Redemptions (Finally)

Last week (or the week before that) these 3 cards finally showed up in the mail. The scans all look pretty awful, and that's mainly due to scratched up top loaders, and not damaged cards. I've got to say that I am a little disappointed that the "Red Hot Rookies" aren't refractors this year like they were last year. I'm also disappointed that it took Topps SEVEN MONTHS to get get these cards in collector's hands. They aren't autographed, and don't contain pieces of "game used" memorabilia, so what was the hold up Topps? Oh, and by the way, I am still waiting on my Ginter Ryan Braun auto. Will it arrive before the world ends in 2012.... that is the question.


Hanson & Borbon are both for trade. If anyone is interested, leave a comment or drop me a quick email.

What's The Deal Upper Deck?

It's been over 2 months now since I have redeemed my Goodwin Champions Entomology card, and I have been waiting for an update ever since. Today I decided to check in, and see if there are any updates. There are, but none of it is information that is pertinent to my situation. It appears as though Upper Deck may be running into more problems than they bargained for with these beautifully designed Entomology cards. There are regulations preventing them from being shipped to locales outside of the U.S., and it appears to be slowing down this entire process. I know for a fact that the Thoroughbred Hair Cut redemptions have already shipped out, and would assume that the Landmarks & Entomology Cards aren't far behind. This is only the 4th Upper Deck redemption I've dealt with , and the previous 3 all arrived within 3 weeks. If UD really wants to be better than Topps, mimicking their redemption turnaround times is certainly not the way to go about achieving that goal.

It's really BUGGING me that this redemption is taking so long, and that Upper Deck has barely provided any information at all regarding it's status. Get it? BUGS me? My jokes suck.

What I Was Referring To Last Night

This is Topps sent me as a replacement for the Cat Osterman autograph I had redeemed back in July, that was pulled from one of my Ginter boxes.. I'm not mad about the card I got, I'm mad I wasn't able to choose the replacement I received. Topps didn't even warn me it was going to be replaced, they simply just mailed me a package. You can't give someone a coupon for a free steak diner, and serve them chicken instead. That is exactly what I feel like Topps did here, and I don't like it one bit.
It's not that this isn't a beautiful cards, because it is, and that Mr. Louganis wasn't an excellent athlete, because he was. The trouble is that I have no way of determining this card's worth. According to Topps, this card has a "book value" of $60. Unfortunately, there are no recent completed sales on eBay to compare, but the last time I checked, Greg Louganis autographs weren't in high demand. Do you know whose autograph is in high demand? Cat Osterman's. The redemptions alone regularly sold for upwards of $50 (which is still high on eBay for a cards carrying a $60 BV). So we know for a fact what the Osterman is worth, or at least a ballpark figure that has been determined by multiple free market sales, but there is absolutely no way of knowing what the Louganis is really worth. I'd be willing to bet it wouldn't sell for much more that $20-$25.

This is only one of many issues I have with the way Topps handles it's redemptions. Other companies ask you to send in a list of your favorite players & teams when they are unable to process a redemption as promised, but not the Topps Company. They will send you whatever they, and a pricing "authority" to remain nameless deem to be an even swap in terms of value. If something sounds a little unfair, it just might be because it is.

I received a response from Topps this morning more or less telling me my opinions are not valid, and that they do not feel that the way they handled this process was flawed. The refused to apologize, but did offer to send me some complimentary product as a showing of good faith. I responded back with a less angry email, intelligently laying out the points I made above, and am waiting for a response. It's not like I actually expect anything to happen, and at this point, I'm not even sure why I sent them another email. I'm going to take my free product and shut my mouth, because at the end of the day, what can I really do about it (aside from stop purchasing their products)?

Topps is Officially Dead To Me

Well... almost. I'm definitely EXTREMELY pissed off at them right now, and when I type EXTREME in all caps, I mean business.

Today I got home from work to find an envelope from Duryea, PA waiting for me on our kitchen table. This is normally a great thing to come home to, and I am waiting on about 5 redemptions from Topps, so this could have been anything right?

WRONG! What it was is an absolute fucking disaster, and something I may never forgive Topps for.

More information to follow tomorrow. For now, I have emailed Clay Luraschi, the brand manager for Topps, and am awaiting his response.

I'll give you a hint, and that hint is "meow".

