Dafuq is this??

Backdoor unissued Evan Gattis BlueWaveyFractor Bowman unautographed autograph card?

Seriously, how does this exist?

WHY does this exist?

Does Topps have a contract issue with Gattis?

Will I never get a 2013 rookie card of El Oso Blanco because Topps pissed off the janitor?

I NEED ANSWERS

OR AT LEAST EVAN'S HERITAGE MINORS CARD

hat tip @BravesGasm who retweeted @TradingCardBlog

RIP Old Planter and Hobby Release Dates

To the surprise of absolutely no one 2012 Allen & Ginter retail popped up a few days before it's supposed to hit Hobby stores. Don't believe me? Check eBay. There's even a Heyward mini up right now.

I will preface this by stating that I very much like the fact that the structure of the A&G set has remained the same after all these years and that this year's design is a very attractive Art Deco-ish thing that looks fantastic. However, there are three things I don't like about this card and I like everything about every Jason Heyward card. First of all it's a horizontal card. Horizontal cards work in Allen & Ginter if and ONLY IF the photo of the player is such that it has to be horizontal in order to work. A batter stretched out in full swing. A fielder laying out for a diving catch. Hustling back to first on a pickoff is not such a picture. The card of my favorite player not named Chipper looks like ass because the put a vertical picture (and a really boring one at that) on a horizontal card.

The second thing I don't like about this card is that Heyward is a short print. Again. Fine it was cool last year, and I enjoy snapping up a bunch of Heyward short prints for 50 cents a pop because collectors got bored with him, but I don't want to be chasing short prints of J-Hey my entire life. While Allen & Ginter short prints are honestly not that much harder to find than base cards (Do the math, they are about twice as scarce in hobby packs and even less than that in retail) it does mean that I'm only half as likely to pull a Heyward card out of a box. Considering I was already seriously on the fence about buying a box due to apathy and financial concerns already, that was a pretty big blow. I think the final nail in the coffin was struck when I checked out the back:

Apparently Old Planter has been downsized. The Allen & Ginter backs no longer have Old Planter on the back. Now they have this A&G shield. I did a little late night research and the closest thing I found to this design was a shield on the back of the N44 World's Decorations set. The wacky front design may have inspired the from of the '12 set too for all I know. As you can see from my header. I freakin' LOVE Old Planter. And in a year where I'm desperately looking for excuses not to buy a set sending Planter off to pasture might be a deal breaker. Besides, have you seen the inserts in this year's set? Tall buildings? Military leaders? People of the Bible? You've got to be kidding me.

Ok, so the Sea Monkeys card looks pretty cool. I'm not buying a box just for a 1:12 chance at a case hit.

The Irritation of an Incomplete Page

This is not the post I had planned for today, but I ran across this in a binder while looking for a different binder which I still haven't found yet, so it's either this or nothing today so deal with it. Here's a set of Mickey Mantle reprints.

Yes, I know. Mickey Mantle is the 21st century equivalent of those advertisement cards for the Topps Puffy Letter Sweatshirt. Damn things are everywhere and you can't get rid of them, not even with poison, fire or nuclear force. This set is from 1996. Back then reprint cards were uncommon and Mantle cards were actually sought after. Especially original Topps cards that you weren't ever going to be able to afford. Reprints (and these have original backs, not the lame write-up that today's reprints have) of The Mick were fricken' sweet 15 years ago. So look and enjoy, I'm going somewhere with this.

I got the whole dam set EXCEPT the 1959 card. Pulled all of these suckers out of packs too. No trades, no purchases from card stores or eBay, all packs. Granted, they were cheap Wal-mart mini packs that cost 50 cents initially and maybe a dime or a quarter when they went on clearance, but all packs. Hear me kiddos:

IT IS INCREDIBLY HARD TO BUILD A SET USING PACKS ONLY

So now I've got a set missing just one card. However, necessity is the mother of shenanigans:

Good 'ol Finest! Close enough.

(seriously though, if anyone has that damn '59 I've got doubles or triples of about half the set. I'll hook you up)

Shenanigans

Relax guys...

Everybody just calm down. It could be worse you know...

It can always be worse...

I haven't really been paying attention to the Topps 60 thing

But if this card ain't on it, the whole thing is a friggin' sham.

Shenanigans!

Shenanigans!

