A future Beardy?

Uncanny!

Topps T206 Pack Break!

I am happy to report that there is a new alternative for hobby shops in my area. I have been forced to deal with Cranky's mysterious pack pulls and surly attitude for quite some time. Basically the dude is a pissed of Republican who always has Fox News going every time I am in the store, and yells at the screen while I peruse my options. I am also not a big fan of how hot and heavy he is on ebay trading..which means that he is doing a lot of rippin in the back room, which makes me question what is out on the shelf.

ANYWAYS, a new shop opened up a few weeks ago that offers a lot of options, including sealed boxes and lots of singles and autos in the glass cases. The beauty of the new place is that, if I see a product that I would like to buy a few packs, they are willing to open the box, price it out and sell me some single packs.

That is how I came upon Topps 206, or T206 or whatever this retro set goes by. I have been curious to take a peek at a set that I have heard so much build up about. I have no interest in completing this set, and from what I hear, it is virtually impossible to do so anyways with all of the hidden variations. I am just happy to find a product that I can get a few packs of occasionally to rip some wax.

And this set is ODD. Not necessarily in a bad way. It is crazy fun to open each pack because you really have no idea what you will find inside. I will scatter my packs over the next few posts because there is a lot of ground to cover. So lets start out with a variation that falls one per pack, some gold bordered, thicker cardboard parallels...

Here is a classic Mickey Mantle and Thurman Munson..aka "the rubber-man"

Always nice to pull a tickle-me Ichiro card. The mariners were a nice feel-good story this season.

A couple O's (Nice to get my hands on a Reimold...I hear he is the bees-knees back east). Finished up the gold parallels with a Cristian Guzman.

These next cards threw me for a bit of a loop. Here we have super rookie Andrew McCutchen and Super-human Albert Pujols....the dude in the middle is named Perry...I don't really know who he is and the back of the card does not help either because...

AHA! Some snazzy little variation card. I feel pretty good about the Pujols and McCutchen, but still have no idea who this Perry fellow is.

I'll finish up tonight with a nice bubble-gum variation Tommy Hanson Rookie...

Stay tuned tomorrow. I will be highlighting the mini's as well as fortuitous box hit.

Back in Action!

Well, in 48 hours I will be officially done with school FOREVER, and am happy to be returning my mostly full attention back to my hobby and blog. I have already started to unclog the pipe in regards to pushing through some trades and doing some more pack rips and box breaks, but I am obviously a long ways behind at this point.

I sent out a couple of packages this morning because I needed to go to the post office to spring bail for yet another envelope that was shorted on postage! I am not to upset about it because it gives me a reason to send some of my own packages out, but I just think its funny how people will always choose the low ball option on the postage machine ("oh...that DEFINITELY looks less than 1/4 inch thick....I think").

Having the great Mario go into retirement has caused ripples in the blogosphere and really goes to show just how difficult it is to keep plugging away, especially in the off season, and the result is blogs dying left and right. I definitely don't want to let that happen. Blogs help me decide what to purchase, and its my responsibility to put that type of material out for others as well, so I intend to keep on going with the blog on a more regular basis. I am going to come up with a few new features and maybe conjure up a contest or two. I have a week away in Hawaii to ponder all of this, so when I get back I should be ready to roll full time again.

In the meantime...I know that over the last couple of months I have had some discussions with several of you regarding some trades. I know I have offered some cards, and some have been offered to me, but honestly, over the last several months I could hardly remember my name some days...

So I ask you to please email me if we have talked about some form of trades. I will make a point to get to the post office by the end of this week and get the cards flowing again!

What in Blazes?

A standard day involves me trolling around blogs that I follow in an effort to see all the cool stuff that people are posting from their pack rips. I am extremely dismayed to have visited Wax Heaven this morning to learn that "due to unforseen circumstances" that Mario will be shutting down his site at the end of the year. Wax Heaven has always been a great source of unbiased reviews of new products.

One can only speculate at this point as to what circumstances have led to the closing of yet another quality blog, but at this point I say you make it a point to go visit his site and wish him well in future endeavors.

Pour on for my Homey!

Fast Forward to the Heritage Hits!

Well, I have been given an order from the supreme commander (wife) that the china cabinet needs to be cleaned off of baseball cards prior to Jacoby's big birthday bash on Saturday. What could I possibly do but rip open the rest of my Heritage box (aw shucks!). I have to admit though, when I pulled my surprise second "hit" from the box promising one hit, I was having delusions of the mythical "hot box". I will scan some more of the standard base cards and short prints at some point, but for the moment lets just share the inserts...
Here is the box topper. I am wondering where those buy-back cards are coming from. It looks like they are individually wrapped like the box topper...maybe you get either one or the other...I don't know. Nevertheless, here is my box topper!

Scanners never do chrome justice, and here are six more chrome (I think that makes nine total or something like that). These are particularly clean and shiny, even though the players are kinda a mixed bag.

These were a nice surprise, I love the Pujols and Sanchez commemorative cards...is Sanchez beyond TTM's at this point, or is he still accessible. I would love his auto because thanks to the MLB network, I got to see this no-hitter live, so I got to experience the goosebump factor. And lets face it, A David Price and Elvis Andrus card is always a welcome sight!

A snagged a couple Then and Nows, and again, I am quite happy with the pairings. Two legitimate current stars, and two HOF's. I love the old-timers and can't get enough of the retro cards.

Now the scanner REALLY does not do these justice, because these are chrome refractors, and really shiny and rainbowy at that. Adam Dunn is legit, and this Chacin card will be worth hanging onto in case he hits it big some day.

But hands down, the shocker of the box break was a surprise second hit in the box. You'll recall that I pulled an Alexei Ramirez relic in my second back, and while satisfied with a relic (I guess), I was a little let down that I had 22 packs to go without hope of a hit.

Well 4 packs later, after removing the serial-numbered gum, this little baby was sitting next...

A dual auto? CRAZY. And a hand-numbered one at that. I got more excited when I discovered that there are litterally only 125 of these between all ten subjects, and they pull at about 1:1200 packs! Very cool.

I have to admit mixed feelings about high numbers. I was so proud of finishing up the first 500 and here I am chasing again. However, I have to say that I had a reasonable amount of fun ripping these packs and think that the inserts turned out to be pretty decent as well. I have not heard many peeps out of the blogosphere on collecting this product, but if you are only collecting certain cards and have no use for the remaining base cards, please let me know and we can start swinging some deals. The quest for 720 is on!

happy 1st birthday to the CEO

JD turns one year old today. Lets all go streakin!

11 Days of Heritage

on the 2nd day of Heritage, High Numbers gave to me...

four more promising rookies.

4 more traded players....I think. The Eric Byrnes has me a bit puzzled. Wasn't he with Arizona not only all of this season, but also the last? Then there is Mr Kazmir, who I was thrilled got traded out of Tampa...only to find a way to do the Sox in anyways. When Catalanotto got traded from Texas, Saltelamachia (or something like that) became the undisputed lengthy-name-on-jersey champ. As for Hanranhan...welcome to Pittsburgh purgatory.

Jason Vargas. A very promising young Seattle Pitcher, Julio Lugo and the most uncomfortable batting stane that I have ever seen, and Craig Counsell, filling in for Milwaukie's depleted infield.

And now for the shiny. A David Aardsma chrome. numbered to 1960. The first name alphabetically in baseball.


More to come tomorrow. I will give a bit of a tease. Turns out that the Ramirez relic was just a tease, as I pulled ANOTHER hit today. More on this tommorow...stay tuned.