Big Fun Game Steal and Pick # 6

Now we're warming up!  Josh decides to go with the Strasburg Rookie and Matt has to choose again.  He takes Door #1:

1958 Roberto Clemente.  Yes those are creases you see.  But still...

The Lost Collector is up next and can choose to steal anything but the relic lot or can pick from doors:

2,4,8,9,10 or 12

Big Fun Game Steal and Pick #5

Cubsfan731 steals the Relic Lot, freezing it to his possession.  The Dimwit chooses again, and picks Door #5:

Roger Clemens 2007 Exquisite #d to 99.

Josh is up next.  I think I know what he wants, but will wait until he makes it official...

Big Fun Game Steal and Pick #4

The Dimwit couldn't resist the Oswalt relic card and stole the relic lot from Cardanathema.  Cardanathema doesn't miss a beat and picks door #6:

2010 Topps Joe Mauer Manu Patch
Cubsfan731 is next and can steal anything that has been chosen or select from the following doors:

1,2,4,5,8,9,10,12

Big Fun Game Pick #3

Cardanathema also declines to steal and chooses door #11:

Lot of 3 Relic Cards:  Travis Hafner, Roy Oswalt and Marcus Giles

The Dimwit can steal any of the 3 previous prizes or can choose from the following doors:

1,2,4,5,6,8,9,10,12

Big Fun Game Pick #2

With the second pick, Matt declines to steal and chooses door #3:

2010 Bowman Stephen Strasburg

Cardanathema is next and can steal either of the two prizes that have been claimed or can choose from the remaining doors 1,2,4,5,6,8,9,10,11,12

Big Fun Game Pick #1

With the first selection, dawgbones selects door #7:

2009 Topps Sterling Evan Longoria White Parallel #d to 50.

Matt is on the clock now and can either steal this prize or choose from doors 1-6 & 8-12.

Sorry for the poor cropping on the scan.  This thing is really hit or miss!

dawgbones... Come on Down!!!

You're the first contestant on Napkin Doon's Big Fun Game!!! 

And below are the remaining 10 contestants:

1. dawgbones
2. matt
3. cardanathema
4. dimwit
5. cubsfan731
6. josh
7. cubsfan731
8. lost collector
9. eric l
10. trey j
11. cardanathema
12. the diamond king
13. matt pederson
14. dawgbones
15. jeff laws
16. matt pederson
17. play at the plate
18. mmmrhubarb
19. ryan lamonica
20. hiflew
21. cheap card collecting
22. matt b
23. spiegel83
24. greg zakwin
25. ryan g
26. mariner1
27. greg zakwin
28. eric l
29. jason
30. lost collector
31. cheap card collecting
32. kirk jacobson
33. potch
34. potch
35. morgan
36. matt b
37. matt
38. the diamond king
39. dan
40. captain canuck
41. ba benny
42. kirk jacobson
43. dominifdny
44. jeff laws

Cubsfan731 and cardanathema had some insurance, falling in the top 11 twice.  Of course everyone only gets one entry, so that let diamond king jump a slot for the final pick.

dawgbones may select any number from 1-12 and I will reveal what is behind that door once he makes his pick.  Matt will have the option then of either stealing dawgbones pick, or selecting from the remaining doors.  If Matt steals from dawgbones, dawgbones will then be able to pick again (but not steal from Matt).  Remember, there are 10 contestants but 12 prizes and at the end of the game, two people will have a chance to trade their prize if they want. 

Thanks to all who signed up, and better luck next time to those who didn't get in.  The next time I do this, I will need to figure out a way to up the odds for the folks who've entered all 3 times and never got in.  Maybe an extra entry everytime you have entered but not been selected?

Any questions???  Ok, let's go!!

Cleve's Auction Night: "This Is Getting Ridiculous, Napkin"

Yeah, I might have a problem.  I mentioned in my last post about the super awesome card auctions every Tuesday night at Cleve's, that for a couple of weeks I would be unable to attend while on business trips.  I also said I could go in and put down some write-in bids on anything that caught my eye, but that I wasn't going to. 
That was a lie only in the sense that I wound up going in and putting down a whole bunch of write-in bids.  But they were lowwwww bids, and I got some good stuff again.  Let's move beyond the lovely wife's reaction when I came home with the goods Saturday afternoon.  I think she's getting numb to it.

Let's review, shall we?

