Red Sox Invasion!

It has taken me awhile to digest the massive box of Red Sox cards that were sent to me by Topher and Crackin Wax. I have determined that Minnesota REALLY hate the Red Sox, because I am fairly certain he sent me all of his Sox cards, went next door to his neighbor and took his, and also robbed the greater Twin Cities hobby shops of there's also. Going through these cards I learned a lot:



1) I REALLY need to bust down an purchase a scanner instead of surfing for images

2) I am more new school than old school...while I love a good Wade Boggs And Ellis Burks card, I really think that the newer cards and their varieties are more interesting cards to look at.

3) Since Topher supplied a great variety of products, I was able to compare and contrast Topps vs Upper Deck, and am decidedly favoring Topps products (minus a few exceptions).

4) The great variety is also helping me decide which series to collect next year,

5) I am going to need more binders and card sheets!



So while there is many to cover, I will pick out of few of my faves (new school), just a small sampling of a very gracious package...

I am so happy that I was able to find this image of Tavarez, because I absolutely loath this guy! I cannot even begin to tell you how many times the Sox turned to him, I would say to my wife "they are throwing in the towel" and within minutes, gas cans are lighting on fires and balls are flying all over the field and walls. I had the pleasure of watching the Red Sox tear Tavarez a new one last week in Washington. The Nats even had the nerve to throw him out there again the next day! I have never had such loathing for any other player. The guy at Ebay that I ripped this image from was asking $1.75 for this card! Good luck with that buddy. He will not be making the binder, but will keep him around for future blogs!

These Blaster patches are sweet and I am happy to have Yaz in my collection. I can imagine Topher rolling his eyes as his big payoff at the end of the box was a Red Sox!

These Topps Heritage cards are really nice, and I received several, but I will just display a couple. The images are just brilliant, simple, and warm....

...except for Lester. He'll tear your friggin' head off!

I received a few MLB Artifacts. I have heard this Dice-K card, and was excited to see it included in the package. I have no idea where the hell they stashed that guy all of a sudden, but I don't think he is done quite yet, and either way this is a classy card.

Spaceman Youk in a 2009 Topps Wal Mart Black variation. My card is actually a little darker than this image, so really has the rocket man going on.

2007 Topps Chrome Jason Varitek. The Captain is going to be missed when he rides off into the sunset at the end of this year of possibly next. He will be missed but it seems that the Sox have finally found an apprentice in George Kottaras who seems to be fitting in well with the pitchers and soaking in all of Tek's knowledge.

It's cards like these that make me antsy for this years set. There were several included in this box, including the Man-Ram (one of the nicer images really, but at this point I dont even have a binder page for him yet). Anyways, if any of you Ginter collectors are looking to get rid of your Sox this year, please keep me and JD in mind.


I will close out with the worst manager photo of Francona I have ever seen. It looks like they caught him mid yawn. The Topps editor must hate the Sox also.

There were a ton others including O Pee Chee, Turkey Reds 2007, Bowman, Fleer, Upper Deck...I could fill up a lot more space but you all get the idea. Thanks a ton Topher. I am having a blast going through and organizing these cards. Just let me know when you need some more Twins to keep you busy!

Talkin' Turkey

Usually when I look at card lots on Ebay, I usually find that I need far lest than 1/3 of what is for sale. The rest are normally duplicates. Today, however, I stumbled upon a gem of a deal (and price) that wiped out over 1/2 of my remaining Turkey Red needs! I am getting so close I can taste it (sorry), with just over 20 cards to go. I send out a plea to you,the blogosphere, to help me finish this set! Cards in a folder means one extra box available for other cards! Help save a tree! I have gold parallels, ROH, SP Legendary Cuts, Random team cards, my first born child (whoops, need to use Craigslist for him). Reach out to your friends, your friends of friends, your friends enemies, their parole officers, ....help make it happen! Visit the side bar list and look for anything without a PENDING on the end of it and email yinchuan2005@yahoo.com

Oh, also included in this lot a some duplicates. As soon as inventory I will repost this evening so I can help you towards your Turkey Red collection as well. Thanks to all!

Mid-Week Admin Duties

Hi Everybody,

I broke a few packs last night and I have some cards that I want to upload in a little bit, but there are a few action items that I want to throw out there this morning for you all to see....

1) Thanks to my love of Topps 2009 Flagship, I was able to hand-collate two complete base sets of this series. I am keeping one, but I would like to offer up the second for trade, if anybody has a creative solution in mind. Each card 1-660 is safe in penny sleeve and is includes numerous rookie cards including David Price and Mat Gamel. An ultimate trade would be for a factory-sealed hobby box of something for the set, but all options are welcome! Email Yinchuan2005@yahoo.com .

