Cynicalbuddha's Mid Week Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1

Also know as Harry Potter 7 or HP7.

My fiance is a huge Harry Potter fan.  She's read all the books and has every movie on DVD.  I have yet to read a Harry Potter book but if I was trapped in a snow bound cabin for a couple of months it wouldn't bother me to have all the books there to pass the time.  That being said I was dragged along to the movie theater to see the first installment of the last book.

My take.  meh.  While the cinematography was great and so were the special effects I had a hard time figuring out what the hell was going on.  It's been a while since I've seen the last movie.  I just let that go and watch trying to pick up on the plot and enjoy the ride.  I mean I get it the bad guys want to kill Harry Potter.  What else is new.  It probably didn't help that I had to get up to pee twice.  I don't know what movie theaters put in there soda but man it goes right though me.  Honestly all the "kids" in the movie are getting a little old but I guess this is the last one.

So all in all not too terrible.  I mean I did make her sit through the A-Team, and she's probably going to have to go along and see the Green Lantern movie next summer, which was a sweet trailer by the way.

After the movie I asked if it followed the book closely and she told me no.  So at least I don't have the bias of comparing the movie to the book.  God that sucked in Lord of the Rings.  So I will hold off reading any Harry Potter till I get dragged to the next and last movie in the series.

cb out.

Topps Rookie Redemtion Week 12 is.....

Toby Gerhart.  Yuck a Viking.

Here's what Topps had to say about the boy.

"Vikings rookie running back Toby Gerhart was a savior in Week 12, stepping in for injured superstar Adrian Peterson and admirably leading his team's ground attack. A second-round pick, Gerhart displayed the punishing style that made him Stanford's all-time career touchdowns leader, pacing Minnesota's victory in Washington with 76 yards and his first NFL score."

Hmm. Didn't get to see the game but Peterson hurt is no surprise. Way to go Toby.

I got to stay at home on Sunday because both games I wanted to watch, the Packers/Falcons and the Bears/Eagles were both on the local station so I got to roll out of bed and watch in my PJ's.

The one thing that sucks about living in Alaska is that the early games come on at 9.  That's a little too early to get to the bar.  Plus they don't start serving booze till 10.   That use to be fun back when I was younger but now it takes me 3 days to recover from a good drunk. 

cb out.

Thank you San Diego Defense

Wow I'm still recovering from Thursday.  I'm so glad I took Friday off.  Since I'm 5000 miles from my nearest family, I know some of you are like, you so lucky, I had Thanksgiving dinner with about 15 close friends and didn't have to cook anything.  The only think I had to do was run into the liquor store and pick up a treasure chest of Pabst.  You know I guess that's not true I have a cousin stationed up in Fairbanks in the Army but I'll be damned if I'm driving up to Fairbanks this time of year.  If you've never felt -30 degrees F consider yourself lucky.  It's really cold.  That being said I had a great morning and afternoon of football. 

Fast forward to Sunday.  The pack loses to the Falcons, the Bears and Vikings win.  Grrrr.  But on a lighter note I did squeek out a win in my fantasy league.  It came down to Sunday night football.  All my players were done and to be honest it was a pretty lackluster performance all the way around.  Brees really didn't have a very good game.  So my opponent still had his QB, Philip Rivers, and his kicker, Vinitari.  Lets just say I was praying for Indy to score TD's and Rivers to get knocked out early, but the gods smiled on me with San Diego's defense scoring the majority of its points and Indy didn't get a single field goal!!  Plus the 30 point cushion helped but I still didn't win by much.

And I only went to the baseball card shop on black Friday.  I didn't plan on buying too much but they were having awesome deals and on top of the deals you got an additional 10% off so.  I bought the last box of Score hockey and I wasn't going to buy anymore update but for 36 bucks a box I couldn't pass it up and it was an alright box.  The score hockey pissed me off as I didn't get a snowglobe again.  I got 2 sudden death cards.  Why can't I get 2 snowglobe cards?  I'm assuming that the snowglobes are the rarest inserts, well behind the autos.  So I've bought 4 boxes and still am far from completing the set.  I will post a needs list soon and I have tons of extras.  Tons!!  I was kinda hoping to pull another SSP rookie but that didn't happen either.

bugger well better get to work.

