warning: may cause irritation

Ok, so maybe this has been noticed before, maybe even said before. I had only just noticed it the other day. While going through my box 'o Jays duplicates, sorting them out by player, I came across this peculiar oddity:

2008 and 2009 Topps used the same Adam Lind photo. Now, I know this was commonplace in the 1960s sets, but come on Topps, you didn't take another photo of Lind in a whole year? I know thats not the truth because his 09 Bowman has a different picture. The picture is fantastic, don't get me wrong. I just think they could have at least went from a different angle or something. Here is an example of when recycled photography is alright:

2009 Chrome and 2010 Ginter Ricky Romero. Same picture, but at least they Ginterized the 2010 card. Makes it not as half-assed as it really is. Some work was put into this, as opposed to, well....nothing. Maybe the Lind was a tribute to sets of yesteryear when they used the same photos year to year? Or maybe it was a slip up and they didn't realize it until 2009 was released? Or maybe they just said screw it, he's not a Yankee, no one will ever notice. I'll leave that judgment up to you.

recent acquisitions

I picked up these two HoF relics in the past two weeks or so. Things have been such a mish-mash of my time lately that I forget when I got them exactly, but they are both new to my collection.

Ty Cobb is a dual bat relic from 2009 Topps Tribute, numbered 62/75. Mel Ott is a jersey and comes from this years tribute and is numbered 24/75. Collecting Hall of Fame relics is tricky due to the demand. I really don't like paying huge sums of money on one card, and thankfully I haven't had to yet. Seemingly everyone knows these guys, among other HoFers, so their demand is high. That and the fact that these guys played in the early portion of the 1900s, makes for great relic cards. I'd love to get my hands on something related to Honus Wagner or Cy Young, but those have proven to be difficult so far. Like I have mentioned before, I'm a sucker for baseball history and the early guys who were at the top of the game in the days of the dead-ball era and the depression era are all fascinating to me.

a post is a post is a post

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that all is well and that your time spent with your respective families is wonderful.

Now that that is said, I received my Topps Million giveaway cards yesterday. That was really fast, Topps is on top of their game when it comes to sending those cards out. I know a few of you have had similar experiences for this promotion, so it looks like Topps is doing pretty good. This bunch of cards completed my 2002 and 2005 Topps sets, filled my 'Topps history' binder (the one with 8 to 9 cards of every Topps year) with the exception of the years 1952 and 2002. I need one more card from each to finish off those pages. I also ended up with about 6 1958s, some random 50s and 60s and two Del Crandall cards (1958 and 1964) weirdly enough. Overall, I'm quite happy with what I ended up with, and I still have about 53 cards left, but nothing earlier than 1976. Still not sure what to do with them yet. We'll see.

why donruss? why?

I came across this card today:

Why would you use this picture for the front of his card? This one is going into the personal collection for absurdity alone.

the (first) annual year end clearance! (final)

Alright, so by now those of you that have claimed a lot of cards from me have probably gotten the cards by now. Some of you have gotten back to me and said that you have enjoyed what I have sent over. I'm definitely glad that you guys are enjoying the boxes o' fun I have sent to you. Well, now for the fun part. Well, I had fun making these, and I hope you guys have some fun with these too, because they are a little different.

Here is the breakdown:

I have made sixty packs containing nothing but Topps cards. These packs contain 30 cards from various Topps years, teams and sets. I have placed six packs into a small post office box and sealed them up. There are 10 of these boxes total. Ten boxes containing 6 thirty card packs (about 180 cards). There is a possibility of getting a special 'chase pack' that contains nothing but inserts and parallels. I made 5 of these and have seeded them in every other box. So you have a one in two chance of getting a 'chase pack' (actually 2 out of these 5 are different, when you see them, you'll know why).

This was tough for me to explain, I really just couldn't get the wording right, so here is a (hopefully) simple breakdown of what I'm trying to explain, for those of you I may have lost. I know I'm confused and I wrote it!

