Now that I'm done complaining about Topps' Million Card Throwaway, let's get down to business. Though I haven't been in a particular hurry to do a new group break, I've seen a few breaks of another product that has me intrigued enough to at least gauge group interest before I go off and purchase a couple boxes for myself.
The set is comprised entirely of autographed manupatches of prospects
Each box contains five packs of one card each (the aforementioned manupatch)
Each case includes 10 boxes and costs $300
All cards are signed and come in parallels of 20, 5 and 1
The SCR link above includes the checklist, but some of the better player hits include: Brett Wallace, Brian Matusz, Buster Posey, Carlos Santana, Eric Hosmer, Gordon Beckham, Jake Odorizzi, Matt Wieters, Pedro Alvarez and Yonder Alonso
In short, not bad for $300. We're talking 50 autographed patches here (in magnetic plastic cases), so right now my thinking would be either a 5- or 10-slot break. I'd also have to work out how to divvy up the cards since I'm not sure if the "team" idea would work or not (ie I'd have to go through the checklist and see which players go with which teams and see if that would be fair; Orioles, anyone?), and I'd mostly like to guarantee that each person would get the same number of autographs (either 5 or 10), because, what's the point of getting in on a break when you could buy your own box(es) and get a guaranteed number of hits? As with my previous break, I'd allow trading before, during and after the break, up until the point that I actually ship.
I'm guessing by opening a case myself I could make back enough money selling the better hits to at least get close to breaking even, but this seems like a good opportunity for a group break, so I thought I'd again solicit interest from the blogosphere. So leave me some comments letting me know if you might be interested in breaking a case of these, plus any demands/concerns you have. With any luck, maybe we can make this my first group break of the new year in a couple weeks.
Warning: I'm seriously pissed off (you guys), so consider this post NSFW or for your children, grandparent with a bad heart or easily shocked 19th century Southern woman. In short, hide your kids, hide your wife.
Ok, I'm officially done with this series after just three instances of it. Why? Believe it or not, it's mostly not out of sheer laziness; instead, I essentially lost my faith in humanity (or the part that's involved with MCG) for two reasons. One was this offer:
Do you believe that shit? I mean, really, do you? Do you mean to tell me that Topps couldn't have spent five more minutes (ie, a total of 10 minutes) programming the Transmogrifier trading system so that bullshit like this doesn't happen?
Now that's probably the most egregious offer I've received since I entered my codes, or at least the worst one I can think of that I thought to screenshot, but a large number of the shitty offers that flooded my trade page originated from just a couple members. In addition to the two members I previously publicly shamed, I'd like to dedicate a special "fuck you" to Sunrisesurprise for his 200+ (and I'm being conservative here) trade offers, none of which made the least bit of sense. Here's a couple typical examples from today alone:
If you were seeing ridiculous offers like this day after day, would YOU be excited about this supposedly great Topps promotion? Actually, some of you probably ARE privy to tantalizing deals like this since the way the thing works is to essentially spam the other person with terrible offers.
In short, I'm getting my cards shipped real soon so I don't have to put up with these shenanigans any longer. I am, however, still trying to trade a couple of my more vintage cards for comparable Tigers. As such, I'm going to wait until Sunday (the 2nd) to request shipping on my cards, and in the meantime if anybody is interested in any of these, we can work out a trade:
1958
1959
1963
I'm not attached to any of these so I'll take pretty much any Detroit Tiger from the same year or earlier (ie don't offer me your 1988 John Shelby. If you do so I will put my foot through my cable modem via your ISP and right into your gonads).
In the meantime, if your MCG name is Sunrisesurprise, Jester, anyone else I mentioned and those I've already forgotten who literally spent the last 6+ months trying to trade junk 1980s cards for good vintage stuff, I have two words for you:
As for Topps, the next time you want to "give away" most of your shitty cards and allow people to waste the time of others trying to get the few good ones, do us all a favor and just hold onto them.
I hope everyone had an excellent Christmas season filled with cards--of both the sports and gift variety. For my part, my brother and sister-in-law picked me up two retail packs each of 2010 Topps Chrome football and baseball, the most notable result of which was a Jason Heyward RC. Not bad at all.
