Hoot

Last month, Greg over at Night Owl Cards celebrated his 400th follower with a contest. Now, if you've been sloshing around the card blog world and somehow haven't heard of Night Owl, with his many accolades, you're not paying very good attention. Night Owl keeps guard over our tedious little kingdom whilst the rest of us are tucked away in our beds with visions of Sugar Plum Refractors dancing in our heads.

The contest was thus: 1) Leave a comment 2) Get secretly chosen by The Gods of Randomness 3) Wait x days to see if you have cards coming 4) Pray cards come before he posts about a winner who is not you.

Well lah-di-FRICKIN-dah, ol' Red Cardboard over here gets a fantastic package, composed with the intricacy and care only a fellow cardhound could perform. Let's ride.

1975 Topps MIIIIINNNNNNIIIIIIIS Gary Nolan, Will McEnaney.

1971 Topps World Series Game #5.

I had just completed the '71 set with a piss-poor version of this card, so the upgrade was very welcome. And those two '75 minis were straight off my needs page. Sweet.

2007 Allen & Ginter Josh Hamilton RC
1999 Topps Traded Adam Dunn RC

NICE. Both were much needed rookies that finished off these team sets. I've been searching for that Hamilton for quite a while now.

2004 Bowman Chrome Ken Griffey Jr.
All Griffeys are good Griffeys. This closes a team set as well.

1992 Pinnacle Gino Minutelli RC
1997 Fleer Aaron Boone RC
1999 Bowman Brady Clark RC
1991 Classic Eric Davis

Cards off my Top 11 needs in the sidebar. Cards off my base card want list. Night Owl is killing it with my needs right now.

2008 Upper Deck Timeline Joey Votto RC, Joey Votto RC, Brandon Phillips, Johnny Cueto.

Any Votto RC is tough, much less from a weirdo set like this one. I've made some serious progess on the team set now. Over halfway there.

2012 Bowman Chrome Green Refractors Brandon Phillips
OOOOOOOH. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiney.

Despite all this goodness, none of these cards compares to the piece of resistance (screw you, French language, I speak American) ...

2008 Stadium Club Autographs Johnny Cueto RC

BOOM! Look at that beauty. I had no Cueto autos. Now I have a fantastic RC auto. And I can officially confirm that Johnny has foregone his infamous block-letter signature. I will cherish this always.

Thanks for the love, Night Owl. Here's to 400 more followers.

Go Reds.