Computer Crashed and I Need a Few Addresses...

I have a fancy address/blogger database on my home computer which took a dive this past week. I found a few of your addresses in emails and somehow I have a few memorized, but there are a couple I need again. Dark Ship Todd, Thoughts and Sox, Dan's Other World, Omega, Opoohwan, Democratic Duane, Paper Chase and Peterson are all addresses I can't locate. Sorry I am a mess... If you can email me with them I will get them all out on Monday. Sorry for the delays... Some of you will be thrilled with what was pulled. Some of you, well, that is the luck of the draw... As far as the person who had the Rockies-I feel like I owe you. You paid full price for the slot and I opened very little post-1993 wax and therefore you ended with few cards. I already added a bonus to the Marlins. Okay, that is all. My car broke down last week one town away, gotta try and get it home. Perhaps there will be more Wicked good stuff coming... Also, I have heard from the Twins and Tigers fans that they have recieved their cards, please let me know when you get yours. Go Rays! Troll out.

READ ME!!! State of the Troll and Things to Come!

Things to come…
Greetings! Troll here. Very busy. We have family from Maryland visiting, so no time to post. All of the group break stuff is packed up. 10 peoples stuff has shipped and the remainder will go out on Monday or Tuesday. The Bradentucky Bombers Nuclear Bombshells (our B team) is going to Fort Myers for a roller derby Sunday. We will take the family and they will check out derby for the first time. Esther Gin N Juice is strictly A team, so she won’t be skating, but I will be working. Anyway, regarding the group break-all of the participants will receive something this coming week. Some of you are due oversized cards and I have a couple of packs I picked up to post for APTBNL that I will divvy up for you guys too. Anyway, some of you are done, but some might get some bonuses. Some of you got 100s of cards, some less, but most things turned out pretty even. I didn’t count cards, but it wasn’t very lopsided. The two teams that got the shaft were the Rockies and the Marlins. I feel like I owe you guys something. So much that was ripped was late 80’s/early 90’s so the newer expansion teams were underrepresented. The rule is and you all MUST comply-is that you must post at least one card you received from the break on your own blogs and send me a link. I can’t wait for everyone to get their stuff, it was more work than I had intended and I am soooo disorganized that I know now that I am not suited for this kind of stuff. Anyhoo, when I finally got my stuff together I had a blast sorting through all of the cards. There were so many players that I had forgotten about and so many great cards and goofy photos, it was great. I also obsessively added loose packs that were more modern and in the end there were quite a few “hits” and I can’t wait to see the reactions of the lucky ones who are going to get them. Okay, now with the group break done I can move on to some other things. I am going to make the next few weeks theme weeks. The week upcoming (July 26th) is special to me for a number of personal reasons and I am going to make that the first theme week. It will be a Wicked Week of Summer. Ideally it will be seven days worth of cards from the My Past Time…I Love It! blog on all of my different blogs. I realized I have over 400 unposted cards that came from him plus I will also show off some cards of his favorite players. It will be GREAT stuff. Hundreds of cards, autographed stuff, vintage, hits and Rays galore. Stay tuned. The following week will be International Week. It will include trades from the UK, Australia, Asia, South Africa, Canada, France and Mexico. Should I get any more international packages, they will be added too. There are still MANY countries that haven’t traded with the Troll yet. After that, it will be a week of linking your group break posts and a little commentary from me. Okay, so stay tuned and keep coming back. Wicked Week is coming!!! Go Rays! Troll out.

Searching For Anthony K...

The Killer B's are calling! Please send me your current mailing address... There is a box of junk wax with your name on it... Also looking to confirm (sorry if you already did) addresses for the takers of the Angels, Giants, Tigers, Athletics, Royals, Rockies and Indians... Go Rays! Troll out!

Can Opened, Cards Posted...

1998 Pinnacle Inside has been opened and posted. Read it here. Go Rays! Troll out.

The Best Card of the Group Break and Some More Packs That Need a Home...

