So as a lot of you did, I pounced on some of the after xmas specials that a few of the online retailers were offering. The first installment of that arrived today.
DA had 2008 UD Masterpieces Football Hobby boxes for $36 ea. Because they're small, I grabbed two.

The very first pack of the box had a nice green framed jersey card in it. I'll show that to you later.
But so you can sleep tonight, I'll show you pack two of the box.

First card - Kevin O'Connell, Patriots. Really? In a low card # set, I get Kevin O'Connell?
Card two - Franco Harris, Steelers. Now we're getting somewhere...
Card three - Johnny Unitas, Colts. Only The Greatest Quarterback to ever play the game!
and what's this? a red border?
a freaking DeMarcus Ware two colour patch numbered /50?!?!??? WOOOHOOOO!!!!!! One of my favourite players!

I don't know if Jeff needs this one or not.... I hope not. I know he's close to the set, but I want to keep this bad boy....

no cards, not sports, just awesome.

Your very own Canuck has come through victorious in the Fantastic Fantasy Football Challenge.
My team "Oh My Aikman Back" defeated Fuji from Fuji's Sports Card Arena in the final.

Beardy, responding after a sound thrashing last weekend from yours truly, bounced back for a third place finish.

BoxOpener fourth
Offy's Sports Site fifth
Carl Crawford Cards sixth
My wife, who bailed halfway through the season, a disappointing seventh after her 2nd place finish last year.
1st and Goal Sportscards eighth
CardboardSingles ninth
Motherscratcher from Achiever Card Blog - DFL

thanks for the fun guys... not as much trash talking as I'm used to. You're a polite bunch. Except for you Beardy.

This year Santa had no problem finding our house. He left behind many wonderous things, from the questionable to the jaw dropping.
We start, with questionable. I give you, the Card Frame.
Measuring 24"x36" this metal frame is designed to hold 20 hard case one touch holders. And it even came with 16 collectable cards!
While the cool factor and uniqueness is high, the level of tackiness is borderline. I'm not usually one to display items like this, nor is my wife. But she gave it to me..... so who am I to judge?
Now the question is what cards to put in it? I'll have to see if there are any Braves team sets that number 19 cards while being a cool design.

Oh yeah, I know some of you are jealous at the 16 collectable cards I got FREE with this frame. If you're nice, I'll trade them to you. Just to spread the wealth.

okay, so 8 emails and one comment later, I realize that yes, I did forget to put up a cheerleader for this week's games.
my good friend dayf says that it's okay to put up a hockey cheerleader.
there ya go pal.

Tonight: Mr Romo goes to Washington.

The World Junior Hockey Championships started today, as it does every year. Canada, looking to defend it's title, opened up against Latvia today.
Canada is looking for it's 6th straight championship. Yeah. I said sixth. We good.

Game one against Latvia, Canada wins 16-0*. LINK

Up next,
Dec 28 - Switzerland
Dec 29 - Slovakia
Dec 31 - United States


* for those bleeding hearts that think that there should be no winners or losers, just participants, understand that the tie breaker in the WJHC is goals for/against. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Quite often lately I've been reading about other bloggers exploits at Wally World, or Target. You know the story. They stop for food, diapers, socks, and decide to swing by the card aisle.
I cannot express to you how this infuriates me. Not at the bloggers. But at Wal Mart Canada. We have no card aisle. Some WalMarts will have a few cards by the checkstand, but it's 90% My Little Pony, 10% overpriced Hockey.
I've read how even some bloggers like A Cardboard Problem or A Priceless Pursuit, among others, even go there to buy high end stuff like Sweet Spot. I've never even seen a pack of Sweet Spot, let alone be able to get one when I buy deodorant.

So I decided to buy an ebay pack of Sweet Spot for myself. And before you cry out, no. I am not dumb enough to buy a pack of anything off of ebay.
Merely, I was going to spend the price of a Sweet Spot pack on Sweet Spot singles, and make up my own pack. My budget, $30.

Sounds like a decent enough plan, right? Going in I felt confident. But somewhere between there and here, I got derailed.

Here's what I ended up with.

A 1953 Topps Jim Pendleton #185 with a slight wrinkle on the top right corner.
1953 Topps Jim Wilson #208 with a wrinkle under his nose.

Tommy Boy!

'Icy-Hot' is too weak for Tommy Hanson. After a workout, Tommy rubs his muscles down with liquid-hot MAGMA.

Tommy once ordered a Big Mac from Wendy's. And got one.

Tommy Hanson recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull.

Tommy Hansons testicles do not produce sperm. They produce tiny white ninjas that recognize only one mission: seek and destroy.

1991 Pacific Football!
Thanks to a trade with Matt of Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius, my set of 1991 Pacific Football that I started 18 years ago is now complete.
What's that? I can buy Factory sets of this for $3 online? Nevermind that. This is much more satisfying.
Say again? This is only the first 550 cards, and there is a Series 2??? Really?

