So, I have plans to be "back" very soon... Good things are happening in Troll Towne... Wifey is feeling way better and things are changing career wise, for the better I think... I have a buyer (finally) for my 1990 Jeep Cherokee, I just mowed my lawn and didn't die of heat stroke. Things aint bad... I will fill you all in on EVERYTHING very soon... I also plan on doing a little contest. There are 2 themes. First, I am closing in on 800 posts. Second, I really want to say "thank you" to everyone for their kindness and support last week. All the comments and e-mails for mind blowingly sweet and awesome and really made us feel great! The third reason is that I want to help promote a new blog that I think it is going to be pretty awesome, so stay tuned...In the meantime, before I give away all of my potential trade bait in the contest, I wanted to check and see if anyone had a few cards from 2011 Ginter that they might want to trade... I finished off Step Right Up and P of P, but I am 2 cards away from both World's Most Mysterious and Uninvited Guests. If you have cards #WM9 or 10 OR UG6 or 8, please get in touch. I need a bunch of the animals minis, too many to list right now... I need 8 more to finish off the Ascent of Man set. I do have some dupes of these. I promised dayf first crack at them, but I don't know if he is still working on it, so... I need cards #ed AOM3,5,6,10,11,13,14 and 22. Am I the only one (by the way) who felt this should have been a 27 card set???
I am still far, far away from Minds That Made the Future, the boat cards and Hometown Heroes. I think I am halfway done with the base set and regular minis - well, I am just looking for awesome cards for the Frankenset. I somehow managed to pull 2 copies of short printed mini card #327 of David DeJesus in the same box. I also pulled the full sized version and 2 copies of his Hometown Heroes card. Bizarre...
The card I really want, more than any other card, is the one shown at the top of the post. I REALLY want this one folks! I wouldn't mind having multiple copies either. Def one of my fave cards of the year... Anyway, my contest will likely offer my Ginter hits as prizes, but if anyone wants to trade beforehand, I am ready! As far as the other "BRAYzer" relics... I think it is just Maddon, Upton and Pena. I have the Pena, need the Upton. The only other standard Rays relic I have is Johnny Damon. I would not mind having a few more... Thanks for reading! Get in touch with a Troll and stay tuned... Oh, as the flyer that acts as my blog header indicates, it is a roller derby weekend. Local folks come out! The beer is cold and free and the action is hot and well worth the 10 bucks (ticket cost) Go Rays! troll out.
My new best friend 
Thanks to him I am about halfway done with the Team Orange set, which I LOVE and I got to scratch off 2 more from the super tough World’s Icons set. My 
BTW - These images aren't the awesome cards from Chris, but they are genuine Ginter minis in my collection that I have never posted before...
I don’t limit my mini madness exclusively to Allen and Ginter; I am in pursuit of the 2011 Topps minis. There are 50 cards in Series 1 and I thought I had no chance at all until Ted from the 
He sent me 34 different Kimball minis!!! I need just 4 more minis. I really couldn’t believe it when I opened that package and saw that many different minis. Blogger generosity seriously blows me away! If you happen to have any spare minis from this one, all I need now are 20, 21, 25 and card #43 of Pee Wee Reese to finish it all off….
I owe a HUGE thank you to these 3 super bloggers for the super cool tiny cards… I owe thank yous to a whole bunch of people… Send me an email to remind me if I haven’t thanked you for a package you have sent this past year… 
Oh, one more thing… There are a few of you out there that I have owed a package to for a LONG time… Captain Canuck – it’s going on a year and a half, and Jonathan at RGB Cards, it’s been nearly that long. With her extra shifts the super wife has promised to lend me the dough to finally get these international card packages in the mail. I think you guys will be happy. The benefit of taking a year to ship a package is that I have been adding to your piles for over a year…
Of course my want lists are up to date... In fact: Tony from the aptly named
I told him all I really wanted was that one card. Anyway, I guess he was pretty happy with what I had sent him because he did send me my most wanted card and a bunch of other stuff I needed. The most famous trade that journey man infielder Cesar Izturis was ever involved in was in 2006 when the Dodgers sent him to Chicago for 300+ game winner Greg Maddux. Our trade wasn’t as epic, but Cesar Izturis is all mine and that wasn’t all I got. I am thrilled to have the book (binder) closed on this set. I owe a huge thanks to Cam for hooking it up! He took some other shots at my want lists, too. I am time deficient right now, so I will only show a couple cards. He sent card #55 of Josh Beckett from 2008 Allen and Ginter. 
