Ending Up With It Anyway

I had an agreement to trade for this 2011 manufactured patch card of Manny Ramirez with a blogger. I just had to find the patch card that he was looking for. After two blasters without success, I decided it would be cheaper to head on eBay. I could pick up the patch for a fraction of the price of a blaster and know exactly what I was getting, as opposed to the unknown gamble that awaited another blaster purchase.

After losing out on a dozen auctions of the patch I was looking to pick up to trade for the Ramirez, I saw the White Sox card at an auction ending in a few minutes with no bids. Fully expecting to get outbid at the last possible second, I put in the minimum bid. Amazingly, I won the auction and ended up paying ninety-nine cents for the card.

Sometimes you end up with what you were looking for, despite your best efforts to trade for it. I'm sure that the blogger and I will find another trade to pull the trigger on, later in the season. I'll still be on the lookout for that patch that I was willing to trade away, just in case.

The First White Sox Cards Of 2011

Yes, I braved the elements this morning to make a trip to Target. A blizzard is expected to hit this afternoon and I do not want to be out in that! My main and only purpose was to purchase a blaster of 2011 Topps Baseball Series One. I had no other agenda in that store, so if they didn't have the blasters, I would have wasted my time.

Luckily, not only were the blasters there, but single and rack packs were as well.

I excitedly rushed home and carefully ripped open the blaster. I slid my finger underneath the back flap to separate the top and bottom and tore the first pack open. My very first card of 2011 was...

Jeremy Bonderman.

An AL Central rival. Not bad, but not exactly what I was looking for.

The rest was a blur, which was not recorded for posterity. The second pack contained my first White Sox card of the year.

243 - Omar Vizquel!
This is a card that Dinged Corners should love. There's a goofy grin, a ball in flight, and the very last second before a mid-air moment. Ahhh. Spring is almost here.

The next White Sox card in the blaster is...

93 - Paul Konerko
He may have been with two clubs before the White Sox, but hardly anyone remembers that. He will be a White Sox forever. Paulie gave us a scare this offseason, but in the end, there was no better decision than to remain where he is beloved.

The next White Sox card is...

128 - Manny Ramirez
It was a bold experiment that utterly failed. Now there's one more card commemorating that event.

The last White Sox card is...

322 - Brent Morel
Ah, but this is no ordinary card. This is a Target Retro parallel card. Only the last two packs of the blaster are these parallels, all but assuring me that I will never complete this parallel set. Only two packs, yet I pulled two different Strasburg base cards in the old school parallel.

Overall, this blaster was full of surprises. There were a few cool looking insert sets. A couple of platinum diamond parallel cards. Three code cards. And, yes, the Mickey Mantle base card. Sigh. The design is not that bad and is something that will probably grow on me throughout the year. Topps really doesn't seem to put much effort into their base set anymore. Everything is thrown into cutesy gimmicks and parallels. All in all, still not a bad start to the collecting year.