It's time to start!

First off let me preface this post with this.  I don't hate Topps.  Not one bit.  What I hate is the lack of choice and exclusivity in general.  Second I'm only going to direct this toward baseball cards, not hockey or basketball.

If you read my blog regularly (thank you by the way) you may have notice the countdown I put up on my blog a few years ago.  That's right my "Countdown to the end of Topps Exclusive MLB License" has been sitting over on the sidebar for well over 2 years.  You may also have noticed that we are under 365 days till Topps' 3 year deal ends.  It's been an interesting 3 years under Topps' reign.  I  plan on dissecting it.  I've started going back to some of the original articles from Beckett, SCD, and other news and hobby outlets looking at claims made and how things actually worked out.  I plan on talking to my two LCS's and seeing how the deal has worked out for them.  I plan on writing letters to the Commissioner of Baseball, Bug Selig, and the Exec. VP of Business for Major League Baseball, Tim Brosnon.  Not that they care what I think, but at least there will be some feedback going their way.  It occurred to me way back in '09 that the MLB never bothered to ask us the fans and collectors what we wanted.  I understand from a business standpoint at least for Topps, having almost no competition is a boon, but for us...well I'll talk about that too.

I guess this is the first post of my crusade this year.  Until  MLB decides if Topps gets another multi-year exclusive deal or they let some others in on the fun too.  And while I have no desire to see the hobby go back to the was it was about 10 years ago, with so many products crowding the shelves it was impossible to choose.  I surely think that there is a happy medium compared to now where it seems like there's barely anything on the shelves at all.

So get your torches and pitchforks ready.

cb out.

Topps Gypsy Queen Retail, Hobby or None?

(I know, I know another Gypsy Queen post.)

I was looking forward to this product mainly because I got in on A Cardboard Problems group break.  I didn't do to bad.  I got 2 Prince Fielder Relics, the regular and framed mini, about 10 team sets, 4 paper framed cards, a bunch of minis, one black, and a few inserts. 

The Brewers team set consists of only 8 cards, I'm not sure if there are any SP Brewers cards, but from looking at the checklist I'm going to say no.  

So far I've opened 5 hobby,  10 card packs  and 5 retail rack packs, which consists of 3 retail, 6 card packs, and a bonus 3 card green framed pack and I also bought a  mini hobby bonus box out of a hobby box too.  So first lets do the math.

Just the pack math since I'm not shelling out 120+ bucks for a box of this. 

Hobby packs at both my LCS's are $6.00.

10 cards per pack = .60 per card, mini's, inserts, hits included.

Retail rack pack. Rack packs are $8.99, I've only found them at Target up here in Alaska so far.

3 Retail packs @6 cards per pack + 3 bonus framed card = 21 cards = .42 per card, mini's, inserts, hits, and bonus included.  Even if we take out the 3 bonus cards the per card average is .49, actually it's .499 so we should probably round up and just say .50 per card.  That's pretty pricey either way you look at it but retail offers you a slightly better deal especially when you figure in the 3 bonus cards.

Don't get me wrong I fully support buying cards at your LCS, but another reason to buy this product retail is the latest in Topps quality control fuck ups.  The missing auto.  This makes buying hobby packs even more of a waste of money when you consider that your odds of getting an on card auto went from 1:12 to 1:24.  As a matter of fact there are very few boxes I've seen opened, either on youtube or posted on forums or blogs that didn't have the missing auto.  So why would I blow 6 bucks a pack when the odds of me getting that auto hit doubled?  Now don't get me wrong, there are still some nice hits to be had in Gypsy Queen and the artist patch cards are hobby exclusives.  But Topps also includes some retail exclusives like the Sticky Fingers and Wall Climbers inserts and of course the bonus rack pack green framed cards.  Now the green framed cards aren't numbered like the copper framed ones, and I'm unsure if the copper are hobby only (as I found out they are not, read on).   

Now the 50 SP's in the set.  I just don't get it.  I mean I do, Topps wants to sell more cards and if you have short prints it means you need to open more packs to get them but all Topps really does here is shut out the casual set builder.  Not to mention the price point is awfully high for a casual set builder as well.  I'm glad Topps reduced the set by 100 cards but if they had just eliminated the 50 SP's the extra hundred wouldn't have been so bad and actually would have made for a nice set to build.  Why not add variants in the set.  This gives the completists something to chase and the casual set builder, which I consider myself, a chance at putting a great looking set together.  

