More Tales from the Bargain Bin
Let’s get the foul taste of my crappy real life off the top of my blog. Here’s some more cards from the wonderful bargain bin at Shopko. First, the two packs of 2007 topps ‘52 Rookies. Despite having never actually pulled a hit (though I did pull two refractors from the ‘06 iteration, Matt Leinart from football and Hanley Ramirez from baseball), topps ‘52 remains one of my favorites from the second half of the decade. I don’t have any idea why, it’s actually a pretty boring looking set. But for some reason I like it and always pick up any I see.
So here’s what I got:
w00t, Aki!
Chrome-ified Delwyn Young. And yes, Brandon Moss was the 4th card in both packs...
There ya go. All up for the tradin’. And if anyone I’m already owing stuff to wants any of these, let me know and I shall put them in your pile.
Now for the notable cards from the pack of 2008 Mayo:
Yes, I beat the 1:48 pack odds for a f@#%ing horse... a weird looking one at that.
The Schmitt card is just hilarious. The mouthguard being kinda out like that makes it look like a pacifier, and the thought of a big guy with a mohawk sucking on a pacifier is teh lulz. And there’s a bonus random bicep in the picture too. That’s not funny really, but it’s a pretty big bicep.
And then there’s the dummy card. It’s always nice when companies can be bothered to do something worthwhile with the decoy, so +1 for that.
That’s all for now. I’ve got some stuff from a small trade with Baseball Dad and a couple clunker-type ones from Stats on the Back and Nachos Grande to put up later.
Oh, and keep those votes coming. There’s only around 36 hours left to get your guesses in, before the 5000 Hit Contest ends for real this time.
Contest Update
It looks like I’m going to have to extend the contest a little longer again. And I guess I have to come out and say this. The reason why, is because nobody has guessed the winning number for the big prize yet (though there has been a near miss or two). So I’m extending the contest the rest of the week. Hopefully that will get us a winner. Get to guessin’ some more, blogosphere!
And remember, everyone who makes a guess will also be entered to win the four uncirculated football cards (and maybe a few extras, I’m just sayin’ 
). See the contest post for how that will work, and please do make a guess while you’re there.
For those of you whom wish not to scroll down to the contest post, a handy-dandy link: 5000 Hitz Contest!
Here’s a chance to win something shiny that’s encased in ridiculously heavy-duty plastic (or whatever the case is made of).
Belated Night Owl Trade
I sent Night Owl some Dodgers a few weeks ago (or is it months at this point), and here’s what I got in return:
Starting it off with some Cubs and A&G wantlist minis...
I am unsure of what that Leon Durham is. It’s not really a card, it’s on paper that’s about newsprint thick. Whatever it is though, I do like it. 
Straight outta 1960, it's 2009 Topps Hertage... and a couple Target blaster throwbacks
Makes me want to get some more actual 1960 topps Cubbies to go with my lone card from that year, great defensive innovator (and pretty decent hitter to boot) Vic Power. And is Reed Johnson ever the right guy for an old school version or what? The hustle & effort, man. Granted, he’s gritty & hard-working because he’s no better than mediocrely talented, but still, hustle is a motivator for others sometimes… He will make a fine manager someday perhaps.
2009 O-Pee-Chee, approximately 1/8th of the Cubs base set... 
Wasn’t a fan of OPC this year. Not to say that some of the cards aren’t nicely designed (though plenty of photography stinkers there are). Not enough cards for the price of admission, considering the ginormity of the set. If they were eight or more cards per pack with the same insert & hit rate for the $45 or so hobby boxes were going for when it first came out, I *might* have picked up a box.
This brings me to gripe I should mention to Upper Deck sometime if I ever get a live mic with someone with some stroke there. Upper Deck does not seem to even be able to grasp the concept of low end (flagship VERY aside). Even the surprisingly decent Upper Deck X suffers from the low end-itis a bit.
Let’s continue with the pretty pictures of baseball cards then, shall we?
Another OPC, some '09 Goudey, '09 UDX, Attax, and '08 Timeline
Thusfar, my favorite Upper Deck brand of the year is UDX. Is that crazy or what? I didn’t hate ‘08 (one of the few, the proud), and the ‘09 version was a vast improvement. It’s the only baseball product truly geared towards kids too, aside from topps’ surprisingly excellent flagship.
