Regular Posting to Resume on Sunday

I've been absent for a week and a half with the exception of my Eric Young post that failed to advance me in Nachos Grande's bracket contest.  I suppose I just don't have enough Facebook friends to generate enough votes.  Actually, I don't have any Facebook friends, since I've never gotten on Facebook, ever.  Am I the only one in the world that has never gotten a Facebook account?

Anyway, I've been absent.  There have been a number of things going on, mostly good (including a new niece!), but I will be getting back to my regularly occurring this Sunday.  Sometimes, you just need a little break. 

As for content, I've got plenty on the way.  Box breaks, pack rips, trades, etc, etc, etc. Did I mention football season is right around the corner?  Woohoo! I can start posting football cards again!

I figure that, since I'm in the home stretch of my break, I might as well do a "state of the blog" of sorts.

On regularly occurring posts - Sunday Sketch/Weird-Ohs/2006 A&G - Does anyone actually give a crap about these? I get a few comments here and there, but I'm wondering if I'm just wasting my time.  I enjoy doing them to a certain extent, since it makes me look at the cards a little closer.

On box breaks - I have three more boxes of A&G to post, which I will continues to use my standard box break posting layout. Does that layout work?  I've also got a bunch of Artifacts boxes and other miscellany.

On trading - I'm always open for trading, though it seems things have slowed down recently. Not as many e-mails roll in as in the past.  Aside from the usual suspects (BA Benny, Daily Dimwit, Play at the Plate, Plaschke Thy Blog Name is Too Long to Type, etc.), I haven't had many trade requests.  I've got both general Want Lists and Allen & Ginter Want Lists.  I know part of it may be my horrible e-mail response, lately.  I don't know when I went from good e-mailer to the suckassiest e-mailer out there, but it definitely happened. 

On showing off - I plan to start showing some of my Bryan Randall and Scott Sizemore collections.  At some point, I turned the corner on my Scott Sizemore collection.  It used to be "anything cheap", then became "anything cool", and now it's become "anything not #'ed to 1 that isn't insanely expensive".  I now have 74% of his cards that aren't 1/1's (he has 101 1/1's, seriously). 

On buying - I'm cutting myself off...kinda.  No more big purchases this year unless funded by the sale of other cards.  Since I have a baby on the way, and two urgent house projects, I'm guessing there will be no big purchases, at all.  As always, I'll allow myself to pick up cards here and there on eBay, in moderation.  As far as retail...I pretty much have done this again.  I have opened blasters/packs/etc. all over the place.  For that reason, I am cutting off my retail purchases...kinda.  I'm limiting my new product purchases to just a couple of packs.  I'm going to avoid getting any more packs of A&G, Bowman, Bowman Platinum, Topps S1/S2, Goodwin Champions, Chrome, Archives... The only current product I'm giving myself the green light on is Panini Triple Play, because it is awesome and only $1/pack. 

Well, this has probably been a boring post for you, so let's liven it up with some cards:

I've managed to get my Topps #3 needs down to just one card: the 1952 Hank Thompson.  The last three cards I've picked up are:

1957 Topps #3 Dale Long ($3.25 shipped)

1953 Topps #3 George Crowe ($2.29 shipped)

1965 Topps #3 Killebrew/Powell/Mantle AL HR Leaders ($3.98 shipped)

Let me answer the questions that came up while viewing those three cards:

Who pays $3+ for a horribly miscut Dale Long?
>>> Well, I do, but only because I started feeling the push of an almost complete "set".

Is that '53 Crowe the most gorgeous card you have ever bought?
>>> Very close.  It's easily the most gorgeous card I've bought for under $3.  While putting together the Topps #3 "set", I looked for creased and damaged cards intentionally to keep the price low.  This card was a great find.  But, the creases aren't where the beauty truly lies.  The real pleasure comes from the George's glasses.  Wow this card is awesome.