1960 Fleer Lajoie and Foxx

These were the cards I really, really wanted from this auction.  This 1960 Fleer set is one of Fleer's first, is chock full of HOFers, is only an 80 card checklist, and is relatively inexpensive to build.  Those are facts.  Add to that, I love the looks of the set, and this set is a new top priority for my collection.  I missed out on a couple of pages of "commons" from this set at this last auction, as obviously my write in bids were not enough.  But I did manage to land these two at $2 each, which gave me great joy.

Of course I bought some goodie binders...

I don't mean to repeat myself, but for most of these binders, the value is in the pages and the binder itself.  That is true for the most part for the 3 binders I got this week.  Here they are by binder:

Binder 1: 80s Stars Binder

I paid $5 for this one, mostly because it had several George Brett and Mike Schmidt cards- players I didn't collect much earlier in my life, but now realize how great they were.  I also wanted the Tony Gwynn and Darryly Strawberry pages too.  There are about 50 pages in this binder and also included stars such as:  Mattingly, Boggs, Puckett, Clemens, Ozzie Smith, Gooden, Dawson and so on and so on. 

Binder #2a:  1990 Donruss near complete set

Before you do a spit take over the thougt of someone paying real money for an INCOMPLETE 1990 Donruss set, allow me to interject and inform you this binder was a package deal with this binder:

Binder #2b: (10) Mid 90s Beckett Monthly Magazines

This was what I wanted, and didn't mind taking 1990 Donruss set (and the near 80 pages I will have once I remove the crappy cards from them) to get it.  And don't scoff at me buying old Becketts either.  I have a side project I am working on and I need the data from them.  And as I've said before, I like the old articles and advertisements.  And there was nice little bonus that I didn't even notice when I was initially looking through the binder when I placed my bid:

A quick scan of ebay shows these are nothing special, but they look cool to me.  I was a broke college kid in the mid 90s so I wasn't able to afford McDonalds fine dining to get these cards.  A $1.97 combo at Rally's was my idea of splurging..

So how did I grade out?

1960 Fleer Foxx and Lajoie:  $4 Total-  A+  Plenty to like here, with two of my favorite vintage stars.  1960 Fleer is now on my radar too, and I think I can build it in a couple of years.

1980s Stars Binder:  $5  B+  Nothing special in these albums, and I might have won this with a write in bid of $3, but what's a couple of bucks?  Again, the pages, Gwynn and Strawberry cards were the key.

90 Donruss and Beckett Package:  $4  A-  Yes, I'm sure paying for 1990 Donruss should instantly cause me to lose credibility in the card collecting world, but repeat after me:  It's the pages that are the value!!!!  80 pages people!  And they are nice, non-cloudy pages too.   I consider the Becketts more supplies than collectibles, and the McDonalds cards are a nice bonus. 

A total of $13 bucks this week.   I think that shows a lot of restraint myself.  When I went in to pick up my cards Saturday, I looked over the Tuesday night fodder.  Lot's of really nice 50s Bowmans...  What will the lovely wife say Tuesday night I wonder?  It's going to be bad...

Oh, in case you are wondering, Big Fun Game participants will be announced today!

A Suprise From The Lost Collector

I recently returned from a West Coast business trip, not expecting any envelopes or bubble mailers that have been crowding my mailbox for the past several, several months.  I've slowed down my purchases considerably, at least online, now that Brycemas is over.  However, there was one envelope waiting on me that I did not expect.  Inside was this beauty:

and a nice note from AJ over at The Lost Collector blog, one of my favorites.  In fact, AJ is one of my favorite people out in blogger world, and the card hobby is better for him returning to it.  We had a trade a little while ago, and he felt like he needed to add a follow up card.  It wasn't necessary my friend, but I am stoked about the card nonetheless!  Ian Kinsler is one of my favorite Rangers, and I didn't have this sweet relic card of him yet.  Better still, it's numbered to #199.

He also sent a cool Kevin McReynolds card from the 90s, but I was in a rush and didn't have time to scan it.  That's former Razorback Kevin McReynolds, thank you very much.

Thank you for the cards, AJ, I really appreciate it!

On The 12th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave To Me:

12 BIG FUN GAME PRIZES!!!!

You didn’t think I wouldn’t share my good fortune with my pals in Blogger Land did you?

I have 12 cards/card lots that came in with my Harper Haul that will be used as prizes.   Some of these have been seen in the 12 Days of Brycemas Posts, and some have not.   I will guarantee that none of my Michael Youngs will be part of this contest.  Or the 1965 Koufax.  This will be my 3^rd Big Fun Game.   For those not in the know, I am only keeping this contest named as such at the insistence of a few of you.  I’m looking at you Lost Collector.

