Thankful

I don't know if it's still the same with today's kids or not, but when I was growing up we were still taught that this was the time of year to reflect on the things that we were thankful for. I'd be lying if I said that younger me ever spent even a single second doing this, but it is something that I try to remind myself to do more often as an adult. And while I personally don't believe that such reflections should be limited to just a month or two at the end of each year, this post will probably make it seem like I do.

Sometime during this past summer, my laptop started showing signs that its end may not be too far off. Before going too much further, I should probably mention that it is around twelve years old at this point, and still operating on Windows 8. Its been very good to me over the years, and I've developed more of a rapport with it than I ever would've thought possible. Anyway, after the initial troubles, things seem to have improved, enough so that I, as a non-computer person, started to think that maybe it had just been a temporary hiccup. Unfortunately, recent events have proven otherwise. Seemingly out of nowhere, its operations became considerably more wonked three weeks ago. My mom is more computery than me, and after she told me that its end was nigh, I started scrambling to get all of the important things off of it while I still can. Most of my photos/scans, and more importantly, most of my obscene amount of newspaper related downloads were moved to flash drives (provided by my mom), and the one's that wouldn't transfer (something about them having properties that couldn't be transferred to a flash drive?) have been temporarily moved to an Adobe account that I created. And since I don't trust any of these things, I've also spent a bunch of time printing out hard copies of all of my genealogical research; which is quite considerable at this point. 

I'm done with all of the above as of this writing, which I'm very thankful for, as it took even longer than I thought it would. I feel like I should apologize too, to my fellow bloggers for the lack of comments left on your posts in recent weeks. I can only do so much. I have been reading posts on my phone at night, but it's much more difficult for me to type out longer comments on that little keypad.

I was kind of hoping that my laptop would outlive me, but since clearly it isn't going to, I'm thankful that A). It held up as long as it has. B). That it waited until this time of year to start dying, as sales on laptops are plentiful right now. C). That despite not wanting to have to get a new (and probably inferior) one, I at least have the money to do so (still a bit of a stretch though). If all goes well, I should have a new laptop, or at least have one ordered, by the time this post goes live. Hopefully it won't take me too long to figure out how to start using it.

In other news, the vertigo that was causing me so much trouble at the beginning of the year, that had been mostly under control, has returned. Not quite as bad as it was, but still enough to start making a few things more difficult again. I've already talked about this in multiple posts across two blogs, so I won't be getting into it again; other than to say that since this issue might be permanent now, my posting will probably continue to be highly irregular going forward, as computering seems to be the quickest way to trigger it. I've been told that the vertigo coming and going like this isn't uncommon, and when it's here, blogging is not easy. As an example, the previous post on here took me almost six hours to put together (spread out across eight mornings). That's a long time to work on what to most people was probably consider a throwaway post (after nine years though, I probably should've known better than to spend so much time on a non-sport card post). As sucky as my bouts of vertigo have been, I'm thankful that they haven't been worse, as they very well could be (and might be in the future).

Now that I got the boring, and depressing, things out of the way, I'd like everyone to know how thankful I am that folks still come around here. My posting has dropped off considerably this year (see the paragraph above), but that doesn't seem to stop a few people from showing up and supporting my efforts when I am actually able to get a post out there. Heck, people even still send me stuff from time to time. Unfortunately, because of the lack of posting, I've really really fallen behind in giving public thanks for the items that have shown up in recent months. I won't be able to get caught up by year's end, but hopefully I can get to a decent chunk of it here today.

Chris, aka The Collector, has gone MIA... again! Unfortunately, it looks like it might be permanent this time. His blog is gone, his TCDB account is gone, and as I found out last week, his email address is no longer valid either. Chris and I have had a good relationship over the years, and have spoken many times away from the blog about non-blogging things, so this turn of a events has come as a bit of a surprise. The last time we spoke, which was probably around the time of his last post, he relayed some very good news about the situation that his family has been dealing with, so aside from his losing interest in blogging (join the club), I was under the impression that all was well in the world of Chris. Something's obviously changed though. Since there's no other way for me to contact him anymore, I put a letter in the mail the other day; hopefully he'll reply. 

I received an envelope of odds and ends from Chris right around the time we last spoke, stuff that was held out from the large batch of cards he was sending to another friend to sell for him. 

I think that this was the third copy of this Jim Brown reprint that a blogger has sent me over the years. I'm not sure why exactly, but everyone seems to think that I need many copies of this card.

