Wishing everyone a very prosperous 2014!

Happy New Years to one and all. May the coming year be one that is far better than the one closing out tonight.

Winners for the December contest are Bo, Nick, and T.J,  Thanks guys for the awesome Braves, your prizes will be sent out very soon. And thanks to all who sent Braves cards to me this month, I appreciate each and everyone of the cards, oh yeah....... you guys too.

Be safe

Name successfully changed

Just noting the change. It really was easy to do.

Two stacks part 2

Okay Let's wrap these 2 stacks up.

That Wade Miller great last name, is #d  7/117 and the Wheeler is #d 5/50. I like the Erstad of the six the best though.  Below we have 3 Polo cards.

Teixeira is #d 13/25, Prior #d 24/35, and the Pedro is #d 7/45. I really like the backsides of these cards I should of scanned one of those, but didn't think about it until now, sorry.

Can't go wrong with the Ripken Hot Commodities card.
The last 2 above are great cards, Ted Williams #d 22/50 and the Piazza Royal Court is just awesome.

Below,  We have Jr (Mac on the on the front (flip view next group of these two), and  the Piazza Refractor has Tim Salmon on the front side.

The Bowman's Best Fusion of Piazza has Ben Petrick on the reverse.
The top 2 below are the reverse shots of the the ones above.

The Fall Classic die cut is pretty cool, as is the Dream Team holo.

Below are some nice Mac and Piazzas. The Wonder Years double fits Nicks, Anthemic mini, LOL and those Boyz with the Wood cards were just nice.

Both of the HoloGrfx cards have different appeals, with holding upright the Launchers looks best, but laying flat the Starview does, weird.

That wraps it up, I still have 4 cards here in the stack but I can't locate the scan.
Next post will be a stack of cards getting ready to go bye bye in a trade.

I see two stacks

Those two stacks are about 6 inches high each. At first I was going to battle inserts vs. game used, but I decided against that. Many of the inserts you'll see here are Mark McGwire and Mike Piazza, and we all know who would win those. But let me say this, barring the individual I could judge the card itself, and that might be fair. Either way, as usual if they are not Braves cards they are trade bait.

Lets start with the first two you see on top. Newhouser serial #24/25 not bad great looking insert, lets look at them a little closer.

That Hidalgo is very nice also, bat and jersey, but the Newhouser would win if I were rating them.

I like the Trading places inserts with the relic in the middle. Hey that's a Padres card. Back in the day I collected all of the Diamond Kings, this one isn't special by (#d 10K) any means unless you like grips or you are an Indians fan.

I definitely like the Gonzo D-Back card, and the flip side of the Piazza is Irod

Another Padres (Kotsay) serial #23/200, paired up with a Hofer, and serial #d 71/82

Tejada's bat card is erial #d 17/50 while the Yaz is serial # 1/100, yep #1.

Lets see a Dodger or Mac, duh. Green all the way heehee, actually not a great design on the statitude card, the jersey card is kind of bland, but it's a mini..

The Mussina jersey card is #d 135/250 and the BLUE Halliday #d 37/50, but it has a scratch near the bottom.

The Olerud looks like it might give you a headache if you stare at it too long, and the Piazza is coll. That mask appears HUGE.

Brandon Webb's (D-Back) pant card with the pinstripe is alright, but I do like the textbook, its just completely different from most inserts.

The Zito would have been much better with a 2 color patch for sure

The double jersey here of Burnitz and Alfonzo is a great card especially if you're a Mets fan (wait til later), Piazza soso card.  Another Padres.... and Mac.

I didn't like the Dunn patch when I got it, it is HUGE and supposedly was limited to just 75 but no indication on the card itself, the logo patch takes too much away from the ball card! On the other hand the Generations of Excellence card is sweet, let's say we replace those 2 guys with Maris and Clemente. yeah that'll work.

The Johnson jersey card is #d 88/100 and what can I say Piazza as a Dodger. Now the two cards below are something awesome. Those are actual bases from the Subway series NY vs NY World Series.

And the very sweet Willie Mays is #d 10/25. Both of these cards are great!

This next group will be the last for tonight (or morning) ( we made it through 3/4 of them)

The top card on both rows looks best to me. Angels, Cubs, Dodgers, and a Ripken, LOL

I will wrap these up a little later. Thanks for looking and if interested in any of these LMK.

I think I got it, yep I got it.

Playing around today with the pics, and I think I figured out how to save my cropped pics and the original. Hmm, let's see if it worked.

The original scan above, okay.

yes i do believe I've got it, at least this time, lol.

and these two.

And a mini

And the last three.

Alright, I hope I can do it next time too, hehe.

And the Winner of the 51 bowman is....

Blaster 3 had 2 votes, the first was by Ethan who caught the upside down Arod mini. The second was by Nick who liked the Beatles insert. Blaster 2 had one vote by the lost collector who felt that box had the better variety and hit on the Mantle, the Tulo inserts, as well as the pure heat, and a better bang my for my buck (they were gifts, lol), and Blaster 1 had 1 vote as well by lonestarr, who said there were more keepers in it for them.

