Change is good!

Attn: Men, Women, Athletes, Dogs, Boys, Girls, Cats, Amish Mafia, Bruno the Hitman, Lucy, Topps, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mel Brooks, Your Mom, My Ex-girlfriends, My fish, and anybody else who sucks in air off of the planet known as EARTH.

It has been a twisted pleasure writing on here and making fun of things about life events and sharing in the craziness of the hobby world and the sharing of my personal life and thoughts. We (me and my alter egos) enjoy reading the comments, the emails, and occasional fun filled notes and it does not matter to us if  they are rude or nice because every one has a right to voice their thoughts or opinions. The services that I bring forth to you we enjoy doing immensely and even though sometimes life's events keep us away from our creativity process on here, we try to post something when we have a free moment to let you know that we're still alive and kicking. So with that thought in mind we will be changing the way we present things on here. Change is good. Change is what we need. Change allows us to believe that YES WE CAN. CHANGE ALLOWS US TO BUY SODA FROM A MACHINE IF WE ARE THIRSTY. CHANGE WILL ALLOW US TO BUY CONDOMS FROM VENDING MACHINES TO PROTECT OUR PAYCHECKS AND PROTECT US FROM THE POTENTIALLY UNDISCOVERED HERPES THAT SHE/HE/IT/THAT/ALIEN/SHEEP/ OR WHATEVER GENDER IT IS MAY HAVE. CHANGE IS GOOD FOR MORALE. CHANGE IS GOOD FOR WHEN OUR UNDERWEAR ARE DIRTY. AND BY GOD CHANGE IS NEEDED FOR WHEN OUR WIVES ATTEMPT TO SMOTHER US IN OUR SLEEP.

Basically folks.........We have moved up to the techno age and obtained a laptop with .........a camera......ooooooooooooooo! LET THE PEEP SHOW BEGIN!

Topps 5 Star Football Questions

I posted this statement on the Topps Facebook page and it didn't last longer than 10 minutes till they took it down already. I think these are pretty legit questions in what I am asking of them regarding Topps 5 star football:

I have three questions regarding the upcoming 5-star football: 1. Will there be redemptions in this product? 2. Why do you continuously have to make it the same combo cards like Rice and Montana considering there has been how many player combinations/hook ups over the years? Why not something like Favre & Driver or something like Defensive Tandems say like "Ray Lewis and Ed Reed"? 3. Can you actually make it more like a jumbo pack and actually get more than 5 cards considering the price you have to pay to get all the cards if you attempt to complete the set?

Needless to say I doubt very much that I will have an answer from them at all.

Chicken Scratch: David Garrard Edition

The so called "fools" of upper management and Jack Del Rio at the Jacksonville Jaguars thought it was best to sever the ties to David Garrard and put all of their hopes and dreams of a Super Bowl into the hands of  a craptastic QB named "Cool Hands Luke" McCown. Was it over money? Perhaps. Was it over inconsistency of David's health? Hmmmmm.......let's see how they match up:


"Cool Hand Luke":
TD-INT: 9/10
Passing Yds: 1,619
QB Rating: 74.4
Salary: $250,000/yr

David G:
TD-INT: 89/54
Passing Yds: 16,003
QB Rating: 85.8
Salary: $7,975,000/yr

I'm quite sure he will not stay unemployed for long as there are several teams in need of a veteran QB. What's really disgusting is how the Jacksonville staff used him today to sell season tickets and opening season tickets at a Jaguars fans experience and then after the show is done they cut him off the team with less than a week till the first game of the season. CLASSLESS ACT ON THEIR PART. David deserved better!

As for David's autograph let us take a look at what we have:

 

I for one do enjoy the layout and design of the Topps Pristine cards. What I like the most about them is that his autograph is "on card". As for David's signature you can easily make out the first "D" and the last "d" in his first name. It looks as if the "avi" part is a straight line. As with his last name you can clearly again make out the first and last letters in the last name portion of the autograph: the "G" and "d". The "arrar" part seems equivalent to a curved and straight line. David has also added his jersey number to his signature and it is a clearly visible number. For his auto we give him 3 out of 5 sharpies!

Is this Albert Pujols autograph a fake?

I've been looking to acquire an Albert Pujols autograph for our collection of MLB players and came across this ebay auto:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Albert-Pujols-autograph-signed-The-Bigs-auto-case-UDA-/220844978503?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336b62f147

The owner of the auction said this in the item description:
"This auction if for an Albert Pujols signed The Bigs case. There is no game or game book. The Upper Deck Authenticated authentication hologram number is pictured, and it does not come with the UDA COA, but obviously it has the UDA sticker on it, and is obviously the real deal. It was given to players in the St. Louis, Missouri area, at the Albert Pujols charity golf tournament. I will ship via USPS mail with tracking."


Then when I entered the code on Upper Deck's website to check the hologram authenticity this is what I got:

We are unable to locate SHO20950 in our hologram database.

Note: Items that were produced prior to 2002 are not included in the online database.

Please contact our Customer Service Department at (800)551-8220 or via e-mail at ud_store@upperdeck.com to confirm the authenticity of your item.

Welcome to UDA's Hologram Data Center. To view and verify the authenticity of Upper Deck Authentic Memorabilia, please enter its corresponding hologram ID number below and click on "Submit."

A photo of the item will appear, as well as a brief description of the item, and will reveal immediately if the entered hologram ID number properly matches the piece to which it was originally applied. Please note that this database only contains items from January 2002 to present at this time. To find out information on older items, please contact us at 1(800)551-8220 between 8:00AM-5:00PM, Monday-Friday PST. 

So you tell me......would you buy this item based off of what he has described in his auction listing? Look for the clues!

Okay......explain this to me.

On my Topps redemptions list I have this card:

2011 Bowman Platinum Baseball Jeremy Hellickson - Auto Relic Refractor Blue Parallel   Shipped 11/26/2011

So how can something be shipped 11/26/2011 with a tracking number? Funny it's September unless I missed something. Shipped in Nov?

Things that annoy me...... (ahem)....TOPPS

You would think if a company is going to put out a product live then they should have the "Redemption Process" or "Code Giveaway promotion" already established and in place and ready to accept redemptions the day the product is live and not 3-4 weeks after the product is released. You would think they would've learned their lesson by now after hearing all of the complaints and comments from everyone in the hobby. Bad dog Topps! Don't pee on the customer Topps....Down Boy......Down!

Why Topps........WHY do you FAIL?

2011 Topps finest football is out and there is already a an error.

(this pic was borrowed from the blowout forums only to prove a point)

How can Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen both have the same jersey number on the cards? Did they not proof read the cards before they went through the manufacturing process? Is this a prank pulled by the rookies at the photo shoot? Aye Aye Aye!