More contest reminders and GO BLUE!

Georgia Mindset group break reminder:
You know the drill:  2010 Bowman Chrome case break, get in...

Georgia Mindset contest reminder:


Do that too.

Another great free Topps Chrome box contest:

Make sure to direct your internets to Cardboard Connection's own 2010 Topps Chrome free box contest (and please mention I sent ya if you think of it--if you win and say I referred you I get loot, which means I'll give you something in return).  All you need to do is subscribe through one or two different methods to win, so go for it!

Bye week's over, GO BLUE!

Free stuff contest that isn't mine

So I've mentioned about 100 times so far that Georgia Mindset is doing a 2010 Bowman Chrome group break (which, get in, man).

Well, now he's trying to bribe everyone over to his fine establishment, which I heartily endorse (both his blog and the bribery).  Mr. Manglona is offering a free box of 2010 Topps Chrome to a random person who 1)  Follows his excellent blog, 2)  Posts a link to the contest on their own and 3)  Lets him know they did so in the comments on this post.

Appropriate (and in some cases yoinked) images to make this post look less boring:

Yoink

Call Mr. Bribe, that's my name, that name again is Mr. Bribe!  (Does this make Georgia Mindset the Bribe King?)

So make sure you take part in both of these awesome events, again, over at

Georgia Mindset's House of Chicken and Waffles

TODAY!
TODAY!
TODAY!
until
SUNDAY!
SUNDAY!
SUNDAY!

Cards all week: day 4

My group break reminder:
Looks like this'll go down, I'm just going to work on pricing in the next few days and then I'll officially solicit team buyers for my upcoming break, details here.

Georgia Mindset group break reminder:
Get in, get in, get in!

My Cal Ripken-like streak of receiving cards continues:
I've been dying to get this card since I snagged it from eBay the other day:

This baby is a 2008 SP Rookie Lettermen patch/autograph of Chad Henne.  I'd seen a number of auctions of these representing some former Michigan players, but never had enough luck to snap one up.  Then this one came up and I didn't let it go.  I'd have to say it's probably my new favorite Michigan card in my PC and I'm extremely excited to have such a nice patch/autograph (on a Michigan jersey patch, not a Miami one, no less!).  Woohoo!

ANNNNND THEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNN:
This afternoon I received my much-anticipated Georgia Mindset Topps Chrome/Triple Threads group break loot (marking my fourth straight day of finding cards in my mailbox this week).  Reminder:  I had the Orioles and Tigers.
Almost all the Orioles are heading Beardy's way in a trade package, and the biggest "hit" was a Brian Roberts Refractor, so I won't bother with scans of those.
However, the Tigers treated me very, VERY well.  It looks like I ended up with the equivalent of one team set (or thereabouts; I got nine different Tigers and I don't think we missed anybody), 8/9 of a second (missing Sizemore, and likely headed to I Don't Know...Third Base!) and some more besides, including a total of FOUR Boesch RCs.  The spoils:

(Likely) team set

Verlander T-206

Sizemore RC auto

Boesch Blue Refractor RC auto

I'd have to say based on all that that I cleaned up.  Thanks again to AJ for running a sweet-ass break.  If you haven't done a group break or you're on the fence, I highly recommend it, especially if we're talking about a product you wouldn't want to overpay for because you don't really want to collect the set (or it's financially irresponsible, such as Topps Chrome) but just want to get a team set and some hits.  Try it!

Mail day streak continues...

More Blowout, more Wolverines:

While looking over a 2010 Topps football box break on BlowoutCards' forums last week I found a guy who was bemoaning the quality of one of his "hits"--a Steve Breaston Peak Performance jersey.  I asked if he had any help for my base wantlist, and as it turned out he had roughly half, so I went ahead and bought everything for a pretty reasonable price (that's been my experience with Blowout's forums in general, which is cool).  The payoff:

Not bad at all, for the small price I paid--and more importantly it's not a boring old white swatch.  Oddly enough it's only my third Breaston hit, and my first relic of him.  Others are in the PC.

On a related note, this now puts my 2010 Topps football base wantlist at the following:  32 57 75 85 97 101 110 139 142 147 251 351 360 362 395 403 423.  Please help if you can--I'd love to knock this baby out before the year is over.

That's not nearly enough for a daily post, so group break news #1:

I'm still drumming up interest for my potential (ie probably going to happen) 2007-2009 SAGE football break.  See this post for deets.

