Olympic Hockey is everything the WBC wants to be… but can never acheive

How big was today’s win in Vancouver by team USA over the Canadian hockey team?My wife, who is hardly a hockey fan, read that and said “Wow!”And it was indeed a wow. A tense game which Red Wing Brian Rafalski playing for Team USA became the offensive h…

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Inspired by the recently flurry of mid-’90s breaks by the likes of The Collective Troll and possibly others, I found myself grabbing a 1996 Pinnacle Series 2 hobby box from a recent card show on the cheap. Lately, I’ve found it hard to resist passing …

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I picked up a hobby box of 1996 Pinnacle Series 2 at a card show recently. I’m posting the full break on my blog and here is an arbitrarily selected pack from the box.205 – Tony Gwynn (A Hall of Famer)222 – Lee Smith (A should-be Hall of Famer)298 – T…

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This hobby will make you crazy.In the past I have had a lot of conflict with my local and only (former) card shop, owned by none other than Cranky himself.Cranky’s shop was a hodgepodge of every type of card imaginable, including hobby boxes as well as…

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As part of my ongoing losing battle to better organize and display my collection, I spent the early part of this evening putting my 1993 Upper Deck factory set in a binder. It was long overdue, since I adhere to the opinion expressed by some of my favo…

Continue reading about Randy Milligan, 1993 Upper Deck #228 »

I’m closing the poles early because I can.  And I’m heading to bed in a minute.  I randomized the list 5 times to be fair to everyone on the list.  I figured the first name didn’t have much of a random chance of being first again.  So without further ado, I will show you the [...]

Continue reading about And The Winner Is…….. »

I can be so clever sometimes….Just the other day I received a package in the mail from one of the most generous people in the blogosphere, Wicked Ortega. It was filled with Mariners, Griffeys and a hand-signed auto. Here’s a look at what the man from…

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Who is this player?Jamie Quirk, utility player, Kansas City RoyalsBehind the plate for the Royals on Opening Day 1980 was Jamie Quirk who was filling in for Darrell Porter after the All-Star entered an alcohol treatment program. He did well at the plat…

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A real quick and easy trade with Dan from Saints of the Cheap Seats. I’m inching closer and closer to completion of the 2008 Topps Heritage set.

I sent over a few cards to Dan and got this beauty in return.

I will get this set finished by the end of …

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Got a half priced blaster of ’09 Topps, pulled some cards I’m more than willing to send along. Let me know what you need in the comments/via email, trade me a CC or Gomes to be named later and it’s yours.

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Upper Deck writes: “This is not a garden variety trademark infringement dispute. This case requires a deliberate and careful assessment of the scope of MLBP’s trademark rights in a context where those rights come into direct conflict with principles of free speech and competition and the legal doctrines that aim to protect them.”

Continue reading about COMMENTARY: MLB Properties vs. Upper Deck — Examining Upper Deck’s argument »

Look closely at the card. Notice the second autograph on it. It’s much easier to see in a scan. Black Sharpie against black uniform is a bit harder to see in person. I almost missed it.

Instead, something caught my eye and I paused momentarily. Someth…

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That’s right, it’s a mighty young “Hawk”! One look at his beak, and you can see how Ken got his nickname.Fun facts about Ken Harrelson:-Ken was born in Woodruff, SC, and was a four-sport athlete in high school (baseball, basketball, football, and golf)…

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When you have to enter over 38,000 cards, I guess you’re entitled to a mistake or two.Check out the page for Mickey Mantle’s 1962 card:When I clicked on the “Flip Card” button, nothing happened! I expected the card to go right side up.

Continue reading about Oops…. A New Meaning to Flipping a Card »

#402 Tony LaRussaHere is the next ’81 Donruss- an old-school Tony LaRussa as the White Sox manager. Tony managed the Sox from 1979 to 1986, winning the division once in 1983.I sent this card off to Tony with a week left in the regular season last year….

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Signing Results:  1988 National League MVP Kirk Gibson!!!
A few weeks ago I read online that Los Angeles Dodgers World Series hero Kirk Gibson was going to be appearing at a Grand Rapids Griffins minor league hockey game.  The promotion was that anyone that bought a ticket to the game was entitled to a free autograph of this [...]

