2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces - BOX TOPPERS

I have an extra MP-15 - Reggie Jackson available for trade. Thanks everyone!

I am also looking for ANY colored parallels of Richard Nixon. Whatever you have, I'm interested in buying or trading for it! Let me know!

Updated 5/20/2011

Trade Post - Video

Happy New Year everyone from your favorite Dimwit. Just want you all to know that this blog has meant a lot to me, and thus you faithful readers really have made it worth blogging. This all would be for naught if it weren't for the comments, feedback, trades and barbs that fly back and forth. I hope the best for all of you in the coming year. Also, I've decided to make a couple New Years Resolutions for my collecting:

1) Get organized. I've got lots of boxes and lots of cards that are just taking up space with little to no organization. I've already started part of my organization process by putting several sets into binders. But my big goal is to get my non-Astros, non-set completion cards sorted by teams, then work on getting those cards distributed to collectors. Here's another big part of this: my football and basketball cards. I don't collect these anymore and 99% of it is junk wax from the mid-90's. I'd lean towards throwing them all away, but every time I think about it, I wonder if there isn't someone who could use them. They'd be a pain in the @$$ to mail, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know... Also, I've got a handful of sets I'm trying to complete that I need to wrap up, please take a look at my need lists and let me know if you can help. Just search Need List in the search bar and they should pop up.

2) Narrow the scope of my collection. This goes hand-in-hand with the organization thing, but a goes a bit further. I've picked (3) sets that I plan to collect this year and am committing to myself (and my wife) that I'll buy cards from no other sets until/unless I get those (3) sets completed. So, here are the (3) sets for 2011:

• 2011 Topps Series 1 & 2 - I cannot wait to see the hits from the Diamond collection, hopefully there'll be some really good cards that make the set collectible, and not more crap from Topps. I've got my fingers crossed. If this is a let-down of a set, then I'm just going to stop collecting Topps' base sets from now on. If you're going to have a monopoly on baseball, please make a worthwhile set.
• 2011 Allen and Ginter - The set that got me back into collecting in 2009 will continue to be collected. I LOVE this set and after getting a rare 1/1 Cabinet Loader Auto-Relic of Lincecum this year, I'm hoping to have great results this next year. I'll collect this set each year regardless. Just the base set though, I'm not chasing down mini's anymore and I'll keep the hits that I really like. Other than the Lincecum already stated, my fav hits from this year were the Berkman Printing Plate and the X-Ray printing plate. Both just look cool in the collection!
• 2011 Gypsy Queen - This set just looks cool and I love what Topps is doing with the retro cigarette cards. The T206 was pretty disappointing this year, and thus it's been discontinued, but the previews of GQ look great and I'll give this set a shot.

Well, there's my resolutions, hopefully I can stick to them!!!

As promised in the post title, I do have a video for you guys. I need to make a clarification beforehand though, there is a trade where I couldn't remember who I traded with and said such in the video. The trade is with Marck from The Collective Troll! He was very generous in sending me some vintage Astros, and I'm really sorry about the brain fart during the video. Also, there is a skip within the video. I was filming on my day off from work and had the camera so that you couldn't see me, however there was a highly reflective card and you got a good view of me without a shirt on. For the safety of all involved, I edited it out... it wasn't pretty... Luckily the video cam made it through without much damage... Thanks for all of the trades this year every one! It's been great getting involved in the blog community and trading with people all over this great country!

2009 Upper Deck - 20th Anniversary Insert

Here is a list of the current cards that I HAVE in my possession... if you have any that you are looking to get rid of, please let me know!

2491, 2428, 2377, 2375, 2330, 2325, 2320, 2315, 2310, 2305, 2300, 2295, 2290, 2288, 2285, 2280, 2184, 2181, 2155, 2120, 2105, 2058, 1995, 1990, 1989, 1985, 1943, 1915, 1910, 1898, 1893, 1888, 1861, 1856, 1833, 1829, 1824, 1819, 1818, 1814, 1812, 1809, 1808, 1807, 1804, 1802, 1799, 1796, 1795, 1794, 1791, 1790, 1789, 1784, 1779, 1729, 1671, 1663, 1658, 1608, 1603, 1598, 1591, 1586, 1565, 1527, 1522, 1518, 1513, 1368, 1367, 1363, 1362, 1321, 1293, 1247, 1241, 1233, 1225, 1224, 1198, 1121, 1114, 1109, 1106, 1104, 1101, 1096, 1091, 1078, 1066, 1061, 1056, 1041, 997, 992, 987, 982, 977, 974, 972, 969, 967, 962, 959, 957, 944, 939, 919, 914, 911, 909, 904, 899, 894, 889, 884, 851, 836, 806, 792, 747, 742, 741, 695, 690, 685, 680, 675, 670, 665, 660, 651, 641, 556, 551, 546, 528, 495, 457, 452, 392, 375, 332, 327, 322, 317, 312, 302, 298, 293, 282, 273, 268, 263, 258, 253, 243, 216, 212, 210, 203, 168, 113, 101, 99, 82

2010 Topps Update Need List

Here's my need list for 2010 Topps Update, of course all numbers are preceded with US-

DONE!!!! THANKS EVERYONE WHO HELPED!!!!

2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History Needs List

Here is my needs list for 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History:

DONE!

Updated 8/21/2011

CSN Product Review: Cuisinart 4-Cup Coffee Maker

As reported in earlier blog posts, I have been given the opportunity to review products for www.csnstores.com. Well, here's the first review. My wife and I selected a small coffee maker, 4-cup capacity, because we recently got a espresso machine and started enjoying coffee at home. The only thing we didn't have was an actual drip-style coffee maker. We had a few requirements. We wanted one that was a smaller capacity, we certainly don't need 12 cups of coffee at a time. We wanted one that would allow us to pour a cup mid-brew. And finally we wanted it to be compact. Our counters are already crowded enough as it is.

After searching through the CSNStores catalog, we came across this specimen. It fit our criteria exactly so we ordered it on 12/21/2010. Knowing it was right at Christmas time, I didn't expect to take delivery on this item until pretty close to the 1st of the year. However, the promise date given was "on or by 12/28/2010" so I was satisfied when the package arrived on the exact date promised. An e-mail was sent with the UPS tracking number as well.

Here's the product out of the shipping box and then out of the product box. All items received in good order. The coffeemaker included 3 filters and a coffee scoop as well. So after dinner last night, the wife and I decided a nice cup of Dunkin' Donut brand coffee was in order. Within the water reservoir we found that there are demarcations based on how many cups of coffee you'd like to brew, another plus! So we filled it up to the 2-cup line, added the coffee and let 'er whirl! Within a minute or two, we assumed there was enough coffee for a cup and pulled the carafe to pour a cup. The auto-brew-shut-off worked as expected and not a drop of coffee hit the hot plate. We then let it finish it's brewing cycle and poured the other cup. The coffee was steaming hot and delicious.

Clean-up was a cinch. The coffee grounds basket pulled out from the container and had the shut-off mechanism attached, so it didn't drip on the way to the trash can. I dumped the filter and grounds, and then rinsed out the empty pot. Viola, we had our coffee and a clean kitchen rather instantaneously.

