2011 Topps is (virtually) DONE!!!

So yesterday I was still riding that post derby high that I love sooo much... After school I hit the post office and got a great package from my homie and Braves fan Derek of the Tomahawk Chopping Card Blog... When my want list went down to 8 cards he wrote me that he had 7 of the 8 for me including Mickey Mantle and Buster Posey! Within 2 days of his e-mail, the cards were in my mailbox!

AWESOME!!! I am still waiting on a few more packages to arrive, but my wantlist is now empty and I couldn't be more grateful to all the awesome bloggers and readers who have helped me out on this journey!

If you are wondering about the lack of posts and pics of late, part of the reason is that my scanner took a crap... My lovely wife and I purchased a home computer, printer, scanner and a bunch of electronic goodies the month we got married... We celebrated 5 years on March 11th... That is a pretty long life for any electronic device, so we had a good run, but it is all pretty much garbage now... We have our sights on getting a wireless printer and scanner both. I don't know when, but they are both on our shopping list, so it has to happen, ha!
So back to 2011 Topps... After checking the PO Box I visited the local card shop, Ryan's Sportscards, AKA my home away from home... I was looking for some Martin Prado cards to pay Tomahawk Chopping back, but they had nothing. What they did have was an envelope marked "for Troll". Sweet! Apparently one of their customers left it for me. No note, no name. So I don't know who to thank, but to the mystery local card collector, whomever you are - THANKS!!!

Included in the envelope was 2 cards from 2010 Topps Series 2, Yo Mama Cards!!! Yes, I am still slowly chasing this set down... I still need to put together a list for the base set, but I have checked and doublechecked my list for the Yo Mama cards and Turkey Reds... I am doing pretty well (i guess) on these and I am determined to finish them off BEFORE 2013... The list can be found RIGHT HERE! The mystery fan also chipped in a pair of Topps Diamond Giveaway code cards. I raced home to unlock them... I was imagining unlocked some Hammerin' Hanks or Sandy Koufax or at least a card or two from my 63 Topps need list. It was a nice daydream, but it didn't happen. I am the lucky virtual owner of this 1992 Topps Henry Cotto, card #311 (my anniversary date!) AND a 2004 Erubial Drrrrrrrrrrzo.

Not quite Hank Aaron, but it was fun...The envelope had 2 more cards in it, with images borrowed from eBay. My anonymous homie gave me a 1963 Topps card!!!!!!!!!!! It is my 43rd card from the set, card #535 of Indians pitcher Jim Perry.

I already had Gaylord Perry, so now I have completed the Perry brothers set for both 1963 and 1965! Awesome! The final card in the envelope was card #18 from 2011 Topps, the final card on my wantlist!!! Kevin Millwood the thorn in my side for 2011 series 1, but now he is safe in the binder and the first 6 pages are completed! As soon as the 3 packages I am waiting for, this set is done! I have traded (or will be sending) all of my insert dupes. The only insert set I am chasing is the super awesome Kimball minis. I am waiting on a pretty generous stack of these mini slabs o' cardboard and with that I will be done to needing just these six cards: 5,20,21,25,29 and 43. My homie and fellow Floridan Wicked Ortega is trying to chase this one down, too. You can find his needs list right here...

The Pee Wee Reese at the top of this post illustrates why this set rules... I am pretty impressed with my self control in not chasing down all the crazy insert sets this year. The Yo Mama cards were a lot of fun last year, but 3 series were toooo much for me. I do REALLY want to chase down all the 201o Vintage Legends cards, though. Those are neat! Anyway, thanks to all for the cardboard hook-ups! Thanks to my mystery card donor and thanks to all for reading and checking out my updated wantlists! Congrats to Ben Zobrist for rocking! Thanks again to the Nuclear Bombshells and Ocala Cannibals for playing one of the most exciting derby bouts that I have called in a long time... By the by, I did not receive any assistance from Will Ferrell, but my muttonchops have left the building (err, my face)... Don't know why I felt the need to share this... All of my wantlists are up to date... As always, I will provide a loving home for any and all unwanted 1963 and 1965 Topps baseball cards... I love this hobby! troll out.

The Nuclear Bombshells Win in the Most Exciting Derby Bout EVER!!!!