Another thing is I don't understand why Topps just didn't lower the cost of the cases.  Again I do understand the main reason, money, or money in hand.  Topps already got there order money so why give it all back.  And it must have worked out to be cheaper to organize and mail out a replacement then just say hey knock 20 bucks off a box.   

So out of the 5 hobby packs I pulled one Auto or rather the one auto out of the box and out of my 5 retail rack packs I pulled one auto, one framed relic, one regular relic and two bronze paper framed cards and I also got 15 green paper framed cards in the bonus.

The Tomlin auto was my hobby hit.  Seems like all the box breaks I see have one of these cards in it.

The Byrd was my first retail hit.  Oddly enough in the same rack pack, I also got these two copper paper framed cards.

My relic hits...

Jayson Werth...

And the Wizard!!! Framed relic.  I really don't understand the need for two relic inserts.  I'm not sure what point they serve having a full sized card relic and then a framed mini relic in the set. 

Here is also a smattering of the Green Framed cards I got in the bonus packs.

Over all I'd have to say this is another Topps product that's better bought retail then hobby.  My reasoning is this, with the missing auto you need to buy full boxes to get the extra auto, the only real advantage with hobby is that packs have more cards so more base cards for the set, and there are a few hobby exclusives like the 1/1 artist patch cards and I think gypsy jewels (although they might not be hobby only), but the odds of hitting one of those is astronomical. The odds alone of hitting a Royal Crown jewels card is 1:6200 or so. That's about 1 in 25 cases With retail, you only get 6 cards per pack, of those one is the mini, at least one insert and most times two inserts, so you only get 3 base cards.  Now if you not interested in putting the set together it's even better.  Plus you get 2 other insert groups and 3 bonus green framed parallel cards. 

So this begs the question in my mind, with Panini and Upper Deck instituting programs aimed at helping LCS's, or at least in there mind trying to help LCS's, it seems Topps is doing the opposite.  Making retail packs the more desirable option, sending customers to Wal-Mart, Target and any other big box store that stocks trading cards. 

Of course you can say F U to Topps and just not buy any of this.  I really hate SP sets, like this and Heritage, and Topps Magic Football.  All great looking cards just a set collector's nightmare. 

Anywho most of these cards I put up on eBay already to help defray the cost of my addiction, but anything I have left over or doesn't sell  I'll offer up for trade later this week, save your Brewers parallels for me.



Cheap Break over at Cardboard Collections!!!

Down on your luck?  No cash for your habit?  Well Colbey over at Cardboard Collections is holding another one of his poor man's group breaks.  For nine bucks for most teams, some are even cheaper, that includes shipping, you get to pick your team, well what's left. He's breaking 3 boxes of fairly cheap but not unattractive boxes.  Well at least one box is cheap, the others maybe not so cheap. I don't know.

A great way to get some players and teams you collect and you might even get lucky and get a hit.

Check it out.

Yo this contest has been pimped.  Got a contest? Want it pimped?  Hell I'm sure I want to enter if it ain't to difficult.  Let me know, drop me a line, leave a comment.  I ain't too proud to pimp another man's contest.

Almost the Easiest Superbowl Contest on the Web Contest Update!!!

WOW!!!

Going into this weekends games I was thinking how much a Packers win and Jets win would totally wipe the standing for the contest.  And boy did it.  I can't believe the Pats went down.  And I sure didn't expect the Packer to rout the Falcons so handledly.  The Steelers/Ravens was another good match up but boy did the Ravens implode after the first half.  And I don't think anyone was surprised by the Bears game.  So here you have it going in to the League Championships we are down to 3 possible winners and 2 wildcards that still have a shot.  With the Pats loss we lose over half the field and wildcards.  But everyone is still in for the consolation prize. 