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Continue reading about Quarter Box Bounty – Part 1 Football »

Just because Upper Deck and I aren’t getting along right now doesn’t mean I won’t update you on things they do. And I must give them credit where credit is due – they’ve embraced this social networking thing so much better than Topps has at this point. I couldn’t even find a Topps [...]

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 The contestant that correctly guesses this weeks auto will be rewarded with a Double! These are the ground rules that I have stolen from Spot the Sig over at PhungoRespond in the comments to THIS post.Please put team you want to represent…

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Player of the Day: Rowland Office was 4 for 5 with a home run and 3 RBI in the Braves’ 5-2 win over the Montreal Expos.Pitcher of the Day: J.R. Richard struck out eight batters and allowed only one run as the Houston Astros beat the LA Dodgers 8-1.

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For no reason other than I love old Yamakatsu cards, a 1977 Yamakatsu card of Masayuki Kakefu.

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MLB Properties, which is the licensing entity for all 30 MLB teams — the organization that grants and approves the commercial use of the thousands of trademarks MLB owns — claims that Upper Deck is using those trademarks illegally in its three most recent baseball card sets, 2009 Signature Stars, 2009 Ultimate Collection and 2010 Upper Deck Series 1.

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I recently posted about a 2001 UD Sweet Spot Barry Bonds bat card that I got as part of a 5 card lot on eBay. I bought the lot because I needed the Bonds Bat card for my 500 Home Run Club Bat Collection. Here are the other 4 cards from that l…

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I was rummaging through the bargain packs at Hoopla’s in SW Portland a couple days ago for my 8 year old nephew and I to rip, and I picked up a couple of these and a couple of ’93 UD Fun Pack. He thinks minis are so cool. So do I.. hehe. The cards meas…

Continue reading about Pack Break: 1988 Topps Leaders Baseball »

I’m not quite sure what Upper Deck is thinking.  After all, they were the ones who started this exclusivity thing back when they signed a deal making them the only company able to produce cards licensed by the National Hockey League.  It di…

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I’ve received some more images from the upcoming TRISTAR Pursuit set that I wanted to share.  The first image is the short print image variation of two-sport star D’Vontrey Richardson who was drafted by the Brewers.  The regular card p…

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Yesterday, Brian of Play at the Plate issued a frantic comment on my blog. It had nothing to do with what I had just written about, but given the news that he wanted to get out I couldn’t blame him.It seems that Topps’ Million Card Giveaway had su…

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Inputted code…Awesomeness revealed:I have managed to reveal cards from ’58, ’59, ’60, ’63, ’65, ’66, ’67, ’71 (2), ’72 (2), ’74, ’76 (2), ’77 (3), ’84, ’87, ’90, ’93, and ’05… In conclusion, I have bought WAY to much of this stuff.

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Since 2004, BBM has included a subset featuring people throwing out the first pitch at ballgames in the 2nd Version set. A couple of times, the person in question is a former player (Tetsuharu Kawakami, Akira Ohgi, Jim Paciorek) but usually they are a…

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The latest Prestige Collectibles Auction has started and will be running until March 4.

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Continue reading about Random Topps Card of the Day: 1962 Topps #324 Joe McClain »

2 More Andre Dawson 2004 Donruss Pass The Torch Cards!!!
Part of my “Andre Dawson Grab Bag #2″ purchase, I received 2 more Pass The Torch cards. 
Rounding out this insert set, I have now added the Yellow card numbered 80/100 and the Red one, numbered 136/500, that features Vlad Guerrero on the back.
I like the card.   I [...]

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I was just browsing the official MLB site and came across their fantasy preview.  I believe last year they used the 1984 Topps design.  This year they went with the wood grain goodness of 1987.  I grabbed a few images of some of the sphere’s favorites for y’all to gander at.  The rest can be [...]

Continue reading about First Look At 2036 Topps Heritage, Kind Of »

I have 9,235 songs on iTunes. This is one of them.I got this song as a free Song of the Week from iTunes in 2005. I don’t know really anything about the band but it’s a good song. Wikipedia describes The Subways as a British alternative rock band. If y…

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Hello everyone. Our apologies for disappearing for a while; we have been involved in a few extremely time-consuming endeavors and once we finish a jury duty assignment next week, then we’re hoping to get back to normal around the Co…

Continue reading about When baseball becomes a defining moment in family history. »