The Harrowing Adventures of a Nerd Week Contest Winner!

A winner is me..

The prize for winning The Junior Junkie’s Nerd Week Contest arrived yesterday, and I nearly paid for it with my life!  That’s an exaggeration, but the box was huge (over $18 to ship!), and I was on my way out, so I stupidly decided to carry it over to the parents’ place with me.  Conditions were also way worse than I was expecting, and my main shoes are super old generic Shape-Ups types with no traction left on them.

Basically, it was a recipe for disaster, and, long story short, disaster indeed struck.  I ended up crashing and burning pretty bad on hidden ice patch close to halfway between here and there.  I hit the back of my head on the sidewalk, but I popped back up pretty quickly without difficulty, no wooziness or anything that would indicate being concussed.  A couple of folks I had passed a short ways back quickly came to my assistance helped me get my bearings and everything I dropped.  Very grateful to them for that.

The pain was mostly gone within a couple of blocks of continuing on my way, and any lingering head pain has minimal and infrequent, though I will get checked out if the random, brief little twinges of discomfort persist.  I finally managed to make it over to the parents’ place without further incident, and after getting cleaned up, I was finally ready to cut the tape and dig into the box!

The box in question..

And so I dug, and dug, and dug some more!  There was a LOT more in there than the DVD.  Are you ready to be as blown away by the thought and effort and generosity that went into this amazing prize package as we (the parents were very impressed too) were?

The note..

Here’s the handwritten note TJ sent, congratulating me and running down the contents.

The original prize..

Of course, the DVD was in there.  Say what you will about Family Guy in general, but the Star Wars specials are always straight up inspired.  Gonna enjoy this. 🙂

Are you ready for some football?!

I’m taking this back to the parents’ place next time I’m over, because it is small and plushy and can safely be thrown around over there during the rare lulls when we aren’t skewering anything and everything on TV MST3K-style or talking about generally geeky and/or nerdy things when dad, my little brother, and me are all there at the same time.

Original art by Jason Goad..

I love art.  I am an artist (allegedly), after all.  But I can’t afford much original art beyond relatively cheap sketch cards very often, so this is was a super awesome thing to find in the box!  It’s a fantastic piece and I absolutely love it! 😀

A trio of CDs..

Styx and The Who will definitely get some airplay around here, and I’m not quite as down on Dane Cook as most, so I’ll be giving that a listen at some point as well.

Under the CDs, you can sorta see the corner of one of the pair of monstrously huge Pinnacle screwdown holders.  I swear I took a picture of them along with everything else, but I can’t find it.  Anyway, they are so ridiculously thick and heavy that they might legitimately be able to stop a bullet.

St. Joseph’s Prosperity Bean..

I didn’t know what this was because I’m a lazy millennial, but mom seemed to recognize it and thought it was pretty cool.  I read a little bit about them when I got back to my place.  Very interesting, and I will be keeping it on me.

Mardi Gras beads!

I’ve always wanted to go to Mardi Gras (because I’m sure my antisocial arse being around hundreds of thousands of loud, crazy, drunk people for an extended period of time would go just peachy), but thanks to TJ, a little bit Mardi Gras has come to the frozen wastes of the Midwest.  He notes they’re the real deal in the above letter, so I can’t help but wonder what he had to do to acquire them…

Anyway, I’m just glad he sent beads and not the terrifying New Orleans Pelicans King Cake Baby.

The last thing you see before you die..

There aren’t enough NOPE gifs in the world… My apologies for the impending nightmares, ladies and gentlemen.  We should probably just move on with a quickness.

Various Asian candies..

There were four different things in pouches, and my trying them out went badly.  I definitely haven’t acquired these tastes yet.  The Lychee was the best in a walk, and it kinda tasted like accidentally getting fruit-scented soap in your mouth.  But the experience was still worth the while and very much-appreciated.

You know, we’ve gotten this far and haven’t even made it to the cards yet!

Ah, there we go..

But they were there, and they were many.  I tore off the old shipping labels on the outer boxes before I took the pictures, just to be safe.

So many cards!

