Wrapping up 2013 with a contest

Last reminder to get in those comments.

If you're still sober that is.

Happy New Year everyone.  Be safe.

Don't drink and blog.  Or do.  At least you'll be safe at home.

Who wants extra entries in the contest?

Want 10 extra entries in the contest?

Who wouldn't want 10 extra chances to win a  2014 Topps Blaster?

Leave a comment here with a link to a blog post you wrote that didn't get the attention you thought it deserved.

Good luck and get to reading those blog posts that need some love.

Contest reminder...

Don't forget to get your entries (comments) in for the the chanced to win a 2014 Topps Blaster.

You can see the rules here or just do what you know to do.

Who wants some Super Bowl Crack

Go enter CB's Super Bowl Contest.

Maybe he'll give you a consolation prize since I plan on winning.

Sochi anyone?

My son, collector of USA related cards, received two blasters of 2014 Topps US Olympic and Paralympic Team and Hopefuls for Christmas.

The blasters are billed as containing 7 packs + 1 autograph, relic or commemorative relic card.  Upon opening the blasters, we realized that the auto or relic is inside one of the 7 packs, not a separate pack that is in a different type of wrapper as is so often the case.

My son's two blasters contained the following:

1 complete base set (one card was damaged--#83 if anyone has an extra).
24 doubles
15 bronze parallels
8 silver parallels
3 gold parallels
2 Games of the Olympiad inserts
1 Venues insert
1 Olympic Heritage insert

He doesn't care about the blog value of the blasters, but I pulled a few of my favorite cards to post.

Based on the cards themselves, Hilary Knight gets my vote as the "Olympic Athlete I most want to meet". Cute and tough.  Nice combo.

It's unfortunate that Katie Eberling participates in a sport that requires a helmet.  It's equally fortunate she participates in a sport that requires a skin tight body suit.

Lindsey Van gets my vote for the best Olympic card ever.  At least in this set.  That card is going to look great with her signature on it.

Lindsey Vonn, not to be mistaken with the aforementioned Lindsey Van, also looks pretty darn good in a skin tight suit.  Go Tiger.  

The biggest travesty in the whole set is Lolo Jones with her helmet on.  Bad call Topps.  Bad call.

My son got this nice Heather Richardson bronze relic #43/75.  The bronze relics fall 1:70 packs.  Heather finished 6th in the 500 Meter race in Vancouver in 2010.

The other blaster gave up a nice auto of Alana Nichols.  Alana was paralyzed from the waist down in a 2000 snowboarding accident, but didn't let that keep her down.  She won four medals, including two golds, at the Vancouver Paralympic Games.

My son wants another complete base set so he can mail some off for TTMs.  I don't know if we could get lucky enough to get another set with two blasters, but he wants to try.  I'll check Ebay for set prices.  That has to be a cheaper route.

If anyone has any of these they don't want, I'll trade baseball for them to support his USA habit.

Year End Contest...Come Get a Blaster

Let's have a year end contest to push 2013 out the door and get 2014 off to a good start for someone.

I'm going to give away a blaster of 2014 Topps Baseball Cards.  I know they aren't scheduled to drop until the end of January, but I'm going to give someone something to look forward to before New Year's Eve hangover is gone.

Sometime on the 31st I'm going to give you the opportunity to get some bonus entries, but for now there is one way.

You get one entry for every comment you leave on any post I've ever written.  The only rule is you only get to comment on a post one time.  (It's ok if you commented previously, I'll accept all new comments.)   I'd prefer a comment that refers to the post, but I'm not going to be too strict on that account.  Any comment will count.  You can enter 1 time, you can enter 1800+ times (not sure how many posts there are exactly).

I'll hold a separate drawing for a 2014 Topps Rack Pack for everyone who promotes the contest and lets me know about it on this post.  No pressure to promote, just another way to win for those who do!

I'll close this off sometime on the 1st, so get some entries while you can.

Best of luck to everyone and thanks for playing along!

Mom comes through for Christmas

Mom, if you're reading this, please read the first paragraph, skip the second and then go on to the rest if you want to see the shiny pictures.  Oh, this doesn't count as the first paragraph either.

My mother, sweet lady that she is, made an effort to put some cards under the proverbial tree this year. A good effort too as my primary gift from her was four blasters.  Thanks mom.

Ok, now that she's not reading this part, I'll say that she got me 3 blasters of 2013 Topps Chrome.  Football Topps Chrome.  The other blaster was 2013 Strata.  Also football.  Mom knows that I really only collect baseball, but she couldn't find any baseball blasters near her.  I appreciate the effort and I have to say I did get some decent cards.

I didn't get everything scanned because my printer decided it needed a day off for Christmas.  I got most of my stuff scanned and the stuff my son got in his two blasters.  I'll show his stuff off later.

Nothing in the Strata blaster was worth showing.  The Topps Chrome blasters have 7 packs plus a Rookie relic pack with one card.

In three blasters, I got one of the 1965 Tall Boy cards and it was a Cowboy.  I'll take it.

