2008 Heritage Box Break - Part 1: Ancillary junk and the first four packs

I've teased you enough, time to post this thing. I'm a little on the exhausted side from chewing all that gum, so I'll be kind of brief about the box-type stuff.

Topps used their typical flimsy pencil box style box for the Hobby box. Kinda sad considering the cool shoe box they gave Bowman Heritage. It looks nice enough though plus it has two new things: an autograph or relic per box and a special set collectors seal of approval. The bottom is boring other than the list of relic groups.

Minnie Minoso is tough at 1:18,000 packs as you can see below on the wrapper odds. The list above isn't complete either, as I have seen a listing for a Frank Robinson relic on eBay already.

Ok, enough of the packaging. Topps put the serial number at the very bottom so I can't scan it without dismantling the box. That ruins my running joke on these box break popsts so my heart isn't in it this time. Here's the first of the box toppers:

Yessss! I really really wanted a buyback card. Here's who I got:

Charley Maxwell, outfielder for the Detroit Tigers. He was a pretty good player for the Tigers in the late 50's... As you can see, Topps distinguished the buybacks with a foil stamp with a 50th anniversary logo. It would bring up some pretty mixed emotions to pull a superstar player with one of those stamps. I'd hate to see a nice looking Aaron defiled by the foil. I'd also punch nuns and orphans to get my hands on one. Here's the back:

Not quite a scarce high series card. It has some wax stains too. The cartoon is pretty cool though, I'm going to keep an eye out to see if Topps recycles it in the base set. The buybacks are in every other box so I got lucky on this one. Here's the second box topper.

An advertising panel so you can let the youngsters know you have 2008 Heritage! Woohoo!


Two rooks and Matt Capps. Why'd they put two rookies on the same panel? Spread 'em out, Topps. I haven't seen a checklist for these so I don't know if all the cards are in the set (dang, that would be impossible to complete, wouldn't it?) or who made the cut in the checklist. This thing is also going to be a pain to store. Maybe I should try to tempt Steve with it to see if he wants to make a deal. I've certainly taunted him enough. E-mail me bro, it's yours if you want it. Make me an offer. Ok, enough appetizers, on to the meat of this box.

Here's the first pack. Plus a little extra taunt to get Steve's attention so he'll trade for that ad card. Since this is a box for set collectors, I'm going to keep a running tally of the percentage of the set I have. And yes, black backs count toward the set. If I end up with a set with a black back here or there instead of a green I'm not really going to care. After one pack I now have 1.6% of the set. Hooray!

Pack 2:
132 Joe Koshansky RC
188 Adrian Gonzalez
223 St. Louis Cardinals
125 Harvey Garcia RC
353 Jeremy Hermida
325 Dan Wheeler
286 black Tony Gwynn
Hey you bastards, where's my eighth card??

Pretty blah pack, made worse by a missing card. Maybe the stray card will turn up in one of the other packs. This better not be the missing auto or relic card that I've heard about in some forum posts. Two more rookies not good enough to be included in last year's sets, a good first baseman that no one knows about, a Hall of Famer's kid and a team card. The team card looks just like the '59 cards, save for the unnecessary Wall o' Doom Topps insists on photoshopping onto every team photo, The checklist for cards 288-335 is on the back of the card. Not really interesting, but historically accurate. The first two packs have had a couple of cards each with a printers mark on the front, it looks like the sheet got caught under a roller or something. I hope the whole box isn't like this...

Set completion - 3%

Pack 3:
300 Chase Utley
191 James Shields
208 Billy Butler
104 Adam Jones
403 Scott Baker
135 Mitch Stetter RC
C30 Ichiro Chrome #450/1959
197 black Derrek Lee
Ok, this one's better. Utley (with choice card #300), Adam Jones, Derrek Lee and an Ichiro Chrome. Sweeeeeeet. I've never gotten into the whole Heritage Chrome thing, but Ichiro is Ichiro. The Chromes looke really good on the '59 design too. The cartoons on the back are my favorite part of this set. They are definitely in the exact style of the original '59 'toons, but I haven't seen one directly swiped off the set that I can remember. I'll have to pull out my old Topps box and start looking through for identical cartoons.

