Gypsy Queen Mini & 2nd Set Need List

Regular Back Mini's:
4, 15, 23, 45, 54, 63, 65, 88, 90, 91, 97, 143, 167, 170, 220, 224, 230, 231, 242, 301, 304, 305, 310, 312, 318, 320, 322, 324, 327, 328, 331, 332, 336, 338, 341, 344, 346, 347, 350

2nd Set Base Cards Needed:
303, 305, 306, 308, 313, 316, 317, 320, 322, 324, 330, 338, 341, 345, 350

Home Run Heroes:
9, 18

Great Ones:
13

Updated 01/26/2012

I promised another video... so here you go... it's semi-un-officially sponsored as well...

Here you go... commenters ask, commenters recieve...


Dominic, author of the great new-to-me blog Buckeye State's Trading Post... I am truly sorry for not being prepared... for Ryan G, I also apologize, as you do run "O" No Not Another Orioles Blog... but rather This Card Is Cool. I swear, one of these days I'm going to take 5 minutes before I write a post to write down the blog names and be prepared! SOME DAY!!! Hey, I got Alfredo's (Wicked Ortega) blog name right, so that's a plus!!!

Well, the big day is coming quick. In a month, we move to Mobile, Alabama. This should be interesting... I've found a LCS there, and they have a monthly trade night, which will be nice. But it means up rooting from the place I've been born and raised, and going to a foreign land... ok, so Alabama is still America but humor me here people... some time in the next week or two, I'm going to cut off trades and mailings, so if you see something you want, make an offer SOON!!! I need to get things wrapped up at some point and keep stuff from getting lost in the shuffle!

New Video... card show pick-ups... Hollywood... trades... beer... craziness...

Here's a video put together rather haphazardly... enjoy... lots of stuff for trade in here, you'll have to watch to find out because I was too lazy to scan them in! Many thanks to Greg over at Plaschke, your blog name is too long... and in true Dimwit style I mis-named the person who ran the Trade Bait Draft... I said David, and I was wrong... wrong in so many ways, it wasn't an Indians blog, it's the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame blog... I guess it justifies the card he sent me... wow, I'm dumb and should prepare better! Enjoy the video!


Pretty much all of the non-Astros cards are for trade... feel free to comment away! My "Hits-Autos-Relics" spreadsheet will be updated soon...

FYI... Dominic, Wicked and Ryan G... I had your cards in a separate pile intending to include them in this video... but totally forgot, you will get your own video, just not tonight... haha!

Some recent acquisitions...

So, I've made my first CheckOutMyCards.com purchase a while back and got my cards in yesterday...

So, I picked up the Johjima because it was on sale pretty cheap... the Nixon I'll add to my rainbow that includes 3 1/1's from that Masterpiece set, this one is /99 but looks sharp with that black border. The Sutton I picked up because I thought it was pretty rare to see him in the rainbow Astros uni, pretty sweet card!

I got some cards in from Colin Tedard's Sports Card Radio 3 box group break of 2011 Topps Series 2 and Bowman, but nothing too remarkable, but I did want to thank Colin for putting that break together at $2.00 per team per box (shipping included). If you're not a member of Sports Card Radio's forum, you're missing out on great contests, giveaways and breaks!

Finally, in my effort to get to 45 rings on the Diamond Topps "Giveaway"/Sell Your Soul to Us site, I bought a blaster and a couple of loose packs on the way home from work... it's gimmicky, but it hasn't stopped me from buying... only 11 rings left! If you have code cards you want to trade me, I'll promise to ship you the redeemed card (if it's a nice vintage that you'd want) because I'm really just interested in getting to 45 rings... anyways, got some nice cards...

I needed this one, so it's going in the binder... I have 4 more duplicates to trade though!

Target's version of the ruby red insert... not too shabby in pulling the Koufax! Up for grabs!

My commemorative patch... I SWEET looking one in my opinion, definitely for trade!

And finally the diamond sparkle cards I got... nothing spectacular, but that's what I was expecting... I think I may package all my sparkle cards up and pull off a trade with Chris over at Nachos Grande so I can get more entries into his contest...

That's all folks. I may not be posting much this weekend, as my wife and I celebrate our first wedding anniversary! She's put up with me for a year without committing homicide... she's a strong woman! Doesn't seem like it's been a year already! Here we were dancing our last dance at the reception. The Hotwit is awesome!

And now for something completely different...

