random pack monday

Time for another round of Random Pack Monday. Today we feature 2004 Topps.

Lets see what we got:

Highlights here being the Ichiro, Pedro 'Own the Game' insert and the checklist. The Jimy Williams card is cool too, as he is a former Jays manager. I kinda like this set, even though its weird having the team name be so dominant on the card front up top and the player's name in little font on the bottom. The little silhouette in the bottom left corner is cool too and different for each player depending on what the picture looks like. This set also has the team logo on the front, like 2011 does, which I missed on the 2010s. I always like the team logo to be on the front of the cards. Don't know why, just a preference.

a moment of silence...

Edwin Donald "Duke" Snider, September 19, 1926 - February 27, 2011

finally...

...an autograph worth getting out a Topps base product. Never, have I seen an auto from a pack of basic Topps that was worth really anything. I've pulled a few decent autos but nothing overly fantastic. This guy is the clear winner for best auto I've pulled:

Certainly a quality auto right here. Pulled from a hobby jumbo, from of all places, a Newbury Comics store. For those who don't live in the Massachusetts area, Newbury Comics is an awesome store that carries comics, movies and music. I noticed the last time I was there a few months back they carried baseball cards. Last night I went with a buddy of mine and picked out 4 packs and one jumbo. All hobby. No idea why they have hobby packs but that's all they had. No problem there. The pack luck continues. When I buy packs, I get good stuff. When I buy boxes, I usually get the shaft or missing hits. Want more proof? See the Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent relics and the Yaz and Ortiz dual relic? I pulled those three from four packs of 2009 SP Legendary Cuts. Last time I went to Wal-Mart, which was on Thursday? I picked up a couple packs of 2011 Topps and pull the Ruth legend variant (card 271). I'll save that picture for a future post. Packs net me my best stuff, maybe I should just give up boxes all together...

pages...

If you look to your right, you'll notice I have added some pages to the side of my blog here. I finally checked it out and promptly figured it out. Ok so its not hard but with my limited knowledge of this blogger dealie here its good for me. I have added a 2011 Topps want list (and where future want lists will go as well), a page with my favorite relics or autos in my collection, and a page of stuff that is potentially for trade. Let me know if you have or want anything and we will work out a deal. I'll be adding to them from time to time so check them out every now and then and you may see something new!

cool stuff

While going through the excess 2010 Topps I have lying around to send over to a few of you, I noticed something kind of cool:

These two pictures were taken at the same game. The best way to tell is this guy right here...

Yep, glasses guy showing up under Bill's shoulder and under Corey's elbow. I thought it was pretty cool anyway...

Still, if anyone needs some 2010 Topps to finish up sets, I have plenty here still that I would be willing to send to you to help finish your set. Any series 1, 2 or Update. Send me a message with a list (or just say its on your blog and I'll find it) and your address and I'll get some 2010s out to you. Get 'em now!

recent additions

I've busted a lot of 2011 Topps. Probably too much in fact. I can't help it though, it's a great set, plus it's the new kid on the block. Ernie here came from a hobby box I busted recently.

Now, I've seen some of these online, but has anyone else seen them in person yet?

Foil-less base cards. I got these today in one of those $9.99 Wal-Mart packs. They look really weird without the foil.

I also pick this up really cheap off of eBay:

A 1947-66 Exhibits card. I hadn't seen these in person until it came the other day. I found a site that has the distinctions on when these were made. Tom comes from the 1951 series. Here is a comparison with a modern sized card:

They are quite big. It does, however, look really nice displayed.

I did receive two packages in the mail today, one from Derek at Tomahawk Chopping - Cardboard & More!, full of Blue Jays goodness and the other from dayf over at Cardboard Junkie, with some 54 Topps we had discussed. It actually completed a few pages for me, so it was obviously a gigantic help. I am quite thankful for both packages and fit my collecting needs equally but differently. Thanks for the cards guys! Both these guys are Braves fans too...weird.

a pack and a couple of winners!

Random pack Monday, let's just get it out of the way here because I know you are all eager to see who the three winners are. Here we have a 1981 Topps.

The hat set, what'd we get:

Not too bad really, the Pete LaCock and TWO team cards are the standouts here.


Ok, ok. Now. On to business. Like I just mentioned about half an hour ago, I split the 65 entrants into three drawings. I put all the entries in and hit randomize twenty times. The winners came out being.....









