A Masterful Delight of UD

This evening I took the time to download all of my images to make up for my lack of eye candy in previous posts. Finding these shots on Ebay was actually a pleasure because I was so happy with the results of my latest cards that I definitely wanted to share the entire pack break with you.

On the way home tonight, I stopped in to the cranky mans hobby shop (dude, if you read this blog, you seriously are one cranky dude and need to turn it down a notch). ANYWAYS I went in on a whim that they might have A & G and I could buy a couple packs as a little teaser for my hobby boxes to come (one shipped today!) I had received a few Masterpiece cards from various trades and was curious about seeing a few more of them. I immediately scrunched my nose up at the $6 a pack tag on the 07 selection. The cranky man offered clearance of three bucks a pack, clearly assuming I would take the remaining 9 packs off of his hands. I chose 3 because I have to start being a bit more frugal. This made him a bit grumpier, but he took my 9 bucks and sent me on my way without his usual "good luck". Cranky I tell ya.

So since I kept hitting every red light the city has to offer, I decided to tear these babies open, and let me tell you, the three packs was the perfect amounts of "oohs" and "ahs" and "no way!" that I dont regret not buying more. this is how they were pulled...

Pack #1
First thought in my head was Topher and Crackin Wax. Let me know if you need Mauer to head East.

Cal Ripken Jr, Orioles HOF Legend.

Tricky Dick. Sweet.

Tricky Dick again due to user uploading error!

This Chipper Jones is one nice card. This was more first introduction to the "Framed" version of these cards (mine is actually green). The frame is a nice 3D touch and this is overall just an amazing shot. Hard to imagine Upper Deck came up with this.

A green framed Howie Kendrick. No particular afinity toward Howie, but again comes with a green frame, though the photo is far less interesting than Chippers card.

Derek Jeter! Derek Jeter! Derek Jeter! sucks. Still though, somebody out there will give the Yankee Captain a nice home.

Luis Aparicio, 10 time all-star, 9 gold gloves, AL Rookie of the year in 1956.

The last card of pack 2 is a beautiful shot of 2B legend Bobby Doerr. This is going to go great in my Classic Sox wing.





Pack #3

Yankee Chris Chambless, rendered during his 1976 running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. The guy behind him got the horn.

This is where the "oohs" and "ahs" really kicked in...

Roger Clemens, Red Sox Legend. Say what you will about that SOB, it's a Roger Clemens card, and a Red Sox card to boot.

Michael Jordan? WOW! This is without a doubt a nice find. Lets keep this in perspective here though folks. I saw this exact version card on Ebay for 250 bucks, and right below it the same card for .99 cents. Some sellers just have delusions of grandeur. Me? I think that this will stay in my collection and make for a nice story for Jacoby some day.

The big finally really shocked me and did not see coming at all...

A Babe Ruth card. COOL! Wait a sec....a Babe Ruth....RED SOX CARD?? WAY COOL. Again some dolt at Ebay is way overvaluing this card, but the fact remains that I have never seen a Red Sox Babe nor thought I ever would. I am thrilled to have this card in my permanent collection.

What a blast these packs turned out to be. I will definitely be keeping this set in mind for next year, but for 9 bucks, I feel that I got a pretty great deal and some nice little pieces.

EVENING UPDATE. I have a bit more exciting news for everybody. This afternoon I searched around Ebay to find the final series 1 Turkey Reds for my collection. I needed 13 more cards and 12 of them were from series 1. I say all of this in past tense because I saw a huge lot of TR's online and I contacted the buyer about creating a separate lot that would give me just the 13 that I needed. It was a gamble, but it paid off as the seller contacted me and gave me the auction number to pay now on. So the hunt has officially come to an end! All cards are now PENDING, of course nothing is final until received, but nevertheless I am stoked to have found a way to close this set out. Thanks to all of you who sent me cards over the last month. I actually am going to be having some duplicates out of the bunches I have coming, so I will let you know when they are posted and would be happy to help you out if you need any of them!

All this, AND the kid is asleep at 8 pm? Rollin Rollin Rollin!

Warning: Objects in Post Might Be Shinier Than They Appear!

I have blog guilt. Yesterday I mailed it in and did a.....gasp!...all text blog. I was just too tired to find the images online due to my lack of a scanner. Just go down to Target and drop the stinking 80 bucks, right? I will make up for it today with some incredibly shiny (I wear my sunglasses at night) chrome cards. I may even pepper in a few to last nights post as the day progresses.


