More A&G Tradeyness!

Jason of Hobbs Knights and I recently struck up a trade with him receiving some random Heritage/A&G/Flagship tidbits and myself receiving some 2010 and 2011 A&G.  I would really love to finish 2011 Ginter soon, with 2010 following closely behind.  Jason definitely helped me get closer:

2011 Smart People

2011 Paintings (I guess I need another Wright for the PC, huh.)

2011 Guys from places I've never been.

He also sent 1 or 2 2010 This Day in History cards:

I didn't bother to scan the 740,950,434 base cards he sent, but I did update my A&G want lists.

Thanks, Jason!

Plaschke Thy trade is...ah screw it...I don't need a cheesy trade post title.

Sometime, I spend more time trying to write the trade post title than I actually do making the trade. This time...nope, not hapnin'. I sent hhttp://plaschkethysweaterisargyle.blogspot.com/im cards, he sent me cards.  He is a thoughtful trader, so he knows that this is our fourth trade. I did not know that, because I am an insensitive bastard.

The full name of my favorite card in the bunch is

2011 Topps Allen and Ginter Ryan Zimmerman Miniature Allen and Ginter Back Short Print.

That's a 14-word card right there, folks.  

Yes...I counted 2011 as a word.  

Thanks, Greg who is a Dodger fan who isn't Night Owl!  

Trade with Night Owl

I might as well get this trade post out of the way now.  I say that because, if Night Owl gets around to posting the cards I sent him, his post will blow mine out of the water.  Night Owl writes the blog I wish I could write.  I wish I had original ideas and a bevy of go-to themes for my blog, like he does.  Where Night Owl is eloquent, I am blabbering.  Where Night Owl offers keen observations and alert analysis, I offer poorly constructed criticism and anus jokes.  I like to think we each fill an important role, though.  I'm wrong, but I like to think that.  If Night Owl is The Godfather, I am Gigli. Night Owl is the grandfather you always wanted.  I am the drunk uncle that makes all the kids feel uncomfortable.  Night Owl effortlessly entertains while I forcefully alienate.   

But anyway...

He sent me a bunch of 2008 and 2010 Allen and Ginter, including 8 dead people and a truck.

Apparently he gets a fair amount of A&G Dodgers, because he essentially sent me the team set:



I can't forget the states he sent me as well.  They are my first 5, other than the David Wright one I have in my PC

Coolest flag? Maryland...by a lot.  He also hooked me up with some 2011 inserts:

Lastly, he sent me a couple PC cards:



Thanks, again Night Owl. 

Belated Pack Break #4: Saving the best for last

This is the last of my old crap. But, this crap is oh so awesome.

Jean-Claude Van Damme right!

1994 Upper Deck Street Fighter:

"She Who Hesitates is Lost",

Dhalsim,

Behid the Scenes: Bisonopolis,

"You Will Be Defeated",

M. Bison,

Guile,

Chun-Li,

"Hit the Beach"

I love that the Dhalsim card has him standing in front of a Street Fighter II screenshot from Dhalsim's level in India.

This pack led to some great websurfing. The path I took:

Jean-Claude Van Damme

Bloodsport

Frank Dux

Only the Strong

Capoeira

Youtube Capoeira Videos

Mark Dacascos

Iron Chef America

Bobby Flay

So I went from thinking about Street Fighter to thinking about the steaks I'm going to grill up tonight.  That's a good day of websurfing right there.

Belated Pack Break #3: Breaking my own lockout

I promised not to post basketball until the NBA gets their junk together.  I lied.  I just wnat to post this pack because there is a decent card in there.

1999-2000 Topps Finest Series 1 Basketball

I bought a pack of this after the last pack had such huge popularity.

Eddie Jones
Tyrone Nesby
Tracy Murray
Vlade Divac
Doug Christie
Lamar Odom RC

Yep, I posted a pack so I could show the rookie of the guy that married the ugly Kardashian.  Anyone interested in the card?

Belated Pack Break #2: 2009 Enterplay Fan Paks

You've probably seen these before.  You've probably bought some.  You've probably hated them because they are shaped completely wrong and can't be stored traditionally. 

I picked these up at Dollar Tree.  They are fun, especially for a buck, but they just don't fit well anywhere.

Pack 1:

David Ortiz Standee
Torii Hunter Standee
Red Sox '04 WS Champions Headliners
Ken Griffey Jr. Headliners
FanTats Angels, American League, "Double Play"
Trivia Card #78

>>> Gotta love getting standees, trivia and tattos all in one pack

Pack 2:

David Ortiz Standee

Jimmy Rollins Standee
JR Towles Headliners
Yadier Molina Headliners
FanTats Dodgers, Houston Astros, "What a Game"
Trivia Card #79

>>> I had so much planned for these.  I was going to show the standee standing; I was going to show the tattoos tattooed on me; I was going to challenge you with the trivia.  I was going to do all that until these sat in my bloggy queue for almost a year.  Now, you just get scans. 

