I sure hope this one isn't fake

2011 Allen & Ginter Box Break Part 2: Packs 2-4

If this post was a Wondermark comic, its title would be as follows:

"In Which the Box Was Killed"

Not much to say when you're completely out of Gint-a-Cuffs by pack 4. Here's the damage.

PACK 2:

273 Brent Morel
279 Jose Tabata
222 James Shields
AOM09 Ascent of Man Placoderms
AGR-ARA Alexi Ramirez
78 Luke Scott Mini
HH65 Adrian Gonzalez Hometown Heroes

Pulling a hit in pack 2: good. Pulling a jersey card of Alexei Ramirez: bad. This is why you don't buy boxes for "The Hits". You buy boxes for insert cards of Placoderms!  Saying it right now for all posterity: 2011 Allen & Ginter Ascent of Man is the insert set of the year. My crappy scans notwithstanding, these things look amazing. The subject matter of the set also pisses off my local school board something fierce, so there's a bonus. I'm not entirely sure how placoderms illustrate the evolution of man since the card back specifically states they went extinct. But hey, armor plated fish.

MINI CARD - Did Luke Scott make the Frankenset? - NO. Cockblocked by 2008 Ivan Rodriguez.

PACK 3:

228 Brandon Snyder
81 Yonder Alonso
194 Rick Porcello
104 Huston Street
174 Joakim Soria
322 Trevor Cahill SP
NO FRIGGIN MINI
MMF39 Samuel Colt Minds That Made The Future

Topps quality control strikes again with a missing mini card. Crap like this is why you have to pack search just to make sure you're getting what you're supposed to get in the pack. I'm looking at you, 8 card Heritage pack I bought from Target two days ago. Whoever pulls two mini cards in your pack, remember... THAT'S MY MINI YOU SHAFT.

On a positive note, I got a "Minds That Made The Future" card in this pack. These cards are frickin' sweet. This and the Evolution set are going to be the two standard sized inserts I collect out of this set. The rest I'll snag Braves and maybe a type card or two but I don't really care about them anymore. I can't care about them, because Topps has so overly bloated this product that Master Set collectors across the country are all committing suicide faster than a Hackergate whistleblower. Back in 2006 and 2007 there was one one-per-pack insert set of 30 Dick Perez Sketches. In 2008, we get 50 State flags as the one perpack insert. 2009, 75 World flags. Last year Topps was kind enough to keep their Newspaper Headline set at 75 cards. This year?  The one a pack insert is a 100 card Hometown Heroes set. But wait! It's not one a pack anymore, because you can also pull Scientists or Ships instead of  a Hometown Heroes card. So in summary, 5 years ago you have a kickass base set and an easily attainable one per pack 30 card set. Today you'll probably have three full sets completed (with SPs!) before you knock out that Hometown Heroes set. Oh well, I'll sacrifice any chance at completeness for a cool Steampunk looking set I guess.

PACK 4:

177 Aaron Crow
24 Kristi Yamaguchi
171 John Lackey
37 Fausto Carmona
AGR-TC Tyler Colvin
258 Howie Kendrick Mini
HH36 Gordon Beckham Hometown Heroes

A Cub. My second relic is a Cub. Not even a good Cub! A .105 hitting Cub! (are there good Cubs?) Ze box... she ees dead. I'd have to pull a cut auto of Jesus to pull this one out. One other thing about relics this year - do the edges of the swatches look burned to anyone else? Like they were cut by laser or something? The mini cards are inside the frames tighter too. You used to be able to slide them around, now they won't budge. The pack is saved by a colorful Kristi Yamaguchi card and the Beckham Hometown Hero. I ain't collecting them all, but this card of a fellow ATLien and Georgia Bulldog is neat.

MINI CARD - Did Howie Kendrick make the Frankenset? - NO. 2009 King Felix retains his throne.

I'll do my best to post packs 5-8 before August.

A minor setback

I CAN'T FIND THE BLOODY 8-SIDED DIE!!!

Screw this... I'm going to regroup, get some sleep and do the drawing tomorrow. All you disappointed people can gripe at me in the comments. Along with the gripes, let me know what time you want me to do it, I'm free pretty much all day. Until then, take a gander at these 8 relics, one of which will go to the random drawing winner tomorrow.

Oh my aching head...

Flea Market Follies - Part 1

Flea Market Dude was back this weekend and I felt it was my civic duty to go and buy a whole bunch of cards from him. Sadly, it turns out he was laid off earlier this year so it really was a civic duty to keep his economy rolling. I'll be so glad when 2010 gets here, this year has been dreadful. As usual, I bought such a large pile of stuff that I'm going to post it all in easily digestible chunks.

There was a 75 cent box of inserts and rookies there, when I started looking through it I found something I did not expect. A whole flop-ton of autogamer cards. I'm not shure where the word flop-ton came from (or the word shure, for that matter), it just seemed to be the best way to describe that amount of relics in a 75 cent box. Flea Market Dude mentioned he had recently picked up cards from the US Mail auction, and I think he may have gotten the cards there. Most of them had a big ding on the upper right corner, leading me to believe that they were all shipped in a package without enough padding, and one drop later the whole lot was dinged and insurance was claimed.