This song will be on repeat on my ipod for a while... I'm totally buying their CD once I get paid on Friday...



It's been a while since I did a "And now for something completely different..." posts... I miss them... get ready for a slew of them in the coming weeks as I highlight some tunes I've come across recently...

A new trader... a purchase... and a group break!

I recently got an e-mail from a fellow named James who lives on the island state of Hawaii! He's hooked on Gypsy Queen and I had a bunch to trade, and he had some great Astros to send my way. We'll start with the trade material... a bunch of inserts from GQ, and a bunch of Astros from the 70's! Oh, and a TTM style auto from Jose Cano. Very cool cards James!

This trade took a little while to put together, because James was doing the IRON MAN MARATHON IN HAWAII!!!! How cool is that?!?!?! I struggle through my weekly volleyball matches, I can't imagine doing an Iron Man! Well, the delay worked out GREAT for me because James' wife is awesome... wait that doesn't sound right... let me re-phrase... James' wife is awesome TO HIM... she bought HIM a bunch of Gypsy Queen from a local store just because he knew he liked them. Out of those packs, she pulled a beauty of a card which James offered to me first because we had a trade going. He and his wife wanted to eBay this card, but I went ahead and used the last of my card purchasing funds to snag this one... an amazing card...

Very sweet, crisp corners... oh, and check out the number in the top right corner on the back!!!!

I got #1 of 10!!!! Freakin' sweet! Thanks for the trade and purchase James! Hope you enjoy the cards I sent your way! And, he is going to start a blog soon himself, so hopefully I can link back to it once it is up and running! Thanks again James! And to my readers, if you get an e-mail from an Iron Man from Hawaii, definitely make a deal with him, you'll get some great cards!

I also got my portion of cards from the latest group break over at Cardboard Collections which is run by the awesome Colby. He puts together very reasonable and affordable group breaks, and we worked out a deal with his group break and mine to get us both involved in each others' break... so I ended up with the Astros and Phillies...

 Some nice Astros cards. The black Towles rookie looks cool. I do like the Baseball Heroes set. I like a lot of the sets Upper Deck did as far as design, it was their execution that sometimes was lacking. That Wagner card cracks me up, I don't see why he agreed to that pose. "Future Star: Daryle Ward"? Yea right, I think he's playing in independent league still, but a major disappointment, along with Hidalgo (can someone say "roids"???) and then there is Pence, our only hope. He is our Luke Skywalker to Pujols' Darth Vader...

I picked up the Phillies because I thought I could pull a couple current Astros players since Ed Wade signs or trades for all of them whenever he can... J.A. Happ, Jason Michaels, Michael Bourn... so I got the Happ! Finally, I have two cards that represent the only redeeming quality of 2010 Upper Deck, the ballpark cards:

I got both the Astros and Phillies stadiums... very cool. Thanks for the break Colbey!

Random Contest Pimpage!

Head over to this new blog I've stumbled across... it's 2 contests in one, because those who pimp the contest also get entered into another contest! Sweet! Easy to enter, easy to win!

Not looking forward to this week... it's going to be a busy one... hope you all have a great one!

New Sidebar Addition

Just wanted to let everyone know, I've added a spreadsheet to my sidebar that has all of my "keeper" cards. These are mainly Astros and Nolan Ryan cards that are in my highlight binder of keepers. I'd say 95% of these are not for trade, but if there is something you just REALLY want then feel free to make an offer... but don't be shocked if I let you know that some of these cards are pretty much untouchable.

****UPDATE: I realized once I was out of the house that I didn't set it to public access... my bad everyone! It's open to public view now!****

Have a great weekend!

Trade, trade bait, LCS Trip and an eBay WIN!

So, Greg over at Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle sent me a link to a freakin' sweet Astros lot on eBay the other day, and I managed to win it, as I was the only bidder. $9.99 for all of this:

 A group of sick inserts... love the Maddux/Bagwell card, they really were rivals...

 That Berkman at the bottom is numbered /99 and possibly is "uncirculated" whatever the H that means... Anyways, freakin awesome. Two no-name Astros prospects auto's from days gone by... and the most amazing card for me, the Biggio/Bagwell duel bat relic. LOVE IT!

Then we have the only Alou relic I'll ever want/need... and some more Berkman sweetness. First a bat, then the OUTFIELD WALL FROM THREE RIVERS STADIUM!!! How cool is that?!?!?! Even cooler, they have a cool picture on the back showing the wall segments these pieces were cut from... again, FREAKIN' SWEET... and finally the Berkman jersey as well. More Berkman to come...

