Weekend roundup: a Blowout trade, more You Complete Me and BCS and eBay rants

From Friday up until this evening I had an eventful few days of collecting.  Besides a couple forthcoming eBay purchases about which I'm pretty excited, there was this stuff:

BCS rant:

I'll keep this quick because it doesn't exactly relate to collecting, other than my foolproof comparison between the BCS and Topps:

• It completely ignores what the consumer wants
• It turns out a consistently terrible product
• It claims to value tradition, but blatantly ignores it in favor of the same old shit
• I want no further part of it until it's fixed

The fact that Alabama is playing in the NCAA football title game is a complete travesty and should mean the immediate abolition of the BCS for its failure to determine the two best teams that deserve to play each other for the national championship.  It's an inherently flawed system that has only once produced a reasonably satisfying champion in its history, and the corrupt human element of it has made it worse.  

But more than that, the hypocrisy of it kills me--Michigan was in the same boat in 2006 and we fans called for a rematch with Ohio State after losing by such a close margin on their field, our only loss.  We figured we deserved the rematch on a neutral field, but some people correctly pointed out that we hadn't won our conference title, not that it was officially mandatory for playing for the national title.  That was fine, but then the SEC and their propaganda factory, CBS, put on a shameless display of self-promotion that will forever be an embarrassment to anyone who isn't a NASCAR-promoting, Larry the Cable Guy-loving redneck with an IQ lower than the number of teeth in his gums.  The relevant point here is that the SEC was the loudest opponent of the rematch game.

Flash forward to 2011 and would you look at that?  Suddenly a rematch looks a bit more attractive to those Southerners--not as much as their sisters, but it's up there--and they finally have something to loudly and ignorantly yell about that doesn't involve Obama being a "seekrit muslin communist that weren't born in 'murica cuz I dun sawed it on the Fox News."  The hypocrisy is staggering, as is the fact that a one-loss Oklahoma State team was a perfectly reasonable candidate for the title game, as was Stanford, really.  For a formula that uses some complicated math, the BCS sure does benefit one specific region whose biggest numerical accomplishment was counting to potato.  The title game basically has an autobid for the SEC, and now apparently it has two.  Guess what?  They ALREADY PLAYED THAT GAME.  ALABAMA LOST.  END OF STORY.

So even though it won't happen, largely because Bubbas and Cleatuses would form an unruly mob hell-bent on seeing birth certificates of every NCAA executive, it's past due that we get a playoff going, even if it's only something as simple as four teams.  There's just not enough of a sample size to let a bunch of biased, corrupt and uninformed coaches and media select the two "best" teams to meet for the title.

End of that rant, Go Blue in the Sugar Bowl!

eBay:  the BCS of online auction sites:

Anybody else get one of these in the mail?:

Whiskey.  Tango.  Foxtrot.  This is why I hate class-action suits.  What's funny is I'm not sure how I even became eligible--I didn't sign up to be part of this because I rarely get in on these, and the whole $0.17, which eBay obviously spent more on to ship to me, isn't even enough to cover their exorbitant and extortionate fees.  Like the 20th Gio Gonzalez autograph you pull from a $300 Topps box, this is literally not worth the paper it's printed on.  Screw you, eBay, you dumb bastards.

On to lighter topics:  You Complete Me!:

I made another productive purchase through the always-reasonable Sportlots, so I thought it was time for another YCM post.  For under $15 shipped I got cards from these sets:

• Baseball:
• 2000 7-11 Coins (5)
• 2000 Upper Deck (24)
• 2005 Fleer Tradition (7)
• 2008 Topps Series II set 2 (5)
• 2008 Topps Co-Signers (3)
• 2008 Upper Deck Heroes (2)
• 2009 Bowman (2)
• 2009 Topps Update (6)
• Football:
• 2001 UD MVP (5)
• 2008 Topps (4)
• 2008 Upper Deck Heroes (8)
• 2009 Topps (1)

Total cards:  72

Sets added to:  12

Sets completed:  2

All of these cards were from one seller (the way to go with Sportlots) and all started with the 2000 7-11 coins, a set I've been wanting to finish for a while.  The guy had all five I needed, so I proceeded to pick up literally everything else he had from each of my set lists.  A nice consequence of that was also completing 2008 UD Heroes football, but I also made some strides in plenty of other sets, as you can see from the list.

No scans of these today, but I'm planning on getting up a post of the 7-11 hologram coins if I can figure out how to get them scanned/photographed so they look good.

Blowout blowo--wait, I actually completed a trade:

You read that right--I got through a Blowout thread without buying something and was able to complete a deal instead.  As I was looking through the mass of post-Black Friday box breaks there, I found a guy complaining about his bad luck with a cheap box of 2007 Playoff Contenders.  His three autographs were a guy I can't remember, Anthony Gonzalez (not too bad, plus he was able to sell it) and one that I thought was a great pull, but he lamented the quality of the hits, so I told him I'd take the third off his hands.  A couple of trade bait Aaron Rodgers RCs I no longer wanted later and this was in my possession:

This is Leon Hall's 2007 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket auto RC.  It's a great autographed rookie of one of my favorite Wolverines who's gone on to success in the NFL, and it pairs well with another I have from the set, Hall's college teammate David Harris.  I now have 18 hits of the budding star CB, every one of them an autograph.  This card also puts me 12 away from a nice, round 400 in that PC.