Hawk eyed!!

I've been working on my State of the Collection address.  It's coming along I figure I'll roll it into my New Years Collecting Resolution.  But one of my new goals is to start a nice modern HOF rookie collection.

As a Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers collector I've got 2 HOF rookies already.  I'm still looking for that perfect opportunity for my Reggie Jackson rookie.  My local LCS has a fairly decent one for 95 bucks so I'm hoping to get it for much less online.  And I have lots of future HOFer Frank Thomas.

That being said I figure I'd look around ebay and see if I could find a rookie from this years inductee, Andre Dawson.  Not only did I find a great looking rookie card but the auction I won came with a second year care as well, in equally good shape. 

 Look at the size of the Rookie Cup, its huge!!

I've always been a fan of the Hawk.  I remember him better from his days in Chicago.  I have to say that if you can get a Dawson auto there great.

Brian over at 30 year old cardboard has some great examples of his auto in his Ultimate Dawson collection.

I picked this card up about 5 years ago and have to say behind Yount and Fingers one of the nicest autos out there.

I love all the swoops and loops. So clean.  If I remember I think this is numbered to 50 as well. 

A trade with the Night Owl

Earlier this month or was it last month what ever.  I posted the results of one of my Jumbo box breaks and  The Night Owl expressed interest in my box topper Chrome refractor of John Ely.

Well after a few emails back and forth and looking throught my vast boxes of extras, inserts, and whatnot, I sent it off with some other goodies and yesterday I got my package.

I got an almost complete set of Score 98, at least I think it's 98. I'm writing this from work so I don't have the cards in front of me.  He also sent me a few older cards like that 76 Charlie Moore and George Scott below and the 75 Jim Slaton.  All of which I needed from my Brewers superset.  The 85 Sutton is pretty sweet too, but the xfrator of Gallardo is my favorite.  Super shiny. 

There were also a few token Packers cards in there and a Corey Hart 2010 Update card not shown that I put with my Brewers Update set already before I scanned the cards.

I've only got 16 days till I close on my new house and after that I get to clean out my storage unit and start going through boxes and boxes of cards packed away for years so

2010-2011 Score Hockey 3 box break and some rack packs

I'm not a hockey guy.  But I've finished my Topps Football and Baseball sets and I'm not impressed with the Panini Football offerings but I love Score.  Well at least this year I love Score. I my opinion Score football was Panini's best football release and this year they are putting out a Hockey too so for 30 bucks a box I want to try and do something I haven't done in a long time.  Put a hockey set together.
So I opened one box and couldn't help but go and get 2 more after that to see if I could hit an auto.

So here's what I got out of the three boxes and two rack packs.

I got 3 of these 20th anniversary cards in the boxes and one in a rack pack.

I'll probably end up buying out the Target near my house of rack packs.

The main insert other than rookies is the Playoff Heroes.  I actually got 18 of these 2 double not pictured and getting close to finishing this set.

My favorite insert in the set are the Net Cam cards these are sweet I love the angle and the picture.

One of the rarer inserts falling at one per box is the Franchise.

The second of the one per box inserts is the Sudden Death inserts.  I actually pulled 2 from one box but it was instead of a Snowglobe.  I like the layout of these, but that Giroux card is the dumbest picture on a card.

My second favorite set are the Snowglobes, Die cut and all snowy.

In the retail rack pack you also get 2 exclusive inserts. One Canadia Greats and one USA Greats.  There are 15 cards per set but the Panini Website only lists the Canada Greats checklist, no USA checklist for me.  I've added a few more of these as the hobby boxes are gone in town so I've been the rack packs.

I didn't get an auto but that's a case hit.  I did get a rookie redemption, which oddly enough is not a redemption card, but the actually card of the player, and I forgot to scan it.  I do believe you could call them SSP's but it looks like there are no actual redemption cards.

