What do you want on your Tombstone?

Was going to do a Post cereal post but saw Night Owl already covered breakfast for the day so here's some lunch instead.

Mad Dog is here to serve up some Tombtstone pizza for you. This ones from 1994 and I remember pulling these out of the cold box of Tombstone and then beggin my mom and dad for more pizza so I could get more. I had a Frank Thomas one of these as well but I think I shipped off to 2x3 Heroes.

Nothing like a good '90s commercial.

Advil and Pinnacle got together in 1996 to commemorate Nolan Ryan's first and last strikeouts. I don't think these came in the Advil box so I probably saw "baseball cards" on the side of the bottle and sent in thru the mail for these. I just realized I scanned them backwards while typing.... DOH!

I was only in the Boy Scouts for one year to do the soapbox race then quit but I got this awesome Jeff Blauser card out of it, a special COLLECTOR'S EDITION apparently. I think I started Wolf Scouts after Cub Scouts but don't remember much besides the soap box race and this card.  This card is from 1997 and notes Blausers statistics thru 7/1/97 he was hitting .345 with 11 homers and 40 RBI.

Trade with Dimebox Nick

I sent Nick over at Baseball Dimebox some cards off his want list as well as some PCs and other cards I thought would fit in his eclectic collection. In return he sent me a STACK of Braves from all over the map. This Glenn Hubbard would be the card i'd pick out to describe his blog to someone.

What we have here a bearded big leaguer holding a snake surrounded by mascots at what looks like fan fest in old Fulton County Stadium. Basically a mix of everything. You can see the Philly Phanatic clearly in the background.

Like I said Nick sent a mixture of everything, here we have a Topps Kids Otis Nixon card as colorful as ever, a Toys R Us David Justice rookie card and a Greg Olson playing card.

Here we have 3 right handed sluggers from over the years, Topps had minis one size in the 80's and then enlarged them slightly for the 2013 set apparently.

More oddball goodness this time in the form of Food cards, I remember having this Jimmy Dean Avery as a kid but I must have traded it back then because I don't have it now. Same thing goes for the '94 Post Justice, I actually found a copy of it a few weeks ago if anyone needs one.

Some very plain looking but still awesome retro cards of Ben Cantwell who I have to admit I had to look up. He won 20 games for the Braves is 1933 then lost 25 in 1935, the last pitcher to lose that many. He also batted .231 in his career pretty dang good for a pitcher. This is my first card of Sweet Bread in a Braves uniform.

Nick also sent a mixture of several different Topps sets, including my 2nd '66 and my first '75. I know, I know I gotta get on my vintage and these are a good start/inspiration to do so. 

Poor Phil Niekro, even in his newer cards they print him with gray hair but I guess that's his look.

Some old favorites signing autographs for the fans, one of my favorite shots that hardly ever gets used anymore it seems. Lots of Justice in this package and i'm not complaining.

I think I busted about a hundred packs of those yellow Fleer '91's as a kid and have never even seen that Glavine sliding into home card. Was looking at the checklist of Topps Archives and thought it was funny Sid Bream is listed as a fan favorites autograph card as a Pirate, this Topps '92 card has it right.

Loved these Metal Universe cards as a kid and this Glavine is another one I never had but now do thanks to Nick.

I don't really remember Jose Oliva (see Jones, Chipper) but what the hell is going on here Fleer I feel like they coated the cards with LSD or at least it feels like they did when looking at this card.

Nick's a hep cat and sent some modern day cards in the package too, that Heyward Turkey Red is a beaut, think it's kinda funny they did a saber stars card on BABIP as it's pretty much luck but I'll take any FF5 card I can get.

J-Up may be crushing baseballs on the west coast for the Underdog Padres now but i'll never forget that first month when he absolutely destroyed the baseball for a month straight. The Topps diamond card are great to look at even though this shot makes it look more like  a Brian Snitker card than a Rick Ankiel one, Ankiel hit one into the bay in the 2010 NLDS and I remember sitting in my garage listening to the game on the radio because we had just moved in our house and didn't have cable yet.

Look closely and you'll see Chief Noc-A-Homa in his tent in left center.

Thanks again for the cards Nick, I hope we can trade again and if you haven't already check out his blog at http://baseballdimebox.blogspot.com/

Blastin' Blasters: 2014 Allen and Ginter

Saw a box of last years Allen & Ginter in the discount section at Target and couldn't resist the urge to bust some packs. I usually have buyers remorse after buying retail but figured for $13 bucks A&G would give me enough variety to be worth it.

 Got one "hit" out of the 8 packs of one of my least favorite players on my least favorite teams. Still a nice looking card but this guy runs his mouth about the Braves too much for somebody on a team that hasn't proved anything yet.

Also got a A&G backed Newhouser, a Mike Trout and a black bordered Matt Carpenter who's been killing the ball this year.

Onto the "variety", I love most of the A&G subsets and this one is extra cool with the awesome intricate border and it being Marco Polo.

