12th Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web - Conference Championship Round Up

Wow, this weekends conference championships did not disappoint!! After my team was eliminated I had decided to root for a Bengals/Rams Super Bowl and I guess I got my wish.  With the Chiefs and 49ers eliminated that leaves us with just 4 picks, 2 for each team and no one correctly picked the opponent for the first tie breaker, so really this is literally anyone of those 4's  game!!! Congrats to the our finalists bbcardz, Twinkiller, Captkirk42 and Huskerfan22.  And thanks again to everyone who entered.

 KMack - Kansas City over Green Bay, 71 points, 4 FG's

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Ymmat - Kansas City over Packers - 55 points - 4 FG's

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

Autographs2000 - Chiefs over Packers, 66 points, 3FG

cardcollector65jw - 49ers over chiefs, 49 points, and 5 FGs

abide (on TCDb) - Chiefs over Buccaneers  / 61 points / 2 field goals

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

12th Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web - Divisional Series Break Down

 

Wow, just wow.  I will say I'm sad to see my Packers eliminated, but really they only have themselves to blame or at least the special teams.  Both Saturday games were pretty surprising.  But the two Sunday games holy cow, what a roller coaster!!!! But with both #1 seeded teams gone and Tom Brady and the Buccaneers it's easier to just say how many we have left than how many we lost.  Going into the Conference Championships we only have 11 teams left!!!   I'll be honest I thought the Bills were going to pull off another upset and we'd have lost even more.  As of right now I think we only have two picks that have an opponent still in the playoffs.  Could come down to the wire and I'm sure next Sunday will be a great day for football.

With that said here are the picks and those remaining, I'll have another update after the conference championships and thanks again for everyone who entered!!!

KMack - Kansas City over Green Bay, 71 points, 4 FG's

night owl - Buffalo over Dallas (REVENGE). 59 points. 4 field goals.

J L - Buccaneers over Bills 45 points 3 FGs

Fuji - Green Bay over Kansas City, 54 points, 4 FGs

(codence97 on TCDB) - Bills over Packers, 51 points, 3 FGS

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Adam Kaningher - Bills over Buccaneers, 41 points, 2 field goals

spazmatastic - Packers over Chiefs - 41 points - 3 field goals

ToppsrBest - Titans over Packers-65 points-3 FGs

Ymmat - Kansas City over Packers - 55 points - 4 FG's

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

suourange93 - Tampa Bay over Kansas City, 45 points, 1 FG

sandyrusty - Green Bay over Kansas City, 75 points, 4 FGs 

The Angels In Order - Bucks over Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs.

gregory - Green Bay over Pittsburgh. 40 points, 4 FGs.

Scottzoe - Tampa Bay over Kansas City , 65 Points, 3 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

FiresNBeer - Green Bay over Cincinnati, 58 points, 4 FGs

jlcre2003 - Green Bay over Buffalo, 58 points, 3 fgs

(greatgazoo19 on TCDB) - Green Bay over Buffalo, 52 points, 1 FG

Autographs2000 - Chiefs over Packers, 66 points, 3FG

John Shar - Titans over Packers, 62 points, 4 FGs.

Matt - Buffalo over Tampa Bay, 69 points (yeah baby!), 4 FG  PIMP

Eric - Green Bay over Buffalo, 63 points, 2 FG

ckevink on TCDb - Green Bay over Buffalo; 51 points; 3 FG

cardcollector65jw - 49ers over chiefs, 49 points, and 5 FGs

Shaw Racing - Bucks over Bills, 57 points, 5 FGs.

Brett Alan - Buccaneers over Titans, 55 points, 3 FGs.

Dion's IP Autos only - Packers over Chiefs 83 Points 2 FGs

Elliptical Man (Uncorrected Error on TCDB.) - Bills over Packers, 47 points, 3 field goals

abide (on TCDb) - Chiefs over Buccaneers  / 61 points / 2 field goals

Crocodile - Bucs over NE, 51 points and 4 fg's.

packsux -Packers over the Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs. Packsux on TCDB

Sportzcommish - Pokes over Bills (again), 68 points, 4 FGs.

