Just one more thing

Sometime early last year, I bought the complete series boxed set of Columbo on DVD from eBay. The price that I got it for was incredibly low at the time, and I was excited about that, and the fact that this was gonna be my first chance to watch the series from it's beginning, as despite my watching many of Columbo's contemporaries as a kid; I never did get into this particular show. I can remember it airing daily in syndication on A&E during the 90's, but there was just too much other stuff on to watch at the time for me to ever give it a try. Fast forward a number of years and there's a LOT less interesting stuff being made, which means that there's now more time for me to go back and catch up on the stuff that I couldn't fit into my schedule as a youngster.

As is often the case, at least for me, the eBay seller wasn't exactly truthful when describing the condition of the boxed set, and it's discs. It was stated that the discs were in "Like new" condition, when in reality quite a few of them were scuffed. Now I don't know about anyone else, but I've terrible luck over the years with scuffed discs not working, and since I knew that it was gonna take me considerably longer than 30 days to watch the entire series, which was the window for returns, I went ahead mentioned to the seller that I was gonna be requesting a return on the set. Then, before I could even start the process for the return, the seller just refunded the entire purchase, and seemingly had no interest in receiving their DVD's back. 

Some folks would probably consider this a win-win, you get the DVD's and your money back. Unfortunately, I didn't look at it like that. I do like getting things for free, but not like that. I tried to contact the seller twice, and told them that all they had to do was pay for the return shipping, get it back, then relist with a proper description; somebody else still would've bought it. They never replied back though. I remember this happening a couple of times 10-15 years ago, and I just paid to send it back, as I was comfortable keeping the item without paying for it. Of course, I also had a lot more disposable income back then too, and could eat the shipping costs a little easier. Money is much tighter these days, and as much I didn't want to keep this set that I didn't pay for, I resent me having to use some of my monthly play money to send it back even more. So, I didn't! The seller made their choice, and even though I still don't like it, I made mine.

Now, over a year later, I'm only up to the fifth season (I don't watch television nearly as often as I used to), but so far, the discs are working fine. Having seen a few episodes here and there over the years, I knew that I'd enjoy the show, but am not sure that I expected to like it as much as I have. As many others will, and have, attested to over the last 50 years, it's pretty fantastic. In fact, I'm enjoying it so much that, towards the end of last year, I decided to start a Columbo themed card collection.

I already have a few other television themed collections going: Kolchak, Project U.F.O., Perry Mason, Tales from the Darkside, Monsters, and Batman: TAS (I think there might be one more as well, but I'm drawing a blank as I'm sitting here typing). Taking on one more wasn't that big of a deal.

Basically these collections are just me trying to get a card of as many people who have appeared on the shows as possible. Being pretty burned out on all things sports right now, these collections have received most of my attention over the last six months or so. For this particular one, I already had a few cards that weren't part of any other collections, and then I was able pick up a few more on COMC during the Black Friday sales. I grabbed some for a nickel apiece from the Baseball Card Store during their Black Friday sale too. 

I don't normally cover these collections on here, if only because I don't think anyone cares, but I was already scanning some of the stuff from the Baseball Card Store and COMC earlier this year, and with the cards already out and all, I figured I might as well scan what I already had to go along with the new pieces, and get a post out of it. 

For the time being, the cards are bindered by aesthetics, but will eventually be rearranged chronologically; so everything is a bit screwy here too.

"Lovely but Lethal"

I will replace this card eventually, and then move it over to themed page that I've got going for guest stars of The Brady Bunch.

"Negative Reaction"

Don Gordon appeared on SO many great shows, and yet to my knowledge, this is his only card. Oh, and all of the 2009 Rittenhouse Twilight Zone 50th Anniversary cards in this post, were gotten for a nickel apiece during the Baseball Card Store's Black Friday sale.

"Lovely but Lethal"

Thankfully, I already had a number of Starline's that weren't being used elsewhere. It's amazing how many people in this set appeared on the show at some point.

"Publish or Perish"

Seeing Mickey Spillane on an episode was really great. Trying to find a card of him, not so much. This one comes from a 1987 board game (?) called Motto. 

"Publish or Perish" and "Try and Catch Me"

Mariette Hartley had such a wonderful voice. Had she been born a little earlier, I have no doubt that her talents would've been in great demand from radio producers of the era.

"The Most Crucial Game" and "Troubled Waters"

Ideally, I'd like to have a card to represent each episode that a person was on, but in most cases that isn't realistic. A lot of these folks just don't have a lot of cards. Dean Stockwell has a Dune card that is terribly uninteresting, and pair of slightly better Face to Face game cards. I think this one was 78¢ on COMC during the BF sale.