Signups will take place from now until Sunday.  There are only 2 things you need to do to qualify: 

1)     Be a follower.  I had been stuck at 47 for a while, and was horrified to see someone left me and now I’m at 46.  I sure would like to get over the 50 mark.

2)    Post a comment in this thread stating you are in.  If you want to promote this contest in your blog, post a link to your comment and you will get two entries to the game drawing.  

If you've already participated in one of my Big Fun Games, please feel free to sign up again!

Sometime on Sunday, I will enter all of the names in the randomizer and announce the 10 game entrants.

“But Napkin, I thought you said there were 12 prizes?”  There are.  There will be 2 remaining prizes after the game is over.  Once the game is over, anyone who would like to make one final swap for a prize will have an opportunity to post a comment that they would like to trade one last time.  If more than 2 people want to trade in their prizes, I will take all of the names of those who want to make one final trade and put them in the randomizer.  The top 2 listed will get to make one final swap and choose from the remaining 2 prizes.  Hopefully, you will get something you like better, because once you swap, there is no trading back.

After the game is over, feel free to trade amongst yourselves before I mail out the prizes.

Here are the particulars of the game if you aren't familiar with them.



*******UPDATE**********  Sign ups are closed and the 10 contestants have been named!!!

On The 11th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave to Me:

11 Bowman’s Best

This is my favorite insert set of 2011, slightly ahead of the Sticky Fingers set in Gypsy Queen.  I like it because the checklist has staying power, it’s shiny, it’s not scarce, but not common, yet I’ve been able to complete it very cheaply.  I needed 11 cards to complete my set of Bowman’s Best.  I still need several more for the Bowman’s Best Prospects set, but I have the Harper and the rest will be manageable.

I’ll just show you the full set rather than the last 11 I needed:

On The 10th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave to Me:

#10 Texas Rangers DH, 1B, 2B, 3B and SS, Michael Young.

Winner.  Team Player.  Leader.  Hustle. Work Ethic.  Integrity.  Luscious.   But enough about me, let’s look at some Michael Young Cards:

I have one of those “jersey” T-Shirts of Michael Young, and that’s as close to a jersey I will wear of any team or player.  I’ve got nothing against fans wearing jerseys, especially to games.  I just can’t pull it off.  It doesn’t look or feel right on me.  I wish my lovely wife would wear one though.  That would be so, so, so hot.

San Doonego addendum

This is the view from Altitude, the bar at the top of the Marriott by Petco Park.  Just unreal....

On The 9th Day of Brycemas

9 Sticky Fingers…

… as well as some other Gypsy Queen goodies.  Bear with me here.  I bought a lot of 9 Fingers cards and put them in pages with a few more that I had already.  I don't remember which 9 they were, and I wouldn't want to take them in an out of pages again anyway, so I'll just show you all the ones I have.   A couple came from trades with fellow bloggers.  Now I just need #1 Jeter, #6 Teixiera, and #15 Bartlett.

The base set doesn’t do much for me, but I love the inserts.  I will probably give this set a year to sit while I continue to work on other sets, but I when came across a good Sticky Fingers lot on eBay I bit.  I also managed to pick up a couple of other insert singles here in there on Sportsbuy.com and sportlots.com.   

Here are the Wall Climbers I have.  I am only lacking #1 Hunter, #3 Swisher, and #10 Dejesus
I have further to go on the other inserts so I'll spare you the images of half filled pages.

By the way, does anyone have any idea of Gypsy Queen will be a regular set now, like A&G, or will it be a one and done like Chicle? 

My Harper Gave to Me:

San Doonego

I may need to move to San Diego.  I am here for the first time on business, and this city is incredible.  Thanks to post scheduling, I've been able to keep the blog updated daily with my Brycemas silliness, but I've generally been absent from the blog world over the past few days. 
We were in Salt Lake City Saturday and Sunday, Phoenix Sunday and today, and came in to San Diego this afternoon.  I was getting used to the furnace blasts every time I went outside in Phoenix, so when I got off the airplane today, the mild temperatures in San Diego put me in an instant great mood.  My mood really skyrocketed when I saw that our hotel was walking distance to Petco Park.  One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life:

I am so bummed the Padres weren't home tonight!  I love the walk up seats out in center field.  Apparently, they are free to the public. 

Awesome.  Simply awesome.

Of course, I almost wept when I saw this beautiful statue of one of my baseball idols, Tony Gwynn.  I don't care how bad the Padres are. If I lived here, I would be at this work of art of a stadium every stinking game.   The Lovely Wife and I are going to need to dump the kids off with babysitters and spend a few days here! 

