Max's double card package go boom

This week we are seeing build-up like no other week of the year. Topps and its fan boys are hyping the arrival of the 2013 set like it's not going to be marked down in six months. The NFL is hyping the Super Bowl like it's not simply an ode to consumerism disguised as a football game.

This football game, as usual, will take multiple breaks for multiple commercials that people stare at like their television just invented fire. I've never been one to get giddy over Super Bowl commercials. I just can't get past the whole "they're trying to get you to buy something" thing.

This is my view the other 364 days out of the year, too. Whenever a commercial goes on, I instantly leave the room, take on a task, read a book or a newspaper, stare at my card collection, talk to somebody, anything to avoid staring at the commercial. I've got this down to such a science that it doesn't matter how often a commercial is repeated -- and we all know how much they like to do that -- I still don't know what it is about, or who is selling it.

You've all seen the Kentucky Fried Chicken "couchgating" commercial, right? Terribly unfunny. It fits right in with all the other NFL commercials that try to be funny but aren't at all.

Well, I have ignored this commercial through countless NFL game viewings. It was repeated often enough that I finally figured out that the commercial was for Kentucky Fried Chicken. But I still didn't know that it revolved around a group of slovenly young football watchers who had created something called "couchgating." I had to look all this up today to determine that.

The only thing that cracked my consciousness was that there was this young woman at the end of the commercial who kept saying "game day bucket go boom."

Game day bucket go boom? What kind of nonsense was that? It sounded like something my daughter would say. When she was 3.

But you know how those commercials are. It doesn't matter how annoying or unfunny they are. It doesn't matter how much you avoid them. Something, somewhere will get in your head.

Congrats, game day bucket girl. You go boom.

Her voice is now popping up in my head. Thankfully, I've never uttered the words out loud. But my secret is out now. Sometimes when I see a card I like, there's her voice again, "game day bucket go boom."

Recently, Max from Starting Nine mailed me a card package. Guess whose voice I heard? And then, surprisingly, he sent me another card package a couple weeks later. There was her voice again. Boom. Boom.

How I haven't visited Kentucky Fried Chicken during the entire life of this commercial is a mystery that will never be solved.

But never mind that, these have to be some pretty great cards if the Game Day Bucket girl approves of them, right?

Let's see:

I'll start with some 1990s stuff. That's always good for a giggle. Here is one of those Fleer E-X see-through things. This was when they were still figuring out a position for Konerko. And he was wearing #66.

This is one of those crazy, kind of ugly, Upper Deck SPx cards back when we had to assault collectors' senses with metallic-like things on cards, which by the way, seeing at 2013 Topps images, looks like we're doing again.

Pinnacle Totally Certified was nuts. It's a little difficult to tell from the scan, but Eric Karros is completely incidental to this card. When it's in your hand, it doesn't matter which way you turn it, there are so many colored lights and flashes, you can barely see Karros. You could put a carrot on the card instead of a ballplayer and it would not lose its effectiveness.

This is the card that put the wheels in motion. It's an Archives shortprint from last year. I like this card and all -- it's Sandy, it's a somewhat accurate tribute to the 1966 design -- but I look at it and it makes me think that Archives is coming out again. I'll have to find the Dodgers -- and the shortprints -- from that set again. And suddenly I'm very tired.

Yes, this is old age talking. Or rational thinking. Take your pick.

Max found three cards off my Nebulous 9 list, which still hasn't recovered (it's been stuck at 6 cards for a couple weeks now). This was one of them. Gold sparkly Kemp means I am one card away from the entire 2012 Topps gold sparkly Dodger set. I'm all a flutter.

I never imagined that 2006 Upper Deck would be so uncooperative when it comes to completing a team set. The cards just seemed so prevelant. But this is the last Dodger I needed to finish it. Marlon, your days of running are over.

The Dodgers' manager here signifies that I have completed the 2004 All-Time Fan Favorite set! Weeeeeeeee! That means '04 and '05 Fan Favorites are done. Only '03 left. But it'll be awhile before you see a want list for that.

Here's the other Mattingly card that Max sent. These Goodwin Champions things are so weird. We're supposed to collect this? Why don't I just make a set with pictures of my dad's friends from work and collect those?

I shouldn't complain too much. I'm sure I had a sweater like that at one point.

Max knows I like Natalie Gulbis. What guy doesn't? But I'm not fond of the technique Upper Deck used to make her look like a wax figure.

Yup, Max knows what I like. I suppose you're thinking, "Night Owl, what are you going to do with these cards of lovely ladies wearing Dodger gear? You're not going to put them in your Dodger binders, are you?"

Of course I am. If I can put pictures of cartoon figures wearing cartoon Dodger caps in my binder, I can put cards of Destiny in there.

Yes, her name is "Destiny." You were expecting "Maude"?

OK, it's fun with parallels time. Two from last year's Chrome set, which is marked down everywhere these days.

The Bowman Chrome doesn't want to play nice. Sliding all over the scanner. So I told them they were going to have to live with the results. And here they are.

Remember that post I did about back-to-back sets looking the same?

I think we have a new addition.

I've seen Panini's Golden Age set on maybe two blogs. I don't know if that's because it might be a hobby-only set or because of the whole "no logos" thing.

I sort of like the concept. I wouldn't mind getting a Loch Ness Monster or Marcia Brady card. But it's nothing I'm going to think seriously about.

Final card. A Steve Garvey bat relic from the very cool-looking 2002 SP Legendary Cuts relic set. One of the best-looking relic sets ever.

I don't get enough Steve Garvey cards. I know there are are some crazy Garvey collectors out there, and I don't plan to compete with them, but I need to make it my mission to get more Garveys. Dodgers only, of course.

At any rate, I like this card a lot.

It definitely goes boom.

And so does the card package. Both of them.

Chicken Bucket Girl approves.

Stop looking at me like that.