Have I Taken This Too Far?

Probably, but it's mine now anyway.

This is my first red ink auto, and was only a few dollars more than the regular version. I guess no one aside from me is collecting cards of Burke T. Kenny, Full Beard & Mustache Champion. Looks like now it's officially no longer an octo-fecta, but a nona-fecta. I still need 3 cards, the pube relic, the Ginter backed mini, and the black framed mini. If you've got any of them, let's trade!

I'm Only Posting This To Enter A Contest

This Contest. You should too! Thanks to Trader Crack's for the great giveaway.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Not the Brim Reaper!
A Dodger? You'll pay for this one Night Owl! I guess we've officially thrown in the towel this season, cause there's certainly no one in our bullpen who I would trust more or even as much as Sherrill to close things out. They mentioned Jim Johnson in the article, but he's been shaky this year.

This sort of sucks, but if this kid Josh Bell we got in return turns out to be ok, then I'm happy. Ultimately it means that the writing is probably on the wall for Melvin Mora, as his contract is up at the end of this season.

Anyone know anything about Josh Bell?

Forgotten Orioles From Matt

This is the first of many overdue trades I need to post. People (great people!) sent me a dump truck's worth of Orioles last week, and here I am slackin' off. These cards came along with many, many others all the way from Kansas. It's safe to say they aren't in Kansas anymore. They're from Matt, of Heartbreaking Cards fame. He's currently on a blogging hiatus, which is a shame, but check out his site anyway, if you haven't already.

I noticed a trend while looking through all the O's that Matt sent my way. A lot of players I had heard of, and even loved on other teams, that I din't remember playing for the Orioles. Maybe I had a vague memory of hearing about a couple of them joining the team, but I certainly don't remember watching them play in Baltimore.

Here are my favorites of Matt's "forgotten Orioles":

1995 Topps Stadium Club Sid Fernandez

Sid Fernandez was an Oriole? In 1995 I was still pissed about the strike, and had just entered high school. While I was still playing baseball, watching it was pretty low on my list of priorities. I remember Sid as a Met, where he turned in some decent seasons. I was born in New York, and still root for the Mets a little bit. You could say they're my National League team of choice (shh...don't tell!)

1992 Fleer Dwight Evans

Dewey was an Oriole? I was definitely watching baseball in '92, and definitely don't remember the great Dwight Evans donning orange & black. What I do remember is Dewey being pretty beast in RBI Baseball as a member of the Red Sox. Man that game was great.

1999 Skybox Premium Juan Guzman

WTF? I definitely don't remember this. What I do remember is my baseball glove when I was a kid just happened to be a Wilson Juan Guzman signature model. I remember his rookie cards being pretty hot there for a little while in the early 90's, and I remember loving him as a Dodger. These cards are pretty cool. I've never seen a Skybox Premium card before Matt hooked me up with a few. I wonder if Juan knows he's on fire?

1999 Skybox Premium Will Clark

Not gonna lie, I do vaguely remember Will Clark as an Oriole. He was once my favorite player, so I remember thinking this was pretty cool, even if his skills were on the decline at this point in his career. I wasn't watching baseball in 1999. I was graduating high school, and had left the game behind entirely a few years prior. I didn't really get back into baseball until 2005. Do you want to know what got me back into the game? I was living in Baltimore City, and had an hour commute back and forth to work. Usually I listened to music, but since I was living in Baltimore, naturally I had my car broken into and the thiefs ended up making off with my entire cd collection. I got off every day at 7, just as most O's games were starting on the radio, so out of the heartache of losing my entire music collection came a newfound love for the game of baseball (and radio to boot).

1995 Score Select Andy Van Slyke

My brother and I used to always say "Andy Van Slyke, the Van Slyke-ster". Thanks Rob Schnieder! I'm sure almost everyone remembers the Van Slyke-ster as a Pittsburgh Pirate. I sure as hell do. Him, Bonilla & skinny Bonds were diabolical back in the day.

