Football opinion needed...

Whew. All that Wildcard football... some really good games this weekend. It's too damn bad my Cowboys aren't in the middle of it. But that is another subject entirely....

I've got some football packs to open. You, the avid readers, (all 7 of you) get to choose which one I open first.
Your choices:
2005 Score
2006 Aspire

2006 HIT

2006 Topps Draft Picks & Prospects

2006 Topps

2006 Topps Heritage

I'll open one on each day in the order you choose starting on Tuesday...

If no one votes.... I'm opening an entire box of Topps Heroes Season 2 live...... I'll do it too...

Mystery Random Card of the week...

I'm phoning this one in tonight.. too distraught over the Officials victory over the Colts. I mean the Chargers victory. Did I say the ref won? Hmm... it only looked like it...
Anyways...
I need help. Identify this card. What year? What set?
Jean Harlow - Film Star!

I paid $2.29 for this shipped. Deal? Or No Deal?

EDIT: oh yeah, it's the same size as a T206...

2008/09 Upper Deck Hockey FatRackBlaster thingy

I stopped by my local card shop after work today... ( I say local.. there's only two in a city of over a million people...) to pick up a couple of boxes of pages. I try to buy wax from this guy. Really, I do. $99 for a box of Timelines? $140 for a box of Documentary? And no packs to speak of, as he only has one box of each...
But what are these??? RackFatBlister packs of '08/09 UD Hockey? I've never seen these... I must have one.
Okay, so near as I can tell... you get two packs of 16 cards with no shot at ever getting a hit. I'm cool with that. Oh, and it was $5. He had wax packs for $4... only 8 cards. Maybe a hit. (yeah, right)
A FatRackBlister it is!!!
It's a battle between Top and Bottom! Who will win? Top? The heavily favoured, used to winning, bright and popular? Or the Bottom? The underdog... the dark, racy, seedy underbelly you turn your nose up at in public....

Let's find out!

Top:
First card - Jarome Iginla - Flames!
Down goes Frasier! Down goes Frasier! A first card knockdown! Bottom is dazed... takes a standing 8 count. - 10 points

Stephen Weiss - Panthers - meh. 1 point
Ray Witney - Hurricanes - a solid veteran. 51 goals last season and on my fantasy team. 4 points
Steve Ott - Stars - meh. 1 point
Chuck Kobasew - Bruins - a former Flame 2 points
Dion Phaneuf - Flames! Dion is celebrating after turning some Minnesota guy into goo... 5 points. and Dion is dating Elisha Cuthbert. 10 points. (hey, it's my game)
Erik Christensen - Thrashers - ZZzzz 1 point
Bill Guerin - Islanders - pretty good player for a long time. 2 points
Stephen Valiquette - Rangers - 1 point. A golie in action shot. 1 point.
Carey Price - Canadiens - the hottest young goalie in hockey! 10 points. Deleting the damn scan of him and not being smart enough to be able to "insert it" back into the middle of my post... -5 points
Mark Knuble - Flyers -2 points. (I'm still mad at losing my scan of Carey Price)
Brad Boyes - Blues - good defenceman. 2 points
John Madden - Devils : 20 points!!!! Oh. Not that one. This one. -18 points

Peter Mueller - Coyotes Decent young player 3 points, playing for the Coyotes, -2 points
Sidney Crosby!!!

another standing 8 count! 10 points for Sid the Kid!
Kari Lehtonen - Masked Men Insert

if you're French-Canadien or from Finland, you either are, or you know, someone who is a goalie in the NHL. It's true. Look it up. It's like that whole Six Degrees thing... 2 points.

58 points for the Top! That's gonna be tough to beat.... Let's see how the Bottom responds...

First Card:

Robert Lang - Black Hawks - a sniper... 8 points. Pronouncing his last name "Long" -6 points

Henrik Zetterberg - Red Wings - an awesome player. 7 points

Colby Armstrong - Thrashers - meh. 1 point

Jay Bouwmeester - Panthers 2 points

Bobby Ryan - Ducks - Bobby was picked second in the draft, immediately after Sidney Crosby. Pittsburgh, may I present you with lifetime passes to Chef Gordon Ramsey's restaurant. Anaheim, may I give you a $25 gift certificate to Denny's. -5 points

Francois Beauchemin - Ducks - 1 point

Milan Micheluek - Sharks - 2 points

Mikko Koivu - Wild - Younger brother of Saku, whom I think is an awesome player for Montreal. 10 points. My buddy actually got Mikko in the 12th round of our 12 round hockey pool. That, my friends, is called stealing.

He's beating me in the pool...... -4 points.

