Chilly Willie

Despite my recent attempts to get back into trading on the TCDB, I really don't like formal trading; especially formal trading of the online variety.

My biggest problem with formal trading online is that it's virtually (pun intended) impossible to "read" the other person during negotiations. In person, you can detect all manner of feelings from ones inflection, body language, etc. All of that is lost when dealing with a keyboard and a screen; thus making it considerably easier for things to go south at any point during the process.

The possibility of things going awry is why I've really tried to avoid formal trading with fellow bloggers in recent years. Now that there's so few of us left, I feel like we all have to try and stick together as much as possible, sort of a "us against the world" thing, so I try not to upset the apple cart when possible (amongst our kind); hence my not wanting to risk souring any relations with an unsuccessful trade attempt.

All that being said, sometimes a situation arises where a formal trade will be needed to necessitate the acquiring of a desired item. This post is about just such an occasion.

I don't recall exactly when it was, so I'll just say that it was sometime in the last few months that Mike, he of Not Another Baseball Card Blog and In My Own Words fame, offered up some items for trade to any and all interested parties, and one item in particular caught my eye...

Up to this point, I had never had the good fortune to exchange cards with Mike before, so I knew that that, coupled with the nature of the item, would probably necessitate us needing to negotiate a trade of some sort. 

I needn't have worried about trading with Mike though, for he may be the easiest person to conduct a formal trade with... wait, scratch that... he is undoubtedly the easiest person to formally trade with across the entirety of the internet. And that's a hill that I'm willing to die on! I'd say "prove me wrong", but you can't, so I won't.

And you may've noticed that Willie's got a few condition issues, which, had this been his regular old '72 Topps card, might've prevented me from trying to trade for it, but it ain't his regular old '72 Topps card...

As I was telling one of Mike's fellow Canadians just recently, I have had very little luck acquiring vintage OPC over the years. I've only ever come upon it at a show once, and am ALWAYS in the wrong place at the wrong time for desired cards online. So, given all that, and of course who's featured on the card, I didn't mind a few condition issues. Besides, he still presents really well, as there's no creases going through his face, and no paper loss on the stats, so all in all, I'm pretty happy with this card. I'm pretty happy with the trade too, as I was able to find someone who, not only wanted one of my abandoned set builds, but who will now be trying to finish what I started -- and I think that that's really neat.

It's worth mentioning too that as well as this trade turned out, the card itself almost didn't even make it to me.

That's how it arrived, minus the digital blackout, that was me. Look at that big ol' tear on the right side! It's a minor miracle that the toploader didn't fall out, or that it wasn't plucked out by some sticky-fingered postal worker. Needless to say, the USPS did good here, and deserves credit for having done so.

Thanks again for the trade, Mike! Now that we're out of the formal stage, hopefully all future exchanges can just be of the blind variety.

On an unrelated note: I noticed this morning that there's a new blog on the block, Uncle Charlie's Shoebox. So, if anyone has a spare minute or two, and is so inclined to want to do so, it might be nice to pop over and say hi.

Christmas from The Collector

I don't know how kids these days feel about them, and I don't know how kids from generations prior to mine felt about them, but I do know that when I was young, the vast majority of kids didn't give two rips about greeting cards. Oh sure, we'd anticipate receiving them on birthdays, and for Christmas, but that's only because we'd be hoping that they contain some cash or a check. The cards themselves were merely a vessel for our new-found, albeit temporary, wealth. The cards that appeased us with an offering were tolerated, those that didn't, were as good as trash; that is of course unless mom got to them first, then they'd be put up on the fridge, mantle, etc. where you'd have to look at them for at least a month before they were taken down, only to then be squirreled away in a drawer somewhere for safe keeping.

Greeting cards have always seemed like a waste of money, and time, but mostly money, to me. I could appreciate the sentiment that they conveyed, but more often than not, a phone call would've sufficed.

Something has changed for me in recent years though, for I now actually look forward to getting greeting cards, and don't need them to contain greenbacks for me to appreciate them. I don't know why this is, maybe I've entered the grandma stage of my life (that's normal, right?), and now appreciate just being thought of on special occasions. Such was the case a few weeks ago when I received an unexpected package from, Chris, or as he's known on the streets, The Collector. 

My initial thought was not of the goodies that undoubtedly lay inside, no, I was thinking of how nice it was that Chris had thought about me; and being so near Christmas was just that much more meaningful. 

The contents of the package were a small bundle of trading cards, and greeting card, which clearly felt like it contained something else; probably more trading cards. In years past, I can say with complete certainty that I would've started with the bundle first, but in 2022, I guess I now am the sort who starts with the greeting card, and not because of the mystery bounty that's obviously being held within it's confines -- those were set aside until I finished reading the card. After reading the card, I did a very grandma-ish thing, and went and put the card on the entertainment center, you know, so that I could look at it when I'm in the living room. Now I could look at the cards...

That's really nice looking card, isn't it? Even if I weren't collecting Luke Easter, I still would've wanted this offering from TCMA, it's just that good! This had been on my Cheap Wants list, which meant that Chris had also taken the time to peruse at least one of my lists; that's awfully thoughtful too.