1998 Leaf Rookies & Stars Joe Carter

I saved the best forgotten Oriole for last. Joe Carter was a freakin' O? When? 1998 apparently. I best remember Joe as a Brid killer, back in the days when the O's & Jays were among the AL East creme de la creme. I also remember him hitting a huge home run in the World Series that pretty much sank the Phillies in '93.

Yeah, so that was a lot of Orioles to forget about. I'm going to go ahead and assume that they all weren't too memorable while they were here, and I've forgotten them for good reason. Thanks for the trip down unmemory lane Matt!

Stupid eBay Shenanigans

Late last week, I won this card on eBay:

2008 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Nick Markakis jumbo swatch #'d 6/10

Sweet card, right? I didn't spend too much on it, and was pretty excited when the auction closed, and I was the winner.

Well, it arrived on Monday, and at firt glance I was absolutely thrilled with it. I mean, this is a jersey card, not that 2cm x 2cm crap that is in every single product these days. My joy quickly turned to sadness and then to anger when I flipped the card over and found this:
See that giant nick on the top left? Yeah, so did I. It's pretty deep too. This card was NOT advertised as being damaged, and was shipped in a top loader and bubble mailer that were both pristine, so it's doubtful this happened while the card was en route to my collection.

The shenanigans part comes in to play only after I contacted the seller.

Here is his response to my message about receiving a damaged card:

"sorry for missing that part of a 70 card lot that my employee listed over couple of days and must have just missed it No problem if you want to return will refund payment as soon as received thanks Douchey McDouche BookDouche Collectibles" (name changed to protect seller's identity)

I then responded and asked him if he would cover the cost to ship the card back, since I paid for a damaged card as it is, and to have that damaged card shipped to me. Here once again, is the seller's response:

"Sorry but shipping costs are not covered but if you want to keep card will offer you a $2.00 paypal refund"

$2.00 refund? Shipping costs not covered? This card cost me almost $10, and is DAMAGED and therefore WORTHLESS! At this point I was pretty pissed off, and fired back this response:

"$2? I paid almost $10 for a damaged card. If you have doubts, I just scanned it and will gladly send you a copy. Refunding half or all of my money sounds fair, especially since you're not going to be able to sell this card again."

To which Mr. McDouche then responded with this gem:

"Sorry thats best we can do for a limited to 10 jumbo jersey that came out of a $100 pack Otherwise just return but postage is your responsibility"

How the hell is it my problem that this doucheknuckle pulled a damaged card out of his $100 pack and tried to sell it on eBay? This has to be the shittiest customer service I have ever recieved on eBay. After 120+ transactions never have I once been ripped off, or had something like this happen to me.

Here is my final message to the seller, which he has not responded to:

"This is not good customer service. I will be returning the card, and expect a full refund. How much the pack cost you is inconsequential. You sold me a damaged card, and will be receiving negative feedback for your poor customer service, and if this card is ever re-listed, I will report you as well as alert the buyer that they are bidding on damaged goods."

How much do you wanna bet that this card is re-listed at some point in the near future? If this guy gave a crap about his customers, he would refund my money, and tell me to keep the card since it's essentially worthless. At the very least he would cover my shipping costs for me to send the card back to him. I covered his shipping costs so he could send me a damaged card, so why not return the favor?

Regardless of all of this, I'm still tempted to keep the card. It's a huge swatch, and is limited to 10 copies. The damage is on the back, so I wouldn't really even see it. In my mind I would know it though, everytime I looked at this card, that it's damaged. I don't know. What would you do?

Has anything like this ever happened to you? What would you have done differently in dealing with this dirtbag seller?

That Yankee Card I Was Talking About

One of my favorite things to do while working in the early hours of the morning is scour eBay looking for cards that are ending soon, and have zero bids. I then swoop in like a caped crusader and save those cards from going unsold at the last second. I never pay more than a dollar, and most of the cards I bid on are vintage (pre-1985).

This is a rather interesting card of a true legend (even though he wore pinstripes) that I happened to pick up last week, and wanted to share.

