Shoebox Card #23

This is just one of those cards that you pause on for a minute when flipping through stacks.  Great photo.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #161

I'm always amazed when some pitchers seem to just hang around despite not performing well.

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Hobby

So, like Heritage, I had to pick up a some hobby packs.  I had great luck with Heritage hobby packs, so I figured I'd give GQ a shot.

How the hell does this happen?  In my retail packs, I got two short prints...both from the White Sox.  This time, I got two short prints...both from the White Sox. At least they're not dupes.

I got one notable regular mini:

I also got one short print mini:

Apparently I forgot to scan the inserts.  Let me just say that the Glove Stories and No-Hitters are fantastic!

Oh yeah, I also managed to get two of the hits from the box at the LCS:

They aren't the best hits in the world, but I definitely crushed the odds by getting two of them.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #160

 

I receive emails from eBay letting me know when Scott Sizemore stuff is listed.  You'd be amazed at how many sellers mistake Scott and Grady. It's not like the Uptons where they're related, either.

 

 

Football Contest: Week 7

Week 7 features the fewest games of the season as 6 teams have byes (ATL, DEN, KC, MIA, PHI, SD). 

This week's fare includes several 2012 Panini products:

1 Dollar Tree Pack Rookies & Stars
1 Retail Pack Rookies & Stars
1 Retail Pack Gridiron
1 Rack Pack Crown Royale
1 Rack Pack Absolute

That is a grand total of 85 cards. 

 Let's jump right into the games:

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 4, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS 2
>>> A simple base card matchup goes the way of the Niners.

BUFFALO BILLS 3, TENNESSEE TITANS 1
>>> The Bills hand the Titans their 7th loss.

DALLAS COWBOYS 3, CAROLINA PANTHERS 1
>>> A RC makes the difference here.

BALTIMORE RAVENS 6, HOUSTON TEXANS 3
>>> The Ravens had 6 base cards: Ray Lewis, Joe Flacco, Anquan Boldin, Torrey Smith, Ed Reed, and Ray Rice.  Pretty sweet to get 6 different players, all of whom had a part in their Super Bowl victory.

CLEVELAND BROWNS 6, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS 2
>>> The base card battle was even, but the Browns pulled away with a RC and this insert:

ARIZONA CARDINALS 3, MINNESOTA VIKINGS 1
>>> Former Hokie Ryan Williams stiff-arms the Vikes (and Raiders, apparently):



WASHINGTON REDSKINS 3, NEW YORK GIANTS 1
>>> The Redskins get a big win over a division foe, allowing the Cowboys to take over first place in the NFC East.

ST. LOUIS RAMS 3, GREEN BAY PACKERS 3
>>> The Rams and Packers tie, but the win goes to the Rams because one of the Packers cards featured those awful throwback jerseys:

 I also really liked the insert that the Rams got, though the Crown Royale inserts didn't scan too well:

Field Force

 

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS 6, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS 3
>>> Tampa Bay also got a Crown Royale insert en route to a victory

NFL Regime

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS  7, NEW YORK JETS 2
>>> The Patriots landed the week's only numbered card in this lopsided affair:

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS 2, OAKLAND RAIDERS 2
>>> The Jags pickup the tiebreak win in this one because two MJD cards had more names than Carson Palmer and Darren McFadden. That's right.  6 names > 4 names.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS 3, CINCINNATI BENGALS 2
>>> Steelers squeak out their second win of the season

DETROIT LIONS 5, CHICAGO BEARS 3
>>> The Lions were too much for the Bears despite a nice insert:

Majestic Motion

The bye week teams:  Falcons 5, Broncos 2, Chiefs 4, Dolphins 3, Eagles 3, Chargers 2.  The scoring average for the week was 3 points, so the Falcons and Chiefs blew their bye week. The Falcons could afford it at 5-1, but the Chiefs are a miserable 1-5 and really could have used those 4 points.  Two of the teams had inserts:

Updated Standings:

I gotta say I didn't expect the Rams and Dolphins to only have one loss each at this point in the season.

Shoebox Card #22

I would love for Topps to bring back Turn Back the Clock cards and Record Breaker cards in the base set. This is a great looking card.

A Pair of Trade "Thank You"s

Just want to shout out to ARPSmith for helping my 2012 Panini Triple Play and 2010 UD sets.  Adam also sent me a 2013 Topps Blue Sparkle Ryan Zimmerman that he got in his insanely lucky Topps redemption haul.


I also want to thank Jason for hooking me up with some 2012 Panini Triple Play.


I sorted the cards into my sets before I scanned them, so I don't have any scans, unfortunately.

Thanks, guys!

Shoebox Card #21

Ok, so this isn't just one card. It's actually a set of 1993 Mother's Cookies Giants.

 

Can you spot the Dick Pole?

There was one complete set of these in the boxes, and all but two cards of a second set.  I've already sent these to ARPSmith as I'm sure he'll appreciate them much more than I.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #159

I was glad to see Lee throw a good game to start this season. 

I'm glad he just sent me the Randoms.

Josh of Royals and Randoms recently sent me some stuff.  The main reason was to send me a Topps coin for my set that I needed after my Collector's Cache box.

Sweet.  I'm now just three coins short of the set.  19, 22, 45.

He also hit my baseball player PCs:

Love the Wright cameo on the Hairston.

My favorite cards from this package, though, we're Hokies.  Most notably, he sent me my first Eugene Chung and Will Furrer cards.

When I see the Chung in the middle of the bottom row, I instantly think of the sumo wrestler from The Replacements.

Thanks, Josh!

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #158

Adam is known as "Big Donkey".  The ladies used to call me that, too.  Giggity.

2013 Gypsy Queen Retail

Since I declared yesterday that I'm not buying any more cards until Allen & Ginter comes out, I figured my next post should show the product that came out just prior to that declaration.

I don't even know what to say.  It's not horrible. It's just...not not horrible.

I love that the SPs are inserted backwards in the packs.  Makes my life way easier.  They're also apparently White Sox.

Why have the SPs dispersed throughout the base set? If you're going 300+50 SPs, stick them at the end so regular collectors can get the 300 and feel some sense of completion.

The minis aren't the same color?  That's odd.  Oh well, they look better than the base cards.  Wainwright is a  short print...not that you'd know from the card #.

These look really nice when scanned because the detailing and GQ words look black.  In person, they're silver foil and don't look nearly as good.  Black on white would have been nice.

The Dealing Aces and Collisions inserts are fantastic.  The Sliding Stars cards are a little annoying because the border is so overwhelming.  However, it would have been a better design for the base set than what Topps went with.  I don't understand why you would take a set with great colorful inserts and completely wash the life out of the base set.
 

Weird-Oh Wednesday #20b

No cards till!

NO!

CARDS!

TILL GINTER!

I won't be buying new cards until A&G comes out in mid-July.  That's nearly three months.  Of course, there are exceptions.  Any cards I need for my Bryan Randall and Scott Sizemore supercollections that show up within reason will be purchased.  I will also allow purchases of things that just simply can't be passed up.  Think "discounted 2011 GQ blaster".  I may pick up one or two packs of new products, like Bowman and Series 2 when they come out.  No jumbo packs, no hobby packs, no blasters, etc.  

Don't worry, though, I have a huge box of stuff I've opened but haven't posted.  So, you probably won't even notice anything is different.