Jafronius - Packers over the Titans, 44 points, 3 FGs. Thanks for the contest!

gcrl - bucs over Chiefs 57 points, 4 FGs

Trevor P - Green Bay over Tennessee; 52 points; 1 FG PIMP

Robert - Bills over Packers, 50 pts. 3 FG

Sandy (Tscastle on TCDB) - Titans over Packers, 61 points, 4 FGs

e.v.a.n (as myrke) - Packers over Patriots, 65 points, 3 FG

cardboardhogs - Green Bay over Tennessee, 56 points, 5 FG

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

Wilson - Bills over Cowboys, 50 points, 4 FGs

12 Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web - Wild Card Weekend Round-up

 

Well howdy all.  What a great long weekend of football.   Well at least a great long weekend.  All but two of the Wild Cards games were blowouts, but those two had a lot of drama.  We didn't lose too many, only 6, plus the three unknown entries since no one has come forward to claim them.  They'll be removed going into the divisional games, unless someone comes forward quickly.  Either way we have a large group moving forward and I can't wait to see my Packers next weekend.  Alrighty good luck everybody I'll have a update after the games next weekend.

KMack - Kansas City over Green Bay, 71 points, 4 FG's

abraham - Dallas over Kansas City, 81 points 5 field goals

night owl - Buffalo over Dallas (REVENGE). 59 points. 4 field goals.

Unknown - Kansas City over Tampa Bay 64 points, 7 fgs

J L - Buccaneers over Bills 45 points 3 FGs

Fuji - Green Bay over Kansas City, 54 points, 4 FGs

(codence97 on TCDB) - Bills over Packers, 51 points, 3 FGS

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Adam Kaningher - Bills over Buccaneers, 41 points, 2 field goals

spazmatastic - Packers over Chiefs - 41 points - 3 field goals

ToppsrBest - Titans over Packers-65 points-3 FGs

Ymmat - Kansas City over Packers - 55 points - 4 FG's

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

suourange93 - Tampa Bay over Kansas City, 45 points, 1 FG

sandyrusty - Green Bay over Kansas City, 75 points, 4 FGs 

The Angels In Order - Bucks over Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs.

gregory - Green Bay over Pittsburgh. 40 points, 4 FGs.

Scottzoe - Tampa Bay over Kansas City , 65 Points, 3 FG

Jayoneill - Dallas over Kansas City, 75 points, 6 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

FiresNBeer - Green Bay over Cincinnati, 58 points, 4 FGs

jlcre2003 - Green Bay over Buffalo, 58 points, 3 fgs

(greatgazoo19 on TCDB) - Green Bay over Buffalo, 52 points, 1 FG

Autographs2000 - Chiefs over Packers, 66 points, 3FG

John Shar - Titans over Packers, 62 points, 4 FGs.

Matt - Buffalo over Tampa Bay, 69 points (yeah baby!), 4 FG  PIMP

Eric - Green Bay over Buffalo, 63 points, 2 FG

ckevink on TCDb - Green Bay over Buffalo; 51 points; 3 FG

cardcollector65jw - 49ers over chiefs, 49 points, and 5 FGs

Shaw Racing - Bucks over Bills, 57 points, 5 FGs.

Brett Alan - Buccaneers over Titans, 55 points, 3 FGs.

Dion's IP Autos only - Packers over Chiefs 83 Points 2 FGs

OhioTim - Pittsburgh Steelers over Green Bay Packers, 48 points, 2 field goals

Elliptical Man (Uncorrected Error on TCDB.) - Bills over Packers, 47 points, 3 field goals

abide (on TCDb) - Chiefs over Buccaneers  / 61 points / 2 field goals

Unknown - Cincinnati over Dallas 79 points and 1 field goal

shanepatrickwrites - patriots over packers 54 points, 3 fg's

Crocodile - Bucs over NE, 51 points and 4 fg's.

Brandon75 - Raiders over cowboys 55 points and 2 fg's  TCDB

packsux -Packers over the Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs. Packsux on TCDB

Sportzcommish - Pokes over Bills (again), 68 points, 4 FGs.

