The best card I pulled in 2012

Ok, so... I'm slow. You all knew this already.

time for some

SUPER CAT     SUPER CAT     SUPER CAT     SUPER CAT

So a year and a half ago Fuji had a contest and I think I basically whined my way into winning the prize with this pack in it. I don't really remember what I did last week anymore so I might be mistaken. I'm not sure any description I write will do justice to this pack so just drink a pint of absinthe and stare at the pack for a few hours until you reach Enlightenment.

Here's the back. The big ??? sums it up best. There are examples of what is to come if you look closely. Also of interest is the nutrition facts sticker plastered on the back so SUPER CAT cards can be legal in America and the bonus 10 nyaaah cat points. As perfect as this pack is, it was a shame to open it but open it I did.

oh hai Japanese gum

This classy foil wrapper for the gum was in fact too beautiful for me to open up. Besides, the official description for this gum is Kabaya Name neco card gum and I'm not too sure of that flavor. The ingredients list citric acid and tea extract so it's probably tasty but I'll just leave it be and imagine the yummy gum.

Ok time for the card. Hold on to your butts.

Yes this is a replica driver's license for a Japanese kitteh. A kitteh wearing a headband, matching bandana and leather jacket.

Oh

Mah

Gawd.

I can't read anything on this card other than the numbers but that's ok because there's probably several cute cat puns on there too and I really don't think I can handle that right now.

Ok now is the time where you should not scroll any further and just close the browser.

And clear the history.

And shut off your computer.

And throw the device in a lake.

And never look at internet ever again.

Because here's where shit gets real.

Past this point, safety is not guaranteed.

No I'm serious

There's a reason this post took a year and a half to write.

Still scrolling down?

Ok don't say I didn't warn you...

Here is...

The

Cutest

Trading


Card



EVAR




...

DEAD.

Dead of cute.

RIP me.

Y'all have a good 2014,  at least those of you who survived

September Vintage Card Show - '54 Set Needs

The holidays are literally murdering me right now but I want to post cool stuff but I also want to be lazy and this card is already scanned and ready to go and I really need to finish posting these before 2014 but I probably won't make it and what I really really need to do is get an editor because this sentence is dreadful.

Have yourself a merry little RAABLONSKI

 

Here is my ranking of pre-standard size Topps sets:

#1) 1953 Topps. Best set of all time now and Forever

#1a) 1956 Topps. Best set of all time that doesn't have an actual Master Class Painting on every card

#3) 1951 Topps. Really neat oddball set that I wish was easier to find

#4) 1954 Topps. Great color and photo, but the flipped card backs infuriate my OCD

#5) 1955 Topps. The Beta version of 1956 Topps that had many bugs that needed to be worked out

#9001) 1952 Topps. Completely overrated ugly pile of impossible to collect junk AKA the precursor to all modern day Topps sets

Don't get me wrong, I love the set. I'll take a '54 Topps card over most anything. When I'm knee deep in  vintage cards at a show this set tends to take a back seat to other needs. I didn't completely neglect the '54s this time out, I'll take a cheap beater card of a '50s All Star any day.

2013 Heritage Wantlist

You know the drill, someone asks me for a wantlist, I finally post it.

45
74 Brock Holt/Kyle McPherson RC
124
340 Paul Konerko356 Adam Eaton/Tyler Skaggs RC
389


Short-Prints *I'll take any parallel, border color, chrome, mini, hand drawn on a napkin, etc for short prints*
427 Andre Ethier SP
428 Ryan Howard SP
430 Mike Trout SP Rookie Cup
431 Hunter Pence SP
433 Adam Jones SP
435 Carlos Santana SP
436 Michael Brantley SP
438 Andrew McCutchen SP
439 Evan Longoria SP
440 Bryce Harper SP Rookie Cup
441 Jordan Zimmermann SP
443 Hiroki Kuroda SP
447 Felix Hernandez SP
449 Jered Weaver SP
450 Matt Kemp SP
451 Jake Peavy SP
452 Troy Tulowitzki SP
453 Justin Upton SP
454 Gio Gonzalez SP
455 Chris Sale SP
457 Mat Latos SP458 David Price SP
459 Yoenis Cespedes SP Rookie Cup
461 Marco Scutaro SP
463 Giancarlo Stanton SP
464 R.A. Dickey SP
466 Carlos Gonzalez SP
467 Chase Headley SP
468 Mariano Rivera SP
471 Matt Holliday SP
473 Matt Harrison SP
476 Yovani Gallardo SP
477 Yadier Molina SP
478 Madison Bumgarner SP
479 Ian Kinsler SP
480 Stephen Strasburg SP
481 Martin Prado SP
483 James Shields SP
484 Adam Dunn SP
485 Starlin Castro SP
486 David Ortiz SP
491 Wei-Yin Chen SP
492 Eric Hosmer SP
493 Aroldis Chapman SP
494 A.J. Burnett SP
497 Jonathan Lucroy SP498 Pedro Alvarez SP

I'm also looking for these cards for my Braves Team Set:

Base Set:
481 Martin Prado SPHigh Series:
HS1 Evan Gattis
HS31 Julio Teheran
HS77 Alex Wood

2013 Topps Heritage Minors:
6 J.R. Graham Mississippi Braves
7 Gus Schlosser MississippI Braves
115 Edward Salcedo Mississippi Braves
117 Sean Gilmartin Gwinnett Braves
122 Luis Merejo GCL Braves
128 Matt Lipka Lynchburg Hillcats
162 Mauricio Cabrera Rome Braves
188 Lucas Sims Rome Braves
214 Christian Bethancourt MississippI Braves SP

7 year itch

How the heck have I been doing this so long?

