Contest Winnings from the Baseball Dad Himself

Friend of the Quarry, Jack (better known as Baseball Dad) held a contest over at his blog All Tribe Baseball.  It was a guess the number of duplicates contest and surprisingly I was the closest.  I almost never win guessing games, but I got lucky this time.  My winnings for this contest was cards unsurprisingly.  Here is what I got for being a lucky guesser.

This card was the star of the package.  It is a dual purple relic of Larry Walker and Todd Helton from 2001 SPx Update.  It is actually the 2nd copy of this card that I have gotten from another blogger.  I got the same card from Dennis of Too Many Grandersons Verlanders over a year ago.  It's still good that this card came because that one had a couple of small creases near the swatches.  This one is aesthetically more beautiful.

Here is nice card of Charlie Hayes from the futuristically named set Sportflix 2000.  The set was put out in 1994, so it was futuristic back then anyway.  Ahh the days of being scared to death of the Y2K bug, don't you miss them?  The Howard Johnson is from 1994 Stadium Club Team Series and actually gives me an idea for a new feature which I will debut soon. 

Next up we have a pair of starters from the mid 90s.  Bret Saberhagen was one of the many chances the Rockies took on a formerly great starting pitcher that didn't really pay off.  In Saberhagen's case, injury was the main culprit rather than the pre-humidor Coors.  Thomson was a 7th round pick in the Rockies 2nd draft ever in 1993.  Tossing out 1999, Thomson was a very effective pitcher for the Rox and later on for several other teams. 

Up next is a pair of Vinny Castillas.  The first is from Donruss' attempt at cashing in on the Finest craze 1997 Donruss Preferred.  It may look like a bronze parallel, but it is actually a base card.  Each card in the base set was either bronze, silver, or gold depending on rarity (I think).  The second card I absolutely love.  It is a magazine pull out card from 1999 Sports Illustrated for Kids.  This is one of those cards that I would have never gotten because I didn't know about it. 

We couldn't have my card winnings without a Todd Helton.  It is a 2002 Upper Deck Diamond Connection base card which (sort of) finishes the team set for me.  I still need several SPs and jerseys which were numbered along with the base cards.  The middle card is a 2002 Donruss Fan Club Mike Hampton from a subset called Fan Club Favorites.  The only fan clubs that Mike Hampton was a favorite of were Rockie opponents.  The final card is from 2003 Donruss Estrellas and is of Lanzador (pitcher) Jason Jennings.  Counting the unopened pack which garnered me two Rockies, Jack has now sent me 75% of this team set.

My favorite item from this package isn't even a card.  It is a foldout schedule of the 2004 Rockies.  Granted that was not a particularly good season for Todd and the Todd-lers, but it is still a great new part of my Rockies collection.  What a beautiful photo.


Thanks a lot Jack.  As always, I will keep my eye out for any Indians that you might like.  Unfortunately, the Indians (along with the Twins and Cubs) just never seem to find their way into packs I open.  Oh well, at least I know I'll have a great place to send them should I ever get any.

Contest Winnings on Contest Winnings from Cards on Cards

There are very few instances in life when fantasy turns into reality.  This is one of those cases.

Back in December, Kerry (aka madding) from Cards on Cards held a college football fantasy bowl prediction contest.  I joined as a lark because of the six major American sports (MLB, NFL, NCAA Football, NBA, NCAA Hoops, NHL), my college football knowledge is at best in the bottom half and probably 5th ahead of hockey.  I am from the south, hockey ain't my bag.  Anyway, I chose some bowl winners on Yahoo's fantasy pick 'em site and joined Kerry's contest with the goal of not being last.  I did quite a bit better than last and placed 3rd overall and if LSU didn't lay an egg I would've gotten 2nd.  But my 3rd place prize was still pretty darn good.  My prize for 3rd place was first choice of 5 cards from Kerry's unpublished (at the time) trade bait. 

