I'm slowly convincing myself...

I've talked at length about my new 'strategy' towards set building. Well, towards buying cards really. It's summed up as "Wax is for suckers". And it is. We all know it is. But it's hard for someone like me who enjoys busting wax. I know you feel my pain.

Normally a new baseball season means new boxes to bust. We've all bashed Topps to death lately, and deservedly so, so I'll refrain from more of it here.

When I saw the bright shiny purple wrapper of 2012 Topps, I of course had to buy a pack. Just one. Just to see. I plopped down my $2.75 and ripped it open right there on the counter. Ten cards. And the only name I recognized was card #7, Mickey Mantle.

Cue the Price is Right fail music....

But that's okay. After the initial let down, I was over it because I had to buy a pack. I just didn't end up with a good one. But that's life. Right? No biggie. The sun will rise again tomorrow, and eventually that GroundHog will learn how to drive. Just hopefully not angrily.

Fast forward a couple of days, and I hit up the weekend card show. This is the one more in the north end of the city from me. Which also means it has the guy who sells baseball and football cards.

He already had a few cards set aside for me....

Seven insert cards from the new Topps release.

Fabulous Freddie. (no sophmore jinx, no sophmore jinx, no whammy, no whammy....)

 Arodys Vizcaino - nice looking cards I guess. This is about the best use of gold as they could do. It does look like a Bowman insert though, not Topps.

 A couple different Henry's....

 Looks like Hank is squinting trying to see through the impending duststorm.

CHIPPAH!!!! This card is begging for an auto....

 Dan Uggla on the 'talent' side of this dual card.

 Big Mac sharing space with some scrub with weird looking equipment.

All seven of these cards cost me just under what I paid for that hobby pack.

So um..... yeah. I guess no more packs for me of this product.
But that's okay. I got to open one. And one is all I needed.

Seger är min!

It's no secret that I love Sweden. It's a beautiful country...

*ahem*... it's a beautiful COUNTRY.....

 Better. Why all the Swedish content? Why I'm glad you asked. (Quit staring at the blonde)

Reader Magnus from, yes, Sweden, instigated a trade with me. Part of the loot I received was these three beauties.

 STICKERS!!!

 these are the last three stickers I need for the 2009 Topps Total English Premier League sticker set.

I'm grateful for having put this set to bed a day or two before the sticker box I bought for the 2012 set arrives in the mail.
What?? I'm a set builder. Three years is nothing.

Thanks Magnus!

Ok, you can go back to the blonde now....

The best Super Bowl commercial and you may not see it

Some people only watch the Super Bowl for the halftime commercials. These people are what I like to call, nuts in the head. But whatever.
For a lot of Canadians, they do not get tto see the commercials as we are not allowed to watch them due to Canadian content laws. Only those of us with satellite dishes AND high definition receivers can see them, as the standard def channels are 'piggy backed' with Canadian content commercials.
Budweiser has taken pity on us poor Canucks. And since we drink more beer than the Yanks do, why not?
Bud has made a Canadian exclusive Super Bowl commercial that will nto be seen on American tv. It features........ hockey. What else?



This was real. Two teams who had no idea what was going to happen. They played the whole game in front of a packed house of screaming fans with in between period mascot entertainment. Just like at the NHL level.
For a lot of thses guys, it was their first ever taste of playing in front of a crowd since having their parents watch them. To read some of their interviews it was a night they will never forget.
Good job Budweiser.

He does it again....

For some of you who have been reading my ramblings for years.... you may remember this.

LINK

It's 9 year old Oli Wahlstrom of Sweden scoring the goal of the year back in 2009.
Well, he's 11 now, and just busted out this move.




He could play first line on montreal right now....  he's about the right size.

Great Googly Moogly..

Hide your women and children...

2012 Topps baseball is live. Here, and here, and here and.............

Hope your RSS feeds can handle the onslaught...

I think I'll go watch a hockey game... maybe a re-run of the ProBowl.

A complete masterpiece

As most of you are aware, Night Owl started a new feature called 'One Card Challenge.' It, like it sounds, is where everyone can list the one card they need to complete a set. Any set. So other collectors can see it and help each other out. A lot like a wantlist, but in point form, if you will.

I immediately put up five cards I needed in order to put five sets to bed. I got two responses almost immediately.

The first of those arrived today.

Robert emailed me (not sure if he has a blog or not...) and told me Ozzie would be on his way North.
Today ended his journey, and he is now with the rest of his friends in one of my binders.

Thanks Robert!!!!

