Do You Like Chrome?

I’ll be back to semi-regular blogging soon I think.  Got the card table and the cards are slowly getting organized and will begin being sent out in early August.  If those I owe cards or were in the process of working out a trade with would comment or email what I was supposed to be sending them, that would be helpful.  Thanks.

In the meantime, please enjoy these ’08 topps Chrome inserts, pulled from way too many packs from the $1.59 bin at Target awhile back.  All are available, as (well as the base cards) except for the Trading Card History cards. I’m thinking those may be a worthy set to build.  And the Mannyfractor is already set aside for Shoebox Legends if he wants it.

Now then, onto the cards!

Refractors: Swish, Kenji Johjima, Nick Markakis, Roy Oswalt, Jon Lester Heritage Chrome /1959, Brian Bass RC, Nate McClouth, Curtis Granderson

X-Fractors: John Maine, Justin Upton, Ryan Howard, Victor Martinez, Steve Pearce Chrome Heritage /1959, Randor Bierd RC, Prince Fielder, Jermaine Dye

Pudge, Pence, & Markakis 50th Anniversary All-Rookie Team, Mantle’s 470th and 480th home runs, and the big hit of the 24 packs: Joey Votto Heritage Chrome Refractor /559!

Apologies for the lack of captions on a couple pics.  I’m not redoing them.  So just thank WordPress for eating ’em & proceed.  Besides, you can click on the pics to make them ginormous & readable anyway.  Grrr…

Anyway, as mentioned, all but the Mannyfractor are keepers on the last pic.  Kinda just want to get them all one version.

Alright, I’m gone. for now.

Holla.

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…

Renovation and Business Picking Up

Wow, things are starting to get busy at BTHE HQ.  My eyes are buggin’ out like Jeremy Borash just thinking about it all.  Let me check my schedule…

• It looks like I’ve got no less than three(!) packages currently headed my way to prepare for.  The cards I have to send back are set aside (and in one case, pretty much ready to send) at least.

• I’m also in the process of trades with both Marie and Sooz of A Cardboard Problem, as well as Shot Not Taken.  All three trades continue to expand exponential-ish from very humble beginnings.

• I’m also in the beginningest of stages of trades with Dayf (doing my trading specialty, aka the “Lonestarr Classic”: send random cards attuned to a person’s liking and hope there aren’t many dupes and then see what comes back) & Ginter Code co-cracker JD’s Wild Cardz (because I’m apparently the only card blogger that ♥’s them some World Baseball Classic).

A public thank you for the assistance with the bubble mailer SASE btw, Dayf.  Can I post the guide on it’s own page here on my blog?

• My specific ’09 Allen & Ginter wantlist has been requested by Chris of Nachos Grande and a certain Box Opener, so there may yet be more trades soon.  I will post it sometime Wednesday afternoon I think

• I’ve still got my googly eyes on Chris from Sac Bunt‘s available for trade list, and intend to deal with that soon as well.  I wonder how far into the list of what I want from him a ’98 Stephen Davis Skybox Autographics auto, a Clinton Portis UD Graded rookie jersey (not actually graded, btw; #ed to /350 though), a Carlos Rogers jersey, and few other Redskins will get me.

• I’ve still got Gint-A-Cuffs scans to edit and blog (totally forgot to scan the backs of the Ginter Back Minis, so it’ll be a bit longer before I get to it still).  The rest of the package from White Sox Cards needs edited and posted too.

• Finally, I seem to be heating up artistically, busting out with some somewhat successful sketch cards.  I’m starting to think that, even though I’m a total rookie artistically… maybe I don’t suck, and can make something of it.

How do y’all with actual lives & jobs & families & stuff keep your bloggin’s & trades rollin’?  I’m getting totally consumed by this without much of that other stuff to worry about… Am I just that immature & disorganized & inefficient? @_@

~~~~

Now for the renovation part.  My linkies are back! I dunno why that widget deserted me, but it’s back. I’ll put some more people’s up there once I get a little more organized. I tossed a couple other widgets up there too.

My heart is all in on my blog for the first time, so I’m tryin’ to class it up a bit. I’ve made a conscious effort to include more pretty pictures and shamelessly self-promote the blog on twitter.  It’s even payed off a bit too. My daily hits have more than doubled (to around 30, but still) as of late.  If I ever figure out gimp someday and make myself a banner or something, watch out! 😛

My Joey Votto auto, just because...

And there ain’t no more to say…