My want list is up to date. Thanks for reading. Go Rays! troll out. 
There was too much stuff. I can not use my computer at work anymore. I used to make the majority of my posts while I was at work, but now I can only think about posting. In my head I have passed 5,000 posts so far. Sometimes I get confused and think I actually posted them in reality and not just in my head. As anyone reading who blogs as well knows, blogging is therapy. I haven’t been blogging and I haven’t got my therapy. I really think I am losing it. I often apologize for not posting the great trades I have received. This is still a source of guilt, but more so I owe myself an apology for not continuing with my therapeutic blog sessions thus causing myself to go crazy and do so quickly… All that said I have two hours before I leave for work and I intend to see how much damage I can do. Expect to see something worthwhile on one of the 5 blogs I write for this afternoon. 
I don’t know which one, I will probably try and simultaneously write 3 posts and not finish any. Since I am here already I will end this one with a card. This baby comes from the legendary WICKED VAULT and is one of the many AWESOME cards that traveled to Troll-Towne from South Florida. 
I have around 20 unposted autographs from Senor Wicked and he keeps sending more. If I had the time I would start a new blog simply called Cards I Got From Wicked Ortega. I could post everyday for the next six months based on what I have already. Anyway, this is one of many autos that he has sent and one of many autos of my favorite current player, Rays All Star shortstop Jason Bartlett. JB is currently in third place among AL shortstops in the vote for the All Star game. I still contend that he is the best at his position in the league, but statistically he has dropped off considerably since his breakout season last year. He is batting just .246 which is quite a drop-off from last year when he ended the season with a .320 mark. He has just one homerun, a leadoff shot against the Yankees in New York last week. He is still the field leader and offensive sparkplug of the best team in baseball though. I would rather he end the year batting below the Mendoza line with a ring on his finger than have him battle for the batting title on a losing squad. Anyway, I believe this is the 5th JB auto I received from My Past Time I Love It!. It was my 8th total. This particular card is among my favorites of JB as a Twinkie. The auto is neat, legible and fits in nicely with the composition. I like the design of this series. It is a 2004 Upper Deck Etchings, a rookie autograph “Future Etchings”.
I recently received my 9th Bartlett auto in a trade. It is a pretty amazing card and I can’t wait to post that one so stay tuned! There will probably be a corresponding Joy of a Completed Page featuring 9 Bartlett autographs, too. Okay, thanks for reading my therapy session, it helped. A huge and ongoing thanks to my Homie and neighbor Mr. Wicked Ortega from My Past Time I Love It! By the by, the card at the top of the post also came from My Past Time I Love It! It is a Matt Joyce auto from 2009 UD Signature Stars. It probably deserves its own post, but I felt like killing two birds today. By the big smile on his face in the photo I would guess that it was taken during spring training in '09. Joyce didn't have much to smile about last year as he spent most of it in AAA. This isn't my first Joyce auto, but it is my first Certified one and I really like their choice of photo for this one. I think he is covering up enough of his jersey that this one could even work for 2010. When you flip the card you see that the folks at UD really really liked the picture, too. Double thanks Wicked! You rule!!! You should be getting a package from me today that will make you smile bigger than Matt Joyce in spring training! Keep your eyes open for more posting somewhere this afternoon. Oh... If the person who sent me the awesome 2010 Bowman Rays stuff last week is reading this, please get in touch. You can email me at bacontowne at yahoo dot com. The same goes for the future owner of the '85 Lance Parrish Super Card... Go Rays! Troll out!
I don't know where I was going with the title, but the long and short of it is after getting packages from A Rookie (Baseball) Card Collector and Grand Cards this week with unfamiliar looking Tampa Bay Rays Topps cards in them I decided to dust off the old Rays team set binder for the first time in a few months. Beyond that it has been a full week since a Troll post. I get the shakes if I don't post twice a day so you know this is driving me insane. For now I decided to ease back in by creating a new WANT LIST for my Rays team sets. It turns out that both ARBCC and GC did send me much needed cards. In the past couple months Stale Gum, Cards on Cards, Play at the Plate, Jacob Marley, Joe L. and a score of others have torn into my team set needs even though I hadn't updated my want list in months. Well, I got out the stacks and stacks of cards, got the binder, the LIST and a highlighter and went to town. I created a new wantlist which is pretty well up to date. I literally have thousands of doubles, but can't seem to finish the sets off. I don't know how it is possible that I have (seriously) 39 copies of Jose Guillen's card from 2001 Topps, but I don't have a single copy from 2000. Mind boggling. If Bipping was still the rage some of you would be shaking with all of the dupes that I found. 46 Toby Hall cards in your mailbox could be terrifying and I have the juice to do it! I would rather find a friendly Rays collector who is trying to do the same thing and looking for some starter lots. Any takers? 
