COMC Order #5: National Heroes Edition

Time for one of my buffer posts!  The next in line for the COMC order from late last year.  More minis from another set I’m collecting, 2009 Allen & Ginter National Heroes.  I think I’m in double digits now, but still tons left to go.  Take a look at what came in this order:

Sadly I didn't remember to scan the backs of these, because they are super interesting for a history geek like me.

I wonder if my wantlist for these (or anything, for that matter) is updated. (Yes, yes they mostly are…)  Anyone still have any of these they’d like to move?  Let’s make a deal!

.::~Outtro~::.

No One’s Going to Read this Post

Heh…

My first second thing to do now that I’m back is to get some old trade posts up.  So, here goes.  This trade comes to me courtesy of No One’s Going to Read this Blog.  This isn’t quite the usual trade, oh no.  This one started as an art trade, a sketch card for a sketch card.  Then when I couldn’t decide on who I wanted, I suggested it be a twofer, one real person, one fictional character.  And so it was done.  I did an Adrian Peterson and a group shot of the Fantastic Four for Jeremy (you can check my deviantART link on the sidebar if you’d like to see them, as well as some of my other work), and I received the following two cards in return:

 

Starlin Castro

Raven from Teen Titans

Very nice work all-around.  I can’t quite find the words to adequately to explain what it is about the cards that makes me like them so much, but who really wants to read a critique anyway?  Suffice to say I think they are great, and welcome additions to my sketch card collection, as well as the individual collections I have for each.

 

The back of Jeremy's cool custom sketch cards.

On top of the sketch cards, we also ended up finding a few regular cards on our respective wantlists to trade.  Here are just a few of the cards I received (the ones I was able to get scanned before they got sorted away).

 

Aramis w/ fancy-pants border.

More '09 A&G minis...

The Cubs Power Trio on '07 Goudey

Finally, an Action Packed Billy Williams..

And that’s all for this one, sports fans!  A fun trades it was.  It’s good to be blogging again. 🙂

Until our next…

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?

Pack Breaks Cuz I’m Depressed

Lots of crap is going on, bringin’ me down.  So I’m gonna do one of the handful of things that make me feel good when I’m feeling like crap.  Bust some wax!

We got a retail pack of ’09 Allen & Ginter and a fat pack of ’09 topps Chrome.  We’ll do the A&G first, just because.  Let’s get to it!

2009 Allen & Ginter retail (6 cards)

207 Jack Cust

111 Jason Giambi

66 Alex Rodriguez

346 Dominique Wilkins- Keeper!

259 Napoleon Bonaparte Regular Mini

NP33 Hanley Ramirez National Pride- Keeper!

That was a good pack!  A couple of keepers in there, so I’m feeling a little better now.  I’m typing these up as I open them, btw.

2009 topps Chrome fat pack (7 cards)

186 Trevor Cahill A’s RC- Jeez, we’re now three for seven on A’s.

59 Zack Greinke

W27 Alex Rios World Baseball Classic- Keeper!

97 Dustin Pedroia Refractor

42 Kosuke Fukudome- Keeper!

22 Justin Morneau

174 Matt Tuiasosopo Mariners RC

Nice!  Two more keepers.  A 4-13 keeper count is very good.  I’m very pleased.  I wasn’t really sure if I would feel better or not after busting some packs.  After all, it is easily my most hit-or-miss way of feeling better, being squarely at the mercy of fate.  She was kind today though, bringing a smile to my sadsack self. 🙂

That’s all for now, folks.  Thanks for reading! 🙂

Until our next…

Contests Out the Wazoo

Card Cashe‘s contest is almost over, but check it oot.  Maybe we can get another person or two in under the gun.  Win some Allen & Ginter goodness, as long as you leave one for me. 😛

Also try to win a HUGE Hall of Fame prize package from the Collective Troll. Or just vote for some Hall of Famers if the prize interests you not.  Enter here, more votes are needed, nay DEMANDED.  Bwahahahaha… umm, yeah.

One of these days I’m gonna do a contest.  Maybe when I get to 5,000 hits.  I’ve got some stuff I’d like to give away.

Alright friends, fans, and future lovers (wait, do I even have ANY of those things?), I gots to attempt sleepin’.  Sh*t’s about to be on when I wake up in the morning early afternoon.  Peace & pizza pie!