Last night in Bradentucky the Nuclear Bombshells entertained the Ocala Cannibals... A few months back the Bombshells beat Ocala on the road in a very hard fought bout. The Cannibals had payback and redemption on their mind, but the Bombshells were set to defend their ranking in front of the home crowd... It was the first bout for newcomers Red Crush and Savanah's Resurrection and they were joined by all the Bombshells regulars... The line-up of Skitzo Skater, Shitz N Gigglez, Guiness the Menace, Cajun Sinsation, Maura Cowbell, Motion 2 Strike Her, Phylla Bust Her, Rebel Hell Yeah, Malice in Rollerland, Crash Test Barbie, Sin Da Roller and Poison Apple... The 14 skater cast came together perfectly under the coaching of Blaque Jac and the Mighty Thor. The Bombshells took the lead early and defended it through half-time, leading by as many as 28 at one point. Crash Test Barbie and Malice in Rollerland handled the majority of the jamming duties while Poison Apple and Shitz N Gigglez set the tone defensively with some explosive, amazing, out of nowhere and legit hard hits. Through the second half it was a see-saw of lead changes with Ocala leading by as many as ten points at one point. The Bombshells were relentless and set the pace and showed off their speed and endurance. When the 2-minute mark was hit the Bombshells had a 1 point lead and it seemed like there would be just 1 more jam to decide it all. Some fast thinking by the coaching staff, a "no-huddle" offense and a few well placed time-outs spread things out more than normal. Three jams elapsed in just over 1 minute of clock time and with 3 seconds left on the period clock the Cannibals had a 1 point lead. It seemed like it was all over but Bradentucky had one timeout left and were able to get one last jam off. Crash Test Barbie put the team's fate on her shoulders behind 4 of the best blockers on the team. Barbie battled to become lead jammer, scored 4 points and called off the jam and ended the game with a BOMBSHELLS VICTORY!!!!!!!!!! It was a down-to-wire complete nail biter and the Bombshells came together completely as a team and earned the W. Both squads played near perfect games, executed and did everything their coaches asked. The penalty boxes were empty nearly all night long and all 28 skaters had the bout of their careers. At the end the Bombshells were victorious, they improved their record to 3-1 and remained perfect at home. The Cannibals fought hard, but someone had to lose. The post game awards went to Sweden Sour of the Cannibals as best blocker for Ocala, while Yoshibettamove took the award as Ocala's top jammer. On the Bradentucky Side Shitz N Gigglez took the best blocker award. She missed the last few minutes of the game, on the sidelines with a knee injury. It was a scary time as Gigglez broke her ankle in a bout 2 years ago. Fortunately her surgically repaired robo-ankle was uneffected. Still she had to leave the rink on crutches... For the Bombshells, who went with a 2 jammer attack which meant zero rest for their hard working jammers. It was Malice in Rollerland who took the trophy as top-jammer for the night and the final trophy, for Coaches Choice MVP went to the super fast Crash Test Barbie who was on the floor to score the decisive final two points. It was an amazing bout, down to the wire and totally intense... Every single point mattered and each one was hard fought. The final score was 181-178. My voice is almost completely gone and I can only imagine how sore everyone is right no... All I can say is WOW and HOLY FREAKIN' DERBY!!!! I owe a big thank you to Glyph Huckster for traveling all the way from Gainesville, Florida to call this bout with me and of course a HUGE thank you to all of the refs, volunteers, coaches and of course the NUCLEAR BOMBSHELLS!!!! I love this game!!! All photos courtesy of the awesome and wonderful Blonde Fabulous of the Bombers. For more great bout shots, find the Bradentucky Bombers on Facebook... Go Bombers! Side of Bacon, err troll out.

1963 Topps Baseball

So yesterday I posted to announce my new collecting goal and even made a list... I put the cards in the binder and noticed that there were cards that I knew I had that weren't in the stack... A couple hours of searching and I found another dozen cards from my new favorite set... The LIST is up to date and it turns out that I have 17% of the first 12 pages done already! Woo hoo! That is the good news. I went to scan some of the cards and realized my scanner isn't working. That is the bad news... More to come, stay tuned... Go Rays! troll out.

Anybody Have any Spare 1963 Topps Cards They Don't Need???

So, I have been a list making fool! I am even getting a little bit organized... Instead of piles and stacks of cards all over the floor, I now have 27 binders on the floor and stacks of boxes of random cards up on shelves. I have started working on 1979, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Topps. I am still trying to chase ALL of the inserts from 2010 Topps and someday I would like to finish off 2009 and 2010 Heritage.

1965 Topps is still my #1 obsession and I am now 70% done with that set!!! I am thrilled with that, but I still have Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Sandy Koufax, Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Carl Yaz,Harmon Killebrew and a whole mess of short prints standing in my way. Basically, its gonna be a while before I make much progress...

I need a new (cheaper) vintage fix and have decided on 1963 Topps. This set has grown on me a ton and even though I have NO Hall of Fame cards from the set and I know Mantle, Mays, Aaron and Pete Rose are gonna set me back a ton, but I want to try anyway... I got a binder for them, got enough pages to finish the set and I have the 20 different cards I currently own in the binder - Its pretty laughable really... I have around 3% of the set and have page after page completely empty, BUT ya gotta start somewhere.

