Group Breaks, Nachos, Topps and More!

Well, I have officially shipped a package to EVERY participant in the group break that lives in the US (Captain and Anthony you will ship this week) whose address I have. Those of you whose address I don't have are on the sidebar in yellow. The last package I shipped was to Chris AKA Fan of Reds AKA Nachos Grande. As you might have guessed, he had the Reds in the group break. Some Reds were pulled, but I doubt it was anything he didn't have 12 copies of already. I do think that I included one, if not 2 Barry Larkin cards that he didn't have. I should mention that the reason that I was so tardy in sending his package was that I was searching for cards off of his 2010 Topps wantlist to complete a trade as well. He has sent me some inserts I needed for my very slow chase of 2010 Topps completion and domination. I plan on showing them off in this post right here... As a matter of fact, since I am posting them, I am scratching them off of my wantlist which is now 100% up to date and accurate. I finished Legendary Lineage for both series 1 and 2. Although I don't really care too much for Peak Performances, I am nearly halfway there, so I might as well try and finish it. The subsets that I am really into are Turkey Reds and the Cards Yo Mama Threw Out. These are a priority! I mention that my wantlist is up to date for two reasons. One, because you are more than welcome to check them out and see if there is anything that you can help me out with. The second reason is that this is a trade post from Nachos Grande, who is the MOST ORGANIZED blogger I know. I think I might have traded with him more than anyone simply because it is so damn easy. His wantlists are clear and always up to date. The only problem is that he rips and trades like crazy and in this instance I was only able to send him 2 cards off of his wantlists in exchange for all the goodies he sent me. Anyway... you can find HIS wantlists HERE and see if you can help him out more than I could. You can also check out the 2010 Topps inserts that he sent me... The trio from Peak Performance is shown above. From Turkey Red we have a pair of Aces: a current Dodger and a Hall of Fame pitcher. He also included 2 cards from Tales of the Game. Carlton Fisk in one of the most memorable games in baseball history AND Josh Hamilton taking second place in a batting practice exhibition. Thanks so much to Nachos for these great cards. If anyone is interested, I can post up my dupes. There is a surprisingly big stack of Turkey Reds. I might also put together my list for Series 2. Can you tell I am suffering from Nachos Grande wantlist envy? Thanks again and if your name is in yellow in the side bar, please email me your address. Go Rays! Best team in baseball, for real. Oh, by the way... The card at the top is just a reminder that I am STILL a Carl Crawford supercollector. Oh, while I am dropping updates... I am still in for the Long Fly to Because Allen and Ginter case break. I believe that the price has dropped considerably. I know most everyone is bored of these by now, but I haven't even held a pack yet. Only 13 teams have been claimed, what are you waiting for? troll out.

Another Package From Nachos Grande!

Gosh, ever have one of those weeks where posting on here is the most excruciatingly painful thing you can imagine? It’s been like that for the Troll this week. That doesn’t mean that my mailbox hasn’t been full of good stuff though… I have packages to post from Bozeman Breaker, Roll Out the Barrel, JD Wild Cardz, Cardboard Singles and a few more… I am gonna start with this one from my buddy Chris over at Nachos Grande. Chris has decided to chase the chrome version set of 2009 Heritage. It sounds crazy, but it can be any harder than trying to finish the regular 500 card set and all its poor collation and hard to grab short prints… Through all of my ripping I had 9 (I think) shiny cards to help Chris out and he had stuff from 3 different of my want lists and a nice and shiny card of Rays catcher Dioner Navarro. I now have Sonnanstine and Navarro, I don’t know which other Rays are in the 2008 chrome, but I know I want ‘em!
He has had card #445 of former Red Sox pitcher John Smoltz on his trade list for a while, but until now I couldn’t entice this one away from him, but now its mine, all mine!
He helped out with some of the base cards for that set that I didn’t realize I still needed until now along with a bunch of 2008 high numbers cards, including the much needed Ben Zobrist (577), Willy Aybar (673) and Evan Longoria (650). If anyone has doubles of these, I can still use them for my team collection! He didn’t stop there, he also knocked a few more of off my SPs need list for this years Ginter and a couple National Pride cards, too. Oh, and an awesome sketch card of the Big Hurt who has somehow managed to make an appearance in every set this year. Come on Hurt, give somebody else a chance! Thanks Chris, it’s always a pleasure… I posted last night that it was to be Scott Kazmir’s first game with the Angels. I was wrong; he will take the ball and the mound against King Felix and the Seattle Mariners. Not an easy task. I also predicted that the return of Andy Sonnanstine was a good thing, I was wrong about that, too. This trade was a good one; I will post more of them soon. As always, my lists are: http://collectivetroll.webs.com/ I always appreciate trades! As a post note, I do have a handful more shiny Heritage cards that are available as trade bait...They will be up for your viewing pleasure shortly... As another end note, today is Paul from Carl Crawford Cards birthday, Happy B-Day Paul!!! Go Rays! Win it for Paul! Troll out.

