So, who wants cards?

The holiday season has kicked off, which means one thing: a fat man with a beard wants to give you stuff. I hid yesterday for safety reasons, but a big package came in the mail and it's time to share. Reader Jason made me an offer I couldn't refuse a week or so ago, he had a big pile of old cards he didn't need anymore and he was willing to send them all to me, if I'd share with the peeps. So, I'm sharing.

THIS IS WHAT YOU GOTS TO DO:

Leave a comment in this post. Tell me you want cards and what kind you want. You can choose:
1) a specific team
2) a specific player
3) a specific sport
4) a specific brand
5) a specific theme
6) any combination of the above
7) or just throw caution to the wind and ask for a surprise.

Shoot me an e-mail as well so I know how to contact you for a shipping address. All the stuff Jason sent is from the '80s and early '90s so keep in mind that you're more likely to get what you want if you ask for older teams and players. I'm blowing out some doubles here too so you won't end up empty handed if you ask for Rays and Josh Hamilton, but I don't have a heck of a lot of some of the new stuff either. There is already a bunch of people who are getting cards whether they ask or not, but if you want to make sure you get some goodies make a comment. I'm going to remind you all of the giveaway throughout next week and show off some of the stuff you can get. Ok, so I'm kind of copying Mark and David and Joe, but so what. It's the Holidays, everyone likes presents!

Earth Wind & Bubble Gum

Yes, I'm back to doing vaguely related card/music posts.



Why? 'Cause I like it.

Oh No, Not Again

So I recently noticed that this stuff is back:

I got caught up in these cards last year. I don't even follow wrestling but I ended up getting some due to the mini A&G cards inserted into packs. Well that can't possibly happen again, I've managed to calm my mini mania and there probably aren't even any minis in the set this time so I have nothing to worry about.

DAMMIT. So I bought a pack. Or two.

The gum is from Mexico. I don't think this is the same as the nasty Heritage high series gum, but I'm too scared to chew it and find out. Apparently the theme for series 4 is offbeat retro football sets.

This design looks familiar, doesn't it? I've been posting them all fall, it's the 1955 All American set! They look pretty good, and this is one of the few guys I recognize. I feel bad for that poor buy getting beat on though. Here's a vintage for comparison:

"Brick" sounds like a good name for a wrestler. I should probably MSPaint Tamland's head this guy and replace the football with a trident. That's something for another post though.

Like last time there's one design for the base cards, another for the Divas and a third for the Legends. It took me forever to figure out what the heck design this was.

Turns out it's the All Pro subset from 1972 Topps football. I thought it was from some non-sports '70s card set at first like Evel Knievel or KISS. Nope, just 1972 Topps. This is in the high series (I think) which is notoriously hard to find so I ganked this image off eBay. Sorry, I don't have everything, ya know. Between this weird design and the psychedelic tombstone they used for the baseball set, I have one thing to ask: What in the world was the Topps art department smoking in 1972?

Here's the Diva cards. This design is a bit more mainstream, 1964 Topps AFL.

I have one of these cards, I just don't feel like looking for it. Interesting design with the little stars all over it. The originals have solid backgrounds instead of exploding arenas, but I'll overlook this slight straying from the design on aesthetic grounds.

Hey, I know Jerry Lawler! He's the guy who beat hell out of Andy Kaufman. Michael Cole, I don't know him. He apparently just said something intensely stupid judging by the horrified look on Jerry's face.

Yessssssssss. Got my mini. Of John Cena. I have about 47 of his cards and I've never seen him wrestle even once. BUT IT'S A MINI. Success!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Go ahead and eat lots of Turkey,


but make sure you leave room for some pumpsie pie.


Happy Thanksgiving all you American readers! Happy Thursday everyone else! Or Happy Friday if you're in New Zealand or one of those little islands just over the international date line!


Idea first done here, better, 'cause I'm slow.
Turkey image from here, because you need to go buy this book now.
Pumpsie image swiped from here, 'cause I'm too lazy to dig through my 1960 Topps cards today.
If anyone else did a Turkey/Pumpsie joke, I apologize, I haven't read most of the Thanksgiving day posts yet. I'll link later if the tryptophan doesn't get me.

Swap with Hollin

A couple of weeks ago reader Hollin e-mailed me and offered to send some Braves my way. Hollin is a Red Sox fan so I offered a Sox for Braves swap. I received a loaded package from Hollin so let's show it off... First up is a bunch of assorted Braves. Lots of eclectic stuff in there... Triple Play, Studio, Opening Day, Bowman Chrome, Sports Illustrated for Kids among other things. HEre's the Top 5 Braves:

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights Chipper Jones All Star Jersey

This is the card I wanted from that set. I like the design a lot, the oval and star works well with that picture and the foil Yankee Stadium facade you can't see because of the scan is a nice touch. Any possibility of me buying a box of this is now dead.

