Is it really time for the pigskin? Can it co-exist w/ the lumber & rawhide?

Wow, this is the last weekend of no NFL football for quite a while. Is it really time for the 2010 NFL football season? Where has the time gone? I swear it feels just like yesterday when I was watching the hometown Carolina Panthers struggle through the season only to win the last few games. Well 2010 football product is now landing on retail shelves so I had to try my luck at a few packs looking for Panthers and this year's rookie crop. I reviewed 2010 Score over @ APTBNL, but here are a few singles I picked up recently.

Brandon LaFell Hot Rookies #17

With Mushin Muhammad departing in the offseason and Dewayne Jarrett's inability to learn the playbook I can tell you there will be high expectations for LaFell to perform. Nice card, I've always enjoyed Score's Hot Rookie inserts.


DeAngelo Williams Franchise Red Zone #6 (092/100)

No, that's not blood splattered on the card...



There seems to be so many tiers to this year's inserts. Glossy, autograph, Red Zone, Gold Zone and more.


Franchise Gold Zone #6 (207/299)

So now not only do I have the conflict of what sport I spend my money on I also have to decide who to watch? Braves or Panthers? Well to be honest I'm not expecting much out of the Panthers this year so as long as the Braves can make a strong run to the post season I won't be turning my back on America's past time any time soon!

+1 for my Rey Ordonez collection!

I'm really excited about the latest card I've added to my Rey Ordonez collection. I didn't buy a lot of cards in 1999 or the early 2000's so I completely missed out on Topps' 1999 Finest baseball. In my researching of Ordonez's cards I found he had card #199 in the set and there was a gold refractor version. I don't recall the exact odds, but I knew they were high and I thought my chances of obtaining this card would be slim to none. Fast forward a few years and I finally found the card on eBay. I even snagged it using the 'Make An Offer' option for a few dollars less. Granted the card still cost me $10 which is far more than I've paid for any of Ordonez's other cards (including some nice autographs), I'm glad I did as it's a beautiful card and one more I get to cross off the list.

Until the card came in the mail a few days ago I didn't know the card had perforated like edges similar to a postage stamp. Nice! The card was numbered 073/100. I like the Finest Moment and Finest Career Achievement info on the back of the card as it is entertaining if you will than his batting stats!

I believe with the acquisition of this card I've completed the various parallels. Now back to my search to complete the biggest and best Rey Ordonez baseball card collection.

It came from the dime box...

I had a rare afternoon yesterday alone so while running some errands I dropped by the local card shop (Grand Slam Collectibles) to kill some time. Only thing he had of any interest was over priced hobby packs of Allen & Ginter and some of the new 2010 Panini football. I'm not ready for football. It's still hot. It's still summer. So I gravitated over to the sea of 10 cent monster boxes and I grabbed a chair and started to thumb though a few boxes. Here are a few of the cards I wanted to share.

I know nothing about this card other than it comes from the 2003 Topps 205 set. I grabbed it because it was unique. I don't plan to keep it so all you White Sox fans (are there any of those?) it's yours if you want it. The front (I guess it's the front) of the card depicts Magglio Ordonez & Paul Konerko on what appears to be mini cards. The back features a nice framed black & white photo.

Take each mini card and fold it back and it reveals individual stories for each player and in the middle it reads "Celebration At The Plate". It talks about the baseball ritual - the celebration that occurs after a home run between the batter who just hit and the guy on deck and how they exchanged upraised hands as a symbol of celebration and a desire to pass on the success throughout the line up. Very cool.

My guess is this is some sort of regional card. The copyright info is 1983 Drake Bakeries / 1983 Topps. Card #11 in a series of 33.

Drake regional card of 1984's series. Card #14 in a series of 33. I just might have to investigate this set a little more. If anyone has any info on these Drake Bakery cards please let me know...I'm curious.

2006 Fleer Greats of the Game Fred McGriff #38. I don't have many McGriff Braves cards so this was a must purchase.

2004 Fleer Greats of the Game Kirby Puckett #68. Kirby was one of the first veteran players I was drawn to in my early days of player collecting. Love the photo on this card as it looks like he just hit one out of the park.

2003 Fleer Avant Tim Hudson #41. I don't know much about these Avant cards either other than I like the way they look. What caught my attention was on the back it says "Congratulations! You have received an exclusive Avant MLB high quality Fleer trading card." Was this part of some insert set or a mail-away set?

This mini card almost escaped my attention. 2006 Bowman Heritage Sean Casey #158. Casey is a guy I don't run across a lot of his cards and he is a classy individual (much like Tim Hudson). The small design was also a plus.

I picked up several other cards (mostly Braves), but to anyone else they may seem bored so I spared you readers (I do have readers, don't I?) and shared a few that I thought were interesting.

