Box Break - 2009 Topps Chrome Football Hobby Box.

I went to my local card shop yesterday, and picked up a box of 2009 Topps Chrome Football for $50. Not a bad deal... and while I did not pull anything great I must say I still enjoy the set very much. Great photography and as always the chrome and refractors just look so cool. My only hit of note was a Mark Sanchez RC, as my auto was no one of interest.

Thrift Store Finds - 1995 X-files MasterVisions 30 art-card collector set!

I was at one of the many thrift stores here in Las Vegas, when I came across an interesting set of cards priced at only $4. It's the 1995 Topps X-files MasterVisions 30 art card set. These cards are approx. 6.5" x 10", and absolutely beautiful:



The 30 card set contains artwork from several different artists, all depicting either general X-files themes or specific moments from the series. I HR-scanned each card and placed them in a photobucket folder, if you're interested n viewing the entire collection, including what the card backs look like, plus the box so you can hunt for them on your own!

If you're interested in find this set online, it can easily be had for as little as $10 sealed and new, or even $.99 plus shipping for an open set.

I hope you enjoyed checking out this old set as much as I did, and don't forget...

Trust no one.

2009 UD Goodwin Champions is LIVE, but...

Upper Decks new baseball product, 2009 UD Goodwin Champions, is now live and available for purchase. Aside from the great artwork and on card autos this set contains, there are 1 per case inserts featuring Bugs(Entomology set), Horse Hair and Landmark bits. The mock-up of these cards look great! They are sure to make many collectors squeal with delight upon pulling one of these beautiful cards:



Sadly, it looks as if this will never happen. Sure, the cards are indeed seeded one per case, but instead of pulling a beautiful butterfly you'll be looking at this:



What a shame. Redemptions. Not only that, but you have no idea which Horse or Bug or Landmark you've pulled until you redeem the card, assuming it will even show you then. It simply says "Entomology Bug Cards". There are 31 different cards in the Entomology set. We can only hope that at least some of the physical cards made it in to the boxes, and they are not all redemptions. Unfortunately, so far everything that has shown up is a redemption.

2009 Allen & Ginter Giveaway RESULTS!

Here they are! The 9 winning numbers for the 2009 Allen & Ginter Giveaway!



Here is the screen capture of the results as well:


So, matching up the numbers to the entrants we get:

1st Pick #99 - AdamE Prize A - A&G Base Set
2nd Pick #116 - Lyricsninja Prize C: Lot of 3 A&G Relic cards, Jay Bruce, Justin Upton and Ryan Howard
3rd Pick #87 - Beardy Prize B: Mike Jacobs Bazooka Back Mini 8/25
4th Pick #110 - madding Prize D: Lot of 8 Box Toppers
5th Pick #25 - JD's Daddy Prize F: Lot of 54 SP Base cards (301-350) 9 cards from complete set
6th Pick #62 - I Am The Average Joe Prize E: Lot of 46 Mini's, both base and SP
7th Pick #51 - cdziuba
8th Pick #3 - Beardy
9th Pick #52 - Michael

Here are the prizes! AdameE gets first pick, and so on:

Prize A: Complete 2009 A&G Base set 1-300!
Prize B: Mike Jacobs Bazooka Back Mini 8/25
Prize C: Lot of 3 A&G Relic cards, Jay Bruce, Justin Upton and Ryan Howard
Prize D: Lot of 8 Box Toppers: 4x N43's (Pujols, Hamilton, Sizemore, Matsuzaka and 4x Cabinet (3 leftover from 2008 set)
Prize E: Lot of 46 Mini's, both base and SP
Prize F: Lot of 54 SP Base cards (301-350) 9 cards from complete set
Prize G: Lot of 18 Baseball Highlights Sketch Card inserts and 9 Code Card Parallels
Prize H: Lot of 118 National Pride insert set cards (about 10 short of complete set)
Prize I: Leftovers! About 250-300 Base cards, not quite making a complete set

There you have it! 8 winners, as adding a link on his blog earned Beardy 2 wins. I think all the bloggers should vote him off the island, he gets too much!

