THE CONTINUOUS CARDBOARD FIRE

You ever have that pack that you were wary buying and then when you opened it your fears were confirmed?  That pack in which every card inside was dinged to the point of extreme annoyance.  That curved bend that can’t be “flattened out” sticking it under a heavy book on every card taunting you.  Well, luckily for my sanity (and my bank account) there are no SPs, SSPs, Acunas, or Torreses in this 12 pack of disappointment.  Into the pit with thee bent comrades, you were never given the proper chance to join my collection.

PS: There is a good chance that when I finally complete Series 2 I’ll need at least one of these ten base cards to do so.  Thems just be the breaks.

I went to go utilize my newly installed fire pit this morning but just now realized I never posted about these six members of the Sisky Series that met their demise in August.  This is more than likely to one of three things: 

1. I never checked my wonky phone Tumblr app to see if the picture actually posted.  2. I fell asleep that day and just never remembered to post it the next day. 3. I got frustrated with the photo orientation (I’ve had to flip it three times for it to show up correct for some reason) and just said fuck it.

Any way, here is Volume 2 of the Sisky Series called an Homage To Topps Basketball.  May they one day come back in the fold and stop Panini from selling boxes of mediocre product for over $1000 apiece.

I've always been happy with being a Goodwill store for people's unwanted sports cards. It gives me stuff to sort through which makes me happy and frees up space in their house. I've had two friends recently make contributions to my collection that were incredibly generous and intriguing. Sadly though, not all of the cards made the trip to Coventry in the best shape. A few days back I brought the first installment of the Sisky Series down to Westerly to meet their maker in the famed Simone Fire Pit. So without further ado, here is the initial members of the Sisky Series for the Continuous Cardboard Fire.

-1998 Collector's Choice Ken Cloude (The second time this card has been burned, first of five from this set covered in an odd dried liquid...no, not that)

-1998 Collector's Choice Juan Encarnacion

-1998 Collector's Choice Orlando Cabrera

-1998 Collector's Choice Tom Fordham

-1998 Collector's Choice Javier Valentin

-1993 Upper Deck Rondell White

-1999 UD Choice Bobby Abreu

-1998 Collector's Choice Scott Erickson (He escaped the grossness, but not bending)

-1991-1992 Upper Deck Haywood Workman

The late 2010′s portion of the Quintuple Club has come to an end.

It would have had a sixth member, Ryan Zimmerman, but I’m pretty sure he got chucked out the window on the way to the Mystic St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Nevertheless, you can see that my duplicate card accumulation in 2016 wasn’t nearly as brutal as it has been in the past two years. Even without Zimmerman, I came nowhere near the burns of 2017 or 2018.

 We have John Jaso making a second appearance in the Quintuple Club, this time as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays and sans rasta-dreads.  The only team to get more than one representative was the Arizona Diamondbacks.

While Silvio Bracho is the first RC to go in the QC, I want to talk about the Hudson for a second.  You see, the first four cards in this burn are from Series 1.  I bought a crap ton of Series 1 in a futile attempt to get the set completely via packs (I am still short).  The Hudson, however, comes from the Update Series.  I don’t even think I got through half a box’s worth of update.  18 packs at most.  So roughly 1 in 3 packs of 2016 Topps Update gave me a fucking Daniel Hudson card.  That sucks.

Sadly, my firepit plan has already hit a snag.  Damn you feline asthma!  Nevertheless, the destruction of the Quintuple Club continues with 2017 Topps.  If you saw the 2018 Edition, you are going to see some familiar faces here.  Mark Reynolds, Brandon Belt, and Nate Jones are all back for a second burn.

The team most represented in this lot is the Toronto Blue Jays.  I know the Mariners have three cards as well, but I’m throwing in Randal Grichuk (pictured on the Cardinals) as well because he’d become a Blue Jay right after the 2017 season.

But don’t you fret Mariners fans, Nori Aoki brought a special something to this particular burn.  So far with the Quintuple Club, there has been no player with more than five cards in my duplicate pile.  Mr. Aoki had fucking eight.  And that number is only so low because I made sure to get rid of quite a few when I donated some grab bags for a charity yard sale.