I also got a trade in from Joe over at The Sandlot... the guy put together a nice package of Topps 2011 Series 2 that I needed, and I sent him some Mets that he was after. Another base card swap, thanks Joe. This is the second or third time we've done a trade, and I can't wait to see if he offers me something again... always nice to see a package come in the mail from New York State, lots of good traders there!

Finally, I made a run to my local card shop. The monthly collectors show to be held tomorrow was cancelled due to the big TriStar show being next weekend. So I had money left over from my bulk 50k junk wax sale that I was wanting to spend on some NICE Astros cards. Howard, the shop owner, had some very nice "hits" held back from the shelf of Pence, Berkman and Oswalt plus some miscellaneous others... so I dove in. I wanted a 1/1 Roger Clemens patch that he had, but it was a bit more $$$ than I wanted to spend. So I ended up with these three GREAT cards because I realized a couple things: 1) I have no auto's of Oswalt or Berkman despite MANY jersey relics and 2) Every silk card I've gotten in a pack I have traded away, I want one to keep! So here's the first part of my purchase:

 The Oswalt is numbered to 999 and the Berkman auto is just a sweet looking auto, great additions to those two player collections. Especially since I'm kind of going to be stopping the voluntary acceptance of these guys' cards in trades. No longer with team + 2 full pages each of relics = no longer wanting to collect (unless you're talking some serious mojo!)

Like this... 4/10... got it for $20 and I'm glad I did. A very nice A&G Silk card and classic Berkman!

Alright, you don't think I went to a card shop without thinking of my fellow readers, right???? Well, I saw some cards I just couldn't resist... I knew some of my readers would drool over these and that they'd make excellent additions to my trade bait file (which many of you should go check out, lots of new additions!!!!) Anyways, without further ado, here's 5 HOF'er relics!

Berra, Boggs, Fisk, Schmidt and Carter! I got these for a pretty good rate, so I figured I'd snag them to help facilitate some cardboard shuffling amongst readers... and just mess with BA Benny a little...

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Trade Package or two...

To all my loyal readers, I apologize for the previous post. You see, I got a hold of my brother's iPad the other day while I was at his place... he was logged into Facebook and so I took it upon myself to change his status to: "Wearing my speedo, eating cheetos and watching Golden Girls... Life is good!" So... when he went to my parents' house today to work on their computer, he saw that Blogger had auto-saved my screenname and password. Thus the hijinks... I guess I deserved that one...

I have a trade or two to throw out here... first is an amazing trade with Kevin over at The Diamond King. I totally wish I had thought of that blog name first, it rocks! Anyways, I sent him quite the bevy of cards, but I do believe I got a mighty fine card in return. As you'll see below, it's a SWEEEEEET GU patch, numbered to 20, and from one of my definite favorite Astros players... Roy O. Thanks Kevin! I really do appreciate it!

I believe, when turned on it's side, that is the bottom right of the "H" and beginning of the "o" in Houston, with the line on left of the card being the line under the word Houston. Anyways, a very sweet patch and I greatly appreciate it. Kevin has already posted his loot, and I think we both feel we got the best card/cards from the trade! Thanks again Kevin...

I also got a trade in from Derek over at Tomahawk Chopping. I didn't scan them in before I bindered them, stupid me, but it was your run-of-the-mill base swap of 2011 Topps Series 2. His cards are going out in the mail tomorrow, so he'll be getting some inserts, a base card and then two Gypsy Queen inserts as well. Have a great evening everyone!

My Heart Will Go On

FYI this is what happens when your older brother hacks your blogger account after you hack his facebook account... I will leave it up because it is actually rather funny... Nathan, you will pay for this...
Remember: always log out and don't save the password...

Well...today is the day.  I finally got my Celine Dion tickets for Vegas.  It really has been a dream of mine to see her live.  I often sit and sing to myself the theme song from Titanic...you know...My Heart Will Go On...it gets me every time.  I just break down and cry just thinking about how all those people suffered in that cold, cold water.

In other news, I have an appointment to get the boil on my back lanced.  It is really quite gross.  When I had my back waxed last month it really started to bother me.  So while the lady finished my manicure I asked if she knew a place other than a doctor's office to get that taken care of.  She recommended a good place.  I trust her...after all, she does miracles on my eyebrows.