The last week or so also brought a few interesting additions to my collection:
Yet another Wolverine eBay pickup:
I'd made a couple offers on these but hadn't been successful until a week or two ago; now I'm the proud owner of another key Chad Henne hit:
Mmm mmmm, I DO love those RPM cards! $20 + shipping nabbed me another Michigan 2008 Absolute Memorabilia RPM card, to go along with my Manningham and Jake Long. It's also my eighth Henne hit and only my second autograph of the beleaguered Dolphins starting QB (somebody please get this guy WRs that don't trip and allow interceptions!).
Group break booty (finally):
Many of you were probably waiting on your cards from Georgia Mindset's 2010 Bowman Chrome group break a while back. I know I was. Anyway, they showed up out of the blue just before I left for home last week, and included was this gem:
Fields was the guy I hoped to get from the break when I picked the Tigers. He initially committed to play for Michigan, but signed with the team that employs his dad as a coach, which was understandable since he was a decently high pick despite his demands. Hopefully he blossoms into Detroit's next young star.
That's a well-worn 1972 Topps Killer, a much loved card of a much under appreciated former slugger. Thanks, dayf, and I promise I'll get you back with something good eventually!
More to come:
I made a couple more Blowoutcards forums purchases over the holidays as well, and I should be getting those in the next week or so, at which point you'll see them here as usual.
Well that didn't take long. Today's episode features a two-fer for double the fun!
Today's contestant:
Again we have someone interested in my 1972 Bill Freehan. User Meagan21 is dying for this card and makes two enticing offers (how to choose?!): a 1987 Mike Schmidt and its all-star counterpart. Maybe the chart will help me decide:
Pros
Michael Jack Schmidt!
Two cards to choose from
I think I only have five complete sets of '87 Topps and maybe 10-20 other copies of these otherwise
Only one choice makes things easier
Definitely rarer
Not as likely to be a poor condition buyback from Topps
Cons
Cards are no replacement for human contact, albeit a foot in the groin
I CAN'T CHOOSE
Wood paneled cards are ugly
Ow, my balls!
If either Schmidt is worth a '72 Freehan, then I can probably take a Schmidt and trade it for a '68 Kaline!
Pain takes a few hours to go away; junk wax can be thrown away
And the winner is...
A KICK IN THE JUNK by a hair. Seriously, do I need to rename this feature "Junk wax or kick in the junk?"? For making this appalling offer, I now pass sentence on Meagan21:
Remember, everyone: keep those trade offers reasonable or Rod Roddy might be calling you from beyond the grave as the next contestant on
Ok, I've had enough of this kind of MCG offer to get sick and tired of them, and it's about time I did something about it. Welcome to a new Too Many Grandersons feature, wherein I publicly shame people who make unacceptable MCG offers while also making light of the situation.
Rest assured that you'll see plenty of these the next couple months due to the fact that I have a few desirable vintage-like cards (a couple pre-1970s and 60s, plus a '72 Bill Freehan that's uber-popular for some reason), and the world is filled with idiots hoping people will be more idiotic than them.
So without further ado, I present to you the first installment of
This took 5 minutes in MSPaint. Deal with it.
Today's contestant:
Pros
It’s a card
It’s a player I’ve heard of
Ok, I’m out of positives, this offer blows
At least somebody will find it funny
Builds character
Not as painful as MCG
Cons
I think I have more of these than I have cells in my body
Ever heard of junk wax?
You’re seeing the same thing I’m seeing, right?This is a serious offer?
Ow, my balls!
Seriously, has this ever happened to you?
Slightly less valuable than junk wax-era cards
And the winner is...
A KICK IN THE JUNK, by a landslide. Congratulations, Stretch34, on your impressive victory.To claim your prize, please drive your car off the nearest cliff, O'Doyle-style (banana peel optional) and stop wasting everyone's time with your dumbassed trade offers.
Hopefully pictured: Stretch34
Until next time (which will be very soon, considering the number of horrendous offers I get), please consider your fellow MCGers when trying to offer that 1992 Walt Weiss for someone's 1963 Norm Cash, or you might be the next contestant on
I haven't had time to post much recently thanks to work, holiday stuff and other distractions, but now that I've finally had a chance to catch up a bit:
Contest time: All About Cards:
The good folks over at All About Cards are officially running their 2010 Card Awards, so you should voice your opinion and enter for a chance to win some sweet swag!
