The $5.00 Thorzul Challenge

Some time ago, Thorzul laid down a challenge: send him what you could buy on eBay for five bucks, including the shipping. I went to eBay, searched for baseball cards and skipped over 3-4 pages. I found a lot of 48 Josh Hamilton cards for less than $5 total. I didn't even look to see what was in there. I snagged it.  Turned out to be some decent cards.

(Image of the cards I bought stolen from Thorzul's site because I forgot to scan them before I mailed them off)

There were duplicates in there, and I thought about keeping a couple for my non-Tribe collection, but decided that the integrity of the game was more important.

Here's where you come in: Visit Thorzul's voting page and choose your favorite $5 item and your least favorite $5 item. I almost voted for the bent-up Thome because, well, it *IS* Thome...

http://thorzul.blogspot.com/2013/08/thorzuls-500-challenge-time-to-vote.html
(Voting is on the right of the page)

Takin names and haulin' wax

I recently took part in Thorzul's "Mondo Break" - choosing the Indians, of course.  Prices were set based on the team you selected, or more specifically the number of cards you would get. Buyers did not know the number of cards ahead of time.  I think I made out pretty well, overall.

First up, a Rocky Covalito game-used bat and two Vizquel bat cards.  I've gone through tons of the Vizquel cards. In fact, I probably have duplicates in my Indians giveaway box now. Well, I do now for sure - Haha! 

Next up, two Thome swatches: one #'d to 800, the other #'d to 400.  I am sending the #/400 to Baseball Dad under an arranged agreement.  Namely, he asked for it and I said he could have it. Haha!

Now, these two next cards were not part of the Mondo break, but rather were extras that Thorzul was giving away. I am a Penguins fan and thought the Crosby would be cool to have for a while (until it makes its way into some future contest/giveaway) and the cereal checklist was just a fun thing to have.  Of course, what makes it special is the "1st Annual Collectors' Edition" on the back. Why? There is no such thing as "1st Annual."  It is either the 1st *OR* you've done it more than once, thus "Annual."  Sure, it's a matter of semantics, but one that has always tweaked a particular nerve.

Thanks, Thorzul! That was fun.

M'Alomar'd by Thorzul

As soon as I opened the package I received today, I knew.  Actually, I had that strange feeling even BEFORE I opened the package.  You see, the return address simply said, "Thorzul."  And I knew...

So, you see kids, there are all kinds of things you can do with 33^* Sandy Alomar, Jr cards!

He was VERY kind enough to include a 2009 Upper Deck FMSHMG (pronounced "Fimshmig" according to the OED... That's the Old English by Dave).  Er, wait, this is a 2009 UD Franchise Members 4 featuring Sizemore, Hafner, Martinez, and Garko (580/999)!  Very cool:

Let the retribution packing begin... Hmmm... What shall that include??

*each word above was made with the 33 cards, just to be clear here.

That Thorzul sure is a cheap one...

Bill, aka Thorzul, held his "Return of El Cheapo" card break.  There were several packs involved and I put my bid in for the Indians.  I knew there was a chance I would pull a goose egg, but that's the chance one takes with a break like this.  I did not, however, pull a zero out of the hat!  In fact, it seems I managed to a handful of "hits" (such as they are often referred).  Digression: I am an avid Indians card collector - ANY Tribe cards I get are HITS in my book!

Let's see what I came away with here...

How about a Dennis Martinez SP Legendary Cuts Glory Days (036/399) and an Exponential^2 CC Sabathia!

Not enough of the Denny for you?  Well how about *TWO* SP Legendary Cuts Classic Careers?  Yes, BOTH are Denny Martinez (54/399 and 45/399).  They are not only serially palindromes, but are also just nine cards apart!  That is the equivalent of getting doubles and yet not getting doubles at the same time:

We're done done with the serially numbered inserts, either!  How about Al Lopez UD Hall of Fame (507/550)!?  Awesome!  That's followed up by a Topps Peak Performance Cy Young and an A&G National Pride V-Mart:

And, as if a handful of some very cool cards wasn't enough, the cardboard gods (er, sorry, that's a different blog) tossed in a Topps Moments & Milestones Jeremy Sowers autographed card for good measure:

Holy Smokin Stack of Cheapo, Batman!  You will get no complaints from the peanut gallery (er, yet still a different card blog) here, folks!  These are great and well worth the price of admission!

