Topps Week 13 Rookie Redemption Predictions or nonpredictions

As I sit here wondering who could be Topps' week 13 pick, one name jumps out but every time I think there going to give it to who I pick this week. Well I would pick Chris Ivory who is honored this week with a eTopps card.

You can bet this card is shiny.

Unfortunately Mr. Ivory was Topps Week 6 pick.

So I'm going to tell you who is not going to get a Rookie Redemption card.

The unfortunate Dez Bryant who just had surgery to repair his fractured fibula.  Although he did have 1 catch for 14 yards and if this weeks uncarded rookies were that bad he might get one yet.  But he's out for the rest of the year so...

Tim Tebow doesn't have a card yet either but he didn't see any action this week so that would be lame to give it to him.  It makes me wonder though when the Broncs might give him a chance, as Orton really hasn't been doing a whole lot.  I was reading an article in this months Tuff Stuff with a story and interview with Tebow and the story is all about how waiting is the hardest part and with Orton revitalizing the team?  This article must have been written in week 4 before they went on there current slide.  Revitalizing the team with 3 wins I think there would be plenty of fans in Denver aching to see what the rookie could do.  Although to be fair Orton is in the top 10 ranked QB's right now, but he is #10. 

Sorry, Sorry. 

So this week I have no guess but I will continue my updates when the player is announced. 

My wrapper redemptions come in.

Well I had a few bubble mailers in the mail box this Friday and one of them is that distinctive Topps Fulfillment envelope, but different.  And inside was a slim foil pack.  My wrapper redemption pack had arrived and unfortunatly it didn't have green varations or auto's or Jason Heward, Buster Posey, or Stephen Strasburg.

My 3 refractor variants were.....

Lou Gehrig, Carlos Santana, and Mike Stanton.

And the backs.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this exact same pack posted around the blogotopia, so it looks like there is no collation in the packs.

Nice and shiny though.

cb out.

Hey Topps, Panini, and Upper Deck I have an Idea!!!!!

So I'm sitting there putting my Score Hockey set together and I'm thinking I need to make a nice label for the card box.  I've actually taken the time and made a template in Word to label my boxes.  But it got me to thinking that not too long ago one of the cool extras Topps and Fleer use to put in there hobby boxes was a box label. 

Now I understand that lots of people like to put their sets in 9 pocket pages and binders for easy display and that's cool.  I just don't have the room for that.  And I understand that adding the box labels to hobby boxes is an additional cost for the company but there is another way around that.   Why not include an option on their websites with box labels that you could print off?? Other than the fact that Topps and Upper Deck would actually have to keep their websites up to date it seems a nice customer benefit.

Randomness in the Great White North

Well it's been a few days, I've been busy learning all sorts of cool jedi mind tricks to use on my subordinates next summer when I have subordinates.  I had to take a 2 day training course on being a supervisor, even though I've been supervising field technician for the last 4 years.  I think my boss just wants me to have to do all the evaluations.

Anyways I've said I was going to tone down my box buying for while since I'm buying a house but with Black Friday and tradenights come great deals and I couldn't pass up picking up a few cheap, and when I say cheap I mean cheap, boxes.

First I picked up a box of 2010 T 206 for about 40 bucks a few weeks back.  Nothing specatular.  Here's what I got.

A Troy Glaus Jersey.

And a Chris Coghlan Auto. What I like about Topps T 206 auto's is that they're on card, what I dislike about them is there so tiny.

I also got a bunch of the hat variations ext.  Like a said pretty meh. But I've been trying slowly to finish the set and I got quite a few of the cards I needed out of this box.  I've got tons of extras if anyone else is trying too.

So I went to Bosco's on Black Thursday and then on Wednesday this week for trade night and they had some killer deals.  It was 10% off everything including super low marked down boxes.  So I picked up another box of Score Hockey and actually pulled a SSP Rookie Auto redemption card for Derek Stapan.  Sweet.  But again no snowglobe.  They must be rarer than 1 per box.  I couldn't find any odds anywhere and I threw away all my wrappers so if someone knows share.

I wasn't going to buy anymore Topps Football or Baseball Update but for 30 bucks a box it was hard to pass up.

I really would rather buy jumbo boxes of this stuff just because you get beter hits, but like I said cheap is cheap and I was jonesing for some redemption cards.

My one hit from the football box was this nice but ordinary Kellen Winslow jersey

But all my Gridiron Giveaways were 70's cardboard exept for 1.

I did a little bit better with my box of update.

A nice Jonathan Broxton jersey

A Boston American variation card #220

and this little guy...

Where is Strassmania when I need you!!!!????!!! Yep that's a gold parallel #661 card.

Anyways I've decided to gamble and start stock piling Strasburgs in the event he comes back and is a super stud.  And I got some nice 50's cards in the million card giveaway.

I also dabbled and bought a couple of packs of Unrivaled.  Just to try something new. 

Here's what they look like.  Actually these are 3 parallel cards I got.  There must be a parallel in every pack because I got one in every pack I opened.  There are 2 gold parallel cards #d to 759 and one silver #d to 999.  Another Tony Pike Rookie to add to the stack of toliet paper. 

I like the look of theses cards I really do

And I really like the look of this card

Look at the patch.  Look at the sig.  Nice. #d to 249.

Too bad it's a guy who isn't even playing in the NFL right now.

Poor Charles was drafted in the 6th round by the Eagles and then traded away to the Giants where he didn't make the team.  And this is one of those event worn jerseys not game worn.

Whew that was a long post and I probably could have broken it down a bit but what ever.  I'm going to take the dog for a walk and catch snowflakes on my tongue.  The blizzard of 2010 has started in Anchorage Alaska!!

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.

Thank you San Diego Defense

Wow I'm still recovering from Thursday.  I'm so glad I took Friday off.  Since I'm 5000 miles from my nearest family, I know some of you are like, you so lucky, I had Thanksgiving dinner with about 15 close friends and didn't have to cook anything.  The only think I had to do was run into the liquor store and pick up a treasure chest of Pabst.  You know I guess that's not true I have a cousin stationed up in Fairbanks in the Army but I'll be damned if I'm driving up to Fairbanks this time of year.  If you've never felt -30 degrees F consider yourself lucky.  It's really cold.  That being said I had a great morning and afternoon of football. 

Fast forward to Sunday.  The pack loses to the Falcons, the Bears and Vikings win.  Grrrr.  But on a lighter note I did squeek out a win in my fantasy league.  It came down to Sunday night football.  All my players were done and to be honest it was a pretty lackluster performance all the way around.  Brees really didn't have a very good game.  So my opponent still had his QB, Philip Rivers, and his kicker, Vinitari.  Lets just say I was praying for Indy to score TD's and Rivers to get knocked out early, but the gods smiled on me with San Diego's defense scoring the majority of its points and Indy didn't get a single field goal!!  Plus the 30 point cushion helped but I still didn't win by much.

And I only went to the baseball card shop on black Friday.  I didn't plan on buying too much but they were having awesome deals and on top of the deals you got an additional 10% off so.  I bought the last box of Score hockey and I wasn't going to buy anymore update but for 36 bucks a box I couldn't pass it up and it was an alright box.  The score hockey pissed me off as I didn't get a snowglobe again.  I got 2 sudden death cards.  Why can't I get 2 snowglobe cards?  I'm assuming that the snowglobes are the rarest inserts, well behind the autos.  So I've bought 4 boxes and still am far from completing the set.  I will post a needs list soon and I have tons of extras.  Tons!!  I was kinda hoping to pull another SSP rookie but that didn't happen either.

bugger well better get to work.