Mail Time: A Few Knicks Forward Danilo Gallinari Pickups

One of my favorite current players to collect is Danilo Gallinari of the New York Knickerbockers. The former 6th overall pick of the Knicks in the 2008 draft has a world of potential, but is plagued at times by inconsistency and lack of assertiveness. At 22 years of age and only two years of NBA experience, Gallinari is still transitioning from the European game. The talent, size and work ethic is there. It's just a matter of Gallinari gaining confidence in himself and taking that next leap as the Knicks third or even second offensive option. This all of course hinges on whether the Knicks will trade Danilo over the next few weeks. There's some player named 'Melo out west that everyone keeps talking about.

Here are a few recent Gallinari pickups I made on the Bay. The second Upper Deck Ultimate RC is for trade on my Trade Page.

Mail Time, Some Good Stuff This Week!!!

In truth, this is really a few of the cards I've gotten in over the past two weeks. I did get a visit from the Manila Mail Gods today as well, but I'll save those gems for future posts including a continuation of the "Bo Knows..." Series. Maybe I'll post the Jackson card tomorrow. As far as what I have for today, it's a bit of football and basketball. I got great deals on most of these. Actually, I don't think I paid more than $5.00 for any of these.

I actual bought a lot of eleven of these 1995 Upper Deck SP Foil Grant Hill RC's. Four are of the die-cut variety. I've been picking up Hill cards over the past few months as he was one of my favorite players growing up. These foil RC's are not terribly expensive on the secondary markets, but I do love the look of them. The die-cut versions are even cooler. I have extras of the base and die cut for trade (click here).

There aren't too many Buffalo Bills too collect these days, so I grabbed this 2007 Upper Deck Exquisite Gold Patch /50. The talent is there. He has great speed and hands.

I'm a huge acetate card fan. This Grant Hill 1995 Classic Superior Pix card is really cool. The card features Hill in a Duke University uniform and is an excellent example of the acetate technology that I so love. I'll put this inexpensive set together in time, but I'm currently in the process of putting a number of other sets together.

This is a 1998 Joe Smith Topps Finest Test Gold Atomic Refractor. I love how the card not only has the Atomic Refractor effect on the front, but also the back of the card. It's a nice card, but I'm still not sure if this card is going to make it into my PC or Trade Album.

I'm an Antonio McDyess fan, and nothing screams McDyess fan like an Upper Deck Sign of the Times Auto. This auto is really cool since it highlights McDyess in a Nuggets uniform. The Nuggets are the original team that drafted him.

These are some rookie cards of some young Buffalo Bills on the defensive side of the ball. I'm a die-hard fan, so I'm a sucker for any eBay auction with a promising Buffalo Bills player. The Paul Posluszny RC Auto '07 and the Leodis Mckelvin RC Auto '08 are both National Treasures products.

This is the first Topps Murad card I've added to my collection, but I'm happy with that. This is not a set I'm collecting even though it's pretty cool. The truth is, G Moses is doing a great job at that. I'm only interested in this Gallinari Knicks auto. I'm a Knicks fan and there haven't been too many players to collect over the past few years. I'm looking for a few more high-end Gallinari cards, but his signifies the best of my Gallinari collection thus far.

Hope you enjoyed my mail day and… "Every Bounce of the Ball".

Mail Time: Courtesy of The Chronicles of Fuji

This past weekend I received a package of cards from Mark over at The Chronicles of Fuji. I first have to thank Mark for his generosity. He sent me some great Buffalo Bills, NY Yankees and hoops cards that I'll get into in just a minute. If you haven't already checked his blog out, make sure to do so. The Chronicles of Fuji is one of my favorite sports card blogs on the net. It's part of my daily reading and for good reason. From Sports Busts and Sketch Cards to Contests and PC Action, Mark's got it covered over there in Fuji Land.

As for the cards Mark sent me, I couldn't be more ecstatic!!! Mark sent over a few refractors including a '96 Topps Finest Shawn Kemp Mystery Refractor which I absolutely think is awesome. I've always wanted to collect this set and now have the motivation to get started. He also sent over a couple of really cool looking former Buffalo Bills running back Antowain Smith inserts. No question, all the cards were great, but the best card was his personal "trade" card autographed by Mark himself. This "trade" card is easily one of the coolest cards I've seen in a very long time. It even has stats and trade info for Mark on the back. TOTALLY AWESOME, THANKS MARK!!!