10 small post office boxes
6 packs per box
30 cards per pack
1 in 2 chance of getting a 'chase pack'
completely randomized

Much better. So, here is what I need;

Ten readers. Send me a comment FIRST, letting me know that you would like one of these Topps boxes. Once you have left your comment, then send me an email with your address. If you don't send a comment first letting me know, I won't be able to count your request (just to avoid any problems). I am not limiting this to people that I haven't sent something to, so first come, first served. Each box is already sealed up and ready for shipping, so I have no idea who will be getting what. Again, I only have TEN boxes so once they are gone, they are gone. Start your commenting and thanks for reading!

card show pick up

Work ended at 11 for me today. Right after I left there, I went to the post office, as I had to get there before noon. Packages are sent, so if you are waiting on a giveaway box from me, it should arrive shortly! After the post office, I hit up the second card show of the month, the Plainville VFW show. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, I just wanted to see what was out in the local marketplace. Well, I ended up with 2 Vernon Wells relics for 3 bucks each, some random Jays and HOFers I collect. Then I ended up with these:

I got most of the vintage from one guy. I actually got five 1952s, six 53s a couple of 56 and 57s and some 60s stuff too. These vintage cards were to fill up my Topps 1952-2010 binder I have going. Its a page of 9 (or 8 in the case of 52-56) cards to represent each year of Topps. The 1950s stuff is tough to come by at a good price, especially 1952s. The Mathews card isn't perfect but at 10 bucks I really can't complain. The Jordan card is actually a basketball card, but I felt it justified the quarter the guy wanted for it. The guy who sold me most of the vintage had some bins of random packs, 3 for a buck. I picked out three 1989 Fleer packs, hoping to get one card, the Griffey rookie. Well, I opened one pack, and didn't get much past a Dave Stieb that I may need and a Dodgers sticker, I left one pack still sealed up, for my unopened pack collection (yeah, I know, junk wax yay!) but I opened up the third pack, and this is what was in it:

Right behind the Rangers sticker that I was able to see at the top of the pack, was the Kid. I couldn't believe it, what are the odds? Seriously? Not only did I leave one pack unopened, and I swear there had to be like 20 packs in that bin of 89 Fleer. Maybe just luck, I don't have his 89 Fleer yet, so it worked out great. The back of the pack was the Mattingly, so he has a lil wax on him. Some other good cards too, Will Clark, Steve Sax, this would have been one hell of a pack to open in 1989. Too bad everyone overproduced their cards because maybe these would actually be worth something right now. Oh and sorry about the sideways rest of the pack, but its tough to fit it all on my scanner in one pass. Good stuff all around.

update (two ways)

So I'm either really lazy, or really busy. I still haven't made it to the post office yet, but I will tomorrow. Usually it is lazy with me, but busy is really the issue. Work picks up quite a bit this time of year and the 55+ hours will be starting very shortly (like next week). These boxes will get out tomorrow, and for the better. I will announce the Topps portion on Monday. I know I know, I've been saying this for a bit now, but its true this time. Plus it'll be fun.

The other update refers to Topps Update, as I FINALLY received my master set in the mail today, after winning it around Oct. 20th. Yes, it has taken that long to get here. Apparently he had the flu. I can excuse that. A delay in shipping is nothing compared to what awaited me in the set...or what didn't await me rather. You see, I was going through the cards, only to find out it was missing a total of 25 cards. Yes, twenty-five missing cards. Oh wait, 26, because I was promised a random auto too. That I didn't get. This is what I can't forgive. Shipping? No problem. Missing promised cards? A definite problem. Thankfully, out of those 25 I had 18 of them already from packs I bought. I contacted him about the issue and he was surprisingly right on top of it. I sent the message and about 25 minutes later I had a response. So there is that. He asked for a list of what I was missing, and he is damn sure going to get that 26 card list. I don't care if I already have some, they should have been there. He blamed it on his hired help, which is kind of understandable as people are usually sloppy when they don't care.