That's not all I got in the deal, though, since we both threw in a few extras.  As such, I ended up with this assortment:

It includes a 2008 Topps Chrome RC of Mario Manningham, Steve Breaston's 2007 Bowman Chrome RC, a 2007 Playoff Contenders Round Numbers insert of Hall and Reggie Nelson (#0241/100) and three Tom Bradys:  2006 Topps Draft and a couple 2008 Topps Chrome NFL Dynasties Tribute inserts.

I'm definitely happy with this trade, especially since no money actually changed hands and we both got something we really wanted, which proves that is possible once in a while.

Stay tuned for the previously-mentioned eBay pickups soon as they're both key cards as far as my PCs go.

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.

No, eBay, screw YOU

Somebody made one of these with a Michigan logo on it, but then I read the post and he hated Michigan and 'Shopped a pic of bin Ladin in a Michigan t-shirt, so screw that

A lovely email from eBay graced my inbox this evening, one several of you might have received as well (although I'm hoping not, as you'll see):

Dear caljr3000-half:

Several weeks ago, we wrote to tell you about coming updates that may affect your selling. This is a reminder to take action now to make sure you're ready.

Update to the way sellers below eBay's minimum performance standards are paid through PayPal

Starting May 31, sellers who fall below eBay's minimum performance standards may have their buyer payments show as pending in their PayPal account for a period of time to help ensure successful fulfillment.

Your account was below the minimum standard as of this writing. If you're subject to this update, you'll be notified when you list and you'll receive an email notification from PayPal when your funds are pending. You'll also find information in My eBay showing the estimated date funds will be available and steps you can take to help get your funds faster.

What you need to do:

• Stay on top of your status in your Seller Dashboard.
• Follow best practices to get above standard.
• Always upload tracking information to eBay and ship the same day the buyer pays to have your funds available faster. Note if you print shipping labels on eBay or PayPal, tracking information is uploaded automatically and funds will be available for shipping.

[then some other crap nobody cares about]

As always, we appreciate your selling on eBay.

Your eBay seller team 

Oh hi, extremely appropriate Google Image Search result!

Oh, well maybe my feedback got progressively worse--no, no, that's not, it, it's still at a little number I like to call 100% (155).

I guess it's because of all those times I didn't follow the "best practices" that bit me in the ass.  Except I always accurately and clearly describe what I'm selling and I'm great about communicating with buyers (and let me emphasize, I'm referring to the FEW times I sell on eBay--I don't do it as a living, just a couple times a year to unload stuff I don't want) and I've never received one complaint, with the exception of an idiot whose brain was too small to process the four letters in "as-is".

That leaves my failure to "upload tracking information...and ship the same day the buyer pays..." which I neglected to do exactly zero times.

Which means there's only one explanation:  this bullshit, plus eBay's selling fee jacking-up spree and the inability to leave negative feedback for buyers (buyers who've failed to follow "BEST PRACTICES" SUCH AS PAYING FOR ITEMS THEY WON WHICH HAPPENED TO ME MULTIPLE TIMES), not to mention hating on people taking "gift" payments through PayPal to avoid their ridiculous fees (and charging 15% for run-on sentences, which I only MIGHT be making up) equals eBay extending an olive branch to sellers, except instead of olives it's made of middle fingers and AOL CDs (the next worse thing I could think of at a moment's notice while trying to keep things PG-13).

So as of today, I'm done with selling on eBay.  It's become more and more detrimental to "sell" crap there and I've had enough.  It used to be one thing when you could pay a reasonable fee to post stuff for sale for a large audience and expect a pretty good result, but with eBay's ability to tax you more times than the IRS (assuming you even get paid, with almost no recourse for the buyer if you don't) it's just not worth it.  I may pursue other routes (in the few instances I look to sell; I'm more of a trader anyway) such as the BlowoutCards boards, COMC or more creative outlets, such as the ingenious Zoolbay.

As for others, I doubt anything will happen, but I'd be thrilled to see enough people get fed up that they get eBay by the short ones and force them back into rules and fees that make sense in 2011.  Put up with your bullshit one more time?  No, eBay, screw YOU.

[Sorry for the rant, back to real content in the next day or two, I promise.  Also, bonus "Topps is dumb" tag because they continue to pull stupid shit on the level of eBay and I like using it when I can anyway]

Update from Dirty josh via comments:

after a post on ebay's forum I am told that it's due to my DSR being low [requires 10 detailed seller ratings to be valid]. I have 6 DSR's so I am unable to access the seller dashboard they say to manage everything from. I mailed about 12 buyers that have not left feedback yet so now it's just a waiting game to see if they go leave feedback. I heard from a couple of them saying they haven't gotten the chance to test everything and make sure the item works and they'd leave feedback after that so that's a positive.

I will start leaving a note with the item [like I have received a few times from sellers] reminding them to leave feedback and to let me know before leaving feedback if there are any issues so I can correct them. I hope this helps other people that see this.  

It's not the seller's job to harass buyers for feedback that they should be leaving in the first place, so  eBay can continue to sit and spin.  However, thanks to josh for some constructive feedback.  Also, here's another funny picture: