Look - if I don't get something posted soon, I will never do it. I spent the past two days organizing my desk, and sorting out more mailings I need to get out, so I've been productive. Not saying I Marie Kondo'd my room (is she even still a thing?), but everything is slowly moving from stacks to boxes/binders.
Just don't come to my part of town.
While I haven't been posting, I haven't stopped trying to find decent deals on ebay. While this is by no mean a comprehensive list of purchases over the past year, here's some of my favorites to share.
Newest player collection for me is Danny Mendick, so here's a start for his PC. The most expensive card of the group was the auto, which set me back $6. Otherwise, most of what you see was a couple bucks. Might go for the rainbow on his 2020 Topps - not sure yet.
All these are additions to Project 2005. It leaves me 7 autographs short of the players/coaches from the Sox 2005 World Series team. I am very pleased I found that AJ in a White Sox uniform with a decent autograph. Most of his TTMs tend to be scribbles.
These for are SPs from the 2013 Heritage set. A dollar each. I wish the seller had more I need.
Sticking with the Heritage style, here's the original. Like many, I scored a $25 "gift card" from ebay, so I used it to pick up these five cards. The leaders cards are all in the first 10 while the Brewer is a high number - 5th card from the end of the set. I had to fork out $4 and change for these five.
Just a Lou Fonseca autograph for $2.
More autographs, this time from the ice. I've been looking for a Pilote autograph for a while, and I grabbed these 5 for under $4 each, including that 4x6 of Guy LaFleur. Cuz everyone should have a Guy LaFleur autograph.
Last we have random collections. Paulie is a black border, Happ goes into the 10/19 binder, the Star Stamps are for the Golden Age build and the Robert I needed for the team set. I picked up two in an auction for $32 total, which is crazy, but at least it's off my list.
Apologies. Recent life situations had me disappear for a bit, and I'll get to those later. However, it's important I get back to the blog for many reasons, including the large number of people emailing and texting saying "Jeff, we miss your elegant prose and your strong words of wisdom - please come back".
"There is no life I know, to compare with....."
So a quick rundown: lost my job, found a new job, pandemic crap (no one here got sick)finances, and other things.
Wow - that wasn't really much of an impressive rundown. There will be more later. But enough of my witty prose - on to the cardboard!
Being out of work for a couple month, you would have thought my desk is so clean I can perform surgery between my mouse and keyboard. Yeah, that's not true, but I have done some sorting, scanning and organizing with past mailers that should have been sorted, scanned and organized far earlier than they were. First up is Brian from NY, who I don't think has a blog. Correct me if I am wrong. According to the postmark, I received this PWE in March of 2019 (insert Picard face palm here).
A fine smattering of Buehrles were found. Mark has an auto in this year's Archives, to which I say "About fricking time". Not sure if it was a Mark thing or a Topps thing, but certified autographs from Mark are VERY few and far between. I will pick one up someday.
Yeah - you can tell this is a 2019 mailer as there is a Luis Robert sighting. I Twitter ranted about all the high end releases and costs of cards recently, with Roberts being one of those guys that price me out of the hobby. I am not sure how many Robert cards I have in my Sox box, but if it's 5 I would be shocked. Anyway, thanks for the cards, Brian.
Next up is another Brian, this one running the awesome HSCA. I misplaced the mailer, but I am sure this is another 2019 package. Let's go to the images.
Look at the colors! While they are pretty to look at, let's be honest - colored parallels are dumb. No matter how amazing that Anderson card looks with black borders (or say any Dodger card looks with blue borders), they are gimmicky and have no place in the hobby. Teams sets are more than complete without color variation, pattern variation, etc.
Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a bit outside. A find stack of miscuts. Even the superstars can't avoid being miscentered under the blade.
Autographs and a relic. Gio seems to be the Billy Martin of our pitching staff, leaving and then coming back. Stumm has a sniff of Double A, leaving the same in 2005. And Sale. You know.
The highlights were these beauties. Yoan is the ONLY TOpps Living Set card I have, cuz I won't buy any of the others. I should, but at this point they will all need to be second market, and I have zero clue how many White Sox are out there. (According to a search of the Google, the Sox currently have 14 cards in the set.) And that Al is not a damaged or poorly printed card....
...but the 1st Venezuelan card in my collection!!!! I know Brian has been working on building a Venezuelan set, so I hope this is an extra and not him abandoning hope. Thanks a ton for all the paper rectangles, Brian.
The final Brian on this post doesn't collect cards. He's my son in-law, and besides collecting my daughter's heart, he also created this:
That is my semi decent shot at her first Bowman card because yes - she is a Bowman. Scout Piper Bowman. She has a "3B" designation as she is the third grand daughter for the Bowman side of the family. She's the first on the Wilk side. She's cute, funny, growing SO fast and turned 6 months old a week ago.