2) associated with above, I still have about 150 common base cards available for Topps 2009 both series. Send me your updated wants list and I will ship em out to you. Trying to clear off the china hutch of boxes before A&G (Apparently they have bought me another week...sigh).

3) I also have about 60 random o pee chee cards (CORRECTION, I have about 60 Topps Heritage...the ones with the crappy gum) and that accidental throwback blaster set of topps series 1 that are available to you.

4). Scanner-- okay, so I am growing tired of my horrible photos of cards received or searching web images to find cards. Its time consuming and I would rather just scan them in. I am wondering what you all use for a scanner. I just want something inexpensive that does decent quality, that is not frickin huge, and can handle Vista. Suggestions?

5). Anybody happen to find out how many Framed Autographed Subjects are involved in A&G. What I envision is setting up a sign up list for as many people as there are auto cards, then if we hit the jackpot, we can use Random.Org to split up the bounty. Need to know how many we are talking about though as there seems to be a fair amount of interest in doing this, according to the poll.

Thanks guys, I'll have some cards up in a bit (gotta search for them online..grrr.)

Turkey Night

Today I had a couple packages waiting for me from a couple of fellow bloggers. These packages were significant in that they took a large chunk out of my Turkey Red 2009 Hunt. I am now down to 43 Turkeys remaining! If you are able to help me with this quest, please email me and we can work out some trades. I have a new book of stamps burning a hole in my wallet, so lets talk turkey!





The first package came from Max at The Pursuit of Baseball Card Wisdom. Max found my site through one of his buddies and I jumped in to take a look at his site. Max bleeds Dodger Blue and has an amazingly wide spectrum of cards posted to his blog. This is a great site that everybody should check out and be sure to contact Max for a trade or two. Here is the Turkeys he sent:

While my "scanner" does not really do much justice, we have Ichiro fresh from a tickle fight with Griffey Jr, Ty Cobb looking about 90 years old (did that guy always look so old), Gonzalez and Vlad the Impaler. Thanks again Max, and have fun with Man-Ram this weekend.

My second package came from JayBee who was able to score me six Turkey Reds :

Here we have Big Papi, Josh Hamilton, Todd Helton and his majestic Gottee, Pee-Wee Reese, The mighty Albert Pujols and Mel Ott in in one of the odder batting poses I have ever seen and also looks like a member of the crooked cap posse, which I will blog about some other day.

Thanks for the cards JayBee, much appreciated!

Revenge is a dish....

Best served cold. A small sampling of sweet revenge.








KHAN! Ricardo Montalban certainly had his revenge.

These guys got theirs (sans Goose)...

Ridiculously, Jaws got his revenge.

Inigo Montoya? Oh yeah, he got his revenge...

The Empire struck back.....

Fred O'Bannion got his just deserts from Mitch Kramer and a can o'paint.

Dom Turreto got his revenge

The Italian Stallion got his revenge against Creed, against Clubber, and against Drago!

And just today...


In a move clearly scripted for ESPN and affliliates, the Red Sox score 4 in the top of the 9th to tie, and go on in the 11th to beat the O's in Camden. Time to get the hell outta dodge, boys! Go Sox.

Two Awesomely Bad Experiences, One Evening

Yesterday afternoon I picked up my son, popped home and flipped on the Red Sox game for a couple of innings while I waiting for Grandma to come watch the kid while I take my wife out to sushi and Transformers.


Around 5:15 (pacific) Jacoby Ellsbury hit his fourth homer of of the year, John Smoltz is just cruising along (man, his breaking ball is just sick) and the Sox are up 5-0. I actually remember saying to my mom when she showed up "let me switch the channel for you since you probably dont want to watch baseball, and besides everything is already well in hand here".


So I go to pick up the wife, we have a nice sushi train dinner and head to the theatre. Now keep in mind we had seen all of the reviews and were told two alarming things up front...."turn off the brain", and "approach it as if you are 14 years old"...uh oh.


So without further ado, my completely unqualified review of

Alright, so I like the first movie, it was not exactly a thinking mans movie, but its Transformers for petes sake. It was like Pirates of the Caribbean. You go into it thinking it is going to be Cutthroat Island awful, and are surprised at just how much fun it was. Transformers did the same thing for me, plus it is just jaw-dropping on Blu-Ray.

Now I am always wary of sequels, and I have pretty much written off the "Pirates" sequels as overloaded, long, and a bit dissapointing. Transformers 2 falls in that same category, especially in the LONG department. 2 1/2 hours. It is pretty bad when I am checking my watch to see how much is left. When I see a movie that long, it had better be pretty captivating and hold my attention.

