I've been... Smithed?

I'm familiar with the concept of 'Bipping' someone, but what do you call it when someone sends you a bunch of copies of the same Dennis Smith card? A Smithing? Have I been Smithed? If so, I guess it could've been worse... his name could've been Roger 😅.

If 'Smithing' hadn't been a thing before, thanks to, Trevor, from the Bump And Run Football Card Blog, it is now.

In the note accompanying this surprise mailing from last month, Trevor wondered if he may've gone a bit overboard with the the Dennis Smith's? Maybe, maybe not, who am I to say what is or isn't overboard. He also suggested, and this is how I know that he's actually reading my ramblings (thanks for that by the way), that I could possibly use them to start a page. Hmmm? I certainly hadn't planned on doing a page of just this card, but in honor of Trevor, I did do so. It's now the very last page in my Reggie Roby/Dennis Smith binder. Although, I did actually need one of these for my Dennis Smith collection, so as it stands, the page is 2/3 full.

Thankfully for all of you that have made it this far, there was more than just seven copies of the same Dennis Smith card in the envelope. Reggie's are always welcome. And this was the first new Steve Atwater that I had added to his collection in quite a few months. I had been doing a pretty good job of keeping track of that collection, but at some point I got lazy and stopped updating it on the TCDB. Now I have almost no idea what I do or don't have, and have thus stopped buy any new ones until I get it back on track. Knowing me, that'll probably be sometime next year.

Hey, another needed Dennis Smith! Apparently Trevor's the one to go to with all of your, or rather my, Dennis Smith needs. And I already had the Howie, but this one was much nicer, so being able to upgrade the old one was much appreciated.

These were the first two Warren Moon's that I've gotten in a while as well. He's one of those guys that I only ever seemed to find cards of at shows, and since I haven't been going to shows, there's been no Warren Moon's to find. I'm getting to the point where I almost hate tribute cards, but the Donruss here was done pretty well, and I can't say that I dislike it.

Thanks again for the surprise PWE, Trevor! Football hasn't been on my radar very much as of late, so these were a nice change of pace.

One card at a time

Given some of the prices that I've encountered over the last few months, I think I may have chosen the wrong time to start working on my Post sets again. Mind you, I don't regret doing so, as I have been enjoying the "hunt" (despite the lack of successes), it's just that prices seem to be a tad higher than I had anticipated. And I know, the BOOM is still very much alive and well, I just didn't think that those folks would be caring too much for the Post cards; apparently I was wrong.

So far, I've had zero luck on eBay when trying to bid on lots, and zero luck when trying to bid on any bigger names/HOFers. I have however, had two recent successes when bidding on random needs from sellers that I've already gotten other things from, and was just trying to take advantage of their free combined shipping offers. Sam Taylor being the first of these. According to the TCDB, this card has a "dark blue hat" version and a "light blue hat" version; mine being the former. Maybe someday, if I have absolutely nothing else to collect, I will chase down the other version, but for now, dark blue hat is good enough for me.

It's funny how differently two cards from the same set can scan. Sam scanned fine, but Frank looks like 💩 (looks great in person though). I should probably just stick to photographing any future cards. Anyway, Frank isn't a short print, but does seem to command a few bucks more than your average common from the set. Why I don't know? I got a pretty good deal on this one though, it was the only Post card from this seller that didn't have a lot of bidding activity, and since I had already won three other cards (for my Portland Beavers collection) from them, I figured I might as well try to add a card to the '61 Post set as well. The box version, which this is, is supposed to say Charlie Gehringer, but instead cites a Charley Derringer as having been a former Tigers second basemen. This error was corrected for the mail-in version.

I mentioned not having any success on eBay when it comes to big names from Post, but I did just recently land a pretty big name from a Jell-O set...

This win came via a COMC auction on eBay, and represents my first 1962 Jell-O. Roger's got a few problems, but I couldn't be more pleased to have gotten him. And the good news was, being from COMC, I was able to use store credit to pay for it, thus avoiding sales tax (and the $4.95 shipping price). The bad news is, I won't be seeing him in-hand anytime soon, as I just got last years stuff, and won't be requesting another shipment until after the next Black Friday promotion (free shipping). I didn't want to wait that long to show him though, so just try to look past the watermark for now. 

