OPERATION FIG TREE: HAVE YOU SEEN KEVIN YOUKILIS?

SHARPE'S MOST WANTED 2009 GOUDEY CARDS #25

KEVIN YOUKILIS

WEEE WOOOO WEEEE WOOO!! Have you seen this card? Maybe lying around next to some blasters you destroyed back in May? Maybe underneath a pile of Allen & Ginter wrappers? Next to the 1972 Topps set you are trying to complete? Somewhere near your Jorge Julio jersey relic? Or maybe lying on top of a stack of Big Papi cards you're thinking about burning. I don't know where he is, but if you've got him. I want to trade for him.

This will be my first in a series of pleas for the last remaining cards to finish off the 2009 Goudey base set. Although I think it needs a catchy nickname to get some press. Let's call it Operation Fig Tree. Or in Spanish, that's Operación Higuera.

FTW!

I loves me some contest.

Check it out, it's Trader Jack's blog and he's giving away cards.

Time For A Final Total

My relics, in all of their relic-y goodness.

There's a Chase Utley jersey relic. +8 x 5 = 40.

There's a Kosuke Fukudome jersey relic. +8 x 5 = 40.

And concluding my Gint-A-Cuffs scoring, long pause, an Ichiro bat relic. +8.

There you have it. +88 adding to my previous total of +185 puts my box at +273. A mere 74 points shy of the magical 347 needed to tie Beardy, but good enough for 5th place on the leaderboard. Right below John from Old School Breaks and slightly above Night Owl from Night Owl Cards.

I'd love to find a sack of money that fell off a truck and break open one more box just to see if I could find a way to break 347, but it might not be in the cards.

Yup, I'm totally ending my Gint-A-Cuffs posting career with a terrible pun. I had fun, and thanks again Beardy for coming up with a great contest. And if anyone out there wants to trade me some mini or needs/wants any of the cards from my box, check out my other post.

Gint-A-Cuffs Box Break Part 7: Even More Stuff!

Alright, even more Allen & Ginter goodness this morning. After this post I should have nothing left but to reveal the hits from my box.



Featured here are the mini A&G backs I pulled in the box.

JJ Hardy and Corey Hart bring in +3 apiece for being both mini, A&G back, and Brewerlicious. Duchscherer is both short printed and an A&G back with gives him a
+9. The other three, Rasmus, DeWitt and Hafner are just +2 for the A&G back. Subtotal +21. Running total now stands at +149.

Two more standard mini short prints, +7 each:



Bringing the total up to +163.

Two hoaxes, two National Heroes (still can't believe I sent William Wallace to Beardy!), and Negro League star Red Moore mini, which is pending scoring. For now I'll score it just the +2 for being a Negro Leage star, just like the regular sized base cards. Add another +22 to my score bringing it to +185.



It's been fun recapping the box break in this fashion. All that's left are the hits and I'll look to post those over lunch. Check back in for the finale.

Gint-A-Cuffs Box Break Part 6: Assorted Goodness To Speed Up Scoring

Just wanted to make a public correction on my score since I've done a horrible job adding it up to this point.

4 Base Yankees (-4) + 1 Yankees SP (+5-1 = +4) + 2 Turds (-2) = -2

So my overall score headed into this post is +43.

+10 Josh Hamilton N43 Box Topper
-2 Base Yankees + Turds
+4 Crack the Code
+2 Favorite Team
+20 National Pride
+9 Black Bordered Minis

Now for some new stuff:

Base cards of favorite players. +2 all around for a subtotal of +12

Next up, the Negro League Stars:

Pennington, Simpson, and Navarro net me a +6. Running total up to +61

Sketch cards of Lester (+3), A-Rod (+3), Ichiro (+3), and Chippah (+3). I'm actually a bit sketchy on the scoring here, since I don't see a Yankees penalty laid out here, but then again there is no bonus for favorite players list either, so well consider this +12.

The total now stands at +73. For good measure we'll chunk all the 301-350 SPs on here at the end:


That's 11 for +55. Running Total now stands at +128. Stay tuned, more to come.

Gint-A-Cuffs Box Break Part 5: Mini Black Borders

Time to show off a couple more cards that netted me positive points in the Gint-A-Cuffs contest.

Since Soto is some unlucky bastard's favorite player he provides +6 for being both a favorite player and a black bordered mini. Soria is just +3 for being a black bordered mini.

For me, the definition of the detail on the black bordered minis is really cool looking. I hope to get more in trades down the line. My friend's seven year old son is holding out on me though. I asked him what it would take to get his Prince Fielder black mini, his reply: "You can't have it". At least we've taught him well.

