There's no need to feel guilty

Did you ever go through your parents closet when you were a kid? 

Did you you ever sneak into your sister's room and read her diary?

Have you ever gone through someone's medicine cabinet while using their restroom? 

Have you ever gone through your significant others purse/wallet?

Do you go through your co-workers desks?

Have you ever house sat for someone, and spent part of that alone time rifling through everything they own?

If honest, most people would admit to doing at least one of these things in their lifetime. Whether it be simple curiosity, insecurity, the want to learn secrets, lack of trust issues, needing to gain power, or just to see how someone else lives; humans are prone to snooping (to snoop is human?), and will do so for a whole host of reasons.

I can honestly say that I've never done any of the above things, why not I couldn't possibly say for certain. Maybe I learned from an early age that one shouldn't be doing such things? Maybe I learned to respect other people's boundaries at an early age? Maybe I've just never cared what other people are doing when I'm not around? Or maybe... I'M NOT HUMAN... dun dun duuuun! 

Perhaps it's just a combination of all of the above? I certainly remember hearing friends talking about going through their parents closets looking for Christmas presents, and on occasion finding more than they bargained for. And we've all heard shock jocks giving away Papa Roach tickets to the caller who's found the most shocking thing in someone else's house. I''ll listen to such stories in small quantities, but have never been able to relate to them. I think that as a kid I just didn't care enough to snoop, and as an adult, I'm of the mindset that the less I know about most people, the better! Usually the more I learn about someone, the more disappointed I am in them. 

Now with all of that being said, I do have one juicy confession to make... I enjoy going through pockets! I know, I know, but before you judge me too harshly, hear me out. These pockets I speak of aren't just anybody's pockets, they're Julie's pockets, and they're not even real pockets, they're virtual Pockets! And what's more, she encourages the going through of her virtual pockets, and not just by me, but by all of her friends. Also, it's important to point out that those pockets are full of cards, so, you know, a fellow can only resist for so long.

I don't always find quite as many goodies as some of my fellow Pocket searchers, but I do usually come up with a few cards worth claiming...

We led off with Junior swingin' for the fences, and now we've got Junior tracking someone else's long-ball attempt.

I'm not quite as enamored with past greats on current cardboard as I used to be, but there are a few guys that I still don't mind being immortalized on a regular basis, and Lou is one of them. The A&G card is nice, if only because it's easy to date the photo to 1938 thanks to that great '39 World's Fair patch.

Dick Groat is someone that I'm really starting to collect hard (I don't ever have to worry about getting his rookie though), and I hadn't seen his Swell offering before, so this was kind of a must have.

I started collecting Vlad last year, and have stopped doing so this year. He's just got too many darn cards, and I don't need another huge collection of base cards from sets that I don't like (which a lot of his come from). I'll still keep the inserts and parallels, and will probably pick up some more if I ever start going to shows again, but no more base cards... unless they're really good looking like this one!

After finishing up my big sort last year, I found that I had close to half of this Kid Gloves insert set, all of which had been acquired via dime boxes, and because I had so many, I decided to passively try and complete it. And by passively I mean that I won't go out of my to look for them, but will grab them if they present themselves before me like Scott here did.

He might need to be replaced at some point, but until then I'm quite content with this lovely Hostess holding place in my humble, almost never talked about, Dagoberto Campaneris collection.

Remember what I said about Lou, yeah well, it applies to Don too.

Start with Junior, end with Junior, or rather two Juniors... sounds good to me! 2005 Donruss Greats is a set that ha apparently been flying under my radar, for these extras that Julie through in proved to be my introduction to the set. It's pretty neat that they included two of his three stops that year, and maybe they've got him as a White Sock too, I don't know I haven't looked yet. I really like the look of these, my scanner on the other hand didn't seem to care too much for them. They were also scanned out of order, which is bugging me something fierce now, but they've been put in the binder, and I'm not gonna go through the trouble to rescan them in the right order.

Many thanks to Julie for allowing me to be like everyone else and do some snooping, and what's more, for allowing me to do so and not feel guilty about it.

So many pockets, so little time!