I like getting sent SLU's, unfortunately I already have a really nice copy of the Boggs (it's currently sitting in a draft), and the Lathon is from one of the sets that I'm not collecting. I've found out recently that it's near impossible to give away free cards on the blog anymore, but if anyone needs either of these, please say so. As for the Bo, that was actually a need. I could've swore I already had it, but apparently not.

Optic is one of those modern sets that's not really something I ever look for, or even think about, but both of these cards are fairly nice for what they are.

The Thomas sticker was a dupe too. The David Robinson Patriarchs was my favorite of the envelope, mostly because I'm working on the set, and didn't already have this one.

I completely forgot to ask Chris about this card when I thanked him for the mailing, as I have no idea what it is. I know what it isn't, and that's an original Philadelphia rookie of Bob Hayes. You can't tell from the scan, but the coloring is right, on the front, and back, but it's got a slight gloss to it, which original Philadelphia's don't have. There's no "reprint" anywhere on the back, and after searching around online, I don't see people selling reproductions (i.e. counterfeits) of this particular card on any of the usual sites, so at the moment I'm at a complete loss as to what its origins are.

Chris, if you're out there, come back... if only so you can tell me what the hell the Bob Hayes is! Kidding aside, I very much hope that you will return to us at some point; the blogs will be a much poorer place without your presence.

Despite having them on my want lists, which are sometimes public, for a lot of years, Bo, he of the always present, Baseball Cards Come to Life!, became only the second person to ever send me a Hostess card. I don't know if it's because I rarely talk about them, or what, but despite all the one's I see exchanging hands on the blogs, they just don't ever come this way. I'll live though. One did, and it was a very nice one at that. I don't think most folks normally associate Bo with basketball cards, but if you collect them, he does send them from time to time. My 1989-90 Fleer set build was helped along with this addition of Chris(tian) Welp.

I've talked about Larry Johnson, and why he was my favorite non-Blazer as a kid, multiple times on this blog, so I won't bore everyone with that again here today. Needless to say though, I still have a strong affinity for him, and his cards, all of these years later.

Many years ago, don't ask me how many, I came across this exact 1977 Argentinian Zorro card on COMC. I can't remember if the price was too high, or if I just wanted to look into the set more, but I put in my watchlist in the morning, and by that night it had already sold. That always sucks when that happens. Fast forward some years, and I had pretty much completely forgotten about it until a semi-recent post of Bo's where he was offering some unwanted stuff from a lot that had been bought; one card of which was this one. Needless to say, I couldn't reply soon enough. My mom and I use to watch the old Disney Zorro series when I was growing up, and over the years its remained a favorite of mine. This card makes an excellent companion to the couple of cards that I have from the Topps set.

Many thanks to Bo for this eclectic mix; those are usually the most exciting for me.

Not too long after I received Bo's mailing, Jim, he also of the always present, cards as i see them, became only the third person to send me a Hostess card, and the first to ever send multiple Hostess cards. And if anyone's gonna have an extra Steve Garvey to send, it's gonna be Jim. Rounding out the Dodgers trifecta was a needed, and greatly appreciated, 1961 Post. Despite it being on my want list, this Roseboro is another one that I could've swore that I already had, but I didn't. I guess I've come across it so many times during my Post searches, that I just assumed that I already had it.

Jim followed up this solid trio with another PWE not more than a week later. There was only one card in the second envelope, but geez was it a fun one...

Jim mentioned that he had found this wonderfully mis-registered Play Ball reprint, and decided to take a chance and see if it met my criteria for such cards. It did. Staring at it too long makes me want to puke, which is usually a good way to tell if it's "off" enough for my collection. As much as I enjoy the card, I appreciate Jim even more just for remembering my little collection of wonked up cards. That's not the sort of thing I expect anyone to ever remember, so when someone does, it gives me the warm fuzzies.

With Chris gone, I think Jim is now the leader of the pack when it comes to active bloggers whom I've exchanged the most cards with. Hopefully he won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

I've mentioned more than a few times that I'd love to participate in Matt's, he of the Diamond Jesters, Time Traveling Trades more often, but stuff that I'm interested in just doesn't show up very often. And even when something does, I'm usually too late to claim it about 50% of the time. A few months back though, I was a bit earlier than normal to the most recent update, and was able to claim what I thought were two very nifty cards.

I already had two copies of the Ed Charles, but it's a card that I really like and could see myself trying to fill a page with, so while I technically didn't need it, I did very much want it. The Butkus game card was new to me though. I only had one other playing days card of his, so it was neat to be able to add another one.

From what I've seen the TTT has been a bit lean recently, but I think that a number of folks are thankful for Matt's willingness to power through the temporary slowdown and keep what's been a very popular blog series going.

