June Group Break - 3 Hobby Boxes - Unique, Co-Signers & Legendary Cuts!

*** GROUP BREAK IS FULL!!!!!! THANKS EVERYONE!!!***

Hey everyone, it's that time again! Another Dimwit Group Break! June's Group Break is going to be epic and awesome... some would even venture to say epically awesome! Atlanta Sports Cards is coming through with some great deals on some boxes for the break!

First up... 2009 Topps Unique!

24 Packs Per Box - 7 Cards per Pack - 1 Autograph and 2 Relics per Box! 1 Relic will be either a jumbo swatch or jumbo patch!

2008 Topps Co-Signers! 12 Packs per box - 6 cards per pack! 3 autographs including one multiple-player auto! Lots of parallels!

 

Finally the big box of the break! 2007 UD SP Legendary Cuts! 12 packs, 4 cards per pack! There are 2 cut autos per CASE, so we have a shot at some legendary cut autos! One numbered autograph per box for sure.

Alright, there are a few possibilities of non-baseball cards. Any non-hit cards will be randomly sorted among all participants. Any non-baseball HITS will be randomized amongst ALL PARTICIPANTS. So if you buy multiple slots in the break, you'll get the same number of multiple slots in the randomization. If we pull a Negro League autograph, that will be included in the randomization (even if those players ended up going to a MLB team). I want everyone to be clear about this ahead of time.

So, that just leaves the cost... $18 for a TWO team slot! One you pick, one you are randomly assigned! That's less than a blaster! If you want additional slots, it'll be $16 per slot after the first slot. Payment sent via paypal to samuelpair (at) yahoo (dot) com as a gift, please!

Please claim a team by leaving a comment on this post with the team  (please make sure I have your e-mail or access to it via your blogger profile).

As an added incentive, if the break fills by Sunday night, I'll throw in a blaster of 2012 Gypsy Queen and 2012 Topps Archives!

Atlanta - Chris Mays - PAID
Arizona -
Baltimore - William - PAID
Boston - Matt Perry - PAID
Chicago Cubs - Matt Pederson - PAID
Chicago White Sox - Jeff Wilk - PAID
Cincinnati -
Cleveland - David - PAID
Colorado -
Detroit - The Dutch Card Guy - PAID
Houston - The Dimwit - PAID
Kansas City -
Los Angeles Dodgers - dodgers88 -PAID
Los Angeles Angels -
Miami -
Milwaukee -
Minnesota -
New York Mets -
New York Yankees - kmsrocknj (Kevin S) - PAID
Oakland -
Philadelphia - daddyohoho - PAID
Pittsburgh - Pirates Treasure Room - PAID
San Diego -
San Fransisco -arpsmith - PAID
Seattle -
St. Louis - William - PAID
Tampa - 
Texas - Matt Pederson - PAID
Toronto -
Washington -

2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Autographs

Alright, other than Koufax, Aaron, Halladay and Ripken... I've decided to track down as many 2011 Gypsy Queen autos as possible... here's what I already have:

Nolasco
Cecil
Torres
Jay
Hudson
Byrd
Cashner
Hunter
Venable
DeJesus
Pagan
Tomlin
Castro

If you have an auto not on this list that you'd like to trade me, please let me know! Email me and we'll work something out!

Thanks in advance for anyone who helps me in this craziness!

Lots of Mail To Catch Up On!!!!

Ok, so going home for Memorial Day weekend created a HUGE backlog in mail... so I'll start out with some good, old fashioned COMC/eBay purchases!

The last 6 full sized relics I needed!!!! SWEEEET!!! The full sized relic set is DONE! Stan The Man is the 3rd-from-last card I needed... only Munson and Ruth left... and I think I have a firm deal in place for the Munson... :-D... I LOVED the Bagwel/Thomas card! Two guys born on the same day, with equal success, playing the same position (pretty much) and who burst onto the scene about the same time?!?!? How awesome of a dual relic? And got it for like $2.00... I'll take that any day!

Trumbo finishes up my Future Stars insert set, the two 1978 cards brings me down to just 3 CARDS needed for that set!!!! So close! My first "vintage" set (I define vintage as anything older than me, so pre-1980). A few GQ short prints and a couple of Queens from last year!

Finally, my COMC purchase would not be complete without mini's!

Next up are contest winnings from Brian over at the Pirates Treasure Room... he's running a great contest throughout the year, where all you have to do is root for the Pirates to win a series, and he gives away cards if they do. You get bonus entries for rooting against "your team". Thus I won the Astros prize shown above. An awesome "oddball" relic of a Glen Barker batting glove. Then I rooted against the Rockies and got the SWEEEET Drew Pomeranz triple jersey Team USA relic. Brian threw in a few extra cards as well! Thanks Brian for the contest and the blog! Great to finally have an active and avid Pirates fan/collector out there!

