A Free Box 'O Cards

Not from me--like I have time to do anything right now, much less give away more cards--but over at Georgia Mindset. It's a free box of Topps Chrome for doing (almost) nothing.

Interestingly, I'm telling you about it and encouraging you to enter, which actually reduces my chances to win. But hey, I've got a group case break coming up so if you win I'll just give you some kudos and wait for my motherload of cards to come in.

So check out Georgia Mindset, and win a box of shininess!

Contest (Not Mine) For A Box of Allen & Ginter

Nope, not the Cardboard Connection one either. The resurrected Coolio Cards is hosting a contest for a free box of Allen & Ginter. All you need to do is leave a comment and you can win!

Go!

Final Giveaway Winner and Contest Wrap Up

Sorry I'm late on this one today, lot of stuff going on.

And the winner is... Carl Crawford Cards for offering me the to-be oldest card in my collection! He'll be receiving the package of vintage cards with his other shipments. I was REALLY tempted by Mariner1, who offered me a bounty for my Pilots. However, there were only 2 Pilot in the lot and I didn't know how I would logistically modify the contest to account for their subtraction.

So, to Mariner1, if you're still willing to send the cards you offered for the Pilots AND if CarlCrawfordCards is willing to forego the Pilots, then we can do that. Both of you must comment though. (Ok, cool. Pilots go to Mariner1 with CCC getting the rest.)

As for the rest of the comment, here's the wrapup. Look for your name, your winnings and whether I still need your address. I will put it in caps and make you bold until you email it to me

AdamE: Non-Topps Red Sox
AnthonyK: Non-Topps Astros NEED ADDRESS
BA Benny: Topps Mets & Yankees NEED ADDRESS
Cam: Diamond Kings, Non-Topps Phillies & Royals, Topps Astros & O's
CarlCrawfordCards: Topps Rays, Non-Topps Rays, Vintage Lot
Dan I: Non-Topps Indians NEED ADDRESS
Dan II: Topps Phillies
Dayf: Non-Topps Braves, Topps Braves, Autograph Lot NEED ADDRESS
FanofReds: Non-Topps Reds and Pirates
Madding: Non-Topps Cardinals
Mariner1: Non-Topps Mariners
Mark's Ephemera: Topps Dbacks
mmmrhubarb: Non-Topps Twins, Topps Twins
Natscards: Non-Topps Nats/Expos, Topps Nats/Expos
Night Owl: Topps Dodgers
Play at the Plate: Non-Topps Rangers, Topps Rangers
Rod (Padrographs): Non-Topps Padres, Topps Padres
Roy: Topps Blue Jays NEED ADDRESS
Ryan: Non-Topps Orioles
The Brooklyn Met: Non-Topps Mets, Topps Giants
Thorzul: Non-Topps Brewers, Topps Brewers
TiedGame: Topps Mariners
Tunguska: Non-Topps Cubs, Topps Cubs
Vonscards: Topps Red Sox
Wicked Orteaga: Non-Topps Marlins, Topps Marlins & A's, Relic Lot NEED ADDRESS
Drew: Non-Topps Yankees

Let me know if there are any mistakes above. I'll be packing up and sending out cards in the next few days here, with the goal of having everything out the door before I leave for vacation at the end of next week.

I hope you all enjoyed the contest, that you enjoy your cards and I look forward to seeing what's headed my way!

The Great Grand Cards Trade Away: Last Day--Vintage

Ok, this will be the last of the giveaways. But first, Day 5's winners:

BA Benny: Mets & Yankees
Cam: Astros & O's
Dan: Phillies
Mark's Ephemera: Dbacks
Tunguska: Cubs
Night Owl: Dodgers
Dayf: Braves
Play at the Plate: Rangers
Thorzul: Brewers
Brooklyn Met: Giants
Natscards: Nationals/Expos
mmmrhubarb: Twins
Rod (Padrographs):Padres
WickedOrteaga: A's
TiedGame: Mariners
CarlCrawfordCards: Rays
Roy: Blue Jays

Ok great. If you haven't yet, please send me your address so that I can get your cards out. Also, if you "won" a team package and would like non-Topps cards of that team and they weren't claimed last week, I would be happy to add them to your shipment.

