2 Posts in 2 Days, WHAAATTT????????????

So, I am actually gonna deliver on the promise that I made yesterday, I AM actually gonna post some of the cool cards that Tim the Indians fan sent to my newly operational Post Office box…

First, I want to get a few links out of the way… At the end of my last post I encouraged everyone to check out the Bradentucky Bombers facebook page… Well, I posted the wrong link, so here is the correct one… Check it out and LIKE us please!

We did have a bout last night… It was fun and well attended which is awesome. We are raising money for Multiple Sclerosis research and our awesome fans helped us get towards our goal. Our league, the Bradentucky Bombers, has two separate teams, our A team – The Bomb Squad. Also, our B squad – The Nuclear Bombshells. Both teams had been perfect, each posting 2-0 records. Well, the Bombshells lost their first game to the Lakeland Derby Dames last night. LDD was just a better team, we were overmatched…

Okay, back to baseball cards… I had mentioned that I was gonna chase 2009 Topps and was basically starting from scratch and I was looking for a kind soul to help get me started. Well, Spankee from My Cardboard Mistress answered the call and is sending nearly 200 cards towards my goal. My lists are up to date and could be found here. Lend me a hand, okay?

Okay, now back to the first package in the PO box… Reader Tim send a pretty big envelope filled with the standard assortment of Rays cards… The first stack wasn’t terribly exciting, although appreciated, ha! The next stack was a complete set of 2008 or 2009 DAV Rays cards!!! The card back has contact info for the Disabled American Veterans... You can find them on the web here.

The cards look GREAT and it is a great foundation worthy of support... Along with the cards Tim included a note apologizing that Evan Longoria wasn’t included. Well, I have a pretty fair amount of Longo cards, but this DAV set absolutely RULED because of the guys it included who I don’t have cards of…

I seriously want to get back into the quest for hunting Rays autographs. I had gotten frustrated because there are so many people who spent a short amount of time in the Rays organization without ever getting a Rays uni-card. There are a lot of members of the Rays coaching staff who have been around forever, but never got a solo card in a Rays uniform… Yeah, that is why I LOVE this set! They are good looking cards too! I seriously never thought I would EVER see a card of longtime bullpen coach Bobby Ramos. Got that now! Also have Don Zimmer, Tom Foley, and George Hendrick… Well, just look at them!

The first 2 pages have at least 10 guys I previously did NOT have a Rays card of. I plan to have ALL of these signed before the season is up. There is one card that might be tough to get signed, the card featuring everyone’s favorite seadog Raymond. This is my 3rd Raymond card – I would LOVE to get six more and fill a page of him…The third page I am showing off has the bigger named players on it…

Nice cuz in every case I didn’t have any of these in any of my PCs. Oh, speaking of PCs – Ben Zobrist was included in this set and with this card I now have 2 full pages of Zorilla cards!

I know that seems like nothing to many of you, but I am psyched and happy with it… I trashed my old binder with my PCs of Crawford, Bartlett, Aki and Kaz (LONG story about that coming soon) and replaced it with a new binder that starts off with 13 pages of Evan Longoria!!!!

I had always said I didn't collect Longo because his cards were too pricey. Well, they still are, but I DO collect him. Keep sending them my way and I will keep collecting! Aside from Longo, the PC binder now includes Zorilla, Price, Wade Davis, Desmond Jennings, Jeremy Hellickson, Sean Rodriguez, Matt Moore, Alex Cobb, Jake McGee, Wilking Rodriguez, Raymond, Alex Colome, Shawn O’Malley, Stephen Vogt, Brandon Gomes, Alex Torres and Justin O’Conner.

Many of those guys don’t have many cards just yet and there are a few names on that list that I only have 1 or 2 cards of, but I hope to have full pages of each one of them someday soon. The binder is mostly current Rays, but there are 3 ex-Rays that I still collect… One is retired and coaching – Jared Sandberg and the other two are on the other coast, in the wasteland known as the Oakland A’s. I am referring to both Jonny Gomes! And Manny Ramirez. I only want Rays cards of Manny…

Adam from Thoughts and Sox sent me my second Manny card a few weeks back, so I just need 7 more to fill a page. Thanks for reading! Thanks so much to reader Tim for the sweet DAV cards which will be signed up soon… Oh, I just filled up my first page of last year’s Rookie of the Year. If ya don’t see it here, I don’t have it yet, so send it my way, ha!

Oh, I have been doing a bit of wheeling and dealing of late and most of my wantlists are up to date... I WILL be chasing 2012 Heritage, but doing so on a tight budget, so I NEED your dupes! Go Rays! Troll out.

It's A GO At the PO!!!!!!!!

