2009 Icons Break

as mentioned before, I was instructed by the Boss to bring home a football box for us/her to bust. I chose UD Icons because it was the cheapest box in the store besides base Topps and Upper Deck.

With football Icons, you get the absolute Greatest Quarterback who ever played the game don't even argue with me or say any other name on the box and the wrappers.

with baseball, you get ..... jeter. Football? The absolute God-like greatest to ever pick up a ball! Baseball?... jeter... Another reason football is better.

This was a little unusual for me... only 10 packs per box, and 5 hits. On average. Let's see what she found...



The base 47/100

They look okay, my wife really liked them. I think that's because of the colour coding in team colours. I got Tony Romo, but no Witten, Eli but no Peyton, and AP but no Lord Favre.

The Rookies 3/50

The rookies are pictured in their college uni's with no mention of their NFL team affiliation, despite this set being released over 2 months after the draft. All RC's are #/599

The inserts - other than the Rookies and the auto, we got 5 numbered inserts.

The auto I mentioned? WR Kenny Britt. See exhibit #3,214,659 on how not to do a sticker auto.

The relics. 2 per box, both game used. Dick McWilliams pinky swears!

Donnie Avery of the hapless Rams and Braylon "Dropsies" Edwards of the Browns/Jets
Both #/299

Icons also has 2 Lettermen per box.

First up, Jerry Kramer /76 - And I swear, the letter is actually a beautiful Packer Green, but my scanner refuses to show you. Something about light refraction properties through fabric. Hey, I dunno, ask my wife. It's what she told me.

and of course, we didn't get our second Lettermen promised us. Instead my wife rips into the pack, looks up at me and asks, who's Gale Sayers?

Redemption City. An autographed Imortal Lettermen Gale Sayers. Nice.

My wife was pretty pumped at getting such a special card that you had to request it instead of UD just putting it in the packs.... (I didn't explain it to her, she was having such fun...) so I showed her where to go online to redeem it.

According to UD, it's in stock and ready to ship............ soon.....

Like someone I know says... pics, or it didn't happen. When it gets here, I'll post it for all to see.

btw, after we/she broke this, I went online to take a look at the checklist. And I swear, if I had pulled an Anthony Michael Hall or a Corey Haim Lettermen instead of what we did.... someone would pay, and pay dearly. Jus' sayin'

Trade Night!

so my CS, (I won't call them my LCS because I have to pack a lunch and get gas halfway just to get there) had a Trading Night last night from 6-9pm.

Okay.

What's a Trading Night?

So I sent off an email to Darren the loyal shopkeep asking the very same. He sent back a response of "bring your trade box, meet some fellow collectors, and have some pizza."

Meet fellow collectors. Check.

Pizza. Double check.

Bring my trade box. Wait. WTF is a trade box????

It can't be what I think it is.... he knows I'm a set collector and at any one time have 20-30 sets I'm working on. I have at least 20 monster boxes full of cards from sets I've completed. Does he really want me to bring those? I'll need to call Penske.

Whatever. He also asked for all of us to bring the loot we snagged at Saturday's ITG Cross Canada Tour. So I'll bring that, and a handful of duplicate inserts from this years hockey.

Off I go. Well, I did find out more proof of what I already knew. There are very few set collectors out there. Not a lot of base cards in those trade boxes that showed up. Although I did get to meet quite a few new people, no trades were worked. But I didn't think there would be.

Before I left, I was encouraged to play a couple rounds of pack wars. For those of you, like me, who have never played pack wars before, the concept is simple. Someone picks a product. It could be anything, any year, any sport. Everyone gets a pack. Someone picks a stat... highest jersey number, most goals, most career touchdowns, whatever... all the packs get ripped and whomever has the card corresponding to that packs stat, gets all the cards. Fun.
But yeah, you know me. I lost horribly. Dangerous game. Very addicting. And I really would cry the first time I pulled an auto of my favourite player only to have to give it away because someone pulled the heaviest lineman.

