Love/hate relationship and contest reminder

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Man, I should write a book using that as my opening line.

I love and hate the weekends.

I work nights so the weekends are nice because I get to spend some quality time with my family. However, I don't get on the computer AT ALL! I use the old Iphone to check the blogroll and keep up with posts. But, I don't make any posts on the weekend unless they were written during the week and scheduled for the weekend. I rarely comment on any post I read over the weekend, because it's a pain doing it using the phone. I try to go back and re-read the stuff from the weekend when I get to work. Sometimes I miss a post so if you see a comment on me from a days old post that is why.

I have more time at home on the weekends, which is nice, but it tends to end up with me working on the "honey-do" list. Like painting the kitchen. As in that's what I worked on this weekend. I. HATE. painting. Period. It takes away from so many other things I'd rather do. Like posting on the blog. Sorting my cards. Playing with my kids. Trimming my entire acre of grass with nose hair clippers.

Oh well, here it is Monday and I need to wrap up this contest. If you haven't entered, I'll leave it open until midnight tonight. The winner will be announced Tuesday morning. Thanks to everyone who entered and good luck.

For all of you who do make posts on the weekend, thanks for giving me something to look at on my phone when I'm supposed to be painting. Or cleaning the garage. Or the attic. Or...well you get the point. Just thanks!

Rangers for Rangers from Big D

I ran across a nice blog from my neck of the woods, Hey, That's Mine. Derek is a fellow Rangers collector, but has two, no now three of his kids collecting too. I was really intrigued by that and sent him some cards from his player/team collections and also loaded up his kids with some cards. Anything I can do to encourage the next generation to start collecting, I'm there. I think Derek and I have sent more cards for the kids than the adults. And that is fine with me! Here are a few of the cards Derek sent for little old me.

An assortment of 2001 Donruss Studio cards. Rusty Greer is on my favorite Ranger list. Gabe Kapler was a fan favorite during his time with the Rangers. I've never heard him mentioned in the steroid talk, he appears to be gifted genetically and works out religiously. Ken Caminiti had a history of substance abuse and was mentioned in the Mitchell Report. Every young player should have to take a good look at Ken's life to see what can happen if you stray into the dark world of drugs.

I think this is a 2004 Donruss Playoff World Series Michael Young card. It is a little confusing with all the info on the back. As a Rangers fan, I don't want to see my team on a "World Series" card until they've earned it. Still, I like the card and there were several others in the package.

More Will Clarks for the player collection. I didn't have either one of these. The 2008 Donruss Threads has a lot of wasted space, but I like how they incorporated the baseballs into the design. The 2001 Pacific Will Clark in Cards uni is great. I didn't have any card from the time Will was with the Cards. Very nice, but it looks odd to see him in that uni.

Derek included 38 other Rangers cards, 3 Play at the Plate cards (which I plan on featuring later) and....

...35 cards for my son. That is really great Derek. He gets more excited at trade packages than I do if that is possible. I'm looking forward to more backyard trades!

Rangers on Cards from Cards on Cards....Cards?

Yet another catch up trade post. I'm working my way through these fairly quickly but it is a chore. In a good way. It's great to be able to now get the cards out of the packages and start sorting them. As if I've sorted any of them yet. Don't you know me yet? Kerry over at Cards on Cards and I pulled off a pretty nice trade back in September. He sent me some sweet, sweet Rangers and I mailed him some Cardinals. In addition to the cards I'll show you, there were 102! other Rangers. I wish I had the time to post more pics, but here are some of my favorites from the package.

I've mentioned that you can't go wrong sending me Will Clark cards. I know I didn't have the 1990 and 1991 Post cards. I'm not sure about the 1992 Score Impact Player card. I really need to put together a Clark wantlist. I'll add that to the list of things to do.

First is a 1992 7-11 Will Clark disc. Score's name is on the back so they obviously had a little to do with helping the convenience store put these out. I've picked up a variety of these throughout the years and mailed several of them out in various trades. Nexe is a 1991 mini mini mini Cracker Jack Ruben Sierra. I thought the A&G minis were tough to store. Speaking of which, we also have a 2006 A&G Hank Blalock mini. I do believe this is my first '06 A&G anything.

This is a really nice 2006 Flair Showcase Ian Kinsler. I'm hypnotized by the shininess.

Kerry mentioned when he posted the cards I sent him how much he likes serial numbered cards. I like them too, although I often don't see the point. This is one of those cards. It's a Piece of History Cut from the Same Cloth....sorry I had to take a break due to the very long name of that card. Where was I? Oh yea, Michael Young/Ryan Braun #786/799.

