Happy debut to Jacob Turner

Before I get on with today's post, I thought I'd note that this is my 200th post since I began this blog late last August.  Everybody likes nice round numbers like that, and it's a milestone I'm happy to have reached.

Now, onto things that deserve more celebration.  Jacob Turner, Detroit's #1 prospect (two years running!) made his Major League debut this afternoon against the Angels of Los Angeles/Anaheim, California.  It was great to see a kid just a couple years removed from high school pitch his first Major League game, at home, no less.

What a Jacob Turner may look like

Turner showed a great deal of poise throughout his 5 1/3 innings, striking out six while giving up only three hits and walks each.  Leyland felt compelled to remove him mainly because of his increasing pitch count (ultimately 96) and the fact that he walked his final batter.  Old Jim has always been stuck in his NL ways and today was no exception as his pitcher knocked in the winning run thanks to his decision to put in Phil Coke, who was really responsible for the loss with which Turner was tagged.  There's no way to sugar coat it:  Coke sucked ass today, and as usual I prayed for the day when the only team Leyland was managing has online drafts and weekly roster move limits (not that he'd even know how to use a computer, much less a relief pitcher).

Leyland rant aside, Turner was a bright spot today.  While he won't be with the team again for a while yet (this was just a spot start), he brought some positive attention to the team and really showed flashes of talent and maturity for a pitcher his age.  One of the funnier moments was Fox's interview with Turner's dad, whom they pointed out was the source of Jacob's calm demeanor.  Considering Mr. Turner sounded as excited as Joe Buck calling the All-Star game, I'm sure they're right.

While it's not officially the trade deadline yet, I'm relieved that it doesn't appear the Tigers will be swindled out of Turner and will get to enjoy Baseball America's current #11 overall prospect for a few years, at least.  The fact that they were even considering it in terms of picking up a guy like Ubaldo Jimenez scares me.  I might have said the same thing a few years ago about trading Andrew Miller in the Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis deal, but I had fewer misgivings then because I knew what Cabrera was capable of, so the fact that Miller has done absolutely nothing doesn't affect my view of that deal.  Turner, however, really does look like a future front-line starter, and I'm leery of how well a pitcher will do moving up to the American League.  (As it turns out, as I was writing this, it appears Jimenez was sent to Cleveland, one of Detroit's AL Central rivals)  Hats off to Turner on a great start, and now, a big preliminary thumbs down to Detroit's front office on another potentially disappointing trade with Seattle.

The previous trade I'm alluding to is obviously not the one in which Detroit received Carlos Guillen, but the one in which we sent Luke French and Mauricio Robles for an obviously downward-trending Jarrod Washburn, who did squat for Detroit and then didn't sign with another team the following year because he was done.  Robles looks like he has legitimate talent, and that trade was a waste, just terrible.

The Tigers admittedly needed rotation help (you mean Brad Penny wasn't the answer?) and I do give credit to Dave Dumbrowski (very original of me) for working towards that.  Still, they gave up waaaaaaaay too much for Doug Fister and David Pauley.  No, I don't really mind the departures of Casper Wells (now what am I gonna do with this?) and Charlie Furbush, but besides those two guys, we're losing a very good 3B prospect in Francisco Martinez (Detroit's #4 prospect)

AND apparently a player to be named later, rumored to be one of last year's top-three picks.  While I seriously doubt it wasn't top pick Nick Castellanos (also a 3B), that means it's either Chance Ruffin or Drew Smyly, both of whom are pitchers.  WHY?!  Goddammit, Dumbrowski, stop trading all of our good prospects for nothing.  Remember Jair Jurrjens?  You probably don't because you shipped him out of here for Edgar Renteria's non-AL-hitting ass.  And it's not like we're sitting pretty at the 3B position right now--Inge literally forgot how to hit, Betemit is only a stop-gap, Don Kelly has positional A.D.D., and you don't want to be putting all your eggs in the Castellanos basket when he's this young.  This is just another questionable front office move this year, with another big one being the Scott Sizemore swindling trade by Oakland.

Listen, I want to see Detroit win first and foremost, and I understand that sometimes you've got to deal your prospects for big league team help, I really don't feel like we got much better here for what we gave up, and frankly I can't wait for a new regime change in Detroit when we fail to make the playoffs yet again this year in a very weak AL Central.  Fortunately, while I still have to wait less than a day to make it official, it looks like the bright future of Jacob Turner will be enjoyed by Detroit's fans, not another team's, for the near future.  Here's to many more Turner starts, maybe even as soon as next year!

