My 679th Post...

I just got home from work. I had to stop at Wal Mart to pick up dog food and unbelievably I didn't come home with any cards. I did visit the card aisle, but they had no Heritage, Topps Update, Allen and Ginter or single packs of anything baseball. I am trying to stick with my "no ripping new wax" personal policy, but sometimes I surprise myself...

Speaking of surprises and ripping wax... My buddy and fellow Floridian blogger Wicked Ortega is hosting a HUGE group box break. He is ripping 19 different boxes of a whole bunch of different interesting baseball brands. The surprise is that there are still slots available, there are actually 13 teams that have not been claimed... Of those 13 teams, both Pennant winning teams are still open. I cannot believe that a week after the series nobody has jumped on the Rangers or the Giants. Craziness. Seriously people, grab up the last dozen or so teams so the break can start up. Its only 19 bucks and he is RIPPING 19 DIFFERENT BOXES!!! That is a lot of cards of your favorite team... One last time, 19 boxes of cards for only 19 bucks. Click this link and be on your way. Tell Wicked that the Troll sent you!

For a mailbag update I will tell you that I have packed and or shipped a whole bunch of trade packages including my international buddies, so check your mailboxes people!

Now for a contest update... Y'all voted and vintage it is. Vintage can be a pretty wide and inclusive term so I need to narrow it down and figure out the who, what, why and where these vintage cards will be. I think this blog is within 900 hits of reaching that 100,000 hit plateau, so the contest should happen in 2010 for sure. My thought is, that since I collect and therefore blog about 1965 Topps so much, that would be the ideal year for the vintage prize. Feel free to share your insights on vintage with me in the comments. If you wanna win something for defining vintage, then you should click HERE. Trust me...

Since this post is filled with babble and want list links, I thought I would pop a juciy piece of trade bait in here. I somehow ended up with 2 Barlett silk cards. I hate to be greedy, so this one is on the block. I would prefer to trade for another Rays silk or black parallel or auto, but if you want it, make me an offer, okay?

Okay, I am falling asleep as I type. Not good... Just a few quick updates... I received several giant (like 800 count) boxes of Rays cards this past month. I put an eight foot folding table in my extra bedroom and I am sorting them right now. Starting by sorting by brand, from there I will go year by year and ultimately I will create have and needs lists for EVERY Rays team set since their inception. Considering I have around 40,000 Rays cards, I think I am in pretty good shape. That said, I still haven't even finished my Topps team sets yet. I probably have at least 40 copies of Aubrey Huff's 2004 Topps card, but somehow I did not have a single copy of the World Champion sluggers 2003 Topps card. I have had it on my "Troll's 21 The Card Way" (which I will update and repost soon) list for months now. Thanks to one of my favorite new blogs, Smed's Baseball Cards, I can cross it off of my list.

A couple weeks back, I got two boxes full of cards from Smed's and also from BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet on the very same day. Each box had a ton of Heritage cards from my want lists, 2010 Topps inserts and Rays cards a plenty. I had all but given up on finishing 2010 Heritage, but BA Benny and Smed knocked 40 cards off my list between the two of them. You guys rock! Now that set is on the FRONT BURNER once again. You can find my 2010 Heritage List HERE. I am 92% of the way done, I have 461 out of 500. I know that high numbers will be out soon and I will have to start over, but for now I am pretty happy... Okay, I need to get some sleep. I will just pimp a couple more links for you... The card of the day on the Troll is this 2003 Topps Aubrey Huff that has eluded me for over 7 years...

Thanks so much to Smed (top of post) for this one! You can find my Rays Topps Team set list HERE. I hope to find a few more cards while sorting this weekend. Get in touch if you can help me out with any thing from my lists.

Also, get in touch if you are Omega Wax OR Darkship Todd. I have a box of cards from the group break for both of you. If I don't hear from you guys by this coming Thursday I am probably going to send your group break cards to someone else. I have a Royals fan in mind, but if you are a Giants fan, get in touch just in case...

Okay, thats it for now. I think I have rambled long enough... I do intend on keeping my word and listing 7 more former Giants greats on the Nitty Gritty... Look for a post tomorrow morning, it will be mainly 1965 Topps, but I might add in some '78s and maybe a '64 too.

The next Troll post WILL be a trade from the Night Owl. Stay tuned! Go Rays! 2011 Champs, wait and see! Don't forget to roll on over to My Past Time...I Love It! and get in on that 19 box group rip! Oh, as an end note I got 23 new Joe Kennedy cards in the mail this month. The JK player collection is growing! The goal is to get EVERY single card ever made of him in a Rays uniform. The total domination list includes: Carl Crawford, Jonny Gomes, Dewon Brazelton, Wade Davis, Jared Sandberg and Joe Kennedy. Of course I collect everyone on the team, but I will chase EVERY card of those guys.