"Murder by the Book" and "Lady in Waiting"

Marcia Wallace had two very small parts during the first season (one of which was uncredited). I had to get a little creative for her entry.

"Identity Crisis"

I'm pretty sure that this is Robert Sorrells' only card as well.

"Old Fashioned Murder"

Tim O'Connor has a couple of cards in the '79 Buck Rogers set, this sticker just so happened to be the cheapest.

"Mind Over Mayhem"

Given how groundbreaking Forbidden Planet was, you'd think that there would be more cards out there featuring Robby the Robot, but aside from a couple of movie poster reprints, there isn't a whole heckuva lot to be found.

"Mind Over Mayhem"

When possible, I prefer to get cards of people looking like they did when they appeared on the shows. It's usually pretty hard to do, but in this instance, Lew's appearance is spot on. I still need another copy of this card for a Stephen King themed page that's taking longer to complete than I had originally thought.

"The Greenhouse Jungle"

I had been watching a  cool promo card of  Arlene Martel's going into the COMC Black Friday sale, hoping that it would go on sale, then some asshat had to go and buy it for full price the night before the sales started. This is a poor substitute for that card.

"Double Shock"

The glossy finish on this card didn't scan very well, but this being my first card from one of these Americana sets (I've since gotten a few more), I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of them. Oh, and for anyone who's a fan of Ms. Newmar, she will be the subject of another post on the new blog at some point in the next couple of months :)

"Swan Song" and "Last Salute to the Commodore"

John Dehner has gotten some better looking cards in recent years, and with yearly Twilight Zone sets still being released, I fully expect him to get a few more. If the opportunity ever arises, this one will be swapped out.

"Fade into Murder"

I knew if I kept this card long enough, I'd find a use for it!

"Now You See Him"

Robert Loggia is another fellow who is woefully underrepresented in the trading card market. Want a card of him, well, I hope you like this one, because that's about all there is. I thought it was kind of funny too, to find out a couple of months ago that Phil had bought a copy of this one right around the same time I got mine. I'd say great minds... but I don't want insult Phil with the comparison.

"The Most Crucial Game".

I went back and forth with these additions. The episode that all of these guys appeared in aired November 5th, 1972, so my first thought was that that would coincide rather well the 1972-73 Topps basketball release. As you can see, all six are represented in the set, but I've kind of fallen out of love with it over the last couple of years. Plus too, a few of these are not overly great looking poses. With that in mind, I then set about to try and find each players best looking card, which yielded cards from three different sets, and different teams as well. That just wouldn't do, so I went back to the original plan. Thankfully, I still had an abandoned set build that I could raid.

Now for the fun part...

If you've ever seen the show, then you already know that a lot of attention is paid to the murderers -- they are the main guest star of each episode after all -- so I thought would be fun to give them their own section in the binder, or as it's currently called, The Rogues' Gallery (the book in yesterdays post on the new blog was a happy coincidence).

And for anybody who hasn't seen the show, and is worried about spoilers, don't be, pretty much the whole first act of every episode is spent showing the murderer setting up their nefarious plan, and then executing it. And as mentioned above, the primary guest star is always the murderer, so you already know who it is going into each episode. 

The Rogues' Gallery isn't order yet either, but will be when I get a little further on with the condition.

"Prescription Murder"

The great Gene Barry was the first baddie, playing the killer in the first film. I had to borrow this card from one of my Sci-Fi HOF pages (War of the Worlds, of course).

"Death Lends a Hand", "The Most Crucial Game", "Double Exposure", "Columbo Goes to College"

I'm glad that I don't have to get three more Robert Culp cards for this collection, because the pickings are rather slim for him as well. Though I do still need one more card of for another collection.

"A Stitch in Crime"

I didn't want a Spock card to represent Leonard's addition, which doesn't leave much to choose from as far as he is concerned. This is just a placeholder, as the card I really want is currently sitting on COMC, but I'm not willing to pay the $3 price tag.

"Death Lends a Hand" and "The Greenhouse Jungle"

1951 Greiling Film Stars for the win! I love this set, and I love Ray Milland, so I couldn't ask for a better entry than this.

"Fade into Murder" and "Butterfly in Shades of Grey"

As was the case with Leonard Nimoy, I didn't want to use a Capt. Kirk card for Bill Shatner, which, once again leaves me with very few options.