Jafronius - Packers over the Titans, 44 points, 3 FGs. Thanks for the contest!

gcrl - bucs over Chiefs 57 points, 4 FGs

Trevor P - Green Bay over Tennessee; 52 points; 1 FG PIMP

Robert - Bills over Packers, 50 pts. 3 FG

Sandy (Tscastle on TCDB) - Titans over Packers, 61 points, 4 FGs

Mark M (Chiken Biscuit on TCDB)- Pittsburgh over Dallas, 54 points, 4 FG

e.v.a.n (as myrke) - Packers over Patriots, 65 points, 3 FG

cardboardhogs - Green Bay over Tennessee, 56 points, 5 FG

Unknown - Titans beat the Cowboys, 56 points, and 4 field goals. Good luck to everyone!

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

Wilson - Bills over Cowboys, 50 points, 4 FGs

12th Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web - Official Entries

 

Sorry for the delay.  Been a busy couple days and I've got a busy couple more.  But wow what an exciting ending to the Bengals-Raiders game.  The Patriots-Bills not so much.  But here we are the start of my 12th yes, 12th Annual contest I want to thank everyone who entered.  We had 51 people put picks in this year!  I'm pretty sure that's an all time record for any of my contests so thank you for those that helped spread the word.  And it looks like my Packers are heavy favorites.  One hiccup we have 3 entries that got submitted by an unknown persons.  I'm assuming this is because they either weren't logged in to Blogger or don't have an account and I tried to get the word out, and a lot of people were really great about making sure their twitter or TCDb handles were included.  So if one of these three unknown entries is yours please let me know ASAP, as they will likely be removed after Wildcard weekend if I can't put a name to the entry.  Also please look over your entry.  I copied the entries over from the official sign up post, but you never know.

Here are your official entries.  Good luck everybody.  I'll have an update after Sundays games.

KMack - Kansas City over Green Bay, 71 points, 4 FG's

abraham - Dallas over Kansas City, 81 points 5 field goals

night owl - Buffalo over Dallas (REVENGE). 59 points. 4 field goals.

Unknown - Kansas City over Tampa Bay 64 points, 7 fgs

J L - Buccaneers over Bills 45 points 3 FGs

Fuji - Green Bay over Kansas City, 54 points, 4 FGs

(codence97 on TCDB) - Bills over Packers, 51 points, 3 FGS

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Adam Kaningher - Bills over Buccaneers, 41 points, 2 field goals

spazmatastic - Packers over Chiefs - 41 points - 3 field goals

ToppsrBest - Titans over Packers-65 points-3 FGs

Ymmat - Kansas City over Packers - 55 points - 4 FG's

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

suourange93 - Tampa Bay over Kansas City, 45 points, 1 FG

sandyrusty - Green Bay over Kansas City, 75 points, 4 FGs 

The Angels In Order - Bucks over Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs.

gregory - Green Bay over Pittsburgh. 40 points, 4 FGs.

Scottzoe - Tampa Bay over Kansas City , 65 Points, 3 FG

Jayoneill - Dallas over Kansas City, 75 points, 6 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

FiresNBeer - Green Bay over Cincinnati, 58 points, 4 FGs

jlcre2003 - Green Bay over Buffalo, 58 points, 3 fgs

(greatgazoo19 on TCDB) - Green Bay over Buffalo, 52 points, 1 FG

Autographs2000 - Chiefs over Packers, 66 points, 3FG

John Shar - Titans over Packers, 62 points, 4 FGs.

Matt - Buffalo over Tampa Bay, 69 points (yeah baby!), 4 FG  PIMP

Eric - Green Bay over Buffalo, 63 points, 2 FG

ckevink on TCDb - Green Bay over Buffalo; 51 points; 3 FG

cardcollector65jw - 49ers over chiefs, 49 points, and 5 FGs

Shaw Racing - Bucks over Bills, 57 points, 5 FGs.

Brett Alan - Buccaneers over Titans, 55 points, 3 FGs.

Dion's IP Autos only - Packers over Chiefs 83 Points 2 FGs

OhioTim - Pittsburgh Steelers over Green Bay Packers, 48 points, 2 field goals

Elliptical Man (Uncorrected Error on TCDB.) - Bills over Packers, 47 points, 3 field goals

abide (on TCDb) - Chiefs over Buccaneers  / 61 points / 2 field goals

Unknown - Cincinnati over Dallas 79 points and 1 field goal

shanepatrickwrites - patriots over packers 54 points, 3 fg's

Crocodile - Bucs over NE, 51 points and 4 fg's.