Trade Bait: Mike Alstott 2000 Upper Deck SP Authentic Buyback Auto

I really like on-card autographs and I especially like buyback auto's. There's just something really cool about the whole buyback auto concept. I only have two buybacks in my entire collection, but I feel luck to even have two. The first buyback I added to my collection was a 2006 Bowman Chrome Melky Cabrera Buyback Auto. I was a huge Cabrera guy and decided to collect him until he was traded to the Detroit Tigers last offseason. On a side note, that "Milkman" card would have been on my Top 25 PC Countdown had he not been traded.

The second buyback auto'd card i've been lucky enough to add to my collection is this 2000 Upper Deck SP Authentic Mike Alstott Buyback Auto. It's a really good looking card that features a huge signature. There's nothing worse than when a player's signature is all mushed together. The really cool thing about this card is that it came with the separate Upper Deck Authenticating Holo COA to match the COA Holo on the back of the actual trading card. It may seem lame, but I always thought those separate COA's were cool.

I haven't decided whether to put this little gem in my Trade Bait Album or not yet. It's really a pretty nice edition to my collection if I decide to keep it. I guess it all depend on if and what type of offers I receive on the card. Either way, checkout my Trade Bait Album and let me know if there's anything in there you're interested in adding to your collection. Thanks for reading and… "Enjoy Every Bounce of the Ball".

Mail Time: '04 UD Scripts Lee Evans Auto

I bought this '04 UD Scripts Lee Evans Auto a few months back and just haven't gotten around to posting about it until today. Actually, I'm posting it today because camps have started around the NFL recently and I'm getting excited for the NFL season to start.

This Evans card cost me $.99 plus $2.50 for shipping. That's not too bad for an on-card auto of one of the best players on my favorite hometown team. I'll be looking to add a number of other Buffalo Bills cards as I too get ready for the upcoming NFL season.

MailTime: '95 Topps Grant Hill Collegiate best RC Refractor

So I feel like i've been cheating on my favorite card technology of acetate translucent plastic cards with refractors lately. I've been bouncing from Gold and Atomic Refractors to Blue and xFractors. I just can't get enough of them, and rightfully so. Just take a look at this '95 Topps Finest Grant Hill Collegiate Best RC Refractor. It's one cool looking card, especially when the light hits it the right way.

I've been chasing this card down for quite a bit of time now. I'm actually looking for a bunch of the refractors from the base '95 Topps Finest and Collegiate Best sets. Because of the grey backgrounds and use of color in these cards, they look better than most refractors. Not that a refractor can actually look bad. It also doesn't hurt that many of the players I collect are in that set (B. Hurley, C. Webber, A. Hardaway, G. Robinson, J. Howard, C. Mullin and many more).

Just so it doesn't seem like i'm cheating on the acetate cards, I'll show a few off over the next few days in my next "Mail Time" and "Hoopography Top 25" posts.

Mail Time From TJ At All Your Base Cards Belong to Us

I got a bunch of cards in the mail the other day from TJ over at http://allyourbasecards.blogspot.com/. Other than having one of the cooler blog names around, "All Your Base Cards Belong To Us", TJ does a great job of posting fun trading card, Portland Trailblazers and pop cultural posts. TJ is a part of what I've dubbed, "The Oregon Trail", a group of talented bloggers who hail from the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Some of the blogs these guys represent include: The Basketball Card Blog, All Your Base Cards, The Trailblazers Card Blog and Cards on Cards. I wrote a post on the old Hoopography iWeb site chronicling this phenomenon of great sports card related blogs from that part of the country several months ago (click here to read more about "The Oregon Trail").

Back to the cards TJ sent. I received four team bags full of great New York Knickerbockers, Yankees and Buffalo Bills cards. TJ said he was going to send me a few cards, but what he ended up sending me was way more than what I expected! I sent him a package of some Trailblazers and Red Sox cards. Hopefully you like what I sent you TJ.

There were way too many cards for me to list every single one, so here're a few of my favorites from the lot:

(This 2010 Panini Prestige C.J. Spiller RC

is my favorite from the lot. Thanks TJ.)