Cards NOT from the National

I love seeing the posts of scores from this year's National Card Show. This marked another year I was not able to attend. Oh, I had plans, but nothing worked out. I took off the Thursday and Friday of the weekend a-way back in January. I didn't think I would do 4 days of the National, but hey - use the time or lose the time, right? Well, come April or so, hitting the National was not going to happen. Lack of money pretty much put the nail in that coffin.

Come June, though, there was life from the grave and I had an outside chance to attend. As the weeks passed, it got a little stronger, so I started feeling better. July hits and there was a minor setback, but attending the National was still possible. A week before the actual convention, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were not days I could attend, but Sunday was a real possibility. While my finances were a big goose egg, Uber driving on those three days would secure me funds for Sunday.

And then Thursday came, and while it started as a good night on the road, other unseen issues caused the entire convention to be a permanent skip Friday morning. No way even Sunday was an option, because all my work was needed for other financial considerations. Oh well - that's how it goes.

In a nice bit of irony, when I started driving Sunday afternoon, my first pickup was about 2 miles from my house, and I dropped the riders off at the O'Hare departure terminal. For a frame a reference, O'Hare is a driver, 3 wood and a decent 4 iron from the Stephens Convention Center, if you hit that sucker juuuuuuuuuuust right.

It's in the hole!

Not sure if next year's National will be an option, but I am hoping for the year after, as it appears Rosemont gets the show every odd year. I should be able to sock away money in preparation for the 2019 show, so I got that going for me.

Gunga gunga-lagunga.

The mailbox has been kind to me, even if I haven't been kind on the outgoing side. I promise - I have stacks of cards with names upon them, as well as a couple Canadian packages that are FAR TOO OLD, but they will all leave my abode soon. But let's look at some scores from my mailbox National.

A while back, John from Johnny's Trading Spot had a little fun game of picking and stealing. I was able to steal that Ken Hubbs for my '64 build, and John dropped a couple bonus cards in the PWE. Both needed for the respective binders. Thanks John.

Peter over at Baseball Every Night ripped a box of series 2 and offered team sets up for $3. Hey - I'll get in on that. Peter pulled all but on card of the Sox from series 2 (missing Zach Putnam). Plus, Topps went insane with the Sunday alts, which means I need dang near a 2nd set for the throwback binder. But all in all, well worth it. Thanks Peter.

Dime Box Nick did he semi regular dump on me of cards that probably cost him less that $2. You won't hear my complaining, as my semi regular return package costs about the same. Nick dropped a few miscuts, like that fine Mike Paul, an odd Mike Cameron (maybe from a team issue), and a '17 Rangers card that confused me at first, until a closer look at the caps made me realize this is a throwback.

Bunting well represented. Love that Boudreau, and the Patek is a Kellogg's that has been on my want list for a couple years. Nice to delete and put a new card in the same position.

One for the broken bat binder. Cards for there are literally found by chance, so I like when Nick finds them by chance. Couple Moncada's for the Sox box. Please don't be a bust, Yoan. Appreciate the cards, Nick.

Last up was a random mailer from Brian from....well, Brian doesn't blog (YET! hint hint). For those that know, or maybe don't, I rarely buy anything that is prospect heavy. I just don't. So when people send me minor league releases or pre-MLB cards, that makes me smile. I never think to try and pick them up, so I eagerly accept any and all. Kopech may get a call up this year, but should be ready to be in the rotation in 2018. Holmberg works the pen for the Sox in 2017. Jason had 28 games in the bigs in 2016. Got picked up off waivers by the Rays, released a week later, and then signed by the Rays 6 weeks after being released. Baseball.....

Michael Ynoa, aka the 2016 White Sox version of 2017 Cub Rob Zastryzny, made a welcome appearance, as did that ever so slight, and completely sweet, Wong miscut. You can see the bleed of white in the upper right. Brian, thanks, and just blog already.

So that recaps my stay at home 2017 National. Maybe not the plan eight months ago, but I'm alright.

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).

What month is it?

Before I get to the meat of the post, allow me a mini rant.

Ok - I'm ready.

