Allen and Ginter Mania!!!

Ginter mania, Ginter fever, everyone has it. I have yet to see a single pack or card in person and the anticipation is killing me. I know I have a lock on all of the Rays cards because I have my slot reserved in the Long Fly Ball to Because... super amazing group case break. Yep, Tunguska is ripping a CASE and splitting it up team by team. I am fairly certain that I will be getting a rip card and an Evan Longoria autographed cabinet card, but there are probably cards of your favorite team as well. Unbelievably there are still 11 team slots available in the break. The Red Sox, Indians, White Sox, Royals, Twins, A's, Angels, Pirates, Mariners, Reds, Astros, Brewers, Giants, Rockies, Padres, D-Backs and the Brewers are all STILL AVAILABLE. I am really anxious for this break to get going, so PLEASE go check out this link. Slots are very fairly priced and this is 2010 Allen and Ginter so get on it! I might sneak in another post today, but tonight you can find me at the Trop watching the Rays destroy Boston and witnessing Matt Garza notch his 10th win. Hell yeah! Go Rays! Troll out.

Minor League Photos of Shannon Stewart and the 32nd Pack of 1997 Pinnacle X Press!

Greetings Trollites! I took a short nap and have a little break before my last class of the day. We are up to pack #32 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press. There were no cards pulled of Shannon Stewart in this pack, but now that I realize how popular he (?) still is, I will show one more photo before I get to ripping the next pack… This is when Stewart was with the Knoxville Smokies in 1995. Stewart was a first round pick in 1992. Stewart hit 300 or better in 7 of his (?) 14 major league seasons and owns a .297 career batting average. He is still listed as an active free agent, but I don't think he played in 2009, did he? Okay, one more bonus pick of the former Jays first rounder (in the Syracuse Sky Chiefs road whites) and here we go with pack 32:
#70 Dave Nilsson Milwaukee Brewers (Nilsson was 6th in the NL with a .331 batting average in 1996)
#19 Ellis Burks Colorado Rockies
#125 Kevin Orie Chicago Cubs (Orie was the 77th different player to play third base for the Cubbies AFTER Ron Santo left in 1973. He wasn’t the last either…)
#88 Mo Vaughn Boston Red Sox (In ’96 The Hit Dog hit .326 with 44 homers and 143 RBI and DIDN’T win the Silver Slugger for first basemen)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card +7
#61 Manny Ramirez Cleveland Indians (Manny spent the first 8 years of his career in Cleveland before chasing the free agent dollar to Boston)
#41 Charles Nagy Cleveland Indians
#110 Ron Gant St. Louis Cardinals (Gant went to St. Louis as a free agent before the ’96 season. He hit 30 homers for the Cards and they made it to the NLCS, but lost to Gant’s former team, the Braves in 7 games)
Another pack of X Press down! Up next we are gonna go back to 1994 Pinnacle for pack #23. I went to Target, Wal Mart, K Mart and the card shop on the way home from work this morning and nobody had any 2010 Topps. I obviously live in the wilderness. I did pick up 4 more packs of 2009 Heritage to add to the next group break. I really hope they are creased from my local d-bag pack searcher. Stay tuned, cuz Shannon Stewart said so! I am gonna try to wrap up the last 6 packs in this group break TODAY! By the by, the top 2 photos are borrowed and copyright by theinsider dot com. Go Rays! Troll out.

