I tried Topps Bunt.... and I liked it.

I"ll be honest Topps isn't know for their acumen with technology and social media in general. As a matter of fact Topps treats a lot of it's interactive endevours like a child who is super excited over a new toy when it's new and then quickly loses interest and it sits in the corner never to be played with again, ahem, eTopps, the Topps Blog, Topps Town, and the Topps website being a source of useful information.

So I was leery when Topps started it's foray into apps.  But I finally broke down this year and decided to give Topps Bunt a try.  And I'm actually kind of addicted to it.

For those of you who don't know what the Topps Bunt app is, it's basically a mix between  digital baseball cards and fantasy baseball, with a little of the old sitting around with your friends trading your doubles for cards you need.

When you sign up you get a big chunk of coins, which are used to buy packs.  There are various types of packs with varying about of cards, inserts, and parallels. You get more coins for logging in daily and you can also buy coins if you are one of those people who does in app purchases.

There are 5 kinds of base cards.  The base.

Here's what the "back" looks like.

Green Uncommon

Red Rare

Silver Scarce

And Gold Super Rare

There are also all kinds of different inserts that are found in certain packs and offered usually for only a limited time. Here's Jered Weavers Heritage insert

James Loney 1974 Archives insert

And Matt Harvey's Saberstars card

Another big focus on the game is playing your cards in a sort of fantasy baseball like game.

As you play you accrue weekly points and there are a ton of different achievement awards to win as well.

Another big part of the app is trading.  You select cards you want and then cards you want to trade and select 5 trading partners and wait to either have your traded accepted, declined or they counter offer.

There is also a social aspect of the game, but I have yet to add anyone.

If anyone out there playing around on the app and wants to add me as a friend my user name is cynicalbuddha.

Anyone else out there using the Bunt app. Anyone else like it?

cb out

TTM Success Eric Farris Former Brewers Minor Leaguer

Well I think this one takes the cake for my longest wait for a TTM. Usually after a couple months I tend to write them off if they don't come back. I had to dig deep into my TTM records, yep I actually keep records, to find out when and where I sent this card off to. I sent this card off to the Nashville Sounds back in May of 2012 and 2 years later here it is.

Eric was in the Brewers system from 2007 to 2012 and is now playing for the Minnesota Twins AAA team the Rochester Red Wings.

Interestingly enough he plays in New York and sent this from his hometown of Sacramento. 

Still cool to get and just reminds you that you never know when you might get one of your TTM's back.

TTM Stats

Date Sent :5/18/12

Date Received 5/27/14

Address used:

Nashville Sounds Baseball Club

Herschel Greer Stadium

534 Chestnut Street

Nashville, TN 37203 

Repacking

Been slow here at Collector's Crack World Headquarters. After getting back from vacation there wasn't a whole lot I wanted to rush out and buy. Both Gypsy Queen and Bowman hit while I was gone, but since I don't plan on collecting either of those sets, other than my Brewers team sets, I haven't bought any. I'm still waiting for Series 2 to hit next month, so in the mean time I picked up this cheap 100 card repack for something fun to dig through.  Lets have a look at the goods.  I won't bore you with all the 87 Topps and the like only the "good stuff"  First up are the two top teaser cards.
We get a 2012 Topps Chrome orange refractor of Josh Johnson and 2011 Heritage Jackie Robinson Tribute card.

I love oddballs and this repack had a few.  I really like these 89 Bazooka cards.

A Pacific Eight Men Out movie card

1992 Donruss Dave Winfield 400 HR card.

How about a 1999 UD MVP card of the 1993 AL Rookie of the Year? Mmmm Salmon

Another great food issue oddball from the 80's

There was a handfull of these 88 Topps Mini's

One lone 1980's Topps.

There was also a smattering of 70's cardboard in the pack.
1978 Messersmith

Couple 79's

Couple 76's.

But the best card came out of the one lone pack included in the repack. Inside the 2012 Topps Update pack was this guy.

Craig Kimbrel US268 SP. Not too shabby.

Overall a typical repack with tons of junk wax, but a couple nice cards mixed in.

Panini comes through

A while back I busted a box of the new 2014 Donruss.  It was a fun break and brought back some great memories from Donruss of days gone by. And while the box had 4 relics in it, it did not deliver the 2 autos promised.  So I filed my claim with Panini, which was straight forward on their website and waited.  You have to have an account with Panini, but if you have ever redeemed a card on the website you already do and once you start your claim they keep track of it there.  

Well after I got back from my very long "vacation" I had an envelope from Panini waiting for me.

I'm actually pretty pleased with the two autos I got sent, since I actually know who these two players are. Of course I still think of Prado as a Brave, but getting the Wong rookie auto was nice. Neither one of these is selling for very much, but that's the curse of the unlicensed. Say what you will about Panini products, there customer service is light years above Topps.

Crickets

You may have noticed, or not, that I have been silent on the blogs here for a little over a month. I had thought about maybe scheduling some posts, but of course didn't.  Well I plan to blame my now 2 month old son for the lack of content here.  The family and I have been on a whirlwind tour of the lower 48 visiting family and friends. We drove through 8 states and put close to 4000 miles on a rental car.

So fear not I'm back at least for a few more weeks before my field season starts and once again I'll be MIA most of the summer.

One cool thing my wife's aunts did for us was this cool Cubs marquee announcement. And while I'm a true blue Brewers fan, my wife and most of her family are Cubs fans. It was a pretty cool gift and I have a soft spot in my heart of the lovable losers even if they are in the same division as my team now.

We now return to your regularly sporadic postings.

cb out