Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Almost like it was meant to be

I recently pulled this ad out of water-damaged free comic book that I picked up. 

Normally I wouldn't have even bothered picking up a comic, even if it was free, in such a state, but after flipping through it and finding this ad, undamaged (save for a bit of toning), I decided to take the book so that I could pull the ad out. I have quite a few books with this ad in them, and have always liked it, but wasn't going to be destroying a whole book just to get a copy of the ad. 

It's been a few years now since I moved away from set building, but as was the case last year with the old Post sets, I've really been wanting to start working on the Hostess sets again. Thankfully I never sold, or gave away, any of what I had, so at least I won't be starting from scratch if I do give in to the urge. 

I haven't gone so far as to make any checklists or anything yet, but I do know that I've got at least 60% of the '76 set, and maybe 10-15 cards for each of the other sets. Obviously 10-15 cards isn't very far along, so I'd probably just start with 1976 and see how much joy I get out of trying to complete it before making any decisions about going after the other sets. I tend to believe that things happen for a reason, so finding this ad, at this particular time, almost makes me think that the universe is telling me that, yes, I should start working on the set again. Why the universe would care about me of all people, doing something as trivial as this though... well, that's a whole 'nother matter; and one that is most certainly above my pay grade.

I knew that I didn't have Steve Garvey, but figured that I could at least recreate the right side of the page. Turns out I don't Have Joe Morgan either! The recreation doesn't look very good with only one card, especially when said card is overlapping the card that's supposed to be overlapping it. If nothing else, I have to at least get Joe and Steve so that I can properly reproduce the ad. 


On an unrelated note: I sent out 1/3 of the envelopes/packages from my recent giveaway last Wednesday, and am dropping off an even bigger batch at the post office later this morning. That leaves me with five packages (Matt K., Nick V., Dan, Al, and Merlin) and two PWE's (our resident teenage bloggers seem to be unable to respond to messages... kids!) left to do. And if all goes well, those last five packages should be done by the end of the week.

Monday, May 15, 2023

All kinds of future free stuff

First off, thanks to all who participated in the recent giveaways. Some may not believe me when I say that I really didn't expect so many people to show up for them, but it's true. I'm grateful to all of those that did though. By my rough estimate, 675 cards were given away across those five posts, which isn't too shabby. Even more so when you (or I) consider that those 675 cards were just sitting, unloved, in various boxes. It's nice to know that they'll now be heading out to homes where they'll be more appreciated.

I'm gonna take a couple days off before I start packaging everything up. I have no doubt that it'll take me a week or two to get everything done. I'll also be trying to add an extra card or two to the packages where I can, but there's a lot of people on the list that I have interacted with before, so I'll have to send a few emails out to find what some of you collect [Note: if anyone that I don't already know wants to be proactive and send me a message with what you collect, that would be great!]. I can't guarantee that everyone will receive any extras, but I will be trying my best to do so.

As far as future free stuff posts go, they'll be more, I just don't know when yet. In the meantime, I think I'm gonna steal an idea from Julie and create a free stuff page on the blog. Despite her assurances to the contrary, I'm not so sure that Julie's gonna be coming back, so why let a good idea go to waste. Besides, this'll be a good place to stick some unwanted basketball, football, and non-sport cards, as even though there are some people interested in such things, there aren't enough to warrant adding a lot of those cards to actual free stuff posts. Oh, and don't fret baseball guys, there'll be baseball cards too. And who knows, if that goes over well enough, I might be able to skip the free stuff posts altogether, which really would be a win-win scenario; folks could come claim stuff at their own leisure, and I wouldn't have to clog up everyone's blogroll/reading list with free stuff posts, or their updates. I'm gonna try to have that page up sometime within the next month or so, but unlike Julie, I'm gonna announce it very subtlety, most likely in a post that I don't think very many people will click on. Or not, I don't know yet.

And if all that wasn't enough, I decided sometime in the last few days that I'm gonna celebrate my birthday this year by giving one lucky person an eBay gift card, though I don't know how much said card will be for yet. I still have a little over two months to figure that out though, so I'm not worried.

So, if you like contests and free stuff, I've got a bunch coming up. If you don't, well, I don't what to say, maybe go take a cold shower or something. 

Friday, May 12, 2023

Free Stuff Friday (2023) #2

Updated Version.

Hey all, welcome to yet another Free Stuff Friday!

As I suspected, this'll be the last free stuff post in this recent series of giveaways. I foresee doing a couple more sometime within the next few months (more on that in the next post), but I'm getting a tad burned out from all of this scanning, so I need a bit of a break.

Seeing as how this is the last giveaway (for the moment), I'd like to give a few of the folks who can't be here right when the post goes live a slightly better chance of nabbing a "good" card or two. So, while you'll still be able to claim up to 15 cards overall during the first couple of hours, I'm gonna ask that you limit your non-base card claims to 6 for the first 24 hours (I probably should've done this from the beginning). After that, if there's anything that you still want, please feel free to go nuts. And if by chance somebody skips this part and claims more than 6 non-base cards in the first 24 hours, I'm only gonna acknowledge the first 6 when I update the post in the morning. I'm sure that this will annoy a few people, but I'd just like to see if a few of the better things can last past the first 4-5 people, especially knowing how difficult it is for some to get here right at 8pm.

Okay, let's see how this goes...

Page #1: Base cards
Claimed: 2,4,5,6

Page #2: Parallels (#2 and #3 are gold samples, #4 has a few surface marks, #8 and #9 are Bobby Bonilla and Jeff Kent Golden Idols)
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9

Page #3: SI for Kids and Buybacks (#7-9 are buybacks)
Claimed: All!