I can guarantee that is the worst scan that you'll see on the blogs today!

Here was another one of my Cheap Wants. Some may recall that there was a copy of this card in my last post too, yep, two arrived on the same day from two different people. Funny how that works. Now if I decide to start collecting Carney, which I'm still thinking about, I'll have one for that collection and one for my random 80's pages. If I don't start collecting him, I'll have two for the random 80's pages, and will have to get a third to finish off the row. Although, I actually wouldn't mind having an entire page of this card :)

Terry was the point guard of youth, and John was the point guard that young me was supposed to hate, but was actually a super-secret fan of (because you couldn't be a fan of anything Jazz in Portland when I was a kid -- that might've warranted a stoning back then).

I should probably note too that in case things are looking off, none of these cards are mis-cut, I've just been getting really lazy with my scans. I don't mind wonky scans, so hopefully you all don't either.

If I were to ever start building a 90's base set again, this one would be a serious contender. It's one of those sets that's just loaded with nostalgia for me. It's also a set that I can still remember a lot of the details from it's initial announcement through it's actual release. It was kind of a big deal at the time.

Here's another Cheap Want that Chris was able to knock off of the list. With this Gold Stamp parallel in hand, I have officially completed my 1992-93 Topps Archives Jerome Kersey rainbow (it's only two cards - base and gold). It's funny too, I remember the golds being a one per pack parallel, but that's a false memory, because the golds were released altogether in a separate box set. I know that I had a bunch of the golds way back when, but I know for a fact that I never got one of the box sets, so I have no idea where all of mine would've come from. I got a box for my birthday in 1992, and I guess over the years the memory of opening it has been altered some to include a gold parallel in each pack. Brains are strange.

Of all the cards that came from this unexpected package, Fred Cox was probably the unexpectiest of the bunch. I already the Alzado, but this one was nicer than my other copy. And I didn't realize it until I opened this package, but I completely forgot to look for both of these guys during COMC's recent Black Friday sale. Which then led to the further realization that I forgot to look for a bunch of other guys too, siiiiiigh. Hopefully I didn't miss out on too many deals; though, thinking back to the lack of deals that I came across, and remembering how few cards I picked up during the sale, I can't help but assume that I didn't.

Many thanks to Chris for sending what turned out to be the only Christmas card that I received this year. The trading cards that accompanied it weren't too shabby either 😉.

And if you haven't already done so, go check out the Young Guns series that Chris is currently doing. I know very little about hockey, and even less about hockey cards, so I've been learning a bunch about both thanks to this series. And of course, in typical Chris fashion, the series has been extremely well researched, and has been written in a manner that makes one think that he should probably be getting paid for doing this.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Sometimes they do come back

One of the things that I noticed back when I was first started reading the card blogs was how often former bloggers/blogs were mentioned in passing. I guess it would be around 8 or so years ago now that I first stumbled upon (one of Fuji's posts came up in a Google search) the previously unknown to me world of card blogs, and at the time it seemed like there were hundreds of them, probably because there were. But even so, with names of fallen comrades being bandied about so frequently, it felt like I had just missed a time when there had been thousands (a slight exaggeration, but you get the point) of people writing public love letters to cards on a near daily basis.

I was amazed that so many former bloggers, many whom seemingly dropped off the face of the earth without nary a word, were still remembered so fondly by so many of those that were still around. Eight years later though, I get it, for I too now have quite the mental rolodex filled with defunct blogs, and their wayward operators. Without making a list (which I'm not gonna do), I have no idea off the top of my head how many people have stepped away from their blogs since I started this one, but it's definitely been more than a few. And yet, I'm pretty sure that I remember them all, or at least I could with a little bit of time to think. 

It's always a bit sad when somebody closes up shop, but there's always the hope that they'll come back at some point, like Tom, from The Angels, In Order, did earlier this year. People that leave don't always write a goodbye post, but Tom did, and after reading that post, if I would've been betting on whether or not he would've ever been coming back, I would've bet on no. Thankfully, I'm often wrong, and after about a year away, Tom came back! 

Since returning, Tom has done a couple of trade bait posts that seem to have generated a lot of interest, two of which I've even participated in; though not to the extent that some others have. But even so, I've netted a couple of neat things thanks to his posts.

I know at some point not too long ago that I mentioned having an ever increasing urge to collect Dave Winfield, but I've been fighting it, if only because I didn't want to take on anymore player collections. Yeah, about that, I think I might be fighting a losing battle.

This and the next card weren't part of the trade bait posts, but were instead cards that Tom saw on my cheap wants list, and offered to send them. This is the first card that I remember being desired by collectors, and even though I had quite a few copies at one time, those were all given away many years ago. It's nice to have one again.

Carney is another guy that I've been very tempted to collect. I haven't looked, but I can't imagine that he has too many cards out there, and wouldn't think that too many of those that are have been pushed into the stratosphere by the boom crowd price-wise. I only saw this particular card for the first time earlier this year in one of Night Owl's posts. I never collected this set, or even owned very many cards from it, so there's probably quite a few of them that I still haven't seen. And speaking of seeing things, you'll be seeing another copy of this card in the next post, as two showed up on the exact same day; and that wasn't a bad thing!