I have been reading a bunch today about how Topps and Topps Now missed the boat on the Odor vs. Batista card. How the company is not "listening to the market" or "ignored a great opportunity". Seriously folks? Are we that clueless to think that Topps, MLB, MLBPA or any entity would think "hey, we had a brawl on the field that violated every rule on the book and made our product look like hell - let's sell an official trading card commemorating it". Sports are brands, and the last thing one does is damage your brand. The news, month after month, talks about corporations and their attempt to increase their revenue and bury disparaging facts about the very item they sell. From the false claims by food manufacturers to the white washing of facts by the tobacco, firearms and automobile industries onto the outright lies from coal and petroleum - it's all about protecting the bottom line. The evidence is clear that football players get CTE, and that is a serious condition, but Goodell won't talk about it. NBA owners aren't rich enough so they will soon have ads on their uniforms while fleecing communities to build them arenas with tax dollars that would be better spent on oh, I don't know - Food? Schools? Roads?

So when Topps releases a card of that punch, I am sure it will be some short print in next year's flagship along with the PED insert set that is on the table. Cuz that's the image baseball wants you to remember - Bonds, Sosa, Clemens, McGwire, Palmero, A-Rod and Ortiz all in a set highlighting their alleged steroid use. Gavin, if you create and sell those PED customs, I get 25% of the profits.

Off the soap box.

So a few days about Night Owl posted about Wantlist Awareness Month, created by Dennis from Too Many Verlanders. I know pull tab awareness week comes on the 7 days after Shark Week (referenced Gavin twice in one post - now I get 50% of the profits). But I had no clue Wantlist Awareness Month was April. Well shoot - I blew it.  But I have 10.5 months to gear up for it come 2017.

I received two WAM mailings from Dennis totaling about 20 cards. Not only did every card clear a number on a want list, but I was forced to completely redo my Baker's Dozen list on the side panel after the mauling Dennis did to it. Without further delay...

Three from the Baker's Dozen. The Kellogg's Lopes has been a huge pain as I could never find it at a price I liked. Doesn't help that I prefer ridiculously low prices. But still, it was always on the 'bey for $3-4 bucks. No offense to the fourth member of GCRL, but I don't think that was a fair price. Kent is of course a double play. Hudson is a great throwback from the A's, harking back to their days in Philly.

20114-15 and 2015-16 Upper Deck hockey base sets complete. I'm always upset when the final card I need is a superstar. Look - Sid the Kid has been in the league 10 years. Base cards for players after 10 years of service, even the big names, are not worth as much as people think.

Last cards needed for 2015 GQ base. Could someone teach Hunter how to properly wear his pants. You look like you have cycling pants on. The Harper at the bottom has always been a card that I feel people overprice, so I hope you got a deal on it Dennis.

Technically, there is no exact want list of Koneko's sunset card, but it is in the most wanted section. I am sort of building the rainbow of the base and chrome releases, so these three go towards that goal.

And lastly we end on a couple Golden Age inserts. I miss Golden Age. I'm sure I am in the minority, but I loved that set.

Now that ends the first mailer. But about 2 weeks later, Dennis dropped a PWE on me.

Yes, I am trying to build 2008 Upper Deck. It's been on my want list just a few months, but any help would be appreciated. The Pitcher Perfect card of Chili Davis is one of my favorite broken bat cards. Classic fun photo from the mid 90's. Dennis - thanks again.

We should all take part in Wantlist Awareness Month next year and give credit where credit is due. I'm no Edison to his Tesla, after all.

Gone, but not forgotten

I handle loss pretty well. At work, they constantly say I don't like change, which is pretty far from the truth. I dislike change at my job because it's the standard "here's what's different, ok?" with little information and nothing that says why the change happens. I need to understand how my actions matter in the change. But change is inevitable. I know that. Change must happen for progress to occur. You can't stay in one place just treading water - you have to pick a direction and swim or you will be swamped by the waves.

But with change must come loss. A restaurant may change ownership and with that, the menu. There goes that sandwich you loved. Or your waistline changes and those killer shorts no longer fit. Seasons change and life cycles with it. But I'm okay when change means the loss of something or someone you love and enjoy. That's not to say I am not saddened, or I don't feel pain - I'm not a monster.

But I am A-DOOOOR-ABLE!

