More eBay Shenanigans

Look at THIS card, then look at THIS card.

I watched, and even bid on the hand-numbered version the first time it was listed, about 3 months ago. It was the first time I had ever seen that card, and I really wanted it. The fact that it was "hand-numbered" only made it more appealing. It ended up selling for $125, which was about $100 more than I was willing to pay. The day after that first auction, the card was re-listed by the winning bidder at $200, and Buy It Now.

Fast forward to this morning.... I am trolling eBay, drooling over all the sweet new Markakii found in '09 Ultimate collection, and happen to stumble across TWO more Markakis/Brooks Heritage dual relics. Both of the new listings are NOT hand numbered, and most likely will NOT sell for $125.

This is yet another reason to avoid eBay, and purchase your cards elsewhere. eBay does a horrible job policing it's listings, and there's quite a bit of counterfeit bullshit for sale these days.

EDIT: It looks like Sooz may be right. She left a comment stating that perhaps just the gray swatches are numbered. I found THIS listing that backs up her claim. Why would Topps do that? Perhaps they are trying to make plain gray swatches more appealing?

Some People Are Real !@#$heads

I just reported THIS as a fraudulent listing. I wonder how long it'll take for it to be pulled. Can you believe this dude (or dudette) is a "power seller"? The sad thing is that someone already bought one. I can't feel that bad for them though. $8 for a Dick Perez original? That definitely falls into the "too good to be true" category.

Monday Morning Video Fun

Censorship really can be fun.

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.

Introducing the Beard-O-Meter

I have developed a revolutionary scale by which to measure the greatness of things, it is called the Beard-O-Meter, and will be used almost exclusively for box breaks and product reviews. It's pretty slef explanatory, Sidney Crosby is the lowest rating on the Beard-O-Meter, with Burke Kenny being the ultimate. In between you have Ben Affleck, which is the second lowest rating, Rick Sutcliffe, which is right above that, followed by Kris Kristofferson & Grizzly Adams. Finally, at the very pinnacle of perfection, we have Burke Kenny, the undisputed full beard & mustache champion of the world ZZ Top, who quite possibly have 2 of the greatest beards ever. Even though the 3rd member doesn't have a beard, if you averaged the 3 of them out, I still think they would have the beardiest of the beardies.
For example, 2008 Upper Deck Documentary would come in somewhere between Crosby and Affleck, where as something like 2009 Allen & Ginter's would score itself a solid Grizzly Adams.

This new ranking system will be taken for it's first test run this week, as I post box breaks of 2009 Topps 206, and 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces. If anyone has any suggestions of how to improve the Beard-O-Meter, and truly make it the world's foremost ranking system, I am all ears.

Beardy's Video of The Day

No, this won't happen every day, I'm far too lazy for that. But here, and now however, we do have a video of the day, and here it is. It's not nice to kick a man when he's down, but this almost made Vitamin Water come out of my nose.



If I could add one thing it would be a guy with a really deep voice saying "damn" sort of slowly in between verses. Looking back on it, I'm glad I was able to unload that Goodwin Tiger relic before all of this happened. Wonder if it'll affect the value of his cards/memorabilia? Probably not, since most collectors are men, and I just don't think we care that much about things like this. Not when athletes are running people over with cars, and/or shooting themselves in the leg.

NSFW Link O' The Day

THIS IS VERY VERY VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK! You have been warned. It's also not baseball, or card related. Sorry about that.

This morning on my way into work, they were talking about THIS new product on the radio, and I just had to check it out once I got here. Don't worry, I did it via wireless public internet access, and not our company network, so it shouldn't get me in trouble.

I suggest you do the same if viewing from work, or wait until you get home to check it out.

Be sure to watch the creepy video after entering the site. My mind is absolutely blown by the fact that this product even exists, but do understand why it would be effective. We are animals in the same way that deer are, and a buck is attracted to the scent of deer urine. While it may not seem like it on the surface, we've still got those carnal, animal instincts that cannot be avoided. I would guess this product plays to that sensibility. That still doesn't make it any less disturbing though.

Oh, and how discreet is that logo? I mean seriously people!