I just recently got a surprise envelope in the mail from Randy, who most blog readers probably know from his comments as RJ Sahl. He's not a blogger himself, but can be found on the TCDB as rjsahl.

I've mentioned more than a few times that my original card collecting run stopped around 2000, but it very nearly stopped a few years earlier. I want to say that I didn't buy any packs of cards, or at least any new cards, during all of 1997. I don't remember why exactly, maybe I was done collecting and just hadn't realized it yet, but whatever reason, I went through a brief stretch there where I stopped buying cards and stopped paying attention to any of the new releases. Then, for reasons also unbeknownst to me at this point, I bought a basketball repack at the Lloyd Center (former mall in Portland, OR) Toys "R" Us in 1998. My friend Nate was with me at the time, and even though he had never collected anything up to that point, that repack sparked an interest in him (he was obsessed with basketball), which in turn, renewed my interest in cards. His collecting story is one for another time, but long story short, it only lasted about a year. I hadn't had a friend who collected cards in a number of years, so even though it didn't last very long, it was pretty fun to have one who did, again. As for that repack, I can only remember one card from it, and that was a 1997-98 Hoops Antoine Walker rookie. It was my first time seeing that year's design, and I immediately fell in love with it.

There were a number of shops still around at that time, but I think I was only able to find a couple of packs of Series 2, and with singles being even harder to find in the pre-internet era (that is, the internet as we now know it), I never got very far in my late attempt to build the set. Whatever I had was donated along with the bulk of the rest my collection in the early 2000's (yet another story I've told on here more than once -- I really need to mix in some new stories!). I did acquire a few singles from dime boxes a few years back (an MJ, Kobe, Duncan RC, etc.), and that those set aside, but it wasn't until last year that I decided to try and build the set again. I know that it would be infinitely cheaper to buy as a whole, but I know me, if I did that I'd look at it once, put it away, and then never take it out again. My new build hasn't gotten very far yet, but thanks to Randy, I am now five cards closer to completing it.

My mom bought our first VCR in 1987. And one of the first videos that she bought was Creature from the Black Lagoon. 1987 was also the year that I got chicken pox. And for whatever reason, it hit me hard. Considerably harder than most kids. I was pretty miserable for a couple of weeks, and about the only thing that brought me any relief was watching Creature; which I did, over and over again. I don't remember much from that time, but my mom says that I watched it 3-4 times during that entire stretch (for those that weren't alive at the time, or for those who were, but have forgotten, videos were still terribly expensive at that point, so we only had a couple for the first year or two). Even though she's a big fan of the film to this day (as am I), I still don't know how she dealt with a very sick me, and having to watch/hear the same movie over and over again for multiple weeks. I guess that's moms for you. They're made from better stock. 

It's also worth noting that the set that this card comes from, 1994 Topps Universal Monsters, is one that my mom (she collected cards too) and I were collecting back when it was new; though we never were able to finish it.

These six cards really packed a wallop. As the kids might say, they hit me in the feels. Thank you, Randy!

The most recent surprise envelope to arrive came from, Matt, the rising star across multiple platforms, whose probably best known, at least currently, for Cards Over Coffee. 

A pair of serial numbered Bo's led the way. Unfortunately, both have a mirror finish, so neither scanned particularly well. These are not the sort of cards that arrive on my doorstep very often, as it seems like any slightly rarer Bo Jackson, new or old, usually carries a premium; one which I'm not usually willing to pay.

I have a few of Bo's A&G cards that show him as a baseballer, but never knew that he had gotten in there as a footballer as well. It sure is a neat little card.

The two serial numbered Bo's probably would've been the highlight of the envelope for most folks, but for me it was this pair of needed Golden Age Playing Cards. I just posted about this set not too long, and Matt was the only one to inquire as to which cards I still needed. I appreciated him doing so, but didn't think that he, or anyone else reading for that matter, was gonna have any of my remaining needs laying around. Turns out I was wrong. With these now in hand, I just need seven more to complete the set. I was hoping to get a few more during COMC's Black Friday sale -- which hadn't started yet at the beginning of this post, but now is -- that plan hasn't worked out very well so far, as the discounts on my needed cards haven't been as large as I was expecting.

And speaking of being thankful, only Matt would know what I'm talking about here, but I'm thankful that he and I were able to repair our friendship (quick synopsis: I was an asshole, Matt forgave me, thus proving, not that I had any doubt, that he's the better man), it has been one of the better parts of my year. As much as the cards were appreciated, they pale in comparison to the renewed friendship. Many thanks to Matt for both though.