Still In it to Win it

Adam E: STEELERS over Bears 17-6



Mark: PACKERS over Patriots 24-17

 mike: BEARS over Steelers 20-14



The Wild Cards


Colby (Flywheels): STEELERS over Falcons 24-17




Kev2380: BEARS over Patriots 24-20




The Fallen:
Fuji: PATRIOTS over Packers 24-17


steve: PATRIOTS over Packers 24-17


Community Gum: PATRIOTS over Falcons 31-17


Play at the Plate: PATRIOTS over Eagles 38-21


Steve D: PATRIOTS over Saints 35-27

cubsfan731: PATRIOTS over Falcons 23-14

Captain Canuck: PATRIOTS over Falcons 42-31

Offy: PATRIOTS over the Falcons 31-14

dayf: FALCONS over Colts 30-28

Wicked Ortega: RAVENS over Patriots 21-17

seemahn: FALCONS over Patriots 28-24

Spankee: EAGLES over the Pats 27-24


BA Benny: SAINTS over Pats 38-31


Mariner1: SAINTS over Steelers 27-17


Nathan: COLTS over Saints 24-17


dawgbones: EAGLES over Steelers 27-17

Milwaukee Southpaw: FALCONS over Steelers 27-24

Why do I feel like I'm always the last one to know: Tuff Stuff stops Publication

I know this is probably old news I actually say a blurb on BallCard Mania that led me to an article at Sports Collector's Daily, which let me to find TS O'Connell's Blog the Infield Dirt for some clarification.

Seem Tuff Stuff Sports Collector's Monthly is no more.  Dammit I just sent in my subscription renewal.  Well they haven't cashed the check yet.  But now we're stuck with Beckett and only Beckett.  I use to love the super sized issues of Tuff Stuff with their free promo cards inside.  A few years back I decided to subscribe since I couldn't find it where I was living and for the price it beat subscribing to 4 different Beckett magazines.  That was the time they changed their format to the SCM.  I'm bummed. 

I guess my next question is.. What about the Baseball Card Almanac?  Is that soon to be gone too, and I was so hoping those guys would finally update the Football Cards Almanac as well. 

It's a bummer.  You would think in a world that has card companies putting out so much product that a magazine or magazines would do fairly well trying to keep up with it all.  Look at all the publications that were around in the late 80's and early 90's.  Tuff Stuff, Beckett, Baseball Card Magazine, Legends, ect ect.
But with a shitty economy and every changing card scape with exclusive production and scandals, it doesn't surprise me all that much.  Every magazine put out relies on advertising revenue to run.  Subscription and newsstand sales are moot points.  Plus a printed publication is already 2 month behind in news when it hits the news stands.  It's hard to compete with the internet when putting out timely articles, such as the whole Strasburg Mania. By the time Tuff Stuff had Strasburg on the cover and a feature story he was already out of the year.  And I won't get into the debate over price guide pricing, both for Tuff Stuff and Beckett.  What I hate is when you lose this diversity it seldom comes back. 

Monday morning coming down.

Ah nothing like a little Johnny Cash in the morning.  I haven't had a beer for breakfast in a long time but in college ho boy. 

Anyway, did everyone have a great Christmas?  Mine was pretty cool.  I got a house.  Pretty sweet.  Of course I've been blogging about the move for a few weeks now.  I have to say I'm enjoying home ownership.  I only wish it wasn't -10 outside right now and I might be enjoying it more. It sucks being stuck inside.  My fiance and I took the dog for a walk the other night and we were only outside maybe a half hour and our legs were numb and we were wearing long johns. 

It's taking me longer than I planned on getting the spare room situated. And man do I have a lot of cards and comics.  I've been weeding my way through the boxes decided what I can put out in the shed that the cold weather won't kill.  There's lots on my to do list.  But I have been finding all sorts of cool stuff, nothing scanned yet or photographed but I've found some great blogging fodder. 

Some blog updates.  As you can see I've change the layout of the Crack a little.  I've also been working on my other blog sites as well.  I really like my Rollie fingers layout.  I also got rid of my football counter that was over there and added the Blogger counter.  The football counter was linked to this blog and the Yount and Fingers blog and would count every hit to any site, even all my own hits as I was tweeking and proofing the blog.  So as you can see I've gone from almost 10,000 hits to just over 6,000 on this site.  So celebrating that milestone might be a ways off, however my 200th blog post is still coming up. I do believe I'm about 15 or so away. 

I also discovered the new stats tab.  Tres Kewl.  It lets you see how many hits you get, where they come from, ect ect.  I also finally figured out how to make a stand alone page and listed my Yount list over at the Yount collector.  I've been meaning to do that for while.  It's easier to put up a list of what I have then what I need or want.  I'll get around to going one over at the Fingers Collector too as soon as I get a good inventory.  And I plan on putting up a set needs page here too to help complete some sets that have been sitting around uncompleted for far too long.  And probably a trade bait page as well. 