Today is also special because me nephew turns three today.  Happy Birthday, Zac!  You know...I am so lucky to have the family I do.  I have a whole slew of special needs and they are always so supportive.  Many of you don't know this, but I wet the bed well into junior high.  My brother was always REALLY nice about it. He didn't poke fun or anything.  He always helped me with my kid-sized Depends.  I couldn't have made it through those 5 years of junior high without him.  Come to think of it...I wouldn't be the person I am today without him.  He is always looking out for me.  I am a bit clueless when it comes to common sense, so his guidance is always so helpful.  For instance..internet security.  He always reminds me to log out of websites...like this one.  "Log out or someone will get on and embarrass you by posting questionable content.  You can never be too safe, Sam.  Hey Sam...listen up...dude...put your copy of Seventeen down and listen."  You know what I mean? Do you have someone that always has your back?

Nathan, I am so glad I am your brother.  I have always modeled my life after how you handle yours.  I will never be as good looking, smart, successful, athletic, handsome, funny, kind,good-smelling, or intelligent as you, but I hope I can be.  I get very upset thinking about all those times I let you down...like the time when our sister left the wet towels out and you took the blame for us.  What character!!  You were only 6 or 7 at the time, and I just mom spank you for what seemed like an eternity...well, at least for us.  We got a full game of Monopoly in.  In other words...well, in the words of Wayne and Garth....


I'M NOT WORTHY...I'M NOT WORTHY!!! I SUCK!!

To everyone else...find someone you really admire and tell them how you feel.  I know I am almost done with his Father's Day present.  I made a shadowbox of all the ticket stubs from the movies we went to see as kids.  I also got a picture of us made into a mouse pad.  I hope to present it to him this weekend.  If he doesn't love it I will just die...who knows what I will do to my Nicolas Sparks collection!?!?! And to think I just got the autographed first edition of "The Notebook"...so sad.

Have a great day, everyone.  Especially my brother...you complete me. (tear)

Trades, pick ups and something cool...

So I had several packages waiting for me in the mail today... first of all I've got some mad props to hand out to my buddy Josh over at Dodger Bobble. I won a contest over there, which would have netted me a couple of bobble head dolls, a signed Preacher Roe card and some other goodies which would have probably mostly ended up in Greg Z's mailbox some day. I was really excited about the Preacher Roe card, I wanted it really bad. But then my neighborhood miscreants struck again and stole the package off the front porch. Josh went ahead and sent me another package with an alternate prize... two "Nolan Ryan" beanie babies. Now, I'm not a beanie baby collector at all, but since these are Nolan Ryan themed, I figured what the heck, why not... the scans don't do justice to the coolness of a unique prize:

 Mets Nolan with "New York" on the front...

And Rangers Nolan... sorry, a bit of a crotch shot, I blame the scanner/cropper... Thanks Josh, great prizes and great blog! Keep it up buddy...

Next we have a package from across the pond, England that is... Jack from The Pursuit of 80's(ness). He sent over 7 cards from my Upper Deck 20th Anniversary complete set goal (this is not going well, but I'm going to keep trudging along in hopes that some day someone with about 4000 of them wants to unload them cheap... haha)... thanks Jack, I'll be pulling some cards and shooting you a package soon!

Also, we have Jason C. Now, for the life of me, I cannot remember his blog... I read so many and if I don't put a blog name in one of the e-mails, I tend to lose trade. Jason, if you read this, let me know you're blog and I'll fix this so that it plugs your blog. He posted about some Gypsy Queen that he was looking to unload and I needed bronze bordered cards and wanted some trade bait. As it turns out, after making the deal, I pulled one of the autos he sent and so I now have two copies of the Neftali Feliz auto if anyone is looking for one or two! He also sent along 5 bronze borders and a short print Utley. So he'll snag 5 entries into my Bronze Border contest! If you want to unload bronze borders, please let me know, you'll get entries into a SWEET contest, not to mention I'll also trade you cards for them! Alright, back to the cards:

Next up, we have David over at TribeCards. He sent over my cards from the "Buck a Box" Group Break he held where I claimed the Astros. I got some more of the 2011 Bowman base cards (as I am not buying any packs of this set, I enjoyed getting a stab at some Astros base!) Thanks for the affordable and fun break, which also included some SportsFlics and Heads Up! sets. Thanks David!