Thorzul to the rescue

After I bought a bunch of blasters of 2008 UD Heroes baseball (here and here) I was left with a ton of doubles and a fairly substantial wantlist.  Then, in a seemingly unrelated development, I was checking out Thorzul's wantlists and noticed that he needed a 2010 Topps Update Vintage Legends of Nolan Ryan that I had.  I offered it up, gratis, along with a bunch of his beloved Brewers since I figured he's always good for a trade package, plus I like seeing people complete sets.

Baseball card karma (cardma?) smiled upon me today when he returned the favor with almost 50 cards I needed for my Heroes set, knocking the wantlist down from something depressing to something way more manageable:  7 8 17 77 101 109 115 118 119 120 135 138 139 188 189.  Yep, I'm now down to 15 cards, which I can probably do before long on Sportlots the next time I get the urge to finish up a pile of sets.


Here's a few highlights of what Bill sent me from this spiffy looking set:

Here we've got a great new Ripken (although I have a jersey version); a great Verlander celebrating what was at the time his only no-hitter; three Brewers, which I thought I'd note since it's kind of funny getting Milwaukee players back from Thorzul; a pair of Cardinal all-time greats; and a pair of multi-player cards, which are my favorites in the set:  Yaz/Fisk/Boggs ("A Trio of Red Sox Greats") and Jeter/Griffey/Ripken/Ichiro ("A Quartet of Outstanding Team Leaders") which might be the best quad card in the set.

And here are the duos:  Mattingly/Boggs, who were rivals for quite a while (and "A Pair of American League Batting Leaders"); Eddie Murray and Prince Fielder ("A Pair of First Base Sluggers"), a comparison that's kind of stretching it a bit considering how vastly different their styles are (also, another Brewer from Thorzul); Steve Carlton/Johan Santana ("A Pair of Strikeout Southpaws"), a combo that's not bad but a bit iffy; and finally, Bob Gibson/Jake Peavy ("A Pair of Intimidating Strikeout Artists"), one of the more egregious comparisons in my opinion, not even taking into account Peavy's performance since this card was made.  For all my complaints I still like seeing these multi-player cards, and the trios and quads are definitely my favorites.


I really appreciate the help getting work done on another set, so hats off to Thorzul for another great trade, and a big thanks too!

Tenets of Wilson in the House (get it?)

So more than a month ago, Matt from Tenets of Wilson saw my post about my so-so 2010 Topps Update baseball hobby box.  That turned out to be a good thing because he had a little something I like to call "every single card I needed to finish the set," which was 53 cards and therefore not exactly chopped liver.  He forwarded me on to his wantlists to facilitate a trade, which wasn't exactly difficult seeing as how he needed a few hundred 2008 Topps, and I just happened to have a staggering quantity of those from my previous box escapes.  Today, that very trade package came, and I present to you the highlights:

(Note:  they actually have top edges, I just did a crappy job scanning)
OMFG it's a Strasburg RC I'm rich!  I quit my job and have already put a down payment on a yacht because this card is literally gold and oh, right, he got hurt and his name isn't Bryce Harper.  Yeah, that's the infamous Strasburg #661 from the flagship base, the card that got put up on the mega crap giveaway first and then eventually inserted into Update packs to nerf the card (that's probably the only time you'll see that term on my blog--I don't even play MMORPGs).  The second Strasburg is one of like 50 in the set, but at least it isn't the "Merry Strasmas" version, right?  Highlight #3 is a sweet looking AJax rookie debut card, which I like very much.

So considering my collation in that box, plus my happiness over finishing something, I'm thrilled to have another set in the books.  But that's not all Matt sent me--he also pulled a few nice Tigers cards that'll bolster my PC:

Another great scanning job, well done!  I like the mix of players here, even the Santiago since I like numbered parallels of teams and players I collect.  The Cobb Vintage Legends is definitely my favorite because I need more of him.  The Hank/Davis card gets the usual "WTF, Topps?" award for the package.  The back of the card says they're both Jewish and have the same build but don't bat from the same side.  So apart from the minor inconvenience of statistics, this is another obvious comparison that Topps knew collectors would love (I'd better watch it--jj, the MojoBeard's new resident troll/poet laureate/dribble-hater may accuse me of unfair criticism of Topps) and therefore had to produce.  In all seriousness, another Greenberg is great to have.  Finally, I've held onto a bunch of those hologram discs like the Tigers logo up there, but I don't think I actually had a Detroit one left, so that was actually pretty cool to get as well.