The top box had tons of Ryne Sandbergs, Mark Graces, and a random assortment of other Cubbies.  The bottom had miscellaneous non-sport stuff and some unopened junkwax era packs, most of which I will be drawing on the backs of at later dates.  Twas also home to the blue and silver beads.

The completely full box was bananas, with large amounts of 2012 Panini Golden Age, 2011 Panini Americana, and 2012 Topps Summer Olympics, as well as some Goodwin Champions, Allen & Ginter inserts, more random non-sport and entertainment cards,  and the occasional hockey card.

The big pack sittling in the middle of everything is a pack of 1986 Donruss All-Stars, which may be posted on A Pack to be Named Later at some point, and the rest will get a post of their own here once I’ve scanned some of them.

Since around half of the set was there, I’m definitely going to chase the Summer Olympics set now.  The other big stacks didn’t have enough for me to justify it, but I’m keeping a Single Page of both Goodwin Champions and Golden Age, as well as the vintage-ish Star Wars cards, and probably a fair amount of other things.

My canvas..

Finally, this card not part of the prize package.  This card is for a commission.  On the back of this 1989 Topps Traded Ken Griffey Sr. card, I will be drawing Ken Griffey Jr. from his RC, the very next card in the same set.  I loved the idea and will get to work on it as soon as my body stops being so creaky and achy.

For this commission I was paid $12, and even the money was worth mentioning.  Check it out!

$2 bill!

Yes, that is a two-dollar bill.  I’m pretty sure haven’t seen one of those since back in the late-1990s when I got one back as change at one of the last card shows held at the local mall.

The flipside..

Easily the coolest looking piece of US currency that still spends.

There you have it.  This has to be in the running for the single greatest card blog prize package ever made.  The amount of time, thought, effort, and money that must have went into this making it possible boggles the mind.  I know TJ puts a ton of effort into his collection and his posts, so maybe it comes as no surprise he’d go all-out on a prize package, but I am still beyond honored and humbled to be its recipient.

Thank you, TJ!  And thanks to everyone for stopping by!

It was worth the pain…

 

Pack War Trade

At the end of 2014 I sent out close to 1.5 lbs of cards to Pack War.  I’d been desperate to move some of that stuff for ages, and fortunately it seemed to have found its mark quite well.  So now, I present the return.

Valor & Triple Threads..

Valor looks great.  I dunno about Marshall & courage going together, but that parallel is #’ed /399.  I like the way the Triple Threads kind of pop out of an actual background.

Chrome RCs, crazy shiny TD, ’98 StarQuest..

For real though, even with the protector, you can see your own reflection in the silver parts of that wonderful Terrell Davis insert.  Unless you’re a vampire, in which case… *runs away*

…

…

…

*cautiously returns* Is… Is the vampire dude gone?  Okay… *deep breath*  Where was I?  Oh yeah.

I’m happy to have some of the year’s best rookies in Watkins, Bortles, & Beckham Jr.  I don’t chase RCs from any other sport near as hard as baseball, but I do like getting them when I can. 😉

Then we have these StarQuest.  But they are no ordinary StarQuest, oh no!  For when you flip them over, you reveal…

Tadaaaaahhhh!

…They are also RookQuest!  Two of the finest to ever lace ’em up at that.  Such connections they have.  Can you imagine if they had put Ryan Leaf and Yatil Green on the back of Elway & Rice?  That would’ve been embarrassing.  And now Peyton and his giant forehead of doom is playing for ol’ horseface.  Even better.  I’m not high I swear.  MOVING ON.

‘Nique Jamfest Artist Proof..

Here’s the lone basketball card in the package, and the obligatory “doesn’t scan well/looks way better in person” card, a Pinnacle Jamfest Artist Proof of Dominique Wilkins.

Baseball Rookies!

Like I said, I’m always down for RCs of baseball stars, even when I have more than one, ala Mr. Posey here.  I have three of him now: Flagship Topps, Bowman Platinum, and this here A&G.  Or, and speaking of being high, in Ricky Williams’ case, baseball RCs of football stars.  Alleged egotistical weirdo Alex Rodriguez and 2005 World Series MVP Jermaine Dye round out the rookie card scan.

Ichiros, Big Hurts, & Rynos (oh my)..