                                           
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you with someone who's arms were full, but desperately needed something out of their pocket? They couldn't put whatever it is down, so they turned to you and asked if you could reach into their pocket and get whatever it was for them. You're not too keen on reaching into people's pockets, and are prepared to tell them as much, but before you can they hit you with old doe eyes and quivering lip routine. You try to resist, but it's just too much. Seconds later you begrudgingly agree to do so. They tell you which it pocket it is, and then turn a certain way to make it easier for you to achieve your goal, which it does, but also draws stares from curious onlookers. You take a deep breath, prepare for the worst, and reach in. Your deepest fears are quickly realized when your fingers encounter what later turns out to be a moist half-eaten sandwich, who's presence had been forgotten, and obviously went unmentioned by the owner of said pocket. Fearing what else may be found should you venture back in, you refuse any further pleas to make another attempt, a decision that ends up forever marring your relationship.

I hear a bunch of no's being shouted from the gallery, which I expected, I mean such a scenario has never happened to me either, but I have imagined similar scenes occurring the couple of times that someone has asked me to retrieve something from their pocket.

One persons pockets who I'm not afraid to reach into however are Julie's, she may be A Cracked Bat, but I think that we've all learned by now that she stores cards in her pockets, lots and lots of cards. 

I have no proof of it, but I'm convinced that at least part of Julie's daily attire must be made up of some sort of tactical gear, I can't think of anything else that sports so many pockets.

Not only are Julie's pockets full of cards, but they're good cards too, cards that folks actually want, no 2012 Triple Play for those pockets!

I believe Julie's 'Pick Pockets' feature is one of the older kinds of free stuff giveaways, it's been going on for most of this year, maybe longer, I don't know, I can't remember when she fired it up. I do know that I've claimed more than few cards from them, but had yet to show any here on the blog.

I mentioned in the last post that I had three scan folders going for Julie, last time was Julie1, and today the contents of Julie2 and Julie3 are being featured, all of which were cards obtained through Pick Pocket posts.

Everything was sort of in order of acquisition, but that got monkeyed with when I added a few cards that had accidently been added to another folder back to one of the "Julie's", and didn't take two seconds to properly label them. And now Blogger has done the old reverse order thing when the pictures were added to the post (Oh new Blogger, we were getting along so well!), I moved a few of them around, but got tired of playing with them, so I'm just gonna leave them half askew, it's not like anyone would've known had I not mentioned it.

Artistically speaking, one of these turned out much better than the other.

Scannily (it's a word, or at least it is according to Gogle 😉) speaking, one of these came out much better than the other. And speaking of scanning...

Jay from Card Hemorrhage said the other day that he was taking a break thanks to the poor performance from his new scanner. He didn't provide an example of what he was referring to, so I can't say for certain, but I'm willing to bet that it can't be any worse than what mine does to certain cards (i.e. most cards), with this Junior and the wonderful Curt Flood Deckle that led off the post being prime examples.

Looking at some of these cards that were gotten probably back in January or February, I can't figure why I scanned some of them the way I did. I mean why did I pair a 90's SI Kids with a modern finest? The only thing they have in common, at least that I know of, is that they're both awesome. Although, every time I see the Shaq card I have to do a double take, because the first glance always reads as "Snack" O'Neal, which could apply to his later career, but not so much to those early Orlando days.

It's not as bad as the previous pair, but here's another odd grouping, or not. I could just say it has a 'retro theme', three older players, and one older design? Stan should've gotten his own scan though, as it's by far my favorite card in this post.

Gypsy Queen is one of those brands that I just don't understand, and honestly don't care too. Most of the cards, and set designs, don't do anything for me. However (there's always a however), I will occasionally see one, or two, that strike my fancy, often in dime boxes, but in this case it was the Pick Pockets -- which worked out better, because I didn't have to go to Nashville to find them. I think I might be one of the few bloggers who'll admit to being a fan of MadBum's, and even though I have a small collection dedicated to him, I don't go out of my to find cards for it, anybody know why? Anyone? Did I hear someone say derpy face? If so, you are correct! Like 90% of his cards look similar to the above example, with many actually being worse. And it's definitely not what you'd call an aesthetically pleasing image, certainly not one that I'd be willing to shell out big bucks for. Dimes yes, dollars no.

As mentioned, the cards in this post are from all throughout the year, with all dates and times being lost to me. However (see, there's another one), I do remember the shiny Satchell, he came form the second to last round of Pick Pockets, and was the only card from that round that I claimed. I actually saw it the night that Julie put the page up, but after realizing that I only wanted one card, decided to sit back and see if anyone else wanted it more. Apparently they didn't, because it was still available for me to get a few days later.

