Go Join A Group Break!

Hey everyone... my PC crashed big time last night, so the wife and I found ourselves at Best Buy last night picking up an iMac. Hopefully this machine keeps me on the web for a few years more than the last PC, I'm done with Windows based PC purchases... too unstable...

Speaking of stability... wow, what a horrible transition... go check out Colbey's group break over at Cardboard Collections. He runs some great breaks, and there are only 3 slots left! Only $9 bucks for 2 teams!

Stay tuned for the next Dimwit Group Break, going live tomorrow... I'm still researching products to put in it, but it'll be at least 3 hobby boxes and plenty of hits to go around. Going to have three separate products in hopes of getting more hits across the board!

Have a great new year everyone!

The Last Of My Christmas Money, A Trade and A Free Package!

So I stopped by my awesome local card shop, Big Hits Sports Cards and picked up a box of cards with what I had left of my Christmas money. I settled on Bowman Sterling. Mainly because it was a product I had never opened and probably never would again and I thought, what the heck?!?! My goal for next year is to stop extraneous spending, but it's not 2012 yet so I threw caution to the wind! I'm glad I did. I really liked what I ended up pulling from the box (even if I did get shorted a hit, but the LCS owner has already filed a claim for me and the replacement is on the way.) It's 6 mini boxes, each contains two autos and a jersey relic. You are promised a dual relic and a dual auto per box. Well, let's see what I got:

Base Cards:

That's two Noesi's... yay.... :| But the Altuve is a refractor numbered /199 which is GREAT by me!!! I really like the design. It is a very cool looking set and if I had extremely deep pockets I might try to chase down the complete set, but I think I'll stick with what I've purchased and be happy with it.

Inserts:

These are the prospect inserts. No refractors or parallels here. And again another duplicate. Hopefully one of these guys makes it big and I have a very valuable card in my hands!!!

Alright, that brings me to the hits.... first up the base autos:

Not a bad selection, although I did end up with two Jed Bradley cards. There's 9 here, thus there are 3 I'm hiding from you... those will come here in a bit... patience, as they get better and better as this post goes along!

Here we have the jersey relics... including my dual relic and a nice one to boot!

I can't argue with a X-Fractor Ackley at all! It's numbered out of /199. I shrug my shoulders a bit at the Team USA guy, but hopefully he's a major prospect a few years from now and I can cash in! I think I may put the Ackley on eBay and see what it fetches.

Alright, and finally I've come to the major hits from the box, the ones that I think will help me make my money back a bit!

Yep, that's a Cyan Printing plate of Eric Thames! SWEEEEEET!!! Next up is a gold parallel auto /50 of Joe Panik. The guy at the shop says he's the next big thing for the Giants, I'm hoping these two cards plus the Ackley will more than recover my box costs! The Harrison is a refractor /199 and hopefully will catch me some extra dough as well!

Overall, I was pretty happy with my box. Got some very interesting cards, and I'm curious what I'll end up with as my dual auto that Topps is going to send since I didn't get the one promised in the box. It'll be a great bonus to anything I already have gotten!

I give this box 9 out of 10 E's on the Dimwit SWEEEEEEEEET meter. The only area of improvement I could see, is giving a little more info on Draft details on the back of the card. Not knowing most of these guys, it'd be nice to know if I have an auto of a first rounder, or a 32nd rounder. Other than that, the design and execution is great.

Alright, I did make a trade with Andrew, a guy at the shop. He pulled a printing plate I wanted, and I had an auto he wanted... he threw in an Astros auto for me to get it about even...

Vincent spent all last year recovering from Tommy John surgery, so I'm hoping he'll produce big this coming year and down the road. The plate is a yellow plate (obviously) of Brett Myers from 2011 Topps Chrome. Myers may not be in Houston for long, but I am a fan of printing plates and was happy to trade for another one! This brings my Astros printing plate collection to 2... Berkman from 2010 Allen & Ginter and this one. Thanks Andrew.

Finally some free cards from Dan over at The Other World. He sent over a few Gyspy Queen cards and I'll be sure to look through his want list and return the favor.