Group break news #2 (not me edition):

Group breaker extraordinaire Georgia Mindset is at it again with a new break featuring a case of 2010 Bowman Chrome.  His previous Topps Chrome/TTT break is the only one I've ever done but I was very pleased with the results and highly recommend AJ's breaks.  I'm keeping my dibs on the Tigers (and may be tag teaming with Beardy on the Orioles to hedge my bets against a huge Ripken pull this time) but many teams are still up for grabs, so get in!

Around the Blogroll:

• APTBNL hit it fairly big in a 2010 Topps Chrome baseball hobby pack 
• BA Benny opened a 2010 Score football pack, and it was about as meh as my experience with them, but it's still a decent set
• Night Owl wishes death upon the Giants.  Fine by me--I've got no rooting interest in them and the Rangers are a nice story anyway.  And Lincecum REALLY needs to cut the mullet
• Crinkly Wrappers celebrates being married by posting a small wantlist
• Mojo gets his Chrome football on before getting his pretzel on
• Thorzul did another group break and did pretty well:  part 1 and part 2
• "'O No!" got a couple crappy blasters of UD Icons, making me glad I've been staying away from UD like the plague the last few years
• All About Cards wants you to pay it forward...for CARDS (awesome idea)
• Waxaholic finds the 1,000,000th Topps quality control issue of the year, which means he wins the prize:  some several bent Topps Chrome cards (for which he'll have to contact Topps since some of them went missing)
• GSNHOF was as happy with his "I Don't Know...Third Base!" loot as I was.  What's even cooler is that he pretty much mirrored my sentiments, saying that he got the card he wanted the most.  This just emphasizes the excellent quality of stuff involved in that contest which was, I'd like to remind y'all, FREE
• Play at the Plate is having a World Series contest--still time to enter, so go for it

Another nice mail day

Group break update:
Just to remind everyone, because it's my blog and I can, please check out the updated potential group break info here.

Cool mail Tuesday, part 1:
Some of you readers might remember that I Don't Know...3rd Base! offered free cards for the low, low price of one comment.  And not crap, either--good stuff!  Check out my spoils:

I'm totally biased, but I think this was the nicest-looking card in the bunch.  He also threw in a few more nice Astros, some of which may get sent Dimwit's way before long.  Make sure to send some love 3rd Base's way, in page hit and card form.  Thanks, fellow Michigander!

Cool mail Tuesday, part 2:
I had some eBay bucks burning a hole in my ePocket, and I had to spend them quick.  While digging around on the Bay recently I found a guy with a ton of set builders listed and found a few that I needed, so I snatched them all up with the aforementioned bucks.  A quick look:

From top:  2002 Topps, 1995 Topps, 1999 Stadium Club, 2002 Donruss, 2005 Topps, 2001 Topps Archives

Why am I excited about these?  Check this out:

• 1995 Topps Piazza/Stanley:  completes my Series I set (still trying to acquire Series II, hint hint)
• 1999 Stadium Club Maddux:  leaves me needing just #141 (Chad Moeller SP RC)
• 2001 Topps Archives Musial:  completes my set
• 2002 Donruss Jeter:  completes my set
• 2002 Topps #s 338 & 339:  completes my set
• 2005 Topps Walker/Pujols:  completes my Series I set (yep, still need a full Series II from this one too, help me out!)

Thanks to all those, you'll see a lot fewer sets in the Five or Fewer Club to your right.  That's right, I'm finally getting around to closing the book on some of those sets that have been on my wantlist forever.  Yay, capitalism!

Happy mail Monday!

But first...
Reminder:  I'm trying to get a group break started, so check out the post below.  Now back to your regularly scheduled blogging that I sometimes get to on Mondays...

In today's mail, #1:

You might remember Emerald City Diamond Gems' post last week featuring this thing, but in case you didn't, he offered a sweet Orioles 1983 World Series patch (an actual patch, not a card) and I stepped up to yoink it from probably more deserving Orioles fans, because 1) that's the year I was born and 2) it's the year Cal won the MVP and his only Series, the last one Baltimore has even been involved in.  Here it is in all its patchy glory:

This is a very cool addition to my collection and much appreciated.  Thanks again, Larry!  While I'm at it, best of luck on your newest blog venture.

