Tag Archives: Billy Hamilton

2020 Mets Debut Autographs

Posted by on 12 September 2020 Comments Off on 2020 Mets Debut Autographs

It’s getting late early

Three quarters of the way through the abbreviated season, the Mets’ pitching situation has gone about as well as you would expect. Injuries and ineffectiveness chipped away at the makeshift rotation, which saw Steven Matz and David Peterson demoted to the bullpen and Seth “Absoluetly Not a Starter” Lugo and Robert Gsellman promoted. Lugo quickly cemented his role as the #2 starter while Gsellman was just #2 until injuries took him down as well. As for Marcus Stroman, his return never materialized and he opted out for the season. Anyone with a pulse and a 40-man spot is getting a shot at the rotation now, including new arrival Ariel Jurado, with less than stellar results. At least Jacob deGrom started getting run support?

Despite everything that went wrong (by chance or design), the Mets still found themselves within reach of a playoff spot. 8 spots for 15 teams will do that… So it was anyone’s guess what they would do at the trade deadline. Buy for a big run? Sell and regroup for next year? Stand pat and let the chips fall where they may? They did none of these things and dealt prospect Kevin Smith (who would have his first Mets autographs released less than a month later) and three PTBNLs for reliever Miguel Castro, catcher Robinson Chirinos, and old friend Todd Frazier, aka literally the least you could do without doing nothing. Predictably, their record was 21-24 at the 3/4 mark, 2 games (and 3 teams) back in the playoff race. It’s not over, but they’re going to need to do something soon if they plan on playing past September, whatever that ends up looking like.

Andrés Giménez* Jake Marisnick Dellin Betances Eduardo Nunez
24 July 2020 24 July 2020 25 July 2020 25 July 2020
Hunter Strickland Rick Porcello Michael Wacha Chasen Shreve
25 July 2020 26 July 2020 27 July 2020 27 July 2020
David Peterson* Brian Dozier Ryan Cordell Franklyn Kilomé*
28 July 2020 30 July 2020 30 July 2020 1 August 2020
Jared Hughes Billy Hamilton Ali Sánchez* Ariel Jurado
3 August 2020 5 August 2020 10 August 2020 1 September 2020
Miguel Castro Robinson Chirinos Erasmo Ramirez Guillermo Heredia
2 September 2020 3 September 2020 7 September 2020 21 September 2020

*MLB Debut

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2012 Biggest Pulls

Posted by on 29 December 2012 Comments Off on 2012 Biggest Pulls

And the hits don’t really come all that often

2012 was my first year back in the hobby opening current-year product in ten years and I didn’t fool around, going with multiple boxes of ten different products.  For my trouble, I pulled two cards that sold for more than $100 and enough in total to earn me top rated seller status on eBay.  So what does the return on a big purchase look like?  Stop reading now if you want to keep the illusion that every box of cards holds untold riches just waiting to be set free.

Boxes of Chance

Here’s what I ended up buying this year:

4 Boxes of Bowman
6 Boxes of Topps Archives
3 Jumbo Boxes of Topps Series 2
3 Boxes of Topps Pro Debut
4 Boxes of Panini Triple Play
3 Boxes of Topps Chrome
2 Boxes of Topps Heritage Minor League Edition
3 Jumbo Boxes of Topps Update
4 Boxes of Bowman Chrome
3 Boxes of Panini Cooperstown

And a bunch of retail packs.  That’s a lot of cards, so surely something good must have come from all of that, right?

Harsh Reality

1. 2012 Topps Archives Bryce Harper Fan Favorites Autograph Redemption
$317

The big one came early this year with one of Bryce Harper’s first official “rookie card” autographs.  These started out at about $500, but the price fell quickly over the first few days.  In the end, this card made back half of what I spent on boxes of Archives, but the rest of the product was a bust.  Without this card, Archives would have been an epic disaster for me.

2. 2012 Topps Update Buster Posey All-Star Jumbo Patch ASJP-BP 6/6
$213.50

2012 Topps Update started out on a sour note when my first “Two relics and one autograph in every box!” box only had one relic and a Mark Hamburger autograph.  The second box followed up with yet another Mark Hamburger autograph and three relics, one of which was this beauty from the eventual NL MVP.  Cash is nice, but I would have rather pulled the R.A. Dickey version.

3.  2012 Bowman Chrome Rookie Davis Blue Wave Refractor Autograph BCP43 37/50
$48.58

2012 Bowman was the product that got me back in, but the return just wasn’t there at first.  The cards were nice, but too many of the autographs were lucky to sell for $1.  Luckily, the wrapper redemption Blue Wave Refractor packs came through with my biggest Bowman autograph pull of the year.

4.  2012 Bowman Chrome Jorge Soler Autograph BCA-JSO
$47.66

5.  2012 Bowman Chrome Billy Hamilton Autograph BCA-BH
$38.03

Bowman Chrome promised one autograph in every box and two in every 3rd box; I pulled six in four boxes (plus another from retail and one more through wrapper redemptions).  Interestingly, my pulls included the base autographs of all three players plastered all over the promotional material for this product: Jorge Soler, Billy Hamilton, and Shawon Dunston, Jr.  Selling prices ranged from $1.79 to $47.66, so not everything was a winner.

Best of the Rest

And that’s basically everything good that I got out of more than 30 boxes of cards.  Next on the list would be a  2012 Topps Pro Debut Nolan Arenado SP Photo Variation card at $27.99, which comes in ahead of two 1/1s and countless autographs, game-used cards, and manufactured material relics.  Several of the autographs wouldn’t even sell for $0.99, including both of the Mark Hamburger autographs from Topps Update (the third autograph from that product was a Tom Milone that sold for a whopping $0.99).  Of the cards that I didn’t sell, only a 2012 Topps Archives John Olerud Fan Favorites Autograph would be likely to be in the running here, probably toward the back of the pack.  Out of 31+ boxes with potential big hits in them, these are the 17 best cards I managed to pull.  I think I’m starting to remember why I stopped doing this…