Why I love Alaska

I'm a cold weather person.  Being from Northern Wisconsin I can say that.  Maybe that was the draw of moving up to Alaska too.  That and there's oceans here and mountains.  Both of which are in short supply in Wisconsin.  Anyway I was all comfy in bed this morning dreading getting up for work, missing my girlfriend who I haven't seen in about a month now and I get up and look out the window and what to I see.  More snow.  Now you all say but your in Alaska of course there's snow.  Well that's true most of the year but actually most of the snow was gone.  And now we have about 6 more inches to enjoy.  This time of year scares me.  Not because of the snow, I have no problem driving in snow, it's all the other people here who seem to have a problem with it.  And it's been nice here in Anchorage since I moved back about a month ago.  People were getting use to dry iceless roads.  Until today.  In Alaska we're allowed to have studded tires for driving on ice and snow.  While I've managed 12 years up here without them, but I do have 4 wheel drive, most people can't live without their studded tires and then they think they can drive like a bat out of hell.   

I guess what I love about Alaska is that you never know what's going to happen at least weather wise.  That and you could always get eaten by a bear or stomped by a moose. 


Can you tell I had nothing to say today. 

Hey Cardsplitter, I'll look through my Topps extras tonight and I'm definately up for a trade, I think I might even have some extra inserts you need.  I'll email you later.  As for the rest of you Bastages keep up the good work. 

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.

Topps Finest Redemption # 1 is announced.

I see that Sports Card Info beat me too it but screw it I'm going to post anyways.  The Topps Blog just announced the first Topps Finest Redemption it's Jason Heyward.  And guess what some of them are going to be autographed!!  Just like last year with Gordon Beckham and the red hot rookie redemptions 10% will be autographed and Topps points this out with exclaimation points ON CARD!!!!!  Maybe Topps heard our yells, maybe this is the start of something good.

And it looks like the auto version will have a different photo on it too.  Bummer for all those who sold them or not.  I'm debated whether or not to hold on to my #3 redemption or put it on ebay.

And even with Ryan Braun slugging a 3 run homer it looks like my Brewers are going to take a loss in the first game of the series with the Cubs.  I hope this is not a picture of what is to come with this bullpen.  Very disappointing.

Ah my first game of the season. On TV that is. I got to see the Brewers almost get swept by the Cards on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.  I don't get to watch many games of the Brew Crew.  I'm way out of market and too cheap to by the Baseball Ticket.  Seems to me that this season is going to be a repeat of last season.  Awesoe offense, dismal defense with pitching.  I could be wrong but I've already seen Hoffman lose one save outright and almost lose one yesterday.  Luckily Casey at the bat in the bottom of the 9th put them back ahead but they were up by 6 till the 7th and then Pujols started hitting homers.  And 2 run shots at that.  I got so mad I had to go for a short walk to cool down.  Thank god my girlfriend wasn't around to give me shit about it.  Anywho, I'm short on topics and I just read the diatribe by beardy or was it mojo over at the mojo beard blog about the Orioles. 

I really want to take the rest of the day off, seeing as I've been at work a whole hour to watch the Brewers and Cubs play.  Two Brewer games on TV back to back unheard of! It should be a holiday.

Anyways if I get my act together I've got some box breaks to post ect ect.  I'm trying a little experiment with my Topps Finest cards and I've decided to put together a Heritage set, lord knows why.  I guess i need something till Series 2 comes out. 

Remember to support your blogroll!

Cynicalbuddha's Manifesto part 1

My god am I bored.  I've been cutting and pasting information all morning and needed a break.  So my second post in 2 hours.  Remember back at the New Year when everybody was putting out the state of their collection and stating what their goals were or are ect ect.  I remember at the time that I had nothing to say.  I was going to keep my Yount and Rollie Fingers collections going.  My Rollie collection has added some great cards.  My Yount collection has slowed but I know that there are at least 5 new Yount cards in Topps Series 1 alone this year and a whole rainbow in Topps Tribute.  There is no way I can compete for the really rare 1 of 1 Younts in Tribute I just won't drop that much on a card.  Yep I'm cheap, yet I've picked up the red and two printing plates of Rollie Fingers from the set and each card was under 20 bucks.  I'm only missing the regular and the gold and i've got the rainbow and 2 extra rare cards to go with it.  Who know maybe the other printing plates will we up for auction again soon.  I started a modest Frank "Big Hurt" Thomas collection.  I already had a bunch of his cards so I figured  now that he's retired I might try a little harder.