In today's mail, #2:

As mentioned ad nauseum here, I've started trading and buying stuff through the BlowoutCards forums.  I've made several acquisitions in the last couple weeks, some of which should be showing up soon.  The ones that came today:

Mario Manningham 2008 Leaf Limited Slide Show autograph

Mario Manningham 2008 SP Rookie Edition autograph

A pair of Super Marios for the old personal collection.  This puts me up to six Manningham hits, so maybe it's time to focus on someone else, but who can forget what the man who inspired The New Math (86=1) did to hated Penn State in 2006 (Nittany Lions fans may want to look away; they're probably still worried that Alan Branch is right around the corner):


Good times, good times.  So that's it for today, but more acquisitions to come soon, so keep an eye out for those.

Group break idea (for real this time...maybe)

The other day I put up a long-winded post about doing a possible group break of a jumbo case of 2010 Topps Update baseball.  I eventually took it down when I looked over a large number of breaks on the interwebs and realized that for the price, you pretty much get a bunch of crap.  Don't get me wrong--I'll probably get ahold of the base set at least at some point, but roughly $80 for a box when the base set seems to be going for $20 pretty consistently and the hits don't seem to have any value (woo manufactured bat barrels) just doesn't do it for me.

With that out of the way, another idea I've been kicking around for a bit is this three-box combo over at DACardWorld:  boxes of 2007, 2008 and 2009 Sage Autographed Football.  For about $240, you get three boxes each with 12 hits (hopefully more autographs than jerseys).  A quick look at some of the stuff in each set:

2007 autos and jerseys checklist
2008 autos and jerseys checklist
2009 full checklist

To give you an idea of some of the names that are available:  Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Jamaal Charles, Joe Flacco, Chad Henne, DeSean Jackson, Darren McFadden, Jonathan Stewart, Michael Crabtree, Jeremy Maclin, Rey Maualuga, Knowshon Moreno, Matthew Stafford, etc., etc.

SO, my thought is we could get a group break out of this.  I know I wouldn't be happy if I didn't get 100% of the Michigan cards, so I'd want people to pick teams based on colleges, not the pros.  However, I'd do my best to make things fair by implementing some sort of tiered system so someone that took Ohio State or USC would have to pay more than the one that took Purdue (if at all).  Some teams, like OSU and Florida, fall into the quantity category while others, like Georgia would be deemed "quality" (not many players represented, but you've got Stafford and Moreno).  I'm confident I could make something work that was fair for everyone.

My initial thought is to try to get something like 5-15 total people in this break, and what's nice is with so many teams represented (something like 75 by my count, I believe) there's a lot of flexibility in what teams can be had (other than Michigan, natch); by that I mean that we could work out some combinations of teams that only have a few autographs each to make those teams more attractive.  Hell, we can even go with parts of or entire conferences if we wanted.  Anyway, the more people I could get to participate (keeping in mind having to ship cards to everyone), the cheaper this would be.  I'm hoping to keep the price under $20/person while making sure everyone gets at least something decent, if not a hit (don't forget--36 hits!).

Along those lines I'd implement a couple rules I picked up from Georgia Mindset's last break:
-When a card features more than one player, each person that has a team represented gets one entry per team on the card, which then goes into a randomizer, which determines the winner
-If there are hits for teams that haven't been selected and one or more participants don't get a hit pulled for them, I'd set up a draft that would assure everyone could pick from what was pulled
-Related to that, depending on how many people participate, I could try to make sure that everyone gets as close to an even number of hits or inserts as possible (again, possibly with the draft system)

With all that in mind, please let me know of your interest in the comments below and maybe we can get a fun group break going.  I can promise to ship cards in a timely fashion, I can guarantee I'm not shady thanks to eBay and SCF feedback scores (plus I've traded with many of you), and I can do my best to provide live streaming and YouTube video for everyone.  So what do y'all think?  Lots of hits?  Boxes?  FOOTBAW?

Update 10/25:
Interest so far:
-Paul:  Louisville
-Jeremy:  Oklahoma, Big12, Packers draftees
-Spankee:  Virginia Tech, maybe West Virginia
-Georgia Mindset:  Georgia

2010 Topps Chrome Football Value Packs x5

Sports card lemming that I am, I had to see what was so cool about these 2010 Topps Chrome football value packs, so I grabbed a few today:

Purchased from/price:  Meijer, $4.99 (x5)
Packs/cards:   Three packs / 4 cards each, plus three Orange Refractors (x5)
Set size:  220 cards
Key features:  CHROMIUM TECHNOLOGY, Refractors, 2010 Rookie Class, Refractors, Orange Refractors, Refractors, other colors of Refractors
Key cards:  Too many RCs to list, as usual...

