Monday, June 30, 2014

Dude, she's a major babe!

I have had numerous interactions with Thorzul of Thorzul Will Rule over the years, but we have never traded.

That stood until he posted an amazing card recently, and I just had to have it.


Volleyball cards don't come around everyday, so I had to snatch this one up.

That's right...I traded for just this card.

I traded a stack of ~100 Brewers for Awesome Volleyball Val.

I win.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Space Shots on a Sunday


I can't get enough of these cards. 


If only we celebrated exploration and the advancement of technology the way we used to.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Can't finish the checklist without the checklist...



I just bought these 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter checklists off eBay.  They were the last checklists I needed.  They were definitely worth the $3.24 I paid for them.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Ginter Bounty: Come and Get It.

I need 11 4 cards to complete my Topps Allen & Ginter run from 2006-2013.

Claimed
need

2013
Across the Years (ATY-):
DM,JRD

Curious Cases (CC-):
A51,DA,FM,JFK,MK,PE,UVB

2012: 
What's in a Name (WIN-):
20

2008:
Base:
77


I'm willing to trade A&G relics for those cards.  For each card you trade me, I'll trade you your choice of one of these:


Aroldis Chapman
Adam Dunn
Lucas Duda
Cliff Lee
Adam Wainwright
Eric Hosmer
Tim Hudson
Alex Gordon


Tim Hudson (again)
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Jonathan Papelbon


Gordon Beckham
Carlos Pena

Hit me up.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Hockey Contest!!! ---Closed

With the Stanley Cup going on, what better time to give away some cards?

But first, as with the soccer contest, I have to show some packs.



I'm not a hockey fan, so my expectation of recognizing names has been on a downward trajectory since NHL '94 on Sega.  I didn't recognize any of these four.


Goalie cards rock.  I recognize Chris Osgood.


Sharks are cool.  No idea who he is.


I got two Choice Reserve Maple Leafs.  That sentence makes no sense if it isn't capitalized.


If you aren't a hockey fan, you probably had no idea that is a Columbus Blue Jackets logo.  The "TM" in there really pisses me off.


Very nice card.  Topps baseball could learn a thing or two from this card.


I loved Collector's Choice Stick'ums when I was a kid.  These have a thicker backing, which is wonderful.


Last pack before we get to the contest, I promise.


Fantastic cards. I recognize all except Stillman.


Dainius Zubrus has the Championship Fever.  The best things for getting rid of that fever are Red Wings and LA Kings.  At least, that's what Zubrus found out the hard way.

Ok, contest time.


I've mentioned a couple of times that I loved NHL '94 for Sega Genesis.

All you have to do to win is guess my favorite player in NHL '94.

You may submit one guess per hour until someone gets it right.

If you guess correctly, you will win every hockey card I own, including a relic card of an NHL Hall-of-Famer.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Soccer Contest!!! ---Closed

The World Cup starts today, so what better time than now to give away some cards. 

First, let's rip some packs:


Ha, I bet you thought I would be showing some World Cup cards.  Nope, sorry. 


Reyna was the US Men's captain in the 2006 World Cup.  Brek Shea has put together a decent career and has been an off-and-on member of the USMNT in years past.


More MLS...woohoo!


Here we have a nice card of Landon Donovan...oh wait, no...Apparently Landon Donovan was left off of this card in favor of Brad Davis. 


Soccer Jokes!


Like Reyna, Conrad was also a member of the US World Cup team in 2006.


Santino Quaranta was born and raised in Baltimore, which is not, in fact, Washington DC.  Close, Upper Deck, but no cigar.



Ok, the pack ripping is done.  Let's get to the contest:

One of my all-time favorite video games was FIFA 2000 on Playstation.

All you have to do to win is guess the team I played with.

You may submit one guess per hour until someone gets it right.

If you guess correctly, you will win every soccer card I own, including a relic card of a current US Men's National Team member.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

2014 Donruss vs. 2014 Heritage


How dare I question Heritage? Oh, I dare.  People love Heritage.  It's pretty sad, actually.  Heritage should be an insert set for Topps Flagship, and that's it.  The fact that Topps releases both Archives and Heritage is just embarrassing.  Heritage is easily one of the worst licensed baseball products of every year.  The key word is "licensed".  It still has logos, so it still has some positive aspects.

