Box Break Number 1: Baseball 2007

 BLOG GROUP BOX BREAK NUMBER 1:

2007 BASEBALL

Welcome to my first BASEBALL Group Box Break of this blog, heck its the first break I've ever hosted. I've participated in plenty of group breaks for all 4 of the major sports (Football, Baseball, Hockey and yes even a break or two of Basketball). First please read my Group Breaks Rules if you wish to participate. They are more guidelines than "rules". I have tried to make things as fair as possible for all involved. Since this is my first hosting attempt I do not expect things to go completely smoothly without any hiccups. I will do my best to solve any problems that arise along the way.

For this break I have decided to do ALL 2007 Products They are: Bowman, Topps Heritage, Topps Turkey Red, Upper Deck Artifacts and Upper Deck Masterpieces. See my post Notice: Blog Group Box Break Coming post for brief details of the products and a link to my preview video where I show the boxes.

All these products I got from Charm City Cards.

I found out about from ads on sportlots.com.

Boxes are already in hand so once the break fills (or gets as filled as possible) and all payments are in the box ripping will start shortly there after.

Each slot for this break is $20 $15 and you will get 1 chosen team. You may chose from any of the available teams. You may purchase more than one team if you wish. For this break I am using my "Host's Prerogative" by taking the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles that leaves 28 slots/teams available. If this break is slow in filling I might offer up a discount for additional teams to fill things up. Hits and inserts from any unclaimed teams for the break will be randomized.

This box break will take place over several evenings due to the number of boxes, my schedule and posting the results (for those who can't view the video or if the video has technical problems). Most likely only one box will be opened per night. All cards from the break will be shipped out the Saturday following the conclusion of the break.

If the break fills before the Winter "end of year" Holidays then that would be great. If not this might end up as a New Years break. It all depends on the interest and the speed at which it fills, and also how much it conflicts with Holiday spending.

To Sign Up:
Post a comment with your team(s) then email me (klandersen at Yahoo) with your real name, mailing address and method of payment you will be using. Paypal is preferred but I will also accept checks, money orders and cash. If paying by check, money order or cash please give me an estimated payment arrival date. Please make checks and money orders out to Kirk Andersen.

Cost: $15 $20 = 1 team

Payment Due: Payments via Paypal  (to klandersen@aol.com) are expected within 48 hours of break filling up. All other forms of payment should be paid within 7 days of break filling.

Boxes:
2007 Bowman
2007 Topps Heritage
2007 Topps Turkey Red
2007 Upper Deck Artifacts
2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces

Teams - Members:
Arizona Diamondbacks
Atlanta Braves
Baltimore Orioles - CaptKirk42
Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies
Detroit Tigers
Houston Astros - The Dimwit
Kansas City Royals
Los Angeles Angels - Anthony Hughes
Los Angeles Dodgers - Wilson
Miami Marlins
Milwaukee Brewers - cynicalbuddha
Minnesota Twins
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Oakland Athletics
Philadelphia Phillies - Fred Kerner
Pittsburgh Pirates
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners
St. Louis Cardinals - Wilson
Tampa Bay Rays
Texas Rangers
Toronto Blue Jays - Buckstorecards
Washington Nationals - CaptKirk42

If you have any questions I haven't covered please contact me via email (klandersen@yahoo.com).

Mascot Monday: Billy The Marlin

BILLY THE MARLIN

Florida/Miami Marlins 1993 - Present

Originally portrayed by John Routh

Billy The Marlin made his MLB debut on 25 February 1993. For details of his history see his Wikipedia page. I have chosen his 2007 Topps Opening Day card to highlight. This particular set was the first time I know about Topps showcasing most of the current MLB Mascots. For many of the loveable foam headed creatures it is their Rookie Card outside of any team issued sets the mascots may have been a part of. The Mascot cards were part of the regular set near the end of the set but not grouped all together. In fact I think a few cards that were originally listed were never made and replaced by a player. In later years Topps would include the Mascots in the Opening Day set as a sub-set if they included the mascots at all.

Billy Marlin's card was the second Mascot card I got from this set, my Homie Mascot Screech (Nationals) was my first card. It took me a while to get the rest of the Mascots from 2007 because they are spread out so toward the end of the set, not grouped together.

 2007 Topps Opening Day Baseball 197 Billy The Marlin - Mascot Marlins

(Front and Back)

I am always on the lookout for Mascot cards. I also accept Mascot Postcards and team issued promo cards/photos of mascots.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here. 

