Tis the season - Special Edition SIL: Stuff I DON'T Like

If you visit my blog on a semi regular basis, I run a feature Sunday SIL: Stuff I Like. Basically, I share items in my collection and give a little story about it, the personal connection I have or the history of how came to possess it. I planned to get this post up yesterday, but parenting comes first, so I apologize for the delay.

Now, as you see in the subject line, this is most definitely stuff I am not fond of. Also, you see the key words "Tis the season". When you put those two ideas together, you should be able to deduce that this post will be another giveaway for you all to gain.

Oh? Think you are so smart you can teach this class, do you?

So what goodies am I dumping today? I will tell you I have two boxes of cards, all that I have minus the few that moved me enough to keep them. Both these sets are from 2012, and both set harken back to earlier sets released by Topps. I am talking, of course, of Heritage and Archives. Man, I SO did not like these sets. The Archives were some really crappy thin card stock, and the bright white did not work with many of the designs. The Heritage? The photos sucked. The ads in the photos sucked. The trademarks on the cards sucked. It sucked. I don't want these in my storage boxes wasting space.

Two decent sized boxes. You see a Ryan "steroid-user" Braun refractor on the box of Heritage, and a 2011 Topps Chrome refractor of Ryan Howard on the Archives. You will get those cards as well. Yes, that Howard isn't from the Archives set, but I needed something with a serial on it that looked cool. All about the style, baby. Just like the Ginter boxes, you need to make a guess of the serial for each box. In the comments, list "Heritage - #" then "Archives - #". Over or under - I don't care. Closest wins. The Braun is numbered to #1963 and the Howard numbered to #1962. ***EDIT** - I forgot to mention - you have until Dec 22nd at 11:59pm. I'll announce the winner on Sunday.

Guess correctly and you could be the big winner. And the rest of you? Well, we all can't be first. It's just how the world was created.

BTW - RIP SWG.

Winner: Tis the season: Ginter box giveaway

Before we get to the winners, just a couple short words about the horrible CT issue. My words or actions here are in no means a callous attitude over what happened yesterday. I have two children, and while they are far older, I still worry about them daily. I am far more fortunate than many parents, in CT and in other places in the world, in that I was able to wake my child up this morning from a safe sleep (my other lives a few hundred miles away). Many parents don't get that next day with their child. I am thankful for each day with them.

That being said, we can get drowned in the pain of doing nothing but discussing the situation. That is not to say we ignore this - there must be meaningful talk very, very soon over both the gun control issue, and the mental health issue that were apparent in the senseless tragedy. At the same time, we cannot spend all our time going over this, sitting in our fear, pain and hurt. We, as people, have ebb and flow to our lives - up and down. We cannot be down always, and we cannot be up always either. We have to cry and we have to laugh. Smiling and laughing today is not a cruel heartless statement, just as anger on a day of immense joy is not something to be ridiculed. Tomorrow is another day, and while the pain will never leave us, we will learn to handle it as each tomorrow comes.

So don't take this post as "Jeff doesn't care". I do. I feel we have to keep living our lives and moving forward. I will pray with the rest of the country, and I will demand honest discussion to hopefully prevent this from happening again. I will not barricade myself in my home, though.

Ok - so the Ginter boxes. I like seeing many of you trying to snag these. Hey - free stuff is free stuff, am I right? So - who are the lucky three? Here are the backs of those cards.

 

And how about we zoom in on the three serial numbers?

 

So we have the 2007 as #721/2007, the 2008 is #508/2008 and the 2011 shows 1070/2011. The 2011 became the closest race, with the winner beating 2nd place by being just 2 numbers closer. And who gets the cards?

2007 goes to Joe Average Collector - he guessed 650, 69 numbers away.

2008 goes to Skroeker - he guessed 555, 47 numbers off.

2001 also goes to Skroeker - with a guess of 1121, 51 numbers off. He bested Richard Nebe 51 to 53.