Great action shot of Hunter Pence... Jonathan Villar might be in the big leagues in a year or two if he keeps hitting like he has as well. I sent a TTM to Mike Scott a few weeks ago, hopefully he will return it signed soon!

Finally, while out and about yesterday with the wife, we came across a blaster of 2009 UD A Piece of History and since I'm still trying to put that set together, I snagged it up. Didn't get any set needs but I got a GU jersey:

Well, have a great one everyone! Hope this week treats you all well!

Wow... it was a busy day!

Alright, I've got lots to update on... first of all, a recent 3-way trade between Rhubarb_Runner, Cards from the Quarry and myself... Thanks for another great trade guys! I ended up with this beaut:

Then I stopped by Target at lunch and grabbed my first blaster of 2011 Topps... and pulled this awesome card!

Yes, it's manufactured, and yes I love it... I just wish they would have used the 80's Astros logo instead of the 90's, but that's the Topps-opoly for ya!

THEN, I stopped by my local card shop and bought this AWESOME card...

 MY FIRST BIGGIO AUTO!!! SWEEEEEEET!!!! The scan doesn't do it justice, but it's very shiny and awesome!!! A jersey/auto combo card from 2004, couldn't be happier.

Then I bought some Gypsy Queen and pulled this one:

And I bought an up-opened Topps Heritage buy-back box loader and lucky for me it had this little piece of awesomeness:

Then I also bought my first (and only) hobby box of 2011 Topps Series Two... here's the goodies:

 I like the diamond stars, but I don't love them...

 The Yogi is front & back because I got the regular and original backs!  The Biggio is staying in my collection!

 My one guaranteed hit!

Wow, ok, so I mainly just scanned the "good" inserts. I'm collecting the Kimball champions, but everything else is up for trade. Including that SP Diamond bling-bling Sandy Koufax up there!!!

I did get a total of 7 diamond giveaway cards, none of them netting me anything better than a 1979 card, but I did unlock my first Die Cut of Neftali Feliz (I traded for a Schmidt). Anyone interested?

I am up to 30 rings now, may see about buying a "lot" of giveaway cards on eBay to try and get to 45. We'll see... Got the NY Yankees ring, which must be hard to dig up, because I now have 180+ trade offers mostly for that one ring.

Finally, all your group break participants will be happy to hear that all of your packages were shipped out today! Nick, I included that Jeff Weaver you asked about, just remember me when you get a sweet Astros to send back for it some time!

I'll have a need list for Series 2 and Kimball up soon! Thanks for stopping by everyone!

Some sad news... and a contest plug...

The sad news is not really all that sad, but at least it is to me... I sold off a huge chunk of my personal collection last night. Around 26,400 cards. Most of it cheap wax from the "over produced era" as I guess it should be called. It's not junk to me, I guess, since it was what started my love of cards and also had my heroes on them. Anyways, I got $150 for the 6 boxes worth of cards, and sadly, that's probably right about their true worth. There was an amazing amount of 1990 Donruss and 1987 Topps in there... the two sets I probably busted the most of as a kid. It was all just getting to be too much to move, too unorganized and too much of a hassle. I went by the storage room today and loaded up another 6 boxes in the trunk of my car. I'll sort through those in the next few days and unload those as well. I've consolidated my current collection down to about 10 binders and (3) 5,000 count boxes. Probably about where it should be and it makes it a manageable bunch of cards. If I ever want a complete set of 87 Topps, I know I can find it on eBay pretty cheap.

Alright, now for a contest plug after that thoroughly depressing story... my buddy Ryan G over at This Card Is Cool is running a pretty swell contest. Several prizes... so get over there and sign up!

Going to the Astros game tomorrow night with the young professionals group from work. We've got the roof of Union Station reserved and will watch at least part of the game from up there. Hopefully we can beat those pesky Cardinals with their traitorous left fielder Berkman...

Oh Brett Wallace... where ARE YOU!?!?!?!

So I e-mailed Topps a couple weeks ago. I've been curious about the Brett Wallace auto that is supposedly in 2011 Gypsy Queen. I have yet to see or hear of anyone pulling one, and eBay is devoid of any sign of it. It is on the official checklist included in the packs and Sports Card Radio's checklist; which I find rather reliable. Anyways, I got a response back from Topps (rather short and rude) saying "If it's on the checklist, it's in the product." Well, Customer Service thanks for that response... but the card is MISSING IN ACTION!