Unless my (public) prediction from a few years ago about the BOOM lasting 5-10 years is wrong (I'm actually starting to think that I should've said 10-15), I think I'm gonna have to be content to play the role of the tortoise in this Post race; which is fine, I've gotten much more accustomed to moving slower as I've gotten older. And who knows, maybe all of the hares will get theirs in the next year or two, and then move onto another "hot" set. I know, probably not, but a fella can dream, can't he?

The 700 Club

Today's post is #700 for this blog.

On one hand, it doesn't seem like a lot compared to some other folks, as that's less than two years worth for the daily posters; it's taken me over seven to get here. But on the other hand, a lot of other blogs have come and gone during the last seven years, the majority of whom never even got close to 700 posts. 

It does feel like something to me, but I don't know where it would rank on the chart of great blog accomplishments. So, with that in mind, I'll just be conservative and call it a mild accomplishment... yay me!

A much larger accomplishment was recently achieved by another blogger, that being, Nick, who just celebrated his 11th year over at Dime Boxes. 

Like the previous year, Nick celebrated his anniversary with a giveaway, which as luck would have it, I was actually kind of early for. 

Normally, I wouldn't refer to working on, and then getting stuck on, a blog post, as a good thing; but that's exactly what happened on the night of Nick's giveaway, and it actually worked out fairly well, for me that is. I don't know if it's because I'm looking for inspiration, or just seeking out a distraction, but I will often go check my blog reading list if I get stuck somewhere on a post in progress (which happens more often than it probably should), read a post or two, comment where I can, and then come back to my post and see if I can get it moving again. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. On the night of Nick's giveaway for example, it didn't.

Early as I may have been on this particular occasion, I wasn't the earliest. I think I was #3 or 4, but was still able to get my top want, so you'll not hear any complaining from me.

Having just started back up with my Post sets, it seemed rather fortuitous that a '61 Post Jim Bunning would be amongst the freebies, and what's more, it hadn't been claimed yet! I think it's considered a win anytime you can add HOFer to a set-build. I would've been more than content with just that card, but did push the greed boundary with two more claims.

I've mentioned it a few times before, but when I was a kid, the only Mother's Cookies I ever saw (and owned) were those of the Mariners variety; thus leading me to think for the longest time that they only ever made them for the Mariners. In fact, I don't think that it was until I started reading the blogs that I found out that there had been whole mess of non-Mariners Cookie cards produced throughout my childhood. Nick had 4-5 A's up for grabs, I missed one that I would've liked to have by just a couple of minutes, but still managed to get these two. I say that I collect Blue Moon Odom, but that collection consists of only a few cards, and almost never gets added to. And I just a said few posts back, I've been very tempted to add Carney to the list of player collections, but have yet to officially do so. In the meantime though, it doesn't hurt to pick up a few of his cards here and there.

Thus ends the claims portion of the post, but if you were fortunate enough to participate in the giveaway, you're probably already well aware that Nick included some extras in each envelope/package...

It's funny, I didn't grow up an A's fan, nor did I ever even know an A's fan, and yet, as an adult, I seem to be drawn to a lot of former A's. Gene Tenace, Ken Holtzman, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Vida Blue, Joe Rudi, Bert Campaneris, and John Odom are all players that I collect. And Sal Bando and Carney Lansford are among the players that I've thought about collecting. It's also interesting, and a bit odd, that aside from Carney, all these guys [Edit: save for Vida] retired before I was even familiar with baseball. It's just strange.

Worst scan you'll see on the blogs today!

I'm pretty sure that this is the first card from this set that I've ever seen in person, and even though I'm sure that I've seen cards from it on the blogs, it feels like this is the first time that I've even heard of the set. And without even looking at the checklist, I'm just gonna go ahead and say that this would be the card that I'd want the most from it. Oh, and aside from a suspicious "relic" card, this is now my only other post-playing days card of Senior.

Nick always includes a couple of extra Juniors, and the last couple of times they've all been new to me; this time being no exception.

These were the random portion of the extras. The is pretty neat, so I'll be keeping that one. The other two though, well, if anyone wants them, just say the word. I am thinking about working on a Kellogg's set, just not this one. And as good as Johnny Bench was, he is of almost no interest to me collecting-wise. 

Thanks again for the giveaway, Nick. And congratulations, again, on hitting the 11-year mark, it really is quite a remarkable achievement.

Christmas Catch-Up: Part 3

Today's card could've only come from one person, right?

I don't know which would be the bigger giveaway though, the fact that it's a 2003 Topps Retired Autograph, or it's Christmas-y overlay.