Permission to Freak Out OR Pack #15 of 1994 Pinnacle Series 2

Okay, I have officially hit anxiety attack time… I had totally spaced about school starting this week. I attended my first class today at 8 o’clock in the freaking morning! This might seem like nothing to most of you, but I work to 6 AM, so its pretty early because it means I have be up for over 24 hours and I am a little sleepy and very crabby and not quite ready to learn. The class is calculus. I have been putting off taking this for a while, but I figured that it was bullet biting time so I am gonna do it. During our first lecture, the instructor, Dr. R said this will probably be the toughest class any of you will ever take and I don’t expect more than 30% of you to pass this class. Wow, nothing like a little pep talk on the first day… He gave us homework, too, which also would not have been a huge deal except that I forgot about classes starting and I haven’t bought the stoopid 200 dollar text book yet. Anyway, this all factors into my blog writing because I have a self imposed deadline of Wednesday to finish the group break. I still plan on trying to do it, but the player descriptions are gonna get REALLY short. Sorry. I will plan better on the next one. Speaking of that, here are the teams that have been taken. The Blue Jays (Duane), Rangers (Brian), Red Sox (Adam E), Cubs (Paul), Yankees (Nico), Brewers (Ed), the Orioles (Ryan) and the Cardinals (Madding). That leaves the Braves, Mariners White Sox, Indians, Dodgers, Royals, Twins, Giants, Marlins, A’s and a whole bunch of other teams wide open. It will be mid 90s again so the Rays and D-Backs wont be available. I would like to get a few fresh faces in here… Okay, here we go with pack #15 of 1994 Pinnacle Series 2. I will probably post one of these at A Pack to be Named Later-a super amazing site that I highly recommend and am honored to be a part of. Please take a moment and go follow that amazing blog! Okay, here we go!
#433 Matt Brunson Detroit Tigers (Brunson’s Dad was Larry Brunson and that was enough I guess for the Tigers to use the 9th overall pick in the 1993 draft to take him out of high school. I think they dropped a million or so to get him to sign… Some notables who were still available included Derek Lee and Torii Hunter. Good scouting Detroit!)
#409 Brian Williams Houston Astros
#397 Rob Butler Toronto Blue Jays (Rob is the brother of Rich Butler (former D-Ray) and had a career about the same length)
#535 James Mouton Houston Astros (James is the brother of Lyle Mouton, but in this case James had slightly more success… He stole 20+ bags 3 years straight. I said slightly)
#302 Edgar Martinez Seattle Mariners (see really good hitters who didn’t play the field and are not in the Hall of Fame. Edgar had pretty bad years in ’93 and ’94 but came back to hit .356 in ’95. It would be the first of 7 consecutive years batting over .306) #474 Greg Colbrunn Florida Marlins
#463 Mike Bordick Oakland A’s
#527 Chan Ho Park Los Angeles Dodgers (Park was just a 21 year old rookie who only pitched 4 innings back in ’94, but he’s still pitching…)
#337 Jose Mesa Cleveland Indians (Mesa became the Indians closer in 1995 and led the AL with 46 saves and finished 2nd in Cy Young voting behind Randy Johnson)
#329 Bob Welch Oakland A’s (1994 was the final year of a fine career for Mr. Bob Welch, the 1990 Cy Young Award winner was victorious in 211 (90th) games over his 17 year career)
#282 Chad Curtis California Angels
#485 Randy Milligan Montreal Expos
#425 Tripp Cromer St Louis Cardinals (Of the famous Cromer baseball family)
Okay, another pack down… These might get even shorter as I really need to try and hurry up a little more. I should be able to post at least 3 more packs today and might even touch on the AMAZING package I received this weekend from Adam E over at Thoughts and Sox. Oh speaking of new blogs (were we?) Troy, the famed Rockies collector has just started up a blog, it is called the Card Nut-go check it out please! Troll out.

I'm a Pack Ripping Fool-1993 Topps Stadium Club Series 3, Pack Number 7!

Okay, I don’t wanna forget about Stadium Club now. This is pack #7 of 24 of 1993 Stadium Club Series 3…First up is:
#704 Willie Greene Cincinnati Reds
#629 Dave Stewart Toronto Blue Jays (It gives his numbers from April 88-’92, he is 19-4 in 27 starts-I guess the moral of the story is: Pitch well early so you can still be pitching in October?)
#642 Milt Thompson Philadelphia Phillies
#746 Frank Thomas Chicago White Sox (I resisted the urge to scan every Big Hurt card)
#676 Rickey Gutierrez RC San Diego Padres
#686 Tim Wallach LA Dodgers (BotC quote-“A 3-time Gold Glove winner, Wallach can still flash the leather”)
#657 Kevin Seitzer Oakland A’s
#??? Master Photo Redemption Card-Greg Maddux (This was a big hit back then. It is a redemption card and it is long expired, but at least it has a picture of the player on it. If you can read the back and see the other subjects in this series you can get a laugh...) #708 Steve Bedrosian Atlanta Braves (I had a friend in little league who was a Bedrosian fan-I loved to pull his cards and unload them on him)
#681 Troy Percival RC California Angels (Yep, this is Percy’s RC. It shows his numbers at AA Midland from ’92, he was 3-0 with a 2.37 ERA, Call that kid up!)
#613 Mark Williamson Baltimore Orioles
#673 Kirk Gibson Detroit Tigers (Gibby was on his way out, but I can never get that image of him limping around the bases out of my mind)
#710 Paul Wagner RC Pittsburgh Pirates
#701 John Jaha Milwaukee Brewers (After his playing career ended, John became a model-kidding…)
#679 Scott Sanderson California Angels
Okay, another pack down. I think that Troy Percival rookie card might be the most interesting thing I've found so far. I am sure it's a common card, but Percy has a shot at the Hall someday… Theses SC are the oldest cards in the break and none of them are stuck together at all. They are in an old school wax pack and the cards are perfect out of the pack. Both Pinnacle brands are in foil packs and are stuck together like crazy… Another pack of X Press is up next! I am seriously enjoying this trip down memory lane. Is anyone else? Are y'all bored of these by now? I should tell you that I have inside info that says the next pack I rip doesn't have any Braves in it, stay tuned!
Troll out!

My Take On (From) the 2007 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Group Case Break or THANKS DAN!!!

