They're Baaaack...

Spring Training is upon us. Custom Cards are here again.

Diamond Giveaway- let's see if this thing works

Now that Million Card Giveaway seems to be drawing to a close, Topps has opened up its Diamond Giveaway, which in no way is to be confused with the Million Card Giveaway. So far, all I've been seeing on the blogosphere is old 80's and 90's cards. Let's hope I get something better.

Code #1- Mickey Mantle 1952-

Redeemed- 1974 Don Hood of the Baltimore Orioles. I'll take it. It's not huge, but it's not a Bip Roberts.

Code #2- Tim Lincecum Die Cut-

Redeemed- BLUHHH! 1994 Domingo Jean of the New York Yankees, Future Star. GYAAAH, WHYYY? It's a Yankee, but it's a crappy Yankee.

Last Code: Halladay diamond

Redeemed- 1974 Gates Brown of the Detroit Tigers. Not bad. If 2 out of 3 of my codes are 70's, I can deal with that.

In the year to come, I'll be monkeying around with this thing a lot more, and hopefully I'll enjoy doing so.

2011 Topps Series 1 Finally- 1st Packs of the Year

After a long night, I ventured out to my local Target, Knowing that they had some Series 1. As I rounded the aises, I saw Robinson Cano's body emrege from the packs, and I knew I'd be getting some today. I smiled as I got SIX Packs, and TWO rack packs.

Pack 1-
My first card of 2011 is 21- Michael Cuddyer. Could have been much worse...
118- Howie Kendrick
135- Mike Stanton, the new face of the Marlins
235- Leaders
200- ICHIRO!!! In my First Pack!
Clay Kershaw mini thing that I don't care about
Bruce Sutter 60 Year Reprint. Nice.
Shiny Brett Wallce ToppsTown
250- Carlos Gonzalez
207- Angel Pagan
212- Pedro Feliz Navidad
19- Derek Lowe

Pack 2-
122- Bobby Jenks. Bluh, a Red Sock
170- David DeJesus, now an Athletic
150- Miguel Cabrera
157- Awesome Mets Team Card
24- Neil Walker Cup
279- Nick Swisher
Mickey Mantle Red Diamond
Diamond Duos Hornsby/Holliday
Carlos Santana TT
101- Gregor Blanco
48- Andrew Cashner
266- Cool Rickie Weeks photo

Pack 3-
173- Jose Lopez
320- Michael Young
27- Ben Zobrist
317- Yonder Alonso Rookie
70- Ex Phillie Kyle Drabek
279- Nick Swisher. Damn, my first double's a yankee
Code card
Mat Latos Mini thing that I don't collect
Adrian Gonzalez TT
92- Chris Narveson and his long Minor League career
286- Melvin Mora
147- Jon Niese

Pack 4-
140- Brett Anderson
102- CC Sabathia!!!
255- Torii Hunter
141- Ubaldo Jiminez cl
65- Chris Sale
315- Big Poopi, David Ortiz
306- Leaders
J-Hey and Freddie Freeman Duos
Whitey Ford 1956 that should have been
Dan Haren tt
219- CHOOOOOOCH
78- Regular Mike Stanton

Pack 5-
216- Jose Bautista, Mister Blue Jay
323- CJ Wilson
265- John Danks
83- Greg Halman, not Cher's ex
77- Tim Hudson
181- Magglio Ordonez, nominee for the best shot of the year
code card
Mini that I don't collect
Buster Posey tt
300- HEY! IT'S ROY HALLADAY!
128- HEY! IT'S CURRENT RAY MANNY RAMIREZ!
104- Oh, look, Ian Stewart.