My running total is at +40.

As far as I know, no one has yet to match or beat Beardy's 347. He does, however; keep mentioning that none of us should cheat to try to beat him. Makes me wonder why he's so wound up about cheating? I think we may need video evidence of his 347.

The Great Ginter Tradeaway

Although I'm very slowly posting the results of my Allen & Ginter box break for the Gint-A-Cuffs contest, I would like it to be known that I'm looking to trade off all the standard sized cards from my box for minis. Hopefully there are some set builders out there in need of the cards.

I'd love to send a couple of good sized chunks out in some bigger trades, but if you need a card I'm listing below, contact me and we'll work something out. I'm also trying to finish off my Goudey set as well and will welcome trades for those cards.

In fact, I'll include a prize to the person to either finish my Goudey set for me (whoever contacts me with the last card(s) I need) or whoever sends over the most minis in trade. The prize shall remain undisclosed for now, but will definitely be one of the hits from my box.

11/24/09 - ALL CARDS GONE TO A GOOD HOME!

Gint-A-Cuffs Box Break Part 4: National Pride

The official ruling on N43 and other box loader/topper points is in and my revised point total is +11.

Next I bring you the National Pride inserts. These actually worked out pretty well for me.

I nabbed five players from the favorite players list. Derek Jeter, who works out to +3 after the Yankees penalty is assessed and Ryan Braun who is worth +6 since he's my favorite player. Adrian Gonzalez, Kosuke Fukudome, and Josh Hamilton are all worth +4. Joba Chamberlain is a -1. Stupid Yankees.

All in all this was a very successful subset netting me 20 points.

The running total now stands at +31.

Gint-A-Cuffs Box Break Part 3

Since I don't have time to write an actual post this morning, I figured I'd post the 2pt code cards. I can't even bare to look at these anymore, although strangely enough, I'm looking forward to the 2010 Ginter code already so I can redeem myself.

Running total is still in question, but I'll add +4 for now, bringing it to +30 total.

Updated Goudey Need/Want List

I've now updated my Goudey needs list.

Please take a look here if you think you can help me finish my Goudey base card set. I'm also interested in finishing off the first set of short prints from 201-240.

I'd be happy to trade any of the Allen & Ginter cards I have and I can list those out.

I'll continue with the Gint-A-Cuffs box reveal tomorrow morning.

2009 Gint-A-Cuffs Box Break Part 3: The Turds

My favorite part about the Gint-A-Cuffs contest is the rules surrounding random cards of certain "players". For example:

"-1 points for pulling the base for Suez Canal, Milky Way, Old Faithful, Electron (because what the heck are you going to do with that)"

Or in this case:

"-1 points if we pull base card of ....Eric Byrnes, Bobby Crosby, Scott Olsen, Jeff Clement, Kenji Johjima, Tom Gorzelanny"



Every time I opened a pack I prayed not to stumble across a Yankee or one of these turds. Although I tried with all my might, I couldn't avoid Bobby Crosby or Jeff Clement. As an extra bonus, I was somehow lucky enough to pull all the worst Yankee cards in the set. Really, I did. Burnett? Wang? Phil Coke? I feel like Phil Coke + Yankee Stadium would = the biggest marketing gimmick in the world if he was somehow able to have a great career.

I will cut Cano some slack, he's not terrible, but based on a side bet I had in my fantasy baseball league between who would have the better career: Rickie Weeks or Robinson Cano, I have a side vendetta with Cano. Brett Gardner seems likable enough. The guy looks like a chip off the Roger Maris block. Before I saw his name on the card I thought I'd landed some old school Yankee from the 60s.

But I digress. The best part about my Yankees and turds is that they only net me -1 because Burnett turned out to be a short print. He's number 300-something. I'll pretend Bobby Crosby was the only guy to hit me with a -1, because I hate him a whole lot.

My running total is a little messy right now with the N43 Hamilton Box Topper pending ruling.

Hammy could be worth anywhere from 10 to 50 points I guess. I feel that the Box Toppers should count as hits since you may only get one per box. Relics qualify for the multiplier bonus and you should get somewhere between 2-4 per box.

For now, I'll consider the Hamilton +25 since he's an N43 Box Topper and x5 for a Favorite Player hit. My running total is at +26 after Yankees and turds.

Gint-A-Cuffs Box Break Part 2

I wasn't very satisfied with only posting the Josh Hamilton N64 box topper, so I'll throw some more points your way as well.

Here we have Mr. Rickie Weeks - get well buddy - and JJ Hardy. +2. That brings the overall total to +27.

