Well, it's finally over. The box has been busted, the cards have been sorted, and my want list has been updated. I ended up with around 280 cards, so another 40-something are required. Any help you can provide is lovely.

After pulling star after star that I didn't want, I finally got a Diamond Star card that is of interest to me. The checklist isn't great (for my purposes) as there's only three cards on there that I want, and this is one of them. Votto and Felix are the other two.


The checklist on the Topps 60 and the Kimballs, on the other hand, have been fantastic this time around and I've added many more to my want list. Here's an example - Johnny Bench in all the Reds double-knit glory.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but growing up in Cincinnati, I always got the sense that a person was either a Johnny Bench fan or a Pete Rose fan, but you really couldn't be both. You might appreciate the other for what they accomplished, but you really only warmed to one or the other. I was a Pete Rose fan growing up. That's not to say I mind it when I get a Bench card - it's always welcome. And given how Pete is now persona non grata in ToppsTown (and all of baseball), I guess I won't be pulling any new Roses in the forseeable future.

The category they chose for this Topps 60 card is very lame, however.


Finally, the last gold parallel of the box, and I'm certainly please by this. Rarely do I get gold parallels of players I give a shit about. They're usually Pirates, and that trend held firm again with this box. Prior to this Roberts, the only gold parallel I pulled - ever - that I was happy to see was a Felix Hernandez league leaders card that he had to share with two other pictures. So this one is pretty good. Then you flip it over and check out the serial number:


ZOMG!!!!@~``111!!@!!! IT'S A 1-OF-1!!!!!!!! I COULD GO ONTO EBAY AND SELL THIS FOR $$$$$$$$

No it's not. It's a 1 of 2011. Says so right on the card.

(This post is fourth in a series of what I bought with the money I got for a 2010 Bowman hobby box. You know, the one with Stephen Strasburg on the front)

I had been waiting for a while for this particular package to come, and it took a couple days extra than I expected. I've given up trying to figure out Australia Post - this particular package was mailed, from California, a day after another was mailed from Pennsylvania. Both used the same postage rate - International First Class. The one from California - three thousand miles closer to Australia than Pennsylvania - took three days longer to get here. If you can figure out why, please let me know, because I can't.

Anyway, on to my latest purchases. Yes, this is more Strasburg money, folks. I'm almost starting to feel bad - when I coined the term and started this series, ol' Double S wasn't even on the disabled list, much less the operating room table. It now feels kinda like profiting off someone else's misfortunes. Kinda.

Let's start with the big ticket item. This was the card that I really wanted, the rest I just bought to help defray shipping costs:

It's a 2009 Spectrum rainbow card, in this case, a turquoise Tim Lincecum. It's numbered 9/25 and is the second rarest, in terms of print run, card in my collection. I have a 1/1 printing plate that I pulled out of a box of '09 Topps Series 1. But this card is infinitely shinier and better looking than a printing plate. I can't even remember what color plate it is now.

I'll admit it - I've caught rainbow fever. I've got four Spectrum rainbows in various stages of completion (care to guess who?) and I'm thinking of starting others. But this is the first top-end card I've actually got in my possession, although there may be another one arriving within the month. Stay tuned.


Here's the next favorite card in my bundle - a 2007 Brian Roberts relic. You know, from back when he was healthy and could play. His 2010 season just sums up the Orioles in general. Disappointing.

But B-Rob is a fellow Tar Heel, even if he left midway through his college career. I don't fault him for it - after all, the school fired his dad, former UNC baseball coach Mike Roberts. I'll always appreciate Coach Roberts - he brought me on board as the team's announcer, and I enjoyed every minute of working for the Tar Heel baseball program.


Let's stay with the Orioles for a minute. I picked up this Brooks Robinson mini for a very reasonable price. Something happened with my scanner because his name on the bottom looks just fine on the actual card. I was just too lazy to re-scan it. But the best thing is what's on the back:


IT'S POLAR BEAR, BITCHES!!! IS NOW, ALWAYS HAS BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE THE BEST. PERIOD.

I assume they mean best cigarettes. If so, I guess they were wrong about that.


Finally, two random Ichiro cards for the PC. I don't really have that much to say about either one, just that I didn't have them before, and now I do. The Flashback Fridays one on the lest is kinda interesting, but I have no idea what Topps means by "Flashback Fridays." Flash back to what? And was the card only made on Fridays, or sold on Fridays, or supposed to be looked at on Fridays? At least I received the card on a Friday.

Hmm, maybe Australia Post knew what it was doing, after all...