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.
I guess you can kind of call this me jumping on another Blog Bat Around. Only in the sense that someone started it and I saw a couple other blogs that followed. If I am correct, Shane from Shoebox Legends did the first post of images that never made it onto the blog in 2019. And I at times have done that very thing - scanned something that fails to appear in a post. Difference is: I just delete the thing. I've long forgotten my intention for the image (more than likely a lame joke), so Shift+Delete and away it goes forever.
Destroyed by the Beast.
However, I do have scans that I haven't delete, for they are from packages received that never were shown here. I would like to claim they are all from sometime in 2019, but I am fairly certain there will unfortunately be cards from this series of posts that showed up in the offices of 2 by 3 Heroes in 2018. And that's wrong on a lot of levels. Punishments will be dealt out.
Let's get this over with, pig.
Let's get a few folders deleted for the right reasons. First up is John from Johnny's Trading Spot. According to the note I left, these cards are from a mailing he called Christmas in May. I do hope it was May 2019, but it may have been longer. Anyhow....
Some relevant at this time of year Star Wars cards. I only have been working on the ANH Topps sets. I might pick up the ESB and ROTJ sets in the future, but I'll just buy those complete sets. And even that is a maybe. I like the ANH sets cuz I have fond memories of the wax packs. I think I opened just a couple packs of ESB and zero ROTJ.
Handful of Sox in his mailing. Not sure what is up with that Select checklist logo. It looks weird.
But the bulk was bunting. Usually I will make note of how many of a particular binder card I receive, but I failed on this one. I have these three scanned...
And these, but I am certain there were more than 6 John sent. How about the rare bunt/throwback of Jose Cruz Jr on the left? Sheer beauty. Thanks John for that cards. Sorry it took me this long to thank you in public.
One other mailing, so I don't drag this post out too long, came from Night Owl. According to Windows, I created this folder on Jan 13, 2019. I really do suck.
I'm starting to think you do this cuz you like the punishment.
Nope. Not PC'ing Moncada. But a great handful of cards for the Sox box. The single color blue Fire does not look as good as it's base counterpart at the lower right.
Shocking to see the N.O. actually sending OUT a '75 homage card. Did any other company go as hog wild for holograms in the 90's?
YUM!!!!! Houston needs to bring back those unis as throwbacks. And a close look at Foli - those are the wool flannel version, which in my opinion are FAR nicer than the double knit polyester they switched to on '73. Thanks Greg.
So that makes two folders of scans I can delete and..... 6 remaining, plus like 5 stacks on the desk I need to scan. So that's makes:
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.
Willy Adames - 2019 Topps Big League - Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Two posts in a row - holy crap. Now if I get one up tomorrow.....
One of the latest Blog Bat Arounds comes from Matt at Diamond Jesters. It's a 9 pocket page of the 2019 season in baseball cards. I have seen a few, and Night Owl's post is what prompted me to join in. For N.O., card #1 of the project, on his page, was a horizontal card, and he didn't want a single east/west card messing up the aesthetic with 8 cards going north/south. So Greg flipped the page and did 9 horizontal cards. Looks good.
For me though, I am going to set some personal rules in my page. First, all portrait. That will be tough when you hear rule #2. All cards must be cards I own. They can only come from my trade box or cards on my desk. And since I recently got all my 2019 White Sox cards sorted and put away, I won't have that team to pick from (one ChiSox card almost made it - we'll talk). Matt's guidelines didn't have the "you must own it" rule, but I wanted to actually place the cards in a page and scan - no photo shopping allowed. I must have physically touched the cards.
We're going to need you to come with us, pervert.
Let's look at my 2019 yearbook:
1 - Flagship: Right off the bat, this is the spot where my self imposed rule 2 became an issue. Hernandez going high for the turn at second is a very good card. but in my dupes for Opening Day, I had this card:
That is what his 2019 flagship card looks like, but the flagship version is not in my dupes box, so I had to pick a second choice for the page. Hopefully it will turn up at a card show, cuz that Garver belongs in my Hidden Gems binder.
2 - Allen & Ginter: It's a nun. On a baseball card. With a glove and ball. Who packs more heat than you ever have.