I have retired a couple of PCs. Get in touch if you are interested in Scott Kazmir OR James Houser. I have a pretty nice small collection of each guy.

Okay, signing off for real now... Go Rays! troll out.

19 Boxes For 19 Bucks!

That is the deal going on over at My Past Time... I Love It! The man, Wicked Ortega has 19 boxes he is ripping. You can get a team slot for only 19 bucks. There a bunch of teams available - The Brewers, Dodgers, Yankees, White Sox, Astros and more are still available! Get on it! Off to work. Go Rays! troll out.

2005 Playoff Prime Patches

I have made all kinds of comments about this brand over the past year. It's design brings out the critic in me. Donruss Playoff LP went all out when it came to getting authentic game-used materials for its cards, but it seemed like they stopped there. I have never ripped any of this stuff, but plenty has come my way via trade. Most of those came from, you guessed it, My Past Time I Love It!. Here are 2 new Rays game used cards from 2005 Prime Patches. First is a serial numbered gem of centerfielder (then shortstop) BJ Upton. It is #ed 074/150 and the bat sliver was certified to having been used by Upton in an official game. Pretty cool, eh? It is, but I can't get over the tiny picture on the side and the tiny sliver breaking up the Tampa Bay logo and ALL OF THE WASTED WHITE SPACE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CARD. Its one of those great cards that could be better. From the same set is an even lower serial #ed card (77/97) of outfielder Rocco Baldelli. This is from the Portraits series of the set. That seems a weird name for a card that has a black and white photo of the cards namesake SO DAMN SMALL. On the bright side the jersey swatch is a patch and is freaking awesome. There are 3 seperate bat slivers (excess?) too. All of them are certified game used by Rocco too. This is my first Rocco patch and I am pretty stoked about that, but again the design of the card drives me nuts... Again, cool cards that could be cooler... Thanks again Wicked! Since I have only posted 5 of the 400 cards I planned to post this week, Wicked Week on the Troll will be extended until its all been shown. Oh, and there are plenty more giveaways at My Past Time I Love It! so check em out! Go Rays! Troll out.

The Wicked Card of the Day, Manu-Patches and Hall of Famers For the PC!

Wicked Week is totally in full swing on the My Past Time I Love It! Blog. He is giving away primo stuff on a daily basis, so if you aren’t going there and entering his contests you are missing out… Speaking of missing out, I have been living on the outskirts of the blog-o-sphere. I have been lucky enough to have amazing family and friends staying with us for the past week. They went home this morning. It was a tough goodbye, but it will give me a chance to get caught up on my posting. I haven’t acknowledged Matt Garza’s no-hitter yet, but that is coming don’t you worry! Not only will I acknowledge it and share my thoughts and my pride, but I will put together all of the unposted Garza gems that Wicked has shared with me. Anyway, I am starting slowly, but will get back on track. I will also be hitting the post office today. Okay, so I only have a few minutes of time today, so I am going to limit this post to just one single card. Fortunately it’s a pretty unique and interesting one… It is a modern card, coming from 2004 Sweet Spot Classic, but features my favorite vintage subject. This card actually made me flash back to this 1956 Topps card. You can read the original post about it right here. Anyway, moving on with the Wicked Card of the Day it is a 2004 Sweet spot Classic Patch card of Cleveland Indians outfielder Larry Doby. Doby was an All Star in 7 straight seasons for Cleveland. He went to 2 World Series with them and won 2 homerun titles before being traded to the Chicago White Sox prior to the 1956 season. The timing of the trade confused the folks at Topps back in 1956. Actually that card freaked me out as a kid. It lists him as a White Sox, but shows him in Cleveland gear. 55 years ago it is excusable. Anyway, in 2004 Upper Deck reversed the mistake. On the card Doby is listed as a member of the Cleveland Indians. It makes sense; he spent the bulk of his career with him and is one of their best players of all time. The odd thing about Sweet Spot is that they list Larry Doby as an Indian, but the Manu-patch on the card is a Sox logo. I have a scab on my head from scratching it wondering what the hell Richard P. McWilliam was thinking of when he gave this card his seal of approval. It is sooo ridiculous that I love it! Kind of like my pastime. Anyway, since I have never ripped a pack of Sweet Spot before I don’t know if this type thing happens often. Has anyone else seen a Manu-patch gone this wrong before? Thanks to Wicked for the card and thanks to all for reading. Larry Doby forever! Final exams tomorrow. Wish me luck. More to come in this Wicked Wicked Week. Oh, don't forget about the amazing giveaways you can find here! Go Rays! Troll out.