So I've ripped 3 hobby boxes and about 6 rack packs and still don't even have a base set and I'm quite a few short on the Rookies.  I also have a ton of glossy which honestly are dumb.  Just give me an extra regular card.  I guess I could try and finish my set with glossies but I'm a purest and a glossy set is a glossy set and a regular set is a regular set.

Unlike Score football there are no numbered parallels in this set.  As a matter of fact unless the Autos are numbered, which I didn't get one of, there are no numbered cards in this set.

If you need some cards to fill your set I'll have my need list and maybe have my extras listed as well soon.

No no Topps that's ok.

I just got my second email from Topps today. 

"Dear Consumer.

This email is to inform you that the Topps Company is currently beyond the 15 week processing time allocated for the following redemption card:

PIN #: Product: Card/Player Name
S9RDMMIX6F Topps Finest MLB Rookie Base #3

Our staff is working diligently to process and ship your redemption card as soon as possible. Please continue to check your Online Redemption account for updates regarding the status of your card.

If you no longer wish to wait for the redemption card, please contact our Consumer Relations team in order to place a substitution request for a card of equal Beckett value.

Do not hesitate to contact our Consumer Relations department via phone at 1-800-489-9149 or via email at support@etopps.com for assistance. A consumer relations representative will be available to assist you Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 4:30 pm (ET).

Sincerely,

Consumer Relations
The Topps Company, Inc."

So I say in my infinte patience, no no Topps that's ok if you need more time to make sure the cards are defect free and don't come with that white powder crap all over them by all means take a few more months in your already excrusiatingly long redemption time frame. I was expecting this and this is fairly normal for the Rookie Redemptions from Topps and Finest.

Topps Rookie Redemption Week 11

This weeks Topps Rookie Redemption Week 11 is

Mike Williams!!

Here's what Topps had to say

"An impressive first season for Bucs receiver Mike Williams continued in Week 11, as he hauled in 54 yards and a touchdown during his team's rout of the 49ers. The explosive fourth-round pick out of Syracuse currently leads all rookies in receiving yards and is tied for the lead in touchdown catches, on pace for over 1,000 and 10, respectively."

I'm guessing that it was a mmmh week for the rest of the uncarded rookies this week. 

I had absolutely no guess this week and whatever I'm never right anyways.  Get your redemptions at your participating LCS.  So far I've got a full set and some extras going.  I wonder if this is going to die out like the Topps MLB player of the week promo.  Don told me he stopped putting them out and would give me a full set at the end.  Nice.

cb out.

Topps Variation Wish

So I posted a  few days ago some Trade Night pick ups.  One note I failed to mention was that these were all pack pulls no trades. As a matter of fact there were only 4 of us that showed up to the store.  It was probably my best chance at winning the give away I've ever had.

Anywho, one of the cards I pulled was this Reggie Jackson variation from Topps Update.

This is at least the 4th Reggie Jackson Variation Topps has put out I do believe he had a Angels, Yankees, and A's cards in last years set.  And doing a quick search I see he has at least one other variation in this years set as an Angel, so I will assume he has another Yankee variation out there as well so that brings us up to 6.  Here are last years.

I have at least 2 of these I can't remember which ones off the top of my head.  I stole these images off of Freedom Cardboard.
 Now I'm a Reggie fan.  But I'm kinda of a passive Reggie collector and very opportunistic in collecting his stuff.  That means I'm cheap and when I find a Reggie I need that's a good deal I'll usually scoop it up.  That being said I really like the Topps veteran variation cards.  Now anybody who knows Reggie knows he was a hotdog and a little self absorbed.  He knew he was good and he was cocky.  Mainly because he was that good.  He also played for 4 different teams in his career, 5 if you count the Athletics before they moved from Kansas City.  Probably best remembered as an A or Yankee, Reggie also put in 5 season with the Angels and one long forgotten season with the Orioles.  

I guess my wish would be that Topps would put out a nice Reggie variation in an Orioles Jersey or a KC Athletics with the KC logo on there.  I love the ecclectia and those would be great oddballs. 

