Happy NFL Draft Day!

Be sure to collect all those hot rookies!

The Hobby Is Dead And I Don't Feel So Good Myself

I have today off. I don't usually get weekend days off and to be honest I've already spent an hour today connected to work to clean some stuff up but technically I have today off from work.

There is a card show in Atlanta today. Apparently there are a couple of monthly card shows here that were off my radar. I've never been to them, but a card show is a card show. I'm not going. It's down by Perimeter and I don't feel like driving 40 minutes to go to a card show. Especially when I have my wife's crappy car today.

There's a flea market near me. Literally within walking distance. There's a card dealer and a comic dealer that are still there although the really good dealers have all gone away. There might even be someone new there, it's been a while since I've explored the place. Not going to that either even though my fat ass could use a nice long walk. Not interested in hunting around for stuff I probably don't really need.

My bookmarks as a rule are a gigantic mess. I have 40 tabs open at any given time and when my laptop starts to choke I'll start saving things for later all over the place. One bookmark folder is somewhat organized though. I have a folder for items from Check Out My Cards that I need. That place is pretty much an instant card show. I can knock out a series of 1972 Topps for under five bucks if I wanted. There's an old card from the '30s that I've had my eye on. There's always cheap J-Heys on there. Not really in the mood to try to remember my password today.

It might be the offseason, it might be the fact that real life concerns are stressing me out at the moment, it might be the fact that I've been sick on and off for over a month. Just not feeling baseball cards right now. It doesn't help that Topps no longer wants my money and there has been the collector's version of the Israeli-Gaza conflict on Twitter over it. I don't even want to mess with my own cards. I've got a '78 Topps set to binder, haven't done it. There's about 30 packs of 1988 Score not two feet from me and an unfinished set sitting in a box across the room. Don't feel like ripping and sorting. I probably should start stuffing some bubble mailers today to get rid of some of this stuff. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

Like I said, just not feeling it right now. This is probably the 3rd or 4th post like this I've written over the past few years too. I've got the week off for Thanksgiving. I think I'm taking it off here too. I might be back next week. Maybe next month. Next year? Eh, who knows. Might pull a Stale Gum and abandon Blogger for Twitter. Or jump into Tumblr like everyone else. Or maybe it's time for the Junkie to start a 12 step program?

Y'all keep doing what you enjoy, I gotta figure out what that is for me.

allen ginter freakout woooo

I've been informed that I am supposed to be going crazy over Allen & Ginter now. I guess it comes out this week. I was told it was coming out in August, but my information apparently is not reliable. Packs have been popping up in Target supposedly but I haven't seen any.

Honestly, right now cards are about the 99th thing on the "Things I Care A Lot About" list thanks to some recent developments. Every Time I plan to buy a hobby box crazy shit seems to happen. Oh well. I spent much of the evening drinking beer and swiping pics from eBay to distract myself from my problems, so I may as well share my imagized bounty with you all. Warning: There are very, very stupid prices on eBay right now. Like 250 dollars for a code card. and 70 dollars for a card you're supposed to put in the ground. I'm not even going to link them the stupid is so powerful. Here's a preview of the stuff you're going to be seeing non stop on every single blog ever for the next month.

Base

How low can you go? Death Row... what a brother knows

Base cards is base cards you know what this be.

Stupid Base

Yeah this is an actual base card this year. Normally I'd be all over this card but thanks to The Fates trolling the hell out of me this year I'm in an extremely grouchy mood right now. Bullwinkle's 'special' cousin is not amusing me at the moment.

Minis

You know what minis look like, they're smaller versions of the original. The black borders are way different this year though.

It took me a while to process that border. That's some design right there, folks.

Squeezing out the mini base cards again this year are the mini inserts.

Animals in Peril

30 cards, ordered from least to most endangered. Or was that the Goodwin Champions insert set? Christ, Topps and Upper Deck have become Pixar vs. Dreamworks and are copying all each other's stuff. I'm guessing this is the 'easy' insert set to find. There's no odds on anything yet as far as I know. The other mini inserts are:

Fabulous Face Flocculence

Basically, beards. Unannounced so crooks are trying to get $99 a pop of them on the scamBay.

