Junior Is Finally Home

Many thanks go out to Jay, of the recently defunct The Mojo Hand, for holding so many great contests throughout the year. I was fortunate enough to win his big year-end "Mother of all Contests", and late last week my prize arrived.

BEHOLD!

Bask in the glory that is Junior.

I've wanted a Junior Griffey autograph since I was about 9 years old, and to finally have one, that I didn't have to pay or trade for is absolutely amazing. This is one hell of a card to just give away, and that should tell you all something Jay's generosity.

2008 Sweet Spot Pack Break

The past few weeks I have had off of work Mon-Wed, after working all weekend. Unfortunately, as a result, future wife and I haven't had a chance to grocery shop. To make matters worse, I have had to grocery shop solo, which is never fun. Today I decided to spice things up and do our grocery shopping at WallyWorld. I obviously did this with the full knowledge that they sell cards, and figured that a couple of packs would be a nice little reward for picking up groceries all by myself.

Well, I saw something rather unexpected when I hit the card aisle. Packaged individually, and sitting all by it's lonesome off to the side was a sealed pack of 2008 Upper Deck Sweet Spot baseball. It was $20, but I grabbed it anyway, with thoughts of a Sweet Spot autograph running through my feeble little mind.

Immediately after opening the silver wrapper, I noticed a card sitting in the middle that was VERY thick, and thought maybe I had hit paydirt. Let's see how things worked out for me.

#28 Cole Hamels

#91 Ryan Zimmerman

#36 Dustin Pedroia

#99 Victor Martinez

#82 Phil Hughes

#84 Randy Johnson

#YSL966 Red Rolfe

The really thick card in the middle turned out to be the world's heaviest dummy card. Fortunately, this was sitting on top of it, and even though it's not a Sweet Spot autograph, it's an Orioles autograph, so that makes up for it.

Eider Torres Sweet Beginnings autograph redemption

This is the 3rd time I've opened anything Sweet Spot, and the 3rd time I've yet to pull a real live autograph, and the second time I've pulled a redemption. All in all not too shabby though, but only because my auto is of an (ex)Oriole.

The Sweetest Spot

Here is one of the cards that arrived in the mail while I was at the beach:

2008 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Brian Roberts Red/Blue Stitch Red Ink Signature
In less than a week I went from having no Brian Roberts autographs, to having two Brian Roberts autographs. This was a cheapie eBay pickup, and according to the only price guide I own, the July issue of Sports Collectors Monthly, it books for $20, which means it's probably worth about $7, which is roughly what I got it for. It's a pretty nice looking autograph, but I wonder why Upper Deck abandoned the stadium photo that was in the background of previous Sweet Spot incarnations? The player photos are bigger on the 08's, but are 2 player pics really necessary? Camden Yards sure would look sweet in the background of this card.... or any card for that matter.

In unrelated (to this card) news, I finally heard back from Topps, and mailed them everything they need to resolve our little Allen & Ginter's snafu. You know, the one where I got shorted a "hit" and received several damaged cards. Despite all of this, I still busted a 3rd box this afternoon, the results of which will be coming in the next few days. I'm even thinking about hitting the card shop tomorrow and picking up a 4th. As of now, I've already amassed plenty of doubles for trade, and still have not landed a single Burke Kenny card. Want/trade lists will probably be posted next week, since I need some time to get all the cards I do have organized.