Plot holes are pretty much throughout. My wife has always had a knack for finding scenes on tv and movies where something is missing from one shot to the next...bad splicing. So she had a heyday with this one. For me the entire last half of the movie (in Egypt) really suffered from lousy editing, writing and logic. Dont' misundertand though, the special effects are top-notch and the robot fights are phenominal, BUT after a billion of these you really stop to care...and there is still 45 minutes to go! (plot check point for those who have seen the flick...why give coordinates for a Optimus drop point that is several miles away from our heros??) Anyways, before continuing to ramble, just let it be said that proceed to this movie with caution. The movie is without a doubt a loud, eye-popping spectacle, but just feels forced, all the way up the the Linkin Park credits song.

So that experience in the can, my wife and I head home. Apparently Jacoby had a bad bottle of milk or something because he pretty much cried the whole time we were gone and Grandma looked worn out. He was so tired that he slept though the night though...SWEET!

Before going to bed, I flipped on ESPN to see the debocle of the great Red Sox collapse. 10 runs in two innings?? Apparently there was a rain delay and fortunes turned on a dime. It happens in baseball, but ESPN played it up like it sliced bread had just been invented. Yeah it is the biggest comeback in the history of the game (is it really?) but it happens. It happened in Cleveland a couple years back (well, 2001) against Seattle, twice in one year. Apparently though, ESPN's giddiness did not resonate with the rest of the media, as I scoured the Internet for dejected Red Sox photos and stories. This is about all I could find

I guess Okee looks a BIT dejected as he hand the ball off. I even went to the New York Daily News fully expecting several pages of humiliating stories on Boston...nada. Just another game and the Sox will come back out swinging today.

So, overall I guess you could say I am glad I did not witness the collapse of the Red Sox, but had to grind through Transformers to do it? It's a toss up! Oh, and my right headlight is burnt out also. Is the weekend here yet?

JD's Big Announcement!

Well, not really THAT big I guess, but for us, it finally gives us a path to follow in future collecting.

I have been emailing a few people back and forth and getting some advice about card collecting. The truth of the matter is that this can be a rather addicting hobby with each pack holding hidden treasure inside...so that being the case it can also be quite expensive as well!

Over the last month I have focused on collecting sets and subsets, and that will continue to be my main goal as long as the financial aspect is reasonable. I have to say that I have had the most fun with the Topps Flagship series this year and its wide variety of hits and classy subsets. I love the SP Legendary Cuts, but it has stuck me in the pocketbook. Nevertheless, I intend to complete that set THIS YEAR and reevaluate next year. I think Allen and Ginter are going to be fun like Topps Flagship was, but we'll see how involved I get in that.

But in the course of collecting for a set, I have amassed an amazing variety of cards from buying random packs from random years. If not for my compulsion to organize, I would have cards everywhere.

So my takeaway point for my first month of collecting is that it is impossible (and expensive) to try to collect everything. So I am happy to announce that I am narrowing down my parameters for collection needs.

You'll notice a pattern forming in my posts, that I often mention great cards of young pitching talent. I am drawn to these players because as Dennis Rodman once said in the Van Damme Flick "Double Team" What? You never saw that movie? Anyways he says "the best offense is a good defense" I love great pitching and I love the guys I see coming up through the system.

So I officially am opening the "Pitching Phenoms" wing to my collection. I am seeking out any and all cards for players like Yovanni Gallardo, Johnny Cueto, Tommy Hanson (on FIRE), Jon Lester, Tim Lincicum (EN FUEGO), Clay Buchholz (coming soon), Felix Hernandez, etc, etc. Of course I am still into collecting any and all Red Sox, and I do like some sluggers like Braun, Longoria, etc, but my main focus for now is on pitchers. I will add a new bar on the side mentioning my collecting interests now that I have some!

Thanks for a great first month everybody. While time consuming, I have had a blast and am amazed at the generosity of the blogosphere. Bring on July!

A Downpour of Mail

This evening was an amazingly fun evening, one of those nights that made me happy that I took up this hobby again. While envelopes have trickled in throughout the month, today my skinny little mailbox was overflowing with seven envelopes waiting to be ripped open! I will do my best to mention everybody, but I just want to thank you all up front for your generosity.

Envelope #1 - Comes from William at Foul Bunt who was kind enough to send me this Clay Buchholz:

Clay is going to be a phenom sometime real soon, and I am hoping the Red Sox find a way to fit him in full time in the near future. Thanks William!

