Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A lil' product called Masterpieces

There are two regrets I have about not starting to collect cards just A BIT sooner than I did. One of those is not collecting when Tim Lincecum was a rookie. All sorts of opportunities abound to collect TL autos, and today those are practically unreachable.

The second is something that I can change, and that is to dab into the product that I still feel is one of the finest out there today, Upper Deck Masterpieces. I have decided to at the very least collect the base set of both the 2007 and 2008 sets, and maybe with a little luck, collect the SP's for the full set. There are still enough of these boxes out there that I feel pretty safe completing these goals, plus it never hurts to have a Priceless Pursuit in your back pocket with a few doubles to trade off.

Last week, blowout cards had a offer that I could not refuse, so I ordered up a hobby box of 2008 Masterpieces that showed up on the front porch earlier this week. When I opened it up, I was a little disappointed that there were only 12 packs in a box...but that is Upper Deck for you. Nevertheless I was determined to have an enjoyable rip experience and to collate this set into 9 sleeves where they can be more easily enjoyed.

Well, for 12 packs, I have to say that this was the most fun opening a box since (probably) Goodwin Champions. EVERY SINGLE CARD is amazing to look at. You stop and admire each card rather than quickly filtering through looking for the hit card. One small complaint is the random dummy cardboard fillers as well as the occasional Yankee Legacy trash card. I threw them all away minus one that I will share in a later post. Oh, one other thing is that the pack with the relic contained only two other cards. This same exact thing happened with my Topps Heritage relic last week, so I guess these things just happen.

Anyways, on top of the great set of base, the framed cards could not have been better for me. Well, technically since there is not a lousy subject in the entire set, that makes the chances of liking a framed card much higher, but I was particularly happy with my bunch. Here they are...

The Chipper is actually a little funky. I bought a few packs of 2007 way back when and thought his card in that set was much cooler. Still though, Larry is a MLB staple and its a good pull.

Curt Schilling - Always nice to bordered Red Sox hero to the collection. Even if most consider Curt the Chief Gas Bag, you cannot dispute the difference and the sacrifice he made for the team. Good stuff.

Not exactly sure where red borders fit on the chain of borders command, but I just like the scheme of Tex in Braves gear with hits of red throughout the painting. This card looks incredibly sharp.


Alright, let's double-up. Ken Griffey Jr after a sweet Griffey swing. Beauty. And then there is Man-Ram with Red Dreads a flyin.




As for the hits? This is the first time officially used in this blog...."meh". Not to say that an on-canvas auto a bad thing, but Joe Blanton? K-Rod is pretty sweet though, not too shabby for a piece of plain fabric.
BUT, the real gem of the box came early on in the rip...




A Cal Ripken Gold-Bordered #9/10! This one card alone makes the box worth it, but the other cards combined really made for a great rip experience. I am toying with grabbing another one of these, but we'll see what specials jump out this Friday.



Monday, March 1, 2010

Olympic Winners Announced!

Whew! The entries have been tallied, and tallied again, and tallied a third time to confirm that we officially had 973 entries into the Olympic Games card giveaway! With the help of excel, I was able to make sure that everybody got their proper amount of entries, and those were cut-and-pasted into Random.org to supply the final results. I have included a screen shot of the top finishers in the drawing. You are going to have to squint real tight to see them, but screen don't lie.


So without further ado, here are your Olympic Champions!

Gold Medal:

Representing the team with the second most medals of the games, Germany, represented by Community Gum!

As the gold medal winner, community gum will be receiving a tin of 2007 sweet spot and all its contents minus the redemption that is currently in purgatory. I will find some extra stuff to stuff the tin with though. Be sure to tell me your favorite team!

Silver Medal






Representing Greece and Finland, Joe of Priceless Pursuit! Joe had only his three sign-ups from Greece, but took advantage of the second-chance contest and a few medals from Finland to net a few more entries. Parody anybody?

As winner of the Silver prize, ironically Joe will be receving a pack of relics from various sets. Not that Joe likes relics or anything, so it is a total waste of the prize, but maybe he can sew them into a quilt of something. A really small quilt.


Bronze Medal


Our third place finisher represents the country of Krygyzstan, which did not medal in any event, but Orioles Magic used his sign up entries and blog advertisement to get him just enough to make the top three.

Orioles Magic will be receiving a pack of favorite team/players/subsets...you name your wishes and I will see what I can do for you!

Well, there you have it...expect the unexpected. A chip and a chair and you could be the winner.

At the very least I hope that this little contest gave the Olympics a little extra something worth watching for. Thank you to everybody who entered the contest. I plan on creating something for the World Cup in June, but will need to figure out the specifics on that one, so stay tuned.

As for you medal winners, please email me and I will get those prizes out the door!

Olympic Contest Update!

Well, Sunday featured an amazing finish to the Winter Games when Sid the Kid drop one in the net in overtime to lead Canada to a gold medal finish in Men's hockey. While a great many were rooting for USA, that was a pretty amazing final minute goal just to send it in to overtime, and really...can you script a better finish than arguably the best player in the NHL, AND a Canadian to wrap up Olympic competition in dramatic fashion. Perfect ending.

Of course, with the end of the games comes the end of opportunity to earn entries into the Olympic contest giveaway! Final point tallies have been updated. Here are your top 10...

1. AceWild 78 entries
2. Community Gum 71 entries
3. Matthew 64 entries
4. Mark's Ephemera 60 entries
5. Grand Cards 40 entries
6. Nico 34 entries
7. Peterson 33 entries
8. Opoohwan 32 entries
9. Bud 28 entries
10. (tie) Jim and Wax Wombat 26 entries

Sometimes the luck of the draw can net you a lot of entries, but you gotta believe in parody and when all is said and done, these will be entered into random.org and it will decide whether the person with 78 entries or the person with 3 entries will become the grand prize winner.

I will run the drawing this evening and the winners will be posted tomorrow at 12pm pacific. Good luck to everybody!