"Troubled Waters" and "Last Salute to the Commodore"

Of all the people in this post, Robert Vaughn probably has the most variety to choose from, as far as his cards go that is. I've got cards of him in multiple collections, and all are completely different from the others. These Man from U.N.C.L.E. are really fun, and since no one really cares about the show anymore, they're usually pretty cheap too.

"Lovely but Lethal"

"Lovely but Lethal" is the only episode so far that I have all of the main stars for, those being Vera, Vincent Price, and Martin Sheen. And just for the record, yes, that was a hell of a cast!

"Any Old Port in the Storm"

I've had this Donald Pleasence for years, but had nowhere to put him. Then I decide to start this collection and a John Carpenter themed page right around the same time, and now there's not enough of the Donald to go around! Columbo gets the nod if only because it was further along. Another copy will be in my future though.

"The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case"

Theodore Bikel was a tremendously talented character actor, and is yet another fellow that I need more cards of for other collections. Now if someone like Upper Deck would just make some more cards of him already. I don't care about more ePack cards of some kid that appeared for thirty seconds in the latest Spider-Man, I need more cards of Theodore... ASAP!!!

"A Matter of Honor"

This card may be replaced at some point too, but I don't have any other options in mind at the moment. I don't want to use a Khan card for Ricardo, but may end up doing so, but it's no rush, so I'll worry about it later.

*Not shown in the post -- Dawn Wells: I haven't decided which Golden Age card to use for her yet, but am strongly leaning towards the 2013 playing card.

There's not a lot of variety here for the moment, at least as far as the card sets go, it all pretty much just Starline and '09 TZ. I've mined those sets for their worth, so they'll be no more of those. I've currently got 30-40 other cards earmarked for future purchase, and there's probably at least 50 more out there that I'll identify later on, so there will be quite a bit more variety as the collection continues to grow.

For the most of these kinds of collections I prefer to use officially released items, but there are some big names that appeared on this show who do not have any official cards, most notably, Jack Cassidy. If he had only played a bit part in one episode, I'd be okay with leaving him out -- but he played the killer three times, and is a lot of peoples favorite ne'er do well; I can't leave him out! Obviously a custom will be needed. Greg has said that he would try to make some customs for me, and if I can ever get my list done (I've got people missing from other collections too), Jack will be one of the first ones that I request. I might see if he can do a Peter Falk too, as he's only got game/trivia cards, poorly made foreign cards, and a few not so great foreign stickers. 

It's been a while since I last did a post this long, on this blog. Feels weird. I'm gonna start working on a crazy-long bio post for the Beavers blog, so it might be another week or two before I have time to post on here again. You'll live though, I know you will.

B is for books (and other things)

Continuing with my "flurry" of activity from a couple of weeks ago, today's post sees me going to one of the only events that I've come to look forward to on yearly basis, that being the Uplands Village community book sale.

I've written about this sale in years past, but since I don't think that anyone actually ever goes back and reads old posts from new links, I won't bother adding them. But the skinny, for those that are interested, is that the sale is held by the folks in the Uplands Village retirement community, which is located in the small (less than 600 people) town of Pleasant Hill, about ten miles up the road from me.

Uplands Village is kind of an exclusive little community, not in a gated sort of way, but it's been set up to where they don't have to worry about any undesirables moving in, and by that I mean, troublemakers, or people with troublemaking relatives that might think that they can just show up live out of their RV in someone's driveway. Because of these regulations (as well as some of the other amenities), this is a pretty desirable place to live, attracting residents from all over the world. Speaking from a personal standpoint, I really like the people that live there, most of them are highly educated, and most were successful in whatever line of work they were in, which makes for very interesting people to talk to.

The people in Uplands Village hold a couple of different sales each year, raising funds for the assisted living center that takes care of some of their needier residents, as well as things like their aquatic center. The book sale is the main event for me though. In the four years that I've been here now, I've gone to three of the book sales -- I missed last year's because I forgot about it!!!! Don't ask me how, I had been looking forward to it, and then the day of I just blanked it out, although I did technically remember it later in the morning, about two hours after it had started, but I knew that anything that I would be interested in, would've been gone by then, so I didn't even bother trying to go.

I was not going to forget about it this year though, especially since it was only a couple of days after my trip to McKay's and Red Rhino (already covered on the blog). I was so raring to go that I ended up getting there about forty minutes early, just in case the doors opened early, they didn't, but that's okay, I was there, and that's all that mattered. I was also #2 in line, so that was kind of exciting (it really wasn't, but I figured it was still worth mentioning).