Thanks to Thorzul, who really does rule!  Or does he SET the rules?  You know, it just occurred to me that the proper inflection dictates whether he is the ruler ot if he has his own set of rules (Thorzul Rules).  I digress (often).

Sterling.. In every sense of the word

Thorzul recently had a "Bowman Sterling" group break and I received my take from that break the other day. Also included in the package we these two "Sterling" performers:

The cards above are 2007 SP Legendary Cuts, featuring Bob Feller and Lou Boudreau.  I really like these cards.  They have a cool marble-like background and the gold foil adds to the card rather than takes anything away (as often foil does).  The black-and-white images surrounded by the red gradient fill really makes the images POP, too!

The other "Sterling" cards in the envelope comprise my take from the break:

If memory serves, each participant chose a team and then was assigned a random team.  My team ended up the Marlins.  Of course, it is entirely possible that I picked Florida as my secondary team if given the choice of remaining teams.  You never know with me.  I digress.

The two players I received are Aaron Thompson and Chris Volstad with signature-on-sticker autographs.  These Sterling cards are very cool-looking.  They are clean with the large white space around the player's face.  Normally, white space just eats up card real estate, but in this case, it makes the closeup really stand out.  Like the Legendary Cuts, the ornation on the card adds to it attractiveness.

Thanks, as always, Thorzul!  You really do rule!

Thorzul Rules Thanksgiving, or something like that

I received my take from the Thorzul break of Topps Finest.  I selected the Indians (of course) and was paired up with Diamondbacks:

 First up is Rich Rundles. 

Next up is a Blue Stephen Drew serially numbered 039/399!

Oh, yeah! Homegrown Cliff Lee!  He and his wife just donated a cool million bucks to the Arkansas Children's Hospital the other day.

How about some Grady Sizemore? Nice!

And lastly, Justin Upton.

I hope everyone out there has a WONDERFUL holiday season! 

Nightmares on Cardboard III is open! Wahoo!

Oh, yeah!!  Okay, folks, Thorzul has officially opened the gates to his annual horror-based baseball card contest!  This year, the only "rule" seems to be that the card must be based on a design of Topps between 1970-1990.  Anything else goes.  Sweet!

Here are the gory deets: http://thorzul.blogspot.com/2010/10/its-october-and-that-means-its-time-for.html

The Willie Blair Project

Sometimes, I am too smart for my own good.  Take my initial brain-jerk for Thorzul's Scariest Card contest:

Yeah, "The Willie Blair Project" was going to be one of my entries for this year.  I read his instructions.  I got a little sidetracked. I was watching "For Love of the Game" and saw "EW Top 25 1999" in Thorzul's post.  What I missed was the "Pre-1985" part until I re-read the post.  So, I present the incomplete work above.  Perhaps tomorrow I will take up the task once again, only this time I'll pay more attention.

Thorzul Rules

There is a reason Thorzul's blog is titled the way it is: he rules! I recently won several of his latest auctions on eBay. See, after my last giveaway, I am a little short on cards in some areas, so I figure this way I can accomplish many things at once: 1) I help out a fellow blogger by putting a little change in his pocket, 2) I can slowly rebuild my giveaway stash, and 3) I can do it in such a way that it does not raise too many alarms. Okay, the last one is a joke.

When I got home to find a box from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I had a pretty good idea who it was from. And when I opened the box to find a hefty stack of Tribe cards in addition to another hefty stack of cards I bought, I knew for sure! Thorzul Rules!


There are a bunch of Tribe cards that he sent along to me and they cover all kinds of makes: Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer, SP, Bowman, Select, and more. Plus a variety of models: Topps Heritage, Fleer Patchworks, UD Reflections, Topps Own the Game, UD Diamond Connection, Topps Opening Day, UD Play Ball, Topps Co-Signers, UD Star Retro Rookies, Topps Gallery, Topps Moments & Milestones, UD Goudey, and the list goes on.

There is a large number of Moments & Milestones featuring Sabathia (each card showing a different Moment/Milestone and serially numbered), Thome, Hafner, Ramirez and more. It's weird seeing the same photo used on so many 'different' cards.

I gotta hand it to Thorzul. I was very surprised to find all these cool Tribers in my shipment of eBay winnings! Awesome stuff! Thank you VERY much!