I snagged four of these 1969 inserts.  This Marquise Goodwin is the only one I got scanned.  I also pulled Markus Wheaton, Eddie Lacy and Geno Smith

I don't see odds on the pack for these Blue Wave Refractors, but this Eddie Lacy is selling pretty well.  I'll probably see what I can turn it into via Ebay.

I pulled a couple of the 1959 mini inserts, but didn't scan them. I got Marquise Goodwin and Matt Barkley.

I also pulled 4 of the 1986 inserts that weren't scanned. I got Cordarrelle Patterson, Terrance Williams, Matt Barkley and Justin Hunter.

The best card I pulled that didn't get scanned was a 1986 Topps Gold Refractor Stedman Bailey #37/50. These are a tough pull at 1:1,133 packs.  Unfortunately, they don't bring much unless it's one of the bigger names.

This is the one per blaster rookie relic.  I also hit a regular Mike Glennon relic plus one you'll see at the end of the post.

I got three colored refractors.  Black refractors, like this Mike Glennon #92/299, fall 1:45 packs.  I also hit a camo Kenny Stills #274/499.  The camos fall 1:27 packs.

My third colored refractor was this red Cecil Shorts #20/25.  The reds fall 1:540 packs.

The pull of the day was this EJ Manuel Rookie Relic red refractor #1/5.  These fall 1:413 packs.  This one should bring a decent return on my investment of zero dollars.

If I had pulled cards with those odds from my baseball Chrome blasters, I would have bought more of them.

Thanks for the cards MOM!!!

I need to get something off my chest

Actually, I need to get something off Paul Lo Duca's chest.

My love for catchers led to another Ebay purchase.  This time it was a 2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Paul Lo Duca chest protector/bat relic card.  It's my first chest protector relic and I really, really needed it to along with this card.

I've looked and looked and can't find a Pudge card with a chest protector or shin guard, but I did find one with a nice piece of his catcher's mitt.

Those two go along nicely with this Johnny Estrada shin guard card that I already had.  I'm 3/4 of the way to having a piece of all the tools of ignorance.  Anyone ever seen a catcher's mask relic card?

Hey TOPPS!  I WANT A CATCHERS MASK RELIC CARD!

DO YOU HEAR THE WORDS THAT ARE COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?!

Taking a moment

Christmas has come and gone again.

I got four blasters of cards and I'll be showing them off soon.

First, I thought I'd take a Moment and show off some Milestones.  2007 and 2008 Moments and Milestones to be specific.

I'm sure most of you know how Moments and Milestones works.  If not, I'll give you the low down.  Take this Alex Rodriguez card.  It highlights his 30 doubles in 2003.  Each of his 30 doubles has a card which has 150 serial numbered copies.  That means there are 4500 cards, each serial #/150, that highlight one of Arod's doubles.  If you want a Master Set of 2007 M&M with all it's variations, you'd have to collect 12,475 cards.  Good luck with that.  I highly doubt I'll ever even have a team set.  Imagine having to track down one of each of the 30 doubles cards.  Wow.

It would take more than 20 pages in a binder to house one of every "hits" card for Arod.  As much as I'm a stickler for getting every Ranger card, I don't know if I can handle that much Arod.  Having just one of the 27,150 "hit" cards will probably be sufficient.  Or will it...?

I haven't even mentioned the parallels.  In 2007, you have black parallels #/29 and red 1/1s.

More Arod.

Umm...more Arod.

Ok, now that means I have 3 of the variations of the "hits" card.  That means I only have 178 to go.  Wait, did I just say that!?

Did I mention these cards came from Jon at Community Gum?  Nah, I was saving that nugget until now.  Jon even sent me a couple of Joe Mauer cards.  

Nothing against Joe, but that's just not a good photo.

Here we have some 2008 Moments and Milestones.  The primary difference between 2007 and 2008 M&M is the parallels.  2007 only had blacks #/29 and red 1/1s. 2008 put out blacks #/25, blues #/10 and the red 1/1s.

Topps celebrated Arod's 518 career homers with a card for each of his 518 homers.  They made 150 of them for a total of 77,700 cards.  And they all look alike except for the number at the bottom.

Here is another former Yankee Ranger.

Maybe the day will come when I have every other Ranger card and all I have left to search for is the variations of these M&M cards.  That would be nice.  To have all the other Rangers cards I mean.

Hey, it's my favorite former Ranger, Michael Young.

If any of you are trying to collect all of your favorite players or teams, good luck!

Jon, thanks for all the great cards!  I hope you like the stuff I sent back.  

Merry Christmas Everyone

Twas the morning of Christmas,
and I was at work,
Dozing at my desk,
I arose with a jerk.

The door to the office
had been pushed in,
and there like a cat,
stood my boss with a grin.

You look tired he said,
I told him no way,
I'd had 7 hours of sleep,
in the last two days.

He sent me home,
to the children I'd sired,
told me not to come back,
because I was fired.

That's not really true, at least the part about getting fired. I have had 7 hours of sleep in the last two days, but I still have a job.  At least I think I do.

Everyone have a safe and Merry Christmas!  I hope all your cardboard wishes come true!