Thanks to a truly awesome and amazing postal clerk who has become a friend, I now have an unlocked PO Box… As many of you crazy bloggers do, I was spending a ton of time at the post office and this meant I really got to know the folks who worked there… It is a very small post office and including the Postmaster, there are only 3 employees. All 3 have gone out to roller derby bouts (we have 1 tonight!) and when I am shipping, the conversation isn’t forced small talk – these are really good folks… I am lucky. One of the employees – Chrissie, is particularly awesome. We are “friends” on Facebook and chat on occasion.

I have been broke and haven’t been around like I once was. She sent a few messages of concern and said she missed me and was worried about my box being locked. I explained why and she said she was determined to help me get back on track – postally (is this a word?) speaking at least… Last year she was excited because her 13 year old son was going to his first big concert, the Tampa stop on the Vans Warped Tour. She is a pretty cool chick and was going with him, playing chaperone and being the cool mom that she is. I told her I wasn’t going this year, but had been to nearly every year prior. She told her son this and he thought that was pretty cool. He had met me at a derby bout and considered me one of his mom’s “cool friends” even though I am a Grandpa… Anyway, while cleaning up around the house I found an old tee shirt, a concert tee from the first ever Warped Tour back in 1995 which featured bands like Sublime, No Use for a Name, Sick of it All, L7, Quicksand and more… I brought it into the post office and gave it to Chrissie for her son. He LOVED it! It gave him big “cool points” at school for having such an old school tee. She said he wore it for a week straight.

Anyway, fast forward to last week. My Wifey, the legendary Esther Gin N Juice and I were celebrating our 6-year wedding anniversary (shown here on Wedding Day 03-11-2006 right after jumping from an airplane… ) I made a post about it on facebook and Chrissie sent me a message that she wanted to get us a special Anniversary gift since we had hooked her son up the year before. I messaged her back telling her thanks, but it wasn’t necessary and pretty much forgot about it.
Then, after work on Saturday, I stopped at the post office, solely out of habit because it was closed and my box was out of order. I went to it anyway, unlocked it expecting to see the yellow barrier in the back of the box which prevented anyone from putting mail in it. The yellow barrier was NOT there, there was a pair of manila envelopes in it instead along with a receipt…

The receipt was for a box payment. A BIG payment, considering I owed a $15 late fee along with the $48 cost for the box rental. It was ALL paid!!! I nearly cried I was so happy and touched. I have had a lot of truly generous people touch my life in the years since I began blogging and trading and this ranked among the tops… Truly unbelievable!!! Thanks sooooooooo much Chrissie!!!

I really don’t know what to say or how to thank you, but that is mega awesome and I will be eternally grateful for this… By the way, the 2 envelopes in the box came courtesy of a reader named Tim who is an Indians fan who claimed a card I had posted nearly 2 years ago. He had said he didn’t have anything to send me at the time, but he would pay me back someday. He came through with an awesome package of really cool and unique Rays cards. This will be the subject of my next post, thanks Tim! The other package came from Chris at the Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz blog. He had sent me an email weeks prior offering to send me 60 cards off of my 2012 Topps want list. I tried writing him back to tell him of my address change, but the email was sent back and for some reason I couldn’t get one through to him. I think he sent this envelope a month ago. Of course I still needed everything and now they are all safe and sound in the 2012 Topps binder.

When I got home I had a manila envelope in my house’s mailbox, too. Another 20 cards from 2012 Topps from a reader named Nick. Everything is safe in the binder. I have 32 completed pages now and just need a few more cards to finish the set off. For the first page I need card #7, I would assume that is a Mantle card, from there the next 30 pages are totally full! The few others I need to finish it are cards numbered 297, 307, 312, 313, 330 and 331. Yep, just a total of 7 more cards to finish this off! Not too bad I think…

I bought my first pack 5 weeks ago, posted a want list and within 30 days the blog-o-sphere sent me over 250 cards towards my journey. Huge thanks for that!!! I should mention that in the package from reader Nick I also got a few more 1987 Topps style minis and updated that list as well. Nick doesn’t have a blog and is just getting back into collecting. He ripped a bunch of 2012 Topps and he has already finished the set so he doesn’t need any of that. He does have a few PCs that I can help him with, so if anyone has any cards of Ichiro or Alex Ovechkin that they wouldn’t mind sharing with me – I want to hit Nick back.