1962 Post #6 Roger Maris

It's in pretty bad shape, and would probably be a better fit for a blog like Poor Old Baseball Cards, but I kinda like it. Can you really blame me? It's an old Roger Maris card that I got for a dollar!

There are a couple of cool things about this card, first, you can plainly see the legit single season home run record listed under Maris' '61 stats, and secondly, these cards were not issued in packs, or as cereal box prizes. Instead, they were printed on the box and had to be hand cut if you wished to collect them. Whomever snipped this card from their box of Post Toasties didn't do the greatest of jobs, especially along the top. The back of this card is blank, and just plain ol' brown cardboard, much like you'd expect the inside of a cereal box to look.

In most cases, I would never purchase or post about anything Yankees related, at least not in a positive light. This card is one of the few exceptions, since it's of a Hall of Famer, and the true single season home run record holder. There's no asterisk required for Roger's '61 in '61 (despite what that damn Ford Frick had to say about it).

To all my fellow Yankee haters, I am sorry. This was one card I couldn't pass up.

I just noticed that White Sox Cards also just received one of these cards, and has a post up about it. His looks a little different, and may be Canadian. Those damn Canadians always have to be soooo different.

Gotta Love Those Federally Funded Organizations...

Like the USPS for example. Twice in the past month I have used there automated shipping machine, since the line to actually speak to a human was out the door. This machine is supposed to weigh your package, charge you accordingly for shipping based on your preferences, and print out stamps to facilitate the transportation of said packages from one location to another.

Well... this is the second time THIS has happened!
If you are unable to tell what that is, it's a USPS box full o' returned trade packages. The same trade packages that I spent all day Friday putting together. If this were the first time this had happened, I might not be so pissed, but alas it is not.

Each time my packages have been returned for insufficient postage. Each time according to them my postage was $0.34 short per package. Each time I used the USPS machine IN THE FREAKIN' POST OFFICE!
NOTE TO THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE: FIX YOUR SH%* !

Needless to say, if you are waiting to receive cards from me in trade (which is quite a few of you), they won't be there for at least a few days. I work from the wee hours in the morning until just after the post office closes this week, so they may not go out until Friday. I apologize for the Postal Service's incompetence.

Guess you could say I'm "going postal" on the postal service.

The Commish Is Wise

Several new rulings have been issued by the Commish. Be sure to keep yourself abreast (hehe) of all the new information by clicking HERE. Please be sure to adjust your scores accordingly, especially if you've got your eye on the prize, which has been graciously donated by Topps.

Remember, no cheating dickweeds! The Commish will ban you for life, so no funny business.

Foreshadowing

I actually meant to write a proper post today, but stuff ended up happening which prevented this from occurring. I know what you're thinking, there's still time, it's only 7:45 there on the east coast, and you would be correct. However, I am already sinking into the couch cushions and the odds of me getting up to actually scan anything are about the same as the odds of pulling a mini wood parallel out of your A&G box.

What I am going to do is let you know what to expect next week. On Friday I received 4 trade packages, and as a result have about 200 new Orioles cards. One trade has already been posted, and there are 3 more coming up whenever I can motivate myself to use the scanner. As mentioned last week, there's also going to be a Yankee card (EWWW!) featured at some point in the near future, and hopefully a full breakdown of what was in my 4 Allen & Ginter's boxes. There's also a chance you'll be seeing red later this week, and there will probably be a Burke Kenny Octo-fecta update mixed in there somewhere.

Now that I am engaged, the wedding talk has started and a chunk of my free time is being eaten up by scouting locations (not exactly my favorite thing in the world). This weekend I also purchased a new bicycle, in an effort to get a bit more exercise. All of these things I'm sure will end up contributing to less posts in the coming weeks. For those of you that read daily, I apologize. You can rest assured that I'll still post daily more often than not, but I probably won't keep up the same pace I've been on (160 posts in 90 days). Lastly, I am not going to have much of a card budget for a while either, so no box breaks for a little while. I am still going to try and get to the card shop every couple of weeks and pick up some random packs though, which will definitely be scanned and posted.

