And The Winner Is……..

I’m closing the poles early because I can.  And I’m heading to bed in a minute.  I randomized the list 5 times to be fair to everyone on the list.  I figured the first name didn’t have much of a random chance of being first again.  So without further ado, I will show you the prizes one more time.

…..and a team bag of cards from their favorite team.

And the winner is……………………..

Mr. Bacon himself, Troll.  Get me your mailing info and a team to fill a bag with and I’ll get these out to you.  And no, 1961 Fleer does not count as a team.

Thanks to everyone who entered.  Better luck next time.

First Look At 2036 Topps Heritage, Kind Of

I was just browsing the official MLB site and came across their fantasy preview.  I believe last year they used the 1984 Topps design.  This year they went with the wood grain goodness of 1987.  I grabbed a few images of some of the sphere’s favorites for y’all to gander at.  The rest can be found here.  If you haven’t already, make sure you enter the contest here.  The randomizer will decide the winner at midnight tonight.

Contest Prize Update And A Nice Trade

I have just received my end of an overly generous trade with blogosphere new comer Cameron from Reds and more… I know I vowed to conform to Commissioner Thorzul’s rules and show only one card per trade post but I felt one card would not do this trade justice.  His trade came in a box and I just couldn’t pick one card out and leave all the rest behind.  I figured I would at least try to narrow it down to one scan.  There’s a lot of goodness crammed into that one scan.

I got an in person auto of one time can’t miss Cub’s prospect Ty Griffin.  If you want to make sure your career doesn’t get past it’s infancy, just let Topps make a #1 prospect card of you with a Cubs logo on it.  You’ll be guaranteed to fade away into oblivion.  I have a Jerome Walton, Felix Pie, and a Ty Griffin auto, now I just need to chase a Brooks Kieschnick and a Corey Patterson autograph and I’ll have a complete set of the Cub’s failed top prospect class.   Even though they never amounted to much, they all hold a special place in Cub’s history and in my collection.

You gotta love the Santo cards, at least I do.  The Flair Greats card has to have the best worst profile photo of a 70’s stylin powder blue jersey, curly haired Santo.

He also threw in a few game used cards including a nice Zambrano swatch.  Word on the turd is he’s shown up early to camp 15 pounds lighter and hell-bent on having a career year.  We’ll see.  Also included was a game used bat card of Daryl Ward.  He is possibly one of the best pinch hitters ever, so it’s only appropriate his card includes part of his bat.  The next game used card is of Tom Gorzelanny.  He is pictured here with the Cub’s minor league affiliate the Pittsburg Pirates.  He is a very solid pitcher and I hope to see good things out of him this year.

That brings us to the meat of the trade in the Maris card.  It’s one of the 2010 Topps variations.  I don’t think I’m going to chase these but if someone has one to get rid of, I’d be willing to take it.  Some view these as a gimmick but I think this is a perfect way to do short prints.  You don’t need to waste time chasing them for the set, but if you want, it will give you a bit of a challenge.  It’s also nice to pull one of these out of a box on top of your guaranteed hits.  Some say gimmick, I say kudos.

On another note, I forgot I had an additional prize to give away in the contest.  So here it is, as if an autographed card and a pile of cards wasn’t enough……..

One pack of 28 year old Donkey Kong cards.  If you haven’t entered you better do so now.  You can either scroll down or click here. Good Luck to all who enter and a big thanks goes out to Cameron.

Contest!!!

Everybody loves a contest right!  I sent off a couple of cards to Donkey Kong record holder Steve Wiebe last week for a TTM attempt.  It really wasn’t an attempt because I had contacted him and he agreed to sign them for me, so it was more like a for sure thing.  Anyways I had him sign 2 cards, 1 for me and 1 for one of you.  I’ll even throw in a team bag full of cards from your favorite team.

