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

A Piece of Ichiro

Well not really a piece of Ichiro, that would be kinda gross. More like a piece of Ichiro's jersey. I guess that's not as weird according to the outsiders but the complete norm and totally amazing to the collecting community. Finding great looking jersey/relic/patch are always in high demand for many especially for their PC players. Having a bit of color and variation to the patches make it all the better. These are a few of my favorites. The 2011 Topps Marquees are high numbered but have amazing patches nonetheless and these include a nice looking patch & the other has a part of the majestic patch. The other 2 are 2012 Triple Threads which had 2 variations of Ichiro and these have nice patches as well. They are extra special to me since they are both Ruby 1/1 patches.

Panini VIP Patches & a Fancy Party

The big wigs in collectibles had their annual event held in Cleveland couple weeks ago at the Nationals. To be honest in my mind that is the equivalent of Disneyland to a kid as the nationals are to a grown man....Actually I still really love Disneyland so I guess its no surprise I still love collecting baseball cards. Every year I hear they have exclusive packs only to people spending insane amount of money at the shows and this year it was $10k+ to be invited to the sexy party for Panini and receive super fancy packs of Panini VIP line of cards. A mix of all sports with base, parallels and patch cards. Ichiro was well represented in the set and soon his Mosaic Patch 1/1 made it to ebay along with couple of Cracked Ice /10 Jersey cards and base. Being one of the avid collectors of Ichiro, I knew these beautiful cards must be mine! I soon enough made some deals and have them as part of my collection. The 1/1 Patch is one of my favorite cards in my Ichiro PC and always look forward to finding more nice cards of his.

                                                    Base Red '14 Panini VIP

Couple Cracked Ice Panini VIP Jerseys /10

'14 Panini VIP Mosaic 1/1 Patch

Finally...An Ichiro rainbow has been completed!

I always hoped to complete the '12 Topps Chrome rainbow but this is not the case and may never be. The superfractor is likely sitting in a Ichiro pc never to be for sale again and I spent over a year to find the /75 sepia which isn't very rare at all yet I own 5 Gold /50 and 2 Red /25. Go figure ehh?  Anyways I had a realistic chance to complete the '14 Prizm Rainbow of Ichiro and I went all out trying for it as I didn't feel my Ichiro collection to be complete without at least one. I have been pretty indifferent to Panini products the last couple years. The lack of mlb license didnt bother me too much but rather the plain designs and lack of variety in colored parallels. That all changed in 2014 when Panini stepped it up in a big way with their Prizm line. The cards and colored parallels were absolutely beautiful in my opinion with a total of 11 variations for the full rainbow set. Ichiro's photo was in my favorite batting pose similar to his bowman chrome rc and '12 chrome ssp card.  The color pops out in all his cards and prizm has a nice chrome gloss to it as well. Very excited to own this rainbow for sure.

The crown jewels & the card community

Every collector has a handful of cards they consider their personal crown jewels. Some have some insane collections where they have a handful of cards worth as much as my house. Well...maybe closer to being worth more than my car, Either way the beauty of this hobby and the people I have met online is that no matter what income level or amount of  money invested in your own pc we all cherish and respect and applaud each other's collections,hits,lucky finds personal crown jewels just the same.  Before I entered the cyber world of forums,blogs and social media contacts for the hobby I was in my own little world the first couple years collecting and talking to myself wondering if I was alone as my family and friends thought I was simply weird taking up the hobby again after 20 years away. The last year or so I discovered many other folk just like me and all of a sudden this awkward solitary feeling turned to fun and excitement of sharing my collection, talking about the hobby and seeing other people's collections.  Some do this as a side business or to make a profit which is totally fine. I occasionally sell cards not part of my pc from box breaks and such but I'm in it primarily for the joy of the hobby and collecting my pc players.

    So back to where I started, I'm sharing one of my personal crown jewel cards that I have been desiring for a couple years. These pop up rarely and when they do it's for insane asking prices.  But I finally pulled the trigger and got a great deal on this. Very unique and one of his most highly sought after RC's as only 99 were ever made and /50 were in English back and /49 were in Japanese.  Just an absolute beautiful card, also pictured is my chrome refractor rc which is another favorite of mine.