Real Men of Genius

Today... we salute YOU Mr. Buy Up Those Kick-Ass Low Numbered Autograph Relic & Parallel Cards On eBay Then Re-list Them At Twice What You Paid For Them.

Any Joe Collector can buy some kick-ass low numbered relic, autograph and refractor cards on eBay, but it takes real chutzpah to try and make money the way that you do.

Borderline turdnugget! (with that awesome 80's hair rock voice they use)

In the basement you sit wearing your pj's, anxiously waiting for that sniper software to work it's magic.

Got you in my sights now! (awesome hair rock dude again)

Morals? Questionable at best.

Morals are for pussies! (sung by "the voice" again)

Even though you re-list the card before it even arrives with a buy it now price that's 2-3 times what you paid for it, and it takes you six months to sell it you still end up making $10 profit every time.

Book value is my gospel! (you know the drill)

So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, Joseph P. Collector, because in an online marketplace crowded with bags, yours is the douchiest.

Mr. Buy Up Those Kick-Ass Low Numbered Autograph Relic & Parallel Cards On eBay Then Re-list Them At Twice What You Paid For Them! (What a voice that guy has)

Photo of the Day

That's Orioles owner Peter Angelos there on the left. The other 2 guys I'm sure you probably recognize.

image courtesy of the baltimore sun website, and specifically the schmuck stops here blog.

A Different Kind Of All-Star

My 2009 Torture Team cards arrived earlier this week. I pulled several stars, and wanted to show them off.

They pretty much speak for themselves. Enjoy! (click images to enlarge)

Here is what the pack looks like.

Shout out to A Cardboard Problem for the heads up about these free sets being issued by the Center For Constitutional Rights back in the early summer. Get yours HERE. Maybe you'll get lucky and pull a Dubya. If you do I'll trade ya a Rummy for it.

Meanwhile In Montoursville, PA

This guy is crying the tears of a clown.

Not that it would have been any different if he'd stayed in Baltimore, but I've got to say HA! to Mike Mussina this morning.

This could have been you Mike, this could have been you.

Congratulations to the New York Yankees for winning championship #27. I may not have wanted you to win, but congratulations are still in order none the less.

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".

Coming Soon To A Computer Near You...

It's baaaaaaack!

And this time it's NOT personal.

Fasten your seat-belts kids! Once Motherscratcher and I quit being lazy fools and agree on some rules (hot damn, that rhymed!) we shall once again commence with the Turking Off. This time it'll be the 2006 flavor of Topps Turkey Red, which is what we wanted to use the first time around, before availability issues put the kibosh on that plan. Stay tuned so you don't miss anything epic, and there's no doubt this will be epic.

Remember this dear readers, the Commish is wise, and no one EVER listens to Billy Zane. EVER!

No Wonder the Economy is Effed

Matthew H. Wieters, what the hell is wrong with our banking institutions?!?!

It's a wonder we aren't all homeless by now.

Nice socks Dubya. I'm searching for a witty anecdote, but the right words escape me. In situations like this, I find it best to be blunt. Do you see the jaggoff who is not only wearing Crocs^TM, but is also wearing socks while wearing Crocs^TM? Not only is he wearing socks, but they appear to have monkeys, or pandas or something on them? Yeah, that guy. He was President of the United States.

I'm just saying.

That's right, ended with a qualifier.

Nice One Topps!

Check out this auction, and you tell me what is wrong with the Ticket to Stardom card of my favorite current player.

Good luck getting $50 for that one, numbnuts!

Judas Priestbarbers!

I sure got a lot of mail today.

Expect quite a few (or 2 really long) trade posts either Sunday or Monday.

Where You Been Man?

Where have I been? I've been around. Haven't posted in 3 days, and there are a multitude of reasons for that, none of which involve me not getting new cards. There's plenty to discuss and show off, I just haven't scanned any of it yet.

Baseball is also the furthest thing from my mind right now. The Orioles season has been over since July, and I just can't take watching any more losses this year. Baltimore is about to lose it's 100th game, and I for one, certainly want no part of that. Nope. None. The energy and attention that was going towards my pursuit of baseball has instead been transferred to football, and I couldn't be more pumped to watch the Ravens-Browns game today.

