2011 TOPPS END ZONE ICONS

OK I have searched and searched the internet but I can't find the checklist for the 2011 Topps End Zone Icons inserts.  Can anyone help?  Here is the card I have.

BEEN BUSY!!!

OK so I've had it mentioned to me that I'm not posting enough Blogs.  Fair enough, but Football season officially started yesterday which means I am going to be having A LOT of time spent in front of my tv.  I have also been trying to get a good bit more of my cards that I already have logged in and data-based.  I've logged in over 28 thousand so far and that does not include the duplicates.  But I still have so many to go so please understand that I haven't forgotten to blog I just haven't had as much time as of late.  I am going to try to do better as I have been keeping my eyes open for any interesting cards as I log them in but the problem is I've been doing a lot from the late 80's early 90's and those were some really boring card years for me.  Alright it's back to logging in because I've got a High School football game to go to this evening!

DO YOU COLLECT FOR THE MONETARY ASPECT OR FOR THE LOVE OF IT?

You have asked yourself this question before or you wouldn't be collecting.  Some people collect sports stuff just so they can turn around and sell it for a profit.  Nothing wrong with that at all.  I on the other hand collect because I love it.  I really enjoy from time to time going back and looking through binders of cards or flipping through boxes and randomly picking out a card and just looking it over and reading the stats on the back.  If it's an old card I think of what it would have been like to have watched that player play.  And when it comes to Autographs I have gotten, well, I got them myself so I love telling the story of the players attitude and what it was like to meet them.

A couple of post ago I mentioned that I had received an Autograph from Topps Editor Colin Butler.  I had mixed emotions about it because he was an employee rather than a sports figure.  I asked people to post their thoughts on it to see if your thoughts might change my mind into liking them.

I was contacted by a gentlemen named Jake.  Turns out he is best friends with Colin and had been looking for one of his cards ever since the Allen & Ginter set came out, but he was having no luck until he saw my blog on the card.  He asked me if I would be willing to part ways with the card and immediately I said yes just asking a fair price or trade for the card.  While waiting on his reply I started thinking.  I collect cards from every sport that happens to cross my path and a lot of times I get Inserts that really have nothing to do with sports yet I still collect them.  It was then that I realized that even employees could become collectible if marketed correctly as was done with the Allen & Ginters.  I still parted ways with this card because even though it would be collectible it meant something to Jake just like my football autographed by all of the 1998 HOF inductees.  I met each one of them to get their autographs and would never part ways with that football. I understood how Jake felt and knew that the card was going to someone who will really appreciate it and cherish it forever.  Here are a couple photos of Jake and Colin.

Jake mentioned to me that he does not collect sports cards however In my eyes he has just started by collecting one of his good friend Colin and I'm glad that I was able to be involved with helping him reach his goal of getting his card.

The love of collecting.  This transaction is what kindles the spark of opening up another pack of cards or encouraging me to drive many miles to meet that special player.  I hope when you pause and think about your collections whether it's for monetary purposes or for the love of it that you do stop and think of the players, or in this case employees and the people that it does affect!  Enjoy!

2008 TOPPS KMART INSERTS AND CHECKLIST

OK, I don't know how rare these cards are but I had one heck of a time building the checklist for this insert set. I had to go to site after site and get one card here and one card there to get it completed.  I got VERY frustrated!!!  But now it's done and I thought to myself hey if it was this difficult for me then it might be for someone else also so I'm posting the checklist on here if anybody needs it.  First is a picture of the cards that I have in the set and the checklist is at the bottom.  Enjoy.

Checklist
 RV1 Chin-Lung Hu
 RV2 Steve Pearce
 RV3 Luke Hochevar
 RV4 Joey Votto
 RV5 Clay Buchholz
 RV6 Emilio Bonifacio
 RV7 Daric Barton 
 RV8 Eugenio Velez
 RV9 J.R. Towles
 RV10 Wladimir Balentien 
 RV11 Ross Detwiler
 RV12 Troy Patton
 RV13 Brandon Jones
 RV14 Billy Buckner
 RV15 Ross Ohlendorf
 RV16 Nick Blackburn
 RV17 Masahide Kobayashi
 RV18 Jayson Nix
 RV19 Blake DeWitt
 RV20 Hiroki Kuroda
 RV21 Matt Tolbert
 RV22 Brian Bass
 RV23 Fernando Hernandez
 RV24 Kazuo Fukumori
 RV25 Brian Barton
 RV26 Clete Thomas
 RV27 Rico Washington
 RV28 Erick Threets
 RV29 Callix Crabbe
 RV30 Johnny Cueto

MIXED EMOTIONS ABOUT A 1/10 AUTOGRAPH

I love cards that have Game Used items in them, Rare cards and Autographed Cards, but an Autograph of a Topps Employee?  Come on now.  That just seems a little ridiculous to me!  I'll start by saying I really like the 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter's set.  It is a very interesting set with stars from any sport imaginable, even bean bag tossing! (lol it's considered a sport).  I love how they frame their Game Used items and Autographed cards.  The framed cards should stay in perfect shape for many many years.  However I did receive a 1/10 Autographed card of Colin Butler, a Baseball Editor at Topps.  Why?  Are there not enough sports stars to get Autographs from that we have to turn to Employees?  I'm very mixed on this one.  Here is a pic of it.  Let me know your opinion on the Employee Autographs.  Who knows maybe you can convince me to like them more. haha

JUST WANT TO VENT

OK!  It is just RIDICULOUS how many inserts the companies are putting into their sets now.  It's fine and dandy with me if they have numerous different sets because then you could collect just the sets you like but the way it is now all of the sets have numerous inserts!  There is noway for anyone to collect the set and all the inserts without basically buying the inserts off of eBay.  I like opening and searching for my inserts and not knowing from the beginning that I'm not going to find them all.  And then to top it off companies like Wal-Mart create one or two mirror sets of the base sets. ;alsdkjfa;lsdkjf  I'm just frustrated.  All I ask is that the companies limit their insert sets to maybe 5 sets of inserts.  Anything just make it more manageable PLEASE!

2008 TOPPS ALL-STAR GIVEAWAY

Well it's been over a week since I left a blog and I'm sorry for that.  I went on a trip to Mississippi to visit some family but don't worry, I hit up the discount section of their Wal-Mart while there.  I picked up a couple of boxes of mixed year and brand cards.  I haven't opened any of them yet however each box had a card just sitting in a little protective sleeve.  Sooo here they are.  The first one is a Mickey Mantle 1 or 4 All-Star giveaway card:

And the second is a Chien-Ming Wang 4 of 4 All-Star giveaway card:

I haven't collected any of the 2008 set so I don't know much about it however I do have a few of them that I have received in the 2011 Topps Diamond Dig giveaway so I'll probably have those sent soon.  Anyway hope you enjoy these two.