How Topps can recover from a PR Disaster

Last night's "Let's make the very first rookie card of the most insanely overhyped rookie since Brien Taylor a super short printed gimmick that you can only get online in a baseball card slot machine and to make it fair for everyone let's tell everyone it is available after the first pitch before the game and then actually release it around the seventh inning" marketing genius from Topps has really energized the hobby! Just look at all these positive reactions!

A Cardboard Problem
"Strasburg's RC - AKA the card I didn't win"

The Paper Chase
"One card I will never own"

Mint Condition
"Words cannot describe the anger I am feeling now"

JD's Wild Cardz
"these cards were not even available when I entered my code"

Sign Here... And Here.
"Strasburg broke the Transmogrifier"


Sports Cards Uncensored
"Everyone will need to spend a ton now to truly complete the base set. Nice job there."

Stale Gum
"Topps: Go Fuck  Yourself"

Um. Ahem. Those aren't very positive reactions at all. Oh, but those are bloggers. Bloggers are a bunch of nerdy entitled gripe asses who complain about everything. Let's take a look at some of the comments on the official Topps blog!

Dan:

This whole promotion has been shady from the beginning. If each code is not directly linked to a card there was no sense in entering any at the beginning of the year. You know the Mantle won't be given away until later in the year to keep people buying codes. Huge gimic, blown my trust. Now the Strasburg thing comes up. This is what I get for being a loyal customer and buying all my cards at release date in large amounts and entering the codes right away. Extremely disappointed

Joe Joe:

This venture sucks! I miss the days of no inserts and all that garbage---true rookie cards! 

Kreepy13:

Thats BS... I am Very unhappy now cause you all said that AFTER the 1st Pitch they cards would be available. Thanks for the BS. You are lucky you are the only MLB liscensed product. Cause this shit pisses me off and why I left the hobby before. Thanks for screwing with us and lying to EVERYONE!!!

QUOTE FROM TOPPS so you all don't have to look up:

"Major League Baseball trading cards, has announced that Strasburg’s first ever MLB rookie card will be made available exclusively online via www.toppsmillion.com immediately following his first pitch in the big leagues." 

Markad:

Is it time to start entering codes?? When can I enter my codes and be eligible to get the strassburg????????????????????????// This is confusing???

 NOT HAPPY:

I went out today and bought two code cards so I could enter them for tonight's promotion. I waited until after the first pitch (after the first half inning, in fact), and now I find out that the Strasburg's weren't available as of the first pitch AS ADVERTISED???!!! This is absolutely disgraceful Topps... the collectors here have shown their support, but this is a huge let down on your part.

Bruce Campbella:

I hope everyone realizes that this will be an incredibly short-printed card and almost impossible to pull/redeem. Topps has strung people along with this Topps Million Card Giveaway promotion and it has worked wonders for selling product. It hasn't done wonders for the collectors. Most of the vintage "cards from their vault" are in terrible shape, including a lot of hand-writing, creases, etc. It's been a scam since day one, why should the Strasburg idea be any different?

Ken:

Yes, Just another "ripoff to the buyer" promotion it seems. I am a small time collector but I would have to say that I spend in the neighborhood of $1000 per year on Topps products alone. Or should I say that I did in the past. I will not buy any more Topps product unless it is from an individual who already has what I want or need. No more from the outlets. I feel that the hobby is collapsing because of this type of dealings. Mostly I feel insulted that Topps would do this and think that I was stupid enough not to catch it. Maybe they think that all of their customers are gullable eight year olds. Hell, thats an even bigger insult ! Take the kids money ... he will never know !

Ryan Emery:

I guess I got taken by topps... I entered my codes when the site came back up... no Strasburg for me! But money in topps pocket, as I bought to get code cards today... no more, done for the year!

wayloheyo

listen it is not about us right now its about leting the new guys have a chance to make a name for them selves. u should be in it not for ur selves and what u collect but what u collect for your kids our even your grand kids.........................

