Still Ginter Obsessed...

So yesterday I checked the Post Office box immediately after school and it was EMPTY! What a cruel joke! It wasn’t a total loss as I had packages to get out for Wicked Ortega and Drew’s Cards, but I left empty handed. I like to wind down from school and before work by sorting cards, so naturally I went to Target. I had some bad experiences buying single packs there (check out this Jorge Cantu card that looks like it had an anvil dropped on it, but is fresh out of a pack) and their management didn’t seem to care, so I swore I would never spend another card dollar there. I also swore off Wal Mart and K-Mart was still selling 2008 Stadium Club packs for 3 bucks each and the Card Shop was closed, so I HAD to go to Target. I bought a blaster of A&G and season four of “Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and was on my way. I decided to rip it the second I got home (the dog could go out later) and I was greeted by the WORST MUTANT blaster EVER! I’ve seen mutant blaster rips that resulted in a bunch of cool cards. This was a mutant blaster that resulted in a bunch of CRAP! Eight packs and seven of them didn’t have minis in them. I had 3 packs with 4 cards in them and two packs with multiple National Pride cards. One pack, with 4 cards and no minis had THREE FREAKIN’ RICH HARDEN NATIONAL PRIDE CARDS! I give up, I don’t even know why Rich Harden is in this subset, but this is freakin’ ridiculous. I can’t afford to drop money on blasters like I do, at least give me something good Topps! I love these cards, I do. I love the look of them and the inclusion of Negro League Vets and Olympians. I think that is awesome. I have also decided to try and get a percentage of this set autographed and I still need to finish my set and need bait to trade to do it. This isn’t a trade bait post, although I have 12 short prints, 9 Ginter Code cards and 11 Sketch doubles on the block that I will list later unless you wanna e-mail me… Anyway, all rants aside. I was pissed about that box. I intended on writing about it last night when it was fresh in my mind, but Esther Gin had a fifty page (or something long) paper due by midnight, so she was camped out on the lone Troll computer all night. I had a meeting to attend anyway. The Bradentucky Bombers roller derby league had their annual open to the entire league meeting where we vote for Board Members and committee leaders. I did run for the board this year and was NOT elected. That is fine. I was voted in as the head of the Sponsorship and Fundraising committee. If anyone wants to sponsor our team, please get in touch! Anyway, the meeting was good, a lot of issues were discussed and a lot of people came out. We had about 50 girls and two guys crammed into a 150 sq. foot room with an overhead projector screen. It wasn’t nearly as chaotic as you would think. Anyway, the meeting lasted 3 hours and I voted by proxy for Esther Gin and I got home and she was still working on her paper! Fast forward to today… The mailbox was not empty. I had records from Pep at Midnight Sea Records, two TTMS and a trade from Lake Effect Cards which happened to be all Ginter! It was a small package, but he packed some awesome punch into an envelope that shipped for $1.22. I have been saying that my 75-card National Pride set was completed for a few weeks now. It of course wasn’t. Some people flaked on sending trades that they had promised, but LE filled the final page slot with card# NP51 of Albert Pujols! Yeah, one down! He also got me closer than ever to filling the baseball highlight sketch set. Mike aka JDz Daddy had sent me 17 of these, I pulled a bunch and traded for some, but the set still isn’t finished. A few people sent the wrong cards, I have a bunch of dupes, but now I am down to needing just 1 card. If someone could please send me AGHS4 I could finally post this set. Please! Greg from Lake Effects also hooked me up with some much needed minis, too. Initially I traded away all of my minis, but now I am collecting certain sets, plus I want all of the Rays. Greg sent me David Price. I think Mr. Price should be a candiate for biggest and goofiest smile of 2009-it's not quite the ROY Award that everyone had predicated for him, but it's something...I pulled Matt Garza all by myself and actually hung onto it and I got the Navi mini in a trade on Monday. The aforementioned Mike aka JDz Daddy had sent me three Rays minis which I never posted. They are #25 of Evan Longoria and #287 of James Shields and #251 of Carl Crawford-the two latter cards have Ginter backs. I don’t know if I ever thanked you for these Mike, but THANKS! I think that I only need BJ Upton, Akinori, Scott Kazmir, Carlos Pena and Pat Burrell now. I don’t really know which Rays ended up in this one. Does Bartlett have a card? Is that one of the SPs that I am missing? Anyway, Greg didn’t stop with that one mini. In an “amazing how things work out” turn of events, I had sent the Mojo Hand my treasured Cat Osterman mini because he collects her, too. I wasn’t happy about it, but Mojo needed it and I feel the need to be Generous first (it is my name) and a greedy collector second. Anyway, Greg hooked me up with another Osterman mini, this one with a Ginter back. Sweet! Greg is collecting the National Heroes minis and I sent him the only one of those that I had and he returned the favor with THREE Hoax minis (which I am collecting) and my second Creatures of Myth Legend and Terror mini. I pulled the Unicorn last week and now it can hang out with the Dragon! I have grown a little bored with the base set cards, extremely bored with the Nat Pride cards, but all of these mini subsets still keep me interested. I am still a Ginter fan. Oh, speaking of Ginter… Here is card number 4 towards my Ginter Auto Quest. It is of, perhaps the best TTM signer in all of sports, Twins side-armer Pat Neshek. He also owns the coolest signature and probably the coolest delivery. I received this card today; I sent it out last Thursday. I only sent him this one card because it is the only card I have of him. He has been added to my player collection list, so if you have any Neshek cards lying around, please think of your buddy the Troll! According to Pat his rehab has been going great and he will be throwing at 100% by November and WILL be in spring training with the Twins in 2010. That’s it for now; shoot me an e-mail if you can help me out in any of my Ginter missions. Like I said, I have a BUNCH of dupes-SPs, code cards, base cards, Nat Prides and Sketch cards. I also have some minis that I may be willing to part with if the deal is right. Thanks so much for the trade Greg! You rock! Oh, by the by... That blaster did not yield a single card that I need towards the set. I have given up on the trades that I am waiting for, so this is what I actually need to finish the set: 18,21,97,128,203,222,226,264,286,304,308,312,325,326,327,328 and 332. It's a total of 18 cards, but only 8 are short prints. Can ya help a brother out? Oh, as an endnote, there was another letter in the mail today. From Rob in New York who proposed a written trade which involves me getting a bunch of cards for my Negro League collection including a 1953 Topps Luke Easter! Rob, if you are reading, your on my brother! Go Rays! Troll out.