A cardboard conundrum

a wee while ago, Matt from Cardboard Conundrum had a group break. Unlike a lot of the group breaks out there, he wasn't trying to make a profit. He just wanted to have some fun. He offered up 6 boxes of 2012 product. Topps Heritage, Topps Archives, Topps Jumbo Series 1, and Jumbo Series 2, as well as two boxes of Gypsy Queen. Your choice of teams for $20 shipped, later reduced to $15.

Sold.

With me not busting any boxes of baseball anymore, the opportunity to pick up almost complete team sets of my Braves from all of the 2012 product in one scoop was too good to pass up.

Relax, I won't show you every card I received, but a few highlights. You know how I like pictures.

 Pride of the NLTM. Uggla and Jones. Damn am I gonna miss Chipper.

 Did you know that in 2011, Eric O'Flaherty became the first pitcher in the history of baseball to appear in over 70 games and keep his ERA under 1.00? With Eric in the 7th, Venters in the 8th, and Kimbrel closing the 9th.... you had better be ahead after 6 if you wanted to beat the Braves last year.

In the box of Heritage I also received
229 Brandon Beachy 
238 Jose Constanza
308 Brian McCann
347 Chipper Jones (see? I don't show every Chipper card I get)
350  Tommy Hanson
394 Tim Hudson
409 Jair Jurrjens (what in the hell happened Jair???)
429 Jonny Venters
TN-AK Hank Aaron / Matt Kemp


2012 Archives

Here I'll show every card I got since I hadn't seen Archives in person yet.... plus I didn't get that many.

 Freddie on a really white card.... and his buddy Brandon. (oh Brandon, what could have been)

BMac and Huddy from the same photo shoot as the Heritage cards. Ahh... Atlanta at sunrise.

 The past and the future. Chipper and Kimbrel.

 here's my first 'hit'... a Jason Heyward gold foil parallel that my scanner doesn't like.

 Speed and Power. Hopefully we see more of both... and soon.

Topps Jumbo Series 1 and 2

I got quite a stack of these cards. But I had to show off this one.

 it has to concern a batter to be looking out at the pitcher and seeing this maniacal smile coming back at you.

Look owl! Mini's!

 ended up with three of them.

 These go great with the ones I already have, Heyward and Bourne. So I just need a couple more I think???? Chipper probably? I have no idea who's in the checklist.... anyone?

And now my second hit. A Randall Delgado autograph.

 Thank the gods Dempster said no. What in the hell is Frank thinking???????

I also received 30 Braves base cards from both series, as well as 8 inserts. Not bad.

Gypsy Queen

you knew Chipper was making an appearance along with his hunting buddy.

 someone needs to remind Freddie to catch with his glove. That's what it's there for. I showed the big version of Tommy to illustrate the mini variant I got. At least I think it's a variant. Maybe.

 I got three mini's out of those two boxes. I'm not sure if that's good or not.

 one of them was this crooked Straight Cut back of Craig Kimbrel. The irony is not lost.

 Here's where my luck really took off.

First, a mini relic of Tim Hudson.

 a regular sized relic of Brian McCann

 AND an on card auto of future Hall of Famer, John Smoltz.

NICE!

as well as 20 Braves base cards. No inserts. But I don't think they are in any of the insert sets. I think. Maybe. Hell I don't know.

If you are in need of any Braves base cards from this year, let me know, I may have dupes. Maybe we can swap for ones I need. IF I can figure out what I need.... that may take some doing.

I'll tell you what. Matt included a Golden Giveaway code card. (I'm assuming unused) The first person who offers up a card off of my wantlist gets the code. Any takers?

Most Overrated players in MLB

Sports Illustrated magazine polled 228 MLB players to vote for the most overrated position players in baseball. The results....



Alex Rodriguez - 3B Yankees 16.8%

Derek Jeter - Yankees 9.2% (how is he not number 1???)

