Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy

oh boy I hope we score!!!!

Ah man this week has drug on and on.  I'm glad it was a short one.  That being said.  It's almost time for some football.  Only 3 more weeks of it.  3 games that really mean anything.  Does anyone even care about the Pro Bowl?  I get why they moved it.  I guess it gives us something to watch for that week before the Superbowl.  I mean it's nice and all, but that means if anyone who made it to the Pro Bowl is on a Superbowl team they won't be there so it kinda makes it slightly less of a spectacle. 

That being said I think I've come up with a sweet bonus prize for Almost the Easiest Superbowl Contest on the Web.  I'll post it tomorrow or Sunday after the games.  That being said just a reminder there are only 5 people still in the running for the contest.  As long as the Jets don't win someone will probably win out right right now.  Nobody picked the Jets to even make it so they could be the spoiler and if that happens well we'll have to see. 

Out of the 5 still in it we have 3 teams that have opponents still in it and 2 that have winners but not losers.  Like I said if the Jets make it in it could be a spoiler but that just means we go to the score.  See that's why I had you pick all that stupid stuff and why this wasn't the easiest Super Bowl contest on the Web.

Here are the 5.

Adam E: STEELERS over Bears 17-6

Mark: PACKERS over Patriots 24-17
mike: BEARS over Steelers 20-14
Colby (Flywheels): STEELERS over Falcons 24-17
Kev2380: BEARS over Patriots 24-20

And a reminder of what your all playing for....

I keep getting Late Notifications from Topps about shipping these cards.  I think we are up to week 4 now that they are behind now.  I'll assume that they're printing all these at once, and I'll hope that they start sending them out before the expiration date.  And as I look over at my counter I notice that we are getting dangerously close to 10,000 hits.  yeaaaaaaaa.  And I've hit 50 followers and I'm at about 218 posts so that means I'm due for a celebratory contest of one or all of these great blogging milestones.  I'm sure it will involve cards, and random acts of drunkenness, and possibly bacon.  No promises on the cards though.

Alright dudes and dudettes I better get back to work.

Who doesn't love free Stuff?? Why I know you like free stuff!!

This is way late and I'm doing this to get mine as well.  Anyways over at Section 36 he's giving away free cards. But only has the Reds and Angels left.  No stars but lots of filler.  Check it out.  If you want'em.

2010 Patches and Plates Pre-Release Review

If you haven't gandered at the released photos of Panini's latest upcoming release Plates and Patches well you haven't been reading the blogroll.  Panini released a large number of photos of cards and then Beckett proceeded to laud it with reckless abandon. 

Here's my take with some card images borrowed from the Panini site.

 , oh double MEH.

Sorry for 150 bucks a pack I just don't see it.  First off Plates and Patches was already an Insert in the 2010 Gridiron Gear.  So now are we just taking our Inserts and making them their own set?  That and I just don't see anything all that new here.

I'm not saying these are terrible cards there not, its just more of the same, and 150 bucks for sticker autos seems like a rip off even for 4 sticker autos.  The cards I do like are these...

Here is Suh's Rookie Blitz card, man he looks angry.  I think he's going to be a force to be reckoned with next year. I'm going to assume these are base cards?  I don't know.  After looking through the released images and sell sheet there might be some cards I'd go after on the secondary market but I don't see any reason to shell out $150 bucks for a pack of cards.  Now I realize you get a lot of bling for the 150 in each pack.

Here's the break down. 

Eight cards per pack/box featuring


- One Autographed Prime Memorabilia Rookie Card

- Two Additional Autographs #'d to 999 or less

- One other Autograph or Memorabilia

- Two Commons

- One Parallel

- One Insert

So 4 autos is nice but they all look like some kind of sticker auto, or presigned inserted auto.  Look closely at the Tate up there.  I mean who doesn't like a patch card with multi-color and stitching.  Now if Panini would like to send me a box to review up close and personal I wouldn't be opposed to that, but I'll save my money and buy two Jumbos of Series 1 Baseball when it comes out next month.
 
Looking down the pipeline there's not much lower end football coming out anytime soon.  Playoff Contenders, at about 5 bucks a pack is the last one on the horizon I see for a while.  Maybe I will have to put a Magic set together after all. 
 
I will give this to Panini, they have by far the most interactive and up to date, well fairly up to date, website of any of the card companies,  their videos on how cards are made, inserts inserted, and the blog posts releasing teaser images are great, even though I might not be drooling, at least they seem to realize it's the fans and customers who matter here.   Panini does lower end cards so well.  I'm talking like Score Football and Hockey, Donruss Hockey. Now just to step it up and add some creativity to your higher end stuff. I sorry I'm sounding like a broken record but when your high end looks like you mid range, that's not right.   And it's kinda sad I like the looks of their base and inserts over their autos and patches in this set.  But that's just my opinion.  If anyone does open some of this and comes across some Packers stuff I'll trade you for it. 
 
cb out

Tueday Musings and FOOTBALL!

Wow what a wild weekend in the NFL.  Surprises continue to throw my contest.. Almost the Easiest Superbowl Contest on the Web in to shambles.  So out of a field of 22 we are down to 5 that have a shot.  3 still have an active team picked as a winner with an active team picked as the losing opponent and 2 have an active team pick with a team eliminated.  But with the Jets still in it and nobody picking the Jets to win or even go to the Superbowl the game is still a foot.  Whew.  What a ride.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled the Pack is still in it, and I'd be lying to say I'm not surprised. 

