If anyone can find a Papelbon logoman, leave a comment.

As a reminder, for those who are like me and haven’t logged into the ToppsMillion site since entering your codes, today is supposed to be the first day you can order your cards shipped! I’ve still yet to see a pricing list for the shipping (if you have feel free to leave a comment) but I can’t wait to get some of mine to their new home.

I’m guessing there will be a delay with the site going live on shipping, considering now at 6AM on the east the shipping isn’t live. Hopefully there won’t be a whole site slow down when it does manage to become active. Either way I still applaud Topps for probably the most fun card promotion I’ve ever experienced.

I know I’ve posted a lot of Papelbon stuff lately, so if that annoys you I’m sorry. I have had exceptional luck lately with finding his items that I want, and at a cheap enough price, and I’ve grown my collection quite a bit. A few weeks ago I started hunting for his first Bowman card, and got lucky enough to find someone listing a BGS 10 of his 2003 Bowman Chrome Draft prospect card at the same time. I know many in the blogosphere do not approve of card grading, my personal feelings though? They have their place in the hobby when used right (vintage, prospects).

I’d like to hunt down the refractor versions of this card eventually, but not exactly a common thing to find for sale at a reasonable price. Also, the Papelbon PC page has been updated with a few things now that were not shown here on the front page, if that interests you have a look!

Well, while we all thought the great Abraham Lincoln appearance card was solved for 2010 Topps with the discovery of Milton Bradley’s variation, we were wrong. It now appears as if many Cubs (possibly all?) have a Abe variation.

While many will call these stupid gimmicks I think it is actually kind of fun. Want to know why? It had me searching through boxes of 2010 Topps I opened weeks ago this morning. I like when my cards take on a more entertaining role then just opening and sitting them in a box.

For those who can’t figure out the Samardzija, look under his right arm. I think the others are pretty obvious.

So last night was a fun night. I went to a group break at my LCS that consisted of 09 Gridiron Gear and 09 Platinum. I unfortunately drew the Giants so my night of fun ended there. I did walk away with a handful of Rhett Bomar and Ramses Barden autographs though if that can vouch for my bad team. It is nothing worth scanning so, I won’t bother showing them.

The real fun of the night happened within 10 minutes of arriving. As soon as myself and my brother walked in we noticed the 4 2009 Ultimate baseball boxes on the shelf. Everyone else there seemed very uninterested in opening it, as they are football collectors I believe. Eventually my brother bought two, I bought one, and we got one for our dad.

My brother opened his first and got a Ken Griffey Jr. autograph numbered to 17, very solid. Then we sat there for a bit, with everyone egging me on to open mine. I just kept shrugging it off joking around to aggravate them, letting the box annoy them. Then my brother asked me if I planned on opening it there or not. My immediate reply was “I’m scared to open it and get a Koji Uehara”.  So then my brother declared he was going to open his second one since I was being scared. What did he pull? A Koji Uehara. It was a priceless moment.

After that I felt much more comfortable about my box. My LCS had only ordered 4 boxes, and now that the worst rookie was gone, I liked my odds much more. I started to open mine soon after his and could tell it was either a patch or 6/8 way, luckily it was a patch. And while there isn’t much suspense in what it was since I showed it last night, I received this really nice looking Mariano Rivera patch.

I’m not positive if I will move it or keep it, but I am leaning towards keeping it. Hard to get rid of a all time great, and someone who has defined his position. After it was pulled, I sent a picture using my phone to my father to show it off, his first reply was “I’ll get BJ Upton now”. If you know one thing about my family, it is we very much dislike BJ Upton as a player. We attend many Rays games living in Florida and he seems to always disappoint us in some way on the field.

After the group break of terribleness, we took our father his box. He started opening it, noticing it is thin. He slow rolls the base down and we see it is a Ultimate Signatures and not a rookie signatures, so good start. The first part of the player we see is his Tampa Bay hat. Oh no. He then starts to slide from the bottom to see the Position, praying for a 3B, but we only see OF. BJ Upton it is.

A terrible way to end the night but a comical one at least.

I had a surprise group break to attend at my LCS tonight, and went with the intention of just getting a spot in the break. But, boys being boys I got egged into opening a 2009 Ultimate baseball box, and I’m happy I did. While he will always be second fiddle to Papelbon to me (I know Mo is better, but I collect Pap so what can ya do?) I pulled this sweet Mariano Rivera patch.

I don’t have a lot of time, so for now here is a listing of the hits, I’ll provide some commentary tonight or tomorrow. I have a unexpected case break to attend tonight! Here is the case hit box topper autograph.

Jersey cards;

Willie Parker
Ronnie Brown
Tony Gonzalez
Julius Peppers
Jason Taylor
Torry Holt
Maurice Jones Drew
Deuce McAllister
Jamal Lewis
Antonio Gates
Drew Brees
Marques Colston
DeAngelo Williams
Shawne Merriman
Champ Bailey
Donovan McNabb
Adam Vinatieri
Jay Cutler
Frank Gore
Joseph Addai
Larry Johnson
T.J. Houshmandzadeh
Alex Smith
David Garrard
Matt Hasselbeck
Ronald Curry
Santonio Holmes
Vince Young

The Willie Parker looked cool.

Autos;

Andre Gurode (redemption)
Nate Davis /100
Andre Smith /100
Albert Haynesworth
D’Qwell Jackson
Quentin Jammer
AJ Hawk
Jerod Mayo
Greg Camarillo
Jerricho Cotchery

Then these 4 nice ones

As I said, I’ll post more in depth about the case tonight or tomorrow. I also have a few buy backs I’m going to need help identifying!

While I’ve never hesitated to mention I know nothing about basketball, or basketball cards, Panini’s 2009/10 Court Kings has amazing potential. In previous posts I bickered at Panini for not having a higher end product for basketball collectors, and this seems to be their answer. While it isn’t a 500$ Exquisite like product, it is probably best to avoid that format.

Court Kings will be more like a Limited packout, with 4 hits per pack, 1 pack per box. Each pack should contain at least 1 autograph. There will also be 5×7 boxtoppers, 2 of which in each 15 box case will be autographed. There will also be a nice chase element, 120 redemptions for a 16×20 signed Kobe Bryant lithograph.

Now, the real reason I am excited about this product? It reminds me of Chronology. Which remains the only basketball product I have opened. Unfortunately this product will contain stickers, although not for all players. While stickers do suck, from the preview pictures alone, it seems like much more time was spent on design then previous releases.

For more information and pictures you can click here.