2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 12

Pack 12, and another new Phillie!

and another Superstars card!! Oh well, can't win them all!
Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat night
Dawgbones

1965 Heritage...

Err, I mean 2014 Tops Heritage! Today's stars in the... you know the story.
I won a second chance giveaway over on Andrew's Need More Cardboard blog, for which he found and sent me 1 rack pack of 2014 Heritage, which is exactly 1 more than I had prior to winning!
So what did I get for my prize?

1-1/3 Phillies, but at least Mr. Utley is one of my favorite current players!

and a bunch of players that have switched teams since last year. Now, these have been all over the blogosphere in the last month so there's not much more I can add to the reviews, except for one observation.
Looking at the bottom grouping of pictures (which is the top half of the pack) it appears that Topps may have forgotten that they own the rights to all the logos and team names!! Having cropped several of them out of these pictures, notably the McCann, Ozuna and Porcello pics!

thank for reading,
Have a GReat day!
back later with Opening Day, Pack 12.
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 11

Crap!!

only redeeming quality, and it's a stretch, the celebrations card is NOT a duplicate, every thing else IS!! Soriano and Harper are from pack 3, the Ryu, Utley, and Sandoval were also in pack 4, and Mr. Jones made his first appearance in pack 5!! and I still don't care for the superstars!!
Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 10

Saturday's pack:

very nice, beat the odds with 2 Phillies AND 2 inserts in that pack! And we're closing in on a complete Between Innings set!
Thanks for reading,
Have a GRea day!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 9

Friday!!

and an appearance by my hometown pitching ace, Verlander.
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat weekend!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 8

Thursday's pack:

and our second mascot, unless you're counting the Hug a Mascot card!
Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 7

Today's pack of Opening Day:

very nice, 7 packs in and no duplicates... a little disappointed though! No Orioles today!!
Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat night!
Dawgbones

A Quick and Cheasy trade...

If you want to call it that... Early last week, Chris, over at the ever-popular Nachos Grande, posted some results of a box break, which included an auto from one of my Phillies. He mentioned he was unsure of who Darin Ruf even was , but that the card in hand was almost not worth the effort of eBay (with all their fees and postage and what-not!)

Well, I shot him a quick email, offering him a fiver and a PWE for his efforts. He accepted, envelopes were sent, and re-sent, next thing you know, I gots myself a shiny new 2013 Darin Ruf  Chrome autograph!

Very cool!!















and he also included a custom mini of another of my Phils, Mr. Lee, which was too cool in the fact that the card was numbered 17!!

Thanks for the cards Chris, glad I could help you avoid a few fees, and fuel your addiction to Ginter cardboard.
Thanks for reading,
Back later with today's OD...
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Packs 5-6

It's a two-fer Tuesday:
Pack 5:

and my second Blue parallel,  good looking Kimbrall, even for a Braves card. And another Celebrations card, wish they do away with this insert.

Pack 6:

and another Breaking Out insert, still not too sure about this one either, not bad, but not great... 6 packs in, and 5 Orioles base cards!! It's like last year and the Red Sox!!

thanks for reading,
Have a GReat afternoon!
Dawgbones

More Teenymates...

Picked up three more packs of Teenymates over the weekend.
YAY!! No duplicates this time around!!

Mets and Giants, plus two more puzzle pieces

Padres and Pirates.

The other Chicago team, plus the dreaded Braves! and some connecting pieces.

The puzzle is starting to shape up rather nicely, though I got a little off with my outlining!! I can do better that that now:

Not too shabby! I'm still missing quite a few pieces though, so if you have any that you are not plaaning on using to build your own, drop me a line, I love to trade for them. dawgbones  (at)  cox  (dot)  net

Thanks for peeking!
Have a GReat morning!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 4

and our first base Phillie out of the box.

and our first Mascot, Southpaw. And I have to agree with Jeff, over at 2x3 Heroes, it's really simple to google Chicago White Sox Mascot, hit enter, and Southpaw pops right up. Hell, the second or third hit on the list  is wikipedia's
"List of Major League Baseball mascots"
What's a matter Topps? Someone got the monopoly on Mascot names and not letting you at em??
Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat night!
Dawgbones

I have a confession... I cheated...

on my box of Opening Day cards! Stopped by Target on Saturday while out running errands and they had a brand new shiny box of 2014 Opening Day "Rack Packs". I couldn't resist...

The Pujols is another nice looking card, well laid out with the team logo as a back-drop. Out of 24 cards in the pack, I did get some duplicates, but overall, I'm happy, except for the Celebration!

Yeah, I fell that the Superstar Celebrations inserts are the weakest of the set, and have felt this way since I first laid my eyes on them. But the other inserts in this pack were very cool, got my second Between Innings card, my second Opening Days Stars card, the always cool, from my hometown, Justin Upton, and my first blue parallel. This year's blues are a bit different. I loved the diamond-esque appearance of last year's parallels, but this year's are shiny, appearing to be almost refractor-ish. I won't be chasing the set of these but wouldn't mind picking up a team set for my Phils.
Thanks for reading,
back later with Monday's OD pack.
Have a GReat morning!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 3

Day 3, pack 3...
and our first "Star" card...

