Heros of the Stupid

In the spirit of Halloween... Our dumbest "Trick or Treaters" story for you via CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/29/iowa.marker.disguise/index.html

Ravishing Relic of the Week 2

NY Yankees 0
Phillies 1

Phillies won today 6-1.

Thank You Followers!

I just wanted to take a minute and say, "thanks" to my followers. Good to see hobby enthusiasts on the web and how we can share some laughter in the hobby and yet still cry when we're getting jipped by them!

I see some of you are from Canada and that is just awesome in my opinion. I love Alberta and Ontario to which I have been there a few times (Edmonton, Tofield, and Toronto to name a few places).

The Things I miss about Canada:
1. West Ed Mall
2. Tim Horton Donuts
3. Manners- People are more polite up there as compared to down here.
4. Seeing daylight in the summer at 11pm.
5. Decent paved roads!
6. Moose!

Ravishing Relic of the Week

In honor of the World Series this week, I present to you some relic cards of players who may or may not be a star in the 2009 MLB WORLD SERIES.

Chicken Scratch of the Day

Gordan Beckham was promoted to the Chicago White Sox less than a year after being drafted from the University of Georgia. He hit .270 with 28 doubles, 14 Home runs and 63 RBIs in 103 games. On October 20, 2009, Beckham was named the Sporting News' 2009 American League rookie of the year, as selected by a panel of 338 major league players, 22 managers and 31 general managers and assistant general managers. On October 26, 2009 Beckham was voted the American League Rookie of the Year by the MLBPA, which is voted on in September by every player on a major league roster.

His autograph seems to be very consistent when compared to other signatures he's done. His signature has a right slant to it indicating a response to communication or pays attention. His first letters in his first and last name indicate that the "G" and "B" are tall upper strokes which can show that he's reaching towards goals and ambitions. The rest of his letters are signified by just a loop. Overall at least it's presentable and not leaving you to think, "who signed this card?"

GOD....TOPPS SUCKS

This is freaking RIDICULOUS! I'll have Grandchildren before this stuff ever gets sent out. No more Topps for me after this fiasco.


FBBS2SZSKY Baseball 2009 Topps Finest Dexter Fowler AU Rookie Letter Patch 05/07/2009 Pending

FBBQ1MCEVB Baseball 2009 Topps Finest Dexter Fowler AU Rookie Letter Patch 05/07/2009 Pending

FBBA3XJZ6X Baseball 2009 Topps Finest MLB Rookie #10 Red Refractor 05/07/2009 Pending

FBB7H5GNR2 Baseball 2009 Topps Finest MLB Rookie #10 05/07/2009 Pending

FBBMY2ZNC6 Baseball 2009 Topps Finest MLB Rookie #2 05/07/2009 Pending

FBBV1LW7TH Baseball 2009 Topps Finest MLB Rookie #2 05/07/2009 Pending

TBB3JLB99U Baseball 2009 Topps Series 2 Red Hot Rookie #8 06/19/2009 Pending

Topps for Sale ?

There could be an advertisement of a business for sale here in pa in the near future:

Topps for sale
Duryea, PA. Offices
Cheap building, cheap and used supplies, cheap customer service equipment and phones (some work some don't- as is), lots of overstock from 2010-2014, Mass quantity of stickers available, Tons of potential redemption cards available for use, must L@@K to appreciate book value of items available, Jersey swatches- enough to make patch blankets with or even patch snuggies, over 5 million 1/1 printing plates available just from 2010 Milestones and Moments alone- MOJO!!! Over 5,000 Brad Hand signatures exclusive-one on card and the rest are stickered onto the card. ATTN STAR WARS FANS- Princess Leia fans- pieces of her Tatooine bikini are available as it was to be cut up for a upcoming Star Wars Babes and Sabers set.

Auction listing is exclusive and items are available only to BECKETT.com

Panini Customer service PART Deux aka PT 2

This is the result of the excellent Customer Service from Panini. Thanks so much!

Eli Manning.... ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Manning 2009 1st 5 gms
Comp pct 64.4
Yards/gm 242.4
TD-Int 10-2
Passer rtg 111.7

Manning 2009 Last 2 gms
Comp pct 48.5
Yards/gm 210.5
TD-Int 2-4
Passer rtg 53.6

ELI.... INT's will not help us any.

Jeff Feagles did not do his best punting in this game at all.