Set Completion - 4.2%

Pack 4:
290 Nate McLouth
142 Rich Thompson
367 Baseball Thrills - Tulowitzki triple play
96 Mark Derosa
36 Kenny Lofton
372 Baseball Thrills - Ryan Howard fastest to 100 home runs
461 Chone Figgins SP
18 black Dontrelle Willis
Ugh. I haven't pulled a Brave yet, but I did pull Troy Tulowitzki tagging Edgar Renteria for an unassisted triple play against my Bravos. I wish they had made just the SP's black backs, but I like the fact that they did put them in. This is a stealth insert I don't really mind that much. It looks like they picked some good players so far. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that high numbers are SP's. 425-500 or so. We should have a solid Short Print list by Monday though. Next post should have four or five more packs. I haven't decided yet.

Set Completion - 6%

The box so far:
30 base cards (common, black back & SP's)
4 black backs
2 Short prints
1 Chrome

Trading Mania - TriStar set Complete!

Man, it feels good to finish a set. A while back I begged for TriStar cards to fill my set and reader Brad came through. Brad was one of the winners in my last box break contest on A Pack A Day and my good Karma from giving out prizes paid off once again. I sent Brad 5 Bowman Chrome Draft cards he needed plus a horribly photoshopped Miguel Cabrera card and got these babies in return:


This set is DONE. Sweetness. We also have another deal in the works for some Minor league team sets. I'll make sure I show them off too. Thanks Brad!

My Very First Post Containing An Image From 2008 Topps Heritage

Caddyshack:

Caddyshack 2:

Hastily written Heritage post before I run out to get my boxes

Ok, found a little more info on the interwebs for Heritage, here's the scoop.

Black Back parallels are 1 per pack, the last one in the pack.

SP's and inserts are usually the second to the last in the pack.

There is supposed to be a hit in every box, but there have been several complaints of that not actually happening.

This guy here pulled an all-nighter for a case break to try to cobble together an SP list. Using his data I came up with a "not quite right but possible for most of them" SP list that I'll post below. This is not even remotely the actual confirmed SP list but I want it to refer to when I bust my box. I'll post a real list once one becomes available.

There's a dude in Amsterdam who is a big '59 Topps fan who ordered a case. He's going to put the case break on YouTube, but in the meantime he has a video preview of the original 1959 cards.



I'm off to pick up my box now, today is going to be real busy so I probably won't have my first long drawn out box break post for you till late this evening. I'm crossing my fingers for a buy back chiptopper...

Ok, here's the not quite right but close enough SP list. There are 85 cards in the list and only 75 SPs so some of them are going to be wrong. Use only as a guide and not as an actual SP list.

40 Tim Hudson
129 Luke Hochevar
155 Johnny Damon
175 Jeff Weaver
176 Preston Wilson
196 Jose Valverde
210 J.J. Putz
211 Mike Sweeney
231 Kevin Gregg
285 Chad Billingsley
315 Jacque Jones
322 Richie Sexson
360 Maggio Ordonez
381 Casey Blake
409 Jon Lester
426 Kyle Lohse
427 Doug Davis
428 Pitt Hill Aces
429 Miguel Batista
430 Chien-Ming Wang
431 Jeff Salazar
432 Yadier Molina
433 Adam Wainwright
434 Scott Kazmir
435 Adam Dunn
436 Ryan Freel
437 Jhonny Peralta
438 Kazuo Matsui
441 Emil Brown
442 Gary Sheffield
443 Jake Peavy
444 Scott Rolen
445 Kason Gabbard
446 Aaron Hill
447 Felipe Lopez
448 Dan Uggla
449 Willy Taveras
450 Chipper Jones
451 Josh Anderson
452 Melvin's Outfield Trio
453 Braden Looper
454 Brandon Inge
455 Brian Giles
456 Corey Patterson
457 Los Angeles Dodgers
458 Sean Casey
459 Pedro Feliz
461 Chone Figgins
462 Kyle Kendrick
463 Tony Pena
464 Marcus Giles
465 Augie Ojeda
466 Micah Owings
467 Ryan Theriot
468 Shawn Green
469 Frank Thomas
470 Lenny Dinardo
471 Jose Bautista
472 Manny Corpas
473 Kevin Millwood
474 Kevin Youkilis
475 Jose Contreras
477 Julio Lugo
479 Tony LaRussa - All Star
480 Jim Leyland - All Star
481 Derrek Lee - All Star
482 Justin Morneau - All Star
483 Orlando Hudson - All Star
484 Brian Roberts - All Star
485 Miguel Cabrera - All Star
486 Mike Lowell - All Star
487 J.J. Hardy - All Star
488 Carlos Guillen - All Star
489 Ken Griffey Jr. - All Star
490 Vladimir Guerrero - All Star
491 Alfonso Soriano - All Star
492 Ichiro - All Star
493 Matt Holiday - All Star
494 Magglio Ordonez - All Star
495 Brian McCann - All Star
496 Victor Martinez - All Star
497 Brad Penny - All Star
498 Josh Beckett - All Star
499 Cole Hamels - All Star
500 Justin Verlander - All Star