Damn it Otto, You're Addicted to Allen and Ginter!

I tried to resist it, but when I got bit by that Ginter bug; man did I fall into the frenzy that is Allen & Ginter. From begging the hobby shop to get more boxes in to ending up at Wal Mart (where I swore I would never shop at again) at 3 in the morning covered in sweat and shaking like a junkie, I have completely succumbed to the Ginter chase. I have had a ton of help on my mission because every pack I rip seems to have the same cards in it (Coco Crisp, Todd Wellemeyer, Gil Meche and Jose Lopez National Pride) and after the kindness of about 10 different fellow bloggers, I am 92% complete, threw with this awfully addictive set. I have upped my rip total to 171 packs (I am disgusting) and have very little (other than a lot of Coco Crisp cards) to show for it. Generally, as soon as the trade envelope comes in the mail, I tear it open and put the cards in the book. Last night I received two Ginter-rich packages, one from Sarah at a Rookie Card Collector and this package from Chris AKA Fanofreds from the Nachos Grande blog. This isn’t the first trade we’ve pulled off, but the first involving Ginter crack. He is chasing the same sets as I am this year (Topps Heritage, Topps and Allen and Ginter) so a trade was very convenient for both of us. Plus, he is super organized and always has up-to-date lists of what he needs and what he has to trade. We worked out a deal a big box of Ginter’s was on its way to me! What made this trade cool was he included a few Heritage cards from my list, too. I had hit the proverbial wall on that set and hadn’t been able to pull off a trade in weeks. There is a card shop in Tampa that has a ton of short prints (which I need) but he charges five bucks a pop for them. Ouch! I had to replace 3 that I promised to Mike a few weeks back and it set me back 15 bucks. I would rather drop another five and get a blaster and take my chances. Anyway… with this package my needs list for base cards has shrunk to just 5 cards (79,162,300,318 and 337) but I still need 41 more short prints(426,427,430,431,432,433,436,437,438,439,441,442,444,445,446,447,450,452,456,

457,459,460,461,462,465,468,469,475,476,477,479,480,481,487,488,489,491,496,497, 499 and 500) to close the book on this set. Does anyone have any of these to trade?
When I just know what numbers I need it is always a surprise who is on the cards that bear those numbers. In this case, I guess I needed James Shields (one win in past 11 starts) who has been PATHETIC for the Rays of late. Speaking of pathetic, I guess I needed Manny, too. On the Ginter side of things he hooked me up with a BUNCH of National Pride cards, now I just need 7 more (24,26,27,36,51,52 and 64) to finish that subset, which is pretty awesome because I wasn’t even gonna chase that one…The only one that really stood out to me is card number NP1 of Rays killer Ervin Santana who is apparently the newest member of the X Men.
He hooked up some base cards that I had been seeking including card #290 of the always awesome and hard to hit (cousin of Esther Gin) Cat Osterman, a couple of Nats named Zimmerman, #208 of Michael Young who accounted for 3 of the 5 hits against Scott Kazmir last night and the ever prolific power hitter #46 Brian Roberts (is he at like 4 in 3 games now?) and #68 of Jamie Moyer (who looks cool in water colors). This brings me to needing just six more cards to finish the 1-300 base set. They are card numbers 83,107,108,135,203 and 219. He brought me closer on the SPs too. Sending (among others) card number 340 of Richard Gatling and #316 of Rick Porcello. Rick (the guy who dropped Youk to the ground) caught my attention last year when he went 8-6 for the Lakeland Flying Tigers in the Florida State League. He jumped for A level to the majors this year and even though he is a Tiger, I am contemplating collecting him. That sums up this trade. If you have spare SPs you wanna send me from this set, I still need cards 303,304,305,307,308,310,312,315,319,325,327,328,330, 334,343 and 346.Thats it and my foray into Allen and Ginter is complete. Thanks to everyone who has helped me out on this (and anything) I will try and get caught up with my trades soon. Don’t forget to check out the post right below this one, this is FREE stuff to be given away, sign up and win! Oh, by the by. There is a free Coco Crisp card for anyone who gets that title reference…This is somewhat odd, but both Chris and I posted our trades this Saturday afternoon, I guess we were both happy... Go Rays! Troll out.