( THIS IS NOT THE DROID CARD YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!)

If anyone has seen, pulled or heard distant rumors of this card existing... please let me know... I want it...

I've heard rumors it may not have been inserted into the product, but is part of the UPC redemption, and if so SHAME ON YOU TOPPS!!! SHAME ON YOU!!!!

(The Dimwit will step down from his theoretical blog soap box now and you may proceed with your day...)

Contest Winnings and a trade...

So... many many many many months ago... I won a contest over at the non-defunct JD's Wild Cardz. Not just any ordinary contest, but an epic code rivaled only by the Allen and Ginter code... ok, slight exaggeration there because there's no way I could break the A&G code, Nick Jacoby that's all you man. BUT it seemed that Mike's escape from the collecting world also coincided with his departure from going to the post office... haha, just kidding with you Mike, but on a serious note readers it literally took nearly 7 months to get my prize... but boy is it worth it! Hopefully 2011 A&G pulls him back into collecting, because I really did enjoy reading his blog and such. He promised the entire contents of his box of 2010 Topps Chrome (hits and all, already opened) and a 2010 Topps National Chicle artist-signed card of my choosing. Well, he sent me 2 of the artist signed cards (TTM-style). Enjoy...

Why Gavin Floyd? Well, he was the first "refractor" on the stack, so I got 8 of them total, he was just the easiest to scan. The A-Rod and Reyes are claimed by BA Benny, part of an EPIC trade that's been brewing for a bit, it's going to be LEGEN.... wait for it... DARY... just wait, it's still in the works! Rhubarb_Runner will get the Hughes auto whenever it gets here, as we're working on a slightly less epic deal, and Hiflew has claimed the Young Jr. auto (which I do say is one of the nicer on-card autos I've seen in a while). Anyways, if anyone wants the Werth or D'Backs cards, let me know. And I've got a BUNCH of 2010 Topps Chrome base cards... you need any? Just let me know!

Alright, next up is a small trade between myself and Brian over at Play At The Plate... he sent me over his 2011 Bowman Astros in exchange for some Rangers (which I need to start pulling and get mailed!)...
Thanks Brian! I didn't want to buy any of this set, and I've got most of the Astros now, including a nice orange parallel of Chris Johnson /199. The prospects are guys I don't really expect to see in the majors any time at all, but decent cards nonetheless. I'm not a Bowman fan mainly because it is such a HUGE hit or miss set and nearly impossible to "set-build". Anyways, still great looking cards!

My first ever "jersey" relic card...

I clearly remember the first ever jersey relic card I ever pulled... I was really excited... it wasn't nearly as common-place in 2001 as it is now... unfortunately, it was of this guy:

Yes, 2001 Bowman "2000 All-Star Futures Game" game-used jersey of Brad Wilkerson. There are only two players (international guys) who are Beckett valued above a semistar or common rating and Brad isn't one of them... a respectable $10.00 high value common. It's going in the trade bait folder, however I shudder to think there might be a Wilkerson collector out there. Although an Expo collector might be interested...

Group Break In Summation... sort of...

Well, the wife and I have almost got all the sorting, collating, bagging and such completed this morning. Unfortunately, there are more cards per package than I had anticipated, so I'm going to have to go to the trusty Wal-Mart or Target and buy a few more packages in order to get them all together.

Hopefully you all will have watched most or all the videos to see what exactly you'll be getting in terms of hits, parallels and inserts, because I packages all those up without counting for each team. However, I do know that there are only two participants who got "shut out" from a hit. Sorry Jay and MU, the cards fell as they did and your 4 teams ended up with no hits. Although each of you got some parallels and inserts.

Everybody will get a full team set, except for myself, BA Benny and Matt P who volunteered to take the "short sets" so that everyone else can get a full set. Luckily, those two sets aren't short by a whole lot and I'm sure they'll be able to fill their sets through trades. My set is only 42 out of the 84 card total, but again I'm sure I'll be able to find the other 42 I need for the full set. Overall, Matt P and myself tied for the most "hits" with 4 each... Matt got 3 autos and 1 jersey while I got 3 jerseys and an auto. I think the group was wise in opting for the "set" option or we all would have ended up with 12+ cards of all the players for each of our teams. Pretty much every 2 team set also got a few duplicates, I think one or maybe two people didn't get any duplicates.

