Click Here to View Cart 5: The Blogosphere Helps Me Track Down a Grail Card

I've been trying to track down a copy of R.A. Dickey's Foil Rare card from the SEGA Card-Gen set pretty much since I found out it existed. I'd seen a picture of it on the Japanese card store Mint's website, but that was it. After searching actively for it for a while, I kind of pushed it to the back burner, only doing cursory eBay searches every now and then.

But someone out there had my back. That someone was Zippy Zappy, of the blog Torren' Up Cards. He sent me a message saying something like, "That card you've been pestering us all about for the last year is on Amazon right now! It's a bit expensive, but it's there!"

I went and checked it out, and sure enough, there it was. The price tag had me a little spooked, though, as the card wasn't cheap and neither was the overseas shipping. I did a websearch for the Amazon seller's name, and found out that they had a website. So I checked out the website and saw that the price tag on the card was a little bit lower, and that they had a shipping option that was much cheaper. I guess maybe Amazon mandates a more secure form of shipping that is quite expensive. When I checked out through Paypal I noticed the e-mail address was someone I've dealt with on eBay quite a bit, the source of most of my non-Zippy-Zapped Card-Gen cards, to include the full 2013 base set I purchased a while back. I waited a little while and the card arrived safely, all shiny and wonderful. If I had unlimited funds I'd probably try to finish out the Foil Rare and Extra sets for 2013 to go along with my base set, but that's probably a bit beyond me right now. I am happy that I finally tracked down what had been my #1 Most Wanted card, thanks to a tip from a fellow blogger.

And here is the back of the card, showing the special ratings boost that Foil Rares get, as well as new card text. I know I have his regular 2013 card, but I don't have a scan of it, or I'd do a comparison shot, like I did for Evan Longoria's card when I grabbed it last year.

I am a little bit nervous about today, as I will be receiving a box of Star Wars Masterwork trading cards in the mail. This is the latest Topps Star Wars product and the most premium Star Wars set to date. I have been looking at tons of breaks on the Blowout Cards forums, and there have been really good ones and really bad ones. It seems like just about anyone who opens a full case does all right as the good and bad boxes balance out, but I don't have the budget for a full case. I didn't even really have the budget for a box, but I stretched for one anyway. I'll probably post about it at some length, no matter how it turns out. Wish me luck! Or curse my name and wish an Ike Davis manu-relic upon me. How would you like to bust a box of a super-premium Star Wars product and somehow pull an Ike Davis manu-relic from your box due to a mix-up in the Topps factory?