Even though there's literally thousands of books at these sales, my primary interest is in the small amount of non-book items that they usually have (don't worry though, there are books in this post), DVD's, CD's, videos, records, etc. -- so once the doors finally opened, I made a beeline to where all of these things are set-up, which is just inside the entrance and to the right.

I thought initially that guy that was first in line would be heading that way too (he's a flipper), but he didn't, so I got the first crack. I could tell right away that there wasn't as much of the non-book stuff as there has been in previous years, a couple of things however did jump right out at me almost immediately, including the above Columbo movie collection. I never watched this show when I was younger, but with all of the never ending crap that keeps being produced these days, I'm finding myself becoming even more nostalgic than I already have been for shows and movies from the 70's-90's. I've had some pretty good luck with new-to-me shows as of late, Columbo now being one of them, I kind of wish that it hadn't taken me so long to give it a try.

The other two DVD's that stood out were these Carol Burnette Lost Episodes, which I believe came from a box set. It would've been nice to have been able to get the entire set, but these were better than nothing. I paid $6 total for the three DVD's, which isn't too shabby considering that between the three there's something like twenty hours worth of entertainment.

To my immediate left was a table of stuff, now that a few weeks have passed, I've already forgotten most of what was on said table -- save for the box of records (vinyl), that I do remember! In previous years, records were $0.25 each, this year though, they were 5/$0.25, I never finished my degree in mathology, but I believe that that comes out to roughly a nickel apiece :)

The pickings were slim this year, maybe 25-35 records in the box, but I can't not look! I ended up finding two of interest, even though it wasn't five, I still paid a quarter for them -- I'm not about to start nickel and diming these folks, that'd probably be a good a way to incur some bad juju, and I got enough of that already.

It might seem a little odd for someone like myself, who is perpetually single, to buy such an album? But what can I say, deep down, way deep down, I am a hopeless romantic! As for the record, not bad, much better than I thought it would be.

You can go ahead and keep those pithy comments to yourself :)

After the box o' records, it was finally time to hit the books (so to speak):

I have wanted to read this book since it came out, but have never come across a cheap copy, sometimes waiting pays off though, as I will be able to finally read it, and the ability to do so only set me back fifty cents.

This is probably a good time to mention that paperbacks were $0.50, and hardbacks were $1. Plus they always have a wall of specialty books which vary in price.

In years past, both the crafts, and hobbies, sections have yielded some very interesting books at this sale -- this year was no different, well, at least for one book. There wasn't as much stuff in these two sections this year, but this Block Printing with Linoleum sure stood out. I wasn't familiar with the technique (called linocut), but after reading about it, I plan to give it a go at some point in the not too distant future.

Michael Crichton's work has always been hit-or-miss with me, that being said, I am looking forward to reading this one, if only because it had apparently flown under my radar.

He doesn't seem to have a lot, but I really like James Rollins' standalone books (Ice Hunt is one of my favorite post-2000 books), the series' not so much. This is another one that I've been waiting to find a cheap copy of.

I went through a biography phase back in my late teens/early 20's, which saw me reading pretty much any biography that I could get my grubby little hands on, however, I've probably only read less than ten in the fifteen years since that phase passed.

I can't for the life of me remember the title anymore, but there's an out of print biography on Robert Ripley that at one time was my most desired item. I don't know if anything has changed, but it used to be terribly difficult to find, but after many years of searching, I finally found one, paid around $15 for it -- I lost pretty much all interest in biographies before I was even halfway through that book. I had admired his work through most of my childhood, so imagine my dismay when I found out what an a**hole he was, and at times, an absolute terror to everyone around him. After that book I decided that I really didn't want to know too much about those in the limelight anymore.

Despite all of that, there was no way that I could pass up this George Raft biography, I didn't even know such a book existed! There's no synopsis on the back (hence the no picture), but if you know who he was you'll probably think that this looks like it's going to be good -- and if you don't who he was (an actor, among other things), you're not going to care, so I don't know how important the synopsis actually is.

With that big yellow sticker on the front there's no need to guess where this book was originally sold, Dollar General, here they're like Starbucks back home, there's one on practically every corner.

My last book purchase was a big one, literally, it's huge! No synopsis again, but for lovers of history, this looks like a good one. Lots of old photos, posters, and other assorted memorabilia. Plenty of text too, it appears to be a lot wordier than most pictorials.

I am so glad that I didn't forget about the sale again this year, I had a lot of fun looking through everything, got some neat things, and was able to talk to some really interesting people -- and best of all, I only spent $10. Since I'm on a fairly tight budget these days, it's really nice to be able to go somewhere like this, and be able to get a bunch of cool stuff for not a whole lot of money.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.