And with that, I'm about 75% caught up with thank you's now. I have two more people to get to, one that has sent multiple envelopes (too much to fit in here), and one that deserves their own post just because of the sheer magnitude of what was in the bubble mailer that they sent. I'd like to think that I'll be able to get to both before the end of the year, but judging by the way things have been going, I'll be thankful if I can even get one of those posts completed by year's end.

This post is going live a few days later than planned. Now that its going out when it is, I just wanted to wish all who celebrate it a Happy Thanksgiving. And for those that don't, I still hope that you day is awesome too!

Rhymin' and Stealin' (minus the rhymin')

When it comes to blogging, I try not to borrow too much from what others are doing, or have already done. I mean certain things like card show recaps, COMC shipments, trades, etc. are universal, but as far as series' go, I really do try not to step on the toes of others. That being said, with my health thing still negatively impacting my attempts to blog, I'm gonna break my rule for today's post and steal borrow someone else's series; or rather two people's series', Bo's roundups, and Nick's cool pickups. Hopefully neither gent will mind. 

I don't think the items in this post will have quite the same wow factor as can routinely be seen in the two series' that I'm ripping off, but nonetheless, these are some of the things that have made their way South over the last few months; all of which I think are pretty neat.

Since I'm thieving one of his series', I might as well start off with a couple of cards that I got from Bo, he of the extremely prolific, Baseball Cards Come to Life!. Bo got a shit-ton of Long John Silver's cards a few months ago, and in his usual fashion, then asked if anyone was interested in the myriad of duplicates. I probably should've looked at the checklist before claiming any, but instead just went by what I could see in the post. The two guys that stood out, at least for me, were Gregg Jefferies and...

Apologies for the dust on the scanner tray, it'll appear a few more times in this post.

... Eric Davis. Having never owned any cards from this set before, I didn't realize until they arrived that each player in the set has two cards; so instead of claiming two cards, I had apparently claimed four. I really like the color-matching borders on these. The photos are pretty good too. I don't think we ever ate at Long John Silver's when I was growing up. The only two seafood places I can recall going to (aside from one not so great trip to Red Lobster), were Skipper's, and the place that used to be in the food court at the Lloyd Center mall, whose name I can no longer remember. So, aside from seeing a few of these on the blogs over the years, most of this set is pretty new to me; which is kind of neat. 

The Tony Pena up top came along for the ride too. I guess all I had to do to get that one was to comment on how how cool of an image it was. I'll have to remember that the next time Bo shows off a Mickey Mantle 😉

As always, many thanks to Bo!

It seems like there's been a lot of Venezuelans showing up on the blogs on recent years. Did that in any way contribute to me getting my first two? Most likely. If I wasn't always seeing them on the blogs, I'd never even think to look for them. Back-wise, 1966 might just be the most uninteresting year for the Venezuelans, but it also looks like it might be the most affordable set for those cards too. Correlation? Who knows. I just know that I got these two, both of guys who I collect because of their ties to Portland, for a lot less than I would've thought.

It's been a while since I last got an E-Xceptional. Pre-boom, they could be found in dollar (or less) boxes at shows, and I used to buy every one that I came across. They've gone up a bit in recent years though, but even so, I didn't mind splurging a bit for a Grant Hill; which I didn't have any other copies of (I've got 3-4 copies for a few guys in this set). And as usual, the scanner doesn't do this card justice. I should've just went the photograph route. It's amazing how flat the lenticular background looks here.

I got these two Giants, my first two '64 Giants by the way, at the same time as the Venezuelans up above. Having never handled one of these before, I always thought they'd be much thinner than they actually are. That was a pleasant surprise. I didn't realize it until I was cropping the scan, but it looks like there's some weird Siamese Twins action going on here. Would this be the ultimate switch-hitter?

A few people have already posted their gets from Kerry's, from Cards on Cards, semi-recent giveaway that featured some of his off-condition cards. Buck Williams is one of my Blazers childhood heroes, and up to this point I had had zero luck in my attempts to get his '86 Fleer (a set I'm not overly fond of), so I was kind of excited to see it amongst the offerings. There is a bit of edge wear, but I was expecting much worse. I thought it might end up being a filler, but this copy will do just fine for Buck's collection. Thanks, Kerry!

It had been quite a while since I last participated in one of Matt's (of Diamond Jesters fame) Time Traveling Trades, mostly because there isn't usually much there for me, but I knew I had to try and get this card as soon as I saw it. Prior to seeing it, I was completely unaware of the various playing card sets that were put out by Brown & Bigelow in 1953. As much as I like the image of Lou Gehrig, the ad for Filson's Cities Service (which apparently was part of an oil and gas conglomerate) is what hooked me. From what I've read, it seems that anyone could order decks with their company name printed on them. I don't know how many different companies ordered these, but there's a part of me that now wants example from as many different ones as I can find.

