Been running around all day and never got to writing up my 2nd GAC post, so let me whip it up fast.
Well, well, well. I have been building all the A&G sets, but have only been buying full hobby boxes for the past 3 years. But even from blasters, this make the first rip card I have ever pulled. About frigging time! So A-Rod is being forcibly retired, from how I see it. No big buh-bye ceremony like Jeets got. For my life, though, A-Rod knocks me down a point. The rip card is worth 10 points, and you are guaranteed 10 points for what's inside. We'll get to that at the end. Best scoring pack of the box so far.
pack total = 19
running total = 30
Pack 6 was set filler. Fortunately, it did help me score some points, from Rizzo and Freeman. Both are favorite players of GAC participants, so I get 2 points for each.
pack total = 4
running total = 34
Double Yankees!!! Castro and Beltran take away the two points the sweet Palmer Baseball Legends gained me. So a non scoring pack. That makes 3 zero packs out of 7.
pack total = 0
running total = 34
And we end the left side of the box with a nice Abreu that scores me a point. And the Jon Gray A&G is no normal A&G back but a no number A&G back. That'll score a fiver for a pack total of 6.
pack total = 6
running total = 40
Well, a third of the way through and I am averaging 5 points a pack. Keep that pace up and I will fall just short of 100 for the box.
Oh yeah - the rip card. As I stated, all cards pulled from a rip card are worth 10 points. You can score more based on the card since you can get mini autos, 1/1s and others. You know I'm ripping this thing:
I guess if I don't pull a auto or 1/1, I don't think there is any worse "base" mini you can get from a rip card. This card has been blowing up on ebay and I'm going to sell it. Though, I am in talks with a certain someone about it. I would sell this to pick up some of the pricier 64s I need, like the Mantle, Rose, Mays, Clemente, etc... For my first rip card, I'm pretty happy.
No use tap dance around this - let's dive right in the box with the box loader and the first 4 packs.
We all have to start somewhere, and I started with a box loader of David Wright. That's 4 points right there. And we are waiting on a ruling if you get 2 bonus points for Mr. Wright being the favorite player of another participant. So right now, I'm just calling it 4 points.
pack total = 4
running total = 4
Our first pack from the box (left side if you care) is a decent start. White Sox are my favorite team, so I gain a point for Robertson. And the gold-ish National Wonders earns me two more points.
pack total = 3
running total = 7
I'm working down the stack, not across the box, so we are still on the left side. And well - this pack sucked. For a set building pack, it's good. But a whole lot of nothing scoring wise.
pack total = 0
running total = 7
I like seeing Fisk as a White Sox in any set, cuz that means I will collect the card. I like it more here as I get another bonus point for my favorite team. However, the GAC commissioner hates Steve Spurrier (can you blame the commish). So Mr. Spurrier docs me a point. Which means two zero score packs in a row.
pack total = 0
running total = 7
Three out of the first four packs had White Sox cards. I am not complaining. The sweet Feller, which is a nice design but an overused image, gains me two points. I get two more points for the Ferocious Feline mini of the ocelot. However, that damn rookie card of Refsnyder loses me a point because of the mark of the Yankees on his uniform. So instead of 5, I only add 4 points to the total.
pack total = 4
running total = 11
Alright. My start is 11. With 17% of the box done, at this rate I am scoring a pathetic 66 unless something changes.
This year's Allen and Ginter came out a couple weeks back. And if you've been around the blogsphere the past 8 years, then you know Gint-A-Cuffs has returned again. This will be my third year participating. I'm due for a big score with the past two years near the bottom. But this is a warning that if you put your ear to the ground, you will hear the Ginter train a-coming...
Sounds like another losing box for you, daddy.
So before I start the GACVIII posts, let me clear out the last few scans I have from recent mailings. I still have a few mailing left to scan, but at least the folder will be empty for the time being.
Yup. These are from last year. I'm still working on the base and some inserts. Chris at Nacho Grande gave me some help on the inserts with a dozen or so cards. Not much left to go, and I have a line on finding all the cards at my LCS. Chris (at my LCS) told me he has a stack of 2015 A&G he almost knocks over on a daily basis. So if you have needs, email me a list and I'll try to help you.
Tom over at Waiting 'til Next Year, a blog that won't be changing names any time soon, dropped a nice stuffed mailer on me. And after that comment, it will probably be the last. So let's enjoy the goodies, like a stack of bunting and throwbacks. I had no idea Scooter had a bunting card in this year's Archives.
Player collections? Tom hit those too. That year of Black Diamond is so ugly that is comes around the other end of the ugliness line to be beautiful. And then ugly again. It's a big loop.
I found one of these Fleer Emotion cards in a dime box a couple years back. I thought it was some special framed cards like Gypsy Queen puts out, but it turns out this is a whole set? Man - how did I miss these? The emotion, though? Zest? Hurling? Suspense? I can see why this set never caught on.
Another Archives, this time a blue border of the Big Hurt. And look - back in the day when Topps actually knew, or gave a flying crap, about Southpaw's name. As opposed to his currentreference as "White Sox mascot". Com'on Sooz!!!!! I'm counting on you for 2017.
We finish with a couple relics. Josh was one of the many failures in the Sox farm system. Drafted in the 1st round in 2004, he was far too streaky and got sent to KC. After a whopping 13 games, he went to the Pirates but never saw the show. Then to the Rockies, and again stuck in the minors. Then to Japan for the final 40 games of his career in any big league. He finished with the Dodgers farm system in 2012. The other is of Podzilla, most loved in Chicago for this one hit.