There was a lot of radio beef between Cleveland and Baltimore this week, which popped off when douchebag "conservative" Cleveland radio personality Bob Frantz, of WTAM, decided to name the top 10 reasons why Baltimore sucks, which can be seen HERE. Trust me pal, Baltimore is well aware of the reasons why it sucks. The last thing we need is to have it pointed out to us by someone from the middle of fucking nowhere Ohio. Cleveland, seriously? The only good things about Cleveland are it's bloggers (you know who you are). Baltimore does not need to be trashed by some dude from a septic tank of a city on Lake Erie. That's like, not even the biggest Great Lake. There are bigger. I don't even see what's so "Great" about Lake Erie.

Anyway, all of this has only furthered the deterioration of the relationship between Baltimore, and Cincinnati Jr. You see, even though we had a football team stolen from us in the early 80s, all anyone in Cleveland talks about is how we stole their precious Browns. Get over it! It happens. You have your Browns back now, and they're worse than ever! We turned your ex team into champions in less than 5 seasons, which is quite the accomplishment when you take into consideration just how bad they were in Cleveland. Nice try guys!

That's enough hate mongering for now. I plan to post a lot in the next few days, and have a lot of trades to catch up on. I also had my first negative trading experience, but that's a story that will never truly be told. There's no reason to tell it at this point, especially because the very next day what could be one of my very best trades ever was hashed out, and with a little luck, I'll be able to post the results in a week or 2.

The aforementioned "negative trading experience" was another factor in there being 3 days of silence on this blog. I was a little bummed out and pissed off. It started to make me question why I even bother collecting, since my reasons sometimes seem so drastically different then those of a trade partner. Luckily, introspect is a pet peeve of mine, and all thoughts of this nature were quickly brushed aside. I do this because it makes me happy, and because I want to make other people happy. It's not about personal or financial gain, and never will be.

Enjoy your football Sunday everybody, and GO RAVENS!

2009 Goodwin Champions Want List 11/10/09

I am a humongous hypocrite. After complaining about this set as much as I did, I am now going to attempt to build it. My theory is that enough people will decide they aren't going to build it themselves, and send me their cards.

We'll see how it works out for me...

Base:
2, 28, 41, 51, 67, 82, 96, 106, 123, 152, 153, 156, 158, 159, 163, 165, 168, 170, 171, 177, 180, 182, 183, 186, 187, 188, 189, 191, 193, 194, 195, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 205, 207, 209

Citizens of the Century:
CC-2, CC-3, CC-4, CC-5, CC-6, CC-7, CC-8, CC-10

Citizens of the Day:
CD-2, CD-3, CD-5, CD-6, CD-7, CD-8, CD-9, CD-10, CD-11, CD-13, CD-14

Animal Series:
AS-1, AS-2, AS-4, AS-5, AS-6, AS-7, AS-8, AS-9, AS-10

Please comment or drop an email if you've got some cards to trade away.

Redonkulous!

I just saw the pricing info for Topps Tribute.

WOW, JUST WOW!

$235.99/box for SIX packs of FIVE cards!

I guess this is how Topps is going to attract younger collectors (which they stated they were going to do once the news broke that they would have the only MLB license next year)

The cards do look great, and I'll most definitely at least be chasing a few singles. If you haven't seen them already, preview images can be seen at Wax Heaven. As you can see, they prominently feature Topps' world famous shiny foil sticker autographs. In my opinion, this is something a product of this "caliber" should not feature. All cards should hard signed, on card, all of the time. Save the sticker autos for low/mid end sets... PLEASE!

I'm not trying to be overly negative here, but given the current economic climate, and the declining state of the card industry, this does not seem like a responsible set to be releasing right now. Tribute will be even more expensive than the much maligned Triple Threads AND Sterling, which already sport price tags verging on the absurd.

Currently, Topps Tribute is scheduled for an early November release, just in time to capitalize on the holiday shopping feeding frenzy.

Does your wallet feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter yet?