Page #4: Inserts (#8 and #9 have a few surface marks)
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9

Page #5: 1988 Pacific Legends
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Page #6: More 1988 Pacific Legends
Claimed: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

Page #7: Even more 1988 Pacific Legends [Bobby Murcer is from '89] (Mays has a slightly touched corner)
Claimed: 1,3,4,5,7,8,9

Page #8: Parallels (#1-7 are silver holofoils)
Claimed: All!

Page #9: 2011 Topps Lineage
Claimed: 6,8,9

Page #10: Parallels (the Mookie Betts foil has a small surface mark)
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9

Page #11: Base cards (#6 is Billy Martin)
Claimed: 1,2,3,5,8

Page #12: Odds and ends (the two Monkees cards are very well loved)
Claimed: 1,2,3,5,7,8,9

Page #13: Mostly Ichiro (#7-9 have some surface marks)
Claimed: All!

Page #14: Serial numbers
Claimed: All!

Page #15: Serial numbers and inserts (#1-5 are serial numbered, with the Schilling being a second copy of the one from page #14) (#4 is Jose Reyes and #7 is Ray Dandridge)
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9

"Page" #16: 1987 M&M's Star Lineup panels (I can't bring my self to separate these, so Cal/George are #1 and Tony/Ozzie are #2)
Claimed: Both!

As always, thanks for looking, and an update will be coming in the morning.

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Take My Stuff Tuesday #3

Updated version.

Hey all, welcome to yet another Take My Stuff Tuesday!

I won't know for sure until I do another round of scanning, but Friday might be the last entry in this series of giveaways. It looks like there's enough for one more, but not enough for two, in which case Friday's post would most likely have a couple of extra pages. I'll let you know on Friday though. And remember, that post will be going live at 8pm CST.

Okay, onto tonight's cards...

Page #1: Base cards
Claimed: All!

Page #2: Parallels (the Buhner Tiffany has a bit of a punky corner)
Claimed: All!

Page #3: 1988 Pacific Legends
Claimed: All!

Page #4: 2011 In The Game Canadiana
Claimed: All!

Page #5: Inserts
Claimed: All!

Page #6: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9

Page #7: Base cards
Claimed: All!

Page #8: Parallels (#5 is Bengie Molina, of Toronto. #8 and #9 are refractors)
Claimed: All!

Page #9: 1989 Pacific Legends 
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9

Page #10: More 1989 Pacific Legends
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9

Page #11: Ichiro (#7 is one of those Berger's Best things)
Claimed: All!

Page #12: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9

Page #13: Inserts
Claimed: All!

Page #14: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,

Page #15: Serial numbers (#1 has a few scuffs)
Claimed: All!

Thanks for looking. See you again on Friday!

Friday, May 5, 2023

Free Stuff Friday (2023) #1

Updated Version.

Hey all, welcome to the first Free Stuff Friday of 2023!

For those just showing up, or those who might've already forgotten, the next couple of Friday's worth of freebies are basically just an extension of the recent Tuesday giveaways. So, if you've got a stack going, please feel free to add to it. And if you don't already have a stack going, please feel free to start one. All I would ask is that you try to limit yourself to 15 cards or less, at least for the first couple of hours, if only so a few other folks might have a chance at some stuff. If there's anything left that you want after about 12 hours or so, feel free to come back and get more.

And just a friendly reminder, the next batch of free stuff will be dropping on Tuesday, at roughly 8pm CST.

I think that covers everything, so here's the cards...

Page #1: Some small stuff
Claimed: 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

Page #2: Base cards
Claimed: 1,3,4,7,8,9

Page #3: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,4,5,7,8,9

Page 4: Kellogg's
Claimed: All!

Page #5: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,

Page #6: Ichiro
Claimed: All!

Page #7: Parallels
Claimed: All!

Page #8: Base cards
Claimed: 1,4,5,6,7

Page #9: Base cards
Claimed: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

Page #10: SI for Kids
Claimed: All!

Page #11: Base cards
Claimed: 1,3,4,5,6,7,9

Page #12: Eight parallels and one insert (I screwed up!) #5 is a Manny Ramirez Golden Idol
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9

Page #13: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,6,5,7,9

Page #14: Base cards
Claimed: All!

Page 15: Eight parallels and one insert (I screwed up, again!)
Claimed: All!

Thanks for looking. I'll see you again on Tuesday!

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Take My Stuff Tuesday #2

Updated Version.

Hey all, welcome to another round of free cards!

Just a reminder for those who may have missed my last post, they'll be a Free Stuff Friday post up this week too. For those who are interested, it'll be going live at 8pm CST.

And going back to last Tuesdays post, I still need addresses for Laurens, POISON75, and TwinKiller. Please send those along when you get a chance: j t e f 8 2 at g mail . com (minus the spaces)

So, without further ado, the cards...

Page #1: Parallels
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9

 Page #2: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9

Page #3: Parallels (the bottom row are all refractors)
Claimed: 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9

Page #4: Base cards
Claimed: 1,4,5,6,8

Page #5: Roberto Clemente
Claimed: 1,2,4,5,6,7,8

Page #6: Inserts 
Claimed: All!

Page #7: Base cards
Claimed: 1,3,4,5,6,8,9

Page #8: Inserts (card #6 is Chan Ho Park, of the Dodgers)
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,6,9

Page #9: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,9

Page #10: Base cards
Claimed: 3,6,7,8,9

Page #11: Serial numbers
Claimed: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Page #12: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,3,6,8

Page #13: Base cards
Claimed: 1,2,3,5,6,8

Page #14: Ichiro
Claimed: All!

Page #15: Miscellaneous (Siebern has a few problems)
Claimed: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9

Thanks for looking. See you Friday!