Sample front

Sample back

Pack-by-pack:


Value pack 1:
     Pack 1:  Eric Decker RC, Aaron Hernandez RC, Michael Turner, Jared Allen Refractor
     Pack 2:  Brian Urlacher, Earl Thomas RC, Ray Lewis Reprint, DeAngelo Williams XFractor
     Pack 3:  WAT (see below)
     Orange Refractors:  Joe Flacco, Ndamukong Suh, RC, Rennie Curran RC
 
Value pack 2:
     Pack 1:  Myron Rolle RC, Joey Porter, Mike Iupati RC, Adrian Peterson/Percy Harvin Gridiron Lineage
     Pack 2:  Randy Moss, Everson Griffen RC, Joseph Addai, Marcus Easley RC Refractor
     Pack 3:  Jonathan Crompton RC, Chris Johnson, Ray Lewis, Major Wright RC Refractor
     Orange Refractors:  Chad Ochocinco, Jared Allen, David Reed RC

Value pack 3:
     Pack 1:  Darren Sproles, Nathaniel Allen RC, Peyton Manning Reprint, Pat Angerer RC XFractor
     Pack 2:  Mike Kafka RC, Joe McKnight RC, Ryan Mathews RC Purple Refractor (#279/555), Andre Roberts RC XFractor
     Pack 3:  Chris Cooley, Riley Cooper RC, Damian Williams RC, John Conner RC XFractor
     Orange Refractors:  Jeremy Maclin, Everson Griffen RC, Joseph Addai

Value pack 4:
     Pack 1:  Ray Rice, Golden Tate RC, Dan Marino Reprint, Riley Cooper XFractor RC
     Pack 2:  Frank Gore, Golden Tate RC, Rodger Saffold RC, Jordan Shipley Bowman Chrome Preview
     Pack 3:  Russell Okung, Tom Brady, Vernon Davis, Walter McFadden RC Refractor
     Orange Refractors:  Darryl Sharpton RC, Donald Driver, Ray Lewis

Value pack 5:
     Pack 1:  Dan Williams RC, Jared Allen, David Reed RC, Damian Williams Bowman Chrome Preview
     Pack 2:  Kevin Thomas RC, Dan LeFevour RC, Thomas Jones, Antonio Gates/Jermaine Gresham Gridiron Lineage
     Pack 3:  Kareem Jackson RC, DeSean Jackson, Shonn Greene, Patrick Willis/Rolando McClain Gridiron Lineage
     Orange Refractors:  Matt Ryan, Troy Polamalu


Set completion:  37/220 (17%)
Extras:  1  (Golden Tate RC)
 

Regular inserts

Refractors and XFractors

Orange Refractor highlights and a Purple

Inserts:  
     Refractors:  4:  Walter McFadden RC, Marcus Easley RC, Jared Allen, Major Wright RC (1:3, 5 expected)
     XFractors:  5:  Pat Angerer RC, DeAngelo Williams, Riley Cooper RC, John Conner RC, Andre Roberts RC (1:3, 5 expected)
     Bowman Chrome Previews:  2:  Jordan Shipley, Damian Williams (1:12, 1 expected)
     Reprints:  3:  Dan Marino, Ray Lewis, Peyton Manning (1:6, 2 expected)
     Gridiron Lineage:  3:  Adrian Peterson/Percy Harvin, Antonio Gates/Jermaine Gresham, Patrick Willis/Rolando McClain (1:4, 3-4 expected)
     Purple Refractors:  1:  Ryan Mathews #279/555 (1:10, 1 expected)
     Orange Refractors:  15, all different (see above) (3:pack, 15 expected)

Autographs:  None (none expected)
Relics:  None (none expected)
Best pack:  Value pack 3, pack 2:  Mike Kafka RC, Joe McKnight RC, Ryan Mathews RC Purple Refractor (#279/555), Andre Roberts RC XFractor.  That's two base RCs, a RC XFractor, and what's tied for 2nd best (with Jahvid Best) in the Purple set, a $25 hit.  W00t!
Best card:  The Mathews Purple XFractor
 