Claim your prize in the comments below! Once the prizes are claimed, we'll get all the shipping information taken care of after. Trades ARE allowed, for example, if Beardy wanted to trade his 2 spots and move up, or vice versa. Work it out in the comments. Enjoy my free stuff!

2009 Allen & Ginter Contest Drawing!

Put your pencils down! It's over! Ok, here's what we're doing. The order in which you entered the contest is YOUR entry number. If you linked and earned a second entry, you'll get an additional number at the end. I will then use random.org to generate 9 numbers, which will represent the entrants. Then, we'll have our winners!

Here are your numbers:

1 Brian
2 lonestarr
3 Beardy
4 Two Packs a Day
5 siotco1
6 The Ghost of Cory Snyder
7 bdj610
8 Slangon
9 FanOfReds
10 RoofGod
11 Jeremy
12 Collective Troll
13 Captain Canuck
14 Alex
15 Motherscratcher
16 McCann Can Triple
17 AceWild
18 Tunguska
19 Don
20 Greg
21 packaddict
22 darkship
23 Wrigley Wax
24 Joe S.
25 JD's Daddy
26 AdamE
27 Rod
28 Baseball Dad
29 Nathaniel Edwards
30 dkwilson
31 dayf
32 victor
33 bozemanbreaker
34 Drew
35 Carl Crawford Cards
36 Offy
37 Mark's Ephemera
38 yountvmolitor
39 Orioles Magic
40 alwayshopeful
41 SpstikMooss
42 BigD
43 Momforeverandever
44 ManHandle11
45 night owl
46 madding
47 Butch (Don)
48 steveisjewish
49 Duane
50 cubbyblue34
51 cdziuba
52 Michael
53 Jeremy Roe
54 White Sox Cards
55 Candie L
56 Chris
57 csd
58 opoohwhan
59 scottsgal
60 Fuji
61 dgreen1899
62 I Am The Average Joe
63 wickedortega
64 Zach Mabe
65 Core Contrarian
66 Lyricsninja
67 susan
68 ryanmemorabilia
69 Tom.
70 shahekee
71 Grand Cards
72 Nickolay
73 Mr J Mel
74 wendy
75 TheJaw
76 Dan (NY)
77 JustinB521
78 gcrl
79 Tiffany819
80 zman40
81 Andy
82 Erin
83 Dan (CA)
84 1osfan
85 school

Bonus and Late Entries
86 lonestarr
87 Beardy
88 Two Packs a Day
89 Slangon
90 Jeremy
91 Collective Troll
92 Captain Canuck
93 Motherscratcher
94 McCann Can Triple
95 Tunguska
96 Don
97 Greg
98 packaddict
99 AdamE
100 Baseball Dad
101 Nathaniel Edwards
102 dayf
103 Drew
104 Carl Crawford Cards
105 Mark's Ephemera
106 yountvmolitor
107 Orioles Magic
108 SpstikMooss
109 BigD
110 madding
111 cubbyblue34
112 cdziuba
113 White Sox Cards
114 opoohwhan
115 I Am The Average Joe
116 Lyrics Ninja
117 ryanmemorabilia
118 Grand Cards
119 AceWild

2009 Allen & Ginter Contest Update!

We're in the final few hours to enter the 2009 Allen & Ginter Giveaway! If you haven't already, just follow the blog and post a reply to the main post and you're in!

Once the deadline passes, I will enter everyones name in to a random drawing. 9 names will be selected and posted. After that, the 1st place winner will select their chosen prize in the comments, 2nd place to follow, and so on until all 9 free prizes have been selected!

I took a few pictures of the prizes, good luck and enjoy! (I forgot the box toppers!)