Its A Wicked World!

Today is day number one of Wicked Week and I only have a moment to post. There is so much to write and so much to explain. It all started with this post back in August of last year. I had just been bite by the Allen and Ginter bug and ripped my first box. I was a bit let down with the hits in the box. No autographs and just 2 relics, both Tigers. I was left with a Magglio Ordonez jersey and a Dontrelle Willis pants relic. Naturally they were up for trade and I posted them up. I didn't get any takers right away and after a few days I decided that the D-Train pants relic would be the start of a new collection for me. Before the Devil Rays I was a Marlins fan and I really liked Dontrelle. He wasn't at a good spot in his career and his cards were plentiful, so after some thought I announced to the blog-o-sphere that I was going to be a D-Train collector. It was that magical post that led me to "meet" the Wicked One in South Florida, Wicked Ortega of the My Past Time...I Love It! blog. Since that post nearly a year ago, a great friendship was born. Earlier today Wicked (also known as Alfredo) called me to tell me about a David Price auto he had found. Anyway, it all started with Dontrelle's pants, but turned into a lasting friendship that has yielded many trades and has shifted 100s of baseball cards from North to South Florida. This week I am going to catch up on the all goodies Alfedo has sent me which have slipped by unposted. Naturally I don't have the time today, but I wanted to tease the things to come. Alfredo has a great philosophy when it comes to cards, he "pays it forward" and many have of you reading this have felt his generosity. The header of this blog for this week is a card from 2009 SP Legendary Cuts of Roberto Clemente and Vlad Guerrero. Wicked sent it with this written on the toploader "You gotta love this one, as soon as I saw this I thought Troll". Many cards have made him think Troll and my collection is all the better for it. This week I will formerly thank my friend and fellow blogger and show all the goodies off to the world in the process. Aside from the Clemente relic you can check out my first Steve Carlton jersey relic and a green dandy of Satchel Paige. MUCH MORE TO COME IN THIS WICKED WEEK! There will be Rays a plenty, vintage, Negro League, Larry Doby, Danny Tartabull, Clemente, Steve Carlton, autos, relics and more! Its a special week on his blog as well. There is a contest brewing with tons of Hall of Fame autographs and amazing stuff up for grabs, so check it out. Go Rays! Troll out.

READ ME!!! State of the Troll and Things to Come!

Things to come…
Greetings! Troll here. Very busy. We have family from Maryland visiting, so no time to post. All of the group break stuff is packed up. 10 peoples stuff has shipped and the remainder will go out on Monday or Tuesday. The Bradentucky Bombers Nuclear Bombshells (our B team) is going to Fort Myers for a roller derby Sunday. We will take the family and they will check out derby for the first time. Esther Gin N Juice is strictly A team, so she won’t be skating, but I will be working. Anyway, regarding the group break-all of the participants will receive something this coming week. Some of you are due oversized cards and I have a couple of packs I picked up to post for APTBNL that I will divvy up for you guys too. Anyway, some of you are done, but some might get some bonuses. Some of you got 100s of cards, some less, but most things turned out pretty even. I didn’t count cards, but it wasn’t very lopsided. The two teams that got the shaft were the Rockies and the Marlins. I feel like I owe you guys something. So much that was ripped was late 80’s/early 90’s so the newer expansion teams were underrepresented. The rule is and you all MUST comply-is that you must post at least one card you received from the break on your own blogs and send me a link. I can’t wait for everyone to get their stuff, it was more work than I had intended and I am soooo disorganized that I know now that I am not suited for this kind of stuff. Anyhoo, when I finally got my stuff together I had a blast sorting through all of the cards. There were so many players that I had forgotten about and so many great cards and goofy photos, it was great. I also obsessively added loose packs that were more modern and in the end there were quite a few “hits” and I can’t wait to see the reactions of the lucky ones who are going to get them. Okay, now with the group break done I can move on to some other things. I am going to make the next few weeks theme weeks. The week upcoming (July 26th) is special to me for a number of personal reasons and I am going to make that the first theme week. It will be a Wicked Week of Summer. Ideally it will be seven days worth of cards from the My Past Time…I Love It! blog on all of my different blogs. I realized I have over 400 unposted cards that came from him plus I will also show off some cards of his favorite players. It will be GREAT stuff. Hundreds of cards, autographed stuff, vintage, hits and Rays galore. Stay tuned. The following week will be International Week. It will include trades from the UK, Australia, Asia, South Africa, Canada, France and Mexico. Should I get any more international packages, they will be added too. There are still MANY countries that haven’t traded with the Troll yet. After that, it will be a week of linking your group break posts and a little commentary from me. Okay, so stay tuned and keep coming back. Wicked Week is coming!!! Go Rays! Troll out.