The other selling point for me was that this is a coupon card, and not just some random jack of spades or whatever. I couldn't find any information on the coupon cards, but it looks like they might be a bit scarcer than the regulars cards; presumably because most of them ended up getting turned in for decks.

I probably (unintentionally) saddled Matt with more stuff that he'll never be able to move, but I'm really glad that I was able to get this card. Thanks to Matt for the trade (and to John for sending it in).

This 1958 Kane Products Lucille Ball isn't exactly new to me, as I got it sometime last year, or possibly the year before, but until just recently it had, unbeknownst to me, been sitting under a couple of postcards probably since right after I got it -- so I'll call it "newly uncovered". I really like this set, and had wanted this particular card for a number of years prior to getting it. There's still a few more on my wantlist, but this had been numero uno.

It's gonna be slow going, but I'm still all in on the SLU cards. Right now, I'm just trying to pick up the cheapies whenever I can. If I remember correctly, these two were around $1.50 apiece.

Here was another longtime want, and probably my favorite card in this post. Despite being well over a hundred years old, cards from the Ogden's set are still fairly plentiful, it's just a matter of trying to find copies that aren't overpriced just for the sake of their age. Wilma Neruda was a world-class violinist whose prime came, unfortunately, just a little too early to have been recorded for posterity. Being a fan of the violin, I can appreciate the card just because of her reputation alone, but the primary reason I've wanted it so long is because she was mentioned in A Study in Scarlet. I know from past posts that there doesn't seem to be many Sherlock Holmes fans amongst blog readers, but I've been so since early childhood. I have a few cards to celebrate said fandom, this now being the best. 

I've had pretty good luck so far in being able to get both cards at the same time for the players in the 1990 SLU football set. I think these two Bo's might be two of the more expensive cards in the set, so to get them for less than five bucks shipped seemed like a pretty good deal. At some point I'll need another pair for my Bo binder, but I'd rather seek out more needs from this set before spending too much time looking for another cheap pair of these.

As far as player collections go, Sal Maglie is probably one of the ones that I add to the most infrequently. Not by choice mind you, it just seems to work out that way. Knowing that, it always feels like a cause for celebration when I do get something new. Despite my liking them quite a bit, I never really think to seek out exhibits; they just seem to continually be flying under my radar. The only reason I ended up with this one is because I noticed it amongst a seller's other items on eBay. It was one of those times where I had won something else (not shown in this post), and just wanted to see if I could take advantage of their really good combined shipping discount -- and as Sal can attest, I did! I appreciate to that this card comes from the '47-66 release, so the odds are fairly good that he might've still been playing when it was made. At least that's what I'm choosing to believe.

A few other notes:

#1: Almost all of my various minor and slightly less minor health issues seem to have recently decided to band together and create a Super Friends of suck. I don't mention this to seek any sympathy (please don't do that), so much as I am to explain the few and far between posts, as well as the fewer and further in-between comments left on the posts of others. I've got ideas galore right now for all three of my blogs, but trying to execute any of them is proving to be rather difficult. This post alone, which let's be honest, is pretty crappy, has taken me almost five hours to complete (one hour each morning for the last five days), so the prospect of me getting to any of what I hope would be some non-throwaway posts doesn't seem very likely for the time being. 

#2: I finally got around to requesting a shipment from COMC back on January 29th. At the time, the estimated shipping date was 2/26, which seemed a bit far out there given that I waited until after the Black Friday and Christmas rushes, but what are gonna do, right? Anyway, I checked the counter a few times during that period to see how many orders were still ahead of mine, and after seeing that said counter had hardly moved by the middle of February, I realized that my order was probably gonna end of being late. And I was right. 2/26 came and went with no shipment being sent, and no word from COMC. A few days later, just about the time I was thinking I should send them an email, they sent me one instead. It was a generic "we're so sorry about the delay" message, which apparently has been caused by "extraordinarily high demand", and to show how regretful they are, I was given a $5 discount off of my next order, but only if I use it before the end of May. Wow! That's some consolation. It wouldn't even cover the shipping cost. Old COMC probably would've refunded the shipping cost for my delayed shipment, or at the very least, added a few bucks credit to my account to use whenever. New COMC gives me a shitty discount that expires just about the time I'll be getting my original shipment. The best part of this too is that after the my original ship date came and went, I was given a new estimation of 4/4, and as of this morning that's already been pushed back to 4/11. Had I known that this was gonna be such a problem for them, I would've just waited until after the next Black Friday sale to have my shit sent. I really miss pre-boom COMC.

