Some disturbing news...

Ba-Ba-Bum!!!!!!!!!!!!

No better way to draw you into a post, eh? No I am nervous because I gotta deliver the goods...

Topps Allen and Ginter is full of wonderful surprises each and every year. You never know when the next hidden variation is going to pop up and become the next craze.

One of the most popular of staples of parallels each year is the Topps mini 1/1 wooden cards. These are truly one of the most unique of all cards and go for massive dollars on eBay. I have always wanted to find one of these beauties, regardless of the card subject, just to say that I have one.

But then I hear a dirty little rumor about the wooden cards. Perhaps I am one of the last to hear such things because I am neither an experienced collector, nor have my own (live) eyes ever laid themselves on a wood card.

Wanna know the truth?


They aren't wooden at all!

Nope, in the precious 1/1 unique, fabulous, sell-my-milk-money-for-a-month cards are actually just regular cards with a wooden design photoshopped over the top of the image. REALLY? This is very discouraging new indeed. But hell, instead of crying in my pillow, I figured I might as well have a little fun with it.

With the concepts of Mike and the muscle of Joe at Priceless Pursuit we proudly introduce you to several designs that we feel Topps should seriously consider for the 2011 set..


Bacon mini! Yadier Molina proudly sports a card made purely of the best...food...product...ever! Glorious sizzling bacon really bring out the qualities of this card and is sure to be any carnivorous collectors top must-have card of 2011. I also recommend a nice bacon-scent...but alas this may encourage pack searching by dogs, raccoons, bears, and Bigfoot.

Bubble gum mini! Nate McLouth is sported out on the card you can chew! As you are hard at work placing that shin-shoo-choo base card between your bike spokes, pop in a refreshing piece of McClouth before riding to the ol' hobby shop to drop more money on that Strasburg that you will never pull.

Banana mini! Produced with only the finest from our tropic jungles, enjoy this card on an ice cream sundae, or on toast with peanut butter. Just make sure to enjoy it quickly before it turns brown and attract fruit flies and is only good in banana bread.

So the next time you read a forum post where people are nervous about bending a rip card because they don't want to accidentally "snap" the wood card in half, have a little chuckle knowing that they have never seen a wood card either.

More fun with math!

My Latest Nine

In actually following suit with the theme of the website, I thought it might be necessary to actually display some evidence that I am making some headway in my mission....therefore, I give you my latest 9...

2009 ( and sadly, most likely the last year) Goodwin Champions relics.

I really disliked these relics when I first pulled them from boxes, but as a group they actually look pretty nice. I love Goodwin because you can absolutely make out like a bandit finding this stuff on Ebay. For absolutely ridiculous reasons this product was not very well received, and "value" of the cards plummeted. Their loss is my gain. Take a looksy.

The cool part of this nine is that a good portion of these came via trade, which is a dying art in my household these days. Vlad is part of my rainbow that is just missing a foil card, Shields was the final piece. Probably the Martinez and Utley are my faves.

I just somehow found a way to find my 9th and final SP Legendary cut relic last night, so I should have that post up soon!

A Gift from Beantown!

You might or might not remember a blog entry several months back about the 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox Masterpiece card that I mailed in to the Red Sox, care of Theo Epstein. I had this wacky idea that it would look pretty cool to get the auto of the guy who engineered that team.

Unfortunately, as anybody new to the hobby eventually learns, most TTM's never come back. And unfortunately I really liked that card!

One day I was trolling around Redsox.com and I came upon a "contact us" link. I am a firm believer of "what's the worst that could happen" and decided to contact the Red Sox to see if they knew what became of this card.

I sent the email and moved on with everyday life. Never thought about it again, and actually forgot I had sent it at all when suddenly one afternoon last spring, a representative from the team named Jackie sent me an email out of the blue with a response to my email.

She and several others actually LOOKED for the card, but unfortunately it was not to be found. She asked if there was anything they could do, to which I responded that just the fact that she took the time to contact me back about a CARD was good enough.