Jordan over at Mint Condition
FanofReds aka Chris over at Nachos Grande
Jeremy over at No One's Going to Read this Blog

Congratulations to the winners! Please send me an email with your address so I can get these out when I go to the post office this week. I may throw in a few cards of your favorite team or from a wantlist if I can get to doing so.

This was a great success over all. I found a bunch of blogs I hadn't known about, added some followers and like I mentioned on Saturday, a bigger sense of community. If we don't have a bunch of us trading and reading and doing like we do on here, they why do it? I feel it is things like this that bring the community closer and more aware of others doing the same things we are. Thanks hugely to everyone that reads my blog here and thanks for participating in this contest!

contest entry...

...is now closed. I will be putting the entries into random.org and having it pick a winner. I plan on doing three drawings, splitting the 65 entrants up and equal as possible (22, 22 and 21), and hitting randomize 20 times per drawing. Get it? Sixty randomizations?? haha....so funny I suppose I had forgotten to laugh. Anyway, results will appear shortly...

contest update plus mail!

Alright so the contest is going incredibly well. Fifty-three entrants as of right now! I love reading your responses as to what your favorite Topps year is. Very interesting. I don't believe I have picked a favorite yet but I think it would have to probably be 1987. I had so much of that year when I was a kid collecting that I swear I must have had two full sets. Not that I would know because I wasn't even close to being organized. I kept them in a shoebox. I didn't care though, they were still great.

Now. For the update. Since this contest has gone so well that I have upped the ante. Now instead of one winner takes all, there will now be THREE winners. That's right three of you who entered will win the one of each year full run of 1952 to 2011 original Topps cards. I managed to pull together a half a set (twice) last night and filled in the rest today at the show. As it stands right now, with 53 entrants, that leaves about a one in eighteen chance of winning. Not too shabby. I plan on using the random.org site to pick a winner. I'll still announce the winners Monday. If you haven't entered yet, do it now!

These came today in the mail. I won them off eBay for about 99 cents each.

Put out by Churchman's Cigarettes around 1930. They apparently came out with all sorts of crazy sets. Just in these three examples alone are three different sets. The Market in Roman London is from the Story of London series, the Peak Forest Tramway 1802 is from the Landmarks in Railway Progress series and the Tjimeta Bridge is from the Wonderful Railway Travel series. See? Weird stuff. Seems that they had flags and birds and such too. They are about the size of a standard tobacco card like the T206s. I thought they were cool and were only a buck each.

contest inspiration

Oh man, you guys are rockin'! An astounding 44 entrants in the 60 years of Topps contest that I presented not 24 hours ago. CRAZY!! Collecting at least one card from every year of Topps was a goal I set way back when I got back into collecting earlier last year. I remember 1962 being one of the final years I needed because for some reason I didn't run across that many at the shows I went to. At least not some common at a good price. Everyone had the high $$ cards. I found one and completed the run. Then I thought to myself that having 9 cards of each year (8 for those bigger 52 through 56 cards) in one binder would be way more awesome than just one of each. Well that was achieved some months ago and I made sure to get 1962 out of the way early. I believe the last year I finished in that project was 1952 but only because they aren't the easiest to find cheap. The binder is great and already has the 2011s in it. I find it really fun to go through and see the changes they made over the years and seeing grow into what we know today. I made a huge HUGE effort to get a bunch of older cards because I like the history behind them and well...old cards are just awesome. I know that many of us collectors work our hobbies on a limited budget, which doesn't always allow us to run out and find 1952 Topps commons for 15 bucks a pop (or more). That's a big part of why I decided to run this contest. Plus the 60 years of Topps insert set was a provoking factor too except my cards here are real. Well, you know what I mean. A few of you guys who commented have blogs that I haven't run across before and now I've added them to my sidebar thingie there. More blogs equals a larger community and trade base. I try to add most all the blogs I can find because I never know if I may have something someone needs to finish off a set or just good for a quick trade. Anywho, thanks for following, plugging and as always, reading. If you haven't entered the contest yet, check out yesterday's post and comment away!

Oh yeah, one last thing. A quick trip to Wal-Mart and one of those $9.99 hanger packs produced this guy:

My first 'diamond sparkle SP'. It isn't for trade yet but if it is, I'll let you guys know.

join now!

I say, I didn't see you there! Well, thanks for stopping by! I have but a few simple questions for you.