Who would you like to see get there own Variation card and with what team? 

Bye Childress and Take the Favre with you on the way out!

I wish I'd have seen this a few hours ago when I posted my gloat.  The ax has fallen in Minnesota.  It was only a matter of time and now Childress can go have a beer with Wade Phillips and I'm sure John Fox will be here soon too.

The only question is Favre going to be put out to pasture?  Now don't get me wrong, I like the old guy.  I root for him when he's not playing the pack, really I do.  But seeing as the Viks playoff hopes are gone, I would think you would want to get the guy who is probably going to be your starter next year, Jackson, some playing time. 

Next week the Viks take on the Redskins so we'll have to see what Leslie Frazier can do with the team.

I am a happy camper.

I'm not a vindictive man, but suck it Vikings. It's payback.  Now I'm not a hater not usually, although purple is my least favorite color.  Look I already blogged about it here.  I was just hoping for a win and a good showing not a rout and complete thrashing.  I ended up having to go to the bar to watch the game, which is the best place to watch a Packer game anyways especially if your not in Wisconsin.  Although the Pack has been on TV up here for quite a few weekends.  I ended up staying for the Colts/Pats game and I usually end up rooting for who ever my friends are rooting for this time the Colts.  That was a game.  I really thought Peyton was going to pull it off, at least tie.  My friend Kimmie was getting bored with the Packer game.  She was there actually rooting for the Viks because her boyfriend is a Vikings fan.  I'm glad he wasn't there I don't think I could have stood the whining.  So the sports bar I was at is called the Peanut Farm. If your in Anchorage you should stop by, they have really good burgers.  Now I use to go to a bar call the Crossroads which is pure Packer bar but the owner is kind of a dick and the Farm is much closer to my current living arrangements and they have shit loads of TV's.  The bar had a huge addition added a few years ago and it's set up into fan sections so each team gets it's own little section.  My buddy Mikey was off with his Browns buddies and had to watch that heartbreaking defeat.  But I have to say Hillis is going to be big in Cleveland and McCoy might have a good future there as well.  After the morning games we all met up in front of a big screen showing the Pats/Colts game and proceeded to drink huge schooners of Pabst and talk shit about Tom Brady hair.  All this and a good breakfast.  It was a good day.  Oh and on top of that I won my fantasy game too.  All I have to say is Drew Brees is a fantasy god!!!!

cb out

Pick ups at trade night

I was at Don's for trade night last Wednesday. Mainly to try and get the box of Triple Threads Football that was up for grabs.  I like Don's trade night because he'll draw till there's a winner unlike Bosco's who if no winner is there the packs roll over to the next trade night. While that's cool because the giveaways can get really big it's always nice to know something is going to be given away.

Since I'm on a budget I bought a few packs from the cheap bin.  Don has packs of 2010 Prestige football in the $2.00 box so I bought a few packs of that and got a couple nice hits.

First up is this Mike Kafka hit.  Who knows maybe he'll make something of himself.

And this Mohamed Massaquoi Prime Patch.  The BR in Browns from the front of the jersey.  Sweet

I also bought a couple of packs of Certified and hit this Blue Mirror auto of Pat Robinson #d to 50

I also got a jumbo pack of Update and hit this nice veteren variation.

I've been looking at trying to pick one of these up for my Reggie collection and well now I don't have to.

I also bought 2 packs of UD hockey 2010-11 series 1. Why?  I think cuz I miss UD and I'm not a hockey guy.  But I don't know how much more I'm going to grab.  I don't plan on putting a set together and I've hit something in both packs I've bought.

I got this nice Carle Jersey card.

And an UD Exclusive parallel #d to 100.  I have to say for as much as I loath some of UD's ethics from the past I do love there photos and this set design.  Which of course is the same as Series 1 Baseball.

So not a bad haul for a cheap trade night.  2 auto's, 2 nice relics, and a couple nice variation cards.

Oh and I didn't win the box of Triple Threads.

I guess my Tony Pike cards are toliet paper.