Congrats to you both. Just one thing left - send me your mailing address. I don't recall having either of your house numbers, so shoot me your address at 2x3heroesATgmailDOTcom and I will get your cards out ASAP.

For the rest, I have two more card boxes I will be giving away, as well as the large "something for everyone" coming very soon. Keep watching for the "Tis the season" post subject for giveaways. Help me make room in my boxes.

Winner: Tis the season song contest.

I wasn't surprised I went to the hints to help with a couple songs. I wonder if those that read the hints page noticed I basically put the answers right above the YT video:

All these songs were released during my generation - nothing older than me. The Who reference pointing to Pete Townsend

Granted, it's a wild web I weave in this contest. Webb Wilder for Human Cannonball.

Talk to Joey at your LCS or Johnny at Walmart if you are stumped. Two of the founding members of the Ramones

Just take the time to mate specific sections of the song and you will find the solution. Mate = breed = the Breeders

I wonder if Mitt Romney has any of these songs on his iPod? :) Mitt's Mormon, just like the Osmonds.

Once a Cub came in with the right answers. Well played - cards are in the mail. Ok - enough - just rock out to the answers. Remember the Ginter boxes are given away tonight a minute before midnight. And I'll tell you that at this time, we have only two winners. Yes - one person will be getting two years of Ginter unless someone sneaks in a better guess.

Tis the season: Game show edition **HINTS**

Granted, I got some interesting musical tastes. Throw my playlist on shuffle and you could get an interesting selection. So in this thread the songs in the challenge are not very run of the mill. I will tell you this about the clips of the 5 songs:

* 3 of the songs have charted on the Billboard charts - in 1972, 1985 and 1993
* one of the songs comes from a pioneer of a certain music genre who has never had a charting hit above 60 on the Billboard charts
* 3 of the songs are from bands, while the other two are from single named artists, though one of those 2 is more known for his work with a hugely successful band
* in no particular order, the artists are from Utah, New York, Boston/Ohio, London and Mississippi

All these songs were released during my generation - nothing older than me. Granted, it's a wild web I weave in this contest. Talk to Joey at your LCS or Johnny at Walmart if you are stumped. Just take the time to mate specific sections of the song and you will find the solution.

I wonder if Mitt Romney has any of these songs on his iPod? :)

Tis the season: Game show edition

Alright - let's head on back to the season of giving. For those unawares, you can check out the first giveaway here. You have time to get your guess in. I will say no one has nailed any of the boxes with a dead on guess, so you still have time to snipe one, two or all three boxes before the deadline.

Now, today's giveaway was more inspired by the contest than the prize. I wanted to have some fun, but didn't know what to tie this fun with. Ultimately, I did some digging through my binder and found not one, but two cards that scream "meh" to me. And for all I know, none of you will give a rat's behind about them and won't even try to win them. FINE!

Screw you all - I'm leaving!

 The winner of this giveaway wins not one, but two 2012 Topps autograph cards:

Marlon Byrd and Brad Peacock. They really don't fit in my personal binder, so hopefully one of you will desire them to pull out the victory and get these cards mailed to you. And how, you may ask? Well, I could make some lame tie in with them both being "birds" and then bring up the Yardbirds or something dumb like that to casually slide into the challenge, but nah. Cuz there are no birds in the challenge. There are no animals of any kind. What is in this post is music. Five snippets of music to be exact. First person to identify the 5 songs you hear, with the artist's name, wins. Gotta put your guess in the comments. I will tell you that all five songs have been on the radio at some time, if you have a good radio station. No hints at this time - if I see struggling, I'll put out a hint or two. Ready?

A quick shout out to many of you.

Ever been waiting for something, only for it to end up being WAY MORE than you expect? Here's what I pulled out of my stuffed mailbox today.

I knew that little PWE was on it's way to me. And one of the packages I sort of knew about, but I wasn't expecting it anytime soon. The other two? Completely out of the blue. So if you see yourself in the photo - thanks a TON! I cannot wait to open them all and post about the goodies within.