Here's a small (b/c they are mini's of course) trade with Larry over at My 2008 Topps Set Blog... he needed mini's, I needed mini's... we swapped... thanks Larry!

Finally, the results of a group break...

Them's the breaks... it was only $6.00 and I was taking a stab at getting an auto from 2 boxes of 2012 Archives over at JABO's. Kyle had a big stack o' Astros to send my way as well as part of his collection down sizing, so I ended up with a bunch more cards.

Kyle was a bit discouraged (I hope he doesn't mind me sharing) that some people buy into his breaks, then only end up with stacks like mine: 2 cards for $6-$10. I told Kyle not to worry, thats the breaks. Heck, even when we bust a whole hobby box on our own or even a blaster, there's not guarantee we'll even end up with one card we want (for instance, the craptastic blaster of Archives I opened this past weekend, talk about your all-time waste of $20). Kyle, I've wasted worse money chasing worse odds... keep up the great work on the group breaks. I am fairly certain we all know the odds are typically not in our favor, so when we hit something nice in a break we know there are probably 2-3 breaks down the road where we subsidize a few other participants' awesome cards. Get ready to see an example of this later this week... let's just say I joined a case break for the price of a blaster, and ended up with what will probably go down as one of the best cards in my collection... just sayin'... it's going to be epic!

Speaking of group breaks... it's almost time for The Dimwit's June Group Break announcement... I honestly have NO CLUE what boxes to bust this month... I thought about doing a break of a BUNCH of blasters but I couldn't guarantee which ones ahead of time but mostly would consist of current products and whatever other craziness I could find... I think I prefer hobby boxes because of the guaranteed hits, but let me know what you'd be interested in... I'm guessing if we did something like 10 blasters, it'd be about $18 per two-team slot... let me know what interests you, what products you'd like to see in a break...

Silent Auction Pick-Up

My dad recent gad a silent auction at his work and picked this up for me. That's Jimmy Wynn and Larry Dierker! Thanks dad! I am back in Houston for the weekend so my posting will be a bit sporadic. Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Tired Of Seeing GQ On My Blog Yet???

No???? Well me neither!!! So, here's a couple of trades... first up a bunch of cards for our favorite Holland-er... The Netherlands-er... Dutch... yes! Dutch! Man, I'm dumb... The Dutch Card Guy... see, it's right there in his name... he's Dutch...

The Freese I picked up for James, if he still needs it... yay mini's!!!

Next up are cards from a new trade partner Jeff over at 2 x 3 Heroes... add him to your blogroll or RSS feed for sure!!!! (Does anyone know what happened to the "Follow" link on Blogger's header bar??? It's gone missing and has made it dang near impossible to "follow" a blog if they don't have the "followers widget on their side bar.... stupid Blogger)...

The Hosmer finishes up my Future Stars inserts, the Banks leaves me with just the Cobb in Hallmark Heroes!

I picked up a value pack from Target, nothing exciting but did get a Reggie Jackson, Felix Hernandex and Jesus Montero gold border.

I hope everyone is having a great week!!!!

The Rumors Are True...

HE'S BACK!!!!!

Welcome back bud! The Blog-O-Sphere can now rejoice!!!!

Rumblings...

Rumors are swirling... can they be true???? Is a hall-of-famer coming out of self-imposed retirement???? The intrigue... the drama...


Ok, so it's not Roger... but pretty damn close... more news to come as unsubstantiated rumors become fact... please feel free to speculate in the comments... this should be fun...

Two Posts in One Day???? Surely You Jest...

I don't jest, and don't call me Shirley... (that never gets old, thank you Leslie Nielson)

It was a big mail day here in Alabama... so I figured I'd get this posted as soon as we got back to the apartment...

First up is Jeroen from The Dutch Card Guy... he bought into a group break over at Nachos Grande and the Astros were his random team and we made a trade where I ended up with his Astros... so these cards went from Nachos Grande's home to The Netherlands and now to Mobile, AL... these cards have had a tiresome journey but they are home at last... :)

A nice mix of base cards!

Bagwell jersey, numbered parallel and an auto of a failed prospect I had never heard of...  Thanks Jeroen!!!!

Next up, a couple of eBay purchases toward the GQ Full Sized relic set... inching closer and closer!!!!

Finally, Adam from Thoughts and Sox sent me a nice "just because" Astros package...

Thanks Adam... that Pence looks RIDICULOUS scanned... it's out of /999!