All you have to do to enter is leave your name and favorite video game in the comments.  If you have more than one favorite, make a list.  If you’re too old to have a favorite, pick a board game.  If you don’t want to do that, then you’re lazy, and just leave your name.  I’ll also put in bonus submissions for anyone who adds me as a friend on the Xbox ( gritz76) or the PS3 (-gritz76-).  Send me a request and I’ll add you and put your name in the hat.  I’ll put the list of names into random.org and who ever gets randomized to the top wins.  Simple.  I’ll leave this open until midnight on Sunday and when you wake up Monday I will have announced a winner.  Feel free to spread the word.

To get you guys started here’s my top ten.

10) NES Golf

9)   Tony Hawks Pro Skater

8)    Castlevania

7)    Life Force

6)    RBI Baseball

5)    NHL ’96

4)    Modern Warfare 2

3)    Tetris

2)    Goonies 2

1)    Contra

Topps Millions, I Kicked Ass

Really, I did.  Out of 12 cards I pulled 2 HoFer’s, 1 who should be, 1 who will be, 2 Cubs, 1 guy with the same name as my son, and a nice vintage Dodger.  Wanna see?

See, I wasn’t bullshitting.  I also snagged a ’87 Yount, ’87 Rose, and a ’03 Maddux.  The rest sucked, but overall I think I kicked ass. I’ll even forgive them for not telling me FireFox doesn’t work for their site.

Some Odds & Ends Stuff To Look At

This post is going to be all over the place.  I have a few things I want to show off so I’m just going to throw it all up at once.  First up is some 2010 issue Phungo cards I received from a trade with deal from Phungo Cards.  We completed this trade about a month ago and I immediately misplaced the Phungo cards in a pile of random cards.  They just so happened to resurface about twenty minutes ago so here they are.

I’m thinking I got a loaded pack.  I have a nice trio of Cubbies including the Harry Caray error card.  I believe I have since seen a corrected version of this card so I hope this might skyrocket in value.  Also included was a nice black bordered Mickey Vernon card.  He also include several additions to my ’62 set and some sweet Cubbies of the vintage assortment.  Thanks deal!

Next up is a very cool and inexpensive lot I picked up from Check Out My Cards.

The first three cards are of the infamous Spaceman Bill Lee.  The first card is from the Fan Favorites set.  It’s a nice on card auto of one of the greatest and strange personalities in the game.  At the age of 64 he is still playing the game he loves including pitching 6-plus innings during the 2008 Midnight Sun game in Alaska.  If Lincecum continues to follow in the footsteps of Bill Lee, maybe he’ll pitch on the senior circuit too.

I think every collector should own at least one Rusty Kuntz card for obvious reasons.

I’ve been searching for some Mark Fidrych cards since I seen him pitch a game against the Yankees on MLB TV.  I thought eventually I’d find a couple in a commons box somewhere but I finally broke down and had to order a couple.  I got his normal 1977  Topps card and his 1977  Topps cloth sticker.  I didn’t have an example of the cloth stickers until now, they’re kind of cool.  Maybe Topps could retire the Turkey Red and include some sort of insert set of these next year.  I’m just saying.

The rest are a few Cub’s I needed.  The Zimmer is getting packaged up as soon as he gets off the scanner for a TTM attempt.  Wish me luck!

I’ll show you the next pile of cards I picked up at the local show last week.  It was Super Bowl Sunday so most of the dealer were pushing football cards like crazy.  I asked a couple of the dealers to go through some of the stuff they didn’t have displayed on the tables and I’m glad I did.  I got the next bunch for a ridiculously good price.  I’ll let you know what that total was after the scans.  Until then keep a running total  in your head of what you think I should have paid for them and compare.

When I was digging through the box and running a total in my head for all these I was around $25.  None were priced by the dealer so I was really just figuring what I would be willing to pay.  I plopped them down on all the football cards he had displayed and asked what the damage was.  His answer, $10.  My answer, hell yeah!  There’s a lot of Hall of Fame goodness in there for half the price of a blaster.

Next up is some shameless eBay plugs.  I want to go after a 1962 Willie Mays so I figured I’d try to sell some stuff I don’t really need and turn it into gold, well at least a wood grain bordered Hall of Famer.