Get ya trollface on…

The Oddball Lot #1

Though I swore off all of Topps offerings in blaster form, I still have a few loose packs worth of A&G to add to the want/for trade list after I get some sleep soon, including a suh-weet Mantle Ginter Back Mini, a couple of which came after the blaster debacle.  I guess I can’t fully resist the Allen & Ginter goodness, though no more blasters EVAR~!  I’m pretty much done with it till whenever as of now though.  My focus has very nearly completely drifted away from baseball cards to non-sport offerings.  I am awaiting some as I speak, and the rest of the near future’s boxy offerings are of the entertainment variety.

Anyway, I STILL owe some A&G trade-related emails to the following people (Yes, I do fail, thanks for asking):

Nachos Grande– Send me an email with what you want if you still require anything you inquired about and your address, and I will just send them and some Reds along with no specific strings attached other than my vague wantlists (aka The Lonestarr Special~!), because I’m not completely sure what my nice haul from the A&G group break does to my A&G wantlist.

More on the later group break later, btw…

Box Opener I’m not sure there was anything specific mentioned, so I don’t know where to even begin.

Night Owl– I have a Blake DeWitt ’09 A&G bat card if you need it still.  Also plenty of assorted Dodgers of note, including a couple other “hits”, if lil’ Blakey isn’t enough.  Well, I guess it doesn’t matter, I always send team stuff anyway, so I’m sure I can make giving  up the Fukudome jersey worthwhile.  I can get more specific via email if you wish.

Beardy– I’m not sure if my comparably paltry number of A&G cards can help you out any, but I’ve got a decentish-sized stack of Orioles with probably something to get ahold of that No Number Aramis Ramirez Mini.

Cat Osterman remains a dream that only achievable via a pipe of some kind though. *sigh*

Sharpe Since ’92– I can hook you up with some minis for the cards you offered.  I’ll need to thoroughly go over the A&G group break stuff to know specifics again though.  I know it knocked a few off, but my attention span hasn’t let me get there yet to see what’s what.

And regular trade emails to:

Sac Bunt‘s Chris– One of these years I will get to it.

Wicked Ortega– I haz Marlins cards & stuff.  Will trade.

Marie of Cardboard Problem and Upper Deck Blog– Just need to find out about the Canos & such.  The Pujols sketch card will be done once I get some sleep. New markers FTW.

And now for a couple of different, yet equally faily of me things:

Sooz of A Cardboard Problem– Did I reply to the Ichiro list email?  I thought I did, but it isn’t in the sent or trade folders, so I’m not sure what the deal is.

David, the king of the Generosity Tribe… I totally flaked and forgot about the money order until I actually saw the box break happened.  I have the money order, but I don’t have your address.  On the Packs of Random Kindness bubble mailer, it is partially ripped away, and the Seattle Mariners pack of kindness bubble mailer one is long gone it appears, so if you get this message, please email me please.  Once I have it, I will send along a small (because I’m fairly severely lacking in your team) selection of Cleveland Indians cards as a thank you for your packs of kindness and hopeful tolerance of my forgetfulness.

If there is anyone I missed, and I’m sure there was, please get in touch.  If my email addy isn’t available through my WordPress blog somewhere (I honestly don’t know), then check my Google profile please.  It’s also Lonestarr, but with a Walt Bellamy card as the avatar.  Can’t miss it probably.

Finally, a quick newsbite for Shot Not Taken.  I’m looking at picking up the TNA iMPACT! box in early-mid September (only have about 2 1/2 packs worth of base cards right now).  Trading will hopefully commence shortly thereafter. 😀

That’s all for this one sports fans.  Tune in next time for the Northside half of White Sox Cards‘ exceedingly great packet from not long ago.

After that look for a three-parter to get my poor Gint-A-Cuffs showing officially posted and out of the way.  Let’s just say I’m near the bottom of the pack in that one. Bleh.

I’m failing bad at the being social and card trading things.  Sorry. 😦

2009 Allen & Ginter Blaster

I cannot believe I found these at K-Mart.  The blaster kinda sucked overall, but I can knock a few more off the wantlist.  Let’s breakitdown:

Pack 1 (easily the best of the bunch)

9 Ryan Theriot

280 Shin-Soo Choo

125 Randy Johnson

AGHS4 Carlos Zambrano Baseball Highlights Sketch- Keeper!

275 Vlad Guerrero Mini- Double Keeper!

NP66 Joba Chamberlain National Pride

Had I not had the first two, this pack would’ve been four outta six in keepers.  As it is, two is still solid.