Of course that doesn't mean I left empty handed. Before I left the house, my loving wife told me to quit bringing home hockey and get something good for a change. That's her subtle way of telling me she wants to open some football. Yes dear.
So I brought home a box of 2009 Upper Deck Icons Football for us/her to open. More on that later. (Sneakpeek hint: redemption)

Thanks for the good times Darren! Check out Maple Leaf Sports if you're in or near Calgary.

Card Blog League

so last night was the live draft of the second annual Card Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League sponsered by none other than Punk Rock Paint.


12 sportscard blogs going head to head, all season long. Let's see who I'm bringing to battle.



Starting Lineup;



Catcher - Brian McCann - always nice to get one of the top two catchers in baseball... if you don't get one of these two, wait until the last round to draft one because the rest don't matter.



1st base - Michael Cuddyer - 32 Homers 100 rbi's... okay pick



2nd base - Ian Kinsler - my SB guy, hopefully the average climbs this year.



3rd base - Alex Rodriguez - I missed the first round and Arod was my autopick. Could be worse.



SS - Yunel Escobar - 100 runs scored, 85 rbi's and a .300 avg. Nice.



OF - Josh Hamilton - I hope he's not injured anymore.



OF - Jason Kubel - 30 homers, 100 rbi's and a .300 average. Why have I not heard of him?



OF - Jason Heyward - I had to.... I just had to...



Utility - Adam LaRoche - 25-30 homers and 85 rbi's, all in the second half.



BENCH - Jeff Francoeur, Alcides Escobar, and Martin Prado



SP - Josh Johnson - time to step up young man.



SP - Jair Jurrjens - quickly becoming an ace... please be healthy



SP - Tommy Hanson - 'nuff said.



SP - J.A. Happ - another youngin'



SP - Rickey Romero - I couldn't stop...



SP - Madison Bumgarner - I hope he finds where he left his fastball...



SP - Jorge Del La Rosa - 16 wins and 200 K's last year? In Colorado???



RP - Rafael Soriano



RP - Ryan Franklin



RP - David Aardsma



RP - Peter Moylan





Ladies and Gentlemen... your 2010 Card Blog League Champions

Hmm... I don't think so...

It's great to show an illustrated "how to", but....
I can't see it happening. First, I don't think kids collect and/or trade cards anymore.
Second, I certainly don't think they "flip" cards anymore either.

You might think i pulled out an old Tuff Stuff from the early '80's or something.... but no, it's from a brand new magazine. The February issue of The Wantlist.

Anybody want to bring some of their cards over for a game?

Card Shop Party Goodie Bag...

Okay, first up, for those of you who didn't read my last post, click HERE and read it first, or you might not know what the hell is going on.

Are we all up to speed now? Good. The main theme was In The Games 2009/10 Heroes and Prospects set. The key guy everyone wants is Taylor Hall. Remember that name. Taylor.

BTW, if Upper Deck or Topps decides that this post is worth reading, pay attention. You'll learn how to do sticker autos the right way. The way collector's will still chase after them and snap them up like Tic Tacs.

Example #1
Damn! Wrong Taylor. Oh well. This Taylor was a third round pick of Nashville last summer.

Example #2

Damn! Wrong Taylor again! This Taylor was a second round pick of San Jose last summer. The Taylor we wanted will be the first overall pick of Edmonton this summer. Yes. I can predict the future.

Now is that not the way to do sticker autos? Fabulous.

Onto the relics...

Maxime first started playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League at 15. He is eligible for this upcoming draft. I was still trying to master long division at 15.

Oliver Roy was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in last summer's draft. Oliver. We're all very sorry about that.

Joey Hishon is eligible for this upcoing draft. Last season Joey scored 37 goals and 81 points in 65 games.

And this is the big one...

Not just a regular Landon Ferraro....

but a made just for me Landon Ferraro.

All in all a great time was had by all in attendance. And there were a lot in attendance. At any one time there were between 30-35 people crammed into Darren's tiny shop. I got to meet some folks that post on some of the boards, and came home with some really cool cards. Can't beat that.

Live anywhere near Calgary?