Notice: Blog Group Box Break Coming

Attention readers: I will soon be hosting a group box break here on my blog. It will be a Baseball break with products from 2007: Bowman, Topps Heritage, Topps Turkey Red, Upper Deck Artifacts and Upper Deck Masterpieces. I am ironing out the details and making my plans for it. Since it will be the first break I've ever hosted I want to have as much as possible planned out ahead of time. That is one of the reasons why I already have the boxes in hand (another is I live in an apartment and waiting for UPS to show up on a specific date sometimes is not an option).

My list of Group Break generic rules/guidelines.

Here is what we will be breaking:

2007 Bowman - 24 packs, 10 cards per pack. 2 Bowman Chrome cards per pack. 1 Autographed Rookie or Prospect card per box.

2007 Topps Heritage - 24 packs, 8 cards per pack (packs with relic card have 7 cards). Ancient stale gum in every pack (I'll be tossing the gum). Look for random "Real One Autographs" (Not guaranteed). Team Emblem felt patches box toppers.

2007 Topps Turkey Red - 24 packs, 8 cards per pack (packs with relic card have 7 cards). Look for 2 Autographed and/or Relic Cards. Box Loaders could include Cabinet Cards Autographed by artist Dick Perez.

2007 Upper Deck Artifacts - 10 packs, 4 cards per pack. Look for 3 numbered memorabilia cards per box.

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces - 18 packs, 4 cards per pack. Average of 3 Memorabilia Cards and 1 signature for each box. (Means there could be less than 3 or there could be more)

I made a preview video on UStream sowing the boxes I will be breaking. I will be giving more details later (on Tuesday I think) so Please Do NOT sign-up just yet. Wait until I post the official post my "Box Break Number 1" post that will include a sign-up list.


NOTE: The images of the boxes I got from online to save time. Scanning the boxes would have caused brightness issues due to scanner lid being at weird angles and heights. Taking digital pics would have taken my more time. They are the proper boxes though.

Collect The Mascots 2006 Upper Deck

I mentioned this particular set when I presented one of the cards from it for my Mascot Mondays post on Mr. Met. It was produced by Upper Deck in 2006 and is a mini-set of just three cards. Designed for kids and part of some online card giveaway or contest. They apparently were inserts to the regular 2006 Upper Deck Baseball set. So here are the three cards from:

2006 Upper Deck Collect The Mascots Set

This set features three of the most popular MLB Mascots at the time it was produced; Wally The Green Monster (Red Sox), The Phillie Phanatic (Phillies) and Mr. Met (Mets). The backs are all the same telling how the giveaway works. The only differences on the backs are the actual card number in the upper left corner and the website card entry code for that card at the bottom. Everything else is the same.

2006 Upper Deck Baseball - Collect The Mascots

MLB-1 Wally The Green Monster - Red Sox

(Front and Back)

 2006 Upper Deck Baseball - Collect The Mascots

MLB-2 Phillie Phanatic - Phillies

(Front and Back)

 2006 Upper Deck Baseball - Collect The Mascots

MLB-3 Mr. Met - Mets

(Front and Back)

Random card thoughts

Sometimes I get into a little bit of a blogging funk and think "Why bother"? Any cards that I get, unless they truly are 1/1s, are just one of thousands, maybe tens of thousands and are most likely going to already be blogged about somewhere, or part of a preview review of some product that is coming out. The one thing that keeps me going when thinking like that is the thought that my take on the individual card is unique. I might be the only one who actually likes a particular card or set out of the hundreds (or is it thousands?) of card bloggers out in the blogiverse (Blogsphere to most).

I don't do those custom jobbers like some bloggers do. Well I don't normally make custom cards, I do have a digital one (front only) as part of some of my logos. I wonder how many of them (the custom cardmaker bloggers) actually print-out their creations? Or do they just keep them digital like E-Topps sort of was mostly? 

I do know that there are some super popular trends, or at least continual trends of the card manufacturers that I really can not stand *cough*rip cards*cough*. I could list them here but I don't want to offend any of my two or three regular readers that may like those particular trends.

**Sigh** Negative thinking often reminds me that most of my collection right now resembles a hoarders nest. I know what I want to do with most of it but gettting motivated to do it and taking the time it will take to do it is one of the things I lack right now. Oh and Yes I do use zistle.com (My Zistle) I am far from having EVERYTHING listed there.