What My Upper Deck Redemptions Page Looks Like

BOO-YAH!

Redemption Day

Yesterday, along with a few trades, I received 2 redemptions in the mail. I must say, both companies were quite speedy about getting these cards delivered once they were redeemed, and I commend them for their promptness.

The first envelope was from Upper Deck. They sent me this card:

2008 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Eider Torres Sweet Beginnings autograph
Pretty nice looking card, and the auto is hard-signed. Too bad it's of a scrub, but at least it's an Orioles scrub.

Upper Deck snuck something else inside the envelope as well. It's pretty cool, so thank you Upper Deck.

Despite looking at a few unimpressive box breaks today, I was still pretty excited to see this ad. I appreciate the old-timey stylings that Goodwin has to offer, and am psyched to bust a box tomorrow. According to the UPS package tracker thingy, my box is spending the night in Laurel, MD before making to my doorstep sometime tomorrow.

This next redemption is truly special. It comes from slangon of the most excellent Condition: Poor. A few weeks ago we completed a trade, which can be seen here. I was lucky enough to receive a redemption for a 1 of 1 Slangko Heroes of the Diamond card, and yesterday it arrived.

2009 Slangko Heroes of the Diamond John McGraw 1/1

This is a hand painted mini card, and it looks incredible! The scan is a little bigger, so you can get an idea of the artistry involved here by seeing some of the detail. I'm reading a book about McGraw currently (I've been reading it for a while now), and from what I've read about him, he was a true legend and one of the first "sparkplug" type of players, who played all out at all times. I've been wanting a card of his forever, and now I've got one that no one else ever will.

The back is nice too, and you can plainly see the numbering. I feel honored to have even received this card. It's right up there amongst the coolest of things anyone has ever sent me.

Redemption day indeed, and a good one it was.

Catching Up On Trades Pt. 2

Ok, back to the trades. First up we have some great cards from Slangon, of the fabulously designed blog Condition:Poor. He emailed me a while back saying there were some Ginter needs of mine that could be filled, but as per usual, other cards were discussed, and I eventually ended up sending him over a nice stack of Mets, in exchange for a handful of Ginter need and some O's cards. Slangon also threw in some random cards, which is always a nice bonus.

Without further ado:

2009 Allen & Ginter Creatures of Myth, Legend & Terror Sphinx mini

This was the card that interested me the most, since I am working to complete this set. I'm not quite sure how an ancient Egyptian monument is a Creature of Terror, but it's a pretty cool looking card, so I wont ask.

1984 Topps Jim Palmer

A nice swan song Palmer card. 1984 was to be Cakes' last season, and he was released by the Orioles not long after the season began. Any Jim Palmer card is a good card to have, and this one is no exception. I didn't realize that his nickname, "cakes", comes from his love of eating pancakes.

2009 Upper Deck Starquest Nick Markakis Turquoise Common

A new addition to my player collection. There are a million different flavors of Starquest, and I now have 2, both of the "common" variety.

1986 Donruss Fred Lynn Diamond King

It's a Diamond King. Need I say more? Yeah, that's what I thought.

2009 Freedom Cardboard Prospects set Matt Wieters

Slangon actually sent me the entire 5-card set, but this is the card that matters most to me. I believe this is my first Wieters card, and for being an unlicensed set, these cards are pretty nice looking. They were given out at this year's National convention in Cleveland, and this particular set was given away by Voice of the Collector a few weeks ago, and has happily found it's way into my collection.

Now, I mentioned some random cards that were included as part of this trade. Here are 2 of my favorites:

1987 Topps Bo Jackson "Future Stars"

Who doesn't love Bo? Everyone knows that this guy had all the tools and skills to be one of the greats. Not just in baseball, but in pro football as well. It's really a shame that injuries seemed to plague him, and ultimately cut his career short. The "Future Stars" logo on this card reminded me of Bo's Saturday morning cartoon, ProStars, which I remember watching as a kid. If you don't remember the show, perhaps this will jog your memory:

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter's Travis Hafner relic

Here's another random card for you. This one will come in handy as trade bait, especially since there are certain people in Cleveland who have been very good to me in the past. Either of you guys want a Pronk relic?