So, I'll go ahead and give my ratings of both the product and the CSNStores ordering/shipping process:

1) CSN Stores Shopping Experience: 5 of 5 stars - easy website to navigate and find products, easy check-out process; very little confusion regarding what step of the process you're in.
2) CSN Stores Shipping - 5 of 5 stars - even during the holiday season, they hit their target promise date. The item was shipped in an appropriate sized box with air pocket cushions within to protect the cargo.
3) Cuisinart 4-Cup Coffee Maker - 4 of 5 stars - It made coffee just as expected, the shut-off valve is exactly what we were looking for and the low capacity suits our needs perfectly. The only downside is the stainless-steel carafe. While it does keep the coffee hot, you do lose the ability to see how much coffee is already brewed that you would have in a glass carafe. Other than that, I'd recommend this product for anyone looking for a home coffeemaker!*

*Disclaimer:  This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me (The Dimwit: Sam). This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner of this blog receives compensation for my posts or advertisements, I always give my honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.*

Interview with Paul from Tri City Sports PL

After reading a blog entry over at Bad Wax about a new cut signatures card company in the industry, I was intrigued. My wife and  I have been opening packs in various sets both in the baseball and cinema realm hoping to find a cut signature. We just think they are cool and would like to have one some day of either a famous Hollywood star or a vintage (i.e. passed away) baseball star. To me, cut signatures are kind of lame if I am able to go to a card show and get the same person to sign a card for me, they lose their luster a bit in my opinion. So, after reading the post at Bad Wax, I went over to the company's website: Tri City Sports to check them out. They have a new site starting on January 1st, 2011 at www.tricitysportspl.com.

I registered with the site and contacted the operator of the site, hoping to get some more information and through e-mail conducted a brief but really informative interview of sorts. I had a few questions and co-owner Paul responded using his phone, so I've cleaned up some spelling, but other than that, his answers are unedited. First of all I asked him to shed a little light and give us some history on Tri City Sports.

"A little about Tri City Sports PL: this company was established in 2008 and had financial difficulties and our group purchased the company in September of 2010! Before we purchased the company Tri City was only making soccer cards and stickers for soccer games in Poland!  Tricity has never released any product outside of Poland but now that it's under new management; we have 2 releases for 2011! 1st release is Diamond Cuts Baseball in Jan /15/2011 (worldwide release) and we will be releasing a soccer product in the spring which will be exclusive to Europe only!"

I found it interesting that a company that started with soccer cards in Poland is making the leap to American baseball and cut signatures. So I asked Paul what got them interested in the cut signature card market:

"Well we saw that there was a lot of cut products in the market which had seriously over priced products in terms of return for collectors so instead of releasing a standard issue product we are releasing a cut edition product where each case will offer four 1/1 cut auto's per case along with our golden ticket redemption program which will include some real 1/1 type items from the golden days of baseball (non announced yet program)."

I agree that a lot of the cut signature products have a price point about $50 too high. The return-on-investment for these boxes/packs is ridiculously low and from some of the cards I've seen I am not impressed. Who needs a cut signature of Candy Maldanado that is cut from a previously autographed baseball card? I would be very upset to have pulled that card from a $125 box/pack. I'm intrigued to find out more about this "golden ticket redemption program". Sounds like it could lead to some really valuable cards/items that make the $80 per box/pack price much easier to fork over. Next, I asked Paul why card collectors should invest in the Tri City product:

"Honestly we know it's tough for collectors with the hard times now a days and things are tight for a lot of middle class households with box prices going high and higher! Our competition offers a lot of products for many years which the owners of Tri City have collected in the past! Our customers will realize our products are top notch and offer a lot of bang for the buck; we might not have the big ads on TV or the radio but as collectors and owners of Tri City we realize to make a successful product we have to make sure our customers are happy and we offer a chance for them to get some of the Top Cut Auto's of the best in the game past, present and future! Our motto is "For the Collector By the Collector!"

I really liked his answer and I think it echos a lot of how I feel about the major card companies. I'm not naive enough to think it's not a profit driven business, however I feel as though the card industry took us for fools in the late 80's and 90's with the massive amount of junk wax, and now feel like they are doing us some kind of favor with the over-run products they are offering as of late. Add in the virtual monopoly Topps has on baseball, and some of the poor quality controls issues with some of the relics, cut sigs and bad autos I've seen of late and it just compounds the issue as a whole. The big companies need to keep in mind that they still NEED paying customers and that we aren't just going to buy whatever junk they produce every year. Anyways, Paul seems to have a pretty good grasp on what collectors are looking for, as he is one himself.

I then asked Paul about their authentication process. As a new entry in the market, I could see how people might be leery of cut signatures from an unknown company (as if cut sigs from a known company coughcoughTOPPScough are any more trustworthy).

"All cuts are certified by a third party aka PSA/JSA/STENIER plus our own household expert and all cut auto cards will have a special lite mark (non visible to the naked eye) to make sure there not altered in the second market! If a collector buys our cuts in the secondary market and feels something is not right they will have a chance to send in their cards to us to verify that their card is a original Tri City Cut Auto (Non Altered) for the cost of shipping!"

Wow, first of all I don't know if Topps, Upper Deck or Donruss/Panini do the same "lite mark" that Tri City will be doing but what a great idea. I am very uneasy about buying cut signatures online or on ebay just due to the fact that you rarely know exactly who you're dealing with and if it is authentic or a lame reproduction. With this info, I think I'd feel a bit better putting down some cash for an auto from Tri City should it pop up on ebay.

Finally, the all important question: When can I buy???

"Its hard to say when Diamond Cuts Baseball will be released but our original date of Jan/15/2011 might be pushed back to Feb/5/2011 because we are still currently in the last stages of printing!"

Well folks, there you go. I do plan on buying a box, just to play the odds and try to get some sort of original card with a cool cut signature! As an avid card collector, I really do wish Paul and the rest of the team at Tri City Sports PL the best of luck with the Diamond Cuts Baseball set! Hopefully this is the first set of many! (And my wife would really appreciate if an exclusively Hollywood set could be in the making!)

The Much Awaited 1978 Topps Need List

Alright everyone, here I present my need list for 1978 Topps... yes it is massive... but I will trade for each and every one of these cards!!!! Please let me know if you have any questions!

707, 524

Updated 6/16/2012

2007 Bowman Heritage Need List

Here is my need list for 2007 Bowman Heritage - Base and Prospects:

Bowman Heritage Prospects

91, 87, 54, 46, 41, 38, 12, 11

Bowman Heritage Base

250, 204, 160, 158, 150, 130, 119, 102, 101, 88, 62, 50, 42, 38, 20

The Long Awaited Video Post...

After many delays due to YouTube/Dimwit compatibility issues, I give you the following video:


The foil cards and hits are for trade. If you have a want list, I can see if I have any doubles available. Let me know what you would like to offer. Please e-mail me (samuelpair@yahoo.com) for trade negotiations, it's difficult for me to keep up with them through the comments.

For any previously discussed trades in comments, please e-mail me if you feel I haven't responded or if there are any cards in previous posts that you're interested in!

Go Join In This Contest!!!! EASY ENTRY!!!!

Hey everyone, just thought I'd plug this contest because it is SUPER easy to enter! Just vote and proudly tell all the interwebs who you voted for... or you could lame out and e-mail your vote to the blog-runners! Don't be a coward!!!

First Sponsor Post Coming Soon!

Hey everyone, I'm going to be selecting my first product for review from CSNStores.com soon. What will I pick? It could be anything from their catalog.. from anything from counter height stools to great cookware! I'll get you an update as soon as I know for sure what I'll be reviewing!