Tomorrow I shall bring to you what I collectively call "The Turds".

2009 Gint-A-Cuffs Entry - Box Break Part 1

Alright, so there's that little thing I said about being the first to admit if I was wrong about the Ginter Code.

I was totally wrong. Have you seen the movie A Beautiful Mind? It wasn't far from that plot line. All that's left is for me to do to win the Ginter Code Contest is to dig this chip out of my arm and drop off a few letters at this secret hideout over in the industrial park nearby. Yup, it was that crazy. My apologies to the people at Topps that had to read through that submission. I assure you I'm not crazy.

Anyway, I cried for a few days after talking to one of the guys who successfully broke the code. Thanks Nick, for listening to me talk crazy. I must have blown your damn mind when I was pointing to a bunch of the cards that helped you get the actual solution. The overlaps will confuse me forever. But, I'm glad that I got to meet some people I'd otherwise not have met while discussing the code and look forward to next year.

Without further ado, I bring you my entry into the Gint-A-Cuffs contest for 2009 (now officially sponsored by Topps).

I figured I'd start where I started and eventually get to where I got to. How's that? No pack by pack break here, just all the scoring.

I bring you Mr. Josh Hamilton, N43 (I want to keep saying N64, so maybe I will), N64 Box Topper.

Under normal circumstances this lowly old box topper would net a fella +5, but whoa no, not for Josh Hamilton, he of the favorite's player list. I'll take this hit and multiple by 5, per the rules:

"x5 If any hits are of players on the 'favorite players' list"

That's 25 points. Just as nice as a Group A autographed card. I'll take it.

Off to a good start, running tally stands at 25 points. Stay tuned, more to come.

This post was completely edited for my horrendous math.

Today Is Gint-a-Cuffs Day!

I cannot wait to get home and find my box on the porch waiting for me.

Calling All Goudey Retail Packs

Anyone seen any of these laying around Target? Is Target the only retail store that's selling them?

I've noticed they seem to be drying up around here, and there are blasters left, but I can't rationalize dropping $20 at once, even if I will spend that entire $20 at some point over the course of the month. Silly, really, isn't it?

I've just got an itch to see if I can hit another SP, but can't seem to find a pack.

Allen & Ginter Ripoff

Yup, I'm implying exactly what the title of this post says. I, well we, were ripped off. Unless of course I'm overlooking something super awesome in my pack of Allen and Ginter cards that was gifted to me by a friend.

Here's the deal, I got the pack as a gift, but I'd still enjoy it if Topps played by the rules, so to speak:



So here's my main issue. 8 Picture Cards. Packs with a framed insert contain 7 cards.

I implore you to show me where it says "Random packs to contain only 6 cards".

And just in case you're thinking about picking up some hobby packs at your local hobby shop, and you're also thinking "wow, that was a fluke!" . . . guess again. All three packs, purchased from the same hobby box at a local card shop contained only six cards. 2 packs contained 5 base cards and one mini, and then there was my pack:




That's Equestrian Champion Will Simpson and Archie Bunker #228



Next up was Negro League All Star Art Pennington #97



Followed by everyone's favorite Padre Rookie, Edwin Moreno #120. If you're counting along at home that's 3 cards thus far.



The fourth card finally pays dividends for me, CC Sabathia Baseball Highlights #AGHS20. CC you'll always be a Brewer in my heart. Thanks for the ride last year.



No one could match the next card I pulled. A mother fsk'n Dominique Wilkins Slam Dunk Champion card #346. I really loved 80s basketball.



And finally, my 6th card of the 8 I was promised, leaving two cards to be named later in this deal on Topps' side, was Nick Markakis [American] National Pride #NP34

Now I'm off to see who else is experiencing this rob-job from Topps.

Bob Gibson Sports Royalty

Truely a member of baseball Royalty, Bob Gibson did me the honor of appearing the in pack I grabbed from Target this weekend.

For the record, I'm picking from the scraps of Goudey packs left at my neighborhood Target. I want to say there were six packs left when I decided to dip into the leftovers, and I've now bought three of them.

I've netted a Curt Schilling card I needed for my set, a Ted Williams short printed base card, a Vlad Guerrero Heads Up, and now the Bob Gibson card. Suffice to say, I might be done pushing my luck on those leftover packs.

Bob Gibson is also one of my favorite players from the past. His stats from 1968 still make me wish I could have seen a game of his from that year. Pure Nintendo numbers, 1.12 ERA, 22 Wins, 0.85 . . . just silly.

Welcome to my collection Bob.

I'll be sure to append the list of Sports Royalty cards I've found thus far, so as to possibly facilitate trades down the road.