How on Earth did you find a $4 Mantle!?!?!?
>>> Patience sometimes does pay off.  In the past year, I've probably bid on 25-30 different copies of this card.  Every time, the bidding went over $10, which I just couldn't justify.  I would convince myself that I just had to wait for the right auction to come along.  I even lost out on cards in way worse condition than the Crowe above.  Just horribly conditioned cards going for $10+.  Amazing.  Then, one day, along came an auction with a horrible photo (too much flash) and a description that included "he back has tape damage".  Since the back wasn't shown, I didn't know what to expect, but I knew I was going to give it a shot.  Man am I glad I did.  The "tape damage" doesn't obscure any of the names or numbers and overall, the condition is pretty good.  $4 was an absolute steal for this card. 


Speaking of steals, I picked this card up with combined shipping on another shipment for just $6.50. 

I'm not one to typically throw down more than five bucks on single cards I don't collect, but I'm also not stupid.  This is a certified on-card auto of Dan Larsen commemorating his World Series Perfect Game.  It's also a refractor, which makes it look awesome in person.   At worst, it is an awesome card in my collection.  At best, I can sell or trade it and get some great cards in return.  Anyone interested in trading?

An Evening with Eric Young

2007 Ace Authentic Straight Sets Inserts

It's been almost a month since I posted the base cards from my 2-case break of 2007 Ace Authentic Straight Sets tennis blasters.  Since you're probably a little Ginterred out, I think it's time to show the inserts for the 2 cases.  Of course, I will have my remaining 3 boxes of A&G posted sometime soon.

Ok, I said inserts, but I'm starting with the bronze parallels.  The only difference between these and the base cards is the Ace logo is bronze instead of silver.  Exciting!

Each blaster had 1 Bronze and 1 Insert.  There are a lot of inserts sets, so I have a ways to go on finishing them.  My want lists are here.  The first insert set is Aces...how appropriate:

The bottom border thing is a little weird.  It's like the players are standing behind some kind of barrier. It als kinda looks like Roddick is slamming his fist on a bar top demanding a beer. The next three inserts are all pairs:

Cross Court

Davis Dup Duo

Head to Head

I think a Bryan Brothers duo card is the most obvious duo card possible.  The next insert set, On the Line, is kind of a rising star set:

The last insert is called Singles.  Sounds like trading cards for a dating service.

I'll be back some other time with the match-worn relics...all 46 of them.

I just can't compete...

In about 4 hours tonight, I went from winning by 4 votes to losing by 10 in Nachos Grande's contest.  With less than a day left in voting, I'm not sure I can even make it a competition. 

After all, how can I compete with this. You see, Kirk has a Grandmother who has helped him in his collecting.  That is overwhelmingly awesome.  Kirk is an incredibly lucky guy, and I can't help but appreciate a guy who loves family.

I can't compete with that. 

I don't have grandparents.

Olympics contest winner announced!

...but first, I have to show off a couple of trades I made for some 2012 Olympic cards:

First, Justin sent me a stack of cards, including these:

Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers really let me down this year.

I also received a want-list busting stack from Casey:

There is a lot of hot in that group.  I also gotta give a shout-out to the Mike Morrison card.  Mike is from my hometown of Chesapeake, VA and went to my rival high school, Great Bridge.

Thanks for the cards, guys.  I still have some needs, so check them out and let me know if you have any.


On to the contest results:

19 folks entered, guessing 10 different countries.  The closest guesses were Play at the Plate (US, 105 medals) and Corky (Ireland, 6 medals) who were both off by 1.  While Play at the Plate's guess was certainly impressive, it is a tie.  As a tie breaker, they guessed the number of gold medals.  Play at the Plate guessed 36 (US had 46) and Corky guessed 0 (Ireland had 1).  So, the tie breaker goes to Corky. 

Congrats Corky, please send me an email and I'll get your prize out soon!

