Contest Update! and a bit of a rant...

Alright! So we have updated to the second standings after the first round in the Great Waxaholic Playoff Hockey Contest II.

1. DogFacedGremlin 75/120
2. CynicalBuddha 72/120
2. Jeremy 72/120
4. Play at the Plate 70/120
5. Sal 67/120
6. madding 65/120
7. Roy 57/120
8. Dan 55/120
8. Dr. Steven Ibbotson 55/120
8. shanediaz 55/120
8. roofgod 55/120
12. 1st and Goal 52/120
13. Dayf 50/120
14. Night Owl 49/120
14. GCRL 49/120
14. Justin G. 49/120
14. DFWBuck2 49/120
18. BA Benny 42/120
19. Wax Wombat 40/120

*results are unofficial (because I did this REALLY late at night)

Please DO NOT forget to make your guesses for Round 2 (scroll down a post) Also, I have no way to contact a couple of you as you are not following this blog, nor have you sent me an email... please do one or the other. Or both.

Now......
I was going to go off on the NHL schedule makers for their horrible kob at scheduling the playoff games, particularly Round 2. Why do the teams that went a full 7 games start the second round, while the teams that haven't played for a week continue to get rest???
But we all know that the executives at the American Television studios make the schedule, not the NHL, so I'll let it go for now.

What I really want to chat about is the Hart Trophy. The Hart Trophy, for those of you who don't know, is the award given to the Most Valuble Player.
The finalists were announced today, and amazingly enough, the NHL screwed the pooch on this one too.
The finalists are as follows.
Henrik Sedin - Vancouver Canucks
Alexander Ovechkin - Washington Capitals
Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins

Really? REALLY? Do they not actually watch the games? Were these names pulled out of a hat? Okay, first, Henrik Sedin, a very good choice. Top scorer in the league, vital to Vancouver's success. Bravo. But here's where we delve away from reality.
Sidney Crosby? Mr I Live for games that mean nothing so I can pad my stats Crosby? He's no more worthy of this award than I am. Pittsburgh is still the fourth seed in the playoffs without him. Next.
Alexander Ovechkin. Huh? Did you not see how Washington did without him during his suspensions? The Capitals still win the Presidents Trophy without him. They are that good. (In the regular season, anyways...heh...)

I can see people putting Ovechkin in because of the leadership he provides. After he was named Captain, the Caps just took off. But seriously.... he's not worthy of the Most Valuble Player.

This is a problem I have had in baseball as well. Too often the MVP award is given to the BPL. (Best Player in the League) See: Albert Pujols. Was he the Most Valuble Player? No. Not even close. The Cards are a very good team, with or without him. But he is the best player. So let's give him an award.

The Hart Trophy Finalists SHOULD be:

Henrik Sedin - Vancouver Canucks
Ryan Miller - Buffalo Sabres (Buffalo doesn't even sniff the playoffs without him, let alone win the 3 seed.)
Ilya Bryzgalov - Phoenix Coyotes (Phoenix may have made the playoffs without him, but not with any other goalie they have on their roster right now, so..... see above)

Most Valuble Player in simple terms means the player that's the most valuble to his team. Is that too hard to understand?

Apparently, the NHL thinks so......

Playoff Contest - Round 2

Okay, so Round One of the NHL Playoffs are over, and so is Round One of the Great Waxaholic Playoff Contest II
So it's on to the second round for all of the participants. Round 2 is simple. Pick the winners of the playoff series all the way through to the Stanley Cup Finals and the amount of games each series will go. Easy peasy.
The matchups are

a) San Jose (1) vs Detroit (5)
b) Chicago (2) vs Vancouver (3)
c) the winner of (a) vs the winner of (b)

d) Pittsburgh (4) vs Montreal (8)
e) Boston (6) vs Philadelphia (7)
f) the winner of (d) vs the winner of (e)

g) the winner of (c) vs the winner of (f)

as a tie breaker, pick the Conn Smythe Trophy winner (MVP of the playoffs)

The prizes? Well, since last year's prize was so popular, I will award another one. A 1977/78 complete set of inserts. These were randomly inserted into packs back in '77. No need to bust wax... I've completed the set for you. 22 shiny inserts from 33 years ago.

Just in case no one is interested in vintage hockey cards (I doubt it) I have some small baseball and basketball sets to offer.

So if you entered the contest in Round One, make sure to get in on Round 2. It's your only chance to win.

I may have a round one standings update tomorrow if I have time.

This Weeks Sign of the Apocalypse

LINK

Tobacco mania - part one - Hungarian Hotties!