3 - Gypsy Queen: I will never be embarrassed to show my love of GQ. With Ginter and Gypsy, my life is pretty complete. How great is that card? Rare to see a submarine pitcher any more, and Topps did some great framing on this card.
4 - Stadium Club: Here is where a White Sox card almost made the cut.
Throwback? Gleeful joy? It's a great card. But Juan Soto looks perfect on his card. Shooting from below, getting all that gorgeous stadium in the background, the light standard powered up, Soto's look over his shoulder. Clear winner.
5 - Big League: Topps could just drop Opening Day and have Big League replace it. It's a fun set with a few cards here and there standing out. Baseball and bubble gum. Like peanut butter and jelly.
6 - Diamond Kings: The only non Topps on the page, it's really the only Panini product I can tolerate. Unless I find Panini in a dime box, my only Panini retail purchase is a bit of Diamond Kings. Topps last gave any cardboard love to Crawford in 2002. Even though the fog in the corners cuts down a bit on the image, it's pretty. All DK's legend players look great.
7 - Greatest Moments insert: As you can guess, not a lot of insert cards in a dupe box. But quickly came upon this card of Bo. I'm assuming Topps manipulated the photo slightly, either dulling the background or cleaning Bo to make him stand out. Mr. Jackson pops on this card.
8 - Ballpark Evolution insert: Along with my love of GQ, if you put a baseball stadium on a card, I will love it forever. I need to get all the stadium clubs organized from this year's flagship, and I need to secure this entire insert set. Let's hope dime boxes are kind to me - I have 39 more to go.
9 - Archives: Spot 9 was a tough one for me. I wanted an Archives card on the page, but the only ones I really loved broke the no horizontal rule. I thought Topps did a great job with many of the subjects in the 1993 section (Ruth, Gehrig, Irvin, Wagner), I went with Mr Cub for one specific reason. Dig the centennial patch on his right sleeve. A simple copy of the Jerry Dior logo on the sleeves of the players that year.
While my 2019 is technically not finished (I have want lists, ya know), this sort of puts a fork into the year. 32 days until 2020 releases. Another year's set I won't collect.
Ok. The whole plan was to get back to blogging a month ago. And the astute readers will notice that didn't happen. Not from a lack of trying, though a lack of desire definitely played a part.
So where have I been in the past......while. I don't even feel like doing the math to see when my posting really dropped to nothing. 7 months? Probably more. I've thought about how to address my time away, but in the end I determined the reasons don't matter much. It'd be a long chain of words that no one really wants to read. I'm not saying you whom have read to this point don't care, but my life is boring. Trust me - relating been going on in so unexciting a freshly painted bench want to go elsewhere.
Please sit on me.
I'll give you a one sentence rundown of where I was over this past time: no longer working from home, so 3+ hours of commute each day along with Uber driving burnout, daughter's wedding (401k loan thank goodness) and general malaise of life.
And we're done. Told you - boring. You were warned.
In all the free time I have mostly been playing video games because it's easy numbing of the brain after traffic to a shitty job and worse traffic home. Being creative was not on the agenda. But I wanted to get back because so much was received from so many and people we never given a proper due, and I have had ideas I should put in motion if only that I know I did said idea. Thankfully, mailings have stopped, and I cannot be more grateful that you all have lost my address. Reciprocation has recently started up again, and I owe many. Yes - OWE. Just deal with that word. Still a lot of mailing left, so if you were thinking of sending me something, please don't. Not at this time.
I don't want to drag on the start of this first post in forever, so I think that is all I want to say about my time away.....
Hey....remember me?
Oh yeah...... my future wife says hi. Anyhow, I have many cards I've received scanned and posts of them planned, but let's show a few recent pickups here. Nothing great or amazing, but stuff I like. All cards were ebay purchases sometime after my last real post.
Couple autographs of non White Sox, but technically, each one has a White Sox connection. Phil Humber won't be making the HOF ever, but he is one of 23 players to throw a perfect game. He fits into three binder pages where I plan to collects autographs of the perfect game pitchers. A few probably will never appear in there (Cy Young and Sandy Koufax come to mind), but who knows. Now Jamie Burke had a few cups of coffee in the bigs (191 total games in 8 years). He crossed the base paths for 64 total games on the South Side, with a single game in his last year with the Sox. That year, though, was 2005, which makes Mr. Burke a member of Project 2005. Best I can tell, this is the only certified autograph he has in the hobby, so he goes into the 9 pocket as a Mariner.
