All Turkeyed Out!

You may notice that there is no longer a Turkey Hunt List over in the right column of this blog? What happened? Did I forget to pay my Blogger bill? Nope. Jeff from Florida (unsure if he has a blog or not, sorry Jeff) sent me an email about a week ago offering up a couple turkey reds in exchange for a Crawford SP. These two Turkey Reds officially close the book on my turkey hunt! Ironically, the last card in the slip was Jacoby Ellsbury...go figure!

As a result of the turkey hunt, I did amass a few duplicates that I would be happy to trade to you for your set. Please see my available for trade link to the right and see if I have what you need!

Gellner Code Has Been Cracked!

Well, after all of the blood, sweat, tears (and a lot of counting) that I put into the Gellner code, it appears to have been cracked in short order. We have an anagrams master in our midst! The winner of the 1st "Gellner Code" contest is Brian! I am unsure if Brian has a blog or not and if you are reading this, email me you info, but nevertheless Brian quickly deciphered correctly that Andrew McCutchen was the mystery card and also supplied the card numbers used to create the code. Below is the card you will be receiving:

This is McCuthens 2005 First Year Topps Draft Pick card from the Topps Updates release. McCutchen is currently making a name for himself as a full-time replacement for Nate McClouth (is it a prerequisite to have Mc in your name to patrol the outfield?) and his value will surely rise...before the Pirates decide to trade him away.

Also, as part of the prize, Brian has chosen the Texas Rangers as his team of choice. I will go through the cards, but I already know that I at least have an Alfonso Soriano and some Hamiltons to send ya.

Congratulations!

Crack the "Gellner" Code!

Free stuff! Lots of blogs seem to hold contests, and I have been trying to think something up for you all to play. This game will take a little bit of the pressure off of the Ginter Code (and a lot easier too). Here are the rules of the game

1). Those who have collected Topps 2009 will stand to be at an advantage, but creative people can find the needed information as well.

2). I will list out 17 players cards from Topps 2009. The names will be scrambled, but are broken into first and last name scrambles.

3). Once you have unscrambled the names, find the card number associated with that player. Once you have the card number, add together the digits of the card and move your marker forward that number of spaces and write down the letter. Use the standard A=1 B=2 code. So for example, if the card number is 162, move forward 9 spots, if the card is 500, move forward 5, so on and so forth. Once you write down the letter, use that as your starting point for the next move and wrap back around the beginning of the alphabet.

4). Once you have all of the letters written down, you must unscramble the name of the player. The scrambled letter WILL NOT be broken into first and last name, so it will be a bit tougher.

5). In order to win the card, you must leave a comment with not only the name, but the CARD numbers you used to solve puzzle. Tough? You bet! But I dont know about you, but I dont get my Ginter boxes until next week so it will pass some time!

6). Winner will not only get the players card, but also name me a team and I will search though my team box for some nice filler cards.

PLAY BALL!

1 dyan ermat

2 suil tolcalis

3 rakm haante

4 nialde ymrupm

5 hnoj landgar

6 ronoc nkjasco

7 nyra hcurch

8 rocihi

9 ydnaw zuegirdor

10 divad rihgtw

11 lacpodi olancop

12 ffej stensrak

13 soonfla rosiano

14 diarna terleb

15 rotii nteuhr

Get Crackin!

Ginter Code Rules?

I have noticed on a few pack breaks that some people have mentioned a Ginter Code Rules card (or something to that effect. Does anybody have a scan of this card I can take a look at?

Thanks!

ADDED: So I just saw a ripped Jorge Posada 9/10 on Ebay. The guy had already ripped the card and inside was a....BJ Upton mini card? Really? This makes me not want to rip it open should I receive one.

The best card EVER (for me)

Well with yesterdays Allen and Ginter fraud drama behind me (Paypal is looking into the transaction) I have decided to move forward with my happy little blog about the GOOD things about collecting cards! By the way,I am extremely jealous that everybody is blogging about new A&G cards, but am relieved that nobody has pulled Billy the Marlin yet (I still have a chance!).

So there was a little bit of fallout from the Paypal incident...I was a bit bummed about the whole deal so I decided to get a couple more of those 2007 UD Masterpieces to lift my spirits. Some go for comfort food, I go for baseball cards. Well the first pack, Mr Grouchy hobby shop owner says "looks like there is a jersey in this one". I stared at the pack and wondered how he could have figured that out just by looking...does he do that will all of his open boxes he puts out...hmmmm. ANYWAYS, the first pack turned out to be a dummy card for UD Store...so much for that hope.

The second pack, however, paid off nicely, here are the four cards in order

Ichiro. Ya know ever since the whole Ken Griffey Jr/ Ichiro tickle fight non-story, I sure do pull a lot of these cards. A lot of people wonder how I live in the Pacific Northwest and don't support the Mariners. The answer is "could you?". The main problem with the Mariners (as has been for many years) is that years when they have hitting they have no pitching, years when they have pitching they have no hitting. Also a main problem I have with the team is the lack of passion from the fans. My wife and I go up to Seattle each year to watch the Red Sox play and it is amazing to see fans sitting on their hands, chatting with their buddies, drinking their Starbucks, and completely oblivious to the action on the field. It just creates a rather dull atmosphere for a beautiful Stadium. Being a Mariner fan was always too much of a roller coaster ride for me to want to take.

Not a big surprise to pull Mr Rodriguez from the pack. What would my day without pulling a Yankee or two. You could say that this card represents ARod after a walk-off HR to win the game, flipping his helmet for the big home-plate celebration, BUT I offer you this...why are the fans sitting so mundane in the background? I guess one guy is clapping, but he is probably a Red Sox fan. My guess is that is card takes place after yet another game-ending Arod pop up. Hey, its my blog, right?

