Wednesday, April 28, 2010

1st Fantasy Power Week Results

Two weeks ago we launched our first ever Fantasy Power Week with some simple rules and some pretty cool prizes. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Special congratulations to a few winners:


1st Place:
Bennett, 12 points (Albert Pujols, Rick Ankiel, Tim Lincecum)

2nd Place:
Travis, 11 points (Rafael Furcal, Nick Markakis, Tim Lincecum)

Bennett wins 2 packs from our Fantasy Power Week episode, and Travis wins the other pack we opened up. We will also include a special mystery card from their favorite teams.

We kept track of the results each day, and you can check the full standings by visiting our Google Spreadhseet. For those of you wondering what the best team would have looked like, it was a combination of Bennett and Travis' teams: Rafael Furcal (5 points), Rick Ankiel (5 points) and Tim Lincecum (4 points).

Since this was our first time offering the Fantasy Power Week, we would love your ideas on how to make it even better next time. We have already received the suggestion to include strikeouts for the pitchers to make up for the fact that they may only pitch once a week. What other great ideas do you have to make this contest even better?

Thanks for your feedback and congrats again to Bennett and Travis!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Winner of the Nolan Ryan Card!

So we had some great "best/worst strikeout" stories submitted throughout the last week but we had to choose just one winner. That winner will receive the Nolan Ryan "mother's cookies" limited edition baseball card. This thing is one of a kind and we know we're sending it to a good home.

The winner is.... Drumroll... CHRIS GULDRY! Take a chance to read his story below and feel free to comment with a congratulation. Now come on everybody, be good sports no hate :) only love. Congratulations Chris!

Here's my story: 10 yrs old (Bronco League back in the 70's). I had not struck out once all season. Much like never mentioning a no-hitter during a game, Dad and I never talked about the streak, but he did point to the "0" in the column in the stats after each game. So, last game of the reg season, 2nd at bat and the pitcher is the only girl in the league. She got 2 strikes on me and lobbed a "change-up" toward the plate. No need to spell out the outcome. Dad never let me forget that lone "K".

Watch out for those change-ups and enjoy the MLB season!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Free Baseball Cards! Opening Day Cards #22



Four free packs today and a Baseball Term of the Day to boot. Speaking of boot, did you see the Sox blow that lead today? Dream Cards are back in action, will Chris pull a Tim Wakefield? Will Joe be blessed with a Joe Mauer?

Big week of live baseball for us! Joe is at Miller Park today back in the dairy capital of the world - Wisconsin. He’ll be waking up at 4AM to milk the cows in his suburban back yard and Chris is hitting up two Giants games in San Fran this week.

What games have you been to so far this week? As always, all these cards are up for grabs including the Derek Jeter, ya better watch the episode to discover the rest.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Free Cards and more Fan Mail! Episode 21

Episode 21 from chris andrew on Vimeo.

Welcome back to Opening Day Cards, where everyday is Opening Day.

Today we are opening up some more mail we have received in the past few weeks, and more importantly, we are opening up some new packs of baseball cards and giving them all away for free*.

First the fan mail: A big thank you to Troy for sending us some TTM autos of Mike Cameron and Jamie Moyer. A big thank you to the USPS for saving Troy's letter to us.

Next, the free cards* for you: We each open up a pack of 1992 Upper Deck Denny's Grand Slam holograph cards. Tune in to see the two players we opened. We also open packs of Topps 2009 Updates and Highlights. Does Joe get his Edgar Renteria dream card, or Chris his Mike Cameron?

Last, a special surprise: a Mother's Cookies Nolan Ryan 5000 Strike Out card, still sealed in the original package (thank you Nils!). To make this card yours, you need to leave us a comment with your best strike out story. As a hitter, did you strike out in the last inning of a huge playoff game with your team down one run? As a pitcher, did you sit down the league's best slugger in a clutch situation? Leave us a comment with your best strikeout story and this Nolan Ryan is yours!

*limit one card per person

Monday, April 19, 2010

Fan Mail! Episode 20

Episode 20 from chris andrew on Vimeo.

Right now, at this moment as I type this, Chris is running the Boston Marathon. His goal was 2:40, and last I checked his pace was 2:46...so he better pick it up!

So while Chris is running, let's watch a new episode. This one is a shout out to our viewers who have been AWESOME and sent us some mail. Every once in a while I open the mail box and lose my mind to find some baseball cards in there...I hope the same thing happens to you.