2007 Ultimate Star Materials Michael Young. This is a nice card even though it has a boring white swatch. Michael is one of my favorite all-time Rangers.

2007 UD Masterpieces Michael Young jersey. Wow, that's a bad picture even for me. This is my favorite card of the bunch, even though it may set a record for smallest piece of jersey EVER on a card. Thanks so much Kerry! I've got plenty of Cards cards for another trade.

2006 Topps Turkey Red Blaster Break

I was a little surprised when I strolled by the card aisle at the local Wal-Mart and saw this.

Ok, I didn't just stroll by the aisle. I've learned that other people, unscrupulous cheaters that they are, will sometimes hide a good blaster behind other blasters. Now, I don't know how good this blaster is, but I really enjoy some of the discounted blasters I've opened. I've bought 4 or 5 discounted 2008 Stadium Club blasters and been happy with every one.

As you can see, this blaster had 7 packs plus the world famous bonus pack. At least it was a real pack and not some two card junk pack. Each pack had 8 cards for a grand total of 64 cards. I'm not going to do this pack by pack. Just the highlights. So let's see what I pulled.

Only two Rangers made an appearance. Kameron Loe and Ian Kinsler. They will make fine additions to the team collection.

I pulled four of the "old-timers". Jim Palmer, Gary Carter, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tom Seaver. I really like the Seaver card. These are probably my favorites out of the whole box.

I pulled 8 of the Red bordered cards. It doesn't say on the box, but I'll assume you get one per pack. Here we have Tom Glavine and Bobby Abreu.

Continuing on with the meh factor, we have Aaron Hill and Clint Barmes.

White Soxers outlined in red, Joe Crede and Tadahito Iguchi.

The best of the red bordered cards is Nick Markakis who showed up with fellow Oriole Daniel Cabrera.

Two white bordered parallels were hibernating in the box and with a ration of 1:4 packs that is what I would have expected. The culprits were Matt Clement and Andruw Jones.

Black bordered parallels fall 1:20 packs so I beat the odds a little on this one. Unfortunately the great card collator in the sky saw fit for my "winner" to be another White Sox player, Brian Anderson.

So that's it. No Gold parallels (1:60), no relics/autos (combined odds 1:43) and no sick mojo. Not that sick is an overused word or anything. However I did enjoy the box and would pick up another one at the discounted price if I could find one. I'm leaning toward trying to collect these, but if I change my mind I'll list them to see if anyone needs any for their collections.

Barrel full of Rangers

September seemed to bring a lot of trade packages my way. I was trying to get "established" as a good trader and make a few good contacts with bloggers out there in the baseball card blogosphere. I contacted Ed over at Roll Out the Barrel about some cards I had for his wantlists and a 2008 Sweet Spot card he might like. This is what I sent him and this is what he sent me.

A couple of nice Ranger O-Crap-We're-Going-To-Get-Sued-Pee-Chee cards. That team checklist is going to make it's way to my header when I get around to redesigning the blog. I needed the black bordered Hamilton for the team collection.

I had never seen the 1988 Topps Minis?? before and I have since received several others in the mail as well. They will make their way into a trade post before long. That 2009 Bowman Josh Hamilton is nice. I didn't buy any Bowman this year.

This is a nice 2009 Topps Chrome XFractor Michael Young. Needed it. Got it.

Here we have a trio of Joe Mauers for the player collection. I needed all three.

Ah, a much needed group of 2009 A&G minis. I have finally decided that collecting these is pure insanity. No one in their right mind is going to try to collect the entire mini set. Then again, I've never claimed to be sane so I think I'll keep trying. This batch had 10 regular/ad back minis and a couple of the black bordered variety.

Upon closer inspection, you'll notice the Mariel Zagunis mini is a Bazooka back #16/25. Now I need the certified auto and material card to go along with these.

I know a lot of people save the best card/cards for the finale of their trade posts. Obviously the Zagunis would be the best card I received, but there were also 32 additional Rangers and there were these cards:

Ed sent the 178 cards on the right for my son who is collecting the 2009 Topps set. We are still working on his wantlists and thanks to those who have said they will send him some cards when we get the list done. We should have the list soon.

Ed, thanks for the great cards. Hopefully we can pull off another trade before long.

A short post with an old school contest included

I love discounted blasters. Just love 'em. I picked up this from Wallyworld a couple of days ago.