1965 Topps Embossed Inserts

I saw a post over at Vintage Sportscards that reminded me about two cards sent to me by Baseball Dad around xmas time.

They are inserts originally found in packs of 1965 Topps baseball cards. Embossed in gold foil and slightly smaller than a regular card.

Of course you know they just happened to be Braves.

#12 Catcher Joe Torre...

 and #62 outfielder Lee Maye

It was a 72 card set, with each league having 36 cards. The National League cards, as seen here, have red backgrounds, while the American League had blue.

Quite a few Hall of Famers in the set, and singles can be picked up relatively cheaply.

Thanks Jack! A return package is already on it's way.

A checklist, for those of you that are interested...

1    Carl Yastrzemski
2    Ron Fairly
3    Max Alvis
4    Jim Ray Hart
5    Bill Skowron
6    Ed Kranepool
7    Tim McCarver
8    Sandy Koufax
9    Donn Clendenon
10   John Romano
11   Mickey Mantle
12   Joe Torre
13   Al Kaline
14   Al McBean
15   Don Drysdale
16   Brooks Robinson
17   Jim Bunning
18   Gary Peters
19   Roberto Clemente
20   Milt Pappas
21   Wayne Causey
22   Frank Robinson
23   Bill Mazeroski
24   Diego Segui
25   Jim Bouton
26   Eddie Mathews
27   Willie Mays
28   Ron Santo
29   Boog Powell
30   Ken McBride
31   Leon Wagner
32   Johnny Callison
33   Zoilo Versalles
34   Jack Baldschun
35   Ron Hunt
36   Richie Allen
37   Frank Malzone
38   Bob Allison
39   Jim Fregosi
40   Billy Williams
41   Bill Freehan
42   Vada Pinson
43   Bill White
44   Roy McMillan
45   Orlando Cepeda
46   Rocky Colavito
47   Ken Boyer
48   Dick Radatz
49   Tommy Davis
50   Walt Bond
51   John Orsino
52   Joe Christopher
53   Al Spangler
54   Jim King
55   Mickey Lolich
56   Harmon Killebrew
57   Bob Shaw
58   Ernie Banks
59   Hank Aaron
60   Chuck Hinton
61   Bob Aspromonte
62   Lee Maye
63   Joe Cunningham
64   Pete Ward
65   Bobby Richardson
66   Dean Chance
67   Dick Ellsworth
68   Jim Maloney
69   Bob Gibson
70   Earl Battey
71   Tony Kubek
72   Jack Kralick

Fight SOPA / PIPA

Blog blacked out on 1/18/12

Joy of a completed set.... almost.

A little while ago I received an email from Kyle of the newish blog Just A Bit Outside. Not sure if he named it in honour of Just A Bit Offside... but he told me he had some '83 Topps off of my wantlist.

Great!

Maybe the best set from the '80's...

Pete Falcone Pete was winding down his career when this card came out. Debuting in 1975, retired in 1984. Pete played for four teams, ending with Atlanta. He went 14-11 with 2 saves and a 3.89 ERA in his time with the Braves.

 Terry Forster  Terry debuted in 1971, retired in 1986. He spent '83-85 with the Braves. 7-5 with 19 saves and 2.29 ERA in his stint with the Braves. 

 Mike Jorgensen Journeyman Mike only spent 88 games with the Braves. Acquired from the Mets on June 15th, 1983, he was traded to the Cardinals on June 15th, 1984 in the swap that brought over Ken Oberkfell. 1 HR 15 RBI and a .257 avg is Mike's legacy with Atlanta.

 Craig McMurtry I believe we may have Craig's rookie card here... maybe... I think. 1983 saw Craig go 15-9 with a 3.09 ERA. Craig spent one more year starting and two years relieving for the Braves. After being in the minors for a year, he played three seasons with Texas. Four more years in the minors and then one last hurrah with Houston in 1995. Nice 'stache Craig.

 Pascual Perez Here we have a true odd ball. Pascual's middle name is Gross. 'Nuff said. After acquiring Perez from Pittsburgh, Pascual pitched for four years in Atlanta. In the first three, he went 33-20. In year four, 1-13. Done. Gone. Out of baseball. A year later, back with the Expos, 7-0 and a 2.30 ERA. Go figure.

This little package leaves me with needing only one card. #401. But thanks to Night Owl's 'One Card Challenge' blog, that card is soon to be in my needy hands.

Need one last card to finish that set? Check it out.

Please, with your donations, the Mets can be helped

Please, give what you can afford.... stop the suffering.

