Sunday, February 5, 2023

These two were not created equal

I think it was last year, or was it the year before, I don't know, I can't remember and I don't want to go look it up -- but at some point in the last two years, there was about a month-long stretch where this Topps Chrome set was all the rage on the blogs. Being a modern set, and a shiny one at that, I tried to follow along with everyone's excitement, but after a couple of posts, I kind of had my fill of it. Before checking out completely, I did however see somewhere along the way that Gene Tenace had an autograph in it. And even though I wasn't too sure how I felt about the looks of it, I figured I'd try to get one if I could, i.e. only if one showed up for dirt cheap would I buy it. Well, maybe six months or so ago, one did, so I did!

For around five bucks shipped I got myself this shiny auto, and I have to admit, I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would, at least not initially. Fast forward six months, and now I kind of hate it. I'll keep it, but I don't like it. I was never all that keen on chromed cards, and these days, I really dislike them. Aside from a few sets, shiny cards have completely fallen out of favor with me. And I don't know why, they just have. Not surprisingly, there's like 47 parallels of this card, none of which I will be chasing... though... if I ever come across any for just a couple of bucks or less, I'll probably get them... begrudgingly! Gene has become one of my favorite people to collect, so even if I don't like them, it would be pretty hard to pass up a cheap autograph of his; even if it is ugly.

About a month after the Gene's arrival, I won another autograph for around the same price...

Now that's a much better looking card. Up until about a month ago, I only had maybe 4-5 cards of Joe Rudi, half of which were autographs, but thanks to a few recent small purchases on the Sportlots, I'm probably up to around 10 or so. Some of my guys have jumped in price, again, just since the New Year started (why?), which kind of sucks, but it just gives me an excuse to shift over to the likes of Gene and Joe, who's prices I don't see ever escalating all that much know; no matter how Boomy the Boom crowd gets.

In unrelated "news", I had an unexpected, and rather pricey (at least for someone of my means) household expense pop up a couple of weeks ago. As a result, I had to scramble to get some things sold in order to cover said hefty bill. I was able to do so, but only after many days of using all of my free time to scan/photograph, edit scans/photographs, and list items on eBay. It is nice to have that option to fall back on, but geez is it a lot of work. And so much computering!!! I was having to spend so much time doing all of that, that by the time I was done each day, I just couldn't do anymore things on the computer; which isn't the end of the world for me, but I did get terribly behind with the blogs. It was only about two weeks, so I don't imagine that anyone would've noticed my sporadic appearances, but in case you did, now you know why. I've been trying to go back and comment where I can, but it sure isn't easy trying to catch-up on two weeks worth of posts (everyone seems to have chosen those two weeks to go on a posting spree). 

In slightly cheerier news, I got myself a Level 4 clearance on the TCDB, and have been using to add some links to cards that previously had none. I've also created a few new pages for actors and actresses that hadn't been previously recognized by the site. As I recently told Dennis (who unintentionally inspired me to do these things), I'm sure that no one using the site will even care about these additions, but I had fun doing it nonetheless.

Also, I closed my Twitter account a few weeks ago. And no, it's not because of who now owns the site, or any other social/political reasons, there just isn't any reason for me to have an account anymore. I only opened the account originally to try and help my blog (now blogs), and I think it did initially, but in recent years people stopped clicking on the links, and so I stopped promoting posts. For about the last year all I've been using the site for is the DM feature, but all of those people have my email address, so there's really no need for me to stay on there just for that. Plus too, I had thought that joining the site would be a good way to keep up with all of the former bloggers that moved over to there, but it's really hurting my soul to see how uninteresting so many of them have become since scuttling their blogs. It's like I said in a comment to someone recently on here, Twitter seems to be the place where old bloggers go to die. I don't know what it is, but folks sure change, a lot (and not for the better), once they start spending all of their time on that site. It's quite sad to see, and I'd just prefer not to see it anymore.

As a possible alternative, I finally joined the Net54 site, but have yet to do anything there. And looking at some of the open discussions currently going, I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to add too much to the site. A lot of those folks seem to be more moneyed collectors, and so far I'm finding it a little difficult to relate to their sort. But, we'll see. Right now, I'd just like to get a few posts done (for all three blogs), and try to keep catching up on all of the posts that I've been missing.

24 comments:

  1. I never seen then need to do any of those social media sites. Blogs and e-mail are about the only digital life I have (other than buying baseball cards), and it's peaceful for the most part which is good for me. That Chrome Platinum set is a 21' set released in late 22'. I like it and that says a lot as I do not like chrome cards other than a few probably the same ones as you. These days they are all starting to look alike.

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    1. You're definitely the better for it. Hopefully I will be too now that I'm done with this experiment. As far as new cards go, I can't tell any of them apart anymore.

