Sunday SIL: Clubbin'!

With luck, many of your readers have signed up for Club PWE. I mean - the link is right up there! I can't make it any easier for you, can I? If you haven't, and you wonder what kind of initiation is required, I can tell you that black gym shoes and turtleneck shirts are optional. And I haven't finalized the plan on the rocket ship yet.

Though the club theme song is "Sailing".

For those that are part of the club, many of you noticed it has been a while since I mailed. In fact, I have about have the list I really REALLY need to get something out. However, many others have received recent mailings, and a couple have made comment on the envelopes. 

See - the summers here at Inn 2x3 Heroes are rough. My wife is a contract worker in a school. She kicks major butt as a speech path, but no worky mean no payee. And year after year, I seem to fail on the budgeting, so we struggle with our finances over the summer. This year was better then most, but there was little extra room. When my mom passed away in December, and we cleaned out her house, I got my hands on all the old stamps she had. My grandma got all the kids into collecting, though I am the only one to whom the collecting gene adhered. (Thanks a frigging lot, GRANDMA!) My grandma did a lot of first day issues and other stuff for us. I think it was as much a hobby for us as for her. Well, my grandma passed in 1986, so some of her stuff came to my mom's house. And now, a lot of it is with me. 

Anyway, there were a few manila folders of loose and sheets of stamps. However, because of their condition, the collector's market on them are pretty much nothing. One of the folders, in fact, is all stuck together. Gotta get steam going on those. But since stamps never lose value and are forever good for mailing (bar a couple specific releases), I figured I might as well get use out of them. While the values are low, and I have to lick (yes - lick) a lot to get one envelope out, I hope those that have received my mailing have enjoyed them. For those yet to get one, or maybe want an incentive to join up, let's scan and show off some of the stamps I have been using. Cuz this blog ain't all about cards.

I play a crucial role, though.

This is a nice two panel stamp, so I have been trying to use both sides , though I do have a few of just the one half I will have to send out. 

I was HUGE into the bicentennial, as was the rest of the US. These are some of the stamps released in 75 and 76. I know there are others in the stuck together folder.

Nope, that is not a 63 cent stamp - it's 6.3. Six and a third. These were more for bulk mailers. 

You may get Christmas stamps in the middle of October. Hell, it's pretty much the holiday by retail standards anyway. Dig Mr. Zip at the right.

Flags have always been a part of stamps with the USPS. 

This one is a nice oddball. Usually, you get 4 different designs - it makes for a nice even block. This particular release had 8, and they staggered the printing for collectors.

Who doesn't like Ike. Well, me right now. Eight cent stamp, so I have to augment the envelope with one of those 6.3 suckers I showed above. 

Sooooooooooooo purple. And use your zip codes, folks!

If I remember, here are a couple from a 4 block set, but I may be wrong. That was many years ago.

Lexington and Concord. Man, I was such a nerd in 1976. And how about a rare 13 cent on the right? Rates increased to 13 cents at the end of 1975. 

Two of my personal favorites. I was a NASA nut as a child as well. These two, plus some others, are classics in the stamp collecting. Like paper money, they are printed by engraving, so the surface is raised. The colors on these are gorgeous.

More classic engraved. Soooooo 70's. 1974 to be exact.

This is probably my favorite stamp of all time. The colors are incredible and the design is tough to beat. They truly don't make them like that used to.

Some real history in these two. On the right is the first nationwide precancelled Christmas stamps released to the public, in 1970. There were 4 images, with the two missing being a riding horse on wheels and a baby buggy. On the left, those are just the first self adhesive stamps the Postal Service dropped on us. Here's the best part - I cannot use either of these. They were doth demonetized by the Postal Service after Jan 31st, 1971. 

This last one I show is one that gives me troubles. I have enough off them, and I would love to use them, but the terminology is harsh. Granted, we are a little too PC in this world, and I tend to agree with George Carlin that when we soften the language, we do a disservice to people. But "retarded" is a little tough to slap on an envelope. If you want one, though, cuz you can mess with someone, let me know and I'll slip one in the envelope.