Yo dawg, I herd you like cards so I put cards in yo cards so you can open cards when you open your cards:
Pictured: Larry of ECDG
Seattle Mariners and more blogger extraordinaire Emerald City Diamond Gems managed to surprise me this week when a Christmas card from him graced my mailbox (like, an actual greeting card, from a stranger I met on the internet--sweet!). Even more impressive: it included a nice handful of cards he knew I'd like featuring Wolverines and Tigers. I didn't bother to scan them all but here's my favorite of the group:
That's a really cool patch representing some guy you might have heard of from the early days of the Tigers. I love that it's the "D" from Detroit (as well as the first letter of my name, of course). This is a sweet addition to my Tigers pile o' stuff, and is much appreciated, Mr. Gems. Please keep an eye on your mailbox for my official response. In the meantime, a big thumbs up to a great blogger who continues to help remind me why I got into this blogging thing with the rest of you.
RIP Bob Feller:
I know this was covered a hundred times over in the last week, but a couple quick thoughts about the loss of a great player and person: I had the pleasure of meeting Bob twice over the course of a couple years, first at a somewhat large card show in my area, and again at a local mall, if you can believe it. Both times, the price was ridiculously cheap, and both times he affirmed his status as the nicest guy from whom I snagged a signature.
The first time, he signed my Hall of Fame program I grabbed on one of my several trips to the museum; not only was he friendly and talkative, but he was able to remember and pinpoint the exact day the photo was taken!
The second time, at the small local mall show is the one I'll always remember him by, though: he was sitting at a small table (with a relatively small crowd, considering the guy's a freakin' Hall of Famer and one of the best pitchers ever) flanked by some coffee and a plate of cookies from the Big Boy in the mall. Again, he was very talkative as he signed, even speaking a bit to my Italian grandmother who was along for the ride with us!
So as far as I'm concerned, not only did the world lose one of the best pitchers baseball has ever seen, but also one of its greatest people, a truly amazing guy.
Here's a quick look at an autograph from the second signing session I mentioned above:
I hate you, Topps, I hate you with the passion of 1000 fiery suns:
I own the Freehan on the right. No comment necessary:
My posting will probably about as light as the rest of you the next couple weeks, but I'll be back in full force in January with some new stuff, including a big contest/giveaway. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to y'all!
(Sorry, no pack picture this time--I forgot to scan one)
So I hadn't intended on buying any more packs before the new year, but I stopped at Meijer for some other stuff, saw some of these and decided to grab five in case they were any good. The results:
Purchased from/price: Meijer, $4.99 Packs/cards: 5 packs of 40 Set size: 250 base cards, including 100 rookies Key features/cards: Pretty much the rookies
Inserts: 5 (Besides forgetting to scan the packs I neglected to note the insert odds, if any, but it looks like you get one insert per pack)
NFL Nation: Matt Schaub Silver O's: Vince Young, 221/250 Rookie Orientation: Montario Hardesty Gamebreakers: Larry Fitzgerald, Wes Welker
Best card: I dunno, the numbered Young, maybe? Best pack: Pack one had the Young, plus some decent stars. Really none of them was very exciting.
Quality control and collation: 5/20 First off, I ended up with a big handful of cards with bad corners. That was bad enough, but GOD DAMN that's a lot of doubles. A good 1/3 of what I pulled was useless, and that just blows. Base set: 10/20 Probably the only thing I actually liked about these packs, the base set looks pretty good. However, it's 250 cards in size and you only get four of the 100 rookies per rack pack, so good luck completing what will probably be a $50 set for less than $150. Player selection was decent, but do we really need THAT many rookies? Inserts: 1/15 Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Hits and extras: 0/15 I don't feel like I had any reasonable hope of pulling anything, and my "extra" in every pack was a blank/decoy card, which is probably worth more than any jersey card I would have pulled somehow. Value: 5/30 As there's no way in hell you're gonna have a reasonable shot completing the base set, even just the first 150 veterans, with a sane number of rack packs, and considering I got too many doubles plus five lame inserts, what is there to consider valuable here?
Overall: 21/100 Recommendation: KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!
Wow is that ever a bleak review, and definitely the lowest score I've posted since I started this blog. There seriously isn't much to like here, though; my typical experience was 35 veterans, four rookies and a crappy insert, with most of the base being dupes and without any hope of a redeeming hit of any kind. I'm so unenthusiastic I might not even waste the time to complete the set, so if anybody needs any of these besides the Wolverines, please let me know.
Yeah, at least a pulled a few of these, including some TRIPLES
and get a free entry. Pimp the contest on your blog and get another one. The unknown prize sounds enticing and is worth the couple minutes and effort you'll spend, plus the awards should be interesting as well when we get there, so head over there today!
