In limbo

It was just a few short years ago that I declared in a post that I was officially done with set collecting. And it was true at the time. I was more than ready to move onto something else, namely player collecting. Not only did that sound like it would be more fun in general, but also seemed like there'd be much less rigidity, and for me, less stress as well. And so it was, at least for a year or two.

I guess it was sometime last year that not only did I start to get a little bored with just collecting certain players, but the old set collecting itch began to, well, itch, again too. I thought initially that I could satiate it by just working on an insert set or two, but apparently that wasn't enough, and before I knew it I was putting the remnants from multiple old set builds, as well as a few new ones, back into binders. I thought that maybe, just maybe, I had finally found the right balance for me; but now here we are on the wrong side of 2023, and I have very little idea what I'm doing, or what I want to do going forward.

Prices continue to increase, and for the first time since the latest boom started, they've begun to affect my ability to purchase things; which I believe in turn, has also begun to affect my interest level. 

Conventional wisdom, at least amongst us pedestrian collectors, has held that if one area of interest starts to get too expensive, just pivot to another -- which is all fine and dandy, but I've been pivoting for 3 or 4 years now, and I'm starting to think that I'm done pivoted out. Every time I move, so does everyone else. And it's gotten very old.

The only other option seems to be to just accept that things have changed, and will continue to stay changed for the foreseeable future. Which basically just means eat it and start paying $10 for items that were less than a buck prior to the boom. Or in other words, finally give in to the new normal. Well, I can't do that either. Mentally, I just can't. I don't have the money to collect like that, and even if I did, I don't get joy from overpaying for things.

And I'm not saying that I'm done with cards, yet, but I do know that my interest level in them right now is at about the same level it was back in 1999-00 right before I took a 10-year break from collecting. I guess the good news is though, that even if I did take a break of some kind, I've got tons of old stuff sitting in scan folders, so if I wanted to keep this blog going during said break, I've got more than enough to keep it active for the time being (especially if I keep up this 1-2 post a month thing I've currently got going).

Like I said though, I really don't know what I'm doing right now in terms of collecting, and as far as the first part of this post goes, I'm probably just rambling, as usual. It's probably advisable not to put too much stock into anything I say (ever). And hey, it hasn't been all doom and gloom; there have been a few bright spots in recent months...

The brightest of bright spots in recent months was seeing an unexpected free stuff post show up from Kerry, of Cards on Cards fame. They've become so infrequent that, honestly, even if I had been late to the party, and not gotten anything, I would've been more than content just knowing that someone else was doing one. As it turned out though, I clearly wasn't the only one who was surprised by Kerry's offering, because despite the post having already been up for a couple of hours before I clicked on it, there was only one card that had been claimed by the time I finally did so.

I ended up claiming five cards, the most important of which, to me, was this 1962 Post Dick Howser (no relation to Doogie). I haven't bought a single sports card since March, so it's been at least that long since I was last able to add a card to my set. It didn't last very long, being only one card and all, but it was fun to have an excuse to break out the Post/Jell-O binder; and even more so to add a new card to it. Heck, I even logged into the TCDB for the first time in many months just so I could mark this card off of the checklist. Apparently this was card #60 towards the 200-card set for me. I thought I was a little further along than that, but I guess 60 is better than 59.

I've really tried to cut back on "just because" cards, but even so, I couldn't resist Orlando here, mostly "just because" I love the old green and yellow A's uniforms. I'm not a big uniform guy, but these might just be my favorite baseball uniforms. I don't know how Orlando feels about them, but after starting the '65 season 0-6, he found himself trading these colors for those of Detroit, where he ended up faring slightly better with a 4-6 record.

I want to say that it was back in January that I re-watched the 1974 World Series on YouTube (and it only took me about a month to do so). While doing so, I thought to myself that it wouldn't be the worst thing ever if I added a few more cards of Dick Green to my life. Fast forward seven months, and I finally added one! He isn't one of the A's players from that era that I collect, but given how important he was to the team (defensively), and how few cards he apparently has, I probably should. Maybe I will start doing so at some point, but for now, being able to get this one will be good enough. I can't really tell what's going on here, but it is a very interesting looking card. In my mind, there's almost no such thing as a bad action card, especially those of the vintage variety.

Every time I've shown a Dave Winfield card in the last year or two, I've mentioned fighting the temptation to collect him. I think that temptation is finally gone. Doesn't mean I won't ever still try to get any of his cards, especially the earlier ones.

I couldn't remember if I had Gerry's "sunset" card or not, and I still haven't looked, but I still wanted this one either way. 1961 was a rough one for Gerry. Despite going 13-8, and being named an All-Star, the year before, age finally started to catch up to him towards the end of that season, and he didn't bounce back in '61. His final season saw him pitching for Chicago, Kansas City, and Detroit, managing just a 2-5 record between the three. He closed out his baseball career with the Portland Beavers, where he was a pitching coach, who also tossed a couple of games (2-4), in 1962; which is the primary reason why I collect him.  

Many thanks to Kerry for giving everyone (who saw the post) a chance to pick up some neat cards. The only downside to all of this is that because of my interest in all things cards being so low, I still haven't made an effort to find anything to send in return. I will though, one of these days!

