More Holiday Thanks

When of the best parts of running a blog is the semi-unsolicited offers from readers to send cards from my wantlist. Everyone who does this turns out to be good traders, people who are in it to help others finish their sets and fill out their collections. That is why I am in it, too, so it there is a connection immediately to these friends who I would not otherwise meet. (It's almost like eHarmony for baseball card collectors!)

So it was no surprise when I received a nice package from Scott in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. I mention the location because it is one of the oddest names of a town that I've ever heard. Why not just call it Croton? Was there another Croton nearby that it had to be differentiated from? Interesting!

Anyway, Scott runs the newer blog Mr. Scott's Baseball Cards, and has made few trades already with the likes of Sooz and Play at the Plate. He sent me a stack of '09 A&G minis which I need, a Thome bat relic, a 2004 Donruss autograph of a long-lost Indians prospect and some Indians cards from 2009.

The A&G's still really interest me. Did you know that Beardy's idol Burke Kenny is a member of Beard Team USA? Did you know there actually IS a Beard Team USA?!!?! Jason Motte, who I just pulled a Sweet Spot Rookie auto of that is on my trade page if you are interested, pitched 164.2 innings, struck out 217, walked only 56, but still had enough time to let up 153 hits? That's a busy 2008 minor league season!

He also sent a stack of those weird 2008 UD Documentary cards. Looking at them, I understand why they are so reviled in the Hobby. They are boring, have the same picture on various cards of different games, and don't feature a picture of the player being highlighted in the blurb. I don't want to encourage it by even showing the pictures. Let's hope it dies a quick death and goes the way of some of the other Frankenstein products that have been put out over the last ten years.

Thanks, Scott, for all the great cards. Yours are on the way.

Holiday Thanks

Thanks to Jack, a.k.a. Baseball Dad, sent a nice holiday treat to me, and probably many others. Mine was a very cool 2001 Topps Archive Larry Doby card:

Not enough was done to honor Doby for being the second African-American in MLB, and first in the A.L., to break the "color" barrier. He was not necessarily the most gifted, but like Jackie, could withstand the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" better than most. He quickly made a name for himself as a ballplayer and a gentleman.

Daniel from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop sent along my half of a trade in which I sent him a Micah Owings autographed card and a Brandon Webb jersey relic. He sent me the last card I needed for one of the 2008 A&G insert mini sets:

That was a VERY difficult insert set to finish. I'm glad that one is done. Now, only a few more minis and one World's Greatest Victories insert card. If you have any....

Daniel also sent a few Propaganda Posters and Turkey Reds from this year's Topps, a few other 08 A&G cards, and a few Sabathia and Sizemore cards. Great trade! Thanks Daniel.

Grass is always greener...

Duane, from Democratic Roadkill, made some real roadkill of my wantlists and sent me several dozen cards from '08 Goudey, '09 Goudey and '08 A&G. The grass (Duane knows what I'm talking about) is definitely greener on his side of the collection table, and he is willing to share some sod with me. He has been a great trade partner, so check his blog and wantlist out.

He also killed off what I thought was the last card from 2008 Masterpieces, #96

I still need 104 (Mattingly) and 106 (Berra), so if you have them, I'd like to trade for them. I must have sent them off in another trade to get something I wanted more, though I don't know what I could want more than to finish off this set. I regret the UD did not see fit to release it again this year.

Duane took a big chunk out of my Goudey wantlists with many short prints, so many that I'm embarrassed that I might not be able to keep up with his generosity. The '09's he sent include some Sport Royalty, which are a difficult catch and a few other straight SP's.

The '08 Goudeys included more Sport Royalty and straight SP's, as well as some presidents and Play Ball cards, but also included the rest of the Hit Parade of Champions that I needed. Great! Another list completed! WOW!

When I fist saw the Pujols, I thought it was C.C. There is a bit of a resemblance. And the Staubach is interesting in that his helmet has a funny red-white-and-blue design that I had never seen on the Cowboys helmets before. Any clues?