Flora of the World

How about you, Fauna? You wanna? Gimmick card with seeds embedded into the card so you can bury it and then grow a flower and then pick the flower and them press the flower and then send that into PSA so they can laugh in your face. These kind of grow cards are being put into boxes of snack crackers and some yobbo wants 69 bucks for it in an auction.

Fortunes for the Taking

Yet another unannounced insert set. Because Topps is completely incapable of telling us just what the fuck is in their 100 dollar boxes of garbage that we compulsively buy like lunatics. It looks nice. It's about stolen treasure. Whoop-de-damn-do. I'd rather have an accurate sell sheet.

Step Right Up

Circus stuff. Ok this one does amuse even the grouchiest of mes. You don't know how bad I want to MSPaint this thing.

Uninvited Guests

Ghosts are cool I guess. Well, they were until all those cheesy Ghost Hunter shows started popping up on the Discovery and History channels. The one from England with the horribly fake psychic was cringeworthy. I still can't understand why I watched every episode. Oh, yeah, I'm an easily entertained idiot. The one with the teenagers running around abandoned hospitals at night was pretty good bad good too.

Portaits of Penultimacy

This insert set features the second guy to do a lot of famous stuff. This one is cool as many of us will recognize the subjects. I had about 10 trades lined up with this guy that I never quite pulled the trigger on last year because I got too busy. If you want this card you'll be waiting for a while. The auction listing lists it for $250 because it's a "Ginter Code" and all you freeloaders can't see the back because YOU GOTTA PAY

Speaking of code cards....

They have stupid interlocking designs on the corners or something and the sellers are all "YOU NO SEE CODE WITHOUT PAY" and blocking the edges on a lot of them. Whatevs.

There's also a surprising amount of large sized inserts this year, and most of them look pretty good.

The Ascent of Man

These sumbitches look freaking FANTASTIC. This may end up being the insert set of the year.

Floating Fortresses

Yay boats. Original nineteenth century cards features lotsa boats, so I approve.

Minds that Made The Future

 NERDGASM

I may have to complete this set.

Hometown Heroes

I think these are the one a pack inserts but I'm not really sure about that. I hope they are, they fit in well with the previous one a packers, and there's 100 freaking cards in the set so it's impossible to complete otherwise.

Baseball highlight Sketches

The old standby insert from Ginter. I'm glad that the artists who hate me now because You Know Who made me the poster boy for National Chicle criticism when I was just trying to be funny about the Chipper Ruth card are still getting some commissions from Topps.

Ok, fuck all that bullshit, the SUPA MOJO is the only thing that is important about cards any more according to the extremely intelligent and cultured souls on YouTube, so let's show off the only ones I've found so far.

Cabinet Box Topper

Actually, I haven't found any of the box toppers on eBay just yet which leads me to believe that everything on there right now is Target retail stuff. So in lieu of MOJO, here's a lady in a rowboat.

Ok, dirty trick, I know. Promise MOOOOJOOOOO and give you some old broad on a moldy ass card. Here's your precious MOJO that are the only things of any value in any contemporary card set and will most likely be shoved in dollar boxes in a couple years.

Jersey

Auto

Bat

Enjoy the preview, it's probably my last post until I pick up my box of 2011 Ginter. If that experience is anything like picking up my box of 2009 Heritage you may be waiting a loooong time.

Card Show Top 20 - #2 Shenanigans Were Called

Ok, this one turned out to be a big mistake. When I made up the Top 20 list I was really excited about this card but four months later I'm pretty meh about it. It's a nice card, and a good story, but... honestly I like the Robin card with the crazy Joker puzzle on the back better. And the Rico Carty advertising vehicle. And the Chief Knock-A-Homa team issue. Just stick this one at #20 and bump everything else up one spot and we're good.. So what is the 'good at first but boring the next day' card anyway? It's basically Mojo.