I was praying that the Seahawks could pull off one more miracle but I'm not surprised by the smack down the Bears put on them.  There was a reason they were 7-9. 

Anyways I was thinking I needed to put something up on my Milwaukee Brewers Blog,  Miles from Miller, since I haven't since I heard they got Zack Greinke and I was digging around in my Brewers stuff and came across some 1971 Topps coins.  Which I blogged about briefly.  But it got me thinking about the experiment that is/was Topps Coins.  So Topps puts out a set in 1964, 1971, and from 1987 to 1990.  It's an interesting and kinda bizarre concept.  The coins look kinda like milk caps.  Of course milk caps were way before my time, but they did inspire another craze, pogs.  Remember those?  Ung. 

The point being I was thinking of things Topps, or hell, any of the other card companies could do to invigorate there product lines.  We all releases, except the very bottom echelon (ie Score, Opening Day), we expect guaranteed hits, but jersey cards are over, autos are mostly cheap mass signed stickers of guys who probably won't have a career very long, and there just isn't that much else.  For as much grief as I hear over Topps' manufactured hat patch and bat barrel cards, I have to say at least it's something different. 

I was thinking why not bring back the Topps Coin.  No not in its own set.  We don't need that.  But how about a card with the coin embedded into the card, like the mini autos from T206 were inside the bigger card.  Hell maybe even have some cool different metal parallels, even a gold 1/1 parallel could be possible.  Maybe even have buy back coins inserted into the mix as well.  It seems with the retro theme products being the majority of what Topps puts out this would be right up their alley. 



I've seen links to Topps Series 2 sell sheets already around the blogoteria.  Looks like more of the same as Series 1, with a few little differences.  The Manufactured Glove cards are back in this series too.  I kinda expected they would be but maybe with a different color leather.  Seeing as last year they had hat patches in Series 1 and 2 and then mixed it up with bat barrels in Update.  So I'm interested to see if they mix it up with this years Update.  My money is on manufactured ball with stitching cards like sweet spot had, just not autographed. 

What do you guys think?  What would you want to see?  What don't you want to see? 

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

Man the trash talk is getting deep.

Have you guys seen this yet?  It made me chuckle a little. 

I saw this over at the Shutdown corner by my least favorite sports reporter, but this is kinda funny.  Chase points out that they didn't do anything to vilify Brady and that they should have made him Chewy.  Really?  Chewy.  I mean I get it. His long hair, but Chewy was a good guy why would the New York Post want to portray Tom Brady as a good guy? They wouldn't. A commenter suggested they missed the mark and should have had Brady as Darth Vader and Belichick as the emperor. I actually thing they shoulda made Mangold Chewy instead of an Ewok god that's demoralizing. 

Whatever.  I firmly believe the Pats are going to kick the living snot outta the Jets just like in regular season.  Only the Jets seem to think by making it more personal it's going to help them.  Whatever again.  I mean it ain't over till it's over and anything can happen, I'm just not looking forward to all the trash talk if they win.  I have no love for either team, but I think it'll be a fun game to watch.  GO Pack!!

cb out.

Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web Almost Time for Round 2

Wow this was a slow week.  It drug on by.  Luckily I've got a Beer Festival in my immediate future and my game isn't on till 4pm tomorrow night my time so I've got time to sleep off the hangover.  But before I go out and forget you all for the weekend I figure I should put the standings up one more time since they are slowly getting moved down the blog list. 

Here are the Ins and Outs going into Round 2 the Divisional Playoffs.

 (now with color coding)

In It to Win It
Adam E: STEELERS over Bears 17-6
cubsfan731: PATRIOTS over Falcons 23-14
Captain Canuck: PATRIOTS over Falcons 42-31
Mark: PACKERS over Patriots 24-17
Fuji: PATRIOTS over Packers 24-17
seemahn: FALCONS over Patriots 28-24
Community Gum: PATRIOTS over Falcons 31-17
Offy: PATRIOTS over the Falcons 31-14
Kev2380: BEARS over Patriots 24-20
Milwaukee Southpaw: FALCONS over Steelers 27-24
Colby (Flywheels): STEELERS over Falcons 24-17
Wicked Ortega: RAVENS over Patriots 21-17
mike: BEARS over Steelers 20-14
steve: PATRIOTS over Packers 24-17

14, just 14 make it to round two with possible match-ups. Now to be honest there are still people that picked a team still in it but picked an opponent that is not. So those still technically in it and if lets say the Patriots play the Seahawks everybody who picked the Pats are still in it ect.



The Wild Cards

Play at the Plate: PATRIOTS over Eagles 38-21
Steve D: PATRIOTS over Saints 35-27
dayf: FALCONS over Colts 30-28





And lastly we have those that have fallen, but like I keep saying there will be a bonus prize which everybody who entered will be in the running for... What is it? I still don't know.



The Fallen:

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

Yeah I just cut and pasted it for the earlier post but it's going to be really lonely if we have any major upsets this weekend.  Hmmm nobody picked the Jets either.  Seahawks/Jets in the Superbowl.  I really hope not.  No offense to any Seahawks or Jets fans out there but you all know I want my Packers in there.  We'll see who I'm rooting for come Monday. 

Have a good weekend everybody.