I know I said I wasn't going to post any of the group break cards myself, but I have to make one exception. There were some pretty awesome cards pulled. A couple of autos, several relics, a really low numbered card and plenty of Hall of Famers. There are also some unusual cards. Failed prospects, Bip Roberts on several different teams, Jose Rijo with several unusual props, glow in the dark cards, Nolan Ryan playing high school basketball, players eating, with their kids, making faces, wearing silly sunglasses and carrying oversized bats. It really has been a fun trip down memory lane for me. My wife has been helping me get the boxes ready to ship and this card came up. Now there a lot of cards that made us stop and laugh, but we agreed this was the best card out of the entire rip. Ryan, you might have to fight me for this one! It was a hard choice though. The '95 Collectors Choice was loaded with interesting photography. Aside from the cards, the old gum has been very interesting... I saved the gum from the 1978 O-Pee-Chee. 30 plus year old Canadian gum... It didn't look much worse than the 1995 Bazooka, that was pretty gross. Anyway... I found a few more packs than need homes. I only have a couple of each of these, but the first to claim will get them... Hersheys and Harleys. Have at it. Anthony K. I still need your address... Go Rays! Troll out.

Quick Post, A New PC Addition, A Contest Update and a Question for the Group Break Faithful...

I miss my blog!!! All of them. I got so used to posting daily on at least two of my blogs and it is driving me crazy to not be around. I am working 7 days AGAIN this week and I have finals on Monday and Tuesday and then I begin summer semester B on Wednesday. No rest for the wicked I suppose... I have hundreds of great cards that I have recieved in trades to post, kind bloggers and readers from all over the world have been tearing up my want lists which are all updated. I also updated my needs list on the side bar for autographs from the 2008 AL Champs team. I am down to needing just 5 cards. I have autos of three of them already, but not on Rays cards. I think ultimately I want to upgrade and have the whole team on-card. I looked through the collection and I am pretty close. I only have one sticker auto that I still need to upgrade. The unfortunate thing is that sticker auto is of their third baseman and his on-card autographs ain't cheap... I will get a few posts up this weekend. I will also update on the promised contest. It will coincide with my 600th post which should happen next weekend. The question will be how many cards I have in my Carl Crawford collection. I have been buying recieving a lot of new cards lately, so you can't guess yet. I will set a date and then count everything. The closest to the right number will win. First prize will be closest without going over and second prize will be closest over. The prizes will include a Carl Crawford Topps Traded rookie card and a few other goodies for the non-Rays fans out there. One prize will be a very nice Tony Gwynn rookie card so stay tuned and start thinking of your guesses. I will give you a hint now... I passed 200 at the end of 2009. I will also tell you that I count variations as different cards so if I have a 2007 Topps, the same card with a red back and the same card in gold it will count as three different cards. I will also count any card that pictures and names Crawford on it. For instance this new addition to my collection will count. It is a 2007 Upper Deck Premier Rare Patches Dual card with BJ Upton. It is numbered 48/50. I like dual player cards when they make sense and Crawford and Upton have patroled the same outfield together for a while now. I really don't like all the Crawford cards with Scott Podsednick (sp?) or Jose Rios. Those don't make sense. This card doesn't identify which swatch is from which player, but I love that the patch is below the photo of CC. I know everyone out there is over jersey swatches. I became obsessed with them when I got back into collecting and now I am getting bored a little bit, too. Patches on the other hand still have my interest 100%. Thats it for now, I really hope to be able to post some of the amazing trades I have recieved very soon. You guys-my readers and fellow bloggers-are amazing and your generosity continues to blow me away. Oh... one last thing. If you are a participant in my long overdue group break I have a question. Would you rather continue to wait for me to slowly post the rips OR would you rather I tear EVERYTHING and not post it, but send all of your cards out and you-the recipient-will post them on your blogs? Please let me know. I feel really bad that everyone rushed payment and I have not sent anything in return out yet. I put up a poll question, please vote on it. Oh before I sign off I have a very odd card in my Rays collection. I found this card-it is a 1998 Best Trading Cards promo card of Kerry Wood. Wood came up with the Cubs obviously and he never played for a second in the Rays organiztion, but in 1997 he was in AA with the Cubs and played for the Orlando Rays, which were still a Cubs team. Oddness... Does anyone know if Wood signs TTM? I would love to have this card signed... Thanks for reading! Please check out my freshly updated want lists. Go Rays! Troll out.

More Group Break Goodness

Can be found on a Pack to be Named Later, check it out!

The Collective Troll's Better Late than Never Group Break!!!

The title says it all... About 5 or 6 years ago a bunch of you signed on for a group break. By now I am sure that most everyone has forgotten about who had which team. I am a horrible group break host and I apologize for that. I was able to dig up the official list of who has which team. I think that most everyone paid up long ago. I don't know if everyone did, we will leave this on the honor system. Anyway, I added the list on the side bar to remind myself that I need to get this done. The list will stay up until its over. Thanks for reading. Go Rays! Lazy Troll out.