The definite keepers that I got out of the 5 were these two.  The Neil Walker is a 2011 Topps Opening Day blue parallel that I needed for my master set which is currently stalled a bit.  I still need a little less than half of the blues and 1 Toppstown to have a complete master set (including the autos).  The other keeper is a 1979 Topps Eddie Murray 2nd year card.  I still need Murray's 78 for my rookie cup collection, this one is pretty sweet as well and will be helpful once I decide to build the 1979 set at some point (possibly next year).

Here are the possible tradeable cards that I picked up with the five.  The 2009 Jay Bruce Upper Deck Starquest is the black ultra rare parallel.  The one I might keep is the 2004 Fleer Announcing Greats Jon Miller featuring Cal Ripken.  I like Jon Miller more than most because I never got to go to a ballpark and hear a home announcer, so ESPN Sunday Night Baseball was my home game and Miller's voice just means baseball to me.  The final card is a 2006 Topps Heritage chrome refractor Jose Castillo.  I am not a fan of the Pirates and I think the 1957 Topps design is among the worst ever for Topps sets, so I am not real sure why I chose this card.  But I did so now it is up for grabs.

Kerry wouldn't be the great guy that he is if he didn't send me Rockies along with those five.  These two are my favorites for different reasons.  The Chacin is a 2009 Heritage High Numbers chrome that I have been trying to track down for a while.  The Ubaldo finishes off my 2007 Opening Day team set, which is always great even if I am a little irritated with his whining recently.

Here are three more late 90s Rockies.  Lariel Gonzalez only got a cup of coffee in the majors, but he is in the books as a Rockie forever now.  The Jeff Reed Finest may look familiar.  I actually used a photo of that card yesterday in fact, but not of this card.  I snagged the other photo off Google when my scanner was out to use in the Rock Stars feature that just finished up.  Now I have the actual card to go with the borrowed photo.  I don't know if Night Owl has named 1996 Pinnacle, but if he hasn't it has to be the "Golden Pyramid" set.

I also got these three parallels from 2011 Topps Update.  The odd thing about the Updated Rockies is that all three of these guys are now former Rockies.  Mortensen was sent to Boston for Marco Scutaro, while Daley and Ellis signed as free agents with the Yankees and Dodgers respectively.

The Todd Helton is a 2002 Donruss Super Estrellas.  I like the set design for Donruss's reach out to the Hispanic community.  I really like the Ellis Burks Collector's Choice all star card as well.  It doesn't show up well as a scan, but the card is really cool in person.  Finishing out the winnings is a 2010 Topps Chrome refractor Ubaldo Jimenez. 

Thank you Kerry for such a great contest that actually required some skill.  Well it didn't require it since I got incredibly lucky, but it still worked.  

If you want some winnings like this, join up with the Cards on Cards March Radness IV NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge.  I would've won that one last year if only Kentucky had beaten UConn in the Final Four, but I figured that I shouldn't hog all the prizes.

A couple of cool contests around the blogosphere

Okay I want my free extra entries into these contests, so here goes the plugs.  (Just kidding I would plug them without a free entry).

This Card is Cool - The winner of the first ever Quarry contest is holding a contest of his own now.  He is giving away some pretty nice prize packages as well.  Check it out.

Buckeye State's Trading Post - A new entrant into the blogosphere.  Well new to me anyway.  Mr. Buckeye State is giving away a very generous amount of relics and autos to one lucky winner.  Check him out also.


Also don't forget Quarry Group Break 2 is currently operational.  Spend $12 and get some cards of your favorite team (or your least favorite).  Details in the post directly below this one.

The Winner of the First Contest at the Quarry and Some Thoughts about the Prize

Congratulations to Ryan G. from This Card is Cool for winning the very first contest at Cards from the Quarry.  I hope everyone had fun and got to think a little bit with this contest.  I had a lot of fun with it and I knew the answer.  The prize for winning is a complete set of 1982 K Mart cards.  No, it's not as monetarily great as some contest winnings, but this one means a lot to me.  This is the first set of cards I ever got in my life.  A couple of months ago I was helping my grandparents clean out some junk and I found two of these sets.  I knew right then that I didn't need both and I wanted to share some of the love.  Let's take a look at the set that is thought of as the beginning of the overproduction era of cards.