Obviously this came from our resident mad scientist, Gavin, whose creations have included both Baseball Card Breakdown, and 1991 MusiCards Blog.

I hadn't been expecting anything from Gavin, so just seeing an envelope from him was surprise enough, let alone what was inside! Given all of the other Gavin related posts that were popping up right around Christmas, I thought that said envelope might be related to those, but nope, it was Boog!

This is my second Boog autograph, and honestly, is by far the superior of the two (my other one is from 2012 Golden Age). It's also the first time that I've seen a Topps Retired card of any kind in person. Now that I have, it's not hard to see why Gavin likes them so much. I think too that I've only become aware of these cards because of Gavin, and I can't help but think that I'm not the only one.

As great as this card is, and as nice of a gift as it was, I'm afraid that I don't have a lot to say about it. I suspect that my fellow bloggers know all about that, I can say that it's cool as shit fifty times, but no matter how true it may be, that doesn't make for much of a post. I can say that it does look pretty neat in with my Boog pages, though the page that it's now on still needs to be filled out a bit.

Thanks again for the card, Gavin; it's arrival was undoubtedly the biggest surprise of this past holiday season.

*********************Bonus Content!************************

My mom and I did the same thing this Christmas as we did last year, where instead of buying presents, we just went halfsies on a Newspapers.com subscription (during Black Friday when they offer their lowest rates of the year). It's a good arrangement, that works out well for both of us. That being said, she did end up getting me one physical item, that being this book.

I had a Smithsonian book of some sort many (many) years ago, which wasn't very good. It was basically just pictures of items in the museum with a very brief two-line write-up under each one. Much more effort was put into this one, as there's plenty of meat (i.e. stories) behind the items being shown. It'll probably be a few months before I get to this book, but in the meantime, I took a bunch of pictures to give y'all a feel for what's inside:

I'm happy to say that I'm officially caught-up with all things Christmas. And I hadn't planned it this way, but these led right up to a bit of milestone for this blog, which will be the subject of the next post...

Christmas Catch-Up: Part 2

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was contemplating the crazy idea of trying to build the 1955 Bowman set, and ever since then, it seems like the universe has been trying to steer me in that direction. And by "universe", I mean fellow bloggers. And by "trying to steer me in that direction", I mean that two different people have sent me cards from the set in as many weeks. Granted, it's only been three cards, but still, that's three more 1955 Bowman's than I've received over the course of the previous 7+ years of this blogs existence.

Our resident 1955 Bowman collector, Jeff, who also helms Wax Pack Wonders in his spare time, sent me two of my three recently received Bowman's for Christmas. 

I can't remember who it was, but somebody else on the blogs used be actively pursuing this set, but they either stopped blogging altogether, or stopped posting about the set, because the only person I ever see mention it now is Jeff. [Out of curiosity, does anyone know who the other person is/was?]

As for myself, despite the not so subtle nudge that I've been getting, I haven't fully committed to pursuing the set yet. I'm not sure if it's still because of the boom, or if the set is really just that popular right now, but either way, I'm amazed at how much the starter lots on eBay keep selling for. I don't remember commons from the set selling for so much a few years ago, but of course a lot has changed since then, so maybe the prices that I've been seeing are the new normal. I'm thinking that I might have to wait a little longer, maybe until after the current buyers get what they want, before I can even think about trying to get mine.

Dave Pope is in the better condition of the two, but I like the Preston Ward, if only because it looks like two people are beaming up (or down) behind him. I'll definitely be hanging onto this copy even if I am ever able to replace it with a better one.

As Bo can attest, my Portland Beavers collection is a bit of a hot mess right now, but I do have a couple of wants posted on the TCDB for it, Stan here, being one of them. In theory, this card will be getting it's own post on the my Beavers blog at some point, so I'll wait until then to talk about Stan, but in the meantime, it was nice to be able cross off a modern want from the list, as I've been pretty focused on getting players from the teams earlier days in recent months. [Note: I'm trying to clear a bit of a backlog on this blog right now, but for those that care, I should have two new posts up on the Beavers blog by the end of the month]

David Robinson is the only basketball player, who was never a Blazer, that I've currently got catalogued on the TCDB. I added his collection to the site well over a year ago, and foolishly thought at the time that he was gonna be the start of me getting them all logged. Obviously that plan didn't work out so well. I haven't looked yet, so I can't remember if I added this card to a wantlist, or if Jeff just noticed that I didn't have it. Either way, I just moved David to a different binder a couple of weeks ago, and know for a fact that I don't have this card, nor did I have any of his other SI for Kids cards before this arrived. I really dig this card too, the border color for this particular set works really well for the Spurs.