Goudey was sometimes not pretty this year, but the Cubbies I received looked fine for the most part. The Uncanny Valley ookiness is mercifully kept to a minimum.
I still don’t like the Timeline base design, but there is something about the blue on it that give it a certain I don’t know what.
Attax are Attax. Rolling out a new game every year or two and never sticking with one can’t be helping the baseball CCG cause, I’m just sayin’.
Tristar & Bowman & a different Zambrano & topps Chrome
It’s a shame Tristar’s stuff gets no love, because most of their stuff looks very good, better than Boredom Bowman most years.
I think that’s the first ‘94 Fleer Ultra Cubbie I’ve got. I was going to say the mid-’90s (‘94-’98ish), were a good place to start for my Cubs collection needs, but really, I don’t have that many from just about any era. Vintage aside, mid-’90s is certainly a very low point, but I don’t even have that many junk wax era Cubbies, particularly of the non-topps persuasion. I guess this is because while I’ve been collecting cards since 1996, it’s only been the last couple of years that baseball cards became my top priority.
Fonsie, just… try to come back healthy next year, ‘kay?
2009 Upper Deck Cubs
There they are. Amazing that through all the horrible offseason moves, injuries, and just bad years in general, the Cubs finished over .500 in 2009.
Cards from the dark ages...
Well, the late-’80s/early-’90s were colorful, if nothing else.
'09 Icons & more '09 Allen & Ginter needs
Icons are kinda meh and the foil parallels are mostly fugly, but the blue does the halfhearted baseball design some good. And there’s Fukudome, the whole reason for the trade in the first place. Someday, I’m going to update my A&G trade page.
Someday.
Some great great cards from the man with one of the 5 coolest names in the sports card blogosphere (along with Wicked Ortega, Mojo Hand, Collective Troll, and yours truly, Lonestarr, modesty aside ;P). Give it up for Night Owl one more time!
Oh, Mr. Owl, do you still need the Broxton All-Star card from Updates & Highlights? If so, I will send it along with the Kershaw & any other stuff I might have.
That’s all for this post. Just a reminder, only about a dozen guesses have been made in the contest so far, so keep ‘em coming. Remember, even if you’re guess is wrong, you’ll still be in the drawing for a chance at the four football cards.
Play again?
Quick Hitz
Hi everybody. Keep those contest guesses coming. There’s still a lot of numbers between 1 and 57 left to guess. You have till… Monday Night Football ends to get your guesses in.
And now for a random wonderfully excellent pack break. A version with scans will be made for A Pack to be Named Later early next week, because I’ll have scans by then!
2009 topps Updates & Highlights fat pack (36 cards per pack)
Top
UH203 Ben Francisco
UH234 Mike Sweeney
UH162 Chris Perez
UH52 Kyle Blanks Padres RC
UH12 Edwin Maysonet- I always think mayonnaise when I see his last name for some reason…
UH236 Kris Benson- I had no idea he was still playing.
UH123 Ryan Braun All-Star
UH235 Joe Nathan All-Star- Gotta love the random placement of the All-Star Game logo on the front, lol.
UH292 Yuniesky Betancourt
UH321 Hunter Pence All-Star- Picture actually from the All-Star Game. Nice.
UH22 Brett Gardner
TR128 Tommy Hanson Turkey Red Braves RC
TTT72 Jacoby Ellsbury topps Town
UH326 Nate McClouth
UH328 Matt Palmer
UH267 Miguel Cairo
UH77 Jeremy Reed
UH304 Swisher & Damon Classic Combos
UH96 Tony Gwynn (Jr.)- Really need to have the Jr. on the end of his name since he’s playing for the Padres now, especially if there’s a Papa Gwynn SP lurking anywheres.
UH285 Ryan Franklin
Bottom
UH24 Gabe Gross
UH167 Julio Borbon Rangers RC
UH18 John Grabow- A Cub! Keeper.
UH39 Jake Fox- Another Cub! Keeper.
UH273 Mark Lowe
UH240 Jason Marquis All-Star
UH2 Felipe Lopez
UH266 Jonathan Broxton All-Star
UH315 Jerry Hairston Jr.- Wait, Jerry gets a Jr. any Tony Gwynn Jr. doesn’t? Wat?
