Clearing the pile

I while back, I mentioned how I have a stack of incoming packages at the edge of my desk that needs attention. Less because of the sorting and far more because I need to say thanks. Failure to post and give props to those that took the time to send me awesome rectangles sure gives the impressions I am an ungrateful bastard.

100% more baseball cards. 100% less Nazis.

Let's have at it. Starting with an oldie but a goodie. Many, MANY moons ago Dennis at Too Many Verlanders had a giveaway of stuff he just didn't want. I jumped at a single item, but Dennis being Dennis (ie too cool) included a couple packs of UD Heroes. Highlights?

But the one item I asked for was an old Starting Lineup figure.

That little beauty sits on a brick from Old Comiskey in my room. Pepper passed away a few years back, so TTMing that card is unfortunately not an option, but she has autos on eBay if I so desired.

Peter from Baseball Every Night dropped a PWE on me a couple months (or more) back.

Remember when Bowman came back with the oversized cards? Yeah - that was a mistake. Peter also dropped some current year cards on me. I was toying with a Moncada PC, but 5 seconds later I came to my senses and decided against it. Thanks Peter.

Trevor from Bump and Run selected a stack in the TTS giveaway (it is boxed up with 3 others and should go out this week). But in the kindness of Trevor, he sent over cards feeling like he needed to return the favor. They were NOT needed, but certainly not refused, either.

90's inserts - amirite?

Some binder and set needs. I will complete that 2008 UD set someday. Not a lot of those in dime boxes, unfortunately. Always nice to see the Padres brown uniforms on cards. Someday, San Diego...

And a few current Sox, and that sweet, strangely thick Rowand gray swatch for the PC. Thanks Trevor.

Last, but not least, is Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown. Curiously, his note in the package didn't comment about my manliness or other power I possess. Just a simple "here". So what does here include?

Atomic refractors and a blue Fulmer. Yes, I now collect Joey Bats. If you have dupes, I want them. I'll explain later.

I lot of shiny. I put all these together cuz I wanted to see how shitty the scan would look. Except for the refractors, I was not disappointed.

VINTAGE! That '63 was a card that was not on my list, which means I will have to shuffle a ton of cards in the vintage team set binders. I have built in extra card spaces in the pages, so hopefully it will not be a lot of "shift one to the right" moves.

A couple for the Crede binder, and a sweet (not sick) Petrick patch. This is the 4th relic of Ben's in my collection. And as beautiful as a relic is, the best you can get from a Gavin mailing is his customs.

Boom. The back of the Pierce makes it look like a picture frame you would hang on the wall or set on a mantle. And the Ozzie....well, that speaks for itself. Another fine custom from the episode Homer At the Bat. Thanks Gavin.

Again - a hearty gratitude to all you for the great cardboard. Just a few thousand stacks or less to go.

I get cards. And sometimes I post about them!

Oi.

I can't say that anything horrible has happened in the 5 weeks since I last posted. Just things here and there have gotten in the way, and by the end of the day, I am either pooped, brain dead or in need of some distraction, so my cards have gotten pushed to the side. And more like piles upon my desk. I have too much to send out, a couple boxes I need to sort and piles to organize.

But in a nutshell - family is healthy, nothing major gone wrong and surviving the best I can.

However, I got scans that need deleting. And to delete, I need to post. To post, I need to type, and to type.....well, I'm doing that right now ain't I? I ask you to forgive a bit of a image dump from a few kind readers/mailers. Good? Alright, here goes....

A PWE was received from Daniel at It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. Four simple cards, but 4 nice additions to the Sox box, including a rare ChiSox Junior. Without looking it up, can you identify the number he wore during his 41 game stint at Comiskey? Thanks Daniel.

Chris at Nacho Grande had a few cards he put up on ebay. No way I was going to pass on a pink Paulie, and the two A&G minis are needed for earlier year insert sets I still need to complete.

Fortunately, Reds fans seem to pull pink White Sox cards from Archives, as Chris included a few extras in the mailer.

 Appreciate the bonus cards, Chris.

John, owner of Johnny's Trading Spot deemed it Christmas in July. Yes, I am THAT far behind on scans/posts and was not intending to post at Christmas time. Tons and tons of bunting cards for the binder. Collector's Choice seems to be a gold mine for binder cards. Maybe I'll run a report before Beckett shuts down Zistle. Though - who the hell knows what Beckett's plans are.