I've been bored lately. All of us have. No new stuff. Too much bad news. Not enough fun in the hobby lately.
When I'm bored, I hit up ebay. You can shop for hours and find anything you can think of. Well, I found some tobacco cards.
No. Not any T206 Magee or Wagners.... but better. Think Benchwarmer, but 70 years ago.
These are from the 1934 Garbaty Embossed Film Stars Set. They measure approx. 2 1/8" x 2 7/16"
Here's the backs.

Anyone sprechen sie deutsch? The little hottie up top is Gretl Theimer. An actress born in Austria-Hungary. And you know how I feel about Hungarian women...

Next up is Käthe von Nagy. Another Hungarian Hottie.

another card of Gretl. Who can blame me?

I'd track her down, but she passed away in 1972. I never did have the best timing in the world.

I was going to do a nice write up on this set, but in researching it, I came across another blog that did it much better than I would do. So why not just let you go there and read up on this set? (for those of you that care to , that is.) Here is the LINK. *

Oh, and these lovely cards came to me along with a few others I bought off of the same seller.

.99 cents each. For cigarette cards from 1934. Of really hot women. Jackpot!

*the article was written by Mike DeNero & Kyleigh Spencer and was published in three different magazines:Classic Images (March 2009)Card Collecting News (October & November 2009)Collector Magazine (Spring 2010).

Well?

I just got back home an hour ago... I've been gone since thursday... what did I miss?

Upper Deck comes through!

Some of you with memories better than I will remember that I busted a box of '09 Upper Deck Icons football awhile back. For those of you with memories similar to mine, go HERE and read the back story.
Long story short, we pulled a redemption. Great. You all know how the hobby is queasy with the idea of UD redemptions right now. But we redeemed it, and have been keeping track of it in the sidebar to the right.
Well, today, there was a knock at the door and a nice Fed Ex lady handed me this package.
I put a card of Sidney Crosby in the top right corner to kind of give you an idea of the size of this thing. Rather odd... I'm not expecting anything... check the return address, Carlsbad, CA.
Sweet!
Let's tear it open and see what's inside.

A 6x9 bubble envelope. It's like a redemption nesting doll. Why didn't they just slap a stamp on this bubble envelope? I hear money's tight right now....

So let's tear this thing open and see what's inside...

OH YEAH! Gale Sayers Letterman Auto #3/5

Well worth the 31 day wait. I figure UD has been taking a lot of bad press lately... it's about time they had some good.

Thanks UD! Your football sets will be missed by this collector.

Gilles Meloche TTM success!

catchy title, eh? I have to admit it, I stole it from my good friend GCRL. We'll call it, a tribute. Yeah, that sounds good.

I've been wanting to tackle some ttm auto requests for awhile now, but could never get going. So to ease into it, I thought about hitting up retired players first. They tend to not move around as much. That narrowed it down, but I needed further focus. So why not start by expanding my '70's goalie collection?

So I headed out to Costco, got a dozen 8x10 photos made up, and mailed them off. The first one arrived home awhile ago.
Mr Gilles Meloche! Gilles was one of my faves from growing up. He played for one franchise for most of his career, although it was a bumpy ride. He started with the California Golden Seals, (which had just changed their name from the Oakland Seals) stayed with the team when they transferred to Cleveland as the Barons, and finally ended up in Minnesota with the rest of the Barons as they folded into the Minnesota North Stars.

Here's my 8x10
I read on some ttm auto forums that you have to watermark your photos so ebay douchebags don't steal your scan and reprint it to sell online. Really? People do that? And it works?

Gilles also signed three cards for me, chronicling his career.

check out that airbrush job! They forgot to airbrush his defenceman in the background, still in his Cleveland Baron colours.

Here Gilles is in his own Barons uniform.

and finally we have the glorious California Golden Seals uni, with OPC text and team variations. (how's that Jim?) The Topps version (of which I do not have) still has the Seals team name and logo.

Gilles is currently the goaltending coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He still found time to sign for me. Thanks for the autographs Gilles Meloche!

Thanks Dad

a few days ago I received a package from everyone's Dad, Baseball Dad. I was expecting a dvd from him, but that wasn't what I got... it turned out to be cards! What are the chances?
Anyways... in the package was this oddball.
Cliff Lee travelling the World. It looks like I'm stop #4 on Cliff's journey. I'll add my two bits and send him on his merry way early in the week. Baseball Dad wanted to make sure Cliff saw the Great White North before going home.