This is important because not only did he send everything I mentioned- he is also the first person to answer the call for parallels of Desmond Jennings from 2012… I am now the proud owner of the RED version of his rookie cup card. I want them all, right down to the printing plates if I can find them, but I am on the road to domination and I owe ya for that Nick! That card incidentally is my 8th different Desmond Jennings card. My DJ page is nearly complete. I am going to post up pages from all of my PCs soon, but I am pretty stoked about this right now… You might notice the blue parallel that the Cardboard Don sent me from 2011 Topps. I want to collect EVERY parallel of that card, too… I was at that game!

I used to be a Carl Crawford fan and have nearly 700 cards of his (up for trade!) but DJ is helping me forget about him… I have been lucky to be in attendance for his first triple ever and several homeruns… I think I am a lucky charm for the guy… Okay, that is all for now. The Rays are taking on the Boston Red Sox in Port Charlotte, Florida today. Oh yeah!!! Roller Derby later tonight! More posting in the near future, too! I need to post up some more mailbox arrivals. Scott from Smed’s Cards has sent me about a dozen AWESOME envelopes in the past few months, but it was earlier this week that a white box arrived at my house FILLED with something really cool… Stay tuned!

A huge thanks to Post Office Chrissie and all the cool kids who have sent me cards and helped me out on my set quests!!! Y’all rule! Want lists are up to date, my address is Collective Troll/PO Box 1063/Tallevast, FL 34270 and Trade Me Anything will open for business really soon. I LOVE this hobby! Oh and by the way... That RED Ryan Braun 2012 Heritage parallel is still available and up for trade, so anybody want it??? And also, I have decided to chase 2009 Topps and now have list for it... Spare any? Oh, and yes, that IS what I look like, hope I didn't scare away too many readers, ha!

The Nuclear Bombshells are entertaining the Lakeland Derby Dames in just a couple hours tonight... Wanna learn more? Find us and like us on Facebook... Thanks for reading and sharing my love! Go Rays! Troll out.

Remember Me? And Looking for a Ryan Braun Collector to Trade With and some blah blah blah...

So, it has been about a month since my last post, so I figure I am due... I have received SO much great stuff in the mail this past month... Smeds Card, Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz, Cards on Cards, Dawgbones, Democratic Roadkill (HUGE!!!), plus several of my awesome readers have all blessed me with packages which I appreciate SOOO much!

I am staying very active in collecting... My budget has been small, so I have been spending my time sorting and organizing... We have a fancy antique wood bench in our dining room. It has become the spot for me to stack cards to send off for surprise packages to my trade buddies...

Yesterday I sent out 8 such packages. I have 11 more stuffed and ready to go... I hate that they are sitting in my dining room still, but postage aint cheap... I am hoping that next Thursday all of them will be en route... I am trying to trade away EVERYTHING that isn't a part of a set or PC that I am chasing.... I put together over 2600 cards to send out for my blogger brethren and a couple 100 are on postal trucks as we speak. If yer curious - folks living in the following zip codes can expect a package from under the bridge real soon - 55418,16101,30052,98105,22031...

I also have over 5000 cards ready to go to Commons 4 Kids! I am super excited about this donation and already have a second 5000 count box in the works. The only problem I am facing is that when I took this to the Post Office to ship I was told it would be $38.! The box came back home with me. I am open if anyone has any suggestions for getting these out a little cheaper... Commons 4 Kids seems like a super awesome organization and I totally support and recommend them and encourage you to click this link and check them out...

In other card news, my wife surprised me with a jumbo retail pack of 2012 Heritage yesterday... I had not realized that it was out just yet, I need to pay a little more attention I guess. So, longtime readers of this blog may know that I am a pretty big of Topps Heritage. It was the product that got me hooked back into collecting and while collecting the 2007 Heritage set and trying to google a checklist of short prints I stumbled upon this AMAZING blog which led me to more blogs, like this AWESOME blog and this AWESOME blog and ultimately led me to start blogging (and BTW all 3 of those blogs are STILL around and are still 3 of the BEST) , so thank you Topps Heritage!!! On a negative note - I spent many hundreds of dollars buying box after box of 2007 Heritage (I included over 2000 dupes in my Commons 4 Kids package) AND spent nearly 2 years blogging and aggresively trading before I finally finished that set...

I had 2008 Heritage nearly complete, SPs and all, when they dropped Heritage High Numbers... Around 2010 I finished that one. I am still working on the 2010 set and did not buy a single pack of 2011. One of the reasons that I stayed away from the '11 set was that I was sooo excited about the 2012 set as it is based on '63 Topps which is one of my favorite sets of all time and is also a set that I am chasing... SO, I am super psyched about 2012 Heritage! The stupid budget isn't gonna allow much along the lines of wax in the near future - I may be able to rip a blaster here and there, but I will relying HEAVILY on trading, so keep me in mind as you get dupes, PLEASE! I will explain how and why later, but I have many, many Allen and Ginter minis available to trade. I also have quite a few 1963 Topps cards (especially if you are an Indians fan), along with some random other cards from the 60s and 70s and many 2010, 2011 and 2012 Topps cards.

