Some random cards to go along with some random thoughts (blog-bat-around?)

I have had a couple of different blog related things on my mind lately, and I've got some random cards that were pulled from the 25-cent boxes at last month's card show, hmmm... what to do? I know, let's combine the two and make a super long post that most people will probably won't end up reading all the way through. Sounds like a plan!


2003 Bowman Heritage Black Facsimile Signature #142

Some of you might not be aware of this, but there's been a blog-bat-around making the rounds. Having not participated in one before, I kind of wanted to give this one a go, but probably won't, if only because... I'm slightly confused by the question, or at least I became so, after I started reading the posts of others.

So far I've seen three different interpretations of this topic -- there's been the "What I'm currently working on (card wise)", "What I collect (card wise)", and "What I collect (cards and non-card stuff) -- so, which is it? If it's one of the first two, then I don't really understand it's purpose, and by that I mean, if somebody wanted to know what I collected and/or what I'm currently working on (card wise), they could just scroll up to my want lists and see what's what, which would then make a blog post on the subject sort of unnecessary, right?

Now if it's supposed to be about what I collect in the broader sense...


2018 Topps 1983 Topps Design #83-89

... then that's a little different, and normally I'd be all about doing such a post, but right now is probably the worst possible time for me try that kind of post, at least with pictures and all (without pictures it would really be boring). You see, the bulk of my stuff is still in boxes (toys, statues, coins, stamps, etc.).

I've mentioned it before, but when I moved to Tennessee a couple of years ago, I had to leave my super awesome ginormous display case behind, as it would've never survived a cross-country journey. I have only just recently acquired two display cases (the two combined still aren't as big as my old one), both need some repairs, which I've waiting until the weather warmed up to do, which it has, but I just haven't started working on them yet. So for the moment, everything gets to stay in boxes.

I'm also not sure that Night Owl had that kind of post in mind, and judging by the lack of views on my non-card posts as of late...


2007 SP Legendary Cuts Legendary Americana #LA-64

... I'm not sure that's what kind of post that reader's had in mind either. And besides, I don't think that I could even fit everything that I collect into one post. Not to mention, what about all the stuff I have that other people might consider a collection, but I don't? I mean I probably have close to a thousand (maybe more) movies on multiple formats, does that count as a collection? Some people would say yes just because of amount that I have, I on the other hand, don't consider them as a collection, I would just say that I might be a bit of a film fanatic that's all (and normally all those are out on shelves, but I had to take everything down and move it to other rooms for the upcoming painting of the living room... see bad timing all around)

I have quite a few records (vinyl) as well, so is that a collection? Again, I don't consider it to be, I just like music, so I have a lot of it. And what about all the stuff that I've bought over years that I only did so...


2017 Topps Archives 1959 Bazooka #59B-14

... because I thought that if I didn't, it would end up getting broken or thrown away. Case in point, I have a handful (maybe more) of different 100+ year old demitasse saucers that have been bought over the years. Is that a collection? I don't think it is, in my mind I was merely trying to save them from a world that no longer cares about such things. And that's just one example, I have quite few things that fall into that category. So you see, even if want to, how am I suppose to participate in this kind of blog-bat-around? Especially when I don't even know what the parameters are.


1994-95 NBA Hoops Big Numbers - Rainbow #BN11

I realize too that this blog-bat-around might also be kind of a "getting to know you better" sort of thing, but I feel like I already know what everyone collects (card wise), so it doesn't really do much for me. If we're all trying to get to know each other better, I'd much rather see people make lists of their all-time favorite movies, songs, television shows, etc. And not like the "this songs reminds of this card" type of thing, just straight up lists. I probably don't have enough pull to influence others to follow suit, but I will most likely do a number of just such lists at some point in the next couple of months, and not because I think anyone will care to read them, no, it'll be just because it sounds like it would be fun thing to do.