So amidst all the other excitement this week with the group break and all, I grabbed two more packages of Michigan cards from my favorite Blowout forums seller, Mdskyhawks, and a nice single from a different seller. Total price for everything below (18 cards): a ridiculous $40. You read that right: another 18 autographs and jerseys for $40. DELIVERED. I loves me some Blowout forum sales, and so does friend of the blog SpastikMooss, a.k.a. Tim of the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame, just observe here, here, here, and here.
Ok, enough with the continued free advertising, on with the loot:
Amani Toomer 2001 SP Authentic jersey: a cool blue Giants swatch from former Michigan WR great Amani "IT'S NOT A" Toomer! Apparently he's playing "Duck-duck-goose" with himself.
Amani Toomer 2003 Topps Pristine Performance jersey: this one has a swatch that's kind of boring, but when it comes to Michigan cards I'm not as picky. Plus this one plays up a nice statistical season he'd had the year before, which is cool.
Anthony Thomas 2001 Fleer Focus Shirts and Skins Rookie Premiere jersey-ball: a cool dual relic of the A-Train, one of three Thomases I picked up this time for my growing collection. An NFL washout but a college great.
Anthony Thomas 2002 SPx Winning Materials jersey: one of the larger Michigan relics I have, though as you'll see shortly that list is growing. A nice large Bears jersey swatch makes for a nice card.
Anthony Thomas 2002 UD Piece of History Rookie Glory Jersey: a much smaller but still decent A-Train jersey rounds out the trifecta this time.
Braylon Edwards 2009 Donruss Elite Throwback Threads dual jersey: his scan of the card didn't make it obvious this was a dual-sided jersey card, which was a nice bonus, as was a shot of #1 in his Michigan uni.
Chad Henne 2008 SPx Winning Materials jersey: kind of a small, boring swatch, but still a decent, numbered Henne relic from his rookie year, plus any Henne hit you can pick up for $2 is worth it in my book.
David Terrell 2001 Absolute Memorabilia RPM jersey-ball-RC: I'm sure I've said it before but I'm a fan of Absolute's RPM cards. Though this is an early version, and maybe not as spiffy as the latest iterations, it's still pretty cool. Terrell is the other recent UM Bears draft bust, but he was awesome at Michigan and is still worth collecting as far as I'm concerned.
David Terrell 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads jersey: another Terrell, though not as cool as the above, at least it's not a boring-ass white swatch. I also like that the card notes Terrell being picked up by one of my favorite teams, the Wolverine-loving Patriots, though he never ended up sticking around there.
Gabe Watson 2006 Leaf Certified Materials New Generation auto-RC: a pretty nice numbered autographed RC, even if it is a sticker. Watson was a beast for Michigan's D, though he hasn't made a huge impact in the NFL with Arizona, at least not yet.
Greg Mathews 2010 SAGE HIT Silver auto: a nice parallel of a nice autograph of one of Michigan's solid if unheralded WRs who probably won't ever crack an NFL roster for significant playing time. Still, I'd be remiss if I didn't get at least one hit of the guy.
Jake Long 2008 Leaf Certified Materials Freshman Fabric jersey: more LCM love and yet another addition to the Long collection, I just couldn't say no to this huge jersey swatch, especially for $2. Nor could I turn down...
Jake Long 2008 Leaf Certified Materials Freshman Fabric Mirror Red jersey: its Mirror Red counterpart, numbered to $100. Apparently my Long collection is growing so quickly it's spawning twins!
Jamar Adams 2008 Donruss Threads auto-RC: another guy I didn't want to miss, even if he didn't do much in college and absolutely nothing in the pros. Jamar was a safety here from 2004-08, signed with Seattle and has since bounced around a bit.
John Navarre 2004 SP Authentic Scripts for Success auto: it seems like it's been a while since I picked up a Navarre auto, so this was a nice find. While he's yet another guy on this list who washed out of the NFL, he'll be remembered well for stepping in for the traitorous Drew Henson, beating Ohio State, and, oh yeah, this thing:
I'll take Gumpiest QB ever taking a convoy to a trick play score for $100.
Marlin Jackson 2005 UD Reflections Signature Reflections auto: adding to my small Marlin Jackson collection is this beauty (albeit a sticker). Here's hoping the guy's career isn't over after a ridiculous number of lower-body injuries.