I also have this card which came from the jumbo pack that Super Wife got for me. It is the RED SP parallel version of card #276 of reigning NL MVP Ryan Braun (shown at the top of this post). So far 3 of them landed on eBay, one has sold and for pretty good money, too... I would, of course, much rather trade it with a blogger, perhaps for one of the 27 Ginter minis that I need to finish my Frankenset, whatever, I am open to offers, just get in touch if you wanna make a deal, okay? Anyhoo... Stay tuned, I just might make a second March post, MAYBE a third... I might even drop a spring training update or some of my opinions on the Rays and the Pirates...

I believe those 2 teams are facing off this Saturday afternoon and the Wife and I MIGHT be attending... As always, thanks for reading - I will do my best to be a better blogger. I do seriously have some things in the works and many plans for this season. I do apologize for the lack of images. I hate expecting people to just read words with no photos to keep it interesting.... Gotta go though, Wifey is waiting!

Go Rays!!! troll out.

Moving Closer on 2012 Topps!

Yes, this is another cheesy "pimp my needs list" post... But, I am pretty excited about my progress on the 2012 set... A week ago I needed over 250 cards to fill the binder, today, thanks to blogger generosity I need just 99 more cards... A HUGE THANKS goes to my blogger buddy Chris from the Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz blog who is sending me better than 60 cards from my list!!! Unbelievable!

What got the ball rolling was Chris had posted a really awesome video of Gary Carter's final at bat in Montreal... I commented, and next thing I know he is destroying my 2012 Topps needs list...

Of course, the list is up to date... Thanks again Chris and thanks to everyone else who has offered help!

Onto another list - I posted my Frankenset needs the other day and today I got 5 minis in the mail from Frank in Virginia... 2 of them were needs and 1 was an upgrade... The upgrade was awesome because it was card #293 and it took the ultra cheesy Royal Wedding mini out of my binder... The Frankenset is just 49 cards from being full. It will never be finished, because this monster will always be updated and upgraded... If you have unwanted Ginter minis, send them to me!!! If ya need any - I have some to spare!

I need to go to work and don't have time to properly eulogize the legendary Gary Carter, but I will end by saying that I have SOOOOO many memories of watching him play with the Mets and Expos. He was my Mom's favorite player and she took me to see him play dozens of times with both teams. When we weren't at the ball park, we were watching WWOR every night during the mid-80's. Gary Carter - GREAT catcher, CLASS ACT, LEGEND!!! Rip KID!!! And by the way, ya gotta love that Play at the Plate pic from the '86 Series...

Go Rays! RIP Gary Carter! troll out

I LOVE My Frankenset!

This winter, with nothing new to rip I decided to start putting all of my Allen and Ginter minis to good use. I got some cool pages and a binder and the Allen and Ginter Mini Frankenset was begun...

I have done quite a few trades and I now have 299 cards out of 350... I still have a lot of empty spaces and I have some numbers that I have 6 different cards fighting for the spot... Jesse from Minneapolis sent me 55 random minis for my quest - got 'em today!

I filled up some spots, but was left with quite a few dupes which are all shown above... Its hard choosing who gets that spot... If you are wondering how a black bordered Ken Griffey Jr. didn't make the cut-well, he is card #290 - the same as Cat Osterman, Carlos Pena and a score of others...

Anyhoo, everything in this pic is up for trade and my list is up to date. I need just one more card to hit 300! Help me out, please! The list is HERE.

Thanks for reading! Go Rays! Go minis! troll out...

29 Coins Away From a Willie Mays Auto!

Has anyone else redeemed codes on the 2012 Topps Golden site? I had 2 codes and tried a few times, but their website was unavailable... Last night Play at the Plate posted that it was live so I grabbed my 2 codes. What did I get? A player coin that I don't care about - A-Roid and a team coin I don't care about - the Indians... I thought the coin looked cool till I read that it was a digital image only and not a real coin... Not impressed. I had more fun unlocked 1986 Danny Heep cards in 2010... What do y'all think?

The Pirates impressive (not sarcastic this year) pitching staff has its first on-field workout this Sunday and I will be there... The NL Central Flag is theirs to loose... Go Bucs!

Oh, Tom from Angels in Order is the first to help me out on the 2012 Topps set, so the want list is up to date... Check it out here...

Go Rays! The best manager in the AL is locked up, as is the best rookie starter, the Rays are WS bound! troll out.