If you sent us something and it doesn't appear in this episode, don't worry. We got it, we are just REALLY LATE in releasing this episode. In fact, we already filmed another Fan Mail episode and will release it later this week...plus we have more fan mail we haven't even opened.

Mail is FUN!

Thanks everyone!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Mystery History Contest



We are starting something new at Opening Day Cards.

Introducing... Mystery History Contest!

Be the first to guess the baseball player we post and we will send you a free Mystery History card.

Let the fun begin with this young sprite!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Free Fleer Baseball Cards - Episode 19



Almost two weeks into the MLB season and we have a treat for you at Opening Day Cards.

We are kicking back, drinking some Miller Lite, talking baseball gloves, David Ortiz, our favorite players to collect, and of course, baseball cards. Today we open a couple packs of Fleer 1984, from the year of Joe's birth. Flashing back 26 years allows us to have some real Dream Cards. Fortunately for Chris we pull some great former Red Sox. Tune in to find out who we pulled, and while you are at it, request a free baseball card.

If you are new, trust me, we send out whatever card you request, absolutely FREE*. Just leave us a comment below and we will ship it to you.

*limit 1 card per person

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Fantasy Baseball Power Week: Episode 18 Opening Day Cards



We are mixing it up this week. Still FREE cards, but if you want to win these cards, you need to pick the best 3 player team in our first ever Power Fantasy Week. Here's how it works:
  1. Pick one infielder, one outfielder, and one pitcher from the cards we opened (see below for lists)
  2. You get 1 point for each win, save, home run, and RBI that your players record from Wednesday, April 14 through end of day Wednesday, April 21
  3. Post your picks in our comments
  4. The viewer who's 3 player team has the most points wins 2 of the 3 packs we opened (Joe's pack and the extra pack)
  5. The 2nd place viewer gets Chris' pack of cards
  6. We will find an awesome way of settling any ties, don't worry
Here are the players (note they may have changed teams in the offseason, you are selecting the player on whichever team they are on now):

Infielders
  • Russell Martin, C, LA Dodgers
  • Brian Buscher, 3B, Minnesota Twins
  • Micah Hoffpauir, 1B, Chicago Scrubs
  • Greg Dobbs, 3B, Philadelphia Phillies
  • JJ Hardy, SS, Minnesota Twins
  • German Duran, 3B, Texas Rangers
  • Adrian Beltre, 3B, Seattle Mariners
  • Jerry Hairston Jr., SS, Cincinnati Reds
  • Todd Helton, 1B, Colorado rockies
  • Albert Pujols, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals
  • Rafael Furcal, SS, LA Dodgers
Outfielders
  • Rick Ankiel, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
  • Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore Orioles
  • Cody Ross, OF, Florida Marlins
Pitchers
  • Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals
  • Jared Burton, Cincinnati Reds
  • Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
  • Kevin Gregg, Chicago Cubs
  • Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay Rays
  • Jonathan Sanchez, San Francisco Giants
  • Bobby Jenks, Chicago White Sox
  • Justin Hampton, San Diego Padres
  • Ramon Ramirez, Boston Red Sox
Good luck!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Free Baseball Cards: Opening Day Cards Episode 17


Welcome back baseball fans to Opening Day Cards. In today's episode we bust open some Topps 2009 baseball cards. The best part, all these baseball cards are FREE* baseball cards.

The first series of the MLB season is behind us. The Milwaukee Brewers won their first series taking two of three games at home from the visiting Colorado Rockies. Joe is pleased.

The Boston Red Sox dropped two of three at Fenway to the visiting rivals, the New York Yankees. Chris is bummed.

Back this episode is the Dream Card and Baseball Term of the Day. Does Chris get his Dustin Pedroia Dream Card or Joe his Tim Lincecum? And as always, FREE* baseball cards! Be the first to comment and the card of your choice will be mailed to your door.

Due to the incredible response to FREE* baseball cards (and why wouldn't there be an incredible response to free baseball cards) we have changed our policy to limit it to one card per person per episode, so choose wisely.

Thanks for tuning in!

*limit ONE card per person per episode, while supplies last

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Episode 16: Opening Day Cards


Hey everybody, we're back in action with some rare finds.