Brandon75 - Raiders over cowboys 55 points and 2 fg's  TCDB

packsux -Packers over the Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs. Packsux on TCDB

Sportzcommish - Pokes over Bills (again), 68 points, 4 FGs.

Jafronius - Packers over the Titans, 44 points, 3 FGs. Thanks for the contest!

gcrl - bucs over Chiefs 57 points, 4 FGs

Trevor P - Green Bay over Tennessee; 52 points; 1 FG PIMP

Robert - Bills over Packers, 50 pts. 3 FG

Sandy (Tscastle on TCDB) - Titans over Packers, 61 points, 4 FGs

Mark M (Chiken Biscuit on TCDB)- Pittsburgh over Dallas, 54 points, 4 FG

e.v.a.n (as myrke) - Packers over Patriots, 65 points, 3 FG

cardboardhogs - Green Bay over Tennessee, 56 points, 5 FG

Unknown - Titans beat the Cowboys, 56 points, and 4 field goals. Good luck to everyone!

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

Wilson - Bills over Cowboys, 50 points, 4 FGs

Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web 12 - Official Sign up Post!!!

 

Wow, another season gone in the blink of an eye, and we even got an extra game.  But that means it's time for another one of my Almost the Easiest Contests on the Web!!!  I can't believe we are already on my 12 Annual one.

Same rules as always. I just want you to tell me who's going to win the Super Bowl.  That's it.  Well...in all likelyhood more than one of you will guess correctly, so we are going to need a couple tie breakers.  

So I also want you to tell me who the opponent will be, the Total combined number of points (both teams remember, and closets get's it this isn't the Price is Right)  and just incase we need one more tie breaker how many total field goals in the game (again both teams combined)

So your entry should look something like this:

Green Bay over Kansas City, 75 points, 4 FGs

Now I know you're asking, "Hey CB what am I going to win?"  It never fails that if I was to offer up a prize it would not be to everyone's likely so just like my last World Series contest I'm going to make a prize pack specifically crafted to the winner, based on their team(s) of preference.

But wait there's more.  Like always there's going to be a door prize, just for signing up!!  And the door prize will also be crafted for the winner.  And if promote this contest, on your blog, twitter, YouTube video, or what ever tube you use.  You'll also receive an extra entry into the door prize contest.  But Please Please Please make sure you let me know you did it and a link to the pimp would be great.

OK there you go.  You have until Noon Alaska Time/4 pm EST on Saturday January 15th to enter, right before the Bengals and Raiders game.

Here are you choices:

AFC

Kansas City Chiefs
Pittsburgh Steelers
Buffalo Bills
New England Patriots
Cincinnati Bengals
Las Vegas Raiders
Tennessee Titans

NFC

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Philadelphia Eagles

Dallas Cowboys

San Francisco 49ers

Los Angelese Rams

Arizona Cardinals

Green Bay Packers

Good Luck everybody!!

Oh what a year - A room full of elephants that we should probably talk about

Oh hello there, yep it's me again.  I've been sitting in the cold dark Alaskan winter contemplating life, the universe, and well, everything.  It's been a crazy couple years hasn't it?  I apologize for the lack of content.  I really just haven't felt like sitting down to write blog posts.  And the few times I have sat down to do it the post turns into a bitch session and I've been making a very concerted effort to be a positive force in the hobby and the universe, so a lot of those posts go unpublished or just get deleted.  

But here we are, a new year and there's lots to talk about.  Over the last two year's we've seen a huge gain in popularity in the trading card hobby.  Whether it was people stuck at home during the pandemic rekindling their passion for a hobby, new people finding the hobby, or people realizing just how lucrative it can be to sell and resell sport cards to make a buck for better or worse the last couple years has seen a huge shift in the hobby landscape with hints of the 90s boom.

Let's talk about what's been happening.