Thanks for the cards, guys. And now get out the way - the train in pulling into the station.
Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.
I guess when you get down to it, it can be pretty expensive to get items from point A to point B. Diesel fuel is always expensive and semis don't get the best gas mileage. You can get practically same day delivery of a package on the other side of the country if you buy it a seat on a commercial airplane. I remember a radio ad that mentioned trains can move millions of pounds of product over 200 miles on a single gallon of gas. I wonder how many gallons are spent getting it up to speed, though?
And how much money spent on meth?
We've all dealt with shipping cards across the country, as well as across the seas. It's not bad enough that crossing a Great Lake is so expensive, but now we have to deal with Canada Post acting all....well, whatever you call acting out in Canada. I'm sure they will apologize when it's all over. It's just strange how costly it is. It's not like Canada is some island (PEI excluded). At the right spot, you can just walk through the woods and over the border. But for some reason, it's like mailing to Hawaii. If Hawaii was not a US state.
DJ at Sportscards From the Dollar Store sent me another small mailer before the fear of a stoppage up north. I'm still sitting on a return package. I might strap it to a moose if I don't get a go sign from Doug.
Love the flat top on Frank. All that's missing is the dog pound whooping it up in the background.
Bicks rookie card. Hope he does well in Carolina. It sucks more what we had to do to dump his contract, but maybe he will find his scoring touch again. That Panger card seems so dark. I remember seeing a playoff game in the old Chicago Stadium when Pang let in this horrible wrap around backhand goal where the puck was moving about 4 MPH. Not a good game.
O Pee Chee vintage!!!! I like that Stan the Man is 4 of the 5 images on the team leaders. It's obvious one image is used twice, but I think they also mirrored it to get one more image. Goofy.
Thanks again, Doug. You should think about moving. Or calling out the Mounties.
Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.
Angel Berroa - 2004 Fleer Tradition - Kansas City Monarchs
I don't remember the exact date I got rid of my 56k modem, but I was excited to move up to a DSL line through my phone company. Pages loaded much faster. Flash games were playable with sound. Hell - downloading a file in a quarter of the time from my horrible modem was amazing. It was so nice to be able to download that Loverboy song on Napster in 15 minutes instead of 45.
Beeeeeer.....GUD!
Way back then, I can recall having to watch an image download on the page I was viewing. Pixel by pixel, line by line; literally. And then the image would need to enhance. Welcome to 2016, where you have 100Mbps download speeds. Streaming high def videos and sound. Massive multi player games. Video conferences. And I can get my Kendra Wilson fix instantly.
But do you realize over 2 million people in the US still use 56k dial up access? So if you are one of them, let me apologize in advance if you clicked to read this post. You probably have time to get that turkey prepped for the oven before everything loads. But when you get a package from the king of the dime boxes, there is just far too much greatness within, and hard to pair down the images.
Yup - Nick dropped a mailer on me, and I'm guessing a lot of these cards came from Wolff's Flea Market, which I hope to hit in a few weeks. Until then, Nick will just do all the hard work for me. And work he did, adding many cards to many binders.
Miscuts off the bat. Here's 3 of the 6 new additions. I have officially moved the 9 pocket pages to a fatter binder. I'm guessing the Whimpy was a dupe of some sort, since he has a microphone shoved in his face, and I know that's a Nick collection genre. The Tigers team card is way off in two directions. I am almost tempted to see what that would grade on centering. Does Beckett or PSA do negative numbers?
Here's 3 of the 6 double play cards sent. Only 4 of them are new additions. Shame that the '94 Select design wrecked half of the Clayton image, though. The framing is ok, considering. But the full width would have made it killer.
16 throwback cards were sent, and I needed 8. In solidarity, I didn't store the other 8 cards in my dupe box, but cut them up.
Three cards showed broken bats, but I already have all three. I had to show this card, though. It's incredible. So much I added it to the Hidden Gems binder. I think if there were more people in the crowd, the card wouldn't look so nice.
Last, here are 3 of the 17 new cards in the bunting binder. Nick dropped a total of 30 on me. I am surprised so many cards of players bunting are still out there. I'm certain Ichiro is not getting one of his 3000 hits with that positioning.
But binder collections were just the start. How about player collections?
All new additions. The two Sox cards at the bottom are from the 2005 World Series set Topps put out. Fortunately, I found the complete set I bought of those. And a very rare Ben Petrick card. I am WAY behind Arpsmith in our Petrick collecting.
Then Nick moved to the Sox box.
So reflective! The Belles are numbered to 3999 and 1999. Remember when that was special?
I have the Frazier for my GQ build, so he is sent to the Sox box. Bonifacio is from the high number release. Conor is not really doing much out west with the Giants, but looks good in sparkly green.
Two simple cards that are beautiful on the outside. And the middle is a very complex card that is just... sigh. Oh 90's.
Nixon is the oldest card Nick sent. The rest here are great oddballs. Fisk on Drake's Big Hitters. Those cards have the same charm as the Swell or Hygrade releases, to me. I wonder what happened to the figure that came with the Guillen card. I also wonder what happened to the figure Stark buried in the corn field. Geez Matt - stare through my soul a little more, would you?
Last, but not least, is a mostly complete 1988 Coke Sox team set. The full set, according to ebay, is 30 cards. I have 22. Love seeing old Comiskey in the background. And Billy tossing out the first pitch in full '59 uniform just makes the entire set. Now I'll have to start tracking down these full team sets.
Thanks again Nick. All your cards have made me lost for space in my boxes and binders (just click play - trust me).