All in all, a pretty nice package that earns an easy A for finishing one of my sets and allowing me to get some use out of my own set-fillers.  Head on over to Matt's blog and do some trading with him yourself when you get the chance.  Thanks, Matt!

You didn't ask, but...: backing up your stuff

Has the above ever happened to you?  Probably not, unless you're prone to staging videos where you blow up your computer on purpose.  But you've probably had a computer take a dump on you (or know someone who has) and know how harrowing it is, worrying about recovering all your important stuff.  If you haven't, you're either extremely lucky or don't need to be reading this post, which somewhat relates to cards.

Because of a couple incidents I've heard about this year, most recently Dimwit's unfortunate power surge (which may or may not have looked like the above, as pieces of any potential witness are still making their way back to the ground), which fortunately had a fairly happy ending, I wanted to take a minute to make use of my experiences from my day job to try to help other bloggers prevent this kind of thing from happening to them (hopefully in the least condescending, least douchey way possible).  So, to begin:  you probably have a lot of stuff on your computer--pictures, music, videos, important documents, that kind of thing.  Please stop reading this post for a moment and

BACK YOUR STUFF UP!  FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY BACK IT UP OR YOU WILL LOSE IT AND ROBOTS WILL COME TO STEAL YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS!

With that humorous bit out of the way, I want to stress that it's extremely easy to lose your files, and it can be very, very costly trying to recover them.  I'm talking of thousands of times the cost of keeping them backed up.

IT'S MY MONEY AND I NEED IT FOR CARDS!

I have a lot of the aforementioned stuff on my main desktop, and I'm most interested in preserving my buttload of music and my Kardashian-assload of pictures.  Where that relates to you with respect to this here blog is that you probably have a lot of scans sitting on your hard drive, just waiting to get lost because a squirrel decided to dine on some grade A power line.  However, my advice applies to anything you need to keep.  I mainly want to boil this down to a few key points (and keep in mind, this is by no means a comprehensive guide):

1.  Back stuff up in multiple places whenever possible.  Yes, it means more work for you and sometimes you have to worry about having differing copies of the same stuff, but it's a good way of covering your ass.  I've seen a good number of external hard drives die, USB keys go missing, and laptops get stolen, so having only one backup is not really good enough.

2.  Backing up stuff is probably cheaper than you think.  Granted, if you're using physical media like internal/external hard drives or USB keys or paying for premium online services, there are some costs involved, but generally you have some very cheap, and often free, options:

	Pros	Cons
External hard drives:  This is the route to go with if your biggest concern is large capacity, so start here for your whole music and picture collections and videos.  If you don't go the retail route, first of all, congratulations for being smart, and second, go with Newegg or I'll shun you so fast you'll think I'm Dwight Schrute.	·         Fairly portable ·         Large capacity for the money ·         Should work on just about any computer you connect them to	·         Expensive compared to other options ·         Sometimes require carrying several cables (including power) ·         Only one copy ·         Physical media can break down over time
USB keys:  These guys are physically much smaller than hard drives, but of course they don’t hold as much either, plus they’re easier to lose because of that (you know you’ve put one through the laundry before, admit it).  Still, they’re fairly cheap and are good for backing up small collections of stuff and for use as a secondary backup.   Plus, you probably got one in your cereal box this morning—they’re all over the place.	·         Pretty cheap ·         Very portable ·         Should work on just about any computer you connect them to ·         Ubiquitous	·         Not as much capacity ·         Very easy to lose ·         Can still wear out over time (although they generally last for a very, very long time) ·         Did I mention they’re easy to lose?
Dropbox:  (I’m not going into SugarSync, which I’ve also heard good things about, because I haven’t personally used it, but it’s a reasonable option)  If you haven’t heard of DropBox, it’s basically your best online backup solution.  The way it works is that you install the program on each of your computers, and it creates a folder on your hard drive.  Anything you put in that folder gets synced over the internet to every other computer on which you’ve installed DropBox.  Also, you can get to your files from any computer through a web page (which isn’t as pretty but works well in a pinch).	·         Basic version is free ·         Free version gives you 2GB—plenty for saving your most important stuff, but you can buy more ·         Possible to share individual files/folders to anybody ·         Accessible from anywhere you can get internet, even if you’re not on your own machine, even works with your phone ·         Save whatever types of stuff you want ·         When used correctly, essentially automatically backs up your stuff ·         Nothing physical to blow up or lose	·         If you want more space you’ll have to pay ·         Requires internet access if you want everything synced ·         Your data is sitting somewhere else and could disappear if something happens to the company (robots tired of stealing prescriptions target cloud computing?)
Picasa Web Albums:  Picasa is a free Google program that manages your pictures.  You can sort them, tag them, edit them, that kind of thing.  You can also set it up to automatically upload your pictures to albums on the internet, which means they’re pretty much backed up.	·         Automatically back up pictures ·         Again, nothing physical to lose ·         Access pictures from anywhere ·         Helps manage large collections of pictures ·         Works very well with BlogSpot ·         If you need more space than the large amount Google gives you, you can buy more	·         Requires a network connection for syncing ·         Pictures only

