What eBay Hath Wrought 132: Manti Te'o 2013 Topps 1965 Mini Rookie Autographs

I felt like adding another Manti Te'o card to my small collection, so I searched around and waited and bid on a few things. He doesn't have a lot of stuff in the 2014 products because he's a defensive player, he's been out with injuries, and your fame can only go so far based on a news story that's a couple years old by now. I kind of thought it had been longer since my last Manti Te'o post, but apparently it was just last month. I like a lot about this card. The vintage design is cool. The autograph is on-card. I think a sticker auto would just ruin this particular set. I like the light blue jersey, the eye black, and the old-school haircut. I guess the only bad thing about this is that Te'o plays for the Chargers and they are division rivals to the Denver Broncos. I am able to put away that sort of thing in some instances, so I don't really suffer from liking a guy who is on the opposing team. I think fantasy football has sort of conditioned me for this, as sometimes you run into scenarios where you really want your team to win, but you need the wide receiver on the other team to get his points for your fantasy matchup that week.

I was a little irritated when the card arrived because the guy who sent it put it in one of those flimsy card saver things rather than a properly-secured top loader, and of course the card was hanging halfway out of it by the time it got to me.

"I hate you, Card Saver II!!!"

The dude didn't charge much for shipping, and those are always the ones that worry me. His envelope appeared to be grossly under-stamped, and I'm kind of surprised it didn't arrive Postage Due. I left a comment about the poor packing in my Feedback comments, but it probably won't do any good. At least I have something to shout about on my blog.

I am trying to hang on and win this week in my office fantasy league. I was way out of it until the Sunday night game, when my Packers players scored a bunch of points and got me within a few points of my opponent. Whoever wins this game gets first place in the standings, so it's sort of a big deal. I was in first place for a while, but then my opponent's team took the spot. I got it back last week, and if I win I get to stay there. I just need my quarterback to score a few more points more than the other team's kicker does. If I were playing my regular QB, Andrew Luck, I would feel pretty confident about my odds. Unfortunately he is on the bye this week and the best QB on the waiver wire was a guy who bungled a play so badly that the internet gave it a name:

You may remember the Butt-Fumble, in which New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez ran squarely into the back end of his own lineman and lost control of the ball, which was recovered by New England and run back for a touchdown.

Yup, Mark "Butt-Fumble" Sanchez is the QB I am relying on to complete my comeback this week in fantasy football. He now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles and was thrust into the starter's role by an injury to Nick Foles last week. And when I went to look for a QB to fill in on a bye week, he was the highest-ceiling guy available. It should make for an exciting Monday evening. Hopefully he is able to keep it close. I don't need a miracle. I just need him to score 3.94 more points than Cody Parkey does.

What eBay Hath Wrought 115: Manti Te'o Prime Something or Other

I got this card on eBay around the same time I bought a discounted Chargers slot in a group break of 2014 Topps Prime that netted me 0 cards. This particular group break operation does usually send you a Hobby pack of something when you strike out though, so I've still got that coming to me. (The package arrived in the time since I wrote this, and there was nothing in the pack, so as my three year-old would say, "I have nuffing!")

Anyway, I don't think Te'o was included in 2014 Prime. Defensive players can be superstars, but it is pretty rare. And Te'o isn't really made up of superstar stuff. He was in all the 2013 products because he was a highly-publicized rookie and card companies need a buttload of rookies to sign things and wear shirts so they have cheap relics and autos to stuff high-end boxes with.

But I like him for a few reasons. One is his pop culture cred. His big claim to fame is having an online girlfriend who turned out to be a male acquaintance running an elaborate prank on him. After the guy ended the hoax by pretending that the girlfriend had died, Te'o used that as motivation in his college football career, a story that was picked up and run hard by the media. At some point Te'o found out that he had been hoodwinked, but he had so much attention and investment in the story that he kept the charade going until Deadspin uncovered the truth and exposed the truth on their site. Te'o had to come clean and admit that he was embarrassed and had lied to cover it all up. This event combined with his team's poor play in the championship game against Alabama led to his fall from a pretty certain first-round pick to a second-rounder.

I spent a couple of years living in San Diego as a missionary, so I have a very small affinity for the Chargers as long as they don't do well against the Broncos. Omaha! *four Chargers jump offsides* Te'o is a member of the same church as I am, so having a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to root for is a pretty cool thing. On to the card!

This is from 2013 Topps Prime, and features four swatches of memorabilia as well as a sticker autograph. I am assuming that the Level V designation has something to do with that 4+1 configuration. It is serially-numbered # 14 / 50. The swatches are cool, but I do kind of wonder how a player wears a football. Is it like a football purse that unzips along the lacing? Do they string the footballs together and wear them around their necks? I would think that Player-Used Memorabilia would be a better phrase to use when there are football pieces embedded in the card.

The scan of the back of this card was lost in the same error that ate the scan of the back of Josh Reddick's card from my last post. It has a little more information than the Reddick card did. In addition to the Congratulations! message, it has Te'o's height, weight, college, and draft information.

Breaking it Down 5: eBay Case Breaks

I went through a period a couple of weeks ago where I participated in quite a few eBay case breaks, mostly trying to vulture whatever cheap teams were available at the end of the auctions or trying to get the Blue Jays in an attempt to get R.A. Dickey hits.

I personally hate the Baltimore Ravens. I may even hate them more than I hate my Denver Broncos' divisional rivals, the Chiefs, Chargers, and Raiders. But I wanted to watch a case break and the team was on offer pretty cheap, so I bit on it. I got this autograph card of Aaron Mellette, a guy who hasn't played a snap this year. Yay! Dollar-bin autographs!

In another break I got the Astros, who don't really have a lot of hits in Tier One, but of the Astros who are in the set, Craig Biggio has most of the hits. I got this base-level relic of his, with a nice stripe along the side to add some visual interest to the relic. Of course these single-patch relics can be had for a couple of dollars on eBay all day long, so I still probably came out behind on the break. I justify it by imagining that part of the money goes toward the entertainment value of watching the cards being opened and seeing all of the stuff that gets pulled, whether it goes to my team or not. I also like to think of it as research for my plan to try doing case breaks online as a part-time gig if I can get a decent plan laid out and some startup capital.

I also got a Tier One autograph of Anthony Gose, who I am building quite a collection of as far as autographs go. I think this is probably my fifth autograph of Gose. It is kind of disappointing that many of the Tier One autographs have peeling foil on the corners, and this Gose is no exception. I will live with it, though.

 In a Topps Prime break I wound up with the Chargers and got this Manti Te'o double relic card. I am pretty happy with it, as I found the whole imaginary girlfriend thing to be an interesting story. I met my wife online, and I'm pretty glad that she didn't turn out to be an old dude pretending to be a young woman.

All of the above cards were from the same breaker, but I also got the Astros in a Topps Chrome break a while back. I got a couple of base cards of Altuve and Robbie Grossman.

I also got a trifecta of Brandon Barnes, a base card, a Refractor, and a Gold Refractor numbered out of 50. There isn't much to say about this break. It wasn't the greatest, but then I often spend the same amount of money on packs of cards at the store that yield nothing I really want.