Topps Dynasty: I feel like I made a deal

     It's been a while since I posted anything up here. I've been telling myself to get into a better habit of posting but the busy work life and other priorities make it a challenge sometimes. Anyway's I hope this is a start to more consistent posts to come.
     The start of baseball season has begun and the Seattle Mariners have already given me numerous headaches in the shape of blown leads and walk off losses. It's only a week in, I hope they can turn it around soon as I know it's very early. But we in Seattle are too used to this!
   For this post I wanted to share some of my Topps Dynasty cards. I have always been intrigued with this set since its inaugural release in 2014. A box only consists of one card. A price tag of ~$300. Just think about that for a second... People constantly run the numbers on ROI (return of investment) on box breaks. It's gets pretty simple to calculate when your dealing with a box that contains one card! It is the ultimate roll of the dice. Odds are you will not come out ahead, as all of us know going into any break but it becomes so very clear so very fast with Topps Dynasty.  I personally do not break boxes/cases I simply don't have the heart for it. I am not a gambling man. I do occasionally break retail blasters and packs purely for the fun of it with very minimal costs associated with it.
    If you hit a Ichiro, Jeter, Harper, Bryant, Griffey Jr, Trout and a few others then Bam you covered your costs and then some! But if you hit a Bobby Abreu then you just lost $270 just like that. I won a Abreu auto for $30 on eBay & it got lost in transit & I was refunded. So I was very bummed I wasn't able to receive that card. I buy a bunch of Dynasty cards if the price is right, knowing these came out of a $300 one card box gives me a lot of excitement. Like I got a "deal" I suppose. Of course not all cards are bargains, I did spend close to or more then a cost of a box worth for the Ichiro & some other 1/1's.
    All costs aside these are beautiful cards and I love collecting them.  Last count, I believe I have 18x Dynasty cards. Here are some of my favorites below. Thanks for reading! See you next time.

My first Dynasty Card. '14 Braun

'14 Dynasty Iwakuma #1/1

'15 Dynasty Kyle Seaver

'15 Dynasty Fielder #1/1

'16 Dynasty Fielder #1/1

'16 Dynasty Gray

'15 Dynasty Cano

'16 Dynasty Cano

'16 Dynasty King Felix #1/1

'15 Dynasty Ichiro

Ichiro becomes a Fish & takes over Leaf Q

So the news finally broke after much speculation that the Marlins were interested in signing him. Pending a physical he should be a solid 4th outfielder and DH for Miami. I am happy he finally found a team to sign him but sad he didn't go to an AL team so I have a chance of seeing him return to Safeco to play some road games. I do look forward to seeing some sick Miami Patch cards for the upcoming year as they have a very colorful design. The high end cards which include Ichiro of the end of 2014/early 2015 already hit with the Leaf Q line, Last year it was the exclusive Ichiro only line of Ichiro Immortals. And this is a nice follow up from Leaf for more high end Ichiro cards.  The best Ichiro cards by far were the patch auto cards. The one specific one they were using for their promos was in my opinion the best patch auto card of them all. I believe it had the perfect cut of patch with good chuck of lettering and color. I was lucky enough to work out a deal with the person who pulled that exact card. It definitely earns a spot in my top 10 PC cards. I also accumulated a nice batch of PURE glass autos which are one the coolest and unique looking cards I've ever seen along with some nice patch and bat relic cards.

14 Leaf Q Patch Auto /10

Another Patch Auto /10

The 2 Patch Autos are a continuation!

PURE Glass auto Charcoal x2, Blue /25 & the Patch Auto

Patch cards & Bat relics

Whatdayaknow? It's Seattle's own Robinson Cano!

 I wish I was able to share a full Ichiro rainbow someday but until that time I have been working on other projects. Primarily focusing on the 2012 topps chrome line since previously mentioned is my favorite series of all time due to Ichiro's last year as a Mariner and the end of 12 years of mlb licensed/topps brand cards for him. As I continue for the neverending quest for Ichiro Rainbow Supremacy I worked on other all star players for the set. I was a fan of Robinson Cano before his arrival and his signing with Seattle made me a bigger fan of his. He always carried a cool confidence about him and I consider him an elite player. I started collecting his cards a bit since his signing including being able to finish a rainbow. His rainbow was the second completed rainbow in my collection. These sets are pretty difficult to finish and takes great timing/luck and research to complete but always an incredibly fun project. So here is some recent Cano pickups and the rainbow.
UPDATED 5/2/14 : Just received the Cano TTT 1/1 patch. Love it!

The King of the Diamond

I was always a big fan of the diamond king inserts when I was a kid. My favorites were the 1988 Donruss set, I just thought they had a very unique design and artwork. I got this fairly rare Ichiro Diamond Kings card with game used base and bat card last week. It's serial #/25.  Im not sure what it is about game used cards but I am definitely a sucker for them especially for my favorite player Ichiro. This is one of the few non jersey game used cards I have of his as the bat.base relics are few and far between.  As his career comes to an end, maybe by the end of this next season its always good to remember that Ichiro has been the King of the Diamond and appreciate his unbelievable dominance in the 2000's. This will be recalled further Im sure when he finally does retire.

A new hope

It was a big weekend for the locals here in Seattle. The seahawks unfortunately lost a tough game to their rival 49ers, and my alma mater hired a great top tier coach Chris Petersen but most shocking news of the week was word that the Mariners somehow signed Yankee Allstar Robinson Cano. I understand alot can go wrong with type of big time deal i.e. Arod, Prince Fielder, Josh Hamilton, & Pujols to name a few but its the sparkle of hope that the Mariners finally shelled out the super big bucks for the most sought after free agent this offseason. Every year us poor Seattle folk dream big in the winter and lose hope and patience by mid-summer.  I am cautiously optimistic and already came to accept that even getting 5 years of productivity is a win in this situation is considered a good deal in this day and age. My hope is the young up and coming guys help give Cano some help. Felix will be Felix and these 2 young guns Seager & Franklin hopefully have a good offseason and contribute to a season of hope. This is one of my favorite hometown cards I own, Im sure many people have their same favorites for their respective teams as triple threads come up with some of the coolest designs.