There was one more card from Slangon I wanted to share with everyone. It's a redemption card, which is normally something I loathe, but in this case, it could end up being the coolest thing ever.
Sweet! I am due to receive a custom 1/1 Slangko Heroes of the Diamond card. If the design looks anything like Condition:Poor, or this redemption itself, I'm sure it'll be a thing of pure beauty. If you're a reader of this blog, you already know that I love retro/vintage themed sets, and Slangon appears to have it down to a science. I can't wait to see who/what arrives in the near future. You also can't beat any redemption card that requires you to do absolutely nothing to redeem it.

Thanks for all the awesome cards Slangon! If you haven't already checked out Condition:Poor, I suggest going there right now, and soaking up the Metropolitan goodness!

Next up are a few cards from the master codebreaker himself, Mike from JD's Wild Cardz. Mike and I have actually completed 2 trades in the past week, and here is what I received in exchange for some 2009 Hertiage cards from Mike's want list, as well as an Obama SP.

2009 Topps Chrome Nick Markakis blue refractor #'d/199

I'd been outbid on this particular card twice in the past few weeks, so when Mike offered it up in trade, I was thrilled. The Markakis collection grows!

2009 Topps Chrome Brian Roberts blue refractor #'d/199

I've got to find out where Mike buys his Chrome boxes, because he managed to pull 2 O's blue refractors from his boxes. Both of these are awesome, and definitely welcome additions.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter's AGA-CK Clayton Kershaw autograph

Everyone else has one, and now I do too. Its not an Oriole card, but every collector sometimes has to make exceptions. This is a great autograph of a young pitching stud. Unfortunately it can no longer be used to drive Night Owl crazy, since I think he already has this particular card. Mike is soon going to have sooo many Ginter autos, I doubt he'll miss this one much.

Big thanks to Mike, and JD's Wild Cardz for the trade.

As always, if anyone is interested in trading me some awesome Orioles cards, don't hesitate to contact me, and we can work something out.

Well, that about does it. I am officially caught up on posting trades, and the mail isn't even here yet today. Score one for beardy!

2008 Sweet Spot Pack Break

The past few weeks I have had off of work Mon-Wed, after working all weekend. Unfortunately, as a result, future wife and I haven't had a chance to grocery shop. To make matters worse, I have had to grocery shop solo, which is never fun. Today I decided to spice things up and do our grocery shopping at WallyWorld. I obviously did this with the full knowledge that they sell cards, and figured that a couple of packs would be a nice little reward for picking up groceries all by myself.

Well, I saw something rather unexpected when I hit the card aisle. Packaged individually, and sitting all by it's lonesome off to the side was a sealed pack of 2008 Upper Deck Sweet Spot baseball. It was $20, but I grabbed it anyway, with thoughts of a Sweet Spot autograph running through my feeble little mind.

Immediately after opening the silver wrapper, I noticed a card sitting in the middle that was VERY thick, and thought maybe I had hit paydirt. Let's see how things worked out for me.

#28 Cole Hamels

#91 Ryan Zimmerman

#36 Dustin Pedroia

#99 Victor Martinez

#82 Phil Hughes

#84 Randy Johnson

#YSL966 Red Rolfe

The really thick card in the middle turned out to be the world's heaviest dummy card. Fortunately, this was sitting on top of it, and even though it's not a Sweet Spot autograph, it's an Orioles autograph, so that makes up for it.

Eider Torres Sweet Beginnings autograph redemption

This is the 3rd time I've opened anything Sweet Spot, and the 3rd time I've yet to pull a real live autograph, and the second time I've pulled a redemption. All in all not too shabby though, but only because my auto is of an (ex)Oriole.

4 Boxes Worth of Ginter Hits

We all know that through 4 boxes I was nowhere near a complete base set. I've already made a few trades, so at this point it's unclear what the actual percentage was that I got out of the four. If you read all my Gint-A-Cuffs posts, then you already know what I pulled in boxes 1 & 4, but what came out of the other 2?

Well, I'm gonna break down the "hits" box by box.

