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  My prize for 3rd place was first choice of 5 cards from Kerry's unpublished (at the time) trade bait.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.