Also, a big thanks to Ted at Crinkly Wrappers, for the Topps cards he was giving away and that I received today... scans coming soon, I got a little bit of vintage, a little bit of new, and an interesting GU-Bat card... more to come later in the week!

CARD SHOW!!!!

The wife and I headed out this afternoon with a wad of cash and a dream of autographed cards and memorabilia... and we were not left wanting... I ended up buying a few random packs, 2 boxes of 2007 UD Masterpieces (the guy gave me a steal of a deal, 2 boxes for $40 - he said it my early Christmas present!!!) and a box of 2006 UD ArtiFacts... I made out like a bandit on the GU materials, as you can see below...

The highlight of these, to me, is the Eddie Matthews relic. It's obviously a wool, old-style uni and it's numbered #76/100. Very cool, even if Beckett says it's only worth $10. I'm keeping it for sure. The rest are definitely trade bait. Next, are the auto's that I pulled plus the horizontal jersey card I got:

So the highlight here is the Clemens Auto. I'm a huge fan, steroids or not. I figure everyone was either using them or had the opportunity to do with with little to no enforcement. So the epic battles between him and Bonds were equal opportunity 'roid rage moments... Awesome on-card auto and a nice addition to my personal collection. The Cliff Lee is nice as well, even if it's a sticker. As for Boof Bonser, his name is Boof, what else is there to say???? All but the Clemens are trade bait. Alright, onwards to the box loaders from the UD Masterpieces:

These are full 5"x7" box loader cards, and as much as it pains me to say it, the Jeter card is pretty sweet. Upper Deck had a great idea with the Masterpieces set, so much better than 99% of what Topps throws out there. These two are both trade bait for the right offer! Finally, I've got a bit of a conundrum on my hands, I don't know what this final card is... it's from UD Masterpieces and while the front looks normal enough (other than the foil inlays):

The back of the card is what intrigues me:

As you can surely see, there is a foil inlay "1 of 1" on the back. Is this an Artist Proof? I'm not sure, but I am very excited about a "1 of 1" genuine article. Anyone have something similar they can help point me in the right direction with? My only guess is it's the artist proof because there is border on the front. This is not for trade...

I got many green border cards, one light blue border, one red and two black borders. I've got my 2007 UD Masterpieces set completed.

I promised you a video in a previous post... that'll be a new post as I've had MAJOR difficulty getting it uploaded into YouTube. Have a great rest-of-the-weekend!

The Dimwit Has Hit The BIG TIME!!! WE HAVE A SPONSOR!!!

I've been contacted by www.csnstores.com to be a reviewer of their product line, much as fellow blogger Nachos Grande has been, so I am hopping on the gravy train and start reviewing quality cookwares and home furnishings ASAP!!!! Get ready, you'll soon be reading a review of some randomly selected product on my blog. Here's a chance for you to participate: go to www.csnstores.com and find something you want me to try for you because you might be reluctant to buy it yourself. I'll request it, review it and let you know what level of awesome it is! Give me your suggestions and I'll do my best to pick from them when deciding!

Thanks everyone.. FYI, there's a card post in the works... a video of semi-epic mediocre proportions, but there are auto's and relics!!!

**** UPDATE: For what it's worth, here's two caveats: 1) The Dimwit and wife are vegetarians, but still do quite a bit of cooking otherwise and 2) The items needs to be $35 or less including shipping. ****

CONTEST RESULTS ARE IN!!!

There you go everyone! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Thanks for entering!!! Get me your address ASAP!!!!

Wow it's been a while!!!! HERE'S A CONTEST!!!!!!

Good evening everyone... I've been a MAJOR slacker on the blogging lately. Life has been busy, the holidays have been crazy and well honestly the hobby is in a bit of a slump period when it comes to baseball cards. I don't really bother with football, basketball or any of the minor sports. I am a die-hard Texans fan, just don't collect the cards. My card collection is dis-organized and unruly enough as it is, don't need to be adding more craziness in the mix. Some day I'm going to pull all of my basketball and football cards and do one hell of a giveaway or contest! But for the time being, I'll keep buying discounted blasters wherever I can find them. I also am continuing to trade cards. I have a couple of posts I need to get up and scans I need to do of trades. They are coming (rhubarb)... I also got my Red Hot Rookies redemption of Jose Tabata, which really is a cool card and they managed to keep it from being a super bendy chrome type... but in lieu of trade posts and scans, I give you the following massive video (b/c youtube finally extended me past the 15 minute length restriction)... 99% of the cards in here are for trade, just let me know if there's something you're interested in!


In fact, I'll do a little contest here right now... for all my extremely faithful readers. Put a comment on this post of any 5 cards you want out of this video. I'll do a randomization on Friday around noon-ish and whoever wins will get those 5 cards, plus one bonus card of my choosing (hint hint, it'll probably be your favorite team and most likely a quality insert!!!!). The only cards off-limit are the Nolan Ryan All-Time Great from 06 Upper Deck and the 4 UD 20th Anniversary Cards. All other cards are in play! If you need clarification on any of the cards, email me at samuelpair@yahoo.com and I'll answer any questions. What the heck, if you link this contest on your site and EMAIL ME A LINK then I'll give you an extra entry in the randomization. Good luck everyone! Hope you are all having a great holiday... and thanks for reading my blog and watching my goofball videos... (and my half-sincere apologies to Yankees fans, I don't really hate Jeter... well kinda...) See you all on Friday!

Trade Post

Hey everyone... I put this video together late last night and well, I totally screwed up who traded me what. Cameron, I apologize, it was you who sent me the Texans cards, not Colby. For any other mistakes, I truly apologize... it was late, I was tired and I had lost my notes on who had traded me what... gotta get more organized... for those who have trades mentioned in this video, I really do appreciate the trades. Great cards and I'm always happy for more Astros cards to show up in my mail box!

PLEASE HELP! GO VOTE!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE...

Alright, I have a slight suspicion that there is something weird going on, but somehow the guy I'm losing to in this poll went from 2-3 votes to 55 votes in a matter of hours... however, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, go vote for me (Sam Pair with his 1952 Warren Spahn for $10) in his poll. Certainly a 1952 Warren Spahn is more impressive than a 1958 Warren Spahn... seriously. A vote for me is a vote for America, and you don't want the terrorists to win, do you?!?!?!?! PLEASE VOTE, I really want to win!!!!

For all those who vote, I will award you one free internet... and a big web-hug... so in other words, please just vote for me!!!! PLEASE!!!!!

Normally I'd just keep my mouth shut....

Yes, normally I'd just shut my mouth and move on to next week... however I cannot do it today. After watching the Texans again today, I cannot stay silent. Here are my MANY gripes:

1) Gary Kubiak - You were hired as an offensive "guru". Why so many 3-and-outs... why so many punts... why do we consistently go into half-time with only ONE SCORE on the board? YOU SUCK!
2) Frank Bush - We hired you away from Arizona because you supposedly have a great mind for defense? YOU SUCK!
3) Bob McNair - You say you're all about accountability and routinely throw the players under the bus  for shortcomings that are due to the coaching staff and front office. YOU SUCK!
4) Rick Smith - You put this team together. YOU SUCK!
5) Gary Kubiak (yes, you get two gripes) with 4th and goal from the 3 yard line and :59 left on the clock, you chose to kick the FG and make the Jets score a touchdown. Look across the sideline, you know what Rex Ryan would have done? He would have gone for it, because you can't count on your defense to stop ANYONE AT THIS POINT. Make them score a TD w/ a 2-point converstion, or start the drive from their own 3 if you don't make it. YOU SUCK!
6) Houston Texans Defense - How hard it is to keep a receiver in front of you and play basic man-to-man defense? YOU SUCK!