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  2. I'm sick to death of the '52 design, but that Chrome set did admittedly have some excellent player selection. A Gene Tenace card is rare enough, but a Gene Tenace *Padres* card? Count me in. (You're right though, the look of the autograph card is kinda underwhelming, especially next to the Rudi.)

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    1. It's not one of my favorite designs either, and even less when the photos have some kind of artsy filter applied to them.

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  3. I'm with you - I never got the appeal that this Chrome '52 set had for so many bloggers who don't really care about Chrome or '52 designs. I have a few in hand (from a Johnny's contest) and they are fine but certainly nothing special.

    I'd at some point like to get to a level where I can start adding TCDB, mostly for noting errors. I don't have a good scanner though (don't really need one in this age of good digital phone cameras) and I'm not sure how else to get "points".

    Thought your absence meant you were on vacation. Hope everything is OK now in the house.

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    1. I'm glad that a bunch of folks found something that they liked, but all of the posts got to be a bit much.

      I sent an email about that. Hopefully you got it.

      I wish!

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  4. There's just something about those Chrome Platinum cards that do it for me, I don't know why, but I'd definitely take the Tenace over the Rudi card. Those half-photo autograph cards drive me nuts.

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    1. I don't know why it is, I've just had enough of everything having to be shiny these days.

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  5. A. I love Chrome Platinum! It was my favorite product from last year (or the year before). I still need to pick up that Tenace for my Padres PC... although I do have a couple of his A's autgoraphs.

    B. Nice Rudi autograph. I'd buy his autograph for $5 any day of the week.

    C. Unexpected household expenses suck. I just got my estimate on replacing all of the smoke detectors in my place yesterday... and it's almost 3x what I thought it would cost. Called two other companies and they were even more expensive.

    D. Had no idea there were different levels of clearance on TCDB. I'm guessing I'm still on the very first level.

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    1. The base auto is pretty cheap online, and would probably be even cheaper if you could find one at a show.

      I wouldn't mind finding a few more of his autographs for this price myself.

      Are they hardwired in? If not, you should be able to just go to the store and buy however many and install them yourself.

      I knew about the different levels, but didn't know what they entailed until just recently.

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  6. Dennis (FreehanSolo on TCDb) is da bomb! He's both a well-respected TCDb veteran/resolver (Level 8 I think) and superstar blogger. I'm Level 7 on TCDb but only sporadically add images whenever I have time. Other than that, I like to hang out in the TCDb forums and run contests there every once in awhile. Congrats on making it to Level 4.

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    1. He does seem to know his way around the site.

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  7. I don't pay attention to current products after A&G, so I wasn't really aware of the Chrome Platinum set until I found several Luis Tiants for sale cheap on eBay. I keep finding other guys in my player collections in that set - and now Tenace. While '52 has been run into the ground right behind the '87 design, and I'm with you in the "Meh, shiny" club, at least it's new cards of my player guys....so I'm gonna get some of them.

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    1. Most of my player collections are sorely lacking when it comes to playing days stuff, so I usually try to stick to that; but still end up buying some of their modern offerings as well.

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  8. Got to love Fury Gene Tenace. Nice player to collect, for sure. As for social media, I think you're making a good choice. I've never had a twitter account, but a couple of years ago I stopped logging into facebook and I know I'm much happier for it.

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    1. I just don't think that I was made for too much of this internet stuff.

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  9. i collected cards of both these guys when i bought in to billyball and starting compiling older team sets of the a's. i continued to follow rudi as an angel. i like the rudi auto a lot, and wish topps had made the 1952 design box larger to allow more room for the signatures.

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    1. I've got a couple of the autographs from the 2011 Lineage set that used the '52 design, and have always thought is was kind of shitty of Topps to expect guys in their 80's to sign their name in that tiny space.

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  10. Love the Joe Rudi card. I have a list of players I need an autograph of and he is on the list. I don't know how I have missed him all these years. Level 4 clearance? My spring break is in three weeks and I am dedicating part of it to entering cards and hanging out on TCDB. I cannot wait to see what is there.

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    1. He has some neat autographs, so you'll have some options whenever you do get around to getting one. Finally making the leap, huh? I think everybody is gonna have to sooner or later.

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  11. Congrats on the pickups, and I'm glad you were able to get over the home repair. I enjoy chrome cards but I find posed shots too boring.

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    1. From what I've seen, there's no shortage of boring shots in that Chrome set.

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  12. I just now seen this and realized you wasn't on Twitter. I wanted to let you know that the newspapers.com site has free access this weekend. It seems a bit complicated but they have how to use it on their Facebook page.

    https://go.newspapers.com/freeaccess?xid=4686&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=fa-feb-23

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    1. Given how infrequently I was Tweeting anything, I didn't expect anyone to notice until I mentioned it.

      I appreciate the head's up, but one of my only splurges is a (discounted) subscription to the site. Hopefully you're taking advantage of it though, and if you haven't already done so, maybe Tweet out the info for everyone else.

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