3.  My recommendations:  I take a three-pronged approach.

• Hard drives:  My main backups include all my major media and documents.  This includes about 20 GB worth of MP3s, tons of pictures, some DVD rips (of my own movies that I legally bought, MPAA) and a good accumulation of years of documents.  I use Microsoft's SyncToy (free) to schedule backups from my desktop's hard drive to another internal hard drive that's connected via a SATA hard drive dock (like-a so, which is cheap as hell) so it's easy to pop other drives in and out, which is exactly what I do.  Remember how I said one backup wasn't enough?
  I do frequent backups to one drive, then maybe once or twice a month do a backup to another drive that I store outside of my house, so it's safe in case the MPAA comes to burn down my house while taking a break from stealing children's candy and kicking puppies (because I said the words "Steelers" and "movie" in the same sentence and it came out to "I steal movies on a regular basis for fun and profit" when they tapped my phone).
  With SyncToy all you do is create pairs of folders (one on each drive) and then tell it how you want them to be synced, which is something that can be scheduled (or you can manually do it by clicking one button).
  This is a lot of data and I think this is a great way of backing it up, however, should you prefer the USB hard drive route, that's fine, but I still recommend two of them.
• DropBox:  I've stuck with the free version because I'm cheap, so I don't have space to put every single thing on here.  Still, I store all of my important documents and some pictures, and I still have space leftover to use for sharing pictures, music and movies out to my other computers (such as at work) or my friends.  That's my recommendation:  configure DropBox to store its folder on your local hard drive in a place you know you'll use, then work directly from that folder so you don't have to manually back stuff up.  The next time you log in to one of your other computers where you've installed DropBox, it'll grab all your changes until its in sync too.  
• Picasa/Picasa Web Albums:  I wasn't using these when I first started my blog and now I'm kind of kicking myself for not knowing about the latter.  Here's my process when I throw scans up on my blog, which sounds kind of complicated but isn't too difficult and makes backups brainless:
• Scan/edit/save pictures onto hard drive
• Open Picasa, which is already monitoring all my picture folders so they get imported whenever I open it
• Title and tag all pictures, which means they're easier to search for in Picasa and online
• Once they're in Picasa, they automatically upload to my Web Albums (which I configured in the application; they don't do this by default, so don't worry about other people seeing...you know...THOSE pictures).  You can then make them public or private, which is nice
• Whenever I need to throw any of those pictures into a post, I use the picture button, then choose "From Picasa Web Albums" and grab whatever I need
• If I want to use a picture that's not in one of my albums but that I previously used in a different post, I can use the "From this blog" option
• I can also link directly to a picture in one of my albums instead of inserting it in the post

          So here you can see how all of my blog-related pictures are always accessible and backed-up.  That,  plus it's really easy to throw pics onto a blog post at a moment's notice.

I hope that was informative (and non-douchey) for at least some of you and that y'all start backing up your stuff if you weren't before; while your blog stuff isn't life or death (and your other personal data and media aren't either) it can be really stressful and costly trying to get it back, if it's even possible at all, and if it isn't, you'll lose a ton of time trying to recreate or reacquire everything you can even remotely remember you had.  Please feel free to send questions about this (or other computer troubleshooting-type things) my way and I'll be happy to try to help.