Thanks Dan!

As always, any cards on this post are up for trade unless otherwise noted... let me know if you're interested and what you may have to offer!

One Heck of a Mail Day... Plus My Christmas Loot

Wow, you leave town for 6 days, and you get home to a huge pile of packages! Alright, I warn you now, this is going to be an extremely long, picture laden post... so strap in and enjoy... lots of great cards!

First up, is Greg from over at Plaschke, Thy Blog Title Is Too Long haha... but really, great blog and great trader! I sent over a Tulo and a couple Utley's (one from my friend James, in exchange for the Edmonds):

The Bagwell is numbered /199. With a SWEET pinstripe down the side! Thanks Greg!

Next we have Chris from Nachos Grande. We worked out this trade in a matter of about 10 minutes, simplest trade yet, we sent each other some want list cards:

Awesome! I'm getting closer to my Bronze Framed paper set. Although, I've now had to buy a huge chunk of them myself, so I think I'm not too far from ending the contest and just awarding 2nd, 3rd and add a 4th prize. Sorry guys, but I was hoping it would get completed a while back and without me having to go buy about 1/2 of the cards I needed myself. Anyways, I'll still give away the Smoak auto, a random hit for a team collector and I'll find another prize to add for 3 total. Anyways, thanks Chris for a fast and easy trade!

This brings up my buddy Derek from Tomahawk Chopping as we both plug away at our Gypsy Queen set needs! He sent over a "just because" package that I'm working on reciprocating (ooo, big word for a small mind!!!):

 I love me some mini's!

And I love me some base too!!! Thanks Derek!

Alright, now I move into the purchase portion of my post... first up is my loot from Crinkly Wrappers' Triple Threads group break! I got some great cards!

Wow, don't even know where to start here! Some great names and cards here. The Astros Johnson A&G has a pretty dirty swatch. (Almost a NSFW typo there... eeks). All non-Astros are instant trade bait of course. I love the look of Triple Threads, I just wish I could afford it! Haha! Ted did a great job of helping everyone out on this break by making it affordable and fun!

Here are the base cards that were part of my loot! Very cool.... I think there may be some claims on some of these pretty quickly? Chris? Derek? Brian? Haha! 

And the grand prize from my part of the break, this Triple Auto Triple Relic of Strawberry, J-Hey and Chris Young. It's pretty impressive in person. My only gripe is that they could have had all three sign the same type of sticker if they are going to use stickers. But I also understand that Topps may have gotten Strawberry to sign about 5,000 pages of stickers 10 years ago and they're trying to find a way to use them up... Nonetheless, an awesome card! Thanks again Ted!

Next I will be showing off a BUNCH of pick-ups from CheckOutMyCards.com. I went on a spending spree last week and ended up making a huge dent in a couple of needs lists:

Yay Minis!!!! And an SP! :-D Only 3 SP's left to complete my base set! Holy toledo!

Ah, more bronze borders! LOVE EM!

Did I mention I bought a bunch of bronze bordrs??? Haha!

A nice bunch of 1978 Topps, including a Reggie Jackson and an odd Cubs team card.... leave it to the Cubs to have to be different...

 

WHOA! The Dimwit bought 18 1987 Topps Cards from COMC.com? Is he REALLY THAT dumb??? Well, fear not, I'm not completely insane! These aren't just 1987 Topps, these are 1987 Topps TIFFANY. And they were bought because these exact 18 players will be signing at the 2012 Tristar Sports Card Show in Houston, TX on January 20-22! And I'll be there!!!!! My AWESOME wife and parents bought me a VIP pass which includes all 18 autos from the 1986 Astros Western Division Champs Reunion!!!! I get a picture with Nolan Ryan and finally get to meet Mike Scott and Glenn Davis in person. And I can tell Bill Doran that he was who I modeled being a Second Baseman as a little league-er before Biggio took over (he can't still be bitter about that, can he???) Anyways, I'm SO excited! In fact, for any and all of you who will be at the show or in the area, I'm looking to put together a breakfast on Saturday morning before the show where we can hang out, talk cards and maybe even trade a little. Let me know if you'd be interested.