That was another set where my want list progress didn’t match reality. I thought it was done as well, but it turns out I was 12 cards short. Now I am just 8 cards away. 
Cam also sent 14 cards I needed for 2010 Topps Heritage including this short print, card #464 of Albert Pujols. He hooked up a new card for Joe Kennedy personal collection-this card, #328 from 2005 Donruss Champions. 
I will end this post with another new card from 2010 Topps Turkey Red, card #TR9 of Josh Johnson. 
I will try and post the other gems he sent soon. 
It is a 2001 Bowman Chrome, card #231. I now have at least 1 card from every year and a total of 188. My goal was 200, but I might have to raise it. I am going to show some of the highlights of what readers have sent in during the last two weeks-I am still behind, of course, on my trading posts. I owe a couple of posts each to Mike from JDs Wild and Alfredo from My Past Time, I Love It! and I also got big packs from Cards on Cards and Bud from First Day Issue that I need to post. I have also been sorting through my older Topps cards and I have already filled some want lists, but I am totally ready to take on anything from 1974-1983, so bring it on! Oh, and yes, Tom Terrific is on the trade block… 
I am done with my 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1991 and 1996 sets and am now focusing on finishing up all my undone Heritage sets, plus 1979, 2007-2009 Topps and 2008 Allen Ginter. There is less than 2 months left in the year and I am broke like a joke, but I really wanna put all these sets to bed before the year is up. After that I want to dive into my favorite set of all-time, 1965 Topps. Okay, onto the new and awesome Carl Crawford card highlights. I will start with a 2006 Topps Turkey Red, card #152. 
A lot of people try and fill these sets, but I am pretty satisfied with plucking the Rays when I can. Next, from the 2005 Topps Cracker Jack-when I first saw this I thought it was a mini and I though that was pretty cool, but it’s a sticker! 
That makes it awesome. This is one of the dullest looking refractors I have ever seen, I wouldn’t know it was a refractor if it didn’t say it below the number, from the 2008 Topps Chrome, card #86, serial numbered to 599. 
Now, a refractor that looks like a refractor should! From 2009 Topps Finest, card #78, a Carl Crawford REFRACTOR!!! 
I love refractors, it is somewhat of an obsession, I just love them and I think they really make every blog better. I had a few 2002 cards, but not many and not this one, from the Fleer Tradition Diamond Debuts, card U12. 
I didn’t have any 2008 Bowman CC cards at all, but this week I got them all covered including the Chrome version, card #20
and the sweet blue parallel, card #21, serial numbered to 500. 
Back to Finest for a four more gems and then I need to do some studying, or at least go to the Post Office before work… From 2003, the oldest Finest CC I own, card #33. 
I have nothing against the #8, but I am really glad that CC switched over to #13-#8 suits JB better anyway. This is from 2006, Topps Finest card #127. 
I always like reading the Finest Moment on the back and this one is pretty cool… On May 25, 2005 Crawford became the first player to hit a homerun and a triple in the 1st inning of a game. He led off the game with a triple and added a two-run homerun when they batted around. The Rays dropped 10 runs in that 1st inning and went on to beat Oakland 14-6. Okay, I think I will end this with a couple of refractors. These didn’t scan as well as I had hoped, but trust me, they are awesome! 
First is a 2005 Finest, card #20, serial numbered 001 of 399. 
The last card is the same shot, but it looks even better as a BLUE REFRACTOR, card #20, serial number 128/299. 