That is all for now.

I Got A Rip Card!

Yesterday one of the most stupendous trade packages in the history of trade packages arrived at my doorstep. It was sent by fellow card blogger and Gint-A-Cuffs participant Ryan, of the fabulous Card Cache blog. He actually sent me a rip card... an un-ripped rip card... and MUCH more.

When I opened up the package what I saw before me were 4 individually wrapped packs of cards, 1 of which looked very familiar, and 3 that did not. We'll start with the ones that I didn't recognize.

Here is the first one:
Hmm... 1 "decent" Orioles player... doesn't really leave too many options now does it. Damn, that was mean.

Here is what I saw when the pack was flipped over, so I could open it:
Well, there are the odds, stated plain as day. This should mean that "on average" there should be at least one memorabilia card in here. Let's see what was waiting for me inside

2009 Upper Deck SP legendary Cuts #1 Brian Roberts

Looks like this is going to be a pack full o' Roberts. Let's see what else is in here, shall we?

2006 Fleer Ultra #FM-BR Brian Roberts Ultra Fine Fabrics

For a jersey card from a fairly regular set like Ultra, this card is well designed. It definitely looks better than any of the jersey cards from the Upper Deck base sets of the past 2 years.

2007 Fleer Ultra #FG-BR Brian Roberts "Feel The Game"

Another Fleer Ultra Roberts jersey relic, this time with a retro look to it. I've got a bunch of Fleer Ultra cards from both '06 & '07 but have never seen any of their game-used cards before receiving these 2. It almost makes me wish Fleer were still around. That's it for pack one, or at least that's all I scanned from pack 1. Lets see what pack 2 has to offer.

Here is the front:
And the back:
I suggest flipping your monitor 90 degrees counter-clockwise if you are having trouble reading that. I only scanned one card from this pack, because it was totally awesome. The rest were exactly what it said on the front of the pack, all cards of players who are no longer with the Orioles. The one card I did scan didn't seem like much at first glance.

2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia #TQ-26 Team Quads

I still thought this was a cool card, even though it features 2 players who were never exactly stars. I always like orange O's swatches as opposed to plain white or gray. It didn't even hit me till this morning that it clearly says "Team Quads" on the front of this card.

Well, I flipped it over, and this is what I found:
I've never owned a double sided card before, at least not one where the back was better than the front. Brooks Robinson! Sweet! No comment on Bedard.

That leaves one more mystery pack to be opened. Was I saving the best for last? You bet your balls I was!

Here's the front:
And the back:
Well, there's only a couple of other "decent" Orioles aside from Roberts, and we all know which one I'm hoping for. If you turned your monitor sideways, you'd know that the chances of pulling an auto out of this pack are 100%! On with the show!

2006 Allen & Ginter's #322 Nick Markakis

SWEET! Looks like a pack o' Markakii

2008 Upper Deck X #10 Nick Markakis Die Cut

The background of my scanner really makes this card look crappy, and the cat hair on the top left corner certainly isn't helping matters much either.

2009 Upper Deck Goudey #18 Nick Markakis

I still think this set is pretty damn ugly, but I like this card. I have to like it right? It's of my favorite player, and at least it actually looks like him.

2009 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts #37 Nick Markakis

Awesome! I definitely don't have this one yet, and was hoping someone would trade it to me at some point. One pack of Legendary Cuts was enough for me to know it wasn't worth wasting money on, so any O's that get sent my way I'm definitely grateful for.

Alright one more card in the pack. Unless Card Cache's pack odds are total lies (like some card companies I know) this last card SHOULD have some ink on it.

2008 Upper Deck Premier #98 Nick Markakis autograph

GREAT GOOGLEY MOOGLEY!! Thanks a TON for this one dude! Another sweet Markakis auto to add to the collection. This one is #'d 19/25. I'm not even going to complain about it being a sticker auto.