I don't know if there are any Carolina fans out there or if anyone cares about the team.  I'm not a fan but I can commiserate with the best of them.

I was pursuing the sports section of Yahoo, since it's the only sports page not blocked at work, and found this interesting article.

Seems John Fox in his infinite wisdom as head coach has decided to elevate his practice team quarterback to starter for Sundays game against the Ravens, Brian St. Pierre.  So this begs the question whats wrong with Tony Pike?

Well first off let me sum up that if you didn't know, Carolina's starting QB Matt Moore is out with a shoulder injury from last week and the rookie back up Jimmy "Pickle Boy" Clausen is still recovering from a concussion.  And John Fox decides to put in a guy that was just signed to the practice squad last week.

Hmmmm there is definitely some insanity running around the league. 

I was hoping the Tony would get in there and shine.  I've pulled some nice Tony Pike rookie autos this year and would love for them to be worth something.  But if Ray Rice has his way maybe Pike will get to play after all.

Not terrible cards the Prestige mini helmets are kinda neat.

Topps Rookie Redemption Week 10

I give up.  I realize I can't watch every game and I don't pour over the stats and I don't watch hours of Sportscenter, so I'm pretty ignorant about all the great NFL stuff.  I do look at the scores and headlines but I guess I'll never work for Topps.  So this week the Topps Rookie Redemption is Rob Gronkowski. 
Here's what Topps posted.
"Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski shined under the bright lights in Week 10, hauling in three touchdowns along with 72 receiving yards in a victory over the Steelers. The 42nd overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft has reached pay dirt six times this season, while displaying the highlight-reel grabs that made him the most accomplished tight end in Arizona Wildcat's history."

Yeah that was pretty good.  At least Topps isn't bowing to popular demand and fan base.  I figured Dez Bryant would claim the spot this week.  Oh well.  7 weeks to go and maybe I'll get one right.  I know that Dez and Tim Tebow will get cards this year they are too popular not to.

cb out

New etopps and who will be the rookie redemption for week 10?

Well after a bye week eTopps is back with another offering of 3 IPO cards.  For those of you that don't know eTopps is Topps' online card offering site started in 2001.  Through out the season they offer exclusive numbered short print run cards.  And then after they are issued you can take delivery or trade them on their trading floor on eBay.  To be honest most of their cards don't hold there value from their IPO price but this is also one way for Topps to issue cards for a rookie as they make their MLB debut or first cards of traded vets in their new uniforms.  I've been picking up cards here since 2004 and to be honest getting the IPO isn't necessarliy the best deal.  You can usually pick up these cards off eBay for much cheaper than the IPO price.  There are a few however that do out perform.  Here was were you could have gotten one of the first Strasburg cards and I'm sure when Bryce Harper makes his MLB debut you'll see it here first.

Back when Topps had a NBA license they offered NBA cards as well but now its just MLB and NFL.
So this weeks NFL offerings are.

Mike Williams

Pickle boy.

And the one rookies card I seem to pull from every product this year.

The last 2 are RRO or Restricted Rookie Offerings and are not offered the whole week just till the 18th.

Now on to the question who will be Topps' Rookie Redemtion for week 10?

I've been trying to guess this for a few weeks now and have not been right once.

I'm going to have to throw my hat in the ring for Dez Bryant this week again.  3 reception for 104 yard!! and 1 TD and 4 kick returnes for 80 some odd yards.  Seems a shoe in to me.

Tebow had his first career TD pass a little 3 yarder and I'm sure that Topps will get him on a card yet, but it shouldn't be this week.  We'll see tomorrow.

Those were the days.

Well now that I've been blogging for over a year  on the topic of sports cards and collecting I've noticed a lot of other blogs, both established and new, are authored by collectors that are getting back into the game and that had stopped collecting for some reason or another.  Probably growing up had a lot to do with it.  It got me thinking about my collecting history.  I never really stopped buying cards,  through high school and college I still bought a pack here and there still haunting my LCS in my hometown and in college.

