My New Brother For the Bucs...

Yesterday I posted up the 14 cards I needed to finish off the 2011 Topps set. Several people in the blog-o-sphere made me offers and right now, pending delivery, my want list has been whittled down to just 3 cards. Thanks to reader Tim and blogger Brian I will just need 3 more cards - they are numbers 35, 331 and 639.

As cool as it is to get this close to finish off a set, I am more excited that I found a great new blog AND a fellow Yankee hating, Pittsburgh Pirates lovin', Rays fan and card collector... New bloggers ask me to pimp their blogs every now and then. This dude didn't ask, he just made me a trade offer and had a link to his blog. I checked it out and felt right at home. I don't know a lot of collectors who seriously chase the Pirates, but this dude has a GREAT COLLECTION!

He chases Andrew McCutchen and Ryan Doumit and like me is a big fan of Garrett Jones. GJ is seriously one of the nicest, most down to earth, friendly and really tall dude in baseball. I have several Garrett Jones stories that I will share someday. I need to get pictures from a friend to truly illustrate it, but I will just say he is a really fan friendly guy who I look forward to seeing in spring training each year. Anyway, I am really taken by this fairly new blog - I love seeing a serious Pirates collector and he has some great stuff. I know a lot of bloggers have a habit of pulling cards of the Pirates, Rockies and Angels and not having anyone to trade them to. Please check out this great new blog and hit him up with your Pirates hits...

You can find it right here, tell him the Troll sent ya! Oh, by the way, it is called the Pirates Treasure Room and he is a huge fan of Ryan Doumit... Oh, this doesn't mean I am done collecting Topps cards of the Pirates from the 50's and 60's. They are still my favorite historic team and Roberto Clemente will always be my favorite player of ALL TIME and Maz, Virdon, Stargell and everyone who played for those GREAT Bucs teams of the 50s, 60s and 70s will always live in my PC. I am just glad to find a fellow Pirates fan AND this dude comes down to Florida for spring training, so there is a chance of getting a face to face blogger meeting.

Please dig through your dupes and find me cards #35, 331 and 639 and send them my way... I will be posting packs 3 and 4 for Gint-A-Cuffs later today, so stay tuned... Go Rays! Go Bucs (it aint over yet!) troll out.

2011 Topps Needs... I Wanna Finish this Set Bad! Help a Troll Out...

So as I mentioned in the previous post - BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet hooked me up with a bunch of 2011 Topps cards... Today, while watching the Braves and Mets duke it out I put all my 2011 Topps cards in the binder and I realized I wasn't doing as well as I had thought. I have been saying that I was 5 cards away from being done. Turns out I need 14 more to finish it off. I am anxious for Updates and Highlights now, but I really wanna finish this puppy off before U & H comes out. These are the cards I need:
35,202,331,333,343,388,523,541,554,574,582,618,639 and 653... If you can help me out, PLEASE shoot me an e-mail and we will make a deal... Also, I know that I still have trade bait cards that were claimed, but I have not yet shipped. I think that is because I am lacking addresses, so Daily Dimwit - If you still need those Diamond Giveaway cards, PLEASE send me your address. The Braves are leading the Mets by a run with 2 outs in the 9th. The two outs came courtesy of a really nice double play turned by Dan Uggla, who also extended his hitting streak. Nick Evans is at bat and you can feel the tension... Well, the tension didn't last too long, the Braves won it... I didn't care who won, but I enjoyed the game. I added a classic Gary Carter card in honor of BA Benny and because I am posting about 2011 Topps. My want list is UP TO DATE by the way... Check it out! Go Rays! troll out.

2011 Topps is (virtually) DONE!!!

So yesterday I was still riding that post derby high that I love sooo much... After school I hit the post office and got a great package from my homie and Braves fan Derek of the Tomahawk Chopping Card Blog... When my want list went down to 8 cards he wrote me that he had 7 of the 8 for me including Mickey Mantle and Buster Posey! Within 2 days of his e-mail, the cards were in my mailbox!

AWESOME!!! I am still waiting on a few more packages to arrive, but my wantlist is now empty and I couldn't be more grateful to all the awesome bloggers and readers who have helped me out on this journey!