Actual Trading Card History - 1933 Delong

Today's history lesson comes via card 13 from Topps' Trading Card History set, a Johan Santana card patterned after 1933 DeLong. Topps was able to use the name on the back of the card at least, but still no indication on what this set is all about. In 1933 a slew of bubble gum card sets appeared including the iconic '33 Goudey set. The epicenter of the gum card craze was based in Boston, home of not only DeLong, but also Goudey, George C. Miller, National Chicle (AKA Diamond Stars) and US Caramel. All had significant sets released in 1932-1933 and the competition was tough. Of all the sets put out that year, DeLong's was certainly the most distinctive. Somewhat small at 24 cards, the DeLong set is known for its bright colors and unique baseball diamond design where the player towers over lilliputian fielders and base runners. The checklist is incredible, fifteen of the twenty four cards are of Hall of Famers headed by Lou Gehrig.

This is not Topps' first go at this set, last year their card-a-week promotion at hobby shops were all in the DeLong style. Above is Johan's other card in the DeLong style. Once again the tiny little players are in grave danger of being squashed by the MechaJohan. These cards were distributed in packs of "Play Ball" gum, but not the same Play Ball from Philadelphia's Gum, Inc., another famous set from the pre-war period. I don't actually have one of these cards since they are fairly scarce and quite expensive, but Dover comes through with a reprint of another dominating southpaw, Lefty Gomez.

Pretty much the same, Topps copied this design reasonably closely. The font's off a tad, but that's being nitpicky. The backs forgo stats in favor of a baseball playing tip from Boston sports writer Austen Lake. Here's a picture of the actual back (well, the reprint back at least) and the Topps back from last year.
Topps does an excellent job of mimicking the design but misses the point by talking about Santana so much. It's a nice card set, but the color really starts to hurt your eyes after a while. Here's a checklist for anyone out there looking to complete your own original set:

1 Marty McManus - Boston Red Sox
2 Al Simmons - Chicago White Sox
3 Oscar Melillo - St. Louis Browns
4 Bill Terry - New York Giants
5 Charlie Gehringer - Detroit Tigers
6 Mickey Cochrane - Philadelphia Athletics
7 Lou Gehrig - New York Yankees
8 Kiki Cuyler - Chicago Cubs
9 Bill Urbanski - Boston BRAVES
10 Lefty O'Doul - Brooklyn Dodgers
11 Freddie Lindstrom - Pittsburgh Pirates
12 Pie Traynor - Pittsburgh Pirates
13 Rabbit Maranville - Boston BRAVES
14 Lefty Gomez - New York Yankees
15 Riggs Stephenson - Chicago Cubs
16 Lon Warneke - Chicago Cubs
17 Pepper Martin - St. Louis Cardinals
18 Jimmy Dykes - Chicago White Sox
19 Chick Hafey - Cincinnati Reds
20 Joe Vosmik - Cleveland Indians
21 Jimmy Foxx - Philadelphia Athletics
22 Chuck Klein - Philadelphia Nationals (Phillies)
23 Lefty Grove - Philadelphia Athletics
24 Goose Goslin - Washington Senators

Last but not least, here's a gallery of the original 1933 DeLong set courtesy Dan Austin.

Heritage Black Variation

Ok, I did some digging around last night and I think I've figured out what the deal is with the "Black" variation cards in 2008 Heritage.

The good news: I found a scan of the back and they look like the original '59 high series cards. They have black and red ink on the back instead of green and red. The ones I saw were also on lighter stock, again just like the '59s. Good job getting the details right on this one.

