Drunk Post: Who Wants It?

      As promised in my last post, I have been drinking. A lot. So it's time for a drunk post!!!  And I am going to ask a question I haven't asked in a while...who wants it? 

No, not my tacos, they are already in my belly...

...and they we're fucking delicious.  No. I am giving away some really great cards here.  Like, how about a 1952 Mickey Mantle!

Okay, not really.  This is actually a hilarious card.  This is a bootleg copy of the 1983 Topps reprint of the 1952 Topps set.  I bought two of these thinking they were the actual 1983 versions, which were 100% issued by Topps and were pretty much the first faux-vintage they ever made.  But on first glance of the back, I knew things were a tad wonky.  The front looks pretty good but the back looks like it was done on a Canon copier in 1983.  It is even clipped on the bottom by the bit that reads "1952 Reprint Series" One of these is in my Mantle pages as a great example of a copy of a copy of a copy (think the Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity).  But if you appreciate such horrors of ineptitude, all you have to do is say you want it.  I don't run contests or ask you to follow me or wax my car or anything. But you might want to wait a moment because I am also giving away...

A 1979-80 Topps Wayne Gretzky rookie card!

You miss 100% of the shots you don't make and this card missed 100%

In the toploader in low light after your third or fourth margarita, this card actually looks kinda good.  The colors of the front are on target and then you turn it over and quickly notice that the texture of the back is all wrong because this was printed on the photographic paperboard they used to include with digital cameras back in 1998.  Unauthorized reprint is a really nifty term for counterfeit but this card has all the presentation of a $100 bill with Benny Hill on it instead of Ben Franklin.  But it is still worth owning if you aren't going to try and fool your blind neighbor into buying it along with your dead parrot.  It can be yours for the asking price of nothing because it is worth less than nothing - but is still a cool copy of one of the cornerstone cards of any hockey collection.  So who wants it?  Just drop a comment or an email or a smoke signal and which card you want (you can only have one) and I will send you a fantastic (copy of a copy of a copy of a) 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle or a (painfully fake) 1979-80 Topps Wayne Gretzky rookie.  Like any good bar, first come, first served.  Now, who dares me to eat the worm!?!?

Who Wants It? Pete Rose Edition.

       I recently busted a blaster of 2012 Leaf The Living Legend Pete Rose that I bought at Target for $13 strictly for the autograph...but there were 10 packs of 6 cards in there too.  If the collation had been perfect, I would have gotten the entire 50 card set with 10 cards leftover to make a nine pocket page and one to put in the spokes of my bike.  Alas, that didn't happen, there were doubles and triples galore because there is no such thing as perfect collation.   Anyway, I made my page for his player collection and I don't own a bike and I put the many triples on listia.  But that leaves me with 42 of the 50 cards and I have decided I don't really want or need to make this set...
But maybe you do? I figured this is as good a time as any for another one of my anti-contest giveaways.  If you would like these 42 of the 50 cards from this set, just be the first one to comment on this post and then email me your address.  No muss, no fuss.  So, who wants it?

Stickers.

       I am a sucker for impulse buys.  The little pile of crap near the checkout counter was made just for me.  I own more shiny packs of gum, keychains, nicknacks, and bad magazines because of this retail tactic than you could possibly imagine.  I am not sure if this is a chicken/egg situation with my love of baseball cards as I often will scan the counter looking for packs...or perhaps I came to love cards so much because they are a prime choice for the front of the shop.  Anyway, this was true when I was seven and it is true now at the tender age of 37.  I was on a recent road trip and at a 7-11 getting car snacks and a soda when I saw they had these three packs of 2012 Topps Stickers.  Now, I haven't bought a pack of stickers in about 24 years (1988 Panini forever!) but for whatever reason, I just couldn't help myself.  I don't even know what they cost and now I am stuck with them - pun intended.

Oh, but am I?  I plucked out the Mets (all two of them) plus one other and now there is a neat pile of 21 cute little stickers cluttering up my computer area.  They are adorable and look great, but in the end, I don't want them.  So I ask my favorite question: Who wants it?  I will even list them in case someone is collecting the album: (11, 22, 23, 28, 29, 49, 68, 103, 105, 112, 121, 129, 135, 138/145, 202, 205, 209, 223, 231, 248, 291).  First one who comments they want them, gets them.  No muss, no fuss.

Excuses Excuses.

       So my birthday turned from a 12-hour work day to a two day extravaganza of drinking and revelry.  Plus, the long post I have been working on has taken a little longer to compose than I anticipated.  So in the meantime, just to see who is still paying attention, let's play another round of everyone's favorite game:

Who wants it?