#3: I have had a lot of trouble with the TCDB since around Christmas, namely with the pop-up ads that, well, pop-up at the most inopportune times. I've had two instances where I was out and about and tried to use my phone to see a couple of my checklists, only to have one of those GD ads take over the whole screen and then freeze my phone. So that, combined with the already annoying process of having to click on 5-6 things/pages just to get to my checklists on there has prompted me to start moving all of my checklists over to pages on this blog. Only two screens will have to be clicked to get to them here, and I don't have to worry about any more ads fucking up my phone. I actually started doing this back in January, but like everything else computer related, it's been slow going. So far, I've managed to complete three pages, and figure that I've got 4-5 more to do. I am primarily doing this for myself, but I guess it'll work out well for the occasional person who asks what I collect as well (a few folks were kind enough to do back around Christmas). And, because these will mostly be for me, I will be leaving them up permanently this time. This is probably gonna come across as a not-so-subtle attempt to get everyone to look at my wantlists, but I can assure you that it isn't, in fact, I'm only mentioning it because I was amused to see, while adding to one of the current pages the other day, that that particular page had an obscene amount of views; more than could ever possibly be coming from real people. I don't know which word or combination of words is doing it, but obviously something in that page has obviously attracted the bots en masse. I must admit that I'm mildly curious as to what it is that they've found so appealing, but not enough to try and look into it any further.

I guess that it'll do it for now, as I don't want to be working on this post for a sixth day... five has been ridiculous enough as is!

Bo: Then and Now

It's a trivial thing, I know, but still, I kind of envy other bloggers who've kept track of how many mailing they've received from other people. I suppose I might've done so had I A). Thought I'd ever be blogging for so long, and B). Thought anyone would ever actually send me anything. But I didn't, so I haven't.

Again though, it's hardly even worth mentioning, but it would be nice to have a list with some numbers that I could quote when posting about a mailing from someone; especially today's someone.

I may not have a list to tell me how many envelopes I've received over the years from, Bo, from Baseball Cards Come to Life!, but if I did, he'd probably be at, or very near, the top of said list. Heck, I've even sent enough in return that his address is one of a few that I actually have memorized. As a quick aside, it's funny to think that when I was a kid, I could, and did, remember dozens of telephone numbers, as well as numerous physical addresses -- and today, I can't remember any phone numbers (or at least any that are more than three numbers), and have maybe four addresses in my mental rolodex; ironically all belonging to folks that I've never even met, or spoken to on the telephone. Odd times for sure. Anyway, back to Bo...

He was kind enough to send an envelope earlier this year, which I still hadn't covered on here, and now just a few weeks ago another one arrived --which I guess was all the incentive I needed to finally give some public thanks. 

Most of the cards from the oldest envelope were claimed from Bo's trade bait posts, including the Vida Blue/Gene Tenace rookie up top. And while I've never been, and never will be, "rookie card guy", I still appreciate being able to add that one to the Gene Tenace pages. I don't know if I'll ever be willing to splurge for the OPC version.

One of the few exceptions to the above 'claims' statement, was these two. I really can't remember why Dick and Wes were in here, which I suppose is why I shouldn't be waiting so long to do these kind of posts. As the young radicals might say, I need to "do better". I do collect Dick Groat though, and rarely ever add any cards to that collection, so... any Dick is good Dick 🙈🙉🙊.

As far Wes goes, I still don't know what to do with him. I'm sure that I'll figure out something at some point though.

I believe that this was my third copy of Boog's '64, and while I hadn't planned on doing a page's worth of this particular card, it's awfully tempting for me to want to do so whenever I see a one whole row filled with any of the same card. The presentation of the League Leaders card is very interesting with Harmon looking directly into the camera, and Boog and Reggie looking in opposite directions below him. 

Catfish is another one of the early 70's A's guys that I collect for reasons that are still unknown to me. And even though I haven't put much effort into it lately, nor have I even tried to figure out how many more I need, I am still attempting to collect all of the action cards from the '71 set. 

There's a part of me that wants to collect all of the late 80's/early 90's magazine cards. There's also a part of me that wants to add Gregg Jefferies to my list of player collections. Thankfully, I've been able to resist both wants... so far!

We never ate a lot of frozen pizza's when I was growing up, and on the rare occasion that we did, it was usually Tony's. I do remember when this set came out though, but I didn't like Tombstone enough to try to get my mom to get one so that I could get any of the cards. It is nice looking design though, despite the lack of logos.