And to think, I went to the shop in the first place looking for the pages to hold my amassing A&G mini card collection only to find nothing. At least I didn't walk away empty handed...and I got to see the Braves thump the Padres too.

Blogger issue...

As I continue to tweak my blog I noticed a few days ago that one the blogs listed in my sidebar always shows up at the bottom the list. I have it set to sort each blog as they're updated, but A Cardboard Problem's blog doesn't want to cooperate for some reason.

When I go to edit the list it says that Blogger can't locate a feed for the URL and that posts and updates will not be shown. Has anyone else ran into this problem? I'm limited in my Blogger knowledge so any help would be appreciated.

In the mail 7/8/10 through 7/16/10

Before I found any 2010 Allen & Ginter locally I hit up eBay to see what was available in the Braves variety and found a few Martin Prado minis & a Melky Cabrera bat relic.

Ever since Prado made the All-Star team it seems like more of his cards are appearing on eBay, but that has also caused some of the prices to go higher than if he hadn't been named to the team. I believe I grabbed the black bordered mini for $2 and the A&G back mini for $1.

No love for Melky apparently as I grabbed this bat relic card for $.99.

2009 Upper Deck Icons Lettermen "A" #d 03/40. I've grown tiresome of McLouth and I'm not entirely sure if he'll even be on the team at the end of the season. I only need one more Lettermen card though to spell out his first and last name so I can't give up now. All I need now I believe is an "L" and I'm done! Oh yeah, only paid $.99 so I'm not the only one that has given up on McLouth!

Jonathan Venters 2008 Bowman #BCP27 Refractor #d 060/599

Xfractor #d 066/275

Here's another Brave that all the sudden has gotten semi-expensive on eBay. This makes 4 variations of this card I have now (regular, chrome, refractor & xfractor).

Trade completed with Crinkly Wrappers

After several weeks of pulling cards and e-mailing Ted @ Crinkly Wrappers we finalized a trade that sent several Blue Jays he needed in return for some random Braves and a ton of 2010 Topps singles and inserts.

Ted has single handedly helped me just about complete my 2010 Topps series 1 & 2 sets along with 2010 Topps Opening Day. I won't bore you the reader with countless scans of cards you've already seen, but I can praise Ted enough for helping me out. I'm new to the set building concept and working on a limited budget so trading has been an excellent way for me to fill some gaps.

Thanks again for the help and I'll make sure to hold any future Jays for you.

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter - Hits & Ramblings

I spent the majority of this week with my family down at Myrtle Beach, SC and we had a blast. It was the first time we've taken our 9 month old daughter to the beach so it was a fantastic experience. While I got to enjoy the actual beach this trip from a different angle my favorite part of going to the beach is shopping. Yeah, I'm a guy so I'm not supposed to like shopping...but as a collector I can't but help to hit up the local Walmarts, Targets and hobby shops when I'm away from home. This year was a little different having a baby in tow as everything still revolves around her eating and napping schedule. Thus I wasn't able to make it to every store I wanted. The comic shop that I visited last summer (Apocalypse Comics) fell to the wayside as did the card shops I found on Google. The various Walmarts I went to didn't have any of the new Transformers I was looking for either. I thought I was going to strike out on the hobby front until I saw the card section at Walmart on the way out the door. I almost missed the section all together since it was in an entirely different location from the stores @ home.

What caught my eye was the large gravity feeder and the powder blue Allen & Ginter packs. Then I noticed the rack packs and blasters on the shelf below. Finally, some new retail product to buy. I grabbed 1 blaster and 2 rack packs and proceeded to checkout happy that I finally found something to buy of one of my many hobbies.

After getting home late Thursday this week I had to make an emergency run to Target to get some carpet cleaner (thanks to my kitty Lion-O) so I stopped by the cards and low and behold they had A&G too. So I grabbed 1 more blaster and 2 more rack packs.

Before I show off the hits and such that I got from the blasters and racks let me say that my luck of pulling anything half way decent has been horrible. The best pull I've had in recent years came from a pack of 2010 National Chicle that yielded a Yastrzemski auto (that by the way is up for grabs if anyone wants to trade me a Jason Heyward auto!). I didn't hit the jackpot with these packs by any means, but for retail product I feel I did OK...plus it was fun opening new product that I haven't had much exposure to in the past. I also have to comment on the rack pack's thin blue plastic and how spotting inserts and such added to my fun. I was easily able to spot one framed card as the orange/red border stuck out like a sore thumb. I noticed the inserts would usually be in the bottom section of the rack pack and if you moved the cards around just right the mini card would help separate the stack so you could see the edges of the other cards. I found several black bordered minis along w/ one of my framed cards this way. Combine that with a better deal @ $4.99 than buying 2 lone packs and better/lower odds at landing a hit makes the rack packs my new favorite way to buy A&G.