Dan Jackson in reply to wayloheyo:

Ok, if that's the case, I want to make sure that Topps doesn't pull unfair and shady promotions on my children and grandchildren.

hk:

Topps no longer Tops on my list 

These comments are all on Topps' official blog by die-hard collectors who spend time on that blog and were extremely excited about the promotion. This is not positive feedback in any way shape or form. I don't even know how people are reacting on Facebook or Twitter or on the forums, but I can't imagine that it's mich better than this. I fully expect to see a press release describing how successful the Strasburg promotion was in the near future. Heck, it probably was very successful for Topps. They probably sold a lot of packs, the code cards are already selling for ludicrous prices on eBay and I'm sure this promotion will be mentioned in the media more than once giving Topps some free advertising. So short term, this is going to be a boon for Topps. There is a very serious long term price to be paid however.

First of all, collectors are going to stop trusting the Transmogrifier. This is the second significant launch day that was screwed up by Topps resulting in collectors desperate to unlock codes ending up unhappy. Both times Topps had poor communication that left collectors wondering what the hell was going on, unsure when to enter codes. On the day it went live, they couldn't enter codes at all, last night they burned through many precious codes for nothing. These codes can get expensive and many collectors aren't going to throw away their money for nothing a second time. Counting on everyone who got burned to come back for more is foolish thinking, especially in a hobby that is shrinking, not expanding.

Topps is also looking very untrustworthy right now. Collectors have figured out that instead of having each code tied to a particular card like in redemtions, that any code entered could end up with damn near anything, including cards that weren't a part of the promotion at the start. How many people would have saved up all your codes if you knew you could pull a Strasburg rookie back in February? A whole BUNCH that's how many, but that would have caused their launch to be less spectacular with far, far less codes being redeemed. Since each code is not tied to a particular card, who's to say that Topps isn't giving out the Strasburgs only to high rollers who redeem the most codes or to dealers as a kickback for buying lots of product? They probably aren't - I don't think Topps has gotten to Richard McWilliam levels of shadiness quite yet - but with all the crooked shenanigans going on in this business why set yourself up for the suspicion?

The Transmogrifier (I'm having a hard time trying to write seriously about this subject while calling it that - is there a real name for it yet?) is a very good innovation in the hobby and could be important to Topps for a long time to come. Is it really worth losing your customer's trust in the device just for a gimmick like this? Seriously, are you going to trust it in February 2011 when Topps puts out a whole new batch of codes to redeem? Will you enter in the codes right away or just sit on all them and wait for Topps to pull next year's gimmick? Every Time Topps pulls a stunt, seasoned collectors learn from it. The last Topps base set I built from scratch was the 2007 set. I learned from the 2008 Santana no-hitter card #661 that Topps could screw up the base set at any time so I gave up on trying to collect it. Apparently I was right to do this because now three of the Topps base sets from the last 5 years are uncompleteable by the average collector.

This is the biggest problem I have with this: once again the base set has been compromised. They've taken it off the Topps Million splash page, but every indication is that card #661 in the 2010 Topps set is an extremely short printed Strasburg rookie card that is only available through an online slot machine. That card would have been highly sought after and pricey without the artificial scarcity aspect.  How much do you think it will go for now? How many set collectors will be willing to pay that just to be able to complete the set? THE. TOPPS. BASE. SET. Topps has forgotten that this hobby (and their own success) was originally built by kids who bought piles of crappy gum just so they could collect 'em all. Now it's all about people gambling to get the big card. I don't know about you, but if I want to gamble, I'll just go to Vegas. If I want to collect the 2010 flagship exclusive baseball set... well, I just can't do that anymore. Because Topps has completely forgotten what this hobby is about.

As a pain in the ass blogger who just likes to complain, I am fully aware that I have done nothing but complain in this post. Well, here's something positive and constructive. Topps has completely screwed the pooch on this but they can fix everything pretty easily AND make tons of money AND get a ton of publicity all at the same time. Let me explain.

First of all, the genie is out of the bottle, 2010 Topps card #661 is Steven Straburg's very first official rookie card and is only available on www.toppscards.com. This is a fact written in stone which has made a large number of collectors very unhappy. However, Topps doesn't have to backtrack, apologize or change anything about the promotion to make it so EVERY 2010 Topps collector is made wildly happy by this state of affairs. Here's all Topps has to do:

Topps simply needs to release a press release stating that every collector who enters a Topps Million Card Giveaway code after Strasburg's official debut on 6/8/2010 gets a Strasburg RC in their collection in addition to whatever vintage card they received, limit one per account.