So here in my side of Portland there are three main hobby shop options:

1) The grouchy guy with the cheap(er) packs, overpriced hobby boxes, and surly attitude

2) The mellow living-the-hobby-shop-owning-dream guy with way overpriced single packs but cuts deals on hobby boxes to regular customers

3) The over-the-top expensive on all products guy...went there twice, but probably no more.


So I needed some more 3-ring sheets, but lets be honest here...do we ever leave a hobby shop with JUST supplies? So I snagged a few packs of the Topps 2008 Chrome as well as my usual couple packs of Bowman, for which I can honestly say I have prospect cards coming out of my nose.


These were my first Chrome packs, so I was pretty surprised at some decent quality hits in the pack, here are the highlights:
This Uggla is numbered to 1959? I assume that this represents the style of the card, but I can only guess. Every time I see an Uggla card it reminds me of all the times. I love how this card accentuates the positives of Uggla's 27 and 31 homeruns in 2006-2007, but conveniently leaves out the K's with 123 and 167 respectively. Not only that but in 2008, Uggla managed four more K's (171) with 101 LESS at bats! Why do I dwell on this? Fantasy baseball scars, baby. Fantasy baseball scars.
Here we have a nice gold shiny Jeff Francouer numbered to 1959. Hometown hero. The interesting fact on the back states that Jeff led all MLB Outfielders with 19 assists (what year??). I guess this means that Jeff would rather pass the rock rather than take it to the rim.

The image above does no justice to this shiny refractor, numbered to 400. Howard is another one of those Feast or Famine guys, and one of the few that did not absolutely tear up Johnny Cueto and the Reds last night. Poor Johnny.

I would like to offer up any of these to you fans out there. My team box is getting stuffed full lately and I would rather send some cards out than go visit cranky store owner this week, so let me know if you want to make a home for any of these guys!

Mail Thank You!

Happy Ginters Eve!

This is a bit of a frazzled blog as I have been dealing with a class project, a fussy little boy, and five nice padded envelopes in the mail. I want to thank everybody this evening, but am a bit too worn out to go searching for images, but I will get an opportunity to share some pictures down the road.

the first thanks goes to Dave C. I have been struggling to determine whether Dave is THE Cardboard Junkie or whether somebody was just replying to me from a posting I left at the Cardboard Junkie site. Nevertheless, Dave came through big time for me, especially in my latest quest for phenom pitchers. Included in the package were

2006 Bowman Heritage prospect Yovani Gallardo (personal favorite
2009 Upper Deck Yovani
SEVERAL King Felix cards from various years and makes
Cueto and bruce Topps Heritage 2009
Hamels A&G 2008
Luke Hochevar Masterpieces RC
Jered "Dont call me Jeff' Weaver
Mad Max Scherzer RC (thanks!!)
Tim Lincicum and his crazy leg
Zach Greinke and his enormous flat billed hat
Joba the Hutt (I believe the Meh is the proper response here!)

Dave also came to my aid and kicked down several Turkey Reds 2009 to inch me ever closer to completing that set! Thanks Dave!

Greg from Night Owl set a nice package of Sox as well as a VERY NICE Ricky Romero Topps Update Draft Pick 2008 card. I was also very surprised to see my very first XFractor card, Jacoby Ellsbury Topps Chrome 2008 as well as few other Red Sox variety cards that Will go nicely into my Sox wing. Thanks Greg!

I also received a package from Chris at Nachos Grande. Chris was looking for some base topps cards and sent me several Turkey Reds as well as a nice Dice K and Big Papi 2007 UD Masterpieces. Papi has a bit of shrek thing going on in this card. I will post a photo soon. Your package went out Friday, so hopefully you see it soon!

The last package was an ebay purchase that netted me another 5 turkey reds. As it stands I am 15 away from competing this set, so thanks to everybody for helping me out and let me know how I can return the favor!

Ginter Mania!

Wow, this is my first year of collecting, so nothing could have prepared me for what can only be dubbed Ginter Mania 2009!

As promised, I would like to organize a grass roots campaign to solve the Ginter code. Details seem pretty sketchy to this point, but it appears that they are 100 (yes 100) of these cards needed to crack the code. I have not located a firm answer on what the prize is, but it is rumored to be an autograph card of every frame subject (how many that is who knows) but my guess is many. Therefor here is what I propose:

1) I will create a side bar list of all needed ginter crack the code card numbers needed.