Alexander Semin - Capitals (that's with an "I" folks, I double checked) 8 points

Marc-Andre Fleury - Penguins. A goalie... 3 points

Ryan Kesler - Canucks 1 point

Jussi Jokinen - 5 points

Marc Staal - Rangers One of the three Staal brothers in the NHL right now. 8 points

Daniel Carcillo - Coyotes... remember that Coyotes thing? 0 points

Mike Ribeiro - All Star subset - 3 points

Roberto Luongo - One of the best goalies in the game today, 15 points. Playing for the Canucks, -5 points ( I said, it's my game )

Bottom remains standing to score a 53. Close, but no hockey stick. Top remains tops thanks to Elisha Cuthbert. Who is to hockey players what Alyssa Milano is to Dodgers starting pitching. Those of you who know what I mean, good. Those of you who don't, it's probably better that way.

These packs are awesome! Anybody seen these anywhere? Is $5 too much? Now I have to go and build this set dammit! Anybody got doubles to trade????

New Year's organization begins...

Part of my New Year's organizational plan is to actually figure out what cards I'm missing to all these sets I have laying around. (I am a set builder after all....)
So for those of you interested in trading/helping... I'll be updating my wantlist page over the next couple of days... and posting some nice mail day packages as well.

Does anyone besides me collect hockey?????????????
I need help with this set. 2008/09 Upper Deck McDonalds Hockey. The collation is HORRIBLE.

Rare 1976 Topps Rookie Find!!!

An unbelievable find! A 1976 Topps Chipper Jones Rookie!
Yes! 17 years before his debut, Topps had the forethought to release a rookie card of a lock Hall of Famer.
Who am I kidding? There is no way Topps and forethought should ever be in the same sentence.
This beauty is from Dave at Goose Joak. If you've never read his blog, go and check it out.
Pure Awesome.

Look at the card! Off centre, left to right! Nice! And the corner! Top right... bent! Beautiful!!
1976 is the year I would collect if I could. I've started with the Braves team set, and only need a couple more to complete it... But being where I am, there is no way I could ever find singles... I'll have to keep an eye out for a lot or box on the 'bay...

Thanks Dave! If only I had a hard copy............

Everyone else is talking Stadium Club, why not me?

I came home from work today to a mini mail day. I received a few treats from reader Rob, who contacted me awhile ago and we worked out a trade. Second was a small envelope from a seller I frequent on the 'bay.
Coincidently(or not) there are a few hot topics regarding 2008 Stadium Club in blogs here, and here, as well as a couple of others that I perused. Basically, the collation blows. The checklist is confusing as hell. And the packs are expensive.
Here's how I adapt. I can't afford these expensive packs... so I find an insane casebuster, and cherry pick his hits off of the 'bay. Here is my first attempt, all from the same seller....

Gregor Blanco Rookie Auto
cost $0.99
Gregor Blanco Rookie Photographer's Proof Blue Auto 61/99
cost $2.27

Gregor Blanco Rookie Photographer's Proof Gold Auto 42/50

cost $1.57

Total cost including shipping... $6.85 for three autos of a player I really like. Not some free agent walk on never was wannabe.

Oh, and he threw this in gratis....

This is the way I'll collect Stadium Club... now onto the next Brave...

It still grinds my gears...

so if you read my last post on the start of my 2006 Flair Showcase Football box break, you know my rant. If you didn't read it... scroll down... hurry up. We'll wait ............................................... back? Good. On with the break. Did the hits get better? (I'll cover the base cards in another post... I still have another box of these to bust)
Inserts:
Mike Haas - Luxury Suite Rookie 625/699
Mike has never played in an NFL game. Awesome.
Reggie McNeal - Club Level Rookie 246/499
Reggie was a college QB drafted as a WR in the 6th round. He has played a grand total of one down in the NFL. A run for 8 yards. After some trouble with the law, Reggie is now a back up WR with the Toronto Argonauts in the CFL.
Mark Bulger - Sideline Pass 39/75
a solid QB....
Carson Palmer - Sideline Pass 627/999
another solid QB, but 999???


This brings us to the second promised auto.
Martin Nance WR. Perfect.
You should be worried when you see the hit of the player you've never heard of, and he's in one uniform, but the card lists him with another...... it gets better.. he's actually with another team right now. Practice squad with Pittsburgh.
Career totals - 1 game. 4 catches. 33 yards. Super.


Now the jersey cards.

Michael Huff Raiders

Ronnie Brown - Dolphins

Sweet! Two pretty good pulls here. The cards are awesome looking in person. These are what jersey cards should be. Bold colours. Good photo of the player. Proper placement of the swatch. The teal of the Brown card sparkles in person. Nice black on the Raider card too... Keep your damn useless FA rookie never has been wannabe autos....

GIVE ME MORE JERSEY CARDS!!!!!

What Really Grinds My Gears...

