Trade #ocho: Hü Dü Photoshop?

Today we present our first repeat customer. Pretty good I made 7 successful trades before I had a someone that wanted a little more of the ol' Jedi. Yeah - that intentionally sounded wrong, but you chuckled anyway you sick sick person. Now technically, the first "trade" between Weston at Fantastic Catch and myself was one sided - I was able to fulfill a card from Night Owl's.....
One!
Card!
Challenge! (can you just hear the echo?). Well, Weston prompted this trade, finding some wants out of my 2012s. I dug around, found some Topps and A&G of his personal collections, mailed them off. Weston did a great job with my macro "any White Sox cards are fine" (after I fixed that damn macro). There are a ton of great cards in here, but I'll just highlight a few. I can tell you they are all 2010 or 2011 Topps White Sox (with the team set - SWEET) and some UD Sox added in. While I may have a few of these cards (and by few, I am going to say 2, maybe 3), I am glad to get them all so I don't have to search boxes to get them organized. So here's what I see as the best. There's at least one in here photoshopped, maybe two - let's talk here.

Two Cell cards - HOW IN THE HELL DO I NOT HAVE ANY OF THESE YET? I'm a collecting idiot sometimes. No, that was not an opportunity for you to chime in. Be quiet and keep reading. I love me some Crede. New project going to be added for sure - Joe Crede. You can see the so-so photoshop of Dunn in the bottom row. But what I want to focus on is the Matt Thorton card center right. Just a card, right? Anyone (besides you, Law) see what I am referring to? If you gander lower left at Pauly, you may see what is missing, as well as what is there.

Ok - time is up. For starters, Matt is missing the front uni number on his uniform. If we take a look at the BHOF database (which is fairly accurate), since the Sox came up with this uniform in 1990, the numbers have always been there and still are to this day. Part two of that card - what is that #7 doing on his right sleeve? The only item ever on that sleeve was a Comiskey patch and World Series champ patch. Never, ever a number. And certainly not a number in the incorrect font (you can see the serif on the top of the 7). This is a 2010 Topps. The only other team Matt was on was the Mariners - back in 2005. So what's up with this card? I am about to lose sleep over this! I can find no minor league rehab assignments for Thornton. And the more I look at this card, is this Matt on the front? So how about a little help, folks. At least stay up the might with me - we can listen to records.

Speaking of help and records, Weston got me down to just 8 cards needed to finish 2012 Series one. Give a look on my Wants page and help me out. In the words of Master Yoda:

"Finish the set - could you be the one?"

Sunday Feature SIL: Brought to you by....

...the letters A, S and B. "A" as in Albuterol, "S" as in Sulfate and "B" as in Biaxin. See, I have been getting my royal butt kicked for the past 5 days with either the flu or walking pneumonia. Cough that won't let me sleep. Fever. Achy joints. Bit of a stuffy head. It started with a pre-show on Tues, went full blown Wed, knocked me out of work Thurs and Fri and is still giving me a whipping as I type this. But I am hoping the drugs take affect. I thought I was doing better. We'll see in the morning. Anyway, I hope to not be so lame in my next post. Will you accept lame, but card related? Man, you are a hostile bunch....

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So what's new? Well, if you come here enough, the colors are different. They were changed to match the new header. The old header (of a bunch of baseball cards) was a cropped image I found on the innerwebs. It served it's purpose, but I was never really happy with it. I just wanted something else.

Church, this weekend, gave me my muse. It was talking about how we handle adversity and discussed Donnie Moore and Dave Draveky. Baseball cards on the screen and all! I won't get into details, since we all should be fairly familiar with their stories, but the quick run down is this: Moore was forever haunted by a home run that stopped the Angels from making it to the World Series and many feel he committed suicide over this 25 years later in life. Dravecky was a successful pitcher until he had to have him arm amputated because of cancer. He is doing well as a motivational speaker.

All these years, we paint the Moores, the Buckners, the Merkles and others as these total screwups. These guys made it to the show!! One little mistake and they are forgotten for their achievements and forever branded a failure. That's a crime and a shame.

My blog is a little nothing in this world. But we need to remember them for what they are - great players. They never intended to make the error that has forever tarnished them. It just happened because maybe they didn't think, or maybe the other guy was just better. Now, I don't hold out hero status to McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, Clemens, Giambi and others of that ilk. They knew what they were doing. They knew they were cheating the system. There is no place of honor for them. But for the others, let's give them the respect they have earned.

From the dollar menu

Along with Sox, Blackhawks, Billy Pierce and other items on my wants list, I am working towards all 20 autographs from the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics USA hockey team. If I can somehow find a Herb Brooks for less than an arm and leg, then call it 21. Here is #3 - Mark Johnson. Now, while I would like to get 100% authentic, who can really trust COA for starters. Second, I don't want 8x10s of anything like that - I am shooting for card sized or maybe just larger. And cost is a main factor. This Mark Johnson (which, if you compare on eBay, sure looks pretty real) set me back 99 cents with shipping. Now, either someone has no clue how to scam or this is really what it is and no one else wanted to take a chance. For the price of a slider, with change, I get what I feel is real without the trip to the bathroom (sorry about that mental image folks). This brings me to three Olympians - Mark Johnson, Mike Eruzione and Jack O'Callahan. I have leads on a couple more which I am going to shoot for via TTM.

Bonus? Pocket schedule. I loves me a pocket schedule.

Blackhawks vs. Coyotes

Sunday feature SIL: So long Mr Spaulding

Weekly feature time. Delving back into my cards (or shall we use the term "personal collection"), we come to a card that I found pretty unique when I pulled it. I wished the subject matter of this card was different, but begger's can't be choosers. Still...wish the subject was different. While this card is stamped 2005 all over it, I am positive I pulled it in 2006, mainly because I don't remember buying a single pack of 2005 Topps Updates & Highlights, not to mention a few dozen, which I would have done considering the amount of relic cards I have with All Star materials on them.

A Cubs card in my PC - it's one of the signs of the Apocalypse.

That's a piece of one of the bases used during the 2005 All Star game. Numbered 856/1000 (I wonder if that is per base or the total base cards), I find it one of the more unique relics pieces I own. Instead of a piece of uni from a single player, I have a piece of history that was touched by many players. A look at the rosters from the 2005 mid summer classic is a listing of a good dozen future HOF members.

So yeah - I have a Cubs card I like. But it's really not a Cubs card.

Goats - bigger dicks than swans.

'12 Gypsy Queen SPs

All the latest buzz in on Topps 2012 Gypsy Queen offering. I have said a few times I am quite unhappy with myself for the lack of 2011 GQ I bought (or didn't buy when you really get down to brass tacks). I'm not going to say I have, or will, gone nuts on the 2012 version. I have picked up a few blaster boxes and a couple rack packs. Nothing great to shout about when I opened pack. However, as I was going through the checklist online concerning short prints, I found something.... interesting.

Here, according to all the checklists I have seen, is the short print version for Mr. Strasburg. 

His regular GQ card has him in home whites with a side shot of him early in his pitching motion. A few of the short prints in GQ are subtle cropping of the images, but the Strasburg, like most, is an easily identifiable image change versus the card from the base set. But look at that card. Look close. See if you can see what I see....

I don't watch the show - what's with the pineapple?

I lied - there isn't anything to really notice about that short print, except when you see this:

c-c-c-c-combo breaker!

I have zero base cards of Stephen and 3 SPs! Either someone is REALLY wrong about which is the shortie, the seeding of cards really sucks at my Walmart, or I am re-donk-u-lously lucky in pulling his SP. Which is it?