Kubiak and his entire coaching staff and front office people need to be fired!!!!!!!!! Rick Smith did absolutely nothing to help build a defense and the coaching staff has failed to teach these kids how to make up for their natural deficiencies. Texans 2010 = 4-12 and I don't see now how we won those first 4. BOOO!!!!

2010 Wild Code - JD's Wild Cardz Blog Code Contest

Well, I cracked the code! It took a solid month, but I was the first and got it done today! Mike has asked me to put a post together to explain how I solved the various levels of the code, and ultimately the last step.


First of all, I'll say that I didn't start the code until five days after it started. I got a quick start, as the first step was pretty straight forward, an alpha-numeric decoding that sorted out pretty nicely in Excel. Read right to left, top of column to bottom. See picture below, which also include what I used to track and decipher the next couple of steps as well. I'll explain those after the pic.

I wrote out the message from the original code on lines 29 and 30. Directly below that are the answers to the 14 questions that Mike posted here. In column Y, I put in the underlined letter from each of the questions. This spelled out IMVTLNWSAP, which descrambled to TWINS AL MVP so I emailed Joe Mauer to Mike, which led me to the next level of the code. Keep the data in the bottom left corner in mind for the next step...


Now this is where I got a little bit off the true track, as Mike sent a code as well as a PDF which would be explained by the code. I was at work during this so I looked at the PDF and immediate noticed a few words that really stood out to me. As a big fan of "Casey At The Bat" by Ernest Thayer, I knew that the poem was in there, just didn't know how.

The big word that stuck out to me was "violence", and doing a CTRL+F search for that word in the poem, I found it in the next to last stanza. I crossed it off, then started crossing off every word in the second to last stanza, was left with a sizeable amount of words left over. That's when I noticed the word "somewhere" listed a few times, and went to crossing out words in the last stanza. That left me with the data I told you to remember in the lower left corner of the Excel sheet. Of course that's after I groups them together into something intelligible. You can still go to 2010wildcode.blogspot.com and check out the photo I was presented with. (You'll see I'm a follower of the blog, but I wasn't the first so I was a bit worried I was behind). I e-mailed Mike that I had gotten that far and he informed me that I was to determine which of the 21 cards pictured didn't belong.


This is where it all started to fall apart for me. I'll tell you now that I just got this part of the puzzle solved TODAY, November 16th and I had gotten to this point on October 20th! I fired off about 10 guesses over the next couple of days, and in hind sight it's amazing how far off I was. The only clue Mike gave me to start with was to look north of the border, which indicated Aaron Hill of the Toronto Blue Jays was the place to start. I had no idea what I was looking for. As it turns out, I had started down the right path at one point, mistakenly thought it wasn't right and quit on it. Anyways, after about a week and a half of trying to solve it I knew that the more I looked at it, the more frustrated I would get. In the comments on the code page, you can get a feel of my frustration! I kept an eye on the regular blog for any updates/clues or notification that it was solved. I saw earlier this week that Mike posted another clue and thought I should try again, asked for a clarification and started back at it today. He hinted that the next card involved a player that joined the Padres this year, and I instantly knew it was Ryan Ludwick. Things progressed quickly this afternoon...


I saw that Hill ended with an L and Ludwick of course started with one. I started the chain by looking at it in such a manner and ended up with the list I sent to Mike as part of the solution:
1) HilL
2) LudwicK
3) KemP
4) PorcellO
5) OrtiZ
6) ZimmermanN
7) NomingA
8) AbboT
9) ThomE
10) EllsburY
11) YaztremskI
12) IwamurA
13) AnkieL
14) LirianO
15) OswalT
16) TayloR
17) RyaN
18) NadY
19) YounG
20) Garcia
As you can see, each name linked to the next one until there was one player/card left standing... Nick Markakis. My month of frustration with this picture was over... The code however, was not...


Mike sent me the following coded message saying that they were clues to a card in the 2010 A&G set, send a picture of that card to him and I win... and that Markakis was the key...

3, 14 , 21, 6 ,3 ,21, 8

  

22, 12, 9, 17, 8

6, 21, 8, 1, 24, 9, 8

  

22, 25, 21, 12, 24, 25, 24

 2, 25, 6, 3, 23, 9, 10, 14, 25, 12

I then plugged the numbers into an Excel file and plugged in a vlookup formula against an alphabet listing. Of course the straight A=1, B=2, etc came back with gibberish. I remembered that "Markakis is the key" and saw in the picture that his uniform number is "21". So I plugged the code in based on A=21, B=22, etc as you'll see below... 

At first, ashamedly I didn't get it. I was thinking the color brown and I put all five words into google together and got nothing. I was a bit confused. I looked through the A&G checklist and saw Da Vinci. Italian, bearded and I knew he had an early concept of the helicopter. Then I wondered how Langdon and Brown applied. I had an A-HA moment when I remembered the book/movie "The Da Vinci Code". The irony was not lost on me... So I had solved it. I sent a picture of the card in to Mike and was greeted with a warm congratulations. Hopefully this has impressed someone enough to include me on the next A&G Code break... haha! 

Thanks Mike, this was a lot of fun and it challenged me to break it!

$10 Beckett.com Card Shop Challenge

So I decided to enter this contest and headed to my card shop to see what I could find for $10. Luckily for me, Howard just bought a bunch of 1951 and 1952 Bowman from a guy and they weren't in the greatest of condition. They had been corner pocket-ed to a page with a piece of tape holding the top center of the card to the page. I looked through the collection and decided it would come down to a really cool looking card of a HOF'er that I've always admired...

You can see the tape damage a bit around his head, and I'll tell ya now, the corners are no where near as sharp as they look in the scan. But I really liked this card and am glad Beckett ran the contest or I'd never have ended up with it!

2009 Upper Deck Icons ERROR? and Need list...

So I stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home tonight and grabbed another blaster of 2009 Upper Deck Icons... I kinda of like this set if you can't tell already from previous posts. Anyways, I got the usual 1 Game-Used jersey card, Victor Martinez - Cleveland (another solid white swatch, kind of annoying, but whatever...) and got a bonus: my first "Rookies" insert. I think there's an error on this one, I hope it shows up well in the scan. But it is supposed to be numbered 369/999, however if you can see in the scan it is numbered 369/099. Don't know if this raises the value any... but still a cool mis-stamp nonetheless... Let me know if any of you have come across something like this...

Anyways, I've got the full base set from 1-100 now, so if anyone is looking for 2009 Icons here's a "for trade" list...
A slew of base cards, let me know if you need any and I'll see what I can send your way...
Red Foil: Evan Longoria, Carlos Lee, and Manny Ramirez
"Icons" numbered to 999: Posada, Glavine, Lackey, Ryan Zimmerman
Game-Used Jersey Cards: Posada, Victor Martinez and Chone Figgins

If you have any Astros GU jersey cards available from this set, let me know b/c I'd love to work out a trade.

BTW... I have been bad lately I know, please please please send me an e-mail at samuelpair@yahoo.com if I owe you cards. I do have 2 packages ready to send out, one to Ryan and the other to Matt F. Mr. Hopper, I know I owe you cards as well, just working on getting some time to go through your want list(s) and find something to send as well as the Glavine card already discussed. Thanks!