Here are the first and last (Alpha and Omega) cards from the set.  The Rose was the winning clue for Ryan and is one of two Pete Rose cards in this set.  This Mickey Mantle card came out when having a Mickey Mantle card was a HUGE deal.  When was the last time you thought having a Mantle was a huge deal?   Topps, if you are reading this, stop killing the joy of owning a card of these great players.

The two most recent MVPs included in the set, which celebrated every MVP from 1961-1981, were Mike Schmidt and Rollie Fingers.  Fingers was the first AL (and second ever) reliever to win an MVP.  Jim Konstanty of the Phillies won it in the National League in 1950.  How many of you knew that little tidbit?

This set used the Topps base card of each player from the year they won with these two exceptions.  Neither of those players had a (solo) card in the set pictured for very different reasons.  Fred Lynn is the easy one to figure out, he was a rookie when he won MVP.  Lynn does have a 1975 card, but it is one of the multi-player rookies that defined the 1970s.  Maury Wills did not have a 1962 (nor 1963 and 1964) Topps card because he was exclusively signed by Fleer which was, at the time, in serious direct competition with Topps.  Although, this 1962 was created for the 1975 Topps set that featured MVPs.  Perhaps these two cards will be part of the 2011 Lost Cards from Series 2.

The only shared MVP award was by these two stars in 1979.  Keith Hernandez and Willie Stargell tied in voting and were proclaimed co-MVP of the National League that year.  It was the first (and only) time that this has occurred.  Oddly enough the American League Rookie of the Year award was also shared in 1979 between John Castino and Alfredo Griffin. 

I just had to show a "Bob" Clemente card.  I wasn't born yet in the 1960s, so did Topps really think that it was wrong to list him as Roberto because of the Spanish name or did he actually go by Bob for a while?  I remember in I think the 1994 set Topps referred to Roberto Kelly as Bobby Kelly and I had never seen or heard reference to Bobby anywhere else.

 There are a lot (over 50%) of Hall of Famers in this set, but some of the more interesting cards are the "one year wonders."  Well, Boyer was actually fairly consistent, but you get the idea.  Burroughs and especially Versalles were complete one year wonders.  Which MVP from the last several years would you consider to be a future one year wonder?  I think the best recent example would Terry Pendleton in 1991, although Dustin Pedroia in 2007 may qualify eventually as well.


I hope you all have enjoyed this little trip back in time as much as I have.  Ryan, I will get these cards shipped out to you ASAP and I hope you appreciate this nearly forgotten set as much as I do.

Quarry Contest Hint #4

Here we are on the fourth day and honestly no one has gotten real close yet.  I have enjoyed the guesses so far though and most of them do adhere to all of the clues.  This clue could bring a winner to the contest OR it could bring a reason to have clue #5 tomorrow.  Only one way to find out.

Eligible for two guesses
Greg Zakwin
Ryan G
The Lost Collector


CLUE #1 This set contains less than 100 cards total.

CLUE #2 The year the set was made begins with a 19.

CLUE #3 This set was made by Topps, but not named Topps.

CLUE #4 Omega = Pete Rose

*UPDATE* - I guess that was the clue that broke the dam.  We have a winner.  Congratulations to Ryan G. from This Card is Cool who correctly guessed the 1982 K Mart box set. 


I hope that helps and I look forward to seeing your guesses.  They have now been reset and good luck to you all.

Quarry Contest Hint #3

No one got it correct on the 2nd try either, so let's try a new clue (I like that word better than hint).  I might have to start making the clues a bit easier because I am running out of song title with the word follow in them.  Hehe.

