until I'm all caught up with my mail so far. I bet you're expecting something pretty cool, since everything to this point has been at least mildly interesting ....


But, no. All more I have right now are 2 copies of a gold parallel from 2009 Bowman Draft:







And that's it for today! Nothing super crazy, but I filled some holes in my Herrmann needs, got a couple more copies of some cards I already had, and got a few more cool Twins cards as well! My incoming mail is winding down a bit, but I believe I still have another package or two incoming. So, stay tuned! As always, thanks for the read!

[awz50]

Awesome pickups! Chris played pretty well against the Red Sox, If I remember correctly

[Hollywood42]

Thanks! And yes, he was on a hot streak then! Unfortunately, he doesn't get much playing time aside form when Suzuki needs a rest, but it's better than being in the minors for the majority of the time like he was last year. Plus, Molitor has really been complimenting him on his defense and game-calling. Now I'd just love for him to get his bat going consistently again

Originally Posted by awz50

Awesome pickups! Chris played pretty well against the Red Sox, I remember correctly

[enbambam6986]

Wow great job!! Hopefully the 1/1s show up on ebay.

[Hollywood42]

Hopefully! Believe me, I'd be the first to know. I search his cards on eBay like 5 times a day even tho I get e-mail notifications when new items of his are listed lol

Originally Posted by enbambam6986

Wow great job!! Hopefully the 1/1s show up on ebay.