Offy's Sports Site

Sports Syzygy

2011-04-15T11:21:00.000-04:00

I'm not exactly sure how it is happening, but I'm still getting 9 visitors a day here without posting any new content. Want to read some new content? Head on over to Sports Syzygy for new stuff.

New Site - Update Links!

2010-11-04T23:12:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! This is something that has been a long time coming, but I'm starting this blog over with a new name. The original name was just something that I threw up when I wanted to start doing this and didn't want to spend the time coming up with a name. Well, that name ended up sticking around on the blog for a lot longer than I intended (around 3 years). I had been working on a new blog

Late to the Party

2010-10-31T22:49:00.000-04:00

My weekends have been ever busier than my work weeks due to trying to get a ton of stuff done at home when I have some free time. I could take a week off and still not get everything done. Luckily, I will be able to take a week off in February. I hope to get the mancaveattic finished during that week. Until then, here's my entry into the awesome giveaway going on over at Georgia Mindset. I'd

Jon Lester Mojo

2010-10-31T00:26:00.000-04:00

...and suddenly I've got an impressive Jon Lester collection, but that's getting ahead of myself. About a week and a half ago, I received an e-mail from Mojo letting me know that he really wanted my Kobe Bryant Rookie & Stars patch autograph that I had won in the Panini Adrenalyn photography contest. Always one to entertain an offer, I took a look at what he had to offer and what he had to offer

Refractory Goodness

2010-10-30T16:45:00.001-04:00

I wanted to do a little comparison between the different amounts of refractors that I received out of the three 2010 Topps Chrome products that I opened. Since the "hits" were just about the only cards in my box that weren't damaged, I may as well get as much enjoyment out of them as possible. First up, the box.It's tough to pass up Chrome for the price it is currently selling for. At $35 a box,

Glutton for Punishment

2010-10-30T12:35:00.000-04:00

So, being the fool that I am, I purchased a blaster box of 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball. None of the cards were wrecked so that was a relief, but I was shorted my free pack that was advertised on the box. Really Topps? I've got to say, if you like refractors then blasters are the way to go. I had a regular, x or purple refractor in every pack except one which had a heritage insert instead.

Trade Tease

2010-10-26T23:08:00.000-04:00

Wow, I really hate composing posts on Blogger. I need to find a good Mac client quickly. Until then, I need to tease a huge trade that will probably show up on the blog some time next week. If this were a sports trade, ESPN would do an hour long special about it. Hopefully this gets me back into the swing of things on the trading front. I've got a ton of stuff to trade away and hope to

Box Break - 2009-10 Panini Hall of Fame Basketball

2010-10-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

I've been looking forward to busting a box of this product since I first heard about it. Not only are there a bunch of great players in there due to the checklist only containing Hall of Fame members, but there are also a lot of players who have never previously had autographed cards in a product. There are also beautiful looking nickname signature cards. As a basketball fan, this is pretty

Box Break - 2007 Upper Deck SP Rookie Edition

2010-10-24T14:00:00.012-04:00

This wasn't the first box that I opened, but I thought it was one that was relevant to current baseball playoff events. I love busting cheap, older Upper Deck products, but you'll rarely see me buying anything from them when it's brand new.

Box Break Preview

2010-10-24T03:29:00.000-04:00

Here's my first attempt at a video of any sort. This was after 2 of my 4 orders had arrived. Not pictured here are boxes of 2010 Chrome, T206, National Chicle, 1998 Score Red Sox and Topps Super Chrome.

Disastrous Box Break - 2010 Topps Chrome

2010-10-23T23:10:00.001-04:00

I want to make these box breaks look nice, but this one doesn't deserve the effort. Just in case you were curious as to just how bad these cards looked. The rest of the box wasn't bad at all, but I just couldn't enjoy it. I think that I'm going to scan the worst of the cards before I ship them off because the defects are really noticeable that way. Here's the video. (Sorry about the video

This is bullshit

2010-10-22T12:23:00.000-04:00

I read all of the horror stories in regards to 2010 Topps Chrome, but since the prices dropped on boxes after the Strasburg injury I decided to take a shot. I like the cards and all of the autographs are on-card. It seemed like it was going to a great product. Boy was I wrong. The third and fourth cards in every one of my packs were disasters. Whatever machine makes the indentations on

A sampling of 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball

2010-10-19T16:14:00.000-04:00

Went to the local (to work) card shop today on my lunch break to grab a little bit of Topps Chrome Baseball. Out of seven packs, I pulled a redemption for a Luke Hughes auto and a couple of regular refractors. Not too bad. Saw a lot of the curving of the cards that people are complaining about. My cards also seemed to be coated in something similar to baby powder. I don't know if this is so

Topps Customer Support video

2010-10-18T19:19:00.000-04:00

My thoughts on Topps and their customer service video (posted here: http://www.toppsblog.com/?p=663): While this is nice, it really only speeds things up for those missing hits. If you get shorted a hit then you're already screwed. There's no way that you're going to be sent a Strasburg auto or some 1/1 card as a replacement for that shorted hit. So, while you will get the hit you were

So...