Pack 6-
272- JJ Hardy
195- Nick Markakis
144- Lance "Fat Elvis" Berkman, now with the Cards
304- Jim Thome checklist
211- Joey Votto MVP
158- Casey Blake
Mike Stanton/ Justin Upton Duos
Roberto Alomar 60 Year Reprint
Ryan Braun tt
245- Neil Walker
277- Trevor Hoffman's final card
125- Evan Meek

Rack Pack 1-
164- Koji Uehara, with a photo I USED for a custom
47- Kevin Correia
261- Alexei Ramirez
131- Kevin Kouzmanoff.
121- Brandon Inge
83- Greg Halman
132- Brian Duensing
187- Brewers team
168- CC Sabathia, I mean Felix Hernandez CY Young
206 Chase Headley LaMarr
45- Hunter Pence
Lou Gehrig Goudey reprint
Brett Anderson tt
147- Jon Neise
308- Ian Desmond
22- Barry Zito
101- Gregor Blanco
252- Michael Saunders
140- Brett Anderson
102- CC again
155- Torii again
165- Jeremy Hellickson
52- Rays team card
200- Ichiro again
87- Dainel DeCalso
WHOA! CLAYTON KERSHAW NUMBERED TO 2011
WHOA! Jake McGee Sparkly Silver and stuff. Whoa!
Markakis mini that I don't want
Ty Cobb/MigCab Duo
J-Hey Topps 60
Troy Tuowitski Reprint
doubles

Rack Pack 2-
55- Matt Joyce
30- Gio Gonzalez
330- DEREK....JEEETAAAAAAAAHHHH!
31- Erick Aybar
303- Emilio Bonifcacio
161- White Sox
73- James McDonald, a sucky pitcher who I saw against the Giants
181- Magglio again
319- Braves team
146- HALLADAY CY Young
WHA? WHAT? WOW....
Jonathan Papelbon Topps 60...Autograph. Irony...a Yankee fan pulling a Red Soc. Irony.
Adam Jonestt
10- Stephen Strasjo.
240- Andre Ethier
316- Chris Young
35- Shin soo Choo
260- Freddy Sanchez
197- Aaron Hill, Mister Overrated
36- Ted Lilly
8- Julio Borbon222- Matt Lindstrom
274- Michael Brantley, lord of the dance
77- Hudson again
Lars Anderson Silver Sparkle
code card
mini
Jeter and Cano duo
Ryan Zimmerman Topps 60
Vladdie Guerrero 2002 Reprint
271- Adam Dunn
86- Carlos Silva
229- Jonathan Sanchez

All in all, great packs. If there are any Red Sox fans that would like to take the Papelbon, drop me a line, email on the sidebar. Also, if anyone is collecting the Kimball's Champions mini set, and want some of those, I have a few from today that I don't want.

Two Years

On February 9th 2009, I was already familiar with the blogosphere. I was also a steady collector, and wanted to join my "idols", and create a blog. So, that day Cards that Ruth Built was born. However, my friend Dan told me it was too corny, so I changed it to Mint Condition. It was a small blog, but it soon built up to...yep, still a small blog.

But still, two years ago today, I became a blogger. It was different 2 years ago. Nobody had ever heard of Stephen Strasburg, Eisner was still ahead of Topps, Upper Deck was still in existence and Wax Heaven was still active. These are different times now, but I'm glad that I wasn't one to stop, or move on with my life. I've kept going for two years now.

As for my future, once Spring Training begins, Custom shots will come out, so the Custom cards will return. And soon, once Series 1 comes out, I'll be going back to ripping. But still...it's been a fun two years, and hopefully I'll be around for a lot longer.

NFL Experience: Awesome Swag from Topps

Yesterday, being that I was in Dallas the day before the Super Bowl, I ventured out to the NFL Experience, which is basically Comic Con for Football. Topps had a boooth, and had a bunch of football cards on sale. However, my dad works with a guy who also works with Topps, and does some business with them. So all we had to do was say the word, and Topps would give us some swag. Well, thanks to the very nice people at the Topps booth, we were given three hobby boxes:

2010 Topps Chrome Football
2010 Topps Prime Football
2010 Topps Magic Football

Delightfully, I ripped all three. Here are my reports from the box breaks:

Chrome:
You know the deal. Chrome was crappy this year because some of the cards were bent. Still, I was guaranteed a bunch of refractors, inserts and an auto.

