My Place In History

I was one of 3 winners in the first ever contest from JABOs back in December. Obviously, I'm a little behind on posting, or at least I don't my to-post piles prioritized well.

2011 Topps Lineage - Diamond Anniversary #55 Nolan Ryan

I put both my entries in for this shiny Hall Of Famer, and won.

A big thanks to Kyle at Juuust a bit outside for the contest.

Contest Winnings from Card Hobbyist

A while back I won a contest at Card Hobbyist. As contest etiquette demands, I must post my winnings. Etiquette would probably also have me do it less than 2 months after the contest, but I don't have a time machine, this will have to do.

When this baby hits 88mph...

Right...anyway, onto the cards.

2011 Topps Lineage 3-D #T3D25 Albert Pujols

I must admit I was a little more excited when I first got this than I am now.  Several years from now I'm sure I'll look on his years here fondly like every other Cardinal-for-awhile.

1996 Stadium Club Extreme Players Gold #423 Norm Charlton

I swear this guy follows me around.  I've got one previous post with him, and another one already in the pipeline.

1992 Topps Gold #394 Denny Martinez

This was a bonus thrown in toward my eventual goal of the 1992 and 1993 Topps Gold sets. I love getting these.

Thanks to Card Hobbyist for the contest.  And go check out his blog.  It's cool and stuff.

Help me, help you

Or at least, help Kyle at Juust a bit outside fill his group break.  I've got the Cardinals and Baseball Dad wants the Indians, but as of this writing everybody else is up for grabs.  He's offering up the following boxes for $15 per team, and only $12 for the post-1992 expansion teams - Marlins, Rockies, Diamondbacks, and (Devil) Rays.

2011 - Topps Lineage hobby and Topps Allen & Ginter hobby
2001 - Upper Deck Reserve
1991 - Stadium 1 & 2, Upper Deck jumbos (w/ silver slugger cards), and 1953 Archives
1981 - Donruss

If it fills up, this will be my first paid group break, as Cards on Cards eased me into the game with a free one awhile back.  So go claim your favorite team!

Trade With Reader Ryan

Without realizing it at the time, I put the kibosh on Ryan's trade offer with Too Many Grandersons when I filled out his 2010 Update set. You can still see my faux pas in the comments.  Luckily, he didn't hold that against me, and contacted me too make a trade.  He wanted a bunch of my spare Heritage and 2010 Update, and saw I had some Series 1 on my want list.  To even it out, he also sent a bunch of Gypsy Queen and Lineage base cards.  I sent him an entire 300ct box, and he sent a huge envelope with 6 or 7 team bags full of cards, so I'll just cover the highlights here.

All the 2011 Heritage were base cards, so here's the only one with a playoff team

The 2011 Topps were also all base cards, so again, here's one from a playoff team.

The only Cardinal of the 2011 Lineage base cards. I really like this set. I foresee a few blaster purchases.

Two 2011 Gypsy Queen SPs, to represent the dozens of base cards.

Four 2011 Gypsy Queen Wall Climbers

Two 2011 Gypsy Queen Future Stars

2011 Gypsy Queen Sticky Fingers Pudge

Two 2011 Gypsy Queen Minis of two Cardinal greats. But wait, didn't I already have the Schoendienst Mini, and its Green Border couterpart?

The Red Schoendienst is the Red Back Mini.  At this point I feel like I should go for the whole 2011 GQ "Rainbow" of Red.

2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces

Two David Freese Rookie Cards, the hero of Game 4.  2009 Topps and 2009 Topps 206.

And now, I see that I've let my Want List and Trade List get woefully out of date.  I've got lots of unsorted cards lying around.  I'm working on getting them entered into Zistle.com, and hopefully exporting the resulting want and trade lists to a nice format.  I'm starting with any and all 2011 cards, and hopefully I'll be able to get them all in before the first 2012s come out.  Then I'll try to keep up with 2012 while working back through 2010 and beyond.

Catching up on Contests

A while back I won a contest at Play at the Plate.  The prize was a rack pack of 2011 Lineage.  Let's get ripping!

There are 14 cards in the pack. First, the 12 base cards.

I like the mix of current stars and Hall of Famers. Topps did a nice job taking old and new photos and making them fit into the same look.  I haven't seen enough cards to know exactly what they're doing with the logos in the corner, but it looks like they went with era-appropriate logos, as I see 2 different Yankees logos, and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Cabrera is perforated, but I can never bring myself to break the perforations and stand up the card as designed.  Maybe if it was a Cardinal and I knew I wanted to keep it, but who knows, he may go out in a trade some day.

I'm assuming the Aaron is a Platinum Parallel, as it doesn't look like the Topps flagship Diamond Parallels.  If anyone thinks it's a different parallel (the small print on the packs is so hard to read) let me know in the comments.

All in all, there were no big hits in the pack, but it was cool to win a contest and get a taste of a set I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.  I think I may try to complete the full set, especially since it's only 200 cards.  

Thanks again to Play at the Plate!

A Contest from the Daily Dimwit

Sam from The Daily Dimwit is holding a contest with 5 prizes.  4 are relics, and one is a Fausto Carmona autograph.  I expect tons of entries to this one.  Go check it out.  Comment and promote it to earn one entry each.  If you're not convinced yet, check out the cards:

2008 Upper Deck

From 2010 Topps Update, these are cool looking cards. I have Neftali Feliz in the #d/50 Gold (like this one), and Elvis Andrus and Chris Young in the regular set.

Fausto Carmona autograph on a 2008 reprint from 2011 Topps Lineage.

From 2011 Topps Series I.  He's a Cub, but I'd still like this one.

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces - Captured on Canvas