He also threw in a few A&G minis from 2008, including two that I have been chasing out of a subset for quite some time now. They are very difficult to obtain, so I am very grateful to Duane for the Baseball Icons that he sent of Cobb and Ott.

Man, Duane do I owe you or what! Thanks again, my friend.

The best thing I got at The National

Of all the things I saw there (plenty) and all the celebrities I met (none, really), the best thing I got there was this:

 

Why this card? It's not a Derek Jeter autograph! No, but it is a Brian Kong autograph.

You may recognize that Brian Kong is the artist who did all of the art for the Highlight Sketch cards from this year's Topps Allen & Ginter release. He was at the Beckett booth (yeah, I know) but had his own corner with his own banner and display. Joshua and I met him, talked with him a bit, then gave us his autograph with the "cool" auto, the B-K in a square, next to his real autograph. He let us choose one of the cards from the A&G Highlights Sketches, so I chose the iconic picture of Jeter going into the stands. 

He was a very modest, easy-going young man, and was a bit oblivious to all this card mania going on around him, but that is what we liked. He had some of his original art on display, which we enjoyed looking at. 

I'd say this was the highlight of The National for me, aside from Joshua winning the box of Press Pass Football from Blowoutcards. Pretty neat.

 

If you bought two boxes of A&G...

I want to know what your results were. Did you get 25% doubles from your second box? Since Topps is now sponsoring Gint-a-Cuffs, I would like to know what their thoughts are on so many doubles, and that is not even including my 8 SP doubles!

Despite my anger. . .

. . . I'm still collecting the A&G set. I've already got a good head start on it, with two boxes in and jumping on others box breaks to trade for their non-hits. You can check out my wantlist for it here, as well as for all my other sets I'm collecting and near finishing.

ANGER is spelled with A&G

I'm mad. Really mad.

I bought two boxes of the A&G, and I busted both right away, although I only posted the first box for the Gint-a-Cuffs. It isn't worth my effort to scan and post the second box, because it would get me no more points than my first one.

After seeing all the great cards that people have pulled out of their boxes, I'm miffed about what I got out of two boxes.

• 59 base doubles from the second box of ones I got in the first box
• 8 SP doubles from the second box of ones I got in the first box
• 6 relics, only 1 worthwhile (Doumit, Mulder, Thome, Holliday, Dye, Escobar)
• Total number of printing plates, autos, rip cards, etc: 0!

That's right, folks. A Big Fat Zero for anything worthy of the money I spent on TWO boxes, except maybe the Thome bat. The doubles alone is enough to raise my ire. Eight SP doubles?!!??!

I have busted many boxes of Topps, including three this year before A&G, and I've never had this big of a problem with the collation. Many of the packs in the second box had the EXACT SAME CARDS except for the mini and the National Pride card as a pack from the first box.

As the saying goes, If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.

I called Topps to complain about this, and the putz who took my call said that there is nothing they can do about it. They can only assist me if cards are damaged or if I didn't get the guaranteed products, such as three autos or relics. End of story. No can do, no help here.

It was so bad that, when I traded all my doubles at the local Trade Days, I ended up with two rip cards that I paid a steep price for: my Reyes black refractor from 09 Heritage, an assortment of autos from my trade box. What did I get for all that? A Beltran mini exclusive and a Chipper mini exclusive. No mini wood card. No red auto mini. No 1-of-1. (BTW, I'm auctioning off the Chipper mini #384 on eBay. I need to make back my money somehow.)

I'm not pleased about the situation, despite my love for the A&G set. I've already got a good jump on getting the base cards finished, and a good chunk of the minis. However, should I try to get someone at Topps to rectify this? Should I stop whining like a little girl? What should I do?