Eligible for two guesses
Greg Zakwin
Ryan G
The Lost Collector


CLUE #1 This set contains less than 100 cards total.

CLUE #2 The year the set was made begins with a 19.

CLUE #3 This set was made by Topps, but not named Topps.



That should eliminate a lot of guesses for you guys.  Guesses are now reset for the day.  Good luck to you all.

Quarry Contest Hint #2

Well, no one got it correct on the first guess and honestly if you did I would be checking my house for listening equipment.

I did want to clarify one thing before giving you the next hint.  If you publicize my contest and provide me with the link, you get one EXTRA guess at any time.  Call it a rollover guess, if you will.  Example, if blogger A plugs today, then blogger A can guess twice today or once today and twice on a future day for how ever long the contest lasts.

Enough confusion, let's get back to the contest

HINT #2: The year the set was made begins with a 19.

HINT #1

Probably still not enough to easily guess, but it should help all but one of you that guessed sets from the 2000s.
Good luck and guessing is now reset.

I Have 50 Followers Now...Let's Have a Thank You Contest

Hey everyone I am now excited because I got to 50 followers within my first three months.  Actually I got to 51 (but I am not counting myself).  As a thank you to my loyal readers I have decided to have the first contest here at the Quarry.

I want to try a little something different for my first contest.  Rather than a simple lucky guessing game or randomizer, I want to test your knowledge of cards (with a little bit of luck thrown in).

Here is how this will work.  I am going to be giving away one complete set of baseball cards.  Your job is to guess the set.  I will give one hint daily until there is a winner and all followers get one guess.  (First free hint: It ain't 1952 Topps)  If you pimp my contest on your blog and link it in comments you may have a 2nd guess, but only once per person.

*UPDATE* Thank you to Greg Zakwin for pointing out an error.  Everyone gets one guess per day if you are a follower.  There is NO penalty for an incorrect guess, have fun with it.  Pimping the contest on your blog will get you one extra guess that you may take at any time.

I hope this is fun for everyone and we all have a good time with it.  Good luck to everyone.

HINT #1 This set contains less than 100 cards total.

Guess away and if anyone gets it on the first day (probably not gonna happen) I will give a special prize.  Good luck.

Let's Plug Away with Cool Contests x2 and an Inexpensive Group Break

Colbey over at Cardboard Collections is having another of his monthly group breaks with a couple of 1994 boxes and a bunch of bonus loose packs.   $7 a team (1/3 the price of a blaster) and $5 for an additional team.  You can't beat those prices and there are several good teams still available.

Do you like free money?  If so, Sam at The Daily Dimwit is giving away a $35 gift code certificate from CSNStores.  All you have to do is comment.

Finally, AJ from The Lost Collector is having a Big East Tournament contest.  Guess who you think will win the Big East Tourney and you win a free relic from a former player of that school.

Cool Contest x 2

Some people say March comes in like a lion and some say it come in like a lamb, I say it comes in like a contest.  Poor humor aside, there are two cool contests going on at Play at the Plate and Tomahawk Chopping.

You can't complain about free cards along with the coming of a new baseball season.

Quick Contest Plug for some cool basketball loot

Charles over at Hoopography is at it again.  This time he is giving away the contents of a box of 2011 Panini Contenders (- Lakers and Blazers cards).  I really love the look of the Rookie Ticket cards even with the small photos.  Check out his contest by clicking right here.

Contest @ Things are Funner Here

Do you like $50?  Do you like free baseball cards?  If the answer is no you probably aren't reading this, so I will assume the answer is yes.

Head on over to Things are Funner Here where she is giving away  a $50 gift certificate to CSN Stores to the winner AND 3 2011 Topps rack packs to the top three places.

New contest at Hoopography

Since I finally posted my Mashburn wantlist, it put me in a basketball mood.  Charles over at Hoopography is giving away the contents of a box of 2011 Panini Timeless Treasures including a pretty sweet quad jersey card.  You can find the contest by clicking here.