That's it. One small change to the promotion and not only is any goodwill they lost last night immediately restored, but Topps also gets to deal with a second frenzy of code redemptions and all the publicity that comes with it. Think about it, if you want the first Strasburg rookie card, you need a Topps Code. Here are just some of the benefits of this move:

• All existing collectors with a Topps Million account will want to enter in a code to get that last card for the set. 
• Plenty of collectors who never bothered will sign up and enter codes to get a Strasburg. 
• Plenty of people WHO DON'T EVEN COLLECT CARDS will buy some packs of Topps or some codes online just to get a card of Mr. Superhype. 
• Most of these collectors will now actually pay the shipping charges to get their redeemed cards so they can get the Strasburg in their hands.

And the most important part:

• Topps packs - Series One as well as Series Two - will fly off the shelves by people wanting to get a Strasburg rookie.

The only drawback I can possibly see from this is from people creating tons of accounts for tons of codes in order to claim as many Strasburg cards as they can get. Even so, Topps STILL makes money from the two dollar shipping charge! Think about it - one code per 6 packs is $12 in packs sold per code. Add two more for shipping and you have $14 spent on each Strasburg. You really think it will cost $14 to print and ship each Strasburg? And no matter how many are ultimately redeemed and shipped, the Strasburg RC will STILL be seen as an extremely short printed redemption card so it will STILL retain an excellent price tag in the long run.

TOPPS, YOU HAVE A LICENSE TO PRINT MONEY HERE. 

You have a chance to recover big time from this colossal screw up. You can get some great publicity, bring new collectors into the hobby and make a lot of money. For the good of the hobby, please don't blow it.

Apparently Michael Eisner is a small, fluffy animal

Because I want to torturously massacre them!*

(I was going to embed a Happy Tree Friends video here but seriously they are disgusting. blugh)

Ok, so the Chipper Ruth card was based on an actual picture of Babe Ruth (and a rather famous one at that). It still doesn't look like Ruth. The eyes are wrong, the mouth is really wrong but the nose is actually a lot closer than I thought. I'm used to the older Ruth's Roman nose where it started roamin' all over his face. The younger Ruth nose is more in line with the original photo. Now, I don't want to bust on the artist, I wish I could paint like that. Art doesn't have to be perfect (hell, I said as much in my original rant) but in portrait painting the painting of your subject really needs to be recognizable as that person. That portrait is not instantly recognizable as Ruth. If Ruth was in a Yankees uni, yeah, that would be a decent portrait of Ruth. But in a 2009 Braves alternate home jersey it's just too confusing because that face does not instantly scream "Ruth". Babe Ruth is the most recognizable ballplayer on the planet, people KNOW what Babe Ruth looks like. Good idea, poor execution.

The vast majority of first reactions to this card is that it's Chipper Jones and not Ruth. I tried to explain in my post why we are reacting that way because the author seemed to be honestly surprised at this obvious reaction. I also explained very succinctly why the reaction is so negative, mainly because we're all tired of Topps jerking us around with nonsense. After all the gimmicks of the past few years, when we see what appears to be a Chipper Jones card with Babe Ruth's name on it warning bells start ringing, alerting SHENANIGANS. And why not? Since 2006 Topps has given us a steady diet of ridiculous chase cards that are designed to promote sales of the product but only serve to devalue the base product. And judging from all the deeply discounted boxes of gimmicked up Topps product out there, it hasn't even boosted the sales. Oh well.

That's enough Chicle for me (well, except for maybe the contest!) right now. I made my point. If you couldn't find the point in that long rambling torturous mess of a post, here it is:

1. Don't freak out about National Chicle
2. If all the base cards look like that Jackie Robinson it will be kickass
3. Some of the subset cards are goofy and/or ugly but they could be fun
4. You wanted an art set after Upper Deck killed Masterpieces well here ya go
5. I don't care what they say that is Chipper Jones not Babe Ruth

And remember kids:

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a penguin

Two and two always makes five

Chipper Jones is Babe Ruth

And THE BUMS ALWAYS LOSE.

*metaphorically, of course.**
** I don't really have bad feelings against Eisner, he's just the main face to a company that has been constantly infuriating me the past few years and I am merely burning him in effigy in a literary fashion so to speak in order to vent my frustrations and experience the catharsis of such an act.***
*** Oh who am I kidding, this is all admissible in court and I'm utterly screwed aren't I?