On a final, and unrelated, note: I noticed a new(ish) blog on block a few weeks back, and haven't seen anyone else mention it lately, so I thought I'd try divert a few eyeballs over to Lajoie's Locker. It's not easy starting up a new blog in 2023, and it's probably even harder to keep a new blog going in 2023; meaning that this fellow could probably use some support. Most bloggers feed on views and comments, especially new bloggers, so if you've got the time, and are inclined to want to do so, maybe you could take a few minutes and go say hi. 

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.

Birth of the Cool

The title of that old Miles Davis album seems like an apt way to describe this card, doesn't it? 

Dave's was a name that I knew very early on, but he didn't look like this anymore when I first started collecting. By then he was older, and bulkier; a trend that would continue to increase as the years went on.

Vintage, or in this case, semi-vintage, cards were not a part of my childhood. They were around, I just didn't pay any attention to them. Because of that, I didn't see this one, or pretty much anything else pre- '87/88 until I returned to collecting a dozen or so years ago. Looking at this one now, I think it's safe to say that I missed out on quite a bit as a kid.

The desire to start collecting Dave Winfield has been strong in recent years, and has increased even more in recent months. He has a LOT of cards though. And I really don't want to start another player collection. That being said, I'm kind of compromising with myself at the moment by just seeking out certain cards of his. 

This '78 was tops on my list of most wanted Winfield cards. I was able to cross it off of said list thanks to, Jim, the 'loather of all things upper case' behind, cards as i see them.

Accompanying Dave, was this '89 Pro Set Reggie Roby. I have a "few" copies of this card already, but it's one of my favorites of his, so I don't mind getting another one. I haven't looked yet, but I'm thinking too that this one might even be nicer than the one that I have in my RR collection, in which case it'd be doubly appreciated.

Many thanks to Jim for taking care of that Winfield, and for not going overboard with the mailing. It's always nice when I can get the joy that comes from receiving a package/PWE, but then not have to spend a bunch of time putting stuff away as a result of it.

And on an unrelated note, which I forgot to mention in the last post, a fellow called, Jeremy, returned to blogging a couple of weeks ago after having not done so in almost a decade. He's from before my time, and I suspect many of yours as well, so if you've got some more room for another blog to read (and support), you might want to go check him out over at no one's going to read this blog. Maybe even say hi if you're so inclined.

Give a little, get a little

Jeff, from Wax Pack Wonders, recently let it be known that he was now working on the 1973 Topps baseball set. Having about a hundred cards left from my abandoned set build, and absolutely no use for them, I was eager to see if I could help. 

I wasn't able to knock off as many of his needs as I would've liked, but did find a few. 

Jeff, being the sort that he is, wanted to send something in return. Not having any public want lists for Jeff (or anybody else for that matter) to peruse, I just went and looked at his 'for trade' list on the TCDB, picked out 10 possible cards, and told him that I'd be fine with whatever combination of those he wanted to send. He sent all of them, plus an additional card. He's that sort, too.

It's probably been a few years now, but at some point I got, and showed off here on the blog, the gold version of this card. Ever since then, the base and silver versions have been pretty high up on my personal want list. I didn't think it would take so long to acquire the base version, but apparently the blue border is prone to chips and dings, and most of the copies online seem to be of that variety; which is what I didn't want, so I waited, and then waited some more. I saw this on Jeff's list, and figured that if anybody was gonna have a nice copy, it would be him. And I was right, it's very nice. I would've been quite content with just getting this one back for those 73's. 

Bo is one of the few players that I still actively look for cards of, and I feel fortunate to have gotten four needed cards in a single mailing. I didn't realize it until the cards got here, but the one on the right is an insert. I thought from the picture on the TCDB that it was from a subset. Nope, it's an insert, and a very subtle one at that.

I've thought to myself many times that I'd like to complete Danny's entire baseball run, but the idea never seems get much further than that. This is the one baseball card of his that I already owned, mine has a punky corner though; this copy is considerably nicer.

Cool card, terrible scan.

I'm not sure why, but lately I've been thinking about guys from my childhood that I should've been collecting (but don't), either from the beginning, or when I came back to cards a dozen or so years ago. Dave Winfield is one of those guys. It feels like it's too late to start such collections now, but that doesn't mean that I can't add the occasional interesting card of one of these guys to my "just because" binders.

I think I've mentioned it on here before, but after noticing that I had some pretty nifty Tim Salmon cards, I went ahead and decided to collect him, at least selectively. I don't want all 10,000 cards of his, but will try to add a "good" card to his pages from time to time. I thought this one was kind of interesting, or "good" if you will.

I remember seeing this card for the first time just a couple of years ago. I thought it was pretty neat, decided that I wanted a copy, and then promptly forgot all about it. I saw it again somewhere recently, and was even more enamored with it than I was a few years back. Finding it on Jeff's trade list just a few days later seems pretty coincidental, like it was just meant to be. Joe Carter is another guy that I should've been collecting. If it weren't for Bo's Gun show, this would've been my favorite card of the bunch; it is a very close second though.

Here's the extra one that Jeff threw in. I have 2 ½ pages of this card in refractor form, on e whole page in golden sparkle form, and maybe another pages worth of it's various parallels. I haven't put it away yet, but I think that this is only the second copy of the base version that I have. I should probably get at least one pages worth of this one too. This was a nice surprise, very unexpected it was.

Not being overly focused on acquiring cards right now, I'm more than happy to send things out and not get anything in return (I tried to do so in this instance). That being said, this was a cool bunch of cards to get in return for some others that I no longer wanted. If they could always be like this, I might actually try to get stuff in return more often. 

Thanks again, Jeff!