Update:  I'm bumping this up from Ryan's comment because it has some great additional information relevant to the above stuff:

You mention Picasa for photos. I do a similar thing, uploading them as I scan them and then drawing from the scans as I write the posts. I just don't do the label thing, and I just use the web interface. I used to use the software and will probably go back to it whenever I finally start tagging all my photos.

Google allows 1GB for photos with Picasa, and due to my high-quality scan-intensive posts, I'm 75% full already. But an additional 20GB is something like $5 per year.

I use Google Docs for my card lists, partly for backup purposes, and partly because of ease-of-access. But Google Docs also accepts photos and videos. You get an additional 1GB for Google Docs, but you can purchase more space (at the same rates as above, and it can be shared between services) at the same rate. I'm very happy with Google Docs for my card files, and I did a quick video test - Google owns YouTube and the format is exactly the same. It's certainly a viable option for online storage.

I keep a small army of external hard drives to manage my files at home, and I fully agree it's very important to back up often to at least two locations, hopefully one of them not at your home. What if your house burns down or floods or someone steals your laptop? Especially if you keep track of your collection and/or belongings in digital format, having an up-to-date copy for insurance reasons is crucial. 

Personal collection rookies: unfunny caption edition

Previously:
Part 1
Part 2

This third part of the series will likely be the finale, at least until I pile up a bunch more significant baseball RCs.  In this group you'll find a few more of my favorites that I had just lying around (again, not part of sets I'm building, or they're doubles, or whatever) but also, as promised, a bunch from sets I've completed or am working on.  As with the last post, the overall quality and significance of these dwindles a bit compared to #1 because that one pretty much featured my best stuff--mostly Hall-of-Famers and big time stars.  There's a couple like that in here, but mostly you'll get to see stars of the 80s and 90s, as that's a time period from which I own many sets.  Also, to mix things up a bit, I threw in some (un)funny captions.  Onwards!

I'm gonna carry this whole set, just watch

Albert Pujols 2001 Topps Traded:  I'm still proud of myself for building this set before it skyrocketed.  I love the look of the 2001s, and while most of the rookies from the set are uninspiring, this card alone makes it worth having.

Fine, I'll share this set with Ichiro, but I'll still be the best player in it

Albert Pujols 2001 Upper Deck:  This is a great looking card from a pretty nice set, but it's one of those that bugs me because it's so glossy that the cards always stick together in the set box they're in, and it's not like they're even crammed in there.  You'll see Pujols' co-star from this set in a bit.

Andy + Roger = BFF 4eva!

Andy Pettitte 1993 Bowman:  I'm no Pettitte fan but I respect the guy as an excellent pitcher and rare non-douchey Yankee.  Also, besides Jeter he's really the only other significant rookie in this set.

This hat looks stupid but at least my head fits in it

Barry Bonds 1987 Donruss:  As before, you don't like me and I definitely don't like you, so let's get this over with.

Sure you don't want me to pose in front of a section that has more people in it?  Ok, whatever...

Barry Larkin 1987 Donruss:  I finally thought to include one of my favorite Wolverine MLBers here, which is good since 1987 is pretty well represented (and that's leaving out guys like Palmeiro and Bo Jackson, not to mention others).

Why do I have woodgrainvision right now?

Barry Larkin 1987 Topps:  Seriously, that was a pretty nice crop of rookies that year.  Can you believe next year will be 25 years since this set was made?  No matter how much the population explodes by then, there'll still be enough of these cards around for every person to have two sets each.

"I'm goofier."  "Well I'M more injury-prone."

Barry Zito/Ben Sheets 2000 Topps:  I already covered the Chrome version, so I thought this time I would throw in the non-Chrome version this time.  One of the better recent multi-player RCs, really, in terms of the subjects--a lot of times neither/none of the guys even sniffs AAA.

Is that a cheeseburger I see in the distance?  Man, I hope that's a cheeseburger

CC Sabathia 1999 Bowman's Best:  I wish he wasn't winning games for the Yanks, but in the end I can't argue making as much money as possible to pay for the copious amounts of food you eat every day.