The Cardinals used a hybrid 3-4 defense that kept disrupting the Offense and forcing Manning to throw quicker than he had to and not getting a good setup. The Cardinals defense just kept alternating blitzes of 5 man rushes and sending multiple extra defenders into the coverage areas. The Cardinals are team you cannot take lightly anymore.

Hakeem Nicks and Steve Smith...Amazing grabs but do a little better getting the separation from the cornerbacks.

Brandon Jacobs found the endzone today. Glad to see he remembered what it looked like. Now if he could just find it a little bit more often that would be a big plus.

Bradshaw did not have a good game at all and fumbled.

The Giants are not playing with urgency.

The Eagles are next week.

Over a 1,000 views

Hey Folks! I just want to take a minute and thank you all for checking out my page. I hit over a 1,000 views and I didn't even expect to make 100 views. Thank you for your time and allowing me to entertain you.

God Bless y'all!

Tim

Forgotten Rookie of the Week

Jermichael Finley is a tight end for the Green Bay Packers of the NFL. He was drafted by the Packers in the third round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He had played college football at the University of Texas.

2009 STATS current as of 10/20/09
REC
16
YDS
244
TD
1

Panini Customer service comes through once again.

Last November of 2008 I had purchased a hobby box of 2008 Donruss Threads. When I was down to the 2nd last pack of the box I hit the mother of payloads (for myself that is) and pulled a Mario Manningham Rookie Class autographed card. With me being a die hard NY Giants fan I was extremely pleased at what I just pulled and I immediately put it into a hard plastic cover and was tickled to be adding it to my personal collection. Now don't get me wrong as there is nothing wrong with pulling an autographed jersey card, but when it's your own favorite team/player that you pull... it is truly just that much sweeter. The card was stored in a 1000 count box in the closet with my other cards and had not seen daylight unless I took it out of the box to show someone the card. On Sept 29th I took the card out of the box as I was reorganizing the box and was surprised to see how much the autograph was fading off of the manufactured letter. The picture up above is how it looks now as compared to when I first pulled the card which had a very dark solid autograph color. The autograph on the patch was fading much like that of the 2007 Upper Deck sweet spots autographs (http://fielderschoice.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/more-on-my-sweet-spot-breaks/). I decided to contact Panini Customer Service regarding this issue. I had sent them an email explaining what had happened and I included a scan of the card. After Panini Customer Service received and reviewed it they agreed to exchange it. Unfortunately they were not able to replace my exact card with the same one as they were out of them. However, they did offer me a Brian Brohm rookie class in exchange for the Mario Manningham. I politely explained to them that I would prefer to have another Mario Manningham if possible or someone else from the Giants or Ray Rice or perhaps even Rashard Mendenhall and if that was not going to work then they could send me the Brian Brohm autograph. They did not have any other Mario's on hand but what they did offer me was going above and beyond the call of duty:

Updated By: Panini America Admin Created Response No. 12 Monday, October 19 2009 03:23:53 PM
Description Details:
Hi Timothy,
I found a 2008 Playoff National Treasures signatures patches NFL # 28 Lawrence Taylor 15/25 value at 30 dollars more than yours will you consider this card Please let me know so I can mail this out to you. Thank you

My heart about hit the floor because I was not expecting that to happen. I have been wanting to add a Lawrence Taylor autograph to my collection for quite some time and this was going to be the first one let alone a patch autograph card. I would've been happy with just another Giant rookie auto or the Brian Brohm but this was going above and beyond in my opinion. I have been purchasing Donruss/playoff products since 1991 and in all of that time I have only ever had 4 problems. Two of them were manufacturing issues and one being not given the right amount of cards per box. The Mario Manningham issue was number four. However Donruss/Panini/Playoff have always took care of my issues in a timely professional manner. They always sent something a little extra for the problems I've had and had a very good turn around time with returning products to me. I've always had my emails answered and always had my calls answered with kindness. I know some people will disagree with me and say, "well I was screwed out of such and such" or "Customer service doesn't know jack's squat about cards". I know this because I see the negative comments on the Beckett Boards and I see it in other web sites where people are saying about how most of the cards manufacturer's customer service sucks and don't care about the consumer. In all the years of doing business with the card manufacturers such as Donruss/Playoff/Panini and Upper Deck, they've all been faithful and good to me whenever a problem had arisen. As for TOPPS customer service....well... it just plain sucks. There's no toe stepping around it and there is no other way to put it other then the TOPPS customer service department sucks. They're a pain in the ass with replacements and damaged product issues. TOPPS needs to take some lessons on Customer Service from Panini and Upper Deck. If I had a choice of getting a Tri-Star Camel turd relic card or a gold chrome rookie autograph from TOPPS, I'd take the relic card any day over the TOPPS redemption.
My point in a nutshell... Panini came through for me on an issue I had with one of their products and they went above and beyond to get the issue resolved. Thanks Guys!