UH239 George Sherrill Gold Parallel 0096/2009
AST-7 Joe Mauer All-Star Workout Jersey Relic!!!!- Hellz yeah!
UH75 Matt Lindstrom
UH290 Jason Michaels
UH146 Juan Cruz
UH25 Orlando Hudson
I bought the pack in hopes of getting one of those slick Propaganda Poster inserts (1:2 fat packs), but I didn’t get one. I think I did okay though. Can’t hope for much better than Tommy Hanson AND a hit of a great player.
More from 1975
Here are three more cards from 1975 for your viewing pleasure:
Photo taken just before nap time...
Can't really make any jokes here. Decent-for-the-era (bullpen) action shot and a disturbingly perfect border color-combination. Also, Chuck Taylor is about the badassest name there is.
I see your Schwartz is as big as mine...
Oh, I should mention, all of these cards (except Fergie) from 1975’s finest acid trip are available for trade for Cubs from the same year (I have none, so all are on the table right now). And there are still two left, including a Hall of Famer. Call ya shot.
Now can I go to sleep please?
Comedians should mention baseball cards more often.
Old Skool ‘75
Wanting to do a post of some substance, but I’m pretty out of it (been up since 2:30-ish in the morn), so I’ll just post an awesome card.
Rangers uni-Smangers uni. Keeper!
A good card to go to sleep on, if I do say so myself. G’night.
zzzzzzZZZzz…
Another To-Do List
There is more trady business I need to be doin’. This is The To-Do List, sponsored by Subway & Tristar (just kidding… someday I will get a consistent and large enough amount of hits per day to be sponsored by card companies & people who want stuff reviewed though).
• Send another SASE to Mario (never even got the first one sent, d’oh!) for three quite frankly (Get it, cuz Frank Gifford is one of ‘em? Laugh with me!) awesome football relics from a recent box break. This one goes on top because I’m on the clock here. I’m going to send some extra top loaders too. I think I’ve got somewhere around half a 60 ct. box of off-brand ones that I picked up at Toys ‘R Us when I was probably still in my teens that should work well for his shipping style.
• Get a replacement package together for JD’s Daddy. Someone jacked most of my first trade somewhere between here & there. Ya know, for my $7.62 (it was a pretty big package), you’d think I could rest easy knowing it’d make it in one piece with no trouble whatsoever. Whatever mail piratin’ f***head stole it, I hope they get paper cuts from the cards. I could’ve bought a pack of oh so misleadingly named Legendary Cuts for roughly the same price. At least when I got screwed over that way, I’ll be getting a few cards, not losing well over 100.
Oh well, I can get rid of my Max Scherzers now at least.
• Working on something with Brian for my Texas Rangers hits.
• Wicked Ortega has some more Maybins & M. Cabreras & Manny bat card and probably a Greinke auto coming to him.
• I still owe Da Rook some ‘08 & ‘09 UDX and maybe some ‘06 topps, and of course there will be Braves.
• I have a Kershaw to send Night Owl.
• Still gotta send Dayf some cards.
• Shot Not Taken… I’ve got most of what I already had for you together. I can send out what I’ve got and wait do the TNA cards later if you want.
Marie, you are officially getting the Pujols Ticket Stub for the Ramirez & Sandberg jerseys. Also, did you ever get my email about the cards I have of the other guys you collect?
And for Sooz, I guess all that is left is for me to get around to finally coming to a final conclusion on which Ichiros I need from your list. At most, I only have a half dozen I think (it was four last time I checked, but I think I may have pulled one or two more since then).
• I still have some ‘09 A&G regular minis & mini SPs to send Nachos Grande for some clunkers & stuff. I think I will just see that they are sent out in short order and mess with sending him some Reds later.
If I have missed anybody, and I’m sure I have, please let me know. When I reach my 5000 hit anniversary, we’re gonna have my first real contest. 5000 hits is the uncirculated anniversary, you know. ;3
My unrelated notes for this post are as follows…
Did Braylon Edwards just have the ultimate falling up experience or what? Beating up LeBron’s little buddy got him shipped off from the sucktastic Cleveland Browns to the quite possibly legitimate contender Jets?!?! How is that punishment? Granted, it sounds like there is a small chance of him getting suspended for a few weeks, but dude, UP-FREAKIN’-GRADE.