I had no idea there was 2016 Topps MLB Wacky Packages set, and from what I can gather, this particular card is from a minor league subset(?). Not that I care about any of that mind you, no, I just wanted it because the parody features one of the traditional monsters (vampire, Frankenstein's monster, mummy, etc.); which I've started seeking out in WP form.

I think I stopped collecting baseball cards in 1992, and stopped collecting Panini's baseball stickers after the 1993 set. And because this was the last baseball set that I worked on (never finished it), I have some strong nostalgia for it. I don't have any interest in going back and working on the set again, but if the opportunity arises, as it did here, I won't mind picking up a few choice singles. The foily sticker sure scanned weird though, I wonder if it was because of the black construction paper that I've been using behind the cards? 

Thanks again for the cards (and stickers), Tom. Hopefully you're back for good this time, as the blogs are a much better place with you around 😊.

On an unrelated note: Jeremy, from Topps Cards that Never Were, mentioned the other day that he's thinking about going all in on the TCDB, but has some questions before doing so. It doesn't appear that anyone has answered them as of this writing, so if anyone has a few minutes, maybe you could pop over and help him out. Despite having been a member of the site for a few years now, I still don't have a firm grasp on all of the the ins and outs (Dennis is my go to for TCDB questions), so I'm hardly the one to answer such questions -- but I know that there's a lot of folks who could, which is why I'm mentioning it here.

The Gods Must be Crazy II

Does anyone remember the 'Gods Must be Crazy' film series? The first two, the sequel more so than the original, were staples of pretty much every single video store for years and years. I haven't seen any of them in decades, and even though this post has nothing to do with the franchise, the title just seemed appropriate when thinking about today's post. And since it's sort of a sequel to last weeks Post Cereal cards post, I had to go with part "II".

I don't know when it was exactly, nor do I know why it was, but sometime in the last year or so, I've really started to appreciate the 1955 Bowman baseball set. Not that I previously disliked it mind you, I just hadn't paid it a ton of attention. Now all of sudden, I am paying it a lot of attention. So much so in fact, that I've even begun to entertain the hair-brained notion of trying to build the set. [Is this one of the signs of an impending mental breakdown?]

Obviously, the design is a big part of the appeal. I like too how a lot of the images look like they would've been completely at home during an early broadcast. Granted, they're in color, and they wouldn't have been seen that way by probably 99% of the population back in 1955, but that's a minor nit-pick. There's lots of wonderful shots that feature glimpses of long gone stadiums in the background as well. The overall effect is just awfully appealing.

After thinking about it some, I decided to round up all of the cards that I had from the set, and see where I stood. The above photo is where I stand. It's no Alamo, that's for sure.

I've had the Nellie Fox for a bunch of years now. That was from a fire sale on COMC. Bobby Thomson was taken from my collection of his. I got the the Brooks Lawrence from COMC as well, although it was gotten during the Rona stretch where my stuff didn't get shipped for two years, and by the time I got it, I could no longer remember why I bought it in the first place. Since I never did get to the majority of that shipment on here, I still have a better looking scan sitting in a folder, so you may see it again at some point. Gene Baker was an card show purchase. he was bought strictly because of that bandage over his right eye. And the Joe Bowman came from Jeff. I pulled that out of my Portland Beavers collection. I figure that since I've added 6 older cards to that collection in the last month, that I could take one out for another (possible) collection.

Even though I know that it would never be completed, I am seriously thinking about giving the set a go. I'll probably need to pick up starter lot of some sort before I fully commit myself to the idea though. It looked like I was gonna have a pretty good chance at one on eBay a few weeks ago, but as is often the case these days, the big money crowd made their presence known in the final minute, and that was the end of that (I'm really beginning to hate those people, with a passion). After looking around some more, it might be awhile before it's possible for me to get decent lot for a relatively decent price. In the meantime though, I think I'll keep these five together in a page and tuck it in the back of my Post/Jell-O binder, just in case. And speaking of the Post/Jell-O binder, I don't know how much good it'll do, but since there's always at least one person who will ask about such things, I've added a page to the top of the blog for them. They're also on the TCDB (pennysleeves) too.

Unrelated note #1: In case anyone missed it, Rod, from Padrographs, is trying to put together a gift for a friends upcoming birthday, and is seeking help in doing so. If anyone has various years of unwanted Topps laying around, you may be able to help. Rod has also put up a page of trade bait for those who might want something in return, so if you need some incentive to check out the link, that should do it.

Unrelated note #2: I sent out the mass email with my new mailing address a few days ago, so if you're one of the people that I thought would want it, or who asked for it, and you didn't get the email, check your promotions and spam folders as it may have slid into one of those.

New address

Having had the same mailing address since this blogs creation, I don't really know how to go about letting those who would care, know that I will soon have a new one.

And no, I haven't moved, and am not moving, just switching to a PO Box (more on that in a second).