I had that happen to me once when a huge lot of football rookies I won off of Yahoo Auctions was sent in an 800-count box through the mail. I pulled it from the mailbox, walked into the garage and immediately proceeded to drop it right on a corner, ruining the whole 800 cards in one fell swoop. Those David Boston rookie cards were going to fund my retirement too...

I care not about dings on relic cards so I picked up a lucky seven jerseys out of the box. The goal was to pick up 1) players I didn't have a relic of already and b) players actually worth the 75 cents. Results were mixed. This is why I have been posting and printing out wantlists like crazy recently. The Relic list is next to be printed.

Artifacts Chris Carpenter

I didn't have a relic of Cy Young Carpenter yet, so I did very well here.

Fleer Ultra Chone Figgins

The first of three that I had already. This one is an upgrade from the '08 Upper Deck relic that was in the binder so I'm happy. There are quite a few Chone fans out there as well so this is a good addition.

Leaf Certified Casey Kotchman

I probably have a Kotchman jersey floating around the Braves boxes, but this one is shiiiiiiiiny. Serial numbered too. You can really see the ding on the top corner in this scan.

Sweet Spot Nick Markakis

I had a Nick jersey but didn't care because I know at least three people who will be e-mailing me about this card in 3... 2... 1... It's madness to pass up a Markakis jersey for 75 cents anyway! Plus: no ding!

Artifacts Jason Schmidt

This is the one I regret. I already had a better looking Schmidt jersey and there aren't a whole lot of Jason Schmidt Supercollectors out there. I suppose I could send it to Night Owl or gcrl since it says Dodgers on it. As long as I didn't mind getting the internet stink-eye from them for a few months.

Artifacts Billy Wagner

Heh, Billy Wagner is an Antiquity. I laugh now, but he'll probably be the Braves closer in '10.

Artifacts Jered Weaver

This is the SHINY version of the Schmidt card which makes all the difference.

Bad Wax is giving away the ugliest Tom Glavine card in the history of forever

And you can win it! Just go to his site and explain why you want it. While you're there stay a while, browse around, check out the archives. There's a whole lotta good stuff on that site. I would enter the contest but I'm finding it hard to get past the fact that:

• Glavine's a Met
• Die cut number jersey openings are awkward
• The outfield wall design is ugly as sin
• The yellow and green combination reminds me of phlegm
• The New York Mets
• There are three different fonts on that card
• One of the fonts has Bs that look like As
• The jersey doesn't fit in the die cut window
• Spooky ghost Glavine on the right side of the card
• AAAAH METS

Somebody out there could love that card though, so click on that link and express your true feelings for that hideous card. Ugly cards need love too!

Super Bowl Cube Relic

I promised I'd show off the relic card I pulled from the Target five dollar football cube I opened during the Super Bowl and here it is:

1999 Playoff Absolute Tim Couch Team Tandems Jersey. Yaaaahoo! Oh but wait there's more:


Kevin Johnson on the flip side! That's why it's a Team Tandem card. Now, I've pulled relics from crappy Target repacks before, they are generally fairly common cards with nondescript little swatches from some minor star's jersey. I've never gotten one like this before. This is quite possibly the most spectacularly bad awesome relic card I've ever pulled. First of all, it's a card from the Golden years of Playoff, when they had cards that were thicker than some packs nowadays and were loaded down with foil. Plus the swatches are friggin' HUGE! Give this card to someone with some sewing skills and they could make a bikini out of this thing. Well, maybe not a top and bottom, but one of them at least. The card is shiny and foily and purple with enough jersey to make some sexy underwear, What more could you want?

Actually, some good players would be nice. To be fair, KJ had a decent enough career. 384 catches for 4595 yards in a 7 year career ain't that bad for a second rounder. He caught the first touchdown pass ever for the rebooted Cleveland Browns, so that's pretty cool. Tim Couch on the other hand, is the poster child for #1 overall pick disasters. Er, well at least he was the poster child. Guys like Chris Redman were starting in the NFL last year and Tim couldn't even get a job as a third stringer. Also, I'm not that much of an expert on football cards, but I'm pretty sure the late 90's Playoff jersey cards weren't actually game used. Don't quote me on that though and feel free to correct me in the comments if I'm wrong. It sure doesn't say Game Used anywhere on the card. It's an awesome looking card though, just one only a true Browns fan could love. I actually have a spectacular "hit" card much, much worse than this one though. If I can find it, I'll post it to Auto-matic later today.

So that's my beautiful dog of a relic card (heh, dawg. I made a pun) pulled from a cheapo repack box. On top of that, I still haven't opened the pack yet! This box keeps on giving and giving. What is your best terrible hit? Post it on your blog and I'll link it here. If you don't have a blog, describe it in the comments or send me a picture and I'll post it for you. Let's see those crappy hits!