A&G Hater

Posted by cardboard hogs on August 18, 2013

Alright, just as a fair warning to anyone reading. I’m not a fan of Allen & Ginter. In fact, I don’t like the A&G set…but, i always buy a couple of packs each season with the hopes that my interest will be peaked. This year i splurged and dropped $12 on 3 packs from Hoopla Sports, another LCS in good ol’ Beaverton. Twelve dollars bought me a whole lotta nothingness and left an empty place in my soul.

My problem isn’t with the base cards, the photos or the card stock. I think all three of those things are great! Especially when you can pull a card of Werth’s sweet ass beard AND Hammerin’ Hank in those sweet 70’s Braves unis. The power of that beard and the flowing locks adjacent to the the iconic humility of the true home run king is priceless, especially as part of a base set.

You also get some great action photos of superbly talented young shortstops making nice plays going to their left…with a soccer haircut. You also get a base landscape. LOVE.

But here is where the wheels fall off for me as i roll down this steep hill to hell. I get cards like this. Tommy Lee…seems to me like this should have been a landscape card, eh?

For me though, this is the ultimate reason i ~~hate~~ strongly dislike the A&G set. Miss Universe and some dude with a paintball gun. What The F**K!! A Russian paintballer that has the ability to never forget the amazing people he has met…that’s what the back of the card told me. Well, that’s great. I googled him and could only find information on a Matthias Blonski that is an apparently highly motivated and creative graphic designer. Good for him. Now, Ms. Olivia Culpo. Although she is quite stunning and appears to be talented as well as intelligent, i don’t want her rookie card. To me this is a waste of card stock. It has no place in my collection. Maybe one of you kids out there have a Miss Universe PC you’re working on, but i don’t.

My rants are almost over…only three cards left.

The subsets, oh the subsets. These are just a couple of the subsets i pulled a card from. Martial Mastery, Knights and Civilizations of Ages Past, Vikings. Knights and Vikings. Again, don’t have a place for these guys. My PC consists of baseball and football players, not nordic pagans or dudes from the Cantebury Tales. I guess i can start a Chaucer or Marauders PC? Thoughts?

Ok, last card. Just like any good American, I love a good manmade canal. Anything to facilitate the trafficking of goods from east to west…and definitely anything to avoid Cape Horn! I’m being a little sarcastic here if you can’t tell, but i would actually love to visit the Panama Canal at some point in my life…not really sure why, but it’s one of those things I would love to see in action. Maybe i can take my card with me?

So, i vented a little. I know a lot of you guys love the Allen & Ginter and I think that’s great…it’s just not a set for me. But hey, I absolutely love Heritage and will continue to collect that set each year. I will also continue to buy a pack or two of Allen & Ginter and feel empty inside…if any of the card above interest you, please let me know. Send me your address and they will be yours for free! I have the remainders of the three packs as well.

At the end of the day, I guess that’s what makes collecting these pieces of card stock so great. We can have things we love that no one else does, and vice versa. Good night and good luck with that Gint-a-Cuffs thing everyone is doing.

My GQ Post

Posted by cardboard hogs on April 10, 2013

Each year when Gypsy Queen comes out, I get a little excited about the cards…but it’s always tempered. I think the cards look great and the photography is really nice, but i don’t love them. Don’t hate them either. Kind of indifferent I guess. My annual buy in is maybe a few hobby and retail packs, possibly a blaster or two from target, but that’s about it. I think my aversion to the cards is the lack of statistical information on the back…or it could be the overly ornate border? As an architect, i’ve been trained to have a dislike for ornament and decoration so i guess that has carried in to my hobbies as well. The celtic-like border is nice, just not my cup of tea.

One thing that i really do like about GQ is the inclusion of age old veterans in the base set. Topps does a nice job with these and making them blend in nicely with the other modern players. Rarely do the players appear dated and they are never irrelevant to current collectors. PLUS, i always think it’s great to include HOF’ers and past great players so the young kids can learn a little history about the game and have a card from someone their parents or grandparents enjoyed watching play.

I also do enjoy the inserts that GQ comes up with. The two cards below are a great example of this. It’s nice to have the a highlight reel play represented on a card. We all remember the Trout catch last season as it was shown incessantly on the MLB network as well as the mothership.