This is my third card out of the World's Deadliest Predator set, I had the American Alligator and Blue Ringed Octopus. I think these cards add to mystery (see above Question mark card) and variety of A&G packs in that you won't get 10 guys batting/pitching in every pack.

Got these 6 full sized non-baseball inserts- probably have to say the Titanic is the best looking card out of the bunch but the Natural Wonder is good looking too.

I got 8 packs in my blaster and 4 Pasttime's Pastimes cards, the Harper and Gooden are from the only other 2 packs I had opened of this set previously. All of these are up for trade if anyone needs them.

Love the mix of hall of famers, today's players and other random cards you get in A&G and will probably make my first hobby box purchase of this years set when it comes out . If anyone is having a group break I may do that as well. 

Mailbag: Rosenort Trade

GO LIGHTNING! 

Made a trade with Curtis over at Condition Sensitive across the northern border and got a package today from him. He sent me some Lightning, Braves and Falcons cards. Triple bonus!

This is the back of the above card which lists the entire expansion draft, the idea of expansion drafts is crazy and I would be pissed today if a Brian Bradley was stolen from my team like we did with the Maple Leafs.

Victor Hedman has had his coming out party to the rest of the world in these here NHL playoffs showing that he is one of the top young defenders in the league. Hopefully he'll tally another assist in game 2 tomorrow night. I can't afford tickets but I will be down at the stadium watching the game on the side of a parking garage.  Hope to not see J.T. Brown hand Chicago another goal. 

He also sent me a card of the captain and a National Hockey Day card of since traded to Boston Brett Connolly.

Curtis also sent me 4 O-Pee-Chee cards, I have very little of these so they were welcome additions to the collection.

PRIME TIME! The middle card is perfect.

Some more Dirty Birds from my youth,  i'll pack some Bruins and Skins up for you.

Bustin' Packs: Mascot Style

I posted yesterday to let you all know that Target was having a sale on loose packs. As promised here are the highlights out of the 3 packs I got.

14 cards and 3 mascots = AWESOME, also 2 Team Spirits which are listed as a 1:8 on the back of the pack.

 I also got a pack of Heritage and the Dodgers curse continues, though I like that Rookie stars card. I sent Night Owl a trade package about 4 hours before busting this pack..

Also got this Fred McGriff in the mail which is the last of the short prints I needed to complete my Braves team set, I got the Eddie Mathews a week or so ago in the mail. Paid less than $3 total for both!

 I already had these 2 from a JustCommons.com order last month. Eventually i'll pick a WHOLE set to build but for now will probably stick to team sets and loose cards/busting packs.

GO LIGHTNING!

TARGET SALE / Mailbag: Auto streak continues

FYI - Target is having a sale on loose packs right now 30% off Opening Day, Topps Heritage and Topps Series 1, I picked up 2 packs off Opening Day at $0.69 each and 1 pack of Heritage for $2.09, nothing too crazy out of the packs other than 2 Team Spirit cards and a mascot in each pack of Opening Day, I'll put those in my post tomorrow.

I got this in the mail today a 2015 Rookie Panini Prizm rookie auto of Mike Foltynewicz. I posted about Folty the day he made his first start about a month ago and so far the big right hander has pitched pretty well for a rookie. 36IP 38Ks and a 3.96ERA with only 13 walks when he's known to have control issues but what young pitcher throwing 96-98 doesn't.

STATS

	GP	GS	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	W	L	P/GS	WHIP	BAA	ERA
2015 Regular Season	6	6	0	0	36.1	35	18	16	4	13	38	3	2	97.0	1.32	.254	3.96

I got this card for $4 shipped off the bay, and will probably grab any card I can find of this guy.

Flea Market Scores - Wagon Wheel goes round and round

Wasn't able to make my usual Memorial Day trip up to Atlanta, so I took the family over across the water to stay in St. Pete and go to the beach, on the way back me and the wife decided to stop in a new to us flea market. Place was huge but only had one card vendor, turns out that's all I needed to get my cardboard fix.

 Had to grab the Guy Fieri card with him in his signature bowling shirt and bleach blonde hair, unfortunately his glasses are on properly not backwards like he always seems to wear them to show off his sweet sunglass tanlines. Also picked up one of Stan Lee slinging some web at ya.

Back to baseball I got 2 of these 2006 Turkey Red cards, the Smoltz is kind of intimidating.

I can't get enough of these Gypsy Queen framed inserts, this one isn't as thick or serial #'d like my Shelby Miller out of this year's set but still a nice card none the less.

If you couldn't tell I am catching up alot and thus need even newer cards to complete my PCs, Freeman is of course one of them and picked up 2 Bowman Platinums, his first Bowman card and the Opening Day from this years set.

I got 32 cards from this guy and he charged me $7 so about a quarter a card but still beats buying retail and getting a bunch of Bryce Harpers.