Players who seem to find me

I decided to make a post showing some of the players and teams I have a good record of finding hits of. While I'll be the first to admit I don't buy nearly as much retail as I used to and don't open near as many packs as I have, I do find a number of parallel/insert/jersey cards of a few particular players. I don't know if it has been done or not, but perhaps this theme could be a good Blog Bat-Around topic, and if not, at the very least it could be a nice resource for player collectors to find out who is getting all the cards of their favorite players.

First off, is a player I collect, Jacob deGrom. I have hit a few inserts of deGrom in the past 3 years or so, including 2 Chrome Refractors of reprint cards ('84 and '87 Topps). It's always nice to pull good cards of someone you collect. 

If you are a Tyler Naquin collector, I would suggest letting me pick out some packs of Topps Chrome for you. I pulled Pink Refractors of him in the 2016 and 2017 sets, as well as an insert in the '17 set as well.
I have pulled a shiny insert and parallel of Dominic Smith of the Mets during the past 2 years, so he makes the list as well.

Here is one guy I admire and one guy I think is a lousy cheater. Cal Ripken is a class act. I was lucky enough to see him play during his last series in Tampa Bay in 2001, and was lucky enough to get his autograph. After batting practice, he was nice enough to come to the front of the dugout and sign autographs for about 30 minutes before the game. From what I have heard, he did this at just about every park that year. I don't pull bat cards that often, but in 2003, I pulled one from a pack of Finest, and in 2011, I believe, I pulled another one from Gypsy Queen. I can't tell Gypsy Queen/Allen & Ginter/the last 10 years of Bowman apart. (I looked, and it was the 2011 set).

Nelson Cruz is a guy I have a beef with. He hit a walkoff Grand Slam and a 3-run HR in Game 4 of the 2011 ALCS against my Detroit Tigers. I always wondered if he was on steroids. He seemed like he was a failed prospect and then all of the sudden started hitting Homers in Texas. He was suspended in 2013 after being involved in the Biogenesis scandal, which made his performance in the '11 ALCS hurt even worse. Then in 2014 ALDS, he almost single-handedly beat the Tigers again. I really think he is still doing steriods, and I am happy Tampa Bay didn't sign him last year. I was (un) lucky enough to pull his '17 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor, and his '18 Topps Independance Day parallel. Feel free to make me an offer on them.

A player who kind of forced me to collect him is Hunter Dozier. I pulled 2 low-#d parallels of him out of '17 Bowman and '17 Topps. Haven't pulled anything other than base cards of him lately, but like I said, I haven't really been busting that many packs either.
I have had pretty good luck with pulling A-Rod hits over the course of my collecting career. In 2005, I pulled a Bowman's Best '93 Bowman's Best reprint autograph of him out of an '05 Bowman's Best pack that landed me on the Wall of Fame of my former (since closed) LCS, Lakeland Sports Cards & Collectibles. Somewhere I have a picture of the shop. Since then, I have pulled a jersey card of him out of '05 Topps Turkey Red, and a jersey card of him out of 2006 Topps Heritage.

                                                

Lastly, here are 2 guys I have pulled the exact same parallels of. In 2003, I pulled 2 Topps Gold parallels of John Burkett. If I just get 19 more, I can say I have exactly 1% of the production run. 

In 2018, I pulled 2 Topps Gold cards of Dylan Bundy. Kind of stinks when you pull the same parallel of the same guy, but at least there are guys out there to trade with. 

                                                

While this isn't a player that I have pulled a number of hits from, I figured I would post these 3 cards, as I have had great luck with this set. 

In 2008, I lived in Montgomery, Alabama, and wasn't making much money. I would, however, try to budget as much as I could so I could get packs of cards. Our local Target got packs of 2008 Upper Deck Piece of History, and I was intrigued by the Americana/history cards in it, so I picked up a pack or two, and pulled the Mike Myers pants card. A few weeks later, I got another pack or two, and pulled the Clooney relic. I realized that the thicker packs, although I usually tried to stay away from them because they usually just had a decoy card, were the ones that I got the relic cards from. I got another 8 or so packs and I believe 5 or so were the thicker ones, and pulled a Justin Verlander relic (since traded away), pulled a few decoy cards, and on the last pack pulled the Zambrano/Hernandez relic. I don't know if our Target had a hot box or what, but I definitely pulled some good relic cards from the assortment of packs that they had. I might have pulled 1 or 2 other inserts, which was strange, because I would've figured that I would get an assortment of inserts along with the relics, but maybe the card feeder got all Oprah with the relics (a relic for you, a relic for you, a relic for you!!!!), and they happened to all get in the box that was shipped to my local card supply. 

So there are the guys I have had decent luck with pulling. As far as teams, I casually glanced through my refractor/shiny card/relic binders, and couldn't really find anything out of the ordinary. I had a good number of Yankees (which would be expected as companies put a ton of them in products), and a good number of Rangers. 

My hope for this post is that others will make posts like this and that trades will happen and guys who collect certain players and teams will see where all the cards they want to pull are going. I'm sure there is someone who wants my Tyler Naquin and Nelson Cruz cards (please???), and anything on here (besides the deGrom's and Dozier's) are up for trade. I am a little low on Dodgers/A's/Cubs/Padres as I have made some trades with guys who collect them over the past few months, but I am hoping to check out my LCS here in DeLand soon and re-stock, plus you never know when I'll make another COMC purchase. I should be getting a nice bonus from work sometime in November, and I'm hoping my wife will let me use at least a little of it on COMC's Thanksgiving sale. 

I should be getting the '19 Topps Update set any day now, so please don't ask me for money when I get all the Vlad Jr./Tatis Jr./Pete Alonso cards that will make me rich. It will be fun organizing them and putting them into binders and completing the year's team sets. 

I am closing in on finishing the 2010 Topps missing player checklist, and hopefully will finish a few more years before the close of 2019. My wife should have a new job in the next few weeks working days, so I may have a few free days when I'm off to do nothing but customs and work on checklists. 

How about this World Series. I find myself pulling for the Nationals becuase there are a number of guys who don't have rings on the Nats, so I really hope they win Game 6. If Scherzer can get back to healthy, he would pitch game 7, and give them a good shot to win it all. My '08 Bowman Chrome X-Fractor would really like that. If not, I would be ok with the Astros winning, as it would give Joe Espada a ring. He went to college at the University of Mobile, and I attended there 2 years after he graduated.

Whenever the World Series is over, I will add coach/manager cards of both teams, and a team photo of the winner to the 2020 Topps checklist, as well as some of the recently hired managers. Can't wait.

Please feel free to post guys who seem to find you and lets get some trades going to help our fellow collectors out. 

Thanks for taking the time to check out my latest post.

-Jeremy