Me personally I would have chosen Blaster 1, but I am nuts so I asked you folks to rate them for me. The key to winning the sadly conditioned 1951 Bowman card was the Why you chose that box. Although the upside down Arod is an awesome reason, but 1 card doesn't make the cut. Same goes for the Beatles answer, an awesome card and definitely a worthy pull though. Leaves us with #1 or 2. Yes, I would have chosen #1 myself but for different reasons. At the beginning of the first Blaster post, I stated what I look for when opening a pack, box or whatever. Braves, then inserts,then superstars, and finally cards for other traders. The Lost Collector, geared his answer more towards what I was looking for even though I thought that answer more accurately described box 1. He still wins the "I wish was in good shape Bowman".

Thank you all, lets play again soon.

Pack Wars

Well after seeing so many base cards in the Blaster battle, I decided to cut those out of the Pack Wars and just go with the inserts from the packs. 11 packs had zero, nada, el zippo for inserts so we are looking at inserts from 19 packs. I will be matching them up and calling the winner from each pairing or group.

DING DING DING.

First up: A pack of Leaf Pete rose cards (not really inserts, but ....)

The winner is card #1. Pete has about 4 microphones in his face and he is scratching his head trying to think what to say. You can read it on his face too.

Next we have serial numbered to 999 Ultras Gold versions. 

I apologize for the full scans.  I cropped these pics and re-saved them but no matter what I do, it doesn't save the cropped pics. Anyways, ehheheh I will go with the Quentin as he is a D-back and I can trade him.

Here we have a couple of Walk Offs Fisk and Podsednik

Fisk all the way, look at that expression. Mouth Wide Open.

A pair of  BABES!

Going with the History of the game, just looks cooler.

Next Topps A Cut Aboves x3  Pedroia, Bench, and Mays

Piece of cake, the Say Hey kid!

Here you see a (1) Gypsy Queen mini that actually came in the blaster boxes, but I had to put it in there as the other one just looked lonely all by itself.  Yeah, i know the "Burnitz" card isn't an insert, but  whatever its in, and BTW it Wins.

Yes,the  Burnitz card won. why you ask, for one you got the Cubbie uniform and the Pirates logo, for two, it really doesn't look like Burnitz at all. As funny as it sounds though Ichiro in a Cubs uniform and that could be him, LOL. The Burnitz card wins.

Now we have some more mini fun: Some doubles but hey they are still minis.

That Granderson is really nice, but no way it beats out that Cy Young!

 I will go with Hosmer here, overall the card looks better, and he is card number 5, my very first jersey number as a kid (2 years later became number 15 for baseball, 42 for football, and whatever they gave me for basketball, lol). Not to mention I like blue better than red. Obviously, it didn't matter either way on these two cards.

More ehh inserts

Okay, I personally don't consider the the Golden giveaway cards inserts, but Topps decided to number the things, so here they are. On any normal day I would choose Ripken over Gibson, but I can not do that here, the Gibson is a real insert, albeit kind of bland to be called "Gold Standard" but come on man he pitched a 1.12 era season. Gibson wins.

Some Golden Moments, what is that? a Double Oh no. Twice as I pulled that same Mays last week!

Just as bland as the other Golden insert set, but you can't go wrong with Willy!  Willy wins, Willy wins, Willy wins!.. baseball humor. More doubles all 4 here.

Personally I like JD Drew the best out of these 4 players, but as for the card that wins, Victor gets the tally. The fist pump, and the grin gets the win!

Below, CC gets the win.

Not a big fan of Topps Attax, but that Rivera card kicks Moustakas gold parallel's butt.

Some nice shiny green starquests.

And Ortiz take the prize, although Tulo's card is just as nice. We'll give him runner up. hehe.

Finally the last pairing of the night:

The Mick vs Gibson

The Gibson Hallmark Heroes card actually beats out the Mickster's peak performance, just looks better.

That's all folks, I will be naming the winner of the 1951 Bowman card a little later tonight (Blaster Battle winner).

The Final Blaster

Okay, we've made it to the last blaster box for you to peruse through. Reminder of the 51 bowman card.
Again, I have a hard time when it isn't loaded with Braves, so I look at the inserts, superstars, and other traders needs/wants.  Tell me which box was best and why.

Blaster #3 packs

Hmm maybe I'll pull some Braves out of it.....I did get this Chipper insert from the 2006 Ultra fat pack, not great but it's a Brave.

What else did we get from more 2010 Upper Deck. A few inserts.

Next,  we have the 2013 Heritage.

A Brave, and the Beatles flashback is Pretty cool too.
Wouldn't you know it more 2012 Topps, but a few good inserts.

2010 Topps Update

2008 Topps

Another Nice Mantle insert.

A nice insert and a Brave, yea me..

Rate these boxes and let me know why. I will decide on friday night who get the 1951 Bowman card. Thanks