I saw the serialed 25/50 on the back before flipping over this beauty. Now mine has some sort of a greenish/bronze/gold color, while the one pictured is called "blue steel". This is the point in the blog where I go on a Beckett tangent. Ahem....okay, so I subscribe to Beckett Online, I have been around here long enough to know that there is an Anti-Beckett sediment in this hobby for price manipulation, etc. The reason I subscribe online is not so much for pricing information, but more for a fairly updated index of cards. When there are so many parallels and short prints, and subsets, etc, it can be pretty difficult for a new collector to keep it all straight. Here is my problem with the site. In many series, especially this one, there are a ton of parallels that make it incredibly difficult to figure out which you have. The card description is a little vague, but the worst part is that when you click on a card type, there is no image available at the top of the screen to compare your variation with a sample jpeg. The option is there to add a picture, but 80% of the time there is not one. Thanks for nothing Beckett. So anyways, this is a fantastic card and I have a rule that all serialed cards be put away, so it is nice to welcome Mr Koufax to the collection.

But, just like yesterday, the best was yet to come...

This one gave me the "WOW" that I needed. Talk about the pinnacle of my 2004 team collection, this is exactly the scene that I have ingrained in my head from that magical year. The only thing missing from this card is Drew and Jimmy snogging on the field. You also have a great shot of Caveman Johnny getting into the scrum, as well as what appears to be a ballboy or something immortalized on a card forever! Never even knew this card existed, and it will sit right next to Varitek holding the trophy.

So there you go, I guess not such a horrible day after all. I also took my first crack at the ginter code and it said "send in two taco bell bean burritos"....that can't be right. Back to the drawing board!

Bamboozled Cont...

I went ahead and filed a complaint through PayPal, so hopefully this works out. And hopefully quickly because I would really like to order a couple more boxes like I had intended. Has anybody ever used Blowout Cards as a vendor? They are only charging around 72 bucks a box, but I want to make sure that I am getting a good "non-searched" product before I commit.

Bamboozled!

Well, bad news to report. Seems that my 2 box ginter lot presell on ebay turned out to be too good to be true, as when I checked in on the shipping status this afternoon, I learned that the seller was no longer an ebay member, nor was his contact email address active, nor was my purchase ever shipped. About the only part of this transaction that did work was my 150 bucks being transferred away from me and not refunded!

Sucks. Looks like I was right after all about not trusting Ebay, and now I have paid the price and will have no two box lot of Ginter. At this point I have one box coming from Dave and Adams, and THAT IS IT. Very sad indeed. Out of my lonely box I will probably pull Billy the Marlin. Suck.

Wednesday Morning Grab Bag

Just a few pre-coffee mixed thoughts this morning...

thought #1

Well, apparently Ginter Cards are already up on Ebay, here is a sample:

I love the symbols scattered around the border of the card. Word on the street is that these are Parallel cards, but that does not really deter me from thinking we can gather these cards up, as they still should fall frequently enough to collect them in a reasonable amount of time. If you have been reading my blog lately then you know of the grassroots effort to gather these cards and try to group solve and split the reward. Please consider taking part in this project and I will do everything in my puzzle-solving power to crack the code for you all!

I do have one question about these cards, and if you receive on if you could please verify...since this is a parallel card, are the backs of the card the same as the base card? Is there ANYTHING different that you can see?

Issue #2

Speaking of Ginter Code cards on Ebay...what is the deal with people hawking everything on Ebay? I eluded to this last night. Does somebody truly believe that they are going to get $250 bucks for a Michael Jordan 2007 UD Masterpiece? Seriously? And just how many people out there are shelling out hundreds of dollars to buy cases of hobby boxes, just to slap them up on Ebay and make a quick buck?

I really wonder about small hobby shop owners doing this as well. I was a bit surprised (but not terribly so) when last night when I visited the cranky hobby shop owner, I had mentioned possibly trading one of my 1-660 topps 2009 base sets to him "have no need, I already put together about five of these, we opened quite a few boxes". Oh really now? That right there pretty much solidified only buying hobby boxes from warehouses. I guess these businesses need to pay the bills, but I guess it is just a bit of a disappointment to see people "collecting" only for financial gain.

I have watched a few box breaks on youtube and find it ridiculous how some guys just tear through 24 packs of cards in 10 minutes and barely glance at the base cards as they race for the "hit". Next thing you know it is up on Ebay. I guess you could say that it s a method of getting the product on the market so the right collector can own it, but isnt that what trading is for?

Don't get me wrong, Ebay has helped me find bits and pieces that I need and I am not above using Ebay to offer the same services to others trying to complete sets, etc, but I will never overinflate values or purchase cases of cards for the quick flip...just would feel empty to me. My goal is to collect what I like, and make sure the rest find the right homes.

Issue #3

On a lighter and more fun note, as my blog continues to grow and find it's niche in blogosphere, I find it ridiculous the types of spam email that I am suddenly receiving...

British Info Service - Congratulations, I just won the British Lottery!

Irish News Center - Won there lottery as well!

Easy Loans - Apparently the go to source for a new mortgage!

Leicester Members -Apparently my British membership is out of date and they need updated info on me to re-establish my membership. I better hurry!

Sgt Don Patrick - Urgent! it says. Apparently my country needs me. Seriously though, if I am too lazy to open the email, does my country REALLY need me?

Hakim Jafar - Gotta wire that money out of Africa!

Mr Song Lile - Or wire the money out of Japan

I received two comforting emails that there will no longer be an issue with being a REAL man or a STUD.

Oh looky here, I also won the YAHOO lottery! How fortuitous!

Also received an email to assure me that my "lovestick" won't get tired. Now thats a relief!

Well, enough for now. Gotta start engraning those Ginter symbols in my head!

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.