2008 Topps Chrome Chipper Jones Xfractor

I can't get enough Chipper Jones shiny parallels. This one looks a little odd as the Xfractor squares make Chipper and Teixeira look like they merged into conjoined twins. The lady in the red dress at right only adds to the confusion.

2008 Opening Day Chipper Jones Flapper card

I've wanted this card since I first saw it on the pre-sell checklist. I have a David Wright flapper card that I only held on to as a type card, but now I can give it away to someone who can appreciate the overrated Mets third baseman. Or... I could finally get a chance to utilize the full flapper potential of the card. Hmmmmm...

2006 Topps Jeff Francoeur Wal-Mart Exclusive

This blaster-only insert card features Frenchy on the 1998 Topps design. I think that is one of the best designs Topps ever came up with but it came out during the late '90s card lull so not many collectors are familiar with it.

1992 Donruss Dave Justice Spirit of the Game

A lot of people look at 1992 Donruss and wonder why anyone bought that junk. Well one reason why people bought it is because there was a dramatic jump in quality from the '91 to the '92 set. The design may look a bit boring now, but back then it was really classy looking, especially for a base set. It also came out really early, I want to say before Thanksgiving, so people were very interested in having some 1992 cards in 1991. None of that is the real reason we all went loopy for this set though, the real reason is that we wanted the Diamond Kings and these Spirit of the Game cards. Dang, these are good looking cards.

2008 Opening Day Jake Peavy Puzzle card

The Peavy saga is getting strange. When we last left off, Padres owner John Moores was having a fire sale due to his messy divorce, GM Kevin Towers started shopping Peavy, and the Braves made an offer. The Padres tried to get a bidding war going and dragged their feet on the Braves' offer and Frank Wren got fed up and moved on. Since then, the Cubs have re-signed Ryan Dempster, the Braves are chasing AJ Burnett and Towers has to dump salary, but may have alienated their legit bidders. Lou Piniella even went as far to say that the team needed a bat and the rotation was fine. Now Towers needs to move some salary and has no one bidding. Oops. Meanwhile rumors are still flying, the Braves beat writer is still absolutely convinced that Peavy will eventually be a Brave and to be honestnot much was really going to happen until the arbitration deadline anyway. I remain cautiously optimistic.

Hollin also includes FIVE team sets along with the random Braves, Here they are:

1987 Donruss Opening Day

I really like the '87 Donruss set so this is very cool to me.

1987 Durham Bulls team set

I originally thought the Chipper jersey card would be my favorite thing out of the package. Nope. This was a Lemke card I didn't have and deperately wanted. I think I might have to get my Lemmer collection in order so I can try to get one of every card that was made of Lemke. I've seen the list and it's actually quite doable. I don't think there are any one of ones, but i don't count them anyway.

1990 Durham Bulls team set

Thanks to Hollin's trade and Mark's rescue package I now have at least a partial set of every Bulls team from 1987-1992. Great stuff for a big fan of Crash Davis. Well, I'm more a fan of Annie, but you know what I mean.

1990 Durham Bulls team set

This is actually two team sets, the main set and a 9 card Update set with the immortal Mike Kelly. First seeing the legal pad design of this set back in 1990 was a huge factor behind my coming to the conclusion that minor league sets were cheezy. I like 'em, they're just cheezy.

1992 Durham Bulls team set

I don't really need to explain this one. Just bask in the glory that is Chipper.

Great stuff Hollin! Thanks again!

Saving Braves - part 1

A whole lot of Braves were saved from the landfill by Captain Canuck and myself. I received my rescued cards yesterday and spent all day scanning them. Mark sent a lot of stuff! Supposedly Canuck got an even bigger package than I did, so many Braves were spared. I'm going to have to break up this post into two parts, there's so much to go over. Let's begin with the best card in the universe:

1983 Dale Murphy

Mark said he had a 1983 Fleer card that was "Mangled-you are getting this one whether you want it or not" in an e-mail a while back. Well, this was the only 1983 Fleer card in the box and it's in gem mint 11 shape. I'm kind of disappointed, I would love to have a mangled Murph.

1970 #413 Sonny Jackson

Woot! A card off my 1970-1985 Braves wantlist that isn't finished and I told everyone to ignore! Hooray! Why does no one ever listen to me.... Surprisingly this is not the only Sonny Jackson card I got from Mark.

1975 #105 Buzz Capra
1975 #367 Craig Robinson
1975 #633 Paul Casanova

I'm not 100% sure, but I think if I combine my 1975 regular size and mini Braves cards I have a complete set. Of course if I were to do that all life as you know it would stop instantaneously and every molecule in your body would explode at the speed of light.

