Seeing Stars

Occasionally I like to give you a little insight as to what is going on in my life. Yesterday I had a Endoscopy done to me (that is where they knock you out and stick a camera down your throat and take a look around). I have been having cramping and stomach issues occasionally and suspected an ulcer. Well, no ulcer found, but they found a palup (or something like that) in my stomach and cut it out, don't even ask me HOW they did that, and are running a biopsy to see what it is all about. Funny thing is that they were not even looking for it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Anyways, the FUN part about the whole thing is being a little looped up for the rest of the day. This entailed going to Red Robin to eat, since I had not eaten in almost 20 hours, and then I coyly recommended we hit up Target to buy Jacoby some baby food (plus it would give me a chance to check out the cards section, even looped up I am one clever cat!). This particular Target has been pretty lousy with new stuff, so I was surprised to see this little treasure.
Tickets to Stardom blaster! I have seen some incredibly wacky reviews of this product, and after seeing these in person I have to agree that they are not a very quality offering. But seeing as I was looped up, I gave them a go, at the very least to score a few Red Sox out of the box. Plus 8 cards in a pack is virtually unheard of anymore.

Firstly, check out the backdrops on these superimposed images. Why throw in empty, smog filled stadiums into the background. Obviously these are not the actual spots where the photo was taken, because that would put Lowe up right around the 200 level or so. Doubt he throws too many fastballs from there. Plus I have seen that stupid Pettitte pose on about a zillion cards. It looks like Phil Coke stole the "Pettitte Pose".

Delgado made my scans simply because the back tells the story of his 10 RBI rip against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium. Hunter Pence is a prime example of a WTF?? pose. If Topps is going to superimpose images ala Upper Deck, WHY would they choose this photo?

It is very hard to tell from this scan, but there is one card in each pack that has perforated top and bottom edges...again I cannot figure out why only some of these cards have this type of edge, but maybe you know something I don't.

Has the PNC ever been this full, for reals?

Sorry so teeny tiny, but the blaster did allow me six Red Sox cards, so to the binder they will go.

I guess these are the hits, but I have no idea the ranking (that is one thing I love so much about Topps Chrome, the border color tells the story). So while I won't complain about Price and Berkman, and the Home Run Sluggers up top, I really don't get that "ooh, ahh" feeling when pulling these.

Just a couple extras worthy of mention. Evan Longoria and Cole Hamels. One phenom and one pony that I am going to hitch to my hitters post. I collect mostly pitchers, everybody knows that. But a couple guys that I think are worthy of keeping tabs on are Longoria and Braun. I have a feeling they will be names of great importance some day and I am jumping on the train now.

You can read other reviews that explain this product further, but in a quick wrap-up: Yes, the photos look blurry, yes the cardstock is really thin, and in my packs even the foil looks kinda scratchy and imperfect. and YES, of course I pulled a Johnny Damon! It would not be a blaster break without one now, would it. I will post some more examples of these soon!

Congratulations!

Way to go Twins! That was a gutsy performance, and if I a fan of either team I would have had about four heart attacks during extra innings. Tough break to Detroit. They gave it a helluva fight.

Go Twins, Yankee Killers!

Goodwin Updates

Well, I have been busting through the wife's repacks fairly quickly over the weekend. I basically realize that I don't have a lot of extra time past school right now, so I would rather spend my efforts trying to complete the set through trades...which I cannot do until I know what I have and what I need. I will give you the major highlights of the pack rips...I have unearthed my final two auto cards and three of the four relics so far...

UPDATE: Ripped them all. Just want to be done with cards and boxes laying around. Becoming a bit dischanted with worthless relics and autos and loads of minis spilling out through every crack, so wrapping up Goodwin rips and will next go on to the trading phase once I get my needs posted. Here are the hits...with an extra surprise.



Another Jeremy Bloom Autograph! I really am hoping this guy goes bananas in Vancouver, because I now have two of these. It's still a pretty sweet card if somebody wants to do a auto swap.

I don't even care enough to look up any information on this guy. His autograph is pretty odd though, it almost looks upside down...

Wait a tick...whats this? A third auto?? How in blazes did a third auto get in two boxes. Defied the odds! Its too bad that it is James Shields, but of the three that I received, this one is the coolest by far.

Here are the relics...

Phil Hughes! A Yankee relic. What a suprise!

Prince Fielder! This is actually pretty cool because of the added texture to the material.

Travis Hafner! Cool deal. If only he was already in Red Sox gear.

Mike Schmidt. A HOF relic!

Another anomoly....I also received a Vlad Guerrero relic! So basically there was an extra auto and and extra relic within the two boxes. Loaded!