Anyway, out of 14 seasons that the Rays have appeared in Topps sets I have completed the entire base set of 9 years. The Traded or Updates and Highlights series are what is killing me. 2004 and 2009 are the only years that I have finished those off. All in all I need 41 cards to complete all of the Topps sets to date. That means I am about 90% of the way there. If anyone needs 6 team sets from 2002 (not including traded) I am your man. Anyway, you can find my fancy new list with scans from every year from '97 till 2006 right HERE. Now for the two packages that spurred this undertaking. First off is a wonderful Blogger Kindness package from the always awesome McCann Can Triple of the A Rookie (Baseball) Card Collector blog. 
The package came with an awesome drawing of a snowman made of baseballs which I didn't scan yet. Use your imagination-it is rad! Anyway, that was the best part, but she included some great cards too. This one doesn't factor into the wantlist theme, but I love this Carlos Pena insert from 2008 Upper Deck X. 
I have been going crazy exponentiating logarithms in school, so this X Ponential card made me smile. Now onto the wantlist crushing cards. 
This 2006 UandH card of Big Game James Shields has eluded me forever but now I can cross UH147 off of my list. This 2007 Updates card of JP Howell made it onto my Most Wanted list, but now its all mine! 
Card #UH297 of the Rays reliever. The last card I will show from her package comes from 2009 Topps Updates. I finished this series off a while back, but I don't think I ever posted this card and I really like it. It's Carlos Pena from the All Star Home Run Derby. 
CP didn't fare too well in the derby, but ya gotta love his swing and the fact that he paced the American League in homers even though he missed the last month (nearly) of the season. The next couple of cards came from Grand Cards. He sent a note saying he hoped that I could use some of the cards and that hopefully they weren't all dupes. Little did he know the HORRIBLE luck I have had with 2007 Updates. I ripped 2 hobby boxes of this back in 2007 and also bought a few blasters, plus folks have been sending me Rays cards by the pound for the last year. All that and I still had hardly any cards from this series. Now I am down to needing just one more to finish it off. Card #UH4 of Josh Wilson is the last card I need. Funny thing is that I have 3 copies of that card in Gold plus several with the red back but I don't have a single copy of his regular base. Some of the goodies from Grand Cards are these bad boys from 2007 Topps Updates-
#UH171 of Andy Sonnanstine and #UH324 of Dan Wheeler. 
I have autographed copies of both of these cards, plus like Josh Wilson I have the GOLD and red backed versions, but now I finally have regular old unsigned base cards for the team set binder. The last card he sent (thats a lie-he sent about 30 cards) from '07 UH is this card of my favorite left-handed hitting first baseman Carlos Pena. Card #UH91 has been on my Most Wanted List for a while. 
I had just got a copy before my infamous robbery and the Pena card was in the box. This baby is safe in my binder now! Another card he sent that I have been coveting for a long time now is this Wal Mart trading card history insert of Akinori Iwamura. 
If Aki is still a Pirate next spring this one will be on top of the pile of cards that I try and get signed. I love it!!! One last set of cards to show comes from legendary reader Largo Frank. Frank has been hooking me up with great packages of Rays cards on a monthly basis. 
He sent me a stack for my Jared Sandberg and Joe Kennedy collections and fortunately he sent multiple copies because this 1997 rookie card of JS was the final one I needed for the 1997 team set and this card from 1998 brings me to within one card of finishing off 1998 Topps. 
He also sent the Chrome version of the '98 which is one of the final cards I needed for that set. Next on my list of things to do is making wantlists Topps Chrome, Bowman and Upper Deck. Someday. 
Unrelated to this post, but super rad anyway... He also included 3 certified Rays autographs. 
One of the Devil Rays first ever draft pick, the super flop Paul Wilder and 2 that were pretty awesome! 