I guess the best way to do this will be to send out one of those mass emails, which I'll do sometime within the next few days. In the meantime, since I don't want to bother those that are no longer around by sending them an address of someone that they no longer have any interest in, I've made a short list below of the folks that I've either interacted with a bunch over the years, or those that I've received mail from in the last few months. I'm probably forgetting at least one person (apologies if it's you), so if you're not on the list, and want to be, just let me know in the comments (or via email, the TCDB, or Twitter). I suppose too, if there's anyone else that I haven't had the good fortune to interact with outside of the blogs, that also wants to be included in the email, just let me know.

As it stands right now, here's the list:

Jim 

Chris (The Collector)

Bo 

Greg (GCA)

Greg (Nine Pockets)

Matt (Diamond Jesters)

Trevor

Johnny

Tom

Not much of a list anymore, all my people keep leaving!

And even though the PO Box is already up and running, I won't be filling out the official change of address card until the end of the month, so there won't be problems with anything that may or may not currently be in the mail. 

As for the reason behind the change: Most of you probably already know that I live out in the sticks, but what you don't know is that I also live on one of the longer mail routes in the state. It wasn't a big deal back when I moved here almost 8 years ago now, but with so many folks fleeing to TN from the numerous bat-shit crazy cities now dotting the Country, it's starting to get a little more crowded around here; thus creating even more stops for the overworked mail carrier on what was already an undesirable route (there have been more than a few carriers over the last 8 years, and they all hate this route). This route should've already been made into two by the time I got here, and really should be now, but like everywhere else, the local post office is having trouble finding people who actually want to work, so if it they couldn't split it up back when they were at full-staff, there's little reason to think that they'll be doing it now that they're understaffed. Obviously, with more people living along the route, there's now more mail to deliver, and it's gotten to the point where, because I live near the end of the route, that some days it gets so late that the mail person stops delivering before getting this far. In those instances, which are starting to occur more frequently, the mail that didn't get delivered will either be in with the next days mail, or one of the on-call part-timers will be called in, and they'll go out and finish delivering the previous days mail the following morning. They will also sometimes be called in to take on just the packages, usually around this time of year, which does help alleviate the load for the primary carrier, but it can be a bit frustrating for everyone else that might have to check their mailboxes multiple times a day because you don't know how many times the mail is gonna get here, or when. A lot of people around here live far back from the roads too, so it's not fun walking the equivalent of multiple city blocks out to check the mail, in the dark, and in the rain; multiple times on the same night. Trust me, I know this firsthand.

And don't even get me started on the informed delivery, that's completely useless most of the time. It's just not a good situation, and I should've switched to a PO Box sooner, but kept hoping that things would improve. I'm sure that they will at some point, and when that time comes I'll probably switch back to the home address, but until then...

Old habits die hard

A lot of good things have been showing up on eBay lately (non-sport autographs and hard to find cards for my Portland Beavers collection) and I've been having some success with my bidding, which has been both good and bad. Good from a collecting standpoint, but very bad from a financial standpoint. I've mentioned it before, but with very little money to play with these days, usually if I win something on eBay of any real cost, it means that I need to sell something else to cover that won item. This may sound sucky to some, but I have a lot of unwanted things, so this cycle just acts as a motivator for me to get rid of said unwanted things.

This routine has also made me reevaluate a lot of my stuff, finding out that I no longer care about certain things that I had been fond of, and conversely, finding out that I still care about certain things that I previously hadn't. Such was the case when it came time to put up my various Post Cereal cards. I had already pulled out various cards for player collections, but was still left with a decent sized chunk of 61's and 62's, and a much smaller selection of 63's. There was a small amount of '63 Jell-O's that also needed to be dealt with.

I had decided a couple of years ago now that set collecting was no longer for me, and even though I still felt a little something for the Post (and Jell-O) cards, they were still added to one of my boxes of cards to sell. However, when it came time to list them, I found myself having trouble doing so, sort of.

Upon seeing again how many cards I had from '61 and '62, and still feeling some affinity for them, I decided that I just couldn't list them, and instead put them in a keepers box; thinking that maybe someday I'd give the sets another go. The same couldn't be said for my 63's (Post and Jello-O). Having only about 15 or so of each (after those that fit into player collections had been removed), I figured I was so far away on those that I might as well cut my losses and sell them. Which I did, and very quickly too. I want to say that that was back in February or March when I had been making a big push to list my abandoned set builds. 

Fast forwarding to last month, I started feeling like something was missing with my card collecting. Thankfully it didn't take long to realize what it was; I needed a set to build. This led me to getting out my stacks of '61 and '62 Posts, and deciding that someday was now, and that I was gonna start working on the sets again. 

The first step was to decide if I wanted to remove all the cards from player collections, and even though I didn't really want to, I did it anyway. The second step was to make checklists...

For 1961, I found that I had 57 of the 200 cards. Not bad, not bad at all. Above is what I figure are the best cards from those 57 (I haven't looked up short prints yet, so I may have one of those and not even know it). This set came in two different versions, the ones on boxes, and the ones you could get through the mail. Mine are all from boxes, and those will be the only kind that I'll be seeking out.

As far as the 1962 set goes, I've got 59 of the 200, and as you can see above, and below, I do have a few of the bigger names.