Sunday SIL: 3263827

#StarWarsDay

It's nerd out day. The heck with Easter, Christmas, Labor Day, Mother's Day or the rest of those days. Today, for we nerds, is the day: Star Wars Day.

I am sure I have mentioned it here enough, but I am a huge Star Wars fan. Read most of the EU, own the movies on multiple formats, soundtracks, toys, action figures, cereal boxes, display units....you name it. If you need it, I probably have it. But you ain't getting it.

In celebration of May 4th, let's show off the autographs I have within my collection. I will admit, it's probably far lower than one would think, and certainly less than I want. I don't have any of the big stars (Hamill, Ford, Fisher, McGregor), but I like what I have. It's selective, though there are a few big holes in my collection. I am missing Wedge - he's the top of the characters I need. I also need Frank Oz, as well as a few of the other Jedi - Aayla, Kit Fisto, Plo Koon, Ki Adi Mundi. And I really should have Chewie. I think the main reason I don't have an autograph of Mayhew is that after you spend about two hours just having some drinks and shooting the breeze with a guy, you don't think you need his signature. Anyway - here goes...

This is the only autograph card I have in my collection. And that line you see was me being too lazy to pull the two penny sleeves off before I scanned it. I remember buying a lot of these AOTC widescreen cards hoping to pull an auto, and this is the one I finally yanked. Nice on card.

It's pretty much a given that every SW fan who has at least one autograph in their collection probably has Jeremy Bullock. He appears everywhere he can, and is a really nice guy. My son got this at C2 in Indianapolis 2002.

A friend of mine in the 501st was heading to an event out of town about 10 years ago. He made mention that Dermot Crowley was in attendance and I asked him to grab me an auto. Nice 11x17 picture that I really need to get framed. I like the personalization from Dermot - "We have stolen a small Imperial shuttle."

These are the very first autographs I ever got of any Star Wars actors. My son and I went to Wizard World Chicago in 1998, I think. Looking back, I should have paid much more attention on the figure I picked for Mr. Prowse. Garrick Hagon was another very nice guy and spent a minute or so chatting with my son and I.

With the rise of Mara Jade in the canon of Star Wars (though, I believe she is now wiped from the timeline), Decipher Inc (with approval from LucasFilm) picked Shannon Baksa as the original image of Mara Jade. Shannon was at the same Wizard World as Mr. Prowse and Garrick, so I picked up a comic book and snagged her autograph.

At another Wizard World, or this may have been at a different con, I picked up these two. Ken Colley portrayed Capt Piett in ESB, quickly gaining an in field promotion to Admiral. I love how the figure is labeled "captain" and Ken signed in "Adm" for admiral. Zam Wesell was the changling bounty hunter in AOTC. The main reason I wanted Leeanna Walsman's auto?

I LOVE this picture. I think it's the kissy face Leeanna is making. But Zam is also one of those unique characters that are a little off the track for the normal fan, so an add for my collection.

I think the pilots in the films are my favorite characters. Don't ask me why a dress up as a Jedi - I need to get an X-Wing pilot suit built. However, at C2, I picked up two other autographs as photos, since figures for the two don't exist. Angus MacInnes was Dutch Vander, Gold leader on the attack on the Death Star in ANH.

I think the EU does a great job of giving more life to characters that don't appear that much in the movies. And through that expansion, Wes Janson is my favorite SW character. Go and read Rogue Squadron, Wraith Squadron, and my all time favorite EU book, Starfighters or Adumar, a book that when I handed it to the author, the late Aaron Allston, to autograph, he commented "wow, this is pretty beat up" to which I replied "I think I have read it six times already." Wes is fleshed out to be a sarcastic ladies man, extremely humorous and a talented fighter. I just had to get Ian Liston's signature.

Of all my autographs, however, this last is my favorite. But a quick side story first. When Celebration 2 was held in Indianapolis, a lot of SW friends I meet through messages boards took part in helping set it up as well as volunteer time. Many of them took the really tough role of being chaperones for the autograph guests. I knew I would be getting the autograph of William Hootkins. My friend Erica was his chaperone, and she told him a story (well known in my circle of friends) of my previous career as a mascot for a profession soccer team. William, a really great and funny guy, gave me a special, personalized autograph.