With each passing year, we gain and lose blogs around our tight knitted group. I can think of a few that are sorely missed (Napkin Doom, 30 Year Old Cardboard, Uncle Doc's), the one I miss right now is Garvey, Cey, Russell and Lopes, run by Jim. We didn't lose Jim - he is still around commenting and trading. But we lost his blog, and well....it sucks. Everyone has their reason why they start writing, and equally have their reason why they stop. Even if the reason is B.S, Jim!

Yup - bullsh*t.

But Jim still sends out cards, and dropped a fine batch on me recently.

I lost track of the number of miscuts Jim found (40?), but boy was there a ton! Years were represented with this being just a small batch of all the pages I filled. I especially love the OPC in the upper right that was cut dead in the middle. Jim included six, and I was able to match a few of the cards together in the binder.

Regular cards also appeared to add substance to the Sox box. What the hell was Bowman thinking with that rainbow foil border? The 90's were a weird time indeed.

Bunts and broken bats? Better believe ballplayers were beget as such.

As were some glorious throwback cards. Or faux throwbacks as the card in the middle shows. I can tolerate these fake uniforms more than the Rays faux backs. I mean, I give the Rays credit for going with such an ugly era to explore, but still find those things hard to appreciate.

Here's two of the stars from the package. Night Owl just talked about Rivera yesterday. This card has been a search for me for the bunting binder, even though I need it for the '54 Sox team set. The set will have to wait. And I will gladly throw a Cubs card at the front of a binder when it's as beautiful and miscut as that Hoak.

Masterson was the star of the package. It's a card what was on my most wanted list for a while. I actually obtained it......and forgot to pull it off the side bar when Jim picked this one off ebay. I commented to him that is better had not have been the card that the seller had for $50 for the card was not worth the price. Jim says it was the card one and the same, but totally low balled the guy and he accepted. I rarely have the nerve to best offer at 50%, so I hope you threw an offer at him of 2% his asking price. But the card has that nice two color piece in the middle, and it goes well beside the one I picked up for $8 a while back. The Wynn? Just some more sweet postage, but none of you will find it on a PWE from me. Some big names can be found in that 1989 release from St. Vincent (near the bottom of the page, but Dodger fans - check out halfway down).

Thanks again, Jim, No - I haven't forgotten you. There is still a divider in the card box with your name on it, and a slowly growing stash of cards that will be coming your way. Let's hope the calendar doesn't change before I mail them.

A sighting...

A couple months back, I put up a post about some cards (shocking, huh?) and posed a question about an image used by Panini. I know a few people will post the Getty or AP image used to create a card, but the only time I have used Getty Images for searching, it was a ton of work. With anything, the more you use it, the better skill you obtain. My brain at the current time was not in any position to attempt a new talent.

Puttin' on the Red Roof Inn.

I was shocked by one of the replies. It was someone I knew had the skill for just what I was asking, but had been away from the blogging world a while. It was nice to see the name in the comments. Not to mention, he and I would have a constant stream of envelopes back and forth and had quite the stack built up for him collecting dust. So after a couple emails, it was nice to catch up with Matt.

Matt runs the quiet, but slowly returning Once A Cub. It's nice to have two places to drop off those soon-to-break-hearts-as-usual north siders. Matt dropped a package back to me.

Matt seems to find those cards I don't have in my collection. I wonder what happened to the guy with the Shawon-O-Meter?

I could have sworn I had that Fernando bunting, and I do - as a Donruss card. Now I have the complete 88 run of Valenzuela at the plate. A rainbow, I guess. With just black, blue and red.

Alez, who is Iván Córdoba  with a sunburn.

Here's a few Cubs I don't mind receiving at the house. Hee Seop breaking a bat and a couple nice miscuts. The Pettis looks perfect on the front. Not so much on the flip side, as you can tell.

Thanks Matt, and glad you are slowly getting back to your blog. Can't keep a good man down.

Sometimes I spend money on things other than postage

I do love getting cards in the mail. Especially from other bloggers and readers. And I love send out cards in the mail. So usually I am spending money at my local big box store, my LCS, or online with postage.

Once in a while, I get things online. So here's a quick glance at cards I received that did not come from the kindness of you folks.