On The 8th Day of Brycemas

My Harper gave to me:

8 Cards of Big Shots

Here is a conversation I can see happening down the road with my son:

Son:  Dad, who was the greatest athlete of all while you were growing up?

Me:  That’s easy.  Michael Jordan.  He might be the greatest athlete of all time.

Son:  How many cards of him do you have?

Me:  Um, none actually. 

Son (Looks over my paltry basketball card collection):  Was Todd Day better than Michael Jordan?  And who’s Oliver Miller?

Me:  Well, they were Razorbacks,  son, and that’s why I have them.   But no, no they were not better. 

Son:  You have about 30 cards of those guys.  But you don’t have one Michael Jordan?

Me:  Uhhhh

Son:  Who was the best football player?

Me:  I don’t’ know.  Tom Brady was pretty amazing.  And he married Giselle.

Son:  Who?

Me:  Never mind.

Son:  How many of his cards do you have?

Me:  Uhhhh

Well, now I at least have a few of both of these guys, although in my defense, their cards can get pricy.  However, there are always good deals to be found on the internet, and I finally have some cards of His Airness and Brady.    Yes, these are pretty standard cards, but I’m proud of them all the same (and I did get multiples of many of these).

On The 7th Day of Brycemas

My Harper gave to me:

(7)  Random, Yet Important, Cards:

My freaking scanner!!!

1999 Flair Warren Morris- This was one of the first cards I bought when I cashed in on the Harper Auto.  I’ve had no luck finding this card cheap for years now, and couldn’t bring myself to pay over a buck for it, plus shipping.  But since I had nice card fund, I decided to put this set out of its misery and add the last remaining card.  For the first time since my blog started, this card is off the Most Wanted list. 

Along the same lines, I was able to knock out my final 2 Diamond King Base Cards from 2003.  Hard to believe I didn’t have the Tony Gwynn already, but I didn’t.

With these two Reel Time Cards, my 2002 Stadium Club Set is now 100% complete.  There are some relic card inserts for this set, but I’m going to pretend they don’t exist and call this set done.  Also shown is a Topps HD Game Defined Mark McGwire.  I was actually a little miffed that this was an aluminum parallel card, even though it is a rarer card than the standard Game Defined Card.  I bought it on Sportlots and the listing did not have an image.  I probably would have got it anyway had I seen it was a parallel.  This is not my first loose interpretation of a complete set with HD.  Man, HD was nice.  I wish it would be re-issued.

Another SPX 2003 beauty.  This. Card. Is. Awesome.  Greg Maddux is a guy who I appreciate more and more with time.    Craig Biggio is the other one.  I really should have more good cards of them both.

On the 6th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave to Me:

6 Darren McFaddens (x3)

I got about 18 cards of D-Mac, and this was the best way to cram it into the song. 

 That Topps Magic Mini Card is beyond awesome!

I was actually at the game when McFadden tied the SEC single game rushing record.  I acted a total fool when he did this:

Drooooolll........

My pal Sam over at the Daily Dimwit and I completed a small but awesome trade recently.  He was gracious enough to offer up this super awesome Michael Young dual relic card.  He also sent some other good base Ranger cards, but I will leave them off so as not to distract from this bad mother.... numbered to #200 no less.

Thanks Dimwit!

On The 5th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave to Me:

5 Gol-den Kiiiiiings:

I hope and think Bryce Harper will do well.  I don’t think he’ll be as good as this guy:

Or Him:

Or Him:

Or Him:

Or Him:

My first vintage Koufax card ever!  Yes, there is a push pin hole at the top of his hat, but I love the 1965 set and this was the best shape of the card I was going to get if I wanted to be able to buy anything else with my Harper funds.  It’s good enough for me.

On The 4th Day of Brycemas

My Harper Gave to Me

4 Awesome Rangers:

Yes, the 12 Days of Brycemas is back on track after a painstaking wait for an order of cards from a seller on Sportlots.com.  But everything is in now, so I can finish this convoluted string. 

My Brycemas sale helped beef up my Rangers collection for sure:

I didn't have any Nelson Cruz autographs.  Now I have 2.

I can't find a 2009 Sterling Base of Josh Hamilton to save my life.  I had no trouble finding the white and burgundy parallels though.

My Elvis Andrus collection was pretty small.  This doubled it:

And I didn't have as much Cliff Lee as I would like.  Yes, I know he was only a half season rental last year, but he is officially a Razorback/Ranger double whopper, so he will forever be in my top 5 favorite players of all time.