Well, I guess I'm not done after all.....

that some of you listened to me.

Remember this? LINK

Well, it turned into this. LINK

There's money to be made people. One game at a time.

I'll be on the couch for the next four hours.
Da Boys vs Da Undefeated in Da Bayou.

(what? it's my blog. you come up with gold day after day...)

I received a threatening email this morning from none other than The Collective Troll. Yes. Threatening.

He preceeded to threaten me that the 1976 Topps cards he promised me were not sent out yet, and wouldn't be sent out, until I agreed to pimp his Mid '90's box group break.

So what's a set collector to do? Consider the Troll's Mid '90's box group break pimped.

Now please Mr Troll, may I have some more?

I'm not one to encourage gambling. It's just not for everyone. (However if any of you are having a Hold 'em tourny, count me in)
But, in this case, I feel obligated to give you an insider tip. We Canadians know quite a bit about hockey. I know. Shocking. So you'll listen to me when I say that whatever the line is on the Ottawa Senators / Minnesota Wild game on Saturday night, bet Ottawa. Big.

LINK


If any of you have ever tried playing an entire game wearing new skates, you'll already be on the phone to Vegas. And don't even get me started on new goalie equipment. It takes weeks to break in a new trapper.

Okay kids, time to vote. You all know the drill. The poll is on the right hand side. Choose whick box break you want to see first in agonizing detail. Okay, maybe not. Probably just a quick half assed review with lots of pictures. Go. Vote. Now.

And a big Happy Birthday to my friend Kelli. You may now legally vote, and purchase an adult beverage if you choose.
Now in my country, you've been legal for three years already.


I'm just sayin'

My good buddy John form Old School Breaks is holding a multi box busting break party, and two of you are invited.
At the time of this posting, he still needs two more participants for yummy fullness. The great thing about John's breaks are that they are almost always from "the dark period" or, the time when I didn't even think about collecting. So I always see cool cards that I've never seen before.
Like this little beauty I received in the mail the other day from John.
I don't remember the Braves ever wearing blue pinstripes, but we'll go with it 'cause it's a sweet card.
So go over to Old School Box Breaks and sign up. Here's a list of what he's busting...

1 box 2004 Donruss World Series
1 box 2003 Donruss Elite
1 box 2002 Donruss Elite
1 box 2004 Donruss Studio
1 box 2001 Fleer Genuine
1 box 2002 Fleer Showcase
1 box 2002 Bowman’s Best


EDIT: break full up, thanks.

getting closer to 1976 Topps completion. A big thanks to Collective Troll, A Giants Blog, GCRL, and Larrythesewingmachineguy for offering to help me with this.

After my good friend Marck fights his way through the post office, I'll be down to needing these...

#'s 1, 2, 10, 19, 50, 98, 100, 118, 119, 125, 130, 169, 175, 185, 192, 193, 194, 197, 202, 230, 240,

250, 262, 290, 295, 300, 302, 325, 331, 340, 346, 405, 440, 444, 453, 462, 470, 471, 490, 530,

550, 561, 574, 575, 583, 592, 599, 625, 629, 659

TRADED

27T, 28T, 85T, 127T, 146T, 158T, 211T, 250T, 259T, 292T, 296T, 309T, 380T, 401T,

411T,428T, 434T, 464T, 528T, 532T, 554T, 583T, 592T, 618T, 632T, 649T,


I hope I didn't make any mistakes copying the list over.... when in doubt, please always check my wantlist page here.

Today's Card O' The Day (read: I'm too lazy to do a real post) is an Uncirculated 2008 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor numbered to 199 of Tony Romo.
I picked up shiny Tony here for $1.99. Now if you've ever tried to buy a Tony Romo card, let alone a refractor, you know this is a good deal. Yay me.

Well, actually two games.... one for the morning, one for the afternoon.

Denver at Indianapolis

San Diego at Dallas

I love this time of year.

Metal on Metal "BASTARD" from The Glue Society on Vimeo.

or is it just me?

Story time... stay with me.

You decide that you absolutely have to have an item. Doesn't matter what. A card, a watch, an autographed ball, game used Phil Esposito socks, whatever. You want it. You NEED it.
Fine.
Being the suave, savvy, internet buyer that you are, you set a price of what it's worth to you and you set off for the World Wide Web.
Through the various auction sites you find that a fair price for your item is $20. Anything under that is golden. You seek, you find, you bid.
You don't win.
Repeat.
Repeat again. Your item is going well over your $20 limit.
Then you miss an auction, or three.
All three sell for between $9 and $15.
Scouring the sites, You seek, you find, you lose.
Repeat.
Again.
The next 4 auctions you watch sell for around $30.
You get frustrated. You ignore it for a couple of weeks.
Six different sales happen while you were gone for under $15.
Anxious, you bid again.
And again.
Five more go for over $30.
WTF!?