2)Once you receive a card that is needed, send me an email at yinchuan2005@yahoo.com and I will "activate" you for the prize split and list you in the sidebar and the proprieter of that code card. BTW the same rules apply to me, if I do not pull a Ginter Code card, then I am not "activated" and will happily facilitate the program for the rest of you.

3) Since there are 100 cards out there, we will have no more than 100 possible entrants to split the prize. Should there be less than 100 autograph cards as the main prize, we will use random.org to decide the winners of auto cards (if there are 50 cards, then we will have 50 winners, etc)

4) If you send in more than one card, you will receive an extra slot in the drawing.

Again, worst case scenario is doing a drawing where somebody gets left out. A more likely case is that we are able to split the pot equally amongst participants.

Make sure to hang on to all your cards, as last years call to action required certain cards to be mailed in to Topps.

Chances may be slim to none, but lets have a little fun with this and see if we can make it happen!

My Target Goudey vs O Pee Chee battle.

This morning I woke up and decided to take advantage of our hot weather and stain the deck. I know, what else would you do on a holiday weekend, right? Well, I needed a decent paint brush so I headed out to Target. I decided to brush by the baseball card section and against the advice of many, bought a few single packs of O Pee Chee and Goudey 2009 and maybe hit a couple Red Sox or pitching phenoms. If people go through and feel the packs I figured at least with these series there are no thick memorabilia cards, so my chances of a decent pull were..decent.




I'll start with Goudey. I bought two of these packs, and when I got to the second pack the first thing I noticed was a blank piece of cardboard with a little square cardboard disc attached...almost like an anti-theft device or something. Anyways, this pack turned out to be a beauty.../ I added this one in there just to prove that Johnny Damon will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life. Seriously, I could wallpaper and room I have so many "bad" johnnys now.

This is more like it. Little Pony is my first Red Sox pull of the pack. Believe it or not, this was NOT part of the massive Red Sox haul the other day, so a nice little addition.

Also a new addition, this is a blue bordered 4 in 1. I also pulled a 4 in 1 of Young,Kinsler,Uggla, and Ramirez out of the same pack.

Then came a Matt Kemp mini. Relax, I did not pull the numbered cut you see here. Still, a niclittle mini looking for a dodger fan.

Then came "tickle fight" Ken Griffey Jr. These cards are certainly a bit strange, but this SP does commemorate 600 hr's, so it is a nice little pull.

What a pack!

O Pee Chee massively less intersting, but that does not really surprise me as I have not really enjoyed any of the packs of these I have bought so far. I did get a couple decent pulls though:

Evan Longoria Face of the Franchise. Tru dat.

This is without a doubt the dumbest idea for a card I have ever seen and the 1 cent opening bid in Ebay sounds about right. One of these days I will do a top ten most ridiculous cards in my collection, and Michael young is currently the front runner.

Everything else was fairly typical. No phenom pitchers today, but I cant really complain about about what I got out of 10 Target bucks. But using the 2 dollar off o pee chee blaster coupon in the future is most likely not a probability. Goudey wins hands down.

Happy 5th of July!

Finally I am taking a moment to do a bit of blogging. I was a Target this morning, so I grabbed a couple packs of Gouday and a few O Pee Chee, so I will crack those and post some results in a bit.

Just thought I would share JD's day of firsts yesterday. We pretty much live in a warzone neighborhood when it comes to fireworks, so my wife and I packed up the kid and headed south to her hometown, which is a little farming community about 45 minutes from where we live. They have a nice little parade with some tanks, horses, tractors and old school cars. And this is probably one of the last parades left that actually still throws candy. They wised up a bit this year and did not throw out the mints that shatter into a million pieces upon impact. JD took in his first parade and did okay except when the big tank rumbled by (hell, the size of that thing shook me up a little bit too) and also the fire engines were dorking around on their sirens a bit too much.

From there we went bbq'ing with the inlaws and Jacoby got the chance to splash around in a kiddie pool for the first time. I think that was easier for him than us since we were the one's hunched over the pool holding him while our backs screamed in pain.

That evening Jacoby got to watch his first fireworks display. I think he was more than a little confused why not only were were keeping him up late, but also OUTSIDE?

As we got home around midnight, a hazy cloud of smoke hung over our neighborhood and a lingering crowd was slowely dispersing. Does not look much better out there this afternoon! More on those cards in a bit.

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?