As for the final giveaway...
Today it's vintage. I have 25 vintage cards that I pulled from the Christmas motherload Years and conditions vary, but they are from the 60's, 70's and a little bit of 1980/81. There's a lot of variation from clean and crisp:


to Hall of Famers:


to just plain wonderful:


Most are non-descript very good condition cards of nobodies, with the few exceptions I've shown, a couple other exceptions and this, which is my favorite of the whole bunch and was just so jaw dropping that I had to take it:



I mean, can you discard Frank and Willie? You really can't. That is the only one that is beat up anywhere near that bad, just so you know.

Opening Bid One vintage Detroit Tigers cards. Must be pre-1980, the older the better, and if you have a specific card that you're offering it can only help you to list it. Uncertainty is death for me here. The winner will be the one that offers me either the single best card for the lot, or the best package of cards.

Good luck!

This contest will end at 5:30 tomorrow, with a wrap up post for the whole week of giveaways to follow at 6.

Last Chance For Free Cards!

Cards of your favorite team are up for grabs for another 45 minutes. Leave a comment here to claim them.

At 6pm the FINAL giveaway will be announced. One word: Vintage.

The Great Grand Cards Trade Away: Day 5

And the winner is...

The winner of the Day 4 package of a couple miscellaneous autographs is Dayf, who offered a 1995 Old Judge Dave Mysel autograph. Why? Here's why. That card comes from an era when autographs still meant something. 1995. A time when a card numbered to 5750 copies (!) was something to be impressed by. Sure, the Andrew Miller card might have been nice, but odds are it was a sticker autograph. And the Old Judge cards have a charm that no 2003 Bowman can top. As for Milt Cuyler...well, I LOVE Milt Cuyler, but I'm a weird OCD person with this sort of stuff and I don't have any in person autographs on cards and if I start now I'm afraid I'll never stop.

So, Dayf it is.

Which brings us to Day 5.

Up for Grabs A Large Package of Topps cards of your favorite team.

This is just like the non-topps giveaway from Day 2 except this time it is Topps cards. 95% of my collection falls into these years: 1982, 1986-1994, 2000, 2006-2010. Included in this giveaway will be 2009 Topps "Throwback" cards, 2009 Topps "Black" Cards (from Walmart), rookies, inserts, commemorative patches, parallels, Topps Opening Day and, of course, base cards from all the years.

I am willing to make a package for each team. They will be comparably sized to the non-topps packages.

Opening Bid A comment. If you want some of these they are yours. If there is competition for certain teams, you may feel free to start bidding with cards.

This will end TOMORROW at 5:30 pm, so get your comments in!

The Great Grand Cards Trade Away: Day 4

Day 4 of the trade away is at hand. This one is simple:

Up for Grabs Miscellaneous Autograph Cards.

Opening Bid One autograph card of a failed Detroit Tigers prospect.

I don't have much here, I think just 2-3 loose autographs, but if you've got a Tony Giarratano or Kyle Sleeth or Matt Anderson etc. lying around, then they could be yours.

This giveaway will end at 5:30 tomorrow with the winner announced at 6.

ALSO, tomorrow is going to be the last BIG giveaway, for people interested in large team lots, so be prepared. There will be a couple smaller days after that with things wrapping up on Thursday, I think.

Day 3 Winner, and a Note

The winner of my relic card giveaway is none other than Wicked Orteaga, who's three mystery Tiger relics bested BA Benny, if only because of BA Benny's offer of a Cameron Maybin Relic that I already have.

As for more contests: I will wrap things up NEXT WEEK, but will not be doing anything this weekend. A taste of things to come: autographs, neat subsets, vintage cards and team lots of Topps.