1997 Score The Franchise #3

I mentioned the lack of interest/views on my non-card posts, but that's only half the story, as interest/views seem to be down in general as of late. I don't know if it's a cyclical thing, or if it's because of all the non-card posts, or if folks have just gotten tired of my schtick. Some bloggers might try and fix such a problem by finding out what the readers like, and then doing more of it... at this point though , I can definitely say that I am not one of those bloggers.

In fact, since my readership seems to be dropping off, I'm probably going to start doubling down on the non-card posts, as they tend to be the only posts that I actually enjoy putting together. And it's not because I'm losing any interest in cards, on the contrary, I've had more fun with cards in the last couple of months than I have in the last few years. It's just that every card post I try to add words to lately just feels like a grind, actually it feels like something more than a grind, but I just can't think of another more suitable analogy at the moment. So I guess I could say, that if you want to know more about what I collect, stick around, as I've only begun to scratch the surface.

And I still enjoy reading other people's card posts, in fact, blog posts and comic books, are for time being, pretty much the extent of my reading material.


2015 Topps Allen & Ginter's Buyback Framed Mini's 10th Anniversary Issue

After hitting the publish button on the last post, I noticed that it was #299, meaning of course, that this one is #300. That may not seem like a big deal to the folks that crank out a post every single day, but I don't, so it is... especially if you consider that during my bout with depression last summer, I was for all intensive purposes, done with the blog. But the depression went away, and I came back.

Speaking of depression, I have felt it trying to get another foothold for the last couple of months, I've been able to keep it at bay thus far, but it's only a matter of time before I can no longer do so. People that have experience with depression probably know what I'm taking about. I don't think it will cause me to stop posting this time, but if my posts become more negative in tone, at least you'll know why. Drugs don't work for me, so really I just have to wait, and let it run it's course, but it will... it always does.

Back to 300th post, I should probably be holding a contest of some sort, but only being aware of this impending (now) mini milestone since two days ago, I didn't have much time to plan anything, much less acquire something interesting to give away. Besides, after the disaster that was my last contest, I'm a little down on holding contests right now. I never mentioned it, but neither winner claimed their prizes from my COMC Black Friday contest, well actually the first place winner did try to claim $15 credit to use during the Black Friday sale, the only problem was... that they waited until February to do so, yep... February. So in the end, all I did was waste a bunch of people's time entering a contest that would end up having no winners. Needless to say, I probably won't be trying that kind of contest again.

[Spoiler alert: I will most likely still do a contest in September when the blogs third anniversary comes around]


1995-96 SP NBA All-Stars Die-Cut #AS27

About a month ago now, I started dipping my toe into the YouTube waters. I've made a couple of videos so far, really terrible videos, so bad in fact, that I won't be directing anyone to my channel on there until I get a little bit better and/or more comfortable making them. I bring this up because sometime in the next few months, I might start doing more card related videos that would be sort of like companion pieces to what I'm doing here on the blog.

Also, if I do get more comfortable talking (literally) to a larger audience, I'm probably going to start doing the card show recaps in video form, as they seem to be taking longer and longer for me to do, I mean I'm still doing this post with cards from last months show in it. The year end COMC stockpile would likely end up being shown in a couple of videos as well, at least then I'd actually get around to showing it all, instead of just the small percentage of it that I usually do.


1994 Score Select Salute #SS2

I guess I really should try to talk about at least a few of these cards: The Clara Barton Legendary Americana was a fun find, but I don't think Nick has to worry about me duplicating his feat anytime soon though. It's hard to believe that after twenty+ years, I'm still trying to find all the rainbow combinations of the Hoops Big Numbers parallel. The A&G framed mini buyback is the first one of those that I've seen in person, I can see why some people would have hated them, but I think their kind of neat. The SP die-cut all-stars are one of my favorite 90's basketball insert sets, with the addition of Rasheed, I think I now have around 2/3 of the set.