It's been a slow card month for me.  I've been being good with buying a house and all but I did pick up a few pack the other day.  Mainly to get my week 15 Topps Redemption which was Tim Tebow.  I picked up a pack of Donruss Hockey, UD Black Diamond, Topps Prime, Bowman DPP, and Panini Gridiron gear.  Only missed one sport.  I got a nice dual patch Mark Sanchez Plates and Patches card outta the Gridiron but that was it.  I really wanted to put together a Topps Prime set.  It's just got great looking base cards but I picked up a few rack packs at Target a few weeks back and after comparing the retail and hobby I'd have to go after one or the other.  The hobby cards are twice as thick as the retail base cards.  But the fronts look the same.  No low numbered rookies in the retail though. 

Since I'm rammbing what a great day for the pack, decimating the Giants but wow what a great comeback for the Broncos. They might finish 5-11 this year.  But Tebow was pretty good I have to admit. And I got a great packer hoodie for christmas to wear out to see the game.

The giant G on the front is super stiff right now, it almost feels bulletproof. After wearing 3 days in a row my fiance made me wash it. 

Have a safe and happy New Years.

I have destroyed the world again!

What's this button for...? ooops.

I wanted to post a picture of my new house and how utterly disorganized and cluttered it is right now, but since my camera is on the blink and you can't take a very good photo of a room with a scanner it looks some thing like a mix from the above picture and an episode of Hoarders. 

Needless to say that if we have talked about a trade or if anything is in the works it might be a while.  At least longer than I planned.  That being said I've only been in the house 2 days and I'm working on getting my old apartment cleaned so I can try and get the most $$$ back from my deposit so luckily I  have two 4 day work weeks coming up and no family up here to worry about going over for Christmas or New Years so I might get a little done.  My fiance and I have decided that the house was a gift to both of use from both of us and that's cool I'm still going to get her something nice.  Still need to find a little something for the rest of the family down south and the clock it ticking.  On a brighter note the Packers back up QB looked good and so did most of the Pack right up until they blew it and of course not tackling a 300 pound lineman.  But if the Bears lose tonight we still have a shot.  Barely. 

There are a few contest running around the Blogoteria and the latest I've found is from our good friend the Bacony Collective Troll.  Trolls going to be a grandaddy, can you believe that and he wants you to guess the time he officially gets old. I mean the time the baby is born.

cb out.

Some of my redemptions come in.

I had a nice little mail day yesterday.  I picked up a new Yount and a new Reggie. And I had started to see other postings of the Red Hot Rookies showing up so it wasn't too big of a surprise to see these in my mailbox.  I'm still waiting on my Strasburg which according to the Topps redemption site was shipped with confirmation number and I'm assuming certified.

Well over the course of box buying and pack ripping I picked up 4 redemptions.  Two #5's, Starlin Castro, who had such an unfortunate end to his season and a #6 Logan Morrison.  And I also got a #8 which is Strasburg.

And it wouldn't be 2010 Topps if one of these wasn't damaged.  Take a gander at the middle Castro.  See that little fleck on the upper right hand corner.  No that's not from the top loader that's a nick in the card.

I think I'm going to keep the other 2 for the time being but if anyone would like to trade for the middle one let me know.  You can get it cheap.

Update

Well before I published this post look who wandered into my mailbox.

A Straschrome. I would assume that this and possibly the Heyward and Posey are the  most valuable of the Red Hots.  A quick search of ebay showed these going for about 20 bucks or so already.

Some Monday morning musing...before the work truely beings.

Sorry, I had to post this one again in the #1 position so it would show up as the preview picture on the blogroll.  I really want to collect this set now, but I might have to buy retail to do that so long as the base cards are the same.  I guess I need to go buy a rack pack of Prime.  The only thing that would have made this card better would be a on card auto, as the Big Kahuna pointed out last post. So while I gazed at my new favoritest card two things occurred to me.

First how to display this bad boy.  It's been a few years since the first Book cards have come out I figured BCW or UltraPro would have come out with something by now.  But a quick look at both websites shows nothing.  I had read somewhere about a guy who makes custom screwdown holders for these but there expensive and I was truly hoping that my LCS might have something.  I'll have to inquire this week.

The second thought was trying to image the chain of events that leads a major sports card company to own a player used football, wristband, glove and jersey.  I realize that some stuff is provided to the players at events, like the Rookie Preview and such, but for game-used and game-worn, not the same thing by the way, who sells the stuff?  The team?  The player?  Is there a person on each team that collects all the gear used by a player and packages is up and sends it to Topps, UD, or Panini?  Does Topps have a big box with the players name on it and all the gear they have acquired in it and they just take something out when they want to produce a relic card?  Who does the certifying? 