Let's open a can of worms for Christmas

One of the best parts of blogging is all the trading that happens as a result of being part of this community. Our good friend Jim over at GCRL brought up ugly side of trading in this post yesterday.  I'm glad he brought it up.

I'd like to think that people not sending their end of a trade is more often than not, an oversight on their part.
That may not always be the case, but it begs the question...are there people to whom I owe cards?  As much as I trade and as disorganized as I am, it's highly likely that I owe cards to someone.  There are a few bloggers that I send cards back and forth with, but those aren't really established trades, just a fun give and receive that is born out of respect and established trust.

That said, if I owe any of you cards for any cards you've already sent me, PLEASE let me know.  It could have been last week, last month or last year. You won't hurt my feelings.

Happy Birthday Steve Garvey!

You have GCRL to thank for the most birthday wishes in blogosphere history!

I hope you somehow got wind of all these B/D wishes and had a good one!

The visit..top five

I've dragged this out long enough.  Here are the top five (in my opinion) cards I got from my friend the former card shop owner.

Before he was Catfish, it's a 1966 Topps Jim Hunter.  The corners are a little soft and there is one blemish along the left edge, but this is a nice card and one I never would have thought I'd have in my collection.

How about a nice 1959 Topps Hank Aaron Baseball Thrill?  The white spot on the left side isn't a crease. It almost looks like someone took a pencil eraser and lightly rubbed the color off.  Hey Captain Canuck, you waited a while, but here's another Brave!

Hey look, it's a 1966 Bill Sorrell rookie card!!  Oh yea, Fergie is there too.

Didn't I tell you there were Dodgers?  The top and bottom left corners of this Sandy Koufax are a little dinged up, but who am I to argue with that.  I love this card.

Last, but not least, we have this beauty.

A 1959 Harmon Killebrew.  It's got those phantom scratches on the bottom, but I'm still happy to have it.  I don't know much about this set, but this is a black back version.

Alright folks, that's it. All 57 of the cards my extra good, super duper friend pulled for me.

The price for these cards?

$10.  That's it.  Unbelievable really.  I think the next time I go to his house, I'll have to over pay a little just to help even the score.

Another visit...part 5

Thanks to my friend the former card shop owner, I have more 1955 Bowman cards than I ever thought possible.

Oops, let the cat out of the bag a little.  I'll just get to the good stuff.

First up, Clint Courtney, Chicago White Sox.  These "TV" set cards were made for catchers. 

Bill Sarni, St. Louis Cardinals.  He looks a little disinterested.  

Matt Batts, Baltimore Orioles.  That's a great baseball name.  I noticed the borders on these cards come in the dark brown border like this one and the light brown border like the two above.  Is there anything special about one or the other?  I just noticed Batts was a Texas native.

Ray Katt, New York Giants.  Katt was also a Texas boy.

Sammy White, Boston Red Sox.  Would that be a night card?

Sherman Lollar, Chicago White Sox.  Someone wanted to make sure everyone knew this was Sherman. They wrote his name on the front in pencil.

Forrest "Smoky" Burgess, Philadelphia Phillies.  This is my second copy of this card.  The first one came from GCRL.

Toby Atwell, Pittsburgh Pirates.  This might be my favorite of all the '55 Bowmans because of the scene behind Atwell.  On the left side, you can see another player and kid on the field.  I wonder what they were doing.

Let's move on to the Dodger portion of this post.

That's not a great job of cropping on the Jim Gilliam card.

Johnny Podres would have been about 22 here, which explains the baby face.

Gil Hodges staring off into the distance.  That's a piece of art right there.

Willie Miranda was involved in a mega trade in 1954.  On 11/17/54 the Yankees traded Miranda, Gene Woodling, Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos, Bill Miller, Kal Segrist and Don Leppert to Baltimore for Bob Turley, Don Larsen, Billy Hunter, Mike Blyzka, Darrell Johnson, Jim Fridley and Dick Kryhoski.  Wow, what a trade.

That's it for today.  We're up to 52 cards with only the best 5 to go.  I hope you're enjoying the ride as much as I am so far.

Another visit...part 5

I'm going to assume you know the story behind these cards at this point.  If not, you can go back and look at parts 1-4 at your convenience.

We've worked our way down through the 1960's cards and it's time to reveal some '50s greatness.

You'll recall that I said my friend pulled out some Dodgers for me because I had purchased Dodgers on a previous visit.  Well, he really hit the Dodgers in this group from 1959 Topps.

Pink border.

Orange border.

Red border too.

There's a Redleg...

a Red Sox...

and even a Yank.

The round picture frame looks great on this Frank House card.

Someone wrote in big cursive letters on the back of this card.  It says "Coach".

Hey, where's your catcher's mitt?

You know what I say, Les is Moss.

Another great framed photo.

This is my first Virgil Trucks card.  He was really a great guy to a lot of bloggers who wrote him.

That puts the total at 40 cards with only 17 to go.

I'll have one more post today and then tomorrow I'll finish up with the top 5 cards from the purchase.