The original card scanner is still alive, although the computer used to create the first post recently died.

To be honest, I'm not sure how the blog ain't dead too... bloggery is waning thanks to Tumblrs and Facebooks and Twittahs and Pinterests and probably a few other things I'm not cool enough to know about.

Luckily I'm old and lazy and still feel like talking nonsense about cardboard every so often.

So here's the Frenchy anniversary post. Think I can make it to Yogi?

While you're mulling that over have a completed 1991 Topps Braves team set with traded set and bonus Avery.

And, oh why the hell not. Bonus Pony.

*goes to sleep*

*why was my first post so early in the morning*

September Vintage Card Show - '55 Set Needs

Things I love:

1) Barves
2) Pizza
3) Nintendo games
4) Diminutive enchanted equines
5) Comics
6) Bleep-Bloop music
7) Iron Chef (Japan, not that American sellout crap)
8) Beer
9) Hobbits, Wizards, Dwarves and Dragons all causing mischief and mayhem
10) Cheapo old large sized Topps cards

Have an example of #10.

Is Don Zimmer in the Hall of Fame? No? Then the Hall of Fame ain't shit. Don Zimmer IS baseball. He's been in professional baseball longer than you've been alive and probably longer than your mom's been alive. He's still a senior advisor with the Rays organization and is one of the reasons I've adopted the Rays as my AL team. Now look at this card. Look at Don's face. Don it perplexed.  Don does not understand how some dumb kid could slop ink all over his card. He got ink on Don's face! He got ink on Don's shoulder! How can this happen? This is a 1955 Brooklyn Dodger card for Don's sake! Don is confused but I am happy because that dumb inky kid got me an o-fficial Don Zimmer rookie card for cheaps.

 

 Now here's the back. It mentions ponies so immediately I am intrigued. Apparently Don was so awesome that someone in St. Paul tried to kill him. But Don is the baseball version of James Bond and he punched that guy in the face and punched a few balls for good measure. Some of them were baseballs. Check the stats. Them are fielding stats right there. Does Topps do those any more? Eh? DOOOO they? No idea. I get stats from Baseball-Reference nowadays, not ballcards. The Major and Minor league stats are all mooshed together on this card which is slightly confusing. Only two lines of stats too, Year and Life.That's right, Life. Because Don is a Lifer.

Joy of a completed Team Set - 1982 Topps

Good news! My scanner still works!
Bad news! The computer it's hooked up to is kaputt!
Good news! I forgot I installed the scanning software onto my laptop 2 years ago so I can still scan!

Late but here, have a team set from the hockey stick set.

 Bonus 1983 Bruce Benedict O-Pee-Chee card on the page because I don't really know what to do with those things.

September Vintage Card Show - '56 Set Needs

Either my scanner is busted or the computer it's hooked up to is busted or maybe they're both busted or perhaps I died in a tragic violent accident and the idea that I am typing on my laptop right now is just a desperate dream of my subconscious soul in the afterlife, refusing to accept harsh reality and finally accept my own death so I can move on in this astral journey. I'm thinking it's the USB port on the computer though or maybe the cable if I'm really lucky. In other words, no team set right now, I'm going to show off more card show pickups from months ago because they're already scanned and what else is a wandering soul to do? Have some 1956 Topps cards.

Not gonna fib, I've completely forgotten why I picked these particular 4 cards to add to my '56 Topps set. This one might have been a buck but I don't think so. It's a Pirate card with the odd batting helmet hat and it looks like it's a rookie card and I don't like the birthday. Part of me wants to check to see Art's career on Baseball-Reference but a small voice is warning me that it's quite possible that those two innings with four earned runs are all there is to see. I shall simply wonder, for now.

Here's Smok(e)y Forrest of the Cincinnati "We hate those damned commies" Redlegs. They hated commies so much they changed the primary color on the uniform to blue and looked like a Chicago Cubs farm team. That's dedication to hatin' commies. When I was about ten years old I went to a local card shop and one of the cards I picked out was a 1959 Topps Smokey Burgess card. The guy behind the counter actually made fun of me for wanting to buy a Smokey Burgess card. That guy was, is, and will always be, an asshole.

So, anyway, fuck that guy. This card has an awesome shot of a play at second base.

WHAAAAAA MICKEY. I know why I picked this card, Mickey's a helluva player even though nobody knows who the hell he is anymore. Look at the back, he's wearing TWO PUFFY HATS AT THE SAME TIME. Now look at the front. Someone's lying in a cloud of dust looking through an umpire's crotch. Do you see that on today's flagship? Nope.