Other things of interest:

An excellent preview on what to expect from Andy Oliver via Bless You Boys. He makes his major league debut in less than an hour.

The Kid's Alright: Rick Porcello threw 8 innings of one-hit ball in his first start for Toledo. (via Hardball Talk)

Have a good weekend everybody, GO USA!

The Great Grand Cards Trade Away: Day 3

That's more like it! Day 2 was a success with the following people winning a package of non-Topps cards of the team of their choice:

Thorzul - Brewers
Cam - Phillies + Royals
Dayf - Braves
TheBrooklynMet - Mets
AnthonyK - Astros
Dan - Indians
AdamE - Red Sox
mmmrhubarb - Twins
Play at the Plate - Rangers
madding - Cardinals
Wicked Orteaga - Marlins
Mariner1 - Mariners
Ryan - Orioles
FanOfReds - Reds + Pirates
Drew - Yankees
CarlCrawfordCards - Rays

Congratulations to the winners. If you wanted a team that wasn't claimed, feel free to shoot me an email and I may be able to accommodate you.

On to Day 3, in an attempt to keep the momentum going:

Up for grabs All of my extraneous Relic cards.

Opening Bid One Detroit Tigers relic card (preferably non-Granderson)

I don't have a ton of these, I'm guessing more than 5 and less than 10, all of which are from products from 2005-2010. Still, it's free relic cards which isn't much to sneeze at. So get those offers in, this contest ends at 6 pm tomorrow. Ideally, I'd like to trade these for ONE relic card, may the best one win. However, I am partial to certain brands' relics (e.g. Allen & Ginter) even though I don't have any non-Granderson's to call my own.

Clock's Ticking

Just under four hours left to get in on Day 2 of the Great Grand Cards Trade Away. The prize is as many non-Topps cards of a team of your choice as I can fit in a package to send out. There are still plenty of teams with no offers made on them, so click on over and claim a team OR beat someone else's offer for a team that is already claimed.

Day 3 of the contest will be posted tonight at 6, along with the winners for Day 2.

The Great Grand Cards Trade Away: Day 2

I'm changing the name of this. "Trade Down" just didn't do it for me.

First, the winner of the Day 1 offering for all of my Donruss Diamond Kings cards was Cam of the Collectable [sic] Cards blog, who happened to be the only person interested. Huh. So the winners know, I'll send all the cards once the entire contest is over so that I can consolidate shipping in case you win multiple days.

So with Day 1 just a teeny step above "total failure" from a reader interest perspective, Day 2 offers a little more in the way of mass appeal.

Up For Grabs A Large Package of non-Topps cards of your favorite team.

Just to alleviate your fears that I'd load you down with a ton of 1987 Topps or something like that, I will fill as many cards of your team of choice as I can fit into a large package, and all of them will be of a non-Topps flagship brand. We're talking Upper Deck, SP, Leaf, Studio, Collector's Choice, Starting Lineup, Bowman, Topps Big, Oddball Cards, O-Pee-Chee, Score, Donruss, Fleer etc. I have a lot of these.

The best offer for EACH TEAM will be accepted, meaning that I am up for giving away up to 30 packages.

Opening Bid: One non-Topps Detroit Tigers card of any type.

Because of the magnitude of this particular giveaway, I will leave it up for 2 days. It will end Thursday at 5:30.

Update: You may "bid" multiple times on each giveaway, so that if you are outbid, you can increase your offer.

Update 2: You may bid on as many teams as you wish

The Great Grand Cards Trade Down: Day 1

It's here.