Anyways I love the fact that there's more than jersey in this card.  I think there isn't enough variation in the marketplace.  One color pieces of jersey are a dime a dozen now a days.  Literally.  You can find jersey cards in the quarter card bin.  I remember pulling a Favre ball card out of some Donruss product years ago and thinking how nice it is not to get a jersey card, although I'd have taken any relic of the Favre back then.  I also remember pulling a Ricky Phoehl Super Bowl used endzone pylon years ago from Stadium Club, though I don't remember the year.  That one I thought was really cool.  It sat in my collection for years and then I decided to sell a bunch of stuff on ebay and figured I'd see if anyone wanted it.  It was my highest selling card that round, though I can't remember the exact amount I know it was higher than 40 bucks so I was stoked.  The point is what to card companies do next?  It use to be the auto or relic was pretty rare in a set and if you got one you were damn lucky, now we expect it, and now we expect more than one and one of those hits better be an auto, so that now autographed cards, sticker or hard signed are almost a dime a dozen and card companies go out of there way to get "future stars"" to sign thousands of sticker autos to be included in a set.  I probably could find most of this years Topps Peak Performance autos in the dollar bin.

One thing I would like to see is the return of rare inserts.  Not parallels or relics but really nice inserts that have a print run of less than 100 or fewer cards.  This is also why I like the Topps logoman program.  If you haven't seen one here's what they look like.

This program is actually spread out through all of Topps sets.  This Yount was in Triple Threads this year but I ended up pulling a Mauer from Finest and it was pretty sweet.  And there all numbered to 50 and you can't get them in any other product.  So you have a card numbered to 50 only available in high end product of current stars and HOFer's nice.  I also like the Manufactured Hat Patch cards and Bats from this years Baseball products.  Again super rare although Topps produced a ton of different cards all the Hat cards were numbered to 99 and so where the base bats, with the bats having a black /50 and super rare 1/1 pink parallels.  Next year there are going to be manufactured glove cards and I suspect that there will be manufactured ball cards next year as well.  Wow this post is getting out of control.  OK enough.

On a side note and if you've read this far down congratulations, you can see by the counter over there that I'm nearing 10,000 views.  Although when I installed that counter it was also linked to my Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers blogs so that's not all for the Crack, I'm sure there's 2 or 3 that are for the others.  And I'm nearing my 200th post.  I missed my 1 year anniversary of the blog that was in October.  Anyway, for the milestone of 10,000 views, regardless of where they came from and/or my 200th post I'll be holding a little contest, or probably card giveaway.  It should work out well with me being situated in my new home, hopefully.

cb out

Great Moogally Googally A Trade with 30 Year Old Cardboard

A few weeks back Brian over at 30 year Old Cardboard had a post where he decided to get rid of his Ryan Braun collection.  I sent him an email with some stuff I thought he would like and all he asked for in return was my Andre Dawson Obak card I had.  He's got a hell of a Andre Dawson collection by the way.  Well I couldn't tell exactly all he had to offer but I felt bad just sending one card so I loaded my bubble mailer up with some Marlin's inserts and extras.  Boy I'm glad I did, I would have felt this trade was way too one sided if I hadn't.  Let's take a gander.

This is just the first batch.  There were 34 Brauns in all. A few doubles but who cares.  Lots of goodness here.  I love the Bowman gold's too.  Plus I got not one but 2 Tribute Brauns one blue #d to 399.  And the UD Portraits insert is one I know I don't have.

I love that X3 from UD X so shiny. 

Thanks Brian I sent out your package on Monday afternoon and it's got a long way to go but I think you should have it by this weekend. 

On a side note.  I was suppose to be closing on a house today but the senior processor who works for AlaskaUSA Mortgage misspelled the word Alaska in my email address at work so I didn't get his important email till this Monday, so I am not closing till next week.  That being said things are being packed and I hope soon unpacked, cards unearthed,  and hopefully more trades to come. 

The NFL chopping block.

Well it looks like Josh McDaniels is the latest in what seems like a lot of NFL Head Coaches this year getting fired.

I've read a few articles about it but I'm curious if what Broncos fans have to say.  And what about Tebow?  What about Orton?  What about a 3-9 team can be done this year? 

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.

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

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.

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

Ah Topps so were dancing again are we?

This card should be in my hands right now.