My second Jared Sandberg certified autograph from 1999 Bowman and my first ever Joe Kennedy autograph!!! Thanks so much Frank!!! 
Thanks to McCann Can Triple and Grand Cards, too! All you guys and gal rock!!! Once again my new and improved team set wantlist is here. Out of 14 seasons of Topps cards I need just 41 more cards to have them all COMPLETED. I will be in Port Charlotte, Florida tomorrow night for a LIVE inning by inning blog extravaganza of the Stone Crabs game. Oh, by the by... If you were a winner of any of the Troll or Nitty Gritty contests your prizes should have either just arrived or will arrive shortly-except for my friend in the Great White North-I am sure they are hung up in customs and you probably won't see them till 2018. Thanks again to all who entered the contests-please let me know when you recieve your prizes cuz I worry alot. Thanks again! WAIT! This just in... I just got home from work after posting this. I figured I would get going on my next post and not a wait another week and I grabbed a pile of goodies from Jacob Mrley and blammo, amongst all of the GREAT stuff he sent were these 3 sneaky little Topps cards. 
Now, just like that I am done to needing just 38 cards. The 2007 set is DONE and the 2008 set is DONE. F-ing SWEET! Thanks so much to Jacob Mrley!!! I can't wait to post everything else from this amazing package! $1300.00 for a roll of tape isn't cool, but trust me-this package is the stuff. Thanks again for reading and following my quest for team set domination. Thanks Jacob Mrley, Sarah, Grand Cards and Largo Frank!!! Go Rays! Troll out.
Here is a sample of what I got. I will start with this wide angle view of Miguel Cairo sliding into 3rd on a 2000 Stadium Club card. I scanned this one because it is the first card I have received from 2000 SC but also because it looks like Miguel started his slide just a little early… I would love to see the next few frames and see if he beat the throw and if he made it to the bag. 
Next up is a another original Devil Ray, but this one is a new-to-me card of my favorite original D-Ray, Quinton McCracken from 1999 SPx with a gold embossed cut-out logo and some oddly placed dots framing the card. 
Fast forward to 2009 for the next one, a chrome version of David Price numbered to 1960. This card put to within one card (Carl Crawford) of finishing off the team set, but then they came out with high numbers and I am miles away again. The best for last card that I will post up here comes from the 2007 Bowman Heritage set. 
After a pretty awesome year as the Devil Rays second baseman and occasional third baseman in 2005 Cantu found himself in all of the fancy insert sets. He followed that year up with a less impressive 2006 and 25 games into the 2007 the D-Rays dealt him to the Reds in a really stupid trade for 2 minor leaguers (a bag of balls) who never played an inning for Tampa Bay. Of course he found a new home in South Florida and drove in 100 runs for the Fish last year. I have tried him twice in Miami with TTM requests and was ignored both times so I was super psyched to add this autograph to my collection. Thanks so much Dan! I’ve said it before, but I will say it again, you rock! Once my happy dance was completed I headed on over to look at the Saints of the Cheap Seats want list page to see what I could send him in return and I saw this tradepost he had put up after getting cards from a new-to-me blog called Mr. Scotts Baseball Cards. I sent Mr. Scott an email to introduce myself and see if he was into trading, he replied to request my address and a few days later I receive a 500-ct box FULL of sweet Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays cards from 1998 all the way up to 2009 with at least a few cards from every year. WOW! Yeah, it was pretty impressive and I am still working on sorting it all out… Right now the box is sitting with the giant box of Tampa Bay goodness that Joe L from Cobb and Halladay sent me last month. I did take out the Topps cards and update my Ray team set lists; I am getting a whole lot closer. I even have a few dupes now if there anyone else trying to do the same foolish thing. Mr. Scott sent some cool 2002 Topps cards, like #609 of Russ Johnson shown here. Funny thing is on the very same day the infamous Rhubarb Runner sent me a complete (traded not included) team set from 2002 Topps. 
Russ was a pretty decent third baseman for the D-Rays but he was traded after the ’02 season to the Mets for Rey Ordonez. If you’re yawning now it does get better… Apparently Mr. Scott had ripped some of the new 2009 Topps Unique and sent along a 4-card sampler platter of Rays for me. 