Do you like baseball cards?
Do you like Topps?
Do you like contests that are so easy it should be criminal??
Do you like FREE???

If you answered 'yes' to all four questions, I have the answer for you!


A contest!



That's right a contest. As some of you know, I love giving stuff away and I have thought of a really neat concept for a contest.

We who purchased many packs of Topps 2010 and 2011 know that they included an insert set each of those years showing off a card from each year of their history. Card Mom Threw Out and 60 Years of Topps, respectively. Well, I don't know about you but reprints while fun, don't capture the authenticity of actual old cardboard. So here it is:

Want a set of Topps' history for yourself? Want one card from every set from the years 1952 to 2011? If you do, then you're good to go! Entering the contest is easy. Follow my blog here if you don't already (there are 83 of you so far). Then simply leave a comment in this very post stating which year of Topps is your favorite, and a brief explanation as to why. It doesn't have to be a novel, I'm just curious as to what everyone's favorite set is. It'll be fun to see what design everyone likes best!

As far as the prize itself: one card from every year of Topps baseball. 1952 to 2011. No reprints, actual cards from that year. I would do 1951 as well but I rarely come across them. For the years 1986 to now, I did try and put at least a good player to represent that year. For all years before that, it may just be a common. A common that is over almost 30 years old though. Condition on older cards is good too. I am missing a few as of right this second but I will fill in the couple years I don't have at the show on Saturday. The cards pictured above are not what will be given away, I just needed a picture.

I will give one entry for following, one for the comment and if you feel like posting it, I'll have a third entry for that. I'll use the Random.org thingie to pick the winner. The cut-off will be Monday, when I do the Random Pack Monday post. I'll post the pack and announce the winner then. Speaking of which, I'll pick the pack this week, as I am getting low on packs to have you guys choose from.

Enter now! I can't wait to read your responses!

a couple of things here

First thing I would like to mention, go on over to Clear Cut Cards for a really easy and great contest. Just comment on his post with your favorite major and minor league teams and you're in! He is giving away a pack of the Infinite Baseball Card Set, which is a really great chronicle of players that you many not hear about too often. They are handmade and look awesome. Check 'em out!

Alright, down to business. The nice, shiny luster of Topps 2011 has worn off. The rose colored glasses have come off, if you will. Mainly, I like the set. A lot. The inserts however, I really either like or just plain can't bother with collecting. I've whittled down what I am collecting to just the 60 Years of Topps reprints and Lost cards, Vintage Reprints and Kimball Champions. Everything else is disposable really. The 60 players are boring looking, Diamond Duos are re-hash and the History of Topps I get and will read when I have all ten but certainly won't keep. I have a few internets and Wikipedia. Topps Town are completely useless to me as I don't use them or want to collect them (and I've already grown really really tired of getting one per pack but at least they look alright). Anyone who is collecting Topps Town, please PLEASE let me know. I have a literal ton of them that I will gladly send to you. One reader gets them all if you want them.

I hit Wal-Mart today for a few packs and I saw that they had a $9.99 box with 72 cards. It also contained one 'exclusive sapphire blue insert card', which turned out to be this, thankfully:

Now, this I can kind of get behind. While it looks like it came from last year, it is lightyears better than this:

This is HORRIBLE. I hate these so hard. They are terribly boring and could have at least foiled the diamond so it doesn't look as lame as it does. Thankfully I've only pulled one blue and three reds. Ugh.

Speaking of 'ugh', why the hell aren't these numbered??

I can't stand when they just won't number the damn cards. I first experienced this with the Peak Performance in the 2010 NFL set. No numbers, just letters with the initial of the last names of the two players. Stupid, just number the cards already!

Another point of interest may be the Diamond Giveaway. I have read that many of you have been popping in your codes and getting the same lame cards they did last year for the Million Card Giveaway. With the exception of that one guy on the Blowout forums that hit a diamond 1 of 1 card, no one seems to be having much luck. I may not do it and just sell all my code cards on eBay and let someone else worry about all the 1990 Topps they have to try and trade away. I certainly don't want a die cut version of the horrible Wal-Mart/Target inserts either. Get that crap out of here.