And oh baby - dig those O-Pee-Chee!!!! It's the older OPC that you can really tell a difference from their Topps counterparts. French just improves the hockey stick "In Action" cards by a factor of dix.

Last from John is a nice black foil Fulmer from this year's SC. That goes to the throwback binder. A new Iguchi for the player collection. Zippy told me that Iguchi retired and the Sox threw a little shindig for him back in Sept. I wanted to attend, but see paragraph #2. And how about a mini Sox pennant? Right now it is set underneath my left side monitor. When do pitchers and catchers report in 2018? Thank you for the Christmas gift, John.

Last up is a purchase too good for words. Tom over at Angels in Order had a blowout on autographs. For a buck each, I couldn't pass up adding some Sox autographs to my binders. The Hernandez could be a dupe, if Roberto ever returns my TTM request from 2 years ago. The only Danks auto I currently have is just his scribble on a card without any picture. Alvarez was in the pipeline to mail out, but no longer needed.

3x5s are welcome at 2x3. Especially when you have players that a TTM request is just not possible. Hermann spent 8 years on the south side, becoming an all star in his final year with the Sox in 1974. He then bounced around the league for 4 more years, retiring in 1978. Ed passed away in 2013.

Harshman started as a first baseman with the NY Giants, but turned into a decent pitcher that the Sox picked up in 1950. Jack spent 4 years in Comiskey, then went to the O's in 1958. In 1959, he went from the Orioles to the BoSox to the Indians - all before the end of the '59 season, and finished his career the next year with the tribe. Jack also passed away in 2013.

McCraw played with the White Sox from 1963-1970. Tom made the last offensive out in the Senators history, getting caught stealing against the Yankees in 1971. Tom is living in Florida and has a great TTM return rate if anyone wants to mail him. Great doing business with you, Tom.

Ok - so that catches me up a bit. With luck, things will calm down and I can get back to my card posting roots.

11 days

It's been 11 days since I last spoke here. I need to do better, not just with posting but with mailing. I still have ALL the Tis The Season mailers to get out. This is the latest I have ever shipped, and at least by now I usually have some of them out. Maybe this weekend, but if I were you , don't hold your breath. When your household finances drop almost 50%, drastic actions are made.

But enough whining. That's not what you come here for. You came for cards, card talk and humor.

Well....two out of three.

 I recently got zapped by the one, the only, Zippy from Torren Up Cards. His random drops are always a lot of fun, and you can expect a couple surprises. And there were surprises, for sure.

Binder cards started it out. A few DP and bunting cards were found. Is it me, or does Barberie look like he's wearing a snap back or some kind of adjustable cap. It's that black mark to the right of his head that's weird. I guess it's the strap holding his shades, but looks odd for sure. And when I think "Philadelphia", my first thought it of a vest design with a spoon piping on the front. (eye roll)

A few Sox minor leaguers appeared. Let's look at where each is:

Trey, who happens to have a birthday today, played for the Sox AA team in Birmingham in 2016. Decent numbers, but needs to strike out less then every 5th time at the plate. BTW, he would have the 2nd longest name to reach the majors if ever promoted, just behind 14 character Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Nick bounced between Winston-Salem and Birmingham last season. Pretty average numbers. And for the record, he is a field player. That image looks like he is on the mound.

Scott got 7 outs of coffee with the Sox in 2014. After that, he signed as a free agent with the Padres and to my knowledge, left the game after being released before the 2016 season.

Some current Sox too. Buehrle gets his number retired on June 24th. I wouldn't mind going to that game. Zippy included both the base and refractor of Rodon. Depending on what happens to Quintana, he may be the player we build the rotation around. The Thomas was the last Sox card I needed for the Bunt team set. When that design looks a thousand times better than the following year's flagship release....

And we have reached the surprised portion of the mailing. I intentionally scanned in the penny sleeves just cuz I LOVE seeing foreign currency designations. We think nothing of the dollar ($) signed because it's common place. But the yen? Anyhow, the Fullmer makes the 3rd ChiSox Zippy has sent from the Asian Bowman release. Trust me that Nakahigashi is bunting in the top card, even if the tag is right over his bat. You could tell, though. And lastly - dig those Iguchis for my PC. Zippy graced me with a Calbee a year or so ago, so he's now tripled the number of non US cards of Tadahito. The back of the 25th anniversary shows Iguchi's rookie card.