How about that Select Salute Dave Winfield? I had never seen one before, apparently it was just a two-card insert set to honor some recent achievements from Dave and Cal Ripken Jr. According to BaseballCardPedia, the odds of pulling that card were 1:360! And you can't really tell from the picture, but it's got that cool creeping shine effect when the card is moved back in forth.


1998 SPx Finite Radiance #253 (error)

And finally we've got a card that Billy might find interesting, an error! As far as errors go, I normally only chase blank backs, but that doesn't mean that I won't pass up any other non blank back errors that I come across. I noticed that something was amiss with this Eric Davis right away, but it took me a second to figure out exactly what it was.

As you can see, there is a cardboard bit (which I've never seen by the way) still covering the medallion in the middle, obviously this card escaped the machine that was supposed to pop it out. For anyone who might not be familiar with the SPx Finite set, here's a side by side to show you what's what:

Pretty cool, huh? It just seems so strange to be able to see the impression of the medallion on the back, but not be able to see it on the front. I wonder how many people would just go ahead and pull the tab off the front? I certainly won't, but I bet that some people would.

My apologies for yet another long and rambling post, it may not seem like it, but I'm really trying not to make these a habit.


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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.


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A mailday from madding

I have been very fortunate as of late, receiving three packages from fellow bloggers in less than two weeks time. All have been really great, and all three have done some damage to my many set needs.

Today's batch of cardboard generosity comes courtesy of Kerry (aka madding, aka the commissioner of the Cards on Cards fantasy basketball league), a fellow native Portlander, who also happens to be, as many of you already know, the proprietor of Cards on Cards.

Since there's a lot to cover here, I am gonna forgo my normal dilly-dallying, and just jump right in:

When I started removing the tape and toploaders that were used to secure the stack, I couldn't help but notice a few rough cut/older looking edges all grouped together. Even the rough cut edges should have been the only clue I needed, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what they were going to be until I was actually able to get into the cards. And just in case anyone else didn't figure it out by the "rough cut" clue, here you go:

OPC! To say that I was surprised would be a major understatement. This is the one OPC set that I am trying to collect, but it's been really slow going, as I haven't added a new card to the set in what seem like years.

Since a lot of people don't just have these lying around, I must admit that I'm most curious to know where Kerry got this duodecad of 78's?

Jumping ahead almost 40 years, Kerry was able to obliterate...

... about 1/3...

... of my...

... 2017 Archives needs.

Topps lineage might be favorite modern baseball set that contained current (at the time) players. It's also a set that I had very little of.

I believe that before this package, I actually had more of the parallels than I did base.

This is probably a good time to mention that I actually scanned most of the cards in this post, which is a rarity for me -- most turned out pretty good -- although the Lineage sort of look like only the first names of player's were used for the front of the cards.

Before I made my list of 2013 Cooperstown needs, I was seeing them at the card shows all the time, but I never bought any because I didn't want to end up with a bunch of duplicates. And now after finally making a list, the seemingly endless card show supply seems to have conveniently dried up.

Kerry must have noticed all the player's of yore sets on my want list, so what did he do? Oh, just included a quartet of 2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classics, which just happens to be a set that I haven't ever even seen before. Every time I think I've finally got a handle on all of these kinds of sets that came out while I was away from card collecting in the 2000's, someone comes along and sends me yet another one that I hadn't been aware of.

A few basketball set needs were addressed as well, like this 2015-16 Donruss Rebounding Kings.

After the OPC, this 2013-14 Prizm blue, white, and red was the biggest surprise in the package, as these monster box exclusives aren't the easiest things to come by. Until recently, I would've never thought that I would have something in common with an entitled rich kid from Lake Oswego, but apparently we do... anxiety!

[Note to Kerry: after sending out your package I came across an extra Lillard B,W,R Prizm, so if you need it, please let me know]

The package was rounded out with some more Prizm parallels, this time from the 2015-16 edition.

All in all, seven sets had needs removed from them, that's what I call efficient!