To everyone who has hooked me up with Crawfords these past few weeks it is really appreciated! I love this hobby and I love chasing cards of my favorite players. If you have any Craw cards laying around, please check my 
1978 Topps Bill Lee, Card #295
2009 Allen and Ginter Akinori Iwamura, Card#222
2007 Topps Heritage Michael Young, Card#375
2007 Topps Heritage Howie Kendrick, Card#131
I am running pretty low on cards to trade, but if you have any of these cards AND are willing to part with them, I am sure we can work something out. As always, any and all Tampa Bay Rays cards are welcome here-especially those depicting Jason Bartlett, Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, Jonny Gomes, Carlos Pena and Willy Aybar! I like 2009 Heritage Short Prints, too, but I need 30+ of those and this is just a 14 card list. I have made progress on all of these sets, though and I will post said progress soon. Thanks for looking and you can e-mail me at: bacontowne at yahooooo dot com. Troll out.
2. There is afternoon baseball! The Rays and Red Sox are all knotted up at zero a piece in the sixth. I should be excited, but it seems only a matter of time before the bullpen takes over and blows it…3. I have to work tonight and have school everyday all week and work every night. Blah. We are getting a room mate today. The legendary Mofo On Wheels, star jammer of the Bradentucky Bombers is moving in on a temporary basis. I should probably be cleaning the house up in anticipation. At the very least, I should put some pants on, but I have a few minutes. I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails lately asking me who or what I collect. I figured I would add some links to ye olde blog here so I don’t have to keep answering that question. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while, but have always been too lazy. I’ve actually always been jealous of the other blogs that have their want list links right on the side of their blogs. I am jealous no longer! Please check out my lists, I still have goods to trade…As anyone who reads this silly blog knows I am a diehard Tampa Bay Rays fan. I’ve been hooked since 1998 and had been somewhat used to being the lovable losers of the league. Last year we got a taste and I really thought this year we would take it to the next level. I’ve been optimistic (to a fault) that it would happen. Things looked good for a while, but reality is starting to set it. That has made posting a little less fun. I like recapping Rays wins, not bullpen meltdowns. The trades of Edwin Jackson and Jason Hammel this off season had me pretty upset. I was also really bummed that they didn’t keep Jonny Gomes and Rocco Baldeli. Those guys have been in Tampa Bay for a long time and it’s not the same without them. 
The trade of Scott Kazmir really tested my allegiance to the Rays. That pissed me off. The trade didn’t (and still doesn’t) make any sense to me, as CCC put it “they were waiving the white flag” and doing so way too early. I used to read Thorzul’s blog (still do!) and look at the CC cards that he posted and wonder how it felt to collect a player so aggressively that was no longer on your team. Now I totally understand. Jonny Gomes and Scott Kazmir are still two of my favorite players and I will be trying to hunt down every last I can of theirs. I am gonna post a quick trade here today. I am about 20 trades behind, which is a good thing, but I gotta get going on this. This one came from South Carolina. It’s from Sarah aka McCann Can Triple for the Rookie Card Collector blog. I was supposed to send her a chrome Edgar Renteria card in return, but oops, it got traded in a lot with the Mojo Hand. Sorry Sarah, I will dig up some much better Braves cards to send your way this week. She sent me an awesome Scott Kazmir chromey type card from 
Upper Deck Icons (which she is collecting). It is serial number 808 of 999. Thanks for this! The Kazmir collection has about 60 cards in it right now; I wanna get it up over 100 ASAP! She also sent a long a sweet Rays sticker. 
I absolutely LOVE stickers! This one is going on the stereo right away! 
It is a vending machine sticker, she was hoping for a Braves one, but got stuck with the Rays. If anyone has a Braves sticker, PLEASE send it her way. The wife and the roomie are here, the Rays are down 1-0 and this Troll has to go! Thanks for the trade Sarah, I will send you some sweet Braves, you won’t be disappointed, I promise! If you haven’t heard, Rod from Padrographs won the Hall of Fame contest. Rod, I have two packages on the way for you. I threw in a bunch of bonus stuff for you; I think you will be pretty happy with it all! While going through my remaining Hall of Fame plaque postcards, I found a Sandy Koufax and it is set aside for Mr. Night Owl (even though he forgot about me in the Carl Crawford auto trade). Happy collecting and happy trading to all! Go Rays! Troll out.
