First up, a couple weeks ago I bought a box set of the 2011 Team USA baseball at Target. I had actually recorded a box break of it, but after viewing it it really didn’t seem nessisary to post. For a $9.99 box, it really wasn’t all that interesting. I got the 1 auto, a single other card that holds some vague interest, and more importantly, since I recorded it in HD, it was about 1.5G of boring video. I didn’t figure it was worth the encoding time. So, instead, I decided to scan.

What’s slightly more interesting than the random 16U kid auto, is the card stock that these were printed on. I scanned the auto next to the only other card of any interesting value (at least to me), the Dominic Ficociello. I have an autograph from Dom as well, so it was the only other name I recognized out of the set. Is it just me or are the two cards a completely different color white? That’s not a scanner thing either, those were scanned side-by-side, and look that way in real life. I went back through the box and it seems pretty random which cards are on what stock. My guess is that they did the 18U and Collegiate teams first, then the 16U and the autographs, as those seem to be the most consistent ones on the different paper. Still, if I was building a binder of USA baseball, this would stand out pretty badly. Did I get a poorly printed set, or is it another case of Topps quality control?

Moving on. As you’ve probably figured by now, I did buy some 2012 this month. I spared you from looking at them all. You’re welcome. I’m fairly indifferent towards the set. It doesn’t bother me in any way, and certainly not like some of the more irate members of the blogosphere. It doesn’t really blow my skirt up either. Its just a base set. It’s kind of supposed to be boring right? I really like the photography, I think it’s really solid. The inserts do bother me a bit, especially the ones with the huge empty areas where jerseys and autos are supposed to be. The manupatches however, those are very well done. I like these a lot better than last years logo-patches. Out of my single blaster (the rest of what I bought were jumbo pack boxes), this was the patch I got.

I like the wool. It’s really nice. It actually goes really well with the Pirates colors as well. It’s also available if anyone is interested, or collecting the set, etc.

Next up, while putting some final Christmas boxes in the attic (yeah… it’s taken me that long, lol) I spotted a box labeled “Matt’s NH Stuff”. When I moved down to Texas years ago, I had some of my stuff boxed up and shipped via freight. I thought I had unpacked it all a long time ago. I noticed a couple childrens books on top and thought I’d pull them out for my daughter. Underneath were 3 old, ancient, card binders. One was a set of Marvel comics (mostly X-Men) cards from the early 90′s, complete with little notes I had written myself about their alleged worth. Apparently, they still have some sort of value. I found a couple on ebay going for $30. I have the entire set of these. More important (topically), is that the other two binders were my 1987 Topps set. I had separated them into American and National league binders, then again by team. Apparently I was just as organized at 10 years old as I am today, lol. Anyway, after looking through them, I pulled out two for top-loader status.

That’s probably a waste of two perfectly good top-loaders, but what the heck. Hey, if 1987 is good enough to bring back as a mini, than there’s something to be said for the originals, right? (Yeah, that they were as ugly then as they are today, lol)

Next up, a couple of ebay purchases came in over the weekend. First is a 2009 Clay Buchholz jersey from Topps Heritage. This one is going to go down as a “poor” review for that ebay seller. I’m not going to bother trying to dispute it, for $2 it isn’t worth it (right Greg?). I requested a bubble mailer, was charged for a bubble mailer, it arrived in a PWE and was “crushed”. The corners are fine, it was at least in a top loader, but the center was “pressed” so much that the jersey card bulge started cracking around the edges. You can see it in the large version of the scan. It’s a cool card, I just wish it hadn’t been shipped like that. Maybe I can find another on COMC.

Next is a card that arrived in really great shape, and is actually from one of my favorite sets. 2009 Goodwin Champions Jed Lowrie auto. I think Sam told me at one point that the sunset and night-time backgrounds on that set were the short prints. I saw this for $0.99 and couldn’t resist. Lowrie is actually with the Astros now, so maybe I can get a couple Sox cards autographed in person at the park. Is that bad form, to bring a card from another team for someone to sign? Anyway, very awesome looking card.

Next up is a trade package from reader Steve. He sent me a message last week and he had a really sweet Paplebon jersey to offer. We banged out a trade and he must have stuck it in the mail that day because I already have it in hand. Steve, you’re box is on it’s way, I dropped it off at the post office this morning. So, in return for a couple Yankees and a Josh Hamilton, he sent me this beauty.

Mmmm, 62/99, “gold” version from the 2008 A Piece of History set. Sweet. He also included a really nice Nomar insert!

The back side of that one is numbered 1040/2500 and I believe it’s a 98 Donruss (Leaf). Awesome stuff Steve! Thank you for a super easy trade. Your stuff should be there soon. Hope you like’em!

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Hope you guys enjoy!