Marquise Walker 2002 SP Authentic Authentic Threads jersey: a standout WR at Michigan, Marquise was a rare Wolverine on the Bucs. Overall this is a fairly boring card in terms of design, but that's a cool red jersey swatch at least. Hopefully my Walker collection improves, though I'm limited to what was available of him at the time in the earlier days of relics.
Rich Hill 2006 UD Future Stars Clear Path to Greatness Signatures auto: the one card in this group that I bought by itself ($5 dlvd) while looking at a guy's Black Friday break, and the only from a non-football player in the bunch. Hill's bounced around a few teams lately but is one of the better pitchers to emerge from Michigan recently (plus SpastikMooss will probably be jealous, even if it isn't a UD Heroes...).
Just a note--I bought these on Saturday, the day before my group break. As funny as it might sound to be buying stuff in the middle of a big (and somewhat expensive) thing as that, a) it was the last day Meijer had cards at 20% off and 2) I wanted to get in on these packs at a decent price after I saw some breaks on BlowoutCards. That being said, read on to see what's what with these packs:
Purchased from/price: Meijer, $3.99 (x10) Packs/cards: 10 packs of 14 Set size: 150 base cards Key features/cards: Pretty much the rookies, as usual, though there's some sweet-looking hits too
Sample front
Sample back
Set completion: 94/150 (63%) Extras: 40/134 (30%)
Inserts: 6
Base Veteran Copper Parallel: 2, Thomas Jones (0582/1379) and LT (1264/1379) (1:3, 3 expected)
Prime Rookie/2nd/3rd/4th Quarter Combo Insert: 4, Ben Tate Prime, Benn/Williams 2nd, AP/CJ/MJD 3rd, Bradford/Tebow/Bryant/D. Thomas 4th (1:4, 2 expected)
Best card: The quad-player 4th Quarter insert gets my vote. Pretty cool! Best pack: #5 included base cards of Calvin Johnson, Percy Harvin, Randy Moss, Anquan Boldin and LT plus rookies of Suh and Tebow. It also included the 4th Quarter insert, so it wins hands down.
Quality control and collation: 15/20 Quality control presented no issues. Collation was a slightly different story. The positive: I did a bit better on my inserts than expected, replacing a Copper Parallel with two of the 1:4 inserts, which was cool. The negative: yeesh, 30% is a lot of doubles! To be fair, a lot of them are of rookies, and I'm making my usual allowance that these are rack packs, but that's still more than two packs' worth! Hence the lower overall score here. Base set: 20/20 Yes I'm giving it a perfect score because 1) I really like the way it looks and 2) I can't find anything about it to knock. If this is essentially our replacement for Stadium Club I'm cool with that because I really like the full-bleed, action-packed photos, which SHOULD be the focus on any card really. The rest of the front design is fairly simple, which I like. I don't have much to say about the backs, which are less important to me anyway, so I'll just go with calling them solid. For a somewhat smaller set I was fairly happy with player selection--a good mix of 2010 rookies and veterans. Inserts: 12/15 Not a perfect score because I'm not in love with these, but I'll consider myself satisfied. I got one more than I expected, for one thing. Regarding the Coppers: the slightly different foil on the front doesn't make a difference to me, but I do generally like serial numbered stuff; I DON'T like frivolous foil parallels (ie ones that aren't any different otherwise, such as serial numbering), so these qualify as "ok". The Prime Rookie insert was fairly boring, but the 2nd/3rd/4th Quarter combos are pretty cool-looking. Not much else to see here, really, but a solid score for a decent haul. Hits and extras: 8/15 I didn't pull any hits, so this score is more for the potential for hits than anything. The ones I've seen look great, but it's generally going to be tough pulling them from these packs. Value: 25/30 Rack packs (I'll be in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missourah "value packs") often present a pretty good value, especially compared to blasters. I haven't tried any blasters or hobby packs of these so I can't say for certain how much better or worse they'd be. Minus the doubles I got I'd give this a much higher score, but as it stands they did pretty well. Keep in mind I paid $4/pack, of course--getting "only" 14 cards for the $5 regular price is good, but not great.
Overall: 80/100 Recommendation: Buy, but I'm thinking you'd be better off with a hobby box if you're serious about the set and/or want a better chance at some hits. If you're just doing some impulse card-buying, though, grab a few of these and pick up some rookies and an insert or two, if only for trade bait.
Yep, just a Tom Brady this time, but it's not an enormous set so that's not shocking; Henne's the only other Wolverine I noticed on the checklist
