F*#%

Damn, another childhood hero passes on.

Safe travels, Uncle Cliffy!

Bumped, and ran over by the generosity

Another day, another Trevor... hmm, I don't think that's how that old saying goes? But oh well, I'll go with it anyway.

I guess I'm clearing out the "T" section of my scan folders ("K" is next), Trevor, from THE RIPPIN' AND THE TRADIN', got his due last time, and today I'll give thanks for a pair of mailings from another Trevor, this time he of Bump and Run Football Card Blog, Trevor.

One of the bad things about letting mail days from fellow bloggers pile up is that you, or in this case, me, forget why they were sent. Of course stepping away from the blog for two months didn't help either. So I'm not entirely sure if this first batch from Trevor was sent in response to something that I sent him, or if it was sent just because? Either way though, it was much appreciated.

Speaking of "T's", I have to no idea what happened to the "t" in this scan (it's present on the card), looks like Trevor sent me my first 'Sarquest'.

The Robelmonster (sorry, Tom)! I'm not gonna lie, this pair of needs was the best part of this package. It's been a slow year for adding new Reggie's, but I did make a little headway the other day with my first order from baseballcardstore.ca (which we as bloggers all learned about thanks to Trevor), where I was able to grab 4 or 5 new ones (they haven't been added to the blog list yet).

Hard to believe that these were my first Sunoco stamps. It's also hard to believe how cheap one can still get unused packets of these for. I guess this one instance where age doesn't add value. Charlie built his Hall of Fame career in San Diego, so it's a little off-putting to see him with the Oilers.

As an aside, I've mentioned before about how much I've enjoyed watching old football games on YouTube (there's tons of them), as seeing entire games from before I was born is just awesome. But I've also just recently found out that a bunch of people have uploaded entire episodes of This Week in Pro Football, which I'm finding to be as equally great as the old games. I'm only bringing this up because Mel Blount got some screen time during one of the recent episodes that I watched, which served as a reminder for me to get this post done.

Collector's Edge went absolutely bonkers with the parallels during the mid to late 90's, and while I'm extremely fond of them, I, more often than not, can't remember which parallels are which just by looking at them. Such is the case with these two, they're something, I just can't remember what!

Trevor wasn't fooling around with that PWE, nor was he fooling around with the follow-up that arrived a few months later...

Free Stuff Friday's seem to have fallen by the wayside (I will be bringing mine back pretty soon though), but before they did, Trevor got in on the action too by offering up a very generous helping of cards, of which I claimed a few. If memory serves, I only noticed one Herman Moore in the post, and asked for it, but apparently there were more, so Trevor went ahead and sent them all. They were all new to me, so no complaints (not that I'd ever complain about free stuff mind you).

The artsy Moon, and the J-Stew rookie were both part of the freebies, but the '95 Reggie Collector's Choice was not, that was just another bit of generosity on Trevor's part. I didn't even know that Reggie had a card in that set, and now that I do, it's kind of a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it's now one of my favorite cards of his, but a curse because it means finding two more parallels, the Player's Club won't be difficult, but the Platinum Player's Club on the other hand, now that one might prove to be problematic.

Many thanks to Trevor for the cards (especially the Roby's), once I get back into the groove of things, I should be able to send on some reciprocation.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

THE TELLIN' AND THE GETTIN'

It's funny (not really in a haha sort of way though), if I'm ever somewhere, and a real-life human person asks me what I collect, 99 times out of 100, I end up thinking how rude it is of them to be asking me such a question, before hitting them with a nonchalant "Whatever catches my eye" or "A little bit of everything" a few microseconds later. Conversely though, if some seemingly disembodied computer person asks me that very same question, I think "Huh, that sure is nice of this person to ask me about such a thing", then answer their question by rattling off a list (usually a long list) of things.

