Have a Happy Holiday

Well, best intentions as always, but it turns out that returning from a week's vacation the week before Christmas does not allow a lot of free time for blogging! I will definitely return full-time next week with some "best-of's" to close out the year as well as introduce a couple new weekly features for 2010. I already have one figured out, so I still have a few days to invent the other!

In the meantime, everybody enjoy your holidays with all of your friends, families, and loved ones. Here is a list of a few things you can do to pass the time over the long holiday weekend...


1. Watch 24 hours of "A Christmas Story" in bits and pieces and no discernible order. Am I the only one that ends up seeing the same three scenes every year?

2. Turn the "Poinsettia" Bowl into a drinking game by taking a shot every time the announcer botches the name of the plant. Also works well with Viking or Colts games everytime you hear the name Favre or Manning.

3. Spend several hours finding the one light bulb that is causing the entire strand of lights to go out.

4. Head out to the stores today and watch people totally freak out and grab the most random items in a last ditch effort to show somebody that they care! This becomes even more amusing with the invention of the cell phone, as you can now make panicked calls to relatives who have even less of a clue than the caller.

5. Watch the Yule Log on HDTV. We have one here in Portland that is a live feed from a fireplace up at Mt Hood Lodge. Every now and again you see and hand come in the screen and poke the fire...classic.

6. Sit back and ponder how the Blazers won 3 of 4 on a road trip with half of an actual NBA team out due to injuries.

7. Go see a holiday flick. I am getting "Wild, Wild West" vibes out of "Sherlock Holmes" but might be worth checking out. There is always "Avatar", but take Dramamine first.

8. Set up blog drafts (okay, maybe this is a hint to myself).

9. Something about Lebron v Kobe. Doesn't ring a bell though.

10. Hobby Box Break! Hey, you owe it to yourself. Go indulge on a product you really like.

11. Convince the wife to take the kid "boxing day" shopping so you can have the house to yourself and play Call of Duty.

Happy Holidays!

Horse Face and Crooked Hat

Well, back from vacation and time to get back at the blogging in a big way. No more school to get in the way of good old fashioned goofing off so I am looking forward to so good posts and pack rips to come.



One of my greatest pleasures on my trip was to go snorkeling in the morning, followed by collapsing in a lounge chair poolside with the latest edition of the Maui news in-hand. One of the great things about an island newspaper is that it is very little concerned with the ridiculous mainland issues that our culture is obsessed with. All of the shootings, maiming, infidelity, and pilots playing on laptops are all omitted from the Maui news. A great deal more attention is paid to reef damage, rooster problems, and Christmas tree shortages. It is very refreshing.



The sports section is fairly minimal as well, although there were a few box scores each day and a few headlines from the winter meetings. Now keep in mind I don't know all of trades that went down, but a couple blew over in the trade winds that I found pretty interesting...

John Lackey AKA "Horseface". Sure it it childish to give nicknames to players, especially condescending ones, but I am sure at one time or another we have yelled nicknames towards our televisions when our players strike out of commit an error...and they are most likely a lost more profane at that! So Horseface comes from Lackeys sheer grit (literally) that seems to grow with each passing inning. I have absolutely no problem with him becoming a Red Sox, in fact, he is one of the pitchers that I always feared Boston going up against, so mo betta for having him on our side.

Mike Cameron, AKA "Crooked Hat" is fairly obviously...the dude practically invented the slightly-skewed baseball cap bill. I have not seen a player image of him where he has his hat on straight...mind you it is not Dontrelle Willis out-of-control, but still obviously an intentional style. Now I am a bit excited about this acquisition because I feel that Cameron still has a lot of pop in his bat and some good speed to go with it. I am a bit concerned WHERE he is going to play. I have to assume that Bay is gone (again I have not had time to get caught up yet), which is really unfortunate because I was definitely fond of the guy...but that's free agency for you.

That's about all I heard over yonder other than the Roy Halladay sweepstakes. Barring any injuries, I think a lot of NL batters are better setting down the bat and hoping he walks them rather than taking cuts at his stuff. Halladay should excel in the NL (health pending).

Also, congratulations to the Seattle Mariners for snagging Cliff Lee in the deal. THAT is going to pay dividends for Seattle and may just be the greatest acquisition I have seen yet. Don't let the Moose hit ya with the ATV, Cliffy.

Technical Difficulties

Your regularly scheduled blog is experiencing technical difficulties of a tropical kind. We appreciate you patience. Mahalo.

T206 - Keep Spinning the Hits

Sorry I am a day late getting to the rest of the good stuff of my T206 break. I am trying to get ready to get out of town, but I will make it up to you with some pretty cool stuff, and this will probably be my last post for about a week unless I end up figuring out a none-clunky way to do a blog on my iTouch.




This is about the easiest way to show all of my minis. I have never been super high on minis, but I will be hanging on to the Red Sox (even though it sounds like Mikey is headed out of town), everybody else is up for grabs. FYI, these are are Piedmont backs except for the Cliff Lee (Polar Bear), Aramis Ramirez (Old Mill), Juan Pierre (Old Mill) and Scott Rolen (Cycle #94/99). This was my first hit of the pack, and also one of the more prominent players that I have pulled a relic for. I was very happy to see the dark colored Old Mill base and slowly slid the card out to find Tickle Me Ichiro. Not so shabby. I think that the framing is way beyond the Ginter Frames. It is very stylish.

