New Releases! Big D Customs.

Okay, I've got a new batch of customs to show you guys, but before I do, I want to point out a new feature to the blog. (Well it's been here for a few weeks, but I've made some updates.) For those of you who don't know, I like to create my own cards. In order to make them easier to share, I created a Picasa album which you can find by clicking on the bigD logo to the right. It looks like this:

In the album you will find all the latest bigD cards, assuming I manage to keep it updated. I have created several cards with specific bloggers in mind. Once I figured out how to make the virtual cards a reality, I started sending some out. If you check below some of the images you can find a link to the lucky recipient's blog, where you can then read about their impressions of what they received. I think everyone digs them, at least that's what they let on.

Okay, now for the new releases I promised. First up is a Ryan Howard Big Piece of the Puzzle. I made a Nyjer Morgan for this set as well, which now has a new home. This design is something I guess I would imagine as an insert set.


This Ichiro is my idea of a Topps Gallery type of card set. Different players depicted in various artistic styles.

The last card features my first mash-up of sorts. Pablo Sandoval kinda burst on the scene last year I guess it was and somewhere acquired the nickname Kung Fu Panda. I couldn't resist combining Pablo and his nickname and this is what I came up with:

Kinda crazy looking isn't it? As always, load up the comments section with your reviews, I love to hear your opinions. Also, be on the lookout for an upcoming bigD customs sweepstakes giveaway (is that redundant?), if I can drum up interest that is. Later.

Maybe Upper Deck will try this!

Got another yellow envelope in the mail the other day. This time it was from Ryan at The Great Orioles Autograph Project. That guy is nuts, trying to collect an auto of every Oriole ever! Good luck man, I'd drive myself nuts with the seeming impossibility of it. Ryan sent us a few cards for the only two insert sets we are collecting in 2010 Topps, Peak Performance and Toppstown.

Here we have a nice Ryan Braun. Apparently, Topps got this photo from Upper Deck since there are no visible (well, barely Mr. Prosecutor) logos. Originally, we were only going for PC cards from this set, but Nobie wants them all now.

Ryan also sent 3 gold Toppstown cards of Ichiro, Wright and Halladay. Topps went one further than Upper Deck on the Wright card by not only showing no logos, they didn't even bother with his face! Maybe that will be what we get from UD next. A complete set of logoless, faceless players. Wouldn't you love a box of that? Thanks Ryan for getting us a little closer to finsihing these sets. Later.

Now that's a mask!

I've mentioned it before, but whatever happened to the customized catchers masks? Several years ago when catchers began using the "hockey" style mask they were often smartly decorated just like hockey goaltenders do. Take this one for example, worn by Bengie Molina while a member of the Jays. Sweet, no?


Now it seems the majority of this type of mask are just plain. Someone suggested that it's because catchers switch teams so much, but surely not. These guys make plenty of dough. It shouldn't be too expensive to just get a new paint job or new mask completely. I think it would make for a cool collection. Is there some MLB rule against customizing them now? Anyone know for sure?

All of these cards came in a trade from reader Jason. All the other catchers he sent are simply wearing the old school catchers helmet and separate mask. Funny thing is, I think these are almost exclusively used in the pros. Nobie does some catching for his team and wants to use this style, but I haven't seen them anywhere, even online. I'm not sure it would even be legal in his age group anyway.

We sent Jason a few Heritage he was needing and he sent the catchers along with these 3 cards of dudes we collect. Thanks for the trade, Jason and if anyone knows the answer to my mask question, let me know. Later.

Pack Rip 2007-08 Topps Chrome Basketball

I picked up two packs of 07-08 Topps Chrome Basketball from the Target discount box the other day. These cards look decidedly more chromey than most years because of the thick chrome border. The only bad thing is the text is only outlined, which makes it hard to read. Let's see what we got.

Pack 1

Sweet. Nice start with a Steve Nash. Paul Pierce, Jameson Curry & Andrew Bogut round out the pack.

Pack 2

Bill Sharman starts it off. Don't really know anything about him, though. I also got Andre Iguodalla, Corey Brewer and some guy named LeBron.

Well, nothing outstanding here, but we will be keeping the Nash and Lebron. Everything else is up for grabs if you see anything you want or need. Later.

Mavs Win! Check Out My Cards!

Well, the playoffs finally got underway this weekend and thanks to another great performance from Dirk, the Mavs are up on the Spurs 1-0. I think as long as Dirk can have his way with the Spurs, the Mavs should be able to take the series and advance to round 2. I don't really think the Spurs have anyone who can contain him. Caron Butler had a good night with 22 points and Kidd was two rebound shy of another triple-double. Can't wait for the next one!