This I did not expect

I know I haven't even shown off my first pack of '09 Philadelphia yet (soon, I promise) but I snagged a couple more today and I had to show off the inserts because they were just too weird. Here are the packs, look at them closely.

I got these packs because Falcons Michael Jenkins and Jerious Norwood were showing on the front. That's right, showing. You can see Michael Jenkins above, here's a close up of Norwood:

It's actually easier to read it in person, the red lettering is almost as clear as the wrapper text. So is this pack searching? In my book, if the pack is transparent it ain't searching. And this wrapper is at bare minimum translucent. If you have a different rulebook and wish to shun me for my evil ways then more power to ya. Besides, what kind of deranged pack searcher targets Falcons base cards?

Anyway, this post is about what was inside the pack not what was showing on top. Inside the Jenkins pack I pulled a mini Goudey insert:

Of George McGovern?!???!

Yep, that's George all right. World War Two vet, South Dakota Senator, Vietnam War opposer and and the 1972 Presidential candidate that Richard Nixon was so scared of he wrecked his entire legacy over him. If you were to ask me who would be the most unlikely person to have a card in a 2009 football product, George would probably have been somewhere on that list. Yet here he is! It's actually a very good painting in the original Goudey art style. I'm very impressed with Upper Deck on this one, even though "Presidential Nominees who lost" is a pretty obscure insert subject. I like it though, although I bet most football collectors would puke if they pulled this card.

Speaking of Tricky Dick...

You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

Oh no it waaaaasn't! History junkies know what I'm talking about, the rest of you probably don't have a clue. In 1962, former VP and 1960 Presidential candidate Richard Nixon ran for Governor of California and got beat by incumbant Democrat Pat Brown in Republican (at the time) California. Richard rattled off the above quote in defeat, then bided his time and worked behind the scenes to stage a comeback in 1968 when he beat Hubert Humphrey for the Presidency. Only to screw it all up by getting caught committing shenanigans in his race four years later against the aforementioned McGovern.

It's amazing the weird stuff that comes out of card packs nowadays.

PayPal Policy Change PSA

I've used PayPal only about a dozen times in my life and that's part of the reason I haven't eBayed much for about 6 months. However, I know a ton of you out there eBay and PayPal regularly so this might be of interest. I was surfing Reddit this morning and came across this post. A redditor recently received this in his e-mail inbox. Here's the transcript if you don't feel like clicking on the image:

We've updated your PayPal account.
Now you can pay without tapping in to your PayPal balance.

Hello xxxx

We're always looking for ways to improve and perfect PayPal to make sure you have the best possible experince. So from June 8, 2009 'til June 8, 2010, We're giving some of our members - including you! - some new payment options, and we'd love to hear what you think.

Up til now, if you had a balance in your PayPal account, that balance was automatically applied towards any purchases you made.

But from June 8, 2009 through June 8, 2010, your default payment source will be automatically set yo your bank account instead of your balance*. So, even if you have money in your PayPal accoun, when you make a purchase, wou can leave your PayPal balance for future use.

Don't want to pay with your bank account? No problem. Just click "Change" under "Payment method" when you're reviewing your purchase during checkout.

We'll check in with you after you after you've had a chance to try out your new options - any feedback you give us would be greatly appreciated. You could help shape the future of PayPal!

If you have any questions ar all, please visit our Help Center.

Thanks,
PayPal

Again, I use PayPal very rarely so I'm not real familiar with the process, but setting the default payment as a bank account seems dangerous to me. I checked the PayPal Help center for what is used as the default source and only found this, which lists the PayPal balance as the default for all payments. However, since this appears to be a Beta test only offered to certain users it is likely that that policy would not be changed on the help page. To be honest, I don't even know if this is an official policy or if itis a phish or a hoax of some type since I haven't gotten an e-mail like that myself.

But, since a lot of collectors use PayPal regularly to buy cards off of eBay or pay for boxes and cases, I did want to put this out there just as a warning to be careful when paying in the future. It wouldn't be good for someone to pay for a case with PayPal thinking they had a grand in the PayPal balance only to have the money taken out of your bank account causing mortages and car payments to go bouncy bouncy. Just be careful out there and don't just autopilot though the checkout when using Paypal. Double check to make sure where that money is coming from especially if it's a large purchase.