1. Retail trading cards become the hot new thing.  It wasn't that long ago I can remember reports that retail outlets like Walmart and Target were considering not stocking sports cards anymore because they weren't selling.  And let's be honest in the hobby retail product was a joke if you were looking for high end hits.  But retail was also a nice cheap alternative to pricy hobby boxes and packs if you were a set builder.  Now we've got fist fights breaking out in stores and Target actually halting sales of the products due to safety concerns.  People were camping out in front of stores waiting for restocks and then clearing out shelves.  Stores started putting limits on the number of boxes you could buy at one time and moved cards behind counters and registers.  Then of course a lot of this product ended up on the secondary market on eBay and being sold on Twitter accounts and the like at huge mark ups.  I personally was lucky I was able to find enough Topps Baseball to put most of my base sets together, but even up here in Alaska the shelves were usually bare.  

2. Card grading companies got swamped!!  I'm not a guy who sends in cards to get graded, but I can respect and understand those that do and the value of having a supposedly impartial 3nd party service grade a card to establish and then preserve condition.  But wow I think even the grading card companies were a little surprised by just what happened.  And I'm talking mainly about the big three, Beckett (BGS), PSA, and SGC. The companies at one time had to halt submissions and then jacked prices up to a point that it really limited what was worth send in to get graded.  Not all of these companies reacted the same, but all got blindsided with an unprecedented amount of demand while trying to tackle pandemic restrictions and dealing with employee safety.  

3. COMC.  Oh COMC.  I'm sure if you're reading this blog you know what and how COMC does what they do.  And the unique service COMC offers to the hobby can be seen by just how many growing pains the company has bumbled and stumbled their way through and survived. The first real challenge came after COMC and Beckett parted ways.  COMC had a deal with Beckett for use of their checklists for listing purposes, but COMC also used Becketts pricing information for help inform both sellers and buyers what their cards were worth.  It was kind of a golden time for the hobby because you could see the Beckett value for cards without having to pay for the service.  This is likely why the two parted ways year's ago.  But that led to a scramble for COMC to not only produce it's own checklists, but to document that production. And they did that through it's crowd sourced challenges.  This led to a long wait time for processing.  The second big hiccup I can remember is the first time COMC upgrade facilities.  Both processing and shipping times got pretty extreme, but not terrible.  But the latest hurdle that COMC had to overcome, and looks like they finally have, was the pandemic. Which saw a perfect storm for the company that was trying to move to another larger facility, coupled with operating in an area of the country with some of the most strict pandemic lock down orders, while dealing with an unprecedent surge in card submissions, sales, and shipping requests.  I made the mistake of placing an order in Jan of 2021, it took 8 months for my cards to ship!

4.  And finally the newest and biggest elephant in the room.  Fanatics.  I think we (the hobby, the royal I) and probably Topps, were really blindsided when the MLB, MLBPA, and Fanatics announced their exclusive trading card deal.  And then shortly after announcing they had acquired rights to the NFLPA and NBA and NBAPA.  I don't think anybody was that surprised with Fanatic announced it had bought Topps' trading card business.  It seemed pretty obvious that Fanatics would acquire one of the trading card companies.  In 2009, it was a big shock to see Panini, a little sticker company from Italy, scoop up the exclusive NBA license.  At least they had some experience with sports cards and stickers, but it wasn't that surprising when they bought Donruss.  And in buying Donruss Panini gained instant US brand recognition and arguably one of the deepest brand catalogues in the hobby.  So Fanatics, with no trading card experience would likely have to acquire one of the big three remaining companies.   I had joked that Upper Deck should be their goal and then they would have licenses for all 4 US major sports leagues. But Topps seemed like the obvious and likely choice.  

Since the MLB announcement there have been lots of uncertainty with what was going to happen in the hobby.  I'm not saying I'm happy that Topps will continue their baseball exclusivity into the foreseeable future, but I have happy that I'll get to put my Topps flagship set together and I am looking forward to Topps flagship football again.  What will happen to Panini and Upper Deck with this new juggernaut of Fanatics/Topps?  Who knows?  I'm a little anxious, but also very excited for the what might happen in the trading card arena.  And if it all goes to hell we still have over 100 years of vintage cards to fall back on.