Jason Werth RF Nationals 6.0%

Nick Swisher RF Yankees 5.4%

Albert Pujols 1B/DH Angels 4.7%

Ichiro Suzuki RF Mariners 3.4%

Hanley Ramirez 3B Marlins 2.5%

Jason Heyward RF Braves 2.2%

David Wright 3B Mets 2.1%

Coco Crisp CF A's 1.8%

Yanks take 3 of top 4 positions. Seems if you have an overrated player, stick him in RF or 3B.....

What say you?

The Next One on his way....

I was going to write a post about Wayne Gretzky. One of the top 5 hockey players of all time. But i have a hockey blog, and this ain't it, so why not talk about Wayne's son, Trevor?
Trevor, the son of a hockey player was a great high school quarterback who chose to.... play baseball. Okay. Why not?
Anyways, the Cubs drafted him in the 7th round of the 2011 draft. He made his pro debut last week with the Arizona Cubs. The 6'4" 190lb first baseman had a hit in his first game.

The Cubs list him as a lefty/lefty.... but every picture on Google shows him throwing righty. Typical Cubs I guess. I mean, look what Trevor has to look forward to when he gets to Chicago!

Good luck Trevor... you're going to need it.

That's gold, Jerry! Gold!

Fairly odd headline coming from a guy who has never seen a complete episode of Seinfeld. But with all of the Seinfeld/chicken references going around baseball this past week, I figured why not join the crowd? Be one of the 'in' people for once. Assert my individuality by being like everyone else. It's like being a teenager again.

Where was I? Oh, yes, cards. Of course. That is why most of you come here, isn't it? (those few not withstanding who are still checking out the hot soccer chicks. I'm over here.... hello?)

Moving on, they'll catch up later....

I bought a few baseball cards at the last card show. I'll show you these four now.... maybe the rest later if I ever find where I put them down.....

Four, count them, four outstanding Braves cards for the low, low price of $8.

You know any Braves post HAS to contain Chipper, right? Well here's mine...
2012 Heritage New Age Performers....

He also had a stack of these Gold Rush cards. Apparently you had to send in wrappers to Topps in exchange for these. Who knew? Not this boy. Yeah, I haven't been paying attention much.

I now own, Dan Uggla

recent number retired honouree and future Hall of Famer John Smoltz

and Warren Spahn.

Now these are pretty cool. I'm not going after the set or anything crazy like that... but I do want all the Braves. A quick check at Topp's website for a checklist....
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Looking at Topp's website for a checklist! That's gold, Jerry! Gold!
Anyways, if any of you know of, or have any Braves that I ain't got listed here (ther's only three to keep track of, it's easy) Please let me know and we'll get a deal done.

It was nice to be able to find time to write... thankfully Euro 2012 is almost over. I may get my life back again. Wait. What do you mean the Olympics are starting? When? Uh oh...........

Who Loves Stickers?!?!

I had this big post planned, but the gods have conspired against me. First, I've spent most of my time watching all of my DVR'd soccer matches from the 2012 EURO's. Secondly, this godforsaken all in one scanner/copier/fax monstrosity has decided to be a none-in-one.

While I find my hammer, don't be a dummy, and stay away from All In Ones!!!!

So you're going to get an abridged version of my Panini 2012 Euro stickers box break.

I paid $44 for the 50 packet box of stickers, but you can readily find them for $40. Albums are the usual $2.

Here is the cover for the album. Very pretty.

Here is the part where I'd show you some of the cool pages inside the album. Stoopid HP printer thingie.

The packets! 7 stickers per packet, 350 for the box.

one thing about this year's offering compared to other Panini Soccer sticker sets is the horrible collation. Apparently the North American Panini offices have infiltrated the European offices. Out of 350 stickers I pulled 115 duplicates including 24 triples.
Not cool.

I managed to wrestle 2 scans out of the craptastic all in one before it pouted and went home.

ROONEY!!!!