If you look close, on the bubble, he wrote "a bee suit?" Best auto ever.

May the Fourth Be With You.

Sunday SIL: Tracking the trade

One of the things I have loved by joining the blogging community is the trading aspect. Being able to flip the cards that don't thrill me into cards that do drives me to continually read all the blogs I see and email many of you writers to propose a trade.

And as great relationships are built, you suddenly get cards out of the blue. Someone just decides they have cards you will enjoy and they arrive in your mailbox. This is something I am really enjoying in this community.

One such package arrived from Brian at the awesome Play at the Plate. I don't know if we have every really traded. I knew something was on the way when Brian emailed me asking for an address. I have been putting some POTP cards aside to inquire about a trade with Brian - now I can just mail them to him in response to the envelope I received. Brian sent a nice group of 2013 White Sox.

INSERTS! Look at all the pretty colors. Brian dropped a load of '13 insert cards -  a couple of Konerko minis and a dang near complete Walmart blue set. Thanks, Brian. It fills me with such love.

 Ain't all you're filled with.

Three of the cards, though, jumped at me. It's these three I want to devote part two of this post, and part two of stuff I like: tracking the card. First, here are the three in question:

What I want to focus on the right sleeve of each player. Notice nothing on Thornton's, one diamond on Danks' and two diamonds on Beckham's. For those that were not aware, the diamonds were honoring Moose Skowron and Kevin Hickey's passing during the 2012 season. We lost Moose April 26th and Hickey on May 16th. 

So - can we tell when these three photos were taken based on the patches? One thing: we are going to have to assume that Thorton's picture is from 2012. The White Sox started the season without a patch on the sleeve. Technically, it could be a photo from an earlier season; let's hope it isn't. 

Ok, let's start with the easiest one. In Beckham's card, we can see the other team the Sox are facing. It's the Yankees. We know the Sox are on the road. The only time the Sox were in the Bronx was 6/28 to 7/1. We also can see on the card that Gordon is turning a double play. Just one problem - the Sox turned only 3 DPs that series, and the only one Gordon was involved in was on June 30th. The runner forced at 2nd was Curtis Granderson. That is not Granderson's arm on the card. So this photo is an attempt to turn a double play, but the runner beat the throw at first. In the four games, the only force out at 2nd with Beckham receiving the ball, and failing to complete the double play, happened on June 28th. The runner coming from first was Chris Stewart, uniform number 19. That first number on the back of the uniform is a 1. One card down.

Moving left, we have John Danks with just the single diamond patch for Moose. We know that by the time the Sox came back from a road trip on the 22nd of May, both patches were on the uniform. The Moose patch first appeared on a home uniform May 11th. The Sox played a short 5 game home stand prior to May 22nd, with Danks having just one start - May 14th. In that game, Danks was pulled in the top of the 4th, so this photo was taken during one of the 22 batters he faced. Card two down.

Lastly, we have Matt Thornton. Matt is a reliever, so this is NOT going to be easy. Prior to the May 11th game, Thornton appeared in 5 home games. Can we get enough information from the card and other locations to identify the exact game?

April 29th was a Sunday game. The Sox wore red throwbacks for 2012 Sunday games. Eliminated.

April 13th and 14th were day games. The shadows are not from the sun but light banks. Eliminated.

That leaves either April 16th or May 2nd. The Sox wore their white pinstripes during both night games. Do we take a guess? Or do we keep digging?

Let's look at the box scores. On the 16th, Matt pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning against the Orioles. On the 2nd, Thornton comes in and gives up a 2 run shot to Travis Hafner. At mlb.com, they are kind enough to give us a video of Hafner's blast. And from that video, we grab this screen shot:

Thornton's beard is far heavier and longer than his beard on the card, so we know that we can eliminate May 2nd and be certain the photo on Thornton's card is from April 16th.