I can't remember if I ever mentioned it on here or not, but a few years ago (maybe five?), I accidently won an extra Clemente on a Sportlots auction. I wanna say it was around six or seven bucks, so it wasn't the end of the world, but was still something that I didn't really need. Since it is fairly nice, I took with me to a card show not long after getting it in hopes of either recouping my money, or at the very least, trading it. None of the dealers who regularly buy from people would even look it at the time. Later that day, since I was already there, I also took it to the card shop in Nashville, hoping that the owner would have some interest in it. He didn't. I was told, and I believed him, because he isn't the sort to mince words, that no one ever came in looking for Roberto Clemente or Post cards. Obviously the card world has changed a bit since then, and looking online now, it appears that there'd probably be more interest in it now than there was back when I got it. Ideally, I'd like to trade for another need, but given how poorly my attempts to pull off formal trades online have gone thus far, I'll probably just have to sell it, and then use that money for some set needs.

After bindering the the 62's, I found that the most cards I had for any one page was four. This by far was the better of the two. And what's more, I was able to add another card to it during the recent pre-Black Friday sale on COMC when I picked up Elston Howard (#8) for $1.48.

I realize too that I've stated many times here on the blog over the last couple of years that I was done with set collecting, forever, which now makes me look like a real hypocrite. Yep, I'm full of shit. But wait... it gets worse!

I've also decided to chase the 1962 Post Canadian set as well. And I'm doing so despite only having one card from it (I think that this is the third time that this Ernie has appeared on the blog). I really should think twice about this one, especially given what happened just a couple of weeks ago.

I found someone on the TCDB who had 19 of these up for trade, so I sent them a message to gauge their interest. It seemed high, so I went ahead and started trying to find things off of their wantlist. While doing so, I noticed that their profile said that they like doing bigger trades, so I decided to try and make it into a bigger trade. I spent a good three hours looking for things, and probably another hour just composing the trade, only for them to turn it down and say that they don't like to trade with my sort. Apparently, I didn't get the memo that asking about the condition of vintage cards that I can see is now a faux pas? I guess I'm that sort. It's ironic too because I was told by a fellow blogger some years ago, that I should try and avoid this person. Unfortunately, I saw that they've been trading with other bloggers recently, and that combined with their huge positive feedback rating made me ignore that old warning. Obviously I should've just listened to it and saved myself the four hours. Lesson learned though, don't ignore warnings from fellow bloggers; they usually know better -- especially when it comes to the TCDB. [I'd still try again if they ever changed their mind though]

And I may be the sort who asks questions about card conditions, but I'm not the sort who makes year-end lists for the blog. However, if I was, this would surely take the #1 spot for the biggest card related disappointment this year. It's been weeks, and I'm still pretty bummed out by it.

Oh, and about this whole deciding to 'start up some old sets again' thing, yeah, it gets even worse...

After bindering up the '61 and 62's, I got to thinking about 1963, you know, that I mentioned selling 15 or so cards from, yeah, that one. Digging through player collections yielded a couple of big names, although the Maris isn't ideal with that cut. Still an okay start though, I guess. None of the 15 cards that I sold would be overly difficult to get back, as I see a lot of them in almost every single lot currently on eBay. I guess I'm doing this one again, too. But wait, it gets worser (and yes, I know, that's not a word)...

I'm picking back up with the '63 Jell-O's too. This was what I still had left. The majority of the one's I sold were poorly cut, and were not SP's or HOFers, so with a little patience, those won't be too difficult reacquire.

A couple days after paging everything up, I remembered that I had overlooked at least one card, and after setting out to look for it, that one card ended up yielding four.

A couple more '63 Posts that I had held onto. Dick Groat came from my miniscule collection of his, and Maury came from a page of his stuff that I have. That page looks a lot less interesting now :(

To the '63 Jell-O's, I was able to add, Boog, who came from the Boog collection, and Curt, who came from a page of his stuff that I've got going.

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I know, there are some expensive and hard to find cards in these sets; don't harsh my mellow. I'll deal with those later. I'm under no illusion that any of these sets will ever be completed, but since making this decision, that feeling of something missing that I mentioned earlier has dissipated, and I've really been enjoying the process so far; it feels like old times. Well, sort of, I don't feel like I absolutely have to complete the sets to enjoy them, like I used to.

The only real negative for me so far is that after looking at these sets online for the last couple of weeks, I've come to the conclusion that if I want to work on these, I'm gonna have to start going to shows again; because the online prices are just not very good anymore. That being said, I did get that Elston that I mentioned earlier, as well as a '61 Lee Walls (for 55¢) and a '61 Bobby Shantz ($1.34) during the COMC BF sale. Other than those though, the pickings were awfully slim on COMC, lots of beaters for way more than they should be. Sportlots and the Beckett Marketplace don't appear to be much of an option either. And eBay seems like it takes so much more effort these days, especially when trying to land set needs at reasonable prices. Having been away for so long now, I'm not sure if anyone who's setting up at the twice-a-month Nashville shows would be bringing any Post, so I think I'll just wait until the next big show in March. 