If I come up with a catchy enough nickname maybe they'll stop calling me "Larry"

Chipper Jones 1991 Bowman:  Another good player from this solid set, and realistically he's probably the best, other than maybe Thome.

Hmmm, second base, that looks interesting, maybe I'll try that

Craig Biggio 1989 Donruss:  Here comes the Biggio parade!

I are serious Biggio.  This is serious card.

Craig Biggio 1989 Fleer:  Not 89 Upper Deck, and not an attractive design at all, but how can you go wrong with a Biggio rookie?

Hmmm, catching, that looks interesting, maybe I'll try that

Craig Biggio 1989 Topps:  I couldn't exclude this even though '89 Topps is one of the worst sets ever (pretty much along with any mid-late 80s Topps set).

When I grow up I'm going to be on everybody's fantasy team!

David Ortiz 1997 Fleer:  Yeah, yeah, everybody knows he changed his name and used to play for the Twins.  More importantly, this is from one of the best base sets ever, a rare feat for Fleer.

So, you're just gonna take the two pictures, then?  That's it?

David Ortiz 1997 Ultra:  I don't like it nearly as much as the Fleers, but '97 Ultra has a cool look to it.  He's about the only interesting rookie in the set, though.

Surely I'll be the one to turn this loser franchise around!

David Wright 2002 Bowman:  This set's rookie class used to look impressive but it's dimmed a bit.  There's still plenty of time for Mauer and Wright to get back on track and for Liriano to gain some momentum from his no-no.

Minka Kelly is only 13 right now, but trust me, she's gonna be HOT

Derek Jeter 1993 Bowman:  I'd rather have seen him play for Michigan, but it's obvious he made the right decision, and that's why he's the undisputed king of this set.

I can't wait to pitch for some terrible Mariners teams!

Felix Hernandez 2004 Bowman:  Speaking of Kings, and the best rookies in sets...

Maybe if they clone me we'll win more games...

Felix Hernandez 2004 Topps Chrome Traded:  How long til he's winning games for the Yankees?

SUCCESS!

Felix Hernandez 2004 Topps Traded:  I'm lucky to have a few copies of this non-Chrome version.

They call me "Big Hurt" because that's what I do to people who make fun of the ridiculous logo on my hat

Frank Thomas 1990 Bowman:  Not a big-time RC year anymore (screw you, Juan Gonzalez and Sammy Sosa) but I'd take Thomas anyway.

LOL why am I 20,000 feet in the air?

Frank Thomas 1990 Score:  I've always kind of liked this set for some reason, maybe because of the way it's broken into color groups that look cool when you have the complete set.

This Sidney Crosby mustache doesn't make me look stupid at all...wait, who's Sidney Crosby?

Greg Maddux 1987 Donruss:  Seriously, that's a ridiculous mustache.  I love when the Rated Rookies end up being stars.

::Hilarious, extremely dirty phrase that my American teammates taught me::

Ichiro 2001 Topps:  The best card in a great looking set.  Did you know this is his rookie card?  Because IT'S HIS ROOKIE CARD.  Thanks, Topps.

How much you wanna bet this was a hit?  I get a lot of those.

Ichiro 2001 Upper Deck:  Pujols and Ichiro make one of the greatest 1-2 punches ever in a pretty nice set.

It's a shame I won't be playing for the Red Sox now, they're sure to be way better now that they've got that Larry Andersen guy.

Jeff Bagwell 1991 Upper Deck:  I knew I had at least one other Bagwell RC I could include.  It's not like I wanted to spare you from the ugly-ass old-school Astros unis.

Long Griffey card is looooooooong

Ken Griffey Jr. 1989 Bowman:  I really could have done without the weird sizing they went with, and it's not the prettiest set in the world, but I got a box of these for like $3 and didn't have to spend much to finish the set which, at least, includes this RC.

Wait, this isn't for Upper Deck?  No way in hell I'm smiling.

Ken Griffey Jr. 1989 Fleer:  I think Griffey and I agree on the quality of this set.

Look to my left and stare at something?  You got it, Mr. Photographer.

Mark McGwire 1987 Donruss:  Another Rated Rookie that actually amounted to something, even if it was pretty much home runs and nothing else.

I'm not here to talk about wood-paneled borders.

Mark McGwire 1987 Topps:  Remember that time he hit 49 homers as a rookie?  Man, that was awesome and not sketchy at all!