I have read mixed reviews of this product, but I personally like the base cards. What I wouldn’t like is paying 6 bucks a pack for this-I know the inserts are pretty fancy and that is what people are chasing, but come on… Anyway, I kinda felt like Topps was rubbing it in to Rays fans by releasing this card of Aki AFTER the trade. 
A flip of the card has a “Unique Moment” on the back-kinda like a finest moment I guess. 
The back of the card isn’t too different from Topps Ticket To Stardom (and Finest) , but thank goodness they didn’t recycle the same “moment”. There were literally hundreds of cards in the box and they were all pretty awesome, but I won’t bore you with everything, but I may post more at a later date… 
He did knock a card or 2 (actually 6) of my Carl Crawford list, I am now up to 240 cards! Thanks Mr. Scott! He hit up nearly every list I had as a matter of fact… One team set that I never had on the list because I didn’t think it was possible was he sent the 6th and final card I needed to finish off the 2007 Upper Deck Series 1 and 2 Game Materials set. 
He sent card #UD-RB of one of my favorite x-Rays Rocco Baldelli. I can’t believe the Rays had 6 relics in a set back in ’07, but I really can’t believe that I have all 6 of them. Thanks Mr. Scott!!! I am only going to post 2 more cards from this amazing box, but they are a couple of gems so I will likely repeat that last sentence again. First up we have a card from the 2008 Moments and Milestones set of Justin Ruggiano, card #RA-JR. I actually like the Moments and Milestones series and I am still hoping to get my hands on a Carlos Pena 1/1 from that set, but anyway… I had arranged a trade with a reader a while back for a Stadium Club auto a while back, but I got burned on that. That is why I only trade with my established traders or traders who get referenced my established traders. I have been burned too many times this year. Okay, I didn’t get burned on this one, so I will shut up. 
This card is far nicer than the Stadium Club one anyway and I was shocked when I found it in the box, thanks Mr. Scott! The back of the card references JR going 20-20 in Durham in 2007. I thought he would get a chance with the Rays this past year, but they went out and traded for Matt Joyce and then left both of them in Durham. The last card I am going to show is my favorite. It is from the 2003 Donruss The Rookies set and features former Rays prospect Brian Stokes with a sweet blue sharpie sticker auto on the front. 
I wasn’t a big Stokes fan, but since he went to New York he doesn’t sign TTM (not for me at least) so like the Cantu up top this is my first Stokes autograph and the goal is to get one of every Rays player ever. I have some non-licensed Donruss autographs, so I was pretty “stoked” to see Stokes with a Rays logo on his cap. You can view my Rays autograph collection here, fan fest is coming soon so hopefully I can add a few to the list then. Thanks for reading a huge thanks to Saints of the Cheap Seats, you rock as always! Please check out Mr. Scott’s blog, follow it, trade with him and welcome him to the blog-o-sphere. He has good taste in cards and likes to rip wax, so chance are he has your team. Oh, and he’s a Yankees fan, so he is one more person you can unload your unwanted pinstripes on! Thanks again guys, I will try and get together some good stuff for both of you to return the favor, thank you ! Troll out.
About two weeks before Christmas I told my wife I would clean up the cards that were living all over the house. Well that was a pretty big undertaking. It was an undertaking that I didn’t really take seriously and I am paying for it now. To “clean” up the house I went to the hobby shop and bought a couple of used shoeboxes and just stuffed every card into them with absolutely no rhyme or reason. There are ’57 Topps mixed with 2007 Topps mixed with CC cards from my PC which are mixed with White Sox cards that I thought I mailed out a month ago. In fact I have found a few packages stuffed into boxes that I thought went out, they will go out today, I am really sorry… I have also found cards that should have been included in packages. It is really a mess over here. I blame working over 100 hours a week last week, plus volunteering and trying to see my wife every now and then. Being a blogger is awesome, but on occasion it can be a lot of work. Speaking of work (keeping the segues smooth…) here are a few cards that I just found that came courtesy of the hardest working trader in the blog-o-sphere, the 2009 Blogger Award Winning Trader of the Year Alfredo Ortega from My Past Time…I Love It! I have piles of cards from Alfredo left over from the past months that I need to scan and post, but here are a few that came right before Christmas and went directly to Mom and Dad’s casa for scanning. This is just a piece of a very large package, but I am gonna stick with the cards that pertain to lists that I just updated… First off, I am one step closer to finishing the 2009 O-Pee-Chee team set with this BJ Upton card… This may be the best looking pic from the entire OPC set... 
