As part of the lot I received recently from 'Check Out My Cards' there was one card whose purpose served that which all collectors strive towards and also allowed me to move on to other pursuits. Nothing feeds the completest in me more than having a binder page without a blank space between the cards. Also, there is no better feeling than putting a set to bed and marking it complete on your checklist.
This card......
completed both tasks.
The 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter 'World's Wordsmiths' insert set is a 15-card set highlighting the most influential and famous writers throughout history. From Homer to Victor Hugo collectors are exposed to some definite literary heavyweights. My favorite card from this set features one of my favorite authors whose museum will be a definite agenda item during my visit to the 2012 National in Baltimore this summer.
Any time you can combine culture and cards I am in favor of it. Hopefully, in some subsequent release of A&G Topps will see fit to honor some of the greatest Science Fiction writers in a similar set.
Until then, enjoy the 'World's Wordsmiths' set in all its completed page glory.
I never really had an "official" Vol.I of this post but I decided to launch this theme with a bang. No more than 5 redemptions were entered into the Topps website today.
I have been going full bore trying to organize what had become a disaster in my office. There were cards everywhere. Cards to be sorted, cards to be mailed, cards to filed, packs of cards to be opened and cards to have their fates decided.
Most of that work is complete. I think there are three or four piles left to go through. One of the pile of cards I waded through had been where I designated my "to be redeemed" pile. Knowing that had I not sat myself down and entered the codes, a few of these cards may have expired before the next time I saw them.
So, if you noticed, there are three more counters on the sidebar of the blog. The current record for length of time to fulfill belongs to Topps and has been chronicled here. The three newest counters also belong to Topps.
Counter #1 is for three 'Red Hot Rookie' redemption cards from 2010 Series 2 Baseball. 2 redemptions for card #1, which belongs to Carlos Santana and 1 redemption for card #7, which belongs to Domonic Brown.
If there are any kind souls out there who would want to trade me any of these for a Starlin Castro RHR, or an unredeemed #5 RHR you would make a Canadian Cub Fan veeeeeerrrrrryyyy happy, indeed!.
The next redemption was one that helped bring me oh-so-close to winning this year's 'Gint-A-Cuffs' challenge, but sadly, was not enough. It was definitely a fun addition to busting boxes of a great product and I am looking forward to this year's version.
Lastly, the third redemption card was one I was REAL happy to get from one of the group breaks I participated in over at 'Thorzul Will Rule'. He busted 2009 Topps Finest and 2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams. One team was picked and one team was randomized. The Dodgers were available and I took them in hopes of landing a Jackie Robinson, no dice. Luck had it that my randomized team was one I collect and the redemption I hit came from them.
I managed to load up on Dodgers and Dodger autos in the break so hopefully a Dodger fan is reading this and can offer them a good home.
Keep an eye on the sidebar and track the time it takes Topps to get me these wonderful pieces of cardboard. I am also giving Topps a bit of a break and not starting the counter until midnight tonight. Ain't I nice?
The clock is ticking.......
To help celebrate these redemptions I brought back a great clip from an earlier post. Make the people happy Robert.
It has been far longer than I wanted but I have updated my original 'Gint-A-Cuffs Update' post with some further entries by Beardy, 'Plat At The Plate', Dan from 'The Other World', Kelly at 'Baseball Obsession-itis', Motherscratcher over at the 'Achiever Card Blog' and Todd from 'Mid-West Cardboard'.
As always this is TOTALLY UNOFFICIAL.
For everything OFFICIAL-like go check out the 'Gint-A-Cuffs' website and what Mark's Ephemera has to say on all final rulings and scores.
FanofReds has posted everything but his last 2 packs from his break so I figure I might as well post the last of my second box. Time to bring it on home........
WGWS2 William Shakespeare 'The World's Wordsmiths' (+4 - WGW)
TDH59 Hunter Pence 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH)
*This is the first pack where none of the base cards scored for me. I guess all streaks must end. Also, I have to call this a successful break, looking over the 'Wordsmiths' checklist I have pulled the two that I would REALLY want in Poe and Shakespeare. The only other name I see that I would have been happy to get is Victor Hugo. I still may try and chase this set though. Hard to believe that Dickens did not make the cut, speaking of which I have a post in the works about Charles.*
The Point-less
56 Shin-Soo Choo 38 Tiago Della Vega 166 Chris Tillman 40 Carlos Beltran 294 Buster Posey
TDH24 Joey Votto 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH, +2 - FPL)
*Another bonus in the box as that is the third black border mini I have pulled*
The Point-less
95 Judson Laipply 60 Chris Davis 'Crack The Code' Ad Card
Pack #21 - 11 pts
The Points
AGR-KB Kyle Blanks Bat Relic (+8 - Relic)
322 Gary Matthews (mini) (+3 - SP)
TDH75 Mariano Rivera 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH, -1 - Have I said how much I hate the Yankees lately?)