It looks soooooooo 1997. Zippy, thanks as always. I promise I'll be getting out some kind of return package. Hopefully before all the glaciers melt and we are stranded on islands.

Don't view this post if you are still using dialup.

I don't remember the exact date I got rid of my 56k modem, but I was excited to move up to a DSL line through my phone company. Pages loaded much faster. Flash games were playable with sound. Hell - downloading a file in a quarter of the time from my horrible modem was amazing. It was so nice to be able to download that Loverboy song on Napster in 15 minutes instead of 45.

Beeeeeer.....GUD!

Way back then, I can recall having to watch an image download on the page I was viewing. Pixel by pixel, line by line; literally. And then the image would need to enhance. Welcome to 2016, where you have 100Mbps download speeds. Streaming high def videos and sound. Massive multi player games. Video conferences. And I can get my Kendra Wilson fix instantly.

But do you realize over 2 million people in the US still use 56k dial up access? So if you are one of them, let me apologize in advance if you clicked to read this post. You probably have time to get that turkey prepped for the oven before everything loads. But when you get a package from the king of the dime boxes, there is just far too much greatness within, and hard to pair down the images.

Yup - Nick dropped a mailer on me, and I'm guessing a lot of these cards came from Wolff's Flea Market, which I hope to hit in a few weeks. Until then, Nick will just do all the hard work for me. And work he did, adding many cards to many binders.

Miscuts off the bat. Here's 3 of the 6 new additions. I have officially moved the 9 pocket pages to a fatter binder. I'm guessing the Whimpy was a dupe of some sort, since he has a microphone shoved in his face, and I know that's a Nick collection genre. The Tigers team card is way off in two directions. I am almost tempted to see what that would grade on centering. Does Beckett or PSA do negative numbers?

Here's 3 of the 6 double play cards sent. Only 4 of them are new additions. Shame that the '94 Select design wrecked half of the Clayton image, though. The framing is ok, considering. But the full width would have made it killer.

16 throwback cards were sent, and I needed 8. In solidarity, I didn't store the other 8 cards in my dupe box, but cut them up.

Three cards showed broken bats, but I already have all three. I had to show this card, though. It's incredible. So much I added it to the Hidden Gems binder. I think if there were more people in the crowd, the card wouldn't look so nice.

Last, here are 3 of the 17 new cards in the bunting binder. Nick dropped a total of 30 on me. I am surprised so many cards of players bunting are still out there. I'm certain Ichiro is not getting one of his 3000 hits with that positioning.

But binder collections were just the start. How about player collections?

All new additions. The two Sox cards at the bottom are from the 2005 World Series set Topps put out. Fortunately, I found the complete set I bought of those. And a very rare Ben Petrick card. I am WAY behind Arpsmith in our Petrick collecting.

Then Nick moved to the Sox box.

So reflective! The Belles are numbered to 3999 and 1999. Remember when that was special?

I have the Frazier for my GQ build, so he is sent to the Sox box. Bonifacio is from the high number release. Conor is not really doing much out west with the Giants, but looks good in sparkly green.

Two simple cards that are beautiful on the outside. And the middle is a very complex card that is just... sigh. Oh 90's.

Nixon is the oldest card Nick sent. The rest here are great oddballs. Fisk on Drake's Big Hitters. Those cards have the same charm as the Swell or Hygrade releases, to me. I wonder what happened to the figure that came with the Guillen card. I also wonder what happened to the figure Stark buried in the corn field. Geez Matt - stare through my soul a little more, would you?

Last, but not least, is a mostly complete 1988 Coke Sox team set. The full set, according to ebay, is 30 cards. I have 22. Love seeing old Comiskey in the background. And Billy tossing out the first pitch in full '59 uniform just makes the entire set. Now I'll have to start tracking down these full team sets.

Thanks again Nick. All your cards have made me lost for space in my boxes and binders (just click play - trust me).

Spring Cleaning 2

I'm going to try and whip a quick post up as I have burgers to throw on the grill. No vegan household here.