Donruss is a name we all recognize, which is precisely what Panini relies on.  Unfortunately, Panini has to operate without a license, making their products subpar straight from the drawing board.  However, there has to be a point where laziness (Heritage) and inability (Donruss) cross paths. 

To further analyze this problem, I've opened three packs of each product and picked the Top 7 cards for each one.  Then, I went down the line comparing 7-7, 6-6, etc.

Here they are:

7)



Wieters isn't exactly a Topps kind of guy, so it's appropriate to start with him.  The Donruss design is decent but not great.  If you threw a team logo instead of "Baltimore" in there and shrunk the border a little, you would have a great-looking, very Donrussy card.  I'm giving the win here to Donruss because catchers still look pretty good on unlicensed cards.  The Angels Rookie Stars card is only decent because the design is decent.  The player images suck. Donruss 1, Heritage 0.

6)

This is a tough one.  First off, the Heritage card shows a Red Sox pitcher, but is captioned form the Cardinals' perspective.  Also, "dealt losing hand" just doesn't quite work.  It makes it sound like it was all bad luck.  However, the blank helmet on the Alomar is unforgivable.  Donruss 1, Heritage 1.

5)

After three Donruss cards, you should be noticing the close-cropped photos that reduce photoshop time.  Hooray for the Rated Rookie logo, but the rest of the card is weak.  Donruss 1, Heritage 2.

4)

More of the same from Donruss, but they at least know how to design a card so that Ichiro's name doesn't look terrible   Easy win for the Dodgers, though, because white Dodgers hats are awesome. Donruss 1, Heritage 3.

3)

A double dose of Max Scherzer, but I have to give the win to Donruss.  I'm sure you won't agree, but the 3-player Heritage cards just aren't that attractive.  They should either float the heads or just give the card to the top guy.  Pitchers have the best jersey-back photos, so using them in an unlicensed product is smart. Donruss 2, Heritage 3.

2)

Santana is a short print.  It's a pretty nice looking card.  Sorry, Heritage fans, Flores wins this one and it's not even close.  That is a beautiful retro-INSPIRED card.  It's not a retro-EXACT card.  Donruss 3, Heritage 3.

1)

I have to give credit where credit is due.  Topps used some creativity in the Flashbacks set. They weren't a part of the 1965 set.  So, Topps had to invent them.  Topps, however, made one crucial, crucial mistake.  They used 1965 events for the Flashback cards.  Everyone knows that 1965 Topps cards have stats through 1964 on the back.  So, for accuracy's sake, they should have used 1964 events to be featured on a 1965 design.  Koufax is great, but this card reeks of making something new out of a bunch of not new things. 

That said, the Harvey card also bothers the crap out of me.  His ERA was 2.27, so the card is numbered to 227.  2.27 does not equal 227.  It's not even a batting average where you can sort of equate .325 with 325.  Turrible.  The placement of the 2.27... part is pretty weird, too. 

So, my final verdict is to split the final point giving a final score of

Donruss 3.5, Heritage 3.5, The Dump I Took This Morning 4. 

Dump wins.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Errbody in the club gettin' Chipzy...Round 2.

Round 1 can be found here.


Hot damn, 2 packs=2 Uptons.


In case you couldn't tell from the front, Aroldis Chapman is a silver chip and David Ortiz is a gold chip.

Good, now that I've gotten Round 2 out of the way, I can finally start posting 2014 Chipz.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

What does a pirate like on his baked potato?

Ar-Chives!


After crafting that fine bit of comedy, it's doubtful I will ever pronounce the product as "Arkives".


Hey, it's an old Topps design.


Hey, it's an old Topps design.


Hey, it's an old Topps design.


Hey, it's an old Topps design.


Hey, it's an old Topps design.


Hey, it's an old Topps design.  


Hey, it's an old Topps design.


Hey it's an old Topps design.