Does this sound familiar? I have been trying to get this for over a year. It has sold over 45 times in that span. I have watched and or bid on 25 of them. None went for less than $24. The other 20? 19 of them less than $16, one went for $19.
Who the hell has bugged my computer?

If any of you want to sell something and get good money for it, let me know and I'll bid on it. It'll be sure to skyrocket out of my range.

141 !!! That's all I need to finish this blessed 1976 Topps baseball set. I know a lot of you will scoff when you hear that... I started this little project almost two years ago. What's taking so long?
Well, when you live in the land of snowshoe softball.... completing a "vintage" baseball set ain't easy. Unless you want to blow $1500 on ebay shipping fees.

Here's what I'm down to...

1976 Topps Baseball#'s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 19, 24, 48, 49, 50, 67, 70, 73, 75, 80, 81, 90, 95, 98, 100, 112, 114, 118, 119, 120, 125, 130, 137, 139, 147, 155, 156, 160, 167, 169, 174, 175, 179, 185, 189, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 216, 230, 235, 240, 250, 262, 270, 285, 290, 295, 300, 302, 316, 317, 320, 321, 325, 331, 340, 342, 343, 345, 346, 347, 348, 350, 355, 359, 365, 375, 380, 385, 390, 400, 405, 412, 415, 416, 435, 440, 441, 444, 447, 450, 453, 459, 461, 462, 465, 469, 470, 471, 477, 480, 490, 500, 501, 514, 520, 525, 530, 538, 542, 545, 548, 550, 561, 564, 570, 574, 575, 580, 583, 590, 592, 599, 607, 625, 629, 635, 640, 645, 650, 653, 656, 657, 659


And of the ones I have, only 11 need upgrading.

519/660 = 78.6% complete

I went to a local show on Saturday. It was -26 out, but I had to go anyways to pick up a christmas gift, so I thought what the heck.
It's a smaller show that happens every month during the hockey season. Usually 10-15 different sellers with 2-4 tables each. No goody bags, no advertising... either you know about it or you don't.
As soon as I walked in I was greeted by a fellow behind two tables. He was very friendly, but didn't have anything I wanted. too bad, he was the kind of guy you wanted to spend money with.
I casually walked to, and browsed every table from every seller.
As far as the eye could see... hockey singles. And very few autos... almost exclusively jersey cards of various value. All overpriced. And I do mean, overpriced. At every table.
Only one seller had wax. Her "show specials" were last years Upper Deck Series 2 hockey at $65 a box and this years Upper Deck series 1 hockey at $85 a box. I can get these from the shop I usually buy at for $55 and $65 respectively. Not surprisingly, she also had around 40-50 of the latest Beckett Hockey laid out prominently at the front of her area. So I left her behind, and onto the next guy.
Boxes of modern hockey singles, with some '70's OPC hockey singles in grade VG at best. Nothing is priced. Great. Okay, here we go..." How much are these?" I ask. He says "the 'OPC are 3/4 Beckett, and the rest is 60% Beckett. Just for the show only, after that, they go back up." Should I explain to him how Beckett lists NearMint value? Nah... lost cause.
Only one hope left. This table, manned by a different dude every time, always has things besides cards. Sometimes books, pennants, figures, lunch boxes, whatever he can scrounge.
No dice here either. Although he has a sign saying to ask to see cards of other sports. Cool. Show me.
He proudly brings out his baseball box. 3 for $2 during the show. ExMt '89 Donruss and '91 Score. Um... no thanks. He also has a set. A 1991 Pacific Nolan Ryan Texas Express hand collated set, missing only three cards, for half price. $25 and it's mine. It's rare you know, he tells me... Ryan will be in the Hall of Fame one day.
Really?
Fascinating.
I have 17 of these sets, will you buy them for $15 each? No? How about $15 for all of them? They're rare you know.
Still no. Maybe I should've offered to take out three cards from each set....


I left with nothing. First time ever. I need to go visit Sportslots for awhile.....

Dallas over the GMen...

Colts and Saints remain unbeaten...

Awhile back, okay... waaaaaayyyy long ago, I showed off some football cards that the Peoples Champ sent me.
No. Not that one. This one. All you need to know is written write here. Actually, he sounds a lot like Tommy Hanson. But I digress.

The Wicked One also sent over a few of his treasured autos. Now I've been meaning to post them, really I have. But my camera and I have our little disagreements. It's a thing. You may or may not understand. I finally convinced it to cooperate. I think. Maybe not.

Anyways, The Don has been bugging me to get these up for all to see. I had better before he sends some of his boys up here. If you do, dress warm bro, it's -21 here at noon today.