Coming down the home stretch, starting with a pair of low numbered (but not really) black parallels of Ichiro Suzuki from the infamous disaster that was Topps Moments & Milestones.  I like to think of it as the Showgirls of card sets, because I imagine its existence had to have ruined a few careers.  Next up a pair each of north and south side’s most recently retired Hall of Famers, including a nifty Jiffy Pop disk that’s just sliiiightly too big for its own good.

You’d think his lack of depth perception would cause problems playing baseball, and you’d be right!

And that’s all for this trade.  Thanks, Shawn!  Hope we can do it again sometime.  And *points at screen and winks cheekily* thank YOU for stopping by.

It was fun.  Oh my…

A Trade Post?!

Ryno!

Yes indeed… Having successfully fished for artistic complements, now we’re going to do an actual, honest-to-goodness trade post.  I’m no good at getting these up even when I trade regularly, but here goes.

These come to us from Brad’s Blog.  Let’s have a look!

Old timey-ish Cubby baseball mans..

Mostly…new…timier…Cubby…baseball…mans?

The big fellas..

Love dat Ichiro, although I’m unsure where exactly they pulled the black swatch from (the undershirt?).  But anyway, this is only my second relic of him even though I’ve collected him basically since I started blogging in back in the long long ago of 2008.  The manupatch is one Topps’ better efforts since they started doing them, in my never humble opinion.  The ® being on the patch itself also greatly amuses me for some reason.  And the Chris Sale is #’ed /50 and is a fantastic addition to my newly reinstated Single Page dedicated to him.

Seeing as this will basically be the first time I have managed to get out during daylight hours since it dipped below zero for three days straight a couple weeks ago, my end of this deal finally going to go out today.  It was supposed be out immediately before that stretch of frozen hellscapedness, but I didn’t make it out until like 8pm that Sunday, and my sleep cycle has been super broken ever since.  I am still a wreck of a human being, in case you were wondering.  But I did throw something extra I remembered I had that will hopefully make the wait a little more worthwhile.

That’s all I got for now.  A few other trades are being prepped for February, & I might be able slip one more small one into this month.  Who knows what happens next?

The Shadow knows…

Ryno, The LCS, and a Jumbo Pack

We have a new card shop in town!  I remember dad telling me about it a couple months back, that the local paper profiled the owner.  Anyway, I had a chance to stop in a week or so ago.  It’s a little sparse, and super tiny, but it seems like it might end up being one of the good ones.  Better to get my Topps packs for mall sketch carding excursions from there than at retail anyway.

They didn’t have a lot to choose from outside of an unopened Panini Crusade box at $20 a pack or $120 to buy the box outright, all three series of the aforementioned 2013 Topps baseball at the same price as retail, and 2013 Topps Jumbo Football at $11.95 a pack.  So I grabbed a football jumbo just because that’s a thing I can do now, which pleases me to an unhealthy degree, and this:

Ryno auto..

They had a small stack of them for $10 apiece.  So worst case scenario, it isn’t legit and I’m only out $10.  But if it’s real, while not a card, this takes care of my Ryno trifecta at least for the time being.  I have his Topps & Fleer RCs and some early-2000s Donruss bat card.  So yeah, I’m not getting his auto on a card for less than $30-40 if I’m lucky, so this old flyer thing will do. 🙂

And how did we do on the pack?  Enh… Let’s take a look.

Base..

Some nice action photos scattered throughout.  So good in fact I want to rant about the pointlessness of the photo variations, but it just boils down to this.  Of the 50 variations, only a half-dozen or so have a noticeably better photo, so what is even the point???

Rookies..

Pulled a pretty solid group of rookies though.  DeAndre, Gio, & Ertz are already making significant contributions, and I like Cordarrelle and Ball to start making bigger impacts next season.  And Travis Frederick has a magnificent beard.  Tremendous.  Now howsabout dem inserts though?

Eric Decker 1000 Yard Club..

Nothing special, but I feel ’em on the design.  The back has his stats from each game of the season and adds them up at the bottom.

Romo 4000 Yard Club..

The same but with QBs.  Poor Romo, probably the single most simultaneously overrated and underrated quarterback to have ever played the game.