I knew reading all those Encyclopedia Brown books when I was younger would come in handy.

Sunday SIL: I've been framed!

Love them or hate them. Deal with the possibility a fair amount of them may be fake. Accept that while they are called "game used", they are really more event used, or even used who the heck know when, relics are a part of the hobby. While I remember the first autograph I ever pulled from a pack of cards (Jose Vidro), I can't recall the first relic I ever pulled. It just wasn't that memorable an experience. I have pulled a ton since. Some are really nice, and others....well....um.... they do have a piece of material or wood on them, right??

The only classic relic cards I own are a couple bat relics, one of Al Kaline and the other of Nellie Fox, and a jersey of Griffey Sr. (which I display on my wall with a jersey of his son). But I really love the relics put out in Allen and Ginter. Not just because of the mini, but because of the frame.

Topps seemed to take the time to understand the older A&G cards, and not only did they do the card design well, but they made the framessurrounding the relics and autographs a homage to the Ginter of old. Just go to eBay and search Ginter N4 or Ginter N5 and you'll see what I mean. The frames, prior to 2012, really captured the beauty of the tobacco cards. As with other of my favorite relics, I hang 3 A&G cards on my wall.

 

As you can see, we have an Ichiro jersey from 2008, a Konero bat from 2007 and a Morel autograph from 2011. Three beautiful framed relics.... in a frame.

If I squint like this, it appears to be six cards.

I am fortunate to have a relic from each year of A&G.....but one. I own no 2006 Ginter frames. Maybe someone has a White Sox framed mini they would love to part with??? (Hint Hint). And maybe I just updated my trade bait page? And maybe.....just maybe, I would be more than willing to do a two for one swap, or even a 3 for 1 swap, to get my hands on a 2006 White Sox relic?

Maybe?

Sunday SIL: a rare autograph

Been a couple week's since I dove into my collection, so let's share something I have wanted, but it pretty hard to come by. We know the autograph card is a big deal in the hobby now. Hell - $500 boxes are sold that contain nothing but autographs. But it's nice that they will still slip them into packs the average collector like you and I can purchase.

Whoa buddy - I don't buy those cheap repack boxes.

It's always nice to find the checklist for a product and see what you may pull, should the gods shine upon your pack. And if they don't, well there is always eBay. When I first posted my most wanted off on the right, I completely forgot to add this player. And who wouldn't, because as much as a star he is in the league, there are very few licensed autograph cards released. Year after year, his name would be left off of the checklist, either because he was never asked, or because he refused. I highly doubt the latter, so I have to assume the card companies just felt to add other White Sox players to their certified autograph list. In fact, search eBay and you will find just 22 autographs of this player, and just 3 are certified card releases. The rest are TTM. So either someone is hoarding, or the card companies are just going a different route. Which is pretty surprising - I think a player with a no hitter, a perfect game, the record for most consecutive retired batters and 5 Golden Gloves should be a far more available pull.

It's not one of the nicer looking cards of Mark Buehrle. It's supposed to look like a painting, with the raised sections to look like paint. And I am not sure why it's off center like it is, but it is. But the back isn't off center.

The interesting setup of this card is that notch you see under the serial. The signature slides out, which reveals the licensing information.

I get that Trout, Harper, Darvish and others are the hot thing. And I guess there still is a market for Byrd, Quentin and Uggla. But give some love to Mark, would ya?

Sunday SIL: Sign on the dotted line.

Today's SIL is really a while in the making, and the actual "like" in my hands didn't come but a few days ago. See, Sam over at the Daily Dimwit and I have been working a trade for....crap, let's just say a while. He's held onto a card for me from his trade list in the hope (from my end) that I might find something he wanted for his needs. Well, days, weeks, months and the heck with it. My hope wasn't panning out, but I was able to secure a couple cards he would like. I told Sam I would be sending out his envelope, so just pack up my end of the trade with the loot I pulled from his November break.

Well, wouldn't you know it but I hit it big (in my book) in the break, snagging a 2nd card I have long desired. So this is really a two-fer SIL.