The contest in which I take as many cards as I can and give them away. Does it tug at my heart strings? Sure, maybe a little bit. Many of these cards are the ones that I collected as a kid. At the same time, I'm treating this as a focusing of my collection. An evolution. So here's the deal:

Each day, at 6pm (Eastern), I will post a new lot of cards up for trade. You have until 5:30 the next day to make an offer for them. The offer can be whatever you like with just a few rules:

• You must offer me a baseball card or money (e.g. "I will pay for shipping on these cards)
• All baseball cards must be of Detroit Tigers, or otherwise fit into my collecting wants
• The number of cards you offer must be fewer than the cards I am offering by a factor of 3. If I am giving up 9 cards, you can only offer me 3. Except...
• 1 to 1 and 2 to 1 trades are also OK
• You may make multiple offers per day, with each new offer nullifying your previous one
• You don't necessarily need to offer me a specific card--you could just say "A mid-90's Score insert" and then find one later and send it if you win.
  
• Contest closes at 5:30pm (Eastern) each day. I will post the winner at 6.

I will "warn" you: none of these cards are great. Some are literally worthless, others barely less so. With that in mind, there is no offer that you can make that is too small. I will start each day with an "opening bid"--a suggested minimum offer on the card--and we'll just let it build from there.  

and with that...

The Great Grand Cards Trade Down: Day 1

Up for Grabs: In honor of Heartbreaking Cards, all of the Donruss Diamond Kings I own (minus Tigers)

Starting Bid ONE Detroit Tigers Diamond Kings card.

Now, this is one of those ones where I don't know exactly what I have and I'll have to dig through the boxes to ship out. I will say this: the heyday of my collecting was from 1990-1993, and the big boxes of cards from Christmas definitely had a bunch of Diamond Kings from the mid-80s and on that I snagged before sending the rest out to pasture. I'd say that we're looking at more than 20, less than 50.

Put your bids in the comments, the contest ends tomorrow at 5:30 pm.

The Winners of the Great Grand Cards Giveaway Are...

Ok, the contest is closed and the winners have been selected. Please enjoy this introductory video, followed by the randomization:

And now the Randomization...

One:

Two:

Three:

I'm sorry. You have been made the fool. An April Fool, as it were.

I'm not much for April Fool's pranks--I haven't really done much of them historically--but for whatever reason felt compelled to give this one a shot.

Kudos to mmosley, who at 10:45 almost blew my cover:

Interesting Day for an interesting Contest!

I thought that The Drizz was on to me too after his post on Totally Cecil said this:

Dan must have fallin' ill and/or lost his marbles with an exciting and outrageous contest!

But no, somehow I managed to keep under the radar--either that or those that were wise to me stayed away.

Anyway, because you were all such good sports, I thought I would be nice.

mmosley, for figuring out my little game, will now be the proud owner of this:

Yes Virginia, that's your very own 2002 Bowman Chrome Curtis Granderson rookie card. Please enjoy.

Also, keep your eyes peeled because of the course of the next few weeks, I really will be giving away some of my Granderson cards, and selling others etc. For everyone who entered the contest today, you are now automatically entered for the next contest I run. It's the least I can do for the bit of fun you gave me today.

Now, bring on the baseball season!

The Great Grand Cards Giveaway Contest!

You may recall, sometime around the great blog identity crisis of '09 that I came up with a plan. To wit: I would cease and desist my Curtis Granderson collecting and selectively sell-off my collection bit by bit to the overpaying Yankees fans that have money to burn.

However, sometime between then and now, something odd happened. First, Granderson cards stopped selling for much money. That whole "these cards can fund all my wildest collecting wishes" was quickly replaced by hesitation. I can't sell my cards for that! etc. Then, because I'm a sucker, I took advantage of some low prices and *gasp* added more Granderson cards to my collection--the very collection I vowed to eliminate.

Oh, and I've got news. I almost did it again, and again and again but, by the grace of God either lost out on my bids, or forgot about the listing or had common sense get the better of me. Suffice to say, I'm playing a dangerous game. So here's what I've decided to do.