Alright, that's all.... for now...

A New Trade From a New Blogger! and some COMC action...

Hey everyone, first of all there is a new Cubs blogger in the community. I want you all to head over there NOW... Once a Cub he's got 7 followers and deserves more love from the blog-o-sphere! So go follow him, even if he is a Cub fan... ;) Anyways, Matt from Once a Cub (seriously, click the link and follow, don't make me post the link again) and I recently made a Gypsy Queen centric trade! I sent a bunch of GQ Cubs & Nats his way, he sent a bunch of GQ my way... here's the spoils!

Four of the SP's that I needed! And 3 of the retail inserts I needed as well! Only two retail inserts left that I need! Trumbo Future Stars and Cobb Hallmark Heroes!

 More mini's!!!!!! YAY!!! Thanks Matt for a great trade, and I hope I send some bloggers your way to grow your follower list a bit!

I have a love/hate relationship with COMC... I love buying cards from there... I hate waiting on them to show up... here's my latest round of pick-ups...

Of course it would include 2012 and 2011 GQ Mini's!!!! Plus a Gyspy Queen insert I was lacking. Hey, if anyone has 2011 GQ to trade, I do still have a small, dwindling list of needs for that set as well! Mainly mini's, Gypsy Queen inserts and a couple of high dollar mini relics. Yes, that's right, I have another batch of COMC waiting to be shipped that will complete my Full Sized Relic set... stay tuned for a post that shows off that whole set!

I also scrounged around one seller's page picking off super cheap 1960 Topps... why? Because they are vintage and they were cheap of course! I also picked up my 2nd ever vintage Hank Aaron card, a league leaders card from 1972 Topps!

No recognizable (to me) names from the 1960 Topps, the Torre/Stargell/Aaron card is the treasure amongst these vintage cards. I don't know if you'd be interested in these Red Sox, Matt/DocHoloday, but if you are, let me know...

That's it for today everyone! Hope you enjoyed the show! Have a great weekend... The Hotwit and I have been busy since yesterday afternoon helping foster 3 awesome kittens that were abandoned by their mother at my work. They are about 8 weeks old, very loud and feeling better already. We don't know how long they were on their own, but the vet said they were very malnourished so we're getting back to health. Just trying to keep the wife from getting attached... they have a home to go to, it just won't be ready until next week some time. Hopefully they all stay well and healthy until then!

A Trade with Bob!

Bob is a Facebook card collecting friend... he showed off a card the other day, and I sent him my Frank Robinson Gypsy Queen autograph from last year, although it hurt a lot to trade it away, I decided this card was worth it...

Yes, a laundry tag card! It's numbered 9/10! It's FREAKIN' SWEEEET!

I've now shown off my two favorite 1st basemen in consecutive posts... Gehrig obviously had the more storied career, but I think Bagwell will end up in the HOF with Lou some day! Thanks Bob, and enjoy the Robinson auto!

A Big Hitter Knocked off the List!

I got this in the mail today from eBay... I knew this one would be tough to get, and thanks to the Cal Ripken Jr. auto/relic I sold, this one is all mine!!!!

WOW! Just an awesome card!!!! Can't believe I own a piece of jersey that Lou Gehrig wore!!! So awesome!

Anyways, after a bunch of COMC and eBay snipes, it looks like I'm down to just two relics to complete the 2011 Gypsy Queen Full and Mini Relics collection!!!! Munson and Ruth from the mini relics. Those are going to be tough to get as the Ruth is ridiculously expensive, and the Munson rarely shows itself anywhere... if any of you awesome readers have either of these for trade, PLEASE let me know... I'd be more than generous in a trade for either of them!!!!

Trades!

I got a couple of trade packages to report in on... first up is Eric from Manupatches and Mustaches! I sent him a manupatch and he sent me a recent pick-up from his Napkin Doon Big Fun Game...

Numbered 6/375, this is an awesome Jeff Kent Astros card! The mini base is just awesome, making this an extra thick card! Love it!

Next is blogger Curtis... I can't remember how exactly I stumbled across his want list, or which of the many blogs I read that is his... I've tried to research it and I've failed... I'm a horrible blogger buddy... I sent GQ his way, he send GQ back my way... a great trade...

 Lots of mini's!

 I even out the deal in the end, I picked one of the autos he pulled, not a bad auto at all from the kid Seager. I've got another of his autos if I remember correctly (literally the binder is two feet away and I'm too lazy to check at the moment) but if anyone is interested, it's trade bait! Mariners fans??? I know, just as seldomly encountered as Astros fans these days...

Well, thanks Curtis and Eric! Love the trades...