So I've been contemplating my Team or Teams I guess.  Begin from Wisconsin I'm a diehard Packers fan and a modestly fanatic Brewers fan.  It's been a nice couple of year not to be in the dumper and be contenders.  Who knows maybe someday we'll get to relive that cinderella 1982 season that we almost won a World Series.  So I decided since the Brewers have only been around since 1970 and have cards dating back to 1971 I'd try to put together teams sets from at least all the Topps sets.  Knowing that the 1975 and 1978 would be my most expensive with the Yount and Molitor rookies in those sets respectively but seeing as I already have their rookies it's no big deal.  I was just persusing COMC to see what kind of selection they might have and I'm pretty sure I can get decent cards for cheap.  Not cheap shipping mind you, which is still COMC's biggest drawback, although they are cheaper than Topps Million Card It's not Really a Give away since you have to pay for Shipping promotion.

Rambling again, getting hungary.  OK so to rap this up.  I know you don't care but this is good to solidify in writing my goals. I realize why so many bloggers did it earlier this year.

1.  Keep putting together my Yount, Fingers, and Reggie Jackson collections and when possible pick up cool cheap Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson, Ryan Braun, and Prince Fielder cards.

2.  Pick up cool vintage Packer cards for the cheap if possible.

3.  Put together my Breweres team sets from 1971 to Present.

4.  Complete all my Topps sets from when I started collecting in 1987 to present.

5. Start to sell down my inventory in my closet and do some trades if possible.

6.  Start trying to make some custom cards and send out for autographs.  PS if anyone knows a good site with some how to tips leave a comment.

That's it for part 1, hell that might be it altogether if I don't think of anything else.  Alright I'm off to lunch.

Bored at work so I thought I'd waste some precious time with this.

Well I'm sitting here and i've been at work all of an hour and I'm already ready for the weekend.  Been at a workshop learning about culverts and fish passage for most of the week.  Riveting stuff, but seeing as this will be my focus for the next couple years enlighting. 

Anywhoo,  I've been following the Upper Deck death debate through the blogosphere and leaving little turds of comments here and there where I felt I should or could.  It's been on my mind for while.  I've been thinking about this since the Konami incedent.  There seems to be so much fear about what the cardscape will look like if UD goes under.  I personally am not all that worried.  I have a feeling UD will be resurrected or resusitated to some degree.  Lets be honest there are still remenants of old card companies around.  Usually their likeness is bought by a bigger company ect.  Topps did it with Bowman, UD with Fleer and O Pee Chee, Panini with Donruss, look at all the retro sets being produced.

I follow UD on their blog and on facebook.  They give away a lot of stuff kinda like Becketts Free Stuff Fridays.  Now Topps is in on the blogging fun here and giving away stuff.  I actually like that Topps now has a blog.  To be honest I tend to be snippy with UD when they post some crap about how great they are.  And I plan to be snippy with Topps.  Lets face it Topps main website sucks.  It's almost impossible to find any information you're looking for on a set.  There checklists are a job and impossible to use.  And it seems like the site gets update one a quarter.  There doesn't seem to any news anymore about upcoming releases, not that Topps could keep to their release dates anyways.  You'll see I have no sponsors and I never get anything for free.  Not that I wouldn't mind either, but I voice my opinion and I'll always do that.  And you may not agree with me but that's ok.  Some people think that UD is the end all be all of cards,  I disagree.  Now they do put out some nice stuff and do top end really well and I like the fact they are getting back to on card autos.  Do you hear me TOPPS we like on card autos not crappy mass signed stickers. I have to say the one set I really loved this year from UD is it's Champs.  I know retro has been done to death but the cards look great.  To bad the resell I've seen on ebay is pretty poor.  And to be honest the fact that you'd have to buy over 5 boxes just to have a chance at putting together the base set let alone all the auto's relics that are all numbered into the set.  I do like the oddball mini, wonders of the world ect.  I love that stuff.  Unfortunately my biggest disappointment with UD is the Exquisite release.  After watching a ton of box breaks and searching though listings on ebay.  I'm just not impressed.  I'm mean there are some nice cards in the set don't get me wrong but it's just not that original.  And the cheapest box i've seen is just over 500 bucks, here in Anchorage the card shop that carries it was selling it at 600 bucks a pop.  Just don't see the value in the product. 

