Damn it Otto, You're Addicted to Allen and Ginter!

I tried to resist it, but when I got bit by that Ginter bug; man did I fall into the frenzy that is Allen & Ginter. From begging the hobby shop to get more boxes in to ending up at Wal Mart (where I swore I would never shop at again) at 3 in the morning covered in sweat and shaking like a junkie, I have completely succumbed to the Ginter chase. I have had a ton of help on my mission because every pack I rip seems to have the same cards in it (Coco Crisp, Todd Wellemeyer, Gil Meche and Jose Lopez National Pride) and after the kindness of about 10 different fellow bloggers, I am 92% complete, threw with this awfully addictive set. I have upped my rip total to 171 packs (I am disgusting) and have very little (other than a lot of Coco Crisp cards) to show for it. Generally, as soon as the trade envelope comes in the mail, I tear it open and put the cards in the book. Last night I received two Ginter-rich packages, one from Sarah at a Rookie Card Collector and this package from Chris AKA Fanofreds from the Nachos Grande blog. This isn’t the first trade we’ve pulled off, but the first involving Ginter crack. He is chasing the same sets as I am this year (Topps Heritage, Topps and Allen and Ginter) so a trade was very convenient for both of us. Plus, he is super organized and always has up-to-date lists of what he needs and what he has to trade. We worked out a deal a big box of Ginter’s was on its way to me! What made this trade cool was he included a few Heritage cards from my list, too. I had hit the proverbial wall on that set and hadn’t been able to pull off a trade in weeks. There is a card shop in Tampa that has a ton of short prints (which I need) but he charges five bucks a pop for them. Ouch! I had to replace 3 that I promised to Mike a few weeks back and it set me back 15 bucks. I would rather drop another five and get a blaster and take my chances. Anyway… with this package my needs list for base cards has shrunk to just 5 cards (79,162,300,318 and 337) but I still need 41 more short prints(426,427,430,431,432,433,436,437,438,439,441,442,444,445,446,447,450,452,456,

457,459,460,461,462,465,468,469,475,476,477,479,480,481,487,488,489,491,496,497, 499 and 500) to close the book on this set. Does anyone have any of these to trade?
When I just know what numbers I need it is always a surprise who is on the cards that bear those numbers. In this case, I guess I needed James Shields (one win in past 11 starts) who has been PATHETIC for the Rays of late. Speaking of pathetic, I guess I needed Manny, too. On the Ginter side of things he hooked me up with a BUNCH of National Pride cards, now I just need 7 more (24,26,27,36,51,52 and 64) to finish that subset, which is pretty awesome because I wasn’t even gonna chase that one…The only one that really stood out to me is card number NP1 of Rays killer Ervin Santana who is apparently the newest member of the X Men.
He hooked up some base cards that I had been seeking including card #290 of the always awesome and hard to hit (cousin of Esther Gin) Cat Osterman, a couple of Nats named Zimmerman, #208 of Michael Young who accounted for 3 of the 5 hits against Scott Kazmir last night and the ever prolific power hitter #46 Brian Roberts (is he at like 4 in 3 games now?) and #68 of Jamie Moyer (who looks cool in water colors). This brings me to needing just six more cards to finish the 1-300 base set. They are card numbers 83,107,108,135,203 and 219. He brought me closer on the SPs too. Sending (among others) card number 340 of Richard Gatling and #316 of Rick Porcello. Rick (the guy who dropped Youk to the ground) caught my attention last year when he went 8-6 for the Lakeland Flying Tigers in the Florida State League. He jumped for A level to the majors this year and even though he is a Tiger, I am contemplating collecting him. That sums up this trade. If you have spare SPs you wanna send me from this set, I still need cards 303,304,305,307,308,310,312,315,319,325,327,328,330, 334,343 and 346.Thats it and my foray into Allen and Ginter is complete. Thanks to everyone who has helped me out on this (and anything) I will try and get caught up with my trades soon. Don’t forget to check out the post right below this one, this is FREE stuff to be given away, sign up and win! Oh, by the by. There is a free Coco Crisp card for anyone who gets that title reference…This is somewhat odd, but both Chris and I posted our trades this Saturday afternoon, I guess we were both happy... Go Rays! Troll out.