If these were 2.5" x 3.5", this would be maybe the greatest set ever. 

Belated pack break #1: 1999 Finest Series 2

I can't believe how long ago I scanned this pack.  I bought this pack in 2010.  I scanned it in 2010. 

When I went digging through my photobucket, I got to page 18 before I found the scans.  That's 17x20=340 pictures on pages 1-17 that I have scanned more recently.  I've kept a text file of packs I've opened as a list to eventually post.  I finally erased most of them because they sucked and I didn't feel like posting them.  That left 4 options that I will post over the next few days.  This is the first pack.  Needless to say, the four I have chosen were postworthy for one reason or another.  Don't worry though, I'm not running out of posts.  I just need to clean out the proverbial closet to make room for the box of packs I haven't scanned yet. That's right, I have a box of cards that I have opened and put back into the packs. There's some good stuff in there, too.  Anyway, back to the "out with the old" pack.

Todd Hundley

Hideki Irabu

Cliff Floyd

Scott Erickson

Carlos Pena Rookies

Compliments Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs (Ref.)

>>> So, way back when I bought this pack, I thought: "Man, Hideki Irabu, I haven't heard that name in a while.  I wonder whatever happened to him".  Well, now we know.  The Carlos Pena is pretty nice.  The Compliments cards are pretty cool, though I'm not sold on Half-fractors.  You see, only the Boggs half is refractory. 

I just gotta add that the Pena card makes me laugh my ass off.  I'm pretty sure he is auditioning for the Evolution of Dance (check the Brady Bunch "Keep On Movin' part at 1:04).  In case you don't believe me, here is a screen shot:

Look at the side-by-side:

If that doesn't make you giggle, nothing will.  Yes, I know it's sad that the first thing I thought of when I saw the card was Evolution of Dance.  But still, that's funny shit.

Drop the Cards!

Casey, from Drop the Gloves! recently sent me some cards. I sent him a few Allen and Ginter inserts, and he sent me some boats:

This is the best insert set from this year's A&G in my opinion.  Thanks Casey!

A very Chesapeakey trade

Dawgbones sent me a pack age recently.  Included in that package were these:

Michael Cuddyer was the first ball player of the current MLB crop to come out of Chesapeake.  Several players later came Justin Upton. I love this Justin Upton card, naturally, since I was born and raised in Chesapeake.  Then , you have to consider where these cards came from.  Dawgbones sent them, which means they came from Chesapeake.  Hence, Chesapeakey.  Until just now, I had never really looked at the word "Chesapeake".  I mean, I've seen it my whole life, but I've never looked at it.  It's a pretty weird word.

Anyway, that's not all Dawgbones sent me, as he also included the complete set of Weird-Oh's baseball, which I failed to buy once before.  I haven't scanned any of them yet, but I hope to feature them in the future. Anyway, thanks Richard!

So that's what an earthquake feels like.

Just survived my first earthquake.  They're pretty rare on the east coast.  I'm sure all you west coasters wouldn't have even noticed. I hope all you guys in Richmond and Northern Virginia are ok!

Introducing a revolution in baseball cards...

Here's the Mad Lib:



In recognition of the Women's World Cup, O-Pee-Chee pays tribute with new Radium Bravery Baseball Cards.

The base set consists of 5,629 stars, rookies, prospects and retired players on the finest slippery cardstock. Every box is guaranteed to have at least one Gerald Laird autograph.

The insert checklist for this set is incredibly gnarly, with Pack-Searcher Refractors of Snooki and Larry the Cable Guy. Look for hobby exclusive cards die cut in the shape of a coatimundi.

Each card from the base set will also have 13 parallels. Parallels will come in a variety of colors, such as mauve, and textures, such as lollipop.

The gimmickry abounds in this new product, as special variations base cards can be found of several shortstops spelunking with a baseball.

The relic set includes rare artifacts from a variety of Colt .45s. Items embedded into cards include plain white jerseys, event-used wads of chew, and game-worn knickers.

Each box comes with one of two boxloaders. The relic boxloaders will contain an entire deep-fried oreo found in a Petco Park bathroom. If you are hairy enough, you may receive a special boxloader redemption card, good for a free Hideo Nomo tattoo on your big toe.

One lucky collector will come across a DNA Irrefutable Box, in which each pack contains an actual piece of Ty Cobb.

This product is certain to crush the shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits out of Upper Deck Documentary.




...Well, that was good fun.  Certainly went out with a bang.  While making the customs, I searched for pictures of a "big toe".  I dare you to google image search "big toe".  See how far down the page you can get without puking.  Thanks for everyone's help!

Apparently you guys don't like Mad Libs.