Also, what is up with the Eagles backups? EVERY SINGLE TIME McNabb goes out with injury, his backups play like freakin’ superstars without exception. It’s hard to have sympathy for a rich & famous QB with ridiculous athletic ability & lots of endorsment deals, but sometimes it’s hard not to feel bad for him. Dude’s been nothing less than a great player and a class act, but fate seems to have been conspiring against him in Philly ever since he got drafted.
I’ve been stuck in that sick-but-not-quite-sick mode for the past couple of days. It’s almost somehow worse than being full blown sick. You don’t feel bad enough to be completely out of commission, but you don’t feel good enough to go about life like normal. It kinda sucks.
That’s all for this one. There is a sketch card project and sleep to catch up on.
Until our next…
Golf & Soccer Cards
They had a golf five packs & an autograph for $9.99 thing at Shopko, and since it would basically be free after discount, I thought what the hey and picked it up. The autograph cards on the front were Tiger Woods, Chi-Chi Rodriguez, and Adam Scott. No way in hell are you gonna get a Tiger auto, and Chi-Chi’s pretty well-known, and Adam Scott is top five in the world-caliber apparently, so it’s hard to expect to even get anyone on their level. Well, I may have surpassed them both with the auto I pulled… but first, the packs:
2 packs of 2001 Upper deck |G|O|L|F| and one pack each of 2002, 2003, and 2004
Let’s start from the start.
2001 (5 cards per) Pack 1
50 Dennis Paulson- The back basically describes him as the .220 hitter with little pop or other redeeming skills that manages to hang around for a lot of years. But he won a tournament in 2000 and did respectable in the Masters that year, so he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
70 Adam Scott Young Guns- Speak of the devil… nice looking card too. Upper Deck at the height of it’s powers.
174 Thomas Bjorn Victory March- Holy schnikies! This card will hit the scanner when I have the chance. This has to be in the running for best looking subset EVER.
200 Joe Durant Checklist- No idea… moving on.
TT28 Tiger’s Tales- 1 per pack Tiger Wood’s retrospective. Another REALLY nice looking card.
2001 Pack 2
9 Collin Montgomerie
176 Tiger Woods Tour Time- Upper Deck was on fire with the subsets. Another nice one.
131 Fred Couples Defining Moments- This one almost rivals the Victory March one from above.
SL21 Stewart Cink Stat Leaders- 1:8 pack insert. Also nice looking; very classy. This is what the foil parallels in Icons SHOULD’VE looked like.
TT30 Tiger’s Tales
The pack 2 cards were not in awesome shape.
2002
105 Jesper Parnevik Leaderboard- Getting an Upper Deck MVP vibe from this one.
SL5 Charles Howell III Stat Leaders- 1:9 packs in ‘02. Design is kinda tickety.
3 Sergio Garcia- The regular base cards are classy in ‘02.
51 Arnold Palmer Legends- Also pretty classy.
73 Mike Weir New World Order- Everybody’s joining the nWo like it’s 1997 all over again. Huzzah!
2003 Billy Andrade Chip Shots- Another nice subset, black on gold, simple and elegant.
31 Fred Funk
7 Corey Pavin
decoy ad
65 David Toms Leaderboard- One of four subsets that combine to fall one per pack.
MC-38 Karrie Webb Major Champions- 1 per pack insert. Yet another classy design, this one on nice shiny foil.
2004
NOT POSTED DUE TO PACK GOING MISSING…
D’oh! >.<
I think there was another Karri Webb in it.
*drumroll* And the autograph is….
2002 SP Sign of the Times Bernhard Langer!! Holy crap, he’s pretty good. Probably a better pull than Adam Scott, and at the very least, a more successful golfer than Chi-Chi. 78 professional tournament wins on various tours, including two Masters, & the very first guy to be officially ranked #1 in the world. Check it out.
And finally, a dollar pack of soccer cards from the dollar store. It was right on top and waaaay thicker than the other packs.