Finally, the last card from COMC is this dual jersey of Gaffney and Biggio. I thought it was cool, made a lowball offer with my remaining credit and it was accepted. A sweet addition and my first Texans/Astros combo relic! 

Finally, we have my loot from Christmas, as I bought 3 discounted Topps Chrome Blasters (alas, no autos), a 2008 Masterpieces discounted blaster and one of those "One Auto + 4 Packs" rip-offs just for the heck of it! On the plus side, I finished off my base Chrome set finally! I've got plenty of base to spare if anyone is still looking for any to complete their set!

These are the best refractors I got... the Ortize is #2/499!

Some nice Heritage Chromes...

And then my wife got my some rack packs in my stocking and these are the Orange borders included in those packs...

Some great cards! Here's the highlights of the other packs/blasters:

Hopefully someone from his family reads this blog and wants this card, otherwise I think it is stuck in my collection! Haha!

Good ol' Frank. He's pictured as a Blue Jay but listed as an Athletic. Really UD, you are doing the artwork, can't you photoshop an A's helmet on there? Just sayin'....

Anyways, pretty much anything in this post is trade bait if it's not an Astro or part of my set collection.

Hope you all have a great weekend enjoying the New Year, be safe, buckle up and don't drink & drive.

2012 Collecting Goals

Here are my collecting goals for 2012:
1) Complete 2011 Gypsy Queen base, second set and mini's. I am not too far from any of these three sets. Hopefully I can get this checked off at the Tristar show next month.
2) Organize my Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman and Nolan Ryan player collections. I have Bagwell about 75% done so hopefully I can make a dent in the others in due time.
3) Avoid unnecessary purchases. If it doesn't fit in my collection, don't by it. I waste too much money unnecessarily on cards I don't really collect just for the heck of busting wax. My LCS will not like this goal but my wife and bank account will.
4) Organize 1 group break per month. Here is where I need and want suggestions for products to open. I want to make the group breaks a regular feature rather than the spastic irregularity at which I have been running them.

So what about you all? List a goal in the comments and Sunday I will do a randomization for a prize that fits your collection. A little thanks for those who have read this far.

A Very Merry Christmas To You All

Well, I'm in Houston as of Thursday night and away from my collection... so there won't be any real card related updates from me until at least Friday when we return to Alabama.

But I did want to tell everyone a very Merry Christmas, and for those Scrooge's out there who can't do anything more than say something negative, tear down people's happiness or ruin the joy and enthusiasm that everyone else is experiencing during this holiday season, just shut up. Let other people be happy. Take a moment and evaluate why, as soon as someone does something good, you feel you have to jump in with your negativity, really it just makes you look like a jerk.

Have a great Christmas Eve everyone. I hope everyone gets exactly what they want under their tree. I hope RCs, relics, sweet hits and autos abound. I hope that you get that ONE card that completes a set or player collection. I hope all your trade packages are filled with extra cards you didn't expect. I hope you stumble upon that blaster of Gypsy Queen you've been looking for (ok, that's for me). I hope you and your families get that one last Christmas with the loved one you hope can make it just one more. I hope that all you soldiers make it home in time to see your kids open their presents. I hope those without a home find warmth and safety tonight. I hope the sick find a nice hot bowl of Chicken Noodle soup to help them heal. I hope those without hope find hope. And most of all, I hope that this next year is better than the last for each and every one of you.

For anyone who reads this blog, I genuinely thank you for your readership. For those who have participated in my group breaks this year, I thank you for joining in the fun and joy of busting wax. For those I've traded with, thank you for the many cards I would never have gotten my hands on in any other way. For those who have sent me random cards out of the blue, thank you for your kindness and generosity.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Catching up... purchases and trades... lots of good stuff... and some pimpage...

Hey everyone, with the group break over I've got a lot of catching up to do in regards to trades, purchases and a pimpage to take care of... oh yea, and a certain card-trading-cherry of mine has been burst...

I'll start with some sadness... ever got one of these?

The USPS's way of saying "Oh crap, we screwed up..." then to find that inside is only one of these...