Yay, an autograph of Brewers desperately-trying-to-remain-a-top-prospect Mat Gamel. It's even got a swatch of what is probably a Futures Game jersey on it. It's nice enough I guess, It's a sticker auto but it's framed which always makes the dreaded stickers look better. The relic is shaped like a stamp on a ticket stub, which is weird but attractive. The picture's small and kind of crummy. There's random foil on the sides which is breaking up in spots. It's an ok autogamer. Here's the back.

Bluh, Ticket to Stardom. What a worthless freaking set. Topps refuses to do Topps Total or Bowman Heritage, but that horsepuckey sees the light of day. Useless. Sharp eyed readers have noticed that the card says "Dual Autographed Relic". So where's the Dual? Here it is:

Princess Fielder. Mr. "Imma lean in and stick my fat ass out in front of the plate and then whine to high Heaven when I inevitably get plunked by a ball that was over the plate". I used to like Prince until he pulled that crap in a series against the Braves. Now I hope he signs with the Yankees next year so I can boo him even more lustily. Same deal as before, tiny picture where you can't see his eyes, sloppy framed stickergraph, a bat swatch instead of a jersey, dumb foil that looks like it's flaking off on the right. Oh, there's a serial number this time, 11/39.

Wait a sec... if I showed you the front and back already... then what is this witchery? A card with three sides? Four, actually.

Yay, a book card. This is my first book card. It's nice looking I guess. The spine of the book is basically the front bit of the card which is the thickness of a normal card and looks a bit fragile. I have no idea how some of those huge MegaBook cards are going to hold together with 6 or 8 panels. I have a feeling that 100 years from now halves or thirds or quarters of book cards will be as common as the T202 Triple Folder cards that have been separated into three cards. Maybe the high end books get better binding agents than crummy Ticket to Stardom. The whole back (outside? cover?) shows more of the ticket motif.

Other than the stupid foil barcode the thing looks pretty good. It would look great displayed, but I have no idea how to do that without wrecking the card. So where did I pick up my first (and maybe last) book card? Remember the dollar box from Dimension X with all the weird crap in it? Yep, it was in there. It shouldn't have been, but it was. I asked the seller if this was supposed to be in a dollar box and he said "No, but you can have it". He only asked that I showed him where I found it to make sure nothing else out of sorts migrated to the dollar box. I showed it off later on to Stale Gum's Chris Harris and everyone around called bullshit that this card came out of a dollar box. Well it did. One of the more ridiculous pulls out of a dollar box you will ever see. And now I am completely apathetic towards the thing. Man, I'm a terrible collector.

It's really not a bad little card. It just needs a little love. Which I ain't giving it unless the Braves sign Prince Lardass to play first next year. Probably not even then. Why waste money on a pre-Madonna instead of letting Freddie Freeman develop? Maybe I can use this to bribe Thorzul into letting me cut in line ahead of Chris Mays for the Braves in his next El Cheapo group break...

The Top 20 List:

#20 Reds' Heavy Artillery

#19 Blue MadDog

#18 Lil' Jimmy

#17 Real Fake '52

#16 First Topps

#15 Bogus Boog

#14 V103 Tree

#13 Sertoma Rico

#12 '55 Finishers

#11 Hey Shiny

#10 What the Dickens

#9 '60 Spahnnie

#8 Lonely '53

#7 Super Chief

#6 Original Frank

#5 Hoops Inspiration

#4 Rocket Robin

#3 Wizard Off Kilter

#2 Shenanigans Were Called

#1 The Holy Grail of Commons

OMG! We're almost done!!!

The People Magazine Community All-Stars are nice and all...

...but with all that pre-game stuff the first pitch of the All-Star game didn't happen until 8:50PM Eastern. The absolute latest my wife will let my kids stay up is 9:00PM. So they got to watch exactly one inning of the All-Star game. You got to show 'em a nice plug for Glee I guess.

Aw, Screw it.

Beckett sees me as a competitor instead of a consumer and Topps doesn't give a crap as long as I keep buying their stuff.

Here are my entries into Stale Gum's National Chicle Parody Card Contest. Enter today!



Drinkin' the Haterade and spittin' on artists... Imagine how miserable I'd be if I DIDN'T like National Chicle!