Before Topps got all weird with their colored parallels, Donruss did a bunch of stuff with colored foil and calling things "samples' or "proofs". Gimmick all the way, but something I need for the collection. Luckily, it was less than a quarter shipped.

Two for the double play binder. The Perez is iffy at a turn at two, but it was six cents shipped. And it's my collection anyway, so in it goes. Morris was a pickup off Listia for 500 credits or so. I snagged a few Impact cards for different binders. I'll need to give that whole set a closer look.

Impact - right? Man, I do like the images on their cards. Clark was also Listia. Belle, on the other hand, was a card that sat in my COMC shopping cart a good 6 months. I was waiting for a day with sales and free shipping to make a purchase. That day came a couple weeks back, so now it's home. But that wasn't all I picked up from COMC.

Here are three sets I completed. I needed about a dozen from Minds That Made the Future, 15 of the Endangered Animals, and that damn Heyward rookie card. But I was able to delete all three sets from my A&G want page. Now just a bunch of minis to go, before 2015 drops.

I still have short prints for 2012 & 2013 Cooperstown, plus some inserts, but the Doerr and a Cobb completed the 2013 base set. Markov completed 2014-15 UD hockey series 1 and the ANH series from Topps Illustrated is off the list as well. I was a set-completing bad ass on COMC. But the highlight of my purchase was these two cards.

Yeah - SUCK IT ARPSMITH! In all honesty, the card on the left was the only one I really wanted. But since I didn't have any copies of the card, I thought I should buy a second. I think it's pretty obvious why I bought the one on the left. There is no WAY in the world that is Ben's auto. My guess is his wife signed that one. I have see enough of his signature to know the one on the right is valid. I am surprised Best got the cards back and didn't notice this forgery. I wonder how many more like this are out there. I think it makes a hell of an oddball addition, though. Been looking at that card for a good 3 years now. And no one else bought it. It gets a center spot on the page in the Petrick binder.

Houston, we have a problem (again)

So series 2 was just released this week for Topps flagship design. Instead of a few hobby packs, blasters, rack packs and the like, I decided to swing to my LCS and pick up a box. In fact, to really get it right, I bought a jumbo box. Ten packs per box - 50 cards per pack. That's 500 cards if you are scoring at home. And if you aren't, try flowers.

No rim shot for you.

The series is 350 cards. Each pack has about 8-10 inserts. After all is said and done, you should pull at least 400 base cards from a box. Maybe 10 or so above or below that, but far more than the 2nd set contains. If you are thinking ahead, you see where I am going. I will say I put 2 or 3 cards from what I ripped into custom collections. I also lucked out and someone ripped a box and left most of the base behind, so I could pull any throwback/bunt/DP cards from that stack, which limited the ones I needed to use from my box. However, when all was said and done, I am 25 cards short of building series 2. From a jumbo box that is roughly 50 to 70 cards above the total number in the series, I only have a completion rate of 93%. In fact, my dupe total is almost 80 cards - basically 2 jumbo packs of base. So I paid for 10 packs, and only got 8. That, my friends, is dreadful collation. At least I didn't pull a crappy manu-relic. Though, a meh auto (Buck Farmer - promised to Hot Corner cards), and meh relic (Josh Hamilton - available for trade) came out. Did pull a silver framed Sabathia card which is heading across the pond to Holland. Lastly, with all my complaining I did pull a sweet hit (coin/stamp numbered to 50 of a star rookie), but I am working on a trade, so no reveals.

But still, one would think you can complete a 350 card set with a unopened box containing 500 cards. I guess not....

Enough complaining. Let's do some trade scan folder cleaning. Good ol' DJ from Sportscards From The Dollar Store sent me a package I received the other day, which rules, but I have yet to post the LAST envelope he sent me. I'm doing those first.

DJ did some help with my collection binders, knocking some cards off the backer's dozen, and the on deck circle of the baker's dozen. I love the red trimmed belt loops on the old 1940's throwbacks for the Cardinals.

Not the best hand position by Ramon, but a level bat is a very good thing. Nice sawed off bat in Ashley's hands.

These guys won something recently - I just can't remember what. Why couldn't UD look at their Canvas releases and use them for return of Masterpieces instead of that........thing they put out? Thanks for all the cardboard, DJ.

Hey Topps - work a little on what goes in the box, would ya?