Ellsbury Additions

As discretionary income decreases and disapproval continues with the big Topps machine, I have narrowed my collection needs dramatically in the last several months. Yeah, I snagged a bunch of dino cards and greek gods, but that's just cuz mini cards are cool and they look good in a binder.

By the way (also increasing mal feeling towards Topps), did you see how they hid the Ginter Code this year? Ri-di-cul-ous! A code that totally favored the desperate and paranoid..."OMG, I need to mail Topps to make sure that nobody has cracked it yet!" Whatever, total cop out and I feel really sorry for those people that were misled on "code cards" online and paid a pretty penny for nothing. I can grouse about it more if you would like but would rather talk about Jacoby....Ellsbury that is, not the other guy, and not my kid, who is NOT named after the other guy, but rather after Ellsbury....got all that?

Latest Ellsbury's to hit the binder after the rip card got away...

Happy 4th of July....late. This is the one commemorative patch that I wantded from the set. I really like the patches from Series One much better, but you can't beat Boston, Ellsbury, and some crazy CHP's glasses going on.

Topps Finest Green Jacoby Refractor. I received this in trade. Finest is most shiny!

Still the centerpiece of my Jacoby collection, but sorely missing his 2010 counterpart is an unripped Jacoby 2008 Ginter Rip Card. To remain unripped so long as I am the owner and until I hand it to my son for his collection some day.

Ah! I discovered this subset in my one and only box of 2008 Ginter, still my favorite set of the several years of Ginter fun.

Got any random Jacoby's (Ellsbury's) clogging up your collection? Let me know!

Better Late Than Never: My Ginter Results

Various what-have-you's have kept me too busy to do my write-up on Allen and Ginter 2010, so I finally have some free time to do some scans and get caught up.

So I purchased two. boxes this year, thus far. Well, check that. I purchased the master set of cards 1-350, and THEN two boxes (cuz you gotta have them minis and a shot at something really special, right)?

I won't linger on the base, nor will I show any of them. I have already decreed that the base set looks rather bland and boring and seems to be a step back from previous sets. The pea-green just created a bleek atmosphere for the images and drags down the entire set. Just imagine a box of chicle and how awesome that set looked because of the explosion of variety and colors! Not to be found here.

But really, it's all about the mini-sets and the hidden subsets, and the case-hit sets...oh my.

Starting off with the dinos! Love them, though of the four of these I have only heard of the Spinosauras, and I still really have no idea what I am looking at with the dilophosaurus. These are pretty cool though. I am pretty sure the ginter code is hidden in the rocks!
World animal set! hmmm.....animals are cool and all, but I am not sure that I am digging these as a concept. Animal mug shots. I am pretty sure that the Kangaroo is hiding a Ginter Code clue...

These Sailors of the Seven Seas are ROCKIN! Very cool cards. I definitely am in to collecting these and the much more hidden Saltiest Sailors collection. I think the dragon might know a thing or two about the code...

Wordsmiths are pretty cool cards, though not exceptionally exciting. It's cool to snag a Bill Shakespeare though...and I can even understand the writing on the back!

And six glorious red hits. Right on target per average. I heard a lot of stories of shortage, and it looks like Beardy got all the "overs" so mine works out even-steven. Feel free to throw out some offers if something grabs your fancy!

And the Winners of JD's World Cup Tournament are...

Well folks, sorry for the one-day delay on the results of the competition. I was still mourning the loss of the Ellsbury rip card that I could not muster the energy to run the 470 entrants through random.org....and then when I did finally run them the first time...Internet Explorer crashed! I just stared dumbfounded at the screen hoping there was a loophole. And sure enough there was...type them again! That god for Excel.

And as it appears, parody has once-again seized the day and all three winners turned sub-par performances by their World Cup team into JD's Wildcardz contest GOLD! Let's meet the winners.






Representing Mexico, and first place in the contest is.....GRAND CARDS!

Representing Nigeria and taking second place is.....Night Owl!

And wrapping up the top-three and bringing a little justice to a decidedly sub-par powerhouse of Italy......DarkShip!

I have held off finalizing prizes since it will give me a chance to customize them a little for you...Grand Cards and Night Owl, I know your collection interests just fine, but DarkShip, I need to hear from you with some ideas on who you collect please.

Congrats, and thanks to everybody for taking part in the contest!

A Heartbreaking Waste of a Card.

As I have gotten further into this hobby, and the prices of hobby boxes continue to rise thanks to Michael Eisner returning this hobby to the kids, I have been forced to continually modify my collection quest. While I feel really comfortable with my "To the Nines" (TM, all rights reserved), I have also pretty much decided that I am going to target mainly Jacoby Ellsbury cards since I have already amassed quite a stack of them and it also limits my needs to one or two cards per set, which is great for a man on a budget.

So to my joy, last week on Ebay, a Jacoby Ellsbury rip card /25 surfaced! Actually two of them did. This is a great looking card! The reason I so desperately wanted this card was that, just like my 2008 Jacoby rip card received through a trade, I intended to keep this card fully intact with mini safely encased inside for all of eternity, or pretty darn close. My philosophy is that if you receive a Rip of a regular ol Joe that you don't really care about...rip away! Or sell high. But if you collect em, keep it together, man!

Sadly, however, this card (and it's friend) quickly slipped away as this card rapidly escalated in price and sold for nearly $160 bones. The other card was a BIN for over two bills and it vanished quickly.

Even more sad...................this image......................(sniff)................this image that you see above.............(sniff sniff)........is currently posted on Ebay..............as a RIPPED Jacoby card!

Utterly disrespectful!

I equate this travesty to the equally devastating hunting of elephants to cut off their tusks, hunting buffalo for their hides, throwing away the outside of an Oreo cookie just because you want to get to the cream, and letting your Bowman prospect cards pile up unnoticed as you search in vain for a Strasburg auto.

And look up at that card again. Jacoby don't look happy about it either.

RIP, rip.

Viva Espana! JD's World Cup Tourney Has Come To A Close!

Well, you can't say I didn't warn ya.



Yesterday's 3rd place game between Germany and Uruguay was full of excitement and back-an-forth action that came down to the absolute last shot of the match. It was a match that would be a perfect ending to the World Cup...except it was the consolation final.



Today we had Spain and Netherlands, in what was absolutely guaranteed to be a defensive battle. Spain had only allowed one goal the entire cup...and had scored only eight. As the TV analysts were going around the table giving scoring predictions, I nearly choked on my coffee when one of them pronounced "3-2". Apparently he had not been watching these two teams much over the last month.



So as predicted by Swami earlier in the week, Spain walks outta here with a 1-0 overtime (late overtime) win over Netherlands and wins its first World Cup title in its first appearance.



I gotta have a little more time to wrap my brain around the last month that I basically dedicated completely to the beautiful game. I am definitely ready to get back into some baseball, but am going to miss those repetitive world cup commercials, the World Cup jingle at the beginning of each match, and of course the gentle hum of the vuvuzela! More tomorrow on final thoughts though.



This is also to announce that the JD's Wildcardz World Cup Tournament has officially come to a close and all the entries have been tallied! The is still a chance for some major parody, and tomorrow I will announce the winners of the competition! Check in tomorrow for the results!