Of course most longtime card collectors will realize that there's a big difference between the two scenarios, as more often than not if someone in the flesh asks you what you collect, it's probably because you're in a setting where cards are being sold, and the person asking is most likely someone who's got wares to move, and are only asking so that they can try to con you into buying some overpriced item(s); while if someone online asks you, the odds are good that they're doing so because they'd like to send you something, or at the very least, are interested in proposing a trade -- both of which being considerably more agreeable than having to endure a sales pitch from some guy who's wearing a t-shirt that's two sizes too small.

Lest anyone think I'm being facetious for the sake of a blog post, I have a pair of semi-recent examples to illustrate my point, which I will however reverse the order of... for the sake of this blog post.

Last month I found myself needing some penny sleeves (yeah, I don't know how it happened either!), so off to the card/copy/print shop down in town I went, and boy did I pick a terrible day to go. The guy who runs the place (he's not the owner though), is also the one who has the little card nook set up, and since they're his cards, he's the only one who handles card related things, so if he's busy, or away, you're kind of SOL. Anyways, I won't go into the whole thing, but the short version of the story is that I, and another fellow, couldn't pay for our purchases right away, because the card guy was dealing with a husband and wife who were putting in some sort of large printing order, and of course just had to have a million questions that all needed long drawn out explanations.

So, me and this fellow were waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more. After about ten minutes, he asked me what I collected, and without skipping a beat I replied, "A little bit of everything". Now before you go and think that I was being a dick, especially since he wasn't going to be attempting to sell me something, there's three things that you should know (hmm, maybe this isn't the short version of the story after all): A). It was hotter than hell that day, inside and outside, I don't know why it was so hot in the shop, but it was, and I felt like I was trying to get the heat stroke. B). I was getting more than just a little pissed off about having to wait so long, especially every time that it seemed like things were just about to wrap up, then that GD woman would ask another question, which meant even more waiting, and even more rage (at least on my part).  And C). The guy who asked me what I collected, didn't give two sh*ts what I collected, his body language made it clear that this was just an idle question (kind of like when a cashier asks how your day's going), so why bother giving any sort of sincere answer?

Even though it isn't relevant to this post, I'll finish the story by saying that at about the fifteen minute mark, the guy who was waiting with me, put down his packages of toploaders, and just walked out. I on the other hand, waited a little longer, only to see the card guy, and this couple, walk to a different part of the store, and start talking about something else. At was at this point that, through gritted teeth, asked some other employee who had just walked out from the back, if he could just handle my paying for ten packages of sleeves, and thankfully with a little help from a grateful me, he was able to do so. Never have I had to endure so much, just to get so little, at least not as far as card stuffs go.

Hopefully there's still some folks reading, cause I still got the other half of the comparison to get to, which occurred some months ago, when Trevor, from THE RIPPIN' AND THE TRADIN', asked me via a Twitter DM, if I was collecting anyone new?

Now other then a few DM's, and one previous exchange of cards, I haven't had a lot of contact with Trevor, and yet when he asked me if I was collecting anybody new, my first thought was that it was gosh awful nice of him to ask (especially since it's not something that I ever get asked), which was then followed by my sending him a small list of names. So why was I willing to give a somewhat in-depth answer to an internet person that I don't know all that well, and not some guy standing right next to me in a sweltering card shop? Well, that's easy, I knew that Trevor wasn't going to try and sell me something, and more importantly, unlike the guy in line, I knew that Trevor was asking because he actually cared to hear my reply.

In case you haven't noticed yet, Trevor sent along quite the assortment, which came about from my sending him a bunch of needs for his 1991 Upper Deck football set. Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, if you have any unwanted cards from that set just laying around, Trevor's the dude that you need to contact, well, at least if you have any of his needs that is (there's a list up on his blog).