Man, it sounds like I have nothing good to say. That's quite the opposite though. I think Topps did a great job on the base cards, the diamond gimmick may be silly but it does cause me to carefully look at each card now. Which is something I have neglected to do before and it has really made me appreciate the excellent photography of this year. I still love pulling a legend short print, that won't change. I think really, I just like the base set over everything else this year, while last year everything was pretty new to me so it was all exciting in some way. It really made me want to collect everything from the 2010 set and I did. This year is different though. Since a lot of this year is rehash from last year, it makes me think a little different and not collect everything. Essentially though, now I'll have more trade fodder to help you guys finish off your sets and want lists.

One last thing and speaking of want lists. Anyone still needing to finish off 2010 series 1, 2 or Update, PLEASE contact me with a list of what you need. I have almost a full set of all three series that I am more than willing to send to those in need. Just leave a comment or shoot me an email, get me your list and address and I'll see what I have and send them out. No need to send anything in return, as they are better off finishing a set than rotting away in a box over here.

Whew, well if you read to the end here, thanks for sticking with me. Looking forward to seeing your 2011 want lists!

trade with smed, leads to...

...I'll get to that. First things first. I completed a trade with Scott from Smed's Baseball Card Blog. I checked out his wantlists and he sent over his Excel files that contained all the cards he needed. After scouring them for a few days, I found over 400 cards to send over to him. I checked out his tradebait and found a few cards I was interested in. The Frank Thomas relic, the Mel Ott patch, and any Jays he may have.

I was awestruck when I opened up the package to see the two Jays patches above. The two patches I was waiting and watching on eBay, trying to win for a good price. Didn't need to any more. This card was the one I wanted most though:

I saw this and thought having it would be awesome. It is my second HOF auto (I'll show the other one soon, who is actually another Cub), and it led me to go and seek out this on eBay:

Which completes......vvvvv







My first trifectica.

Well, first non-Jays trifectica. For those who may not be sure, a trifectica is when you have three cards of a player; the rookie, a relic and an autograph. I have many 2/3rds of some good trifecticas that I may have to complete sometime soon. Banks being my first is definitely a good start. Thanks so much to Smed's and I hope your box has found its way to you by now.

random pack monday

So here we are with another edition of Random Pack Monday. Hopefully the pack I go with today makes up for the super junk wax pick I presented on Thursday. What do we have today?

1980 Topps. A simple blue wrapper and kind of the beginning of the design they used from 1981 to 1991 for their packs. I don't have much of this set at all. Actually this pack puts me at around 25 ccards from this particular year. Lets see what we got:

Well, nothing too special here. Just an average pack really, minus the Cardinals team card for the personal collection. Dusty Baker and Lee Lacy's awesome hair are the highlights here. I might also like to mention that I like the design of this set. A nice, classic baseball card design, and its close to what 1974 Topps looks like but with angles.

pack pick results, with a twist

Ok, so this week's pack pick was super weak. I thought it would be neat to pick four packs from different manufacturers, from the same year. Oh well, blame it on lousy product...or my silly thinking. So I'm mixing it up a bit. The winning pack is featured today. I'll have something better in store for tomorrow. So, without further hesitation:

1992 Stadium Club. The SC line lasted quite some time, as I discovered when I got back into collecting. I always knew about it and had many cards from the first couple of years, 1991 to 1994. Apparently it lasted until 2003. I had no idea until I started getting some Jays from those years and being kind of amazed that it was still around. Topps tried to bring it back in 2008 but it seemed to fail quite miserably. Who knows? Maybe 2011 will be the return of Stadium Club? Anyway, enough talk, here is what we got:

Dibble goes into the 'guys from Connecticut' portion of my personal collection, along with the checklist hanging out in the bottom there. Yes, I collect checklists. I don't go out of my way for them but I do have them all in one place and it is a personal collection box. The Fielder 'Member's Choice' is cool too. I remember having these types of cards in '92 and we thought they were the greatest that SC had to offer. Turns out they weren't all that special because they were just part of the base set. Oh well. Decent pack, still a great design, with the full bleed photos and miles beyond the flagship set photography. Obviously though, that was the whole push of this set. Speaking of photos, what is up with Tim Wallach at the bottom there? What's that baseball tellin' you Tim? Amusing. Until tomorrow, with a better pack in hand.

new additions part two

Ok, I really do apologize for the pack pick this week. 1992 is a super LAME year to try and show cards off from. Well, I will definitely make it up next week. On another front though, I am up to around 98 blogs over on my sidebar there to the right. The most recent additions being:

