Can't Find Heritage So I'm Extending The Contest

Some of you were expecting me to announce a winner of the 2014 Topps Heritage Blaster Box today. However, I am extending the contest.

I was planning on announcing a winner today, but Dikran and I are still searching for a blaster box of Heritage. We went to 6 different Targets and 3 Wal-Marts last night, but haven't had any luck finding one. 

So we are extending the contest until next Friday 4/11/14. If we can't find a box by then, we will either try to buy one online or give away something similar. 

Those that have already entered will be receiving 5 additional entries for entering on time. You may also receive more entries by posting a song on your blog or twitter again. Here is a rundown of the contest, copied and pasted from the original contest post.

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As some of you know, my best friend Dikran is an aspiring Producer/DJ. He has been playing all types of instruments since he a little kid and he has finally decided to try and do something bigger with music. 

We have been been setting up a website for him, but in the meantime he does most of his communicating/posting through his new Facebook page.

We decided to host a contest here on the blog to help promote him, with the hopes that at least a few of you like his music. 

First things first, this contest will end this Friday (4-4-14) and a winner will be announced on Saturday (4-5-14) night.

PRIZES:

• The Winner will receive one Blaster Box of 2014 Topps Heritage as well as 250 Chavez Code points
• Second Place will receive 150 Chavez Code points as well as a goodie pack of cards from me
• All entrants will receive 10 Chavez Code points just for helping out and showing my buddy some support. If you maximize your entries and enter in all 4 possible ways, you will receive 40 Chavez Code points

HOW TO ENTER: 

Like many of my contests, you can earn multiple entries. Here's how:

• (1 entry): Like his Facebook Page here
• (1 entry): Follow his Soundcloud here
• (10 entries): Share 1 song of his on Twitter
• (10 entires): Blog about this contest on your blog

Comment on this post when you have performed one or all types of entry. 

All entries will be placed into a Random.org randomizer and the first two names after 10 randomization's will be the winners.

Have a listen to one of his songs below and thank you for taking the time to read the blog!

Topps Chrome Rainbow: Zack Greinke Gold Refractor

I picked up another card in my quest for the complete Dodgers Topps Chrome Rainbow team set earlier this week. This time in the form of a Zack Greinke Gold Refractor /50.

This card marks the third gold refractor I have out of 12. Current members of the Gold Club are Matt Kemp, Matt Magill, and now Zack Greinke. The gold refractors look pretty crisp and are probably my third favorite refractor out of the set. I really like the orange refractors, and the black refractors look clean as well. 

This Greinke is #'d 15/50 and was had off the bay for $7.00 bucks shipped. These eBay sellers are uploading these cards hours after I get paid, which makes me want to spend. I picked up three other cards for the quest last night, however I got a pretty good bargain on those. The Atomic Matt Kemp is up on eBay right now, and I am closely watching. I will have to go over my budget for that one which sucks, but there are only 10 out there so I may not get another shot at one. 

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The Trade Bait Mega Post is scheduled for either Sunday or Monday, and is just waiting on me to scan the cards. I have a stack that is about 3 inches high ready to be dealt. I will also be selling off some of my near complete sets from 2013 for EXTREMELY CHEAP. If you see a set on my set needs that isn't Topps Chrome/Heritage/Flagship then it will be for sell. I will have more on that over the weekend, but I need to clear up some space and get a little extra card money. 

Highlighting a Few Fantastic Blogs Pt.4

Previous posts in this series: Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3

So I decided to change up the name of this series. It was previously called "Highlighting a few Underrated Blogs", but with so many good blogs out there it is tough to really consider any of them underrated. I will continue to highlight some of the blogs that deserve more traffic and eventually work my way up to the bigger blogs.

Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle

As most of you already know, Greg runs the awesome Dodger blog Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Arglye. (If I were a scout, I would give that name an 80 FWIW) Greg is probably the reason I got into blogging, about cards at least. I have been reading his blog for a couple of years, but it wasn't until I really got into collecting that I truly appreciated his collection. The man has 316 (!) unique Matt Kemp cards, which dwarfs my 123. The photo above comes from his blog, and is also the reason I started watching Parks and Rec. If you don't already follow Greg, you are missing out on some awesome stuff. Also, watch Parks and Rec!

Off Hiatus Baseball Cards

Off Hiatus Baseball Cards is run by Tony, a great guy that I have had the pleasure of completing a trade with recently. As you can see from the picture, Tony collects Robin Yount as well as all things Brewers. He ahs a hole in his collection from the early 2000's to present day, primarily in some of the secondary Topps sets and the unlicensed sets. Be sure to head over there and work out a trade. 

