This and That

Today's post is just a list of stuff. I know in my Pet Peeves entry I decry numbered lists, so instead of numbers I give you bullets. If I could figure out how to turn them into baseballs, I would.

• Did you know that you can get the same Major League Baseball notes that the teams send out to the media each day? For free? Online? Well, you can. Right Here. Download them before each and every game and amaze your friends with the sheer amount of trivia that you know. It's FUN!
  
  
• Yesterday on one of my MANY trips to Target I bought their last three packs of Allen & Ginter retail and proved my theory that you can in fact search them. Out of the three packs one was decidedly thicker, and of course that one had the State Insert in it. The other two, just six cards including the mini.
  
  
• I bought one other pack yesterday, a 2005 Topps Updates and Highlights for $1.59. Mass Market stores tend to have a blowout box of "excel marketing" packs, which are older product for usually either 99 cents or $1.59. The product is usually not that old, and is absolutely unsearched. How do I know? I pulled a jersey out of my pack yesterday. Sure, I don't particularly care about the player, but this particular card shows that a scant few years ago, Topps actually KNEW how to manufacture a great jersey card. First, it's numbered, out of a smallish number too. Secondly, it says flat out that the swatch was used in a specific game (albeit the All-Star game). Finally, though some may disagree, I actually like the design. The colors, while garish, aren't awful and they go with the actual team colors, though that appears to be unintentional. Sure the card is probably worth less than five bucks, but hey, I love getting jerseys out of a pack that costs less than two bucks.
  
  
  
  
• Two pieces that I wrote for Sports Cards Uncensored have gotten a bit of traction. The first is a response to Cardboard Mania and his initial contention that Topps deliberately produced an error card in Bowman Chrome (Kosuke Fukudome at that). The second is a response to his response, and has some great comments, so make sure you scroll down all the way. I don't think the issue is put to bed, but there's a bit more light that needs to be shed on the cards in question. Either way, there's no way that card is worth the mega-bucks that people on eBay want for it.
  
  
• Speaking of SCU, please read this post and if you can, give what you can. A very worthy cause in my opinion.
  
  
• Remember, if you're in my Fantasy Footbal league, the draft is set for Saturday at 12:30 PM. I had to rearrange my schedule for Saturday in order to be available.
  
  

Now this is awesome

Yesterday I found an interesting item at the grocery store, a Baseball Snack Pack, complete with a small bag of salted peanuts, a small bag of caramel corn, a couple pieces of bubblegum, and a pack of cards. Advertised on the top it says "Everything you need for a ball game". Indeed. I couldn't tell what type of cards were in the box, but I bought two anyway, because they were a buck. The pack turned out to be last years' Topps Opening Day, without gum. Odd. Nothing to write about out of those packs.

This afternoon I turned in a $4.00 winning lottery scratcher at this newsstand that has quite a decent selection of hobby packs. They had one of the higher end UD packs that guarantees an auto or a relic in each pack for $20. There were also some mid-level packs that were reasonably priced, and of course Hobby Upper Deck Series 2 at $5.00 a pack. So I turned in my ticket, added a buck and some change, and bought one. Initially I thought it wasn't that great, the only insert was a team USA card, which aren't that exciting to me at this point, though they might be nice when the Olympics start.

I hadn't realized I pulled this baby:





I'm not a big fan of gimmicky short-prints, unless I pull them, but in checking the prices out on eBay, I couldn't not put it up for sale. If I could get $40 out of this card, I'd be a very, very happy budget collector, because I could use that Paypal money to get a ton of Angels. Besides which, as nice as the UD set is this year, I seriously doubt I'm going to put together a set, though you never know, because I actually just got another box ordered on Upper Deck Kids.

THAT's how work it when you're a budget collector.

Edit: I posted this and realized that I forgot to link to the auction