The bad news: They are not high series SP cards. The card numbering is all over the map and I've seen a couple of examples where there is a green and black back for a card. This is definitely a stealth variation just like the 2005 heritage white/gray hobby only cards. From what I've seen among the rumors and innuendo (still no hard facts anywhere on this stuff, even the message boards are devoid of hard information) there are 110 cards with the variation and they are seeded 1 per hobby pack. Yeah, I know. Who needs another lousy parallel in a product that is supposed to be designed for set builders?? My guess is that this is a hobby only thing, so if you absolutely can't stomach it, then wait for the retail blasters and go to town.

Topps gets a +1 for getting the historical detail right, but loses it again by making a parallel. I'm not going to specifically collect the black back set (you're looking at a minimum of 5 boxes to complete it) but I won't put them in the shredder either. I'll treat them like regular cards and if my set has a couple black backs, so be it. This kind of thing infuriates a few of you out there, so I thought I'd better warn you since this stuff hits the stores today.

On a happier note, while rooting around for Heritage tidbits like a pig rooting through slop, I found this little beauty. Spahnie cut auto. Man, I'd like that card. I already have Spahn's sig on a ball, but that's still nice. He's not in the pre-sell checklist either so there might be more surprises from Topps in this thing. They should have held back a couple of candidate autos to sneak in.

The Allen Ginter Project : Card #27 N12 Fruits

I just got three more of these in the mail and the set is getting really close to completion. I still have some older cards I received two months ago I still don't have writeups for yet, so it looks like my new box of Heritage will be opened ssssslllllooooooowwwwwwlllllyyy again to get some posts out of my draft folder. Here's the first of the three, from the set N12 Fruits.

I got damn lucky when I stumbled on this card. First of all, I hate this set. It's entirely too cute for my tastes and some of the cards frankly disgust me. The cutesy wootsy little girl with her face smeared with huckleberries puts me into a diabetic shock. These cards are also scarce and expensive. They are from a later series put out after the merger of all the major cigarette companies as you can tell from the line "Branch of the American Tobacco Company" on the back. The thing about a monopoly is that without competition, there's no more need for innovative promotions to get people to buy your product over the competitor. Mainly because there IS no competitor. After the merger a few more sets came out here and there, but not nearly as many as before. That's why there are virtually no major baseball card sets until Teddy Roosevelt starting busting trusts resulting in the card renaissance of 1909. That's right, T.R. is indirectly responsible for the T206 set. That's one of the reasons why he's my favorite president, and he should be yours too. Teddy Roosevelt for President in '08! So what if I'm 100 years too late, a guy can dream...

Onto the card. The story behind this one is kind of neat and I actually believe it this time. I got it from Nodak Nook (I don't know what the heck that means either) who got it from Grandma's estate. Yeah right, another grandma story. This one has a bit of authenticity to it though, the cards were supposedly nailed to grandma's trunk. That's right, nailed. You can see it better on the back then the front, but there are two definite nail holes in this thing. All the rest of the cards they had for sale were nailed in a similar fashion, so I'm going to guess that the story's legit. Not even my hyper-cynicism could see someone nailing cards to the wall for a story to help sell some cards. The card is also one of the least obnoxious in the set. No cute little girls mugging for the camera, just someone in some sort of native dress holding a strange little fruit called a sour sop. I've never head of it before, it's apparently used mostly for juice and ice cream. I can be a bit of a sour sop myself so this is an appropriate card for the set. Got a good deal on it too, 5 bucks plus shipping. I also won another card from this seller (coming soon) so combined shipping even. Not bad for a card that I had only previously seen slabbed and costing much more than my price range.


I had some difficulty deciding on my mandatory weird pop culture reference for this set. I thought maybe showcasing the best song from the Kennedy's best album, but I figured that was a little hardcore for such a bucolic set. Comedy seems like a better bet. There's always Mitch Hedberg from Dr. Katz, but there's only one or two fruit jokes in the set. Eddie Izzard has a good bit on supermarket fruit, and I stumbled across a classic Spike Milligan bit I'd never seen before while searching for all this stuff. But no, that was a bit too silly. This set while saccharine sweet, has a dark side to it. To some, it may as well be the N3 Arms of All Nations set. These cute little girls are actually deadly assassins! That's why we must all learn to defend ourselves from the dangers of fresh fruit!