Now onto the good stuff. Just about everything below will be available for trade as I'm only building the base set, Monsters of the Mesozoic & the Lords of Olympus sets.

I love this set, but then again who doesn't? I feel I made out really well as the dino cards just kept coming and coming with each pack I opened. Some of the packs contained multiple mini cards too which surprised me. I'll create and update my 2010 A&G want list for the blog very soon.

Daniel McCutchen autograph #AGA-DM

I pulled this from the 3rd or 4th pack in the very first blaster I bought from Walmart. I would've rather had another player, but I can't complain. Who knows, McCutchen here may turn out to be a stud for the Pirates one day. Either way the card is up for grabs.

Glenn Singleman, base-jumper autograph #AGA-GSI

This auto came from one of the rack packs I mentioned above. It was really easy to see through the light blue wrapper. Too bad it wasn't a Heyward auto! Odd auto is up for grabs too.

Carl Crawford Baseball Sketches #AGHS7

These look creepy to me and I just can't get into this set. I'm sure someone out there in blogger land will want this Crawford card.

Daniel Murphy Baseball Sketches #AGHS15

Not too sure though anyone will want this card though. Perhaps I'll nudge Joe @ the Sandlot or Benny @ BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet

These are the regular back minis. All are available with the exception of Troy Glaus.

A&G back minis. All are available for trade. From top L to R - Manny Ramirez, Francisco Liriano, Magglio Ordonez, Alexei Ramirez, Andy Pettitte & Roy Oswalt

Black bordered minis. Kelly Lulick, John Lackey, Roy Oswalt - all available for trade.

National Animals

I like the idea of the set, but not enough to build - thus all are available for you set builders.

Lords of Olympus Eros #LO18 & Helios #LO19

I loved history and mythology growing up in school so this is a set I think will be fun to build.

World's Biggest Whale #WB1
Monsters of the Mesozoic Oviraptor #MM20 & Pachycephalosaurus #MM13

The World's Biggest could be a fun set, but I think I'll pass. The dinos are extras too so all 3 cards are available for trade.

This Day in History - man I love these cards. I love it when 2 things I like come together...like peanut butter and banana. This is a set I will most definitely build and of course I picked out one of the better cards I pulled to scan.

I've read on other blogs about the quality control on A&G this year being a little lack luster. After pulling this Tony Hawk card (3rd in the pack) I can see first hand what the others are talking about. Thankfully Tony here was the only casualty from the pack.

All in all I love this product. I only bought a few lone retail packs of last year so I'm still relatively new to the Allen & Ginter concept of trading cards. I could have just waited and bought a complete set for cheap off of eBay, but then I would've missed out on all the fun I had busting these packs. My chances are pulling a Heyward of any type would have also been diminished so I'll keep buying in the hopes of landing the gem I want.

The Braves send Escobar packing...

Being away on vacation most of the week I've only loosely kept up w/ baseball so needless to say I was a little surprised last night when I tuned in to watch the Braves take on the Brewers and I saw Alex Gonzalez in the line up. I thought to myself, now who is that - only seeing the back of his jersey in the crowded dug out at first. Then I heard Ernie Johnson say he was playing short stop and after that I was able to piece the puzzle together - the Braves shipped Escobar off to Canada.

At first I was really surprised and disappointed. Then I started to remember all the half hearted plays he made last year in addition to this year. Then I looked at his stats (which I rarely do for any player) and compared them to Alex's career numbers and this seasons numbers. After doing so all I could do was grin. Then Alex doubled in his 2nd at bat as a Brave and the smile on my face only grew.

I liked Escobar. I liked his defensive capabilities and occasionally his offensive capabilities. I didn't like his immature attitude he displayed at times. Don't get me wrong, I wish him all the best in Canada with the Jays, but I'm not all that sad he's gone. I believe the addition of Alex Gonzalez to the Braves is an excellent fit and I'm positive he'll help anchor the infield. Assuming Chipper can stay healthy and Prado and Glaus can continue in their performance in the 2nd half of the season I'd say the chances of the Braves making the post season are very very good. There is still a lot of baseball to play so I'm not putting the cart before the horse just yet...but I'm excited about the Braves play on field and their chances.

Here's hope Topps will include Gonzalez in a Braves uniform in their Update & Highlights set later this year...