A Contest
1. Look at my Granderson Collection
2. Become a Follower of the blog (sidebar)
3. Post a Comment with your favorite Granderson card in the collection--if it doesn't have a caption, just describe it or something

The Prizes
Every eligible comment will be entered onto a list. The list will be randomized and TEN winners chosen. What do the winners get? A card.

But not just any card. Think of it as a draft. End up first on the list? You get to pick ANY Curtis Granderson card from my collection.

That means the 1/1s


Or the on-card refractor autographs:


Or the silks. Oh, the silks:


The first TEN people on the list, will get their choice of whatever card they want--just like a draft. After that's all done and I am forced to break up the band, so to speak, I should be able to overcome the mental barrier that has kept me from moving on the way I should.

One More Thing
Post about this contest on your blog, and you will receive a second entry into the contest.

Also, ALL COMMENTS MUST BE POSTED BY 5:00PM EASTERN TIME TODAY, AS I AM HEADING OUT OF TOWN ON BUSINESS AND WANT TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNER BEFORE I AM STUCK IN INTERNET PURGATORY.

Good Luck!

Contest for Baltimore-based Readers!

This is a contest for Baltimore-area readers only

The decidedly non-baseball card blog Things I Adore is running one of the better contests you're going to see.

The winner gets a free 30 minute extremities massage treatment from Claire Taylor Massage. What is an extremities treatment you say? Well you know how your hands can get tired after flipping through mountains of cards, or putting trade packages together? Or how blogging can zap the energy from your fingers? Or how your feet are tired and sore after a day of walking through a card show or flea market? Yeah, it's for those.

Of course, the winner of the contest gets a fully-transferrable gift certificate, so even if you're not in the market for a free massage, it's not a bad gift for say, that girlfriend or wife who puts up with all of your card collecting antics year-round. Yes, that means you. You know that there's a pile of cards on your table that she's not bothering you about right now, but totally could. You owe her this.

So check out Things I Adore to enter and you (or that significant other of yours) will get 10% off of any massage treatment just for doing so.

*Yes, this is a post promoting my wife's just-launched massage practice. This is what we do for our loved ones. You know what you could do for your loved one? Win him/her a massage. Just sayin'

His Life Is In Your Hands (Please Vote!)

He wanted me to repeat that. His life is in your hands.

Here's the deal: Smitty wrote me back and admitted that he handn't followed my blog and that if he broke the rules then he was fine conceding the cards. But, I'm not in a blog-dictator mood today so I thought I'd democratize the issue.

I offered this: Become a follower of the blog now (he did) and I'll let the rest of the readers decide who gets the cards.

So world, what say you?

Should he get the cards even though he violated the first rule of the contest (but adhered to the others)? Or, should the next closest person get the cards because they followed all the rules?

The poll is up in the sidebar. Voting will end tomorrow so that I can get the cards shipped to the winners on Saturday.

Smitty! (Or, Claim your Braves!)

Last week I held a contest. There were three winners.

Except that it seems as though Smitty 1) violated the rules and 2) still hasn't provided me with his address.

So, here is what I say, with the rest of the internet as my witness: Smitty has hereby forfeited his winnings unless I am proved wrong in my accusations--by that I mean, I must know by 8pm tonight under what name Smitty is following the blog and he must send his address. He cannot retroactively follow the blog (well he can, but it won't help him win), it must have been done before the end of the contest, for fairness.

If that does not occur, then I've got a couple hundred Braves cards that are heading to the next closest Braves entrant in the contest (I'm glad there were so many). By my calculation, that would be Dayf, who guessed 342 Other cards.

Last chance Smitty--get in touch before your cards are out the window.

And The Winners Are...

Thanks to everybody who participated in my Anniversary Contest. I had about as much fun as you can expect someone that has twelve partially sorted boxes of cards in front of them to have, which is to say that I had a blast. When all is said and done, I came away with a nice assortment of useful Tigers cards, plenty of nice 90s junk wax and some oddballs and such.