Trading Mania - Swapping TriStar with Russ

Here's a trade I made with Russ. Ya'll know Russ, right? Russ had some TriStar cards I needed and I had some he needed. After I begged for help with my set he e-mailed me: "I've got 19, 38 and 77. I'll trade those for 7, 69 and 97". Worked for me! I sent him a package of stuff and here's the cards I got:

Russ also sent a few bonus cards:

93-94 Upper Deck Basketball Duane Ferrell - Georgia Tech alum makes good with the hometown team.

1990 Score Sourpuss Scott Bryant - No commentary necessary.

Oh but wait, there's more -

You have two chances at a good photo on your rookie card, yet you make the stink face on both. Nice.

95-96 Fleer Metal Basketball Kevin Garnett RC - WOW. Garnett Rookie card! I'm pretty sure I don't have this. My basketball collection is in a shambles, but I do have one box full of the 'good' stuff. This goes in that box.

1994 Fleer Greg Olson Autograph - Aww yeah! Another post for the autograph blog! Greg Olson kicks butt too. Is he still coaching for that team in St. Paul?

1987 Topps Darryl Motley - I've always been on the fence on whether this card belongs in the Braves team set or not. Sure, it says "Now With Braves" but it's still got the Royals logo on it. Aw, screw it. It's going in the binder.

Another good trade. Thanks Russ!

Cardboard News

Andrew has put together a nice little 'zine dedicated to card collecting and the newest issue is online for your reading pleasure. Check it out, you might find some cool stuff and maybe even a love letter to 2008 Topps from your local neighborhood Topps fanboi. If you like what you see, sign up for e-mail updates or subscribe to the receive your copy in the mail. I still owe Andrew an article or three on 19th century baseball cards, so look for them in future issues.

Trading Mania - Baseballcardman

One of the many trades I've made lately is with blogger Baseballcardman. He posted an offer I couldn't refuse: 25 Royals cards for 25 of my team. I got plenty of Royals to go around and I could always use more Braves. Actually, I specified "any Atlanta team" just to make it interesting. I tried to send off a good mix to The Man, and we both fudged on the number of cards. Final Tally: Chiefs 28, Falcons 27. Curses! Next time he gets a shoebox full. Actually, now that I think about it, I sent him an unopened pack for Donruss All Stars too. W00t! Late touchdown pass from Vick Chris Redman to Crumpler Roddy White! Here's my pack of goodies:

1998 Pacific Paramount Chipper Jones - Is it just me or do all the Pacific releases just kind of mush together? They had some really striking, really innovative cards in the 90's but they're all completely irrelevant now. That is, except to player collectors, and Chippers = Gold in my book.

1992 Leaf John Smoltz
2005 Upper Deck Classics Phil Niekro
1987 Topps Gene Garber - 2 Braves starters and 2 Braves closers in 3 cards. Highly efficient.

2002 Paul Bako - this one goes in my woefully neglected 2000's Topps Braves Team sets binder.

1992 US Playing Card Ron Gant 4 of Hearts
1992 US Playing Card Ron Gant 8 of clubs
1992 US Playing Card Tom Glavine Queen of Spades - This was the flop the time I went all in with a pair of aces. I had to sell my car when I found out the other guy had a pair of 4s. Thanks, Baseballcardman.

1990 US Playing Card Greg Olson 2 of Diamonds - this was the river card. I loved that car.

2001 Upper Deck Legends Andruw Jones - this is a nice looking set but I can't show it to you for 4 more days.
2002 Upper Deck Victory Steve Karsay

2001 Fleer Platinum Winston Abreu and Wilson Betemit Rookies
2001 Bowman Heritage Macay McBride RC
2001 Bowman Heritage Kelly Johnson RC - four highly regarded prospects and seven years later only one of them is a solid contributor to their original team. That's actually a pretty good ratio come to think of it.

1986 Topps Gerald Perry
1999 Skybox Thunder Andres Galarraga - There are short prints in this Skybox set, but I don't think anyone knows or cares about them anymore.