Sale, who should have a good long career ahead of him, and Iguchi, who will become a personal collection project in the future. Why Tadihito? Here's why...

Questions?

Sunday SIL: well packed

There can be lulls in our hobby. We wait for the next release. We wait for a sport to pass by that maybe we don't follow enough that we collect. Our finances can cause us to step back from being too hard into our collection. We can be so focused on one aspect, being a specific player or set, that we do nothing towards anything else.

When the lull hits me, I like to hit the repack box. Depending on the size you get, you are talking about a buck to a buck twenty a pack. The joy I find in the repack box is you have 10 to 20 pack openings just wanting for your grubby hands. A twenty at my LCS might get me 4 or 5 packs to open. And those packs are as much a crap shoot as a repack box.

Someone say "shoot"?

Even though I hit the card show yesterday, I didn't get a lot of pack ripping in, and my local Walmart just refilled their repack row, so I plunked down $20 on a box. I dug through and found a box that had a pack of 07 UD Masterpieces showing. The rest of the packs in the box? Two 2010 Ginter, two 2008 UD Baseball Heroes, two 2008 UD Timeline, two 2011 Topps series 1, two 2011 Topps series 2, one 2011 Topps update, one 2010 Topps series 1, one 2010 Topps series 2, one 2007 Topps update, one 2012 Topps series 1, one 2011 Topps Heritage, one 2008 UD X, one 2009 O-Pee-Chee and one 2000 UD Ultimate Victory. 

So why are repacks stuff I like? Well, sometimes you pull nice minis.

  

Boy kings and rookies.

 Sparkles, shinies, original backs and other short prints.

Personal collections.

Oh, and relics.

Yup. Two out of the 20 packs had decent hits. Right now, I would like to take the time to completely make fun of another blogger. See, Greg from Plaschke is drooling so much over that Kemp that he stopped reading and is firing me off an email to ask for a trade on the Kemp. So let me just make fun of the guy since he is not here. I hear he has bad flatulence and can't count above 50. Oh crap...he's coming back. Act natural....

So yeah....um.... repacks can be your friend. Not saying you will always get something good, but some do contain very good things.

Sunday SIL: Another Pierce off the list

Been a few weeks since I have done an SIL. Mainly, I have been busy with life, and by the time I get to the computer, it's so late I hate to post anything that will just get buried in the blog roll. Not saying any of my writing is amazing, but I wouldn't write if I didn't hope someone gets some enjoyment out of reading my words.

Two by three what? Who bookmarked this crap?

So let's do a pretty quick SIL. If you see the tabs at the top, or if you know my site enough, I am working on Billy Pierce's complete set of cards issued while playing. Not saying I may not pick up one's issued after he retired, but those are not part of the project. I just added card #9 to the group. 

Here is his first issued baseball card - 1951 Topps Blue Back. I nabbed this really nice copy for 75% the cost of a blaster. All four corners are perfect. The only real issue is the blue back is a little off center.

Billy Pierce Project - 36% complete!

Sunday SIL: Box it up

The World Series is quickly approaching, and I could give a crap this year who wins, cuz I hate all 4 teams remaining. But let's go back one week ago....56 year ago. If you don't want to do the math, I am talking Oct 8th, 1956. The only perfecto that really made a big difference. There are hundreds of ways the game has been remembered on cardboard - I just happen to like this one. So much that I bought it for $2 with shipping off eBay. Overpaid - maybe. But I didn't need that extra buck to supersize my meal anyway, so I think it was better spent. Fleer put out a simple card with a nice premise about the ballgame.

It's a shame the box score isn't some pseudo reprint though. They do fake patches in the past few Topps releases, so step it up next time. But I still enjoy this card, and serialed #878/1956 is nice too. One thing that bugged me - what are the 24 and 10 noting? It took a couple minutes of research to learn the 24 is the number of put outs for the player, while 10 is the number of assists. They don't show those stats in a box score very much anymore. And why 24? Remember this was a home game for the Bronx Bombers.