Box #1:

AGR-DW Dontrelle Willis jersey relic

AGR-RL Ryan Ludwick jersey relic

Delmon Young Cloth Card #08/10

AGA-RB Ryan Braun autograph redemption

Box 2:

AGR-PF Prince Fielder bat relic

AGR-MO Magglio Ordonez jersey relic (from Topps, the famed "missing hit")

AGA-CO Cat Osterman autograph redemption

Box 3:

AGR-FL Fred Lewis bat relic

AGR-RZ Ryan Zimmerman bat relic

AGA-BW Blake DeWitt autograph

Box 4:

AGR-TL Tim Lincecum jersey relic

AGR-DW David Wright jersey relic

AGR-MC Miguel Cabrera jersey relic

Aramis Ramirez No Number Back mini #35/50

John Higby No Number Back mini #29/50

EA2 Extinct Creatures Dodo mini (1 per case?)

So there you have it, 4 boxes worth of "hits". It's pretty obvious why I chose the first & fourth to use in the competition, as both contained more than the guaranteed 3 "hits". No complaints here about my autographs either. I could complain about the DeWitt, but it hardly seems appropriate after the 2 pretty nice redemptions.

I've definitely got some relics for trade, if anyone is interested. The 2 no number minis are also available.

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.

Stupid @#$^ing Redemtions!

I knew I should have put Finest Rookie Redemption #4 on eBay, but nooooo..... I had to go and redeem it. What "hot" rookie am I going to be receiving in the mail next January?

THIS GUY!

Gimme a break Topps! Aren't you jumping the gun at least a little bit? The guy has all of 5 Major League at-bats. FIVE!

There are plenty of other rookies out there who don't have Finest cards who are more deserving than this guy. The first one that comes to mind, being an Orioles homer, is Nolan Reimold, and if I sat here and really thought about it, there are at least 10 more that I would come up with before Julio Borbon. I'm so pissed that I just typed a run-on sentence, with about 8 commas!

Granted, he was Baseball America's #19 prospect in 2007, but the dude was JUST called up a week and a half ago!

Box Break Fail - 2007 Sweet Spot Classic

I do not own any Sweet Spot autographs, so naturally I was pretty psyched about opening this box/tin thing. This was the main reason I fell victim to the DA combo special. From watching other peoples breaks online, it became pretty obvious that these are VERY hit and miss, but generally you at least get something decent out of each one.

Get ready for a letdown!

Don Mattingly base

Jimmie Foxx base - this card would be a lot cooler with an old-school gray jersey swatch on it.

Ron Guidry jersey - I now have 2 Guidry jerseys. Anyone want them?

Dennis Eckersley Jersey - Sure are a lot of mustaches in this pack.

AND NOW...THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR...
My first Sweet Spot autograph....
Yeah, that's right, it's a @$#%ing redemption, and a semi-crappy one at that. Silver stitch blue ink auto of Dick Allen. Embarrassingly enough, I didn't even know who Dick Allen was until I googled him. At least he's up for induction to the Hall of Fame this year, which would immediately change my mind about this box. A Hall of Famer auto would make this box decent, despite the crap jersey cards and mustaches. Allen put up decent enough numbers in the pitching dominated 60's. He was also the N.L. Rookie of the Year in 1964, and an MVP in 1972. In my opinion, his numbers are borderline Hall of Fame material, but I certainly hope he gets in so that maybe this card will actually be worth something when it arrives.


Here is a fun fact about Dick Allen courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame:
"Among Hall of Fame eligibles not enshrined, Dick Allen trails only Pete Browning and Mark McGwire in adjusted OPS+, a measure of a player's offensive effectiveness relative to his peers."

Sounds like he has a decent shot at making it in to me.

The reason for me titling this post "Box Break Fail" is because I really did have higher expectations. I've seen nice jerseys from older players pulled pretty regularly, as well as some great looking patch cards. Instead I got boring, solid color jerseys, and ZERO satisfaction in the autograph department, since it arrived in redemption form.

Upper Deck always seems to let me down when it comes to "hits". Does anyone else have this problem? I've never pulled a case hit, or anything major out of an Upper Deck box, but for some reason always have decent luck when it comes to Topps products. This will definitely be my last break for a little while. I already know there's some Ginter coming for my birthday in July, and I pre-ordered a box of Goodwin Champions today as well, but probably no more until then. It's definitely been one of those days for me, this box was disappointing, I got outbid at the last second on 2 sweet cards on eBay, and it's raining. Total bummer man. I'm thinking it might be smart to hold off on any more eBaying until the season is over, and stuff becomes affordable again.