Many thanks for the wonderful package, Kerry! I don't know if the package I sent you was anywhere near as good as this one was, if not, I still have plenty of stuff for you :)


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NPN Win

After getting all those packs of 2017 Topps Archives for my birthday a couple of months ago, I decided to do something I had never done before... which was to enter one of those no purchase necessary contests that are always mentioned on the back of the wrappers. And as you may have inferred from the title, I actually won something!

I had forgotten I even entered this contest until just a couple of days ago, after remembering I had done so and then looking at the date, I just assumed my name hadn't been one of ones chosen -- and then just yesterday, this arrived:

It was kind of exciting to imagine what kind of treasure could possibly be contained within this package. I took a few seconds to get the picture taken, and than tore in to that sucker like a kid on Christmas morning.

And here is my major award, a peach parallel of Jose Quintana. While it's certainly no leg lamp, it's still not too bad of a card to have won.

It's a little hard to see, but it's numbered 50/199. Since I'm not actively collecting the Archives parallels, I think I might just leave this in the toploader it came in, sticker and all. If I don't, I might eventually forget where this card came from, and this is, silly as it sounds, something that I would kind of like to remember for as long as I can.

Now that I've won something from one of these contests, I'm kind of jonesing to try my luck on a few more.


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Archiving a birthday

In my previous post I spoke of not acquiring many cards through purchases as of late, and why that is. However, I failed (intentionally) to mention my not too long ago acquisition of many cards through an overly generous gift.

I'm always a bit hesitant to bring up my birthday, primarily because I don't want it to sound like I'm fishing for well wishes or any other sort of salutations (trust me, I'm not!). But since it's pertinent to how I came into all of these packs, it will be necessary to make mention of it.

Before I get to these particular packs, I will set up this short and, probably uninteresting story, by saying that after receiving the lot of packs from Oscar's Lucky 13 game, I knew I had to get my hands on more 2017 Archives. The problem was, like it has been for a lot of folks, they just haven't been in stock anywhere around here. Well, I guess technically that's not true, as I did see one whole blaster box for sale at the Walmart, but I had my heart set on getting more hangar packs, so I ended up passing on it (it was gone the next time I went).

So fast forward to a little over a month ago, when it came time for my least favorite day of the year to make it's annual appearance... my birthday! This year's "big" day happened to coincide with a ten day trip that my mom was taking back home to Portland. Since I had heard about most of her plans before the trip, I knew generally where she would and wouldn't be, which brings us to the packs.

Since I hadn't been having any luck finding the Archives here, I decided to ask her if she could look for any back there, especially since I knew that at some point she would be right near a particular Target in Vancouver (Washington) that could always be counted on to have a well stocked card aisle.

I'm sure much has changed in the couple of years since I moved away, but apparently that Target has changed a bit, as even during the height of Judge-mania, they still had a plentiful bounty of all the hottest current products. Now when I asked her to look for any, I was really hoping to just get a couple of packs, so you can imagine my surprise when upon my mom's return, she gifted me with a huge stack of 17 packs (I opened three before realizing I should get a picture of them). Even though I'm not a big fan of getting birthday presents, I have to admit that I was thankful to have received these.

This post ended up being a touch lengthy, so I decided to limit the base cards to just eight examples from each of the three different designs. If you've ever read my blog before, you shouldn't be too terribly surprised to see that I ended up featuring mostly older players.

The 1960 design is my favorite of the three designs used for the set. And the Gehrig is probably tied for first as far as my favorite card from the set goes.

The only real problem I encountered with all these packs was that collation for the 1960 portion of the checklist seemed to be much worse than the other two, I mean I must of opened up four packs that Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka, and Noah Syndergaard all back to back. The '82 and '92 sections didn't have that kind of repeated mixture, so I don't if that's normal for the 60's, or if was just that way for me.

I don't have any sort of affinity for the '82 Topps set, so this would probably be my least favorite of the three designs.