SHINY!!!

and that's it.... all of the other types of stickers are forever lost in the ether world. But know that they are spectacular dammit!

(I wonder what's in my draft folder?)

Something needs to be done.... soon...

before I get back to real posting tomorrow.......

on the on-screen guide for my TV channels it showed that there was a ballgame on. Who was playing you ask?

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Los Angeles Dodgers of Chavez Ravine.

Really? As a fan of the Atlanta Braves of Fulton County, I protest! Especially since they just lost to the New York Yankees of the Bronx Zoo.

Everybody gets an asinine name! What's yours???

It Must Be That Time of Year...

Contests are everywhere....

go HERE for Fuji's latest convaluted offering.

Up next, a real post... I mean it... Really. No. I'm not kidding.




By the way... anyone see Ukraine beat Sweden 2-1 today? Brilliant game.

I have no shame....

No new cards to talk about. (well, that I have scanned anyways.... I'm working on it.) So I'll just pimp a contest.

But be warned, he's a Yankee fan. Go there at your own risk, just be sure to wash afterwards.

Bass On Balls.

I warned you.

New Blog Alert

Go HERE to read a new blog....

Go HERE to enter a contest about that very same new blog.

My work is done here..... someone give me a Hell Yeah.

Booty.

as in trade night booty. Reminds me of ZZ Top. So why don't you listen to some great music while reading some posts? at the last trade night, I scored some baseball cards out of a largely hockey world. Lucky you gets to see them. Fabulous Freddie Freeman on some sort of Bowman parallel. The flag looks pretty good on black. Maybe it's time to make an amendment and add black to the red, white and blue. Change is good.

Speaking of change, Braves draft pick Matt Lipka has been switched from SS to CF and is currently learning his new position at high 'A' Lynchburg. While his defence has been outstanding, his hitting has suffered. Here's hoping he relocates his bat.

and why not finish off with a super shiny jersey card of Mike Minor? I could use this thing as a mirror.

All in all some pretty cool additions to my Braves collection. Now if the song has finished, go ahead and hit 'repeat.' It's okay. You know you want to.

It's time to break a few eggs....

at the last trade night, the shop owner, who knows I'm one of the rare set collectors, handed me a goodie bag. In it were partial sets of Humpty Dumpty cards.
You heard me. Humpty Dumpty.
These were small cards, individually wrapped, and placed in bags of Humpty Dumpty potato chips during the 1992 and 1993 seasons.
All of these cards are still wrapped in their little cellophane envelopes, but my scanner wishes that to remain a secret.
Most of the bigger names were missing from these partial sets, but a few were left for the showing.

A Nolan Ryan I didn't have before.... and an awesome Brave, Steve Avery.

It can't be the '90's without Ken Griffey Jr.

A George Brett sighting...

The backs are fairly simple. Three years of stats. Did you know Dave frapped and lanced droite style?

to see the size, I'll show you a Mark Scheiffle card next to an uber rare inverted version of Pudge Rodriguez. I believe these rare inverted versions came about 1:876075782 bags.

Why show Pudge next to a hockey card? Because there were some of the hockey version as well...
This, Bruin fans, is the Little Ball of Hate. Not that sham punk 4th line imposter on your team.

The backs are simlar to their baseball counterparts, except they are not numbered. The checklist lists them by team alphabetical team name.

Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccccccccc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brett Hull, before the "C".

According to research, there are no Montreal Canadiens in the set. Shayne Corson, a former Hab, is listed as an Oiler since he was traded their the season before.

Uhhh....... what? No mention of this card anywhere online. So either there were unannounced variations (besides inverted) or someone screwed up. The checklist also lists players from the Minnesota North Stars, but the pictures depict Dallas Stars sweaters....

All told I received 15 of the 26 hockey players in Series 2, and 22 of the 50 baseball players, with duplicates of Mark Grace, Robin Ventura, and Benito Santiago.

Who knows if I'll ever finish these ones....