Quality control:  4/10  A major failing great for leaving a whole freaking pack out of the Value Pack.  I'm actually working on contacting Topps to get a replacement, but don't hold your breath.  Other than that, no damaged cards, not even the usual Topps Chrome signature bending.
Collation:  9/10  Not gonna give anybody a perfect 10 if I get ANY doubles, but in the grand scheme of things, one doesn't kill me (though oddly enough it came in consecutive packs of one Value Pack).  All inserts came accordingly, except for a Refractor, which I would think would have been in my third pack of the first Value Pack.
Value:  10/10  Screw blasters, these things are great!  I got a ton of base RCs (though I didn't get Best or Suh, as I was hoping, or the big guys like Tebow), some nice inserts, and two pretty big hits in the Orange Suh and Purple Mathews.  Plus you get three Orange Refractors per pack.  They look great, they're actually worth something and the price is reasonable.  What's not to like?
Set design and player selection:  9/10  Where's my Wolverines?!  Seriously, though, I love the base set look, the inserts are reasonable, and the Refractors are as awesome as usual.
Inserts and extras:  9/10  The only insert I didn't like was the Gridiron Lineage as they don't do anything for me.  Everything else looks excellent, and the Orange Refractors are an especially popular part this year.  Way to make the "Value Pack" somewhat valuable, Topps!  Now GIMME MY MISSING PACK!

Overall score:  41/50
Recommendation:  buy
Like many of my reviews, this one falls in the B- range.  However, that's due to me being really pissed off about the missing pack; short of that, I really, really recommend these.  They don't seem to be too difficult to find (I'm looking at YOU, Bowman baseball) and you're sure to pull some fun stuff.  
I'm holding on to the base for now while I figure out if I want to work on the set.  The Tate double, plus all the inserts except for the Mathews and Suh are available at this point (though I may decide to work on the Rookie Reprints as well) so give me a shout if you're interested in anything.

Well, if it could only be one of them why not...

Tom Brady, with an invisible stupid haircut

 

Good news (again), everyone!

Mr. Play At the Plate may have some interest in the following...

So, yeah, about that good news:

To summarize this news in one picture:

Aw hell, why not one more?

YANKEES SUCK! YANKEES SUCK! YANKEES SUCK!

Congrats, Texas, on your first World Series berth!

Wax Pack Relapse has TOO MANY OSTRICHES

I've got nothing new at the moment, so enjoy this:

Wax Pack Relapse blogs about pulling a 2009 UD Mystery Cuts cut autograph.  Ordinarily this would be cause for celebration, but for a hint at who UD saw fit to include in this product:



While I don't want to advocate laughing at this kind of misfortune, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to post "Too Many Ostriches", which probably would have been close to what I named my blog if it had been a Simpsons reference in which I could force a play on words using a current or former Tiger player. To WPR, sorry you got that crap card but congrats on pulling a case hit.

Winner winner chicken dinner

Final score of the not-even-close MNF matchup between the Clash of the Titans (RELEASE THE COLLINS) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (RELEASE THE TURNOVERS):  30-3.

Math portion of this post:  30+3 = 33.

That gives us just two entries to randomize:

4.  Waxaholic:  33
10.  Jeremy, No One's Going to Read This Blog (contest post) (the only one to post the contest on his blog and therefore get a free entry)

Results:

Entering each name in the order I got them

First randomization

Second randomization

Third randomization (not sure what's up with the progressively worse character corruption...)

Your winner:  Waxaholic!  That's right, the person who correctly guessed the score wins, which is pretty cool.  Thanks again to everyone who played, and don't worry, I'll get some other contests going soon so y'all have more chances to win.

Mr. Canuck, please shoot me your address again (email link on the right) since I don't have the emails from our trade conversation anymore, and I'll get those out to you today or tomorrow.

Contest update and Blogroll stuff

Still time to enter:

The contest is now closed to entries; good luck to everyone!  Everybody's guessed a different score, which is cool, but not required.