More than a few people have already commented on how great the Monte Irvin card is, so I will just say that I am in complete agreement with everyone else's sentiments. I really like the color job they did on Jimmie Foxx as well.

I didn't think I would like the '92 design as much as I do. Whether it's looking back to the old timers, or showcasing today's young talent, it just seems to work for me. I had to show Lou, what with us sharing the same birthday and all (different years of course). It doesn't seem like you see Reggie as an Oriole very often. And how great is this Bob Feller? It's tied with the Gehrig for my favorite of the base set.

Randy doesn't look quite as ornery as he usually does. The coloring of the Ruth card is really well done too.

A quick note before I get to the non-base stuff. I think normally your supposed to get one of the Rookie Stars and one insert in each pack, but for whatever reason, about 2/3 of my packs had a Rookie Stars and two inserts in them. I just thought I should mention that, just in case anyone wonders why their are more inserts than there were packs.

You get one of these Rookie Stars in every pack. A ten card set, of which I only now need one to complete. I left out Yoan Moncada, only because his card has already made a recent appearance in the Oscar post.

I got a bunch of these Bazooka's, including a few duplicates. I love the background on the Bregman. And the Koufax is pretty neat as well, although I think the little kids in background that were trying (and succeeding) to get in to the shot, is what makes that card so great.

I haven't really figured out if I like these Retro Original's yet. I guess which ever way I end up leaning, I at least got some decent names.

My least favorite part of this year's Archives release... the Derek Jeter Retrospective insert set. I can't even begin to tell you how uninteresting these are to me. After I pulled my first one, I kept saying "Please don't let me get another one" multiple times before opening each of the remaining packs. As you can clearly see, that mantra didn't work out so well.

I managed to get four of the peach parallels, which are numbered to /199. The Jim Bunning is my favorite, but the Galarraga is pretty neat to. I'm not familiar with T.J. Rivera, but going by his stats, he seems to be having a decent rookie season.

The blues are numbered to /75. Young Mr. Alfaro seems to be a prospect of some note, who thus far, has only seen limited action.

Hey look, another Andres Galarraga parallel. This time in red, which are limited to just /25. I can certainly think of worse players to get two different parallels of. I don't remember him too much from his time with the Expos, but I do recall those couple of really productive seasons he had in Colorado very well. I can't really remember why at this point, but I do remember following the ups and downs of the Rockies during their first couple of years. I suspect that it might have been just because they were new and sort of close to Portland, certainly closer than that other fishy expansion team. Whatever the reason was for that interest I had in the team, it obviously didn't last. If it had, you might be reading another Rockies related blog right now.

It's a little hard to tell, but this is a Jacob DeGrom Gold Winner parallel. For obvious reasons, these parallels were only used for the 1992 portion of the checklist. The red parallel above was more difficult to get odds wise (I forgot to check one of the wrappers for the exact numbers), but for some reason, this one falling at 1:110 packs, (I think) felt like the bigger get. Another really cool image on this one as well.

Another rookie that I wasn't familiar with, who also seems to be having a solid season. Batting .284 with 113 hits so far, he is leading N.L. shortstops in multiple categories (never mind that one of those is errors committed). I might hang on to this one for a bit, just in case he turns into something special. I have to say though that his signature leaves a little to be desired, but I guess that's to be expected from the youngsters these days.

Now that is a cool card! A great image combined with an attractive signature. I was very happy to pull this as I believe it's now my first autograph from a member of the '95 Braves championship team.

So in an attempt wrap this one up, I will say that I really enjoyed opening up all of these packs, and I was satisfied with what I ended up getting. I don't know if it is or not, but I kind of felt like this was the equivalent of getting a hobby box. I will be adding set needs to my want list sometime in the next couple of days, so if anyone has any duplicates, I would love to try and complete this set. Also, if anyone isn't working on the set but is interested in any particular player(s)/team(s), just let me know what you're looking for as I have plenty of extras that are yours for the taking.


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