On one other note, (ok, so its three updates) my sets will be finished soon! If you remember I posted up a want list of the couple of sets (2002 Topps, 2005 Topps, 2009 206, and 2010 Chrome) I was missing cards from. I really wanted to finish up these sets before the end of the year. Thanks to a trade (thanks a ton Kenneth), Chrome got finished. EBay finished up the 2009 206 once the last three cards get in my hands. The best one though is the 2002 and 2005 Topps. Both factory sets were missing cards. I used the Million Card Giveaway to trade for the three missing cards from both sets (2 from 2002 and 1 from 2005), and those along with all the pre-1973 stuff I unlocked (39 cards total in this order) are on their way from Topps. I have about 50 more cards left in my account that I don't really want but I'm not sure what to do with yet. I'll keep you posted with what I will do with them.

reorganization

Its been a little while since I have posted up anything here to read, so I figured now is as good a time as any. The lapse in posts have come from a few things. I've been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops for a bit now, at least since Saturday when I picked it up. I have also been trimming the collection down to you guys and getting those cards out in the mail. I have been getting the Topps cards ready for the next giveaway post, to be posted really soon (I swear). The trimming has also allowed me to refocus on what I really want to collect, as opposed to having boxes upon boxes of cards. While I love going through them and pulling stuff out for trades or sets and whatnot, I've just simply run out of tolerable space in this room back here. Basically I just felt I had too many for right now. My focus is turning to finishing off the sets that need to be finished, my personal collection (consisting of players from Connecticut, team cards, weird cards, and Hall of Famers I find interesting and of course Blue Jays), and some good vintage stuff. Relics too, like these below:

Picked up these two from the 'Bay on the cheap. I like the blue swatches on both, I wouldn't have gone for white ones, I'm sick of those.

I do have one more lot to offer up before I start the Topps goodness. This lot is one lot only and I can only send to one reader. It consists of random stuff. when I say random, I really mean random. Cards of odd size, puzzle pieces, etc. If you want a box 'o weird, let me know in a comment here, and an email following that comment with your address in it. Only one reader, and I would like it to be someone who hasn't claimed anything yet. Once all these are mailed, I will post what I am doing with the Topps stuff. I think its really going to be fun and I hope you guys will think so too.

the (first) annual year end clearance! (part 2)

Ok, now that most of the packages are sent out and you guys are receiving them, its time for round two. This time around I have only three lots and only one of each. So that means the first three readers who claim these will get them, so long as they haven't already claimed a lot from me in the first round. Alright, here we go:

Lot# 1- Bowman and Obak. This lot contains nothing but Bowman and Obak cards. All from different years, teams etc. I don't care much for Bowman and I really don't know why I keep buying it but here it is, my Bowman collection. Obak too, I've just decided that I won't be collecting these anymore, so like Bowman, I'll stop buying the Obak.

Lot# 2- Upper Deck. This lot has a handmade 'frankenset' of nothing but Upper Deck cards numbered 1-100. This was really difficult to choose who went in where. I did have to add in about three 2007 Fleer Ultras to complete the set, and while they are Fleer, they were owned by Upper Deck at the time, so it works. I do apologize in advance if there are duplicate players in the lot, but Upper Deck likes to make small 100 card sets, and they tend to use many of the same players. Also included are some Upper Deck cards with weird numbers. Examples: AW-11, UD12, X2-DO, stuff like that, anything that isn't just a number by itself. Also added are just some random UD cards to fill out the box.

Lot# 3- Another kinda random box. This box will contain random cards that are not Topps or Upper Deck. Stuff like Donruss, Score, Fleer, etc....that about sums up that box, nothing else to say there.

There you have it. Round two is the aforementioned three lots. Three lots for three readers, no multiples this time and only if you didn't claim one previously. As with the last giveaway, please leave a comment, then send me and email with your address. Sorry, no favorite team cards included in this round. Its ok though, I've got something really fun cooked up for the extra Topps cards that I'll post soon. Thanks for reading!

the set topps got right (seriously this time!)

