TTM Triumph #24: James Edwards

The last couple of days have been kind of sucky for me health wise, so this will not be a very long post.

This recent successful return from James Edwards was pretty neat for multiple reasons, the main one being that he signed both cards I sent him. I was already working on trying to get as many cards from the 1989-90 Hoops set signed as I can, and I recently started trying the same for the 1978-79 Topps set as well. Since Mr. Edwards is one of only four players (I think) with a card in both sets, I had to try and get both signed.

Another thing I thought was neat, was the fact that he included both jersey numbers that he is wearing on both cards with each signature.

Most people will remember James Edwards best for his time with the Detroit Pistons as one of the "Bad Boys" where he won two championships (also won one with Chicago in 1996). He ended up playing 19 seasons and averaged 12.7 ppg.

As always, I would like to send a big thank you out to Mr. Edwards.


This is the space where I had intended to start linking up some random music. But while it's still going on this week, I feel compelled to urge everyone that hasn't already done so, to follow the link over to Tim's raffle and help out for a very good cause.

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Do your soul a favor and follow the link in this post!

I'm sure everyone will see the post that Tim from I Love the Smell of Cardboard in the Morning put up today at some point, but I wanted to make sure that you saw it sooner than later. So click on this link and, if you are able to, contribute to this very worthwhile cause.



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TTM Triumph #23: Alan Young (R.I.P.)

I was surprised to see that Alan Young passed away last week at the age of 96. I say surprised only because, for someone that age he still seemed pretty active and lively, he also seems to have continued honoring all of his fans autograph requests right up until the end.

I had originally intended on sending a photograph, but due to my procrastinating ways, that didn't end up happening. Instead I sent one of Gavin's customs that I got as part of our trade a couple of months ago. I got this back in late February (I think), but just hadn't got to it yet due to a backlog of successful returns.

He ended up signing the back of the card, which wasn't ideal but, an autograph is an autograph, so I was still very grateful for the return:

And the front:

I'm not going to cover too much of his lengthy career here, as there are plenty of sources currently floating around for such info. I will say that I was pretty disappointed with the lack of attention his passing received, I mean we wouldn't want to celebrate the life of someone who entertained multiple generations of people, when we can instead give days of front page coverage to some reality show nobody.

I wanted to link up an episode of his radio program, but the only one on YouTube doesn't really represent the show very well (my opinion). I have a couple episodes on cassette that would have been much better to use here, but even if I had right equipment, I still probably wouldn't be able to figure out how to get it loaded on to here.

Even though it's a little late, I would still like to send a big thank you out to Mr. Young. I would also like to say thank you for your body of work, which brought much joy to millions (probably much more) of fans over the years.


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Hey! It's my 100th post.

I debated whether or not I should even mention reaching this very mini milestone of mine, but since reaching the century mark was my only real goal when I started this blog, I decided to bring to everyone's attention as a sort of yay me post. That being said, I'm really not looking for any obligatory felicitations (I really love that word). But I wouldn't mind some comments to some of the questions I will be getting to in a moment.

Going forward, I'm going to start making some changes to not only how I blog, but also the overall appearance of the blog itself. I feel like I have to make some changes or I probably won't make it to post #200. Up to this point I have primarily done "look what I got" posts, and honestly, I'm getting tired of doing such posts. And yes, I realize most card blog posts are just a form of show and tell for adults, but maybe I can at least start focusing more on the "tell" aspect of things (like so many of you do so well).

Another thing I'm going to be adding to my posts is music (if only for my own enjoyment). It was my intention to do that from the start, but after seeing how many other people were already doing it, I decided not to, as I didn't want to step on anyone's toes. Since a lot of you already add songs related to your topic(s) and do such a great job at it, I figure that area of music in posts is covered. So I was thinking of just adding a random video to the end of each post, just kind of as a song I dig and hopefully a few of you will as well. They will primarily be tunes that aren't heard on the radio (terrestrial, not internet) very often, if ever. I will say though that most of the videos linked from YouTube won't be of the official kind, since I am somewhat in agreement with Little Steven's opinion as to the negative impact videos have made on music as a whole. Music has had, and continues to have a major impact on all aspects of my life, so I would very much like to add it to the blogging aspect as well.

That leads me to a question. Since music seems to be a popular theme with a lot of the bloggers, has anyone started any music related posts that everyone participates in? Sort of like the best page challenge (in retrospect I wish I would have participated in that) that was going on a while back, except it would be more like a top ten favorite albums challenge or a desert island jukebox (name stolen from the Sound Opinions radio show) challenge. It seems like it would a fun thing for everyone to take part in, but I just don't know if it's been done before or if anyone else even thinks it would be a good idea or not.

