Break Loot from the Sky Box Part 3

Today I’m back with some more new to me cards from the charity break Chris over at View from the Sky Box ran a little while back.

In 2011, I was still finding my way back into the hobby but I wasn’t paying much attention to the unlicensed stuff. So when I saw Chris had included 2011 Playoff Contenders from Panini as one of his boxes, off the top of my head, I was pretty sure I didn’t have anything from that set. As it turns out, I was wrong but that’s ok.

2011 Playoff Contender Starlin Castro

The lone Cubs player in the 50 card set was Starlin Castro, a card that had indeed made its way into my collection somewhere along the way. I think I may have been buying high on anything/everything Starlin Castro back then. Whoops. And let me take the wind out of your sails by stealing your joke about lack of Cubs in the "Playoff Contender" set. Hardy har har. 

But the good news is that there was also a rookie/draft insert set that included a few Cubs prospects. I haven’t taken a look at the full checklist to know if I got a complete Cubs team set, but I did manage to get three up and comers.

In case you can read the foil-y names, from left to right we have Dan Vogelbach, Matt Szczur and Zeke DeVoss. 

And last but not least, my one big hit from the break came from this box as well.

I’m not real familiar with Dillon Maples other than recognizing him from the Bowman set in 2012. I did a little digging and found this nice write up from Bleed Cubbie Blue from back in January. Let’s hope he can get healthy and come back strong!

Thanks again for the break, Chris!

2012 Bowman Chrome Autographs Matt Szczur

A little while I ago, I took a chance and bid on a few cards from an eBay seller who had recently taken a couple of feedback hits for various reasons. They weren't a professional seller (fairly low total feedback score) so they were "slow to ship" and "slow to communicate" among other things. Meh, I can be pretty patient for a good deal. I placed opening bids of $0.99 on a few things and eventually won two of them for that bid.

I paid with Paypal, confident that they would help if I ran into problems with the seller. And worst case scenario, with combined shipping, I would be out less than $5 if things didn't go my way. As you can see by the photo above, the cards did come so I had nothing to worry about. I'm glad I went ahead and took the chance because this 2012 Bowman Chrome Matt Szczur autograph card would have set me back close to $5 by itself from a more reputable seller.

Szczur is a part of the Cubs 40-man roster and was both a mid-season and post season Southern League All-Star after spending the entire 2013 season with the Double-A Tennessee Smokies. I look forward to seeing him roam the outfield at Wrigley in a year or two.

The other card, which was the whole reason I bid in the first place, will show up later this week.

Happy Birthday, America!

By the time this posts, I'm sure there will at least a half dozen similarly themed posts from around the blogosphere. But there's not much more American than baseball, so after a little digging, I came up with these Albert Almora cards:

The first of these is from the 2010 Upper Deck USA Baseball set. The other two are from 2010 Topps USA Baseball.

I also have a couple of the "International" cards from 2012 Bowman that showcase the American flag in the background. I know there are more from the set but I haven't picked those up yet.

Happy Birthday, America! I hope everybody parties safely!