Chris knows a lot of people, and a lot of people know Chris, including a guy over at Know Knew Books in Palo Alto, CA. Chris stopped in one day and struck up a conversation with Bill, the owner (striking up conversations is one of Chris' finest talents...pronouncing baseball players' names...notsomuch). But Bill from Know Knew Books gave us some pretty cool cards. He had a complete set of 1988 Donruss, and an unopened box of 1990 ProCards AAA Minor League Baseball Cards.

Check it out as we each open a pack of these old school cards. Let us know if you know any of the players we opened. Did they make it to the bigs? Did they play for your team? Do you want their card? Are there any horse socks? Is anybody listening to me?

Thanks for tuning in!

Monday, April 5, 2010

A Big THANK YOU!

When we sat down just over a month ago to start a baseball card blog we were excited, excited like little kids opening our first packs. We wanted to share that feeling of opening a fresh pack with anybody who had a few minutes to waste. Better yet, we wanted to give those cards away because getting mail rocks. Getting a letter from Grandma is cool but getting free baseball cards in the mail, well that will make your week. The response to our amateur effort has been huge. We’ve made new friends, we’ve gotten boxes of cards, jerseys, packs, and thank you cards in the mail. Best of all we get to talk baseball & baseball cards with awesome people.

A week ago we found ourselves in a social media “best blog” contest. We reached out to our fans, to our families, to our old high school and college baseball teams. We kept pumping out content for our blog, we kept giving away baseball cards and we even found time to swing by Fenway to be part of the #openingday hooplah - sox win! We also chose to stay out of the drama. From day one there was buzz about whether or not such a recent blog should be included in the voting and there was even a YouTube video questioning whether or not our “television show” was even a blog.

We kept our heads down and stuck to our social strategy, heck we both work in social media in Silicon Valley. We had viewers of our blog contact us with strategies that included getting their little league baseball teams to vote, getting their families to vote and getting their Facebook friends to vote. The support has been awesome, and honestly that’s what social media is about – connecting one-on-one with real people. We started by finding people to vote for us, we energized our most loyal fans and we didn’t waste our time trying to figure out how to game the system or belittle the competition. We saw some pretty awesome activity: tons of comments and tweets, over a hundred cards requested last week and even a few sent to us (thanks!), and ultimately over 1000 votes. Thanks to all of you!

We’re thankful for the opportunity UD created which has driven a lot of buzz about the card community online. Getting the most votes doesn’t mean we’re the best baseball card blog. It means we put together a social media strategy we are proud of and worked hard for votes one by one. We didn’t even know you could vote everyday, we just hustled and discovered that there were about a dozen of our fans who decided they were going to bust even harder than we were. For us this competition has been about establishing a deeper relationship with our viewers. You guys are the judge of our success.

We know we're not like other card blogs. We don’t know cards like many of these other blogs do. We’re approaching things from a different angle; we’re shaking it up.

Other blogs have accused us and belittled what we do, and we’ve found it a bit silly. We focused on baseball and baseball cards, we focused on having fun with our viewers and we focused on opening day. We’re still giving out free baseball cards, we’re still spitting sunflower seeds and we still have a ton to learn.

We’re sorry it became necessary to address all the drama and accusations with a written post. But after reading a few things that were said about us, we felt compelled to say something.

Thank you to everyone who cast a vote for Opening Day Cards and a big thanks to some crazy fans out there who hunted down voters for us. Enough with the banter we’ll be back with more baseball & free baseball cards to celebrate tomorrow.

Hang onto your baseball caps there’s a TON of excitement coming your way from www.openingdaycards.com.

Thanks!

Chris & Joe

Friday, April 2, 2010

Free Baseball Cards: Episode 15


There's less than 2 days to go. The excitement is pretty ridiculous. Opening Day is upon us.

What's a good way to keep things rolling...how about giving away some free cards*? Yeah, that sounds goooooooood. Watch us open a couple packs of Upper Deck, but check us out on Facebook to see the FOUR FREE PACKS* we opened on today's show. They are all there at www.facebook.com/openingdaycards and they are all FREE*. While you are there, friend request us. We are always looking for more friends to share the MLB excitement with!

And if you like Opening Day Cards, give us a vote for the Upper Deck Social Media Awards for Best Blog. With your awesome support we have been able to compete in this thing, but we need you now more than ever. Tell your friends, tell your mom, tell your grandpa, tell your gym teacher, tell your parole officer, we NEED YOUR HELP!



And just to remind you, if we win, all the cards (like usual) are going to be given away FREE on this blog. That's just how we do things.


*limit 2 cards per person, while supplies last