2008 Upper Deck MLS
37 Jaime Moreno (DC United)
92 Nick Garcia (San Jose Earthquakes)
3 Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire)
16 Alejandro Moreno (Columbus Crew)
52 Davy Arnaud (Kansas City Wizards)
YG-13 Dominic Oduro (FC Dallas) Young Guns
MM-28 Sharlie Joseph (New England Revolution) Materials swatch of *something*- They don’t specify what the swatch is (really, you just have to see the CoA for yourself, it’s a special kind of vague), all I know is that it’s so soft that if you had a blanket made of the material, you could sleep like a baby on a freakin’ bed of nails. It’s soft. And I’m actually vaguely aware of who Sharlie Joseph is. I saw a game on I think ESPN2 pretty recently that he was in (I think going up against Seattle; it got pretty chippy if I recall) and the announcer dudes mentioned him a bunch, so that’s pretty cool I guess.
188 Jim Brennan (Toronto FC)
176 Ryan Johnson (San Jose Earthquakes)
182 Chris Leitch (New York Red Bulls)- They’d have an awesome name if it wasn’t named after a sh*tty energy drink.
123 Wade Barrett (Houston Dynamo)
1/2-Priced Blasters… from Target?!?!
But they never have ANY cards on sale. They did on Sunday Sunday Sunday though, so I got some 2008 stinkers they finally got desperate enough to slash the price on: 2008 Bowman football and pretty f*ckup 2008 Stadium Club baseball. I can get behind those for $10 instead of $20, so I did. Let’s see how I did.
2008 Bowman Football (7 packs, 5 cards per pack, guaranteed jersey per blaster)
I should mention that, being mostly rookies, I’m not going to know very many of these guys, because in four weeks this year I’ve probably seen twice as much football as I saw all of last year. With that said, here’s
Pack 1
125 Andre Fluellen Lions RC
139 Bryan Kehl Football Giants RC
152 Zack Bowman Bears RC- Keeper!
157 Chaz Schilens Raiders RC Gold Parallel
BC32 Paul Hubbard Browns RC Chrome
Pack 2
56 Chad Ochocinco (Johnson)
46 Larry Johnson
99 Dallas Clark
245 Tavares Gooden Ravens RC Gold Parallel
BC27 Jack Williams Broncos RC Chrome
Scoring Drive ad- They still put these in packs? 
Pack 3
56 Chad Ochocinco (Johnson)- I
46 Larry Johnson- Got
99 Dallas Clark- Bipped!
52 Michael Turner Gold Parallel
BC18 Justin King Rams RC Chrome
Checklist 1 of 3
Scoring Drive waste of tree. Seriously, they killed a tree to make these stupid ads!
Now I understand why topps makes you open their blasters from the bottom… at least they kicked me a jersey and parallel of a starting QB this time.
Pack 4
170 Joe Flacco Ravens RC- Sadly it wasn’t this starting QB.
225 Sam Baker Falcons RC
238 Calais Campbell Cardinals RC
228 Sedrick Ellis Saints RC Gold Parallel
BC9 Brad Cottam Chiefs RC Chrome
Scoring Drive blah blah blah. Just know there was one in every effin pack. :/
Pack 5
256 Shawn Crable Patriots RC
232 Dre Moore Bucs RC
247 Philip Wheeler Colts RC
124 Tom Zbikowski Ravens RC Gold Parallel
BC4 Duane Brown Texans RC Chrome
Pack 6
159 Timothy Hightower Cardinals RC- Tim Hightower = badass, Timothy Hightower = NERD!!
156 Jerome Felton Lions RC
147 Kenneth Moore Lions RC
167 Brian Brohm Packers RC Gold Parallel
BC39 Jalen Parmele Dolphins RC Chrome
Pack 7
18 Jeff Garcia- Most underrated QB ever?
31 Marion Barber
175 Josh Johnson Bucs RC Blue Parallel #ed 184/500- I didn’t say it was an amazing starting QB. He’s starting now though, so that’s pretty cool.
23 Tarvaris Jackson Gold Parallel
BC30 Justin Tryon Redskins RC
The jersey was in it’s own separate lil cello pack, and it was…
DJ-JL Jake Long Draft Day Jersey- An offensive lineman, but I’m not complaining. He’s quality.
2008 Stadium Club (8 packs, 5 cards per pack)
The odds were pretty astronomical with 1:60 packs being the easiest pull for ANYTHING.