Pack 2

210 Johan Santana

181 Aaron Rowand

41 Victor Martinez

326 Cameron Maybin SP

93 David DeJesus Mini

NP65 Carlos Delgado National Pride

Whole lotta trade bait.

Pack 3

184 Chris Young

11 Jacoby Ellsbury

60 Matt Holliday- The Cards could wreak havoc with the landscape of the National League picking up Holliday AND Mark DeRosa.  Two legit bats to protect Pujols when there were really none before.

93 David DeJesus

164 Erik Bedard Mini

NP64 Francisco Liriano National Pride

Pack 4

94 Paul Maholm

18 Clyde Parris

178 Adam LaRoche

321 Kelly Shoppach SP

279 Jon Lester Mini

NP67 Adrian Gonzalez National Pride

Crack the Code ad- These things make good decoys.  They add size to the pack being a 7th card, and weigh more and give the pack a level of rigidness close to that of a hit pack.

Pack 5

121 Ryan Church

232 Everth Cabrera Padres RC

250 Grady Sizemore

282 Eric Chavez

218 Bobby Parnell Mets RC Ginter Back Mini

NP68 Ichiro Suzuki National Pride- Woohoo, keeper!

Pack 6

113 Rafael Furcal

202 Conor Jackson

92 Joe Mauer

329 Carlos Gomez SP

66 Alex Rodriguez (horrendously miscut) Black-Bordered Mini

NP69 Ryan Rowland-Smith National Pride

Pack 7

187 Brett Myers

244 Carlos Beltran

17 Manny Ramirez

215 Jed Lowrie Ginter Code Parallel

61 Burke Kenny Mini!

NP70 Carlos Pena (damaged) National Pride

8th and final pack

227 Neslson Cruz

55 Alex Rios

96 Geronimo- Keeper!

317 Jeff Baker SP

237 Walton Glenn Eller Mini

NP71 Josh Hamilton National Pride

Well, there ya go.  Nothing to write home about.  About to fall asleep, so I’ll mess with adding stuff to for trade and want lists later today.

2009 Allen & Ginter Tradelist

Here’s the 2009 Allen & Ginter I have to trade:

Base- 2, 5, 7, 9, 11(x2), 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 22, 28, 32, 41, 46, 52, 53, 55, 56, 59, 60, 66, 70, 76, 77, 85, 86, 87, 92, 93, 94(x2), 98, 99, 103, 104, 105, 110, 111, 113(x2), 114, 115, 117(x2), 121(x2), 124, 125, 126, 130, 133, 134, 138, 140, 144, 151, 153, 157(x2), 161, 164, 165, 170, 173, 177, 178, 181(x2), 182, 183, 184(x2), 185, 187(x2), 188, 193, 200, 202(2), 203, 204, 207, 208, 210(x2), 214, 216, 219(x2), 221, 222, 223, 224, 227(x2), 232(x2), 233, 235, 236, 240, 244, 247, 248, 250(x2), 251, 254, 256, 262, 264, 265, 266, 267, 269, 271, 273, 277, 280, 282, 283, 287, 288, 295, 298

SPs- 311, 313, 317, 318, 321, 324, 325, 326, 329, 334, 336(x2), 345, 350(x2)

Ginter Code Parallels- 222 Akinori Iwamura, 233 John Lackey

Minis- 14, 26, 31, 61, 72, 88, 93, 114, 164, 188, 194, 202, 206, 237, 258

Mini SPs- 319 Gary Sheffield

Ginter Back Minis- 3, 13, 47, 154, 218, 248, 261

Black Bordered Minis- 66 Alex Rodriguez, 144 Joakim Soria, 170 Lance Berkman

National Pride- 44, 45, 46, 48(x2), 49(x2), 50, 51, 52, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64(x2), 65(x2), 66, 67(x2), 69, 70, 71

Hits

Relics- AGR-BD Blake DeWitt Framed Bat, AGR-NM Nate McClouth Framed Jersey

Autos- AJA-CJ Conor Jackson Framed Auto

Will add more as I get it, and I will be getting more.