Sophmore Slump

One of the benefits of a player you like going through the dreaded sophmore slump, is that you are able to pick up cards of them a lot more readily. And cheaply too. Mr Heyward is an example of that.

I've gone from not even seeing cards of his as people hoard them away in tightly sealed vaults, to being able to pick them up at card shows and card shops whenever I want.

I visited one of the local shops awhile back and they brought out this little beauty from behind the counter.

 From 2011 Topps Lineage. No one seemed to like this set but me. Although I still didn't collect because of the price point, and the dreaded UNO backs. But this one had a decent back to it.

 For those of you scratching your heads as you can't remember seeing this one in packs, it's okay because it wasn't available in packs. It was a box topper. And bigger than the normal 2 1/2 x 3 1/2.
Here's a shiny Phil Hughes to demonstrate.

Phil is for trade by the way......

Jason set me back $1.25.

Now the only problem is........ how the hell am I going to store this sucker???

Victory is Mine!

After a lengthy 14 day, hard fought battle, Windows 7 lays in ruins, as I and my scanner stand victorious.

Expect normal posting to resume shortly. In anticipation, please return your tray tables and seat backs to their original, fully upright position. Thank you.

1

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Spending the Night Before Xmas with Harry Caray

Merry Christmas.

A Baseball Christmas

It's video week here at Waxaholic. Yeah, I'm phoning it in, but it's xmas... sue me.

Booty Boogie of the Day...

Jacob Markstrom, future star goalie for the Florida Panthers, seen here playing for their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, keeping things loose during a stoppage in play to fix a broken pane of glass.



It's no Ned Braden.... but it's not bad. Glad to see that some athletes still play for the fun of it.

A Star Trek box break... Yes. Star Trek.

It's been a long time since I bought a box of cards. If you subtract hockey from the equation, it's been almost 2 years since I've bought a box of cards. I think other than 2010 Topps Chrome football, it was 2009 Ginter for baseball.

Yeah.

I've been feeling what a lot of you have been expressing towards the latest offerings from Topps.

Meh.

And until they get their act together and release something worthwhile, I'll concentrate on my wantlists for vintage baseball, and buy other offerings from other companies who aren't just phoning it in.

One of those companies is Rittenhouse. While you will never find a Chipper Jones or Josh Hamilton in anything they do, that doesn't mean it isn't worth checking out.

I've always been a fan of non-sports cards. From the Star Wars release in the late '70's to the great sets out today. I've enjoyed seeing sets of movies and tv shows that I've watched.

Today's box break is of Star Trek: The Next Generation The Complete 1987-1991 Series One.

This is limited to 6000 waxboxes. Each box has 24 packs, 6 cards per pack.

The base set is 90 cards (including two checklists) and covers the first half of The Next Generation series run. Series Two, which will be released in February, 2012, will cover the latter half of the series in another 90 card set.

Each base card features 5 full colour pictures. Yes. Five. The fronts look like this....

 I really like the feel of these cards as they are not the typical full high glossy lacquered card you find in most sets today.
Each base card tells the story of one episode. A summary, as well as two more pictures, appear on the back.

 I really enjoyed sitting down after putting them in pages and reading the backs. Something I did as a kid with my sportscards, but manufacturers have all but eliminated. Did I mention you always get a full set in a box?

There are four different insert sets to chase. They have a foil front parallel set at 1:3 packs.

 An 'Aliens' insert, featuring, in alphabetical order, every alien race shown in the series. There are 13 different cards at 1:8 packs. Each card feautures 6 alien races.

 A 'Tribute" series, 18 cards featuring those actors that have passed on in the years since. 1:6 packs. Can you believe it's been 25 years since Captain Jean-Luc Picard first appeared on screen?

 Nine cards showing off artwork of one of the main characters. The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D. 1:9 packs

 But the real allure of the set, besides those awesome base cards, are the autographs. You get four per box.
Rittenhouse has different levels of autos in this set. Very Limited, Limited, and Normal.
Very Limited is around 200-300 total available. Limited is between 300-500. Normal is listed as 'Over 500'.
Knowing how many boxes/packs etc are available, I figure if everything is equal and balanced, Normal means around 580.
Rittenhouse changes the checklist of their autos from set to set, so not all of the cast is available in this series. Out of the "big" characters, Data, Doctor Crusher, and Commander LaForge are in Series One. I didn't get any of them. Surprise!
I pulled two Normal and two Limited autos in my box. None of the big names, but some memorable characters.