2012 Topps Want List is Up To Date...

Last night on the way home from work I made the 2 AM stop at Wal Mart and grabbed 3 hanger packs of 2012 Topps... I was hoping I might pull an SP that I could cash in and buy some vintage, but no such luck... The 3 packs yielded 108 cards - after taking away inserts and dupes I knocked 53 cards off of my list... Not great, but it was fun. I will probably not buy anymore for a bit, so I am gonna need some help... You can find my list here. Thanks for reading!

Go Rays! troll out.

My First Glance at 2012 Topps...

I gave in and bought some 2012 Topps… It started with 2 packs

on Thursday; it led to a cereal box on Friday and grew into 3 more packs on Saturday and 1 more this morning… I am waaaay past my budget, but I foresee another cereal box and a few more packs in the NEAR future… I have a small stack of cards sitting beside me – not many, but it’s enough to create a list, I think…
I rip on Topps about collation EVERY year, so I won’t much beyond the fact that after my purchases I have 85 cards towards the set. My packs and box yield a total of 144 cards. I did get a bunch of inserts (pretty standard) and a couple of parallels, but some of those were also dupes.

I did not get a single card from card 4 up till #28, yet I did manage to pull 4 copies of both card #110 of Mark Teixeira and card #298 of new Rays utilityman Jeff Keppinger. I also pulled 3 copies of #48 Wade Davis (not really complaining ‘bout this one) and #104, Brett Anderson, #2 Trevor Cahill AND #215 of Freddie Freeman. Aside from those, I have 16 additional duplicates. Not good Topps!

So anyway, I am 26% of the way there, I do intend on buying more packs, partially because I really wanna pull a Rally Squirrel card OR 1 of the other crazy short print variations that selling for big bucks on the ‘Bay.

I should also mention that my cards to chase (so far) in 2012 are the 2 different awesome cards of Rays leftfielder Desmond Jennings. So, colorful versions cards #ed 5 and 15 of DJ are my key wants for 2012 so far… If you have black, blue, red, gold, sparkly, silky or otherwise cards of Jennings – well, I want them!!!

I do think they I am going to try and chase the ’87 set… I don’t fully understand why they are sized like ’75 minis, but they are pretty sweet nonetheless.

As for the other insert sets and the reds and sparkles that I have pulled so far – I will post them ALL very soon and they are all up for grabs. For now, this is my want list. Get in touch if you can lend a hand. Please contact me before shipping so I can give youan alternate address.

Pitchers and catchers are reporting so very soon!!! I can’t wait!
Go Rays! Troll out.

Oh, not out just yet... Although I do have a ten dollar bill set aside to grab a few packs at Target, this is what I need so far... I should mention that I haven't pulled any of the crazy SPs, pies in the face or rodent cards. I do have a red parallel of Franklin Guitierez with John Lannan stats on the back...

1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11,13,14,16,18,20,21,22,23,25,26,27,28,31,35,36,38,40,46,47,49,52,

54,55,57,58,59,60,62,64,65,66,67,68,69,71,72,73,74,78,80,83,84,87,88,93,95,96,

100,102,103,105,106,108,111,112,117,118,119,120,123,125,127,129,135,137,138,

139,140,141,142,146,148,150,151,155,160,161,168,169,173,174,176,177,178,180,

182,183,185,186,187,192,193,194,195,197,198,199,201,203,204,208,210,211,

213,214,216,219,220,221,224,225,226,230,232,233,234,235,237,238,240,241,

242,244,248,249,251,252,255,259,262,263,264,266,267,268,271,274,275,277,

278,279,280,281,282,284,286,287,288,289,290,291,293,295,296,300,301,

303,304,305,310,311,314,315,316,319,320,327,328,330 and 331.

Okay, thats all I need, just another 250 cards or so... Ugh, Topps. I don't learn, though, I am gonna be buying more. It's a decent looking set. I don't like as much as 2011 and I will say that ripping '11 Updates was more exciting, had better photography and had more players on the right teams... Still, Topps is Topps and I love Topps Baseball cards, SO I will be chasing it...

As an endnote, we (the Bradentucky Bombers) opened our 2012 season with a bang - we beat (handily) the Miami Vice City Rollers. We had fun and left with no injuries, so win, win!

Troll out for real!

Rambling On... A Little Bit About a Lot of Stuff...

Greetings Trollites!

It seems I am slapping together a post once a month to claim that I am still alive and will be posting soon…

Well, its February, I am still alive and I will be posting soon, ha!