2009 Allen & Ginter Official-ish Wantlist

A specific wantlist for 2009 Allen & Ginter has been requested by a couple of fellow bloggers, so here it is.  I need all of the following:

Base- 23 Kristin Armstrong, 24 Steve Wiebe, 33 Florence Nightingale, 34 Ryan Dempster, 39 Hanley Ramirez, 45 Derrek Lee, 96 Geronimo, 97 Art Pennington, 116 Charles Darwin, 128 Red Moore, 136 Mickey Mantle, 141 Carlos Zambrano, 143 Robbie Maddison, 146 Rich Harden, 213 Stephanie Brown Trafton, 220 Suez Canal, 228 Will Simpson/Archie Bunker, 234 Wyatt Earp, 238 Vincent Van Gogh, 246 General Custer, 255 Aramis Ramirez, 257 Heinrich Hertz, 259 Napoleon Bonaparte, 260 Louis Braille, 275 Vlad Guerrero, 289 Milky Way, 300 David Ortiz

309 Kosuke Fukudome SP, 310 Old Faithful SP, 331 Jeff Samardzija SP, 340 Richard Gatling SP, 346 Dominique Wilkins SP

Minis-

9 Ryan Theriot, 18 Clyde Parris, 23, 24, 34, 35 Geovany Soto (maybe, card sorta unnerves me), 39, 45, 57 Frank Evans, 95 David Patton, 97, 100 Ichiro Suzuki, 112 Millito Navarro, 128, 132 Anna Tunnicliffe 136, 141, 142 LaShawn Merritt, 146, 175 Alfonso Soriano, 186 Adrian Beltre, 212 Mariel Zagunis, 213, 228, 243 Alexander Cartwright, 255, 275, 276 Michael Phelps, 278 Herb Simpson, 280 Shin-Sii Choo, 290 Cat Osterman, 297 Kolan McConiughey, 300

309 SP, 331 SP (maybe, already have Ginter Back)

Also want any and all parallels of said minis.

Mini Exclusives- Specific ones I want are 358 Hanley Ramirez, 373 Geovany Soto, 381 Rich Harden, and 396 Ryan Howard, but I’ll take any of these if you don’t want them.

Inserts (These are what I have, need the rest…)-

National Pride- NP4 Geovany Soto, NP5 Ryan Dempster, NP29 Alfonso Soriano, NP32 Rich Harden, NP33 Hanley Ramirez, NP39 Shin-Soo Choo, NP68 Ichiro Suzuki

Brian Kong Baseball Highlights Sketches- AGHS3 Randy Johnson, AGHS16 Alex Rodriguez, AGHS17 Chipper Jones

National Heroes- NH1 George Washington (USA), NH19 Vasil Levski (Bulgaria), NH34 General Jose de san Martin (Argentina)

Creatures of Legends, Myth, & Terror- I have none.

Extinct Creatures- I have none.

Inventions of the Future- I have none.

World’s Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks, & Bamboozles (Lowest Priority)- HHB10 DB Cooper, HHB15 The Bathtub Hoax, HHB16 The Cottingley Fairies

Hits-

Relics- AGR-IS Ichiro Suzuki, AGR-VG Vlad Guerrero, AGR-JRH Rich Harden, AGR-IS2 Ichiro Suzuki, AGR-DO David Ortiz, AGR-HR Hanley Ramirez, AGR-AS Alfonso Soriano, AGR-KF Kosuke Fukudome, AGR-MM Mickey Mantle

Any and all of the other sports champions/oddballs/mythical creatures as well.

Autos- AGA-DO David Ortiz, AGA-HR Hanley Ramirez

Any and all champions from other sports/Negro League Stars/oddballs as well.

Boxloaders-

Cabinet Boxloader- CB1 de Caster/Kingsale, CB2 Cepeda/Gourriel, CB3 Wright/Roberts, CB4 Aoki/Matsuzaka, CB5 Iwakuma/Ichiro, CB6 Jefferson/Hancock, CB8 Truman/Pearson, CB9 Lincoln/Grant, CB10 JFK/Krushchev

N43 Boxloader- N43-RH Ryan Howard

N43 Relics- N43BR-VG Vlad Guerrero, N43BR-YD Yub Darvish, N43BR-JY Jin Young Lee, N43BR-YG Yulieski Gourriel, N43BR-NA Norichika Aoki, N43BR-FF Fei Feng

Pipe Dreams- Kosuke Fukudome Dick Perez Originals, Cat Osterman Auto, Yu Darvish N43 Relic, Any Unripped Rip Card

I think that abouut covers everything.  I’ll knock stuff off (or add, for the inserts) as I trade for it or pull it or buy it myself. Cards in italics are in the process of being traded for.

Madly Distracted

I promise I will get the 2009 Allen & Ginter wantlist posted before too much longer. I desperately need to draw right now though, it’s like I’m totally lusting after drawing and my brain will explode if I don’t do it soon. I will post the wantlist after though.