The Angles, In Order

This fantastic Angels blog is run by Tom. We traded a few months ago, but maybe it is time we do it again. I have been saving up Angels cards for awhile and even threatened to send them, but just continued to add cards to the pile. Tom PC's Tim Salmon, but won't pass up any of the other fishy Angels. Be sure to head on over and talk with Tom and work something out.

 If the Angels played in any other place than the greater-LA area, I might root for them, but for the time being I will proudly walk around in this shirt:

Thanks again for reading. I enjoy doing this little series and will continue to release them every week. I think I missed last week, but I'm blaming mid-terms. 

Trade with Playing With My Cards: Properly Thanking the Correct Blogger

I completed my first trade with Ethan of Playing with my Cards a while back, but I am just getting around to posting my loot. You can check out his post on what I sent him here. 

A few weeks ago I improperly credited Ethan with some cards I received in a trade. He quickly notified me of my mistake and now I am finally going to make it right.

I'm pretty foggy on the details of the trade because it has been so long since we talked about it, but I believe this was the center of the deal. I love adding new Puig cards to my Puig PC and this one is no exception. It seems like people either love Puig or hate him, typically leaning toward the latter. It is a hate that I can't get my head around and something that was produced by mainstream media. I hate playing the race card, but there is probably a lot racial fueled hate toward the young Cuban. Wil Myers got nowhere near the same attention as Puig last year, though he played with the same flare Puig usually shows and probably missed just as many cut-off men. It is an argument I don't really want to get in the middle of, but an argument I seemingly get pulled into quite a bit. 

As far as the Future of the Franchise moniker this card displays, I have a hard time agreeing with it. Clayton Kershaw is obviously the Future of the Franchise, though he is also the Present of the Franchise, and for the past few seasons has been the Past of the Franchise. Puig will play a big part on the Dodgers over the next several seasons, but the Dodgers belong to Kershaw for the time being.

The beauty of this trade however, comes in the form of a 1972 Topps Bill Buckner. The card is not in the best shape, but it works for me. The '72 design is one of the best of the decade and this is my first card from the set. I could do a lot worse than a fantastic bat barrel shot of the first baseman and the All-Star rookie cup is a phenomenal touch. 

I have been busy lately (my way of saying lazy), and haven't updated my Topps Team Set Project needs in a few weeks. I have a pretty decent sized stack of cards to take off of the list, including a ton from Ethan. I wish there was something special to show you from 2010 Topps, but there isn't anything that really stands out. 

Ethan also sent over a ton of cards that fit into my now defunct mini-collections. Those have been placed into a large box which contains the rest of the cards from those mini-collections, and will be revisited sometime in the future.

Thanks again for the trade Ethan. Hope we can do another swap again soon. 

A 9-Month Wait That Was Worth It

When I first started this blog, Corey Seager was a primary PC of mine. As my collection grew I stepped off my pursuit for Seager cards for the guys you see featured on the blog a little more prominently now. However, that doesn't mean Seager is not going to be a big part of my collection in the near future. Cards of the Dodgers #2 prospect (in my opinion) are not frequently released, only appearing in a handful of Bowman products as well as a few other unlicensed sets. 

A product called Bowman Inception was released last summer and my buddy Dikran graciously bought be a box for my birthday. He also bought himself a box and at $140 a piece they were not cheap. 

He happened to pull a #/25 Oscar Taveras auto, which was selling for around $150 at the time, as well as a four other decent hits. 

My box on the other hand was as close to a dud as possible. I got 4 autos that sold for about $20 bucks combined, as well as a redemption. The box probably would have been a complete dud to a non-Dodger fan, but it was the perfect birthday gift for me. 

After about 9 months of waiting from Topps, my card was shipped last week and arrived yesterday. This is the standard base auto, but it is a beauty. The Inception design is pretty damn cool, and the on card signature is puts it over the top. I would have liked to see a little more of the Dodgers logo on the jersey, or at least some red numbering, but I'm not going to complain. 

At the end of the day, I am happy with my friends $140 dollar investment that netted me this slick auto of the Dodgers future Shortstop/Third baseman. Trust me, this will not be the last you see of Corey Seager on here. 

Trade with Uncle Charlie and Public Enemy #1: Making a HUGE Dent in my 2013 Needs

I made my first official trade with Evan of Uncle Charlie and Public Enemy #1 last week. Evan and I have been talking for quite some time now and we finally decided to pull off a real trade that involved more than 1 or 2 cards. 