I know I have tapped the blog-o-sphere out for '65s, so I now I can start begging for '63s. Anybody got any??? I do have a little trade bait... I have about 5 cards each from '56-'59, around 20 from 1960, 30 from '61 and 20 from '62. I have a couple '64s and about 50 dupes from 1965. I have a few from '66 and '67 and no '68 or '69. I have a few 1973s and 1978s, but otherwise I am tapped out. But, if you wanna trade vintage for vintage, I have some, so lets make a deal!!!

You can find my needs list for 1963 Topps right HERE, please check it out. Chances are if you have a card from this series, I need it. I updated my '65 needs list too, you can find that HERE. Oh, shifting back to the present, thanks to all of my generous blogging buddies, I have a bunch of 2011 Topps on their way to me and pending arrival I need only ONE MORE CARD!!!!


So if anyone has card #18 of Kevin Millwood from 2011 Topps, PLEASE send it my way... I am getting mega close on the minis, too. You can find the whole list for 2011 HERE.


I still need to go through the 2010 Topps binder to figure out what I need to finish the base. According to my needs page I only need a handful of cards, but I think there are at least 30 empty slots. I will update that SOON. My list for Yo Mama cards AND Turkey Reds are up to date. If anyone else is still working on those, I bought a few lots from both those sets. I haven't received them yet, but I will have some dupes for trading... Okay, thanks for checking this out.


I will actually post something else beyond begging soon, but til then, SEND ME YOUR 1963 TOPPS!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks again to EVERYONE who has hooked me up with 2011 Topps!!! I LOVE the blog-o-sphere, y'all rawk!!!!!!!!
Go Rays! troll out.

Still Trying to Finish off 2011 Series One...

So, I got a new car... The bank still has time to change it's mind OR hike my interest rate up to the point I have to give it back, so no details yet... I am driving around in it and have been able to check the Post Office. It wasn't a pleasant place yesterday, but... I did empty my box and have received all of the 2011 trades I was waiting on. Everything is bindered up and I officially need just 46 more cards to finish it off. Thanks to all who helped! The current needs list is HERE!
Thanks for looking! troll out.

Things Are Looking Up...

Greetings Trollites! Thanks to all for being SO patient with me! Things are slowly looking up. Slowly. My battle with my 1990 Jeep Cherokee is coming to a close. Two weeks ago I blew the head gasket on it. I have pumped (literally) thousands of dollars into this car over the past 2 years. I spend most of my free time working on it just to keep it running. I bought this car brand new 22 years ago, paid cash and have really treasured it. When the head gasket went, I knew I could fix it, BUT was struggling with how well I wanted to fix it. I was planning on taking it apart, milling the head and block, doing a valve job, porting the head, replacing the pistons, cam, lifters and valve springs... After some thought I decided that all that work and money won't guarantee that the car will run like new for long. I decided that I am going to replace the head gasket, clean it up and put a for sale sign on it. It was a hard choice - this Jeep has been the longest constant in my life (other than my parents) so life without it will be WEIRD.

I will be replacing the head gasket on Sunday and should have it up on Craigs List by Sunday night. With all the repairs I have no savings left. The plan is to sell this Jeep, continue to take the bus and bum rides to work and hopefully have some down payment money soon. That will be weird too as I have NEVER had a car payment in my life. I do plan on staying with the Jeep family. I really want a Wrangler, but we will see...

On a card collecting note: The Pujols card sold for $77.00. I was hoping for a little more, but it was a butt ugly card and it was pretty great to be able to cash it in. I have thrown up some more stuff on the 'Bay. I put up some of my Carl Crawford cards. With him on the Red Sox I have lost interest in collecting him completely. My interest may return, but it will take a while. It took me 18 years to return to collecting Danny Tartabull after he signed with the Yankees, so we will see. If you have any interest in CC cards, there are 5 up there right now including the gem of my collection, my favorite card of CC, this 2007 Upped Deck Black autograph. Here is the link if you are so inclined... There are a couple of printing plates and another autograph. I thought I would sell off the high end stuff for now. I really don't want to sell any cards I got in trades, so I am just going to sell the stuff that I bought on the bay last year. Anyway, I will try and not be so quiet. I have some neat stuff to post and have gotten a lot of trade stuff and probably have a bunch more waiting in my post office box. I don't like not blogging, but I have to say that it was pretty neat that I missed the ENTIRE Manny Ramirez era with the Rays...Oh, this is the link to the 6 cards that I have listed right now... Oh, the pic at the top of the post is my first completed page from 2011 Topps. I am getting closer and closer!!! The other pic is another CC printing plate that is up for sale...I hope that if I have a working vehicle and I don't spend my days stressing about how I am gonna get to work, then I might have more time to post, so I am crossing my fingers on that... I am STILL collecting, but I am just sticking to set building and vintage. Not so worried about my PCs right now. Thanks for reading. troll out.