With only 3 cards to scan/upload this should be a quick and easy, not too much time away from unfinished essays, post. Last month I got in on my first ever group break. I have long been intrigued with the idea of the group break. I am Joe Collector runs group breaks pretty often, but he already has a regular participant who has the Rays slot covered. Basically, I had/have no idea how these things work nor did I know what to expect from this break. I wasn’t the least bit familiar with the product either, I only knew it was premium stuff, it was called 2007 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection. The only point of familiarity for me was the person putting it all together-a frequent trading partner, Dan from Saints of the Cheap Seats. He had hooked me up hugely in every trade we had done before, plus he was willing to wait for me to send a check, I WAS IN! It was 20 something bucks to buy a slot and there were 20-something collectors in on the rip, which was to be an entire case of Ultimate Collection. Everyone was given a number and those numbers were randomized and drawn prior to the break-I got number one. Well, let me tell you that I celebrated that I had just won the lottery! I thought for some reason (optimistic greed?) that having the number 1 would mean that I had first choice of which cards I wanted. What it actually meant was that I got the first “hit” that was pulled. As it turns out, the first card in the first pack was also the first hit, it was a game used jersey piece from Randy Johnson, serial numbered 02/75. It’s a great card, classy and regal looking, a low serial number, a dark jersey swatch and it features one of the most dominant pitchers of All Time, I could have done a whole lot worse… Each pack followed the same order for hits, so halfway through the numbers were re-randomized. I lost my number 1, don’t remember what I did end up getting, but it worked out even better for me on my next pull. Now that I know which current players were available in this set, I have to say that I am pretty happy with this one. This guy isn’t on my player collection list or anything, I don’t go out of my way to trade for him, but when I pull cards of him myself, I keep them. He plays for an exciting team to watch, even though they suck, and he plays the hot corner with the flair of Brooks Robinson (and I wouldn’t mind if he was traded to the Orioles either). He is kind of the NL version of Evan Longoria, a great fielding third baseman with a ton of raw power who produces runs. Oh yeah, I am talking about Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals. I have quietly given Zimm a couple of pages at the very end of my binder, there is a relic, a refractor and 14 of his base cards. Now I have a certified autograph to go along with everything else. Now I just need a bat card and I will be all set. Okay, so here it is. Classy, classy, classy. Deep blue and dark red surround a picture of Zimm in the center and the signature is framed in gold with an America’s Pastime shield above it. I had thought it was an on card signature, it really looks like it could be, but alas, it is a sticker. The sticker is placed so neatly with the frame that you can barely tell. There is no overlap and even the sticker looks somewhat classy, I had to touch it to tell for sure that it was a sticker.
Okay, the third and final card I scored from the group break is a base card, serial numbered 363/450 and it is of my favorite player Carl Crawford. As it turns out, this is CC card #189 in my collection-you can view it here.
This apparently is just a base card so I guess that even the base cards are thick and fancy. It is cut out on the side to show the brand name written vertically in silver. I had acquired a Scott Kazmir card from this issue a few months ago, but I didn’t realize that until I had the CC card at home with me. Okay, that is it for my haul. Now I am gonna share my take on the break…
The work that goes into a group break is pretty freaking intense. Aside from buying the product, trying to track down everyone’s payment, dealing with unhappy participants…and that is just the beginning. I can say with certainty that I would never host a group break. I don’t have a video camera so I couldn’t, but I won’t be running out to get one either. That said Dan and his Son did an amazing job of organizing and executing the whole thing. Ripping all of those packs looks like fun, but all of the other stuff-the sleeving, sorting and shipping-that is too much like work for me. So I think now is a good time to extend a HUGE thank you to the Krill family for doing a super job and making this break a well organized success. If and when they do another break, I will be in as long as its baseball and as long as it is not more Ultimate Collection. Maybe next time I will research the product a little bit, too, and I won’t be surprised when the break ends with everyone getting between 2 and 3 cards each. I don’t know anything about high-end brands-when I think of a case break, I imagine cracking open a bunch of boxes of Topps cards and having 1,000s of base cards stacked to the ceiling. I think that this case yielded about 75 cards-in my mind that is a boxes worth. That part of the break disappointed me. Spending 20 bucks and coming away with 3 cards isn’t really my norm of collecting, but that is the yield of a premium product and I would have known that had I done any research on it, so I can’t complain. I would definitely not rip any of this on my own, even though they are really classy looking cards and there were a couple of really nice pulls. The investment and return didn’t really add up for me, but it was fun to be a part of. I love the blog-o-sphere and events like this seem to bring us all closer as a community. I hope that Dan and son (sorry, I can’t remember your name) will run another group break very soon because they did one hell of a great job and it was very exciting. Honestly, if I won the lottery and bought a box of this on my own, I probably would have a whole team set of Rockies relics and sticker autos from Jack Cust and Eric Chavez, so I have to say that I am happy with who I ended up with. I don’t remember who the lucky collector was, but there was a SWEET Tony Gwynn patch card and a Rollie Fingers autographed relic that were pulled that were freaking awesome! I am pleased with my take. A future Hall of Famer and two legitimate All Stars isn’t too much. Aside from the Crawford, both of these cards are on the block if the deal is right. Thanks again Dan! You are awesome!!! Go Rays! Troll out.