Normally, I'm a pretty easy going guy... not much upsets me. Today's Cowboys "effort" not withstanding...
But this really chokes me. You buy a box of cards. Pay an abnormal amount for S+H (that's a subject for another post) Get it home, and start to crack it open.
You're supposed to get "x" number of hits. Two packs into your box break, you find a hit. It's a rookie auto!!!
Hmmmm.... I watch a lot of football. But I never heard of this guy.... so to Google we go.

Oct 4, 2007: Released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Oct 3, 2007: Signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the practice squad.
Sep 1, 2007: Released by the Tennessee Titans.
Feb 17, 2007: Signed as a free agent by the Tennessee Titans to a two-year contract.
Feb 17, 2007: Signed as a free agent by the Tennessee Titans.
Jun 9, 2006: Waived by the New York Jets.
May 1, 2006: Signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Jets.
May 1, 2006: Signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Jets.

Now this product was released in November of 2006. Five full months after DonTrell had been cut. You have players in your set who are not even playing the game anymore... But why would you have undrafted free agent autos in the first place????? He's never played a game. Never suited up for a game. He's not even good enough for the practice squad.
the rest of this box had best be stellar....

2008 Score Football Hobby Box Break

It's time to break a box. My wife loves football cards... so I get to buy boxes of football with no evil glares... you know what I mean....
20 packs per box, 5 cards per pack.
What I got;

all the key guys are here.....

the cards are very shiny with multiple colours to them. They don't scan worth a crap though.

New players are shown in team colours, although most from training camp.

Onto the collation;

79 base cards out of the 330 card base set. No duplicates.

7 Rookies out of the 110 SP set (cards #'d 331-440)

the best being Chris Johnson #043/100

11 inserts from the various insert series...

Limas Sweed Hot Rookie 24/30 the best of the bunch...

and three autographs.... now here is where my beef starts. We all know how we all feel about sticker autos.... I hate 'em, but they are a way of life. If there was one picture that could be presented in court as to the stupidity of sticker autos, may I present Phillip Merling...

Ball point pens on glossy stickers and even glossier foil cards don't work well.

Phillip has played in 15 games so far with 2 starts. 26 tackles, 2 sacks and a pass defended.

Not a bad player. As far as a hobby "hit" though... not good. His card is #'d 239/500 I wonder how many were done in ballpoint before someone realized... "Maybe this isn't a good idea..."

Next up we have a Gold Zone Rookie Auto of Jacob Hester. Jacob is a fullback in charge of clearing the way for LaDanian Thomlinson. 15 games played, 2 starts, 11 carries for 58 yards. 10 catches for 73 yards and a touchdown.

Still, he's a fullback. Good player, bad hobby hit. Jacob is #'d 21/50

Will I be destined to a box from hobby hell? What could possibly save me from forgetmeville?

My wife answered that in the second last pack she opened. (Why does she always get these???)
May I (my wife) present to you...

Matt Ryan Red Zone Auto #05/25

I don't need to retype Matt's stats? Do I? Just say this out loud.... Matt Ryan, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year....

A box saver for sure...

All in all a good box. I got a lot of the superstars, some good rookies, and a lot of hits. This is not a set builders set though. 110 SP's and only 7 in a box? Plus, I'm not a big fan of the "all foil, all the time.."

Who's your Mommy?

Jim from TasteLikeDirt offered a trade for some 1990 Donruss. I sent him the last couple that he needed and some random Oakland A's.. and he sent me a bunch off of my wantlist. I should be darn close to a complete set now...
Just another mailday blogger trade post you're thinking.... but no. Here's where it gets interesting...
My cards came wrapped in this....

Go ahead... click on it. Who's Your Mommy??????? Is this a challenge? Alright Jim, i accept your challenge.

#1 Calf - matches with Cow.

Ha! Take that! I defy you to do better with #2...

After Christmas catch up time Part One

Awhile back, our friend Steve over at White Sox Cards was having a little contest. I LOVE contests. The only problem was Steve at White Sox Cards was giving away, well, White Sox Cards. And I'm a Braves guy... so I played along, but said I didn't want the prize.
What would I do with cards of White Sox players? Except mail them back to Steve.

I didn't think too much about it until the day before Christmas. A package arrived from Oak Lawn Illinois. Previously, I had sent him some oddball Fisk cards, and some '91 Donruss he needed to finish his set. Maybe this is in return?
No. It can't be. What am I gonna do with White Sox? After unwrapping, the top card is...

Perfect. I'll add him to the 6000 count box of my other 1991 Upper Deck in the bottom of a closet somewhere...
Flip over the small package and I see....

Awesome.

*sigh*

Well, I may as well open it up so I can see what I'll be trying to unload on some other White Sox fan.... next card....

Steve obviously has a sick sense of humour. Rub it in why don't you?!?! This is the cow we got for our bag of magic beans...

Next...

Wrong Chicago team Steve... wait... that's Maddux! Alright!

Then...

Klesko!!! Sweeeeet!

Jeff Blauser! Awyeah baby!