Sometimes I wish there was an organizing company that you could ship a box of cards to with instructions on how you like your cards organized and they will sort and organize and put your cards into binders for you, or whatever containers you prefer. If I knew I could make money off doing that and "retire" from my regular job I would maybe consider doing something like that.That whole concept however would be impractical and would cost tons to ship the cards and then you would have to wait for your cards to be returned, and insure your treasure for tons and determining how long it would take to organize and... Oh it just wouldn't work out for anyone. Or would it? Getting fellow collectors to help you organize wouldn't work either because they would be envious of some of your collection and pester you for some of them. Some more devious collectors might even try to "palm" some cards off of you. OK forget I said any of that organization stuff.

OK now just to keep up with the randomness of this post here are some random cards (fronts only):

1972 Topps Baseball 11 Bobby Valentine Dodgers

 1976 Topps Football 145 Roman Gabriel Eagles

1984 Fleer V 21 "Ready For Action" 

Faye Grant as Juliet "Julie" Parrish

I feel like showing a ton more cards for some reason. OK maybe one more since the Hockey season will probably NOT happen this year here is a card I don't have anymore I either sold it or traded it away. It was my first freebie from sportscardforum I had won it in one of their forum contests. I think it was a new members contest.

2006-07 Upper Deck "Be A Player" Signatures -

JS Jason Spezza Senators

OK so there you have it how much more random can I be? Oh one final thought If you are following me and have my blog linked on your blog, but I don't have yours linked Please let me know so I can reciprocate.

Pssst Someone is having a contest.

And it isn't me.

Over at Shoebox Legends a contest/giveaway is in the making. The old Shoebox is getting a cleaning out so he is having a limited draft. Checkout the details at the Shoebox Legends Card Closet Clean-out Draft. The limit is to the first 10 maybe 12 people that comment to be let in. Sounds like fun but it is filling fast as I right this Monday night it is half filled.

Mascot Monday: BJ Birdy

BJ BIRDY

Toronto Blue Jays Mascot 1979 -1999

(Portrayed by Kevin Shanahan)

OK so in 1977 MLB started up two expansion teams the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays became the second team from Canada in the league. Since the Montreal Expos left the country to become the Washington Nationals in 2005 the Blue Jays are now the ONLY Canadian team in baseball's Major League. In 1979 University of Toronto student Kevin Shanahan made his debut as BJ Birdy The Toronto Blue Jays mascot on 11 September. For a full bio/history see The Wikipedia page for the Blue Jays Mascots.

For this installment of Mascot Monday I have decided to show BJ's card from the 1993 Upper Deck Mascot Madness mini-set a five card set of popular MLB Mascots. The big "WOW Factor" of the set is the holographic picture on the front. I will show off that set on this blog sometime in the future.

 1993 Upper Deck Mascot Madness 4 BJ Birdy

(Front and Back)

On the front image that white spot on the hologram in the center is unfortunately a spot where the silvery material for the holographic image has flaked off. The design of the set has the mascots in front of a star filled background I guess to help with the holographic effect.


I am always on the lookout for Mascot cards. I also accept Mascot Postcards and team issued promo cards/photos of mascots.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here.

Mascot Monday: Scrappy

SCRAPPY 
(Mahoning Valley Scrappers: Minor Leauge)
 

For this week I decided to post my first Minor League Baseball mascot card. I got this one some months back (January?) from Ebay, I think I paid $5.00 for it. It was my first MILB Mascot card (I have a ton on order so soon it will not be my only one). Anyway before I show the mascot card here is the most brief info of the Team the mascot comes from:

Mahoning Valley Scrappers Niles, Ohio - New York-Penn League - Pinckney Division. The Scrappers were founded in 1999 and have been affiliated with the Cleveland Indians the entire time. All I know about the team is what I have found on wikipedia and on the Team Website. They have done OK in their history. They have won their division and gone to the Post-Season four times in 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2009, winning the League Championship in 2004. Their mascot is a bulldog named Scrappy. Here is his 2009 card.

 2009 Choice Sportscards 32 Scrappy Mascot

Mahoning Valley Scrappers

(Front and Back)

I like the design of this card, I am almost tempted to try to find the rest of the Scrappers or at least all the mascots from this set. I also like the background photo on the backside of the card.

I am always on the lookout for Mascot cards. I also accept Mascot Postcards and team issued promo cards/photos of mascots.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here.