I do collect Jamie, but I don't really want every single card of his right now, and I never remember to look for any of his more interesting cards; which leaves me with not much of a collection. I'm pretty sure that this one was just a tossed in extra, and it was much appreciated!

That takes care of the old envelope.

I knew that Bo had a few cards set aside for me, but didn't think he'd mail the two that I knew about, so I was a tad curious to find out what would be padding out this newest unexpected envelope...

Bo sent me an email a few weeks ago to let me know that he had a few extra Posts available. Leo here ended up being my only need (at least in the condition that I'm striving for with my Posts). I could've swore that I already had this one, but after checking my list, and double-checking in their binder, it turned out that I didn't. I guess I had just seen it enough times online that I thought that I already gotten it. I've been focusing on my Jell-O and Post sets quite a bit lately (you'll be hearing about this in the very near future), so it was really nice to be able to mark another '62 off of the list.

I'm really surprised that there weren't more takers on Bo's recent OPC trade bait post. People are always goin' on about OPC this and OPC that, but when someone comes along and offers up a bunch of 70's OPC for trade, it's radio silence. Were I working on any of those sets, or even a team collector, I would've been all over those extras -- as it stands though, Gene was the only card suited to my interests. It probably won't happen very often, but this an instance where I was able to get the OPC version before the Topps.

1991 Upper Deck might be the best football set, photo-wise, ever. And I'm probably wrong, but it also feels like it was the last football set to have multiple shots of blood spattered/smeared jerseys. I'm guessing that this wasn't Dennis' blood, and judging by those eyes, he was looking to shed some more. 

I didn't think I needed this card, and I see that my list on TCDB says that I already have one, and was apparently wanting another? I haven't gotten into the Reggie Roby/Dennis Smith binder yet, so I either wanted an upgrade, or something went awry when I was making that list. If it turns out that I didn't need an upgrade, it won't be the end of the world, as there's certainly worse cards to have two copies of.

The next three cards were very unexpected, especially coming from Bo. He obviously took a few minutes to look at my TCDB want list too, which was nice of him to do. I had (or still have, I think I forgot to go mark these off) four cards from the Pacific Lucy set on there, including this one, which just so happens to be Aaron Spelling's only real card. 

Most of the time when I add cards like these to my want list, it's because I want them for a themed page, and often times, said cards are the only examples for certain people, in this case; Bob Jellison and Elizabeth Patterson respectively. Unfortunately for me, it's been so long since I added these two to the list that now I can't remember which pages I wanted them for. I have no doubt that it'll come back to me, I just need to take a few minutes and figure it out (probably by looking through their list of credits). I also think that the timing of this envelope was a bit curious, as I was just finishing up Lucille Ball's autobiography, Love, Lucy, when these arrived. A very enjoyable book, by the way.

I know that we're a few days past Thanksgiving, but nevertheless, I'm thankful to Bo for all of our interactions, and envelopes sent, over the years. I'm also thankful to him for being so supportive of all of my various blogging endeavours. He's one of the few people that reads, or at least scrolls through, all three of my blogs; and I always appreciate his doing so.

I was planning to try and get caught up with the last two old envelopes from bloggers (Jeff and Fuji) before the end of the year, but another one just arrived from Tom a few weeks ago. There's at least two other posts that I really want to do as well, so I don't know, trying to squeeze in five posts during December will be quite the feat (for me). I think it'll be a Christmas miracle if I do.

Picking up scraps

Having not bought anything since early January, and no longer doing any trading, mail of the fun variety has pretty much stopped showing up altogether.

I do have two packages coming, but aside from those, I fully expect things to remain status quo for the foreseeable future. I'm not complaining though, as my heart just isn't in cards right now (which is part of the reason I started the new blog). That being said, I still find some joy in certain things from time to time, especially when looking through the duplicates that, Bo, of the somehow daily Baseball Cards Come to Life! (how he is able to post so frequently I will never understand), makes available for trade after each of his vintage baseball card lot purchases. Not working on sets anymore, there isn't as much for me to claim as some others are able to, but occasionally something in my wheelhouse will pop up, and so far, I usually have pretty good luck in getting those particular cards.

Despite it now being 2-3 months since my last envelope of claims arrived, it's still my last piece of card related mail to arrive, so I guess I can technically still refer to this as my most recent mail day?

The Gerry Staley up top is probably my favorite of the bunch, it was the only combo card that Topps ever did for him. If I was more motivated right now, I'd make more of a push to complete my collection of his stuff, as he's one of those guys who, not surprisingly, hasn't received a bump from the boom crowd. But I'm not, so hopefully no one else will discover how awesome he was before I feel like actively collecting again.