There used to be this couple that only set up at the big shows who only did vintage, and I remember them having many binders full of Post cards. And I guess even if they aren't going there anymore, with probably close to 800 tables, one would have to think that somebody would have some Post for sale, right?

They make ointments for that

I sure hope this wasn't one of those nickname variations...

... if so, I really don't want to know how he came to be called that. 🙉

More from the Baseball Card Store (and Nine Pockets)

With new non-sport listings on Sportlots slowing down considerably, and not very much stuff being added to the Baseball Card Store as of late, the mini buying spree that I was on during October has come to a screeching halt. And this is good thing too. Not only did I go a tad overboard with the purchases last month, I also seem to have reached that burnout phase... just in time for the Black Friday sale on COMC!

Speaking of COMC, I don't want to make any predictions, but judging by the lack of real discounts that I've seen so far from their pre-BF sales, this might end up being a down year for what's normally their biggest event of the year. I hope I'm wrong, because I've got lots of earned credit available, but it's not looking promising so far.

And speaking of burnout too, dang I'm tired of scanning. I actually got completely caught up with that the other day, and can now start bindering the various stacks that have been growing throughout the year. It's funny, I was thinking the other day that I'm basically now a cold-weather binderer, as I rarely ever start putting things in pages until the cold shows up, which it has. And now that I'm caught up with all of my scanning, I have incentive to not buy any more stuff. I have about 40 cards sitting in my COMC account, and about a hundred sitting in a Sportlots box, but I'm at least a month or two away from getting those, so I'll worry about having to scan them whenever they get here.

As the title so blatantly implies, I've got another batch from the Baseball Card Store to show off. This was my second, and final, order from them during October. I think the couple that runs the site might've got a bit burned out too, as they were listing stuff like crazy last month, and now have done very little so far this month. And I don't blame them for that in the least, it can't be easy running that site with just two people doing everything.

I only bought one of these, and yet, two arrived. I probably should've checked to see if it one of my other purchases was missing from the order, but I didn't, and it's much too late to go back and do so now. At least there's a pretty big difference between the printing on these two cards, so they'll look good side by side in the Bo binder.

I didn't think there'd be much interest in the contents from this order, as there was a lot less variety in it than the last one, so I only scanned about half of it. I can't imagine that too many people care about 1991 Fleer football in 2022, but I scanned these if only because I was surprised to learn that I didn't already have them. 

This is the sort of thing that's usually gone within a few minutes of being listed on the site. I'm not sure how it slipped through the cracks, but I'm glad it did. I'm sure I've seen these Ames before, but like with a lot of things these days, my brain is doing it's best to convince me that I'm just seeing one for the first time. Either way though, this card was definitely my favorite from this package.

Apparently my scanner doesn't do Topps Coins very good. It seems to have focused on the rims which led to a blurring of the photos in the background. I never thought I'd be buying any of these again, and also wouldn't have thought to check the site for them (I only happened upon them by accident), but here we are! I don't know if anyone else use to get those pack repacks from Toy "R" Us, but there was usually at least one pack of these coins in there -- and because of that, I only associate them with those packs. I can't remember how many different loose packs came in those repacks, but I do recall that sometimes there'd be upwards of three packs of coins in there. I absolutely hated them as a kid, would always try to get one that only had one pack of the coins to try and limit how many of them I acquired. I'm still not overly enamoured with them, but I don't think I need anybody else now, so two won't kill me. And speaking of those repacks, damn if I wouldn't love to own just one of them at this point. You'd think that there would still be some unopened ones around, but if there are, they don't ever show up on eBay.

I don't know if I'll ever get around to making a list of my Junior haves, and even though I don't look for him very often anymore, when I do, I just go by what looks familiar, and what doesn't. I did pretty good with the 5-6 I got this time, only previously having the Swing Men. The card in the middle is kind of interesting in that it's crazy thin. I don't think I have anything else from that set, but I can't imagine that the base cards would all be so flimsy. It must just be the checklists that are like that.

I've been saying for awhile that I needed to start getting more of Papa Griffey, so I did -- he made up about a quarter of this order. And no, I didn't get two Topps', the one on the right is from up North...

Now I just need the micro, Tiffany, and Operation Desert Shield to complete the rainbow.

I never though I'd be seeking out any 1990 Score again either.

I know that it probably won't be happening, but I'd like to see Ray Caldwell get some more cards. 

People don't look like Ernie Lombardi anymore.

Had to get a few more from Demolition Man. I think I have all the cards that I wanted from this set now.

Near full sets of 1989 Batman, series 1 and 2, were added to the site right around the time I started putting together this order. There were a few stickers put up too, the two of which I really wanted were snagged by someone else before I could finish checking out. I still got a few of the wanted base cards though, including these two of the lovely Vicki Vale.

We as collectors often complain about card companies using recycled photos, with good reason; but this is one of those instances where it doesn't bother me in the least. Even as a kid, I thought it was odd that Topps released both a flagship set and Stadium Club set for Batman Returns. Granted, both of them have their appeals, but given how many of the same shots they used for the sets, one or the other probably would've sufficed. I thought it was interesting too that one of these (I can't remember which is which) is #13, and the other is #31.