Hakeem the Not-Dream..

Dang, this Hakeem Nicks mini was so forgettable (looks nice enough though) I literally almost forgot to add it.  Anyway, unless someone else would like to claim it, I suppose I will set it aside for BA Benny.

LOLTrent..

Excellent design (just needs a border of some kind, in my opinion), but, err… moving on.

DeMarcus Ware Legends in the Making..

This card is just classy as balls, and it might not even be the best looking insert in the pack.

Jim Kelly Gridiron Legends..

And that is because of this beaut of Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.  Some real nice inserts in there.

Fred Jackson BCA parallel /399 + base..

With a 3:10 chance, I didn’t pull any hits.  But I did get the this pink Breast Cancer Awareness parallel (according the back of the pack, camo and BCA both parallels fall 1:9 packs, or roughly one per box).

The back..

Not the best player, but I saw Sportscards from the Dollar Store likes the Bills, so maybe the best two cards in this pack and the rest of my Bills might finally have a destination in mind.  We shall see.

Not bad overall, and I’m still just stoked to have an actual card shop again.  I mean, there’s another place downtown that still has cards, but that hasn’t been their bread & butter in years.  There’s also that infamous place at the mall I may have mentioned on rare occasion as having crazy overpriced stuff.  But yeah, this is a very cool development.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  Whatever I have to say, I’ll try to start saying it a little more often.

Until our next…

Diamond Gallery #2: The Diamond Die-Cuts

As mentioned last time, my first Diamond Giveaway order (of four full 25-card orders total) arrived last Friday.  It was the free one, and contained most of my Diamond Die-Cuts. So here they are now.  Enjoy.

Shin-Soo Choo..

They are nice & shiny all over.  The only thing that could make them better is if they were in the much prettier blue or purple Walmart or Toys B Fun versions. They are great as is, but red doesn’t do it for me.  Give me the darker, cooler colors any day.

Andrew McCutchen..

The  diamond in the background glows almost as much as it shines.  This is especially true of the black diamond.  But we’ll get to that in due time.

Big Papi..

I ended up with most of what I was after, but I never was able to land Ernie Banks, and I’m still a little tweaked by that.

Dave Winfield..

There were way too damn many Yankees in this set, but it’s hard to argue with most of them.  Only Swisher and Teixeira are really debatable, and the latter only because he’s sucked in 2012.  Still, I’d have taken out both of them and either Maris or Munson and a few of the lesser Braves and added Johnny Bench, Joey Votto, and Matt Kemp, amongst others.

CarGo..

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with CarGo and the others that aren’t players I specifically collect or are otherwise spoken for.  Ya better bring it if you want one though.

Longo..

I’d like one of the few of these I still want or need in return (Ernie Banks, Carlos Marmol, Tyler Colvin, Jackie Robinson, and Reggie Jackson, amongst others I potentially accept).  In lieu of that, make a specific offer of something pretty darn nice.  I sunk way too much time into this and I’m not just going to accept any ol’ thang for these bad mamma-jammas.

Chris Sale..

Alexei..

These are the two White Sox I picked up for my dad’s little collection of things I pull or pick up cheap.  I miiiiiiiight be able to let one go if you have the ammo to deal, but I’m not moving both.

Adrian Beltre..

2012 All-Star starter, future Hall of Famer?  After the unspectacular-yet-steady early years and lone monster contract season with the Dodgers and somewhat awful stretch with the Marinerds, he’s really turned it on since leaving the M’s and seems to be getting better with age.  The numbers are starting to look Hall of Fame quality for 3B.

Aramis..

Speaking of guys closing in on Hall of Fame numbers at the hot corner.  Aramis maybe isn’t aging quite as gracefully (or perhaps it’s just the Brewers relative irrelevance when not in the playoff hunt), but he’s still playing fairly decent up there in Milwaukee.  And if the Brew Crew completely fall out of playoff picture, look for Aramis to catch fire and look and make people take notice of his offensive prowess again.  It’s what he does, kinda.

Ichiro Suzuki..

To hell with that one name BS.  It doesn’t matter if how amazing someone is, this ain’t soccer!  And “Fred” ruined it for soccer anyway.