Unrelated (ie college, SEC) tribute to FOOTBAW:


Blogroll (AKA:  read this stuff):

• APTBNL got a meh pack of '05 UD Pros and Prospects
• BA Benny at least got some nice looking cards from '01 SP Authentic
• Night Owl gets all philosophical--CARD STYLE
• Crinkly Wrappers Scores again
• Kevin over at MojoBeardy argues--wait a minute--FOR sticker autographs?  Nicely done
• Mojo makes a case for 2010 Topps Chrome retail stuff vs. hobby boxes.  Interesting, also nicely done
• "'O" No!!! got some more Ripkens, and that's newsworthy to me
• Emerald City Diamond Gems blogs about baseball's version of Lance Armstrong, I guess?
• Midwest Cardboard also looked at 2010 Topps Chrome football hobby boxes and had mixed results
• My Cardboard Mistress is Burdickin' it.  Don't miss this post, it's awesome
• The Daily Dimwit put up a trade post, and he still wants your Astros
• Great Sports Name HOF is still Bazooka Contestin' it.  GO INDIANS (only time you'll ever hear me say that)

That's it for tonight.  Get those guesses in and send all your prayers and vitamins the Rangers' way, Hulkamaniacs

Yet another contest

So, as promised waaaaaaay back in this post, I got a few doubles and some Black Framed inserts from my blasters of 2008 UD Masterpieces football.  A reminder of what the base and inserts look like:

(Just the Black Frames, not the other SPs)

I have 30 different doubles and those five Black inserts all available as the grand prize for a contest I will describe below.  First, though, the loot includes the following players (and more):  Brett Favre, Doug Flutie, Joe Flacco RC, Chris Johnson RC, Jim Thorpe, John Elway, Eddie Royal RC, Matt Forte RC, Randy Moss and Walter Payton (see the review linked above for a comprehensive look at doubles pulled).

The contest?   Predict how many total points will be scored by Tennessee and Jacksonville in their Monday Night Football game.  I'll take all predictions before the 8:30 EST kickoff (limit one per person).  However, you can get a second bonus entry by linking to this contest on your blog and sending me a notice that you did it, either in the comments or via email.

I'll then put all the correct entries, if any (as well as bonus entries for people who choose that route) into a randomizer and pull a winner, who will win everything listed above (again, not including the three white SPs in the second image).

Sound good?  Have at it, everyone--these are some sweet-ass-looking cards, and the package includes some pretty nice RCs.  All it takes is a few seconds to guess, so COME ON!

UPDATE:  this is for Spankee:



Entries so far:
1.  BA Benny:  51
2.  Dodgerbobble:  42
3.  Spankee:  44
4.  Waxaholic:  33
5.  Play at the Plate:  54
6.  Steven:  38
7.  Lonestarr:  56
8.  smpettyjohn:  52
9.  Jeremy, No One's Going to Read This Blog:  31
10.  Jeremy, No One's Going to Read This Blog (contest post)
11.  PhaLe28:  41
12.  Hackenbush:  45
13.  JohnnyG:  48
14.  Emerald City Diamond Gems:  34
15.  Spastikmooss:  35
16.  Greg Zakwin:  37

New trade package and other loot, plus Michigan game day

Trade package from Night Owl:

So a little while ago I sent Night Owl a trade package and he eventually blogged about it in grand fashion.  Today in my mailbox I received his self-described and self-deprecatingly-described "paltry" response, which wasn't paltry at all.  The goods:

-Wantlist cards I needed from 1994 Topps (one left!), 2000 Upper Deck (a lot left, but he sent me a Dodger!), 2006 Topps (just six left!) and 2007 Topps (one left!).  He also sent me card #391 from 1994 Topps, which would have completed my set if it was for 1995 Topps instead (nice try, buddy!).  Wantlist cards are ALWAYS welcome, no matter how many or few.  Please refer to the good ole wantlist here, as well as the Five or Fewer Club on the right bar down there somewhere on your screen.

-A few misc. Michigan players (football and baseball)

-Some very good current and former Tigers (think Verlander, Kirk Gibson, et al).

A quick look at some of the highlights:

Masterpieces Gibby, Goudy Gibby (with a familiar pic), Cabrera and Porcello shinies, and a couple Topps Gold parallels of former UM pitchers.  NICE!

All in all, a very nice return, and I hope to see more wheeling and dealing with Night Owl in the future.  Thanks again, buddy!

BlowoutCards forums loot

I've mentioned before that I get my vicarious pack-busting kicks by frequenting the BlowoutCards pack break forums, and while checking out a bunch of 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition breaks I finally found someone who'd managed to pull a Ryan Lamarre (Michigan) Collegiate Patches autograph.  People in those forums are often dying to flip stuff they've pulled, so it was really easy to convince the guy to sell me his for a price we were both happy with.  The spoils:

Pretty sweet, no?  Another nice addition to my Michigan personal collection.