It all started in 1987, my father was based at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.  I had gotten into collecting comic mainly because I could buy large quantities from the quarter boxes and read until my heart was content and there was always a cheap stack of comics at the local flea markets.  I soon discovered a couple comic book shops near my house at Logan Heights a military housing development.  One was called Rita's Fantasy Shop and had tons of comics and quarter boxes, as well as, used paperbacks, posters, and other nerdy stuff.  The other was the Comic Book Shop, which I found shortly after they opened.  Brad the owner was just getting into comics, he was a sports card guy and it showed but from his humble beginnings he grew pretty fast and had to upgrade to bigger storefronts 3 times before I moved.  On a side note I actually did a quick internet search and Brad still has a comic book store in El Paso, it's call All-Star Comics, man the internet is great and evil.  It's amazing what you can find out.  And I bought a lot of comics from Brad over the years but not many baseball cards.  There was a Circle K on the way to the Comic Book Shop and they had the quarter packs of Garbage Pail Kids.  I missed the first series but got a complete second series and I have no idea where that is now.

It was also at this Circle K that I bought my first pack of cards.  A 1987 Topps Cello pack.  I just loved those old Cello packs and bought tons of 1987, 88, and 89 from that Circle K as well as tons of Garbage Pail Kids.  It was also this time that I started paying attention to baseball and football on TV and being a Wisconsin boy that meant a leaning toward the Brewers and Packers.  In 1987 it had been 5 years since the Brewers had been to their one and only World Series appearance and the stars on the team were Robin Yount and Paul Molitor.  And so began my Robin Yount collecting days.  Back then a Yount rookie was pie in the sky.  There was no way on  my allowance that I would ever be able to afford one of his rookie cards.  I  guess I'm glad I waited because back then his rookies were going for hundreds now you can pick up a decent 75 Yount for twenty bucks.

In the era of bad wax that I started collecting in cards were still affordable for a kid like me and then in 1989 the Billy Ripken Fuck Face card happened and over night packs of 89 Fleer skyrocketed.  It always makes me wonder if Fleer did it on purpose.  Packs that were going for 50 cents now were going for 5, 10, 15 bucks!  Sound familiar?  Bowman anyone.  89 Fleer was also the first team set I ever bought from Brad.  And since it was Gary Sheffield rookie year I paid a whole 3 bucks for the set!!!

Then my father got stationed overseas to Berlin, Germany.  I was 16 and let me tell you Germany when your 16 is a blast.  You might think that this would be the point were I would take a break from collecting being in Germany but you're wrong.  The base PX and shopette(on base convience stores)  had boxes and boxes of 90 and 91 Score, Topps, Fleer and some Upper Deck as well as a mind blowing Stadium Club product.  I also got a job so had tons of disposiable income so for the first time I started buying boxes of cards.  I still to this day have monster boxes full of worthless 90 and 91 Score, Fleer and Topps.  But I didn't care.  I did pull one amazing card out of 91 score I pulled and numbered auto of Chuck Knoblauch.  I was amazed.  It was numbered to 10,000!  But signed on card.  I was amazed and only recently did I let the card go.  It was the gem in my collection.  Before relics and autos were common place.  It was also here that I got my first Yount rookie at an on base card show.  I had a dog earred corner and the edges were fuzzy but I got it cheap, well cheap at the time, and it was my most prized card.  I still have it.

The college years were a slow time.  No box buying for this poor starving college student but I did manage to get a few pack now and then.  This era, 92-97, was the start of the innovation, higher quality cards,  Fleer Ultra, Stadium Club, Pinnacle, ect.  Inserts started appearing, relic cards, autographs, sequentially numbered cards, die cuts, parallels, ect.

And to this day I'm still collecting.  Yes I have a closet full of worthless bad wax, but I have few gems in there as well and I have some kick ass player collections if I do say so myself. 

So after this long drawn out autobiography of a card collector, what are your guys stories, how did you start collecting, if you stopped why and why did you start again?  And I guess a question I didn't address why do you collect what you collect?

Until next time.
cb out

Topps Rookie Redemption Week 9

Well it's about time.  This time I finally agree with the choice just about 2 weeks late.