2001 Fleer Platinum Greg Maddux - as insanely popular as the retro Heritage products by Topps are, you have to remember that Fleer, Donruss and Upper Deck all tried the same gimmick and they all flopped horrifically. And suckers like me bought all of them. and now we have entire boxes full of flops.

1998 Upper Deck Kenny Lofton - Ok, the Ban is lifted for one card because Kenny looks delightfully demented on this card. I'm cropping out the logo though.

1998 Score Andruw Jones - Pinnacle brutally killed a great Score brand and for that I will never forgive them.

2004 Studio JD Drew
2004 Studio Michael Hessman
2004 Studio Rafael Furcal - All gone. Long gone. I miss Studio more than the players though.

1992 Upper Deck John Smoltz - Howcome UD didn't put the great picture of Smoltzie dealing heat on the front and the lousy picture of him swinging a bat like a rusty gate on the back??

1995-96 Topps Basketball Alan Henderson RC - Alan was shaping up to be a nice player, but then got really sick and was never the same. He was going for a medical degree, I wonder if he's a doctor now?

1993 Bowman Andre Rison - Andre gets the greasy oil slick treatment on the border of his card, which is what he became after the Dolphin defender flattened him.

1977 Topps Football Ray Easterling - '70s Topps Football cards rule. Correction - 70's Topps ANYTHING rules!

1989 Score Keith Jones RC
1989 Score Mike Kenn - oh what I would give for an offensive tackle like Mike Kenn on the Falcons' line again...


Great bunch of cards from the Baseballcardman. I'd trade with him again, but I'm afraid of what could happen if baseball card junkie and a man made out of baseball cards got together in person. It could be ugly.

Live

2008 Heritage has apparently hit the dealers. One guy on eBay is claiming he has boxes "in hand", another actually has singles up for bid. There are also apparently 'black back' SPs. I dont' know if these are variations or if Topps just distinguished the SP's by giving them black backs. Since the original high series cards had black ink on the backs instead of green, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the latter. We don't need a bunch of stealth variation cards, and they did it with the 2005 set with the Hobby only white/gray back variation so there's a precedent.

Of personal interest in the Braves Team set for sale. If correct, here's the Bravos in the sets for you fellow chopheads out there:

Mark Teixeira
Tim Hudson
Tim Hudson again Black back (uh oh)
Buddy Carlyle
Brandon Jones RC
Jeff Francoeur
Fence Busters Jones/Jones (YES!!!)
Rafael Soriano
Kelly Johnson
Tom Glavine (Please oh Pllllease be photochopped out of that awful uni)
Chucky James
Yunel Escobar
Clint Sammons RC
Team card
Brian McCann
John Smoltz
Chipper Jones
Brian McCann All-Stars

Nice team set, good selection of players, and it looks like there's a combo, Rookie and All-Star subset in there. 18 cards in the set will look nice in two pages.

I got your back Steve, here's the White Sox team set for your approval. Also Orioles, Indians, Reds, (blech) Mets... am I missing any of my fellow bloggers' favorites? Rangers and Twins aren't online yet.

Also, the buy back cards have a special foil logo stamped on them. I was dreaming of pulling an Aaron out of my box, but now I'd prefer Johnny Logan or Sad Sam Jones instead. It would be a travesty if Topps defiled a Mantle or Bob Gibson rookie with foil. (Note, I'm not affiliated with this ebay seller, nor am I getting a kickback. He's just the first to the punch and I'm getting all my info from him)

Nothing new on the Beckett boards or The Bench. If the dealers are starting to crack product though we should be seeing stuff soon. I'll keep you guys posted.


Developing...

Card Of the Week 2/25/08

What is this? The Card of the Week actually posted on the day it's supposed to be? Yep, because for one I decided on it before 10:00pm. Continuing the Braves' streak, we honor slugger, Rick Camp.

Rick is best known for hitting his only career home run in the 18th inning of a game between the Braves and Mets on July 4th 1985, causing the game - already interminably long due to extra innings and rain delays - to go into the 19th. Much to the chagrin of pretty much everybody except the Braves. You can see Rick's big hit here. The goddamn Mets scored 5 off of Rick in the 19th, and Camp was the final out as the Braves tried to rally. I was actually at that game with my mom and uncle although we didn't stick around to the bitter end. I don't remember when we left but it was well after midnight. It was raining off and on all night and we had taken refuge in one of the luxury boxes that were still under construction. All was well until some VIPs (who were sitting in one of the other unfinished luxury boxes) complained that some unwashed rabble were sitting in their luxury box and had an usher shoo us out. It was still a blast though and we were astounded when we found out how long the game was.

