Package porn: this post delivers

So what did I do with my Sunday?  Apart from some various other projects, I spent this afternoon (and almost two blasters worth of cash!) packaging and shipping out a bunch of stuff, which means it was awesome!  This is definitely a part of the hobby I really enjoy because it makes it feel a bit like Christmas year-round.  Here's a quick look at what went out today:

• Medium flat-rate box:  Larry (ECDG), for winning my latest contest.  It's huge because I'm also sending him a Michigan baseball jersey he wanted.  Wolverines in the Pacific Northwest represent!
• Small flat-rate box:  Matt (26 Cent Summer), also for winning that contest (most follows)
• Small box:  a surprise!
• Bubble mailer:  Colbey (Cardboard Collections), with whom I'm trading 2012 Topps football
• Priority envelope:  also a surprise!

This post has been brought to you by Blue Tape®:

Blue Tape®:  If you don't ship with it, you're a total douche.  Buy Blue Tape® at your favorite store today!

And since I don't wanna look like I'm delivering on the title, here's something for y'all to enjoy on this fine Sunday afternoon:

Michigan gameday: vs. Nebraska

Today Michigan takes on #16 Nebraska at home at noon EST.  The Wolverines are up to eight wins in their 10 games thus far, exceeding last year's win total and some experts' predictions.  At stake in these last two games will be bragging rights and a ticket to a better bowl game.  Fellow Michigan enthusiasts Emerald City Diamond Gems and My Sports Obsession are also eagerly anticipating this game, plus the little matter of a rivalry next weekend.

Nebraska is actually an interesting matchup in their inaugural Big Ten season.  There was that extremely poorly officiated 2005 Alamo Bowl game, a travesty that still grinds the gears of serious Wolverines fans.  Then again, who can forget the 1997 split championship--one that Michigan rightly earned but Nebraska fans still claim to this day for whatever reason.

No matter--at Nebraska, as everyone knows, the "N" stands for "Nowledge" while everyone knows It's Great To Be a Michigan Wolverine!

Other interesting matchups this week:

•  #2 Oklahoma St. @ Iowa St., Friday:  I managed to catch the thrilling end to this huge upset last night, a major blow to the standings in the obviously flawed, playoffless BCS clusterf$&k.  The Cyclones gave an outstanding effort in their school's biggest win ever, a classic game.
• #17 Wisconsin @ Illinois, 12 EST:  I doubt Illinois has any chance in this one due to their employment of one of the most entertainingly clueless coaches in the history of the game, but you never know, and despite an extremely talented team, Wisconsin has stumbled at times this season.
• #21 Penn St. @ Ohio St., 3:30 EST:  Here's an interesting matchup:  a team that already wasn't nearly as good as its record and insane lucky streak made it look traveling to take on a reeling squad that's barely bowl eligible and couldn't handle Purdue AGAIN.  That said, GO LIONS.
• USC @ #4 Oregon, 8 EST:  The facts:  I hate USC, one of the most corrupt programs ever; Oregon has a fun offense to watch; Seeing Oregon rack up points in a blowout against the Trojans, sitting in timeout this year, would be awesome.  Go Ducks.
• #5 Oklahoma @ #22 Baylor, 8 EST:  Baylor is another team that's probably not as good as its ranking, but I really don't like Oklahoma, so I'd love to see the Sooners falter here and fail to take advantage of Oklahoma St.'s loss last night.
• #13 Kansas St. @ #23 Texas, 8 EST:  Kansas St. has a fun team this year and an exciting QB while Texas is another team I can't stand and is supported by talent-less asshat and insufferable douche Matthew McConaughey.  Deduce my rooting interests yourself, if you can.

But in the end, as always, only one game matters to my football Saturday and the quality of my weekend:  LET'S GO BLUE!!

Happy new year and happy bowl day!

(I'm probably an old curmudgeon for thinking the bowl games should end today like they used to, but whatever, it's bowl day!)

To echo the sentiments of fellow card blog and Michigan enthusiast Emerald City Diamond Gems,

To everyone else not rooting for Mississippi St., may your team start the new year with a win!

