The Ginormous Balk Four Cardboard Contest!!!!!!!

As promised, we here (well, me here) at Balk Four have decided to have our first ever contest.

The exact parameters of the contest will be secret for now, but I need to make sure and drum up enough interest in the contest to make it worth my while.

A few rules on the contest:

1. You MUST be a follower of the blog. With my new found commitment to the blog, I would like more people reading it, so as to encourage more interaction and feedback from the sports card blogosphere.

2. You must collect cards. Of all kinds. It can be one sport, one brand, one team or one player. But there will be a ton of randomness going on, so all prizes will not contain only one sport.

3. You gotta be active with the contest. It will span a matter of weeks and will include multiple opportunities to gain points.

4. Yes, this will be a points based contest. There will be some trivia, some games, maybe a limerick or two...and score will be kept.

5. I'm gonna need you to have fun and enjoy yourself with it. There will be a limited number of prizes given out, but EVERYONE is encouraged to participate. Who knows, maybe everyone will get something ;)

Now, as for prizes, I will give a small preview of some of the things that will be given away (this will be a sample of the baseball cards being given away):

Plus, there will be quitet he assortment of basketball, football, oddball and maybe a little hockey mixed in.

All you have to do to enter is: 1) Follow the blog. Who knows, maybe you will enjoy the content. 2) Post a comment with your name, favorite baseball team and some random baseball trivia. 3) Prepare yourself to have a little fun ;)

I will iron outall the details of the contest over the weekend and should have the first contest post up sometime in the beginning of next week. Feel free to spread the word on the contest. The more people that participate, the better the prizes will be (and, potentially, the more prizes available).

Thanks everyone, keep an eye out for more details.

Happy Thanksgiving from Germany!!

So, it's already 8:15 am on this side of the Great Atlantic Pond. My son awoke at 7:30 and my wife popped out of bed, ready to attempt her first ever solo Thanksgiving dinner. She's never cooked a turkey or had to put on a 7 course meal, but I have faith in her.

I know in my household, today we give thanks for our family, for God for always being there for us, for my fellow soldiers serving stateside, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and abroad and for our continued good health.

I'd also like to give thanks for some recent eBay wins, that have been REALLY upgrading the ol' Richard Hidalgo PC.

One I won this morning (like 4am) that i am TERRIBLY thankful for is:

2005 Topps Turkey Red Suede Ser Numbered......are you ready for this...........I hopey ou are sitting down.......ONE OF ONE!!!!

This is my first Hidalgo 1/1 and a great one at that. These suede cards hardly ever pop up, regardless of player, so it was great to get it for a decent price (A little over $13 delivered).

Next up is a recent mailday with some more Hidalgo-y goodness:

2005 Donruss Champions Black Parallel Ser Numbered 5/5

1998 Donruss Crusades PURPLE Ser Numbered /100

Easily my favorite Hidalgo. If anyone player collects or team collects and has a player in the Crusades set, I would chase after a few of the cards. I have the Green Crusade on the way in the mail (a guy on eBay recently broke up a green set and a purple set and listed them individually and he has most of the Reds, including Hidalgo's....but I don't have $90 to offer him right now for the red) and plan on getting the Red sometime soon. This is easily THE insert/parallel set of the 90's.

And my final Hidalgo card in recent mail history is my newest auto, 2004 Sweet Spot:

Kind of tough to find new Hidalgo autos as many don't get listed and the ones that do, I generally already have. Except for a few in eBay stores, but those are primarily overpriced by Burbank Sportscards or Syndicate Sports.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving. I know I plan on eating way too much turkey, potatoes, pumpkin pie, gravy, rolls and veggies and watching as much football as possible.

Should have my contest post up tomorrow, with some pretty nice cards being given away.

Stay tuned!!

Testin, testing....is this thing on?

So, it has been just over a month since my last post. My passion kind of got jumbled into the real world, having only one computer and all (plus Madden 2010, college football and...little to no money).

But, I have dug deep down, into my heart and realized I need to get my two passions out: sports and writing. Everything about sports, from the games to the players to the records to video games, memorabilia and cards. I have always enjoyed writing and thought I was passionate about it and now I am trying to re-ignite that passion and develop a readership with anyone who still drops in and really get personal.

I plan on posting more of my pickups, trades and sales. Plus, my own opinions on players, teams, records, achievements, news and everything else that encompasses the sport I love the most, Baseball, with a little side sprinkling of college football, college basketball, the NBA and the NFL (maybe an NHL mention or two....but I don't wanna bog this thing down).

I plan on knocking out three or four posts over the holiday weekend (like a lengthy one tonight that will be a mail week post, plus some blings and grumblings), so if you are reading out there, keep an eye out.

Plus, I plan on running a contest this weekend, to give away an auto or two, some game used and some inserts, so start spreading the word.