So what's in the box?

I saw a post over at Sports Card Info about the new Collector Crate. Similar to Loot Crate. You can subscribe and get monthly mystery boxes full of packs, sports figures, game used cards and autos.  The company offers three levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold, starting at $29.99, $69.99, and $99.99 respectively.  The site is up and running right now and taking it's first orders.  We'll have to see if prices come down. Loot crate is only $13 bucks a month and if you do a yearly subscription it's only $11, so if Collector Crate can get it's prices a little lower by working with the companies this might get really hot.

It'll be interesting to see what they pull out for the first boxes due later this month.  I for one don't have the means to drop even thirty bucks right now, but for a few of you with a little more disposable income might be worth a look. Oh and you can get $5 off your first box with the Promo code 5OFFOCTOBERLAUNCH.

Update:  Alright I ordered one. I'll do a box break down when I get it. CB

Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web IV - 1st reminder

Don't forget my annual World Series contest going on if you haven't signed up already!  And don't forget to pimp the contest for an extra entry into the door prize drawing.

Don't leave your guess on this post GO HERE to enter or click the link on the sidebar!! Hurry you have until Sunday Oct 5th, Noon Alaska time, 4pm EST.

Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web 4!!! Official entry post

Wow seems like the Summer just flew by.  And while I've had a hard time finding time and things to post about it's still contest time.  The end of summer means baseball playoffs and that can only mean one thing, the Collector's Crack 4th Annual Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web!!!



Been a wild year in both leagues. My team spent 150 days in first place this year and didn't make the playoffs.


No change in the contest.  Same rules apply.  I just want you to tell me who's going to win the World Series.  But of course more than one person might pick the right team, so we have to have some tie breaks.  So for tie breakers I want you to tell me who the opponent is, how many games in the series, and total home runs hit during the series, both teams.

So your entry should look something like this


Detroit over St Louis, 5 games, 12 HRs.

Pretty straight forward right?  So what will you win?  Well I've been socking away great stuff all year The winner will receive a great prize package,  plus I'll probably throw in a some cards from your favorite team.  I'll post more on the prizes later after I dig them out.

But wait that's not all.  I will be doing a door prize again just for entering everyone is in.  And if you happen to have a blog and want to promote my contest you will receive an extra entry.  The list will be entered into Random.com's list randomizer and randomized 3 times.

Alright well I have to leave town for one more work trip.  I should be back by Oct 6th. I'm opening the contest from now till next Sunday noon Alaska time, 4pm on the East coast.  That being said I know that there are still the one game wild cards and by Sunday there will already been two divisional playoff games, so you're more than welcome to wait till later in the week to make a guess.

Here are the teams to choose from.

American League
Baltimore Orioles
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
LA Angels
Oakland Athletics

National League
Washington Nationals
St Louis Cardinals
Pittsburgh Pirates
LA Dodgers
San Francisco Giants

So get guessing. Don't forget to leave a link to your blog if you promoted the contest for your extra entry into the door prize.

A trade the color of argyle.

Been slow here at Collector's Crack world headquarters. With work, working on the house, and working on the family, and the general malaise I feel for the card industry at the moment I haven't been that motivated or inspired to post.  Sorry about that.  I'm not sure if that will change much, at least for another month or so.

But I did post about ripping a couple packs of 2014 Topps Chrome baseball a while back.  I ended up pulling an auto from the pack and Greg over at Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle commented that he'd like to trade for it.  By Greg's count this is our 7th trade. You can read his end of the deal here.

First off the pad the trade Greg sent a smattering of random Brewers.

 He also threw in a couple 2013 Ginter's I needed for my set, always appreciated.

 There was also this sweet Randell Cobb  Topps Supreme Blue parallel.

 A 1963 Jimmy Ringo for my Packers team set.

 But the meat of the trade was this sweet 2004 Rickie Weeks UD USA Baseball Black Signature card.
Rickie most likely will not be on the Brewers team next year, but he's been a pretty integral to the team since his rookie year in 2003.

Reguardless of what happens to Rickie next year it's great to add this auto to the collection.

Thanks Greg.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #71 - 2014 Topps Finest Robin Yount Finest Greats Autograph

Has it really been almost 2 years since I did a Top 100 post?  Yep you can read my last one from November of 2012 here.

I don't know if I just got bored with the whole series or just ran out of cards I wanted on the list. But  it's been awhile. 

But with the recent addition of my newest Robin Yount auto I figure I'd add some more to the list, which stopped with #70.

Now remember I'm not listing cards in order of greatness or importance, no they're listed in order as I find them or acquire them.  So just because this card is #71 in the series doesn't mean it would be #71 if I had to actually rank them.

So with out further ado here is card #71 in my Top 100 Cards in my Collection

2014 Topps Finest Robin Yount Finest Greats Autograph Xfractor #FGA-RY #d 046/149. Did I mention that the auto is on card?

2014 Topps Football review as seen through a relic card guaranteed hanger box

That's new.

Had to stop into Wally world to pick some stuff up and noticed an odd looking hanger box on the hook.  A hanger box with a guaranteed hit! For only 5 dollars more! Gotta be worth it right?  Well we'll see.

Topps Football is one of the three sets I'm putting together this year, along with Topps Baseball, including the update series, and Allen and Ginter.

If you're buying retail and looking to put a set together the hanger boxes really are your best bang for you buck.  If your looking for more inserts I'd say the rack packs are the way to go.  A hobby jumbo pack is running about $13 in my neck of the woods so paying $10 for 72 cards is a better deal than $13 for 50.  But I digress....

I know that this year's Flagship set has been pretty well dissected already, but why not cut it up a little more?

I've seen a lot of hate for this year's design. I'll agree it's pretty busy, looks more like a Bowman design, but it could be worse. After sorting through my pack this is by far the best card I've seen in the set.  You can argue, but you would be wrong. Just an awesome photo and like usual the photography is great throughout the set.

There are a ton of inserts that hasn't changed.  What has changed is that Topps added 3 completely useless, pointless, and uncollectible inserts this year.  OK maybe that's a little rough, but really...

Do we really need these cards?  What really pisses me off is that these inset count toward my card total in a pack. Don't get me wrong I think the Play 60 program is a good thing, but these cards are not.

These Play 60 Mentor cards have a little more collectability.

I have no words.

OK rant over let's get back to football.
I'm glad to see the 1000 Yard Club and 4000 Yard Club inserts are back. They look much better than last year.  I still think these would look great if Topps did something special with them. Chrome, acetate, something.

 This years mini's are in the 1969 design.  I'm not sure why the numbering starts at 200 though.

Topps also has two inserts Fantasy Football themed.  I wonder why two?

But these Fantasy Strategies cards look good.  As a matter of fact if you take away the background and put the field back there this wouldn't have been a bad base design.

 And the Fantasy Focus insert.

 Topps is continuing it's Power Player promotion. I have no idea what this is about since Alaska is void from participating.

 My favorite insert this year are the Greatness Unleashed cards.  I'll be putting the set together along with the mini's.

 I'm not a big fan of Topps labeling the cards instead of numbering.

 Now I know you're all eager to see the relic I pulled..

 Um..well not the most exciting rookie, but at least Marqise made the team.

Over all it's pretty par for the course for flagship football. True to formula. I'd probably have a few more nice things to say about it if there weren't 3 inserts that leave a bad taste in my mouth.