Recently I made another trip through the virtual aisles of COMC. As you can see, I was mostly on a Dirk run. I picked up several inserts from various Panini sets, as I haven't bought many packs from them this year. I'm only building the base set. The rest of their sets don't hold much appeal for me, they're all kinda the same. Too much boring photography. I do like a lot of their inserts, however, so I'm trying to get all of those.

All but 1 of the cards that aren't from Panini, came form Upper Deck. Man, it really sucks that they aren't gonna be doing much of anything anymore. What a mess they've gotten themselves into. They really made a lot of great things over the years and I miss them already. The baseball selections alone this year are borrring!

Besides Dirk, I picked up a nice Roddy B jersey card. I really like this kid, though I doubt we'll see him much in the playoffs. I also got a new Mark Aguirre card. It's getting really hard to find any new cards of him that I don't have. There just aren't that many cards of him around. I guess basketball cards weren't much of an item in the '80s. The last bball card I picked up was a red border Turkey Red of my man Michael Finley.

After filling my card with basketball selections, I figured I should get at least a few baseball cards, so I added some new Youngs to the collection. Michael's started a little slow this year, but I have now doubt he'll end up over .3oo when all is said and done. It was nice to see him get his first home run of the season this weekend even if the Rangers as a whole didn't look so hot. Well, that's all I picked up this time. Go Mavs!! Later.

2010 Topps Heritage Pack Analysis

I picked up a pack of 2010 Heritage from Wally World the other day. Here is my in-depth analysis of the entire pack.

This is the wrapper. It's red and exclusive. It says there should be 8 Major League Baseball cards inside. At least it won't have any cards from whatever league that is in the Upper Deck packs. Man, I was totally confused when I opened a pack of those. Oh yeah, it also says there should be gum inside. Let's check.

Sure enough, there was gum. Serial numbered gum at that. We got piece #8273, not sure out of how many. Anyone want to trade? What are these going for on ebay?

Next, we have the 7 regular base cards included in the pack. We don't collect any of these players or teams, so that kinda sucks. Marco Scutaro looks really happy, but he doesn't realize what a doucher he looks like wearing his button down, generic businessman oxford underneath his jersey. Lame-O!

The eighth card, however, is awesome. This guy we do collect and it's a Short Print to boot. I hate short prints, but this is one we need so it's all good. Feliz has already replaced Frankie Francisco as closer for the Rangers after just one week, as 'Ol Ron Wash panics to save his job before the season even gets started. You can tell it's a Short Print because it's white on the back, not that grey cereal box interior looking stuff. At least that's what people say on the internet. For all I know white backs could actually be 1 of 1s or Cards Yo Momma Threw Out or something. Anyway, we're keeping it.

The last item in the pack was not even listed in the odds on the wrapper. It's the anti-theft device which I think are inserted into every 5th pack or so. Sweet pull, right? It also works like a charm as the nice elderly greeter at the door politely asked to see my receipt as the buzzer went off when I exited the store. She asked if I had any electronics or perfume or something in my bags. I said, "No, just food and baseball cards." She looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. This has happened to me before, they never suspect the cards for some reason. Maybe Walmart needs to have the greeters review the potential causes for setting off their alarms. She looked over my receipt and mumbled something, then let me go. Whew! Close call.

So there you have it, my in-depth pack analysis of 2010 Topps Heritage. Grab a pack or two sometime, but make sure you pack search for the anti-theft device and leave those behind. It'll save you a potential frisking by an elderly lady. Later.

Topps Series 1 Base Set Complete! Thanks to Chris!

Thanks to reader Chris we have completed the base set of 2010 Series 1. This is the first year Nobie and I have tried to build the Topps set. We bought one box and several individual packs ourselves and the rest have come from trades with our "buds". The only subset we decided to collect completely was the Toppstown cards. We were only going after a select few of the Peak Performance cards, until Nobie just now looked over my shoulder and said, "Dad, I wanna get all of the Peak Performance cards. I like that set." I guess we'll have to update our list then!

Along with the last 2 cards of the base set, Chris sent us 3 gold Toppstowns and a Pujols Peak Performance. We also received a handful of Rangers.

We got 3 2010 Opening Day Topps including hot hitting Nelson Cruz. Nellie and Vlad are almost unstoppable at the moment, though I didn't get to see tonight's game, so maybe they bombed. I was instead out watching Goose's soccer team bomb in their last regular season game. Oh well, at least they kept their Division 1 spot for next season. As I've mentioned before, I think Topps dropped the ball on the Opening Day cards. They are way too similar to the regular set. They put in totally different inserts, so now they just need to do the same with the base set. So, on to Series 2 in a month or two. Thanks a ton, Chris! Later.