Tuesday Moring Musings, Blogging as Therapy and a Card from the Wicked Vault!

After work on Friday before I took a nap and before we left for Gainesville I sat down at my desk in the dining room (which has become my card room) and had plans to schedule a weeks worth of posts. I was staring at literally thousands of cards. Blogger kindness packages, trades with readers, trades with bloggers, purchases made online and at the card shop and a shoebox from Mom and Dad’s garage. I was too overwhelmed. 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!

Another Sleepless Night and 3 From 3 For My PC!

THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOLS POST!
Greetings Trollites! Your friend the Troll is in a state of delirium brought on by a lack of sleep. I got off work this morning at 2:00AM. I had a paper due for my 8:00AM class that I hadn’t even started, so after chatting with the wife for a few minutes I sat down at the computer to START my paper. This was close to 4:00AM. Anyway, I worked pretty hard on the paper, but I took periodic breaks to post on the Nitty Gritty and Leading Off and catch up reading some of the other blogs. Next thing I knew I was totally sucked into Dayf's House of Philatelic Kickassery. Yep, Dayf is awesome. They don’t call him the King of the Card Bloggers for nothing. He is a fearless leader that I don’t mind following (and I do!-Cardjunk is the first blog I ever followed) and the awesome direction that his blog headed in through the wee hours of the morning had me mesmerized. It reminded me that I too had planned on doing something extra special for today. You see I started this blog in early May of 2009 and started reading blogs the second week of April. People were still commenting and talking about April Fool’s Day. It seemed like a pretty amazing event.
I wanted to join in the fun, but I had 50 weeks to wait. I probably should have had the post perfected long in advance, but I am the King of Procrastination and that goes against my one rule. Anyway, the House of Philatelic Kickassery had me laughing all morning-I even woke my wife up to show her. The other true highlight of my sleepless night was this AMAZING post on Cards on Cards. After waking my wifey, I read this out loud to my wife and had her laughing pretty hard even if she has no idea who Carlos Zambrano is. I did manage to finish my paper right around 7:00AM and it was pretty damn good. I actually made it to class on time for a change, got the paper turned in on time and had a really great class. After that I had to get some blood work done, go to a doctor’s appointment and help my Dad with something. Oh, I also stopped at the Post Office and I can finally hold the Al Kaline card in my hands. I get to enjoy it this weekend before it gets shipped off to its new owner. Anyway... Long story short, I am rushing off to work feeling delusional. Back to this morning, 5 AMish-in between reading and writing I pushed out a quick and silly post of my own that you may or may not have read. Well, it was an April Fools post, but I can’t say I was pleased with it and it certainly didn’t take care of my Fool Itch. I guess, much like the Chicago Cubs, I will have to wait till next year. So there is another 9 hours left in the day. I have another 16 hours to spend at work and I am totally delirious from sleep deprivation. I seriously cannot see straight nor can I think straight. I am wiped out. Drained beyond belief, but I can’t sleep at work, so if I have to keep my eyes open, I might as well be typing. I don’t know what I have saved on my flash drive, but I will do my best to patch together a couple of semi-coherent posts. They will be real posts. As real as I can muster. They won’t be fake though. Since I am here anyway, here is a serious addition to my Jared Sandberg player collection. I am bringing back feature that I have tried once or twice in the past, The Collective Troll’s 3 From 3 for my PC. In this post I showed off my newly acquired Trifecta-a Sandberg certified auto and a bat and jersey relic. The bat relic came from My Past Time…I Love It! he also sent along this little gem. A 2003 UD Sweet Spot base card, #117 of Sandberg. The back of the card cites Sandberg hitting 18 homers in only 358 at-bats in 2002. Of course he sent a TON of other great stuff too that I NEED to get posted including a record 11 different autographed cards. The next card in this 3 from 3 came from the aforementioned genius, Dayf-formerly the Cardboard Junkie, presently the proprietor of Dayf’s House of Philatelic Kickassery. A few months ago Dayf sent me a huge box full of Rays cards from the past 12 years amongst other goodies. I still have yet to get around to scanning the cards and I am about 3 months behind in trade posts, but I did pull out this sweet Sandberg card for this 3 From 3 post. It is from the 2003 Upper Deck Vintage set, card #63. 2003 UDV is one of my favorite sets from the 2000s because it is styled after one of my favorite sets of the 1960s. Just another reason why cards are better than stamps… The 3rd card in this special 3 from 3 came from my favorite Texan, Brian from Play at the Plate. He sent a super amazing package full of 2010 Topps inserts that totally shrank my wantlist, but he had some bonus cards too including some great Rays singles. He even managed to dig up this 2001 Fleer Premium Sandberg card. It is #230 in the set and it is serial numbered 0400/1999. Thanks to all 3 of these amazing friends and super amazing bloggers for these 3 fresh and new Jared Sandberg cards for my personal collection plus everything else that each of them sent. Between the 3 I have about 1,000 unposted cards-no joke. The random Roberto Clemente cards peppered throughout this post all also came from my buddy Wicked Ortega... Thanks for reading! If I can keep my eyes open long enough there will be a full blown mega trade post coming later tonight. Stay tuned! I will also be posting more cards on the Nitty Gritty and Leading Off as well. Thanks guys! Remember that our card blog-o-sphere is a family and Upper Deck can't tear it apart! Go Rays! Troll out.

