This One's a Gem

It's been a pretty slow collecting week for me, as Layton Sports Cards was at the Industry Summit in Las Vegas and there weren't too many breaks over the past week.  I didn't buy into any, in fact.  I am looking forward to all the awesome products that were previewed and I am intrigued by Panini's rewards program that is forthcoming.  Anything to advance the hobby is a good thing, in my mind.

What I also like about companies like Panini and Leaf is that they seem to really be paying attention and listening to collector's gripes and praise.  Just as with any other industry, customer service and customer satisfaction is truly key. Things like filling redemptions in a timely fashion and filling expected redemptions for that matter are extremely important.  I don't know about you, but I am much more willing to gravitate towards a company that is committed to making things right, and also a company that isn't afraid to admit when they are wrong.

In other news of note, in case you haven't heard Roy Halladay has joined Twitter, and is actually tweeting. This is amazing and if you aren't following him you should, @RoyHalladay.

With my focus being on group breaks mainly, I haven't been paying as much attention to my Halladay player collection.  I intend to change this drastically in the months ahead, but especially at the National in Cleveland where I will pick up many of the cards I am missing from recent products.  I figured unless I can get really good deals on those cards prior to the show, I will save purchasing them and then go into Cleveland with a true list of what to chase, rather than just randomly wandering around like I normally do.

I did pick up a pretty cool Roy Halladay card on eBay last week. Some of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen me tweet the purchase out, but I don't think I have shown the card.  Here it is, in all its golden sparkly glory: my first Roy Halladay Gem Mint 10 card.

Admittedly, this was an impulse buy, but I had real trouble not pulling the trigger due to the great price. I got this card shipped to me for eleven bucks.  Can't beat that!  Oh yeah, something else that is kind of cool about the card is that it is a pop 1.  No other Gem Miint 10 copies of this card exist in PSAs database.  So I guess, in a way, it's a 1/1...for now.