Jack also sent a half dozen Conlon cards for my soon to be finished set. (I hope)

along with a Ginter card off of my Most Wanted Card List

Thanks Jack!

Takin' care o' business....

around 3 months ago or so... my good buddy Don Ortega put up a post showing off his latest acquisition. You all read My Past Time.... I Love It and know that the Wicked One spends at least 8 days a week shopping, looking for his next trade. Well, he put up a winner, and I bit.

Here is what I sent him.... LINK... go. read. but come back when you're done.

Back? Yeah, I sent over 150 '68's in NRMT condition... they were sweet. But Wicked wants to do the set, and I, never will, so it's a win/win.

A few days ago I received a package from FLA... and it was squishy. Oohhhh.... I know what it is!
Ripping it open, I found this...
Andruw Jones! The most dominant outfielder from 1998 to 2007. 10 straight Gold Gloves.
But wait.... what's that on the number?

Oh yeah baby! Signed, sealed and now, delivered.

Andruw is hitting over .300 and has 3 HR in 21 AB's so far this year.... too bad it's for the White Sox.

Thanks for the swap Wicked. Now I just gotta figure out how best to display this sucker....

Random musings about the sports around us

I've managed to catch 3 Braves games on tv so far this season. They are 0-3 in those games. 5-1 in games I haven't watched. Sorry Bobby, my bad. I may not watch any more this year.

I tuned into the Jays game today against Pale Hose. I saw #42 pitching to #42, hitting the ball to #42, who threw the ball to, yeah, you guessed it, #42.

WTF?

I appreciate the importance of the event, and the greatness of the player. But that is the stupidest thing I've ever seen since the DH was invented. Way to go Bud! Take a momentous moment in history and turn it into a cheap merchandising ploy devoid of any meaning or respect.

How did the best team in the NHL get to that position with ice condition that bad??? The whole world is watching the playoffs, and the Caps staff pull out that crap? The pucks looked like they had never seen the inside of a freezer, bouncing everywhere. Atrocious.

Can someone who watches more Caps games than I confirm it was this bad? Or is it always like this?

Good to see one of the biggest cheap shot artists in the NHL doing his thing again. Milan Lucic continues to amaze at how he even has a job, let alone why someone hasn't killed him yet.

And HEY CHARA! If you want to head butt someone in the face, maybe take of the face shield. It's real easy to act tough when you wear a full cage... act like a man you overgrown tool.

Juan Pierre! How does this guy have a job??? He caught a ball 8 feet into left field off the infield dirt today, and Adam Lind tagged up and score from third.... without a throw. Why? Because Pierre can't throw that far without a cutoff, and the pitcher was backing up the plate instead of waiting for the cutoff..... Juan Pierre... he can't hit, and can't play defence... what a player!

Interesting rule change in college football... if a player, while on the way into the end zone, high steps, does the heisman, or otherwise taunts the opponent in any way will reult in the play being blown dead and a fifteen yard penalty being enforced from the spot of the foul, thereby wiping the touchdown off the scoreboard.

It's about time they did something... now if only basketball did this, more than 12 people might watch the games.

And finally, Big Ben! Listen to Terry B. If anyone on the planet knows what you're going through, it's him. Don't hate... listen...

thanks for reading..... as always, comments are welcome

Finally! Thank you..

for those of you have been reading my ramblings for awhile now, you probably know my absolute disdain for the "media". I'm not talking about people who report the news. I'm talking about the people who create stuff and call it news. Finally someone in the news, has had enough.



It's a sad day when a singer without underwear, or a golfer who strays from the sanctimony of marriage qualifies as news.
Reporters = news
Journalists = story writers. Get a job on FOX if you want to write stories.

And it's not just them, it's the few (I hope) people who hang on their every word, waiting to find out what tattoo Britney just got. Thank the gods for twitter! As if 14 year old girls needed yet another excuse to communicate on the phone.

That's all I have time for... feel free to comment if you agree or disagree.. I wish I had more time to rant, but I'm going out and won't be back until late tonight. And it had to be said.

No posts today, just cake.

it's my birthday today, so no posts for you.

Don't forget to enter our contest if you haven't already, scroll down one post and read.

It's playoff time! And that means one thing... a CONTEST!

It's the absolute best time of the year, playoff hockey time. Hockey has the most exciting playoffs of any sport. My adrenaline may not calm down until June. And to celebrate, and because of the immense success of last years contest, Waxaholic is going to hold it's 2nd Annual Hockey Playoff Contest! And just like last year, you don't have to know anything about, or follow, hockey. Just be a lucky guesser. If I remember right, the winner last year did not watch hockey and gave the prize away to a friend. So if you think you can't enter, you're wrong.
All I ask is that you either click the "follow" button over on the right hand side, or send me an email, or both.... just so I have a way to contact you. Either one, your choice. Even you readers that don't have your own blog and don't say anything in the comments... you can enter too.