If anyone out there can confirm or deny this, or if they have received this e-mail themselves, I'd be interested in hearing about it just to make sure that this story is legit.

Marketecture

Yes, it's another 3AM post.

Saturday's Dilbert was shockingly relevant to recent events in our hobby.




Yeah, I bought another blaster. I'm a sucker for the Cosmic Bowling cards.

Topps isn't even trying anymore

When your big gimmick for 2008 Topps Baseball Updates & Highlights Presents 2008 Topps Heritage High Numbers Series is a Jerry Hairston Chrome card, this is an indication that the Topps Department of Gimmickry and Shenanigans is really just mailing it in so you they can finish up early to go hit a bar and get a good buzz on before going to the office Christmas party. The Christmas party isn't until the 19th, but they want to be really prepared.

No, really. Jerry Hairston. Base Chrome. Ten Thousand Dollars.

Ah, that's nothin, I have the super duper rare Dennis Sarfate "feelthy oh-fensive" version with the rude gesture on the back.

That's gotta be worth eleventy million BILLION dollars* at at least! You can buy it for full book although I wouldn't mind holding on to it for ten or twenty years until it appreciates to its full value.

Double hat tip to Wax Heaven.

* Zimbabwe dollars

Seen at the local Wally World this morning

Blister packs of "Hobby Exclusive" 2008 Donruss Elite football.

I almost wish I hadn't sworn off football cards so I could have visual proof while mocking it on the internet.

They're at it again

Topps is suing Upper Deck again. Something about UD having players Topps owns in Legendary Cuts. So now all the stuff has to be recalled even though half of it has already shipped and "prices are skyrocketing" blah blah blah.

I saw it first on Cardboard Mania, you can also get more details in The Daily, The Propaganda, and The Fantastic.

Topps and Upper Deck: A pox on both your houses. Quit fighting like you're Tweedledum and Tweedledee and put out better cards instead of shortprinting and pulling from production and recalling and all this crap designed to inflate prices. Somebody please give Donruss their license back already. *sigh*

To bring us back up from this bummer, here's some happy news from the world of memorabilia. Geddy Lee just donated over 200 autographed baseballs to the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City. MLB.com hilariously calls him "A Canadian punk rocker" in the article. I heard Geddy did it of his own Free Will too. Ha! I kill me. Good Job Geddy!

2007 Topps A-Rod Mets card

I got an e-mail with a couple of card images from a reader last night asking if I've ever seen this card before. I had not. Here's what he sent:


Oh great. another A-Rod Mets error card. Is this one of those super short prints that just got lost in the flood of gimmicks last year? I'm not even sure what card set it's from. It looks like a Yankees team set of some sort but I thought the blister pack sets were only 15 cards each. I did a little Googling and found a super special Yankee box set with 55 cards in it. There's NYY20 Alex Rodriguez right there in the checklist too. I looked up the card number and found you can buy it on Amazon for $3.79.

Hey, that's not the same card! What gives? Time to do more research. Let's go to the best resource on the planet for overpriced trading cards - eBay. One search and I found one for sale. $49 bucks to get A-Rod on the Mets. Free shipping too! The fans in Queens can only dream... But this card number is NYY44. Ok, I still don't know what's going on. Back to eBay search. This time I found an entire set for the low, low price of $19.99, plus the seller was kind enough to scan whe whole thing.

NYY20 is here, top row middle card. Looks like the one on Amazon.

NYY44 is here, bottom row middle card. Aha! New York Mets! So it may be an error, but unless this dealer got lucky it's not especially rare. Since Topps states they don't do second runs to fix things like this (which is stupid, but that's a rant for another post) I'll wager that every single set has the Mets error. $49 for the card, or $19.99 for the set. Hmmmm... I believe a call of shenanigans is in order.

So that's that mystery solved, but what about the scan I was sent? It's got the wrong back. I can't tell from the scans if it's the same screw-down in both pictures. It could be the front from one card and the back from the other. Unless I had the thing in hand there's no way to tell. This whole thing could be Michael Eisner playing a trick on me in order to get me to post Topps cards on the site again. Don't laugh, the e-mail is from a guy who calls himself Mickey®. If this is Eisner screwing with me I'm gonna be ticked off. I know it ain't Keith Olbermann because he has an anti-Obama picture as his avatar. So the options are:

a) legit wrong back error card (not wrong team as that's probably a UER) worth one... MILLION dollars!
b) someone put both card NYY44 and NYY20 in a screwdown as a joke
c) Michael Eisner is messing with my mind because I refuse to finish my Series 2 box break
d) dayf has been staring at baseball cards too long and needs to go take a nap

Has anyone seen anything like this? Let me know in the comments if you have. I'm going to go have a lie down in the meantime.