I have a lot of fun trying to put together unconventional pages for certain themes. In this instance, Diamond, will be added to an unconventional Batman page that I've got going. It would be interesting to know if anyone reading this knew off the top of their head what connection, Diamond, aka Erika Andersch, had to Batman? Not wanting to wait to find out, I'll just tell you, she was one of the Red Triangle Circus Gang, more specifically the Knifethrower Dame, in Batman Returns.

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On a completely unrelated note, Greg, the man who continues to put card companies to shame, from Nine Pockets, recently held yet another giveaway for some of his creations. 

I don't think anyone has ever just given away as many of their customs as Greg has. Or if they have, I haven't encountered them. This time the giveaway was for an assortment of NES-styled stickers from various teams and sports. I have received quite a few things from Greg this year, and feel a bit guilty about the lack of items that I haven't sent in return. That being said, it was physically impossible for me not to try and get this 8-bit Blazer. I know that people have been making stickers for a long time now, but even so, there's still a small part of me that thinks that this must be some kind of sorcery. Regular people having stickers made of whatever they want... how is that possible!😛

I haven't decided yet who I want this to represent, so for the moment it'll remain unstuck, this'll definitely be making it onto a binder at some point in the not too distant future. 

Many thanks to Greg for the sticker, it looks really good. And to any other interested parties, you might want to go check a couple of posts back and see if he still has any that went unclaimed; I can assure you that you won't be disappointed.

Why?

Political figures have been appearing on trading cards since the earliest days of cards themselves. And while I think that most of us can agree that politics are pretty ugly, you'd be hard pressed to find a card - and I use that term very loosely - featuring someone from that world that's any uglier than this...

Admittedly, I have no idea who Scott Walker is, nor do I care. This is an instance where it doesn't matter which letter of the alphabet he has in front of his name, as neither would be able to improve this monstrosity. The signature is laughable, and the "cut" is a joke. A company called Decision 2020 made this thing, and if this wasn't a subsidiary of Tri-Star, they sure went out of their way to make it look like it was.

And in case you're wondering how it is that I happened upon this abomination, blame eBay. Apparently my recently buying autographs of Gene Tenace and Corin Nemec were enough to trigger the site's algorithm, and now it's recommending all sorts of silly things that have been signed; including this.

That's okay, I didn't really want to go to Nashville anyway

There was a card show in Nashville last Saturday, a VERY large card show, and you know where I was? No where near Nashville, that's where!

This was another one of those three-day affairs, that I had actually thought I might try to go to, well, that is until I saw a week or two before that there was gonna be 770+ tables; that's just too much for me. Not to mention too, if I wanted to go on the first day, Friday, I'd have to deal with Nashville traffic on a Friday just getting there, and coming home I'd have to deal with rush hour traffic, in Nashville, on a Friday. Yeah, that's a hard pass for me.

After three years, I feel like I should go to a show again one of these days, but as I've said before, I'm just not sure if the way I'm collecting now is conducive to card shows anymore. Will I find enough there to warrant the gas, long-drive, and three to four hours of sleep the night before? Also, I'm just not too keen on the boom crowd, and am not that interested in rubbing elbows with their kind. I probably will venture back to one of the regular twice a month shows (which have doubled in size since the last time I went to one) sooner than later, maybe in the spring... or summer.

Thankfully I don't need to go to any shows for blog content, as I've currently got piles of unscanned cards from the Baseball Card Store, and Sportlots, to pull from should I so desire; which I did a few days ago.

I did two orders from the Baseball Card Store in recent months, my first since they started capping them off at 40 cards. Some folks may not have liked that change, but if it helps keep the shipping cheap, then I'm all for it. My first order, from back in September, was 40 cards worth, while the second was a card or two under that. I still haven't scanned the second batch, but I did do some of the first; probably too much, but here we are anyway.

These two Joe Carter's had been on my most wanted list, and were the first two cards that I grabbed when I started this order. I'd like to get his '86 Leaf at some point too, but it's not a high priority right now.

At some point I noticed that I had almost two pages worth of (different) Arnold cards, and have since started adding more to the... collection? I don't really know what I'm doing with that right now, but until I figure it out, I might as well keep adding cheap cards to what I have already. As for the bottom row, Ronny Cox is headed to the Perry Mason collection ("The Case of the Heartbroken Bride" - TV movie), Michael Ironside was gotten just because he's awesome, and Sharon Stone will be added to a themed page that's currently in progress. [The theme isn't being revealed right now, because I'm thinking about doing some sort of "guess the theme" contests next year]

This card isn't very attractive in person, and is even less so here. I rarely get any new (to me) Admiral's anymore, what with the not going to any shows and all, which is probably the only reason I grabbed this one. Panini really dropped the ball by not naming this set "What the Flux!"😉

I'm not 100% certain, but I think that these are the first Kay-Bee cards that I've ever owned (I've since got my most wanted one too), which is kind of strange considering how much time I spent at their stores as a kid. Of course, I wasn't ever going there for cards, so that might have something to do with it. To further that, I don't think that I ever even knew that they made cards until I started reading the blogs.