*YESSSS!!!!!! I am not sure if it counts as one but I had assumed the Printing Plate was my third hit of the box. This will definitely help the scoring for Gint-A-Cuffs. One thing I have noticed about the relics this year as opposed to last year, they look tiny and unimpressive. At least with the white plastic border that was around last year's window it was not glaringly obvious just how small the swatch/relic you got was. This year it looks kinda ridiculous.*
The Point-less
128 Hans Florine 236 Shawn Johnson 220 Manny Ramirez 278 Jeff Francoeur
TDH62 Kevin Youkilis 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH, +2 - FPL)
The Point-less
280 Koji Uehara 190 Randy Wolf 35 John Lackey
Pack #23 - 7 pts
The Points
246 Geovany Soto (+1 - MFT)
MM3 Stegosaurus 'Monsters of the Mesozoic' (mini) (+3 - MOTM)
TDH17 Joe Mauer 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH, +2 - FPL)
*The last three packs and NOW the Cubs start falling. The cynic in me is now thinking that the box after this one I picked up was Choc-Full-O-Cubs!!!*
The Point-less
46 Alan Francis 45 Justin Verlander 111 Josh Willingham 102 Torii Hunter 74 Ryan Ludwick
Pack #24 - 6 pts
The Points
23 Joe Mauer (+2 - FPL)
340 Brad Lidge (+2 - SP)
NA46 Ring Tailed Lemur 'National Animals' (+2 - NA)
*You may notice no 'This Day In History' card was scored here. Earlier in the break I had a pack with two, looks like this was its rightful home. No bonus for me.
The Point-less
30 Rafael Furcal 135 Ken Blackburn 187 Jair Jurrjens 259 Scott Feldman
6-pack Total - 49 pts
Finally, this time I saved the Box Topper until last as kind of a nice bookend to my first attempt at Gint-A-Cuffs. Box 1 started with a Cabinet Card and Box 2 ends with a Cabinet Card.
Grand Total Box #1 - 240 pts Kind of ended on a whimper there, would have loved to have gone out with something big but such are the breaks. Thanks to the printing plate this entry turned into a respectable one for this competition. With the chances of some serious pulls available this year I think the winning score will be closer to 300. However, I am really happy with this box and have totally enjoyed competing in Gint-A-Cuffs this year. Thanks to Beardy for creating the fun and thanks to Mark's Ephemera for doing an incredible job as Commish. I cannot begin to imagine the work that goes into developing a scoring table and then the painstaking task of overseeing the competition.
I am already beginning training for next year's competition.
For those of you who have been to my corner of the interweb you know that I have been keeping a running post of 'Gint-A-Cuffs' related breaks. This morning with coffee in hand I have quickly scanned the participants websites and updated any new posts in the main post here.
There are updates from Beardy, FanofReds and Todd as they bust into their second boxes of the competition.
Play at the Plate and GCRL have begun to join the competition and are in the midst of revealing their box breaks.
Community Gum and Slangon have completed their breaks and I fixed the unofficial total for Bud's break as it appears I do not know how to read when he posts a total of 184 and not 151.
I have been keeping pace with my second box postings as well, just to keep things interesting.
TDH48 Matt Holliday 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH, +2 FPL)
*WOW!! Despite the loss of points in the Damon card this pull may have just made this box a contender. I think this is also the 3rd or 4th Printing Plate I have pulled. I know there were 2 from Topps' flagship product and I might have pulled one from the 2009 T-206. Sweet fun!!*
The Point-less
300 Nolan Reimold 225 Mark Teahen 55 Esmil Rogers 247 Rajai Davis (mini)
Pack #15 - 6 pts
The Points
337 Joe Nathan (+2 - SP)
25 Max Scherzer (mini) (+3 - Black Border)
TDH40 Jake Peavy 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH)
The Point-less
286 Revolving Door 148 Anne Donovan 61 Michael Cuddyer 227 Henry Rodriguez 75 Jayson Werth
Pack #16 - 6 pts
The Points
150 Grady Sizemore (+2 - FPL)
MM10 Brachiosaurus 'Monsters of the Mesozoic' (mini) (+3 - MOTM) TDH34 Troy Tulowitzki 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH)
The Point-less
270 Max Poser 287 Drew Brees 142 Ubaldo Jimenez 31 Miguel Montero 66 Orlando Hudson
Pack #17 - 4 pts
The Points
3 Ryan Bruan (+2 - FPL)
62 Matt Kemp (+2 - FPL)
TDH20 C.C. Sabathia 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH, -1 - Bronx Bum )
The Point-less
272 David Blaine 34 Delmon Young 151 Kanekoa Texeira 117 Neil Walker 13 B.J. Upton (mini)
Pack #18 - 8 pts
The Points
185 X-Rays (+1 - Radiation Reward)
306 Adrian Beltre (+2 SP)
105 Nicolaus Copernicus (mini) (+2 A&G back)
TDH1 Chase Utley 'This Day In History' (+1 - TDIH, +2 FPL)
The Point-less
94 Luke Hochevar 124 Andrew McCutchen 174 Eric Byrnes 260 Chris Young
6-pack Total - 75 pts
I cannot believe I managed to ring up 75 points with this 6-pack. Any time you can pull something unexpected from a pack it reminds me of the fun that collecting cards provides beyond the set building aspect. I am too excited to see what happens with the last packs, gotta go do them right now!!!!