Things have been good in Trollville… The Legendary Esther Gin N Juice, AKA la espousa, started her new job last week and she loves it…

I have been a part of the day shift at my job for nearly six months now. Although I hate the alarm clock at 5 AM, things are going pretty well and I LOVE having my nights free. I am back in school again after taking a semester off. It’s Statistics for now and I got a high B on my first exam. I think I can pass this thing. Statistics is pretty much perfect for a baseball stat nerd like me…

I just finished reading “Odd Man Out”.

I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it as an enjoyable read. I was going to offer it up to Rod from Padrographs. Rod, if you are reading, I would be glad to send it your way. If you have already read it, well, who wants it???

I have not yet purchased any 2012 Topps. I actually went to Target today to get some puppy food and they didn’t have it on the shelves yet. They DO have 2011 Allen and Ginter marked down 20%. I didn’t buy any, but I was excited to see it marked down. I didn’t buy it mainly because I am broke, but also because I only need 3 more cards to finish off the set… I know I am not the Night Owl, but if you wanna send me cards numbered 119,120 and

130, I won’t try to stop you…

If you want to ship them to me, you might run into a roadblock, though… You see, I pay for my Post Office box every 6 months. Well, I am supposed to… The Box fees seem to go up as often as the price of stamps. In July, when I renewed last, it was $38. This January, the renewal was $47. The wifey and I got this Box while we were still dating (and we celebrate 6 years of wedded bliss next month) and it was $18.Yeah, it has nearly tripled in cost in less than a decade. Either way, I am kicking myself for not paying it on time. Now, not only do I have to cough up the 47 bucks, but they are getting me for a $25. Late fee… Blurgh. Not happy about this, but I gotta have my PO Box. I hope to havethe $$$ to get this current before the end of the month. Stay tuned and I will keep y’all up to date. If you are desperately eager to send me a package – shoot me an e-mail and I can give you my home address.

Okay, so several of you have e-mailed me to ask about my pending Trade Me Anything extravaganza. This WILL still happen. Basically the delay is solely because of the PO Box issue. As soon as I have that current again, TMA will happen! I promise…

The original reason we got the PO Box was for our record label – Bacon Towne Records. Some of you may not be aware, but aside from being a totally obsessed baseball card nerd, I am also a record collector geek.

The Wifey and I have been running Bacon Towne Rex for seven years. We release exclusively on vinyl and have had 9 releases (eight 7 inches and one 12”LP) since 2005. We have sold records to people in each one of the fifty states and over 20 different countries. It is a labor of love and is also tons of fun for us. We LOVE hardcore, thrash and punk rock music, we love our bands, we love going to shows, being on tour and we love doing mail-order. I don’t discuss the label (often at least) here on Troll Might Rule, but every now and then the paths do cross. I bring it up now because earlier this week I finalized a trade with my new friend Jesse from

Minneapolis. He wanted 3 of our releases and offered up some sweet Allen and

Ginter minis as trade bait.

Long story short, we worked out a deal that both sides are happy with and I now have 294 of the 350 minis needed for my Frankenset!!! That is 84% completion! I am thrilled and a little surprised. When I decided to chase this a few months ago I thought it would be a season long (at least) quest. The season hasn’t even started and I am down to 56 cards!! You can find my list HERE. Let’s make a deal!!!

Okay, so that covers it, I guess… Trade Me Anything will happen when I get my Post Office Box unlocked. My PO Box is temporarily unavailable. If you NEED to send me cards, shoot me an email and I will send you an alternative address.

I AM still alive. I do still lurk around the blog-o-sphere… I still read the Night Owl on a nightly basis. I still check Play at the Plate while I sip on my morning coffee and I had a beer (or seven) to celebrate The Cardboard Don’s 3rd Blog Birthday. I still have cards all over the house. There are binders on the coffee table, the dining room table and next to the bed. I still plan on ripping and chasing Topps as well as Allen and Ginter in 2012. I still plan on taking my “Little Brothers” to spring training. Now that I don’t work the night shift anymore, I plan on being a fixture at Tropicana Field in 2012. The Misses and I have been spending a lot of time on our monthly budget and we have determined that we can def fit 2 games a month (at least) into the budget.

Oh… Una Cosa Mas…

Before I sign off, I need to mention that Side of Bacon lives and I will remain the voice of the Bradentucky Bombers roller derby league. Still recovering from her knee reconstruction – Esther Gin N Juice is starting the season on the injured reserve, but I haven’t lost my voice yet and I will be there for Opening Night. We kick the season off THIS SUNDAY night at Astro Skate in Bradenton, Florida. It will be: The Bradentucky Bombers Present the Nuclear Bombshells VS, The Miami Vice City Dolls.

For more info, check out our website… If you don’t live in Florida, do yourself a favor and look up and check out your town’s own roller derby leagues…

As always, thanks for reading! I truly appreciate all of you! For everyone that has been patient with me declaring that I am back each month right before I disappear for another 29 days, I thank you!