I knew very little of the 2002 release of Topps T206. In fact, I knew next to nothing except that it existed. I knew I had a few Blue Jays cards that one of you may have sent over, and I had that stray Vladimir Guerrero sitting in my Topps box. I never knew of its scale of how on point the set is to the original. Until yesterday. As many of you know, I find the 2009 T206 set to be one of my favorite sets and I had stated my over the top liking for this set in this post. How wrong I was. Well, not fully as I still really like 2009. As I neared completion of the 2009 issue, I started to do some looking for the 2002 set on eBay. I found one that said it was the complete 456 card set. I thought it would be just right, even though in Beckett it said the full set was 525 due to the variants. Well the set came in yesterday and after looking through it, I began to see it was indeed the full 525 cards. Someone had painstakingly put together this set (including the 90 Team 206 subset cards from each of the three series), included all the variants, the three boxtoppers with the history of the 2002 issue written by Keith Olbermann, and even included the three paper checklists from the boxes. There were even 20 or so duplicates of the original T-206 reprints, including the six pictured above. This was the most complete set I could have ever asked for and totally didn't expect. What I paid for it was even more scary, as practically no one touched it and it ended at $16 (plus $11 for shipping). After picking through it and reading over the three boxtoppers, I realized that this set, not the 2009 set, was Topps' real love letter and tribute to the original 1909-11 issue. The two to three variants per superstar player, the reprints of the originals, the size of the individual series is even close to the original. The relics were not included here, but I have seen some of them online and on the checklist and they seem tremendous. Johnny Evers Jerseys, Honus Wagner bats, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, the list goes on of fantastic relics from 100 years ago. I believe this set has now taken over the top spot as my favorite modern set. Simply incredible that they went these lengths to preserve the legacy of one of the most famous and collected baseball card sets ever. Now my one question: where is the Topps that pieced together the ideas for this set? Because surely they aren't the same Topps we have around now.

mel's shirt

As some of you readers know, I have begun collecting Mel Ott cards. I wanted to collect a retired player while collecting an active player (Vernon Wells...but you already knew that), a player that I would seek his cards out and get what I can. Well, I have maybe 8 or so thus far, with 25 more on the way (thanks eBay seller, here is your dollar). The local shop has a Mel Ott relic, the one pictured above in fact. He wants $50 for it, which isn't bad considering it books at $80. I got this one on eBay for $7.50 (and $2.50 shipping). It's fantastic, I love the old feel of the material. It must have been sweltering to wear these old uniforms, they seem so thick. It's not numbered but it probably should be, I mean, how many of his uniforms could there be floating around? Maybe Upper Deck found a stash of them.

In other news, I have sent out most of the boxes from the clearance, most should be arriving today or within a few days. I hope that you guys enjoy what I put into each one. I am prepping some more lots to send out and I'll be posting it up soon, once I think of a couple more. Now, I will be making only one of each lot this time around and if I sent you a lot in the first round, I won't be able to for the next. Sorry, but I'm trying to make it fair to everyone who reads the blog here, so one for each reader who claims one seems the most fair to me. Again, enjoy and thanks for reading!

card shop pick-ups

I went to the local card shop today to pick up some more card boxes and he showed me a sweet box full of stuff he had just bought from a customer. This box held many great autos and jersey cards (one of the best being a numbered to 10 Cal Ripken auto from 2007 Fleer Ultra), and included the cards below:

He gave me a great deal on these (along with the two other cards I got, just a Mel Ott Tribute and a numbered Wells card) and he said he immediately thought of me when he saw them. Pretty cool! Well...it isn't hidden that I'm a Jays seeker and he knows this of course. The cards though: this makes Lind auto number three for me. I only collect him part time. When I see good stuff, I grab it, but I don't go seeking it like Wells. The black swatch on the Icons card is good though, not boring old white like on Vernon's. The plate is really great though, namely due to it being the black. It also brings me to plate number 8 for Vernon Wells. I also picked up a couple of random packs too (2009 Topps Heritage, love the 1960 design, 2010 Topps 206, still don't care for it, and 2010 Topps Chrome, ended up with a USA Baseball auto of Brian Johnson) but nothing really worth noting besides the auto. Overall a good trip to the shop!