Being the uber-generous soul that she is, Julie also included this nifty Junior to keep Satchell company during his journey south. I always forget that Sportflicks (or Sportflix) was still around in '95, heck, sometimes I even forget that I was still around in '95. I know someone who wishes it was still 1995... Junior! The world was still his oyster back then, and there seemed to be no limit to what he was going to be able to accomplish. Injuries are a real b*tch, especially when they happen to the good guys.

And with that, I am now caught up with all of the Julie folders... huzzah! Thanks again for letting me take so many cards from your pockets, Julie, and despite it taking me many, many, many months, to say so publicly, I really do appreciate it.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Jewels from Jules

 [Me thinks that Julie's not gonna like this title]

I read an article semi-recently about some "doctor's" (his PhD was of the social sciences variety, hence the quote marks) latest studies on the nature of procrastination. Yeah, apparently people are still getting paid to 'research' such things. Anyway, it turned out to be a crap article, that basically just tried to further the modern narrative of procrastination being a mental illness, one that gives certain people yet another excuse not to have to work, thus allowing them to get paid with everyone else's tax dollars to sit home all day and procrastinate... really makes you want to pay more in taxes, doesn't it?

In my mind, procrastination is just a fancy word for laziness. 

As far as real-life stuff goes, I'm pretty good about not procrastinating. And I've certainly gotten better about not doing so with age. Probably because I now know that we as humans only have a finite amount of time to do things, which is something that I never thought about as a child, not that I think that a lot of other children do either, nor should they.

And I'm not talking about the stuff that I just don't have the time to do right now, we all have 'someday' stuff, no, I'm talking about the daily chores, or tasks, that need to be done. The not so exciting things that you do have the time for, but instead say "Uh, I'll do it tomorrow" or "I'll do it next week instead", those are the sort of phrases that you'll almost never hear come out of my mouth, at least not as an adult. 

When it comes to blog stuff however, procrastination has practically become my middle name -- Jon Procrastination Pennysleeves, or just JPP for short.

It'll probably come off as me making excuses, but a lot of blog laziness, especially this year's worth, has been due to lack of time, and/or just being too tired to jot down anything that I think's worth you reading. I mean I due often have the time to work on posts in the evening, but am usually so tired that I just don't feel like doing so. More often than not, after dinner, I just want to grab a book and spend the rest of the night reading, which is what I normally do these days (or rather, nights).

This has led me to fall way behind in publicly thanking people for all of the things that they've so graciously sent me. And even worse, in some cases it's been so long since I received certain things that have yet to be covered here, I can no longer remember why I received them.

The cards in today's post are perfect example of this, they come from a scan folder titled "Julie1" (there's also a "Julie2" and "Julie3"), and it's been so long since I received them, that I can no longer remember why, Julie, obviously she of A Cracked Bat (it's not like there's any other bloggers called Julie!), sent them.

Thankfully we don't do any formal trading, so there's really only two options here, A) They were sent just because, or B) They were sent in response to something that I sent. It doesn't seem like it should be that important, but knowing is half the battle -- seriously though, the point is that it shouldn't have taken me so long to get to them, and if I had gotten to them in a more timely manner, I'd probably remember more details about the shipment.

Another side effect from their images sitting in a scan folder, and their actual selves sitting in a binder, for so long now, I don't even recall getting some of these, it's like I'm seeing some of them for the first time again. I do recall the couple of Ichiro pairs above, but not this one...

[As an aside, I can only imagine how otherwordly it must've been for Ichiro to go from Japan to Arizona. For all intensive purposes, he may as well have gone to Mars.]

... or this one.

I do remember this card though, if only because Ichiro looked so old here, and seeing an old Ichiro makes me feel old. Plus too, I don't have a lot of Heritage cards, or at least I didn't, so this card really stands out when flipping through the Ichiro binder. Speaking of standing out...

It didn't scan very well, but this card sure was something. It's crazy shiny, and purple too. The digitally added background is the only thing that detracts from it, not being a fan of Heritage, I don't know why Topps just couldn't have a photographer or two on location, unless it was just because they didn't want their '69 tribute set to look too good. And yes, I know, the idea would've been bonkers, but I'm just sayin'.