300 card base set, spread out under the boxes

Relics and Bazooka back

Mini's

SP's

National Pride's

Code's and Sketches

Extra base cards

Checkoutmycards.com Update #2

Just a quick update on how Checkoutmycards.com is working out for me on the selling side. I'm currently at $185.20 in sales from 26 items sold. That's a little over $7 per card sold, pretty good in my opinion! Taking in to account I only paid .25 per card to list them, I'd say it's working out well.

Checkoutmycards.com teams up with Blowoutcards.com!

This is exciting news for those of us who are using checkoutmycards.com to sell our singles:

From this post:

"Now you can use the store credit that you earn from selling cards on CheckOutMyCards.com to buy Blowout Cards gift certificates.

You can than buy factory sealed boxes & cases from Blowout Cards, crack them open, keep the cards you want, and send us the rest to earn more funds to buy more product. Of course, you can also use your store credit on CheckOutMyCards.com to buy other singles or to get cash.

This just the beginning. We will continue to find more innovative ways that we can leverage each others services."

After checking out the site, there is a new option for redeeming your store credit.

The 3 levels of gift cards available are:

At those rates, cashing out $60 with get you $48 cash, or $50 credit at blowoutcards.com. $290 store credit would be $232 cash or $250 credit, and $1150 store credit would be $920 cash or $1000 credit.

There is some benefit, but you really have to wait until your credit climbs to the $290 level to begin to see it. Saving $2 by purchasing a gift certificate over simply using the cash how you'd like it hardly earth shattering.

I'd love to see a sliding scale where you could cash out any amount, take a small hit, and buy a gift certificate to cover your purchase on blowoutcards.com. Certainly to Blowout, leaving the credit in large chunks is most beneficial, but ultimately it hurts the buyer.

2009 Allen & Ginter Giveaway! Complete Base Set, Bazooka Back, Relics and more!

Having opened over 5 full boxes of 2009 Allen & Ginter Baseball, I've come to the conclusion that I own more of these cards than I'll ever need. That being said, I've decided to give them all away! I'm announcing a contest that is 100% free for everyone to entry and win. Shipping is even on me!

How do I enter, you may be asking? Well, you'll get one entry in to the random drawing by simply becoming a follower of my blog, and replying to this post saying you did so. If you're already a follower, just reply to this post and that's it! Now, if you happen to be a fellow blogger, you're welcome to get a 2nd entry as well! Just make a quick blog post linking to this contest, and let me know you've done so in either your first reply, or a separate one. That's all it takes, and you'll have 2 entries!

Now, on to the prizes! The top winners will be able to CHOOSE which prize they want! Here's what I'm giving away so far, I may add a few more later on as well:

Prize 1: Complete 2009 A&G Base set 1-300!
Prize 2: Mike Jacobs Bazooka Back Mini 8/25
Prize 3: Lot of 3 A&G Relic cards, Jay Bruce, Justin Upton and Ryan Howard
Prize 4: Lot of 8 Box Toppers: 4x N43's (Pujols, Hamilton, Sizemore, Matsuzaka and 4x Cabinet (3 leftover from 2008 set)
Prize 5: Lot of 46 A&G Base/SP Mini's
Prize 6: Lot of 54 SP Base cards (301-350) 9 cards from complete set
Prize 7: Lot of 18 Baseball Highlights Sketch Card inserts and 9 Code Card Parallels
Prize 8: Lot of 118 National Pride insert set cards (about 10 short of complete set)
Prize 9: Leftovers! About 250-300 Base cards, not quite making a complete set

I will enter all the names in to a Random.org list, and the top 9 will get to choose whichever prize they want! Those earning a 2nd entry via a blog link WILL be allowed to win twice! The contest will end 1 week from now, Friday, August 28th at 11:59pm. I will then do the drawing Saturday, and ship out to the winners the following week!

Remember, just reply to this thread saying you're now following this blog and want in the contest, and you're in! For another entry, post in your blog linking to the contest. That's it! Best of luck to everyone who enters, and enjoy my free stuff!