Dinged Corners Contest Winner!

The following is the fastest transaction in the history of the Achiever Card Blog. As those of you who have sent me cards in the past know, it is usually anywhere between 2-5 months before I get up a post about the free stuff I received. It recently occurred to me that I could benefit from posting sooner. The thought process (I'm very logical) went something like this:

1. Blog People send me free stuff
2. Blog People like to know that the free stuff is appreciated
3. When I wait forever to post it may look like I don't appreciate the stuff
4. If I post sooner Blog People will see me writing about them on my immensely popular blog
5. If Blog People see my wit and brilliant writing about the cards they sent me, they will be happy
6. Blog People will send me more free cards
7. I LOVE free cards

I'm telling you, I'm like Spock.

So, I just got some free cards from the wonderful girls at Dinged Corners. (If you don't know who they are you are here by mistake. There is no porn here. Please move along). Actually, these cards weren't necessarily free, as I earned them through hard work and dedication.

First, I had to answer an extremely difficult trivia question. Then I had to type "2007" in the comments. Heck I even had to go back into the Dinged Corners archives to make sure I was spelling "Mazeroski" correctly. I'm a bad speler a lot of the time. The whole thing was exhausting. I had to take a nap. However, as you'll shortly see (if I ever actually get to the cards) the whole thing was worth it, despite the steep price I paid in physical exertion.

But, back to the main point, which is that I'm a genius and have figured out a way to get more free cards. That transaction went like this:

1. On 4-14-09 Dinged Corners holds a contest
2. Through dedicated research and shear force of will, I am able to successfully enter said contest and emerge victorious.
3. On 4-15-09 The contents of the mystery box are revealed
4. On 4-15-09 Dinged Corners asks for help in identifying cards. I am not helpful.
5. HEY! 2007! THOSE ARE MINE! HIP HIP HOORAY!
6. On 4-20-09 The package with my hard earned cards arrives in the mail. Patricia is not messing around with this.
7. Today - Post about the cards. See how fast that was?

So, what did I get? Two huge packs of 2007 Upper Deck. Apparently I was the biggest winner of the whole thing, as I should be considering the time I put in on it. The girls also sent some extra Sizemores, just because they're awesome. As you'll soon see, there was a plethora of Indians in the packs.



2009 UD Starquest Blue
2008 UD Masterpieces
2007 UD Future Stars

Here are 3 of the extra Gradys that were sent. I've always liked Starquest. I think I only need about 17 more colors and I should have the whole rainbow. The back of the card says that Grady "Mashed...33 longballs". If it was me that would have read "Mashed 33 taters".

Grady's so good he can use 2 bats at the same time. The back states "As the mercury began to rise during the 2008 season, Sizemore heated up as well." Seriously, when did they start to employ Robert Frost to write the back of these. That was beautiful.

In 2007, after crushing the league for 2 full seasons, Upper Deck finally decided that Sizemore was a "future star". Yeah. Thanks for the heads up.




2009 Heritage
2008 UD X

I like Heritage. Heck, everyone likes heritage. It's too late to scan it in but the back has a cartoon of "Grady" sitting on a wooden stool in his uniform listening to vinyl on an old-timy record player. The caption states "Grady's favorite band is The Doors." It's glorious.

I really, really like this Upper Deck X card. I don't know if I have any other cards of these. It was so widely panned I didn't even bother with it. Why didn't anyone like it? I think this card looks great. I'm going to look into getting some. I figure maybe it will be cheap seeing as how I seem to be the only guy that likes it.

Here are some of the cards that came in the packs:



Joe Smith and Jason Davis

The Joe Smith Rookie card (allegedly). Formerly a Met, now he's on the Tribe, and we're glad to have him. He didn't do so hot last night, but we still won. Joe was born in Cincinnati, but we won't hold that against him.

Jason Smith. Formerly on the Tribe, now on the ITLTLIU (I'm too lazy to look it up). See how that came full circle? 2 cards. One an Indian, the other not, but not necessarily the one withe the Indian's uniform on? Trippy.




Jake Westbrook and Kevin Kouzmanoff

Jake should be back from Tommy John surgery sometime in July. It can't happen soon enough as the Tribe's staff is underwhelming. He probably won't be full strength until next season, though.

I like to see Kouzmanoff in a Tribe uniform. That way I can pretend that the Kouz for Josh Barfield trade never happened. And it's his rookie card! (Allegedly).




Randy Johnson and Kenji Johjima

I know they aren't on the Tribe but I wanted to put something up for Patricia and Lucy. Randy probably has this big smile in very few cards. He almost looks like a decent fella, as opposed to the guy that we all know has the perennial red...uh...behind.

I know Lucy likes the Asian players, and this really is a fantastic looking card with the sun setting in the background. Normally I would mention that Kenji is an overrated player who plays below replacement level and took at bats away from a better, younger prospect in Clement. He also killed my fantasy team last year. But this is such a nice card that I'm going to avoid that kind of negativity. So, I won't even mention that stuff.




I'll end on Albert Pujols and Grady Sizemore

The Albert is one of those UD Triple Play things with the scratch off on the back. As always, I'm torn on whether to scratch off the back of these. I'd hate to lose book value. Book value is tremendously important to me. I'll have to think about it.

The other Grady Sizemore card is some kind of error. For some reason they put Juan Uribe's name on it. They even got the team wrong and wrote White Sox instead of Indians. Does anyone know anything about this? Is this error very rare. I'd love to find out that this Sizemore is extremely rare and valuable.

Well, that's it. That wraps 'er all up real nice. Thank you Patricia and Lucy. You girls are awesome. Top notch Blog People.