I like the Opening Day Stars cards and am happy to see them back for another season. wonder which pack will contain our first duplicate? And will it be a base or insert card?? Stay tuned for more!
Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 2

Day 2, pack 2, Phillie #1, sorta...
opening pack numba 2 yields a pair of inserts with our first Phillie. A very "Fired Up" Papelbon. I like the layout of this card but the jury is still out until we get a few more evidentiary examples. We are still waiting for our first base Phillie from the set...

I love the Between Innings inserts, and these are the neatest insert Topps has added since the Mascots. Showing some of the hi-jinks during the game is very cool!
And I love the Gausman card, it's a nice photo, well laid out and executed.
Thanks for reading.
Have a GReat day! Since there's a predicted high in the mid-70's today, I'm out somewhere turning 3 gallons of premium unleaded into lot's of noise!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps Opening Day, Pack 1

So, I got my box of 2014 Topps Opening Day from Jersey's Cards and Comics on my way home last night. It's a neat little shop close to where I work. The staff is friendly and they have a nice selection of collectibles and other stuff. I don't buy my comics there, only because I've been dealing with my LCS (Local Comic Shop), Zeno's,  for more years than I'd care to think about, but he doesn't do sports stuff. And Jersey's is more than willing to order me a box of OD each year when it comes out.

Going the pack-a-day route for this one... for now.

So, what did the first pack produce? and when will we get our first Phillie?

not bad for a first. No Phillie in this one, but we get our first look at the Breaking Out insert. It's OK, but definitely not my favorite insert from this set.
Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat weekend!
Dawgbones

Went by Target tonight...

No Opening Day there yet, but I did get my box on the way home, so I bought another pack of Teenymates.

we have seen them before! yep duplicates. But at least the puzzle pieces are new and needed. Holy Craptastic!!! a total duplicate pack, including the puzzle pieces!!! This sucks!!

and two bucks a piece for them puzzle pieces is a little much!! NOT Happy with this turn of events!!
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat night!
Dawgbones

2014 Topps OD?

Are you ready for some Opening Day? Going by my LCS tonight on the way home. They called yesterday and let me know my box of 2014 OD had arrived. Unfortunately, I had errands to run that precluded going by there, but, tonight, It's ON!!

Though it would be cool to pull another one of these, the odds are against me on this...

Love the Mascots, and an Auto version would be awesome...

and new for this year are the Between Innings inserts, which look to be very cool too!

I'll be opening my box over the next week or so. Looking forward to quitting time now!!
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

March 17th, 2014

Happy St. Patty's day everyone!!

Wish it was a whole lot warmer (and a bit drier!) here on the eastern coast of Virginia. What better way to cover ground today than on an Apple Green Harley!!

Please remember though, if you are going to have a few of these:

choose your ride carefully!

have a GReat St. Paddy's!!

thanks for reading.

Dawgbones

Unrelated hobby contest...

Our good friend Mr. B, over at Play at the Plate, is having a contest. Go on over and check it out, here.

and tellem Dawgbones sentcha!
Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat weekend!
Dawgbones

Need more contests, do you?

Go here, nope, wait-a-minute, that's not it... that's where I learned about it... though Play at the Plate also runs a top-notch blog with contests from time to time, but this one's not his...

You gotta love a Play at the Plate involving 2 catchers!!

silly me...

Go here, follow, enter, tellem Dawgbones sentcha. Or tellem PATP sentcha... either way, go enter, win cardboard.

thanks for reading,
Have a GReat weekend!
Dawgbones

Mo Mates...

another pack of Teenymates.

we have seen them before! yep duplicates. But at least the puzzle pieces are new and needed.

but two bucks a piece for them puzzles is a little bit much!!.
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat night!
Dawgbones

Spoiler Alert!! BBT edition...

Hopefully you'll get the reference and all will come clear in the reveal. Back at Christmas, my wife and I went overboard with the blind box figure purchases for my Nightmare before Christmas addiction.

and in hunting for them, we also found Mystery minis from our favorite show, The Big Bang theory.
(Martin saw this figure of sheldon in one of my Teenymates posts and asked for the full blown, so here it is.)

we then proceeded to clear out all the Barnes and Nobles in our area, trying to at least complete a set of the main characters (though not necessarily each variant) we have only found them at B&N, but at least we get a 10% discount on purchases there!

we ended up with both variants of the Howard Wolowitz figure, including the Star Trek uniform, which I believe is a 1/75 box pick.

and with my tiny army of Sheldons,
I SHALL TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!

we got several of the variants of him, though my personal favorite is the Flash (so far) (and Sheldon is by far the easiest figure to pick as there are several variants of his outfit available, though the Spock, Live Long and Prosper is by far the hardest to pull)

we did end up with all of the girls (there are no variants of them), and Penny must have gotten drunk when they designed her, cause she won't stand up on her own! (wonder if this is a design flaw??)

and for Valentine's day, I made my wife a card and gave her three more boxes, getting Leonard out of the second!
So, that leaves us just Raj short of the complete cast, and they are a blast to look at. I took a few of the dupes and put them up at work.
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat week!
Dawgbones

Another pack of Teenymates

bought a single pack last Thursday night on a trip to Target.

got the Cubbies and the Brewers!
Plus two more puzzle pieces.

not bad, so far, no dupes!
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones
and Martin... tomorrow!