I think I am only 3 cards away now. Speaking of young Mr. Upton, here is an X shaped jersey swatch of BJ from the 2008 Upper Deck X set. 
I know I have at least 100 different Upton cards now and I will probably make a list of them someday-if I can ever control all of the lists I already have going… Another player I might add to my PC is Jeff Niemann and a sweet Donruss Zenith rookie card of young Jeff from 2005. 
I think I have about 10 Niemann cards right now-I’ll let y’all know…One player that I am definitely collecting is Carl Crawford. I was on a mission to get 200 different cards of CC before 2009 was up and I did it! Now if I could only find them… Alfredo helped me out a lot on the quest and he keeps on helping. You can view the list here-thanks to Alfredo and all of the rest of you the collection stands at 234 different cards! Woo hoo! I am pretty happy with that number. My new goal is to hit 250 by April. This package raised the CC total by 4 and included this 2009 Updates and Highlights Gold card of CC, #UH179. 
I still can use another copy for the team set because once I finish up all of my Rays Topps team sets I am going to try and build them all in gold… Speaking of shiny… 
Here is another insert of CC from the 2008 UD X set, #X-CC. Sweet. My second favorite CC of the bundle was this SPXTRA Info card from the ’06 UD SPx set. I love the way it proudly shows the Rays all time (losing) record of 518-775. Go Rays! 
This package included a bunch of other sweet Rays cards from sets I don’t have lists for yet. It also had about 10 different (AWESOME) cards of Satchel Paige (I put one of them at the top of this post), my favorite pitcher of All Time (with Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton not far behind…) as well as nice new cards of Roberto Clemente and Larry Doby, but I will have to save them for another post… I am gonna show one more Carl Crawford card. This is special because it brought me up to 234 on my list, but more special because it is a really generous gift straight out of Ortega’s personal collection. Wicked, I couldn’t believe that you parted with this, but I do REALLY appreciate it! It is from the 1999 Just Minors set and shows CC in his Princeton Rays uniform, which is pretty freaking amazing. It gets better… It is hand signed on the front! Woo hoo! 
Thanks so much Wicked! On the back of the card is a message to me: “Pay it forward Homie! Hope you keep this one in your collection for a long time, Merry Christmas!” 
You bet I will. Pay it forward is an expression Alfredo and I have used a lot in our trade packages. For him it is a way of life. If you luck out, pay it forward… That is why the blog-o-sphere elected him trader of the year. Thanks my friend, I really appreciate it! Now, speaking of Awards (keep them segues smooth like silk!) the voting for the 2009 Gummie Awards is live and will be up till the end of this week. I love the Gummies because the nominations for worst of 2009 keep me laughing. If Topps Attax doesn’t win worst product-I will be pretty disappointed and don’t get me started on UD 20th Anniversary being the WORST inserts of 2009… I wasn’t going to mention this, but this blog is nominated for an award on there, too. I wanted to thank Chris Harris and the Stale Gum syndicate for nominating me; I am really honored by that. I am included with 4 other rad blogs-Beardy’s Baseball Blog, New Card Smell, A Pack To Be Named Later and JDs Wild Cardz. I personally voted for Beardy, but I could’ve gone with any of those awesome blogs. Wait, speaking of Beardy... I picked up this 2008 Sweet Spot relic of Nick Markakis for him but he already has it. Does anyone else need it? 
Anyone who perhaps has some Heritage SPs or Carl Crawford cards? I also have one of King Felix from the same set... Anyway, back to the Gummies... After voting you can view the results which is pretty neat. I do encourage everyone to VOTE for the best and worst of 2009! Thanks again Alfredo! Now, in review… Please vote for the Gummies, please check out my Rays team set want list and CC collection and please head on over to check out the #1 Trader in the Blog-O-Sphere… He has about 6,000 different players in his PC now, so chances are you have cards he needs and he WILL hook you up. Troll out.