A few packs later my second hit reared its ugly Yankee head. Here is Robinson Cano looking rather smug indeed. Still I have to give Topps credit, the colors on this relic blend beautifully and overall it really works.

oh...I almost forgot about the hit that I snagged from my random packs last weekend. Here you go...
This was my first overall hit of this product and I was pretty excited about the bat relic. The colors don't work quite as well on this one, but its a nice pull nevertheless...


But I did save the best for last. Now keep in mind that this may be a completely common card. I really have no idea what is UNCOMMON in this set. All I know is that I have not seen the mini version anywhere on Ebay, so I have no idea if these are unique and rare....I am just going to pretend it is because it is a pretty kick-ass mini...

Cy Young T206 Mini.


So there are the main hits of the box (minus the Michael Young that came prior to the box) and the Evan Longoria that snuck into the box. I definitely enjoyed this rip and look forward to showing off some of the nicer base as well as the old-timers that I have become smitten with. Definitely more to come in future posts, but I am interested to see if any of you have any information of Mr Cy young up there.

Holy Moses! A T206 Hot Pack

Well, I decided to rip open the remainder of my T206 box. I just could not show any restraint. I have this unspoken rule that as soon as I pull a hit, I call it a night, but the hits were buried pretty deep, so I figured "what the heck, lets rip em up and start posting results for my five readers"! This set was actually quite a bit of fun to open up, so I should have all sorts of retro to display over the next couple of days.

Back to the blog title. So I was down to pack #24, I had already pulled my two "on average" hits (one of which I am pretty proud of...but I will keep you waiting on that one) and the other...meh, not so much, but if you are into "evil" then its right up your alley. So I went into the last pack just pretty much going through the motions...
card #1...Dan Uggla....I have seen this image time and time again, and in fact I remember it most from the Ginter Code cards that are forever engrained in my head. It's a nice card, but the image is starting to wear thin... Jackie Robinson. Now we are talkin. I LOVE the old schoolers in this set a whole lot and need to do an inventory soon to see if there is anybody missing. Jackie Robinsons SP pull in Topps flagship still remains one of my favorite cards since I started collecting.

Card #3 is Alex Rios in White Sox gear. Meh at best...

#4...Roy Campanella. Another old timer haulin lumber.


#5....heatin up...the standard pack parallel goes to none other than CEO namesake Jacoby Ellsbury. Love this card.

#6 Rick Porcello RC. I am warming up to Mr Porcello and apparently so are a lot of collectors. His cards are smoking hot right now. Just a standard back on this one, but still a classic.

#7 mini time! This is my one and only Cycle back serial-numbered mini!

#8 goes to the "Fons"

But card #9 (was actually in the middle right after Jacoby, but gotta save the drama for the end) threw me for an absolute loop. Just like in Heritage High Numbers on my extra hit, this was about the last thing that I expected to see, but I am was absolutely thrilled when I looked underneith the Ellsbury card to see this...

I could not find a top-loader fast enough. I am absolutely thrilled to have my very first Evan Longoria auto card. I would actually go as far as to say this is the biggest Star player auto that I have pulled yet next to my Tommy Hanson Chrome auto.

Well, enough for tonight. I have PLENTY of cards to show you all, lots of mini's, i'll get to the relics, and no numbers (another star player NNO?) and a classic mini SP. More to come.

My T206 Plans (I Think)

Yesterday I mentioned that I snagged a box of T206. I did so without any particular idea of what I want to do with the cards. I definitely am not looking to complete the set, as it sounds way too tedious and annoying to even attempt it. I just picked up the box because the contents look kind of fun.

I am starting to think that after opening about six packs (no hit yet), that I am leaning towards the retired players cards. I think they are pretty jazzy looking and I think that I would like to collect at least each of those as well as the usual suspects that I already collect. Most likely everything else will be up for grabs. I am really looking to convert T206 cards into either:

1: Turkey Reds from Updates and Highlights
2: Topps High Numbers base and short-prints
3: Goodwin Champion Base and short prints (I forgot that I am shooting for that set).

Either way, I will start posting up some stuff tonight starting with some minis and my hit from the random packs I bought the other day.

A hint? Think Chuck Norris.

Famous Masters

Master Chief

Master Shredder

Master Yoda

Master Larry Hagman

Mix Master Mike with the Beasties

Master Palpatine

Master and Commander

......Jon Arbuckle

Master Mike and CEO Jacoby!


Good to say that I am officially calling my school career done. My professor asked me today if I intended on going for my Doctorate...I laughed.

It is going to be nice to get back to doing some legitimate blogging again. I apologize for the lacking quality over the last few months, I just did not have the energy to properly put into it, but I am ready to get going. As a gift to myself, I went out and purchased a full hobby box of Topps T206, so I will definitely be sharing some pack breaks with you. I also need to finish sorting my Topps Heritage High Numbers, so I will be posting a needs list soon. If you can help me out with some Heritage High Numbers, I will be happy to help you out with some T206!

Much more to come!