Topps Turkey Red ala 2006. I may have one or two of these cards that I've acquired in trades, but this is the first time I've ever had any to open. This is going to be fun. But, I'm not opening it yet. And no, this isn't what the contest is about.

I found this on Ebay today. That is a whole lotta unopened goodness right there. I really want it for Christmas so if anyone has won the lottery feel free to share a little of that blessing with a fellow blogger.

I know you didn't click on this post to read about my Christmas wish list and even though some of you want those 2006 Turkey Reds, that isn't why you're here either. Nothing draws hits like the word "contest". I mentioned previously about going back to the card shop and buying the packs of 2004 Topps Chrome. I also mentioned buying 5 packs of something else.

Those 5 packs were crisp, clean, unopened 1991 Stadium Club Series 2. I opened one pack and got a couple of decent cards. I'm going to give the other 4 packs away to one of you fine people.

I got these out of the half-price bin at the card shop. I'll also throw in a batch of cards from your favorite team.

I love ANY contest, but I know the easier they are, the more people will enter so I'll make this one fairly simple, although you may need a calculator. All you have to do is guess the total of the card numbers of the cards from the pack I opened. For example, I may have pulled card 337, 439, 501, etc. Add up the 12 card numbers that might appear on series two cards and enter your answer in the comment section. I opened only one pack with 12 cards. Remember, it is series two so that includes cards numbers 301-600. The person closest to the number will win the cards. Confused yet? I hope not. Good luck. I'll run the contest until Sunday night and then I'll announce the winner and post the cards from the pack I pulled. I'll also post the cards from the TR blaster soon.

Trading Issues

First Day Issues that is. Back in late September, Bud from First Day Issue agreed upon a trade. I sent him Mariners stuff with a few Griffey Jrs thrown in for good measure. He sent me a good stack of Rangers for the collection. Here are some of my favorites from my end of the trade.

I thought I would get Big Teixeira out of the way first. I'm really posting this only because of the "newsworthiness" of the card. That pointy building on the left, with the red lights on top, is called Fountain Place. I worked in that building for about 12 years. That is the building Sam Smadi parked a fake car bomb under back on September 24th just before he was arrested by the FBI. Thank God they were on to him.

Here is a nice 2007 Allen & Ginter Ian Kinsler. I only have a couple of A&G from 2007 so this is a good one.

Here we have a nice 2002 Stadium Club Emmitt Smith and a 2009 Topps FB Abner Haynes, who happens to be in a Dallas Texans uniform. I have included a few Seahawks and/or Sonics cards with each trade and Bud was returning the favor. I thought I was being clever until Bud let me know he actually likes the Titans and Packers. Sorry about those Seahawks cards!!

I don't think I have any of these 2005 Topps Cracker Jack cards and this is a nice one of Ian Kinlser. A sweet-swinging 2005 UD Electric Diamond Will Clark. You can't go wrong sending me Will Clark cards.2007 Upper Deck Nelson Cruz. Nelson had a good year for the Rangers in 2009. Imagine how good he would be if he used a full sized bat!

Babe Ruth's called shot wasn't captured like this! Michael Young calls his shot AFTER he crosses the plate on this 2008 Upper Deck Team Checklist. Way to go Michael.

What can you say abou this one. This 1992 Upper Deck Latin Stars card should have been a box topper. I'm not sure how you get all 4 of those PED heads on one regular sized card. Pudge Rodriguez is one of my favorite Rangers, but he was implicated by Jose Canseco in his book Juiced. Everyone thought Jose was being petty and vindictive when that book was released. He might have been those things, but it looks like a lot of what he said has proven true.

1983 Topps Team Leaders Buddy Bell/Charlie Hough. Any cards from 1981-1985 immediately transport me back to my childhood.

Man, this is one shiny card. This is a 2009 Topps Red Hot Rookies Chris Davis. I don't remember seeing these so maybe it is a hobby exclusive insert. I don't think they'll make a Red Hot Sophomore Season card for Chris.

1976 Topps Toby Harrah. Toby was one of the most popular of the early Rangers. He played in the majors for 17 years, 9 with the Rangers and 2 with the Senators. This is one more I can check off my needs list...if I had a needs list.

Relic time! In typical Relic fashion this 2005 UD MVP Alfonso Soriano jersey card features him in a Rangers uni and says the jersey was worn in a Yankees game. I still like it.

Very nice! A 2003 Fleer Platinum Portraits jersey card for Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez. This is a definite keeper! Thanks so much Bud for the great cards. I've got other packages from you to post soon.