Most of you don’t give 2 spits about the Red Sox, and that’s completely understandable. Everyone has their teams and I’d never begrudge anyone for rooting for theirs. For me though, the survey is a bit troublesome. Look at Left Field for example. You can’t have a “best Red Sox ever” team without BOTH Ted Williams and Carl Yastrezemski. It can’t be done. Picking one over the other is like asking me to choose between breathing and eating. Anyway, just for giggles, and again I know none of you care, I pasted the entirety of the survey candidates below. I also highlighted my choices in red. I mixed my nostalgia, personal favorites and stats leaders all in. For example, Ike Delock probably has better RP numbers, but I’m picking Paps and Gordon. I also picked two or more in the appropriate categories. No need to pick just 1 pitcher when you have a rotation of 5.

SP, right-handed: Roger Clemens, Dennis Eckersley, Tex Hughson, Jim Lonborg, Pedro Martinez, Bill Monbouquette, Luis Tiant, Tim Wakefield and Smoky Joe Wood

SP, left-handed: Ray Collins, Lefty Grove, Bruce Hurst, Bill Lee, Dutch Leonard, Jon Lester, Mel Parnell, Herb Pennock and Babe Ruth

C: Rick Ferrell, Carlton Fisk, Rich Gedman, Birdie Tebbetts, Jason Varitek and Sammy White

1B: Bill Buckner, Jimmie Foxx, Stuffy McInnis, George Scott, Mo Vaughn and Kevin Youkilis

2B: Mike Andrews, Marty Barrett, Bobby Doerr (TIE), Pete Runnels, Dustin Pedroia (TIE) and Jerry Remy

3B: Wade Boggs, Larry Gardner, Mike Lowell, Frank Malzone, Bill Mueller and John Valentin

SS: Rick Burleson, Joe Cronin, Nomar Garciaparra, Johnny Pesky, Rico Petrocelli and Everett Scott

LF: Mike Greenwell, Duffy Lewis, Manny Ramirez, Jim Rice, Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski

RF: Tony Conigliaro, J.D. Drew, Dwight Evans, Harry Hooper, Jackie Jensen and Trot Nixon

CF: Johnny Damon, Dom DiMaggio, Fred Lynn, Jimmy Piersall, Reggie Smith and Tris Speaker

DH: Don Baylor, Orlando Cepeda, Cecil Cooper, Mike Easler, Reggie Jefferson and David Ortiz

Bench: Jerry Adair, Bernie Carbo, Alex Cora, Billy Goodman, Dalton Jones, John Kennedy, Ted Lepcio, Rick Miller, Dave Roberts and Dave Stapleton

Bullpen: Ike Delock, Tom Gordon, Ellis Kinder, Derek Lowe, Sparky Lyle, Jonathan Papelbon, Dick Radatz, Jeff Reardon, Bob Stanley and Mike Timlin

Manager: Bill Carrigan, Joe Cronin, Terry Francona, Joe Morgan, Dick Williams and Don Zimmer

So, there’s my all star team. Or, “All Fenway Team” as they put it. A couple of those were weird questions. The “Bench” category was particularly weird. Billy Goodman and Ted Lepcio, were obvious choices being the only ones to be on the team for more than a season or two. The omission of Cy Young from the SP lineup is also a bit odd. For Manager, I had to go with Francona, he was just my kind of manager, always strait forward, friendly with the press (an oddity for Boston), and seemed to be more appreciative of his roll than just about anyone else. He’s also got the RINGS. It might not have ended on a high note, but I’ll never forget what he did for us.

Since my day job is mostly web design and webmaster/maintenance work at the moment, I like to take a little break every now and then and stretch the ol’ Photoshop muscles a little.

That leads me to “Custom Baseball Cards”. If you actually put that phrase into Google, you get a wide variety of absolutely astonishing or completely terrible cards. It’s clear who is a designer that likes baseball and who is a teenager with Photoshop, making cards for his garage band. Everyone has their own style too. Some people are creating beautiful cards that could, in all seriousness, go into production tomorrow. Some people are creating cards with large blank spaces so they can print them out and take them to a game to be autographed, creating their own completely custom collection.

Me, I like the artsy ones. My all time favorite cards are Upper Deck Masterpieces and Topps Gallery. If I’m feeling a little retro, nothing can beat Goodwin Champions or early A&G.

So, with that in mind… I came up with these.

First, what’s a card without a company, and what’s a company without a logo. Since I don’t feel like getting sued by Topps today, I created “Pastime Card Co.”

Represented on-card by their trademark banner and flag logos.