I hope I win lots of games but get shown the door unceremoniously by my asshole owner!

Mike Mussina 1991 Score:  I had to keep the Moose RCs coming--the guy was one of my favorite 90s pitchers!

Who farted, y'all?

Randy Johnson 1989 Donruss:   And we close with the Randy Johnson RC parade, since I neglected to include him in the prior episodes.  Another Rated Rookie winner.

That's right, when people think Montreal Expos, they'll think Randy Johnson!

Randy Johnson 1989 Fleer:  Man I'm glad he didn't stick with the Expos--with no apologies to Montreal.

You do your thing, I'm gonna look over there.

Randy Johnson 1989 Topps:  Fun fact:  there are more 1989 Topps cards than there are stars in the sky.

I am slightly happy to be part of this landmark set.  What, can't you tell by my mustache?

Randy Johnson 1989 Upper Deck:  One of the last cards I needed to complete my '89 UD set was pretty much the best left (since I already had Griffey).

Great, now I've gotta find something else to blog about.  Please let me know what you thought of this more junk waxy edition of my RC collection (which put the group at over 100!).

Madness? THIS IS BLOWOUT! (and eBay)

Warning:  this is a long post with lots of pictures (some of which are related to the subject matter) and YouTube videos (none of which are), but I know you all love it when I scan in all my Blowout purchases, so enjoy and help make this my new #1 post if you feel like it.

First up, a quick happy 30th to Beardy (yesterday) and happy 25th to SpastikMooss (today)!  You two are simultaneously making me feel old and young, so thanks for that.  That's a cheap segue into one of my favorite Walk Hard scenes, where Dewey suffers through rehab:

Anyway, all the best to two awesome bloggers.

I put Blowout in the title, you read this post:
I just need to quickly point out that there will be zero references to Spartans in this post despite the obvious references to 300.  This is a Michigan Wolverines-centric blog and I will not sully it with images associated with that stupid school to my northwest (unless there are Kirk Gibson cards involved).

That being said, I had quite a week on the interwebz.  Three different transactions led to some nice acquisitions for my various personal collections, so let's get right to it:

Blowout deal #1:  trade bait + Wolverines:
A Blowout seller (who turned out to be awesome and very easy to work with, which happens sometimes) posted a few four-card lots for $20 each.  One had a Braylon Edwards I wanted plus three other trade-worthy cards, so I pounced on it.  The guy wrote me back and said he might be putting more lots up, so I checked his Bucket.

He then demanded it back

Lo and behold, I found another six Michigan football cards I couldn't do without, and a second small Paypal transaction later, they were mine. First, the three trade-bait-type cards:

A 2010 Topps Chrome Ben Tate auto-RC, a 2010 Bowman Sterling Taylor Price jersey-RC and a 2010 Press Pass Dexter McCluster auto.  All of these are available for trade, so make your offers now!

Here's the part of the haul that I most cared about:

Braylon Edwards 2010 Bowman Sterling auto jersey:  My 24th Braylon (which almost makes my top three) happens to be my fifth autograph.  I still remember when I didn't have any of those this year!  I hope he ends up signing with a decent team, preferably with other former Wolverines.  As mentioned, this was the fourth card in the original $20 lot, in case you forgot.

Desmond Howard/Tony Martin 2001 Pacific Vanguard dual jersey:  Des becomes my 49th different Michigan PC player, and I thought it was pretty cool that I started off my collection of him with a jersey of him during his Lions stint.  The seller pointed out that this was double-sided, in case that bothered me, but I could care less who the other player is when I'm getting my first card of Mr. Heisman.

Marlin Jackson 2005 Bowman's Best auto-RC:  Marlin Jackson #8 for me is a sweet looking Bowman's Best autograph.  I loves me some Bowman's Best!  Serial #d 181/599


Marlin Jackson 2005 Press Pass auto:  Maybe I can pass this off as a Michael Jordon.  Anyway, I love the Michigan uni, as usual.

Jake Long 2008 Donruss Threads Rookie Collection jersey:  Oh look:  a green Jake Long Dolphins jersey swatch, I don't have any of those.  Serial #d 365/500 which is probably appropriate since I think I average picking up about one Jake Long hit per day.