2010 Topps Ken Griffey Jr. Black Border Parallel #51/59

2010 Topps Carl Yastrzemski Hat Logo #59/99

2010 Topps Tris Speaker Commemorative Patch Card

1961 Fleer Eddie Joost Graded BVG 8

2009 Topps Barack Obama Hawaii Basketball SP #44B

If a patron of my humble little blog wins any of these I’ll be more than happy to toss in a few extras to make it worth your while.  Just make sure you let me know if you do win one.

And finally, I am the administrator of a new blog.  My daughter decided she wanted in on the fun of blogging so I set up a site for her to show off her artwork.  It’s also an excuse for me to be able to throw some of her stuff away when she’s done with it.  It’s amazing how fast this stuff piles up!  So far she only has one picture up and it’s of a princess tea party.  She does however, from time to time create some nice baseball themed artwork.  I’m sure when spring training starts she rattle off a few nice pieces of work.  For now, if you want to check out a sweet tea party and make a 5 yr old girl smile you can visit her blog Addison’s Crayon Box and get her visitor count up a little.

I told you it was going to be all over the place.

Ted Williams Or Ryan Theriot

The local show was this past weekend and as I peered into a glass case full of autos I noticed this card.  It was marked $25.  Next to it was a Ryan Theriot RC certified auto.  It was marked $45.  I left with Teddy and ordered a pizza.

The card would be cooler if it said, “Ted’s Chillen'”

The Wal-Mart Blacks Are Back

I haven’t seen these posted yet so I thought I’d throw them out there.  I am one of many who swore off blasters for 2010 and I have already broke my oath.  I’m still waiting on my jumbo box, it won’t be here till Monday, so to sooth the itch I broke down and grabbed a quick blaster at the Wal-Marts.  Here’s a few more scans of some of the blacks.

Here’s a little side by side action of David DeJesus.

And a little side by side by side action of the Royals.

My commemorative patch was a nice one of Tris Speaker

This is totally up for trade, preferably for a Cub’s patch.

I pulled a bunch of Yo Mamma! cards including three in one pack. 

The Cepeda is an original back, it is also cut funny.  It’s more of a parallelogram of a parallel.  I really like this little insert set.  I’m going to try and complete it, so if any one has some they don’t want I’d be more than willing to trade for some.  If they carry this set into the 2010 Chrome, it’s on like Donkey Kong!

Once again Topps has some collation issues and once again I’m the lucky one who gets to find it.

Some day I want to find a whole pack of SP’s or autographed cards.  It’s bound to happen someday.  Here’s the rest of the blacks.

2010 Face Off or How I Pissed On Braden Looper’s Porch

My lovely wife had the pleasure of braving two separate trips to the local Wally world today.  I asked her nicely to check and see if the 2010 cards had arrived yet.  It just so happens they were being stocked at the same time she checked.  She was kind enough to pick up two packs of Topps and one pack of Upper Deck.  I have a jumbo box of Topps on the way that should get me a base set or at least close so I didn’t want to pick up too many.  I pulled a Braden Looper out of both brands so I thought I would do a side by side comparison for y’all.

The UD cards have much crisper and sharper photographs than Topps, but Topps has a better choice of shots.  UD has way too many shots of player’s backs and sides, due to their poor attempt of covering the logos that they’re not supposed to show, but did anyways.  The Topp’s design, in my opinion, is much easier on the eyes.

As you can see Topps is getting their moneys worth displaying two alternate logos on every card, way to rub their noses in it Topps!  They also come packing an alternate photo on the back rather than rehashing the same photo on both sides like UD decided to do.  You can’t see it here, but Topps included the OPS stat again this year and once again UD did not.  It’s one of my favorite stats to look at so I have to give the win to Topps.