Greetings Trollites! Good morning, good night, whatever it is... Work was far too busy and cold to post tonight, but now I am home and should probably be sleeping, but instead I am typing away in the dark in a somewhat delirious and sleep deprived state. A lack of scans has kept me from posting any more pack rips today. Sorry. Worry not faithful readers-I intend to travel somewhere (Mom and Dads most likely) to do some scanning tomorrow morning before work. Weather permitting, I can knock a few more packs out, finish this nonsense and get back to my standard long and boring stories…
As luck and coincidence would have it-I just (around 2-3 weeks ago) received a package of cards from Jeff D. that included stuff from that original want list. Before I share some of the awesomeness that I received from Jeff D, I wanna share the story of how we “met”. I am a pretty big Jonny Gomes fan. I was really bummed when the Rays cut him loose. I was thrilled however that he caught on with the Reds and hit 20 homers this year in fewer than 300 at bats. Anyway, I (this blog) sponsor J Gomes’ Baseball Reference stats page. In the sponsorship tagline I state that I am Gomes’ biggest fan. Jeff D saw this and wrote to me to inform me that I wasn’t and a “friendship” was born. He shared a link to the amazing Gomes collection which belonged to a “friend” of his, (And yes I realize I am way overdoing it on the quotes…) and sure enough his friend’s collection dwarfed mine. This guy has 80 % of every Gomes cards ever made and that includes 1 of 1s. He has 68 different 1/1s. I have none. I was a little jealous and humbled, but we started emailing back and forth and we realized that we were both obsessed with Topps Heritage. I am obsessed in the way that I blew a lot of money on Heritage wax and can’t finish a damn set-he is obsessed in the way that he has an amazing collection and an entire blog/website dedicated to it. I had already traded away all of dupes, so we couldn’t make a deal right away, but then I made a rare pull. I yanked a black refractor which is what Jeff collects. 
Anyway, to keep this long story from getting too much longer-packages were exchanged and he knocked 6 of the 7 remaining cards off of my original want list, the list for the 2007 Topps Heritage set! I’ve been working on this freaking set for 3 years now and I really had hit a wall. It had been over two months since I had gotten a single card for this set and I was starting to lose hope. I almost didn’t believe it when he said he had these cards, but sure enough he sent them and they are all bindered up with the rest of my set sitting in my bedroom (my wife is thrilled). I don’t really have much to say about each individual card, but all six of them are floating around in this post. I cannot convey how happy I am to be one card away from finally finishing this set! I know I am acting a little too excited about a set from 2007-other bloggers are finishing up ’53 Topps, ’56 Topps, etc and I am flipping out about a set most people could care less about. What makes it so special to me is that it was the first set since ’95 that I put together. I was away from the hobby for a LONG time. Back in ’95 if you didn’t finish a set in one box, you bought the few missing cards and you were done. This crazy Heritage set and all of its stupid short prints and variations took a little more work. Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks to Jeff for hooking it up. 
I talked earlier in the post about Nachos Grande and the New Years Resolutions to finish up 3 sets. Well, I intend to do just that and this one (2007 Heritage) is first on my list. I need just 1 more card to do it. The thorn in my side card is #159 of Chris Ray. In 2006 Ray seemed like a pretty serious prospect for the Orioles-he saved 33 games and looked like he would have a pretty bright future. He appeared on a Topps Heritage card the following year that has eluded me since its printing. Last year with the O’s Ray was 0-4 with a 7.27 ERA, but that damn card still eludes me. Somebody somewhere must have this card. Anybody? For those concerned I took the first steps to finishing sets-I updated lists on the side bar. I created a list for 2008 Allen and Ginter and I updated 2009 Heritage with the high numbers. I plan on putting up a list for 2009 Topps Updates and Highlights (tomorrow maybe) soon. Thanks to Chris from Nachos Grande for the inspiration and thanks to Jeff D for hooking me up with these 6 awesome Heritage Short Prints! 
A HUGE THANKS to whoever hooks me up with that elusive Chris Ray card! Oh, there are endnotes… Jeff D also hooked it up with cards from 2008 Heritage and my Rays collection, too. AND one thing I haven’t updated yet is my CC list or my Rays team set list. I will get on that tomorrow because the cards keep on rolling in. Don’t forget to vote for the 2009 Gummie Awards! Those of you that can count (better than me) may have noticed that there are only 5 cards in this post-I am pretty sure I left the last one on the scanner. Oops. Troll (passed) out.