If you are wondering about the lack of posts and pics of late, part of the reason is that my scanner took a crap... My lovely wife and I purchased a home computer, printer, scanner and a bunch of electronic goodies the month we got married... We celebrated 5 years on March 11th... That is a pretty long life for any electronic device, so we had a good run, but it is all pretty much garbage now... We have our sights on getting a wireless printer and scanner both. I don't know when, but they are both on our shopping list, so it has to happen, ha!
So back to 2011 Topps... After checking the PO Box I visited the local card shop, Ryan's Sportscards, AKA my home away from home... I was looking for some Martin Prado cards to pay Tomahawk Chopping back, but they had nothing. What they did have was an envelope marked "for Troll". Sweet! Apparently one of their customers left it for me. No note, no name. So I don't know who to thank, but to the mystery local card collector, whomever you are - THANKS!!!

Included in the envelope was 2 cards from 2010 Topps Series 2, Yo Mama Cards!!! Yes, I am still slowly chasing this set down... I still need to put together a list for the base set, but I have checked and doublechecked my list for the Yo Mama cards and Turkey Reds... I am doing pretty well (i guess) on these and I am determined to finish them off BEFORE 2013... The list can be found RIGHT HERE! The mystery fan also chipped in a pair of Topps Diamond Giveaway code cards. I raced home to unlock them... I was imagining unlocked some Hammerin' Hanks or Sandy Koufax or at least a card or two from my 63 Topps need list. It was a nice daydream, but it didn't happen. I am the lucky virtual owner of this 1992 Topps Henry Cotto, card #311 (my anniversary date!) AND a 2004 Erubial Drrrrrrrrrrzo.

Not quite Hank Aaron, but it was fun...The envelope had 2 more cards in it, with images borrowed from eBay. My anonymous homie gave me a 1963 Topps card!!!!!!!!!!! It is my 43rd card from the set, card #535 of Indians pitcher Jim Perry.

I already had Gaylord Perry, so now I have completed the Perry brothers set for both 1963 and 1965! Awesome! The final card in the envelope was card #18 from 2011 Topps, the final card on my wantlist!!! Kevin Millwood the thorn in my side for 2011 series 1, but now he is safe in the binder and the first 6 pages are completed! As soon as the 3 packages I am waiting for, this set is done! I have traded (or will be sending) all of my insert dupes. The only insert set I am chasing is the super awesome Kimball minis. I am waiting on a pretty generous stack of these mini slabs o' cardboard and with that I will be done to needing just these six cards: 5,20,21,25,29 and 43. My homie and fellow Floridan Wicked Ortega is trying to chase this one down, too. You can find his needs list right here...

The Pee Wee Reese at the top of this post illustrates why this set rules... I am pretty impressed with my self control in not chasing down all the crazy insert sets this year. The Yo Mama cards were a lot of fun last year, but 3 series were toooo much for me. I do REALLY want to chase down all the 201o Vintage Legends cards, though. Those are neat! Anyway, thanks to all for the cardboard hook-ups! Thanks to my mystery card donor and thanks to all for reading and checking out my updated wantlists! Congrats to Ben Zobrist for rocking! Thanks again to the Nuclear Bombshells and Ocala Cannibals for playing one of the most exciting derby bouts that I have called in a long time... By the by, I did not receive any assistance from Will Ferrell, but my muttonchops have left the building (err, my face)... Don't know why I felt the need to share this... All of my wantlists are up to date... As always, I will provide a loving home for any and all unwanted 1963 and 1965 Topps baseball cards... I love this hobby! troll out.

2011 Topps Haves and Wants...

So, after my last post of my super rad 1/1 Albert Pujols cards which will hopefully bring in enough dinero to get a hobby box or 2 of 2011 Heritage several of you e-mailed me asking if I had a want list for 2011 Topps. Well, I have exactly 100 cards so far. This means that I still need 230 to finish off ye olde set. I did put together a list, finished it just a few minutes ago actually. My 100 cards are now in a binder along with the 5 minis I have, plus all of my dupes and the various inserts that I will NOT be collecting. You can click RIGHT HERE to see what I got... Thanks so much for checking out my list. Hopefully I have something that someone needs... By the way, I am WAY over tired and I think this entire post links to my wants/trade list... troll out.