Redemptions.  Ah the one word you have to hate as a collector.  I opened a few mini boxes of Finest Baseball this year.  I think I did fairly well pulling a Joe Mauer logo man from one box that pretty much paid for both mini boxes.  I also got 2 Red Hot Rookie Redemption cards.  The first one I pulled was #9 Domonic Brown pictured above, the other was #3 Starlin Castro who's rookie season was sadly cut short from bat shrapnel.  Of course when I redeemed it I had no idea who it was going to be and of course the dilemma is whether or not to sell it as an unknown because who knows this might be a Strausberg auto parallel.  But I didn't, I redeemed.  They still have a month till the Castro card is due. 

Yesterday I received this email from Topps.

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
 Topps Finest MLB Rookie Base #9

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.

Consumer that's me.  This is nothing new, as a matter of fact I was expecting this email.  Since every year I've submitted my redemptions, 3 now, I've gotten this e-mail.  But I did receive a card from their fulfillment company the other day, before the email, I thought maybe my red hots had come but it was my 2009 T206 Phil Hughs auto redemption I had gotten from a box I opened not too long ago.  I couldn't pass up $42 bucks a box at blowout for 2009 T206 not while I'm trying to put a set together. 

Here's what the Hughes auto looks like.

Mmmmmmm, Dear Consumer.  Not Customer, not Fan, not lucky redeemer or recipient, no consumer.

It makes me think and this is probably a rant for another day, what would happen if sports cards just went away?  What would happen if I, you, everybody stopped "consuming" sports cards?  Nothing.  Did you know that not one of the sports card companies is a publicly traded company? Not one. Topps use to be but not anymore.  Nope the world would still be turning, I would still be able to afford gas, barely.  I don't think the world would be a better place.  I like sports cards, as a matter of fact I would even say I love them, at least the hobby.   I know that I would have a ton of disposable income I probably should invest.  I'm sure I'd find a way to get rid of it. 

Consumer.  I scoff, I harummf, I chide, and I snear.  Like baseball cards are like a bag of chips to be eaten while watching the playoffs.  I can't build with them, the bank won't take them as payment on my mortgage, they don't keep you warm at night, I can't drive to the store on baseball cards.  They do however take up a lot of space.

One last thing, I love the second to last paragraph telling me that I can ask for substitution of a card of equal Beckett value.  Ah yes the Beckett scale.  So how does Topps know the value of this card when it has yet to be produced and distributed?  Redemption sales?  Before or after the player was announced?  GRRRR Beckett. 

cb out.

I'm feeling hollow.

So i go to my favorite card shop the other day thinking I might buy some of his single Heritage to start filling in holes in my set or maybe buy another box.  When I get there I notice his price has gone up to 90  bucks a box!!  Holy crap.  It's not that much more expensive then the other big card shop in town but wow and blow out has them for 82.  I had sticker shock.   Not because the price was so high, but it was so high for kinda a crapy box of cards.  I'm not saying the set isn't nice, but the inserts and hits aren't all that great.  I did end up buying one box earlier in the month after I bought my blaster for the Cardboard Junkies fantasy league.  I've already put one Topps Series 1 set together and am about 20 to 30 cards shy of another, so I thought maybe I'd give Heritage a try.  The owner of the card shop was totally cool and pointed out if I was just in it for the set I might as well just buy blasters from wally world or target, and he was right.  So I didn't end up buying a box of Heritage, I ended up buying his last sealed box of 206 which was still 90 bucks or so but I did get some nice hits I'll post the break later with pics.

So know we get to the point of my post.  I'm feeling hollow.  I don't know what I want to do.  I'm starting to see the reality of this Topps exclusive MLB deal.  I'm even contemplating trying to put together a UD set of the "illegal card" which are still everywhere.  I'm bored there isn't anything I want to buy, no packs to try, boring.  I don't want to put together a Pro Debut set.  I'm jonesing man!! I guess I can wait for Series 2 to hit next month but man this sucks.  It makes me wonder what the football card landscape will look like this year.   If I had a million dollars I might even try to put a Champs hockey set together.  I really like the looks of these cards but it's the same  problems with Goodwin Champions.  Expensive and not a lot of cards.  Although I do like the mini's.  Especially the oddballs.  Love me them dinosaurs.  Anywho.  My point is I look at this years baseball rack and the cupboard is almost bare.  it was funny looking at the shelf in the card shop and seeing 3 boxes of Heritage left one open for packs, 1 open box of topps series 1 regular and 1 Jumbo and that was it for this year's stuff, he still had some of last years stuff. ung. Well I better get back to work.  Keep up the good work everybody.