Looks like the postal service ate my cardboard... yep, they stole the wonderful contents of this envelope with their greedy little machines... the envelope is in bad shape, seriously a dog may have eaten it a bit... meh, it happens... no worries Colbey, I don't know what happened here but my heart weeps and it's just one of those things... I would be a lot more bummed out if these other packages hadn't arrived today/lately...

First up is Shane over at Off The Wall... we concocted a huge deal where I was able to unload pretty much all my A&G mini's from the past few years, and I was getting highly annoyed with the storage of said mini's... there's the "hits from the deal"...

Roy and Berkman = AWESOME... Hampton is cool too as I don't have any autos of his. That brings me to Shane. As some of you may remember, I proudly served on the Houston Astros Grounds Crew for two seasons. It was the best college job in the world, I got PAID $7.00 an hour to watch baseball, be on the field before and after games, and got to run errands for some of the players. THEY PAID ME. Everyone always asks, "What were the players like, who was cool, who was a jerk?" Undeniably, Shane Reynolds was the BIGGEST jerk I ever had to deal with. If you asked him, his poo smelled like roses and the ground he walked on should be blessed by the Pope himself. He scoffed at us "little people" who didn't make millions of dollars yet were in charge of the field he played on, one of the biggest "entitled" athletes I've ever had the chance to spend 5 minutes around. I didn't have any autos from him, now I have 2. I can check that name off the list. Anyways, here's the next section of cards from Shane...

YAY GYPSY QUEEN MINI's!!!!! And those last two are the hobby box variations... upon looking in my binder, turns out I already have the Johnson variation... so I now need the regular mini! Haha! 2 of the variation! Craziness! Next up are some vintage Astros...

Wow, ok I finally got a Nellie Fox! I tried all last year and this to get it from the Topps Giveaway sites, but people were either hoarding their Nellie's or asking huge ransoms for their Nellie's, I'm also intentionally typing Nellie's in a suggestive manner... but I got one! Sweet!!! Leon Roberts is on the Reggie Cleveland All-Stars (if you don't know what that is, go read up on your Sports Guy stuff). I'll be seeing Jose next month at the Tri-Star show (more to tell at a later date there), The Toy Cannon, Cesar Cedeno and then a legend Leo Durocher, who I can't believe actually managed the Astros, plus Ken Forsh. I love some vintage Astros!

Finally, Shane popped my card-trading Bip cherry, with 20 Antoine Walkers... I've been Bipped...

That's way more Antoine than this blog ever needs to see!

Alright, next up is a deal from Ryan G over at This Card is Cool.

Wow, that Biggio is sick enough as it is! But the Clemens is a super thick card as well! Add in some nice Bagwells, and I haven't even gotten to the Nolan Ryan yet... it's AWESOME if it was just by itself... but look at the back!

Um... wow... 2 HOF's... strikeout kings... ok, so there was a little damange to the "2" on the 32 on the back, but I was aware of this and really, I care mostly about the front of the card anyways... AWESOME!!!! Thanks Ryan!

I told you I had a lot of catching up to do... well, here's what my wife and I got from the hobby box and 8 packs of American Pie that we bought at our latest trip to Big Hits Sportscards...

Nothing exciting here... the Vincent Pastore (I almost fell asleep typing that), Gilbert Gottfried (I wished silence on him while typing that) and John O'Hurley (I contemplated the meaning how this guy is famous in our society while typing that). What a load of crap hits from American Pie.

These two cards are infinitely cooler than any of the three hits. We got two buybacks! The Shatner is from 1979 (older than me!) and the Knievel screams "Look at me, I'm a bad@ss" is from 1974. Give me either of these two over John O'Hurley any day. We are about 21 cards from the complete 200 card set... if anyone wants a "want list" to trade and has a want list of cards they need, shoot me an e-mail.