Here's what Topps had to say on their choice.

"Cleveland quarterback Colt McCoy came up big in Week 9, completing a stellar 74 percent of his passes and dashing for a 16-yard score as the Browns shocked the Patriots 34-14. The former Longhorn star has engineered two straight upset victories over elite opponents, and his impressive poise has led to an 83.5 passer rating over three career starts."

The star of this game was Peyton Hillis but he's not a rookie.  Colt did have a rushing TD but no passing TD's .  He had a passer rating of 101 so not too shabby.  I'll I'm saying is it's a little over due.  And I love watching the underdog stick it to the man.

Topps Chrome Wrapper Redemptions: Can Topps stop the sinking ship that is Chrome?

Sooz over at A Cardboard Problem had an great post this morning about the new Topps Bowman Chrome wrapper redemption program.   So I headed over to the Topps website to find out a little more and too my surprise they actually had news.

Some points of interest if you haven't already notice this but these redemption programs are for HOBBY ONLY wrappers.  That's right you might as well throw away all your value pack wrappers right now.  And the all caps was Topps not me.  This includes both the  Bowman Chrome wrapper redemption and Topps Chrome Baseball.  Topps also announced that there would be Heyward and Posey refractor autos given out.  That's nice.

Here's an interesting blurb from the post:
"And because of a production error, the previously announced Autographed 2010 Bowman Chrome USA BUYBACK program will now be included as part of this wrapper redemption.  Cards will be sequentially numbered with foil stamping to 100 and will include Bryce Harper, James Taillon, Yasmani Grandal, Drew Pomeranz, Michael Choice, Christian Colon, Manny Machado and Bryce Brentz"

I suppose this means that they forgot to insert them into the product or all the autos rubbed off as that seems to be an issue this year with chrome.

And you need all 18 wrappers from you box.  Yep only 18 packs per box.  4 cards per pack. And at my LCS packs were going for $4.25.  I picked up 2 to try it out and to tell the truth Topps would have to guarantee me an autographed card to get me to buy more. 

So once again it looks like quality and production control  seem to be the big issue at Topps.  I reported on this last month.  Remember when wrapper redemptions were a thank you and not an apology?

I remember back in the 90's when Fleer Ultra had their wrapper redemption and you got a nice pack of Eck cards to throw in your binder.  I'm sure I still have them somewhere too.  See that was a thank you for buying our product, if you take the time to send us you wrappers we'll send you a nice pack of exclusive cards.  Now it's "we're sorry we have our heads up our asses here take time out of your busy day and dig out all those wrappers you just threw away and send them to us and we'll try and make it up to you."

I bought one box of Topps Chrome baseball and you bet I sent my wrappers in.  Both of my Autos were smudged and since I couldn't find the receipt and I'm sending my wrappers in, Topps wouldn't do anything.  Alright I really didn't try very hard, but fuck you Topps and your shitty cards. 

Sorry Sorry.

My point being is that it kind of looks like a desperate ploy on Topps' part to save there sinking brand.  Especially now that people could care less about that injured pitcher guy from the Nationals.  I did a quick price check over at Blowout cards and DAC Topps Chrome is under 40 bucks a box, 37.95 at BO and 39.95 at DAC, Bowman Chrome is just under 50 bucks a box and I have a feeling you will be able to pick this up for 35 in a few weeks.  49.80 at BO and 48.95 at DAC.  Looks like Chrome football is moving downward as well.

I might be cynical as ever, but I can see damage control as well as anyone.  And making the wrapper redemptions Hobby Only only clarifies which of it's products are screwed up.  I haven't heard anyone complain about quality from retail blasters and value packs.  Hmmmm. 

Comments?  Horror stories?

Will Coach for Food

Looks like we have another person added to the unemployment line.  Wade Phillips was fired by the Cowboys today.

Not surprising but who will step in WHO?  So move over a little Randy Moss and don't forget to save a spot for Brad Childress, he'll be coming soon too.

