I'm still reading this blog

Jeremy from No One's Going to Read this Blog will sometimes send me a nice surprise package. We both said at some point that we were going to be collecting the 1973 Topps set. We also agreed to send doubles to each other as they accumulated. Well, I haven't actually purchased any yet, thus no doubles, but that didn't keep Jeremy from sending me some of his dupes. As usual, he included some bonus cards that fit right in line with my collecting needs.

Let's start off with one of the biggest cards I've ever gotten in a trade.



It's one of those 2010 Heritage Box Toppers. This one has Joe Mauer and his fellow Twins in stamp form. I like it and Jeremy even sent it in a top loader, so storage isn't a problem.

Jeremy is a big Oklahoma fan and is usually in a hurry to send his Longhorns packing. My son gladly takes all Longhorns so it works out well for us.

This is a very poorly scanned 2010 Press Pass Jordan Shipley.

I only scanned this 1992 Stadium Club Nate Newton because I heard he had gastric bypass surgery and lost 100 pounds. My wife's aunt almost died after having GP surgery and has never been right. Scary.

This is some sort of Samurai Jack card that came with 3 friends. I passed these along to the 8 year old who put them in with his Toy Story 3 and Mario Kart cards. He liked getting something in the trade package so thanks Jeremy.

Now for the real good stuff.

Jeremy sent along 11 1980 Topps Rangers, including Sparky Lyle,

Bump Wills and

Jim Sundberg. My scanner apparently didn't feel good yesterday because it cut off many of these cards.

Now for a mix of '73s. Jeremy sent over 10 of these and of course they were all new to me. He said they were a little rough, but I don't care one bit. This is Andy Messersmith. But you can see that I guess.

It's no wonder the Rangers hired Bobby V to manage the team with his Swing For the Fences attitude. That fit right in with the Rangers when he was here.

Walter Johnson All Time Shutout Leader Card. Very cool card.

How about a little Ranger action starring Jeff Burroughs to finish things off.

Jeremy, thanks so much for the cards. I'll be getting you back as soon as possible.

Getting Gint-A-Cuffs 2 Underway Boxtopper + Packs 1-4

Boy, if that post title doesn't draw in the readers I don't know what will. It sure builds anticipation doesn't it? Well, maybe not considering how many people have already posted their boxes. Still, this is my first time to participate, so I'm excited.

The box of Ginter I opened is the first unopened box I've busted since 2002. I videoed the break and will post it AFTER I've posted all the packs. Grading these is somewhat labor intensive, but fun. I won't be doing to much narration considering most of you have seen this stuff already.

So, let's get to it!

Box Topper---Great Engineering Achievements: Alaska Pipeline (+8)

I like the big cabinet cards. This is my first one, but hopefully not the last.

Pack 1
# 56-Shin-Soo Choo
# 38-Tiago Della Vega
# 262-Zach Greinke
# 90-Kevin Kouzmanoff
# 74-Ryan Ludwick

# 308-Adrian Beltre SP (+2)

# 228-Chase Utley Mini (mini FP list) (+3)

# TDH 55-Ryan Braun +1 TDIH and +2 FP (+3)

Pack Total: 8
Running Total: 16

Pack 2
# 94-Luke Hochevar

# 185-X-Rays (+1)

# 51-Matt Holiday, favorite player (+2)
# 44-Chris Coghlan-“I’ll never do the pie thing again”
# 35-John Lackey
# 258-Ryan Dempster

# 93-Brandon Inge A&G Ad back mini (+2)

# TDH 66-Curtis Granderson +1 TDIH and -1 Yankee (+0)

Pack Total: A craptacular 5 points
Running Total: 21 points

Pack 3

# 3-Ryan Braun, favorite player (+2)
# 272-David Blaine-really?
# 210-Chris Johnson
# 278-Jeff Francouer

# 60-Chris Davis, my favorite team (+1)

# 315-Bobby Abreu SP (+2)

# NA29-National Animals Flamingo mini (+2)

# TD72-Jay Bruce TDIH (+1)

Pack Total: 8 points
Running Total: 29 points

Pack 4
# 131-Tyler Flowers
# 217-James Shields

# 143-Jorge Posada Yankee (-1)
# 294-Buster Posey

# AGA-AJ Adam Jones mini framed auto +15 auto and +2 favorite player=17x1.7 multiplier (+28.9)

# 27-Brad Hawpe Bazooka Mini #14/25 (+20)

# TDH52-Justin Upton TDIH (+1)
Pack Total: 48.9
Running Total: 77.9

Now that’s what I’m talking about. You’ll get to see that pack when I post the video at the end of the pack posts.

Gint A Cuffs 2 Box is busted!

I did a video of the break. I actually broke it into two videos due to the time it took. I still need to score it as well.

Hopefully I can get the scans done, the video uploaded and start posting tomorrow.

If that wasn't enough, I also got a ginormous box of cards from the Troll.

I hope the scanner is rested.

I didn't win the College World Series (contest)...but second is pretty good

Zach over at Autographed Cards had a College World Series Contest. Somehow, I ended up getting second place which was almost as good as first place. Ryan from The Great Orioles Autograph Project won the contest and he got first choice from a bunch of prizes Zach put up for grabs. He chose an autographed Harmon Killebrew card that would have been my first choice, but everything else that I got was just what I wanted. I think it worked out great for both of us and this is probably the best second place prize pack in the history of history. Really, just wait until you see all the great stuff I got.

I'll start with my last choice and work my way up to my first choice.