I wasn't happy with the first Bowman card I made for Scout, and I think the 2nd is far better, mainly because of photo selection. I get a real Rivera rookie card feel from it.
So yeah - been busy, and bit down for a while when I was laid off from my job in July (I had seen it coming for months and months), but hopefully things will be better with my new job and I can get back to a good flow. I'm going to make no guarantees, because life is life and who knows what tomorrow will be. I do know I have been making dents in organization and mailing are starting to go out.
Yes - watch your mailbox. At the very least, watch your inbox cuz I am confirming addresses before I ship.
Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.
Ok, I haven't posted in a few days because I have been pretty busy, so I am going to try and get something written up and posted before 7pm today. I started a stop watch and am scanning a single card (recent pickup) and while scanning, I'm typing this. Oh crap, I need to find some witty gif to insert here.
And here's my witty comment. (cue laughter)
So like I mentioned, I haven't posted for a few days. Just busy with life. But I don't want to get into a run of not posting, so let me get this up. 4m 31s so far. This is a card I snagged from Ebay for $3.50 with free shipping. Which means, unless he bought MAJOR bulk of this card (only 290 were printed) the seller lost money on this one. And his loss is my gain.
This is the 2nd of Engel's home run steal Topps Now cards I own. One to go. And one song to go. And I think I will be fortunate to get this posted before 7 (shameless segue). Stop clock!!!! 8 minutes 24.31 seconds.
A couple months back I finally mailed a stack of cards I had set aside for Bo at Baseball Cards Come To Life. Which ended up as a bonus for me as Bo had been holding a stack of miscuts to send back. And what a stack it is. So warm up your vocal cords and free free to jump to the bottom to have some music to sing along with.
Let's work on a few more in the scan folder. Currently have six folders of scans. I added one from a very recent mailing because I wanted to get the cards received stored into the set build they were received. So let's put up 3 today. Once again, I am not sure when I received these fantastic cards (sorry senders), and this is a long time coming. I hope you give me a small amount of forgiveness.
And give me a lot of these.
Let's start with the folder containing a single image, but oh what an image it is. Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse. Adam is currently on break from blogging cuz he had to have another baby.
But seriously, according to his most recent post, that little guy/gal should have arrived, so I hope she/he is healthy and the family is doing well. Speaking of little guys.....
Little in size, the droids are. But the cards themselves are not. Adam dropped 3 or 4 of these 5x7 packs from TLJ on me. And I believe I completed the set of the 8 cards. A Google search puts these as a fan event release from Topps, doubles sided with Light on one side and Dark on the other. This ebay auction gives you a good look at all 16 images. I have dupes, so if you want them, hit me up. And thanks Adam. Hope you are back on your blog soon.
Next up is a couple scans from Jon at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts. I love Jon's posts cuz not always is it baseball cards. If you haven't, Jon, you need to post what has to be the wall of VHS tapes you have. I see all your pickups from the thrift stores. Don't think Jon found what he mailed to me at a thrift store, though.
There's 6 of the almost 2 dozen buy backs in Jon's mailer. Some really nice cards in there. I just love that Wilson at the bottom. He's scoping the stands, picking out the woman he will be talking home tonight. And it's your girlfriend, cuz none can resist the gaze of Glenn Wilson. Two other cards were in the envelope
BOOM!!!! 1998 Topps Finest - sweet. And dig that GORGEOUS 1953 Bowman of Lou Cretlow. Well loved for sure, and I will give it even more love. What a shot of Yankee Stadium in the background. Jon, I owe you for sure on these. I know I have some cards aside for you, but I think I can do some damage to your want lists.
Last for today is from Paul at Scribbled Ink. Lot to be jealous about with Paul's post (mainly all the autos he has), but he dropped a nice mailer on me for you to be jealous about.
BLACKHAWKS!!!! All these cards are from the Ultimate Original 6 set. I used to have dang near this entire set, but I believe it got water damaged and had to end it's life in a dump somewhere. Getting a bunch of the Hawks from the set is a blessing. I mean, look at the Pilote at the bottom right. Clean ad free boards, the shadows, the fans all dressed up like it's a night out - that's heaven, horizontally.
Some recent net minders for the Hawks. All three have their names on the Cup - 'Bulin with the Lightning, Huet with the Hawks and Belfore with the Stars.
Some nice Sox in the package too. I don't get Panini's products, so it's nice when I get them sent to me since I have all but stopped buying them. 2017 Topps Chrome parallels are weird.
Player collection Sox. I have been hoping to score some BBM Iguchi cards for cheap on ebay, but not having a lot of luck. If anyone has a better place to pick up foreign singles of him, I am all ears.
Last image for this post is a group of needed vintage of early 80's White Sox. I can only remember Comiskey with having yellow bars separating the lower boxes, so seeing them painted white behind Farmer is weird.
Also, Rusty Kuntz.
Thanks Paul. I'll so my best to get a return package to you soon.