I guess the trade got started when Evan asked me if I had this card. Even if I did have it, I probably would have asked for it because it is such a sick card. I miss seeing Beltre in Dodger blue, and any time I can add a card of one of my PC's I will do it. 

Evan also sent me another card for one of my PC guys, but I'll highlight that one at a later date. 

Evan asked me about some mini's he had from 2013 and 2014. When the package arrived I realized he hooked a brother up. After organizing and editing my set needs, I am close to finishing up the mini sets from 2013. I still have a ways to go, but I am getting pretty close. 

Evan also sent a ton of inserts from 2013 Topps Flagship, including these 3 awesome "Cut to the Chase" cards. I will probably never finish the set for them through trade, and I don't really want to spend money on them, but they are cool to have.

Thanks again for the trade Evan. Hope to do it again soon. 

My Paco Rodriguez PC

On Saturday night I had an unexpected surprise when I checked the status of the four cards I was waiting on via Topps Redemption. All four had been shipped and the first two arrived yesterday. One of those cards will be included in the Mega Trade Bait Post which I am working on, but the other is this beauty.

I picked this up on eBay a few months back for just a couple of bucks. It is #'d 148/499, and is a great addition to my upstart Paco PC. 

That auto joins this fantabulous auto I picked up a few months ago, but the fun doesn't stop there.

(Note: The autos look like they were signed by two different people....)

I also have six Paco cards that are not autos, though three of them are pretty much the same card. 

In addition, I own three of Paco's parallel's from 2013 Topps Chrome. These cards are going toward my Topps Chrome Rainbow project, so I won't officially count them toward my Paco Card total.

I thought I had another Paco around here but it looks like I don't. Without counting the TC cards, I have a total of 8 different Paco cards. It is unlikely Topps puts out a ton of Paco cards, but I will do my darndest to acquire them. 

Shades of '93

I picked this card of the bay a few weeks back, and like the Matt Kemp I showed off yesterday, it ran me about two bucks and showed up about two weeks ago.

I really enjoy the design of these inserts, probably because they hail from 1993 Topps Finest. Because I was born in 1993, these things have a little added significance to me. 

I very rarely show the back of cards on here, but rarely are they this good. We get to see an awesome shot of Zack Greinke in Dodgers spring training garb, and that "Getting a Grip" shot (Thanks Ethan) is fantastic.

I will be on the lookout for the rest of this insert set. I'll probably ask Dodger Penguin who is in the set because I am too lazy to look it up and he already completed it. If you have any laying around let me know.

BTW: There will be no Trade Bait Tuesday today. I will be posting a larger Mega Trade Bait post later in the week.

What?! Another Contest?!

As some of you know, my best friend Dikran is an aspiring Producer/DJ. He has been playing all types of instruments since he a little kid and he has finally decided to try and do something bigger with music. 

We have been been setting up a website for him, but in the meantime he does most of his communicating/posting through his new Facebook page.

We decided to host a contest here on the blog to help promote him, with the hopes that at least a few of you like his music. 

First things first, this contest will end this Friday (4-4-14) and a winner will be announced on Saturday (4-5-14) night.

PRIZES:

• The Winner will receive one Blaster Box of 2014 Topps Heritage as well as 250 Chavez Code points
• Second Place will receive 150 Chavez Code points as well as a goodie pack of cards from me
• All entrants will receive 10 Chavez Code points just for helping out and showing my buddy some support. If you maximize your entries and enter in all 4 possible ways, you will receive 40 Chavez Code points

HOW TO ENTER: 

Like many of my contests, you can earn multiple entries. Here's how:

• (1 entry): Like his Facebook Page here
• (1 entry): Follow his Soundcloud here
• (10 entries): Share 1 song of his on Twitter
• (10 entires): Blog about this contest on your blog

Comment on this post when you have performed one or all types of entry. 

All entries will be placed into a Random.org randomizer and the first two names after 10 randomization's will be the winners.

Have a listen to one of his songs below and thank you for taking the time to read the blog!

Matt Kemp's Jersey Looks a Little Weird

I picked up a 2014 Turkey Red card of my main man, Matt Kemp. I got it from eBay for about 2 bucks (I think?) and it arrived about 2 weeks ago.

One thing that stands out to me is the gray between the "O", "D", "G", and "E" on the front of the jersey. I don't think it was intentionally placed there, but I don't see how it got there otherwise. Unless it is supposed to be there, it seems like Topps missed another mistake in one of their products.

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It's not all bad with Topps though. I checked out my redemption status for 4 cards that have seemingly been there forever, and surprisingly they were shipped last week. I'll have more on those as soon as they are in hand.