Now on to how I was able to relieve myself on Mr. Looper’s porch.  I’m not proud of my actions, but I do brag about it to anyone who will listen.    It was during a 4th of July party that I was forced to attend.  My mom and my wife are both nurses and both had worked with a lady who invited us out to her house on a nearby lake.  With the pressure of my mom and my wife I had no chance of dodging this one.  It’s one of those communities where they have a real strict home owners associations and a bunch of real expensive real estate, but on the weekend of the fourth they have one hell of a fireworks display.  When we showed up, the living room was full of old blue hairs talking about church and knitting and stuff.  I was getting upset because the Cubs were playing the Cardinals and in battle for first place and I was missing it.  I hit the buffet table which was one of the positives of the party.  It seems old church goin’ ladies love to make good food.  I was checking my phone every few moments to get updated on the game, they were tied until the 8th when the Cubs scored two runs from a Aramis Ramirez home run.  All is well for a bit.  In comes Kerry Wood to pitch the 9th for the save.  At this point one of the old ladies tells me the guys are all in the basement watching the game.  You’d have thought someone would have mentioned this to me earlier because I was decked out in my Cubbies gear frantically checking my phone and telling my dad the play by play, but no they wait until it’s almost over.  I go to head downstairs as everyone was heading upstairs.  It seems Kerry Wood had one of his signature blown saves and I was lucky enough to miss it.  Finally the guys are upstairs and all talking about the game when the owner mentions that one of the pitchers from the Cardinals had just bought the house next door.  After a little digging, I found out it was Braden Looper.  I decided this was my one and only chance to do something to a Cardinal’s house.  I didn’t want to do any damage or anything, just something I could tell my grandkids about one day.  When the sun went down I snuck over to his front door which was pretty well covered by some bushes.  There he had one of those green welcome mats with the little white daisy, and I issed on it!  This story is only better now that he was sent to the Brewers.  In one pissing I was able to take care of both teams I hate.  All in all, it was the best party full of old church goin’ ladies I ever went to.

Back to the cards for a minute.  Here is a scan of four cards that UD decide to go ahead and use team names on.

They’re hard to read but if you click on the image you can read them a bit better.  Now why would UD not print the team names on most cards and decide to use them on others?  Why would they not use them for the stat lines or the front of the cards, but bury them in some minor factoids?  I don’t get it.  I just don’t see how they think they were going to get away with this.  And even if they do, what will stop Topps from producing Hockey sets now?  It has to be a two way street if they get away with it.  Either way, they’re screwing themselves.  All I know is it’s going to be one hell of a soap opera.

Speaking of soap stars, out of three packs, I managed to pull these.

Three insert Arods?  FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Declare Shenanigans…..

Here’s a link to an interesting little news story about baseball cards.

STORY

VIDEO

If your too lazy to follow the link I don’t blame you.  Basically two guys walk into a card shop.  One buys a box of Topps Tribute and pulls a 1 of 1 cut sig of Jackie Robinson.  He tells a friend about it and then he decides to buy a box too.  Guess what?  He pulls a 1 of 1 cut sig of Babe Ruth.  Now, this isn’t your local musty smelling dimly lit card shop that some of us are used to.  These cards were pulled at Nick’s Sportscards in North Dallas.  I actually recognized the shop from a few different stories about their shop.  They seem like they do business the right way and for the right reasons, but I declare shenanigans.

Here are the reasons.  For starters, Tribute only has 16 total cut signatures in the product.  For two of them to come from the same shop within hours is almost too good to be true.  They even state in the video these odds are next to impossible.  We all know, or at least suspect that Beckett has received loaded boxes in the past.  Could it be the case that certain shops are chosen for these “special cases” to be sold at.  I’m not trying to make a Beckett conspiracy out of this, although it is funny that some of them shop there.  What I’m trying to figure out is just how are these sets collated and distributed.  Does Topps know where they send certain cards to.  Could they be doing favors to certain shops while dumping everything else to others?  Does anybody know the answers?

I got a good laugh from Chris Olds’ quote, “”The appeal of these cards is that the card companies have authenticated the signature as legit.”   I’m still trying to figure out what company he’s buying his cards from.