TRADE and Blaster Video!!!!

Alright everyone, here's a video showing off a couple of trades and a discount 2009 Icon blaster opening... sorry, couldn't get the scanner to work right so I had to do the trade posts via video!

CARDS, CARDS, CARDS!!!! GET YOUR CARDS HERE!!!!

Alright, some of you may remember that about a month ago, I got a very generous offer from Dan in Maine. Well, he's contacted me to let me know he's got more cards to parcel out for the following teams:

Phillies

Marlins

Rockies

Giants

Padres

Blue Jays

Dodgers

Indians

Rangers

Mets

Pirates

Mariners

 

He's a great guy and doesn't EXPECT anything in return, but by all means please try to send him some Red Sox cards back in return! Contact him directly at drm52574@aol.com if you are interested, you'll be glad you did!!!

CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT - FOR GEORGIA MINDSET!

Just in case you're the one person in the blog-world who hasn't heard about this contest!!!! Check it out people! Thanks Georgia Mindet!!!

TRADE POST - Ryan at "O" No!!!! Another Orioles Blog

Got a nice little package of cards in the mail the other day from Ryan over at "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog and I was pleasantly surprised with the loot! He was able to send me some cards towards both of my set completion projects: 1978 Topps and the 20th Anniversary 2009 UD Series. Plus, what I believe is my first Brooks Robinson card. Below are the highlights...

Thanks again Ryan. I'll work on getting a package back to you here very soon...

2010 Topps Update Box Break

I should have titled this: Let the Strasburg Pimping Continue... but that was expected right? You don't sign an exclusivity deal and then not throw in a bunch of his cards right? Well, here we go. The box has 36 packs, at 10 cards per pack, and a 1 card Rookie Refractor as well. There is a guarantee of 1 auto or relic. The same basic insert sets are there from the original Series 1 and 2. There are 330 or 331 cards in the set, depending on where you consider the Strasburg #661 card lands. According to the checklist cards in the set, it's part of the update... First, here's the refractor card that I got:

Not too bad, it's not Strasburg but I'll take it. The kid is playing his part in the Rangers' quest for the WS. Alright, next is a random selection of inserts, including my first black border parallel which is numbered 48/59. Definitely like the inclusion of the Nolan Ryan cards and the Babe always looks great on a baseball card.

Alright, I mentions Strasburg pimpage... well, there's 3 cards in the base update, and then a 4th card I got as part of the inserts... it seems most of the big rookies have a base RC and then a "debut card", Strasburg is also included on a checklist card and then there's the "More Tales from the Game" Rookie Tsunami card.

So overall, I got a very considerable portion of the entire update set. I'd approximate that I'm about 30-40 cards short (I'll post a want list once I think more people have them available for trade), and only had 12 duplicates of base cards total. I ended up with 4 Turkey Red inserts, however I got duplicates of 3 of them (so I should have gotten 7 total, great job on the collation there Topps)... Oh wait, at this point, I bet you're wondering "Hmm... The Dimwit hasn't posted his auto or relic, I wonder what it is? Is it so fantabulous that he saved it for the very end???" OF COURSE I did... here you go everyone, my "relic"...

That's right, more Stasburg mania... this beauty is numbered 116/500. The odds of pulling a RC Patch card are 1:1125 packs or thereabouts, so pulling one of the 500 Strasburgs is a nice hit I guess. What should I do, hold on to it, or sell it on ebay? Hmmm... let me know what you think!

Putting a toe in the water...

So, we went to Wal-Mart tonight and I picked up a couple blasters. The first was one of those Tri-Star card chases with 16 packs for $20 with a chance at a '52 high series pack. The other was a 2010 Topps Chrome blaster. I recorded a video each, but after the Tri-Star box (which was complete 1988-89 JUNK WAX and one pack of 2009 Obak) I decided I wouldn't bore you with that box. Thus, here's the Topps Chrome blaster... all cards for trade... don't think I'll be collecting Chrome, not a huge fan of rainbow shaped cards that are warped as hell before you even open the pack. Seriously Topps, after all these years you can't figure out a way to make these without warping the hell out of them??!?!?! What's the point if you can't even produce flat, crisp cards? Just doesn't make sense to me... just sayin'...

TRADE POST - WAY OVER DUE!!!

Alright everyone, I finally got a free minute or two and thought I'd get a trade post done... finally... first of all, I have to say that I continue to be amazed and humbled by the generosity of strangers on the blog-o-sphere... you guys are awesome and I can't thank all of you enough who have traded with me...

First we have BA Benny and his big time generosity with giving me his Astros cards... I send him my Mets and Yankees, he sends me quality Astros hits... Along with about 100-150 random Astros cards I got these two beauts:

And then there is Chris from Nachos Grande; we e-mailed back and forth quite a bit and when it came down to it, I just couldn't find anything on his want list that I could provide for him... but rather than table the trade, he basically sent me cards for "A Player To Be Named Later" in MLB Trade lingo... I owe him some cards, and I'll be doing the best I can to fulfill a trade for him soon... as he sent me 21 cards from my A&G want list, and 25 cards from my quest to complete the Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Insert set...

Again, thank you gentlemen for the cards and my deepest apologies for not getting this post done sooner!

If there is anyone who has sent me cards and hasn't gotten a post, please let me know, I can be forgetful or just plain dumb sometimes... thus I'm the Dimwit... goodnight everyone!

CONTEST RESULTS ARE IN!!!

Alright everyone, the moment you've all been waiting for is here!!!! Here's the original list:

And the first randomization of three:

And the second randomization of three:

And the final randomization... the winner is....

Alright everyone there's your winner! Matt, send me an email with your mailing address and I'll get them sent out to you ASAP... good to know these are going into the hands of a loyal Cubs fan... Thanks everyone!!!!

MASSIVE BOX IN THE MAIL!!!!

Wow, so about a week ago, I was contacted by a guy known as "Dan in Maine"... I'm not sure if he has a blog, but I tell you now, if you get an e-mail from him you are very lucky! He said he had about 2,000 Astros cards and said he'd send them on with a promise of Red Sox cards getting sent back to him in the future... well, lets just say I have a lot of cards to be sending to him... all my Red Sox cards from here forward will be marked for Dan! The first picture is just an overall view of all the boxes sent my way:

The CD case looking thing on the bottom left, is well, a CD case, but modified to hold some holographic baseball cards (not endorsed by MLB but awesome nonetheless) celebrating the 1991 Rookie of the Year Jeff Bagwell. There's 4 cards in all and the set is serial numbered 205,026 of 250,000. Scans of those are in the next picture along with a couple of other cards. The biggest of which is my (I know this is kind of sad) FIRST EVER RATED CARD!!!! And it's a Jeff Bagwell 1991 Fleer Ultra Update ROOKIE CARD!!!!! Rated 8.5!!! Very awesome... again it's in the next picture... There is also a bookmark card of Bagwell. Finally, there is a Craig Biggio 1995 Studio card, with embossed print that kind of makes it look like a credit card. See below...

Ok, back to the Biggio card, I was about to just keep going through the many cards, but for some reason it caught me as an odd card, so I flipped it over to find this:

OMG, it IS like a credit card, complete with a signature on the back! First time I've ever seen a signature on the BACK of a card... and it's Craig Biggio!!!! I'll be in Cooperstown in a few years when Craig gets his plaque, and I sure hope I have a chance to shake his hand again and maybe get a few more autographs for my personal collection. In college, I worked on the Astros' Grounds Crew for two seasons and had a chance to sit with many of the Astros, including Craig during batting practice. Great guys and great to get some great cards from a reader! Dan in Maine... you are awesome... I certainly hope some of my fellow readers get a chance to trade with you!