Well, that's it for the mystery packs. If you're still reading this, by now you're probably wondering where the damn rip card is that I was talking about. Well you should take comfort in the fact that there is still a pack of Ginter left to open.

Here is what the pack looks like:
For those of you having trouble reading what is scribbled in black marker, that word is DAMAGED, which is exactly what the pack contained.

Inside there were 6 horribly dinged up base cards, and somewhere in the midst of all that damaged cardboard was this bad boy:

Holy crap! It's a rip card! It's #'d to 25! Hand numbered at that! I really had to debate whether or not to actually rip this thing, seeing as it would easily sell for over $100 on eBay right now. In the end, I decided to listed to Bobby, and flipped the card over so it could be ripped, which is where I discovered this:

Holy crap! My Bobby Abreu rip card has an Akinori Iwamura back! This has to be some sort of error by Topps. At this point I am thinking this is probably a one of one super rare error card, and decide I am not going to rip it.

1.5 seconds later the pressure and temptation are too much to take. I ripped this sucker open and guess what was inside?

2009 Allen & Ginter's Burke Kenny Bazooka back mini #'d 7/25

I'm definitely glad I ripped it! The mark on the bottom left side of the back of this card is a little piece of cardboard that is still hanging after this card was cut in the factory. A few of my minis had those same slivers of freeloading cardboard. This card officially puts the Burke Kenny Octo-fecta quest at 5 cards. Not too shabby for a weeks worth of looking. The remaining cards I need are the relic, black framed mini & Ginter backed mini.

Much thanks to Ryan for the interesting and incredible trade package, and if you haven't checked out his blog yet, go there now, and let him know how awesome it is that he posts soccer box breaks.

Package From Topps

Along with the 3 INSANE trade packages I received in the mail today, (more on those as the weekend rolls along) there was also a mysterious envelope from Duryea, PA. Since that is where I mailed in my wrappers, damaged cards, and box UPC code, I figured this had to be my replacement cards, and that elusive missing "hit" from Ginter box #2.

Well... I was correct. Along with a standard letter explaining their customer service policy, the bubble mailer contained the following:

2 replacement base cards

2 replacement mini cards

1 mysterious little yellow envelope
At this point I'm thinking... "That envelope BETTER contain my missing hit, and it'd BETTER be an auto", since there wasn't one in box 2...

1 semi-crappy relic
I guess it could have been worse, it could have been a Corey Patterson or Fred Lewis relic, but I was really hoping for something better. My question is, how does Topps decide what card to send out in these instances? Is there a giant treasure chest full of relics & autos that someone wearing a blindfold reaches into to retrieve customers missing "hits"? For all anyone knows, the card that should have been in that box was a rip card, or a printing plate, or a red ink auto. Chances are it wasn't, but I feel like whoever processed this order just said "give him a shitty relic card, that way he gets his 3 precious hits, and we are not liable". Maybe I can get a buck for this on eBay, since that seems to be the going rate for Ginter relics of semi-stars these days.

Anyone want to trade for a Magglio relic?

Oh, the other humorous thing was that only the base & minis were in penny sleeves. The relic was naked as the day it was born.

Burke Kenny Octo-fecta Update & New additions

Some cards arrived in the mail yesterday, and the Burke Kenny collection is growing.

First up we have mini no number back. I really like that Topps decided to hand number these this year. For some reason hand numbered cards always seem a little more special.

2009 Allen & Ginter's Burke Kenny No Number Back #25/50

I also managed to score his autograph this week as well.

2009 Allen & Ginter's #AGA-BK Burke Kenny auto

So that's 3 cards down (base, NNO, auto), which leaves 5 to go in my quest for the octo-fecta. Based on what should be coming in the mail shortly, I may only be 1 card shy by next week. I know the hardest card to get will be his beard relic. I refuse to spend money on a card so disgusting, especially since I know how gross beard hairs are. This card will have to come my way via trade, and I may have to wait it out for a while.

I realized there haven't been many Markakis cards featured here for a while, and I wanted to share a new one that also arrived in the mail this week. It's another Ginter card, so I apologize in advance to all those who are tired of this set already.

