A Tour of the Museum

Folks!

This week saw the release of another of Topps’ high-end Baseball products, namely 2013 Museum Collection!

I’ve got to confess that this is one of my favourite of all of Topps high-end sets. I thought that last years was pretty awesome, but this year Topps have gone the extra mile and produced some absolutely beautiful looking cards! Due to the cost it’s unlikely I’ll ever be reviewing a box first-hand, so I decided to scour eBay and Twitter and bring you a few images just to show you how awesome these cards actually are.

So if you’re a fan of relics and autographs then check these out!!

Nice eh? That last one of Willie Mays was pulled by Brent Williams over in the US as part of his usual case breaks!

God I love that card

Have a look on eBay and you’ll be sure to see something that takes your fancy, and I’d highly recommend adding one or two of these to your own PCs – they’re guaranteed to make a great centre-piece!

The 2013 Topps Museum Collection Baseball Review Hub

With Baseball card products dropping like every 10 minutes or something at the moment, we turn our attention to Topps’ latest high-end release, 2013 Museum Collection!

Now I’ve read a lot of people questioning the logic and business sense of releasing two high-end products so closely together (Tribute released last week) but great looking and really expensive cards are our crosses to bear, I guess!

This really is a set for Game-Used relic lovers as it’s crammed full of jersey swatch and patch cards, with a side-order of bat cards and autos thrown in for good measure!!

And the cards look absolutely beautiful this year! I loved the look of last years as well, by=ut Topps have really upped the ante this time around in the design department!!

Anyway, on with the reviews!

You know the drill by now!! I’ll scour the web, looking for product reviews and then post the links below, keeping them together in one nice and handy location!

So without further ado…

- REVIEWS TO FOLLOW -

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The Cards Infinity Video Break (starring Chris Justice)

Something Old, Something New, Something Game-Used, Something Blue

Guess what?? Time for another giveaway!!

A few days ago I hit 300 followers on Twitter, and I promised a giveaway to commemorate the milestone. I wanted to make it a theme – hence the title of this post – and this time, rather than a single giveaway, I’ve dug out four different items from my collection that I’ll be dishing out over the next four weeks!

– Please note that this is a Twitter giveaway only –

To have a chance at getting hold of any of these four cards you’ll need to be following this blog on Twitter! Now while I can appreciate that some of you might not be MASSIVE fans of Social Media in its various forms, Twitter is something I’ve really embraced over the last few months and I don’t think that this blog would have grown in the way it has without me reaching out into the Twitter-verse and meeting a huge number of dealers, collectors and other industry odd-bods – all joined in a shared love of our great Hobby!

Have a read of this great article from The Pack Gambler, Social Media within the collecting community, and see if that sways you!

Anyway, I guess you want to know what’s on offer over the coming weeks?

Something Old

1975 Topps Bob Gibson

Something New

2012 Bowman Bryce Harper Chrome Prospect

Something Game-Used

2012 Panini National Treasures Josh Hamilton Jersey #’d/99

Something Blue

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Jim Palmer and Brooks Robinson #’d/499

I’ll be drawing the first winner from whomever is following me on Twitter next Monday 20th May at 9.00pm GMT (4.00pm EST). I’m not interested in all of this ‘need to hit 1000 followers’ business before I make the draw. I’ll just make a random selection through TwitterDraw and whoever is following me on Twitter at the time will be in with a chance of winning!

It’s as simple as that!!

First up next Monday will be Something Game-Used!!

Good luck!

Coming Soon – Trade Bait

I’ve finally gotten round to sorting out what few cards I have lying around and I’ve decided to set up a ‘Trade List’ and attached it to the blog!!

After copious hours researching the best way of setting this up (turns out you just have to add a new ‘Page’ which took me about 10 seconds after I’d worked out what to do – duh!!!) I’ll soon start the process of building the list!

I’ll send out a post each time I update it and you can find the link as per the screen grab below!

More details to follow soon!