I guess I should probably talk about some of these cards at some point, pretty much all of which have been death dealers up to this point, well, save for Jamie Moyer that is :)

I noticed recently that a number of the modern football players (they're modern to me) that I'm now collecting made a name for themselves with either the Broncos or the 49ers, which is a bit perplexing as I wasn't a fan of either team growing up. I guess those teams just produced a lot of guys that I find interesting, and fun to collect, now that I'm older.

I've kind of been collecting Steve Young for awhile now, but apparently hadn't noticed it until I started pulling apart all of my former set builds. He's one of the big names that I always seemed to go out of my way to pick up early in the builds, so now that those builds have all been abandoned, I've got myself a respectable little Steve Young collection going on.

Many thanks to Trevor for these cards, he really didn't need to send anything in return for what I sent, but he did anyways, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't glad that he did!

But wait, there's more! Just a few weeks after I got this package, an unexpected PWE showed up, a PWE from Trevor no less, yeah, the same Trevor...

How's that for trio! All three of these guys could make a body turn cold! A couple o quick notes: 1). The latter two cards are the first two cards that I've ever owned from the Pro Set Power set. 2). Ronnie Lott isn't a guy that you want to interrupt during his morning constitutional :) And 3). But seriously though, that Ronnie Lott card is pretty interesting, if only because you can see the pinky on his left hand, you know, the one that was broken and was going to require a lengthy amount of time to heal, so to avoid missing any games, he had partially amputated instead. I dare you to try and find a current player who'd be willing to do that, go ahead, I'll wait.

Such a great PWE! A couple of these newer player collections really got a shot in the arm thanks to Trevor, and it was very much appreciated.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Road trip (sort of)

After being away for almost two months, I'm finding that getting back into trying to blog on a semi-regular basis isn't quite like that old tried and true "riding a bike" analogy.

Words aren't exactly flowing well, and ideas seem to be non-existent, I guess that's what I get for staying gone so long, well, that and being of the mindset that I didn't really want to come back for so long. But alas, I will trudge on in the hopes that these things will return with time.

As a quick aside, I tried out that NEW Blogger that everyone's been talking about, and yeah, it's just as bad, if not worse, than everyone's been saying. I couldn't figure out how to do anything, literally, I mean I couldn't even find whatever you're supposed to click on to start a new post! It should come as no surprise that I've switched back to the old Blogger for the time being. I even took a moment to let Google know what I thought of this NEW Blogger, and am hoping that everyone else has done so as well. Maybe if they get enough complaints they'll let us keep our old Blogger?

Anyhoo, since card posts don't seem to be working for me today (Sunday), I'm gonna go rogue and show off the goods from my trip to McKay's (aka the entertainment capitol of Knoxville) earlier this month.

Before this particular trip, it had been over six months since I had gone to McKay's, which was quite a while considering I normally try to make it there about every four to six weeks. Not surprisingly, it's because of the Rona that I've stayed away. Although it's not any sort of fear of catching it that's kept me away, that's of absolutely no concern to me, I was actually more concerned that I'd make the hour plus drive only to find that half the store was depleted, or something similar along those lines, especially after them having to be closed for two months during the lockdown. From what I've seen online, people buying anything and everything, I just kind of assumed that when they reopened, folks would come through like a plague of locusts and clear the shelves faster than the store could replenish them.

Thankfully my fear seems to have been unjustified, as there were no shortage of goods when I went, although there wasn't a lot for me this particular time, but I did make up for that by making a few more stops on the way home, the items of which can be found a little lower in the post.

It's not very often that I come across an old horror movie that I've never even heard of, and yet I was able to so just a few minute into my searching through the $1.95 and under DVD/Blu-Ray section. Generally speaking, I'm not usually a fan of the Dr. Moreau theme, but this one turned out to be surprisingly good, although in less your the sort who enjoys old horror movies, I probably still wouldn't recommend it, of course I'd say the same for just about any old horror movie, or even just b/w movies in general, modern mindsets seem to be preventing a lot of people from enjoying such films.