I also intend to try and start adding more bits of personal information into posts where it's appropriate. Up until now I have been somewhat hesitant to do so, which is why there have only been a handful of posts or so that contain any real substance. Part of this is probably due to paranoia (some justified, some not) and my own weirdo trust issues, but I found it sort of refreshing to share some personal memories in the previous post, even if they weren't particularly pleasant memories. I tend to enjoy the posts of other's when they talk about current family goings on or weave personal experiences in with whatever the subject happens to be, so I'm hoping over time I can get more comfortable sharing similar types of info.

And finally, I think by summer's end I am going to try and have two more blogs up and running, mostly so that I may keep this one focused on just cards. One will be dedicated solely to all my other non card interests, a hodgepodge of things, from activities to collectibles. Since I'm getting close to being considered a hoarder, I shouldn't have any trouble coming up with content. And with the other potential new blog, I was mulling over the idea of doing one that is just for the 1933 Goudey baseball set( with a few Indian Gum cards sprinkled in as well). I don't know if I'm the most qualified person to write such a blog, but I would still like to give it a go. I googled to see if such a blog is (or was) already in existence and didn't find one, so if anyone knows if one has already been done, I would be much obliged if you would let me know so I don't tick someone else off by copying them.

My apologies for the wordy pictureless post, but I really wanted to just ask a couple of questions and throw a couple of ideas out there and see if anything sticks. Any answers or comments about anything in here are most welcome.


On an unrelated note: I just saw this morning that Alan Young passed away two days ago. I sent a TTM request to him a couple of months ago which came back successful, but I just hadn't got to it yet. So the next post will be focused on that.


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Two day [c]rush delivery!

In the last year or so, I have really felt the need to start pursuing and taking part in some of my "someday" hobbies/interests, of which there is an ever increasing amount.

I guess this could be some kind of midlife crisis. And in my case, with all the health problems I've had over the years, I fully believe that I reached my halfway point somewhere around age 25 (which is now a distant memory). I suppose having yet another birthday quickly approaching is not helping any of these feelings either.

Also, I think it's safe to say at this point, that there isn't going to be a wife and/or kids in my future. So I might as well start trying to participate in as many of my interests as I can.

My goal is to try and start three different things by summer's end. I have already started back up with drawing, which is something I enjoyed immensely as a child, but stopped at some point before my teen's for reasons I can't remember. Number two on the list (I don't actually have a list) is model building, which is another thing that have already tried once before.

My first attempt at building models was a short lived and ended up being a spectacular failure. This was somewhere around 1996-97, and at that time my home life was utter chaos, an endless source of stress and anxiety. I didn't have any problem with the actual building, but the painting turned out disastrous and there was no one around that could tell me what I was doing wrong. Thanks to YouTube, I now know that everything I was doing (paint wise) was wrong. Because of the constant turmoil around me at the time and my frustrations with the painting, it didn't take me long to just give it up and stop trying.

Now after all these years I am ready to give it another go. One of the first things that I've found is that the price for models seems to have gone up exponentially, probably due to inflation, but I tend to be stuck in the past when it comes to prices on most things. So I have been on the lookout for cheap kits to practice on, before moving on to anything more expensive. And to my surprise, someone recently listed a few on Sportlots. I ended up winning two of the ones I bid on, and let three more go du to the escalating bids.

The seller ended up sending them via 2-day priority mail, which is nice, but not necessary. I was happy to win these, but not very hopeful of their intactness once the box arrived:

How about another angle:

And my personal favorite:

The woman that delivers the mail was quick to point out that the box arrived at the post office here, like that. I guess I have take her word for it. She also had to mention that the box had been leaking peanuts all over the inside of her mail truck all day. Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to seeing what kind of condition the contents were in.

Model #1:

That doesn't look good, does it? Another angle perhaps?

That really didn't look good!

Model #2:

This one obviously faired a little better. Now for the kicker--all the pieces in both packages are perfectly fine. I don't know how the Sukhoi SU-22 (model #1) didn't end up with even a single broken piece, but it did.

Here's one more picture of them out of the plastic:

I guess it's a good thing I wasn't buying these for collectible purposes. Obviously I don't know what happened to the box in the two days between being mailed and arriving on my doorstep, but I hope this isn't some sort of sign that my hopes of trying my hand at model building are going to be crushed (literally and figuratively).