Alright, this post took precedence over some of my recent trades, but I SWEAR the other posts will be done this weekend!

Contest Reminder!!!!!

Get your entries in by Friday evening! If you've plugged the contest on your blog, remember to send me an email to samuelpair@yahoo.com with the link to it for your second entry!

Thanks for all who have entered so far! I promise, later this week or this weekend, there are multiple blogs postings going up for trades I've neglected to post!

CONTEST TIME!!!!

Alright, I've wanted to do a contest... and since I found a couple of auto's to give away, I figured now was a good time to do it!

Two ways to enter:
1) Leave a comment
2) Link to this contest on your blog and email me at samuelpair@yahoo.com with the link. (Yes, I know it's a shameless way to get more readers... I never guaranteed shame on this blog... lower your expectations... haha!)

I'll wait until Friday, get the list together and randomize it 3 times to decide the winner... ok, so I guess you're wondering what the prize is... well, I mentioned that they are auto's... but they are also Cubs... AND they (I believe) RC's!!!!! OMG... who could it be?!?!?!?! I'll end the suspense: see below!

In a non-contest related note: yes, I know I am behind on a couple of trade posts... yes, I will get them posted soon, and yes I am VERY appreciative for the trades... great cards! Will post back to you all later!

Friday Trip To The Card Shop

Well, I stopped by the card shop on the way home and since I couldn't afford a box of Triple Threads... I checked out a couple of other products... First up is a box of 2010 Topps Pro Debut Minor League cards. I always find minor league cards intriguing, mostly because I like to see what prospects (or lately, the lack of) are coming up through the Astros system... well, the box guaranteed two autos and a game-used item and they weren't lying! See photos below for the highlights of the box:

Ok, so that's a Shane Peterson and Steve Garrison Auto, Hector Noesi Futures game patch... Eddie Rosario gold border (02/50) and then inserts of Aroldis Chapman and Kyle Drabek. Nice little set of inserts, if any one is interested in any of these (or any base cards from the set) let me know, they are all up for trade!

The next thing I did was grab a single pack of 2010 UD Sweet Spot College Football, mainly because I was curious and had seen other people get some good hits, and my dealer gave me a good price (wow, that makes it sound like I'm a drug addict or something...)... But I like the LeSean McCoy Sweet Swatch and the base cards I got with it. Again, if you see something that interests you, let me know b/c I love to trade!!!!

Trade Post!

Alright, this was LONG overdue because I got this package in last week... but here we go. I got a trade working with Dennis over at Too Many Grandersons and when the package got here, I was amazed to find a 300-count hard box of Astros cards. There were a BUNCH of cards I don't have and that I've very excited about. Here in the scan, the two big highlights for me are the relic cards. First of all, this is my first Game Used BALL card and it's Bagwell/Berkman?!?!?!! Does it get any better??? OK, maybe Nolan Ryan and Joe Niekro, but serious, Bagwell/Berkman is pretty sweet... then he tops that with the Bagwell/Biggio card!!!! I tell you now, by the time they get in the HOF, I'm getting this card autographed and it'll be the prize of my collection. The other cards in the scan, I just thought were cool. The Ensberg is a refractor and the Hidalgo is a metal card, like it's a solid piece of metal, hadn't seen those before. Very cool... thanks Dennis... hope for many trades down the road!!!

Been a while...

Hey everyone... still alive here, just really busy lately and haven't gotten a chance to post. I've got a trade post or two to do, just haven't had the time... hopefully this week I can get those done. Also haven't gotten any cards of late. Doing some organizing and hopefully will get through some old boxes I had in storage to see if there's anything worthwhile in there.

Have a great week everyone!

Cheap Box of 2007 Upper Deck Series 2

Hey everyone, I got some extra cash and went on down to my local card shop. Yes, I buy my cards there, rather than at discount card shops online... we lose our local card shops and that's just another blow to the industry in my opinion... but I digress... Howard was able to make me a deal on a box of 2007 Upper Deck Series 2 and I went for it. He threw in a couple packs of 2009 Bowman Chrome and I pulled a Robbie Grossman refractor autographed card that #'d 63/250. Forgot to scan it, but if there are any Pirates fans out there who want it, it's for trade... onto the hits from the box: here you go...

The prize here for me is the Berkman jersey. It's mine, you can't have it. As for the rest, they are for trade. That's Juan Salas of the Devil Rays and Ricky Nolasco of the Marlins on the auto and jersey cards. Then a Soria insert that's currently running at about $8.00 over on the eBay. Anyway, I definitely enjoyed this box. Any of the base cards are available as well, so if you're trying to complete this one, send me a want list and I'll help you out!

Trade From Thoughts And Sox

I saw a post a couple weeks ago from Thoughts and Sox showing off a trade with Nachos Grande, so I sent Mr. Thoughts and Sox an email to work up a trade of our own... low and behold a deal was struck and today I got the plethora (BIG WORD) of cards that he was able to send my way... Thank you sir, a fair deal if ever I saw one and I definitely recommend any of you traders out there to head his way to see if you can make a deal as well! Thanks for the cards, definitely a BUNCH that I know I don't have... here are some highlights of the ones I liked most... The Topps Co-Signers Roy Oswalt is pretty sweet, the look on Berkmans face for the Ovation card is just classic Puma... the artwork of the Chicle on Pence's card is definitely original and I grew up on Bagwell's awkward stance (replicating it in little league did NOT work for me... just sayin')... The others are mini's from A&G that I needed... Thanks again!!!

Great Trade from Mike at BA Benny's

Mike, you continue to amaze me with the great trades... if you blog readers are looking for a great trader, get in touch with BA Benny's blog and he'll do right by you! Very fair and very gracious with the cards! Got a nice relic and an entire team set of 84 Topps Astros, thanks Mike... highlights below! By the way, about 100 cards total at least... didn't take time to count them all!!!

New Goal... NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!

Alright, after opening a bunch of 2009 Upper Deck product over the past few months, I've been intrigued by the 20th Anniversary set that they produced across their product line. Seeing that it would take me FOREVER to collect all 2500 cards in this insert set... I wanted to challenge the blog world... Can you all help me make my set by mailing in cards???? Here's the deal, if you send me the cards that you have and tell me your favorite team, I will put a trade package back to you with 1 or 2 cards for every 1 you send me (within reason), and it won't be cherry picked crap either... I have no affinity but for the Astros and even if you want Astros in return I'll let loose of some of my Astros in an attempt to make this come to fruition. I will also throw in some game used, autos and such in my return package to you. Email me at samuelpair@yahoo.com and I'll give you my address. I'll start a count on the side of the page for this set and hopefully I can get pretty close to completion with the help of awesome bloggers out there on the web! Thanks in advance for your help!

Another Wally World Blaster...