supply is exhausted

That's right, the supplies are exhausted! Many of you responded and I am trying to fulfill everyone with at least some cards. Please, no more takers until I post up some more lots to give away. These are fun to make and I hope that you guys will enjoy the cards I put into each lot here. When I think of more lots I will be sure to post them up. A fair warning; I will only send out one lot per reader, and this includes future lots, so if you are getting one now, please don't request one of the future lots. Again, I just want to spread the cards out to as many unique readers as possible. Now, back to sorting! Thanks for reading!

made an oops

Due to me not thinking the response for my last post would be as popular as it was, I did not clarify myself, and say that I am doing one of each of these lots. I do apologize for the error and should have said something regarding that in the post itself. However. Since this response WAS so positive, I will be doing more giveaways like this. Maybe even tomorrow, if I can think of something else fun to combine into a lot. Again, my apologies for not being clear before.

the (first) annual year end clearance!

Uncle Sam says take some cards, so its time to give away some cards. I have accumulated many cards and feel I need to part with some of them. I tend to get this way when I start a new hobby. I'll buy into a bunch of it, then feel like I have too much, sell/give some away, repeat. I plan on making it fun and worth it though and not just ditching all my 1992 Donruss on everyone. These will be in lots and will consist of different categories, as stated below:

Lot #1- USA, Minor League, and World Baseball. Basically anything in my collection here that is not a Major League team. Also included are non-baseball people on baseball cards. You know, magicians, football players, presidents, etc. Someone who isn't a current or former player of the game of baseball. I will also add some cards from your favorite team.

Lot #2- Oddball sets and inserts. This lot will consist of oddball sets and odd sized cards. It will also include insert cards and parallels (ie; anything not a base card), from various sets, years and manufacturers. This lot will also include some of your favorite team.

Lot #3- Football. This lot will only consist of the 2010 Topps football cards I picked up (and that one stray pack of Score) minus the Patriots cards. Everything else will be there. No favorite team for this one, I'm keeping it pigskin only.

Lot#4- ??? They mystery box. This lot will consist of what ever I can fit into said box. Base cards, duplicates I have, inserts, weird stuff. It'll be fun though, I swear. I will not be a box full of 1990 Donruss, 1987 Topps and 1991 Score (I don't even have that much of those sets anyway). Again, with this lot I can make sure some of your favorite team makes it in too.

I also have some Mantle inserts from 2007 that I can throw into any one of these lots if you want them. Along with around 8 basketball cards that can go into any lot as well.

To claim one of these lots, simply leave me a comment on here stating which lot you would like. After you leave the comment, please send me an email stating which lot you would like, your favorite team and your address. Once I have some takers, I will begin to assemble the lots and once finished, I will let you know when they leave my hands. One lot per reader please, as I would like to make this fun and fair. First come, first served. I hope you enjoy what you receive, as I will have fun making them! Start it up!

frustration

I couldn't help myself this weekend. While at the local card shop searching for Hall of Famers to add to my collection, I decided to buy a hobby box of Update. The results? Nothing. I opened no pack with the promised hit. This makes box number 2 with a missing hit. If you remember about a week ago, I purchased a jumbo HTA box, and got the auto and bat barrel, but that was it. This hobby box yielded neither an auto or relic. Both of these boxes did have silk cards in them, but since when is a silk card an auto or relic? Clearly, I have been screwed. Twice. I just saw the article on Mojo's blog and I have to fully agree with everything. Their quality control is apparently on permanent vacation. I haven't gotten too many damaged cards though, and I must say the overall quality of the Update cards is way better than series 2. They've got a nicer feel to them and not too much silver overload on the names. Damaged cards are one thing, missing hits are a totally new epidemic in itself. I wrote off the jumbo box as a 'whatever' thing, but after the hobby box, I really felt, well...quite pissed off. What are the options though? Deal with it and think' thems the breaks'? Or do I contact Topps, and wait like 3 months for two hits I could care less about? 'Cause you know they wouldn't be anything other than some common All-Star jersey card of a player who probably didn't see game time. Or an auto of someone who wasn't even in the base set. Cards that would sit in a box and be forgotten. I'm all for autos and relics, but it just doesn't seem worth the hassle. Or maybe it is. What do I do? Have any of you contacted Topps and dealt with this situation before? Any information could be helpful.