If anyone has GQ needs, PLEASE let me know... heck at this point I've got base cards coming out my ears... if you want a team set of non-SP base cards, let me know the team and I'll either make a trade with you or give you a flat $X shipped price in them once I pull them and let you know who all I have to send your way. If you're looking to complete a set of 2012 GQ, PLEASE LET ME KNOW, I've got dups or trips of most cards in the set at this point...

Alright, have a good night everyone...

I can't be stopped...

Happy Mother's Day to all...

My wife disappeared at the end of our trip to Wal-mart and returned with two blasters of GQ... if you want to see the video break, here you go...

After the page break, the hit pulled is scanned in...

Crazy Day of Purchases and Trades!

Alright, first and foremost, TRADES!!!

Matt Perry (DocHoloday)
       Matt recently purchased a bunch of Gypsy Queen and one of his hits caught my eye... he's a guy I've always wanted a "hit" of but figured there weren't many out there. I didn't realize he was sending a me a buttload of mini's as well but here's the loot!

 

The Maris is just a sweet card, and it's definitely staying in my Keepers collection! Lots of mini's! I love it! Thanks Matt!

Jeffrey (Blog Reader)
     Jeffrey was so kind to send this awesome card my way!

SWEEEET! Now I just need the blue border!!!! I know someone out there has it! The retail brown borders are awesome, just as much as the blue! I haven't seen a 1/1 black pulled yet but I'm sure they are ridiculously awesome!

Purchases... hold on to your seats everyone, this is going to be a long one!
First up, Kyle from Jabo's pointed this card out to me and I was able to pick it up at auction for $2.75 w/ free shipping!

/50! Sweeeeeet!

Next up, I picked up two rack packs of GQ the other day... here are the highlights!

 Again, the brown borders are awesome... in the top row, a couple of SP's!

J.P. Arencibia... not the worst auto one could pull this year!

Next up, I bought some cards from the LCS today... picked up a couple Berkman relics:

 And a card I had my eye on at the shop for some time...

A guy from the classic, Tinkers-To-Evers-To-Chance triple play combo! And a relic that dates back 100 years!!!! I finally pulled the trigger and happy I did... another non-Astro going into the permanent collection!

Finally, I knew I needed to get some retail GQ in order to get the Retail insert sets going... I picked up a total of 23 of the 30 I needed... here's the highlights of everything I got that I was able to remove from my want lists from the bunch of blasters I picked up! - Plus the black border, green border and sepia mini's I pulled...

 Inching closer and closer to the mini set!!!! I need more mini's!!!!!!!!!!!

Delgado auto, can't say I know of him... Gallardo, I now have his full and mini relics...  three more base SP's I needed!

Well, that wraps it up everyone! Please see my Want/Have list for 2012 Gypsy Queen if you want to make a deal, link is in the side bar! If there is a team you're collecting and want mini's I can go through and pull all the ones I've got for that team and let you know if you'd rather not go through all the numbers!

Topps Team USA Contest Randomization!

Congrats to the winner!

High-Five Man is the winner!!!! Justin, get me your address so I can get your Team USA cards in the mail soon! Thanks to everyone who participated!

Trade Report - Dennis and Marcus!!!

A couple trades to highlight this morning... First up is Dennis from Too Many Verlanders! I thought we had worked out a nice little one-for-one swap and well of course I was mistaken as my mailbox was flooded with a bunch of cards above and beyond our agreed upon trade... Dennis, you're too good to me... some Astros and Nolan Ryan cards:

Nice bunch of odd ball Ryan's there, some of which I remarkably had never seen before! The three across the bottom say "Home on the Range with Ryan" on the back. The Bagwell is a freakin' sweet foily-refractory goodness kind of card... just sick...

He also sent me a small stack of basketball cards, including 30 of the MOST UNDER-RATED CENTER OF ALL TIME. I will accept no arguments, Hakeem was underrated his entire career and the media never gave him his due... he embarrassed every other center in the league at least once, and David Robinson many time. Had he played in LA or NY, he would be on Russell & Kareem level of fame, but alas, since he played in only the 4th largest city in America, he's largely overlooked... rant over...

No, I don't collect basketball... yes I'm keeping these... GREAT cards of Hakeem in action!

And for the card we originally based this trade around...

A freakin' sweet Biggio /50 swatch!!!! SWEEEEET!!!! Thanks Dennis.

Finally, a small trade... hehe... between me and new blog-that-I'm-following writer Marcus from All The Way To the Backstop...

He sent me mini's!!!!! YAY!!!!! I love me some mini's!!!!