See this is what happens when i don't blog in a week I get all this stuff pent up and it all comes out in one long rambling post.  Anywho love to hear any comments.  Congrat to JayBee on getting over 300 blogs on the blogroll. 

I also encourage everyone to check out the UD and Topps blogs and give them a peace of your mind or your accolades.  I think that these blogs offer real time feedback to the companies and they could use it.  Maybe we can get Topps to start using on card autos, at least in there high end products.  I've got a few project posts in the works I've just been lazy and I need to do some research. 

Until next time keep up the good work.

2010 Heritage Blaster Break and Cardboard Junkie Fantasy Team Picks

For those of you who have had your heads in the sand Dayf is having a little fantasy contest over at Cardboard Junkie.  The rules are all on the link there.  Anyways the basic rules were to get a blaster of 2010 Heritage, rip it, document your break,and put a team together from the cards, no inserts!

So here is my blaster break  Sorry for the crappy photos but my scanner is still packed up and 700 miles away so here we go pack by pack.

Pack 1

Ichiro new age performers

#240 Elvis Andrus

119 Royals bashers

413 Andrew Mille

348 Julio Borbon

84 Garret Anderson

129 Ian Desmond

350 Scott Podsednik

Pack 2

116 Jerry Hairston Jr.

175 Scott Rolen

316 Kevin Youkilis

181 Paul Maholm

247 Casey Blake

53 Jason Varitek

126 Garrett Jones

49 NL Strikeout League Leaders

Pack 3

463Topps News Mark Teixeira

365 JJ Hardy

369 Josh Johnson

81 Dustin Richardson

395 Tommy Hanson

246 Johnny Damon

357 Vernon Wells

241 Joakim Soria

Pack 4

1NF  News Flashback Peace Corps

60 Asdrubal Cabrera

141 Kosuke Fukudome

7 Chicago White Sox Team Card

201 Beasts of the East

338 Ryan Zimmerman

6 Ronald Belisario

390 Matt LaPorta

Pack 5

358 Skip Schumaker

259 Jose Reyes

270 Vin Mazzaro

340 Magglio Ordonez

186 Denard Span

268 ChrisYoung

242 Chase Headley

303 james Shields

Pack 6

C96 David Wright Chrome

412 Joe Saunders

229 Carlos Carrasco

328 Joe Nathan

 423 checklist

402 Sisler Baseball Thrills

315 Brandon Webb

422 Dioner Navarro

pack 7

44 AL Home Run Leaders

251 jarrod Washburn

295 RIck Ankiel

170 Alex Rios

317 Brent Dlugach

425 Marcus Thames

362 Brandon Allen

245 Ryan Howard

Pack 8

364 Todd Helton

56 Jake Peavy

123 Nick Punto

208 Jorge Cantu

148 Chris Getz

393 Ryan Braun

418 Jim Thome

302 Adrian Beltre

Over all a nice blaster with some great players.  So here's my lineup

I only had 2 catchers so that's easy

Jason Varitek - Catcher

Dioner Navarro - Catcher

JJ Hardy - Shortstop

Ryan Howard - 1st base

Nick Punto - 2nd base

Ryan Zimmerman - 3rd base

Kosuke Fukudome - Outfield

Johnny Damon - Outfield

Ryan Braun- Outfield

Kevin Youkilis- Corner Infielder

Jose Reyes- Middler Infielder

Matt LaPorta - Outfielder

Garrett Jones - Utility

Jarrod Washburn- Pitcher

Jake Peavy- Pitcher

Joe Saunders - Pitcher

James Shields - Pitcher

Josh Johnson - Pitcher

Paul Maholm - Pitcher

Tommy Hanson - Pitcher

Not to terrible of a team..  And yes the Howard was in the blaster people.  This is the first heritage I've bought.  My card shop ran out before I could buy a hobby box but now that I have a decent wad I might have to buy a box when he gets more in.  My pitching is a little weak as is some of my infield but I got a nice lot of outfielders and 1st basemen.    There you go Dayf.  Sign me up