There was also a bunch of mini craziness, I have several of the set exclusives, even gypsy variations. The most notable of all though is that I am one foil vlad away from having one of each of his cards. I have the base, regular mini, gypsy backed mini, and the magician mini #8/8, and a relic to boot. Now all I need to locate is a foil mini and then I can line them all up on the scanner and feel special!

One more tiny hit that I received in the second set of boxes was this night variation of Tiger. Apparently Tigers are nocturnal (ba da bum).

Yankee Swap! Your Assist Needed!

Every now and again I go a little crazy and I throw down a twenty spot for a nice pack of guaranteed SOMETHING. My rationalle is that i would rather get something guaranteed than four or five chances of getting nothing and winding up with some unneeded base cards that sit in a box.

From previous posts you will see that I have had unusually good luck with Sweet Spot. I have pulled an Alexei Ramirez Rookie Auto, a couple auto's baseballs (although I am saying goodbye to one of them), and a pretty sweet Johan Santana patch. I have had dillusions of pulling my first Evan Longoria autograph from one of these boxes,and with that spirit in mind I grabbed a couple of boxes of these after five long hours at the library yesterday.

(side note on the library...it has been years since I have been in one. Normally if I have ever wanted a book I either go to Costco, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon and just get my own copy. Basically I am just using the space to use my laptop, have internet access, and be away from chaos to write my paper. So yesterday I was a bit thrown off to see and hear people with crying babies, people talking on their cell phones, crazy people talking about killing cops or something looney, and a guy sitting a table behind me that was well versed in the art of belching. When did this start happening at our libraries)?

So here is my predicament. The pack break REALLY did not go as planned. There were two packs left in the box and my first assumption was that at least one of them would be an auto...WRONG. I received two swatches. Here is the deal. this first swatch is actually a Yankee Legacy swatch. You actually hope to get these because they are rare enough that they only fall one per case of Sweet Spot. This is the actually case hit and the first and only case hit I have ever received.

Where the problem lies is that it is NOT a Babe Ruth, NOT Joe DiMaggio, NOT even Derek Jeter, but here we have... Randy Johnson. The Big Unit. Now Randy is a future HOF for certain, but his tenure in New York was temultuous at best. Nevertheless, this is a case hit Yankee Stadium Relic. I am hoping somebody might be interested in bailing me out and accepting this relic for some relicy of a Red Sox or phenom in return. I can also sweeten the deal.

Here are a couple of the Yankee Legacy cards. Again, nothing earth shattering about these, but they do have the defunked Roger Clemens and the hero Derek Jeter.

The other box contained a dual relic. No autograph, and yes, yet another Yankee.

Again, nothing to write home about, but at least this one contains Papelbon, and at least there is a theme going here. Maybe some day when both Rivera and Papelbon are in the HOF, then this card will be worth something. I am happy with this pull, but just wanted to demonstrate how good I am at pulling Yankees!

But back to the Yankee Stadium Relic. Let me sweeten the deal a bit. I also have a couple Sweet Spot base cards of Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera to throw into the pot. Sweet spot base are actually really nice cards, so if you collect Yankees, these are a nice little addition.
Is there anybody out there that will participate in the Yankee bailout plan?

I have a few days of mail to catch up on and share with you. This captstone has me by the chicarones, but I am determined to still get in a little cards R & R wherever I can. Your Google fact of the day... one of Googles risks that it lists in its annual report is its fear of losing its trademark name "Google" because Google is synonymous with search, and is often used in verb form. Think of kleenex, saran wrap, and scotch tape. Those are all name brands but have lost trademark because of their common name.



Anyways, I want to start off with a post from Beardy!

Every time I pick up an old card, chills kinda hit me. I cannot say the number of times I hold a 50 year old card in my hand and actually say to my wife "I have a 50 year old piece of cardboard in my hand". She just shrugs and goes on her way.

I think what makes these two cards even cooler is the fact that I have been knee deep in their 2008 counterparts for the last couple of months, that it makes it way cool to see the real deal. Even cooler on these cards? Check out the backs!
Yeah, they look just like the backs of 2008 Heritage, but what I love about these particular backs is that the descriptive text is somewhat of a crystal ball or swami of sorts, boldly predicting how the player will do this season. All of the 2008 Heritage tell you what a player has done, these (at least the two cards) predict what a player will DO. Look out, Brandon Lang.

Beardy also came through with amazing form by sending me the three final prints needed to complete my 2009 Topps Chrome set. DONE! After all, I am a set collector, it is my MO. These cards irritate me slightly (the set I mean) in that when you put them all together collated in a box, some of them have a bit of a curl to them, so they don't all look nice and straight and smooth looking. It almost looks like somebody spilled a glass of what at some point, or left the box baking in the sun. It might be a good idea to get some binder sleeves to store these in instead.

