Saturday, February 23, 2013

Something in the air...

Do you smell it?

Put your nose in to the air and reach in to depth of your natural instinctual senses...

Channel your inner wolf and capture the scent...

Can you smell it?

The hint of grilled hot dogs...

Fresh buttered popcorn...  the sweetness of the cracker jacks...

The smell of a freshly poured draft beer...

It's baseball season.

Today marks it all.

Baltimore Orioles vs Minnesota Twins

Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, FL. 1:05 pm

I'll be listening on WBAL 1090am

Let's Go O's!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A Case for Charity

2013 is shaping up to be a very big year for yours truly.  I recently got a promotion at work and the wife and I are preparing to have our first child in May.  Needless to say that I will soon be very short on personal time and realize that I no longer have the ability to purchase new product the way I would love to.

So I've decided to scratch that classic itch another way.

A more productive way.

Frankly this first part I'm actually dreading, but I know in my heart of hearts is a necessary evil.

Inventory.

Yup.  I plan to finally get the ball rolling and go through every drawer in the catalog as well as every box of cards not in said catalog and not only will I sort them in order by set, year, and number, but I will also be removing all duplicate cards from my collection so that I only have one of each card in my collection.

This will in turn create much more room in my card catalog for new product that I will no doubt acquire over the rest of my life, but also allows me to finally kick the tires on an idea I've had for years.

My own charity.  Sort of...

I've had this idea for a while that I would take all of my duplicate cards and organize them in to grab bags of sorts to be donated to children in need.  I've even got a name for my charity.

Karing with Kards.  Naturally I have a logo made up with a K and a backwards K that together form a diamond in between them that resembles a baseball diamond.  Instead of a pitchers mound there is a small "w" and thus completes the Karing with Kards logo.

By no means do I believe this is an original idea and if I can contribute to someone else' venture then that would be much easier for me I'm sure.  Please hit me up with any suggestions and if you are so moved I'm also willing to start taking donations to give away with my own personal cards. 

Anywho... stay tuned for updates on that and my inventory progress.  I'll let you know if I make any pulls, but don't waste away waiting for something awesome. 

Thanks for reading!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Pullskies III (Th'as Roman for 3 sucka!)

Yes Friends!  I'm back! 

And I'm ready to write!  Buckle up your reading glasses and grab a Coca-Cola and get ready to.... read.  Aaaaa llllloooooottttt....

First thing I gotts to hit on are my Baltimore Ravens.

Super Bowl Champions!  Last time I got to say that I was a 10th grade JV Football Stud and Football was my universe (yes... a brief time in my life where baseball cards took a back seat to playing sports and chasing girls).

Life was Glorious... I was young, popular, didn't have a lick of responsibility, and the Ravens won the Superbowl... and they did it before those no good, leaving in the middle of the night, Indianapolis Colts did since leaving Baltimore.

Fast forward 12 years

30% of my hair has turned stark white, popularity means nothing, and I have waaaayyy too much damned responsibility.

But the Ravens are Champions... and life is still Glorious.

I may never in my life enjoy or witness another season where I see the Orioles in the playoffs and the Ravens win a Championship...

Here's to hoping the Orioles can win the Series and make Baltimore Title Town for 2013.

Moving on...

Recently I had my second reader contest and asked my loyal fan base to tell me what connection Roberto Clemente and Neil Walker share that no other Pirates player in history shares.

The answer was they're the only two Pirates to ever hit a Grand Slam on Opening Day.  An amazing feat considering they've been around since 1901.  

Steve, a reader of blogs, but writer of non, won my contest.  We emailed back and forth a couple times and I found out that Steve is a Mets fan.  Steve told me he'd been reading my stuff since last Spring... it was cool to interact with someone who was kind of anonymous in that way.  I just assumed most people who read my blog had they're own blog.  Anyways... here is what I hooked Steve up with from my collection.

