Tremendous Jose Reyes Mailday

After a typical St. Patrick's Day weekend, I was checking some ebay package shipments religiously. In between my corned beef an cabbage - soaked in vinegar (drool) and nearly a surprise fantasy baseball draft, coordinating another, I would load up the 'bay. Wait from tracking information to work after tries number one and usually two, and see where some new goodies, and Jose Reyes collection cornerstone, may be wandering about the country.

Saturday evening, it seemed everything Jose Reyes was sitting in a sorting facility in Rochester, New York. Patiently, with the help of said corned beef and cabbage as well as an extremely drawn-out fantasy draft, I made it through Sunday.

And then Monday came. And on my doorstep, a trio of manilla/white envelopes and a flat rate cube.

One of the manillas was from Cardboard Conundrum, and deserves it's own post for another time.

The first, non-Jose Reyes package contained this gem:

20/99

No, it's not Jose Reyes,  but it came on un dia de Jose, so get over it. This is a JP that had been eluding me for a while - or rather, teasing. No one had it listed for a BIN of less than $20, which is way too much to spend on a JPA numbered to 99. Eventually, this one popped up, via auction and starting bid around $6, and I snagged it with only one other bid to compete with. Since then, at least one, maybe two colored parallels have popped up with starting bids of $.99...so we'll see how that goes.

In another, overly-large padded mailer contained this:

13/99

Ohhhhh yes. Number 8 of 9. Which is now 11, with that damn redemption that I was too late to get in to. This was actually way better-looking than I had hoped. Some of the Camo parallels look rather bland, but this one looks great. I jumped on this one, which to me is an EBAY 1/1!!!!! LOLZ!!1, as it is serial numbered 13/99, the player I wore through my "youth". I now wear #1, or did last summer. We'll see how this summer shakes.

Now for the big one.

I normally don't go after memorabilia or non-certified autographs. But this one came from a legit card manufacturer and memorabilia distributor - Just Minors. While their cards leave little to be desired, their efforts to supply the fans and collectors with game-used and replica-autographs merchandise is tireless, and it usually ends up being an awesome product.

This isn't game-used, but is still awesome:

Click to embiggen.

A Norfolk Tides autographed mini-helmet! When I saw this on Ebay, I knew I had to have it. It came in around $34, but prior to that I had a pretty decent month of sales, so I only ended up putting about $20 into it. Worth every cent, I say.

97/120

I like how Just numbers by hand, on the hologram. It's a nice touch, something different.

Joey Kings!

A close-up of the signature/Tides logo medley. This is my least favourite of the Tides logos. Because, come on, man. Tides cannot wear baseball caps. Red ones, no less.

Inky.

And the obligatory signature close-up. From this angle you can see the logo is a sticker, and not printed on the helmet. Wish I had known that before, but I still would have grabbed it. From this shot you can see the slight smudge in Reyes' last name.

You know what I really love about Just Minors? The belief in their authenticity:

Click to embiggen.

I mean that's just great. This has everything I want to see in an authentication:

1. Hologram
2. Picture of whoever signing whatever
3. The guarantee
4. Supplemental online guarantee

Yep. I really love this little helmet.

And yes, in case you're wondering - it does fit on the pug's head perfectly.