Be here on Saturday...
It should be a cool time. Somebody needs to bring pizza though. It's a long drive for me and I'm going to get hungry, I just know it.

so what's this??

so here we have two Braves teamcards from the 1980 Topps set.

Front One
Front Two (btw, I LOVE the red pants)

The back of Front Two looks like this... just like the other cards in the set...

the back of Front One looks like this...

it is also a lot thinner card stock. It's not from any food packaging, and it's not OPC.... what is it from?

One of you who collected baseball in 1980 will know the answer I'm sure. Help a Canuck out...

Cartoon O' The Day..

Hey kids, it's time for the latest installment of the Cartoon O' the Day....
Brooklyn, New York??

Balding? Check.

Heavy 5 o'clock shadow? Check.

Smoking? Check.

Beer in hand? Check.

Wearing a wife beater? Check.

Good ole New York!

Auto mania continued...

as a continuation of yesterday's post, here are some more autographs I grabbed from the same ebay seller.

Multi Olympic Gold Medal Winner Colleen Sostorics. $2.40 (yeah, this was just before the Olympics)
it was so nice, I tried it twice. $3.15 for this one. One of these will end up at the Hamiltonians house if she ever gets back to me.

Mart Turco for .99 cents. Marty doesn't get a lot of love in the collecting community. And that's a shame.

The card that got me on the auto spree in the first place? This Dion Phaneuf number right here.

I had decided that it was wrong that I didn't havea big Flame auto. Totally un-Calgary of me. Now I can't afford Jarome Iginla, so I decided to go after Miikka Kiprusoff, but apparently there are Miikka super collectors out there, as I lost every auction miserably. So I then set my sights on big bad Dion. $8.00 later, and he was mine. Seven hours after I had won the auction, it was announced that Dion was traded to Toronto. Yeah, my fault. It happens a lot to me.


I may not have nailed a Kipper auto, but I did snag this beauty....

.99 cents!!! These were going for over $40 at the card show I was at saturday.... I guess it's a good thing his name is Miikka and not Mako....

(I'm not letting go of that joke for a LONG time....)

and btw, if you haven't already, vote in the poll to the right. Coming up next, my last auto win from this seller, along with a little history lesson. Study hard, there may be a quiz later...

Auto Mania

I just received a package from an ebay seller. I bought several cards from him/her. All "hits". Either jersey, or in most cases, autographs. You ever find a seller who has about 20 cards you're interested in, all ending around the same time, at the right price, and no one else is online? It's rare, but when it happens, it's glorious.

I'll show the first three today. Up first, a 2009 UD Ballpark Rookie Auto of Braves pitcher James Parr, 106/500. The cost? .99 cents. Good thing he's not Japanese.
Next we have an on card Goudey Graph. Sweet assed card if you ask me.... oh yeah, .99 cents for this one as well...

Finally (for this post) we have my boy. Mr Second Half himself. An auto jersey thank you very much.

yeah, it's a sticker auto, but what are ya gonna do? $2.50 brought Adam home.

Why do card shops and shows insist on charging $20, $30, $80! for these things? Do they not have the world wide web at home?

Maybe their mom is on dial up?

Whatever... enjoy, and I'll show off more later. Including a little story on "the curse"

Going to a cardshow and what did I find?

Sweet F.A. baby.

It's a smaller show (15-20 tables) held the first weekend of every month in the lobby of a hockey/curling rink.
There was a women's hockey tournament going on, so it looked like a lot of people were there, but in reality maybe 20 customers.
I have never seen so much overpriced cards in my life. No dealers, only wannabes. Every seller there was between 48-65 years old. Unwashed. Still living in his mom's basement. You know what I'm talking about. Stereotypes exist for a reason kids!

Everwhere you looked it was quadruple jersey autographed game worn jock super refractors. Millions of them. And no prices. Anywhere. Warning! Warning!

I found two dudes selling football and baseball, and pulled a Kenshin Kawakami '09 Ballpark autograph /200. No price. *sigh* "How much?" I ask. "Well son, that card books for over $80, but I've never seen it sell on ebay for less than $100. You see, he's Japanese! It's rare that us white folk ever get to see a card like this. Them Japs snap 'em up so quick!" he says, snapping his fingers. I look around, assuming I just transported into middle Arkansas. Nope. Still surrounded by women on skates. "But I'll let you have it for full book. A steal!" he says.