BOOOOOOOOOOONE. Is the MLB done with Boones yet? We got Ray, Bob and Bret, is there a fourth hiding somewhere in the minors ready to continue the tradition? Maybe Boone IV said forget all the baseball nonsense, I'm going to work in the automotive industry but TRAGEDY it was destroyed by home runs. Thanks Obama. Ray's action photo is the actioniest and that's saying something in this set.

All My Heywards - 2013 Allen & Ginter Across The Years

2013 Allen & Ginter Across The Years #ATY-JHY

I like this set. I like the frilly design. I like how the border uses team colors. I like the neat little factoid on the back. I like the font with the curly Ns. I like the shared birthdays list. I like that J-Hey shares a birthday with Prime Time. I like almost everything about this set.

I fucking hate the numbering. How many goddamn cards are in this set? Do you know how awkward it is to sort cards alphabetically? By first name?? With a stupid prefix there to confuse you further???

DOES TOPPS HAVE ANY CLUE HOW MANY BASEBALL PLAYERS HAVE A FIRST NAME STARTING WITH A FRIGGING J?!??!!?!?!

Nothing's perfect I guess.

Third Annual COMC Blaster

Once a year since 2011, I've splurged a Jackson on Check Out My Cards. I'd be much happier if I'd quit the wax and threw that card cash at COMC, but old habits die hard. This year thanks to the Black Friday free shipping I had a buck and change left over when all was said and done. Let's see what I got instead of a blaster.

Pretty Rickey! This is, pending a reality check, the last card needed for my 1982 Topps set. I have looked through a few hundred Rickey Henderson cards at various card shops/flea markets/card shows looking for this damn thing with no success. Especially irksome since I have a couple dozen of the 1987 Topps reprints. All mine now, along with one other card that completed a set.

Jason Heyward relic for under two bucks. Either I'm a lucky bastige or this hobby is screwed.

The first of many Ginter SP pickups. I am full steam ahead in my quest to complete the 2006-2013 run before the 2014 edition comes out. Basically the criteria for any Ginters I bought this go-around is if it was a short print and it was cheaper than I could get at the local card shop I went for it. Don't give me that look, I've already mostly cleared them out on pre-2010 cards off my wantlist.

Catfish! The good kind. Lookit that beautiful Oakland jersey/jacket/whatever. This simultaneously knocks another card off my 1972 Topps list and adds to my unofficial collection of cards so badly miscut you see the printer markings.

The 1974 Topps list is getting really small. When I tried to put this card in my basket, I got a popup stating that this card had "Problems". 569 wins, six Cy Youngs and two Hall of Famers? I see no problems.

Another Ginter SP down. Oswalt is one of those players whose cards I can never seem to pull out of packs. Unless it's a relic card, I'm a magnet for those.

I swear I have three or four or maybe five of Nasty Nate's SP mini cards, but the full size has somehow eluded me until now.

MARK LEMKE DUFEX WITH EXTRA ADDED CHARLIE O'BRIEN MOJO

I'm slowly but surely adding to the Mark Lemkepalooza collection.

Wiped out my 2010 short print needs with this order. I don't know much about this guy other than his odd name is pronounced oddly.

I love love love it when I knock any 2006 Ginter card off my list even if it is of a dooooooouche like Lackey. For some reason on my wantlist I had card #325 listed as Brad Hawpe and not LAckey, which confused me greatly.

I didn't even know this card existed until I did a COMC search and it's now one of my favorites ever.

TEAM SET COMPLETE!!! I'll show it off as soon as I can get my scanner working again. These traded cards are a real pain in the rump to find loose. Especially odd for this set as I expect a good number of them have been strip mined for Ripkens.

What's the word Thorzul uses for these kind of players? Pissant? This is a very pissanty card. Oh well. *ticks box off checklist*

The fact that this card is not a super expensive key card to the 1996 Topps set instead of something that gets thrown in 50 cent boxes if you can even find it is all that needs to be said about cards from the '90s.

BAM 2009 Ginter short prints are a wrap. Anyone got a pile of commons lying around? I only need about 5 more cards.

Look at Sid Bream smoldering on his '91 Traded card. Bonds couldn't throw him out because he was too stunned by the handsome.

My reaction when I completed the best insert set of the past 20 years:

Hey kids! If you wait long enough you can get one of the biggest card of the '80s for the price of a pack of 2013 Topps with tax! This also completes my 1985 set, probably.

This is the first time I've had one of these Online Exclusive nouveau Turkey Reds in hand. My verdict:

Completely crappy cynical cash grab.

The stuff is printed on Ginter stock for fuck's sake. Put it in a top loader and forget what once was and it's a pretty nice looking card.

This card was literally my 2013 Archives Holy Grail. I had virtually no chance of pulling it out of a pack so thank $DEITY for rippers and flippers.

Not technically a short print, but it's a Jeter which will be priced at over twice a normal short print anyway. I now only need 34 cards for my complete 2006-2011 Ginter run.

The package finished up with a Collector's Choice Gold Signature card of The Lemmer. Back in the day when parallels weren't completely obnoxious.

That was fun, maybe I should do it more often?