Kill a cow.
Cook a cow.
Eat a cow.

Mark over at the Chronicles of Fuji sent a small envelope that was mostly stuffed with Justin Upton cards. No - I am not a collector of the younger Upton. I made a call out a while ago for Donaldson and Upton cards as my nephew (technically great nephew) collects cards and those are his two favorite players. Fuji sent in a nice donation for him, including these I am showing with some relics and a Panini Contenders.

Not all were Upton-ish, though. Here's three cards from a White Sox Kid's Club set, that would have been a giveaway to members of their club. Not sure the exact year, but with Wuentin only being on the south side from 2008-2011, I'm guessing in that range. Thanks Mark!

I am not taking part in Dave's Pack a Day giveaway over at Tribe Cards this season. He changed the format this year to a team assignment instead of a player draft. Didn't matter, I decided to take a year off and let someone else scoop up the White Sox. Dave did get around to mailing out what I think are the cards from 2014. Can't recall, but all I know is I got a lot of free cards, with some going to player collections and one really sweet miscut Stadium Club.

A few minis too I managed to secure. I don't actively hunt Joltin' Joe, but I take what I can. And one less card for a few A&G mini sets I need to complete. While I am not participating, I am watching the rips, Dave, and some nice stuff has appeared. Thanks for doing this for all us bloggers.

I think the grill is all warmed up. Then again, it was 95 degrees today and my back yard gets nothing but sun. I probably could have cooked without lighting that sucker, considering the nuclear furnace when you factor in the humidity.

Half down, half to go

I'm a glass half empty kind of guy. If the worst is going to happen, I'm expecting it. Mainly because if you lived in my shoes, you would realize is the norm and not the exception. So I have conditioned myself to always think the the absolute worst will happen. My logic is this: if you think the worse, and that is what occurs, you are prepared for it and can handle the crappy situation better. If something better, or even the best, happens, then the excitement is that much greater.

Hey - it's my logic. My schooling helped me develop theories like that.

ID=IOT^2

The nice part about the other half of Wes' package is that you can count on some amazing things at the later stages. At least, in how I scan the cards. You saw the first part yesterday, and anyone that has ever received a mailing from Wes can attest that half of a JBF package is a hell of a great thing. But the glass overflows when you are done opening it.

There were a few more serialed cards from Wes, but here are some of the most interesting, and low numbered. Going around the horn - Belle is /2500, Lyons is /399, Lee is /100, Thome is /149 and that Magglio is /50. How low can you go?

Player collections were hit. Legends was a poorly designed card, but that is a hell of an image. The Aparicio at the bottom is a 1961 Post. First one I have ever seen with a perforated edge. Not sure if that means a cereal box or some other container. But it's the 16th card in the Aparicio Project. He's got so much stuff.....

Believe it or not, I never had that Pierce Archives reprint. Not sure how I have missed it all this time. I could have sworn I had it. I bet I find it the next big reorg I do. Bowman Heritage Iguchi makes 58 cards in that collection. Contenders Konerko bumps him up to 354.

Two for the bimders - Cabrera into the double play and a refractor Sale into the throwback. In reading some blogs today, I realized how few throwbacks cards are in series 1 this year. Someone said there will be an insert set in Opening Day. I hope so. Some nice uniforms need to be remembered on cardboard.

Two Press Proofs. What in the hell do those really mean? I mean - sure - the Donruss on the left is some silly, stupid name Panini gave it to try and make the card cool and unique. But was the same true back in the 90's and the Pinnacle press proof on the Bere?

Wes included not only a Ventura minor league card, but the entire 1989 team set, still packaged. The only other names I recognize on the checklist are Don Wakamatsu, Craig Grebeck and Rich Amaral. There is a trainer card in here - I really want to rip it open to see what it looks like. But ebay comes to the rescue and tells me it is nothing special.

Last card, and the big highlight, is this encased Daryl Boston on card auto from 2005 Topps Retired set. Considering the shape of the snap down (scratched and scuffed), I rescued it and put it in my autograph binder. It looks much better freed to the world.

Wes - #SuperTraders made a hell of a start at 2x3 Headquarters. Thanks a bunch as always. I hope I can make the White Sox proud in the group of nutballs.