2017′s offering wasn’t as large as 2018′s, but I’m sure I’ll add more as per the usual I still haven’t completed 2017 Topps here in 2019.  Either way, here is the full burn list.

I got an email recently congratulating me on 7 years of the Continuous Cardboard Fire. Also, as of the 13th, I've had Facebook memories of all my first burns. This prompted me to go back through the archives and bask in a bit of nostalgia.

751 cards have met a fiery fate over these seven years, but many of my entries lost sight of the project's message. Enough memes and themes and more getting rid of duplicates that plague my office desk.

So I don't know the frequency of coming posts (consistency has never been a redeeming quality of mine) but I know damn well the direction those posts are going. Whether it be from my purchases for The Rippin' and the Tradin' or otherwise, best believe there is going to be some base culling in the coming months. I got a fire pit (actually a fireplace) again and it's gonna get some fucking work.

So without further ado, here are the 2018 Topps baseball entrants from my Quintuple Club. I had at least five total of these bad rides. 2017 and 2016 will follow and I'm sure 1991-1992 Upper Deck basketball and 1988 Donruss won't be far behind.

Two and a half years later...using Patriots cards (and 1 stand-in) for Super Bowl Squares.  And then burning them the next day.

BURNS 732 through 751

-1991 Pro Set Dick MacPherson -1989 Pro Set Tony Eason -2000 Fleer Mystique Terry Allen -2016 Panini Donruss Stephen Gostkowski -1991 Upper Deck John Stephens -2018 Topps Carlos Gonzalez (BECAUSE I COULDN’T FIND A WILLIE MCGINEST) -2002 Bowman Rohan Davey -1993 Upper Deck SP Pat Harlow -1998 Upper Deck Terry Glenn -1989 Topps Traded Gary Jeter -1990 Pro Set Rod Rust -1993 Playoff Shawn McCarthy -1995 Playoff Absolute Dave Meggett -1988 Topps Tony Collins -1995 Score Marion Butts -1992 Wild Card Chris Singleton -2003 Upper Deck Rohan Davey -1990 Fleer Kenneth Sims -1991 Fleer Ultra Hart Lee Dykes -1993 Topps Stadium Club David Howard

Sometimes people do dumb things.  Surely Googling these names will send you down a rabbit hole that will get your boss asking you to explain your search history.

2014 Topps Opening Day Jose Reyes 

2008 Press Pass Insider Insight (Blue) O.J. Mayo 

1992 Skybox Primetime Eugene Robinson 

2009-2010 Topps Robert Swift 

2011 Topps Titus Young 

Do I really need a reason to burn a Ryan Braun card?

Oh simpler times when J.R. Smith had a shirt, and no NBA championship rings.

After a half year on the shelf, the Continuous Cardboard Fire rises once again.  This time the CCF is in conjunction with my other project, Bleeding Your Colors, a sports blog that covers sports of all sorts.  One of our segments is the BBall Wikipedia Basketball Tour in which we cover the careers of players who took their talents to places such as Kosovo, Iran, and Uruguay.  Some of these tour members also had some not shiny moments off the floor.  Check out the website bleedingyourcolors.weebly.com and the podcast at soundcloud.com/bleeding-your-colors.  (If you have a Tyson Wheeler card of any type for me to burn please let me know either on Twitter @TREVORutley or by email at [email protected]

1993-1994 Upper Deck Rumeal Robinson

1992 Wild Card Richard Dumas

1992-1993 Fleer Ultra Tate George

1993-1994 Upper Deck SE Oliver Miller

1992-1993 Hoops Kenny Williams

1994-1995 Hoops Acie Earl

1996-1997 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Anthony Goldwire

1992-1993 Fleer Brian Williams

1995-1996 Topps Mario Bennett

1992 Wild Card Lamont Strothers

1996 Scoreboard Basketball Rookies Martin Muursepp

1993-1994 Fleer Ultra Byron Houston

1996-1997 Hoops Priest Lauderdale

1997 Press Pass Kebu Stewart

1998 Collector's Edge Impulse Korleone Young