They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results... well, I guess just label me insane... I got another blaster from Wal-M*rt... and well the one guaranteed hit per box turned out to be of the same hit I got in the last blaster... same exact card... really pissed me off... COLLATE! DAMNIT!!!! COLLATE!!!! Why do we even bother with this hobby... I think Topps and Upper Deck execs must sit back and just laugh at us for continuing to buy... see video for disastrous results... all non-Astros cards are for trade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 Blasters and 2 Random Packs from Wal-M*rt

I visited my local Wal-M*rt ONLY because they sent me a $5.00 gift card in the mail randomly and I wanted some cards. The wife also was insisting I go and get me some... so thank you my dear... on to the cards! A 2009 X Upper Deck blaster, 2009 UD Icons blaster and 2 packs of 2010 Topps Series 1... Guaranteed 2 hits, I got 3!!!! BONUS HIT (and it's a sure-fire HOF'er)! No, I won't tell you the hits now, must force you to watch the video... no untouchable trade cards in all the packs except for the few Astros... Let me know if you want to trade!

2010 Topps 206 Box

So I swore that I wasn't going to do any of the Topps 206 this year because I felt they were a bit too much like Allen and Ginter, and I threw down far too much on that set. But when I got to the card shop today the boxes of 206 looked so shiny and lonely, I had to grab one... don't judge me! Video below and then past that is a scan of the (2) hits and then two numbered mini's... Pretty much any of this is for trade except the Astros cards...

The Mets auto is Fernando Martinez and the Astros is Felipe Paulino. The two mini's are a 58/99 of Carlos Ruiz of the Phillies and a "Topps Personalities" mini 157/206 of CFO Joe Del Toro. Interesting cards. The only duplicate out of the whole box was a Historical Events: Queensboro Bridge mini. 

Let me know if there's anything in the video you want or need more details of. Thanks!

Fantasy Football Team

OK, so I know that there are two things people REALLY don't care to hear about: other people's kids and other people's fantasy football teams... well, since I'm not going to have kids, you get to hear about my fantasy football team. Why is this, you may ask... well because I'm not too much of a fantasy football player and I need to know if my team is any good and exactly what level of smack talking I should be doing... here's my team in no particular order:

Andre Johnson - WR
Peyton Manning - QB
LeSean McCoy - RB
DeSean Jackson - WR
Arian Foster - RB
Jermichael Finley - TE
C.J. Spiller - RB
Pierre Garcon - WR
Kevin Kolb - QB
Santonio Holmes - WR - I know he's suspended, but I have him stashed on IR until week 5...
Chris Cooley - TE
Montario Hardesty - RB
Laurence Maroney - RB
Jacoby Jones - WR
Giants - DEF
David Akers - K
Jabar Gaffney - WR

So what do you think? Glaring weaknesses????? Lots of Eagles and Texans, but I think they're both going to have good seasons...

Houston Astros are on a roll!!!!! PASS THE BUTTER!!!! hahaha

Alright, I know, that was a SUPER cheesy title to the blog, but after the 3-game sweep of the Cardinals I'm in a great mood. The Astros were dead to me at one point this season due to Ed Wade's complete incompetence up until the All-Star break and Drayton's stubborn mindset that the Astros, as they were constructed, were still going to make the playoffs somehow. Well, they blew up the team and wow what a difference 2 months makes...

Gone is Kaz Matsui aka Mr Anal Fissure... Pedro Feliz, Lance Berkman, and Roy O. In their places are a bunch of young players and rookies who are playing amazingly well. Drayton, on the off chance you're reading this, the current team is what this fan has been waiting to see for about 5 years. You see, it's not THAT painful to re-build and if you're doing it right, you can still draw fans. I ALMOST took off work today to go to that 1pm game, but couldn't get away. This was the first time all season that I was seriously close to ditching work because the team was enjoyable enough to justify it doing so.

Sorry everyone, but no cards on this post, but I will pass on this rather amusing post! ENJOY CARDINAL FANS!!!! HAHAHA!!!! Go ASTROS!

Video Post - 2 Blasters

This is the point where I once again admit that my name is Sam and yes, I'm an addict to opening wax packs... sorry, but buying a card off ebay doesn't do anything for me, I want to open it out of the pack myself, to own it by being the one who released it from it's temporary asylum... so I keep buying blasters. I would complain more about the GU-jersey card I got, but after pulling the Lincecum cabinet loader relic auto from 2010 A&G this year, I guess I have a long time before I can really complain about a pull... here's the video... I apologize about the glare, if you want to see any cards specifically let me know and I'll scan them in. I also apologize about the HORRIBLE audio... gotta see if I can get that fixed... this was just a horrible video overall... but I can't re-do it, so watch at your own risk...

Oh and the card I ended up with from the MCG code was a 1963 Gene Mauch card, to believe he was still managing as last as 88 is pretty remarkable... not too shabby on my MCG luck, I've got 29 cards and only 2 of them are newer than 1986. Again, I can't complain...

If you see anything you want, let me know, pretty much everything is trade bait and negotiable...

2007 Breygent Movie Posters Collector Cards

My wife got her 2-boxes of these cards in the mail today and got 3 complete sets and lots of doubles out of the box. If anyone has doubles of the Gone With The Wind, Maltese Falcon, Key Largo or Top Hat inserts, please let me know and we can set up a trade or two. We'd like to get a full set of the inserts! Thanks everyone! Also, if you have any of the sketch cards, we'd love to trade for those as well!

Trade and Contest Swag

Alright, I got a shipment of cards in today from various traders and I thought I'd show off a few of the cards... The Jackie Robinson card was from a contest at Mojo and Beardy's, while the rest are from trades... Sadly, I'm ashamed to admit this but these are the first two Colt .45 player cards I've gotten. My vintage collection is severely lacking. Enjoy!

Jim Umbricht has a rather interesting but sad story, and if you have a chance check out his Wikipedia page. His number is retired by the Astros and is remembered by way too few. Thanks for the trades Rhubarb_Runner from rayhan rayhan and Chris from fanofreds!

2010 Topps Series 1 Need List

Alright, here we go, I finally got around to my series 1 want list for 2010 Topps:

Base:
COMPLETE!!!! THANKS!!!!!

2010 Topps Series 1 Blaster

So, for my birthday (today... yay, I'm 30... joy... onward with the baseball cards now) we went to several Targets and Wal-Marts looking for deals... we found 21 packs of Donruss American II for $.99 each at one Target and snatched them up for the wife, we were very excited because at the card show on Saturday, there was a dealer selling the same packs for $5.00 each. If anyone can find more packs of these, I will gladly trade for them, they are getting scarce around our Targets here in Houston.

I was able to pick up a Topps Series 1 blaster box in my continuing effort to complete both series... so here are a few highlights. (Sorry, the scanner cut off the right edge of these!) The patch card is pretty cool, but what excited me was the SP Mantle Gold border and the Cy Young SP. Also, I got both the real back and regular version of the Yaz "Cards Your Mom Threw Out" card. Then my two Turkey Red cards ended up being Yankees as well, so overall a very East Coast blaster!

2010 Allen and Ginter Need List

COMPLETE!!!!!

2010 Topps Walmart Value Pack and 2009 Upper Deck Blaster Highlights

So the wife and I stopped by Wal-mart and picked up a Topps "Value Pack" which we had seen Mr. Olds open on the Beckett blog, I was curious to see if I could get the Strasburg refractor (FAIL) and I picked up a 2009 Upper Deck blaster for 40% off. Apparently Wal-Mart is trying to clear out 2009 stuff and has all kinds of blasters on sale... here are the highlights, (by the way, the only card here not for trade is the Johan Santana Turkey Red card, need it for my set)...