The Quadrafecta is Complete!

My good friend Wicked Ortega from My Past Time...I Love It! posted his ever growing Jordan Zimmerman collection the other day. I posted my ever growing Jared Sandberg collection the day before. I had shown off my first certified auto of JS. I already had his rookie card and a jersey relic so the certified auto gave me the Trifecta. Now, thanks to the aforementioned friend I have the Quadrafecta… That’s right, I now have the complete collection of Sandberg relics.To go along with a 2002 Bowman Freshman Fiber jersey relic, Wicked sent this 2001 Fleer Diamond Cuts bat relic of Sandberg. Quadrafecta complete! The collection is growing… Off to work… Go Rays! Troll out!

Another Auto From the Wicked Vault

Here is 1 more card from the Wicked Vault. It is of my favorite Rays player, shortstop Jason Bartlett. JB hasn’t had too many autographed issues since joining the Rays, but when he was a future star with the Twinkies he had a ton. I think this is the 4th or 5th JB Twins auto that My Past Time…I Love It! has sent my way. The back of the card on this 2004 Playoff Honors autographed (and #ed to 800) offering touts Bartlett’s quick hands, bat control and ability as a table setter. I just wanted to use my break between shifts to it’s fullest to get a post up. I will be back later tonight. There is just a little bit of time left to vote for the next player I collect, it is a tight race between a couple of Hall of Famers right now. Thanks for the great autographed card Wicked! I still have a few more autos in the vault just dying to be shown off! Go Rays! Troll out.

Trade Post Teaser...

The past 5 or 6 trade posts I have put up from Wicked Ortega of the My Past Time…I Love It! Blog have been abbreviated due to a lack of time on my part. I am trying to get some of the great cards he has sent me together for one giant Carl Crawford Festival of Awesomeness. This could be a lengthy procedure, so for now, here is a teaser… In the mean time, check out the Nitty Gritty Card of the Day or just go check out My Past Time...I Love It! and his new Adam Lind collection. Go Rays! Troll out.

When 3 BJs Come Together

Sorry if this wasn’t what you were expecting… This is a new feature that I am going to try out. The idea is basically showing off 3 cards from 3 different people with a bit of a theme to them and very few words. I don’t know if I can handle that. The few words part, but I am gonna have to try cuz a full course load isn’t gonna allow much time to post. I will call these posts “3 From 3” and they will all follow a theme of some sort. Today’s theme is BJ. Okay, here are 3 brandy new cards of Melvin Upton, more often known as BJ for Bossman Junior. I never set out to collect BJ, he isn’t my favorite player, but he plays on my favorite team, so bring em on! The first one here comes from the stack of cards that Nico from the Near Mint blog sent to me-he knocked off about 5 or 6 cards from my team set list, plus a few from my PCs. This is gonna be a quick post, so I am just gonna show one card. It is from the 2006 Topps Updates and Highlights set and was one of my most wanted cards for my team set. The second card comes from North of the Border via the Pictures of Men Blue Jays blog. It is a game used jersey insert of Upton from 2009 Upper Deck Series 1. The final card of Bossman Junior comes from the Dirty South and my buddy Alfredo Ortega and the My Past Time…I Love It! blog. This one is an SP from 2009 Goudey. I wasn’t gonna try to complete this set with the short prints until I got this one. Now I am on the lookout for the Longo SR and Heads Up! cards, does anyone have one to spare? By the way, I do love the card, but really Goudey is BJ Upton sports royalty? Come on... Okay, that’s it. Less words, more pics. Thanks to Near Mint, Pictures of Men and My Past Time, troll out!

An Award Winning Trade...

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.