TriStar Surprise!

So I got a blaster of the TriStar Prospects Plus today hoping, much like dayf to find a Jason Heyward auto. I didn't get that elusive auto, but what I got was most surprising
Every other auto I have seen from this set was one of the Farm Hands inserts. Imagine my surprise to find this. Not only is it nice and green, it's numbered 14/50. I also got another Farm Hands auto in the box of Todd Frazier. TriStar, you made my day.

COTW for 1/20/08: 1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection Checklist #177

In today's world of having multiple parallels that are silver, orange, gold, frankincense and myrrh, I recall a simpler time when each set had one or two parallels if any at all. The search for the ToppsGold cards of your favorite players or that particular Stadium Club 1st Day Issue was so much easier for people who like to collect players. Now they have to buy tons of cards for every set if they're a completest and like to have every card of that player in the set. Not only that, the scarcity of the cards that are 1 of 1 or 1 of 10 or whatever makes them even harder to find even though we do now have eBay. One of my favorite parallels was the Museum Collection from Pinnacle. It featured a foil on the entire front of the card that gave it a bit of an effect that was kind of like a poor man's refractor. Every time I pulled one of these cards I was thrilled. Until one day in 1995, I pulled this:
That's right, I pulled a Museum Collection checklist. No, not a checklist of the Museum Collection cards, a checklist that had the Museum Collection foil on it. This might be the crappiest insert ever. A checklist? Really? Not only did I have a checklist taking up a card that might have been one of my favorite players, but it was an insert checklist. I feel like this would be the perfect insert for chemgod over at Bad Wax. Every time I look at this card I get depressed.

It's A Late Christmas Present

Mark Teixeira signed a one year contract with the Braves for $12.5 Million. This looks great on it's face in order to be able to negotiate a long term deal with him. This makes Scott Boras seem almost like a normal agent. I'm giddy. Seriously. If I can have him for $15 mil a year, do it.

The Grimm Reaper

Of the tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands, who knows) of cards that I have, a small portion of them are football cards. While I do have a good amount, they pale in comparison to the number of baseball cards I own. However, there are two things that strike my fancy when it comes to football cards: Falcons and offensive linemen. This is because I am (unfortunately) a Falcons fan and because I used to play offensive line. I understand how under appreciated linemen are in the world of collecting and in sports in general. Without a good offensive line, the team's offense does not work no matter what system you're running. That's why when I came across this on eBay, I had to get it.What this is is a 1969 Topps Dan Grimm File Copy. What that means was that Topps kept one of each card of each set it made that was clear of stains and marks in case they wanted to use it again in a "Turn Back The Clock" insert or now in the Heritage series (or so I'm surmising, I could be totally wrong on this). So this is the Dan Grimm that was kept at Topps since 1969. When I got it, it was already encapsulated so that was not my choice. However, I didn't really want the card because it's "valuable" per se, but because of the history of it being a file copy and because it was a Falcons' offensive lineman. I'm quite a sucker for provenance and good back stories. It's one of those unique things that's just neat to have. I'm happy with this addition to my collection.

COTW for 1/13/08: 1994 Coca-Cola Monsters of the Gridiron #8 Emmitt "Lone Star Sheriff" Smith

In honor, or dishonor potentially, of the Cowboys' loss last night, I decided to post this ridiculous card. Now this was a set that was inserted into Coke products and being from Georgia, I love my Coke. However, every time I bought a 12 pack, I always seemed to get the same card. Emmitt Smith. Now while this might seem all well and good to get a card of a prolific player, it enraged me as I wanted whoever the Falcon was because that was my team! (The Falcon featured in this set was Jessie Tuggle who was given the nickname of Tarantula for this set. Why they didn't just use "The Hammer" I don't know) But each time I opened a pack of Coke, it was like sports card Groundhog Day. Emmitt Smith would always be staring up at me. Now onto the card itself. This getup they have Mr. Smith in is ridiculous and I don't even know where to begin. Do I start at the cowboy hat that's ON TOP of a football helmet? How about the white gloves featuring lightning bolts? Maybe the angular shoulder pads or the "football" made of metal? No the most telling thing about this photo is Emmitt's face. Lets take a closer look:

Looking into those sad, melancholy eyes makes me think Emmitt didn't have any idea what he was getting into and probably about after a few hours of makeup and costume and then an hour or two of photography, he was thinking twice about being the guy who said "ok" to this card. I think he face says it all and he wishes he would have passed this chance to Aikman.

2007 SP Legendary Cuts Dual Box Break

I was somehow able to get these boxes at a price that was pretty much buy one get one free, so I did. Here’s how I fared:

Box 1
Regular Set: 46/100 (46%)
Doubles: 0
Short Prints: 1 (#153 Babe Ruth numbered 71/550)
Inserts:
Legendary Americana: 1 (Calvin Coolidge 302/550)
Masterful Materials: 2 (MM-RS Ryne Sandberg Bat, MM-RJ Reggie Jackson Away Jersey)
Legendary Materials Dual: 1 (MM-RJ2 Reggie Jackson Home Jersey 092/125)I got 3 memorabilia inserts, with one of those being a dual, in a box that says it should only have around one. And how can you not like getting a card of Ryno? So I was quite happy as well as having a SP of The Babe and a card of our one of our Presidents looking quite curmudgeonly.





Box 2
Regular Set: 45/100 (45%)
Doubles:0
Short Prints: 1 (#170 Jimmie Foxx 246/550)
Inserts:
Legendary Americana: 1 (Kit Carson 391/550)
Masterful Materials: 1 (MM-JR Jim Rice Home Jersey)
Legendary Signatures: 1 (LS-SC2 Steve Carlton 154/199)

Not as many inserts, but I did get an autograph of a Hall of Famer and a jersey swatch of someone who could maybe get in to the HOF next year.

Overall, I really like this set. Great look to the cards and really good inserts. I’d buy more of thse. Now, I need to see how close I came to having the whole set, minus short prints, of 100 cards out of the 2 boxes. But this was a good couple boxes.

Don't You Just Hate Teases?

I know I do