Pitchers and catchers will be invading my town VERY soon. I can’t wait! Thanks to all! I love this game, I love this hobby and I love this forum! Baseball IQ starts in a few minutes and that is MY SHOW, so I gotta go. All of my want lists are up to date, so check em out… GO RAYS!!! We are going all the way in 2012 and I will be there to cheer y’all on in person!

Oh, before I sign off - The ever elusive black bordered 2011 Ben Zobrist card is now in my collection and at the top of this post. I have the base, the blue and the black, but still need the gold, puke, sparkle, hope, red... Help a Zorilla fan out, okay? Once again, Go Rays! To my wife, I love you! You are beautiful, thanks for decorating my blog! Go Bombers! Troll out.

Welcome Home Carlos!!!

Okay, as always I am a little on the draw, but I felt like I needed to acknowledge this signing... Last week or month, or whenever it was, I wrote a long, long post about the Luke Scott signing... Disgruntled fan type stuff. I was seriously pissed off that the Rays weren't bringing back Damon and I felt that Scott was a huge downgrade from Kotchman offensively and defensively... I put together a list of 20 different free agents that I would rather the Rays went after who would be more productive, more beneficial to the team, more versatile and likely cheaper than Luke Scott. One of the name's on the list was Carlos Pena.Yes, he who barely lives atop the Mendoza line and strikes out more often than (insert clever zing here)...

I do acknowledge his shortcomings and know that Pena doesn't mean a World Championship, BUT he is a solid first baseman, a good lefthanded bat, a solid team leader, clubhouse guy and fan favorite and a guy who can provide real protection for Zobrist and Longoria. It allows Matt Joyce to stay in rightfield and Zobrist to live in the infield with Sean Rodriguez. Of course Tampa Bay still really needs a catcher, but now the brass can concentrate on filling that hole. I can live with DH by committee, but would be much happier if they did the right thing and brought Johnny Damon back...

Time will tell, but I am damn excited about the 2012 season. Pitchers and catchers will be rolling into town very soon and I will be there to greet them... Posts are sitting in the folder in wait... I keep saying I am back, but I keep on disappearing, so I will stop making false claims... I will just say that I love this hobby, I love this forum and I damn sure LOVE this wonderful game of baseball and this season is gonna be super special for me.

Why you ask? Well, I will tell you... My super awesome wife is starting a new (and much more lucrative) job this Monday. She will be working the same schedule as me and we will both be home at nights and just in time for the standard 7:05 start time... Aside from that my awesome Mother-in-law got us a sweet HD TV for Christmas and today my Wifey surprised me by getting cable installed INCLUDING the MLB Season Pass in HD!!!!!!! Did I mention that I love my Wife?

As an endnote - many of my wantlists have been cleaned up and updated AND I have introduced a NEW list... I am now chasing (and documenting said chase) 1979 Topps.

I had sort of forgotten about this quest until Scott from Smed's Cards hit me up with a surprise package of over 100 cards from that glorious set. A HUGE thanks to Senor Smed's for the awesomeness!!! I will, someday, post up some of the super sweet cardboard that Mr. Smed has shared with me...

Also, big ups to my homie the Cardboard Don who supplied the C. Pena illustration at the top of this post... I am very excited about Pena coming home, for real! I fully expect him to deposit 40 blasts into the rightfield seats at the Trop in 2012... It wasn't too long ago that as a member of the Rays Carlos Pena has been a Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, All Star, Comeback Player of the Year and homerun champion... Lets do it all again Los! Cheers to all! I love it! Go Rays!!! troll out.

1,200 Words on Football???

Good evening Trollites!!! How is everyone doing? Worn out from a weekend of playoff football? Regular readers know that I am not a football guy. I don’t collect football cards and I don’t follow the sport too much. I don’t dislike it, it’s just nott baseball… I actually do have a favorite team and try to watch them every Sunday. This year my Mother-In-Law bought herself an early Christmas treat – a 46” HD TV. I have been on her couch most Sundays since. She is a die-hard fan of the same team as me. Her boyfriend is a Dolphins fan. Her family (who all live in Michigan) are big Lions fans. Her and I cheer for a team that managed to lose it’ s last 10 games perfectly, without a win mixed in. Yeah, I love the Bucs, as embarrassing as that is right now, I do love my Buccaneers…

I have been really lucky to watch them get their butts kicked in High Definition… It makes the bad plays look worse, for sure. Their final game was straight up pathetic – like they had stopped trying all together… I don’t think their head couch was the cause of their horrible play, but he took the blame and got the ax. I liked Coach Morris… I have pewter-colored glasses but I do have a grasp on reality. I know they aren’t a playoff contender, but I also know they aren’t as bad as they played the last 3 months. I hope/they will bounce back in 2012…

Anyway, with them out of the picture I had to adopt some teams to root for through the playoffs… I picked two teams for two different reasons and nearly as soon as I dedicated myself a fan, I promptly watched each of them exit the playoff picture quickly… I was very disappointed in both the Lions and Falcons… I thought each of them would put up a better fight. Since they were done so quick – I let myself ride on the coattails of one more team.