Nevertheless, we got talking more about being west-coast fans and going to Seattle when we could to catch our team, and the story about naming our son after Jacoby and Dustin.

Then a couple months later I got ANOTHER email from Jackie that there was a surprise on the way from the team. I could not believe it! A few days later this came...

WOW! A signed 8.5 x 11 photo of my two favorite Sox (plus Manny's arm). Jackie told me that she circulated the photo herself and that both players were pretty inquisitive about little JD and were happy to sign a gift for him. Jackie was extremely generous with her follow through and showed amazing customer service by going above and beyond. What an awesome job that must be!

THANK YOU BOSTON RED SOX!

Just for summer fun, please participate!

This idea is completely stolen from the latest Entertainment Weekly but as I read the piece, I had one of those "moments of clarity" where events of your childhood come flooding back to you.

Remember when you were a kid, how exciting everything would be. How you would totally look forward to even the stupidest things?

The Entertainment Weekly was talking about Summer popcorn flicks. Blockbusters. Unforgettable experiences. These days movies can tend to be long, expensive, and for the most part, forgettable. But what came flooding back to me, was the memories of seeing summer movies at matinees, riding my bike in the scorching heat across the city to catch a double-feature. Watching the same movie 5-10 times before it left town! Thinking back to when I was a kid, I watched A LOT of movies MANY times each. This day and age I am lucky to get out of the house once every few months, or even have enough time to watch a movie on-demand.

So I thought it would be kind of fun to take a blast to the past and list my top-5 all-time summer blockbuster flicks. Feel free to pop up your list, I would be interested to see which movies I omitted!

1. Jurassic Park. I am talking about the original! Firstly, I love the book, and can read it over and over again, but the move, OMG. Check your history books folks, this was THE FIRST digital sound picture. I still remember the preview at the beginning of a giant CD that zooms on the screen, then writing scrolls its way onto the disc "The Digital Experience" and then BAM, the disc explodes all around you! Then you are rewarded with LOUD awesome dinosaurs for the next two hours. Absolutely unforgettable movie-going experience and that flick still holds up today.

2. Die Hard with a Vengeance. YEAH! My best memory of this movie was that was the first movie shown at Bend's (Oregon, look it up) first, stadium-seating, all-digital movie theatre. I love this movie because I thought it was a pretty original idea, lot's of smart twists, and great chemistry with Willis and Sam. I do NOT like the second movie, but this one I probably saw at least 10 times at the theatre and about 25 times overall! The bomb explosion at the very beginning rocked that place.

3. Pulp Fiction. Eh, I am actually unsure if this was a summer pic or not, most admittedly these were hazy days for me, but regardless, this movie sets a new standard, started my love of Quentin Tarantino movies (I later saw Reservoir Dogs, which some argue is better, but I think "Pulp" is the pinnacle). So because I saw this at least seven times (one of which my Dad actually made us walk out!), this is a classic and makes the list.

4. Back to the Future. I was about 7 or so when this came out, so hands down this movie was THE BOMB and I cannot wait until little Jacoby is able to watch these with me for the first time. All three are actually decent, but this one, plus blasting "Power of Love" all summer long, makes it the most memorable for me.

5. Ghostbusters. Why such a small pic? Anyways, THIS movie scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it (I was 6 or 7). I remember the library ghost seen absolutely freaked me out, so much in fact that I would LEAVE THE THEATRE for a few minutes as that scene was played and then go back in. I loved this movie though and probably saw it about 20 times or so...I actually remember seeing it with a double feature of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, as well as View to a Kill, and I believe Back to the Future, once.

If I was to add a modern summer blockbuster to this list I would have to say "Pirates of the Caribbean". This movie came out of left field and blew everybody away. I did not include it because I was in my mid-20's when I saw it, and only twice in the theatre...but I betcha some little kid rode his bike to the theatre and saw it tons!

So what are your top summer blockerbuster flick memories?