This year will be divided into two parts. You must enter both parts to be eligible for the prize. The first part is now, and you have until Wednesday evening to enter.
Enter by leaving a comment on this post. What do you have to say in the comment? I'm glad you asked.

Simply pick the winning teams from the first round matchups of the 2010 NHL playoffs, and predict (that means guess) how many games the series will go. All NHL playoff series are the best of seven games.

In the Prince of Wales Conference (East) we have

#1 Washington Capitals vs #8 Montreal Canadiens
#2 New Jersey Devils vs #7 Philadelphia Flyers
#3 Buffalo Sabres vs #6 Boston Bruins
#4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs #5 Ottawa Senators

In the Clarence Campbell Conference (West) we have

#1 San Jose Sharks vs #8 Colorado Avalanche
#2 Chicago Blackhawks vs #7 Nashville Predators
#3 Vancouver Canucks vs #6 Los Angeles Kings
#4 Phoenix Coyotes vs #5 Detroit Red Wings


So there you have it, pick one team from each matchup, pick a number between 4 and 7 for each, and Bob's your uncle.

Good Luck, part two will be up near the end of the first round (10 days or so) and I'll have my review and predictions up on Thursday.

Sometimes I spoil myself

I love this set... I have for years. It's one of the better football sets going. So when I saw my beloved Cowboys rookie QB up for auction, I had to get it. Mine!

At almost $12 shipped, I paid waaay too much for young McProbie here. The only way Stephen will see the field is if a tragic plane crash or a mob of blonde buxom country western singer zombie chicks derail Tony Romo.
But it's my Cowboys. And if McRookie can carry the clipboard for awhile, I will continue to collect his cards.

Besides.... it's pretty, isn't it?

The Joy of a Completed Page - See through style

Remember these? 1997 eX2000? 2 cards per pack? Chipper and Maddux and Smoltz and Glavine selling for between $20 and $40 each???
Somehow I had lost all of mine from back then... but thanks to Sportlots, they are home once more. For between .18 and .40 cents each. Ouch. Just as well I lost my originals.

For those of you who haven't seen these... the border and player picture are solid colours. The backgrounds (the day or night sky) are transparent. And they look awesome. Here's the back of the completed page...

Sweet.

I've fallen and I can't get up

I've just been sent this amazing book to read and review. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to write the review on the last book I was sent. Look for that in the next couple of days... I swear.
I've been busy installing an HVAC system into my house. Between that and sculpting Jason Heyward's HOF plaque, I haven't had time for play.
This looks like a really great keepsake book on the 2010 Olympics... review to follow. Really.


Oh, and don't forget about my Ginter plea for help... just scroll down.

help a blogger out....

I need your help. Well, I'm begging actually. The baseball season starts today! (not counting the ESPN love fest sunday night... and no, that doesn't count) I need to finish off a couple of sets, with your help please.
And we're doing this, Ginter style.... first up,

2006 A&G
Card #53 John Smoltz SP
Card #305 ???
Card #303 Jennie Finch
Now I know it may be impossible to pry Ms. Finch from most of your sweaty little grasps. I probably have a better shot at getting your favourite pair of jeans, your eye teeth, or your sister... but there are girl bloggers out there, and maybe one of them will help me.

2007 A&G

Card #72, 228, 272, 310, 311, 322, 336 those in red acquired, THANKS!

I have no idea who any of those are...


2009 A&G - complete!

Card #347 Yvoni Gallardo SP - Acquired! - THANKS MADDING!!!!
I thought I had Gallardo in a swap, but it never panned out, so he's back on the most wanted list.

so if anyone of you can help with my Ginter Quest, I would very much appreciate it. LMK and we can work something out.

Are you tired?

Are you tired of all the April Fool's posts about quitting and phantom trades, etc??? How about the endless comment stream and emails about "Voting for me!!!!"?

Well sit down and rest a spell. Here. Look at this.
The only April Fool's around here are those of you who think you have a shot. Too bad she's not wearing her Gold Medal.

So go about your business, but just know that when it gets too much, you can always come back here. She'll be waiting. Well, she won't, but her picture. It's a blog fool, not actual people. Why you have to be like that?




although I have to admit, dayf's House of Philatelic Kickassery was pretty dame good. I'd read that if he kept it up....