Well look at me, getting all caught up. Getting close...
I wasn't planning a post today. I am doing my best to knock this out and post before 7, so I hope I can make that happen. A really recent bit of news prompted this post. So let's get on with it.
Players come and go in baseball. Some get a sip of coffee. Some get a couple seasons watching from the bench, getting in here and there. Some have decent careers to earn a living playing a child's game. A rare few have a career that gives them a plaque of immortality. You have to be really good for that hall enshrinement. Just being around for many, many years guarantees nothing.
When Jamie Moyer retired in 2012, he has been in the Bigs 25 years, third place in most seasons played. Ahead of him are HOFers Nolan Ryan and Cap Anson, and HOFer Ricky Henderson is tied with him. But ahead of him with 26 seasons in the league are two players not in the HOF - Tommy John and Deacon McGuire. So you may have the talent and skill to make it in your profession for very long, but unless you have a surgery named after you, there is a chance your name will slip into obscurity in the future, no matter your talent. No plaques exist in the Hall of Pretty Darn Good.
2009 Topps had a great design template that allowed really good cropping of the pictures, and a fair amount of them are not so close to lose out on the context of the photo. And for Jamie's card this year, that home plate with the Phillies logo balances out his leg kick and weights the whole card really well.
This would be for a great final card, but Jamie had other ideas. The baseball writers also had other ideas, not giving Jamie enough votes on his one and only ballot appearance to make it on the following year's ticket. If Jamie's plaque is going to be produced, it will have to come from another group of people who decide he's that good.
I just learned, as others have, that Neal Peart from Rush died a couple days back. By no means can I say Rush had a huge influence on me and my music life. But holy shit - Rush f*cking rocked! I would listen to the albums my brothers had. Rush was nothing like what you heard on the radio. It was art performed by three men. Three men that mastered the instruments in their hands. On any other band, each would have been the superstar. In Rush, they were three that complimented each other and took music places yet heard.
And did I mention they f*cking rocked?!?! For 44 years.
Rush appeared on a single HOF ballot in their career. For some reason, it took fan outrage for them to finally be considered worthy of a look at induction. A full 25% of the votes from fans were given to Rush. Fortunately, the Hall did the right thing in 2013.
For those unaware, Rush is considered prog rock. And if you can't hear it in their more mainstream hits, Cygnus X-1 from Rush's 1977 release "A Farewell To Kings" will help you understand the genre, somewhat. Ten minutes. Turn on the light above your black light poster and enjoy the next 10 minutes.
Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.
Tim Hudson - 2002 Upper Deck Ovation - Philadelphia A's
Let's go back to the scan folder and get another written up. Looking at the names on the directories, I am going to post a single one today, only because I think it's the oldest mailing to display. By the way, for those scoring at home, all these scans are stored on a portable hard drive. And if you are not scoring at home, try flowers.
NO! SLEEP ON THE COUCH!
Many, many moons ago I jumped on a post from Scott at Scott Crawford Cards. How many moons ago? Click that link and realize Scott started a new blog almost 3 years ago. I really suck. So these cards really came from Scott at I Need New Hobbies. Scott was giving a great price on cards, so I took him up on the offer as there were huge sections of my Sox box lacking content. For all the wax put out in the years from 87 to the mid 2000's, some of those years were thin. Scott did a look see at want lists and made me an offer that I didn't want to refuse, so I bought them. I won't go into too much detail on the scans, but here's some of the 500+ cards I got.
My Hawks first, who delightfully (for me) beat up on the Dead Wings yesterday. And yes, the Hawks actually had both Tony and Phil at one time. While we got Pit Martin in the trade with Boston, we got the bad end of that deal, basically building the Bruin's dynasty in the late 60's and early 70's. It was only the Flyers and Habs that stopped them at 2 Cup wins in that time frame.
I think I had the Hull booklet, but never the Tony O. Love the 81-82 Topps in the middle.
Here's a couple pics inside the booklets. No mask. Odd.
On to the baseball portion. These are set builders. So many cards to go in these sets.
VINTAGE!!!!! The rookie Goose still evades me at a normal price. All these and more were cards I could mark off the want lists.
PC additions. Just a sample of them. Rowand looks like he is 9.
Now we hit the cruz of the purchase - junk wax set builders. One day I will catalog non Topps flagship sets to know just what I am missing. I was in the stands when the Sox clinched the playoffs in 1993. I remember Bo's 14 mile high pop up that just kept carrying and landed about 10 feet beyond the fence to seal the win.
Also - Rusty Kuntz.
Two HOF in this image. And a great One Dog snag at the fence.
Score trying to steal UD thunder with the Drabek.
Speaking of Upper Deck.... How great is '93 UD? One of my favorite sets.
Busted prospects for the Sox, though the guys in the middle, Escobar and Holmberg, have had success with other clubs. Ely had a few cups of coffee at the start of the 2010s with the Dodgers.