King Felix..

And now the pitching half of what was a two man team for most of the last few years, King Felix.

Vlad..

Why is this guy not in the majors right now?!  He had his worst season last and still hit .290!

David Wright..

One of two die-cuts likely bound for Long Fly Ball.  Don’t worry though Wright fans, because I have another on the way.  For the same reason I couldn’t get Ernie, I’m a little tweaked to still have the second David Wright.  I tried EVERYTHING to deal the second Wright for Ernie, but no matter how ridiculously lopsided in whoever the offers were going to’s favor, I got jack and diddly to show for it.

RickyRo Black Diamond #’ed 48/60

Check the black diamond’s dark, ominous glow.  This is what made this order free, and the other die-cut most likely bound for Long Fly Ball.

Starlin Castro..

Goin’ bigtime with the last two.  2011’s NL Hit (and error) King, Starlin Castro!

Ryno!

Finally, one of the only two die-cuts I actually hit myself (though I guess I only unlocked 34-ish cards total), Ryne Sandberg!  Although, come to think of it, I hit this and the Black Diamond Gaby Sanchez that eventually became RickyRo in just 30-some shots, so I actually did incredibly well, I guess.

That’s it for this one, sports fans.  The Diamond Giveaway (which I keep wanting to hash tag and not space…) is over, so please make your final selections and proceed to checkout.  Thank you for shopping your local Diamond Giveaway.

Until our next…

The Lonestarr Personal Collection- 1983 Fleer Ryne Sandberg RC

One of the better couple dollars I’ve ever spent..

Picked this beauty up on COMC not too long ago for around $2.40.  I already have two Topps Ryno RCs, so now I just need OPC and Donruss I think.  I’ll never be able to afford the TCMA card.  Also, those early-’80s Cubs unis are ridiculous, but still better than the fugly White Sox’ early-’70s Sunday alternate throwbacks.

I wish I had more to say about the card itself though.  It’s definitely worthy of an insane Night Owl post.  Maybe I could use it as an excuse to continue down the ridiculous uniform rabbit hole, or lament the lack people naming their kids Ryne these days or something.  But alas, I’m not that focused or seasoned or good.  If I was, I’d have my silly tween genre fiction novels written & published already & no longer be living in this dump & I’d be able to afford more cards &… Err, anyway, just suffice to say I absolutely LOVE this card.

Until our next…

Cubs and Bears COMC Keepers

Heyo, Loneycakes (yeah, that better not stick) back with the Cubs and Bears portion of the latest COMC order.

Bears!

The Gale Sayers scanned rather nicely, but still doesn’t do the card the justice it deserves.  Easily amongst the 10 best I picked up this time around.

The Pog card is kind of a mess.  Think I might pop ’em out.

Can’t get enough Hester cards.  That’s a collection I’d love to expand dramatically.  Incidentally, and to unintentionally totally rip Fuji off with related question audience participation, do you consider Devin Hester a Hall of Famer, or at least well on his way to becoming one?

Orton, man… can’t let ol’ neckbeard go.  Wrecking the Pack’s perfect season plans was most enjoyable.

Forte is a parallel with a super subtle rainbow shine and is #’ed /250 I think.  It reminded me a lot of the shine on the lesser American Pie parallels, where you can’t even tell unless the light hits it right.

Finally, A-Train!  What a great looking card with a great looking autograph.  It’s on (or in I guess) card too.  All I need is a swatch to complete his trifecta, and they are cheap and fairly plentiful.

Cubs!

Corey Patterson… what could have been?  He was fading a bit when he got hurt that year, but would he have become legit if it never happened?

Welington looks like an embedded window ala the A-Train, but it isn’t.  It is on-card though.  I do believe this completes my trifecta for him.

Brett Jackson.  Please pan out, please pan out, please pan out…  Josh Vitters too.

The Ryno back..

Honestly, I don’t even remember buying this one.  But it’s pretty cool.  And I totally did forget something in the non-Cubs post, but it’ll have to wait.  They really should have a post of their own.  So stay tuned for that, along with one other keeper post.  Then we go to the trade bait end of things.

Until our next…

Ryno Get!