Only two words remain and nobody has commented with them. Go here and let's finish this thing already. Besides I figured the last two words would be the ones people would want to comment the most.  I mean, who doesn't love bad words and crappy baseball card sets?  Maybe you guys are just big sissies that don't want to say a bad word.  Maybe you are a glass-half-full guy and you believe that a card set cannot be crappy because it is, in fact, a card set and all cards are glorious.  Well,     "bad word"     you!

Seriously, anyone can comment.  I just want to get this thing done so I can delete the file from my desktop.

2011 Topps Lineage - MCM style

Me: "Hey guys! Let's PARTAY!!...guys?...hellooooo?"

Guy: "what do you want?"

Me: "ummm, to PARTAY!!!, duh."

Guy: "oh you're here for the Lineage party"

Me: "Hells yeah beeyotch"

Guy: "yeah, that was yesterday."

Me: "oh"

...

Ah, late again.  Now that you've seen what Lineage is, I want to show you what it should be.  I finished second in the 2nd Annual NASA Langley King of the Beach Volleyball tournament, so I took my winnings and grabbed two rack packs and a blaster of Lineage. 

Holy Mauer Mantle Number Seven Bat Across The Balls In Both Hands, Batman!

All four of these came in the two rack packs...

 My expert opinion on this base design: It sucked, until I saw the new 2012 Topps design, which is the new suck. 

Wait, old guys that are SSSSSP variations?!?!?!

  I posted these three because Topps failed to match the team logo with a background that even remotely makes the logos look good.

Dear Topps, if you call it Lineage, perhaps you should be true to the, oh, I don't know, Lineage.  Why does Ichiro have an old school rookie trophy?  Put the trophy that corresponds to the yearthat the player was an all-rookie.  Since we're showing the Ichiro cards...put ICHIRO in the big letters, not the tiny-ass ones.  Woohoo, I got two Ichiro Bigassblankspots.   In all seriousness, though, Ichiro is a stud.  Look at that second card.  He's rounding second and I'm pretty sure the ball hasn't even gotten to the second-baseman yet.  That's speedy.

I'm skipping straight to this insert set because I like it.  It works.  It's not completely true to the original, but I don't mind.  The card backs suck, though.

Ok, very nice.  I'm a fan.

'75 Mini Relics...a good idea, that fits well with the set theme. 

oooooh, so close.

Cloth stickers...a great idea, but not executed how they should have been.  This is what they should look like:

Get rid of the borders and name and all and just let the picture be a picture.

Ahh, almostfractors.

Well, at least they've gotten rid of the diamo...

oh. dammit.  "Topps...now mommy and daddy aren't rich, so pick one and move on.  AHT! I said pick one and move on...Topps! I'm counting to 3...1....2...drop it!...drop it!...3...that's it, we're going home."

Now, we move on to the worst insert:



Overproduced crap does not an insert make.  Dear Topps again, nostalgia does not make a bad decision a good one.  This is like flying a Confederate flag in the name of "heritage."  Answer me this: why follow the card back so meticulously on these, but put no effort into the '75 mini backs???

One small change makes these cards bearable:

The yellow on the original is terrible.

Of course, if you want to go the extreme route: I like my idea better (although I like all my ideas better.  I think that's why they're my ideas): 

 

And now we get to the part where Topps was within a hair of redeeming the product:

yes. Yes, YES!  I love it.  These cards are so incredibly awesome.  I bet the back of the card is just as awesome:

Ever get that feeling like you forgot to do something?

What the @#&! Topps? And, of course, my suggestion:

See Topps, it's okay to be nostalgic, and in some cases, cheesy.  But at least if you commit to an idea, follow through on it.  This set is soo freaking lazy. 

That was one hell of a party.

Everything is for trade, except for the 4 PC cards at the top.

Still need your help with the mad lib...

Ok, if you have already submitted a word, you can submit another one.  We're almost halfway, and I'd like to have it done by the end of the day.  See here or scroll down if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about.

Baseball Card Mad Lib!!! I Need Your Help!!!

There's a new product coming out, but the description is incomplete.

I need you to help me fill in the blanks.  Leave a comment below with the next word needed (ie. first commenter does word #1, second commenter does word #2, so on and so forth).  One comment per person, unless I need more comments to finish.  Here are the words I need:

1. recent sports event
2. card company
3. type of metal
4. abstract noun
5. large number
6. adjective
7. terrible baseball player
8. adjective
9. insulting name
10. celebrity
11. celebrity
12. animal
13. number
14. ugly color
15. noun
16. baseball position
17. verb ending in –ing
18. baseball team
19. baseball equipment
20. garments
21. concession stand item
22. baseball stadium
23. adjective
24. baseball player
25. body part
26. adjective
27. dead baseball player
28. verb
29. bad word
30. crappy baseball card set