I am fairly certain these three player collection cards were a buck or less. Bowman had some crazy inserts in the early 2000's. Hard to tell from the scan, but the Petrick is the international edition of his card. 2009 Goodwin is the BEST year of Goodwin. Fight me.
Last is this relic card I snipped for under $10. First relic card of a Black Sox player, Lefty lost games 2, 5 and 8 (was a best of 9 back then), being one of only two pitchers in history to lose 3 games in a single World Series. I'd love to obtain cards from all 8 members of the Black Sox issued during their playing days. Maybe after I score that Cy Young autograph......
I've blabbed enough. Thanks for reading. I'll do my best to get a couple posts a week. At the very least Throwback Thursday should have continued, but I suck and failed to do that. With luck I will suck less in 2020.
Hey - the titles to the posts can't all be winners, folks.
Nice try.
So if you read Dimebox Nick's blog, and if you don't maybe you need to visit a doctor, a recent post shared his card show spoils. I remember an earlier post about a couple card shows coming up he was attending, and I was hoping one was the Orland show, as I had carved out a little time to pay that show a visit on the same day. Sure enough, I guessed correctly and got to do some digging with Nick and his father. If you haven't, enjoy his spoils. I commented I would have my own recap of the show, and here it is.
Now, Nick had a hell of a haul mainly because he had a hell of a pull that paid for the card show. I had some bonus money that I could spend on myself, so while I didn't purchase anywhere near the amazing cardboard he did (if Nick turned his head I would have stolen a few of his cards), I still got some great paper rectangles.
I'm still working on the 2018 White Sox team set, as well as needing to get 2019 going. Technically, I still need some from 2017, but I got about a dozen for 2018 (leaving me 3 short) and all but 2 cards from 2019. Though, I REALLY need that Kopech SP. That sucker is goooooooooooooorgeous! I also picked up 75-80% of the Sox Heritage team set.
Really, I am working a lot of 2018 sets - it was a bad card year for me. And bad blog year. And bad work year. I'm digressing.... Picked up about 40 cards towards the '18 Stadium Club. Here's a few. Love those Indian throwbacks. Cleveland needs to wear them more often. One thing I noticed from the group I bought: the horizontal cards are much better images than the vertical. I hope Topps fixes that come 2019.
Nick talked about one vendors 50 cent and two dollar box. This particular vendor is there each show, and let me tell you - his cards are AMAZING! He has a box of 60's commons at a buck a card. You may think that's a bit high, until you look and the cards appear to have been pulled from packs a week ago. They are that good. And he's always willing to work out a deal. These above are a combo of 50 cents and 2 dollar cards. Peters and DeBusschere go into the Sox binder while Ruiz is an obvious bunt card. I pulled 20 cards from the 50 cent box and a dozen or so from the $2 box. I had to put back a good 20 cards cuz I just ran out of cash.
Here's some '64s for the build. All total, I knocked 14 cards off the 64 set, getting me to 77% completion. These, and the others I purchased, fit right into the quality I am satisfied with. I actually knocked 3 cards from series 7, and those cost me just two quarters each. But the highlights of my purchases come next.
Two bucks each. Some pen marks on the 64 Pizzaro stand up, but who's passing on that for $2? And one of the first really big cards for the set in the Robinson. $5-10 for that online, or more, so I am content with that one for $2. I needed the Fox/Kuenn for the Sox team set. And that ends the $2 box purchases I will show. But I have two more cards left.
Nick and I went back to do a little more digging at the table. It was this trip he scored the Bowman Kaline, McCovery rookie and the 66 Clemente (I found that) among others. And in that dig I picked up my two big purchases at $5 each.
We all know how hard it is to find Bowman color at a good price. I have needed this Lollar for his PC for quite some time. Regularly over $10 online, so I jumped at a really great copy with a creased corner. The creased '50 Bowman Luke Appling is the first of his playing days cards I have. Appling is a future PC, so finding this for a fin was a deal considering its condition. Easily twice that online.
Good show with a good time with good friends. We were all a little light in our wallets, but that happens in Orland. Oh.