Here's a weirdo puzzle card, which I'm very glad that I don't have to collect all of.

I have no idea how it's come to be, I've never mentioned wanting them, and have never gone out of way to acquire them, and yet somehow I find myself possessing 4 of the 8 1972 World Series subset cards. And I know what you're thinking "Big deal, as far as vintage Topps go, those are hardly rare". Which is true, but mine aren't of the Topps variety, no, I'm talking OPC, or as the back of this penny sleeve called them...

... 'French Backs'! Obviously I know where this one came from, and I know that I got one for like fifty cents at a show just because, but I'm at a loss as to how the other two found me. I have no plans to complete the set, which means that in 2.5 years I'll have completed the set.

I do remember these being in the envelope, if only because one doesn't expect basketball cards to be sent by Julie. I only have a couple of Gold Standard's, so these were a nice surprise. Plus both of these guys would be on my top 10 favorite players of all-time list too, which makes the cards just that much better.

If the last two cards were a surprise, then I don't know how to describe this one! SI Kids cards don't get me all tingly like they do for other folks, and I never read the magazine when I was younger, so I couldn't tell you what year it was from (although from the photo I'm guessing either '95 or '96), but I do like this particular well-loved card. It's a nice action shot, which is only enhanced by the cameos from Shaq and Horace Grant.

I may not remember why the envelope was sent, but many thanks go out to Julie for sending it nonetheless. Many boxes were ticked. I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more, spent a few minutes looking menacingly out the window, and this was all before I even opened the mailer :)

Seriously though, the cards were fun, and were greatly appreciated.

Next time on the blog, we'll be looking at scan folders Julie2, and Julie3, so that just might be worth coming back for.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

A Cracked Bat in the belfry

Recently, thanks to the magic of Twitter (perhaps the only time that you'll ever see such a phrase uttered on this blog), Julie, of A Cracked Bat fame, and I, pulled off our first informal trade (more of an exchange than a trade).

I had been meaning to contact Julie for what seems like ages now, as I had a few things that I thought she might like, the only problem was... my social anxiety! I don't know if it's normal for folks with social anxiety to be affected by communicating with people online, but I often am, especially when it comes to trying to contact someone for the first time in order to get their address (there's still like half a dozen people that I would like to contact, but haven't been able to get up the courage to do so yet). Luckily for me, this ended up being one of those instances where I didn't have to initiate contact with a "can I please have your address" email.

This Bob Skinner buyback is directly responsible for Julie and I's first exchanging of cards. Julie was showing off the contents from her box of 2018 Topps Heritage on the Twitter -- and Bob just happened to be amongst those contents -- since I didn't think that he was going to be something that she would be keeping, I decided to inquire about his availability... and that's how we got to where we are now!

A couple more 2017 Archives were removed from the want list. At this rate, thanks to the recent help from fellow bloggers, I might actually be able to complete this set by year's end.

I had just been talking about my love for, and lack of, 2011 Topps Lineage base cards in the second to last post. Kerry was kind enough to include some in the package he sent me, and now Julie...

... up's the ante...

... by sending me...

 ... like 1/8...

... of the set! Oh, and so many great cards in here -- Gibson, Snider, Jenkins, Morgan, Palmer, etc. -- I really could keep going on, but these weren't even the best thing to be included in the package.

 

Julie had mentioned that she might have some 2013 Topps Chasing History Silver Holo-Foils for me... and boy (or girl) did she! I will get to those in one second, but first, there was also this really great Stan Musial non-foil included as well.

Now we've arrived to the heart of the package, the Silver Holo-Foils! I only had a couple of parallels before this mailing, now...

... I have...

... considerably...

... more! Julie's "some", ended up being nineteen. I don't know what the pack odd were on these, but just the regular non-foil base inserts were seeded at 1:4 packs, so someone would've had to of opened quite a few packs to have gotten all these, and I'm guess that that someone wasn't Julie. Either way, I am very happy to have received all of these.

And lastly, even though it wasn't on any of my lists (not that I'm complaining mind you), is this 1980 Kellogg's Darrell Porter. I only have a couple from the 1980 edition, so this was certainly a nice surprise, especially on top of everything else that was sent.

Thanks again, Julie! These were really fun to go through, and all the set(s) help was very much appreciated.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.