A Ridiculous "Care Package" from Andrew

Blogger commenter and group break participant Andrew sent me a "care package" yesterday and man, is it ridiculous! I never knew anyone cared about me so much!!! Check out these cards!

The Berkman patch is AWESOME... /99 and again is awesome... Josh Anderson is a prospect we shipped over to Atlanta in some long forgotten trade (Oscar Villareal???) Anyways, a nice selection of vintage and current Astros as well!

Next up, I'm sure initially you'll think, why is the Dimwit highlighting a stupid Brett Myers base card from Gypsy Queen, I'm sure he already has about 20 of them... and why the heck does he have it in a hard snap down case? What's going on here...

All that would be true, except it came with this:

And the back looked like this!!!

Yes, that's a 1/1 blank back straight from the Topps Vault!!! These are only available on eBay via the Topps Vault!

Thanks Andrew, awesome stuff and truly appreciated!!!!!!

May 2012 Group Break - Box #3 - 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen

Here's the video... third and final box of the May Group Break!

Scans after the page break!

May Group Break - Box #2 - 2012 Topps Heritage Hobby Box

Here's the video!


Pictures after the page break!

I Interupt This Group Break to Bring You an EPIC Card...

The end of eTopps came about just about 1 week after I bought my first ever eTopps card, darn my luck. Anyways, I finally took shipment of that one card... and I am SO glad I did... scans do it no justice...

 The Front...

And the back... This card is super impressive in hand...

Anyways, the group break will continue tonight!!!!

May Group Break - Box #1 - Topps Opening Day

Here's the video if you choose to endure it...

Product Review - 2012 Topps USA Summer Olympics

Topps finally did what should have been done for years and years, produced a set centered on the Olympics! The fan base for the Olympics goes well beyond the boundaries of the hobby. This is a set that has a chance to rope in a much wider audience. So, the wife being such a big Olympics fan that she is, and with the chance of some pretty cool autographs and relics, I picked up a box for her to bust this weekend.

Here are a bunch of the base cards... there may or may not be a theme here...

My wife has already said it, I'm a pig. But these are some nice looking cards, don't you think???? Most of the cards are action shots, with some of them being medal ceremony shots and a few being posed (see Morgan, Alex). Each hobby box is said to contain a complete 100 card set, and that rang true from our box, with a total of 25 duplicates (more on those later, you'll want to read to the end...). The scan above are all duplicates.

Next up, there are various insert sets, here's our loot:

The top 6 show off some of the current Olympic champions and their sports; on the back it gives a nice little snippet detailing the sport as well as the current all-time leading medal winning country. The three cards across the bottom are the Gold, Silver and Bronze parallel sets (the theme continues). In our box we got 8 gold, 12 silver and 24 bronze. Putting these 100 card sets will be a challenge, but if someone does it, that is going to be a really nice set of cards!

The top card is the manufactured relic. There are several different kinds of these in the set and we got the manu-patch for the US Olympic team highlighting the Water Polo team. I've seen some nice American Flag patches and then some pretty cool pin relics as well. Gotta give Topps credit on these, they are pretty slick. The other relic is a piece of Athlete Worn Relic from Alicia Sacramone of the Gymnastics team. It was nice to get a least one name I had heard before! Below that are some more inserts, with the chronological Olympic History cards being my favorite. It's really cool to see where all they've been through the years. The Opening Ceremony card I could do without, but the Event Venue cards from the 2012 London games REALLY piqued my wife's interest as she LOVES English royal history and was very excited to see a card with Hampton Courts Palace on it (a place she's been and loved). Needless to say, she's excited for the 2012 games!

The highlight of this product is the autographs, with Phelps and Solo among the most sought after and with every other hobby box getting the hot box treatment with 2 autos instead of just one. At the shot the other night, a guy had a Phelps and Shawn Johnson auto in the same box. Needless to say, he'll make his money back on that box... we got this guy:

Tony, I didn't know who you were before today, and I probably won't remember you a month or two from now when the Olympics begin, but I hope you score a billion goals and make our country proud... or something... 

Anyways, my overall impression of this set: Pretty Cool. Not quite AWESOME but you can't beat the fact that you get a complete set from 1 box, and that the parallels, hits and inserts are pretty decent. I don't think we'll be buying any more boxes, but the wife may track down an auto or two she really wants.

I told you to keep those duplicates in mind. Because here we have a little contest for anyone who read this far, and who cares about Olympic cards... leave a comment on this post mentioning your favorite Summer Olympic event, your favorite Summer Olympian or favorite Summer Olympic moment. At the end of the week, I'll randomize all the entrants and the winner will get all 25 of the duplicate cards we pulled!

Have a great week everyone!