Ken Griffey, Jr.'s 44th Birthday Giveaway Spectacular

Happy Birthday, Junior!

It’s your 44^th birthday, big guy!  Have a good one!

In light of this happiest of occasions, I am giving away 44 cards to 22 people.  Below are all 44 cards up for grabs.  Simply pick out two cards, comment below with your choices (I've numbered them), and email them to me at tjv504 at gmail dot com along with your mailing address.  I’ll shoot them out to you in a PWE no questions asked.

And hurry - this is strictly first come, first served.

Happy Griffey’s birthday, everybody!

November Card Show Booty, and Fast

Alright - it's late, so we're gonna do this one quick and dirty....

As always, the non-Griffeys first:

 

I've wanted this Ted Williams manager card for some time.  Finally pulled the trigger.

 I bought a whole set of OPC Mets just for the Staubs.  The rest are up for grabs....

I was very excited to find Hometown Heroes jumbo packs.  Sadly I didn't pull squat on the Griffey front.

I also got a few packs of Update and pulled an auto....

....the same auto I just pulled a few days ago.  Ouch, Topps.

Okay, let's get serious:

Here are two 10-card Griffey sets.  The one on the left has a gold foil "Charter Member"stamp on every card and a numbered certificate of authenticity.  Despite all that, only three bucks.

I already had a bunch of these.  I do that a lot.

That one on the bottom right is a sample.  It has a blank back and that relic is printed on.  Anyone know what the deal is with these?

That Leading Indicators card is heat-sensitive like a mood ring.  I'd never seen that on a card, and I didn't know that was the gimmick when I paid for the card.  It may be my favorite of the bunch.

 

 I cannot begin to tell you how hard it is to get that Pacific insert into a sleeve.

These were the most expensive non-relic cards I bought, but they're beasts.  That Certified Team is like a mirror.

 Just a cool numbered relic, but what does the M stand for?

 A Mariners relic on a Reds card.  Had to have it.

And this one has a sliver of dirty ball embedded in it.  Another great show, and a nice talk with my Griffey guy.

The Super Duper Short Prints of 2008 Allen and Ginter (Nachos Grande BBC Rd. 3)

This is my entry for Round 3 of the Nachos Grande Blogger Bracket Challenge.  Feel free to go there and vote for your favorite post if you're so inclined.  I'm up against Brian from the excellent blog Play at the Plate who already wrote a hilarious post about the card below.

There are no ballplayers here, but there is one grandma.  She was not harmed in the making of this post.

Also none of the following cards were ever manufactured by Topps.  Their products continue to be excellent and of the highest quality.  All visual effects were done with MS Paint.

Enjoy!

______________________________________________________________________

The Super Duper Short Prints of 2008 Allen & Ginter

Allen and Ginter has become a favorite among many collectors since its reintroduction by Topps in 2006.  One of the more noticeable attributes of the set is the inclusion of many non-baseball cards.  Here is one such card:

It's a pretty cool card, too.  It shows the classic image of the original monster truck as driven by Top Gear's The Stig,  What a refreshing idea.  

Cards were also made for the likes of Wild Bill Hickok and Mary Shelley, neither baseball players but both still somehow better at baseball than Ozzie Canseco.  And as in most modern sets, Topps made tons of special "short print" cards.  Here's the "SP" of that Bigfoot card:

#197B

 

As you can see they did this one in the original Allen & Ginter design from before the focus groups insisted Topps make the design "less about the brand."  

This card hides a special surprise, too.  Look closely at the driver.  Can you see it?  Here's a close-up:

Bigfoot driving Bigfoot.  Topps loves a good play on words.  Or a bad one.

Of course, Topps did go a little overboard with the short prints in 2008, releasing so many that a lot of collectors aren't even aware of them all.  If you're one of those who hasn't seen them all, this is your lucky day.

At great personal expense, I have finally acquired all of the incredibly rare Super Duper Short Prints from the A&G 2008 set and scanned them all for your amusement.  Be warned, however: I think they were beginning to run out of ideas for cards, so they start to get a little weird.  I'll leave it at that. 

Check 'em out:

 #7B

 

#14B

 #37B

 #88B

  #37C

 #78B

 #60B

 #29B

 #69B

 #106B

 #93B

 #111B

#122B

#9B

 #86B

 #199B

 #0B

#89B

 #11B

 #42B