So I stopped by the Diamond Giveaway site like I do at least once almost every day, to clear out most trade offers & accept any I might like (there are two definite accepts today, for the record).  In recent days, I’ve also been checking to see if the final three Die-Cuts had dropped yet.  Ryne Sandberg is among the last three, so I decided to hold back any extra codes I might end up with until the last three dropped so I could take as many shots as landing him as possible.  I ended up saving back three of the four codes I picked up in that time, but it turns out I only needed one.  Behold!

Yes!

With the first code card (which will be forever encased in a top loader), he appeared.  And my jaw went slack in a way usually only reserved for impossibly beautiful women, impossibly beautiful art, impossibly bad puns, and impossibly delicious and gigantic sandwiches.

The other two codes didn’t score much (’85 common & ’90 Carlton Fisk), but anything else would’ve just been gravy anyway.  When I first looked only two Rynos had been unlocked, & five after I finished unlocking cards and digging, so I got him early.  Aaaand with my big late need already out of the way, I can concentrate the 228 (roughly 200 available for trade) cards in my portfolio on reclaiming Ichiro and Beltre and landing Ernie Banks and the other two Cubbies I need (Marmol and Colvin).  Hopefully there will be enough to score a few guys from my third tier list too (revised as follows: Andrew McCutchen, Mike Stanton, Reggie Jackson, Jackie Robinson, Carlos Santana, Miguel Montero, Dan Haren, Jered Weaver, Carlos Quentin, Clayton Kershaw, Jose Reyes… I’m not too picky, lol).

And yes, 228 is not a typo.  Someone offered 150 cards for my Ichiro, with a majority of it being solidly tradable based on other trades I’ve made.  So… I took it.  Thus also my reason for needing Ichiro again.

These are the Diamond Die-Cuts I have now, all keepers minus the extra King Felix, and I have specific plans for it.

Ryno

Starlin

Shin-Soo Choo

King Felix (x2, using the second to try to land Ernie or Ichiro)

Vlad

Big Papi

Winfield

Aramis

Marlon Byrd

Buehrle

Romero (Black Diamond)

Guess that’s all for this one, folks.  As ever, thanks for stopping by!

Until our next…

A Couple Small Trades

The come from Baseball Dad and Da Rook, respectively.  I will find the cards I’m looking for and send them to them in return for these beauties sooner or later.

Here’s what Baseball Dad sent:

A couple Rynos, Rod Carew for K-Mart, Frank Robinson, the First Clementes I've ever gotten in a trade, the rare set need card (Nobunaga), and LT aka the reason for the trade in the first place.

And, though I still can’t find the missing Alomar, this trade is finally mailer’d up and ready to go.  I did call his bluff and throw in an extra case & a half of random Indians cards though.

Now for the cards from Sarah:

Ichiro & Vlad toppstown golds, old school Ted, probably the coolest Tales of the Game insert, and possibly the only meaningful ticket in Ticket to Stardom..

Man, remember when everyone thought the Cubs horribly overpaid for Lilly?  He’s only gone on to become the most reliable pitcher in one of the better starting rotations in the league.  He’s like… the anchor that keeps them afloat.

And I mentioned the Shin-Soo Choo card might be the only one with a ticket to a meaningful game to the player depicted in the entire set.  Behold!

The only way it could've been better if the ticket was from the semifinal, but it's Ticket to Stardom, so I'll take what I can get. Also, it's #'ed 1/90, which is nice. Also, Jackie's legendarytastic World Series moment in text form. Reading is good.

Don’t see too many tickets from this where the player actually did something, so I was pleasantly surprised to get a memorable one.  Hopefully I can find the straggler and get the gaggle of Chippahs sent on their way soon.

Oh, my wantlist has been updated quite a bit.  Be sure to check it out!

Adieu, homies.

Wicked Ortega: The First Trade

Ya know what’s funny?  Due to the distraction of coloring sketch cards, that last post actually took at least five hours to do, lol. 😛

Anyway, here’s a selection of cards from my first trade with the Don hisself, Wicked Ortega.  And remember, this is less than half of what he sent.  He sent so much, there were even multiples of a few cards.

Sweet Lou

Start it off with the manager.

