Paul O'neill In The Hoopography House: 1998 Precious Metal Gems #'d/50

1998 Paul O'neill Precious Metal Gems #'d/50

Since I'm so excited for the start of the MLB season, I had to pick up a gem of one of my favorite players of all-time, Mr. Paul O'neill. The only thing cooler than the surface finish on this Precious Metal Gems card is the intensity O'neill had to win. Without coincidence, that's why Mr. O'neill is my favorite MLB'er ever.

Happy Collecting and Get Ready to… "Enjoy Every Crack of the Bat".

My Favorite NY Yankee (Game 3: Yankees Vs. Twins)

There are lots of great sports options for the TV clicker tonight. Since I don't have three TV's set up in my living room, I'm going to have to find a place to watch all the games tonight. Preferably, a place with the biggest and best HD as well as great food. Yes, I want my cake and I want to eat it too. The Buffalo Sabres play their home opener at 7:05 and the Yankees/Twins game should start around 8:37. That means a late dinner for me as I'll be catching both games at a before mentioned HD TV/food/sports mecca.

Since it's the MLB Playoffs, I'm a bit more excited about the Yanks playing tonight. It should be interesting to see what they get out of their 3rd starter in Phil Hughes. Between the Yanks and Sabres tonight, you would think a sports fan would have enough, but that's just not the case with this sports fan. I'll also be keeping an eye on the Florida St. versus Miami matchup tonight. This will take some clever charm and sweet talking by me to get all the TV's switched to all the games I want to watch, but I'm up to the challenge.

Since the Yanks are playing tonight, I thought I'd show off a card of my favorite pinstriped player, Paul O'neill. You all know I collect many sets and players, but it really doesn't get much better than this 1999 E-X Century Essential Credentials 16 of 44 card for me. I'm a huge fan of the Credentials cards from all sports. They usually feature some funky colors on an acetate card stock. I try to pick one up every now and then, but they can get expensive. This O'neill cost me just under $11.00 which isn't too bad. After all, he is my favorite Yankee ever. Enjoy the sports smorgasbord tonight as well as… "Every Bounce of the Ball".

1999 E-X Century Essential Credentials O'neill 16/44

Hoopography Top 25 Countdown: #11

The top 10 in my Hoopography Top 25 PC countdown is in sight, but for now, number 11 sure is a good one. My favorite New York Yankee is Mr. Paul O'neill. He was a glue guy on those World Championship teams of the mid and late 90's. He could do everything from driving in runs and playing a great right field to scaring Gatorade coolers around the Majors. O'neill's intensity is legendary. Yankees' YES Network announcer, Michael Kay, razzes O'neill from time to time in the both about his outbursts and cooler incidents. I loved that fiery attitude O'neill brought to the diamond every day. That's why he's my favorite all-time Yankee.

There aren't a ton of O'neill inserts or auto's out there, but there are a couple nice ones that I'm currently chasing. This 2000 Upper Deck SP Buy Back auto is one of the best O'neill cards out there and is numbered 70 of 142. This is also the second O'neill card on the Top 25 countdown. I'm a huge fan of buy back auto's. I love getting the separate UD matching Holo COA that comes with these. It's almost like two cards in one.

I apologize for the scan being a little fuzzy, but I didn't want to take the cards out of the case. The foiling on the left side is notorious for easily chipping. I know O'neill is not the most sought after Yankee to collect, but I thought the $15.25 including shipping I paid was a steal. In truth, I would have paid a lot more for this card. I think every collector has a player or two they're willing to over pay for and O'neill is mine (along with like 5 others).

I had a tough time not ranking this card in the top 10 of the countdown, but there was some tough competition. Stay tuned for my favorite top 10 cards in my collection and… "Enjoy Every Bounce of the Ball".

I have Refractoritis!!!

As you all know, I have a great appreciation for various trading card technologies and designs. Lately though, it seems I've caught a nasty case of Refractoritis. Think it's not a true illness? Checkout the symptoms below. These are some of the various refractors I've managed to add to my collection recently.

So I certainly have a nasty case of Refractoritis, but is there a particular set, player or trading card technology that has infected you?

Hoopography Top 25 Countdown: #17

I'm finally back from being out of town for the past week. I had several posts that I scheduled to be published while I was gone that I hope you enjoyed. It was nice to see a few manila envelops in the mailbox when I got home. I'll certainly try to get those new additions to the collection up here on Hoopography as soon as possible. Actually, one of those new additions might have even broken into my Top 25 if I hadn't ranked the countdown already.

I updated everyone on the Top 25 Countdown as I had recently made the switch from Apple's iWeb to Blogger.com (click here for 25 - 18) with a post last week. Today I'm continuing the countdown with number 17 in my Top 25 collection countdown.

My all-time favorite NY Yankee is Paul O'neil. There aren't a ton of great O'neal cards to collect, but there are a couple fun auto's, inserts and refractors. This '93 Topps Finest Refractor is undoubtedly one of those cards, and is easily one of his most sought after for O'neill and Yankee collectors alike.

I've been looking to add this card to my collection for a long time now. I actually thought I had won one of these refractors several months ago, but the card was not actually a refractor. The seller described the card incorrectly as a refractor when it really wasn't. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed when I opened the manila envelope and pulled a non-refractor out, but the seller did refund my money in full.

So after a few months of searching for just the right one, and making sure the seller knew what a refractor was, I put in the winning bid for this card. I paid just under $10 with shipping which was a pretty good deal. I've certainly seen these O'neill cards go for much much more as many collectors are attempting to put this refractor set together. An extremely difficult and expensive undertaking.

The card looks beautiful and hits ever color in the spectrum. It's really hard for a refractor not to look great though. The '93 Topps Finest Refractor set truly is an iconic set in the card collecting hobby. It's loaded with stars and I think was the first set to feature the refractor technology from Topps in any sport. Here's a few of the other refractors I would like to add to my collection from that set: Bo Jackson (All-Star), Don Mattingly (All-Star), Doc Gooden (All-Star) and Darryl Strawberry (All-Star).