First is a Blake Smith jersey swatch from USA Baseball, then a 2009 Goodwin Champions preview of Jeter, then the Cal Ripkin Jr refractor (WHY COULDN'T YOU BE RUTH OR STRASBURG?!?!?!) from the value pack. Second row is a Jayson Werth copper card (66/399), then an Emerald (super rare) of Carlos Beltran and finally the Santana mentioned already. If you have any 2009 Upper Deck needs, I'm not keeping much so let me know.

Trade Swag!!!

A BIG shout out to Mike from BA Benny's We agreed to a trade last week and I got the cards from him today... boy am I'm impressed with the over-abundance of awesome Astros cards... Mike, I'm in your debt, truly very generous... Here are the highlights - I absolutely LOVE the Morgan Ensberg auto Diamond Kings, he used to sit two rows behind me at church here in Houston and was always a stand-up guy in my books. I never even thought to ask for an auto from him due to being in church and all, but a great guy (it was him, Jason Lane and Adam Everett, their families would always sit together, very cool). Too bad his career fizzled out the way it did, he deserved better! The White Sox/Astros flashback card of Carlos is pretty cool too, just wish he wasn't a gigantic turd out in left field these days... but the best card is the Biggio game-used. Mike, maybe I'll have a chance to meet you in a few years when Biggio gets inducted into Cooperstown!

3 Random Packs from Target

Stopped by Target to get some food for dinner and I couldn't resist the random packs of cards... so I grabbed three and am forcing you, my loyal readers, to sit through the video of me opening them! Get excited for three packs-o-crap... let me know if you want any of them...

After doing the video I went back through the cards and found that in the 2005 Upper Deck All-Stars, while there were (2) Ryan Howard cards, one of them was actually a parallel numbered 415/499 with gold foil instead of the silver on the base set. So, if you are a Philly fan who wants the base and parallel, I've got 'em both! 

Houston Card Show - August 21st 9am-4pm

Any collectors in the Houston area actually read my blog?!?!?!?!

I'll be having a table at the monthly card show run by www.houstonsportsconnection.net at the Ramada Inn North on I-45 this coming Saturday the 21st from 9am-4pm. See their website for address and map.

Mention my blog and you'll get a free pack of cards. I've got about 50 boxes of late 80's and early 90's Topps, Donruss, Score and Fleer baseball and football. I'll have a lot of (675) packs of 90-91 NBA Hoops; as well as some random boxes of stuff like Topps & Pro Set Desert Storm trading cards. Additionally, I've got about 60 long boxes of mixed cards and some sealed complete sets to sell as well. By the way, my name is Sam so if you come to the show be sure to stop by and say hello at least!

First Ever Video Post!

Alright, so the wonderful wife decided to oblige my whim... I grabbed a $10 "value pack" of cards from Target to test out the video camera and do my first video break. The results were not very good, it probably wasn't worth my $10. Any cards you want from here, let me know. There is only one I'm going to keep, and that's a Bowman Chrome rookie card of Wesley Wright:

She also decided to buy me a Topps Series 1 Blaster despite my protests to the contrary. Got a couple more Million Card Giveaway cards, one of which netted me a 1970 Don Wilson card, another Astro! I'm getting pretty close to being able to put up a Series 1 want list as well. If anyone has doubles they feel like getting rid of until then, feel free to email me! The patch card from the blaster is an Ozzie Smith World Series 1982 patch. Pretty nice looking card. If anyone wants it, let me know b/c it's available for trade!

Biggest Idiot on eBay...

Another blogger already posted about this guy but I couldn't help but post it as well. This right here is what infuriates me with casual, un-informed and ignorant collectors. If someone buys that card at the "buy it now" price then they are a bigger idiot than the guy who posted it. I've seen multiple bloggers pull cards with similar manufacturing defects, and in some places I've seen a card completely cut in half by the crimper. This isn't an "error card", it actually destroys the card of any worth it had. To call it a 1/1 just shows how stupid this guy is... This has gotten me angry...

UPDATE: APPARENTLY EBAY HAS SOME BALLS AND TOOK THIS IDIOTIC AUCTION/SELL-IT-NOW OFF IT'S SITE!!! WOO-HOO!!!!

Additional Scan...

Alright, I promised it and here they are... the Al Hrabosky and Ken Holtzman autos... plus 3 minor league cards: Lance Berkman from AA Jackson, Matt Holliday from the Asheville Tourists (really? Tourists is the best you can come up with Asheville, BOO!!) and an Auto I don't remember even pulling of Bubba Trammell!!!
Both Topps Autos have the hologram certification logo on the back!

2010 Topps Series 2 Need List

Base:
COMPLETE!!!!!! THANKS EVERYONE!!!!

Random Pack Friday

So, I went to Academy to look around and waste some time and bought a couple of random packs they had sitting around: 2007 UD Masterpieces and 2007 Fleer Ultra and a pack of Upper Deck from 2006. I've scanned in the entire pack of the UD Masterpieces... I got a nice jersey relic of Michael Young, but as you may be able to see the bottom left corner of most of these are dinged, the relic card worse than the others... but nonetheless if you want any of the, they are for trade!

As for the Upper Deck, I got one card that really amused me... mainly because of how crappy it is and the obvious flaw of the card... see below... the card is for a Cubs jersey swatch of Corey Patterson, but obviously the set was put together after he was traded to the Orioles, so it lists him as an Oriole on the front of the card, but all the pictures and text on the back indicated Cubs... interesting and different... and available to any of you die-hard (you'd have to be) Corey Patterson fans out there!

Finally, I went out to the storage room this morning and found a couple of cards that I was looking for, I'll have to get them posted later, but it's an Al Hrabosky Auto Topps reprint of some kind, and out of the same set (I think) is a Ken Holtzman Auto as well.

Later!

Specific Collections... 1978 Topps

Alright, so I've been asked by several traders, "What do you collect other than Astros and Nolan Ryan?" and to that question I haven't really had a specific answer. Nothing really connected with me, until I had a chance to wonder around eBay for a bit. Seeing some vintage cards, I started remembering a bit from my childhood, and the day I got a BUNCH of 1978 Topps gifted to me from one of my half-sister's boyfriend.

I was maybe 7 or 8, and once she started dating this guy he realized that I was a bit obsessive about my card collection. Having not collected since he was a kid, he decided to just give me his collection, about a shoebox full of 1978 Topps!!! I didn't know at the time what luck I had stumbled into... but he was from Alvin and grew up down the road from a ranch owned by a certain new current co-owner of the Texas Rangers and I was gifted both the Record Breaker and base set Nolan Ryan cards, except they were AUTOGRAPHED! They were the prize of my collection instantly and the Record Breaker still is, because the base set was stolen from me a few years later by my "best friend" Juan Walker (yes, you are still on my SH*T list, send back the card, we'll call it even). We haven't spoken since. It still pains me that I let him get away with it... I didn't realize he stole it until several days later, and uncovered it at his house. His mom swiftly kicked me out and like I say, we haven't spoken since. He may have moved back to Puerto Rico... who knows...

ANYWAYS... sorry for the slightly unnecessary tangent... I have decided that my new collecting goal is going to be to obtain the complete set of 1978 Topps Baseball. I know this will be tough due to the awesome rookies of Molitor and Murray, but I think it's definitely do-able. So, from here forward, if you want to trade and have any 1978 Topps then that will definitely help make a deal happen! At some point soon, I'll go through which cards I do have and put together a want/need list. If any of you have bulk base commons you wouldn't mind trading/selling, let me know. Finally, here's a great card of the Hawk which I can't wait to get into my collection as well!