But, of course, I ramble. You want to know the winners. Here are the stats:

I pulled 140 different Tigers cards for myself and 566 other cards.

That means that AdamE wins his Red Sox for his closest guess of 162 Tigers cards.

It also means that there is a two-way tie between Smitty and NightOwl, who each guessed 500 cards. What do I do in the case of a tie? You're both winners.

I enlisted the help of my wife and friends and we just spent the last hour pulling every Red Sock, Dodger and Brave that we could find--even dipping into the cards I had set aside for myself. The result is a full box of those three teams, and change. I hope that you are each pleased with the results.

I'm traveling back home tomorrow (Lake Effect snow permitting), but please email me with your mailing address and I will find a way to box up your cards and ship them out as soon as I can.

Thanks to everyone for participating in the contest, and I look forward to plenty of fun new content as we enter the new year!

Save The Cards! (aka: Contest Ends Tonight, Hurry!)

A Super-duper one year blog Anniversary and New Year's Contest is going on. Enter It!

Bullets

• I have now opened 10 of the 12 boxes and have found a wide range of cards including Topps from 1962-1980, Stadium Club, Upper Deck, Fleer, Bowman, Score Select, SPx, Pinnacle, Topps, Leaf, Donruss and Collectors Choice from the late 80's through 1994 (at least), Minor League Player Cards, Oddball Cards etc. There is a HUGE range of stuff here.


• You must become a follower of this blog if you're not already.


• Please spread the word via your blog or other outlets, doing so will get you an extra entry


• I will not be able to take all of these cards home. Not even close. There is the very real possibility that the remaining cards will be thrown away after I leave. Can you have that on your conscience?


• Because of their impending doom, I may offer random bonus prizes as well to give some of these a happy home, but if you haven't entered the contest, you won't get a shot


• The Contest Ends Tonight at 8pm EST

Happy New Year Everyone, enjoy yourselves some football, and maybe an outdoor hockey game.

The Great Grand Cards Anniversary Contest!

I've been traveling over the last few days and have been occupied spending time with family and friends, leaving little time to blog at all. WIth that, the one year anniversary of this blog passed unceremoniously at 11:59pm last night.

But no worries! I don't have a anniversary post planned, but I have something better. Last night, when we arrived to visit our friends in Ohio, I was greeted with this Christmas gift from my friend Mike:



That is TWELVE boxes, of varying sizes, of baseball cards (with some basketball/hockey etc. thrown in. Much of it is as you expect--there is your metric ton of early 90s stuff--including a fabulous starter set of 1992 Stadium Club, but I've also seen some pre-1980s Topps stuff, some neat minor league and oddball cards etc.

Here's the catch. 1) I can't transport all of them home and 2) I can't necessarily keep all that I bring home. That means these boxes need to be combed through to find the things I want and the rest left for Mike to do as he pleases. Which brings me to the contest.

I NEED TO GIVE SOME OF THESE CARDS TO PEOPLE WHO WANT THEM.

Contest Rules
1. Become a follower of this blog (if you are already a follower, just let me know in the comments
2. Guess how many DIFFERENT Detroit Tigers cards I pull from these boxes to bring home
3. Guess how many OTHER cards I decide to bring home with me.
4. Post about this contest on your blog (and provide a link) to get a second guess of each.

Prizes
Two people will win--The person who most closely guesses the number of Tigers Cards and the one who is closest to the overall number of cards that I keep (Closest, overall--not Price-is-Right rules). The Winners will receive all the cards of their team of choice that I can find. YOU MUST INCLUDE YOUR TEAM OF CHOICE WITH YOUR ENTRY.

Deadline
January 1st, 8pm Eastern Time.

We are leaving here on the 2nd, so this will give me just enough time to count my cards, find the winners and pull all the cards of the winners. Because of this very tight time frame, I will bypass a winning guess that does not include a team of choice in the comments.

That's it. The Clock is Ticking so GO GO GO! Feel free to comment with any questions.