Gint-a-Cuffs Packs 22-24

PACK 22

221 Brandon Webb

193 Khalil Greene

216 Derek Lowe

308 Fausto Carmona -> +6 (+5 SP, +1 fave team)

68 Jamie Moyer

76 Brandon Phillips

289 mini Milky Way black border -> +2 (+3 black border, -1 because)

NP57 Victor Martinez -> +1

PACK 22 TOTAL: +9

PACK 23

310 Old Faithful -> +4 (+5 SP, -1 because)

121 Ryan Church

113 Rafael Furcal

160 Max Scherzer

71 Albert Pujols

161 Justin Morneau

273 Jason Bay

NP51 Albert Pujols

PACK 23 TOTAL: +4

PACK 24

138 Garrett Atkins

7 John Smoltz

45 Derrek Lee

279 Jon Lester

214 Adam Dunn

264 Carlos Pena

109 mini Samuel Morse

NP42 Edgar Renteria

PACK 24 TOTAL: 0!

3 PACK TOTAL: 13

OVERALL TOTAL THROUGH PACK 24: 195

That's all, folks!

Gint-a-Cuffs Packs 19-21

PACK 19

2 Zack Greinke

267 Melvin Mora

72 Carlos Lee

86 Michael Cuddyer

132 Anna Tunnicliffe

224 Tim Lincecum -> +2

195 mini Kevin Kouzmanoff A&G back -> +2

NP56 Edinson Volquez

PACK 19 TOTAL: +4

PACK 20

9 Ryan Theriot

94 Paul Maholm

260 Louis Braille

16 Josh Johnson

163 Matt Garza Crack the Code SP -> +5

105 Kurt Suzuki

151 mini Cole Hamels

NP50 Jair Jurrjens

PACK 20 TOTAL: +5

PACK 21

170 Lance Berkman

332 Curtis Granderson -> +5

115 Ryan Doumit

37 Andre Ethier

266 Johnny Cueto

273 Jason Bay

251 mini Carl Crawford

NP41 Raul Ibanez

PACK 21 TOTAL: +5

3 PACK TOTAL: 14

OVERALL TOTAL THROUGH PACK 21: 182

Gint-a-Cuffs Packs 16-18

PACK 16

210 Johan Santana

222 Akinori Iwamura

245 Todd Helton

126 Trevor Crowe -> +1

107 Bryan Berg

AGR-MH Matt Holliday jersey relic -> +8

48 mini Brigham Young

NP60 Stephen Drew

PACK 16 TOTAL: +9

PACK 17

58 Brad Hawpe

101 Andrew Bailey

209 St. Patrick's Cathedral -> -1

315 Andy LaRoche -> +5

AGHS15 Jon Lester Baseball Highlights -> +3

232 mini Everth Cabrera

PACK 17 TOTAL: +7

PACK 18

223 Scott Rolen

201 Travis Snider

165 Chase Utley -> +2

51 Ryan Perry

312 A.J. Burnett -> +4 (+5 SP, -1 Yankee)

158 Sigmund Freud

308 mini Fausto Carmona A&G back -> +10 (+1 fave team, +7 SP, +2 A&G back)

NP45 Evan Longoria -> +2

PACK 18 TOTAL: 18

3 PACK TOTAL: 34

OVERALL TOTAL THROUGH PACK 18: 168

Gint-a-Cuffs Packs 13-15

PACK 13

5 Luke Hochevar

328 Matt LaPorta -> +6 (+1 fave team, +5 SP)

233 John Lackey

114 Hideki Matsui -> -1

220 Suez Canal -> -1

15 Alfred Nobel

202 mini Conor Jackson

NP59 Miguel Cabrera

PACK 13 TOTAL: +4

PACK 14

77 Francisco Liriano

184 Chris Young

238 Van Gogh

253 Miguel Cabrera

243 Alexander Cartwright

28 Ervin Santana

106 mini Mike Jacobs black-border -> +3

NP48 Jorge Cantu

PACK 14 TOTAL: +3

PACK 15

103 Aaron Harang

59 Mark Reynolds

85 Jason Jaramillo

249 John Higby

AGR-RD Ryan Doumit jersey relic -> +8

341 mini Edgar Gonzalez -> +7

NP44 Yuniesky Betancourt

PACK 15 TOTAL: 15

3 PACK TOTAL: 22

OVERALL TOTAL THROUGH PACK 15: 134