 William O. Campbell came on board the Enterprise and in less than five minutes had a young Ensign Terri Hatcher in the sack. Well done sir.
Now known as Billy Campbell, he's starred in Once and Again, The 4400, and The Killing

 Richard Lineback played a powerful slave/drug addict. He's been in Speed, Varsity Blues, Natural Born Killers and The Jackyl.

 Nehemiah Persoff is 92 years old and retired in 1999. He's been in so many shows I couldn't possibly list them all. You all know who he is, if not, IMDB or google is your friend.

My best auto, character on the show wise, was of the mysterious Traveller. This is the dude that kept popping in every other year to help Wesley Crusher evolve into an energy state. One of the more obscure plotlines of the show for sure.
Played by Eric Menyuk, who was the runner-up to play Data. Eric is now a trial litigator in Los Angeles where, according to his firm's website, "he has been keeping the world safe for Fortune 500 companies."
I think that's lawyer-speak for he's rich with a nice car and even nicer house.

Anyways... I had a blast breaking this box... so much so I'll definitely pop on Series 2 in February.

Jim Plunkett... Hall of fame worthy...

so today is December 5th, 2011. Which happens to be Jim Plunkett's 64th birthday. I was planning on doing a post sometime this week on Jim, but Hackenbush's "You Can't Have Too Many Cards" told me this morning that it was his birthday. So we have to quickly adapt and move plans forward a bit.

At the last trade night I went to, I picked up a few 1976 Topps football cards out of the Quarter box.... er... Quarter binder actually.

One of them, surprise!, was Jim Plunkett.

Now some of you out there may not know who Jim Plunkett is. Let me enlighten you on someone who deserves the recognition.
Jim is a guy who worked four part time jobs through junior high school and high school to help with the familie's financial situation. His mother was blind, and his father, due to a medical condition, was going blind.
Jim earned a full scholarship to Stanford University where he would play his college football.

Despite being encouraged by the NFL to come out early after his junior year for the NFL draft, Jim stayed in school for his senior year to be a good role model to the grade school kids that he tutored in his spare time.

During his Senior seasonin 1970, Plunkett led Stanford to it's first Rose Bowl win over Ohio State, earning the Heisman Trophy as best college football player, beating out Joe Theisman and Archie Manning.

Plunkett was drafted first overall by the Boston Patriots and set rookie records for touchdown passes his first season.
Jim ended up being traded to San Francisco for their starting QB, three 1st round picks, and a 2nd round pick.

Fast forward a bit, towards the end of Jim's career. It's 1981 and Plunkett is a backup with the Raiders. Due to an injury to starting QB Dan Pastorini, Jim took over the starting job and guided the Raiders to 13 wins over the next 15 games, including four in the playoffs, to lead the Raiders to a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XV, becoming the first 'Wild Card' team to win the title. Jim also took home Super Bowl MVP.
Three years later, another injury to a starting QB, this time Marc Wilson, had Jim leading the Raiders into the playoffs once more, and once more winning the Super Bowl, defeating Washington.

If the whole 'race' thing matters to you at all, Jim was the first Latino to be a Rose Bowl winning QB. The first to win the Heisman. The first, and only, to be drafted 1st overall. The first to start a Super Bowl at QB, the first to win a Super Bowl, the first to win Super Bowl MVP. The first, and only to start and win multiple Super Bowls.

Jim Plunkett is also the only QB of any race to ever start multiple Super Bowls, and the first to win multiple Super Bowls, and NOT be elected into the Hall of Fame.
Why the heck he is not in the Hall I will never understand. We're voting guys in every year like Rod Woodson for god's sake, and we can't elect Plunkett???

Anyways... if you've stayed this long, I thank you. And next time you see a Quarter box, or binder, give it another look. You never know what you might find. There's some interesting stories hidden away in there.

New Competitive Balance Lottery... WTF????

with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement signed by MLB and it's players, a few new things have come up on our baseball landscape.
Bud Selig's stupidity in putting the Astros in the American League.
Bud Selig's stupidity in allowing two more playoff teams. Everybody gets to play!!!
Bud Selig's stupidity in his insistance on making the leagues one and the same. Mixing teams, interleague play, eliminating seperate umpiring crews, eliminating league presidents, but still insisting on using the DH. That should've been the first thing to go.

and now we have something called the Competitive Balance Lottery. Basically, it's a lottery for teams to get extra picks in the draft, so that the "poorer teams" can compete with the Yankees and Red Sox.