Rick is a Georgia native and spent all 9 years of his major league career with the Braves. Unfortunately after his playing days were over he became a lobbyist and got himself mixed up in a scandal. He and four others including state representative Robin Williams were convicted of conspiracy to bilk money out of a mental health facility in Augusta. Rick maintained his innocence, but still served 2 years in jail and lost his career and marriage. The AJC had a great article on him and his time in prison this weekend, which prompted this post. I hate seeing news reports about sports figures going to jail and Camp's story really bummed me out when I first heard about it. I'm glad he's out now and has determined to rebuild his life. Good luck, slugger.

Who Needs A Gimmick

Remember that Obama autograph I linked to last week? Here's the final tally:


Yikes. There are 14 more of those out there somewhere too. If you don't have three grand lying around, Hillary is also on eBay right now with a high bid of 56 bucks. There's five days left though and she's going to be getting a ton of press coverage this week. Can Hillary's 'graph break 4 figures? Can she beat Obama? According to the checklist there are cut autos from Hillary, Obama, Edwards, McCain and Thompson. I think Huckabee has a sig or a relic in Donruss Americana too. Anyone seen a Big Mac auto out there? AND WHERE THE HECK IS RON PAUL'S AUTOGRAPH?!?! There's a buncha lotta communists up there in Duryea, apparently.

Trading Mania - Trading with Thorzul

We're fighting on A Pack A Day, but that doesn't mean we can't still make trades. Here's a couple of mutually beneficial swaps I made with my man Thorzul (who will Rule).

In two separate trades (I'm posting them both at the same time because I was lazy and put off the first one) I sent Thorzul a pile of 07 Updates & Highlights cards, an Allen & Ginter N43 card of Prince Fielder I had an extra of, and the Ryan Braun/Yovani Gallardo insert I pulled from my '52 Rookies box break. I have the scan of the Fielder card, but not the Braun because I thought I scanned if for the box break. Oops. I also sent a bunch of extra stuff that I can't remember, you'll have to pester Thorzul to see those cards. Here's the schwag I got in return:

First up is a pile of 2007 Topps Updates and Highlights. Once again I don't have a scan because I sorted them into my set already. You know what this stuff looks like. Little squares and whatnot.

The next two were the keys to the trade, but unfortunately I can't show them to you or even talk about them because of a stunt a certain card manufacturer pulled. You can see them for yourself here and here (the relic card). The one I needed for my set and the other is a Brave (finally) so what the heck. Here are the throw ins, which are often the best part of any trade anyway.

A few Bravo cards, including a Justice Rookie, Avery with the Richmond Braves and a Post cereal Glavine that didn't make the cut for Mmmmmmmm cards. Plus a sticker! Yay sticker!


JESSIE TUGGLE ROOKIE CARD!!!!1 I got a couple dozen of them, but I'll take all I can get. Also a Bert Emmanuel rookie and a wonderfully gaudy Andre Rison Fleer insert.

An Atlanta Hawk from their glory years and the Hawks scouting and player development department that was instrumental in putting the team together.

Another unsolicited Wacky Packages card. You guys are going to make me buy a box of this eventually, and when I do you're going to suffer through me posting all the worst puns from the box.

Finally there was a card from Thorzul's infamous Juicy Honey box break that I earned by leaving an informative and relevant comment on his blog. I believe the informative and relevant comment was "WTF?!?!?". I considered posting the card, strategically censored to make it look filthier than is actually was (the card is waaaaay tamer than most of the swimsuit edition ads on SI's web site) but since I might get linked by an actual media outlet this week I thought better of it. Too bad, so sad. Thorzul did respect my trading card nipple aversion and sent me one sans nipplage. Of course the set's logo itself sort of defeats the purpose but they are stylized boobies which are ok. If you want to know what the hell I'm talking about go find Thorzul's post on your own. I got kids reading this here blog.

The Oscars

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Achievement in cinematography

Achievement in editing

Achievement in art direction

Achievement in costume design

Best picture

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award