"Samurai" is one of those words that'll always get me to stop and pay more attention to whatever it's attached to, case in point, Samurai Resurrection, which I hadn't been familiar with, but stopped for a closer inspection when I saw "samurai" in the title. I still haven't watched it yet, so I can't yay or nay it, but at $1 it would have to be pretty bad for me not to like it, just give me a little bit of sword play and I'm good.

I thought after I found these first two so quickly that I was going to hit the motherlode, but it didn't end up playing out like that, as these were the only two that I found amongst the thousands(?) from the cheap bins. I did see a guy though that must've had well over 100 Blu-Rays in his cart, so at least somebody was doing well in the bargain section that day.

I had the choice of getting this in paperback for $2, or hardback for $3, and while I normally prefer hardbacks, I like saving money more, so I opted for the paperback. I've sort of been looking for a cheap copy of this book for a few years now, and it was nice to finally find one. This is the third book of Simon Winchester's that I've read (technically speaking, I'm only halfway through it as of this writing), so I kind of knew what to expect from him, lots of research, history galore, and plenty of obscure facts; that being said, this one seems to be much denser than his other works that I've read, but is still really good, it just makes for a bit of a slower read.

Keep those pithy comments to yourself, please.

I read this book as a kid, but never owned it. It was fun to read it again after all of these years, and was glad to see that it's held up really well, well enough in fact that I'll now have to keep an eye out for the two sequels.

Few things remind me of childhood more than books of this subject matter from either Time-Life or Reader's Digest. I had, and still have, plenty of them, and will almost always grab any cheap ones that are new to me, like this one. Unfortunately this one wasn't very good, but it was only fifty cents, so not the end of the world.

Five items isn't very much to come away with after two and half hours of total driving, but it happens. I got out of there relatively early for once, but wasn't in the mood to go anywhere else, so I just decided to come home. The drive back went really quick (mostly due to some stretches where the flow of traffic was over 95 mph), so about thirty miles from home I decided to make a pit stop, or three...

First up was the Hilltoppers thrift store, which I hadn't been to in quite some time, I'm not absolutely sure, but it feels like I hadn't been there since Christmas. They've reduced their price on videos since I was there, but didn't have anything for me, still worth the look though. I did walk away with this nifty puzzle for a buck though, which made the stop worth it.

The second stop was just a few miles away, that being the Book Cellar, where I picked up this book, which I had very high hopes for, hopes that were dashed about two stories in. This book is sh*t, don't ever buy it, there's maybe 1 1/2 good stories in here, and I'm being generous on that half. Everyone seemed to be trying too hard to be edgy with their stories, and in my mind they come across as disingenuous at best, and pathetic at worst.

And lastly, I found this big ol' puzzle (sorry about the glare) at the Thread of Hope thrift store, which is just a couple of hundred feet from the bookstore. This is the third big puzzle (more than 1,000 pieces) that I've found there this year, which is cool, because I can never have too many. Paid a dollar for this one too by the way, but would've paid a couple more if had been necessary.

Looks like we've reached the end of the line, but there's no need to fret, as I'm planning on heading back to McKay's later this week (I thinned out the hoard some, and will be taking a bunch of stuff to trade in), and will hopefully come away with enough for another post some time in the next couple of weeks.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Birthday blues

According to the Blogger, we're just a few days shy of two months since my last post.

I hadn't planned on the June 24th post being my last new one for almost two months, but I also hadn't planned on falling into my now yearly birthday funk weeks earlier than normal either, so...

[Not me.]

I could go into a long diatribe about me using my birthday as a time to reflect back on the previous year, and take stock of how little I've accomplished. I could also talk about my not dealing very well with this whole getting older thing, both of which are the primary cause of this now yearly depression, but I won't. It won't do any good to do so, and you're not here for that kind of talk anyway, so I will spare you the not so gory details.