This color shift didn't scan very well, but you can still kind of see what's going on along the border, and even more so up at the team name. I don't know what was going on with the printers back in 1970, but they produced quite a few of these that year.

Don's a little rough, but it's a black bordered '59 that I didn't already have. I can always upgrade later if need be.

The first four cards represented my claims, Tim here was a card that I inquired about via email (Bo has a lot of '93 Donruss duplicates). I guess I sort of have a Tim Salmon collection going now, although for the time being I'm only seeking out specific cards. The image on this one isn't anything to write home about, but I love these red, white, and blue Rated Rookies. I've got Bret Boone already (which also came from Bo), and I think this was only other guy in the set that I would want who got one.

And finally, two suprise '61 Billy Muffett's. They definitely fall into the well-loved category, but both were still a welcome sight. I've lost track again of how many I have, but I think these two were added to the fourth page. That's at least 29 then, which isn't bad... I still need more though!

Many thanks again to Bo for the cards. It's always fun to paw through someone else's unwanted stuff, even if it is being done virtually. Unexpected Billy Muffett's are pretty good, too.

Only six more to go?

Unlike some of the cards in my previous post, I never set out to get more than one copy of Boog Powell's 1967 offering. However, when Bo, of Baseball Cards Come to Life! fame, provided the opportunity to acquire a few more on his blog couple of months back, I found myself unable to resist the temptation to do so.

And lest anyone accuse me of hoarding all of the Boog's, at least three days had passed from Bo's initial post putting these out there for trade, before I claimed them. You had your chance.

Boog has become one of my favorite people to collect over the last couple of years, but even with that in mind, I'd be lying if I said that this card was his most interesting. Although it might be more interesting if I knew who #55 there in the background was? I did a cursory search, and ended up with bupkis. Having only had one copy prior to getting these, I couldn't really envision what a whole page's worth might look like, but now that I have row filled in the Boog pages, I kind of like the idea of getting six more to complete a page. I feel like seeing a whole page of this goofball would make anyone smile? Don't believe me, wait until I get six more, and we'll put this theory to the test.

I'm sure that there's a few folks out there who are getting tired of seeing duplicates, and hearing me talk about duplicates. If so, good news, this'll be the last mention of them for at least a couple of posts, and even better news, Bo sent along a few more things -- none of which were duplicates... for me!
 

Here's another one of Bo's duplicates that he had put out there for any and all interested parties. I grabbed this for my burgeoning Hank Bauer collection Unbeknownst to me, it had even been autographed...

This is obviously a rare commodity, but I am open to offers. The bidding will start at $100,000. I mean after all, it's not every day that one comes across a Donald Aguirre(?) autograph :)

I knew of their existence from back in my COMC Challenges days, but didn't know anything about them until Bo did his couple of posts on the 1969 Globe Imports set last year; the first of which had more duplicates for trade [if you want to read an interesting post, go seek out the second one that Bo did on these]. I'm still not sure how I feel about these, on the one hand it's nice to be able to add some different items to player collections, but on the other, they are awfully flimsy, and obviously next to no money was spent on their printing. I guess they do have their charm, you just have to enjoy it VERY carefully. I do need a few more from this set, as well as a few from the non-sport edition, but I can't see myself ever spending too much money on one of these "cards".

It wouldn't be a mailing from Bo, without some matchbook covers added to the package. I don't think it would do much good, but I'd like to see more anti-littering messages on disposable packaging.

I found an old RC Cola bottle a few months ago while out putzing around the creek. It was upside down in the mud when I found it, unfortunately the top inch or so was broken off. It wouldn't really have been worth much (much less than that listing) intact, but I hadn't found any RC bottles in the wild up to that point, so it would've been nice to have had that one. A whole one that is.

These two were especially thoughtful on Bo's part.

The Kenmore Stamp Company has been around for a long time, and at one time they were held in some regard, but not these days. As the kids would say, they're shady af. I've never done any business with them, but I did have a few dealings with, Mystic, who's another long time stamp company. For those interested, Mystic is still on the up and up, but they primarily cater to newer collectors, so if you're looking for anything rare, you probably won't find it with them.

And although not shown, Bo also sent a bunch of cards that will hopefully make it onto the other blog at some point. It's been tough for me find any rhythm with that one so far (I'm currently stuck on a long biography/profile post that seems to have gone south on me), but as I said, I'm hoping that things will pick up over there.

My apologies to Bo for taking so long to give public thanks for these. Despite the length of time that it took me to get to this package, all of the contents were very much appreciated!