2009 Allen & Ginter's Nick Markakis No Number back #48/50

There should be more stuff arriving in the next few days, so as always, there will be more cards to share. I'm even going to feature a Yankee card (GASP!) in the next day or 2. Please don't hate me.

2009 Allen & Ginter's Want List

Please be kind and send cards my way if you've got them. I need all the pity I can get at this point, since after busting 4 boxes, I am still this short of a complete set.

BASE SET: COMPLETE!

SP BASE: COMPLETE!

NATIONAL PRIDE: COMPLETE!

BASEBALL HIGHLIGHTS SKETCH: COMPLETE!

CREATURES OF LEGEND, MYTH & TERROR: COMPLETE!

Officially On The Hunt

For Topps Red Hot Rookie redemption #5. Topps announced yesterday that #5 on the Red Hot Rookie list is none other than Nolan Reimold, and I just have to have this card.

If anyone out there in the great ether has this card, and is willing to trade, please contact me.

Who Sent Me These Cards?

I've been caught up in the rapture of Gint-A-Cuffs for the past week, and was on vacation for a few days as well. As a result, there is a giant stack of cards on my end table that have been sent my way by various awesome folk, and unfortunately, I've lost track of who sent what.

This first card somehow managed to sneak right by me, even though I've been looking for a copy of it for at least a week now. I sure was surprised and happy as hell to see it, but am not sure where it came from. The prime suspect is Matt from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius, but I can neither confirm nor deny such allegations at this time. If it was you, please own up to it. I plan on putting together a boatload of trade packages later this week, and there might be something extra in it for you if you do.

Behold! This is my first card of the other bearded wonder, and officially can be crossed off the list of cards needed in my pursuit of the Burke Kenny Octo-fecta. Which may end up becoming a penta-fecta if I end up pursuing the silk & printing plates as well.

2009 Allen & Ginter's #61 Burke Kenny

I just took a blog break and ate some pho. It was delicious, but my mouth is on fire. Ok, let's get back to the cards.

This next one was in the same team bag as the Kenny, so I'm going to assume it's from the same person. Bedard is a wussy, and thankfully he and the time he spends being stand-offish while on the D.L., is now a problem for the Seattle Mariners. Thanks for Adam Jones & George Sherrill... suckers!

2006 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Eric Bedard

Alright, up next are 2 cards I am just about fifty percent half sure are actually from Matt.
I must have at least 3 copies of this first card by now, but Ginter relics are nice looking, so even if I'm not the biggest Tejada fan, it's a nice looking card to look at.

2007 Allen & Ginter's Miguel Tejada jersey relic

Matt (I think) followed that great card by sending me an ultra rare error card as well. This bat card is obviously mis-identified. It says right there on the card, "authentic game-worn jersey", but I'm pretty sure that's a chunk of wood inside that hollowed out "B". Brian looks none too pleased about this obvious oversight. Look at him, he refuses to even look in the general direction of the mistake. This card has to be rare, since it's an error, and will probably fetch a ton of cash on eBay. Make me an offer for it, so I can laugh in your face.

2006 Bowman Heritage Brian Roberts Pieces of Greatness

Let's round out this post with a card who's origins I am 100% positive about, shall we? This card came from eBay, and is the first Nolan Reimold card in my collection, and I hope not the last. The scan just makes me think about how dirty my scanner bed is at the moment. The nicest thing about this card is that you know exactly which game it was allegedly worn in. Oh, and that is tape along the top there, and no worries, it's just on the top loader. I hate when sellers do that, but they all seem to.

2006 Bowman Nolan Reimold Futures Game Worn Jersey

Well, that's all from me for tonight. Matt, if all of these cards are from you, then I thank you very much. Even if they aren't all from you, the one's that I'm fifty percent half sure are from you are great too, so thanks for those. If they aren't from Matt, and are in fact from some mystery sender, please identify yourself so you can be properly thanked for officially kicking off the Burke Kenny collection.