I will mention however that in previous years this depression usually starts to show itself about a week before my birthday, and then begins to abate within a week or two after my birthday has passed. This year however, it hit me pretty hard, and fast, during the last week of June, and even though it has eased off to some degree, it's still with me to some degree here more than halfway through August. I'm not sure why it's lasted so long this year, I mean I haven't really done anything of note in the past year, but I didn't do much of note the previous year either, and it didn't last this long, so what's so special about this year? [rhetorical question]

I realize that this is a me thing, and is just something that I have to deal with on my own, as even if it's well-intentioned, advice from others doesn't help, and talking about it doesn't help either, I'm only doing so to try and explain my absence.

My one solace is that moping about is not an option, at least not where I live, there's just too much that needs to be done on a daily basis, so no laying around for this sad sack. The storm damage from earlier this year has taken up a great deal of free time, so projects that should've been tended to months ago have really piled up, I've been trying to get to as many as I can, but it seems like every time I finish one, there's still a dozen more waiting to be started, and those are just my projects; I'm not even counting all of my moms, whose stuff I usually move to the front of the line. She's still considerably more active than most people her age (and judging from what I've seen online, more active than most people half her age), but does need help with a few things, most notably things that require heavy lifting. I never gripe about helping her with anything, if only because her being around to help, is much better than the alternative.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not, but my mom has a keen interest in stained glass. We converted a shed into a studio for her a few years ago, which has worked out really well, but it has become apparent as of late that she needed more storage for panes, especially those of the larger variety -- the only problem is, there isn't a lot of extra money right now for supplies. It didn't take long to come with a solution though, as I had been saving a bunch of leftover wood (scraps is more of an apt description) from an old project, and after taking some measurements, was able to come up with a relatively okay idea for a storage unit. My mom wasn't entirely convinced that it was going to be doable, but gave consent to give it a go, so I did.

Now I don't have a fancy shop full of expensive power tools, nor do I have a lot of know how, but I am stubborn, and did want to see this through, and am proud to say that after screwing up once and having to sort of start over, not to mention all of the weather delays (we've had jungle weather here this summer, hot sun followed by an afternoon thunderstorm then more hot sun, which is good for the plants, but not for someone who's trying to work on a project outside without cover), the project is done. It's ugly as sin, but is crazy sturdy, and will hold quite a bit of glass, upwards of 100 large panes. My design was also modular, so in theory more could be added on to the unit in the future if need be.

My mom is happy with how it turned out, which of course is all that really matters, and has now mentioned trying to come up with something else for some of the extra small stuff that is currently without a home. She has two three-tiered wooden shelving units that she saved from the dump, and I still have some more scraps, so it's looking like those units are going to get reinforced, chunked up if you will, and get a few dividers added, so that they can be converted to hold smaller pieces.

I'm thinking that I'll be done with all of her stuff sometime next week, which will then free some time for me, meaning that I should start trying to figure out what's next on the to do list, anybody feel like flying (or driving) down for a working vacation? :)

After enduring all of this life talk, I should probably try and balance it out a little by giving ya'll some collectibles talk too, and maybe even photos some photos to accompany said collectibles talk.

Since I mentioned my birthday at the beginning of the post, I might as well show you what I ended up getting to celebrate the "special" occasion. I grew up watching the original Star Trek series, but for some odd reason never bothered to get any of the figures from the mid 90's Playmates line. At this point, I don't feel the need to get all of them, but there were a few that I'd like to have, like Mr. Mugatu here, who now joins the Gorn that I got a few years ago. I just need to find a cheap Harry Mudd, and then I can probably call it good with this set.

This came from my mom, who at this point is the only person that I get birthday presents from anymore (which is okay by me), and although I would've been completely fine if this had been the only thing I had got, she did add a little something else to the birthday card...

My coin collecting days are many, many, years behind me, but even so, I can still appreciate the greatness that are Morgan silver dollars, and am more than happy to add this piece of Americana to what's left of my former collection. Apparently she bought this for me about ten years ago, misplaced it, and only just recently rediscovered it -- better late than never I suppose.