To everyone who's still collecting, may the new year bring you new hits and old white whales.  Happy new year!

Weekend post #2: catching up on stuff

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!

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.

Happy Michigan and College Football Game Day

Michigan meets up in Bloomington with Indiana at 3:30 EST today, so untie those shoelaces, pray for that secondary, and for God's sake, GO BLUE!

While I'm at it, big ups to Emerald City Diamond Gems for 1.  His shout out to my inexcusable scout autograph pull yesterday and, more importantly, 2.  His support of the maize and blue!

Also, go Michigan State (you won't hear me say that much, but I'm rooting for a matchup of undefeateds next weekend), Boston College (RUDY SUCKS) Stanford (their coach is a UM alum) and the stadium to implode in the 'Bama-Florida game.  Otherwise, good luck to your favorite team.

And finally, your (occasionally) weekly reminder to enjoy Michigan's game at MGoBlog's LiveBlog.

UPDATE:  rooting interests for Florida-Alabama:  GO BANANA

More mail, or, Why having a bad memory is nice

BlowoutCards forum trade

So I've taken to posting box breaks on BlowoutCards' forums (not that I've ever bought anything from them before, oddly enough), mainly because it's fun, it doesn't take much effort as I pretty much copy/paste from this here blog, and it enters me in drawings for free stuff.  Plus, it's fun getting props from other collectors on your big pulls.

Anyhoo, I posted the results of my 2010 NCAA Sweet Spot football break and surprisingly had someone interested in all four jersey cards (hit either link to see them in the post, but they're not very exciting).  The guy let me know he had a Henne patch I might like, and I found other copies that looked pretty good, so I bit on that deal, plus I got him to throw in a few more cards, which I preferred to a four-for-one deal.  Here's what I got:

Sick Henne patch (bro)

I've got 99 problems, but too many Brandon Grahams ain't one

All in all, a pretty nice deal.  If you don't frequent those forums, I recommend you hit them up because it's a fun way to enjoy cards vicariously and get your trade on (note:  I in no way endorse buying from Blowout as I've never bought from them, so I don't have experience from which to make a recommendation).

And now, the reason a bad memory is nice:

I sent Larry over at Emerald City Diamond Gems some decent stuff a while ago, and he even blogged about it when they arrived.  Check out the post while I again shower him with praise for representing the maize and blue with this bad boy:

I'm yoinking everyone's images lately...

For my trouble (and lots and lots of Tony Gwynns), I got the following:

-A set of 1989 Topps football:  this is by far my oldest football set and an awesome addition to my collection, featuring a bunch of Hall-of-Famers of whom I didn't have many cards as I didn't collect football at the time.  More Joe Montanas, John Elways and the like now grace my collection, and I couldn't be happier

-A 1996 Pinnacle/Denny's (Lenny's?) Cal Ripken hologram:  I actually had one of these but they're so fun that having two is twice as nice

Hey, that actually scanned pretty decently!

-1990 Score Greg McMurtry rookie:  now there's a card I didn't expect.  Like the Topps set for my set collection, this is probably my oldest UM alum card, and a sweet one of a great player in the old winged helmet.  Awesome!

Another excellent trade package down, and bonus points for receiving it after forgetting I'd even be getting it.  Thanks, Larry!

More to come soon

-Still waiting on those 2010 Sweet Spot Brandon Graham and Minor autographs; when those come you'll see them right away

-Adam of My Cardboard Mistress worked out a deal with me and I can promise I'll at least blog my end of that when those arrive next week.  Bonus points (or cards, if I can find something suitable) to Mr. Mistress for pimping Denard Robinson for Heisman as his beloved Hokies offer no desirable candidates this year.

-I haven't bought any packs/boxes since last weekend, so when the shaking and hallucinations stop, I'll try to find something worthwhile this weekend; the retail stores seem to be in a bit of a dry spell, and I don't really want to push my luck with 2010 Topps Platinum football right now considering I already destroyed the odds on my pull from those blasters:

Just a reminder:  this card is sweet and still available for trade

Until then, why don't you go buy stuff and post about it yourself?  Like I said earlier, that vicarious pack-busting thing is pretty great, especially if you're cheap or broke.