Lineage: 6 (Harvin, LaFelkl, Best, McCoy, McCluster, Addai.
Bowman: 2 (Tebow, Edwards)
Rookie Reprints: 4 (Montana, McCoy, Dorsett, Marshall
Refractors: 7 (Tony Gonzalez, Percy Harvin, Joe Flacco, Julius Peppers, Jonathan Stewart, Andre Roberts, Jimmy Graham.
Blue Refractor: Javier Arenas rookie
Autograph: Armanti Edwards rookie.

Overall: Not too bad. At least I've heard of Edwards, but I could've done better.

Prime:
This product is the definition of a premium set. There were no packs, there were heavily protected mondo packets. I regard these as "Cards for the Kings". I was guaranteed 1 Auto, 2 relics and 1 auto/relic.

Numbered to 999: 3 (Earl Thomas, Golden Tate, Sean Lee)
Numbered to 699: 2 (Rolando McClain, Mike Kafka)
Numbered to 199: 1 (Kellen Winslow)
Numbered to 75: 1 (Joe McKnight)
Single Insert: 2 (Marcus Easley, Ben Tate)
Double Insert: 2 (Dwyer/Sanders, Tebow/Thomas)
Triple Insert: 4: (Peterson/Johnson/Jones-Drew, Spiller/Mathews/Best, McCoy/Hardesty/Mitchell, Tebow/Cooper/Hernandez)
Quadruple Insert: 2 (Bradford/Tebow/Bryant/Thomas, Bradford/Tebow/Spiller/Mathews)
Autograph: Jordan Shipley of the Bengals, #'d to 599.
Single Relic: Armanti Edwards, #'d to 420.
Quadruple Relic: Tim Tebow/Sam Bradford/Jimmy Claussen/Colt McCoy #'d to 175. Wow.
Relic/Auto: Demaryius Thomas #'d to 399.

Overall: Not bad at all. That Quad relic is going to be worth a lot if all of them are great. Good box.

Magic:
This is not a set for relics and autos- this is mainly about design and collectability. I wasn't caring about the hits, mainly because I love this set because of the design, and the packs.

Black Border Minis: 5 (Benson, McCoy, Gibson, Gonzalez, Harrison
Numbered Mini: ADRIAN PETERSON Numbered to FIFTY!!!! WOW!!!
Rookie Stars: 4 (Gronkowski, Benn, Gresham, Mathews)
History's Best: 2 (Elway, Brady)
Magical Moments: 7 (Greene, Favre, Romo, Wilson, Brees, Tomlinson, Jackson.
Autographs: James Davis of the Browns, Quan Cosby of the Bengals, MARSHAWN LYNCH of the Seahawks.

Overall: Very nice set, and impressed with not only the Lynch auto, but the Peterson numbered.

Thank you to Topps for supplying me with these boxes, aall three were very good, exactly what I expect from Topps.

(BTW- If you're interested in any of these cards, drop me a line. I can decline, if I want to keep some. But if you really want one for your team collection, I can make that happen.

Tonight: THE SUPER BOWL! Pictures included!

I'm going to Dallas

And before you ask, yes, that means what you all think it means. I'm going to the Super Bowl.

I'm not going to bring up how the tickets were waved in my direction, but lets just say someone I know very well had relations, and we got lucky. The seats are pretty good, but it will be loud as hell, I know for sure.

I've known about this one for a few months now, but waited until today to spill it, mainly because I didn't wanna look like a jackass by telling everyone in December.

I'll be leaving tomorrow, and attending the NFL Expirience tomorrow as well. Sources tell me that Topps has a booth, so I will be sure to check that one out.

And after I get back, I'll be finding some 2011 series one, and ripping that. And sometime after that, when Spring Training starts, Custom Cards will return.

But, I hope you don't hate me by "bragging" that I'm going to the Super Bowl. After all, I have to sit through the friggin Black Eyed Peas at halftime. It couldn't be anyone tolerable, like Green Day, or Bon Jovi- hell, I'd even had settled for Dave Matthews. NOOOOO...The Black Eyed Peas, and their partying image. Terrific.

Thanks, Andy

You may not be headed to Cooperstown, but the Bronx will remember you for years to come.

Thanks for 12 decent seasons...and for not retiring like you said you would after the 07, 08 and 09 seasons.