To all that I have traded with this year, shared a box break, chatted about anything or just had a cyber friendship with - you are all awesome people. Thanks for letting me be a part of this ragtag group of nutlogs. If we haven't traded in the past, let's make one happen soon. If we have made a trade before, let's trade again. Check out my trade pages at the top and email me - you would be surprised what I would give up for what you have.

Please hang around and take part in my giveaways. One was posted the other day right here - join in. I will be posting another giveaway tomorrow, and I am looking towards the larger "something for everyone (hopefully)" to go up over the weekend. Then who knows. Depends what else I don't want.

Love you all!

Tis the season: how about some free stuff?

For those that clicked here, I am certain the phrase "free stuff" more get the hit on the link instead of "Tis the season". That's ok - I am just glad you are here.

Yes - it is the season where, if only for a few days, we stop being total jerks to each other and maybe we give a smile and a helping hand to our fellow man. As long as it's not on Black Friday when you are wrestling over the last $150 Acer laptop. Here at 2x3 Heroes, I passed 100 posts a month or so back, along with over 5000 page views. I was going to do a contest, but then I thought I would expand it into a giving season. I want to spread the joy of giving to all those that read my words.

Ok - I got a lot of crap, alright? There, I said it! I thought about it, and figured "why not just clear out some boxes with giveaways". And that is not a typo - I am talking plural. I will be running a few posts with free stuff. You win - you get. Simple, right?

Now I am sure you are thinking "ok, what's the rules?" That's the thing, there are none. If you follow my blog, thanks. If you don't, I'm cool with that. You have an equal chance as the next person to score freebies. If you want to promote it on your blog, thanks again. But you will not gain anything extra if you do. Cut to the chase: this blog is nothing special. It's fun for me. I try and be funny, flip stuff I have into stuff I want and make good cyber friendships. This is not a site for fine prose and award winning journalism. Followers? Page hits? A Jedi craves not these things. This is my corner of the electronic world to run around and act like a goof.

Goofing successful!

So come back for the fun and get some free stuff. Now, some of the giveaways will be larger, but I plan on a card giveaway that should get just about every commenter something in their mailbox. Unless I have WAY more readers than followers. Even if that happens, I'll figure out something. 

Ok, enough jib jab, today's giveaway: GIIIIIIIINNNNTTTTEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR! I have a bunch of Allen and Ginter from past years that eat up space in a box. None of them are anywhere near a complete set (I am working on those separately), and there are dupes inside. If you have been thinking of starting something Ginter-wise, or need cards, then go after these three boxes:

What you see are boxes with 2007, 2008 and 2011 A&G base, and maybe an insert or two. I can tell you the 2011 has a dozen or less 2010 A&G cards in them. Look close and you see a Topps gold parallel from the respective year on each box - you get that card too. We have an 07 Scott Proctor, 08 Jerrod Washburn and a 11 Omar Infante. And it's simple - guess the serial on the card and win the box. Closest wins. Over or under - doesn't matter.  Don't bother looking at the PWE trade page, or even a cached copy of it. These cards have never been posted there.

In the comments, put the year and your card guess. Remember the cards are numbered to the year of the release. And I will give you a hint - none are the first or the last card of the year. Hey, I narrowed that 2007 to 2005 possible cards - you can thank me later! It's Monday the 10th. I will take entries until Friday the 14th at 11:59PM Central time (Chicago rules people....deal with it). 

Oh - and giveaways may cross over each other. I haven't decided a specific day for each freebie, so if you see the subject line with "Tis the season", it's a giveaway post. Alright Jeff...enough ramblin'.

**UPDATE** - I screwed up a bit on this. You can make a guess on ALL THREE! My point was list the year, guess the serial. Then list the next year, guess that serial. List the last and guess that one. Yes - you could win all 3 boxes. I'll email those that have guessed already to update their guesses, if they want. And you can only pick one or two and guess those if you want.