No Base

Reader Brian sent me this one... Check out the seven reasons to buy Superlative Hockey by In the Game. Particularly number 7.

There are NO base cards in Superlative^TM Hockey.

Oh goody.

The packs probably run a grand each, but if there's no cards in a pack of cards that changes everything. I'll be sure to pick up a few cases now.

Also Chris Harris braves the horrors of Powerpoint to give us the scoop on 2008 Goudey.

Long story short, 30 more short prints, short prints are harder to get, mini cards are now a scarce parallel and there are more fucking goddamn piece of shit useless pile of crap President card garbage in the base set.

Going back to bed.

Never should have gotten up in the first place.

Oh No, Not Again

Len Pasquarelli is reporting that the Falcons are interested in USC coach Pete Carroll for their head coach opening. Pete's apparently actually interested in the job! Oh Goody! Just what this franchise needs, another Big Splash From Arthur B.! It's the best of both worlds, a failed retread NFL coach and a college coach looking to jump for more money! Plus Pete's willingness to dump a dream college job that he can pretty much have for life for about two and a half years in the trainwreckiest trainwreck of a franchise ever which happens to have a dysfunctional roster at the moment surely indicates great intelligence and mental stability! Sign Pete, draft a wide receiver in the first round and as soon as Vick gets out of rehab WE'LL GO ALL THE WAY, BABY! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!

I am this close to becoming a Titans fan, I swear to God....

Way Overdue Artifacts Box Break

A while back, I ripped a pack of Upper Deck Artifacts and really liked it. The design was really different from everything else out there and it appealed to me. It reminds me of an Indiana Jones movie or something. I picked up a couple of packs here and there and eventually broke down and got a blaster a couple of months ago. At the time I was getting to the nitty gritty on my A&G and Goudey sets and I was looking for a cool, small, easy to complete set to build (and have a few packs to rip) while I looked for those last few cards for my other sets. Artifacts seemed good, it was only 100 cards and did not have the numbered short prints of the other Artifacts sets.

I got this box, was a little put off by it, and then UD Masterpieces came out and I forgot all about Artifacts. Masterpieces turned out to be the set I really wanted, 90 cards, the checklist ranges from stars (or at least top prospects) to eternal all-time Legends and it was gorgeous to boot. Now I have a mostly completed Masterpieces set (working on one last trade!) and 60% of a set I don't know what to do with now. Here's the box break for posterity. There are still a lot of these floating out there (I have a feeling Artifacts will be the packs in repack boxes and Target El-Cheapo bins in a couple of years) and this can serve as a warning, or an encouragement if you like this sort of thing, to anyone out there looking at a box. First, the box:

The box has a rather cool design, it's made to look like an old packing crate, presumably carrying some treasure from the Orient. I'm not exactly sure why they chose a picture of Derek Jeter about to pick his nose to be the cover boy for the product, but archaeologists pick their noses too I suppose. There's also a big day-glo "EXCLUSIVE - Find a memorabilia card in EVERY BOX!!" plastered on the front. Hey, a gamer per box! I've said before they should have been doing this for a while now. Put all the relics in blasters and voilà - no more pack searching. Finally, progress! The sides show a Jeter Divisional Artifacts game-used card (with two pinstripes!) and advertises "Pull Antiquity and Divisional Artifacts memorabilia cards!" in a sort of stencil motif. There's even "FRAGILE" (which I think is Italian for Major Award) stenciled on there as well. So now you're thinking wooooo.... gamers... me want Antiquity and Divisional Artifacts! One Per box! ME BUY!!! So the front says "one memorabilia per box" and the sides say "pull Antiquity and Divisional Artifacts memorabilia cards". Remember that for later. Now to the packs:

2 David Ortiz
51 Derek Lowe
18 Joe Mauer
25 Nick Swisher
65 Adrian Gonzalez

Big Papi is one of my favorite players, so we're off to a good start.