Flying The Flag

Perhaps unsurprisingly there are very few Baseball card blogs in the UK.

As I write this I believe that ‘The Wax Fantastic’ is one of only three that I’d consider to be ‘active’ in the blogging community, and as there are so few of us I thought it was about time I let all you guys know about my fellow UK-based blogging peers!!

Firstly we have John Arnold and his Pursuit of 80′s(ness). John hails from Westgate-On-Sea down in Kent and, like myself, is a true child of the 80′s. ‘The Pursuit of 80′s(ness)’ is a Baseball card blog at its heart but John isn’t afraid to mix it up and throw in the occasional Pop Culture post every now and again either!

Although he doesn’t post as much as I’m sure he’d like, John’s blog is well worth a look. He’s a Red Sox fan and collector, and regularly updates his trades lists, so pop on over, you never know what gems you might find!

Secondly we have Martyn Heap and I Collect Ball Cards!! He used to run his blog as ‘Arbitrary Crap’ but he recently transferred everything over after I believe his original blog was externally compromised.

As with John, ‘I Collect Ball Cards’ is mainly a Baseball card blog but there is a strong emphasis on Football (US) as well. Martyn is a very regular poster and will often run mini-contests as well to give away some of his collection! There’s lots of content to go through and is well worth a look as well!!

And Martyn’s a Chris Getz collector – how many times have you heard anyone say THAT before?

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So, there you go with the other two UK-based Baseball card blogs that I’m aware of! Maybe one day we’ll see some more regular blogs appear – who knows??

As an aside you might also want to check out Ash’s blog England Tribe which, although not specifically a Baseball card blog, is Ash’ tribute to the Cleveland Indians from a UK fans perspective!

And from a European point of view we have the following ball card blogs -

• Gem Mint by Fabio Paoleri in Italy
• Baseball Cards Germany by Daniel in Germany (surprisingly enough)
• The Dutch Card Guy by The Dutch Card Guy in Holland

As you can see there are a few of us out there trying to rally UK and European collectors, so please give us all your support and continue to read our blogs! For those of you who do already you have my eternal gratitude!!

Spread the word and let’s see how many more we can get on board!!

2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Preview

Now that’s what I call impeccable timing!!

With 2013 Bowman Baseball already doing the rounds Topps goes and tantalizes us with our first glimpse of the third and final entry in this year’s ‘official’ Bowman releases, Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects!

When I say ‘official’ I’m not counting Bowman Platinum, Sterling and the new Bowman Inception. I always see those as like the black sheep of Bowman family. Nope, I always look at  Bowman, Bowman Chrome and Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects as the primary Bowman releases, and always see these as the cards to own in terms of Rookie and Prospect collecting!

Click here for the sell sheet to have a look at what the fuss will be all about come November!

With the same basic design as the recently released 2013 Bowman, Draft Picks & Prospects extends the line to add several of the 2013 Draft Class as well as a number of this years new Rookies!! Then throw in the usual mix of autographs and Prospects, and it’s difficult to go wrong!!!

Can’t wait for this one!!!

The 2013 Bowman Baseball Review Hub

BOWMAN BASEBALL HAS LANDED!! I repeat – BOWMAN BASEBALL HAS LANDED!!

Now this is the one (along with a few others I dare say) that I’ve been waiting for!

2013 Bowman Baseball from Topps hit the streets yesterday, Wednesday 8th May, and has already set the Internet afire with the anticipation of all those new Chrome Prospects autos that we can get our grubby little mitts on.

I’ve got another post brewing about the greatness of Bowman Baseball that will see the light of day in the very near future, so I won’t bombard you with any more hyperbole at this stage.

I expect we’ll see a good few reviews over the coming weeks for this always-popular product, so keep checking to see what all the other collectors have to say about the awesomeness that is – Bowman Baseball.

- REVIEWS TO FOLLOW -

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The Cards Infinity Video Break (starring Chris Justice)

Dead links will be removed as and when you tell me about them!!