Envelope #2 - From Peter at Dropped Third Strike, a bunch of cards. Firstly, thanks to Peter I would like to officially announce the completion of my second full Topps 2009 base set! That is one more hand-collated box out of the living room and into storage in the man cave. I have not figured out what to do with the second set yet, but if any of you are looking for a full base set and want to make an offer, let me know!

Secondly Peter was very generous with a wide assortment of quality Red Sox cards (most yankee fans are).

Others included were a Jed Lowrie rookie card, several Dustin Pedroia cards, a nice Cave Man Johnny and Varitek ROH from 2004 World Series, and a Jon Lester Bowman. Peter also sent me my first mini card, a Goudey Yovani Gallardo and a couple other nuggets. You may start to see a pattern in my preferences, but I will explain futher in tomorrows blog (teaser).

Envelope 3 was a set of 15 SP Legendary cuts purchased from Ebay on Friday for around 20 bucks, so roughly 1 buck apiece. I happily deleted some needs from my side bar.

Envelope 4 comes from Loi at Box Opener. Loi contacted me last week and really bailed me out on the final four commons for the SP Legendary Cuts as well as several Turkey Reds that I can now cross off my list. Below are some of the my favorites:

Loi just started blogging last month, but I checked out the site and was immediately impressed with the content and some of the amazing cards that are posted. I definitely recommend everybody drop in and see that latest happenings at Box Opener. Thanks Loi, let me know if you ever need anything.

Envelope 5 comes from Ben at Cardboard Icons.
I kept hounding Ben to trade for some series 2 commons, but he was deeply involved with the Rocky series at the time. Eventually he contacted me and what resulted was an exchange of 97 commons from the series. My heaviest envelope yet! Ben was to send me a couple Turkey Reds. Now most people send the value cards in between the Upper Deck discount cards, or the Toppstown as outside borders, so I was genuinely surprise to see my Turkey Reds sandwiched between two Evan Longoria rookie cards! These will definitely be going in the "not getting rid of ever" collection. Also included was an Alex Rodriguez/Evan Longoria combo card and a Ryan Braun. Thanks a ton Ben, and be sure to contact me about more commons as I think some are sliding this direction and Topps 2009 flagship was so June 2009!

Envelopes 6 and 7 we both from ebay vendor, subtracting a few from my SP 101-200.

What a great night. I feel that major progress has been made on all my set goals as they slowly come my wants board. I am really starting to get some great red sox cards as well and its time for me to start organizing by player, that oughta keep me busy for awhile!

Thanks again to everybody, I had a blast tonight!

Wally Found His Way West!

This is just a quick thank you to Adam and Jessica at Thoughts and Sox for sending me a nice package of Red Sox cards over the weekend. Lack of scanner makes it tough to document them all, but some of the highlights were a nice Wally the Green Monster card for little JD, a couple Caveman Johnny cards for me, and a nice assortment of current and championship team players. There are also a couple of team shots which are classic in that those not present are superimposed on the shot with there head coming out of the Green Monster. Thanks for the cards. The collection is growing, so time to head to the card shop for some more 3-ring sheets!


HA! this is the closest thing I could find to wally for web images. I really need a scanner!

Sunday Admin Duties

I think that this is going to become a regular Sunday feature on the blog as it gives me a chance to run through a number of quick points without doing a posting for each. Consider it to be something of weekly newsletter of sorts. Without further ado...

• Updates: I have updated my wants and available lists. There are still many gold parallels available and I have also added several new names to my SP Legendary Cuts base players available, so please take a look at the available link.

• My want list is pretty slim at this point. I believe I have all the Topps base cards I need en route, so I am basically focused on obtaining Turkey Reds and SP Legendary Cuts 101-200 as well a four more base player cards. The list list located on my side bar.

• In regards to joining efforts for the A&G code, I have received a lot of positive feedback on this, so it looks like a go. There is a bit of information we need to figure out though. My first question is: 1) do we need to submit the cards in the envelope when we crack the code or are we able to just scan the cards and mail them back and forth to one another? 2) does anybody know how many autograph subjects there are for the prize? If there are 15 subjects, but we have 20 guys gathering cards, then we have a slight mathematical division problem :) Anybody know how to gather this info?

• I continue to wait to hear who the Triple-A all-stars are going to be for the game here in Portland in just over two weeks. As soon as I hear I will post the names and if you email me a card, I will try MY BEST to get an auto, but obviously no promises on that, but I will try. Stay tuned for names.

I think that is it. Just want to say thanks for continuing to support JD and my site and here is to continued trading!