Steve was messing with me... and I fell for it... also included were;

91 Clasic Steve Avery Red

91 Classic Dave Justice Red

91 Classic Dave Justice Blue

91 Classic Ron Gant Blue

91 Classic John Smoltz Red

91 Classic Paul Marak Red

90 Classic Steve Avery Pink

90 Classic Oddibe McDowell Yellow

90 Bowman Mark Lemke

89 Score Albert Hall

84 Topps Pascual Perez

84 Topps Terry Forster

85 Topps Bob Watson

and seven cards from my 1990 Donruss wantlist...

Thanks Steve!

Update...

So after calling umpteen tech service places... I find out that it will cost me anywhere from $150 to $300 to fix my computer. And no one will guarantee success. Awesome.
Nothing like getting raped over the holidays.
So here's my solution. I went to a local parts store and bought a 1 Terrabyte hard drive on sale for $99. I'm going to pull out the old one, put in the new one and re-install windows. Once that is up and running, I'll reconnect the old one and scan my important files using another new virus scanner. Then I'll nuke the old one completely.
I'll then reconnect the old one and load windows on it. I'll never use it, except for backups of important things.
If this ever happens again, I'll have a backup hard drive and my downtime will be an hour or so.

Take that techie rapesters!!!

(ye gods, I hope this works...)

Stricken down in the prime of life...

No, not me. My computer. As near as I can tell, Firefox and Windows Updates have collided like matter-anti matter and my computer is no more.
It fires up, gets to the startup screen, then crashes and fires up again. Repeatedly. It all happened while it was automatically downloading updates for windows.
*sigh*
Until I figure out how to fix it... no posts for a little while.


Any techies out there???

A man among boys...

Some of you may have missed the awesome that is DeMarcus Ware last night. Final Score Dallas 20 Giants 8
6 1/2 tackles, 4 for a loss, 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles.

That gives DeMarcus 19 sacks on the year, just 3 short of the record set by Michael Strahan with two games to go.

It's great to see the Cowboys start to heat up on defense at the right time of year. The fact that it was against the Giants was just a wonderful bonus.

Organization... step 1

As a lot of you know... I tend to whine a lot about my lack of organization. I think it's because I get distracted by shiny things. (damn refractors)
As I sort and catalog my cards, for the umpteenth time, I decided to update my wantlists as well.
This also will entail an update of my online wantlist section. Just click on the link to the right, and it will take you to an all new page, with sortable headers on the side.

A big thanks to all who look, and send, cards I need to complete my sets. I am rather compulsive about that. It's one of the best parts of blogging, being able to trade with others.... the only thing that feels better than completing a set, is being able to help someone else.

For those that are interested... I'll be updating the wantlist section all weekend...
(with three feet of snow on the ground, and -37 with wind chill, what else am I going to do?)

Happy Birthday Gregor!

A Happy 25th Birthday to Gregor Blanco. Gregor beat out Josh Anderson in spring training last season to win the 4th outfielder job last season. His playing time increased with the Mark Kotsay injury and subsequent trade to Boston.
Gregor is helpful in other areas as well. I have the Copper refractor of him as well as the red Opening Day version.... but cannot find them. Gregor has taught me I need to be better organized..

Gregor the Chrome has taught me that my scanning bed needs cleaning.

See how helpful Gregor can be?

Cardboard Addiction, adieux mon ami...

dayf from Cardboard Junkie first raised the alarm; "Where's Cardboard Addiction?"
I just talked to Joe last night... wtf? Quickly, I sent over an email. Joe responded a few moments ago.
First, everyone is a-okay. Joe had a revelation this morning. He needs to spend his time, and money, on his young family. Collecting, and blogging, are taking too much away from his quality time. So no long winded good-byes... in his words; "he needed to rip the band-aid off quickly."

I'll miss your thoughts and insights bud. But especially your music. So in tribute, I leave you all with this. Maybe not what Joe would've picked... but with his eclectic "guilty pleasures"... who knows? Enjoy.

Cardboard Addiction

About a month ago I was doing a little late night perusing of my favourite blogs, when I came upon a post entitled Musical Cards. The blog was Cardboard Addiction. I love music, I love cards. Perfect!
And there was a contest! Listen to the music and identify the "artists"... win a card! Awesome.

This arrived in the mail today. Thanks Joe! I've been trying to get this card off of ebay for awhile now....

If you haven't read his blog... what are you waiting for?

I still can't believe I knew who those guys were...

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Happy Birthday to Brandon Jones! Brandon is one of the Braves top prospects, and has a chance to make the big club this season.

With the upcoming trade of Frenchy for a bag of balls and a case of chew... Brandon even has a chance to start.
Sweet Jesus.

Anyways... Happy birthday bud.




This just in..... Frank Wren has traded Brandon and Tommy Hanson to the Indians for Kenny Lofton ...