Forgotten Rookie of the Week

Limas Sweed was taken 53rd overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2008 NFL Draft. Going into the 2009 Training Camp, Sweed faced competition for the 3rd wide receiver position between veteran Shaun McDonald and rookie Mike Wallace. Sweed entered the season as the 4th receiver, rarely playing in the first 3 games. However, he dropped a pass in Week 3 which, had he held on to, would have been a touchdown.[11] The following week, Sweed was demoted to 5th on the depth chart, and deactivated. Shaun McDonald took his place. For Week 5, Sweed was re-installed to his 4th receiver spot.
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limas_Sweed

Sweed has yet to produce nor live up to the expectations of the Pittsburgh faithful. I am so glad that I sold this card when I did because it just keeps dropping in value like his attempts at catching passes.

Chicken Scratch of the Day

Joshua Smoker was selected by the Washington Nationals in 1st Round (31st overall) of 2007 amateur entry draft. Josh compiled a 4-2 record with a 3.38 ERA this year for the Nationals Gulf Coast Minor League Baseball team. His signature has an enlarged first letter in his signature which can mean a strong desire to appear in public, assertiveness and a need to rule or dominate. As for the rest of the letters...use your imagination.

Ravishing Relic of the Week

Correct me if I am wrong but how often does the pitcher actually bat in the American leagues? Topps has me confused because unless it's a game used bat from his Marlins day I have not known Josh to bat for himself. Help me out here with this one folks.

Ravishing Relic of the Week

I pulled this card from a Wal Mart blaster box of 2008 Topps Luxury Box Basketball. It's serially numbered 13/75 and I thinks it's kind of a cool card to have of two well known NBA centers. Let us GAZE upon it and move forward.

Chicken Scratch of the Day

I opened three boxes of Topps performance in 2007 and I was so happy when I pulled this lovely Barry Sanders HOF autographed card. What made it even sweeter was I had also managed to pull an Adrian Peterson autographed rookie in the previous pack before I hit the Sanders card and I thought I was one lucky dude! A hall of famer and a future hall of famer from the same box of cards.
Barry's signature has been consistent over the years and always seems to have a very legible autograph even when he's writing on the pigskin or on pigskin insert cards. It was too bad that Barry retired when he did as I felt he could have become the all time leading rusher. Barry has a very presentable signature and for this he receives 4 sharpies!

Joys of Parenting

Attention married couples and "happily in love young couples"- When having children please note that it is impossible at times to attend both sporting events that the children are participating in at the same time.
I hate it when my daughter's soccer games is scheduled around the same time as my son's football games. Like any good parent I try to attend a little bit of both games so no one feels "left out". However when their games are two counties apart then it's almost impossible. Now try to explain that to a crying seven year old who wants her Daddy at her soccer game instead of going to her "rotten" brother's football game. Then after talking with her for about ten minutes she finally calms down and says it's okay for me to go to her "rotten" brother's game. When Scott's football game was over we came home to see Caty looking kind of sad. She then proceeds to tell me, "Dad, we lost today 5-0 so I'm glad you weren't here to see it". A little dose of hugs, kisses, and words of encouragement from Daddy seem to make it all better for her as she then walks away smiling and happy as she can be. As for my son's pee wee football team...well they've managed a measly 1-8 record and are still going to the playoffs (everyone gets in). Hopefully they will have some type of mercy rule or something to that effect because his team has lost by an average of 32 points a game and I don't see things changing anytime soon. We need some new coaches badly! Anybody up for it? You cannot have a productive offense when you run the same plays over and over. Let's run it to the left...let's run it to the left again....let's run it to the left one more time. His football team has run up more negative yardage than any other team that has tons positive yardage. When you have 2nd and 25 and then 3rd and 35 you seem to just keep going that way. Then the kids are fumbling WAY too much. These kids are supposed to be learning the fundamentals and then you come to find out that some of the coaches never played football...makes you want to have some heads rollin! Poor kids!