One more: this one was inspired by Paul Lempa, the guy who painted the Chipper Ruth card, in a comment from this post. I swiped the Curly Neal card from My Hockey Card Obsession, a cool blog I discovered tonight while looking for a Globetrotter image. At least something good came out of this crummy day...

arrrggghhh

Congratulations to U.S. Steel upon winning their 27th championship.

To commemorate this event, here is a poem by Robert S. Wieder originally published in the January, 1999 issue of Playboy.

If this terse rhyme, about our pastime

Seems a little cranky,

It's possibly because the writer

Hates the F&$%ing Yankees.

Yankees fans, whoop it up! Jeter's got one for the thumb. Everyone else, remember Linus Van Pelt's motto...

JUST WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR!!!

2009 Heritage Retail Pack

This is the first retail pack of Heritage I bought. I actually bought five of them all at one, this is just the first one I opened. I also bought them a month ago and am now just getting around to posting the pack. Yes, I'm slow. It was worth the wait though! Well, not this pack actually, There's not much in here. No duplicates at least. But the other ones - they will be worth the wait! Well, most of them anyway. I'm not selling these posts very well am I?

55 Nate McLouth

Nate McLouth hit 26 homers last year?? According to the cartoon on the back one splashed down in the river. Do Pittsburghers (Pittsburghians?) camp out in kayaks on the river to retrieve home run balls like in Frisco? Wouldn't they all die of hypothermia right now? Why white letters on pink? So many questions...

322 David Murphy

I will be confusing this guy with the Mets' Daniel Murphy for the rest of my life. I know I will. He's got a wicked cool card though.

57 Win-Savers

K-Rod is gone, but Shields remains as the Angels' set up guy. He might get a few saves id Fuentes struggles. I'm not feeling very snarky today so I'll leave K-Rod and his new team alone.

152 Jorge Cantu

Jorge's already got two homers for the Fishies. LEt's hope he can get a few more in the series against the Mets this weekend!

235 Ryan Freel

What what what? Ryan Freel is an Oriole?? That's not right, Ryan Freel is a Red. He'll always be a Red. He can't not be a Red. The Reds wouldn't trade Ryan, give me one reason why anyone would trade Ryan Freel. He talks to invisible midgets in his head? Ok, it's not a 6-foot invisible rabbit, but that's still not a good reason to trade Ryan Freel. Shame on you Reds!

298 Aaron Cook

Aaron got hammered opening day, but it's a long season, he'll bounce back. That ERA will look ugly for a while though.

The cartoon where Aaron leaps out of bed into a dead sprint while suffering from pulmonary embolisms risking his very life just to play in a ballgame made me chuckle far too much considering the curcumstances.

273 Alex Rios

So is Alex Rios any good or is it simply Canadian trickery like when they conviced us that Vernon Wells was a superstar? 'Cause I keep hearing he's a star and then I look at the back and see 15 homers, 79 RBI and a .291 average with a 111 OPS+. That's a decent outfielder in my book, not a superstar worthy of a Mayo Cut Plug insert card.

105 Brad Penny

It's in the original set too, but white letters on a pink background is not a smart idea. B A P N Y is now a Red Sox hurler, which weirds me out just as much as the Freel thing.

The packs get better from here on out. There's always the occasional stinker with no inserts or SP's in Heritage though. they seem to be hitting me one in every five packs like clockwork. I'll give you a hint though - there's a short print of an MVP in the next pack. Can you guess who it is?

Didn't Go

I didn't particularly want to explain to a seven year old why I was going to the Braves' stadium today but he couldn't come because he'd be bored. I spent over a hundred bucks at FanFest last year and also bought some tickets, so the Front Office will probably use the resulting loss in revenue as an excuse not to sign Chipper to that extension.

Upper Deck 16 - Topps 1

The wait is over, I finally pulled my first Kosuke Fukudome card from a Topps product yesterday.

For those who were counting, I pulled 16 Fukudome cards from Upper Deck across five different sets before pulling this one from U&H.


On the plus side, it's an error card! THE WHOLE THING IS UPSIDE DOWN!!!