Overall, I really liked this case, and as the first one that I've ever busted, I'd give it a solid B+ overall. There were some decent hits (Wang, Drew, and Young auto's... Fielder, Pujols and Wright jerseys), lots of parallels and lots of inserts.

Thanks to all you guys who participated. I hope everyone is happy with the cards you will receive! Let me know if you have any questions!


I'd like to do another group break soon, maybe just a few random boxes. Head over to Atlanta Sports Cards and let me know if you have any ideas for boxes to rip!

THE FINAL BOX!!!! IT IS FINISHED!!!! GROUP BREAK BOX #16!

I'll post a big recap blog posting tomorrow if I get some time... thanks everyone who has been in the break! It's been a lot of fun!

As for a schedule, I have a lot of family stuff this weekend, so I don't think I'll be doing much with the cards between now and Sunday. I hope to start packaging the cards Tuesday after work and have them all ready to go out in the mail next Friday. I'm sorry for the delay, there are some other things going on right now, but at least you all know what you have and can be expecting in your mail boxes. Again, once I get confirmation that Charley and Kirk are ok with the "set" plan.

Box 15!!!! ALMOST DONE!

Could I have done all 16 boxes in one video? Yea, probably... would you all have watched that 3 hour video, probably not... at least these 16 posts will allow you to watch them all at your leisure...maybe I could have done 8, with two boxes per, but too late now!

Box #14

Here's the 14th box... Tory Holt... wow... I was getting really tired...

Box #13

Box 13 for you guys... I dub thee "The West Coast" box... ish...

Box #12

Our next duplicate autograph... won't be the last :(

Yes, I did get the question answered, I am still waiting for 2 responses, but everyone has said yes so far and I think the other two will as well. Kirk and Charley, let me know if you're reading this!!!! Check your e-mail!!!

Box #11

Hey Ryan G... hope you like this box better... oh, and yes Carlos Lee, you're a jerk...

Box #10...

My ramblings at the beginning are so superfluous... much like the word superfluous... and it's not really bad collation, it's just the way these boxes were collated because each box has pretty close to a full set... my theories are total crap...

Box #9

As I am throwing these up, my narration in the blog posts are getting shorter and shorter... hope you all are enjoying the videos...

Box #8

Half way through the break!

Box #7 - I totally lied, this wasn't my last box of the night...

Ok everyone... box number 7... I said it may be my last box, but I busted and collated until after 2:00am.

I should have the rest of the boxes posted today... I'm putting in the jump break so that if people want to watch the video without seeing the actual hits first, they can do so...

Group Break Box #6 - Beltre/Prior strike again...

My telepathy is amazing... or just pattern awareness... haha...

Ok, I called and talked over and over and over with the Upper Deck reps. Much like Jeff over at I Am Joe Collector, I'm stuck with expired redemptions that Upper Deck will not honor. Sorry guys, I tried. Guess we should have busted this 4 years ago... haha...

The final box of the night... more boxes tomorrow... I promise...

Well, there's the final box of the night (or should I say morning...)

Box #4... is this boring you all yet???? Haha... didn't think so...

Here's the fourth box... fun times for all!!!

Box #3... you night owls are getting a treat...

Box number 3, hope you all are getting just what you wanted out of these boxes!

Box #2

Here's box #2... fun times...

And it begins... The 2006 Ovation Group Break!!! Box #1

Thanks to Atlanta Sports Cards... here we go everyone... the group break begins!


Well, get ready for puns, poetry and some insane rambling about collation...

OVATION GROUP BREAK QUESTION and UPDATE!!!!!

To everyone involved in the group break... I'm a bit more than half way through opening all the boxes... it's very nice so far! Anyways, taking a short break to ask a question of everyone based on my observations of the boxes thus far...

There are 84 cards in the regular base set... it's my observation that we're getting a full set out of each box (or at least REALLY close to the full set) so that by the end of the break there would be enough for a full 84 card set per participant with left over duplicates for everyone. I don't mean to change course mid-stream, but would EVERYONE (this must be unanimous) be interested in a complete set, plus all the duplicates, inserts, hits and parallels from your teams?

Please e-mail me with your answer to this question, as I don't want anyone who isn't interested to feel singled out. Please let me know ASAP: samuelpair@yahoo.com.  If you feel comfortable leaving a comment with your opinion, by all means, but the e-mail option is available.

I don't have a problem with anyone who wants to keep just their players but you'll probably end up with at least 16 cards of every person in the base set for your players. PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!