Aramis and KOSUKE~!

Why do Sweet Spot’s base cards have to come from hit-a-pack packs that cost $20??  The three years I have some from (2005, 2008, and 2009) are about the nicest looking sets from each of those years.  If set builders could get just the base cards in the standard 8 pack, 5 cards per pack, $20 blaster version with an outside chance at a hit (instead of those horrible ripoff $30 tins), they’d be all over it, or at least far more likely than with retail versions of more expensive sets like the always hugely uninspired SP.  Hell, you could even guarantee the jersey in the $20 blaster, because the Sweet Spot jerseys look like utter crap this year.

Wait, what was I talking about?  Oh yeah, the trade.  Umm, the infield power insert is hella tight, and the O-Pee-Chee subsets, inserts, and black border parallels have grown on me a lot.

Big Z!

I want to get all the versions of the Fukudome and Zambrano topps cards.  I think I have four of Z, the three above, and a Chrome refractor, and I think I have three Fukudomes, though I’d have to check.

Then we have Zambrano’s no-no.  Umm, no-hitter.  Is anyone still bitter about that?

OPC would’ve been so awesome if Upper Deck wasn’t so stingy with the amount of cards per pack.  This is a recurring problem I have with them.  It seems like they are as clueless with low end cards as topps is with the high end stuff (UD flaship very aside, though I’m very hesitant to even call it low end).  It really is a shame, because OPC mostly kicked ass otherwise.  It really nailed the fun, colorful ’70s retro feel without resorting to using a past design (yes topps, that jab was at you).  I just couldn’t bring myself to buy more than a couple packs when there were so few cards per pack and I knew there was no chance at anything special.  At 8 cards for the same price, I can guarantee I would’ve bought at least another half-dozen packs.

Goodwin Champions suffered from this too, maybe worse than any other, though SP and Icons aren’t good for making retail versions, and need a couple more cards per pack just to mitigate the suck, like topps did with Ticket to Stardom.  8 cards per pack is pretty much the cutoff point where crap retail versions of higher end than flagship stuff to starts to become tolerable.  It is also where I stop caring so much that stuff like OPC is the cute chick that has nothing else to offer.

Hmm… I seem to be mode-locked in rant mode.  More cards!

Yes!

I love the arty old arty checklist cards.  Was so glad they brought them back in ’09 Upper Deck Heroes football (even though I pulled a Packer).

All kinds of good stuff!

We got vintage!  We got minis!  We got more proof that blue makes any design they throw on card look better (the Derrek Lee Timeline)!  We got Shawon Dunston Rookies!  My Shawon-o-Meter is at .298 and rising.  How about you?

A Turk Wendell rookie, Dwight Smith cuz I can, a Randy Myers Silver Signature parallel, and... a scandalous pic of the mayor of Souvenir City poopin' in a bucket of baseballs.

Yeah, I went there.  Deal with it. 😛

Lots of groovy random stuff here.

You can never, ever go wrong with sending me Pinnacle cards. And is Ted Lilly playing up to that fat contract or what?

I wonder if these came from the same play...

Lee, Soto, some Sorianos, and Derrick May, my secret shame...

I thought Derrick May was gonna be a superstar when I was little.  I was wrong, and I guess… I’m just gonna have to put it behind me. *sigh* 😥

Yay Rynos!

Okay, I feel a little better now.

These are several thousand year old cave drawings...

But seriously though, Moyer’s been around since I was about two years old.  I dunno how I’m gonna handle it when he retires.  It’s like… he’s been there as long as I can remember.  What am I supposed to do if he’s not around, man?

The fun just doesn't stop!

I know Big Z is a great power hitting pitcher, and if quit pitching to focus entirely on hitting, he could probably go .265-25-80 or better on a yearly basis, but this isn’t Micah Owings we’re talking about here people.  Zambrano is actually a really good pitcher too, he even has a no-hitter.  You don’t have to show him hitting all the time.

Have we got time for one more?… Okay, here ya go:

Fergie!

Good stuff, good stuff.  Give it up for Wicked Ortega everybody!  I gotta sleep some more now.

I still want a Shawon-O-Meter hit counter…