All Star woes

I was shocked to see an e-mail alert sitting in my inbox this morning that George Steinbrenner had passed away early this morning. I read this while sitting @ the beach w/ my family including my brother's girlfriend who is from NY and a Yankees fan. I thought about making a smart comment, but then I decided to just bite my tongue and pay the man some respects. I've never cared for the Yankees (or any other NY team for that matter), but it's always sad to see someone leave before they were ready...even if they were 80 years old. Rest in peace George.

On a more positive note...how 'bout that Brian McCann base emptying double in the 7th inning?!

Make it one more...

Congrats to Billy Wagner for making the 2010 NL All-Star team. Wagner makes the 6th Brave on the team this season! Granted he won't be playing (nor will Heyward) that is OK with me since the days off will give him a chance to rest his hurt ankle.

Braves lost to the Mets today to bring their lead to 4 games, but they are still sitting on top and looking good going into the 2nd half of the season.

On the card side of things I'm writing this from Myrtle Beach, SC. We had to make the obligatory trip to Walmart last night upon coming into town and I made my way to the card (& toy sections) and both were completely barren. Heck, the whole store seemed to be barren. The grocery side of the store had been picked clean - almost like a hurricane was in the forecast! I was able to find a few local card shops via Google. Sports Heroes, Baseball 17 & Sports Fanatic all appear to be close so hopefully I'll be able to make my way to one or two of them this week. I believe I've been to Sports Fanatic before and it was mostly NASCAR memorabilia with a few dime boxes, but the other stores I haven't heard of before today.

If we can time it I hope to catch a Myrtle Beach Pelicans game (Braves single A affiliate), but I'm not holding my breath. This is the first time our 9 mo. old has been to the beach so everything we do now is completely different this time around!

Successful trade w/ On Card Autos

Over the 4th holiday I received a bubble mailer that I wasn't expecting. A few weeks back I sent Chris over at On Card Autos a purple Refractor of Starlin Castro and he told me he'd send me some Braves goodies. Well I gotta say I was very impressed w/ the bubble mailer full of goodies.

Yunel Escobar 2008 Topps Chrome #53 Bronze Refractor #d 339/599

I love Refractors and this is a beauty! He also sent me a 2008 Topps Chrome Brian McCann which I didn't already have. Nice.

Edgar Renteria 2006 Upper Deck shiny green foil card (don't know the insert's name) #75 #d 25/99

Sometimes I forget Renteria even played in Atlanta. I'm not familiar w/ this card, but hey it's #d to 99 and it has that Refractor vibe going.

Gary Sheffield 2008 Topps Moments & Milestones #52 #d 124/150

Gary's years in Atlanta were too short. Great #d card that also goes straight into the Sheffield/Braves collection.

He also sent me a 2010 Topps Yo Mamma card of Chipper Jones that should help round out that set.

All in all it was a great trade and I look forward to sending more Cubs stuff to Chris.

In the mail 7/1/10 through 7/7/10

Got a little back logged while I was "away" so here's my attempt to show some of the stuff that I grabbed from here and there over the last week.

Jeff Francoeur 2010 Bowman Orange #93 #d 005/250

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini #278

Yunel Escobar 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter autograph #AGA-YE

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter game-used bat #AGR-YE

Brian McCann 2009 Upper Deck Starquest Emerald Super Rare #SQ-29

* For whatever reason the scanner screwed up my image on the 2010 Topps A&G jersey card and I was too lazy to re-scan it.

Jason Heyward 2010 Sports Illustrated for Kids #477

I hadn't seen this card before and I got it for cheap ($2) so I couldn't resist. (scan is horrible, card looks much better in person!)

Chipper Jones 2010 Bowman Blue #125 #d 398/520

With this possibly being Chipper's last season I figured I could splurge and pick up a few cards of his that I wouldn't normally.

Braves make it 5 & I play catch up!

First of all I wanted to congratulate the Atlanta Braves for sending 5 players to next week's MLB All-Star game.

Martin Prado has been tearing up NL pitchers all season (.332 average) and I was glad to hear he got bumped up into the starting role...well deserved.

Omar Infante was a surprise when I heard his name, but that didn't mean I wasn't excited. He's been a huge asset for the Braves thus season filling in a 2nd base, short stop, 3rd base and in the outfield. A+ utility player I'm sure any team would love to have.

Jason Heyward - no surprise.

Brian McCann somewhat surprised me too. He's only batting .267 for the season with 10 homers and 34 RBIs. He's been great behind the plate though and should make a great addition to the NL bench this year.

And finally Tim Hudson. Tommy John surgery? You can't tell it by the season he's having thus far. 8-4 with a 2.44 ERA & 58 strike outs.

I believe this has been my longest "absence" from my blog since I started it the first of the year. With work and family these last few weeks have been a little crazy, but that hasn't slowed down my passion for baseball. In the coming posts I'll post some new acquistions both from eBay and from trades.