Manupatches and Chromescratches
Chewing Liquorice
Foul Bunt
Stale Gum
Ike's Cards
Cardboard Heaven
The Cardboard Dugout
Bound for Beantown
Junk Wax Jems
A Giant Blog
Back in Packs
Closet Full of Cardboard

Yes, some of these are brand new and some have been around for a while (Stale Gum, Foul Bunt). I have just started reading them and look forward to future posts from everyone. When I find a blog I like, I follow it then add it to my sidebar for easy access reading. If you have a blog and it is not up here, let me know and I'll gladly check it out and add it to mine here. I figure the more we all band together, the more exposure we all get, right? That's good, it helps the community, opens up trade opportunities and you get to meet new bloggers and read their good stuff!

pack pick thursday

Oh boy. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH boy. Who put all this junk wax into my scanner??

Ok ok, I did. This weeks pack pick comes in the form of four packs (wow, four companies...) from the year 1992. Yes, probably the most over produced year for baseball cards ever. Maybe 1991 is really king of that but 1992 has to be close. With the exception of the Donruss pack, I can't really consider any of this to be junk. Ultra and Upper Deck were both solid issues and would be worth it had they not made billions of them. Stadium Club also kinda falls into that category but I don't consider it to be as worth it as UD and Ultra. Donruss, well....its '92 Donruss, what do you want from me? I needed another pack from '92. As per usual, the pack with the most votes will be shown on Monday, with the second place being Sunday morning, when voting ends. Funny thing about these pack picks and Random Pack Mondays are that I don't open the packs until right before I have to scan and post them up. So even I have no clue what they hold, and when I find out, you find out shortly thereafter. Vote now!

not into basketball but...

...this set looks great:

10-11 Donruss Basketball, put out by Panini. I saw these online and thought they looked sweet so I picked up a pack at Target today. I really don't know anyone in here, except for Vince Carter. The Trailblazers team card is cool too. The 1984 Donruss baseball design is looking good on these cards. Panini seems to do a lot right in the way of their design and production. It's really too bad that they can't do MLB stuff, I'd love to see what they come up with and how Topps responds. Panini doing baseball would maybe be the kick in the ass that Topps needs to get its act together.

Speaking of Target and Topps, I couldn't ignore the 2011 series 1, so I picked up a few. This is what fell out of a single pack (the best of the three):

Short print and shiny Strasserburger? Yes please!. Wagner also marks short print legend number four that I have pulled from packs (along with Gehrig, Munson and Banks). I have no idea what is going on in the Wagner card but it looks great. I think he is stealing home but he may just be reaching for a penny he may have dropped.

Come MLB, let Panini into the game! Give Topps the push it needs!

blog bat around: fixing topps baseball

Chris over at Stale Gum posted about fixing Topps Baseball. In a segment he calls the 'Blog Bat Around', he is asking us, the bloggers what we would do to fix Topps' flagship product. Here is how he has presented the question:

Michael Eisner has just fired the entire Topps Product Development staff and chose to hire you to take their place. Mr. Eisner has given you carte blanche to do whatever you want with Topps Baseball -- as long as you keep it under $2/pack.

If you were in charge of Topps, and based upon what you've seen of 2011 Topps Baseball Series One, what (if anything) would you have done differently?

Personally, I may not have been in the hobby long enough to really have that big of an opinion on this topic but in the almost year or so that I have been back, I have read numerous articles and blogs about what has been up since I left so long ago. I have learned a lot about the events that have happened that have shaped our beloved hobby as we know it today. Lets see what I can come up with:

Topps Series 1 and 2 (and 3): The basic set being broken up into three sets of 330 is acceptable. Don't however, call the third set anything other than "Series 3". Calling it anything else is just silly. A total of 990 cards is close to the 792 plus 132 for Traded we had in the 80's so its a good number to stick to.

Base set parallels and inserts: TOO DAMN MANY! Personally I don't mind the short print legends cards, they are a nice surprise, like when pulling an Ernie Banks from a 2011 pack. Gimmicky? Yes. Fun? I think so. This year's 'diamond sparkle' cards would only be tolerable for this year only. Any usage beyond this 60th anniversary would be totally absurd. What they should also have done for this year is drop the gold, black and platinum parallels, and replace them with the platinum and canary diamond parallels. Now as it stands there are five parallel sets (and that's not including plates, Target or Wal-Mart parallels). Too many. Way too many.

Inserts are a whole new argument because collectors seem to be pretty divided over what they like. Take this year for example: I like the Kimball Champions the most out of anything and the 60 year reprints are alright too. So are the vintage reprints. The Topps 60 and Diamond Duos are just rehashes of Peak Performance and Legendary Lineage from the 2010 line. The exclusive Target and Wal-Mart diamond inserts are terrible too. Boring. The History of Topps is understandable for this year only. Other than that there isn't really a whole lot they can do with inserts that hasn't been done before. For next year, pick 5 or so insert sets and leave it at that. I know the more there is to collect, the more people buy but where is the limit? Our breaking point?

Autos and Game used inserts: I know we like getting autos and relics in packs but do they really need to be of guys not even in the base set? I got two, TWO different Jose Mijares autos out of series 1 and 2, and he isn't even in the basic set Or Update. WTF is up with that? I know every auto can't be Ichiro or Pujols but come on, I don't even know who Jose is because he has no representation! Same goes for relics too.

Essentially none of this really fixes Topps baseball but to do so, you'd have to fix Topps' entire year of releases to even begin thinking about fixing the flagship set. Maybe this would be a possible solution:

-Put out three basic flagship sets, series 1, 2 and 3. Like they do now. No calling it Update, its series 3.
-Limit the number of 'retro' sets issued. Heritage is excused from this. Maybe take Allen & Ginter, Gypsy Queen or whatever retro design you have and rotate them on a 2 or 3 year schedule. Making us wait for them would only make us want them more. Let the anticipation build.
-Bowman. Make ONE Bowman set, or maybe two, but all the same issue (ie; series 1 ends at card 200 and series 2 picks up at 201). Have you ever tried to put your Bowman cards in numerical order? Its maddening! BDPP BDP BP BPPPDPDPDPD??? Come on, cut this crap out. Make one set early season, and one at the end.
-Higher end stuff is too costly really, how are collectors going to get into two Sterling sets, tribute and Triple Threads? Make two and cut the others.
-Get rid of Opening Day. Its not easy to collect, nor is it any different from the base set. Cut it
-Chrome is ok but fix the damn curl, keep it small (220 works well) and use different pictures. No need for the same card 15 times a year.
-Release a set each month and no more than that. Clogging the market doesn't fix things, it just gets us exhausted and broke from over-buying.

Well, thats about all I can think of for now. Topps won't listen but we all can still have a voice and an opinion, and control over what we buy. Buy and collect wisely!

random pack monday

For this weeks Random Pack Monday, I wanted to do something a little special. I recently purchased a big lot of Topps packs ranging from 1979 to 1994. I added to my unopened pack collection but I felt the 1979 was a little out of place. The collection now consists of packs from 1980 to current. So today, that pack will no longer be out of place because it has been opened up and displayed for your viewing pleasure. Hence why there was no pack pick this week, because if I put this up against anything else, this would win by a landslide.

Nice yellow wrapper with a good depiction of baseball on it. Whats inside:

Well, nothing spectacular but we did pull a Cubs team card, a Luis Tiant and Dusty Baker. Plus a Jay I already have. Fun pack to open though and the gum didn't totally destroy the card it was up against. So that's always good. Hooray for (semi) vintage!

2011 topps box(es) results

So the packs are ripped, the cards sorted (sorta) and 2011 Topps is well underway. I know many of you have ripped your own haul and shared the results, so here's mine. Starting with the hobby box and blaster from Thursday:

The only real good thing that came out of this was the Gehrig short print. The Sandoval patch was from the blaster and the Carmona relic was from the box. Yay. More boring Topps base relic fare but relics are not why I buy Topps' flagship set. The Maddux and Marichal are both original backs but the Marichal is damaged in the corner, along with the Morrow mini, which lost a fight with the pack sealer. The Jeter and Hill diamond parallels were the best of the bunch of all the parallels.

Now, the jumbo box. Hey, I know what you're thinking, "Where is that second relic?". Well, I didn't get one. Again. Thanks Topps, this is like the third or fourth box without a promised hit. I know, I know, I can contact them and get it but its not worth the effort for a three dollar relic of a guy no one cares about. I'll count the two original backs, Castro diamond and Pavano gold as my third 'hit'. Oh and a Kevin Jepsen auto. Whoever he is.