First up, Cleo Lemon, Super Mark Duper, and Tomas Vokoun.

and Olli Jokinen, Stephen Weiss, John Vanbiesbrouck and some dude I haven't had time to figure out who he is yet.

As a daily ritual, I peruse several online sports news sites. As I am sure, most of you do.
The usual suspects, CNNSI, FOXSPORTS, ESPN, TSN, etc...

Now if you click on each of those links above, you will find that the lead story on these SPORTS NEWS sites, is about Tiger Woods and his misdeeds, shall we say.

First of all, these are sports sites, and Tiger Woods is not an athlete, he does not play a sport. He participates in a leisure activity. He is damn good at it, the best in the world. But you don't see Tony O'Shea on the front page of any of these. Tony doesn't play a sport, but does participate in a rather difficult leaisure activity, and is the worlds best at it.

But please, save your hate mail for another time.... I'm not done yet.

Even IF Mr Woods was an athlete, these "articles" are not about his latest victory or defeat. They are about the sordid details of his private life. I hesitate to use the word private. In the time of world domination by 14 year old girls, we are subjected to Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook. Now, I am not an adolescent teen age girl. I do not need to know where all of my friends are every minute of every day. If I want to send a friend a message, I email them. Or if I have something to tell them, I pick up the phone and call.
I know. Old school.
But "journalists" and "media outlets" insist on informing us about every minute detail about every celebrities lives. Some celebrities crave the spotlight. Chad Ocho Cinco tweets while celebrating in the end zone. Britney Spears forgets her underwear. Fine. Do what you need to do to make yourself feel wanted. It's your show.
But other celebrities, like Mr Woods for example, go out of their way to maintain a private existance. Are their wishes respected by "journalists"? Or the "paparazzi"? No.

Why is this even a story worth writing about? Who the hell cares if Mr Woods slept with every member of the Baltimore Cheerleaders? I don't. Why do you?

This is a lot like a "story" from last week, where the son of Brian Burke, General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, "came out" and admitted he was gay.
Who the hell cares? Why is this a story? What you do in your own life is your business. Will it affect the way his Dad does his job? No.

When exactly did we go from reporters, who reported the facts of the story, to journalists, who insist on scrounging up discreet details about everyone's private lives?


I know I'm going to get a lot of heat here... but it had to be said.

a lot of you know Matt from Project Baseball 1976 fame. He also has another blog with a simple theme, A Giant Blog. No, it's not a blog about tall people. But his favourite team, the NY/SF Giants. He's trying to do what I'm trying to do with the Braves, put together team sets going waaaay back.
I was able to help him with some 1970, '71 and '72 Topps that I acquired via trade and card show, and I sent them on to him to enjoy.

Last week, I received an envelope from Matt. Not of vintage Braves. Oh no. Inside were 31 glorious 1977 Topps football cards.
Beautiful. Never heard of any of 'em. Even more awesome. Thanks for the football Matt!

Now here's where it gets hinky. I think, but am not sure, that Matt also included a few 1976 Topps baseball cards as well for my set that will never end. The problem is this. I get so excited at the prospect of maybe one day finishing this set off, I literally rush to my '76 binder and stuff them in the empty slots if I can.
So we'll give Matt credit for some of those too!

Which leads me to the "times two" portion of the post. Our good friend, the main Troll himself, sent me a plain, white envelope, with what could only be a top loader inside of it. One card? Usually trades between us are sent by the pound.... what could this be? Well after I tore it open, inside I found a 1976 Topps Tom Seaver.
Again, no scan as it went into my binder in about 4 seconds.
Thanks Marck!!

I may one day finish this set. Doubtful... but maybe.

This just announced, TBS and Chip Carey have parted ways. LINK Good luck to you Chip!

Let's hope they bring Don Sutton back from radio... that would be awesome.

you better save it next time.... or else....




after hitting him over the head, he smacks the post again and skates away. Doesn't even check to see if he's okay.

It was time to add some hockey to my bargain hunting excursion. Remember the rules? Under $5 basically. Free shipping if possible. I found two lots that I snapped up pretty quickly.

The first included this 1970-71 OPC Serge Savard - Hall Of Fame 1986
a 1971-72 OPC Brad Park Hall Of Fame 1988 - (Brad has a wrinkle on the front that stabs him right into his hip)

to all you southern folk and your families, a Happy American Thanksgiving.
If you need me, I'll be on the couch watching football.

This just in... 6 year old being recruited by Nick Saban, Lou Holtz, and Urban Meyer.

Another week, another pick six
But this lovely lass will be disappointed, as Dallas takes out their frustrations on the hapless Redskins.
Oh yeah, and San Diego takes over first place in the AFC West.

I call that title an attention getter. Anyways. I love odd ball cards, food issues, that type of thing. In part two of my bargain hunting, I give you this.
1982 Kellogs 3-D Superstars.

First, a skygazer,
a fragile Hammer