More than anything I just wanted to see somebody knock Tim Tebow out, so a Steelers fan I became. The game had its moments, but Pittsburgh’s 4th quarter comeback was the most exciting 15 minutes of sports I had witnessed since the World Series. I got WAY into it. When they tied it up and forced overtime I could hardly contain myself and my excitement. It was unbelievable and soooo awesome. Of course before I finished texting the message “the Steelers just forced sudden death overtime, your done teb…” Yeah, didn’t even finish the message before Tebow connected and sealed the Steelers coffin.

So, yeah Denver won and they advance, as did the Giants against Atlanta… Football isn’t so bad after all… I don’t know what team I will adopt yet. If someone can beat the Broncos or the Pats – that is the team I will be cheering…

Anyhoo, I have been trying to prep for my ongoing Trade Me Anything endeavor. I am working on getting the guidelines together which will be the first post; I am also working on getting singles and lots together. I hope that some of you will participate in this. I will probably try and post singles first, so they are easier to ship. I do have some big lots o’ cards. I would love to find someone who wants a big starter lot for 2011 Topps Updates. Get in touch if you are that guy (or gal). I also have some 2007 and 2008 Topps Heritage that I would love to find a proper home for. I (seriously) have over 1,000 cards for each year. No short prints, but pretty much a full base set of each year, plus a ton of dupes. If you wanna chase either of these – I would be glad to transfer ownership to anyone who would be willing to pay to ship them. Speaking of lots – I am retroactively chasing 2008 and 2009 Topps and 2006 and 2007 Allen and Ginter… I have (literally) a few cards from each set and I will be making up want lists for each set before I begin the “2012 Troll’s Trade Me Anything”.

Oh, one last thing, before I sign off, in honor the football playoffs I am going to giveaway the ONLY football card I have sitting in my collection. Some of you may remember a little while back when I posted a pic of me as a little kid walking alongside Doug Flutie… The Pats trained at Bryant College in Smithfield, Rhode Island. That is where my big sister went to school and while she was attending I would spend the weekend in her dorm room and spend the days watching the Pats train while gathering a ton of autographs. I had a pennant signed by the ENTIRE team. I got a helmet and had that signed by nearly the entire team. I only had cards of 4 different players, but I got all of them signed. They didn’t have a ton of stars, but they did find themselves in the Super Bowl that year. They didn’t put up too much of a fight, but they were there. I think I do still have autos from Tony Franklin and Andre Tippett somewhere (probably at my parents house) but this is the only one in my house.

This card isn’t in mint condition. The corners are soft and there is some light creasing, but it is still an on-card auto of a Pro-Bowl running back who made it to the Super Bowl. I can’t believe I am even acknowledging this, but Wikipedia cites him as being the last “white player” to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season… If you thought that this "white dude" had topped 1,000 yards, his high was 949 yards rushing in 1999. He did have 1188 total yards, but didn't hit 1,000 rushing... Anyhow, if you want this card – make a comment on this post. Tell me who you are rooting for to go all the way, OR tell me who you want to see get beat badly this year…

So yeah, if you want this Craig James autographed card, just comment HERE. If for some reason more than one person wants it, I will put the names in a hat and pick a winner. You have till I get home from work to comment. That means around 6:00 PM Eastern on Monday night. If you wanna drop a comment and tell me if you think that the Bucs are just a good head couch away from the Super Bowl, go ahead and say that, too...

As always, thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions for me on TMA, drop me a line HERE. If you want my Heritage dupes – drop me a line… If you have a 2011 Sean Rodriguez RAINBOW – my mailing address is on the sidebar. You may send it to me. No real need to drop me a line, but ya could…

Oh, if you "win" the card, I need yer address. Send it to me in an e-mail right HERE, It will ship out in a top loader in a PWE with a single FOREVER stamp on it...

Una cosa mas... I wouldn't mind having a few current Bucs cards in my collection. Not too many, nothing fancy, but a page worth in the Rays binder would be pretty neat. I feel the same way about the Lightning and the OKC THUNDER!

GO RAYS!!! Troll out.