Chasing the Ginter!

So, I have had a handful of posts ready to go-trades and stuff. Plus, I am thinking of bringing back the Rays Card of the Day as a feature. I’ve thought of posting some Ginter pack rips, but I rip so damn fast, get so damn disappointed and never remember to keep the cards together that came in one pack. I also thought about leaving the last post (about Carlos Pena) up until someone finally commented on it, but that may never happen. I had thought that would be my 100th post when I wrote it and I thought it would be cool if it was titled “Pena Hits 150, Troll Hits 100”, but then I realized it was my 98th post and not my 100th. Oops. Plus, since this is post number 99, I really wanted to have something special ready to go for number 100. Maybe I will skip considering it a milestone and be ready with something grand for number 150. I have been a trading bandit of late. I think I have spent over $100.00 at the post office in the past 7 days! It doesn’t come close to the cash I have dropped on Allen & Ginter though. I have ripped 3 hobby boxes now (at $105. a pop). My wife returned from shopping at Target today with a surprise (6th) Ginter blaster (I love you Esther Gin!) and then I made an excuse to go back there and pick up number 7. With all that ripping-I also grabbed a total of 14 hobby packs and 12 retail jumbos, I have pulled a grand total of 2 relics. That’s 154 freaking packs and only 2 relics. To put that into perspective, dayf from Cardboard Junkie ripped a blaster last night and yanked 3 relics including one from the Yo-Yo man!!! Dayf!!! Anyway, I’ve been trading like a rabid badger (they like to trade, often!) and thanks to the sweet trades I have negotiated today with Jim from Sharpe Since 92, Mike from JD Wild Cardz and finally a huge one with Chris from Nachos Grande, I am now 91 % complete on my Ginter quest. This is my first year chasing the Ginter dragon. It has been terribly addicting, I love the cards, but the collation, oh my god the collation!!! It’s horrible. I have triples of short prints and had all kinds of holes in the binder till I started trading. You would think that by purchasing 154 packs of a product that you might be able to finish a 350 card set, right? Well, I was able to put my doubles to good use and help Mike whittle his list down to 3 and like I said, mine is getting pretty small, too. In fact, it’s right here:
56,59,83,107,108,135,203,219,235,291,303,304,305, 306,307,308,310,312,315,318,319,325,327,328,330, 333,334,341,342,343,344,346 and 348
So, I am actually down to needing just 33 more cards. I am doing okay on the National Pride’s too. Here is what I still need of these:
24,26,27,31,32,33,36,45,51,52,55 and 64
I think that Motherscratcher said it best when he described the Ginter obsession in a comment, saying “This is the first year I've really gotten into Ginter also. It's like crack, isn't it? At least what they make crack seem like on Law and Order and stuff.”
I, too, have never smoked or even seen crack (believe it or not) but I think these stupid cards are far worse. At least with crack, I am sure that there is some type of quality control. I have been cursed with quite a few damaged retail packs, I even “lucked out” and pulled this Ginter back mini of Cards pitcher Todd Wellemyer, with a HUGE crease down the middle, you can’t see it in the scan, but trust me, it’s there. Ugh. Well, the two “hits” which coincidentally are both members of the Detroit Tigers (Dontrelle's pants and Magglio's jersey bits) having terribly substandard years are on the trading block (Ideally for Rays relics), along with the creased Wellemeyer and a couple more minis and sketches. I will say that like crack, everybody wants it and I don’t seem to get stuck with any pulls. I think that everybody knows that I have the ripping fever and I am getting e-mails from a bunch of you everyday asking what minis I have available. Like I mentioned before, I pulled off a nice trade with Chris from Nachos Grande and he got a few of them. I do have a couple of regular back minis (crease free) left. They are: 83 Beethoven (successfully pulling off "Blue Steel"), 295 Brett Gardner, 348 Justin Masterson and a Ginter back card of Lance Berkman and Mr. Wang of the Yankees. I hope the Rays can handle the Aubrey Huff-less Orioles tonight and I hope I can finish this stupid set before I bounce any more checks buying blasters!!! Go Rays! Troll out.