2010-10-18T18:47:00.000-04:00

It looks like the poll isn't designed to record who guessed what. That's what I get for not trying a test poll first. So, feel free to post either collection or wax box guesses in either of these posts. It'll lead to some fun discussions and once I finish busting open those 26 boxes, I'm sure that I'll have plenty of favorite players, teams and unwanted hits to send out. I'll look to those

Still Getting Up To Speed

2010-10-17T20:36:00.000-04:00

I'm still transferring files from the PC to the new iMac. I've got to figure out how I'll be composing my posts in the future. On the PC, I used Windows Live Writer, but that's not an option now unless I also run Windows on another partition. I haven't ruled it out yet, but haven't given up on finding a Mac solution yet. In the meantime, I've posted a little poll to see if people can figure

Williams/Buchholz (Goodbye Pierce, Hello Reggie)

2010-09-11T09:00:00.001-04:00

For some reason, this scheduled post didn’t get posted on Saturday so I’m posting it now. Just imagine that you’re reading it on Saturday. Today is my 35th birthday. For the past 9 years, it really hasn’t been the best day for celebrating. In fact, I often get a sympathetic reaction just from telling someone my birthday when they are taking down my information. That being said, I will

Panini Prize Winnings

2010-09-10T21:00:00.000-04:00

I’m a little late in posting this, but I now have my Kobe Bryant autographed card that I won in a Panini Adrenalyn related contest. Upon ripping open the envelope this is what I found: The card reads, “Once again, thx for coming out and taking such a great picture.” For reference, here’s that picture again: Technically, the contest called for a picture of yourself with the bus, but

2010 Topps Levi’s Workshops Beyond the Ballgame San Francisco Giants set

2010-09-10T15:49:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine made a trip out to California and while he was out there made his way to a Giants game. Upon entering the park, he was given a pack of these trading cards. I had no clue what the cards were at first, but as I did more research, I found out that they were pretty cool. You can find out all of the details here on the Levi's Workshops blog. What stood out for me was the

Anyone interested in Benchwarmer Baseball?

2010-07-30T20:02:00.001-04:00

Back in April, I wrote a post about a fantasy baseball league I had joined which was a lot different than anything out there. The reason that I joined was that it was almost identical to a league that I used to be a member of through the mail in high school. I just read a tweet from @benchwarmerBB stating that there would be an August special coming up that would allow new owners to play in

Favorite cards: Dwight Evans RC

2010-07-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

From the moment that I started watching the Red Sox, Dwight Evans was my favorite player. He is one of the most underrated players in the history of the game. If only he had discovered the teachings of Walt Hriniak earlier in his career instead of halfway through the 1980 season, he may have gotten more consideration when it came to the Hall of Fame. While Jim Rice had a couple of career

2020 Vision

2010-07-26T08:46:00.000-04:00

Since I have half of the set from my jumbo box and I like the set, I may as well try and complete it. I’ve managed to pick up 5 duplicates from packs and so I’m offering them up to anyone out there who may have the cards that I need. My duplicates are T5 Justin Upton, T11 Joe Mauer, T14 Ubaldo Jimenez, T13 Andrew McCutchen and T20 Matt Kemp. I need T1 Ryan Braun, T2 Gordon Beckham, T4 David

Drafting something for the collection

2010-07-25T20:27:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, my daughter won a contest on the Upper Deck Facebook page. We sent in a picture that she had drawn of mom on a baseball card for the contest and she was randomly picked as a winner. The prize was a box of 2009 Signature Stars Baseball. We opened the box together, but she lost interest about halfway through. She showed a lot more interest in the Hannah Montana box that she

2010 Tri-Star Obak Minor League Baseball

2010-07-14T21:56:00.000-04:00

I was a big fan of last year’s Obak set and am very happy to see that it will be returning in 2010. With so many sets doing the same things with the same players over and over again, Obak is a breath of fresh air and a very fun set to collect. The best part of these sets are the cards celebrating the history of baseball. There’s a lot to be learned just reading the backs of these cards.

Congrats Big Papi

2010-07-12T23:02:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a show put on by David Ortiz in the home run derby. It’s great to see him do this on a National stage after people wanted to write him off for the second season in a row. They really have to do something about the derby though. At the scheduled two hours, with my current favorite player in the running, it still borders on too long. Once it goes over by 30 minutes with Berman “