2012 Topps Archives Ed Kranepool Auto.
I assume this would be a good card for a Mets fan since Kranepool was a lifer for the Mets, won the 69 World Series, and is a member of the teams HOF.
 
It's a free auto... I'm sure he'll like it!
 
Thanks again Steve
 
 
Today is February 11th and I'm finally getting around to posting what I actually pulled on Christmas Day!  Hence the title of this post Pullskies III.  So let's just dive right in to it. 
 
In years past I was lucky enough to get a couple high end boxes with some mid range boxes, but was not the case this year.  I instead got a couple of mid range boxes and was plenty happy about it.
 
The first box I opened was another 2011 Topps Lineage.  While I have at least two complete base set I did get at least a dozen more insert cards that I needed towards the master set.  If I didn't already update that list I will soon and I've slacked on the project recently.  Honestly I know I'll complete it someday, but would really like to knock out the mini relics.  I'm just about half way there with those!  Anywho... here's what I pulled to from that box.
 
 
 
Another John Buck and Pablo Sandoval auto.  Happy to have a duplicate on the Sandoval auto but that's definitely the 3rd John Buck auto I pulled and it's not like I bought 30 boxes... I didn't even get 10.  Oh well... I already gave one away to my co-worker.  These are both available for trade.
 
I did get a mini relic I needed though.
 
 
So this card with at least 16 different insert cards made this box a victory for me!
 
Next up under the tree was a box of 2012 Topps Heritage.
 
Obviously this is just a fun set to try and build and I enjoyed opening it up.  I even pulled a Chris Carpenter photo variation and was stoked when I pulled this little gem.
 
2012 Topps Heritage Josh Hamilton Clubhouse Collection bat card.
 
This would be my first Hamilton relic card.
 
Before I got this box for Christmas I picked up a few packs and was lucky to also pull this card...
 
Cliff Lee Clubhouse Collection jersey card
 
and since I'm posting pulls I made forever ago here is another card I got when I picked up some 2012 Topps Heritage Minors cards
 
Joe Testa is a minor league pitcher who I doubt will ever sniff the majors.  In 5 seasons he has yet to crack AAA.  At least he has a baseball card... a nice looking one at that.
Good job Joe.
 
THIS JUST IN
 
I was going to finish this post off with my weekend in Philly, but alas I'll leave it for another day.  Apparently I ran out of file space and couldn't post.
 
So with that I'll say good night.  Thanks for reading.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Saturday, February 2, 2013

Topps Golden Giveaway mini post

As promised I will be making my final post about what I pulled over the previous holiday...

Once that one gets posted I will hopefully be making some pulls if the wifey decides to get me some packs or dare I say a box for Valentines Day.  Here's to hoping!  The hint hath been dropped. 

However I wanted to just post a quickie about the 2012 Topps Golden Giveaway.

In all the codes I redeemed I pulled 2 virtual cards.  The first one I pulled was kind of a big pull as I consistently got around 60 trade offers for it.  Check it out!

 
Obviously a popular player to collect and naturally I declined all offers and have since redeemed it for shipment.
 
The second card I pulled was a Ryan Howard diecut card.  This morning I went online (when I redeemed the Koufax) and saw that I still had around 60 trade offers, but of all the offers I had, only 2 were for Mr. Howard.  However, one of the 2 happened to be an offer for a Jim Palmer diecut. Trade accepted.
 
Aaaawwww Yeah!
 
 
BOOM
 
Redeemed!
 
I'll be showing these two bad boys off when they come in the mail. Based on my previous experience with Topps shipping cards I expect to get them say around Christmas, lol!
 
My next post will likely depend on the outcome of Superbowl Sunday.  If the Ravens win I'll be high on life and will take to the blog to celebrate... If we lose you may not see me for a week or two as I'll be crying myself to sleep every night.
 
When I do make it back I'll be detailing the last boxes I got for Christmas, any other random packs I've picked up and the cards I dealt to the winner of my reader contest!
 
GO RAVENS
 
Thanks for reading