The last of my five choices was this lot of 7 autos from Zach's collection.

That would be Mike Thompson, Todd Moser, Johnny Giruotella, Brett Jodie, Jeff Lahti, an A's player I don't know (I don't have the cards in front of me!) and Jose Ascanio.

My fourth choice was three unused MCG codes. These are the cards that came up.

1978 Marty Pattin

1978 Luis Tiant

1967 Pat Corrales

My third choice was this 2009 OPC Materials triple swatch.

You know my affinity for catchers, although I would say any Yankees catcher ranks at the bottom of the list. This was really all about Pudge.

My second choice was....

an 8x10 autographed photo of Nomar Garciaparra.

Last, and actually first on my list of choices, was an 8x10 autographed photo of Hall of Famer...

Bruce Sutter!

This is the second Hall of Famer auto I've won from Zach. I won an auto'd 8x10 of Rollie Fingers last year. As a kid, I remember thinking Bruce Sutter looked an awful lot like Grizzly Adams. I doubt I'm the only one around that's old enough to remember that show.

Zach also threw in a few extras.

A Zman Custom I think, of Rangers draft Pick Garrett Buechele, son of former Ranger Steve Buechele.

A slightly smeared Don Baylor auto on a 1982 Donruss card. I think Baylor got hit with another pitch just as he was signing this one!

Ryan and I both got one of these 2007 A&G Augie Garrido autos. This one will be in my son's collection as he is a huge Longhorns fan.

Zach, thanks for an incredibly generous prize pack!

Everyone loves a Buffet

I've had awful luck with some hits lately. It seems like lots of Yankees keep popping up and many times Mike from BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet expresses an interest in trading for them. A week or so ago, I received a package of Rangers from Mike. It had a nice mix of Rangers and a few Presidential cards as well.


This 1999 Topps Chrome John Wetteland is a welcome addition to the collection. Wetteland played 4 of his 12 seasons with Texas, earning 150 of his 330 career saves with the Rangers.

Here is another 2010 Topps Gold. This one is Hank Blalock #486/2010. Hank was released by Tampa on July 8th and I haven't seen anything new on him signing with another team.

My youngest son isn't into baseball cards, but he is into U.S. President stuff. Mike sent over a few presidential cards like this 2009 Philadelphia Nixon vs. Rockefeller card.

You have to love the hair President Van Buren is sporting on this 2008 Goudey card.

This 2007 Fleer Rookie Sensations Ian Kinsler came out of the free pack break Mike recently held.

The photographer went out of his way to catch Will signing autos on this 1995 Pinnacle card. Do you see the hand with the ball, the one on the far left? That wasn't me. Neither were any of the other hands, but I wish it had been. I have a few Clark autos, but never got one in person.

We'll check in with Hank one more time on this 2008 A&G jersey card. I hope Hank hooks up with a team before too long. I think he still has some baseball left in him.

Thanks Mike! As always, I appreciate the cards.

Pre Gint-A-Cuff Box Break Warmup Continued

Earlier today I practiced scoring for Gint-a-Cuffs on a blaster. I'll continue practicing now while comparing loose packs to blasters. The blaster total was a sad 42 points.

8 Loose Packs of 2010 A&G from the gravity feeder

Pack 1
Johannes Gutenberg +1
Ubaldo Jimenez
Drew Stubbs

World's Biggest Largest Collection of World's Smallest Versions of World's Largest Things mini +3 Okay, this may be my favorite card of the year. It's so crazy it's perfect.

Jonathan Sanchez Sketch +3
Ken Griffey Jr. TDIH (Favorite + TDIH) +3

Points=10

Pack 2
Sig Hansen
Area 51 +1
Rickie Weeks
Brad Hawpe
Anne Dononvan
Miguel Cabrera TDIH +1

Points=2
Total=12

Pack 3
Kevin Millwood
Michael Cuddyer
Joel Pineiro

Brad Kilby black bordered mini +3
Carlos Gomez SP +2
Adrian Gonzalez (Fav + TDIH) +3

Points=8
Total=20

Pack 4
Alex Gordon
Colby Rasmus

Carlos Lee bat card +8
Monsters of the Mesozoic Oviraptor +3
Pablo Sandoval TDIH +1

Points=12
Total=32

Pack 5

Nick Jacoby +1 for being a blogger
Isaac Newton
Ian Stewart
Troy Tulowitzki
Lords of Olympus Aphrodite mini +3
Grady Sizemore TDIG (Fav + TDIH) +3

Points=7
Total=39

Pack 6
Rich Harden My favorite Team +1
Adrian Gonzalez favorite player +2
Joakim Soria favorite player +2
National Animal mini Caraboa +2
Ben Sheets SP +2
Justin Verlander TDIH +1
Every card scored...that's nice.

Points=10
Total=49

Pack 7
Franklin Gutierrez
Jair Jurrgens
C.C. Sabathia Yankee -1

Matt Carson A&G Back mini +2
Asdrubal Cabrera SP +2
Justin Uptin TDIH +1

Points=4
Total=53

Pack 8
Adam LaRoche
Miguel Montero
Scott Feldman Ranger +1
National Animal mini Alpaca +2
Akinori Iwamura SP +2
Felix Hernandez TDIH +1

Points=6
Total=59

There you have it. The 8 loose packs gave up one hit, a Carlos Lee bat card, and outscored the Blaster by 17 points.

I'm sure I messed up scoring somewhere along the way, so feel free to let me know if you see any errors.