Finally, I said I had some pimpage to do... well, Jaybarkerfan's Junk is holding a blog of the year contest. Somehow, one of you knuckleheads nominated me. I need you all to go over there and nominate good bloggers, so that I don't by some miracle of modern science/vote rigging, win this thing. There are far better internet scribes out there. Really, I now know what those fake actors mean when they say it's an honor to be nominated, because it validates the hours spent typing this drivel!!!! Also, I have no hope in winning this thing, just look at the other nominees, so go nominate someone! Enjoy the contest! If you really like a blogger, give him a little bit of an ego stroke and nominate him for this awesome award!

Thanks for the three of you who read to the end, it's an honor and a pleasure to know there's at least someone who has nothing else to do on a Monday night except read my blog!!!! Have a great week everyone!

Group Break - 2007 UD Future Stars - Box 2

Here we have the final box of the break. Thanks everyone for participating. This is the last break of the year! I'm contemplating boxes for the break in January, please let me know if you have any ideas!

Scans after the page break...

Group Break - 2007 UD Future Stars - 1st Box

Here's the video for the first box of future stars...


And after the break, you'll get the scans!

Randomization for Kyle4KC's Group Break... non-Dimwit related... go about your day as if you don't see this...

Ridiculously long blog title aside, here's a randomization for Kyle4KC's group break... for those involved, enjoy...

UD Future Stars Group Break - Box # 2

Well, no redemption cards hiding in the rest of the boxes, I meant to assure you last night of that but I was rather forgetful... I also forgot to link to Tanner's Blog, 6,000,000 Cards and Counting... Thanks for helping out with the break Tanner and everyone go check out his blog!

Alright, here's today's video:

And after the break you get the scans!

2006 and 2007 UD Future Stars Group Break - Box #1

Here's the video!

After the break, check out the scans...

America(na), America(n Pie), America... It's That Kind of Night

So just in case you haven't figured it out, the theme tonight is America... with Donruss Americana and the newly released American Pie taking center stage...

I got a random package from Ryan over at Trader Crack's. Not sure why exactly he selected me to receive these cards, but they are DEFINITELY appreciated. I'm guessing I have a want list out there somewhere, because my wife needed every single one of them, although I cant seem to find where I may have posted said list. He sent along a nice stack of 2008 Donruss Americana base cards, which my wife is in desperate need of, so if any of you are hoarding them let me know and I can get you a want list. Ok, so here are some highlights:

Hmm... I wonder who picked which cards to highlight... hahaha... Thanks Ryan!

Alright, so I read on Play At the Plate that 2011 Topps American Pie hit the shelves today! Well, the wife and I looked through the sell page on Sports Card Radio and decided to grab a blaster or two! Well, here's some of the highlights!

First are the base parallel "refractors"? Anyways, they are shiny-er than the regular base cards:

They scan pretty well, very cool... except the Human Genome Project... lame...

Here's a selection of cards, one from each decade. Each decade has a different border along the bottom. Bikini's, corvette, Liz Taylor when she was pretty, Vanna White, Coke, Kurt and Steve Jobs. What a group!

Here are two of the insert sets, "Hirsute History" celebrating hairstyles... zzz... and "Fads & Fashions" celebrating, well, fads and fashions. Nothing exciting here... moving along...

This is the coolest subset in my opinion. Apparently there is a manu-patch version of all these as well numbered out of /50. But the base insert set is still pretty cool and I'm digging it. Brando looks like a bad@$$ and Richard Pryor looks like I remember him. What can you say about the look on Charlie Chaplin's mug? Great job Topps, a good insert set.

Finally, we managed to pull two "hits" from our blasters, nothing earth shattering for sure... and neither serial numbered:

Jimmie who? Sorry, I'm too young (31) to have ever watched "Good Times". Not my niche. However, Tia Carrere... SCHAAAAA-WING!!!! But who the hell awarded her a Grammy? (I mean, other than the people who award the Grammy Awards, don't be jerks). I didn't even know she had an actual singing career. I thought it should read "Actress and Model". But whatever, the swatch is definitely cool as well, always dig the multi-colored cards!

