2008 Donruss GridIron Gear Goodies

So last week I posted the hot pack of 2009 Gridiron Gear I got for cheap off of Ebay.  Not very exciting at all.  I guess I have a soft spot in my heart for Gridiron Gear though.  Last year or now I have to say 2008 I bought a box and then some of Gridiron gear hoping to hit something nice.  Looking at this years stuff it's very similar to last year in relic and auto designs.  I really liked the on jersey pull out autos.  Here's what I got last year from buying Gridiron Gear.
I got my rookies numbered to 250, and other numbered parallel and inserts.  I won't post all that.  I have to say you get quite a bit in a box but here are the main goodies. 

Jamall Charles Rookie Jumbo Jersey numbered to 50.

Next we have a dual relic, what looks like maybe some piece of  pants and football. This is also numbered to 50.

Now the 2 big hits.

Andre Caldwell Rookie Triple Relic Auto.  Also numbered to 50.  I remember pulling this one it was pretty sweet I just wish I was a Bengals fan or that Andre signed better and yep it's a sticker auto.

And finally....

It's a Jerome Simpson Rookie on Pull out on Jersey Auto!! But is off Jerome Simpson.  :( 

Who last year had one catch for 2 yards and guess how many this year?? anybody??

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Still a cool card.

My adventure with Checkout My Cards.

Well if you don't know about Checkoutmycards.com you haven't been reading your blogs.  So since everyone was raving about them I figured I'd give them a shot.  It was super easy to set up an account and since I already had a Paypal account even easier to get store credit.  I placed my order on Thursday the 21st, last week and got my cards today, Tuesday the 26th. It's nice the company is based in Redmond Washington so living up here in the Alaska boonies doesn't really matter, only took 4 business days to get my order, that is outstanding.  

As far a selection goes I'm impressed as well.  I ended up picking up 17 cards for different player collections for about 11 bucks.   Now here's my gripe with COMC.  The shipping is 3 bucks plus a quarter per card.  Unless you buy 50 cards and then it's 15.00 bucks.  So I ended up paying 8 bucks for shipping.  While I was able to get what I wanted I spent almost half my store credit on shipping, but I guess these guys need to make their money somewhere.  While the selection was great and so were the prices this shipping scheme seems to favor buying fewer higher priced cards as not to get your credit eaten up by shipping and handling.
Now onto what I got.

 Got a nice selection on Prince Fielder Refractors, and a rainbow foil and A&G cabnet card.

Also got 3 nice Braun cards for the Brewers collection and 2 cheap Frank Thomas Refractors.

I also added to my Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers collections.  Got a nice Ziploc oddball of Rollie there. As well as a nice mini Goudey and Goodwin and Old Judge insert.  It's nice to find some Robin Younts I needed as well.  The funny thing is that these cards are cheap but actually sometimes hard to find and definatley not worth buying singley off of ebay. 

Will I be back to COMC?  Yes I've already started putting together my next purchase.   Take them for what they are, a nice alternative to ebay.  Plus you don't have to worry about multiple sellers shipping you stuff since they keep all the cards at their warehouse.  Will I give up ebay?  Probably not. 

Until next time.

Favre Blows it Again or how to lose the Fumble Bowl the Brent Favre way.

I'll admit I was rooting for him.  But Brent had to go and Favre it up again!  Must suck when you know the loss wasn't the thousand fumbles your team had but one stupid unnessary throw.  Hell at least he could have done something safe and let Longwell be the villain.

I don't think the Colt/Jets game outcome was a shocker but this game was a fun one to watch.  Well I guess we know that Favre will be coming back next year now.

MVP? I don't think so.

2009 Donruss GridIron Gear Hot Pack

Yep I did it.  I was curious I see these hot packs all over ebay.  And I know how the blogging world hates box searchers and hot packers, but I wanted to see, and to be honest I got the pack super cheap. $3.99 plus shipping so about 7 bucks total.

It was a pack of 2009 Donruss GridIron Gear.  I really liked last years product.  The hits were pretty awesome.  On  card, on Jersey autos that pull out, 4 relic autos, ect. 

I'm not sure if this is a retail pack or hobby.  I know Topps puts a hobby logo on there hobby stuff but I couldn't remember if Donruss(Panini) does it too.  I know the hot packs from Upper Decks retail blasters are seperate from the other packs, so it's possible that this isn't even a box searched pack. 

But I digress.  I actually bought this pack on Dec 14 only got here today.  And the post mark says Jan 20th. 

Grrrrrrrrr.  He got positive feedback only because it was exactly as described. 

Anywho here are the 5 base cards I got in it.

Tony Romo, Josh Morgan, Laurence Maroney, Marques Colston, and Carson Palmer.

And here was the hit.

Roy Williams Player Timelines Jersey.  Can't even tell if it's a Lions or Cowboys Jersey piece, It's numbered to 250.

Not terrible but certainly not great I'm almost inclined to believe this is from a retail box only because the hit was so lame, like Upper Deck Blaster box hits.  I've learned my lesson.  No more hot packs for me and certainlty not from this seller. 