Pete Smith Autograph
George Lombard autograph

Two can't miss players who just sort of... did. Lombard is especially hard to swallow since he had committed to the Georgia Bulldogs as a running back before the Braves drafted him. Appropriate that this card be from a minor league set because now we have

A TON OF MINOR LEAGUE CARDS!

1988 Richmond Braves

Three cards from this set including ol' Blausey. These cards are slightly larger than normal, almost the size of Topps cards from the '50s.

1988 Durham Bulls

I have gotten a ton of Bulls cards recently... I'm posting another trade tomorrow that will make you moo from all the Bulls. Fielder's Choice must be jealous. For some reason Paul Marak's card was in a penny sleeve, so I'll show off him.

1989 Durham Bulls

The backs of these cards are all different colors for some reason. White with orange print, pink with blue print and white with blue print. Strange.

1990 Idaho Falls Braves

How'd you like to get drafted by a big league club and then be shipped off to Idaho?

1992 Richmond Braves

I told you there would be another Sonny Jackson popping up. That's all for the minor leaguers, it's time for some old timers!

1991 Conlon Collection

11 beautiful black & white Conlon cards of old Braves. Danny MacFayden shows off his specs in this card, also included are Pinky Whitney, Shanty Hogan, Stuffy McInnis and Heinie Meuller. Why don't we have nicknames like that anymore? Imagine Whiffy Francoeur, Jingle Bells Jurrjens, Bubsy McCann and Kumquats Kotchman playing for the Braves. It would make a 90-loss season more entertaining at least. Ok, last card before cutting off part 1.

1990-91 Skybox Doc Rivers

My favorite player in one of my favorite sets. I went berserk over these cards when they first came out, a condition that was exacerbated by the fact that I was a completely broke ass high school student. I didn't have a dime to my name the winter of '91. I only ended up shoplifting a couple of packs... three or five at the most. What, you thought Mario was the only card obsessed criminal around? Au contraire, mon frere! Gotta have my Skybox.

Up next, a whole lotta Braves who got a reprieve from the landfill!

10 things found in 4 packs of Stadium Club

Beautiful downtown Detroit:


A view from the expensive seats:


High quality photography:


Surprisingly, an MVP:


Bunting in the ballpark:


A way to keep track of the scores:

Deja vu:


Meaningless numbers:


The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything:


Torii being Torii:

Five Lousy Cards

UPDATE: I have offers in hand for the five I need. Still looking for the Spahn and Chipper though. Thanks for the offers!

Dan : Jay Bruce
Scott : Michael Young
Jim : Jake Peavy
Max : Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield

Thanks guys!

After three blasters, a handful of packs and a trade of 2008 Masterpieces I'm missing 5 stinking cards:

34 Gary Sheffield
59 Jay Bruce
62 Alex Rodriguez
77 Jake Peavy
87 Michael Young

Reader Chris of Project '62 knocked out about dozen I needed in exchange for 5 for his set, a couple of vintage cards and a whole mess 'o 1987 Topps. So now all I need is five stupid cards. So I did what any rational collector would do:

I bought a double blaster from K-Mart since they were on sale. Problem was I got through half the packs, didn't get a single card I needed and got cold feet. Now I have a pile of doubles and 8 unopened packs. These are the cards I have to trade right here:

1 (2)
2
4
7
9
15 (2)
18
19
21
23 (2)
25 (2)
28
29
32
33
37
39
43
44 (2)
45
46
51
53
58 (2)
60
63
65
67
71 (2)
74
81
85 (2)
86 (2)
90

SO HERE'S WHAT I'M A GONNA DO:

I want to knock this stuff out and move onto something else. I have a pile of doubles and a pile of packs. Here's my offer: Make me a trade that gets me closer to this set and I'll send you three cards for one and an unopened pack. I might even send you some more junk, who knows.

In addition to the set, I'd like to find the Warren Spahn short print #95. Base or parallel, I don't care. If someone out there has that card and is willing to send it to me, I will send you:

Five cards off that doubles list up there
One unopened pack
And your choice of any of the short prints I already have:

91 Eddie Murray
98 Johnny Bench
101 Cal Ripken Jr.
102 Nolan Ryan
105 Tom Seaver

That's 10 cards for one folks, so go find that Spahnnie.

Also - I desperately want a Chipper Jones framed parallel. Any and all Chipper Jones framed parallels*. Same deal as before: five doubles, a pack and any one of the framed cards I have already:

78 Barry Zito Black frame
50 Joe Mauer Blue frame #060/125
58 Ian Kennedy RC Brown frame #030/100
71 Ryan Howard Green frame #35/75

So if you have any of this stuff let me know and I'll get you some packs and cards. If you don't have anything I need but you need cards for your set that's cool too, shoot me an e-mail (in profile) and I'll help get your set finished.

* NO TEX. Framed Spahn cards would be cool too, but absolutely no Mark Teixeira.