So, now that we have a completely fictional card company, what kinds of cards should it produce? Well, baseball, obviously. Of course, in this fictional world the MLB isn’t stupid enough to sign an exclusivity contract and we all enjoy the right to create cards for our national pastime. Pastime Cards focuses on more conceptual cards, with an artistic flare. The first series, printed on canvas, would have a more painterly look, while remaining somewhat modern…

Our second product hopes to capitalize on our exceptional photography. Using alternative photographic techniques and processes, cross processing, film light leaks and multiple exposures, we think it captures the game in a way never before seen. Part documentary, part art project, all sorts of awesome.

/end fake sales pitch.

I was just having some fun in Photoshop. I did make all those 2.5 x 3.5 @ 300dpi though, so if I ever get the itch to print them, I certainly can. If anyone is interested in learning how I put them together, feel free to ask away. Oh, and the first two pictures are just high-res I found floating around the net. These last two are actually my own.

Not only that, but he also sent 3 jersey relics for the one Verlander I sent him!

For me, the highlights are probably the serial numbered cards from the A Piece of Histroy series. He threw in some 2008 and some 2009 and they’re awesome.

He even threw in some RCs and a couple short prints…

Thanks for the awesome trade Spankee! Looking forward to the next one!

Derek! What have you done?! Now I’m forever in your debt. You shall receive every Braves card I ever come across, forever, lol.

He crammed close to 200 cards into that box. And not just base cards either, there was some truly exceptional stuff in there.

There’s all sorts of years, 2011-1994, there’s Topps, Topps Chrome, Bowman, Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck, all sorts of sub sets, minis, refractors, rookies, it’s INSANE. Topps Finest?! A gray bordered Baseball Heroes team set?!?! Upper Deck X Die-cuts!?! Donruss Studio, Topps Stadium Club, Upper Deck Spectrum. Breathe Matt, breathe. It’s ok… at least he didn’t send you any reli….

Crap.

I don’t know how to repay him. I sent him a couple cards, not a huge box of awesomeness. I mean, just look at some of this. I didn’t even sort these yet. I pulled this OFF THE TOP OF THE PILE…

I mean. Wow. I’ve lost all ability to put complete sentences together. I’m… I’m going to go now, and… ummm, do…. things…. I think I need to, umm… buy some more binder pages.

In all seriousness, thank you very very much Derek. That’s quite possibly one of the nicest things I’ve ever received. Thank you, that really made my day.

This group break consisted of 2 boxes of 2007 UD SP Rookie Edition and 2 boxes of 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars. Neither product was familiar to me, so I was pleasantly surprised. First up, the SP Rookie Edition. The Red Sox base team set is actually only 4 cards and 2 (multi-variation) rookies. I’m only missing the Papelbon from the base cards, Sam pulled the Manny, Ortiz and Schilling cards, along with the rookies.

The set is, obviously, focused on the rookies so there are 4 variations of cards for each player, each one representing a past design that Upper Deck has used. 2007 happens to be Dice-K’s rookie year, and I was lucky enough to get all 4 versions.

Not too shabby. The top two scanned really dark since they’re mostly foil. Their actual colors are silver and gold.

Next up is the 2009 Signature Stars. A set I had never even heard of. 2009 was such a weird year for Upper Deck. I think they cranked out all the designs and sets they could come up with, fully realizing they wouldn’t get another chance to do a proper baseball set for a while. This set focused on current stars along side Team USA prospects.

I was one card short with a box to go and luckily got it in nearly the last pack. Team set complete! I like the design of these with the exception of the font on the very bottom. That’s a fairly “safe” and boring script font. They could have easily played off the “signature” part and done something that was closer to actual handwriting, but I’m just nit-picking.

Last but not least, the hit. It actually came out of the SP Rookie edition and unfortunately wasn’t from the Sox…

Little did I realize that I was destined to become a Kevin Kouzmanoff collector, because this is the THIRD autograph of his I now possess. I currently have the Future Stars auto from the same year, and from what looks like the same photo shoot, in my tradebait. Anyone know any good Padres fans?

Or, an equally interesting question, does anyone have a collection of a player that they honestly didn’t intend to have? Me, I’ve got the Kouz here, how about you?

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Both your packages are on their way. USPS says they’ll be there by Thursday. Enjoy

You might remember that I picked up a Buchholz auto/jersey at the show a couple weeks ago and included it in my hits post. This, well, this completely blows that out of the water.

02/25, and a patch, are you freaking kidding me?!?! Not only a patch, but a patch from an alternative jersey. The jersey part on that card is actually red, not white or gray. That means it’s from one of the alternative “red” jerseys that they wear at home and on special occasions. One of these…

Given that the “Red Sox” font is Old English and there’s not a single strait line in it, that means that particular piece came from the back. From the “H” or the “L” in his name, or from the number. That’s unreal. The Lester is nice too, but, let’s be honest, patch trumps white swatch any day. It was awesome for Sam to include it though. Thank you once again my friend, you are a gentleman and a scholar. This is an instant “Top 5″ card. Hell, it might just be my new #1.