Oh and I love the fact that it says ages 9+ right at the top of the package.

Also did my first order from Checkoutmycards.com since it's been the rave of the blogosphere as of late.  I have to say there is a nice selection on the site but the shipping layout almost favors getting some higher priced cards instead of fillling need lists or filling in player collections.  I'll post what I get when I get it.

Until next time.

2009 Topps Baseball 1/1 Sketch Card of Carlos Delgado Comes In.

Well it only took 8 months and was delayed.  But I finally got my 1/1 Sketch card I redeemed in March.

And looky here it's of Carlos Delgado of the Mets.  Not too shabby.

Looks like it was done with some kind of water color and pencil. 

Here's what the back looks like. 

I looked up the Artist who signs as Justin on Sketch Cards.com and his website.

Justin Chung has been doing sketch cards for Topps since 2005 and his work has been in all sorts of sets.

Until next time.

One bad egg, One rotten apple

So I'm sitting here stewing.  Yep it's a rant, so get ready.  I've been using ebay since about 2002.  I consider myself pretty savy as an internet auction buyer.  I've sold my fair share too.  I know what fair shipping is and what to expect for packaging ect.  I try only to buy from people with over 100 positive feedbacks and if it's a big ticket item I'll go in and check feedback and star rating ect.  This is because I have been burned a few times ordering boxes.  Both time from sellers with over 500 positive feedbacks that all of sudden decide to close shop.  And that is one reason I like paypal.  Cause I got my money back, but it still sucks having to go through it. 

Now what's worse a seller that totally screws you or a seller that is incompetant when selling it blows your mind.  Ok Ok I'm getting to my point.
On Nov 24 I won an auction for a pick lot of 50 2009 Upper Deck baseball cards.  The seller had both series 1 and 2 to choose from but since i'm close to getting series 1 done I figured I'd take a nice chunk out of series 2.  I paid the same day I won and sent my list of cards to the seller.  They sent me an email back to clairify some issues and done and done, right?  I figured cool should get these cards before the first.  Well waited 3 weeks nothing and just as I was about to email the seller they marked it as shipping on Dec 14.  Almost 3 weeks to the day.  I figure cool maybe I'll get the cards before Christmas.  Nope Christmas comes and goes and then New Years.  Damn well now I'm a little pissed.  I paid for first class postage and even living in bumblefuck Alaska mail gets here faster than that.  So I pop off and email asking when and how the package was sent.  I get an email back 3 days later with and I quote "hi u should have got it by now hope it didt get lost in the mail "  Direct copy and paste from the email there.  anyways on Jan 14 I get a package in the mail.  It's my cards.  But what's this the post mark says Jan 2.  Over 2 weeks from the time it was marked as shipping.  The only thing that saved this seller from negative feedback was the cards were in great shape and all there.  I really wanted to pop another email off to them and tell them how pissed I was about having to wait almost 2 months to get my purchase, but I didn't I just wanted to be done with them, So I marked them as not to busness with again and left neutral feedback and a timeline of how slow they were.  Still haven't heard back from them and I better not or they will get a piece of my mind. 

I don't know it just floors me sometimes.  As a seller I always try to get the package out the next day after I get paid and always ship in a bubble mailer, top loaders ect. 

On a lighter note, I've decided like so many other bloggers out there to give Checkoutmycards.com a try.  So far I'm getting a nice selection in my cart but i'm not overly pleased with the shipping break down.  It just seems steep. Especially if your buying cheap cards and a lot of the. 

Anyways,  I'm working on a little side project right now about the history of modern trading card companies.  It's kinda like a family tree of who owns what and were it came from.  If anybody knows some good websites please pass them along.  I've found a ton of stuff and believe it or not it's a pretty convoluted and incestuous topic.  But I'm not done yet so that will be for another time.  

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR  I remain the cynical one.

Is Upper Deck done? Another day of WHY?

Now this got me.  Matt F. over at Heartbreaking Cards posted a link to the NY Post. Which is an article about the whole Upper Deck Yu-Gi-oH debacle.  The thing I got out of it was that this might take Upper Deck down.  I mean no more, kaput, gone, bye-bye, Auf Wiedersien, Ciao. 

I guess it all makes sense now why there are no preview pictures up at Upper Deck's website, and absoluly no news about this at all there either, although I guess that's not that surprising.  But what's going to happen to Upper Decks NFL and NHL licenses??? Will Panini or Topps come and scoop up the carcass up after UD has to pay millions to Kanomi or will some other company emerge? 

My other question is WHY?  Why on God's green earth did Upper Deck do it?  I'm confused as to the motivation and what was to gain from this?

Another question is if this goes to Upper Deck's credibility, what of all there "authentic" game used cards and autos??  Can we still trust an Upper Deck Guarantee?    mmmmmm.  I've seen card companies come and go and get swallowed up by other companies but this is the first time I can remember a card company shooting themselves in the head. 

I wonder how this will all play out.