Jake Long 2008 SP Rookie Threads Rookie Threads dual jersey:  I'd seen this one a few times but I had yet to pick it up somehow, maybe because it paled in comparison to its more desirable cousin (<Simpsons>Because they're so attractive!</Simpsons>) about which more later.  As you can see, this one is #d 061/125, and using a font that looks blockier than something from an NES game, it notes that Jake is in fact an offensive lineman.

Chris Perry 2004 Upper Deck NFL Legends Future NFL Legends jersey:  My 12th Chris Perry is this relatively simple but still reasonably nice jersey.

By know you want to aggressively kick me into a bottomless pit (don't kill the messenger!) because you're wondering about the title of my post (or maybe you already got it).  Well the Michigan portion of this transaction--all of seven cards--put me exactly at 300 unique Michigan football hits!

Yes, I know it says 301 there, keep reading.  For now, this seems appropriate:

Blowout deal #2:
Following Tim's lead in trying to suss out some Seneca Wallace cards for his crazy-ass PC, and on the heels of local stories about his likely imminent call-up, I let it be known that I was looking for Zach Putnam stuff.  I already had seven cards I liked, but there were definitely more I was interested in, especially his Razor Letterman cards (of which I pulled exactly ZERO out of two cases!) since I had one unnumbered and one /20.  I only got one good reply, but it was a worthwhile offer:  this guy had Putnam's 1-of-1 letter "M".  He wasn't sure how much he wanted for it so we haggled and I looked at his Bucket.

Actually, I use Picasa Web Albums

Wouldn't you know it, he had a Tigers card of a particular player I liked.  I pulled the old combine and save strategy and got a great pair of cards, plus more, which you'll see in a minute:

Because this is a one-of-one, I thought I'd also scan the back as proof:

Pretty slick, right?  I now have a "U", "N" and "M" meaning I need a TAP-a TAP-a TAP-a.

So what was the other nice pickup for me in this deal?  Perhaps you've heard of this guy, a former Tiger and current All-Star starter:

Yep, my first Grandy (non-RC) hit is a doozy--this 2010 Topps Peak Performance jersey/auto, which you can see is numbered 21/50.  I know these are pretty tough to pull because I haven't seen a ton of them for sale (you might remember I pulled a Ryan Howard auto-bat a while back, but still).  We negotiated a fair price for the pair, but when I asked him to come down a couple bucks to make it a nice even price (and just because) he offered to throw in a couple Verlanders:

This one's a 2005 Zenith RC.  I can't say I love the design, but I love the fact that it's a Verlander RC and that's mainly what counts here (plus it was essentially free).  While he was at it, he threw in this gem:

A 2003 USA Baseball jersey of JV--my third jersey of the Tigers' ace and my first of him in a USA uniform.  I'm very happy about this deal which netted me a huge Putnam for my collection (and puts me closer to working on his nameplate, which I might just have to do now) and my first big Granderson hit (which puts me closer to actually living up to my blog's name).

eBay deal:
Yeah, I lifted the embargo (which had more to do with selling anyway considering the way eBay likes to treat sellers like the Gimp from Pulp Fiction) because I had already bought this card TWICE and still hadn't received it.  It really is true that the third time's the charm:

My 28th Jake Long (thanks to the three others I picked up this week) vaults him back into first place and makes him card #301 in the PC.  This is probably the card I've been working the hardest to get since I acquired all my other Michigan letter autos.  I had extremely bad luck trying to nab it twice and not receiving it for whatever reason (coughassholesellerscough) so I wasn't going to let other bidders keep me away from this one--I mean there's only so many in existence, but statistically the incompetence of the USPS couldn't keep one away from me forever.  I ended up paying a bit more than half book plus shipping (another reason I favor Blowout) and today, praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his noodly appendage, it showed up in my mailbox.   To say I'm ecstatic is an understatement right now, seriously.
While I was getting this in a reasonable protector, I thought to pull out my other various Michigan letter autos and snapped a quick picture:

In alphabetical order we have Adrian Arrington, Jason Avant, Leon Hall, Mike Hart, Chad Henne and Jake Long.

I hope to add to this collection in the future, my favorites being the SP Threads that look like they came right off a Wolverines jersey, but any will do--Eric knows where I'm coming from.

Since I've probably used up all of your bandwidth, I'll end here, but I hope you've enjoyed one of my more epic weeks in PC acquisitions.