Many thanks to Jeff, not only for thinking of me during the holidays, but also for sending this wonderfully diverse quartet.

Christmas catch-up: Part 1

Since no one seemed to know exactly what last week's winter storm was gonna entail, I did the grocery shopping, and checked the PO Box on Thursday morning ahead of it's impending arrival. This was two days earlier than I had planned on doing them, but after seeing what it was like outside Friday morning, I'm glad that I went when I did. 

The only drawback from getting the mail on Thursday was that I would potentially be missing anything else that might've been arriving before Christmas, and as I found out this past Wednesday when I went to check the box again, I probably did, for there were three Christmas related envelopes, all from fellow bloggers, there waiting for me. Curse you storm... and the horse that you rode in on!

As for the contents of the three envelopes, well, they couldn't have been more different from each other. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that these three guys got together and planned it that way. But I do know better, and it was just happenstance that such a unique trio should arrive at the same time.

And I know that it's an acceptable blog practice to cover multiple received mailings in one post, but I like giving people that took the time to send me something their own post, so that's what I'm gonna do. I thought about trying to do them over three consecutive days, but that's a bit ambitious for me. Maybe three in four days, or five, that sounds a little more doable.

It was just last weekend that was I saying that I only got one Christmas card this year. Obviously that statement was a tad premature, as there was a second one waiting for me in the PO Box, and what a second one it was!

I saw a few of these Peanuts cards being shown on the blogs before (and on) Christmas, and if I'm being quite honest, secretly envied those who got one. And speaking of envy, it's funny how my mind works when it comes to that sort of thing -- You live in a ginormous house? "Neat". You got a new sports car? "I bet that'd be fun to drive". You just bought a graded '52 Topps Mickey Mantle? "Huh, that's something". You got sent a Peanuts themed Christmas card? "ARRRRRRGH! WHY DO YOU GET ONE OF THOSE, AND I DON'T? WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT YOU????????? LIFE IS SO UNFAIR!!!!!!!! [That may be a slight exaggeration, but not by much 😂.]

Turns out that there was no reason to fret though, because, Angus, he, not only of the great taste in greeting cards, but also the owner and operator of Dawg Day Cards, sent me one as well. It really is a wonderful card too, much nicer than it comes across in my scan (the cheery red foil was turned to a very unseasonable shade). 

Usually, Christmas cards would be taken down within the next few days, but since this was arrived so late, I think I'll give it a few more weeks, maybe leave it up until Valentine's Day.

I would've been content with just the greeting card, but as is often the case with bloggers, there were a few trading cards tucked inside as well...

If I'm not mistaken, these two cards just appeared in Angus' recap post from the show that he and Night Owl went to together. The Rocketeer was such a fun movie, and not surprising given when it was made, still holds up really well. The sticker on the left was new to me, and I now have two or three of the one on the right -- not that that's a problem though, one can never too many cards of Jennifer Connelly 😍. [Has any guy over 35 ever not had a crush on her at some point in their life -- I highly doubt it]

One of these acts isn't like the others

To some, this may just look like a random trio of MusiCards, and I guess you'd be correct to some degree if you though that, but to me, it represents someone taking note of something that I've said on the blog; which I've seen evidence of a couple of time lately, but is never less amazing than it was the time before. This instance might be a little more impressive than the others though if only because I didn't mention wanting these particular cards in an actual post, so much as I did down in the comments section of a post. And what's more, the comment wasn't even directed towards Angus, and yet, he saw it, and took it upon himself to send three out of the four cards that I mentioned. Pretty good of him, huh?

I'd like to start doing some posts that revolve around specific binder pages, and since all three of these cards are destined for specific pages, I think I'll wait until I get around to doing those posts to talk about why I wanted these. Nobody's gonna want to read the same stuff twice in possibly as many months. In the meantime though, it's always nice to be able to remove some cards from a want list.

Many thanks to Angus for sending one of his much coveted (by me) Christmas cards; now I can stop hating on everyone else that got one 😈. Thanks for the trading cards that were tucked inside as well. To me those were just a bonus, albeit a really nice bonus.