But Beardy was not done yet. The piece de resistance of the package was this fantastic Yaz jersey. I now have a nice relic to go with a Fisk relic I pulled over the summer. The two can keep each other company. I really appreciate this card a ton and it will be well displayed in the Red Sox wing for years to come.

And last, but definitely not least, my vote for MVP in the AL, Mr Jason Bay. Go look at his numbers, you'll see what I mean.

Thanks again Beardy. Joe, you are on Deck, and Troll you are in the hole.

Drool

I found this card on eBay. There is no chance that I will ever own it, but a guy can dream. Maybe I can just make it my desktop image and pretend that I own it.

Why my Wife Rocks

Often times, when it comes to collecting baseball cards, my wife will roll her eyes. Often times she will tell me that I need to stop "playing" with my baseball cards and fold laundry. Occasionally a comment comes out about cards being "everywhere" (which occasionally, I have to agree, it's almost as if the cards are reproducing themselves while we sleep, kinda like spilling water on Magui.

But on this particular occasion my wife came though like a champ and made me proud and happy.

You see (and this is going to sound pretty childish, but as collectors, you should understand), last week I ran into a local collector who had bought a couple of boxes of Goodwin Champions and realized that he had no time to chase the set, nor break up the contents and post them on eBay, so he offered me a prince of a deal and sold me all the contents, everything included, for a very generous price.

I went to the hobby shop, where he left the contents, and found one cardboard card box with everything in it, minis, retros, autos, relics. I made a special point not to look at the contents (especially the hits) because I had request for my wife.

You see, half (most) of the fun of collecting cards is the excitement of the pack rip. Not knowing what is in each pack, hoping for the big hit, etc. That being the case I had a request for my wife that I knew would get a major eye roll. If I saved the wrappers from my two boxes of Goodwin, would she be willing to repack the other two boxes, scramble up the cards, a dash of base, a dash of mini, an occasional hit? Knowing that I would be insanely busy with school and that it also would keep me from having the urge to run to the card shop to buy some wax, she agreed.

Low and behold the other night she comes into the room as I am finishing up my schoolwork and presents me with two boxes, loaded with unwrapped Goodwin packs! 18 in each box! I guess some of them are jumbo packs!

I know that this sounds silly, but instead of just tearing though a box of material and suddenly having nothing new to look at for the forseeable future, I now have two boxes of unopened potential thanks to my wonderful wife!

Straight to the Hits!

Okay, so the comments have been tailing off so I will not inundate you with another clump of base card Goodwin Images tonight. I still have a lot of these babies to open up, but for now i'll just file away what I have and give you want you want...the Hits!

So these are the last two hits of my first two Goodwin boxes. To review I have pulled a Lowrie auto, a King Felix relic, a Cole Hamels relic and a Carlos Lee Relic. Mathematically there are still a relic and auto to go! What were they?

Big Z! This relic has a bit of extra pep over the others with the blue fabric and the ferocious looking bear in the upper-right hand corner.

The auto?

Jeremy Bloom auto! Woo......who? Okay, so it is mostly disappointing to pull a non-baseball autograph, but thats what you get when you rip a product like Goodwin Champions. I can actually find some merit in this card. Firstly, check out that bodacious signature. That thing is wicked looking.

Secondly. Lets say that Jeremy Bloom competes in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February, and wins 7 gold medals, well then suddenly this card is looking pretty darn good eh? I dunno. I dig it though.

So there you go! I have some more Goodwin to start ripping, but I will basically stick to the highlights and interesting cards and try to throw in some different material as we get headed into the playoffs! Go Sox.

Collection of a Different Kind

As I have mentioned in a few posts, Google pretty much is running my life for the next 11 weeks. It surrounds all of my activities. So as it happens, I was searching all over the house for a book I read on Google a couple years back. I searched my closet in the man cave and stumbled upon this:
I remember starting this book way back when the fancy little commemorative quarters starting to come out. My Grandma used to send me a new quarter each time she went to the bank. She would tape it into an card with a bird on the outside. I always knew that a bird card meant a new quarter.

Well, as soon as I moved out of my apartment I packed up this book as well as all of the quarters in it. My Grandma is still out there, but for some reason or another she eventually stopped sending the quarters. I must have forgotten to send a thank you card or something.

Well, I opened up the book and surprisingly, I have MOST of the quarters but am missing several of them. I was hoping that the blogosphere might take a look into their coin piles to see if you might have any of the following states:

California, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii.

I know this is an odd request, but I am a set collector after all! I will be happy to help you find some cards in exchange for some cash!