I'd like to point something out that I haven't seen posted as of yet. Check out the Gehrig and a regular card close-up:

It appears that on the legends short prints, they made the ball dirty and old looking, while the current players are that nice white. A nice touch there by Topps, plus it makes it a little easier to identify a legend...I guess if you had trouble with that...probably not but nice to know regardless.

Well, totally lame box hits but I did finish off the set. I haven't inspected every card yet to see if I pulled and sparkle shines (or whatever we should call them) variants. I looked at every card when opening the packs but a thorough inspection was not given. I'll have to run through them again. I have gotten a few requests about the diamond parallels and I think for now I am going to keep them. I highly doubt I'll try for the set, so they may go up for trade. When they do, I'll let you guys know.

2011 topps (who isn't sick of it yet?)

Ok, I'm not tired of 2011 Topps yet. As I bust my jumbo box, I am hoping to finish the set off and make a nice dent in the inserts I care enough to finish. Lets find out whats in and whats out, shall we?

Well, this is the reason we buy all this isn't it? The set itself is quite nice with a clean front, great photo quality and well designed back. Hopefully I'll have it complete by tonight.

Topps 60. Nope, won't be collecting these. Kinda boring if you ask me.

Diamond Duos. Won't be doing these either, as I did them last year in the form of Legendary Lineage.

Topps History, or typing in 'Topps' on Wikipedia. Yeah, even though I can just type up Topps on Wikipedia, I would like to see what they have to say on the backs about themselves, so I think these will be collected but not too hard.

Kimball Champions. Oh yeah, these are the best insert set of the entire run. I saw these online and totally wanted to have them all right then and there.

60 Years of Topps and Lost cards. I'll be collecting both these sets but not the original backs. One set to chase of an insert set is enough.

Reprints. I am definitely collecting these, I really like the retro feel to them, plus I'm just a big ol' sucker for old timey reprints.

Topps Town. 50 cards, could care less. I am not collecting these this year, although they do look way better than they have the past two years.

Well, there you have it, some good inserts, and some silly. The inserts I won't be chasing I'll have for trade. As for parallels, I am not collecting those unless they are of Jays. I really like the Diamond parallel, and would want a full set but I know I shouldn't dare do so. Tomorrow I'll show what I got in the hobby box, blaster and packs from yesterday and the jumbo from today.

and the first 2011 card is...

Card #248, Wade LeBlanc. Right after work I went over to the other hobby shop, hoping they'd have the 2011's in stock. They did. I picked up a box and three packs (Wade came from the first of those three packs). Then we made it on over to the Wallymart that is up the road from there (the wife had the car today so I was driven home by a co-worker). I picked up five packs and he bought me a blaster for my birthday (awesome!). I am in the process of opening and sorting right now. I will post the box results and anything else post worthy (and what I think of them), tomorrow. Normally today is reserved for the Random Pack Monday vote but I have something REALLY cool on slate for Monday (no, it's not 2011 Topps...). Until then!

gummies!!

So after checking out recent update on the blogroll, sewingmachineguy on cards mentioned the 2010 Gummie Awards presented by Chris Harris over at Stale Gum, and I noticed that my little old blog here had been nominated for 'Best New Card Blog'! While I do not expect to win over The Mojo Beard (its a great blog and very popular), it is an honor none the less to be nominated. Thanks to everyone who made that possible and thanks tremendously for reading. Voting ends on the 15th, so cast your votes now for your favorite sets, blogs, worst sets, gimmicks, etc. Here is that link again: 2010 Gummies

itching, i tell you

I am home from work on this rainy, snowy day which seemingly everyone in the country is facing at the moment. I've caught up on all your blogs and various posts about 2011 Topps. It has really gotten me itching for some packs. I'd be as excited as that Nintendo 64 kid is above to find some packs at my local Wallymart or Target (btw, if you haven't seen the video in that link there, its hilarious). Unfortunately, my local Target seems to either get things late or just put them out late. When card products get released, I don't see them at my local Target for about two weeks. It really stinks. Wallyworld on the other hand is usually (sometimes) on top of things, although their card section is embarrassingly small. Its seriously just the small rack right before the express line checkout, where candy and other impulse items may be. I guess cards can be an impulse item, I know when I seem them, I want to buy them. Oh yeah, plus its really crummy out right now, so it looks like I'll be going NOWHERE, and just have to deal with my negative 2011 Topps gain. :(