This is a 1976 Topps Kurt Bevacqua 1975 Joe Garagiola/Bazooka Bubble Gum Blowing Champion card.  This is one of the all time great oddball cards ever included in a mainstream set.  Everyone loves this card - and these are just a few of the links.  Poor Kurt was in the majors for 15 years, and the only two things anyone will ever remember him for is Tommy Lasorda ranting like a jackass (totally totally NSFW) and this baseball card.  Come to think of it, that isn't a bad legacy at all.  Anyway, I was going through a random pile and I found this card.  I must have found it in a dime or quarter box and seriously, how could you turn down this card for a lousy 10¢ or 25¢?  Now, it is not gem mint 10; it is a little off center and the corners are dinged, but I already have one...and let's face it, awesome as it may be, I don't need two.  If you don't have one and would like it, just leave a comment and the first one who does will get it.  No muss, no fuss, no contest, no randomizer, no trivia question.  So, who wants it?

UPDATE: Setting some kind of land/speed record, Captain Canuck snagged this badboy in 12 minutes.

Update and Trade.

       This post is not about Topps' 3rd series of recent vintage, this is simply about a trade and some blog updates...my witty titling skills know no bounds.  First off, let's cover my recent swap with someone who's becoming my new favorite trade target, Robert from $30 a week habit.  I have become semi-obsessed with his side blog, the serial number insanity set.  It might just be my natural love of all things equally brilliant and insane, but I now put it as priority one to comb my card piles and local dime boxes for numbered Topps cards for his massive undertaking.  This replaces my first bloggly love, The Great 1965 Topps Project, not because of lesser adoration, but because Kevin is almost done with that one.  Anyway, my rambling aside, last week I sent Robert some of his beloved Blue Jays and about half a dozen cards for his insane side project and he was kind enough to come up with some 2011 Topps Chrome needs for me:

On top of that, he sent a kick ass Martin Brodeur insert, some shiny liquorfractor redheaded Met action, and a pretty sweet David Wright striped jersey card.  Those last three were from the generosity of his heart, as they weren't part of our original deal, which makes him a damn fine humanitarian.  Thanks Robert!

So, that pile of 2011 Chrome has become this page in my Topps binder:

I really enjoy the aesthetics of this page.  Plus, that Elvis Andrus card has an epic photo.  He has some great fielding shots on his cards and he seems to have gotten the center square of my pages a lot the last few years.  I might have to start referring to him as Paul Lynde.  Also, I wonder if we will look at "Mike Stanton" cards the same way we look at "Joey Belle" cards in a decade or so? 

Since no one stepped up offering some, I had noticed recently that my local K-Mart had some 2010 Topps Chrome blasters on sale, so in a fit of nostalgia, I bought one so I could complete my run of Topps Chrome pages in my binders:

Night Owl was right, that year's Chrome cards have the worst curling ever.  I had this badboy squished under the weight of two binders for two weeks and it did very little to help.  You will have to take my word for it that it looks far better in person.  Ya gotta love all of the jumpy fielders on that page, though.

       So, with all that chrome business down, what else do I have to cover?  Well, I like to tie up loose ends and I have two flapping in the breeze a bit.  First, yesterday I offered a 1982 Topps K-Mart MVP box set to anyone who wanted it.  Well, dawgbones snapped it up within an hour and it will be in the mail for him shortly.  Looking at my pile of unsorted things, the "Who Wants It" bit will probably become a regular thing, so look out for more freebies soon.

       Second, I ran a charity auction on eBay last week and posted about it hoping to drum up some support and maybe get that shirt in the hands of a Devils fan who will enjoy it (and fit into it).  Well, it sold for $16 to a gal in New Hampshire and that money will go to the Red Cross.  Thank you to any and all who looked and helped and if it inspired even one of you to donate either money or blood, then it was a success.

Who Wants It?

       I am not a big fan of contests.  This is not a knock on the blogs that run them, heck, I have even won a couple of them, but I doubt you will ever see me run a contest on my blog is all.  But I am not too proud for unabashed giveaways.  Except, this isn't exactly Oprah giving away cars.  I found this little gem while sorting through spacer cards:

Yes, at one point, I thought of this as spacer material.  For those of you who aren't observant (or who can't read, which makes me wonder how you are looking at this blog, or reading this bit of snark for that matter...) that is a 1982 Topps K-Mart 20th Anniversary box set.  It is 44 cards of over-produced faux-vintage reprinted MVP year goodness.  I swear they made so many of these, they were still selling them in 1987, when they had the 25th Anniversary set.  The point is (there's a point?!?) that I have this beauty...and I already broke one up for player pages years ago....and I don't want to break up the band here.  I want this poor, unloved set to find a home.  So, who wants it?  Email me or leave a comment and send me your address first and it is yours.  Period.  No muss, no fuss.