Michigan game day

Michigan football looks to rebound from a disappointing loss against hated Michigan State against a tough Iowa defense today.  MGoBlog LiveBlog link here.  And as usual,

 

Them's the breaks and other stuff

Georgia Mindset is the baseball card Rain Main or something

<understatement>As mentioned occasionally on this blog</understatement>, AJ from Georgia Mindset did a group break of six boxes of 2010 Topps Chrome and two 2010 Topps Triple Threads(results aqui).  He put a lot of work into this break and things went great, so throw him a bone and check out his post and YouTube video (I'm stealing a bunch of other content from him, so I'm just linking to it here).

Anyway, I got in for the Tigers and Orioles, and to my somewhat surprise I did pretty well.  My biggest hits:

Scottie "Too Hottie" Sizemore base autograph:  after seeing him play this year I'm not so sure he's the future at second base (gimme Polanco back, plz), but this is a sweet card to have nonetheless

Brennan Boesch Blue Refractor autograph: 

Bart, your sister looks like Blossom! (and there's the requisite Simpsons reference, carry on)

as far as my break was concerned, this was the hit of the day.  I'd come pretty close to snagging a Boesch sig or two recently but held off for whatever reason, so this was a nice surprise

Other break stuff coming to me:
I don't recall seeing many, if any, Tigers and O's in the Triple Threads, but I probably got about 1-2 team sets each in Chrome (including the base rookies) and a Verlander Chicle or T206 or whatever, so some pretty nice results.

Again, big ups to AJ, whose breaks I will continue to participate in due to his sick pulls (oh what, you didn't see this bad boy from Triple Threads?).  Next up is 2010 Bowman Chrome, which I believe he'll also be tying to a couple more Triple Threads boxes.  Don't get left out in the cold this time--his prices are reasonable and his M.O. is more than fair--note that those who missed out on hits got put into a draft where they got to choose something nice, plus one lucky participant even got 24 wrappers to send back to Topps for their "No, YOU throw this crap out, Topps" promotion.  Georgia Mindset:  great box breaker, or GREATEST box breaker?

I knew I'd get to use my "Topps is dumb" tag again and again...

Dear Topps,
Thank you, thank you so much for letting people like "Jester" here make daily idiotic offers for the cards I actually value a little bit.  By all means, please don't create some sort of mechanism that allows me to tell this person, "Jester", that his offers suck donkey balls and that he can shove his junk wax Pete Rose card up his hidey hole?  In short,

FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU, Topps. FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU, Jester, whom I'm publicly shaming for your ridiculously bad offers since I can't do it on the MCG site.

Now that that's out of my system...ROUNDUP TIME (aka everything you probably already read if you use Google Reader or some equivalent):

• BA Benny opened up a pack of 2009 Topps Chrome and pulled (GASP) a Granderson!  (and some other crap, whatever).  Also featured:  2010 Topps Chrome (two Orioles FTW)
• Some guy named BA Benny, who was not at all previously mentioned just now, got a trade package from a guy whose blog's name seems to honor Curtis Granderson but hardly ever mentions him
• Dayf's in the land of 1000 Chippers (naaaaa nana na naaaaaaaa nana na naaaa nana naaaaa nana naaaaaa nana na LARRYYYYYY)
• Night Owl keeps on keeping on loving him some night cards (round 1, part 4.  FIGHT)
• Crinkly Wrappers is getting ambitious with the Chromes and the rainbows and the so many colors, children, mwa-hai
• Beardy got new stuff thanks to COMC, and as a somewhat Orioles fan, I approve of this message
• Thorzul is group-breaking 2:  Electric Boogaloo (seriously, though, I dunno how many that makes, but his breaks always seem to go well so check it out)
• "'O" No!!!  Another Orioles Blog busted a box of 2007 Masterpieces, including meh relics and a meehhhhhh autograph, but at least the base stuff looks great
• Emerald City Diamond Gems wishes Tony Gwynn well, as we all do, even those of us whose team had their way with his in 1984
• The Daily Dimwit is contestin' it, and the prizes are pretty cool (hint:  autographed rookies)
• The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame is also contestin' it, Bazooka-style, and round one began today
• I Don't Know....Third Base!  gave away one card for almost every team, so if you were involved, see how you did, and maybe send some baseball card love his way too

That's enough for now, so enjoy all that reading, get in on some breaks and contests, and pray that the Yankees get their asses handed to them by the Rays or Rangers (we're all gonna need it)