Overall, my wife and I are probably going to be buying more of this set, as it's a rare one with enough pop-culture and old movie stars to keep her interest and enough value in some of the possible hits to keep my attention. The base set is on pretty flimsy card stock, great way to cut even more cost there Topps, you're doing a great job of pissing me the hell off today by the way. Anyways, back to the subject at hand, 50% of the insert sets are interesting enough to collect, the other 50% are just filler. Give me a bigger insert set of the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars, and get rid of the hairstyles and fads... but that would be too logical...

Ok, enough of me ranting against the system and the monopoly. I once was e-mailing Topps and Mr. Clay hoping for a blog sponsorship but was told my readership wasn't big enough. Whatever, at this point, I wouldn't want to represent Topps as a blogger. They just have no clue, especially after my experience with their customer service today.

Alright I said I'd stop ranting and I didn't. Thanks for continuing to read, even if Topps doesn't value your readership. Damnit, stop ranting!!!

So, I have some duplicate "hits" that I'd like to offer up as trade bait to any player collectors or fellow Astros bloggers... I've sent this pic to a couple of you in hopes of some deals, and figured I'd throw it out there for the rest of the blog-o-sphere as well. If you like any of these, feel free to make an offer! Doesn't HAVE to be Astros cards headed my way, as long as it's something trade-able that I don't already have!

A couple of these are ones I just recently traded for, then looked in my binder and realized I already had them... don't you just love that?!?!!?

Oh, and group break participants. I was informed my boxes shipped out yesterday. I'm waiting for my seller to give me a delivery confirmation number so that I can track them and see if I can figure out exactly when they will get here. The goal is to get them all busted and packaged up for a Saturday trip to the post office!

A Quick Update From Topps' Customer Service

In regards to my messed up auto from yesterday... Topps has issued a response:

"Unfortunately the card mentioned will be considered error cards and Topps will not issue replacements or refunds of any sort for this product."

Wow, thanks Topps. Your sticker placement goons mess up and I end up with this frankencard. Another "game-changing" decision from the wonderful folks at Topps.

Mail Day! Mail Day! Everybody Loves Mail Day!.... and Topps Screws Up Once Again...

Alright, now that I've got you hooked with my catchy blog post title...

So, I was contacted a week or so ago from a guy named Rob. He had some Astros cards that he'd send my way, with a loose promise of some possible Mets cards back in return. Well, I wasn't expecting a full 500+ card type case in the mail, which showed up today. Amazing. Tons of cards, and some great ones... too many to post, but I did pull out a few that caught my eye! Thanks Rob!

Three great players here! Biggio, Berkman and Clemens. Still a big Clemens fan... and I got a hit!

A Beltran hit! Sweet! He was only here a half a season, so his Astros hits are rare! Thanks again Rob, I'll see what kind of Mets package I can send back your way!

Alright, here we go... take a seat everyone, this is about to get KRUNK. Topps, you screwed the pooch on this one. Get ready for the Dimwit's wrath. I got my personal redemption of (5) Topps Chrome Refractors in the mail today... check out what I got...

Kline, not bad, Elder, OK, another Appel for me, it's cool... wait, huh, what's going on... is that 2 Ficociello's I see before me?!?!!? Really in one pack of 5 you nimrods couldn't figure out simple collation?!?!!? WAIT... HOLD ON... What the hell???? Look at those autos! They aren't even CLOSE to being the same... something is fishy here... Let's take a closer look...

Yea.... um Topps... you screwed something up... as it turns out, I have this other card from the first 5 pack that was part of the Group Break redemption that will be headed to Ryan Hughes....

Oh wait... it's all making sense... somehow you found a way to slap a Nolan Fontana auto on a Dominic Ficociello card!!!!! WHAT THE HECK!?!?!! Where is the quality control???? Do I have a super rare error card?  Or a worthless card that Topps probably won't even acknowledge they screwed up on. If I take this to eBay, I'll be accused of faking the auto or something. But really, this is exactly how I pulled it from the pack! What would you do? Contact Topps Customer Service to ask them to fix it? Just keep the card?

You see Topps (and all you other card companies!!!), this is the problem with sticker autos! You can't trust that humans won't screw something up in the process and slap the wrong auto on the wrong card!!!! I wonder how many other of these got screwed up...