I also bought something a little bit before my birthday, which for blog purposes could be called a present to self.

I knew of Panini's adding buybacks to their 2019 Score release, and knew that Reggie Roby was on the list of newly stamped cards, but hadn't seen one, and honestly, I wasn't so sure that I was going to bother trying to add it to the collection. Some may recall that I was all about the buybacks a few years ago, but have since grown to dislike them quite a bit. I sold the contents of my partially built frankenset earlier this year, or at least most of it, I did keep a few that fit into player collections. For the most part though, I really have no interest in them anymore, that being said, I saw this Reggie on the eBay, and couldn't not bid on it. Since you're seeing it, I obviously won it. The auction was for the original '89 Score and the buyback, which was cool, since I didn't have a copy of the original either. Now if Panini would just do me a solid, and not create any more Reggie buybacks (or any 1/1's), I'd be most grateful.

Other than finally finishing the sorting that I've been working on for over a year, I haven't been doing much card stuff. These Reggie's are my first purchase in months, but with all of the great packages that I've received from fellow bloggers this year (including a few while I've been away), I haven't really felt the need to buy much, which has worked out well, cause I don't have the money to be buying stuff at ten times the normal going rate, and that's how pretty much everything is right now, but I'm good.

I got an envelope in the mail from Israel (yeah, that Israel!) the other day, which was kind of neat unto itself, but the real prize was inside:

I know that there aren't a lot of stamp collectors reading this, but I couldn't help showing off this block of Latvia #1's. Latvia isn't among the countries that I collect, but the first two issues of 1918 are probably my favorite stamps of all-time. The design isn't overly interesting, but since no one buys these for the fronts anyway, it doesn't really matter.

You see the backs are what most folks care about, what with these two issues being printed on the backs of unfinished German infantry maps and all. I got a nice little block here, although I'll have to remove the hinges (the blurry spots in the scan) sometime soon, probably when the weather cools off a little bit.

The block from Israel came right on the heels of another small purchase, this time from a U.S. dealer. I was able to get a few more #1's, perforated and imperforated, for like $2.50 shipped, which was just too good of a deal to pass up. I though about given these (as well as the ones I already had) their own post, but didn't know how much interest there'd be, so I won't. However, if anyone does actually care, you can read all about the history of these stamps over on the apsit website.

Two things. First, I've been stopping in at the nearest Dollar Tree a lot more in recent months, usually once a week. I don't have the good fortune to live near one of the locations that gets DVD's and Blu-Rays, but this particular store has been getting a lot of books as of late. And second, I have been reading... a lot! I've read seven books during my nearly two-month absence, and have just started on my eighth. I can't remember when I last read so many books in such a short amount of time. This renewed interest is also partially to blame for my absence, as the want to read at night has been much stronger than that of writing blog posts, and I don't see this changing anytime soon, which means that if I want to get back to blogging (and I'm not so sure that I do), I'll have to start working on posts in the morning again, there's really no other time to do so.

This is apropos of nothing, other than me waiting for the second John Wick to come down in price, and finding out earlier this week that it finally had... obviously I bought it!

Even though I have little desire to do so, I'm gonna try and get back to blogging on a semi-regular basis, which will hopefully lead to me getting back to reading (and commenting on) everyone else's blogs. I feel a little guilty about not supporting the endeavors of others in recent months, I mean I have read some posts here and there, but just haven't felt like I've had anything important to add to those posts. I've heard some about the new Blogger interface, and I suppose if it's as bad as everyone says, I might be calling it a day, as I don't know if I'll be wanting to learn some new complicated system, especially when it's replacing something that to my knowledge, wasn't broken. But we'll see, my blog screens still looks the same, so obviously it hasn't changed yet. Maybe they'll forget about me, and I can just keep using the one I know (sort of)...


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.