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #79

I know Howard is a lefty, but for some reason the picture looks like a righty joking around kefty-style.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #78

Ooompa Loompa do-ba-dee-do.  Anyone else notice that the more you look at this card, the bigger his head gets and the smaller his hands get.  

Stadium Club #7...the long awaited showdown!

2001 Stadium Club #7.  A great card of a Hall of Famer.  It doesn't get much better than that.  Or does it?!  The long debated argument of which Stadium Club #7 reigns supreme will finally be settled...right here, right now.  For those of you who don't know, Stadium Club was released from 1991-2003, and again in 2008.  I've set up a bracket showdown to find out what truly is the best #7 card in Stadium Club.  Since there were 14 releases, two cards get a bye.  The first bye goes to the card shown above, since it is a Larkin card in Nachos Grande's contest. The second bye goes to the 2008 Torii Hunter.  2008 SC is such a weird set, I had to give it a bye.  Filling out the rest of the bracket, we have:

Let's get down to business.

Winner: 2006 Ray Durham - The layout of the card works perfectly.  The throwing hand is opposite the TSC logo and it's a great shot.  The Salmon just doesn't have a whole lot going on.  (credit to Checkoutmycards.com for the image)

Winner: 2000 Jose Offerman - I couldn't find an image of the regular version, so I went with the Chrome version.  You still get the idea.  It's a fielding action shot.  That typically wins over a plain pitcher's motion.

Winner: 2002 Alex Rodriguez - Neither card is fantastic, but the A-Rod looks less weird than the Bichette.

Winner: 1991 Dan Plesac - As much as I like Pudge, the cutoff bat makes me mad.  Catching Plesac just before a sneeze puts this one over the top.

Winner: 1994 Joe Oliver - This was a no brainer.  Strawberry as a Yankee or Oliver mashing the ball.  Oliver with the ball mashed on the bat all day long.

Winner: Rusty Greer -  Even though this was the best pair in the group, Greer wins by a long shot.  No disrespect to the Abbott card, though.  In a different draw, it would have gone farther. 

At the end of round 1, the bracket is now down to this:

Winner: 2001 Barry Larkin - Who doesn't love interleague play?  By the way, this picture likely was taken on June 7, 2000 when Larkin stole second base in the third inning.  For the record, that's Jose Valentin in the #22 jersey.

Winner: 2000 Jose Offerman - The blurred headachey numbers in the background and the gigantic man mound on A-Rod turn me off.  By the way, that's Brian Hunter of the Braves making a cameo on the Offerman card.

Winner: 1994 Joe Oliver - Again, the ball will forever be in a state of "mashed" on this card.  Easy win.

Winner: 1998 Rusty Greer - Even Torii knew he couldn't win this one. 

The final four:

Winner: 2001 Barry Larkin - Both are plays at second base featuring cameos by other players in interleague play.  So, how did I determine the Larkin was superior?  The dust.  Look at the dust cloud.  Fantastic!

Winner: 1998 Rusty Greer - Joe Oliver may have mashed the ball, but Rusty Greer was there to rob him of glory. 

It all comes down to this:

Winner: 1998 Rusty Greer - Despite the Barry Larkin being my assigned card and Nachos Grande's favorite player, the Greer is flat out amazing  The are no less than ten people in the picture trying to catch the ball.  Add to that the fact that it looks like Greer is 5 feet off the ground, and I'm sold.

Congratulations 1998 Rusty Greer, you are the best Stadium Club #7 card in history!!!

Weird-Oh Wednesday #10b

It's like some kind of weird combination of Ken Griffey Jr.'s sleeping habits and Eddie Gaedel's strike zone.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #77

The shading on this image adds a little Rocky Dennis look to his face.  "You wanna know how stupid you are? Rube Walker, man. I conned you out. Rube Walker!" I'm guessing not too many people know what the hell I'm talking about, but they should.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #76

I can't tell you how many times I've gotten Magglio confused with Miguel Cabrera.  I always think I have cards of one and it turns out it's the other.  Oh well.