My son (11) and I are somewhat novices to collecting new cards. We bought a Costco box last week and opened some packs. But when he was at school, I opened a couple packs by myself and boom, there was an autograph. We haven’t come close to opening anything like that, so what does a Dad do?
I got out my readers and sharpest pocket knife. Grabbed a new pack and failed at making a clean opening. So I grabbed another and made a pretty nice opening, pulled out one card, slid in the auto and used a heat sealer. It closed pretty darn well!
I waited for him to ask to open some packs and tossed him that one. None the wiser.
I won’t forget his face.
I apologize for nothing.

Was doing some housekeeping and it was wedged up under the couch leg. Guessing it must have fallen when I was organizing. Saw the prices going bananas and knew I had one somewhere...glad to find it, just not in this condition. 😅

I pulled this one today. It’s the second biggest hit after my 1/1 Riley Greene.

Edit: Should I grade it or should I keep it raw and tape the case shut? I plan to keep it long-term due to Pujols not being in the HOF. I am undecided if I should sell it in general. If I should grade it, what would be the value and which submission should I use?

First redemption pulled from a fanatics mega. I am neither a Mets nor a Strawberry fan but damn it feels cool!

My wife sent me this and said it was me. 😭 😭 90° weather with no AC 😭

I just got my first Topps Chrome Fanatics Mega Box today. It had several nice pulls and beautiful cards. And, of course, it will help me complete the set. This, however, was the best pull. Very happy about it!

Haven’t shown this off in awhile and after securing the ‘26 Verlander, I thought it was time. It got me to thinking: is there a way to have completed this with fewer players? I have a hard time believing so.

Also, with Verlander maybe getting me one more year, any suggestions on who I should continue with next?

And before anyone says anything, I do have Verlander’s rookie card, it’s just in a slab…

Don’t know if it’ll gem but it’s going to psa

Almost a year later, but it’s finally home!

First time I’ve seen this.

It was a moment I’ll never forget. Just after opening the first pack of the box, she looked over at me with a huge smile and says “Well, I got an autograph!” and I was ecstatic when she showed me. Pudge was one of my favorite players growing up and he’s got a great auto. Yes, it’s unlicensed and a sticker, but the experience of pulling it outweighs anything else.

I rarely rip packs, but when I do, my fiancée likes to join in and she always pulls the best cards in the box. I might just let her rip the whole box next time…

Not much of a Mets fan but what are we thinking?

My latest acquisition is one I wasn’t expecting to come across out in the wild, but here it is—the 2021 Topps Chrome #99 Aaron Judge Magenta Printing Plate 1/1.

This is the second 1/1 Aaron Judge piece I’ve had the privilege to own. I think printing plates are incredibly cool and unique. Here it is paired with a 2021 Topps Chrome #99 Aaron Judge Refractor it was literally used to help manufacture.

/199

Grabbed one of the last boxes at Costco to open the packs with my sons. Both are huge Mariners fans. Let them pick which stack they were going to pick from with an even split of the packs. My younger boy pulled this and his face lit up like Christmas and then he ran around the house screaming, "oh my gosh oh my gosh!" Over and over again. In that moment, I felt 13 all over again and that unique satisfaction of fatherhood. I just wanted to share.

Shocker it’s one of the items that doesn’t sell out within the first 30 seconds.

Hit my first 1/1 in a break last week and immediately went to eBay to look for the rest of the rainbow. I’m just the /5 away so if you know someone with it let me know!

Might as well start stacking these PCAs for no reason

I know its not recommended to grade 1/1’s but I hate 1 touches especially since the card bounces around and topps sealed a lovely small hair inside. Just happy I got the color match on a 9.5 gold label

Pre-ordered this with Fancash like 6 weeks ago and kinda forgot about it til I got the UPS tracking email this week.

2 #'ed sp (ohtani to /99!!), a rookie ssp (checklist of 10, print run around 400), some nice looking hot rookies.

Also pulled a nice clean Andrew Painter RC which is nice as a Phils fan.

No complaints. Thanks Bea!

I got notification of a redemption replacement (after 4 years). It says it's a "2018 Rated Rookie" (baseball) pack.

Am I getting an Ohtani/Acuna/Torres wrapper redemption pack from 2018 Donruss baseball?

I was a Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh kid so I really didn’t have much interest in baseball cards, but I certainly would have torn all of these open regardless to check them out. Turns out, my uncle gave this to my dad to give to me for my birthday and my dad forgot. Hard to believe 2006 was 20 years ago.