I've tried a couple of times in the past to get this card from those sellers on eBay who have those fixed price "choose your card" from a specific set listings, but the Maverick listings are always missing this card. I'm a big fan of Graham Greene, and was very happy to finally get this card, which is essentially his only card. Definitely my favorite from this order.

I've mentioned before that I loved the MusiCards set as a kid, and was the only kid I knew who did, but over the years have grown a lot less fond of it (I know, I'm in the blogging minority on that). I think it's mostly because, as an adult, I just dislike so many of people who are featured in the set. And of course too, I can't help but wonder why so many people that should've been in the set, aren't. I probably had 5 or 6 complete sets at some point way back when, but those are long gone; and until just recently, never thought I'd be buying anymore. And yet, here I am, buying more! 

There is no order to it yet, but I've been putting together a binder of cards that feature things from my childhood, and teen years. Basically just a collection of cards that can take me back to a specific time, or moment, just by looking at them. I couldn't tell you why, but working on this binder has been my biggest priority as of late. I'll probably do some posts and go more in-depth on the cards in it once I get a little further along, and possibly organized somehow. In the meantime, all three of these will be going in there, Hammer for an album, Biz for a song, and Debbie because she was an early crush of mine. And for the record, that crush has never gone away, not only is she still a smokeshow, but she's still really fun. She doesn't seem to have ever gotten all bitter like so many others end up getting, and you ever see her do an interview, it shows.

I never thought I'd be buying any more Yo! MTV Raps either. I'm most excited about getting Whodini, as they were the latest addition to my new-ish Halloween novelty songs collection (see Monday's post about that) for "Haunted House of Rock". It's not very often that I can remember where I first heard a particular song, but I can with that one, it was on one of Dr. Demento's old Halloween shows; though I couldn't tell you which year. The other two will be going into the childhood binder.

This was gotten for the Pippen cameo. It's always kind of fun to see future teammates sharing a card years before playing together.

 

More folks for various collections: One Bernard Fox for the Perry Mason collection ("The Case of the Laughing Lady") and the other for my Columbo collection ("Dagger of the Mind" and "Troubled Waters"), Parley Baer for Perry Mason (he was on six episodes), and Aneta Corsaut for Columbo ("A Stitch in Time").

This is a fun card from an unlicensed dice game that was put out in 1989 by a "company" called Grand Slam. Apparently they can be found with two different border colors, which is news to me, as was the game/set itself.

I'm assuming that this game is kind of like APBA except with dice, though, given the size of the set, you're probably playing as a pseudo All-Star team, instead of an actual team. It looks like you must use another die or possibly a spinner to determine which action is represented by your original throw. This has gotten me curious to know now if a game with teams from actual seasons, like APBA, could be developed using dice instead of spinners? It might actually be more fun with dice. Even without knowing the rules of this one, if I had anybody to play it with, I'd buy this game in a second. Since I don't though, I'll probably just try to get the couple of guys I collect from the set, and call it good.

I also somehow never noticed before that Fred was born on Halloween (lucky fella!). Seeing that got me to thinking about starting a mini-collection of folks who were born on Halloween. I'll have to see who that would encompass before committing to it though.

This order was really good for the Perry Mason collection as Lori Petty also appeared in one of the television films ("The Case of the Musical Murder"). Malcolm McDowell on the other hand, will be a rare add to my Batman: TAS collection ("Showdown"). I had completely forgot that Tank Girl had gotten a set. I can remember going to see that in the theatre, and, well, thank goodness movies didn't cost as much to see back then as they do now; not one of my favorites.

Here's some cards for my random 90's binder. I'd kind of like to start collecting Joe Carter, but he just has so many darn cards. Even if I just stuck to playing days stuff, he's got a lot.

Demolition Man was a favorite of mine during my teens. I use to have it on video, and probably watched it more times than any sane person should have. It's been about twenty years since I last saw it though, might be time to view it again; see if I can still appreciate it now that I'm old and jaded.

Sandra Bullock will be headed to the childhood binder, more for her role in Speed than Demolition Man though. Glenn Shaddix will be added to a themed page (probably won't be hard to figure out that theme). I didn't even notice how miscut the card was until I scanned it. It's fine like that for now, but I'll need an upgrade at some point.

Silver Banshee doesn't have a lot of cards out there, so it was nice to be able to add a new one (on the right) to my mini-collection of hers, and it was even better to be able to get a much needed upgrade of her Cosmic Teams card. My original copy didn't fare so well in the box that it had been in during my decade away from cards.

I already had a copy of this card, but needed another one.

Scan-wise, it looks like I saved the worst for last. Given his continued affordability, I've been focusing on Gene Tenace quite a bit this year, and I guess if the masses continue to overlook him, I'll be continuing my trend into the coming year. I can only vaguely remember seeing Chris Sabo play a couple of times, and yet, for some reason I always thought of him as a star player. He did have a decent career, but looking back, I don't know if his cards warranted the "rubber glove" treatment that they got from me. 

I do plan to scan some of the cards from my second shipment one of these days, and then on one of the days following one of those days, I might actually get around to blogging about it.