It starts with the 2013 draft, and 13 teams are eligible for picks. There will be 12 picks given away, 6 at the end of the 1st round, and the other six at the end of the 2nd round.
The teams that are eligible are the D-backs, Orioles, Indians, Royals, A's, Pirates, Padres, Rays, Reds, Rockies, Marlins, Brewers and Cardinals.

Read that list again.

Four playoff teams, two division champions, and the World Series winner.

Because they need the extra help and picks.

Bud Selig wins again.

Just when I think there is nothing anyone can do to top Gary Bettman and company, Bud comes back swingin'.

New! Shiny! Bowman somethingorothers.....

at last weekend's card show, I picked up a couple of new shiny Braves from on of Bowman's latest releases.

The first, of pitcher Arodys Vizcaino is a very shiny die-cut thingie. I have no idea what insert set this is from. It's number is 10.

 Cool despite not knowing where it came from. Or why the really odd die-cut shape.

The second was a shiny J-Hey. This one was a little easier figuring out where it came from.

Nice.
Not bad for a hockey show in the Great White North.

Tony Stewart for the win!

EDIT: so I posted this on monday. Apparently blogger is a Carl Edwards fan as it decided not post it. Boo blogger!

Tony "Smoke" Stewart won his third NASCAR championship yesterday. His first as a driver/owner.

My favourite driver since he moved over from Indy car.... Congratulations Tony!!!

2011-12 NHL Hall of Fame Inductees...

This year's Hall of Fame inductees are....

Joe Nieuwendyk (KNEE-when-dike) Center. (SEN-ter)

Joe ended his 20 year career with 564 goals, 562 assists in 1257 games. And three Stanley Cup wins with three different teams.

Joe's rookie card is this 1988/89 OPC #16. To show you how times have changed, Joe had already played 2 seasons BEFORE this card came out, including scoring 51 goals the season before.

 Mark Howe (HOW) Defence (DEE-fents)

Mark Howe, famous for more than being one of Gordie's sons, retired after 22 seasons in both the WHA and then the NHL. Combined, Mark scored 405 goals and 841 assists.  No Stanley Cups, but two Avco Cups in the WHA with Houston, '74 and '75.

Mark's rookie card is from the '75/76 OPC WHA set, which I do not have sadly. So enjoy his card from the '77/78 OPC WHA set instead.

 Mark did have a card in the '73/74 OPC WHA set, but apparently it does not count as a rookie card like it would in baseball.

Ed Belfour (BELL-4) Goalie (GO-lee)

Eddie the Eagle, probably best known for his masks than anything, finished a 17 year career with one Stanley Cup win in 1999 with Dallas. In those 17 years he had a record of 484-320-125 with a 2.50 GAA.
Ed's inclusion into the H.O.F. is marginal at best, however with the bar set at Grant Fuhr, quite a few goalies from the '90's are going to get in.

Ed's rookie card came in the horroble card year of 1990/91. Upper Deck (seen here), Bowman, Pro Set and Score all had rookie cards of Belfour.

Doug Gilmour (DUG) Center (DUG)

Another marginal entry into the Hall. Mostly due to media popularity. But when Glen Anderson, Bernie Federko and Clark Gilles are in the Hall.... the bar is now set pretty low....
450 goals 964 assists for 8 teams. Traded 7 times.

Dug's rookie card is the '84/85 OPC seen here.

what I thought was a mint set is not as Dug here is the poster child for OPC off centeredness.

Congrats to all the new entries into the NHL Hall of Pretty Good. I mean, Fame.

Who's it going to be???

On Monday, November 14, the National League Rookie of the Year will be announced. It will be an Atlanta Brave. The top three rookies in contention are all Braves. The question is, which one?

Freddie Freeman 1B - .282 with 21 HR and 76 RBI with a .795 OPS and top notch defence....

 or Craig Kimbrel RP - 4-3 46 saves 2.10 ERA 1.04 WHIP .178 avg against and 127 K's in 77 IP

 or Brandon Beachy SP - 7-3  3.68ERA 1.21 WHIP  2.36 avg against with 169 K's in 141 2/3 IP

 all very strong candidates... however, I feel that the voters with lean towards............

Strikeouts are sexy.

Nationals 2B Danny Espinoza will get some votes as well... I just don't think that many.
Thoughts?

Redemption at the Plate

Awhile ago I received a small package from my buddy who runs Play at the Plate. In it, he enclosed this piece of cardboard....

 3-4 weeks later, another small package arrived at my door from Topps.

Nice.

Now if only Panini and Upper Deck would return my redemptions.....

Thanks Brian!!!

btw... please keep Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos in your thoughts.... LINK