Mini’s. Can’t go wrong with minis and you can’t go wrong with these two guys. One thing i enjoy about the mini cards is that i can put them at my desk at the office for a little while to enjoy the new pieces of cardboard. How great was Eddie Mathews? When people talk about the all time greats, i feel like he is always forgotten. Imagine if he played in New York how much more popular he would be? And just look at Lou Brock…chillin…total GQ pose…the other one.

Not overly excited about these inserts, but both pitchers are/were pretty great and the photos capture their intensity well.

Here is a ‘hit’ from the rack pack i bought. It’s Jacoby Ellsbury. He’s pretty big here in Portland since he played at Oregon State and from Madras…but he’s a Red Sock, so i’m not too excited about him…he is pretty great though. Love that they mention how great a player he is when he’s healthy.

And the best has been saved for the very last. Mr. Cano donchaknow. Pretty cool to get the base and a retail white border card in the same rack pack of a player you collect. Wonder why Topps removed teh vertical portion of the elegant border on the left and right sides as well as the name panel on the bottom?

2013 Topps – Packs 7 and 8

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 19, 2013

I’m getting close to the bottom of this jumbo box. As usual, it’s taken thrice as long as i had expected, but i can finally see the end in sight. I’ve been a little lackadaisical in putting these things in their respective binder slots, but that will come in due time. I’d like to get these cards organized so I can stay on top of completing the set during the baseball season…rather than waiting until the ~~Super Bowl~~ Big Game to wrap it up. (sorry NFL, didn’t mean to infringe on your copyright restrictions)

Let’s get started on the 4th row of packs.

The first card just might be my favorite card of the year. At the very least it’s a front runner. Gotta love the looks on these drunken fools faces. Some have the look of panic like the blondie on the left and her overly tanned mom on the right. Although their fear may be due to the double barrel gun show reaching out from the card’s left border and Hawaiian shirt from the right. What about the guy, or girl…not really sure…with the black wife beater. I will call him/her Pat. Sorry if you are reading this blog. I mean no harm, just unsure and i don’t want to assume anything here, but I do love the joy on your face dear sir, or madam. Hey, what about that Pirates fan, he’s pretty stoked isn’t he? If Mr. Raburn could see the grief/joy he was about to bring to these fans he would think twice about catching the ball. My favorite though is the dude above the the glove in the stoner glasses. I really need to get outfield tickets this season and make some sweet ass faces for the cameraman. Anyway you call it, this card is awesome.

Don’t have much to say about the next two cards other than one guy had a great career and the other probably will. The Past and the Present. Manny looks like he’s going to be a super star for many years. My man Jeet is nearing the end of his career and i’m not sure he will get another ring, but he will always be a legend. Collecting his cards is one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life…there are exacting 50million cards and counting. I’ve decided to only buy the ones that i think look really cool. There are just too many to pick up.

Putting this Verlander card in because he got down with Kate Upton…allegedly…and that’s good enough for my book. It’s Kate Upton people, Kate Upton.

Didn’t Topps have enough of the sparkle cards last season? Didn’t we all hate them because simple sun flashes looked like SP starburst cards? Are they back? What the HELL is going on HERE!!!

This is what the Jayson Werth card should have looked like. How could they not have put Werth’s walkoff in game 4 on a card…unless i’ve missed it. Morse wasn’t too happy with the Nats offseason and he is now in Seattle. A place that has become baseball purgatory for a lot of player in recent years. They do appear to be building something nice through multiple trades and good drafting. There is a lot of young talent and Felix Hernandez is pretty nice with his.

You can never, ever, ever go wrong with a shiny Willie Mays, now can you. I am pretty fond of this card, although when i was scanning it I noticed it didn’t fit within the 2.5×3.5 box. It was slightly bigger, what does that mean? Was Willie Mays on some delayed growth hormones that have miraculously affected his glossy cards? Sorry, that was weak. Mays is one of those guys that i wish i could have seen play in his prime…if only one game. He was a true legend of the game and a phenomenal talent. I would love to have the cash to collect his vintage cards, maybe one day when architects are paid what I think we are worth.