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TTM Triumph #22: Bob Pettit

Successful returns from hall of famers is always nice, but it's even better when it comes from a guy who would be in the hall of fame's "Hall of Fame", if such a thing existed of course:

Bob Pettit was an absolute machine at LSU (1951-54), averaging 25.5 ppg and 13.1 rpg in his first three years. In his junior year he led the Tigers to their first ever appearance in the Final Four For his senior season he would bump up his already impressive numbers to 31.4 ppg and 17.3 rpg.

In 1954 he was the second overall pick in the NBA draft by the then (soon to be St. Louis) Milwaukee Hawks, where he would end up staying for his entire 11 year career.  As far as accolades go, Mr. Pettit has quite a few:   Rookie of the Year (1955), won the very first MVP award in 1956 and got another one in '59, won a championship in 1958 (still the only one in Hawks franchise history), 11 time All-Star, 4 time All-Star MVP winner, 10 time All-NBA first team, led the league in scoring twice ('56 & '59), and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1970.

Over 11 seasons he averaged 26.4 ppg and 16.2 rpg. His 16.2 rebounds per game average is third all time behind Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. He was also the first played to reach 20,000 points. Bob retired in 1965 at the age of 32, still near the top of his game. He had already planned to retire at the end of the season because he thought his skills were diminishing, and a knee injury during the season just solidified his decision. It's interesting to note too, that despite missing 33 games in his final season, he still averaged 22.5 ppg and 12.4 rpg.

Not a bad career, for a guy that a lot of scouts thought wouldn't be tough enough to play in the NBA.

On a bit of a side note. Considering how many requests he must get, this card came back to me in less than two weeks.

As always, I would like to send a big thank you out to Mr. Pettit.


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1983 Kellogg's blank backs

I haven't shown any blank backs here for awhile, mostly because I haven't gotten any for awhile. So I thought I would remedy that by showing a pair of recent acquisitions:

Both of these came from the same seller on eBay, and came with free shipping. Rod Carew was only 45 cents and Rickey, not surprisingly, was a little steeper at $1.81

I hadn't seen any blanks from this set before, so getting any two for a little over $2 is a pretty good bargain in my mind.


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Before they were stars! Plus, an anti-climactic update.

I'm not usually one to purchase already completed sets, but in certain instances it just makes more sense (and cents) to do so.

A couple of months ago I got the complete 45 card set of 1989 CMC AAA All-Stars for a whopping $3. It was definitely more cost affective to buy this set, because there was no way I was going to find all of these singly for anywhere near 3 bucks.

I know that after looking at these, some of you might find the title of this post a little misleading as most of these guys never became household names. But, a few of them did, and "before they were stars" sounds a lot better than "before a couple of them were stars".

So let us travel back 25 years or so, and see who was tearing up the minor leagues:

It seems a little strange to me to think that a minor league set from only 1989 could have two guys in it, that are already in the hall of fame, and another fellow who will probably be going in as the first player at the position he would later be identified with.


Now, on to the not so exciting update to my last post regarding the 1995-96 Mystery Finest cards that still had the peels on them. Well, I now know why they were in a ten cent box in their unpeeled state...(insert drum roll)... it was because the peels seem to be permanently stuck to the fronts. I don't know if it's some sort of chemical reaction or what, but after over twenty years of being affixed to the card, these peels are almost literally fused to the front. I tried every thing I could think of, short of destroying the card in my attempt to peel them.

So I guess these truly will live up to their name of Mystery Finest:

They are going to be far from the most attractive cards in my collection, but probably still not the most unattractive either!


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To peel or not to peel...

As part of my usual array of inserts from the 10 cent boxes at last weekend's show, I got two 1995-96 Topps Finest Mystery Finest inserts with the black peel still intact:

I bet you can't remember the last time you saw a more interesting scan of two cards to open up a blog post, can you?

Before I go any further, I should probably show you the backs so you know who were dealing with here:

I never bought any packs of Finest way back when, as I was more of the quantity over quality sort, so I would have much rather gotten two or three packs of the regular Topps set over one pack of Finest. And because of that, I never got to experience the anticipation as to which version would be revealed by removing the peel.

For those that don't know, these came in three different versions. There is the common bordered version, the uncommon borderless silver version, and the rare borderless gold refractor version.

I have many copies of the common bordered cards for both of these guys, but none of the other two examples for either of them. So that certainly makes the idea of unmasking them more apeeling (clever!) . But there is also another part of me that likes the idea of keeping them on, thus preserving the mystery.

Any thoughts on my dilemma would be most appreciated.


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