American Pickers TTM Success

YahWahooooo!
I'm back.  Just spent a week in the lovely capital city of Juneau, Alaska.  And it rained the whole time.  If you want to know what the weather of Juneau is like imagine Seattle, but wetter.

Anywho, you might not know but I'm a huge fan of the History Channel and I love Pawn Stars and American Pickers.  There both as addictive as crack or sports cards.

On Oct 18, I sent 3 customs cards to Antique Archaelogy's address and a nice letter telling Mike, Frank, and Danielle how much I love the show.

Well today after I got back I found my envelope on the kitchen table with these awesome grabs.

Here are the backs, which I pride myself on making a complete card for the collection.

And here is the envelope with postmark for those who care.

So the stats on this TTM

Date Sent: 10/18/10

Date Recieved 11/6/10, postmarked on the 2nd.

Address used:

 American Pickers

Antique Archaelogy

115 1/2 Davenport St

LeClaire, IA 52753

Not too shabby.  And great sigs.

cb out

Bye Randy, I'm sure the Raiders will take you!

For those of you who haven't heard Randy Moss got cut by the Vikings for being a lazy douche.
Bye Randy.

Hey You!!!

This is a rant I would normally put up over at the 13 Tenets.

But seeing as nobody reads it I'll post it here and all you sports heads can suffer.

I like to think of myself as a pretty level headed, fairly educated, reasonable kind of guy.  And I will be glad when tomorrow is over.  If you don't know tomorrow is the mid-term or off year elections.  Meaning that a third of the Senate seats are up for grabs and a few of the House as well.  What does this mean for you?  And by you I mean you/us  Americans, sorry Captain.  It means you need to vote!!!

I'm not a very political guy, I consider myself independent, I use to consider myself mildly Republican back when that meant, small government, low taxes, and fiscal conserverativism, but now that it means religious radicalism, warmongering, and corporate shilling, I want nothing to do with it.  But equally the Democrats are not all that appealing either, just mildly more tolerant and I have to say share many of my views.

I find it amusing that the Democrats have labeled themselves the progressive party.  And sadly that's mostly true.  While many Republicans seem to wish it was 1950 again, I need a country and a leadership that can keep up with the times.  Sorry, Sorry, say on target.

This election year is made even more interesting by the emergence of a new movement of loonies the Tea Party.  And they like to be called Tea Baggers.  Do they know what that means?  Probably.

And being an Alaskan, I've been up here 12 years now I think I can call myself that, it's hard not to notice are looney ex-governor, ex-vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin making her presence felt.  My worry is why do so may people listen to what she has to say?  Her ideas aren't all that great and the Tea Party Movement is mainly sound bites of ideas pulled off of opinion polls.  All empty calories.

I get it I mean we all wanted change overnight, and the Republican leadership has lost it's way and focus. Remember the Reform Party? Perot you crazy bastard.

We have an interesting Senate race up here as our Republican candidate, Joe Miller, is a Tea Party member and ousted the incumbent Lisa Murkowski for the Republican nom, who decided to wage a write in campaign and of course the Democratic candidate who didn't stand a chance now has a chance seeing that Lisa and Joe can't stop flinging monkey poop at each other.  And I'm tired of the ads.  I voted weeks ago, mainly because I'm leaving town for a conference and won't be here to vote tomorrow, but also it's nice to get it out of the way.  And you know what almost everywhere has early voting.  Did you know that?  How convenient. Vote on your time.  Although I love the feeling of voting on election day.  Nothing like free cookies and a sticker. 

I have voted in every Presidential and local election since I was 18.  I was brought up that it's your civic responsibility to vote, sadly so few in our country take that time to do it.  But you know who votes?  The crazy people.  And I'm proud of my record.

So today, since I won't be here tomorrow, I'm sending out the call, posting the reminder and driving the van to the polls,

GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!!

This way next year when you want to bitch about how shitty your government is you have a right to bitch.

If you want change make it happen, don't let others choose for you.  I don't care who you vote for, although I hope you make a effort to learn your choice's views first, just vote. 

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

go Packers

cb out.