23 Johnny Damon
99 Jose A. Reyes RC
69 David Eckstein
40 Ken Griffey Jr.
85 Jerry Owens RC

Griffey Jr., plus the other Jose Reyes. Jose A. didn't even play this year, but his baseball-reference.com page is sponsored by a cool Braves blog I'd never seen before just right now. This pack just went from meh to Awesome.

45 Hanley Ramirez
80 Fred Lewis RC
8 Travis Hafner
98 Sean Henn RC
35 Stephen Drew

Hanley, Pronk, JD little brother and two Rooks. Fred Lewis is a solid name for a solid 3rd/4th outfielder. I'm rootin' for ya Fred.

* This is where the memorabilia card was located. We'll get to that later.

33 Roy Halladay
47 Lance Berkman
79 Delwyn Young RC
4 Curt Schilling
49 Craig Biggio

Cy, All-Star, blocked prospect (if the Dodgers hesitate to give Kemp a shot, what chance has Delwyn got?), Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer. As far as the packs go, this is a kickin' box so far.

62 Trevor Hoffman
77 Daisuke Matsuzaka RC
32 Vernon Wells
54 Jose Reyes
96 Ryan Braun RC

Dice-Man, the right Jose Reyes and the wrong Ryan Braun. Still groovin along...

46 Dontrelle Willis
31 Mark Teixeira
84 Oswaldo Navarro RC
34 Brandon Webb
65 Matt Cain

W00t! Another Mark Teixeira! Now I have one to put in the set and one to keep in my pants put in my Braves box.

1 Miguel Tejada
76 Cesar Jimenez RC
61 Freddy Sanchez
19 Torii Hunter
93 Mike Rabelo RC

Last pack is a little lackluster but no complaints about the cards. Lots of stars, the Dice-K rookie, no Braves but I got Tex, and no doubles. Not a bad box. Now......... here's the advertised relic card.


That's not a Divisional Artifacts card... Nor is it an Antiquity card (I know, I looked it up on the interweb). That's right, the one-per box card is not from '07 Artifacts, but a card from 2002. Upper Deck Diamond Connection Quads to be exact. It's not exactly a bad card, although it would have been a hell of a lot better back in '02 before all the subjects got really old really quick. Plus the book value is something like 20-25 bucks, but still I felt like the rug was yanked out on me a little here. I didn't expect the "one per box" card to be a refugee from one of the Memorabilia Blister packs you see at Target. Once again I'm bitching about pulling a really neat card, but it still seems like there was a little false advertising here. Of course I already pulled a freaking SWEET Jeter auto from this product, so I can chuck the rest of the cards in the trash and still make out like a bandit even if I never get around to completing the set now. So if you cool kids see one of these mysterious packing crates at the checkout aisle of your local box store, now you know what you're getting into.

Scott Boras nonsense

Here's a gem from Scott Boras whining that he doesn't understand why the Yankees all of a sudden won't play nice and offer to overpay for his client so he can get the bidding frenzy nice and hot:

"Why is it that Alex is the only Yankee who can't become a free agent?" Boras said Wednesday. "That question was not answered, and we think it's a question that's going to be asked for years to come."

Ooo! Ooo! Mr Kotter! Ooo! OOO! I want to field this one. Because by opting out of the contract instead of negotiating with the Yankees to extend said contract, you cost them THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS YOU DIPSHIT. You cost them THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS so you could 'test the market' and thus extort even more money out of them by claiming a bunch of phantom teams are bidding on his services like you do with every single one of your other clients. And when you cost an entity THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS, whether that entity is an individual or a massive multinational corporation, the entity that just lost THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS tends to get a little pissy about losing THIRTY FREAKING MILLION DOLLARS, you dumbass. Get the Rangers to overpay for Rodriguez, you just saved them that THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS that they would have had to pay the Yankees. Good luck with that, seeing how brilliantly signing Alex worked for them the first time.

Fuck breaking Bonds' record, here's where I'd like to see A-Rod play for the next few years via my dream 2008 Topps Heritage Card:


Update: Toledo would work too.

And this is what I'd like to see Scott Boras have to go through for the next 11 months or so while his client remains unsigned.



If I seem just a wee bit snarkier than usual today don't worry, I'm grouchy because Atlanta doesn't have a date booked on Cake's new tour.