Pujols 1 of 1 is Up For Bid...

Greetings collectors! Yer friend the Troll has been very sick, but I am slowly feeling better and have listed the Pujols 1/1. I have updated my 2011 Topps want list and thanks to y'all, the list has gotten smaller. I have made it to the post office (nor out of the house) but hope to get all of my pending trades out soon. Cheers! troll out.

2011 Topps Haves and Wants...

So, after my last post of my super rad 1/1 Albert Pujols cards which will hopefully bring in enough dinero to get a hobby box or 2 of 2011 Heritage several of you e-mailed me asking if I had a want list for 2011 Topps. Well, I have exactly 100 cards so far. This means that I still need 230 to finish off ye olde set. I did put together a list, finished it just a few minutes ago actually. My 100 cards are now in a binder along with the 5 minis I have, plus all of my dupes and the various inserts that I will NOT be collecting. You can click RIGHT HERE to see what I got... Thanks so much for checking out my list. Hopefully I have something that someone needs... By the way, I am WAY over tired and I think this entire post links to my wants/trade list... troll out.

2011 Topps Albert Pujols One of One...

Okay, the 1 of 1 autographed sketch card is now in the Casa de Troll. It was drawn by renowned artist Don Pedicini Jr. and is in the style of Albert Pujols 2001 Topps rookie card. The back of the card is marked 1 of 1 and bears an on-card auto on the back from the artist, Don Pedicini Jr. Like I said before I THINK this is a 1 in 20,000 hobby only hit. I believe there are 60 different 1/1 sketch cards in this series and at least 2 different featuring Albert Pujols. If anyone has any insight on this one, please comment here. I will be listing it as a 7-day auction on eBay with bidding starting at 99 cents. If anyone really wants this, let me know and send me an offer before I list it… Thanks so much for checking this out. Bacon is back on the hobby horse! Troll out.

A 1/20,000 Pack Hit at the LCS...

So my LCS bought a case of 2011 Topps hobby. The owner said if he sold half of it he would let me rip a box for fun in the shop. Well I ripped the box today. No hits in the first 20 packs. Pulled 2 boring relics in the next 3 packs and then I pulled a 1/20,000 1/1 autographed sketch card. My math is fuzzy, but that is a hobby case hit or better. I think it was the "guaranteed box auto" because I didn't pull another. I didn't even realize it was a 1/1 at first. Basically while I was complaining about no auto in the box I started looking at card backs and noticed. He wanted to show the card off to a couple of potential buyers, but I get to bring it home tomorrow. I will post it then and it will probably fly off to eBay from there. I wanted to post a teaser just in case anyone knew anything about these autographed sketch cards. The odds I listed I got from an eBay description - I don't really know anything about these cards... Cheers! Baseball season is coming!!! troll out.

WOW!!!!

Have you ever got a package in the mail, opened it up, did the happy dance because you got some awesome stuff, sent the thank you email AND THEN a year later discovered there was something super awesome that you didn't notice when you opened it originally??? I did. Around a year ago I got a BIG box from Adam E of Thoughts and Sox fame. He sent me about 50 padded envelopes, which are like gold to traders. There were some sweet cards in there, too. Well... Those envelopes lasted me a really long time. I have been a bad trader and very inactive in that capacity. Well yesterday I started getting a few packages ready to go to the post office when I get the cash and I grabbed the LAST envelope from the box and discovered 2 cards in top loaders... Holy shizzit! Two AMAZING cards! Two SWEET VINTAGE cards of my favorite player of All Time, one of the greatest players to ever play the game, the legendary ROBERTO CLEMENTE! I can't believe that Adam sent me these (THANKS SOOOO MUCH!!!!) and I can't believe that all this time I had these two incredible cards in my collection and I didn't even know it! Well, without any further adieu here they are... Starting with what is now the oldest Roberto Clemente card in my collection. From 1961 Post, card #132 of the Hall of Famer. This is not only the first 1961 Post card I own, but it is of my favorite player ever. SWEET! Along with it he included a 1968 (I think...) Topps game card. It is number 6 of 33 and it's a DOUBLE. Awesome. What a great surprise! It's things like this that get me really excited about collecting again. Thanks so much Adam! For everything! troll out.