Pack 1
112 Joey Votto Reds RC
31 Carl Crawford
37 Hanley Ramirez
76 Johan Santana
140 Max Scherzer D-Backs RC 1st Day Issue- Shoulda guessed. Surprised I didn’t get Scherzer in the football blaster.
Pack 2
115 Brandon Boggs Rangers RC
68 Gary Sheffield
11 David Ortiz- Keeper if I don’t have it yet.
104 Gregor Blanco Braves RC
122 Jonathan Herrera Rockies RC 1st Day Issue
Such pretty pretty photography. How could they have messed this up so badly? 
Pack 3
29 Delmon Young
4 Todd Helton
116 Johnny Cueto Reds RC
58 Jose Reyes
132 Kosuke Fukudome Cubs RC 1st Day Issue- Have it, so I can trade this one.
Checklist
Pack 4
73 Greg Maddux
52 Vernon Wells
88 Hideki Matsui
14 Prince Fielder
147 Radhames Liz O’s RC
Pack 5
131 Sean Rodriguez Angels RC
80 Ryan Braun
82 Manny Ramirez
56 Garrett Atkins
112 Joey Votto other Reds RC 1st Day Issue
Pack 6
119 Jed Lowrie Red Sox RC
1 Chase Utley
85 Matt Holliday
50 David Wright
107 Clayton Kershaw Dodgers RC
Pack 7
53 Josh Hamilton
133 Chin-Lung Hu Dodgers RC
125 Josh Banks Padres RC
13 Alex Rodriguez
125 Josh Banks Padres other RC 1st Day Issue
Checklist
Pack 8
109 Garrett Mock Nats RC
23 Thom Glavine- Eh, it’d almost make sense in this set.
142 Greg Smith A’s RC
74 Rich Harden- Keeper!
131 Sean Rodriguez Angels other RC 1st Day Issue
And that’s the end of this beautiful disaster set blaster. Everything not a keeper is available for trade, as always. For this set, I’m looking for all the Cubbies I don’t have, which is all of them except for Harden & the 1st Day Issue Fukudome, and all the legends except for Honus Wagner & the 1st Day Issue Babe Ruth (already got ‘em).
I’m not feeling so well, but one final note before I go, after watching Monday Night Football I can say this with confidence: Aaron Rodgers > Brett Favre
Until our next…
2005 topps Pack Wars Live Break
I wanted to try to do a Youtube break with these, but I’m far too lazy. Another time mayhaps.
Here we go, pack 1… good grief these things are hard to open!
Game pack 1
139 Scott Hatteberg
147 Matt Lawton parallel #ed 54/56
99 Jason Kendall
Game pack 2
123 Miguel Tejada
143 Shawn Green
49 Milton Bradley
Prize pack
PWA-ZG Zack Greinke AUTOGRAPH!- NICE!
Pack 2
Game Pack 1
16 Derrek Lee- Keeper!
77 Eric Hinske
158 Luis Gonzalez
Game Pack 2
123 Miguel Tejada
143 Shawn Green
49 Milton Bradley- I got effin’ Bipped! >:(
Prize Pack
PWR-MRB Manny Ramirez BAT Relic- Not bad, not bad.
Pack 3
Game Pack 1
113 Roy Oswalt- Hey, I finally got a pitcher.
15 Manny Ramirez
68 Tony Batista
Game Pack 2
8 Bartolo Colon
47 Sean Casey- Stat Power 93! Same as A-Rod. :O
14 Darin Erstad
Prize Pack
PWR-SS Sammy Sosa BAT Relic- Keeper!
Pack 4
Game Pack 1
142 Scott Podsednik
100 Vladimir Guerrero- Keeper!
159 Javy Lopez
Game Pack 2
168 Nick Johnson
105 Adam Dunn
135 Jacque Jones- Throwback uni… Keeper!
Prize Pack
PWR-RP Rafael Palmeiro BAT Relic- Meh, they can’t all be winners.
Pack 5
Game Pack 1
154 Jose Reyes
99 Jason Kendall
119 Bret Boone
Game Pack 2
168 Nick Johnson
157 Mark Teixeira
140 Gary Sheffield
Prize Pack
PWA-MY Michael Young AUTOGRAPH- He’s Pretty good.
So there you have it. I think I did pretty decent, even getting Bipped. What say you?
The hits:
Zack Greinke Auto
Michael Young Auto
Sammy Sosa Bat- Keeper
Manny Ramirez Bat
Rafael Palmeiro Bat
Matt Lawton parallel #ed /56
Everything not listed as a keeper is available for trade.