I'd already walked away. I found one when I got home. Better snag it before them foreigners do, eh?

Wow. It didn't get any better. Finally I paid some dude $6 for 18 cards from the '76/77 and '77/78 OPC hockey sets. I think I got raped on that too... but I was busy looking over my shoulder for the Japanese.

And then I left. Thank the gods it was free admission and I could go watch some hockey after...

edging closer...

My wife went shopping last night at the new super wally world. Normally I wouldn't even notice, except she came back with 09/10 Blaster of series 2 hockey for me. No strings attached. 12 packs, 5 cards per....

Here's the highlights...
and two of the elusive Young Guns...

I hope with a name like this, he talks like Scrooge McDuck...

But the really cool thing is that of the 60 cards in the box, less the 7 inserts, I got 45 cards I needed for my set. These, along with the cards that Dog Faced Gremlin is sending me, leaves me only 5 cards short of the set. Not including the SP Young Guns of course, but I'll never finish them.

CCC Rider...

awhile back, Paul from Carl Crawford Cards offered up some relic cards for trade. I saw one I wanted, and left a comment, offering up a 2008 Bowman Orange Carl Crawford #/250. Paul immediately sent me an email demanding the Crawford, as well as a case of maple syrup, 20 Francs, and the head of Diego Garcia.
I negotiated him down to the Crawford, and a 1982 Kellogs Vida Blue. After all, where the hell would I get 20 Francs???

No, I was not trading for smiling Dave here... we'll get to him in a moment...
Here's the beauty I was after. An N.L. Artifacts of Phil Niekro. Simply sweet.

True to Upper Deck though, It's an National League card featuring a Braves pitcher, with a Yankees swatch. Genius. A future Nobel Prize winner designed that baby. No matter. Phil wore it during his 83 year pitching career and now it's mine.

Paul also included 4 different 2007 Fleer Ultra Chippers.

an Adam LaRoche just for me....

and most of a 1992 Pinnacle Braves team set. Well, the scrubs mostly... but now I have to track down the rest of them. This is the life of a set collector...

Paul actually sent 2 Sid Breams. But that's okay. There's always a seat at my table for Sid. If you don't know why, you aren't a Braves fan....

and that brings us to these....

if a card could sum up the '90's... it would be smiling Dave there....

Thanks for the trade Paul!

a wicked case of the maildays...

everyone's favourite Don, the Wicked One himself, sent me some cards the other day. I was expecting some stuff we had traded, but that wasn't included. This was a surprise box. Some of what was included....

a mini black border Chippah! They should've put Mississippi Queen on the back of this instead of Gypsy Queen.
a teeny tiny Jordan Schafer. I hope his wrist is 100%. The less I see of ole Milky whatshisname the better.

My very first look at 2010 Topps. Kinda sad that of the 8 or 9 Wicked sent, only 1 is still a Brave. But this is my boy! My first 2010 Roach!!!

also, of course, not wanting to play favourites, is 2010 Upper Deck.

Yunel is from the "Full Logo" edition.

an oddball Hank Aaron. If you tilt your monitor, the picture changes...

Tommy Hanson! While Tommy throws a death stare designed to cripple batters, he amuses himself by levitating the ball with the awesome powers of his mind.

Warren and Tommy. Awesomness to the umpteenth power.

Tommy Hanson can beat you at a game of Connect Four in only three moves.

The back goes on to say that Tommy struck out 17 Sox while only throwing a single pitch.

A Toppstown BMac

when did these become collectible???

Another Chippah!!!

Wicked also sent over a few more Braves, as well as a couple of WalMart Black cards from last season. I only need two more to complete the set.

Somehow in Florida he found some hockey to send along... the first one is some dude you may have heard of the past week...

another puckstopper

and a former Ranger turned Canadien

as always Don Ortega, thanks a million. Look for a package from me in a couple of weeks via sled dog....