Paging Brian

I still haven't heard from Brian, who won a prize in last night's '52 Rookies contest. E-mail me to claim your prize.

Update: Brian chose One Topps card from every year 1980-2007.

Thanks for playing!

'52 Rookies contest prizes

Ok folks, don't forget tonight at 10:00pm eastern (7:00pm for you Pacific folks) I'll be ripping a box of '52 Rookies. If you haven't put in your guess for how long the bust will take, go here and give it a shot. Even if you plan to show up tonight, this way you'll be covered in case your computer blows up.

Once again, here's how the game works:

People who can't be at the break can guess how long the break will take. The person closest who isn't at the box break wins.

Everyone at the live break tries to find out which four 2006 '52 rookie cards decoy cards I sneak into the box break. The first person to post a comment for each card wins.

Simple enough, right?

Ok, now here's the prizes. I have seven to choose from. The person who guesses the time correctly gets the first pick of the prizes, then the person who guesses the first card gets the second pick, then so on down through decoy cards 2, 3 and 4 .

Prize 1: A Really Bad Autograph Card

And when I say bad, I mean Bad. I'll give you a choice between bad cards, but needless to say they are all bad. Minor leaguers who didn't make it, hand signed cards with no COA, autos from other sports, I might even have my OWN autograph in there. These are bad cards. This is my sociological experiment phase of the contest, I want to see if the allure of an Autograph is so strong that people will choose that card even if they are told up front that it's really really bad.

Prize 2: Five insert cards

Five inserts that are all pretty good. no mid 90's no name one a pack inserts or parallel junk, these will all be players you have heard of before on nice, shiny cards. I might even take a request for a player if you ask nicely.

Prize 3: 10 Vintage Topps cards

These will all be from 1979 or before and at least half will be from the 50 's and 60's. No beater cards either with creases and holes and mustaches drawn on the cards (unless you specifically request it). All will be in good shape.

Prize 4: One card from each Topps set from 1980-2007

That's right one type card per year for every single Topps set from 1980 until today. If you want to wait another week for me to ship it, I can throw in a 2008 card as well.

Prize 5: A Big Pile 'O Heritage

This is exactly what it sounds like . A big Pile 'O Heritage cards. They could be from all years and brands.

Prize 6: 20 Legends cards

Twenty old-school players from sets like Archives, Legendary Cuts, TCMA and Pacific.

Prize 7: 20 Oddball cards

Weird and obscure stuff from non-mainstream issues.

In additon the winners will get the 2006 decoy card and the one it replaced, a team goodie bag and a pack of cards. That's what you can win, so be sure to show up tonight!

Fastest Box Break Ever - Part 2 '52 Rookies

A couple of months ago I did a live box break of a UD Masterpices blaster, it's time for another one. Behold - the object of my ripping:

Once again I will rip the packs, type out the pulls and post a scan all live in the shortest period of time I can muster. No time limit this time, but there will be a contest. Here's the details:

People who cannot make the live break get to guess how long the break will take. I will post a comment stating the start and end of the break. I'll use the time difference between the two posts to determine the box break time. Whoever is closest wins a prize. To enter this contest, post a time in the comments here. This is only open to people who can't make the live break though, if you post in that thread your guess is disqualified. Even if you plan to join the live break go ahead and post a guess anyway, it won't hurt anything.

There will be two contests at the live break. Both involve distinguishing between the 2006 and 2007 cards.

In two of the 8 packs I am going to replace one of the cards in the pack list with a card from the 2006 set. Also in two of the 8 packs I bust I will be replacing a scan of a pull with a scan from the 2006 set. The sharp-eyed people who pick out the card first win a prize Here's how it works:

• I post the bogus card in the pack rip.
• You smart people spot the card.
• You post a comment stating the pack number and the card. It should look like this:
  
• Pack 4: Hanley Ramirez
• The first person to post the correct answer wins.
• This is important: ONE WINNER PER PERSON. So if some guy has the 2006 52 rookies checklist memorized and gets them all right, he wins one prize pack. Only his first correct guess counts and all the rest of his guesses are thrown out. That means if someone has guessed, post your guess anyway, because second place might be good enough to win. That's complicated, but I'll explain down below.

Here are the prizes:

The card from 2006 plus the one from 2007 that was replaced in the pack plus,
One pack of random and possibly really crappy cards plus,
A small goodie bag featuring the team of your choice plus,
A super special secret card that the winner will be able to choose out of a group of prizes. They are super special secret because I haven't actually chosen them yet.

So there it is, I will be ripping the box tomorrow evening at 10:00 pm Eastern.
10:00 will be a little easier for me and it won't screw over the left coasters.

I will further elaborate how the contest works shortly to keep things from being too confusing. But the basics are:
Guess the time it takes to bust the box in this thread.
Guess the 2006 cards I sneak into the box break.

Guess the time Contest:

Ok let's say Ben, David and Mario all make guesses for the total time, here are the times they guess:
Ben: 15 minutes
David: 18 minutes
Mario: 15 minutes and 1 second.
When I start the break I make a post, and it is stamped 9:59:36pm.
When I stop the break I post that it's officially over, and that post is stamped 10:16:02pm
The total time of the break would be 16 minutes and 26 seconds.
Mario would be closest and would win in that case.
However, if Mario posts in the live box break, his guess is disqualified (only offline guesses in this contest) and Ben would win. Got it?

Spot the 2006 card contest:

Now let's say we have five people post during the break: Mario, Kevin, Steve, Thorzul and Chris. All of them make correct guesses, here are the order they are in:

Card 1: Steve, Mario, Kevin, Chris
Card 2: Thorzul, Mario, Steve
Card 3: Steve, Chris, Mario
Card 4: Steve, Chris, Kevin, Mario

The winners are all in bold. Here's how they won:
Steve is the know it all who memorized the checklist and got the first post in three of the four cards. Only his first win counts though, all the rest of his guesses are discarded.
Thorzul wins the second contest and as a result he quits guessing.
The third contest goes to Chris because Steve's guess is thrown out.
The last contest goes to Kevin because Steve and Chris already won and their guesses are thrown out.
Poor Mario gets screwed. Sorry Mario.

Any questions about this, ask them in this thread. If I missed something I'll change it but once the break goes down I am the judge and jury and what I say goes.

So go ahead and make your guesses! See you tomorrow night!